September 2008 Archives

An important message from Patrick Poole updating this story:

The Dayton Daily News has been walking back their coverage of the so-called mosque incident this weekend. The initial article on Saturday was "Chemical irritant empties Islamic Society of Greater Dayton's mosque":

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/09/27/ddn092608evacweb.html

Then on Sunday the story was "Islamic Society baffled by incident at worship service":

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/09/28/ddn092808islamicweb.html

Then yesterday they walked all the way back, "Police: No evidence of hate crime at local mosque":

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/09/29/ddn092908mosquefoloweb.html

But if you follow any of those three links, they take you to the exact same article -- the last one. The previous two stories have been scrubbed from the website.

Flaming the fires of kafirphobia. I'm hoping to have a copy of the incident report tomorrow. Will forward details.

PS: This isn't the first Muslim hate crime hoax in the Dayton area.

Here is a Google Cache link for the first scrubbed story, and here is a Google Cache link for the second.

What is the Dayton Daily News trying to hide?

For posterity's sake, and in an attempt to keep whoever is doing this from getting away with whitewashing the record, here are the texts of both spurious stories:

He said: "I swear by Allah, man ... I'm down to live for the cause and die for the cause, man." I wonder if he is down to serve 35 years in the slammer, man. He also said, "I just want to smoke a judge." He'll have to settle for Marlboro Lights.

Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef Update, man: "Islam convert gets 35 years in plot to attack mall," from AP (thanks to Mentat):

CHICAGO (AP) — A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to blow off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall during the Christmas season....

He was arrested in 2006 on charges of scheming to use weapons of mass destruction at the Cherryvale Mall in the northern Illinois city of Rockford.

Federal Judge David Coar said Tuesday he didn't believe Shareef was evil.

Of course not, the poor lamb! After all, it isn't as if he were some greasy Islamophobe!

But he said people could have been severely hurt if federal agents hadn't broken up the plot.

No kidding, really?

Shareef described himself as a devout Muslim who once admired Osama bin Laden but has now realized violence is wrong.

Very reassuring, man!

I first encountered Aziz Poonawalla during my exchanges with the frothing psychopath Dean Esmay, as he is a contributor to his blog. Poonawalla and I have had several unpleasant exchanges, which are as tedious to reread as they were to go through, and in which I was not in every case terribly impressed with his honesty or integrity -- but you can judge that for yourself if you wish to do so.

And now he has written "Terrorists attack Ohio mosque" at Beliefnet, September 29. There are many links in his opening paragraph which I am not reproducing here, including one to the hypocritical statement of Khaleel Mohammed denouncing the film, which I discussed here. Poonawalla writes:

Earlier, I mentioned the Obsession DVD that was inserted in millions of newspapers around the country. That DVD paints a rigid and extreme vision of Islam, with intent to mislead rather than inform. Now, the predictable result of that hate-mongering propaganda is beginning to manifest; on Friday, a mosque in Dayton, OH was tear-gassed, with women and children inside:

Baboucarr Njie was preparing for his prayer session Friday night, Sept. 26, when he heard children in the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton coughing. Soon, Njie himself was overcome with fits of coughing and, like the rest of those in the building, headed for the doors.

"I would stay outside for a minute, then go back in, there were a lot of kids," Njie said. "My throat is still itchy, I need to get some milk."

Njie was one of several affected when a suspected chemical irritant was sprayed into the mosque at 26 Josie St., bringing Dayton police, fire and hazardous material personnel to the building at 9:48 p.m.

Someone "sprayed an irritant into the mosque," Dayton fire District Chief Vince Wiley said, noting that fire investigators believe it was a hand-held spray can.

According to fire dispatch communications, a child reported seeing two men with a white can spraying something into a window. That child was brought to the supervising firefighter at the scene.

There is more, and it all sounds terrible -- but of course even if it is just as Poonawalla says, what does it really have to do with the Obsession DVD? Precisely nothing. Obsession is opposed to attacks on innocent people, and it makes a clear (and not in every sense accurate) distinction between peaceful Muslims and jihadists -- so to claim that it led to an attack on innocents is just another instance of Muslims playing the victim card whenever too much unwelcome attention is shone upon jihadist or Islamic supremacist activity, in order to deflect that attention. For another example of this, see here.

Underscoring this impression is this report: "Police: No evidence of hate crime at local mosque," by Lucas Sullivan for the Dayton Daily News, September 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

DAYTON — A 10-year-old girl sprayed in the face with a chemical Friday, Sept. 26, while at a local Islamic mosque was not the victim of a hate crime, police Chief Richard Biehl said.

The girl was watching children whose parents and relatives had gathered at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, 26 Josie St., to celebrate Ramadan when she noticed two men standing outside a basement window about 9:40 p.m., according to police.

One of the men then sprayed something through the open window and into the girl's face from a white can with a red top, according to a police report. The girl said she immediately felt burning on her face and felt "sick to her stomach," the report stated.

Other children and a woman in the room felt affects from the chemical and the mosque was evacuated.

"The men didn't say anything to her (before she was sprayed)," Biehl said. "There was nothing left at the scene or anything that makes us believe this is a biased crime."

HAZMAT crews called to the scene started testing for chemicals less than 20 minutes after a member of the mosque called 911, team coordinator Denny Bristow said.

"Whatever chemical was released it dissipated too quickly for us to determine what it was," Bristow said. "We can test for about 130 to 140 chemicals, including pepper spray, and all our tests came back negative."

Bristow said there were no chemicals found on the 10-year-old girl.

A few of the 300 people celebrating the last 10 days of Ramadan with dinner and a prayer session were treated for eye irritation at the scene.

Mosque board member Tarek Sabagh said many people within the mosque speculated that the incident was the result of a DVD about Islamic radicalism titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" that was mailed to area homes by its producers and circulated as a paid advertisement with more than 70 newspapers, including the Dayton Daily News.

"We are not linking the two at all," Sabagh said.

Will Aziz Poonawalla issue a retraction and an apology to the producers of Obsession? Let's just say I won't be holding my breath.

At Pajamas Media today the superb Bruce Bawer asks the question, "Who’s Sleeping More Deeply — Europe or America?":

[...] Make no mistake: if Europeans are, on average, more aware than Americans of the realities of Islam, it’s no thanks to their media but rather because they can see with their own eyes what’s going on around them. Yet many of them feel cowed — not only by Muslims but by politically correct politicians and media — into keeping their opinions to themselves, and feel powerless to prevent what now seems to many of them, in any event, inevitable. In other words, fatalism has taken hold.

In While Europe Slept I also contrasted European and American approaches to immigration. Ever since the Muslim influx began some decades ago, European countries have encouraged the newcomers to retain their cultural identity, to live apart from mainstream society, and to become clients of the welfare state. America, by contrast, has traditionally expected immigrants to learn English, to get a job, and to obey the law, and if they do so they’re every bit as American as anyone else. I didn’t argue in While Europe Slept that America was invulnerable to Islamization, but I did suggest that — thanks to this very dramatic difference both in the general public’s attitudes toward immigrants and in government immigration policy — America stood a far better chance than Europe did of seeing Muslim newcomers turn into loyal citizens rather than enemies within. I think I had a valid point there, though if I were writing the book today I’d probably be somewhat less sanguine about America’s ability to integrate absolutely everyone into its melting pot. I might also be less sanguine, I’m afraid, about the endurance of Americans’ love of freedom in an age of poisonous multicultural relativism.

I do feel, however, that there’s one very important difference between America and Europe when it comes to resisting cultural jihad, and that is this: that in America, a large proportion of the people who recognize the threat of Islam and who are determined to resist it are consciously fighting for freedom — for, that is, the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. In many parts of Western Europe, this kind of certainty and unanimity about freedom — simple freedom — as a first principle can be discouragingly hard to come by. The blogger Frank Martin has written about a teenage tour guide at a World War II battlefield in the Netherlands who told him that the Allied soldiers who fell there had been “fighting for bridges, how silly that they would all fight for something like that.” Somebody like that boy, who didn’t grasp that those soldiers had died for the very freedom that he had taken for granted his whole life, is incapable of standing up for freedom against Islamofascism. Yes, there are Europeans who realize that the opposite of Islam is indeed human freedom. But in Europe, with its checkered history of fascism and socialism, there are also all too many people on the right who are mounting the barricades in the name not of freedom but of ethnic identity, cultural tradition, or religion, and all too many on the left whose cri de coeur is not individual liberty but the welfare state.

Meanwhile Europe’s cultural elites are dominated by people who seem likely to continue to smile upon Islamization right up till the moment they’re stoned to death. At a recent Norwegian conference on integration, the Swedish government representative was asked: “Is Swedish culture worth preserving?” “Well,” she replied dismissively, “what is Swedish culture?” To people like that, European culture is a void waiting to be filled with something, and that something might as well be Islam. Granted, things aren’t quite that bad in the U.S. — not even at the New York Times. Yet to an extraordinary extent, the political and cultural elites on both sides of the Atlantic are in sync in their denial of the reality we’re up against.

This was driven home to me a few months ago when I took part in a day-long conference in Washington, D.C., about the America/Europe relationship. Nearly all the participants and audience members, I gathered, were Americans or Europeans who worked in the diplomatic corps. The day was crammed with panel discussions, and from early morning until late in the afternoon we talked about nothing but America and Europe. Yet aside from me, only one other person even mentioned Islam. And he did so in the most indirect way, as if he were bringing up something indelicate. Everybody present seemed to share an unspoken understanding that this subject was off limits. Indeed, pretty much everybody seemed to agree that Europe is doing great — that it’s moving from strength to strength — and that America should be more like it in every way.

How I even got invited to such a conference I have no idea. In any case, everything I said was dismissed out of hand. One genial fellow who seemed desperate to correct my folly and bring me into the tent came up to me after my talk and said, almost pleadingly, “But don’t you think that the real problem is not Islam but Islamophobia?” And on the panel that followed my talk, a retired diplomat with decades of experience (and a masterly command of the art of condescension) mentioned in a tone of both wonder and whimsy that I wasn’t alone in my peculiar affliction; even Walter Laqueur — the distinguished octogenarian historian of Europe whom the retired diplomat, as his tone made clear, had once, but no longer, held in high esteem — had written a book making the same bizarre arguments I was making! But neither this retired diplomat nor anyone else was willing to entertain the possibility that if both Laqueur and I, and many others, had made certain arguments, there might actually be something in them; no, it was as if, in their eyes, we had all simply been bitten by some exotic bug or contracted some mysterious new infection or had giant alien pods placed under our beds while we were sleeping....

Read it all.

And use their plunder to fund the land jihad. "US official: 3 pirates may be dead in shootout," by Mohamed Olad Hassan for AP, September 30 (thanks to Jeremy):

Disagreements between Somali pirates holding a ship laden with tanks and heavy weapons escalated into a shootout and three pirates are believed dead, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday. The pirates denied the report.

The U.S. destroyer USS Howard and several other American ships have surrounded the Ukrainian cargo ship Faina, which was hijacked Thursday and is now anchored off the lawless coast of Somalia. The pirates have demanded a ransom of $20 million and the U.S. Navy cordon aims to prevent them from taking any of the weapons ashore.[...]

[T]he pirate spokesman insisted the report was not true, that his colleagues were just celebrating the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr despite being surrounded by American warships and helicopters.

"We didn't dispute over a single thing, let alone have a shootout," pirate spokesman Sugule Ali told The Associated Press by satellite telephone Tuesday.

"We are happy on the ship and we are celebrating Eid," Ali said. "Nothing has changed."

The Islamic feast marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

In "areas wracked by Hindu-Muslim tensions."

"Five killed in India bomb blasts," from AFP, September 30 (thanks to JE):

Five people were killed and 25 others injured today in two suspected bomb attacks in the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, Indian media reported.

Three people were killed and at least 12 others hurt in a bomb explosion in the religiously tense town of Malegaon in Maharashtra state, a senior police official told the CNN-IBN news channel.

Reports said rioting broke out after the blast, causing several more injuries. The official Press Trust of India news agency said police resorted to firing in the air to control angry crowds in the communally sensitive town.

"It appeared to be a low-intensity blast," local police official Surya Gupta told the media.

In the neighbouring state of Gujarat, one person was killed and 13 others wounded in another crude bomb attack in a marketplace in Modasa town in Sabarkantha district, reports said.

Gujarat's home minister, Amit Shah, told the media one person was confirmed dead and seven others wounded.

"There was a motorcycle carrying an explosive. We are reviewing security arrangements," he said.

The NDTV news channel said an alert has been sounded across western India.

Both explosions took place in areas wracked by Hindu-Muslim tensions....

Several other Indian cities -- Jaipur, Bangalore and New Delhi -- have been hit by serial bombings since May, also claimed by the Indian Mujahideen....

New Delhi recently unveiled new security measures to tackle what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said were "vast gaps" in intelligence gathering.

Strache: A limp-handed Nazi salute?

The perceptive and courageous Melanie Phillips here discusses a phenomenon that Hugh and I have discussed at Jihad Watch several times over the years: that the mainstream parties in Europe are either mute or complicit in the face of the threat of the Islamization of the continent, and have thus left the anti-jihad resistance to be in some cases championed by Europe's most noxious elements: neo-Nazis, neo-fascists, and white supremacists.

Phillips also points out that the situation is further complicated by the fact that the mainstream media and the governing elites brand anyone who opposes Islamic supremacism and the Islamization of Europe as a neo-Nazi. This makes it extremely difficult for Americans to determine just who is a real neofascist and who isn't, and thus whom should be supported and whom should be opposed. Some commentators absurdly complicate matters further by branding those who doubt that a particular group is actually neofascist as neofascists themselves.

And in fact, her Spectator article is itself a case in point. The accompanying photo, which I have placed above, is of Hans-Christian Strache, the Austrian politician whose party Phillips here states is "neo-Nazi." It seems that this picture was chosen to accompany Phillips' article because in it Strache is making the Nazi salute. But is he? It looks more to me as if he is gesturing to make a point -- his hand is not held stiffly the way it is in the actual Nazi salute.

But maybe I just don't know enough about Nazi salutes. There is also apparently another picture in which Strache seems to be making a "three-fingered Nazi salute" -- an animal I have not previously encountered. But in any case, the claim that Strache is a neo-Nazi doesn't rest only on these disputed gestures. According to the article to which Phillips links, some of Strache's supporters are "jackbooted skinheads." This in itself doesn't prove that Strache himself is a neo-Nazi -- anyone can attract unwanted supporters (cf. Hamas' endorsement of Obama). But there is more:

1. Video exists of Strache in fatigues. The Guardian says: "He has been filmed in forests, carrying arms and wearing paramilitary fatigues in the company of banned German neo-Nazis." He says, however, that he was playing a game.

2. The Guardian also says: "He was photographed apparently giving a three-fingered neo-Nazi salute - though he says he was ordering three beers."

3. Again according to The Guardian, "when he sued the Vienna news weekly Profil for defamation, the court ruled that Strache could fairly be said to display 'an affinity to national-socialist thinking.'" But he maintains: "I was never a neo-Nazi, and never will be" -- and the court's ruling could be an example of Phillips' observation that anyone who opposes the Islamization of Europe is branded a neo-Nazi.

4. Perhaps most damning of all: according to the TimesOnline, "police film his public appearances because supporters of Mr Strache have, in the past, made the Hitler salute or displayed Nazi insignia, which is illegal in Austria - under a law that Mr Strache is seeking to ban."

He is trying to ban a law against displaying Nazi insignia, and some of his followers make the Hitler salute -- that seems open and shut. As for the followers making the Hitler salute, he could be a Nazi and attract Nazi followers -- or, alternatively, he could be attracting followers he doesn't want and doesn't approve of. As for Strache's attempts to get the ban on Nazi insignia overturned, Trend News says this: "He has called for the repeal of an Austrian law banning National Socialist activities. 'A democracy must be able to deal with moronic and crazy ideas,' Strache argued last week." So he is framing this as a freedom of speech issue -- and indeed, when I support the right of the Revolutionary Communist Party or the Council on American-Islamic Relations to spew their propaganda in the U.S., that doesn't make me a Revolutionary Communist or a CAIR op. It makes me a believer in free speech.

So we have the prospect of a man accused of being a neo-Nazi saying that National Socialism is "moronic and crazy" and denying that he ever was or ever will be a neo-Nazi. Of course, maybe he is lying -- he wouldn't be the first or the last politician to lie about his true sentiments -- and maybe his explanations of this evidence are flimsy rationalizations. I don't know where Strache really stands. But the old Nazis were never coy or deceptive about their taste for totalitarianism and hatred for Jews, and while actual neo-Nazis have every reason to be deceptive about their true affinities in today's Europe, when the elites brand everyone who opposes unrestricted Muslim immigration as a neo-Nazi, even in the face of the demographic jihad, the situation becomes extremely muddled.

Real neo-Nazis in Europe and everywhere else should be always and everywhere opposed by all decent people. The devilish difficulty is in figuring out who the real neo-Nazis actually are, and who are anti-jihadists who are being falsely accused.

"The distant sound of breaking glass," by Melanie Phillips in The Spectator, September 29:

We should all be shuddering at the news from Austria where neo-Nazi parties, including the Freedom Party led by Hans-Christian Strache (pictured) have emerged as the biggest parliamentary block. It’s awful not just because it’s Austria, that cradle of Nazism which shows yet again that its terrible past remains its present. It’s because the implications are much wider for the whole of Europe – and are unlikely to be recognised before the danger spirals into the unspeakable.

A small correction: Hitler was born in Austria, but Austria was not the cradle of Nazism. Nazism was born in Germany -- which is not to deny that many, if not most, Austrians ultimately became enthusiastic about it.

These parties campaigned on an anti EU integration and anti-Muslim platform. Their success is due to the enormous feeling among the people of Europe against, on the one hand, the destruction of their powers of self-government and their assimilation into the undemocratic Euro superstate, and on the other the threat to western culture from Islamist conquest. On both of these seismic issues, the leaders of the democracies are either burying their heads in the sand or are actively bringing them into being. With no democratic party addressing these concerns and instead demonising legitimate nationalist feeling as ‘racist’, xenophobic’ or ‘Islamophobic’, people are turning to parties which truly are racist, anti-foreigner, anti-Muslim, anti-Jew and sometimes, indeed, neo-Nazi, but which are exploiting this political vacuum just as all such parties have always exploited other vacuums in leadership.

This presents a nightmarish prospect in which, if the democratic parties of Europe continue to demonise legitimate aspirations to maintain national cultures against undemocratic and anti-democratic forces, more and more people will be drawn to these parties – see the sophisticated pitch by and increasing support for the BNP in Britain, and social disorder will rise.[...]

The awful thing is that, as the far-right advances and social disorder increases – as it will -- muddled liberals and malign leftists will blame these political and social calamities on ‘the far right’. As a result, the steady encroachment of Islamism will proceed apace -- and anyone who objects will also be demonised as ‘the far right’. The rise of the neo-Nazis will thus turn the defence of democracy toxic. There is therefore a danger that the only people who will be fighting the Islamic fascists and in defence of the nation against the supranational supremacists will be the fascists....

UPDATE: Jihad Watch reader Maryatexitzero has posted below a link to a Jerusalem Post article that says that Strache "has aligned his party with the Iranian regime and vehemently opposes sanctions designed to force a suspension of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program." As I noted in a follow-up comment below, this not only constitutes good grounds to consider him a neo-Nazi indeed, but is a solid reason in and of itself to oppose him. Thank you, Mary.

If this "conflict-resolution" professor deems the Obsession film "pure propaganda," at least one Middle East history professor thinks otherwise. Wonder who knows more? More on this story.

"Obsession smells: It's propaganda, professor argues, by Tom H. Hastings for Oregon Live, September 29:

Many who subscribed to The Sunday Oregonian received, unbidden, a copy of Wayne Kopping's "Obsession: Radical Islam's war against the West," a packaged DVD that purports to show us the threat of worldwide radical Islam. It is disturbing and contains enough fact and truthto spur a logical and correct rejection of the ghastly beliefs and conduct of radical Islamicists.

Obsession is also connected to both the Israeli intelligence service and Christian evangelicals via Middle East Media Research Institute, according to SourceWatch.org.

Naturally, then, it is an hour of pure propaganda...

It is truly disgusting to watch Muslim 'clerics' practice their twisted version of hatred and objectification. Anyone who defends or tolerates that revisionist theology should rethink their moral code.Calling on believers to kill Jews or any other kuffar (non-Muslim) is loathsome.

However, there are sections of the film that defy logic and history.For example, in interviews with several principle subjects,astonishment is expressed at the possibility that foreign policies of the U.S. or the UK might have contributed to the growth of jihad.

Actually, the record is quite clear on this point; the foreign policy of the U.S. and UK helped exacerbate and foment jihad at many turns, from the killer sanctions on Iraq in the 1990s to the unconditional military aid to the Israeli Defense Force (at greater levels than any other nation on Earth every year), to the support for corrupt Middle Eastern governments such as Egypt's Mubarak and the Saudi royals, tothe U.S. occupation of places regarded as holy by Muslims (U.S. troops first in Saudi Arabia and now controlling Iraq).

There is plenty of blame to go around, but right now the most productive path forward is dialog based on lessons learned, on caution but on the determination to support nonviolence and democracy, not the armed control of any nation...

Infidel stronghold on Muslim land

"Symbol of decadence" -- not to mention Disney characters (who, accordingly are liable to receive death fatwas) -- must go. "Al-Qaeda planning to bomb Atlantis," by Dylan Bowman for Arabian Business, September 29:

The Atlantis hotel’s grand opening party is at the centre of a terrorism scare after British spies uncovered plans to target the lavish event in Dubai, to be attended by 2,000 VIPs.

There are fears Al-Qaeda is planning to bomb the event on Nov. 20 because it is seen by Islamic extremists as a symbol of decadence in a Muslim country, according to the UK's Sky News television.

Business leaders, politicians, actors, musicians and members of the Dubai royal family have all been invited to the grand opening, which is estimated to be costing $28 million and will be headlined by pop princess Kylie Minogue.

[...]

The launch of Atlantis has become one of the most talked about events on the Dubai calendar, with several global superstars linked with the grand opening, including Michael Jackson and Madonna.

The 1,539-room resort encompasses a 46-hectare site with 17 hectares of water-themed amusement parks, an open air marine habitat, beaches, boutiques and restaurants.

"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see." -- Ayn Rand (thanks to Vee)

Sunna Alert. Not to worry, however, as the particular Sunna being evoked seems to be that of Mecca, when Muhammad (ostensibly) sought only to live and let live.

"Rep Urges Muslims to Emulate Prophet Mohammed," by Usman Bello for AllAfrica, September 30:

A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Philip Tanimu Aduda, has urged Muslims in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to carry on with the spirit of Ramadan by emulating the virtues of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

Mr. Aduda who represents Abuja Municipal and Bwari Area Councils at the National Assembly, said this weekend while addressing FCT members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the constituency office in Wuse, Abuja.

He urged Muslims to be tolerant and peaceful and to desist from acts that could undermine the security of the nation by following the traditions and preachings of the Prophet of Islam which encourages co-existence with non Muslims...

Sunna of co-existence? Ah, the Meccan Sunna, when Muhammad was outnumbered and weak, and which has since been abrogated by the sword verses (9:5, 9:29), except when Muslims also find themselves outnumbered and weak.

Whoops. One shouldn't expect much in the way of apologies from the Syrian media or Foreign Ministry for the rush to judgment.

An update on this story. "Syria says radical Islam behind Damascus blast," by Ali Waked for YNet News, September 29:

An initial investigation into Saturday's fatal attack in Damascus revealed that a radical Islamic organization was responsible for the car bomb which killed 17 people.

The government newspaper Tishrin reported Monday that Syrian security officials believe the booby-trapped car was brought into Syrian territory a day before the attack through the country's border with a neighboring Arab state. The paper did not mention the name of the other country.

According to the report, one person was driving the vehicle, and efforts are now being made to complete his identification through DNA tests.

A number of radical Islam activists were arrested after the explosion. The Tishrin report indicates that Islamic elements outside Syria were behind the attack which shocked the country and followed a series of assassinations on Syrian soil.

Syrian papers on Sunday hinted at foreign involvement in the car bombing. So far, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack and the Syrian government has refrained from clearly pointing the finger at anyone.

Saturday's 200 kilogram car bomb near a Syrian security complex on the southern outskirts of the capital was the biggest – and deadliest – attack to occur in the country since the 1980s when authorities fought an uprising by Muslim militants.

The government-owned daily al-Thawra claimed in an editorial Sunday that recent attacks in Syria were planned outside the country, but did not mention any names.

However, the comment came a week after Syria massed thousands of troops north of its borders with neighboring Lebanon. Syria says the deployment is meant to curb smuggling, but President Bashar Assad has warned recently that "extremist forces" were operating in northern Lebanon and destabilizing his country....

But when a nominally Shi'ite government does it on behalf of Iran, well, that's completely different.

Here is an exceptionally detailed Islamic Tolerance Alert, and also a case study in the limitations on the usefulness of the term "Islamist." The mainstream media uses it in some settings to describe proponents of Islam as a political platform (for example, in Turkey) who are not at the moment employing or endorsing open warfare; just as often, it is used to describe those who are, as a somewhat "softer" alternative to "jihadist." In either case, while the imprecision may not always be intentional on the part of the journalist, the reader must note with caution where the term may be used to sidestep the connection of "Islamist" activities with actual Islamic texts and teachings.

In this case, the Pact of Umar looms large, due the far-reaching precedent it set in prohibiting the building of new churches or repairing of old ones. And as always, there is the instruction from the Qur'an itself (9:29) that unbelievers "feel themselves subdued."

"Kenya: Islamists attack church in northern town," from Compass Direct News, September 29:

GARISSA, Kenya, September 29 (Compass Direct News) – A longstanding effort to replace a church with a mosque in Kenya’s northern town of Garissa culminated in an attack by 50 Muslim youths this month that left the worship building in ruins.

The gang stormed the building of Redeemed Gospel Church on Sept. 14 and pelted the congregation with stones, sending many Christians fleeing while others became embroiled in fistfights. Ten Christians received hospital treatment for minor injuries and were released.

Church leaders said the Muslim mob also destroyed pews, damaged the church building’s walls of corrugated iron, smashed the glass-mounted pulpit and burned the church banner with its stand.

“We had just started the Sunday service when, without warning, a rowdy group of about 50 Muslim youths invaded the church, pelting stones at us and destroying our structures,” said the church youth chairman, identified only as Suma.

Local media reported that the 10 church members were hospitalized, but a district nurse at the hospital told Compass that no one was admitted due to the violence. A church elder at East Africa Pentecostal Church in Garissa, about 400 kilometers (249 miles) from Nairobi, confirmed that the church members were treated at the hospital and allowed to go home.

Tensions between Christians and the Muslim-majority population in the semi-desert town of 20,000 people began simmering after Muslims built a mosque next to the church plot at No. 21 Windsor in June 2007. Purchasing its land on Nov. 1, 1999, the church had begun worshipping there by early 2001, eventually growing to 400 members.

Church leaders complained to the district commissioner in June 2007 that the new mosque was built too close to the church – only three meters separate the two structures – and that it was blocking the church entryway.

“Prior to that, the owner of that land had promised to use half of it and sell the other half to the church,” the church leaders reported to the district commissioner in June 2007. “But in 2007, she changed her mind and gave it to the sheikhs to build the mosque. We reported the matter to the DC’s office that it would not go well with the church.”

Officials had ruled that no further permanent structures were to be set up on the land by either party until a later date to be determined by the district commissioner.

“The church faithfully obeyed, but the Muslims defied the orders and began immediately to put up a permanent structure,” according to the letter church leaders wrote to the district commissioner. The building of the mosque was allegedly sponsored by M.K. Roble, a wealthy Muslim in Garissa, according to the letter.

“The problems between the church and the Muslims began and have escalated since then,” it states.

Government security intelligence had reported that Muslims planned to destroy the church if it continued to operate within the residential area, District Commissioner (DC) Alois Okango told Compass. The administration had proposed a new site for the church to worship, Jamhuri Club, but two days before the attack church leaders wrote two letters to Okango saying they would remain worshipping in their building.

“We would like to notify you that our church members have decided to have our Sunday service at our usual place on September 14 and not at the new site of Jamhuri Club,” they wrote in one of the letters, “because we have come to realize that the new site is only temporary, and we will only move out of our premise if we are guaranteed a permanent place of worship.”

Okango told Compass that to avert a crisis, the administration has decided that the church should relocate temporarily to a site near an agricultural showground. The government also advised the church to sell its property near the mosque and buy another piece of land, preferably outside Garissa town center.

This suggestion, Okango told Compass, did not augur well with church members, who felt they had already established the church at the site and that it was the mosque that should be moving. [...]

Land issues alone have not been responsible for tensions in the area. The Rev. Ibrahim Kamwaro, chairman of the Pastors’ Fellowship in Garissa, said Pastor Matolo had offended Muslims when he preached to a lame Muslim man.

Muslims were said to be upset that the pastor persuaded the disabled man to stop going to the mosque and instead join his church. Pastor Matolo’s alleged promise to the disabled man of a better life offended area Muslims, Rev. Kamwaro said.

Muslims restrict churches in Garissa in various ways: Christians are not allowed conduct prayers, sing or use musical instruments in rented homes owned by Muslims. No teaching of Christian Religious Education in schools is allowed; only Islamic Religious Knowledge is taught....

More on this story. "Jury selection starts in Fort Dix plot case; judge hopes to find 18 jurors from pool of 1,500," by Geoff Mulvihill for AP, September 29:

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) _ Jury selection began Monday in the federal trial of five men accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix.

Lawyers were expected to take three weeks or more to seat 12 jurors and six alternates. The trial itself will likely last several months.

Prospective jurors were given questionnaires to fill out detailing any knowledge of the case and their own biases.

The government says five men were moving forward with a plan to shoot soldiers on the New Jersey Army installation when they were arrested in May 2007. No attack was carried out and lawyers for the men say there was no plot.

The men — all foreign-born Muslims in their 20s who spent several years in southern New Jersey — are charged with conspiracy to murder soldiers and attempted murder. They'll face life in prison if they are convicted.

[...]

The suspects are due in court later this week for a hearing over whether prosecutors can introduce evidence that includes one of the men allegedly discussing attacking other sites such as the White House and Philadelphia International Airport.

Fort Dix is used mostly to train reservists for duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Supna Zaidi, the assistant director of Islamist Watch and daughter of my dear and much-missed friend the late Tashbih Sayyed, considers this question in an article of the same name at Pajamas Media (September 27):

Sandela Kanwal wanted a divorce for unknown reasons. Maybe her husband in Chicago was a wife-beater. Maybe she just didn't like him. We don't know. For months, she had been trying to get her father to end her unhappy marriage and in July 2008 Sandela tried again. This time, Chaudhry Rashad strangled his daughter to death. When the police arrived, he stated that he did nothing wrong and later demanded that he be provided halal food while in jail.

What kind of an ideology causes a man to show no remorse for murdering his own daughter, but rants and raves at being served ham sandwiches while in prison? The media picked up the story quickly and asked, "Is Islam to blame?"

On CNN, Zuhdi Jasser, of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, tried to paint Rashad as a backward cultural aberration, stating:

It [the honor killing of Sandela] has nothing to do with Islam. This is a tribal, medieval mentality that is seen in tribes in Pakistan and India, and often is not even seen in Islamic communities. It's basically part of the ignorance of the tribal community.

On Fox News, Irshad Manji, on the other hand, stated that these killings are often done in the name of Allah and compared them to honor killings in the last century in Italy, which were carried out by Catholics. She notes that these killings are often done with the name of "Allah dripping from their lips."

The media and moderate Muslims like Jasser and Manji miss the point. The victim was not Islam but a 25-year-old girl. An honor killing is defined as the murder of a girl or woman who has allegedly committed an act that has shamed and embarrassed her family. For the family to show its community that it has reasserted control, the woman is killed. Thus, "harm to reputation" is a partial or complete defense to murder. No passage in the Koran discusses honor killings, but Muslim clerics justify them and secular Muslims either do not punish them or pass laws to mitigate punishment for them. With this, Muslims make honor killings a part of Islam.

Honor killings are justified under Islam in some Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia. For example, tenth-grade textbooks teach Saudi children that it is permissible to kill adulterers. In April 2008, a girl was killed by her father for talking to a boy on Facebook, an online social networking website. A leading Saudi cleric, Sheikh Ali al-Maliki, was outraged that girls had access to such websites where they could post pictures of themselves and otherwise "behave badly," but showed no concern over the girl actually killed.

Honor killings are justified as a necessary part of culture in other Muslim countries such as Jordan, which is technically a secular kingdom with a representative parliament. In 2001 King Abdallah presented a bill outlining stiff penalties for honor killings, but parliament rejected it, stating, "it [punishing honor killings] would encourage adultery and create new social problems." Four years later, honor killings accounted for one-third of all violent deaths in Jordan in 2005, where perpetrators received as little as six months in prison under the penal code.

Secular Iraq offers no punishment. Consider the following anecdotal evidence. This year, a 17-year-old named Rand Abdel-Qader was killed by her father because she had a crush on a British soldier. The arresting Iraqi sergeant stated that "not much can be done when we have an ‘honor killing' case. You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws." The father also killed his wife, who left him after the murder of their daughter. He will not be prosecuted for either murder in Iraq.

Leaving honor killings at the doorstep of illiterate villagers, as Jasser does, ignores the problem on a humane level in favor of intellectual debate. The more secular, educated elites of Muslim countries may not be so backward as to commit such crimes themselves, but they know it is happening and prefer to look the other way. The upper and middle classes have a responsibility as civic and political leaders to defend women through education, the law, and enforcement of meaningful punishments. The "Qatif Girl" case in Saudi Arabia is a good example. Attorney Abdul Rahman al-Lahem represented a gang-rape victim who was punished for being with non-related men (the rapists) without a chaperone. Al-Lahem lost his license for bringing the case to the media. Following international pressure, the disciplinary committee at the Justice Ministry in Riyadh agreed to return it.

Irshad Manji's analysis hit closer to the truth, but is incomplete. By bringing in Catholic honor killings a century ago, Manji throws in the "you too" defense — the "you" being the West — and implies that such murders will fall out of favor as societies modernize and become more secular.

Neither Jasser nor Manji addresses the issue of accountability. Chaudhry Rashad was not raised in a vacuum. If moderates reinforce the line that honor killings are "dripping" with Allah or are part of Eastern culture, those prone to such violent acts will continue on the same path. No Muslim will claim theological authority to enforce change from the mosque. Nor will Muslims be forced to act now if the implication from Manji is that culture takes centuries to evolve. But if everyone starts pointing the finger at Muslim society collectively and asks, "why do you let this happen?" maybe change will finally come.

Such reorientation away from divine "Islam" to fallible, human "Muslims" would move violence such as honor killings from the margins of society into the spotlight.

This will allow the current tangential debate of whether such killings are religious or cultural to finally end so we can focus on the girls who continue to be killed daily.

What's a drzz?

Annika of the French-language blog drzz recently interviewed me, and the interview, in French, is now posted there. And here is an English translation of the interview:

ANNIKA: Fundamentalist Islam claims to find its roots in the Koran, therefore the holy book itself could be said to harbor directives irreconcilable with democratic values, the first amendment, equal rights for men and women, and the judicial system. Do you perceive this as correct?

SPENCER: Certainly the way the Koran has been understood throughout the history of Islam by the vast majority of orthodox commentators and theologians, and by the schools of Islamic jurisprudence and its various sects, harbor directives that are irreconcilable with democratic values, the first amendment, equal rights for men and women, and the judicial system. This enables contemporary jihadists to make the case successfully among peaceful Muslims and cultural Muslims that they represent pure and true Islam, and that if one wants to live Islam authentically, one must do as they do. Muslims who profess not to share their view have not yet formulated an effective Islamic comeback to that claim. It may not be utterly impossible for them to do this, but they have not done it yet, and it would involve an explicit rejection of Koranic literalism in many particulars.

ANNIKA: There has been some effort to prove "irreconcilable differences" between democratic values and the Koran. There were constitutional decrees written by the Turkish court as well as the European court. What else must be done to establish this as truth -- and how?

SPENCER: It will never be established as truth unless the current political and cultural environment changes radically. But if objective truth were the only or primary criterion, which it certainly is not now, one would be able by appeal to various Koranic verses and to the ways they have been understand in Islamic theology and law to establish that Islamic law, Sharia, is an all-encompassing system that has no room for democratic values in many particulars. It denies equality of rights before the law for women and non-Muslims. It denies the freedom of conscience and the freedom of speech.

This debate should ultimately be held in the public square, and Muslims in Western countries called upon to reject explicitly these elements of Islamic tradition, and to back up their rejection with deeds, instituting transparent and inspectable programs to teach against political Islam. But whether or not this debate is ever held, Europeans, and Americans also, will be faced sooner or later with the confrontation between democratic values and the Koran, because the bland denials of Islamic apologists will ultimately give way to the pressure of reality.

So...You come here often?

No Fun In Islam* Alert: "Fatwa against Zardari for 'flirting' with Palin," from NDTV, September 29 (thanks to PRCS):

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seems to be heading towards fresh trouble as the prayer leader of the Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad has issued a fatwa against him.

Maulana Abdul Ghafar, the prayer leader, seems to be irked by Zardari's "you're gorgeous" compliment to US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin during a meeting.

When Zardari was asked to keep shaking hands with Palin for the cameras, he said, "If he's (the aide) insisting, I might hug you."

He said the act was un-Islamic and unbecoming of a head of state of a Muslim country.

Maulana also said that Zardari shamed the entire Pakistani by publicly making indecent gestures towards Palin in Washington last Thursday....

*It was the Ayatollah Khomeini who enunciated the famous principle, "There is no fun in Islam."

Not "a symbol of oppression" but "a representation of culture and choice"

Naomi Wolf, self-styled infidel-defender-of-the-hijab seems to be influencing other infidel women about the wonders of Islamic wear. The problem, however, is when non-Muslims, as this writer, begin conflating the logic for wearing the hijab with everything else Islamic.

"Modesty in dress has real value for women," by Stephanie Floyd for Fredericksburg.com, September 28:

In the Sept. 7 article titled "Cover-up: Of Muslim women and Western fashion," Naomi Wolf states that we as a nation need to understand that the Islamic way of dressing is not intended to suppress sexuality, but to embody "a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channeling--toward marriage and the bonds that sustain family life."

I admit I used to be one of the people who looked away awkwardly when approaching a Muslim woman dressed in veils. Because to this veiled woman, who was I? A promiscuous hellion raising chaos in my arm-baring shirts, that's who.

After all, what could a conservative woman covered, quite literally, from head to toe have in common with me?

After reading Wolf's article, I understand that it's this kind of attitude that has led people astray, and I thoroughly agree with Wolf when she says we must get over our "Islamophobia."

We have to start accepting women's veils or chadors, not as a symbol of oppression, but as a representation of culture and choice.

To say wearing more revealing clothing represents freedom is ridiculous, especially when a woman might choose to dress more conservatively to feel comfortable.

Muslim women declare that their chadors liberate them from "intrusive Western stares."

With young women in our nation shamelessly flaunting themselves these days, it leaves little to the imagination--which, as Wolf says, actually reduces libido in men.

So while covering up may symbolize culture or religion for Muslims, maybe a modicum of modesty for us Western gals wouldn't be such a bad idea, either.

Why stop there? Maybe wife-beating (Koran 4:34) and polygamy (Koran 4:3) wouldn't be such bad ideas either for you "Western gals"? (Just providing the logical extension of these observations, not my own opinion, mind you.)

The audacity of BS

Khaleel Mohammed, a professor at San Diego State University and a popular "moderate Muslim," goes around the country reassuring Jewish audiences by telling them that in the Qur'an Allah gives the land of Israel to the Jews. And it does say that. One key verse is 5:21, which promises Israel to the Jews conditionally: “O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.”

This sounds great, of course: it suggests that Muslims who fight against Israel are ignoring their own holy book, and that once this verse and others like it are pointed out to them, they will accept the existence of Israel. And it also suggests that the vast majority of Muslims, because of this verse, have no problem with Israel at all.

Unfortunately, the Qur'an also says that the Jews, through their disobedience to Allah, have earned Allah’s curse (2:89, 9:30). Those who are accursed forfeit whatever Allah has given them. Meanwhile, the true followers of Moses's genuine, uncorrupted teachings are the Muslims, and so they are the ones who inherit the promises about Israel.

But that part of the Qur'anic message doesn't make it into Khaleel Mohammed's presentations.

Also, a few years ago Khaleel Mohammed said this about me: "He misquotes verses of the Qur'an, takes things out of context, and shamelessly lies." Since I do not misquote verses of the Qur'an, take things out of context, or shamelessly lie, I contacted him and asked for either documentation of his charges or a retraction. (I also responded to his false charges here.) He refused to retract, even though he did not (and could not) produce even one example of my misquoting verses of the Qur'an, taking things out of context, or shamelessly lying. And he compounded matters by responding: "As for shameless lies, I stand by my assertion, especially after received material in which you claim Muhammad married his daughter in law etc."

In reality, I did not fabricate this "claim," and I am sure that Khaleel Mohammed is well aware of this. The notorious incident of Muhammad's marriage to his former daughter-in-law Zaynab, far from being a "shameless lie," is a well-known and much-discussed element of Islamic tradition. You can read about it in this section of my Jihad Watch Blogging the Qur'an series.

Anyway, Khaleel Mohammed burnished his credentials as a "moderate" by appearing in Obsession, and for several years now since the film originally appeared he seemed perfectly happy to have done so. Even when it was shown on Fox, as far as I can tell Khaleel Mohammed uttered not a word of demurral or protest (if he did actually issue a statement at that time and I have overlooked it, please send it to me and I will correct this). But now that 28 million copies of the film have been distributed all over the country and it has a higher profile than ever before, Khaleel Mohammed has discovered that it is a "vile piece of propaganda," and has apologized for appearing in it. The apology appears on the Obsession with Hate website about which Marisol recently wrote here.

In an exclusive statement for obsessionwithhate.com, Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, the only Obsession interviewee who is an Islamic Studies Professor, delivers a new lethal blow to the film's credibility, exposing what many already knew:

“Sadly, it would seem that I have allowed myself to be used. I gave an interview to the makers of “obsession” wherein I explained the meaning of Jihad, and its misuse by extremists. I understood that the film would be used objectively, focusing on fanatics who seek to spread violence. I am aware that there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the film that says it is not about Islam in general, but only about extremist interpretations.

"But the material from some of the speakers gives the lie to the disclaimer: many of them are not experts, or have used the mantle of academic qualifications to purvey hate. That their alarmist drivel should be mixed with my whittled down interview proves that the intent of the film is not to educate, but to mislead. The free distribution of the film to voters in particular districts shows the political chicanery that is the motive, and the secrecy about the financing of the distribution only underlines the evil intent in circulating this vile piece of propaganda.

"Evidence seems to indicate the involvement of Aish ha-Torah in this dishonest enterprise. I find that particularly distressing, because any Jewish organization ought to realize what the film seeks to do: they demonize an entire community to the point where a government takes action to further beleaguer its citizens and resident aliens simply because of their religious identity. This bigotry over religion and identity is precisely what caused the Shoah — and it is sad that those who ought to have learned what hate can engender should seek to imitate Nazi propagandism.

"Yet — for all the nefarious intent of the distributors of the film — I must also accept culpability for allowing myself to be so used. I still oppose many of the traditional interpretations of Islam—but that has nothing to do with the film Obsession. I cannot stand by silently and allow my participation in such satanic demonization of innocents. I apologize to my fellow Muslims for appearing in such a film. I apologize to my Jewish teachers and friends-- who have warned me time and again about falling into such a situation—for not heeding their counsel. And I expect now that those who support the film will make me their target. But again: I am no diplomat, and I love a good fight. I am obsessed with the truth. Let’s get it on. “

The audacity of Khaleel Mohammed's BS never ceases to amaze me. For one thing, he says here, "I explained the meaning of Jihad, and its misuse by extremists," when he must know, if he knows anything about Islamic theology, that all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that jihad mainly means warfare (by various means, violent and nonviolent) against unbelievers in order to subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law. And when he says that the film demonizes an entire community, he is ignoring large sections of the beginning and end of the film, where the film plainly states that most Muslims have nothing to do with the jihadist program, and other elements within it -- including Khaled Abu Toameh's assertion that his religion has been "hijacked," which is presented without contradiction.

And then comes his most audacious bit of BS: "And I expect now that those who support the film will make me their target. But again: I am no diplomat, and I love a good fight. I am obsessed with the truth. Let’s get it on.“ Obsessed with truth? This is a man who misrepresents the Qur'an to Jewish audiences; who has smeared me and my work with false charges that he refuses to retract; and who is either unacquainted with or deliberately deceptive about one of the most famous incidents in Muhammad's career. Obsessed with truth? Obsessed with obscuring it, maybe. Obsessed with destroying it, fine. But obsessed with presenting it? Not Khaleel Mohammed.

So, Dr. Mohammed: I gladly accept the challenge you issued to those who support the film, and am ready to debate you about Obsession, the meaning of jihad, the Jews in the Qur'an, and the life of Muhammad and his marriage to his former daughter-in-law. Or if you'd like to frame the debate in some other way, I am open to your suggestions. I'm happy to see that you have changed your tune from your contemptuous and inaccurate description of our earlier exchanges that still stands here, in which you refuse to discuss substantive issues with me. I look forward to hearing from you at director@jihadwatch.org, and will cheerfully publish your response. I love a good fight too. "Let's get it on" indeed.

Muslim reformer

The so-called "reformist" sheikh continues demonstrating that his views are as traditional as only Sunnism can be: "Egyptian sheik's outburst against Shiites roils Mideast," by Jeffrey Fleishman for the LA Times, September 27:

Sunni cleric Yusuf Qaradawi calls Shiites heretics trying to invade Sunni nations, tapping into anti-Iran anxieties. Shiites express dismay at the remarks amid Iraq war and efforts to forge unity.

CAIRO — A popular Sunni Muslim cleric with a television show and a website that churns out religious edicts and dieting tips agitated centuries-old animosities in the Islamic world recently by referring to Shiite Muslims as heretics seeking to invade Sunni societies.[...]

"Shiites are Muslims but they are heretics and their danger comes from their attempts to invade Sunni society," said Qaradawi, who was quoted in the Egyptian independent daily Al Masry al Youm. "They are able to do that because their billions of dollars trained cadres of Shiites proselytizing in Sunni countries. . . . We should protect Sunni society from the Shiite invasion."

Those opinions were first published Sept. 6. Since then, Qaradawi, a man with a polished voice and a gray beard who hosts a show on Islamic law on TV channel Al Jazeera, has been chastised by Shiite scholars and writers in what has turned into a war of polemics and personal attacks played out on websites and in newspapers from Doha to Cairo.

Qaradawi's statements are dangerous and may "push the Muslim people in the direction of more division," Ayatollah Mohammed Taskhiri, vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, was quoted as saying in the Iranian press. The Tabnak News Agency, which is close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Council, condemned the comments as a "calculated conspiracy against Iranian Shiites."

Another leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon, said Qaradawi was instigating fitna, or civil strife.

The protests have not fazed Qaradawi; he has appeared more defiant.

"I do not care and I am not shaken by this stir. I made this statement to answer to the dictates of my conscience and religion and responsibility," he said in a second interview with Al Masry al Youm published Thursday. "I am trying to preempt the threat before it gets worse. If we let Shiites penetrate Sunni societies, the outcome won't be praiseworthy. The presence of Shiites in Iraq and Lebanon is the best evidence of instability."

Clearly the Copts' plight in Egypt is becoming better known, internationally; yet it is still obvious that the world outside still seems to view it as something of a "sectarian" split, where Copts and Muslims are equally "to blame." While this may sound plausible, it defies Islamic theology (not to mention Christian), as well as history, past and contemporary.

"Fragile Muslim-Christian peace crumbles in Egypt," by Jack Shenker for the News.Scotsman, September 29:

IN THE shadows of the Moqattam cliffs that tower over Cairo's eastern fringes, Safwat Nazeem is picking his way through tens of thousands of empty plastic bottles.

Safwat, like his father before him, is one of the Zabaleen, Egypt's invisible army of refuse collectors who gather the urban waste around them and welcome it into their homes. Their neighbourhood, known as Garbage City, overflows with rubbish all waiting to be sifted and recycled. And after a recent spate of national violence and media intrigue, the Zabaleen have become a community on the defensive.

Like the vast majority of Garbage City's residents, Safwat is a Coptic Christian – part of an eight million-strong religious minority in Egypt that predates the presence of Islam in the country by over 500 years.

In the past months, the country's fragile sectarian balance has been rocked by violent clashes, accusations of discrimination on both sides and rumours of "special interests" spreading disruption from abroad.

In late May, four Christians were gunned down in a Cairene jewellery shop. The government dismissed it as a robbery, neglecting to explain why nothing was taken. Pope Shenouda, the ageing patriarch of the Coptic Church, opted to stay quiet and maintained his silence even when a similar attack took place on a Coptic jeweller in Alexandria a few days later.

But he was forced to speak out on 31 May when a serene Coptic outpost, the 1,700-year-old monastery of Abo Fana, was besieged by dozens of Muslims following a land dispute with local farmers. Although the Abo Fana controversy occurred 300 miles south of the Egyptian capital, its impact was felt throughout the country.

Copts have consistently complained that archaic building regulations hamper the repair or expansion of their churches, strangling the ancient faith with bureaucracy. They also claim they are denied access to key positions in government because of their religion.

Muslim commentators have argued that most Copts are better off than their Muslim counterparts, and that the Christian faithful are being manipulated by external forces using the guise of "minority rights" to interfere with Egypt's internal affairs....

Safwat shares the fears of many Christians that the changing political landscape in Egypt is threatening his way of life.

Glancing up at a figurine of the Virgin Mary, he sighs: "Islam is the solution is their slogan. But there is no place for Christians in that, no place for anyone else."

Ramadan: The month of jihad. "Ramadan bombings kill 32 people," from Agence France-Presse, September 29 (thanks to Twostellas):

FOUR bombs killed at least 32 people and wounded scores in busy districts of Baghdad overnight as Iraqis shopped and broke their fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, police said.

A car bomb exploded in a car park in central Baghdad's busy Karrada shopping district, followed quickly by a roadside bomb nearby. The double strike killed at least 19 people and wounded 72, police said.

A short time earlier a bomb exploded in a parked car in Baghdad's Shurta neighbourhood in the early evening, killing at least 12 people and wounding 35, police said.

At about the same time another bomb attached to a car in the nearby Hay al-Amil neighbourhood killed one person....

Method-as-Entity Alert. "War on terror must not be interpreted as confrontation with Islam - Uzbek foreign minister," from Interfax, September 29:

Tashkent, September 29, Interfax - Tashkent has insisted that combat against terrorism should not be transformed into Islamophobia.

Speaking at a coordinating ministerial session of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov expressed concerns about growing Islamophobia and intolerance in various parts of the world, the Ministry told Interfax on Saturday.

"Uzbekistan has been one of the centers of enlightened Islam for centuries. This is why certain negative interpretations of Islam's historical role and deliberately malicious distortions of historical facts cause our serious concerns," Norov said.

Uzbekistan is categorically against seeing the war on terror transforming into Islamophobia and taking the shape of latent or open confrontation with the Islamic world, he said.

Norov supported the OIC's initiatives "on unifying and consolidating the Muslim countries in confronting the fundamental changes determined by new challenges and threats to security," among them extremism, terrorism, drug trafficking, and Islamophobia.

The minister spoke for promoting the ideology of tolerance, mutual understanding, and cultural diversity.

Norov pointed out that Uzbek President Islam Karimov had called for the consolidation of the Muslim world to protect Islam from groundless accusations, explain its pure essence to the younger generation, and emphasize its humane and creative nature.

"The Republic of Uzbekistan is making its contribution to support for dialogue between cultures and civilizations, which needs to be held within the framework of international law, without any pressure and attempts to impose unacceptable values and moral standards on anyone and with the preservation of respectful attitude toward the mentality that has formed over centuries and millennia," he said.

This appears to be part of an effort to force the store to stop carrying alcohol altogether -- which illustrates the supremacist element in Muslim demands for accommodation. Muhammad laid curses not only upon those who drank alcohol, but those who distributed it and transported it also; however, only recently have Muslims in the West begun insisting upon observance of these restrictions.

"Muslim sues Tesco for 'making him carry beer,'' by Joel Taylor for Metro.co.uk, September 28 (thanks to Twostellas):

A Muslim worker is suing Tesco for discrimination after being asked to transport beer on his forklift truck.

Mohammed Ahmed claims he was in eff­ect forced from his job because managers ref­used to accept that handling alcohol offended his beliefs.

The 32-year-old, raised in Saudi Arabia, told a tribunal he had never visited a Tesco store and had no idea it sold alcohol when he took on the role.

At that point you had two choices, Mr. Ahmed: you could have quit your job and found another that did not conflict with your religious beliefs -- or you could have filed suit so as to try to bend British society to the will of Islam. Your choice is interesting.

But he admitted shopping at Sainsbury's, Lidl and Asda and seeing alcohol on sale there.

It was, 'reason­able to expect him to be aware of what Tesco did', said company lawyer Laura Canham, accusing him of giving out mixed messages by suggesting at one point he could handle Budweiser.

Yeah, I think it's watery, too.

"See those Islamophobes, Barack? It's time to call out the Thought Police!"

By now a gazillion sites have posted this from the State of Missouri's site, "Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement." What interests me most about it is the eerie parallel between the Obama camp's activity here and the Organization of the Islamic Conference's efforts to stifle all criticism of Islam and destroy the freedom of speech -- also by means of legal intimidation, at the UN and elsewhere.

No, I am not saying that Obama is a closet Muslim Manchurian candidate. I am saying that if he values free speech so lightly, as this episode suggests, it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that once he becomes President he will acquiesce to the OIC attempts to criminalize criticism of Islam, and pressure the Supreme Court (to which he will probably appoint several key members) to declare a "hate speech" exemption to First Amendment protections. Then it will effectively become illegal to discuss the motives and goals of the jihadists, and to strategize about ways to resist them -- because the OIC and American Islamic groups assail all attempts to do that as "hate speech." "Hate speech" is in the eye of the beholder, and "hate speech" laws are tools by which the powerful can silence criticism from the powerless. In this case, the Islamic groups have already made themselves abundantly clear that any examination of the jihadists' use of Islamic texts and teachings to justify their actions is what they consider "hate speech." Thus if what is labeled "hate speech" about Islam becomes a criminal offense, so will resistance to Islamic supremacism.

But if this were to become an actual live possibility, Americans would rise up and fight for their freedoms, right? I hope so. Yet all too many Americans don't seem to understand or care about the importance of free speech nowadays, and of course no one supports "hate speech" in the first place -- so once the OIC frames the analysis of the jihad threat in terms of "hate," as American Muslim groups do endlessly, the ability to discuss, analyze, understand, and defend ourselves against the jihadist threat will be severely damaged if not utterly destroyed.

Will it happen? I hope not. I pray not. But can it happen? After reading this story out of Missouri, I am beginning to wonder if just maybe it can -- although just days ago I was discussing all this with an attorney, who assured me that precedents protecting free speech in American law are very thick on the ground, and will be hard to overturn. In fact, he maintained that they would be impossible to overturn.

Still -- is this speculation, and that is certainly all that it is, really that far beyond the realm of reasonable possibility? Already those who discuss the jihad threat in its full dimensions honestly and openly are ostracized, marginalized and vilified. If Candidate Obama is willing to have people arrested when they say things about him that he doesn't like, will President Obama have the vision or courage or understanding to stand up against the OIC when it demands restrictions on freedom of speech at precisely the same time that he wants to build bridges to the Islamic world and demonstrate his power to restore hope and bring change to old stalemated conflicts? So maybe a few greasy Islamophobes get silenced, fined, arrested, imprisoned, whatever. What's the big deal? Peace, and the expansionist and supremacist agenda of the Religion of Peace, will then march on unimpeded.

JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.

“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

“This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

Comments by David G. Littman (representative to the UN of the Association of World Education and the World Union of Progressive Judaism):

Once again, Egyptian Counsellor Amr Roshdy Hassan cowed into conformism all the Members of the Human Rights Council by using slapstick jihad ad hominem attacks on NGOs in order to combat truth. This performance was the latest in a series of attempts to silence speakers, as we described in earlier reports:

UN Human Rights Council: Any mention of the word “sharia” is now taboo

UNHRC: Something is, indeed, rotten in the State of … the Council

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03dOu-DNLec

It is worth recording these histrionics by Egypt’s delegate -- speaking for his country, and sometimes for the Arab League, the African Union or the OIC, as it would be quite impossible to imagine any such a performance being allowed at the United Nations.

We are reproducing our statement in full, and an exact transcript of what was said on 23 September by the Egyptian delegate, whose intimidation prompted the president to rule our statement ‘out of order’ later, thus setting a dangerous precedent at the HRC.

In the context, our written statement to the final, 62nd session of the Commission is pertinent: General Comments on the Human Rights Commission and a future Council
-- “A riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”: E/CN.4/2006/NGO/1, here.

In it, we referred to ad hominem attacks, under the heading: Freedom of speech: end personal attacks on Special Rapporteurs and NGO representatives, quoting Argentine Ambassador Leandro Despouys, chairman of the 57th session of the CHR who, in his statement to the plenum on 12 April 2001, referred to the ‘Main Rules and Practices’ (articles 11 and 16 of the paper: E/CN.4/2001/CRP.1), covering ad hominem attacks on Special Rapporteurs, and also NGO representatives. His appeal was understood and noted by all on that occasion. We also quoted, in that text, a remarkably pertinent recommendation by the Libyan chairperson of the 57th session, Ambassador Najat A-Hajjaji, when she addressed Special Rapporteurs, Representatives and Independent Experts, and others, at the 10th session (23-27 June 2003). This was after the close of the Commission when she had warned all at the 1st meeting that she would not tolerate personal attacks on speakers; this followed an appeal we had made to her publicly (at a prior meeting with NGOs) to condemn all ad hominem attacks on NGOs. She did.

Speak freely as you have done in the past. Continue to do so in the interest of truth, of justice, irrespective of the pressure that is brought to bear upon you by Governments. Even if what you say is contrary to the interests of the Government, there are thousands, millions of victims, who look upon the Commission, the special procedures, as the conscience of humanity… Stand firm, let nothing stand in the way of truth.

The UN webcast links to our 23 September statement and the interruptions (7½ mins)

1) David G. Littman reading AWE’s statement during 2½ minutes before the President stopped him on a ‘point of order’ by the delegate of Egypt (Member State of the CHR):

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/ninth/hrc080923am-eng.rm?start=00:25:05&end=00:27:32

2) Egyptian Counsellor Amr Roshdy Hassan’s 2 minute slapstick jihad performance -- followed by the Nigerian President’s appeal to follow the “golden rule” (2½ minutes), which we mistakenly understood to be a diplomatic defence of “freedom of speech”.

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/ninth/hrc080923am-eng.rm?start=00:27:41&end=00:32:10

3) DGL given the floor again, but then ruled “out of order” by the President (30 sec.).

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/ninth/hrc080923am-eng.rm?start=00:32:10&end=00:32:44

4) See also the full report by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). http://www.iheu.org/node/3290.

There are many promising pledges in this interview, if only the party will stand with her and follow through on them. "Conservatives would ban sharia courts, says shadow minister," by Jon Swaine for the Telegraph, September 28:

A Conservative government would ban sharia courts and impose a tough crackdown on Islamic extremism, the shadow security minister has said.

Pauline Neville-Jones, a former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said: "We are not going to have any status for sharia courts. Absolutely not."

Earlier this month it emerged that the Government had quietly allowed rulings of five sharia courts across Britain to be enforceable through the county courts or High Court.

Lady Neville-Jones said that while minor disputes could be settled by "customary mediation" - including through sharia and the Jewish Beth Din system - there could be no formal legal recognition.

That still leaves open the question of whether participation in sharia "mediation" is truly voluntary. And the comparison with Beth Din courts does not really hold, as sharia is a system with much broader aspirations for control over the lives of believers and unbelievers, and as such, its proponents will always be seeking more power for it.

"We are not going to have any legal recognition of sharia judgments that would withstand appeal to a secular court," she said before the Tory conference in Birmingham, .

Speaking the day after Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said Britain had "done something terrible to ourselves" by encouraging multiculturalism, Lady Neville-Jones said that the Conservatives would make the case for more "integration" among all British people, whatever their backgrounds.

She said: "We want unity and opportunity, despite difference, through integration."

She accused the Government of leading the country down the "blind alley of multiculturalism, which has deliberately gone down the road of separation for its own sake."

Lady Neville-Jones said there was also a clear divide between the Tories and Labour on the question of how to deal with the spread of extremism among some young Muslims.

"We will be tough. We will be really tough on the men of violence and those who lead them to violence," she told the Sunday Express. "That's the real gap between us and the Government at the moment."

She explained that a Conservative Government would move to extend the list of banned extremist groups - potentially including Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is regularly accused of anti-Semitism, and Tablighi Jamaat, which is behind plans to build a "mega mosque" near the site of the London Olympics complex in East London.

She also said the Tories would seek to reform the European Convention on Human Rights in order to allow the deportation of preachers who incite violence against Britain.

Speaking in response to Lady Neville-Jones's comments, Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Sharia courts operate with the blessing of UK law."

He added: "As for banning organisations, we believe in a democracy it is far better to allow all organisations to operate freely, and if individuals happen to break the law then they ought to be prosecuted."

An update on this story. "Radical Islamic clerics warn of further attacks after publisher is firebombed," by John Bingham for the Telegraph, September 28:

Hardline clerics said that further attacks would be "inevitable" if publication of the novel, The Jewel of Medina, goes ahead as planned next month.

Police moved in to arrest three men moments after a fire broke out at the London home and office of Martin Rynja in the early hours of Saturday.

The attack came days after Mr Rynja's company, Gibson Square, bought the rights to the book by the American writer Sherry Jones, which has already been likened to Sir Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

The novel, which focuses on the relationship between Mohammed and his child bride Aisha, was recently dropped from publication in the United States by the publishers Random House amid fears that it would anger Muslims.

Mr Rynja, who is described by friends as "taking on projects where others fear to tread" has published several books by controversial authors including Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who was poisoned in London after becoming an outspoken critic of the country's prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin.

Buying the British and Commonwealth rights to the Sherry Jones novel last week, Mr Rynja described it as a "moving love story".

But the radical cleric Anjem Choudhary said the book was an insult to the Prophet Mohammed's honour, something he said would warrant a "death penalty" under Sharia law.

The attack on Mr Rynja's home in Lonsdale Square, Islington, north London, came in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Armed police accompanied by firemen broke down the door of the house after flames and smoke were seen.

It is believed officers had been expecting the attack and quickly moved in to arrest two men at the scene while a third was stopped at a nearby London Underground station.

The three men, aged 40, 30 and 22, were being questioned on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism last night.

The EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella whose 16-year-old brother Ben was stabbed to death earlier this year, lives in the square and was among those evacuated by police as part of the operation.

Other neighbours spoke of their terror at being awoken to see armed police in the square but praised the operation as professional.

But the radical cleric Anjem Choudhary, who lives in Ilford, east London, said he was "not surprised at all" by the attack and warned of possible further reprisals over the book.

"It is clearly stipulated in Muslim law that any kind of attack on his honour carries the death penalty," he said.

"People should be aware of the consequences they might face when producing material like this. They should know the depth of feeling it might provoke."

He denied any involvement in the attack but said he "understood" the feelings of the perpetrators.

"If the publication goes ahead then I think, inevitably, there will be more attacks like this - this is the thin of the wedge," he said.

Speaking from Lebanon, the radical cleric Omar Bakri, added: "If anybody attacks that man I cannot myself condemn it."

Sir Salman, who was made the subject of a fatwa by the Iranian leader Ayatolla Khomeini ordering his death in 1989 for publishing a "blasphemous" book, has spoken out in defence of The Jewel of Medina and suggested Random House had allowed itself to be intimidated.

Police were granted a warrant to continue holding the three men until Saturday at a brief hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Sunday.

Rand Simberg says that the symptoms correspond to those caused by radiation poisoning. "Pirates die strangely after taking Iranian ship," by Andrew Donaldson for the Times of Johannesburg, South Africa, September 28 (thanks to LGF):

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates.

Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.

Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”

The vessel’s declared cargo consists of “minerals” and “industrial products”. But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist rebels....

It's Sunday afternoon. Relax. Enjoy this short. It has been floating around for awhile, but it still retains its punch. (Be forewarned: there are a couple of vulgarities in it.) And note the YouTube comments on it about the "hoax" of the war on terror -- as if there aren't people like these men in the world today.

The country that only recently had a fit because a concert performer was deemed "too sexy," that seized Christian books and arrested Americans who promoted Christianity, and that refuses to allow people the freedom to renounce Islam -- yes, this same nation wishes to educate Americans about "Islamophobia" and "religious tolerance."

More on this story. Wild-Hypocrisy-Alert: "Malaysia Proposes Convention On Islamophobia In U.S." from Bernama.com, September 26:

NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has proposed that a large-scale international convention sponsored by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) be held as early as next year to tackle the anti-Islam movement which is rearing its ugly head in several developed nations.

[...]

[Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim] hoped that the convention would be attended by influential people like leaders, department heads, intellectuals and non-governmental organisations which support religious tolerance.

"Malaysia hopes that another window can be opened for a more universal understanding of Islam to help in civilisation building," he said.

He said the United States was chosen as the venue for the convention because of the polemic on Islam in that country besides the wide media coverage that it would generate...

As I predicted here.

"Syrian FM: Israel has most to gain from terror attack," by Roee Nahmias for Ynet News, September 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Saturday in response to the fatal attack in Damascus that "Israel is one of those who have the most to gain from this criminal act," Kuwaiti news agency Kuna reported.

Seventeen people were killed and dozens were injured in the Syrian capital Saturday morning when a booby-trapped car exploded on the road leading to the country's international airport.

"Unfortunately, in the years following the American war on terror, terror has spread even further. Such incidents can take place anywhere and do not indicate that there was a security breach.

"I can promise you that Syria's security forces will continue to stand guard for the citizens and the state," said Muallem, who is currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly....

The UK's logic seems to be that, since both parties are willing to abide by the decision of a third part, in this case, the sharia court, and all parties concerned are doing so willingly, then it's legal. But, as this report points out, what of those veiled Muslim women in Britain who know no English, don't know their rights as citizens of Britain, and simply do what their men -- fathers, husbands, brothers -- tell them to do, that is, let a sharia court decide? Are they truly "free" in the matter?

"British bishop: questions remain on Sharia," by Toby Cohen for Religious Intelligence, September 28:

Sharia law has been applied to British citizens in arbitration tribunals around the country since August 2007, but crucial questions need to be asked, says the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.

The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal has take advantage of Section 1 of the Arbitration Act 1996 which allows individuals to nominate any third party to settle their argument. It says: “The parties should be free to agree how their disputes are resolved, subject only to such safeguards as are necessary in the public interest”.

In the Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali asked how we could be certain the parties had submitted to the rule of the arbitration tribunals willingly, particularly in the case of women. He said: “Both in terms of submission to a tribunal and in accepting its decisions, are women genuinely free, or is it possible that there are elements of coercion?”

The bishop also questioned how the rulings themselves could be reconciled with British law, based on such different values. In the cases of alimony, division of estate and marriage, he points out stark differences between Sharia law and that of the land which supposedly now supports it...

Robert Davis' book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 has actually been out for several years, but I keep getting sent the press release below about it, and since it contains valuable information that is largely forgotten amid all the historical whitewash, I thought it would be worth posting.

I'm only sorry that Davis used the term "white slavery." I understand that this is a common term, but it is misleading here: it must be understood that these people were enslaved because they were non-Muslims, not because they were white. The Qur'an sanctions slavery and Islam allows for the enslavement of prisoners of war, and it was under those auspices that these slaving operations were conducted.

"When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed," from Ohio State Research, with thanks to all who sent this in:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before.

In a new book, Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, developed a unique methodology to calculate the number of white Christians who were enslaved along Africa’s Barbary Coast, arriving at much higher slave population estimates than any previous studies had found.

Most other accounts of slavery along the Barbary coast didn’t try to estimate the number of slaves, or only looked at the number of slaves in particular cities, Davis said. Most previously estimated slave counts have thus tended to be in the thousands, or at most in the tens of thousands. Davis, by contrast, has calculated that between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Davis’s new estimates appear in the book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan).

“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland.”

“Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimizes the impact that slavery had on Europe,” Davis said. “Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear.”

Davis said it is useful to compare this Mediterranean slavery to the Atlantic slave trade that brought black Africans to the Americas. Over the course of four centuries, the Atlantic slave trade was much larger – about 10 to 12 million black Africans were brought to the Americas. But from 1500 to 1650, when trans-Atlantic slaving was still in its infancy, more white Christian slaves were probably taken to Barbary than black African slaves to the Americas, according to Davis.

“One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature – that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” Davis said. “We cannot think of slavery as something that only white people did to black people.”

During the time period Davis studied, it was religion and ethnicity, as much as race, that determined who became slaves.

“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland,” he said.

Pirates (called corsairs) from cities along the Barbary Coast in north Africa – cities such as Tunis and Algiers – would raid ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children. The impact of these attacks were devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. At its peak, the destruction and depopulation of some areas probably exceeded what European slavers would later inflict on the African interior.

Although hundreds of thousands of Christian slaves were taken from Mediterranean countries, Davis noted, the effects of Muslim slave raids was felt much further away: it appears, for example, that through most of the 17th century the English lost at least 400 sailors a year to the slavers.

Even Americans were not immune. For example, one American slave reported that 130 other American seamen had been enslaved by the Algerians in the Mediterranean and Atlantic just between 1785 and 1793.

Davis said the vast scope of slavery in North Africa has been ignored and minimized, in large part because it is on no one’s agenda to discuss what happened.

The enslavement of Europeans doesn’t fit the general theme of European world conquest and colonialism that is central to scholarship on the early modern era, he said. Many of the countries that were victims of slavery, such as France and Spain, would later conquer and colonize the areas of North Africa where their citizens were once held as slaves. Maybe because of this history, Western scholars have thought of the Europeans primarily as “evil colonialists” and not as the victims they sometimes were, Davis said.

Davis said another reason that Mediterranean slavery has been ignored or minimized has been that there have not been good estimates of the total number of people enslaved. People of the time – both Europeans and the Barbary Coast slave owners – did not keep detailed, trustworthy records of the number of slaves. In contrast, there are extensive records that document the number of Africans brought to the Americas as slaves.

So Davis developed a new methodology to come up with reasonable estimates of the number of slaves along the Barbary Coast. Davis found the best records available indicating how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time. He then estimated how many new slaves it would take to replace slaves as they died, escaped or were ransomed.

“The only way I could come up with hard numbers is to turn the whole problem upside down – figure out how many slaves they would have to capture to maintain a certain level,” he said. “It is not the best way to make population estimates, but it is the only way with the limited records available.”

Putting together such sources of attrition as deaths, escapes, ransomings, and conversions, Davis calculated that about one-fourth of slaves had to be replaced each year to keep the slave population stable, as it apparently was between 1580 and 1680. That meant about 8,500 new slaves had to be captured each year. Overall, this suggests nearly a million slaves would have been taken captive during this period. Using the same methodology, Davis has estimated as many as 475,000 additional slaves were taken in the previous and following centuries.

The result is that between 1530 and 1780 there were almost certainly 1 million and quite possibly as many as 1.25 million white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast.

Davis said his research into the treatment of these slaves suggests that, for most of them, their lives were every bit as difficult as that of slaves in America.

“As far as daily living conditions, the Mediterranean slaves certainly didn’t have it better,” he said.

While African slaves did grueling labor on sugar and cotton plantations in the Americas, European Christian slaves were often worked just as hard and as lethally – in quarries, in heavy construction, and above all rowing the corsair galleys themselves.

Davis said his findings suggest that this invisible slavery of European Christians deserves more attention from scholars.

“We have lost the sense of how large enslavement could loom for those who lived around the Mediterranean and the threat they were under,” he said. “Slaves were still slaves, whether they are black or white, and whether they suffered in America or North Africa.”

Perfect candidates, too, since their "training" can be deemed nearly complete. More on radical Islam's appeal to "mischievous" men here.

"Al-Qaeda bid to recruit inmates," by David Leppard for Times Online, September 28:

AL-QAEDA terrorists have targeted 800 Muslim criminals they want to recruit for their “holy war” against Britain, say prison probation officers.

The officers believe that attempts have been made to convert one in 10 of the estimated 8,000 Muslims in the eight high-security prisons in England and Wales to the Al-Qaeda cause in the past two years.

The Ministry of Justice has begun a programme to persuade convicted terrorists to give up their cause. It is also trying to protect vulnerable Muslim inmates from violent extremists.

The ministry said this weekend that it had established a unit to tackle “the risks of extremism and radicalism in prison”.

The radicalisation is being led by some of the estimated 150 terrorist prisoners in England and Wales. The number of Muslim inmates has grown over the past decade to more than 10% of the jail population.

Most are young men, typically petty criminals serving two or three-year sentences for crimes such as burglary, theft, drug dealing or fraud.

Many are impressionable and feel aggrieved by what they see as mistreatment by the authorities. They are considered to be ripe for recruitment by Al-Qaeda.

One of the most notorious Al-Qaeda terrorists, Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber” who was convicted of trying to blow up a transatlantic jet in 2001 with explosives in his trainers, had served time as a petty crook before being radicalised.

[...]

An internal review of Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire, where almost a third of the 500 inmates are Muslim, warned that staff were struggling to deal with Muslim gangs. It said the staff feared that a serious incident was imminent.

In a report last April Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, warned that prison officers at high security jails felt that they were “insufficiently trained and supported”.

The prison service has attempted to curb the growth of radical Islam by restricting communal prayers and the reading of the Koran during work breaks.

While the French commissioner feels things have already gone "too far in blaming the Muslim communities." "Don't be soft on Islam, says EU terror chief," by Jason Burke for the Guardian, September 28:

Europe's anti-terror chief has launched a stinging attack on the political correctness that he says is hampering the campaign against militant Islam.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said last week that concern about stigmatising Muslim populations was hampering policy-making and thus prevention. 'One of the problems ... is that some member states are extremely reluctant to be explicit about the link with religion,' said de Kerchove. 'Religion has been hijacked and distorted for political ends.'

De Kerchove's statement comes against a background of infighting within the EU over counter-terrorism policy. The European Commission has been working for several years on a paper analysing militancy in Europe and outlining policy to combat radicalisation. The Council of Ministers is still waiting for the now long-overdue paper, on which future policy will be based.

EU officials claimed last week the delay was because Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner for justice, freedom and security, had grave reservations about the definition of terrorism in the commission's policy paper and had delayed signing the policy document as it 'went too far in blaming Muslim communities'.

A spokesman for Barrot refused to comment. 'There is a paper that is being prepared. Our services are working on it and there is no fixed timeframe at the moment,' he said.

De Kerchove praised the Home Office's emphasis on countering the extremists' message through the media. 'We have to provide an alternative narrative,' he said. 'A lot of research is showing that young people being radicalised are looking for thrills as much as anything ideological. We need to show the violence for what it is, bloody and indiscriminate, and the people who do it for what they are, ugly criminals not heroes.'

"In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe?"

Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, chairman Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem (which I hope to be attending).

The speech was sponsored by the Hudson Institute on September 25.

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me. Great to be at the Four Seasons. I come from a country that has one season only: a rainy season that starts January 1st and ends December 31st. When we have three sunny days in a row, the government declares a national emergency. So Four Seasons, that’s new to me.

It’s great to be in New York. When I see the skyscrapers and office buildings, I think of what Ayn Rand said: “The sky over New York and the will of man made visible.” Of course. Without the Dutch you would have been nowhere, still figuring out how to buy this island from the Indians. But we are glad we did it for you. And, frankly, you did a far better job than we possibly could have done.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becoming a reality.

My short lecture consists of 4 parts.

First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.

But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

"They will recline on Thrones arranged in ranks; and We shall join them to Companions, with beautiful big and lustrous eyes."

The late Medinan sura 49 begins by telling the believers how to behave in the presence of Muhammad (vv. 1-5). One may wonder why a perfect and eternal book that contains religious and ethical instruction that is valid for all time would contain a section that applied only to people who lived in the first generation of Islam, but the answer to this is implied by the instruction to Muslims not to put themselves forward in Muhammad’s presence (v. 1). This means, says Ibn Kathir, that they should “not rush in making decisions before him, rather, follow his lead in all matters.” After Muhammad’s death Muslims can do that by heeding their prophet’s directives as recorded in the authentic ahadith – a fact that traditional Muslims use to rebuke contemporary Muslims who declare that they follow the Qur’an alone.

Then verses 6-18 follow with more general instructions to the believers. They should not believe the report of a wicked person (v. 6). Muhammad is among them, and if he obeyed the believers’ every wish – instead of Allah’s commands – there would be trouble (v. 7). Believers should not fight against one another, but they should join together to fight against a rebellious group until it returns to Allah’s truth (v. 9): this is a principal justification for infighting among Islamic sects. The true believers, however, are a single brotherhood (vv. 10, 13) – one that transcends all other ties, including the national and even familial. Maududi explains that “the national and racial distinctions that cause universal corruption in the world have been condemned.”

Yesterday I interviewed Geert Wilders, the courageous Dutch politician who produced Fitna, and I hope soon to put the interview up here. Meanwhile, he appeared on the Glenn Beck show, explained to him -- as I have said so many times -- that there is no moderate Islam, and "scared the living pant crap" out of Beck. From the September 25 Beck show (thanks to Mike):

BECK: Well, I know averting a complete economic meltdown is what everybody is thinking about tonight. But I want to talk to you a little bit about the "Perfect Storm."

And we`ve go to continue watching and talking about other pieces of that storm because they`re not going away because we`re not looking at them. In fact, they may even grow stronger or pounce because of our economic uncertainty.

One of those pieces in fact is probably the most important piece; it`s Islamic extremism. A couple of years ago, you might remember, we ran a one-hour special here on the program called "Exposed: The Extremist Agenda." It was one of the first times in America any of this stuff had ever been seen.

It showed video of terrorists targeting American troops. A video of young school kids calling Jews apes and pigs. A video of the propaganda used in the Middle East to incite hatred against America. It was one of the most talked about, most controversial and also one of the most highly- watched specials we`ve ever done.

Yet it hasn`t stopped those who, for whatever reason, just don`t want people to understand the type of people and the mind set that we are really dealing with that want to destroy us. Earlier this year, a Dutch politician, his name is Geert Wilders, he witnessed that firsthand when he released a documentary called "Fitna." His goal was to show the world the unthinkable depravity that the West is really facing.

But once again he was met with threats of violence. In fact, he`s on the studio now. And we have security all around the cameras. He was eventually able to get this video released on the Internet. But soon even that was taken down as the company that hosted the video received serious threats against their employees.

You want us to finally see what the controversy was all about? Here`s a quick clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]: The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allah commanded us to spread this religion worldwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will take over the USA! You will take over the UK! You will take over Europe! You will defeat them all! You will get victory! You will take over Egypt! We trust in Allah!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Geert Wilders is the leader of the Party for Freedom, a member of the Dutch Parliament and producer of "Fitna." Nice to meet you Sir.

GEERT WILDERS, CREATOR, "FITNA": Nice to meet, a pleasure to be on your show, Glenn.

BECK: You are a guy who`s marked for death. You come from the same country that Ayaan Hirsi Ali came from. You were in the same party as a matter of fact. You come from the country that Theo Van Gogh was stabbed to death in the street for saying these kinds of things. What is it that you need people to hear?

WILDERS: What I need people to hear is that the Islamization of our western culture, of Europe, maybe also of the United States, and is a real threat to everything that we stand for. It is a real threat to our freedom of speech and to our democracy because I believe that Islam is not just a religion. It`s a very dangerous and very harsh and violent ideology that at the end of the day, if the numbers become stronger, and they are already very strong unfortunately in Europe, it will kill everything that we stand for.

BECK: You don`t separate extremist Islam -- because I know a lot of Muslims that are peace loving -- I mean I have one of our correspondents on this program is a Muslim and he is -- he is dead set against what`s happening over there --

WILDERS: Also I make of course distinction between the Muslims and the ideology.

BECK: Ok.

WILDERS: I believe there is no moderate -- or there is no modern Islam. And there is only one Islam and that is a fascist ideology. However, of course, there are Muslims who are moderate and who want to assimilate in our society.

Unfortunately if you look at Europe today, the numbers are growing. We have a mass immigration from Muslim countries. And people are not there -- I call them colonists. They are not in our societies to assimilate or to integrate, but to take over, to submit us to the worst kind of thinking.

BECK: Your country has always been so proud that you can just get along with everybody. I mean, you guys -- I mean, nobody`s ever really had -- yet, you`re now having that welcoming attitude that, hey, let`s just all get along, really turned upside down on you.

WILDERS: Exactly, well, like you said, Glenn, we had this political murder in the streets of Amsterdam. We have Moroccan youths really acting like Barbars, and killing people, and assaulting people, and doing the most terrible things.

And the people in the Netherlands and the people throughout Europe are fed up with the fact that they are losing their country. They are losing their country to an ideology that is so far from our western values, from our dominant, and so far Christian-Judeo -- and values.

And people are fed up with it. And I`m here today in the United States. I had an excellent, very nice gathering just one hour ago at the Hudson Institute. And had spoken about that I hoped that the America will not be the last man standing. Because if they lose Europe, if they lose Europe to the Islam -- and it`s very close to it.

BECK: Well, we`re very great -- well you couldn`t even -- on the street where Theo Van Gogh was killed, correct me if I`m wrong, they put up just a -- kind of a billboard, painted wall that said "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

WILDERS: Yes.

BECK: That had to be taken down and covered up because it was hateful. True?

WILDERS: It`s true. And more terrible things happened --

BECK: So haven`t we already lost Europe?

WILDERS: You have almost lost Europe. I think its one minute to 12:00. And I think that we need a lot of support from the United States that it won`t come so far. That is why as 30 European politicians, we gathered in December in the Israeli Knesset as a lawmaker summit to show the world and to show Europe and even the Americans that we are not only a few mavericks, that there`s an enormous group of the European population that are fed up with the Islamization of the continent.

I want to be proud of our identity again, we want our neighborhoods, our streets, our countries, back to how it was in the past because the Islamization once again is nothing for the better. The Islam is a very violent culture, and backwardness culture and something that we should fight against and not assimilate in our society that we did so far.

And our political elite, the political elite in Europe, is acting like Chamberlain -- is appeasing to the people who really don`t to be at peace. Who don`t want to assimilate, who wants to kill everything.

BECK: I will tell you that I saw that American students were meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and they said hey, he`s a man of peace.

WILDERS: He should be in jail in New York, not speaking to the United Nations. Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran is a butcher. He`s nothing from a leader. He is something that is threatening the world both by force, by ideology and he should not be here.

BECK: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it and we`ll be back in just a minute.

WILDERS: Thank you Glenn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Wow, this has been a fun show, huh? The last guy scared the living pant crap out of me.

Well, it`s been a great week so far.

The wonders of multiculturalism. Muhammad, of course, consummated his marriage with Aisha when she was nine and he was in his fifties. And in this, as in everything else, he is considered exemplary in Islam -- an "excellent example of conduct" according to Qur'an 33:21. Therefore British authorities will be seeing more and more of these cases, and eventually their prosecution of them will run headlong into their acceptance of Sharia in Muslim communities. And something, at that point, will have to give, and the British will either have to stop the advance of Sharia or accept child marriage.

"Nine-year-old Midlands girl rescued from forced marriage," by David Barrett for the Telegraph, September 28 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

British children as young as nine are being forced into marriage by their families, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The disclosure comes as official figures show that nearly 60 children aged 15 or under have been rescued by the Government's Forced Marriage Unit in the past four years.

The cases are feared to be the tip of the iceberg. They will fuel concerns, first raised earlier this year, that large numbers of children are disappearing from British schools to be forced into wedlock overseas.

A charity which runs a national helpline on forced marriage and "honour"-based crimes, Karma Nirvana, revealed that in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family in the east Midlands was taken into council care after her parents told her she was to wed.

Jasvinder Sanghera, director of Karma Nirvana, said that on average four children a month aged under 16 have contacted its helpline since it launched in April.

"The youngest child we have dealt with was nine years old," she said. "The girl told her teacher she was going to be forced to marry someone and initially she was not believed.

"Ultimately, with the help of the Forced Marriage Unit, she was dealt with through child protection procedures. She was assessed and, thankfully, taken into foster care."

Ms Sanghera called on ministers to make sure primary school children are taught about forced marriage and given advice on how to avoid becoming a victim.

The Forced Marriage Unit has helped rescue 58 underage children since it was set up in January 2005, including 11 under-16s so far this year. The youngest victim this year was 13, one was 14 and nine were 15.

The unit deals with 5,000 inquiries and 300 cases of forced marriage a year. A third of inquiries come from under 18s....

No, actually, it was the Taliban.

This story is yet another illustration of why no responsible American public figure would ever compare any individual or group to the Taliban. There is no Taliban of American politics, and saying that Sarah Palin or Pat Robertson or anyone else is "just like the Taliban" manifests a monumental willful ignorance and moral myopia. "Taliban kill top Afghan policewoman," from AFP, September 28 (thanks to JE):

Taliban gunmen have shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan as she left her home to go to work, officials and the militia have said.

The attackers were waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, and opened fire on her car, Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi said.

Her son was said to be wounded in the attack.

"Today between 7 am and 8 am (local time) when she was [in her car] outside her house and going to her job, some gunmen attacked," Mr Ayoobi said.

"Malalai Kakar died in front of her house. Her son was wounded."

A doctor in the city's main hospital said Ms Kakar, in her late 30s, had been shot in the head.

A spokesman for the extremist Taliban movement, which targets government officials as part of an growing insurgency, said that the assassins were from his group.

"We killed Malalai Kakar," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

"She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target."

Ms Kakar, a mother of six, was regularly profiled in international media and was known for her courage in one of Afghanistan's most conservative provinces....

Here, once again, is an example of the flaws of Islamic apologetics, and why it's so easy to dismantle them: "What Does Islam Say about Terrorism," from Pakistan Daily, September 26:

A look at the various principles of Islam which show that Islam is truly a mercy to the world, and the indiscriminate violence and terrorism is not condoned by the religion.

Islam, a religion of mercy, does not permit terrorism. In the Quran, God has said:

“God does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. God loves just dealers.” (Quran 60:8)

The Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, used to prohibit soldiers from killing women and children...

In light of these and other Islamic texts, the act of inciting terror in the hearts of defenseless civilians, the wholesale destruction of buildings and properties, the bombing and maiming of innocent men, women, and children are all forbidden and detestable acts according to Islam and the Muslims.

As we've seen, they are not; for every point this article raises and tries justifying from the sources, there are any number of counterpoints also from the same sources. Indeed, al-Qaeda justifies much of its actions -- terrorism, the killing of women and children when they are in the way -- straight from those counterpoints provided above. At any rate, the dividing line isn't what any one Quranic verse says, but rather how it has been articulated by the ulema and codified into sharia. And to discover this, the doctrine of abrogation is pivotal. While such one-dimensional works of apologetics such as this may suffice for the casual reader, those more acquainted with the religion -- Muslims and non-Muslims alike -- will always see right through them.

Eurabia Alert. "North London terror arrests linked to publication of Muslim book," by Andrew Alderson for the Telegraph, September 27:

The arrests are thought to be linked to a fire at a property in Islington, north London, which is used as the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja.

His company, Gibson Square, recently agreed to publish a controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride, entitled The Jewel of Medina. The blaze, which led to people being evacuated from the house, may have been started by a petrol bomb pushed through the letter box.

Initially, three men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were detained at around 2.25 am this morning in the Islington area of north London after a fire at a property in Lonsdale Square.

Two were stopped by armed officers in Lonsdale Square, and the third was seized following an armed vehicle stop near Angel underground station.

Police are searching four addresses around north-east London - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate.

The men, who were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, are being questioned at a central London police station.

Later a fourth person, a woman, was arrested at a property in Ilford for allegedly obstructing the police, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

The police confirmed that there has been small fire inside the property in Lonsdale Square, which had to be put out. "At this early stage it is being linked with the arrests," the spokesman added.

Yard officials have refused to identify those arrested or give any information on the nature of the terrorist plot they are alleged to have been planning.

Residents in Lonsdale Square said armed police, assisted by fire-fighters, broke down the door of number 47 at around 2.30 this morning.

Francesca Liebowitz, 16, who lives five doors away with her parents, said: "The police couldn't get the door open so the fire brigade battered it down.

"There was smoke coming from around the door, but I don't know whether that was because of the door being broken down. They evacuated people from the house. It's a bit scary to have this happen on your doorstep, nothing like this has ever happened round here before."

A neighbour and friend of Mr Rynja said the company normally published books on current affairs, and said the publisher had never expressed concerns that his work might endanger his safety. A green hoarding covered the doorway to the four-storey town house this afternoon.

"The bomb went off outside an electronics shop in the congested Mehrauli market in leafy south Delhi, when afternoon shoppers were out in full force buying for the upcoming Hindu festival season."

"One dead, 18 wounded in bombing in New Delhi," from Agence France-Presse, September 27:

One child was killed and 18 people were wounded Saturday in a bomb attack in a crowded shopping area in the Indian capital, police said.

The bombing came exactly two weeks after several markets in New Delhi were hit by deadly serial blasts claimed by an Islamist militant group called the Indian Mujahideen.

A young boy was killed instantly when he tried to return a bag containing the bomb to suspects who fled the market before the explosion, police said.

"Two young men in black denims, black T-shirts and wearing helmets drove a motorcycle to the market and the pillion rider dropped a polythene bag containing the bomb," deputy police commissioner H.S. Dhaliwal told reporters.

"A 10-year-old boy tried to help and return the bag to the riders but they sped away at high speed and the bag exploded, killing the child instantly," he said. "Eighteen others were injured, three of them critically."

The official said checkposts had been thrown up across the city to hunt for the attackers. There were no immediate reports of anyone claiming responsibility for the attack.

The bomb went off outside an electronics shop in the congested Mehrauli market in leafy south Delhi, when afternoon shoppers were out in full force buying for the upcoming Hindu festival season, and sent passers-by fleeing.

The area was quickly sealed off by police.

"It was lunchtime, and we heard a loud bang. There was smoke everywhere. People were on the ground," a local shopkeeper told AFP.

"I picked up three people, and there were ten other people with injuries on the ground," added Basant Kumar, another witness. "My brother was hit in the ear."

India is currently gearing up for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr celebrations marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, next month.

The attack came two weeks after bomb blasts in other New Delhi shopping areas that killed 24 people and injured at least 100.

Several other Indian cities -- Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad -- have also been hit by serial bombings since May, all of them claimed by the Indian Mujahideen.

Since the New Delhi attacks two weeks ago, Indian police have launched a major hunt for the suspected ringleaders of the shadowy group.

Over the past week, 11 suspected militants have been arrested and two more were killed in a dramatic shoot-out in a mainly-Muslim area of south Delhi.

The government also unveiled security measures to tackle what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said were "vast gaps" in intelligence gathering.

Reasonable Accommodation Alert: this is what follows inevitably from the "reasonable accommodations" that Muslims are demanding, and being granted, in the U.S. as well as in Britain. Sharia law applies to non-Muslims as well as to Muslims. Once the precedent has been set that Sharia provisions must be accommodated (to a chorus of "What's the big deal?" from the learned analysts), then Muslims begin to assert it over non-Muslims. "Muslims try to get alcohol banned at Tesco," by Sally-Anne Johnson for Bedford Today via Europe News, September 25 (thanks to Islam In Action):

More than 150 people have signed petitions imploring Luton Borough Council to deny the new Tesco Express in Bury Park an alcohol licence.

The bid from the supermarket giant has upset Muslims living in the area, some of whom say they find the idea of alcohol being sold offensive.

Next Tuesday councillors will make a decision on the application, which, if successful, would see the store permitted to sell alcohol from 6am until 11pm every day (...)

Sunni Muslim jihadists striking against the Alawite regime? Sunnis striking against Shi'ites? Or someone else? Whoever did this, in the Islamic media it will be blamed on the Zionists and Crusaders. "Killer car bomb hits Damascus," by Albert Aji for the Times Online, September 27:

A car bomb killed 17 people and injured 14 others on a crowded residential street in Damascus today, according to Syrian television.

It said a car packed with 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of explosives blew up on Mahlak Street, in a southern district of the Syrian capital close to the city’s international airport. . The charred remains of the car was shown by television in the street near a primary school as firefighters stood near a wide crater believed be caused by the blast....

Bassam Abdul-Majid, the Syrian Interior Minister, called the bombing a terrorist act and said all the victims were civilians. But he would not say who might have been responsible. “We cannot accuse any party. There are ongoing investigations that will lead us to those who carried it out.”

Such bombings are rare in Syria, a tightly controlled country where President Bashar Assad's regime has used heavy-handed tactics to crack down on dissent.

But over the last year, the country has witnessed two high-profile assassinations. Several explosions have also been blamed on Sunni Muslim militants opposed to Syria’s secular government.

Today's bombing was by far the largest to hit the capital in recent times. It shattered building and car windows and twisted the roof off one car, according to footage aired on Syrian television.

The explosion occurred at the intersection that leads to Saydah Zeinab, a holy shrine for Shia Muslims frequently visited by Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims about five miles (8km) away. A building used by the intelligence services is also located in the area, but cars are not normally allowed to park nearby....

The incomparable Diana West explains who were really acting like fascists at the Cologne rally: "Cologne's Speech-Killing Politico's Reek of 'Fascism'":

Readers of my blog (dianawest.net) know that over this past week, as a maelstrom of buffeting economic crises has sucked the air out of the news atmosphere, I have been all-but-transfixed by events unfolding in the German city of Cologne. With the unabashed fascination of the rubbernecker, I have watched in horror, combing online foreign press reports and a few favorite blogs (Brussels Journal, Gates of Vienna, Atlas Shrugs), as local authorities yielded their charge of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly -- indeed, yielded civic space and civic peace -- to a lawless band of violent leftists, who, in their weekend stint of mob rule, successfully prevented a political rally against the Islamization of Europe from taking place.

What's more, these same authorities, including the mayor of this fourth-largest German city (about 1 million people), yielded to the mob happily and with much self-congratulation. Indeed, Cologne Mayor Fritz Schramma called the episode "a victory for the city of Cologne and a victory by the democratic forces of the city."

Trouble in paradise? "Pro-al Qaeda group vows to avenge deaths by Hamas," from Reuters, September 26:

GAZA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - A pro-al Qaeda Palestinian group vowed on Friday to avenge the deaths of nine of its members in clashes with Hamas police earlier this month, unless the Islamist group declares an Islamic state in the Gaza Strip.

Jaysh al-Islam, or the Army of Islam, said nine members were killed in clashes with Hamas policemen on Sept. 16 when the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip raided the compound of the militant Doghmosh clan.

"Revenge is a right that must be fulfilled," the Army of Islam said in a statement.

The group said it would forgive the Hamas security men who took part in the raid if Hamas implemented Islamic law in the Gaza Strip and declared an Islamic state there, giving Gaza's rulers a three-day ultimatum to meet its demands.

It urged Hamas to stop targeting its followers.

Hamas is an Islamist group that distances itself from al Qaeda.

While many Gazans have become more outwardly religious under its rule, Hamas has not formally imposed Islamic law on the coastal territory, which it seized a year ago after routing Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri brushed aside the threats and said the raid was in response to the killing of a policeman by members of the Doghmosh clan.

"They want to impose extreme ideas on our people and we do not accept that," Abu Zuhri said.

"The Army of Islam is allowed to act against the Israeli occupation but it must stay away from internal affairs which is the job of the (Hamas) security services." (Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Joseph Nasr and Andrew Dobbie)

Read: "Come on, guys, direct the jihad against the real enemy, infidel Israel."

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!

And, lest anyone think Somali "pirates" have naught to do with jihad, this story says otherwise. "Russian Navy ship sent to combat pirates," by Scott Bevan for ABC News, September 26 (thanks to Sylvia):

The Russian Navy's central command has sent the patrol ship, Neustrashimy, to the coast of Somalia after pirates seized a Ukranian vessel in the region.

Navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo, says the Neustrashimy, which belongs to the Baltic Fleet, has been sent as part of Russia's aim to combat piracy.[...]

The patrol ship Neustrashimy left the Baltic Fleet's main base in Baltiisk on September 24 to ensure a naval presence in oceanic and maritime areas, Captain Dygalo said.

The number of attacks by Somali pirates on civilian vessels belonging to different countries has increased recently.

Pirates hijacked Ukraine's vessel Faina under Belize's flag en route to Kenya in neutral waters not far from Kenya's coast on Thursday (local time).

Some reports indicate that the Ukrainian ship was carrying military hardware, including nearly 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for armoured hardware.

The patrol ship Neustrashimy is equipped with anti-submarine and air defence missile systems, a 100 millimetre artillery gun, torpedo systems and rocket-assisted bomb launchers.

It also has a Kamov Ka-27 ship-based helicopter on board.

More on this story. "Mufti asks PM to reassure Muslims of dignity," from The Hindu, September 26:

Srinagar (PTI): People's Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Friday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take lead in reaching out to the Muslims of the country in order to reassure them of dignity and fair application of legal and constitutional safeguards.

"The prime minister must take a lead in reaching out to Muslim masses in order to reassure them of dignity and fair application of legal and constitutional safeguards. And, all right-thinking, secular and democratic forces must join this campaign without reservations," Sayeed said in a statement here.

Commenting on the serial bomb blasts in parts of the country, Jamia Nagar encounter and Nanavati Commission report, Sayeed said the recent events and their aftermath call for immediate intervention to avert a collision of communities in the country.

"We can't fill the jails of the country with young and educated Muslims in the hope of freeing the country of terror," the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

Sayeed said the chain of investigations have unfortunately resulted in casting a shadow on the entire Muslim community of the country. Nobody needs to point out the dangers and pitfalls in allowing this impression to grow, he observed...

Yes, things like 1,000 Muslims surrounding a train full of trapped Hindus, hollering "Set the train on fire and kill the Hindus," while a nearby mosque goads them on, tend to cast "a shadow on the entire Muslim community of the country."

Feel the love

While thousands of Muslims in Iran and elsewhere are busy condemning Israel today, at least one imprisoned ayatollah is beseeching the aid of Rabbis. "Muslims around the world mark Al Quds Day," from Gulf News, September 26:

Tehran: Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied on Friday to join millions of Muslims around the world to mark Al Quds Day, according to media reports.

Press TV reported that a massive rally was held in Tehran in support of Palestinian people's rights. Many demonstrators carried banners expressing resentment of Israel's control of Occupied Jerusalem.

Demonstrations were also being held in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

In Iraq, thousands of people staged massive demonstrations in key cities, including Baghdad and Basra.

In Indonesia, Muslim women rallied outside the US embassy in Jakarta to mark Al Quds Day.

Al Quds Day is held on the fourth Friday of Ramadan and is being observed to show support for Palestinians in Occupied Jerusalem.

Apparently he was jailed for being too "moderate" and going against "political" Islam -- you know, the sort of Islam Muhammad implemented in Medina and which was subsequently adhered to by the "righteous" caliphs, and so forth.

"Iran: Jailed ayatollah asks Pope to help free him," from Adnkronos, September 26 (thanks to Clark):

Tehran, 26 Sept. (AKI) - Iran's jailed Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi has written a letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other religious leaders asking them to help secure his release.

The ayatollah asked the pontiff to "...defend the divine credibility and spiritual sacredness" by asking the Iranian authorities to respect human rights.

The letter was reportedly smuggled out of jail and distributed by the ayatollah's representative in Europe.

It was also addressed to Israel's chief rabbi, the grand mufti of al-Azhar and the Saudi ulema of Dar al-Fatwa.

Addressing the Muslim leaders, Kazemeini says that "Political Islam is erasing the word of God and his prophet, Mohammed", while he asks rabbis to "make the world hear the cry of the Muslims in Iran, in the name of the same God that (we) jointly worship."

Kazemeini has been jailed since October 2006 with a group of his supporters. They have been accused of anti-constitutional activities and heresy.

Rights group Amnesty International claims that Kazemeini has been tortured for the past two years. He is known to oppose political Islam and the presence of the mullahs and ayatollahs in government and institutions.

Kazemeini has broad support in Iran and before his arrest, thousands of people filled stadiums to hear his sermons.

Update to this story. "Canadian guilty in plot to behead prime minister," by Rob Gillies for AP, September 25:

A Canadian man accused of participating in military exercises and firearms training as part of a group authorities say plotted to storm Parliament and behead the prime minister was found guilty Thursday.

The man's attorney says the plot was a "jihadi fantasy" and that his client knew nothing about it.

A judge ruled Thursday that evidence of a terrorist group was "overwhelming." The man is the first person to be found guilty of a terrorist offense in Canada since the country enacted anti-terrorism laws in 2001.

The arrests of the 18 group members, known as the "Toronto 18," made headlines around the world and heightened fears in Canada, where people believe they are relatively immune from terrorist strikes.

Prosecutors said there were plans to truck-bomb nuclear power plants and a building housing Canada's spy service.

Seven of those arrested have since had their charges either withdrawn, or stayed. The trials of 10 adults, including the alleged ringleaders, have yet to begin. The young man was the first to go on trial.[...]

The defense had cast the plot as "musings and fantasies" with no possibility of being carried out.

Read it all.

It was twenty years ago today. Kenan Malik explains "How the West was lost for free speech" in The Australian, September 26 (thanks to JE):

TWENTY years ago today, Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses. Four years in the making and supported by a then almost unheard of advance of $850,000 from his publisher, Penguin, Rushdie had hoped the work would cement his reputation as the most important British novelist of his generation. The book certainly set the world alight, though not quite in the way it was meant to.

[...]

Thanks to the fatwa, the Rushdie affair became the most important free speech controversy of modern times. It also became a watershed in our attitudes to freedom of expression. Rushdie's critics lost the battle; The Satanic Verses continues to be published. But they won the war. The argument at the heart of the anti-Rushdie case - that it is morally unacceptable to cause offence to other cultures - is now widely accepted.

In 1989, even a fatwa could not stop the continued publication of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was forced into hiding for almost a decade. Translators and publishers were killed, bookshops were bombed and Penguin staff had to wear bomb-proof vests. Yet Penguin never wavered in its commitment to Rushdie's novel.

Today, all it takes for a publisher to run for cover is a letter from an outraged academic. US publisher Random House recently torpedoed the publication of a novel that it had bought for $US100,000 ($119,000) for fear of setting off another Rushdie affair. Written by journalist Sherry Jones, The Jewel of Medina is a racy historical novel about Aisha, Mohammed's youngest wife. Random House had sent galley proofs to writers and scholars, hoping for endorsements. One of those on the list, Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at University of Texas, condemned the book as offensive. Random House immediately pulled the book.

In the 20 years between the publication of The Satanic Verses and the withdrawal of The Jewel of Medina, the fatwa, in effect, has become internalised. Not only do publishers drop books deemed offensive but theatres savage plays, opera houses cut productions, art galleries censor shows, all in the name of cultural sensitivity.

"You would think twice if you were honest," said Ramin Gray, associate director at London's Royal Court Theatre when asked if he would put on a play critical of Islam.

"You'd have to take the play on its individual merits, but given the time we're in, it's very hard because you'd worry that if you cause offence then the whole enterprise would become buried in a sea of controversy. It does make you tread carefully."...

Dark times. Read it all.

Apparently they were ready to "kill and be killed" for Allah, as per Qur'an 9:111. "Armed police storm passenger jet to arrest two Somali terror suspects who had left suicide notes," from the Daily Mail, September 26 (thanks to R.B.):

German police have arrested two male terror suspects who left suicide notes on a plane that was just about to take off in Cologne.

The pair are suspected of wanting to take part in militant Islamic attacks. They were arrested this morning on a KLM airplane at Cologne airport that was heading for Amsterdam.

One of the men was a Somali and the other was a German born in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, a spokesman said. They were hauled out of the plane just before take off about 0455 GMT.

A KLM spokeswoman said on NOS news in the Netherlands that police boarded the plane when it was at its "point of departure" and grabbed the two suspects.

Everyone was then forced to leave the plane, and there was a "baggage parade" to see whose bags belonged to whom, she said.

Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper, citing police sources, said the two had been under observation for months and a suicide note was found in their apartment saying that they wanted to die for the "jihad" or "holy war."...

Well, Barbie got to be an astronaut. Do Sara and Dara at least get to work in the nuclear program?

"Iran: 'Barbie' doll beats Islamic 'Sara'," from AdnKronos International, September 25:

Tehran, 25 Sept. (AKI) - Iranian children seem to prefer the popular western dolls, Barbie and Ken, rather than the Islamic Dara and Sara dolls, that were created to instill Islamic values.

"This data is a clear sign of a failed policy adopted by the government with the aim of stopping the western cultural invasion," said website 'Tabnak', which is close to Mohsen Rezaii, former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The Dara and Sara dolls are modestly dressed and wear Islamic garments, but have failed to make a name for themselves unlike their 'western' counterparts, Barbie and Ken, which can be found in one out of every two Iranian children's rucksacks and notebooks, claimed Tabnak.

Dara and Sara were marketed by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, a government agency with links to the Ministry of Education.

Details are for "haters."

Longtime Jihad Watch reader PRCS kindly sent in a link to ObsessionWithHate.com, a site run by a "coalition" known as Hate Hurts America, whose members include CAIR, MPAC, and assorted private citizens who may or may not have known what they were signing up for -- after all, nobody likes hate, right?

As the name suggests, they're none too fond of Obsession, its makers, or those who appear in it. Nor are they fond, apparently, of David Horowitz and Robert Spencer, who are included on the far right (we're heard that one before, too) of the photo collage on OWH''s main page ... except they don't appear in the film. Oops.

OWH also complains that the Clarion Fund is not being forthcoming enough about its funding or the shady characters with deep pockets who are supposedly pulling the puppet strings behind the scenes. Though HHA does list its "coalition members," it also does not make available information about its founders or donors, and both sites are registered through Domains by Proxy. Therein lies a bit of a double standard.

The site includes the standard boilerplate about the "real Islam" -- that jihad is simply a generalized term for "struggle," that Islam respects and elevates women, and so forth, plus these two items, which may shed light on the agenda of the site (or may be sloppy copying and pasting -- or both). First:

"Islam is not a new religion. It is the same truth that God revealed to all His prophets throughout history. Islam is both a religion and a complete way of life. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy and forgiveness."

And:

... Muslims believe in a chain of prophets beginning with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus. God's eternal message was reaffirmed by each prophet and finalized by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on them all). A Muslim’s basic testimony of faith reads: "There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God." By this declaration, a person announces faith in God and belief in the entire prophetic chain of God's messengers. God's eternal message was reaffirmed by each prophet and finalized by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on them all). A Muslim’s basic testimony of faith reads: "There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God." By this declaration, a person announces faith in God and belief in the entire prophetic chain of God's messengers.

OWH also declares:

We believe the Media has an obligation to investigate this hate campaign and reveal its source of funding to the American people. We believe the presidential candidates have a responsibility to speak out against anti-American tactics that threaten to manipulate our election process...

You're going to reveal your funding sources, too, right?

What has long been suspected has, six years later, been confirmed: the Godhra train fire (2/2002) which burned some 60 Hindu pilgrims alive was, in fact, initiated by Muslim extremists. Hindus long assumed this, and went on a rampage against Muslims in the Gujarat district soon after the Godhra train incident. Ironically, Osama bin Laden used to point to this episode as evidence of non-Muslim hatred for Muslims (The Al Qaeda Reader, 27). Now the facts are clear. Once again, it was Muslims who cast the first stone.

"Mob of Muslims attacked train, says Nanavati Commission," by Manas Dasgupta for The Hindu, September 25:

GANDHINAGAR: The Nanavati-Mehta judicial inquiry commission on the Godhra train carnage has based its conclusion of it being a “pre-planned conspiracy” on the recorded evidence of over 100 witnesses, who claimed to having heard a crowd of about a 1,000 Muslims shouting “set the train on fire and kill the Hindus.” The report said “instigating slogans” were also made through loudspeakers from a nearby mosque to attack the Hindus.

The evidence recorded by the commission also claimed that a mob of Muslims attacked the train and stoned the coaches so heavily that the passengers could not come out. This was to ensure maximum casualties when the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was “set afire.”

The commission in its 168-page report said the “conspiracy” was hatched by some local Muslims at the Aman guest house in Godhra the previous night. The conspirators immediately made arrangements for collecting about 140 litres of petrol from a nearby pump on the night of February 26, 2002, and the next day when the train arrived in Godhra, Hasan Lala after forcibly opening the vestibule between coaches S-6 and S-7 entered S-6 and threw burning rags setting it on fire.

[...]

The commission said the passengers of the train were attacked the second time some three hours after the stone throwing and burning incident when the train was being shunted to detach the two affected coaches. Two mobs of Muslims of about 700 people started pelting stones on the passengers waiting at the yard for the train to reassemble and resume their onward journey to Ahmedabad. The police had to open fire killing two persons and injuring one to disperse the violent mobs. This refutes the theory that it was an accidental fire, it claimed.

While the Europeans and the United States are busy denying that there even is a global jihad threat, Israel -- at least in this particular -- is much more realistic. "Global Jihad forum to be established," from the Jerusalem Post, September 25 (thanks to James):

The government has decided to establish a special forum that will deal with threats posed by international Jihad organizations to Israelis, in the country and abroad, Army Radio reported Thursday.

The Defense Ministry's Anti-Terror Bureau chief is expected to head the forum, which will have members from the Mossad, Shin Bet, IDF and other relevant security apparatuses.

The forum will convene at least once every two months, according to the number of threats, with the goal of assisting the collaboration of all the security forces in face of the growing warnings.

The security cabinet ministers approved the forum's establishment in the hopes that institutionalization of the cooperation and coordination between security and intelligence apparatuses would improve Israel's management of the global Jihad threat....

Even though the latter did not cross into Pakistan's airspace. Yet another Friend-and-Ally Update.

"NATO says Pakistani troops fired at their chopper," from AP, September 25 (thanks to jcb):

KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says Pakistani troops fired at their helicopters patrolling eastern Afghanistan, but no damage is reported.

In a statement, NATO says its helicopters did not cross into Pakistan's airspace when they came under fire near Tanai district of Khost province.

The shooting follows a number of alleged incursions at the Pakistan-Afghan border in recent days. A drone believed to be operated by the CIA crashed inside Pakistan on Wednesday.

According to the original story, Pakistani "troops and tribesmen" shot it down.

Will their friends in high places keep Pakistani authorities from moving effectively against them?

"Marriott attackers Fidayeen-e-Islam threaten to attack all US facilitators in Pak," from ANI, September 25:

Lahore, Sept 25 (ANI): The Fidayeen-e-Islam (FI), a terrorist outfit which claimed responsibility for the Marriott Hotel suicide blast in Islamabad last Saturday killing 60 people, has reportedly threatened to target every person facilitating the US Army in Pakistan....

Today's complaint is Pakistani support for US forces. Once every last Pakistani learns to despise and cease "supporting" the US (not even offering any lip-service), they can rest assured that the demands of the "militants" will morph into a new "grievance" -- until they get what they really want: a caliphate governing according to sharia.

"Pakistan militants threaten more bombs," by Chris Brummtt for AP, September 24:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A militant group that claimed to be behind the deadly Marriott Hotel bombing in Pakistan's capital threatened more attacks Wednesday, warning again that Pakistanis should stop cooperating with the United States.

In a cell phone message to reporters, the little known group calling itself "Fedayeen al-Islam" — "Islam commandos" — referred to the owner of the Marriott by name.

"All those who will facilitate Americans and NATO crusaders like (owner Sadruddin) Haswani, they will keep on receiving the blows," said the message, which was in English.

It was impossible to verify the identity of the group or say whether it was in a position to make good on the threat. Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment.

The group demanded that Pakistan break with Washington in an earlier message that claimed responsibility for Saturday's truck bombing at the Marriott in Islamabad, a blast that killed 53 people and wounded more than 270.

Little or nothing is known about the group. Pakistani officials suspect al-Qaida or Taliban militants carried out the bombing.

[...]

In the latest violence, a suicide bomber killed an 11-year-old girl and wounded 11 troops and some children in the frontier city of Quetta, officials said.

Security forces supported by helicopter gunships killed 20 militants in a second day of fighting near the town of Khar in another border area, Bajur, officials said. Just north of Khar, a roadside bomb killed two pro-government tribesmen and wounded several others.

Militant warlords have established virtual mini-states in the tribal belt, levying taxes and enforcing strict Taliban-style social codes and justice.

On Wednesday, a so-called "Peace Committee" executed four alleged murderers in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a witness said. Din Muhammed said members of the committee used mosque loudspeakers to summon a crowd before the four were shot.

Actually, they want a conference on "Islamophobia." But of course, if Muslims really want to end "Islamophobia" instantaneously, here's how they can do it:

1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.

If Muslims do those five things, voila! "Islamophobia" will vanish.

"Malaysia proposes convention on Islamophobia," from Bernama, September 25 (thanks to Nicolei):

NEW YORK: Malaysia has proposed that an international convention sponsored by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) be held as early as next year to tackle the anti-Islamic movement which is rearing its ugly head in several developed nations.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said Thursday that the OIC had asked Malaysia to play a major role towards rectifying the misconception of Islam within Western society.

He said this was conveyed to him by OIC Secretary-General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu during their meeting on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly here.

He told Malaysian journalists that the OIC was confident that Malaysia would be able to take the initiative to counter the misconception towards the Islamic nations because of Malaysia’s commitment and effectiveness in past endeavours.

He hoped that the convention would be attended by influential people like leaders, department heads, intellectuals and non-governmental organisations which support religious tolerance.

“Malaysia hopes that another window can be opened for a more universal understanding of Islam to help in civilisation building,” he said.

He said the United States was chosen as the venue for the convention because of the polemic on Islam in that country as well as the wide media coverage it would get....

Unworthy of honor

I am speaking here in Los Angeles tonight and will be unable to attend this, but if you are in the New York area I hope you can. From the 925 Rally Coalition:

September 25 Rally to protest U.S. religious leaders honoring AHMADINEJAD at NYC Hyatt Hotel

Join us to raise your voice of conscience against religious appeasers of tyrant Ahmadinejad!

On Thursday, Sept 25, at 6pm in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, The American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker UN Office, Religions for Peace, and the World Council of Churches-UN Liaison Office will be honoring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at an Iftar (dinner to break the day’s Ramadan fast). Other organizations, political leaders and media have also been invited. Read the Text of the Invitation.

These religious leaders are about to betray their brethren across all religions, parties, and countries by honoring the tyrannical regime of Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs of this terrorist state.

At the same time, Women United, the Jewish Action Alliance, Stand With Us, Center for Security Policy, the Catholic League, the The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Alliance of Iranian Women and over 30 organizations of all faiths and political affiliations will hold an interfaith rally to counter this betrayal of principles, to protest Ahmadinejad’s presence at the United Nations, and to oppose Iran’s nuclear weapons program and outrageous threats against the USA and America’s ally, Israel. See the full list of participating organizations HERE , updated daily. UPDATE - RAIN OR SHINE, THE RALLY WILL GO ON! WEATHER REPORTS DAILY ON THIS PAGE…

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been invited to speak along with many other civic and religious leaders and politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.

Please join us at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, East 42nd St, near Lexington Ave and Grand Central Station in Manhattan, at 5:30pm. PLAN EXTRA TRAVEL TIME because the large number of attendees will affect traffic near the event.

Send a message to the Mullahs in Iran!

Bruce Bawer kindly sends in an Islamic tolerance alert from Bosnia:

September 25, 2008 (11:30 A.M., CET): Jyllands-Posten reports that yesterday, shortly after the opening ceremonies of a gay festival in Sarajevo -- the first such event ever held in Bosnia -- Muslim men fell upon participants and beat them up, shouting "Kill the gays" and "Allahu akbar." Some were dragged out of their cars. Among those assaulted were journalists; worst hurt was a visitor from Denmark. There is no mention of the number of victims or assailants, though the report indicates that it took a "massive" number of police to stop the violence.

The story has been picked up by VG in Norway, but I've looked for it in vain in several major American and British newspapers.

No surprise there. As far as the mainstream media in the West is concerned, this story has the wrong perps, and so is no story at all.

UPDATE: As the second commenter below notes, this story has indeed been picked up by mainstream sources -- apparently after Bruce wrote his memo. I apologize for the wrong assumption -- although it was founded upon numerous examples of mainstream sources ignoring or downplaying jihadist activity.

Where to, infidel dog?

Not quite Travis Bickle. Habib Ahmed reminds me of a cab driver I myself once encountered.

"Alleged terrorists wanted 'violent jihad,'" by Nicola Dowling for the Manchester Evening News, September 25 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

A MANCHESTER taxi driver was a secret member of al-Qaida who had a terrorists' "contacts book" with phone numbers written in invisible ink, a court was told.

Habib Ahmed, 28, of Cheetham Hill, attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and was funded in his activities by his wife Mehreen Haji, it was claimed.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court was told Habib Ahmed was called on to help conduct terrorist business in the UK and abroad by Rangzieb Ahmed, a 33-year-old Rochdale-born man who was an "important member" of al-Qaida.

It was claimed that the terrorists' contacts book belonged to Rangzieb Ahmed and that he gave it to Habib Ahmed.

The book was found when police secretly searched Habib's luggage as he flew back to Britain from Dubai.

The two men, who are not related, deny they were members of al-Qaida and have gone on trial along with Habib Ahmed's wife in a case which is expected to last up to three months.

Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, said the investigation had involved the use of listening devices in a hotel room in Dubai and inside two cars in Manchester.

The jury was shown a series of documents including a flyer found at Habib Ahmed and Mehreen Haji's North Manchester home showing a picture of a sub machine gun under the heading "Jihad in Manchester?" - advertising an event with speakers at Longsight library.

Mr Edis said Habib Ahmed and Mehreen Haji had been interested in the idea of violent Jihad and had been married by Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad who was the leader of the now defunct organisation al-Mujaharoun....

Somalia Jihad Update. "Death toll rises after attacks in Somalia," by Rob Crilly for the Irish Times, September 25:

SOMALIA: Islamist insurgents have launched a series of deadly attacks on African peacekeepers in the Somali capital as they made good on their promise of increased bloodshed during the holy month of Ramadan.

Witnesses said at least 11 civilians were killed after gunmen attacked an African Union (AU) base on Tuesday. Peacekeepers responded with tank and artillery fire.

In all, some 42 people are believed to have died during a fresh round of violence in Mogadishu this week as peacekeepers find themselves targeted by Islamist groups which are growing in confidence.

The Mujahideens of Raskamboni said it was responsible for the attack. "It was a retaliatory attack against the African forces and it was the heaviest ever waged against them," the group's spokesman said.

Analysts believe it is an attempt to deter any further international interference in Somalia, where 3,000 African troops have struggled to make any difference so far.

It has made for a bloody month, even by Somalia's warped standards. Fartun Moalim Yusuf, whose sister was among the fatalities, said: "It was a horrible moment. We escaped from our house to hide in a concrete building nearby but unfortunately that did not save her. She was torn to pieces with five other civilians."

Insurgents have registered a string of recent successes against a feeble interim government and their Ethiopian backers. In recent weeks, they have changed tactics, replacing their usual hit-and-run strikes with sustained pressure.

And it's accompanied by the usual Orwellian rhetoric. "Iran steps up policing of Islamic dress - report," from Reuters, September 24:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has doubled the number of police assigned to its more than year-long crackdown against women flouting Islamic dress codes, Kargozaran newspaper said on Wednesday.

The daily gave no figures but the report, as well as remarks made by a police official to Reuters on Wednesday, indicate the authorities' determination to press ahead with the longest clampdown against "immoral behaviour" in recent years.

The latest campaign began in mid-2007. Such strict codes were tightly enforced in the early years after the 1979 Islamic revolution but in more recent years campaigns have tended to last just weeks or months at most.

"The crackdown on non-Islamic hijab (Muslim veil) will continue until the society is clean of any immoralities," Kargozaran quoted a police statement as saying.

The dress code requires women to cover their hair and wear long, loose clothes to disguise the shape of their bodies.

Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment, although most usually receive a stern warning by street patrols looking for women with veils that are pushed back to show too much hair or coats which are not long enough or too tight.

Kargozaran quoted the head of Iran's airports police as saying 128 women had been prevented from taking their flights because of "bad hijab". It did not give dates and said the figure for those stopped had been published previously. [...]

Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said this month the crackdown will intensify after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, although he did not elaborate.

"The police regards the crackdown on immoral behaviour which includes fighting bandits, drug smugglers and people with improper clothing, as an inseparable part of its responsibilities," police spokesman Mehdi Ahmadi told Reuters.

"Police will continue with the plan as before," he added, declining to give details of police numbers.

In addition to women flouting the dress codes, police have have stopped men with spiky haircuts deemed "Western". Barber shops have been temporarily shut for offering such haircuts...

Thailand should take note, as a peace proposal aimed at ending the jihad in that country's southern provinces also includes the implementation of Sharia law. Not only is there no guarantee that it will help end the violence in the short term, it presents a continuing spiral of problems in the long run, from the treatment of non-Muslims to the inevitable conflict of parallel legal systems in one country. "All-out war looms between Muslim and Christian factions," by Cyril Payen, Solomon Kane and Louis Massie for France 24, September 24:

In the southern Philippines, fighting between religious militias has left at least 100 dead in the past month. An attempt by the government to ease tensions by allowing the dominant Muslims to enforce Sharia law has only resulted in more violence.

In Marawi City, the "Islamic Pearl" of the Philippines, Sharia law is the only rule. This was a concession by the government to Muslims aimed at easing the tensions between their community and Christians in the southern Philippines.

The move has had the opposite effect. For the past five weeks, the conflict between the army and Muslim rebels has escalated. Religious violence in the southern Philippines has left 100 people dead and 400,000 displaced in the past month.

The government has deployed 70% of its armed forces in the zone.

Anti-Dhimmi Alert. More on this story. "Does U.S. need legal protection from Jihad?" by Chad Groening for OneNewsNow, September 24:

A Colorado Congressman has introduced legislation that would deny U.S. visas to advocates of so-called Sharia law, as well as expel Islamists already in the country.

Republican Tom Tancredo calls his bill the Jihad Protection Act. He has introduced the measure amid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in the United Kingdom.

The legislation, according to Tancredo, is designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.

"There are situations where we really have to look at whether or not our system can accommodate everybody, including people who are determined to overthrow us. There is no way that the Constitution of the United States and Sharia law can co-exist," Tancredo contends. "You cannot have one class of citizens -- in this case, women, for instance -- being able to be abused, battered, killed, because someone has written that that's the right way to do it in their particular religious system, and then expect the Constitution of the United States to protect everyone else's civil rights. It just simply doesn't work."

Tancredo says Great Britain and much of Western Europe has succumbed to the pressure for multi-culturalism, which the United States must avoid.

Based on this "open-minded" op-ed, apparently "liberal" thinkers are no longer content with separating Islam from "radical" Islam: now, we are told, radical Islam itself is "not monolithic," and that there are perhaps some nuanced forms of "radical Islam" that are infidel-friendly. More on this story. "Extremist Movie Influences Election," by Tim Fernholz, for the American Prospect, September 24:

Obsession, a controversial movie about terrorism funded by a right-wing organization, is now being distributed in swing-states to perhaps millions of voters. Muslim groups are calling for an investigation to determine if this is being done to influence the election. Short answer: It probably is.[...]

The film, such that I've seen, combines slow-mo footage of terrorist attacks and chanting terrorists with terrible analysis.

For instance, it conflates every vaguely related radical Islamist terrorist attack into one unitary war -- suggesting, for instance, the Beslan massacre in Russia was somehow connected to 9/11. And I thought we'd gotten past the idiotic monolithic theory of terrorism.[...]

Here's what we need to know: Radical Islam is not monolithic. It is not a clear and existential threat to the future of the United States of America...

If-We're-Only-Nicer-They'll-Like-Us Alert: "US Ex-Officials Want Good US Relations with Islam," from Fars News, September 24:

TEHRAN (FNA)- The next US president should speak out for better relations with the Muslim world in his inaugural address, a diverse coalition of 34 former US officials and civic leaders said in a report issued Wednesday.

The proposals, which include diplomatic engagement with Iran, are designed to reverse Muslim hatred for the US hawkish policies and enhance US international security....

Also, it said, the new president should reaffirm immediately a US commitment to prohibit all forms of torture.

On promoting democracy among the Arabs, a hallmark of President George W. Bush's foreign policy, the report envisioned a cautious role for the United States: improving governance and civic participation without imposing a particular set of institutions, parties or leaders.

Bush's war on terror, the report said, has been inadequate and sometimes counterproductive. It recommends "partnership" with Muslims committed to nonviolent political and economic development.

A small victory.

"US court: Monitoring Muslims was constitutional," by Larry Neumeister for AP, September 24 (thanks to Doc Washburn):

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court says it was constitutional for the United States to require visitors from two dozen Arab and Muslim countries and North Korea to register with immigration authorities.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued its ruling Wednesday in cases brought by several men who claimed their constitutional rights were violated.

The program was put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It required males from 24 Arab and predominantly Muslim countries and North Korea to register.

The requirement has since been phased out, but the database of information still exists....

Fox-like cunning

A member of Al-Qaeda's inner circle. "Pakistan: Suspected Marriott bombing 'mastermind' emerges," by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AKI, September 24 (thanks to C.C.):

Karachi, 24 Sept. (AKI) -- The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged.

The suspect, Qari Zafar (photo), has become part of Al-Qaeda's hardline Takfiri inner circle. He enjoys the protection of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and is believed to be hiding out in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area of North West Frontier Province.

Zafar is not only the suspected mastermind of the Marriot bomb blast, but has created a network which will shortly target strategic installations belonging to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, military headquarters in Karachi and police stations across the country, according to security officials.

"Zafar is behind the planning, arrangement of transportation and procurement of explosives for the attack against the Marriott Hotel on 20 September,” a top security source told Adnkronos International on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

"Some of his men have been arrested in Punjab which further confirms his involvement in the whole scheme,” the official added.

The connection to Zafar was established from phone numbers found on the mobiles of some of those arrested in Punjab.

According to security agencies, the chances of arresting Zafar are slim as he rarely moves from his alleged hideout in South Waziristan to visit the various cities of North West Frontier Province.

To most Pakistanis he is an obscure figure, and is considered by security agencies to be a ghostlike figure whose trail went cold after he managed to escape from custody last year.

But he is known to international intelligence services which credit him with fox-like cunning and great bravery when organising and carrying out attacks against identified targets....

Breathing easier

Good news! Mickey Mouse can come out from hiding. An update on this story. "Egypt cleric says Mickey Mouse is not agent of Satan," from AFP, September 24:

CAIRO (AFP) — An Egyptian Muslim scholar has called for an end to risible religious edicts after a Saudi cleric said Mickey Mouse was an agent of Satan who should die, local media reported on Wednesday.

Sheikh Mohamed al-Munajid, a cleric who often appears on Saudi television and who is also a former Saudi diplomat in the United States, said last week that mice were "agents of Satan" and should be killed.

"Sharia (Islamic law) calls for the extermination of all mice. That includes the rodents as well as 'the famous cartoon mouse'," he said.

He blamed Mickey Mouse for causing people to become soft on mice.

However, Suad Saleh, a woman preacher who hosts a popular television programme on fatwas, or religious edicts, told the English-language daily Egyptian Gazette that Munajid's ruling "tarnishes Islam's image."

"An edict should be based on knowledge, logic and reason," she said. "Yes, mice should be killed when seen according to Islam's teachings. But it is illogical to deal with a cartoon character as a live mouse and kill it."...

No kidding, really?

Not quite loyal to the Queen

Did these two attend a mosque? Were their activities known to other Muslims in the UK? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? Has anyone considered the implications of the fact that no Muslim group turned them in?

"British Muslim was senior al-Qaeda leader, court told," by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph, September 24:

A British Muslim was a senior al-Qaeda leader who kept a terrorist contact book containing telephone numbers and emails written in invisible ink, a court has heard.

Rangzieb Ahmed, 33, from Manchester is accused of directing terrorism between April 2004 and Aug 2006.

He allegedly travelled from Pakistan to Dubai where he met an associate in a hotel room to hand over three terrorist contact books containing telephone numbers and emails written in invisible ink.

The other man, Habib Ahmed, 28, flew back to Britain separately but his luggage was secretly opened as he passed through Schipol airport in Amsterdam and the alleged code books discovered.

The security services followed the men around Manchester where they watched them holding meetings and bugged Habib's taxi and another vehicle, the court heard.

Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court: "The prosecution say that Rangzieb Ahmed was a member of al-Qaeda and an important member of al-Qaeda who was in a position to direct some of its activities."

He said Rangzieb had travelled to Dubai intending to travel on to South Africa but was diverted to Britain when something went wrong.

"He was travelling on important al-Qaeda business," Mr Edis said and Habib had flown out to help him.

The men's conversation in Dubai was secretly recorded and Rangzieb gave Habib a Filofax and two exercise books to carry back to Britain, the court heard.

"They contained information in invisible ink," Mr Edis said. "The prosecution say these books contained information of considerable importance to a terrorist which allows the terrorist to communicate secretly by email and telephone - a contact book for a terrorist."

From Dubai the men flew separately to Britain arriving around Christmas 2005, the court heard.

"During that time he held meetings with al-Qaeda contacts, assisted by Habib Ahmed.

"He was an important al-Qaeda man at that time and in this country and it was important for members of the organisation, including Habib Ahmed to help him," Mr Edis said. [...]

While in Pakistan, Habib's wife, Mehreen Haji, 28, sent a total of £4,000 in two payments, allegedly to support his activities.

The court heard that Rangzieb, who was jailed in India for seven years after illegally crossing the border, admits to being a member of the group Harakat ul-Mujahideen, described as a Kashmiri terrorist group, but denies being a member of al-Qaeda.

He was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, but spent most of his childhood in Pakistan after a family split and only returned to Britain after his release from jail in May 2001, leaving again three years later without telling his family where he was going....

"The solution, the bottom line, is that political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan."

"US told it must hold talks with Taliban's Mullah Omar," by Isambard Wilkinson in the Telegraph, September 24 :

Owais Ghani, who governs the North West Frontier Province and its adjoining tribal areas, is the most prominent figure to date to publicly advocate holding talks with militant commanders leading the insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

His thinking reflects that of the conservative hardcore of Pakistan's military hardliners who are accused by Western intelligence operatives of supporting the Afghan Taliban as a "hedging policy" to maintain influence in Afghanistan.

"They have to talk to Mullah Omar, certainly – not maybe, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Haqqani group," Mr Ghani told The Daily Telegraph in an interview in Peshawar.

"The solution, the bottom line, is that political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan."...

Well known as an extremist and fanatic

"We are well-known as extremists and fanatics, and there are also Christians and Jews that are very extremist." They don't fly planes into buildings or cut off heads, but never mind -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has clearly learned how to play the moral equivalence games that will tug on Leftist heartstrings. Apparently he thinks he can get a more favorable judge than Kohlmann, and so is trying to get him disqualified.

"September 11 suspect grills U.S. judge on religion," by Randall Mikkelsen for Reuters, September 24 :

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Accused September 11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed asked a U.S. military judge whether he belonged to an "extremist" religious group, at an unusual Guantanamo war-crimes court hearing on Tuesday

Mohammed, acting as his own attorney, asked Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann about his views on religion and torture at a pre-trial hearing of five accused September 11 co-conspirators.

"We are well-known as extremists and fanatics, and there are also Christians and Jews that are very extremist," Mohammed told the judge.

"If you, for example, were part of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson's groups, then you would not at all be impartial toward us," he said, referring to U.S. evangelical Christian leaders who have denounced Islam as violent.

Kohlmann replied that he did not belong to a congregation. "When I have attended church, I was a member of various Lutheran churches and Episcopal churches, and I have not attended any of them for a long time because I have moved so often," the judge said.

Kohlmann dismissed as "inaccurate," an assertion by co-defendant Ramzi Binalshibh that he had a "Jewish name."

Kohlmann was also asked about how he followed news coverage on the day of the attacks and replied that his memory was imprecise. He also said he had no opinion on the facts of the September 11 incident, which triggered U.S. President George W. Bush's "war on terror."

Binalshibh, Mohammed and three other defendants -- Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali -- are charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to kill civilians in the attacks.

The men face 2,973 counts of murder, one for each person killed when hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. Prosecutors want to execute them if they are convicted.

UNIQUE TO MILITARY COURTS

Extensive exploratory questioning of a judge's qualifications and bias by the defense is unique to military courts, including the commissions set up by Congress to try suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo U.S. Naval base.

Defense attorneys said they had not yet decided whether to ask Kohlmann to disqualify himself based on his answers....

The continued emphasis by Muslim and non-Muslim apologists for Islam on a single verse -- "There is no compulsion in religion" -- is permitted not only because their Infidel audience has no idea either about what is said relevantly elsewhere, in hundreds of places, in the Qur'an and Hadith, and not only because they are unaware of the doctrine of abrogation or "naskh," but because they are also unaware of the precise meaning that is given to that phrase "there is no compulsion in religion" by Muslim jurisconsults. If they did look into it, they would find that the "obvious" meaning of the words -- that is, the meaning that we Infidels choose to endow that phrase with -- is not what Muslim scholars mean at all. They mean that in the end one cannot force deep belief on people, though one can force them to comply outwardly, even on pain of death. And that is what Islam is in the business of doing: forcing outward compliance, on pain of punishment that may well include, has often included, death.

But there is one more thing that should surely be offered as an objection when some fool comes along and utters credulously this "there is no compulsion in religion" and expects us to believe the Western understanding of it. That is the observable behavior of Muslims over 1350 years. What have Muslims done, when they have conquered, by force or otherwise, non-Muslim lands and peoples? They offer three possibilities: death, conversion, and, at least to those who can be classified as ahl al-kitab or "people of the book," permanent status as dhimmis, with a host of political, economic, and social disabilities which together added up to lives of humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity, at times relieved -- but only at times -- by the occasional mollitude of a particular Muslim ruler. A slim reed on which to base one's happiness. And so, over time, many non-Muslims, in order to avoid this condition of degradation, humiliation, and physical insecurity, converted to Islam.

Celebrate diversity!

"Celebrate Diversity: Proper Behavior on Ramadan," by Brian C. Ledbetter at Snapped Shot, September 23:

A homeless man in Brussels was beaten to a pulp this past Friday. His assailants were arrested and will presumably be charged with assault and battery soon, but what's genuinely shocking is the reasoning behind the attack.

You see, the two assailants were Muslim men, who when walking by in the street, became enraged that this homeless man had the sheer audacity to drink during Ramadan.

In a (presumably) non-Muslim country!

According to eyewitness accounts, "The father started screaming at him that he had 'no right to drink during Ramadan,'" which doesn't sound all that "peaceful" or "tolerant" to me....

In "Keeping Toledo Hate-free" at Revuse, Kamala Kamala skewers inconsistency in Ohio over Obsession and hate:

In the September 21, 2008 issue of the Toledo Blade newspaper in Ohio, Dr. Zaheer Hasan and his co-author, Dr. Abdul-Majeed Azad, wrote a defiant column.

Their column was a reaction to the film "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," a DVD included in many newspapers distributed throughout America the previous weekend.

In describing the film, Hasan and Azad use the words "vicious" and "bigoted," writing about a "demonizing message," a "message of hatred, divisiveness, and fear-mongering."

Are they referring to the ruthless prescriptions for non-Muslims presented by the Jihadists themselves in the film, such as the clip of Abu Hamza Al-Masri saying, "What makes Allah happy? Allah is happy when the kafirs [non-Muslims] get killed"?

When Hasan and Azad write about "hate-mongers," are they referring to the huge crowds chanting "Death to America" in the film?

No.

Hasan and Azad are blaming the film makers and distributors, for presenting a "twisted and grotesque representation" of Islam. The "narratives" in the film are "out-of-context." It's "over-dramatized."

Hasan and Azad assure us that "Islam strongly recommends peaceful and cordial relationships, especially with the 'people of the books,' namely Jews and Christians, as well as with the rest of humanity that aspires to coexist peacefully." They tell us, "The core teaching of Islam preaches respect of humanity and preservation of life."

They end their column by writing, "We thank the fair-minded and kind citizens of greater Toledo for their continued affection, sympathy, understanding, and acceptance. We join them in keeping our city and its suburbs hate-free."

Well, Dr. Hasan now has a unique opportunity to help keep Toledo "hate-free."

Dr. Hasan is a founder of the United Muslim Association of Toledo (UMAT) and, based on his own words, is still a member.

On October 29th, Imam Mahdi Bray is scheduled to be the guest speaker at UMAT's Annual Unity dinner, as described on UMAT's home page.

At a rally at Lafayette Park, in Washington D.C., almost exactly eight years before his scheduled engagement at UMAT, Mahdi Bray was standing next to Abdurahman Alamoudi, leader of the American Muslim Council. Alamoudi speaks to the crowd: “I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas. Anybody supports Hamas here?" The crowd cheers, and Mr. Bray raises both his hands and smiles. Alamoudi asks again, "Anybody's a supporter of Hamas here?" The crowd cheers again, and Bray raises his right hand. Alamoudi repeats himself one more time, and Bray raises his hand again. The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBIcfigtbEU

[...]

Perhaps the UMAT leadership that invited Mahdi Bray to speak at their upcoming dinner did not know these troubling details about his background. Neither, perhaps, did Dr. Hasan.

But now he does.

Will Dr. Hasan condemn Mahdi Bray for his support of the terrorist organization Hamas and Bray's affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood?

Will Dr. Hasan push UMAT—the group he founded—to disinvite Mr. Bray and keep Toledo "hate-free"?

My guess would be...No, he won't.

Still more reasonable accommodation in Absurd Britannia: "Family barred from burying their dead stepfather on a Saturday... because he isn't a Muslim," from the Daily Mail, September 24 (thanks to Dave):

A council has barred a grieving family from burying their stepfather on a Saturday - because he was not Muslim.

Harold 'Charlie' Lemaire died last week aged 75 from pneumonia. His stepdaughter, Jean Maltby, wanted the funeral to be held this Saturday so family who live outside the city could attend.

The retired steel worker's stepson Stephen lives in Dorset while other members of his family live as far away as the Isle of Man.

But when her funeral director called Sheffield's City Road Cemetery to arrange a memorial service followed by burial, he was told the funeral would not be allowed on a Saturday because the family was not Muslim.

The city's council confirmed it does not offer funerals at the weekend except to Muslims, in line with the rules of the Islamic faith that the dead must be buried as soon as possible.

Ms Maltby said today she felt it was unfair to offer weekend funerals to one religion and not to others.

'It should be one rule for everyone - and I don't think the people of Sheffield realise the council has made this decision,' she said.

'It goes against the council's policy of equal rights. They are making a service available to one sector of the community and not another.'...

Yep. And you're going to be seeing a great deal more of that, too.

Of course, Al-Qaeda has done this before -- most notably with the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid that led to the election of the hopeless Zapatero. But we have also seen -- many times over the years -- an "uptick" in activity that led to nothing. "Spies Warn That Al Qaeda Aims for October Surprise: Intercepted Messages Asking Local Cells To Be Prepared for Imminent Instructions," by Eli Lake for the New York Sun, September 22 (thanks to James):

WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of two major terrorist attacks on Western targets, America's counterterrorism community is warning that Al Qaeda may launch more overseas operations to influence the presidential elections in November.

Call it Osama bin Laden's "October surprise." In late August, during the weekend between the Democratic and Republican conventions, America's military and intelligence agencies intercepted a series of messages from Al Qaeda's leadership to intermediate members of the organization asking local cells to be prepared for imminent instructions.

An official familiar with the new intelligence said the message was picked up in multiple settings, from couriers to encrypted electronic communications to other means. "These are generic orders," the source said — a distinction from the more specific intelligence about the location, time, and method of an attack. "It was, 'Be on notice. We may call upon you soon.' It was sent out on many channels."

Also, Yemen's national English-language newspaper is reporting that a spokesman for Yemen's Islamic Jihad, the Qaeda affiliate that claimed credit for last week's American embassy bombing in Sa'naa, is now publicly threatening to attack foreigners and high government officials if American and British diplomats do not leave the country.

Mr. bin Laden has sought to influence democratic elections in the past. On March 11, 2004, Al Qaeda carried out a series of bombings on Madrid commuter trains. Three days later, the opposition and anti-Iraq war Socialist Workers Party was voted into power.

In the week before the 2004 American presidential election, Mr. bin Laden recorded a video message to the American people promising repercussions if President Bush were re-elected. In later messages, Al Qaeda's leader claimed credit for helping elect Mr. Bush in 2004. Last year in Pakistan, Qaeda assassins claimed the life of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister who returned to her native country in a bid for re-election....

Reasonable accommodation marches on.

"London's Olympic Park toilets to turn away from Mecca out of respect for Islamic law," from the Daily Mail, September 24 (thanks to Simone):

Toilet facilities are being built at London's Olympic Park so Muslims will not have to face Mecca while sitting on the loo.

The Olympic Delivery Authority has said it wants to produce an ideal venue for people of all cultures, faiths, ages and abilities for the 2012 Games and beyond.

The Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from facing the Kiblah - the direction of prayer - when they visit the lavatory.

An ODA spokeswoman confirmed that a 'percentage of general toilets would not face Mecca' out of sensitivity.

She could not say how many toilets would turn away from the East.

Also as part of the design, special washing facilities will be linked to Islamic prayer rooms....

What much of the world does not realize is that Iran did not invent this policy; nor did Saudi Arabia. It is a part of Sharia law, justified with references to Muhammad's own orders: "Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him." Thus, this aspect of Sharia becomes an issue for its potential enforcers or targets wherever it is proposed (or demanded).

From Adnkronos International, September 23:

Tehran, 23 Sept. (AKI) - Nemat Safavi, arrested almost three years ago at the age of 16, has been condemned to death by a court in Ardebil, in the northwest Iranian Azerbaijan region.

Nemat has not killed anyone, stolen anything or even carried out any political activism.

Nemat has been accused of having homosexual relations.While that was not stated during the court case, he was accused of "sexual relations that were not admitted".

A year ago, on a visit to Colombia University in New York, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "there were no homosexuals" in Iran in response to a question from a student.

Despite the fact that the film Obsession contains no political content and was made well before the 2008 election cycle began, CAIR, those paragons of Islamic moderation and honesty, would now have you believe that the national distribution of the DVD was an Israeli plot to elect John McCain.

This is a very revealing action for CAIR to take. It reveals in particular two key aspects of CAIR's mindset:
1. It shows that CAIR is fully aware that the jihad against Israel is an integral part of the global jihad, and is not just a struggle to recover Palestinian "stolen land." Thus a film that reveals the nature and goals of that global jihad -- Obsession -- benefits Israel.
2. It also shows that CAIR believes that John McCain will fight against the global jihad in a way that Barack Obama will not -- and that it believes therefore the distribution of an anti-jihad film, which in a sane world would be welcomed by both the Left and the Right since the global jihad wishes to destroy and remake the West utterly, must be some partisan plot.

It further shows CAIR yet again on the wrong side of the jihad, as they are again and again. The Flying Imams threaten the ability of airline passengers to report suspicious behavior without getting harassed legally, and CAIR is right there. Sami Al-Arian for years bamboozles the Left into thinking he is a gallant freedom fighter for the Palestinians without the shadow of a hint of support for terrorism, and CAIR backs him all the way. The Patriot Act? CAIR was against it -- and not just the legitimately questionable parts, either. Has CAIR ever sponsored a single anti-terror initiative that would actually make it easier for law enforcement to identify and apprehend jihad terrorists? Nope.

Yet this shady group still enjoys mainstream media support, and is routinely depicted as a neutral "civil rights" organization.

"CAIR Asks FEC to Probe Anti-Muslim DVDs Sent to Swing States," from MarketWire, September 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON, DC - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today announced that it has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over the distribution of an anti-Muslim film to 28 million homes in presidential election swing states.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging the FEC to investigate whether the Clarion Fund, a non-profit organization that distributed DVDs containing "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," is really a front for an Israel-based group seeking to help Sen. John McCain win the U.S. presidential election. (No information about a board of directors, staff or even a physical address is offered on the fund's website.)

In its complaint to the FEC, CAIR wrote in part:

"The Clarion Fund recently financed the distribution of some 28 million DVDs containing the film 'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West' in what many political analysts describe as 'swing' states in the upcoming presidential elections. Those same analysts say the distribution of the 'Obsession' DVD was designed to benefit a particular presidential candidate, namely Sen. John McCain...

"According to the website for the Secretary of State for New York, Clarion Fund Inc. is incorporated in New York as a Delaware-based foreign not-for-profit corporation. According to the Delaware Department of Corporations, Robert (Rabbi Raphael) Shore, Rabbi Henry Harris and Rebecca Kabat incorporated Clarion Fund. All three of whom are reported to serve as employees of Aish HaTorah International, an organization apparently based in Israel. Also according to the Delaware Department of Corporations, the incorporators of the Clarion Fund used Aish HaTorah's New York City address (150 West 46th Street, New York) to incorporate Clarion Fund in Delaware... [SEE: http://www.aish.com/aishint/wwprogram.asp]

"It appears that the funding for the production, marketing and distribution of 'Obsession' may have originated from Israel-based Aish HaTorah International." [...]

"American voters deserve to know whether they are the targets of a multi-million-dollar campaign funded and directed by a foreign group seeking to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria as a way to influence the outcome of our presidential election," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad....

American voters also deserve to know whether they are the targets of a campaign, multimillion-dollar or no, funded and directed by Islamic supremacists to mislead and deceive them about Islamic jihad terrorism as a way to influence the outcome of our presidential election, and to influence much more besides.

When politicians wax philosophical. At least this is a step in the right direction. If politicians can shift their rhetoric from political paradigms to philosophical ones, perhaps the day will eventually come when they can take the next step and articulate themselves through a theological paradigm, when they will be able to say "Pakistan faces theological threat from militants." For now, this will have to do:

"Pakistan faces 'existential threat' from militants," by David Morgan for Reuters, September 23:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamist safe havens in western Pakistan are threatening the existence of Pakistan's civilian government through increased attacks, including last weekend's Marriott hotel bombing, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

"The nature of the threat that they face, beginning with the assassination of the current president's wife and now most recently the attack on the Marriott hotel, makes very clear to the Pakistani government that they face an existential threat in the western part of their country," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The remote mountainous region believed to be a safe harbour for al Qaeda and other groups also poses the greatest threat of terrorism against the United States, Gates said in hearing testimony that underscored the dangers posed by the tribal lands along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan...

Nothing that a few heart-to-heart talks won't fix. "Iran's leader says 'American empire' near collapse," by Slobodan Lekic for Associated Press, September 23:

UNITED NATIONS - Iran's president addressed the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday declaring that "the American empire" is nearing collapse and should end its military involvement in other countries.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said terrorism is spreading quickly in Afghanistan and that "the occupiers" are still in Iraq nearly six years after Saddam Hussein was ousted from power in Iraq.

"American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders," Ahmadinejad said....

Back-to-back, Pakistan attacks. Another Friend and Ally Update. The irony is that such drones can help prevent another Marriott-like attack: if al-Qaeda supporting "tribesmen" shot at it (which is at least logical), what is the Pakistani government's logic?

"Pakistanis say suspected US drone shot down," from AP, September 23 :

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani troops and tribesman shot down a suspected U.S. military drone close to the Afghan border Tuesday, three intelligence officials said.

If verified, it apparently would be the first pilotless aircraft brought down over Pakistan and the incident likely would add to tensions between Washington and Islamabad over a spate of recent American cross-border incursions in the lawless tribal regions.

The officials said the unmanned aircraft was shot down late Tuesday in the village of Jalal Khel in South Waziristan after circling over the area for several hours. Its wreckage was strewn on the ground, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

My friend Amil Imani, the Iranian freedom fighter, wrote this in September 2007, but with the Thug-In-Chief back in town it is worth revisiting:

To understand Ahmadinejad’s mind set and behavior requires a close scrutiny of the elaborate and intricate theology of Hujjatiyyah Shiism, perhaps the most fundamentalist of the numerous Shiite sects.

In the 1950s, a group of Islamic clergy led by Sheikh Mahmoud Halabi (a close associate of Ayatollah Khomeini) formed a society called the Anjoman-e Khayryyehye Hujjatiyyah-ye Mahdaviat (Charitable Society of the Mahdi), based in Mashhad, Iran. The Hujjatiyyah membership was mostly composed by the bazaar-i businessmen and fanatical mullahs. Among many things, they were against the communists, Marxists, and atheists. Their overarching "raison d'être," however, was to prepare the world for the upcoming of the 12th Imam -- the Mahdi.

Tim Townsend takes the high road -- of willful ignorance and dhimmitude. "Post-Dispatch refuses to distribute DVD offensive to American Muslims," by Tim Townsend for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22 (thanks to H.M.):

Despite the perilous state of American newspapers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch advertising department took an ethical stand and refused to distribute the DVD of a film that for two years has troubled American Muslims. [...]

In October 2006 (another election year) I wrote a story about how besieged the St. Louis Muslim community was feeling- the worst, many told me, since just after Sept. 11, 2001. A St. Louis screening of the “Obesession” [sic] movie featured in that story:

At the end of August, a thousand people — about half of them Jewish and half Christian, according to organizers — attended a screening of the movie “Obsession: What the War on Terror is Really About” at the Frontenac Hilton Hotel. The group’s sponsors promoted the movie with a provocative billboard featuring a dark-skinned man whose head was wrapped in a kuffiyeh and the words, “Confessions of a Terrorist.”

A "dark-skinned man" -- the not-so-thinly veiled message here, of course, is that resistance to jihad terrorism and Islamic supremacism is "racist."

The terrorist in question was Walid Shoebat, who said he was a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Shoebat appeared in the hourlong movie and then spoke to the audience.

Muslims who were there said they were horrified by what they believed was the movie’s inference that Islam, terrorism and Nazism were one and the same, despite a disclaimer that ran at the beginning and end of the movie that said “most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror.”

The movie makes no such "inference"; indeed, it goes out of its way to rule out any such conclusion. And in any case, its very existence shows up the glaring absence, seven years after 9/11, of any Muslim anti-terror effort. Every -- and I do mean every -- effort at raising awareness of and resistance to the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism is met with claims from Muslim groups that all Muslims are being lumped together and labeled as terrorists, no matter how strenuously this is denied in the piece they're criticizing. We are supposed to believe that the Muslim groups that are complaining abhor jihad terrorism, but they resent that the presentation in question goes too far and tars all Muslims. I myself get this all the time, although I have never said at any time -- simply because it wouldn't be true -- that all Muslims are pursuing the Islamic supremacist agenda.

But if that were really true, it would be reasonable to expect that some of these anti-terror Muslims would produce something -- even one video or book -- that did right what Obsession and I and all the rest do wrong. In other words, it would explain clearly the difference between the Islamic beliefs of the terrorists and those of the peaceful Muslims, making a clear and sharp distinction between the two, and condemning -- not with weasel words and half-measures, but fully, honestly, forthrightly and wholeheartedly -- jihad violence and Islamic supremacism. Such a presentation, if it existed, would reassure many people and would be used as a model by anti-jihadists thereafter.

But it does not exist, and probably will not ever be made, and that in itself is extremely telling of the inadequacy and falsity of many of the assumptions people have today about the global jihad. People including Tim Townsend of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Far more upsetting, they said, was the reaction of the audience.

Writing in “The American Muslim” two weeks after the screening, [Sheila] Musaji said those Muslims who attended were “still experiencing physical and emotional distress primarily due to the positive reaction of the audience — including applause and standing ovations — and to some of the hateful comments we overheard from individuals sitting around us.”

As I have spoken at several screenings of Obsession and taken questions from the crowds, I am skeptical about Musaji's description of the audience reaction here. And I have had good reason to doubt Musaji's veracity in the past.

But if her claims are accurate, well, you know, we all have to live with a certain level of physical and emotional distress. I still suffer physical and emotional distress when I think of September 11, 2001, or March 11, 2004, or July 7, 2005, and the people who died on those days, and of the people who die in jihad terror attacks around the world up to this day, such as those who died in the attack at the Islamabad Marriott yesterday. And I wonder why Sheila Musaji has never written an article about the physical and emotional distress that peaceful Muslims suffer when their coreligionists commit violence in the name of their religion, and why she has never called upon those Muslims to stop committing acts of violence and supremacism in Islam's name. I further wonder why these distressed Muslims were not distressed by the exhortations to jihad violence voiced by Muslim preachers in the film as much as they were by the audience reaction to the film.

Fatemeh Keshavarz, head of Washington University’s department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, who was at the screening, said: “This was hate speech, pure and simple. … being in that room, I felt threatened.”

It would have been kind of her to specify what exactly in the film was "hate speech." The only obvious hate speech was the exhortations to jihad violence and hatred of the Jews coming from jihadist preachers. But they were on film, and were filmed not by the producers of Obsession but by TV cameras in their own countries, where their hateful messages were broadcast approvingly.

They like him, they really like him

"Ahmadinejad says most of the world supports Iran's nuke program," from AP, September 23 (thanks to Dionysios Potamis):

...According to a report on the Web site of Iran's National Public Radio, Ahmadinejad claimed the "people of the world - the majority actually - support our stand."

Ahmadinejad also said the West's policy toward Iran was at the root of the confrontation. He claimed the United States and its allies "believe they own the world" and "want to interfere in anything that goes on in the world."

Uh huh -- and it is actually Sharia that ought to own and rule the world, so the power of the United States is in itself an insult.

Heavyweight indeed

In "The Steyn show trial" in the Western Standard, Kathy Shaidle and Pete Vere lay bare the dhimmitude of the mainstream media in Canada, when Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine were hauled up in front of the Thought Police for daring to voice their resistance to jihad and Islamization.

By the time the “show trial” against Mark Steyn and Maclean’s began on June 2, 2008 the case had become a cause celebre in the formidable U.S. conservative media network of blogs and talk radio. Four heavyweight pundits--Jonah Goldberg, Robert Spencer, David Harsanyi and Pat Buchanan--rebuked the censors of “Soviet Canuckistan” on the very same day.

But Canada’s liberal mainstream media more or less shrugged. Veteran journalism professor John Miller condemned the “xenophobic” Steyn in an online forum by and for professional reporters, accusing Steyn of failing to express his opinions “in food [sic] faith”, then scolding prissily that “everyone must obey the law.” This lead Parliament Hill reporter Deborah Gyapong to ask the obvious question: “What if the law advocated slavery or chopping off hands?”

With professors like John Miller training journalists, it is no wonder that the state-run, taxpayer-funded CBC got the name of Steyn’s book wrong or that their local reporters admitted that they knew nothing about the trial they’d been sent to cover. Their broadcasting rival outlet, CTV, published a glorified review of America Alone in lieu of an objective news report. (They at least managed to render the book’s title correctly.)

Columnist David Warren bluntly explained: “Among the spookiest aspects of these cases is the silence over, and indifference to them, on the part of journalists whose predecessors imagined themselves vigilant in the cause of freedom. As I’ve learned first-hand through email, many Canadian journalists today take the view that, ‘I don’t like these people, therefore I don’t care what happens to them.’ It is a view that, at best, is extremely short-sighted.”

Indeed it is, and it isn't limited solely to Canada.

Read it all.

Sign here.

Reasonable accommodation. "Christian Schools Closing for Islamic Festival," from NIS News, September 23 (thanks to Fjordman):

AMSTERDAM, 23/09/08 - At least two Amsterdam secondary schools with a Christian basis are to close during the Sugar Feast to accede to their Muslim pupils. Various other schools are also doing so, Reformatorisch Dagblad newspaper reported yesterday.

The Calvijn met Junior College in Amsterdam and the Huygens College, also in the capital, are both closing for the Sugar Feast. The Islamic festival marks the end of the Ramadan month of fasting and falls on or around 1 October this year.

The Calvijn met Junior College is closing for two days, and the Huygens College for one. Both are VMBO schools - the lowest level of secondary education - and although they are Christian, their pupils are virtually all immigrants.

The Party for Freedom (PVV) wants clarification from Education Minister Ronald Plasterk in the Lower House today. "This really cannot be allowed," in the view of PVV MP Martin Bosma. "The Netherlands is no Muslim country and will never become one either. We must never give in to the pressure of this ideology, which wants to take over the Netherlands bit by bit."...

Yep.

Update to this story. "Pakistan blames al Qaeda for bombing," from ABC, September 22:

Pakistani and US intelligence officials say a suicide attack that killed 53 people at the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital bears the hallmarks of an operation by al Qaeda or an affiliate.

Claire Mackay reports at least 200 people are wounded.

The head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry Rehman Malik says it appears the suicide bomber intended to drive the truck laden with 600 kilograms of explosives into the foyer of the Marriott hotel.

Mr Malik says had that happened the building would have collapsed. Security footage shows the truck ramming security gates.

Failing to break through the suicide bomber blows himself up.

Moments later the footage cuts out at the time of the major blast.

It left a seven metre deep crater and the 300-room hotel was gutted by fire.

Rescuers couldn't reach many guests trapped on the upper floors and some jumped to their death...

Sounds familiar.

Evidently no one stands up in these mosques and says, "Wait a minute, fellows. You guys are twisting and hijacking my peaceful religion. As everyone knows, jihad is an interior spiritual struggle."

And meanwhile, of course, anyone who protests against the building of a given mosque in the West is ipso facto a "racist" and a "bigot." No one could have a healthy and well-founded suspicion about what can happen and has happened inside mosques. Oh, no.

"Jamat-ud-Dawa using mosques for jihad: Report," from the Times of India, September 23 (thanks to Twostellas):

ISLAMABAD: Activists of an organisation led by Lashker-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed are using mosques to issue calls for jihad against the US in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, a media report said on Tuesday.

Members of Jamat-ud-Dawa, set up by Saeed after the Lashker-e-Taiba was banned by the Pakistan government, have been operating in the city's posh residential districts like Hayatabad and University Town, where they address people in mosques about the importance of jihad, the Daily Times said.

Quoting eyewitnesses, the newspaper said the activists have issued calls for a holy war against the US to worshippers at different mosques.

"A young, bearded and long-haired activist of the Jamat-ud-Dawa stood up after the Fajr (morning) prayers and began calling for jihad against infidels," said a University of Peshawar professor who had come across the activists at Madina mosque.

Mumtaz Khan, a resident of Hayatabad, who came across an extremist at Bilal mosque, said the fundamentalists cite dangers to Pakistan to incite people for war.

"The extremists first speak about geopolitics (and) dangers to Pakistan from both eastern and western borders and then urge the importance of jihad," he said.

A caretaker of one of the mosques confirmed that the Jamat-ud-Dawa, which describes itself as a charitable organisation, was using mosques to invite people for jihad.

"Under what law can I stop them from doing so? There is no law, both governmental or Islamic," said the caretaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"These callers come at different prayer times and are peaceful and appear to be pro-Pakistan," the caretaker added....

The Attorney General has accomplished a very worthwhile task here in raising the issue of female genital mutilation in the mainstream media, as many in the United States likely don't even know the practice exists, let alone that it is so widespread. Mukasey himself probably doesn't know it is considered obligatory in the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence (cf. Umdat al-Salik e4.3), and justified with references to ahadith.

But there is much more Western countries could be doing to eradicate this practice, from speaking out against it more frequently to tying aid to meaningful and verifiable steps in outlawing the practice and punishing the perpetrators. And above all, no sense of "cultural sensitivity" should stop them from making every effort to keep immigrants from those countries from continuing the practice in the West.

"AG: Don't deport genital mutilation victim," by Terry Frieden for CNN, September 22:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. attorney general is trying to prevent immigration authorities from sending a Muslim woman to her home country, where she was a victim of female genital mutilation.

In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled "because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country."

Calling the rationale "flawed," Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider.

The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe.

The 28-year-old said if she returned and had a daughter, the child also would be subject to mutilation. The woman also said she faced forced marriage if she had to go home.

Mukasey cited what he concluded were two significant factual errors in the court's rejection of her appeal.

"Female genital mutilation is not necessarily a one-time event," Mukasey said. He noted that the board in a previous case had granted asylum in to one woman whose "vaginal opening was sewn shut approximately five times after being opened to allow for sexual intercourse and child birth."

He also concluded that the Board of Immigration Appeals was wrong to assume that the woman "must fear persecution in exactly the same form [namely, repeat female genital mutilation] to qualify for relief."

Mukasey had been urged to look into the matter by angered members of Congress in the wake of the January decision.

"This recent action taken by the Board of Immigration Appeals is a step backward for the rights of women worldwide," declared Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, in a January letter.

"Female genital mutilation is a gross violation of a woman's human rights and has traditionally been grounds for the granting of an asylum claim," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, said in the letter.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, issued a statement applauding Mukasey's action, and declaring female genital mutilation a "barbaric practice widely regarded as a human rights abuse."

The Justice Department acknowledged it is extraordinarily rare for an attorney general to jump into a relatively low-level immigration case. The immigration courts decide about 40,000 cases a year, and an attorney general has issued an opinion on a case only three times in the past three years.

Female genital mutilation is common in parts of Africa, Asia and in some Arab countries, according to the United Nations. The operation is viewed by some ethnic groups as a means to control a woman's sexuality and is sometimes a prerequisite for marriage or the right to inherit...

The bulldozer rampage in July has introduced a new variety of suicide attack for the jihadist seeking to "slay and be slain" for the Qur'an's promise of paradise (9:111). "15 wounded in terror attack at busy Jerusalem intersection," by Etgar Lefkovits and Shelly Paz for the Jerusalem Post, September 22:

An Arab resident of east Jerusalem rammed his vehicle into a group of soldiers at a central Jerusalem thoroughfare late Monday night, wounding fifteen people, before being shot dead by an off-duty IDF officer, police and rescue officials said.

It was the third such attack in the city in as many months.

The attack took place at the city's Kikar Tzahal near Jaffa Gate. Two of the casualties were in moderate condition, the rest were lightly hurt.

The assailant, who was driving a BMW, crashed into a group of off-duty soldiers on the sidewalk, where his car came to a grinding halt.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said that the attacker was shot dead "within seconds" by an off-duty IDF officer who was touring the city with his unit.

He added that there was no intelligence information ahead of the attack, but noted that Jerusalem was under heavy security alert due to Ramadan.

The city's police chief said that the lone attacker was an Arab resident of east Jerusalem.

The pedestrians wounded in the attack were rushed to Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem, Hadassah-University Hospital on Mount Scopus and the city's Sha'are Tzedek Hospital.

The attack comes after two back-to-back bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem in July which left three Israelis dead and dozens wounded.

The following is a partial transcript of the video interview, which can be viewed in full, with English subtitles, at the MEMRI link. More on al-Qaeda's use of children as suicide bombers here.

"15-Year-Old Iraqi Would-Be Suicide Bomber Tells Her Story on Iraq TV," from MEMRI, September 22 :

Interviewer: "Ranya, how old are you?"

Ranya: "I'm 15 years old."

Interviewer: "How long have you been married?"

Ranya: "Nine months."

[...]

Interviewer: "How are you doing financially?"

Ranya: "Very well."

Even though it's meticulously researched and supposedly "fatwa-proof." "British networks reject jihad comedy," from UPI, September 22:

LONDON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A British TV creator said networks have refused his idea for a comedy about would-be suicide bombers, but the project may find legs as a film.

Chris Morris, who rose to fame as the creator and star of controversial Channel 4 comedy "Brass Eye," said BBC and Channel 4 have rejected his proposal for a comedy about jihadists in the North of London on the grounds that it was deemed unsuitable for prime time audiences.

Mark Herbert, from Warp Films, which produced the TV project, said Morris had carefully researched the product to ensure it would not be offensive to Muslims.

"Chris's research has been meticulous. It is fatwa-proof," he said.

A Channel 4 spokesman said the program had been given consideration, but was decided that it would work better as a film under the company's movie-developing wing, Film4.

"It was agreed at a very early stage that the project would work best as a film and from this point was developed through Film4," the spokesman said.

Say yes to jihad, no to apostasy

Mauritania tops the list, as it "has become a nest of foreign intelligence topped by Israel's Mossad." More on this story.

"Qaeda calls for jihad in North Africa," from AFP, September 22:

DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda's North Africa chief has called on Muslims there to join the jihad (holy war) and slammed governments in the region where the group has repeatedly claimed attacks, a US monitoring service said on Monday.

"Unite around the jihad that is the only alternative power to the apostate regimes that dominate over our lands," Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said in an audio speech posted on Sunday on Islamist militant websites, the SITE Intelligence Group said.

Abdul Wadud blasted the regimes in Mauritania, Algeria and other North African countries, charging that Mauritania has become "a nest of foreign intelligence" topped by Israel's Mossad.

"Mauritania... has become a nest of foreign intelligence, at its forefront the Mossad, and has become a station of crusader colonial ambition," he said, according to a SITE transcript.

"History will continue to mention that this is the first Arab country, outside of the Tawq (Arab nations surrounding Israel), that recognised the state of Israel and exchanged ambassadors with it," he said.

SITE said the remarks came in a 29-minute video titled "A message to our ummah (nation) in the Islamic Maghreb."

Abdul Wadud also claimed that former colonial power France continues to impose its authority in Algeria, using the Algiers government as a proxy.

Algeria is threatened not only by France, but also by the United States which seeks to install military bases there, he charged.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has repeatedly claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Algeria, including a spate of bombings in July and August.

The group has also been blamed for an ambush on a Mauritanian patrol last week after which the decapitated bodies of 12 Mauritanians -- 11 soldiers and one civilian -- were found.

Meanwhile, "analysts" feel that "the threat of terrorism is being exaggerated."

Friend and Ally Update. "Report: Pakistan fires on U.S. choppers," from NBC News, September 22 (thanks to Infidel Pride):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani troops fired on two U.S. helicopters that intruded into Pakistani territory on Sunday night, forcing them to turn back to Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani security official said on Monday.

The helicopters violated the border in the area of Lowara Mandi, 80 km west of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, at around 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

There was no official confirmation.

"We don't have any information on border violation by the American helicopters," Major Murad Khan, a military spokesman, said.

Relations between the two allies became frayed earlier this month after U.S. commandos raided a border village in South Waziristan and killed 20 people, including women and children, on Sept. 3. Pakistanis were outraged by the incursion and the six-month-old civilian government issued a diplomatic protest.

It was the first overt incursion by U.S. ground troops into Pakistani territory, though the U.S. military has conducted numerous missile strikes against al-Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal lands.

Pakistani troops fired on two U.S. helicopters that crossed the border at the same village, Angor Adda, a week ago, again forcing them to turn back, according to residents and security officers, though both Pakistani and U.S. officials issued denials.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is due to meet President Bush on Tuesday in the United States.

In an interview with TODAY's Ann Curry, Zardari repeated Pakistan's objection to U.S. forays inside its territory. "I think if [the United States] let us tell you we're already there, we'll catch them," he said.

He said incursions were in violation of the U.N. charter. Asked whether Pakistan's military would use violence against U.S. forces, Zardari replied, "Whatever it takes."

Along with my friend the courageous Iranian dissident Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, who is on the scene in New York while I fly the unfriendly skies all day. "Pajamas TV Covers New York Iran Demonstration," from Pajamas Media:

Coverage (beginning at 3PM Pacific) is free and includes a special report from Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi on scene. As a preview, watch the first installment of our cartoon series "Mahmoud's Nuclear Adventures" at the link.

Always refreshing to see a member of that bastion of Islamic apologetics -- academia -- actually being objective. More on this story. "Swift dispute, radical Muslims DVD flare scrutiny of Islam," by Chris Casey for the Tribune, September 21:

James Lindsay, an associate professor of Middle Eastern history at CSU, takes an opposite view on "Obsession." He believes it's a straightforward look at radical Islam.

He said the producers are explicit that film is about the radical ideology within Islam, which is advanced by the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida and other groups. The film's introduction states that most Muslims are peaceful and don't support terror.

The militant Islamic branch -- which the film says makes up about 10 percent to 15 percent of a worldwide Muslim population of 1.2 billion, the world's second-largest religion behind Christianity -- has a conquest ideology, Lindsay said.

"It's one of subjugating the world to their ideology. There is not room for another ideology, according to the radical Muslim ideology, and it's frightening," he said. "But it's part and parcel of the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and the al-Qaida types that they want to impose their will on everyone."[...]

Lindsay, the CSU professor, said the Muslims who flew the airplanes into the Twin Towers felt they were doing God's work.

Muslims who say "jihad" means the struggle for personal betterment aren't giving the full picture of what's written in the classical text, he said. Rather, the text says the Islamic practitioner is preparing himself to be a better warrior.

"The idea of the jihad as laid out by extremists is one of the doctrines within the Quran itself," Lindsay said. "It's a fundamental tenet of Islamic religion and it has been in Islamic history -- engaging in warfare against the enemies of Islam."

Conflicts between the West and Islam are inevitable, Lindsay said, because the demands of Islamic law are in conflict with the West's approach to law and religion. The Quran speaks of creating a society that's obedient to God's law, not obedient to men's model, he said.

Lindsay believes the way to deal with Muslim immigrants -- as in the case of the JBS Swift workers -- is to explain how employment rules and policies operate in the United States. "I have no desire to make any accommodations to Islamic law, and that's my opinion."

He said, "Were imploding. You may want to stand back a bit."

No, not exactly. "Terrorism: Al-Qaeda leader threatens France and Spain," from AdnKronos International, September 22:

Algiers, 22 Sept. (AKI) - A leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb has threatened France and Spain in an audio message broadcast on jihadist Internet forums on Monday.

"To those that are involved in the war against Islam and have betrayed the Islamic nation, we say to them: Repent before God punishes you with his hands and with ours," said Abdel Malik Droukedel, who uses the name Abu Musab Abdel Wudud.

"This is because judgement day is close and punishment is imminent. And whoever among the treacherous apostates thinks that France is in a position to ensure its safety, we tell them they are wrong, because France will not be in a position to do it, and will be worried for its safety."

In the audio message, entitled "Message to our nation in the Islamic Maghreb", Droukedel reminds his listeners about Spain and Morocco's territorial dispute over the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

"Dear nation, it is not conceivable for any Muslim that loves Islam to speak of the Maghreb without remembering Ceuta and Melilla, occupied by Spain without remembering the injustice suffered by our nation," said Droukedel.

"The complicity between Spain and international organisations such as the Arab League, the Islamic Conference and the United Nations is clear."

Melilla and Ceuta are autonomous cities administered by Spain and considered by neighbouring Morocco to be an integral part of its territory and of immense political and economic significance.

Morocco claims both locations to be "despoiled" territories, calling them by their Arabic equivalents of Sebta and Melillia. The cities have been under Spanish control for over 400 years.

In the message, Droukedel also speaks against new NATO military bases in North Africa and accuses Moroccan King Mohammed VI of having betrayed the prophet Mohammed by having a Danish embassy in his territory.

Regarding Tunisia, Droukedel accuses the government of being anti-Islamic and of passing laws against the implementation of Islamic Sharia law.

Speaking about Mauritania, he reminds his listeners about Nouakchott's diplomatic relations with Israel, while he claims that Algeria is suffering from political 'interference' by France.

"I assure you all that we do not kill innocent people and we will prevent the spilling of Muslim blood," he said.

The Al-Qaeda leader says he will continue his fight to drive "France and the US from our country" and asks Algerian citizens to stay away from foreign organisations or government buildings because they are targets for attacks.

Droukedel's message was aimed at Muslims in North Africa, and was also translated into French.

The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb evolved from the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat, initially formed to create an Islamic state in Algeria, but now believed to have more widespread goals.

Yet "some analysts say the threat of terrorism is being exaggerated." More on this story.

"Mauritania declares mourning over decapitated soldiers," from ABC News, September 22 :

The military government in Mauritania has declared three days of mourning following the discovery of the decapitated bodies of 12 soldiers.

Their bodies were dumped in the desert outside a northern town where the soldiers were captured on Monday.

A group calling itself Al Qaeda's North Africa wing has said it had abducted the soldiers during an ambush on an army patrol.

There is a difference of opinion as to how serious the threat of terrorism is in Mauritania.

There have been attacks in recent months for which Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility, including the murder of three French tourists late last year which resulted in the cancellation of the famous Paris Dacca rally.

But some analysts say the threat of terrorism is being exaggerated.

The military led government has called for international support in the fight against terrorism, describing it as a very grave threat to the stability of the region.

A reminder that "al-Qaeda groups" will go to any lengths, no matter how despicable, to seize power: "RP Marines rescue 2 children seized by Muslim militants," from GMA News, September 21:

MANILA, Philippines - A Philippine military official says marines safely rescued after a brief gunbattle two children who were kidnapped last week by Muslim militants linked to the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group in the southern.

Marines captured two alleged kidnappers during Sunday's pre-dawn rescue of the two boys in a remote village in mountainous Patikul township on southern Jolo island. Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo says the alleged kidnap leader, Hajal Hatae, a former Abu Sayyaf member, managed to escape and is being hunted by marines.

The Abu Sayyaf, believed to have more than 300 gunmen, has been battered by U.S.-backed Philippine military offensives in Jolo and nearby islands and has resorted to kidnappings for ransom and extortion to survive. - AP

There is a striking similarity in this story to the peace talks between jihadists and the government of the Philippines, which recently fell apart and returned directly to calls for jihad. One cannot help but wonder, when aware of Islamic history and teachings regarding truces (hudna), whether this will truly lead to a lasting peace, or just buy time.

"Thailand: Govt and Muslims agree to end southern conflict," from AdnKronos International, September 22:

Bogr, West Java, 22 Sept. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Indonesia-mediated peace talks between the Thai government and representatives of the Muslim community in southern Thailand concluded on Sunday with a commitment to ending years of conflict that have claimed 2,700 lives.

The two sides pledged to resume negotiations in November at the same location in Bogor, West Java, to find ways to meet the Muslim group's demands for justice, economic development and use of the Malay language in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala - while maintaining Thailand's territorial integrity.

Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said the second round of negotiations would take place on Nov.1 and 2, and the third round in mid-November.

"Both sides have agreed that the settlement should be conducted peacefully through dialogue forums, and should be in line with the Constitution of Thailand," Dino said at the State Palace.

The Thai government sent five negotiators, headed by Gen. Khwanchart Klahan, the supreme commander of the Southern Border Provinces Peace Building Command (SBPPC), which oversees the country's southern provinces.

The country's southern Muslims were represented by leaders of the Pattani Malay Consultative Congress (PMCC), an umbrella organization of insurgent groups in southern Thailand.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla acted as the mediator during the closed meetings. University of Indonesia political expert Fachry Ali and Paramadina University political expert Anies Baswedan were also in attendance at the talks.

Other notables included the Vice President's political advisers, Johermansyah Johan and Farid Hussein, and Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand M. Hatta.

"We made substantial progress during the negotiations, with both sides expressing commitment to ending the conflicts," Fachry told The Jakarta Post after the talks, held at the Bogor Presidential Palace.

Anies described the talks as a solid basis for the next negotiations, with representatives from both sides appreciating and willing to listen to each other.

"This is just the first encounter, so they have to adjust and feel comfortable. However, many of the lingering issues have been tabled," he said.

Demands by Thai Muslims include the introduction of Islamic law and making ethnic Pattani Malay (Yawi) a working language in the region, as well as the improvement of the local economy and education system. [...]

Anies stressed that the PMCC adequately represented Thai Muslims because it included representatives from most insurgent groups....

What remains to be seen is how -- and if -- this attack changes Pakistan's disastrous policies that have given the Taliban and al-Qaeda safe haven inside the country.

"Dinner plans save Pakistan's rulers from hotel bomb attack," from CNN, September 22:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's president, prime minister and other Cabinet members were supposed to have been at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when a massive truck bomb detonated outside, killing 57 and injuring 266, Pakistan's head of the Interior Ministry Rehman Malik said Monday.

Malik said their planned dinner was changed at the last minute, although did not say how far in advance it had been planned.

The Speaker of the House, Fahmida Mirza, had planned the event for ministers, the president, their guests and various foreign dignitaries.

But at the last minute, President Asif Ali Zardari asked that the event be transferred to the Prime Minister's compound, Malik told reporters during a handover service for Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek, who died in the blast.

On Sunday Malik called the massive blast "the biggest attack, volume-wise" in Pakistan in seven years, based on the quantity -- 600kg -- and type of explosives used.

Two American military personnel who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were among those killed, the U.S. military said. A Lithuanian Pakistan was also among the fatalities, police superintendent Sheikh Zubair told CNN Sunday. The injured included 11 foreigners, Malik said.

No arrests have been made in connection with the attack. But Malik said suspicion is falling on militants in Pakistan's tribal regions.

"I am not in a position to tell you who has done it, but (in) all the previous investigations, all the roads have gone to South Waziristan," he said Sunday.

South Waziristan is one of seven agencies of Pakistan's tribal areas where Taliban and al Qaeda militants are active.

But Amir Mohammad, an aide to leader of the Pakistani Taliban Baitullah Mehsud, said he shared the country's grief and was not involved, The Associated Press reported.

Saturday's massive blast left a nearly 60-foot-wide (18 meters) crater, which was 24 feet (7m) deep, Malik said. It also caused a natural gas leak that set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said. The blaze quickly engulfed the entire structure.

And the Egyptian government's role. "Religious freedom in Egypt 'declining', says report," by Sarah Carr for Daily News, Egypt, September 21:

CAIRO: Freedom of religious belief in Egypt “declined” between July 2007 and June 2008, according to the US State Department’s annual assessment of religious freedom throughout the world, the International Religious Freedom Report.

The report is compiled on the basis of information obtained “from a variety of sources, including government and religious officials, NGOs, journalists, human rights monitors, religious groups and academics” according to its preface.

The report describes legislation and governmental practices which discriminate against Egypt’s religious minorities and adherents of Islamic teachings viewed as heretical by the state.

Acts of discrimination against Egypt’s largest religious minority, Christian Copts, take up the bulk of the report.

“The government again failed to redress laws and governmental practices discriminative against Christians, effectively allowing their discriminatory effects and their modelling effect on society to become further entrenched,” the report states.

Despite making up between 8–12 percent of the population, Christians continue to be underrepresented in public office the report says, in violation of the Egyptian Constitution’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of religion.

“There are no Christians serving as presidents or deans of public universities, and they are rarely nominated by the Government to run in elections as National Democratic Party (NDP) candidates. Christians, who represent between 8 and 12 percent of the population, hold less than 2 percent of the seats in the People’s Assembly and Shoura Council,” the report says.

Christians continued to experience problems in obtaining the official permission necessary to construct and repair churches, with security forces blocking the use of permits that had already been issued or denying permits altogether. These delays can last for years.

The report makes clear that “such incidents often depended on the attitude of local security officials and the governorate leadership toward the church and on their personal relationship with representatives of the churches.”

The report’s third section describes numerous incidents of violent sectarian attacks on Copts, including clashes between monks and Muslim Bedouins caused by a land dispute involving the Abo Fana Monastery in Minya.

One Muslim man was killed during the incident, and three monks were kidnapped, physically assaulted and forced to denigrate Christian religious symbols.

The report says that “according to some observers, police responses to some incidents of sectarian violence were slow.”

Coptic leaders have, according to the report, refused to participate in the reconciliation sessions introduced by the government to address grievances between Muslims and Christians following sectarian attacks. It quotes an anonymous source as saying, “Human rights leaders criticized the sessions as “cosmetic” and a “humiliation since it holds the victim and the attacker to be equal, and bypasses justice by allowing the culprits to escape scot-free, secure in the knowledge that attacking Copts and destroying their churches or property warrants no penalty whatsoever.”

The refusal of officials to legally recognize religious conversions constitutes a prohibition to the exercise of freedom of belief, the report says.

It refers to a January 2008 Administrative Court ruling which stated that freedom to convert does not extend to Muslims.

Ahmadinejad isn't really an ayatollah, of course. And the UN isn't really a peacekeeping body. My column in Human Events today:

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- the Izod Ayatollah -- is coming back to New York to address the UN General Assembly today. If the United Nations today bore even the remotest resemblance to the international peacekeeping body it was founded to be, the line to denounce him would snake around the block, and Ahmadinejad would be arrested as soon as he set foot in New York. In fact, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem has called for just that: it is preparing a petition for the UN Secretary-General, calling for the Iranian Thug-in-Chief’s arrest and indictment on charges of inciting genocide against Israel.

But the visiting Iranian president can’t be arrested: he’s “legitimized” by Iran’s UN membership, and the UN Treaty prevents his detention.

And, of course, in the run-up to Ahmadinejad’s visit, the hard Left is planning to honor him. The perpetually-outraged women of Code Pink are planning a protest -- against George W. Bush, of course. The UN General Assembly’s new president, leftist priest and old Sandinista Miguel d’Escoto, will clink glasses with Ahmadinejad at a dinner in his honor hosted by five American liberal Christian organizations, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quaker United Nations Office, the World Council of Churches, Religions for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee.

Sharia Alert. She can't get custody of her four children, and she "could also face arrest if the husband has fled with her residency papers." He's a citizen of Australia himself, though he's clearly enjoying the Saudi system more: All the benefits and privileges for him as a man, and all the restrictions for her. "Australian stranded in Saudi Arabia," from the Australian Associated Press, September 21:

An Australian woman trapped in Saudi Arabia because of the fallout from a divorce case is being given "all possible consular assistance", Australia's ambassador to Saudi Arabia says.

The Adelaide mother of four has complained the Australian government is not helping her and has told News Ltd that she has been threatened with arrest for exposing her face to a male neighbour in front of her children.

The Australian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Kevin Magee, has told a Middle East newspaper that embassy officials planned to meet the woman to provide her "full support".

"I can't confirm or deny the report of her possible detention by the local police, but our consular staff are committed and are extending all necessary support to the woman," Mr Magee told the Arab News daily newspaper.

News Ltd's The Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide reported the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) had previously said it could not ensure the Australian citizen got out of the country with her four children.

Her ex-husband, also an Australian citizen, has filed for custody of the four children in a Saudi court, the report said.

The woman, who was not named by the newspapers after saying she fears for her safety, told The Advertiser on Friday that she had been refused sanctuary in the Australian consulate and she expected to be arrested over the weekend, after exposing her face in front of a male neighbour.

She says her ex-husband has also taken her passport and may have left Riyadh for an unknown destination inside Saudi Arabia.

In a statement to The Advertiser, a DFAT spokesman said the consulate could not be used to shelter Australians from local laws but Australian consular staff at the embassy in Riyadh would "continue to meet the woman's consular needs to the maximum extent possible".

The Arab News said the woman could also face arrest if the husband has fled with her residency papers.

In Saudi Arabia, it is difficult for a woman to obtain an exit visa without the approval of her husband. But without her passport - which she says her husband has stolen from her - she cannot travel anyway, the newspaper said.

Philippines Jihad Update. "MILF: Religious leaders calling for jihad vs govt," from GMA News, September 20:

MANILA, Philippines — Religious leaders in Lanao are calling for a jihad (holy war) in fighting "oppressors" against Islam, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claimed Saturday.

In a statement on its website (www.luwaran.com), the MILF said the calls were made in sermons of religious leaders during Friday congregational prayers.

"Sermons of the religious leaders of Lanao provinces in Friday's congregational prayers called on the Bangsamoro to unite and wage jihad fi sabilillah in fighting the oppressors, religious persecutors and enemies of Islam," it said.

That is, jihad for the sake of Allah, which refers to armed conflict.

The government has not immediately responded to the alleged jihad calls.

It added that after the prayers, religious folks voiced concerns that the government might again launch massive military offensives during the Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

The MILF recalled that the government started its all-out war campaign in 2003 against the MILF and the Bangsamoro people on Feb. 11 at Buliok Islamic Center.

Buliok was where the late MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim was delivering a khutbah (sermon) for the Eid Al-Adha (the feast of pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia).

On the other hand, the MILF noted that while President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo joins some Muslim groups in their iftar (meal to break the fast at sundown), other Muslim communities in Mindanao are sore at her for government's "unprincipled attacks" on their homes.

The MILF said the Muslim populace of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte assailed the attacks launched Friday by the military as "totally insensitive and unprincipled."

The Geneva Convention never really said much about being gauche.

"Heavy bombardments were unleashed by the AFP when we Muslims were partaking suhur (allowable early morning meals before fasting starts) and the iftar," the MILF quoted text messages from the Muslims in Lanao.

The government has responded since this report, and they sound much more nonchalant about it than they should be. "Political gambit, Palace says of MILF 'jihad'," also from GMA News, September 20:

MANILA, Philippines - Calling it a political gambit, Malacañang on Saturday dismissed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)'s claim that religious leaders in Mindanao were calling for a jihad against the government.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said there was no basis for the call because the pursuit against rogue MILF commanders was not about religion. [...]

Also, Ermita said a jihad could only be waged [if] there was an actual justification. However, he said the MILF had no religious basis to call for a holy war.

In Ermita's opinion. The only problem is, the jihadists aren't going to look to a government they're fighting to make that call.

Unknown to the English speaking world, another grisly apostate/honor killing recently took place in the Muslim world, namely, Jordan. On August 28, 2008, days before her 21st birthday, Rana Riad Muhammad Siwahra, wife and mother of two girls (aged 3 and 5) was murdered by her father. After stabbing her with a knife five-six times in the stomach and chest, he smashed her skull in with a large rock. Afterwards, he washed his hands and went to the market where he was later arrested.

The Jordanian press said the motive was “unclear,” that they were having personal “disagreements,” and that he killed her in a “fit of rage.” Islam, ridda (apostasy) laws, and honor were never mentioned as possible motives.

Her husband, Sultan Muhammad Siwahra, however—himself on the run and in hiding—was recently interviewed on the Arabic satellite program, Su’al Jar’i (“Daring Question”), where he insisted that his wife was murdered specifically because of Islam and the culture it breeds.

For the record, Su’al Jar’i airs on Qanat al-Haya (“Channel of Life” or “Life TV”), which also airs Father Zakaria Botros’ shows, and is similarly dedicated to exposing the problematic aspects of Islam, as well as focus on relevant events of the day—such as this murder. Hosted by apostate Muslim converts to Christianity—who also live in hiding—known only by their first names, Rashid and Ahmed, the show’s no-holds barred style has made it, along with Father Zakaria’s shows, one of the most watched programs on Arabic satellite.

(Though the video is entirely in Arabic and there are no English subtitles, images of the slain, her husband, and daughters can be seen on it. Also, thanks to Rabad Castle and Robert for bringing this to my attention.)

According to Sultan, he grew up in an average Muslim household; yet, when he was a teenager, he was lured to the call of jihad, eventually going to Iraq in order to fight the American infidels and gain entrance into a voluptuous paradise (he asserted that, as a teenager, one of his greatest motivations to go on the jihad was the promise of 72 “unearthly” women in paradise).

To make a long story short, he eventually embraced Christianity (in part due to watching Father Zakaria’s show) and abandoned the jihad. When her family found out that he had apostatized, they renounced him, razed his house, reclaimed their daughter, and, according to sharia, which does not permit Muslim women to marry infidels, concluded that Rana’s marriage to Sultan was null and void. In the meantime, he went in hiding in Syria.

He was arrested for breaking sharia's mandate that a man marry no more than four wives. More on this story. "87 lawyers stand for man with 86 wives," by AbdulRaheem Aodu for Daily Trust, September 21:

Up to 87 lawyers have been moblised by human rights coalition groups in the North for the defence of Alhaji Bello Masaba, the man with 86 wives.

Masaba is currently remanded in prison custody by a Minna Upper Sharia Court for unlawful marriages and inciting contempt of a religious creed.

[...]

The lawyers argued that the case would not stand because Masaba could not be prosecuted under the Penal Code in a Sharia Court.

They also stressed that the hands of Masaba’s accusers were not also clean when it came to the same charges they had pressed against the octogenarian...

Actually, they appear to be Muslims, oddly enough. But not to worry, Kölners: some of those who oppose jihad activity are neo-Nazis, and therefore the jihadists pose no threat. Another story on this: "Two arrested on Germany terror charges," from UPI, September 20:

BERLIN, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A German citizen and a Turkish national have been arrested in Germany on terrorism charges, authorities said.

The German citizen is a 27-year-old man of Afghan descent who allegedly received terrorist training at a militant camp along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while the Turkish man, also 27, had attempted to reach the same camp but was detained by Pakistani authorities, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

German prosecutors said the two men shared a bank account with three other men arrested last year in connection with an alleged plot by the Islamic Jihad Union to bomb U.S. targets in Germany. Authorities this month charged those suspects with hatching a plan to use homemade explosives to bomb U.S. military bases and a dance club in Giessen.

Both of the men arrested Thursday were charged with membership in a terrorist group, the Post said.

Cologne, Nazi-free city, says yes to Islamization

The anti-Islamization conference in Cologne that I wrote about here has been effectively thwarted by German authorities. They banned the conference and sent out the police, and then came a huge counter-demonstration, at which the photo above was taken.

The authorities and counter-protesters were focused on fighting "racism" and "Nazism," as the photo above shows. And as I explained here, there were legitimate questions about some of the participants -- although this story says that the most problematic figure, Jean-Marie LePen, who has been accused of antisemitism and Holocaust denial, never had plans to be there.

In any case, the "Nazism," if it was present among the anti-Islamization ralliers, was not of a very obvious kind: no brown shirts, no swastikas, no sieg heils, no goose-stepping hordes. Even if there were problems with some of the speakers, the issue is real -- and the speakers have a right to be heard if there is to be a free society in Cologne. Many Muslims, including the internationally renowned Sheikh Qaradawi, have stated openly their intention to Islamize Europe.

Moreover, Spiegel reported this in July about the group behind the Cologne mosque:

Even DITIB, the comparatively moderate organization behind the mosque project in Cologne, arouses mistrust. DITIB is the long arm of a religious institution in secular Turkey. "What will most likely happen," ask the residents of Cologne who take part in the protests, "if the feared Islamization of Turkey happens? Will DITIB bring it over here?"

Cologne's Archbishop Joachim Meisner is already warning people about of areas in Germany "where sharia law is increasingly spreading." In the case of DITIB, this warning might be premature or simply inaccurate. At the same time, however, the association is remotely controlled from Ankara and has a reputation for being more concerned with helping to maintain the identity of Turkish immigrants than with helping them integrate in their new homes.

Yet in Cologne the counter-protesters seemed to be equating opposition to Islamization with Nazism -- as the sign above shows. With signs such as "Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques -- everything's okay" and statements praising the city for standing up "to protect its Muslims," the city authorities and counter-protesters don't seem to have any awareness of the Islamization program, or how mosques have been used to foster jihadism and Islamic supremacism, or any understanding of the need to counter it. They just think of it as "racism," as if it is "racist" and "Nazi" to oppose the institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims, stonings, amputations, the denial of freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, and all the other features of Islamic law.

Well, it isn't. If any of the anti-Islamization protesters in Cologne really were neo-Nazis, and at this point I have no way of finding out for sure, that would be unfortunate, but it doesn't make the problem of Islamization go away. In a sane and healthy Europe interested in protecting and preserving European civilization, the huge numbers of counter-protesters would actually have been protesting against Islamization, and the mainstream parties of Europe would have been represented at the rally. Anti-jihadists in Europe should work to avoid all taint of neofascism and race supremacism -- and this is particularly in Europe, where fascism and race supremacism led to the mass murder of millions within recent memory. But to label all and any opposition to Islamization as "Nazism" and "racism," as the Cologne authorities and counter-protesters seem to be doing, is simply a ticket to national and civilizational suicide. If anyone here is behaving like a fascist, it is not the anti-Islamization demonstrators, but the city authorities who are violently clamping down on debate and dissent.

Both terms -- Islam and Nazism -- are slippery. “Nazism” is because it is a term of abuse that is hurled at any conservative, and this makes it harder to recognize real Nazis when they come along. “Islam” is also confusing to many, because people assume one is speaking about Muslim individuals when one is speaking about the ideology, and the ideology is not known or held with equal awareness and fervor by everyone who calls himself a Muslim. The term also confuses people because it makes them assume that Islam can be understood and dealt with in exactly the same way and on the same terms as Christianity or Judaism or anything else that is classified as a "religion." But Islam is not simply a religion in those terms, as I have pointed out many, many times. It is a political and social system as well, and that political system ought to be subject to scrutiny, criticism, and rejection like any other. To say that to do so is inherently "racist" or "xenophobic" is to confuse the issue (and often those who do this do it willfully). There is nothing wrong with wanting to limit immigration -- particularly of those with an avowed goal of replacing one's society and culture with their own, rather than assimilating.

La Yijad en Eurabia (thanks to Paul) has an illuminating set of pictures establishing the strong pro-jihad, anti-Israel, hard-Left (hammer-and-sickle, Che Guevara, etc.) character of the groups protesting against the anti-Islamization group. Note also the Iranian dissidents, who were no doubt on the side of the anti-Islamization protesters.

"Germans Thwart Anti-Islam Rally," from IslamOnline, September 21:

COLOGNE, Germany — Tens of thousands of Germans took to the streets of the western city of Cologne on Saturday, September 20, to protest an anti-Islam conference of European far-rightists.

"We're here to show racism the red card," Cologne Mayor Fritz Schramma told the cheering crowd, reported Reuters.

He slammed the local far-right group Pro-Koeln, which is organizing an "Anti- Islamisation Congress," as "arsonists and racists" hiding under the cloak of a citizens' movement.

Carrying banners saying: "We are Cologne -- Get rid of the Nazis!," protesters gathered outside the city's cathedral to demonstrate against the congress.

Some of the protesters carried placards reading "Nazis out of Cologne" and "Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques -- everything's okay".

Most of the protests, called by trade unions, churches and anti-racist movements, saw thousands of students, families and local businessmen and women carry signs with slogans including "No to Racism" and "Cologne is rebelling!"

They disrupted the Pro-Koeln congress, ensuring less than 50 delegates were able to return to the meeting on Saturday morning.

The two-day congress, opened on Friday, brought together 150 far-right politicians and publicists from across Europe to protest Muslim presence in Europe.

Victory

Around 150 bars in Cologne stopped selling Pro-Koeln members the local Kolsch beer.

Many taxi and bus drivers were refusing to transport delegates to the congress.

One hotel even cancelled bookings made by "undesirables."

"Racists and extremists aren't welcome," stressed Mayor Schramma.

A far-right rally to protest the construction of a mosque in Cologne was also cancelled by police Saturday after clashes with opponents.

"The rally has been cancelled," said a police spokesman.

Police said 40,000 people protested against the rally, which had been expected to attract 1,500 people but only dozens showed up.

Many protestors cheered the rally ban.

"It's a victory for the city of Cologne and a victory by the democratic forces in this city," Mayor Schramma told the DPA news agency.

On Friday, several hundred opponents of the congress formed a human chain around a mosque in solidarity with the Muslim minority.

Though Islam is Europe's second religion, European Muslims are facing campaigns from far-right groups to have stately mosques on claims that they are signs of the "Islamization" of Europe.

Armin Laschet, minister for minorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper it was the first time an entire German city "stood up to protect its Muslims."...

Achtung, baby!

So says Israel's former chief of staff: "Former chief of staff Ya'alon: Ahmadinejad should be dealt with like Hitler," from the Jerusalem Post, September 21:

The international community must deal with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as it dealt with Adolf Hitler, former chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon said Sunday.

"We in the West are in the same situation, indecisiveness in the face of a threat that is no less severe than the threat Hitler posed in 1938-39," Ya'alon told Army Radio.

"We can still stop Iran with diplomatic and economic means, but if that doesn't work, a military confrontation will be unavoidable," he said, adding, pessimistically, that "the writing is on the wall" for a military solution.

Facing a hideous choice

In "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" in Arab News, September 20, Anwar Kemal says that there is no real choice between Obama and McCain. Why not? Because neither supports the jihad against Israel.

IT is a popular belief among Americans that the Arabs prefer Barack Obama because his first name is derived from the Arabic “Baraka” and his middle name is Hussein. That may have been the case before Illinois senator came out so vocally in favor of Israel.

Obama’s statements and actions during the past six months have made one thing amply clear: It is not going to make the slightest difference to Arab welfare or the cause of the Palestinians struggling for their rights and freedom if Obama is elected president.

According to Robert Fisk of The Independent, Israel is going to have it easy, and the Arabs just as hard, no matter who is elected. No sooner is Obama (or McCain) elected than “he will be forced to take sides — Israel’s, of course — and then it will be time for the next election.” Both the presidential candidates will be talking about Israel’s security, not Palestinian security, and “we’ll be back on the same old itinerary.”...

There is a curious disconnection from reality in this piece. With Bush and Rice agitating for a "stable, contiguous Palestinian state," and Olmert offering the "Palestinians" 98.1% of the West Bank, Israel could be cut in two very soon, and given a Hamas-controlled jihadist state, internationally coddled and financed, as its new neighbor. But Kemal is right in one way: this could happen no matter which candidate wins the election.

"Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks"

The Medinan sura 47 is alternatively known as Al-Qital, “The Fighting” – and indeed, it is much preoccupied with war against unbelievers. It affirms of those who oppose Islam that Allah will “render their deeds vain” (vv. 1, 8-9, 28, 32). Bulandshahri explains: “Even though the disbelievers may carry out many good deeds and render great services to mankind, these deeds will not be recognized on the Day of Judgment on account of their disbelief.” By contrast, Allah will improve the condition of the believers (vv. 2, 7, 35).

Teachings such as these lead to the common Islamic idea that Islamic purity will lead to worldly prosperity, and unbelief conversely to ruin in this life. For Allah protects the believers, while the unbelievers have no protector (v. 11). In a hadith in An-Nasai’s collection – one of the six collections Muslims consider most reliable – Muhammad prays, “O Allah, I seek refuge with you from unbelief and poverty.” Someone asked him, “Are they equal?” Muhammad answered, “Yes.” This connection is often clearly refuted by reality, but is tenaciously held nonetheless.

Police said they belong to Hizb ut-Tahrir -- a group that, as of April of this year, was still legal in Britain and Australia.

"Bangladesh arrests 10 suspected Islamic extremists," from Agence France-Presse, September 19:

DHAKA (AFP) - Ten men with links to an Islamic radical group have been arrested in western Bangladesh on suspicion of promoting militancy in the country, a policeman said Friday.

Police officer Abbdus Sattar told AFP the men were arrested late Thursday after they were found to be distributing Islamic extremist literature in the western city of Rajshahi.

"We arrested them on suspicion of encouraging militancy in the country and we are investigating their activities," he said.

"They were provoking unrest in the name of religion. They were encouraging people, in the name of Islam, to overthrow the government and establish khilafat here."

He said the men belonged to the Bangladeshi chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global group that wants to combine all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state or "khilafat."

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been hit by a series of attacks by Islamic terror groups in recent years -- including 400 blasts on just one day in August 2005 by the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

"Aurat Foundation Peshawar Resident Director Rukhshanda Naz cited lengthy judicial procedure and delay in disposal of such cases as the main reasons for increase in honour killing in the country."

Yet they call them "honor killings," and not "judicial delay killings." "90 honour killings reported in first quarter of 2008," by Akhtar Amin for the Daily Times, September 20:

PESAHWAR: Cases of honour killing are on the rise in Pakistan as 90 such cases were reported all over the country in the first quarter (January to March) of 2008, says a report compiled by a non-governmental organisation (NGO)Aurat Foundation (AF).

Out of the 90 cases, 36 were reported in Balochistan, 35 in Sindh, 11 in Punjab and eight in NWFP.

Talking to Daily Times, Aurat Foundation Peshawar Resident Director Rukhshanda Naz cited lengthy judicial procedure and delay in disposal of such cases as the main reasons for increase in honour killing in the country.

She said that the government’s effort to make the state a party in honour killing cases was an encouraging step but alongside, the government should also give instant punishment to honour killers to stop this heinous crime in the country.

About the three teenaged girls allegedly buried alive in Balochistan by the tribesmen in the name of honour, she said that the inhuman incident not only earned a bad name to Balochistan but also to the whole country.

“If the government award strict punishment to honour killers, such incidents would not be reported in the country,” she said, adding that for curbing such incidents in future, the government should enact strict laws.

"Religious-Intolerance" Alert: "Teacher faces classroom ban for criticizing Islam," from Grantham Journal, September 20:

A teacher at a secondary school near Sunderland who contributed on an extreme right-wing website during a lesson could be struck off.

Adam Walker, 39, a British National Party member, may become the first person to be banned by the General Teaching Council for religious intolerance. While children worked on a project during a lesson at Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton le-Spring, Mr Walker posted critical comments about asylum seekers, Islam, immigrants and "the promotion of homosexuality" on a chat forum.

His brother Mark Walker, a fellow BNP member and also a technology teacher, was suspended by Sunnydale Community College in Co Durham for accessing the BNP website during school hours.

Adam Walker, a former soldier and karate expert, admitted contributing to the forum during work-time and left his post last year.

He now faces a GTC disciplinary hearing, which could ban him from teaching, for demonstrating "views suggestive of racial and religious intolerance".

Its general secretary Patrick Harrington said Mr Walker admitted he was wrong to use his laptop to contribute to the forum during work time.

Mr Harrington added: "That was a contractual matter between him and his employer. When he resigned, that should have been the end of the matter.

"We feel this raises human rights issues. He has a right, like every other citizen, to freedom of expression and association. He criticized Islam in his posting, but people criticize religions all the time."

Ahhh, but as we all know by now, criticizing any religion -- not to mention mocking and degrading it -- is ok, so long as it's not Islam. At Jihad Watch we do not support the BNP, but we are alarmed at the rapidly advancing efforts to create Muslims as a protected class in Britain.

"[The] Saturday blast, which reverberated throughout Islamabad, was caused by more than a ton of explosives. ... The blast left a crater some 30 feet deep in front of the main building."

"Explosion at Pakistan Marriott hotel kills 40," by Asif Shahzad for the Associated Press, September 20:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police say at least 40 people have died in a massive explosion that destroyed the luxury Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital.

Senior police official Asghar Raza Gardaizi said he fears there are dozens more dead inside.

He said that the Saturday blast, which reverberated throughout Islamabad, was caused by more than a ton of explosives.

The blast left a crater some 30 feet deep in front of the main building.

Flames poured from the windows of the hotel and rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building. [...]

The Marriott is a favorite place for foreigners to stay and socialize in Islamabad, despite repeated militant attacks. A security guard at the scene, Mohammad Nasir, and several witnesses said a large truck had driven toward the gate before exploding.

The blast left a vast crater, some 30 feet deep in front of the main building, where flames poured from the windows and rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building.

Mohammad Sultan, a hotel employee, said he was in the lobby when something exploded, he fell down and everything temporarily went dark.

"I don't understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished," he said.

An Associated Press reporter counted at least nine bodies scattered at the scene. Scores of people, including foreigners, were running out — some of them stained with blood. At a hospital where many of the casualties were taken, official Raja Ejaz said at least two people had died and 25 were wounded.

Ambulances rushed to the area, where a fire burned, smoke hovered and the carcasses of vehicles were thrown about. Windows in buildings hundreds of yards away were shattered.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. [...]

In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people.

"Islam4uk.com is a reincarnation of al-Muhajiroun in all but name."

"Islamist sect banned as security threat 'is recruiting teenagers'," by Robert Mendick for the Evening Standard, September 19:

A militant Islamic sect banned by the Government as a threat to national security has launched a campaign to radicalise teenagers in east London, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Al-Muhajiroun, headed by exiled cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, tonight begins a recruitment drive targeting young Muslims - despite being outlawed under terror laws introduced in the wake of the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks on London.

Several members of the sect have been jailed in recent years for terror-related offences but there are fears the group is thriving again under a new name.

The group has launched a website, Islam4uk.com.

It is advertising its first youth conference, entitled Muslim Youth: The Spark of the Fire, at a community centre in Walthamstow - close to the homes of six men who face a retrial over a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. Islam4uk.com is a reincarnation of al-Muhajiroun in all but name. It is headed by Bakri Mohammed, now living in Lebanon, and his deputy Anjem Choudary, its official spokesman.

The two have kept a relatively low profile since the 7 July attacks on London in 2005 but have become emboldened in recent weeks.

The youth conference tonight is being addressed by two notorious extremists, Abu Uzair and Abu Waleed.

Uzair, 40, who was a follower of jailed preacher Abu Hamza at Finsbury Park mosque, sprang to prominence when he praised the 9/11 hijackers as " magnificent" and claimed that if he knew terrorists were planning a suicide attack, he would not alert police.

In an interview with the BBC, Uzair declared: "We don't live in peace with you any more. The banner has been risen for jihad inside the UK, which means it's allowed for bombers to attack."

Waleed, another disciple of Hamza's, was caught on video earlier this year making a joke about Muslims taking backpacks on to the London Underground.

Having laid low for the past three years - since Bakri was forced to live in exile in Lebanon - there is concern al-Muhajiroun is growing in strength.

At a meeting last Thursday - as first reported by the Standard - almost 100 Muslims attended to hear a live video link-up with Bakri.

Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, who first called for al-Muhajiroun to be banned 10 years ago, said today: "This new group needs to be banned. Islam4uk is clearly just another side of the same coin.

"This shows the real difficulty with these splinter groups. The fact they are now getting 100 people to their meetings is very alarming."

Infidels showing solidarity with Muslims

And whatever the appeal, "it's all the rage" with college students. CAIR explains why: "The fear is still there, but people are looking for answers, especially the youth. There is a genuine interest to understand, and they don't see the world the same way as the older generation. They're not as uptight."

"Ramadan fast-a-thons raise awareness about Islam among college students," by Jessica Meyers for the Dallas Morning News, September 19:

RICHARDSON – In a banquet room above the student union's bopping pingpong balls and blaring arcade games, the groan of empty stomachs met the hum of Arabic prayer.

Tables of 20-somethings at the University of Texas at Dallas drooled over plates of hummus as their Muslim counterparts concluded their pre-dinner supplications for Ramadan. Then everyone ate for the first time since dawn. "Why do they put that in front of us to stare at?" whined 19-year-old Sara Arnold before she got permission to rip a hunk of pita bread and dunk it into the chickpea dip.

The Muslim Students Association's fast-a-thon – a riff on religious doctrine – draws hundreds of non-Muslim students who choose to fast for one day with their Muslim peers and attend the daily iftar banquet in the evening to break it.

They now share in the age-old custom of spiritual and physical cleansing tied to the holiday, which runs through September this year.

Participation numbers have more than doubled in the last several years, a factor religious scholars and students attribute to an outreach by the Muslim community, solidarity on the part of those who have become fascinated by the Islamic faith, and a curiosity about the spiritual act of fasting itself.

"A lot of people know what Ramadan is now," said Ayaham Nahhas, the president of the Muslim Students Association at UTD, who says the fast-a-thon – which drew about 120 people – is the biggest activity his organization holds. "Islam has been getting more attention in the media, and people just want to know what we are all about."

More than 240 Muslim Students Associations host fast-a-thons – groups at Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University are among them – and have raised more than $50,000 for charity. Local businesses donate at least a dollar for each non-Muslim who participates.

[...]

All area groups are reporting increased attendance and are donating money to an orphan drive organized by the nonprofit Islamic Relief.

No one's quite sure why attendance has increased so dramatically recently, seven years after 9/11.

"Maybe it's a political empathy post-9/11, a wanting to stand alongside and experience something like this for the first time," said Edina Lekovic of the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.-based Muslim Public Affairs Counsel.

She said she's noticed more non-Muslims across the country fasting in solidarity with their Muslim friends this year than ever before. "Whatever it is, it's all the rage."

Part of the heightened awareness comes from Muslim outreach efforts, especially fast-breaking celebrations hosted by area mosques that incorporate lessons about Ramadan.

But these interfaith actions are most obvious among college students, said Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"The fear is still there, but people are looking for answers, especially the youth," he said. "There is a genuine interest to understand, and they don't see the world the same way as the older generation. They're not as uptight."...

This is what happens when your company hires a great many jihadists at the expense of technical support: "Web problems hit release of al Qaeda 9/11 video," by Firouz Sedarat for Reuters, September 20:

DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda video to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late, after Islamist websites it uses went down and a technical glitch further delayed its distribution.

The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, and the disappearance of the main Islamist sites -- possibly after being targeted by hackers -- have marred al Qaeda's usual celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.

Excerpts from the video -- a compilation of documentary footage and messages by al Qaeda leaders including its deputy head Ayman al-Zawahri -- were aired on September 8 by Al Jazeera television, which did not say how it obtained them.

But the full version hit websites only on Friday, eight days after the anniversary. Al Qaeda has marked the date in the past with timely releases, including a tape on September 7 last year in which leader Osama bin Laden appeared on video for the first time in nearly three years, addressing the American people.

Al Qaeda attaches great importance to spreading web-based propaganda and know-how through its specialist media arm as-Sahab, whose productions are often highly professional.

It was unclear why the websites normally favored by the group had gone down. By Saturday, the two most popular were still out of action.

[...]

When less popular Islamist websites finally managed to post links to the much-hyped video -- which includes a "last will" recording by one of the September 11 hijackers -- downloaders noted that the password given to them was wrong.

This further delayed the release and unnerved al Qaeda sympathizers, one of whom wrote: "May God bless you my brothers, but the password is wrong."...

Another update on this story. "Muslim leader says 150 workers fired at Neb. plant," by Jean Oritz for the Associated Press, September 19:

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island meatpacking plant fired at least 86 workers Friday after they walked off the job amid a dispute over prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, company officials said.

But a Muslim leader and one of the fired workers said 150 Muslims lost their jobs.

JBS Swift & Co. spokeswoman Tamara Smid confirmed 86 firings late Friday, saying the employees were terminated earlier that day for repeatedly leaving work without authorization. She would not give any other details, including whether anyone else had been fired.

Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said 80 workers were thrown out after an altercation late Thursday. He says when they tried to return for their shift Friday, they were fired, along with 70 others.

Police said were called to the plant late Thursday amid reports of a riot or serious fight. But when officers arrived, the situation had calmed, said police Chief Steve Lamken.

Muslim workers — mostly of Somali background — have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts this week — not only from Muslims but from non-Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment.

One of the Somali workers, Mohamed Farah, said some workers tried to take a break to pray Thursday around sunset. The break had been arranged with managers, Farah told The Associated Press, with Rage translating the conversation.

Farah said tension had been building in recent days with Latino workers, who started protesting when they saw the Muslim workers leaving for break. Farah said the Latino workers started shouting and beating on their tables.

Two women, one 19 and another in her 40s, and a 20-year-old man fainted during the commotion because they had gone so long without food, Farah said. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

Dan Hoppes, president of Local 22 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, described what happened Thursday night differently than Rage and Farah did. He said that according to management and employees, 60 to 80 people quit late Thursday after raising the prayer issue and creating a commotion.

Hoppes said supervisors had told the workers to go back to work or leave and they left. Workers who walked off the job Monday and Tuesday in protest had to have known their leaving again would result in their termination, he said.

The plant employs about 2,500 people, not counting management. About a fifth of them are Muslim.

Tensions have also flared elsewhere, including Swift's plant in Greeley, Colo. More than 100 workers there were fired last week because the company said they walked away from work before their shifts ended.

Hoppes couldn't confirm the total number of workers affected Friday, but said he knew human resources representatives were posted at employee entrances to address workers.

"We don't have any clear cut information as to numbers or why they were terminated," he said. [...]

Swift said in a statement that the company is working to resolve the issues that have arisen.

"JBS values its diverse workforce and has a long track record of making significant accommodations to employees," the statement said. "We work closely with all employees and union representation to accommodate religious practices in a reasonable, safe and fair manner."

When Sharia is accepted to any extent as the law of the land, even putatively tolerant regimes can rapidly become less "respectful of minority faiths." Constitutions define the relationship of the people to their government, the rights of citizens, and limitations (sometimes more, sometimes less) on the government's power. If Islamic law is a basis for those boundaries, whether broadly or specifically construed, any additional rights granted by the government (by legislation or simple inaction) are subject at any time to a Sharia trump card. In nations like Algeria and Jordan where things "suddenly" appear to be getting worse, it is only because there has arisen sufficient political will to enforce Islamic law more aggressively, and, obviously, there is no constitutional limitation on the reach of Sharia law. And similar situations can arise where localized populations reject the authority of an existing secular system in favor of Sharia.

One wonders if the cognitive dissonance at the State Department ever reaches a breaking point, when the party line is that Islam is fundamentally tolerant, but problems of the same nature crop up from Algeria to Iran. "Religious freedom worsens in Jordan, Algeria: US," from Agence France-Presse, September 19:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Religious freedom took a turn for the worse in the last year in China, Egypt and Iran, but also in normally more tolerant countries like Jordan and Algeria, the State Department said Friday.

The State Department's annual report on religious freedoms around the world for the period between July 2007 and July 2008 also singled out North Korea again as among the worst violators of religious freedom.

But there were new concerns about Jordan and Algeria, "which traditionally have been more respectful of minority faiths," according to John Hanford III, the ambassador at large for religious freedom.

"The government's de factor and de jure policies have precipitated a decline in the status of religious freedom during this reporting period," the report said.

In February, the government began enforcing an ordinance which "makes proselytizing a criminal offense," it said.

It said that the ordinance mandates "that anyone who makes, stores or distributes printed documents, or audiovisual materials with the intent of 'shaking the faith' of a Muslim may also face a maximum of five years' imprisonment" and a fine equivalent to 7,100 dollars.

"In Jordan, a Sharia Court found a convert from Islam to Christianity guilty of apostasy, annulled his marriage, and declared him to be without any religious identity," said Hanford, who oversaw the report.

"The Jordanian government also harassed individuals and organizations based on religious affiliation," he said. [...]

In Egypt, the report said that "several government measures and practices undertaken during the reporting period contributed to a decline in government respect for religious freedom."

It cited in particular the restriction of the right to convert to only non-Muslims.

In Saudi Arabia, "there were incremental improvements in specific areas, such as better protection of the right to possess and use personal religious materials," it said.

Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan maintained the status quo. Along with China, these countries are on the State Department blacklist, or the Countries of Particular Concern, which incur sanctions.

And yet Saudi Arabia is in many ways as bad or worse than the official "Countries of Particular Concern."

The blacklist is renewed at the end of the year on the basis of the report.

In presenting the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected what she said were attempts by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to criminalize "defamation" of religions, such caricatures or other images of the prophet Mohammed, which is forbidden in Islam.

The OIC represents 57 Muslim countries around the world.

"We're concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept, which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations," Rice said.

"Instead of protecting religion practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech, and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom," she said.

Yes.

Eurabia Alert. "Two Men Arrested for Alleged Terrorism Plot in Germany," by Craig Whitlock for the Washington Post, September 19:

BERLIN, Sept. 19 -- German police arrested two men near Frankfurt on terrorism charges Friday, alleging they were involved in a cell that had plotted to blow up U.S. targets in Germany a year ago.

Federal prosecutors said the two suspects -- a German citizen and a Turkish national -- had traveled separately to Pakistan last year in an attempt to receive training at camps operated by the Islamic Jihad Union, a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda.

Authorities said the men had shared bank account information and a debit card with three men arrested in September 2007 on suspicion of planning mass bombing attacks on U.S. targets in Germany.

Prosecutors identified the German citizen as Omid S., a 27-year-old of Afghan descent, and said he had received training at a militant camp along the Afghan-Pakistan border during the spring and summer of 2007.

The Turkish man, identified as 27-year-old Hueseyin O., also traveled to the region last year, prosecutors said. Before he could reach the camp, however, he was detained by Pakistani security forces and forced to return to Germany, according to a statement released by the German federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe....

In the wake of Britain's capitulation to Sharia, this is just the kind of law we need. I am very glad to see Congressman Tancredo doing this, and hope that it will at very least ignite a national debate about this issue.

"Tancredo Proposes Anti-Sharia Measure in Wake of U.K. Certification of Islamic Courts," from Borderfire Report, September 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON, DC – Amid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in civil cases in the United Kingdom, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) moved quickly today to introduce legislation designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.

According to recent news reports, a new network of Sharia courts in a half-dozen major cities in the U.K. have been empowered under British law to adjudicate a wide variety of legal cases ranging from divorces and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

“This is a case where truth is truly stranger than fiction,” said Tancredo. “Today the British people are learning a hard lesson about the consequences of massive, unrestricted immigration.”

Sharia law, favored by Muslim extremists around the world, often calls for brutal punishment – such as the stoning of women who are accused of adultery or have children out of wedlock, cutting off the hands of petty thieves and lashings for the casual consumption of alcohol. Under Sharia law, a woman is often required to provide numerous witnesses to prove rape allegations against an assailant – a near impossible task.

“When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims, you are also importing their radical ideology – an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of western democracy – such as gender equality, pluralism, and individual liberty,” said Tancredo. “The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place.”

Tancredo’s bill, dubbed the “Jihad Prevention Act,” would bar the entry of foreign nationals who advocate Sharia law. In addition, the legislation would make the advocacy of Sharia law by radical Muslims already in the United States a deportable offense.

Tancredo pointed to the results of a recent poll conducted by the Centre for Social Cohesion as evidence that the U.S. should act to prevent the situation in Great Britain from replicating itself here in the United States. The poll found that some 40 percent of Muslim students in the United Kingdom support the introduction of Sharia law there, and 33 percent support the imposition of an Islamic Sharia-based government worldwide.

“We need to send a clear message that the only law we recognize here in America is the U.S. Constitution and the laws passed by our democratically elected representatives,” concluded Tancredo. “If you aren’t comfortable with that concept, you aren’t welcome in the United States.”

More on this story. "Britain's youngest teenage terrorist: 'a wake-up call for parents,'" by Caroline Gammell for Telegraph, September 19:

Speaking after the sentencing of Britain's youngest terrorist, Shahid Malik, the minister for International Development, said parents had to be vigilant against the threat of radicalisation.

He also called on mosques to do more to combat fundamentalism.

The MP spoke out after the sentencing of Hammad Munshi who was just 15 when he was recruited by a terror cell believed to have been plotting against the Royal Family.

The teenager, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, had downloaded information about bomb-making material from the internet and hidden notes about martyrdom under his bed.

The judge at the Old Bailey said the schoolboy's head had been filled with "pernicious and warped ideas" which led to his involvement in a plan to kill kuffars or non-believers.

Munshi's local MP Mr Malik said: "It is a real wake-up call for parents because there is a real need to be vigilant, especially when their kids are on the internet.

"It is a real wake-up call to how older jihadists can prey on vulnerable young people.

"Mosques have done a lot but they need to do more in terms of telling young people what is acceptable and what is not in Islam."

Munshi, who is the grandson of a senior Islamic sharia judge, was groomed by terrorist Aabid Hussain Khan, 23, who was jailed last month alongside postman Sultan Muhammed, 23, both from Bradford.

[...]

Sentencing him to two years in a young offenders' institution, Judge Timothy Pontius said Khan and others had taken advantage of Munshi's youth.

"It is regrettable and tragic that you find yourself in court on such a serious charge," he said. "You have brought very great shame upon yourself, your family and your religion.

"In the light of the evidence, I have no doubt that you, amongst others of similar immaturity and vulnerability, fell under the spell of fanatical extremists.

"They took advantage of your youthful naivety in order to indoctrinate you with pernicious and warped ideas masquerading as altruistic religious zeal.

"Were it not for Aabid Khan's malign influence I doubt whether this offence would ever have been committed. Yet there is no doubt that you knew what you were doing."...

An update on this story, with an interesting detail not included in the first report. The statement from a member of an "Islamic-based" party that the bill would be a "Ramadan gift" to Muslims further explains the urgency with which religious minorities protested it, along with its deliberately vague content.

"Indonesia: Porn bill's passage deferred amid protests from Balinese," from Adnkronos International with additional reporting from the Jakarta Post, September 19:

Jakarta, 19 Sept. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and other hard-line Islamic groups may not be able to present the much-criticised pornography bill as a "Ramadan gift" as the Parliament has delayed passing it amid increasing public resistance.

On Friday, Balinese legislators, artists and tourism operators came to Jakarta to lobby MPs for the bill to be dropped. The bikini-clad tourist centre of Bali (photo) may have to cover up if the bill is passed.

The attempt to define pornography and set a moral tone across the vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of Indonesia has won the support of Golkar, the country's largest party, but is opposed by the Democratic Party of Struggle, backed by the former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

The bill was initially scheduled to be brought to a plenary session of the Parliament next Tuesday for endorsement, but this has been indefinitely postponed following protests from several provinces nationwide.

Democratic spokesman Made Arjaya said the Bill could hurt Bali's tourism industry, which is still recovering from the terrorist bombings of 2002-2005.

A member of the Parliament's special committee deliberating the bill, Yoyoh Yusroh, said on Thursday it needed to extend the deliberation period.

The schedule for a plenary session to pass the bill into law remains tentative as the deliberation process is subject to change, said Yoyoh, a legislator with the Islamic-based PKS.

PKS faction chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said last week the bill, which was presented to the Parliament three years ago, would be passed within a few weeks as a "gift" for Muslims during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Yoyoh said the next hearings, scheduled for after the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, would include meetings with the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Communications and Information Ministry and the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment.

The bill continues to spark controversies, with some critics saying it threatens the right to privacy as well as pluralism in the country. Many of its articles are "contentious and vague", they added.

Opponents also say the bill may spark national disintegration, and that it is not urgent as it overlaps with the Criminal Code and existing laws, including on child protection, broadcasting and the press.

More on this story. "UK's 'youngest terrorist' jailed," from Reuters, September 19 (thanks to Darcy):

A schoolboy, said by prosecutors to be the youngest Briton to be convicted of a terrorism offence, was jailed for two years on Friday for his part in what prosecutors called a worldwide plot to target non-Muslims.

Hammaad Munshi, 18, was found guilty last month of being part of a cell that spread extremist propaganda and provided practical guides on how to make poisons and suicide vests.

Detectives said Munshi, an IT expert who was just 16 when he was arrested at his home in Dewsbury, northern England, as he returned from school, was dedicated to al Qaeda's cause.

He used the Internet to circulate material including technical documents on how to make napalm and homemade explosives, and discussed how to smuggle a sword through airport security.

Al Qaeda propaganda promoting "murder and destruction" was stored on his computer and notes on martyrdom were hidden under his bed, London's Old Bailey court heard.

The teenager, who was convicted of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism, was sentenced on Friday to two years in a young offenders' institution.

Prosecutors said Munshi was part of a cell that provided information on terrorist techniques, training, weapons and explosives. The men were involved in a global conspiracy to "wipe out" non-Muslims, the court heard.

They said his co-accused Aabid Hussain Khan had recruited Munshi when he was just 15.

Khan was jailed for 12 years last month while the cell's other member Sultan Muhammad was given a 10-year term.

Judge Timothy Pontius said Munshi, the grandson of Islamic scholar Sheikh Yakub Munshi, president of the Islamic Research Institute of Great Britain at the Markazi Mosque in Dewsbury, had brought shame to his family and religion.

However he had been given a lighter sentence because he had fallen "under the spell of fanatical extremists" who took advantage of his naivety.

But the judge added: "There is no doubt that you knew what you were doing."

(Reporting by Michael Holden)

"A sizable amount of arms and ammunition was discovered in the house."

"Indian police battle Islamic militants in capital," by Matthew Rosenberg for the Associated Press, September 19:

NEW DELHI - Indian police battled suspected Islamic militants holed up in a house in the country's capital Friday, killing two and arresting one before the others escaped, police said.

The gunbattle in a southern part of sprawling New Delhi put the city back on edge days after five coordinated bombings in the capital's markets killed 21 people — attacks credited to homegrown Islamic militants.

A senior New Delhi police officer, Karnal Singh, told reporters at the scene of Friday's firefight in the Jamia Nagar neighborhood that there were five gunmen. Two were killed, one was arrested and two escaped, he said.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said two policemen were wounded in the fighting.

"A sizable amount of arms and ammunition was discovered in the house," said Bhagat. "The area has been cordoned off, and we are continuing our investigation."

Soon after the gunbattle broke out around noon Friday, scores of police officers, many in riot gear, could be seen fanning out through Jamia Nagar, a leafy lower middle-class neighborhood. The scene was chaotic with authorities trying to get civilians out of harm's way while subduing the militants.

A group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the New Delhi attacks. It also said it was behind bombings that killed 61 people in the western city of Jaipur in May and July blasts in the western state of Gujarat that killed at least 45.

Police apparently zeroed in Friday on one New Delhi house after interrogating a man detained after the Gujarat bombings, The Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The man, identified as Abu Basher, said the home in quiet Jamia Nagar was used as a safe house by Islamic militants plotting attacks around India.

The Indian Mujahideen was little known before this year's bombings, and police believe it may be a front for the Students' Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, which was banned in 2001.

India has routinely blamed Pakistan or Bangladesh-based militant groups for dozens of attacks in the last three years.

But as the death toll has mounted this year, evidence has pointed to the involvement of Indian Muslims, raising difficult questions for the government about growing anger among India's large Muslim minority.

More on that "anger" here.

While this is certainly refreshing, it still begs the question: who knows what Islam demands more accurately: the average Muslim, who may denounce such fatwas, or "top" clerics, who have been studying Islam all their lives? Muslims can denounce this or that, the question still remains: is it Islamic or not?

"Arabs denounce cleric's fatwa on 'immoral,' TV" by Donna Abu-Nasr for AP, September 19 (thanks to JCB):

Arabs across the ideological spectrum, from secular-minded liberals to Muslim hard-liners, are denouncing a top Saudi cleric's edict that it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show "immoral" content.

Many expressed worry the recent comments by Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan — chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council — would fuel terrorism, encouraging attacks on station employees and owners.

[...]

"Our religion prevents Muslims from watching films that provide seduction, obscenity and vulgarity," said Sheik Hazim Awad, an Iraqi cleric, who, like al-Lihedan, is Sunni Muslim.

But "the real Muslim can just cancel (subscriptions to) these channels," he said.

Many conservatives frown on the Arab world's numerous satellite networks for airing music videos — often with scantily clad women singers — or Western movies and TV shows like "Sex and the City," from which nude scenes are sometimes but not always cut.

Obscenity isn't the only thing that disturbs some. On Tuesday, another Saudi cleric, Sheik Mohammed Munajjid, said the cartoon character Mickey Mouse should be killed. Munajjid said in an interview with a religious Web site that under Islamic law, rats and mice are considered "repulsive" and as "soldiers of Satan."

"For children they've become something great and beloved. Like this Mickey Mouse, who is seen as a great figure, even though under Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed," said Munajjid, who is a well-known cleric but does not hold a government position.

The controversy over al-Lihedan's fatwa began a week ago, when the cleric was answering questions from callers to the daily "Light in the Path" religious program on Saudi state radio. One caller asked about Islam's view of the owners of satellite TV channels that show "bad programs" during the holy month of Ramadan, which began more than two weeks ago.

"I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence ... and I warn them of the consequences," al-Lihedan said in the program. "Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them."

The remarks were especially surprising because many of the most popular Arab satellite networks are owned by Saudi princes and well-connected Saudi and Gulf businessmen.

[...]

He said his "advice" was aimed at owners who broadcast witchcraft, indecent programs, shows mocking Islamic scholars or religious police and comedies inappropriate for Ramadan.

The edict chilled managers of satellite networks. Several channels based in Dubai declined comment. One network representative said the staff was taking the fatwa very seriously, but he did not want his name or channel revealed. "Why select yourself as a target by commenting on it?" he said.

Saudi Arabia's judiciary is a bastion of hard-line clerics implementing Islamic law under the strict Wahhabi interpretation. Judges are appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council and have complete discretion to set sentences, except in cases where Islamic law outlines a punishment, such as capital crimes.

King Abdullah has said reforming the legal system is one of his priorities, but so far few changes have been announced — a sign of wariness in confronting the powerful clerics.

One Saudi cleric challenged al-Lihedan, telling the Saudi Al-Jazirah newspaper that the new edict would "lend support to terrorism."

[...]

Around the Arab world, many said el-Lihedan was out of line.

"He shouldn't give such a judgment because he's not God," said Noora Baker, a 27-year-old folkloric dancer from the Palestinian city of Ramallah. "I am against religion interfering with the matters of society."

That may be, but the fact remains: "commanding the good and forbidding the wrong" -- that is, very much "interfering with the matters of society" -- is a central tenet of Islam.

"Pakistan's Own War" Update. "Taliban opens new front in Pakistan," by Isambard Wilkinson for the Telegraph, September 18:

Militants have used fear and intimidation to clear a swathe of territory in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to establish training camps and for taking sanctuary, and have set up their headquarters in Maidan, in the rugged, green hills of the Upper Dir valley.

One thing's for sure: the hills aren't alive with the sound of music.

"We know the local militants but we don't know the foreigners and outsiders who have arrived here. They are the mostly hardline, well-trained fighters," said Hussain Shah, a local leader from the NWFP's ruling Awami National Party (ANP).

The Taliban encroachment has seeped from Pakistan's seven tribal areas into adjacent areas nominally under full government control. In Maidan The Daily Telegraph witnessed armed Taliban fighters in fields surrounding the town.

Last week 20 more locals were killed and 30 wounded when militants hurled grenades and fired indiscriminately into a Dir mosque.

At a funeral service held two weeks ago in Maidan fear had silenced the mourners. Prayers were said for Mehmud Jan, the right-hand man of Sufi Mohammed, a former leader of a rival militant group, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e- Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM).

A friend said that Jan had been "courageous to talk against the Taliban". Militants riddled Jan with bullets in front of his house as he set out to pray in a nearby mosque.

"Nobody knows who to trust. Fear is everywhere. We do not look anybody in the eye," said Jan's friend.

The arrival of militants better known for fighting in Afghanistan comes at a watershed moment for Pakistan's counter-insurgency operations.

Washington and London are frustrated that Pakistan has failed to formulate a comprehensive counter insurgency strategy or a plan for governing its lawless, border tribal areas.

America is forging a new, more aggressive military strategy to tackle terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said last week that "time is running out" in the battle against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. [...]

America views Pakistan's policy of engaging militants in limited battles and then striking peace agreements with them as inadequate. Pakistan views its role as one of "containment" and has been loath to sever its links with its old Afghan Taliban and jihadi proxies....

"We are not against freedom of speech or expression but you cannot insult people. We found the comments hurtful."

A Let-Them-Into-The-EU Alert. "Richard Dawkins website banned in Turkey," by Jessica Salter for the Telegraph, September 19:

Adnan Oktar complained that Mr Dawkins, a fierce critic of creationism and intelligent design, had insulted him in comments made on forums and blogs.

Istanbul's second criminal court of peace has now forbidden internet users to access the site because it "violated" Mr Oktar.

Mr Oktar's press assistant, Seda Aral, said: "We are not against freedom of speech or expression but you cannot insult people. We found the comments hurtful. It was not a scientific discussion. There was a line and the limit has been passed. We have used all the legal means to stop this site. We asked them to remove the comments but they did not."

Mr Oktar is a household name in Turkey after publishing hundreds of books, pamphlets and DVDs to contest Darwin's theory of evolution.

Mr Oktar complained that he and his creationist book Atlas of Creation had been defamed by comments made by Mr Dawkins on the site.

And what did Dawkins actually say? This:

Mr Dawkins had written on his site: "I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content."

It is illegal to criticise either Ataturk or Turkishness in Turkey.

However Mr Oktar failed to ban Mr Dawkins' book The God Delusion, which claims religious scripture is unreliable, after a Turkish court rejected his claims that it insulted religion.

But Mr Oktar, who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya, has been successful in persuading courts to ban other websites that he claims are libellous.

In August 2007 a court to blocked access to WordPress.com and last April it banned Google Groups after both were complained about by Mr Oktar....

More on this story. "Leave Us Alone, Wives, Children of Man With 86 Wives Cry Out," from All Africa, September 19:

The travails of the 84-year old man with 86 wives seem to be borne more by outsiders than the people at the centre of the matrimonial show.

Yesterday, over 80 family members of Pa Abubakar Bello Masaba stormed Minna, Niger State capital, in protest against the arrest, arraignment and continued detention of their husband and father.

The home of the Masabas' was stormed in a Gestapo manner at about 3 am last Monday and the man with 86 wives whisked away to be arraigned at the Minna Upper Sharia Court. He is now in prison custody.

At the Upper Sharia Court presided over by Alhaji Abdulkareem Ibrahim, Masaba was accused of "inciting/insulting contempt of religious creed, instituting un-lawful marriage ceremony without lawful marriage contrary to section 210, 383, and 386 of the Penal Code."

Family members of Masaba comprising about 50 of the wives among them pregnant and nursing mothers and about 30 of the children arrived the premises of the state ministry of justice along Paiko road, Minna in two buses and several cars at about 10 am yesterday.

The women and children of the detained Pa Masaba were accompanied on the protest visit by some Islamic clerics, chanting Islamic songs, which tended to exonerate their husband and father from any form of criminal act that could warrant his arrest and detention.

They carried placards with inscriptions protesting the continued detention of their breadwinner, the protesting family members told all those who cared to listen that their father had not committed any offence and was not criminal to be put in prison custody.

The inscriptions on some of the placards read: "Don't render our unborn children fatherless," "Grave sin, grave sin, tampering with another mans' family affairs," "Our children needs their father" and "Sharia Commission, leave our husband and father alone."

[...]

Rights groups have mobilized to defend Masaba, promising to enlist 86 lawyers for the 86 wives.

Meanwhile, Masaba has asked the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to nullify the death sentence (Fatwa) passed on him by the highest Islamic body in Northern Nigeria, Jamatu Nasril Islam...

That is precisely what is at stake, and it is encouraging to see an editorial of this nature in a major newspaper. "Sharia-UK: Brits head toward Islamic law," by John O'Sullivan for the New York Post, September 18 (thanks to Awake):

Is Britain heading straight for disaster?" George Bernard Shaw once began a BBC radio talk. "That is a question I can easily answer. Britain is not heading straight for anything." The reply works for the question: "Is Britain heading straight for sharia law?" It's heading that way - but by a winding path.

News reports this week have given a much stronger impression. They allege that sharia got a legal OK from the government and is already being enforced. A Muslim college in the English Midlands supposedly runs a sharia court that has so far decided more than 100 civil disputes.

In fact, that "court" made its rulings legally binding by a clever dodge: being accepted as a "voluntary arbitration tribunal."

Under British law, any two people can agree to take their dispute to such a tribunal rather than to court; the tribunal's decision is then binding on them. It can even be enforced by the official courts and the police.

Faisal Aqtab Siddiqi, a commercial-law barrister, had the bright idea of establishing a sharia court as the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal. He acknowledges that it so far only handles civil cases such as divorces and inheritance disputes, since British society isn't ready for such innovations as public floggings and hand-choppings. But these are early days.

The story generated appropriate outrage. Some came from liberal Muslim women: Writing in the Independent, Yasmin Alibi-Brown points out that many immigrants left home to get away from sharia to a country like Britain, where all are equal before the law. Non-Muslim Brits probably feel at least as indignant.

But this outrage may be misplaced - or at least premature: It's not at all clear just how legal the sharia tribunal really is. Dominic Grieve, the Tory Party's legal spokesman and a top lawyer, flatly denies that sharia could be legal in Britain.

Yes, arbitration tribunals can settle some disputes and have their judgments enforced. But they must act within the principles of English law: They can't forbid girls to attend mixed classes in school or award sons the bulk of inheritances merely because the parties agreed in advance to accept the verdict - any more than a regular court can enforce a voluntary contract of slavery or prostitution.

So, while the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal may like to think it's a sharia court, its judgments have legal force only insofar as they conform to the law of the land. Unfortunately, that is far from settling the matter.

The police have reportedly been enforcing the sharia court's questionable judgments even though they lack legal force - for example, they've stopped questioning women who've accused their husbands of domestic violence once the tribunal has "settled" the case.

That is contrary to usual police practice and arguably illegal, too. It also ignores the well-documented reality that Muslim women sometimes suffer immense social pressure - up to and including murder, a k a "honor killings" - to make them bend to male authority, forced marriage and beatings. Their legal consent to sharia judgments can't be presumed without serious investigation.

But the police sometimes break their own rules in such cases out of a desire to avoid appearing "Islamophobic" and to deal with Muslim communities through unelected "community leaders." Yet these leaders are often extreme figures. Thus, by degrees, sharia becomes effective law, even though it's actually illegal. [...]

And if sharia is to apply to marriage law, then law in Britain will inevitably discriminate between the sexes in favor of men. There goes equality before the law.

These arguments reflect a wider set of illogical beliefs held by British (and to a lesser extent American) political elites: that there's no real problem with immigration or multiculturalism - and any concerns are either xenophobic or paranoid; that immigrant groups will soon assimilate to British tolerance even if official multiculturalism is persuading them to remain secluded in ghettoes (or, in the case of women, in purdah).

It would be comic - if it didn't threaten the integrity of an Anglo-American legal system that has probably given ordinary citizens greater access to justice and fairness than any other system in the decreasingly civilized world.

An update on this story. "Plant Rejects Muslim Employees' Requests to Meet Prayer Needs," from the Associated Press, September 18:

GRAND ISLAND, Nebraska — Managers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant have told Muslim employees, most of them Somali, that shift changes made to meet their prayer demands weren't working and would be ended.

Union president Dan Hoppes said Thursday that the workers reacted well to the news, but he didn't know whether they would walk out later in protest as they did Monday.

He and managers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant are still talking about meeting employee needs and maintaining plant production.

Workers were sitting down with managers for discussions before the second shift started Thursday afternoon.

Counterprotests by non-Muslim workers began Wednesday. They said the shift changes penalized them while favoring the Muslim workers.

What, you mean even if al-Qaeda goes away, or "implodes," other Muslims will continue the jihad? Does this then mean that, in the words of Ayman Zawahiri, "Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual or organization. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden—may Allah protect them from all evil—are merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth and Falsehood transcends time"? More on this story.

"Yemen faces new Jihad generation," by Ginny Hill for BBC, September 17:

The deadly car bombing outside the US embassy in Yemen represents an escalation in attacks against Western targets and shows al Qaeda-inspired jihadis are growing in ability and determination.

Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 16 people, but it is possible that other groups will come forward in the next few days.

There is a complex network of over-lapping splinter cells and claims of rival leadership within Yemen...

After the deplorable Olmert comes the only-very-slightly-less-deplorable Zipporah (Tzipi, as all Israeli politicians are known by these undignified and to-me demeaning nicknames) Livni.

She too has her own story, of being the child, like Olmert, of Likud supporters, even perhaps Revisionists. Like Olmert, she thinks that she has become a "realist" and therefore put away childish things. But her "realism" is the usual, delusional "realism" of those who ignore the nature of the war -- a Jihad -- being waged on Israel. They ignore its permanence and its scope. They think that there will be peace if they surrender what is rightfully Israel's, tangible assets, the land of the "West Bank" that must be held onto, whatever the Arabs in the Arab-occupied parts may think. And they can, over time, respond to conditions they deem insufficiently favorable and be encouraged to leave, if they know they will never be masters of the place.

A news item tells us that "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is quoted as saying that nine months of peace talks with Israel have failed to bring agreement on any of the core issues. That would include the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and the borders of a future Palestinian state. Mr. Abbas told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz that ‘the gaps between the sides are very wide.’"

Olmert likes to talk about those who want to hold onto the territory -- the so-called "West Bank" that was assigned to the territory of the Mandate for Palestine, that is, for the establishment of the Jewish National Home, by the League of Nations --- as "delusional." Why are they "delusional"? Israel's legal, historic and moral rights clearly overwhelm those of the local Arabs. Many of those Arabs descend from those who arrived to take advantage of the economic opportunities that the Zionist pioneers created, and that continued during the Mandate period, a period when the British made it increasingly difficult for Jews to arrive at the time of their greatest need and peril, but never did a thing about the far larger Arab immigration from Iraq, from Egypt, from the Emirate of Transjordan. And those places are where most of the local Arabs come from, though they have managed to fool the world into ignoring the real demographic and cadastral history of the area, especially of Western Palestine, beginning in the early 19th century.

Olmert takes the position that somehow, he doesn't quite know how, peace will come if Israel gives up the territory it needs to defend itself. It is territory that controls the historic invasion routes from the East. It is territory that controls the handful of Israel's airports. Most of them are within range of handheld weaponry from Qalqilya, at the eight-mile waist that Israel had to endure in the 1949 Armistice Lines, which the Arabs never recognized as permanent borders, and to which Olmert, a man intellectually at the end of his tether, and morally -- morally, nowhere -- seems to think Israel should return.

And the daughter of money launderers. "Lackawanna High student is killed in attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen," by Dan Herbeck for the Buffalo News, September 18 (thanks to Jeffrey):

A Lackawanna High School student who traveled to Yemen to be married last month was one of the victims of a terrorist bombing Wednesday at the U. S. Embassy in Yemen, the woman’s school principal said.

Attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb assaulted the compound in the Yemeni capital of Sana.

Officials listed the 16 people killed as six assailants, six guards and four civilians.

Susan Elbaneh, 18, was killed, along with her Yemeni husband, as they stood outside the embassy, family members said Wednesday. They were apparently there to do paperwork for the husband’s move to the U. S. when the attackers struck, said Elbaneh’s brother, Ahmed.

Lackawanna High School Principal Peter A. Hazzan said Susan had traveled to Yemen to be married over the summer.

“It looks like they were two young people in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Hazzan said.

He described the Elbaneh family as “very well known” in Lackawanna’s large Yemen-American community and active in the Guidance Mosque in Lackawanna.

A number of students related to Susan Elbaneh or her close friends left school early after learning of her death Wednesday morning, Hazzan said.

“Quite a few” parents also took their sons and daughters home early from Lackawanna Middle School after hearing the news, said Michael Jakubowski, the school’s principal.

Elbaneh had only two courses to complete to qualify to graduate from the high school, Hazzan said.

“Susan was a good student, an above-average student. She had spoken at one time about becoming a nurse,” the principal said. “This is such a tragedy.”

He added that Elbaneh had told school officials at the end of the past school year that she definitely planned to return to Lackawanna to complete her education after her wedding in Yemen.

Hazzan, who is of Palestinian descent and speaks fluent Arabic, said a number of girls who attend Lackawanna High School have gone to Yemen in recent years to be married and then have returned to complete school.

The Associated Press said Elbaneh had been in Yemen for a month for the arranged wedding Aug. 25.

School officials said Elbaneh was the daughter of Ali T. Elbaneh and the niece of Mohamed T. Albanna, two Yemeni-American community leaders who took plea deals in a case involving an unlicensed money-transmitting company that illegally sent at least $5.5 million to Yemen. Authorities never have alleged that the money was used for terrorist purposes.

In November 2006, U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny sentenced Ali T. Elbaneh to six months of home confinement for playing what federal prosecutors called a very minor role in the illegal business. Albanna received a five-year prison term.

Authorities said the dead woman also was related to Jaber Elbaneh, Mohamed Albanna’s nephew, a fugitive accused of traveling to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan with the “Lackawanna Six.”

The United States was angered when Jaber Elbaneh, 42, convicted in Yemen for planning attacks on oil installations, was allowed to go free while appealing his 10-year prison sentence.

He has since been taken back in custody, Yemeni officials say, but Yemen has refused U. S. requests that he be handed over for trial on charges of providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. He is listed by the FBI as one of the world’s most wanted terrorists....

Sadie Polttila: Islamic scholar?

The following op-ed by one Sadie Polttila serves as the perfect example of the many shortcomings of Islamic apologetics: "Real Islam a religion of peace and free will, not violence," by Sadie Polttila for Leader Telegram, September 17:

The United States is a great nation whose foundation rests on the privilege of religious freedom. Islam is a part of that foundation and a religion of peace. What crazy people do in the name or religion, any religion, makes them crazy or uneducated - not religious. For example, all Christians aren't akin to the Ku Klux Klan, because KKK members are definitely misinformed about Christianity...

Fatwas are supposed to be a scholarly opinion on a matter of Islamic law. They aren't wrong but there is something wrong with people who aren't scholarly making them...

The Quran says, "Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear from error. Whoever rejects false worship and believes in Allah (God) has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things." (Surah al-Baqarah: 256) ...I emphasize that there is no compulsion in religion and no justification for senseless violence.

Only God decides who will be rewarded in Heaven for jihad which, when translated, means to "strive" or "struggle." Someone can have a personal jihad with broccoli...

In Islam women are to be revered, upheld as equal citizens and respected. It is recorded that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, "Assuredly, women are the twin halves of men" and, "Heaven lies at the feet of mothers."

Anyone not agreeing to the above may not be Islamic - they may just be "crazy."

Such "scholarly" conclusions.

Non-Muslims protest

Yesterday the Nebraska Swift plant agreed to accommodate Muslim demands to change break times so that they could pray during Ramadan. But just as at the Greeley, Colorado Swift plant, non-Muslims are inconvenienced, and are protesting.

And so here again Swift faces a hideous choice -- a choice that American businesses will increasingly be called upon to make. Either they will accommodate Muslims at the expense of non-Muslims, thus creating Muslims as a special class with special rights above non-Muslims, or they will refuse to accommodate Muslims, and thus be charged with "racism" and "bigotry," and hauled into court for a battle they will almost certainly lose.

However, the more courts rule that special privileges for Muslims, at the expense of non-Muslims, constitute "reasonable accommodation" of Muslim demands, the more non-Muslims will continue to protest, and the more it will be clear that those who sneer and say "What's the big deal? This doesn't mean we're about to become an Islamic state" are drastically short-sighted, and haven't grasped the implications of these accommodation initiatives.

These initiatives are an attempt to create Muslims as an especially privileged class in the United States. They are part of the stealth jihad to bring Sharia, step by step, into this country, and to make it clear that when Islamic law and American practices conflict, it is American practices that must give way. The non-Muslim workers who are protesting at Swift's Nebraska plant are living proof that Muslim accommodation means non-Muslim inconvenience (and, ultimately, worse than inconvenience). The fact that Muslim groups show no interest in this, or the slightest willingness to compromise, illustrates the unilateral, intransigent, and supremacist nature of their efforts. The non-Muslims in Nebraska's Swift plant have already been on the receiving end of these efforts, even if they themselves don't fully realize just what is going on and what they are up against.

"Compromise with Muslims on prayer cuts hours for all at Swift plant," by Tracy Overstreet for the Grand Island Independent, September 17 (thanks to Refugee Resettlement Watch):

A compromise reached to accommodate prayer for about 500 Somalian meatpacking plant workers in Grand Island led to a counter protest of even more workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant Wednesday.

Workers including Caucasians, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and African-Americans walked out after clocking in on the B shift shortly after 3 p.m.

Racists!

The objection -- a change in the break schedule that leaves B shift workers shorted of hours Monday through Friday and forces them to work Saturday to earn at least 40 hours of pay.

"The Somalians say they can only work three hours after sunset, so we're supposed to work 7.3 hours a day Monday through Friday," said Naomi Jakubowski. "We're supposed to come in and make up the time on Saturday or be shorted at just 36 hours."

"I don't want to sacrifice my Saturdays with my kids -- and I can't raise 'em on 36 hours of pay," she said. "I've got rent, food and diapers to buy."

Over the past few days I've put up a series of posts about negative reactions in the mainstream media to the nationwide distribution of the Obsession DVD. (Here they are: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.)

There are other stories in this vein that I didn't post, but I didn't see even one that said, "Obsession is being distributed nationwide, and this is a positive thing, because it will help awaken Americans to the magnitude of the jihad threat." I didn't see a single favorable story about the Obsession DVD distribution anywhere in the mainstream media. All the ones I saw were about how it was incendiary, Islamophobic, insulting to Muslims, etc. If you know of a positive story on this, please send it to me. But it seems that mainstream journalists are moving in lockstep -- no deviation allowed.

And the other side of that lockstep is the positive reception to Islamic proselytizing efforts in public places. The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer couldn't be more pleased with the advertisements that the Islamic Circle of North America has placed in buses in Seattle.

Neither paper makes any mention, of course, of the fact that ICNA was named as a “friend” of the Muslim Brotherhood in the infamous May 1991 Brotherhood memorandum that spoke of Muslim organizations in the U.S. as being engaged in "a kind of grand Jihad in 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.”

Probably neither reporter even knows about this, and neither would probably care -- because it doesn't fit the dominant paradigm of Muslims as victims. Victims of anti-terror efforts, of discrimination, of racism, etc. Never mind that CAIR has largely trumped up reports of Muslim victimization. Never mind the 10,000+ jihad attacks around the world since 9/11. Never mind the advancing stealth jihad. The mainstream media will march on, in lockstep -- probably because the American Muslim advocacy groups have so successfully cast this as an issue of "racism" and "bigotry." Victory, however, will lead to defeat for these Islamic groups: the truth will become increasingly more difficult to avoid as they grow ever more assertive and demanding.

The tactic at work here is a familiar one, with the law's proponents advancing a specific agenda under the cloak of an appeal to various "common values." We've seen this before with respect to concepts like "human rights," "respect for women," and "respect for religion." But in this case, a significant number of people aren't buying it. "Indonesia, sharia behind anti-pornography law," by Mattias Hariyadi for AsiaNews, September 17:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - There is no let-up in the chorus of protests from Indonesian religious minorities and ethnic groups, against the possible approval of the "law against pornography", better known as the Undang-undang Pornografi. They claim that the new norm, under consideration in parliament, which has been asked to decide whether to approve it by September 23, brings "national unity" into serious danger, and wipes out "cultural and religious differences" by eliminating "pluralism" and fostering "social discord". But what is most worrying to the minorities and ethnic groups is the danger that the law on pornography is concealing an attempt by the more fundamentalist branch of Islam to introduce sharia, Islamic law.

The areas in which non-Muslim ethnicities and groups are most concentrated are the eastern islands of the country, including the island of Bali, which has a Hindu majority; the Sulawesi, which have a Protestant and Catholic majority; the Moluccas, which are also equally divided between Protestants and Catholics; Papua, which has a Catholic majority, as does East Nusa Tenggaral; Borneo, divided between Catholics and Protestants, and other districts of North Sumatra and West Nusa Tenggara.

The fear is that the proposed law could spread a climate of "anarchy", because it does not define precisely what can be maintained as "contrary to morality", and above all what are the "criteria" to be adopted in order to establish whether "a behavior or an artistic/cultural expression" should be censored. Chapter 21 of the draft law also leaves "free rein" for preventing possible immoral acts: "This is an especially dangerous point", emphasizes Eva Kusuma Sudari of the Indonesian Democratic Struggle Party (PDIP), a nationalist group that has always opposed the law. "This allows people to be manipulated in order to promote anarchy and social conflicts in the country", while fundamentalist Islamic groups would have free rein to destroy nightclubs or other gathering spots under the pretext of "preserving the purity of the holy month of Ramadan".

The most serious criticisms are directed at the Indonesian Islamic Defender Front (FPI), responsible in the past for violent acts and, thanks to the new law, ostensibly authorized to exercise the role of "moral police" and punish any dissent or behavior contrary to radical Islamic ethics.

In order to protect pluralism and prevent the adoption of sharia, the nationalist party (PDIP), together with the Christian Peace and Prosperity Party and the Democrat Party, has begun a series of demonstrations calling for the rejection of the proposed law. This, the minorities claim, under the pretext of establishing what can be defined as "pornographic material", is in reality aimed at promoting the "rigid observance of Islamic law".

Sharia would be applied not only to DVDs, films, and performances that are "obscene" or contrary to "morality", but would end up censoring expressions and traditions that are rooted in some parts of Indonesia: on the island of Papua, for example, it is common to wear only a loincloth, and for the women to leave their breasts uncovered. The Asmat, a tribal group, is characterized by its nude statues, an element typical of their culture. Finally, on the island of Bali, famous for its tourism, it would no longer be possible to sunbathe in a bikini, or to drink alcohol at the nightclubs.

They "wear broken-cross and skeleton necklaces and rings, drink alcohol and dance in their ceremonies."

If that sounds more like an '80s metal revival than the forces of evil, there is ample reason, as described below. This campaign is clearly geared toward stamping out the cultural imprint of the "Great Satan." It's harder to raise the next generation to hate the America and the West when they're enjoying various forms of Western creativity and freedom of expression. "Iran says Satanist cults challenging Islam: report," from Agence France-Presse, September 17:

TEHRAN - Iranian police said dozens of Satan-worshiping cults have found their way into the country and that many of them are seeking to turn people against Islam, press reports said on Wednesday.

"There are more than 3,000 Satan-worshipping cults in the world and about 50 of them have entered Iran," deputy police chief Hossein Zolfaghari was quoted as saying by Etemad newspaper.

He said about half of those groups were active and that about 200 books on the subject had been translated, printed and distributed.

Such groups commonly "deviate from conventional religions, make false promises, sexually exploit" and "are tasked with (promoting) Islamophobia," Zolfaghari said.

"Satan-worshippers wear broken-cross and skeleton necklaces and rings, drink alcohol and dance in their ceremonies. They believe they should defy religions, especially Islam, do as they want and drag the world into anarchy."

Zolfaghari said some of these groups sought to "attract young people by playing satanic music during (private) sports activities," had books in English and "gather in parks to talk about events across the country and Satan."

Iranian authorities sometimes link hard rock and heavy metal music and their icons with Satan worship.

Last year police arrested 230 people in a raid on a "Satan-worshipping" underground rock concert near Tehran amid a nationwide crackdown on attire and behaviour deemed contrary to Islamic law.

About two third of Iran's 70 million Shiite-majority population are under 30 years old.

An update on this story. "Mauritania: al-Qaida claims it carried out attack," by Ahmed Mohamed for the Associated Press, September 17:

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) -- Al-Qaida's North Africa branch purportedly claimed responsibility Wednesday for ambushing an army patrol in Mauritania and kidnapping 12 soldiers whom officials initially reported had been killed.

Authorities first said the soldiers had been shot dead in Monday's attack, but the bodies were not found when army reinforcements swept the area. Government officials said some traces of blood were found, but they could only classify the soldiers as missing.

"This jihadist operation targeted the allies of the Americans, the crusaders on Islamic Mauritanian territory occupied by infidels,'' said the Internet statement attributed to al-Qaida.

Al-Qaeda has branded the regime that took power in a last month's coup an "infidel regime," and the product of a Western conspiracy.

The statement was published on several Web sites known to be close to extremist Islamic movements and at least one that has published previous statements attributed to the terrorist group.

Posted on an Arabic Web site Wednesday and dated a day earlier, the statement warned the attack "will not be the last.''

It said the attackers seized three vehicles, arms and ammunition, and "valiant holy warriors took 12 soldiers prisoner, among them a captain who led the patrol.''

Bringing "peace" to the capital's airport. Somalia Jihad Update. "Islamist militant threat paralyses Mogadishu airport," by Abdi Sheikh for Reuters, September 17:

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Mogadishu's main airport was largely shut down on Wednesday after militant Somali Islamists threatened to attack any planes using it.

Staff at the airport said carriers using the sea-front facility in south Mogadishu had decided not to take any risk following the threat by al Shabaab to target aircraft landing or taking off after midnight on Tuesday.

Al Shabaab, which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups, is spearheading an insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian military backers.

"Turning deaf ears to what al Shabaab said means planes will be burned and staff assassinated at their houses," an official at the airport said. "We have agreed not to land planes."

A weekend statement by al Shabaab said the airport was a legitimate target because it was used by the Somali government, the Ethiopian military, and African Union (AU) peacekeepers, whom it perceives as propping up the government.

About 4-5 flights daily were going through Mogadishu airport before Wednesday.

The AU, which has 2,200 peacekeepers in Somalia, mainly based at the airport, condemned the threat, saying it would harm locals because it would block medical supplies. [...]

Al Shabaab's threat against the airport reflects the growing confidence of one of the main protagonists in the Somali war. The group last month led an Islamist takeover of southern Kismayu port, giving it a strategic base near the Kenyan border.

Welcome to the "one-step-at-a-time" zone. More on this story. "Muslim community uses own tribunals," from Express and Star, September 17:

Islamic tribunals have been set up in the West Midlands to resolve disputes among the Muslim community.

Special hearings, comprising of an Islamic scholar and a lawyer, are hearing arguments before making rulings which are legally binding before proceedings start. A Black Country judge has been appointed to advise the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) on how to make their rulings fit in with English law.

Shamim Qureshi, a district judge who lives in Wolverhampton and regularly sits at the city’s magistrates court, said they were not Sharia courts and were legally binding under the Arbitration Act 1996.

He told the Express & Star today: “That suggests it’s a court and that Sharia law is adopted in its entirety. We’re taking a bit of it, which is civil Islamic law.

“MAT is arbitration and that exists in this country. Any two people can agree to it, just like a contract with an insurance company for home insurance.”

He highlighted one case where one man was found by the panel to owe money to another man.

The panel highlighted the fact that the debtor spoke Arabic and ruled that he should teach the language to the son of the man he owed money to.

Mr Qureshi said: “Both sides were happy to deal with it in that way.

And this solution could only have been reached by relying on sharia? A Solomon-like figure arbitrating according to "common sense" -- not Islamic principles -- could come up with the same sort of solutions. But obviously that would never do: what sort of Muslim is willing to abide by judgments pronounced by kuffara living in a state of jahiliyya?

Muslim Special-Treatment Alert: "Muslims want AP hiring deferred," by Abdulrahman Sheriff for the Daily Nation, September 17:

The recruitment of Administration Police officers set for next Wednesday should be put off until after the holy month of Ramadhan, Muslim clerics have said.

Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya organising secretary Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa on Wednesday appealed to the Government to postpone the drive because it will deprive young Muslims their constitutional right to join the force.

According to paid adverts in local dailies on Wednesday, the recruitment will take place at all the district and sub-district headquarters from 9am on September 24.

Will be fasting

“On that day, Muslims will still be fasting and our young men interested in joining the force will not manage to participate in the exercise, which demands a lot of running,” said Sheikh Khalifa.

He proposed that the exercise be postponed to October 7 when Muslims will have completed fasting.

Meanwhile, the sixth Koran memorisation competition kicks off on Thursday at the Makadara grounds in Mombasa.

The winner of the main event, memorising the whole Koran, will win a Sh270,000 Hajj package with other event winners getting cash prizes...

No one knows when this accommodation will stop. Muslims have never explained how much Sharia accommodation they will want in the U.S., and in what ways they will be willing to adapt to American society. No one has ever asked them to do so. No one knows where this accommodation will lead. There is always more Sharia to accommodate, and now the precedent is amply set for more accommodation, but no one cares. It isn't as if we're going to become an Islamic state, right? Someone will draw the line somewhere, somehow, before it's too late. We're all one big happy multicultural family. Aren't we? "Union: Muslim Workers Reach Deal for Prayer Break," from FoxNews, September 17 (thanks to News4U):

OMAHA, Nebraska — A meatpacking plant has agreed to accommodate Muslim workers' request for prayer time during Ramadan, union officials said Wednesday.

Earlier this week 300 Muslim JBS Swift & Co. workers, most of Somali background, walked off the job in protest of the prayer dispute. No one was fired after the protest.

Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said management at the plant has agreed to temporarily change the timing of the second-shift lunch break to accommodate workers wanting time to pray during the Muslim observance of Ramadan.

Workers previously took the 30-minute break in shifts. The change will force the entire line to break at once. The arrangement will be in effect the next nine working days, which will cover the remainder of Ramadan, Hoppes said....

Extreme what?

"Bush Addresses Meeting With Gen. Petraeus," from the CQ Transcripts Wire, September 17:

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: [...] Recently, we saw how important it is, with the attack on our embassy in Yemen. There were some security forces that lost their lives there and we send our condolences to their families. This attack is a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives. One objectives of these extremists is they kill; is to try to cause the United States to lose our nerve and to withdraw from regions of the world. And our message is, is that we want to help governments survive the extremists. We want people to live normal lives. We want mothers to be able to raise their sons and daughters in a peaceful environment so they can realize the hopes and dreams of a better world....

Sunnis And Shi'ites Will Never Work Together Update: "Afghanistan: Taliban 'receiving arms from Iran,'" from AKI, September 17 (thanks to C.C.):

Zahedan, 17 Sept. (AKI) – Iran's Revolutionary Guards have been arming Taliban groups in western Afghanistan for the past year, an independent journalist has told Adnkronos International (AKI).

“The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have regularly been supplying arms to Taliban groups operating in the province of Herat," the journalist, A.B., told AKI from Zahedan, the capital of Beluchistan province in southeastern Iran.

“The Revolutionary Guards actually sell the weapons to the Taliban, who apparently pay for them in drugs, not cash," A.B. added.

“Besides sub-machine guns that can also fire grenades, the Afghan rebels are also interested in anti-tank mines manufactured in Iran," he said.

Iranian officials deny these claims, which have previously been made by the Afghan government and by ISAF, the NATO-led security and development mission in Afghanistan.

But a Taliban commander confirmed in a recent interview with BBC that Afghan rebel forces have received Iranian arms .

"We are especially interested in Iranian Egdeha mines, which can destroy military tanks," the commander told BBC....

Sharia courts are now operating in Britain, and what's the big deal? They're just private, voluntary arbitration tribunals, like similar arbitration panels for Jews and Catholics.

In "Britain Adopts Sharia" in Chronicles, September 16, Serge Trifkovic explains what's wrong with that analogy:

Muslim activists point out that allegedly simiral Jewish family courts (Bet Din) and Catholic marriage tribunals have existed in Britain for many years, but there is a major difference: such courts explicitly claim jurisdiction only over their believers, whereas according to orthodox Islamic teaching shari’a is the only legitimate law in the world, with universal jurisdiction over Muslims and non-Muslims alike. To a devout Muslim the incorporation of shari’a into British law is by no means the end of the affair. It is merely a major milestone on the road that cannot stop short of subjecting all Britons, regardless of faith, to the strictures of Allah’s commandment and Muhammad’s example.

And he also reports that Islamic law is already taking precedence over British law:

...Shari’a courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, with two more courts planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh. A visibly pleased Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, explains that he had taken advantage of a clause in the British Arbitration Act of 1996, which classifies sharia courts as “arbitration tribunals” whose rulings are binding in law once both parties in a dispute agree to accept its authority. It goes without saying that battered Muslim wives and disinherited Muslim daughters will “freely choose” the authority of shari’a courts rather than face various unpleasant and potentially fatal consequences of not conforming to the “community’s” rules and preferences.

What this means in practice was evident from a recent inheritance dispute in the Midlands, when the Nuneaton shari’a court divided the estate of a Muslim father between three daughters and two sons. The “judges” gave the sons twice as much as the daughters—perfectly in accordance with sharia, of course, but contrary to any regular British court, which would have given the daughters equal shares. In six cases of domestic violence quoted by Siddiqi, the “judges” ordered the husbands to take “anger management” classes and “mentoring from community elders” (such as imams and shari’a judges). In each case, the battered women subsequently withdrew the complaints and the police stopped their investigations. It should be noted that under normal British law those six cases could have been prosecuted as criminal, rather than “family” cases....

“Terrorists do not belong to any religion. They should be hanged. Why don’t the police realise this and stop persecuting Muslims alone?” Because, of course, the terrorists in question are Muslims who explain and justify their actions by reference to Islamic teachings. But that is the one thing above all that, on pain of charges of "bigotry," we are supposed not to notice, and to do nothing about.

"Muslim anger rises, police sketch suspects; India needs tough anti-terror laws: panel," from Arab Times, September 16 (thanks to Twostellas):

NEW DELHI, Sept 16, (RTRS): India needs a tough law to fight attacks like the deadly weekend bombings in New Delhi, a government panel said on Tuesday, as police released sketches of key suspects. There were immediate signs of dissent within the government, though, after the Home Minister Shivraj Patil told NDTV news channel the country already had strong enough laws in place. In its report, the panel asked the government to consider tougher laws to deal with growing militancy in India. “We need a comprehensive anti-terror law, but there should be adequate safeguards,” said Veerappa Moily, a senior member of the ruling Congress party, who headed the panel. India’s main opposition, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which accuses the centrist Congress party-led coalition of following a policy of appeasement, wants the reinstatement of a tough anti-terrorism law it promoted when in power.

Congress scrapped the law saying it had been misused to harass Muslims. But Muslims say they are still being persecuted under the present regime and were planning to protest, because they were being unfairly targeted in a police manhunt. Minority Muslims told Reuters in several Muslim-dominated areas of New Delhi that police were conducting a “witch hunt” and accused authorities of reinforcing stereotypes about Muslims. “Terrorists do not belong to any religion,” said Feroze Alam, a young trader in New Delhi’s Daryaganj district. “They should be hanged. Why don’t the police realise this and stop persecuting Muslims alone?” Some 20 Muslim organisations plan to meet in New Delhi next month to work a strategy to counter those stereotypes. “It is time to unite and protest against these attempts to harass Muslim youths and brand them as terrorists,” Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric of Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, told Reuters.

Sure, the controversy has faded -- except for the fact that the Muslim American Society is running this mosque. According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé, the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. Nor does it mention that according to a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a “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.”

"Making peace, and prayers: Mosque opens its doors as controversy fades," by Michael Paulson for the Boston Globe, September 15 (thanks to Solomon):

Sixteen years after 2 acres near Roxbury Crossing were designated for use as a mosque, the area's growing Muslim community has quietly begun using the building for regular worship.

Every night since the start of Ramadan this month, hundreds of Muslims have been gathering for evening prayers at the mosque, now called the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Officials of the Muslim American Society, which is overseeing the project, say they plan to gradually add activities throughout the fall and winter and hope to hold a formal opening of the building early next year....

"This is such a happy occasion for the Muslim community - this has been a project in the making for decades," said Hossam Al Jabri, president of the Muslim American Society's Boston chapter, which has taken over management of the mosque from the Islamic Society of Boston, which runs a mosque in Cambridge. "It's strange, but I'm thankful that we had to go through the difficulty, because it forced us to come out of an isolation that we were comfortable in, and helped us to see that we have a world out there that is interested to know who we are. And it helped us to make so many friends."...

The mosque has been controversial for years. A conservative Israel-advocacy organization called the David Project asserted that some of the mosque's founding leaders had links to terrorism. In 2005, the Islamic Society filed a lawsuit against the David Project and two media outlets, saying that those allegations were defamatory, but dropped the suit last year after another suit, challenging the mosque's construction, was also dropped....

"Usually we find there's some level of resistance, but the situation in your area was unique in its level of vitriol and viciousness," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It was atypical in the level of controversy that was generated by those who were opposed to the mosque, and I don't mean legitimate controversy, I mean fake controversy. There's an effort by some minority of people in any community who seek to marginalize Muslims and demonize Islam, and that's what we saw in this case."

The leading critic of the mosque, Charles Jacobs, said he continues to have concerns about the mosque's leadership, but that "our concerns were never with the rank and file of the Muslim community."

Jacobs was president of the David Project until leaving the post in July.

"Our concern was with the leadership, and the ties that that leadership had, it seemed, to terrorism and the teaching of hatred," Jacobs said. He said he has ongoing concerns about the Islamic Society of Boston and the Muslim American Society, both of which, he says, have expressed extremist views. He said "it's been estimated that 80 percent of mosques are radicalized" but that "it's very difficult for American citizens to speak about these things, because they don't want to be labeled as bigots or Islamophobes, so that has allowed these connections to go much unspoken and unreported."...

CAIR, of course, is an unindicted co-conspirator in a jihad terror funding case. It is a spinoff of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which is listed in that same 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum on strategy in the U.S. as part of its "grand jihad." Several CAIR officials have been arrested and convicted on terror-related charges, and one of its founders has made Islamic supremacist statements, hoping that one day the Qur'an would be the only law of the land in America. But the Globe, of course, mentions none of this.

And the Boston Mosque will also be broadcasting the call to prayer into Hyde Park via loudspeaker. From "A view from the minaret, by Michael Paulson in his Articles of Faith blog at the Globe, September 14 (thanks again to Solomon):

I made it high enough to report that there's a nice view to be had of the crescent-topped mosque dome silhouetted against the distant skyline, but not high enough to tell you what it would be like if you were the muezzin who had to go up there five times a day to chant the call to prayer. Of course, the muezzin can't tell you either -- he's no fool -- they're going to broadcast the prayer summons (which will only happen during the day out of respect for the neighbors) by loudspeaker.

Of course he's no fool. That they're going to broadcast the call to prayer at all, despite previous assurances that they wouldn't, according to Solomon, is a supremacist statement. For in the modern world, with cell phones and phone alarms and clocks everywhere and all sorts of related amenities, there is no need whatsoever for an amplified call to prayer. It is simply an assertion of Islamic dominance over the area.

Where he will be as free as a bird, living with his family. As for 10 and 13 year old Christian girls abducted, raped, and forced into conversion, the Pakistani government is having a real hard time deciding on whether to return them to their family.

"Afghanistan frees al-Qaeda suspect's young son," from AP, September 15:

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An al-Qaeda suspect's 12-year-old son, who was taken into custody with his mother and held for two months, was handed over to Pakistan on Monday to be returned to relatives there.

The boy's mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained outside the governor's house in Afghanistan's Ghazni province in July on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda and taken to the U.S. military base there. The Pakistani-American citizen was then flown to New York to face charges of assault on U.S. personnel in Ghazni.

The U.S. indictment alleges that during Siddiqui's interrogation in Ghazni, she picked up a soldier's rifle, announced her "desire to kill Americans" and fired at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. She was wounded by return fire.

Her son Ali Hassan, also a dual American-Pakistani national, was with his mother at the time of her arrest and has been in Afghan custody ever since.

A spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, Sultan Ahmed Baheen, said the boy has spent the last 10 days in a "guest house" of Afghanistan's intelligence service. Before that, the ministry said he was in the custody of the prosecutor who deals with minors.

Ali Hassan was expected to arrive in Pakistan later Monday and be handed over to his mother's relatives.

Siddiqui, 36, came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995. She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.

She vanished in Pakistan in 2003...

Just another day in the life of an apostate, his wife, and baby daughter. More on this story.

"One Egyptian Convert’s Never-Ending Struggle," by Damaris Kremida for Compass Direct News, September 15:

ISTANBUL (Compass Direct News) – Egypt’s most famous convert to Christianity is a prisoner of his own home, hiding for his life.

After Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 25, became the first Muslim-born Egyptian to file a case a year ago for his identification card to reflect his newfound faith, his face has been shown on TV channels and newspapers. Anywhere he goes, he might be recognized by fanatical Islamists bent on killing him – besides his own family members, who also want him dead.

In the last eight months, since an Egyptian court closed his case in a Jan. 29 court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam, Hegazy has had to move five times with his wife and baby daughter.

“The verdict for my case was discriminatory [on the part] of the judge,” Hegazy told Compass in an interview last month. The judge based his decision on Islamic law, which says one can convert “up” in the Muslim hierarchy of religions – from Judaism and Christianity to Islam – but not vice versa.

But months after the final court decision, even after the issue is fizzing out in the media, Hegazy said that his life is in danger – as is that of every convert in Egypt.

Living on the Run

“The most difficult thing for me is that the lives of my wife and daughter are in danger all the time,” Hegazy said.

In one instance a year ago, he and his family barely escaped alive. Last October, he received a phone call from a friend who told him that one of his own lawyers had given authorities his address. His friend told him he might have to move in the next few days and to be careful.

“I had a feeling we should move,” said Hegazy, explaining that he listens for God’s voice on such decisions. “So we moved immediately, and the next night the fundamentalists came to attack us.”

A group of Islamists camped around his former house for days. They also set fire to the apartment of Hegazy’s next-door neighbor, killing her. He said the neighbor, whose name was withheld for the security of her relatives, was the best friend of his wife and had helped them in their ordeal.

For the record, in Christianity, such a woman would be deemed a "martyr." In Islam, if any of the "Islamists" burning and destroying were killed, they'd be martyrs. Just a clarification of the notion of "martyr" in both religions.

As we have noted many times, Islamic loyalty supersedes nationalism, and it is impossible to tell where any given believer's loyalties actually lie. "Top Policeman Spied for Moroccan Secret Service," from NIS News, September 17 (thanks to Fjordman):

THE HAGUE, 17/09/08 - A policeman in the Rotterdam police corps has been unmasked as a spy for the Moroccan intelligence service. He led a project that was training immigrant youngsters as airport workers.

TV current affairs programme NOVA discovered that the man of Moroccan origin had already been sacked last spring. Although the police confirmed that the man was dismissed for "serious dereliction of duty," the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) decided not to prosecute him. The case has been hushed up by criminal investigation authorities and politicians, according to NOVA.

The officer, Re Lemhaouli, had a leading post. He was the initiator of Project Maxima, named after Princess Maxima. The project trained 57 Moroccan problem youngsters as ground personnel for Rotterdam Airport.

Princess Maxima, the wife of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, was ambassador of the project and Lemhaouli was allowed to sit next to her during the presentation of the project on 1 February. Vice-Premier Andre Rouvoet praised Lemhaouli in a speech. "The participants in this project who are receiving their diploma today were a few weeks ago still considered as 'deprived youngsters.' Education not completed, no work experience and in some cases, also a criminal record," said Rouvoet....

Great job on Al-Qaeda, fellows. Now about Islamic Jihad in Yemen, and the Islamic jihad ideology in general...

Can we expect the Yemenis to work against that ideology? Can we expect the law of gravity to be suddenly suspended?

"Car bomb at U.S. embassy in Yemen kills 16," by Mohammed Ghobari for Reuters, September 17 :

SANAA (Reuters) - A car bomb set off a series of explosions outside the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Yemen on Wednesday and a Yemeni security source said at least 16 people, including six attackers, were killed....

"This morning a car exploded at the main gate of the embassy in Sanaa. There was an initial explosion and several secondary explosions," a U.S. embassy spokesman told Reuters by telephone....

A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed responsibility for the bombing and threatened attacks on other embassies including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

It had threatened in a previous statement on Tuesday to launch a series of attacks unless the Yemeni government met its demands for the release of several members from jail.

"We, the organization of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa," the statement read.

"We will carry out the rest of the series of attacks on the other embassies that were declared previously, until our demands are met by the Yemeni government."...

The security source said that six attackers and four bystanders were killed, while the rest were Yemeni security forces.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has grappled with a spate of al Qaeda attacks this year, including one on the U.S. embassy, another near the Italian mission and others on Western tourists.

An al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed responsibility in March for a mortar attack that missed the U.S. embassy but wounded 13 girls at a nearby school....

Something of a compromise? The 10 year old child is to be returned to her parents; the 13 year old, on the other hand -- since she is a whole four years above and beyond the legal marrying age for females (9) -- is to stay with her abductor, since (after being tortured, threatened and brain-washed by his family) she "freely" chooses to do so. If this is true (when discussing the happenings of Dar al-Islam, the concept of truth is often nebulous) here is a classic example of the effects of Islam's apostasy laws in conjunction with Islam's decree that female children can be married: fear and terror instilled in an impressionable and naive young mind leading to automaton-like people. More on this story.

"Muslims' custody of Christian girl overturned: Startling ruling leaves older sister to 'choose' her future," WorldNet Daily, September 16:

Human rights lawyers working on behalf of a 10-year-old Christian girl reportedly kidnapped by Muslims who then claimed to have custody because she "converted" to Islam have won a startling ruling for her to be returned to her parents.

However, the judge said the girl's 13-year-old sister could "choose" either to be with her alleged kidnapper, a Muslim who said he "married" her, or her parents, and she chose the kidnapper, according to a report from Compass Direct.

Rashid Rehman, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said that is normal behavior for a 13-year-old, considering the circumstances.

"She was tutored and brainwashed by the family of her husband ... and naturally they made up her mind that her parents will hurt her and treat her inhumanely. In fact that will never happen. Her family is really peaceful, and remained so peaceful the whole time the case was heard in high court," Rehman said.

The judge's decision was based largely on the older girl's statement that she is 17, although her birth certificate indicates she is 13, and the court's ruling that the birth certificate would not be accepted as evidence.

WND reported a short time ago when the Pakistani court ordered the girls into a shelter while the case was sorted out.

The case hinged on the girls' disputed conversion from Christianity to Islam. The court ruled earlier that Aneela Masih, 10, and Saba Masih, 13, had not been free from external pressure when testifying they had converted to Islam.

The girls disappeared on June 26 while en route to visit an uncle. Their parents only found out about their location when Amjad Ali, a Muslim who "married" the older sister the next day, filed a court case against them for custody of the children. The claim was based on the alleged conversion to Islam, because under one interpretation of Islamic law, a non-Muslims may not have custody of a Muslim.

In July a lower court judge agreed, awarding the alleged kidnappers custody. The parents then, with the help of the human rights organization, appealed the ruling.

According to Compass Direct, the latest ruling came from Justice Malik Saeed Ejaz of the Lahore High Court and Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement lawyer Akbar Durrani said it was the first time in his life that he'd witnessed the return by what essentially is a Muslim justice system of a juvenile who had "converted" to Islam to Christian parents.

"In my experience they have not given us the custody of minor girls even as young as 9 years old that have been declared Muslim," he said.

The high court justice called case participants into his private chambers, and said he would give the younger girl back to her parents but allow the older girl to choose her destiny.

Joseph Francis, chief of the CLAAS, said the verdict was good, but not complete without Saba Masih. The team of lawyers working with the parents now is weighing the possibility of take the issue of custody for the 13-year-old to the nation's Supreme Court.

The lawyers also reported that they had received threatening telephone calls apparently from supporters of the alleged kidnappers before the court hearing.

"They said, 'You should not be in court or you will be responsible for the consequences," one of the lawyers told Compass Direct.

Come and get me

The international Islamic assault on free speech continues. If this passes, not just caricatures will become illegal. It will become illegal to speak about the elements of Islam that jihadists use to incite violence and supremacism among Muslims. And so we will be mute before the advancing jihad. Of course, it can't happen here, right? After all, we have the First Amendment. But what will happen when the UN starts telling President Obama that opposition to this measure and others like it constitutes Islamophobia, and will severely impede his attempt to build bridges with the Islamic world?

"OIC to move UNGA against caricatures," from the Daily Times, September 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD: A resolution against the publication of blasphemous caricatures of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in various countries will be presented in the upcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), an Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) representative said on Tuesday.

“The resolution will demand legislation against the publication of blasphemous caricatures of revered personalities and derogatory remarks against religions. It will also demand [sacrilegious] actions be declared a crime,” OIC Secretary General’s Special Representative on Kashmir Ezzat Kamel Mufti told a news conference.

Mufti said a particular group in America and the European Union had been launching attacks against Islam. “However, we should not get emotional and resort to any kind of violence, including suicide bombings,” he said.

That's mighty generous of you, Mufti.

In Human Events today I discuss some foreign policy pronunciamentos from The Great One:

As the seventh anniversary of the jihadist murder of nearly 3,000 American civilians passed last week, it is useful to recall an article that the Hyde Park Herald published on September 19, 2001 -- written by a young Illinois state senator named Barack Obama. Even all these years later, it is revealing of the mindset of the man who would be leader of the free world.

Obama starts out well enough, saying: “We need to step up security at our airports. We must reexamine the effectiveness of our intelligence networks. And we must be resolute in identifying the perpetrators of these heinous acts and dismantling their organizations of destruction.” He then, however, almost immediately veers into psychobabble.

And he wants it outlawed, pronto, which will mean that those who dare to expose the Islamic roots of the global jihad and Islamic supremacism will pay hefty fines and spend long stretches in the slammer. Of course, it can't happen here. Can it?

"Enmity with Islam ‘crime against humanity,’" by Thomas Seibert for The National (UAE), September 17 (thanks to Jack):

ISTANBUL // In a sign of his simmering anger about what he sees as baseless accusations against Islam in the West, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has called on the international community to declare the enmity against Islam a “crime against humanity”.

Addressing Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, his Spanish counterpart, and about 2,500 other guests in Istanbul at a celebratory iftar meal on Monday, Mr Erdogan said: “No culture, no civilisation should belittle the other, despise the other or see the other as an enemy.” [...]

In the Alliance of Civilisations, Mr Erdogan has emerged as a leading representative of the Islamic countries, said Semih Idiz, a foreign policy columnist with the daily Milliyet. As a politician with roots in political Islam and leader of a party that has many pious Muslims among its voters, Mr Erdogan is very sensitive to what he sees as western prejudices towards Muslims, Mr Idiz said.

“Islamic countries are watching closely what he does,” Mr Idiz said about Mr Erdogan’s role in the Alliance of Civilisations. “He is a sort of spokesman, representing the Islamic world in the platform.”

But at the same time Mr Erdogan had to take into account that he himself had to take “brave steps”, Mr Idiz said. After the murders of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and of three Christians in the central Anatolian town of Malatya last year, the Erdogan government was criticised for not being outspoken enough in its condemnation of the killings.

In his speech at the iftar on Monday, Mr Erdogan stressed the need for a dialogue without prejudices.

“The principle mission of the Alliance of Civilisations is an effort to understand each other correctly,” he said. The fear of Islam that has spread in the West, a development he called a “paranoia”, makes it harder to reach that aim, he said.

“The fear called Islamophobia is a pathological state of mind, as the name says,” Mr Erdogan said in his speech, according to reports in Turkish newspapers and television stations. “We expect members of other civilisations to declare Islamophobia a crime against humanity, especially while we say that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity.”

Mr Erdogan has criticised the West for harbouring “Islamophobia” before, saying that Muslims felt “under siege”. But this time, the prime minister went further, accusing the West of trying to define values of a global civilisation all by itself.

“We think that civilisation is global, and that civilisation cannot be interpreted like an ideology that belongs to the West,” he said. After a first international forum held in Madrid in January this year, the Alliance of Civilisations will hold its second forum in Istanbul in April. Mr Idiz said the platform had become a vehicle to defuse tensions between the West and the Islamic world.

“We saw that after the cartoon crisis,” he said, referring to the anger in the Islamic world after the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed by a Danish newspaper in 2005. At a meeting in Doha in Feb 2006, members of the alliance discussed ways to calm the waters after the crisis....

First he insisted his sexual prowess was granted him by Allah, then, after the ulema told him to divorce 82 of his 86 wives, or else be put to death, he agreed. Apparently he did not live up to his word.

"Preacher with 86 wives, 107 children charged under Nigeria's Sharia laws," from the Canadian Press, September 16:

ABUJA, Nigeria — A Muslim preacher in northern Nigeria who claims 86 wives and 107 children has been charged with breaking Islamic laws governing marriage.

Authorities detained 84-year-old Mohammed Bello Masaba on Monday under an order issued by Niger state's Islamic court. It was unclear when the man would appear before the court, or what the potential punishment might be.

Islamic law forbids men from taking more than four wives. But Masaba claims God has blessed all his unions.

He says an ordinary man with even 10 wives would "collapse and die." But because of the power bestowed on him by Allah, he is, in his words, "able to control 86 of them."

Around half of Nigeria's 140 million people are Muslim, and Niger is one of 12 Muslim-majority states that adopted Islam's Sharia criminal code after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.

Severe corporal punishments imposed by the Sharia courts are rarely carried out and no executions have taken place.

Nigeria's secular, federal government, which controls the national security forces, has said it won't allow the most serious Sharia punishments.

Analysts say Sharia was implemented for political reasons as well as religious conviction - as a show of strength by the Muslim northerners and as an acknowledgment that secular courts had failed to stem years of crime.

Nigeria has 24 other states that do not follow Sharia law.

Now, we've all heard the "Allah told me to do it" line before -- whether to bring world-peace (while beating others to death) or driving recklessly -- but this is certainly new. Either way, this is not Islamic, as Allah would hardly ever tell anyone to walk dogs in the nude. But, just for the record...

"Naked man walking dog Tasered by Tallahassee police," by Nic Corbett, for Tallahassee.com, September 13 (thanks to Staks):

A 40-year-old man walking his dog in the nude Friday night in northwest Tallahassee was Tasered by police when he became belligerent and refused to follow an officer’s commands.

An officer on patrol spotted the man about 8:15 p.m. in the 2200 block of Hartsfield Road, said Officer David McCranie of the Tallahassee Police Department.

When asked what he was doing, the man told the officer, “Allah told me to watch a Bruce Willis movie and walk the dog,” McCranie said.

“He was obviously having some sort of emotional distress,” he said. “It was unfortunate we had to use the Taser. … It was the only way we could subdue him without having to hurt him.”

The man was then sent for mental-health evaluation and treatment.

So would Kuwait support an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities? Just askin'.

"Middle East: Kuwait living in fear of nuclear Iran, says expert," from AKI, September 16 (thanks to C.C.):

Kuwait City, 16 Sept. (AKI) - Kuwait is afraid that Iran has secret plans to produce nuclear arms at the Bushehr nuclear reactor in the country's southwest and elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a leading think-tank.

Sami Al-Faraj, president of the Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Tuesday that the country "was living in fear" about Tehran's nuclear plans.

He said Kuwaitis also had serious concerns about the potential impact of a radiation leak or an earthquake in the area surrounding the Bushehr nuclear plant, which is only 200 kilometres from Kuwait.

"We would be the first city to be hit as a result of the impact if anything goes wrong at Bushehr," Al-Faraj told AKI.

"People say that there is no need for us to to suffer from Bushehr. The greater problem is that something will go wrong. We are under threat. The situation is dangerous"

"We have 17 monitoring stations and all these stations have extra equipment for monitoring radiation.Unless this problem is dealt with scientifically, we will remain in danger."...

"Some of the prisoners were beheaded and their heads were shown to other prisoners," in accord with Qur'an 47:4. But apparently Delic knew nothing about all that. "Bosnia: UN tribunal sentences former Muslim commander to three years," from AKI, September 15 (thanks to C.C.):

The Hague, 15 Sept. (AKI) – Former Bosnian Muslim Army commander Rasim Delic was sentenced on Monday by the UN's Hague-based Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to three years in jail for crimes against Serb prisoners.

Delic was held responsible for crimes committed by mujahadeen fighters from Islamic countries that fought under his command to help local Muslims in Bosnia’s bloody 1992-1995 civil war.

But two judges, Flavia Latanzzi and Frederick Harhoff, found him guilty only for brutal treatment of Serb prisoners, while the presiding judge, Bakone Moloto, argued that Delic’s responsibility for the alleged crimes had not been proven.

Delic was the head of the general staff of the Bosnian Army from 1993 to 1995 and was charged with chain of responsibility command.

During that period the “El Mujaheed” unit committed several crimes, killing over 70 Serb and Croatian prisoners of war.

Some of the prisoners were beheaded and their heads were shown to other prisoners.

But the court ruled Delic couldn’t have known about the murders and therefore could not have prevented them....

The verdict was likely to steer another storm of protests from Bosnian Serbs and Croats, who claim the Hague tribunal is a political court. The tribunal freed earlier this year two other Muslim commanders, Naser Oric and Sefer Halilovic for lack of evidence.

The president of the Bosnian Serb association of war prisoners, Nedeljko Mitrovic, said the verdict was proof that the tribunal is a biased court which doesn’t work from the evidence before it, but favours Muslims....

Reaction to Obsession DVD distribution shows many Americans clueless about jihad, Part 5: "'Radical Islam' video angers South Florida Muslims," by Jaweed Kaleem for the Miami Herald, September 16 (thanks to J.H.):

A controversial DVD distributed to millions of Americans during the past week through direct mail and newspapers, including The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, has angered many Muslims in South Florida.

Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West is being packaged as an advertising insert in 70 newspapers, including The Sun Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post....

The DVD includes montages of terrorist training camps and suicide bombers paired with narration by commentators such as Daniel Pipes, founder of the conservative Middle East Forum think tank. Many of the film's pundits are known for controversial views on Islam. In one part of the DVD, clips of Muslim children being recruited as suicide bombers are interspersed with images of Nazis.

Horror of horrors! Recruitment of Muslim children to be suicide bombers is compared to Nazism? When we all know that the recruitment of Muslim children to be suicide bombers is all sweetness and a blow for justice against wicked Zionism!

''My cellphone has been ringing off the hook . . . We feel that it's going to incite more hate and bigotry against our community,'' said Altaf Ali, Florida chapter director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The DVD does not do enough to differentiate between terrorists and mainstream Muslims, he said....

Neither, of course, does CAIR. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a jihad terror funding case. It is a spinoff of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which is listed in the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum on strategy in the U.S. as part of its "grand jihad" aimed at "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within." Several of its officials have been arrested and convicted on terror-related charges, and one of its founders has made Islamic supremacist statements, hoping that one day the Qur'an would be the only law of the land in America. But the Herald, of course, mentions none of this.

Syed Rahman, a Muslim pharmaceutical consultant from Weston, said he was shocked to see the film bundled with his Sunday Miami Herald. ''I could not believe my eyes,'' he said. Nidal Hussain, a Kendall computer consultant, was also taken aback. ''I watched it with my wife . . . it is vulgar material,'' he said. ``I'm sure good, wholesome Americans are going to see it and be able to decipher the truth.''

I'm sure they will.

At least one newspaper, The News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., decided not to distribute the DVD. The publisher ''said it was divisive and plays on people's fears and served no educational purpose,'' editor John Robinson wrote in his blog....

Robinson did not explain what exactly we should do with those jihadist preachers preaching death and destruction in the video.

Reaction to Obsession DVD distribution shows many Americans clueless about jihad, Part 4: "Obsession: A jihad-happy DVD delivered to a newspaper near you," by Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel, September 14:

The movie Obsession: Radical Islam's War With the West, whose trailer is below, was delivered with your Orlando Sentinel newspaper this AM. And, it is my understanding, the DVD was delivered to households receiving other newspapers around the country today as well. True? [...]

I've seen the Obsession before, but I checked it out again this AM before heading out for a day on the water. It's an alarmist manifesto about what the producers and their unnamed Brit narrator go to pains to label as the threat from "radical Islam." The points seem solid, the massive amounts of video from TV programming all over the Middle East, from Lebanon to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, is damning. For years (much of the TV news footage from the Middle East, the Imam "death to America" sermons, is over 5 years old, not that things have changed much since) Arab governments all over the Middle East have stood by while their airwaves, their mosques and websites bubbled with anti-Americanism and antisemitism.
Experts, from Middle Eastern journalists such as Khalid Abu Toameh (described as a Palestinian journalist...they don't say he's with The Jersualem Post, which says volumes) to A British historian and Churchill biographer Sir Martin Gilbert to Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch (that's a good idea for a think tank--monitoring TV and radio for this sort of naked evidence of "how they feel about us") to conservative academic Daniel Pipes to journo Caroline Glick and Steve Emerson of something called The Investigative Project rail against the Islam-fascism that now confronts the West, and the ways it parallels (in their minds) the 1930s and the world's slow-to-act take on Nazi Germany.

"Steve Emerson of something called The Investigative Project": as Roger Moore might say, that phrase speaks volumes.

The experts vary widely in credibility and seem selected because of their willingness to say what the movie wants them to say. It's a mildly scary film, but one utterly lacking in context. It lacks the history that got us to this point, ignores the creation of the, to the Arab world, "Colony" of Israel in their midst, the Saudi role in fomenting and financing this, the tipping point attack on Mecca by extremists and the Afghan War's blow back. But that would break with the GOP/Conservative talking points on Islam and the Middle East. The Saudis and Big Oil are our friends, the creation of Israel had nothing to do with this, nor did the trumped up invasion of Iraq, the meddling in what they see as "their" affairs.

Moore is so abysmally clueless that he thinks that the jihad threat has something to do with the Saudis being our friends, and is utterly oblivious to the jihad warfare that went on for centuries before the creation of the State of Israel.

It's a complicated mess, but if you invoke Neville Chamberlain's "appeasement" of Hitler (not sure what anybody could have done, other than force a confrontation years before Germany or the Depression ridden, war-weary West were really "ready" for WWII )...

Yeah, that Chamberlain was quite the statesmen. So a few Czechs had to suffer under the Nazi boot -- so what? It is a distant country, of which we know little.

...It's a more complex subject than this, with a region rife with closed societies whose anti-democratic governments cower in terror from the fanatics who would overthrow them and derail all that swell US aid that's had them living high on the kosher hog for half a century. Kopping's certainly made good fodder for Fox, Limbaugh, religious TV chat shows in America (now THERE's a think tank I'd like to see---Right Wing TV preacher Watch) and the like. It's a pity things aren't as simple now as they seemed back in 1941. Or 1241.

Yes, it's all so complex -- so long as one completely ignores the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism, and their deep roots in Islamic texts and teachings. But why spoil a good sneer?

Sharia, apparently, isn't enough. Once the government starts working to stamp out "Islamophobia," as it would be obliged to do under this law, any attempt to resist jihad violence and Islamic supremacism would be illegal -- because Muslim groups routinely characterize all such resistance as "Islamophobia."

"Muslim MP calls for religious equality law," by Andrew Grice in the Independent, September 16 (thanks to Peter):

A minister has called for the Government to introduce a new religious discrimination law which would require public bodies to have a legal duty to promote equality between faiths, to reassure Britain's Muslims that they are not second-class citizens.

Sadiq Khan, a government whip, wants a forthcoming Single Equality Bill aimed at stamping out discrimination on grounds of sex, race, gender and disability to include religion. He also calls for "Islamophobia in the workplace" to be tackled.

Under his proposal, public bodies would have to be proactive in tackling religious discrimination. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, chaired by Trevor Phillips, would issue guidance and codes of practice. "This would not apply exclusively to British Muslims, but it would make a significant difference to the experience of members of this community who, because of socio-economic status, are particularly reliant on public services," Mr Khan says.

The Tooting MP, one of four Muslim Labour MPs, makes his controversial call in a Fabian Society pamphlet, Fairness not Favours, published today. He says a proactive approach to prevent religious discrimination would balance "harder edged" measures such as "clampdowns" on immigration and security and undercut attempts by Muslim extremists to exploit social disadvantage.

Mr Khan wants to break down religious barriers and argues strongly that Britain's Muslims must change, too. He urges them to forget about the Iraq war; give their women more freedom and use their charities to help white poor people. He also calls for imams to stress the importance of parental participation in schools and says everyone should learn English....

Good luck with that.

Proportionate response

In retaliation for the Motoons, of course. "Islamic extremists threaten Denmark with poison," from the Copenhagen Post, September 15 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Islamic extremist group has discussed on its website how to poison Denmark's water supplies in retaliation for Jyllands-Posten newspaper's publication of the Mohammed drawings.

Detailed plans of how the deed can be carried out appeared on extremist group al-ekhlaa's homepage in August, according to American terror watch organisation Jamestown Foundation. In addition, discussions of committing terror actions - especially against Denmark and the UK - have been ongoing in the website's forum.

Intelligence agency PET was informed of the situation and said they are keeping an eye on it. Jamestown Foundation indicated the website is a primary gathering place for al-Qaeda followers....

Dinesh D'Souza and I both spoke at FreedomFest in Las Vegas in July, although unfortunately we didn't debate each other. At one point we had a brief and friendly chat, during which I noticed that he was carrying a well-thumbed copy of Who Speaks for Islam by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed. And now he has written another column about the book, showing that clearly he takes it very, very seriously -- demonstrating once again that when he speaks about Islam, Dinesh D'Souza has no true grasp of the subject, and is completely out of his depth.

"Who Speaks For Islam," by Dinesh D'Souza, September 15:

Who Speaks for Islam, written by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, is one of the most important books on the War on Terror. In the seven years since 9/11, we have been subjected to all kinds of ignorant pontification--much of it from the left, but some also from the right--on "why they hate us." This book, written by a leading scholar of Islam and the head of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, brings a wealth of real data to bear on this important subject.

Esposito a "leading scholar of Islam": Esposito has taken $20 million from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and renamed his Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Prince Alwaleed tried to give $10 million to New York City after 9/11, but Rudolph Giuliani returned the check after Alwaleed suggested that 9/11 was a consequence of U.S. foreign policy.

That alone, of course, doesn't indicate what John Esposito is all about. But there is more about whom he has praised and whom he has damned that reveals a great deal about where he really stands. Esposito has called Bernard Lewis, whom D'Souza has repeatedly cited and praised, "one of the Darth Vaders of the world."

Esposito has praised Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who advocates suicide bombings, as a champion of a "reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights."

Esposito has spoken at a Council on American-Islamic Relations fundraiser in order to "show solidarity not only with the Holy Land Fund [that is, the Holy Land Foundation], but also with CAIR." The Holy Land Foundation is accused of funneling money to the jihad terror group Hamas, and CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. CAIR is a spinoff of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which is listed in the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum on strategy in the U.S. as part of its "grand jihad" aimed at "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

Esposito has said of a man who pleaded guilty to aiding the jihad terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad that "Sami Al-Arian's a very good friend of mine."

Esposito has co-edited a book with Azzam Tamimi. Palestinian political scientist Muhammad Muslih calls Tamimi "a Hamas member." Tamimi has said: "I admire the Taliban; they are courageous." He has said: "I support Hamas."

D'Souza goes on:

The book is full of fascinating data on Islamic radicalism, on Muslim support for democracy, on the role of women, and on the values of Western popular culture. At first glance the results seem confusing: An overwhelming majority of Muslims rejects 9/11 style terrorism but a significant number of Muslims support the Palestine suicide bombers. Huge majorities of Muslims support democracy but reject the Western understanding of rights and liberty. In fact, a substantial majority of Muslims--including Muslim women--support some form of sharia or Islamic holy law. Most Muslim women want equal rights but even champions of those rights emphatically reject Western-style feminism.

D'Souza takes Esposito's findings at face value, but there is ample reason to treat them with reserve. In The Weekly Standard, Robert Satloff exposes yet more that is wrong with the Saudi-funded Islamic apologist John Esposito's soothing "No Extremists Here" survey of the Islamic world:

Mogahed publicly admitted they knew certain people weren't moderates but they still termed them so. She and Esposito cooked the books and dumbed down the text. Apparently, by the authors' own test, there are not 91 million radicals in Muslim societies but almost twice that number. They must have shrieked in horror to find their original estimate on the high side of assessments made by scholars, such as Daniel Pipes, whom Esposito routinely denounces as Islamophobes. To paraphrase Mogahed, maybe it wasn't the most technically accurate way of doing this, but their neat solution seems to have been to redefine 78 million people off the rolls of radicals.

The cover-up is even worse. The full data from the 9/11 question show that, in addition to the 13.5 percent, there is another 23.1 percent of respondents--300 million Muslims--who told pollsters the attacks were in some way justified. Esposito and Mogahed don't utter a word about the vast sea of intolerance in which the radicals operate.

And then there is the more fundamental fraud of using the 9/11 question as the measure of "who is a radical." Amazing as it sounds, according to Esposito and Mogahed, the proper term for a Muslim who hates America, wants to impose Sharia law, supports suicide bombing, and opposes equal rights for women but does not "completely" justify 9/11 is .  .  . "moderate."

Martin Kramer adds: "So Esposito and Mogahed believe that a Muslim who thinks that 9/11 was three-quarters justified or half-justified (perhaps that's bringing down just one of the Twin Towers?) is still a 'moderate.' This allows them to leap to the conclusion that terrorism in the name of Islam is just... well, an aberration, like violent crime in America."

And Hillel Fradkin, reviewing the book, notes a curious feature for what is supposed to be a study of survey data:

So who does speak for Islam? Apparently, Esposito and Mogahed do. For the book does not actually present the poll. It provides a very small and partial account of the responses to some questions, but fails to include even one table or chart of data. It does not even provide a clear list of the questions that were asked. The appendix, where one might expect to find questionnaires, charts, and tables, provides only a short narrative discussion of Gallup’s sampling techniques and general mode of operation.

To a certain degree, the authors admit the bias of their presentation: “The study revealed far more than what we could possibly cover in one book, so we chose the most significant, and at times, surprising conclusions to share with you. Here are just some of those counterintuitive discoveries.” But this admission is ridiculously inadequate. After all, this is a book, not an article. In the end, the authors betray their own standard that “data should lead the discourse,” because there is no data. A reader without deep pockets cannot easily remedy this deficiency: the Gallup Organization charges $28,500 to access the data.

If not data, then what fills the pages of this book? In effect, we are given an opinion piece by Esposito and Mogahed—one not unlike the op-eds they decry, only much longer. Like op-eds, it is buttressed by anecdotal evidence, much of which is not even drawn from the survey. Indeed, given the partiality of the material they do draw from the survey, it too must be counted as anecdotal, notwithstanding the percentage signs which are scattered here and there. Moreover, the conclusions that Esposito and Mogahed draw, as well as their policy prescriptions, are indistinguishable from Esposito’s opinions, as expressed and disseminated in his books and articles long before Gallup polled its first Muslim. As in almost every Esposito product, the book even includes a chapter devoted to a description of the religion of Islam.

But to accept this book as an extended op-ed is not quite adequate. After all, Esposito claimed to apply a higher standard—that of “a man [who] should look for what is, and not what he thinks should be.” Seen in this light, the book is a confidence game or fraud, of which Esposito should be ashamed. So too should the Gallup Organization, its publisher.

But D'Souza, no doubt oblivious to all this, charges on:

What's going on here? Esposito and Mogahed argue that traditional Muslims, who make up the bulk of Muslims in every Muslim country, strongly identify with the Western principles of rule of law, self-government, and religious toleration.

How do they define these terms? D'Souza doesn't say. He probably doesn't know that "rule of law" and "religious toleration," in particular, can have vastly different meanings to Muslims from the meanings that most Americans take for granted.

D'Souza then goes on to try to portray the vast majority of Muslims as traditional conservatives:

[...] Esposito and Mogahed shrewdly note that the values of traditional Muslims worldwide are very similar to the values of traditional Jews and Christians in the West. For instance, only around 15 percent of Muslims in Europe consider homosexuality "morally acceptable." That's way below the figures for the general public in Britain, France and Germany. But when conservative and religious Europeans and Americans are polled, it turns out that the percentage of people who are fine with homosexuality is about the same as that of the traditional Muslims.

Can we get percentages on Muslim approval of polygamy? Wife-beating? Honor killing? Jihad violence? Islamic supremacism? I didn't think so.

Yes, I could say that I predicted all this in my book The Enemy at Home. But the great contribution of Esposito and Mogahed is to put a mountain of data behind these conclusions. Over six years their group has conducted tens of thousands of face-to-face surveys of Muslims in more than 35 countries making what they rightly call "the largest, most comprehensive study of contemporary Muslims ever done."

This book is a huge embarrassment to some conservatives who, based on no data and very little familiarity with the Muslim world, have been portraying Muslims as violent theocrats who reject modern science, modern democracy and modern capitalism and spend most of their day performing honor killings and genital mutilations. This portrait of the Muslim world is about as accurate as that of a Muslim who believes that typical Americans live their daily lives according to the values of "Natural Born Killers" and "Brokeback Mountain."

I don't know of anyone, conservative or not, who portrays Muslims as "violent theocrats who reject modern science, modern democracy and modern capitalism and spend most of their day performing honor killings and genital mutilations," so I haven't the vaguest idea of who Dinesh D'Souza is talking about, but given the way Esposito and Mogahed cooked their data, the "huge embarrassment" is all D'Souza's.

At FreedomFest when we talked briefly, I invited D'Souza to debate again, in a longer format than the rushed CPAC affair. He agreed, although he hastened to say that, well, we would have to find the proper venue, etc. I hereby repeat the invitation.

More on this story. "Pakistan orders troops to stop US raids," from the Associated Press, September 16:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's army spokesman says its forces have orders to open fire on U.S. troops if they launch another raid across the Afghan border.

Pakistani officials issued sharp protests to Washington after helicopters ferried U.S. commandos into Pakistan's South Waziristan region on Sept. 3 for a highly unusual ground attack into a militant stronghold.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press that, after the raid, the military told its field commanders to prevent any similar raids.

Abbas said that if it was clear that troops had crossed the ill-defined border into Pakistani territory, either on the ground or in the air, that troops should "open fire."

"No incursion is to be tolerated," he said

These workers were unhappy with the extent of accommodation of Muslim practices that they were offered by the Swift plant managers. They would, as per the absolutism of Sharia, accept no compromise. So they walked off the job, and were fired. And now it's time for the courtroom jihad, where they will almost certainly prevail -- paving the way for further concessions to Sharia on the part of American businesses.

Swift Plant Stealth Jihad Update: "Fired workers unite," by David Young in the Greeley Tribune, September 14 (thanks to John):

An attorney for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union told fired JBS Swift & Co. workers he plans to make the company prove in every instance that the employees violated their union contract.

Attorney John Bowen, along with other state representatives -- including Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley -- spoke Saturday during a meeting at the Union Colony Civic Center and assured the Muslim workers, fired for not going to work because of a conflict about Ramadan accommodations, that they have rights.

"The company will argue that you engaged in a strike that violated the contract," Bowen said. "We will require them to prove for each of you that that happened."

Bowen told more than 100, mostly Somalis, that the company violated several provisions in its contract. JBS officials contend the Muslim workers violated the contracts.

In preparation for legal action, Bowen said the fired workers need to document how and when they were fired.

Bowen said he filed 90 employee grievances Friday, and he expects to file more Monday. He has also filed a grievance on behalf of the union.

"The situation you find yourself in is as workers is not unique, but it is a difficult one," Bowens said. "Your situation is complex."

It still unclear how many employees were fired, as union spokesman Manny Gonzales said he received different numbers from the list provided by JBS. A JBS official said on Wednesday about 100 workers were fired.

Riesberg promised the crowd he would do his part to ensure they are treated fairly.

"We need to spend a lot of time negotiating with Swift so you can have your jobs back," said Riesberg, who fielded questions from frustrated former employees.

Riesberg assured the Somalis that they are welcome in Greeley....

So says columnist William E. Jackson, Jr., in Editor & Publisher. What's he on about? The endless description of CAIR as a "civil rights group" in mainstream media news stories, without a hint of the terror convictions of several of its officials, or its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas? The endless refusal of the mainstream media to discuss the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism in any terms other than as a threat imagined by racist "Islamophobes"?

No, of course not. What Jackson is upset about is, of course, the nationwide distribution of the Obsession DVD.

Reaction to Obsession DVD distribution shows many Americans clueless about jihad, Part 3: "Delivering Propaganda, As If It is Toothpaste," by William E. Jackson, Jr. for Editor & Publisher, September 13:

DAVIDSON, N.C. -- (September 13, 2008) -- Bundled into my Charlotte Observer on this Saturday morning, and this week into approximately 100 newspapers located overwhelmingly in battleground states across the country, there is a kind of 527-fund contribution to the presidential campaign of John McCain.

Under the cloak of an advertising supplement, a one-hour edition of a DVD entitled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” had been attractively packaged and inserted into some 200,000 copies of the McClatchy-owned newspaper. The same happened at the other major McClatchy paper in North Carolina, the Raleigh News & Observer.

Dozens of local newspapers -- from Altoona to Las Vegas and selected regional editions of the New York Times) -- have been paid to distribute a film designed to spread fear about our national security.

Anyone can see an electoral vote pattern to the targeted areas, with almost all of the battleground or “swing” states represented. (The daily newspapers in only one such state appear to have refused the ad, Minnesota.) These papers have allowed themselves to be caught up in a “neo-con” propaganda scam in the context of the presidential campaign, and during 9/11 week.

Those 10,000 jihad terror attacks since 9/11 -- disregard them all! They're just neo-con propaganda!

But of course, William E. Jackson, Jr., doesn't even know that there have been over 10,000 jihad terror attacks worldwide since 9/11. He probably has no idea of the jihad in Indonesia, or the Philippines, or Thailand, or Nigeria. Nothing has blown up in his backyard, so what's the big deal?

As of Saturday, September 13, the rationalizations of the publishers and ad personnel at the two N.C. newspapers were either beggarly excuses for new sources of revenue, or politically naïve in the extreme.

In the Raleigh News & Observer, Jim McClure, vice president of display advertising for the N&O, was quoted as saying that the "ultimate decision" to distribute the DVDs had been made by the publisher. McClure compared the propaganda to harmless household samples: “Obviously, we have distributed other product samples, whether it's cereal or toothpaste.” He dismissed allegations that it is inflammatory: "In the beginning of the DVD it clearly states it's not about Islam. It's about radical Islam.”

N&O publisher Orage Quarles III said in a statement: "As a newspaper we tend to shy away from censorship. In cases of controversial topics, if we err, we tend to do so on the side of freedom of speech," a theme that must have been in talking points guidance from company headquarters.

Charlotte Observer publisher Ann Caulkins said paid ads represent the client's opinions, not the newspaper's. Moreover, she claimed that the DVD met Observer guidelines: “We're all for freedom of expression, freedom of speech. This is in no way reflecting our opinions, but it is something we allow.” What wouldn't be allowed? She identified material that's racist or contains profanity or offers graphic images of body parts. One has to wonder if she has watched the film her paper has foisted upon readers.

There is graphic material in Obsession, showing what jihadists have done. Apparently it is best that we don't know that.

All in all, the propaganda campaign is a shameful episode for the Fourth Estate.

What is shameful is that William E. Jackson, Jr., would have such casual and knee-jerk disregard for a real threat, and for the freedom of speech.

Although both sides deny it. More on this story: "Pakistan says troop fire turns U.S. helicopters back," by Zeeshan Haider for Reuters, September 15:

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani security officials said on Monday that troops had fired on U.S. military helicopters and forced them to turn back to Afghanistan, but both the Pakistani and American militaries denied the incident.

According to the security officials, the incident took place near Angor Adda, a village in the tribal region of South Waziristan where officials have said U.S. commandos in helicopters raided a suspected al Qaeda and Taliban camp earlier this month.

"The U.S. choppers came into Pakistan by just 100 to 150 meters at Angor Adda. Even then our troops did not spare them, opened fire on them and they turned away," said one security official.

While Angor Adda villagers and officials supported that account, the U.S. and Pakistani military denied the report.

Pakistan's military spokesman Major Murad Khan confirmed there had been a shooting but said the American helicopters had not crossed into Pakistani airspace and Pakistani troops were not responsible for the firing.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman and a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said American helicopters had not come under fire.

"I've checked into that and find it to be a spurious report," Whitman told reporters. "Did not happen. I've checked all the places that would know about something like that and it doesn't appear to be accurate.

"(I) cannot find any mission that correlates to the report I saw out of Pakistan. I can't find any (military) report of helicopters being fired upon," Whitman said....

It may be awhile before the full truth of this comes out.

Tehran's tentacles reach out and touch someone else. "Hezbollah and Sudan's Salafi Regime Converge," by Walid Phares for the Middle East Times, September 15:

The convergence between Jihadi Khomeinists and Jihadi Salafists seems to be developing as strategists and terrorism analysts are debating the near future of the global jihadi movement.

Moving fast to reach out to the Islamist regime in Khartoum, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization openly declared its backing of Omar Bashir's government as the latter in turn solidified its alliance with Hezbollah. This development, which surfaced as of the end of July, comes in parallel of an attempt by the Khomeinist-inspired organization to sign a collaboration agreement with Salafist factions in Beirut a few weeks ago. But the Hezbollah-Sudan exchange of declarations of support is by far the most significant convergence of Jihadi forces from the two branches of Islamism since Iran began funding Hamas and Islamic Jihad more than a decade ago.

On July 31, Lebanon Now reported that as he was welcoming the Sudanese presidential envoy Qutub al-Mahdi, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary general, called the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of President Bashir for genocide as "part of the international conspiracy to strike elements of force in the Arab and Islamic nations, and to destabilize internal stability."

It is worth noting that the ICC had issued a warrant for the arrest of the head of the Sudanese regime for his responsibilities in the mass murder of Black African tribes in Darfur. As I wrote in an op-ed titled "Brotherhood against Democracy" last July, a surge in the region bringing together authoritarian forces and regimes, all of them opposed to international efforts, U.S.-led or not, to back democracy in the region. Within this expanding jihadi-authoritarian axis, Lebanon-based Khomeinists have been playing a significant role in the rapprochement with Salafist movements and regimes.

As reported in the independent Beirut daily an-Nahar on Aug. 1, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said "international meddling in Sudan's affairs has reached dangerous levels."

According to an-Nahar, Nasrallah declared he is backing the Sudanese regime and Bashir "in this fateful confrontation."

The pro-Syrian daily al-Akhbar (Aug. 1) quoted Nasrallah as saying the "conspiracy (against Bashir) aims at striking the elements of strengths in the Arab and Islamic Umma."

The leader of Hezbollah committed to fight back against "what is called international community with determination," asserting that this conspiracy targets the Arab and Muslim states one after the other, especially those whom he called the "obstructionist forces" (al-qiwa al-mumania).

The pro-government daily al-Mustaqbal quoted Nasrallah accusing the United States and some groupings in America with links to Zionism of "working on dividing Africa and spread chaos on the continent."

Responding to Hezbollah declarations of collaboration, Sudan's regime declared its solidarity with the Iranian-funded militia, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and a number of Western countries. According to the Chinese News Service Xinhuanet (Aug. 12) Bashir expressed his "admiration for Lebanese (based) Hezbollah and for its secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah."

His statement came during a visit by a Hezbollah delegation, led by Lebanese MP Hassan Hajj Hassan to Khartoum to express solidarity. Hassan said that his organization repudiate the demands of the prosecutor general of the ICC and "as a resistance in Lebanon we will be together with the Sudanese to confront the conspiracy of the 'arrogant American' against the interest of our Umma in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Sudan."

The ties between Hezbollah -- and regionally the Iranian regime -- and the Islamist establishment in Sudan are neither new nor a surprise. For observers have long noted the back and forth movement between the Tehran Khomeinist networks and Khartoum's Salafi Islamists. Already, in the early 1990s a delegation from the Pasdaran attended the all out Jihadi Conference in Sudan organized by Dr. Hassan Turabi, one of the main Islamist ideologues of the late 20th century. But in the past few years, especially as the Darfur crisis emerged in international relations, reports asserted that "Hezbollah has sent military trainers to Sudan to train elements of the militia movement there that Sudanese President Bashir has recently established to deal with the 'American campaign' against his regime," according to Stratfor an intelligence newsletter (Aug. 28).

But reality may be even more critical. Sources in the region believe Hezbollah has already established permanent basis in Sudan around Khartoum, in the Darfur areas controlled by the Janjaweed militia and close to the southern Sudan districts managed by the SPLA. The Iranian regime has dispatched the Arabic speaking Hezbollah trainers to Bashir a while ago, in the framework of collaboration against the U.S., Europe and the Arab moderates. The direct mission of the Hezbollah "expeditionary corps" is more strategic than Western analysis has already absorbed. First, the "advisors" will be training Sudanese regime militias to strike at the forthcoming "international force" to be deployed in Darfur. Second, they will coach the Khartoum Islamist forces in a potential return of hostilities with the southerners. Hezbollah will practically help Bashir's Jihadists to crush any move towards self determination in the south. Last but not least, a Hezbollah base in Sudan, will offer Tehran an ideal launching pad for potential terrorist operations against U.S. targets in the entire region including the Red Sea, the African Horn and provide a sea shore for Iranian activities south of the Suez Canal.

This tremendous geopolitical opportunity was not even considered by many experts and analysts advising Washington and Brussels as they refused even to consider the mere possibility of cooperation between Sunni Salafism and Shia Khomeinism. This is another troubling example of how academic apology can lead to future strategic catastrophe in the real world.

They're "imploding," we're told. Things may not be going their way in Iraq, but they continue to become more active in North Africa, not to mention the fact that they have freedom of movement in Pakistan, and are also active in and around the Horn of Africa.

This demonstrates that al-Qaeda is ultimately an unreliable barometer for determining the status of jihadist movements overall, especially when there are many tactics to be employed beyond open warfare. But the clique of learned analysts will never entertain the notion that, in spite of the fact that al-Qaeda finds new friends (like the former Salafist Group for Call and Combat) in so many places, and that so many jihadist plots have only a tenuous link to al-Qaeda or none at all, there could exist some factor that transcends al-Qaeda: the jihadist ideology, which is rooted in Islamic texts and tradition. Whatever happens to the organization itself, many will be unnecessarily surprised by the reach and resilience of the ideology for which al-Qaeda has become the best-known brand name, in Algeria and elsewhere.

"Al-Qaeda-linked group kills 12 Mauritanian soldiers: security source," from Agence France-Presse, September 15:

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — Members of Al-Qaeda's north African branch killed a dozen Mauritanian soldiers on Monday as they patrolled in the northern part of the country, a security official told AFP.

Members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), ambushed the unit when they were 70 kilometres (45 miles) east of the mining town of Zouerat, the source said.

The official did not know how many people were injured in the attack -- the country's deadliest in three years -- but said 10 soldiers managed to return to base afterwards, while reinforcements had been sent to the area near the Moroccan border.

According to a local official seven people were injured in the ambush, including one seriously.

But another security source urged caution: "For now, we have to assume they are missing. We must wait for more information before we can talk about who has died or disappeared."

Opposition politicians blamed the ruling military junta for the attack, suggesting they were more interested in retaining the control they acquired during an August coup than defending their country.

"The army leaders left the borders defenceless against armed groups and brought the military to Nouakchott to defend their powers," opposition lawmaker Khalil Ould Teyeb said at a press conference.

His criticism drew a quick retort from pro-coup deputy Moustapha Ould Abeiderrahmane.

"Our country is victim of an ignoble attack and regardless of our political positions, there are some red lines we cannot cross," he said.

Last month a statement by AQIM appeared on the Internet condemning the August 6 military coup in Mauritania and urging the Mauritanian people "to prepare for war."

The suspected head of Al-Qaeda in Mauritania, El Khadim Ould Esseman, also urged the country's Muslims not to recognise the ruling military junta, calling it an "infidel regime."

Faced with a mounting threat from Islamic militants, security in Nouakchott was beefed up in the last three days, with checkpoints set up along the capital city's main crossroads.

Monday's ambush took place near Zouerat, "the iron capital," where the national industry and mining company, SNIM, employs a large number of foreign workers.

It also came as the African Union's security and peace commissioner, Ramdane Lamamra, was to meet coup leader General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to try to broker an end to the country's constitutional crisis.

Mauritania, a vast desert country in northwest Africa, was shaken between December 2007 and February 2008 by three deadly attacks from extremists linked to Al-Qaeda which left seven people dead, including four French tourists.

At the beginning of April, a policemen and two extremists were also killed in a gun battle near Nouakchott.

More than 30 suspected Islamic militants are being held in Mauritania in connection with the attacks.

In 2005, an attack claimed by AQIM, formerly known as the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, on a military base in north-east Mauritania left 15 soldiers dead, two missing and 17 wounded.

Ready to settle down, raise family of her own

Strangely, however, another Muslim theologian at the other end of the Muslim world reached the same exact conclusion? "Moroccan theologian: Muslim girls can wed at nine," Middle East Online, September 15:

Sheikh Maghraoui reiterates his claims are based on Prophet Mohammad’s sayings.

RABAT - A Moroccan theologian repeated his claims Sunday that Muslim girls could marry as early as nine years old, arguing it was sanctioned by the Prophet Mohammed.

"The marriage of nine-year-old girls is not forbidden because according to the Hadith (the Prophet Mohammed's sayings), Mohammed married Aisha when she was only seven-years-old and he consummated his union when she was nine," wrote Sheikh Mohamed Ben Abderrahman Al-Maghraoui on his website (Maghrawi.net).

"I am a confirmed theologian and I have not made this up. It is the prophet who said it before me," said the Marrakesh-based founder of a religious association.

"Those who criticise me, like the press or Moroccan television as well as the lawyer who filed the complaint (against me), are part of a secular attack against the Islamic nation and its theologians," he added.

Earlier this month, Rabat-based lawyer Mourad Bekkouri filed a complaint against Sheikh Maghraoui and his fatwa, which he said damages children's human rights, and the family and criminal code by increasing the risk of rape.

He said the theologian is undermining Islam and its followers and that he had requested the state prosecutor to speed up the case.

His views were backed by the left-wing newspaper Al Ittihad Al Ichtiraki, which claimed that "vicious theologians are today capable of putting religion in the service of paedophilia."

The views of Maghraoui, which contradict the teachings of mainstream Islam and the interpretation of the life Prophet Mohammed, has sparked anger and criticism among pious Muslims, who accused him of deliberately attempting to distort Islam.

Where does one start here? As odious as Maghraoui's fatwa is, he does, in fact, ground it in Islam's roots of jurisprudence. After all, if the most "perfect" man married a 9 year old, and Muslims are supposed to emulate him, how has Maghraoui's fatwa "contradicted the ... interpretation of the life of Prophet Mohammed"? As for accusations that he is "deliberately attempting to distort Islam," are these "pious" Muslims saying Muhammad never married a 9 year old? So much for the importance of the hadith and the sunna it offers.

"I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state." Druid/Archbishop Rowan Williams begs to differ. More on this story.

"Sharia law is now legally binding," from Public Service, September 15:

It’s been described by one commentator as an example of Great Britain ‘surrendering’ itself and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was criticised for saying it will happen, but whatever the reaction, Islamic law now officially operates in the UK.

Whereas before rulings by sharia courts in Britain could only be enforced if all parties in a Muslim civil case agreed to abide by them, now what the courts say will be legally binding, backed by county courts or the High Court.

[...]

However, Siddiqi admitted that the courts can favour men, with several cases of domestic violence ending with husbands receiving little punishment other than being made to take an anger management course. In every case, the women later withdrew their claims.

Tory shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve was amazed that sharia law had been made legally binding. "If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so."

And Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state."

Consistent behavior: in 2005, Jack Straw asserted that if Europe did not allow Turkey into the EU, the Turks could get rowdy; here he is three years later insisting that both the UK and US should appease the ever duplicitous Pakistan, lest it get rowdy?

"UK does not support US attacks in Pakistan," from the Daily Times, Pakistan, September 16 :

LAHORE: The United Kingdom does not support foreing strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Dawn News quoted UK Secretary for Justice Jack Straw on Monday.

In a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore, Straw reiterated the UK’s commitment to stop cross-border movement of terrorists and attacks by US led forces in Pakistan, the channel said. It said Straw’s statement was in contrast with an earlier statement by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown backing US incursions into Pakistan. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told the media after the meeting that Straw had also pledged his country’s support to Pakistan to improve law and order.

Security: The UK secretary for justice told the CM that Pakistan’s security was vital for Britain. Straw also met Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan at Punjab Club. Aitzaz did not give details of the meeting to the media. After his meeting with Aitzaz, Straw left for Islamabad for a meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani on Tuesday.

Another: "al-Qaeda is the most potent threat to the United States." As usual, then: you decide. "US officials: Al-Qaida unpopular and 'imploding,'" by Pamela Hess for the Associated Press, September 15:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. counterterrorism officials Monday said al-Qaida is "imploding" and that its violent tactics have turned Muslims worldwide against the organization. "Absolutely it's imploding. It's imploding because it's not a message that resonates with a lot of Muslims," said Dell Dailey, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism.

Al-Qaida still remains the most dangerous threat to the United States. But of growing concern are organizations like Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas, which combine social services, local governance, national politics with extremist attacks, said Undersecretary of State James Glassman.

"These are models that have a lot more popular appeal than al-Qaida, that has almost no popular appeal," he said.[...]

U.S. intelligence agencies caution against predicting al-Qaida's demise too soon, noting its Pakistan safe harbor and the persistent efforts of its affiliates to conduct attacks in North Africa and elsewhere.

[...]

Despite these apparent fissures, al-Qaida is the most potent threat to the United States, according to U.S. intelligence officials and reports...

"Prior to these convictions, only three Australians have been convicted of terrorism offences." More on this story. "Australian Muslims convicted on terrorism charge (2nd Roundup)," by DPA for Asia Pacific News, September 15:

Sydney - An Australian cleric and five of his followers Monday were found guilty of forming a terrorist cell and face possible life terms when sentence is passed.

Four of the group of 12 Melbourne Muslims were declared innocent and two have yet to receive a verdict on the terrorism-related charges against them.

Algerian-born Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, told his followers it was 'permissible to kill women, children and the aged' and is alleged to have plotted with them to bomb the 100,000 spectators expected at the 2005 rugby cup final in Melbourne.

[..]

During the six-month trial, the jury heard 50 witnesses and listened to excerpts from 482 secretly recorded conversations among men who declared they wanted to 'do something' to honour their religion.

Police said the group watched videos of beheadings in Iraq and read books glorifying the hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Centre in New York.

[...]

Prior to these convictions, only three Australians have been convicted of terrorism offences.

Jack Roche, a British-born Muslim convert, has been released after serving 4 years of a 9-year sentence for plotting the truck-bombing of the Israeli embassy in Canberra. He was picked up in the raids that followed the bombings in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2002 in which 88 Australians were among the 202 people killed.

Pakistan-born architect Khalid Lodhi was jailed for a minimum of 15 years in 2006 for plotting a terrorist attack. Last week a Sydney court convicted former airport baggage-handler Belal Khazaal of publishing a terrorism how-to manual on the internet.

Truth offends her

Reaction to Obsession DVD distribution shows many Americans clueless about jihad, Part 2: "DVD on radical Islam offends Lemoyne recipient," by Carrie Cassidy for The Patriot-News (Central Pennyslvania), September 11:

Sally Lopez said she opened the mailbox at her Lemoyne home on Monday and found a DVD entitled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West."

The independently released documentary showed scenes from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and other attacks in London, Madrid, Spain and Beslan, Russia.

Lopez said she was offended by the DVD.

Right on, sister. I'm offended by jihad violence too. The murders of innocent civilians in the Twin Towers, subways in Madrid, buses in London, and in school in Russia, all by jihadists -- these murders offend me deeply.

But of course, that wasn't what offended this good citizen. What offended her was hearing about it.

And after learning her daughter, who lives in York, also received a copy, Lopez said she wondered whether there was political motivation behind the mailing.

"My thing is, I'm not stupid. There are definitely radical Islamic cells all over the world, but we also have the Aryan Nation, the [Ku Klux Klan], all kinds of hate groups out there," Lopez said. "They're just instilling fear in us. I'm tired of living in fear."

Right. Best to ignore them all. Then they will just go away. And as for Ms. Lopez's casual moral equivalence, the Aryan Nations and the KKK haven't committed over 10,000 acts of violence around the world since 9/11 alone. They don't have international organizations stretching from Europe to Indonesia. But never mind. It's all just fearmongering.

The DVD Obsession is being packaged with the morning paper all over the country, and millions upon millions of copies have been distributed. That's all to the good, but the reaction to it shows in numerous ways that many, if not most, Americans have no clue about what we're up against.

Of course, the distribution of the film is designed to fix that problem, and for many people it probably will, but in the Jihad Watch echo chamber it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we represent a very, very small percentage of people who realize the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat. Polls show that fewer Americans today believe that terrorism is a threat than at any time since before 9/11; several of the larger blogs that used to care about this issue have for various reasons lost interest; and the jihad threat is nowhere discussed fully and adequately in the mainstream.

A few of the news stories commenting on the Obsession distribution indicate the scope of the general ignorance. I had originally intended this as an elephantine post discussing several of these stories, but I went on so long about the first one here that I will save the others for future posts.

"Controversial film on Islam delivered nationwide," by Yonat Shimron for the Raleigh News & Observer, September 11 (see also Raymond's comments here):

Bundled in home-delivered editions of The News & Observer today is a paid insert featuring a controversial DVD on Islam that has stirred anger nationwide. [...]

Translation: "Readers, don't take this DVD seriously. It's "controversial." This is what passes for journalism these days, but just consider for a moment how different readers' reactions would have been if the story had started out this way: "Bundled in home-delivered editions of The News & Observer today is a paid insert featuring a DVD on Islam that attempts to alert people to the magnitude of the jihad threat." Which lede is more objective?

Jim McClure, vice president of display advertising for The N&O, declined to say what it is charging to deliver the DVD as part of today's newspaper. He dismissed allegations that it is inflammatory.

"In the beginning of the DVD it clearly states it's not about Islam. It's about radical Islam," McClure said.

That is a key weakness of an otherwise excellent film. Of course, it probably wouldn't be being distributed all over the country if it had spoken more forthrightly about the roots of the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism in core Islamic texts and teachings. The problem is not so much with the use of the term "Radical Islam," which can refer to many things and doesn't necessarily assume that the violent and supremacist elements of jihadist teaching are corruptions of Islamic theology, but with the implication in the film that there is a benign, mainstream and standard version of Islam that does not teach warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. There isn't, and it is misleading in the extreme to suggest otherwise. There are many peaceful Muslims who have no interest in furthering the jihad and never will, but there is no peaceful Islam -- and that makes these peaceful Muslims always vulnerable to appeals to Islamic authenticity.

Despite the disclaimer, the film features prominent anti-Muslim pundits, including Daniel Pipes, Steven Emerson and Walid Shoebat, who told the Springfield News-Leader -- a Missouri daily -- that "Islam is not the religion of God -- Islam is the devil."

To dismiss Pipes and Emerson as "anti-Muslim pundits" is to ignore the monumental work they have both done to expose the activities of jihadists in the United States and elsewhere, reducing this work to bigotry and trivia. Which was, no doubt, precisely the objective.

Films aim in question

Muslims across the nation and in the Triangle said they are disappointed by the film.

"It adds fuel to the fire and devalues the work we do," said Khalilah Sabra, an organizer with the Raleigh chapter of the Muslim American Society, which lists "promoting understanding" as its mission.

While Pipes, Emerson, and Shoebat are tarred and dismissed as "anti-Muslim," Khalilah Sabra and the Muslim American Society are all about "promoting understanding." The N&O can't find any room for the fact that, according to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé, the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. Nor does it mention that according to a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a “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.”

The film features footage of elementary schoolchildren reciting mantras such as "When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I'll turn into a suicide warrior."

Its aim is to liken radical Islam to Nazism and to promote the state of Israel, said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, who has seen the film several times.

"One of the running themes is, 'We stand today as the world stood in 1938,' " said Safi, referring to the rise of Nazism. "It's fear mongering. It appeals to people's emotions."...

Not like Omid Safi, who propagandistically stacks the deck for his students by pre-emptively classifying a diverse list of people as "Islamopobes" and asking them to write a report on their evils. No emotionalism in that, oh no. Omid Safi is all dispassionate intellect -- as witness his fearmongering and emotionalism a bit farther on in the story:

In a statement, N&O Publisher Orage Quarles III wrote: "As a newspaper we tend to shy away from censorship. In cases of controversial topics, if we err, we tend to do so on the side of freedom of speech."

But some questioned whether this is a censorship issue.

"If there was a 30-minute DVD warning people against the danger of blacks or Jews, would the N&O distribute it?" asked Safi....

Safi, of course, ignores the distinction that the film makes between non-jihadist Muslims and jihadist Muslims -- however faulty the distinction is made in the film (as I explained above), it is certainly made, and made more than once. And there is no doubt that many Muslims are not on board with the jihadist program. Safi himself professes to be one of them. But in his comment here Safi would have you believe that the film lumps all Muslims together, and is thus comparable to a Klan piece on blacks or a Nazi piece on Jews.

Were Omid Safi at all interested in being fair-minded, he would acknowledge that the film makes this distinction, and would even perhaps explain why a film about an ideological threat does not fall into the same category as scaremongering about racial groups.

But it gets even worse: the story concludes with a Muslim playing the victim card -- and, of course, there is no mention made of how many Muslims-as-victim stories have been fabricated outright or greatly exaggerated:

One Muslim reader wrote the N&O to say that the film can only make local Muslims feel vulnerable.

"I must say that this video makes me fear for my safety and the safety of my family since people may not be able to differentiate between Muslims living here in Raleigh and the way Muslims are depicted in this scary film!" said Shadi Sadi, a data analyst in Raleigh.

To put this in perspective, consider the prospect of a German in 1943 writing angrily about an anti-Nazi presentation that it put Germans in fear for their safety. By contrast, German-Americans were anxious to prove their loyalty to the United States. Those days, it seems, are gone forever.

Muhammad would have approved. Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic: "Iran Parliament Passes Death Penalty for Apostasy Bill," from the Christian Post, September 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The Iranian Parliament voted in favor of a bill Tuesday that would punish apostasy with the death penalty, a human rights group reported.

Lawmakers approved the bill with 196 votes in favor, seven against, and two abstentions, according to U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The draft bill seeks to add several crimes to the list of acts that would result in execution, including “establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution, and apostasy.”

CSW advocacy director Alexa Papadouris commented, “It is deeply worrying to hear that just days after Matin-Azad and Basirat have been charged with apostasy at a court in Shiraz, the Iranian Parliament is debating a bill that could codify the death penalty for someone choosing their own religion.”

Mahmoud Mohammad Matin-Azad, 53, and Arash Ahmad-Ali Basirat, 40, are Christian-converts from Islam who were charged with apostasy last week at the Public and Revolutionary Court in Shiraz, Iran. They are currently awaiting the court’s verdict and have been detained since May 15.

In August, there were five known arrests of Iranian Christians in three cities by authorities, according to the persecution watchdog agency Compass Direct News. Among those arrested was Ramtin Soodmand, who is the son of the last Christian convert to be executed for leaving Islam, on Aug. 21.

Soodmand’s father, Hossein Soodmand, was an Assemblies of God pastor who was executed by the state in 1990 under the false charge of working as an American spy. Since Soodmand’s death, six other Protestant pastors have been assassinated by unknown assailants....

Land for Peace -- why didn't anybody think of that before? This will make the jihad go away in a jiffy!

"Channel 2: Olmert offers PA 98.1% of West Bank," by Tovah Lazaroff for the Jerusalem Post, September 14 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has discussed with the Palestinians transferring to them 98.1 percent of the West Bank, Channel 2 reported on Sunday evening.

The report on the ongoing negotiations was broadcast in advance of Tuesday's planned meeting between Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. [...]

According to Channel 2, however, Olmert is considering concessions far beyond land east of the barrier and could transfer 98.1% of the West Bank to the PA. That is significantly more than the 94% to 96% that had been discussed in previous negotiations.

The report states that Abbas has asked that Israel cede the Jerusalem area settlements of Ma'aleh Adumim and Givat Ze'ev, but is willing to negotiate the status of the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Gilo and French Hill, which are over the Green Line.

In the past the Palestinians have demanded that Israel fully withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, including from eastern Jerusalem. Israel has insisted it plans to keep the larger settlements blocs including Ma'aleh Adumim and Givat Ze'ev as well as the Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. [...]

Before 1967, there was peace between Israel and the Arabs, because everyone accepted the pre-1967 borders. Right? Well, there was that small matter of the Six Day War, but never mind that.

Olmert has also agreed that 5,000 Palestinian refugees would return to Israel - a thousand refugees every year for five years, according to the report.

Abbas a