February 2008 Archives

What's all this fuss I hear?

Turkish Islamic authorities got some people's hopes up just a few days ago, when they announced a major reevaluation of the Hadith. But never mind: "No Muslim in the right mind would dare delete any hadith or tamper with the Prophet's heritage." Oh.

"Turkey Classifying Not Revising Hadith," by Ahmad Maher for IslamOnline (thanks to g hadi hater):

CAIOR [sic!] — Eighty scholars from 23 Turkish universities are working on a major project to classify and translate the Hadith (the collection of sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him).

"Make no mistake, we are not after modifying or revising the Hadith," Mehmet Gormez, deputy director of the religious affairs authority Diyanet and supervisor of the project, told IslamOnline.net in a phone interview.

"What we are actually doing is re-classifying, re-categorizing the Hadith and translating it into Turkish, no more no less." [...]

"We have compiled all hadiths and read them to reclassify them anew," he explained.

"We have also taken into account the unauthentic ones or those attributed falsely to the Prophet because to understand the true Hadith, you really need to (understand) the unauthentic sayings."

Muslim scholars believe Hadith is integral to the understanding of Qur'an, since they are inseparably linked to each other.

They say it is impossible to understand the Qur'an without reference to Hadith because the Qur'an is the message and the Hadith is the explanation of the message by the Messenger himself. [...]

He shrugged off media suggestions that Turkey was re-writing the Hadith and creating a new Islam.

"They made too much fuss and took the project out of its real context.

"We are neither fashioning a new Islam nor dare to alter the fixtures maxims of Islam," Gormez said emphatically.

"The Western media have read what are doing from a Christian perspective and understood it in line with their Christian and Western cultures."

When it comes to Islam, Gormez said, the Western media is used to focusing on women's status and jihad.

Several British newspapers on Wednesday, February 27, ran stories on the Turkish project .

The Guardian headlines the story as "Turkey strives for 21st century form of Islam."

A day earlier the BBC reported the project under the headline "Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts."

Gormez also refuted claims they would and edit out some hadiths, especially about women.

"No Muslim in the right mind would dare delete any hadith or tamper with the Prophet's heritage."

I trust that all those Muslim spokesmen in the West who assured us during the Abdul Rahman controversy in 2005 that Islamic law did not actually have a death penalty for apostasy will be winging their way to Tehran forthwith to explain to the mullahs that they're Misunderstanding Islam.

From Spiegel Online (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

Apostasy -- or the formal renunciation of religion -- is already punishable in Iran with death. But now, Iran wants to make the death penalty for apostasy part of the penal code. The European Union is concerned and has asked Iran to reconsider.

The European Union this week sent a letter to authorities in Iran expressing its concern over a proposed change to the penal code that would make apostasy punishable by death.

The EU is responding to news that the Islamic Republic is planning to subject "apostasy, heresy and witchcraft" to the Hudud -- the body of fixed punishments assigned to crimes that are considered violations of the "claims of God." Other Hadud crimes include alcohol consumption, theft, highway robbery and illegal sexual intercourse.

As the news agency Reuters reported earlier this week, the EU, which opposes the death penalty as a matter of policy, expressed "acute concern" over the proposed penal code revision.

"These articles clearly violate the Islamic Republic of Iran's commitments under the international human rights conventions," Slovenian leaders, who currently head the rotating EU presidency, wrote in a statement.

"The EU calls upon the Iranian authorities, both in government and parliament, to modify the draft penal code in order to respect the obligations."

The death penalty has already been applied to apostates in Iran -- but this was never, since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979, institutionalized as a matter of legal practice.

Iran typically dismisses Western criticism of its legal system, claiming that Islamic law is fundamentally different.

Indeed it is. Most Westerners, however, would rather not acknowledge that.

Feel the love. From AKI (thanks to C. C.):

Mosul, 29 Feb. (AKI) - Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean bishop of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was kidnapped on Friday after he finished celebrating the rite of the Via Crucis at a local church.

Eyewitnesses said that a group of armed men stopped the bishop as he was travelling in his car and took him by force.

From a government-sponsored rally on Wednesday

Let's see... No.

Anti-dhimmitude. "Denmark to oppose Sudan debt relief," from the Associated Press:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Denmark said Thursday it will oppose any debt relief deal for Sudan in response to the Sudanese president's comments urging the Muslim world to boycott Danish goods over the publication of a Prophet Muhammad cartoon.

Interior Minister Ulla Toernaes said she summoned Sudan's ambassador to Denmark to demand an explanation of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's comments a day earlier.

Al-Bashir said Wednesday that he would bar Danes from Sudan and told tens of thousands of people at a government-backed rally in Khartoum that the Muslim world should boycott Denmark because of a cartoon reprinted recently in Danish newspapers.

Danish newspapers reprinted a cartoon showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban on February 13 to show their commitment to freedom of speech after police uncovered a plot to kill the artist who drew it.

The drawing was one of 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper in 2006 that triggered major protests in Muslim countries. The republication again sparked protests in several Muslim countries, including Sudan.

Sudan owes Denmark nearly $405 million and after Sudan's government and southern rebels signed a peace agreement in 2005, international donors said they would consider debt relief.

But now, "in the international talks about a possible debt relief to Sudan, it will be Denmark's point of view that Sudan should not get such a debt relief agreement," Toernaes told the online edition of the Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

However, she said Denmark would not cut development aid to Sudan. "Our support is not a support to the Sudanese president or, for that matter, to the government," Toernaes said.

Sudan is one of the largest recipients of Danish aid, receiving $26 million in aid in 2006. A $100 million humanitarian and reconstruction package is planned through 2009.

"It surprises me that Sudan's government apparently is willing to cut the cooperation with a donor like Denmark on development aid because of a caricature in Danish newspapers," Toernaes told the newspaper.

Let them "cut cooperation" with Denmark. I hear the Saudis have a few bucks to spare...

She could not be reached for comment Thursday but her office confirmed that the quotes were correct.

All lovers of freedom should be outraged that such a sentenced was ever handed down. "Woman freed from sentence for being 'Christian,'" from WorldNetDaily (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Egyptian woman sentenced to three years in prison for putting her religion as "Christian" on her marriage certificate more than two decades ago has been released, according to her lawyer.

The release of Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, came only a few weeks after WND reported on plans for a rally in Egypt on behalf of the woman who was unaware that when she was two years old, her father briefly left Christianity to pursue Islam, before returning to Christianity.

Under Egyptian law, that made her a Muslim for life, so she was charged with, and convicted of, fraud for putting "Christian" as her religion on her marriage certificate in 1982.

However, according to published reports in Egypt, the nation's attorney general ordered her released, citing a "mix-up" over her religion designation.

The case stems from the woman's marriage as a Christian, a restricted practice in Egypt. There Christians are not allowed to marry Muslims, only other Christians.

Read it all.

He wuz framed, I tell ya. Framed!

By Michael Theodoulou for the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

A university professor allegedly caught in a Saudi-style honey trap has been sentenced to 180 lashes and eight months in jail – for having coffee with a girl.

The man, a prominent and well-respected Saudi teacher of psychology at Umm al-Qra University in the holy city of Mecca, was framed by the religious police after he angered some of their members at a training course, his lawyer said.

The academic has not been named by the local media, which have given his case wide coverage, but one senior Saudi journalist told The Times he was Dr Abu Ruzaiz, a married man in his late 50s with children.

“He is highly respected and above-board. Nobody believes the religious police’s version of what happened. The whole of Jeddah (the main city near Mecca) is in uproar about this. Everyone believes he is innocent and was set up,” the journalist said.

Good. Maybe this will herald the beginning of a mass public rejection of such "crimes."

From our ever-growing "You Dare To Suggest That Islam Is Not A Religion Of Peace, Therefore We Must Kill You" file, this just in from NIS News (thanks to all who sent this in):

AMSTERDAM, 28/02/08 - The terrorist network Al-Qaeda has given orders for the assassination of MP Geert Wilders, newspaper De Telegraaf reports. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader must be 'slaughtered', the orders say, because he has insulted Islam and the prophet Mohammed.

The newspaper based its report on a recent message on a protected web forum of internet site al-ekhlaas.net, which De Telegraaf claims is affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The internet threat, which was posted on 28 January, was intercepted by the American research institute SITE Intelligence Group, the newspaper reports.

"In the name of Allah, we ask you to bring us the neck of this unbeliever who insults Islam and the Muslims and ridicules the prophet Mohammed," the site says about Wilders, according to the newspaper.

The message honours Mohammed Bouyeri as a hero. This Amsterdam-born Moroccan Muslim cut Islam-critic Theo van Gogh's throat on 2 November 2004. The message also appeals for readers to "terrorise" the Netherlands to prevent Wilders' controversial film on the Koran from being broadcast....

Anti-dhimmitude: Wilders will not kowtow to violent intimidation, despite the entreaties of his cringing Eurodhimmi colleagues.

"Dutch minister appeals against anti-Islam film," from Radio Netherlands (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Hague - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has called on right-wing politician Geert Wilders not to release his planned anti-Islam film. Mr Verhagen is the first member of the cabinet to make a direct appeal regarding Mr Wilders' controversial film plans. The Labour party has criticised the minister's statement as premature, since there is still no clear information about the content of the film.

The foreign minister's Christian Democrat party has also spoken out against the film, saying Mr Wilders should take responsibility for the possible consequences for the safety of Dutch citizens and for the Dutch economy. The Taliban previously threatened to step up attacks on Dutch troops in Afghanistan if the anti-Islam film is broadcast.

Mr Wilders, who is head of the right-wing Freedom Party, has responded in a text message by saying his critics can "get lost".

In the featured article at FrontPage this morning, I discuss the MSA's stealth jihad efforts.

Muslim students at Australian universities have demanded that class schedules be changed to work around their prayer times, and that male and female students be provided with separate cafeterias and recreational areas.

This is in line with similar initiatives in the United States, where the Muslim Students Association carries, on the “Muslim Accommodations Task Force” page of its website, pdfs of pamphlets entitled “How to Achieve Islamic Holidays on Campus,” “How to Establish a Prayer Room on Campus,” and “How to Achieve Halal Food on Campus.”

The MSA directs Muslim students to present these demands in the context of multiculturalism and civil rights. “Most campuses,” explains the publication on getting recognition of Islamic holy “include respecting diversity as a part of their mission statement. They consider enrollment of diverse students an asset to the community, as they enhance the classroom learning experience and enrich student life. Try to find these statements specific to your campus, and explain that recognition of Islamic holidays would serve as a practical example of upholding these ideals.”

Man of the hour

The film that has the world holding its breath could appear today. "Dutch film to slam Islam," by Leander Schaerlaeckens in the Washington Times (thanks to Sparta):

BRUSSELS — Europe's uneasy relationship with its Muslim minority faces another blow next month, when Dutch politician Geert Wilders releases a 15-minute film that compares Islam to Nazism and communism.

The film is called "Fitna," an Arabic term for "discord." It intersperses verses of the Koran with footage of terrorist attacks and other Islamist-inspired violence.

"The film will show that the Koran isn't a dead work, but the face of Islam — a tremendous hazard," Mr. Wilders told the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

He said the film calls the Koran "the latest test to Western democracies since Nazism and communism."

Mr. Wilders said the film will be finished tomorrow and will be posted on a Web site, www.fitnathemovie.com, when it airs on television.

Several Pakistani Internet providers tried this week to block YouTube on the orders of the government because it carried a movie trailer for the film. The effort caused a worldwide crash of the popular online site for sharing videos.

The next part of this article, you'll note, has no perpetrator. Insults to Islam somehow, inexplicably, "turned deadly," leading to "worldwide riots" that "left more than 100 people dead" -- at whose hands? We don't know. At least we do hear that van Gogh's killer thought of his victim as an "enemy of Islam":

In recent years, other perceived insults to Islam in Europe have turned deadly.

Worldwide riots after the 2005 publication of editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad left more than 100 people dead.

In 2004, a terrorist killed Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in broad daylight over another short film titled "Submission," which told the tale of abused women in the Muslim community.

The assassin called Mr. van Gogh, a descendent of the 19th-century artist, an "enemy of Islam" in a note that threatened the life of then-Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for the film.

Ms. Hirsi Ali now lives in the United States under tight security....

I'm not sure that's accurate at this point, but then again, I wouldn't know.

The Iranian justice minister requested his Dutch counterpart to ban the latest film, calling it "satanical and undermining," according to Iranian press agency IRNA.

The Dutch government has thus far refused to act, citing the principle of free speech.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, director of the Washington-based Center for Islamic Pluralism, said it was "strange" and "ahistorical" to think that a 1,400-year-old text could become a threat to the West.

"My advice to Muslims is to ignore such trivial provocations, maintain their dignity and faith and work to improve their communities," Mr. Schwartz said. "Mr. Wilders has a right to make whatever films he wants and Muslims have a right to ignore them."...

I'm glad that Schwartz, as a Muslim spokesman, says that Muslims "have a right to ignore" Wilders' films, which presumably suggests that Muslims also have a right not to start going mad, smashing things, issuing murderous threats, and attacking people because of Wilders' current film. But Schwartz's statement that it's "'strange' and 'ahistorical' to think that a 1,400-year-old text could become a threat to the West" is, well, strange and ahistorical. Muslims motivated by Qur'anic texts conquered the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Spain, and much of India, and threatened Europe for 1,000 years. At any time during that period if anyone had asked any of the jihad warriors what he was fighting for, he would have answered with Qur'anic references.

And after that, when the Islamic world grew weak and jihad against the West became an historical memory, this change was not the result of a new understanding of Qur'anic imperatives to wage war against and subjugate Jews and Christians (cf. 9:29) and war against other unbelievers also (9:5). Rather, it was simply a matter of being too weak to act upon these imperatives, until Saudi money and the communications revolution changed all that. Strange and ahistorical? When jihadists today unanimously frame their actions in terms of the Qur'an? No. It appears that Mr. Schwartz is indulging in that all-too-common feature of today's public discourse: Fantasy-Based Analysis.

"Geert Wilders spreads hatred. We want to be an open, tolerant and democratic society and he preaches the opposite," said Michael van der Vlis, a former city councilman of Amsterdam who is one of Mr. Wilders' fiercest critics.

Mr. van der Vlis began his own Web site, "Don't spread hatred," to counter Mr. Wilders.

Within a few weeks of opening the site last year, he received thousands of supportive e-mails but eventually abandoned the effort when faced with a never-ending stream of hate mail.

"Yes, we have a problem with a part of the Muslim community and you can't ignore that, but you should solve it very differently than the way Wilders tries to," Mr. van der Vlis told The Washington Times.

"You should attract people, not make them outcasts. [Mr. Wilders] preaches ripping up half the Koran and the fight against Islam. This shows extremely little respect for those with a different religious opinion. He does not contribute to a tolerant Netherlands."...

The problem is, neither do the jihadists. Wilders, by calling attention to the problematic aspects of the Qur'an, is providing an opportunity for the Muslims who profess to reject jihad violence and Islamic supremacism to explain how they approach such texts, and how they propose to disabuse jihadists of their understanding of them. But instead: rage.

It still wasn't those Christian fundamentalists, who are, as we all know, more dangerous than Islamic jihadists. They just haven't gotten around to mounting any terror attacks yet, and with the number of Islamic jihad attacks standing now at 10,647 since 9/11, they have a bit of catching up to do.

"Six arrested in Norway, Sweden in terrorism raids," from AFP (thanks to all who sent this in):

STOCKHOLM : Norwegian and Swedish police said they arrested six people on Thursday in Oslo and Stockholm suspected of financing and planning attacks in a coordinated action.

"It was a coordinated action in Norway and Sweden," Jakob Larsson, a spokesman for the Swedish police's security service Saepo, told AFP.

In Stockholm, "three Swedish citizens, all men" were arrested on suspicion of financing and planning attacks, Larsson said, providing no further details on their identities.

In Oslo, three people were arrested "suspected of ... financing acts of terrorism abroad," the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said in a statement.

According to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet's online edition, the three arrested in Oslo were all of African origin....

"The support activities in Norway primarily involve money transfers to individuals or groups abroad who are believed to be linked to radical Islamist organisations," PST said.

"Various forms of support for foreign terrorist organisations remain the primary type of activity (linked to terrorism) in Norway," it added....

"They were very aggressive and shouted at an employee that the poster should be taken down otherwise they would throw stones and use violence."

By Madeline Chambers for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin gallery has temporarily closed an exhibition of satirical works by a group of Danish artists after six Muslim youths threatened violence unless one of the posters depicting the Kaaba shrine in Mecca was removed, it said on Thursday.

The Galerie Nord in central Berlin said it had closed its "Zionist Occupied Government" show of works by Surrend, a group of artists who say they poke fun at powerful people and ideological conflicts.

On Tuesday, four days after the exhibition opened, a group of angry Muslims stormed into the gallery, shouting demands that one of the 21 posters should be removed, said the gallery.

"They were very aggressive and shouted at an employee that the poster should be taken down otherwise they would throw stones and use violence," the gallery's artistic director Ralf Hartmann told Reuters.

The Muslims objected to a depiction of the Kaaba -- the ancient shrine in Mecca's Grand Mosque which Muslims face to say their prayers -- which gave a "bitingly satirical commentary against radicalism," said the gallery in a statement.

SECURITY REVIEW

Hartmann said the gallery was working with German authorities to improve security and he hoped to re-open the show as soon as possible.

"It would be unacceptable if individual social groups were in a position to exercise censorship over art and the freedom of expression," said the gallery in a statement.

Yes, it would!

UPDATE: A friend sends me this important point: "The key point here--which you are always warning about, as in the story on Front Page--is the expansion of demands. There is now a demand that no picture of Muhammad be shown. Now this is a COMPLETELY NEW demand and one even less grounded in Islam: that the Kaaba not be shown. No doubt more will be added in future. A point worth making, this isn't just a demonstration against an art exhibit but an additional demand never heard before."

Naive Kids Update: They tried to get this evidence thrown out on the grounds that the arresting officer was racist -- evidently because he mentioned the Taliban, which is not a race -- but common sense prevailed this time.

"Judge says USF student evidence can be used," from My Fox Tampa Bay:

TAMPA - A federal judge says controversial evidence against two USF students accused of having explosives can be used in their trial.

Defense lawyers had challenged the use of evidence seized in a search of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed's car because of statements made over the radio by the deputies who stopped them in South Carolina.

The men used terms like "terrorist" and Taliban" to describe the students, and lawyers argued that showed bias, and that the deputies didn't have probable cause to search the car.

Despite those arguments, a judge says the search was legal, and the evidence gathered - including pipe bombs and a computer - can be used.

Quaking dhimmi Dutch call Qur'an critic on the carpet, as if he is responsible for any irrationality and violence with which Muslims may greet his film.

"Wilders accuses ministers of intimidation," from Expatica (thanks to Dave):

THE HAGUE – Freedom Party PVV leader Geert Wilders is furious about a talk ministers Ernst Hirsch Ballin (justice) and Maxime Verhagen (foreign affairs) held with him on Wednesday afternoon regarding his film on the Koran.

"It was an hour of intimidation," Wilders said after the talk.

The politician did not want to disclose what had been said. A spokesperson for the justice ministry confirmed that a talk had taken place after reports about it on NOS Journaal.

The spokesperson would only say it was a continuation of a talk held in November last year when the government expressed its concerns about the consequences the film could have in the Netherlands and abroad.

Sources in The Hague say Hirsch Ballin, who called the meeting, has now also pointed out to Wilders that there could be legal consequences for Wilders if the film contains elements that could be considered hate inciting or blasphemous....

If Europe and the U.S. were standing for free speech, that would not be a consideration.

Outrage

Ready for Obama Photo Rage?

"Kenyan elders want U.S. apology over Obama photo," by Noor Ali for Reuters (thanks to Hot Air):

ISIOLO, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan elders demanded an apology from Washington on Thursday ahead of a planned protest over a controversial photo of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama in traditional Somali dress.

[...]

The dispute has angered many in Kenya, especially ethnic Somalis from the northeast, who resent the implication that Obama did anything wrong during his visit.

Wajir residents plan to demonstrate after Friday prayers to show their support for the Illinois senator.

Mohamed Ibrahim, who attended one of two crisis meetings held in Wajir on Thursday by clan members who hosted Obama on his trip, said Washington must immediately make amends to them and especially to the elder pictured with him.

"The U.S. government must apologise to us as a clan and the old man," Ibrahim told Reuters by telephone. "We have been offended and we cannot afford to just watch and stay silent."

He said it was essential Clinton "clear her name" too.

The old man in question was retired chief Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, a senior elder who deserved great respect, local residents said.

"He was the right person to perform any such activity like dressing a visitor like Obama with traditional Somali clothes," said another Wajir community leader, Mukhtar Sheikh Nur.

"We give special treatment and respect to any visitor."

If there was no apology, the elders said, they would demand the expulsion of U.S. troops based near Garissa town....

On the way to his Nobel Peace Prize

Not that Bush, Rice, or anyone else who have so much hope invested in this man will care to notice.

"Abbas: 'Armed resistance not ruled out,'" from the Jerusalem Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said that he does not rule out returning to the path of armed "resistance" against Israel and took pride in the fact that he had been the first to fire on Israel and that his organization had trained Hizbullah.

In an interview with the Jordanian daily al-Dustur, Abbas said that he was opposed to an armed struggle against Israel - for the time being.

"At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different," he said.

The PA president also expressed pride both in himself and in his organization, Fatah, for trailblazing the path of resistance.

Ah, a real point of pride!

Signalman Hassan Abu-Jihaad, USN

When Hassan Abu-Jihaad joined the Navy, did anyone ask him about his loyalty? His attachment to the jihad ideology? I expect not. I think it likely that no one would have dared, and if anyone had done so, he would have been branded a racist and an "Islamophobe."

"Navy Says Leak Posed A Threat," from AP :

NEW HAVEN — - The U.S. Navy would have immediately changed plans had it known that details of ship movements had been leaked to suspected terrorism supporters, a top Navy official testified Wednesday at the trial of a former Navy sailor on terrorism charges.

Hassan Abu-Jihaad, 32, of Phoenix, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging that he provided material support to terrorists and disclosed classified national defense information. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

Abu-Jihaad, an American-born Muslim convert formerly known as Paul R. Hall, is accused of leaking information that could have doomed his own ship. He was a Navy signalman and received an honorable discharge in 2002.

He is accused of leaking details included the makeup of his Navy battle group, its planned movements and a drawing of the group's formation when it was to pass through the Straits of Hormuz on April 29, 2001....

Due to her hatred of Jews and "personal family problems," she volunteered for this mission, and went to Mecca beforehand to purify herself.

"Would-be teen bomber arrested in J'lem," by Etgar Lefkovits in the Jerusalem Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

A 17-year-old female Palestinian from Jerusalem was arrested three weeks ago for allegedly offering to carry out a suicide bombing in the city, police said Thursday. The girl was apprehended in a joint Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and police operation.

The would-be bomber, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor, is suspected of having suggested to Islamic Jihad operatives in the West Bank that they use her to carry out a terror attack, due to her hatred of Jews and "personal family problems," Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

The teen, who has confessed to the allegations against her, said that her family had no knowledge of her plans to become a suicide bomber, police said.

As part of her enlistment, the teen traveled to Mecca to "purify" herself, after undergoing a series of tests by the Palestinian terror group to ensure that she was not an Israeli mole, police said....

Premature detonation: it's the jihadist's ever-present fear.

"Premature Blast Kills Philippine Bomber," from AP (thanks to James):

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A grenade exploded during a town fiesta in the southern Philippines, killing a would-be bomber and wounding four people, police said Thursday.

The police chief in General Santos city, Senior Superintendent Robert Po, said the grenade held by the bomber went off before he managed to penetrate crowds celebrating the city's foundation anniversary late Wednesday. [...]

Po said investigators were working to determine the bomber's identity and affiliation, but suspected he may have been linked to a notorious extortion gang, the Al-Khobar group.

The group, which authorities believe has ties to Muslim extremists operating in the southern Philippines, has been blamed for at least a dozen explosions in the region targeting bus companies and business establishments....

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews. -- from this news article

These opinion polls, where it is Muslims who are being polled, are always skewed -- but not, as with other opinion polls, skewed now this way and now that way. These are skewed in only one way. No Muslim, being interviewed as to whether or not he "approves" of a terrorist act, is going to say he approves of it if he does not. In other words, there will be no cases in which someone will declare, falsely, that he approves. Compare this to a public opinion poll about support for candidates, in which one can imagine, in a despotism, people lying about whom they will support, or even in a democracy, lying in order to meet the expectations, as they see it, of the interviewer. How many Americans right now may be afraid of being thought either "racist" (so answering one way) or "sexist" (so answering another)?

They are especially skewed because Muslims know perfectly well when the results are to be disseminated among non-Muslims, and they know perfectly well that non-Muslims are watching keenly for signs of support for violence.

Not that wearing it is compulsory or anything. She is free to insult Islam, and to face the consequences for doing so. "Egypt goalie slammed for move to Swiss club; Wife accused of insulting Islam for removing veil," from Al-Arabiya (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

...Adding to his troubles, a picture of Hadary's wife appearing in public in Switzerland without the veil has also drawn criticism back home.

Religious watchdog group Hamasna ("Our Enthusiasm"), which led the International Campaign for Defending Hijab a week ago, issued a statement urging Hadary's wife Sabrine to put the veil back on.

"We understand that the situation of Muslim women in the West is a special case, but she has to amend what she did before other players' wives follow her example," the statement read. "She must realize that her husband is a player in Egyptian national football, and they are a religious team."

The Grand Imam of al-Azhar has issued a fatwa – religious ruling – saying that Muslim women living in the West can take off the veil if required under local laws. The fatwa, issued in the context of the ban on the veil in educational institutions in France, sparked much controversy at the time.

Hamasna said it supports Hadary and wishes him luck in his new club. It added that he should continue to kneel in prayer when his team scores a goal and not feel awkward about performing the religious act on the field even with his new Swiss team.

"The God of Switzerland is the God of Cairo and the God of [Ghanaian city] Kumasi, the God of all the people," the group said....

Shelves of books all about Islam, and a rifle -- but don't get the crazy idea that this has anything to do with Islam

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Relax Bulletin, the revelation that there are only 91 million admitted jihadists, comes the latest from former CIA agent Marc Sageman, who says that the jihadists only number a few thousand bored youths, looking for thrills. No ideological component, no religious component. So relax, will you?

"The Fading Jihadists," by David Ignatius in the Washington Post (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Politicians who talk about the terrorism threat -- and it's already clear that this will be a polarizing issue in the 2008 campaign -- should be required to read a new book by a former CIA officer named Marc Sageman. It stands what you think you know about terrorism on its head and helps you see the topic in a different light.

[...]

The heart of Sageman's message is that we have been scaring ourselves into exaggerating the terrorism threat -- and then by our unwise actions in Iraq making the problem worse. He attacks head-on the central thesis of the Bush administration, echoed increasingly by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, that, as McCain's Web site puts it, the United States is facing "a dangerous, relentless enemy in the War against Islamic Extremists" spawned by al-Qaeda.

The numbers say otherwise, Sageman insists. The first wave of al-Qaeda leaders, who joined Osama bin Laden in the 1980s, is down to a few dozen people on the run in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. The second wave of terrorists, who trained in al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan during the 1990s, has also been devastated, with about 100 hiding out on the Pakistani frontier. These people are genuinely dangerous, says Sageman, and they must be captured or killed. But they do not pose an existential threat to America, much less a "clash of civilizations."

From Ignatius's account at least, Sageman appears to ignore entirely the other active and violent jihad groups around the world, operating in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Kashmir, Chechnya, Nigeria, etc. etc.

He also seems to ignore the abundant evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood's -- in their own words -- "grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” This statement comes from a 1992 Brotherhood memorandum, in which many prominent American Muslim groups, including the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Students Association, are named as "friends."

If Sageman mentions any of this, Ignatius doesn't pick up on it.

It's the third wave of terrorism that is growing, but what is it? By Sageman's account, it's a leaderless hodgepodge of thousands of what he calls "terrorist wannabes." Unlike the first two waves, whose members were well educated and intensely religious, the new jihadists are a weird species of the Internet culture. Outraged by video images of Americans killing Muslims in Iraq, they gather in password-protected chat rooms and dare each other to take action. Like young people across time and religious boundaries, they are bored and looking for thrills.

"It's more about hero worship than about religion," Sageman said in a presentation of his research last week at the New America Foundation, a liberal think tank here. Many of this third wave don't speak Arabic or read the Koran. Very few (13 percent of Sageman's sample) have attended radical madrassas. Nearly all join the movement because they know or are related to someone who's already in it. Those detained on terrorism charges are getting younger: In Sageman's 2003 sample, the average age was 26; among those arrested after 2006, it was down to about 20. They are disaffected, homicidal kids -- closer to urban gang members than to motivated Muslim fanatics.

I have no doubt whatsoever that many people join jihadist groups because they're bored, or because all their friends are doing it, or because they're looking for thrills, or some such. But "disaffected, homicidal kids" may not be an entirely accurate formulation on the very day that the LA Times publishes a story about a jihadist cell in Morocco consisting of politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats, pharmacists, a police commander, and a TV journalist.

I don't know how Sageman knows that these bored youths don't read the Qur'an, but the fact remains that virtually every statement from Osama bin Laden, or al-Zawahri, or even Adam Gadahn, or from the British jihadists, or from Abu Bakar Bashir, or from virtually every other leader of this movement anywhere in the world, quotes copiously from the Qur'an, couches its appeal in terms of the religious obligations of Muslims, and presents the jihad movement as the embodiment of pure and true Islam. This is readily documentable -- here is one example, and here is another, and here is a third, and there are plenty more where those came from.

This focus on Islam is strange behavior for a movement that is not essentially religious, and forces us, if we accept Sageman's analysis, to believe that the vast majority of young men join jihadist groups while ignoring, being indifferent to, or outright rejecting the dominant ideology and goals of those groups. I wonder if he has any documentation of any jihadist who has ever stated such things. I rather doubt he does.

Sageman's harshest judgment is that the United States is making the terrorism problem worse by its actions in Iraq. "Since 2003, the war in Iraq has without question fueled the process of radicalization worldwide, including the U.S. The data are crystal clear," he writes. We have taken a fire that would otherwise burn itself out and poured gasoline on it.

Would it have burned itself out in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, etc. -- all those places I named above and others? Would it have ended the Brotherhood's subversive action inside the United States?

The third wave of terrorism is inherently self-limiting, Sageman continues. As soon as the amorphous groups gather and train, they make themselves vulnerable to arrest. "As the threat from al-Qaeda is self-limiting, so is its appeal, and global Islamist terrorism will probably disappear for internal reasons -- if the United States has the sense to allow it to continue on its course and fade away."

Sageman's policy advice is to "take the glory and thrill out of terrorism." Jettison the rhetoric about Muslim extremism -- these leaderless jihadists are barely Muslims. Stop holding news conferences to announce the latest triumphs in the "global war on terror," which only glamorize the struggle. And reduce the U.S. military footprint in Iraq, which fuels the Muslim world's sense of moral outrage....

Ultimately, more comforting hogwash, diverting us from the reality of the situation.

This fact makes the LA Times scratch its venerable head in puzzlement. I mean, doesn't everybody know that poverty causes terrorism, and only the desperate, uneducated and easily led join jihadist groups?

Of course, we have documented here for years that the opposite is the case, and just yesterday Saudi pseudoacademic shill John Esposito admitted it himself: "The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims." But it never seems to get through to the clueless, indifferent, PC-addled mainstream media.

"Morocco's unlikely group of terrorism suspects," by Sebastian Rotella for the Los Angeles Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):

RABAT, MOROCCO -- They are politicians and businessmen, bureaucrats and pharmacists, a police commander and a TV journalist.

Police arrested them and seized an arsenal in nationwide raids this month, the biggest crackdown in Morocco since suicide bombings killed 45 people, including the 12 bombers, in Casablanca five years ago. [...]

The recently arrested alleged leader of the group was a well-off Moroccan immigrant in Belgium who is accused of financing his activity with multimillion-dollar hold-ups and committing assassinations in that European country dating back 20 years. Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said in an interview that the group plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers, military chiefs and Jewish leaders to destabilize this moderate Muslim nation. [...]

"The leaders of this network had the opportunity to train in Afghanistan, to meet leaders of Al Qaeda, and to go to Algeria to train in [rural outposts] in 2005," Benmoussa said.

Some aspects of the case against the suspects perplex analysts. The three politicians arrested belong to small parties that mix Islamist and leftist ideologies. Their defenders say they are moderates.

Their longtime ties to Shiite Muslim movements, including Hezbollah, may have been a factor in their arrests. Sunni Muslims are the majority here, but authorities worry about the danger of extremism among the small Shiite minority and sympathetic Sunni radicals.

Sunni and Western governments fear that the recent assassination of a Hezbollah military chief in Syria could foment Shiite-inspired violence around the world, says Abdellah Rami, an expert on Islam at the Moroccan Center for Social Studies.

But Rami sees contradictions in the official version alleging that the Moroccan group of suspects was influenced by both Sunni-led Al Qaeda and Shiite Hezbollah.

"I find it hard to believe that all these movements were mixed together in the same cell," said Rami, who knows the jailed politicians. [...]

Sound strategy, or more British dhimmitude? It's hard to tell at this point. I am all for law enforcement officials becoming well-versed in the Qur'an and Sunnah: the more they understand the motives and goals of the jihadists, the better able they will be to combat them. But if this will be just another exercise in politically correct whitewashing and kowtowing to Islamic supremacism, as the Shadow Home Secretary seems to think, then it will be worse than worthless.

"Bobbies will be taught Sharia law and the Koran in secret plan to counter terror at local level," by James Slack for the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

Police will be trained on the importance of Sharia law and the Koran to Muslim communities, under new plans to fight extremism.

The lessons in Islamic faith and culture will become part of the formal training of constables working in towns and cities across the country.

Chief constables say that - by understanding the community they are policing - officers will build better relationships.

These could prove crucial in rooting out extremism and preventing a terrorist attack, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers.

But critics have described the plan as 'politically correct thinking' .

Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, said: "Police officers are not there to implement Sharia law. They are there to implement British law.

"This idea is misguided. We will only get community cohesion when everybody signs up to being British and following British law."

Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "Of course it is sensible for the police to have an understanding of the Koran and Sharia law as long as we do not allow the situation to slip so that Sharia law is regarded on an equal basis with British law. British law is and always must be pre-eminent."

Under the Acpo plans, police will not have to learn the 'depth and complexity' of Sharia law, but would be expected to understand Islamic culture - which includes Sharia law and the Koran.

It is part of a wide-ranging strategy to prevent extremist ideas gaining hold in primary schools, colleges, the internet and prisons....

Barry Rubin discusses some of the revelations of the funeral of Imad Mugniyah:

A funny thing happened at the funeral of Imad Mugniyah. Those who had for years been denying any connection with him and his international terrorist activities--Iran, Syria, and Hizballah--suddenly admitted that he was one of their favorite people.

At the same time, other critical points came out. Mugniyah's critical position as the link between those three allies, in their conduct of terrorism and subversion, stood out clearly. In addition, Mugniyah's career as an international terrorist, who often operated against Western targets, showed how Hizballah--along with its backers in Tehran and Damascus--were second only to al-Qaida in their global operations of violence.

[...]

When Iran, Syria, and Hizballah embrace such a person as a great hero and role model they are:

* Openly admitting their association with many past acts of terrorism.
* Making clear that they favor murderous attacks deliberately designed to kill civilians.
* Showing their past denials of involvement to be lies.
* Urging people to commit many more such attacks in future, include genocide against Israel and its people.

Now that Hizballah, Iran, and Syria have "taken credit" for Mugniyah's past killings and urged many more in the future, the world should confront the fact that these groups are engaged in a systematic terrorist policy and react accordingly.

Read it all.

The refusal of Muslim medics to wash their arms in a way that would require them to be uncovered is spreading. Here again is a clear choice: will Britain enforce British law, or kowtow to Islamic law? An update on this story. "Muslim medics refuse to roll up their sleeves in hygiene crackdown - because it's against their religion," from the Daily Mail (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Health officials are having crisis talks with Muslim medical staff who have objected to hospital hygiene rules because of religious beliefs.

Medics in hospitals in at least three major English cities have refused to follow the regulations aimed at helping tackle superbugs because of their faith, it has been revealed.

Women medical students at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool objected to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands and removing arm coverings in theatre, claiming it is regarded as immodest.

Similar concerns were raised at Leicester University -and Sheffield University reported a case of a Muslim medic refusing to "scrub" because it left her forearms exposed.

Some students have said that they would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, but hygiene experts said no exceptions should be made on religious grounds.

The film has been condemned in advance, sight unseen. Just for a moment of clarity, think back to the riots that greeted the work of the nineteenth-century European Biblical higher critics, or the Jesus Seminar, or the many skeptical/critical examinations of the Bible. What riots? Exactly.

And ask yourself: if someone reacts to something I say by going mad, breaking things, and targeting innocent people, is that my responsibility or his? When you are insulted, do you consider it a license to destroy things and hurt people, or do you consider it incumbent upon yourself to exercise some self-control?

"Dutch Islam film 'nearly ready,'" from the BBC (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has said that this week he will finish a film about Islam which has already triggered Muslim outrage.

Mr Wilders said he was determined to release the film despite government warnings that this would damage Dutch political and economic interests.

Good for him. What they're saying here is, "People will react to this with violent irrationality. Therefore you must kowtow to them."

Mr Wilders says the film is about the Koran, without giving details.

In the past, he has called for the Koran to be banned and likened it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The project has already been condemned by several Muslim countries, including Iran and Pakistan.

'Death threats'

"It is very good news. the film will definitely be finished this week, that is to say before 1 March," Mr Wilders told Reuters.

Well, that makes it today or tomorrow. Watch for updates.

He would be tortured back home, see. "Ministers argued the right of the public to be protected against terrorism should be balanced against a suspect's rights not to be ill-treated," but to no avail.

"Court bans deportation of terror suspect," by Clare Dyer for the Guardian (thanks to Davida):

Government hopes of deporting dozens of terror suspects to their home countries suffered a serious setback today with the European court of human rights ruling against one such attempt.

The grand chamber of 17 judges at the Strasbourg court ruled unanimously that an attempt by Italy to send a man back to Tunisia violated the ban on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in the European convention on human rights.

The case was brought by Nassim Saadi against Italy. The British government intervened in the hope the court would sanction the return of suspects regardless of their home country's human rights record.

Ministers argued the right of the public to be protected against terrorism should be balanced against a suspect's rights not to be ill-treated.

The court ruled that protection against torture is absolute and Saadi cannot be sent back, even though he has been convicted of terror-related offences in both Tunisia and Italy....

And that, to some minds at least, proves that this problem has nothing to do with Islam. The idea that the jihad ideology could have been deemphasized for a long period and then reasserted, as in pamphlets such as "Jihad: The Forgotten Obligation," creating an energetic minority, a jihadist vanguard within the Islamic world, does not enter this scenario. We are supposed to feel great that only 91 million share radical views -- or at least only 91 million were dumb enough to tell a Gallup rep that they held such views.

"Major survey challenges Western perceptions of Islam," by Karin Zeitvogel for AFP (thanks to Ansik):

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A huge survey of the world's Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence.

The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism.

It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington.

"Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): 'It is time we admitted that we are not at war with terrorism. We are at war with Islam'," Dalia Mogahed, co-author of the book "Who Speaks for Islam" which grew out of the study, told a news conference here.

"The argument Mr Harris makes is that religion in the primary driver" of radicalism and violence, she said.

"Religion is an important part of life for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and if it were indeed the driver for radicalisation, this would be a serious issue."

But the study, which Gallup says surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world's Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity "does not translate into widespread support for terrorism," said Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.

In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming majorities said religion was a very important part of their lives -- 99 percent in Indonesia, 98 percent in Egypt, 95 percent in Pakistan.

But only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed -- the radicals -- condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.

Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed.

"Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Koran -- for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity," she said.

Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.

The survey shows radicals to be neither more religious than their moderate counterparts, nor products of abject poverty or refugee camps.

"The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims," John Esposito, who co-authored "Who Speaks for Islam", said....

Better educated? But...aren't they ignorant of Islam?

Do you think John Esposito even noticed the chasm of cognitive dissonance widening at his feet?

The poll has given voice to Islam's silent majority, said Mogahed.

"A billion Muslims should be the ones that we look to, to understand what they believe, rather than a vocal minority," she told AFP.

Yes, we should look to them, and ask them why they aren't doing much of anything to challenge that 91 million.

Looks like he got away with it, too

"There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies." But Aulaqi was American-born, indicating that the jihad problem, while it contains a very serious immigration component, is not solely an immigration matter.

"Imam From Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided Al-Qaeda," by Susan Schmidt for the Washington Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.

New information later surfaced about his contacts with extremists while in the United States. Now, U.S. officials are saying for the first time that they believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaeda networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia. In mid-2006, Aulaqi was detained in Yemen at the request of the United States. To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Aulaqi was released in December.

"There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies," said a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities were limited in how far they could push Yemen to hold Aulaqi, officials said, because they have no pending legal case against him. The officials said ongoing intelligence-gathering efforts here and abroad prevented them from providing details about Aulaqi's suspected activities.

Aulaqi, 36, was the spiritual leader in 2001 and 2002 of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, one of the largest in the country. In a taped interview posted this New Year's Eve on a British Web site, Aulaqi said that while in prison in Yemen, he had undergone multiple interrogations by the FBI that included questions about his dealings with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"I don't know if I was held because of that, or because of the other issues they presented," Aulaqi said without elaborating. He said he would like to travel outside Yemen but would not do so "until the U.S. drops whatever unknown charges it has against me." Aulaqi did not respond to requests for an interview.

[...]

After 9/11, Aulaqi publicly condemned the attacks. But in comments published in English on Sept. 17, 2001, on IslamOnline, Aulaqi suggested that Israelis may have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks and that the FBI "went into the roster of the airplanes and whoever has a Muslim or Arab name became the hijacker by default."

Weeks after leaving the United States in the spring of 2002, he posted an essay in Arabic titled "Why Muslims Love Death" on the Islam Today Web site, lauding the fervor of Palestinian suicide bombers. Months later he praised them in English at a lecture in a London mosque that was recorded on videotape.

[...]

Dar al-Hijrah's spokesman and others in leadership positions at the mosque did not respond to requests for interviews for this article.

Does anyone there agree with Aulaqi's point of view? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?

Nasreen Suleaman...of the Beeb

"I don't think I needed to" contact police. Not even "I didn't think I needed to." Just "I don't think I needed to."

"BBC knew of link to failed 21/7 bombers," from the Telegraph (thanks to Mark):

A BBC producer failed to give police information that would have helped track down the July 21 bombers, the trial was told.

Don't Panic, I'm Islamic, which featured the group paintballing and an interview with Mohammed Hamid, was shown on BBC2 on June 12, 2005.

Nasreen Suleaman, the producer, told the court that Hamid said he would use his £300 fee to settle the fine he had been given by magistrates for racially abusing two policemen at his Oxford Street stall.

Called as a defence witness, Miss Suleaman admitted that she had spoken to Hamid in the days following the July 21 attacks and found out he knew the wanted men. [...]

Miss Suleaman claimed she told BBC managers of the situation but no one passed on the information to the authorities.

She looked visibly shaken when told that two of the July 21 bombers, had joined Hamid on another paintball trip two weeks before the bombings.

Miss Suleaman saw Hamid a few days after July 21, 2005 and he seemed "very shocked that the men he knew were accused of this".

Duncan Penny, prosecuting, said: "Did you tell him to go to the police?"

Ms Suleaman replied: "I don't think I needed to."

Could this be what we have all been waiting for? Possibly. It will be interesting to see its content, and what reception it receives from Islamic authorities outside of Turkey. My guess would be that that reaction will be hostile, because to accept this would be to assume that Islam has gone drastically wrong almost from its inception -- militating against all the claims of Allah's careful protection of his umma. But we shall see.

By Robert Pigott for the BBC (thanks to all who sent this in):

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.

That is, the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The BBC, like Reuters, often forgets this.

As such, it is the principal guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran and the source of the vast majority of Islamic law, or Sharia. But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam.

It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted.

Certainly Muhammad never uttered a significant number even of the ahadith that are generally considered sahih, or reliable. Whether the Turks will be able to convince any significant number of Muslims of that is another matter.

'Reformation'

Commentators say the very theology of Islam is being reinterpreted in order to effect a radical renewal of the religion.

Its supporters say the spirit of logic and reason inherent in Islam at its foundation 1,400 years ago are being rediscovered. Some believe it could represent the beginning of a reformation in the religion.

Turkish officials have been reticent about the revision of the Hadith until now, aware of the controversy it is likely to cause among traditionalist Muslims, but they have spoken to the BBC about the project, and their ambitious aims for it.

"Controversy" is understated.

The forensic examination of the Hadiths has taken place in Ankara University's School of Theology.

An adviser to the project, Felix Koerner, says some of the sayings - also known individually as "hadiths" - can be shown to have been invented hundreds of years after the Prophet Muhammad died, to serve the purposes of contemporary society.

"Unfortunately you can even justify through alleged hadiths, the Muslim - or pseudo-Muslim - practice of female genital mutilation," he says.

It is refreshing to see an Islamic authority admit and confront that. For pointing that out I have been called an "Islamophobe" and worse -- which name-calling, of course, does absolutely nothing to end the widespread Islamic approval of the practice.

"You can find messages which say 'that is what the Prophet ordered us to do'. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition."

The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control.

This is where it really starts to get silly. The Hadith is, for better or worse, the core of Islamic tradition. And since the ninth century, after Bukhari and Muslim and the rest made their efforts to winnow out the false from the true and published their collections, there has been a broad consensus (whether or not it was in fact correct) as to which ahadith were genuine and which weren't -- although there is serious disagreement about some. So to say that this whole process represented a "hijacking" of Islamic tradition is tantamount to saying that the whole thing was "hijacked" from the very start, before it even got off the ground.

Of course, that may be the only way of selling the idea that ahadith considered authentic should be junked.

Leaders of the Hadith project say successive generations have embellished the text, attributing their political aims to the Prophet Muhammad himself.

Revolutionary

Turkey is intent on sweeping away that "cultural baggage" and returning to a form of Islam it claims accords with its original values and those of the Prophet.

But this is where the revolutionary nature of the work becomes apparent. Even some sayings accepted as being genuinely spoken by Muhammad have been altered and reinterpreted.

Prof Mehmet Gormez, a senior official in the Department of Religious Affairs and an expert on the Hadith, gives a telling example.

"There are some messages that ban women from travelling for three days or more without their husband's permission and they are genuine.

"But this isn't a religious ban. It came about because in the Prophet's time it simply wasn't safe for a woman to travel alone like that. But as time has passed, people have made permanent what was only supposed to be a temporary ban for safety reasons."

The project justifies such bold interference in the 1,400-year-old content of the Hadith by rigorous academic research.

Prof Gormez points out that in another speech, the Prophet said "he longed for the day when a woman might travel long distances alone".

So, he argues, it is clear what the Prophet's goal was.

Original spirit

Yet, until now, the ban has remained in the text, and helps to restrict the free movement of some Muslim women to this day.

As part of its aggressive programme of renewal, Turkey has given theological training to 450 women, and appointed them as senior imams called "vaizes".

They have been given the task of explaining the original spirit of Islam to remote communities in Turkey's vast interior.

One of the women, Hulya Koc, looked out over a sea of headscarves at a town meeting in central Turkey and told the women of the equality, justice and human rights guaranteed by an accurate interpretation of the Koran - one guided and confirmed by the revised Hadith.

She says that, at the moment, Islam is being widely used to justify the violent suppression of women.

"There are honour killings," she explains.

"We hear that some women are being killed when they marry the wrong person or run away with someone they love.

"There's also violence against women within families, including sexual harassment by uncles and others. This does not exist in Islam... we have to explain that to them."

'New Islam'

According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy.

He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam.

"This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation," he says.

"Not exactly the same, but if you think, it's changing the theological foundations of [the] religion. "

Fadi Hakura believes that until now secularist Turkey has been intent on creating a new politics for Islam.

Now, he says, "they are trying to fashion a new Islam."

Significantly, the "Ankara School" of theologians working on the new Hadith have been using Western critical techniques and philosophy.

They have also taken an even bolder step - rejecting a long-established rule of Muslim scholars that later (and often more conservative) texts override earlier ones.

Here again, it is refreshing to see a Muslim scholar acknowledge what I have been vilified and smeared for noting.

"You have to see them as a whole," says Fadi Hakura.

"You can't say, for example, that the verses of violence override the verses of peace. This is used a lot in the Middle East, this kind of ideology.

"I cannot impress enough how fundamental [this change] is."

Indeed.

The perpetrator of this hostility was an actor. The victim was an actor. The whole incident was trumped-up, rendering the significance of the reactions suspect to say the least. ABC could not, you see, count on a veiled Muslim woman encountering hostility anywhere in this U.S. -- otherwise, they could have simply sent her into a few stores and filmed the uncanned reaction. So they had to create an "Islamophobic" store clerk as well, to guarantee the outcome they wanted.

Then they highlight the negative reactions with nary a hint that the Muslim community in the U.S. might have the power to change such boorish and hostile reactions -- by being more transparent, by being more honest, by being more specific and forthright in opposing the jihad ideology -- if it indeed does. Obnoxiousness is obnoxiousness, but when people turn on the news and see rage and threats of murder over cartoons, and terrorist act after terrorist act committed in the name of Islam, they aren't blind. They shouldn't react by verbally abusing some random Muslim woman in a store, but the idea that all this is some example of gratuitous racism is ridiculous.

Note also that the "skyrocketing" rate of hate crimes against Muslims is largely trumped-up. And of course while ABC's companion piece to this one relies heavily on "information" from CAIR, there is no mention of CAIR's unindicted co-conspirator status, or its connections to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, or the convictions of various of its officials on terror-related charges.

"Witness to Discrimination: What Would You Do? Bystanders Turn Away When Muslim Actor Hired By 'Primetime' Encounters Hostility," by Ann Sorkowitz and Julie N. Hays for ABC (thanks to Kemaste):

The Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and suicide bombings worldwide have changed not only the way we live but the way we look at those around us, especially Muslims. "Islamophobia" has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common.

But what if you witnessed "Islamophobia" in action and saw someone being victimized because of someone else's prejudices? What would you do?

ABC's production crew outfitted The Czech Stop, a bustling roadside bakery north of Waco, Texas, with hidden cameras and two actors. One played a female customer wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf, or hijab. The other acted as a sales clerk who refused to serve her and spouted common anti-Muslim and anti-Arab slurs.

The polarity of reactions was shocking, from support to seething disapproval. Never did we expect customers to be so passionate or candid.

Our actor, Sabina, walked into the bakery in search of apple strudel. When she reached the counter, an actor posing as a sales clerk was quick to greet her with hateful anti-Muslim language.

"Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from," he said. "You got that towel on your head. I don't know what's underneath your dress. Just please take your business and go elsewhere with it."

"Sir, I am an American, I was born and raised here," she said.

The other customers seemed to hear the exchange but they barely looked toward our actors. When no one came to her defense, Sabina made a direct appeal to one customer.

"Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That's why I am here," Sabina said.

Though visibly shaken by the hateful words, the man gave Sabina the cold shoulder, completed his purchase, and walked out of the bakery. "I really think that a person who owns his own business should be able to say who they sell to," he said after we told him about the experiment. In fact, it is illegal for public establishments to deny service based on someone's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Regardless, this man was not the only customer to defend our sales clerk's "right" to discriminate.

A Narrowly Defined America

A little while later, Sabina again entered the bakery, and again our sales clerk refused to serve her. This time, one man spoke up, but not on behalf of the Muslim woman. He was adamant that our sales clerk did the right thing. "She wasn't dressed right," he said. "If I was running the place I'd do the same thing." Once again, our sales clerk garnered customer support. After Sabina left the bakery seemingly frustrated and empty-handed, one man thanked the sales clerk for his discriminatory behavior. He then gave our actor a thumbs-up, not once, but twice. Jack Dovidio, a social psychologist at Yale University, said these men seemed to define "American" based on the way people look. They connected with the sales clerk and considered our female actor an outsider. "When we as Americans feel threatened from the outside, we're going to define ourselves in very rigid fashions," Dovidio said. "Either you're with me, and if you're not really one of me, then you must be somebody else who's against me."

A Very Different America

The young woman in our experiment was an actor, but many of the hateful words she heard were based on the experiences of Chicago-born Nohayia Javed, who was watching our experiment from the control van. Javed said she has continually suffered verbal abuse and said she has even been physically attacked by fellow Americans just because she is Muslim. "They always start off with, 'you're a terrorist, Osama-lover, towel-head, camel jockey' on and on," Javed said. "If I tell them I'm American, they're like, 'No you're not. Just because you were born here doesn't make you American.' And I'm like, 'What makes you American?'"

Javed is not alone. The number of anti-Islamic hate crime incidents in the United States has more than quadrupled from 28 incidents in 2000 to 156 incidents in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most recent figures....

At Human Events this morning, I discuss the rights that jihadists now appear to have guaranteed:

Congress -- with its endless squabbling with the Bush Administration over FISA, the equally endless torture law debates, and the relentless handwringing over Gitmo -- has made its position clear: Pelosi and Co. are concerned, deeply concerned, with terrorists’ civil liberties. As Jed Babbin put it last September in his article “The Terrorist Bill of Rights,” “The Democrats’ national security agenda seems designed, point by point, to destroy the means by which we have been protected since 9-11.”

But try to see it from their point of view. After all, if we become like our enemy, all is lost! So with this longstanding solicitude of the Democrats and the Left in general for the jihadists confirmed yet again this week, it’s time to step back and codify the jihadists’ hard-won gains -- the fruit of the political correctness and misbegotten attempts to win hearts and minds that have guided current policy to an alarming degree. That’s right: it’s time for a Terrorist Bill of Rights.

So with the appeasers and the willfully self-deceived running the show, exactly what rights to the jihadists have?

Cultural Collapse Update: First there were the Dutch Catholics who renamed Lent "Christian Ramadan," and now this. From the Brussels Journal:

Le Salon Beige, a French blog, received an email from a reader who took his children to visit the Basilica of Saint Denis, near Paris, where the kings of France are buried. The blog writes:

He was surprised by the brochure entitled "Tour of Discovery for the Young":

First, on page 8, he read: "Dagobert, the first king buried in Saint-Denis. [...] A contemporary of Mohammed, Dagobert was King of the Franks from 629 to 639."

Then, on page 9, [...] "In the Bible we find the story of the Angel Gabriel, the very one who would bring the Koran to Mohammed, who announces to Mary, a young girl engaged to Joseph, that she will soon give birth to a son named Jesus."

It seems that Christianity is being explained and taught only in relation to Islam. It is as if young people in France can only relate to Christianity through references to Islam.

Also, if this text is taking it for granted that the Gabriel who appeared to Mary is the same Gabriel who brought the Qur'an to Muhammad, it has essentially become a Muslim text already. Because what Gabriel told Mary in a Muslim context is radically different from what Gabriel told Mary in a Christian context.

On February 5, we were informed that Stephen Coughlin, the sole expert on Islamic law in the Pentagon, was not going to be fired after all, after it looked as if he was going to be at the behest of Hesham Islam, an aide to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. And not long after that it looked as if Islam himself would be out, under a cloud of accusations of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the forbear of Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

But now, in "The Coughlin Affair," Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. says that the bad news is all back on: Coughlin is out, Islam is in.

Imagine trying to fight a war without a clue as to what motivates your enemy or governs his strategy for your destruction. Actually, you don’t have to work too hard to get your head around such an insane idea; it is the current practice of the United States government.

This is not, of course, the way it is supposed to be. According, for example, to the Pentagon’s own guidelines as reflected in the Army’s Field Manual 34-130 dealing with Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), one of the first tasks in any conflict is to “Evaluate the threat.” This job requires military personnel to “update or create threat models: convert threat doctrine or patterns of operation to graphics (doctrinal templates); describe in words the threat’s tactics and options; [and] identify high value targets.”

Such guidance is eminently sensible and needed, not only at the tactical or battlefield level, but also at the strategic level. In fact, most national security practitioners would find it, well, unimaginable to try to do otherwise.

Yet, Stephen Coughlin, one of the very few people working for the U.S. government who has rigorously studied the current “threat doctrine” – the wellspring in the traditions, practices and Shariah Law of today’s totalitarian ideology known as Islamofascism – is, as of this writing, still being cashiered at the end of next month.

Worse yet, the individual who seems to be most responsible for shutting down Mr. Coughlin’s essential doctrinal analysis and training by driving him out of the Pentagon – one Hesham Islam – seems to be staying in a sensitive position working for the Defense Department’s Deputy Secretary, Gordon England. This notwithstanding serious questions raised about Mr. Islam’s public biography, conduct in relation to Muslim outreach, the Coughlin affair and his top secret security clearance.

Read it all.

"Osama bin London": "Bin" caught, "bin" convicted.

Loch Ness Jihadists Update. "7 convicted in Muslim terror camps in UK," by David Stringer for the Associated Press:

LONDON - Clad in mud-smeared combat fatigues, the young Muslims trained on picturesque British farmland, hurling imaginary grenades, wielding sticks as mock rifles and chopping watermelons in simulated beheadings.

A four-year inquiry, which came to a close Tuesday with guilty pleas from the last two of seven gang members, has exposed a network of alleged British terrorism training camps meant to prepare recruits for mass murder.

Security officials believe hundreds of men — including a gang that made a failed attempt to bomb London's transit network — passed through camps set up across the English countryside.

Investigators say it was a worrying discovery at the heart of Britain's homegrown terrorism: training camps once thought to be exclusive to northern Pakistan or Afghanistan are being held in sleepy rural England.

"The exposure to that ideology — that radicalism, that extremism, that 'them-and-us' mind set — starts here on our streets in Britain," a former extremist, Ed Husain, told Britain's first police counterterrorism conference in Brighton.

Husain said British officials had been too tolerant of Islamic radicalism taught in universities and mosques during the 1980s and '90s.

The two training camp ringleaders — one who claimed to be the "No. 1 al-Qaida in Europe" and the other who nicknamed himself "Osama bin London" — will be sentenced next month on charges of running the camps and inciting participants to murder. Five others were each sentenced Tuesday to at least 3 1/2 years in prison on charges of attending terrorism training.

And after those 3 1/2 years or so, then what? Deportation? Loss of citizenship? Something like control orders?

Their convictions — two Tuesday, one last year and the rest last week following a four-month trial — could be reported for the first time Tuesday after a judge lifted restrictions banning publication of details of the case.

Prosecutors told a court hearing that the men set up camps in idyllic spots across England to train in military skills.

National parks in the Lake District of northern England, the New Forest in the south and quiet corners of the southern counties of Berkshire, Kent and East Sussex were all used for training, including a former school.

"This was not innocent activity taking place on a camping weekend," said Peter Clarke, Britain's most senior conterterrorism detective.

Officials fear the case shows that British Muslims can be radicalized, trained and funded to carry out terror attacks — without ever leaving the country.

The British camps also offer a glimpse of the training centers that British-based Islamic extremists allegedly hoped to open in Oregon before authorities upended the plot.

"Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines that everyone else has to follow."

Indeed. Especially when lives and health are at risk. An update on this story. "Muslim medics in Alder Hey stand-off," by Caroline Innes for the Liverpool Echo (thanks to WriterMom):

HEALTH officials are having crisis talks with Muslim medical staff who have objected to hospital hygiene rules because of religious beliefs.

Women students at Liverpool’s Alder Hey children’s hospital have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands because it is regarded as immodest.

Minutes of a clinical academics’ meeting at Liverpool University revealed that female Muslim students at Alder Hey children’s hospital had objected to rolling up their sleeves to wear gowns.

Similar concerns have been raised at Leicester University, and Sheffield University also reported a case of a Muslim medic who refused to “scrub” as this left her forearms exposed.

Some students have said that they would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, but hygiene experts said no exceptions should be made on religious grounds.

A Royal Liverpool hospital spokesman said they had experienced issues of Muslim staff not sanitising their forearms with alcohol gel although this had now been addressed.

Dr Steve Ryan, medical director at Alder Hey said that while the “bare below the elbows” dress code is a matter of patient safety, the trust would work with Muslim students to find a solution.

He said: “We specify bare below elbows, no wrist watches, nail varnish or false nails in clinical areas."

“Good hand hygiene is one of the most important and simplest actions we can take to prevent healthcare associated infections.

“A number of female Muslim students had approached the University of Liverpool to ask if we would provide facilities for them to change their outerwear and Hijab for theatre scrubs.

“We were pleased to accommodate this request and these facilities have now been incorporated.”

Dr Charles Tannock, a Conservative MEP and former hospital consultant, said: “These students are being trained using taxpayers’ money and they have a duty of care to their patients not to put their health at risk.

“Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines everyone else has to follow.”

But the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam.

It said: “No practising Muslim woman – doctor, medical student, nurse or patient – should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow.”

New rules for doctors

NEW Department of Health guidance introduced this month stipulates all doctors must be “bare below the elbow”.

The measure is deemed necessary to stop the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C.difficile), which have claimed the lives of hundreds.

I believe the children are the future

Want to see into Europe's future? In "Europe's Muslim Radicals: The Next Generation" at World Defense Review, Abigail Esman comments on this story.

"American kill," said the five-year-old boy. "Bush I kill." And as his proud father watched, beaming, he demonstrated how to cut the evil American's bare throat.

So it was in a Birmingham, England, home – as recorded secretly by British security services a few months ago while investigating the child's British-Pakistani father, Parvis Khan, then a suspect in a plot to kill a Muslim British soldier. This week, after his plan had been thwarted by MI5, Khan was sentenced to life in prison.

And what will become of the boy?

If he is lucky, he will learn from the example made of Dear Old Dad, and steer away from Islamic extremism completely. More likely, angered by the British infidels who took his father away from him, he will follow in Parvis' footsteps and endeavor to continue the work his father started.

And he will be, indeed, a formidable soldier for jihad: if he can slit a person's throat at five years old, just imagine what he can do at 20. (After all, Mozart, whose father Leopold was neither Muslim nor Pakistani but did serve as his teacher, began composing at the age of five. I leave it to readers to do with that parallel what they will.)

Read it all.

Patrick Poole, in "What the Islamic Scholars Forgot to Tell the Pope" at Pajamas Media, has uncovered even more evidence that the much-celebrated "Common Word" document from last October was not a sincere effort at interfaith outreach, but was solely designed to fool the credulous.

Last October, the international media establishment was abuzz over a letter sent by 138 Islamic scholars representing the elite of the worldwide ulema to Pope Benedict, entitled “A Common Word between Us and You”, in response to his papal address at Regensburg in September 2006. The letter extols the common bonds between Muslims and Christians, and their common belief in the love towards neighbors. It further declares that “justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part of love of the neighbor.” Many Christian leaders have responded by welcoming this effort and affirming the Islamic scholars’ letter.

The letter was the product of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan, and its chief scholar, Sheikh Said Hijjawi, was one of the 138 signatories (#49). In fact, according to the introduction, the letter was presented by the Institute to the Islamic scholars gathered at a conference held at their facilities in September 2007.

There is one thing, however, amidst all the flowery overtures, theological discussion, and representations of religious pluralism that the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute and the 138 Islamic scholars forgot to mention: The Institute, which operates a website, AlTafsir.com, which it calls “the largest and greatest online collection of Qur’anic commentary, translation, recitation, and essential resources in the world,” includes in an “Ask the Mufti” section a number of fatwas on apostasy issued by the Institute’s chief scholar, Sheikh Hijjawi, that call for the death of Christian reverts (Christians converting to Islam and then returning to the Christian faith) and Muslim apostates. Further they state that if the Christian reverts and Muslim apostates are not killed, they should be deprived of all rights and accorded the status of non-persons.

Read it all, and follow the links at PJM.

"A Common Word Between Us and You" was, you may recall, received with great enthusiasm by the mainstream media at the time of its release. Noting the Muslim scholars’ declaration that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians,” the Telegraph‘s headline was typical of the coverage: “Muslim scholars’ olive branch to Christians.” Reuters burbled about an “Unprecedented Muslim call for peace with Christians.” But was it really?

Rheil Ghraibeh, a spokesman for Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, demanded an apology from Denmark. ‘Holocaust denial is targeted by laws in Europe. Why can’t we have laws that protect all religions and prophets?’ he asked." -- from this article

But the "Holocaust" (perhaps "Nazi murder of European Jews," a formulation less abstract and less easily alluded to in pro-forma fashion) is an event in history. The denial of it is participated in only by the most sinister, those who show an obvious lack of sympathy for the Jewish victims (impliedly "exaggerators") and plenty of sympathy for the perpetrators (impliedly wrongly accused). Holocaust-deniers are simply lying about history.

But cartoons about this or that figure in this or that system of belief (in this case exhibiting some of the features of what we are accustomed to call a "religion") do not deny history. Isn't it true that in the Qur'an Believers are told to "strike terror" into the hearts of Unbelievers? Isn't the Qur'an full of Jihad-verses, about using violence to subdue -- to kill -- non-Muslims? Do those who have engaged in what we have no trouble defining as "terrorism" merely engaged in combat, or qitaal, as mentioned 27 times in the Qur'an -- that is, directly participating in Jihad through violence rather than through other means? If someone in the West (say, a Danish cartoonist or ten) wishes to express what an Infidel thinks of this, is he not entitled to?

An update on this story. "Pakistan lifts curbs on YouTube," from the Associated Press:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's telecoms regulator said Tuesday it has lifted restrictions on the YouTube Web site that led to the knocking out of access to the popular video-sharing site in many other countries for a few hours over the weekend.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered 70 domestic Internet service providers to restore access to the site after removal of what government officials had deemed a "blasphemous" video clip.

Pakistan ordered YouTube blocked on Friday over a clip featuring a Dutch lawmaker who has said he plans to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence. As a result, most of the world's Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours on Sunday.

An Internet expert said Sunday's problems came after a Pakistani telecommunications company complied with the block by directing requests for YouTube videos to a "black hole." So instead of serving up videos of skateboarding dogs, it sent the traffic into oblivion.

The problem was that the company also accidentally identified itself to Internet computers as the world's fastest route to YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc. That led requests from across the Internet to the black hole.

Accidentally? Really? The world may never know.

UPDATE: The AP article above says in the second paragraph that YouTube removed something the Pakistanis didn't like. However, this Fitna promo can still be found here.

We sure do.

From a special preview in Commentary of Andrew C. McCarthy's forthcoming book, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad, about the jihadist cell that bombed the World Trade Center 15 years ago today and related matters:

Would a successful interdiction of Kahane’s murderer, or swift and thorough investigation of Abdel Rahman’s circle in its aftermath, have prevented the monstrous deeds of subsequent years? That is of course unknowable. But an aggressive effort by United States authorities would have indicated a seriousness of purpose toward the threat of Islamic terrorism that itself might have changed the story of our times for the better. We still live, and will continue to live, with the consequences of our own blindness.

Read it all.

"Costa Rica hoped to encourage peace talks on Feb. 5 when it recognized a Palestinian state - a key demand on the part of the Palestinians."

Sure. Just give them everything they want and maybe there will be peace. To recognize a "state" that has not renounced territorial claims on the rest of Israel, and cannot or simply will not control its militias or those of other groups is to start down a slippery slope, with no assurance, and no reasonable expectation given the track record, of a lasting peace. And while one Central American country's recognition may not amount to much by itself, it does set an undesirable precedent.

From the Associated Press:

Israel has postponed a planned meeting with Costa Rican officials over the Central American nation's decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

The meeting between President Oscar Arias and an Israeli diplomat, scheduled for Wednesday, "was postponed, but we are looking to reschedule," Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel had summoned the Costa Rican charge d'affaires and instructed its ambassador to convey a message to San Jose.

"We would like to express our disappointment over this regretful decision of the government of Costa Rica to establish full diplomatic relations with the 'state of Palestine,' " Mekel said. "This act of Costa Rica totally contradicts the traditional friendship that characterized its relations with Israel since its establishment."

Stagno has said Costa Rica hoped to encourage peace talks on Feb. 5 when it recognized a Palestinian state - a key demand on the part of the Palestinians.

"We thought it was necessary to send a message to both sides about the need to sit down and negotiate on the key issues in the conflict," he said then.

In August 2006, Arias' administration announced that Costa Rica would move its embassy to Tel Aviv from the hotly disputed city of Jerusalem.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, but most nations don't formally recognize that claim. Post-1982 Costa Rica and El Salvador had been the only two countries with embassies there until announcing in the same month that they would relocate.

I'll hold the sign, you watch for "Christions."

Motoons Rage, stoked by the Muslim Brotherhood, in Modern, Moderate Jordan. "Jordanians burn Danish flags to protest cartoon," from Agence France-Presse:

AMMAN - Jordanian demonstrators on Monday torched Danish flags outside the Copenhagen embassy to protest the reprinting of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in Denmark’s newspapers.

Carrying national flags and banners of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country’s main political party, around 300 protesters demanded the expulsion of Denmark’s ambassador as well as a boycott of Danish products.

‘There should be no Danish embassy on Jordanian territory,’ they shouted during a one-hour sit-in, calling on Muslim and Arab leaders to ‘defend Islam and revenge for blaspheming the Prophet.’

‘We came today to send a clear message to the entire world that we reject the repeated targeting of our prophet and religion,’ IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Rsheid told AFP.

Rheil Ghraibeh, a spokesman for Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, demanded an apology from Denmark.

‘Holocaust denial is targeted by laws in Europe. Why can’t we have laws that protect all religions and prophets?’ he asked.

One question for Ghraibeh: How exactly do cartoons harm religions and long-deceased prophets?

That's nice. But two missing links render such condemnations of "terrorism" hollow: One is the matter of armed jihadist activity: The question of when and whether it is legitimate to use violence to further Islamic causes is left untouched. The other is the definition of innocents. We're expected to supply our own cultural definition of innocents and non-combatants, and assume that their definition does not differ.

"Terrorism is un-Islamic: Dar-ul-Uloom," from IBN:

New Delhi/Deoband: Hundreds of Islamic scholars gathered at the country's top Islamic seminary on Monday and passed an edict declaring all acts of terrorism as ''un-Islamic''.

"Rabta Madaris Islamiah Arabia (Islamic Madarasas Association) condemns all kinds of violence and terrorism in the strongest possible terms," said the edict passed at a conclave organised by the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh.

''Islam has considered mischief, rioting and murder among the severest sins and crimes,'' said the declaration by Darul Uloom, which has often been accused of promoting obscurantism and intolerance.

The declaration asked Islamic scholars not to be influenced by anti-Islamic or anti-national forces. ''We don't have any link or association with terrorism, terrorists, whatsoever. We reject terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Terrorism completely negates the teachings of Islam, which is the faith of love and peace,'' Maulana Marghoob-ur Rahman, chief rector of Darul Uloom, told UNI.

Reciting verses from the Quran, Maulana Rahman said Islam preaches equality and compassion among all human beings. "Madarasas, which are the real flag bearers of the Islamic teachings, hereby declare without mincing words that they don't have any truck with terrorism.''

The declaration accused the government of being ''partial'' against madarasas while investigating terrorism cases. Anti-terror probes were preceded ''by a malicious campaign against these seminaries unleashed by communal forces''.

''Madarasas spread in every nook and cranny of the country teach humanity, peace, reconciliation and love,'' said Maulana Rahman. He requested the custodians of madarasas to usher in more transparency in their financial dealings and ensure a pure Islamic environment in their schools.

''Any terrorist activity which targets innocent people directly, contradicts Islam's concept of peace,'' said Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, vice-rector of Darul Uloom.

Inherent in that statement is a challenge to prosecutors to examine the Qur'an, ahadith and Sira themselves and confront the passages that call for open-ended warfare to effect the conversion, subjugation, or death of unbelievers. It would be great if such an examination of Islamic texts and teachings were actually to take place, but Benbrika surely knows that officials are much more likely to be confounded by the politically correct article of faith that Islam is peaceful (or at least, that all religions are equally prone to violence), and the resulting inability to move beyond apologists' insistence that armed jihad and the imperative to establish sharia law only exist in the minds of misunderstanders and Islamophobes.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika Update. "Terror suspect admits to being evasive," from AAP:

The leader of an alleged Melbourne terror cell admitted to his supporters he had been "evasive" when asked for his views on jihad during a television interview, the Victorian Supreme Court has heard.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, a self-taught religious instructor, told an ABC television interviewer he did not encourage followers to take part in so-called holy wars (jihads) overseas or in Australia.

He said he merely passed on the teachings of the Koran.

"When I teach, I teach what Allah and his prophets said," Benbrika told the interviewer.

"I'm not telling people to go .... the student understands.

"I tell him what Allah said and he can then decide."

Prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, said the statements Benbrika made in the interview were at odds with other evidence already presented to the jury.

"Benbrika is being as evasive and shifty as he can possibly be," Mr Maidment told the jury.

The interviewer also asked Benbrika if he had ever planned to carry out an attack in Australia.

Benbrika replied that it was against his religion to kill innocent people.

"I would have done it a long time ago," Benbrika said.

But Mr Maidment pointed out that in secretly-recorded conversations already in evidence, Benbrika told his followers in Melbourne that killing innocent Australians was acceptable.

But did he call them innocent himself? That's an important distinction for prosecutors to grasp.

"He is completely deceptive," Mr Maidment said.

After the ABC interview, according to the secretly-recorded conversations between Benbrika and his followers, the cleric admitted he had been misleading.

"I was being evasive," Benbrika said on the tape.

"I told him (the interviewer) this was what Allah said, this is what the Prophet said."

Benbrika and his 11 co-accused in Australia's largest terrorism trial have pleaded not guilty to charges including being members of a terrorist organisation.

The trial before Justice Bernard Bongiorno is continuing.

Somalia Jihad Update. "Somali town overrun by Islamists," from the BBC:

Somalia, 02/25 - Somali Islamists seized control of a southern town on Sunday, killing nine government troops. The rebels, armed with rocket launchers and machine guns, voluntarily retreated after three hours, said a police officer in Dinsoor, Mohamed Ahmadey.

He said the town had been under "no-one's control" since the incident, in which eight soldiers were wounded.

For more than a year, government forces backed by Ethiopian troops have struggled to assert control in Somalia.

The capital, Mogadishu, has often been the focus of the fighting between the government forces and the Islamists they ousted from power.

But the incident on Sunday shows the Islamists are increasing their attacks outside Mogadishu, says the BBC`s Mohamed Olad Hassan in Somalia.

A spokesman for the Islamists' Shahab youth wing, Sheikh Muktar Ali Robow, told local radio that he was leading the rebel unit that seized the town.

"Our troops moved into the town to dismiss bandits under the cloak of Somalia`s honourable army. We defeated those, burned three of their military vehicles and seized two others,” he said.

“We spoke to the town's residents in public and told them that we were not in a position to harm any one and ordered them to maintain their ordinary activities, and later withdrew from the town,” he said.

Residents of the town confirmed the incident, but there has been no comment yet from any senior government official.

And when you get both obesity and terrorism, watch out

Just put down those chips, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Let's-Focus-On-The-Real-Threat Update: "Obesity more dangerous than terrorism: experts," from AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

World governments are focussing too much on fighting terrorism while obesity and other "lifestyle diseases" are killing millions more people, an international conference heard Monday.

Overcoming deadly factors such as poor diet, smoking and a lack of exercise should take top priority in the fight against a growing epidemic of chronic disease, legal and health experts said.

Global terrorism was a real threat but posed far less risk than obesity, type two diabetes and smoking-related illnesses, US law professor Lawrence Gostin said at the Oxford Health Alliance Summit here.

"Ever since September 11 we've been lurching from one crisis to the next which has really frightened the public," Gostin told AFP later.

"We live together in one community, it only makes sense for everyone to compromise slightly in order for everyone to live happily." Sure. But the ideology you are accommodating is itself uncompromising, and supremacist.

"To accommodate Muslim students, Harvard tries women-only gym hours," by Abbie Ruzicka in the Daily Free Press (thanks to Writer Mom):

Harvard University has moved to make Muslim women more comfortable in the gym by instituting women-only access times six hours a week to accommodate religious customs that make it difficult for some students to work out in the presence of men.

Men have not been allowed to enter the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center during certain times since Jan. 28, after members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women's Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women.

Harvard Islamic Society's Islamic Knowledge Committee officer Ola Aljawhary, a junior, said the women-only hours are being tested on a trial basis. The special gym hours will be analyzed over Spring Break to determine if they will continue, she said.

Aljawhary said that she does not believe that the women-only gym hours discriminate against men.

"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she said.

Though the policy was in part initiated by the school's Islamic group, Aljawhary said women-only hours are not a case of "minority rights trumping majority preference" and said women of different faiths have showed interest in the hours.

"We live together in one community, it only makes sense for everyone to compromise slightly in order for everyone to live happily," she said. "This matter is simple: Can't we just display basic decency and show tolerance and inclusion for people not a part of the mainstream majority?"

In the mainstream media's never-ending quest to ignore or downplay the jihad imperative within Islam, and to attribute the present global jihad to some other factor or factors -- any factor, as long as it's external to Islam -- few farragos have been as ridiculous (or as successful in bamboozling those aching to be bamboozled) as Dinesh D'Souza's contention that they hate us because of the immorality of Western pop culture. A hint of how successful this idea has been is here, in John Stossel's uncritical repetition of it as if it is axiomatically true.

On the surface it sounds plausible. Jihadists do rail against American immorality, and proffer Islam as a moral alternative to the out-of-control libertinism, as they see it, of Western culture. The problems with this idea, however, are many. One is that the jihadists were fighting against non-Muslims long before the advent of the Vagina Monologues and Britney Spears. Another is the coercive nature of morality in the Islamic world, which becomes all too often a recipe for hypocrisy and externality -- rendering the jihadist moral critique hollow.

Here is another example of the latter phenomenon, from Indonesia: "2.5mn illegal abortions performed annually," from DPA (thanks to all who sent this in):

JAKARTA: At least 2.5mn abortions are performed annually in Indonesia, although the practice is illegal in the predominantly Muslim country, state-run media reported yesterday.

"The figure does not yet include abortions effected with non-medical assistance," Jurnalis Uddin, a professor at the Jakarta-based YARSI University was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

Uddin claimed that research conducted at medical facilities had led to the conclusion practice of illegal abortions needs to be given serious attention by the government and society.

2.5 million abortions annually. That's more than twice the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. And Indonesia's population is 234 million, with 300 million in America.

More than twice the number of abortions annually, and they hate us for our immorality? Tell me another, Dinesh.

Of course, jihadists in Indonesia (as well as D'Souza) might say that this is all because of Western influence, and that that is precisely why they are waging jihad against the West. But I think it is just common sense to realize that a coercive external conformity such as is fostered by Islamic culture will only lead to more of this kind of thing, not less.

And so we're right back where we started: maybe they hate us for their own reasons, within their own way of looking at the world.

Our first Somali elder President

From Geeska Afrika Online (thanks to Looney Tunes):

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, right, is dressed as a Somali Elder by Sheikh Mahmed Hassan, left, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya, near the borders with Somalia and Ethiopia. The area is at the epicenter of a severe drought that has hit the Horn of Africa region, after erratic and insufficient rains during the April-June season

Now don't get all excited. Is that really all that different from this?

Jammie Wearing Fool notes that this comes from the Clinton campaign. And I stand by my assessment of the "Obama-Is-Secretly-A-Muslim" rumors -- "That's a lot of hooey":

I do, however, think that the identification that he evidently feels with the Islamic world, and they with him, will lead to disastrous concessions that could seriously imperil U.S. security.

UPDATE:

Give me Bugs any day

They suggest that the Danish cartoonists drew the cartoons to mock the Muslims' weakness, but by Allah, they'll show them. They'll kill those cartoonists for love of Muhammad. More edifying children's fare from Hamas: "Hamas Bunny Assud Urges Boycott of Danish Goods and threatens to Kill Danes over Muhammad Cartoons," from MEMRITV (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Following are excerpts from a Hamas children's show, "The Pioneers of Tomorrow", which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 22, 2008:

Child host Saraa Barhoum: Amani, you've seen the kind of attack that the West launched against the Prophet Muhammad. What do you have to say on behalf of the Prophet Muhammad?

Amani, by phone: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I say to those cowardly infidels...

Assud the Bunny: Those criminals...

Amani: Yes, those criminals... You mock our Prophet Muhammad, but look, my beloved Prophet Muhammad, how Allah responded to them: "Allah shall pay them back for their mockery, and He leaves them alone in their excess, blindly wandering on." My beloved Messenger of Allah, they mocked you with their drawings, because they do not know the mercy in your heart. My beloved Muhammad, if they had known the mercy in your heart, they would not have done this to you. Allah knows that we love you, and that we will redeem you with our souls, our blood, and our hearts.

[...]

Assud: Do you boycott Israeli and Danish products?

Amani: Yes, Assud. I do.

Assud: You've stopped eating them altogether?

Amani: I have.

Assud: That's great. Keep it up.

Saraa: All of us will definitely boycott Danish products, and even before that, we will boycott Israeli products, Amani.

Amani: With your permission, I'd like to continue.

Assud and Saraa: Go ahead.

Amani: Finally, I'd like to apologize to the Messenger of Allah. May Allah curse these infidels, who have gone astray. We the soldiers of the pioneers of tomorrow, apologize to you, beloved Messenger of Allah. Denmark has spoken heresy, but you are a source of pride and mercy for Islam and the Muslims.

Assud: The [American] cowboys have spoken heresy as well.

[...]

Amani: Our brothers, the Americans, have affronted the Prophet Muhammad...

Assud: They are not our brothers, they are criminals.

Amani: What?

Assud: They are infidels, not our brothers.

Amani: They are enemies of Allah, and they have affronted the Prophet Muhammad.

[...]

Saraa: How did these Danes have the audacity to affront the Messenger of Allah? Do you have an answer to that, Assud?

Assud: No, I don't. Maybe because the Arabs and Muslims keep silent, [the Danes] humiliated them and did these things to them.

Saraa: That's one reason, but there is an even more important reason, Assud.

Assud: I have no idea.

Saraa: It's because the West has seen that we've moved away from the religion of Allah, and from the Sunna of our Prophet Muhammad. They have also seen that we have forsaken the religion of Allah, and therefore, they could affront the Prophet, because... We have done nothing to redeem the Prophet Muhammad. But I say to them: You haven't seen anything yet. Allah willing, the soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow will redeem the Prophet Muhammad with all that they possess, and even with their blood, Assud. They will not allow them to do this again.

Assud: If they do it again, Saraa, we will kill them, right?

Saraa: Allah willing.

Assud: I will bite them and eat them up.

Saraa: Yes.

[...]

Assud, we are not terrorists. All we want is to get our beloved homeland, Palestine, back. We want all of Palestine to be ours. We are not terrorists...

Assud: Because it was ours to begin with, right?

Saraa: Right. They say we are terrorists merely because we want this, but of course, we're not terrorists...

Assud: They are the terrorists.

Saraa: Yes, Assud. Allah willing, we will regain the cities under Zionist occupation, such as Jaffe, Haifa, Acre, Ashdod, the village of Hoj, and all the Palestinian cities.

Assud: Saraa, do you know what I'm hoping for? I want us to take Jaffe, Acre, Haifa, and all of Palestine, Allah willing, and then we'll go to Iraq. All the borders will be opened. Between Egypt and us, there will be no barriers, and the same goes for Jordan and Saudi Arabia. We'll come and go by car. I hope this comes true. Do you think this will come true?

Saraa: Allah willing, this will come true soon.

Assud: Allah willing, when I am martyred, a tiger will take my place... Allah willing, I will be the one to fix things, and there won't be any tiger. The "Pioneers of Tomorrow" and I will make this dream come true.

[...]

Who will host this show if you are martyred? Will 100,000 Saraas take your place?

Saraa: Allah willing, Assud.

Assud: We'll take them from among the Pioneers of Tomorrow, Allah willing.

Saraa: Allah willing, there are thousands of soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow.

Assud: Martyrdom for the sake of Allah is what we hope for, right?

Saraa: Right, Assud.

[...]

Saraa: What do you have to say to the cartoonist who started all this, and affronted the Prophet by drawing him?

Assud: He's a criminal...

Saraa: Yes, a criminal.

Tasnim, by phone: I say to him, and to all of them, that no matter how much they try to hide him, we will manage to kill him, to assassinate him.

Assud: Allah willing.

Saraa: I pray that Allah makes the earth swallow him up, so that he serves as a lesson to others like him, Tasnim.

[...]

Assud, it appears that our show is coming to an end. What do you have to say to this criminal, the cartoonist who affronted the Prophet by drawing him?

Assud: I say to him what you already said: You criminal, you lowlife, you scum of the earth – right, Saraa? Allah willing, the day will come when you will regret what you did.

Muhammad’s famous Night Journey (Isra and Miraj) is the basis of the Islamic claim to Jerusalem as an Islamic holy city. The only thing the Qur’an has to say about it is this the first verse of sura 17, which says that Allah took Muhammad from “the Sacred Mosque” in Mecca “to the farthest [al-aqsa] Mosque.” There was no mosque in Jerusalem at this time, so the “farthest” mosque probably wasn’t really the one that now bears that name in Jerusalem, but Islamic tradition is firm that this mosque is in Jerusalem.

Muhammad’s vision of this journey was as dramatic as his initial encounter with Gabriel. According to Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad described the vision to one of the Muslims as beginning “while I was lying in Al-Hatim or Al-Hijr,” that is, an area in Mecca opposite the Ka’bah, identified by Islamic tradition as the burial place of Hagar and Ishmael, when “Gabriel came and stirred me with his foot.” Soon after that “someone came to me and cut my body open from here to here” – and he gestured from his throat to his pubic area. The one who had come to him, Muhammad continued, “then took out my heart. Then a golden tray full of Belief was brought to me and my heart was washed and was filled (with Belief) and then returned to its original place. Then a white animal which was smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey was brought to me.” This was the Buraq, which Muhammad further described as “an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof a distance equal to the range of vision.” It was, he said, “half mule, half donkey, with wings on its sides with which it propelled its feet.”

For over a year now I have been filming regular (or semiregular, when things really got busy) videoblogs for Hot Air, at the kind invitation of Michelle Malkin. You can find most or all of them here; I think there are 52 of them in all.

Hot Air also runs my weekly Blogging the Qur'an series. I am immensely grateful to Michelle for her support of my work at a time when most media figures, both liberal and conservative, shy away from examining and confronting the ideology of our enemies, and prefer to purvey comforting fantasies and half-truths.

The Qur'an Blog will continue, but the video series is probably over with the departure of Bryan Preston from Hot Air -- so I thought this would be a good time to let you know that without Bryan it wouldn't have been possible in the first place, and it was he, and certainly not I, who was responsible for any quality that the videos may have had. It was Bryan who set up the studio and worked over the video and jumble of pictures I sent him into a coherent whole. (And sometimes he would find much better images on his own.) I am very grateful for his kindness and help in so many ways, and wish him great success in his new gig with Laura Ingraham.

I say the series is probably over because Michelle has asked for anyone with video editing skills (they're looking especially for someone with chroma key experience) who may be interested in helping me keep turning out the vids to contact them at tips@hotair.com. And if any of you care and would like to see the videos continue, please let us know. If someone does emerge, I will be happy to retrieve my nifty red diamonds tie (the one here) from its sealed, air-cooled vault (with walls six feet thick, of course) and tilt at some more windmills. Otherwise, it's keyboard-only tilting from here on out, and once again, mille grazie, Bryan, shukran jazeelan!

Benbrika said they should be like Amrozi: unrepentant. Australian Jihad Plot Update: "Plan to 'blast' buildings," by Reko Rennie in The Age (thanks to JE):

The alleged leader of a terrorist organisation said he would "blast" buildings, a prosecutor told a Victorian court.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, told the jury in the Supreme Court trial of 12 men accused of being members of a terrorist group that Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 47, of Dallas, was recorded discussing an alleged terrorist attack.

"It's not something small," Benbrika allegedly said in a conversation intercepted by authorities.

"We will damage buildings, blast them.

"It has to be proper."

In another recorded conversation, Benbrika and one of his co-accused, Aimen Joud, 22, of Hoppers Crossing, discussed convicted Bali bomber Amrozi Nurhasyim.

Mr Maidment said Benbrika had told Joud to do what Amrozi did when he was caught by police.

'Do like Amrozi'

"Do like Amrozi," Benbrika allegedly said.

"Tell the judges off then," Joud is alleged to have replied.

"He said, 'If you kill me ... there will be others to come after me'," Benbrika allegedly said.

Benbrika and Joud — along with Fadal Sayadi, 27, of Coburg, Ahmed Raad, 24, of Fawkner, Abdullah Merhi, 22, of Fawkner, Amer Haddara, 27, of Yarraville, Shane Kent, 30, of Meadow Heights, Majed Raad, 23, of Coburg, Hany Taha, 32, of Hadfield, Shoue Hammoud, 27, of Hadfield, Bassam Raad, 25, of Brunswick and Ezzit Raad, 25, of Preston — are charged with various terrorism charges.

Sharia Alert from the Islamic Republic. "WITNESS: "Hijab problem" sparks police standoff in Tehran," by Fredrik Dahl for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Wearing a brightly colored headscarf and high-heeled boots, the woman refused to be bundled into the police van without a fight.

Protesting loudly and even trying to escape, her standoff with Iranian police cracking down on women violating the Islamic dress code lasted several minutes.

But the outcome of the drama shortly after dusk on a cold winter's day on Tehran's most famous boulevard was never in doubt.

Two female police officers in head-to-toe black chadors pushed her into the white vehicle which then drove off into the bustle of tree-lined Vali-ye Asr Avenue.

"Hijab problem," one male onlooker said, referring to the clothes women must wear in Iran to cover their hair and disguise the shape of their bodies to conform with Iran's Islamic laws.

Based in Tehran for the past year, I have often written about police detaining women who challenge the dress codes that have been more strictly enforced under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But this was the first time I saw it happening.

To judge by the passers-by who stopped in the lamplight on the snowy pavement, or the people peeping out through the windows of the neighborhood grocery store where I was buying milk, my curiosity was shared.

The dark-haired woman, who appeared to be in her 30s, argued in a high-pitched voice with a burly, bearded male police officer towering over her in his green uniform.

When his female colleague put a hand on the woman's shoulder to lead her into the van, she angrily pushed it away and shouted. Then suddenly she turned and tried to run away.

She did not get far. The two female officers grabbed her and shoved her into the police vehicle. The door was slammed shut and the van disappeared into Tehran's evening rush hour....

That Proper Interpretation of Islam which will allow for Muslims to coexist peacefully with non-Muslims as equals on an indefinite basis, without implementing any endeavor to impose Sharia, continues to be the great unicorn in which everyone believes but no one has actually seen.

It would be great for the Pakistani authorities to reform the madrassas. But what will be taught in the reformed madrassas? How will the reformed madrassas counter the jihadist claim to represent the pure, true teachings of Islam? If such a counter to that claim is readily available, why do the condemnations of terrorism by American Muslim advocacy groups continue to be so vague and hollow?

Everyone believes in this Proper Interpretation of Islam that is peaceful and tolerant -- why then is it so hard for Muslims actually to point to it and explain its contents in contradistinction to the Islamic arguments of the jihadists?

Perhaps in reply someone will trot out the soothing theories of some Western academic, the latest from Akbar Ahmed or Khaled Abou El Fadl or Reza Aslan or the moderate du jour. These are, however, in the final analysis, just that: theories. Where is the mainstream Islamic theological construct that abjures Islamic supremacism? The peaceful Muslims of the world, who exist in huge numbers, are the products of cultural and political factors, not of theological reform of Islam's jihad doctrines. Consequently the exponents of such doctrines can always portray themselves as the exponents of the full, and true, and pure practice of Islam. And they do.

By Hina Farooq and Adnan Lodhi in the Daily Times (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

LAHORE: Students from various educational institutions have concluded that misinterpretation of Islam is one of the major root causes of terrorism in Pakistan, which, according to them, has become a label for the country.

Talking to Daily Times, they said terrorism and extremism were being attributed to Pakistan across the world.

The students said that misinterpretation of Islam, poverty and unemployment had been the causes of terrorism in the country. Moreover, most of the students held external forces responsible for it, adding that violence had been nurtured during the Ziaul Haq regime. They said the madrassas (seminaries) that groomed students in the name of jihad (holy war) and ‘promoted’ extremism were also responsible for cultivating this scenario.

Memona Yousaf of the Lahore College for Women University said Pakistan’s image had been adversely affected by terrorism, which had given an open invitation to the United States to enter the country in the name of the fight against extremists. “The government is not taking positive steps to control the situation. The current strategies are leading us towards a civil war,” she said. “The government should control inflation, create internal peace boundaries, restore the judiciary, and maintain law and order in the country.”

Sanniya Khan of the Defence Degree College suggested that there were two schools of thought in the country; one was supporting liberalism and supporting the war against terrorism, and the other was promoting extremism, urging people to die in the name of jihad and fight for the spread of Islam. “The government is taking action to some extent, but only to show the western media that it is trying to resolve the issue,” she said. “ The government should facilitate and bring reforms in madrassas instead of attacking them, call back the Army from Waziristan and Swat, and negotiate with the militants in order to protect the lives of other Pakistanis.”

"If you disagree, that must be met by counter-arguments, not by trying to silence people." I never have cared for tattoos, but there's a statement that I am tempted to go out and have emblazoned on my forehead.

An update on the UK Bishop who dared to note that some areas of Britain have turned into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims: "Bishop of Rochester reasserts 'no-go' claim," by Jonathan Wynne-Jones for the Telegraph (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who received death threats for airing his views on Islamic issues, has vowed that he will continue to speak out.

His claim that Islamic extremism has turned some parts of Britain into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims led to fierce rows between political and religious leaders over the impact of multiculturalism on this country. [...]

The bishops' views in The Sunday Telegraph sparked a storm of criticism and raised questions over the role of the Church in society but, most seriously for Dr Nazir-Ali, led to threats that he and his family would be harmed.

Yet, in his first interview since the sinister calls were made to his home, the Bishop of Rochester remains steadfastly defiant. He will not be silenced. "I believe people should not be prevented from speaking out," he says. "The issue had to be raised. There are times when Christian leaders have to speak out."

He arrived in Britain in the 1980s and seems to have taken up the mantle for defending the country's values he fears are being threatened by a loss of its Christian heritage.

Dressed casually in a roll-neck jumper and sports jacket, he seems relaxed now as he walks around his study in Bishopscourt, but it has clearly been a stressful time.

Threats were made warning that he would not "live long" and would be "sorted out" if he continued to criticise Islam.

"If you disagree, that must be met by counter-arguments, not by trying to silence people. It was a threat not just to me, but to my family. I took it seriously, so did the police. It gave me sleepless nights."

However, it's not the first time that his life has been endangered.

Shortly after being made a bishop in Pakistan - at 35 he was the youngest in the Anglican Church - he was forced to flee to Britain to seek refuge from Muslims who wanted to kill him.

He says that he never expected to suffer the same treatment in Britain and expresses concerns over recent social developments.

"The real danger to Britain today is the spiritual and moral vacuum that has occurred for the last 40 or 50 years. When you have such a vacuum something will fill it.

"If people are not given a fresh way of understanding what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a Christian-based society then something else may well take the place of all that we're used to and that could be Islam."

Indeed. Read it all.

More stealthy advancement of Sharia under the guise of religious rights.

"Muslims want unis to fit prayer time," by Richard Kerbaj and Milanda Rout for The Australian (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

MUSLIM university students want lectures to be rescheduled to fit in with prayer timetables and separate male and female eating and recreational areas established on Australian campuses.

International Muslim students, predominantly from Saudi Arabia, have asked universities in Melbourne to change class times so they can attend congregational prayers. They also want a female-only area for Muslim students to eat and relax.

But at least one institution has rejected their demands, arguing that the university is secular and it does not want to set a precedent for requests granted in the name of religious beliefs....

Good for them.

Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update. "Bombers, gunmen attack Shiite pilgrimage in Iraq," from CNN:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 Shiite pilgrims and wounded 60 others Sunday as the pilgrims made their way to Karbala to commemorate one of the holiest days of the Shiite calendar, the Interior Ministry said.

Women and children were among the casualties, the official said. Most of those killed or wounded were pilgrims.

It marked the second deadly attack on pilgrims Sunday, the official said.

The bomber detonated an explosive vest in Iskandariya about 3 p.m. while the pilgrims were en route to Karbala for al-Arbaeen, the official said. The holiday falls on Wednesday.

Earlier Sunday, militants armed with guns and grenades attacked a group of pilgrims in southern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding more than 30 others, officials said.

The wounded included two police officers, the ministry said.

Iraqi officials had expected problems for pilgrims and issued a ban on carts in Baghdad on Friday.

A Defense Ministry official said the ban was ordered after a horse-drawn carriage blew up near a restaurant in the Karrada district, killing three civilians and wounding six others.

There was no indication when the ban would be lifted.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims amass in Karbala for al-Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Ahmadinejad warns the West about its insolence. "U.S., allies should 'apologize' for sanctions on Iran: Ahmadinejad," from CBC News (thanks to Hot Air):

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the U.S. and its allies Saturday to "apologize" to Iran for accusing it of seeking nuclear weapons, and said no amount of sanctions would deter his country from pursuing its uranium enrichment program.

"If they want to continue with that path of sanctions, we will not be harmed," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying Saturday during a television address. "They can issue resolutions for 100 years."

It comes a day after a report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency found Iran has increased transparency in its atomic program, but still has not shown enough evidence to demonstrate its goals are peaceful.

But Ahmadinejad said the report vindicated Iran and warned that his country would take unspecified "reciprocal measures" against any country that imposed additional sanctions against it.

The best way for the U.S. and its allies to "compensate for their mistakes" is to "apologize and pay compensation," he added....

Back off or else. "Pakistan Taliban warn new government to keep clear," by Kamran Haider for Reuters:

ISLAMABAD, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Pakistan militants linked to al-Qaeda warned any incoming civilian government on Sunday that they would strike even more viciously if President Pervez Musharraf's war on terror was continued in tribal areas.

Following last week's inconclusive election, several political parties are in talks to form a coalition big enough for a ruling majority in the National Assembly. How they deal with the militants will be one of their most pressing challenges.

Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that any new operation against militants in tribal areas would lead to violence. "Whoever makes the government, we want to make it clear to them we don't want fighting. We want peace, but if they impose war on us, we will not spare them," he said.

"We don't want political parties to repeat the mistake which Musharraf committed and follow a path dictated by the U.S."

I am pleased to announce that my weekly Jihad Watch Blogging the Qur'an series is now being translated into Italian by Professor Paolo "Buraq" Mantellini. You can find the segments on the first three suras here, and more are coming. Molto grazie, Buraq!

You can also find it in German here, and in Czech here.

Oh, and it's also in English.

UPDATE: I was just informed that Blogging the Qur'an is also available in Danish.

Roger Kimball at Pajamas Media makes a modest proposal for resisting the spread of Sharia in Britain.

[...] That’s the new mantra, you know: “for fear of offending Muslims.” We don’t give away piggy banks (to say nothing of other “pig related items”) “for fear of offending Muslims.” We don’t draw cartoons of Mohammad “for fear of offending Muslims.” We mustn’t publish articles pointing out the demographic disparity between the Muslims of Canada and Europe and other parts of the population “for fear of offending Muslims.” We mustn’t even publish books saying critical things about “Saudis and terrorists” “for fear of offending Muslims.”

It’s all part of the campaign of soft jihad. Traditional jihad is waged with scimitars and their contemporary equivalents, e.g., stolen Boeing 767s, which make handy instruments of mass homicide. Soft jihad is a quieter affair: it uses and abuses the language and the principles of democratic liberalism not to secure the institutions and attitudes that make freedom possible but, on the contrary, to undermine that freedom and pave the way for self-righteous, theocratic intolerance. Soft jihad is patient. It can add and multiply as well as Mark Steyn can (and here). It, too, sees the demographic writing on the wall and is content to wait a few years to occupy the West’s real estate—it’s so much easier, when you come right down to it, than blowing the stuff up and then finding yourself with a massive clean-up and rebuilding bill. Just sit tight and watch the infidels tie themselves into knots making excuses for you while, elsewhere in their lives, they embrace barrenness as an “environmentally friendly” alternative to Genesis 1:28.

Speaking as a right-wing, knuckle-dragging Eurocentric infidel, however, I feel it incumbent on me to point out that where traditional jihad is probably best dealt with by talented chaps like General Petraeus, soft jihad might often be more effectively countered by quieter crusades. Clever readers will doubtless have many fertile ideas to contribute to the fulfillment of what I hope will become the West’s new Quiet Crusade to make the World Safe for Christendom (remember that?). Here’s a modest proposal to get the ball rolling. It was suggested to me by another story from the London Times today. Under a headline shouting “Muslims shocked to learn that crisps contain alcohol” is the illuminating news that that Walkers snacks “contain traces of alcohol” and that eating them is therefore prohibited by Islam.

Shuja Shafi, who chairs the food standards committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he intended to investigate. “Certainly we would find it very offensive to have eaten food with alcohol.”

Is that so? Well, here’s my modest proposal, which I offer to British Food and Beverage industry free and for nothing: start putting a bit of alcohol in everything edible or potable. There are, of course, other reasons for wishing to increase one’s usual consumption of alcohol, but here is a patriotic imperative to guide you: what if you went into Harrod’s food hall or your local grocery shop and every item had at least some trace amount of alcohol (or, alternatively, pork residue)? I understand that there might be certain logistical difficulties, but if the EU can effectively police the system of mensuration used in its jurisdiction, if it can prohibit certain types of bananas because they deviate too markedly from the perpendicular, then surely they can employ the vast apparatus of their bureaucracy to assure that a drop of alcohol or a dollop of bacon fat is added to any food stuff sold in Britain.

It’s only a start, I realize, but from a tiny acorn the might oak does grow.

How ironic that a site that has richly earned the moniker DhimmiTube still can't please the Pakistanis.

"Pakistan blocks YouTube for 'blasphemous' content: officials," from AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan has ordered all Internet service providers to block the YouTube website for containing "blasphemous" content and material considered offensive to Islam, officials said Sunday.

An inter-ministerial committee has decided to block YouTube because it contained "blasphemous content, videos and documents," a government official told AFP.

"The site will remain blocked till further orders," he said.

Other officials said the site had been blocked because it contained controversial sketches of the Prophet Mohammed which were republished by Danish newspapers earlier this month.

One major service provider, Micronet, said in an email to subscribers that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority had directed all ISPs to block access to YouTube "for containing blasphemous web content/movies."...

Worth three years in the slammer?

Sanity in Belarus, yes, but note that Reuters continues the increasingly common practice of referring to the "Prophet Muhammad," as if his prophetic status is a universally accepted truth. Imagine the outcry if they published a story referring to "the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," with a similar lack of qualifiers.

An update on this story. "Belarus court frees Mohammad cartoon publisher," by Andrei Makhovsky for Reuters (thanks to Jammie Wearing Fool):

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus's Supreme Court on Friday freed an editor jailed for reproducing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, one of three detainees whose release is seen by the West as key to improving ties with the ex-Soviet state.

Alexander Sdvizhkov, editor of the independent Zgoda (consensus) newspaper, was jailed for three years last month. He was freed after Belarus's Supreme Court reduced his sentence to three months.

"The Supreme Court backed the appeal and, based on health and humanitarian considerations, reduced the sentence to three months," said court spokeswoman Anastasia Tsimanovich. "Given the time spent in detention, he was released."

By now you have all probably seen the latest: Muslims in Britain are outraged that some potato chips contain trace amounts of alcohol that was not listed on the packaging.

"Muslims shocked to learn that crisps contain alcohol," by Valerie Elliott for the Times (thanks to Jammie Wearing Fool):

Senior Muslim figures have said that they are shocked that a number of Walkers snacks contain traces of alcohol and eating them is therefore against their religion.

A tiny amount of alcohol is used in some products as a chemical agent to extract flavour.

The use of alcohol was discovered by Besharat Rehman, who owns a halal supermarket in Bradford, and reported in the Eastern Eye. Mr Rehman said: “Our suppliers were unaware of the alcohol. Walkers must make it clear on the packaging so customers can make an informed choice.”

Shuja Shafi, who chairs the food standards committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he intended to investigate. “Certainly we would find it very offensive to have eaten food with alcohol.” [...]

However, a Walkers consumer care team representative was unapologetic. She said: “There is not enough room on the packaging to list things beyond allergy-causing ingredients that can make people ill. A minimal amount of alcohol is used to extract the flavour of some crisps.”

Snacks that are likely to be boycotted by Muslims are Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli, Doritos Chilli Heat Wave and Quavers Cheese.

I haven't put this up sooner because -- unless Potato Chip Riots break out -- this particular outrage is not unreasonable. I don't think it's an example of the cultural mau-mauing we see with increasing frequency from Muslims in Britain and the U.S., but since it is getting attention everywhere, I thought I should comment on it here. Anyone who fasts or abstains from certain foods, or avoids them for any reason, Muslim or non-Muslim, ought to be able to know what he's eating. The Muslims in this case have a legitimate grievance. What they will do in response may not be legitimate, but that doesn't change the fact that the potato chip manufacturer simply should do what it takes to list all the ingredients.

An update, and clarification, on this story. "The law of the land: Adopting Shariah is no way to bridge cultures," from the Dallas Morning News (thanks to Joe):

...First, let's debunk the myth: Shariah is not now and should never be a part of the Texas legal code. We live in a secular society where the laws are designed specifically not to be influenced by religion or reflect a religious preference.

The question arose when an Arlington Muslim couple, Rola and Jamal Qaddura, filed for divorce in 1999. After prolonged court battles, they agreed to arbitration by a private Richardson-based group, the Texas Islamic Court. The arbitration agreement wound up in the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, which upheld its validity in 2005.

Throughout the case, our courts never relinquished judicial control. And that's how it must always be. In the eyes of the law, the Texas Islamic Court has zero judicial authority and was brought in only as a private civil arbiter, a common practice.

The British and U.S. secular legal systems are rooted in the Magna Carta. The law of our land should never adapt to the ebb and flow of migrants from countries where other legal codes prevail – particularly not a religious code like Shariah, which authorizes harsh treatment of women and severing the hands of thieves....

It isn't as if we haven't seen this coming. For years now I have pointed out the shallowness and flimsiness of condemnations of terror by American Islamic groups, and noted that American mosques and schools have no programs to teach against the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism, as one might have expected them to institute after 9/11 if they really stood where they claimed they stood.

And in 1999, the Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani testified before a State Department open forum that eighty percent of American mosques had extremist leadership. And then there was the January 2005 report from the Center for Religious Freedom, "Saudi publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques" (pdf here).

"Study: 3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism," from WorldNetDaily (thanks to TCS):

An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned.

The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.

"So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said.

Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.

Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.

The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:

* Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.

* Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim's duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called "martyrs" are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S.

* Solicitation of financial support for jihad.

* Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.

Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.

Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques indentified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism.

It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called "jihad qital," which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.

Dar al-Hijrah's ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law.

Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.

Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques....

Which is an ongoing scandal.

"The newspaper report said the men who were arrested Thursday could be released if they could prove they did not flirt with any women. Otherwise, they will be transferred to court and stand trial."

Sharia Alert. "Saudi Men Busted for Flirting With Women in Public," from the Associated Press:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested after allegedly flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported.

The country's religious police arrested the men Thursday night, alleging behavior that included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing, according to the Okaz newspaper, which is deemed close to the government.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice runs the religious police, who are charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

The police — informally known as the muttawa, literally "enforcer" — don't wear uniforms. But they are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men. They also shun the black cord that sits atop the headdress worn by most Saudi men.

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear a long, enveloping black cloak called an abaya and to cover their hair with a headscarf.

The newspaper report said the men who were arrested Thursday could be released if they could prove they did not flirt with any women. Otherwise, they will be transferred to court and stand trial, the paper added.

It wasn't long ago that a Yemeni political analyst noted: "Yemen is like a bus station — we stop some terrorists, and we send others on to fight elsewhere ... We appease our partners in the West, but we are not really helping."

Friend and Ally Update. "American Among FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Appears in Yemen Court, Walks Free," from the Associated Press:

SAN`A, Yemen — A Yemeni-American, one of the FBI's 26 "most wanted" for terrorism, appeared at a session of his trial in a Yemeni court Saturday with bodyguards and then walked free, apparently not subject to any form of incarceration, eyewitnesses said.

The 41-year-old Jaber Elbaneh attended a session of the trial for him and 22 other Al Qaeda members charged for a series attacks on oil facilities, an eyewitness said speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Footage of the suspect entering and leaving the court unimpeded also appeared on the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite channel, al-Arabiya.

"He entered the courtroom surrounded by four bodyguards, introduced himself to the judge then he left," the eyewitness said about Elbaneh who is believed to be living with his family in the province of al-Dalai, some 220 kilometers south of San'a, despite being on trial.

According to the FBI Web site, the State Department is offering up to US$5 million for information leading to his arrest.

Elbaneh was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in November in a lower court on charges of masterminding two attacks in the eastern Marid and Hadramawt provinces in Sept. 2006.

He and 22 other Al Qaeda prisoners broke out of their Yemeni jail in February 2006 by digging a tunnel to a nearby mosque.

He surrendered in May to Yemen authorities but was then never sent back to jail despite the ongoing trial.

Security authorities have declined to comment about Elbaneh legal situation.

In May 2003, U.S. prosecutors charged Elbaneh in absentia with conspiring with a group, known as the "Lackawanna Six" after their New York state hometown, to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

The U.S. then asked Yemen to hand over Elbaneh and while he was subsequently arrested by authorities in January 2004, he was never extradited.

Elbaneh is a former resident of Lackawanna, N.Y. He left the United States in spring 2001 as part of a larger group that traveled to Usama bin Laden's al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda has an active presence in Yemen despite government efforts to destroy the network. The group was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French oil tanker, the Limburg, that killed one person two years later.

Things like this certainly call into question the sincerity of those "government efforts to destroy the network."

Muhammad Djabir has summed it up well: "Enough is enough. They have to stop insulting Islam." That's the position of the OIC, Qaradawi, and all the rest. Will the West acquiesce and place Islam beyond insult, unlike virtually anything or anyone else? The jury is still out.

"Indonesians Protest Muhammad Drawings," from AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — Muslims protested in two Indonesian cities Saturday over drawings in Denmark portraying the Prophet Muhammad, with some calling for the artist to be put to death.

"Enough is enough. They have to stop insulting Islam," said Muhammad Djabir, one of about 1,000 protesters in the mostly Muslim country's second-largest city, Surabaya.

Others in the crowd outside the Danish consulate shouted "Death sentence for the cartoonist!" [...]

Protesters also gathered in Medan, Indonesia's third largest city.

"There is a big agenda among enemies of Islam to discredit the faith and we cannot just keep quiet," said protester Zainuddin, who goes by a single name....

Knorbert the piglet: haram

European Cultural Collapse Update. "Piggy banks are given the chop as bank tries to attract young Muslims," by David Charter in the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

Knorbert the piglet has been dropped as the mascot of Fortis Bank after it decided to stop giving piggy banks to children for fear of offending Muslims.

The decision has been viewed in the Netherlands as the ritual slaughter of a popular pig by political correctness. To some, it is the latest sign of uncertainty in Europe's most tolerant country about how far it should go to accommodate the sensitivities of minorities. It comes as the country is braced for a backlash against the plans of Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician, to release a critical film about the Koran.

Pigs are considered an unclean animal by Muslims and Jews, and Knorbert was culled after seven years as the Fortis mascot. A spokesman told the Dutch media that “Knorbert does not meet the requirements that the multicultural society imposes on us”. The bank added that there had been “a number of reactions to the pig” and that a new gift and character were being developed that would be “fun for children of any persuasion”. Children who had received a Knorbert piggy bank for opening a EuroKids account will be given a junior encyclopaedia instead....

Which star is Denmark again?

Motoons Rage Update. "Pakistani cartoon protesters burn Danish, US flags," from Agence France Presse via the Khaleej Times (hence the "pbuh"):

KARACHI - Hundreds of angry Muslim youths rallied in major cities in Pakistan on Friday and torched Danish flags to protest against the recent republication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh).

Witnesses said about 150 supporters of fundamentalist party Jamaat-i-Islami gathered outside a mosque in the port city of Karachi, flying banners demanding Pakistan sever diplomatic ties with Denmark.

“We don’t need to have diplomatic relations with a country that hurts our religious sentiments,” the banners read, as demonstrators burned Danish and US flags and chanted: “Death to the cartoonist.”

In the capital Islamabad, cries of “Say no to Denmark” rang out as about 300 students from colleges and Islamic schools crowded outside the city’s biggest mosque, witnesses said.

They burned an effigy of the Danish cartoonist amid chants of ”Crush Denmark” and “We love our Prophet.”

Up to 200 religious studies students held similar rallies in the central city of Multan.

Protest leaders vowed to continue their demonstrations.

“We are observing this protest across the country today and we would not avoid sacrificing our lives for this sacred cause,” said Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, one of the demonstrators.

To Muslims, such drawings are blasphemous since Islam prohibits any images of the prophet.

Pakistan on Tuesday summoned the Danish envoy in Islamabad to lodge a “strong protest” over republication of the cartoons in Denmark.

It is noteworthy that Egypt is monitoring this situation very closely, but we have never heard of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry monitoring, closely or otherwise, any of the acts of violence committed in the name of Islam, which have led to this film's being made in the first place. From AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt on Friday deplored what it called gratuitous attacks on Islam and said it was closely monitoring plans by a Dutch filmmaker to release an anti-Koran film.

"It is regrettable that European lawmakers and politicians use gratuitous methods to gain electoral votes by attacking the sacred values and religions of others," foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.

Dutch far-right deputy Geert Wilders has said he will be airing on television in the Netherlands in March a controversial anti-Islam film called "Fitna" (Ordeal), which accuses the Koran of inciting people to murder.

Such politicians, Zaki said in reference to Wilders, "focus their hatred on Islam" and plan to broadcast a film undermining Islamic symbols.

These acts "feed hatred against Muslims and encourage extremism and confrontation instead of opting for dialogue based on mutual respect," Zaki said.

Egypt is monitoring the situation "very closely," he added, but also noted the "comprehension" of the Dutch authorities over Cairo's concerns....

Livni says, "All indirect support for Hamas, even via discussions about opening the [border] crossings or about the humanitarian situation, only weakens those parties that are interested in reaching a [diplomatic] agreement." True. The only problem with her statement is that she likely believes, or is compelled to say publicly, that Fatah is one of those parties interested in a peaceful settlement that will allow Israel to continue to exist indefinitely. Fatah will happily sign an agreement, but that will not end the jihad against Israel even for its part.

"U.S. to announce new aid plan for West Bank, Gaza," by Barak Ravid for Haaretz (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The United States plans to announce tens of millions of dollars in new aid for the West Bank and Gaza next week to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The funds will be channeled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, which handles U.S. and other assistance for food, health, education and other areas, said U.S. officials, who declined to provide the exact figure as the official announcement will be made during a trip to the region next week.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice while both are in Japan next week. The meeting was requested by Rice. It is particularly surprising because Rice is due to come to Jerusalem for a working visit the following week....

Government officials predicted that the meeting would focus on the situation in the Gaza Strip, and said that Rice probably wanted to express her concern over the humanitarian situation there.

General William Fraser, the U.S. envoy responsible for monitoring implementation of the road map peace plan, visited Israel this week and met with officials in the Prime Minister's Office, the defense establishment and the Foreign Ministry. Fraser's job is to determine whether both sides are fulfilling their obligations under the road map's first stage, which includes evacuating illegal settlement outposts for Israel and fighting terror for the Palestinian Authority. [...]

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responded to these sentiments at two different diplomatic meetings Thursday, one with the Romanian foreign minister and one with the EU envoy for the peace process, Marc Otte.

"Europe must understand that Hamas is not an organization that is interested in setting up a Palestinian state," she told her Romanian counterpart. "It is not seeking rights for the Palestinians; it wants to deprive others of their rights."

"All indirect support for Hamas, even via discussions about opening the [border] crossings or about the humanitarian situation, only weakens those parties that are interested in reaching a [diplomatic] agreement," she said. "The Palestinian people has no future with Hamas, and Israel will continue to fight the terror that Hamas perpetrates."

At her meeting with Otte, Livni was even blunter. "Israel wants to advance the diplomatic process, but we cannot allow ourselves to close our eyes to the difficult reality of terror in Gaza," she said. "The international community's desire to see a change on the ground sometimes leads it to ignore the reality and is liable to [lead it to] push for compromises that those who live here cannot permit themselves. Europe ought to understand that it is either Hamas or the moderates."

It is divine law. "Hezbollah slams Israel vows to avenge Mughniah," from AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday vowed to avenge the death of one of his group's top militants through the destruction of Israel, which he said was destined to disappear.

"The disappearance of Israel is inevitable, it is divine law," said Nasrallah at a ceremony to mourn the death of Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniah and other militants killed in attacks blamed on Israel.

"The presence of Israel is but temporary and cannot go on in the region," Nasrallah added in comments transmitted via video link to thousands of Hezbollah supporters massed in southern Beirut. "Oh Hajj Imad, I swear by God that your blood will not have been spilled in vain."...

You gotta use your head to understand these things

Dhimmi Saudi-funded academic John Esposito has praised Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradawi as a "reformist," and here he is reforming, saying that it is wrong to calls today's Jews apes and pigs. (Actually, there is nothing reformist about this -- it is a mainstream and venerable Islamic position, as I explain in this segment of my Blogging the Qur'an series.)

It would be wrong to call them names, you see, but not wrong to murder them.

"Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, Recently Barred from the U.K., Reiterates His Position on Suicide Bombings and Declares: Jews Are Not the Offspring of Apes and Pigs," from MEMRTV (thanks to all who sent this in):

Following are excerpts from addresses by Islamic scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Al-Hiwar TV on February 15, 2008 and on Al-Jazeera TV on February 18, 2008.

Al-Hiwar TV, February 15, 2008:

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: I am known in the Islamic world as the preacher of the mainstream.

[...]

I sanctioned these operations to anybody who is forced to carry them out in defense of his homeland. In my opinion, our brothers in Palestine are forced to do so. In Iraq, they have a wide variety of weapons. They are able to use weapons against their enemies. But the weapons of the Palestinian brothers are no match for their enemies' weapons – they do not have even one percent or one permille of their weapons. That's why I sanctioned these operations for [the Palestinians], but not for [the Iraqis]. In addition, I did not approve using this kind of operation in New York and Washington, on September 11, 2001. I did not approve of these operations in the London and Madrid bombings. I sanctioned bombings and sacrifice operations for the Palestinians only – not because their enemies are Jews, but because they are occupiers, and the Palestinians cannot fight them. They kill Palestinians on a daily basis, destroy their homes, burn their fields, uproot their trees, and so on.

Al-Jazeera TV, February 18, 2008:

I denounced some contemporary religious preachers, who curse the Jews and the Christians, saying: "Allah, annihilate the Jews and the Christians." Where did this come from? There are Jews and Christians in our Muslim countries. There are Copts in Egypt, and Christians in Syria. So how can you curse them? Not only that, but they curse: "Allah, turn their children in orphans," "Allah, destroy their homes." Who sanctioned such prayers? The Koran does not call to turn children into orphans or to destroy homes. There are no such things in the prayers of the Prophet Muhammad.

I denounced some people who said that the Jews are the offspring of apes and pigs. That's not true. When God transformed some people into apes and pigs, they did not have any offspring, as is written in the Al-Muslim compilation. When God transforms people into something else, they do not have offspring. They die and are annihilated straight away. Besides, this is a curse, and Islam forbids cursing.

Some might characterize this as a generous ecumenical gesture, but in any case it is one that will never in a million years be remotely reciprocated. "Church of England donates cash to aid Muslim prayer," by Ruth Gledhill for The Times :

A diocese of the Church of England is giving an unprecedented £250,000 towards a multi-faith building in which the largest amount of worship space will be reserved for Muslims.

The Guildford diocese is one of the wealthiest in the UK. The Bishop of Guildford, the Right Rev Christopher Hill, today handed over the £250,000 cheque to Surrey University for the first multi-faith building of its kind in Britain.

The £6.5 million building will contain separate worship spaces for the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Sikh communities, along with a further shared space for Buddhists and Hindus.

All faiths will share the cafe in the basement, with a shared staircase down from the upper floors.

Converting each other will be strictly forbidden, an insider said, but it is hoped that the different faith members will form friendships, learn to respect each other and enhance each other’s understanding.

Muslim chaplain Dr Abdul Mateen Sansom, said: “As well as being a sorely needed practical solution to student needs, I believe the design and underpinning ethos of this project have potential for notable impact nationally and internationally.”

I expect it will at that.

Again. From WorldNetDaily :

WASHINGTON – Two more Iraqis with false Bulgarian passports were detained by Mexican officials in Monterrey – bringing the total to four this month.

Wisam Gorgies, a 34-year-old man, and Rana Nazar Peyoz, a 26-year-old woman, reportedly flew from Madrid and landed in Monterrey, according to reports in two Mexican newspapers today.

Following questioning, the pair admitted they intended to reach the United States. They were taken to Saltillo in the state of Coahuila, for final determination of their status.

Mexican officials said the are investigating "a network that could be made up of Mexicans operating in Greece who are selling false Bulgarian passports for $10,000 to European and Middle Eastern citizens."

Earlier this month, El Universal, a daily in Mexico City, reported two other Iraqis, Markos Ramy, a 25-year-old man, and Sollem Pate, a 20-year-old woman, presented Bulgarian passports upon arrival at the Monterrey airport after a flight from Spain.

They told customs officials they came as tourists for a couple days. But because they spoke no Bulgarian, their passports were determined to be fraudulent. The Bulgarian consulate did not acknowledge them as citizens and their hotel reservations proved to be phony.

Only after their cover story was blown did the couple admit to being Iraqis. They claimed to be fleeing the war.

Last year, dozens of Iraqis were discovered attempting to enter Monterrey with phony ID – 17 of them in a single event.

The employment of "filthy bacteria" by Iran's Ahmadinejad can be compared not only to the imagery, with murderous consequences, of the Nazis, but to the standard Arab metaphor for Israel. It is a "cancer." Now one does not merely shrink the size of a cancer,but allow it to remain. One excises it, removes it, altogether --sometimes by first shrinking it, and then removing what fails to disappear entirely, sometimes by simply cutting the whole thing out.

By their metaphors shall ye know them. And that "cancer" metaphor for Israel (like Ahmadinejad's Der-Stuermer-like "filthy bacteria") is telling. An Infidel nation-state interrupts the smooth flow of the Dar al-Islam. If Arab Muslims actually had the slightest bit of real "tolerance" in the Western sense, they would first come to understand that in the vast areas of the Middle East and North Africa, there are others besides themselves -- both non-Muslims such as the Jews now in-gathered into their historic homeland which they managed to rebuild with no natural resources and, until the last few decades, almost no aid save what co-religionists sent, but also Christians (the Copts who are the descendants of the original inhabitants of Egypt who managed to reject islamization), the Maronites in the Lebanon, the Chaldo-Assyrians, and smaller groups), and non-Arab Muslims (the Kurds, the Berbers). They have a chance to redeem themselves from the charge that Islam treats non-Muslims only as inferiors, allowed to avoid the other alternatives (death or conversion) only by submitting to the status of dhimmi, by accepting the Infidel nation-state of Israel. But in order to win this redemption they must do so not with treacherous intent, not trying merely to win its trust so as to inveigle it and its Western supporters to get it to be diminished even further in size, with no control over invasion routes, or aquifers, and then to renew the pressure until daily life in Israel becomes so intolerable, so perilous, that there will be an out-migration and a weakening within, and the Arabs can go in for the kill.

1938 Alert. By Markus Becker in Spiegel Online (thanks to DFS):

New simulations carried out by European Union experts come to an alarming conclusion: Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium to build an atomic bomb by the end of this year.

Could Iran be building an atomic bomb? When the US released a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) late last year, it seemed as though the danger of a mullah-bomb had passed. The report claimed to have information indicating that Tehran mothballed its nuclear weapons program as early as autumn 2003. The paper also said that it was "very unlikely" that Iran would have enough highly enriched uranium -- the primary ingredient in atomic bombs -- by 2009 to produce such a weapon. Rather, the NIE indicated "Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough (highly enriched uranium) for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 timeframe."

It didn't take long for experts to question the report's conclusion that Tehran was no longer interested in building the bomb. And now, a new computer simulation undertaken by European Union experts indicates that the NIE's time estimates might be dangerously inaccurate as well -- and that Iran might have enough fuel for a bomb much earlier than was previously thought.

Read it all.

"Damage their buildings with everything, damage their lives - just show them." Show them that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet, you see. Piety.

"Jihad call for maximum damage, trial told," by Katie Bice in the Herald Sun (thanks to JE):

THE alleged leader of a home-grown terror cell told two Sydney associates they should cause maximum damage in the name of jihad.

The Supreme Court heard Abdul Nacer Benbrika spoke with two men from interstate in February 2005 about a 1600-page document he had found on the internet.

The court heard he told them: "If we want to die with jihad we do maximum damage," he said.

"Damage their buildings with everything, damage their lives - just show them.

"You be careful (inaudible) trust no one."

Not surprisingly, this article doesn't let on that Islam could have anything to do with that, what with wife beating sanctioned in Qur'an 4:34, and in the sayings and example of Muhammad. He himself struck his child bride, Aisha, for following him out of the house without permission; her father, Abu Bakr, is recorded hitting her even after her marriage to Muhammad. And on the subject of leaving the home, Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveler) instructs:

The husband may forbid his wife to leave the home because of the hadith related by Bayhaqi that the Prophet ... said: "It is not permissible for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to allow someone into her husband's house if he is opposed, or to go out if he is averse" (m10.4).

If women's rights activists and would-be Muslim reformers truly wish to make a difference in combating domestic violence, they must confront passages such as these.

"Muslims speak up about domestic violence," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

SYDNEY - Women and children are beaten by their menfolk in homes across Australia. Mostly the spur to domestic violence is alcohol but sometimes cultural mores are at work that allow men to excuse their behaviour.

“They view wives and daughters as an extension of their honour and when they deviate from what they would view as accepted ... they see it as an undermining of their own status,” said Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed.

He was talking about violence in Muslim homes and commenting specifically on a call from the Muslim Women’s National Network Australia (MWNNA) to tackle those in the community who use religion to justify domestic violence.

“It’s a real problem,” MWNNA president Aziza Abdel-Halim told The Sydney Morning Herald. “There’s wife beating, there’s children beating. Some of them go to the extent of forbidding the woman to leave the home.”

Ahmed said Muslim victims of domestic violence were reluctant to go to the police. If they went to the imam of their mosque, he was likely to side with the perpetrator.

“Very rarely would you get the imam trying to punish the man,” he said. “They’ll see it more as, if not culturally appropriate, then culturally understandable.”

That is, about the jihad. Ain't it the truth.

"US Military Commanders Bemoan Lack of Concern About Terror Threat," by Julie Stahl for CNSNews.com (thanks to all who sent this in):

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - While Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are seeking to destroy the Western way of life, Americans are more concerned about the life of movie stars and going out for a hamburger than issues crucial to their freedom, several senior retired American military officers said here.

"We know far more in the United States about what Britney Spears is doing than we know about the issues," said retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Norman Saunders.

Speaking to a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the fifth annual Jerusalem Conference, Saunders said that the U.S. faces a "very serious challenge from the fanatical Muslim population that would seek to do away with the way of life of the Western World as we know it."

"We listen to our presidential candidates - [in] what is probably a very critical election for our country if not the world - talk constantly about change without any definition of what that represents. What would they change? How would they confront the threats? Are there new ideas that they would bring forward?" Saunders asked.

Good questions. Here are some more.

Jihad Watch Travelogue.

From our Agra office

What lengths will we here at JW not go to to get the truth for our readers? Braving jet lag and traveler's diarrhea (and blowing the travel budget through 2020), we can now confirm, absolutely, positively, that Islam has, in fact, from time to time, produced some really nifty buildings.

The great Taj was built by Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor, in memory of his late wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It was completed in 1648 after 200,000 man-years of labor. Koranic verses adorn the four exactly symmetric entrances and appear to remain of constant size even as they recede from the observer. The minarets tilt slightly away from the main structure so as to fall outward in the event of earthquake. Pretty clever!

It seems that Shah Jahan had actually begun construction on a second Taj exactly opposite the first on the far bank of the Jamuna river. It was to be built entirely from black marble in order to compliment the first, made entirely of white. But his son managed to throw the old man into prison before he could truly break the bank. Still, that would have been something.

Interestingly, Shah Jahan was something of a religious syncretist, who incorporated Hindu, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Christian themes into the otherwise distinctively Islamic edifice. According to our Muslim guide (I think I did detect a raised eyebrow when I produced my sign), he wanted to found a new religion based on the belief that all religions lead to God. Shocking as our readers will find it, his idea went exactly nowhere. Yet his magnificent accomplishment remains: another great achievement wrought -- as has so often been the case in the course of Islamic history -- by a heretic.

BTW, I will be on "Newshour" on the BBC Radio World Service tomorrow, Friday, February 22, to discuss my documentary, Islam: What the West Needs to Know, at 8pm GMT, 3pm EST. Apparently, there will be an interlocutor, yet to be determined, but an imam of some kind, I am told. Could prove interesting. We now have a full-length English version up at Google Video, here.

Have a look and post something supportive!

Still more genocidal sabre-rattling. "Israel faces 'certain death': Iran leader adviser," from Agence France-Presse:

TEHRAN (AFP) — The assassination of a top commander of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has hastened the "certain death" of Israel, the top military adviser to Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday.

General Yahya Rahim Safavi, in the latest of a spate of anti-Israel verbal attacks by Iran, said the murder of Imad Mughnieh in a Damascus car bombing last week had enraged thousands of young members of Hezbollah.

"With this anger, the certain death of the Zionist regime had been brought forward," he said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Safavi, who was for a decade top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, again accused Israel of carrying out the attack that killed Mughnieh but also said that "security terrorists" from the United States and "one Arab nation" had cooperated.

He did not name the Arab country.

Iran has stepped up its rhetoric against Israel in the last days after the murder of Mughnieh, which it blamed on the Jewish state. Israel has denied any involvement.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called Israel a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal".

The current head of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, Mohammad Ali Jafari, weighed in with a prediction that Hezbollah would destroy the Jewish state.

Israel said it had protested to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after Ahmadinejad's latest tirade.

"I have told the secretary general of the United Nations that these are demented remarks that are reminiscent of Nazi propaganda," ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman told Israeli public radio.

Indeed.

...you might have trouble keeping your story straight.

Here's an email I received from "james mitchell" on March 12, 2007:

i am a jew. please try to justify those verses from the bible.

There followed the usual litany of verses from the Hebrew Scriptures, trying to portray the Bible as just as violent as the Qur'an, and conveniently ignoring the fact that Jews and Christians are nowhere committing acts of violence that they are justifying them by reference to these verses, while Muslims are committing violence and justifying it by reference to the Qur'an all over the world.

Anyway, "james mitchell" kept writing to me now and again. And October 28, 2007, he wrote this:

yes the "truth" is hard to take. you constantly bash and demonize our religion. you say the reason terrorist do this is 100% because of islam. when in reality it has other factors. there are may people NON-MUSLIMS who know this. Ron paul, sagemen, pape, dennis kusinich and millions of others. every action has a reaction.

Our religion? But wait -- I thought "james" was Jewish, and here he was criticizing me for allegedly "bashing" his religion -- Islam!

And this afternoon I heard from him again:

listen i am a proud jewish man. i know that sounds absurd to you that a jewish man can stand up for muslims but i love everyone. what you say has been refuted. i can EASILY REFUTE everything you say. and zioism is not judaism. it is idiots like you who are ignorant, blind of world affairs and in a state of denial and not open to debate. people like you give jews like me a bad name. and i wrote the subject like that cause i know you would try to belittle a ignorant "subject". so i have got the measure of you. and post this up with the rest of your "hate"-mail

yours truly james mitchel ( a proud jew who is against zionism)

The subject he is referring to was "idiot you." But "james," "james," how can I get all worked up about how you've refuted me when you can't even remember if you're a Jew or a Muslim? Or is it that you keep converting from one to the other? If so, be careful none of your Muslim friends of the more fanatical variety get it into their heads that you're an apostate, or you might lose your own!

"MP to Hizb ut-Tahrir: 'Go to hell,'" from The Copenhagen Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

In an uncharacteristic move, Villy Søvndal, leader of the Socialist People's Party, responded to the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir's demonstration last Friday, by severely criticising them in his blog.

He stated in his blog that the group was to 'seek other pastures' and that their 'undertakings had no perspective, nor future, in Denmark'.

In an interview with Jyllands-Posten newspaper, he continued to lash out at the extremist group whose demonstration had delivered a direct threat towards Danish society, telling them to 'go to hell'.

'If they want to live in a religious dictatorship so badly, they can go to those countries in the Middle East where such dictatorships exist,' he said.

They won't, however. They will keep on trying to set one up in Denmark. Will Søvndal join the Resistance?

Come and get me

At least in Eurabia. Bruce Bawer, author of the essential While Europe Slept, reports (see February 13):

It is reported today that Imbera, a Norwegian firm that hosts the website of Human Rights Service, removed three items from that site without notice because two of them were illustrated with Kurt Westergaard's famous Muhammed cartoon from Jyllands-Posten and one was illustrated with a Muhammed drawing by Lars Vilks. Imbera claimed to be acting in accordance with the EU directive on electronic commerce, and law professor Jon Bing says that Imbera had not only a right but a legal obligation to do what it did. But Nils Øy of the Association of Norwegian Editors disagrees, while Per Edgar Kokkvold, head of the Norwegian Press Association, calls Imbera's action "unacceptable," noting that if Internet hosting services can do this to HRS they can do it to newspapers, too.

Read it all.

He was "too much of a security risk." Unconscionable. This man should be a hero of every freedom-loving Dane. "Danish Caricaturist of Muhammad Fame Now Homeless," from Spiegel (thanks to all who sent this in):

Draw a picture offensive to Muslim extremists, and you might find yourself without a roof. Ask Kurt Westergaard, one of the twelve Danish cartoonists whose autumn 2005 Muhammad caricatures lead to violent protests throughout the Muslim world. He was booted from his police-protected hotel room on Feb. 15 for being "too much of a security risk." And now the 73-year-old cartoonist and his wife are without a place to live.

Westergaard was forced to leave his actual residence in November after the Danish security and intelligence agency, PET, informed him of a "concrete" plan to murder him, according to the paper that originally published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten. Westergaard and his wife have been living under police protection since....

More witless moral equivalence from the mainstream media, distracting attention from the reality of the global jihad. Seven murders of abortion doctors since 1973, and that's more of a threat than over 10,000 jihad terror attacks since 2001. Got it.

"AP Hints Pro-Lifers Bigger Terrorists Than Foreign Radicals," by Dave Pierre at Newsbusters (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Let me get this straight: On September 11, 2001, terrorists brutally exterminated nearly 3,000 Americans, obliterated the landscape of lower Manhattan, and pummeled the headquarters of the United States's national defense. And since that same date nearly six-and-a-half years ago, pro-lifers have committed a grand total of zero murders, attempted murders, and bombings directed at abortion workers and clinics across the United States and Canada.

So the Associated Press implies that the bigger threat of terrorism to this country comes from ... pro-lifers? Here's how the AP tells it:

When it comes to fears about a terrorist attack, people in the U.S. usually focus on Osama bin Laden and foreign-based radical groups. Yet researchers say domestic extremists who commit violence in the name of their cause — abortion or the environment, for example — account for most of the damage from such incidents in this country.

"The network raised money by waging holdups, [and] selling stolen goods..."

Muhammad told the Jews at Bait ul-Midras: "If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle" (Sahih Bukhari 4.53.392). Then, the lives and property of those who do not convert or leave are fair game, as seen in early Muslim battles (including those in which Muhammad participated), Barbary piracy, and so on, and once again in this case.

An update on this story. " Morocco: Terrorist network dismantled," by Angela Doland for the Associated Press:

PARIS - Morocco's government said it has dismantled a terrorist network that had plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers and members of the North African kingdom's Jewish community.

Authorities believe the network has links to al-Qaida and local terror groups, the official MAP news agency reported Wednesday night. A total of 32 people were arrested in sweeps this week, Moroccan newspapers said.

Morocco also has banned an Islamist political party, Al Badil Al Hadari, because some members were linked to the network, MAP said, citing the interior minister.

The network raised money by waging holdups, selling stolen goods and taking contributions from its members, the report said. One suspected member of the group waged a heist of an armored truck in Luxembourg in 2000, netting the group $25.65 million, MAP said.

Gold jewelry stolen in Belgium was melted down by a goldsmith who belonged to the network and then sold, it said.

The group had plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers, army officers and members of the Jewish community, Interior Minister Chakib Benoussa was quoted as saying. Only a few thousand Jews still live in the largely Muslim kingdom, as many have emigrated to Israel and elsewhere.

Interior Spiritual Struggle, natch: “The convention calls upon the Muslims to take part in the peaceful jihad against such terrorist groups.” But of course, the problem is all the fault of "imperialist forces."

"Madrassa teachers call for jihad against terror groups," from Express News Service (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

KOZHIKODE: A convention of madrassa teachers against communalism and extremism, held here on Wednesday, has dismissed the allegations that madrassas across the country have turned ‘terrorist training centres’.

The convention, in a resolution, maintained that such allegations were false, and expressed anxiety over the large number of terrorist organisations sprouting in the name of Islam.

“The convention calls upon the Muslims to take part in the peaceful jihad against such terrorist groups,” it said. [...]

The imperialist forces and their supporting media have gone far ahead in propagating that Islam is a terrorist outfit, he added.

Not that Muslims have had anything to do with creating that impression!

Madrassas, he said, had played a vital role in maintaining peace in the state, where communal riots are a few. It is unfortunate that these learning centres are dubbed as the centres of terrorism activities, he added.

Thangal also called upon the madrassa teachers to shoulder the responsibility towards the betterment of religion and practices.

IUML leader M.K. Muneer, who is also the president of DaSHA, said terrorism was anti-Islamic and that steps should be taken to prevent fundamental forces from making their entry in various fields.

“Awareness programmes will be conducted in the coming days with the support of media and victims of terrorism," he added.

Great. Even granting that this is a sincere effort, which their blaming of the media casts into doubt, the question remains: why haven't we seen more direct action by peaceful Muslims against the jihad ideology over the past six years?

Happy to do business with ya

Still, there is no concept within his frame of reference for a permanent peace under any government except one constituted according to Islamic law.

"Iraqi mosques to read al-Sadr statement," by Qassum Abdul-Zahra for Associated Press (thanks to Jihad Watch News Editor Marisol Seibold):

BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will have a statement read in mosques at Friday prayer services addressing whether his Mahdi Army will extend a six-month cease-fire that's helped reduce violence throughout Iraq, a Shiite lawmaker said.

The Iraqi legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, told The Associated Press on Thursday that "tomorrow there will be a statement from Sayed Muqtada to be read during Friday prayers."

"No one can predict what decision will be taken," he said. "Whether it will be an extension of the freeze or not."

Al-Sadr's decision to take his militia off the streets last August has been widely credited with slashing improving security throughout Iraq, along with a boost in American troop levels and Sunni fighters turning against their former allies from al-Qaida in Iraq.

Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said Wednesday that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying the cease-fire was extended, "then that means the freeze is over."

I'll let the great moderate Ayatollah Sistani say it:

The following ten things are essentially najis [unclean]:

1. Urine
2. Faeces
3. Semen
4. Dead body
5. Blood
6. Dog
7. Pig
8. Kafir [unbeliever -- i.e., non-Muslims]
9. Alcoholic liquors
10. The sweat of an animal who persistently eats najasat [unclean things].

From FoxNews (thanks to all who sent this in):

A 70-year-old Iranian man was arrested and sentenced to four months in jail and 30 lashes for walking his dog, Adnkronos.com reported Tuesday. Police caught the man on the street with his dog in Shahr Rey, a suburb of Tehran.

Owners of domestic animals are forbidden from taking them on the streets of the city because Islam considers dogs to be impure. An Islamic judge later charged the man for "disturbing the public order,” Adnkronos.com reported.

Despite repeated warnings by the police, dog owners continue to defy authorities by taking their dogs outside their homes. Typical punishment for people caught with dogs outside is a fine or the "detention" of their animals in a pound, Adnkronos.com reported.

Of course, the school didn't teach "race hate" at all, but rather religious hate: "Jews" and "Christians" are not racial groups any more than "Muslims" is. But the British legal system cannot conceptualize such a thing.

And even more importantly, the British cannot dare to conceive of the possibility that this problem is deeper than just a matter of a few textbooks. The source of the identification of Jews and Christians with apes and pigs is the Qur'an itself:

Say: "O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?" Say: "Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil; these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!" (5:59-60)

The implication of this is that the People of the Book -- Jews and Christians -- by rejecting Muhammad, are risking the same kind of bestial transformation.

"Muslim school 'that taught pupils from race hate textbooks made photocopies after order to shred them,'" from the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

A prestigious Islamic school in London was forced to shred 2,000 textbooks used to poison pupils' minds with lessons of hate, a former teacher claimed yesterday.

Colin Cook, who taught English at the King Fahad Academy for 18 years, told a tribunal how "incompetent" Ofsted inspectors reported that the school's teaching of Islamic studies was "mostly good".

But their report was wildly inaccurate, he said, because pupils as young as five were being taught by rote from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as "monkeys" and Christians as "pigs".

Mr Cook said that when he exposed the racist teaching, the school's head Dr Sumaya Alyusuf lied on television, insisting that hateful passages had never been taught.

Under public pressure the Academy eventually agreed to destroy 2,000 books but photocopied them first for future use, he told the tribunal.

The school, in Acton, West London, opened in 1985 for the children of Saudi diplomats and is funded and controlled by the Saudi government.

Its 1,250 pupils have included the five children of jailed claw-handed cleric Abu Hamza and those of Abu Qatada, who was said to be Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe....

Read it all.

The Hate Mail is pouring in more copiously the last few days, but this one from this morning seems a bit, well, misdirected:

listen my brother,i wanna say some thing.i m hindu from london.my loyality is 2 uk.there should be shame on u.why dont u go back 2 pakistan,and preach from there.den i can see u made some sacerfice.u here on benfits,and same time curseing this country.tell me having 3 wives not haram?if ur wife have 3 husband,u will stone her 2 death.wat a brave muslim u r.

And why shouldn't he be? A press release from Americans Against Hate:

(Coral Springs, FL) Yesterday, February 19, 2008, the Legislative Director from U.S. Representative Ron Klein’s Washington, D.C. office, Mira Kogen, informed Americans Against Hate (AAH) Chairman Joe Kaufman that Rep. Klein (D-Florida) will not be removing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) from the recently created Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism (CTFAS). Klein co-chairs the task force with U.S. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana). CTFAS was created by Holocaust survivor, Rep. Tom Lantos, who passed away earlier this month.

Last week, an AAH delegation met with Rep. Klein to ask him to remove Rep. Ellison. AAH spent over a half hour showing Klein documentation proving direct contact between Ellison and radical Muslim organizations, which included the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Both MAS and CAIR had recently been named by the U.S. government as being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and CAIR had been linked by the FBI to Hamas.

According to Kogen, Rep. Klein approached Ellison to ask him about the information he (Klein) received from his meeting with AAH, and Ellison told him that he had “publicly denounced” and would continue to publicly denounce the anti-Semitism from the groups (MAS and CAIR). Kogen told Kaufman that Rep. Klein was satisfied with Rep. Ellison’s statements to him and that they were consistent with the principles of the anti-Semitism task force.

However, Americans Against Hate points out that, to its knowledge, never has Keith Ellison publicly denounced any of the organizations in question. He has never denounced the anti-Semitism from the groups nor any of the terrorist connections of the groups. To the contrary, Rep. Ellison has praised the groups and has spoken on a number of occasions at the groups’ conferences. Last May, Ellison was the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of MAS, at the same time the organization had on its website statements calling for the murder of Jews. The statements still remain.

AAH Chairman Joe Kaufman stated: “We are profoundly disappointed that Ron Klein has chosen not to remove Keith Ellison from the anti-Semitism task force. Ellison has never denounced MAS or CAIR, and if anybody has proof that he has, we would like to see it. He has only supported these organizations. As long as Keith Ellison sits of the anti-Semitism task force, the task force will have absolutely no meaning.”

Americans Against Hate calls on citizens to contact Representative Ron Klein’s offices to demand that he remove Keith Ellison from the Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism (CTFAS) immediately.

In World Net Daily today I discuss a disquieting court case in Memphis:

With two young girls murdered in Texas, likely victims of an "honor killing" by their father just weeks ago, is it wise for American authorities to ignore death threats issued by a Muslim father to his non-Muslim children? That's just the latest disquieting question emerging from a contentious divorce case in Tennessee.

Rosine Ghawji has for years now contended that her ex-husband, Maher Ghawji, is a Wahhabi and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that he has been involved in terrorist activities. Maher Ghawji has contested this, but new statements by their two sons give the allegations a new urgency and raise serious questions about how the judge assigned to the case has treated concerns for the boys' safety.

Rosine Ghawji has marshaled an impressive array of evidence to support her claims about Maher Ghawji's ties to the global jihad, but Judge Donna Fields of the Shelby County Circuit Court was unmoved. In her Final Decree of Absolute Divorce, she wrote: "Wife has seriously alienated the children from Husband with unproven and baseless accusations." She even decreed that Maher Ghawji would have the final say over the religious upbringing of the couple's two children, Louis, now 19, and KK, 16 – thus ensuring that they would be raised Muslim at least until they attained majority. Louis Ghawji notes that at Judge Fields' final ruling on the divorce case in February 2007, she declared: "Those children will have to follow the Muslim religion." She ordered them to accompany their father on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – which is only open to Muslims.

James George Jatras, director of the American Council for Kosovo, explains in WorldNetDaily why Kosovar independence is so ill-advised:

Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking the rhetorical question: "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg."

That pretty much sums up the recent unilateral declaration of independence by Albanian Muslims in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Several countries, disgracefully led by the United States, have recognized Kosovo. Major media have hailed creation of the "world's newest country." But calling Kosovo a country doesn't make it one.

Serbia has denounced the move as the illegal creation of a "separatist entity" on its sovereign territory and has handed down criminal indictments against several of the top Albanian Muslim leaders. Now under way is a sharp global competition to see which governments will recognize Kosovo and which will not. Under heavy pressure from the U.S. State Department, most European countries will meekly comply. Some, like Cyprus with its Turkish-occupied north and Spain with its Basque separatist movement, will not.

In short, an action State Department bureaucrats touted as "settling Kosovo's status" has resulted in anything but. Outside of Europe, the picture is even fuzzier. Russia will reject Kosovo's independence, and expected to take the same line are China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil and many others. Russia will veto any effort to extend Kosovo membership in the United Nations.

Some choice entries in the Jihad Watch Hate Mail Bag tonight. What happened -- did Abu Hamza or the Blind Sheikh denounce us or something?

First, from a fan of "Hilter":

YOUR ZION WILL SOON BE DESTROYED!!

ITS A FIGHT BETWEEN 1.2 BILLION AND A FEW MILLION, LET'S SEE WHO WINS!!!

BY THE WAY...HILTER WAS'NT ALL THAT BAD!

ALWAYS REMEMBER:FOR MUSLIMS,REPRODUCTION IS NOT A PROBLEM!

Second, from a master of his thoughts:

Soldiers who occupy and facilitate the corporate plundering of other countries deserve to die, and who would not celebrate when such devils perish. America is the number one killer of civilians, its not just that Dajjal Bush, but throughout the past 100 years America have shitted on the world. America is a fascist state, and has no regards for others, eg Filipino, Koreans, Vietnamese, Africans, Latin Americans, and Arabs, have all been suffered at the hands of the USA. Your lies and manipulation disgrace the Bible, eg Fox News is really a neo con christians extremist propaganda machine. Your not even a real Christian. The Khlilafat will return. Ohhh yeah, America invited 9/11 and 9/11 is a direct result of US oppression in Mid East. The "they hate our life" BS is only believed by idiots, which comprises 90% of Americans. I think Osama is a more honorable man than Bush, and i pray victory is given to those who fight to remove foreign imperialism from their lands. We hate you and Israel because of what you do, not because of your religion or pathetic way of life. Take care,

Slave of Allah, Master of my thoughts.

And finally, the piece de resistance, from an "atheist":

I have no problem with most of the things said on your site. But one guy requesting some sort of Ban on Islam pissed me off. If we want to talk about banning a religion because of current crimes, lets ban christianity for crimes past. f**king pig little religion started crusades against the honorable muslims of the middle ages. and the spanish inquisition was more of the christian scum killing non-christians. How about we ban christianity, judaism, and islam all 3. and make it a death penalty crime. atleast 1/3 deaths will be no doubt deserved by the putrid little followers of christ.

P.S. I'm atheist.

P.S.(part 2) f**k your little site, I hope suicide bombers find your address's and give you what you need.

Yes, I put in the stars.

So did they kill themselves willingly, in order to seize hold of Allah's promise of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Qur'an 9:111)? No telling at this point.

An update on this story. "US: Bombers didn't have Down syndrome," by Bradley Brooks for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed.

Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said the women used in the Feb. 1 pet market bombings had been identified as residents from the northeastern outskirts of Baghdad who were in their late 20s or early 30s.

The two attacks killed nearly 100 people, and Iraqi and U.S. officials said at the time the women appeared to be unwitting attackers.

Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, said soon after the attacks that photos of the women's heads showed they had Down syndrome, but he did not offer any other proof.

A U.S. military spokesman for the Baghdad area, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, also said at the time that medical experts with his division had examined the photos and agreed the women probably suffered from the genetic disorder. "They were both females and they both looked like they had Down syndrome," Stover said on Feb. 2.

A cell phone image of one of the heads viewed by The Associated Press was inconclusive.

There was speculation that the heads could have been distorted by the blast, leading police initially to believe they had Down syndrome.

On Wednesday, Smith backed away from the claim about Down syndrome while responding to a question concerning the psychiatric histories of the two bombers.

"Both had recently received psychiatric treatment for depression and/or schizophrenia. From what we know now there's no indication that they had Down syndrome," Smith said, citing records obtained by the military.

Smith also said one of the women was married but that neither had criminal backgrounds. He said it was not clear how they were linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, which the military has said was behind the bombing....

Come on, it's probably just a bookmark

"Officers found books in the backpack titled 'Muhammad in the Bible,' 'The Prophet's Prayer' and 'The Noble Qur'an.' He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible...."

"TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book," by Thomas W. Krause for The Tampa Tribune:

TAMPA -- A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said.

About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.'s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration.

When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled "Fear Itself." The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside.

After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates.

Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book.

Officers found books in the backpack titled "Muhammad in the Bible," "The Prophet's Prayer" and "The Noble Qur'an." He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible....

A sound basis for a truce!

"Hamas Warns Of Blasts Unless Israel Lifts Sanctions," from AFP (thanks to Sr. Soph):

GAZA CITY (AFP)--A senior advisor to the Hamas-run administration in Gaza on Wednesday warned of "explosions" unless the international community helps to lift the Israeli sanctions on the Palestinian territory.

"If the international community does not move in a serious way to end the siege and the attempt to topple Hamas, then the next explosions, God only knows how large, will take everyone by surprise," Ahmed Yussef said in a statement.

"Hamas has spoken about a truce more than once, but Israel wants to continue its heavy-handed policies of killings, assassinations and incursions," he said. "This condition calls for a response from the resistance."

...from this thread, "USF Muslim students trying to get bomb evidence thrown out, say cop was racist."

I am accumulating evidence that such comments are planted here by provocateurs, so as to discredit this site. The most notorious example of this was a comment left here last summer that was up on this site for about an hour -- long enough for the Council on American Islamic Relations to snag it, so that Ibrahim Hooper could use it to sandbag Dennis Prager on the Paula Zahn show that night, acting as if I had written it and asking Prager to denounce me accordingly.

If you advocate the violent suppression of those with whom you disagree, you are not welcome here, and that is not what we are about. I ask all readers of good will (and of course I know that isn't all of you), and all people who want to defend human rights and human freedoms from jihad violence and Islamic supremacism, to alert me immediately at director@jihadwatch.org about comments that are genocidal, advocating vigilantism, racist, etc., if you see them here, and I will remove them.

The comment I just removed was up on the site for no longer than ten minutes. It will be exceedingly interesting to see if it pops up in a CAIR press release.

They didn't waste any time in starting to exploit the situation in Kosovo, and the precedent that Western recognition of its independence has set. Some interesting questions remain, however: Would they unilaterally declare the "West Bank" an independent state? Then, what about Hamas-controlled Gaza? And, of course, an independent state has borders. Where would they draw those, and would they commit to them permanently, even on paper?

By Mohammed Daraghmeh for the Associated Press:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinians should follow Kosovo's example and unilaterally declare independence if peace talks with Israel fail, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday, but the Palestinian president said the proposal was premature and pledged to keep negotiating until the end of the year.

The mixed Palestinian messages came a day after the latest meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The two men formally relaunched peace talks at a U.S.-hosted summit in Annapolis, Md., last November. While the sides meet regularly, Palestinian officials have complained the talks are proceeding slowly and that President Bush's goal of brokering a peace treaty in 2008 is not realistic.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian negotiator and top aide to Abbas, said in an interview Wednesday that the peace efforts "are going nowhere."

He said the Palestinians' "first option" is success in the negotiations. "If this doesn't happen, we have another option," he said, noting Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia earlier this week.

"Kosovo is not better than Palestine," he added. "If the whole world, the United States, the European Union, the majority of its states, have embraced the independence of Kosovo, why shouldn't this happen with Palestine as well?"

Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian leadership is discussing the proposal. However, Abbas reacted coolly to the idea, saying in a statement that he remained committed to reaching a negotiated peace agreement this year.

"If we are unable to do that ... we will return to our Arab (brothers) to take the appropriate decision," he said.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia, quickly quashed the idea of a unilateral decision and said such a proposal was never discussed by the Palestinian leadership.

"Decisions should be taken and then declared, and not be declared and then be taken," Qureia told The Associated Press, in apparent criticism of Abed Rabbo.

Qureia said the negotiations with Israel are serious and are touching on all major issues, but concurred with Abed Rabbo that no progress has been made so far.

Normally talkative Israeli and Palestinian officials have released few details on the status of their talks. Palestinian officials say the White House has urged the sides to maintain secrecy, fearing leaks could hurt progress.

Olmert also is wary of publicizing progress because a key coalition partner has threatened to pull out of the government if he makes any concessions on the issue of Jerusalem. If the ultra-Orthodox Shas party follows through on its threat, Olmert would lose his parliamentary majority.

The Palestinians have already declared independence before, in 1988, but the international community did not recognize the declaration. At that time, there was no territory under Palestinian control.

Feel the love.

Thai Jihad Update: "Man burnt alive in Thailand," from AFP (thanks to Fanabba):

YALA (Thailand), Feb 19: A 46-year-old Buddhist man was shot and then set ablaze as he tried to escape an attack by suspected Islamic separatists on Tuesday in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, police said.

Netr Noh-uma, a highway department official, was shot as he was riding a motorcycle with a colleague in Pattani, one of three provinces along the Malaysian border hit by four years of separatist unrest, police said.

A 34-year-old man was riding the motorcycle with him. He was also shot but managed to run away, police said.

Netr was too seriously wounded to escape. Police said that when he fell off the motorcycle, two militants doused him with petrol and set him on fire.

“They burned him alive after he was shot and fell from his motorbike.