September 2009 Archives

"Brooklyn Man Is Accused of Trying to Aid Terrorists," by Ray Rivera for the New York Times, September 24 (thanks to Jihad Watch readers):

Federal officials announced charges against a Brooklyn man on Thursday, saying he traveled overseas intent on joining a terrorist group and fighting United States forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Authorities said the man, Betim Kaziu, 21, a former building porter who was born and raised in Brooklyn, flew from Kennedy International Airport to Cairo in February in the first leg of a journey he hoped would take him to Pakistan for militant training. Authorities said that while in Egypt he made repeated attempts to buy weapons and tried to join a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda. In addition, authorities said, Mr. Kaziu made efforts to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

In a three-page indictment, unsealed Thursday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, authorities said Mr. Kaziu eventually made it to Kosovo, where he was arrested by Kosovar law enforcement authorities in late August and returned to the United States.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. If convicted, he could face life in prison....

The allegations shocked Mr. Kaziu's family in Brooklyn. "This is totally unlike him," said a sister, Sihana Kaziu, who added that he was never violent and had a "big heart." Ms. Kaziu said her brother, a Muslim, did not grow up particularly religious.

One of four siblings, he played football in high school before dropping out, she said. He later got his high school equivalency diploma and around age 18 became interested in the Koran and said he wanted to dedicate his life to God, a prospect that pleased his parents, she said. He told his family that he was going to Egypt to study Arabic, and kept in touch regularly by e-mail....

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein

Deadlines are a convenient, renewable resource in foreign policy. They give the appearance that action is being taken, and they buy time before having to do something more substantial. The problem is, they buy Iran time as well.

An update on this story. "West gives Iran three months to prove it does not want nuclear weapons," by Nick Meo and Richard Spencer for the Telegraph, September 30:

Thursday's meeting in Geneva between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and western governments will be the last chance to come to a settlement over the programme, diplomats said yesterday. If not, western governments would seek tough new sanctions at the United Nations.

"The ball is in the Iranians' court," said one source. "What they do in Geneva will be a fundamental test for the Iranians."

The meeting is the first of its kind for more than a year and the first with Iran at which Washington will be a full partner for three decades. It follows last week's revelation that the Iranians were developing a secret uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom.

That disclosure may have rattled the Iranian government, but its president was in bellicose mood yesterday in setting out his terms for the meeting.

He said it was the West, not Iran, which had the opportunity to show it had changed its attitudes.

"The leaders of these countries made a historic mistake with their comments about the new plant," he said. "The negotiators can definitely adopt any policy that they want, but we will not be harmed."

The West's negotiating team, led by the European Union's foreign policy representative Javier Solana, is hoping that the hardline bluster is preparing the way politically for a more conciliatory approach face-to-face.

They say do not know whether Iran wants to cut a deal or not.

"The key thing is, by the second half of the day, is there any sense of whether they are in a frame of mind where they want to engage?" the source said. "We are offering a process of co-operation with Iran - on economic issues, energy, even things like education."

Close attention will be paid to the reaction from Russia and China, which have the power to veto any proposed sanctions.

Russia reacted critically to the disclosure of Iran's latest secret programme, but China has shown no willingness to shift from its previous opposition to more sanctions.

The West's general stance received some backing from Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The West claims that the secret construction of the new facility was in violation of Iran's commitments, but Tehran says it was not obliged to inform the IAEA until six months before it introduced nuclear material.

But Mr ElBaradei told a television interviewer: "They have been on the wrong side of the law in so far as informing the agency about the construction.

"Iran was supposed to inform us on the day it was decided to construct the facility. They have not done that."

Jihad of the wallet. "Westchester man admits sending aid to terrorist training camp in Afghanistan," by Alison Gendar for the New York Daily News, September 30 (thanks to James):

A Westchester County businessman pleaded guilty Tuesday to funneling money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari admitted in Manhattan Federal Court that he wired the $152,000 overseas, believing the money would buy night vision goggles for killers in a terror boot camp.

His defense team initially claimed Alishtari was more interested in getting paid by the undercover agent who asked him to make the transfer than in any cause or jihad.

Alishtari had hoped the agent, who passed himself off as a wealthy Middle Easterner, would invest in Flat Electronic Data Interchange, a loan investment program Alishtari was running.

Federal prosecutors have called it a fraud, and Alishtari fessed up yesterday that he also stole from its investors.

"Alishtari today admitted that he stole millions from investors and knowingly financed what he believed to be tools of terror," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara....

Jamie Glazov continues to hold feminists' feet to the fire about their inconsistency and refusal to condemn the oppression of women under Sharia. An update on this story.

"Will Naomi Wolf Fight Female Genital Mutilation?," by Jamie Glazov at the News Real Blog, September 29:

I have a little follow-up to my run-in with Naomi Wolf over the sexiness of the burqa.

As our readers will be familiar, Wolf went on a political pilgrimage to Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt and found a thriving sexuality behind the veil.

I have been wondering ever since if Wolf was at all concerned about what state women's vaginas were in within the sexual paradises that she visited and praised, seeing that the barbaric crime of female genital mutilation is perpetrated with high frequency in the areas she visited.

But not that a fellow traveler would care about anything like that.

Who does care is Lucy Semiyan Mashua, a freedom fighter from Kenya who survived several kinds of genital mutilation, slavery, child abuse, rape and torture. Today she is leading a new global campaign against female genital mutilation. Will you help? It might just take signing a petition. Please enter the fight by reading all about the new effort to save girls from this genocide.

Will Naomi Wolf join the battle? For instance, will she denounce the Islamic theology and teachings that lead to the mutilation of Muslim girls in Islamic countries?

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the recent increase of aid to Pakistan:

Last Thursday the Senate voted to triple the amount of non-military aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion annually. The money is supposed to go to build democracy and aid anti-terror efforts. "We should make clear to the people of Pakistan," explained Senator Richard Lugar, "that our interests are focused on democracy, pluralism, stability, and the fight against terrorism. If Pakistan is to break its debilitating cycle of instability, it will need to achieve progress on fighting corruption, delivering government services, and promoting broad based economic growth."

This all sounds great, until one looks at the post-9/11 record of dealings between the United States and Pakistan. Last September, the New York Times reported that "after the attacks of Sept. 11, President Pervez Musharraf threw his lot in with the United States. Pakistan has helped track down Al Qaeda suspects, launched a series of attacks against militants inside the tribal areas -- a new offensive got under way just weeks ago -- and given many assurances of devotion to the antiterrorist cause. For such efforts, Musharraf and the Pakistani government have been paid handsomely, receiving more than $10 billion in American money since 2001." However, "the survival of Pakistan's military and civilian leaders has depended on a double game: assuring the United States that they were vigorously repressing Islamic militants -- and in some cases actually doing so -- while simultaneously tolerating and assisting the same militants."

What has changed in Pakistan since then? Not much. Musharraf is gone, but much of the rest of the Pakistani leadership is the same, and above all, the core attitudes that led to the double game being conducted in the first place have not changed. One fundamental assumption that all too many Pakistani officials hold is that when something goes wrong with society, it is because the people have faltered in their fidelity to Islam, and only renewed religious fervor can solve the problem and restore prosperity to the nation and health to the society. This assumption militates against the idea that any amount of American aid will significantly alter the situation in Pakistan, or lessen popular support for the Islamic jihad of the Taliban and allied groups. For the Americans will always, no matter how much money they lavish upon the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, be infidels. The solution to Pakistan's problems will not be seen as lying with them, but with a renewed commitment to Islam....

Read it all.

I was at the much-ballyhooed event last Friday, and here is my report in Human Events today: 

The organizers of the "Islam on Capitol Hill" event last Friday came only about 47,000 people short of their goal of bringing 50,000 Muslims to Washington to pray in front of the Capitol building. Although the event received a great deal of publicity, it didn't receive the backing of the leading American Muslim advocacy groups -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council - and apparently that was enough to keep it from drawing Muslims to Capitol Hill in the numbers the organizers would have liked.

Nonetheless, the event went on, peacefully, under skies that initially threatened rain but then turned brilliantly sunny. Still, it was a huge missed opportunity for American Muslims, and not just because the turnout was far smaller than expected.

Organizer Hassen Abdellah had explained before the event that it was designed "to show we are not terrorists, but that most of us Muslims here love America and abide by its laws." And it took place against a backdrop of a sharp increase in violent jihad activity in the United States. In the week leading up to the Islam on Capitol Hill prayer meeting, two Muslims, including an imam, were arrested for their alleged roles in an elaborate plot involving numerous other Muslims in New York City and Denver, who were evidently planning a major jihad attack at a sports stadium.

Another Muslim, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, was arrested after placing an inert car bomb at a 60-story office tower in downtown Dallas. Yet another Muslim, an American convert who calls himself Talib Islam, was arrested for plotting to blow up the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield, Illinois.

All that in one week. If the Islam on Capitol Hill event was really supposed to show that Muslims were not terrorists, wouldn't it have been a good opportunity to denounce those jihad plots and the Islamic doctrines of warfare and supremacism that inspired them in the first place? For these were not just plots to sow undifferentiated mayhem, but were specifically Islamic jihad plots developed by Muslims who believed that the violence they unleashed would advance the cause of Islam. Dallas plotter Smadi explained his intentions in fervently expressed Islamic theological terms: "I truly say it that my dream is to be among God's soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama [bin Laden], may God give him long life....I am ready for the Jihadi life....Victory is coming, is coming to defeat the Romans [i.e., Christians] and for the destruction of the Jews. God is Most Great. We shall attack them in their very homes. Brother, by God, we shall attack them in a manner that hurts, an attack that shakes the world." Likewise Talib Islam spoke to a man whom he did not know was an FBI informant about his desire to wage Islamic jihad and bring down the U.S. government.

But Hassen Abdellah, asked on the morning of the prayer meeting to denounce these plots, demurred, saying that the event was not meant for denunciations. Yet Brooklyn imam Abdul Malik, who preached the sermon at the gathering, found ample time to denounce the immorality of American popular culture and indulge in several oblique denunciations of Christianity. He emphatically recommended Islam as the cure for America's ills - and this was a political prescription, not solely a religious one. I spoke to several Muslims at the event; all said they'd like to see Islamic law, Sharia, come to the United States - a sentiment rife with political implications that remain a matter of indifference on the part of officials sworn to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Islam on Capitol Hill was supposed to show that Muslims are not terrorists. Yet not a word was said at the event about the Muslims arrested for terrorist activity that same week, or any assurances given that the assembled Muslims were working to root out this problem from the Islamic community. What's more, the Islamic terrorists' stated goal is the imposition of Sharia, with its denial of free speech and legal equality, and that seemed to be just fine with most of those who prayed Jummah prayer on Capitol Hill on Friday.

It was hardly a comforting message to give to free Americans.

One of the most dynamic speakers and passionate advocates for the defense of the West that I know, my friend and colleague Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, is speaking November 7 at a gala event hosted by the Collin County Conservative Republicans. People are coming from all over the country to be at this event, two Congressmen and a Texas State Representative are going to be there, and tickets are going fast. You can reserve tickets here, and here are more details about the event:

An Intimate evening with Pamela Geller

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Mckinney, Texas

Honorary Host Committee:
Congressman Sam Johnson (TX03)
Congressman Ralph Hall (TX04)
State Representative Jerry Madden (TX Dist. 67)
Collin County Judge Keith Self

"We thank our sitting elected officials who have served in the Armed Forces for serving on our honorary host committee."

Join us early in the evening (5:00-700 p.m.) for the VIP Patriot Reception. The VIP reception allows you to meet Ms. Geller and the Honorary Host Committee, enjoy hors d'oeuvres from Texas' own Eddie Dean, grab an autograph and photo, and toast a glass of champagne to the future of the GOP.

If you cannot attend the VIP Reception, please join us at 7:30 p.m. for Pamela's speaking engagement.

No wonder they think that the West is foolish and weak, and can be beaten. "Mideast: Shalit video to be 'swapped' for 20 Palestinian prisoners," from AKI, September 30 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Tel Aviv, 30 Sept. (AKI) - Israel is set to receive fresh video footage of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit proving he is alive in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners.

Shalit has been held in the Gaza Strip since his abduction in 2006 by Palestinian militants.

The video will be handed over after a decision by Israel's security cabinet to release 20 Palestinian women held in Israeli jails, Israeli daily Haaretz said on Wednesday.

The video will be viewed as definite proof that Shalit is still alive.

A statement by the office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it expects the deal to be carried out on Friday.

"According to the proposal by mediators, Israel will receive updated and unequivocal proof of Shalit's condition," the statement by the prime minister's office said. It did not specify a date for the release of the female prisoners....

As everyone knows, the idea that "Islam orders a violent end for those who leave the faith" is just "bigoted nonsense." Unfortunately, somehow these Muslims in Bangladesh, like so many other Muslims all over the world, have fallen prey to this bigoted nonsense, misunderstood their tolerant faith, and actually threatened to kill this Muslim who converted to Christianity. I expect that Michael Kruse and Meredith Heagney will be on the next plane to Dhaka, ready to explain to these Muslims how they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Christian convert from Islam and family threatened with death," from AsiaNews, September 30 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - William Gomes, a Catholic convert from Islam, is in mortal danger. For the past several days he has been the target of Muslim extremists who want to kill him because of his new faith. On 25 September he had to flee his home to escape from a group of Islamic militants who wanted to kill him and his family (wife and child), setting fire to their house. After Friday prayers at a mosque nearby, a group of fanatics had asked the leaders of their mosque to decide on the fate of the young man and the penalty to be inflicted on him.

A freelance journalist and human rights activist, married to a Catholic and father of a child, Gomes had recently received threats, but on September 25, his accusers passed from words to deeds. Led by Nazmi Mohammed Uddin Titu, a local leader of the Chatra League movement of young Muslims, a group marched on the house of the young man accused of apostasy.

The human rights activist sought police protection, but officers of the Police Commission in Jatrabri limited themselves to filing his complaint. Gomes said that the officer on duty guaranteed police intervention only after the fact happened saying he was not surprised at the anger of Muslims over his conversion....

An Israeli citizen suffered mild to moderate gunshot wounds to his hand Tuesday evening near the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel, north of Jerusalem.

According to local settlers, at approximately 8 pm unknown assailants opened fire at an Israeli vehicle travelling east of Shvut Rachel....

The shots apparently came from terrorists positioned at the side of the road.

"This is the fourth shooting in the area in the past four months," Binyamin Council Head Avi Roeh told Ynet.

"This attack is a direct result of the removal of roadblocks. It's only by some miracle that the outcome of these attacks has been no worse than injuries, but you cannot base security policies on miracles."

Salam Fayad, with his suit and his tie and his reputation for being an apolitical "technocrat," and with his American experience, is useful for the "Palestinian" Arabs as they downplay their never-ending ferocity. They do this purely for Western audiences of those whose goodwill they need, that is, those whom they most need to inveigle through personal charm and the plausible delivery of plausible lies that depend on the intended audience's ignorance both of Islam and of the nature of the war being waged (a tous azimuths) against Israel.

Salam Fayad is the perfect front man for this. He's the Very Type and Original of the Nobody-Here-But-Us-Accountants School of "Palestinian" Arab representatives. The same could be said of the henchman for many decades of Yassir Arafat, during some of his bloodiest years, Mahmoud Abbas. Didn't Obama say, anent Ahmadinejad, that Holocaust-denial was intolerable? Yet Obama just the other day met and exchanged smiles and handshakes with Abbas, whose MGU doctoral thesis was a long-winded discussion of the "exaggerations" of the Holocaust, which is merely a form of Holocaust denial. Why has his involvement in the worst acts by Arafat, why has his Holocaust-denial, why has everything that Abbas said at that recent "Palestinian" gathering in Ramallah been so willfully ignored in the calculation of American policymakers, beginning at the Islam-ignorant and naive top?

But remember: they sincerely want peace! "2 Gaza rockets hit Negev; no injuries," by Shmulik Hadad for Ynet, September 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Two Qassam rockets fired from northern Gaza Tuesday evening landed in open areas within the limits of the Eshkol and Ashkelon Beach regional councils. There were no reports of injury or damage.

The first rocket was launched at around 7 pm. The "Color Red" alert system sounded, and security forces locate the rocket's landing site near an Eshkol Regional Council community.

The second rocket, which was fired by Palestinian terrorists an hour-and-a-half later, hit south of Ashkelon.

The rocket attack on the Ashkelon area was the first in two months. "I am not ruling out the possibility that Hamas is testing our nerves and level of preparedness," Ashkelon Beach Regional Council head Yair Farjoun told Ynet, "Our response must be swift and powerful. We cannot allow the current situation to continue."...

Dear fool

Hope you are in the worst of health (almighty willing). Do you think that your lies about Islam will get the Muslims really frantic so they cause a big commotion so you and your message can be really famous? Do you really think that that Muslims & Christians will not see through your lies and fight each other?

Why don't you write that the holy prophet Muhammad may the almighty grant him peace and blessing (amen) stood up in respect when a Jewish funeral procession past by him telling his companions that

Any free minded human being knows that if you who disbelieve in the message of the prophet may the almighty grant him peace and blessing (amen) would stop interfering totally in the affairs of Muslims in every aspect thinkable to man then there would be peace amongst us. This is nothing other than a true fact.

Anyone can find himself downloading bomb-making material from the Internet by accident. Why, it's as common as the air we breathe. New York/Colorado Jihad Plot Update: "US Terror Suspect Zazi Pleads Not Guilty," from the VOA News, September 29 (thanks to James):

An Afghan-born terror suspect, Najibullah Zazi, has pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court to charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

A lawyer for Zazi entered the plea on his behalf Tuesday, saying the government has yet to prove evidence of a conspiracy. Zazi was present for the brief hearing.

Prosecutors have accused Zazi of conspiring to use homemade bombs against unspecified targets in the United States. Law enforcement officials have said the plot may have involved New York City's mass transit system.

Investigators say they know the identities of at least three of Zazi's associates but have not released information about them....

Prosecutors say Zazi spent more than a year plotting the attack on the United States with co-conspirators.

Which is making it into a Paradise of tolerance and peace, right? Uh, well, not quite. "Analysis: The Islamic republic of Gaza," by Jonathan Spyer in the Jerusalem Post, September 29 (thanks to Alexandre):

[...] A slow introduction of Islamic norms and practices into society began immediately following the Hamas victory in PLC elections in January 2006. This process was accelerated following Hamas's seizure of exclusive control of Gaza in 2007.

However, there are clear internal differences in the movement regarding the pace of change. Hamas's current leadership has tended to favor a slow encouragement of Islamic practices and rules, without straying too far from the desires of the broader public.

More hardline and Salafi elements within the movement want a stricter and more formal introduction of Islamic norms. Events over the last 18 months indicate that the latter camp is now making the running, with Hamas's leadership under pressure from extreme forces both within the movement and beyond it.

This change is being felt in the very fabric of daily life in Gaza. A transition of the status of Islamic observance from social norm to legal compulsion is under way.

The most obvious sign of this is the creation of the new "Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" security force, which operates under the command of the Ministry of the Waqf (Islamic Endowment).

This force is tasked with enforcing Islamic codes of behavior. Its members patrol beaches, parks and public areas, ensuring proper Islamic modesty.

One source describes how a man wearing shorts while sitting on his own balcony in southern Gaza was spotted and advised that this must not happen again. Rules banning men from bathing topless, and women (who may still bathe separately from men and fully covered) from laughing or smiling while bathing, are also in the process of enforcement....

I hadn't planned to publish these, as I am not here to give this psychopath a platform, but several people have advised me to do so for several reasons: these are illustrative of tendencies that run throughout the Islamic world, and shedding light on the jihadist mindset is what we are all about here. Certainly they illustrate the bloodlust and hate that pass for religious fervor among all too many Muslims.

Also, some of you Internet sleuths can find out more information about the sender, which may contribute ultimately to his being brought to justice, or at least being prevented from ever entering the United States. Thus here are four new death threats I received last night and this morning from IP address 196.201.207.17, who has threatened to kill me before. He was apparently excited by the death threats I posted yesterday, and hopes that soon his offended piety will find succor in my blood. As for me, the more of these I get, the more determined I become to keep working not to allow thuggery and intimidation to triumph over justice, equality of rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law.

"Ka'ab Binu Ashraf" was a poet who criticized Muhammad and was murdered on his order. "VAN-Goooordhd," "THEO Gogh," and "GOOGH" refer to Theo van Gogh, who was murdered by a jihadist on a street in Amsterdam a few years ago.

1. Received at 11:06PM Pacific Time last night:

   Yes. Yes..We finally reached out him. Ka'ab Binu Ashraf has been traced. He will be soon found.
   Will this be like VAN-Goooordhd. I am not sure. Allah Knows.. But Spencer you will pay the price"
   
   You insulted us enough, you insulted our religion-faith and our Prophet (Pbuh.)
   We are not Cowards and never fear from any human-beings.
   Just wait to pay the price.
   You took your liberty to say every negative propoganda to Islam and Islam will take its liberty to defend the FAITH.
   
   ALLahu AKBAR.

2. Received 11:23PM Pacific Time last night:

   You have intended to Pay the price Mr Spencer when you are committed to Fight with us. You insulted ENOUGH to our FAITH and Religion and you have insulted our Religious Teachings. you said enough to our GREAT-LAST and ALLAH-sent Messenger. So you SHOULD PAY the PRICE of the Impact.
   
   I hope who ever you think of me we will not give in to your fabricated Propaganda only will make us TRACE our enemies. I know that a lot of Muslims are aware of you and One Day before ALLAH-Takes you down we will Catch your nose.
   
   However the question is How will this Happen:
   
   Will it happent like THEO Gogh in the Netherlands? or what........How and when? This is a mattter of time. (if you continue we will continue)
   
   Dont Complain and jump to post this mesage to your site. you are the one who started. We did not know you but you introduced your self to us. You showed that you dont like us anymore and you showed that you want us to be eliminated so bear the impact of your DEEDs, You know we dont fear Humans but only ALLAH, so dont CRY now like you did before. I have already told you before YOU TOOK your Liberty to Insult and HATE us, make Propogandas To Islam which doesnot deserve to be joked "remember No Fun in Islam' So Let us Took our Liberty to Defend our FAITH.
   
   Whether you are traced or Watched if you are a man Dont CRY means posting our Clear messages to your site. But post it. It shows your weakness.
   

   "There is no fun in Islam" is actually a statement of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

3. Received 3:15 AM Pacific Time this morning:

   One more Chance to Spencer is to let him abstain his deeds. Stop your Islamophomic paranoi Idea whcih you show your hatred.
   

4. Received 3:23 AM Pacific Time this morning:

   Spencer has paranoi as GOOGH...I know that you have inhereted from your ZIONIST parents the HATE of Islam and its Pride. .
    
   You have the same similarity and is one his TWIN...... Read this Story man and take proper consideration to your actions....
    
   Fuaad.........................
   

   To that he appended a story criticizing Theo van Gogh.
   

More on the New York/Colorado jihad plot. "Officials: NYC Plot Operational, Not Just Aspirational," by Dina Temple-Raston for NPR, September 28 (thanks to James):

The man at the center of an alleged plot to blow up transportation targets in New York City is scheduled to appear before a Brooklyn judge for the first time Tuesday. Najibullah Zazi is accused of plotting to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. targets in what law enforcement officials say was the most serious terrorist threat against the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

While the FBI arrested Zazi just a little more than a week ago, U.S. intelligence officials had been tracking him for months. They had been listening to Zazi's phone calls, tracking his e-mails and following his associates for months in a bid to uncover exactly what he was planning and who was helping him. The investigation blew up before they got answers to either of the questions.

Officials close to the case tell NPR that more arrests could happen as soon as this week.

"We still don't know what we don't know yet," one senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the case said. "We just know that it was going to be a very bad attack. We don't get terrorists in this country who go get al-Qaida training and come back to attack here. That's what we were expecting was going to happen in a second wave of attacks after 9/11. So in that sense, Zazi isn't just unusual -- he's scary."...

Whatever his defense may be, Zazi has come to embody everything U.S. intelligence officials worry about in a suspected jihadist. He was in the U.S. legally, so he could move about the country freely. He was raised and attended school in the U.S., so he understands American culture and customs and could blend in. Most frightening of all, they say, Zazi wasn't just an aspirational jihadist, he was also an operational one. Official say he didn't just dream up a plot, he actually began to launch one -- unlike other terrorism suspects the FBI has arrested since Sept. 11, 2001....

Chutzpah. Courtroom Jihad in the UK: "Palestinians in UK seek arrest warrant for visiting Israeli Defense Minister," from Al-Bawaba, September 29 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A criminal law suit has been filed against Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Britain, calling for his arrest over alleged war crimes. British lawyers representing several Palestinian families are seeking to obtain an international arrest warrant at the Westminster Magistrates Court against Barak who led Israel's Gaza Strip offensive earlier this year. The lawyers have argued that the defense minister committed war crimes and violated the Geneva Convention in Operation Cast Lead earlier this year that left more than 1,387 Palestinians dead.

The accusations against Barak are partially based on a United Nations report released earlier this month by former South African judge Richard Goldstone that determined that Israel had committed war crimes by deliberately attacking Palestinians civilians. "No arrest warrant has been issued, and in any event, he has immunity due to his being a minister in the in the government," the bureau said.

"Therefore, his program will continue without disturbance."...

The incomparable Kathy Shaidle reviews my new book. "'The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran' (review)," by Kathy Shaidle in the Examiner, September 28:

Beginning with its title, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran, and the cheeky "icons" on the cover, Robert Spencer's new book is guaranteed to annoy some people even before they read it (which they probably won't bother doing anyhow.)

If you have read Spencer's other books about Islam, The Complete Infidel's Guide... won't provide you with any new information.

I love Kathy Shaidle, but here I must beg to differ. Since I have written nine books on Islam and jihad, people seem to be assuming that there is nothing more to say, and that I am rehashing material from old books. This is not the case. So let's get specific, since this has come up before. In this book, and in none of my other books, I discuss how the Koran was compiled; alternate versions of the Koran; alleged miracles of the Koran; how the Koran adapts and alters Biblical stories such as those of Adam, Noah, Moses, Solomon, Mary and Jesus; the Koranic appropriation of Jewish, Christian and even pagan figures; the foundations of Islamic mysticism in the Koran; the ways in which seemingly innocuous passages of the Koran actually convey meanings quite different from what may appear to non-Muslim Westerners; how the Koran's stories of the Biblical prophets are all told in a way meant to support Muhammad's prophetic claim; why Muslims regard the Jews as their worst enemies; how and why the New Testament accounts of Christ are altered in the Koran; the Koran's moral code and what it is conspicuously lacking; and more.

This new book is best considered as a gift for any friends who are misinformed about the Muslim religion. Because of its easy-to-read format, it is also a helpful handbook for anyone who finds themselves caught up in religious and political arguments on a regular basis.

As its title suggests, the book is designed to be an easy read, with its helpful side bars and other "dummies/idiots" layout features. Sometimes, those breezy and irreverent sidebars are more jarring than informative, placed as they are amidst Spencer's alarming exegesis.

Spencer, who has studied the Koran in depth for many years, offers ready answers for apologists who insist that Islam is a "peaceful religion" that has been "misunderstood" by a "tiny minority of extremists."

Using actual quotations from the Koran itself, Spencer argues that this is simply not the case. He insists that anti-Semitism and anti-Christian feeling is rife throughout the Muslim holy book, not to mention all the verses advocating domestic violent [sic].

Spencer also compares the New Testament's famous teachings about loving your enemies with Koranic injunctions to kill them. Overall, the Koran is steeped in troubling stories of slavery, occupation and downright strangeness that will surprise readers expecting it to be a sort of "Arabian Nights" version of the Christian Gospel.

Spencer counters all the familiar protestations: that critics are "taking the Koran out of context" or that one can't really understand the Koran anyway unless they read it in Arabic (which conveniently places many ignorant Westerners at a disadvantage.)

The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran is the very best introduction around to what the Koran actually says, how political correctness has made it almost impossible to discuss the Koran and other sacred Muslim texts candidly, and how everyone from George Bush to Barack Obama have misinterpreted it - with grave implications for national security and foreign policy.

But they sincerely want peace! An update on this story. "Palestinian 'moderate' govt slams Israel on mosque," by Alastair Macdonald for Reuters, September 28 (thanks to Maxwell):

JERUSALEM, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Palestinians' Western-backed government hailed on Monday people who fought Israeli police in Jerusalem as defenders of a Muslim holy site, and accused Israelis of trying to wreck U.S.-sponsored peace talks.

A day after clashes in the Old City that injured about 30 people and had Palestinian leaders warning of a Third Intifada, or uprising, the statement from the cabinet of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad showed a degree of unity among Western-backed "moderates" and Islamist hardliners in aiming anger at Israel.

With U.S. President Barack Obama's peace envoy due to hold more talks this week to push for a resumption of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, the fighting over the holy city at the heart of the conflict was not auspicious.

"The cabinet ... hailed our people who rushed yesterday to defend blessed al-Aqsa mosque and thwarted the attempt by extremist settlers to break into the compound," the Palestinian government said in the statement from its Ramallah headquarters....

The outcome of this appeals process will set a precedent for the future of Malaysian law. If the judiciary does not challenge this type of punishment, it will not only pave the way for more canings, but also invite pressure for even more Sharia.

An update on this story. "Malaysia upholds woman's caning," from BBC News, September 28:

An Islamic court in Malaysia has upheld a sentence of six strokes of the cane handed to a Muslim woman who was caught drinking beer in public.

The court appeals panel in Pahang state ruled the sentence on 32-year-old Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was just.

No date was set for the caning, but if it goes ahead, Shukarno will be the first Malaysian woman to be caned.

The case has caused controversy in Malaysia, where Muslims are subject to Islamic law in personal matters.

While drinking alcohol is forbidden for Muslims, prosecutions are rare.

Analysts say the government fears that the punishment could damage Malaysia's reputation abroad.

Kartika Sari Dewa Shukarno, a mother of two, was arrested for drinking beer in a beachfront hotel in December 2007.

She previously asked that her punishment be carried out in public, triggering a debate over the use of Islamic laws in the moderate Muslim country.

eat s**t and die u pork f**ks.

After all, look how well that Cash-For-Fighting-Terror thing worked out in Pakistan! Anyway, will our Friends and Allies the Saudis come across from Al-Qaeda in Yemen? What exactly would stop them?

"Yemen's Qaeda wing seeks donations in Saudi Arabia," from Reuters, September 27 (thanks to Maxwell):

DUBAI, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's Yemeni wing is targeting Saudi individuals to ask for donations to support its fight against the U.S.-allied government of Sanaa, Al Arabiya television reported on Sunday....
Arabiya aired a video showing a Saudi member of the group it identified as Saeed al-Shehri urging fellow Saudis to donate money to support al Qaeda fighters in Yemen.

"The bearer of this message is trusted by us," the militant said after making his request. It was not immediately clear if any arrests were made or how the recording was acquired....

Twin suicide car bombings outside the U.S. embassy in Sanaa a year ago killed 16 people. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility....

Four Yemenis carrying hand grenades, automatic weapons and ammunition. and guns were arrested near the U.S. embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, Yemen's Interior Ministry said earlier this month, but did not say when they were arrested....
International concern over Yemen has grown because of the risk that instability there could endanger neighbours including Saudi Arabia and complicate efforts to combat al Qaeda and piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

The United States has offered to help Yemen in its "fight against terrorism". U.S. President Barack Obama said in a letter to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this month that the United States will "stand beside Yemen, its unity, security and stability".

How reassuring!

Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad, with a side order of Iranian meddling, in Yemen: "Yemen Shiite rebel leader vows to fight on," from AFP, September 27 (thanks to Maxwell):

SANAA -- The leader of Shiite rebels embroiled in a war with the Yemeni army accused the government on Sunday of discriminating against his group, the Zaidis, vowing to continue the fight against the state.

"(The war) is part of the official discrimination, marginalisation and separation practised against us as a social group described by the authorities as a minority," Abdul-Malek al-Huthi said in remarks published on a website that carries the rebels' news.

"As long as we are being attacked, our choice would be to defend ourselves."

"The war, the destruction and the arrests ... are being waged against our culture," he said, adding that the government detains Zaidis "on ethnic and sectarian grounds".

He said his 90-year-old father Badr Eddine, a religious figure among the Zaidi community, is on a list of 55 wanted rebels.

Hundreds have died in the latest clashes, which began when the army launched its "Scorched Earth" operation on August 11.

Dozens more were killed or wounded on Sunday as fighting raged in the Omran and Saada provinces of northern Yemen, military sources said.

The United Nations estimates that the fighting has caused tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes around the rebels' stronghold in Saada.

An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in the mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority of the population in the rugged mountainous north, where they first launched a rebellion against the government in 2004.

The authorities accuse the rebels of seeking to reinstate the imamate, a form of clerical rule that ended in a republication revolution in 1962, and of being backed by Shiite Iran.

But the rebels deny both claims, charging that they are fighting to defend their community against what they say is government aggression and marginalisation.

What could possibly have turned him against the country of his birth? Hmmm...I can't imagine that the adherents of any religious ideology would want to do that, can you?

"Suspect in Illinois Bomb Plot 'Didn't Like America Very Much,'" by Dirk Johnson for the New York Times, September 28 (thanks to Islam In Action):

DECATUR, Ill. -- The day before he was arrested Thursday on charges of plotting to blow up the federal building in Springfield, Michael C. Finton was working as a fry cook at Seals Fish & Chicken in this old factory town deep in the Illinois cornfields.

Tall and red-haired, Mr. Finton, 29, was known among co-workers as cheerful and polite, but unwavering when it came to religion and politics. He was especially critical of what he regarded as permissive society.

"He didn't like America very much," said Mariam Fadel, 18, who works the counter at Seals. "He didn't think it was strict enough. He thought we needed more rules, so that people would behave."

She recalled him talking about a troubled childhood that included running away from foster care. He also spoke of hopes to leave the United States someday, she said, and settle in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Finton went by the nickname Talib Islam (student of Islam). The authorities say he had converted to the Islamic faith while in an Illinois prison from 2001 to 2006, serving a sentence for aggravated robbery and aggravated battery. Acquaintances say he had been living in Decatur, about 40 miles east of Springfield, for perhaps three years....

Mr. Finton came to the attention of federal authorities in August 2007 when a search of his vehicle turned up a letter about his dreams of being a shahid, or martyr. Officers also discovered a document he had written about "awaiting a return letter from John Walker Lindh," the American who was captured fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Mr. Finton traveled last year to Saudi Arabia, where he stayed about a month, and received about $1,400 from a man in that country, according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors.

With F.B.I. agents posing as low-level operatives for Al Qaeda, the surveillance culminated in a sting operation last Wednesday in which Mr. Finton drove a van he thought was loaded with explosives to the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield. Prosecutors say he parked and locked the vehicle, then moved a few blocks away before twice making cellphone calls he believed would trigger a blast that would kill or injure people inside the building.

According to the affidavit, Mr. Finton had expressed "his hope that the attack would cause American troops to be pulled back out of Afghanistan and Iraq."

Mr. Finton has been charged with attempted murder of federal employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He appeared in Federal District Court in Springfield on Thursday in blue jeans and a button-down shirt, shackled at the hands and ankles. Court papers identify his lawyer as Bob Scherschlight, who could not be reached for comment.

Cue the obligatory shocked neighbors:

Neighbors in the apartment building where Mr. Finton lived, a few blocks from Millikin University, described him as a mild-mannered man and expressed shock at the charges.

Brandon Jackson, 19, said he would watch soccer on television with Mr. Finton, and play chess and card games. He said Mr. Finton would take him out for pizza.

"He was like my role model," Mr. Jackson said. "He always wanted to talk about religion. He tried to keep me on track."

Vivian Laster, who lives upstairs from Mr. Finton, said she was "baffled" that the "nice young man" could be involved in such a plot....

In court papers, the authorities said Mr. Finton told an acquaintance who was working as an F.B.I. informant that he wanted to go overseas and be a fighter for the jihad. According to the affidavit filed in court, Mr. Finton also told agents that bombing the federal building would be a "historic occasion" that would achieve his "biggest dream" in bringing down the United States government. Besides destroying the federal building, according to the charges, Mr. Finton had hoped to cause harm to the nearby office of Representative Aaron Schock, a first-term Republican.

Mr. Finton at times expressed suspicion that he was being "set-up" by undercover agents, according to court papers, but said he wished to continue with the plot because he would be "rewarded for his intentions."

The government affidavit claims that Mr. Finton was recorded in July saying that he "hated this country and wanted to see the American government totally fallen."

Mr. Finton sporadically attended Decatur's only mosque, the Masjid Wali Hasan Islamic Center. Mosque leaders issued a statement condemning Mr. Finton's actions. Mohammed Farooqi, an imam, said the small congregation was largely made up of immigrants from Pakistan and India who work as engineers, doctors and computer specialists.

"We talk and pray about harmony, peace and taking care of each other," Mr. Farooqi said. If the charges against Mr. Finton prove to be true, Mr. Farooqi said, "then he hasn't been learning" from the teachings.

Of course. They never do, do they?

The prime target of the alleged plot, the federal building in Springfield, a majestic gray stone and columned structure about five blocks from the Capitol, is the site of hundreds of workers. Mark Meng, the owner of Café Brio, a small restaurant in the shadow of the federal building, said he shuddered to ponder the consequences of an attack.

"It's terrifying," said Mr. Meng, who was at work at the time Mr. Finton is accused of having tried to set off the explosives nearby. "It reminds you there are evil people out there. But we cannot let them beat us."

Indeed.

Pamela Geller has a terrific piece in today's American Thinker, "Is This Any Way To Fight A War?" In it, she points out the irony as an actual threat that was playing out in New York City last week just as Barack Obama was at the United Nations talking about a threat, all right -- but not the same one.

Barack Hussein Obama was finally talking tough.

The President said this past week in New York City, before the General Assembly of the United Nations, that "we understand the gravity" of the threat. "We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations." He said that a failure to address the threat could lead to an "irreversible catastrophe." Time, he said, is "running out," but "we can reverse" the problem. "If things go business-as-usual, we will not live, we will die," he said. "Our country will not exist." He told us that it wouldn't be easy, but "I am here today to say that difficulty is no excuse for complacency. Unease is no excuse for inaction."

And there was action, though not the kind Obama was calling for. As he spoke, bomb-sniffing dogs were out in force in New York City. The city was in what historians will refer to as a low-grade state of war readiness, defensive and apologetic.

Ray Kelly, the New York City Police Commissioner, was giving a press conference on the current situation. A cell of Islamic jihadis targeting New York City were planning to attack the transit system, as well as sports stadiums and the sites used for Fashion Week. Self-storage lockers in Queens were being searched for bomb-making materials.

According to Fox News, "Federal counterterrorism officials warned local police to patrol stadiums, hotels and entertainment complexes for suspicious activity after the arrest of a Colorado man suspected of a far-reaching terror plot." The threat reached far beyond New York City: "The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also issued joint alerts to police around the country to watch storage centers and public transportation systems for any unusual behavior."

Muslim terrorist Zazi was planning to kill on the eighth anniversary of 9/11. He and his fellow jihadis bought chemicals in beauty-supply stores to make bombs like the ones that killed hundreds in London in 2005 and Madrid in 2004. Twenty-four others were allegedly involved in the plot. A New York imam -- one who worked as an informant for the FBI -- tipped off Zazi that police were asking about him. Got that? The imam demonstrated where his loyalty lied: shariah (Islamic law), not American rule of law. His allegiance was to jihad and the murder of infidels.

The city went into serious lockdown mode. While Ray Kelly was advising nervous New Yorkers about a possible Islamic attack, Barack Obama was speechifying at the UN but not talking about that very real threat at all. While the bomb-sniffing dogs and frantic actions by New York Police showed what the real threat was, Obama had a very different mortal threat to the nation in mind. He wasn't talking about the "irreversible catastrophe" that would come to New York City and the entire nation if these Muslim terrorists succeeded in their attack plots. He had nothing at all to say about the prospect of thousands of people being murdered by Islamic jihadists at a baseball or football game.

No, in the upside-down world of Barack Obama's America, Dear Leader was in New York City talking about what he thought was the greatest threat to Americans and to future generations. Not Islamic terror attack, not nuclear holocaust from Iran, but global warming. "We understand the gravity of the climate threat," Obama said. It was about the climate threat that he said, "we are determined to act" and that we would "meet our responsibility to future generations." Not jihad. Not the inevitable nuclear holocaust. Not about what brought New York City to lockdown. Not about what brought New York City to its present state of controlled chaos. Global warming.

Read it all.

After all, if successfully used, it could get in the way of some stonings in the Middle East, and some honor killings elsewhere. Members of the Egyptian parliament have called for its banning; it's that big a deal. Of course, there are two angles to play here: One is pandering to the clerics and supporters of more stringent Sharia (in a country where the vast majority of women have undergone female genital mutilation). The other concerns the fact that it's easier to harp on the alleged moral failings of an already subjugated segment of society -- one that is "deficient in religion and intellect," according to Muhammad (Bukhari 1.6.301) -- than to address corruption, unemployment, and other issues.

"Egypt anger over virginity faking," by Magdi Abdelhadi for BBCNews, September 28:

A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty.

Abdul Mouti Bayoumi said supplying the item was akin to spreading vice in society, a crime punishable by death in Islamic Sharia law.

The device is said to release liquid imitating blood, allowing a female to feign virginity on her wedding night.

Understatement in 3... 2...

There is a stigma about pre-marital sex in some conservative Arab societies.

The contraption is seen as a cheap and simple alternative to hymen repair surgery, which is carried out in secret by some clinics in the Middle East.

It is produced in China and has already become available in other parts of the Arab world.

The device is reported to be on sale in Syria for $15.

Professor Bayoumi, a scholar at the prestigious al-Azhar University, said it undermined the moral deterrent of fornication, which he described as a crime and one of the cardinal sins in Islam.

Members of parliament in Egypt have also called for banning import of the item.

Will the Islamophobia never end?

"Jet halted at LAX; two men are removed by police," by Richard Winton for the Los Angeles Times, September 28 (thanks to Undaunted):

A plane was stopped from taking off from Los Angeles International Airport, and two men on board were taken into custody, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

LAPD Lt. John Romero said the men, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, were acting suspiciously.

A law enforcement source said at least one of the men ran into a restroom on the plane and appeared to hide while the New York-bound jet was taxiing on the runway, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

The flight crew confronted the two men and made the decision to stop the plane before it took off, the source said. The men were taken into custody by heavily armed law enforcement officials.

The plane has been taken to a remote area of the airport to be searched by a bomb squad, sources said.

The LAPD's anti-terrorism unit and the FBI are on the case, but the source said it's too early to tell whether terrorism played any role in the incident....

How many chances has Iran had? How many deadlines has it ignored in the past? There's nothing to suggest this time will be different, and deadlines seem to be in plentiful supply -- certainly more so than backbones. "Iran given one last chance to talk on nuclear programme," by Richard Spencer and Alex Spillius for the Telegraph, September 28:

Western diplomats said they would listen to what the Iranians had to say before contemplating tougher sanctions.

But after a week of worsening relations, there was little hope there would be an encouraging commitment to meaningful negotiation.

Tehran continued to increase tensions on onday by carrying out long-range missile tests, which were condemned as "reprehensible" by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.

His officials said they were intended to distract attention from the revelation that Iran was secretly building a plant to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

Javier Solana, foreign policy representative for the European Union and its chief negotiator for the talks, described the tests as a "concern", while a French foreign ministry statement said Iran should stop the "destabilising activities".

William Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, will become the first American diplomat to talk directly to Iranians in 30 years.

Aides to President Barack Obama have made it clear that if they do not receive a clear message of co-operation, then discussions about more stringent sanctions will begin urgently.

Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, said the Iranians had to "prove" rather than simply "assert" that their nuclear programme was merely intended for peaceful purposes.

"We're exploring how you broaden and deepen sanctions. Now, sanctions are already in place, but, like many sanction regimes, they're leaky," she said.

Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, has said that "severe sanctions" could "have some real impact" because of soaring unemployment and simmering opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June election victory.

A Western official said: "We want to see how Iran approaches the meeting - then we get into a discussion of further sanctions. We will get into that discussion after the meeting because we will have to absorb what the Iranians tell us."

The Iranians will again be offered a "freeze for a freeze" deal - a freeze on introducing more enrichment centrifuges in return for a freeze on new sanctions. Iran will also be expected to show it is prepared to negotiate directly on the nuclear issue without trying to change the subject.

Next deadline:

The offer would be "time limited", said a diplomat, "that would allow for a limited period of talks about the serious outstanding issues"....

Marisol already wrote about this here, but I had some additional thoughts. Robina Niaz is doing good work. So why lie? "Her 'duty' is helping Muslim women heal after abuse," from CNN, September 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Toward the end of her marriage, Rabia Iqbal said she feared for her life.

Iqbal was born in New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from the tribal areas of Pakistan. She had a strict Muslim upbringing and when she was 16, her parents arranged her marriage to a 38-year-old man. She claims her husband turned violent during their 10 years of marriage.

When she finally left him, she did not know where to turn. Going home wasn't an option, she said.

"My parents ... made clear that they would disown me," Iqbal said. "My father even said ... 'You're lucky you live in America because if you lived back home, you would have been dead by now.' "...

A devout Muslim, Niaz stresses that there is no evidence that domestic violence is more common among Muslim families.

"Abuse happens everywhere," said Niaz. "It cuts across barriers of race, religion, culture."

But, she said, Muslims are often reluctant to confront the issue.

"There's a lot of denial," she said. "It makes it much harder for the victims of abuse to speak out."...

Niaz said she firmly believes that domestic violence goes against Islamic teachings, and considers it her religious duty to try to stop abuse from happening.

"Quran condemns abusive behavior of women," she said, noting that the prophet Mohammed was never known to have abused women. "Allah says, 'Stand up against injustice and bear witness, even if it's against your own kin. So if I see injustice being done to women and children, I have to speak up. It's my duty."...

"Quran condemns abusive behavior of women," but says it is okay to beat them.

Imagine! Where could they have gotten such an idea? Koran 4:34 tells men to beat their disobedient wives after first warning them and then sending them to sleep in separate beds? This is, of course, an extremely controversial verse, so it is worth noting how several translators render the key word here, وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ, waidriboohunna.

Pickthall: "and scourge them"
Yusuf Ali: "(And last) beat them (lightly)"
Al-Hilali/Khan: "(and last) beat them (lightly, if it is useful)"
Shakir: "and beat them"
Sher Ali: "and chastise them"
Khalifa: "then you may (as a last alternative) beat them"
Arberry: "and beat them"
Rodwell: "and scourge them"
Sale: "and chastise them"
Asad: "then beat them"

Muhammad was "never known to have abused women," yet Aisha, his favorite wife, says that at one point "he struck me on the chest which caused me pain."

More just in from this guy, apparently with something that masks his IP, as this time he writes from 74.50.97.246, which traces to Tampa. If anyone can provide any information on tracing, please let me know.

Robert.... that's really good of posting the threat...

It was really good I found you in a local supermarket. and I followed you.. so i know your address now..

tell you fool followers you are going to be deceased very soon... any one taking your seat and getting killed? I am sure most of your followers are cheeky cowards.

If he proves to be a chatty murderer like the guy from Djibouti, I will post the new ones, and new IPs, as updates here.

As the aggravated murder trial of accused Greater Seattle Jewish Federation shooter approaches, attorneys on both sides continue to argue about whether allegations that Naveed Haq saw himself as a jihadi should be presented to jurors.

Drawing on statements Haq made to his parents from jail in the weeks after the July 2008 shooting, prosecutors on the case assert that Haq essentially admitted that the shootings at the downtown Seattle center -- which left four people injured and federation worker Pam Waechter dead -- were religiously motivated.

In court documents, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Erin Ehlert said the prosecution will seek to offer testimony from a University of Washington expert on Islam at trial. The professor, Ehlert said, "will explain the cultural and religious tenets that make the defendant's comments clear, cogent, relevant, and not delusional."

"The state will not argue that Haq is a terrorist," Ehlert said. "The state's argument will be founded on a religious interpretation of statements and commentary."

An earlier trial, during which Haq's attorneys argued he was insane, ended in June 2008 with jurors unable to decide his guilt on most of the 15 counts against him. Prosecutors have since reduced the number of charges against him to eight, preserving five counts of attempted murder and the aggravated murder charge that would carry a mandatory life sentence, as well as unlawful imprisonment and hate-crime charges

That trial did not include claims that Haq considered himself to be a jihadi, nor were tapes of Haq's jail phone calls in which he apparently claims to be one played for jurors. Though a final ruling is expected shortly before trial begins next month, King County Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas has previously held that the calls will be admitted as evidence.

Haq's defense attorneys contend that their client, who faces a life sentence if convicted, was not of sound mind at the time the shooting occurred or in the weeks that followed. As in the earlier trial, they are expected to ask that jurors find Haq not guilty by reason of insanity.

The jail calls, Haq's attorneys contend, show Haq making "nonsense claims that he wanted to be a martyr, that he was a jihadi, and that his parents should be proud of him."

"He made all these claims when his psychotic mental illness was left unchecked because of improper medications," Haq's attorneys said in court documents. "Once stabilized, he never made any of these absurd claims."

Haq's attorneys and Ehlert declined to comment on the pretrial wrangling citing concerns that doing so might unduly influence jurors.

In a search of Haq's homes in the Tri-Cities, Seattle police recovered a prayer written by Haq four days before the shooting. In it, Haq apparently complained that supporters of Israel had hijacked American foreign policy and expressed concerns that American-made weapons were being used in the Israel-Lebanon war.

Haq did not "lapse into any virulent anti-Semitism" in the prayer, the prosecution's expert witness noted in court documents. Whether he made such a lapse while speaking to his parents following his arrest, however, remains unclear.

Writing the court, the defense warned that allegations that Haq saw himself as some kind of religious warrior could play to jurors' prejudices. They went on to request records from and contact information for FBI agents who investigated the case immediately after the shooting....

"He is a very ill man with a long, sad history that documents the ascent of his psychosis and his concomitant personal decline," Haq's attorneys told the court. "To ensure that the flames of anti-Muslim prejudice are not fanned to secure an unjust conviction, the defense needs to interview -- and potentially call as witnesses -- the federal officers who determined that Mr. Haq had no terrorist connections."...

This just in from Woodstock, Illinois, IP address 208.53.138.228:

Do me a favor Spencer and put this as a blog post like you do to all those threatening mails.

Be careful, I am very near to you. I located you and I know you have little security around you.

I am coming to slit your throat with a bland knife.. and it will pain a lot.. since you misled a lot of people and became a fitnah on earth.. it is a duty of a good muslim to kill you! go report this to FBI or CIA..

And don't worry, I won't attack you unguarded.. but i will surely kill you in the most easy manner possible because I don't like to slaughter human beings.. Die and go to hell.. for sure..

and yea I have a new name for you...

Robert 'hawknoseinhell' spencer.

Till then bye.. 'Sleep Tight'

"Great Prophet." Not that this has anything to do with Islam. "Iran Test Fires Most Advanced Missiles," by William Branigin, Walter Pincus and Karen DeYoung for the Washington Post, September 28 (thanks to Paul):

Iran reported Monday that it successfully test-fired its most advanced and powerful medium-range missiles as part of war games it said were intended to deter the country's enemies.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps tested the Shahab-3 and Sejil missiles in the third phase of a two-day exercise called The Great Prophet IV, state-run news media reported. The missiles are believed to be capable of striking Israel, U.S. military targets in the Middle East and parts of southeastern Europe.

But Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force said the test-firings were part of exercises to practice "preventive and defensive operations." They are "in no way a threat to neighboring countries," Iranian news media quoted him as saying. Rather, the tests send "a message for certain greedy nations that seek to create fear, to show that we are able to give a swift and suitable answer to our enemies."

"The armed forces of the Islamic Republic are now more powerful than ever and fully prepared to foil foreign threats," said Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei....

Aasiya Zubair Hassan was beheaded by her "moderate Muslim" husband in the studios of his moderate Muslim TV station. And now for some damage control: time for a soothing falsehood session. "Muslim women discuss true meaning of Islam: Gathering examines misconceptions," by Deidre Williams from the Buffalo News, September 28 (thanks to James):

What is the meaning of jihad? What is shariah?

How many wives did the Muslim Prophet Muhammad have, and was he married to them simultaneously?

Such topics were discussed Sunday at a women's-only seminar sponsored by the Women's Auxiliary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's Buffalo chapter. About 100 women, mostly Muslim, attended the event in the Millennium Hotel in Cheektowaga.

The seminar was partly in response to the case of Aasiya Zubair Hassan, a Muslim wife and mother who was beheaded Feb. 12, allegedly by her Pakistan-born husband and business partner in their Orchard Park television studio.

"The crime was labeled as an honor killing. We want people to know there is no place for honor killing in Islam," said Tahmina Rehman, seminar organizer and president of the organization's Buffalo chapter.

Is that so? Then why did Syria recently scrap a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'"? Wow -- two years for murder! You can serve more time than that for serial double parking. Why did the Jordanian Parliament vote down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings? Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

Shanaz Butt, moderator for the event as well as acting dean for research and graduate studies and a pharmacology professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, said misconceptions about Islam include the idea of jihad, which is often associated with the military, violence and bloodshed.

But lost in translation is the true meaning of the word, which is to strive or to make an effort, Butt said.

"A student trying to pass an exam is a jihadist. A mother raising her children is a jihadist. The people in the seminar are all jihadists because we are striving," she added.

Indeed. But note the careful language here. Is Butt actually saying that jihad does not involve warfare or the subjugation of non-Muslims? Not according to this report. From this report it appears that she started talking about etymology and thereby misdirected her audience, giving them the impression that jihad had no martial or military aspect, without ever coming out and saying so.

In any case, jihad does have a military aspect. One manual of Islamic law defines it as an imperative to make war against "Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians...until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax." ('Umdat al-Salik o9.8)

Often Islam is portrayed as a backward and barbaric, viewing women as weak and submissive to a religion that oppresses them, said the speakers.

They acknowledged that some Muslim women are not treated well, but said that should not be blamed on Islamic religious law, or shariah.

The problem is those who misinterpret the teachings to suit their own agendas.

"They use different interpretations; hence, we see acts of terrorism conducted in the name of Islam. Some use it to condone beating of wives," said Saliha Malik, a professor at Brown University, who converted to Islam in 1987.

Imagine! Where could they have gotten such an idea? Could it be from Koran 4:34, which tells men to beat their disobedient wives after first warning them and then sending them to sleep in separate beds? This is, of course, an extremely controversial verse, so it is worth noting how several translators render the key word here, وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ, waidriboohunna.

Pickthall: "and scourge them"
Yusuf Ali: "(And last) beat them (lightly)"
Al-Hilali/Khan: "(and last) beat them (lightly, if it is useful)"
Shakir: "and beat them"
Sher Ali: "and chastise them"
Khalifa: "then you may (as a last alternative) beat them"
Arberry: "and beat them"
Rodwell: "and scourge them"
Sale: "and chastise them"
Asad: "then beat them"

I guess they all got it wrong!

Muhammad's relationships with his 12 wives, the speakers said, show him as a role model for treating a wife.

Even though the prophet had many spouses, he was in a monogamous marriage for 25 years with his first wife, Khadija.

He became polygamous after she died, Malik said, but not to satisfy his physical appetites.

How would Malik, or anyone, know this?

His marriages were examples of how a man should treat his wife, said Nusrat Rashid, a Philadelphia attorney and guest speaker.

In addition, she said, Muhammad united various Islamic tribes through his marriages, and he demonstrated compassion, fairness and justice to women.

His 11 other wives included elderly widows, two war widows, a non-Arab slave, a Jewish widow who converted to Islam and a widow with small children.

"Muhammad never beat his wives. He didn't yell at them. If they were angry with him, he played aloof and stayed away from them for a short while," said Malik, who referred to specific verses in the Quran to prove the points.

There is no verse in the Koran that says that Muhammad didn't beat his wives, or yell at them. I challenge anyone reading this to prove otherwise. And Muhammad "never beat his wives"? Yet Aisha, his favorite wife, says that at one point "he struck me on the chest which caused me pain."

According to the text, Malik said, wives were created for husbands to find peace of mind in them and that it is unlawful to "inherit women against their will," or to detain them wrongfully.

"There are so many inaccuracies," Rehman said. "We're trying to teach and clear up misconceptions and trying to get people to understand that Islam is about peace and love, not oppression and depression." 

Telling the truth might be a good way to start.

"Lebanon has always been a bastion of religious tolerance, but now it is moving toward the model of Islamization seen in Iraq and Egypt."

"Christians tempted to emigrate as Lebanon grows increasingly 'Islamized,'" by Josie Ensor for Lebanon's Daily Star, September 28 (thanks to AINA):

BEIRUT: Christians are tempted to flee Lebanon as the country becomes increasingly "Islamized," according to the founder of the Center for Arab Christian Research and Documentation (CEDRAC). One-third of the nation's Christian population has left since the beginning of the 1975-90 Civil War, and a recent surge in emigration means Christians now make up just 34 percent of Lebanon's population, Father Samir Khalil, a Jesuit teacher at Beirut's St. Joseph University's CEDRAC department, told Vatican Radio last week.

"Christians used to make up 50 percent of the nation's population; now experts think the Christians are probably not exceeding 34 percent, which is worrying," Khalil said in the radio interview during a visit to The Holy See.

The Beirut-based researcher expressed concern that Christians in the Arab world are moving abroad to places with higher Christian populations, such as America, Europe and Australia, which is increasing the Muslim majority in countries like Lebanon.

"The same is happening [all over] the Middle East, and this is certainly a very tragic situation, and it will have great consequences in the future," Father Khalil warned last week on the Vatican Radio station, adding that Christians must stay in the Middle East to keep numbers up.

Large numbers of Lebanese Christians are leaving as they feel their traditional influence in their country is weakening, while an increasing number of crucial political positions are going to Muslims.

In reference to Islamic extremism, Khalil claimed the power of the influential Christian minority to counterbalance it was waning, saying: "Lebanon has always been a bastion of religious tolerance, but now it is moving toward the model of Islamization seen in Iraq and Egypt."...

The results of a poll released last year show that nearly half of all Maronites, the largest Christian denomination in the country - making up about 22 percent of the population - said they are considering emigrating....

In the survey conducted by Information International, an independent Beirut body, many Christians cited the growing influence of March 8 faction Hizbullah in Lebanon as a reason for their decision to leave....

Not that this has anything to do with Islam. Everyone knows that people like this are twisting and hijacking the peaceful message of Islam. Oddly enough, however, although everyone knows this, no one has ever managed to explain exactly how the jihadists pull this off, and do so virtually unchallenged by such sterling moderates as Honest Ibe Hooper, Brave Ahmed Rehab, Salam al-Marayati, Ingrid Mattson, etc.

"Latest al Qaeda message eulogizes deceased leader," from CNN, September 28 (thanks to James):

(CNN) -- A purported audio message from Al Qaeda's second-in-command appeared on radical Islamist Web sites on Sunday eulogizing Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

"Baitullah managed to create a massive Jihadi movement that launched wars, ambushes and battles against the crusaders and their agents in Afghanistan," said the speaker, identified as Ayman al-Zawahiri. "He also managed to clearly show that the Pakistani government is not Islamic but instead an infidel treacherous government working as a servant to the crusaders."

The praise of Mehsud came nearly two months after his death in August. The militant group had previously acknowledged his death....

"To the Americans I say, you killed Mehsud, but you will not kill Islam or the Jihad," the speaker said. "Islam doesn't end by the death of one man."...

"Jihad will go on until the liberation of Afghanistan and until you run away defeated from our land," the speaker warned. "The global peace and security will not be achieved unless you withdraw from the lands of the Muslims."

"Muslim radicals have called him an apostate and several calls for 'spilling his blood' have been issued." "Muslim Convert to Christianity Prevented From Leaving Egypt," by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, September 26 (thanks to Ibrahim):

(AINA) -- Egyptian authorities have prevented Maher El-Gowhary, a Muslim-born Christian convert, from leaving the country. He was detained at Cairo Airport. His passport confiscated and he was advised that he is barred from traveling on orders from a 'higher authority'.

Maher and his 15-year-old daughter, Dina, who also embraced Christianity, were traveling to China on 17th September 2009, on a two-week holiday.

Ibrahim Habib, chairman of United Copts GB, who spoke with El-Gowhary during his detainment at the airport, said that Maher was treated very badly by airport security, and was told of his travel ban "less than an hour before departure."...

In an aired interview with Coptic News Bulletin on September 17, Maher El Gowhary said "The authorities are trying to pressure us [he and his daughter] to convert back to Islam, but this will never happen, even if we have to live on the streets. We love our Lord Jesus, and we have left Islam for good."

On August 4, 2008, after 34 years of practicing Christianity, 57-year-old Maher El-Gohary, whose Christian name is Peter Athanasius, filed the second ever lawsuit of a Muslim-born Egyptian against the Egyptian Government to officially alter his identification documents to reflect his new Christian identity. He lost the case on June 13, 2009 (6-16-2009). Although the verdict is on appeal, he said this usually takes years before being brought to the courts. However, he insists that if he does not win his case in Egypt, he will take it to international courts.

Maher and Dina have been living in hiding ever since he filed his lawsuit, Muslim radicals have called him an apostate and several calls for 'spilling his blood' have been issued. He has to change frequently where he lives, to evade being killed, and friends supply him with food. "We cannot sleep, eat or go out in the street. What have my daughter and I done? we have just filed a lawsuit to get out rights, so why are they holding us against our will?"...

But remember: this is just a nationalist struggle that has nothing to do with Islam! Kadyrov himself asserts that these jihadists have "perverted Islam," but as ever, he doesn't explain how. "Kadyrov: Representatives of 50 states helped Chechens in Jihad against Russia," from Interfax, September 28 (thanks to James):

Grozny, September 28, Interfax - All terrorists in Chechnya would be soon eliminated, the Republic's President Ramzan Kadyrov said in Grozny at his meeting with participants of the international conference.

"We will totally eliminate them (terrorists) in the nearest future. They don't want to deal with power, they go and kill innocent people. We build mosques, sport complexes, cultural centers. Terrorists declared the entire Chechen nation their enemies because Chechens build up. In the Chechen Republic, they did everything that is unacceptable in Islam. We won't have it in our Republic," Kadyrov said.

According to him, terrorists who forced Chechens to conduct war with Russia were representatives of about fifty states.

"These people were sent to destroy peace and integrity of the Russian Federation. They used Chechen people to achieve their goals and deceived people with perverted Islam. They killed alims who devoted their whole life to the Islam religion," Kadyrov said and stressed that Chechen people won a victory over this evil, but have not exterminated it yet....

This morning's Hate Mail Bag contribution comes to Jihad Watch Headquarters all the way from Doha, Qatar:

Robert get a life!! Dont waste your time and energy by criticizing muslims and their faith...it wont affect them...infact whatever ur findings abt the religion are they really make me laugh! anyways hope you get well soon and get over the stupid idea of showing muslims down! save ur world whr prostitution, human trafficking, drugs, abuses to name a few have taken its toll on humans...do something for those people instead of making money out of critizing ppl who dont really bother..

Now -- for the gazillionth time -- I will say it again: if only Muslims would stop "showing Muslims down" by engaging in jihad (in all its forms) against Infidels. Then I would indeed "get a life."

It all started with rumors of an "invasion" by Israeli settlers. "Policemen wounded in Temple Mt. riots," from the Jerusalem Post, September 27 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Twelve policemen and 15 rioters were wounded Sunday in riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and later in the Old City.

Approximately 150 Muslim worshipers participated in the disturbance on the Temple Mount, which began when a group of Jewish visitors was admitted into the compound.

Rioters hurled rocks at the group and at policemen who were escorting them, lightly wounding two policemen. Police responded with stun grenades and the visitors were escorted away.

The riots died down, but the Temple Mount was subsequently closed off to visitors.

Later some rioting developed on the streets of the Old City, and additional policemen and rioters were wounded in those scuffles. Several rioters were arrested by police.

Rabah Bkirat, an official with the Muslim religious body in charge of managing the site, said some of the protesters had come because of rumors of an "invasion" by Jewish settlers. When a group of some 15 Jews entered the grounds accompanied by police, the protesters began chanting slogans and only threw stones after police used force, he said....

Dinesh D'Souza, debating me at CPAC 2007 (in the video above), says this at 3:30: "For every 'Kill the infidels' passage in the Koran you can find a matching 'Slay the infidels' passage in the Old Testament."

Ever since we had that debate I have tried unsuccessfully to get Dinesh D'Souza to agree to debate me again. Evidently he doesn't like losing, and who can blame him? But in lieu of another Spencer/D'Souza match, it's almost as much fun to watch Dinesh D'Souza debate himself. Watch this segment from a 2009 D'Souza address:

"It's true: the Islamic radicals do bad things in the name of God. That's true. But there is nothing equivalent in any other religion."

I'd love to debate Dinesh D'Souza again about Islam and his ridiculous thesis in The Enemy At Home, but now I'm not sure which D'Souza would show up!

(First video thanks to Pamela; second video thanks to Hugo and Misha.)

Ever wonder why genuinely peaceful Muslims don't speak out more forthrightly against the jihadists? Here is one reason. Apparently these people were killed for not joining the jihad. (There are other reasons why peaceful Muslims don't speak up -- most notably that they know that the jihadists have the Koran and Sunnah on their side.) "Three Muslims killed in restive Thai south: police," from AFP, September 27 (thanks to Maxwell):

NARATHIWAT, Thailand -- Suspected Islamic militants have shot dead three Muslims in separate attacks in Thailand's troubled south this weekend, local police said Sunday.

A Muslim army sergeant, 33, and his wife were shot on Saturday evening by three gunmen hidden at the roadside as they travelled home by motorcycle in Narathiwat province.

The man died instantly while his wife died later in hospital, police said.

On Sunday, a Muslim defence volunteer was killed and a local district chief injured when a bomb was detonated near a mosque in Yala province.

Defence volunteers are trained and armed by the state to protect civilians against insurgents....

Pakistan is, of course, an Islamic Republic, but why is it that "there is no compulsion in religion" (2:256) seems only to be invoked by Islamic apologists in the West, and never where it could actually do some good for non-Muslims in an Islamic state? Hmmm, now why might that be?

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Land of the Pure: "All students in Pakistan's schools required to study Islam," from AsiaNews, September 26 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - The new guidelines for school students in Pakistan requires non-Muslims to study Islam and ignore other religious traditions in the country.

The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Church of Pakistan is critical of the National Education Policy 2009, launched September 9 by the government in Islamabad. Mgr. John Saldanha, Archbishop of Lahore and chairman of the NCJP, and Peter Jacob, secretary of the Commission are concerned about the often implicit discriminatory and coercive aspects of the new guidelines content.

In a press release issued on 25 September, the two leaders of NCJP point the finger at Chapter 4 of the document, dedicated to Islamic Education. They claim that "If government thinks public education is not possible without a compulsory subject of Islamic Studies and Arabic, then we are forced to demand religious education for Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, etc. in their respective religions".

The program drawn up by the Government contemplates that Islamiyat (Islamic studies) become compulsory until the 12th class (15 and 16 years). For students that from then on will not want to follow the lessons of Islam attendance of alternative courses of public ethics is permitted, but the Commission notes also on this front the discrimination, though latent, is clear....

How nice.

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: Polygamy club invokes Muhammad's example to convince people that having multiple wives is just dandy.

Muhammad, of course, is "a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much" (33:21).

More on the jihad in Cyprus here. "Cyprus: EU Court Condemns Turkey Of Human Rights Violations," from ANSAmed, September 23 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - NICOSIA, SEPTEMBER 23 - The fourth section of the European Court of Human Rights issued yesterday its decisions on 18 cases Greek Cypriots brought against Turkey, condemning Ankara of human rights violation due to the continuing occupation of Cyprus' northern part, which deprives them of their home and properties. All the cases, as CNA reports, rely in particular on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) and most also on Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life). The Court decided that it is not disputed that the applicants, who were arrested and remanded in custody by the so-called Nicosia district court in the Turkish occupied areas, were deprived of their liberty or that there was an ill-treatment by the so-called Turkish Cypriot authorities...

But it will do that peacefully, I'm sure. "Iran nuclear official says IAEA can inspect new plant," from CNN, September 27 (thanks to James):

"God willing, this plant will be put into operation soon, and will blind the eyes of the enemies," Fars reported Saturday, quoting a senior Iranian official.

The senior official, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, heads the office of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Also Saturday, the Web site of the Iran Student News Agency carried comments from an Iranian legislator who warned Western nations not to make Iran regret its cooperation with the IAEA.

"Western countries and the U.S. must not make Iran regret its cooperation with the IAEA beyond its legal obligations," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chief of the Iran Parliament Commission for National Security and Foreign Policy.

He said Western criticism of Iran's new facility is an "illogical and unrealistic" smear campaign.

Investigators have discovered a "Jihadi village" of white German al-Qaeda insurgents, including Muslim converts, in Pakistan's tribal areas close to the Afghan border.

The village, in Taliban-controlled Waziristan, is run by the notorious al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which plots raids on Nato forces in Afghanistan.

A recruitment video presents life in the village as a desirable lifestyle choice with schools, hospitals, pharmacies and day care centres, all at a safe distance from the front.

In the video, the presenter, "Abu Adam", the public face of the group in Germany, points his finger and asks: "Doesn't it appeal to you? We warmly invite you to join us!"

According to German foreign ministry officials a growing number of German families, many of North African descent, have taken up the offer and travelled to Waziristan where supporters say converts make up some of the insurgents' most dedicated fighters....

Last night a foreign ministry spokesman told The Daily Telegraph they were now negotiating with Pakistani authorities for the release of six Germans, including "Adrian M", a white Muslim convert, his Eritrean wife and their four year old daughter, who were arrested as they were making their way to the "German village". They are particularly concerned about the welfare of the child.

They are being held in custody in Peshawar after their arrest in May shortly when they crossed the border from Iran. They are understood to have left Germany in March this year....

Their recruitment drive has been led by "Abu Adam", a 24-year-old German believed to be of Turkish or North African descent who was raised with his, and fellow Jihadi, Abu Ibrahim, in the smart Bonn suburb of Kessenich.

Adam, whose real name is Mounir Chouka, received weapons training from the German army as part of his national service, and later spent three years training at the Federal Office of Statistics where colleagues described him as a "nice boy".

He left in 2007, telling colleagues he was joining a trading firm in Saudi Arabia, but is believed to have joined a terrorist training camp in Yemen.

In another recruitment video released earlier this year he urged supporters to: "Die the death of honour."

Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistan intelligence officer, who describes himself as a friend of Osama bin Laden, said he was aware of a German contingent and that there were a number of Swedish converts too who had arrived in Pakistan "for Jihad".

"The Europeans are there [in Waziristan]. The most dedicated people there are from Europe. They will do anything for Islam. They are not there because their father's [sic] are Muslim, but by choice," he said.

Now Turkey has provided a particularly chilling example of another way to shut down independent voices -- a fine of $2.5 billion that appears to be designed to put a major media company out of business....The media group, Dogan Yayin, is a widely respected conglomerate of newspapers and television stations including the Turkish-language version of CNN. Dogan journalists have not shied away from stories that the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's iron-willed prime minister, does not like.

Is that the adjective that best fits? "Iron-willed"? Other adjectives come to mind: "despotic" or "cunning" or "ruthless" or "calculating," or such adjectival phrases as "sinister in his single-minded determination to free Islam from the restraints placed on it by Ataturk."

The Times continues:

Aydin Dogan, an owner of the media group's parent company, is one of Mr. Erdogan's most vocal critics. That makes it all the more suspicious that the Erdogan government levied a tax penalty on the Dogan group that is almost much as the value of the entire company.

So far so preachily on-the-side-of-the-angels good.

But then the editorial ends with this paragraph:

Turkey has made important strides in the last decade, amending its Constitution, outlawing the death penalty and bringing Turkish law more in line with European standards. Steps like this undermine that progress.

That last paragraph -- about all the "progress" Turkey has made by changing its laws over the past decade, when Erdogan and the AKP have been in power -- should be held up for inspection. For aside from ending the death penalty, most of the "reforms" that the editorial staff of the Times applauds are in fact designed not by civil libertarians who are desirous of emulating the freedoms of the West, but by Erdogan's schemers, who are using the claimed need to comply with the E.U. to put in "reforms" that, as all the threatened secularists in Turkey understand, are really designed to weaken the power of the Turkish army and the power of the Turkish judiciary to uphold the secular order and the Kemalist restraints on Islam.

Why Schock? Well, he is a conservative Republican, and although I do not believe that the resistance to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism should be an issue that falls across the liberal/conservative divide, since it is a threat that could take down our nation and Western civilization as a whole, nonetheless from a practical standpoint liberals have effectively aligned themselves with the jihad. So it might not have been difficult for Talib Islam to figure that if he took out one conservative Republican, there would be one less anti-jihad voice in Congress.

Springfield Jihad Plot Update: "Schock's office was terror target," by Jake Sherman for Politico, September 25 (thanks to Pamela):

Rep. Aaron Schock's (R-Ill.) office in Illinois state capital of Springfield was one of the targets of a planned terrorist attack, his office said Friday.

Michael C. Finton, known as Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday after trying to detonate a van he believed was stuffed with explosives near the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield. Finton had been collaborating on the attack with an undercover FBI agent and is being charged with attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Associated Press.

"My office was notified today of the attempted terrorist attack on both the Federal Building and my Congressional Office in Springfield," Schock said in a statement. "I am incredibly grateful to the FBI for their fine work in preventing this terrorist attack."

Schock's office was a secondary target, according to an Associated Press report.

Finton, 29, converted to Islam in prison and said famed American Taliban operative John Walker Lindh was his hero. Finton also expressed a desire to fight Israelis in the Gaza Strip and received military training in Afghanistan. He was under federal supervision for months....

Then victory you shall most assuredly not have.

Of course, Obama considers himself to be an enlightened sophisticate who has moved beyond the primitive warlike tendencies of bygone cultures and civilizations. He is a twenty-first century man, and he is confident that underneath it all, Khamenei is too, and isn't any more interested in victory than Barack Obama is.

Can we trade Obama for Harper? Not a fair deal? Okay, how about if we throw in a President To Be Named Later?

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has cancelled a planned visit to Canada, officials said Saturday, but the speculation that surrounded the stopover by one of the world's most reclusive leaders was continuing on Canada's East Coast.

Canadian officials said Gadhafi had scrapped plans to land in Newfoundland this Tuesday, purportedly to refuel his plane and spend the night.

It was an abrupt cancellation to a visit that has been cloaked in mystery and has kept the Rock's rumour mill working overtime -including speculation the trip might still take place.

Word of the visit immediately caused a stir, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordering Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to greet the leader upon his arrival to express this country's outrage over the hero's welcome Libya recently gave Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. The alleged former Libyan intelligence officer, who is terminally ill, returned home after being released from a Scottish prison....

Dreamland. Iran's "peaceful intentions"? "Serious, meaningful dialogue"? The latter phrase sounds as if he is semaphoring that significant American concessions are in the offing if Iran will drop the nuclear plans -- or pretend to do so. "Obama Says He's Still Open to 'Meaningful Dialogue' With Iran," by Edwin Chen for Bloomberg, September 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he remains open to "a serious, meaningful dialogue" with Iran after the U.S., France and Britain disclosed the Islamic Republic has been building a secret nuclear-fuel facility.

Iran first must "cooperate fully" with international arms inspectors and "take actions to demonstrate its peaceful intentions," the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Obama, keeping up pressure on Tehran, said the underground nuclear facility poses "a serious challenge to the global nonproliferation regime, and continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion."

The president along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown disclosed its existence yesterday morning at the Group of 20 nations summit in Pittsburgh. They demanded Iran submit to international demands that it halt uranium enrichment and fully open its nuclear program to inspectors.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday disputed the accusation and called the site "a very ordinary facility in the beginning stages."

The disclosure precedes talks Oct. 1 in Geneva, when the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia -- the five permanent United Nations Security Council members -- and Germany will sit for negotiations with Iran to limit its nuclear program.

New Urgency

Those talks "now take on added urgency," Obama said.

The president said Iran "must pursue a new course or face consequences." Without specifying what sanctions Iran might encounter, Obama said the government in Tehran "will face increased pressure and isolation, and deny opportunity to their own people."

Obama stood by his past offers to negotiate.

"My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open," he said....

But never fear. Obama really really wants to talk to the mullahs. "Iran stages missile war games," by Jay Deshmukh and Hiedeh Farmani for AFP, September 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN -- Iran test-fired three short-range missiles on Sunday as the Islamic republic began war games two days after the UN nuclear watchdog disclosed it was building a second uranium enrichment plant.

Hossein Salami, air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said that on Monday there would also be a test-firing of the long-range Shahab 3 missile which Iran says has a range of 1,300-2,000 kilometres (800-1,240 miles) and could hit arch-foe Israel.

"Tomorrow we will test the long-range Shahab-3 missile," he told state television....

Salami called the manoeuvres an "indication" of Iran's "strong will to defend our values and interests."

"This exercise has a message of friendship for friendly countries. For greedy countries that seek to intimidate us, the message is that we are capable of a prompt and crushing response to their animosity," state television website quoted him as saying.

Dismissing Israel as a potential threat, Salami said: "That regime is not in a position that we need to comment about threats from it."

He said Iran has "increased the precision of our missiles... hopefully, these missile tests will contribute to our deterrent and defensive capabilities."...

The Department of Justice Saturday evening announced that two detainees had been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Ireland, and one had been transferred to Yemen.

There are more than 220 detainees remaining at the prison. In the last couple months, the White House has made it increasingly clear that the President will not make his self-stated January 22, 2010 deadline to close to prison.

Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a native of Yemen, was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and returned to Yemen today.

Known at Gitmo as Captive 692, the government labeled Ali Ahmed an "enemy combatant," saying he "was associated with Al-Qaeda. He was present on the front lines in Bagram, Afghanistan. He was identified by a senior Al-Qaeda facilitator as having been a resident at a safehouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2000 (his individual also saw the detainee at a safehouse located in Faisalabad, Pakistan in February 2002 with a group of Yemenis who had fled Afghanistan). Finally, the Detainee was identified by another individual, a senior Al-Qaeda operational planner, as having resided at a safehouse located in Kandahar in 2001."...

Yesterday I received this email from yet another Hate Mailer in London, accusing me of giving you folks a bad impression of Hate Mailers:

I can only imagine the number of emails you must receive from Muslims across the world. But I don't have to imagine, as I know, that those emails will range from the most incoherent and abusive to the most intelligent emails that destroy your argument about Islam and/or uses facts and todays situation to show you that the real evil and fascist ideology is that of the "Americanist neoc-com zionist judeo-christian extremist" of people like yourself. Just wondered, why do you only post the incoherent, inarticulate emails, which resort to petty anti semitism and name calling? If your up for debate and know you are right, why do you fear posting certain types of emails, i.e. the ones that counteract and disprove the myths you spread about Islam and flip show you that the real evil is the USA and its vile and cowardly military who are legitimate targets in any nation that they invade, occupy or have a presence through bases that the locals despise.

Anyway, once again. You are a wormlike, cowardly, deceitful, insecure and insincere individual!! 9/11 was the best thing that could of happened for you and I know you are glad it did as it gave you a market of naive people and their fascist shepherds to speak and sell your vile to.

Well, of course I have never shied away from debate with any serious and thoughtful individual (sorry, Nadir, that leaves you out), and have invited many to debate who are afraid to take me up on it, so I checked back to see if I had heard previously from this intelligent, coherent, articulate fellow who, despite his personal insults, was implying that he could "counteract and disprove the myths" that I supposedly spread about Islam. And in fact, I have heard from him before. Here is one of his previous emails, demonstrating that the intelligence and incisiveness of his analysis consists of long-distance armchair psychoanalysis and imagining that he knows I must have been like:

You know what really irks me about you? Its not the fact you are anti-islamic, or even hypocritically anti-islamic as in you portray yourself as a scholar speaking the truth and only opposed to certain elements of Islam while really your just a fascist Christian extremist. What irks me about you, is the slimy worm of an animal that you are. Your like a worm like rat. A man who craved to be noticed, listened to and respected, but was not. A man that wish all the hot chicks would like him, but they did not even know you existed. Then you exploited 9/11 as you found a niche. Americans that were asking why, but did not want to consider that the imperialistic policies of the USA contributed to the loss of 3000 of its own people. Now like a little snake, like the evil that all the 3 monotheistic books describe you whisper into the ears of the ignorant and blind, and you whisper falsities. But really all this is about is little Robert, the kid with low self-esteem, who tried to make jokes but no one laughed, who was gagging for the hot chicks in his school, but they were taken by the cool guys, the guys that would kick your ass. Your a sad sad sad man Robert. Finally, so what if Somalis demontrated for Sharia to be implemented? Somalia is a Muslim majority country. During the reign of the UIC robberies, rape, and extortion substantially decreased, piracy was reduced to nil. Then the real supremacist who seek to impose their will on the earth started a war, and returned Somalia into the war torn place it once was ohh yea and Piracy resumed.

Same to you

I truly say it that my dream is to be among God's soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama, may God give him long life. I don't know what is in me, but I love him as I love my father....

In the name of God, the Gracious and Merciful, this is my vow to you, my brother, that I am ready. And if you were a lover of Jihad as I am, then, by God, I am ready for the Jihadi life. What you will see of me will please you and your commander....

"My brother in God, God and His angels are with us. With the permission of the Almighty Lord of the Worlds, we will have victory and allies from God Almighty. He is the powerful and helpful. Victory is coming, is coming to defeat the Romans [i.e., Christians] and for the destruction of the Jews. God is Most Great. We shall attack them in their very homes. Brother, by God, we shall attack them in a manner that hurts, an attack that shakes the world. Oh Brother, let the backsliders know that the time for their destruction has come."

CAIRO -- Shocked by a series of terror arrests, American Muslims are joining hands in condemning any attacks against their country.

"Everyone here unequivocally condemns this," Driss El-Akrich, a doctoral student in public administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield, told the State Journal-Register Saturday, September 26.

"For somebody to claim they are doing this in the name of Allah, they are betraying the values of the faith they are claiming to serve."

A 29-year-old Muslim revert was arrested Wednesday in Illinois on charges of plotting attack against a courthouse in the state.

Police said the young man left an explosives-laden van near the courthouse and used a mobile phone to try to detonate the vehicle.

"I had to listen to it (the news) again and again," Javed Cheema, director of Horace Mann's project management office, said.

"I couldn't believe this was happening in my hometown."

The arrest came four days after three Americans of Afghan origin were arrested on charges of preparing a 7/7-style attacks in New York.

On Thursday, police arrested a 19-year-old Jordanian on claims of trying to bomb Dallas's 60-storey Fountain Place skyscraper.

Un-Islamic

Muslim leaders denounced the attack plots as un-Islamic. "Every Muslim -- young, old, woman -- knows this is not of Islam," said Sheikh Ahmed Fauzi, imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Springfield's mosque on Stanton Ave.

Fauzi said he was saddened by the news of the plotted attacks in the name of Islam.

"If you read the Qur'an, you do not commit crime," Fauzi said during the Friday sermon. "You do not spread crimes throughout the earth."

Muslim leaders are worried that such individual acts would have a negative impact on the Muslim community as a whole.

"I didn't know to be more angry, scared or frustrated -- that this was being done in the name of Islam," said Cheema, the director of the Horace Mann's project management office.

"It puts all of us in a bad situation. The community has been very, very welcoming to us."

American Muslims, estimated at between six to seven million, have been in the eye of storm since the 9/11 attacks.

They have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was targeting their faith.

 A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that American Muslims are still discriminated against other than any religious groups in the US, eight years after the 9/11 attacks.

There is no fun in Islam, as the Ayatollah Khomeini said. Sharia Alert from our friends and allies in modern, moderate Kuwait: offenses include disco dancing, bootlegging, and (gasp!) "performing stunts" with cars. "Several held for disco parties, manufacturing liquor during Eid," from Arab Times, September 25 (thanks to Maxwell):

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 25: In an operation carried out under the directions of the Assistant Undersecretary for Public Security Mj. Gen. Thabet Al-Muhanna, 142 men and women were arrested and some local liquor manufacturing plants were shut down by officials from the Ahmadi governorate during the Eid festivities.
Brigadier Abdul-Fatah Al-Ali took charge of the officials under the supervision of Al-Muhanna. The team first raided three apartments in Abu Halifa, Mangaf and Mahboula where they arrested 51 citizens, Arab and Asian men and women for organising overnight disco parties.

The officials then arrested 13 beggars near mosques in Sabahiya, Riqqa, Abu Halifa and Fahaheel. They carried out another raid in Kabad, Dhaer and Sabahiya and arrested 43 youths for performing stunts with their cars. Some influential persons reportedly tried to intervene on behalf of the youths, but the officers carried out their duty.

The officials also arrested 16 street hawkers in Kout, Minshar and Kuwait Magic complexes and referred them to police stations at Fahaheel, Abu Halifa and Sabahiya. They went on to shut down a liquor manufacturing plant and nabbed 6 Asians in possession of 47 bottles and 79 bags of alcohol.

"Hamas teaches kids to kill Jews," by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, September 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The bear puppet host, Nassur, of a Hamas children's TV program used different words for "slaughter" to describe how to rid Israel of Jews.

First the bear explains that all Jews must be "erased from our land." Later in the conversation he adds, "We want to slaughter them, Saraa, so they will be expelled from our land." He repeats, "...We'll have to [do it] by slaughter."

He first uses the Arabic expression for "slaughter," "Nidbah-hom," and later on uses the word "Shaht."

The following is the transcript from the children's program Tomorrow's Pioneers:

Nassur: "There won't be any Jews or Zionists, if Allah wills. They'll be erased."
Saraa: "Chased away."
Nassur: "And just like we will visit the Qaaba [in Mecca]... everyone will visit Jerusalem."
[Seven-year old Palestinian child on phone tells how his father, a member of the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades, "died as a Shahid (Martyr)."]
Nassur to child on phone: "What do you want to do to the Jews who shot your father?"
Child on phone: "I want to kill them."
Saraa: "We don't want to do anything to them, just expel them from our land."
Nassur: "We want to slaughter (Nidbah-hom) them, so they will be expelled from our land, right?"
Saraa: "Yes. That's right. We will expel them from our land using all means."
Nassur: "And if they don't want [to go] peacefully, by words or talking, we'll have to [do it] by slaughter." (Shaht)
[Al-Aqsa (Hamas) TV, Sept. 22, 2009

Intimidation efforts kick into high gear. "Taliban threatens Germany ahead of vote: official," from Agence France-Presse, September 25:

German authorities have uncovered a new video threatening attacks against the country over its military engagement in Afghanistan ahead of this weekend's pivotal elections, an official said Friday.

The new Internet video threats are believed to come from the Taliban, an interior ministry spokesman said, and demand that Germany withdraw its troops from the war-torn country.[...]

In the new video, a man calling himself "Ajjub" and speaking in German said: "Because of your commitment here against Islam, attacking Germany has become an attractive idea for us, the mujahideen," according to the spokesman.

The militant said it was only a matter of time "before jihad destroys German walls."

Photos of famous German sites and events then appear, including Brandenburg Gate, Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival and Cologne Cathedral.

Politicians, including Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung, are also shown, the spokesman said.

A German investigator quoted by Der Spiegel's Internet site described the threat as "the most concrete" against the country because of the places and people singled out....

And a word from the world's wealthiest cave dweller: "'Bin Laden message' to Europe appears on Internet," from CNN, September 25:

(CNN) -- A purported message from Osama bin Laden to Europeans urges them to distance themselves from the United States, noting that Americans are losing the war in Afghanistan.

The brief message in Arabic, which appeared Friday on radical Islamic Web sites, has subtitles in English and German. [...]

"It won't be long until the dust of war clears in Afghanistan, at which point you won't find a trace of any American," he adds.

"You are aware that oppression topples those who commit it and injustice has unhealthy consequences for the unjust, and that one of the greatest forms of injustice is to kill people without right, yet this is exactly what your governments and soldiers are committing under the umbrella of the NATO alliance in Afghanistan," bin Laden warns.

All of this naturally raises questions of whether an attack is imminent. Of course, one never knows until arrests are made or a bomb goes off if the sabre rattling is just that, or something more. "Bin Laden tape indicates upcoming attack: IntelCenter," from Agence France-Presse, September 25:

NICOSIA (AFP) - The latest statement by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden contains language considered a valid indicator of an upcoming attack, the IntelCenter US monitoring group said on Friday.

In an audio message posted on jihadist Internet forums on Friday, bin Laden called on European countries to end their alliance with the United States and withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, monitoring organisations said.

"This indicator when viewed in light of the five Abu Talha videos this year, three of which have been released in the last eight days and their focus on the upcoming elections in Germany, significantly raises the threat level even further," IntelCenter said.

"There is currently a very high threat of an attack occurring in Germany or against German interests in the immediate period and extending for at least the next four weeks. A single or multiple-stage attack may occur before, during or after the elections against a German target or targets," it said....

Even Human Rights Watch noticed. But this report is suffused with denial that anything in the substance of Islamic beliefs could have a role here. Islamic jihad is almost always portrayed as a reaction to something; the assumption is that there has to be something to blame, and if it hadn't happened, maybe the jihad would not have happened. It's just a matter of not engaging in any of those objectionable practices -- above all, not self-defense.

Indeed, it is an article of faith within the mainstream media that "radical" Islam is invariably caused by anything other than Islamic texts and teachings. "Four Die in Shoot-Out as Russia Faces Jihadist Threat (Update1)," by Lucian Kim for Bloomberg, September 25:

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Three insurgents and one policeman were killed in a gun battle in the southern Russian region of Dagestan, the latest in a wave of attacks rocking the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region.

The shoot-out took place after police stopped a car for a document check in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala last night, state television reported today. The number of violent deaths almost tripled this summer as the fight between the authorities and Islamic militants in the North Caucasus also cost the lives of civilian bystanders and human rights activists.

The explosion of violence is the result of poverty, corruption and government neglect, according to both officials and their critics. Those factors combined with a militant brand of Islam that has replaced communism as an ideology means Prime Minister Vladimir Putin faces the worst instability in the region since he sent troops to subdue a rebellion in Chechnya a decade ago.

"One of the most dramatic results of that war is a joint insurgency operating under central command," said Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Russia office. "It's not separatism anymore, it's a jihadist insurgency."

Violent Deaths

By the middle of September, 424 people had been killed in attacks in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan this summer, almost three times the number of violent deaths in the same period last year, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Those killings include an August suicide truck bombing at an Ingush police station that killed 25 and the July murder of Chechen human rights activist Natalya Estemirova. [...]

Even as young people in most of Russia embraced western lifestyles and culture after the fall of communism, their peers in the North Caucasus gravitated toward the "active, militant" Islam of the Middle East and Persian Gulf region, Malashenko said. Protest against social ills, poverty and bad governance inevitably took on a religious character.

That raises an interesting question: why didn't the other "young people in most of Russia" embrace a comparable ideology? They also dealt with economic and social upheaval in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse. For that matter, protests against social problems have taken on a religious character for millennia: What matters is how the religion in question suggests one handle them.

"The radicalization was a gradual process. Now it's matured and become critical," said Adam Gazdiyev, the spokesman for Ingushetia's representative office in Moscow. "It's a law of physics: there was an ethical-moral vacuum, and the radicals began to fill it."...

And surpass it in mayhem. "Bomb plot suspect ordered to NY to face charge," by Robert Boczkiewicz for Reuters, September 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

DENVER, Sept 25 (Reuters) - An immigrant from Afghanistan who was arrested in a federal anti-terrorism investigation was ordered on Friday to be moved to New York to face a charge of plotting bomb attacks in the United States.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, a shuttle bus driver at Denver's airport who has been linked by authorities to al Qaeda, is accused of receiving bomb-making instructions during a trip to Pakistan last year, then buying and preparing chemicals for use in home-made explosives like those in the 2005 London subway and bus bombings.

A grand jury in New York has charged Zazi, a legal U.S. resident born in Afghanistan, under federal anti-terrorism laws with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, an offense outlined in an indictment unsealed on Thursday. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

Law enforcement experts have called the alleged conspiracy, if proven, one of the most significant security threats in the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The investigation came to light earlier this month after Zazi drove across the country from Colorado, arriving in New York City on Sept. 10 in a rental car in which authorities say he carried a laptop computer with bomb-making notes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff, arguing in court that Zazi would remain in custody, said the evidence shows "a chilling, disturbing sequence of events that indicate the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, perhaps using such items."...

As usual, conspicuously absent from the discussion is any acknowledgment of Islam's role in encouraging and perpetuating spousal abuse. By lacking the will to face those texts and teachings forthrightly, Robina Niaz is only hobbling her own efforts to help other Muslim women. "Her 'duty' is helping Muslim women heal after abuse," from CNN, September 25:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Toward the end of her marriage, Rabia Iqbal said she feared for her life.

Iqbal, a native New Yorker, had a strict Muslim upbringing. Her parents immigrated to the United States from the tribal areas of Pakistan and when she was 16, they arranged her marriage to a 38-year-old man. She claims her husband turned violent during their 10 years of marriage.

When she finally left him, she did not know where to turn. Going home wasn't an option, she said.

"My parents ... made clear that they would disown me," Iqbal said. "My father even said ... 'You're lucky you live in America because if you lived back home, you would have been dead by now.'"

She was hiding out in her office at work when a friend put her in touch with Robina Niaz, whose organization, Turning Point for Women and Families, helps female Muslim abuse victims.

"It was such a relief ... to speak about things that ... I thought no one would understand," said Iqbal, who has received counseling from Niaz for more than two years and calls Niaz her "savior."

"Robina understood the cultural nuances ... the religious issues," Iqbal said. Video Watch Iqbal tell her story »

A devout Muslim, Niaz stresses that there is no evidence that domestic violence is more common among Muslim families.

There is violence in every society. There is domestic violence in every society. But Muslims are able to point to chapter and verse of their own scriptures and find direct sanction for it in Qur'an 4:34. It does not matter that the verse prescribes other measures to "discipline" one's wife (not a term that comes up when marriage is partnership, rather than ownership). When all is said and done, Allah says it's okay to hit your wife.

"Abuse happens everywhere," said Niaz. "It cuts across barriers of race, religion, culture."

But, she said, Muslims are often reluctant to confront the issue.

And why might that be?

There's a lot of denial," she said. "It makes it much harder for the victims of abuse to speak out."

There sure is a lot of denial.

When Niaz launched her organization in 2004, it was the first resource of its kind in New York City. Today, her one-woman campaign has expanded into a multifaceted endeavor that is raising awareness about family violence and providing direct services to women in need.

Niaz said she firmly believes that domestic violence goes against Islamic teachings, and considers it her religious duty to try to stop abuse from happening.

"Quran condemns abusive behavior of women," she said, noting that the prophet Mohammed was never known to have abused women. "Allah says, 'Stand up against injustice and bear witness, even if it's against your own kin. So if I see injustice being done to women and children, I have to speak up. It's my duty."...

In order not to be completely disingenuous, the first sentence would have to imply the assumption that it is conceivably justifiable and possible to hit one's spouse without it being abuse. As for Muhammad, Sahih Muslim, a collection of hadith accepted as most reliable (along with Sahih Bukhari) by Sunni Muslims, records the following from his favorite wife (and child bride), Aisha:

"He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?" (Sahih Muslim, book 4, no. 2127).

A moderate Muslim from moderate Kosovo that if you don't believe is moderate, you must be a Nazi. "NY man accused of seeking to kill U.S. troops," from Reuters, September 24 (thanks to WallsOfByzant):

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A New York man was indicted on Thursday for allegedly seeking training from Islamic militants to fight U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, authorities said.

The FBI said Betim Kaziu, a U.S. citizen and New York resident, sought to acquire weapons and training to fight U.S. troops abroad.

Kaziu traveled to Cairo in February, the FBI said, and later to Kosovo, where he was arrested by Kosovar authorities in August.

Along the way, Kaziu allegedly sought to join Al-Shabbab, an armed movement listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, and train in Pakistan to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans, the indictment said....

Bela Khazaal Update. "Australia how-to jihadist jailed," from BBC News, September 25 (thanks to fightback):

A man who produced a do-it-yourself jihad book has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Australia.

Bela Khazaal was found guilty last September of producing a 110-page book, in Arabic, entitled Provisions Of The Rules of Jihad.

This advised about terrorist acts such as exploding bombs, shooting down planes and assassinating people such as former US President George W Bush.

And yet:

Khazaal had claimed his book was never intended to incite terrorist acts.

At his sentencing in Sydney, Justice Megan Latham said she found it "unsurprising" a jury had rejected his defence.

"It beggars belief that a person of average intelligence who has devoted themselves to the study of Islam over some years would fail to recognise the nature of the material," she said.

"The dissemination of extremist activity, connected or unconnected with a terrorist plot, is caught by the government's (anti-terror) scheme ... (because such material) is capable and is shown to foment terrorist activity."

Khazaal, a former Lebanon-born Qantas Airways baggage-handler, compiled the book from a range of Internet sources, his lawyer George Thomas told the court at an earlier sentencing hearing.

Its full title is Provisions Of The Rules of Jihad - Short Judicial Rulings And Organisational Instructions For Fighters And Mujahideen Against Infidels.

He is the first person to be convicted on the charge of making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years....

"Although the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking construction of the plant for several years, Mr Obama decided it was time to put maximum pressure on Tehran by revealing its existence." It is likely that Obama is overestimating the impact this will have upon the mullahs. They respect strength. The threat of sanctions is not strength.

"Iran admits to secret second nuclear plant built inside mountain," by Michael Evans and Nico Hines for the Times Online, September 25 (thanks to Alexandre):

Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has been building a previously undeclared nuclear facility to enrich uranium, raising fears that Tehran is closer to acquiring an atomic bomb than has been predicted up until now.

The presence of a secret second site - built inside a mountain near the holy Shia city of Qum - has been known about by American and other Western intelligence agencies for some time, although nothing has been revealed until now.

Iran's formal letter to the IAEA in Vienna, sent on Monday, pre-empted an announcement to be made today by President Obama, Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy of France before the opening of the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, in which Tehran will be accused of building the secret facility about 100 miles southwest of the Iranian capital.

Although the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking construction of the plant for several years, Mr Obama decided it was time to put maximum pressure on Tehran by revealing its existence.

Reports from Washington indicate that Iran had learnt of the West's uncovering of its second plant and moved to declare it formally to the IAEA.

Iran wrote a brief, cryptic letter to the IAEA saying it now had a "pilot plant" under construction, whose existence it had not revealed. Iran's first and officially declared facility is at Natanz in southern Iran.

Marc Vidricaire, IAEA spokesman, said: "I can confirm that on September 21 Iran informed the IAEA in a letter that a new pilot fuel-enrichment plant is under construction in the country. The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5 per cent."

Uranium enriched to around 5 per cent can be used as nuclear fuel, but has to be enriched to around 90 per cent to be effective in a nuclear weapon. The United States, Britain and other Western countries believe that Iran has been attempting, at its plant at Natanz, to achieve a higher enrichment of uranium, although the plant has been subject to IAEA inspections....

Here it is

The man from Djibouti who has threatened to kill me has written in again:

Mr Spencers Pure Zionist face that means No Islam comes to light by producing every-inch-news of islam hatred. He has the 200%favor of the Zionist agression against muslims while he stand behind the bars in America He still shows passion with jewsh Zionist in the palestinian land

Raw text from the criminal complaint against Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, from Scribd:

"I truly say it that my dream is to be among God's soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama, may God give him long life. I don't know what is in me, but I love him as I love my father. I don't want to add to this.

Now, my brother, the point is that thousands of Muslims have been killed at the hand of Jews -- the dogs -- and the silent disloyal backsliders. Those are the Arab kings and, God willing, their end will be the hanging rope and hell.

Their silence and fight against the Sheik mean that they are backsiders along with the enemy in a world plan to destroy Islam, Muslims, and to seize their lands for the benefit of the Jews and for the love of infidelity.

By God who created me, there will not be a retreat at all, even if they take me to Guantanamo for the rest of my life. I will never forget Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, or any land where the call of, 'there is no God but God, Muhammad is God's Messenger' is raised.

Who will assist the brothers, the infants, the women who became widows and their orphan children? Who would return these lands before religion and blessing disappear? Who would cause these tyrants to fall?

In the name of God, the Gracious and Merciful, this is my vow to you, my brother, that I am ready. And if you were a lover of Jihad as I am, then, by God, I am ready for the Jihadi life. What you will see of me will please you and your commander.

The reign is only for the living and powerful God. I ask Him that he would be our Caliph and Ruler."

[...]

"My brother in God, God and His angels are with us. With the permission of the Almighty Lord of the Worlds, we will have victory and allies from God Almighty. He is the powerful and helpful. Victory is coming, is coming to defeat the Romans [i.e., Christians] and for the destruction of the Jews. God is Most Great. We shall attack them in their very homes. Brother, by God, we shall attack them in a manner that hurts, an attack that shakes the world. Oh Brother, let the backsliders know that the time for their destruction has come."

That and many other details are below in the U.S. Attorney Office's press release, via the Dallas Observer, September 24:

DALLAS -- James T. Jacks, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Office of the FBI, announced today that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, has been arrested anad charged in a federal criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi, who was under continuous surveillance by the FBI, was arrested today near Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower located at 1445 Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas, after he placed an inert/inactive car bomb at the location. Smadi, a Jordanian citizen in the U.S. illegally, lived and worked in Italy, Texas, (approximately 45 miles south of Dallas). He has repeatedly espoused his desire to commit violent Jihad and has been the focus of an undercover FBI investigation.

"The highest priority of the FBI and the Department of Justice remains the prevention of another terrorist attack within the United States," said U.S. Attorney Jacks. "In that effort, it is the job of the FBI to locate and identify individuals intent upon carrying out any type of attack upon this country and its citizens/residents. Whether as part of a group or acting alone, persons contemplating such acts need to know that all components of the government are working together to ferret out their activities and to insure that such individuals face the full measure of the law. The identification and apprehension of this defendant, who was acting alone, is a sobering reminder that there are people among us who want to do us grave harm," Jacks continued.

Special Agent in Charge Casey said, "Today's arrest of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi underscores the FBI's unwavering commitment to bring to justice persons who attempt to bring harm to citizens of this country and significant danger to this community. Smadi made a decision to act to commit a significant conspicuous act of violence under his banner of "self Jihad." He will now face justice. The many agents, detectives, analysts and prosecutors who helped to bring about Thursday's arrest deserve special thanks for their efforts. This case serves as a reminder of the continuing threats of terrorism we face as a nation and the FBI's resolve to meet those threats. The arrest of Smadi is not in any way related to the ongoing terror investigation in New York and Colorado."

"The criminal complaint alleges that Hosam Smadi sought and attempted to bomb the Fountain Place office tower, but a coordinated undercover law enforcement action was able to thwart his efforts and ensure no one was harmed," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

Smadi will make his initial appearance tomorrow in U.S. District Court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma C. Ramirez, at 11:00 a.m.

According to affidavits filed today with the complaint and search warrants:

Smadi was discovered by the FBI espousing his desire to commit significant acts of violence. Smadi stood out because of his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the U.S.

The FBI developed an investigative plan to determine Smadi's true intent while also protecting the public's safety. Smadi made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Usama Bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, and to conduct violent Jihad. Undercover FBI agents, posing as members of an al-Qa'ida "sleeper" cell, were introduced to Smadi, who repeatedly indicated to them that he came to the U.S. for the specific purpose of committing "Jihad for the sake of God." Smadi clarified that he was interested in "self-Jihad," because it was "the best type of Jiihad." Smadi was interested in violent Jihad against those he deemed to be enemies of Islam. The investigation determined Smadi was not associated with other terrorist organizations.

Throughout the investigation, undercover FBI agents repeatedly encouraged Smadi to reevaluate his interpretation of Jihad, counseling him that the obligations a Moslem has to perform Jihad can be satisfied in many ways. Every time this interaction occurred, Smadi aggressively responded that he was going to commit significant, conspicuous acts of violence as his Jihad.

In June 2009, Smadi identified potential targets in the Dallas area; but in mid-July, he notified an undercover FBI agent that he had changed his mind regarding the targets. On July 21, 2009, Smadi met with an undercover FBI agent and directed the agent to drive them to a Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Dallas. Smadi and the undercover FBI agent then drove to 1445 Ross Avenue where the Fountain Place office tower is located. A Wells Fargo Bank is located in that building. Smadi went into the building where he conducted his own reconnaissance.

In late August 2009, while meeting with one of the undercover FBI agents in Dallas, Smadi discussed the logistics and timing of the bombing, stating that he would have preferred to do the attack on "11 September," but decided to wait until after the month of Ramadan, which ended on September 20, 2009. At the conclusion of the meeting, Smadi decided that a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) would be placed at the foundation of the Fountain Place office tower. Unbeknownst to Smadi, the FBI ensured the VBIED contained only an inert/inactive explosive device which contained no explosive materials.

Don't Mess with Texas. Seriously.

"Man arrested in alleged attempt to bomb Dallas skyscraper," from WFAA, September 24:

DALLAS - Police arrested a man after he allegedly placed an inactive car bomb near Fountain Place at 1445 Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian citizen who has been living and working in Italy, Texas illegally, was charged with "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction," authorities said.

Authorities said Smadi had been under FBI surveillance for some time after expressing "his desire to commit violent jihad" numerous times.

Whole lotta "misunderstanding" of Islam going on.

"The highest priority of the FBI and the Department of Justice remains the prevention of another terrorist attack within the United States," said U.S. Attorney Jacks.

More on this breaking news. "FBI: Man Planned to Bomb Dallas Building," from MyFoxDFW, September 24:

DALLAS - Dallas FBI agents arrested a Jordanian citizen Thursday afternoon for attempting to bomb a skyscraper in Downtown Dallas.

FBI agents are not saying which building was targeted, but they said the arrest took place near that building.

The arrest is not related to recent events in Colorado, New York or Springfield, according to FBI.

A very similar case to that which occurred earlier in the day in Illinois. Just in from WFAA, and also reported on ABC's World News Tonight. More information as it becomes available.

A Decatur man was charged today with plotting to blow up the federal courthouse in Springfield, but the charges make it clear that authorities were on to him from the start and that he was dealing with an undercover federal agent posing as an Al Qaeda operative.

Michael Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was charged with attempting to murder federal employees and to use an explosive against the Paul Findley Federal Building, according to a federal complaint.

An affidavit filed in the case states that members of an FBI-led task force began investigating Finton, a restaurant worker who converted to Islam in prison, after hearing from his parole officer. A search of his vehicle after his arrest in 2007 on a parole violation allegedly turned up letters mentioning martyrdom and purported contact with John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," who was captured in Afghanistan.

The FBI had a drug informant become friendly with Finton, according to the complaint. The informant told agents Finton had talked about wanting to get terror training and to fight in Gaza against the Israelis. Agents then worked to set up an "opportunity for action that we controlled," began recording contacts with him and put him in touch with an undercover agent who told Finton he was an al-Qaeda operative.

In a July conversation, Finton allegedly told the agent he was considering attacks on "government buildings, banks and police stations." His hope was that an attack would cause the U.S. military to withdraw from conflicts overseas.

"Finton said attacking the FBI office would be great, because he had no love for the police, so that would not bother him a bit," according to the affidavit. He allegedly proposed bombing the federal building in Springfield with a backpack bomb or an explosive in a vehicle in July.

In August, the agent allegedly told Finton the plan had been approved by his purported supervisors in al-Qaeda and had Finton make a videotaped message that supposedly was to be shown to organization leaders including Osama bin-Laden.

Finton, who made statements acknowledging he knew everyone in the Paul Findley Federal Building would be killed, allegedly met up with the agent on Wednesday, believing he would be carrying out a mass-casualty bomb attack against the building....

"Court documents say Zazi sent text messages to the others, "each communication more urgent in tone than the last - seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives."

But hang on. Surely we'll all hear soon enough how this was "taken out of context." "The Beauty Parlor Bomb Plan; Massive Terror Plot Alleged," by Brian Ross and Richard Esposito for ABC News, September 24:

The accused al Qaeda bomb maker from Denver planned to use chemicals and hair care products he bought at beauty parlor supply stores to build a series of devastating bombs, according to a federal indictment made public today of 24-year old Najibullah Zazi.

According to court documents, Zazi "purchased unusually large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and acetone from beauty supply stores in the Denver metropolitan area."

Former FBI agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant, said the alleged plot is "probably one of the more significant cases that the bureau has investigated since 9/11."

"You're talking about subway stations, public places where potentially thousands of people could be killed," said Garrett. "And in addition to that, when you add multiple locations, you're talking about potentially a horrendous number of people dying."

The chemicals in the products matched those listed in nine pages of hand written bomb-making instructions Zazi received when he attended an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan late last year, according to officials.

The court documents filed today say other individuals traveled with Zazi to Pakistan.

"We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted," said attorney general Eric Holder in a prepared statement. "We are investigating a wide range of leads," he added.

Liquid Developer Clairoxide, Ms. Kay's Liquid 40 Volume and Ion Sensitive Scalp Developer were among the products the government said Zazi and other un-named coconspirators purchased this summer.

An employee at one beauty product supply store told ABCNews.com that FBI agents had shown a photo spread of three men with beards and two young, blond-haired women. One of the men was recognized as Zazi, said the employee who asked that her name not be used.

Authorities say Zazi and the other alleged terrorists actually tried to mix the chemicals at a hotel suite Zazi rented in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Sept. 6 and 7.

Court documents say Zazi sent text messages to the others, "each communication more urgent in tone than the last - seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives."

Officials told ABCNews.com that one of Zazi's text messages included the phrase, "the wedding cake is ready," which authorities believe was a code indicating the plot was nearing the attack phase....

Read it all.

Nonie says that she hopes that the Left as well as the Right will take up the cause of the apostates.

Ibn Warraq says that the Left tends to side with the Islamists. Liberals tend to be more politically correct, but many on the Right, religious conservatives, tend to be wary of criticizing somebody else's religion. So both sides downplay the danger of creeping Sharia and the Islamization of the West. We need to educate the political class on both sides.

Nonie says that she believes that there is a huge number of Muslims who don't practice Islam anymore. Ibn Warraq cites an article by Anthony Browne in the Times of London (2005), saying that 200,000 Muslims have left Islam in England alone, and face persecution and death threats. In France the churches keep figures of the number of people who convert from Islam to Christianity, about 200 a year. In Indonesia, many Hindus -- several hundred thousand -- who had converted to Islam were converting back.

Nonie says there are TV shows beaming into the Arab world promoting Christianity. People call in from places like Saudi Arabia saying they left Islam. But if you're in Saudi Arabia, what can you do? You can't go to church, you can't have a Bible, you can't hand on your Christian faith to your children, so what can you do?

Mr. Ali from Saudi Arabia has agreed to sign the pledge calling for an end to the death penalty for apostasy, the pledge being circulated by Former Muslims United. Ibn Warraq says that they're going to post two videos on YouTube -- an atheist filming in Mecca and an imam saying that atheism is growing in Saudi Arabia. At least ten people in Riyadh have proclaimed their atheism.

Nonie says that Islam is very threatened by other religions. In mosques she grew up hearing prayers, "May God destroy the Jews and the infidels." This is how we used to end our religious service. When you grow up with this, it can even sound normal, and good and holy.

We are trying to alert the government to our plight. I received many hate emails, and threatening emails, and I called the FBI. They were very understanding, and took copies, but that was it. So we are living in America, with books being sold and read in mosques encouraging people to kill us. It is not solely taught in the Middle East. It is taught in every religious institution. This is serious. We are in fear for our lives. We are asking the government for help. We are very vulnerable. We are asking for some kind of legislation that will help protect us. It is a very unique thing. There isn't any other religion on earth that demands the murder of those who leave it except the Mafia. But at least you enter the Mafia willingly and voluntarily. In Islam, you're born into it. The threat crosses borderlines. Salman Rushdie is not Iranian. He was not born in Iran. The threat is an international network of tyranny against us, and it's coming to a neighborhood near you.

I don't understand how anyone can not believe Rifqa Bary. She is 17 years old. She is obviously a very sweet young girl. Her fear is in my opinion 100% true. The Islamic legal system is against her. Even if her father and mother are the nicest people, they are under pressure from the Islamic community to do something about their child. She has crossed the line. They will never allow her to live as a Christian. It's impossible! It's not allowed under Islam! I wonder: if this girl was a Mormon, or a Jewish girl running for her life, I wonder if the government would be siding against her. We must not be afraid of Islam.

Islam is a very political religion. Islam is a state. That is why they are always counting the number of Muslim congressmen, and trying to increase the number of Muslim representatives. Islam is political, and is determined to conquer. Fast during Ramadan, pray five times a day, go to Hajj, and listen to us and do what we say. There is an underground Muslim organization in every Muslim state threatening the Muslim ruler with death if he does not adhere to Sharia. Reformers, those who try to bring democracy, are automatically apostate. If you're a good Muslim and you follow Sharia, you have to follow all of it. You can't pick and choose.

Jamal Jivanjee, a friend of Rifqa Bary, says he is frustrated that the media won't tell the stories of apostates. Rifqa is 17. She could speak for herself. Why won't the mainstream media let apostates tell their stories? Nonie answers that people think we're exaggerating, when we tell them that Islam teaches that apostates must be killed. Many people think Rifqa is exaggerating and that she just ran away because she wanted to be free or something. Americans don't know so much about Islam and the Middle East conflict. They think terrorism against Israel started with the "occupation." I saw terrorism against Israel as a child in Gaza, long before the apostates. When I was growing up, I thought it was all normal. I thought that apostates were justly killed. I thought it was normal that a woman who was no longer a virgin would be killed in an honor killing. I changed because I saw a better way of living. I learned. I became an American. I used to think that apostates deserved to be killed. It's Allah's law. Now I think back and wonder, how could I have ever believed these things? I was indoctrinated. I went to school and was taught to hate the Jews, and that Jews must be killed, and I believed it. And now I see these things coming to America. Apostate killing is here. Honor killing is here. Antisemitism is here.

I was an antisemite. I was taught to hate Jews even though we never saw them. America changed me. Once I said to the sheikh that I felt compassion for the many poor people I saw in Egypt, but he told me that they were poor because Allah wanted them to be poor. I see so much cruelty and dysfunction in Islamic society. Muslims don't worship only God; they worship their leaders. The system promotes dictatorships and tyranny.

I came to America and I was surprised that the churches didn't end their prayers with curses of the non-Christians. I was surprised that the priest prayed for everyone, even the nonbelievers. But it took me a long time to figure it out. Too long. Rifqa Bary -- this girl figured it out at seventeen. I figured it out at 47.

I asked Nonie just now about the claim, just posted by our friend Abdullah Mikhail, from Dr. Jamal Badawi that "there are scholars who distinguish between apostasy on a personal level, which is not punishable by death, and apostasy that is accompanied by what we call today high treason, in which case the punishment is for high treason, not for apostasy." She read a fatwa from Al-Azhar saying that an ex-Muslim living in Germany had to be killed -- this fatwa contradicted Badawi's claim, as the ex-Muslim in Germany was in no way committing treason against any state. Apostasy is punishable by death in Islamic law, and not just for treason.

Nonie says that it is very dangerous to believe anyone who claims to be an apostate, because terrorists will come in to the organization and infiltrate it. Nonie also, in response to a question, explains that Reliance of the Traveller -- Umdat al-Salik -- contains detailed directives regarding the killing of apostates. It is certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sharia. Meanwhile, it is all one-sided. Muslims have total access to the West, and can preach and spread Islam, but we cannot build churches, etc., in Muslim lands. We are going to see majority-Muslim areas in Europe and there will be violence there as there is now in Chechnya and Israel.

I was shocked when Salman Rushdie had the death fatwa put on his head, and intellectuals such as Germaine Greer attacked him. They were more concerned about the delicate sensibilities of Muslims. Then in 1995 I wrote Why I Am Not A Muslim, and then in 2003 a book called Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out.

Arthur Koestler: We ex-communists are the only ones on your side who know what it is all about. Groucho Marx (inspired): I refuse to belong to a religion that will not not have me as a member.

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 guarantees freedom to change one's religion or belief. The clause about freedom of religion was added at the urging of the delegate from Lebanon, Charles Malik. Lebanon especially objected to the Islamic law regarding apostasy, but many Islamic countries objected to the freedom of religion clause. It warned about missionary efforts devoted to converting the populations of the East.

If you deny any of the tenets of Islam, you're an apostate. The Ahmadiyyas deny that Muhammad was the last prophet. Zia al-Haq declared they were not Muslims, and ever since then they have been persecuted in Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt tried in the 1960s to suppress the clause of the Universal Declaration  guaranteeing freedom of religion. They agreed to a compromise wording suggested by Brazil. In 1981 Muslim states reiterated the death penalty for apostasy. The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights is understandably vague about the freedom of religion. Islamic human rights schemes are not universal, since they introduce a specific religious perspective into the human rights sphere. They restrict the rights of women, non-Muslims, and apostates.

Human rights organizations should protect the rights of those whose opinions are unorthodox and those who have left a religion.

"The worst kind of tyranny is of victims who are scared to speak." She explains that this is the situation of those who have left Islam. Being a Muslim, she says, does not involve a personal relationship with God. When it comes to Islam, however, one doesn't choose his religion, your birth certificate is stamped Muslim, and you have a relationship with the Islamic state.

The Muslim scriptures are inundated with commandments against those who leave the religion. It is being preached in mosques in America that one should kill the apostates wherever you find them. It is the law of Islam -- Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi'i and Maliki schools of law all agree that the person who leaves Islam must be killed. What's worse than the law, however, is when the religious and legal system tells Muslims that they can kill apostates and not be punished. Islamic law gives the right to the Muslim on the street to kill the apostate. Under Islamic law, such a murderer will not go to jail. This happened in Egypt -- Faraj Foda was killed in front of his house and the killer is not prosecuted. This is the source of the apostates' fear -- any Muslim on the street may kill them, and have no fear of prosecution.

This is the most severe aspect of Islamic law -- turning father against children, turning brother against brother. I have been disinherited by my family already. Marriage of an apostate is immediately annulled. There was a case in Egypt in which a man was denounced as an apostate and was subjected to a third-party divorce. This is perfectly in keeping with the laws of Sharia. And we have people right here in America who believe in these laws. We are living in constant fear of our lives because we have left Islam. There is not a day that goes by in which I do not think of that threat. Radical Muslims call me "Jew-lover," right here on college campuses in the U.S. Why did Wafa Sultan have to leave her beautiful home to live in an apartment? Why did I recently write an article about an Egyptian journalist who denied he was an apostate but merely criticized some aspects of Sharia law, and was accused of an apostate? 5,000 mosques declared he was an apostate and a heretic. Hosni Mubarak also was denounced as an apostate for giving this man an award. We don't have to declare that we are apostates. We just have to act at variance with Sharia -- like the girl in Canada who acted like an apostate by refusing to wear the hijab and was killed by her father.

There is very little hope for reform in Islam. Nobody knows why Sadat was killed. I was a young woman living in Egypt. The radicals condemned Sadat as an apostate for making peace with Israel. Sadat told many of his confidants that he knew that by agreeing to peace with Israel he was signing his death warrant.

Why did I form this group, Former Muslims United? I felt extremely saddened when I saw children fleeing their homes in fear for their lives because they are apostates. We are going to have many more Rifqa Barys. I know kids in Los Angeles who are not attending mosques, and their parents are threatening them. We have not been speaking up. We have been in hiding. But now I have formed this group with Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan, Muhammad Asghar, Amil Imani. We are also calling upon Muslim leaders to sign our pledge. It is on our website. We hope that all the good and peace-loving Muslim groups will sign our pledge to show that they reject tyranny and fear. The worst kind of tyranny is when the person who is tyrannized is afraid to speak. We are also trying to reach the Federal Government. We have written to Attorney General Holder. We hope we can all work together to never allow this kind of tyranny to survive in America. The West is doing Muslims no favor with political correctness. By being politically correct, we are empowering those who want to kill us. The religion must pass the litmus test of human rights. By tolerating intolerance, we are telling the victims of Sharia, go fend for yourselves. We cannot help you.

Seven years of bad luck are over. "Complaints against Alberta newspapers dismissed by human-rights commission," by Karen Kleiss for the Edmonton Journal, September 23 (thanks to Sounder):

EDMONTON -- Alberta's Human Rights and Citizenship Commission has dismissed nine complaints filed against the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald in connection with a controversial editorial published seven years ago.

The complaints were lodged by Muslim and Palestinian organizations and their supporters, who argued the editorial was likely to incite hatred or contempt toward Palestinian Arabs and Muslims, contrary to Alberta's Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act.

In a seven-page decision dated Sept. 21, commission director Marie Riddle dismissed all the complaints.

"Although in my opinion statements made in the editorial . . . were offensive, based on the recent case law, I can find no basis to forward the complaint for a human-rights panel, and I hereby dismiss the complaint," Riddle wrote.

Journal lawyer Fred Kozak said the editorial expressed the opinion that delegates attending a meeting in Malaysia should condemn the use of suicide bombers as an inappropriate way of bringing about political change.

"Free expression must always include the right to criticize people, organizations and governments," Kozak said. "It should also include the right to publish a wide variety of views and opinions and perspectives, especially concerning political events in the international community.

"(This decision) recognizes that language is, and will always be, an imperfect way of communicating, and that the expression of opinion will always provoke other expressions of opinion -- but that is highly valued in a democracy."...

At least for now.

Qur'an 4:34: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them."

Allah says you can hit your wife. These are the consequences. "Afghan women hiding for their lives," by Atia Abawl for CNN, September 24:

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Shameen's brown eyes seem lost as she thinks about the one day she wants to forget, but it is all she can think about.

Still traumatized, she recounts the events that led her to a safe house in Kabul.

She was raped and nearly stabbed to death by her husband just seven days before we met her.

Her lips are quivering and her eyes full of fear.

"He forced himself on me," she said. "All I could do was scream."

She was married off 15 years ago when she was a teenager.

Throughout those years she was tortured and abused, suffering daily beatings with an electrical wire or the metal end of a hammer.

This was her normal life.

"He chased after me with a hammer. He said if I made any noise he would put holes through me," Shameen said.

Shameen and her husband could not conceive a child. And in Afghan society, it seems, the blame always falls on the woman.

After one severe beating, she ran from her home and to the police station. Her husband promised the police he would not attack her anymore, so she gave in and agreed to go back home with him.

Days later, Shameen's husband took her on a trip to visit her sister's grave -- a 15-year-old sister who was burned to death for displeasing her husband.

Shameen says her younger sister was 11 years old when she was forced to marry an older man. He would beat and abuse her until one day he killed her.

As Shameen walked along the graveyard with her husband he took her near a shrine where he forced her to the ground, lifted her burqa and raped her. He then threatened her with a knife and asked her who was going to help her now. She was screaming as he slashed her throat and body.

A passerby saved her.

Now, she has no one to turn to -- not even her own parents. In their eyes, she has brought them shame, an offense punishable by death. [...]

Afghanistan is a country where for centuries women have been considered property -- not equals, like the constitution states. They are often beaten, raped and even sold to the highest bidder. There are very few places women can turn to.

Nearly 90 percent of Afghan women suffer from domestic abuse, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

Despite that, there are less than a dozen shelters like this one in Afghanistan, usually run by non-governmental organizations.

Abusers are rarely prosecuted or convicted, and most women are afraid to say anything.

"Their mothers are beaten by their fathers. They're beaten by their fathers, by their brothers. It's a way of life," said Manizha Naderi, director of WAW.

Naderi is an Afghan-American who grew up in New York and has returned to Afghanistan to work with other women in hopes of bringing a change, although she said it will take generations.

"They see their mothers being beaten, they see their sisters their aunts, everybody," Naderi said. "So that's what they expect."...

Read it all.

Thus spake the jihadist who admitted to planning attacks in Canada. He also said non-Muslims "don't have Islam. They're the most filthiest people." Where would he get an idea like that? Why, the Qur'an:

Lo! those who disbelieve, among the People of the Scripture and the idolaters, will abide in fire of hell. They are the worst of created beings. (98:6)

An update on this story. "Toronto terror participant hated non-Muslims, court told," by Stewart Bell for the National Post, September 23 (thanks to Sounder):

BRAMPTON, Ont. -- A Toronto man who admitted Wednesday he was a member of a terrorist group that planned attacks in Canada was caught on police wiretaps saying he hated non-Muslims.

Ali Mohamed Dirie, a Canadian born in Somalia, called white people the "number 1 filthiest people on the face of the planet. They don't have Islam. They're the most filthiest people."

He added that: "In Islam there is no racism, we only hate kufar (non-Muslims)."

The 26-year-old was one of 18 Toronto-area men charged in 2006 in connection with a plot to attack targets in southern Ontario in order to terrorize Canadians into withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, in a Brampton courtroom, Dirie acknowledged he had obtained handguns and ammunition in the United States, knowing they were for the terrorist group's ringleader, who followed "an extremist interpretation of Islam."

For almost two hours, the Crown read a 28-page statement of facts before Justice Bruce Durno. When he had finished, Dirie, dressed in a grey hoody, baggy jeans and a blue skullcap, was asked if he thought it was accurate.

"Yes, I do," he said.

Dirie has pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of a terrorist group. A second charge of committing an offence for a terrorist group was stayed.

The Crown and defence have agreed on a seven-year sentence, but disagree over how much credit he deserves for the time has already spent behind bars.

Crown prosecutor Clyde Bond wants him to serve two more years, while the defence wants him to be released at his sentencing next Friday....

A piece I wrote for Human Events today:

The still-unfolding New York/Colorado jihad terror plot -- including an Islamic imam and of a Muslim who says he downloaded bomb-making materials by mistake while downloading a "religious text" -- focuses our attention again on the role of Islam and the Koran in inciting Muslims to commit acts of violence and terror.

Since September 11, 2001, this is the single aspect of the terror threat that government and law enforcement analysts, as well as the mainstream media, have consistently ignored, downplayed, denied outright and misunderstood. And this lack of understanding of the motives and goals of those who would destroy us remains our chief handicap in formulating a truly effective response to the global jihad threat.

Ask an Islamic jihadist why he is doing what he is doing, and he invariably makes reference to Koranic imperatives. Muslims who believe the Koran commands them to make war against and subjugate Infidels comprise a global movement, active from Indonesia to Nigeria and extending into Europe and North America.

In March 2009, five Muslims accused of helping plot the September 11 attacks, including the notorious Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, wrote an "Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations." In it they quote the Koran to justify their jihad war against the American Infidels. "In God's book," asserts the letter, "he ordered us to fight you everywhere we find you, even if you were inside the holiest of all holy cities, The Mosque in Mecca, and the holy city of Mecca, and even during sacred months. In God's book, verse 9 [actually verse 5], Al-Tawbah [the Koran's 9th chapter]: Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, and besiege them and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush."

Osama bin Laden's communiqués have also quoted the Koran copiously. In his "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places," he quotes seven Koran verses: 3:145; 47:4-6; 2:154; 9:14; 47:19; 8:72; and the notorious "Verse of the Sword," 9:5. In a sermon broadcast in 2003, bin Laden rejoiced in a Koranic exhortation to violence as being a means to establish the truth: "Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant and messenger [the Islamic Prophet Muhammad], in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood." The "Verse of the Sword" is Koran 9:5, the one quoted above about slaying the pagans.

It is extremely rare -- if not impossible -- to find a jihadist who does not cite the Koran to justify his actions. One pro-Osama website put it this way: "The truth is that a Muslim who reads the Koran with devotion is determined to reach the battlefield in order to attain the reality of Jihad. It is solely for this reason that the Kufaar [unbelievers] conspire to keep the Muslims far away from understanding the Koran, knowing that Muslims who understand the Koran will not distance themselves from Jihad."

Yet a huge number of policy decisions are predicated upon the assumption that the Koran teaches peace. These include U.S. government postures toward Pakistan and Egypt; immigration matters; airport security procedures; military strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan; domestic anti-terror policies; and our acquiescence to Saudi Arabia's Islamic proselytizing campaign in America and many other countries.

Most government and media analysts dare not even question the assumption that the Koran is peaceful, for they believe that any insinuation to the contrary is racist, bigoted, and effectively brands all Muslims as terrorists. They simply assume the Koran teaches peace without bothering to study the text, an act which might raise some uncomfortable questions.

But those whom the Koran asserts are Infidels need to know what the Koran is saying about them and what must be done about them, because Muslims around the world today are acting upon these teachings. It's a simple matter of knowing who those who have vowed to destroy us think they are, and what they think they're doing, and what they hope to accomplish. They themselves tell us the answers to these questions are found in the Koran.

That's why The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran is needed.

It's a question of self-protection.

Eurabia Alert. How did the European contingent get there? How many masqueraded as asylum seekers, and how many are on public assistance, a la Malika El-Aroud (speaking of Belgium and Morocco)? European authorities should be curious. "Morocco arrests 24 in 'terrorist network' crackdown: interior ministry," from Agence France-Presse, September 23:

The security services in Morocco have arrested 24 members of a "terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for suicide bombings in Iraq, the interior ministry said Wednesday.

In a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, it said the network -- coordinating "with terrorists in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone" -- also sought recruits for Al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan and Somalia.

The suspects -- now being questioned by police -- were arrested in several cities in Morocco, said the ministry, which did not specify the date when they were apprehended.

What do you think? Will Honest Ibe Hooper and Brave Ahmed Rehab of CAIR rush to sign up? Why not? CAIR has denied that Islam mandates death for apostates. So has M. Cherif Bassiouni, distinguished professor emeritus etc. etc. Will they sign? Will Salam al-Marayati of MPAC? Will any Muslim leader in the US? This will be very interesting to watch. A press release from Former Muslims United:

Former Muslims send "Freedom Pledge" Nationwide to Muslim Leaders for 220th Anniversary of Bill of Rights

"Muslim Pledge for Religious Freedom and Safety from Harm
for Former Muslims"

Call on DOJ, US Commission On Civil Rights to Investigate Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Apostates from Islam

WASHINGTON, DC (September 23, 2009) - Prominent former Muslims-- apostates from Islam-- have mailed a groundbreaking Freedom Pledge to over 50 Muslim leaders asking them to repudiate the Islamic law that requires the execution of apostates who have left Islam. The pledge and cover letter have just been released to the public at the website of the new civil rights organization - Former Muslims United - www.formermuslimsunited.org.

Former Muslims United will be formally launched at a press conference Thursday, September 24, to announce the start of their national campaign to educate the American public and policymakers about the threat from authoritative Shariah-- Islamic law-- to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims. The names and organizational affiliations of the Muslim leaders sent the Freedom Pledge will be released at the press conference and posted online at www.formermuslimsunited.org. Additional Muslim leaders will be sent the pledge in the next months as the national campaign gets underway.

Former Muslims United founders, authors Nonie Darwish and Ibn Warraq, will also release the text of letters which were hand-delivered Wednesday, September 23, 2009 to Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Department of Justice, and Gerald A. Reynolds, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The letters call on Holder and Reynolds to investigate possible hate crimes and civil rights violations against apostates from Islam, including the circumstances of the current Florida case of 17-year old Rifqa Bary, a former Muslim. The letters were signed by Former Muslims United founders Nonie Darwish, Mohammad Asghar, Amil Imani, Wafa Sultan and Ibn Warraq.

In the cover letter to the Freedom Pledge, the five founders speak directly to Muslim leaders : "We are all aware of incidents of intimidation, threats of violence and actual assaults against former Muslims. We reach out to you with a sincere hope that you and your organization will join with us in ensuring peace and justice, safety and freedom for Muslims and former Muslims alike...."

The "Muslim Pledge for Religious Freedom and Safety from Harm for Former Muslims" includes numerous citations for Shariah legal opinions on death for apostates. The full pledge can be read and downloaded at www.formermuslimsunited.org .

Security at the press conference will be tightly maintained, and photo identification will be required of all attendees.

EVENT: Launch of Former Muslims United

PLACE: Longworth House Office Building, Hearing Room 1334

DATE: Thursday, September 24, 2009

TIME: 2:00 p.m.

All Former Muslims United founders are available for interviews.

For more information, contact Former Muslims United director Nonie Darwish at 818-314-3972 or email info@formermuslimsunited.org

Another Hate Mail from London (from a different Hate Mailer from the other London Hate Mail Bag entries) provides a thoughtful and incisive analysis:

dear sir i now know your problems. you have a tiny d**k, you are a wimp, you are a coward, you are a midget, you have an ugly wife,

Well, it's true I am not very tall, but...

It's daffy, all right, but in reality Gaddafi is reflecting the conventional wisdom here. What's the difference between an Islamic state and a Christian state? Why, maybe the cut of one's beard or the style of one's hat. That's it. Stonings? Amputations? Denial of free speech? Denial of legal equality? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

"Gaddafi defends Taliban," from Agence France-Presse, September 24 (thanks to Maxwell):

LIBYAN President Muammar Gaddafi launched a spirited defence of Afghanistan's hardline Taliban overnight in a rambling address to the UN General Assembly.

"Why are we against the Taliban? Why are we against Afghanistan?" he asked leaders of more than 120 nations attending the annual General Assembly debate.

"If the Taliban wants to make a religious state, okay, like the Vatican. Does the Vatican constitute a danger against us? No," said the Libyan leader, addressing the 192-member body for the first time in his 40 years in power.

"If the Taliban wants to create an Islamic emirate, who said they are the enemy?" he said....

Sharia Alert: Yes, even this is a police matter. "Iran police 'target mannequins'," from BBC News, September 22:

Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports.

Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said.

The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years.

"Un-Islamic behaviour" has been targeted since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005.

"Using unusual mannequins exposing body curves and with heads without hijabs [Muslim veils] are prohibited to be used in the shops," police said in a statement carried by Irna.

Correspondents say that in the past such campaigns usually only lasted throughout the summer, but last year's crackdown, including on tight trousers for women, was still continuing in the winter.

Iranians who violate dress codes for the first time are generally cautioned, but repeat offenders can face court action and "guidance classes".

NEW YORK -- Police in New York City stepped up their patrols and increased their random searches on subways and buses Wednesday following reports that as many as 24 more people are under observation in a suspected cross-country terror plot.

Amid media reports that some public storage centers in the region were being raided, the FBI told FOX News that there may be "consensual searches" under way but they were not "raids."

No new search warrants have been filed in recent days, the FBI told FOX.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued bulletins earlier this week warning law enforcement officials around the country to watch mass transit, stadiums, warehouses with rentable storage units and hotels for any unusual activity.

The feds circulated the internal alerts in the midst of the investigation into a suspected New York City-Colorado terror plot in which three people -- an airport shuttle driver, his father and an imam -- are in custody for allegedly lying to the government.

The three are due in court Thursday to face the charges.

The possible Al Qaeda-linked scheme may have included plans to detonate bombs stuffed into backpacks, much like the subway attacks carried out in Madrid and London, authorities say....

Hosni's victimhood whining here reaches Ibrahim-Hooperesque proportions -- and he has recourse to that last refuge of scoundrels, the "out-of-context" defense. "Defeated Egypt candidate accuses UNESCO," by Ines Bel Aiba for AFP, September 23 (thanks to James):

CAIRO -- Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosni lashed out at the United Nations for being "politicised" on Wednesday after losing out in his bid to head UNESCO, as his country's press charged the vote was proof of a "clash of civilisations."

"The organisation has become politicised," Hosni told reporters at Cairo airport, a day after he lost to Bulgarian Irina Bokova.

"Two votes were taken away. Two votes that were considered... a betrayal," Hosni said after dropping from 29 votes in the fourth round of the election to 27 in the final one.

Many capitals had wanted to support him as a gesture of reconciliation with the Arab world and Islam. France at first supported Hosni but switched in the final round.

"The reality is that we waged a fantastic battle. The Egyptian candidate had the newspapers and Zionist pressures against him every day," he said.

The minister described the race as a battle between north and south.

"The north always has to control the south," said Hosni, adding that "the American ambassador did everything he could" to stop his election....

The Egyptian press slammed Hosni's defeat as proof of a 'clash of civilisations'.

"A clash of civilisations determines the UNESCO fight," trumpeted the headline in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.

"America, Europe and the Jewish lobby brought down Faruq Hosni after an honourable competition by the Egyptian delegation."...

Cairo had expressed hope that Hosni's election as the first Arab to head the agency would send a positive signal from the West to the Muslim world.

But the campaign met strong opposition from US and French commentators as well as from Auschwitz survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who said appointing Hosni would "shame" the global community.

"The Egyptian and Arabic candidate for the post was subjected to a ferocious campaign against him by the American administration, under Jewish pressure," said the opposition weekly Al-Ahrar on its front page.

"Faruq Hosni's campaign was met with an uncivilised attack by Jewish intellectuals in France," state-owned Al-Ahram Al-Messai wrote in its leader column.

Other papers said the result was a symptom of anti-Islamic sentiment.

The election showed that "the West stands against the others on the basis of religion in critical moments," the daily Rose al-Youssef wrote.

It described the election and the US pressure on countries to vote against Hosni as "voting at knifepoint".

In his lengthy political career, Hosni has often been accused of promoting anti-Semitism, in particular in 2008 when he told the Egyptian parliament: "I'd burn Israeli books myself if I found any in libraries in Egypt."

Hosni, who has been Egypt's culture minister for 22 years, insists his comment was made during an angry exchange with hardliners from the Muslim Brotherhood and had been taken out of context....

Of course! He really meant he would put all the Israeli books on his Recommended Reading List! You just have to know the context!

After a quiet Month of Jihad, the jihad actually resumes. "Terrorism: Algeria, Several Attacks In Kabylie, Fatalities," from ANSAmed, September 22 (thanks to Insubria):

ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 22 - After a month of Ramadan that was marked by a significant decline in terrorism, several attacks have hit the Algerian region of Kabylie over recent days, killing a soldier and a patriot (civilian self-defence groups) and injuring at least 7 policemen. According to the Algerian press, five soldiers were injured on Sunday (the first day of Aid El Fitr, the holiday which marks the end of Ramadan) in the explosion of a remotely-activated bomb in Takhoukht, 30km south of Tizi Ouzou, capital city of the Kabylie region. On Saturday, another soldier was injured by a second bomb in the same area, whilst just a few kilometres away in Souk El Thenine, a group of armed men opened fire on a car in which a police officer was travelling. A soldier, writes El Watan, was killed in an explosion of a fourth bomb on Friday near Boumerdes, 50km east of Algiers. In Bouira, in Kabylie, a patriot was shot dead on the same day. (ANSAmed).

Bruce Bawer is entirely right about this. "Author warns of the 'silent Jihad,'" by Dan Delmar for The Suburban, September 23 (thanks to James):

Bruce Bawer left his native New York City in favour of Amsterdam because he wanted to escape rampant homophobia in the U.S. Instead, he says he found a different kind of discrimination in Europe.

The author of a number of books on religious fanaticism, his most recent work is Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom. Bawer argues that Europe is currently falling victim to a "silent Jihad," a hidden holy war perpetrated by radical Islamists on Western, social-democratic values. Speaking at a conference last week organized by Islamist watchdog group Point de Bascule, Bawer warned Canadians to not be as complacent as their counterparts across the pond.

Radical Islam "is a subject that a few years ago, wasn't on my radar. My goal was to write a book celebrating The Netherlands and Amsterdam," Bawer told the audience. What he saw in major European cities were enclaved communities, ghettos, where residents were "subject to seventh century Islamic law. They could barely speak the language of the country they were born in, thanks to the generosity of the European welfare state."

In Bawer's works, he documents cases of European mullahs preaching hate for the values of their home countries, even advocating violence. He pointed to the uproar caused by the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed and cases of judges giving lighter sentences to murderers who commit "honour killings," because the killer was acting within a different cultural prism....

Bawer said that Europeans, and Canadians, who preach a "live and let live" philosophy are not being true to their liberal roots.

"People going after Islam most often are associated with the right (wing)," he said. "The left doesn't seem to know what liberal values are anymore and don't recognize a threat to liberal values when it's staring them in the face."

"For such efforts, Musharraf and the Pakistani government have been paid handsomely, receiving more than $10 billion in American money since 2001....For years, the survival of Pakistan's military and civilian leaders has depended on a double game: assuring the United States that they were vigorously repressing Islamic militants -- and in some cases actually doing so -- while simultaneously tolerating and assisting the same militants." -- New York Times, September 7, 2008

Monumental Chutzpah Alert: the U.S. paid Pakistan to fight against the jihadis, Pakistan funneled much of the money to the same jihadis, and now Pakistan wants to get reimbursed. How long are we going to let Pakistan drain us before we realize they are not on our side?

"Pakistan: President urges US to reimburse $1.6 bn for terror war," from AKI, September 23 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Islamabad, 23 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari has urged the United States government to reimburse the 1.6 billion dollars that Pakistan spent on fighting extremism in the tribal areas earlier this year.

The United States pays Pakistan for the anti-extremist operations from a special account called the Coalition Support Fund. Pakistan has not been paid for more than a year, Pakistani daily Dawn said.

President Zardari made this demand in two separate meetings with US officials including special envoy Richard Holbrooke.

President Zardari also called for an early realisation of about six billion dollars pledged to Pakistan in the Tokyo conference earlier this year where international donors promised to help Pakistan overcome its economic crisis.

The President also sought an early adoption of the Kerry-Lugar Bill that may bring in another 1.5 billion dollars of annual US assistance over a period of five years....

Hezb al-Islam, the Party of Islam, kills African peacekeepers. Will the Islamophobia never end? "Eight civilians killed in Mogadishu clashes," from AFP, September 23 (thanks to James):

MOGADISHU -- At least eight civilians were killed in Mogadishu when Islamist insurgents attacked African peacekeepers prompting an exchange of gun and artillery fire that hit civilian targets, officials and witnesses said on Wednesday.

The fighting erupted on Tuesday in southern Mogadishu's Maka Al-Mukarama road where the African peacekeepers from Uganda are stationed but it later spilled over into other areas.

"The terrorists who never tire of violence attacked the peacekeepers with rocket propelled grenades and mortars but they were pushed back to their positions," Colonel Mohamed Abdi Alin, a Somali government security officer, said on Wednesday.

"We got information indicating there were civilian casualties; some people died in the crossfire -- more than five," he added.

Witnesses also confirmed the civilian fatalities in southern Mogadishu neighbourhoods.

"Five people died in Holwadag and seven others were injured when a mortar shell struck their houses," one witness, Ibrahim Ahmed, said.

"Three out of the five died in one place, their burned bodies were found under the debris of their house," another witness, Nurto Moalim Ali, told AFP. Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, told AFP his team collected 13 injured people, three of whom subsequently died, bringing to eight the number of civilian casualties in Tuesday's clashes.

Hezb al-Islam, a rebel group allied to the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab in the fight against the government, claimed the attack which was the heaviest in weeks.

"We attacked the enemy positions and killed several of them during heavy clashes. They started shelling Bakara market and other civilian populated areas killing many civilians," Hezb al-Islam commander Sheik Mohamed Osman said....

"God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies."

"Terrorism: Muslims will defeat Obama vows Al-Qaeda no. 2," from AKI, September 23 (thanks to James):

Rome, 23 Sept. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri has issued a new video threat to US president Barack Obama. "Your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation," al-Zawahiri said in the video, which was posted on militant websites.

"After Bush, thanks to Allah, after all these years that America failed, it has presented a new, hypocritical face. Smiling at us, but stabbing us with the same dagger that Bush used," said al-Zawahiri, referring to former US president George W. Bush

"God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies."

Al-Zawahiri renewed Al-Qaeda's earlier calls for Muslims to join a 'holy war' or Jihad, urging them not to wait for their 'traitor' governments or spiritual leaders to take action.

"Who has not waged Jihad as a youngster will certainly not do so when they are old," he said....

In Human Events today I discuss the unfolding jihad plot in New York and Denver:

Details are still emerging, but it seems clear at this point that the extensive jihad terror plot that has been exposed in New York City and Denver this week involved plans to target baseball and football stadiums and New York's Fashion Week with explosives carried in knapsacks to the detonation point and then detonated remotely -- as in Madrid on March 11, 2004, when jihadist bombings killed 191 people and wounded 1,800.

Central to the plot is a young man named Najibullah Zazi, who was initially cooperative with Federal agents until it began to emerge that he had ties to Al-Qaeda. Zazi is in even more hot water after the discovery of bomb-making instructions in his own handwriting.

Zazi offered the improbable explanation that he accidentally downloaded the bomb-making material while downloading what news reports primly referred to as a "religious text." In keeping with prevailing politically correct sensibilities, no report specified what kind of "religious text" might come with downloadable bomb-making instructions, or said anything about which religion was involved. Reporters were mum about what the adherents of this unnamed religion might be doing to encourage bomb-making, or how they might find justification for such actions in the texts and teachings of that religion.

Just in case anyone on the planet still might not know which religion could be involved in such things, a clue came with the arrest of Ahmad Afzali, an imam who, according to the New York Daily News, "became religious in high school, and preached at the Masjid Hazrat Abu Bakr Islamic Center, New York's largest Afghan mosque, until 2007, when he opened a funeral business." (Yes, a funeral business.) Before this case broke, the FBI apparently consulted Afzali more than once. Last week he said, "They come for information, and I always help. I have helped them many times."

However, Afzali was apparently playing a double game. He called Zazi on September 11, after learning that the young man and his friends were suspected of terrorist activity. "They asked me about you guys," Afzali told Zazi. "They came to ask me about your characters." Afzali disclaimed any knowledge of whatever Zazi was doing: "I'm not sure what happened. And I don't want to know." Nonetheless, he protected his friend in front of the Feds: "I told them that 'they are innocent, law abiding.'"...

Not that anyone is likely to draw any lessons from this -- not lessons about the NYPD cooperating with the FBI, which is what this article is about, but about making false and unwarranted assumptions about the loyalties of Muslims who appear to be "moderate." The fact that there is no moderate Koran, or moderate Islam, ought to give officials a certain sense of reserve when recruiting these "moderates" and asking for their help. It ought to make them at very least ask potential "helpers" some pointed questions, questions that are crafted to show what the aide really thinks about Infidels, Sharia, non-establishment of religion, American society, and related matters, all pertinent. But such questioning is not even on the radar screen. It would be "Islamophobic." It would not build bridges. So instead, we get this.

New York Jihad Plot Update: "How Using Imam in Terror Inquiry Backfired on Police," by William K. Rashbaum and Al Baker in the New York Times, September 22 (thanks to David):

A decision to enlist a Queens imam in an effort to develop information about the man at the center of a long-running cross-country terrorism investigation backfired earlier this month.

In fact, federal prosecutors have now charged the imam, a onetime source of information for the New York Police Department, contending that he betrayed the police by warning the suspect and then lied about it, and maybe even coached him on what to say if he was questioned.

Several law enforcement officials have said the imam's disclosures went a long way toward forcing their hand in an extremely sensitive investigation of a possible Qaeda plot. The situation left them scrambling to conduct raids and arrest the suspect sooner than they might have otherwise, a development that they said could make it harder to identify others involved and develop evidence against them.

Several officials -- all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because much of the investigation is classified -- have said that the inquiry, which had been under way for months, could well have continued, tracking the communications, meetings, plans and associates of the suspect, Najibullah Zazi, 24....

Current and former police and federal officials said the approach to the imam, and the resulting disruption, added to a long history of tensions and rivalry between the New York New YorkPolice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in recent years have developed a new dimension: a clash of sorts within the Police Department, between its two primary antiterrorism units....

Current and former police and federal officials said that the effort on Sept. 10 to enlist the imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, was undertaken by detectives from the Intelligence Division. They showed him pictures of the central suspect and three other men, some of the officials said.

In the subsequent hours, Mr. Afzali spoke both with the suspect, Mr. Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle bus driver, and his father. Court papers say he told the younger Mr. Zazi, who had driven from Colorado to Queens on Sept. 9 and 10, that the authorities had been looking for him....

Today's Hate Mail Bag entry comes from beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia. It contains the usual projection: I know nothing, and "hate" and "oppress" Muslims by reporting on jihad activity and on how jihadists use the Qur'an to teach violence against unbelievers. It is virtually certain that this Hate Mailer never directed any similar indignation at the jihadist "crazies" who are supposedly misunderstanding her religion of "forget and forgive" (and where exactly does the Qur'an say that)?

What i hear and read from this website sounds like it comes from uneducated people of hate.. how can one talk about a subject, create a website, and know absolutley nothing about the topic. I have heard things and read things that can only come form one who is purposely lying and creating a false hateful image of people only to get others to follow or believe what they hear and see. why not get educated first then work on this. I have never read or heard anything about Islam preaching to kill everyone who is a non-believer, when it clearly says in the quran forget and forgive and continues to say that He(God) is the one that will bring justice to the oppressed. And by oppressed i mean the opression all muslims, and non-muslims feel because of people like you. This is all because of the jelousy, that real practicing muslims, and not the crazies that think its ok to kill everyone, real muslims treat their parents with respect, they respect themselves and everyone else, the girls dont walk around exposed on the streets, they dont have babies when they are 13.. all these reasons plus more are why you and people like you hate muslims... How about you learn the real Islam, and not blindly follow what you are fed. Knowledge is the key to understanding and acceptance. We are all humans and why can people not see that. We do not all need be the same religion we only need to respect each others decision to the religion they choose. Islam is justice it is peace it is acceptance.. Learn something..

New York Jihad Plot Update: "Cops, feds ransack Queens storage sites for Qaeda bomb-making materials," by Alison Gendar, James Gordon Meek, John Marzulli, Rocco Parascandola and Corky Siemaszko for the New York Daily News, September 22 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Detectives were combing Queens storage facilities on Monday for stockpiled explosive chemicals that Al Qaeda terror thugs planned to use to bomb New York, sources said.

At the same time, the Daily News has learned that prime terror suspect Najibullah Zazi has confessed he was a jihadist hell-bent on murderous mayhem, the sources said.

NYPD investigators, in coordination with the FBI, hit chemical and fertilizer companies looking for customers who bought bulk and paid cash - and they were also showing up at storage centers in Long Island City.

Investigators believe they were going to use the units to mix chemicals for explosives.

"They're full on, and still going full bore," a counterterror official said of the bomb hunt.

The Department of Homeland Security at the same time has issued a nationwide bulletin asking cops to look at storage facilities.

"Operation Nexus" took on an extra urgency after raids on Queens apartments Zazi visited turned up knapsacks and cell phones. The exact targets are not known, but the find raised the specter of simultaneous blasts like the 2004 attack that killed 191 commuters in Spain.

ABC News reported that investigators believe that there were three teams of four terrorists involved in the planning.

A senior counterterror official told The News, however, that nobody knows for sure who else is out there - or whether the plot is disrupted....

The FBI said Zazi, arrested in Colorado on Saturday, has admitted being trained in "weapons and explosives" last year at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan.

And sources told The News for the first time that he admits he was out to kill....

Arabs in Samaria have complained that attack snakes are being sent into the area from the Israeli city of Ariel, one woman has been bitten by one such snake. The local Palestinians base this accusation on the fact that a woman nearby to Ariel was bitten by a snake which witnesses say then fled back towards the city. The Palestinians interpreted the snake's heading as a clear indication that the reptile was a trained assassin working for Mossad.

The many decades during which the systematic attempt, through legislation, by Ataturk to remove Islam in Turkey from the political sphere and to limit its power to fashion society, over time managed to allow the formation of a class of Turks who, in their mental outlook are not as distant as from Western man as are, say, Arabs or Pakistanis.

They do, unsurprisingly, continue to identify themselves as Muslims, sometimes out of civilisational defensiveness or filial piety. To abandon Islam might seem like abandoning a pious grandmother, or viewing the islamization of the former Byzantine Empire as a historic mistake, and many cannot bring themselves to do that. This secular class consists, in the main, of businessmen who have dealings with the West (the Sabanci family comes to mind), writers (Orhan Pamuk, about to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard), journalists, professors, rectors of universities, art gallery owners, musicians who play Western music.

Dhimmitude and ignorance from a Pennsylvania public school district. At the slightest hint of pressure, most individuals and groups who find themselves in this position cave in faster than you can say "Islamophobia" -- and most of the time, as in this case, they don't make the slightest effort to verify whether or not the pressure group's claims are true. "CAIR: Penn. High School Drops Anti-Islam 'Obsession' Video," a CAIR press release, September 22 (thanks to James):

Civil rights group calls film 'vehicle for promoting anti-Muslim bigotry'

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-PA) announced today that a high school in that state has dropped an anti-Islam video listed for use in one of its classes.

Earlier this month, CAIR-PA sent a letter to the superintendent of the Council Rock School District expressing concerns about a hate-filled video, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," listed in the syllabus of a course at Council Rock High School in Newtown, Penn.

In her letter, CAIR-PA Director of Civil Rights Marwa El-Turky wrote in part:

"'Obsession' is a vehicle for promoting anti-Muslim bigotry that seeks to blur the distinction between violent extremism and mainstream Islam. The use of such an inaccurate and inflammatory film in a world history class would inevitably result in both the promotion of stereotypes and the creation of a hostile learning environment for Muslim students.

"The hate-filled agenda promoted by the film has been repudiated by the Hate Hurts America Multifaith Community Coalition (HHA), a group of religious and civic organizations seeking to challenge hate speech in our society... Those interviewed in Obsession constitute a veritable who's who of Muslim-bashers. SEE: http://www.obsessionwithhate.com/

". . .this film is obviously not suitable teaching material for a captive audience of impressionable youth. We therefore respectfully ask that 'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West' be dropped from the curriculum and that representatives of the local Muslim community be invited to offer balanced and accurate information about Islam and the American Muslim experience."

These are all highly debatable claims. Did Superintendent of Schools Mark J. Klein seek to verify CAIR's (false) claim that Obsession "seeks to blur the distinction between violent extremism and mainstream Islam"? In fact, the movie bends over backwards not to blur that distinction -- so much so that some say it errs too much on the other side, giving viewers the impression that the Islamic jihad globally is just the property of a few nuts, and is condemned and actively opposed by the vast majority of Muslims. Did Klein receive this claim from CAIR and investigate it? Or did he receive it and immediately move to accommodate these thugs and bullies, without giving it a moment's thought?

In his response to CAIR-PA's concerns, Superintendent of Schools Mark J. Klein noted that the course was eliminated from the curriculum for the 2008-2009 school year and that, "Along with the elimination of this course, we will represent to you that this film will not be used in any other course in Council Rock."

"We appreciate the school district's prompt and appropriate response and hope that any future courses touching on Islam will use accurate and balanced educational materials," said El-Turky....

"The bulletin on stadiums notes that an Al Qaeda training manual specifically lists 'blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin... and attacking vital economic centers...'"

New York Jihad Plot Update: "Authorities Eye Stadiums, Hotels, Storage Centers in Colorado Terror Plot Probe," from FoxNews, September 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Federal counterterrorism officials warned local police to patrol stadiums, hotels and entertainment complexes for suspicious activity after the arrest of a Colorado man suspected of a far-reaching terror plot.

Officials said the FBI/Homeland Security bulletins weren't tied to known threats and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly downplayed terror fears there, saying there was no specific threat and he wasn't stepping up his forces as a result.

"There is no security information on entertainment, sports, transit, no specific information ... other than the fact that in a post-9/11 world, we are concerned about a lot of things," Kelly told reporters at a Tuesday morning briefing in Manhattan.

Kelly said New York City already devotes "1,000 or over 1,000" police officers daily to counterterrorism efforts.

"We have not engaged in any different practices or increased our security," he said. "We are, every day, up to a level that exceeds any other city that I'm aware of."

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also issued joint alerts to police around the country to watch storage centers for any unusual behavior.

Two bulletins were sent Monday to local authorities nationwide, with federal officials saying they know of no specific plots against such sites. The warnings -- the latest in a flurry circulated as authorities investigate a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York City -- say those sites remain attractive targets to groups like Al Qaeda.

The directives came after a similar bulletin about the vulnerabilities of mass transit systems was sent out Friday.

The bulletin on stadiums notes that an Al Qaeda training manual specifically lists "blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin... and attacking vital economic centers" as desired targets of the global terror network.

A joint statement from DHS and FBI said while the agencies "have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity."...

Rifqa Bary is in serious danger. Here is Pamela's report on the hearing in Orlando yesterday. And "Fathima's Fears," an Investor's Business Daily editorial from September 21 (thanks to all who sent this in) explains what's at stake:

Islamism: A Muslim teen who fled from Ohio to Florida after becoming Christian swears her father will kill her if she goes back home. Florida authorities appear willing to take that chance.
The state believes her fears are unfounded after talking to the devout Muslim father and his lawyers, who work for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. And it's expected to return her to his care....
In their report, Florida authorities found: "Ms. Bary's concern that she may be killed because of her conversion from Islam to Christianity remains a subjective and speculative concern."

Based on the facts of the case -- along with prior Muslim father-daughter "honor killings" inside America -- we would argue that the concern is, on the contrary, very real. Consider that:

• Bary swore in a court filing that her father confronted her in her bedroom and said: "If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!" And then, picking up a laptop as if to hit her, he allegedly added: "I will kill you!" A friend reported the incident to local police.

(The father, Mohamed Bary, admits grabbing the computer but says he meant only to throw it. He denies threatening her life.)

• The daughter also swore that her father punched her in the face on the way to mosque one day because she complained about wearing a hijab. (The father denies striking her.)

• Bary also testified her family's radical mosque told her father to "deal with the situation" of her Christian conversion, a thinly veiled reference, she says, to honor killing.

The CAIR lawyers assured Florida investigators that there's no such thing as honor killings in Islam. In fact, there is a requirement in Shariah, or Islamic, law for killing publicly declared apostates, and Bary announced leaving Islam on her Facebook page.

CNN and others in the mainstream media have made an issue of Bary's truthfulness, and some details of her story don't hold up. Notably, she said she hid her cheerleading because she feared her father's disapproval.

But investigators say they saw photos of the girl in her cheerleading uniform prominently displayed in the family room of their Ohio home. (It's not clear when the photos were put up, however, and investigators confirmed that at least the mother had denied her permission to join the squad.)

Bary's mother told authorities that her husband believes that if their daughter returns home, she should practice Islam as long as she's underage and living under their roof. What if she doesn't? What then?

Good question.

Yet another setback for the "all religions are equally likely to inspire violence" crowd. Note the official indifference and complicity. "Muslim Man Beheads Christian in Egypt," by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, September 21:

Egypt (AINA) -- Osama Araban, a Muslim man riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, went on a rampage last week in Egypt, killing 63-year old Coptic Christian Abdo George Younan, in the village of Bagour, before traveling onwards and stabbing with intention to kill two other Copts in two different villages, at least 10 km apart (AINA 9-18-2009).

In the village of Behnay he repeatedly stabbed Coptic shoemaker Adib Boulos before being stopped by eyewitness Behman Saeed, after whom Osama Araban ran, leaving the victim behind. Adib suffered a broken scull and lung hemorrhage, and is still fighting for his life in intensive care unit at Shebin el-Kom Hospital.

Osama Araban then traveled to the village of Mit Afif and stabbed his third victim, Sobhy Barsum, a blacksmith. He also stabbed his brother Hani Barsum in the neck -- only to be saved by a co-worker. Hani was also hospitalized.

Osama Araban was arrested the following day.

The funeral procession of Abdo Younan was attended by thousands of Copts, led by Metropolitan Archbishop Benjamin of Menoufia Diocese and seventeen clergymen. Hundreds of banners were held, showing the amount of anger and injustice felt by Copts. Anti State Security chants were heard during the procession, besides calling on President Mubarak and the government to save the Copts from the hands of the fundamentalist[s] who are killing them.

This incident which took place on September 16, 2009, has left Copts in Egypt shocked and angered, not only because attacks against Copts have been escalating, but because of the way the murder was committed.

The details of the attacks, not told by the media, but exposed by Coptic lawyers and activists, reveal that 35-year old car painter Osama Araban not only stabbed Abdo nine times but also severed his head from his body -- an Islamic ritual beheading. He then meticulously washed his bayonet with the water hose the victim was using, before setting off on his motorcycle to the next two villages, looking for more Coptic victims....

No Muslim has ever been sentenced justly for killing a Copt. Consequently, the Egyptian Government's manipulation of facts is not to save the Copt's murderer from a just punishment, but more to save its face in front of the Western world for being blatantly unjust towards the Coptic victim, given that Egypt is a member of the UN Human Rights Council which is responsible for the protection of human rights around the globe.

An update on this story. "Active Ter