March 2009 Archives

Over the years many, many people have sent in articles stating that the Qur'an actually promises the Land of Israel to the Jews, and that therefore the claims of Hamas and Hizballah et al are illegitimate on Islamic grounds. It is a comforting message that Islamic spokesmen such as Khaleel Mohammed have taken to Jewish audiences all over, reinforcing in them the idea that the Islamic jihad imperative against Israel is simply the province of a Tiny Minority of Extremists™ among Muslims, and that the voices of reason and moderation -- and Qur'anic authenticity -- will eventually prevail in the Islamic world.

The only problem with this is that it isn't true, and is based on a partial and highly misleading reading of the Qur'an. It sounds great, it makes people feel better, but what good is that if it is based on falsehood? And what could be the goal of Muslim spokesmen who promote this perspective even though they know full well the totality of the Qur'an's teaching on the Jews?

Here is the latest example of this wishful thinking and false hope: "What the Koran says about the land of Israel," by Simon Rocker in The Jewish Chronicle, March 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

According to the Hamas charter, Palestine is an Islamic endowment “for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection” which no one may renounce. The Arab-Israeli conflict is seen as not just a political dispute but an implacably religious one.

But there are Muslim scholars who will tell you that this claim has no basis in the Koran: not only that, but the foundation text of Islam, in fact, recognises the special link between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. “You will find very clearly,” says Sheikh Dr Muhammad Al-Husseini, “that the traditional commentators from the eighth and ninth century onwards have uniformly interpreted the Koran to say explicitly that Eretz Yisrael has been given by God to the Jewish people as a perpetual convenant [sic]. There is no Islamic counterclaim to the Land anywhere in the traditional corpus of commentary.”

Indeed, they have so interpreted the Qur'an. Unfortunately, that is not all the Qur'an has to say about the Jewish people.

Dr Al-Husseini is a British imam who teaches a course on the Koran as part of interfaith studies at the Leo Baeck College, the Progressive rabbinic college in Finchley, north London. One of the texts he has taught is the following verse in the Koran (5:21), “O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has decreed for you, and turn back on your heels otherwise you will be overturned as losers.”

He examines this passage through the eyes of one classic commentator of the Koran, Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838-923), who says the remark is “a narrative from God… concerning the saying of Moses… to his community from among the children of Israel and his order to them according to the order of God to him, ordering them to enter the holy land.”

Al-Tabari, Dr Al-Husseni [sic] says, is “our Rashi”, the founder of tafsir, “the science of exegesis” — the Arabic word is similar to pesher, Hebrew for interpretation. “One of the key rules of Islamic exegesis by which Islamic scholarship is bound is that the authority to interpret lies in the hands of the Prophet and of the Prophets’ Companions alone,” he says, “Nobody can go to the text and just freely interpret the text for their own purposes. This is really important… because if the Prophet, or one of his Companions, has given an interpretation, then we are bound by it.”

Just as you find in the Talmud that one rabbi quotes a saying in the name of one of his teachers, so al-Tabari will cite the interpretations of earlier, oral commentators in a chain going back to one of the Prophet Muhammad’s Companions, the ultimate source of authority for that interpretation....

Al-Tabari is not unique in this. Another venerable and respected Muslim commentator on the Qur'an, Ibn Kathir, says in his interpretation of Qur'an 5:21 that the Jews "were the best among the people of their time....Allah states next that Musa [Moses] encouraged the Children of Israel to perform Jihad and enter Jerusalem, which was under their control during the time of their father Ya`qub [Jacob]. Ya`qub and his children later moved with his children and household to Egypt during the time of Prophet Yusuf [Joseph]. His offspring remained in Egypt until their exodus with Musa. They found a mighty, strong people in Jerusalem who had previously taken it over. Musa, Allah's Messenger, ordered the Children of Israel to enter Jerusalem and fight their enemy, and he promised them victory and triumph over the mighty people if they did so."

However, that is not the end of the story. Ibn Kathir then says that the Jews "declined, rebelled and defied his order and were punished for forty years by being lost, wandering in the land uncertain of where they should go. This was their punishment for defying Allah's command." In contrast, "The Muslim Ummah [community] is more respected and honored before Allah, and has a more perfect legislative code and system of life, it has the most honorable Prophet, the larger kingdom, more provisions, wealth and children, a larger domain and more lasting glory than the Children of Israel."

And the idea that the "glory" of the Children of Israel was not "lasting" is the key to seeing why the exegesis of the Qur'an that Al-Husseini is pushing forward here is partial and incomplete. He quotes Al-Tabari saying that Allah wanted the Children of Israel to enter the Holy Land, but stops there, explaining none of the rest of what the Qur'an says about them. But Al-Husseini goes on to say that this promise is lasting, basing his argument not on any Qur'an verse, but on the nature of the Qur'an itself as understood in traditional Islamic theology:

“It was never the case during the early period of Islam…that there was any kind of sacerdotal attachment to Jerusalem as a territorial claim. Jerusalem is holy but Mount Sinai is more holy. Sinai is mentioned far more often, and Jerusalem isn’t actually mentioned by name.” (Jerusalem is alluded to in the phrase “the further mosque”).

Al-Tabari’s commentary also notes that the word “decreed” — kataba in Arabic, related to katav, “written”, in Hebrew — has the connotations of “ordered”: in other words, settling the land was regarded as a mitzvah for the children of Israel. Al-Tabari also observes that the decree is confirmed in al-lawh al-mahfuz, the eternally preserved tablet” — a reference to the Islamic idea that in heaven exists a sacred blueprint from which the Muslim, Christian and Jewish scriptures emanate, hence the covenant with the Jewish people over Israel is everlasting.

In reality, Islamic tradition teaches that the Christian and Jewish scriptures have been corrupted, and only the Qur'an is a faithful copy of the eternal and heavenly book. In any case, it is all very well to say that the Qur'an is eternal, but that doesn't in the least mean that the command for the Jewish people to possess the Holy Land is likewise understood as eternal by mainstream Muslim exegetes. There is, as we shall see, too much more that the Qur'an says about the Jews for that to be the case.

It would be nice if it were true that the Qur'an teaches that Allah gave the Land of Israel to the Jews, but one might wonder in that case why the Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia manifests such hostility to Israel. Are Al-Husseini, Khaleel Mohammed and Sheikh Palazzi the only Muslims who have ever noticed that Allah actually wants the Jews to possess the Land of Israel?

And if Al-Husseini really believes this, why does he support a two-state solution? What claim can the Palestinians make to this land that he apparently believes was promised to another people?

Dr Al-Husseini— who stresses his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — points out that other contemporary Muslim scholars draw attention to this tradition, such as Professor Khaleel Mohammed in San Diego and Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi in Rome.

About Khaleel Mohammed, see here and here. And, based on the experiences I have had with him, it seems to me that Palazzi is cut from the same cloth.

Anyway, Al-Husseini goes on to suggest that the Muslims who oppose his perspective have no Qur'anic case:

But he also observes that many Muslims are unfamiliar with al-Tabari’s work because it is mostly untranslated and accessible only to an educated elite who understand Arabic. By contrast, the teachings of 20th-century radicals linked to political groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood are often widely available in English. Since the militants cannot contradict the Koranic precedent for Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel, they adopt another tactic, Dr Al-Husseini says: they argue that Jews are a wicked people who “must be punished” — hence the spread of antisemitism within the Muslim world. “But no fundamentalist, no matter how hard they try,” he says, “can overrule the existing tradition to say there is, in fact, an Islamic counterclaim to Eretz Yisrael.”...

Actually, the Qur'an says that the Jews who reject Muhammad as a prophet are accursed of Allah. One verse scolds them for rejecting the Qur'an, even though it (in the Muslim view) confirmed the Torah: "And when there comes to them a Book from Allah, confirming what is with them, although from of old they had prayed for victory against those without Faith, when there comes to them that which they (should) have recognised, they refuse to believe in it but the curse of Allah is on those without Faith" (2:89).

Another passage tells the Muslims that they are the best of the world's people, in contrast to the People of the Book (primarily Jews and Christians), most of whom have rebelled from Allah and incurred his curse: "Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors. They will do you no harm, barring a trifling annoyance; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs, and no help shall they get. Shame is pitched over them (like a tent) wherever they are found, except when under a covenant (of protection) from Allah and from men; they draw on themselves wrath from Allah, and pitched over them is (the tent of) destitution. This because they rejected the Signs of Allah, and slew the prophets in defiance of right; this because they rebelled and transgressed beyond bounds" (3:110-112).

So the Jews and Christians who do not believe in Muhammad will find "shame" in this life "wherever they are found" -- unless they're "under a covenant" from Allah. This most likely refers to the covenant of the dhimma, the contract of protection under which Jews and Christians live as subject peoples under the rule of Islamic law. However, even if one understands it to refer to the covenant that Allah made with the Jews to give them the Land of Israel, the Qur'an also says that they broke their covenant with Allah:

"And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished. Thou wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few of them. But bear with them and pardon them. Lo! Allah loveth the kindly" (5:13).

Being thus accursed according to the Qur'an, the Jews are not the legitimate inheritors of the promise made in Qur'an 5:21. The ones who are the inheritors of that promise are those who have remained faithful to Allah (i.e., the Muslims), not those whom he has accursed (i.e., the Jews).

This is why you never hear mainstream Muslim voices or prominent Muslim leaders ever invoking Qur'an 5:21 to argue that Muslims ought not to be waging jihad against Israel. This is simply not a mainstream view, or one that anyone who is actually familiar with the totality of the Qur'an would ever advance. It gives Jews and all supporters of Israel hope, yes. But I would not give you false hope.

ADDENDUM: Andrew Bostom kindly sends me this on how Al-Husseini has misrepresented Al-Tabari:

For example, in his commentary on 5:82, Tabari writes,

In my opinion, [the Christians] are not like the Jews who always scheme in order to murder the emissaries and the prophets, and who oppose God in his positive and negative commandments, and who corrupt His scripture which He revealed in His books.

Tabari’s classical interpretations of Koran 5:82 and 2:61, as well as his discussion of the related verse 9:29 mandating the Jews payment of the jizya (Koranic poll-tax), represent both antisemitic and more general anti-dhimmi views that became, and remain, intrinsic to Islam to this day. Here is Tabari’s discussion of 2:61 and its relationship to verse 9:29, which emphasizes the purposely debasing nature of the Koranic poll tax:

…“abasement and poverty were imposed and laid down upon them”, as when someone says “the imam imposed the poll tax (jizya)…on non-Muslim subjects”, or “The man imposed land tax on his slave”, meaning thereby that he obliged him [to pay] it…God commanded His believing servants not to give them [i.e., non-Muslim] security—as long as they continued to disbelieve in Him and his Messenger—unless they paid the poll tax to them; God said: cites (Koran 9:29)...

The dhimmi's [non-Muslim tributary’s] posture during the collection of the jizya- “[should be lowering themselves] by walking on their hands, …reluctantly… His words “and abasement and poverty were imposed upon them”, ‘These are the Jews of the Children of Israel’. ..‘Are they the Copts of Egypt?’…“What have the Copts of Egypt to do with this? No, by God, they are not; but they are the Jews, the Children of Israel.…By “and slain the prophets unrightfully” He means that they used to kill the Messengers of God without God’s leave, denying their messages and rejecting their prophethood.

What could go wrong? Surely the CIA will thoroughly vet prospective spies for adherence to the doctrines of jihad and Islamic supremacism -- as well as the old adage of Muhammad, "war is deceit" -- won't they?

One may hope that they will, but certainly it would be more reassuring in this regard if any agency in official Washington had ever shown any awareness that those doctrines even exist, much less any awareness of the implications of their existence.

"CIA launches recruitment drive on internet and TV," by Tim Reid in the Times Online, March 31 (thanks to Oao):

The CIA is attempting to recruit more spies by advertising on the internet, radio and television, and by holding meetings with American Muslims to make up a severe shortage of Arabic speakers....

Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, will meet Muslim groups in cities such as Detroit to spearhead personally the new drive to recruit Arabic speakers. He recently lamented the fact that only 13 per cent of CIA officers speak a foreign language, and just 22 per cent come from minorities.

"In order to accomplish our vital intelligence mission we want to market our employment opportunities to speakers of Arabic, Russian, Korean, Pashtu and Urdu," George Little, a CIA spokesman, told The Times....

Earlier this month Scott White, third in command at the CIA, held meetings with Arab-American and Chaldean-American representatives in Detroit, which has heavily populated American Muslim suburbs. He told the groups that he would bring Mr Panetta to a future meeting....

It's just a beard. What's the big deal? Justice Markandeya Katju sees the larger issues involved. If only we had a judge this far-seeing and courageous in the United States.

"SC rejects Muslim's plea to sport beard, says no 'Talibanisation of India,'" from the Times of India, March 30 (thanks to all who sent this in):

NEW DELHI: Rejecting the plea of a Muslim student that he should be permitted to sport beard in his convent school, the Supreme Court on Monday observed secularism cannot be overstretched and that "Talibanisation" of the country cannot be permitted.

"We don't want to have talibans in the country. Tommorow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa, can we allow it," Justice Markandeya Katju speaking for a bench headed by Justice Raveendran observed.

Asserting that he was a secularist to the core, Justice Katju however said religious beliefs cannot be overstretched.

"I am secularist. We should strike a balance between rights and personal beliefs. We cannot overstretch secularism," the judge known for his incisive remarks said.

Justice Katju passed the obsesrvation while dismsissing the petition of the student. Mohammad Salim of Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School, a government-recognised minority institution in Madhya Pradesh, has sought quashing of the school regulation requiring students to be clean-shaven.

Challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court verdict that had earlier dismissed his plea, Salim submitted that every citizen was entitled to follow his religious principles and that no one should restrain him from doing so in a secular country like India.

Salim's counsel Justice (retd) B A Khan argued before the bench that sporting beard was an indispensable part of Islam.

But Justice Katju was apparently not impressed with the argument and quipped "But you (Khan) don't sport a beard?" the judge asked the counsel....

Whoops!

The court further said if the student was not interested in following the rules then he has the option of joining some other institution.

"You can join some other institution if you do not want to observe the rules. But you can't ask the school to change the rules for you," Justice Katju observed....

Please move to the United States, Justice Katju!

He also was accused of aiding terrorist-charities and repeatedly meeting with Osama bin Laden. All rubbish, insists his lawyer; as for his meetings with bin Laden, well, they were all merely "chance encounters."

"U.S. Decides to Release Detainee at Guantánamo," by William Glaberson for the New York Times, March 31:

The Justice Department announced Monday that the administration had decided to release a detainee at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, a Yemeni doctor who the Bush administration once claimed had taken part in an anthrax program of Al Qaeda.

The government had backed away from the anthrax accusations but had continued to hold the detainee, Dr. Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, asserting that he had worked for a charity that had terrorist ties and that he had met with Osama bin Laden.

The decision to release Dr. Batarfi came in the third case the Obama administration has reviewed under new procedures the president put in place to analyze the cases of military detainees in preparation for closing the Guantánamo prison in Cuba.[...]

Captured in Afghanistan in 2002, Dr. Batarfi has been detained for nearly seven years. The Justice Department did not say whether Dr. Batarfi, 38, who once practiced medicine in Afghanistan, would be freed, monitored or prosecuted if another country agreed to accept him.

His lawyer, William J. Murphy of Baltimore, said that under an agreement the court case could be reopened if his client objected to the conditions of his release. Mr. Murphy said that the meetings with Mr. bin Laden had been chance encounters and that the Justice Department decision had vindicated his client...

Once a hijacker -- of planes, not religions -- apparently always a hijacker. "Al-Qaeda terrorist prisoners plotted to escape in hijacked helicopter," from the Telegraph, March 31:

Al-Qaeda terrorists in a British jail were caught planning to escape in a hijacked helicopter.

Accomplices on the outside were to hire the helicopter for "business" then force the pilot to land in prison at gunpoint.

Nine Muslim inmates plotted to kidnap the jail imam during prayers with weapons hidden in the prison mosque.

According to the plan they would then move to a sports field using the imam as a shield and be picked up by the helicopter.

Wardens at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, acting on a tip-off, went to the plotters' cells hours before the escape attempt was due to start.

The nine, including convicted terrorists, will now be transferred to other jails.

A source told the Sun: "This would have been one of the most damaging escapes ever. The intelligence was very strong and from a good source. It had to be acted on immediately.

"It involved some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists in jail, all of whom are a massive threat. It had been planned for months and the use of a helicopter shows it was sophisticated."

The prison holds notorious terrorists like Omar Khyam who plotted to blow up Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent.

Security sources said the jail imam was innocent.

The source added: "The imam is a respected figure for his ability to embrace all faiths.

"But that makes him a target for the extremists in this jail who want to convert Muslims to their warped views."

A spokesman for the Justice Department confirmed a possible plot had been uncovered on Friday. He said the Prison Service was investigating.

Reasonable accommodation or cultural acquiescence? "Now fire service introduces hijab headscarves for Muslim workers," by Jaya Narain for the Daily Mail, March 31:

Pop into the firestation and the chances are there'd be a group of reassuringly burly men in there waiting for the call out, with uniforms and firefighting suits tailored for their use alone.

The one or two women among them would have to make do with ill-fitting adaptations of the men's outfits while the handful of Muslim women in the service would be wearing their own head scarfs.

But, with the fire service anxious to attract recruits of all sexes and backgrounds, it was decided that something had to be done.

So yesterday the results were uneveiled, including full-length skirts, hijab headscarfs and long- sleeved shirts for Muslim women recruits.

The hope is that the uniforms, designed for wearing round the station and for outings such as school trips, will be smarter and better fitting for every firefighter - even the men.[...]

Jagtar Singh, spokesman for the Asian Fire Service Association, said: 'We are pleased to note that the fire service is now taking seriously the issues of culture and religious belief when purchasing corporate and protective clothing for firefighters.'

It will be forever ignored or denied by those who insist that Islam is a Religion of Peace, but in reality there is no Misunderstanding of Islam going on here. Every provision of this law as stated in this article, including the rule that women cannot refuse sex to their husbands at any time or for any reason, is part of traditional Islamic law. And so this new law is yet another indication of how the overtures to the Taliban from official Washington are out of focus. Will the U.S. stand up for these women and defend them? Absolutely not, because they are being victimized by Sharia, to which Washington has no apparent objection, and because they are not being blown up in terrorist attacks. The passing of a law in a non-violent manner -- what's the problem? It's democracy at work!

"Hamid Karzai signs law 'legalising rape in marriage,'" by Ben Farmer in the Telegraph, March 31 (thanks to Leal):

President Hamid Karzai has signed a law the UN says legalises rape in marriage and prevents women from leaving the house without permission.

The law, which has not been publicly released, is believed to state women can only seek work, education or doctor's appointments with their husband's permission.

Only fathers and grandfathers are granted custody of children under the law, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

Opponents of the legislation governing the personal lives of Afghanistan's Shia minority have said it is "worse than during the Taliban".

Mr Karzai has been accused of electioneering at the expense of women's rights by signing the law to appeal to crucial Shia swing voters in this year's presidential poll.

While the Afghan constitution guarantees equal rights for women, it also allows the Shia community, thought to represent 10 per cent of the population, the right to settle family law cases according to Shia law.

The Shiite Personal Status Law contains provisions on marriage, divorce, inheritance, rights of movement and bankruptcy.

The bill passed both houses of the Afghan parliament, but was so contentious that the United Nations and women's rights campaigners have so far been unable to see a copy of the approved bill....

Long ago at Jihad Watch I posted about the destruction, through Islam-inspired vandalism, of statuary both in churches in Northern France and in Rome, in the Piazza del Popolo. Remember: statues are banned in Islam. Why? Because a famous hadith has Muhammad saying that he would not enter a house that has dogs and statutes in it. Why should this be? If you are creating, delineating, the elements of a fighting faith that is cobbled together from elements -- stories, proper names of important personages -- found in the two prior monotheisms your followers first must deal with, you do not want to offer your own faith as the "new, improved" version of what already exists (as someone today, seeking market share, would do), but as the venerable, true version that always was, but was incorrectly received and perceived by the "ungrateful" ones -- the Jews and the Christians.

And then you also want to distinguish your own faith from those corrupted versions of the genuine article. The ban on statuary, and on depictions of living creatures, no doubt owes something to Judaism -- but unlike the case with Jews, the Muslims did not merely not produce such things, but took great delight in vandalizing and destroying the statuary and portraiture of others. See what happened to Constantinople, once as full of frescoes as Ravenna, or the Coptic churches of Cairo, or all the ruined artistic riches of North Africa and the Middle East.

So apparently, if they are willing to abandon violence and pursue their goal of implementing Islamic law by other means, that is just fine with her. Here is yet another demonstration of the danger of misdiagnosis of the global jihad threat: the problem is not the means the Taliban use, the problem is their goal. The Taliban are not bad because they are violent -- after all, so are the forces that oppose them. However, as far as the President and the Secretary of State are concerned, that is the only problem with them. If they try to accomplish their goals at the ballot box rather than with guns and bombs, Obama and Clinton would welcome them as partners. The fact that the Taliban want to impose a law upon Afghanistan that would subjugate women and non-Muslims as inferiors, denied equality of rights with Muslim men, and extinguish freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, means nothing to them.

And why should it? Karzai's Afghanistan is already a Sharia state, according to the Afghan Constitution.

"US backs reconciliation with non-violent Taliban," from AFP, March 31 (thanks to JE):

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday backed Afghanistan's plans to hold reconciliation talks with members of the Taliban or past Al-Qaeda supporters who reject violence.

"We must ... support efforts by the government of Afghanistan to separate the extremists of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban from those who joined their ranks not out of conviction, but out of desperation," she said.

"They should be offered an honourable form of reconciliation and reintegration into a peaceful society, if they are willing to abandon violence, break with Al-Qaeda, and support the constitution."...

Why not? The Afghan Constitution declares that Sharia is the highest law of the land.

Mehsud: Not the "moderate Taliban"

I'm guessing that Mehsud is not one of the vaunted "moderate Taliban" with whom Obama wants to chat. In any case, he has issued such threats before.

"Taliban promises attack on Washington that will 'amaze' the world after Pakistan police massacre," from the Daily Mail, March 31 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The top Taliban commander in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for an attack on a police academy that left 18 dead after an eight-hour bloodbath.

And Baitullah Mehsud also promised an assault on Washington 'soon' - one he said will 'amaze' the world.

At least 18 people were dead last night after militants stormed the police academy in Pakistan.

The attackers, some wearing police uniforms, hurled grenades and seized dozens of hostages.

More than 100 people were wounded as military helicopters moved in to end the carnage.

Two gunmen blew themselves up as soldiers closed in but six were captured and were being interrogated.

Pakistani members of the Taliban were being blamed last night - and Mehsud accepted that responsibility in a phone call to reporters today.

The U.S. recently announced a $5 million bounty on Mehsud's head.

Asked about it, he said he would be happy to 'embrace martrydom'....

Because it depicts Muhammad being dragged into hell by a demon.

Respect Europe's culture and history? Pah! It is all worthless trash, jahiliyya! Eurabia Alert: "Corridors of Power in Milan, Italy: Bad Manners, Bad Intentions and More," by Roland Flamini in World Politics Review, March 27 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

ISLAMIC PROTEST -- Visitors to the magnificent church of St. Petronio in Bologna are now searched by Italian police before entering because in addition to protests by Muslims offended by a depiction of Mohammed in a 14th-century fresco, there have been unsuccessful attempts to blow the painting up.

The painting of the Last Judgement, by the Renaissance artist Giovanni di Modena, shows a devil dragging the prostrate, naked body of Mohammed into hell as a heretic. Against a background of failed crusades in the Holy Land, the Catholic Church in the 14th century had no taste for religious coexistence. Now it's militant Islam that is on the offensive: sources in Bologna say security forces have stopped at least two attempts to sabotage the painting by Islamic extremists.

Here is an excerpt from part 2 of the Investigative Project's illuminating expose of the slick Muslim spokesman Mahdi Bray, "Mahdi Bray: Voting With Conviction: An IPT Investigation," from IPT News, March 27 (thanks to Axel):

Radical Defender

Beyond his criminal history and the voter registration issues, Bray has a history of defending accused terrorist supporters, and of offering misleading statements about his organization's history and his own actions.

He traveled repeatedly to Dallas in support of defendants in the Hamas-support case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). After a 2007 trial ended in a hung jury, the five defendants were convicted following a retrial in November on 108 counts.

Bray also served as a character witness at a bond hearing for Sami Al-Arian, who was accused of providing support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). After an initial trial in 2005 ended with a mix of acquittals and a deadlocked jury on other counts, Al-Arian pled guilty in April 2006 to conspiring to provide goods or services to the PIJ.

Bray similarly has defended Ali Al-Timimi, who is serving a life sentence for soliciting others to wage war against the United States and attempting to contribute services to the Taliban. The conviction, Bray said, "bodes ill" for the First Amendment.

Later this month, he will speak at a fundraiser for the Muslim Link newspaper with British Member of Parliament George Galloway. Galloway is fresh off a trip to Gaza, where he gave 100 vehicles loaded with supplies and an unspecified amount of cash directly to Hamas officials.

Bray has made at least two trips to Cairo to stand in solidarity with Muslim Brotherhood members facing military tribunals for membership in a banned organization. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan accompanied Bray on his second trip to Egypt to stand in solidarity with members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

After the IPT reported on the trip, Bray wrote an article in response, arguing his stop in Cairo was one among many and indicates his opposition to military tribunals more than support for the Brotherhood.

"The reality is that my trip had less to do with the Muslim Brotherhood than with my organization's opposition to the human rights violations of Egypt-an American ally and the second largest recipient U.S. foreign aid."

Federal prosecutors say MAS was "founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States." A telephone book described in testimony by a prosecution expert witness as listing Muslim Brotherhood members in the U.S. includes Ahmad Elkadi, Jamal Badawi, and Omar Soubani, MAS's three founding directors.

In 2004, the Chicago Tribune published an investigation on the Brotherhood in America, reporting that:

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.

Some wanted the Brotherhood to remain underground, while others thought a more public face would make the group more influential."

Despite those documented links, Bray insists MAS was "established in America, and we are not an overt or covert arm of the Muslim Brotherhood."

On the same web page where Bray acknowledges being a registered voter is a slide show under the heading "Mahdi Bray's Photos." It includes images of demonstrations and political events in the U.S. One frame features a picture of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by an Israeli bomb attack in 2004. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, created in the wake of the Palestinian Intifada in 1987.

There is much, much more. Read it all. And Part 1 is here.

Let the good times roll

Does this mean that Islamic jihadists worldwide will no longer try to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah" (Qur'an 8:60)? "Clinton: 'War On Terror' Phrase Won't Be Used," from NPR, March 30 (thanks to Benedict):

NPR.org, March 30, 2009 · Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the Obama administration has indeed abandoned the term "global war on terror."

Clinton says that while she hasn't seen any specific orders, the new administration in Washington simply isn't using the phrase.

The term was a rallying cry for President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the use of the term "global war on terror" is widely disliked overseas....

She said the absence of the "war on terror" language speaks for itself. Pundits have noted the absence, but top administration figures have had little to say on the subject.

An update on this story which speaks volumes about the priority of "human rights" in the constituent countries. Now, if there were some "defamation of religion" going on in Darfur, it might be quite a different story! "Arab leaders reject arrest warrant against Sudan's Bashir," from France24, March 30:

Arab leaders concluded their annual summit on Monday with a strong message of support for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Darfur.

"We stress our solidarity with Sudan and our rejection of the ICC decision against President Omar al-Bashir," said the Arab League’s secretary general, Amr Moussa, as he read out the final Doha declaration.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has enjoyed warm support from fellow Arab League leaders during the gathering in Qatar. Throughout the summit, delegates repeatedly denounced the arrest warrant issued on March 4 by the ICC over alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, whose country on Monday handed over the presidency of the annual Arab League summit to Qatar, echoed calls to support Bashir against the ICC.

"We are called upon today, not (just) to criticise the warrant (which) ... we all agree is politicised, but to reject it categorically," Assad said.

The Arab summit should "express absolute support for Sudan at this stage of the confrontation," the Syrian leader said in his address to the heads of states.

No shortage of food and water in Darfur, says Bashir

While attending heads of state did not openly approve Bashir’s role in Darfur, “everyone is against the precedent of indicting a sitting head of state,” explained FRANCE 24’s special correspondent François Picard, adding that it takes substantial efforts to impose international law “into uncharted territory”.

When or if Bashir steps down, would the Arab League be any more in favor of the indictment and arrest warrant?

Bashir is on his fourth trip abroad since the ICC issued its indictment.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who attended the summit opening despite the presence of Bashir, called on Khartoum to reverse its decision to expel 13 aid groups from war-battered Darfur, a measure taken in response to the ICC warrant.

"I urge the Sudanese authorities once again to reverse this decision," Ban told the meeting.

In open defiance of Ban Ki-Moon, Bashir replied that there was no shortage of food and water in Darfur....

Big fan of "transnational legal process"

On top of that, this Obama pick believes that "America's focus on the War on Terror [is] 'obsessive.'" And his list of countries that flagrantly disregard international law highlights North Korea, Iraq, and the U.S.A. -- which he collectively calls "the axis of disobedience."

"Obama's most perilous legal pick," by Meghan Clyne for the New York Post, March 30 (thanks to Doc Washburn):

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.

Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh.

President Obama has nominated Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. In that job, Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our country in such places as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

It's a job where you want a strong defender of America's sovereignty. But that's not Koh. He's a fan of "transnational legal process," arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.

What would this look like in a practical sense? Well, California voters have overruled their courts, which had imposed same-sex marriage on the state. Koh would like to see such matters go up the chain through federal courts -- which, in turn, should look to the rest of the world. If Canada, the European Human Rights Commission and the United Nations all say gay marriage should be legal -- well, then, it should be legal in California too, regardless of what the state's voters and elected representatives might say.

He even believes judges should use this "logic" to strike down the death penalty, which is clearly permitted in the US Constitution.

The primacy of international legal "norms" applies even to treaties we reject. For example, Koh believes that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- a problematic document that we haven't ratified -- should dictate the age at which individual US states can execute criminals. Got that? On issues ranging from affirmative action to the interrogation of terrorists, what the rest of the world says, goes.

Including, apparently, the world of radical imams. A New York lawyer, Steven Stein, says that, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."

A spokeswoman for Koh said she couldn't confirm the incident, responding: "I had heard that some guy . . . had asked a question about sharia law, and that Dean Koh had said something about that while there are obvious differences among the many different legal systems, they also share some common legal concepts."

Score one for America's enemies and hostile international bureaucrats, zero for American democracy.

Koh has called America's focus on the War on Terror "obsessive." In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law -- "most prominently, North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America," which he branded "the axis of disobedience.[...]

Even though he's up for a State Department job, Koh is a key test case in the "judicial wars." If he makes it through (which he will if he gets even a single GOP vote) the message to the Obama team will be: You can pick 'em as radical as you like.

"King of kings of Africa and the imam (leader) of Muslims"

After calling the Saudi king a "British product and American ally," and a "liar," the Libyan leader stormed out and went sightseeing at a local museum. "Libya's Gadhafi storms out of Arab summit in Qatar," from the Times of India, March 30:

DOHA: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi stormed out of an Arab summit on Monday after denouncing the Saudi king for his long ties to the West.

Gadhafi disrupted the opening Arab League session in Qatar by taking a microphone and criticising Saudi's King Abdullah, calling him a "British product and American ally".

Gadhafi has harboured a grudge against Abdullah since exchanging harsh words during a summit in early 2003 shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq.

"Now after six years, it has proved that you were the liar," Gadhafi said, adding that he now considered their "problem" over and was ready to reconcile.

But when the emir of Qatar tried to quiet Gadhafi, the Libyan leader insisted on speaking to the summit.

"I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam (leader) of Muslims and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level," Gadhafi said before getting up and walking out of the hall.

A Libyan delegate said Gadhafi went to the Islamic museum in Doha for a tour.

The Libyan leader is known for his unpredictable behaviour and it's not clear whether he will rejoin the two-day summit.

Now, when will Anjem Choudary also be arrested and tried for inciting jihad? "Leaflet-jihad update. "Woman sentenced for jihad leaflet," from the BBC, March 30:

A woman who wrote a leaflet encouraging people to carry out jihad, or holy war, has been sentenced to a community order at Manchester Crown Court.

Shella Roma, 29, of Oldham, had pleaded guilty to dissemination of a terrorist publication, and received a three-year order, with supervision for two years.

Roma was arrested after a photocopy shop employee was alarmed by a document she had produced, and alerted police.

The pamphlet contained an essay, "The Call", encouraging jihad.

The eight-page essay mentioned the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror, and repeatedly asked: "Will you go to Jihad (holy war)?"

It ended: "Jihad: the choice is yours."

The staff member at the business in Ashton-under-Lyne contacted police, who arrested Roma - a mother-of-one - on 31 January, 2008.

Some time back, I wrote a book review for The Mind of Jihad by Laurent Murawiec for the Weekly Standard. Soon thereafter, Mr. Murawiec wrote something of an angry rebuttal -- accusing me of having an "agenda" and "disfiguring" his book -- which was to be published in a forthcoming Weekly Standard issue. The editors were kind enough to have asked me to respond to his rebuttal, and I did. I just found out, however, that the Weekly Standard will not be publishing them. Therefore, as a courtesy to Mr. Murawiec, who may feel that he wasn't given the proper opportunity to vindicate himself, I am posting our exchange, for the record.

Laurent Murawiec wrote:

In his review of my book The Mind of Islam (“Consider the Source,” January 26, 2009), Raymond Ibrahim made several factually erroneous points. Since they command his evaluation of the book, let me set them straight.

Far from not “[being] interested in examining Islam's own peculiar Weltanschauung” as the source of radical Islam, I devoted three chapters out of seven to just that (1, 3 and 4). I never argued that radical Islam was “heir” to Medieval European Millenarians, rather that there was a structural homology between their belief-structures. Gnosticism is not a Christian monopoly but has been integral to Islam throughout its entire history, rather than an epithet I arbitrarily affixed to Islam.

Further, the reviewer mixes up Europe’s “Dark Ages” with the Middle Ages, which he bizarrely calls “lawless.” Today’s jihadis do not “live in the modern era”, Ibrahim to the contrary: their hands use modern tools while their minds live in the 7th century – as he himself insists. Today’s Islamic world is not “much more prosperous and structured than the Dark Ages in Europe, which directly influenced the savagery of the Millenarians.” Prosperous? Structured?

Millenarian violence had overabundant scriptural support, and it was vouched for by many frocked and defrocked priests, contrary to Ibrahim’s assertions. In the four main Sunni schools of law and in mainstream Shia, jihad is a conditioned commandment, not a “pillar of Islam.” Modern Jihad innovated in this, drawing upon selective sources, e.g. Ibn Taimiyya, or using the Kharijites as antecedents, whom I repeatedly mentioned without needing his injunctions to do so.

That Islam borrowed only Europe’s totalitarian ideologies that were compatible with itself is a point that I made repeatedly – contrary to what the review states. It is Mr. Ibrahim who adopts Maududi’s view of Muhammad as “a revolutionary,” a concept that has no meaning whatsoever in 7th century Arabia. I presented Maududi as he himself did, a would-be Mahdi, as much if not more than as a “Lenin.”

In short, Raymond Ibrahim’s review puts forward his own agenda at the price of disfiguring a book that he has only briefly scanned. I would have expected a more scrupulous treatment: disagree he may, misrepresent he should not.

Laurent Murawiec
Hudson Institute
Washington, D.C.

According to Laurent Murawiec, when I wrote he was not "interested in examining Islam's own peculiar Weltanschauung"—he omits the rest of that sentence, “as outlined by the Koran and hadith, articulated by the ulema, and codified in sharia law”—I was somehow being "factually erroneous." As evidence, he insists he devoted an entire three out of seven chapters to "just that." One would have thought a book titled "The Mind of Jihad" would have devoted seven out of seven chapters to "just that," since jihad is a strictly Islamic phenomenon. "Factually erroneous" should be reserved to when Murawiec laments that I did not credit him for noting that only totalitarian ideologies comported with Islam, when in fact I did.

Incidentally, those three "devoted-to-Islam" chapters—two of which are titled "The Gnostic Mahdi" and "Manichean Tribalism"—represent only one-third of the book. The other two-thirds deal primarily with European history and philosophy. One searches in vain for talk on the true origins of jihad (delineated in my review).

I highlighted, for instance, the importance of the Kharijites to understanding the jihad—to which Murawiec indignantly asserts, "I repeatedly mentioned [them] without needing his injunctions to do so." In fact, the word ”Kharijite(s)” appears on three pages. Conversely, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Marx, Trotsky, Obenhein, Seeckt, and Roy—men supposedly inextricable to understanding the “mind of jihad”— receive nearly 100 pages-worth of coverage.

But Murawiec's point is that "there was structural homology between their belief-structures." Indeed, that is the book's thesis: to make (sometimes strained, sometimes valid) connections between modern-day jihad(ists) and anyone and everything else. While an interesting (albeit purely academic) exercise, the blunt question that haunts the reader page-after-page is—"So what?"

As I agreed in my review, "It cannot be denied that parallels exist between Muslims and non-Muslims: Such is human nature, which reacts similarly to similar stimuli, irrespective of race or creed." But such connections—real or imagined—tell us little about that unique institution of jihad, and nothing about how Muslims understand it.

Murawiec writes: "Raymond Ibrahim's review puts forward his own agenda at the price of disfiguring a book that he has only briefly scanned." Aside from his otherwise flawed psychic assertion—in fact, I read his book cover-to-cover—I can assure him my only "agenda" is objectivity.

In short—and here we get to the root problem—any writer who claims to be explaining the "mind of jihad" (an admittedly bold task) had better do so, rather than further cloud the issue by making strained ties to peripheral subjects that he just so happens to be better acquainted with. Had Murawiec titled his book "The Mind of Insurgency: A Comparative Study," he would have received a review that would not now require my revisiting it.

Raymond Ibrahim
Middle East Forum
Philadelphia, PA

So says Chris Seiple in the reliably dhimmi Christian Science Monitor. "Chris Seiple is the president of the Institute for Global Engagement, a 'think tank with legs' that promotes sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide." Apparently promoting sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide involves tiptoeing around the volatile and easily offended, and ignoring and denying unpleasant truths. Great idea! Why didn't anyone think of it before?

"10 terms not to use with Muslims," by Chris Seiple in the Christian Science Monitor, March 28 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):

[...] As President Obama considers his first speech in a Muslim majority country (he visits Turkey April 6-7), and as the US national security establishment reviews its foreign policy and public diplomacy, I want to share the advice given to me from dear Muslim friends worldwide regarding words and concepts that are not useful in building relationships with them. Obviously, we are not going to throw out all of these terms, nor should we. But we do need to be very careful about how we use them, and in what context.

1. "The Clash of Civilizations." Invariably, this kind of discussion ends up with us as the good guy and them as the bad guy. There is no clash of civilizations, only a clash between those who are for civilization, and those who are against it. Civilization has many characteristics but two are foundational: 1) It has no place for those who encourage, invite, and/or commit the murder of innocent civilians; and 2) It is defined by institutions that protect and promote both the minority and the transparent rule of law.

The difficulty here is that there is no party in this conflict that encourages or invites the murder of innocent civilians. Islamic jihadists believe no non-Muslim is innocent. They also present themselves as the exponents of a superior civilization and speak openly about conquering the citadels of Western civilization. If we don't speak of a clash of civilizations, will they stop also?

Seiple is right in a certain sense: we need to have a searching and honest public discussion about civilizational values, concepts of human rights, and related issues that few realize are at stake in our defense against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. Pretending that everyone involved already shares these values will do nothing to stop those who do not share these values.

2. "Secular." The Muslim ear tends to hear "godless" with the pronunciation of this word. And a godless society is simply inconceivable to the vast majority of Muslims worldwide. Pluralism – which encourages those with (and those without) a God-based worldview to have a welcomed and equal place in the public square – is a much better word.

Here again: when Seiple speaks of "pluralism," will Muslims who believe that Islamic law is the only legitimate basis for society and governance suddenly see the virtue of non-establishment of religion, whereas they wouldn't if he spoke of "secularism"? Muslims in societies such as Egypt and Pakistan may welcome the proposition that those with "a God-based worldview" should "have a welcomed and equal place in the public square," but only as a step away from the current Western-influenced governments and a step toward full implementation of Sharia. So it is not enough to speak of the virtues of "pluralism" alone.

3. "Assimilation." This word suggests that the minority Muslim groups in North America and Europe need to look like the majority, Christian culture. Integration, on the other hand, suggests that all views, majority and minority, deserve equal respect as long as each is willing to be civil with one another amid the public square of a shared society.

All right. So we stop talking about assimilation -- who today talks about it anyway? -- and allow large numbers of Muslim immigrants into the country who believe that Islamic law is superior to American Constitutional law, and must ultimately supplant it. What will then be the outcome of our discarding of the concept of assimilation?

4. "Reformation." Muslims know quite well, and have an opinion about, the battle taking place within Islam and what it means to be an orthodox and devout Muslim. They don't need to be insulted by suggesting they follow the Christian example of Martin Luther. Instead, ask how Muslims understand ijtihad, or reinterpretation, within their faith traditions and cultural communities.

Ijtihad (اجتهاد) is the process of arriving at a decision on a point of Islamic law through study of the Qur'an and Sunnah. Most Muslims consider the gates of ijtihad to be closed -- that is, independent study of the Qur'an and Sunnah are discouraged, and Muslims are instead expected to adhere to the rulings of one of the established schools of jurisprudence (madhahib, مذاهب). The gate of ijtihad must be reopened if there is ever to be any genuine Islamic reform: "Therefore it is said that 'the door of ijtihad is closed' as of some nine hundred years, and since then the tendency of jurisprudence (fiqh) has been to produce only commentaries upon commentaries and marginalia."

That's from Cyril Glasse's New Encyclopedia of Islam. Cyril Glasse is a graduate of Columbia University and a practicing Muslim. Then there's this from Muslim-Canada.org: "Thus the schools of the four Imams remain intact after a thousand years have passed, and so the 'Ulama' recognize since the time of these Imams no Mujtahid of the first degree. Ibn Hanbal was the last....Since their Imam Qazi Khan died (A.H. 592), no one has been recognized by the Sunnis as a Mujtahid even of the third class."

A mujtahid is someone qualified to perform ijtihad. Ahmed ibn Hanbal died in 855 AD. Qazi Khan died in 1196. In other words, reviving ijtihad as a mechanism for genuine reform is not going to be easy. Seiple apparently thinks that by speaking about "ijtihad" rather than "reformation," the process itself can be encouraged. This view is simply naive.

5. "Jihadi." The jihad is an internal struggle first, a process of improving one's spiritual self-discipline and getting closer to God. The lesser jihad is external, validating "just war" when necessary. By calling the groups we are fighting "jihadis," we confirm their own – and the worldwide Muslim public's – perception that they are religious. They are not. They are terrorists, hirabists, who consistently violate the most fundamental teachings of the Holy Koran and mainstream Islamic scholars and imams.

A Shafi'i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians...until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh ‘Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only “provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)...while remaining in their ancestral religions.” ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

Of course, there is no caliph today, and hence the oft-repeated claim that Osama et al are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But they explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes "obligatory for everyone" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked. The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: 'Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until "the final descent of Jesus." After that, "nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus' descent" (o9.8).

That understanding of jihad is mainstream in Islam -- none of the other schools of Islamic jurisprudence contradict it in any important particular. So my question for Seiple is this: how is it that the foremost religious institution in Sunni Islam, and all the other schools of Islamic jurisprudence, teach doctrines that "violate the most fundamental teachings of the Holy Koran and mainstream Islamic scholars and imams"? Does he have anything at all to back up this statement? I doubt it.

6. "Moderate." This ubiquitous term is meant politically but can be received theologically. If someone called me a "moderate Christian," I would be deeply offended. I believe in an Absolute who also commands me to love my neighbor. Similarly, it is not an oxymoron to be a mainstream Muslim who believes in an Absolute. A robust and civil pluralism must make room for the devout of all faiths, and none.

Indeed. And those Muslims who are not moderate do not want to do anything with that "robust and civil pluralism" but destroy it.

7. "Interfaith." This term conjures up images of watered-down, lowest common denominator statements that avoid the tough issues and are consequently irrelevant. "Multifaith" suggests that we name our deep and irreconcilable theological differences in order to work across them for practical effect – according to the very best of our faith traditions, much of which are values we share.

I'm with Seiple 100% on this one. Enough of "interfaith dialogue" pursued by naive and ignorant Jews and Christians (like Seiple) who assume, as a matter of dogma, that Islam is a religion of peace and that violence in the name of Islam represents a twisting and hijacking of that faith. Let's have dialogue on an honest basis, with an honest acknowledgment of the Islamic doctrines of warfare and supremacism.

8. "Freedom." Unfortunately, "freedom," as expressed in American foreign policy, does not always seek to engage how the local community and culture understands it. Absent such an understanding, freedom can imply an unbound licentiousness. The balance between the freedom to something (liberty) and the freedom from something (security) is best understood in a conversation with the local context and, in particular, with the Muslims who live there. "Freedom" is best framed in the context of how they understand such things as peace, justice, honor, mercy, and compassion.

Yes, we must safeguard the freedom of Sharia-minded Muslims to institutionalize oppression of women and non-Muslims, in accord with the norms of Sharia.

9. "Religious Freedom." Sadly, this term too often conveys the perception that American foreign policy is only worried about the freedom of Protestant evangelicals to proselytize and convert, disrupting the local culture and indigenous Christians. Although not true, I have found it better to define religious freedom as the promotion of respect and reconciliation with the other at the intersection of culture and the rule of law – sensitive to the former and consistent with the latter.

"The subject peoples," i.e., the dhimmis, says that same manual of Islamic law that I cited above, must "pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)" and "are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar); are not greeted with ‘as-Salamu ‘alaykum’ [the traditional Muslim greeting, 'Peace be with you']; must keep to the side of the street; may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed; are forbidden to openly display wine or pork...recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals or feastdays; and are forbidden to build new churches." ('Umdat al-Salik, o11.3, 5).

Now that, to an Islamic supremacist, is religious freedom. Does that really promote "respect and reconciliation with the other"?

10. "Tolerance." Tolerance is not enough. Allowing for someone's existence, or behavior, doesn't build the necessary relationships of trust – across faiths and cultures – needed to tackle the complex and global challenges that our civilization faces. We need to be honest with and respect one another enough to name our differences and commonalities, according to the inherent dignity we each have as fellow creations of God called to walk together in peace and justice, mercy and compassion....

I'm all for honesty and mutual respect. And I don't think that lying to ourselves or anyone else has anything to do with either honesty or respect.

As modern, moderate Turkey (finally) begins taking a tougher stance against honor killings (it's apparently still serious about gaining entry into the EU), "honor suicides" have emerged: by not having to do the actual dirty work, men can now totally evade prison.

More on this story: "Women told: 'You have dishonoured your family, please kill yourself,'" by Ramita Navai for the Independent, March 27:

When Elif's father told her she had to kill herself in order to spare him from a prison sentence for her murder, she considered it long and hard. "I loved my father so much, I was ready to commit suicide for him even though I hadn't done anything wrong," the 18-year-old said. "But I just couldn't go through with it. I love life too much."

All Elif had done was simply decline the offer of an arranged marriage with an older man, telling her parents she wanted to continue her education. That act of disobedience was seen as bringing dishonour on her whole family – a crime punishable by death. "I managed to escape. When I was at school, a few girls I knew were killed by their families in the name of honour – one of them for simply receiving a text message from a boy," Elif said.

So-called "honour killings" in Turkey have reached record levels. According to government figures, there are more than 200 a year – half of all the murders committed in the country. Now, in a sinister twist, comes the emergence of "honour suicides". The growing phenomenon has been linked to reforms to Turkey's penal code in 2005. That introduced mandatory life sentences for honour killers, whereas in the past, killers could receive a reduced sentence claiming provocation. Soon after the law was passed, the numbers of female suicides started to rocket.

Coming to your neighborhood?

Why not? What could go wrong?

"Official: Mexico not in danger of collapse," by Pam Hess for AP, March 27 (thanks to LGF2):

[...] During his news conference, Blair also said the Obama administration is still wrestling with what to do with the remaining 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which the president has ordered closed.

Some of the detainees, deemed non-threatening, may be released into the United States as free men, Blair confirmed.

That would happen when they can't be returned to their home countries, because the governments either won't take them or the U.S. fears they will be abused or tortured. That is the case with 17 Uighers (WEE'-gurz), Chinese Muslim separatists who were cleared for release from the jail long ago. The U.S. can't find a country willing to take them, and it will not turn them over to China.

Blair said the former prisoners would have get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.

"We can't put them out on the street," he said....

The Pentagon claims more than 60 former Guantanamo inmates have been released by their home governments and are believed to be engaged in militant activities. It has not released a list of those former prisoners. Two of the top al-Qaida leaders in Yemen are former inmates, according to both al-Qaida and U.S. intelligence officials. And the Taliban's top operations officer in southern Afghanistan was released from Guantanamo in 2007, according to U.S. intelligence and military officials....

Note AP's skepticism about Gitmo recidivism: "the Pentagon claims..."

(Mr. Jihadi's Neighborhood photoshop above thanks to Pamela.)

The policy announced for Afghanistan and Pakistan depresses. It’s all about training the locals. It’s all about helping them. It’s all about giving them aid, and still more aid, from the depleted, practically cupboard-is-bare coffers of the Americans, and other Infidel taxpayers. Far from reflecting "new thinking," it is the mixture as before. It is the mixture, that is, that ignores the nature of Islam, the texts of Islam, the tenets and attitudes and atmospherics that naturally flow from those texts. Instead, those making policy (see, for example, my article "A Tribute to Bruce Riedel") are still believers that "prosperity" among Muslims will do wonders. But did the “prosperity” brought by oil wealth make Saudi Arabia, make Iran, make any Muslim country, less of a threat than it was before it possessed that oil wealth? Or doesn’t economic prosperity simply allow for the leisure time to devote to spreading the doctrine of, and perhaps directly participating in, Jihad?

Those who fashioned this policy, or who are continuing, rather, the Bush policy of bringing this “prosperity” and “unity” to fictions called “the Iraqi people” and “the Afghani people” and “the Pakistani people,” when each of these countries is riven by ethnic and sectarian divisions, refuse to realize that the task of making Muslim states "prosperous" through the lavishing of Western aid (and that includes military aid and training) will not bring prosperity. It will not remove the ethnic and sectarian divisions. Above all, it will do nothing to decrease hostility toward Infidels, for that is in the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sira, and no amount of aid can erase what remains, immutable, in the Qur’an, the “most authentic” of the Hadith, the Sira.

Fun time's over, boys and girls

Prince Nayef is "casting a shadow over the Kingdom's tentative reforms." Including those "modest" moves, such as the hiring of a female minister. If, in fact, he is known for being a "hardliner," one must ask: since things like Saudi textbooks under the so-called "reformist" king Abdullah still teach Muslim children that Christians, Jews, and others are the "hated enemy," what sort of "controversial" aspects will Nayef's reign usher in?

"Hardline Prince moves closer to Saudi Arabia's throne," Richard Spencer for the Telegraph, March 29 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

One of Saudi Arabia's most conservative Princes has moved closer towards the throne, casting a shadow over the Kingdom's tentative reforms.

Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the interior minister and a half-brother of King Abdullah, has assumed second place in the line of succession. His appointment as second deputy prime minister places him next in line after Crown Prince Sultan.

Because King Abdullah is about 84 and the Crown Prince is of the same vintage and in poor health, this makes Prince Nayef highly likely to succeed to the throne. He will take temporary charge of Saudi Arabia while the King attends the G20 summit in London and Crown Prince Sultan recovers from surgery in New York.

Prince Nayef, who at 75 is a relatively youthful member of the royal family's senior circle, is a deeply controversial figure. Shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11, he was sceptical about the involvement of any Saudis and publicly suggested that "Zionists" were responsible. But he adopted a tough line against al-Qaeda after the kingdom was rocked by a series of attacks in 2003 and 2004.

Prince Nayef's elevation has caused a rare public split in the royal family. Prince Talal, a noted reformist, asked the King for assurances about the succession. "I call on the royal court to clarify what is meant by this nomination and that it does not mean that he will become Crown Prince," said Prince Talal.

"The latest nomination of the second deputy prime minister will give the impression that he will automatically become Crown Prince."

The Saudi government is dominated by sons of the nation's founder, King Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud. The row over Prince Nayef shows the tension surrounding King Abdullah's gradual reforms. Among his more signficant steps has been the appointment of the first female minister and the sacking of the unpopular chief of religious police.

Prince Nayef, however, is from the other end of the spectrum. He opposes the King's modest changes, saying last week that he was against open elections for the Shura, or advisory council, and there was no reason to allow women to join. A diplomat said that Prince Nayef, who has been interior minister since 1974, could block future changes. "There is a lot of speculation that this is a reaction against the reforms. Perhaps his influence rises with his new position, but his influence has always been there," he said.

Closing Islamic schools and conducting house-to-house searches. The ChiComs, of course, are ruthless against dissent. Their regime is abhorrent in it authoritarianism and brutality, and certainly Western governments should not imitate it in that. At the same time, China is not hamstrung by politically correct niceties preventing it from even recognizing that Islam has a political character -- and one that threatens Chinese government and society. If the West could even go so far as to recognize that political Islam does indeed constitute a societal threat, a threat to Western free societies, a great deal would have been accomplished.

"China cracks down in Muslim west," by Alexa Olesen for AP, March 30 (thanks to The Selfish One):

BEIJING (AP) — An overseas rights activist said Monday that authorities in China's predominantly Muslim far west are closing unregistered Islamic schools and conducting house-to-house searches in a new security crackdown in the restive region.

The campaign under way for five weeks in the city of Hotan underscores Beijing's persisting concerns about separatist movements in its Central Asian border province of Xinjiang.

While anti-government protests and a security clampdown in Tibetan areas have grabbed attention over the past year, China has also been battling unrest in Xinjiang, with a flare-up in violence last year that killed 33 people. Like the Tibetans, many of Xinjiang's ethnic minority Uighurs have chafed under Beijing's rule and restrictions on the practice of religion....

A congress spokesman, Dilxat Raxit, said in an e-mail that armed police were making nighttime raids from house to house. At least seven religious schools have been shut and 39 people arrested so far, Raxit said.

The official Xinhua News Agency earlier this month reported that Hotan authorities had launched a campaign against "illegal religious activity" at the end of February and "had already achieved some initial success."

"Officials uncovered some illegal religious activities, seized a large number of illegal books, handwritten materials, computer discs, audio tapes and other propaganda materials as well as bullets, fuses, explosive and flammable materials, and other weaponry," it said.

A secretary with Hotan's Communist Party Propaganda Department on Monday denied that any religious schools were closed, people arrested or bullets, explosives and other materials seized. But he confirmed that some illegal religious activity has been halted and illegal books, writings, computer discs and audio tapes had been confiscated....

Read it all.

"The entire nation must be united in the fight aimed at uprooting extremism."

Vague language won't win the war. Politically, it is a useful term -- nobody likes "extremism." But as "moderation" is a uselessly relative construct from a strategic standpoint, "extremism" depends on one's definition of "moderation." Thus, even after this brazen attack, Pakistan is no closer to naming the enemy that is actively chipping away at its territory.

"Pakistani Church condemns attack in Lahore," by Qaiser Felix for Asia News, March 30:

Lahore (AsiaNews) - Pakistan's security forces have regained control of the police academy of Lahore, attacked this morning by a jihadist commando group. Television images have shown a group of policemen on the roof of the building pumping their fists and waving strips of cloth in a sign of victory. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church of Pakistan is condemning in no uncertain terms: Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, calls it a "very sad" action, and explains that "the question related to extremism in the country has not yet been confronted in an adequate manner."

In the first light of dawn a commando group opened fire on the Manawan Police Training Center, the police academy in the suburb of Lahore, capital of Punjab. The latest reports say there are 40 dead and 90 injured, but the number of victims is destined to rise over the next few hours.

"The government," Peter Jacob tells AsiaNews, "is trying to do its best, but further reforms are necessary to improve law and order in the country." The activist emphasizes the importance of a policy that "focuses attention on the question related to extremism," which requires "tougher responses." At the moment, there are still "gaps in the security system," and there is a clear "lack of adequate training," elements that favor continued attacks. "The entire nation must be united in the fight aimed at uprooting extremism."

In the meantime, the authorities have imposed a curfew on the area. The security forces have launched an offensive against the terrorists, who are barricaded in the training center, and the people are being asked to remain in their homes.

The Pakistani Rangers and the police of Punjab have stormed the building, beginning evacuation operations. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the government is accusing the "extremist militias of jihad," who are using the collaboration of "combatants from abroad." Rehman Malik, an adviser in the Interior Ministry, explains that the attack was conducted by "elements that want to destabilize the country."

According to a survivor, the commando group was made up of at least 15 or 20 terrorists. "We were attacked with bombs," says Mohammad Asif, one of the officers injured in the attack. "Thick smoke surrounded us. We all ran in panic in different directions." He adds that the attackers were "young and bearded."

Escalation. "Pakistan: Army fights militants after storming police academy," from AdnKronos International, March 30:

Lahore, 30 March (AKI) - Militants on Monday killed at least 25 people and injured scores of others after attacking a police training academy in the Pakistani city of Lahore using grenades and rifles. Between eight and 14 militants are said to be holed up inside the academy.

Pakistan's Dawn News TV said over 400 police recruits are being held hostage inside the academy and that snipers and sharpshooters have surrounded the training school.

The governor of the Punjab province Salman Taseer has said the Pakistani army has joined the gunbattle against the gunmen and have laid siege to the academy.

The militants are said to be wearing plain clothes and masks while others are said to have entered the academy wearing police uniforms. One gunman has been arrested, Dawn said.

Police have cordoned off the area and security has been put on high alert across the country. A curfew has also been imposed in the area.

Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik said involvement of foreign jihadi outfits cannot be ruled out and added that Uzbeks have entered Lahore from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas....

In "Islamophobia is a fabrication" in the Sydney Morning Herald, March 30 (thanks to JE), Paul Sheehan tells the truth about the manipulative neologism "Islamophobia":

I've been considering a request from a post-graduate student who wants to do a thesis on Islamophobia in Australia. She writes: "I am researching the topic Islamophobia, and I am trying to prove whether Islamophobia is based on religion fear or cultural fear of Islam."

What about proving that Islamophobia exists at all? That would be the logical, ethical and scholarly starting point. But it appears the outcome has already been decided. This would fit the prevailing orthodoxy in academia that the default position for Muslims in Australia is victim. The jargon, "Islamophobia" is part of this ideological construct. Literally, it means fear of Muslims.

I reflected on all this while on holiday in Malaysia and the Maldives last week. This was my twelfth visit to Muslim societies because I do not "fear" Muslims and do not "fear" Islam. Yes, there is ample evidence that Australians have become uneasy about Muslims in general and hostile in specific cases, but this is about cause and effect.

Consider the series of blows to the image of Muslims in just the past three weeks, where the everyday decency of the majority have been collaterally damaged by the antics of the few.

On March 8, the night of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, police say a group of about 100 young Muslim men, allegedly members of a loose gang called MBM - Muslim Brotherhood Movement - moved through the centre of the city intimidating, harassing and beating bystanders.

On March 15, Abdul Darwiche was murdered, shot to death in a shopping centre in the latest hyper-violence involving two warring Lebanese Muslim clans. Police later arrested Darwiche's brother, Michael, for driving around with a loaded pistol. A third brother, Adnan, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court three years ago to be sentenced for a double murder. He and his fellow accused, Nasaem El-Zeyat and Ramzi Aouad, laughed and joked, going out of their way to express their contempt for Australian law. After the three men were all given life sentences they shouted "God is great!" This was the same Adnan Darwiche who purchased rocket launchers stolen from the Australian Army, which have never been recovered.

Hundreds of mourners attended Abdul Darwiche's funeral at the Lakemba Mosque, where, within days, Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly was involved in yet another controversy. Channel Nine obtained a copy of a video surveillance tape which shows the former mufti of Australia kicking in a door, then returning soon after in the company of police. Apparently he called police over vandalism which he committed, blaming others who are engaged in a power struggle at the mosque. Sheik Hilaly has been embroiled repeatedly in controversy and provocation, making numerous inflammatory remarks about Australia and Australians.

A few days later, yet another rape sentence was handed down to one of the K brothers, three of whom, during their various trials for gang rape, claimed they were victims of an anti-Muslim conspiracy. Between them, four K brothers have been convicted of gang-raping five girls.

This sentencing followed closely on the conviction of seven Sydney schoolboys for the aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in a toilet block in Yagoona in 2007. According to police, the ring-leader was on his phone speaking in Arabic during the assaults and most or all of the boys are of Muslim background.

If this is so, these latest convictions produce a morbid tally of more than 30 young Muslim men involved in serious proven sexual assaults of non-Muslim girls in Sydney, involving the Skaf brothers, the K brothers, the E-M cousins, the Yagoona schoolboys and various others. Because sexual assault is the least reported crime (about 15 per cent of incidents are reported to police) this particular phenomenon was certainly much broader. [...]

Given the abundant evidence of violent cause and fearful effect, involving a small percentage of antagonists, the general charge of Islamophobia is an ideological fabrication....

Better not choose Mogadishu for that major address from a Muslim capital

And khat, which has financed jihad activity in other contexts. In any case, maybe this sort of thing is why Nanny State Leftists have such an easy time making common cause with jihadists. "Somali Islamists ban khat and cigarettes," by Abdulkadir Khalif for the Daily Nation, March 30 (thanks to Maxwell):

The Islamists authority in Dhobley town at the border between Somalia and Kenya Sunday announced a total prohibition of miraa (khat) chewing and cigarette smoking in the area.

Area residents have consequently been ordered to refrain from trading in both commodities.

The authority of the area, which is next to the Kenyan town of Liboi, has also outlawed all kinds of drugs and warned of heavy punishment against any kind of defiance.

Stringent measures

Mr Tayib Mohamed, the top Islamist official in the area, emphasised the seriousness of his administration in enforcing the ban on khat, cigarettes and any substance containing drugs.

“We shall take stringent measures against anybody attempting to challenge the law,” said Mr Mohamed, briefing the media....

Horror of horrors! Inciting them to what? To violence? To hatred? To (gasp) creationism?

Naaah. They were inciting them to convert to Christianity. And in a land that respects Muhammad's dictum "If anyone changes his religion, kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57), the free exercise of one's conscience is a crime.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Morocco, which is also moving against homosexuals today: "Muslim Morocco expels 5 Christian missionaries," from AP, March 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Authorities have expelled five Christian missionaries from Morocco on the grounds that they were illegally inciting Muslims to convert, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

The missionaries were caught Saturday during an assembly with Moroccan Muslims in Casablanca, the North African kingdom's economic capital, and have been sent to Spain by boat, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency.

"Numerous pieces of evangelical propaganda material were also seized," including video cassettes in Arabic that advocated conversion to Christianity, the statement said.

A senior Interior Ministry official said the missionaries were four Spaniards and a German woman. He insisted Morocco has nothing against the Christian faith, but that authorities felt the missionaries had gone too far.

Of course!

Many people frown on proselytizing. I have no problem with it from any group. If someone wants to convert me to another religion or point of view, I'll be glad to discuss it. If, however, someone who rejects an invitation to convert must be killed -- well, that does seem to cross a line. So in Morocco, why not let Christians preach, and anyone else who wants to preach also? If Islam is true, its truth will shine forth in comparison to error, will it not? Actions like this one from the Moroccan government manifest a deep insecurity that can also be found all over the Islamic world.

From this afternoon's Hate Mail Bag:

Robert Spencer: Did you ever stop to think that if we had Sharia Law in this nation stupid and evil (bush/cheney for the uninitiated)might not have been able to create the economic horror that resulted from their inept incompetence?

You may have a point, sir! Of course they wouldn't have. They would never have been in power. They would have been dhimmis, bowing and scraping before their Muslim superiors.

Speaking of genocide denial, nothing throws a wrench in the works of indoctrination like contact with actual Holocaust survivors. Hence, authorities termed this event the "dangerous" work of "suspicious elements," alleging threats to the "cultural and national identity of Palestinians."

And all this comes from members and allies of the "moderate," "pragmatic" Fatah movement. "PA dismantles W. Bank youth orchestra," by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post with additional reporting by the Associated Press, March 29:

Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday.

Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a "political issue" and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.

He added that Younis has been barred from the camp and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

On Saturday, The Jerusalem Post found that leaders and representatives of the Jenin refugee camp condemned the participation of Palestinian teenagers from the camp in a concert honoring Holocaust survivors in Holon last week.

The 13 Palestinian musicians, aged 11 to 18, are members of the Palestinian orchestra Strings of Freedom that is based in the refugee camp.

The concert was held at the Holocaust Survivors' Center as part of "Good Deeds Day," an annual event organized by an organization belonging to Israeli billionaire Shari Arison.

Up next: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Day.

The event drew strong condemnations from refugee camp leaders and political activists, who accused the organizers of exploiting the children for "political purposes."

Adnan al-Hinda, director of the Popular Committee for Services in the Jenin refugee camp, said that the participation of the children in the concert was a "dangerous matter" because it was directed against the cultural and national identity of the Palestinians.

He accused "suspicious elements" of being behind the Holon event, saying they were seeking to "impact the national culture of the young generation and cast doubt about the heroism and resistance of the residents of the camp during the Israeli invasion in April 2002."

Hindi claimed that the organizers "misled" the children by promising to take them on a free trip to Israel and teach them music.

Ramzi Fayad, a spokesman for various political factions in the Jenin refugee camp, also condemned the participation of the teenagers in the Holocaust event, saying all the groups were strongly opposed to any form of normalization with Israel. [...]

Fatah activists in the city also filed a complaint with the Palestinian Police against the woman under the pretext that she had misled the children by taking them to the Holocaust event. The activists also sealed an apartment that had been rented out to the woman in the refugee camp.

It's just not a good time in general to be a music group in Jenin.

The youths said their conductor, Wafa Younis, 50, of the Arab village of Ara in the Triangle, tried to explain to them who the elderly people at the event were, but chaos on the bus prevented them from listening....

Holocaust denial, Armenian genocide denial, Darfur genocide denial... Say, is anyone else noticing a pattern on the part of Islamic countries?

An update on this story. "Sudan's wanted president welcomed at Arab summit," by Brian Murphy for the Associated Press, March 29:

DOHA, Qatar – Qatar's leader embraced Sudan's president in a red-carpet welcome Sunday as he arrived to attend an Arab Summit in his most brazen act of defiance against an international arrest warrant on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

For host Qatar — a key U.S. ally that is home to American warplanes and more than 5,000 U.S. troops — the Arab League meeting beginning Monday also showcases its desire to stake out a prominent role in regional affairs even at the risk of angering the West.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had promised to attend the 22-nation gathering after assurances from members they would not enforce the International Criminal Court's arrest order issued March 4. But his lavish arrival sent an apparent message that al-Bashir will have a center stage role at the two-day meeting.

Coffee and Kisses:

Wearing a traditional Sudanese robe and white turban, a smiling al-Bashir was greeted at the airport with an embrace and kiss by Qatar's emir. They later had coffee with the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.

It was a low-risk trip for al-Bashir with high symbolic value for his Arab backers, who argue that carrying out the ICC's arrest would further destabilize Sudan as the Darfur conflict between the Arab-led government and ethnic African rebels enters its seventh year.

Only Jordan and two other tiny Arab League members, the Comoros and Djibouti, are party to the ICC charter, but can take no action on Qatari soil. Arab foreign ministers have endorsed a draft resolution for the summit rejecting the ICC's arrest warrant.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has said that al-Bashir should be arrested once he leaves Sudanese airspace, but it was unclear whether any military forces were monitoring his flight. The United States does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons. But President Barack Obama earlier this month denounced the "genocide" in Darfur.

The Sudanese government's battle against rebels in the western Darfur region has killed up to 300,000 people and driven 2.7 million from their homes since 2003, according to the United Nations.

"The president is performing his duties and is going to visit more countries either on bilateral bases or for regional meetings," said al-Bashir's foreign policy adviser, Mustafa Osman Ismail. The Sudanese leader also visited Eritrea, Egypt and Libya over the past week.

"What is required from all of us is to stand with our brothers in Sudan and its leadership in order to prevent dangers that affect our collective security," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said....

Heaven forbid that they set any precedents that could limit their ability to wage jihad.

You see, many in the Muslim nation are "asking for a strong hand against perverts." Of course, this should not be surprising since the Muslim penalty for homosexuality is death. According to Minhaj al-Muslim (the "way of the Muslim"), “Gay people should be thrown head first off high buildings and if not killed on hitting the ground, they should be then stoned to death."

"Spain: Press, Morocco announces end to gay tolerance," from ANSAmed, March 24:

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, MARCH 24 - Morocco announces the end of tolerance with regard to homosexuality, is the title of the full page article in today's El Pais, referring to the initiative which the Ministry for the interior in Morocco is using to 'confront all actions which go against religious and moral values, within the framework of the law''.

An article with the headline in red on the front page of magazine Al Michaal triggered the reaction by the government in Rabat; in it a gay Moroccan couple tell the story of their wedding, reciting a prayer which comes before the reading from the Koran. The formula is very common in Morocco, between heterosexual couples as well, but it does not mean that the union is legal. In a message quoted by El Pais, the Ministry for the interior registered "voices in the media which are trying to make a case for ignoble behaviour which is a provocation to national public opinion and which are against the moral values and teachings of our society".

The government will carry act against these people "within the framework of current laws". Homosexuality is punishable in Morocco from six months to three years imprisonment, even though courts do not usually pass sentences for this kind of crime. Nevertheless arrests of gays are commonly made as a 'deterrent''.

El Pais notes that "while several publications are indulgent towards Moroccan gays, the main body of the press is asking for a strong hand against perverts". Spain's ambassador in Rabat, Luis Planas, recently became involved in the controversy, when he was photographed with the secretary of Colegas, a Spanish association which defends the rights of gays and lesbians, and with Bargachi, the coordinator of Kifkif (from equal to equal), an association which supports gays in Morocco. (ANSAmed).

More on this story, where, among other things, the nominee was criticized by Ankara of having "an irresponsible and unsentimental attitude during the [Muhammad] cartoon crisis." "Muslim nations ask Turkey to veto Rasmussen as NATO head," from DW World.DE, March 28:

Muslim leaders have called on Turkey to veto the possible nomination of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO's next secretary general. In a telephone interview with broadcaster NTV in Copenhagen, the Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had been approached by a number of Muslim leaders who were still angry about Rasmussen's stance during the so-called cartoon row three years ago.

Erdogan, who leads the Islamist-rooted AK Party, said he phoned Rasmussen on Friday. He told him that Muslims were upset that Rasmussen had defended the 2005 publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Erdogan's remarks came after Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Ankara would not block Rasmussen's nomination at a NATO summit in April.

Behold! Sharia is coming!

Moreover, apparently Choudary (who else?) sees himself as Noah: "'People said look at that man building that boat in the mountain. Now they say look at that lunatic calling for the Sharia in Britain they say the same thing,' he said in a voice rising with passion and vigor."

"UK hate preacher wants Sharia law in Britain," from Newpost Online, March 29:

London, Mar. 29 (ANI): Brushing aside the Scotland Yard probe into his inflammatory speeches, the controversial Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary has warned that Britain would become a Sharia state soon.

"Let me tell you something the Sharia will be implemented in Pakistan, it will be implemented in India and Bangladesh and even down the road in Downing Street. There is nothing to stop me calling for a Sharia state," the Sunday Express quoted Choudary, as telling his followers in London.

The London-born lawyer, who in his youth was a cider-drinking ladies man, further said that Muslims around the world would rise and eventually conquer the White House.

Astonishingly, he compared himself to Noah from the Old Testament in one ranting outburst.

"People said look at that man building that boat in the mountain. Now they say look at that lunatic calling for the Sharia in Britain they say the same thing," he said in a voice rising with passion and vigor.

Choudary also included ex-US President Nixon in his rant.

"President Nixon once said if the Muslims in the Asian continent gathered together they would be a superpower. There are more than one billion in the Indian sub-continent … if they woke up," he said.

Scotland Yard reportedly is investigating him for allegedly saying homosexuals should be stoned to death.

Choudary, however, denied the allegations.

"That allegation about stoning is not true and I am complaining to the Press Complaints Commission. It is all fabrication. If I was supporting terrorists, do you think I would be here, and I would have a beard," he said.

Tory MP and homeland security expert Patrick Mercer called for Scotland Yard to look at Choudarys latest speech too.

His comments sound like sedition to me. The police should look very carefully at his words to see if he has broken the law. Victims of the 7/7 bombing will, I am sure, be hugely upset by what sounds like sedition, he said. (ANI)

The collaboration continues. "Iranian missile experts in North Korea ahead of rocket launch," from The Australian, March 29 (thanks to JE):

A GROUP of Iranian missile experts is in North Korea to help Pyongyang prepare for a rocket launch, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported on Sunday. The news comes as spy satellites have photographed the nose cone of a long-range North Korean rocket on its launch pad, but its remains unclear whether it is carrying a satellite or a warhead.

North Korea has said it will launch a communications satellite over northern Japan between April 4 and 8, and the report said the 15-strong Iranian delegation had been in the country since the beginning of this month.

It includes senior officials with Iranian rocket and satellite producer Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, the daily said, quoting unnamed sources.

The Iranians brought a letter from their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il stressing the importance of cooperating on space technology, it added.

"Space technology." Wink-wink.

The United States and its Asian allies suspect North Korea is using the launch as a cover for a long-range missile test.

North Korea and Iran have both come under international pressure over their nuclear activities and are reported to maintain close ties on missile technology.

Imagine if Islamic states had put this amount of effort and resources over the past 61 years into developing Gaza and the West Bank. They could have created the equivalent of a Monaco or Dubai in those areas. Instead, they've opted for perpetual warfare, squalor, and -- as detailed below -- lots and lots of dynamite.

"Shin Bet head: Hamas continues to smuggle arms into Gaza," from the Jerusalem Post, March 29:

Hamas continues to smuggle weaponry into the Gaza Strip, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin told the cabinet during Sunday's weekly meeting.

Since Operation Cast Lead ended, Diskin said, 22 tons of dynamite were smuggled into Gaza. Forty-five tons of raw material used to produce dynamite, dozens of rockets, hundreds of mortar shells and anti-aircraft shoulder missiles also made their way to the Strip, he said.

Diskin told the cabinet that Egypt was making inroads in its effort to curb arms smuggling through the Gaza-Egypt border, but that Hamas still succeeded in bringing large quantities of weapons into the Strip.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip were planning to carry out another kidnapping attempt, Diskin warned.

He added that there has been an increase in the efforts of small splinter groups to carry out attacks inside Israel, either by infiltrating through Sinai or by orchestrating local efforts in the West Bank.

In his weekly outline to the cabinet, the last given to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government before Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu presents his government on Tuesday, Diskin said that Hamas was afraid of an escalation in violence with Israel, especially after the negotiations to conduct a prisoner exchange and reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah both failed to yield results.

Hamas's interest remains rebuilding the Gaza Strip and replenishing their weapons caches, Diskin said. The Islamic group is deliberating whether to renew terrorism in full force or to rally support from the residents of Gaza in the hope of influencing the world into action by holding mass protests, he added....

Mindanao Jihad Update. "Bloody clash in south Philippines," from BBC News, March 28:

Muslim rebels and the army have fought an eight-hour battle in the southern Philippines, leaving 20 insurgents and seven soldiers dead, the military says.

Lt Col Jonathan Ponce said the army attacked rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to stop them from ransacking nearby villages.

The MILF blamed the army for the battle, on Mindanao island.

Hundreds have died and many thousands have been displaced on Mindanao since August, when peace talks foundered.

The MILF, the largest of the country's numerous separatist groups, has been fighting for an independent homeland for decades. [...]

The battle came as President Gloria Arroyo was visiting the province and was just a few miles away from the violence.

The government and MILF negotiators framed a deal last year which would have expanded an autonomous Muslim region on Mindanao.

But parliament blocked the agreement, saying the government had not adequately consulted Christian communities in Mindanao - who form a majority on the island.

After the deal collapsed, groups of disaffected MILF guerrillas rampaged through Christian villages, killing civilians and burning houses and land....

That'll show 'em its a Religion of Peace!

Once again giving the lie to the common myth that Islamic law is tolerant of non-Muslims and accords them equality of rights. "Pakistan: Christians Brace for Sharia in Swat Valley," from Compass Direct News, March 27 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

ISTANBUL, March 27 (Compass Direct News) – Just over a month since Pakistan’s fertile Swat Valley turned into a Taliban stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules, the fate of the remaining Christians in the area is uncertain.

Last month, in an effort to end a bloody two-year battle, the Islamabad administration struck a deal with Taliban forces surrendering all governance of Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Sources told Compass that after the violence that has killed and displaced hundreds, an estimated 500 Christians remain in the area. Traditionally these have been low-skilled workers, but younger, more educated Christians work as nurses, teachers and in various other professions.

The sole Church of Pakistan congregation in Swat, consisting of 40 families, has been renting space for nearly 100 years. The government has never given them permission to buy land in order to build a church building.

Because Islamic law forbids the construction of new churches by subjugated dhimmi Christians.

An associate pastor of the church in central Swat told Yousaf Benjamin of the National Commission for Justice and Peace that with the bombing of girls schools at the end of last year, all Christian families migrated to nearby districts. After the peace deal and with guarded hope for normalcy and continued education for their children, most of the families have returned to their homes but are reluctant to attend church.

The associate pastor, who requested anonymity, today told sources that “people don’t come to the church as they used to come before.” He said that although the Taliban has made promises of peace, the Christian community has yet to believe the Muslim extremists will hold to them.

“The people don’t rely on Taliban assurances,” said Benjamin.

Last week the associate pastor met with the third in command of the main Taliban militant umbrella group in Pakistan, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Kari Abdullah, and requested land in order to build a church. Abdullah reportedly agreed, saying that Islam is a religion of peace and equality, and that his group intended to provide equal opportunities to the religious communities of Swat....

We'll see. Christians are bracing for the worst:

“These days, there are no reports of persecution in Swat,” Lahore-based reporter Felix Qaiser of Asia News told Compass by phone, noting the previous two years of threatening letters, kidnappings and aggression against Christians by Islamic extremists. “But even though since the implementation of sharia there have been no such reports, we are expecting them. We’re expecting this because other faiths won’t be tolerated.”

Qaiser also expressed concern about the treatment of women.

“They won’t be allowed to move freely and without veils,” he said. “And we’re very much concerned about their education there.”...

Since the deal was struck, seven new sharia judges have been installed, and earlier this month lawyers were trained in the nuances of Islamic law. Those not trained are not permitted to exercise their profession. As of this week, Non-Governmental Organizations are no longer permitted in the area and vaccinations have been banned.

“These are the fist fruits of Islamic law, and we’re expecting worse things – Islamic punishment such as cutting off hands, because no one can dictate to them,” Qaiser said. Everything is according to their will and their own interpretation of Islamic law.”...

Sohail Johnson, chief coordinator of advocacy group Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, said he fears that militants in Swat will now be able to freely create training centers and continue to attack the rest of Pakistan.

“They will become stronger, and this will be the greatest threat for Christians living in Pakistan,” said Johnson....

Even though Beshir's Khartoum government is responsible for mass genocides (not to mention mass rapes) in Darfur, where some 300,000 people have been killed, this story is a reminder that, to many Muslims, "justice" has no "universal" meaning, but rather is about supporting fellow Muslims vis-a-vis non-Muslims, regardless of what the former may have done to the latter. As Ibn Kathir reminds Muslims with the following sahih hadiths: Muhammad said "'A believer to a believer is like unto a building that makes firm all its parts together.’ At this, he [Muhammad] interlocked his fingers. Another trustworthy saying: ‘In the compassion and mercy the believers possess for one another, they are like one body: Should one of its members be struck ill, the rest of the body suffers from fevers and insomnia,' [The Al Qaeda Reader, p.99]." Then of course there is the whole doctrine of "loyalty and enmity" -- the former solely reserved for Islam and Muslims, the latter for all things non-Muslim.

"OIC slams warrant for Sudan's Beshir," from AFP, March 28:

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia - The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has slammed the international arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in conflict-ravaged Darfur.

In a statement after a meeting of the OIC executive committee at the United Nations on Friday, the Saudi-based grouping condemned the International Criminal Court action of March 4 as "unwarranted, totally unacceptable."

The ICC move would "not only undermine the ongoing efforts aimed at facilitating the early resolution of the conflict in Darfur and promote long lasting peace and reconciliation in the Sudan, but also lead to destabilisation of the country and the region," it said.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died -- many from disease and hunger -- and 2.7 million been made homeless by the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

On the day the ICC warrant was issued, OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had rejected the move as "void and lacking sound reasoning."...

Either that or else she is being coerced by the rapist's mother to marry him so he can get out of jail. "Rape victim converts to Islam to marry accused," from Hindustan Times, March 27:

A rape victim has told a city court that she wants to marry her violator. Almost four years after Sheila was allegedly raped by Ali (both names changed), she has converted to Islam and is ready to accept him as her husband.

She told the court that her marriage to Ali was necessary to end the social stigma she faced since 2005.

The drama unfolded on Thursday in the court of Additional Sessions Judge V.K. Khanna during the hearing of the bail plea of Ali.

Sheila, who had earlier identified the accused and deposed against him in court, pleaded that after registration of the case in 2005, people in her locality were constantly maligning the image of her family. “The rape case has made my life hell and jeopardised my future prospects of leading a happy married life. I want to marry Ali, as our marriage would end my ordeal,” Sheila told the court.

She even requested the court to release the accused on bail, so he could marry her.

But the prosecution vehemently opposed Ali’s bail plea. Maintaining that rape was not a compoundable offence, the public prosecutor said it was simply a ploy of the accused to escape punishment.

The court dismissed Ali's bail plea saying rape was a criminal case and the accused should be punished for the crime. “The mother of the accused had approached the victim and put pressure on her for the marriage. It is a ploy to organise a false marriage ceremony to get the accused out of the jail,” said advocate Banju, who is associated with the Rape Crisis Cell, Delhi Commission of Women.

The accused has now filed another application requesting the court to allow him marry the victim in judicial custody.

From their point of view, it must be so. After all, since the world is divided between good and evil -- (real) Muslims representative of the former, infidels the latter -- who, according to the sharia they are fighting so hard to implement, are ordained to battle perpetually, obviously infidel sponsored "polio vaccinations" must be part of the plot to defeat the Muslims. In other words, projecting their own innate animosity on non-Muslims, they cannot conceive a simply altruistic gesture from the latter. "More on this story.

"Taliban opposes polio vaccinations," from UPI, March 27:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 27 (UPI) -- Taliban militants in northern Pakistan are preventing 300,000 children from being vaccinated against polio, the World Health Organization says.

Extremist clerics are telling parents that polio vaccinations cause infertility and are part of a U.S.-sponsored anti-Muslim plot, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Friday.

Dr. Nima Abid, polio team leader in Pakistan, says it is urgent that the children receive vaccinations immediately...

According to this week-old account, these men "insulted Turkishness" simply by speaking about their faith. Now, isn't it clear that Turkey is "modern" enough to enter the EU? "Turkey: Christians may appeal fine for 'illegal' funds," from Compass Direct News, March 27:

ISTANBUL, March 27 (Compass Direct News) – Fearing that a court-ordered fine of two Turkish Christians here for “illegal collection of funds” would set a precedent crippling to churches, their lawyer plans to take the case to a European court. Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal each paid the fine of 600 Turkish lira (US$360) to a civil court in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul yesterday. The verdict cannot be appealed within the Turkish legal system, but their lawyer said he is considering taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling refers to the men receiving church offerings without official permission from local civil authorities. Nearly all Protestant fellowships in Turkey are registered as associations, with very few having status as a recognized religious body, and strict application of the law would limit the scope of churches collecting funds. Although the punishment is a relatively small fine, their lawyer told Compass there is now a precedent that authorities could use to harass any church for collecting tithes and offerings. “For now, this court decision is an individual decision, but we fear in the future this could be carried out against all churches,” said defense attorney Haydar Polat.

The Taliban makes much of its money through drugs, and Hizballah "has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil." This is not inconsistent with their self-image as pious Muslims since the one using the drugs is the dirty kuffar.

"EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into U.S.," by Sara A. Carter in the Washington Times, March 27 (thanks to Kim):

Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S.

Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael Braun, who just retired as assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"They work together," said Mr. Braun. "They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected.

"They'll leverage those relationships to their benefit, to smuggle contraband and humans into the U.S.; in fact, they already are [smuggling]."

His comments were confirmed by six U.S. officials, including law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism specialists. They spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the topic.

While Hezbollah appears to view the U.S. primarily as a source of cash - and there have been no confirmed Hezbollah attacks within the U.S. - the group's growing ties with Mexican drug cartels are particularly worrisome at a time when a war against and among Mexican narco-traffickers has killed 7,000 people in the past year and is destabilizing Mexico along the U.S. border....

Poisoning food with feces is detailed as a tactic in the Al-Qaeda manual found a few years ago by British intelligence. If feces are acceptable for such use, why not needles? It would be interesting to know if Mastoora Qezil singled out pork products, but the story of course doesn't tell us.

"Woman charged in meat needles case in court Friday," from the Canwest News Service, March 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

GUELPH, Ont. -- An Ontario woman charged in connection with a case of tampered food at a store in Guelph, Ont., is a former employee of a Maple Leaf Foods plant in the city, the company said in a statement Friday.

Mastoora Qezil, 41, was arrested by Guelph police Thursday and is facing a common nuisance charge. She was held in custody overnight and was expected to be released Friday after an appearance in bail court, Guelph police said....

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued warnings last week after sewing needles were found in meat products at a supermarket....

But no worries: his list of potential Muslim appointees has been "carefully vetted." How carefully? We can get a hint of the answer from the involvement of Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN). Congressman Ellison recently made the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the five pillars of Islam. The Muslim American Society paid for his Hajj. And what is the Muslim American Society? The Muslim Brotherhood.

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004.

And who is the Muslim Brotherhood? The Muslim Brotherhood "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 and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

Imagine if a conservative Congressman had taken a trip that had been paid for by a Christian group that was, according to one of its own documents, dedicated to "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house" so that Christian law would replace the U.S. Constitution. I expect we would hear more of an outcry than we ever heard about Ellison's Hajj.

"Carefully vetted"!

"Obama gets list of top Muslim Americans," from the Denver Post, March 27 (thanks to Pamela):

CHICAGO — In a bid to get more Muslim Americans working in the Obama administration, a book with resumes of 45 of the nation's most qualified — Ivy League grads, Fortune 500 executives and public servants, all carefully vetted — has been submitted to the White House.

The effort, driven by community leaders and others, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was bumped up two weeks because White House officials heard about the venture, said J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, who sifted through more than 300 names.

"It was mostly under the radar," Williams said. "We thought it would put (the president) in a precarious position. We didn't know how closely he wanted to appear to be working with the Muslim American community."

More on teaching children to hate: watch this cute little Muslim girl answer a series of questions about Islam (thanks to Martin for the heads-up). Note the ones about hating Jews and Christians, and about rejecting the idea that the Qur'an was created, rather than existing eternally with Allah, identical to the "Mother of the Book, in our presence" mentioned in Qur'an 43:4. This complicates the possibility of historical criticism and reform.

Note also all the approving comments from Muslims in the YouTube thread.

Hey, kids! What time is it? It's jihad time! "Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists," by Mark Hughes for the Independent, March 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are "vulnerable" to Islamic radicalisation.

The number was revealed to The Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain's most senior officer in charge of terror prevention.

He said the "Channel project" had intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who were thought to be at risk of extremism, since it began 18 months ago. The number has leapt from 10 children identified by June 2008.

The programme, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers, asks teachers, parents and other community figures to be vigilant for signs that may indicate an attraction to extreme views or susceptibility to being "groomed" by radicalisers. Sir Norman, whose force covers the area in which all four 7 July 2005 bombers grew up, said: "What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards 'the West'.

"One of the four bombers of 7 July was, on the face of it, a model student. He had never been in trouble with the police, was the son of a well-established family and was employed and integrated into society.

"But when we went back to his teachers they remarked on the things he used to write. In his exercise books he had written comments praising al-Qa'ida. That was not seen at the time as being substantive. Now we would hope that teachers might intervene, speak to the child's family or perhaps the local imam who could then speak to the young man."...

Speak to them in what way? In a way that challenges Al-Qaeda's claim to Islamic authenticity and purity? Doubtful.

The Channel project was originally piloted in Lancashire and the Metropolitan Police borough of Lambeth in 2007, but in February last year it was extended to West Yorkshire, the Midlands, Bedfordshire and South Wales. Due to its success there are now plans to roll it out to the rest of London, Thames Valley, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and West Sussex.

The scheme, funded by the Home Office, involves officers working alongside Muslim communities to identify impressionable children who are at risk of radicalisation or who have shown an interest in extremist material – on the internet or in books.

Once identified the children are subject to a "programme of intervention tailored to the needs of the individual". Sir Norman said this could involve discussions with family, outreach workers or the local imam, but he added that "a handful have had intervention directly by the police".

He stressed that the system was not being used to target the Muslim community. "The whole ethos is to build a relationship, on the basis of trust and confidence, with those communities," said Sir Norman.

"With the help of these communities we can identify the kids who are vulnerable to the message and influenced by the message. The challenge is to intervene and offer guidance, not necessarily to prosecute them, but to address their grievance, their growing sense of hate and potential to do something violent in the name of some misinterpretation of a faith.

"We are targeting criminals and would-be terrorists who happen to be cloaking themselves in Islamic rhetoric. That is not the same as targeting the Muslim community."...

Of course not! But what if the misinterpreters of the faith challenge the claim that they're misinterpreting it? What will Sir Norman do then?

But Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said the police ran the risk of infringing on children's privacy. He warned: "There is a difference between the police being concerned or believing a person may be at risk of recruitment and a person actually engaging in unlawful, terrorist activity.

"That said, clearly in recent years some people have been lured by terrorist propaganda emanating from al-Qa'ida-inspired groups. It would seem that a number of Muslim youngsters have been seduced by that narrative and all of us, including the Government, have a role to play in making sure that narrative is seen for what it is: a nihilistic one which offers no hope, only death and destruction."

What if that's what they want? As Maulana Inyadullah of al-Qaeda once put it: "The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death." How is one to respond to this kind of impulse? Not by saying, "Oh, that way offers only death and destruction!"

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to stopping people becoming or supporting terrorists or violent extremists. The aim of the Channel project is to directly support vulnerable people by providing supportive interventions when families, communities and networks raise concerns about their behaviour."

What the heck is a "supportive intervention"? Does it have anything to do with challenging the jihadist belief system? I highly doubt it.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert. We're always told that people like these "potentially dangerous Islamists" have somehow misunderstood Islam. And yet there are ever more purported "misunderstanders" coming out of the woodwork and recruiting still more of the same.

We have seen many examples of the fervor with which Islamic communities tackle alleged heresies and "un-Islamic" practices, but this one -- the supposed twisting of Islam's peaceful message -- keeps on keeping on. Instead, with respect to jihadist violence, we get minimalistic, symbolic efforts like vaguely worded fatwas about "terrorism," and the killing of "innocents." Such behavior certainly points to the Tiny Minority of Extremists' being neither so tiny, nor so extreme. Unfortunately, questioning the political dogma surrounding the nature and role of the supposed Tiny Minority remains a "heresy" that Western governments are not willing to entertain.

"100 ‘dangerous’ Islamists in Germany," from Agence France-Presse, March 28:

BERLIN: Germany is home to several hundred “potentially dangerous Islamists” including a hard core of around 100 people classed as dangerous, a senior Interior Ministry official said on Friday.

Between 60 and 80 “jihadists” out of some 140 have returned to Germany, who had undergone training in camps in the Tribal Areas on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, State Secretary August Hanning said. “The danger should not be underestimated. The 60 to 80 who have returned make up the overwhelming majority of up to around 100 people whom we class as dangerous,” Hanning told the Tagesspiegel daily’s Saturday edition.

“On top of that there are about another 300 potentially dangerous Islamists. All in all we are talking about a circle of around 1,000 people,” said Hanning, who used to head German foreign intelligence agency, the BND. He added he was worried about the possibility of attacks in the run up to this September’s general election in Germany. “The threats do not mention the elections directly. But in the view of jihadists in Pakistan the election is important because it will determine Germany’s foreign policy in the future,” he said.

“We remember that the attacks in Madrid in 2004 were carried out a few days before elections in Spain,” he said, referring to the commuter train bombings. A number of videos – sometimes in German or with German subtitles – have emerged in recent months warning of future attacks on German soil because of the presence of 3,500 of the country’s troops in Afghanistan....

Blasphemer

Besides blasphemy, Halla-aho was "ordered to stand trial for publishing on his blog that Islam's prophet was a pedophile." Here again we encounter the Orwellian, or perhaps more precisely Alice-In-Wonderland, Through-the-Looking-Glass quality of today's public discourse. The collection of traditions of Muhammad that Muslims consider most reliable, Sahih Bukhari, affirms in no less than five places that Aisha was six when Muhammad took her and nine when he consummated the marriage (vol. 5, bk. 58, no. 234; vol. 5 bk. 58 no. 236; vol. 7 bk. 62 no. 64; vol. 7 bk. 62 no. 65; and vol. 7 bk. 62 no. 88). It is also in Sunan Abu Dawud (bk. 41 no. 4915), another of the Sahih Sittah, the six hadith collections Muslims accept as most reliable.

The concept of pedophilia did not exist in Muhammad's day. His marriage to Aisha was not unusual in the context of the time; but it becomes extremely problematic, and conducive to pedophilia, when Muhammad is held up as the "excellent example of conduct" (Qur'an 33:21) for all time, and followed in this in our own day. And child marriage is indeed common in some areas of the Islamic world -- notably Afghanistan, but it is by no means limited to Afghanistan only.

In any case, in light of all that, Halla-aho was saying something perfectly reasonable. I hope he will be able to bring some of this evidence in his own defense.

Free Speech Death Watch Update: "Free Speech Slammed in Finland as Politician is Brought up on Blasphemy Charges.......," from Tundra Tabloids, March 27:

Jussi Halla-aho to stand trial for blasphemy against Allah

Believe it or not, Finland still has blasphemy laws on the books, but there have been repeated attempts to rescind Section 10 of chapter 17 of the Finnish penal code. All attempts however, at removing the anti-modern statute from the law books have proved unsuccessful, with the latest attempt failing in 1998.

Helsinki city councilman, Jussi Halla-aho was charged with blasphemy and incitement of an ethnic-group in the Helsinki district court today, and ordered to stand trial for publishing on his blog that Islam's prophet was a pedophile. According to the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Jorme Kalske:

"Halla-aho had uploaded to the Internet and submitted writings to the general public, in which Islam and its sacred institutions were combined with pedophilia, and in which was also presented the robbery of pedestrians and the ooting of tax revenue was a certain national group or a specific genetic characteristic.

The charges were presented in the Helsinki District Court. Halla-aho denies the charges"

Read it all.

A television documentary from the UK sheds new light on the phenomenon of honor killing -- which has now "reached record levels." Failure to confront the Islamic justifications for this practice, which are nowhere mentioned in this story, will only ensure that it continues, both in the Islamic world and the West.

"Series 2009 | Episode 3 | Turkey: Killing for Honour," from Unreported World, n.d. (thanks to Pamela):

Unreported World travels to Turkey to investigate honour killings, which have now reached record levels with more than 200 girls and women killed in the past year alone. The programme highlights a chilling new development in which a new law outlawing honour killings may have led to a huge increase in girls being forced to commit suicide instead.

Reporter Ramita Navai and Producer Matt Haan begin their journey in the south east of Turkey, an ethnically Kurdish region. They've been invited to a traditional Kurdish wedding between two 18-year-old-cousins, arranged by their families. One guest tells Navai that Kurds have their own marriage traditions, and that marriage changes the way a woman behaves.

The team moves on to Karacada, an area renowned for its blood feuds, where there have been several honour killings over the last year. One local tells Navai that a woman can dishonour her family by standing too close to a man she is not related to and that some women aren't allowed mobile phones in case they receive a call from a man.

He says women can be killed for violating the rules of honour. When a woman is accused of dishonour, a family council will decide her fate. He says that honour killings are really effective in sending out a strong message to everybody. Local women tell Unreported World that they live in constant fear and that their brothers would beat them over mere rumours.

The team meets Husna, who is willing to talk openly about an honour killing that happened less than five weeks previously. She says she suspects her niece's new husband was unable to consummate the marriage and killed her to spare his honour. She claims that these killings are common and three have happened in the area recently.

Moving on to a village close to the Iranian border, the team hears about Nazime Alir, who was 21 years old when she was murdered. Her father-in-law tells Navai that his son gouged out her eyes, cut her tongue off and put her remains in a plastic bag before burning her. Nearly all the men in the village say they would kill their wives and daughters for honour - life without honour is not worth living.

Until recently, under Turkish law honour killers could get a reduced sentence by claiming provocation. However, four years ago, as part of Turkey's campaign to join the European Union, it introduced a mandatory life sentence for the crime. But the change in the law hasn't reduced the killings. Instead, as Unreported World reveals, it appears to have given rise to a sinister new twist.

The team travels to the city of Batman, nicknamed 'suicide city' because in the last few years hundreds of women and girls have committed suicide. Like other areas of the country, female suicides rocketed after the change in the law. Batman's chief prosecutor tells Unreported World that he believes many of the suicides in the town are forced, but that they're almost impossible to investigate. Those women who escape the attempt flee into hiding.

One young woman, Elif, claims that when she was 18 years old, her parents wanted to force her into marriage. When she refused, she claims her family told her that if she didn't marry him, she would have to kill herself. She says her father told her if he, or her brother, was forced to kill her they would go to prison so she should think of them and kill herself. She said she considered doing it because she loved her father so much, but she realized she didn't want to die. Instead, she ran away.

Ending up in Istanbul, the team finds that even the most modernised city in Turkey hasn't escaped the tradition. According to a government report, it now has one of the highest levels of honour killings in the country, with one happening every week. The Government has condemned the killings and launched a commission with the aim of reducing them. Yet, the Unreported World team see twelve cases in the press as the murders continue unabated.

Let them into the EU!

Khaled Al-Khlewi is clearly a Misunderstander of Islam, isn't he? Can we get Honest Ibe Hooper of CAIR or some other enlightened moderate to go over to Saudi Arabia and straighten him out?

Note that this vile bit of hatred and incitement aired on Al-Jazeera. "Saudi Cleric Khaled Al-Khlewi Teaches Children to Hate Jews," from MEMRITV, January 11 (posted more recently), with thanks to all who sent this in:

Following are excerpts from an address by Saudi cleric Khaled Al-Khlewi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 11, 2009.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: The [Jewish] Qaynuqa tribe betrayed the Prophet Muhammad. A woman went to a Jewish market in order to buy a piece of jewelry. The members of the Qaynuqa tribe were the most ruthless and wealthiest Jews. When the Muslim woman reached the market, what did they do to her? A Jew sneaked behind her, and tied her gown to her headdress, so when she tried to get up, her private parts were exposed. She cried for help, and one of the Prophet’s companions came and killed the Jew. Then the Jews ganged up on him and killed him. When the Prophet Muhammad learned about this, he fought the Qaynuqa tribe and banished them. This is the only way to deal with them.

Note that he considers Muhammad's behavior exemplary and paradigmatic.

In the case of the Qurayza tribe – or rather, the Nazir tribe – the Prophet Muhammad went to them, and learned against a wall. Some of the Jews said: “The Prophet Muhammad is leaning against the wall. Someone should go to the top of the roof and throw a rock on his head.” Then the Angel Gabriel appeared, and informed the Prophet in advance about this treachery. So the Prophet Muhammad banished them. The Prophet carried out the greatest killing among the Qaynuqa tribe, because they had violated their covenant with him.

So, my friends, the conclusion we may draw from this introduction is that with the Jews, nothing works but force. Memorize the following parable, just like I learned it from others: “Kiss the head of a Jew, and he will deceive you – deceive him, and he will kiss your head.” The Jew is treacherous, disloyal, deceitful, and belligerent by nature. Nothing works with him but force.

[…]

Who can tell us the slogan that points to the geographic [aspirations] of the Jews? What is their slogan?

Well done! Come up here, my dear… Excellent! Come on up, this way. Come here, my dear, here, so we can see you.

Eight-year-old Omar comes to the stage

Khaled Al-Khlewi: Welcome, my dear. [kisses him] What’s your name?

Omar: Omar.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: Omar? Allah Akbar. They hate Omar and are afraid of him. Omar what? What’s your dad’s name?

Omar: Mahmoud.

Projection Alert: Al-Khlewi proceeds to paint a false picture of Israeli territorial aspirations, beginning with a grotesque parody of the Palestinian chant, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free":

Khaled Al-Khlewi: And your mom’s name? [covers Omar’s mouth as he is about to say her name] No, don’t tell us mom’s name, there’s no need. Right? Well, dear, what is the slogan of the Jews? From the…

Omar: From the river to the Euphrates.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: From the Nile to the Euphrates. Let’s rephrase it: From the Euphrates to the Nile. Now let me complete it for you: And from the cedar to the palm tree. Okay. Who can tell me which countries this represents? From the Euphrates to the Nile – two countries. From the cedar to the palm tree – two countries. Four countries altogether. Who can explain this expression, by telling me what countries it refers to? Go ahead.

Iraq and Egypt. Well done. “From the Euphrates” means Iraq. “To the Nile” means Egypt. “From the cedar” – where’s that? Lebanon. “To the palm tree”? Saudi Arabia – because they believe that Al-Madina belongs to them, and that they should return to it.

The problem is not Gaza alone. They have broader aspirations. The Arab rulers and politicians must understand this problem. The Jews are motivated by religious considerations, not only by political, economic, or geographic considerations. They are motivated by their religion, and they want to achieve this.

What is your first name – Mahmoud, right? And your dad’s name? What’s your first name?

Omar: Omar.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: How old are you, Omar?

Omar: Eight years old.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: Do you like the Jews?

Omar: No.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: You hate them. Why do you hate them? What did the Jews do?

Omar: They wanted to kill the Prophet Muhammad.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: Well done. They wanted to kill the Prophet Muhammad. And what are they doing to our Muslim brothers now? They are killing them. When you curse them, what do you say? “Oh God…”?

Omar: Oh God, destroy the Jews.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: Well done. “And support…”?

Omar: The Muslims.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: The Muslims. Well done, my dear. Do you want to come with me to Saudi Arabia? I have a son like you, called Abdallah. You can play with him. Will you come with me? Will you give me this nice jacket you are wearing? Let me give you some water… May Allah protect you. I will give you this book and some water. Goodbye, my dear.

First Saudi women were upset for not being allowed to go workout in gyms; now they're upset because they don't like being leered at by salesmen at lingerie shops. They better be careful lest a fierce fatwa descend upon them, condemning them for being so "uppity." After all, according to Koran 4:34: "Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient."

"Saudi girls fume over salesmen in lingerie shops," from the Times of India, March 27:

RIYADH: Before her wedding last year, Huda Batterjee went abroad to buy her bridal lingerie she just couldn’t bear the humiliation of discussing her most intimate apparel with a man.

She had little choice: there are almost no saleswomen in Saudi Arabia.

Now a group of Saudi women sick of having to deal with male sales staff when buying bras or panties, not to mention frilly negligees or thongs have launched a campaign this week to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. It’s an irony of the kingdom’s strict segregation of the sexes. Only men are employed as sales staff to keep women from having to deal with male customers or work around men.

But in lingerie stores, that means men are talking to women about bras or thongs, looking them up and down to determine their cup sizes, even rubbing the underwear to show how stains can be washed out.

The result is mortifying for everyone involved shoppers, salesmen, even the male relatives who accompany the women.

“When I buy underwear in Saudi, some salesmen say, ‘This is not the right size for you,” said Batterjee. “You feel almost taken advantage of. Why is he looking at me in this way?” So for her wedding trousseau, she went to neighbouring Dubai to shop. She now lives in Virginia with her husband.

Heba al-Akki, a businesswoman who supports the boycott, said when she shops for underwear, “I go to a store, pick this, this and that and leave quickly. It’s as if I’m buying illegal stuff.”...

Unfortunately, nothing new here. "Filipino group with al-Qaeda ties threatens beheading," from World Focus, March 26:

A radical Islamic militant group from the southern Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, has threatened to behead a Red Cross hostage unless the military withdraws from the area. Abu Sayyaf has held three hostages on the remote southern island of Jolo since January 15.

Abu Sayyaf is one of several guerrilla organizations in the Philippines that has engaged in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, beheadings, assassinations and extortion. It seeks a separate Islamic state for the country’s Muslim minority...

Faker

"War is deceit" -- prophet of Islam. Aafia Siddiqui update. "Terror Suspect Faked Mental Illness, Prosecutors Say," by Benjamin Weiser for the New York Times, March 26:

A federal prosecutor in Manhattan said Thursday that two government psychiatrists had concluded that a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan had been faking her symptoms of mental illness.

An earlier court-ordered psychological evaluation had concluded that the neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, 37, was unfit for trial as a result of a mental disease, “which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense,” a court document shows.

Then last month, prosecutors said two new evaluations by government-retained psychiatrists had found differently, that she was not suffering from mental illness.[...]

According to a government document, one psychiatrist wrote that Ms. Siddiqui “has most likely fabricated reported psychiatric symptoms to give credibility to her claims that she suffers a mental disorder.”[...]

She has been held since last summer when she was first brought to New York for prosecution from Afghanistan.

She had been taken into custody after being found loitering outside an Afghan police station with suspicious items in her handbag. Prosecutors have said that while she was detained, she picked up an unsecured rifle and fired at least two shots toward a soldier who was part of an American team of F.B.I. agents and military personnel who were about to question her. No one was hit. Ms. Siddiqui has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Berman said he would hold a hearing on June 1 to determine Ms. Siddiqui’s competency. He set a tentative trial date of July 6, in the event she is found fit for trial.

Tourists who, somehow or other, were conflated with "crusaders." More on this story. "Qaeda says hit Koreans in Yemen over U.S. ties," from Reuters, March 27:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing in Yemen said it carried out the suicide attack that killed four South Korean tourists this month in retaliation for their country's ties to the U.S.-led "war on terror," according to an Internet message.

South Korea, which once had the third-largest contingent of foreign soldiers in Iraq, withdrew all of them in December. On Friday, a Korean newspaper quoted a top government official as saying Seoul had decided to send about 1,000 mainly engineering troops to Afghanistan in response to an unofficial U.S. request.

Yemen has blamed al Qaeda for the March 15 bombing that killed the four tourists and for a failed suicide attack days later against South Korean agents investigating the blast.[...]

"Our heroic brother ... Abu Obeida al-Jarrah, carried out a martyrdom-seeking operation ... in response to South Korea's role in the war on Islam in alliance with crusader forces under the guise of a war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq," Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement on Islamist sites...

"They would go into stores and haggle over prices. They would also demand to see a male salesperson, would not deal with women in stores... some Somali students won't talk to female administrators... Somalis have isolated themselves from the rest of the community." All perfectly normal Islamic behavior, typified by contempt for infidels and women. As for "isolating themselves from the rest of the community," that has to do with Koranic verses such as 3:28: "Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them."

"Somali Muslims Changing Small Town," by Erick Stakelbeck for CBN, March 26:

CBNNews.com - SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - It has been nearly 20 years since Somalia last had a functioning government. Islamic jihadists now control most of the country-and sharia is the law of the land. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees have resettled in America in recent years to escape the chaos of their homeland, which is located in the Horn of Africa.

But the transition isn't going smoothly in one small town.[...]

At first glance, Shelbyville is your typical sleepy southern hamlet. It's nestled in middle Tennessee, where the walking horse is king.

There's Main St., the local sheriff, a movie theatre. It's all very "Mayberry," except for one big difference: the recent arrival of hundreds of Somali Muslims.

Small Town Having Difficulties

Shelbyville is about an hour's drive from Nashville, in the heart of the Bible Belt. Like many Americans, the citizens of Shelbyville knew little about Somalia other than the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident, in which 18 U.S. servicemen were killed while battling warlords and Islamic jihadists in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

So when hundreds of Somalis began turning up in the town--many of them dressed in traditional Islamic garb--locals quickly took notice.

"They've had an impact here. Unfortunately, it's not been a good impact," said Brian Mosely, a reporter for the local Shelbyville Times-Gazette.

Mosely won an award from the Associated Press for a series of articles he wrote for the paper about Shelbyville's Somalis.

"I found that there was just an enormous culture clash going on here," he said. "The Somalis were--according to a lot of the people I talked to here--were being very, very rude, inconsiderate, very demanding. They would go into stores and haggle over prices. They would also demand to see a male salesperson, would not deal with women in stores"

Different People, Different Culture

"Their culture is totally alien to anything the residents are used to," Mosely added.

The problems extend to local schools--where some Somali students won't talk to female administrators. There have also been issues with local law enforcement.

"I'm not really sure whether that is because of experiences with the police in their country, or whether that's just the way their culture is," said Shelbyville's Police Chief, Austin Swing.

Shelbyville is home to about 17,000 people. The town's Somali population is estimated to be between 400 and 1,000.

Mosely says the Somalis have isolated themselves from the rest of the community...

While the cost of Obama's new operations in Afghanistan are expected to rise 60 percent from the current $2 billion a month. "New U.S. Afghan strategy focuses on Qaeda: officials," from Reuters, March 26:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy will focus on destroying safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan where Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders are plotting new attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

As part of the strategy, the United States will deploy 4,000 military trainers to Afghanistan by this autumn to build up Afghan armed forces to the point they are able to take the lead in military operations, officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity before the president's announcement of the policy on Friday, said the cost of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan was expected to rise 60 percent from the current $2 billion a month.

"A government official accused Islamist militants of carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply route for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque." Remember this one the next time you hear a story about Muslims outraged over Americans or Israelis returning fire from a mosque, or over alleged desecration of a Qur'an, etc.

"Suicide attack kills 48 at Pakistani mosque," by Riaz Khan for Associated Press, March 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers close to the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, officials said.

The attack in the Khyber region was the bloodiest in Pakistan this year and came hours before President Barack Obama was due to unveil a revised strategy expected to emphasize the need to eradicate militant havens along the Pakistan-Afghan frontier.

A government official accused Islamist militants of carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply route for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque.

"Residents of this area had cooperated and helped us a lot. These infidels had warned that they will take revenge," said Tariq Hayat, the top administrator of the Khyber tribal region. "They are the enemy of Pakistan. They are the enemy of Islam."

Rising violence in Pakistan is fueling doubts about the pro-Western government's ability to counter Taliban and al-Qaida militants also blamed for attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.

The bomber hit the mosque, a popular stop for travelers motoring between Pakistan and Afghanistan, when about 250 people were attending Friday prayers, said Hayat....

And Europe will take more. What measures will be taken to make sure they are not jihadists and Sharia supremacists? Why, none whatsoever, of course. What are you, some kind of Islamophobe? "Syria: Iraqi refugees to move to Europe and US," from AKI, March 26 (thanks to Carlo):

Damascus, 26 March (AKI) - Around 12,000 Iraqi refugees living in Syria will be resettled in Europe and the United States, according to an official from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Germany, the US, Canada,The Netherlands and other countries, have agreed to host a number of Iraqi refugees in Syria, an unnamed source told Adnkronos International (AKI).

The resettlement of the refugees began in February and the UNHCR is continuing to evaluate tens of thousands of files to establish who has the necessary requirements to qualify for resettlement.

"Germany has agreed to take in 2,500 refugees, and the same with The Netherlands, while the United States 5,000 others," the official source told AKI.

"Some of the refugees will attend classes that will help them integrate to their new host country."

The UNHCR source, however, rejected the notion that religion played a role in the selection of candidates.

"There is no preference about this point and among the conditions by host countries there is absolutely no discrimination in this sense," said the source....

Of course!

Turkish secularism on the ropes. Sharia is advancing in what is always held out to be that exemplary beacon of democracy in the Islamic world, Turkey. The reasons why Sharia supremacists are advancing there have not -- unsurprisingly -- been sufficiently explored by Western analysts, who of course dismiss out of hand the appeal of a call to restore Islamic authenticity.

"Erdogan Set for Election Win That May Revive Tension Over Islam," by Ben Holland for Bloomberg, March 27 (thanks to The Fool):

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to win a fresh mandate from voters that may embolden his challenge to the country’s military and courts, which see him as an Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party will likely emerge the winner in March 29 municipal elections for 3,000 mayoral posts, according to opinion polls. His party has won three straight elections since 2002 as Turkey enjoyed a record spell of economic growth. This latest referendum on his rule will take place as the economy shrinks and unemployment rises.

Erdogan, 55, used his 2007 win in general elections as a license to relax Turkey’s secular rules, such as the ban on Islamic-style headscarves for students -- and was almost barred from politics as a result. Erdogan’s announced plans for post- election constitutional changes may revive those tensions.

“It’s turned into something bigger than just a local election,” said Osman Ulagay, author of “The Secular Coup Fiasco,” a study of Erdogan’s clashes with the generals. Erdogan’s party wants “to make sure they can go on with their new agenda.”...

Erdogan told reporters on March 13 that he plans to introduce measures after the election to change the structure of Turkey’s 11-member Constitutional Court and make it harder to ban political parties. He didn’t give further details.

The steps may allow parliament to nominate additional judges to the court and increase judicial scrutiny over the army’s budget and its regular purges of officers deemed pro- Islamist, Hurriyet Daily News reported on March 18, citing a Justice party draft document....

Prosecutors filed a lawsuit in March last year to ban Erdogan from politics and shut down his party for seeking to introduce Islamic law. The case, which cited Justice party legislation to lift the student headscarf ban, failed by a single vote in the Constitutional Court.

The army sought to block Erdogan’s presidential candidate Abdullah Gul in 2007 because of his Islamist past, forcing Erdogan to call a snap election in July of that year. Gul was elected president a month later by parliament....

Still, opposition to Erdogan within the army and judiciary may be weakened by an investigation into an alleged attempt to overthrow his government.

A court in Istanbul on March 25 agreed to hear charges against two retired generals accused of leading the alleged coup plot, and other suspects in the case include the wife of a Constitutional Court judge, according to the indictment. Three other ex-generals are being investigated in the case, the Milliyet newspaper reported on March 26....

Pakistan's double game is still alive and well, and yet no one in official Washington seems to be even getting close to suggesting that maybe we should cut off the jizya to Pakistan. "Afghan Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides Say," by Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt for the New York Times, March 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON — The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials.

The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements.

Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said. There is even evidence that ISI operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections....

American officials have complained for more than a year about the ISI’s support to groups like the Taliban. But the new details reveal that the spy agency is aiding a broader array of militant networks with more diverse types of support than was previously known — even months after Pakistani officials said that the days of the ISI’s playing a “double game” had ended....

In a sign of just how resigned Western officials are to the ties, the British government has sent several dispatches to Islamabad in recent months asking that the ISI use its strategy meetings with the Taliban to persuade its commanders to scale back violence in Afghanistan before the August presidential election there, according to one official.

Why are they resigned to this? Why can't they show some spine?

But the inability, or unwillingness, of the embattled civilian government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, to break the ties that bind the ISI to the militants illustrates the complexities of a region of shifting alliances. Obama administration officials admit that they are struggling to understand these allegiances as they try to forge a strategy to quell violence in Afghanistan, which has intensified because of a resurgent Taliban. Fighting this insurgency is difficult enough, officials said, without having to worry about an allied spy service’s supporting the enemy.

But the Pakistanis offered a more nuanced portrait. They said the contacts were less threatening than the American officials depicted...

Of course. It's all a misunderstanding, as always.

...and were part of a strategy to maintain influence in Afghanistan for the day when American forces would withdraw and leave what they fear could be a power vacuum to be filled by India, Pakistan’s archenemy. A senior Pakistani military officer said, “In intelligence, you have to be in contact with your enemy or you are running blind.”

The ISI helped create and nurture the Taliban movement in the 1990s to bring stability to a nation that had been devastated by years of civil war between rival warlords, and one Pakistani official explained that Islamabad needed to use groups like the Taliban as “proxy forces to preserve our interests.”...

Over the past year, a parade of senior American diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials has flown to Islamabad to urge Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders to cut off support for militant groups, and Washington has threatened to put conditions on more than $1 billion in annual military aid to Pakistan. On Saturday, the director of the C.I.A., Leon E. Panetta, met with top Pakistani officials in Islamabad....

They shouldn't "threaten to put conditions" on the money. They should cut off the money.

Al-Qaradawi has been praised by establishment dhimmi Islamic scholar John Esposito as a champion of a "reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights." He counts among his friends Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London. And he wants to kill Jews in the worst way.

Here he also reveals himself to be a Misunderstander of Islam, since he invokes Qur'an 8:60 as if it were relevant to the modern world, when any Islamic apologist in the West will tell you that only greasy Islamophobes think that that verse has anything to do with anything beyond the lifetime of Muhammad. I trust that Honest Ibe Hooper of CAIR, as soon as he has completed his mission in Pakistan, will be winging his way to Qatar to explain to Qaradawi how to read the Qur'an in context.

"Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The Arabs Should Obtain Nuclear Weapons for Deterrence," from MEMRITV, February 20 (just posted), with thanks to Rosanne:

Following are excerpts from a sermon by Sunni Islamic scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Qatar TV on February 20, 2009.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The Prophet Muhammad wanted peace that is based on strength. He does not want the peace of the weak, the peace of those who disappoint, the peace of those who surrender – like the peace Israel wants to impose on us and the Palestinians. That is not peace. That is what Allah meant when he said: "And do not falter and cry for peace when you have the upper hand, for Allah is with you, and will not refrain from [rewarding] you for your actions." Peace that is based on delusion and submission is not peace. The Prophet Muhammad wanted peace that is based on strength. Therefore, the Koran referred to this, saying: "Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can, to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and of your own enemies, and others besides them, whom you do not know, but Allah knows." "Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can."

That's Qur'an 8:60.

A few days ago, a Muslim asked me if we were allowed to possess WMDs – nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. I said to him: "Yes, we must possess such weapons, but not use them." We must possess such weapons in order to strike terror in our enemies – "Strike terror in the hearts of the enemies," and frighten them. If we had nuclear weapons, they would be afraid to attack us, as was the case between the Soviet Union and the Americans, and between India and Pakistan. This is armed peace.

We must acquire [military] strength. "Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can, to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and of your own enemies." The "steeds of war" of our times are tanks, armored vehicles, and submarines. These are the steeds of our times. It is not enough to equip ourselves with horses in order to confront tanks. Horses can only be used for certain things. Each generation must prepare its own devices with which to strike terror in the enemies of Allah. We do not want to attack anybody, but to strike fear in our enemies, so that they will not attack us.

And that includes, of course, any honest examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to make recruits. So not only does this herald the death of free speech, but it also leaves us mute and defenseless before the advancing global jihad.

"UN body OKs call to curb religious criticism," by Frank Jordans for AP, March 26 (thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi):

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s top human-rights body approved a proposal backed by Muslims [sic] nations Thursday urging the passage of laws around the world protecting religion from criticism.

The proposal by Pakistan had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven mostly Western nations opposed it and 13 countries abstained.

Cowards.

The resolution urges states to provide "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

It sounds good until you realize that "incitement to religious hatred" includes such acts as quoting the Qur'an passages that jihadists use to recruit and motivate terrorists.

"It is individuals who have rights and not religions," said Canadian diplomat Terry Cormier. Canada's criticism was echoed by European Union countries, all of which voted against the proposal.

That's good, and unexpected.

The council is dominated by Muslim and African countries. Muslim nations have argued that religions, in particular Islam, must be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life. They cited cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as an example of unacceptable free speech.

"Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism," the resolution said.

By Muslims. By Islamic jihadists. But it is not they who are targeted by this initiative.

A coalition of more than 100 secular and faith groups had called on governments to oppose the resolution, warning that it could lead to accusations of defamation among different faiths.

The United States did not vote on the resolution because it is not a member of the council. The Bush administration announced it was virtually giving up on the body and would participate in debates only if absolutely necessary because of the council's anti-Israel statements and its failure to act on abuses in Sudan and elsewhere.

That will doubtess be reversed soon.

India, which normally votes along with the council's majority of developing nations, abstained in protest at the fact that Islam was the only religion specifically named as deserving protection.

India's Ambassador Gopinathan Achamkulangare said the resolution "inappropriately" linked religious criticism to racism.

Yep.

No virgins for you, buddy. Just imagine how embarrassed he will be in front of Atta and the gang when he shows up expecting to be admitted into Paradise (Qur'an 9:111), welcomed by the virgins (Qur'an 44:54), and finds out that instead he faces an eternity of drinking molten lead in hellfire (Qur'an 18:29) because he killed fellow Muslims (Qur'an 4:92).

"Afghan bomber accidentally blows up militants," from Reuters, March 26 (thanks to JE):

A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said.

"The terrorist was on his way to his destination and saying good-bye to his associates and then his suicide vest exploded," a statement from the ministry said....

Note also AFP's casual placing of blame for the conflict on the non-Muslim Thais who imperialistically annexed the Malay Sultanate, thus provoking tension. AFP does not mention, of course, that the Malay Sultanate was making war against the Siamese during the war between Siam and Burma, and Thailand conquered it in that context -- making it Thai by a right of conquest that has been universally recognized throughout human history -- except, of course, when it comes to Israel and to any Muslim land that is conquered by non-Muslims.

"Militants killed, body torched in Thailand violence," from AFP, March 26 (thanks to JE):

Separatist militants have shot dead four civilians in southern Thailand, torching the body of one female victim, while two insurgents were killed in a clash, police say.

The 48-year-old Thai Buddhist woman was killed in a drive-by shooting in restive Yala province on Thursday afternoon.

The rebels then doused her body with benzene and set it ablaze, said police....

Separately, gunmen shot dead a 46-year-old Buddhist woman and left her 70-year-old husband in a critical condition in an attack on their grocery store in Narathiwat province on Thursday.

Militants then detonated a bomb inside the shop as police investigated the shooting, injuring three police officers.

A Buddhist man was also killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani on Wednesday, police said.

More than 3,600 people have been killed and thousands more injured in five years of separatist violence in the Muslim-majority provinces near the Malaysian border.

Buddhist-majority Thailand annexed the mainly Muslim, ethnic Malay area in 1902, sparking decades of tension and mistrust.

Stealth jihad in Knoxville: mosque attempts to impose Islamic restrictions on alcohol upon non-Muslims.

"Mosque disputes sale of alcohol at nearby Knoxville restaurant," by Ann Keil for WATE, March 25 (thanks to Pamela):

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Plans are underway to open a new restaurant in a Fort Sanders neighborhood building that has sat empty for years. Its owner wants to serve alcohol, and that's a problem for members of the Muslim Community of Knoxville nearby.

The two buildings are 191 feet apart. The mosque is at 100 13th Street and the restaurant would be at 1105 Forest Avenue.

According to a Knoxville city ordinance, beer can't be sold within 300 feet of a house of worship. But as it turns out, there are other laws that make the issue more complicated.

"We assumed that in Knoxville, all houses of worship would have some sort of buffer," Nadeem Siddiqi says.

The Corleone family had a lot of buffers, but do houses of worship really need them?

Siddiqi is talking about the building being renovated behind Annoor Mosque. It was once an eyesore.

In another month, it may become home to "The Hill," a restaurant that serves alcohol and has music and dancing.

"We're trying to promote some conservative behavior to some degree, and being right next to a nightclub seems like a bad location for us," Siddiqi says.

Memo to Mr. Siddiqi: it is not "conservative" to try to compel your non-Muslim neighbors to abide by Islamic law. Also, many conservatives, in fact, drink alcohol.

Still, construction continues on the restaurant.

The owner, Trevor Hill, says he doesn't see any problem with the location. He's applied for a beer permit and liquor license and he intends to have a large menu.

"I want to feed the community. We are providing a service to the Fort Sanders community and we have a good blue plate, a good cheap lunch and dinner," Hill says.

The city won't issue a beer permit if the restaurant in question is within 300 feet of a church and in this situation, the restaurant is less than 200 feet from the mosque and community center.

But if the state issues a liquor license, it's a different story.

A city ordinance reads that the distance requirement is void if the restaurant receives a state license for liquor by the drink. The state does not have a distance requirement.

"They're entitled to their opinion, and I am in compliance with the codes and laws of the state of Tennessee and Knox County so I don't know what else to do," Hill says.

Good. Stand your ground!

He plans to hire 50 employees and open his doors in early April. By that time, he hopes to have a liquor license in hand.

The beer board deferred approval for a permit for The Hill Tuesday night as it has several times.

Beer Board Chairman Steve Hall says the board isn't going to make a decision about giving the owner a beer permit until the state approves or denies the liquor license.

The board will meet again on April 21 and likely take up the issue.

True: Many forget that the Middle East was indeed, particularly Egypt and Syria, the "cradle of Christianity" and played a major role in the articulation of Christian theology and the concept of monasticism. So what happened? Basically, what has been happening since day one when Islam burst onto the stage is still happening today: Christians are being persecuted to the point that they either emigrate, convert, or live in oppression. Hence why the Middle East "risks ending up without Christians."

"Vatican: Officials express 'concern' for Christians in Gaza," from Adnkronos, March 26:

Vatican City, 25 March (AKI) - The Vatican on Wednesday expressed "profound concern" about the position of Christians in the Middle East after the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the Vatican said two of its senior officials, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri and Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio sent a letter to bishops around the world, asking them to contribute to a collection for the Holy Land, which includes Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In the letter, the two officials expressed the church's "profound concern" for the position of Christians, particularly following the conflict in Gaza.

They also stressed how Pope Benedict XVI "constantly comforts Christians, and all the inhabitants of the Holy Land, with special words and gestures, coupled with his desire to make a pilgrimage in the historical footsteps of Jesus".

"The wounds opened by violence make the problem of emigration more acute, inexorably depriving the Christian minority of its best resources for the future," the letter said.

"The land that was the cradle of Christianity risks ending up without Christians"...

Peaceful and serene on the outside, violent on the inside

As if it weren't bad enough that Muslim-funded schools were indoctrinating children in the rites of the jihad against infidels; now infidel money -- here, specifically in the guise of British charity -- is funding such schools. More on this story. "British-run orphanage in Bangladesh 'is Islamist training camp,'" from Times Online, March 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An orphanage run by a British charity in Bangladesh has been raided by local security forces who say that it was being used as a training camp and arms factory for Islamic militants.

The Rapid Action Battalion said today that it had arrested four people, including a teacher and three caretakers, and was searching for the head of the charity, a British citizen known only as Faisal.

The arrests came after a raid yesterday on the Green Crescent madrassa and orphanage on the remote southern island of Bhola, Lt Col Munir Haque, an officer involved in the operation, told The Times.

“We found small arms – about nine or 10 in total – plus equipment to make small arms, about 3,000 rounds of ammunition, two walkie-talkies, two remote control devices and four sets of army uniforms,” he said.

“We also found enough explosives and other equipment to make several hundred grenades. We found some ordinary Islamic books, but others that are in line with extremists like bin Laden.”

He said that there were about 11 children between the ages of 7 and 8 at the compound at the time of the raid, but no other adults.

Locals told the officers that the madrassa, or Islamic seminary, was a British charity financed by “Faisal”, who they said had lived in Britain for 25 years.

Green Crescent’s web site, www.greencrescent.org, shows that it is involved in projects in Bhola, as well as several others around Bangladesh and at least one in Pakistan. The charity, which is registered in the UK under the number 1099233, was founded in 1998 by students in Britain and Bangladesh, and is based in Stockport, six miles from Manchester.

K.M. Mamunur Rashid, another officer involved in the raid, said that the charity had plans to build two more madrassas, although there were no details on the charity’s site.

"It is a big madrassa and we have so far gathered that this whole compound is being used for militant training,” he said....

The twice-acquitted Mostafa: third time's a charm?

Faisal Mostafa has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Manchester Polytechnic. But -- but -- I thought poverty caused terrorism!

More on this story. "Police swoop on British man accused of running arms factory 'orphanage' as deadly weapons cache is revealed," by Fay Schlesinger for the Daily Mail, March 26 (thanks to Pamela):

A British man accused of running an orphanage which was really a front for a terrorist training camp has been arrested by police in Bangladesh.

Dr Faisal Mostafa, who has twice been acquitted of bomb plots in the UK, was picked up in the capital city Dhaka.

Police said they had also arrested a man identified only as Badl, who is alleged to be his 'agent' in Bangladesh.

Captain Shafiul Alam, of the Rapid Action Battalion, said: 'They were both arrested yesterday.

'They are being charged with illegally keeping arms, explosives and ammunition, and with militancy and terrorism.'

Four people, a teacher and three caretakers, have already been arrested after explosives were seized at the orphanage, which is operated by British charity Green Crescent.

Mostafa ran the organisation, which provided humanitarian aid to families in Bangladesh and Pakistan....

Mostafa, who has a PhD in chemistry from Manchester Polytechnic, was known to security forces in Britain, having been cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions with intent to endanger life at Birmingham Crown Court in 2002.

Six years earlier, he had been cleared at Manchester Crown Court of involvement in a bomb plot campaign.

In July last year he was caught at Manchester Airport trying to board a plane to Bangladesh with a pistol and bullet parts in his luggage.

Ah, but he was no doubt on a mission of peace.

The father-of-three was given a suspended sentence. On Monday Bangladeshi security forces raided the orphanage Mostafa set up and the attached Muslim school on the remote island of Bhola in South Bangladesh.

Lieutenant Colonel Munir Haque, from the Rapid Action Battalion, said: 'We found small arms - about nine or 10 in total - plus equipment to make small arms, about 3,000 rounds of ammunition, two walkie-talkies, two remote control devices and four sets of army uniforms.

'We also found enough explosives and other equipment to make several hundred grenades. We found some ordinary Islamic books, but others that are in line with extremists like Bin Laden.'

I'd like to see how they made that distinction.

He said there were 11 children between the ages of 7 and 8 at the compound.

K M Mamunur Rashid, another officer in the raid, said: 'It is a big Madrassa and we have so far gathered that this whole compound is being used for militant training.'

Mostafa's father, speaking from his home in Stockport, last night strongly denied that his son had any involvement in terrorism. The 73-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: 'This is all an exaggeration.

'He just wants to help children. He is a British citizen and has been in this country since 1969.'...

Of course. He just wants to help children. He is the salt of the earth. This is what we invariably hear from the friends and relatives of those arrested for jihad activity. One day a Muslim relative of an accused jihadist will say, "He's guilty as hell. He was always railing about how much he hated the kuffar" -- and I will faint dead away.

But actually, that day will never come, because the displacement of responsibility and utter denial of any wrongdoing is a staple of the jihadist program.

A spokesman for counter-terrorism think-tank Quilliam Foundation said: 'If Green Crescent has been involved in militant activity, this will reflect very poorly on the Charity Commission, particularly given that Mostafa, the head of the charity, had previously been put on trial twice for terrorist offences.

'Ineffectiveness by the Charity Commission in identifying and tackling extremist charities leads to the British taxpayer directly subsiding militancy.'

Uh, yeah.

Raising "questions about the Government's pledge to crack down on terror groups accused of high-profile attacks in Pakistan and India, and ties to global terror plots."

"The schools where pupils prepare for jihad," by Chris Brummittin for the New Zealand Herald, March 26:

BAHWALPUR - The compound bore no sign.

Residents referred to it simply as the school for "jihadi fighters", speaking in awe of the expensive horses stabled within its high walls - and the extremists who rode them bareback in the dusty fields around it.

In classrooms nearby, teachers drilled boys as young as 8 in an uncompromising brand of Islam that called for holy war against enemies of the faith.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Dar-ul-uloom ["house of knowledge/science"] Madina school, they rocked back and forth as they recited sections of the Koran, Islam's holy book.

Both facilities are run by an al Qaeda-linked terror network, Jaish-e-Mohammed, in the heart of Pakistan, hundreds of kilometres from the Afghan border that is the global focus of the fight against terrorism. Their existence raises questions about the Government's pledge to crack down on terror groups accused of high-profile attacks in Pakistan and India, and ties to global terror plots.

Authorities say militant groups in Punjab are increasingly sending out fighters to Afghanistan and the border region.

The horse-riding facility, discovered by AP during a visit to this impoverished region where kilometres of dusty, wind-swept desert spread out in all directions, had never before been seen by journalists.

There, would-be jihadi fighters practise martial arts, archery and horse-riding skills and get religious instruction, according to a former member of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who spoke on condition of anonymity...

End of the Mahdi revolt

The Investigative Project has a terrific expose on the slick Mahdi Bray, whose antics have been featured many times at Jihad Watch: "Mahdi Bray's Secret, Checkered Past," from the Investigative Project, March 25 (thanks to Axel):

It's difficult to call Mahdi Bray a private man. He leads the Muslim American Society's (MAS) political arm, MAS-Freedom. His picture appears on numerous MAS and personal websites and he co-hosts a weekly radio program in Washington, D.C. He spent most of Saturday riding on the back of a flat-bed pick-up truck, leading demonstrators on a march through Washington and to the Pentagon in protest of the Iraq war's sixth anniversary.

The procession stopped outside the offices of military contractors, where demonstrators left cardboard coffins and chanted slogans. Bray, megaphone in hand, led the way:

"We say no more! I hope your stocks plummet to the ground. I hope it goes in the toilet. I hope your stock just goes to hell ... The justice, and the peace, and the humanity and the solidarity that we have with the Palestinian people, the solidarity we have with the people of Iraq, and Afghanistan, Pakistan, the solidarity we have with the veterans who have been hoodwinked by this government, we say not in our names!"

As the crowd marched, Bray led them in a time-worn anti-war chant:

"We're the people. We, the people, and the people united can never be defeated."

For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate."

A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers.

And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) tracked down court records involving Bray and found a history of legal run-ins and deceit. Bray was no kid – he was born in 1950 and was more than 30 years old when he amassed at least three felony convictions during the 1980s. And, if his recollection of the timing of his conversion to Islam is accurate, it did not straighten him out. He had changed his faith years before becoming a felon.

Bray declined to comment Wednesday after hearing a summary of the IPT's findings. "You guys write the stories as you see fit to write them," he said.

He even spent a couple of days in a Virginia jail cell as recently as March 2008 due to a series of traffic violations. Finally, there are questions today about his Washington, D.C. voter registration.

The 1980s proved to be a difficult time in Bray's life. The trouble started with an arrest in February 1981 for marijuana and cocaine possession. Then came grand larceny charges for cashing checks off a dead account just two weeks later. He was convicted on the cocaine and larceny charges and sentenced to three years in prison, only to find himself in even bigger trouble toward the end of the decade.

Throughout these ordeals, and even while incarcerated, Bray secretly was keeping hundreds of dollars a month in workers' compensation money intended for his grandfather. Wrighty Bray, Jr. was injured while working at the Norfolk, VA Navy Shipyard as a "helper-boilermaker." During his shift on December 2^nd 1929, the 25 year-old Bray slipped, causing his right leg to be pinned in the hold of a ship. Wrighty Bray bled heavily and the leg had to be amputated. As a result of that injury, he qualified for - and began receiving – workers' compensation under the Federal Employee's Compensation Act, known as FECA.

Those payments, regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor, continued to be sent properly and without incident for the next 46 years. Wrighty Bray, Jr. died on December 1^st, 1975 of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 71. His workers' compensation payments should have ceased at this point.

But court records show his grandson, then called Wright Bray IV, "devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud the United States of America … by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises."

The payments continued while Mahdi Bray was in prison for the drug and larceny charges. They continued after the Labor Department sent forms to Wrighty Bray, Jr. to update his status. He was indicted in June 1988 on 64 counts of mail fraud and receipt of stolen U.S. Securities. According to the indictment, Mahdi Bray submitted a signed "false and fraudulent" form saying Wrighty Bray was living in Washington and was unemployed. He "well knew [it] was false and fraudulent in that the defendant's grandfather was dead and no longer entitled to benefits," the indictment said.

Department of Labor investigators were growing suspicious about the Bray claims by September 1986. Handwritten notes show an investigator had determined that the "last medical expense paid for the clmt (was) on 3/18/68" and that Wrighty Bray had no medical procedures on file since 1975. Repeated attempts to receive signed forms required to continue the benefit checks were met with no response.

The investigator concluded: "The facts of this case lead me to believe the client may be dead."

A December 14, 1988 report from a Labor Department Inspector General's Office agent indicates Bray changed the mailing address on the benefits at least twice after his grandfather died. The agent also traced a 1984 check and found it deposited in Bray's bank account.

The payments ended shortly after a March 1987 visit to a Department of Labor office, where Bray tried to drop off a form that had been due months earlier to update his grandfather's status. According to a Labor Department claims examiner's handwritten account of the visit, Bray attempted to talk his way through dropping off a late, fraudulent form by claiming he was "Herbert Bray," and could not stay to answer questions because he was double parked. The note says Bray reluctantly agreed to wait five minutes, and when he did start talking, "indicated that grandfather was old but proud and would not let any family members assist him with the paperwork until it had stacked up and then he would call grandson or granddaughter to assist, which is why he was now bringing" in the form.

When asked where Wrighty Bray was, Bray said he was staying with a granddaughter, but that no change of address was needed since the elder Bray still picked up his mail at home. Asked for a telephone number where his grandfather could be reached, Bray said he couldn't remember it.

In all, Bray kept more than $71,000 that the U.S. Government intended go to his grandfather. He pled guilty to one count of mail fraud on June 26, 1989 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison and ordered to make full restitution.

It is unclear how much Bray has disclosed publicly about his past. He does not refer to his criminal history in speeches or on his radio program, called "The Crescent Report." The show, which Bray co-hosts, airs Sunday mornings on WUST, 1120 AM in Washington.

He often dismisses criticism of his statements and connections as smear campaigns from Muslim bashers.

Of course he does. There is much more. Read it all.

More on this story. "2 more in net for Gzb honour killing," from Times of India, March 26:

GHAZIABAD: The police on Wednesday arrested two more persons in connection with the honour killing case, in which a 16-year-old girl was burnt alive in Bhojpur's Teori village on Monday.

According to the police, Zalis and Munshaad were arrested from a hideout near the village. "They have confirmed the claims of other accused Asim and Arif that Imrana's father had asked them to straighten his daughter as one Irfan used to visit her frequently. The four accused had also scuffled with Irfan and some others on the day of incident. We will book them under the Gangster Act, the National Security Act, murder and other charges, ''said Akhil Kumar, Ghaziabad police chief.

As reported earlier, four men on Monday afternoon forced their way into Imrana's house and beat her up. They then set her on fire. Imrana had made a dying statement before a magistrate and named the four accused.

In other words, don't resist. Submit passively. "U.S. strikes in Pakistan 'justify jihad': cleric," by Kamran Haider for Reuters, March 26 (thanks to James):

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - An expansion of America's secret war in Pakistan to Baluchistan province would justify jihad and see many more young men rally to fight foreign forces in Afghanistan, a radical cleric said....

"America is trying to scare us but it won't work. Rather it will be a justification," Noor Muhammad, a well-known radical cleric who runs a madrasa, or religious school, in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, said of possible U.S. strikes.

"America is foolish because it will only force more people here to stand up against it," he said.

Sitting in a room his madrasa complex, the 60-year-old grey-bearded Muhammad denied any policy of sending young men from his school to fight Western forces in Afghanistan.

But he said it was the duty of every Muslim to do that.

"If infidels occupy a Muslim land then it's obligatory for all Muslims to do jihad ... Preaching jihad is my duty," he said....

In the Pashtunabad area on the outskirts of Quetta, support for militancy appears strong. Walls on a street leading to Muhammad's madrasa are daubed with slogans such as "Long Live Mullah Omar."...

Officials in Kabul also say young men are pouring out of radical religious schools in Pakistan into Afghanistan to join the Taliban and become suicide bombers.

If the lessons that students get at Muhammad's seminary are anything to go by, it's not hard to understand why.

"We spread the message that the Taliban and Osama (bin Laden) have adopted the right path and that's the solution of all problems," Muhammad said.

"The protection of Koranic teachings is only possible through arms .... those who make weapons, make them available and use them will go to heaven," said Muhammad as four of his teenaged students with black turbans and wispy beards sat at his feet.

I trust that Honest Ibe Hooper of CAIR and all other moderate Muslim leaders in the U.S. are on their way to Pakistan right now to explain to Muhammad that the idea that "the protection of Koranic teachings is only possible through arms" is a hijacking of Islam perpetuated only by venomous Islamophobes.

Tiny Minority of Extremists™ Update:

Pakistan has for years been saying it wants to reform madrasas but little has been done. Muhammad said there was nothing the government could do to quell zeal for jihad.

"The love and affection for jihad have developed among the youth to the extent that neither their relatives nor the government can control them," he said....

Major General Salim Nawaz, chief of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Baluchistan, also said drone strikes in Baluchistan would merely stir up militancy.

"That would be music to the Taliban, music to their ears," said Nawaz at his headquarters in the city center....

Nawaz said the United States should try to engage moderate Taliban, a possibility that Obama has raised.

"They need to demotivate these so-called terrorists. Some space needs to be given to the Taliban. Some confidence-building needs to be done," he said.

Yes, the onus is always on the West. No Muslim entity -- even fictional ones, like the "moderate Taliban" -- ever needs to do anything to build confidence among unbelievers. No, the responsibility is always upon non-Muslims to gain the confidence of Muslims, even amid jihad violence and the spread of Islamic supremacism.

Anyway, I don't think the U.S. should try to engage moderate Taliban. I think the U.S. should instead open diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Prester John.

Galloping Eurabian dhimmitude: a French human rights organization is suing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, but what they cannot do is show that anything he has said about the Qur'an or how Islamic jihadists use it to incite Muslims to violence and hatred is inaccurate.

"France: Human rights organization sues Wilders," from Islam In Europe, March 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A French human rights organization is summoning Geert Wilders to court. The head of the PVV party is accused of inciting to hatred of Muslims.

"Wilders made statements about French Muslims, about Muslims in Paris and Marseilles, which incite to racial hatred," says lawyer Yassine Bouzrou. He lodged the complaint on behalf of the organization, which is being studied by the public prosecution. If Wilders is found guilty, he can be sentenced for one year in prison.

Wilders was not aware of the complaint yesterday evening. "I hear this for the the first time," he said. "The world is becoming small with trials and procedures everywhere: from the Netherlands, Jordan and England to France. Dreadful. But I'll naturally fight back judicially. They won't prevail over me."

Last week the PVV head signed an official appeal against the UK's refusal to let him into the country.

The French complaint is based on Wilders' speech in New York last September. "Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods," he said then. "Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves."

He called the riots in the suburbs in 2005 a "Muslim intifada". Bouzrou came to the conclusion that the expressions are criminal. "Wilders says in that speech also that one in three French Muslims supports suicide attacks. With that he suggests that one in three French Muslims is a potential terrorist. Where he does he get all of this? How did he get ot it [sic]? Wilders makes serious accusations which are based on nothing."

Actually, they're likely based on this Pew Research Center survey, which shows that 35% of Muslims in France believe that suicide attacks are "sometimes" or "rarely" (as opposed to "never") justified.

Bouzrou made the complaint for the French human rights organization ADDH. They work together with the Collective against Islamophobia in the fight against Muslim hatred.

"A politician may express his idea. But Wilders makes dangerous statements about something of which he has no understanding. These are not political ideas, but insults and prejudices," says the lawyer. "We already had in France attacks on mosques and against Muslim cemeteries. The statements by Wilders instigate further extremism against Muslims."

He doesn't seem to have any concern at all for "extremism" by Muslims.

Indian jihadists are taking advantage of the outsourcing of IT jobs by companies such as Yahoo -- advantage for the larger jihad effort.

"Yahoo created Mujahideen hacker: Learned all he needed on a staff outing," by Nick Farrell in ITExaminer.com, March 10 (thanks to Maxwell):

Search outfit Yahoo trained the media chief of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) who helped carry out the attacks in Mumbai last year.

According to the Hindustan Times Mohammed Peerbhoy has told investigators that Yahoo sponsored him to learn cyber security skills against hacking from an Italian security expert in Hyderabad two years ago.

Peerbhoy, who was working for Yahoo as a senior engineer, instead used his acquired expertise to hack Wi-Fi networks to send terror emails.

The hacker is currently locked up for allegedly sending the IM email which ordered the September 2008 serial blasts in Mumbai.

Yahoo wanted Peerbhoy to learn how to hack before learning measures to counter it. He had learnt how to hack in a six-day course, run by E2 Labs, on information security in Hyderabad in May 2007. E2 runs a School of 'Ethical Hacking'.

A police spokesman said that Peerbhoy already a member of the Indian Mujahideen but turned to a more active role when a blast took place at Hyderabad’s Mecca mosque on May 18. “Peerbhoy visited the blast site at the mosque and got very disturbed and upset to see the damage and deaths.

After learning hacking skills, Peerbhoy volunteered his new abilities hacking unsecured wireless networks to send terror emails. The Indian Mujahideen had learnt the hard way about using Internet cafes and instead used Peerbhoy's hacked wireless networks....

Some time ago, as you may recall, Pamela Geller took up a collection to provide honor killing victim Aqsa Parvez with a headstone -- at present Aqsa lies in an unmarked grave, plot #774 in Meadowvale Cemetery in Brampton, Ontario. I was honored to be able to join Pamela in this effort.

However, Aqsa's family rejected the grave marker we had offered to place at her gravesite, which only contained her name and dates and the legend "Beloved, Remembered, Free." But then the Canadian town of Pelham passed a resolution to honor Aqsa, and to stand up for victims of honor killing. And now, after craven dhimmis blocked many attempts to construct a monument for Aqsa and victims of honor killing in the U.S. or Canada, Pamela has arranged to have a grove of trees planted in American Independence Park in Jerusalem, Israel, through the Jewish National Fund. There will also be a plaque in American Independence Park, inscribed "In Loving Memory of Aqsa Parvez and All Victims of Honor Killings Worldwide." Pictures, details, and further background here. I think it is fitting that this remembrance of Aqsa should end up in Israel, a state that is on the front line of defense against the global jihad -- against, that is, the forces that wish to expand the scope and power of the Islamic laws and cultural attitudes that led to Aqsa's murder.

This is one of the first, if not the first, public memorials to the victims of honor killing, and it is a powerful indication that there are some people in the West who will never acquiesce to the destruction of life and memory that is involved in honor killing. I was dismayed by the amount of dhimmitude and fear Pamela encountered in trying to memorialize Aqsa, but not all of us in the West are cringing dhimmis. The grove and plaque, as well as the Pelham memorial, are indications of that.

Congratulations and thanks to my friend and colleague Pamela Geller, who had the vision, persistence, and courage to conceive of this project and see it through.

No, I'm not fighting to keep the jihad in prisons. The ACLU and some allied groups are. My column in FrontPage this morning:

An unlikely alliance of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian lawyers’ group that usually fiercely opposes the ACLU, along with several other groups, is contesting a proposed Bureau of Prisons rule that prohibits “materials that could incite, promote, or otherwise suggest the commission of violence or criminal activity” from being placed in prison chapel libraries. It would enable prison officials to remove from libraries books that they deem to be “advocating or fostering violence, vengeance or hatred toward particular religious, racial or ethnic groups” or advocating “the overthrow or destruction of the United States.”

The ACLU has framed the issue as one of religious freedom. David Shapiro, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project, explained: “BOP officials need to follow the law, not engage in the business of banning religious material. Distributing and reading religious material is as protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as worshipping in churches or preaching from the pulpits. It is not the role of the government to dictate what is religiously acceptable.”

Here is Washington University student Natalie's account of my talk there Tuesday night.

[...] Mr. Spencer began his speech by saying that despite the ideological differences we may have with people, we do have a shared interest in defending rights. But of course, how to define these rights, and how to define justice, is a point of conflict in itself. We may have an idea of what rights are, but this is by no means universally shared. In fact, there are people who say that justice is the denial of rights to certain people, namely women and those who do not share religious beliefs that are deemed proper.

There exists a choice to the Western world: our version of justice versus theirs. Simple as this may seem, it is actually misunderstood because no one seems to agree what the conflict that is currently going on is all about. We had the term "war on terror" during the Bush presidency. Now, Obama has deemed it necessary to call it something totally different. No matter what name we have given to this conflict so far, we have ultimately been misleading in what we've called it. [...]

There is much more. Read it all. Natalie, thank you for your kind and meticulous account! It was great to meet you and the other members of your group, and I thank you for your clear-sightedness and courage.

No, I'm not returning to jihad in Iraq, that is the title of my Human Events column this week:

The United States is closing Camp Bucca, a prison camp in Iraq, releasing hundreds of prisoners into the general Iraqi population. The camp once held 26,000 inmates; now only 9,600 remain, and the camp will be closed this summer. Saad Nema, mother of one of the freed prisoners, asserted: “Most of the prisoners are innocent, just like my son. I cried today in happiness.”

But not everyone is weeping for joy. Not all those who have been released are innocent -- among them was Mohammed Ali Mourad, formerly the late Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi’s driver. Fallujah’s deputy police chief, Col. Daoud Hammoud, says that “we have information that he and his cell are behind” a December bombing that killed fifteen people at a police station.

Peace

Last night I spoke at Washington University in St. Louis. The threatened disruptions did not happen, and the protests called for by the student paper did not happen either -- in fact, the local MSA and its Leftist allies didn't show up, which was a bit disappointing, as I would have been very happy to talk over matters with them and answer objections. The event was very sparsely attended, in part because the venue was changed at the last minute and with little notice, and non-students were barred, because of security concerns. There was no problem with security, however, as the ever-vigilant and formidable Kevin Tracy was on the job:

All in all it was a very pleasant evening, not least because of a delightful dinner after the talk with the knowledgeable and courageous students who brought me to the campus. Natalie of the superb Birdbrain blog was among them, and promises an account of the talk.

The Student Life paper has a slideshow and a few minutes of audio, and they say they'll have more about the talk later this week. I'll be looking forward to that!

According to this account, "The victim had screamed for help for about 20 minutes before neighbours arrived only to find her still smoldering."

"Villagers burn girl alive in 'honour killing,"' from News.scotsman.com, March 24 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

A TEENAGE[R] was burned to death at her home in India in an "honour killing" by neighbours.
Four residents of her village in Ghaziabad, north India, allegedly set the 16-year-old Muslim girl alight after they suspected her of having a relationship with a boy.

Police claim residents kept a vigil on her house as they noticed the boy visited her frequently when her father was away. The four men then beat her, doused her with kerosene and set her on fire.

District police chief Akhil Kumar said: "The four men came to the girl's house and demanded to know why the young man frequently visited her. The girl's younger sister, who felt the visitors were getting violent, ran out of the house.

"Meanwhile, the accused beat up the girl and then set her on fire with kerosene oil."

She gave a dying statement to the police saying the accused beat her and set her on fire.

Vijay Singh, station officer at Bhojpur police station in Ghaziabad, said: "The girl has succumbed to her injuries. We have been looking for the four men accused in this case. One of them has been caught and charged with murder."

The learned analyst

Jihad Watch reader Alan attended establishment Islamic scholar Juan Cole's talk Tuesday morning at the New America Foundation, and kindly sent in the following report:

I attended Juan Cole's talk this morning at the New America Foundation, a book signing event. His points:

1. Seeing the Muslim world as one monolithic world is totally misleading, erroneous and has led to bad US policy vis-a-vis the Muslim world. Pew polling of Muslims reveal that most Muslims have a favorable view of the US generally but they completely object to US policy, namely Iraq and Afghanistan and its blind support of Israel against the Palestinians. There is no one faction or leader that speaks for that world. Shi'ites don't support the notion of a Caliphate as do Sunnis. Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia is not connected to terrorism. There is no evidence of that and yes some terrorists are Saudis but not all. Qatar also is a Wahhabi state but its brand of Wahhabism differs from that of SA so it is wrong when westerners see Islam as being synonymous with Wahhabism.

No mention, apparently (and not surprisingly), of the jihad doctrine or Islamic supremacism. Shi'ites don't support the caliphate, but they do support jihad against infidels, and their subjugation under Sharia. Saudi Wahhabism is indeed connected to terrorism (see the 9/11 hijackers), but even more important are the Saudi-funded stealth jihad efforts to insinuate elements of Islamic law into Western societies and reinforce the principle that where Islamic law and American law conflict, American law must give way.

2. Yes, SA has human rights issues that must be addressed but in every other Muslim country you will see plenty of women drivers. And in SA, women do go to professional schools, though if they become doctors they will only serve the medical needs of women. Cole made it clear he is for human rights and is no fan of the strict Wahhabi brand in SA nor of gender separation. It is a fallacy to think that the US military can force social change in the Muslim world, however. He did not say what would be a good agent of change.

Of course the US military cannot force social change in the Islamic world. The real question is whether Islamic pressure groups can force social change in the other direction in the West. So far they are attempting to do so essentially unopposed

3. US invasion of Iraq essentially put a Shi'ite council in power, alienating Sunnis and creating the impression that US wants to dictate to the Muslim world according solely to US interests. This adds to Muslim animosity toward the US.

The Iranians, however, who are the chief beneficiary of the unwitting American aid to the Shi'ites in Iraq, don't seem to have warmed to the United States as a result of this. And why not? Because of the doctrines of jihad and Islamic supremacism that inculcate hatred of and contempt for infidels. If what Cole said here were true -- that American policy has made Sunnis dislike us -- it should follow that Shi'ites would like us, as a result of that same policy. But they don't. And why is that? The answers can be found in the Islamic doctrines and assumptions that Cole declines to address.

4. The Israel-Palestine issue is a festering sore for Muslims everywhere. It is a symbol for them of US and US-backed Israeli imperialism, and it is a major gripe for them against US which they see is totally in bed with Israel. Israel is guilty of starving Palestinian children in Gaza by its blockade of food and this is an outrage, a criminal act that unless corrected will never bring peace to the region. Bush was seen as being entirely against the interests of the Palestinians and so Obama is starting out with a handicap of bad Muslim perception. He will be challenged to undo the damage of Bush.

Here again the main issue is Islamic -- the Hamas Charter is quite clear that the principal problem regarding Israel is that its existence within land that Muslims claim for Islam is considered to be an insult to Islam. If Cole thinks, and if Obama also thinks, for that matter, that if American policy changes toward Israel, that this problem will disappear, they are being naive. Hamas, Hizballah and the rest will never be satisfied until Israel is erased from the map. Further concessions to the Palestinians will not bring peace; like the withdrawal from Gaza, such concessions will only embolden the jihad groups to press harder for the total destruction of Israel.

5. Iran is at least 10 years from developing a nuclear warhead. Currently, Iran poses no threat whatsoever to Israel and the US because it scarcely has enough enriched uranium to power a small nuclear energy reactor let alone to build a bomb. Furthermore, the National Intelligence Estimate of '07 showed that Iran is NOT developing nuclear weapons and that its nuclear program is for energy purposes. The US would do well to offer Iran its technical capability to help Iran develop its nuclear energy and natural gas industries and to stop all sanctions including trade and medical/food sanctions. This would help change the dynamic between the two countries for the better.

Sure. It worked in Munich in 1938. Why not try it again?

6. Contrary to press reports, Obama's peace gestures to Iran have not been rejected. The Iranian leadership is merely saying cautiously, "OK, back up your rhetoric with action. We are ready to change our behavior toward you if you will change yours toward us." Iran's gripes against the US include the shooting down of the civilian airliner, trade sanctions, US support of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and the overthrow of Mossadegh.

Here again, Cole is naive if he thinks a change of policy in Washington -- which appears to be imminent -- will do anything but embolden the Iranian mullahs to press for further concessions. And about this we will soon see which one of us was right.

7. Obama is doing the right thing by asking all the right questions regarding Afghanistan, such as, what is the end game here. The success of his policies will in part hinge on the outcome of elections next summer.

Afghanistan is already a Sharia state under Karzai. And the Taliban is stronger than it has ever been since it was toppled. What will the elections next summer change? By what measure will "success" be judged in Afghanistan?

8. Pakistan has shown no signs it wants Taliban rule. Currently the Taliban rule SWAT with 3 million people in a country of 165 million people most of whom have no interest in Islamic fundamentalism. In fact, the supreme court judges have been reinstated, new elections took place, and Pakistan is showing signs, if anything, of moving further toward democracy not away from it. These are all good signs and indicate Pakistan is not nearly as unstable as the press would have us believe. While there are fundamentalists in the country everywhere the majority of Pakistanis are secular and don't want a Muslim state.

That may be true. But the Sharia advocates are in the position of the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1918: they don't have the numbers, but they have the intellectual initiative, the audacity, and the ruthlessness necessary to seize power. Here again these vaunted "moderates" must act quickly and decisively if they are going to stave off the "extremists." So far they have done nothing to impede their rise to power.

Cole also said that the US media and politicians were deliberately misleading the public about Islam. He said Time Warner was paying CNN to have Glenn Beck "deliberately spread false information about Islam" and he added, "He can see why Murdoch might do this, but CNN?" He didn't say how Beck was misleading or why this disinformation was going on.

Utter fantasy. The media has never portrayed Islamic doctrine accurately, and that includes Beck.

I asked Cole before the talk if he had seen your entry on jihadwatch and he said, "I glanced at it. Was it favorable?" I didn't have time to answer. After the talk, I asked him, "Would you be willing to engage in dialogue with Robert Spencer?" "No!" he said, curtly. I asked him why not, and was interrupted by a staffer who wanted Cole to be left alone to sign his books.

Aw, come on, Juan. It would be fun! I'm ready when you are!

"Repent!"

After pointing out that Khartoum's taqiyya -- in the guise of "political maneouvres, diplomatic ruses and international smooth-talking" -- has failed, Zawahiri insists the only alternative now is for the people to wage a full-blown jihad against "the contemporary crusade [that] has bared its fangs at you."

"Al-Qaeda deputy tells Sudan's Beshir to 'repent': SITE," from AFP, March 24:

DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri urged the people of Sudan to prepare for guerrilla war and for President Omar al-Beshir to "repent," in an Internet video message released on Tuesday.

Zawahiri said Beshir's regime is "reaping what it sowed," in reference to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the veteran Sudanese president this month on charges of war crimes over the conflict in Darfur.

"So will the Beshir regime take the path of Islam and jihad and abandon the political maneouvres, diplomatic ruses and international smooth-talking, which has not -- and will not -- bring anything other than disasters and tragedies?" Zawahiri said in the message, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Beshir, the first sitting president to be hit with an ICC warrant, faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes over the six-year conflict in Darfur.

The Egyptian-born Zawahiri called on the Sudanese people to "make preparations... for a long guerrilla war, for the contemporary crusade has bared its fangs at you."

"The Sudanese regime is too weak to defend the Sudan, so you must do what was done by your brothers in Iraq and Somalia, who defended their countries when the official regimes were powerless to do that."

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died and an estimated 2.7 million have fled their homes during the war between Darfur's ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.

Asked why friend and ally Pakistan didn't notify U.K. Intelligence about the return of these ticking time-bombs, Pakistani officials responded with a "it's-not-our-problem" answer: "We know the number of British Pakistanis engaged in what we would call suspicious activities is much higher -- probably in the hundreds -- but, to be frank, this isn't a Pakistani priority," one official said. "The intelligence services here have much bigger things to worry about and these guys haven't committed any crime on Pakistani soil."

"Al Qaeda-trained Britons return from Pakistan," by Bill Roggio for The Long War Journal, March 24:

More than 20 Britons who have trained in al Qaeda terror camps inside Pakistan have returned to Britain, according to Pakistani intelligence.

The Britons, whose families are from Pakistan, were monitored by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency, Sky News reported. But the ISI failed to notify British intelligence until after the men entered the country, the news agency reported.

Pakistani intelligence officials were indifferent about the activities of the Britons, sources told Sky News. "We know the number of British Pakistanis engaged in what we would call suspicious activities is much higher -- probably in the hundreds -- but, to be frank, this isn't a Pakistani priority," one official said. "The intelligence services here have much bigger things to worry about and these guys haven't committed any crime on Pakistani soil."

Four of the Britons are thought to have actively fought inside Afghanistan. The men claimed to have entered Pakistan to visit relatives, study, vacation, or work for a charity. "The suspects are aged between 17 and 23 and have apparently created 'sufficient suspicion' with their activities for the ISI to believe they pose a 'potential danger' to Britain," Sky News reported.

British intelligence officers are nearly overwhelmed with tracking terror suspects operating inside Britain, many of whom are Pakistanis. In November 2008, an intelligence report stated there are "extremist concentrations" in "London, [and] Birmingham, with significant extremist networks in the South East, notably Luton."

Thousands of suspected British terrorists are supporting terror attacks inside Britain and abroad. "The majority of extremists are British nationals of south Asian, mainly Pakistani origin but there are also extremists from north and east Africa, Iraq and the Middle East," the report stated.

Al Qaeda has long sought to penetrate security in Western countries by recruiting and training operatives who hold dual passports. These operatives have a better chance of being able to travel to and from Pakistan without raising too many flags...

More on modern, moderate Turkey's approval of honor killings. "Media help escalate honor killings, study reveals," from Today's Zaman, March 24:

A study titled "Honor Killings in the Media and Their Impact on Students and Parents" conducted by the Ministry of Education has revealed that parents believe the media play a role in increasing the number of honor killings.

The study was conducted in the provinces where the most honor killings in the country were taking place and covered the responses of 440 high school students and their parents. According to the report released by the ministry, 13 percent of the parents and 9.9 percent of students had witnessed an honor killing. The provinces of Batman, Diyarbak, and Mardin lead in the number of killings, the report indicated.

Based on the responses of students and their families, the media play a negative role in regard to honor killings. Whereas only 7.3 percent of the parents and 8.7 percent of the students said the media have a positive effect in preventing honor killings, 22.7 percent and 29 percent of them, respectively, think that the media play a role in increasing the number of honor killings. The respondents did not find the programs aired or the stories printed by media to be impartial or close to reality.

On the other hand, the study also showed that 26.2 percent of the parents and 25.9 percent of the students said they support such killings, although 64 percent of all respondents said those who committed such a crime should be punished...

All of this is made possible by the clause in the Afghan constitution that stipulates that "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam" (Chapter 1, Article 3). Accordingly, in spite of the lack of a formal, Iranian-style Guardian Council, the clerics and their allies in the government ultimately hold veto power over potential reforms that would protect civil liberties and human rights.

What-Are-We-Fighting-For Alert. "Afghan TV station falls under government crackdown," by Heidi Vogt and Amir Shah for the Associated Press, March 24:

KABUL – The manager of an Afghan television network who refused to censor images of women dancing in short skirts and plunging necklines was arrested in what appeared to be a new sign of the government's struggle to define the role of Islam in a country once led by extremists.

That's the problem -- it has been defined. Now, the country has to deal with the perpetual conflict generated by those who believe you can never have too much sharia. To that end, they will agitate for ever stricter implementation, either invoking precedents like this case and the constitution itself, or resorting directly to warfare.

The government has previously censured television stations and taken others to court, but the arrest of Emrose TV's Fahim Khodamani on Monday was the first for airing overly salacious content, the Afghan deputy attorney general said Tuesday.

The debate over television in this conservative Muslim country heated up after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. [...]

Since the Taliban fell, television stations have flourished, pitting the issue of freedom of the press against conservative norms in a country where most women wear clothes that cover everything but their face and neck.

The issue has become even more complicated with the resurgence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan in the past few years — gains that President Barack Obama hopes to counter by sending an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to the country this year.

Afghanistan's culture minister has warned that the Taliban use racy broadcasts like those on Emrose as a tool in their culture war — recruiting villagers who feel that the government is too influenced by Western morals.

Aggressive Afghan government attempts to censor TV programs could be part of a strategy to temper conflict with the Taliban. Or it could be an attempt to siphon support from Afghans drawn to the Taliban's conservative style of Islam.

Many Afghan TV stations cut or blur scenes with women showing more than their face or neck, taking a conservative stance to avoid violating a vague government law that prohibits media content that is not "within the framework of Islam."

And, of course, that is not out of step with the constitution.

Khodamani was arrested for refusing repeated requests to pixelate or otherwise obscure images of women dancing in short skirts or outfits with low necklines, said Deputy Attorney General Fazel Ahmad Faqiyar.

The videos are relatively tame by Western standards, but manny [sic] do feature women in tight outfits or showing off cleavage. In one typical video, an Indian woman emerges from a pool of water with a thin dress that clings to her body.

There is clearly an audience for it in Afghanistan. Does that mean the clerics dropped the ball somewhere, or is it another facet of the grand Zionist-American conspiracy theory?

Afghanistan's media oversight commission repeatedly reproached the channel for the amount of bare skin on its programs, and for airing pop music videos during the Islamic holiday of Ashoura in January, according to Faqiyar and the station's owner, Najibullah Kabuli.

Kabuli confirmed that Khodamani refused to edit or censor the programming, saying it was station policy to air unaltered programs.

He said the demand and Khodamani's arrest were "against freedom of speech and democracy." Kabuli, who is also a member of parliament, said the arrest may have been masterminded by his political enemies.

The arrest comes days after Afghanistan's top Muslim clerics called on the government to block stations from "airing prohibited and hypocritical anti-Islam programs and immoral scenes and movies."...

And it certainly isn't a defense action against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism.

Well, after sputtering and coughing for many years, the War On Terror appears to be finally over. It was always a silly thing, a war on a tactic of the enemy rather than on the enemy as such, but as we all know, the Global Jihad is The Enemy Who Cannot Be Named.

And so now we are engaged in a great Overseas Contingency Operation, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. And be assured: if the Overseas Contingency Operatives succeed in pulling off another Contingency Operation on American soil on the scale of 9/11, or more than one, we will indeed be sorely tested -- and utterly unprepared to meet the multifaceted cultural, military, political, and spiritual challenge the enemy presents.

"The End of the Global War on Terror," by Al Kamen in the Washington Post, March 24 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use "Overseas Contingency Operation" instead.

"Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill," Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail.

"OMB says: 'This Administration prefers to avoid using the term "Long War" or "Global War on Terror" [GWOT]. Please use "Overseas Contingency Operation.'"

Riedel asked recipients to "Please pass on to your speech writers and try to catch this change before the statements make it to OMB."

Not everyone thinks this is official, however:

An OMB spokesman took issue with the interpretation of OMB's wishes. "There was no memo, no guidance," said Kenneth Baer. "This is the opinion of a career civil servant."

Referring to the phrase "global war on terror," Baer said, "I have no reason to believe that would be stricken" from Hill testimony.

Bush officials tried to end the War On Terror years ago:

By way of history, senior Bush administration officials several years ago wanted to stop using the phrase and switch to something many felt might better reflect the realities of the fight against international terrorism.

One leading option was to change the name to GSAVE, or Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism. This was not as catchy an acronym as GWOT, but officials felt it more accurately described the battle.Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld even used the GSAVE abbreviation publicly.

But, in a White House meeting, President Bush ruled that it was still a war for him, and Rumsfeld and everyone else went back to GWOT.

Among other things, he is accused of having "an irresponsible and unsentimental attitude during the [Muhammad] cartoon crisis." In other words, he seems to be an advocate of free speech. "Rasmussen disrespectful toward Islam: Turkey's senior AKP official," from World Bulletin, March 24:

Suat Kiniklioglu, deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party for foreign relations, said, "it is unacceptable that a person who loutishly disrespect our faith and holy values in the past, will head the Alliance."

In an interview with the A.A, Kiniklioglu said that election of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark as the new secretary-general of NATO could cause some difficulties for the Alliance because of the Islam[ic] world's perception of him."

"The Danish prime minister is a troublesome person for Turkey. There are three reasons of this: First of all, he was captured by cameras as saying after the EU Summit in 2003 that Turkey would never become a full member of the EU; then, he assumed an irresponsible and unsentimental attitude during the cartoon crisis, and lastly, he failed to prevent broadcast of Roj TV from Denmark," he said.

The cartoon crisis erupted in 2006 after a Danish newspaper cartoon depicted the Prophet Mohammad (PBHU)in a way regarded as a serious disrespect by Muslims.

"The way of the Islam world's perceiving Rasmussen is of great importance. It is unacceptable for us that a person who loutishly disrespect our faith and holy values in the past, will head the Alliance especially in a period when U.S.President Barack Obama wants to focus his foreign policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

Kiniklioglu said, "Defense Minister Peter Mackay of Canada, who is also a candidate, well-understands Turkey's sensitivities. He could stand up and object to the approval of the Armenian resolution by the Canadian parliament. On the other hand, some circles are trying to create a consensus in favor of Rasmussen by showing Turkey as the only country objecting to his election. In fact, there are other countries which are positive about Mackay's becoming the next secretary-general of the Alliance. The United States, in the meantime, has not yet made a decision."...

Not only is walking in public restricted for Saudi women; now they can't go to all female gyms for a bit of exercise. "Saudi Arabia: Women fight to stop gym closures," from Adnkronos, March 24:

Dubai, 23 March (AKI) - A group of young Saudi women have begun a campaign to protest against a government decision to close all the country's female gyms that are not linked to a hospital or health body. According to Arab TV network Al-Arabiya, the women have adopted the slogan, 'Let them get fat', while complaining about the high cost of sports centres linked to official health organisations.

They have also appealed to the minister and to the secretary in the municipality of the coastal city of Jeddah to review their decision.

The young women are particularly concerned since they do not have the means to go to 'official' gyms and believe this government decree will be bad for their health.

That view was endorsed by Maha, who enrolled at a gym six months ago and lost 21 kilogrammes. While she said she has several pieces of gym equipment at home, she prefers to go to a gym where she gains support and encouragement.

Another woman, Umm Abd al-Aziz said practising sport is a way of a "moment of relief" and going to a fitness club is the only way to release the tension accumulated at home.

"Where can we go now that the gyms are closing?" the woman asked.

Sara Abd al-Aziz asked why men are permitted to practise sport in gyms that do not depend on a health authority, while women cannot, although they have the same needs.

She said women actually have more need for sport than men since they experience different phases of their lives, such as pregnancy and birth, and also suffer from many pressures without finding any relief.

In response to the protests, the deputy-director of Jeddah's public relations office, Ahmad al-Ghamidi, said the provincial secretary has the right to close female gyms which lack the appropriate licenses, and said a regulatory body is currently carrying out inspections to make sure they follow the rules.

For being "un-Islamic." Will the Muslim world find this, the willful destruction of graves belonging to self-identified Muslims (Sufis) at the hands of jihadis, anywhere near as offensive as Israel's attempts to build a "museum of tolerance" atop a long-abandoned Muslim graveyard?

"Somalia: Islamists Destroy Graves," from All Africa, March 23:

Baidoa — Islamist insurgent forces from Hizbul Islam said Monday they have destroyed tombs and other burial grounds in Biyoley residence in Bakol region in south Somalia.

The Islamists said they have done operations in Tayeglow district in Bakol region to destroy burial grounds in the area.

The move will anger many Sufi organizations who pay homage to the graves.

Sufyan Moalin Adan, the commander of Hizbul Islam who contacted Shabelle Radio from Teyeglow district said they have destroyed six tombs which famous Sheiks were buried. He described the graves as un-Islamic.

The mystical organizations in Somalia worship in Mosques with graves inside but other Islamic organizations oppose it, coming up with other Islamic interpretations.

It is widely believed that the operation of destroying burial grounds in the area will affect two -hundred year old holy shrines which well-known Sheiks are buried and still many people pay homage to them.

You've come a long way, habibi

It's only been a few months since Jacko converted to Islam and already he's begun to threaten others with violence and "bloodshed." "Claim: Jacko's Rep Threatened Harm From Nation of Islam," from Fox News, March 24:

It should be rockin’ at the Hard Rock Café in New York today where famed auctioneer Darren Julien is exhibiting items from the forthcoming Michael Jackson memorabilia sale.

Last week, Julien and his partner Martin Nolan entered affavadits [sic] into Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that an associate of Jackson’s suggested they were in danger from the Nation of Islam if they didn’t stop the auction scheduled for Los Angeles next month.

Jackson’s representative, James R. Weller, Julien says, met with him and Nolan on February 9, 2009 and threatened him with reciprocity from the Nation of Islam. For most of 2004, Jackson was managed by Leonard Muhammad, son in law of Louis Farrakhan. His security was provided by the NOI as well throughout his 2005 trial for child molestation.[...]

"During the meeting, Weller told Martin and me that our lives would be in danger if we did not postpone the auction. Weller said if we refused to postpone it, we would be in danger from "Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam; those people are very protective of Michael."

Julien’s statement continues: "He told us that Dr. Tohme and Michael Jackson wanted to give the message to us that "our lives are at stake and there will be bloodshed."...

Over at Snapped Shot, Brian C. Ledbetter compares and contrasts the treatment that Fairfax Christian School and the Islamic Saudi Academy have received from Fairfax County Officials -- and the Washington media.

Unfortunately, I think the political reality on the ground here is that ISA is getting special consideration that would not otherwise be available to other schools in the County. The Planning Commission has acted in a way that makes it patently obvious that they are advocating this expansion [of the Islamic Saudi Academy], in a way that I just can't see them doing for any other entity.

Which leaves the other schools at the back of the proverbial bus.

Read it all.

More details on the Islamic Saudi Academy here.

Will the Islamophobia never end? Can't the poor Religion of Peace catch a break?

"Weapons found at Bangladesh Islamic school," from The News International, March 24 (thanks to Kapil):

BHOLA: A local television says authorities have recovered a cache of weapons from an Islamic school in southern Bangladesh.

A special anti-crime unit found a dozen guns, bullets and explosive materials after a raid Tuesday at the ``Green Crescent'' Islamic charity school in the coastal district of Bhola. The district is 104 kilometers (65 miles) south of the capital, Dhaka. One teacher was arrested, and the school has been cordoned off. No further details were immediately available.

First, the Maoist government of Nepal pledged to grant Muslims "special rights." Then, Muslims began disregarding civil marriage laws in favor of sharia. Now, they're making this demand of the once-Hindu state, along with others described below.

"Nepali Muslims want constitution to incorporate Sharia-based personal law," by Kalpit Parajuli for Asia News, March 23:

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) – Nepal’s new constitution should recognise Islam. The Nepal Muslim Sangh, a federation of Nepali Muslim communities, made the request to the Nepali government in a six-point list submitted on Saturday to the Constituent Assembly and the parties represented in it.

The federation wants the country’s Maoist government to acknowledge that Nepali Muslims have a separate identity, and that this warrants the creation of a separate Islamic Affairs Commission, an Islamic School (Madrassah) Board, a Hajj Committee (for annual pilgrimages to Makkah) and the introduction of Islamic personal law based on Sharia for Muslims.

Nepal Muslim Sangh Chairman Abdul Sattar said that Muslims should not be exploited as a mere “vote bank”.

Neither the government, nor political parties have paid attention to Muslim concerns; no effort has been made “to launch any concrete programmes targeting the Muslim community,” he said.

Muslims, who number just over 800,000 or about 3.5 per cent out of a mostly Hindu population of 26 million, constitute Nepal’s second largest religious minority after Buddhists.

The government has classified them as Madeshi, or natives of the southern part of the country, along with indigenous groups in the Tarai region

On 15 March the Maoist government signed an agreement with representatives of the Muslim community granting them political, social and cultural rights as a way to stave off possible separatist tendencies.

The agreement does not mention however the inclusion in the constitution of Sharia-based personal law as demanded by the Nepal Muslim Sangh.

Spencer, looking a little sleepy, shows up around 4:50. Only tiny fragments of what I said were used, but that's television for you. (Thanks to Kaosktrl for the video.)

Here is a Fox story on the same issue, hewing closely to what was said in the segment. It is not quite accurate that I "offered no evidence to back up" my "misgivings," but it is certainly true that they presented none of that evidence in the segment.

I haven't even left the Jihad Watch offices in Kalispell, Montana to make my way to St. Louis yet, but the editorial staff of Student Life, the independent paper of Washington University in St. Louis, has already decided that my speech there tomorrow is going to be "inflammatory," and they're taking action -- including calling on students to protest.

The editorial is called "In response to inflammatory speech, listen and question." It's in Student Life, March 23 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm). And in response to this inflammatory editorial, I'm going to listen and question.

Tomorrow evening, author Robert Spencer will speak in Graham Chapel about Islam and the threat of jihad.

Actually, no, I won't be speaking in Graham Chapel after all. I'll be speaking in a room called "Lab Sciences 300," where the event has been moved because of security concerns and indications that plans were afoot to disrupt the event. It's interesting that the paper is calling my talk, which they haven't heard, "inflammatory," while failing (so far) to notice the thuggery that is already coming from the other side.

He is, to say the least, a controversial figure.

We live in a sad age when simply telling the truth and reporting the facts accurately renders one "controversial," but that's the way it is.

To Spencer’s supporters, he is a voice of reason, willing to tell the truth about Islam and call attention to what he argues are the roots and goals of jihad violence as expressed in the source texts of Islam.

The "source texts of Islam" are public. They are open to inspection. What I "argue" about the "roots and goals of jihad violence as expressed in the source texts of Islam" can be easily verified or refuted. But it is easier just to call names:

To his detractors, he is an Islamophobe who incites hate through rhetoric and inaccurate research.

"Inaccurate" in what way? Unspecified, as always. And there's that manipulative neologism "Islamophobe" again. And yet the people who sling this word around never seem to ask themselves why there are no Buddhophobes, or Hindupohobes, or Sikhophobes. Why is it that the bigoted racists always seem to fasten on poor old misunderstood Islam?

Though his views are charged, Spencer—like every lecturer who visits campus—has an inalienable right to speak and express his views. The ultimate way to respect a person’s right to speak is to consider his ideas and their implications, and to engage with the speech by further developing the ideas presented or by criticizing them.

High-minded, this, but contradicted by their call for protests that comes a bit later in the piece. Read on.

Spencer’s arguments, like those of Daniel Pipes, who spoke at Washington University in October, have the potential to stir up hatred and bigotry in others.

This kind of criticism is symptomatic of our age of muddled thinking. The sole criterion for evaluating arguments should be whether or not they are true. For arguments like this, although they're always wielded by Leftists against those whose ideas they dislike, cut both ways: after all, the Student Life editor's arguments in this editorial have the potential to stir up hatred against me. But so what? The only thing that matters is whether or not it is accurate, which of course it is not, not remotely. The emotional effect it may have on those who read it is beyond the control of the author, and irrelevant to its quality.

In a book review posted on the Jihad Watch blog, Spencer writes, “traditional Islam contains violent and supremacist elements, and…its various schools unanimously teach warfare against and subjugation of unbelievers.”

Uh huh. And? Apparently the Student Life author thinks this is an inflammatory or patently inaccurate statement. Unfortunately for him or her, it happens to be perfectly accurate -- and no one can produce a recognized Islamic school of jurisprudence (madhhab) that does not indeed teach warfare against and subjugation of unbelievers. Once again, it's a sad age when simply stating an unpleasant fact gets you labeled an inciter of hatred and bigotry.

And here comes the best part, where the author explains that I don't actually say a number of inflammatory things, but, well, by golly, it's my fault that other people think them:

Though Spencer himself does not claim that the United States should discriminate against Muslims, many who engage with his argument reach that conclusion because of him. And though Spencer does not claim that Muslims uniformly embrace dangerous ideologies, this essentialization of Islam has the effect of essentializing all Muslims. And because this effect can quickly lead to hasty cultural discrimination, it is extremely important to challenge Spencer in this respect.

Righto. Challenge me on what I don't say because other people think things you don't like. And you say you're a university student?

As we said in our staff editorial published prior to Pipes’ appearance on campus, it is important to remember that the most effective challenges to essentialist, reductive arguments like Spencer’s are complex discussion and continuing dialogue.

Yes, and you appear to have mastered these skills beautifully!

Students ought not blindly accept Spencer’s opinions as fact.

Indeed not. I hope that every assertion I will make will be carefully checked by everyone in the audience. Then a few eyes would be opened.

Instead, they should make full use of the question-and-answer period following his speech and, if they deem fit, of any protests of Spencer’s visit, thereby ensuring that Tuesday’s event becomes a spark for a larger conversation about Muslims, the globe and our society.

The student paper here is calling upon students to protest against a talk they haven't heard, based on things I don't say, and they're calling me inflammatory!

Whatever one thinks about Spencer, it is important to weigh the larger context and implications of his remarks. Specifically, we must consider how global conflict—real or imagined—affects us, how our society plans to respond and what that response says about our social character. A gross, simplified dichotomy between Islam and the West is neither an advanced nor a productive framework, and in reality eschews the “Western” values of tolerance and liberty that such a division purports to defend.

Fine. Come on out tomorrow night, and let's talk it over. I'm all for opposing the "gross, simplified dichotomy between Islam and the West" proffered by the likes of Osama bin Laden, Anjem Chaudary, and the like. Are you? Or would doing so be "essentialist"?

As students listen to Spencer’s speech, it important that they remain focused on how his arguments fit into their vision for an ideal society.

Yeah, we all want peace, guys, so let's bury our heads in the sand, ignore this threat, and blame the messenger!

I expect better from the students at Washington University in St. Louis. Is a genuine discussion of the issues too much to ask? We'll see, but based on the intellectual quality of this editorial, I won't be going in expecting much.

Please bury your head in the sand and ignore what the Saudis do

From the "expert" who found it hard to differentiate between Sarah Palin and Osama bin Laden comes this: an exhortation to not condemn the Saudi government, or the Wahhabi lifestyle, just because most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.

Fine. But what about the fact that the Saudi government itself -- not the hijackers -- is responsible for condemning a 75 year-old woman to 40 lashes, sentencing a pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes, and is internationally recognized as one of the worst violators of human-rights? How are we to "reconsider" those facts?

"Author Aims To Dispel Fallacies About Saudi Islam," from NPR, March 23 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Morning Edition, March 23, 2009 · Juan Cole, author of Engaging the Muslim World, wants readers to reconsider what they think they know about countries like Saudi Arabia.

It's widely known that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis. Cole, a professor of Middle East history at the University of Michigan, says some people abuse that fact to fuel suspicion of the Saudi government, or of the Saudi strain of Islam known as Wahhabism.

"Offended" by standard police procedures

Her car was swerving into the bicycle lane; she failed a field sobriety test and was arrested (though she resisted); and she found standard prison procedure "offensive." Not to worry: the ever discredited but not yet defunct CAIR is on it -- concerned that this "case may be the tip of the proverbial iceberg."

"Muslim woman critical of Gilbert police treatment," by Nathan Gonzalez for the Arizona Republic, March 23:

The bumper sticker on Lisa Gopalan's car reads "Islam means peace."

But the Muslim woman and former schoolteacher believes her religion gained her the unwanted attention of Gilbert police, who arrested her for DUI when she failed a field sobriety test.

"I was so humiliated," said Gopalan, who along with her husband was recently laid off. "I do feel I was racially profiled to an extent. The whole thing was so upsetting. I'm no criminal."

While the Chandler resident awaits a possible misdemeanor charge of DUI for being impaired to the slightest degree, police opened an investigation into her claims that she was racially profiled.

"The Gilbert Police Department doesn't make traffic stops or contact based on racial descriptors," said Sgt. Mark Marino, a police spokesman.

The incident began Feb. 15 as Gopalan was headed to a Target store. When she approached Cholla Street eastbound on Warner Road, an officer noticed Gopalan's car swerve into a bicycle lane, a police report states.

Gopalan recalled pulling a calculator from her purse, when "I felt the car swerve."

The arresting officer stated the car swerved a second time before coming to an abrupt, "haphazard" stop at Gilbert and Warner roads.

Fearing anti-Islamic treatment, Gopalan said she removed her headscarf, or hijab. She was then asked to step outside of the car and then attempted to explain that she wasn't under the influence of alcohol, she said.

The officer began a field sobriety test, which Gopalan performed poorly on. A short time later, a second officer arrived with a portable breathalyzer, which registered the woman's BAC at 0.00.

"In my religion we don't drink. That's just something we don't do," she said.

When police attempted to arrest Gopalan, she pulled her wrists away from officers, the report said.

En route to jail, Gopalan admitted to taking Wellbutrin XL, an antidepressant and pain reliever she has used for about three years.

"I've never experienced any problems from (the medication) before," Gopalan said.

When booked at jail, Gopalan said she was offended as guards checked her arms and fingers for signs she injected drugs.

The check is standard procedure for anyone booked on a suspicion of drug use, Marino said. "She was processed just as any other DUI suspect," he said.

Once released, Gopalan and her husband were faced with a $203 impound fee for her car.

The following day, Gopalan contacted Mayor Steve Berman and Police Chief Tim Dorn, which triggered an internal investigation.

Marino said the department does not disclose information pertaining to ongoing internal investigations.

Also awaiting the outcome of the investigation is the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-AZ.

Executive Director Ahmed Daniels said the group is monitoring the internal investigation.

"Our primary goal is to make sure the civil rights of the Islamic community are adhered to," Daniels said.

"We want to see where the police department is taking it," he said. "What concerns me is Lisa's case may be the tip of the proverbial iceberg."

As that investigation continues, Marino warned motorists that prescription drugs can affect one's ability to drive.

"Influence is influence," Marino said. "Many drugs impact people significantly. If you're impaired, your ability to drive the car is also impacted."

More on the Taliban's jihad against girl-schools. "Girls’ school blown up in Mardan," from the Daily Times, March 23:

MARDAN: Unidentified men blew up a girls’ school in Mardan on Sunday. According to police sources, the men planted explosives near Government Girls High School Hattian, located near the residence of NWFP senior minister Rahim Dad Khan. The sources said the blast caused panic among the residents. However, no casualties were reported.

They are also "against polio vaccination because it causes infertility." "Taliban order NGOs to leave Swat," from the Daily Times, March 23:

KARACHI: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Sunday ordered all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to immediately leave Swat.

In an exclusive chat with IRIN, TTP spokesman Muslim Khan said, “They come and tell us how to make lavatories in mosques and houses. I’m sure we can do it ourselves. There is no need for foreigners to tell us this.”

“NGO is another name for ‘vulgarity and obscenity’,” Khan said. He said NGOs hired women who worked with men, in the field and in offices. “That is totally unIslamic and unacceptable,” he said.

Infertility: When asked why the TTP was against the polio vaccination, Khan said, “The TTP is against polio vaccination because it causes infertility.”

“I’m 45 and have never had one drop of the vaccine and I am still alive,” he said, adding that another reason the TTP was against polio vaccination was that the campaign was run by NGOs and the vaccine was imported.

Why? See here. And Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center explains: “Although widespread public anger has rightfully focused on bonuses AIG paid to top executives using taxpayers’ money, that anger would be at an even higher pitch if the public knew that our tax dollars were being used by AIG to promote Islam and Shariah law, which provides support for terrorist activities aimed at killing Americans and destroying America.”

"TMLC Sues AIG for Promoting Islam; Responds to Justice Dept’s Motion to Dismiss Suit Challenging AIG," from the Thomas More Law Center, March 19 (thanks to Tom):

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, responded yesterday to a motion to dismiss its federal lawsuit challenging the AIG bailout. The request to dismiss was filed by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice on behalf of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Federal Reserve Board.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “Although widespread public anger has rightfully focused on bonuses AIG paid to top executives using taxpayers’ money, that anger would be at an even higher pitch if the public knew that our tax dollars were being used by AIG to promote Islam and Shariah law, which provides support for terrorist activities aimed at killing Americans and destroying America.”

In its motion to dismiss, the Department of Justice claimed that the government does not control AIG and that it provided billions of dollars in taxpayer money to AIG “to address what is possibly the worst financial crisis this country has encountered since the Great Depression.” In its response the Law Center pointed out that, while our federal government may be compelled to act in unprecedented ways during these difficult times, the crisis itself does not excuse the government from using tax dollars to promote the religion of Islam in violation of the Constitution. [See the Law Center’s response here.]

The lawsuit, which was filed in December of last year in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, is a constitutional challenge to that portion of the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” that appropriated $40 billion in taxpayer money to fund and financially support the federal government’s majority ownership interest in AIG, which engages in Shariah-based Islamic religious activities that are anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish. According to the lawsuit, “The use of these taxpayer funds to approve, promote, endorse, support, and fund these Shariah-based Islamic religious activities violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” [See the complaint here.]

Continued Thompson, “Through this taxpayer-funded bailout, our own government is providing financial support to anti-American, Islamic activities. Make no mistake, there is a cultural jihad underway against our great nation, and I fear that our government is unwittingly complicit in it.” ...

Indeed.

Read it all.

Many, many people have written in to tell me that comments are disappearing from threads, that comments fields from one thread are suddenly showing up on another, etc. etc.

Folks, I find this just as annoying and frustrating as you do. We ditched the Movable Type comments fields that we originally had on this site because they were vulnerable to Denial Of Service attacks, but the Intense Debate system has only presented us with a new set of problems. I apologize for the inconvenience, ask for your patience, and assure you that I am trying to get these problems solved as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, since we're talking about comments, I thought I would take the opportunity to remind you that we value free speech and open discussion very highly, but ask you to remember that you are not in a private room chatting with your friends when you comment on this site, but making a public statement that will be seen by jihadists and their useful idiots and dupes. So I ask you to consider: what is the best way to defeat the global jihad? Not by ranting or venting or advocating positions that are at variance with the principles of human rights that Islamic jihadists are currently attacking. Think strategically when you post, and try not to write something that plays into the hands of those who would destroy us.

The anti-jihad struggle, as I have also often repeated, is a struggle for the equality of dignity and rights of all people. Comments that are boorish, threatening, aggressive, etc., or tangled into knots answering some obvious provocateur, will only discourage thoughtful people who are actually in a position to influence policy from using this site as a resource. Comments that are genocidal, genuinely racist, etc., will be removed if we see them.

Ultimately, what is this site for? To raise awareness of the nature of the foe that faces the Western world and all free people. This is necessary because most policymakers and analysts in the West still continue to ignore or deny outright the true nature of that foe. Until that changes, the jihadists have the advantage, even if it is not one of military might; there are other ways to win wars. This site's archives are full of useful material for legislators, students, human rights activists, etc. I hope they will use it as such, and consult it daily for updates -- not just for a chance to vent.

And why not? What has been done while they were in prison to change their minds about anything? Why, nothing. Nothing at all.

"In Iraq, Chaos Feared as U.S. Closes Prison: Ex-Inmates Reanimate Sunni, Shiite Militias," by Anthony Shadid for the Washington Post, March 22 (thanks to H.B.):

GARMA, Iraq -- The release of hundreds of prisoners from Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run prison in southern Iraq, has facilitated the revival of Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents in Basra, Baghdad and the borderless expanse here along the Euphrates, according to police chiefs, intelligence officials in the Interior Ministry and residents.

Although none of them predicted a return to the anarchy and sectarian carnage of 2006-2007, when scores of bodies might show up in the street on any day, officials suggested that the groups were preparing for the onset of a U.S. military withdrawal.

Their warnings make for an irony at the beginning of the end of the American presence here. As the United States dismantles Bucca, viewed by many as an appalling miscarriage of justice where prisoners were not charged or permitted to see evidence against them, freed detainees may end up swelling the ranks of a subdued insurgency.

In hardscrabble Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, some former inmates of Bucca speak of revenge. Others talk of their own conversion there: as prisoners, giving their support to militiamen loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American cleric whose forces were routed in Baghdad and Basra last year. A sense of uncertainty reigns in the forlorn stretches around Garma, a wind-swept town as parched as it is lawless, as Sunni residents brace for the return of dozens of fighters and such men as Col. Saad Abbas Mahmoud, the police chief here, openly admit to being overwhelmed by their influx.

"These men weren't planting flowers in a garden. They weren't strolling down the street," said Mahmoud, known as Abu Quteiba to his lieutenants, who snap their heels as they enter. "This problem is both big and dangerous. And regrettably, the Iraqi government and the authorities don't know how big the problem has become." [...]

"Most of the prisoners are innocent, just like my son," said Saad Nema, gripping the hand of his 26-year-old son, Raed, who was held for 18 months. "I cried today in happiness."

Not as innocent was Mohammed Ali Mourad, whom Col. Daoud Hammoud, the deputy police chief in Fallujah, described as the driver of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in June 2006.

Mourad was detained after leaving Bucca, but a judge freed him, and he is believed to be running a cell in Baghdad with former prisoners. Hammoud blamed him for an attack Dec. 4 that sent two bomb-laden trucks against a police station, killing 15.

"We have information that he and his cell are behind it," said Hammoud, a former police officer under Hussein who works in a compound littered with the carcasses of BMWs, Toyotas, Opals and a Chevrolet that were deployed as car bombs. [...]

"These regions are becoming a danger to the government," he said. "Al-Qaeda is preparing itself for the departure of the Americans. And they want to stage a revolution."

He suggested that 60 percent of detainees freed in those areas were returning to the fight. Mahmoud, the colonel in Garma, put the number in his region at 90 percent.

Holding forth behind barricades of sand-filled receptacles, Mahmoud, the Garma police chief, is a marked man. Twenty-five, he said, nodding his head, as he finished counting. That was the number of attempts on his life. The most recent were perhaps the most creative: He was delivered a Koran rigged with explosives buried in the pages between its green covers, then, less than two weeks later, his dish of dulaymiya, a mix of chicken, lamb, a slab of fat and rice, was poisoned, sending him to the hospital for 10 days. When he got out, two bombs detonated near his house in Fallujah.

"Thank God, no one was hurt," he said....

Note also the open religious appeal of the jihadists -- which we have noted here many times:

"Please return to your faith, and we will receive you in our hearts, with open hands," read one leaflet signed by the Awakening of Muslim Youth and found in Garma. "If you don't, we will bring to you men who love death in the same way you love life."

One of those Mahmoud's men arrested was Salah Khdeir.

He spent seven months in Bucca after soldiers discovered four mines tucked in his truck. He returned to the prison in 2008 after he was caught burying bombs destined for a U.S. patrol. He was released this month. Five days later, he was arrested again, after a roadside bomb that police say resembled his handiwork detonated near Garma.

Innocent, Khdeir declared at the police station, shaking his head.

"I'm a peaceful man," the gaunt 22-year-old added.

"He's an expert at planting bombs," Mahmoud answered.

After Khdeir left, Mahmoud handed out a letter he said Khdeir had sent his brother.

"If you think I abandoned the jihad, I say that I have paid homage to God and with his will, I will do everything," he wrote in childish Arabic, the script barely legible.

He had signed the letter, "Salah, the roadside bomb."...

The prison allowed the teaching of Islam, and hence of jihad:

U.S. officials were long worried about Bucca effectively becoming a school for insurgents and tried to take steps to combat it. But in Abbas's section, he said, Sadr supporters were in charge. Saadi, the cleric, taught classes in jurisprudence, Arabic, Koranic recitation and even literacy.

Saadi believes he recruited 80 men during his year in Bucca.

"By God's grace, we opened our institute in an American prison," he said....

Hamas says they weren't involved, although a Hamas spokesman says that this attempt at mass murder "should be hailed as an heroic operation."

An update on this story. "Israel: Failed Attack In Haifa 'Work Of Hezbollah', Press," from ANSAmed, March 23 (thanks to Mario):

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MARCH 23 - Lebanese Hezbollah could be behind Saturday night's failed terrorist attack in the Lev ha-Mifratz Mall in Haifa, where a technical defect in a powerful car-bomb caused only a partial explosion, and did not cause any casualties, reported Israeli daily, Haaretz, citing distinguished sources from the Palestinian National Authority. According to these sources, Shiites have been trying to recruit al-Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad militants in the West Bank for some time in order to perform a large terrorist attack in retaliation for the murder of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh one year ago in Damascus....

"The power of the blast should have equalled that of 10-15 suicide bombers", said a bomb-disposal expert from the police. Yesterday Premier Ehud Olmert said that the attack was carried out by a well-established organisation, probably with aid in the West Bank, referring to Hamas. An Hamas leader, Ayman Taha, replied that he does not know who organised the attack, which, he specified, "should be hailed as an heroic operation". (ANSAmed).

This whole episode has the ring of conspiratorial fantasy -- which is so popular in the Islamic world. Haidari is supposed to have written Olmert saying: "We are the Organisation of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything." To which Olmert is supposed to have responded: "We are ready to support you to become an obstacle in the Middle East. We will support you as an agent."

Yeah, surrrre....anyway, probably this man will be executed for this despite the Stalinist show-trial aspect of the proceedings.

"Yemeni Condemned to Death for Israel Contacts," from AFP, March 23 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

SANAA (AFP) – A Yemeni court on Monday condemned an Islamist to death for establishing contact with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and offering to collaborate with the Jewish state.

Bassam al-Haidari, 26, was found guilty of writing directly to the prime minister of Israel by email, offering to work for the Jewish state -- which has no diplomatic ties with Yemen.

Another defendant Imad al-Rimi, 23, was sentenced to five years in prison and Ali al-Mahfal, 24, to three.

"The court... sentences the first defendant to death in the case of making illegal contact with the Zionist Jewish Israeli entity," judge Hassan Elwan said.

"This is unfair, you have sentenced me without any proof of these accusations," Mahfal shouted from the caged dock....

The prosecution charged Haidari with corresponding with Olmert through emails, one of which said: "We are the Organisation of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything."

The charge sheet said Olmert responded to Haidari, also known as Abu al-Ghaith, welcoming his offer to collaborate.

"We are ready to support you to become an obstacle in the Middle East. We will support you as an agent," Olmert was quoted as writing.

The group also claimed in Internet messages signed by Abu al-Gaith that it prepared 16 car bombs to attack government buildings and embassies, according to the prosecution.

Yemeni authorities rounded up six suspects in the capital Sanaa shortly after a September 17 attack on the US embassy that killed 19 people.

The interior ministry said at the time that the arrested group included Abu al-Ghaith al-Yamani, the signatory of an Islamic Jihad claim of responsibility for the attack on the US mission.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh later that an Islamist "terrorist cell" with links to Israeli intelligence had been dismantled....

Glad to see you're on the job, Saleh!

"Australian universities are responsible for providing quality education, not consecrated religious spaces." At last a university administration shows some common sense and unwillingness to be intimidated by Islamic supremacists. An update on this story. "Uni rejects demand for Muslims' prayer room," by Milanda Rout in The Australian, March 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

AUSTRALIAN universities are responsible for providing quality education, not consecrated religious spaces, according to a university involved in a bitter dispute over Muslim prayer rooms.

Dozens of Islamic students plan to protest today to demand that a dedicated Muslim prayer room replace an existing multi-faith centre at Melbourne's RMIT.

But acting pro vice-chancellor Maddy McMaster said it was not for universities to provide consecrated religious spaces.

"A university's responsibility to its students is to provide them with a quality education," she said. "Recognising that the educational experience is not confined to the classroom, RMIT offers other services, including prayer rooms. It falls to religious communities to provide the consecrated spaces."...

But Dr McMaster said the university already provided a number of prayer rooms for Muslim students across all its campuses. "It is difficult to see how we can improve on eight Muslim prayer rooms, with one more opening, as well as providing Muslim students with preferential access to two prayer rooms in the multi-faith Spiritual Centre," she said.

"(Universities) should provide quality resources for those who choose a spiritual path. But as a secular institution, such resources do not include consecrated spaces such as churches, synagogues or mosques."...

Here's the latest from the European essayist Fjordman:

My full history of optics and modern science, published in stages at Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs and the Gates of Vienna blog, has been published at the GoV. Why do I write about optics? I had heard a number of references to the scholar Ibn al-Haytham or Alhazen, who received compliments even from people who are otherwise very critical of Islamic culture. Because of this I decided to look into his work. I wanted to be able to place him in a historical context, so I read about the history of optics before and after him. It is an undeniable historical fact that photography, the telescope, the microscope and other optical inventions were first made in Europe. Yet if we assume that the Middle East with Mr. Alhazen by the eleventh century AD held a leading position in the optical sciences, why did optics not progress further in that region?

I started out with the intention of writing mainly about Alhazen and Kepler, but the essay eventually grew into a small book of well over 50,000 words. That happens to me a lot. A haiku for me is one thousand words. This essay is part of a larger effort to write a history of science and some other topics as well. The one good thing about having to disprove the historical myths promoted by Muslims and their apologists is that it forces us to look seriously into many aspects of history that we may not normally pay much attention. I have therefore read extensively about the history of mathematics, astronomy, physics, optics and chemistry, among many other things.

I intend to publish my conclusions regarding this, plus a history of beer and chocolate, provided that I can find a publisher for my material. My first book Defeating Eurabia is already available in print. My next book will probably exceed 150,000 words and will include this plus a number of other online essays and a few additional texts which I will reserve for the paper edition. I will soon continue with a history of mathematics and mathematical astronomy in several parts, published at the Gates of Vienna, The Brussels Journal, Atlas Shrugs and Jihad Watch.

I am virtually immune to Political Correctness. The creation of modern science happened in Europe between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries; I have so far seen nothing to convince me otherwise. However, I will give credit to people from other cultures when they deserve it. Individuals who do good work should be credited for that, regardless of who they are and where they come from. I agree with Indians who say that their mathematical tradition doesn't always get the recognition that it deserves. Mathematics is one of the areas where I personally think India has in some periods outperformed China. The Indian numeral system which we use today was NOT invented in the Islamic world, despite what some Muslims like to claim.

Freedom of Speech Death Watch Update: Gates of Vienna kindly provides a translation of the posters here by Iranian dissident Ahmed Mashhouri, which the cringing dhimmi Norwegian authorities have asked him to remove. The exhibition is called "It is not forbidden to think" -- or is it?

1. It is not forbidden to think

2. Married women whom you take prisoner in religious warfare can be used by you. (Koran AN-NISA [sura 4], 24).

3. At the top: Girl? boy. At the bottom: Man is superior to all women (Koran, Al-baqara [sura 2] 228).

4. (Koran, AN-NISA [sura 4] -3) Marry two, three or four of the women you like and get satisfaction from the slaves that you own.

5. At the top: A life for a life — An eye for an eye — A tooth for a tooth — Take blood vengeance for injuries as well. At the bottom: Those who do not judge in this manner are despots (Koran, Almaeda [sura 5] -45).

- - - - - - - - - 6. The punishment for those who wage war or try to make riots against Allah and his prophet is to be killed by hanging or to have the hand or leg amputated. [Qur'an 5:33]

7. At the top: Stop Islam. At the bottom: Islam has to stop killing people by stoning.

8. At the top: Man. At the bottom: Marry the women of your choice, two or three or four (Chapter 4: AN-NISA [sura 4] -3)

9. Allah.

10. Women are like a new crop and a man can have sexual relations with them where and how he pleases, and keep them as his personal belonging. (Koran Al-baqara [sura 2] 223)

11. Soon we will strike fear in the hearts of the infidels. So cut off their heads and fingers. — (Koran, Al-anfal [sura 8] 12).

12. Women’s Rights. Men protect women who obey. Women who let their men down must be punished. The punishment is a warning, and not to sleep together or be beaten. (Koran, An-nesa [sura 4] 34).

The rest of the posters (from #13 onwards) are already translated into English, or are in Arabic. The translations are visible below the posters.

So says former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. And he makes it all very simple and Manichaean: there are "two elements in Islam: one wanted to work with the West; the other did not." We just have to work with the one that wants to work with the West.

Of course! Why didn't anyone think of that before?

Anything in his talk about why the "extremists" are so popular, or is that assumed to be a simple matter of policy and reaction to Western foreign policy? Did Blair even get close to mentioning the fact that there is a traditional, deeply rooted idea in Islamic texts and teachings, that Muslims must wage war against and subjugate unbelievers -- regardless of what those unbelievers have done or not done? I am sure that he didn't, despite its relevance to his point.

But until analysts grapple with that fact, nothing is more certain than that the global jihad will continue, no matter which smiling moderate is feted in Western capitals today.

"Battle on Islam heart of Mideast crisis—Blair," by John Nery for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, March 23 (thanks to Wilkie):

MANILA, Philippines – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Manila for a series of leadership conferences, used an open forum at the Ateneo de Manila University to make what he called "a larger point" about the turmoil in the Middle East.

"There is essentially one battle going on, and it is a battle about Islam."...

He told a sympathetic audience that the "larger point" was the right framework with which to understand the pivotal, conflict-ridden region.

Blair said there were two elements in Islam: one wanted to work with the West; the other did not.

The right approach to peace and development in the Middle East, then, would be to "partner with the modernizing and moderate element," he said.

He made his remarks in answer to a question about how he made major decisions, such as joining the US-led Coalition of the Willing in invading Iraq.

He answered the Iraq question first, and then broadened his view to include the titanic struggle for the future of Islam.

Referring to the moderates doing battle with extremists, he said: "We gotta make sure those guys win."

Many of you are already aware of the fine work of anti-jihad artist Bosch Fawstin. Now his book is available:

A collection of illustrations, cartoons & essays that serves as a preview to Bosch Fawstin's upcoming graphic novel, The Infidel, a story about twin brothers whose Muslim background comes to the forefront of their lives on 9/11. One brother responds to the attacks by creating a superhero comic book character called Pigman, the jihad's worst nightmare who exploits the enemy's pigotry, as the other brother submits to Islam and becomes a born again Muslim. Their separate paths necessarily thrusts them into an escalating conflict that is echoed in Pigman's battle against his archenemy, SuperJihad.

Issue #1 of The Infidel hits this summer.

In the New York Times Book Review today is a review of Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood by Donovan Campbell: "Soldiers of Misfortune" by James Glanz (dated March 19). Glanz recounts an incident from the book, in which American Marines in Iraq encounter the children of jihad:

Almost immediately, Campbell sensed that something was wrong in the city he had been told was “on the glide path to success.” On an early patrol, the men of Joker One hand out candy and pencils to local children, who seem delighted: children are the same everywhere, he reflects. Then, after the Marines have handed out everything they have, the children begin showering them with rocks — large rocks. Incredibly, the unit still does not have a translator, so there is no way to find out why this is happening or even to tell the kids to stop.

But after Campbell pulls out of the area, one of his men radios that he has fixed the problem the Marine way. “I grabbed some old man standing by, pointed to the little kids throwing rocks, and he chased them away,” the Marine, named Carson, says. “We’re good to go, sir.” “Oh. Good work. Thanks, Carson. Keep it up,” Campbell radios back.

At the base later on, still unnerved, Campbell begins to realize that something is seriously amiss in his understanding of the city he must patrol for seven months. He muses, “What kind of child tries repeatedly to stone someone who has just given them a present?”

How about one steeped in a belief-system involving hatred for unbelievers ("the most vile of created beings" according to Qur'an 98:6), and the proposition that kindness from those unbelievers should be regarded as a trick ("Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion" -- Qur'an 2:120) and/or a sign of weakness? Such attitudes are inculcated into the children of true believers from the earliest ages.

The Times at the end of that paragraph was on the verge of a thought. It could have embarked at that point upon an actual elucidation of the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism. But of course it can't countenance any discussion of that. Glanz instead draws back, leaving Campbell's provocative question unanswered, and blaming the Marines' "ignorance" to their "pathetically insufficient training," but never getting around to explain how that insufficiency might be remedied:

Welcome to Ramadi, gents. Having been wrapped in a cocoon of ignorance by their pathetically insufficient training, Campbell’s Marines are left to deal with the consequences as the insurgency explodes on the crooked streets of one of the meanest and deadliest places on earth. What follows might be characterized as a cross between the Battle of Agincourt as seen from the French side and the opening scenes of “Saving Private Ryan,” with no one to save.

Near the beginning of his book, Campbell reflects that “it’s so hard to tell the truth, because the telling means dragging up painful memories, opening doors that you thought you had closed and revisiting a past you hoped you had put behind you.”

He never quite puts his finger on the meaning, if any, of the extraordinary violence that imbues the truths he tells in “Joker One.” But he has laid it all out for anyone else who wants to have a try.

If Campbell never quite puts his finger on it, the Times is, if anything, even farther away from any genuine understanding of the significance of that "extraordinary violence."

Ayatollah Khamenei brushes aside Obama's "unprecedented" overture to Iran; Iranians continue developing nukes while chanting "death to America"; and Obama? He "intends to press ahead with efforts to open a dialogue with Iran." More on this story. "Report: Iran Dismisses U.S. Outreach as a 'Slogan,'" from Fox News, March 22:

President Obama intends to press ahead with efforts to open a dialogue with Iran despite an apparent setback yesterday when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme religious leader, dismissed U.S. overtures as a “slogan” offering no real change.

Obama and his aides had already been considering a direct approach to Khamenei as a possible follow-up to the president's unprecedented video address to the Iranian people, released on Friday.

Khamenei’s initial response was not encouraging, but U.S. officials and European diplomats noted that the Iranian leader did not rule out a future breakthrough. A familiar chant of “Death to America” echoed around a religious shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad as Khamenei complained that Obama had “insulted the Islamic republic of Iran from the first day."

He added: “If you are right that change has come, where is that change? Make it clear for us what has changed.”

His remarks came as a nuclear powered U.S. submarine — the USS Hartford — collided at sea with an amphibious vessel, the USS New Orleans, off the Straits of Hormuz. Fifteen sailors were injured, but the submarine’s atomic propulsion system was undamaged.

The Iranian leader's comments followed a striking attempt by Obama to break the deadlock with the country. The president marked the beginning of the Persian new year with conciliatory remarks intended to establish a new commitment to diplomacy after years of bellicose exchanges between Tehran and the administration of former President George W. Bush.

In the video — subtitled in Farsi — Obama pledged to pursue “constructive ties." The president noted that the process would “not be advanced by threats," and referred to Iran as an “Islamic republic," signalling his readiness to deal with the current religious leadership.

According to "conservative" Saudi clerics. "Hardline Saudi clerics urge TV ban on women, music," by Donna Abu-Nasr for AP, March 22:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A group of Saudi clerics urged the kingdom's new information minister on Sunday to ban women from appearing on TV or in newspapers and magazines, making clear that the country's hardline religious establishment is skeptical of a new push toward moderation.

In a statement, the 35 hardline clergymen also called on Abdel Aziz Khoja, who was appointed by King Abdullah on Feb. 14, to prohibit the playing of music and music shows on television.

"We have great hope that this media reform will be accomplished by you," said the statement. "We have noticed how well-rooted perversity is in the Ministry of Information and Culture, in television, radio, press, culture clubs and the book fair."

Although it raises the pressure on the new minister, the recommendation is likely to have little effect. Khoja's appointment was part of a government shake-up by Abdullah that removed a number of hardline figures and is believed to be part of an effort to weaken the influence of conservatives in this devout desert kingdom.

"No Saudi women should appear on TV, no matter what the reason," the statement said. "No images of women should appear in Saudi newspapers and magazines."...

And police fail to arrest husband. "Woman succumbs to burn injuries," from The News, March 22 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

A 32-year-old woman succumbed to her injuries on Saturday six days after her husband allegedly set her ablaze over domestic issue in the Gujjarpura police limits.

The victim was identified as Farah Bibi, the wife of Mian Shahzad, a resident of China Scheme, Gujjarpura. The couple used to scuffle with each other over minor domestic issues.

On March 16, the victim’s husband got infuriated and set his wife on fire after sprinkling kerosene oil on her.

As a result, the victim received serious burn injuries and was shifted to the Mayo Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on Saturday. The body was removed to morgue for autopsy.

A case was registered against the accused husband on the day of incident under section 324 of PPC and section 302 of PPC has now been added. Gujjarpura police have so far failed to arrest the accused.

Newborn body found: The Green Town police found the body of a newborn baby from its limits on Saturday.

Some locals witnessed the body of a newly born that was being gnawed by stray dogs and informed the police. An unidentified woman threw her illegitimate baby to avoid disgrace, the police said, adding that the body was torn apart by the dogs.

Al-Qaeda "continues to operate through a traditional hierarchical structure based on face-to-face contact" and is able to recruit directly in Britain. "Report claims al-Qaeda can recruit in UK at street level," by Helen McArdle for the Sunday Herald, March 22:

THE AL-QAEDA network is able to "directly recruit British muslims at street level in the UK", according to a ground-breaking new report by the UK's premier anti-extremism think-tank.

The research paper produced by the Quilliam Foundation, just published in the US military journal, The Sentinel, says the success of attacks such as 7/7, compared with the failed bombings at Glasgow Airport and London's West End, i