November 2008 Archives

Who said that? What greasy Islamophobe dared to call into question the sincerity or adequacy of Muslim condemnations of terrorism?

Would you believe Khaled al-Jenfawi, a columnist for Kuwait's Al-Seyassah daily?

Anyway, in this story, "Muslims condemn Mumbai attacks, worry about image," by Karin Laub for The Associated Press, November 30, Muslim leaders and spokesmen worry a great deal about the possibility that these jihad attacks in Mumbai by a Tiny Minority of Extremists™ will lead people to think ill of Islam.

Of course, there is one thing they could do about that that would actually begin to make people think better of Islam, but no one even whispers anything about doing it in this article or anywhere else. And that would be to begin to saturate mosques and madrassas with the message that jihad warfare is never justified, that the imperative to subjugate unbelievers under the rule of Islamic law must be decisively rejected, and that peaceful coexistence as equals with unbelievers is to be maintained indefinitely. If Islamic clerics stopped talking about conquering Europe and America, and began to teach the opposite, things might begin to improve. If Muslim leaders worldwide energetically pronounced takfir upon -- that is, declared to be non-Muslim -- all those who maintained belief in the Qur'an's literal words of warfare, and in the traditional Islamic doctrines regarding jihad warfare (whether hot war or otherwise), and upon anyone who wished to impose Sharia upon unbelievers by whatever means and at whatever speed, and if those leaders demonstrated their sincerity by actions instead of mere words, informed non-Muslims might begin to think better of Islam.

But these things will not happen. They're not even on the table. Instead, many of the same people quoted in this article work to brand any non-Muslim who points out the ways in which jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism as a "bigot" or a "racist." And that in itself, however effective a tactic it may be among the ignorant and easily intimidated, is revealing.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Muslims from the Middle East to Britain and Austria condemned Sunday the Mumbai shooting rampage by suspected Islamic militants as senseless terrorism, but also found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion.

Intellectuals and community leaders called for greater efforts to combat religious fanaticism. [...]

"The occupation of the synagogue and killing people in hotels tarnishes the Muslim faith," said Kazim al-Muqdadi, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University. "Anyone who slaughters people and screams `Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) is sick and ignorant."

In Britain, home to nearly two million Muslims, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, said that "a handful of terrorists like this bring the entire faith into disrepute." [...]

A man identified as Sheik Youssef al-Ayeri said the killings are in line with Islam.

"It's all right for Muslims to set the infidels' castles on fire, drown them with water .... and take some of them as prisoners, whether young or old, women or men, because it is one of many ways to beat them," he wrote in the al-Fallujah forum. [...]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the attacks as terrorism, but added that the violence is rooted in "unjust policies" aimed at destabilizing the region. He did not elaborate. [...]

Saudi Arabia said in a statement carried earlier this week by the Saudi Press Agency that it "strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act." An editorial Friday in Saudi's English-language Arab News said that "no civilized person ... can be anything but revolted and sickened by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai."

However, Jonathan Fighel, an Israeli counterterrorism expert, said Saudi organizations have been funneling money to Muslim militants in Kashmir.

"This demonstrates exactly the double game and, I would say, the hypocrisy of the Saudi regime," said Fighel of the Israel-based International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

Throughout the Muslim world, the attacks set off soul-searching.

"I think that Muslims should raise their voice against such actions. They should forge a coalition to fight such phenomena, because it harms them and damages their image," said Ali Abdel Muhsen, 22, a Muslim engineering student in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Muslims and Arabs must confront the violence "that is taking place in our name and in the name of our (Islamic) tenets," wrote Khaled al-Jenfawi, a columnist for Kuwait's Al-Seyassah daily.

"Unfortunately, we have yet to see a distinguished popular condemnation in the traditional Arab or Muslim communities that strongly rejects what is happening in the name of Islam or Arab nationalism," wrote al-Jenfawi.

Is this really the time to be talking about bringing large numbers of Pakistani butchers into the West?

"5,000 Pak butchers to get jobs in UK," by Asif Mehmood for Pakistan's The Nation, November 30 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON - Over 5,000 butchers from Pakistan would get employment in the halal meat industry of UK through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between National Halal Foods Group (NHFG) of UK and Overseas Employment Cooperation of Pakistan. The MoU has been signed here at the Pakistan High Commission, London Friday.

Raphael Israeli was born in Fez, Morocco, and arrived in Israel at the age of 14. A professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern and Chinese history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he is the author of 25 books, including Islamikaze: Manifestations of Islamic Martyrology (Frank Cass, London, 2003) and The Spread of Islamikaze Terrorism in Europe: The Third Islamic Invasion (Vallentine Mitchell, London, 2008).

The events of Mumbai, the “surprise” they caused, the clumsy fashion in which they were treated, and the almost glorifying attitude meted out to them by the world media, demonstrate, seven years after the September 11 attacks, that little was learned in the West from them, while the pledges of Islamic terrorism to pursue its novel strategy proved credible and feasible. For after Madrid, London, Bali and other acts of mega-terrorism, the West still hesitates to pronounce the M-word, and talks about “Militants”, who draw sympathy in the Islamic world, instead of condemning them as Muslim terrorists and trying to rally moderate governments worldwide in support of the war against them. Moreover, instead of vigorously rejecting the Muslim notion of jihad, in the name of which all these horrors are done, the West has been indulging in the vain distinction between Islam and “Islamism”, ignoring the fact that they are one and the same faith and that jihad is the language of both.

Abu-‘Ubeid Qurashi, one of the aides of Osama Bin Laden, published after September 11 in the Arabic press and on the al-Qa’ida site on the Internet a stunning article regarding his organization’s strategy in its unseemly confrontation with the US and Western civilization in general. This article demonstrates that not only do those champions of evil do their homework adequately, and that they are equipped with the requisite patience, sophistication and methodical thinking, the fruits of which were seen in the deadly precision of their operation against the Twin Towers, but that Western democracies have something to learn in the war against terror. For it transpires that the Muslim terrorist organizations which have been waging war against the West directly are inspired by al-Qa’ida war doctrine, and it is not too early to try to comprehend their schemes.

Comments by David G. Littman, NGO Representative for the Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), United Nations, Geneva. For David Littman's comments on the current human rights activities at the UN in Geneva, see: Stealth Jihad with Dialogue vs. Freedom of Expression at the UN (Act 2) (November 25).

The 8th Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the tragic “Situation of human rights in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo” began on Friday. It was called at the request of 16 Western countries; the number of co-sponsors soon reached 39 States, but not one from the African Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement). The DRC even alleged that the host country refused visas for two ministers, which the Swiss ambassador categorically refuted in diplomatic terms. The Egyptian ambassador, acting as coordinator of the African group, tried to halt the discussion at 5:30pm; this was unacceptable for France (on behalf of the European Union) and also for the Council president. The histrionic statement delivered by Sudan’s ambassador woke up some representative to the sheer absurdity of this UN masquerade, and the conclusion of the statement by the ambassador of Pakistan, speaking for the OIC, completed this grim ‘picture’:

In conclusion, the OIC reiterates its call that the Council’s Special sessions should not become tools for castigating weak and vulnerable countries, while condoning impunity in case of influential members of the international community. An ongoing siege in Gaza, which has been widely condemned by the International community and continues to pose severe hardships for hundreds of thousands, must also merit the attention of the Council as any situation in the world, on the basis of consensus.

Considering that four of the eight Special HRC sessions (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th), since July 2006, targeted Israel in “the occupied Palestinian territories” (with one on Gaza and another on Lebanon), and only one on Darfur, on Myanmar and on ‘food’, such a gross distortion portrays the HRC’s natural ‘climate’ – a UN body often referred to as “this august body” and “the conscience of the world”. A glance at the proposed draft resolution on the “human rights situation” in the DRC – as “submitted by Egypt on behalf of the African Group” – reveals a blatant refusal to face the manifold atrocities being carried out non-stop in that region and beyond. Its preamble states blandly: “Reiterating the principles and objectives of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Human Rights” – but there is no mention throughout the text of either the grave ethnic strife or what the EU strongly deplores in its resolution: the “increasingly widespread cases of sexual violence, summary executions, recruitment and use of child soldiers by the armed groups, cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment, massive displacement of populations and plundering of villages…”

Zardari may soon have to take those strong measures he promised if Pakistani involvement were proved. "Police: Pakistani militants behind Mumbai attacks," by Ramola Talwar Badam for Associated Press, November 30 (thanks to all who sent this in):

MUMBAI, India – The only gunman captured by police after a string of attacks on Mumbai told authorities he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed region of Kashmir, a senior police officer said Sunday.

India has blamed "elements" from Pakistan for the 60-hour siege during which suspected Muslim militants hit 10 sites across India's financial capital, leaving at least 174 dead.

Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said the assailant now in custody — the only one of 10 to survive — told police the group had intended to hit even more targets.

"Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind the terrorist acts in the city," Maria told reporters. "The terrorists were from a hardcore group in the L-e-T." [...]

A previously unknown group called Deccan Mujahideen — a name suggesting origins inside India — has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But suspicion in Indian media quickly settled on Lashkar-e-Taiba, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir. [...]

And here comes the usual finger-pointing and attempt to claim victim status that we have so often seen from Muslim spokesmen in the wake of Islamic jihad attacks or honest discussion of the Islamic texts and teachings that jihadists use to justify their actions:

Speaking earlier Sunday, a spokesman for a Jamat-ud Dawa denied any link to Lashkar-e-Taiba and said he condemned the attack.

"We condemn the killings of civilians. We condemn such killings in a terrorist activity, and at the same time we condemn it happening in the shape of state terrorism, as we see in Srinagar, Kashmir," Abdullah Muntazir said, referring to alleged Indian army atrocities in Kashmir, which is claimed by both Pakistan and India....

Yeah, it's all the same: resisting the jihad in Kashmir is just like torturing and murdering a rabbi and his wife, isn't it? Just as speaking out against jihad and Islamic supremacism is the same thing as flying a hijacked airplane into an office building. We have heard all this many times before.

Did the murderers feel justified in this torture by this Qur'anic injunction? "Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews" (5:82)? This horrific news from Mumbai underscores the crucial importance of the point made by Bat Ye'or years ago: that those who are the potential victims of Islamic jihad need to unite together to fight against it. Dhimmi communities -- Jews, Christians, as well as the Hindus who were awarded dhimmi status during the Islamic conquest of India -- need to stand together against Islamic supremacism and jihadist barbarism. If we do not hang together, we shall assuredly hang separately.

"Doctors shocked at hostages's torture," by Krishnakumar P and Vicky Nanjappa for Rediff, November 30 (thanks to M3Pino):

They said that just one look at the bodies of the dead hostages as well as terrorists showed it was a battle of attrition that was fought over three days at the Oberoi and the Taj hotels in Mumbai.

Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies, including that of the terrorists, were taken said they had not seen anything like this in their lives.

"Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing," a doctor said.

Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: "It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatised. A bomb blast victim's body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words," he said.

Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: "It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood," one doctor said.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said.

Corroborating the doctors' claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. "During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis," an IB source said.

It is also said that the Israeli hostages were killed on the first day as keeping them hostage for too long would have focused too much international attention. "They also might have feared the chances of Israeli security agencies taking over the operations at the Nariman House," he reasoned.

On the other hand, there is enough to suggest that the terrorists also did not meet a clean, death.

The doctors who conducted the post mortem said the bodies of the terrorists were beyond recognition. "Their faces were beyond recognition."

There was no way of identifying them," he said. Asked how, if this is the case, they knew the bodies were indeed those of the terrorists, he said: "The security forces that brought the bodies told us that those were the bodies of the terrorists," he said, adding there was no other way they could have identified the bodies.

An intelligence agency source added: "One of the terrorists was shot through either eye."...

Pamela calls for a Constitutional remedy.

Inside the grand hotel today

A highly organized jihad plot. Most likely those who organized and carried it out believed they were taking hold of this Qur'anic promise: "Allah has purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs in return is the garden of Paradise: they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain..." (Qur'an 9:111). But that fact and its implications you will not find discussed in any of the endless media dissections of this jihad attack.

"Mumbai attacks: 300 feared dead as full horror of the terrorist attacks emerges," by Damien McElroy, Rahul Bedi, and Andrew Alderson for the Telegraph, November 30 (thanks to James):

The death toll in the Mumbai terror attack is expected to soar to nearly 300, Indian officials said, as details emerged of the highly-organised terror plot.

Piles of bodies were found yesterday after commandos stormed the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the last of three buildings that terrorists had occupied in the city. Three terrorists were killed in the battle.

The end to four days of carnage came as tensions grew between India and Pakistan over the atrocity.

It is believed that just 10 highly-trained terrorists took part in the attack. Nine were killed and one suspect is under arrest.

British and Indian authorities were yesterday playing down reports that some of the attackers were British, although this had not been comprehensively ruled out.

The Sunday Telegraph was given the details of a secret interrogation report based on an interview with the surviving terrorist. The 19-year-old suspect, who lived near the Pakistani city of Multan, is said to have joined Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Islamist fundamentalist group, a year ago. He is alleged to have confessed that he received weapons instruction at a training camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The plot is said to have been planned from there. A group then made a reconnaissance of Bombay earlier this year.

India believes a Pakistani merchant ship was used to transport some, or all, of the terrorists before they seized control of a fishing trawler to reach Mumbai (Bombay). The final leg of their journey was completed in inflatable boats.

Pakistan called an emergency cabinet meeting after announcing that it would not send the country's secret service chief to New Delhi. The Indian government had demanded the head of the ISI travel in person to respond to questions.

Meanwhile, the former head of Britain's SAS has revealed that Britain is not adequately prepared for a Mumbai-style terror attack. He said hundreds of civilians would have been massacred if such an assault was carried out in this country.

The official death toll stands at 174, but authorities acknowledge that scores of bodies have not been included in the total. At least 22 of the dead are not Indian nationals, including a Briton, five US citizens and six Israelis. At least 295 people have been injured. Of those, 23 are foreigners, including several Britons....

When the sky is rent asunder

We have now entered into the section of the Qur'an in which the suras are Meccan, brief, poetic, striking in their vivid imagery, and generally focused on urgent warnings of the impending Day of Judgment. "Ah woe, that Day, to the Rejecters of Truth!" This is the focus and refrain of sura 77, "The Emissaries" (vv. 15, 19, 24, 28, 34, 37, 40, 45, 47, 49). Woe to them, for they will be punished severely on the Day of Sorting (vv. 13, 14, 38), when Allah will separate those who rejected Islam from those who accepted it. He taunts the unbelievers, saying that on that Day, "If now you have any wit, outwit Me" (v. 39).

Sura 78, "The Announcement," is similar, warning of that terrible Day of Sorting (v. 17), and warning that those damned to hell will be made to drink a "boiling fluid and a fluid, dark, murky, intensely cold" (v. 25), while the righteous in the garden will enjoy "voluptuous women of equal age" (v. 33). According to Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and others, "This means round breasts. They meant by this that the breasts of these girls will be fully rounded and not sagging, because they will be virgins, equal in age. This means that they will only have one age."

What's wrong with this picture?

"CAIR-OH Conducts Diversity Training for Columbus Police," from the CAIR site, November 25 (thanks to Jesse):

(COLUMBUS, OH, 11/24/08) – Representatives of the Columbus chapter of CAIR-Ohio, along with a Muslim law enforcement officer, recently conducted diversity training on “Islam and Muslims: What Law Enforcement Personnel Should Know” at the Columbus Police Training Academy.

Topics covered included the basic beliefs and practices of Islam, practical advice to help future law enforcement personnel develop cultural competency when interacting with the Muslim community, and a section on cultural awareness about the Somali community, as Columbus is home to one of the largest populations of Somali refugees in the United States. This is the 5th year that CAIR-Ohio has conducted the training.

“We welcome the opportunity to improve understanding and cooperation between Law Enforcement officials and the Muslim community,” said Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin, president of CAIR-Ohio. “Educational sessions like the ones we have been participating in for the past five years help law enforcement personnel appreciate the needs and concerns of the members of the diverse communities they serve.”...

No reason to get excited

After all, these Mumbai attacks are not that big a deal, right? Don't "overreact."

"Pakistan president warns India not to over-react," from AFP, November 29 (thanks to James):

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday warned India against any "over-reaction" after the militant attacks in Mumbai and vowed the "strictest" action if Pakistani involvement was proved.

"Whoever is responsible for the brutal and crude act against the Indian people and India are looking for reaction," Zardari said in an interview with Indian CNN-IBN television.

"We have to rise above them and make sure ourselves, yourself and world community guard against over-reaction," he said according to an interview transcript issued by the Press Trust of India.

The Indian government has blamed "elements in Pakistan" for the attack by Islamist militants against multiple targets in Mumbai that left nearly 200 people dead.

Zardari promised that he would take immediate and strong measures if proof was provided of Pakistani involvement.

"Let me assure you that if any evidence points to any individual or any group in this part of the world, I shall take the strictest of action in the light of this evidence and in front of the world," he said....

We'll see. We've heard that kind of thing before.

This story demonstrates why questions about the ultimate extent of sharia encroachment in the West are neither unfair nor merely academic: Stonings continue to occur under Islamic governments, as do executions by other means for "adultery," which so often includes what are actually cases of rape. Moreover, we have already seen that even in Britain, there has been no successful separation of the allegedly "good" sharia from "bad" sharia, and it continues to exist as an instrument to oppress and exploit women.

"Iran confirms stoning sentence against adulteress: report," from Agence France-Presse, November 29:

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's supreme court has confirmed a sentence of death by stoning against a woman convicted of adultery in the southern city of Shiraz, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The woman identified as Afsaneh R., was also given a second death sentence for murdering her husband with the help of a man identified only as Reza, who had an affair with her, Etemad Melli newspaper reported.

The details of this case only highlight the absurdity inherent in imposing an arguably worse method of execution for adultery than murder.

The report said the supreme court had in August confirmed verdicts first issued in April, but gave no reason for the delay in making the decision public.

It said Reza had also been sentenced to 100 lashes for having an illegitimate relationship and 15 years in jail for collaborating in murder.

Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning, which involves the public hurling stones at the convict buried up to his waist. A woman is buried up to her shoulders.

An Iranian rights group said in July that eight women and one man had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery over the past few years and urged the Islamic republic to halt their executions.

In August, the judiciary said it had scrapped the punishment in Iran's new Islamic penal code, whose outlines have been adopted by the parliament but its details are yet to be debated by MPs before final approval and coming into effect.

The judiciary also said stoning sentences against several convicts had been suspended and commuted to either lashes or jail terms but it was not known if any of the nine convicts were among those whose lives have been spared.

In July 2007, the Islamic republic drew international outrage by stoning to death a man convicted of adultery, Jafar Kiani, in a village in the northwest of the country.

More failure: this guy was captured alive

Epic Fail: No virgins for you. "Mumbai gunmen 'planned to kill 5,000,'" from Australia's ABC, November 30 (thank to JE):

Indian officials say the gunmen who attacked Mumbai this week planned to kill up to 5,000 people.

At least 195 people died and hundreds more were injured when the gunmen launched their coordinated attacks at locations around the city on Wednesday evening (local time).

The Times of India is reporting that Indian police believe 10 terrorists carried out the attacks. Nine were killed and one, who was caught on camera during the attack at the city's main railway station, was captured alive.

Maharashtra's deputy chief state minister says initial investigations suggest the militants had hoped to kill up to 5,000 people. [...]

The Hindustan Times wrote: "India is under attack. The very idea of India is under attack ... Playing the headless chicken is no longer an option".

Oh, I'm sure some people will manage to continue doing so anyway.

A US counter-terrorism official said Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, may have been responsible for the attacks. ...

Although James Taranto in the reliably dhimmi Wall Street Journal is not sure whether or not Geert Wilders is simply an "anti-Islamic provocateur."

(You can see my interview with Geert Wilders, in six parts, at the Jihad Watch YouTube channel.)

"'Our Culture Is Better': Champion of freedom or anti-Islamic provocateur? Both," by James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal, November 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

By his own description, Geert Wilders is not a typical Dutch politician. "We are a country of consensus," he tells me on a recent Saturday morning at his midtown Manhattan hotel. "I hate consensus. I like confrontation. I am not a consensus politician. . . . This is something that is really very un-Dutch."

Yet the 45-year-old Mr. Wilders says he is the most famous politician in the Netherlands: "Everybody knows me. . . . There is no other politician -- not even the prime minister -- who is as well-known. . . . People hate me, or they love me. There's nothing in between. There is no gray area."

To his admirers, Mr. Wilders is a champion of Western values on a continent that has lost confidence in them. To his detractors, he is an anti-Islamic provocateur. Both sides have a point.

It is a pity that Taranto would characterize speaking accurately about how Muslims use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and Islamic supremacism as being an "anti-Islamic provocateur." In this he plays into the hands of the stealth jihadists in the U.S. and the OIC initiatives at the UN -- both of which defame all Islamorealism as "Islamophobia."

In March, Mr. Wilders released a short film called "Fitna," a harsh treatment of Islam that begins by interspersing inflammatory Quran passages with newspaper and TV clips depicting threats and acts of violent jihad. The second half of the film, titled "The Netherlands Under the Spell of Islam," warns that Holland's growing Muslim population -- which more than doubled between 1990 and 2004, to 944,000, some 5.8% of the populace -- poses a threat to the country's traditional liberal values. Under the heading, "The Netherlands in the future?!" it shows brutal images from Muslim countries: men being hanged for homosexuality, a beheaded woman, another woman apparently undergoing genital mutilation. [...]

Harsh, yes, but whence the harshness? Was Fitna accurate or not in depicting how jihadists make use of the Qur'an to justify violence? See the answer here.

Having his own party liberates Mr. Wilders to speak his mind. As he sees it, the West suffers from an excess of toleration for those who do not share its tradition of tolerance. "We believe that -- 'we' means the political elite -- that all cultures are equal," he says. "I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You're not a xenophobe, you're not a racist, you're not a crazy guy if you say, 'My culture is better than yours.' A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better."

Those who would cry "Racist!" to this should consider whether stonings, amputations, death for apostasy, and other provisions of Islamic law are really something they consider to be ingredients of a just and harmonious society.

He acknowledges that "the majority of Muslims in Europe and America are not terrorists or violent people." But he says "it really doesn't matter that much, because if you don't define your own culture as the best, dominant one, and you allow through immigration people from those countries to come in, at the end of the day you will lose your own identity and your own culture, and your society will change. And our freedom will change -- all the freedoms we have will change."

The murder of van Gogh lends credence to this warning, as does the Muhammad cartoon controversy of 2005 in Denmark. As for "Fitna," it has not occasioned a violent response, but its foes have made efforts to suppress it. A Dutch Muslim organization went to court seeking to enjoin its release on the ground that, in Mr. Wilders's words, "it's not in the interest of Dutch security." The plaintiffs also charged Mr. Wilders with blasphemy and inciting hatred. Mr. Wilders thought the argument frivolous, but decided to pre-empt it: "The day before the verdict, I broadcasted ['Fitna'] . . . not because I was not confident in the outcome, but I thought: I'm not taking any chance, I'm doing it. And it was legal, because there was not a verdict yet." The judge held that the national-security claim was moot and ruled in Mr. Wilders's favor on the issues of blasphemy and incitement. [...]

An organization called The Netherlands Shows Its Colors filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Wilders for "inciting hatred." In June, Dutch prosecutors declined to pursue the charge, saying in a statement: "That comments are hurtful and offensive for a large number of Muslims does not mean that they are punishable." The group is appealing the prosecutors' decision.

That is a key case. If it becomes punishable to offend Muslims, as the OIC is trying to establish, then it will no longer be possible to speak about the ideology of those who would subjugate us. And so that subjugation will proceed while we remain mute.

In July, a Jordanian prosecutor, acting on a complaint from a pressure group there, charged Mr. Wilders with blasphemy and other crimes. The Netherlands has no extradition treaty with Jordan, but Mr. Wilders worries -- and the head of the group that filed the complaint has boasted -- that the indictment could restrict his ability to travel. Mr. Wilders says he does not visit a foreign country without receiving an assurance that he will not be arrested and extradited.

"The principle is not me -- it's not about Geert Wilders," he says. "If you look at the press and the rest of the political elite in the Netherlands, nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn. This is the worst thing, maybe. . . . A nondemocratic country cannot use the international or domestic legal system to silence you. . . . If this starts, we can get rid of all parliaments, and we should close down every newspaper, and we should shut up and all pray to Mecca five times a day."

It is difficult to fault Mr. Wilders's impassioned defense of free speech. And although the efforts to silence him via legal harassment have proved far from successful, he rightly points out that they could have a chilling effect, deterring others from speaking out.

Quite so.

Mr. Wilders's views on Islam, though, are problematic. Since 9/11, American political leaders have struggled with the question of how to describe the ideology of the enemy without making enemies of the world's billion or so Muslims. The various terms they have tried -- "Islamic extremism," "Islamism," "Islamofascism" -- have fallen short of both clarity and melioration. Melioration is not Mr. Wilders's highest priority, and to him the truth couldn't be clearer: The problem is Islam itself. "I see Islam more as an ideology than as a religion," he explains.

CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper said much the same thing. Could Honest Ibe himself be an "Islamophobe"? Who'd have imagined it? Will James Taranto characterize Hooper's view of Islam as "problematic"?

His own view of Islam is a fundamentalist one: "According to the Quran, there are no moderate Muslims. It's not Geert Wilders who's saying that, it's the Quran . . . saying that. It's many imams in the world who decide that. It's the people themselves who speak about it and talk about the terrible things -- the genital mutilation, the honor killings. This is all not Geert Wilders, but those imams themselves who say this is the best way of Islam."

Note that Wilders characterizes his views as being the views of Islamic imams and the statements of the Qur'an, and Taranto nonetheless willy-nilly reports this as "his own view of Islam," which is "fundamentalist." That there are indeed so many "fundamentalist" imams in Europe and elsewhere, and that mainstream, authoritative Islam does indeed teach these things, doesn't seem to interest him. Certainly there are voices within Islam that Taranto would consider "non-fundamentalist," but how much influence do they have? Is their following larger among non-Muslims than it is among Muslims? Taranto should have considered these questions.

Yet he insists that his antagonism toward Islam reflects no antipathy toward Muslims: "I make a distinction between the ideology . . . and the people. . . . There are people who call themselves Muslims and don't subscribe to the full part of the Quran. And those people, of course, we should invest [in], we should talk to." He says he would end Muslim immigration to the Netherlands but work to assimilate those already there.

Wilders "insists" that he has no "antipathy toward Muslims." When a writer uses "insists," generally he thinks that the facts are other than whatever position his subject is insisting upon. In other words, Taranto here seems to reveal his own assumption that someone who reports and warns about Islamic jihad and Islamic supremacism is doing so simply out of some irrational "antipathy toward Muslims."

His idea of how to do so, however, seems unlikely to win many converts: "You have to give up this stupid, fascist book" -- the Quran. "This is what you have to do. You have to give up that book."

Mr. Wilders is right to call for a vigilant defense of liberal principles. A society has a right, indeed a duty, to require that religious minorities comply with secular rules of civilized behavior. But to demand that they renounce their religious identity and holy books is itself an affront to liberal principles.

Does Taranto realize that his last two sentences contradict one another? Does he have any idea that to comply with "secular rules of civilized behavior," Muslims would have to discard large portions of the Qur'an and Sunnah and the Sharia rules that are derived from them? Probably he doesn't. Nonetheless, when the religion's foremost and central authorities teach that the religious law must dominate, and also teach supremacism, violence, the oppression of women and more, and justify these teachings by reference to the religion's core texts, there is a conflict when those who hold to the religion move into countries full of unbelievers. That conflict will eventually come to a head one way or another, unless the host country capitulates without any kind of resistance.

Maybe Wilders's call for them to discard the Qur'an is quixotic and unrealistic, and in any case I myself oppose any call to ban any book. Ideas should be fought with better ideas, not with censorship. Maybe Wilders would gain more traction calling for serious, honest reform based on a genuine rejection of literalism in interpreting the Qur'an and Sunnah, and upon a searching reevaluation of the legal superstructure of Sharia. In any case, neither one is likely to happen. But as long as James Taranto and those of his ilk are unable or unwilling to come to grips with the reality of the problem of Islamic supremacism, and slyly vilify people like Wilders who are standing up to it, one thing is certain: Islamic supremacists will continue to erode the freedoms and rights that have up to now been enjoyed by the free citizens of the West.

"The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Sahih Bukhari, volume 7, book 62, number 88

More Eurabian madness: an Austrian politician who made an accurate statement about Muhammad's marriage to Aisha, as shown by the hadith above, is facing prosecution for it. When someone can get put on trial for telling the truth, the society has already tipped over into totalitarian thought control, and the totalitarian fascists in question are the European EU elites.

An update on this story. A translation by VH from Die Presse, "Susanne Winter Loses Her Parliamentary Immunity," from Gates of Vienna, November 27:

Winter “welcomes the lifting of immunity”

The Immunity Committee of the National Assembly is expected to decide today on the handing over of the MPs Susanne Winter (FPÖ) and Peter Westenthaler (BZÖ) to the judiciary.

The Immunity Committee of the National Council will decide Tuesday whether immunity will be lifted from two parliamentary members, the FPÖ representative Susanne Winter, and former BZÖ leader Peter Westenthaler. It is expected that the committee will decide to hand them over to the judiciary.

[…]

Winter is to be sued over Islamophobic statements and because of citing hatred and vilifying religious teachings. She had said at an election event in Graz that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would be by today’s standards a child abuser, because he married a six year old.

Winter speaks of “political hatred”

The FPÖ representative said on Tuesday that she would welcome the lifting of immunity. “Only through the considerations of an independent court a clarification can be obtained on the issue,” Winter said in a broadcast. After all, their cause is clearly based on “political hatred by confused, self-proclaimed thought-guards.”

Gates of Vienna correspondent ESW adds:

Last January Susanne Winter, the infamous local FPÖ politician, now a member of parliament, declared that:

“In today’s system” the Prophet Muhammad would be considered a “child molester,” apparently referring to his marriage to a six-year-old child. She also said that it is time for Islam to be “thrown back where it came from, behind the Mediterranean.”

She was heavily attacked and denounced for these — true — words. Muslims in Austria were outraged, Muslims outside Austria resorted to the usual reaction: death threats. Her own political party deserted her.

Winter was quickly indicted on charges of incitement and degradation of religious symbols and religious agitation, an offense which carries a maximum sentence of two years. In the meantime she has won a seat in parliament. Still, no official reaction from her party....

The head man

Courage. "U.S. Troops Kill Taliban Commander, Clad in Woman's Clothes," from AP, November 29 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.-led coalition troops killed a Taliban commander dressed as a women [sic] during a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Soldiers killed four Taliban fighters in Friday's operation, including the Taliban commander named Haji Yakub who was dressed as a woman to evade capture, the U.S. military said in a statement....

In the Ghazni raid, the U.S. said coalition forces discovered Yakub as they questioned a group of women and children inside a compound. The Taliban commander was dressed in a burqa, a traditional robe that covers the entire body. He was killed when he "attempted to engage the force," the statement said.

Not all news organizations are ready to declare the siege over at this point. "Taj operation over with all militants dead, police say," from France 24, November 29:

Indian commandos on Saturday killed the last Islamic militants holed up inside Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel, ending the more than two-day assault on India's financial capital, the city's police chief said.

"All (combat) operations are over. All the terrorists have been killed," Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor said, 59 hours after the attacks began.

Extremely heavy gunfire had been heard from inside the hotel at dawn Saturday, with a major blaze also breaking out as Indian commandos fought to clear the building of Islamic militants, an AFP correspondent said.

Massive flames in the ground floor and first floor of the hotel appeared to be spreading rapidly though the building, the last area in Mumbai where gunmen were still holed up more than 58 hours after coordinated attacks rocked the city.

Firefighters rushed to the historic hotel, a large part of which was obscured by a huge cloud of smoke.

Military sources had earlier said that commandos were fighting up to three heavily armed militants left inside the hotel.

On Friday, Indian security forces launched massive assaults on Mumbai’s Chabab Jewish centre as well as the Taj and Oberoi hotels on Friday to hunt down the remaining terrorists responsible for a deadly two-day hostage drama in India’s economic capital.

At least 155 people – including two French nationals and two US citizens – were killed and about 370 others wounded in a series of coordinated attacks across the city.

At the city’s landmark Taj Mahal Palace hotel, FRANCE 24’s Lise Thomas-Richard said the fighting had been intense during the peak of the operation. “We are reaching the final stages of the operation on the Taj Mahal hotel,” said Thomas-Richard. “I hear explosions or shooting every two minutes.”

Earlier, police found explosives capable of causing "major damage" after regaining control most of the Taj Mahal hotel from armed militants, a senior police official said Friday.

Commandos exited the luxury hotel shortly after the assault and were greeted by a cheering crowd, but fighting soon resumed inside the building.

Ajmal's claim that all of the jihadists were Pakistani citizens does not fit other accounts (except in possible cases of dual citizenship), but he also describes a smaller number of jihadists. Time will tell if the rest of his story holds up. "Arrested terrorist says gang hoped to get away," from the Times of India, November 29:

NEW DELHI: The gang of terrorists who wreaked mayhem in Mumbai for three days were made to believe by their Lashkar bosses that they were not being sent on a suicide mission and that they would be coming back alive.

In a sensational disclosure made by Ajmal, the jihadi nabbed alive by Mumbai cops, the group had planned to sail out on Thursday. Their recruiters had even charted out the return route for them and stored it on the GPS device which they had used to navigate their way to the Mumbai shoreline.

This suggests that the terrorists were willing to undertake a mission which they knew would be very risky, but not necessarily suicidal.

Sources said that the bait of safe return must have been used by the recruiters to convince the wavering among the group to join the audacious plot against Mumbai.

Ajmal made another important disclosure: that all terrorists were trained in marine warfare along with the special course Daura-e-Shifa conducted by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in what at once transforms the nature of the planning from a routine terror strike and into a specialized raid by commandos.

Battle-hardened ATS officials are surprised by the details of the training the terrorists were put through before being despatched for the macabre mission. This was very different from a terrorist attack, and amounted to an offensive from the seam, said a source.

Ajmal has revealed the name of his fellow jihadis all Pakistani citizens as Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shoaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ismail, Abdul Rahman (Bara) and Abdul Rahman (Chhota).

The account of Ajmal also strengthens the doubt of the complicity of powerful elements in the Pakistani establishment. According to him, the group set off on November 21 from an isolated creek near Karachi without the deadly cargo of arms and ammunition they were to use against the innocents in Mumbai. The group received arms and ammunition on board a large Pakistani vessel which picked them up the following day. The vessel, whose ownership is now the subject of an international probe, had four Pakistanis apart from the crew.

A day later, they came across an Indian-owned trawler, Kuber, which was promptly commandeered on the seas. Four of the fishermen who were on the trawler were killed, but its skipper, or tandel in fishermen lingo, Amarjit Singh, was forced to proceed towards India. Amarjit was killed the next day, and Ismail the terrorist who was killed at Girgaum Chowpaty took the wheel.

A trained sailor, Ismail used the GPS to reach Mumbai coast on November 26. The group, however, slowed down its advance as they had reached during the day time while the landing was planned after dusk. The group shifted to inflatable boats, before disembarking at Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade.

From there, they mandated to kill indiscriminately, particularly white foreign tourists, and spare Muslims split up into five batches. Two of them Ismail and Ajmal took a taxi to Victoria Terminus. Three other batches of two each headed for Oberoi Hotel, Cafe Leopold and Nariman House. The remaining four went to Taj Hotel. [...]

Kasab told the police that he and 9 others got off a vessel about 10 nautical miles from Mumbai and shifted to two boats hijacked from fishermen.

One source in ATS familiar with the details of the interrogation quoted him saying that in all 16 fidayeens came to Mumbai on Wednesday. A native of Faridkot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), 21-year-old Kasab told police they had done a reccee of Mumbai few months ago. He said he had come along with eight of the operatives to Mumbai as students and lived in a rented room at Colaba market, a stone's throw away from Nariman House.

An update on this story. "Seven Mumbai gunmen are from 'Leeds and Hartlepool'," from the Mirror, November 28:

Seven of the terrorists who brought carnage to Mumbai are British, Indian government sources claimed yesterday.

They said two British-born Pakistanis are under arrest. And another five suspects are said to have been born and raised here.

Two of the seven are from Leeds, one is from Bradford and one from Hartlepool, the sources claimed. All are aged between 20 and 26.

The claims were made as the death toll in Mumbai reached 155 – with predictions it could go as high as 200.

The Hartlepool suspect was allegedly found in the five-star Taj Mahal Palace hotel, scene of some of the most horrific killings. The man from Bradford and one from Leeds were allegedly discovered on the 17th floor of the Oberoi-Trident Hotel.

A second man from Leeds was allegedly captured near a jetty after a gang of around 25 terrorists landed in Mumbai by boat on Wednesday.

The suspects were allegedly found with documentation, possibly including passports, which revealed their origin.

The sources say they also spoke to each other in a heavily-accented Punjabi common in UK Pakistani communities. Gordon Brown yesterday urged caution saying it was “premature” to draw any conclusions.

He said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not told of him of “any evidence at this stage” that Britons were behind the massacres. [...]

The Foreign Office and MI6 were last night trying to establish the facts amid chaotic scenes in Mumbai as Indian commandos continued operations to flush out the remaining gunmen.

If the terrorists are Britons, the UK security service will have to urgently discover how they slipped through the surveillance net. In the wake of 7/7 London bombings the monitoring of militant and disaffected Muslim groups has been tightened up.

The security services were criticised after 7/7 for not keeping better track of the bombers. Since the early 2000s Britain has had an unwelcome reputation as a haven for Islamic radicals. [...]

Piety. "The battle that is underway in Mumbai is a battle for Allah between its servants and the infidels." Will the UN charge the person who wrote that with "defaming Islam"?

"India: Al-Qaeda websites rejoice over Mumbai attacks," from AKI, November 27 (thanks to News4U):

Mumbai, 27 Nov. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda websites on Thursday were swamped with messages from people who were celebrating the devastating Mumbai attacks which have left over 100 people dead and 281 injured. "Oh Allah, destroy the Hindus and do it in the worst of ways," was one of the comments that appeared on Islamist forums on the Internet immediately after the attacks.

"The battle that is underway in Mumbai is a battle for Allah between its servants and the infidels," said another message published on the al-Falluja forum.

Several Al-Qaeda sites also posted several pictures of the victims in Mumbai and provocative statements....

That Somalis are the ones killing other Somalis -- that is, Muslims killing Muslims -- never figures in his speech. Instead, English and American infidels are told, "We're coming for you! We're going to exterminate you all!" More on the Somali-American jihad.

"Somali Jihadists Call on American and European Muslims to Join Jihad in Somalia," from MEMRI, November 27 :

In a video posted recently on Islamist websites, the Somali jihad group Shabab Al-Mujahideen called on Muslims living in the U.S. and Europe to come to Somalia and join the jihad there. The video is in Arabic, Somali and English.

Following are excerpts from the English part (quoted verbatim):

"To those people still sitting at home, relaxing, having good food, good sleep… what you see of Chichan [i.e., Chechnya], Iraq and Afghanistan and such likes… too much watching… with no action - it leads to nifaq [i.e., hypocrisy]… Jihad becomes something of talk. But jihad is real. There is no way you can tell the sweetness of jihad until you come to jihad... If you don't come to jihad, Allah… will ask you why you didn’t come to jihad...

"How can you sit at home when our brothers and sisters are being murdered in our land [Somalia]? How dare you sit at home, looking at the TV, seeing people being killed, Muslims getting killed?... Those who are in Europe and America: You should get out of those countries, you should make hijra [i.e., emigrate]!

"I'm telling the kuffar [i.e., infidels], the English People, the American people… We're coming for you! We're going to exterminate you all!

"We are muhajirun [i.e., foreigners fighting in Somalia]. We have come to the land of jihad, and we're doing OK. You guys can also do the same way. You can make hijra [i.e., immigrate] to this land, and fight the kuffar...

"To the people who say that there are no muhajirun in Somalia, I'd like to say that there are muhajirun. We are muhajirun… All I can say is, I invite you to come to this land of jihad."

It should be noted that, on November 25, 2008, ABC News aired a report about an American of Somali origin - Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis - who was allegedly involved in jihad in Somalia. According to the report, the FBI believes that Ahmed created a recruiting network in the Minneapolis area, and enlisted several young men who have since disappeared. U.S. officials suspect that most of them have departed for Somalia in order to fight there. They also suspect that Ahmed himself carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia a month ago.

Wonder if any of this money will -- somehow or other -- find its way to the jihadists, as part of the "financial jihad" (jihad al-mal)? "UAE to give $1bn to Pakistan," from the Daily Times, November 28 :

ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has agreed to provide $1 billion to Pakistan to help improve the country’s balance of payment situation, Investment Board Chairman Saleem H Mandiwala said on Thursday. He said that President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to the UAE was successful. He said that various UAE businessmen have shown great interest in exploring investment opportunities in Pakistan.

Man with a solution

Al-Zawahiri invites us to accept Islam, which Muhammad the prophet of Islam stipulates as the first step when meeting the unbelievers, before going to war with them (cf. Sahih Muslim 4294). But of course, he and his ilk are already at war with us; his statement here merely reveals yet again the goal for which he and the jihadists are fighting: to extend Islamic law over the world.

It is noteworthy also that the Telegraph article about which Raymond commented here has no mention of this invitation to Islam. Why would the Telegraph not consider that fit to print? Do they think it's meaningless religious boilerplate? Irrelevant? Or that it would offend Muslims in Britain if they called attention to it?

"Al-Qaida No. 2 to US: Overcome meltdown with Islam," from AP, November 28 (thanks to Mackie):

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader appeared in a new video posted Friday calling on Americans to embrace Islam to overcome the financial meltdown, which he said was a consequence of the Sept. 11 attacks and militant strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ayman al-Zawahri, whose 80-minute recording touched on a number of subjects, also lashed out at Afghanistan's government and said any U.S. gains in Iraq will be temporary.

Zawahri's new recording came in the form of a question-and-answer session with an off-camera interviewer.

Appearing in a white turban and robe, Zawahri discussed the roots of the U.S. economic crisis. He said it was a repercussion of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and that the crisis would continue "as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues."

Yeah, I know I should cut down on doing that. It's a bad habit.

"The American economy was afflicted by a downturn and loss of investor confidence in the market following the events of Sept. 11," he said.

"The modern economy has been destroyed by the strikes of the mujahedeen (in Iraq and Afghanistan) and usury," he said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.

Under Islamic Sharia law, usury, like drinking alcohol, is among the grand sins.

Zawahri then called on the American people to "embrace Islam to live a life free of greed, exploitation and forbidden wealth."...

Evidencing that al-Qaeda's Internet problems have been, at least for now, solved. "Zawahiri blames global financial crisis on 9/11 in latest al-Qaeda video," by Ben Farmer for the Telegraph, November 28:

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said in a new internet video that the international financial crisis is the result of a US war on Muslims and the Sept 11 attacks.

Zawahiri also claimed the recent security gains made by US forces in Iraq were only temporary and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's offers to negotiate with Taliban elements were a sign of his regime's weakness.

The comments in a new internet video come a week after Zawahiri compared US President-Elect Barack Obama to a "house negro" implying he did the bidding of whites.

The video, "Al-Azhar – The Lions' Den", was posted on jihadist websites earlier this week according to the SITE intelligence group, which monitors online Islamist militant propaganda.

Zawahiri said: "This crisis is one of ... the series of American economic haemorrhages after the strikes of September 11... And these ... will continue as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues."

"The ones shouldering the burden are taxpayers, whose money was spent to rescue senior capitalists and to protect the fraudulent interest-based system from collapse."

The Egyptian militant claimed the US was doomed to failure in Afghanistan and the tribal regions of northern Pakistan and had been exaggerating its successes.

"I challenge you [US President George W Bush], if you are really a man, to send the entire American army to Pakistan and the tribal regions for it to end up in hell," he said.

In Iraq, he predicted US gains were temporary and the country's Sunni Awakening Councils of former insurgents who have been credited with stemming the country's bloodshed, would not be accepted by the Shiite majority government.

He also called on Egyptians to hold a general strike to pressure the Government to open the Gaza border to defeat an Israeli siege of the area ruled by militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

"What is the problem if students, employees and workers were to refuse to study and work until the siege is lifted on Gaza?" he said.

"Are we unable to carry out such a peaceful strike?"

The 57-year-old fugitive is Osama bin Laden's most senior lieutenant and has a $25 million US government bounty on his head for involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa.

During the 80-minute video he made no reference to the recent terrorist attacks in Bombay.

How many more such outrages, how many more wanton murders of innocent people, will the non-Muslim world endure before it wakes up? How many more iterations of "It's Just a Tiny Minority of Extremists" and "What About the Crusades?" and "Speaking About Jihad Violence is Islamophobia and Bigotry" must we endure before the mainstream media (liberal and conservative) begins to talk about this issue seriously?

"India: Rabbi among dead hostages discovered at Jewish centre in Mumbai," from AKI, November 28 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Mumbai, 28 Nov. (AKI) - Indian commandos ended the siege at a Jewish centre in Mumbai on Friday while fighting continued at one of the luxury hotels two days after the city came under attack from extremists. Reports citing an Israeli diplomat said that five hostages had been killed, among them former Brooklyn Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.

The couple ran the ultra-orthodox Jewish centre, known as Chabad Lubavitch, located at Nariman House.

An Israeli rescue service run by Orthodox Jews also said its staff sent to Mumbai to help at the siege believed that hostages in the Chabad centre had died....

More on this story. "Five hostages killed in Jewish center, chaos at hotel," from CNN, November 28:

MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- The bodies of five hostages have been found at a Jewish center in Mumbai, according to reports, but fighting still rages at a hotel in the city two days after terrorists launched a series of deadly attacks.

Israeli Foreign Ministry official spokesman Haim Hoshen told an Israel news station five bodies had been found.

CNN's Indian sister network, CNN-IBN, also reported the deaths and said the siege at the center -- Chabad House -- was close to ending.

Gunfire and explosions continued to ring out from the building.

Earlier, police said they had cleared the Oberoi Hotel, killing two militants and freeing hundreds of trapped guests. They found 30 bodies and were searching the building.

However, fighting continued to rage at the Taj Mahal Hotel -- where one gunmen was reportedly still holed up.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor told CNN-IBN the gunman was shooting and throwing grenades at security forces. [...]

CNN's International Security Correspondent Paula Newton said UK authorities were checking reports that some of the attackers were of British origin. [...]

The gunmen were young men in their 20s who "obviously had to be trained somewhere," a member of the Indian navy's commando unit said Friday.

They fired at guests "with no remorse" and knew the layout of the hotels well enough to "vanish" after confronting security forces, the commando said....

"Of all the pleasant surprises in the president-elect's appointments, John Brennan might have been the best." And that's almost certainly why he was torpedoed.

"Shrinks And Spooks," from Investor's Business Daily, November 26 (thanks to DFS):

Some 200 "psychologists and allies" on Monday sent an open letter to President-elect Obama calling on him to reject his likely appointment of quarter-century CIA veteran Brennan to head the spy agency, citing Brennan's support for what they repeatedly called "dark side" policies — specifically harsh interrogation of terrorist detainees. Brennan was ex-CIA Director George Tenet's chief of staff from 1999 to 2001, deputy executive director from 2001 to 2003, and was with the agency during its implementation of the "black sites" program.

If America starts letting shrinks and guidance counselors determine our intelligence practices, we will never be any match for the bloodthirsty fanatics who will stop at nothing to destroy the Western world's freedoms.

As the letter noted, members of the psychological profession recently concluded "a successful several-year struggle to remove psychologists from their roles in aiding or abetting" the use of tough interrogation methods on captured terrorists. Unfortunately, Brennan gave this group another victory, when, seeing the impending hullabaloo, he promptly withdrew his name from consideration for the job.

The leader of this pack of politically correct psychoanalysts, Stephen Soldz of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, lists cultural and sexual humiliation, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and the combination thereof as constituting torture, and he is troubled that Brennan has not repudiated its use by the CIA.

What a perfect example of arrogant "experts" wading out past their depth and beyond their field of knowledge. The business of protecting this country should be left to those who have proved they know how to do it. The CIA terrorist interrogation program and the National Security Agency terrorist surveillance program have been key components of a strategy that has prevented any repeat of the 9/11 terrorist attack....

Read it all.

Who are the attackers in Mumbai?

According to AFP, they're "militants" and "extremists."

According to the Press Trust of India, they're "terrorists."

According to the Indian Foreign Minister, they're backed by "elements in Pakistan."

AP speaks of "suspected Muslim militants," and the Jerusalem Post dares to write about "Islamic terrorists," but in general in the mainstream media there is the expected reticence about identifying the attackers as jihadists or as Muslims at all, and no discussion whatsoever of the Islamic texts and teachings that almost certainly inspired them to this spree of murder and mayhem.

And some will say: what does it matter? There are "extremists" in every religious tradition. You are intent on identifying these attackers as Muslims and jihadists solely out of some irrational hatred for Islam, or racism, or bigotry, or some such.

The response to this is that it is impossible to defeat an enemy one does not understand. Islamic theology and law provide innumerable insights into the behavior and priorities of the jihadists -- and that may be why the Organization of the Islamic Conference is so intent on getting the UN to criminalize any critical examination of Islamic texts and teachings, even for counter-terror purposes. It is not "insulting to Islam" to notice that the Mumbai attackers identify themselves as "mujahideen" -- that is, jihadists, and jihad is an Islamic religious, legal, and political concept. That concept is in play here in numerous ways, and this story reveals another: the Mumbai jihadists set free their Muslim hostages, almost certainly because of Islamic strictures against fighting against one's fellow Muslims (cf. Qur'an 4:92, which prohibits a Muslim from killing another Muslim).

"Turkish couple let off by terrorists for being Muslims," by Clara Lewis and Anahita Mukherji in the Times of India, November 28 (thanks to Pamela):

MUMBAI: When faced with a volley of gunshots, while sipping coffee at the Oberoi Hotel on Wednesday night, Ali Arpaciouglu, a Turkish citizen on a business trip to Mumbai, chose to escape through the hotel kitchen and down a flight of stairs that opened onto the road outside.

This was probably one of the best decisions he took. On the other hand, his business partner, Meltem Muezzinoglu, and her husband, Seyfi, both Turks, when faced with the same situation, decided to dash out of the restaurant and head upstairs instead. When terrorists laid siege to the hotel, the Muezzinoglus were held hostage....

The Muezzinoglus, however, found themselves in a hostage situation, along with a group of foreigners. That night, they shared a room with three foreigners - all women. Two machine-gun-wielding terrorists stood guard over them the whole night.

All the hostages were asked to reveal their religion. When the Muezzinoglus said they were Muslims, their captors told them that they would not be harmed. The other three Caucasian women were removed from the room next day, and the terrorists informed the Muezzinoglus that they had been shot....

Britain, exporter of jihadists. Will this revelation lead to any searching questions about what is being taught in mosques in Britain? Will it lead to any public discussion about immigration and assimilation, or about British values and Sharia? Somehow I doubt it.

"Mumbai gunmen 'were BRITISH': Indian authorities say two of arrested militants are from UK," by Justin Davenport , Rashid Razaq and Nicola Boden for the Daily Mail, November 28 (thanks to KM):

British-born Pakistanis were among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources claimed today, as the death toll rose to more than 140.

Two Britons were among eight gunmen captured by commandos after they stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages, the city's chief minister said.

Vilasrao Deshmukh also revealed that up to 25 terrorists were responsible for the series of bomb blasts and shootings that targeted tourists and foreign interests. [...]

It is known that dozens of British-born Pakistanis have travelled to Pakistan to train in its camps in recent years.

One security source said recently: 'The camps are full and many of the people inside are Brits.'

Last night, there was speculation that a British Al Qaeda suspect reportedly killed by a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan last weekend may have helped plot the attacks.

Rashid Rauf was among five killed in a missile attack in a tribal area in North Waziristan on Saturday.

Security sources believe that at the time of his death Rauf had been planning a major attack on Western targets.[...]

Meanwhile, jihadists in the UK -- like their stealth jihadist brethren stateside -- claim victim status and claim anti-Muslim bias in news coverage:

But firebrand British-based Muslim preacher Anjem Choudhary backed the terrorists and said any Britons killed or held hostage were legitimate targets because they should not have gone to India.

Choudhary, right-hand man to preacher of hate Omar Bakri, said Britain and America is at war with the Muslim world and their citizens must keep off the battlefield.

'Muslims are being killed in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan every day through acts of atrocity against them. But the media only report events like Mumbai.'

This is the third part of last summer's FreedomFest 2008 debate between Professor Daniel Peterson and me on the topic of "Islam: Threat or Not?" It is the second part of my opening remarks, which turned somewhat unexpectedly into a response to Dr. Peterson's opening remarks.

You can see Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

What goodwill? "Pakistan warns India against attack accusations: Says linking it to Mumbai terrorism would 'destroy all the goodwill,'" from AP, November 27 (thanks to Chaza):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan warned India against accusing of it links to the Mumbai terror attacks Thursday, saying doing so would "destroy all the goodwill" between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

The remarks by Pakistan's defense minister came hours after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said militants based outside his country carried out the atatcks [sic].

Singh did not single out Pakistan, which New Delhi has accused of complicity in terror attacks on its soil before, but his remarks are likely to be taken as a sign here that India suspects Pakistani links somewhere in the plot. [...]

Pakistan Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar condemned the attacks, but said "we should not be blamed like in the past."

"This will destroy all the goodwill we created together after years of bitterness," he told The Associated Press. "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents."...

Sure. But of course the double game that Pakistan has been playing for years must lead open-eyed analysts to regard such claims with skepticism.

“Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism specialist with the Swedish National Defense College, said there are ‘very strong suspicions’ that the coordinated Mumbai attacks have a link to al-Qaida....” -- from this news article

Yes, yes. We have all heard the solemn discussions about whether or not the "Deccan Mujahideen" is a new group, or an old one, or a made-up group, and whether or not there is a "link" to Al Qaeda. And this kind of focusing on the trivial, the nearly insignificant, goes on and on and on, when the real point is this: these are Muslims. They may be from within India. Or not. They may be from Pakistan. Or not. They may have been encouraged or funded by Arab Muslims. Or not. They may have links to Al Qaeda. Or not.

What matters is that they are Muslims attacking, attempting to kill, non-Muslims, in order to obtain their aims. And their aims are to weaken -- in this particular case -- India. And they wish to weaken India in order to make the government of India appease Muslims and meet their demands, whether in Kashmir or in India proper. And once those demands, whatever they may be, are met, other demands from Muslims will be made, and will have to be met, for there is no end to this. The Jihad does not have an end point. There is not a finite goal, but rather an endless series of goals, with each success feeding triumphalism.

New book by a "surprisingly mild-mannered" author

Kathy Shaidle is a great warrior of free speech in Canada, where that fundamental right is already largely lost -- as she chronicles in her book The Tyranny of Nice (which she wrote with Pete Vere). The book is "excellent, superb, rollicking, harrowing, much needed," as I told her in an email. And her weblog Five Feet of Fury maintains the same level of excellence as it chronicles, among other things, the demise of sanity and pusillanimity before Islamic supremacism in Canada in the most wildly entertaining fashion, full of Swiftian savage indignation, making it a daily must-read. If we had five Kathy Shaidles, there would be no stealth jihad in this country or on this continent.

Unfortunately, we have only one, and we do have a stealth jihad here, and that Lone Extant Kathy Shaidle has done me the great honor of reviewing my book about the stealth jihad.

"Author: halt all Muslim immigration to America," by Kathy Shaidle in The Examiner, November 24:

While the nation's juvenile delinquents of all ages remain elated by the election of President Hope N. Change (funniest nickname yet? "Teleprompter Jesus"), we grown ups are obliged to stay abreast of our enemies' plans.

When we hear the phrase "Muslim terrorism," we tend to visualize the mass murders of September 11, 2001. Yet as that day's events recede into memory, and might as well be considered forgotten by some Americans, we need to understand that the jihadist threat to our culture and security takes many forms.

These alternative methods of jihad aren't as dramatic as the attacks of 9/11, but in their own way they represent a kind of slow motion, under the radar attack on America.

Robert Spencer's new book delineates these low level attacks. Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs makes for depressing reading, not just because Muslim supremicists are trying to take over the U.S. through our courts, charities, colleges and even public elementary schools, but because -- as the election of Barack Obama (the ultimate "September 10" candidate) seems to indicate, millions of Americans couldn't care less. [...]

Spencer's diagnosis is dire, and his prescriptions are dramatic and definitely politically incorrect; halting all Muslim immigration to America is his most daring suggestion.

Yet this isn't a book by a raving fanatic. Spencer is a surprisingly mild mannered fellow, especially considering how many death threats he receives from members of "the religion of peace" every day. [...]

"Surprisingly mild mannered"? But only by day, Kathy, only by day: by night, I am Freakin' Batman.

There is not only the lack of a minimum age for marriage in the Qur'an, but also the permission for child marriage implied by the permission granted to divorce prepubescent girls (Qur'an 65:4), and of course, Muhammad's own example in marrying Aisha at the age of 6 and consummating the marriage when she was 9. And here is a detailed story of the human cost of the practice made sacrosanct by Muhammad's example (Qur'an 33:21).

"Broken lives: Nigeria's child brides who end up on the streets," by Ramita Navai for the Times Online, November 28:

In a small, dimly lit brothel in the red-light district of Kano in northern Nigeria nearly all the young prostitutes lined up on plastic chairs are runaway brides.

“I was married when I was 15 years old. I was forced into it,” said Hadiza.

Whenever her husband attempted to consummate the marriage, Hadiza would flee to her parents’ home, but they kept returning her to the man to whom she had been married off.

Finally her husband raped her: the attack was so violent that Hadiza was sent to hospital.

“We have no choice. If you’re not married by the time you’re 16, people think there must be something wrong with you,” she said. The girls around her nod silently - some of them had been forced to marry when they were only 12.

Northern Nigeria has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world: nearly half of all girls here are married by the age of 15.

The consequences have been devastating. Nigeria has the highest maternal mortality rate in Africa and one of the world’s highest rates of fistula, a condition that can occur when the pressure of childbirth tears a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum. Many women are left incontinent for life. Up to 800,000 women suffer from fistula in Nigeria.

“They marry young, they get pregnant young, they deliver young and they pick up the fistula,” said Kees Waaldijk, the chief consultant surgeon at the Babbar Ruga hospital, the world’s largest fistula clinic, in the northern state of Katsina.

Most cases happen to young girls during their first pregnancy, and nearly half the patients at Babbar Ruga are under 16. [...]

The Nigerian federal Government has attempted to outlaw child marriage. In 2003 it passed the Child Rights Act, prohibiting marriage under the age of 18. In the Muslim northern states, though, there has been fierce resistance to the Act, with many people portraying it as antiIslamic. “Child marriage in Islam is permissible. In the Koran there is no specific age of marriage,” said Imam Sani, a liberal cleric in the northern state of Kaduna. He said that this was the root cause of the opposition among the more hardline mullahs, who believe that matters of Islamic “personal” law - marriage, divorce and inheritance - must be governed by the Koran, not the state.

“The Muslim clerics have a problem with this Child Rights Act and they decried it, they castigate it, they reject it and they don’t want it introduced in Nigeria,” Mr Sani said.

He said there would be serious repercussions if the federal Government attempted to impose a minimum age of marriage. “There will be violent conflict from the Muslims, saying that ‘no, we will not accept this, we’d rather die than accept something which is not a law from Allah’.”

Half of Nigeria’s 36 states have passed the Act, but it has been adopted by only one of the dozen Muslim states - and even that one made a crucial amendment substituting the age of 18 for the term “puberty”.

Each state in Nigeria has the constitutional right to amend legislation to comply with its local traditions and religion, meaning that central government is powerless to impose a minimum age of marriage.

Other vocal opponents to the Act include village heads and elders - almost all men - highlighting the tribal and cultural constraints that hamper attempts to stamp out child marriage.

“It is important we have the right to marry our girls young so there is no risk of pregnancy outside marriage. It is to preserve the purity of our girls,” said Usman, an 84-year-old man from the village of Yammaw Fulani, who married a 14-year-old girl four years ago. “We will never accept this law,” he said.

More on this story. "URGENT: Indian Forces Assault Besieged Jewish Center in Mumbai," from AP, November 27:

MUMBAI, India — Security forces assaulted a Jewish center in Mumbai where Muslim militants were believed holed up with possible hostages Friday, with black-clad commandos dropping from a Indian helicopter as sharpshooters opened fire on the five-story building.

The attack came as Indian commandoes scoured two luxury hotels room-by-room for survivors and holed-up militants, more than a day after a chain of attacks across India's financial center by suspected Muslim militants left at least 119 people dead.

The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked, but the sporadic gunfire and explosions at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels dwindled overnight, indicating the siege might be winding down.

At the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, a commando assault began shortly after dawn following a tense night in which six trucks of soldiers had been brought in to surround the building.

Snipers stationed in buildings opposite the center began the attack, with sustained fire on the building as at least nine commandos lowered themselves by rope onto the roof from a circling Indian air force helicopter....

Read it all.

It wouldn't be a huge surprise. "Indian forces arrest militants, including Pakistani," from News.com.au, November 28 (thanks to JE):

INDIAN security forces have arrested three militants, including a Pakistani national, inside a Mumbai hotel attacked by a group of gunmen.

Quoting official sources, the Press Trust of India news agency reported the arrests were made inside the five-star Taj Mahal hotel, one of several targets in the city stormed by militants yesterday.

The report identified the Pakistani national as Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot, Multan, in Pakistan.

It also said the militants were members of Lashkar-e-Toiba - a Pakistan-based group best known for an assault on the Indian parliament in 2001.

The report said the Pakistani detainee told Indian investigators that the group of 12 militants had been dropped off by a merchant vessel 10 nautical miles outside Indian waters, and had reached Mumbai in a small speedboat.

Earlier, A senior military official blamed Pakistani militants for the multiple attacks in Mumbai, killing at least 125 people and injuring hundreds more.

"They are from across the border and perhaps from Faridkot, Pakistan. They tried to pretend that they were from Hyderabad,'' said Major General R.K. Hooda, who is leading the military operation to flush out the extremists.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said the militants had come from "outside the country'' - a thinly veiled reference to arch-rival and fellow nuclear-armed nation Pakistan.

He also warned in his televised address against "neighbours'' who provide a haven to anti-India militants.

Pakistan's defence minister immediately said his country had played no role in the attacks.

"In previous cases they have acted like this, but later it all proved wrong,'' Ahmed Mukhtar said.

"We are very much positive that Pakistan is not involved in this.''

India has in the past frequently accused Pakistan of backing Islamic militants active in India.

Militant Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is fighting Indian rule in Kashmir and is best known for an assault on the Indian parliament in 2001, also denied any involvement....

Gunshots were audible on CNN-IBN's coverage, which went dark moments later, at least on the internet feed. "Fighting reported at Mumbai Jewish center," from CNN, November 27:

MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Fighting broke out early Friday between government soldiers in a helicopter and gunmen holed up inside a Jewish center where two or three gunmen were believed to be remaining.

The helicopter dropped off seven or eight soldiers onto the roof of the Chabad house, and then moved away from the line of fire, CNN sister station CNN-IBN reported.

The operation followed after grenades had been tossed from inside the structure toward anyone approaching the building -- three such explosions occurred in four hours.

But movement appeared imminent shortly before dawn, when several jeeploads of police, firetrucks and at least one ambulance pulled up to the five-story structure.

The fighting at Chabad house comes as Indian security forces appear to be gaining control of two Mumbai five-star hotels attacked by gunmen in a wave of violence that has lasted more than 24 hours and killed at least 125 people.

A gunman was killed around 1 a.m. in the Oberoi hotel, where commandos were going room-to-room, trying to flush out attackers and rescue people, J.K. Dutt, the director of India's National Security Guard, told CNN-IBN, CNN's sister network in India.

Dutt said he could not say how many gunmen remained in the Oberoi, where hostages have been trickling out of the building for hours.

Security forces used in-house telephones to ask guests holed up in their rooms to switch on lights and open curtains, so that they could provide cover, CNN correspondent Andrew Stevens reported.

More lunacy re the Mumbai jihad attacks -- this time from the Muslim Victimology Department. Marika Vicziany is a Professor of South Asian Studies at Monash University in Victoria, Australia. She isn't saying that the Hindus mounted the attacks, but that they're revenge attacks for Hindu mistreatment of Muslims.

"Australian killed in Mumbai terror attacks," from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, November 27 (thanks to Michael):

PROFESSOR MARIKA VICZIANY: Al-Qaeda could, of course, be involved. I think we should think of a number of possible scenarios.

But the Hindu Muslim situation in Bombay and Western India is so bad that you don't need Al-Qaeda to stir trouble.

The feeling is that these bombings are about revenge and retribution. Muslims in Western India feel that they have been under attack, and they attack is coming from Hindu fundamentalists and Hindu extremists.

Surprise, surprise: a possible Saudi connection to the Mumbai massacre. Are the "Indian Mujahideen" and the "Deccan Mujahideen" one and the same, or related in some way? Not necessarily, but that there would be a Saudi hand in the jihad in India at all is both unsurprising and something that bears further investigation.

A September article from the Times of India: "Saudi detained on suspicion of funding Indian Mujahideen," from the PTI, September 28 :

NEW DELHI: A man from Saudi Arabia was on Sunday detained by police at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on suspicion of funding the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen suspected to be behind serial blasts in Delhi and other cities.

The person was taken into custody by the sleuths of Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau at around 8:30am as soon as he reached here from Jeddah, sources said.

The suspect is being questioned at an undisclosed location and investigators are trying to ascertain if he has any role in the funding of the terror outfit, they said.

The Indian Mujahideen has been accused of carrying out several serial blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh.

Police and the Intelligence Bureau are trying to ascertain the funding channel of Indian Mujahideen, a module of which has been cracked following the September 19 gunbattle in south Delhi's Jamia Nagar....

Any land that once belonged to the Dar al-Islam belongs to it by right forever, at least as far as Islamic jihadists are concerned, and so this strange demand is not all that surprising.

"Mumbai hostage rescue raids continue," from AP, November 26 (thanks to Israel Matzav):

[...] The terrorists issued a first statement saying, "We urge the Indian government to return stolen Muslim lands," Sky News reported.

An Indian media report said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks in e-mails to several media outlets. There was no way to verify that claim.

Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism specialist with the Swedish National Defense College, said there are "very strong suspicions" that the coordinated Mumbai attacks have a link to al-Qaida....

Amaresh Misra, conspiracy fantasist

It was all a Mossad conspiracy, doncha know. The Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is dedicated in its own words to "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," has done the inevitable and expected and unsurprising in blaming the jihad attacks in Mumbai not on the jihadists whose motives and goals it shares, but on none other than...the Jews.

And the author of this farrago, one Amaresh Misra, is calling for blood. "We will fight a civil war if need be," he declares, "against the pro-Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers."

Conspiracy Fantasy and Projection Alert: "Mumbai and India Under Attack," by Amaresh Misra for Ikhwan Web, November 26 (thanks to Kisan):

It is 4AM in India right now. I am in Mumbai reporting from the ground. I have not slept a wink. Mumbai is under attack. People and forces who killed Mahatama Gandhi, who demolished the Babari Mosque have triumphed. More than 16 groups of terrorists have taken over Taj, Oberai and several hotels. Hundreds of people are dead. For the first time no one is blaming Muslim organizations.

The Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare and other officers of the ATS have been killed. These were the same people who were investigating the Malegaon Blasts--in which Praggya Singh, an army officer and several other noted personalities of the BJP-RSS-Bajrang Dal-VHP were arrested. Karkare was the man to arrest them. Karkare was receiving threats from several quarters. LK Advani, the BJP chief and several other prominent leaders of the so-called Hindu terrorism squad were gunning for his head. And the first casualty in the terrorist attack was Karkare! He is dead--gone--the firing by terrorists began from Nariman House--which is the only building in Mumbai inhabited by Jews. Some Hindu Gujaratis of the Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels--they openly said that the firing by terrorists began from Nariman house. And that for two years suspicious activities were going on in this house. But no one took notice.

Our worst fears have come true. It is clear that Mossad is involved in the whole affair. An entire city has been attacked by Mossad and probably units of mercenaries. It is not possible for one single organization to plan and execute such a sophisticated operation. It is clear that this operation was backed by communal forces from within the Indian State. The Home Minister Shivraj Patil should resign. The RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal should be banned. Advani and others ought to be arrested. Today is a day of shame for all Indians and all Hindus. Muslims and secular Hindus have been proven right. RSS type forces and Israel are all involved in not only destabilizing but finishing India. India should immediately snap all relations with Israel. We owe this much to Karkare and the brave ATS men who had shown the courage to arrest Praggya Singh, Raj Kumar Purohit, the army officer and several others.

A photograph published in Urdu Times, Mumbai, clearly shows that Mossad and ex-Mossad men came to India and met Sadhus and other pro-Hindutva elements recently. A conspiracy was clearly hatched.

This is a moment of reckoning especially for Hindus of India. The killers of Gandhi have struck again. If we are true Sanatanis and true Hindus and true nationalists and true patriots we have to see this act as a clear attack by anti-national deshdrohi forces. Praggya Singh, Advani and the entire brand is anti-national. They ought to be shot. Any Hindu siding with them is hereafter warned of serious consequences.

This is a question of nationalism. If no one else, the Indian army will not take this lying down. Communal, anti-national forces have attacked the very foundation of the Indian constitution and the nation. We will fight a civil war if need be against the pro-Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers.

Inner spiritual struggle all over the city

Jihad against 73-year-old British entrepreneurs.

"Mumbai Massacre: British tycoon killed moments after TV interview as death toll hits 125," by Amar Singh, Richard Orange and Nicola Boden for the Daily Mail, November 27 (thanks to Alan):

A British shipping tycoon was gunned down by terrorists in a Mumbai hotel today, moments after telling of his panic by mobile phone.

Entrepreneur Andreas Liveras told reporters how he and other guests had locked themselves in the basement of the luxury Taj Mahal hotel while gunmen ran amok.

Moments - and possibly minutes - after he took the call, the 73-year-old entrepreneur died from several gunshot wounds.

He is the first Briton known to have been killed in the terror attacks, which left a total of 125 dead and another 325 wounded. Several other Britons were seriously injured.

Mr Liveras' death was confirmed by Mumbai's St George's Hospital. A hospital administrator said: 'We can confirm a British national Andreas Liveras, aged in his 70s, was brought in by ambulance.

'He had been shot multiple times, causing heavy bleeding and fatal injuries to his major organs. Doctor s pronounced him dead on arrival. The matter has been referred to the police and the British High Commission.'...

Happy Thanksgiving.

In past years I've written on this day that I'm thankful that there haven't been more jihad terror attacks on U.S. soil. I am thankful for that this year also, but this year's Thanksgiving comes in the shadow of the jihad attacks in Mumbai -- and we must not forget that their defense is our defense, their murders threaten us, they are facing the same jihad that we continue to face, although most Americans don't know it.

Above all this year I am thankful that I'm still able to write this. Now that the UN has approved an "anti-blasphemy" measure that is in reality an obvious and crude attempt to restrict open speech about the Islamic jihad threat, we shouldn't take for granted that those who are threatened by Islamic supremacism and jihad will always be able to speak freely about that threat -- and that includes Americans as well.

But this year, as hard a year as it has been in so very many ways, we have for the most part been able to do so (with the notable exception of some unlikely thoughtcrime states like Canada), and for that today we should give thanks, and hope and pray that we will continue to be able to do so long enough to turn back the tide of jihadist encroachment upon free societies everywhere.

"Kabul blast kills four near US embassy," from World News Australia, November 27 (thanks to JE):

A suicide car bomb blew up near the US embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least four people and wounding several more.

The target of Thursday's attack, about 60 metres from the heavily secured entrance to the embassy, appeared to have been a passing convoy of foreign troops, an Afghan interior ministry official said.

The blast badly damaged several cars and a bus with the area packed with morning rush-hour traffic. A large pool of blood smeared the road and a tree was set alight.

"The information we have so far is that four people have been killed and three wounded. It was a suicide attack," a city police chief, General Alishah Paktiawal, told reporters at the scene....

CAIR, stung by the Holy Land Foundation terror charity verdict, which confirms Awad, Hooper, and Co. in their status as unindicted co-conspirators, says -- predictably enough -- that the case was all about hate and not at all about funding jihad terror. But it is -- predictably enough -- just an assertion, unsubstantiated by any facts.

"CAIR Says HLF Verdict Based on ‘Fear-Mongering,’" from CAIR.com, November 26 (thanks to A.):

“We believe this case was based more on fear-mongering than on the facts. It is particularly troubling that the government chose to use testimony from an anonymous witness, which deprives the defendants of their full right to confront their accusers. We expect the defendants to appeal this verdict and believe that it will eventually be overturned.”

Right. No anonymous witnesses. Everyone outed. Hmm. What would be the outcome of that, and who would be the beneficiaries?

And why not, exactly?

"Saudi Arabia to build a mosque in Moscow," from Interfax, November 21:

Moscow, November 21, Interfax – King of Saudi Arabia has initiated construction of a mosque and Islamic cultural center in Moscow.

“If Russian authorities allocate a parcel of land, then Saudi Arabia will finance the building,” Head of Foreign Department at the Russian Muftis Council Rushan Abbyasov told Interfax-Religion....

"Russian mufti recognizes the Saudi have right not to allow Christians to Mecca while Christians can build a church in Arabia," from Interfax, November 25:

Moscow, November 25, Interfax – Co-chairman of Russian Mufti Council Nafigullah Ashirov has recognized the right of Saudi Arabia not to let Christians to Mecca and Medina, though Christians have the right to build their own church in the country.

He told this to an Interfax-Religion correspondent commenting on the address of Russian Orthodox public figures to the Saudi king with the request to observe the rights of Christian living in Arabia.

“We can’t give instructions that contradict the acting laws of other country, no matter if it is America, Great Britain or Israel. My personal opinion is inseparable from acting laws,” the Mufti said.

I hope his coreligionists in America, Great Britain and Israel take those words to heart.

“If Christians can visit Mecca and Medina or not - this question doesn't fall within my province, but it is an absolutely different country, they have their own leaders and laws. Israel also has its own laws: for example, people under 45 are not allowed to Al-Aqsa Mosque, it is their country, and they decided such wise. There is a country – there is a law, the laws should be respected and stick to,” he went on to say.

Ashirov believes, when the number of Orthodox believers in Saudi Arabia will reach such a level that they could organize their own community, “there will be no problems with building an Orthodox Church in Saudi Arabia.”

And how exactly would the number of Orthodox believers in Saudi Arabia ever reach such a level, while Saudis so vehemently discourage all non-Muslim religious practice?

Answering the question, if an Orthodox community has a right to build a church in Saudi Arabia, the Mufti said, “Why not! However everything should be done on legal basis: if they turn to an appropriate state structure and have permission, they will surely do it.”

And how will they get legal permission when such a thing is illegal in Saudi Arabia?

Anyway, now it gets good:

"Russian Orthodox figures ask Saudi King’s permission to build a Christian church in Arabia," from Interfax, November 25:

Moscow, November 25, Interfax – Representatives of Orthodox public organizations addressed the King of Saudi Arabia an open letter with a request to build an Orthodox Church in his country.

The address, conveyed to Interfax-Religion, was initiated after the Saudi Kingdom announced its plans to build a mosque in Moscow.

“You often say that Islam is a religion of justice. However, if Saudi Arabia builds mosques in dozens of Christian countries, isn't it just to build a church for Christians living in Your Kingdom!" the letter says.

To support their words the authors quoted Chairman of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran who said that "if Muslims believe it right to have a great striking mosque in Rome, than it is right for Christians to build a church in Riyadh.”

Orthodox believers remind that preachers of monotheism - Christians - came to Mecca and Medina several centuries before Muslims, while Jews historically resided there. Therefore, it is unjust not to allow them in the territories, where their ancestors lived, where their churches and cemeteries were located.

“Saudi Arabia, as any other country of the world, is a multiconfessional and policonfessional state. It would be just to grant the freedom of faith to Christian minority as their share exceeds 10 per cent,” the address further says.

Its authors consider it is very important to lift restrictions on visits of Christians to Mecca and Medina, to permit them to wear crosses, to publish religious literature and preach their religion. “It would be just to create the same conditions for Saudi Christians as Muslims have in Russia,” Orthodox activists stressed.

“It is the only way to make interreligious dialogue honest and just,” the address written by the Moscow Division of the Union of Orthodox citizens, the Radonezh Society and the Byzantium Club concludes.

“It is the only way to make interreligious dialogue honest and just.” Quite so!

Thanks to John Doe for all the links.

Here is the second part of the FreedomFest 2008 debate between Professor Daniel Peterson and me. The stated topic was something like "Islam: Radical or Peaceful?," which is a false dichotomy, and as you can see in Part I, the moderator stated the topic as I have it here: "Islam: Threat or Not?"

In any case, the topic of the debate was fairly clear to everyone, although Dr. Peterson did seem to wish to restate it himself as "Spencer: Threat or Not?" In this present segment he concludes his case for that, and about midway through the video above I begin my response. It will continue in part 3.

Why? Because they see their jihad in India as just one part of the larger jihad against America, Britain, and the West, and against Israel. And because the Qur'an says that "strongest among men in enmity to the believers you will find the Jews..." (5:82).

"Terrorist Killed in Chabad House," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Hana Levi Julian for Israel National News, November 27 (thanks to Pamela):

(IsraelNN.com) Commandos have killed at least one terrorist holed up inside Mumbai's Nariman House, the Chabad House where terrorists are holding a rabbi, his wife and a number of others hostage. Six other terrorists are still believed to be hiding in the building.

An unknown Muslim terrorist group linked to the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the massive multi-site terror attack carried out late Wednesday night in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, home to some 15 million people and India's largest city.

The terrorists struck two luxury hotels frequented by Americans and British nationals, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel as well as the Cama Hospital with automatic weapons and grenades.

Also among the nine sites struck by the Deccan Mujahideen group throughout "the city that never sleeps" was the Mumbai Chabad House, known as Nariman House, run by Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka. The Chabad House is a popular stop for Israeli tourists passing through the area, who are provided with kosher food and Jewish programs there.

Local police secured the release of the couple's one and a half-year-old son Moshe, but both parents were still being held captive. According to Yehudit Rozenberg, mother of Rivka Holtzberg, the family's babysitter said that both parents were alive, but unconscious at last report, prior to 9:00 a.m.

Commandos surrounded the Chabad House and were preparing to attack. The terrorists have demanded that India release "all mujahedins," and "Only after that will we release the people," they told a local television station.

At least 101 people, including six foreigners and five terrorists, have died since the attacks began, and 600 others have been wounded. As of 7:00 a.m. Israel time, at least 16 police officers were among the dead. The terrorists have held more than 250 people as hostages in the Chabad House, a hospital and luxury hotels.

Several other Israelis have maintained telephone contact from their eight floor hotel rooms. The Chabad website reported that "the situation is grim."...

"Otherwise we will find that there is a significant section of our society which is increasingly alienated, with very dangerous results."

Let's follow the logic here: Hockman must believe there are elements of sharia that are compatible with British law, and either those can be compartmentalized and separated from those that aren't, or there exists a "true" and more moderate sharia where those elements are less of an issue.

However, he does acknowledge that there is at least a Tiny Minority of Extremists that does threaten the United Kingdom. Then, from whom is Britain made safer by implementing a supposedly de-fanged sharia? If it's the "extremists," he is ultimately calling for negotiating with terrorists and giving in to blackmail. If it is the Vast Majority of Moderates whom he's afraid of alienating with "very dangerous results," he is simply underlining how flimsy a construct "moderation" generally is: How "moderate" is someone who can be so easily persuaded to violence, especially when it should be well understood that living in Britain entails living under Britain's laws?

"Sharia law should be introduced into legal system, says leading barrister," by John Swaine for the Telegraph, November 26:

Stephen Hockman QC, a former chairman of the Bar Council, reportedly suggested that a group of MPs and legal figures should be convened to plan how elements of the Muslim religious-legal code could be introduced.

After speaking at an event organised by the website Islam4UK at the National Liberal Club, Whitehall, Mr Hockman reportedly told The Daily Express: “Given our substantial Muslim population, it is vital that we look at ways to integrate Muslim culture into our traditions. Otherwise we will find that there is a significant section of our society which is increasingly alienated, with very dangerous results.

“There should perhaps be a standing committee comprising Parliamentarians, lawyers and religious leaders to consider how this could be achieved and what legal changes might be framed.”

Sharia law has been criticised for its prevention of some rights for women. Mr Hockman reportedly conceded: “The position of women is one area where the emphasis is, to the say the least, rather different.”

He reportedly added that the incorporation of Sharia could improve relations between faith groups and boost the country’s security.

He said: “I am also sometimes confronted by those who point out that there are elements within the Muslim community who pose a threat to our very security. My answer is not to dispute them but to suggest that it is for those of us forming part of the majority community to address such problems.”

What remains to be seen is whether those rulers have the political will to rein in the clerics despite the possibility of being labeled "un-Islamic." If not, they set a dangerous precedent for themselves and their country.

"Sultans' remarks cause a stir," from the Malaysian Insider, November 27:

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 - When the National Fatwa Council issued an edict on yoga last week, it also warned Malaysians not to question it but did not figure on the powerful Malay rulers stepping in.

Three rulers - from Selangor, Perak and Negeri Sembilan - have expressed disapproval that the monarchy was bypassed in the matter.

Under Malaysian law, the sultans are the head of Islam in their states, and the King is the head of religion for the country.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi added his voice to the issue yesterday, saying that "a physical regime with no elements of worship can continue".

He said that Muslims who performed yoga without chanting Hindu mantras could carry on with their activity as it was good for their health.

"I believe that Muslims are not easily swayed into polytheism," he told Bernama.

"What I understand from the decision of the National Fatwa Council is that it was aimed at explaining to Muslims the implications of yoga practice," he said, adding that the fatwa would be implemented only after the rulers had given their consent.

On Tuesday, Perak crown prince Raja Nazrin Shah told the Perak Fatwa Committee to consider the fatwa very carefully. He added it will have to be brought to the Perak Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council which he chairs, before being presented to the Sultan of Perak for consent.

A day before that, the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, said any fatwa on public matters should be brought to the Conference of Rulers first. Yesterday, the Regent of Negeri Sembilan, Tunku Naquiyuddin Tuanku Ja'afar, made a similar comment.

"Recently, the council has come out with edicts on tomboys and yoga. I am not at all certain that members of the royalty had been consulted on these issues and if not, I would certainly encourage the council to do so," he said.

The public intervention of the rulers has caused a stir as it is unprecedented for them to come into conflict with the government's Islamic authorities. The Islamic bodies are rarely criticised by the politicians for fear of being labelled as un-Islamic.

The rulers' intervention has left the fatwa in limbo. So far, none of the states has gazetted the ruling that yoga is forbidden for Muslims if it included elements of chanting and worship. The physical exercises in themselves are discouraged as they might lead to an erosion of faith.

The fatwa has to be gazetted in each state for it to have the force of law for Muslims in that state.

There are mixed views. Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat said he personally agreed with the edict because of the Hindu beliefs associated with the exercise. But the Perlis Mufti, Dr Asri Zainal Abidin, had expressed reservations.

It is not clear if the rulers can reject the fatwa unilaterally. According to law professor Shad Faruqi, it is a grey area, but he believed that the sultans will have a strong say as they have wide discretion in matters of Islam in their states. [...]

"These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems."

More on the New York City jihad plot. "Sources: Al Qaeda Targets Amtrak N'east Corridor," by Marcia Kramer for CBS, November 26:

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The world's economic fears were violently pushed aside on Wednesday by another global threat -- terrorism.

A massive coordinated attack was launched in Mumbai, India just hours after the FBI warned that Al Qaeda may be targeting New York's subways and railroads.

If Al Qaeda terrorists have their way there will be chaos and mayhem here this holiday season, a mass transit bomb plot that would probably affect all the subway and train lines at Penn and Grand Central stations.

"The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible," said Congressman Peter King, R-Long Island, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Uniformed officers, including this NYPD Counter Terrorism Squad members and Amtrak cops with M-16s, flooded Penn Station Wednesday after the FBI said it had received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that Al Qaeda operatives discussed a plan two months ago to bomb New York City's mass transit system.

The report said: "These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems."...

They expected it to become between the election and the inauguration. And now it has. "Intelligence chiefs were expecting Al-Qaeda spectacular," by Michael Evans in the Times, November 27 (thanks to W):

Western intelligence services have been expecting an al-Qaeda spectacular terrorist attack in this crucial period between the end of President George Bush’s administration and the succession of Barack Obama.

Signals intelligence “chatter” in recent weeks indicated that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation might be plotting an attack “to grab the headlines” before Mr Obama takes over in the White House on January 20.

British security and intelligence sources said there had been increasing concern, particularly in the United States, that a “terrorist spectacular” was on the cards.

The multiple attacks on Westerners in Bombay last night showed all the signs of an al-Qaeda strategy — picking on vulnerable Western “soft targets” but not in a country where there would be maximum security. The attacks on Western targets in Bali in 2002 when al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planted bombs in tourist-favoured restaurants and clubs was another example where the group switched its resources to achieve maximum impact.

Counter-terrorist experts last night said that India would have been selected for the latest spectacular “probably because that’s where al-Qaeda has sufficient resources to carry out an attack on this scale. They don’t choose for the sake of it, they look to see where they have the greatest capability and then order an attack,” a counter-terror expert told The Times.

The key to this latest attack was the search by the armed terrorists for American and British passport holders. With a reported 40 Britons held hostage, the terrorists have the upper hand. The counter-terrorist sources said targeting Bombay’s most luxurious hotels and a crowded railway station had all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation....

More disturbing -- but telling -- details regarding this story. "20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo," from AINA, November 26:

One thousand Christians were today trapped inside the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in West Ain Shams,Cairo, after more than twenty thousand Muslims attacked them with stones and butane gas cylinders. The Church's priest Father Antonious said that the situation is extremely dangerous.

The Muslim mob that attacked the church blocked both sides of the street and encircled the church building, broke its doors and demolished its entire first floor. The mob were chanting Jihad verses as well as slogans saying "we will demolish the church" and "We sacrifice our blood and souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Islam", while the entrapped Christians chanted "Lord have mercy".

The incident started on the occasion of the inauguration of the Church today, when the Muslims hastily established a Mosque in the early hours of this morning, by taking over the first floor of a newly-built building facing the Church and started praying there.

When the security forces tried to disperse the mob, they went to nearby homes and shops owned by Christians, and were armed with sticks, butane, knives and other sharp objects. Witnesses said the mob included children from as young as 8-years old to men of over 50-years old, in addition to women.

The Church building was originally a factory that was adapted into its present state, the matter which took over five years to complete and to get the necessary permissions from the authorities to have a Church established.

Human rights organizations and lawyers were refused entry into the besieged Church.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian, and soon to follow, no doubt, Western press, portray this as "sectarian strife" where both sides, Muslims and Christians, are equally guilty of "intolerance."

The Pope evinces that he knows what the average Muslim -- let alone their ulema -- know. If theology represents the dividing-line between Christians and Muslims, and yet, if theology is eschewed at "inter-faith conferences," never broached, what is achieved?

"Pope Questions Interfaith Dialogue," by Rachel Donadio for the New York Times, November 24:

ROME — In comments on Sunday that could have broad implications in a period of intense religious conflict, Pope Benedict XVI cast doubt on the possibility of interfaith dialogue but called for more discussion of the practical consequences of religious differences.

The pope’s comments came in a letter he wrote to Marcello Pera, an Italian center-right politician and scholar whose forthcoming book, “Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian,” argues that Europe should stay true to its Christian roots. A central theme of Benedict’s papacy has been to focus attention on the Christian roots of an increasingly secular Europe.

In quotations from the letter that appeared on Sunday in Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily newspaper, the pope said the book “explained with great clarity” that “an interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible.” In theological terms, added the pope, “a true dialogue is not possible without putting one’s faith in parentheses.”

But Benedict added that “intercultural dialogue which deepens the cultural consequences of basic religious ideas” was important. He called for confronting “in a public forum the cultural consequences of basic religious decisions.”

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s comments seemed intended to draw interest to Mr. Pera’s book, not to cast doubt on the Vatican’s many continuing interreligious dialogues.

“He has a papacy known for religious dialogue; he went to a mosque, he’s been to synagogues,” Father Lombardi said. “This means that he thinks we can meet and talk to the others and have a positive relationship.”...

"Warned"

And for all the Taliban's atrocities, here's Karzai expressing "dismay" at their tenacity and widespread influence, at the fact that 40 countries are unable to defeat them. More on this story. "Afghan acid attack girls warned not to go to school: police," from Agence France-Presse, November 26:

KABUL — Schoolgirls sprayed with acid in southern Afghanistan had been warned not to go to school a week before the attack, a deputy minister said Wednesday.

Authorities have arrested 10 suspects in connection with the November 12 attack in which two men on a motorbike used a water pistol to spray acid on the girls as they arrived at school in the city of Kandahar.

They say the attack, which drew international condemnation, was the work of extremist Islamic Taliban, which barred girls from going to school when they were in government between 1996 and 2001.

"Evidence shows and witnesses say they (the girls) were threatened a week before not to go to school," deputy interior minister General Mohammad Daud told reporters in Kabul.

Daud said four of the 10 arrested men had confessed their involvement.

"The leader of the group and the person who sprayed the acid have confessed to their crimes. The confession of two others is still being studied," he said.

Eleven girls and four female teachers were in the group that was attacked and most were protected by their burkas, all-covering garments that most Afghan women wear in public.

Six girls were treated in hospital for burns. A 17-year-old girl was badly hurt and transferred to hospital in Kabul.

A state attorney told the same press conference courts would demand the highest punishment for the crime and that information showed the attack was "organised across Afghan borders", a reference to the tribal belt of Pakistan where Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies have bases.

"This is Taliban and Al-Qaeda policy to fight culture and civilisation," said the lawyer, who is named only Mohibullah.

The Taliban have denied involvement, but the insurgents have most often been blamed for a series of attacks on Afghanistan's education system, with about 230 schools targetted in the year to June and dozens of people killed.

About half of the attacks have been on girls' schools even though they make up only 15 percent of schools in the country, according to a report to the UN Security Council this month.

Such as, "The Afghans don't understand any more how a little force like the Taliban can continue to exist, can continue to flourish, can continue to launch attacks with 40 countries in Afghanistan, with entire NATO force in Afghanistan, with entire international community behind them - yet still we are not able to defeat the Taliban."

Indeed, why is that? Why does this "little force" have so much influence? When will bands like the Taliban -- or, for that matter, al-Qaeda -- be decisively defeated? When does one declare victory?

When one finally appreciates that the ideologies driving such groups are grounded in what they believe to be eternal, immutable commandments from the Almighty, one will understand that the threat of radical Islam is not temporal, that it transcends time and space, that it transcends grievances and psychoanalyses, that it, and its peculiar institution, jihad, have existed from the dawn of Islam and are not about to go away anytime soon; or what I dub, the Hydra-Monster syndrome.

"Afghan President doubts NATO's war against terrorism in Afghanistan," by Farhad Peikar for South Asia News, November 26 :

Kabul - Seven years after the fall of the Taliban in the US- led invasion in Afghanistan, the NATO war on terrorism remains 'unclear', President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday - and demanded a timeline for its success.

'This fight against terrorism and civilian casualties has been continuing for the past seven years. Our villages are bombarded, our people are getting killed,' Karzai told a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer in his presidential palace.

Karzai said Afghanistan was burning because of 'a war which is unclear what it is for, and what we are doing.'

Karzai's remarks came a day after he told the representatives of 14 members of the UN Security Council in Kabul that the Afghan people wanted to know that how long the fight against terrorism would continue.

'The Afghans don't understand any more how a little force like the Taliban can continue to exist, can continue to flourish, can continue to launch attacks with 40 countries in Afghanistan, with entire NATO force in Afghanistan, with entire international community behind them - yet still we are not able to defeat the Taliban,' Karzai's office said in a statement.

The UNSC delegation headed by Giulio Terzi, Italy's ambassador to the Security Council arrived in Kabul for a three-day-visit on Monday.

'It is better that you should set a timeline for your victory, for the victory of all us against terrorism. Not a timeline for withdrawal, but set a date when this war can succeed, and under what conditions this war can succeed,' Karzai told reporters...

A profound question with critical implications.

The Deccan Mujahideen -- warriors of jihad. Is it all right to mention that fact? As Pamela asks, "Are we allowed to talk about it, or is this insulting to Islam and in violation of the UN resolution against 'defaming Islam'"?

"Report: Little-known group claims India attacks," from AP, November 26:

MUMBAI, India (AP) - A media report says a little-known group, the Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The Press Trust of India news agency said Thursday the group sent emails to several media outlets.

Teams of heavily armed gunmen attacked a crowded train station in southern Mumbai and Leopold's restaurant, a well-known Mumbai landmark, along with the two hotels and a police station.

Officials say at least 78 people were killed and another 200 wounded. In addition, the attackers were holding hostages Thursday morning....

More on Mumbai, or Bombay, as it used to be more commonly known, in calmer days. "Foreigners targeted in coordinated Bombay attacks," by Rhys Blakely in the Times, November 26 (thanks to Alan):

Gunmen stalked a hotel in Bombay looking for British and US passport holders during co-ordinated attacks across the city that have left at least 80 dead.

A series of shootings and bomb blasts at luxury hotels and bars in the south of the city hit at least nine locations. Security sources said “a major terror attack” was unfolding amid reports that foreigners had been taken hostage in one hotel.

Shootings were reported in the lobby of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the Colaba area of south Bombay and at the nearby Leopolds bar, a popular destination with western backpackers. Witnesses described pools of blood and bullet scarred walls at both locations.

A witness at the hotel told a local television station: “They wanted anyone with British or American passports.

"They wanted foreigners.”

It was feared that the death toll could rise significantly....

A police spokesman said: “We have only a very tenuous grasp on what is happening so far. People are scared. The incidents being reported are so many. Gunmen are under siege at several locations but we are worried about hitting civilians”

Because the police, unlike the attackers, are civilized human beings.

Mumbai Shootings Update. "Unknown terrorists have conducted a coordinated attack across Mumbai's major tourist hubs, with over a dozen deaths and many injuries reported," from SkyNews, November 26 (thanks to Alan):

Gunmen have targeted luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in at least seven attacks across India's financial capital.

NDTVare reporting an eighth attack at the JW Marriott hotel.

Terrorists are reportedly still holed up at in three places, including Oberoi and Taj hotels.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) are advising all Britons in Mumbai to stay indoors.

The FCO also report a further explosion near Mumbai airport.

The death toll is unknown. Officials have said at least 25 people have been wounded.

Reuters are reporting at least 18 fatalities.

The Times of India are reporting as many as 80 people killed and 250 injured in the attacks.

The police commissioner A. N. Roy said: "These are terrorist strikes in at least seven places."

He added: "The terrorists have used automatic weapons and in some places grenades have been lobbed."

Tory MEP Witnessed Shootings

Gunmen opened fire on two of the city's best known luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi.

They also attacked the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station in southern Mumbai and Leopold's restaurant, a Mumbai landmark.

It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the attacks.

An eyewitness report says one of the attackers asked tourists if they were British or American before opening fire.

Alex Chamberlain added there was "no doubt in my mind" that the attacks were the result of a fundamentalist Islamic terror attack....

Mumbai on high alert

No indication yet as to the perpetrator, but of course there are many Islamic jihadists who desire to hit India. They may not be responsible for these attacks, but we have seen coordinated jihad attacks in India before.

"Many 'Terror Attacks' Hit Mumbai," from SkyNews, November 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Gunmen conduct a 'coordinated attack' across Mumbai's major tourist hubs, with over a dozen deaths and many injuries reported.

There are emerging reports of many fatalities and at least two dozen people injured in at least seven different attacks across the city.

Local television news report at least 10 deaths as a result of the attacks.

The APnews agency is reporting a local hospital official saying at least 25 people have been brought to the city's G.T. Hospital near the scene of the shootings.

Local police say they consider the attacks an act of terrorism....

Indian television channel NDTV says a major attack that hit the city's main link to the airport, the CST train station, where gunmen opened fire in the station hall.

They are also reporting more attacks in the suburbs, with five or six different incidents across the city. There may be three bombs involved, as well as gunfire.

Happy Thanksgiving. "Exclusive: NY Rail Plot Details Based on 'Reliable' FBI Source," by Richard Esposito for ABC News, November 26 :

Uniformed police officers have flooded New York City's Penn Station, home to the Long Island Rail Road, following a warning from the FBI of a "plausible but unsubstantiated" threat of a terrorist bomb attack against the system during the holidays.

Law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com, the plot involved a "Madrid-like attack," a reference to the synchronized bombing of the commuter rail system in Spain in March 2004 that killed 191 people.

Following the public release of the warning by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, officials in Washington made efforts to dampen public concern.

"There is nothing concrete to suggest this plot ever went beyond the aspirational or talking stage," said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence that led to the warning.

Law enforcement officials told ABCNews.com the information was based on an FBI source who has proved "reliable and knowledgeable in the past."

Officials told ABCNews.com unspecified new information in the last 48 hours led to the public warning "out of an abundance of caution."

Congressman Peter King (R-NY), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Associated Press "authorities have very real specifics as to who it is and where the conversation took place and who conducted it."...

"The interior security minister had prohibited the Herald from using the word 'Allah' in its articles, affirming that its use ' by non-Muslims could increase tension and create confusion among Muslims in the country'."

Funny how there's no concern about creating confusion the other way around. That is because, while Qur'an 29:46 says "And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our Allah and your Allah is One, and unto Him we surrender," that line of discourse is meant to be part of a one-way conversation: Clearly, a non-Muslim would be forbidden under Islamic law from preaching to Muslims along those lines in favor of another religion.

Still, the excuse of "creating confusion" does not cast the Islamic councils' opinion of their own faithful in a good light: Are they that prone to confusion and apostasy? Apparently, that matter is one the scholars are willing to sacrifice for the sake of sticking it to the unbelievers.

An update on this story. "Islamic councils against Catholic magazine of Kuala Lumpur: forbidden to use the word 'Allah'," from Asia News, November 25:

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - The Islamic religious councils of seven Malaysian states and the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (MACMA) are turning to the federal court for the ban of the use of the word "Allah" in the weekly Catholic Herald. Muslim representatives from Terengganu, Penang, Selangor, Kedah, Johor, Malacca, and the Federal territory of Kuala Lumpur want the court to rule on whether the law relative to the case has been applied according to constitutional principles.

The Malaysian constitution guarantees full religious freedom for all confessions, but an ordinance from the interior security ministry issued in 1986 prohibits the use of the word "Allah" in publications of the non-Islamic communities. But the law has never been applied consistently. To complicate the case of the Herald, and of other non-Muslim magazines, there is also the fact that there are two parallel judicial systems in the country: one is federal-civil, regulated by the constitution, and the other is juridical-religious, which is supposed to apply only to Muslims and is regulated by Koranic law.

The affair of the magazine of Kuala Lumpur emerged in December of last year. The interior security minister had prohibited the Herald from using the word "Allah" in its articles, affirming that its use "by non-Muslims could increase tension and create confusion among Muslims in the country." The ban brought the risk of shutdown for the only Catholic newspaper in the country, which with its 12,000 copies and 50,000 readers is the only instrument of communication for the 850,000 faithful.

In the last few days of 2007, after the protests of the Catholic community, the interior security minister withdrew the injunction, but on January 5, 2008, the minister of Islamic affairs intervened in of the affair, upholding the ban. Claiming the right to use the word "Allah," the Herald then opted to take the legal route, and the archbishop of the diocese of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, took the government to court.

Today, the seven states and the MACMA have been admitted to the court to intervene in the dispute, and have been named as parties in the case in the revision of the procedure initiated by the archbishop of the capital. In the meantime, the Malaysian Gurdwaras Council (MGC), a Sikh group, has informed the court that it intends to present the attorney general's office with documentation that would exclude the Islamic councils from the debate.

According to the documentation from the MGC, a request to ban the use of the word "Allah" for non-Muslims was presented in Perak ten years ago. The prime minister at the time, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had communicated to the parties in the case that there was no cause for proceeding. Jagjit is now asking prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to use the same approach in the case of the Herald.

Jagjit has asked the court to update the hearing with the request of the MGC. Judge Lau Bee Lan has established February 27 as the date for deciding whether to permit the parties to present a deposition as requested for judicial review.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert. "Most Islamic studies teachers oppose pluralism, survey finds," by Abdul Khalik for the Jakarta Post, November 26 (thanks to Kyros):

Most Islamic studies teachers in public and private schools in Java oppose pluralism, tending toward radicalism and conservatism, according to a survey released in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The study shows 62.4 percent of the surveyed Islamic teachers, including those from Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah — the country’s two largest Muslim organizations — reject the notion of having non-Muslim leaders.

The survey was conducted last month by the Center for Islamic and Society Studies (PPIM) at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, involving some 500 Islamic studies teachers throughout Java.

It reveals 68.6 percent of the respondents are opposed to non-Muslims becoming their school principle and 33.8 percent are opposed to having non-Muslim teachers at their schools.

Some 73.1 percent of the teachers don’t want followers of other religions to build their houses of worship in their neighborhoods, it found.

Some 85.6 percent of the teachers prohibit their students from celebrating big events perceived as Western traditions, while 87 percent tell their students not to learn about other religions.

Some 48 percent of the teachers would prefer for female and male students to be separated into different classrooms.

PPIM director Jajat Burhanudin said the teachers’ anti-pluralist views would be reflected in their lessons and contribute to growing conservatism and radicalism among Muslims in the country.

“I think they play a key role in promoting conservatism and radicalism among Muslims nowadays. You can’t say now that conservatism and radicalism only develop on the streets like what has been campaigned by the FPI (the Islam Defenders Front), but rather deep within the education (system),” he said, referring to a radical Islamic group.

Jajat said such intolerance threatened the civil and political rights of citizens of other religions.

The survey also shows 75.4 percent of the respondents ask their students to call on non-Muslim teachers to convert to Islam, while 61.1 percent reject a new Islamic sect.

In line with their strict beliefs, 67.4 percent said they felt more Muslim than Indonesian.

The majority of the respondents also support the adoption of sharia law in the country to help fight crime.

According to the survey, 58.9 percent of the respondents back rajam (stoning) as a punishment for all kinds of criminal and 47.5 percent said the punishment for theft should be having one hand cut off, while 21.3 percent want the death sentence for those who convert from Islam.

Only 3 percent of the teachers said they felt it was their duty to produce tolerant students.

With 44.9 percent of the respondents claiming themselves members of Nahdlatul Ulama and 23.8 percent supporters of Muhammadiyah, Jajat said the two moderate organizations had failed to establish their values at the grassroots.

“Moderation and pluralism are only embraced by their elites. I am afraid that this kind of phenomenon has contributed to increasing radicalism and even terrorism in our country,” he said.

An Are-They-Or-Aren't-They? Update. I would say, "Only his hairdresser knows for sure," but the hairdresser has been blown up.

"Afghanistan: Taliban leader rejects prospect of truce," by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AKI, November 25 :

Kandahar, 25 Nov. (AKI) - While the western media raised hopes of a reconciliation between the Taliban and the Afghan government when Saudi Arabia sponsored talks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the man named as one of the main negotiators, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Rahmani, denied any involvement.

The Saudi government owned Al-Sharq al-Awsat even quoted the Afghan Minister of Information, Sheikh Mohammed Tashkiri, who said a second round of negotiations took place in Dubai between a delegation from Kabul and one from the Taliban movement.

According to Tashkiri, "on both occasions representatives of Mullah Omar participated in the meetings, the most authoritative among them was Mullah Mohammad Hasan Rahmani".

However, in an interview with AKI, Mullah Hasan Rahmani, a close advisor of Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, rejected the claims saying they were a figment of the imagination of the Kabul administration led by President Hamid Karzai. [...]

“Today the Taliban is successful and the Americans and the NATO forces are in a state of defeat," Mullah Rahmani said.

"The enemy wants to engage the Taliban and deviate their minds. Sometimes they offer talks, sometimes they offer other fake issues. The Taliban never ever asked for talks, neither do we want these talks to be held.

"Neither the Saudi Arabian initiative [in Mecca] nor the Saudi Arabian proposal [regarding Mullah Omar] is acceptable,” Mullah Hasan Rahmani said.

Hasan Rahmani completely denied that any Taliban representatives attended King Abdullah’s dinner in September or any other talks with the Kabul government.

“In the last days of Ramadan, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, was invited for dinner, but later the media projected that talks had begun with the Taliban under Saudi mediation," he said.

"That was to weaken the Taliban and their jihad. The fact is that the Taliban were not part of such talks, nor are they ready to be so.”...

As you can see below, Nonie Darwish and I don't think this film is going to make cinematic history. Raymond posted this article here yesterday, but I didn't want to let it pass without chiming in as well. "Critics Decry Plans for a Movie Depicting Life of Prophet Muhammad," by Maxim Lott for FoxNews, November 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

If film producer Oscar Zoghbi has his way, Americans will be soon be flocking to movie theaters to see a film about the Prophet Muhammad and his followers that Zoghbi hopes will clear up misconceptions about Muslims, including what he says is "the understanding that all Muslims are terrorists."

Come on, Zoghbi. Who is really saying that "all Muslims are terrorists"? I know of no analyst on the scene today who is saying that. When you set up a straw man before you're even out of the box, it casts a shadow over your entire project.

Zoghbi says he hopes to shoot some scenes for his movie in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, and he predicts his film, "The Messenger of Peace," will rival Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ."

If he plans to shoot in Mecca, he better plan to convert to Islam, if he isn't a Muslim already:

And that brings to mind a question: will his film depict Muhammad saying, "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims," and other things he said that don't shine brightly among the Pearls of Wisdom from the World's Religions? Somehow I doubt it.

But some critics predict Zoghbi's movie, which is scheduled to begin production early next year, will be a whitewash, and that it won't tell the whole story about Muhammad or Islam.

Nonie Darwish, the author of the upcoming book "Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law," said the film will likely try too hard not to offend.

"The movie will probably avoid or justify Muhammad's violent and unprovoked battling years in Medina, where assassination and mass murder were done by Muhammad … in order to spread the religion, take control and silence his critics," Darwish said.

"We will probably see the image of Muhammad that most Muslims were spoon-fed in their religious education."

Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.com, said Western audiences looking to learn more about a religion tangled in stereotypes of suicide bombers will be disappointed by "The Messenger of Peace."

"They're already taking a stand on a controversial issue with the title alone, denying and downplaying the manifest fact that numerous Muslims around the world have justified acts of violence by invoking Muhammad's words and example," Spencer said.

But Zoghbi says his film will very deliberately take a moderate approach.

"We are trying to depict the values and teachings of the Prophet. It's not a historical film in any way," he said.

That is a distinction without a difference. Muhammad taught certain things, and he lived out those teachings. He taught, "I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah," and he lived that out by participating in numerous battles against unbelievers.

Will Zoghbi's film depict that "value"?

"And it's not a Muslim propaganda film. This film is also for Muslims, and I hope it will encourage them to condemn violence."

I hope so also, but how does Zoghbi intend to accomplish that? Does he think that by presenting a whitewashed picture of Muhammad, bereft of battles and commands to do battle, he will inspire Muslims to "condemn violence"? Does he think they will have no other sources for Muhammad's words and deeds besides his film?

One thing Zoghbi hopes to avoid is the violence and outrage in the Muslim world that has followed some recent depictions of the prophet Muhammad.

Islamic conventions forbid the showing of Muhammad in any form, and violence has often followed the release of newspaper cartoons, books and films that criticized or simply depicted the Muslim prophet.

In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran a cartoon depicting Muhammad wearing a turban with a bomb in it, sparking riots that killed more than 30 people throughout the Islamic world. This year, protests began on news of "Fitna," a film critical of Islam, and Random House cancelled distribution of the widely anticipated book "Jewel of Medina" out of fear of such a reaction.

Zoghbi said that he will make every effort to ensure that "The Messenger of Peace" is in line with Islamic traditions.

"Islam itself doesn't stop you from showing the Prophet," Zoghbi said. "But it is convention and tradition, and we will abide by that. We do not want to offend anyone."

Of course not!

Last summer at FreedomFest 2008 I debated Dr. Daniel Peterson, a professor at Brigham Young University and author of Muhammad: Prophet of God, on the topic "Islam: Threat or Not?" The panel was moderated by Matt Sanchez, war correspondent for World Net Daily.

The FreedomFest folks kindly allowed me to post video of the debate, which I will now do, in parts owing to the YouTube time limits. Here is the first part, in which Dr. Peterson rips me but good. Stay tuned for what happened next!

"In parliament, she says, she is often greeted with screams of “kill her” when she stands up to speak, and she has had no shortage of personal threats from fellow MPs."

"Afghanistan’s women lawmakers speak out as conditions worsen," by Clancy Chassey for the Guardian, November 26:

They were walking to school in the southern city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn.

Her friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school.

It was not an isolated incident. For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening — and those women who dare to publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives.

Member of Parliament (MP) Shukria Barakzai receives regular death threats for speaking out on women’s issues. Talking at her home in central Kabul, she closed the living room door as her three young daughters played in the hall.

“You can’t imagine what it feels like as a mother to leave the house each day and not know if you will come back again,” she said, her eyes welling up as she spoke.

“But there is no choice. I would rather die for the dignity of women than die for nothing. Should I stop my work because there is a chance I might be killed? I must go on, and if it happens it happens,” she said.

Barakzai receives frequent but cryptic warnings about planned suicide attacks on her car, but no help from the government. Officials advise her to stay at home and not go to work, but offer nothing in the way of security assistance, despite her requests. She said warlords in parliament who received similar threats were immediately provided with armored vehicles, armed guards and a safe house by the government.

Afghan women are feeling increasingly vulnerable as the security situation worsens and a growing number of Western and Afghan officials call for the Taliban to join the government.

“We are very worried that, now the government is talking with the Taliban, our rights will be compromised,” said Shinkai Karokhail, an outspoken MP for Kabul. “We must not be the sacrifice by which peace with the Taliban is made.”

Under Taliban rule, up until 2001, women were not allowed to work and were forbidden from venturing outside the home without a male escort.

Afghan women who defy traditional gender roles and speak out against the oppression of women are routinely subject to threats, intimidation and assassination. An increasingly powerful Taliban regularly attacks projects, schools and businesses run by women.

Six weeks ago, Lieutenant-Colonel Malalai Kakar was assassinated in her car on her way to work in Kandahar. She was Afghanistan’s highest-ranking female police officer and a fierce defender of women’s rights. Only 1.5m tall, she was known to have beaten men she found to be abusing their wives. Another senior female police officer was killed in the province of Herat in June.

Talking at a safe house on the outskirts of Kabul, Mullah Zubiallah Akhond, a Taliban commander from the southern province of Uruzgan, said the group’s attacks on women were always political and not based on any desire to target or punish women specifically. [...]

The Islamist group is just one of the many threats facing Afghanistan’s few outspoken female MPs.

“Our parliament is a collection of lords,” Barakzai said. “Warlords, drug lords, crime lords.”

In parliament, she says, she is often greeted with screams of “kill her” when she stands up to speak, and she has had no shortage of personal threats from fellow MPs.

They visit her privately to tell her she will be killed if she continues to speak out on such issues as the right of a woman to have a personal passport (separate from the standard “family passport”) or against compulsory virginity tests for young women, and the right of a man to have custody of a child at two-years old. It is not only men who oppose women in parliament — both Barakzai and Karokhail have faced obstruction from other female MPs on key women’s issues.

Karokhail said that, of the 68 women in the 249-strong parliament, only five were vocal on women’s issues. The majority of women in parliament vote in favor of more traditional legislation that often rules against women’s rights.

Some women now fear the parliament is becoming more conservative towards women.

“Talibani ideas are natural among our people, particularly their vision about women,” Barakzai said.

And to make matters worse, the "new" Afghan constitution itself stipulates that ""no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam" (Chapter 1, Article 3)."

Afghan commentators say President Hamid Karzai, desperate to win next year’s elections, has been bringing former mujahidin commanders into parliament in the hope they will support him at election time.

Most of these former jihadi commanders share the Taliban’s ideas about women and are expected to support legislation that will once again limit women’s freedom. In addition, according to the Taliban commander, the group has a growing number of MPs in parliament lobbying for their policies. [...]

Najla Zewari, who works for the UN’s gender and justice unit, believes violence against women is increasing, fuelled by growing frustrations caused by the economic crisis and lack of security.

She said there had also been a sharp increase in rapes by men who claimed they could not afford the pay the dowry needed to marry. After the public shame of an attack, the victim is usually outcast and the rapist is then the only man who will have the woman as his wife.

It is crimes like this that make many Afghans nostalgic for the harsh justice of Taliban rule. Barakzai countered: “Women were safe, in one sense, under the Taliban — but they were kept as slaves, they were not allowed to do what they wanted even in their own home.”

As the Taliban strengthen, the future for women in Afghanistan looks bleaker. Barakzai said women’s rights, once heralded as the great success of post-invasion Afghanistan, had been sidelined and might suffer more in the struggle to find a solution to the fighting.

Last week, a council of 400 women politicians met in Kabul to discuss this possibility and prepare ways to counter it.

“Our biggest fear at the moment is that the return of Talibani ideas to government will wind back the gains we have made in these last years,” Karokhail said.

Eurabia Alert. "2 Germans accused of supporting al-Qaida arrested," by Patrick McGroarty for the Associated Press, November 25:

BERLIN (AP) — Two German citizens suspected of distributing propaganda over the Internet supporting al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations were arrested Tuesday, German prosecutors said.

The men — identified only as Daniel P., 26 and Harun Can A., 23 — were among eight suspects whose homes were raided on Tuesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

A 19-year-old German citizen identified as Irfan P. was already in custody on separate charges before the morning raids in cities including Augsburg, Duesseldorf and Bremen, where investigators combed through the suspects' computer equipment.

Prosecutors said the three Germans are accused of belonging to the Global Islamic Media Front and of supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

"The suspects are, among other things, strongly suspected of being responsible for many German-language Internet sites," the statement said, "Through them (the suspects) supported and solicited members and supporters for al-Qaida, al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar Al Islam."

According to prosecutors, the men posted propaganda videos and messages to the group's German-language site and created links to other sites hosted by Islamic terrorist groups.

Federal prosecutor's spokesman Frank Wallenta said two of the videos included a German speaker calling for Germany and Austria to pull their troops out of Afghanistan.

Daniel P. is accused of 18 counts of publishing propaganda to the sites between November 2006 and November 2007. Irfan P. faces 10 counts of the same charge and Harun Can A. faces four.

Wallenta said he could not estimate the maximum prison sentence that each suspect might face because a judge will need to decide which charges they will face and whether to hold them in investigative custody, which could reduce their sentence if convicted.

"It's much to early for that," Wallenta said. [...]

A small step forward. If authorities enforce penalties properly and aren't deterred from pursuing cases for fear of "alienating" or allegedly "radicalizing" Muslim populations, that will be another step forward. British law aims at preventing forced marriage," by Jennifer Quinn for the Associated Press, November 25:

LONDON – (AP) — A British law went into effect Tuesday that allows courts to prevent someone from being forced into marriage — a move that comes as governments across Europe confront immigrant practices that sometimes clash with more liberal values.

The right to resist a forced marriage is more than simply a "more liberal value." But there is more politically correct understatement later in the article.

In the first nine months of 2008, the Forced Marriage Unit — part of Britain's Foreign Office — handled more than 1,300 cases in which there were concerns someone was about to be forced into marriage, or already had been.

Nearly 85 percent of the cases had female victims, and the majority involved families of Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi descent, the unit said. About half involved minors.

The Forced Marriage Act gives British courts the power to issue protection orders that can stop intimidation or violence, prevent someone from having to go abroad, and compel someone to reveal the whereabouts of a person believed to be at risk.

The act allows the victim, a friend, or an agency working with the person at risk — like the police, social services or organizers of a women's refuge — to apply for a protection order. Anyone who violates such an order can be jailed for two years.

A curious detail:

It is not a crime in Britain to force someone into marriage. But the practice often includes offenses such as abuse, assault, rape and kidnapping.

Women who had been forced into marriage — or who had escaped a forced marriage — were consulted on the act before it became law, said Shaminder Ubhi, the director of London's Ashiana Project.

"You want to be able to say to the community that this won't be tolerated, that if you are a perpetrator, you will be held accountable," Ubhi said.

The effort to curb forced marriage is part of a wider debate across Europe over the proper balance between accepting diversity and demanding that immigrants accept the values of their new country. France, with a secular tradition, set of a furious debate in 2004 by banning Muslim headscarves and other religious symbols from schools.

The issue of forced marriage is in quite a different league from other "traditions," but that sets up a handy litmus test: If it's a crime and/or an institutionalized violation of human rights, it isn't "diversity."

Once more, the Egyptian press depicts Islamic discrimination/persecution against dhimmi Christians as a product of "sectarian strife," wherein both parties are equally guilty, or "intolerant." But why shouldn't it, when the Western press does the same thing? See the Pact of Omar for more on why the Muslims must have been incensed. More on this story.

"13 Injured in Clashes between Muslims and Christians in Ain Shams," by Mustafa el-Marsafawi and Fatma Abu Shanab for Al-Masri Al-Yawm, November 25 (thanks to Robert):

There were clashes between Muslims and Christians in Ain Shams district two days ago after some Christians prayed inside a closed plant turned into a Church, which is a stone's throw away from a mosque. After the two sides pelted each others with stones, the police dropped tear bombs and arrested eight people.

Leaderships at Cairo Security Directorate, Azhar Sheikhs and priests moved to the scene of the accident to defuse the situation and reach a solution for the problem.

Eyewitnesses said seven central security vehicles and anti-riot forces cordoned off Tawfiqia Street in which security forces used sticks and tear bombs to disperse the people who pelted them with stones. This resulted in the injury of eight people and five soldiers. In addition, two cars and a number of facades were destroyed.

Some Muslims from the district said the Christians turned a closed plant into a church without getting a license. They wondered how the Christians want to establish a church adjacent to a mosque.

Muslims and Christians exchanged accusations of pelting with stones and bottles.

"We sought protection in the church because we were not a party in the problem, as clashes erupted between the police and the Muslims," the Christians said.

The menacing-looking throng standing against the police, depicted in pictures, would seem to verify this.

The "Burqini"

Where's Naomi Wolf to help explain why Western women should give the hijab a try? More on such stories. "Islam makes modest inroad in fashion," by Liz Gooch, Kuala Lumpur for The Age, November 25 (thanks to Shechild):

THE shorter, tighter and more revealing the better may be the rule on most catwalks, but there is not a miniskirt or plunging neckline in sight as Malaysia's Islamic Fashion Festival gets into full swing.

Models covered from head to toe are strutting down catwalks in Kuala Lumpur wearing designs from around the world during the week-long festival, which emphasises fabric over flesh.

The event is becoming a regular fixture on the fashion calendar in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Dubai as organisers seek to transform the three cities into the London, Paris and New York of the Islamic fashion scene.

This week's festival, the sixth since the show began in Kuala Lumpur two years ago, features Islamic designs for every occasion, from office wear, prayer wear and bridal wear to swimwear, couture and avant-garde.

The festival's founder, Rezza Shah, says his aim is to show that Islamic clothing can be fashionable.

"When I say 'Islamic fashion', they think it's a fashion show where you can see two eyeballs. Even Muslims themselves think this," said Mr Shah, a former model and actor who used to run his own modelling agency. "I do agree that women should be covered but they should be allowed to express their fashion, because we are living in a modern world."

While there are no official statistics indicating the value of the Islamic fashion industry, some have estimated that it could be worth $US96 billion ($A152 billion) a year at least.

"A lot of ladies are covered but are dying to dress up well," said Mr Shah, adding that he aimed to show clothing that ranged from minimal to maximum coverings. "It's not about saying what's right or wrong. It's about showing variety."

Another contradiction: It is about saying what's right (dressing according to Islamic principles) and wrong (not dressing in infidel mini-skirts).

More on this story. "Critics Decry Plans for a Movie Depicting Life of Prophet Muhammad," by Maxim Lott for Fox News, November 25 (thanks to Christopher):

If film producer Oscar Zoghbi has his way, Americans will be soon be flocking to movie theaters to see a film about the Prophet Muhammad and his followers that Zoghbi hopes will clear up misconceptions about Muslims, including what he says is "the understanding that all Muslims are terrorists."

Zoghbi says he hopes to shoot some scenes for his movie in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, and he predicts his film, "The Messenger of Peace," will rival Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ."

But some critics predict Zoghbi's movie, which is scheduled to begin production early next year, will be a whitewash, and that it won't tell the whole story about Muhammad or Islam.

Nonie Darwish, the author of the upcoming book "Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law," said the film will likely try too hard not to offend.

"The movie will probably avoid or justify Muhammad's violent and unprovoked battling years in Medina, where assassination and mass murder were done by Muhammad … in order to spread the religion, take control and silence his critics," Darwish said.

"We will probably see the image of Muhammad that most Muslims were spoon-fed in their religious education."

Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.com, said Western audiences looking to learn more about a religion tangled in stereotypes of suicide bombers will be disappointed by "The Messenger of Peace."

"They're already taking a stand on a controversial issue with the title alone, denying and downplaying the manifest fact that numerous Muslims around the world have justified acts of violence by invoking Muhammad's words and example," Spencer said.

But Zoghbi says his film will very deliberately take a moderate approach.

"We are trying to depict the values and teachings of the Prophet. It's not a historical film in any way," he said...

Naturally, since if it was a "historical" film, Zoghbi would have to rely on Muhammad's biographers, Ibn Hisham, al-Waqidi, Ibn Ishaq -- or, for a succint sum, Robert's Truth About Muhammad -- something he would not want to do.

Unfortunately for her, revenge in Islam seems to be reserved for men only. More on this story. "Afghan teacher wants acid thrown on her attackers," from the Associated Press, November 25:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A 23-year-old teacher burned in an acid attack on 15 schoolgirls and instructors wants the Afghan government to throw acid on her attackers and then hang them.

Kandahar's governor said Tuesday that authorities had arrested 10 alleged Taliban militants for the Nov. 12 attack in this southern city and that several confessed to taking part.

Gov. Rahmatullah Raufi said the men would be tried in open court, a pledge that pleased Nuskaal, a first-year math teacher who suffered acid burns on her shoulders.

"Those girls were simply going to school to get an education," said Nuskaal, who like many Afghans goes by one name. "My parents told me that security isn't good enough and that they were worried about me teaching. But I told my parents I won't stop teaching. I'm not afraid."

After the attack, President Hamid Karzai called for the perpetrators to be executed in public. Nuskaal said the attackers should have acid thrown on them first.

Men riding motorbikes squirted acid from water bottles onto three groups of students and teachers walking to school. Several girls suffered burned faces and were hospitalized. One teenager couldn't open her eyes for days after the attack, which sparked condemnation around the world.

Afghanistan's government called the attack "un-Islamic," while the United Nations labeled it "a hideous crime." First lady Laura Bush decried the attackers as cowardly.

The government charged Tuesday that high-ranking Taliban fighters paid the suspects a total of $2,000 to carry out the attack. The assailants came from Pakistan but were Afghan nationals, said Doud Doud, an Interior Ministry official...

Killing and being killed for Allah (cf. Qur'an 9:111)

More on the Somali jihad in Minneapolis -- home also of several notable Stealth Jihad efforts, including the attempt to impose Sharia law on the patrons of taxicabs at Minneapolis airport, and the refusal of Muslim cashiers at local Target stores to check out pork products.

Anyway, have any authorities stopped to consider the question of whether we really want to import into the United States people who would blow themselves up as suicide bombers? Why not?

"FEDS: Twin Cities man behind Somalia bombing, investigating network," by Sam Zeff, Bob McNaney, and Nicole Muehlhausen for KSTP.com (thanks to Refugee Resettlement Watch):

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned that federal law enforcement sources believe that a Twin Cities man blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Northern Somalia last month.

The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating whether Shirwa Ahmed had developed a terrorist recruiting network in the area.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS learned that Ahmed came to the Twin Cities in 1996 and graduated from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

More than a dozen young men of Somali descent, mostly in their 20s, from the Minneapolis area have recently disappeared, U.S. law enforcement officials tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. All are thought to be associates of Ahmed. U.S. officials suspect most of the young men have departed for Somalia to fight in ongoing violence there or to train in terrorist camps. Family members of the young men are said to be distraught, trying to figure to out what happened to them, sources say.

So far, the investigation has not uncovered credible evidence of a plot targeting the U.S. but American officials want to track down all these young men before they can say for certain what this is or is not, according to ABC News. Sources say the situation is being closely monitored by senior law enforcement and intelligence officials in Washington....

"Some were said to be deeply religious."

"The Missing: Somali Men Off Twin Cities Streets, Back in Somalia," by Tom Lyden for MyFoxTwinCities, November 24 (thanks to all sent this in):

MINNEAPOLIS -- Young Somali men are vanishing off the streets of the Twin Cities. More than 20 have left in the last few months, and the community fears they’ve gone back to Somalia to fight in a holy war.

They’re known in the Somali community simply at The Missing. More than 20 young Somali men, between the ages of 17 and 22, who have left the Twin Cities in the last few months, without a single word to their families.

The families and community leaders believe the men have gone back to fight in a bloody civil war, in which Al Quiada is a major player.

"They're concerned, emotional and in shock,” Omar Jamal, of the Somali Justice Center said. “They're completely grief stricken.

From multiple sources in the Somali community, FOX 9 has learned eight men are believed to have left on August 1, and another ten on November 4....

Then, last week, five families went to the FBI, worries their kids were part of some jihad in Somalia. For their part, the FBI would not confirm or deny whether they have an ongoing investigation....

Some of The Missing are believed to be former gang members, escaping the street violence that’s claimed the life of seven young Somali men this year. Others are in college, and some were said to be deeply religious.

The irony is their families risked everything to escape the violence and religious wars, yet something or someone is luring the young men back....

Hmmm. What could it be?

Ghassan Elashi, under arrest in 2002

More on this story. "Guilty verdicts in terror case deal blow to CAIR: Founding director of U.S. Muslim lobby group could face 20 years in prison," from WND, November 25 (thanks to Doug):

In a major blow to the terror-support network in America, the nation's largest Muslim charity and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinan terrorist group Hamas.

The 108-count verdict against the Holy Land Foundation also deals a blow to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror-fundraising scheme.

One of the guilty defendants in the federal case, Ghassan Elashi, was a founding director of Washington-based CAIR, the most powerful Muslim lobbyist group in the nation.

Elashi and the other defendants – Mohamed El-Mezain, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh – could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

For the first time, wiretap evidence heard in the Holy Land case put CAIR's executive director, Nihad Awad, at a Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders and activists that was secretly recorded by the FBI. Participants hatched a plot to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charitable giving.

"Government officials ought to study that evidence to realize CAIR is not what it presents itself as," said Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Indeed it isn't. Read it all.

Stockholm Syndrome, based on Qur'an 4:34. "Violence Against Women: Jordan, 20% Approve To Be Beaten," from ANSAmed, November 25 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - AMMAN, NOVEMBER 25 - Around 20 percent of Jordanian women approve being beaten by husbands to discipline them, according to a survey conducted by the department of statistics that was published today. The study included nearly 15,000 families and 11,000 women who got married, said the report. Most of the respondents aged between 15 to 49 years old. Luck Steve, representative of UN Agencies which helped conduct the study, said measures must be taken to fight violence against women following surprising results of the survey. "The result of the survey shows we have work to do regarding state of women in the society and how they are being treated," said Steve.

...Every year between 15 to 20 women are killed in the name of honour, with killers receiving sentences for just a few months behind bars. (ANSAmed).

An American in Somalia. "Somalian Terror Organization Shabaab al Mujahideen Looks to 'Throw the West Into Hell,'" by Allison A. McGevna for FoxNews, November 25:

In the summer of 2007, a 28-year-old father of three from Houston, Texas, shocked his country when he became the first American ever to be convicted of receiving military training at a terrorist camp in Somalia.

Daniel Maldonado, an offbeat, outspoken young man who sported tattoos and dreadlocks, committed himself to wage jihad outside the United States and went to Somalia to receive training. It was there that he mastered the violent “arts” of homicide bombing, building IEDs and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

Maldonado’s training in jihad came from Shabaab al Mujahideen, a group the State Department on Feb. 29, 2008, designated as a highly dangerous foreign terrorist organization.

Shabaab al Mujahideen, which espouses radical Islamic rule and has close ties to Al Qaeda, is best known for operating training camps for people seeking a more extreme form of Jihad. It also has been forging relations with Somali pirates who have recently been intercepting and holding for ransom several international shipping vessels.

Shabaab's ultimate goal, as articulated in an April statement, is to throw the West "into hell.”...

Read it all.

Surprise of surprises, he turns out not to have been a Methodist at all, but a Jordanian who was able to supply Palestinian passports, and who said: "You want to hit the Pentagon. You can put the bottle on it, the blue bottle, and hit the Pentagon."

Now why on earth would a Jordanian in Annandale, Virginia, want to "hit the Pentagon" or help others to do so? What ideology might motivate him? Of course, as far as the Fairfax County Times is concerned, he is just some sort of rogue. Why he might have wanted to do this is not news that is fit to print.

"Annandale man offers to sell missile to FBI informant," by Gregg MacDonald for the Fairfax County Times, November 25 (thanks to Brian at Snapped Shot):

Two Annandale men have been arrested in an FBI sting that uncovered visa fraud, gun smuggling and references to Lebanon, Yasir Arafat and bombing the Pentagon with a missile.

According to a recently unsealed U.S. District Court affidavit, an FBI informant met with Annandale resident Amjad Hamed, a Jordanian native, in April 2006.

Hamed provided the informant with six valid Palestinian passports and asked him to obtain U.S. visas for them.

According to the affidavit, Hamed revealed that he was part of an international visa fraud scheme. "I challenge anyone in the world who can bring so many passports without being inspected," he is quoted as saying.

Hamed is also quoted as saying he was a member of the Palestinian Authority who met regularly with Yasir Arafat.

Hamed's references to smuggling were also quoted in the affidavit. "Yes, I have connections to transport from America directly to the middle of Lebanon ... no one does anything through the airport ... the airport is hard. All the companies have to disclose their shipment. Do you know through what? ... via the port ... By the sea."

According to the affidavit, Hamed also sold the FBI informant an 8 mm semi-automatic handgun and a SKS sniper rifle on June 21, 2007.

During that transaction, Hamed is quoted as saying that he could obtain a missile that could reach the Pentagon. "You want to hit the Pentagon. You can put the bottle on it, the blue bottle, and hit the Pentagon," he is quoted as saying in the affidavit.

Hamed's cousin, Ibrahim Hamed, allegedly also sold the FBI informant an altered 9 mm handgun in August 2007, and offered to sell him other weapons that he said would come from a source in Florida....

Discussing the Holy Land Foundation convictions in Human Events today:

Justice has been served: on Monday, five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), once the largest Islamic charity in the United States, were found guilty of funneling at least $12 million of the charity’s funds to the jihad terror group Hamas. Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi (founder of the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations), Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdelrahman Odeh could get sentences of as long as twenty years in prison for providing support to terrorists.

This verdict is a huge setback for the Stealth Jihad initiative in the United States, which I chronicle in my book by that name.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, “today, a very complex financial network connects the operations of over seventy branches of the Muslim Brothers worldwide. During the Muslim Brothers' seventy-plus years of existence, there have been cycles of growth, followed by divisions into factions, including clandestine financial networks, and violent jihad groups, such as al-Jihad and al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya in Egypt, HAMAS in Palestine and mujahideen groups in Afghanistan.”

This has been a long time coming. The UN anti-blasphemy measure, although non-binding at this point, is part of a larger and long-term effort to restrict speech that Islamic authorities dislike, including honest examination of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists. The only victors can be the jihadists themselves: Western authorities, already mired in politically correct myopia, will grow even more afraid to speak openly about what they're trying to do and what we can do to stop it. The losers can only be those who value freedom of speech and understand why it is so important in a genuinely pluralistic society. The UN measure moves the West one step closer to submitting to the hegemony of Islamic norms.

"UN anti-blasphemy measures have sinister goals, observers say," by Steven Edwards for Canwest News Service, November 24 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):

UNITED NATIONS - Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech.

What? Canada still has free speech?

Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year.

But while the draft's sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of religion, religious tolerance advocates warn the resolutions are being accumulated for a more sinister goal.

"It provides international cover for domestic anti-blasphemy laws, and there are a number of people who are in prison today because they have been accused of committing blasphemy," said Bennett Graham, international program director with the Becket Fund, a think tank aimed at promoting religious liberty.

"Those arrests are made legitimate by the UN body's (effective) stamp of approval."

Passage of the resolution is part of a 10-year action plan the 57-state Organization of Islamic Conference launched in 2005 to ensure "renaissance" of the "Muslim Ummah" or community.

While the current resolution is non-binding, Pakistan's Ambassador Masood Khan reminded the UN's Human Rights Council this year that the OIC ultimately seeks a "new instrument or convention" on the issue. Such a measure would impose its terms on signatory states.

"Each time the resolution comes up, we get a measure of where the world is on this issue, and we see that the campaign has been ramped up," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.

While this year's draft is less Islam-centric that resolutions of earlier years, analysts note it is more emphatic in linking religion defamation and incitement to violence.

That "risks limiting a broad range of peaceful speech and expression," Neuer argues.

The 2008 draft "underscores the need to combat defamation of religions, and incitement to religious hatred in general, by strategizing and harmonizing actions at the local, national regional and international levels."

It also laments "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."

But of course they are referring to non-Muslims who report on how Muslims associate Islam with human rights violations and terrorism. They are not referring to the Muslims who actually make these associations.

But Western democracies argue that a religion can't enjoy protection from criticism because that would require a judicial ruling that its teachings are the "truth."

"Defamation carries a particular legal meaning and application in domestic systems that makes the term wholly unsuitable in the context of religions," says the U.S. government in a response on the issue to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"A defamatory statement . . . is more than just an offensive one. It is also a statement that is false."

And that's just it. Here, here and here are three examples of Islamic groups regarding true statements about Islam as defamatory. And that reveals the real agenda of anti-blasphemy measures.

The paper also points out the legal difficulty of even defining the term "defamation" since "one individual's sincere belief that his or her creed alone is the truth conflicts with another's sincerely held view of the truth."

Precisely.

Yemen, on behalf of OIC, successfully introduced the measure to the UN General Assembly for the first time in 2005 after Pakistan first tabled it 1999 for annual consideration in the Human Rights Commission - the Council's forerunner. [...]

Muslim countries say they are only trying to cut down of what they see as extensive bias against Islam in the West. In the lead-up to Monday's vote, many referred, for example, to the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons that satirized Muhammad, and which touched off riots through the Muslim world....

Cut down on Islamic terrorism, and you will see an end to this alleged "extensive bias against Islam in the West."

Read it all.

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

On 18 November, a grandiose, 1,500 m2 grotto-like ceiling by Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo was unveiled at the Palais des Nations after a year's work, involving 20 assistants and at a controversial cost of $25 million of Spanish taxpayers' money. The former 'Swiss' Room XX was inaugurated in royal pomp by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan - co-sponsors of the 'Alliance of Civilisations' - as well as other dignitaries, the artist and 700 guests. Renamed 'Chamber for Human Rights and the Alliance of Civilizations', it is slated for the Human Rights Council with a special session in December to celebrate the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the 6th meeting of the 'Eurasian Islamic Council' in Istanbul on September 15, Prime Minister Erdogan - with Prime Minister Zapatero by his side - defined 'Islamophobia' as a grave pathological state of mind, and voiced his expectation that members of different civilizations would soon consider it a 'crime against humanity'.

Irony of irony, this grandiose artistic creation, with its thousands of stalactites - representing dripstone hanging from the roof of a cave - is a symbolic representation of the current state of the Human Rights Council, which might be described by echoing Churchill's dramatic words in the House of Commons seventy years ago:

I have watched this famous island ['Council'] descending incontinently, recklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad staircase at the beginning, but, after a bit, the carpet ends. A little further on there are only flagstones, and, a little further on still, these break beneath your feet. (Speech, March 24, 1938 - at a fateful moment in European and world history.)

A stealth-like 'struggle' is gaining ground at the Human Rights Council and elsewhere in a 'Jihad atmosphere'. * The last flagstones are constantly breaking beneath the feet of delegates - especially concerned NGOs -and these 'points of order' stalactites from dictatorial regimes are more dangerous than the picturesque ones dangling above.

Stella L. Jatras reports on the building of a grand new mosque in Athens:

Greek authorities have given approval for a mosque to be built in Athens. Saudi Arabia first requested that the mosque be built near the Athens airport. Undoubtedly, the intent was that the first thing tourists and visitors to Greece would see would be the huge mosque, giving the impression that Greece was or soon would be a Muslim country rather than a Christian one. Fortunately, this did not happen.

Saudi Arabia made its original proposal for the mosque in 1983; some local citizens and the powerful Greek Orthodox Church objected. European critics shamed Athens for being the only capital in Europe not to have a mosque. An International Herald Tribune article in 2007 reported that a large-size temporary mosque had been established in an abandoned factory at Moschato in the greater Athens area. It lacked minarets, and its presence has not created any issues with the locals. Now, the state-funded mosque is to be built on 18 acres currently used by the Greek Navy, according to Greece's Ekathimerini newspaper, in an area of the city that is being revitalized as a sports and parks complex.

Mr. Awad, you are served

"They are not allowed to be operating, according to the law." But go and enforce it.

"Lawsuit's claim: CAIR no longer even exists," from WND, November 24:

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, a pro-Muslim lobby named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror-funding cases ever brought by the U.S. government, continues to operate even though it no longer exists as a corporate entity, according to a lawyer suing the organization.

As WND reported last night, CAIR officials were surprised at their 14th annual banquet in Washington when lawyer David Yerushalmi arranged for them publicly to be served with legal notice of a new lawsuit over a staff member accused of representing himself as a lawyer and improperly taking clients' money.

Yerushalmi represents four plaintiffs, two of whom are African-American Muslims, in the case that claims CAIR internal documents reveal hundreds of people were victimized in the fraud scheme.

Yerushalmi discussed the developments today with WND founder and editor Joseph Farah, who was at the microphone in G. Gordon Liddy's absence on Liddy's regular radio program.

"We have CAIR documents which demonstrate there are at least 30 other victim-clients who paid money and were victimized by CAIR," Yerushalmi said, "And hundreds of other victims who don't even know they were victims."

The lawyer suggested allegations of that kind could spell the beginning of the end for CAIR's operations.

"If we have our way it certainly is," Yerushalmi told Farah. He said organizations that are proven to have a record of criminal activities should not exist.

Then came the suggestion of further defiance of the law by CAIR.

"The organization is no longer a valid corporation," Yerushalmi revealed on the program. "The District of Columbia delisted it on Sept. 8, 2008."

He said the organization failed to file its paperwork to continue to exist.

"They are not allowed to be operating, according to the law," he said.

A spokesman for CAIR, contacted by WND for a comment, said, "Thank you and have a nice day," and hung up on the reporter....

Ah, there's a tactic in CAIR's diplomatic arsenal that has been hallowed by long use.

JihadWatch.org director Robert Spencer, a longtime critic of CAIR, said the lawsuit "is an extraordinarily significant action."

"For years CAIR has used litigation as a weapon to silence and intimidate both its critics and anyone who has advocated measures to protect Americans against jihad terror. But the convictions of various of its former officials on jihad terror-related charges, as well as Islamic supremacist statements that have come to light from some of its spokesmen, have long suggested that CAIR is quite different from what all too many in the government and the mainstream media take it to be," Spencer told WND.

"This suit further suggests that they have not hesitated to use the same tactics they've used with non-Muslims against their fellow Muslims, and is an important step in exposing this unsavory organization for what it really is," he said....

On Spencer's comment page, the participants were awestruck by the legal move.

"This basically discredits all their leadership," wrote one person.

"It's about time that they are unmasked, and this suit directly strikes at their cover operation as a 'civil rights organization,'" said another.

"Give them enough rope … wonderful," said a third. [...]

Rioting into the night

While professing "loyalty to Islam" (e.g., cries of Allah Akbar, no doubt). "Muslims riot over plans for Christian church in Cairo," from the Daily Mail, November 24 (thanks to Robert):

A riot broke out over plans to convert a building in a Cairo suburb into a Christian church on Sunday.

Muslims and Christians clashed in Mataria after worshippers arrived for a service at the site of the planned church.[...]

Police in Mataria intervened when large numbers of Muslims and Christians faced off over a building which the Christians want to convert into a church. The police then clashed mainly with the Muslim side, they said.

In both cases people threw stones and bottles at the police. Two of the policemen were injured in Aswan and two in Cairo, and the protesters damaged shop fronts in both places, they said.

In the incident in Mataria, the confrontation between Muslims and Christians was the culmination of a long-running dispute over the plan to build a church there.

Residents said Christians had come from other parts of the city for the Sunday service at the building, which is not licensed as a church, and Muslims opposed to a church gathered against them. Some chanted: 'We're going to knock down the church' and shouted slogans of loyalty to Islam, witnesses said.

Wah.

We've received a number of emails about difficulties logging in since TypeKey rebranded itself as TypePad at some point late last week. We are aware of the problem, and while the ball is in TypePad's court to fix it, apparently if you keep trying to log in, it will eventually go through.

"The future ain't what it used to be." -- Yogi Berra

I'm very pleased to announce that I have agreed to become a contributing writer for Steven Emerson's Investigative Project -- and here is their report on the Holy Land Foundation verdicts:

"HLF Officials Convicted on All Counts," from IPT News, November 24 (many links in the original):

DALLAS – A jury convicted five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on all counts in the Hamas-support case after 8 days of deliberations.

The men, Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks.

In the original trial last year, jurors acquitted El-Mezain on 31 of the 32 counts against him, but could not reach unanimous verdicts on any other counts, prompting a mistrial.

Prosecutors made a series of significant adjustments, from dropping 29 counts each against defendants Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, to adding new witnesses who could put the charity support in context. In addition, jurors in this trial saw three exhibits Israeli military officials seized from the Palestinian Authority which showed the PA also considered HLF to be a Hamas financer and that an HLF-supported charity committee was controlled by Hamas.

The result was a much more streamlined case that followed a logical narrative, said Peter Margulies, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. Seeing the Palestinian Authority reach the same conclusion as the U.S. government had to have helped, he said.

In addition, prosecutors provided summary exhibits that served as "a road map" to the case and had to help jurors deliberate, Margulies said. "The jury was able to look at the evidence and get past the perceived biases of any of the witnesses and see the evidence as a whole."

That evidence made clear that the defendants knew where the money raised in the U.S. was going despite legal prohibitions against support for Hamas. [...]

Prosecutors say HLF was part of a Palestine Committee – a conglomerate of U.S. based Muslim organizations and individuals committed to helping Hamas financially and politically. HLF was its fundraising arm, a designation formalized by Hamas deputy political director Mousa Abu Marzook in 1994. Support for Hamas became illegal with a 1995 executive order by President Bill Clinton and subsequent congressional action. [...]

"This is one of the most significant victories the Justice Department has won in the war on terror," said Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others for conspiring to blow up a series of New York landmarks. "Financing is the life-blood of jihadist organizations like Hamas. With the assistance of willing co-conspirators, they conceal their activities and use the Muslim obligation of charitable giving to mask support that is actually channeled to their murderous agenda. Today's verdicts say, loudly and clearly, that Americans aren't fooled and won't tolerate it. As a former federal prosecutor, I am especially proud of the assistant U.S. attorneys who persevered through some real travails in securing justice for the American people."...

Read it all.

In anticipation of Obama's term. A taste of things to come? Incidentally, why not also teach the jihadists to be stand-up comics -- they seem so serious all the time?

"Guantanamo detainees to have art lessons and video games to distract from jihad," by Tom Leonard for the Telegraph, November 24 (thanks to Christopher):

Terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay are to be offered art classes, Game Boys and film nights to distract them from thoughts of global jihad.

Detention camp staff at the US Navy base in Cuba are already teaching English to the 255 inmates despite fears that it might allow them to eavesdrop on their guards.

Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has promised to close the camp, which was set up to hold foreign terrorism suspects captured after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

However, convinced that such a decision is a long way from being carried out, camp staff are attempting to soften the notoriously Spartan existence of Guantanamo inmates.

"We want to keep their brains stimulated. We're not here to give degrees," Zak, the camp's Arab-American cultural advisor, told the Miami Herald.

"Once they are engaged and busy, they leave the guards alone."

Initiatives will include circulating Egyptian newspapers and Game Boy-style electronic games around the tiny cells and holding more "movie nights" featuring pre-recorded sport.

Art and geology classes will also be offered, although the former will not include sharp objects. Prisoners are already allowed to have crayons and Zak said some were "good artists".

Geology was chosen as a subject because it is grounded in earth and science issues rather than more sensitive areas such as politics and religion, he said.

"They draw greeting cards for family. They draw weapons," he said. "They draw whatever they want. You can't stop a detainee from thinking." Kristin Wilhelm, a lawyer who represents Guantanamo detainees, said the cultural programme was seven years too late.

She said that when one of her clients made greetings cards for people at her law firm, camp censors stamped each of them "secret" and confiscated them.

"It was always my view that the government was afraid to allow the drawings to be released, because it humanised my client," she said.

I've been so busy today I haven't had a chance to post today's radio schedule. I was on a few shows earlier today and am scheduled to be right at this very moment on the Infidel Bloggers Alliance Blog Talk Radio show with Pastorius, but there appear to be some technical difficulties -- I can't get through on the phone. (Sorry, Pastorius!)

Coming up, however, at 5:45 PM PST, I'll be taking pitches from the always-superb Frank Pastore on his show on KKLA.

UPDATE: I just heard from Pastorius and he is indeed experiencing technical difficulties. We will reschedule.

Despite the fact of 9/11. Perhaps Castro is still sore about the fact that U.S. government had more agents tracking him than Osama bin Laden in 2004?

"Castro: U.S. uses al-Qaeda to justify foreign policy," from USA Today, November 24:

HAVANA— Fidel Castro suggested Sunday that the U.S. government has promoted Americans' fears about al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups to justify its plans for world domination.

In an essay published on a government website, the 82-year-old former Cuban president wrote that al-Qaeda "was born from the empire's own entrails," using "the empire" to refer to the United States, but failing to elaborate.

He said the terrorist group was "a typical example of an enemy that the hegemonic power dangles in a place of its choosing where it needs to justify its actions, as it has done throughout its history, fabricating enemies and attacks destined to strengthen its plans of domination."

The U.S. has used al-Qaeda as a pretext to carry out plans "outlined long before the attacks that brought down the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001," Castro wrote.

Castro has previously accused the U.S. government of misleading the public about the Sept. 11 attacks, and his close friend and ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says it is plausible that Washington was somehow involved in planning the attacks.

As expected. Adding, "It would have been better if our [Pakistani] authorities had been alerted for local action." Perhaps the US has learned that "alerting" their Pakistani counterparts of planned strikes results in failed missions. Indeed, Rauf "escaped" from a Pakistani prison a year earlier; some have accused the Pakistani police of facilitating this escape. More on this story.

"Rashid Rauf was linked to al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri," by Isambard Wilkinson for the Telegraph, November 24:

A British al-Qaeda suspect reportedly killed by a US missile strike in a Pakistani tribal area was linked to the group's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to officials.

Rashid Rauf and a Saudi militant called Abu Zubair al-Masri were among five killed in a missile attack in North Waziristan on Saturday.

Rauf, a British national, was alleged to have been the mastermind of an al-Qaeda plot to blow up passenger aircraft in mid-air after they left London bound for the United States.[...]

Pakistan has officially protested to the United States that missile strikes violate its sovereign territory, although some officials say there was a tacit understanding between the two militaries to allow such action.[...]

"In fact, for some time now the US has totally by-passed our [intelligence] agencies," he [Pakistani authority] added.

A Pakistani intelligence official said that the US believed that Rauf was staying with a group connected to Zawahiri. Zawahiri is believed by American officials to operate from Pakistan's lawless, tribal border areas.[...]

Rehman reiterated her government's complaint that missile attacks, apparently launched from unmanned aircraft, are fanning anti- Americanism and Islamic extremism tearing at both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"It would have been better if our authorities had been alerted for local action," said Ms Rehman. "Drone incursions create a strong backlash." Rauf, who is of Pakistani origin, has been on the run since last December, when he escaped from police escorting him back to jail after an extradition hearing in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Britain was seeking his extradition ostensibly as a suspect in the 2002 killing of his uncle there, but Rauf had allegedly been in contact with a group in Britain planning to smuggle liquid explosives onto trans-Atlantic flights and also with a suspected al-Qaeda mastermind of the plot in Afghanistan.

"Some 200 inmates at Whitemoor prison near March in Cambridgeshire had meals worth around £18 each after complaining about the quality of jail food."

Whitemoor Prison Follies Update. "Prison staff drove 40 miles to buy £3,500 worth of takeaway curries for Muslim inmates," from the Daily Mail, November 24 (thanks to Wayne):

Muslim prisoners at a maximum security jail were treated to £3,500 of takeaway curries to mark a religious festival.

Some 200 inmates at Whitemoor prison near March in Cambridgeshire had meals worth around £18 each after complaining about the quality of jail food.

At the current exchange rate, that's a little over $27.

Staff, who also tucked into the meals, drove 40 miles to pick them up from a takeaway in Peterborough.

The meals were bought at the end of October this year to celebrate Eid, a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

Main dishes included lamb rogan josh and beef madras.

A former non-Muslim inmate said: 'They tried to do the curries in-house but the prison chefs couldn't meet the budget of £1.80 per prisoner - and the Muslim inmates complained that it tasted rubbish.

'The smell of it wafting was torture for the rest of us.'

A Prison Service investigation is to now look at the 'unacceptably' high costs of the meals.

It is also likely to look into reports that standard security checks to ensure weapons or contraband were not being smuggled in with the dishes were not carried out in case the meals got cold.

The prison houses 458 of the most dangerous men in the country, including one third who are Muslim. Among them are al-Qa'eda terrorists.

Stewart Jackson, Tory MP for Peterborough, said yesterday: 'It is an absolute disgrace that this happened. Decent, law-abiding taxpayers will be appalled that their taxes are going on this.

'The Government, and particularly the Ministry of Justice, needs to get a grip on penal policy.'

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'This is totally outrageous.

'This is meant to be a prison, not a luxury hotel. If they don't like prison food then don't commit the crime.'

HMP Whitemoor opened in 1992 and two years later was at the centre of a scandal after six prisoners, including five IRA members, escaped from the Special Secure Unit after smuggling guns into the prison.

In recent years its Muslim population has swelled as security services have begun investigating terrorist plots. It now has the highest proportion of Muslim inmates of any jail in the country.

In August, documents revealed emergency plans had been drawn up amid fears a prison officer could be taken hostage and beheaded by Muslim fanatics following mounting racial tension.

There was uproar last week when it emerged a convicted al-Qa'eda terrorist who planned a 'dirty bomb' attack in London had taken part in comedy workshops in the prison. [...]

It was during the first Holy Land Foundation trial last year that the Muslim Brotherhood memorandum about their "grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within" came to light. This verdict is a huge official recognition of the reality of that stealth jihad, and a huge setback for the likes of CAIR, which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in this case.

"Holy Land Foundation defendants guilty on all counts," by Jason Trahan for the Dallas Morning News, November 24 (thanks to K.):

A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The unanimous verdicts are a complete victory for the government, which streamlined its case and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex, massive evidence presented in the trial.

The prosecution's victory is also a major one for the lame duck administration of President George W. Bush, whose efforts at fighting terrorism financing in court have been troubled, even though the flow of funds seems to be effectively shut down.

It was the second trial where the government attempted to convict the men and the now-defunct, Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation itself. It took the jury eight days of deliberations to reach its decisions – less than half the time it took jurors to deadlock end up with an almost complete mistrial last year on the first go-around.

"My dad is not a criminal!" sobbed one courtroom observer after the verdicts were read. "He's a human!"

Huh? Criminals aren't human now? Cut the victimology, "courtroom observer." For one day, at least, your plots are exposed. But of course, we will see more and more of this as time goes by. Read on.

Opening statements at the Earle Cabell Federal Courthouse in downtown Dallas began Sept. 22. Over the past two months, prosecutors attempted to prove that five former charity organizers used Holy Land, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., to funnel an estimated $60 million to the militant group – most of it before 1995.

Hamas was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995, and the trial centered on the $12 million the government said Holy Land and supporters funneled to the group after that date.

Defense attorneys argued that the foundation was a legitimate, non-political charity that helped distressed Palestinians under Israeli occupation. They accused the government of bending to Israeli pressure to prosecute the charity, and of relying on old evidence predating the 1995 designation.

Holy Land was formed in the late 1980s, and was shut down by U.S. government regulators in December 2001. The case was indicted in 2004.

Last year's trial of the same five defendants ended in a hung jury Oct. 22, 2007. Jurors deliberated for 19 days before they deadlocked.

Even before the verdicts were read, supporters on both side of the aisle were prepared to claim a moral victory.

Critics of the government case argued that even convictions would carry an asterisk noting that it took untold millions of taxpayer dollars, 15 years of investigation and two long, high-profile trials to finally convince a jury of the defendants' guilt.

The strategy now, of course, will be to portray these jihadists as martyrs -- a tried-and-true strategy that has been used for decades, going back to the fog of disinformation that for years surrounded that old Communist spy, Alger Hiss:

"I suspect that they will be viewed much the same way that Mandela was viewed by the black South African population – as freedom fighters who have dedicated their lives to the liberation of Palestine," William Moffitt, the Virginia defense attorney who represented two former university professors, Abdelhaleem Ashqar and Sami Al-Arian, said before the Holy Land verdicts.

Mr. Ashqar and Mr. Al-Arian were acquitted in trials in Chicago and Florida on similar charges that they steered support to Palestinian terrorists.

Mr. Ashqar was sentenced to 11 years in prison last year for refusing to testify for a grand jury about his Hamas ties. Dr. Al-Arian pleaded guilty in 2006 to a charge of supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad and is being held on contempt charges for refusing to co-operate in another terrorism support investigation. But both are viewed as folk heroes by some in the Muslim community.

Mr. Moffitt said Holy Land and the other cases are "show trials" where the government attempted to use "events that happened over 10 years ago" as evidence of crimes well before statutes specifically outlawing terrorism support were enacted.

"I think that the purpose of these trials was to further, in the minds of the public, the so-called ‘war on terrorism,'" he said. "There are legitimate terrorist organizations out there. But we've tried to make every group that doesn't agree with us like al-Qaeda."...

Hamas has gloried in the murders of civilians. That is not a simple matter of demonizing "every group that doesn't agree with us."

Courage. "Iraqi bomber was mentally disabled woman," from UPI, November 24 (thanks to Writer Mom):

BAGHDAD, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- One of two bombers who struck in Baghdad Monday was a mentally disabled woman whose explosives were detonated by remote control, officials said.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman, told CNN the incident outside the city's Green Zone was the latest in a series of terrorist bombings in which woman have been used to launch attacks.

At least 18 people, including 15 women, died in the two Monday attacks, officials said.

In the Green Zone incident, two women -- one reportedly pregnant -- were among the five victims when an explosives vest strapped to the mentally disabled woman detonated in a line of workers waiting to be searched at a checkpoint, The Times of London reported....

In an earlier explosion, 13 women died on a bus taking them to work at the Iraqi Trade Ministry building when the vehicle was blasted by a so-called sticky bomb attached to its side, the newspaper said....

Hanged for spying for Israel

"This network sought to gather important information from the Guards' military section, the country's nuclear centres and some security officials."

"Iran says Israel-linked spy network arrested," from AFP, November 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested a spy network linked to Israeli intelligence who tried to gather information on Iranian nuclear and military programmes, the guard's chief said on Monday.

"The intelligence bureau of the Revolutionary Guards Corps has recently discovered a spy network linked with the Israeli Mossad," Mohammad Ali Jafari said on state radio.

"This network sought to gather important information from the Guards' military section, the country's nuclear centres and some security officials," he said.

"Very good information as well as equipment that this network were supplied with have been discovered and people will be informed of the evidence in the near future," he said.

Jafari did not specify how many people were detained or where and when the group was arrested.

He said the detainees had confessed to "being trained in bombing and assassination in Israel and had bought vehicles and lots of equipment with Mossad support," the state broadcaster's website said.

Iran said on Saturday it had hanged an Iranian telecoms salesman convicted of spying for arch-enemy Israel and warned that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.

Tehran does not recognise Israel and tensions have flared since the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly said the Jewish state is doomed to vanish and branded the Holocaust a "myth"....

"Such non-Muslim subjects [of the Islamic state] are obliged to comply with Islamic rules that pertain to the safety and indemnity of life, reputation, and property. In addition, they...are forbidden to openly display wine or pork, (A: to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays..." -- 'Umdat al-Salik o11.5

"Bosnia: Radical Muslims arrested for entering church," from AKI, November 24 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Sarajevo, 24 Nov. (AKI) – Bosnian police arrested two Muslims allegedly linked to a radical 'Wahabi' sect after they sought access to a Catholic church in Sarajevo on Sunday. Inspector Dragan Miokovic confirmed on Monday two men were detained by police.

Church of Trinity vicar Ivan Ravlic said the two men knocked on the door of the church late Saturday and asked to see inside the building.

"My answer was that there was no need for them to look at the church at that late hour and that was when they explained they were disturbed by the church bell," Ravlic said....

UN Resolution 1701: Epic Fail. "Barak: Hizbullah has 42,000 missiles; some can hit Dimona," from the Jerusalem Post, November 24:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday cautioned that Hizbullah had greatly improved its abilities since the Second Lebanon War and was in possession of rockets that could reach as far south as Dimona. The defense minister also warned Beirut that the Shi'ite militia's integration in the Lebanese government could lead to extensive attacks on Lebanese infrastructure in the event of a military conflagration.

"Hizbullah has three times the ability it had before the Second Lebanon War and now has 42,000 missiles in its possession, as opposed to the 14,000 it had before the war," Barak said in a Knesset speech, warning that Hizbullah's recent maneuvers south of the Litani River were a liability for Lebanon. "In practice, UN Resolution 1701 isn't working, and Hizbullah's integration within the Lebanese republic exposes Lebanon and its infrastructures to a more massive hit in the event of a future standoff."

Barak went on to threaten Iran, which he said "continues to thumb its nose at the world and act vigorously to promote its military nuclear program. Israel is not taking any option off the table and I recommend that neither do others. Beyond that, any explicit statement would be harmful."

And now, some wishful thinking:

Earlier, addressing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the defense minister said that he did not regret the truce with Hamas, and assessed that the situation in the South would stabilize once more.

After which it will de-stabilize once more.

"I'm not sorry for any day or month of quiet," he said. "In each of the two months leading up to the truce there were 500 incidences of Kassam rocket fire and mortar fire, a figure which dropped to roughly ten a month when the truce kicked in."

Barak pointed out the resurgence of rocket attacks since an IDF operation targeted a tunnel on the Gaza border several weeks ago, but predicted that the truce would eventually reestablish itself.

High-spirited "youths" at it again in Europe. "Gouda: Church firebombed," from Islam in Europe, November 24 (thanks to John Doe):

Four teenagers of Moroccan origin were arrested Saturday evening for setting fire to the Vaste Burcht Reformed church in Gouda. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the door of the church, according to the police. The bottom part of the door and the doormat were damaged.

The four Gouda residents, three aged 14 and one aged 15, are suspected of arson. The fire was reported at 5:45pm and the directions given by the reporter led to the residence of one of them, where three youth were arrested. The 15 year old suspect was arrested later that evening.

Three of the suspects spent the night in jail. They will appear in court Tuesday. A 14 year old was released after interrogation since there was no evidence of his involvement. The police is continuing with the investigation.

A spokesperson of the church said that there are often fights there but this is the first time a Molotov cocktail was thrown at them. The administrator of the church said that they had windows broken in in the past which they put down to street youth....

Doug Giles of Clash Radio reviews Stealth Jihad:

What if Christians demanded the following:

1. If anyone around Christians at work or school eats pork then they would get fired or severely chastised because we believe that scarfing down pig really offends God (and of course his people). Yep, BLTs—according to our take on Christ’s commands—really ticks him off and therefore bacon should be banned. Not only that, but any food that has even trace amounts of Porky the Pig in it must be verboten and banished from our presence everywhere we go because we’re Christians, and Christians don’t dine on swine. This means Jell-O shots at Tu-Tu-Tango’s and Jell-O served to kids at school ceases to be because Jell-O, hello, contains a wee little bit of a wee little pig, and this pisseth the Lord our God off!

2. All public schools must have several regularly scheduled 15 minute breaks throughout the school day for Christians to roll out their TBN prayer rugs and pray for revival. If not, we will raise Cain and Abel.

3. Public schools must become sex-segregated so that we, the washed, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost and fire crowd won’t be sorely tempted to swap spit with the hot Daisy Mae looking chick in pottery class. Matter of fact, why don’t public schools just carve out for us Christians a special school within the school, lest we become sullied via association with the unwashed masses and other religious persuasions, which we utterly detest. Howzabout that, mamasita?

4. Any and all the stupid, violent or sexually weird stuff that misguided Christians have done and are doing is to be scrubbed from the historical record, and the only thing that gets reported and taught is that we are the most peaceful, perfect people to ever schlep this planet. Anyone who thinks or speaks to the contrary will get the stink eye and be called a hater. Indeed, all criticism of Christians should be banned, and those who bring up our foibles, draw unfavorable cartoons of us, and don’t parrot our squeaky-clean spin get branded as bigots or Christophobes and should be threatened with prison.

5. Footbaths are to be installed in whichever universities my brethren and I attend (at the public’s expense) because Jesus was into foot washing, so I want a footbath, dammit! And if this means tuition gets hiked up to provide this for all Christians on campus, well . . . tough. I don’t care. My feet must be ritually washed, or Jesus gets angry—and when he gets angry, people die.

6. Any video games that Sony or whoever puts out that might accidentally offend Christians must be 86’ed. However, if other religions get offended via video it’s okay, just as long as my flavor ain’t disssed, can you dig it?

7. We must receive exemptions from the IRS from paying interest on back taxes because that’s against Christianity.

8. When the Christian church accidentally yields up a violent vocal dillweed from our ranks who hates America and is on the State Department’s terrorist watch list, instead of throwing that loopy bastard in prison we demand that the U.S. Army make him a sergeant. Capice?

9. Encourage the Christian high school student who wants to assassinate our President by giving him the “Most Likely to Become a Martyr” award during graduation.

10. Make students in the public school system who don’t believe in Jesus memorize portions of the Gospel of John, adopt Christian names and shout in the classroom, “I love Jesus, yes I do. I love Jesus. How ‘bout you?!”

Would any of points 1- 10 tick you secularists, atheists and agnostics off?

If Christians ever attempted any of the above they would be righteously ridiculed, castigated and condemned by the MSM, school administrators, cartoonists, talk radio, the blogosphere, Rosie, the coven on the View, religious leaders, the ACLU, Alec Baldwin and president elect Barack Obama. All of the aforementioned people would land on our crotch firmly with both feet. Heck, Christians can’t even say “merry Christmas,” cheer on traditional marriage, or champion the life of an unborn baby without being called Hitler, haters of humanity and intolerant bigots of other people’s values.

But Islam can.

Yep, Islam is making outrageous demands upon American life and culture, and we’re bending over and taking it from them, though we would be insanely intolerant of any other religious group—especially Christians—who had such particular and peculiar demands.

In Stealth Jihad, Islam expert and New York Times bestselling author Robert Spencer blows the whistle on a long-term plot by Islamic Jihadists to undermine the United States. According to Spencer, this effort aims not to bring America to its knees through attacks with guns or bombs, but to subvert the country from within—by gradually Islamizing America. The ultimate goal, the stealth jihadists themselves declare, is nothing less than the adoption of Islamic law in the United States, that’s all!

BTW . . . this is already happening, and Robert shows the reader in blistering detail how American liberties are having to bow and kiss the ring of Islamic rules and regulations. Indeed, the stealth jihadists are already warm and snuggly within the American political, educational and media landscapes.

My advice, boys and girls, is . . . buy Bob’s book, drink a red bull, wake the heck up and fight for your liberties not to be walked on by anyone anywhere.

One last ditty for the skeptics who don’t think “it” could happen here: I’m sure that’s what the Brits thought 20 years ago. Red Bull, anyone?

Today is the 45th anniversary of the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. As the nation remembered this weekend the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a common theme of many stories was that questions still remain about the identity of the real killers. Here via MEMRITV (thanks to Anne) is a fresh steaming pile of conspiracy theory, returning to that tried-and-true theme of political analysis in the Islamic world: the Jews did it!

Never forget Amina and Sarah

America's Most Wanted did a story on the honor killings in Texas of Amina and Sarah Said by their father, Yaser Said, but -- not surprisingly -- they glossed over the honor killing angle.

As long as the mainstream media keeps doing this, instead of calling the American Muslim community to some accountability, more Muslim girls will be murdered for honor in the United States.

Pamela has a heartbroken letter from the girls' Aunt Gail about the shoddiness and inaccuracy of the America's Most Wanted presentation.

You know, the facts were all wrong. Why? I know that I have spoken to this producer for months now! So has Joyce Boucher as well! Let me do a reality check! Here are the facts they misrepresented: My niece is not Arabic nor, is she Hispanic looking! She is pale skinned and blue eyed! They represented this as an Arabic family with a dictator father and husband. Another fact totally avoided...ISLAM, the brother and son of the parents from hell. The very one who promises to kill me? Where was Yasser's and Tissy's beloved son who spied on these girls and bullied his mother? To me, this was an intentional omission! To have added a character as radical as Islam, this might have given CAIR the wrong impression! God forbid!

Another, Amina DID NOT come home on her own! No way, as she told Connie that she would rather be dead than ever go back home. She meant that too! Amina was coerced by my own niece to go back. This, after hours of calling Amina and telling her to come home. Tissy went as far as to put Yasser on the phone but, Amina knew death was awaiting her if she returned. When Amina did return, she and Sarah were taken into Yasser's cab and she did not go into that kitchen and rummage through the fridge. Give me a break! One of the biggest misrepresentation of the facts, Amina was in the front seat and Sarah was in the back seat. Amina, was sitting facing Yasser as a friend saw them and said so. If you simply listen to the 9-1-1 phone call from the cabbie who found them, he says there are two women, one in the front seat and one in the backseat! He describes what he sees in this call as he was asked too. He saw a woman in the front seat, "I have not seen her hand move, there is blood coming from her ear and she is slumped over." THESE ARE EYEWITNESS FACTS!

Yasser also knew exactly where to park that cab! It could not be seen by the cameras which are on the Omni Mandalay. No mention of this premeditated fact! I could go on and on about how they misrepresented the facts and truth about this tragic HONOR KILLING of my sister's granddaughters.

And at FrontPage, Phyllis Chesler has more:

Patricia, the girls' mother, is and was a white, blonde, blue-eyed Texas-born Christian woman, a child really, when Yaser first married her. The dramatization chose to portray her as an Arab- or Hispanic-looking woman. Although the program has an on-camera interview with the real Patricia, their choice of an Arab-looking actress to play Patricia accomplishes the following:

Viewers might think that the girls really were rebelling against their culture when, in fact, their mother and her extended family are Christian-Americans whose customs the girls were choosing. Second, by failing to show the real Patricia as she enticed her daughters to come home, promised them that their father only wanted to make up, the program blurs, renders indistinct, the fact that this was a classic honor killing, one which always involves a family collaboration. That is probably why they did not include the girls' older brother Islam. He would have also visually and verbally confirmed the concept that an honor killing is characterized by family collaboration. Of course, Islam may also have cursed the producers and threatened to kill or sue them if he was included. Nice guy.

In other words folks, the producers did not want to inflame any white "ethnic" or "racist" passion by showing an Arab Muslim male tyrant dominating a white Christian American woman (his wife) and their daughters. The program wanted no part of the long, historical stench which has attended the usually false, but sometimes true allegations about "Indians" or "blacks" raping white women, and the terrible lynchings that have occurred thereafter.

But, even more: The producers did not want to be charged with 'Islamophobia" by showing what a real, full-blown honor killing looks like. Further, they wanted to appear and present a "balanced" re-creation even if they had to make things up in order to do so. Thus, they showed the two girls as plotting revenge or preemptive self-defense against their father. If only Sarah and Amina had followed through on this imaginary course of action, they might be alive today. But, knowing how American law works, they might also be in jail for life.

Read it all.

The interview was last Thursday.

Note: I'd appreciate it if the comments field here did not degenerate into a discussion about the merits or demerits of Pat Robertson. He was courageous enough to want to discuss the stealth jihad agenda, and I am grateful to him for that. I've also discussed jihad activity on TV shows with Keith Olbermann and Ibrahim Hooper, and I am willing to discuss it with anyone.

Young Muslim men are susceptible to "jihadization"? Why, it's an outrage! Everyone knows that's not true! Everyone knows that Methodists and Episcopalians are just as likely to blow themselves up in a restaurant, or fly an airplane into a building, or plot to subvert Constitutional law and replace it with religious law, as are young Muslim men!

Will the Islamophobia never end?

"Muslim Civil Group Blasts NYPD `Terrorism' Report," by Nicole Neroulias for RNS, November 21 (thanks to Pamela):

NEW YORK (RNS) A New York City Police Department report that characterizes young Muslim men as susceptible to Islamic extremism and "jihadization" is biased and unfair, a Muslim civil rights group said Thursday (Nov. 20).

The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, created last year in response to a NYPD analysis of terrorism plots, said it has already met with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly several times to protest the 90-page report, "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat."

Although the NYPD report states "there is no useful profile" of a potential terrorist, it notes that most of the plotters of 11 global cases over the past six years -- including the 9/11 attacks -- were Muslim men under the age of 35.

"While the report is not intended to profile Muslims or Islam, the report does exactly that," said Naoma Nagahawatte, New York City office director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, during the Thursday protest on the steps of City Hall.

Ah, MPAC. That explains a lot right there.

European Muslim plotters, who face different socioeconomic barriers and are considered more vulnerable to extremist beliefs, should not be lumped together with Americans, the coalition members agree....

Yeah, those jihadi doctors in the UK faced horrific socioeconomic barriers, didn't they?

In calling for a complete revision of the report, which has also been referenced by other police departments and the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the coalition advises law enforcement agencies to increase partnerships with Muslim groups and develop programs to educate police officers and Muslims about each other.

"Through a more cooperative strategy," the report said, "we can be safe while free."

Remember: MPAC's idea of "a more cooperative strategy" is to advise Muslims that they don't have to speak to the FBI.

The Muslims' critique is endorsed by civil liberties advocates, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and the Sikh Coalition, whose members also experienced anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks because of their traditional turbans and beards.

You're breaking my heart, folks. In the first place, many of the reported anti-Muslim hate crimes have proven to be trumped up. Secondly, I myself have been subjected to extra searches in airports on occasion, perhaps because I am a bearded, swarthy type with a Qur'an in my luggage. Once I was surrounded by airport police and taken for questioning because they saw the word "jihad" on my laptop screen while I was working and waiting for a delayed flight. And I would never dream of complaining about any of this. I'm willing to put up with inconveniences for the sake of the effort to protect America from jihad attacks. That anyone would not be similarly willing, and would instead put their personal convenience above national security, is unconscionable.

The interview was last Friday. You can listen here.

A very important announcement from SANE:

November 24, 2008 – Washington, DC: Four clients of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have filed a federal civil complaint alleging criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described public interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR’s national leadership as individual defendants.

The defendants were served with the complaint and summons to appear while attending the CAIR 14th Annual Dinner Sunday night in Arlington, Virginia. Congressman Ellison (D-Minn) was a guest speaker at this affair.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Morris Days, the “Resident Attorney” and “Manager for Civil Rights” at the now defunct CAIR MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact not an attorney and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for assistance and who had paid for CAIR legal services.

While attorney David Yerushalmi represents the four plaintiffs in this particular lawsuit, two of whom are African American Muslims, the complaint alleges that according to CAIR internal documents, there were hundreds of victims of the CAIR-Days fraud scheme.

According to the complaint, CAIR failed to conduct a background check on Days prior to hiring him and when they did discover his massive fraud, they immediately set about to cover it up. CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media. When CAIR did get irate calls from clients about Days’ failure to provide competent legal services, CAIR fraudulently deceived their clients about Days’ relationship to CAIR, suggesting he was never actually employed by CAIR, and even concealed the fact that CAIR had fired him for criminal fraud.

“The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.,” Mr. Yerushalmi said referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial.

“But our investigation and this complaint makes clear that CAIR’s criminal activities know no bounds,” Yerushalmi continued.

“According to the facts as carefully laid out in this complaint,” Yerushalmi explained, “CAIR has engaged in a massive cover-up of a criminal fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized and because of the CAIR cover-up they still don’t realize it. The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims and non-Muslims alike demonstrates that CAIR is only looking out for CAIR and its ongoing effort to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization.”

The complaint also alleges that in addition to covering up the Days fraud scheme, CAIR officials in D.C. forced angry clients who were demanding a return of their legal fees to sign a release that bought the client-victims’ silence by prohibiting them from informing law enforcement or the media about the CAIR-Days fraud. According to the agreement, if the “settling” clients said anything to anyone about the fraud scheme, CAIR would be able to sue them for $25,000.

This enforced code of silence left hundreds of CAIR client-victims in the dark such that to this day they have not learned that Days is not an attorney and that he had not filed the legal actions on their behalf for which Days and CAIR publicly claimed credit.

The four plaintiffs contacted their attorney David Yerushalmi only after they had spoken to Dave Gaubatz, a private researcher who had been investigating CAIR for its connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and its ties to global jihad. Had Gaubatz not informed the plaintiffs of the fraud, they would still be under the impression that Days was a competent attorney representing their legal interests in various lawsuits and administrative proceedings.

The complaint identifies CAIR as a racketeering enterprise under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is a criminal racketeering statute that allows victims to sue the defendants in civil court. In addition to damages, the plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief under this and other statutes to shut down CAIR and to prevent the individual defendants from engaging in public interest legal work in the future.

The named defendants are: the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network Inc. (dba CAIR); Nihad Awad aka Nihad Hammad who serves as executive director of CAIR National; Parvez Ahmed who was the chairman of the board of CAIR National during the relevant time period; Tahra Goraya who was the national director of CAIR but who has since resigned; Khadijah Athman who is the manager of the “civil rights” division of CAIR; and Nadhira al-Khalili, Esq., who is in-house legal counsel for CAIR.

According to the complaint, CAIR’s in-house Washington, D.C.-based attorney Khalili was directly involved in taking the legal files out of the CAIR Virginia office and concealing them in the D.C. office.

Also named as defendants are Ibrahim Hooper and Amina Rubin, CAIR’s director of communications and coordinator of communications, respectively. According to the complaint, these two were directly responsible for issuing fraudulent press releases about the Days fraud scheme, thus aiding and abetting the CAIR cover-up.

About David Yerushalmi, Esq.

David Yerushalmi has been practicing law for almost 25 years. He is a litigator specializing in securities law, public policy relating to national security, and public interest law. Mr. Yerushalmi is licensed and practices in Washington D.C., New York, California, and Arizona.

To read the complaint, download the pdf file.

VIDEO: The video above shows Dave Gaubatz serving CAIR's executive director, Nihad Awad, with the Summons and Complaint at CAIR's 14th Annual Dinner in Virginia. Awad was served on his own behalf and on behalf of CAIR and one of its two real estate holding companies.

Awad is standing behind a speaker (probably North Carolina State Senator and CAIR Board Member Larry Shaw) addressing the dinner crowd (approx. 700 people). U.S. Congressman Ellison, who has spoken at several CAIR regional dinners this year, was also scheduled to speak. He appears not to be troubled by CAIR's involvement in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial. Maybe his close relationship to CAIR will now require a second or third thought.

Other CAIR officials served at the dinner were Khadijah Athman, CAIR's manager of the civil rights division; Nahira al-Khalili, CAIR's in-house lawyer in charge of legal affairs; and Amina Rubin, coordinator of communications. The remaining defendants will be served in the coming days.

Among Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Iranians, Turks, Kurds and Somalis. What do these otherwise "diverse" people have in common? Islam.

Koran 4:34 Alert: "Men have authority over women, for Allah has made the one superior to the other." Also, Aisha -- "Mother-of-the-Believers" -- never protested when her father, Abu Bakr (first "righteous caliph"), had her wed Muhammad when she was 9 years old, setting an eternal precedent.

"Forced marriage cases up by 80pc this year as investigators find parents using 'bounty hunters,'" by Martin Beckford for Telegraph, November 21:

The number of forced marriages being investigated in Britain has risen by 80 per cent this year with parents using "bounty hunters" and bogus missing persons campaigns in a desperate bid to track down runaway children and make them wed.

A special Government unit dedicated to stopping teenagers being married off by their families dealt with 300 cases in the first half of this year, up from 168 in the same period of 2007.

But the head of the Forced Marriage Unit, based at the Foreign Office, fears this could be just the tip of the iceberg as many victims are too scared to come forward and communities often close up to hide what is going on.

Wayne Ives also warned that heads of families are going to extreme lengths to get their children to marry, in some instances posing as officials to kidnap runaway brides or paying people to track them down.

His comments came as a new law comes into effect next week, which will make it easier for courts to stop ceremonies going ahead if it is feared that the bride and groom are being married against their wills.

A separate law will see the minimum age at which foreigners can come to Britain to get married being increased.

Despite the drive to tackle forced marriages, however, many feel it is still taboo because of fears of criticising immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are involved in most cases.

Schools have refused to discuss so-called honour crimes in case they cause offence to ethnic minorities or religions, while MPs have been accused of failing to highlight forced marriage in case they lose Muslim votes.

In a recent speech to a Capita conference, Mr Ives told delegates: "We are talking about endemic abuse of the worst kind against young men and women which is happening right here and right now."

He said the mere fact that a teenage girl is seen wearing a short skirt or having a boyfriend can be enough for her relatives to decide she has betrayed the family and must be forced to marry someone they deem acceptable, while others make disabled children get married so they can have a carer in a "warped form of altruism".

In total, 90 per cent of cases dealt with in Britain involve Bangladeshi or Pakistani families, but investigators are uncovering growing numbers of forced marriages involving Iranians, Turks, Kurds and Somalis.

Thanks to increased awareness, the Forced Marriage Unit has had 1,200 inquiries this year, 300 of which are being investigated as possible cases.

But Mr Ives warned: "What we've seen is the tip of the iceberg."

Mr Ives said it was unacceptable for people to tolerate forced marriage as just part of a different culture.

"It's not simply a cultural ceremony. It's people being abused, being raped."

He said forced marriage had not been criminalised because it was believed victims would not want to see their relatives arrested.

But the new Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act, which comes into force on November 25, will allow anyone to demand a injunction against a wedding ceremony going ahead or an intended bride or groom being taken overseas. Anyone who breaches these court orders could be prosecuted.

In addition, on Nov 27 the minimum age at which foreigners can come to Britain to get married will rise from 18 to 21 before a marriage visa can be granted.

Mr Ives went on to describe the lengths some families will go to in order to track down those who they want to be married.

"Two uncles managed to dress up as airport officials and tried to arrest a girl when she arrived in Pakistan.

"In the UK you're dealing with networks, bounty hunters are being used and particularly in the north taxi drivers are being asked to say 'if you see this person let us know'."

He said victims sometimes suffer even if they have the courage to come forward, as the authorities may not believe their stories and then contact their families, with the result that they suffer even worse abuse afterwards. If they run away from home, meanwhile, they are left isolated from their communities.

So much for the notion that Sunnis and Shias can never cooperate. They certainly can -- at least where infidels are concerned. The-Enemy-Of-My-Enemy-Is-My-Friend Alert (a, coincidentally, Arabian proverb):

"Iran receives al Qaeda praise for role in terrorist attacks," by Con Coughlin for the Telegraph, November 23 :

Fresh links between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran's support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people.

Delivery of the letter exposed the rising role of Saad bin Laden, son of the al-Qaeda leader, Osama as an intermediary between the organisation and Iran. Saad bin Laden has been living in Iran since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, apparently under house arrest.

The letter, which was signed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, was written after the American embassy in Yemen was attacked by simultaneous suicide car bombs in September.

Western security officials said the missive thanked the leadership of Iran's Revolutionary Guards for providing assistance to al-Qaeda to set up its terrorist network in Yemen, which has suffered ten al-Qaeda-related terror attacks in the past year, including two bomb attacks against the American embassy.

In the letter al-Qaeda's leadership pays tribute to Iran's generosity, stating that without its "monetary and infrastructure assistance" it would have not been possible for the group to carry out the terror attacks. It also thanked Iran for having the "vision" to help the terror organisation establish new bases in Yemen after al-Qaeda was forced to abandon much of its terrorist infrastructure in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

There has been intense speculation about the level of Iranian support for al-Qaeda since the 9/11 Commission report into al-Qaeda's terror attacks against the U.S. in 2001 concluded that Iran had provided safe passage for many of the 9/11 hijackers travelling between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia prior to the attacks.

Scores of senior al Qaeda activists - including Saad bin Laden - sought sanctuary in Iran following the overthrow of the Taliban, and have remained in Tehran ever since. The activities of Saad bin Laden, 29, have been a source of Western concern despite Tehran's assurances that he is under official confinement.

But Iran was a key transit route for al Qaeda loyalists moving between battlefields in the Middle East and Asia. Western security officials have also concluded Iran's Revolutionary Guards have supported al-Qaeda terror cells, despite religious divisions between Iran's Shia Muslim revolutionaries and the Sunni Muslim terrorists.

Iran is active in Yemen, Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland. The country has been a focal point for al-Qaeda, which has found relatively easy targets in its lawless environment. "Yemen is now a key strategic base for al-Qaeda's operations, as well as being fertile recruitment territory," said a senior Western security official. "Iran's Revolutionary Guards have provided important support in helping al-Qaeda to turn Yemen into a major centre of operations."

Apart from the terror attacks against the US embassy al-Qaeda has also threatened to attack the British and Saudi Arabian embassies in Yemen.

According to senior U.S. intelligence official, there is a "sudden rise in intelligence which strongly indicates that al-Qaeda has renewed plans to gain access to nuclear material that could form a primitive nuclear device, one perhaps that a suicide truck bomber could use."

"Al-Qaeda Increases Efforts to Develop 'Dirty bomb,'" by Gordon Thomas London for Epoch Times, November 22:

MI6 has issued a global priority warning to all security services that Islamic terrorists are now closer to obtaining material to create a “dirty bomb” to launch against Western targets.

Osama bin Laden has long made this a priority and reinforced it with regular messages from his mountain redoubt in the north-west province of Pakistan. He has repeatedly said every “true Muslim must make it his duty to assist in all ways possible to find the next powerful weapon to destroy our enemies”.

After the election of the new Pakistani president, the controversial Asif Ali Zardari, who has served a nine-year jail term on corruption charges he has strongly denied, MI6 fear there will be little ability to provide strong leadership against the new wave of Islamic extremism that al-Qaeda has launched across the country.

Groups such as the newly formed Pakistan Taliban have proclaimed it is focussing on creating a “dirty bomb”.

MI6 agents based in Islamabad fear the mounting instability in Pakistan will make it easier for them to do so.

While Pakistan is the only Muslim country with a nuclear arsenal, it has in the past provided its expertise to Iran.

Pakistan’s Islam bomb was developed in the 1990s by the rogue scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. He sold them to pariah states like North Korea and Libya. He was placed under house arrest by Pervez Musharraf.

But since Musharraf was forced to resign, restrictions on Khan’s detention have been virtually lifted–a decision that has alarmed Western diplomats in Pakistan.

While Musharraf readily agreed for the US to place stringent security around Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, there are serious concern that President Zardari will not be able to resist the rampant pressure al-Qaeda is mounting from its terrorist infrastructure base in Waziristan province in the north-west of the country.

A senior U.S. security official in Islamabad said: “Our concern is the sudden rise in intelligence which strongly indicates that al-Qaeda has renewed plans to gain access to nuclear material that could form a primitive nuclear device, one perhaps that a suicide truck bomber could use”.

In a “dirty bomb”, conventional explosives are surrounded with radioactive material.
The MI6 priority alert says such a device, while having a limited effect as a nuclear weapon, would create widespread panic.

An indication of how the threat has increased has been the number of terrorist-related websites which contain details of how to create a “dirty bomb”. As soon as the sites are discovered, they are eradicated by MI6’s experts. But within days they reappear elsewhere.

The culmination of a trend that has existed for quite some time. It's not as if there weren't warning signs.

"Muslim Fanatics 'Hijack British Prison'," by James Murray for the Sunday Express, November 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Muslim prisoners have launched a reign of terror inside a top security British jail.

The fanatics are forcing fellow inmates to convert to Islam or face punishment beatings.

One man who stood up to the thugs was branded with a lump of hot metal, according to a prison source.

The crisis at Whitemoor jail in Cambridgeshire has led to calls by staff for the 100 Muslim inmates there to be dispersed to other prisons round the country.

Some Al Qaeda supporters have set up a kangaroo court, sitting in judgment on prisoners and ordering punishments, the source said.

The violent disciples of Osama Bin Laden have targeted even the toughest non-Muslim prisoners, including killers and rapists.

Local Tory MP Malcolm Moss said: “They are a law unto themselves. The governor should sort these problems out.”

Mr Moss, who recently visited the jail with Prisons Minister David Hanson, added: “There is a fear in the prison about what Al Qaeda stands for and what they can do. There are threats made to people to make them convert and if they lapse it is even worse.

“It is not an easy situation for the prison officers working there. Either additional resources should be made available or better training.”

Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “We have been calling for the Muslim leaders to be dispersed to other jails. The service must step in to break up this gang culture with immediate effect.”

It would help to recognize this situation as much more than a matter of "gang culture."

Concern over the way Whitemoor is being run surfaced last week when it was revealed an Al Qaeda terrorist had been training to be a stand-up comic. [...]

An honest statement from Brother Tariq

Who said that?

Was it...Ayaan Hirsi Ali? Wafa Sultan? Nonie Darwish? Brigitte Gabriel? Daniel Pipes? Steve Emerson? Gregory Davis? Serge Trifkovic? Mark Gabriel? William J. Federer? Walid Shoebat?

Was it...Raymond Ibrahim?

Was it...Robert Spencer?

Nope. None of them.

Give up?

It was...are you ready?

Tariq Ramadan, according to this report by Valentina Colombo (thanks to B.). If you don't know who Tariq Ramadan is, see here.

Thanks, Mr. Ramadan!

"Above it are nineteen"

In The Caliph’s House, Tahir Shah’s marvelous account of his adventures moving his family to Morocco and buying and refurbishing a home in Casablanca, Shah is repeatedly amazed by the belief of the locals (including Westernized Moroccans whom he believes to be sophisticated) in the existence of jinn, the mischievous spirit beings who interfere in human affairs. And their invariable reply to his astonished inquiries is “It’s in the Qur’an.”

One of the most prominent treatments of the jinn in the Qur’an is in the Meccan sura 72. In verses 1-15 they recount their hearing of a wonderful “recitation,” or “Qur’an,” which leads them to profess belief in Allah who “has taken neither a wife nor a son” (v. 3). Then verses 16-28 contain warnings for the unbelievers: if only they had accepted Islam, Allah would have sent them rain – indicating once again that obedience to Allah brings earthly prosperity. The “places of worship are for Allah alone” (v. 18) – as Qatadah explains: “Whenever the Jews and Christians used to enter their churches and synagogues, they would associate partners with Allah. Thus, Allah commanded His Prophet to tell them that they should single Him out alone for worship.” The sura ends with warnings that while Muhammad may seem weak, Allah’s promises are sure, and the unbelievers will taste hell (vv. 23-24).

The United American Committee has this week put up a billboard on the Detroit-Toledo expressway. As you can see, it says “Sharia Law Threatens America.” You can see it for yourself in Luna Pier, about 10 miles north of Toledo, 20 miles south of Detroit on I-75.

Just in time for the Thanksgiving traffic!

Bravo, UAC.

But rest easy, friends: the ever-vigilant Islamic guardians of the Maldives Customs Service are on the case. Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Customs, Police investigating attempt to import Bible," from Haveeru, November 23 (thanks to Michael):

The Maldives Customs Service and the Maldives Police Service are investigating the case of a Maldivian who had tried to import a bible into the country.

Musthafa Luthufee, a Customs Media Official, said that a Maldivian who had arrived on a flight on Friday afternoon had brought a bible with him. The official also said that the bible was in the English language but that the man had not been arrested.

“If it is an item forbidden entry into the country then we will confiscated it,” the official said. “However, we do not have the authority to arrest anyone even if they attempt to import the item into the country. We have to report the incident to the Police. Still, we are also investigating the incident.”

A Police official said that they had received the report of a Maldivian who had tried to import a bible into the country and that they were investigating the case. Police also said that they had not arrested anyone in connection to the incident. Neither the Police nor the Customs would reveal the identity of the person or from which country he had arrived in Maldives from....

The promised fatwa against yoga has been delivered, and it will be up to the various states within Malaysia to decide on "enforcement." Will there be Yoga Police?

Of course, all of this must be taken in the context of the larger campaign to Islamize all aspects of Malaysian society and set Malays -- all of whom are Muslim by fiat of Article 160 in the Malaysian constitution -- above and apart from Malaysia's Hindu and Chinese populations. (And no one is supposed to question that, either.)

"Yoga Ban: Don't question fatwa, says Council," by Farrah Naz Karim for the New Straits Times, November 23:

PUTRAJAYA: As expected, the National Fatwa Council yesterday announced that Muslims are prohibited from practising yoga.

In declaring yoga haram, the council said it could be traced back to Hinduism and concluded that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

Council chairman Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said the decision was made as yoga involved elements that were against the beliefs of Islam in its physical movements, chanting and worship.

"Many Muslims in the country fail to understand the ultimate aim of yoga.

"It combines physical movements, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with God," he said at a press conference to announce the decision yesterday.

Shukor said once the fatwa was gazetted, it would be passed on to the states to decide on the enforcement.

Malaysia, he said, was not alone in prohibiting yoga among Muslims as the Singaporean and Egyptian Islamic councils had done the same.

Shukor said renowned Islamic scholars were also of the view that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

Asked if practising yoga with the intention of promoting physical health was also against the fatwa, he said although it did not include the chanting and beliefs, it was discouraged.

This, he said, was because the physical movements of yoga were a component of the practice which was haram.

"In Islam, one must not do things which can erode one's aqidah (belief). Yoga, even the physical movements, is a step towards the erosion of a Muslim's belief, hence they must avoid it."

Muslims, he added, should be careful and conduct thorough studies before embracing rituals and practices that could threaten their faith.

He said Islam had long paved the way for Muslims to achieve spiritual peace and health and they should stick to these teachings, which included praying five times a day.

The Islamic Development Department (Jakim), he said, would start a programme to educate Muslims on why yoga was against the teachings of Islam.

Expecting a backlash from Malaysians on the decision, Shukor reminded non-Muslims not to question the fatwa.

"We respect the harmony and freedom of practice of other races [i.e., non-Malay - M.]. This is not something for non-Muslims to interfere in or question as this matter involves Muslims and their faith.

"It may not be acceptable to other races, but this is about Islamic teachings," he said.

Yoga practice among Muslims recently became an issue when Professor Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Faculty of Islamic Studies said the practice could cause Muslims to deviate from Islam.

He had pointed out that yoga could be traced back to Hinduism and urged Muslims who practised it to stop and return to the teachings of Islam.

Yoga, which dates back more than 5,000 years and is a form of spiritual practice in India, is one of the six classic systems of Hindu philosophy that stresses self-control, discipline, postures, breathing, restraint of the senses, steadying of the mind, meditation and contemplation.

She spent 2 years in prison for killing her uncle in self-defense: he had stabbed her mother and was attacking her and her brother -- all for, as is common, converting to Christianity. But now that she's been released, her extended Muslim family plans on giving her a bit of good ol' fashioned Islamic justice.

"IRAQ: COURT RELEASES CHRISTIAN GIRL SENTENCED FOR MURDER," from Compass Direct News, updated November 21:

Prison term reduced for abused niece who defended herself; family fears retaliation.

ISTANBUL, November 17 (Compass Direct News) – In prison at the age of 14 for having fatally stabbed her uncle in northern Iraq, Asya Ahmad Muhammad’s early release on Nov. 10 thanks to a juvenile court decision was overshadowed by fear of retaliation from her extended Muslim family. Also known as Maria, the now 16-year-old Muhammad was sentenced to five years in prison for killing her paternal uncle in self-defense on July 9, 2006 when he attacked her, her mother and little brother at their family kitchen utensil store in the outskirts of Dohuk.

The uncle had cut her mother and was fiercely beating them for converting to Christianity and for “shaming” the family by working in public when Muhammad stabbed him. Her lawyer, Akram Al-Najar, told Compass that the court earlier agreed to reduce her sentence to two years and four months on the basis of her good conduct and having served nearly three-quarters of her three-and-a-half year sentence.

But Muhammad’s release from prison now means a possible retaliation from extended family members for her uncle’s death, said Al-Najar.

“I am not sure she is safe right now, especially after her release, since there are still people intent on gaining revenge,” said the lawyer. Muhammad’s father, Ahmad Muhammad Abdurahman, said that in the last week family members have called him twice telling him his days of joy are numbered. “My sisters called me, and my brother’s wife called me also [and said], ‘You are a shame. Don’t be happy in your family; we will never let you be happy in your family,’” Abdurahman told Compass.

From aspirations of owning a gas station to blowing up ten infidel-laden jets

Here's an article about Rashid Rauf (just killed, see below) from over a year ago. Like many others Misunderstanders-of-Islam, he seems to have believed that jihad (of the militant variety, mind you) is "obligatory for every Muslim." Also, like many other jihadists, he seems to have become "radicalized" in the West, citing the latter's "un-Islamic" -- synonymous with debauched and depraved -- qualities. Interestingly, however, Rauf's friend says the former was planning on becoming a simple gas-station owner, and yet, over a year later, we find him as a fugitive on-the-run living in an al-Qaeda stronghold. The obligation of jihad must have returned to haunt him -- either that or he or his friend or both were just lying about the gas station bit.

"Jihad obligatory for every Muslim: Rashid Rauf," from the Daily Times, April 17, 2007:

ISLAMABAD: The alleged mastermind of the London terror plot, British-born Pakistani Rashid Rauf, believes that jihad is obligatory for all Muslims, and after release he wants to live in Pakistan and set up a Compressed Natural Gas station in Jhelum, Mehboob Ilahi, Rauf's fellow prisoner, told Daily Times after being released late Saturday night.

"Rashid wants to live in Pakistan because he is against the un-Islamic British society," said Ilahi, who spent six months with Rauf in a sub-jail of Police Civil Lines in Rawalpindi. "An Islamic conference attracted Rauf towards Pakistan. He is a very pious Muslim," said Ilahi.

"Rauf told me that he was arrested during a journey to Multan at Lodhran Phatak when a man sitting with him in the bus asked him [Rauf ] what his opinion was on jihad and he replied that he believed it was every Muslim's obligation," said Ilahi. He said Rauf had not been arrested in Rawalpindi as previously reported, but instead had been apprehended at Lodharan Pathak on August 8.

Ilahi, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal National Assembly member Maulana Abdul Aziz's brother, was reportedly arrested on August 25, 16 days after the foiling of the London terror plot. The government had provided terror charges against him but he was released after the Supreme Court review board found him innocent. "Rauf and I were kept in a very small cell. The police did not even provide enough water for us to perform ablution," said Ilahi. "Investigation personnel have badly beaten Rauf during interrogations and once he lost consciousness for three days following a beating," Ilahi added.

Dispatched

Whose radicalization began in Britain. What a relief for "friend-and-ally" Pakistani government, who will most likely, as is custom, summon and scold the US ambassador. "British terror mastermind Rashid Rauf 'killed in US missile strike,'" by Andrew Alderson for the Telegraph, November 22:

A fugitive British terrorist has been killed in a US missile strike in Pakistan.

Rashid Rauf, 27, who grew up in Birmingham, was killed along with at least three other militants in the attack on the house of a local tribesman in the North Waziristan area,

A US drone targeted the home in the village of Alikhel, part of a district known as a stronghold for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"The transatlantic bombing plot alleged mastermind Rashid Rauf was killed along with an Egyptian al-Qaeda operative in the US missile strike in North Waziristan," a senior Pakistani security official said.

Rauf, who has been on the run after escaping from a Pakistani jail nearly a year ago, was said to have played a key role in a liquid bomb plot allegedly targeting transatlantic airliners in 2006.

Rauf, a British national who used to live in Birmingham, escaped from Pakistani authorities after appearing before a judge in an Islamabad court in December last year. At the time, he could have faced extradition to Britain within weeks.

After the escape, Khalid Pervez, a city police official, said that Rauf managed to open his handcuffs and evade police guards taking him back to Adiala prison in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.

After the escape, 12 policemen were questioned and two had been accused of assisting the escape or negligence. Despite a huge manhunt, he was never recaptured.

Rauf was arrested in Pakistan in August 2006, after a tip-off from British intelligence, over alleged attempts to blow up 10 transatlantic jets.

News of the liquid bomb plot paralysed global air travel, prompting authorities to implement stringent security measures at airports around the world.

Police believe that the plan was for different passengers to carry peroxide-based liquid explosive in drinks containers and detonators disguised as electronic devices and combine them on board.

The arrests sparked a security alert and mass flight cancellations as well as restrictions on carry-on luggage.

A dual citizen of Britain and Pakistan, Rauf was married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the head and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamist militant group in Pakistan that has been linked to al-Qaeda. Azhar has lived in Bahawalpur, a city in eastern Pakistan where Rauf had also settled.

A senior Pakistani official called Rauf "an al-Qaeda operative with linkages in Afghanistan".

Rauf is understood to have left Birmingham following the stabbing to death of his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, 54, near his home in Alum Rock in April 2002.

Yet the Saudi king, Karzai, and reportedly even Bush want Mullah Omar to receive asylum in Saudi Arabia in order to "speed up plans for a reconciliation process."

"Australian army chief says peace not close with Taliban," from the Military-World, November 22 :

The chief of the Australian Defence Force says he does not think a political settlement with the Taliban insurgents is close in Afghanistan.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston says the threat to Australian troops in Afghanistan remains high, but he says the soldiers and and their Dutch partners have made good progress in disrupting the Taliban in Oruzgan province.

Overall, he says the coalition forces in Afghanistan are denying terrorists the opportunity to use the nation to launch attacks like September 11 or the Bali Bombings.

But he says they are still able to operate from the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The defence chief says, in his view, it is too early to start peace talks with the Taliban and says negotiations should only happen after the insurgents promise to give up their weapons.

But it's just as well if the mullah refuses; Pakistan's ISI has been keeping him -- along with, perhaps other notable personages -- safe and sound. "Report: Saudi offer of asylum to Taliban leader," from the Earth Times, November 22:

Berlin - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has offered political asylum to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, 49, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday, quoting government sources in Kabul. The report said the approach was made at the request of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and outgoing US president George W Bush.

Karzai hoped the offer would speed up plans for a reconciliation process in the landlocked Asian nation and had promised the Taliban leader safe passage if he decided to return to Afghanistan, Der Spiegel said.

Terrorism experts believe Mullah Omar is hiding in the Pakistan city of Quetta, possibly with the help of the country's Inter- Services Intelligence agency, the report added.

More on this story (note the initial, spurious allegations that accompanied the violence), and another scintillating study in proportional response. "Egypt: Christians arrested, shops looted in village," from Compass Direct News, November 21:

ISTANBUL, November 21 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities in an Egyptian village arrested 50 Coptic Christians, whose shops were then looted, to pacify Muslims following violence that erupted on Nov. 4 over a Christian boy’s unwitting break with custom.

Muslim villagers attacked the homes and shops of Coptic Christians in violence-prone Tayyiba, a town with 35,000 Christians and 10,000 Muslims, after 14-year-old Copt Mina William failed to dismount his donkey as a funeral procession passed.

William was watching the procession in Tayibba, 220 kilometers (137 miles) south of Cairo, with Nathan Yaccoub, also 14. William’s failure to dismount violated a local custom of showing respect, Copts United reported, and members of the procession reportedly beat him before completing the procession. William suffered minor injuries.

After the funeral procession, the processional members began throwing stones at the homes of local Copts and attacking their shops before police broke up the crowd with tear gas.

A priest said members of the procession did not attack the youths for showing disrespect but as an excuse to lash out against the community’s Christians for a previous episode of sectarian violence.

“These two children with the donkey didn’t know about the traditions,” said Father Metias Nasr, a Cairo-based priest with connections in areas south of the capital. “The Muslims there were angry about the last case of violence and wanted to create a new problem with these two children there.”

When the violence began, police presence increased significantly in the city. But rather than quell the unrest, police reportedly made matters worse for the Christians. After breaking up the crowd, officers detained 50 Copts and 10 Muslims.

A source told Compass that police arrested a disproportionate amount of Christians to create a false sense of equanimity and to pressure the Christians into “reconciliation” with the attackers so the Copts would not prosecute them. The arrested Christians have since been released.

In the two weeks since the attacks and looting, the increased police force in the village has harassed Copts through intimidation, “fines” and racketeering. Police have taken an estimated $50,000 from village Copts, the source said.

Once police lifted the curfew, Coptic shopkeepers returned to their stores to discover that they had been looted. Sources said the perpetrators were “supply inspectors,” local government inspectors who do quality control checks on goods. They gained access by smashing locks and doors of the shops.

The sources said supply inspectors plundered grocery stores, a poultry shop, an electronics store and a pharmacy.

According to Coptic weekly Watani, looters stole nearly $2,000 worth of goods from grocer Bishara Gayed. Another victim of the looting, an owner of a poultry shop who declined to give his name, blamed supply inspectors for running off with his stock.

A local clergyman condemned the violence.

“It is unreasonable that a mistake by some 14-year-old should lead to all that rampage,” a village Coptic priest known as Father Augustinus told Watani. “Something ought to be done to halt all this.”

Orphanage Bulldozed

Numerous instances of sectarian violence have struck Tayyiba in the last few months.

Last month a Coptic Christian was killed over a dispute with a Muslim who wanted to buy his house. Violence escalated, resulting in damaged storefronts, 48 arrests and injuries sustained by three Christians and a Muslim.

Such quarrels typically arise from land ownership issues. A Coptic source told Compass that Christians in Tayyiba are generally wealthier than their Muslim counterparts, often leading to resentment.

Tayyiba was stable at press time, though the town is considered to be continually in danger of religious violence flaring. This situation is common throughout Egypt, Fr. Nasr told Compass.

“The village is like anywhere in Egypt,” he said. “In every place in Egypt we can say that in one minute everyone can be destroyed by fanatics, sometimes through the encouragement of security [forces].”

The Coptic Church has faced recent difficulties in other Egyptian cities, with government officials attempting to obstruct their religious activities. On Wednesday (Nov. 19), city officials in Lumbroso, Alexandria destroyed an unfinished but recently furnished Coptic orphanage owned by Abu-Seifein Church and worth 6 million Egyptian pounds (US$1 million).

Officials claimed the building did not have a license, although church leaders said the demolition came on orders from the religiously zealous Islamic mayor. Ali Labib, former head of police and state security in Alexandria, in his two-year tenure as mayor has refused license applications for new church construction or rebuilding, said a Cairo-based Coptic priest who requested anonymity. [...]

The suspects are still at large. Eurabia Alert. "German raids on suspected terror cell supporters," from the Associated Press, November 22:

BERLIN – Officials say German police carried out raids in three states searching for suspected supporters of a terror cell whose plans to attack U.S. targets in Germany were foiled last year.

Federal prosecutors' spokesman Frank Wallenta says police made no arrests during Thursday's raids on the residences of several people suspected of acquiring detonators for three alleged terror plotters.

The suspected plotters are now on trial. They are alleged to have operated as a German cell of the radical Islamic Jihad Union.

Wallenta declined to say Saturday where the raids had been carried out. Germany's Bild daily says they were in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony.

And then they quickly added, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"US spies see stronger, Islamic Turkey in 2025," by Ümit Enginsoy for Hurriyet, November 22 (thanks to Davida):

WASHINGTON - The National Intelligence Council, which brings together all 16 US intelligence agencies, argues in its recent report titled Global Trends 2025 that Turkey’s most likely course in the next 15 years involves a blending of Islamic and nationalist strains.

US spies see stronger, Islamic Turkey in 2025 Turkey is likely to have a more prominent political and economic role internationally and economically in 2025, but it will also become more Islamic and more nationalist, the U.S. intelligence community predicted in a report released late Thursday.

The National Intelligence Council, or NIC, which brings together all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, said in its report -- "Global Trends 2025" -- that the United States' clout was likely to decline over the next 15 to 20 years, while China and India would have a strengthened position. Russia, it predicted, could go up or down.

Muslim power

Among Muslim countries, the NIC expected "to see the political and economic power of Indonesia, Iran, and Turkey increase. "Over the next 15 years, Turkey’s most likely course involves a blending of Islamic and nationalist strains, which could serve as a model for other rapidly modernizing countries in the Middle East," it said.

The NIC said it expected secularism in the Middle East to decline in line with the Turkish example. "In the Middle East, secularism, which also has been considered an integral part of the Western model, increasingly may be seen as out of place as Islamic parties come into prominence and possibly begin to run governments," it said. "As in today’s Turkey, we could see both increased Islamization and greater emphasis on economic growth and modernization." But a more Middle Eastern and Islamic Turkey is a candidate for more important roles, the NIC said.

"Indonesia, Turkey and a post-clerically run Iran -- states that are predominantly Islamic, but which fall outside the Arab core -- appear well-situated for growing international roles," it said....

“CIA director Michael Hayden has warned that every major terrorist threat confronting the world has ties to Pakistan.” – from this news article

It would be comforting if one had the feeling that Michael Hayden, and Admiral McConnell, and all those who work with them, or will replace them, would focus for a moment not on this or that ever-changing "central front" but on the ideology of Islam, and came to grasp the not-very-difficult notion that the ideology of Islam is not peaceful. This ideology does not inculcate the idea of equality between Muslims and non-Muslims, but is based, rather, on one central and simple notion: that the main, and permanent, and most significant division of humanity is that between Muslims and non-Muslims, Believers and Infidels. And the former, those Believers, are taught that they are in a state of permanent war -- though not necessarily open warfare -- with Infidels, and that they have a duty, those Believers, to participate in the "struggle" or Jihad to remove all obstacles to the spread and then the dominance of Islam everywhere in the world.

This cannot be grasped except through taking the time to study a bit. It cannot be outsourced to underlings who will provide the usual three-page "Executive Summary" (with bullets, bien entendu). It must be studied, and then thought about, and then studied some more, and then connected to the actual history, over 1350 years, of Muslim conquest, and attempted conquest, of non-Muslim lands and peoples, and of the subjugation of the latter as, at best, dhimmis.

"When you've never had any problems with the law and all of a sudden to be handcuffed and foot-chained and driven to RCMP headquarters and then to court, it's distressing," Duval [Hassan Diab's lawyer] said from his home in Trois-Rivieres, Que....[H]e's a devoted teacher who has the support of his students and the universities, Duval said....."This is a gentleman who is a very professional person and, of course, everyone is surprised by this thing that happened. You will have a hard time finding someone who will say something negative about him." – from this news article

He's "never had any problems with the law," yet "all of a sudden" is "handcuffed and footchained and driven to RCMP headquarters...its distressing." He is a part-time instructor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, where he is "a devoted teacher." He's "a gentleman." He's a "very professional person." And "you will have a hard time finding someone who will say something negative about him."

Ah yes. The idiotic irrelevancies.

Anyone who is about to give a public lecture on Islam in which there are Muslims in the audience likely to give trouble during the Q.-and-A., should anticipate in his lecture the kinds of statements that will be made by those apologists for Islam -- unless they are merely of the yelling, screaming, violence-threatening variety. But a police presence, or even, on a campus, the presence of professors outside of the expected fields (Middle Eastern or Islamic studies, where apologists, both Muslim and non-Muslim, are thick on the ground), may help to dampen this. Speakers can easily anticipate such questions since they are always the same predictable handful. Indeed, a list of them could be prepared and even posted, with the replies, as part of a helpful vademecum for speakers on Islam.

But along with this, it would be helpful to recognize the strategies used by Muslim speakers when they themselves are subject to questioning. And the most slithery of the bunch is undoubtedly the renowned Muslim “reformer” Tariq Ramadan.

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."... – from this article

When word gets out that Al-Zawahiri and other Arabs have been dissing Obama, it's going to be taken hard, especially in certain parts of Detroit and Chicago. And when the entire story of Arab racism is made clearer, the effects could be devastating. It is this kind of talk by Al-Zawihiri, that "snap-to-it-boy" attitude, directed at the President of the United States (an attitude that would not have been exhibited toward a white president), that so clearly displays Islam as the vehicle for Arab supremacism that, despite its universalist pretensions, it has always been. That can only be good. Scales can fall from eyes, faster than they otherwise would.

And black Africans, too, can benefit from this. The Christians imperilled in West Africa and in East Africa by the steady Muslim Arab advances will be aroused, and heartened/ They have been victimized by the genocide in southern Sudan for the past 20 years, which is now accompanied by a lesser genocide in Darfur directed at killing, or expelling from their land, black African (i.e., non-Arab) Muslims. They have been victimized by the Muslim Arabs -- those Egyptian pilots -- who strafed helpless Ibo villagers during the Biafra War to keep Nigeria's Christians from breaking free of the Muslims waging Jihad (Col. Ojukwu's word) against them. And god knows they need a sign that the West will not forget them, after the Biafra War, after the slow-motion genocide in southern Sudan, after the encroachments of the Arabs and of Islam even in Uganda, where a handful of Muslims now threaten the Christian authorities.

That smooth man Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, is working hard to persuade the Americans to give still more billions -- is it five billion? ten billion? -- to Pakistan. He is working hard to do this at a time of great American economic turmoil. Haqqani wants the United States to give these billions to a mendacious "ally" that has, since 2001, received $30 billion in direct and indirect aid (see the calculations of Selig Harrison).

Pakistan should get nothing further from the American government. There is no connection between "prosperity" in Muslim lands and a lessening of hostility to Infidels. The texts and tenets and attitudes and atmospherics of Islam remain the same. What changes is that when Muslims are too poor to behave as the Saudis do, then those Muslims can do less harm than if they are given more Infidel aid. The Saudis spend billions spreading Islam through the funding of mosques and madrasas and campaigns of Da'wa and buying up armies of Western hirelings. But when Muslims are too poor to buy armaments or to pay for projects to build nuclear weapons, both due to their own lack of initiative and inshallah-fatalism as well as due to a lack of Infidel aid, they lack the smoothness to propagandize, and lack the time, being so busy staying alive, to promote the Jihad. It was American and other Infidel aid that allowed A. Q. Khan to successfully bring his nuclear project to completion. Yet more Infidel aid is what Ambassador Husain Haqqani so ardently wishes his untrustworthy and essentially hostile country to receive from what he regards as those endlessly gullible, or persuadable Americans.

With an eye-popping 80% of the vote demonstrating that the time has come for a Change, I have been elected "Best Infidel Blogger" over at the Infidel Blogger Awards. I thank the electorate for the honor it has bestowed upon me, and congratulate the other winners, which include such eminent warriors as Kathy Shaidle, Ezra Levant, and Mark Steyn.

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

The way you Mecca me feel

He was feeling "a bit down." So he decided to convert to the "funnest" religion in the world -- you know, the one that bans -- and whips people for -- dancing. "Michael Jackson 'becomes a Muslim and changes name to Mikaeel,'" from the Daily Mail, November 21:

Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, it has been claimed today.

The 50-year-old singer, who has previously been photographed wearing a traditional Arab women's veil, reportedly became a Muslim in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated at the home of Steve Porcaro, who composed music on his Thriller album.

He is said to have been encouraged by Canadian songwriter David Wharnsby and Phillip Bubal, a producer, who both approached him after he appeared 'a bit down'.

A source told The Sun: 'They began talking to him about their beliefs, and how they thought they had become better people after they converted. Michael soon began warming to the idea.

'An imam was summoned from the mosque and Michael went through the shahada, which is the Muslim declaration of belief.'[...]

Meanwhile, Jackson is scheduled to give evidence in person at London's High Court to defend allegations that he owes an Arab sheikh £4.7 million.

Why aren't you laughing, infidel?

Along with murderers and rapists, Zia Ul Haq was learning how to be a stand-up comic. Here's one: A man accepts a violent, supremacist ideology; he goes and tries to kill the inferior ones; he gets caught, thrown in prison and -- da-da-dum-- learns to be a stand-up comedian! Yak, yak, yak.

"British Prison Scraps Comedy Course for Al Qaeda Terrorist," from the Sun, November 21 :

An Al Qaeda terrorist serving 18 years for his involvement in a plot to bomb London was taught how to be a stand-up comic at his top-security prison.

Evil Zia Ul Haq was enrolled in an eight-day “comedy workshop” at Whitemoor jail, along with murderers and rapists.

An inquiry was launched today by the director of high security prisons to consider whether further action was needed, the Ministry of Justice said.

A spokeswoman added: “The director general of the National Offender Management Service is personally briefing governors from all prisons on the need to take account of the public acceptability test in relation to prison classes.”

The 18 cons were given lessons in stand-up, comic drama, improvisation and scriptwriting.

Once they “graduated” they were due to get a certificate and display their new talents with a comedy show for fellow inmates and guards.

On Thursday Justice Secretary Jack Straw canned the "totally unacceptable" course. He also vetoed a plan by the Category A Cambridgeshire prison to set up its own comedy club.

Ul Haq, 29, was given an 18-year stretch last year for his part in a plot to bomb buildings in London and the rest of the U.K.

He was a member of a sleeper cell controlled by British Al Qaeda "general" Dhiren Barot, 35, who is serving a minimum of 30 years.

Ul Haq, of Paddington, West London, has a degree in construction management. And he was recruited to advise on locating bombs so buildings would collapse when they exploded.

Anti-terror cops said the cell planned to cause "huge loss of life" using limos packed with gas cylinders.

The class started on Monday and ran for three days before Straw stepped in. He said: "As soon as I heard about it, I instructed it must be immediately cancelled."

If Jack Straw stepped in and "immediately cancelled" it, you know it must've be bad.

Failed Martyr Update

Including "animal-like behavior" and "sex in nightclub toilets." All things which are "unacceptable to Allah and the true religion Islam." Peeing in doorways, too. Islamic Holier-Than-Thou Alert and Nicky Reilly update.

"White Muslim convert who bombed restaurant blamed Britain's 'war on Islam,'" by Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, November 21:

A white Muslim convert who tried to blow up a family restaurant wrote a suicide note showing he was motivated by what he called Britain's "war on Islam", a court heard.Nicky Reilly, 22, who called himself Mohamad Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim after two of the September 11 hijackers, walked into the Giraffe restaurant in the Princesshay shopping centre in Exeter and tried to set off his homemade nail bombs.

Reilly, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and had been groomed over the internet by Islamic extremists, could not open the door of the toilet cubicle where he assembled them and they blew up in his face [see picture above].

The Old Bailey heard police found a suicide note in a folder at his mother's flat in Plymouth where he lived complaining about sex and drunknenness in British society and the suffering of Muslims around the world.

The note, printed in red type, said "Why I did it. Everywhere Muslims are suffering at the hands of Britain, Israel and America. You have imprisoned over 1,000 Muslims in Britain alone in your war on Islam."

He added: "In Britain it is ok for a girl to have sex without marriage and if she gets pregnant she can get an abortion so easily. When you are getting drunk on Friday and Saturday night your behaviour is worse than animals.

"You have sex in nightclub toilets and you urinate in shop doorways. You shout your foul and disgusting mouth off in the street. It is unacceptable to Allah and the true religion Islam."

Mentioning Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay he said Britain, the US and Israel had "no real rules."

Reilly added: "Sheikh Usama [Bin Laden] has told you the solution on how to end this war between us and many others have as well but you ignore us.

He went on: "I have not been brainwashed or indoctrinated. I am not insane. I am not doing this to escape a life of problems or hardships. I'm doing what God wants from his Mujahideen."...

Beverley, AKA "Khadija"

A pro-Islamic slant that, according to Glen Cooper, offers a "different perspective," such as supporting the global jihad. "Captors suspect Canadian 'a spy,'" by Mohsin Abbas for The Star, November 21 :

VANCOUVER–Taliban militants, suspected of abducting a Canadian freelance journalist in northern Pakistan last week, are holding her because they think she is a spy, according to officials in the region.

No groups have taken responsibility for kidnapping Beverley Giesbrecht, 54, of West Vancouver, along with her translator and a personal assistant.

But Pakistani news reports said militants loyal to Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur are holding her in North-West Frontier Province.

Kamran Khan, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan representing North Waziristan, denied media reports the three were abducted for ransom.

"All efforts are being made to secure Giesbrecht's freedom. We are trying our best for her release by co-ordinating with local officials," Khan said in an interview from Peshawar.

"There is not a single incident of kidnapping any journalist for ransom in my region," he added.

Ehsan Ullah, a journalist in Mir Ali, a community about 70 kilometres from Jani Khel where Giesbrecht was abducted, said the Taliban are attempting to confirm that the Canadian woman is a legitimate journalist, and not someone gathering information for U.S. or Pakistan governments.

He said they likely would not mistreat Giesbrecht.

"They might take a couple of weeks to make sure that she is not a spy. There is not a single incident of a woman journalist mistreated by them," he said of the tribes under Bahadur's control.

Khan said the Canadian embassy in Pakistan hadn't contacted him, but he was still working for her release.

Giesbrecht also goes by the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar, which she adopted after converting to Islam. She's a former magazine publisher in British Columbia who produces a website, Jihad Unspun. She was working freelance for Al Jazeera.

Giesbrecht hasn't spent much time living in Vancouver since she converted to Islam in Egypt in 2003. She had travelled to Malaysia, and met Islamic leaders in Asia to conduct interviews for her website following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Glen Cooper, Giesbrecht's close friend in Vancouver, said she is a serious and fearless woman but has a bad back. He said the website has a clear pro-Islamic slant, but he argued she is a reporter with a different perspective, not a propagandist.

"Canadian media and people should support her realizing that she is a Canadian citizen with a Canadian point of view," said Cooper.

Right. Especially now that she is in desperate need of the despised infidel's aid, to rescue her from her coreligionists.

Of course, as for those of non-Muslim countries, he does not say one way or the other. But the Islamic tradition regarding the property of unbelievers is clear:

"I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform a that, then they save their lives an property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah" (Sahih Bukhari 1.2.24).

And:

"If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle" (Sahih Bukhari 4.53.392).

In addition, this story lends credence to the idea that jihadists' pledges to fight piracy will involve a great deal of hair-splitting about when piracy is "really" piracy, not unlike apologists' hair-splitting with respect to when jihad is "really" jihad.

"Islamists say they'll fight Somali pirates," by Mohamed Sheikh Nor for the Associated Press, November 21:

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.

Abdelghafar Musa, a fighter with al-Shabab who claims to speak on behalf of all Islamic fighters in the Horn of Africa nation, said ships belonging to Muslim countries should not be seized.

"We are really sorry to hear that the Saudi ship has been held in Somalia. We will fight them (the pirates)," Musa told AP Television News.

In the past two weeks, Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including the huge Saudi supertanker. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates. The pirates dock the hijacked ships near the eastern and southern Somali coast and negotiate for ransom.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Friday that the Saudi government was not negotiating with pirates and would not do so, but that what the ship's owners did was up to them. [...]

As Islamic nations pressure the UN to outlaw "defamation of Islam" -- by which they mean any honest examination of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists -- Obama's pick for Attorney General sends a disquieting signal. A message from Jihad Watch reader Paul:

Eric Holder, Obama's pick for US attorney general, gave a TV interview in 1999 calling for "reasonable restrictions, reasonable regulations in how people interact on the Internet."

The quote transcript may be seen here.

Will the OIC's "Islamophobia" campaign -- set for a crescendo in Geneva and the US next year -- goad him into action?

Dark days ahead.

Indeed. If Obama accepts the OIC's definition of "Islamophobia," it will become impossible to speak openly about what the jihadists are doing and why. We will be rendered mute and thus defenseless before the advancing jihad.

But what will they want in return? Or will they help out from the kindness of their hearts? This request could end up being a pivotal element in the effort to make Western finance fully Sharia-compliant.

"US seeks 300 billion dlrs from Gulf states: report," from AFP, November 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – The United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to 300 billion dollars to help it curb the global financial meltdown, Kuwait's daily Al-Seyassah reported Thursday.

Quoting "highly informed" sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi Arabia for 120 billion dollars, the United Arab Emirates for 70 billion dollars, Qatar for 60 billion dollars and was seeking 40 billion dollars from Kuwait.

Al-Seyassah said Washington sought the amount as "financial aid" to face the fallout of the financial crisis and help prevent its economy from sliding into a painful recession.

The daily said the United States plans to use the funds to help the ailing automobile industry , banks and other companies suffering from the global financial turmoil....

The daily also said that the United States has asked Kuwait to forgive its Iraqi debt estimated at around 16 billion dollars.

Why was this guy on the committee in the first place? An announcement from Americans Against Hate:

School Board Chooses Not To Reappoint Hamas Supporter To The School Board’s Diversity Committee

(Fort Lauderdale, FL) On Tuesday, November 18th, the day his term ended, members of the Broward County School Board made a conscious decision not to reappoint or reassign Jawhar Sadallah Badran, a.k.a. Joe Badran, to the School Board’s Diversity Committee or any other committee ruled over by the School Board.

Badran, on March 1st, was videotaped making statements in favor of Hamas. The statements included him saying that Hamas was “not a terrorist organization.” As well, in July of 2006, Badran described himself to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel as a suicide bomber. He stated, “Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis. The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can.”

Badran was also an admitted member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group affiliated with Hamas and a group currently named as a co-conspirator by the U.S. Justice Department for a federal trial dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas....

A letter to the Jerusalem Post, November 21 (thanks to Mladen), regarding the Israeli government's response to the jihad against Israel:

Sir, - Jay Goldstein's letter ("...means our 10 for your one," November 19) proposed firing 10 bombs for every rocket fired from Gaza.

I'll settle for even one bomb for every rocket from Gaza. I'd settle for one rocket for every rocket. I'd even settle for one spitball for every rocket from Gaza.

When is our government going to actually respond?

DANIEL STERMAN
Jerusalem

Yesterday I was on five radio shows and one TV show discussing the stealth jihad in America, but in all the excitement of madly rushing to catch planes (missed one, another was canceled yesterday -- I should have stuck to the Maxwell), trains, and cabs to get where I was supposed to be, I wasn't able to post any notice of them here. Here's hoping today will be quieter. Today I'll be discussing the book Stealth Jihad and related matters with the following courageous journalists. You may wish to and even be able to listen to some of these online. All times PST:

5:00 AM Allman In the Morning

6:42 AM Lynn Wooley Show

8:04 AM Armstrong and Getty

12:05 PM The Gathering Storm

1:00 PM Michael Medved Show

2:05 PM Jerry Doyle

Here is a prime example of the stealth jihad in action: a "Sharia judge" in Britain uses the laws and customs of a Western pluralistic society in order to advance acceptance of an Islamic legal principle that has not hitherto been considered acceptable in that Western society. Rosa Freedman makes some good points against this in this article, and one additional point is that once the principle is accepted that English law must be adapted to accommodate Islamic law, soon the principles regardinging Islamic rule of the nation's political structures will also be advocated -- and then what will those who are pushing accommodation do?

"Dangerous liaisons," by Rosa Freedman in The Guardian, November 19 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The bodies of the Knights Templar were surely spinning under their effigies last night, as someone they would have regarded as an infidel delivered a lecture within the walls of Temple Church entitled "Family Law, Minorities and legal Pluralism: Should English Law give more Recognition to Islamic Law?".

The lecture focused on Islamic marriages and divorces in this country, with Sheikh Faiz ul-Aqtab Siddiqi (of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal) speaking candidly on many areas. One such topic was that of polygamy, and the refusal of English law to recognise such relationships. Siddiqi boldly stated:

In a jurisdiction where rights are afforded to a mistress, or many mistresses, and where there are same-sex marriages … polygamous marriages should not be such an alien concept.

Siddiqi is a practising barrister, and has been involved with the process of reforming English law to accommodate Muslim cultural practices, especially within the area of family law. As a religious leader, he is at the conservative end of the spectrum. However, he is a well-respected member of a number of unifying Muslim organisations and is at the forefront of attempts to find common ground between sharia law and English law.

Later, after a question from the floor, he clarified his position as being one of confusion as to why relationships such as extra-marital affairs should be recognised under English law, and furthermore how men could be permitted to marry other men, and women other women. He argued that if such relationships were not considered abhorrent, then current attitudes towards polygamy could not, and should not, be justified.

The main problem with using this argument in favour of recognition of polygamous marriages both inside and outside this country is that of proof as to whether these marriages have been entered into willingly and freely by the women involved. No one forces a person to have an extra-marital affair, or to enter into a civil partnership, but there is widespread evidence of the forcing of women into polygamous relationships in many religions and in many parts of the world. To compare consensual relationships with forced ones, whether physical or emotional coercion is used, is completely misguided....

Read it all.

At Family Security Matters, Ruth S. King examines the upcoming synagogue/mosque "Week of Twinning":

A full page ad in the New York Times of November 11th heralded November 21-23 as a “Week of Twinning” when Canadian and American synagogues and their respective rabbis and an equal number of mosques and mullahs will “join together to confront Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in their respective communities.”

This interfaith confab will be under the auspices of good old King Abdullah bin Aziz of Saudi Arabia, one of the most repressive regimes in the world which funds, promotes and teaches terrorism and fanatical hatred of all “infidels” and is the locus of all but two of the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11.

The deluded rabbis (I’m holding back here) fail to comprehend they are being “had” by the wily king and his co-religionists. Has anyone vetted the sermons of the imams that are so perturbed by prejudice? Did a single one of them ever denounce terrorism or the various and sundry texts in the hadith and the Koran that incite hatred and death to all unbelievers? Are the rabbis aware of the centuries of relentless Islamic anti-Semitism which antedate the Arab/Israel war? Will a single one of those mullahs invite Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, or Dan Pipes to speak to their congregations of the need to reform Islam, curb Sharia Law, and abolish Jihad? In a word….no.

"The proposal has prompted widespread opposition in the Islamic world."

And why is that? After all, isn't Islam and Islamic law supposed to "elevate" women? The problem is, that "elevation" is not established by standards outside of Islam, where there can be no higher "elevation" than to act in lockstep with Allah's will. Hence, anything beyond what is spelled out in the Qur'an and Sunnah is liable to be denounced as bida, or innovation. Thus, attempts to increase women's rights in society beyond that will not be seen as generous, but dangerous, and sharia will remain the chief obstacle to improving the condition of women wherever it is the basis for a society's laws.

Sharia Alert. "Islamabad, law in parliament to give 'equal' rights to women," by Qaiser Felix for AsiaNews, November 21:

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - There's an uproar over proposals by the council for Islamic ideology (CII), to reform Islamic law concerning the family, in order to provide greater rights for women in the case of divorce. Current law recognizes divorce declared "verbally" by the husband, in private, and grants few economic rights to the wife.

The CII (a significant constitutional group with a legal consulting role in parliament and the government, set up in 1962) is also proposing that the wife should be able to ask for a divorce, in writing, with an obligation for the husband to accept the request within 90 days. After this period of time, the marriage would be dissolved anyway, unless the woman withdrew the request. It is also advised that women should declare their property at the time of their marriage, because after divorce many husbands strip their wives of their own property.

Asma Jahangir, president of the Pakistani commission for human rights, explains to AsiaNews that, in any case, women have a legal right to divorce, but the real problem is that often the husband does not provide any economic support for her or her children. She recalls that many husbands throw their wives and children out of the house, without even divorcing or giving them anything.

Muslim lawyer Hifza Aziz adds that today, the man can remarry without even telling his new wife about his previous divorce.

The proposal has prompted widespread opposition in the Islamic world, and the mufti Munibor Rehman, a prominent religious leader, accuses the CII of "wanting to invent a new sharia" and "to create anarchy and chaos in the country."

Hanif Jalandhry, secretary general of the alliance of organizations of Islamic schools, accuses the CII of "exceeding its constitutional role, with the proposal to introduce non-Islamic reforms into the law." Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, president of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami, says that the council "is sowing confusion among the people, with mistaken interpretations of sharia."

These accusations are rejected by S.M. Zafar, president of the Pakistani society for human rights, who reiterates that "the right of the woman to ask for a divorce is already practiced under the principle of the Khula, and the CII only wants to formalize this practice."

The CII is not withdrawing the proposed law, which will be examined by parliament. On November 18, Hamid Saeed Kazmi told the national assembly that the government "does not support" these proposals, which are being advanced by the CII on its own initiative. The minister for law and justice, Farooq H. Naek, has specified that parliament will not approve a law that is in contrast with the holy Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Another controversial point is the CII's proposal to allow women to make the pilgrimage of the Hajj (which Muslims must make at least once in their lives) without a Mahram ("guardian"), in respect of the constitutional right to travel without restrictions.

The similarities between Aafia Siddiqui and Safia Jilani continue: both appear to be making up stories of suffering, and both are receiving "treatment" for (fictitious?) traumas "suffered." Of course, claiming torture is an old jihadist strategy. And if that doesn't work, you can always insist on wanting to "get on with your life," to get sympathy from infidels.

"Prosecutor: No sign al-Qaida suspect was tortured," from the Associated Press, November 20 :

NEW YORK (AP) - A prosecutor says the U.S. government hasn't found a "shred of evidence" that a Pakistani woman accused of trying to kill a U.S. soldier and FBI agents was abducted or tortured in the five years before her arrest.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin said investigators looked for information to support reports that Aafia Siddiqui (ah-FEE'-uh see-DEE'-kee) was detained in 2003 and held for years. He says it was more likely that Siddiqui disappeared in 2003 because she went into hiding after marrying an al-Qaida operative and because she knew 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Raskin says the U.S. was responding to repeated allegations in published reports and found "zero evidence" that Siddiqui was abducted, kidnapped or tortured.

He spoke at a hearing in New York yesterday on a psychologist's conclusion that the 36-year-old Siddiqui is mentally unfit for trial.

Siddiqui is a former Boston-area resident who was educated at MIT and Brandeis University. She's confined to the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth facility after she was brought to the United States in August to face attempted murder and assault charges.

Maybe they were Buddhists? Disgruntled nuns? At any rate, two women were also killed during clashes -- though none were sprayed in the face with acid, this time.

"Pakistan: Girls school destroyed by militants," from AKI, November 20 :

Mingora, 20 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) - Four militants and two women were killed and several others sustained injuries while a girls’ school was destroyed in Pakistan.

The school was located in the area of Bar Bandai in the volatile Swat valley.

Military sources said the security forces pounded militant hideouts killing four and injuring several others on Wednesday in the ongoing search operation in the restive Swat region.

Curfew was imposed in the troubled areas of Kabal tehsil.

Two women were killed and four combatants were injured as some misfired shells fell on their houses in Khwazahkela tehsil.

The government girls’ primary school was destroyed by unknown miscreants by planting explosives in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The four-room school building was completely destroyed and its furniture and records were damaged in the explosion.

"Summons" and scolds US ambassador (once again). More on this story. "Pakistan protests US drone attacks, Taliban warns of reprisals," from AFP, November 20:

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan's government on Thursday condemned the latest US missile strike in its territory while a militant Taliban group warned that another drone attack would bring reprisals within the country.

Speaking in parliament, Pakistani premier Yousuf Raza Gilani denounced the latest US spy drone attack which killed six people Wednesday at Bannu district in northwest Pakistan, including a major Al-Qaeda operative.

"These attacks are adding to our problems. They are intolerable and we do not support them," Gilani told the national assembly.

The foreign ministry also summoned Anne Patterson, the American ambassador to Islamabad, to lodge a strong protest over the air raids that have fuelled public anger, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said in the capital.

Sadiq said the US diplomat was told that "continued drone attacks undermined public support for government counterterrorism efforts and stressed that these attacks must be stopped".

"It was underscored to the US ambassador that such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he added.

Top Pakistani Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur on Thursday warned of reprisals by militants across Pakistan if the US carried out any further drone attacks in tribal territory, a spokesman for the commander said..

Bahadur's group has been accused by the United States of launching attacks across the border in Afghanistan, but it abstains from violence in the Pakistani territory under an understanding with military authorities.

"We will start revenge attacks across other districts if the US drone attacks do not stop after November 20," Taliban spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi said in a statement.

US spy drones have carried out more than 20 attacks in recent months but Wednesday's Bannu raid was the first outside the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, known as a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters....

And the government complies. So what if he "took orders from bin Laden" and deemed the latter "lovely"?

"Gov't lifts restrictions on Aussie linked to al-Qaeda," from USA Today, November 20:

Australia announced today that it's lifting the restrictions that were imposed on David Hicks after he was released from Guantanamo Bay and returned to his home country.

Hicks trained with al-Qaeda and was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan after 9/11. Before the United States released him from the detention facility in Cuba, Hicks confessed to supporting terrorism.

Since his release from prison in Australia, Hicks has been subject to a "control order" that allows authorities to monitor his activities.

On Dec 21 "the current control order in respect of Mr. David Hicks expires," the Australian Federal Police says in a statement. "Following extensive consultation with a number of agencies, the AFP has decided it will not be seeking a further control order in respect of Mr. Hicks. The AFP has today advised the Attorney-General and Mr. Hicks’ legal representative of its position. The AFP will not be making any further comment in relation to this control order process."

The statement was released after activists posted a video clip in which Hicks asked the government to "let me get on with my life," ABC Radio reports.

But Iran will have to take "additional steps." "Iran Said to Have Nuclear Fuel for One Weapon," by William J. Broad and David E. Sanger for the New York Times, November 19:

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved....

Islamic Apologetics Rule #7734: Anytime Islamic practices garner bad publicity (child marriage, domestic violence, etc.), they must be blamed on "culture."

"Local Muslim clerics accused," by Barney Zwartz for The Age (thanks to JE):

SOME Muslim religious leaders in Victoria are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and exploitation of women, according to an explosive report on the training of imams.

The report says some imams apply Sharia (Islamic law) when it benefits men but not when it benefits women, and that they hinder police from pursuing domestic violence charges.

Women seeking divorces have also been told by imams that they must leave "with only the clothes on their back" and not seek support or a share of property because they can get welfare payments.

And the report says some imams knowingly perform polygamous marriages, also knowing that the second wife, a de facto under Australian law, can claim Centrelink payments.

The report is based on a study commissioned and funded by the former Howard government and conducted by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria.

It was presented yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at Melbourne University.

It is the result of extensive community consultation, interviews with police, lawyers, court workers and academics, and meetings with and questions to the Victorian Board of Imams.

The board's role is to provide an Islamic view and religious guidance to the community and represent it to the media. The report claims that the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions.

It says women, community and legal workers and police involved in the consultation were particularly concerned about domestic violence, and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.

When cases came to court they were often dropped after family and community elders pressured women to withdraw charges.

The report says some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced had their husbands enter their houses, demand sexual intercourse and take it by force.

"Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was "halal" — permitted — because there was a valid "nikah" — marriage," it says.

The report also cites sexual assault allegations connected with under-age marriages.

It says polygamy is steadily increasing and gaining acceptance among Melbourne Muslims, and Shepparton police report many "de facto" relationships that are really polygamous marriages. [...]

And Islamic law is never to blame:

Community members quoted in the report believe that imams' narrow religious training in an increasingly complex world, lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia create problems for the community. For example, ill-informed comment by imams drew a wedge between the mainstream and Muslim communities.

The report suggests the Muslim community believes many imams are ill-equipped for the role, which involves much higher expectations in Australia than in predominantly Muslim countries, including marriage counselling, pastoral and spiritual care, marriages and divorces.

"They come from their own little village and culture and say this is what Islam is," one woman is quoted saying. "They come from a village where there is no running water and electricity, and they bring their dark ideas into this country."

Meanwhile, one imam is shocked -- shocked!

The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he could not understand how the council could write such a report and denied the complaints "absolutely". [...]

Read it all.

Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) with dhimmi academic John Esposito at CAIR's banquet in Tampa

That is, "Council on American-Islamic Relations Day."

"CAIR urges Muslims to define themselves," from WMNF, November 17 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) held its 6th annual banquet Saturday at the Tampa Convention Center. Speakers included Georgetown University professor John Esposito and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress.

Following prayers, about 600 people gathered to hear about the theme American Muslims: Defining Ourselves. Ellison said that during the recent presidential campaign, others groups attempted to define Islam and what it means to be Muslim. Many even tried to define Barack Obama as a Muslim, but the strategy didn’t work, Ellison said.

Ellison detailed some of the challenges that Muslims faced during the campaign, including two Muslim women wearing hijabs being forbidden by the Obama campaign from standing behind the candidate at a Detroit rally.

One way that non-Muslims tried to define Muslims during the campaign was through mass distribution of the DVD Obsession, which characterizes some members of the faith as violent extremists. But a University of South Florida religious studies graduate student, Catherine Lafuente, said propaganda like that won’t influence her. She is not a Muslim and her father died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

John Esposito is a professor of religion, international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University. His most recent book is, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. Esposito said that a CAIR poll from two years ago pointed out the recent “political mainstreaming” of American Muslims.

Muslim-Americans worry about many of the same things that other Americans do, Esposito said.

Several Tampa Bay elected officials attended Saturday's banquet, including Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White and his newly elected colleague Kevin Beckner, Hillsborough School Board member Susan Valdes, and Temple Terrace Mayor Joe Affronti, who received a bridge builder award.

A civil rights award was presented to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, and WMNF received a community service award. Maritza Betancourt is the city of Tampa’s Human Rights Investigator in the Division of Community Affairs. She read a proclamation from Mayor Pam Iorio.

“By virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Tampa, I do hereby proclaim November 15, 2008, as ‘Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Day’ in the city of Tampa, Florida.”

Here's a little refresher from CBN:

CAIR claims to be the nation's leading Muslim civil rights group. But the group's critics say it's focused more on making Islam a dominant force than with fighting bigotry.

In 1998, CAIR founder Omar Ahmad told the San Ramon Valley Herald, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

Others point to a 1991 memo by the radical Muslim Brotherhood challenging American Islamic groups.

The memorandum, presented as evidence during a terrorism trial last year, reads that these Muslim groups "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands" until Islam reigns supreme.

Not that any of that matters. Here is a statement from CAIR, via Pamela:

“By December 31, 2010, we will be supporting a $12,000,000 budget... We will have a presence covering all states, with at least 28 state chapters... We will impact local Congressional districts with each chapter influencing at least two legislators...We will focus on Congressmen responsible for policy that directly impacts the American Muslim community. For example, Congressmen on the judiciary, intelligence, and homeland security committees. We will develop national initiatives such as lobby day and placing Muslim interns in Congressional offices. In concert with local chapters we will sustain an ongoing media campaign to change the hearts and minds of Americans...”

Rowan Scarborough reviews Stealth Jihad in Human Events:

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Robert Spencer [whose “Jihad Watch” is featured weekly in HUMAN EVENTS] has been a one-man warning system against radical Islam.

A scholar who has spent most of his professional life studying Islam, his string of books dissects the world's largest religion as a bastion of intolerance and hate, justified by the teachings of spiritual leader Mohammed and various holy men.

As one of his previous titles, the "Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam," suggests, Spencer does not buckle in fear of the type of backlash that can materialize as a death-threatening fatwa against a critical author.

Now comes a new warning from Spencer. In "Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs," Spencer factually outlines how Muslim radicals are methodically undercutting American values of individual freedom, quoting leaders of this anti-American movement who say their ultimately goal is the creation of an Islamic state right here in the good old U.S.A.

Say it can't happen? Just look at our kinsmen in Europe. Their guilt, and tolerance for anything anti-Western have nurtured a growing population of fanatics. Mosques have sprung up where firebrand clergy preach hate and violence. Some Muslim neighborhoods have become no-go zones for non-believers who dare not trespass where harsh Sharia law reigns.

"Such segregated Muslim communities are spreading throughout Europe at an alarming pace," Spencer writes.

This is a key element of the Stealth Jihad: the attempt to silence those who speak about the ideological underpinnings of jihad terrorism. Most Americans probably aren't aware that there are serious discussions at the UN about criminalizing discussion of the motives and goals of Islamic jihadists, and even fewer probably realize what the implications of this are for the United States and the First Amendment in the coming years.

"The OIC & the UN: Islamophobia and 'defamation of religion,'" by Elizabeth Kendal for the WEA, November 15 (thanks to Paul):

Durban I -- the UN's first World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance -- which was held in Durban, South Africa, in early September 2001 ended with a walkout over its virulent anti-Semitism. Yet sadly it now seems clear that the Durban Review Conference (or Durban II), which will be held in Geneva in April 2009, is shaping up to be even worse.

As a prelude to Durban II, a Second Preparatory Session of the 20-state Preparatory Committee -- of which Libya has been elected chair with Cuba, Pakistan and Iran as vice-chairs -- was held in Geneva from 6 to 17 October 2008. The resulting "Draft Outcome Document for the Durban Review Conference 2009" is now available on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) website at LINK 1.

It is clear from the draft document, as well as from reports emanating from the subsequent 63rd UN General Assembly meeting held in Geneva during the first week of November, that a central focus of Durban II will be "Islamophobia", which is being presented as "a new form of racism".

Muslims, the draft declaration asserts, are at dire risk of a racial "holocaust" due to "a new form of racism" -- "Islamophobia" -- which is incited through "defamation of Islam".

What race is Islam again?

The draft declaration recommends that local, national and international laws and human rights covenants be reviewed and amended as necessary so that "defamation of Islam" is made a criminal offence, losing the protection it has long enjoyed under the "pretext" of "freedom of expression, counter terrorism or national security". It recommends that legal instruments be established to punish offenders -- that is, those who "defame" Islam by associating it with violence, human rights abuses or terrorism....

I trust, then, that among the first to be prosecuted for "defaming Islam" will be the likes of al-Zawahri, Omar Bakri, Anjem Chaudry, Abu Bakar Bashir, et al.

Just as Pakistani officials meet with NATO brass to "discuss" these strikes within Pakistan. Friend and Ally Hanging By a Thread Update: "Suspected U.S. Airstrike Kills 6 Fighters in Pakistan," by Candace Rondeaux for the Washington Post, November 20:

KABUL, Nov. 19 -- A suspected U.S. airstrike deep inside Pakistani territory Wednesday killed six insurgent fighters and wounded several others, according to a Pakistani security official.

The airstrike in the district of Bannu in the North-West Frontier Province appears to be the first such attack outside Pakistan's tribal areas. It came as the country's top military officer met with NATO officials in Brussels to discuss the cross-border missile strikes, which have been increasingly frequent in recent months and which the United States considers necessary for combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The attacks have stoked tensions in Pakistan and drawn public rebukes from the government.

An unmanned U.S. Predator aircraft fired at least two missiles early Wednesday at a house near North Waziristan, one of seven semiautonomous tribal territories that line Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly said the six who were killed were thought to be foreigners suspected of links to al-Qaeda.

Details about those killed could not be confirmed. A Pakistani military spokesman declined to comment. The United States generally does not acknowledge such attacks and has not issued any public comments on the use of Predator airstrikes on Pakistani soil....

He said: "I don't want to anticipate any points on that. This I leave for the constitutional experts engaged in the draft. It will be submitted to the population and they will be the ones deciding."

Here is proof again that "democracy" alone (in the sense of collective decisions made by a head-count) is not a cure-all; the success of a democracy in securing civil liberties and improving the lot of its people depends on the values of its constituents.

"Somalia's prime minister defends government," by Edmund Sanders for the Los Angeles Times, November 19:

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya -- Islamic insurgents already controlling most of southern Somalia now stand on the outskirts of the nation's capital, Mogadishu. Despite the presence of 20,000 Ethiopian troops for security, President Abdullahi Yusuf has stated that the government could collapse. And suspected Somali pirates repeatedly draw international attention for hijacking ships off the East African coast.

Amid the chaos, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, part of the United Nations-recognized transitional government formed in 2004, sat down Tuesday with The Times to discuss the troubled Horn of Africa nation.

[...] Are you worried that insurgents might attack Mogadishu?

   Absolutely not. Mogadishu is well protected.

And if you believe that, read on!

[...] Are you prepared to sit down with Shabab leaders or Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, an influential Islamist who has rejected peace talks and whom the U.S. has accused of supporting terrorism?

   Our doors are open for peace and reconciliation. We are not excluding anyone to join us.

What about those people the U.S. considersterrorists or who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda?

   Well, terrorists will not join us. The people linked to terrorists are using innocent young people, by offering them money. We have to do our best to attract these young people and create for them a secure environment with jobs and training.

Some would like to see Sharif, who was often called a moderate inside the Islamic alliance that briefly controlled southern Somalia in 2006, become prime minister. Are you prepared to step down?

   I've repeated many times that my position as prime minister is not important. I'm ready to step down when it is in the interest of the country.

Do you think Yusuf should step down?

   Yes, I agree that the president remains the problem of this country. If the transitional institutions are not delivering, it is because of the obstacles our president is creating. Instead of leading us to peace and stability, he wants to keep the country a hostage of the current situation.

Is that why the government has failed to accomplish any of the key benchmarks established under its charter, such as a new constitution, an election commission, election laws and a census? The election is scheduled for next year.

   The constitution draft is almost ready. The process is continuing, but slow because of the crisis.

What role will Islamic law or Sharia play in the new constitution?

   Sharia is very important in Somalia. The Somali people are 100% Muslim and believe normal life is based on Sharia. So our constitution will be based on Sharia law. Any article in the constitution not in line with Sharia law will be null and void.

Actually, if the constitution were to be ratified and adopted, that stipulation would install a ticking time bomb in the document in that any government that is not sufficiently Islamic will be fair game to be overthrown, with the right to govern becoming associated with how strictly sharia is enforced. And that is precisely the situation they are in now.

How strict an interpretation do you envision and how will you balance that with human rights? For example,will a woman accused of adultery be stoned?

   I think there would not be any problem because the constitution respects human rights and Sharia respects human rights.

So would a woman be stoned?

   No, no. I don't want to anticipate any points on that. This I leave for the constitutional experts engaged in the draft. It will be submitted to the population and they will be the ones deciding.

Any attempt at monitoring, protection, record-keeping or other oversight would be immediately seized upon as Islamophobic, racist (though they never say which race), colonialist, and just earth-shatteringly gauche.

"Britain Grapples With Role for Islamic Justice," by Elaine Sciolino for the New York Times, November 19:

LONDON — The woman in black wanted an Islamic divorce. She told the religious judge that her husband hit her, cursed her and wanted her dead.

But her husband was opposed, and the Islamic scholar adjudicating the case seemed determined to keep the couple together. So, sensing defeat, she brought our her secret weapon: her father.

In walked a bearded man in long robes who described his son-in-law as a hot-tempered man who had duped his daughter, evaded the police and humiliated his family.

The judge promptly reversed himself and recommended divorce.

This is Islamic justice, British style. Despite a raucous national debate over the limits of religious tolerance and the pre-eminence of British law, the tenets of Shariah, or Islamic law, are increasingly being applied to everyday life in cities across the country.

The Church of England has its own ecclesiastical courts. British Jews have had their own “beth din” courts for more than a century.

That comparison is common, but shallow. Neither the Anglican nor Jewish systems compare to the total legal and political system that sharia is. As such, there is no assurance of how much sharia will ever be "enough" sharia, short of the whole package.

But ever since the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, called in February for aspects of Islamic Shariah to be embraced alongside the traditional legal system, the government has been grappling with a public furor over the issue, assuaging critics while trying to reassure a wary and at times disaffected Muslim population that its traditions have a place in British society.

Boxed between the two, the government has taken a stance both cautious and confusing, a sign of how volatile almost any discussion of the role of Britain’s nearly two million Muslims can become.

“There is nothing whatever in English law that prevents people abiding by Shariah principles if they wish to, provided they do not come into conflict with English law,” the justice minister, Jack Straw, said last month. But he added that British law would “always remain supreme,” and that “regardless of religious belief, we are all equal before the law.”

Practically speaking, that's a moot point when the "alternative" enshrines inequality before the law, and people choose it (or are made to submit to it) in place of British law and its guarantees.

Conservatives and liberals alike — many of them unaware that the Islamic courts had been functioning at all, much less for years — have repeatedly denounced the courts as poor substitutes for British jurisprudence.

They argue that the Islamic tribunals’ proceedings are secretive, with no accountability and no standards for judges’ training or decisions.

Critics also point to cases of domestic violence in which Islamic scholars have tried to keep marriages together by ordering husbands to take classes in anger management, leaving the wives so intimidated that they have withdrawn their complaints from the police.

“They’re hostages to fortune,” said Parvin Ali, founding director of the Fatima Women’s Network, a women’s help group based in Leicester. Speaking of the courts, she said, “There is no outside monitoring, no protection, no records kept, no guarantee that justice will prevail.” [...]

Read it all.

That by itself is nothing new, but the increasingly brazen attacks on increasingly high-value targets are. "Pirates 'working with Islamists'," by Martin Plaut for BBC News, November 19:

Somali pirates have been accused of forming what is described as an "unholy high seas alliance" with some of the country's Islamist insurgents.

Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor says certain insurgents are using pirates to smuggle weapons and supplies and help provide bases in return.

The London-based newsletter says pirates are also training Somali hardliners in naval tactics.

The links are traced to 2007, after Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia.

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which took control of much of southern Somalia in 2006, had cracked down on pirate operations in Hobyo and Harardheere. [...]

But after the UIC were ousted, various Islamic groups formed links with the pirates.

Maritime force

Bruno Schiemsky - who formerly monitored UN arms shipments into Somalia - says these links take a variety of forms:

Islamists have used the pirates to bring in arms shipments and foreign fighters, providing weapons and training in their use in return. They also help with bases from which the pirates operate

Hardliners, known as the Shabab, now have a degree of control over several pirate groups and provide operating funds and specialist weapons in return for a share of the ransoms being paid to free the ships and crew.

As many as 2,500 young Somalis have been trained by the Shabab at points all along the Somali coast.

The Islamists are using the pirates to train their own forces in naval tactics so that they can provide protection for arms being smuggled in Somalia from Eritrea.

The article provides details of three arms shipments brought into the country by pirates.

It says two shipments in May were for Sheikh Hassan Abdulle Hersi, who is also known as Hassan Turki, an Islamist leader who is based in southern Somalia near Kismayo. [...]

Another shipment arrived in July and is reported to have contained large quantities of weapons including specialist sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, guided anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft guns, as well as ammunition. [...]

The maritime force organised by the Shabab - along the lines of the Sea Tigers operated by the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers - is said to be located in southern Somalia.

All of that makes the promises in this next article ring hollow: "Somalia Islamists vow tough anti-piracy drive," from Agence France-Presse:

MOGADISHU (AFP) — A hardline Islamist alliance controlling Somalia's main southern port of Kismayo on Wednesday promised tough measures to protect ships and traders from marauding pirates.

"We will set up marine forces and will protect all ships and vessels from the pirates off the coastal areas we control," Sheikh Hasan Yaqub, spokesman for the Islamist administration in Kismayo told AFP.[...]

Kismayo, one off the largest cities in Somalia, was captured in August by an alliance of Shebab fighters -- who are conquering much of the country -- and warlord Hassan al-Turki, who is on a US terrorism list.

Yaqub said that on Wednesday alone, 20 small ships bringing goods from the United Arab Emirates had offloaded their cargo in Kismayo under the watch of the local authorities' security forces.

"We will never allow those gangs to cause havoc in our waters anymore and we will protect all vessels," he said.

Omar Abdiyare, one of the Somali traders whose vessel arrived in Kismayo Wednesday, said local businesses had asked the Islamist rulers to set up an anti-piracy force.

"We are very concerned at the growing number of attacks by pirates so we asked Islamists to protect our ships as much as possible off the coastal areas they control," he said.

The Kismayo administration has imposed a very strict form of Sharia law in recent weeks. Under Islamic law, piracy is punishable by death.

One can't help but wonder if this is all going to lead up to endless semantic quibbling about when piracy is or is not "really" piracy.

In my book Stealth Jihad I discuss Muslim Brotherhood efforts to insinuate Islamic law, bit-by-bit and piece-by-piece, into the United States, and to foster acceptance of the idea that American law must give way whenever Islamic law contradicts it. Groups that are assumed to be "moderate" are fronting this effort -- but now one Senator is pushing back.

"Senator Pushes DOJ on Islamists," from IPT News, November 19 (thanks to Rosanne):

The Department of Justice (DOJ) should cut off outreach efforts with organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist extremist groups, a report from a ranking Senate subcommittee member recommends.

"Justice Denied: Waste & Mismanagement at the Department of Justice," is an 86-page report issued in October by the office of U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the ranking Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security. [...]

But just as important is its detailing of DOJ outreach with questionable Islamist organizations, including two which are unindicted co-conspirators in a major Hamas support investigation. Those efforts should stop, the report said:

"It is the legal right and obligation of DOJ to bar, withhold or rescind funding for or collaboration with any entities that do not advance the mission of the Department, which is the security and stability of the United States, including its culture, its people, and its form of government."

[...]

Coburn has been focused on issues of Islamist outreach. In July, he and Arizona U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl wrote to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, asking that State set a deadline for cutting off funding to organizations with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The letter also asked that procedures be created to prevent future funding of such groups.

In 2007, Coburn pushed an amendment to the FY 2008 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill which barred DOJ from underwriting any conferences with organizations identified "as an unindicted co-conspirator by the federal government in any criminal prosecution." The Senate passed the provision but when the Senate and House of Representatives met to create one final bill, it was taken out.

Why? And by whom?

The Coburn report on DOJ singles out the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Both are unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five former officials. CAIR and ISNA appear in prosecution exhibits involving the Palestine Committee, a group created by the Muslim Brotherhood to help Hamas. CAIR actually is listed as a committee member, as are the group's co-founders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad. ISNA is listed among friendly organizations.

The report notes what it calls an "alarming" agenda for the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. It was written by another Palestine Committee member, Mohamed Akram, in 1991 in a document called "the General Strategic Goal for the Group In North America." In the memo, Akram defined the group's role in America as "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."...

Read it all.

In Human Events this morning, an update on the stealth jihad:

“A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia [Islamic law] whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings.” The rulings of Sharia, mind you, include stoning for adultery, amputation of the hand for theft, and institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims. But the speaker was not some fanatic Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia; it was the Phoenix-based imam Omar Shahin, president of the North American Imams Foundation. This is probably one reason why, as The Arizona Republic reported Monday, the FBI has stepped up scrutiny of Shahin and other Muslim leaders in Phoenix.

Omar Shahin has been in the news before. He is the spokesman for a group of six imams who sued US Airways after being removed from a flight in 2006 when passengers and crewmembers reported that they were behaving suspiciously. The imams were handcuffed and later interrogated, then released with no charges, whereupon Shahin led a news conference to condemn prejudice against Muslims. All six imams later sued the airline, airport police and an FBI agent, claiming they had been singled out solely because they were Muslim. “We did nothing,” Shahin maintained in a report on Boston Herald.com -- and the Council on American Islamic Relations seized on the incident as evidence of American “Islamophobia.” “We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam,” said CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, in the same report.

His hostility to Muslims shows in his support for Israel -- at least in Zawahri's world. "Al-Qaida No. 2 insults Obama in new audio message," by Maamoun Youssef and Lee Keath for AP, November 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

...Al-Zawahri also called Obama—along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—"house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."...

The 11-minute 23-second video features the audio message by al-Zawahri, who appears only in a still image, along with other images, including one of Obama wearing a Jewish skullcap as he meets with Jewish leaders. In his speech, al-Zawahri refers to a Nov. 5 U.S. airstrike attack in Afghanistan, meaning the video was made after that date.

Al-Zawahri said Obama's election has not changed American policies he said are aimed at oppressing Muslims and others.

"America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always," the deputy of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden said.

He said Obama's plan to shift troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure, because Afghans will resist.

"Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them," he said.

Al-Zawahri did not threaten specific attacks, but warned Obama that he was "facing a Jihadi (holy war) awakening and renaissance which is shaking the pillars of the entire Islamic world; and this is the fact which you and your government and country refuse to recognize and pretend not to see."

He said Obama's victory showed Americans acknowledged that President George W. Bush's policies were a failure and that the result was an "admission of defeat in Iraq."

But Obama's professions of support for Israel during the election campaign "confirmed to the Ummah (Islamic world) that you have chosen a stance of hostility to Islam and Muslims," al-Zawahri said.

Here is today's lineup of the courageous radio shows willing to discuss the reality of the stealth jihad in America today, as I detail in this book. Some of these may be catchable online, or if you're in the area call in and give me a piece of your mind. All times PST:

5:00 AM KEYS Morning Show

7:05 AM Lee Rogers Show

8:05 AM Doug Giles, Clash Radio

1:35 PM Greg Knapp Experience

2:00 PM KFUO St.Louis

4:05 PM WSOY Direct Line

Pious hoaxer?

Safia Jilani Update: she is charged with fabricating a hate crime in which a man hit her on the head and scrawled a hate message against Muslims on a nearby bathroom mirror. The entire campus united behind her; Muslim students were offered escorts to and from classes; and all of Elmhurst College was afroth with righteous indignation against the haters. The only problem is that it looks as if Safia Jilani made it all up -- and now the poor thing is "in treatment." It wouldn't be surprising if she suddenly came down with a mental illness, a la Aafia Siddiqui.

"Muslim student pleads not guilty in reporting Elmhurst College attack," from the Chicago Tribune, November 18 (thanks to Pamela):

A Muslim student who allegedly made a false claim that a masked man attacked her after he wrote anti- Islamic slurs in a women's restroom at Elmhurst College pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of disorderly conduct. Safia Jilani, 19, made no public comment.

Outside the DuPage County courtroom, her attorney, Terry Ekl, said "she is in treatment, and I hope the public wouldn't judge her until all the facts are known."

He declined to specify the type of treatment.

But I'm sure he'll think of something.

You sure do, Shimon. You sure do. You have to close your eyes to the jihad ideology. You have to close your eyes to the history of dhimmitude, and to the statements by Hamas leaders about reviving it. You have to close your eyes to the genocidal Jew-hatred that so many of the jihadists against Israel have expressed. You have to close your eyes to the outrage that Israel represents, simply by existing, in the eyes of Muslims who believe that non-Muslims have no right to hold authority in land that rightfully belongs to the dar al-Islam. You have to close your eyes very, very tight when they come for us, and soon, very soon, peace will indeed come.

"Peres Says Peace Is Made by Closing the Eyes," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu for Israel National News, November 19 (thanks to Pamela):

(IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres told Diaspora Jewish leaders Monday, "You have to close your eyes" to make peace. He also reasoned that a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority will encourage Sunni Muslims against Ahmadinejad.

Speaking at the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Committees, he said that "making peace is a little bit like marriage [and] you have to close your eyes and accept what is possible to accept." His audience laughed and applauded.

He also explained his reasoning why surrendering Judea and Samaria to the PA and establishing a new Arab state in their place would have a domino effect on peace in the Middle East.

It would have been interesting to hear such "reasoning." One wonders if he has a shred of evidence beyond closed-eyes hope for the idea that the creation of yet another Arab state hostile to Israel and bordering upon Israel will somehow quench the flames of the jihad.

Of course not. What could possibly go wrong?

An update on this story. "Syariah judge: Fears among non-Muslims unwarranted," from The Star, November 19:

PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA: Islam will not discriminate against any race or religion even if the common law and the Syariah courts are to merge as suggested by a former Chief Justice.

Syariah Court Judge and Syariah Judicial Department director-general Datuk Ibrahim Lembut said such fears among non-Muslims were unwarranted.

"Islam will defend everybody. The impression that merging the two court systems will override the rights of the non-Muslims is wrong," he said.

It's just a question of what your rights actually are.

"Syariah laws and Islam will think of every religion and race," he told reporters after attending the International Seminar on Comparative Law at Marriott Hotel here yesterday.

"However, we still have a long way to go before we can merge the two court systems although we have held talks between civil and Syariah lawyers on the possibility of harmonising the laws," he said, adding that Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had also given his views on the matter during the meeting.

Ibrahim said some civil lawyers attending such talks had refused to even consider harmonising the laws between the two systems.

He was commenting on a statement by MCA legal bureau chairman Datuk Leong Tang Chong that any merger would subject non-Muslims to Syariah jurisdiction on all legal matters, including inter-faith cases relating to marriage and divorce.

On Nov 6, retired Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad said he foresaw that the combination of the two courts would harmonise common law and Syariah law principles in dealing with issues of conflicting laws and jurisdiction during his lecture at the Harvard Law School in the United States.

Earlier, Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi, in his speech, had said that the concept of comparative laws was important in the Malaysian context.

This was because Islamic law was important as its presence had become increasingly significant in a dual legal system and that the judiciary would find a midway solution to satisfy both the civil and Syariah legal systems, he said.

"We will try not to cause conflict and will find an amicable understanding," he said.

Sharia Alert, and a practical demonstration of the lack of limitations on the scope of sharia law. As it gains a foothold in Europe and the U.S., where will the "Total System" stop? "Saudi Arabia: Asian immigrant forced to clean mosques for 'skipping prayers'," from Adnkronos International, November 18:

Riyadh, 18 Nov. (AKI) - A Saudi civil court has ordered an Asian immigrant to clean mosques next month during this year's Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca after religious police caught him skipping Friday prayers several times, Saudi daily al-Watan reports. The man will have to clean five mosques along the highway into Mecca twice daily for eleven days, the court ruled.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs will be tasked with checking if the immigrant obeys the court order. If he fails to do so, the court has warned that he will be tried before a criminal court.

Instead of handing out custodial sentences, a number of Saudi judges have recently ordered minor offenders to clean buildings and cars, memorise the Koran (the Muslim holy book) or do community work.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered a young man to memorise part of the Koran and 40 sayings of the Prophet Mohammed as a punishment for appearing in public with a woman who was not a relative.

"Justice and Charity." Oh, and also a caliphate. "Italy: Police anti-terror raids target suspected Islamists," from Adnkronos International, November 18:

Trieste, 18 Nov. (AKI) - Italian anti-terrorism police have carried out at least 135 raids and are investigating 11 foreigners in various Italian regions who are suspected of links to an alleged Morocco-based Islamist group. The organisation, called 'Al-Adl Wal Ihsan' or Justice and Charity, is being investigated for association to commit international terrorist acts.

Several apartments and cultural centres thought to be linked to the Moroccan movement are being investigated as well as 11 foreigners.

According to investigators, the 'Justice and Charity' movement is a front for a group seeking the restoration of an Islamic caliphate in Morocco and the abolition of the monarchy.

Justice and Charity is believed to be Morocco's largest opposition Islamist movement. However, the group claims it wants to transform Moroccan society through non-violent means and social work.

And there's no better place to transform Moroccan society than... Italy?

Justice and Charity is tolerated by the Moroccan government but reportedly has no legal status to organise meetings.

The group has repeatedly accused the government of imprisoning its members and limiting its funding resources.

The anti-terrorism investigations are taking place in the regions of Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Lombardy, Veneto in northern Italy and in the central Emilia Romagna and Marche region.

Here is my review of Sherry Jones's notorious -- and dreadful -- novel of Muhammad and Aisha, The Jewel of Medina, from Middle East Quarterly:

Jones, correspondent for the Bureau of National Affairs news agency, never expected her novel about Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, and favorite wife of the prophet of Islam, to become a battleground in the war over free speech between the West and the Muslim world. Rather, as she explained, "I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed … I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder."[1]

The Jewel of Medina became a cause célèbre when Random House dropped it in August 2008 just before publication, citing fear of threats from Muslims—threats, it bears noting, that had not yet materialized. Subsequently, three Muslims were arrested in London for firebombing the offices of the book's new British publisher, Gibson Square, which also then dropped the book.[2] It has now been published in the United States by Beaufort Books, which, in a press release, said that it "knows how to look for trouble."

But whoever reads The Jewel of Medina, after suffering through stilted Hollywood historical epic dialogue larded with Arabic tidbits for authenticity's sake, will wonder what the fuss was all about. True to her word, Jones offers a portrait of Muhammad that is so flattering as to be worthy of British religion writer Karen Armstrong, who compared Muhammad to Gandhi.[3]

Something about "cartoons." "Russian Newsweek warned for 'insulting' Muslims," from the Associated Press, November 18:

MOSCOW (AP) — Moscow prosecutors say they have warned the Russian-language edition of the Newsweek magazine for allegedly insulting Muslims.

The Moscow Prosecutor's Office says the magazine published two stories that could be "insulting or humiliating" to Muslims. It said Tuesday on [an?] article also included one of the 2005 Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The magazine published the stories on Muslims in the European Union in late October. It could not be immediately reached for comment. About 20 million Muslims live in Russia...

Canadian mosque acting less than "moderate." "Mosque in hot water again," by Iain Marlow for The Star, November 17 (thanks to Patrick):

The Toronto mosque that once warned its members to avoid wishing others "Merry Christmas," equating it with murder, is once again pitted in controversy.

And now the Muslim Canadian Congress is calling on Ottawa to strip the charitable status of the Somali Islamic Society of Canada, which owns the Khalid Bin Al-Walid mosque in Etobicoke, founded in 1990 and serving more than 10,000 worshippers.

Congress president Farzana Hassan said postings on the mosque's website are "in contravention of what a moderate Muslim should stand for."

Asked for specifics, Hassan cited the site's "statements about women." For example, she said, "they say female circumcision is honourable and yet they find piercing your ears reprehensible, wearing high heels reprehensible, laughing objectionable. It's very disconcerting that their priorities are where they are."

But the mosque defends its postings, arguing in a statement posted on its website that "different scholars of Islam may have differing opinions on the same subject."[...]

"We have maintained our web site to reach out to Muslims and non-Muslims alike to provide to them the authentic teachings of Islam," the mosque's administration says in the statement. "We do not seek to offend or harm anyone with what is written on our web site.[...]

It's not the first time the mosque or its board have been the subject of critical attention from other Muslim organizations that see it as extremist or ill-informed about Islam.

In 2002, a mosque employee sent an email to the Khalid mosque's Internet message service on Christmas Day, warning that saying "Merry Christmas" was akin to "congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone or having illicit sexual relations and so on."

Poor Lieberman. A few months back, his aides contacted me about testifying in front of him and Congress regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. During our conference call, his aides seemed to have determined that my characterization of the Brotherhood was not very "nuanced" (evinced by the incessant question, "But some of the Brotherhood are ok, right?" to which I would always answer "No.") Anyway and as expected, that settled that, and I was never re-asked to testify. But even though they took all these "safeguards," here Lieberman is: accused by Muslims of being, in essence, an Islamophobe.

"Arab Americans want Lieberman to lose chair," from JTA, November 18:

WASHINGTON (JTA)—An Arab-American group called on Senate Democrats not to return Sen. Joe Lieberman to his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

The letter from the Arab American Institute to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, cited in particular a report on Islamist extremism and the "Homegrown Terrorist Threat" completed in May under Lieberman’s watch.

"While this committee report appropriately observed the value of outreach and engagement with Arab Americans and American Muslims as vital to securing the freedom and safety of our nation, the overall findings of the report make the dangerous and unsubstantiated claim that the threat posed by violent extremists now comes ‘increasingly from within’ the United States and falsely characterizes Arabs and Muslims in America as ‘susceptible to radicalization,’ " said the letter from institute President James Zogby.

The letter also cites the reported involvement of Lieberman (I-Conn.) in a sequel to the controversial documentary "Obsession," a film that critics say unfairly tarnishes broad sectors of Muslim society as extremist.

Lieberman, the Democrats’ 2000 vice presidential nominee and the first Jew on a national ticket, broke with the party in 2006 over his support for the Iraq War, and he backed Republican candidate John McCain for president. Still, Lieberman continued to caucus with Democrats and vote the party line on most domestic issues. In a 51-49 split, his was the critical vote giving Democrats the majority...

Marc Charisse, editor of the Evening Sun of Hanover, Pennsylvania, recently announced his intention to drop Diana West's column from the newspaper because, as he put it, West "never met a Muslim she didn't hate."

This ready conflation of the defense of Western civilization and its rights and freedoms against Sharia supremacism with "hatred" is, of course, something we see at Jihad Watch every day. Here is Diana West's blazingly brilliant response:

To the Editor:

I am responding to Editor Marc Charisse’s column about my work, a column I found striking for its mud-slinging crudity. In Charisse’s words, my work, the product of careful research and reporting, may be summed up thus: West “never met a Muslim she didn’t hate.” There is no more apt word than “grotesque” to describe such an irresponsible and flippant mischaracterization of my weekly column, which very often grapples with the terrible, largely unspoken reality that Western liberties—freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, equality before the law, including women’s rights and the rights of non-Muslims—are increasingly threatened by a growing deference to the laws of Islam. To underscore my point, I don’t write about “Muslims.” I write about Islam, the supremacist ideology constructed on laws (sharia) that justify censorship, repression, violence, inequality, and even maiming and murder of those whom the sharia leaves voiceless and powerless: dissenters, Muslim apostates, non-Muslims and women. I write about its agents—violent jihadists as well as soft jihadists, all of whom are working to extend the rule of this law across the non-Muslim world. And I write about politically correct non-Muslims who, as a public point of what is hailed as tolerance and inclusiveness have surrendered their common sense, their courage and, increasingly, their countries to the advance of this Islamic law.

“Pull the plug” on me if you like. But do not slander me or my work as a manifestation of hatred toward individuals. If anything, it is a manifestation of fear—fear that our liberties are not just under assault but have already been diminished, and are destined for still more restriction in that “sharp new subtext” Charisse says the recent presidential election has added “to the subject of Muslims.” Whatever that means.

I’ll take Charisse’s assessment of my work as “confrontational” as a compliment, even if he didn’t mean it that way. After all, what columnist worth his space, from Paul Krugman to Pat Buchanan, isn’t confrontational? But as for branding my ideas as “inappropriate” and “out of place”—well, isn’t that less the language of an American newsroom than an old Soviet politbureau?

Diana West

You may wish to respond to Charisse's column here.

Even after they brought a "note" from the local Imam insisting they must wear ankle-length gowns," UPS would not budge, citing hazard concerns; and now the latter have "paid" (jizya?) -- though no one seems to know how much.

"8 Muslims settle skirt dispute with UPS," by Paola Loriggio for The Star, November 18:

Eight Muslim women who filed a human rights complaint against the United Parcel Service (UPS) over a dress code dispute, settled with the company yesterday.

But it is unclear whether the company will change its policy, since neither party would discuss the terms of the agreement.

"Everyone is very happy," said Jacquie Chic, lawyer for the complainants, after announcing the agreement at a Canadian Human Rights tribunal yesterday morning.[...]

She added "The women are very happy with the settlement. ... Today was a big day for everybody."

The women, all devout Muslims, lost their jobs in 2005 because they refused to hike their skirts above the knee over their long pants.

They argued that Islam requires them to be fully covered for modesty and alleged discrimination on the basis of religion and gender.

UPS said the ankle-length skirts were a safety hazard as workers climb ladders up to six metres high. Only "a gap in the process" allowed the women to work at UPS for up to two years without being told their clothing posed a risk, a UPS manager previously told the tribunal.

In the end, yesterday's settlement means the tribunal did not answer the key question: Was it discrimination, or a legitimate safety concern?

The women's jobs required them to navigate open metal staircases and tall ladders to flip boxes on a conveyor-belt system at a Toronto UPS plant. The company eventually ordered a risk hazard analysis that determined the women's traditional garb – long skirts, hijabs and neck scarves – was unsafe.

Six of the women had brought the company a letter from their mosque confirming their religion insists they wear full-length skirts.

The original question was whether Aafia Siddiqui was a "devout Muslim or a terrorist." The verdict is in: she's simply insane. After all, federal health inspectors have concluded that she is "unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense" -- an odd assessment for someone originally touted as a "bright MIT grad."

"Alleged Al-Qaeda Member Deemed Unfit for Trial," from Global Security Newswire, November 18:

A U.S. government assessment has concluded that alleged al-Qaeda operative Aafia Siddiqui is not mentally competent to stand trial, a judge wrote in a court order issued yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 3).

Siddiqui was detained by Afghan police in July while allegedly carrying a paper that stated "Mass Casualty Attack" and identified several notable locations in New York, ABC News reported. A previous ABC News report indicated that Siddiqui was carrying information on biological, chemical and radiological weapons at the time of her arrest.

The former MIT student was transported to New York in August and charged with the attempted murder of interrogators during an exchange of gunfire.

Federal mental health examiners concluded in a Nov. 6 forensic assessment: "Ms. Siddiqui is not currently competent to proceed as a result of her mental disease, which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense."

You can see some clips from it here. It is unclear from these clips whether the film really attacks the underpinnings of the jihad ideology in the Qur'an and Sunnah -- but since it is coming from Yemen, in which many people will agree with the jihad ideology without necessarily agreeing with the way Al-Qaeda is carrying it out, I rather doubt that it does.

"Terror plot: Yemen makes movie to fight jihad," by Shashank Bengali for the McClatchy Newspapers, November 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

SANAA, Yemen — Deep in Yemen's restive desert, terrorists target a family of European tourists. While the country mourns the deadly attack, an elite government force storms the killers' mountain hideout and brings them down in a hail of artillery.

Ripped from the headlines — and punched up with some nifty military heroics — this is the plot of "A Losing Bet," a new film financed by the government of Yemen that aims to educate a terror-scarred nation about the consequences of jihad.

The government of Yemen — the poorest country in the Arab world and a notorious breeding ground for Islamic extremists — says it has to improvise to fight terrorists.

Its record isn't great.

In September, a car bomb attack outside the U.S. Embassy here killed 19, and since 2006, when 23 high-profile terrorism suspects escaped from a maximum-security prison, attacks on tourists, oil facilities and government security installations have been on the rise.

"The film is part of the government's effort to show the people of Yemen the negative impact of terrorism — on the economy, on tourism, on their standard of living," said Yemen's foreign minister, Abu Bakr al Kirbi. "Hopefully, it will be watched by other countries. We need to enlighten people."

Produced for about $200,000 — expensive by local standards — the film revolves around an array of loosely connected characters: a jihadist who returns home in the hope of reuniting with his family; a university graduate who resists the pull of extremism; a jobless young man who falls prey to a charismatic al Qaida recruiter; and two girls, a Yemeni and a European tourist, whose friendship nearly ends when the visiting girl's family comes under attack.

It's undoubtedly slick, and audiences seem to love it, but critics say the film has little hope of reaching into the disaffected communities most vulnerable to terrorist ideology. Yemen has a fast-growing population, 40 percent unemployment, an economy teetering from shrinking oil supplies and tribal and religious leaders who command more authority than the government — a mixture of ills more potent than any film, critics argue.

If these were really the causes of the spread of the jihad ideology, one wonders why that ideology is so popular among oil-rich Saudis.

"It's propaganda," said Murad Zafir, a former government official who now works for a nonprofit institute in Sanaa, the capital. "It's a fancy, well-funded film that some well-educated people can see, but it can't compare to the messages going out on the radio and in certain mosques."

Now that's an interesting statement. It is a pity he wasn't given space to explain it more fully. What is it that the messages going out on the radio and in certain mosques have that this film doesn't have? Could it be an appeal to core Islamic texts and teachings, supporting a claim to represent Islamic purity and authenticity?

Producers hope to air the film on Yemeni television and release it on DVD, but since premiering to a VIP crowd at Sanaa's five-star Movenpick Hotel in August, it's played only at colleges and cultural centers in major cities.

A free screening last month in a Sanaa University auditorium drew a standing-room-only crowd that found comfort in the film's broad predictability. The students giggled when jobless men were portrayed as comically lazy, snickered when bushy-bearded militants lectured dogmatically about jihad and applauded enthusiastically when Yemeni intelligence got its men in the end.

The writer-director, Fahdel al Olofi, said the story came to him after seven Spanish tourists and their two Yemeni guides were killed in a suicide bombing at a temple in Marib, east of Sanaa, in July 2007.

Al Olofi, a producer of documentary television series, had never done a film before, but when he approached Interior Ministry officials with the idea, they were eager to help. In a surprising departure for a secretive government that tends to view the media as a nuisance, officials loaned al Olofi a military helicopter for the climactic scene and sent security experts to consult on jihadist ideology and recruiting tactics.

Mona al Asbahi, an actress who Yemenis recognize from popular TV serials and who plays a woman abandoned by her jihadist husband, said: "I would have done the movie for free. Everyone in Yemen has someone who has been affected by terrorism."

The film's release comes as some experts warn that a new, more dangerous generation of al Qaida-inspired militants could be gaining power in Yemen.

For years, Yemeni officials favored a softer approach to Qaida and other radical groups, releasing some militants while enrolling others in Islamic re-education programs, in exchange for pledges not to carry out attacks on Yemeni soil. But experts say that those agreements angered younger Yemeni extremists, including many who went to fight U.S. forces in Iraq....

Notice that they did not extract pledges from these jihadists not to carry out attacks elsewhere.

It is good to see a concerted effort to prevent this. Will we one day need such "special teams" in the United States?

"Turkey: Special Teams To Stop 'Honour Killings,'" from ANSAmed, November 17 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, NOVEMBER 17 - A special team will operate in the South Eastern province of Mardin to stop "honor killings", daily Hurriyet reported. "Emergency action teams" formed by the Association for Preventing Honor Crimes and Validating Female Potential (Toder) will be working in 20 villages around Mardin. The team includes the villagés teacher, opinion leader, nurse and reverend. "The team will inform us in case a dangerous event happens in the village and we will contact the related parties; we will have the chance to intervene before an honour killing happens", Zeynep Alkis, president of Toder, said.

"A total of 1,985 women died from domestic violence in last two years, which makes almost three women a day", Sebahat Balci, a Social Service Expert, said, adding that "in Europe more than a woman per week dies due to the violence from her husband or boyfriend". "One-third of women are exposed to physical violence by her husband at least once in Turkey and domestic violence increases as the income increases and it decreases as education increases," Balci declared. "Another research revealed that 89% of women are exposed to psychological violence and 39% are subject to physical violence, while around 30% of women are victims of domestic violence during their marriage when they are pregnant", the expert revealed. (ANSAmed).

And why wouldn't they? What would have disabused them of these notions? Have any Islamic leaders in Australia met with them and tried to convince them that they had gotten Islam terribly, terribly wrong? If so, how did they try to do this, and why were they unsuccessful? If not, why not, and what are the implications of that fact?

"Five men convicted of terror-related offences won't renounce jihad," by Norrie Ross in the Herald Sun, November 18 (thanks to JE):

FIVE of seven men convicted of being part of a home-grown Melbourne terror cell have refused to renounce their violent jihadi views.

As the Supreme Court today commenced pre-sentence plea hearings for the convicted men, prosecutor Nick Robinson SC said their failure to renounce terrorist views was disturbing.

Mr Robinson said Ezzit Raad, Fadl Sayadi, Aimen Joud, Abdullah Merhi and Ahmed Raad had all placed material before the court where they actively refused to renounce the terrorist philosophy behind their crimes.

In their submission to the pre-sentence hearing they rejected the verdicts of the jury, he said, and there was no evidence they did not “continue to adhere to the philosophy of violent jihad”.

In September the men, along with two others, were convicted of a number of terrorist offences.

The trial heard the potential targets of the group were the MCG on Grand Final Day, Melbourne’s rail network and the Crown casino during Grand Prix week....

In one conversation Ezzit Raad was recorded to have said it was a pity more people had not died in the 2005 London terrorist bombings.

He was found guilty of intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organisation, knowing that it was a terrorist organisation.

He was also convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation, knowing that it was a terrorist organisation.

The other convicted men were:

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, of Dallas

Also known as Abu Bakr, the Algerian-born Muslim cleric arrived in Australia in 1989. He married in 1992 and has seven children. He was said to be the spiritual leader of the group and they called him “Sheik”. He was found:

A cleric? Didn't he realize he was twisting and hijacking the peaceful tenets of Islam?

Today I'll be appearing on a few radio shows to discuss the reality of the stealth jihad in America today and the book that tells the tale. Once again, some of these may be catchable online, or if you're in the area call in and give me a piece of your mind. All times PST:

4:15 AM Coastal Daybreak

6:06 AM KNST Tucson

7:00 AM KHOW Peter Boyles Show

8:20 AM Dennis Miller Show

11:00 AM Point of View

7:00 PM Jim Bohannon Show

8:55 PM Joey Reynolds

In accordance with Qur'an 47:4, which directs jihadists to "smite at the necks" of unbelievers. "Letter From Iraqi Muslim Group Orders All Christians Out of the Country," from the Assyrian International News Agency, November 18:

(AINA) -- A Christian bishop received a threatening letter written by Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Muslim group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq. The letter ordered the Christians to leave Iraq en masse and stated it is sending a final warning to Christians in Baghdad and other Iraqi governorates to leave Iraq permanently.

The letter was published on Al-Ittihad's website, a daily newspaper that covers Iraqi politics.

Here is the translation of the letter:

The General Secretariat of the Adherent of Islam Brigade has decided to address the final warning to you and to all your adherents and flocks, the infidel Christian Crusaders, in Baghdad and the other governorates and order you to leave immediately, in masses and permanently from the Muslim countries (Iraq) and to join Pope Benedict the sixteenth and his followers who crossed over the greatest symbols of humanity and Islam.

There is no place for you infidel Christians among the Muslim believers in Iraq from now on. Otherwise, our swords will be legalized over your neck and the necks of you followers and flocks similar to what happened to the Christians living in Mosul.

God is our witness
He who warns is excused
The General Secretariat of the Adherents of Islam Brigade

The problems of two little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world

Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Taliban in their beloved Paris?

"Taliban threaten Paris attacks, claim troops' killing," from Reuters, November 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The Taliban has threatened to launch attacks in Paris unless France withdraws from Afghanistan, in a video aired by Al Arabiya television.

The video also claimed an ambush that killed 10 French troops in August was carried out by the Taliban. It was not clear when the recording was made.

"We have killed 10 French soldiers today as a message to the French so that they rectify their mistakes and withdraw from Afghanistan, and if they don't they will hear our response in Paris," said Mullah Farouq, identified as the commander of the unit that raided the French troops, on the video. His remarks were dubbed into Arabic by the station....

A terrorist act. "Montreal Jewish school firebomber gets 4-year sentence," from CBC News, November 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Montreal man accused of firebombing a Jewish school was sentenced to four years in prison for what a judge described as a terrorist act.

Azim Ibragimov, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this year to firebombing the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys School in Outremont in 2006, and attempting to attack the Snowdon YM-YWHA the following year.

He also pleaded guilty to uttering threats in the form of letters that claimed the crimes were committed in the name of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that vows to destroy Israel and set up an Islamic Palestinian state.

The letters also hinted there were more incidents to come.

The arson attack was racist and hateful, and amounted to terrorism, Quebec Judge Gilles Cadieux said in his long ruling issued Monday at the Montreal courthouse....

For that, Gilles Cadieux will himself be called racist and hateful.

Vote here. The awards concern mostly Canadian bloggers and anti-jihadists, including the outrageously fabulous Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury, but there are a few Americans and others around in some very, very interesting categories.

I myself am nominated in category #3, "Best Infidel Blogger - non-restricted category," and I thank the Infidel Blogger Awards organizers for that honor. I must insist, however, that rumors that I have already written my acceptance speech and selected my cabinet are completely false. Likewise false are the rumors that I pressured the Jihad Watch Board to fire a minor Jihad Watch official who had crossed Hugh one too many times. And don't even get started on the rumors that I was raised a Muslim in Indonesia. I was in Outdoornesia the whole time.

Anyway, go and vote, not for me but for others, early and often.

A sign of the times, from a reader's page at Amazon.com. (Thanks to StephenA55.)

Rashid and Ahmed

Life TV’s "Daring Question," hosted by Muslim apostates, Rashid and Ahmed, recently ran a show dedicated to examining the connection between hadiths and fatwas—particularly the more outrageous ones which have caused Islam no small scandal, such as Rida’ al-Kabir, “breastfeeding the adult."

Rashid initiated the show by asking: “Are these otherwise absurd fatwas truly grounded in usul al fiqh [Islam’s roots of jurisprudence] or can we dismiss them as products of eccentric or deviant ulema and fuqaha [theologians and jurists]?”

The first fatwa they focused on was the so-called “Mickey Mouse fatwa”—wherein a sheikh declared that Mickey Mouse (a cartoon character) must die. Rashid indicated that this one particular fatwa received much exposure (and laughs) in the Western media; but he displayed several Arabic newspapers also questioning the legitimacy/sanity of such a fatwa.

The hosts then played a clip of Sheikh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid, condemning the rodent, deploring the fact that some otherwise upright Muslims allow their children to find favor in despicable characters like Mickey Mouse or Jerry. As rodents, the sheikh confirmed, they are dirty and corrupt—“little satans”—who, according to sharia, should be killed indiscriminately. The sheikh was visibly agitated that Muslim children were being exposed to these animated rats, and finding them “lovable.”

After the clip (and after a moment of perplexed silence in the studio), Rashid asked Ahmed: “So, we’ve seen what the sheikh says: is that his own position or can he actually back it up from Islam itself?

Ahmed (the more scholarly of the two, who actually studied at Al Azhar in his former Muslim life) confirmed the latter. He quoted several Muhammadan ahadith from Sunan Abu Dawud portraying rodents as “soldiers” and “hosts” of Satan,” and enemies to believers. Sahih Muslim contains a hadith clearly stating that rodents should be killed indiscriminately.

Ahmed also revealed that, according to Sahih Bukhari—the most authoritative hadith collection—along with pigs and monkeys, rats too were once upon a time Jews.

Here Rashid asked if even rat-hatred is a product of Islamic anti-Semitism? Ahmed said that was plausible, but, then again, it seems that Muhammad commanded his followers to hate any number of animals, for any number of reasons. Here he quoted some hadiths where Muhammad categorically condemned various insects, for no apparent reason, and said black dogs are satanic and must also be killed with impunity (see here for a list of Muhammad and the animals).

Rashid addressing the viewers asked how, scientifically speaking, anyone can believe any of these hadiths: “Can we scientifically demonstrate that rats were Jews and black dogs satans? God gave us a brain to use, people.”

At any rate, the two hosts concluded that, as absurd as the sheikh’s “kill-rodents” (including Mickey Mouse and Jerry) fatwa seemed, it is not based on his own particular views, but rather Islam’s.

The second video clip dealt with the left hand in Islam. One Sheikh Wajadi Ghunim, from Al Azhar, dramatically explained the great importance of refraining from using one’s left hand: “How can you nonchalantly use your left hand, and then say you hate Satan?!” he demanded of his viewers.

He quoted Muhammad saying, “Satan eats and drinks with his left hand.” He then went on to mock the notion of “etiquette” during eating. He offered a personal anecdote: once when he was dining at some five-star restaurant with several dignitaries, the chef came up to him sheepishly advising him to use the fork with his left hand instead of right, to which the sheikh boomed “I AM MUSLIM!”

The sheikh further indicated that, from childhood, he was left-handed; but, in an effort to be a “true” Muslim, he forced himself out of that satanic habit. He did this by placing his left hand beneath his thigh when eating, in order to force himself to get used to eating with his right.

Finally, while going through these motions in front of the camera (left hand beneath thigh, pretending to eat with right hand), he concluded his imaginary meal by licking all his right fingers—for, as he sternly admonished, that too is sunna: Muhammad, in Sahih Bukhari, told his followers to always lick—or have someone else lick—their fingers clean after eating, “For you know not where [in the food] the blessing dwells.”

Here, Rashid, somewhat astonished, asked “So many great men—such as Michael Angelo, Einstein, Newton, Da Vinci, Picasso [he could’ve added yours truly]—were left-handed: so what gives? Simply because they wrote or ate with their left hand, we must conclude that they were followers of Satan?”

Ahmed said that everything the animated sheikh said is, in fact, sunna: he quoted from Sahih Muslim Muhammad saying, “Do not eat or drink with your left hand for Satan eats and drinks with his left hand.”

Rashid seemed still unable to get over the finger-licking aspect: “Look, no one is out to judge other cultures, but this is the problem: because Muhammad—a 7th century bedouin—did this or that, they try to impose it on all of us, against our will.”

Rashid, somewhat timidly, asked Ahmed: “Are there any more hadiths that associate human physiology with Satan?

“Many,” answered the latter (while appearing to be desperately trying to suppress a chuckle). “For instance, yawning. According to Sahih Muslim, Muhammad said that if you must yawn, you should fully cover your mouth—preferably with the back, not palm, of the hand—lest Satan scurry down your throat, where he will dwell and laugh." According to Sahih Bukhari, if you must yawn, do not give yourself to yawning fully; rather, hold it back as much as possible, and by so doing vex Satan.

The hosts played one last video of Sheikh Ishaq al-Hawani who was discussing the importance of waking up at night to perform the obligatory night prayers. The sheikh then read from a hadith where Muhammad said that Satan urinated in the ears of a man who failed to wake up for the night-time prayer.

A(nother) moment of perplexed silence followed, when finally Rashid asked the viewers: “Billions of people in this world do not wake up to pray. Are we to believe, then, that there are billions of satans urinating in humanity’s ears?! So many problematic questions—if Muslims were to only seriously reflect on them for a moment, surely they would forfeit Islam.”

They took a few calls. One caller could not stop laughing and did not seem to have much to contribute aside from mocking Islam, to which Ahmed said, “Yes, we understand; but you and everyone else must understand that this show is not about mocking Islam, but exposing it, in order to help other Muslims leave the darkness and come into the light."

Wire services willingly play the dhimmi -- again -- and help the jihadists make their case. "Hamas Does PR," by Brian C. Ledbetter at Snapped Shot, November 17:

Why bother hiring your own PR firm, which would mean having to spend your easy-earned dollars, when you can just use the largest "news" agencies in the world as your advertising firm, free of charge?

The Associated Press doesn't seem to mind being used in the least.

Agence France-Presse seems to surrender to their every whim.

But Reuters, of all, seems to be the most adept at meeting today's terrorist group's needs, serving up photos that are worthy of gracing any terrorist's den.

Notice that not a single one of those photographs is original. In other words, the agency photographers are doing nothing more than taking the pictures that the terrorists are ordering them to take.

And for very good reason. "A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings."

"Ariz. Muslim leaders face increased FBI scrutiny," by Sean Holstege and Dennis Wagner for the Arizona Republic, November 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The FBI has sharpened its scrutiny of some Phoenix-area Muslim leaders because of their links to two controversial incidents and a federal probe into the financing of terrorist groups.

No Arizonan has been accused of supporting terrorist groups or actions. However, a Mesa man was charged with lying to the FBI during the financing investigation.

The events that triggered the stepped-up scrutiny were the federal probe into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas; a target-shooting episode in Phoenix this year involving a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of rounds from AK-47s and other guns; and the high-profile removal in 2006 of six Arizona-bound imams from a jetliner after passengers and crew complained of their behavior.

But of course, we shouldn't be concerned about any of that, and if we are, we are racists:

Although some Islamic leaders say they understand the scrutiny, they also view it as another sign that innocent Muslims unjustly fall under suspicion because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"Whoever did Sept. 11, go after them and see who they are. I'm not going to pay for them. I'm not going to be guilty," said Marwan Sadeddin, one of the Valley imams who sued US Airways after being removed from a jetliner in Minneapolis. Like the others, he was questioned by FBI agents after the incident, in addition to being questioned about the arrested Mesa man.

The FBI is monitoring the family and community ties among Valley residents involved in the jetliner, shooting and charity probes, said John Lewis, who runs the FBI's Arizona office.

"All of these things come on our scope," said Lewis, the agency's former head of counterterrorism operations.[...]

For many years, several mosques in Phoenix and Tucson legally raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, which was the largest Muslim charity in the United States.

Islamic civil-rights groups argue that Muslim Americans donated to the charities to support hospitals and orphanages in the West Bank and Gaza. Although Hamas and Hezbollah have organized attacks against Israeli civilians, their humanitarian missions are central to Palestinians' fight for survival, civil-rights groups say.

The federal government charged the foundation's leaders with raising $12 million for Hamas. The first trial in Dallas ended in October 2007 with a deadlocked jury, a stunning setback for the government's biggest-ever terrorism financing case. A new trial has gone to the jury.

Abdallah is not a witness or defendant in that case. But as the FBI looked into Holy Land Foundation contributions, he was indicted in August on one count of lying about the fundraising to federal agents. An FBI tactical squad swarmed into a northwest Phoenix cafe to arrest him. Abdallah pleaded not guilty and was released without bail. No trial date has been set.

Abdallah, a naturalized citizen who arrived in the country in the late 1970s, did not return calls.

His 20-year-old son, Saiaf, is one of the half-dozen suspects facing felony charges from the target shooting. The younger Abdallah declined to comment except to say, "In the past five to six years, Muslims have been falsely accused of many things."

Controversial imams

The saga of the six traveling imams touched off a national controversy and attracted federal scrutiny. Much of the focus has been on the group's spokesman, Omar Shahin.

Shahin, who lives in Phoenix and presides over the North American Imams Foundation, led the Arizona delegation of six imams to its conference in Minneapolis in 2006. After boarding the return flight to Phoenix, passengers and crew reported that the men chanted loudly to Allah and spoke angrily about President Bush and America's war in Iraq.

All six imams were handcuffed and later interrogated, then released with no charges. US Airways banned the men from future flights.

Shahin led a news conference to condemn prejudice against Muslims. The imams later sued the airline, airport police and an FBI agent, claiming they had been degraded and humiliated unlawfully. US Airways officials have said they acted appropriately. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Shahin's involvement was one factor that drew the FBI's attention to the case and intensified its interest in Muslims' activities in Arizona.

A strident scholar of Islamic law and prolific charity fundraiser, the 47-year-old Shahin had been under the FBI's microscope before but has never been accused of wrongdoing.

In the late 1980s, Shahin served as imam at the Islamic Center of Tucson, where he headed a Muslim youth group. The mosque was a hub for adherents to the radical Wahhabi school of Islam, some of whom later became important aides to Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaida terrorist group.

Weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Shahin, a Jordanian-born naturalized citizen, said he did not believe Muslims were responsible for destroying the World Trade Center and questioned the accuracy of the FBI's list of hijackers.

While in Tucson, Shahin raised money for the Holy Land Foundation before the group was outlawed. He also was a fundraiser for the Illinois-based KindHearts Foundation, which the government shut down last year for alleged support of Hamas.

According to tax records, Shahin was a paid employee of a third charity, the Michigan-based Life and Relief Development Inc. In September 2006, FBI counter-terrorism agents seized $134,000 in cash from the home of the charity's founder as part of a fraud case related to the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. The charity remains open.

Shahin has served as a Muslim community liaison with the FBI and the Phoenix police. A book released by Shahin last year advocated that Muslims living in Western society follow a strict version of conservative Sharia law.

"A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings," Shahin wrote.

Throughout the book, Shahin quotes an extremist Islamic scholar who studied under the man widely credited with inspiring al-Qaida. The scholar was a speaker at Holy Land Foundation events, prosecutors in the Dallas case said in court this year. They showed jurors photos of the man with Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and in videos preaching to kill Jews.

Shahin declined to comment in detail on his writings, the jetliner incident or the fundraising case. He is the father of one of the young men arrested in the Phoenix target shooting, Oday Shahin, 20. Another imam stopped in Minneapolis, Mahmoud Sulaiman, 51, a Syrian native, also has a son who was at the scene of the target shooting but was not arrested, a Phoenix police report stated.

Shahin and his son share other connections with people involved in events that drew the FBI's interest. Omar and Oday Shahin work with a third imam from the plane, Didmar Faja, a 28-year-old Albanian, at a conservative Islamic school in south Phoenix. Saiaf Abdallah, son of Akram Abdallah, accused of lying to the FBI, also works there, and his mother is a board member.

Shahin declined to comment except to say that his son's target-shooting arrest is "no big deal" and to caution against drawing unfair conclusions. "All I want to say is there is no connection between these things."...

Of course not. Read it all.

Good news.

An update on this story. "Top Obama aide denies report president-elect will back Arab peace plan," from Haaretz, November 16 (thanks to Barry Rubin):

A senior adviser to Barack Obama on Sunday denied reports that the U.S. president-elect plans to throw his weight behind the 2002 Arab peace plan, which calls for Israel to withdraw from all territories captured during the 1967 Six-Day War in exchange for normalized ties with the Arab world.

The British Sunday Times said Obama expressed this sentiment during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories last July.

Dennis Ross, Obama's adviser on Middle East policy, issued a statement Sunday, saying "I was in the meeting in Ramallah. Then-senator Obama did not say this, the story is false."

The Times cited a senior adviser who quoted Obama as telling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: "The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative. It would give them peace with the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco."...

Double Game Update: "Pakistan shuts NATO supply line," by Bruce Loudon for The Australian, November 17 (thanks to JE):

PAKISTAN cut off the main NATO supply route into Afghanistan yesterday, citing Taliban and al-Qa'ida attacks on the Khyber Pass, the perilous mountain trail that carries most supplies into the war-torn country for the 35,000-strong coalition force.

Taliban fighters have been trying to strangle NATO's mission in Afghanistan by stepping up attacks on convoys in the Khyber Pass, and yesterday forced Pakistan to suspend all traffic along the route.

More than 350 trucks and oil tankers use the pass each day, carrying NATO supplies that have been shipped to the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

But government officials in Islamabad said last night the suspension of the important land route had become inevitable because of intensified militant activity in the Khyber Tribal Agency.

Any long-term closure of the road would make the problem of resupplying coalition troops in Afghanistan very difficult....

And the chief beneficiaries would be the Taliban.

The courageous Brigitte Gabriel (thanks to Advice Goddess) here speaks about how Islamic groups in America are using our American pluralism and openness to push a supremacist agenda and insinuate Sharia law, piece by piece, into the United States. This is, of course, also the theme of my book Stealth Jihad.

An ex-Muslim writes about how he rejected the hate and intolerance with which he was brought up.

"I Reject Islam and Love Israel," by "X-Muslim" in Arutz Sheva, November 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A great burden has been lifted from my heart.

Shalom. As an Arab Muslim I once asked myself: Why do I hate Israel? I really thought about this question. After only a little deliberation, the answer was clear: because I am a Muslim and Islam is extremely intolerant.

It's intolerance to everything non-Muslim that is the problem. But today I have rejected the teachings of Islam for this very reason. I have left Islam.

As an Arab "Palestinian", living in an Arab country, coming from a Muslim family, I was brought up with hatred of Jews, Christians and all non-Muslims. Now I'm older, I have matured enough to view the world from a different perspective. I reviewed real history and studied the sequence of events before and since the restoration of the State of Israel. I decided to step outside the mindset of a typical Muslim. It didn't take long to realize that I was on the wrong track and I moved quickly to the other side. In order to be at peace with myself, I have come to reject the hatred of Israel and now love my former enemy. I have not embraced another religion, but I am seeking a new spiritual path.

Why do the Arabs and Muslims have to reject the presence of a Jewish state in a tiny percentage of the land of the Middle East? Why does Islamic intolerance forbid other nations their right to exist in their own land? The whole world should realize that Islam is at war with all nations on the planet. In our Muslim societies it is not "the extremists", but the whole society infected with this hatred. It is in the mosques, the schools, in the media and in the homes of nearly every Muslim family. It isn't just Israel they hate, but America and Christians as well. Islam hates all other religions.

In the case of Israel, its only fault is that it's a Jewish state that wants to live in peace within its borders. It's not a struggle of so-called "Palestinians" to establish a country and retain some land, which was never theirs - I know, because I studied the real history. The real problem is racism and the intolerance of Muslims, the blind hatred and jealousy when seeing a flourishing, strong and modern country where people from other faiths can live peacefully.

Why are the Jews forbidden to have a country? These people have contributed much to the world's culture and offered the best scientists, artists, doctors; and they have been victims of intolerance throughout history. Why are they forbidden to live in their national Zionist dream and return to their homeland, which was some desert which they cultivated and transformed into one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth? Why do the Arabs and the Muslim world have to take everything and claim every land they step on as theirs?

"Palestine" never existed and should never exist - and this is coming from me, an Arab classified as a "Palestinian." The creation of a Palestinian state would be the biggest threat to the existence of Israel and would not bring one day of peace to Israel. I know how my people think. Promoting such a state would be the equivalent of supporting the Nazis in their quest to destroy the Jews....

Be sure to read it all.

Reformer or deceiver

The Muslim Brotherhood is at the vanguard of the stealth jihad. Tariq Ramadan is the grandson of its founder, Hasan Al-Banna, and enjoys an international reputation as a Muslim reformer. Some say, however, that he is anything but a reformer, and is merely a skilled practitioner of deception. See Caroline Fourest's book Brother Tariq for the evidence of that.

In any case, Henrik R Clausen, the International Editor of EuropeNews, recently narrowly missed a chance to ask Tariq Ramadan some important questions. Here he provides some background on Ramadan and the Muslim Brotherhood, and some questions for Ramadan and other "reformers":

(This is an edited version of a handout at the conference ”Gibt es ein Euro-Islam?” (”Is there an Euro-Islam?”) at the Politische Akademie of ÖVP, Vienna, Austria, November 11th 2008. President of Akademikerbund Franz Fiedler held an introduction speech, then gave the floor to the panel.

Panel members: Srivan Ekici, ÖVP, Member of Vienna City Council, Wolfram Eberhardt, author of ”Im Auftrag Allahs”, Christian Zeitz, board member of the Vienna Akademikerbund and Mouhand Kourchide, University of Vienna)

For the conference we had expected a special guest, the honoured Mr. Tariq Ramadan, son of Saïd Ramadan and grandson of Hassan Al-Banna. Unfortunately, in the last minute he chose not to come, with no reason given. We took the opportunity instead to give the participants a brief written overview of his background and upbringing. This essay is an edited and extended version of the paper.

The subject of the event is discussing the possibility of a particular European kind of Islam, also known as ”Euro-Islam”. The concept was originally conceived by Bassam Tibi, but is better known for being used by Tariq Ramadan. While there has been much talk about such a democracy-compatible version of Islam, preciously little substance has been presented yet. The panel will take care of this question.

In the absence of Tariq Ramadan in person, I would like to explain some fundamentals about Ikhwan (the Muslim Brotherhood) and how Tariq Ramadan is connected to it. Thus, I'd like to dive a bit into history to provide relevant background and scarcely known details, including that of his father Saïd Ramadan, in whose honour Tariq a few days ago awarded a prize.

Today I'll be discussing the book Stealth Jihad and related matters with the following courageous journalists. You may wish to and even be able to listen to some of these online. All times PST:

5:15 AM Brad Davis Show

6:05 AM Pat Campbell Show

7:07 AM Mickelson in the Morning

8:20 AM Kirby and Company

9:30 AM Bill Cunningham Show (I think this one is being taped for later broadcast)

10:00 AM Bob Dutko Show

11:00 AM Janet Parshall's America

3:00 PM Lee Davis Show

6:30 PM Rusty Humphries Show

Kalisch: an increasingly rare breed, an honest university academic

The picture of the life of Muhammad that one gets from Islamic sources is based on some very, very weak reeds from a historical standpoint. (I hope to be writing about this problem and its implications in much greater detail in the future.) But the historical criticism of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures that academics have engaged in for centuries has never been undertaken in an Islamic context, for reasons that should be obvious. The Qur’an is a book never to be doubted, never to be questioned: when one Islamic scholar, Suliman Bashear, taught his students at An-Najah National University in Nablus that the Qur’an and Islam were the products of historical development rather than being delivered in perfect form to Muhammad, his students threw him out of the window of his classroom. Christoph Luxenberg, who has done groundbreaking work in this area, publishes under a pseudonym.

Of course, in this the stakes are very high for Muslims. There is no Liberal Islam or Reform Islam that distills moral precepts out of material that is not considered to be historically true and thus has no literal application. Maybe it could be created, at least by a faction, if it became widely known and accepted that the authoritative story of Muhammad and the Qur'an rests on such weak historical foundations, but we are very, very far from that today.

And that is what makes Muhammad Sven Kalisch all the more remarkable. Saying this could get him fired. It could get him killed. It could, and probably already has, interfered with his personal outlook on life. But this is the result of his researches, and he is sticking to it. Whether he is right or wrong, and there is a great deal to support his view, he is at very least uncompromisingly honest.

How refreshing it is to see an honest man, and that even rarer bird, an honest academic, and that rarity of rarities, an honest professor of Islamic studies.

"Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt," by Andrew Higgins for the Wall Street Journal, November 15 (thanks to all who sent this in):

MÜNSTER, Germany -- Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany's first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn't like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.

So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed.

Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn't portray the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent backlash, told the professor to move his religious-studies center to more-secure premises.

"We had no idea he would have ideas like this," says Thomas Bauer, a fellow academic at Münster University who sat on a committee that appointed Prof. Kalisch. "I'm a more orthodox Muslim than he is, and I'm not a Muslim."

That's nothing, Professor Bauer. There are so many non-Muslim professors like you, they can't even be counted.

When Prof. Kalisch took up his theology chair four years ago, he was seen as proof that modern Western scholarship and Islamic ways can mingle -- and counter the influence of radical preachers in Germany. He was put in charge of a new program at Münster, one of Germany's oldest and most respected universities, to train teachers in state schools to teach Muslim pupils about their faith.

Muslim leaders cheered and joined an advisory board at his Center for Religious Studies. Politicians hailed the appointment as a sign of Germany's readiness to absorb some three million Muslims into mainstream society. But, says Andreas Pinkwart, a minister responsible for higher education in this north German region, "the results are disappointing."

No, they're not. Honesty is not and cannot rightly be disappointing. The truth may be disappointing. The facts may be disappointing. But that is something that everyone will have to deal with in his own way.

Prof. Kalisch, who insists he's still a Muslim, says he knew he would get in trouble but wanted to subject Islam to the same scrutiny as Christianity and Judaism. German scholars of the 19th century, he notes, were among the first to raise questions about the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Many scholars of Islam question the accuracy of ancient sources on Muhammad's life. The earliest biography, of which no copies survive, dated from roughly a century after the generally accepted year of his death, 632, and is known only by references to it in much later texts. But only a few scholars have doubted Muhammad's existence. Most say his life is better documented than that of Jesus.

That is a widespread view, but it is simply not true. The Gospels date from the first Christian century; there are hardly any scholars remaining who date them later than that. But the first biography of Muhammad, that of Ibn Ishaq, dates from 150 years after Muhammad's death, and even that book is lost and survives only in large fragments reproduced in even later writings.

"Of course Muhammad existed," says Tilman Nagel, a scholar in Göttingen and author of a new book, "Muhammad: Life and Legend." The Prophet differed from the flawless figure of Islamic tradition, Prof. Nagel says, but "it is quite astonishing to say that thousands and thousands of pages about him were all forged" and there was no such person.

All the same, Prof. Nagel has signed a petition in support of Prof. Kalisch, who has faced blistering criticism from Muslim groups and some secular German academics. "We are in Europe," Prof. Nagel says. "Education is about thinking, not just learning by heart."...

Right. Exactly.

“Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.” – from this news article

This might work, if:

1. If Islam did not exist.

2. If the doctrines that are inculcated into the minds of Muslims were not so clear, so consistent, and so deeply imbedded.

3. If instead of being told that they had a duty to remove all obstacles to the spread and dominance of Islam all over the world, Muslims were told that they should accept unbelievers as equals and not try to subjugate them under Sharia.

4. If in the minds of Muslims the recapture of territory deemed to have once been part of Dar al-Islam were not at the top of the list. It is at the top of the list because Muslims may once have possessed that, no matter when, no matter how, no matter for how long or short a time. This is because land that had once become part of Dar al-Islam and is then repossessed by non-Muslims constitutes an even greater and permanent affront to Muslims than the fact that parts of the world have as yet never been conquered by Islam, when Believers know (for they are taught) that the whole world belongs to Allah, and to the Believers, the "best of peoples" (Qur’an 3.110).

His lawyer is shocked too

Hassan Diab is a part-time instructor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Now he is wanted in France on multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and wilful destruction of property for by a bombing outside a Paris synagogue that killed four people in October 1980. The bombing was apparently the work of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is universally described as a Marxist/nationalist group. In this as in its other operations, however, it acted as either a willing or unwitting tool of the jihad against Israel.

In this article, we hear about what a terrific guy he is, how he would weep if he had to swat a fly, how he petted dogs and gave candy to orphans. We have seen this before. It was the Nazi genocide mastermind Heinrich Himmler who told a group of SS leaders: “Most of you know what it means to see a hundred corpses lying together, five hundred, or a thousand. To have gone through this and yet -- apart from a few exceptions, examples of human weakness -- to have remained decent fellows, this is what has made us hard. This is a glorious page in our history that has never been written and shall never be written…”

Were these SS mass murderers really decent fellows? From their own perspective, and that of their friends and family, they probably were. And that is what makes what they did all the more chilling in the grotesque banality of its workaday evil. They were adherents of a totalitarian, genocidal ideology that convinced them that the murders they were committing were for a good purpose. As far as they were concerned, their goals were rational and good, and the murders were a means to that goal. It was not just a noteworthy achievement, but a necessity, for them to remain “decent fellows,” for they were busy trying to build what they saw as a decent society (but what was in reality one that created a nightmare of fear and coercion and totalitarian control, as does Sharia). That their vision of a decent society included genocide and torture did not trouble them, for it was all for -- in their view -- a goal that remained good.

Today’s jihad terrorists are likewise the adherents of a totalitarian, genocidal ideology that teaches them that murders committed under certain circumstances are a good thing. And those murders, here again, are not committed for their own sake, but for the sake of a societal vision hardly less draconian and evil than that of Hitler, but one also that portrays itself as the exponent of all that is good -- as the resurgent Somali jihad shows us yet again. But the continued reference to such people as “terrorists” pure and simple, and the refusal of Western governments, the mainstream media (both liberal and conservative, as I am being reminded yet again this week) and most law enforcement officials to examine their ideology at all, only reinforces the idea that these people are raving maniacs who are interested solely in chaos for its own sake. The society they want to build, and the means besides guns and bombs that they are using to build it, remain below the radar screen of most analysts. These people are just “terrorists,” interested only in “terror.” And so the clueless mainstream media is continually surprised when their friends and family affirm that they are nice guys after all. Decent fellows, like the genocidal family men of the SS.

"Ottawa prof accused in Paris bombing shocked by charges: lawyer," by Matthew Pearson for the Canwest News Service, November 15 (thanks to James):

OTTAWA - The Ottawa university professor arrested this week in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue is a devoted teacher who is shocked by the charges he currently faces, his lawyer said Saturday.

Hassan Diab, 54, is wanted in France on multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and wilful destruction of property by an organized group after a bombing outside a Paris synagogue killed four in October 1980. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Special Operations, was blamed for the attack.

Rene Duval, Diab's lawyer, said his client has been in a state of shock since RCMP officers showed up at the door of his Gatineau home on Thursday with an arrest warrant.

"When you've never had any problems with the law and all of a sudden to be handcuffed and foot-chained and driven to RCMP headquarters and then to court, it's distressing," Duval said from his home in Trois-Rivieres, Que.

Yeah, I'll bet the people in the synagogue were a bit distressed, too.

Diab teaches part-time at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. His work keeps him busy full-time, and he's a devoted teacher who has the support of his students and the universities, Duval said.

"This is a gentleman who is a very professional person and, of course, everyone is surprised by this thing that happened. You will have a hard time finding someone who will say something negative about him."

Of course!

But both schools have been tight-lipped since the professor's arrest, and Leslie Laczko, chairman of the sociology and anthropology department where Diab was teaching a course this term, refused to comment.

Diab is listed as a contract instructor in the department of sociology and anthropology on the Carleton University website.

The sharks are back in town

Somali Jihad not only resurgent, but nearly triumphant. "Somali president says Islamists control most of country," from Reuters, November 16 :

MOGADISHU: President Abdullahi Yusuf has admitted Islamist insurgents now control most of Somalia, and he raised the prospect that his government could completely collapse.

Islamists have been slowly advancing on the capital, raising the stakes in their two-year rebellion and undermining fragile UN-brokered peace talks to end 17 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa nation. A grenade attack Sunday killed four people and injured nine others in Baidoa, the government's seat.

"Most of the country is in the hands of Islamists and we are only in Mogadishu and Baidoa, where there is daily war," Yusuf told some of his legislators in neighboring Kenya on Saturday.

His remarks were aired by Somali media late Saturday.

"We, ourselves, are behind the problems and we are accountable in this world and in the hereafter. Islamists have been capturing all towns and now control Elasha. It is every man for himself if the government collapses.

The Islamists kill city cleaners, they will not spare legislators," Yusuf said....

Quite so. But why do they kill city cleaners? Apparently it was because they are employees of the government they oppose. This does raise the question of whether they will replace the city cleaners, or let the city putrefy in Sharia purity.

The insurgents have been enforcing a strict form of Islamic law in areas they capture. On Saturday, they whipped 32 people for taking part in a traditional dance in rebel-held territory south of the capital.

Last month, they stoned to death a young woman accused of adultery in the southern port of Kismayu. It was the first such public killing by the hard-line militants for about two years....

Meanwhile, the insurgency continues. "Three women and a baby died after Islamists hurled two hand grenades at police patrolling Baidoa's main market on Sunday," Abdihakim Abdi, chief of police operations, said.

A Somali aid worker was also critically injured when gunmen shot him in the head in Merka, a port city captured by the rebels Wednesday.

Islamists ruled Mogadishu and most of south Somalia for half of 2006. Allied Ethiopian and Somali government forces toppled them but they have waged an Iraq-style guerrilla campaign since then, gradually taking back territory.

As when they controlled the capital in 2006, the Islamists are again providing much-needed security in many areas, but are unpopular with many moderate Muslims in Somalia for also imposing fundamentalist practices....

There again is that much-used and little-understood term, "moderate Muslims." Here it seems to refer to those who adhere to the cultural and syncretistic form of Islam that has held sway in Somalia for quite some time. Unfortunately, however, this is not founded upon any authoritative interpretation of the Islamic texts, and as such these people are always vulnerable to a challenge to the authenticity of their Islam. And they are being challenged, every day, in Somalia now.

Dhimmis getting out of line are put back in their place. Will university administrators stand idle? "Arab Students at UC Berkeley Disrupt Israel Event, Attack Jews" by David Shamma for Israel National News, November 16 (thanks to Paul):

Arab students disrupted a pro-Israel event at the campus of the University of California at Berkeley Thursday night, unfurling a large Palestinian flag in front of a crowd of hundreds of supporters of Israel who were enjoying a pro-Israel hip-hop concert. The event was sponsored by the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group.

The Arab students unfurled the large flag on a balcony above the outdoor site where the concert was taking place, inciting a provocation right in front of the concert-goers, who were enjoying the event as part of the campus' Israel Liberation Week. Several Jewish concertgoers went into the building to ask the Arabs to remove the flag – but were viciously attacked, with one male concertgoer knocked down from a blow on the back of his head, witnesses said.

College alumnus Gabe Weiner, who was helping run the concert, was assaulted by the leader of the anti-Israel group, Husam Zakharia, who also attacked one of the performers, Yehuda De Sa. The fight was finally broken up by John Moghtader, a senator in the UC Berkelely student organization. Police were called in and arrested Zakharia along with others from his group, charging them with battery. Witnesses said that the Arab students shouted anti-Semitic curses and epithets throughout the incident, calling the Jews “Nazis” and “dogs,” and threatening to kill them. According to one witness, as many as 20 anti-Israel students participated in the attacks.

In a statement, the Zionist Freedom Alliance said “we call on state officials, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor, the Dean of Students, faculty, and the student body to take a unified stand against the continued harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus, particularly by members of Students for Justice in Palestine,” the anti-Israel group whose leaders began the incitement and attacked the concertgoers.

Pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley have long complained of the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic harassment they have been subject to. Tikvah, a Jewish student group at the college, displayed on its web site numerous examples of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic graffiti, with anti-Israel elements defacing property with their screed.

Jewish students complained that the only media coverage given to the event, in the Berkeley campus newspaper, was one sided. “Funny how the battery citation against Husam of SJP isn't even mentioned [in the article], and the comment which purports to be from an objective bystander is actually from one of the top people in Students for Justice in Palestine,” commented Ariel, one of the concertgoers....

Surely there is an element of denial in much of the West: Any day now, things will settle down, and the vaunted peaceful and pluralistic teachings of Islam will kick in... right?

"Iraq - Fleeing Christians face new hardships in Turkey," from Compass Direct News, November 14:

ISTANBUL, November 14 (Compass Direct News) – In this Turkish city’s working-class neighborhood of Kurtulus, Arabic can be heard on the streets, signs are printed in the Arabic alphabet and Iraqis congregate in tea shops.

In 99-percent Muslim Turkey, most of these Iraqis are not Muslims. And they are not in Turkey by choice. They are Christian refugees who fled their homeland to escape the murderous violence that increasingly has been directed at them.

It is hard to tell how many of Mosul’s refugees from the recent wave of attacks have made their way to Istanbul, but finding these residents here is not hard. A middle-aged Iraqi refugee who fled Mosul five months ago now attends a Syrian Orthodox Church in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of Tarlabasi, where gypsies, transvestites, and immigrants from Turkey’s east live in hopes of a better life in Istanbul.

Declining to give his name, the refugee said there is no future for Christians in Iraq and that nearly everyone he knew there wanted to leave the country. He said the only hope for Iraqi Christians is for Western countries to open their doors to Christian Iraqi refugees.

“We don’t have hope,” he said. “If these doors aren’t opened, we will be killed.”

Since October, violence in Mosul has pushed more than 12,000 Christians from their homes and left more than two dozen dead, according to U.N. and Christian organizations. In the face of Mosul violence, Iraqi Christians flee to Turkey before settling permanently in another country, usually in a place where their family has gone out before them.

Christian Sisters Killed

Weeks after the mass exodus of Mosul Christians to surrounding villages, Turkey and other nations, around one-third of families reportedly have returned due to the presence of 35,000 army and police and the Iraqi government offering cash grants of up to $800.

But those returning Christians were shaken again on Wednesday (Nov. 12), when Islamic militants stormed into the house of two Syrian Catholic sisters, Lamia’a Sabih and Wala’a Saloha, killing them and severely injuring their mother. They then bombed their house and detonated a second explosive when the police arrived, which killed three more.

The Christian family had recently returned after having fled Mosul. Many believe this attack will deter other Christians from returning to Mosul, and there are reports of Christians again leaving the area.

There has been a steady exodus of Christians from Iraq since the first Gulf War in 1991. The church in Iraq dates from the beginning of Christianity, but the population has plummeted by 50 percent in the last 20 years. The outflow of Iraqi Christians spiked in 2003 following the U.S.-led invasion.

Although Iraq as a whole has seen a dramatic decrease in violence due to last year’s surge in U.S. troops, the flight of Christians to Turkey has grown. One-third of the 18,000 refugees who registered in Turkey last year are from Iraq. In Syria, an estimated 40 percent of the 1.2 million Iraqis who have fled Iraq are Christians, though they make up only about 3 percent of Iraq’s population.

Monsignor Francois Yakan, the 50-year-old leader of the Chaldean Church in Turkey, said all Iraqi refugees are undergoing hardships regardless of religion, but that the situation is especially difficult for Christians since there is less support for them in Turkey.

“Muslims have the same difficulty as Christians, but there are more foundations to assist them,” he said. “The government notices Muslim immigrants, but nobody pays attention to us.”

Yakan travels to other countries to raise awareness of the plight of Iraqi Christians, trying to marshal the support of government and church leaders – last week he traveled to France, Romania and Germany. If Western governments don’t wake up to this crisis, he said, the results could be catastrophic.

“People don’t know the plight of Iraqi Christians. They have no government, no soldiers, and no power,” he said. “Christianity in Iraq is ending. Why aren’t they noticing this?”

Thursday I drove the Jihad Watch company car, a state-of-the-art Maxwell Roadster, to the David Horowitz Freedom Center's annual Restoration Weekend in Florida. You can see a pdf about the event here. Yesterday morning I spoke (along with student activists Tyler Kristopeit and Rob Lockwood, the Florida Security Council's Tom Trento, and the incomparable Melanie Phillips) on a panel entitled "Jihad On Campus" about our Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week activities, which took me this fall to eight campuses all over the country. Later on I spoke about the subject of my new book Stealth Jihad: efforts to advance acceptance of Islamic law in the U.S.

Among the other speakers were Victor Davis Hanson, Karl Rove, Michael Steele and filmmaker David Zucker (Airplane, The Naked Gun, and now An American Carol), along with (among others) Fred Barnes, Pat Cadell, Caroline Glick, Bernie Goldberg, David Horowitz, Mark Krikorian, Dick Morris, Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, and the great comedian Evan Sayet.

I also had the privilege of meeting the great filmmaker Pierre Rehov, who showed his superb and much-needed film First Comes Saturday, Next Comes Sunday, about the exodus of Christians from the Middle East and the need for Jews and Christians (and all who value human rights) to stand together against the advancing jihad. Pamela (who took the picture above just as Rehov was taking his own picture) has an interview with Rehov and more from the Weekend.

Noah: Just a warner

The Meccan sura 67 contains brief repetitions of many familiar and oft-repeated themes of the Quran: Allah controls all things and designed his creation perfectly (vv. 1-5); the unbelievers will suffer the pains of hell and will at that point regret having rejected Allah’s messengers (vv. 6-11); the righteous shall be rewarded (v. 12); Allah knows what is in everyone’s heart (vv. 13-14); Allah sustains all things and death can come without notice, so it is better to be mindful of Allah and obey him than to ignore him (vv. 15-22). The sura concludes with Allah giving Muhammad six things to say to the unbelievers in response to their skepticism about whether and when the Day of Judgment will come (vv. 23-30).

Likewise sura 68, an early Meccan sura, traverses very familiar ground. Allah consoles Muhammad over the unbelievers’ rejection of his message, assures him that he is not mad or possessed (v. 2) but actually has an exalted character (v. 4). According to Aisha and others, this refers to the fact that Muhammad’s character conformed entirely to the Qur’an, such that he was the living embodiment of its ethos. Those who accuse Muhammad of madness are the ones who are mad (v. 6). Muhammad should not listen to them (vv. 8, 10). Muhammad’s unnamed accuser is a violent, cruel slanderer (vv. 11, 13) who rejects the signs (verses of the Qur’an) of Allah as “tales of the ancients” (v. 15) – but soon Allah will brand him on the nose (v. 16)! Islamic tradition identifies this unfortunate man as al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, an opponent of Muhammad from among the pagan Quraysh. Of him Ibn Abbas says: “We know of no one whom God has described in the derogatory way in which He describes him, blighting him with ignominy that will never leave him.” Was this curse fulfilled? The Tafsir al-Jalalayn informs us that “his nose was chopped off by a sword at Badr.”

Amid all the enthusiasm for this plan, as noted in the article below, no one seems to have considered anything about the Islamic legal doctrine regarding treaties, which allows Muslims to conclude only temporary truces with the infidels, in order to allow the Muslims time to gather their strength and fight again more effecively sometime in the future.

"Barack Obama links Israel peace plan to 1967 borders deal," by Uzi Mahnaimi and Sarah Baxter for the Sunday Times, November 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.

Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League and backed by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party.

The proposal gives Israel an effective veto on the return of Arab refugees expelled in 1948 while requiring it to restore the Golan Heights to Syria and allow the Palestinians to establish a state capital in east Jerusalem.

On a visit to the Middle East last July, the president-elect said privately it would be “crazy” for Israel to refuse a deal that could “give them peace with the Muslim world”, according to a senior Obama adviser.

The Arab peace plan received a boost last week when President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate and leading Israeli dove, commended the initiative at a Saudi-sponsored United Nations conference in New York.

Peres was loudly applauded for telling King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was behind the original initiative: “I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people.”

A bipartisan group of senior foreign policy advisers urged Obama to give the Arab plan top priority immediately after his election victory. They included Lee Hamilton, the former co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Democrat former national security adviser. Brzezinski will give an address tomorrow at Chatham House, the international relations think tank, in London.

Brent Scowcroft, a Republican former national security adviser, joined in the appeal. He said last week that the Middle East was the most troublesome area in the world and that an early start to the Palestinian peace process was “a way to psychologically change the mood of the region”....

The price of trying to get an education

More on this story. "Acid attack girl vows to continue school," from the Gulf Times, November 15 :

KABUL: An Afghan teenager whose face was burned in an acid attack by suspected extremists vowed from her hospital bed yesterday to continue going to school even if it put her life in danger.

Men on motorbikes used a water pistol to spray acid into the faces of Shamsia and around dozen other girls as they arrived at school wearing all-covering burqas in Kandahar on Wednesday.

Shamsia, 17, was the most badly wounded and had some acid enter her eyes. She was transferred to a military hospital in Kabul where she was visited yesterday by other schoolgirls, accompanied by media.

"I will go to my school if they kill me," she told reporters. "My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies."

It is not clear who carried out the attack which President Hamid Karzai and other officials blamed on the "enemies of Afghanistan" - a broad term that most often refers to extremist Taliban insurgents.

However a Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, said by telephone his group would "never do such a cowardly thing against girls and children".

The conservative Islamic 1996-2001 Taliban regime stopped girls from going to school. The education sector has since become among the main targets of a wave of unrest linked to an insurgency led by the hardliners.

This year around 115 schools have been set on fire, bombed or bulldozed in attacks education ministry spokesman Hamed Elmi blamed on "the opposition".

About 120 people in the education sector have been killed in attacks, he said.

Security fears have caused more than 640 schools to close, most of them in volatile districts in the south and east of the country, Elmi said.

Somalia+Nuns=Bad Mixture

Hopefully these nuns will fare better than Sister Leonella (pictured above), who was murdered by being shot in the back two years earlier, also in Somalia, due to "anger" at the Pope's remarks. More on this story.

"Kidnapped nuns safe - Kenya," from News24, November 15 :

Isiolo - Two Italian nuns kidnapped by Somali gunmen on the Kenyan border this week are still in Somalia, but are safe and elders from both nations are negotiating their release, Kenya said on Saturday.

Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Olivero, 60, were abducted on Monday by scores of attackers who stormed the small town of El Wak, firing wildly and launching a rocket at a Kenyan police post before escaping across the border in hijacked cars.

"Elders from our country and Somalia have managed to identify the place where the nuns are being held," said Josephat Maingi, Kenya's North Eastern provincial commissioner.

"They are safe and we're making all efforts to secure their release."

He told Reuters no ransom demand had been made, and that the pair were being held more than 100km inside Somalia.

He did not elaborate, but denied Kenya was planning a military operation to rescue the two women.

"It is true we have deployed security personnel along the border, but that is just a normal security measure," he said.[...]

The kidnapping also underlined the risks in Somalia for humanitarian workers who have increasingly been targeted this year in kidnappings and killings usually blamed on Islamist insurgents, clan militias or criminal gangs.

Beware of guys like this roaming around the markets

Long-haired men with flowing beards -- indicative of the Taliban -- have reappeared in Peshawar, worrying locals and business owners of renewed threats, violence.

"Long-haired men reappear in Peshawar markets," by Daud Khattak for the Daily Times, November 15:

* People alarmed at presence of men in appearance typical of Taliban

PESHAWAR: Men with long hair and flowing beards have once again made their way to Peshawar and can be seen singly or in groups of twos and threes in the city markets.

The long-haired men, typical of the Taliban operating in the tribal agencies of Waziristan, Bajaur and Mohmand, had gone underground following the launching of the military operation against Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) of Mangal Bagh in late June this year.[...]

Though, the long-haired men did not issue threats to boutiques displaying mannequins, coffee shops playing music or internet cafes and CD shops, their presence has spread a wave a fear among the dwellers and shop owners who are already living in a state of peril because of the increasing incidents of violence and unabated kidnappings of businessmen, common citizens, NGO persons and foreign diplomats.

In the month of June, groups of such people from Bara would visit markets and distribute warning letters to shop owners or issue them direct threats to stop playing music or cable TV and avoid displaying photographs of actresses or women models in their shops.

However, the limited scale operation in Bara suppressed the trend and the inhabitants and businessmen of the walled city took a sigh of relief, though for a temporary period.

But the recent reappearance of the Taliban-styled men, now from Mohmand and Khyber, has once again disturbed the already harassed people.

Owner of a boutique dealing in women’s garments and cosmetics, who wished not to be named, said the ratio of women customers had drastically reduced following the recent blast, the incidents of kidnapping and the reappearance of the Taliban-styled guys in the markets.

Mohammad Shoib, a government employee, told Daily Times that he accompanied his children to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon.

“This is a tough routine, but I have no other option,” he said. Shoib added that he used to send his children to school with a rickshaw wala, but the increasing incidents of kidnapping and lawlessness forced him to accompany his children from home to school and vice versa.

However, he was also quick to clarify that the Pakistani government has been “extraordinarily helpful” -- except, of course, when forewarning al-Qaeda of US strikes. Friend and Ally Update:

"Every major terror threat involves Pakistan: CIA," by Anwar Iqbal for the Dawn, November 15 :

WASHINGTON, Nov 14: CIA director Michael Hayden has warned that every major terrorist threat confronting the world has ties to Pakistan.

In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Mr Hayden also claimed that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was hiding in Fata.

“Let me be very clear. Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas,” Mr Hayden told the Washington-based think-tank.

The CIA director, however, acknowledged that Bin Laden was isolated from the day-to-day operations of Al Qaeda, although the organisation was still the greatest threat to the US.

“If there is a major strike on this country (the US), it will bear the fingerprints of Al Qaeda,” he warned.[...]

After depicting Pakistan as the hub of all major terrorist activities in the world, the CIA chief also conceded that Pakistan faced a complex situation.

“While the problem looks easy from thousands of miles away, it’s extremely difficult up close because of the tribal issues,” he said.

The CIA chief said he believed the Pakistani government had been “extraordinarily helpful” in responding to this challenge. Their plan, which they started to implement in 2006, to slowly expand their reach over the Fata would have been wise and far-reaching were it not for the extreme urgency of the threat, he added.

“We’ve killed and captured more top Al Qaeda operatives with the support of the Pakistani security forces than anywhere else in the world. What remains unclear is what the end game is,” he added.

According to him, Al Qaeda was chased out of Yemen in the 1990s only to reconstitute in Afghanistan. It was run out of Afghanistan in 2001, only to disperse, setting up a rump headquarters in Pakistan and declare Iraq the “central front” of its effort.

“Where, then, does it stop? Or is this simply a case of perpetual penalty kicks?” he asked...

When will we get Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist stations dedicated to offering the world a "better understanding" of their principles -- you know, to clear the air? Oh, never mind: those religions are not perpetually misunderstood.

"New Muslim TV channel to be launched in SA," by Suthentira Govender for the Times, November 15:

An international Islamic-focused satellite TV channel that aims to give non-Muslims a better understanding of the faith will be launched in South Africa early next year.

The UK-based Islam Channel, which beams to European, Middle Eastern and north African