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 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

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 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

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 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

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 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

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 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

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.