June 2009 Archives

If those are the only states against which Ahmadinejad plans to seek revenge, Obama can breathe easy. "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns of revenge on pro-democracy states," by Damien McElroy for the Telegraph, June 30 (thanks to James):

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned the regime would seek revenge against states it has accused of fanning pro-democracy demonstrations in the wake of its disputed election.

Mr Ahmadinejad used the attack on Western powers send a defiant message in his first public comments since his controversial re-election was upheld by the electoral authorities on Monday. He said: "We must use all the capacities to break the monopoly of the global powers."

But the British Foreign Secretary was anxious to play the dhimmi anyway:

Despite the ominous tone from Tehran, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, raised hopes that the two sides could bring a crisis over the arrest of Iranian employees of the British Embassy. After two conversations with Manouchehr Mottaki, his Iranian counterpart, Mr Miliband said he was hopeful of a swift resolution. He said: "I have discussed this issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki and we both agreed in our second telephone conversation yesterday that a swift resolution was in both of our interests."...

"Those who asked for the annulment of 10th presidential election are anti-revolutionary and against the regime," hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami told the official news agency IRNA. "If anyone said there was fraud in the election, he has lied and committed a sin," [sic}

Committed a sin.

Anti-dhimmitude from an unexpected source: the mayor of New York. Bloomberg unexpectedly bucks the politically correct tide and points out that New York City public schools can't possibly observe every holiday that may be observed by any given student. The holiday initiative, in any case, is an attempt further to undermine the Judeo-Christian character of the nation (which remains as a pivotal influence upon our legal system and society even as belief has waned), and to force further acceptance of the highly dubious proposition that almost everyone already accepts anyway: that Islam has no political, violent or supremacist character about which anyone need be concerned, but is rather simply a religion like other religions that fit easily into the framework of American pluralism and the non-establishment of religion. And all they're asking for, by golly, is to be treated like everyone else -- after all, Christmas is a day off from school, isn't it?

Meanwhile, unnamed, unmentioned, unacknowledged, Sharia supremacism remains in the background.

"Bloomberg: Schools Can't Observe Muslim Holidays," from AP, June 30 (thanks to Pamela):

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's City Council has passed a nonbinding resolution asking the Education Department to observe two important Muslim holidays. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city is so diverse schools can't observe every holiday.

The city has the nation's largest school system. A 2008 study by Columbia University's Teachers College estimates at least 10 percent of its 1.1 million students are Muslim....

What? "At least 10 percent" of New York City public school students are Muslim?

This shows you yet again how trustworthy trusted news sources such as AP really are. Even if the Columbia Teachers College study did say that, it is absurd, and AP should not have passed it on uncritically.

Why would the percentage of Muslims in New York City public schools so much higher than even the most generous estimate of the Muslim population in the U.S.? Even if you take the most inflated figure of all that Islamic advocacy groups bandy about, it makes for nine million Muslims in the U.S. That's three percent. Of course, one may expect that they would congregate in cities and that therefore New York's total would be higher than the national total, but three times higher?

And there aren't nine million Muslims in the U.S., anyway. Even Obama, who claimed in Cairo that there were seven million, revised it down to five million soon afterward. The Pew Research Center a few years ago found 2.3 million -- less than one percent.

The inflated figures, of course, are designed to magnify the appearance of Muslim political clout. And apparently this is an effective tool, as it is frequently employed.

Because we all know that Islamic countries have no sources of income of their own. If Jordan is really in economic trouble, it certainly can't look to, say, Saudi Arabia for help. After all, everyone knows how poor the Saudis are. And it is, of course, the Infidel's place to pay tribute -- to "pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (Qur'an 9:29). Obama seems all too willing to oblige.

"Obama Increasing Aid to Jordan, Other Muslim States," by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz for Israel National News, June 20 (thanks to LGF2):

(IsraelNN.com) In the latest in a recent series of increased American assistance efforts for Arab and Muslim states, U.S. President Barack Obama has allocated an additional $150 million to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The regimes leading Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and even Saudi Arabia have all benefited from recent American policy shifts....

On another front, in March of this year, it was reported that the Obama administration planned to dramatically increase funding to the Palestinian Authority for security training, which is conducted by Jordanian police under the supervision of U.S. General Keith Dayton. The U.S. allocated $75 million for the PA police training in 2008, but reports indicated that the Obama administration was planning to pump up to $130 million into the program in 2009. In any event, the U.S. has already pledged $600 million in funds to the Palestinian Authority, with another $300 million for humanitarian aid to the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Elsewhere in the region, the U.S. is set to help the United Arab Emirates become the first Arab nation with a developed nuclear power infrastructure. President Obama gave his official support and authorization for the $41 billion project, allowing private U.S. companies to compete for construction contracts.

In Pakistan, the U.S. president proposed $2.8 billion in aid for that nation's military, alongside civilian aid of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years. The military aid is ostensibly to allow the Pakistanis to more effectively fight jihadist and al-Qaeda terrorism emanating from the Swat Valley and along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border....

Yet Pakistan has played a double game with that aid for years.

While not formally connected, two books I recently finished reading -- St. Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of Muslims and Defying Death: Zakaria Botross, Apostle to Islam -- complement each other very well, specifically by establishing continuity between medieval and modern Islam, and, in so doing, demonstrating that Islamic intolerance has a long pedigree.

For instance, after St. Francis and his companions challenged the sultan’s ulema to a theological disputation in order to show the superiority of Christianity to Islam, the latter refused and “instead insisted that they be killed [by beheading], in accordance with Islamic law.” (p. 60)

Medieval Muslims appear to have also had the same soft spots of today’s Muslims. A contemporary notes, “The Saracens treated with great cruelty those Christians who spoke ill of the law of Mahomet.” (p. 90) Other anecdotes reveal that Muslims could tolerate Christians—except whenever the latter questioned Muhammad. Reminiscent of how today’s non-Muslims often get themselves in trouble, or worse, killed, whenever they allude to the prophet of Islam—whether by quoting history, publishing cartoons, or naming teddy bears “Muhammad.”

After St. Francis asked the sultan to convert to Christianity, the latter confessed: “I could not do that. My people would stone me.” (p. 65) Indeed, the sultan was eventually attacked “for his tolerant attitude towards Christians and was accused of failing to be a ‘fervent Muslim.’” (p. 75) These two points are a reminder that today’s Muslim apostate, no less than his medieval counterpart, must be executed—as we see in daily headlines—and that Muslims who are too “friendly” with infidels, in direct contravention to Koran 3:28, can be denounced of apostasy.

If the reader still thinks the above is aberrant or “outdated” behavior for Muslims, another book—Defying Death: Zakaria Botross, Apostle to Islam (2007)—makes clear how tenacious such reactions are. A Coptic priest who has spent his life proselytizing Muslims, Botross’ experiences with the former mirror St. Francis.’ According to his biography, when the priest began preaching to Muslims in Egypt, he was imprisoned, tortured, and eventually deported; when Muslims actually began converting, his life, according to Islamic law—which condemns both the convert and converter—was forfeit.

Undeterred and now in his mid 70s, he currently hosts a very popular Arabic satellite program dedicated to examining Islam vis-à-vis Christianity, especially through their scriptures, in an effort to debunk the former. And just like St. Francis, he constantly invites the ulema to debate him—only to receive death threats, including a multi-million dollar bounty on his head.

Botross often explores arcane Arabo-Islamic texts, many which contain unflattering material concerning the Prophet—he recently ran a series dedicated to documenting the “perverse sexual habits of the Prophet.” As with St. Francis’ experiences, the Muslim response, including live callers hysterically promising to cut Botross’ head off, confirms that Muhammad, then and now, is a soft spot for Muslims.

Finally, as with the sultan who, reflecting upon the possibility of his conversion to Christianity, concluded that “I could not do that. My people would stone me,” the many Muslim converts appearing on his show and calling in, reveal that their apostasy from Islam has made them outcasts, many in hiding, others on the run for their lives, often from their families.

But of course we know they really want peace! All Obama has to do is press the Israelis for more concessions, and all will be well!

"'Peace partner' boasts of more terrorism than Hamas," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, June 30 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization recently staged a televised play in which the group bragged it is responsible for more terrorism against Israelis than the rival Islamist Hamas organization.

The staged drama, broadcast on official PA television June 17, was attended by top Fatah leaders, including officials who routinely coordinate security with the U.S. and engage in negotiations with Israel.

The performance included a segment in which a classroom of Fatah and Hamas students and teachers debated each other on who was responsible for more "resistance" against Israel, with Fatah ultimately prevailing while criticizing Hamas for failing to launch enough attacks against the Jewish state in recent years.

A translation, provided by Palestinian Media Watch, reads:

Fatah student taunts Hamas: "Since Hamas seized power, we haven't heard of any Martyrdom operation (suicide-bombing).

Hamas teacher: "It's called 'fighter's rest.'"

Fatah student: "A Hamas fighter needs rest, but a Fatah fighter doesn't need rest?!"

Hamas teacher: "Every fighter has the right to rest."

Fatah student: "Why is it that when Fatah stops fighting, you (Hamas) say they're cowards, but when Hamas stops fighting, you say it's 'fighters' rest'?"

Hamas teacher: "I don't know much about resistance (terror) and fighters. ..."

Fatah student: "The first shot was fired by the PLO; the first Jihad was carried out by the PLO (audience applauds), with all the other factions – but Hamas always opposed.

Hamas student: "What do you say about Hamas having kidnapped the (Israeli) soldier Shalit (still held hostage – Ed.)?"

Hamas teacher: "Ahaaa!"

Student: "By Allah, it's good."

Hamas student: "Did Fatah ever capture a soldier?!"

Fatah student: "It was the (other) brigades who captured him (Shalit) and sold him to you (Hamas). It's a deal that you (Hamas) made for your own benefit, not for the (Palestinian) people's benefit. (Applause)

Fatah student: Remember, in Ramallah the (PA-Fatah) police arrested two soldiers – have you forgotten, teacher?!"

"Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain." -- Qur'an 9:111

Video footage is now available of the Mumbai jihad attacks -- above is the first of three (thanks to Pamela, who has the other two). The deeply religious nature of the Mumbai jihad attacks comes through in transcripts of phone conversations between the attackers and their handlers. These transcripts were published last week in the Daily Mail, but then pulled without explanation; however, Pamela was able to capture the article before it was taken down, and here is a selection.

No one knows the true identity of the man known as Wasi - the puppetmaster. He is heard deferring to more senior figures in the control room, but it was he who cajoled, reassured and inspired the young gunmen forward minute by minute until they were killed. He is presumed to be a senior officer of Lashkar-e-Taiba ('Army Of The Righteous'), a militant group now considered to be a global threat on a par with Al-Qaeda. [...]

Wasi: 'Stand the women up in a doorway so that when the bullet goes through their heads it then goes outside, instead of ricocheting back into your room.'

Akasha: 'OK.'

Wasi: 'Do one of them now, in the name of God. You've tied them up, right?'

Akasha: 'Yeah. I'll untie their feet.'

Wasi: 'Just stand them up. If they're tied up, leave them tied up.'

Akasha then raises another objection. He doesn't want to kill the two women in the room where he and Umer are sitting.

Wasi: 'It'll only take two shots. Do it in the room where you are now.'

Akasha: 'All right, yes.'

Wasi: 'Do it. Shoot them and shove them over to one side of the room.'

Akasha shuffles off somewhere but leaves the line open. Wasi holds the line for a full seven minutes. He calls Akasha's name a few times, then hangs up. In the next call, ten minutes later, Akasha seems more upbeat.

Akasha: 'Please don't be angry. I've rejigged things a bit and now...'

Wasi: 'Have you done the job yet or not?'

Akasha: 'We were just waiting for you to call back, so we could do it while you're on the phone.'

Wasi: 'Do it, in God's name.'

Akasha: 'Just a sec... hold the line...'

Akasha places the phone in his pocket. There is a lot of rustling (presumably Akasha crawling over to the hostages) followed by silence. Then a loud burst of gunfire. And then silence. More rustling, then Akasha is back. His voice has changed markedly. It's now a deep, eerie rasp.

Wasi: 'That was one of them, right?'

Akasha: 'Both.' [...]

Wasi: 'Did you start a fire in the ones you cleared out?'

Ali: 'No, they're right next to each other. We'll set the fire on our way out. We don't want the fire to spread too quickly in case we can't get out.'

Wasi: 'No, burn everything as you go along. The bigger the fire, the more pressure you will bring to bear. We're watching it on TV. If you start the fire it will put pressure on the security forces. They won't come up.'

Ali: 'Listen. We don't even walk around our own houses as freely as we do here. We own the third, fourth and fifth floors, thanks be to God.' [...]

Wasi: 'The manner of your death will instill fear in the unbelievers. This is a battle between Islam and the unbelievers. Keep looking for a place to die. Keep moving.'

Fahadullah: 'Insh'Allah.'

Wasi: 'You're very close to heaven now. One way or another we've all got to go there. You will be remembered for what you've done here. Fight till the end. Stretch it out as long as possible.' [...]

Wasi: 'How are you my brother?'

Fahadullah (sounds weak): 'Praise God. Brother Abdul Rehman has passed away.

Wasi: 'Really? Is he near you?'

Fahadullah: 'Yeah, he's near me.

Wasi: 'May God accept his martyrdom.'

Fahadullah: 'The room is on fire, it's being shown on the TV. I'm sitting in the bathroom.'

Next time Wasi calls, he urges Fahadullah to go out and fight.

Wasi: 'Don't let them arrest you. Don't let them knock you out with a stun grenade. That would be very damaging. Fire one of your magazines, then grab the other one and move out. The success of your mission depends on your getting shot.'

Fahadullah: 'Yes, I know.'

Wasi: 'God is waiting for you. Stay on the line and keep the phone in your pocket. We like to know what's going on.' [...]

Akasha: 'I've been shot.'

Wasi: 'Sorry?'

Akasha: 'Pray for me.'

Wasi: 'Oh God. Where have you been hit?'

Akasha: 'My arm. And one in my leg.'

Wasi: 'May God protect you. Did you hit any of theirs?'

Akasha: 'Yeah, we shot a commando. Pray that God will accept my martyrdom.'

Wasi: 'Praise God, praise God.'

Akasha: 'Bye.' [...]

Interrogator: 'What's your gang called?'

Kasab seems not to understand. Some of the other officers present chime in: 'Your organisation, your gang, your team?'

Kasab: 'Oh... It's Lashkar-e-Taiba.'

When asked about the massacre at the railway station, Kasab is equally direct.

Kasab: 'They told us we had to do this job.'

Interrogator: 'What do you mean by job?'

Kasab: 'I was supposed to kill people.'

Interrogator: 'Which people?'

Kasab: 'Whoever was there.'

Interrogator: 'What kind of people did they tell you to kill?'

Kasab: 'Just ordinary people, no one in particular.' Next, the policeman tries to figure out the terrorists' exit strategy.

Interrogator: 'After completing your job today, where were you going to go?'

Kasab: 'We were all going to die.'

Interrogator: 'How's that?'

Kasab: 'He told us we'd be going to heaven.' [...]

"It said the French were committing these injustices 'at a time when their denuded women ... flock to our land and occupy our beaches and streets, outrageously defying the feelings of Muslims'."

"Revenge," "terrorism," "occupation," and of course, hurt feelings. Another near-winner for Jihadist Rhetoric Bingo. "Al Qaeda vows revenge for France's burqa warning," from Reuters, June 30:

REUTERS - Al Qaeda's north African wing threatened revenge against France for launching a "war" against Muslim women who wear full burqas that cover them from head to toe, according to a Web statement posted in the group's name.

French legislators expressed concern this month that more and more Muslim women were wearing a burqa or a niqab which cloaks the entire body, sometimes leaving a gap for the eyes.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said the garments were not welcome in France because they are a symbol of the subjugation of women.

"Here is France mustering all her capacity, mobilising all her institutions and organising her ranks to wage a perfidious new war against our sisters who wear the niqab," said the statement posted on a Web site used by al Qaeda supporters.

It said the French were committing these injustices "at a time when their denuded women ... flock to our land and occupy our beaches and streets, outrageously defying the feelings of Muslims". It said France's campaign against the burqa was tantamount to "religious terrorism" and was an incitement to a hatred that would only grow.

"This is why we call upon all Muslims to respond to this hatred by another that is more ravaging, we call upon them to confront this French obstinacy," the statement said.

It said Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb vowed "before God not to be silent in the face of these provocations and injustices and do all in our power and take revenge at the first opportunity against France and its interests wherever they may be found, for the honour of our daughters and our sisters".

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is the remnant of an Islamic insurgency that raged through former French colony Algeria for most of the 1990s.

The group was formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), itself a spin-off of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) which was blamed for a series of bombings in France in 1995.

France, home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, is strongly attached to its secular values and to gender equality.

The truce served its purpose and allowed the Taliban a safe haven to organize and arm themselves (Umdat al-Salik, o9.16). "Taliban Scrap Peace Deal in Pakistan Tribal Area," from the Associated Press, June 30:

MIR ALI, Pakistan — Taliban militants in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan say they have pulled out of a peace deal with the government, raising the prospect of wider unrest as the Pakistani army extends its efforts to eliminate insurgents.

The militants in North Waziristan blamed continuing U.S. missile strikes and army offensives against the Taliban for their decision, which was announced in the wake of a Taliban ambush that killed 16 soldiers.

Separately, a car bombing in Pakistan's southwest killed four people Tuesday, police said — a reminder of how insecurity in the country stretches far beyond the northwest regions near Afghanistan.

Government leaders and Taliban representatives reached the North Waziristan deal in February 2008, but few details have been released about it.

U.S. officials have criticized peace deals with militants or tribes representing them in the border region, saying they allow the insurgents to gain strength. The agreement in North Waziristan had appeared to keep things relatively peaceful there — calmer than in neighboring South Waziristan, where the army is preparing for a major offensive aimed at Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

The deal was struck with a Taliban faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur....

He was only sentenced to 12 years. Stiffer sentencing would go a long way toward sending a clear message: You cannot do this in Australia. "Racy photos prompt stabbing," by Amelia Bentley for the Brisbane Times, June 29 (thanks to Michelle):

A man used a butcher's knife to stab his stepdaughter up to 20 times because he believed she was a "slut" who was interfering in his marriage, a court has heard.

Khaled Ibrahim Mohamed Ellaimouny, 38, was today jailed for 12 years for the attempted murder of his stepdaughter Amanda Lee Smith, who was 24 when her stepfather stabbed her in the chest, arms, legs and face as she sat on the lounge of the family's Shailer Park home in January 2007.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said Ellaimouny, an Egyptian national who married Ms Smith's mother after meeting her online, moved in to the Smith family home in January 2006.

Mr McCarthy said Ellaimouny, who worked as a chef at a restaurant in the Logan area, got along well with his stepdaughter until late 2006 when he discovered semi-nude photos of her and her boyfriend on a family computer and began referring to her during arguments with Ms Smith's mother as "the slut daughter."

Following marital troubles in late 2006, Ellaimouny moved out of the home. He met with his wife at a local tavern on January 14 and told her to choose between him and her daughter, whom he claimed was interfering in their marriage.

He later turned up at the family home where during an argument he spat in Ms Smith's face and slapped her before she and her mother locked him out of the house.

However Ellaimouny got in through a side door, grabbed a butcher's knife with a 21cm-long blade from the kitchen and screamed "Now I'm going to kill the bitch" before stabbing and slashing Ms Smith's chest and arms, Mr McCarthy said.

"You've ruined my f---ing life; I want you to die," Ellaimouny reportedly said.

Friends of Ms Smith arrived at the house as Ellaimouny was leaving, covered in a blood and carrying the bloodied knife.

He allegedly told them: "I stabbed the slut. I wanted to kill her, but unfortunately she's still breathing."

Ms Smith was taken to hospital where she was treated for 20 wounds, including a severed radial artery of her right arm, severed nerves and a 4cm gash into her lung cavity.

Mr McCarthy said Ellaimouny told his wife after the incident: "I stabbed her because she's a f---ing slut, she deserved that. All I wanted to do ... just get rid of her."

On the first day of his trial today, Ellaimouny pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder and a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, which related to him sending a letter from jail encouraging his wife to convince Ms Smith not to proceed with charges against him.

Justice John Byrne said the attack upon Ms Smith was "frenzied and sustained" and would have been "a terrifying experience for her."

"She is fortunate to have survived," he said.

"Islam's borders are bloody" -- the late Samuel Huntington

Somalia (and vicinity) Jihad Update. "Somali hardline Islamists threaten Ethiopia," by Mohamed Ahmed for Reuters, June 30:

MOGADISHU, June 30 (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist rebels threatened on Tuesday to attack Ethiopia after repeated witness reports that Ethiopian troops were back in the chaotic Horn of Africa country they withdrew from in January.

Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement from the capital in which new President Sheik Sharif Ahmed played a role. That sparked an Islamist insurgency which is still raging despite their withdrawal.

"I'm telling the people that it's time we attacked Ethiopia, who are our Christian neighbours," Sheikh Abdiqani Mohamed Yusuf said on a radio station controlled by the al Shabaab rebels in the southern port of Kismayu.

"We have to invade their country, like they did to our country. This is our best chance," he said. "The people should be ready to take part in jihad."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said last week possible suicide attacks in Ethiopia by Somali Islamist rebels were a threat he "didn't expect to go away any time soon"...

The report's recommendation to the Pakistani government? Just keep an eye on them. "Banned Pakistani groups 'expand'," by Syed Shoaib Hasan for BBC News, June 29:

Militant groups banned in Pakistan are expanding operations and recruitment in Pakistani-run Kashmir, according to a government report seen by the BBC.

The observations are from a detailed secret report submitted to the region's government on the groups' activities in the city of Muzaffarabad and elsewhere.

Pakistan banned the groups in 2002 after an attack on India's parliament brought the two states close to war.

There was no immediate comment on the revelations from Pakistan's government.

Pakistan's allies, including the US, have expressed fears regarding the groups' proliferation and their close links to al-Qaeda.

'Cover for militancy'

A copy of the report, which was submitted by regional police to Pakistan-administered Kashmir's cabinet on 25 March, was obtained by the BBC in Islamabad. It finds that three banned groups - Harkatul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba - are active in Muzaffarabad.

Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad are said to be planning to open madrassas, or Islamic schools, in the city where Lashkar-e-Taiba is already operating a madrassa.

"No officials are allowed to enter these premises to gather any sort of information," the report says.

"We fear these madrassas maybe a cover for furthering militant activities." [...]

Local people have confirmed to the BBC that there has been a great increase in militant activity in the regions mentioned.

"These people are being protected here," said Raja Faisal Majeed, a lawyer living in a village near where some of the militant groups have set up base.

"Sometimes they operate under the guise of a charity, sometimes as a school. We have protested against them to no avail."

Despite the fact that the groups mentioned are banned under Pakistan's terrorism act, the report does not advocate any action against them other than to keep an eye on their activities.

"There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious." - Ayatollah Khomeini

"The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance." - Hadith Qudsi 19:5

"Winds of Islamism make Pakistani artists shiver," by Ayesha Nasir for the Christian Science Monitor, June 28:

Lahore, Pakistan - Farhan Khan, a drummer in a band, is taking a break from performing. This move was prompted by his mother, who worries that her son might become a target for the Islamic extremists gradually asserting their power in this city.

In recent months, as theaters have been bombed, art festivals interrupted, and musicians targeted, Mr. Khan has learned firsthand about the rising level of hostility toward his profession.

"Once, I was walking down a street: I wear my hair long and was wearing tattered jeans," he says. "As I neared a corner, I came across a bearded man who gave me a dirty look and then scowled at me."

The stranger approached Khan and told him, "You should cut off your hair and grow your beard if you know what's good for you."

Those who've been living in Lahore – a city of 10 million – for many years find the idea of extremism arriving on these streets baffling. But its presence is growing, and musicians, artists, and performers are among those most affected.

Event manager Aamir Mazhar laments the rising threat to Punjab Province's cultural capital, a hub of the latest styles, films, and comedy performances.

"This was the best city in the world," says Mr. Mazhar, rushing around a venue to arrange a launch party. "There was an energy, an enthusiasm, and a life here, which no other city could rival."...

Of course, a recount is inconsequential if the investigation doesn't address how the ballots got there. The "travelers" explanation below rings profoundly hollow. "Iran's election authority: Partial recount shows election valid," from CNN, June 29:

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Saying it had completed an investigation into alleged voter irregularities, Iran's election authority on Monday stood by its findings that gave hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory and sparked more than two weeks of chaos in the streets.

There was "no tangible irregularity," Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei told government-run Press TV after reporting that a recount of some 10 percent of the votes found no significant differences. "After this, the file will be closed and from today on in the presidential election, the file has been closed."

In an hour-long interview addressing a series of complaints, Kadkhodaei noted that some 40,000 representatives of the various candidates observed the ballot boxes to ensure that rules were followed. Given there were 46,000 ballot boxes, that meant 6,000 were unattended. Even so, allegations of wrongdoing were investigated thoroughly, he said.

Kadkhodaei acknowledged that some ballot boxes may have contained more ballots than the number of voters in a given area, but said that did not necessarily mean there were irregularities. Voters were not restricted to polling places in their home town, so the extra votes could have come from travelers, he said....

And under a regime with no transparency and accountability to the people, that's that: Nothing to see here.

Sharia Alert. And yet another cleric "misunderstands" the vaunted compassion and mercy of Islamic law. "Fatwa: Bangladeshi woman brutally whipped," from Indo-Asian News Service, June 29 (thanks to Twostellas):

DHAKA: A widow was whipped 202 times and a man 101 times following a fatwa by a religious leader for their alleged involvement in "anti-social activity" in a village in southeastern Bangladesh, prompting local protests and action by the police.

Piara Begum, a widow of 40, and Mamun Miah, 25, were whipped before hundreds of people at Khaiyar in Comilla district Saturday night.

The woman fell unconscious and was rushed to hospital. Doctors said she was critically injured and needed to be given intensive treatment.

Miah was whipped 101 times, The Daily Star newspaper said Monday.

Punishment under a fatwa is held illegal as per a high court ruling of 2001 in Bangladesh that has a predominant Sunni Muslim population.

The police arrested six people, including Moulana Mohammed Manirul Islam, a religious leader working in the local madrassa.

Piara Begum filed a case with the Debidwar police station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

Here is a stinging indictment of the historical revisionism and outright denial surrounding the treatment of black Africans under Islamic regimes. "The trouble with Black Muslims," by Rudolf Okonkwo for the Examiner, June 28:

Even Obama cannot say it. But someone has to say it.

We cannot be talking about this season of hate without mentioning the steep decline into actionable hate by misguided black Muslims.

The first time I met a black Muslim in America was in the 90s. I had just arrived from England and this man wearing a bow tie and three-piece-suit approached me with a copy of the Final Call newspaper – the official mouthpiece of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. He wanted me to buy the newspaper but I resisted. He told me it was the bestselling newspaper in America. I told him I was new in America but I was sure the Final Call could not be the bestselling newspaper in America.

“You’ve been brainwashed,” the man said to me.
“By whom?” I asked.
“By the blue-eyed white devils who run the world.”
“O’ yeah.”
“They don’t want you to know the truth.”
“Like what?”
“Like all the great things our forefathers did.”
“Like what?”
“Bro, you have to open your eyes. We have to get on with the program of our forefathers.” “And what is that program?”

That was how we began a discussion about the world and the place of the black man in it.

“Why are you a Muslim?” I asked him at one point.
“Because my people were Muslims before the blue-eyed white devils bought us and brought us to America as slaves and forced us to be Christians and to worship a blue-eyed Christ.”
“O’ yeah.”
“Yes!”
“But I am from Africa and my grandfather was never a Muslim nor was he a Christian.”

He was shocked when I said that.

“It is OK if you want to be a Muslim and follow Elijah Muhammed and changed your name to Muhammed, too. But don’t tell me you are trying to be like your forefathers,” I said. [...]

Some of these people are carrying their misguided and misrepresented history and anger out in the open and are even planning to act on them. It concerns me. And it should concern you, too.

First of all, I came from a country where there are Muslims. Those who have Arabic features assume superior position over those who are black. In many instances, the black Muslims are totally disregarded, treated as inconsequential.

I have asked black Muslims mad at how white people treated black slaves to ask themselves were the millions of slaves the Arab world took from Africa were? They disappeared. They were used and disposed of. If not, the Arab world would be booming with its own share of black men and women.

I have asked black Muslims mad at the “war” between the West and Islam to look at the genocide in Darfur and find out how Muslims treat their black brothers and sisters.

In Africa, the homeland of all black people, Islam came from the Middle East and Christianity came from Europe and they all exerted inordinate damage. But where Islam touched, there is no recognition of the ways of life of the people. Islam, being a way of life, swallowed all that was African in the people.

All black people must think before they jump from frying pan to fire. And before you pick up arms to fight for those Talibans dying in Afghanistan, spare a minute for two million children who die of malaria each year in Sub-Saharan Africa. Those are your people. For real!

Read it all.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is suspected, again. "Three dead, 15 hurt in Philippines blast," from Agence France-Presse, June 29:

Bombs have ripped through a cafe in the southern Philippines, killing three people and wounding 15, the military and witnesses have said.

The three dead included a man seen placing one of the devices in a garbage bin at a coffee shop near the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan on Monday, an overwhelmingly Muslim section of Mindanao island, one witness said, quoting local police.

"(One) bomb exploded prematurely. Among those killed was the bomb courier," said Major Randolph Cabangbang, military spokesman for the region.

He blamed a hardline Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faction for the attack, which he said also injured 15 civilians.

"Military bomb experts told me that two bombs simultaneously exploded and they are still looking for the third explosive," said Eduardo Vasquez, a Roman Catholic priest who witnessed the attack.

The MILF, a group that has been waging a decades-old separatist campaign in the region, denied involvement and suggested government forces were to blame.

"Villagers saw soldiers arrive in the area at dawn and there was an explosion several hours later," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters by telephone.

It was the second bombing in the region in three days, after nine people were wounded in a bus depot blast in the city of Tacurong. Local police said that was also carried out by the MILF....

According to the think tank Civitas, "Among the rulings ... we find some that advise illegal actions and others that transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts."

But to intervene would be "Islamophobic." It might "radicalize" people. The next question is: In the course of setting up Sharia courts, did authorities establish any process for shutting them down, or did they assume that simply wouldn't be necessary?

"85 sharia courts in UK, says report," from the Press Association, June 29:

There are as many as 85 sharia courts operating in Britain, according to a new report.

Academic Denis MacEoin, the report's author, said the existence of the courts practising Islamic law could lead to different legal standards being applied to Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.

He said many of the courts operate out of mosques and their rulings are closed off to non-Muslims.

A recipe for disaster, as transparency is a key characteristic of good government. If the courts have something to hide, there is a problem (even beyond the problems inherent in the letter of Sharia law) that should be investigated and exposed.

In previous reports it was claimed there were only five sharia courts in the UK, working in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton.

He said: "This is not a matter of eating halal meat or seeking God's blessing on one's marriage. It is a challenge to what we believe to be the rights and freedoms of the individual, to our concept of a legal system based on what parliament enacts, and to the right of all of us to live in a society as free as possible from ethnic-religious division or communal claims to superiority and a special status that puts them in some respects above the law to which we are all bound."

His report, published by the think-tank Civitas, includes a list of previous sharia judgements which he believes give an indication of the type of ruling being handed down by the courts working in the UK.

Among the examples quoted are laws banning a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam and the removal of a wife's property rights in the event of divorce.

The report states: "Among the rulings ... we find some that advise illegal actions and others that transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts."

Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert, as still more "misunderstanders" of Islam emerge. The article provides a good account, however, of how the perceived "moderation" in Turkey is not because of Islam, but in spite of it, and due to the competing ideology of Turkish secularism. "Turks increasingly turn to Islamic extremism," by Sebastian Rotella for the Los Angeles Times, June 28:

Reporting from London -- In an audio message from a hide-out in South Asia this month, an Al Qaeda chief did something new: He sang the praises of an ethnic group that once barely registered in the network.

"We consider the Muslims in Turkey our brothers," said Mustafa Abu Yazid, the network's operations chief. Lauding Turkish suicide bombers killed in recent attacks near the Afghan-Pakistani border, he declared, "This is a pride and honor to the nation of Islam in Turkey, and we ask Allah to accept them amongst the martyrs."

The message is the latest sign of the changing composition of Islamic extremism, anti-terrorism officials and experts say. The number of Turks in Al Qaeda, long dominated by Arabs, has increased notably, officials say. And militant groups dominated by Turks and Central Asians, many of whom share Turkic culture and speak a Turkic language, have emerged as allies of and alternatives to Al Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan.

"We are aware of an increasing number of Turks going to train in Pakistan," said a senior European anti-terrorism official who asked to remain anonymous because the subject is sensitive. "This increase has taken place in the past couple of years."

Turkey's secular tradition and official monitoring of religious practice for years helped restrain extremism at home and in the diaspora. But the newer movements churn out Internet propaganda in Turkish as well as German, an effort to recruit among a Turkish immigrant population in Germany that numbers close to 3 million.

"We are seeing almost as much propaganda material from these Turkic groups as we are from Al Qaeda," said Evan Kohlmann, a U.S. private consultant who works with anti-terrorism agencies around the world. "Turks were perceived as moderate with few connections to Al Qaeda central. Now Germany is dealing with this threat in a community that could be a sleeping giant."

Germany is especially vulnerable because it has troops in Afghanistan. The threat could also intensify in other countries with Turkish populations, such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands, whose anti-terrorism agencies focus on entrenched extremism in large North African communities.

Despite Turkey's population of more than 70 million, however, Turks were once among the smallest contingents in the network.

"I used to tell the Germans they are very lucky because you couldn't find much radicalization among Turks," said Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-born expert on Islam at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. "No one was paying much attention to Turks because they were considered the safe group."

"[General Stanley] McChrystal, touring Afghanistan after taking command of about 90,000 US and NATO forces mid-June, said separately the “most dangerous thing” in Afghanistan was not attacks by insurgents but their infiltration into village structures."

"Afghan insurgents returning to pre-9/11 haunts: US military," from Agence France-Presse, June 29:

KABUL: Militants are returning to parts of Afghanistan they occupied before the Taliban were ousted in 2001 and their strength is growing outside of their strongholds in the south, US and Afghan officials say.

“The insurgency has had the time to basically reorganise, reset and re-establish old footholds that they once had in the days prior to 9/11,” US Major General Michael Flynn said during a recent tour of northern Afghanistan. Militants are active in “many of the same places where they operated prior to 9/11”, the head of intelligence for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force told AFP.

Nearly eight years later, Taliban attacks are at record levels, leading Washington to search out a new way of dealing with spiralling unrest in a region considered a nest of extremism that threatens the West. Flynn said insurgents were reestablishing mostly in the south but also in the east and in parts of the north - places with Taliban presence before the invasion.

“The strength and the coherency, the command and control is not as good as it was then but it is getting better,” he said during the tour with the new commander of international troops here, US General Stanley McChrystal. Militants could enter many of these “new pockets” because they had families and connections there, he said, stressing this did not mean locals wanted a return to the Taliban order. They were also able to ease their way back in because there were not the numbers of Afghan police and soldiers needed to keep them out. “We have not been able to grow that capacity and get that capacity out in these provinces where the people need their own citizens to protect them,” Flynn said. McChrystal, touring Afghanistan after taking command of about 90,000 US and NATO forces mid-June, said separately the “most dangerous thing” in Afghanistan was not attacks by insurgents but their infiltration into village structures.

“By doing that they have been able to establish shadow governance, intimidation of the population, limitations of governance,” he told AFP, describing the situation as “serious”. On his visit to the north, McChrystal heard from Afghan and NATO officials worried about increasing militant activity even though the region sees far less unrest than the south, where Taliban control several areas.

The region’s main concern was around the northern town of Kunduz, where German troops are based for ISAF and there have been several recent attacks. “It was a centre for Taliban and Al Qaeda in the past,” said Afghan army commander for the north, General Morad Ali Morad. “They established at that time a relationship with the community. Based on that, they have come back.”...

This incident raises many of the usual questions of why Choudary is still operating freely when his intentions and agenda are obvious. But the ultimate questions here are: How did "Sean" get to this demonstration, and where on earth were the parents? "Row after Islam cleric converts schoolboy on Birmingham street," by Ben Goldby for the Sunday Mercury, June 28 (thanks to Leal):

A young schoolboy was “converted” to Islam on the streets of Birmingham by a radical Muslim preacher, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.

The bewildered-looking 11 year-old, who gives his name as Sean, was filmed repeating Arabic chants and swearing allegiance to Allah.

The white schoolboy is prompted throughout by controversial cleric Anjem Choudary, a follower of exiled hate-preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed.

The incident was filmed during a demonstration by Choudary’s Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah group in Birmingham city centre earlier this month.

Choudary, 42, was one of the masterminds behind sick protests at the homecoming parade of heroic British soldiers in Luton back in March.

He praised protesters who branded British troops “murderers” and later appeared at a press conference flanked by thugs who took part in the demo.

When contacted by the Sunday Mercury, Choudary defended the young boy’s “reversion” to Islam – but admitted his parents were not with him and were not consulted.

“The child was genuinely interested in Islam,” he said.

“The boy told us he wanted to become a Muslim and, of course, some people are intellectually more mature than they are physically.

“I don’t see there is any harm in this.

“He was with his friends, but I didn’t see if his parents were there.

“There were a lot of people at the event.’’

A message on Choudary’s website offers advice for those who become Muslim at his Islamic Roadshow.

“Conversion packs are already provided to those who revert to Islam in the Islamic Roadshows,” it says.

“They include a booklet on ‘Everything a Muslim must know’ and a free DVD with a brief guide on how to pray in Islam.”

Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah, is a splinter group of the controversial Al-Muhajiroun sect.

Last month we revealed that the sect, founded by exiled Bakri, is planning to reform.

Al-Muhajiroun, which has recruited hundreds of fanatics in the Midlands, fell apart in 2004 just months before Bakri was stopped from coming back to the UK under terror laws.

He has now set his sights set on a return for the extremist group, though the Home Office is understood to be closely monitoring its activities.

When asked about the attack, the spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front took advantage of plausible deniability, saying "Our forces on the ground have autonomy. They can do whatever they want but it's not sanctioned by the entire organization." That tends to defeat the purpose of having an organization, unless the whole point is to act with impunity and evade responsibility.

"Nine govt troops killed in southern Philippines," from Agence France-Presse, June 28:

Seven policemen and two soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by suspected Muslim guerrillas on the restive southern Philippine island of Basilan, officials said on Sunday.

In the latest incident, seven policemen travelling in a government vehicle were killed in an ambush by a hundred Muslim gunmen in the town of Sumisip on Sunday, said police spokesman Superintendent Danilo Bacas.

A civilian who was guiding the police was wounded in the raid.

This story from Deutsche Presse-Agentur (thanks to Twostellas) suggests that tenth victim may have been a local militia member, who later died.

The attackers may have been either from the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist group, Basilan police commander Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar said.

However Bacas said renegade MILF members were the likely culprits.

On Saturday, two soldiers were shot dead by suspected Abu Sayyaf members as they stepped outside of their camp to buy cigarettes in Tipo-tipo town, said military spokesman Colonel Romeo Brawner.

The soldiers were on the island to help repair damaged schools, he added.

The Philippine police meanwhile said they were dispatching 226 police commandos to Basilan to bolster security forces there.

Asked about the latest attack, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the rebels' leaders will check whether their forces were involved in the incidents.

"Our forces on the ground have autonomy. They can do whatever they want but it's not sanctioned by the entire organization," Kabalu said.

Basilan is known as a hotbed of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group that intelligence agencies have linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network....

Continuing the campaign against Great Satan 2.0, in a move evocative of the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis three decades ago. "Britain assails Iran over embassy staff detentions," by Karin Laub for the Associated Press, June 28:

Iranian authorities have detained several local employees of the British Embassy in Iran, a move that Britain's foreign secretary Sunday called "harassment and intimidation."

Iranian media reported Sunday that eight local embassy staff were detained for an alleged role in postelection protests, but gave no further details. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the employees were detained Saturday, but did not say how many were taken into custody.

The detentions signaled a further hardening of Iran's stance toward the West which has become increasingly vocal in its condemnation of a crackdown on opposition supporters.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has alleged massive fraud in the June 12 presidential election and says he is the rightful winner, not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran has accused the West of stoking unrest, singling out Britain and the U.S. for alleged meddling. Last week, Iran expelled two British diplomats, and Britain responded in kind. Iran has also said it's considering downgrading diplomatic ties with Britain.

On Sunday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported that eight local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran were detained for what was described as a "significant role" in unrest after the election.

The British Foreign Office says the Tehran embassy has a staff of more than 100, including at least 70 locally-hired Iranians.

Miliband, who is on the Greek island of Corfu for a foreign ministers' meeting, said Britain has lodged a protest with the Iranian authorities over the detentions. He described the step as "harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable."

"The idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran. ... is wholly without foundation," he said. The foreign minister said it would an important point of discussion with his EU colleagues.

In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said any further harassment of British Embassy employees would be met with "a strong and united EU response."...

For most people, the intent to set off bombs in the first place is kind of a red flag. An update on this story. "Terror suspect's fate could hinge on how much he knew about bombing plot," from the Canadian Press, June 26:

BRAMPTON, Ont. — The fate of the only man to have pleaded guilty to conspiring to set off bombs in downtown Toronto could hinge upon how much he knew about the terror plot.

Lawyers at the sentencing hearing for Saad Khalid offered competing theories today about the 22-year-old's state of mind concerning the plan to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, CSIS headquarters and an unspecified military base in the fall of 2006.

In a courtroom in Brampton, Ont., Crown attorney Croft Michaelson called Khalid "an active and enthusiastic" participant of the terror cell who was well aware the plot would harm or kill innocent civilians.

But Khalid's lawyer Russell Silverstein painted his client as knowing very little about the goals of the alleged ringleaders, suggesting they kept him "in the dark" about what the bombs would be used for.

Khalid, a member of the so-called Toronto 18, pleaded guilty in May to taking part in the plot....

Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert. This story corroborates an earlier one detailing a retired Pakistani army general's concerns about jihadist sympathies within the officers' corps. "Pak AF personnel with jihadi links spark alarm," by Omar Farooq Khan for the Times News Network, June 25:

ISLAMABAD: An alarming trend of Pakistan air force personnel being discovered and even prosecuted for links with terrorists has come to light after a news channel exposé said that nearly 60 PAF personnel had been arrested on charges of having terror connections in the last two years. Interestingly, this time period coincides with a spurt in attacks on security targets and the rise of Pakistani Taliban.

Of these, six were sentenced to death and 26 sentenced to three-and-a-half to 17 years imprisonment for anti-state activities. A top PAF officer, who is also wanted, is still at large, the report said. Action against some of the officers began during former president Pervez Musharraf’s regime.

More arrests were undertaken after a PAF officer, identified by the TV channel as Mushtaq, was apprehended. As many as 57 officials have been arrested from Kamra, Lahore, Sargodha, Mianwali and Karachi.

There are two distinct, but converging forces at work that make the answer "yes."

The first is the despotism inherent in Sharia, or Islamic law. A kinder, gentler Sharia remains a theoretical construct of apologists and revisionist historians; it would require a syncretism of Sharia with the values found in a Western liberal democracy -- a system Sharia is intended to subvert and replace. In short, the values that would purportedly "save" it are the values it seeks to destroy: Those include equal rights for men, women, believers and non-believers, and above all, the right of citizens to change their government. Even to change an Islamic government to a non-Islamic one.

In a related vein, the second factor is the Achilles' heel of even the most benign theocracy with the best intentions one could dream up, let alone a regime based on Sharia: Power corrupts. By nature, a theocracy -- a government by clerics charged with implementing purportedly divine will and the "ideal" design of society -- does not lend itself to limitations on power, separation of powers, or any official restraint beyond platitudes on a printed page. Hence, accountability to the populace is lost, and government itself is permeated with the arrogance of presuming it not only knows best, but has a divinely granted right and duty to keep the cheeky commoners in line.

It is these factors that have led to the displays of brutality on the streets of Tehran.

"'Punished mercilessly' – Is this Islam?," by Octavia Nasr for CNN, June 27:

“Annihilate the rioters,” demanded one of Iran’s fundamentalist clerics during Friday prayer. He believes that the opposition “defied the orders” of Iran’s Supreme Leader, who “rules by God’s design.” Therefore, “they should be punished mercilessly.” Either way, his words couldn’t be harsher or more extreme. Some would say those words couldn’t be more un-Islamic.

The word Islam means “surrender.” The entire religion is based on surrendering one’s self, speech, action and thoughts to god. When moderate Muslims hear what this Mullah has called for, they wonder which brand of Islam he is advocating.

That's ultimately immaterial to the matter of "surrendering": A deity could be an awful character, shooting pool with inhabited planets and smoking stinky cosmic cigars, and still expect his creations to surrender their selves, speech, action, and thoughts.

The first pillar in Islamic faith is the declaration called “Shahda” that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet.

The first verse of every chapter in the holy Muslim book, the Quran, goes like this, “In the name of God, most merciful, most compassionate.” Devout Muslims start many of their activities or speech with these glorious words.

Herein lies a logical fallacy that permeates much of the supposed "common ground" between Islamic and Western traditions with respect to "tolerance," "human rights," and yes, compassion and mercy: The fact that we use the same terms does not guarantee we mean exactly the same thing.

Where is the compassion in the Iranian mullah’s speech? Where is the Mercy?....

For all the reasons mentioned above, that mullah may believe he is being perfectly compassionate and merciful -- a little "tough love" to preserve Allah's government. And he may find Allah tremendously compassionate and merciful for not prescribing the inconveniences of something like a Bill of Rights. After all, he's only trying to do the right thing. In closing, see also: the Milgram Experiment, which measured how much pain people are willing to inflict if they think they are ultimately "helping" the victim. As the Qur'an itself instructs those carrying out the flogging of adulterers: "Let no compassion move you" (24:2).

The organization, not the concept. More on this story. "In German court, accused denies Islamic Jihad exists," from Europe News, June 26:

Frankfurt - One of two Muslim men on trial in Germany for supporting a terrorist group denied Friday that the group, the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), exists.

Omid S, a 28-year-old Afghan-born German citizen, told the Frankfurt court on the first day of his trial that he was not guilty because there was no such group.

The indictment says Omid S attended training camps run by the shadowy group, which operates from the wilds of Afghanistan or Pakistan and is allied to al-Qaeda.

The other accused, 27-year-old Turkish national Huseyin S, identified himself but exercised his right to remain silent about the charges and evidence against him...

Maybe that helps explain why years back jihadis saw Belgium as fertile ground for recruiting. "Belgium: Third of Moroccans feel Muslim, 7% Belgian," from Islam in Europe, June 26:

More than a third of Moroccans in Belgium feel Muslim first, barely 7% identify with the Belgian nationality. Nevertheless, the majority is Belgian, according to a study by the King Baudouin Foundation, reports Belgian newspaper Le Soir. In collaboration with the King Baudouin Foundation, the University of Rabat questioned 400 people from the Moroccan community in Belgium.[...]

Belgian Moroccans prefer a non-mixed marriage. More than half of the respondents thinks it's good to have somebody come from their homeland for a marriage. 62% are against a marriage of a Muslim woman with a non-Muslims. Just 45% disapprove of the reverse.

"Aleti Samusa ... converted to Christianity; her family immediately kicked her out of their home." Yes, one of those (all too common) stories. "Uganda: Threats, expulsions for Christian couple," from Compass Direct News, June 26:

Hostilities evident in Muslim area where missionaries were slain.

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 26 (Compass Direct News) – When a young Muslim woman in northern Uganda heard about Jesus in February 2005 and began having dreams about the cross of Christ, it marked the beginning of a nightmare. Between the dreams and otherwise sleepless nights, Aleti Samusa of Yumbe district soon converted to Christianity; her family immediately kicked her out of their home. Economically devastated and deprived of that which is most valued in the communal culture, Samusa sought refuge in a local church in Lotongo village. There she found the man she would marry later that year, David Edema, who was raised a Christian but who began sharing in the sufferings of a convert from Islam by becoming one flesh with one.

His bride’s family did not attend the couple’s wedding, Edema told Compass, and it wasn’t long before her relatives threatened to break up their marriage. With Samusa’s family threatening to forcibly take her from Edema, the couple fled Lotongo village to Yumbe town. Their troubles had just begun. “The Muslims started sending people, saying that I am not wanted in Yumbe town and that I should leave the town,” Edema said.

Imagine if you had £11,000 -- over $18,000 -- for every remark that left you feeling "hurt, humiliated and depressed." Lots of failed actors, rejected suitors and American Idol contestants would be very rich people today.

And do you think this chap would have been awarded $18,000 if he had been a non-Muslim police officer insulted by Muslims? Did Dost's offensive remarks to his female colleague cost him $18,000? If losing 13 days' pay cost him $18,000, then he must be pulling in a salary of around $500,000 a year. Not bad for a police officer.

Absurd Britannia Alert: "Bin Laden slur Muslim PC wins £11,000 payout in racism claim," from the Birmingham Mail, June 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

A DEVOUT Muslim police officer who claims his boss compared him to Osama Bin Laden, mocked his beard and referred to his prayers as “shouting and wailing”, has won £11,000 in damages against West Midlands Police.

PC Tariq Dost, of Small Heath, said the comments made by his former line manager Darren Yates left him feeling hurt, humiliated and depressed.

An employment tribunal upheld PC Dost’s allegations that he had been treated with religious and racial discrimination and awarded the figure of £11,000 based on a psychiatric report measuring the scale of his hurt. Employment judge Hughes said: “The remarks made were offensive and more so because PC Dost is a very religious man.”...

But PC Dost, who was himself disciplined by West Midlands Police over his attitude towards women, had further allegations of victimisation rejected.

He claimed his punishment for remarks made towards a female colleague where he boasted about his sexual performance and use of Viagra was harsher than that doled out to Mr Yates. PC Dost was fined 13 days’ pay and removed from his post as positive action officer, where he mentored ethnic minorities and women to apply to the police force, after discussing the sex drug with colleagues and telling one she wouldn’t be able to walk when he’d finished with her....

PC Dost said he was saddened that the tribunal did not uphold his claims of victimisation and that a man who had been found to be racially discriminatory continued to work in recruitment. “It’s a point of concern for me and I’m sure it’s a point of concern for the people of the West Midlands,” he said....

Obama said of the protesters in Iran: "Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice. The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. In spite of the government's efforts to keep the world from bearing witness to that violence, we see it and we condemn it."

But even these pallid remarks were too much for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Thug-In-Chief finds it offensive that anyone has noticed his brutality -- especially a man like Barack Obama, who has followed a path of appeasement so energetically.

"Ahmadinejad: U.S. Has 'Made a Mistake,'" from AP, June 27 (thanks to Anne Crockett):

Iran's hardline president lashed out anew at the United States and President Barack Obama on Saturday, accusing him of interference and suggesting that Washington's stance on Iran's postelection turmoil could imperil Obama's aim of improving relations.

"We are surprised at Mr. Obama," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in remarks to judiciary officials broadcast on state television. "Didn't he say that he was after change? Why did he interfere?"

"They keep saying that they want to hold talks with Iran ... but is this the correct way? Definitely, they have made a mistake," Ahmadinejad said....

Oh, really now. Sure, they're lying, but either way one takes the statement, it speaks volumes about the nexus of corruption and the Orwellian alternative reality that Islamic Republic upholds with deadly force.

"Guardian Council praises 'cleanest' vote," from Agence France-Presse, June 26:

AFP - Iran's electoral watchdog insisted on Friday that this month's disputed presidential vote was the cleanest ever, rejecting opposition allegations of fraud that have brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets.

"After 10 days of examination, we did not see any major irregularities," Guardians Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told the official IRNA news agency.

"We have had no fraud in any presidential election and this one was the cleanest election we have had. I can say with certainty that there was no fraud in this election."

Never mind Iran's admission that in 50 Iranian cities, there were more votes than voters.

The council is expected to give its final ruling on Monday after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave it an additional five days to investigate complaints filed by the defeated candidates.

And the Saudi establishment and others have been silent. One oddity is worth noting: Does the outrage of being treated as an "infidel" by a rival Islamic denomination ever cause the victims to question whether this dhimmitude thing is such a good idea? Or are they just anxious to reclaim their right to be the ones dishing it out? After all, 'tis better to give than receive.

"Iraq PM criticises Muslim ‘silence’ on cleric’s death calls," from Agence France-Presse, June 25:

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday criticised Arab and Muslim countries for their silence on calls by a senior Saudi cleric for Shiite scholars to be killed.

The Iraqi leader made the remarks a day after a massive bomb in the predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad killed 62 people and wounded 150.

“We have observed that many governments have been suspiciously silent on the fatwa provoking the killing” of Shiites, Maliki, who is also Shiite, said in an e-mailed statement.

He was referring to comments made by Mecca Mufti Sheikh Adil al-Kalbani last month to the BBC that “Shiite clerics are infidels.”

“The Shiites have no right to be represented in the (Saudi) senior scholarly committee,” Kalbani said.

“The Shiite public, it’s a matter of discussion (as to whether they are infidels). Shiite clerics are definitely infidels, without question.”

According to Islam, it is permitted to kill infidels and not have to pay the victim’s family blood money....

But dawah, or Islamic proselytizing all over the world is quite alright, of course: The most fundamental double standard in Islamic law -- the one which generates all others with respect to believers and non-believers -- is the rule that Islam has a right to propagate itself and other religions do not. The various forms of subjugation of non-Muslims, the prohibition on Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men all stem from that, and above all, the prohibition on non-Islamic proselytizing, or free public exercise of non-Islamic religions in Islamic states all stem from that. Add in a license to kill (Qur'an 9:5) to achieve and maintain control, and the result is this story from Mauritania.

More on this story. "Al-Qaeda claims killing of American in Mauritania," from Agence France-Presse, June 26:

DUBAI - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for this week’s murder of an American teacher in the Mauritanian capital, US-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence said on Friday.

“Knights of the Islamic Maghreb, acting within one of the organisation’s brigades in Mauritania, struck the American infidel, Christopher Langis, known for his missionary activities,” Al-Qaeda said on Islamist websites.

“With grace from Allah, we were able to assassinate him, kill him, and purify the land of Mauritania from his criminal presence,” SITE quoted the statement as saying.

“May Allah bless these knights who are loyal to their Ummah (Islamic nation) and religion, who take vengeance for their innocent brothers, and who stand in the way of the crime of missionary in the land of Muslims.”

Al-Qaeda said Tuesday’s killing in Nouakchott was carried out at a time that “the despicable American bombs harvest our innocent Muslim brothers in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

The man was shot several times in the head from close range after he resisted an apparent kidnap attempt, a witness told AFP, after the shooting outside a private language and computer school run by the American.

“A foreigner has been shot dead, apparently by youths who fled. We are investigating the case,” police said, while the interior ministry identified the man as Christopher Logest and said he also worked for a charity, Noura.

Al-Qaeda militants were blamed for the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania on December 24, 2007 that heightened concerns about extremist attacks.

A gun attack on the Israeli embassy on February 1, 2008 left three people wounded and was claimed by an Al-Qaeda offshoot.

Neighbouring Mali launched a military operation earlier this month to root out Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb fighters in the Sahel region bordering Algeria, Niger and Mauritania.

The North African branch of Al-Qaeda has sought to extend its range into nations on the southern edge of the Sahara and claimed several attacks in the region.

Screenwriter Mark Tapson has a terrific piece at Big Hollywood on the ongoing spurious exoneration of Islam going on surrounding the superb film The Stoning of Soraya M. -- about which I wrote here and here.

While Iranian-American protesters packed streetcorners in Westwood last Saturday afternoon in support of the revolution currently playing out in the streets of Tehran, an historical drama about stoning in Iran got underway at the Los Angeles Film Festival mere blocks away.

For the few who don’t know by now, The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s bestselling book, which relates the true story of a woman in a remote Iranian village, in the years after the 1979 Khomeini revolution, who is falsely accused of adultery and stoned to death by a mob desperate to cleanse themselves of this affront to their collective honor and to their religion. It’s not only a gripping story in its own right, but it shines a harsh spotlight on the almost unimaginable reality that the barbaric punishment of stoning still exists in the Iranian law code, despite a largely nominal 2002 moratorium, the result of pressure from Western human rights groups.

(Full disclosure, even though I’m not reviewing the film here: I’m close friends with the filmmakers Cyrus and Betsy Nowrasteh, I provided Mpower Pictures with a bit of research on the project, I’m friends with other cast and crew and producers associated with the film, and I think stoning is bad. So don’t take my word for it when I say Soraya will be the most important, affecting film you’ll see all year. Instead seek out the multitude of reviewers who recommend the film, including Big Hollywood’s John Nolte and then see it for yourself.)

Following Saturday’s screening was a panel discussion, not so much moderated as simply hosted by Iranian novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of the bestselling The Kite Runner, who personally selected the film for the L.A. Film Festival. The panel also included Soraya’s writer-director Cyrus Nowrasteh, starring actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Dr. Reza Aslan, billed as an Islamic scholar.

Heading off any concerns about possible Islam-bashing in the movie, Mr. Nowrasteh noted at the discussion’s outset that Soraya is actually a pro-Muslim film, because it shows how a few hypocrites can hijack a religion for personal reasons, not to mention that the story’s victim is herself Muslim. He went on to discuss his personal attraction to the story and the process of bringing it to the big screen. Ms. Aghdashloo eloquently responded to a couple of questions about her personal passion for the role and for addressing the real-world issue of stoning.

It isn't really "Islam-bashing" to describe or depict Islamic teachings and practices accurately. And of course those who stone adulterers are not in the least "hijacking" Islam, since Islamic schools of jurisprudence all teach that stoning adulterers is good and proper, but in this case, at least in a narrow sense, it really is appropriate for Nowrasteh to have spoken about "how a few hypocrites can hijack a religion for personal reasons," since in the film the stoning victim is not really guilty, but is railroaded. Of course, this is almost certainly not how most people in this audience understood his words.

The Q & A was shorter-lived than many including myself would have liked, or at least less focused; one question, for example, was directed to Mr. Hosseini about his novels rather than the movie. But the focus really got blurry when Reza Aslan took the mic.

“Well,” he started, “I guess it’s up to me to put this into some sort of historical context.” If only he had, then people might better understand why the outrage of stoning still exists, and why it exists today only in territories in the grip of Sharia, or Islamic law. Instead Aslan proceeded to so dilute any context at all that people told me at the reception later, which he did not attend, that they either had no idea what he was talking about or simply tuned him out. What he did do, in several obfuscating turns at bat, was utterly whitewash Islam, its prophet Mohammed, and Iranian lawmakers past and present of any responsibility whatsoever for the practice of stoning.

He began by asserting that “many cultures” struggled with the issue of stoning. I nearly interrupted him right there to ask, “Really? Which cultures besides those under the thrall of Sharia law? Do Laplanders stone adulterers? Peruvian Indians? The Watusi? Minnesotans?” Aslan clouded any potential for understanding by claiming that culture, not religion, is responsible.

Dr. Aslan, an assistant professor of creative writing at UC Riverside with degrees in religion, is such a professorial rock star that he has a MySpace fan page (“Even though he’s the greatest smartie-pants ever he’s a living doll and exceedingly cool,” the site gushes). Not unusually for professors, he seemed to revel in regaling his captive audience with rambling answers devoid of much actual meaning. At one point the answer meandered so tortuously that when Aslan was done I turned to friend and fellow Big Hollywood contributor Charles Winecoff and said, “What was the question again?” “Question?” Charles replied. “What was the answer?”

The gist of his message was this: not only is religion inseparable from culture, but the words of, say, the Bible or Quran are utterly devoid of meaning in and of themselves, blank slates upon which we impose our own biased interpretations. Thus, to use one of Aslan’s own examples, if you’re a “misogynistic prick,” you’re going to view the Quran through that woman-hating lens and impose your own meaning upon it, regardless of what Mohammed, supposedly transcribing directly from Allah, actually wrote. Hence, Islam and Mohammed are not responsible for their followers’ misinterpretations, their patriarchal culture is.

No one would deny that religion and culture aren’t closely intertwined (though I would argue that religion influences culture more than the other way around), but puh-leeze – it’s beyond absurd to say that there is no substantive difference between Mohammed’s message and Jesus’, that there is no meaning inherent in their words, or that the massive edifices of their religions have not been built, shakily or not, upon the foundations of those words. It’s also disingenuous to suggest that present-day stoning has nothing to do with a seventh-century religious directive. It’s true that stoning is a pre-Islamic practice not mentioned in the Quran; but the tenets of Islam are based not solely on the Quran, but derive also from the hadith, or the tales of Mohammed’s life, and Dr. Aslan neglected to mention that Mohammed does command stoning as a punishment for adultery in the hadith.

Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-American author of, most recently, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law, and someone who knows a thing of two about women under Islam, stood in the audience and challenged Aslan at length about Mohammed and misogyny. He acknowledged one minor, innocuous point, but then dismissed her flatly with “Everything else you said is wrong” and handed the mic back to Mr. Hosseini. Not “That’s a common misconception,” or “Let me quote chapter and verse of the Quran to clarify things.” Just “Wrong.” End of discussion.

(Yet more disclosure: I personally know Ms. Darwish and can attest that she is an affecting, enlightening speaker precisely because she speaks truth plainly and without the kind of empty circumlocutions Dr. Aslan relies on to befuddle the uninformed and to absolve religion of any responsibility for the actions of its believers.)

After implying that Islam has simply been distorted by lots of misogynistic pricks, Dr. Aslan cheerily reassured us that Islamic scholars through the ages got around their discomfort with the whole stoning embarrassment by making it “impossible” to convict anyone of adultery, thanks to a legal formula of required witnesses that stacks the deck in favor of the alleged adulterer. Sounds good, except that people get convicted of it and stoned anyway, and he doesn’t explain why, if Mohammed/Allah never sanctioned it, Islamic scholars ever had to wrestle with the practice in the first place or why they don’t simply ban it as un-Islamic.

To be fair, Dr. Aslan did cut through the fog with a couple of straightforward declarations, but even these raised more questions than they answered. One such jaw-dropping assertion – “There is no such thing as Sharia” – will come as thrilling news to those awaiting lashings, amputations, beheadings, and stonings in communities from Somalia to Nigeria to Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia, etc. where Sharia is in full effect. Another Aslan stunner: “Mohammed was a seventh century feminist.” Surely, I thought, this outrageous soundbite would elicit guffaws from the audience!

But the audience sat guffaw-less. Instead, applause greeted almost every one of Aslan’s opaque, vaporous commentaries. I’d like to believe that this was because he had finally finished talking, but the disappointing reality is that he was simply affirming things that many in the audience, Iranian and otherwise, desperately wanted to believe: that there is no connection between Islam and the Sharia-sanctioned brutality we’d just seen dramatized onscreen, and that Iranian authorities actually disapprove of it.

A much-comforted Iranian woman next to me stood up and, after insisting on being called upon by Mr. Hosseini, gushed “Reza, I love you!” She neglected to express such love for Cyrus Nowrasteh, the director of this extraordinary film; maybe Mr. Nowrasteh needs to rev up his own MySpace fan page.

Overall, Dr. Aslan breezily downplayed stonings in general - Hey, they almost never happen and only in outlying areas out of reach of the rule of big city law, so what’s the big deal? Irrepressible radio host and documentary filmmaker John Ziegler, sitting behind me at the screening, let out a sardonic “Besides, it’s not like it’s as bad as waterboarding, right?” But that wasn’t any solace to a 13-year-old girl sentenced by a Sharia court and stoned to death for adultery in Somalia just last October (after going to the authorities herself and reporting she was gang-raped).

Admittedly, that wasn’t in Iran. Okay, so let’s look at the recent record there: an Iranian woman’s conviction of adultery was upheld just last November and her sentence of stoning confirmed. In January of this year, two men were stoned to death in Iran for adultery, and in May of this year, yet another man was stoned to death (the woman involved repented and presumably got her lashings instead). At least ten more men and women await death by stoning around the country.

The Stoning of Soraya M. is too important a film, and the issue of stoning under Sharia law (oops, I forgot – Sharia doesn’t exist) is too critical to allow an apologist like Dr. Aslan to whitewash Sharia with vague deflections and rude dismissal of debate. Lives are still at stake; men and women are still facing death in this grotesque manner (did I mention that it is specified in Iranian law that the stones to be hurled must not be too small to inflict significant damage nor too big to kill the victim immediately?). If we do not debate honestly the medieval ideology that lies behind this cruel practice, it will never end, and there will be more Sorayas.

This just in, even as I write: The Iranian judiciary is claiming they’ve decided to eliminate stoning. Call me skeptical, but I’ll believe it when it’s officially enshrined in law, when those awaiting death by stoning have their sentences commuted (to lashings, which will certainly result in very muted cellblock celebration), and when no more stonings happen, even in remote villages. In any case, considering that The Stoning of Soraya M. was on a list released in March of Western films that Iran finds objectionable and insulting, and considering the widespread international media focus on Soraya and its relevance to the current unrest in Iran, there’s no doubt that the growing awareness of the film has pressured the Iranian authorities to at least look like they’re doing the right thing.

"The Muslim women allegedly became angry and began to beat her. Some men then locked her in a room. Muslims announced from mosque loudspeakers a plan to punish Bibi by blackening her face and parading her through the village on a donkey." Her great crime? She reportedly declared that "Our Christ is the true prophet of God and yours is not true."

"Pakistan Christians Detained For 'Blasphemy', 'Robbery,'” from BosNewsLife, June 25:

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Two Pakistani Christians remained detained Thursday, June 25, on false charges of "blasphemy" and "robbery", advocacy groups said.

Asia Bibi, 37, was reportedly detained by police on allegations of blasphemy in the village of Ittanwali in Punjab province on June 19, following heated discussions about Islam with Muslim women who work with her on a farm.

"Bibi told them that Christ died on the cross for their sins and asked them what Mohammed had done for them," said Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), which monitored the case. "Our Christ is the true prophet of God and yours is not true," Bibi reportedly said.

The Muslim women allegedly became angry and began to beat her. "Some men then locked her in a room. Muslims announced from mosque loudspeakers a plan to punish Bibi by blackening her face and parading her through the village on a donkey. Local Christians informed police, who took Bibi into custody before Muslims could carry out their plan," VOMC said.

STILL HELD

She was believed to held Thursday, June 25, at a police station in Nankana city and local Christians were urging the police not to file blasphemy charges.

However, police officials reportedly said they must go forward due to pressure from local Muslim leaders. It came as elsewhere another 37-year-old Christian in Punjab province, Arshad Masih, was reportedly languishing in a Sialkot jail because his father was preaching Christ...

No word, however, as to which "translation" will be used. Will it be one that is faithful to the original Arabic, or will it be an annotated/edited version that "smooths over" the Koran's more violent, intolerant imperatives? "U.S. Muslims to Offer Qurans to 100,000 American Leaders," from The Examiner, June 26:

WASHINGTON (Map) - Major educational initiative prompted by President's quoting of Islam's revealed text

WASHINGTON, June 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, June 30, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., to announce the launch of a major campaign to distribute free copies of the Quran, Islam's revealed text, to 100,000 local, state and national leaders.[...]

CAIR's "Share the Quran" educational campaign was prompted by President Obama's recent address to Muslims worldwide in which he quoted from that holy text.

In the multi-year initiative, American Muslims will sponsor Qurans for distribution to governors, state attorneys general, educators, law enforcement officials, state and national legislators, local elected and public officials, media professionals, and other local or national leaders who shape public opinion or determine policy.

"Through this ground-breaking outreach initiative, we hope not only to educate policy-makers and opinion leaders about Islam, but also to provide an opportunity for American Muslims to reach out to their fellow citizens of other faiths," said CAIR Board Chairman State Sen. Larry Shaw (NC).

The "Share the Quran" initiative is an outgrowth of CAIR's successful "Explore the Quran" campaign and is part of the celebration of the Washington-based council's 15th anniversary. CAIR was founded in June of 1994.

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

An update to this story. "Two Men on Trial in Germany After Allegedly Plotting Terror Attacks on U.S. Targets," from Fox News, June 26:

FRANKFURT —
Two men went on trial Friday on accusations they were involved with a radical Islamic group whose alleged plans to attack U.S. targets in Germany were foiled by authorities in 2007.

Though not charged in the plot itself, Omid S., a German of Afghan background, and Huseyin O., a Turk, are being tried on more general charges that they supported the Islamic Jihad Union, an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a jihadist group with ties to Al Qaeda.

No pleas were entered, as is usual under the German trial system.

Omid S., 28, faces charges of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, while Huseyin O., 27, is charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

Both face a possible 10 years in prison if convicted at the Frankfurt state court. Neither man's full name was released, in keeping with German privacy rules.

Authorities say both men have links to Adem Yilmaz, a Turk living in Germany who is currently standing trial in connection with the foiled 2007 plot.

Omid S. is accused of contacting the Islamic Jihad Union through Yilmaz and procuring supplies for the group such as night-vision devices and a GPS unit at the end of 2006 and in early 2007.

He left Germany for training at an Islamic Jihad Union camp in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area in May 2007, prosecutors have said.

Before heading off, he gave Yilmaz his bank card and security code so the Islamic Jihad Union would have access to the funds, prosecutors said. On his way to the training camp, he gave the supplies to an Islamic Jihad Union member in Iran, according to the indictment.

Upon his return to Germany in October 2007, Omid S. continued to provide logistical support for the terrorist organization, prosecutors said.

Huseyin O. is also accused of obtaining supplies for the Islamic Jihad Union and trying to arrange through Yilmaz to train at a camp on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He was arrested while trying to enter Pakistan through Iran in June 2007.

Prosecutors allege that he also gave Yilmaz access to his bank account so that Yilmaz could collect unemployment insurance funds that Huseyin O. had applied for.

His blaming of the West is nothing new or original, but it is interesting that he seems to believe that the protests are aiming at toppling the Islamic regime, not just installing a different President within the same Sharia system. "Hezbollah accuses West of fomenting Iran turmoil," by Rana Moussaoui for AFP, June 24 (thanks to Pamela):

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday accused the West of fomenting protests in Iran over this month's presidential election but added that it had no worries about the stability of its main foreign backer.

"The extent of Western and American involvement in Iran's internal affairs is now clear," the Shiite militant group's deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, told AFP in an interview.

"What is going on in Iran is not a simple protest against the results of the presidential election," he said. "There are riots and attacks in the streets that are orchestrated from the outside in a bid to destabilise the country's Islamic regime."...

"The Islamic republic has succeeded in overcoming this plot from overseas aimed at destabilising the internal situation," Qassem said, singling out Britain for criticism of its role....

"Without showing any mercy" to those who "wage war against Allah."

"Iranian cleric says 'rioters' should be executed," by Parisa Hafezi for Reuters, June 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A hardline Iranian cleric on Friday called for the execution of "rioters" in the latest sign of the authorities' determination to stamp out opposition to the June 12 presidential election....

"I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University.

Iranian state television said on Thursday eight Basij militiamen were killed by "rioters" during the protests. State media previously said 20 people were killed in the marches....

Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading "rioters" as being "mohareb" or one who wages war against God.

"They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution....

Islamophobophobia: John Derbyshire coined the term to refer to his distaste for those (foremost among them me) who study how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam in order to justify terrorism and Islamic supremacism, and make recruits among peaceful Muslims. As far as John is concerned, we only do that because we're Christians, except when we're not (Bat Ye'or, Ibn Warraq, etc.), and anyway, lots of Muslims are nice guys. That latter point, of course, I have never disputed and never will dispute.

Anyway, now that John has coined the term, I think it should be applied not only to a distaste for so-called "Islamophobes" (an appellation that I reject in any case), but also to an anxiety not to appear "anti-Islamic," no matter what contortions one may be forced into as a result. This kind of Islamophobophobia especially manifests itself among politically correct types who find themselves for whatever reason in the position of discussing some human rights abuse or terrorist activity that its perpetrators justify by reference to Islamic teachings -- they will discuss it, all right, but will go to any length to make sure nobody thinks that it really has anything to do with Islam, or that it is any different from what those nasty Christians do.

This form of "Islamophobophobia" is in abundant display at the release of the excellent movie The Stoning of Soraya M., as I explained here yesterday. Many fall victim to Islamophobophobia not just because they are addled multiculturalists or politically correct cowards, but because they really don't want innocent people to be victimized, and they think that it is somehow an act of generosity or fairness to downplay the Islamic connection to whatever wrongdoing they are discussing, and to play up the evils of Christianity. What they fail to realize is that by deflecting attention away from the real causes of the phenomena they oppose, they are only helping ensure that those phenomena will continue.

And so it is with this review of the movie. It starts out well, and even mentions Sharia. But inevitably there comes the almost obligatory "Christians are -- well, at least were -- just as bad" reference.

"'The Stoning of Soraya M.': 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' vividly depicts the violent execution of a woman condemned by religion distorted," by Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times, June 26 (thanks to James):

"The Stoning of Soraya M." lives up to its title quite literally -- and rightly so, for it is important to understand just how cruel and drawn-out this ancient form of execution is and how prevalent it remains, not just in Iran, the film's setting, but in countries throughout the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa that follow Islamic Sharia law.

Give Thomas points for not claiming that this is a cultural practice that has nothing to do with Islam. Stoning for adultery is indeed part of Sharia, and pretending that it isn't, as actress Shohreh Aghdashloo did yesterday, is not going to do anything to end this practice. Why not? Because if one has decided that stoning is a cultural practice that has nothing to do with Sharia, one will not oppose the imposition of Sharia in any given place -- and with Sharia will come stoning, sooner or later.

The timing of the film's release is apt, for it serves as a metaphor for the current protests in Iran against the long-standing oppressiveness of the Islamic Republic.

Based on a true story recounted in the late Freidoune Sahebjam's book, "The Stoning of Soraya M." was filmed in a remote mountain village in an undisclosed Middle Eastern country. Jim Caviezel is cast as Sahebjam, an eminent Iranian journalist based in France who is passing through the village when he is accosted by a distraught woman, Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who prevails upon him to tape the terrible story she has to tell.

Only the day before, her niece Soraya (Mozhan Marnò) was executed in the town square by stoning. Her husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), who has the village leaders in his thrall, had concocted a flimsy and completely false charge of adultery against Soraya, the mother of their four children, so that he can be free to marry a 14-year-old girl; Soraya had refused to divorce Ali because she had no other means of support.

What is so compelling about this film, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, an American of Iranian descent who adapted Sahebjam's 1994 book with his wife, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, is the way religion can be exploited in the most obscene and hypocritical manner by those in power to oppress others -- and how total power over others can corrupt totally. Islam happens to be the religion here, but what happens in the course of this important and uncompromising film recalls evils perpetrated in the name of Christianity and other organized religions as well.

Actually, the particular horrors depicted in The Stoning of Soraya M. could not have happened in any non-Islamic cultural context, for only Islam sanctions stoning (and when the Islamic apologists start quoting the Hebrew Scriptures in the comments field below, please remind them that Judaism has interpreted those passages quite differently for two millennia or more, and that Christianity holds them to be superseded by John 7:53-8:11). Have Christians and believers in "other organized religions" perpetrated evils? Of course. But to remind readers of that in a review of this film is simply gratuitous Islamophobophobia on Thomas's part.

After all, what point does he wish us to take away from this? That it doesn't really matter if Iranian authorities are still stoning women (and they are), because after all, Christians have done bad things also? Surely not -- surely he doesn't want us to be passive and silent about this human rights abuse, does he? Or is his point that we shouldn't criticize Islam because of stoning, since Christianity has also given rise to evil deeds? But here again, it doesn't matter, in regard to stoning, if Christianity were the most evil belief system ever conceived in the mind of man. Even if it were, if Muslims are stoning people in the name of Islamic texts and teachings, there is no chance to end that practice unless those texts and teachings are discussed critically and protested against. What Christians may have done or not done is simply irrelevant.

So either way, Thomas's Islamophobophobia only abets the perpetuation of stoning. But to discard this Islamophobophobia and to speak honesty about why stoning is practiced today would have landed him in the camp of the "Islamophobes" -- and for some, a hideous and painful death would be more welcome than that.

Introducing: Jihadist Rhetoric Bingo!

With a sentence like that, you could almost win a game of Jihadist Rhetoric Bingo: Play it on game night with Halal or Haram! Meanwhile, these women are busily demonstrating how "liberated" they are, and completely free to speak... exactly what the regime wants them to say. "Female Ahmadinejad supporters demand arrest of Ebadi," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur, June 25:

TEHRAN -A number of supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have asked the justice minister to issue an arrest warrant for Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, official news agency IRNA reported Thursday.

Ebadi has called for fresh presidential elections in the wake of the alleged fraud in the June 12 contest which saw incumbent Ahmadinejad re-elected.

In a fax to Justice Minister Gholam-Hossein Elham, cited by IRNA, female lawyers, legal experts and academics also called for the revocation of Ebadi’s licence to practice law, due to what they caller her constant denial of Islamic rules and basics as well as the constitution.

Ebadi has constantly criticised the Islamic legal system - but the demand for her arrest is thought to be due to her request new presidential elections.

“Some traitors to the Islamic system, who are just like weeds, are trying to undermine the national Iranian glory and dignity in line with the world imperialism and the Zionists (Israel),” the women wrote in their letter.

Somalia Jihad Update. "Somalia: Al-Qaeda linked militants 'out of control'," from Adnkronos International, June 25:

Mogadishu, 25 June (AKI) - Somalia is having difficulty controlling a growing number of Al-Qaeda-linked militants inside the country, a source close to Somalian president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has told Adnkronos International (AKI). The source said that militants aligned with the hardline Islamist Al-Shabab militia, or the Young Mujahadeen, were too much for the government to handle.

"I believe that the Somalian government will be able to do something and not be defeated, but the problem is that the Al-Shabab are too many for us," he said.

The source spoke to AKI as news broke on Thursday that Al-Shabab performed double amputations on four men who reportedly admitted to several robberies.

That was after a delay blamed on the weather.

After their conviction by an Islamic Sharia law court in the capital early this week, each man had one hand and one foot cut off with machetes as punishment for their crime before a crowd of several hundred people.

The government source said the militants were recruiting many volunteers from abroad.

"They have many volunteers from other countries," said the source.

He said the militants are responsible for many small clashes that take place throughout the day on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.

"Now the Young Mujahadeen and members of the Islamic party have a strong alliance even though most Al-Shabab are not happy to be commanded by Sheikh Hasan Dahir Aweys, who is willing to do anything to become the next leader of the Islamic state."

The source said there had been a mass influx of foreign volunteers invited by Al-Qaeda to the Horn of Africa to fight with the Young Mujahadeen.

"In reality there are tonnes of them, probably even too many for us and this is the real problem," he said.

"Young people from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many Westerners are with them, we even know that there are British and Americans with them. We do not know if there are any Italians, but at this point we cannot exclude anything."

Despite an announcement that Ethiopia and Dijbouti would not provide troops, the fragile Somalian government still hopes it will be able to defeat the Islamic militants.

"It is not true when the Al-Shabab claim to be two kilometres away from Villa Somalia, the presidential palace," he said. "For weeks, they've been on the perifery, in the area past the football stadium, and have not been able to make any further advance."

Al-Shabab is an Islamic militant group, which the United States has included on the list of foreign terrorist organisations in 2008.

President Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, took office in January 2009 and introduced Sharia law to the Muslim country, but the move has failed to satisfy the hardline militants in the area....

Of course it has failed. Introducing Sharia law only set a precedent for more. And, as is the case with the jihad against Israel, people who want the whole package will not be appeased by getting part of it.

View from a balcony, June 24. Video thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

According to al-Jazeera, the American was not killed in a botched attempt to kidnap and hold him ransom, as previously indicated, but because he was engaged in the unforgivable act of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. "Al-Qaida claims killing of U. S. aid worker: Al-Jazeera," from China View, June 25:

DAKAR, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The terrorist group al-Qaida claimed responsibility for slaying a U.S. aid worker in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott this week, according to Al-Jazeera TV monitored here on Thursday.

Citing a statement by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the Arab satellite TV station said Christopher Ervin Leggett, 39, was gunned down in an attempt to convert Muslims to Christianity on Tuesday...

The Stoning of Soraya M. is a great film; I attended an advance screening of it last year in Los Angeles, and strongly recommend that you see it. It is a powerfully moving indictment of the Islamic practice of stoning adulterers, and indirectly of the Sharia in general -- however, those connected with the film are doing their level best to avoid giving the impression that the film has anything to do with Islam at all. The latest to do this, but by no means the only one, is actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, who portrays the victim's close friend. This is understandable in today's politically correct Obamoid climate, but it is unfortunate for the Muslim women who are victimized by this barbaric practice: they will never get justice as long as the world is busy making excuses for what victimizes them, instead of calling to account those who are responsible.

Anyway, Aghdashloo makes a number of factually false statements in this article -- not just false, but misleading, and ultimately enabling those who perpetuate the practice of stoning.

"MOVIE PROFILE: Shohreh Aghdashloo of 'The Stoning of Soraya M.,'" by Todd Hill for the Staten Island Advance, June 25 (thanks to James):

"It's been happening since the Stone Age, in Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Other nations and religions have gotten rid of it, and all of a sudden, after 2,000 years of monarchy we're facing it in Iran. What makes me feel devastated is the fact that it's happening there, the cradle of civilization," said the actress.

"It's been happening since the Stone Age, in Judaism, Christianity, Islam." In fact, no. The Hebrew Scriptures mandate stoning but it has not been carried out in Judaism since the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., or before that. Islamic tradition contains stories of Muhammad confronting Jewish rabbis who try to conceal the fact that the Torah teaches stoning -- they seem to know that Muhammad was a brutal flat-footed literalist who would demand they carry out these teachings literally, when they understood them in a quite different way. I will include some of this at the end of this post.

As for Christianity, stoning has never been practiced except among those strange Christians one encounters only in TV dramas. Jesus famously raised the bar for stoning beyond human reach when he said to a crowd that was poised to stone an adulteress, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7).

"Along with enriching uranium they're stoning people, and this is what I cannot get, I cannot put the two together."

Aghdashloo stressed that stoning isn't mentioned in the Koran.

"It has nothing to do with Islam. It's under the category of superstitions and traditions, but obviously those who have hijacked Islam are manipulating people and using this as an Islamic law. It is not, really," said Aghdashloo, who prepared for her role by watching a real stoning on videotape.

Stoning has everything to do with Islam and Islamic law. The caliph Umar, one of Muhammad's closest companions, even maintained that it was originally in the Qur'an:

'Umar said, "I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, "We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book," and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession." Sufyan added, "I have memorized this narration in this way." 'Umar added, "Surely Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him." (Bukhari, vol. 8, bk. 82, no. 816)

"Allah's Apostle" is, of course, Muhammad, who did indeed carry out stonings. Here is the hadith in which he challenges the rabbis about stoning, and in which there is amidst the barbarism and brutality a final act of love and compassion:

The Jews came to Allah's Apostle and told him that a man and a woman from amongst them had committed illegal sexual intercourse. Allah's Apostle said to them, "What do you find in the Torah (old Testament) about the legal punishment of Ar-Rajm (stoning)?" They replied, (But) we announce their crime and lash them." Abdullah bin Salam said, "You are telling a lie; Torah contains the order of Rajm." They brought and opened the Torah and one of them solaced his hand on the Verse of Rajm and read the verses preceding and following it. Abdullah bin Salam said to him, "Lift your hand." When he lifted his hand, the Verse of Rajm was written there. They said, "Muhammad has told the truth; the Torah has the Verse of Rajm. The Prophet then gave the order that both of them should be stoned to death. ('Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "I saw the man leaning over the woman to shelter her from the stones." (Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 56, no. 829)

Even the monkeys practiced stoning, according to another hadith:

During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them. (Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 58, no. 188)

Muhammad's example is, of course, normative for Islamic behavior, since "verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much" (Qur'an 33:21).

And so Islamic law does indeed mandate stoning for adultery. 'Umdat al-Salik, a manual of Islamic law endorsed by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most influential institution in the world of Sunni Islam, says this about the penalty for adultery:

If the offender is someone with the capacity to remain chaste, then he or she is stoned to death..., someone with the capacity to remain chaste meaning anyone who has had sexual intercourse (A: at least once) with their spouse in a valid marriage, and is free, of age, and sane....

If the penalty is stoning, the offender is stoned even in severe heat or cold, and even if he has an illness from which he is expected to recover. A pregnant woman is not stoned until she gives birth and the child can suffice with the milk of another. ('Umdat al-Salik o12.2, o12.6)

The film is great, and depicts the truth. It is a pity that the film's actors and producers feel compelled to deny and downplay the real cause of this crime against humanity. By doing so, they only ensure that it will keep happening.

Welcome to the world of sharia law. More on this story. "Somalis watch double amputations," from Reuters, June 25:

Hardline Islamists in Somalia have carried out double amputations on four men for stealing phones and guns.

They have each had a hand and foot cut off after being convicted by a Sharia court in the capital earlier this week.

More then 300 people, mainly women and children, watched as masked men cut off their limbs with machetes.

The four men reportedly admitted to the robberies, but were not represented by a lawyer and were not allowed to appeal against their sentence.

The al-Shabab group, which controls much of southern Somalia, has carried out amputations, floggings and an execution in the port of Kismayo but such punishments are rare in the capital.

The amputations were carried out in the open in front of an al-Shabab military camp in the north-east of Mogadishu.

A local resident said the four men cried out during and after the amputations. Each man had his right hand and left foot cut off.

"'Help, help, help!' one of them shouted," Mohamed Abdi told the BBC.

Eyewitnesses estimate the age of the four men - Aden Mohamud, Ismail Khalif , Jeylani Mohamed, and Abdulkadir Adow - to be between 18 and 25.

Mr Abdi said the whole process took about an hour to complete.

'Torture'

Human rights lobby group Amnesty International has condemned the amputations.

"These punishments amount to torture," said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty's Africa deputy director.

The group says that committing torture could amount to a war crime.

After the four were sentenced to double amputations on Monday, mosques in the area announced through their loud speakers that the amputations would take place at 0800 local time on Thursday.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told journalists that the amputations were a warning to all thieves.

"If they are caught red-handed in similar circumstances, they will face amputation," he said.

He also said al-Shabab would look after the welfare of the amputees...

And Obama tries to cover it up. "Newly Released Documents Show Saudi Ruling Family Support for Al-Qaeda," from All Gov,June 25:

Even if a lawsuit by families of those who died during the September 11, 2001, attacks is not successful in court, the effort may result in shedding light on long-alleged connections between al-Qaeda and the Saudi royal family.

Lawyers representing more than 7,000 Americans have obtained internal Treasury Department documents showing that the International Islamic Relief Organization, a prominent charity heavily backed by Saudi royalty, had supported terrorist organizations until 2007.

The plaintiffs’ legal team also obtained testimony from a self-described al-Qaeda operative in Bosnia who said another charity, the Saudi High Commission for Aid to Bosnia, provided money and supplies to al-Qaeda in the 1990s.

Still another witness, in Afghanistan, has sworn that he witnessed an emissary for a leading Saudi prince, Turki al-Faisal, hand a check for one billion Saudi riyals (about $267 million) to a top Taliban leader in 1998. Al-Faisal later served as ambassador to the United States.

And there is a confidential German intelligence report that purportedly shows tens of millions of dollars in bank transfers made in the early 1990s by Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz and other Saudi royalty to another charity that was suspected of financing militants in Pakistan and Bosnia.

Only a small portion of this evidence has been entered into the court record for the 9/11 lawsuit, which twice has been rejected by federal courts and is now waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether to hear the case. Legal observers don’t expect that to happen, following the Obama administration’s decision to side with the lower court rulings that said the Saudis were immune from U.S. civil litigation.

Other, potentially more powerful evidence linking the Saudi royal family to terrorist organizations may be contained in classified American intelligence documents that were given to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Upon learning of this disclosure, the Justice Department had these papers destroyed, and it is seeking to keep them from surfacing before a federal judge. There is also a 28-page, classified section of the 2003 joint congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks that supposedly discusses intelligence on Saudi financial links to two of the 9/11 hijackers.

"Leniency." More on this story. "Turkish author acquitted of insulting Islam - TV," from Reuters, June 25:

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court has acquitted Turkish-French author Nedim Gursel of charges he insulted Islam in his book "The Daughters of Allah", broadcaster CNN Turk reported on Thursday.

Predominantly Muslim but officially secular Turkey's bid to join the European Union has been hampered by court cases against writers and academics over freedom of speech issues.

No one at the court was available to comment on the report.

The charges against Gursel of insulting religion and endangering security through inciting hatred had been based on his characterisations of the Prophet Mohammad and his family in the book.

Unusually, Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, responsible for the activities of mosques and theological teaching, had intervened in the trial with testimony against the defendant.

He would have faced between one and three years in jail if found guilty. However, few of the court cases brought against writers or journalists have resulted in prison sentences.

Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk went on trial for "insulting Turkishness" when he told a Swiss magazine Turkey was responsible for the deaths of 30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians, but his case was dropped on a technicality.

Jihadist haute cuisine. "But the slaughtering needs to be according to the shari'a."

"Jihadist Forum Thread Discusses If and When One May Eat the Flesh of U.S. Soldiers," from MEMRI, June 25 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A recent thread on the Al-Falluja jihadist forum discussed the case of whether a Muslim who has nothing else to eat may kill an infidel in order to eat him. The discussion was prompted by a recently published book by Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, one of the most influential jihadist sheikhs active today.

The following is a summary of the discussion thread. (JTTM subscribers can read the full report at http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/report.htm?report=3367¶m=JT; to subscribe to the JTTM, visit http://subscriptions.memri.org/content/en/member_registr_jttm.htm).

"Is It Permitted To Eat The Flesh of American Soldiers?"

On June 13, 2009, a member of the Al-Falluja forum who uses the moniker "Al-Maqdisi's Student" wrote a post based on this passage [in full report] titled "Is it permitted to eat the flesh of American soldiers? A quote from the illustrious Sheikh Al-Maqdisi, may Allah preserve him." He began by recounting an exchange between the early Muslim commander Khalid b. Al-Walid and the Byzantine commander at the battle of Yarmuk (in the year 636 C.E.) The Byzantine commander said to Khalid that the Muslims had only gone out from their land due to hunger, and offered to buy them off. Khalid responded: "It was not hunger that drove us out of our land, as you say; we are a people who drink blood, and we know that there is no blood more delicious than Byzantine blood. That is why we came."

"Al-Maqdisi's Student" then cites the aforementioned passage from Al-Maqdisi's Beginner's Guide [in full report], and follows up with the words: "The mujahideen should inform their belligerent [infidel] and apostate enemies of this exceptional law so that they can bring it up and study it at their conferences on human rights, counterterrorism, and so on! Then they in turn can proclaim that our soldiers lick their lips [at the thought of] eating the flesh of their hamburger- and Pepsi-eating soldiers!"

"If We... Eat Americans, Let's Make Them Into A Gunpowder-Flavored Kabsa With Some Hors D'oeuvres Made Of Apostates"

Most of the numerous responses to the post were off-topic. Some responses, however, did take up the flesh-eating issue. "Abu Hajir Al-Muqrin" wrote: "If we are forced to eat Americans, let's make them into a gunpowder-flavored kabsa with some hors d'oeuvres made of apostates."

"Muhammad Al-Baghdadi" wrote: "But the slaughtering needs to be according to the shari'a. He then wrote "perhaps this is the best way" above stills from the Nick Berg decapitation video.

"Al-Maqdisi's Student" weighed in again towards the end of the thread and wrote: "A true story: a group of mujahideen from one of the brigades was in the mountains during the jihad against the Russians. One of them was sent off on a mission; he went and came back, but he couldn't find any of the brothers. He saw a roasted calf leg that the brothers in the brigade left for him for dinner, and he ate of it until he was full. When he went back to the main camp, the brothers saw him and offered him dinner! He said: praise Allah, I already ate! They said: Where did you find dinner? He said: You left me roasted calf leg! They said: No, no, that wasn't calf, that was the leg of a Russian infidel! He answered: No matter, it's all Islamic slaughter! (smile)"

Syria has been on the list of State Sponsors of Terror since 1979. Bush removed our ambassador in 2005 because of Syria's murderous meddling in Lebanon and its support of Hamas and Hizballah -- and what has changed since then?

"Obama returns US ambassador to Syria," from FoxNews, June 24 (thanks to Pamela):

After a four year absence, the US will once again have an ambassador in Syria.

The White House announced the plans Wednesday, saying the move reflects President Obama's commitment to be more "fully engaged" in the Arab world.

"This strongly reflects the administration's recognition of the role Syria plays, and the hope of the role that the Syrian government can play constructively to promote peace and stability in the region," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

According to Gibbs, since Obama took office in January there have been a series of meetings with administration officials and Syrian leadership.

The US pulled its ambassador to Syria in February 2005, expressing "profound outrage" over the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who had protested Syrian influence in his country. Although Washington never directly accused Syria of carrying out the murder, the US had criticized Syria for its support of Hamas and Hezbollah, and for not doing enough to end the influx of militants into neighboring Iraq.

Yeah, this is gonna work. "Israel agrees to limit incursions in West Bank cities," by Hanan Greenberg and Ali Waked for Israel National News, June 25 (thanks to James):

Israel has agreed to largely keep its forces out of four West Bank cities to try to boost a Palestinian security campaign supported by Washington, Israeli and Palestinian security sources told Ynet on Thursday.

The sources said Israel agreed to refrain from entering Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho and Qalqilya, except in cases where the army believes terrorists are poised to attack Israelis.

The agreement was reached following a meeting between Israeli officials from the Civil Adminsitration [sic] and top Palestinian security officials held in Bethlehem Wednesday evening.

According to the agreement, Palestinian forces will be allowed to operate in the aforementioned cities 24 hours a day; up until now they were authorized to operate from midnight to 5 am.

It was further decided that Israel would inform the Palestinian Authority of any security-related developments that may demand IDF intervention in territories controlled by the Authority.

The Palestinians hope that the increased cooperation will eventually result in the easing of restrictions on the Palestinian population....

Complicit. "Pakistan not likely to extradite Mumbai suspects: FO," from Associated Press, June 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] An Indian court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for 22 Pakistanis accused of masterminding the attacks, in which teams of armed militants rampaged through India's commercial capital, leaving 166 people dead after a three-day siege.

Indian prosecutors demanded that Islamabad extradite all the suspects, though Pakistan previously said it would not transfer any Mumbai suspects and instead would try them in its own courts if there is enough evidence.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said Wednesday that Pakistan and India have no extradition treaty and that no request had been received to hand over the suspects.

Among those sought for arrest are Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, founder of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba — which India blames for the launching attacks — and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, two leaders of the group....

But a court in Lahore earlier this month freed Saeed from house arrest, saying there was not enough evidence against him to keep him detained.

India condemned his release as proof Pakistan was not serious about fighting extremist groups on its soil....

Uh, yeah.

And he wants his servant to apologize. "Ahmadinejad compares Obama to Bush," by Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters, June 25 (thanks to James):

TEHRAN (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama on Thursday of behaving like his predecessor toward Iran and said there was not much point in talking to Washington unless the U.S. president apologized.

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Obama said on Tuesday he was "appalled and outraged" by a post-election crackdown and Washington withdrew invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend U.S. Independence Day celebrations on July 4 -- stalling efforts to improve ties with Tehran.

"Mr Obama made a mistake to say those things ... our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about ... I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it," he said....

This final Troopathon 2009 Update shows that a great many care packages have been sent to the troops, with the Hot Air Steamers plopping to victory, raising $16,255.22 for the troops. Ron Winter's Greyhawks charged into second with $6,723.39, and our Anti-Jihadists team looks to finish third, with $5,449.13 -- although there is still time for last-minute contributions.

The Anti-Jihadists team was, however, first in cool. Our all-star lineup included Amillennialist Contra Mundum, Andrew Bostom, Atlas Shrugs, Bare Naked Islam, Birdbrain, B'nai Elim, #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor's "Thorum," Clueless Emma, Creeping Sharia, Federale, Gates of Vienna, Islam In Action, Islamic Danger to Americans, The Jawa Report, Little Green Footballs 2, Muslims Against Sharia, Patriot's Corner, Radio Jihad, Random Thoughts, Right Wing Bob, The Snooper Report, The Snow Report Blog, Theodore's World, Undaunted, Watson37, and Weasel Zippers.

Please pray for our friend and team member Snooper of the Snooper Report, as Pamela reports he has had a mild stroke.

You can see the full results as they stand now here. And remember: it is not too late to send Troopathon care packages to the troops! To make sure they will be credited to The Anti-Jihadists, please use this order form.

Troopathon 2009 is today! It features George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Jackie Mason, Jon Voight, Kevin Farley, Deroy Murdock, Roger Hedgecock, Andrea Shea King, Martha Zoller, and many others -- including me. I'll be appearing briefly at 7:18 Pacific time tonight.

Heartfelt thanks once again to all those who have sent or will send a care package to our brave men and women of the armed forces serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

First Amendment? Pah! Muslims are offended!

Free Speech Death Watch Alert: "Maine Fines Group for ‘Inflammatory Anti-Muslim Message,’" by Patrick Poole for Pajamas Media, June 25:

An organization in the national spotlight recently for producing a documentary identifying several dozen potential terrorist training compounds in the U.S. has offended the sensibilities of Maine bureaucrats, who have fined the organization $4,000, alleging among other things that the group sent out mailings containing an “inflammatory anti-Muslim message.”

The group in question, the Christian Action Network (CAN), received notice of the fines and the fundraising ban in a May 6 letter from Elaine Thibodeau of the State of Maine’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Enclosed in the letter was a prepared consent agreement for CAN to sign agreeing to all of the state’s allegations, waiving all rights to appeal, and agreeing to pay the $4,000 fine. As part of the consent agreement, CAN is required to agree to all of the state’s allegations, including their assertion that their mailing amounted to hate speech.

“These bogus charges and fines the State of Maine has imposed are nothing but an attempt to stifle our free speech and silence our organization from speaking out about the steady creep of radical Islam in America,” CAN president Martin Mawyer told Pajamas Media. “We fully intend to appeal the state’s penalties because if they successfully silence us here, we will quickly find that we won’t be able to speak out anywhere.”

CAN was in the news earlier this year following the release of their documentary, Homegrown Jihad, which details dozens of compounds across the U.S. operated by Pakistani Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, who has previously been identified in State Department reports as a terrorist leader, and his group, Jamaat al-Fuqra. The documentary looks into the past terrorist acts of the group in the U.S., including the assassination of two moderate Muslim leaders, the firebombing of non-Muslim religious facilities, and an investigation by Colorado authorities that led to convictions and lengthy prison sentences. These activities have been covered in several FBI domestic terrorism reports and a more recent assessment by the Center for Policing Terrorism. Other prominent convicted terrorists, including “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid, D.C. Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad, and NYC landmarks bomb plotter Clement Rodney Hampton-El, have been identified as former members.

But what has Maine bureaucrats roiling is a fundraising mailing sent by CAN (a copy of which was provided to Pajamas Media) regarding a public school curriculum used in California requiring students to pray to Allah, dress up as Muslims, adopt Muslim names, and learn the five pillars of Islam. Since Christians and Jews are not given similar accommodations, CAN encouraged their supporters to send a petition to Maine Gov. John Baldacci asking him to prevent such instruction in Maine public schools.

Among the stated allegations in Thibodeau’s letter and the consent agreement is that this amounted to hate speech, claiming:

5. The correspondence contained an inflammatory anti-Muslim message.

In two separate rounds of correspondence with Thibodeau, I inquired what basis the state used to determine that the mailing was “inflammatory,” but she refused to address that question on both occasions....

“There’s little doubt that our documentary on Islamic terrorist camps operating inside the U.S. and our statements of concern about the spread of radical Islam is at the heart of the state’s actions. And we can’t help but conclude based on the available evidence that if we were ACORN, or any other group advocating some left-wing cause, they would be using a less-than-rigorous scrutiny in their interpretation of the law,” Mawyer said. “Would they ever dare consider applying these standards to CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations]?”

CAN is appealing the fines issued by the State of Maine and is also considering a lawsuit to prevent bureaucrats from using rulings after the fact to go after charitable organizations running afoul of political correctness. If Maine were to prevail in this case, they fear that it would not only be used by groups like CAIR to attempt to discredit CAN’s investigative work, but also be an invitation for Maine and other states to use bureaucratic interpretations to go after other organizations making similar “inflammatory anti-Muslim messages.”

Be sure to read it all -- the state's charges are chilling.

No wonder he has been less than enthusiastic about the prospect of the Supremo being toppled. He has too much invested in him already. "EXCLUSIVE: U.S. contacted Iran's ayatollah before election," by Barbara Slavin for the Washington Times, June 24 (thanks to LGF2):

Prior to this month's disputed presidential election in Iran, the Obama administration sent a letter to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for an improvement in relations, according to interviews and the leader himself.

Ayatollah Khamenei confirmed the letter toward the end of a lengthy sermon last week, in which he accused the United States of fomenting protests in his country in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential election.

U.S. officials declined to discuss the letter on Tuesday, a day in which President Obama gave his strongest condemnation yet of the Iranian crackdown against protesters.

An Iranian with knowledge of the overture, however, told The Washington Times that the letter was sent between May 4 and May 10 and laid out the prospect of "cooperation in regional and bilateral relations" and a resolution of the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

The Iranian, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the letter was given to the Iranian Foreign Ministry by a representative of the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of U.S.-Iran diplomatic relations. The letter was then delivered to the office of Ayatollah Khamenei, he said.

The letter was sent before the election, whose outcome - delivering a supposed landslide to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - has touched off the biggest anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Obama administration, while criticizing a violent crackdown on demonstrators by Iranian security forces, has said that it will continue efforts to engage the Iranian government about its nuclear program and other issues touching on U.S. national security....

In 2007 I wrote a book, Religion of Peace?, about why it was factually wrong to equate "Christian fundamentalism" with "Islamic fundamentalism" -- and not only factually wrong, but tactically dangerous, as it distracted Westerners from both recognizing the magnitude of the global jihad threat, and from taking the necessary steps to defend against it.

The events in Iran have given this misleading and invidious comparison a new life. "Beware the Christians! Comparing the Christian right with the brutal ayatollahs in Iran is childish nonsense," by Frank J. Fleming for Pajamas Media, June 25 (thanks to James):

As we watch the horrors in Iran, it makes us wonder if anything like that could happen in America. In Iran, the mullahs control everything and feel justified in any injustice they commit because of a belief in the rightness of their own actions. Is there anyone like that here?

In an answer to that question, Frank Schaeffer wrote a column for the Huffington Post entitled “The Real Lesson of Iran — Beware America’s Republican Mullahs.” Reading it and the comments to it, I came to a realization: people who think the religious right are just like Iranian mullahs are just like Iranian mullahs.

The article is pretty creepy. Schaeffer makes reference to “neocons” by the second sentence, which already raises flags, as it seems it’s getting hard these days for anyone to use that word and not be a crank. And the whole premise is quite disturbing. The author has seen all the horrors of people being brutalized and murdered over just wanting their voices heard, and he comes to the conclusion that his completely unrelated political opponents — Republicans — are very bad.

It takes a certain kind of sociopath to witness great tragedy and then turn back to his narrow political talking points completely unaffected. It’s pretty much the same as seeing someone brutally murdered in the street and saying, “This is why we need to change subsidies on corn farming.”

Given the obvious mental imbalance of the author, it’s no wonder the whole article is basically fevered ranting about how Christians want to round up and imprison and execute anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus and use the government to crush dissent — all the usual paranoid stuff you’d expect from someone who decides to demonize some group he doesn’t like. He, of course, hits today’s favorite target, Sarah Palin, who, despite her rather libertarian record, he’s convinced wants to unleash death squads that kill non-believers, since she was spotted going to church once.

Read it all.

In Human Events today I wonder what is going on in the Justice Department:

In its ongoing quest to win the hearts and minds of Muslims in America, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has asked its employees to volunteer to man an information booth at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention in Washington over the July 4 weekend. According to an internal email that Pajamas Media obtained and published, the Division is seeking staff members to “hand out literature and answer basic questions.” This is, says the e-mail, a “unique opportunity.”

And what could be wrong with this? After all, two administrations now have made outreach to Muslim moderates a significant element of their counterterror strategy -- this will, we are told, marginalize the Islamic jihadists who try to portray counterterror efforts as “anti-Islamic.” One of the many problems with this strategy, however, is that State and Justice Department officials, along with the FBI and other agencies, have never shown any great ability to be able to determine reliably who is a genuine moderate Muslim and who isn’t. The influence and access to the highest levels of government that Abdurrahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council, now serving a 23-year prison sentence on jihad terror financing charges, is only the most notorious case in point among many instances of misguided contact and cooperation between Islamic supremacists and U.S. government agencies.

Priorities: Gotta love 'em. "OIC to open office in Brussels to fight Islamophobia," by Servet Yanatma for Today's Zaman, June 25:

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will open a representative office and appoint an ambassador to Brussels to fight more effectively against Islamophobia in Europe.

They should try our handy five-step plan for dealing with the root causes of "Islamophobia."

“This office will provide the West and Islam the opportunity to work coherently,” said Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the Turkish secretary-general of the organization, to Today's Zaman. The office will cooperate with the European Parliament and the European Council to develop the initiatives for interfaith and intercultural dialogue and institute contacts with nongovernmental organizations. The office will also be effective in efforts aimed at preventing discrimination against Muslims and fighting anti-Islam propaganda. “Of course fighting anti-Islam propaganda is one of the main aims of the office. Intercultural and interfaith dialogue constitute the priorities of the office in Brussels,” İhsanoğlu said.

İhsanoğlu, who had talks in Washington this week, will meet with the Belgian minister of foreign affairs in Brussels in the coming days. An agreement regarding the establishment of the OIC office in Brussels will be signed at the meeting.

Then they can work to erode free speech and expression from within Europe: You know, wage jihad smarter, not harder!

OIC officials are concerned that most of the actions considered by the public as Islamophobic took place in European countries; thus, the OIC believes better contact with official European institutions and the public is vital.

Operating on a principle similar to "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

A cartoon crisis that stemmed from the publishing of cartoons in Denmark insulting the Prophet Muhammad in September 2005 strained relations between Islam and the West. The idea of opening an office in Brussels was explained by İhsanoğlu to European politicians with whom İhsanoğlu negotiated during the cartoon crisis.

Again, priorities.

The OIC already has offices in New York and Geneva. The new office in Brussels will advance relations between Europe and the Muslim world. “With this office, we can create close institutional cooperation with the member countries of the European Union,” İhsanoğlu said.

They blamed the weather. They're carrying out a cruel and unusual punishment with the potential for all manner of complications regardless of the heat, but they have the courtesy to pick a nice day for it: Isn't sharia swell? An update on this story. "Show of mercy may be calculated," by Matt Brown for The National, June 25:

NAIROBI // A brutally violent Somali militia showed this week that it has a humane side. Sort of.

Al Shabab, a hardline Islamist insurgent group that is fighting the government and wants to impose strict Islamic law on Somalia, postponed amputations on four young thieves on Tuesday, citing the weather as creating a health risk.

An Islamic court in an al Shabab-controlled area of Mogadishu found the men guilty of stealing guns and mobile phones. They were sentenced Monday to have their right hand and left foot cut off in accordance with a form of Sharia, or Islamic law.

Where did they get that idea? Qur'an 5:33 prescribes a hand and foot on opposite sides for "spreading mischief in the land," while Qur'an 5:38 calls for the amputation of the hands of thieves.

However, the court ruled on Tuesday that the amputations could not take place because the sweltering weather would have caused the accused to bleed to death. Officials said that the sentence would still be carried out, although no new date was given.

“The sentence will be carried out later,” an al Shabab official told the Associated Press anonymously because he was not authorised to speak to the media. “It was postponed because of the hot weather and fears that the victims will bleed to death.”

But, analysts say, just because al Shabab postponed the amputations does not mean the militia has gone soft. The insurgent movement, which the United States says is linked to al Qa’eda, has fought a brutal two-year war with the government, forcing millions to flee parts of south-central Somalia. The United Nations says 160,000 have been displaced in the past two months of intense fighting.

Al Shabab and an allied Islamic militia control much of the country while the government, backed by African Union peacekeepers, clings to a few pockets of Mogadishu, the shell-shocked capital.

In areas controlled by the Islamists, violent justice is occasional but shocking to the outside world. At least two amputations have been carried out this year in the al Shabab-controlled southern city of Kismayo. The most recent one, in May, was held in a public square. The severed hand of the accused thief was held on display for the large crowd to see...

And yet movies and television other than news are verboten.

Amnesty International has called this type of punishment “cruel and degrading”. Bénédicte Goderiaux, an Africa researcher with Amnesty, said al Shabab has also been accused of kidnapping foreigners, killing journalists and shelling civilian population centres.

Prof [Owuor] Olungah said the amputations may have been postponed this week to send a message to neighbouring countries “that al Shabab is human”....

Awww.

Ms Goderiaux said that perhaps the amputations were postponed because of pressure from international human rights groups....

Good for him. Netanyahu knows that the jihad against Israel isn't being waged because of the settlements, and won't end if every one of them is dismantled. He knows that Obama has done nothing to pressure the Palestinian Arabs to make a single concession, although it is their genocidal jihadist intransigence that is the beginning and the end of the conflict itself.

"US-Israel talks in Paris aborted," from the BBC, June 24 (thanks to Salta):

A meeting between Israel's prime minister and a senior US envoy has been cancelled amid growing differences over settlement building in the West Bank.

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said the US put off the meeting in response to Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to heed US demands to halt settlement activity.

But Mr Netanyahu's aides say it was the prime minister who cancelled Thursday's meeting with George Mitchell in Paris.

They said "more professional work" was needed, without adding further details.

Instead, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is now scheduled to travel to Washington on Monday to meet Mr Mitchell....

Good going, Mr. President. Acting like a six-year-old girl flouncing away after none of her friends showed up for her tea party is certain to frighten the mullahs into giving up Sharia and their genocidal antisemitism.

"WH rescinds July 4 invites to Iranians," by Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times, June 24 (thanks to Pamela):

The White House has rescinded the invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at U.S. embassies around the world.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said nobody from Iran RSVPed to come, and at this point, the invitations are no longer valid.

"Given the events of the past many days, those invitations will no longer be extended," Mr. Gibbs said.

"Given the events of the past many days, I'm packing up my tea set and going home!

Whenever Muslims are seen "dancing and chanting 'Come to Jihad' and the 'Cross is the enemy of God" outside the homes of grossly outnumbered indigenous Christians, who are further oppressed by the state, massacres become very real possibilities. More on this story.

"Fear of Massacre Grips Christian Village in Egypt; Crops Destroyed," from AINA, June 24:

(AINA) -- Fears of an impending massacre has gripped the Christian Copts in the village of Ezbet Boshra, El Fashn, which was scene to Muslim mob attacks on Copts on Sunday (AINA 6-22-2009).

Egyptian State Security has placed only Coptic villagers under curfew since the Muslim assaults on Sunday. According to correspondent Mary Bassit of Copts United, The terrified villagers fear that being confined to their homes, while Muslims are free, might encourage Muslim fanatics to massacre them, especially with the bias of the security forces.

Lawyer Makkar Watany, who was detained with the 19 other Copts after Sunday's events, told Coptic News Bulletin on 6/23/09 that they were mistreated during police detention, with several Copts suffering broken limbs and wounds. "I was singled out as the police knew that I am a Coptic activist and have connections with the NGOs in Cairo. I was beaten by a junior office, in spite of being a lawyer." he said. "The other Coptic detainees told the police that they 'are ready to die as they have nothing more to lose.'"

Watany also expressed his fear of a massacre saying that the village presently finds itself in an uncanny situation. "There are approximately 1500 security policemen in a small village with 500 inhabitants, among which there are only 200 poor Coptic villagers. I refrain from even looking out of the window for fear of getting shot."

Human rights organizations and the media are prevented by security to enter Ezbet Boshra village; telephone and Internet lines are disconnected; cell phones are working sporadically.

On the popular El Mehwar' TV, the Governor of Beni Suef, Dr. Ezzat Abdulla bluntly said that "Christians need a permit before being allowed to pray to avoid friction." He stated in the interview that he is ready to give them (the Copts) another place far away to use for prayer.

"The problem is that it starts with a place, then it is turned into a church; we have a role in the selection of a praying place which will not cause friction," he said. It is worth noting that the disputed Coptic Diocese building is near a mosque. The interviewer, Motaz El Demerdash, asked the Governor why Copts have to request permission to pray while Muslims do not; the governor did not answer. Mr. Demerdash commented that the only way to stop this escalating sectarian tension is by the enactment of a unified law for building places of worship.

Less than 24 hours after the Governor's TV interview, the director of the local council, overturned the aired Governor's promise of finding the Copts a nearby suitable praying place, not further than 800 meters from the previous one.[...]

"What is heartbreaking is that the moment the local council director statement was announced, all Muslims were ecstatic and went out in the streets, dancing and chanting 'Come to Jihad' and the 'Cross is the enemy of God," said Watany who lives in the village, "with the security forces chanting along with them! The terrified Copts are confined to their homes, while Muslims are celebrating outside," he said...

I just received this from a well-placed source:

Today, FBI Executive Assistant Director Tom Harrington is meeting at FBIHQ with Imam Majid of the ADAMS Center in Sterling,VA. Imam Majid is also the Vice-President of the Islamic Society of North America - a known Muslim Brotherhood entity and un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Trial in Dallas in which all defendants were found guilty of leading the Hamas front group. This was the largest terrorism financing trial in the history of the United States.

This meeting today follows yesterday's official decision by FBIHQ to use ISNA as their official point of contact with the American Muslim community. ISNA is one of the largest and most prominent Muslim Brotherhood entities in the US. The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 with two objectives (which are their same two objectives today): implement Islamic Law and re-establish the global Islamic Caliphate. Their creed, which is still their creed today, includes "...martyrdom in the way of Allah is our highest inspiration."

We know that Assistant US attorneys are not going forward with prosecutions because it is "politically problematic." And now agents and attorneys aware of this decision believe it obligates them to violate US law by forcing them to work with a front group for a designated terrorist group (Hamas). It is worth reminding you all that the Hamas Covenant states Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood entity, and that Hamas is a designated terrorist organization by the US government.

I strongly encourage you all to notify your state and federal elected officials and push them to call for the strongest possible action against the FBI, to include the removal of all senior FBI officials who approved this decision.

Yes.

All the Allahu akbaring suggests that the protesters are not in the aggregate working to throw off the most oppressive shackles of all, those of Sharia.

Video thanks to Sr. Soph.

More up-to-the-minute Iran news from The Guardian (thanks to Pamela):

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff.

The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight. What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year-old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?

This issue is not about cheating (election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people. They've put a baton in the hand of every 13-14 year old to smash the faces of "the bunches who are less than dirt" (government is calling the people who are uprising dried-up torn and weeds). This is what sickens me from dealing with these issues. And from those who shut their eyes and close their ears and claim the riots are in opposition of the government and presidency!! No! The people's complaint is against the egregious injustices committed against the people.

Once again, Christians suffer at the hands of Muslims in Pakistan -- Muslim policemen at that. "Pakistan: Tortured Christian languishing on false charges," from Compass Direct News, June 23:

Police maneuver to keep incapacitated son of preacher in jail – and out of hospital.

LAHORE, Pakistan, June 23 (Compass Direct News) – A 37-year-old Christian is languishing in a Sialkot jail after police broke his backbone because his father was preaching Christ, according to a local advocacy group.

Arshad Masih had been in a hospital – chained to his bed on false robbery charges – after police torture that began Dec. 28, 2008 left him incapacitated. He was discharged from General Hospital in Lahore on Saturday (June 20) and returned to jail despite efforts by the Community Development Initiative (CDI), a support group that is providing Masih legal assistance.

CDI Research Officer Napoleon Qayyum said that Hajipura police detained Masih on Dec. 28 on orders from the Sadar police station in Gujranwala, where Masih’s father, Iqbal Masih, had been preaching Christ. The elder Masih told Compass that objections to his efforts led to false accusations of robbery against his son. The complainant in the robbery case eventually testified that Arshad Masih hadn’t been among the robbers, and he was granted bail.

Before court orders reached the jail, however, Sialkot police informed Sadar police officers in Gujranwala, who arrived at the jail and had Masih remanded to them for a robbery case filed against “unidentified people.” Gujranwala police also threatened to kill Masih in a staged police encounter if he told the court that he had been tortured, according to CDI.

The jihad against Buddhists continues: "8 wounded as gunmen attack southern Thai temple," from Taiwan News, June 23:

Suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on a Buddhist temple in southern Thailand on Monday, wounding eight people, an army officer said.

Lt. Col. Piyawat Chalermsri said at least four attackers shot into the compound of the temple in Narathiwat province as about 30 people were taking part in an aerobics class there. Buddhist temples often serve as community centers in Thailand.

The wounded included a 1-year-old girl and a local Muslim, said Piyawat.

The temple hosts a small army encampment, like others in the insurgency-plagued region.

"The security forces fired back as soon at the attack began, otherwise there might have been more casualties," Piyawat said, adding that the attackers arrived on motorcycles.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces since a separatist insurgency flared up in January 2004.[...]

The insurgents make no public pronouncements, but are thought to be fighting to carve out an independent Muslim state in the three southern provinces. While many there do not support the rebels, there is widespread distrust among Muslims of the predominantly Buddhist Thai authorities.

Video thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

Video of Iranian snipers taking out protesters:

Video and dispatch from Iran in the headline both thanks to Pamela, who has much more up-to-the-minute breaking news from Iran, including a great deal of information on what appears to be a bloody crackdown on the protesters. Don't miss her coverage, which is more extensive than virtually anyone's on the Net.

Video thanks to James.

At any cost.

Any cost.

"Khamenei vows no retreat on Iran election result," by Zahra Hosseinian and Hossein Jaseb for Reuters, June 24 (thanks to James):

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Wednesday that a disputed election result would stand, despite street protests that Iranian officials say Britain and the United States have incited.

(EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)

"I had insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue," Khamenei said. "Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to pressure at any cost."

And of course, it is all the fault of the West. Could discontent have spread because the mullahs have made the country once again into an oppressive Sharia pesthole? Of course not. It must be the Zionists!

Now that police and religious militia have regained apparent control of the streets after the biggest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's hardline leadership is blaming the discontent on foreign powers.

"Britain, America and the Zionist regime (Israel) were behind the recent unrest in Tehran," Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Tiananmen-style clampdown coming?

From the Iranian site Revolutionary Road, June 24 (thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi):

Live from Baharestan Sq...

>More than 10.000 Bassij Milittias get position in Central Tehran, including Baharestan Sq.
>25 journalist were arrested last night.
>Arrested journalists have been threatend to write in support of Ahmadinejad and his government and not to support popular gatherings anymore.

> Mohsen Rezae popular communications office, in an open letter criticized him for getting back his complaint from the Guardian Council inregards 2009 Iran election

>Army Helycopters flying over Baharestan and Vali Asr Sq.

>'Larijani pressing for Mousavi to be given airtime on IRIB to discuss elections'

>Thousands of detainees family members have gathered in front of Tehran's revolution(Enghelaab)court. The force police has surrounded them.Fervent atmosphere in place and conflict is possible at any moment.

> Emad-e-din Baaghi was served by Enghelab court & warned for interview with Persian media outside Iran.

>Conflict at Baharestan Sq.Even police attack pedestrian by tear gas.

> The Islamic Republic of Iran does not allow under any circustances any form of mourning ceremony for NEDA AGHA SOLTAN

There is much more there, and even more at Atlas Shrugs.

This is just dhimmi pandering, but if there is any truth to it at all, it would explain the artificial prolonging of the Palestinian Arab refugee problem. It would also explain why the UN turns a blind eye to jihadi violence from Palestinians against Israelis. After all, a cardinal point of Islamic refugee law is that Muslim refugees must fight jihad war against those who have made them refugees. "To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight), because they are wronged; and verily, Allah is most powerful for their aid. (They are) those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right, (for no cause) except that they say, 'our Lord is Allah.'" -- Qur'an 22:39-40

"UN: Islamic law is major influence on refugee law, says study," from AKI, June 24 (thanks to herr Oyal):

New York, 23 June (AKI) - The 1,400-year-old Islamic custom of welcoming people fleeing persecution has had more influence on modern international refugee law than any other traditional source, according to a new study sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

High Commissioner Antonio Guterres said that more than any other historical source, Islamic law and tradition underpin the modern-day legal framework on which UNHCR bases its global activities on behalf of the tens of millions of people forced from their homes around the world.

This includes the right of everyone to seek asylum as well as prohibitions against sending those needing protection back into danger, Guterres said in the foreword to “The Right to Asylum between Islamic Sharia and International Refugee Law: A Comparative Study.”

In the study, Professor Abu Al-Wafa, Dean of the Law Faculty at Cairo University, describes how Islamic law and tradition respects refugees, including non-Muslims; forbids forcing them to change their beliefs; avoids compromising their rights; seeks to reunite families; and guarantees the protection of their lives and property.

“The international community should value this 14-century-old tradition of generosity and hospitality and recognize its contributions to modern law,” wrote Guterres.

He said that “racism, xenophobia and populist fear-mongering manipulate public opinion and confuse refugees with illegal migrants and even terrorists.”

These attitudes have contributed to misperceptions about Islam, and Muslim refugees – who account for the majority – have paid the price, said Guterres.

“Let us be clear: refugees are not terrorists. They are first and foremost the victims of terrorism. This book reminds us of our duty to counter such attitudes.”

The study, published by UNHCR in cooperation with Naif Arab University and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is scheduled to be launched on Tuesday at Naif Arab University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Well, I ain't that much of a naif, myself. Misperceptions? What, then, does 22:39-40 mean?

Obama?

Come on. You didn't really think Obama said it, did you?

"Iran: Netanyahu, Regime Oppresses Its People," from AGI, June 23 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

(AGI) Rome, 23 Jun. -- "The Iranian regime oppresses is own people. I am not formulating any hypotheses regarding Obama's position on the matter. In these days we are seeing the true nature of the regime. I am certain that Washington is taking a second look at the current situation". The quote is from Israeli Premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to Iran and US/Iran relations. Netanyahu added: "Forces that threaten peace must be dealt with: for example, the violent and aggressive attitude displayed by Iran". The Israeli premier linked Iran with Hezbollah and Hamas. Referring to the Iranian demonstrations, Netanyahu added: "The Iranian peoples' courage in their search for liberty is something that deserves notice from free men".

Yes.

Jihad Presidency Update: "Sovereign Immunity or Cover-Up?: Obama wants to protect our Saudi “friends” — even when they fund our jihadi enemies," by David Yerushalmi in National Review, June 24:

Full disclosure: I have a pony in this race. I am an American and, as an attorney, I am an officer of the court. I make this disclosure in the light of an amicus curiae brief recently filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by the Obama-Holder Department of Justice. The brief pertains to the mammoth case that came to the Supreme Court via the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (New York) called In re Terrorist Attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The Supreme Court is currently pondering whether the case merits its review.

In its friend-of-the-court brief, the Justice Department has argued, almost unimaginably, that the Supreme Court should not review the Second Circuit’s ruling that the victims of 9/11 and their families may not sue the Saudi government or, more importantly, the individual Saudi princes who personally (not as government actors) gave money to Muslim charities they knew would be funding al-Qaeda’s jihad against America. [...]

The question now crying out to be asked: How far will the Obama administration go to prevent private plaintiffs from exposing the quite personal ties between our Saudi “friends” — who love to host U.S. presidents bearing words of praise — and our jihadi enemies fighting to impose the rule of sharia around the world?

Read it all.

No doubt the UN will appoint a commission.

"MILF rebels raid village in Maguindanao," by Al Jacinto for the Manila Times, June 24 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected Moro rebels killed a civilian and wounded four others in a raid on a southern Philippine village, officials said Tuesday.

Officials said about 20 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) gunmen raided the village of Labungan in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao that resulted in the death of a 15-year-old boy identified as Marlon Solis. Solis died on the spot after sustaining gunshot wounds in different parts of his body.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, identified the wounded civilians as Antonio Ato, 29; Ann-Jie Ato, 22; Veronica Fernando, 54 and 11-year-old Jocelyn Olis.

Ponce said the attack was triggered by the failure of the RDI construction firm to pay extortion money. He revealed RDI executives received an extortion letter two days before the raid. During the 30-minute encounter, the Moro rebels also burned a P7-million backhoe owned by the construction company....

As you may have noticed, the Jihad Watch site was down all night, courtesy of a DOS attack originating from Turkey:

[Tue Jun 23 20:58:58 2009] [error] [client 78.168.230.207] request failed: error reading the headers
[Tue Jun 23 20:58:58 2009] [error] [client 88.252.110.55] request failed: error reading the headers
[Tue Jun 23 20:58:58 2009] [error] [client 78.181.81.17] request failed: error reading the headers
[Tue Jun 23 20:58:58 2009] [error] [client 78.187.53.212] request failed: error reading the headers
[Tue Jun 23 20:58:58 2009] [error] [client 78.181.81.17] request failed: error reading the headers
[Tue Jun 23 20:58:58 2009] [error] [client 85.108.141.216] request failed: error reading the headers

Query for these malignant and turban'd Turks: what's the matter, boys? Something here you don't want people to see?

A post-outage missive from our You-Can't-Make-This-Stuff-Up Department. It is indeed ironic that he is seeking "asylum" from the very conditions in Afghanistan he, as a jihadist, helped to create. And rewarding bad behavior encourages more of it. For the moment, the courts have not ruled in his favor, but it bears watching how long he can drag his feet in leaving the country. "Ex-Afghan terror chief living in Glasgow flat," by John Robertson for the Scotsman, June 24:

A former Afghan terrorist leader has lived in Scotland while fighting to be granted asylum in the United Kingdom, it was revealed yesterday.

Dawalat Khan Nasir, 34, was commander of an outlawed group with close links to Osama bin Laden when he fled to the West and sought refugee status.

He arrived illegally in the UK three years ago and within weeks he was refused permission to stay, but a series of appeals has delayed his return to Afghanistan, and he obtained a flat in Glasgow.

Dawalat Khan Nasir claims he has well-founded fears of persecution by the Afghan authorities and members of his former group – he used its money to fund his flight.

But yesterday three judges in the Court of Session in Edinburgh dismissed his latest attempt to be afforded international protection under the Geneva Convention by remaining in the UK.

The judges said it was clear that his active involvement with the terrorist group Herzb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) had been contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, and that meant he was excluded from the Geneva Convention.

The ruling reinstates removal orders issued by the Home Office against him.

The court was told that Dawalat Khan Nasir came from the Nangarhar province and had been involved with HIG since his childhood. It was a mujahideen group founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with close links to bin Laden and was a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

He had taken over as commander when his father was killed during fighting with the international security force. However, he then used money belonging to HIG to flee Afghanistan. He travelled by plane and hidden in a lorry, and arrived in the UK in July 2006. He settled in Glasgow....

Read it all.

The lawsuit says that "inmates in the CMU are allowed to pray as a group just one hour a week. The ACLU contends that violates a federal law barring the government from restricting religious activities without showing a compelling need." Here's a "compelling need": assuring that the jihadis don't use that time to plot a prison break as was recently the case in the UK.

"ACLU sues over prayer limits at federal prison," by Charles Wilson for the Chicago Tribune, June 23:

Two Muslim inmates held in a special unit at the U.S. prison in Terre Haute say they aren't allowed to pray in groups as often as their religion commands and have asked a federal judge to ease limitations on worship imposed by the Bureau of Prisons.

The prison in western Indiana houses several high-security inmates, including American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding Afghanistan's now-defunct Taliban government.

The June 16 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenges limits on Islamic worship in the prison's restrictive Communications Management Unit, where about 30 of the 40 inmates are Muslim.

Muslims are required to pray five times a day, but the lawsuit, filed on behalf of inmates Enaam Arnaout and Randall T. Royer, says inmates in the CMU are allowed to pray as a group just one hour a week. The ACLU contends that violates a federal law barring the government from restricting religious activities without showing a compelling need.[...]

The lawsuit asks the Bureau of Prisons to reinstate daily prayers that were held in a multipurpose room for several months after the CMU opened. The bureau has denied the inmates' previous requests to resume the prayers.

"You are being accommodated with group prayer for the Friday Jumah Prayer service. All other prayers may be accomplished as an individual practitioner by praying in your cell," Regional Director Michael K. Nalley wrote in a response to one of Royer's appeals earlier this year.

Louay Safi, director of leadership development with the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America, said Muslims try to pray in groups whenever possible.

"It is in the prophetic tradition," he said. "Muhammad said there is a much greater reward for people who pray in congregation than those who pray individually."

The Islamic Society is not a party in the suit.

Arnaout, 46, is serving a 10-year sentence for racketeering after admitting in 2003 that he defrauded donors to his Benevolence International Foundation by diverting some of the money to Islamic military groups in Bosnia and Chechnya. The Syrian-born U.S. citizen is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Royer, 36, is serving 20 years for his participation in what prosecutors called a "Virginia jihad network." The group used paintball games in 2000 and 2001 as military training in preparation for holy war against nations deemed hostile to Islam, prosecutors say. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, several members went to Pakistan to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops...

They wanted to kidnap and make money off him, but he fought back: "Suspected Al-Qaeda Militants Kill American Aid Worker In Mauritania," from RTT News, June 23:

An American aid worker who resisted an attempt to kidnap him was shot dead in the Mauritanian capital Tuesday.

Reports quoting police said the attackers were suspected members of the north African branch of al-Qaeda.

Christopher Lenget, the middle-aged director of a school for computer science and languages in a low-income neighborhood of Nouakchott, was getting out of his car in front of the school, when two young men tried to kidnap him.

Especially since, where forced marriages are, honor-killings are not far behind. "Women 'really messed up' over forced marriages," from the Enfield Independent, June 23:

NEW legislation has failed to stop forced marriages taking place, according to an Enfield support group.

Ila Bel, from Enfield Saheli, in Fore Street, Edmonton, said her charity was seeing an increasing number of women who were "really messed up" after being forced to marry under Sharia law.

In September, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act came into effect making forced marriages unlawful, following a campaign by MP Ann Cryer.

At a conference in Westminster organised by Enfield's South Asian Forum, Mrs Cryer said she had been prompted to take action to prevent forced marriages when she realised fathers were asking her for help with visas for new husbands to be brought to Britain, against the will of their daughters...

Tipping point?

More as it becomes available.

Via Pamela.

Parson Alltalk

His appeasement of the mullahs exposed for what it was by the force of events, Obama tries to play catch-up. "Obama talks tougher on Iran violence," by Jennifer Loven for AP, June 23 (thanks to James):

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared the United States and the entire world "appalled and outraged" by Iran's violent efforts to crush dissent, a clear toughening of his rhetoric as Republican critics at home pound him as being too passive.

Obama condemned the "threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. "

"I strongly condemn these unjust actions," Obama said in a news conference at the White House that lasted slightly less than an hour.

Obama said his message has been consistent, and he shot back at Republican critics who are calling him timid: "Only I'm the president of the United States."

When asked if his strong language on Tuesday was influenced by pressure from such Republicans as Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, Obama scoffed: "What do you think?"...

"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs," Obama said. "But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."

Obama noted the killing of a young woman, Neda Agha Soltan, whose apparent shooting death was captured on video and circulated worldwide.

"We have seen courageous women stand up to brutality and threats, and we have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets," Obama said. "While this loss is raw and painful, we also know this: Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history."

Obama said he's watched the video. "It's heartbreaking," he said. "I think that anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust about it."

So, uh, gonna let them have nukes anyway?

Anyway, for continuing up-to-the-minute and excellent coverage of the events in Iran, don't miss Atlas Shrugs.

This would be more interesting if they hadn't outlawed stoning before, but they have done so, and stoning continued. This is, of course, because these things are in the Qur'an -- the four witnesses to which Sharokhi refers are at 24:13, amputation for theft is at 5:38, and the killing of heretics at 4:89. Consequently, even if the Iranian mullahs do outlaw these things, they will still be practiced by those who believe them to be divine law, and believe the principle that divine law transcends human law.

"Stoning to be omitted from Iran penal laws," from PressTV, June 23 (thanks to James):

Head of the Majlis judiciary commission Ali Shahrokhi says stoning, heresy and cutting hands will be omitted from Iran's penal laws.

"The Majlis judiciary commission studied the new Islamic punishment bill and decided that it is unnecessary to include some penalties, such as stoning, in the law," Shahrokhi told IRNA on Monday.

"Islam is strict about some penalties, including stoning which needs specific conditions to be carried out and in most cases it is difficult to prove guilt," he said.

In order for the punishment for stoning - the penalty for adultery - to be carried out, Islamic law requires four reputable eyewitness "accusers" to testify to seeing "the accused" commit the offense....

After failing utterly to speak out against the mullahs and call for freedom for the people of Iran (ideally, freedom from Sharia, or if that is too much for Obama, and clearly at is, he could at least have called for respect for international human rights norms), now Obama's advisers are taking credit for the uprising in Iran -- attributing it to the aftereffects of the platitudinous and naive Obama speech in Cairo.

"Chutzpah Alert: Iran Unrest Reveals Split In U.S. on Its Role Abroad," by Scott Wilson for the Washington Post, June 23 (thanks to Benedict):

[...] "A direct parallel is now being drawn between the fight for freedom from Islamist tyranny in Iran and across the Middle East and the fight decades earlier for freedom from Soviet tyranny," said Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

"It's almost as if the president lacks confidence in the greatness of his own nation," he added. "He seems unwilling to aggressively project American global power, as if it were something to be ashamed of."

Yep.

But Obama's shades-of-gray approach rejects comparison to an era when Communist bloc dissidents had virtually no access to the Western media and the world was more neatly divided between a pair of superpowers, not complicated by the set of ambitious regional powers such as Iran that the Obama administration is seeking to manage.

Since taking office, Obama has argued that reclaiming America's moral authority by ending torture and closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay provides essential diplomatic leverage to influence events in such strategic parts of the world as the Middle East and Central Asia. The speech he delivered to the Islamic world in Cairo eights days before the June 12 Iranian election sought to do that by providing what the president saw as an unvarnished accounting of U.S. policy in Iran, Iraq, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We're trying to promote a foreign policy that advances our interests, not that makes us feel good about ourselves," said a senior administration official who, like others, declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

Obama's approach to Iran, including his assertion that the unrest there represents a debate among Iranians unrelated to the United States, is an acknowledgment that a U.S. president's words have a limited ability to alter foreign events in real time and could do more harm than good. But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic's Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

One senior administration official with experience in the Middle East said, "There clearly is in the region a sense of new possibilities," adding that "I was struck in the aftermath of the president's speech that there was a connection. It was very sweeping in terms of its reach."

The adviser said that "there is something particularly authentic about those who are carrying out these demonstrations," citing the fact that some are carrying symbols of the 1979 Iranian revolution as they march for new elections, including photos of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"The more you keep this in Iranian terms, the better the chances of change," the adviser said....

Reform. "Amid Crackdown, Iran Admits Voting Errors," by Michael Slackman for the New York Times, June 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO -- Iran's most powerful oversight council announced on Monday that the number of votes recorded in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by three million, further tarnishing a presidential election that has set off the most sustained challenge to Iran's leadership in 30 years.

The government continued with a two-track approach in its showdown over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even as the powerful Guardian Council acknowledged some irregularities in the June 12 election, it insisted that the overall vote was valid. At the same time, security forces stepped up their threats to treat protesters as criminals seeking to destabilize the country.

A group of as many as a thousand demonstrators at Haft-e-tir Square in central Tehran was quickly overwhelmed Monday by baton-wielding riot police and tear gas shortly after the Revolutionary Guards issued an ominous warning on their Web site saying that protesters would face "revolutionary confrontation." Opposition leaders said the next move may be civil disobedience or a general strike.

The legitimacy of the vote remains at the core of the dispute. On Monday, the Guardian Council sought to help validate the outcome when it announced there had been discrepancies in 50 cities, which it said involved up to three million votes, not enough to overturn the landslide election margin that the government had announced for Mr. Ahmadinejad. But the recognition of a broad discrepancy between the number of recorded votes and registered voters in some districts only fueled suspicions that the election -- and the Guardian Council's arbitration of it -- was unfair....

"Statistics provided by the candidates, who claim more than 100 percent of those eligible have cast their ballot in 80 to 170 cities are not accurate -- the incident has happened in only 50 cities," said the council spokesman, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei. He said this outcome could occur because people may vote anywhere they choose, not necessarily only in their district of registration....

Islamic jihadists again. Don't they realize the jihad threat is over, and that "right-wing extremists" are much more dangerous?

An update on this story. "Toronto group planned 3-day bomb assault: report," from Reuters, June 22 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

TORONTO (Reuters) - Members of a Toronto-area al Qaeda-inspired group planned a 3-day assault on Canadian targets in 2006 using vans filled with explosives, according to a statement from a man involved in the plot, the Toronto Star newspaper reported on Monday.

Saad Khalid, one of a group dubbed the "Toronto 18" who were arrested in police sting in 2006, plead guilty to his role in the alleged plot in May....

According to the statement of facts, the bomb plot was scheduled to go ahead in November 2006, targeting the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Toronto offices of Canada's spy agency and an undisclosed military base located between Toronto and Ottawa, according to the paper.

The scheme, which was to involve three rented vans filled with explosives, was intended to be deadlier than the July 2005 London Underground bombings, and was to be carried out over three days.

Members of the group hoped the attacks would prompt Canada to pull its military out of Afghanistan, according to the report.

Police eventually swept in and arrested the group after they allegedly tried to buy three tonnes of what they thought was ammonium nitrate -- a bomb-making ingredient used in the 1995 Oklahoma city blast -- from undercover police officers....

An obvious understatement: Hizb ut-Tahrir "potentially also has the opportunity to promote its polarising and activist message in Dutch higher education." Dealing with HuT's presence -- or potential presence -- on Dutch campuses should be a much more urgent priority than this report implies it is. Many campus groups have "polarizing and activist messages." HuT's is decidedly more virulent.

"Terrorist Threat for Netherlands Remains 'Substantial'," from NIS News, June 23:

THE HAGUE, 23/06/09 - The terrorist threat level for the Netherlands remains 'substantial.' The chances of an attack are still realistic, said the National Anti-terrorism Coordinator (NCTb) yesterday in its 10th quarterly report since it was set up.

"As reported earlier, international Jihadist groupings see the Netherlands and its interests as one of their 'priority targets,' due to its military involvement in Afghanistan and the alleged insults to Islam in the Netherlands," according to the NCTb. "There have however been no concrete indications in the latest reporting period of attacks against (interests of) the Netherlands."

The likelihood of a Jihadist attack on Dutch interests is currently highest abroad. "The large majority of the Dutch local Jihadist networks are in a period of relative quiet or are concentrating their activities abroad."

In the latest reporting period, "no travel movements of Jihadists have been established from the Netherlands to training camps" abroad. "There are indications that in the past, a very limited number of persons from the Netherlands travelled to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region to participate in the international Jihad. There are no reasons to date to assume that (one of) these persons has meanwhile returned to the Netherlands."

Within the Netherlands, "the radical Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) is trying to expand its influence," according to NCTb. "It is noteworthy here that the Amsterdam Islamic student association Al Furqan offers a platform for the HuT. This means that the latter potentially also has the opportunity to promote its polarising and activist message in Dutch higher education."

Note the awkwardly placed bits below that seem to suggest poverty and dictatorship as causes of jihadist discontent, but, of course, do not address the role of jihad-related conflicts in creating those conditions in the first place. It's still an easier way out than blaming "Islamist" activity on anything that has to do with Islam. "Bangladesh arrests 20 Islamists, seizes explosives," by Nizam Ahmed for Reuters, June 22:

DHAKA, June 22 (Reuters) - Bangladesh security forces seized explosives and arrested some 20 Islamist militants in the last two days in raids across the South Asian country of more than 140 million people, police said on Monday.

They said among those detained were the IT (information technology) chief of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) group, Enamul Haque Rajib, who graduated from an engineering university.

Explosives, grenade shells, revolvers, IT equipment and detonators were seized in the raids, an officer of the Rapid Action Battalion (elite force) told Reuters.

"It's an achievement that we could track and arrest ... Rajib," he said.

Non sequitur Number 1:

Militant violence, political turbulence and periods of authoritarian rule have plagued Bangladesh over the years and are cited by analysts as a negative factor for would-be investors and foreign aid agencies.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office in January, after a democratic election to replace an army-backed "interim authority", promising to try to bring stability.

Where were we? Ah, yes:

JMB, one of several outlawed Islamist groups seeking to turn mostly Muslim Bangladesh into a sharia-based Islamic state, was blamed for a series of deadly bombings in late 2005 in which at least 30 people were killed and some 150 others were wounded.

The militants have been on the back foot since the top six JMB commanders were tried and executed in 2007.

But security officials say they are stepping up the hunt for militants as they have been trying to regroup and launch fresh attacks.

Most detained in the latest raids were taken in Dhaka, the sprawling capital of 11 million people, but there were also raids in the northern Mymensingh district and northwestern Rajshahi region.

Non sequitur Number 2:

Bangladesh has abundant cheap labour, as well as untapped resources like natural gas, but has lagged behind the region in economic growth partly because of its violent history and political uncertainty.

It certainly doesn't help that people like Rajib see jihad as a higher priority for their engineering skills than, say, raising the local standard of living.

The attack has sparked "fears of a new war with Islamist militants." Actually, the attacks are new, but it's the same old jihad, as the aim of jihad is the establishment of Muslim rule and Sharia law. That hasn't changed. "President of Ingushetia gravely injured in suicide car bombing," from the Times, June 23:

An attempt to blow up the President of Ingushetia yesterday increased fears of a new war with Islamist militants in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus. Yunus-bek Yevkurov narrowly escaped assassination when a suicide car bomber rammed his convoy and detonated explosives equivalent to 70kg (154lb) of TNT, officials from the Ingush Investigative Committee said.

The Kremlin-appointed leader of the Muslim republic, which borders Chechnya, was rushed to hospital in the regional capital Nazran with serious injuries to his head and body. He underwent surgery but doctors later decided to fly him to Moscow, describing his condition as grave.

The President's brother and head of security were wounded and his driver and a bodyguard were killed. Witnesses said that his armoured Mercedes was wrecked in the blast.

President Medvedev blamed militants for the attack and ordered security chiefs to make a "direct and harsh" response. Police imposed strict controls on movement in Nazran. Mr Medvedev said: "The President has done much recently to bring order and ensure peace in the republic. The bandits do not like these efforts."

Mr Yevkurov, 45, only became President last October after Mr Medvedev dismissed his hated predecessor, Murat Zyazikov, who was accused of terrorising the population to break a growing insurgency. Mr Zyazikov, an ex-KGB officer, was the target of an assassination attempt in 2004.

Mr Yevkurov, who is Ingush, is a highly decorated former paratrooper who led Russian troops to seize control of Pristina airport in Kosovo ahead of Nato forces in the 1999 campaign in Yugoslavia. He recently declared that he would offer rebels an amnesty but eliminate those who refused to surrender.

The attempt to kill him is the most direct attack so far on Kremlin rule in Ingushetia, where violence has grown as Islamist militants have been pushed out of neighbouring Chechnya. Mr Medvedev declared an end to a decade-long "counter-terror operation" in Chechnya in April....

Anti-dhimmitude, in update on this story. "Sarkozy Says Burqa Violates Dignity, 'Not Welcome'," by Helene Fouquet for Bloomberg, June 22:

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the country's National Assembly should debate a ban on the burqa, the Muslim garment that conceals a woman's face and body, saying it was "not welcome" in France

"The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of servitude," Sarkozy said today in a speech to both houses of parliament at the Versailles Palace on the outskirts of Paris. Calling it a violation of women's "dignity and freedom," Sarkozy said the burqa "will not be welcome on French soil."

A group of French lawmakers have called for a total burqa ban. Sarkozy asked them to "open a debate" on the matter. Only a small minority of women wear burqas and the Opposition Socialist Party would favor a ban "of the burqa or the nikab," Benoit Hamon, its spokesman, told Le Monde newspaper today.

The clothing rule would come five years after France outlawed head scarves and other "ostentatious" religious symbols, including large Christian crosses and Jewish skullcaps, in state offices and schools. The 2004 law prompted protests in France and criticism from some Muslim groups, including the second-in-command of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Sarkozy's speech today marked the first time a French president has addressed lawmakers since 1875 after a law preventing such direct communication was overturned last year.

Budget Minister Eric Woerth said yesterday the Burqa "should not exist in France." Sarkozy characterized it today as a "fence" in front of women's faces....

Amnesty International appealed to al-Shabab not to carry out the "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments," all while failing to recognize that it is not al-Shabab but rather sharia law that calls for "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments."

"Extremists sentence Somalis to amputations," from the Associated Press, June 22:

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A court run by an extremist Islamic group sentenced four Somali men on Monday to each have a hand and a leg cut off for allegedly stealing mobile phones and guns. The ruling prompted an outcry from human rights activists.

The court that handed down the sentence in Somalia's capital is run by al-Shabab, one of the nation's most powerful insurgent groups. The U.S. considers al-Shabab a terrorist group with links to al-Qaida, which al-Shabab denies. The group, which controls much of Somalia, is trying to drive out the government and install a strict form of Islam.

"We have convicted them of theft, so they deserve to have their arms and legs amputated," said Sheik Abdul Haq, the al-Shabab judge in the capital, Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab has carried out amputations and other punishments elsewhere in Somalia, but they are rare in the capital.

Amnesty International appealed to al-Shabab not to carry out the "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments."

"These sentences were ordered by a sham al-Shabab court with no due process or guarantees of fairness," said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty International's Africa deputy director.

No date was set for the sentences to be carried out. Al-Sabab has been known to carry out stonings, executions and amputations in public outside Mogadishu...

Such as the fact that "even the most enlightened Muslim leaders can't convince their fellow Muslims to accept the principle of freedom to change religions, according to one's own conscience." Of course they can't, since Islam's prophet Muhammad -- as opposed to "enlightened Muslim leaders" -- made it clear that whoever changed his Islamic religion, kill him.

"Vatican official: Relations with Muslims better, but problems remain," by John Thavis for the Catholic News Service, June 22:

VENICE, Italy (CNS) -- Relations with Muslims have improved significantly in recent years, but problems remain on issues like conversion and freedom of worship, the Vatican's top interreligious dialogue official said.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said one of the biggest challenges was to make sure that the greater openness shown by Muslim leaders -- the "elites" involved in dialogue -- filters down to the average Muslim in the street.

So far, that does not seem to have happened, the cardinal told a conference in Venice June 22.

Cardinal Tauran recounted an episode in Jordan that occurred a week before Pope Benedict XVI arrived to a warm official welcome from government and Islamic officials. A Christian woman fell on a street in Amman and asked passers-by for help; two Muslim women on the scene walked away, saying they could not assist an infidel, he said.

"I don't think that's the reaction of a good Muslim. But this is the reality on the street. On one hand we have the elites, on the other the masses," Cardinal Tauran said.

The cardinal said that at the official level the Vatican's various dialogues with Muslims have attained "a climate of greater trust."

"On the part of our dialogue partners can be seen a desire to give a more positive image of Islam," he said. Christian and Muslim leaders also are increasingly aware that cooperation is needed to remedy secular societies' "deafness" to God and to help build peace in the world, he said.[...]

But the cardinal also pointed to what he said were "serious difficulties" that remain to be addressed.

For one thing, he said, even the most enlightened Muslim leaders can't convince their fellow Muslims to accept the principle of freedom to change religions, according to one's own conscience.

The cardinal also said that in Saudi Arabia there has been "no positive signal" on the church's request to obtain a place for the celebration of Sunday services for the almost 2 million Christians who reside in the country.

Cardinal Tauran was a key speaker at the June conference organized by Oasis, a journal launched by the Patriarchate of Venice in 2005 that deals extensively with problems of Christian minorities in the East.

The cardinal's talk was titled "Should We Be Afraid of Islam?" and he began by saying that it was a question on many people's minds.

"Islam makes people afraid: It is a fact. For many people, Islam is reduced to fanaticism, holy war, terrorism, polygamy and proselytism, all preconceptions that circulate in the Western world," he said.

But such perceptions are based primarily on ignorance, he said.

"Should we be afraid of Islam? No, certainly not," he said. But only dialogue allows people to overcome such fear, by informing them about the religious traditions of the others, identifying what unites and what separates them, and cooperating as much as possible in the societies where they live, he said.

Not too surprising, considering the BBC has a long lineage of dhimmitude. "The BBC supports Islam and attacks Christianity, claims Radio 2 stalwart Don Maclean," by Paul Revoir for the Daily Mail, June 22:

One of Radio 2's most popular religious presenters has launched a stinging attack on the BBC suggesting the broadcaster is biased against Christianity.

Don Maclean, 66, who hosted Good Morning Sunday for 16 years, said the broadcaster was 'keen' on programmes that attack the Christian church.

He said programming chiefs were keen to take a 'negative angle at every opportunity' in a way they do not with other faiths like Islam.

Mr Maclean said programmes about Anglicanism on the BBC always discuss gay clergy and for Catholicism they always mention paedophiles.

The presenter, who was replaced on the Radio 2 show in 2006 by Aled Jones, claimed the broadcaster was trying to 'secularise the country'.[...]

Mr Maclean said: 'They're keen on Islam, they're keen on programmes that attack the Christian church.

'I know there are things that need to be brought forward, but you don't see any programmes on Anglicanism that don't talk about homosexual clergy and you don't see anything on Roman Catholicism that don't talk about paedophiles.

'They seem to take the negative angle every time. They don't do that if they're doing programmes on Islam. Programmes on Islam are always supportive.

'I'm not against anybody's right to practise their religion and I think we need to talk sensibly to people who practise the Islamic religion.'

The presenter claimed 'the last thing we want is war on the streets' adding that 'we need all the moderate Muslims to stand up and be counted'.

He added: 'They're all in private telling you how dreadful they think Islamic terrorism is, but they're not forming together in a group and standing up against it.

'But it's as big a threat as Nazism was in the 1930s when Germans stood back and didn't stand up against that, and if they had maybe the Second World War wouldn't have started.'...

"'As if I'm dreaming what went on, such savagery! It broke my heart to see my children [congregation] treated in such beastly and barbaric way' said Rev. Isaac to Coptic News Bulletin. 'It is as if we are back to the Era of Diocletian'" (Roman emperor who carried out the worst persecution in the history of the Copts)."

He could have just as easily said that it's like when Islam first invaded Egypt, making the Copts oppressed, second-class dhimmis.

"Muslim Mob Attacks Church and Loots Christian Homes in Egypt," from AINA, June 22:

(AINA) -- An Egyptian Muslim mob attacked a church on Sunday, 6/21/2009 in the village of Ezbet Boshra-East, El-Fashn, smashing its windows and assaulting Copts with clubs and white weapons, wounding 25 Copts, in the presence and with the instigation of the State Security.

On Monday 6/22/2009, El-Fashn prosecution issued an order for the village priest, Reverend Isaac Castor, to appear before them, on charges of sectarian sedition after three Muslim women accused him of hurling stones at them from inside the church.

The Church is still besieged by State Security and the priest is still confined to the Church walls, together with 10 people and three children not exceeding the age of five years. "The prosecution wants to get me out there, together with those who are with me, in order to make arrests. None of us are leaving the Church premises," the priest said. "I do not know why I am besieged inside the Church in this way, together with my toddlers. I am not a criminal, neither are the people who are with me."

Bishop Estephanos of Beba El Fashn Diocese, together with other priests called for a sit-in at the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin in El-Fashn, demanding the release of the unlawfully arrested Copts. The sit-in included families of those arrested, who refused to leave the Cathedral. (video of sit-in).

"As if I'm dreaming what went on, such savagery! It broke my heart to see my children [congregation] treated in such beastly and barbaric way" said Rev. Isaac to Coptic News Bulletin. "It is as if we are back to the Era of Diocletian" (Roman emperor who carried out the worst persecution in the history of the Copts) .

"A curfew was placed on Copts on Sunday in Ezbet Boshra-East village including me and my family, while Muslim offenders are free," said Reverend Isaac

Homes of nearby Copts were broken into on Sunday by the Muslim mob, which included women, assaulting the residents including young girls, and destroying their furniture and looting electrical equipment. "These assaults were followed by security officers, assaulting Copts and destroying what remained of their belongings. When asked by a Coptic woman why they are doing this, the officers answered that they have 'orders' to do so," added Reverend Isaac. "Now the Coptic inhabitants are living in terror."

"State Security went into homes of the Copts and forcibly rounded up the men. At present 19 Copts are under arrest including children under twelve and people over 60 years of age," said Reverend Isaac. "I have sheltered 10 other Copts in the Church to save them."

The incident happened when 6 young Copts living outside the village came to visit the priest who lives at the top floor of a 3-storey building owned by the Church and which used for ceremonies and prayers. The same church was attacked by Muslims in August 2008. The security police tried to prevent the visitors from entering the village, but after an altercation they were allowed in. Later a police constable asked them to end their visit and leave separately. While on their way out, they found a Muslim mob awaiting them. Muslims harassed the young visitors and one Muslim woman struck a Coptic woman on the face. At that moment violence broke out, and Muslims began to attack the building using bricks and sticks, injuring 25 Copts, and destroying the priest's car.

State Security has cut all telephone lines and the internet in the village, which is inhabited by 1500 Copts of the total 3000 inhabitants, to prevent them from getting in touch with the outside world, according to Reverend Isaac. "With all this strife, the Security wants to have grounds to issue a report confirming that this village is not suitable to have a church. We have no Church in the village and the nearest is 3 miles away, and can hardly accommodate its own congregation"

Human rights organization 'Sunshine' said that what is happening now in El-Fashn is a new trend in the violations carried out by the State Security against Coptic clergy. This trend began with the imprisonment of Father Mettaos Wahba for five years on false charges of forgery, and now an order has been issued against Father Isaac to 'apprehend and bring,' which has no legal grounds. "This is proof to the whole world that Egypt is persecuting the Copts," according to Sunshine.

During his Sunday appeal to the world through Coptic News, Reverend Isaac said "Please help us, the whole world just looks and does nothing, where is President Obama's talk about peace? All what we want is to raise our hands and worship God, equal to Muslims. We cannot take it any longer; we are ready to give up our lives, just let us pray."

During the sit-in, Bishop Estephanos said: "We will all pray. Since matters reached this stage, if necessary we will all become martyrs. Our Coptic Church has been built on the blood of martyrs."

From the first day Islam invaded Egypt, nearly 1400 years ago: Continuity.

And meanwhile: "The strategy of the (al Qaeda) organisation in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny -- the United States. That can be achieved through continued work on the open fronts and also by opening new fronts in a manner that achieves the interests of Islam and Muslims and by increasing military operations that drain the enemy financially."

We can see that happening all over.

"Al Qaeda says would use Pakistani nuclear weapons," by Inal Ersan for Reuters, June 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

DUBAI (Reuters) - If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired on Sunday.

Pakistan has been battling al Qaeda's Taliban allies in the Swat Valley since April after their thrust into a district 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital raised fears the nuclear-armed country could slowly slip into militant hands.

"God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda's in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.

Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about U.S. safeguards to seize control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so.

"We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) ... and that would be its end everywhere, God willing."

Asked about the group's plans, the Egyptian militant leader said: "The strategy of the (al Qaeda) organisation in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny -- the United States.

"That can be achieved through continued work on the open fronts and also by opening new fronts in a manner that achieves the interests of Islam and Muslims and by increasing military operations that drain the enemy financially."

More evidence for the fact that the choice between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi is, as Pamela Geller memorably put it last week, "a battle between a wolf and a wolf in sheep's clothing."

Still, the situation in Iran may be moving beyond Mousavi to larger change. The Islamic Republic may not fall, but it could conceivably become more secularized and less vicious. Things are spiraling out of control, and it is not at all certain that the mullahs will be able to clamp down entirely at this point. Certainly the bulk of the opposition to them appears to be just as Islamic and Sharia-oriented as they are, but there are signs -- women ripping off their chadors, etc. -- that there are other ferments as well. It may be that all the demonstrators want is some relaxation of Sharia enforcement inside the country. But that in itself could open the door to other changes.

"Iran Revolutionary Guard threatens protesters," by Ali Akbar Dareini and Jim Heintz for AP, June 22 (thanks to Little Green Footballs 2):

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's Revolutionary Guard is threatening to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election and warns demonstrators to prepare for a "revolutionary confrontation" if they take to the streets again.

The country's most powerful military force ordered demonstrators to "end the sabotage and rioting activities" and said their resistance is a "conspiracy" against Iran.

A statement posted Monday on the Guard's Web site warned protesters to "be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces."

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed Sunday night to keep up the protests, charging the June 12 election was a fraud....

The former prime minister, a longtime loyalist of the Islamic government, also called the Basij and military "our brothers" and "protectors of our revolution and regime." He may be trying to constrain his followers' demands before they pose a mortal threat to Iran's system of limited democracy constrained by Shiite clerics, who have ultimate authority....

In the clearest sign yet of a splintering among the ayatollahs, state media announced the arrests Sunday of relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani including his daughter Faezeh, a 46-year-old reformist politician vilified by hard-liners for her open support of Mousavi.

Rafsanjani's relatives, who state media said were held for their own protection, were released after a few hours....

"America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." -- Barack Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009

Islamic Tolerance Alert: "British man snatched over religion," from The Sunday Times, June 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A BRITISH engineer kidnapped in Yemen by armed killers was part of an evangelical group that may have been targeted as an act of revenge for its attempts to convert local Muslims to Christianity.

His captors have already killed three women members of the group and abducted a married couple and their three young children.

Yesterday, as his wife clung to the hope that he was alive, it was reported that two of the dead women - Anita Gruenwald, 24, and Rita Stumpp, 26, both German nurses - had "missionary materials" in their belongings when their bodies were found. Young-Sun Lum, 34, a South Korean teacher who called herself Magdalena after Jesus's disciple, was the other victim.

They had been warned to stop trying to convert Muslims, according to German investigators. Mullahs had spoken out against their missionary activities and their books on Christianity had been confiscated....

Initial reports said the three victims had been shot and stabbed. Hamboush Hussein, general director of the local health office, said they had not been mutilated but had several gunshot wounds in the head, chest or back as if they had been struggling and trying to escape.

Britain has sent a team of counterterrorism experts to Sana'a because of the possibility of Al-Qaeda involvement. While the investigation continues the Foreign Office has imposed a virtual news black-out, withholding the British engineer's full name. In Yemen he has been identified only as Anthony.

All the victims were members of Worldwide Services, a Christian relief group based in Holland that has been working at al-Jumhuri hospital in Saada for 30 years....

Which is why any genuine substantial change appears unlikely. Nonetheless, events in Iran bear close watching -- after all, the Shah ran a relatively secular state, and there is still a considerable number of proponents of such a state in Iran. As the chaotic events unfold, things could turn in their direction.

Meanwhile, for the best, up-to-the-minute coverage of what is going on in Iran, don't miss Atlas Shrugs, where you can find it all -- be sure to scroll down, as there are many relevant posts.

"In Iran, Both Sides Seek to Carry Islam's Banner," by Neil MacFarquhar in the New York Times, June 21 (thanks to James):

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, ended his prayer sermon in tears on Friday, invoking the name of a disappeared Shiite prophet to suggest that his government was besieged by forces of evil out to destroy a legitimate Islamic government.

The opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, in criticizing the government, demanded the kind of justice promised by the Koran and exhorted his followers to take to their rooftops at night to cry out, "Allahu akbar," or "God is great."

In the battle to control Iran's streets, both the government and the opposition are deploying religious symbols and parables to portray themselves as pursing the ideal of a just Islamic state.

That struggle could prove the main fulcrum in the battle for the hearts and minds of most ordinary Iranians, because the Islamic Revolution, since its inception, has painted itself as battling evil. If the government fails the test of being just, not least by using excessive violence against its citizens, it risks letting the opposition wrap itself in the mantle of Islamic virtue.

"If either the reformists or the conservatives can make reference to Islamic values in a way that the majority of citizens understand, they will win," said Mohsen Kadivar, a senior Iranian religious scholar teaching Islamic studies at Duke University....

A manual of Islamic law certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).

In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

"Man beheads daughter in Rampur district," from Indian Express, June 20 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Lucknow: In a suspected honour killing, a man allegedly beheaded his daughter who was insisting on marrying her lover in Rampur district.

Shaukat Saifi was arrested after he allegedly beheaded his daughter Naseem with a sharp edged weapon yesterday in village Krimcha, about 250 km from here, police said.

While Naseem wanted to marry Yasin, a resident of the same village, her father was opposed to the alliance, they said.

Maybe Obama will appoint a Find-The-Muslims Czar.

"Almost two million vanish from Obama's estimate of U.S. Muslims," by Tom Heneghan for Reuters Blogs, June 21 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Almost two million people have inexplicably disappeared from the estimates of the U.S. Muslim population that President Barack Obama has given recently. In his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4, he spoke about "nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today." On Sunday, the Karachi daily Dawn published an interview with him where he said "we have five million Muslims."...

Many blogs, FaithWorld included, questioned that figure and noted that estimates of the U.S. Muslim population range from 1.8 to 7-8 million. The U.S. Census Bureau cannot ask about religion on a mandatory basis but refers on its website to a Pew Forum study pegging Muslims at 0.6% of the population. The CIA World Factbook uses the same percentage figure. It translates into about 1.8 million....

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Jordan. And remember: they want to prosecute Geert Wilders for a similar "crime" -- in other words, they are trying to assert Sharia norms over non-Muslim Westerners.

Free Speech Death Watch Alert: "Jordan court decides to jail poet for slandering Islam," from Deutsche Presse Agentur, June 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

Amman - A Jordanian court of first instance has sentenced a poet for one year in jail after finding him guilty of 'slandering' Islam, judicial sources said Monday.

The tribunal also fined poet Islam Samhan 10,000 dinars (14,000 dollars), in the case that was filed in October last year by the Printing and Publication Department.

The Department accused Samhan of using sentences and quotations from the holy Koran in such a manner that involved an 'insult of prophets and religious sentiments.'

Samhan, 27, denied the charges, saying the verdict was designed to 'please religious circles.' His lawyer, Khair Hourani, said the ruling was 'not founded on sound legal bases' and that he intended to appeal it.

Mubarak reads Obama's Cairo speech for what it essentially was: an invitation to the Islamic world to step up the jihad, especially efforts to destroy Israel, the state that is on the front line of that jihad.

His piece here in the dhimmi rag known as the Wall Street Journal is notable in several respects. One is that he calls upon Israel to halt its "relentless settlement expansion," and end "its closure of Gaza." And what must the Palestinian Arabs do? Why, all they have to do is "continue to develop their institutional capacity while overcoming their division to achieve their aspirations for statehood." In other words, Fatah and Hamas should stop squabbling with each other and concentrate on their common enemy, the Israelis. Does Mubarak say anything about ending the rocket attacks, or recognizing Israel, or ending the jihad to destroy Israel utterly? Of course he doesn't.

He also says that "the Arab side stands ready to reciprocate serious steps towards peace undertaken by Israel." On that the Elder of Ziyon points out a few uncomfortable facts:

In 2006, 92% of Egyptians considered Israel to be Egypt's "worst enemy." Only this month, Egypt banned marriages between Egyptians and Arab women with Israeli citizenship. Egypt ignored the 30th anniversary of the peace agreement with Israel. Other incidents show Egypt's implacable hostility towards Israel and towards real normalization.

Serious steps toward peace? Only in a jihadist framework.

"How to Achieve Israeli-Palestinian Peace: The outlines of the settlement are obvious," by Hosni Mubarak in the Wall Street Journal, June 19 (thanks to Elder of Ziyon):

President Barack Obama's seminal address in Cairo marked a turning point in America's relations with the Muslim world. His message was clear and incontrovertible: It is issues of politics and policy, not a clash of values, that separate the Muslim world and America. It is the resolution of these issues that will heal the divide.

The ambitious agenda outlined by President Obama must now be followed by forward-looking steps in order to chart a new course in America's relationship with the Arab and Muslim world. I look forward to working with the president to achieve that objective....

Egypt has long been at the forefront of confronting these challenges, whether in being the first to extend our hand for peace with Israel, addressing the dangers posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, or confronting the threat of terrorism through the moderation and tolerance at the heart of our religious heritage. Through these challenges and beyond, Egypt has engaged in a process of reform that is succeeding in providing greater opportunities for our youth, more empowerment for women, as well as greater pluralism and internal debate. We openly acknowledge that this process still has a way to go in fulfilling our aspirations....

Despite the setbacks of the last few years, it is important to remember that many of the elements of a solution have already been negotiated. After nearly two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations since the initiation of the Oslo peace process, many of the details of a final settlement are well known. Furthermore, the Arab Peace Initiative, adopted at the Beirut summit of 2002, provides a regional framework for such a settlement. For the first time in the history of the conflict, the Arab states unanimously committed to full normalization and security for Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal to the 1967 lines and a negotiated resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue....

These steps must now be joined with a serious process to negotiate a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The priority should be to resolve the permanent borders of a sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state, based on the 1967 lines, as this would unlock most of the other permanent status issues, including settlements, security, water and Jerusalem.

Success of these negotiations will depend on firm commitments from both sides to uphold the credibility of the process. Israel's relentless settlement expansion, which has seriously eroded the prospects for a two-state solution, must cease, together with its closure of Gaza. For their part, the Palestinians must continue to develop their institutional capacity while overcoming their division to achieve their aspirations for statehood.

While full normalization with Israel can only result from a comprehensive settlement including the Syrian, Lebanese as well as Palestinian track, the Arab side stands ready to reciprocate serious steps towards peace undertaken by Israel.

A historic settlement is within reach, one that would give the Palestinians their state and freedom from occupation while granting Israel recognition and security to live in peace. With President Obama's reassertion of U.S. leadership in the region, a rare moment of opportunity presents itself. Egypt stands ready to seize that moment, and I am confident that the Arab world will do the same.

Our Monday morning Troopathon 2009 Update shows that the Hot Air Steamers have plopped out to a huge lead: the Steamers team has raised $9,381.18, with our Anti-Jihadists team still in second place with $4,474.31.

Despite lagging behind, however, The Anti-Jihadists team continues to be first in cool. We're in the best of company, and our team keeps growing. Latest on board are Andrew Bostom, Gates of Vienna, Islamic Danger to Americans, Radio Jihad, and D. C. Watson.

They join an already all-star lineup: Amillennialist Contra Mundum, Atlas Shrugs, Bare Naked Islam, Birdbrain, B'nai Elim, #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor's "Thorum," Clueless Emma, Creeping Sharia, Federale, Islam In Action, The Jawa Report, Little Green Footballs 2, Muslims Against Sharia, Patriot's Corner, Random Thoughts, Right Wing Bob, The Snooper Report, Theodore's World, Undaunted and Weasel Zippers.

It isn't too late -- you can still join The Anti-Jihadists! Do so by writing to eanderson@moveamericaforward.org.

Most importantly, send Troopathon care packages to the troops! To make sure they will be credited to The Anti-Jihadists, please use this order form.

Troopathon 2009 comes June 25, featuring George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Jackie Mason, Jon Voight, Kevin Farley, Deroy Murdock, Roger Hedgecock, Andrea Shea King, Martha Zoller, and many others -- including me.

Heartfelt thanks once again to all those who have sent or will send a care package to our brave men and women of the armed forces serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

It's all a conspiracy, you see. And it's such a large one that they can't quite pinpoint who's behind it. Zionists? Americans? The British? Anything to dodge the truth. "Iran Revolutionary Guard threatens protesters," by Ali Akbar Dareini and Jim Heintz for the Associated Press, June 22:

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's Revolutionary Guard is threatening to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election and warns demonstrators to prepare for a "revolutionary confrontation" if they take to the streets again.

The country's most powerful military force ordered demonstrators to "end the sabotage and rioting activities" and said their resistance is a "conspiracy" against Iran.

A statement posted Monday on the Guard's Web site warned protesters to "be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces."

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed Sunday night to keep up the protests, charging the June 12 election was a fraud. [...]

"The country belongs to you ... protesting lies and fraud is your right," Mousavi, who claims hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election through fraud, said in a statement on his Web site.

Islamic Tolerance Alert. Here is Qur'an 9:29 in action: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Wouldn't it be interesting to see various apologists try to explain to the Taliban how they're "cherry-picking" verses like this and taking them out of context? "Taliban delivers death threats to non-Muslims," by Aftab Mughal for Spero News, June 20:

After imposing jizya (an Islamic tax like a fine to the non-Muslims) to the Sikhs in some tribal areas of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan, where the Taliban have strongholds and rule their own fiefdom, Christians and Shia Muslims (a minority sect) across the country have received letters threatening them with death should they not conform to the Taliban's Sunni Islam.

On June 10, a letter was sent to Rabita Manzil, of the National Catholic Office for Social Communications in Lahore, second biggest city of Pakistan. It was handed over to a Christian women, who lives near the office by two masked men. The letter stated, “We know you are Christian. We warn you to leave this area, embrace Islam, pay 1,500,000 rupees (US$18,500) as jizya, or be ready to die in a suicide attack.”

According to the UCA News, Christians have received similar threats in various parts of the country as fighting between government troops and the Taliban militants continues to rage in the country's northwest. Sacred Heart Cathedral, several Catholic schools in Lahore, and various pastors have received threatening notes telling them to convert to Islam. Moreover, Church of Pakistan Bishop Mano Rumalshah of Peshawar, NWFP, said the churches in his diocese continued to receive threatening letters which say either become a Muslim, leave, or be killed....

"If it were determined that wearing the burka is a submissive act, and that it is contrary to republican principles, naturally parliament would have to draw the necessary conclusions."

"French MPs in call to unveil Islamic dress code," by Chris Bremner for The Times, June 21:

France could bar Muslim women from wearing full veils in public, a government minister said at the weekend as parliament took action over concern about an increase in women who are wearing the niqab and burka in big cities.

The latest controversy over dress habits among France's six million Muslims follows public differences this month between presidents Obama and Sarkozy over the merits of legislating on religious clothing.

A group of 58 MPs from Left and Right called on Wednesday for parliament to react to the phenomenon of women who are adopting what they called oppressive head-to-toe Islamic dress that "breaches individual freedoms".

Industry minister and government spokesman Luc Chatel supported the MPs. "If it were determined that wearing the burka is a submissive act, and that it is contrary to republican principles, naturally parliament would have to draw the necessary conclusions," he said. Asked whether that would mean legislation, Mr Chatel replied: "Why not?"

The new debate over Muslim dress is reviving passions that surrounded the 2004 law banning religious headcover in French state schools. Andre Gerin, a Communist MP, led the motion for an inquiry, calling the burka and niqab "a moving prison" for women.

Women's groups, including some Muslim-led ones, back new measures against the practices of a growing but still small minority of radical Muslims.

Housing Minister Fadela Amara, a rights campaigner of Algerian background, said that she was alarmed by the number of women "who are being put in this kind of tomb". She added: "We must do everything to stop burkas from spreading."

Muslim leaders have mixed views about new legislation. Imam of the Paris Mosque Dalil Boubakeur supported an inquiry, saying that face covering for women was a fundamentalist practice originating in Afghanistan that was not prescribed by Islam. The national Muslim Council, which is less tied to the establishment, accused lawmakers of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.

If it's a "fringe," fundamentalist practice, it stands to reason they should have no qualms about encouraging women to integrate into society and lose the face veil.

"To raise the subject like this ... is a way of stigmatising Islam," council leader Mohammed Moussaoui said. There are no precise figures but experts estimate that several thousand women, mainly born in France, have taken to full costumes with face covering. In 2004, when he was interior minister, Mr Sarkozy was not enthusiastic about the school headscarf ban and he remains wary of stigmatising Muslims.

And -- surprise of surprises -- they "do not appear to be linked to al-Qaeda or other foreign Islamist groups," which should be a clear indication that the jihadist ideology did not originate with al-Qaeda or another currently active non-Thai group. These jihadists apparently "misunderstood" Islam all by themselves. Funny how that keeps happening. "Thai Rebels Recruiting in Schools, Study Says," by Thomas Fuller for the New York Times, June 21:

BANGKOK — Insurgents in southern Thailand are using a network of Islamic schools to recruit fighters, but their movement does not appear to be linked to Al Qaeda or other foreign Islamist groups, according to a study due to be released Monday.

An unanswered question: How are said Islamic schools combating or resisting this activity? Are they?

Since an increase in violence five years ago, analysts have sought to pinpoint the primary motivations of an insurgency that has left more than 3,400 people dead in towns and villages only several hours away from Thailand’s most popular beach resorts.

The 20-page study, by the International Crisis Group, describes a homegrown movement of Malay Muslim fighters seeking independence from Thailand and built around longstanding resentment toward the Thai Buddhist majority. Thai officials have in the past attributed the violence to the drug trade and other criminal activities.

A group known as the National Revolutionary Front-Coordinate was the main force in recruiting an estimated 1,800 to 3,000 fighters drawn from more than 100,000 students in southern Thailand’s Islamic school system, the report says.

“The classroom is the point of first contact,” the report says. “Recruiters invite those who seem promising devout Muslims of good character who are moved by a history of oppression, mistreatment and the idea of armed jihad to join extracurricular indoctrination programs in mosques or disguised as football training.”

The Crisis Group said the report was based on 16 months of interviews with religious teachers and students — all of whom are unnamed — involved in underground activities. [...]

The insurgents use many of the same methods in their recruitment — oath-taking, indoctrination and military training — as other jihadist groups. But the difference in southern Thailand, the report says, is that recruiters “appeal to Malay nationalism and the oppression of Malay Muslims by Buddhist Thai rulers” rather than invoking a universal Islamic state or a global jihad....

In the eyes of many Malay Muslims, Malay and Muslim identity are inseparable, so much so that the Malaysian constitution defines Malays as Muslim. For that matter, Thai Muslims have said themselves that the conflict is not about money, development, or other matters. The agenda is the same as any other jihadist conflict: Imposing Islamic law.

The New York Times is throughout the day updating its reporting on the aftermath of the Iranian election.

As scattered protests and violence continued to grip Iran’s capital on Sunday, the government arrested relatives of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who heads two influential councils, exposing a deep rift among the nation’s top clerics.

"They were said to be unhappy at praying and eating near non-Muslims at Birmingham’s Winson Green jail." "Muslim prisoners get their own cells after sharing row," by Ian Gallagher for the Daily Mail, June 21:

A prison has agreed to give Muslims their own cells after they complained about sharing with other inmates.

They were said to be unhappy at praying and eating near non-Muslims at Birmingham’s Winson Green jail.

It is thought to be the first time inmates have been segregated by religion. Prison bosses have decided to place them with other Muslims, or give them single cells when space is available.

More than 1,400 inmates, including murderers and robbers, are housed at the jail.

‘So far around 15 Muslim inmates have been accommodated either by being moved to a cell with another Muslim or put on their own,’ said a prison source. ‘They initially asked for their own wing but this was turned down.’

In June 2006, a High Court judge warned that Ministers must find cash to cope with growing prison numbers and called for an end to forced cell sharing. Mr Justice Keith’s concerns were included in his report into the racist murder of Asian prisoner Zahid Mubarek by his cellmate Robert Stewart at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution in West London.

The judge called for a new concept of ‘institutional religious intolerance’ to combat prejudice against Muslim inmates.

There has also been concern among the 200-strong Muslim contingent in Winson Green about the halal meat served there. It had been prepared on site but, after complaints, is now brought in by an authorised supplier at what is thought to be extra cost.

One prison officer said: ‘This has caused resentment because it is felt the Muslim inmates are getting special treatment.’

A Prison Service spokesman said: ‘Prisoner requests to share cells can be accommodated in some circumstances, such as prisoners sharing religious and dietary needs. All requests are subject to a risk assessment.’

About ten per cent of the 80,000-strong jail population in England and Wales is Muslim.

More on this situation. "Muslim rebels suspected in deadly blast in Philippines," from Channel News Asia, June 21:

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Suspected Muslim separatist guerrillas hurled two grenades at a town festival in the southern Philippines, leaving one person dead and 32 wounded, officials said.

The grenades were hurled almost simultaneously late Saturday at the town plaza and the town hall in Maasim town on the southern island of Mindanao as residents were celebrating the town's 37th anniversary, said local army spokesman Lieutenant Kurt Decapia.

He said the attacks may have been carried out by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), citing intelligence reports that the rebels had originally planned to plant home-made bombs in the town.

He also noted that last year, the MILF attacked the mostly-Christian town, killing and wounding several civilians...

A kidnapped Pakistani businessman had to pay more than 10 million rupees ($125,000) in ransom. When his Taliban captors freed him, he said, they told him, "Think of this as your zakat. Now your place in heaven is guaranteed." "Taliban gains money, al-Qaida finances recovering," by Kathy Gannon for the AP, June 21:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — He moved his finger slowly across his throat, to show that the Taliban kills truckers who don't pay for safe passage through large swaths of territory near Afghanistan.

"The situation is very dangerous for us. We give them money or our fuel, or they kill us," said Ghadr Gul, a middle-aged trucker, who reluctantly spoke to The Associated Press outside his oil tanker. Along the road, storage depots are piled high with the burned-out hulks of vehicles destroyed by the Taliban.

As the Taliban gains power in Afghanistan and Pakistan, its money is coming mostly from extortion, crime and drugs, the AP found in an investigation into the financial network of militants in the region. However, funding for the broader-based al-Qaida appears to be more diverse, including money from new recruits, increasingly large donations from sympathizers and Islamic charities, and a cut of profits from honey dealers in Yemen and Pakistan who belong to the same Wahabi sect of Islam.[...]

The Taliban euphemistically refers to extortion money as tolls, taxes or even zakat, the 2.5 percent of donation to charity that Islam requires. A kidnapped Pakistani businessman had to pay more than 10 million rupees ($125,000) in ransom. When his Taliban captors freed him, he said, they told him, "Think of this as your zakat. Now your place in heaven is guaranteed."

2006 all over again: Will Ethiopia rescue Somalia's internationally recognized (they sure don't seem to recognize it domestically) government once more? What thanks will it get? "Somalia calls for emergency military support," from Agence France Presse, June 21:

AFP - Somalia's parliament speaker on Saturday called on neighbouring countries to urgently deploy troops to prop up the government as thousands fled the capital amid a mounting rebel onslaught.

Ethiopia's communications minister told AFP its troops could not intervene without an international mandate.

But residents of Beledweyn, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu and close to the border with Ethiopia, reported seeing Ethiopian soldiers near the town.

Hardline Islamist insurgents, on an offensive since May 7 to oust a UN-backed transitional government led by moderate Islamist Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, have this week stepped up attacks.

The drive against Sharif's administration has been spearheaded by the Shebab armed group and the more political Hezb al-Islam (Party of Islam) of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former Sharif ally.

Three high-profile officials, including a security minister, have been killed this week.

In Mogadishu, civilians continued to flee the city in record numbers Saturday.

"The government is weakened by the rebel forces," parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur told reporters.

"We ask neighbouring countries -- including Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen -- to send troops to Somalia within 24 hours," he said.

"We have a state of emergency in this country today because foreign fighters from all over the world are fighting the government."

An Al-Qaeda operative from Pakistan was commanding the fighting in Mogadishu, said Nur, adding that without help from its neighbours, "the trouble caused by these foreign fighters will spill to all the corners of the region."

But Ethiopian Communications Minister Bereket Simon told AFP Saturday: "Any further action from Ethiopia regarding Somalia will be done according to international community decision."

Ethiopia withdrew its forces from Somalia in January after a two-year intervention.

"We are following the situation very closely and wait for any answer from the international community," the minister added.

Residents and officials in Beledweyn, however, reported Ethiopian troops nearby.

"There are around 200 Ethiopian forces very close to the village of Bacad tonight and they have taken positions there" Adan Abdikarim, an elder in Beledweyn told AFP by phone. Bacad is eight kilometres from Beledweyn. [...]

Earlier Saturday, loyalist forces in Mogadishu repelled a rebel attack in Hamarweh, a suburb near the presidential palace, information minister Farhan Ali Mohamoud told reporters.

Residents said Islamist forces had been just three kilometres away from Sharif's palace, which is protected by hundreds of African Union peacekeepers.

Deployed in March 2007, the AU force counts more than 4,300 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers.

They protect strategic sites such as the presidency, the port and the airport, but are only authorised to retaliate if directly attacked....

Khan was asked who he thought was the most "impressive" figure in history. He replied: "There are lots of them, some negative ones like Hitler, Napoleon, Winston Churchill and if I can call it history, then Prophet Mohammed and from recent time Nelson Mandela. ... And there are nice ones like Gandhiji and Mother Teresa."

Gandhi and Mother Teresa? Nicer than Muhammad? Uh oh. Of course, it's not enough for Muslim groups to be offended or vigorously disagree with Khan -- they have to call for his arrest. That will prove how much nicer Muhammad was, right?

"SRK Receives No-Bail Prize," by Urvashi Seth for Mid-Day, June 19:

Khalid Babu Qureshi is insistent on dragging Shah Rukh Khan to court. Enraged at King Khan for allegedly making a negative statement about the Prophet in a magazine, the Bandra businessman filed a police complaint against the actor and the publication last evening.

The offence is non-bailable, say the police.

Qureshi, who is the president of the All India Jamaitul Quresh, alleged that Shah Rukh had used unparliamentary language against Prophet Mohammed, which is unacceptable for the Muslim community, in the June edition of the Time and Style magazine.

"We will not take this lying down. The issue was released on June 6, but we have received no replies from the actor or the publication so far. That is why we decided to file a complaint against the actor and the publication today," said Qureshi.

When asked whether they were waiting for an apology, Qureshi replied, "We will take the legal route now."

SRK clarifies

Shah Rukh Khan told MiD DAY, "Obviously, I think there is no figure in history more important than Prophet Mohammed.

Also, being a Muslim and standing up for the tenets of Islam is my most important agenda... and if they have seen my interviews, etc on TV about Islam, then the people who are objecting, should realise that what has appeared is a writing error not a thought or view that I believe in.

Prophet Mohammed is the most important positive figure in Islam... and anyone who questions my view on that, is doing it just to create a controversy."

He added, "Let the court decide what they want to do. I don't believe in violence. Khan should have withdrawn the issues from the stalls or the publication should have filed a corrigendum."

Apparently on Wednesday a mob had created a huge ruckus at Bandra police station, demanding that the police register a complaint against the actor and the publication.

According to Prakash George, senior police inspector of Bandra police station, "We have registered an FIR. We are investigating the matter and will proceed accordingly as it is a non-bailable offence."

The case was registered under section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religion feelings or any class by insulting its religion beliefs) and 34 (acts done by several persons with common interest) of IPC.

Bandra police sources have said they may question the actor when he returns from Los Angeles where he is currently shooting.

SRK's 'statement'

When asked, "According to you who is the most impressive figure in history?" Khan allegedly said, "There are lots of them, some negative ones like Hitler, Napoleon, Winston Churchill and if I can call it history, then Prophet Mohammed and from recent time Nelson Mandela." "And there are nice ones like Gandhiji and Mother Teresa."

Friend and Ally Update. Pakistan won't hear of criticism of its counterterror operations (or lack thereof); indeed, it would be inconvenient and awkward if news like this were to come between Islamabad and the billions in aid sent from the West. "42 operational terror camps in Pak, PoK," by Rajat Pandit for the Times News Network, June 19:

NEW DELHI: When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acted tough with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in the full glare of television cameras this week, he had solid reason to do so. There are still 42 terror-training camps directed against India alive and kicking in Pakistan and PoK.

The latest assessment of Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), the nodal agency for all terror-related intelligence under the home ministry, holds there are 34 `active' and eight `holding' camps operational across the border.

Both Pakistan/Northern Areas and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have 17 `active' and four `holding or dormant' camps each, says the MAC assessment, based on inputs from Research and Analysis Wing, Intelligence Bureau, Military Intelligence and National Technical Research Organisation, among others.

"It is estimated that around 2,200 militants are housed in these camps. After 26/11, many of these camps emptied out or relocated. Some are back to their original status now, while new ones have also come up,'' said an official.

With the PM declaring India wants Pakistan to take "strong, effective and sustained action'' against the terror networks targeting India from its soil before it decides on resuming the composite dialogue process, the fate of these camps as well as that of the masterminds behind the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai is being tracked closely.

India, of course, had rebuffed Pakistan's calls for resumption of the dialogue process after 26/11. Even now, though India has signalled its interest in reviving the dialogue after the Singh-Zardari meeting in Yekaterinburg in Russia this week, New Delhi remains cautious about whether Pakistan will actually walk its talk.

While Pakistan is taking steps to crack down on the Taliban-al Qaida nexus, faced as it is with unrelenting heat from the US, the jihadi factory against India continues to run with impunity.

As per the MAC assessment, of the around 2,200 militants in the 42 camps spread across Pakistan, around 300 belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba, 240 to Jaish-e-Mohammed and 130 to Huji, while the rest are of "mixed'' origins.

The "active'' camps in PoK include those in Kotli, Garhi Dupatta, Nikial, Sensa, Gulpur, Forward Kahutta, Peer Chinasi, Jhandi Chauntra, Bhimbher, Barnala, Skardu, Abdullah Bin Masud, Tattapani, Samani and Shavai Nallah, among others.

The North-West Frontier Province is another hotbed of jihadi activity, with the densely-forested hilly Manshera region, in particular, housing several madrasas, which also double up as training camps. These include Jangal Mangal, Andher Bela, Shinkiari and Jalo Gali, with other NWFP camps including Boi, Oghi and Attar Shisha.

The other camps in Pakistan and Northern Areas include Muridke, Sialkot, Beesian, Garhi Habibullah and Jalogali. "Many of these camps are makeshift, which can be translocated very quickly to evade scrutiny. Moreover, the real leaders of the various tanzims are based in cities like Islamabad and Lahore,'' said another official.

An urgent message from Iranian freedom activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

ACT NOW! Please call up your foreign office and demand from them to have their embassy in Tehran open their gates for injured people!

People are arrested in the hospitals and therefore cannot go there for treatment. A number of embassies have already opened their gates, including Australia and Great Britain.

I am quite tied up today trying to finish my upcoming book; for extensive and up-to-the-minute coverage of what is going on in Iran, see here and here at Atlas Shrugs.

My attorney, William Becker, who is also the attorney for the Arabic Christian Perspective group, sends in this background and update on this story:

As you know, my client, Arabic Christian Perspective (APC) was denied its request for a temporary restraining order, which would have prevented the City of Dearborn from restricting APC's First Amendment right to distribute its Christian material on public sidewalks adjacent to the annual Arab International Festival. Meanwhile, because they are not subject to the court order, numerous other groups, including Christian groups, are milling about the Festival distributing their material and conducting various types of transactions. APC cannot disobey the order of the United States District Court, so where last year it had handed out some ten thousand leaflets, booklets and DVDs on the first day of the Festival, its volunteers have handed out only a small number this year.

The Festival offered APC a booth to give out their material, and Dearborn police gave it the option of two locations, one of which was in the center of the Festival and where APC could reach large numbers of people. APC chose that location and operated there for awhile until the same police officer who had given them the option told them to move to a remote location on the outer east end of the Festival, where they see few passersby. The order does not restrict their location, and in fact doesn't cover the Festival's offer to provide them with a booth location, so there is nothing APC can do about it. It has essentially been sent to Siberia.

What is the lesson of all of this? Apparently, it does no good to give law enforcement authorities advance notice of your intention to peacefully assemble at a public event. APC traditionally has notified local law enforcement authorities of its visits as a courtesy. In the future, I will advise them not to do that. There is simply no point. Christians no longer are being given the same rights as others. Municipal authorities see them as provocateurs, rather than citizens entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

One of your readers responded to this story with the following comment: "Yawn." I wonder if that person would feel that way if he were told he could no longer express his views on the Internet and would be arrested if he did. The City of Dearborn has singled out one organization due to the content of its message. It has applied what it believes is a reasonable time, place and manner restriction on the one group that gave it notice of its visit to the Festival, while others are not so limited. This is an invidious form of discrimination, and the City of Dearborn will have to justify it in the lawsuit that I and the Thomas More Law Center have filed against it to permanently end this violation of the First Amendment.

After all, Dearborn is 30% Muslim, and they don't go for that sort of thing. "It's ironic that while Americans are applauding the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn is restricting free speech rights Christians are attempting to exercise on the city's public sidewalks." An update on this story.

"Faith under fire:City corrals Christians at weekend Arab fest, judge won't let ministry deliver tracts on sidewalks," by Bob Unruh for WND, June 19 (thanks to Philip):

A federal judge has upheld a decision by festival organizers in Dearborn, Mich., which is about 30 percent Muslim, to ban a Christian ministry from handing out religious information on public sidewalks.

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmonds and affects this weekend's celebration but will not affect the free speech lawsuit over the event, filed by the Thomas More Law Center and the Becker Law Firm.

The case is being brought on behalf of the Arabic Christian Perspective, a Christian group that ministers to Muslims. According to the Thomas More Law Center, Pastor George Saieg and scores of his volunteers have visited Dearborn for the city's Arab International Festival to hand out religious information several times.

At estimated 30,000 of Dearborn's nearly 100,000 residents are Muslim.

While there never has been a disruption of the public peace during the five years the ministry has been attending, this year Dearborn police warned Saieg he and his group would not be allowed to walk the public sidewalks to hand out information and instead would be confined to a specific spot, the lawsuit said.

After negotiations in Dearborn failed to restore the Christians' rights, the lawsuit was filed.

"It's ironic that while Americans are applauding the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn is restricting free speech rights Christians are attempting to exercise on the city's public sidewalks," said Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center...

No surprise, considering the Chechen president defends such honor killings, as part of his "campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya."

"Suspect detained in honor killing in Chechnya," from Khaleej Times, June 20:

ROSTOV-ON-DON, RUSSIA - Prosecutors in Chechnya say they have detained a young man accused of shooting his sister to death in an honor killing.

Prosecutors say the young man has confessed to killing his sister with multiple gunshots because of her “immoral behavior.”

They said in a statement Saturday that the murder was the latest in a string of killings and disappearances of women in the region. About 30 women aged 18 to 27 have been killed or gone missing since last fall.

Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov said recently that some of the victims were rightfully shot by their male relatives for their “loose morals.”

Kadyrov has carried out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya.

Raising "grave concerns that the scheduled January 2010 closing of the Guantanamo prison and the release of most of its prisoners to foreign countries will galvanize Al Qaeda and compromise American national security." More on this story. "Slaughter of Foreigners in Yemen Bears Mark of Former Gitmo Detainee, Say Experts," by Jana Winter for Fox News, June 20:

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery.

But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was released from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

And if al-Shihri is behind the gruesome murders and abductions, they say, it raises grave concerns that the scheduled January 2010 closing of the Guantanamo prison and the release of most of its prisoners to foreign countries will galvanize Al Qaeda and compromise American national security.

The nine foreigners — four German adults, three small German children, a British man and a South Korean woman — were abducted on June 12 after they ventured outside the city of Saada without their required police escorts, according to a spokesman from the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. Days later the bodies of Rita Stumpp and Anita Gruenwald, German nurses in training, and Eom Young-sun of South Korea were found shot execution style in the Noshour Valley in the province of Saada, an area known to be a hotbed of Al Qaeda activity.

Stumpp and Gruenwald attended a Bible school, and Young attended a Christian missionary school in South Korea. Other members of the group had ties to missionary organizations, and all six adults worked for World Wide Services Foundation, a Dutch international medical relief group.

No one has claimed responsibility for the abductions and murders, but experts say killing women and children is considered off-limits among many jihadist groups — though not to al-Shihri, a Saudi national who was released from Guantanamo in November 2007 and sent to a Saudi Arabian "rehabilitation" program for jihadists. It wasn't long before a "cured" al-Shihri was released from the program, crossed into Yemen and rejoined Al Qaeda, with whom he quickly rose to deputy commander.

In addition to last week's kidnappings, he is believed to have been behind the September attacks that left 16 dead at the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital of San'a.

“This bears the marks of al-Shihri’s activity and bears the signs of his beliefs and assumptions of his behavior that are not viewed by other jihadists,” said Robert Spencer, terror expert and director of Jihad Watch, referring to the killing of women and presumed killing of the three small children...

"Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand"

Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks,
Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain,
False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin,
Only a matter of time 'til night comes steppin' in.

The Islamic Republic continues to demonstrate the inherent attractiveness and reasonableness of Sharia.

"Witnesses report fierce clashes on Tehran streets," by Ali Akbar Dareini and Nasser Karimi for Associated Press, June 20 (thanks to James):

TEHRAN, Iran – Police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied Saturday in open defiance of Iran's clerical government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Eyewitnesses described fierce clashes near Revolution Square in central Tehran after some 3,000 protesters, many wearing black, chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" Police fired tear gas, water cannons and guns but it was not immediately clear if they were firing live ammunition.

English-language state TV confirmed that police had used batons and other non-lethal weapons against what it called unauthorized demonstrations.

The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in central Tehran. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.

Some protesters appeared to be fighting back, setting fire to militia members' motorcycles in streets near Freedom Square, witnesses said....

Amateur video showed dozens of Iranians running down a street after police fired tear gas at them. Shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" — "God is Great" — could be heard on the video, which could not be independently verified.

The English-language state channel said a blast at the Tehran shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had killed one person and wounded two but the report could not be independently confirmed due to government restrictions on independent reporting. The shrine is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of central Tehran....

"And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." -- Barack Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009

Of course, Obama didn't have in mind those who commit violence in the name of Islam. He was thinking about non-Muslims who dare to report about those who commit violence in the name of Islam.

"Truck bomb kills at least 30 in northern Iraq," by Sinan Salaheddin for Associated Press, June 20 (thanks to James):

BAGHDAD – A truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq following prayers, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens, police said.

The blast came hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the withdrawal of U.S. troops from cities by the end of this month a "great victory" and promised it would go ahead as scheduled. Officials have warned that insurgents are likely to stage more attacks in the wake of the withdrawal to try to undermine confidence in the government's ability to protect its people.

Worshippers were leaving the mosque in Taza, 10 miles (20 kilometers) south of Kirkuk, following noon prayers when the truck exploded, according to police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qader, who gave the casualty toll.

He said the mosque and at least eight nearby houses were demolished and residents were working with rescue teams to search for people buried under the rubble....

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

This is a follow-up to my last piece posted on June 12. [HERE].

The situation at the UN Human Rights Council is becoming worse and worse and this is blatantly obvious to all. Complaints are numerous but for lack of time and more, I prefer to leave any ‘comments’ on this truism to others. There has been one advantage for NGOs and this is the application of rule 113 of the rules of procedure of the UN General Assembly, whereby “a speaker may not, in raising a point of order, speak on the substance of the matter under discussion.” I had been stopped more than any NGO on points of order in the past by OIC states and was therefore surprised that this time I was allowed to complete all three oral statements without being stopped – even quoting from the genocidal Hamas Charter slogan (article 8, similar to that of the Muslim Brotherhood), which I reiterated is the blueprint for Jihadist killers worldwide.

Our three statements delivered are available below with the link to the UN webcast: on the Hamas Charter, Violence against women, and Defamation of Judaism by ISESCO.

The UK protests its new role as the Great Satan, into which it has been thrust in this age of Obamoid appeasement, but the Iranians make the protest the occasion for another insult.

An update on this story. "Protest at Iran's 'evil UK' claim," from the BBC, June 19 (thanks to D.B.):

The UK has told an Iranian diplomat that Ayatollah Khamenei's description of the British government as "evil" is unacceptable.

UK officials had summoned Iran's ambassador, Rasul Movaheddian, to the Foreign Office to lodge a protest.

But here comes another slap:

But they were told he was unavailable and Iran sent its charge d'affairs, a more junior official, in his place.

The row was sparked by Ayatollah Khamenei saying the UK was the "most evil" of Western governments....

The US became the main Iranian target after the fall of the Shah but Britain appears to have been singled out now largely because of the recently launched TV channel BBC Persian, which the British Foreign Office has helped to fund. When the British ambassador in Tehran was called in earlier in the week, the main Iranian complaint was about BBC coverage....

Women in Iran march against the harsh inhumanity of Sharia laws regarding women. Note that while Obama spoke up in Cairo for the right of women to wear the hijab in the West, he said nothing about the right of women not to wear it in places like Iran. He thus forfeited all moral authority to be able to stand with these courageous women.

"Women in Iran march against discrimination," by Moni Basu for