November 2010 Archives

October 20, outside the UN in New York.

Islamic law forbids a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man. And even murder is preferable to that. "Muslim girl killed for love affair with Hindu," from Indo-Asian News Service, November 25 (thanks to S.):

A Muslim man has been arrested for killing his teenaged daughter who was in love with a Hindu youth from the same village, police said on Thursday. Mushtakeem, a resident of Mawaithakuran village, strangled his 18-year-old daughter Rehana Parveen after she insisted on marrying her lover Bhoora Prajapati, 21, police said.

Mushtakeem was arrested late on Wednesday after Parveen's body was recovered from their home. The village is in Moradabad district, some 300 km from Lucknow.

According to police, Prajapati and Parveen used to meet regularly in the fields on the outskirts of the village. But as Parveen had not been coming for the last few days, Prajapati approached police suspecting the girl could be in trouble.

Police raided Mushtakeem's house and recovered his daughter's body from a locked room.

"Preliminary investigations indicate it's a case of honour killing. The father has confessed to the crime," police inspector Ravi Kumar told reporters on Thursday.

"The father told us he committed the crime as he thought his daughter's marriage with the youth of a different community would bring a bad name to the family," he added....

But murder wouldn't, you see.

But deep down, they really, really want peace. "PA TV broadcasts song calling for Jihad against Israel: 'Draw your sword, let it not return,'" by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook for Palestinian Media Watch, November 30:

Official Palestinian Authority television has broadcast a song calling for Jihad and violence against Israel. The PA TV program on culture included an interview with singer Amar Hasan, and the playing of his song: "The oppressors [Israelis] have gone too far. Therefore Jihad is our right... draw your sword." The words call for violence against Israel in the name of both Arab pride and Islam. [...]

PA TV is controlled by the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Following are the lyrics of the song:

"My brother! The oppressors [Israelis] have gone too far.
Therefore Jihad is a right, and self-sacrifice is a right.
Shall we let them steal the Arab nature -
the patriarchal glory and rule?
And only through the sound of the sword
They respond, with voice or echo.
Draw from the sheath your sword;
And let it not return.
My brother, my brother, Oh proud Arab
Today is our moment, not tomorrow.
My brother, the time of our nation's sunrise has arrived,
[the time] for you to repel those who are misled
And bring renaissance to Islam."

Surprise, surprise. "CAIR Rep's Right Idea, Wrong Message," from IPT News, November 30:

There's a "pattern" we should be aware of, CAIR-Chicago's Ahmed Rehab told America during a recent appearance on Fox News. It has been Muslims who have helped "foil" recent terror plots and report extremists, he said.

In many cases, that's true. Rehab and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), however, can't take credit for helping encourage this pattern of behavior.

A new IPT memo shows that though Rehab has been vocal about his commitment to fighting extremism, he has:

• Refused to wholly condemn Hamas.
• Minimized extremist pockets in U.S. society.
• Accused the government of fabricating its own terrorists.
• Alleged that terrorism prosecutions are not based on evidence, but attempts to silence Muslims and activists for Palestine.

During a 2006 episode of BBC's "Hard Talk" Rehab was asked by the BBC's Stephen Sackur if he could give a "straight forward" condemnation of Hamas. "Do I condemn the hospitals run by Hamas, or the schools that help children learn, in Hamas?" Rehab answered. "No, I don't condemn that. But I do condemn the blowing up of Tel Aviv pizzerias or cafes."

Hamas isn't the only radical group for which Rehab has offered no condemnation or a qualified one. The radical groups Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) and Revolution Muslim (RM) have both encouraged their followers to kill individuals with whom they disagree. Rehab has minimized their significance.

Just this year, RM has issued death threats against British parliamentarians and the creators of the television cartoon "South Park." Similarly, HuT leaders have encouraged Australian Muslims to kill anyone who might stand in the way of establishing an Islamic super-state. As the IPT recently reported, ideological groups like RM are shifting to a more operational role in terrorism.

After the "South Park" threat, Rehab did say that RM should be "seriously investigated," but he also implied the group might be a set-up. Rehab wrote that "whether true Muslims or agent provocateurs," the guys behind RM, "are five community outcasts."

"Most suspect the group is fraudulent," he added. Rehab hinted at a conspiracy by mentioning that the group's "mysterious leader" converted to Islam after living in Israel. CAIR's national spokesman Ibrahim Hooper amplified Rehab's argument when he claimed that, "most Muslims suspect they [RM] were set up only to make Muslims look bad."...

Rehab does that very well himself. Read it all.

But remember: the real problem is Christian "extremists" who oppose gay marriage. Obama campaigned for Odinga, although he has denounced an initiative similar to this one in Uganda. Sharia Alert from Kenya: "Arrest gays, Kenyan PM orders," by Bernard Momanyi for Capital News, November 29:

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 28 - Prime Minister Raila Odinga has ordered a nationwide crackdown on homosexuals in Kenya.

Mr Odinga on Sunday said that police should arrest anyone found engaging in such behaviours and take appropriate legal action against them.

"We will not tolerate such behaviours in the country. The constitution is very clear on this issue and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared," Mr Odinga said.

"Any man found engaging in sexual activities with another man should be arrested. Even women found engaging in sexual activities will be arrested," the premier warned....

"This [homosexual] kind of behaviours will not be tolerated in this country. Men or women found engaging in those acts deserve to be arrested and will be arrested," he told the crowd....

A move by Uganda to introduce a Bill calling for long jail terms or death penalty in some cases of homosexuality received international condemnation, with US President Barack Obama describing it as "odious".

He said: "But surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are, whether it is here in the United States or... more extremely, in odious laws that are being proposed more recently in Uganda."

But notwithstanding Obama's remarks, homosexual acts are now illegal in Uganda and attracts jail terms of up to 14 years in prison.

Jihad recruitment in the U.S. "Somali woman in terror money case to stay in jail," from The Associated Press, November 30:

SAN DIEGO -- A Somali-born woman in San Diego accused of routing money and people to a terrorist organization in her native country will remain in jail for now.

Nima Ali Yusuf appeared briefly Tuesday in U.S. District Court, where she waived her right to a custody hearing and agreed to remain in jail with the option of arguing for her release at a later date.

Prosecutors say the 24-year-old permanent U.S. resident sent about $800 to al-Shabab and tried to recruit fighters....

After all the violence and double talk, it is refreshing to find someone who still speaks the truth. Jamie Glazov, the ace editor of FrontPage magazine, has just released a new book, Showdown With Evil: Our Struggle With Tyranny and Terror, consisting of his incisive interviews with many pivotal figures on the contemporary scene -- oh, and I'm in there, too. Here is an excerpt from Richard Perle's foreword to the book:

In this extraordinary collection of interviews, Jamie Glazov demonstrates that consistent, searching questions can both enrich and impart coherence to disparate answers: for what emerges from 29 interviews conducted over eight years is an illuminating and important commentary on the largest issues facing America and the West.

It is a commentary whose preoccupation reflects history--Jamie's Glazov's history, rich in the issues of identity, freedom, truth telling and courage. Jamie, it may be said, has had rather more history than he needed--as a man whose parents were dissidents in the Soviet Union and who was taught the values of freedom and the courage to fight for it from the beginning. It is no wonder that he is so wholly absorbed in understanding and opposing, radical, political Islam and its apologists. Today's "useful idiots," like those who preceded them, are drawn almost entirely from the Left. Indeed, many of the individuals are the same, as is the intellectual foundation of their obsessive disdain for the liberal values of an open society. In one way or another nearly all the interviews in this book touch on the readiness of the Left, in an often ludicrous pursuit of political correctness, to accept, and even to advance, the Islamist agenda that has replaced communism as the principal threat to western values and civilization.

Part I, "Obama's Destructive Path," certainly deals with the destructive qualities of a number of policies--but, sadly, support for these policies goes well beyond Obama and his administration. The refusal to recognize that we are gravely threatened by Islamist terror--by deeply ideological extremists who are prepared, even eager, to die in the act of killing infidels (that is, all of us including "moderate Muslims")--is neither original with President Obama nor limited to his administration. Ranging along a spectrum from myopic to willfully blind, the community of academics, journalists, politicians, clerics, establishment lawyers, non-governmental organizations and others who believe we are confronted only by a small number of miscreants who can be effectively dealt with by our criminal justice system (after being Mirandized, of course) is alarmingly large. The idea that those who hate and wish to kill us have been given reason and cause by failures of our own making--aggression against Saddam's murderous regime or the Taliban or support for democratic Israel or the failure to censor blasphemous words or drawings or the use of harsh methods of interrogation, and the like--goes well beyond the current administration (and is likely to outlast it).

Like Bush before him, Obama has done nothing to recognize publicly the Islamist nature of the terrorist threat. But, unlike Bush, his apologetic tone when addressing the Muslim world implies that we are somehow responsible for Islamist extremism. Victor Davis Hanson knows what the President should, but will never say: "Dear radical Muslims, you, not us, created your present misery through religious intolerance, gender apartheid, statism, corruption, tribalism, anti-scientific fundamentalism, and autocracy, and we have neither regrets about our own success nor responsibilities for your own self-induced miseries, unfortunate as they are."

No one, least of all Jamie Glazov, would be surprised at the Media and liberal Left's misplaced sympathy for Islamist militancy, sympathy that obscures the underlying Islamist motives in even such obvious cases as the Fort Hood massacre. As Robert Spencer sagely observes: "They reflexively deny and ignore these conclusions because they are completely sold out to the idea that Muslims, as non-white, non-Christian, non-Westerners, cannot possibly be anything but victims."...

Read it all.

Like father, like son. "More charges lodged against terror dad in foiled subway plot," from the New York Post, November 30:

The father of a man who pleaded guilty in a plot to attack the New York City subway system now faces additional charges, authorities said today.

An updated indictment charges Mohammed Wali Zazi with obstruction of justice and other counts.

The father, who lives in a Denver suburb, previously pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn to conspiracy.

The son, Najibullah Zazi, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

The operation was "undertaken at the direction and under the control of al Qaeda leadership," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Knox said previously.

Najibullah Zazi, a former Colorado airport shuttle driver who attended high school in Queens, pleaded guilty in February....

The attacks were planned to resemble the July 2005 bombings on the London transit system, authorities said.

Good ol' Mo-Mo

Decent Fellows Update. "Friends: 'We knew him as Mo-mo,'" by Kelly Koopmans for KVAL News, November 29:

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- To his friends and colleagues, Mohamed Osman Mohamud wasn't a religious extremist, he was simply "Mo-mo."

"He was an average American student," said Corvallis Imam Yosof Wanly.

Yeah, the average American student usually tries to set off a bomb and murder thousands of people sooner or later.

Wanly said Mohamud was a student, a Muslim and a man wanting to make a change in the world.

"He seemed like he wanted to do something to change something," said Wanly. "His father brought him here so he could make something of himself."...

Omar Mohamed with the Muslim Student Association said he knew Mohamud as an acquaintance through the student association. He said Mohamud attended a couple of association events but that he didn't always lead a life consistent with Islam.

"He hung out with people who partied and drank alcohol," said Mohamed. "He didn't commonly go to the mosque. He wasn't an obedient Muslim."

Omar Mohamed, remember, is a representative of the MSA, which is a Muslim Brotherhood organization. The Brotherhood is dedicated in its own words to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

Still, many said the 19-year old pre-engineering student never let on that he wanted to carry out "violent jihad," as he is reported in a federal affidavit to have said.

"I would have never have [sic] thought anything like this would even come across his mind," Wanly said....

Never ever!

Pamela Geller hits this one right on the head:

Islamic terror? Respect it, Islamophobe!

Clitorectomies? Respect them!

Honor Killings? Respect them!

Persecution of Chrsitians, Jews, Hindus, non-Muslims? Respect it!

Desecration of non-Muslim holy sites? Respect it!

Islamic supremacism? Respect it!

Lack of candor and criticism of Islam? Respect it!

Homicide bombers? Respect them!

Jihad? Respect it!

Jew-hatred? Respect it!

Women as chattel? Respect it!

Burka? Respect it!

"Muslims tell West: 'respect Islam,'" by Megan Detrie for The National, November 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A large majority of Muslims say the best way for the West to improve relations with them is to "respect Islam," according to a new Gallup poll.

Not this: "A large majority of Muslims say the best way for the West to improve relations with them would be for jihadis to knock off the terrorist attacks and stealth jihad in the West."

When asked what could improve relations, Muslims' most common reply was respect their religion. For 72 per cent, that meant not desecrating the Quran or Islam's religious symbols. More than half (52 per cent) felt the West could also show respect by treating Muslims fairly in policies that affect them....

Of course. As always, it's all our fault.

The shooting of Nygaard was one of the first salvos in the violent jihad against the freedom of speech, which has heated up so much since then. "Norway reopens Satanic Verses shooting case," from CBC News, November 27 (thanks to Benedict):

Norwegian police, boosted by a sizable reward, have reopened an investigation into the 1993 attempted assassination of the Norwegian publisher of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

William Nygaard, CEO of the Aschehoug publishing house, was shot three times outside his house in Oslo on Oct. 11, 1993. Though seriously injured, he recovered and says he's happy to hear the news.

Nygaard told Aftenposten newspaper that finding his attempted murderer was important "primarily to defend Norwegian values of freedom of expression."

A reward of 500,000 kroner (about $83,000 Cdn) is being jointly offered by Aschehoug and the Norwegian Publishers' Association for any new information that would lead to an arrest. [...]

The reopening of Nygaard's case follows the September publication of Who Shot William Nygaard? by journalist Odd Isungset, who has followed the story for 17 years.

In the book, Isungset outlines details of the case and the suspects as well as the problems that beset the original investigation. Isungset points fingers at a suspect who bought a one-way ticket to Iran in cash the day after the attack.

"This is a really important case -- the only terror attack on Norwegian soil since World War II," Isungset told the Guardian newspaper.

Nygaard wasn't the only person connected with The Satanic Verses who got attacked. In 1991, the Japanese translator of the book, Hitoshi Igarashi, was killed and the Italian translator, Ettore Caprioli was also attacked. No one has been arrested in those cases either....

It is good that Holder defended the FBI, but deplorable in the first place that in the wake of an attempted jihad mass-murder of Americans, Islamic supremacists (along with their Leftist allies) are trying to put him and the FBI on the defensive instead of cleaning their own house. "Attorney general says FBI acted properly; fire examined at Islamic center," by Pete Yost for The Associated Press, November 30:

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that federal agents acted appropriately in the case of a Somali-American man who allegedly tried to blow up what he thought was a van full of explosives in Portland during the city's Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

The FBI set up a sting operation to investigate Mohamed Osman Mohamud after receiving a tip. Holder rejected the suggestion that Mohamud was a victim of illegal entrapment by the FBI.

Once the undercover operation began, the suspect "chose at every step to continue" with the bombing plot, Holder said.

"He was told that children -- children -- were potentially going to be harmed," the attorney general said....

If the fire is related to the arrest or to an attack on Islam, it "is something that I personally decry," Holder said. "It is not something that is consistent with who we are as Americans."

Yes. If it was.

Laying hold of the Qur'an's guarantee of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111).

"Pakistan suicide attack kills six," from AFP, November 30 (thanks to JCB):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a Pakistani police station in the northwest of the country on Tuesday, killing six people, including two children, officials said.

The attack occurred in the town of Bannu, which lies close to Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, an area which Washington has branded Al-Qaeda's global headquarters and the most dangerous region on Earth.

"It was a suicide attack. The bomber came on foot and detonated himself near a police van close to a police station," said Bannu police chief Iftikhar Khan....

The Pakistani Taliban, who frequently bomb government security forces in the northwest, later claimed responsibility for the attack....

Around 4,000 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks.

The Oklahoma law was not specific enough in explaining that Sharia is not just a system of religious laws and doctrines, but a political and military system. And so Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange wrote this (plaintiff, remember, is the local rep of Hamas-linked CAIR):

Furthermore, plaintiff has presented testimony that "Sharia Law" is not actually "law", but is religious traditions that provide guidance to plaintiff and other Muslims regarding the exercise of their faith. Plaintiff has presented testimony that the obligations that "Sharia Law" imposes are not legal obligations but are obligations of a personal and private nature dictated by faith. Plaintiff also testified that "Sharia Law" differs depending on the country in which the individual Muslim resides. For example, plaintiff stated that marrying more than one wife is permissible in Islam but in the United States, where that is illegal, Muslims do not marry more than one wife because Sharia in the United States mandates Muslims to abide by the law of the land and respect the law of their land. Based upon this testimony, the Court finds that plaintiff has shown "Sharia Law" lacks a legal character, and, thus, plaintiff's religious traditions and faith are the only non-legal content subject to the judicial exclusion set forth in the amendment. As a result, the Court finds plaintiff has made a strong showing that the amendment conveys a message of disapproval of plaintiff's faith and, consequently, has the effect of inhibiting plaintiff's religion.

All perfectly reasonable, and perfectly false. Sharia contains the doctrines of jihad that mandate warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. It does not vary all that markedly from country to country, which is why states that implement it most fully, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, tend to resemble one another. If Muslims in the U.S. abide by the law of the land and do not practice polygamy (and even that is debatable, as even Honest Ibe Hooper of Hamas-linked CAIR has admitted that some Muslims in the U.S. do indeed practice polygamy), that does not mean that should conditions change and they exercise sufficient political power here, that they wouldn't try to change the laws of the land to make them more Sharia-compliant.

I don't know who is advising the anti-Sharia people in Oklahoma about what Sharia is, but they have completely failed to show Miles-LaGrange that Sharia has an inherent political and supremacist character. Of course, it may be that she simply refuses to acknowledge that fact, despite the mountains of available evidence to establish it.

"Judge issues permanent injunction on Oklahoma Sharia law ban," by Bill Mears for CNN, November 29:

Washington (CNN) -- A federal judge in Oklahoma has issued an order putting on hold the certification of a ballot measure that forbids state courts from considering or using international laws, as well as Sharia, or Islamic law. That permanent injunction will allow the judge more time to consider the constitutional issues raised by State Question 755, which was approved by voters earlier this month.

Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange had earlier issued a temporary restraining order in favor of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which had sued to nullify the law completely.

"While the public has an interest in the will of the voters being carried out," wrote the judge in Monday's order, "the court finds that the public has a more profound and long-term interest in upholding an individual's constitutional rights."

The language of her 15-page order indicated Miles-LaGrange has initial doubts about the constitutionality of the ballot measure. She said the case goes "to the very foundation of our country, our Constitution, and particularly the Bill of Rights. Throughout the course of our country's history, the will of the 'majority' has on occasion conflicted with the constitutional rights of individuals."

The amendment would require Oklahoma courts to "rely on federal and state law when deciding cases" and "forbids courts from considering or using" either international law or Islamic religious law, known as Sharia, which the amendment defined as being based on the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

In bringing suit, CAIR argued that the amendment violates both the establishment and free-exercise clauses of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom. The group's local leader Muneer Awad has said the amendment passed under a campaign of fear and misinformation about Islam...

Misinformation? Nonsense. I would meet Muneer Awad anytime, anywhere, to discuss in an open forum the contents of Sharia. But I know he won't, because he knows what those contents are as much as I do.

The Oklahoma City-based Miles-LaGrange is a 1994 Clinton appointee.

Ah.

Persecuting converts to Christianity is ongoing in Algeria, but it could be worse: since Islamic law actually calls for such people to be murdered, and Algerian authorities are instead just doing their best to make their lives miserable, those authorities qualify as bona fine "moderates."

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Maghreb: "Four accused of violating Islamic precepts," from AFP, November 27:

Algiers - Algeria will put on trial four converts to Christianity from Sunday for "illegally opening a place of worship", one of their lawyers told AFP.

"The defendants, who are between 35 and 45 years old, have been charged with setting up a Protestant church in the region without authorisation by authorities," said lawyer Mohamed Ben Belkacem....

Under a 2006 Algerian law Muslims or non-Muslims can only practise their religion after authorities agree to a place of worship.

Over the past months several trials have opened in the north African country where Islam is the state religion for violation of Islamic precepts, notably involving converts to Christianity.

A group of Muslims who were charged with breaking the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan in August, were acquitted earlier this month.

In mid-October a youth was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine for failing to abide by the fast but the prosecutor later said the sentence was for breaking a window pane at a police station.

Two Christians who broke the fast were acquitted in early October.

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia told parliament last month Algeria would "always guarantee" freedom of religion. - Sapa-AFP

Sure. You can believe in any religion you want in Algeria, as long as it's Islam.

Muslims are much more likely than other groups to plot terror attacks, so why aren't we focusing on them? My column in Human Events this morning:

As horror stories from the TSA become an ever-expanding genre, it is important to remember that the entire roiling controversy over airport security has come about solely because of the government's refusal to acknowledge the true nature of the threat we're facing. While it is theoretically possible that a wheelchair-bound, eighty-year-old Baptist grandmother from Des Moines could hijack an airplane and crash it into an American landmark in the service of Allah, the likelihood of her doing so is infinitesimally smaller than the possibility that such a thing might be done by a young Muslim male of Arab or Pakistani origin.

And so the only thing left for the TSA to do, if it is really about protecting Americans and not humiliating us or stripping us of our freedoms as well as our clothes, is profile: to admit that Muslims are much more likely than other groups to be plotting terror attacks, and to screen passengers accordingly.

Such profiling would not be perfect. While Islamic advocacy groups cry racism at any hint of such scrutiny being directed toward the Muslim community in America, in fact the jihad threat to airliners in this country has nothing whatsoever to do with race, and everything to do with a murderous and supremacist belief-system that is held by people of all races. The 9/11 hijackers were not wearing the "Islamic garb" that Juan Williams confessed worried him, and indeed, al-Qaeda directs its operatives in Western countries not to wear such distinctive garments, but instead to blend in.

Nonetheless, to direct greater scrutiny at airports to young Arab and Pakistani males than to Aleuts from the Yucatan or socialites from Bel Air is not racism, it's realism. The 9/11 hijackers were motivated and energized by their belief in Islamic jihad; so were the July 7 London bombers, the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombers, the November 2008 Mumbai mass murderers, and those who have been responsible for thousands of jihad attacks around the world since 9/11....

There is more.

"We're not talking about social violence occasioned by the construction of a church, but rather security forces opening fire on protesters demanding their constitutional right to worship without arbitrary interference or discrimination." "Egyptian Security Used Live Ammunition on Christian Coptic Protesters, 4 Killed," for AINA, November 30:

(AINA) -- Christian Copts worldwide were shocked and enraged at the use of live ammunition by Egyptian state security forces against unarmed Coptic protesters, causing the death of three Coptic young men. A four-year old child suffocated from tear gas thrown inside the chapel. Rights groups inside and outside of Egypt have condemned the use of excessive violence by security forces and the use of live ammunition against Coptic demonstrators.

Efforts by State Security to hide the use of firearms on unarmed protesters were in vain, as the rising death toll, hospital reports on those admitted, and video footage and eyewitness testimony have revealed the details of the incident. Coptic activists Sherif Ramzy and Ramy Kamel have conducted interviews with witnesses.

CSW Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston blamed the violence on "excessive" police tactics and expressed his sadness at the "unnecessary" loss of life and injuries.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said that the events are a serious escalation in the State's treatment of its Christian citizens. "We're not talking about social violence occasioned by the construction of a church, but rather security forces opening fire on protesters demanding their constitutional right to worship without arbitrary interference or discrimination," said Hossam Bahgat, EIPR's Executive Director. "Even assuming Copts in the area wanted to convert a services building into a church for worship, that does not justify this degree of police violence. Demonstrators should not be shot at for violating building codes". EIPR called on the Public Prosecutor to prosecute the security personnel responsible for the deaths and injury of Christians....

"It was not my intention to imitate or insult them. I simply started to yodel a few tunes because I was in such a good mood." Not anymore. "Yodelling offends praying Muslims, say judges," from the Austrian Times, November 29 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

An Austrian has been fined for yodelling while mowing his lawn, according to a report.

The Kronen Zeitung newspaper claims Helmut G. was told by a court in Graz, Styria, that his yodelling offended his next-door Muslim neighbours.

The men reportedly accused the 63-year-old of having tried to mock and imitate the call of the Muezzin. The daily paper writes the Austrian was fined 800 Euros after judges ruled he could have tried to offend them and ridicule their belief. The Muslims, whose nationalities were not revealed by the report, were right in the middle of a prayer when the Austrian started to yodel.

"It was not my intention to imitate or insult them. I simply started to yodel a few tunes because I was in such a good mood" the man told the newspaper today (Mon).

Speaking of air security, this update on the case of Rajib Karim raises questions equally relevant to the state of security in American airports: what did British Airways know about him when they hired him? Were there questions they could have asked, but didn't? Were red flags in his behavior as an employee missed or ignored?

Political correctness has made it acceptable in practice to play fast and loose with risk management, making air security vulnerable to being treated as an academic exercise and losing sight of what is at stake: if something goes wrong, or if an opportunity is left to be taken in the wrong place and at the wrong time, people will die. And if the potential loss of life does not move the airlines and policymakers, one would think the economic impact might.

That is, unless the air travel industry and security apparatus have decided en masse that, with regard to accusations of "Islamophobia" and "profiling," "[perceived] persecution is worse than slaughter."

"British Airways worker 'offered to be suicide bomber and advised terrorists of airline's weaknesses'," from the Daily Mail, November 29 (thanks to Zulu):

A British Airways computer expert who is alleged to have offered himself as a suicide bomber appeared in court today to deny terrorism charges.

Rajib Karim, 31, of Newcastle upon Tyne, remains in custody and is due to go on trial on January 24 at Woolwich Crown Court in south east London.

Bangladesh-born Karim appeared via videolink today at the Old Bailey where he pleaded not guilty to two charges of preparing for terrorism.

Each count covers the period from April 13 2006 to February 26 2010 and includes the allegation that he 'offered to be a martyr or suicide bomber'.

The first charge alleges that he engaged in conduct in preparation of terrorism, with the intention of committing acts of terrorism, including that he 'incited the giving of permission to carry out terrorist acts in the United Kingdom'.

Karim is also said to have offered to travel to Yemen or Pakistan to carry out terrorism training, and to have advised about potential recruits to commit terrorist acts in the UK.

Also among the conduct said to form part of the allegation was that he stayed in the UK long enough to obtain a British passport.

It is further claimed that he 'advised and counselled the commission of terrorist acts by providing information' on topics such as such as liquids allowances on planes, airport security and scanners, and immigration questions to travellers.

He was also said to have provided details on BA computers and their vulnerability to a physical or 'internal systems' attack to inflict financial loss....

Jihad Watch reader Michael sends in this photo from a Delta gate at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Of course, there is no doubt whatsoever that the hijabbed Delta clerk is as honest and patriotic as the day is long. But suppose, just suppose, that a hijabbed Muslim woman Misunderstood the Religion of Peace in the same way as do jihad terrorists such as Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be Christmas tree lighting bomber of Portland, Oregon. And suppose further that she applied for a job with Delta. What screening techniques would Delta employ to make sure that she wouldn't give her brother mujahedin a needed break that would enable them to carry out a jihad terror attack on a Delta airplane? What line of questioning would Delta follow in interviewing that applicant in order to rule out such a possibility?

Why, Delta would do nothing of the sort. Nor would any other airline. If any airline did question a hijabbed applicant that way, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would be filing a discrimination suit within minutes.

And we as Americans are more or less willingly acquiescing to this state of affairs. One day another plane might blow out of the sky and another group of jihadis will claim their houris for murdering another few hundred free people, but at least we will not have "profiled" or succumbed to "Islamophobia." And that's what is clearly more important than a few hundred more American lives.

Jihad Watch reader Jim writes:

Here's a picture I took on my phone when passing through security in Miami on Wednesday.

The nun was travelling with three others, not unlike the Flying Imams come to think of it. My wife, Laurie, not a nun, said "Look!" and I turned and snapped this shot before the TSA agent put up her hand. It was only after we furtively looked at my phone giddy with the knowledge that we'd actually captured the moment that we saw the nun's wheelchair.

No, Ihsanoglu. Mohamed Mohamud is spreading "Islamophobia," if it really exists at all. Nidal Hasan is spreading "Islamophobia." Faisal Shahzad is spreading "Islamophobia." Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad is spreading "Islamophobia." Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is spreading "Islamophobia."

But Ihsanoglu will never admit that. If he can convince the Western political elites that "Islamophobia" is really the fault of greasy Islamophobes like Spencer, then he can make it impossible for Western government and law enforcement to speak honestly about and formulate realistic responses to the jihad threat.

"OIC Secretary-General Warns of Western Plots against Islam," from the Fars News Agency, November 29:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said that the West has hatched plots to spread Islamophobia in a bid to block growing conversion to Islam, and demanded the Muslim nations to take collective action to defuse these plots.

Speaking in a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here in Tehran on Monday, Ihsanoglu cautioned that spreading "Islamophobia, insulting Islamic values and sparking and spreading hatred for Islam are high on the agenda of the West, and urged the entire Muslim states to take established, and institutionalized collective measures" to confront the western plots in this regard.

He further elaborated on the OIC's activities and plans to counter Islamophobia, insult to Islamic values and resolve Muslim issues such as Palestine, and called Iran's supports and activities in these grounds as "highly crucial".

The OIC chief also appreciated the Islamic Republic of Iran for its continued supports for the OIC and its valuable role in different OIC plans and programs....

From Yahoo News:

NEW YORK, Nov. 29, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Freedom Defense Initiative's Stop Islamization of America program is hosting a panel discussion on the Ground Zero mosque controversy at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

CPAC, the largest conservative gathering in the country, will hold its annual conference February 10-12 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The AFDI/SIOA event will be an independent event held during CPAC at the Marriott Wardman Park.

This year's AFDI/SIOA conference at CPAC will focus on the Ground Zero mosque debate. The name of panel is "The Ground Zero Mosque: Why There?"

The event will feature an exclusive preview of portions of the new AFDI/SIOA documentary film, "The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks." A question-and-answer session will follow the screening.

AFDI executive director Pamela Geller and associate director Robert Spencer, who were identified by Ground Zero mosque organizer Daisy Khan as the leaders of the resistance to the mosque, will speak on the status of the mosque initiative, its political and cultural significance, and the possibilities for continued resistance.

Other speakers and 911 family members will be featured as well.

Geller and Spencer have invited Ground Zero mosque organizers Sharif El-Gamal, Daisy Khan and the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to join the AFDI/SIOA panel in the spirit of the "inter-faith dialogue" they claim to champion.

The Ground Zero mosque organizers have not yet responded to this invitation.

The AFDI/SIOA panel will focus on the Ground Zero mosque organizers' request for public funding, examining how that request, as well as the proposed location of the mosque itself, gibes with the claim that the mosque is intended to promote harmony and reconciliation between Muslims and non-Muslims. It will evaluate the mosque organizers' claims about the mosque in light of the history of triumphal mosques in lands conquered by Islamic armies around the world, and discuss the appropriateness of using taxpayer money to fund something that most Americans do not support.

Last year AFDI/SIOA presented a critically acclaimed and well-attended panel entitled "Jihad: The Political Third Rail." Journalist Mark J. Koenig, writing at David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog, called it "the single most important event of this three-day conference." And Pamela Geller brought Dutch freedom fighter Geert Wilders to CPAC in 2008 to a standing room only crowd.

The Ground Zero mosque debate is scheduled for Friday, February 11 at 3 p.m. The AFDI/SIOA 2011 conference agenda at CPAC will be announced shortly.

AFDI/SIOA is one of America's foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States.

Join SIOA's Facebook page here.

For more information, contact Pamela Geller at writeatlas@aol.com.

SOURCE American Freedom Defense Initiative

Including a suicide attack, laying hold of the guarantee of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (Qur'an 9:111). "Gunbattle breaks out in Kyrgyz south," from AP, November 29 (thanks to Maxwell):

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - At least four Islamic militants were killed Monday in a clash with security forces in Kyrgyzstan's restive south, officials said.

Three suspected militants were shot and killed by government forces in the city of Osh, while another militant blew himself up during the clash, Security Council Secretary Marat Imankulov said. One soldier was injured.

Imankulov said three militants were detained as a result of the battle. He said the suspects were members of the Islamic Movement of Turkestan who were planning a series of terrorist attacks in Kyrgyzstan....

Pointed and well-reasoned analysis of the opposition to Oklahoma's Sharia ban from an ace lawyer. "Criticism of the Oklahoma Amendment banning Shariah from State Courts: Legitimate or ill-considered?," by David Yerushalmi, November 29:

Introduction

Criticism of the Oklahoma constitutional amendment (Question 755), which prohibits state courts from "considering or using" international law or sharia, was expected. Interestingly, though, the specific critiques have not been well considered.

We begin with a concession. There is no dispute that Question 755 was poorly drafted and, as such, criticism directed at the legal professionals who had a hand in the drafting is entirely legitimate. For example, there are perfectly legitimate applications of foreign law in state courts that no one in their right mind would oppose. Two parties who agree to be bound by the law of a foreign jurisdiction when those foreign laws do not infringe upon any fundamental liberty or important public policy of the state of Oklahoma is as innocuous and conducive to the "freedom to contract" and the liberty inherent in private property as it sounds.

Further, because the term "sharia" comes with no real description, it is hard to know exactly how the courts will ultimately interpret this term. Does 'sharia' mean some vague or subjective interpretation of religious practice as the current federal court challenge intimates or is it the sharia that occupies the place of secular law and political-military doctrine at the level of normative praxis in many countries, in a variety of political and military regimes, and as the guiding threat doctrine for terrorist organizations around the world?

Finally, it is hard to know what the drafters meant, and therefore what the voters understood, by the word "considered." Does a court "consider a foreign law" if the parties agreed to its application with the court merely "applying" the foreign law as the mutual will of the parties?

But, conceding that Question 755 was poorly drafted does not render it or its purposes silly or dismissible. Indeed, most public commentary, both by the law school professoriate and the Muslim Brotherhood aligned apologists for sharia, begin their remarks identically with a snide, if not "snarky," criticism to the effect that the ill-informed electorate of Oklahoma (70% of those voting) misguidedly thought they were responding to an existential threat that doesn't exist. Meaning, only fools respond to ghosts.

To be clear, and so as not to fall prey to a counter-"snarkiness," we will identify this initial criticism as the "shariah Boogey-Man" and deal with it seriously. Similarly, we will deal with the corollary to this "Boogey-Man" criticism, which is the charge of "Islamophobia." That is, people are frightened of a non-existent "shariah threat"-the Boogey Man-because there is a "cottage industry" of fear-mongers who create this Boogey-Man to drive an anti-Islam agenda.

The third criticism of the "anti-sharia" legislative movement reflected in Oklahoma's constitutional amendment is a kind of "don't-throw-out-the-baby-with-the-bath-water" argument. That is, even if there are bad things (i.e., the dirty bath water) about sharia as applied in real terms around the world, allowing individuals and communities to order their lives through private agreements and to resolve their private disputes through private arbitrations is a legitimate exercise of freedom guaranteed under the Due Process Clause (i.e., freedom to contract), and, in the case of religious agreements and arbitrations, a legitimate exercise of the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom.

This baby-and-the-bath-water argument points out that there are all sorts of private arbitrations, including religious courts like the Jewish Bais Din, which allow private parties who share a common belief system to use their own system to adjudicate their internal disputes. This is especially useful since a secular court would not be permitted to decide a contract dispute, for example, between two parties who had explicitly agreed to adjudicate their disputes according to Jewish law or Catholic canon. It would be an unconstitutional "entanglement" problem (violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment) if a secular court had to get into the business of deciding what Jewish law or Catholic canon was and what it said about a given dispute. Thus, we allow these parties to regulate their own commercial and even social intercourse through private arbitration. And, this paradigm fits our limited government, libertarian bent as a free people.

Not surprisingly, this argument concludes by warning against the slippery slope: if you outlaw sharia because it includes some dirty water around the globe, you will have effectively outlawed all such religious and private adjudicative bodies unless you are going to discriminate against the law of Muslims, which would violate the First Amendment and the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.

While the "slippery slope" argument can, and ought to, be a legitimate cautionary policy tool, the invocation of the slippery slope argument can be its own form of slippery slope and must be applied with a large measure of caution.

For example, the slippery slope concern is a proper brake on public policy when a given policy seeking to curb a specific, discreet problem would have a likelihood of curbing similar behavior that is in fact not a problem, and indeed, behavior that might be of value to the society. But, we must be careful when using the slippery slope argument that it doesn't become a disguised form of "moral relativism" or irrationalism. Thus, the slippery slope argument often is used implicitly to make the argument that society can make no distinctions between "good things" and "bad things" and that any policy effort to rid society of bad things will invariably engulf good things. But that suggests there are no principled and practical distinctions between the good thing and the bad thing. In other words, the slippery slope argument becomes a lazy man's way of asserting the proposition that society can draw no valid, or at least effective, value-based lines.

In this third critique where the argument is proffered that outlawing sharia arbitrations will lead to outlawing all private religious arbitrations, the question that must be asked is whether there are any principled and prudential distinctions between sharia as a "bad thing" and other religious codes as a "good thing" (or if not a "good thing" at least as an "acceptable thing")? When we come to this third argument and to this question about line drawing and distinctions we've suggested must be asked, we will find ourselves answering yet a fourth criticism of the anti-sharia movement.

This fourth criticism amounts to a kind of absolute subjectivism. Thus, the argument goes, you cannot outlaw sharia because sharia can mean just about anything to just about anyone. In other words, sharia is not an objectively knowable thing. This argument is often articulated with the preface that since Islam and sharia are not guided by a hierarchical jurisprudence like the Catholic Church or even like our own federal court system with a Supreme Court, any effort at outlawing it will suffer from over breadth and capture perfectly non-threatening "interpretations" of sharia. To the extent that an overly broad anti-sharia law outlaws non-violent and otherwise non-criminal religious worship, it would violate the First Amendment.

We turn now to respond to each of these four critiques of Question 755 in turn.

There is much more. Read it all.

"NATO and Afghan officials were unable to confirm whether the person who carried out the shooting was actually a member of the border police or if it was an insurgent who had infiltrated the Afghan security forces." And how hard could they be to infiltrate? How do they screen out jihadists? They don't even attempt to do so, and if they did, how could they possibly do it?

"NATO says six troops shot dead in east Afghanistan," by Paul Tait for Reuters, November 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

KABUL (Reuters) - Six NATO troops were shot dead by a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform during a training exercise in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said, the worst apparent "rogue" shooting in more than a year.

The incident appeared to be the latest in a string of recent attacks by renegade police and soldiers, underlining the pressure on NATO-led troops as they try to train Afghan forces rapidly to allow the handover of security responsibility from next year.

However, NATO and Afghan officials were unable to confirm whether the person who carried out the shooting was actually a member of the border police or if it was an insurgent who had infiltrated the Afghan security forces....

Now here is a genuine fear of a backlash. "Britain fears Islamic fury over WikiLeaks: Report," from Economic Times, November 28:

LONDON: The British government has warned that its citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world could be targeted in a violent backlash over "anti-Islamic" views expressed in diplomatic documents being leaked this week, media reports said on Sunday.

The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks is to release almost 3 million documents on the internet, including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington from the American embassy in London, The Sunday Times reported.

It said the British government has warned that its citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world could be targeted in a violent backlash over "anti-Islamic" views expressed in diplomatic documents....

But officials said the real damage could be done by the disclosure of cables in which American diplomats refer to candid British views of key figures in the Muslim world....

As the mainstream media's "Muslims Fear Backlash" Industry swings into high gear, focusing attention on how Muslims in Portland, Oregon, are afraid of vigilante attacks after the attempted jihad attack at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony there last Friday, I have just two questions:

1. Is there any substantial evidence that there has ever been a "backlash" against innocent Muslims in the wake of any jihad plot in the United States over the last few years? The attack on the Portland mosque cannot be assumed to be an example of such a backlash until it is established who actually set the fire -- after all, we saw a few years ago Muslims in Dayton, Ohio fake a hate crime against a mosque. Shortly after 9/11 some idiot murdered a Sikh, thinking he was a Muslim, but otherwise that was about it, although Hamas-linked CAIR has done its best to fake such crimes.

2. Why don't we ever see comparable "backlash" stories about other communities? After a few abortion doctors were murdered, I never recall having seen a story about how pro-lifers feared a backlash. Although Tim McVeigh wasn't really a Christian at all, he has now been pushed into the popular consciousness as the sole and all-purpose example of a "Christian terrorist," and yet in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing there were no stories anywhere about how Christians were fearing vigilante attacks.

No, only Muslims ever fear "backlash" -- even though actual evidence of such a backlash remains elusive.

Now, why might those things be so?

And if Israel had targeted those ambulances, you can just imagine the international outcry. "US memos: Iran armed Hezbollah through ambulances," from AP, November 29 (thanks to JCB):

BEIRUT - Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel, according to newly leaked U.S. diplomatic memos.

The memos say the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to facilitate weapons shipments."...

The mainstream media line after any jihad attack or foiled plot is not about how Muslims are working to prove their loyalty to America and redoubling their efforts to root out the jihadists within their communities. It is not about how they're instituting programs in mosques and Islamic schools to teach against the jihadist understanding of the Qur'an and Sunnah. Instead, it is about how Muslims are victims, fearing a "backlash" that never quite materializes.

"Oregon Muslim leaders fear retribution after plot," by Jonathan Cooper and Nigel Duara for the Associated Press, November 29 (thanks to Elias):

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Patrols around mosques and other Islamic sites in Portland have been stepped up as Muslim leaders expressed fears of retribution, days after a Somali-American man was accused of trying to blow up a van full of explosives during the city's Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams said Sunday that he beefed up protection around mosques "and other facilities that might be vulnerable to knuckle-headed retribution" after hearing of the bomb plot.

I wonder if he has beefed up protection around sites that might be targets of another jihad attack.

The move followed a fire Sunday at the Islamic center in Corvallis, a college town about 75 miles southwest of Portland, where suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud occasionally worshipped, prompting an FBI arson investigation and concern about the potential for more retaliation....

On what basis is anyone sure that the arson attack constituted retaliation in the first place?

Earlier Sunday, worshippers at the damaged Islamic center expressed concern about retribution.

"I've prayed for my family and friends, because obviously if someone was deliberate enough to do this, what's to stop them from coming to our homes and our schools?" said Mohamed Alyagouri, a 31-year-old father of two who worships at the center. "I'm afraid for my children getting harassed from their teachers, maybe from their friends."

Yosof Wanly, the center's imam, said he was thinking about temporarily relocating his family because of the possibility of hate crimes.

"We know how it is, we know some people due to ignorance are going to perceive of these things and hold most Muslims accountable," Wanly said. But he said Corvallis has long been accepting of Muslims.

Meanwhile, even the jihadist himself is a victim:

Omar Jamal, first secretary for the Somali mission to the United Nations in New York City, told The Associated Press his office has received "thousands of calls" from Somalis in the United States who are concerned about tactics used by federal agents in the sting operation against Mohamud....

In FrontPage this morning I discuss how the reaction of various parties to the Portland jihad bust follows a sadly familiar pattern:

A nineteen-year old Somali Muslim named Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested Friday in Portland, Oregon, just as he was trying to blow up a van loaded with explosives at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The explosives were fakes that agents who were tracking Mohamud's activities supplied to him; as they moved in to arrest him, he kicked at them and shouted, "Allahu akbar!"

Although the explosives were fake, "the threat was very real," according to Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. "Our investigation," said Balizan, "shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale." Mohamud himself had told undercover agents: "I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured." Yet as more details have come out about Mohamud's jihad plot, the response from government and law enforcement officials, the Muslim community in Portland, and the mainstream media has been drearily familiar.

I. Mohamud's Islamic motivations

Mohamed Osman Mohamud's own statements make it unmistakably clear that he was hoping to commit mass-murder in the name of Islam, in what he saw as an Islamic jihad attack. For a video he made explaining his motives, he dressed in a white robe with a red and white headdress, telling undercover agents whom he thought were his accomplices that he wanted to dress "Sheikh Osama style." He began the video by repeating traditional Islamic prayers and invocations: "I take refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed; in the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate; all praise be to Allah, we praise him, we seek his assistance and forgiveness."

He then warned Americans that "a dark day is coming your way," for "as long as you threaten our security, your people will not remain safe." He asked: "Did you think that you could invade a Muslim land, and we would not invade you," and boasted that "Allah will have soldiers scattered everywhere across the world." He challenged Muslims living in the United States: "What has stopped you from fighting in the cause of Allah?" And he predicted that "you will see the victory of Islam."

All this is perfectly consistent with the Islamic doctrine that jihad warfare becomes obligatory (fard ayn) upon every Muslim if a Muslim land is attacked by infidels.

As long as four years ago, when he was only fifteen, Mohamud had already attracted the attention of law enforcement agents, and he told undercover agents at that time that he was praying about "whether I should...go, you know, and make a jihad in a different country or to make like an operation here." He wrote for an online magazine called "Jihad Recollections" about how jihad warriors must "train as hard as possible in order to damage the enemies of Allah as much as possible." They should, however, not go to gyms and train with weights, he wrote, because gyms were decidedly un-Islamic places, with their "music, semi-naked women [and] free mixing."

II. The local mosque: Mohamed who?

Yet despite Mohamud's avowedly Islamic motivations, the Imam Yosof Wanly of the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis, Oregon, followed a predictable and oft-repeated pattern when he downplayed Mohamud's connection to the local Muslim community. Every jihadist who has ever lived for any time in the United States has been simultaneously a devout and informed Muslim by his own account, and by the account of the local mosque leaders, someone they seldom saw and who was at odds with the larger community when he did show up. It raises a large question that no journalist ever has the wit or courage to ask: if these jihad terrorists really had little or nothing to do with their local mosques, and if their understanding of Islam differs so sharply from that of the area Muslims, where did they learn the version of Islam that impelled them to attempt mass-murder of infidels?

In the course of various media interviews, however, Wanly did end up revealing that he had more of a relationship with Mohamud than he would be likely to have with a peripheral member of his congregation whom he seldom saw. He said that he and Mohamud had "average teacher-student" discussions, and characterized Mohamud, a dropout from Oregon State University, as, according to the Associated Press [1], "a normal student who went to athletic events, drank the occasional beer and was into rap music and culture." Even though this statement seems calculated to give the picture of anything but a devout, observant, serious Muslim, it also shows that Wanly knew Mohamud better than one might expect a busy imam in a major city to know a sometime college student who attended his mosque only occasionally....

There is much more.

The legal intimidation libel case against my colleague Pamela Geller continues. Ohio lawyer Omar Tarazi has filed a $10-million defamation lawsuit against Geller for elements of her reporting on the case of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who kicked off a year-long custody battle when she fled from her home in fear for her life after her Muslim father discovered her conversion to Christianity. (The battle ended when Rifqa turned eighteen and was free to live on her own as a Christian.) You can read more details here.

An update: Geller's attorneys have filed a response to Tarazi's own response to the pro-free speech side's motion to dismiss the case. In it, Geller's legal team says that "Plaintiff's motion is a feckless attempt to avoid responding to Defendant Geller's properly supported motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint," so that "he can prolong this vexatious litigation and engage in a costly 'fishing expedition.'" In fact, "conspicuously absent from Plaintiff's motion is any discussion regarding the merits of Defendant Geller's motion to dismiss (or any challenge to the authenticity or accuracy of the information contained in the attached exhibits for that matter). And the reason is obvious: Plaintiff's Amended Complaint fails as a matter of law, and he knows it. No amount of discovery can change that conclusion."

But even with all the facts on one's side, you never know how things are going to go in a courtroom. In any case, this suit is a rather obvious and clumsy attempt to intimidate into silence one of the most effective voices for freedom on the scene today; it is just another example of how Islamic supremacists use our own laws as weapons against us. I'll keep you updated.

Meanwhile, in Austria the kangaroo trial of freedom fighter Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff for telling the truth about Islam has begun. Latest updates here. I offered to testify on Elisabeth's behalf in that case, and the offer still stands; I'll be keeping you updated on that case as well.

And Friday it almost reaped the bitter fruits of that decision. Leftist/Jihadist Alliance Update: "Politically correct Portland rejected feds who saved city from terrorist attack," by Byron York in The Examiner, November 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force -- because Barack Obama is in the White House.

Reading the FBI affidavit describing Islamist terror suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud's plan to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square is a chilling experience. Mohamud, a Somali-born naturalized U.S. citizen who attended Oregon State University, told undercover FBI agents he dreamed of performing acts of jihad in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans would die. "Do you remember when 9/11 happened when those people were jumping from skyscrapers?" Mohamud asked the agents, according to the affidavit. "I thought that was awesome." [...]

What is ironic is that the operation that found and stopped Mohamud is precisely the kind of law enforcement work that Portland's leaders, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, rejected during the Bush years. In April 2005, the Portland city council voted 4 to 1 to withdraw Portland city police officers from participating in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Mayor Tom Potter said the FBI refused to give him a top-secret security clearance so he could make sure the officers weren't violating state anti-discrimination laws that bar law enforcement from targeting suspects on the basis of their religious or political beliefs. [...]

In the Mohamud case, it appears that Portland's anti-law enforcement stand might actually have influenced Mohamud's decision to undertake an attack in the city. According to the FBI affidavit, the undercover agents asked whether he worried that law enforcement would stop him. "In Portland?" Mohamud replied. "Not really. They don't see it as a place where anything will happen. People say, you know, why, anybody want to do something in Portland, you know, it's on the west coast, it's in Oregon, and Oregon's, like you know, nobody ever thinks about it."

Now, there are indications that the Mohamud case might cause city leaders to change their mind about the FBI and the war on terror. Current mayor Sam Adams, who says he was not aware of the Mohamud investigation until after Mohamud had been arrested, told the Oregonian newspaper that he might as the city council to reconsider the decision to pull out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Because he now realizes the city was wrong? Not at all. "[Adams] stressed that he has much more faith in the Obama administration and the leadership of the U.S. Attorney's office now than he did in 2005," the paper reported.

Yes, it's so important to have Faith In Obama.

Sunni snake asks Useful Idiot Infidel to do its dirty work vs. Shi'ite snake. "Saudi king urged US to attack Iran: leaked documents," from AFP, November 28 (thanks to Banafsheh):

PARIS (AFP) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme, according to US documents leaked by WikiLeaks and published Sunday by daily newspapers.

According to a leaked US cable, published by the New York Times, King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz made the call during an April 2008 meeting with US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and US General David Petraeus.

"He told you to 'cut off the head of the snake'," Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, told the US embassy in Riyadh two days after the high-level talks, according to the State Department memo.

"The King, Foreign Minister, Prince Muqrin, and Prince Nayif all agreed that the Kingdom needs to cooperate with the US on resisting and rolling back Iranian influence and subversion in Iraq," the memo said.

"The King was particularly adamant on this point, and it was echoed by the senior princes as well. Al-Jubeir recalled the King's frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program." [...]

The leaked memo could prove embarrassing to Saudi Arabia, which, while known to be nervous of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions, has not publicly called for Western military action against its powerful neighbour.

Reacting to the leaks, a Saudi government advisor who asked not to be identified told AFP: "The whole thing is very negative. It's not good for confidence-building."...

"Confidence-building" among whom?

Surely no one could possibly be surprised by this. "Cables Obtained by WikiLeaks Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels," by Scott Shane and Andrew W. Lehren for the New York Times, November 28 (thanks to her royal whyness):

WASHINGTON -- A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. [...]

¶ Mixed records against terrorism: Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the "worst in the region" in counterterrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December. Qatar's security service was "hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals," the cable said....

Direct confirmation of what we have been saying for years about Erdogan's plans for Turkey. "Diplomatic Cables Reveal US Doubts about Turkey's Government," from Spiegel, November 28 (thanks to Ian):

[...] The leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US diplomats are skeptical about Turkey's dependability as a partner. The leadership in Ankara is depicted as divided and permeated by Islamists.

US diplomats have grave doubts about Turkey's dependability. Secret or confidential cables from the US Embassy in Ankara describe Islamist tendencies in the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. [...]

The Americans are also worried about Davutoglu's alleged neo-Ottoman visions. A high-ranking government adviser warned in discussions, quoted by the US diplomats, that Davutoglu would use his Islamist influence on Erdogan, describing him as "exceptionally dangerous." According to the US document, another adviser to the ruling AKP party remarked, probably ironically, that Turkey wanted "to take back Andalusia and avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683."

The US diplomats write that many leading figures in the AKP were members of a Muslim fraternity and that Erdogan had appointed Islamist bankers to influential positions. He gets his information almost exclusively from newspapers with close links to Islamists, they reported. The prime minister, the cables continue, has surrounded himself with an "iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors" and presents himself as the "Tribune of Anatolia."

We are always on Reza's mind

Reza Aslan is being exposed at Jihad Watch: not only his adolescent gutter mentality and inability to hold a rational debate, but also the evidence that he is a deceptive Islamic supremacist who is widely taken as a "moderate." Aslan has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate not only with Ahmadinejad but with Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia. He has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as "the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," recalling the useful idiots and fellow travelers who used to praise Stalinist Russia and even Hitler's Germany for their social services apparatuses.

Also, he is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. And so not surprisingly, in this piece about the trouble Iran's Thug-In-Chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is facing at home, he offers not one critical word about Ahmadinejad's genocidal antisemitism, or the regime's persecution of non-Muslims. Instead, he praises certain domestic policies of Ahmadinejad.

Yes, and Hitler built the autobahn.

Anyway, Aslan is used to being fawned over by the dupes, fellow travelers, and useful idiots of the mainstream media, and he has never been exposed the way he is being exposed now at Jihad Watch. He is clearly feeling the heat. I wrote on November 14 that my colleague Pamela Geller and I seem to be a feature of every talk that Reza Aslan gives lately, no matter what the stated topic, and the story below shows that Aslan just keeps getting weirder and creepier in his obsession with me and Jihad Watch.

"Reza Aslan Curates Middle Eastern Literary Art for 'Tablet and Pen' Anthology," by Rebecca O'Brien for the Wall Street Journal, November 19:

Reza Aslan's latest book, Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, is what Edward Said might call a project of empathy, an attempt to illuminate and share a maligned culture through art. Aslan's anthology also becomes a project of self-understanding, a discussion among Middle Eastern writers about their worlds and their art. [...]

Aslan recently promoted his book on the "Colbert Report," but last night was the guest of the Asia Society. Aslan opened the event with a few jokes about stonings and the Park51 mosque, eliciting knowing chuckles from the Park Avenue audience. [...]

"There is a master narrative being told about the use of literature to push back against the West, to build society," Aslan later said. In the new generation, he said, writers seek "to create a new, borderless kind of literature."

Asked how his work on this book might inform his teaching of creative writing, Aslan laughed and demurred, saying: "This will be on Jihad Watch."

What does that even mean? Aslan seems to be cracking under the strain of keeping his moderate pose intact, and is barely even coherent.

In any case, yes, Mr. Aslan, you're quite right: this will be on Jihad Watch, if for no other reason than for its revelation of your Travis Bickle-like monomania. Sorry it took me nine days to get to it, but unlike you, I actually have other things on my mind.

Generally after a jihad attack in the United States, whether successful or not, mainstream media outlets run multiple stories about how Muslim communities fear a "backlash" against innocent Muslims from enraged "Islamophobic" rednecks. Of course, such "backlashes" never materialize, but the purpose of such stories is to shift the public's attention away from the reality of Islamic jihad and onto the fiction of Muslims as victims, living in fear of vigilante attack in the United States. In reality, hate crimes against Muslims accounted for only eight percent of crimes thus classified in the U.S. in 2009, according to a recently released FBI report. Blacks and Jews were far more likely to be victimized - and far less likely to be the subject of fawning media reports featuring hand-wringing over a "backlash" against them.

But in this case, there appears to have been a genuine backlash: an arson attack at the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis. The FBI offered a $10,000 reward for information, and FBI spokesperson Beth Anne Steele thundered: "The FBI would not tolerate any retaliation on the Muslim community as a result of that arrest."

If this was truly a retaliatory vigilante attack following Mohamud's attempted jihad bombing, then it is hateful and must unequivocally be condemned. It is important to note, however, that while the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the FBI and local police to protect the mosque, CAIR and other Muslims have not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating "hate crimes," including attacks on mosques. CAIR and other groups like it want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them for political points and as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.

Was the arson attack against the Islamic Center in Corvallis a staged event designed to deflect attention away from Mohamud's jihad attack and onto Muslims as victims? There is no way to tell unless law enforcement officials consider this possibility, which they should do given the many faked incidents in the past. But whether they will actually do so is another matter.

"FBI to aid investigation into arson fire at Corvallis mosque," by Molly Hottle for The Oregonian, November 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been called in to aid the investigation into an arson fire at the Corvallis mosque where Portland bomb plot suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud sometimes attended.

The fire at the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center was discovered by an on-duty police sergeant at about 2:15 a.m. today. It took firefighters 10 minutes to put it out and it damaged about 80 percent of the office it was contained to. No one was injured.

Sunday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton and Art Balizan, FBI special agent in charge for Oregon, visited the Corvallis Islamic center.

FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said it's standard for the agency to become involved in attacks on religious groups, but that the possible connection between the fire and the arrest of Mohamud makes their involvement even more important.

"The FBI would not tolerate any retaliation on the Muslim community as a result of that arrest," Steele said. "We have an ongoing relationship with the Muslim leaders
in Corvallis. This is of high concern to them."...

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the fire....

"We have made it quite clear that the FBI will not tolerate any kind of retribution or attack on the Muslim community," Balizan said. "We are working very closely with the leadership at the mosque. We will find the person responsible for this attack and bring the full force of the federal justice system to bear. In the meantime, the FBI remains absolutely committed to protecting each and every American's right to live, work and worship in a free and safe society."...

The search for some explanation, any explanation, for Mohamed Mohamud's attempted jihad mass-murder other than the texts and teachings of Islam has now begun in earnest. The first entry: Mohamud became "radicalized" after his parents split.

And it's true: the divorce of parents has driven many an unhappy child to try to set off a bomb in a crowded place and murder hundreds, if not thousands, of people, hasn't it?

Of course, many more terrorist attacks have been committed by Islamic jihadists who read and took seriously the Qur'an's commands to wage war against infidels than by children traumatized by their parents' divorce, but never mind: when it comes to exonerating Islam of any responsibility for motivating violent jihadists, government, law enforcement and media officials join Islamic spokesmen in grabbing hold of any alternative explanation, no matter how implausible.

"Neighbors say wannabe Christmas bomber Mohamed Mohamud embraced extremism after parents split," by Lukas I. Alpert for the New York Daily News, November 28:

[...] Neighbors say Mohamud was doted on by his family but embraced militant Islam not long after his parents split up.

"He was a quiet kid, but with his folks splitting up, who knows?" Adam Napier, who lived next door to Mohamed Osman Mohamud for years told the newspaper.

Mohamud's family moved to the U.S. when he was just 5 and were described as friendly and modern.

Mariam Barre did not wear a hijab and her husband, Osman Barre, reportedly worked as an engineer for Intel. Mohamud appeared to be particularly close to his mother, neighbors said.

"She always talked so good about him. He was just a good kid," said Adam Napier's mother, Stephanie.

In 2009, Mohamud parents split up, not long after he turned 18, the paper said.

Omar Jamal, first secretary to the Somali Mission to the United Nations, told KPTV that Mohamud's father had remarried a woman in Minneapolis, which has a large Somali population and has been a hotbed for jihadist recruitment.

Later in 2009, Mohamud began communicating with jihadists abroad, and wrote articles for a website called "Jihad Recollections," authorities said....

Wanly did not offer chapter and verse in this report, but we're probably going hear a lot about apologists' favorite verse to cherry-pick, Qur'an 5:32 (no one ever includes 5:33 for fuller context, of course), which reads: "We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind."

"For other than...": "That's the problem: there is always an "except," an "unless," a "but." And "corruption in the land" as an offense has a certain, inherent elasticity. Conveniently, the imam utterly leaves out the complete, clear, textual exhortations (to paraphrase his emphatic, threefold modifiers) to open-ended warfare (9:5) to subjugate unbelievers (9:29) and the Qur'an's denunciation of them as apes and swine (2:63-66, 5:59-60, 7:166), and as the vilest of creatures (98:6).

Could some of that have influenced Mohamud, a young Muslim wanting to bring about Allah's will on earth, and whose hatred was validated by Allah's own words?

After all, Allah doesn't exactly mince words there. "FBI: attempted tree-lighting bomber Corvallis resident, former OSU student," by Kelly Koopman for KVAL, November 27:

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Those who know 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud say the Somali-born man seemed to be a normal American trying to make a change in the world around him.

"He seemed like he wants to do something to change something," said Yosof Wanly, an imam at the Al-Farisi Islamic Center. "That's what he thinks in his own mind and he took that initiative."

Wanly said Mohamud had a difficult childhood moving from Somalia at a young age with his father before relocating to Beaverton.

If Mohamud wanted to change something, at the very least the naturalized U.S. citizen has created a major stir among law enforcement and millions of Oregonians. [...]

... Mohamud said he had been devoted to carrying out violent jihad since the age of 15. According to the affidavit, Mohamud also wrote that he chose Oregon because "it's Oregon and Oregon, like you know, nobody ever thinks about it."

When asked by the undercover agents why he wanted to attack the Portland Christmas tree lighting, he said he chose it because he was looking "for a huge mass that will...be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays." He also explained that he wanted "whoever is attending that event ... to leave either dead or injured."

But those words of violence never came up between Mohamud and his imam Yosof Wanly. Wanly said he had "average teacher-student" conversations with Mohamud and that he never thought an attack like this would even cross Mohamud's mind.

"In my humble opinion, there were wasn't [sic] anything that would prompt me to think he would plan this. It's completely, clearly, textually denounced in the Islamic religion," said Wanly. "He took that initiative without seeking any advice from anybody and he went overboard."

Wanly said Mohamud had visited the Islamic center on an inconsistent basis for the last year and a half....

...And so it can't possibly have anything to do with Islam. Back to sleep, everybody.

Gratitude: Mohamed Osman Mohamud came to the United States from Somalia and became a naturalized citizen, which entails taking this oath:

I hereby declare, on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

"Details emerge about Mohamud, Westview / OSU student," by Frank Mungeam for KGW, November 27:

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the suspect in Friday night's plot to explode a car-bomb during Portland's Christmas tree lighting celebration, is a naturalized American citizen who was born in Somalia in 1991.

During elementary school, Mohamud moved 9,000 miles from the war-torn streets of Mogadishu to the suburbs of Portland.

He graduated from Westview High School in 2009 and then enrolled at Oregon State University.

Westview classmates told KGW he often joked about being a terrorist, but no one took him seriously.

A classmate who didn't want to be identified remembered Mohamud's odd choice for a physics project. Mohamud detailed how a rocket-propelled grenade worked.

"It was just weird about how someone would choose that, you know," the classmate said.

In an affidavit obtained by KGW, Mohamud recently told the FBI he had been thinking of committing some form of violent jihad since the age of 15.

Another of Mohamud's former classmates remembered a fight the two had over a messy locker. "The main thing was, the way he said he hated Americans," said Andy Stull. "It was serious. He looked me in the eye and had this look in his eye, like it was his determination in life - 'I hate Americans!'"

Stull says he was scared enough at the time to get school counselors involved, but that was the end of it.

In the fall of 2009, Mohamud started his freshman year at O.S.U. He took classes part-time, with a focus on engineering.

He also attended the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center near campus. His Imam told KGW Mohamud did not voice any radical views. The Iman said Mohamud grew reclusive recently, and described the teen as "relaxed" in his religious practice.

"I had to say he did a number of things against the religion. He had a lifestyle that was against the religion. I can't really say that he was in a position to represent Islam," said Imam Yousef Wanly.

And Mohammed Atta drank like a fish. But we all know how that ended. The bottom line is that both took the commands and promises (see Qur'an 9:111, 56:12-40, including vv. 22-23, 35-37) of the Qur'an seriously in the matter to which it devotes so much of its space: waging war against unbelievers.

Obviously, the folks had a few extra reasons not to let Junior borrow the car on a Friday night. "Six 55-gallon drums [of explosives] with detonation cords and plastic caps," for example.

In the end, Allah's own orders in the Qur'an to "fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)" (9:5) clearly took precedence for Mohamud. Funny how that keeps happening. "Words from the Oregon Bomb Suspect," by T.C. Baker for IndieProPub, November 28:

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, behind the planned bomb in Portland told an undercover agent in August that he "had found the perfect location for a terrorist attack: the city's annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony".

He said during the hotel meeting he had "dreamed of carrying out an attack for years, and the city's Pioneer Courthouse Square would be packed with thousands. A huge mass that will...be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays."

Mohamud, scheduled for court on Monday, has been followed for four years. When he was 15 and a student at Beaverton's high school, he told undercover agents about a prayer he made for guidance "about whether I should...go, you know, and make a jihad in a different country or to make like an operation here."

In one meeting, Mohamud told an agent, posing as an extremist, ways he could help "the cause" from "praying five times a day" to "becoming a martyr". But, he "thought of putting an explosion together but that he needed help doing so."

When he was warned several times of that women and children could die, he declined to back out.

Mohamud also made a video dressed in what he called "Sheik Osama style" which included a white robe, red and white headdress and camouflage jacket. In the video, he went on to "read a statement on his dream of bringing a dark day on Americans and blamed his family for getting in the way".

In his statement, Mohamud said, "To my parents who held me back from Jihad in the cause of Allah. I say to them...if you - if you make allies with the enemy, then Allah's power...will ask you about that on the day of judgment, and nothing that you do can hold me back."...

Publish or perish? Well, per Qur'an 9:111, "publish and perish" may be more what they're encouraging. "FBI: Suspect claimed he wrote jihadist fitness article," from CNN, November 27:

A Somali-American teenager arrested Friday on suspicion of plotting to bomb a holiday ceremony in Portland, Oregon, told an undercover FBI employee that he wrote articles published in an English-language jihadist magazine, including a story on fitness, an FBI affidavit says.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, told the undercover operative last summer that he had written articles for the online magazine Jihad Recollections under a pen name, according to an FBI affidavit filed with Mohamud's arrest warrant.

One of the articles Mohamud claimed to have written was "Getting in shape without weights," which was published in the inaugural issue of Jihad Recollections in April 2009, according to the affidavit.

In the article, the author - identified as Ibn al-Mubarak - writes that jihadists must prepare their bodies for war and "train as hard as possible in order to damage the enemies of Allah as much as possible."

The article implores readers to train without weights, in part because using them is "unrealistic for the Mujahid in the front lines anywhere in the world today," and because gyms are not Islamic environments, with their "music, semi-naked women [and] free mixing."

The piece describes stretches and warm-ups before instructing on ways to sculpt one's legs (suggestions include walking at least 90 minutes a day, doing interval runs, crawling long distances and sitting against a wall for long periods) and strengthen one's arms (100 to 150 push-ups per day, pull-ups, walking on hands).

"We find that [weights are] ... a major setback for the Americans and the NATO Crusading army as they cannot go to any battlefront without carrying along with them their bench, squat sets and sometimes even their machines," the article says. [...]

That fitness regimen has helped produce a fighting force that the jihadists cannot defeat fighting openly like men. So the pious thugs hide behind women and children to conduct asymmetrical warfare (just as Mohamud didn't care that his own attack would kill women and children) and create needless casualties for propaganda points. The valiant mujahedin! Alhamdulillah!

Mohamud said he wrote two other articles for Jihad Recollections, and that he also sent an article to another jihadist publication, Inspire, according to the affidavit. The court document does not identify those articles.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have said Jihad Recollections was produced by former North Carolina resident Samir Khan, who those officials now say they believe is living in Yemen. Intelligence officials also suspect Khan is the driving force behind Inspire.

He may get a publication after all, as a consolation prize for his abject failure, having taken the kuffar law enforcement's bait -- hook, line and sinker. Perhaps he'll get an "E" for Effort. It will be cold comfort inside the Portland jail.

The jihad against the Christians of Iraq continues apace, yet the world community continues to look the other way. "Iraq: Death threats continue to menace nation's Christians," from AKI, November 26 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Baghdad Nov. 26 (AKI) - Fresh death threats against Christians residing in Iraq are terrorising families and inciting them to flee, according to reports from 'al-Hayat' newspaper, which cites interviews from Iraqi security officials.

Seven hand written messages for which Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility were found in various locations throughout the city, Abdullah al-Nawafili, a Christian community leader in the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad confirmed.

"Threats of these types have been coming in over the past few days that push us to leave the country," he said.

The messages were delivered to the Camp Sara neighbourhoods of Baghdad which is home to a predominantly Christian population as well as the districts al-Amin and Baghdad al-Jadid and were written on white paper resembling doctors prescription pads. "Leave Iraq immediately or you will be killed by us," the notes read....

Just random explosives, and random loud bangs coming from his pickup. Happens every day. Perfectly ordinary, perfectly random. Nothing to see here. "Arkansas Man Arrested in Smyth Co. for Possession of Explosives," from WSET.com, November 27 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Smyth Co.,VA- An Arkansas man was arrested, and charged with multiples [sic] counts of manufacturing and possessing explosive devices after a traffic stop in Smyth County.

Around 10:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving State Trooper L. J. Testerman was traveling through Chestnut Ridge Road and Grubmore Road when he observed someone throwing some type of bottles out of a black Ford Ranger pickup. Moments later the trooper heard a loud bang come from the pickup.

Trooper Testerman stopped the pickup truck on Chestnut Ridge Road. After a search of the vehicle the officer found explosive devices.

21-year-old Emad Hatem Abdullah of Little Rock, Arkansas was arrested, and taken to the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon where he is being held on $5,000 bond.

Abdullah has been charged with one felony count of throwing a missile at a vehicle and four counts of manufacturing and possessing an explosive device....

The kid must not read the news. Mohamed Osman Mohamud's foiled plot and subsequent arrest were in many ways an exact replica of those of Hosam Smadi, the failed Dallas jihadi, and Talib Islam, who tried to bomb an Illinois federal building just before Smadi's arrest. And tellingly, his rhetoric was also familiar, as he said he was looking for a "huge mass [i.e., crowd] that will ... be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays," just as Smadi proclaimed "We shall attack them in their very homes."

One thing we're waiting for: the mainstream media's account of how Mohamud got "radicalized." How was Islam misunderstood this time? That is, if Islam is mentioned at all except to 1.) recite the standard boilerplate that Islam is a religion of peace and denounces "terrorism" (wink), and 2.) broadcast the also-standard material playing up the risk of anti-Muslim "backlash" wherein criticism of Islam is cast as dangerous. Let the verbal game of Twister begin.

More on this story. "Somali teenager 'tried to set off car bomb in US'," from the Telegraph, November 27:

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van at an annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. However, undercover FBI agents had been monitoring his plans and had ensured that the "bomb" was a dud.

Mohamud, a naturalised US citizen of Somali descent, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Portland police around 5:40 pm Friday (0040 GMT Saturday). Detectives swooped on him just after he dialled a cell phone number that he thought would set off the bomb. As they closed in, Mohamud tried to kick at them and yelled "Allahu Akbar!" - Arabic for "God is great!"

Prosecution documents lodged in a US court claimed that since the summer of 2009, Mohamud had been in email contact with a suspected terrorist in Pakistan's lawless northwest frontier province, currently a haven for al Qaeda cells. After discussing the possibility of Mohamud traveling to Pakistan to engage in jihad, or holy war, the accomplice allegedly gave Mohamud contact details of a terrorist cell overseas with whom a terror plot would be hatched.

It's not that northwestern Pakistan is "lawless." Rather, the past few years in the area have seen the ever-increasing encroachment of Sharia, imposed by jihadists advancing on a government in Islamabad that was unwilling to assert sovereignty over its own territory.

Repeated attempts by Mohamud to contact his would-be partners failed, and then last June, an FBI undercover agent contacted Mohamud via email pretending to be an associate of his Pakistani contact.

At a meeting in Portland a month later, Mohamud told the FBI operative that he had written articles that were published in "Jihad Recollections," an online magazine that advocated violence against non-Muslims.

He later told the agents that he had wanted to conduct a holy war against "infidels" since the age of 15, and that he had identified the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square as a good target.

There would be massive casualties and panic at the site, the symbolic significance of attacking an event related to a non-Muslim religious holiday, and economic impact well beyond Portland -- on "Black Friday" weekend, of course (and one just knows the jihadist propaganda puns that would follow from that).

Earlier this month, Mohamud and the agents traveled to the Oregon backcountry and detonated a bomb as a trial run. On the drive back, the undercover officials asked Mohamud if he was capable of looking at the bodies of those killed, according to the federal documents.

"Mohamud responded: 'I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured."'

On Friday, an undercover agent and Mohamud drove to downtown Portland in a white van that carried six 55-gallon drums with detonation cords and plastic caps, but all of them were inert.

They got out of the van and walked to meet another undercover agent, who drove to Union Station, the Portland train station, where Mohamud was given a cell phone that he thought would blow up the van.

They had enough details to look after, but this would have made a nice ringtone for the occasion.

FBI operatives apparently cautioned Mohamud several times about the seriousness of this plan, noting that there would be many children at the event. But Mohamud responded that he was looking for a "huge mass that will ... be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays," the court documents said....

"Since I was 15 I thought about all this...It's gonna be a fireworks show ... a spectacular show," said Mohamed Osman Mohamud as he plotted "violent jihad."

More on this story. "Feds: Somali-born teen plotted car-bombing in Ore.," by William McCall for Associated Press, November 27 (thanks to JCB):

PORTLAND, Ore. - Federal agents in a sting operation arrested a Somali-born teenager just as he tried blowing up a van he believed was loaded with explosives at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, authorities said.

The bomb was an elaborate fake supplied by the agents and the public was never in danger, authorities said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. Friday just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would set off the blast but instead brought federal agents and police swooping down on him.

Yelling "Allahu Akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is great!" -- Mohamud tried to kick agents and police after he was taken into custody, according to prosecutors.

"The threat was very real," said Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. "Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale," [sic]...

It said Mohamud was warned several times about the seriousness of his plan, that women and children could be killed, and that he could back out, but he told agents: "Since I was 15 I thought about all this;" and "It's gonna be a fireworks show ... a spectacular show."

Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Corvallis, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. A court appearance was set for Monday. Few details were available about him late Friday. [...]

U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton released federal court documents to The Associated Press and the Oregonian newspaper that show the sting operation began in June after an undercover agent learned that Mohamud had been in regular e-mail contact with an "unindicted associate" in Pakistan's northwest, a frontier region where al-Qaida and Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents are strong.

The two used coded language in which the FBI believes Mohamud discussed traveling to Pakistan to prepare for "violent jihad," the documents said....

An undercover agent met with him a month later in Portland, where they "discussed violent jihad," according to the court documents....

"This defendant's chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people -- even here in Oregon -- who are determined to kill Americans," Holton said....

Yes, there are "people" who are "determined to kill Americans," even "here in Oregon"! If only there were some way to figure out who they are, or where they might congregate!

I've maintained for years that the term "Islamophobia" was a politically manipulative coinage designed to silence critics of Islamic supremacism. Now Claire Berlinski explains how Islamic supremacists devised it for precisely that purpose. "Moderate Muslim Watch: How the Term 'Islamophobia' Got Shoved Down Your Throat," by Claire Berlinski at Ricochet.com, November 24 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

Now here's a point you might deeply consider: The neologism "Islamophobia" did not simply emerge ex nihilo. It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia. If that name dimly rings a bell, it should: I've mentioned it before, and it's particularly important because it was co-founded by Anwar Ibrahim--the hero of Moderate Islam who is now trotting around the globe comparing his plight to that of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former member of the IIIT who has renounced the group in disgust, was an eyewitness to the creation of the word. "This loathsome term," he writes,

is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.

In another article concerning the many moderate Muslims whose voices have been drowned out by Saudi-financed Muslim Brotherhood front groups, Muhammad describes the strategy behind the word's invention:

In an effort to silence critics of political Islam, advocates needed to come up with terminology that would enable them to portray themselves as victims. Muhammad said he was present when his then-allies, meeting at the offices of the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Northern Virginia years ago, coined the term "Islamophobia."

Muhammad said the Islamists decided to emulate the homosexual activists who used the term "homophobia" to silence critics. He said the group meeting at IIIT saw "Islamophobia" as a way to "beat up their critics."

Really imagine that scene: a bunch of Islamists admiring how astutely the queers--people who in their ideal world would be served with the lash or hanged--had portrayed their critics as mentally disturbed. Brilliant. Let's take a leaf from them and then kill them. The association of anti-Islamism--the noblest form of liberal anti-totalitarianism--with gay-bashing rednecks in the grip of a psychosexual panic was not just one of those linguistic accidents of history, in other words. These guys were sitting there in Virginia and really thinking about the best way to exploit the weaknesses of the Western psyche. They came up with this word--and admit it, it's clever; I challenge you to find a better one if you want to yank the West's chain--and they marketed it with  petrodollars, and now it truly does drive public discourse and policy the world over.  I was asked when I was recently on a Turkish television news show whether the Tea Party was "Islamophobic." That's what they're hearing here in Turkey, thanks to the IIIT. It's not an indigenous Turkish concept, I assure you....

He knew what he was doing: "American Grocers shipped so much stale merchandise that the company bought paint solvent by the barrel and set up assembly lines to wipe out the old labels to make room for the phony dates." So what was his intent? Just to make a profit? Or to cripple the military in Iraq as well? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? After all, we have seen cases like this before, although details remain elusive.

"Texas businessman settles military food mislabeling case for $15 million," by P.J. Huffstutter and Andrew Blankstein for the Los Angeles Times, November 20 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

A Texas businessman has agreed to pay $15 million to settle federal allegations that he and his company cheated the government by selling old and potentially dangerous food to the U.S. military to supply combat troops serving in Iraq and elsewhere.

Prosecutors had alleged that Samir Mahmoud Itani and his company American Grocers Ltd. profited from the Middle East conflict by ripping off taxpayers and shortchanging U.S. soldiers in the mess hall. According to the government, Itani's firm bought deeply discounted products whose freshness dates had expired or were nearing expiration. His workers then altered those dates and resold those supplies to the government for hefty markups, prosecutors alleged.

On Friday, Department of Justice officials announced that Itani, his wife, Suzanne, his brother Ziad and the company agreed to pay the penalty to settle the false-claim charges in this federal whistle-blower case.

Suzanne Itani, chief executive of American Grocers, said in a statement that the company denied any wrongdoing and that the settlement was a way to avoid lengthy litigation. She said that the company was "proud of the service and products it delivers to its customers" and that company officials "look forward to returning our full attention to serving our many loyal customers throughout the world."

Samir Itani could not be reached for comment. According to property records, he owns a $2.2-million, 9,931-square-foot mansion with two elevators in an upscale Houston neighborhood.

Prosecutors said that Samir Itani, 51, and a tightknit group of family and business acquaintances sold at least $36 million worth of mislabeled food products to the government. [...]

As the U.S. military presence grew in the Middle East, Itani's business boomed. American Grocers shipped so much stale merchandise that the company bought paint solvent by the barrel and set up assembly lines to wipe out the old labels to make room for the phony dates, according to the complaint.

The Justice Department did not say whether any troops were sickened by the food supplied by American Grocers, or whether any of the food companies that sold items to Itani knew of any wrongdoing.

The balance of power has changed in this age of Obama, and Saad Hariri knows it. And so he is in Tehran currying favor with the new masters. "Lebanese PM seeks support in Iran visit," by Ali Akbar Dareini for Associated Press, November 27 (thanks to JCB):

TEHRAN, Iran - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri expressed concerns for stability in the Middle East as he began a visit to Tehran Saturday to rally Iran's support for his efforts to keep Lebanon stable amid tensions over a U.N. probe into the assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri.

The visit follows President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's October tour of Lebanon, during which the Iranian leader reinforced Tehran's ties to the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group, a longtime protege of the Shiite powerhouse.

The exuberant welcome the Shiite Hezbollah staged for Ahmadinejad in Lebanon threw Hariri's Western-backed factions in the government on the defensive.

After touchdown in Tehran, Hariri was greeted by Iran's Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi and reviewed an honor guard before heading in to meetings....

Iran, whose ties to Hezbollah date back nearly 30 years, allegedly funds the militant group to the tune of millions of dollars a year and is suspected of supplying much of its arsenal.

In remarks in English, released by his office ahead of the Iran visit, Hariri underlined concerns for stability.

"Impairing the stability of any country of the region is a threat to the interests of Arabs and Iran at the same time," Hariri said. "Therefore, I consider that Iran is concerned by all effort to provide elements of stability in all countries of the region, including Lebanon."

Hariri is expected to meet Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad during the two-day visit, as well as other top Iranian officials, Iranian state television reported....

More movement of Turkey toward Islam and away from Kemalist secularism and its alliance with Israel. "In Lebanon's Beirut, shift of Turkish axis is welcomed," by Patrick Galey for Hürriyet Daily News, November 25 (thanks to Joel):

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan departed Lebanon on Thursday after a two-day visit, the timing of which should not be taken lightly, according to experts.

Erdoğan's trip to Lebanon came just weeks after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to the Lebanese capital and days before Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri is scheduled to travel to Tehran.

Amal Saad Ghorayeb, research adviser at Qatar-based think tank the Doha Institute, said Erdoğan's presence in Lebanon so soon after Ahmadinejad's demonstrates a key policy shift. "It's an important detail because it indicates that there are not two contradictory messages behind these visits," she told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday. "Turkey is moving closer to the so-called 'resistance axis.' It is edging toward a definitively anti-Israeli stance."

The Turkish prime minister said Thursday that his country would not remain silent if Israel attacked Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, as ties between the long-time allies remain at an all-time low. "We will not be silent and we will support justice by all means available to us," the Turkish prime minister said.

During a speech he made in a village in northern Lebanon inhabited by Turkmen families, Erdoğan called on Israel to apologize for its regional mistakes. He also inspected Turkish troops serving with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon at the Israeli border who are stationed in the area.

His remarks echoed, albeit less stridently, sentiments expressed by Ahmadinejad during speeches he delivered during his Lebanon trip....

But if Muslims had heard them, they would have been offended, doncha know. A British court upholds Sharia: "Anti-Allah outburst earns EDL supporter £200 fine after protest in Leicester," by Terry Hall for the Leicester Mercury, November 27 (thanks to Sean):

A man has been fined for making offensive comments about Allah during the English Defence League protest in Leicester.

Lee Whitby was found guilty of using racially aggravated abusive words during the protest in the city centre on Saturday, October 9.

During a trial at Leicester Magistrates' Court yesterday, the 27-year-old pleaded not guilty to chanting "threatening, abusive or insulting" words that were likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress."

Although he admitted making comments, Whitby said he did not believe they would have been heard by anyone other than police officers or fellow EDL supporters.

However, magistrate Rick Moore ruled that officers were likely to have been alarmed by the defendant's words....

Whitby, who chose to represent himself, said: "I went to an EDL demo and was in an area which was isolated away from everyone else.

"The only people that would have heard were the EDL.

"I was not aiming it at anyone. No-one around would find it offensive. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said it.

"I was just voicing my opinion at an EDL meeting with just EDL people around."

Alexandra Blossom, prosecuting, said the comments made were bound to cause harassment, alarm or distress because of Leicester's multicultural society and the fact the words were said in the city centre.

She said: "A number of people present that day were likely to be offended.

"It was a high-profile event and members of the public would have been in the city on a Saturday.

"The remarks are even offensive to police.

"A clear message needs to be sent out about using such behaviour in a multicultural city."

The court heard Whitby had two previous convictions for common assault.

Mr Moore said: "It is a fact you were with others chanting and police were within hearing distance but there is no evidence of non-police officers within hearing distance.

"It is likely that a police officer or officers hearing the words would be likely to be alarmed and for that reason we find you guilty of this offence."

Whitby was fined £200 and ordered to pay a further £200 in costs, as well as a £15 victim surcharge.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud: Misunderstander of Islam

He yelled "Allahu akbar" and tried to kick agents as they swooped in to arrest him. DoJ press release here. "Feds Arrest Somali-Born Teen in Car Bomb Plot," from the Associated Press, November 27 (thanks to Markus):

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Somali-born teenager plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland on Friday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would blow up a van laden with explosives but instead brought federal agents and Portland police swooping in to take him into custody.

Mohamud yelled "Allahu Akhkbar" and tried to kick agents and police as the arrest came, according to prosecutors.

He was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton released federal court documents Friday that show the sting operation began in June after an undercover agent learned that Mohamud had been in contact with an "unindicted associate" in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier region.

Mohamud is a naturalized U.S. citizen who has been living in Corvallis.

According to a federal complaint, Mohamud was in regular email contact with the "unindicted associate' in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier starting in August 2009.

The complaint states that in December 2009 Mohamud and the "unindicted associate" used coded language in an email in which the FBI believes Mohamud discussed traveling to Pakistan to prepare for "violent jihad."...

Last June an FBI agent contacted Mohamud "under the guise of being affiliated with the first associate."

Mohamud and the undercover agent agreed to meet in Portland on July 30. At that meeting, the undercover agent and Mohamud "discussed violent jihad," according to the court document.

Mohamud told the agent he wanted to set off explosives at the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, an event that occurred on Friday....

Sunnis and Shi'ites hate each other, but hate the Infidel even more. "Shiite deal gives militants new Afghan access," by Kathy Gannon for Associated Press, November 27 (thanks to JCB):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Shiite Muslim militias in Pakistan's tribal regions are helping some of NATOs fiercest enemies evade missile attacks from U.S. drones to cross safely into Afghanistan, a tribal activist told The Associated Press.

Shiites, who control a key piece of tribal real estate, cut a deal with the deadly Haqqani network to give insurgents a safe, alternative route to Afghanistan through Pakistan's Kurram tribal region, said Munir Bangash, who is familiar with the deal. A second tribesman from Kurram confirmed the deal but spoke only on condition of anonymity fearing retribution from the Taliban and from fellow tribesmen.

The deal underlines the problems of shutting down the Haqqani network's access to its bases in Afghanistan from its refuges in Pakistan.

The Haqqani network is blamed for many of the deadliest attacks on US troops in Afghanistan. Washington has been pressing Pakistan to launch a military operation against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan but so far the military has held back, saying its 140,000 soldiers deployed across the tribal belt are already stretched too thin.

Analysts and Afghan government officials have accused Pakistan of protecting the Haqqani network as allies who could be of use after the Americans and their allies leave Afghanistan. [...]

The Shiite militias had to turn to the Haqqanis to strike a deal "because they are so strong. No one else is as strong," Bangash said....

While Kurram's Sunnis have come under Taliban sway, its Shiites have come under the influence of two local militias called Hezbollah and the Mehdi militia -- unrelated to the militant groups of the same name in Lebanon and Iraq, respectively -- Bangash said.

"The Shiites are held hostage to the Hezbollah and Mehdi militias, like the Sunnis are held hostage to the Taliban," said Bangash....

So the Misunderstanders of Islam are in control.

Contrasts

She even acknowledged that it had religious roots, at least partially -- which is much more realistic than most government officials in Western countries ever get close to being. "Minister slams 'macho' Muslim culture," from The Local, November 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Family Minister Kristina Schröder slammed on Friday what she sees as a growing tendency to violence stemming from a "macho culture" among young Muslim men.

The minister told daily Wiesbadener Kurier that while discrimination and disadvantage were partly to blame, there were also religious and cultural roots to this propensity to violence, which was revealed in two studies commissioned by her ministry due to be released on Friday.

"We must not construct any false taboos here: there is a macho culture among young Muslim men that glorifies violence and which also has cultural roots," she said. "The tendency towards violence among young, male Muslims is clearly higher than among non-Muslim, native youths," she said.

It stemmed from perceived slights upon their honour, which they defended with violence, Schröder said.

"Social disadvantage and discrimination are important factors, but they are not sufficient as an explanation," she said. "There is a co-dependence between religiousness, macho norms and tendency towards violence."

Her comments came amid an ongoing debate about immigration, integration and Islam in Germany. Former central banker Thilo Sarrazin kick-started the issue with the publication of his book, "Abolishing Germany - How we're putting our country at jeopardy," which argued partly that Muslim immigration was dragging Germany down.

Chancellor Angela Merkel later declared that multiculturalism had "failed utterly," while Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer went so far as to suggest immigration from Muslim countries should be stopped.

Schröder indicated that discussion of the issue had been hampered by political correctness. Religion was part of culture and culture shaped behaviour, she said.

"If someone made an issue of the disproportionate tendency to violence among young Muslims, it was always said that this was a blanket judgement. But that's not the case," she said.

It was also striking that there was a growing hostility towards Germans being reported, she said.

"German children are not infrequently bullied in schools just because they are German. We must put up with that no longer," she said.

Schröder called for stronger efforts for the education of Islamic religious leaders in German universities - something the federal governments has already embarked on by creating university courses for Imams.

"We have to make those who shape values in the Muslim community responsible. That is first of all the Imams," she said. "Then another picture of society, of the roles of men and women and of violence, would soon be communicated in the mosques."

The problem Schröder doesn't face here is that the law of the supreme being is not negotiable. Even imams trained in German university courses will be studying the same Qur'an that fire-breathing jihadist imams study. It is unclear how she thinks "another picture of society" will "soon be communicated in the mosques" -- what will change to create the circumstances in which such a thing could happen?

They expelled the Misunderstander, but did they expel the Misunderstanding? "Italy expels Moroccan convicted of terrorism," from The Associated Press, November 26:

MILAN -- Italian security officials say an Islamic extremist who was part of a cell that planned attacks on the Milan subway and a cathedral has been expelled to his native Morocco.

The Interior Ministry said extremist Khalid Khamlich was flown to Casablanca on Friday after his early release from a 5 1/2 year sentence. It cited "reasons of public order and state security."...

Cue protests and claims of being unfairly victimized...

Righteous anger?

Friday afternoon post-khutbah rage. "Pakistan Muslims warn of anarchy over Christian," by Waqar Hussain for AFP, November 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Pakistani Muslims threatened protests and anarchy if the government pardons a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy, calling hundreds of demonstrators onto the streets on Friday.

Demonstrators marched in the eastern city of Lahore after the most influential Sunni Muslim alliance in Pakistan urged the government not to grant mother-of-five Aasia Bibi clemency.

A crowd of several hundred called for "Jihad" and pledged to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, an AFP reporter said.

Once again the mainstream media assumes all its readers are Muslim, naming Muhammad a "prophet" without qualification.

The rally was organised by a subsidiary of banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the United Nations has blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.

"We will hold nationwide protests if the government pardons the Christian woman," the subsidiary's chief coordinator, Qari Yaqub, told participants.

Politicians and conservative clerics have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Bibi, who was sentenced on November 8 to hang under controversial blasphemy laws for defaming the Prophet Mohammed.

"The pardon would lead to anarchy in the country," the head of the Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahibzada Fazal Kareem, told AFP.

"Our stand is very clear that this punishment cannot be waived." [...]

Bibi was arrested in June 2009 after Muslim women labourers refused to drink from a bowl of water she was asked to fetch while out working in the fields.

Days later, the women complained that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. Bibi was set upon by a mob, arrested by police and sentenced on November 8....

He will only serve another seven months and ten days. Then he will be free to raise funds for the next jihad. "Toronto 18 member sentenced to 10 years," from The Canadian Press, November 26 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A man convicted of trying to raise funds for the so-called Toronto 18 terror plotters has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a court in Brampton, Ont.

Steven Chand, 29, was convicted in Ontario Superior Court in June of knowingly participating in a terrorist group and counselling to commit fraud for the benefit of that group.

Chand has been in jail since June 2006 and has been granted credit of nine years, two months and 20 days for his time in custody.

That means he will serve another seven months and 10 days.

A group of men and youths dubbed the Toronto 18 was arrested in 2006 and accused of looking for Canadian sites -- such as Parliament -- that could serve as targets in a attack....

"Controversial opinions" are verboten! You can have any opinion you want, as long as it is that of the political and media elites!

Jihad Watch reader DL tried to access Jihad Watch at the Veterans Administration, and got this:

Access to the URL: http://jihadwatch.com/ has been denied.

(Your request was denied because of its content categorization: Blogs/Wiki, Controversial Opinions.)

The One-VA (VANSOC Operations) Internet Gateways are for official VA use only. Misuse violates VA policy. If you believe that this site is categorized incorrectly, and that you have a business reason for access to this site please contact your local Information Security Officer.
Please use the Web Access Request Form and include a business Justification. The ISO will need to forward the Web access Request form to vansoc@va.gov for processing. Only e-mails that originate from valid VA e-mail addresses will be processed. Please forward any questions concerning this process to vansoc@va.gov.

URL filter database serial number: 25876.
Generated 26/Nov/2010:16:58:27 +0000 by GWSWMD5.va.gov (McAfee Web Gateway 6.8.6 Build 5788).

Atlas Shrugs is getting blocked for the same reason. There will be no veterans committing thoughtcrime!

Last Friday at Restoration Weekend I participated in this panel, along with Frank Gaffney, Karen Lugo, Mark Thiessen, and S. E. Cupp.

(For the record, S. E. Cupp misunderstood what I was saying, which was as far from "Give up" as light is from darkness.)

Fifty five hundred bucks for this

"I want to shock. I'm an artist and this is my profession. I need to survive," says the artist. Such is the degraded state of the art world today. He is doing what sells. But what about the people who are buying? What illness has overtaken them? How is it that they have come to hate their own culture and civilization so intensely?

"Muslim artist cashes in on 7/7 bus horror," by Brian Flynn in The Sun, November 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A MUSLIM artist sparked outrage last night after his £3,500 picture of the bombed 7/7 bus went on display just a mile from the atrocity that killed 13 people.

It shows four angels above the wreckage - the number of al-Qaeda suicide bombers who left 52 dead across London's transport network on July 7, 2005....

On the side of the vehicle is an advert which was actually on the bombed bus reading "Outright terror... bold and brilliant".

Number 30 bus driver George Psaradakis, 54, who survived the 7/7 attack in Tavistock Square, last night called for the picture, titled Age Of Shiva, to be removed from its exhibition.

Age of Shiva? Age of Allah is more like it.

He accused organisers of trying to profit from terrorism.

But the picture's creator, ex-Tube graffiti vandal Mark Sinckler, 40, defended his work.

He insisted: "I want to shock. I'm an artist and this is my profession. I need to survive."...

The Muslim revulsion for dogs comes from Muhammad: "Ibn Mughaffal reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) ordered killing of the dogs, and then said: What about them, i. e. about other dogs? and then granted concession (to keep) the dog for hunting and the dog for (the security) of the herd, and said: When the dog licks the utensil, wash it seven times, and rub it with earth the eighth time." -- Sahih Muslim 551

Here again, even in the West, non-Muslims must accommodate Muslim mores -- never the other way around.

Sharia Alert from Staffordshire. "Blind couple's anger as taxi refuses guide dog," from the Staffordshire Newsletter, November 25 (thanks to Europe News):

A BLIND couple were "disgusted" to be turned away by a Stafford taxi driver because of their award-winning guide dog.

Doreen and Ernest Dix were refused entry to a cab parked at the pick-up point behind Stafford market last week.

The Great Haywood pensioners claim the driver did not want Blake, the current West Midlands guide dog of the year, in his cab.

This contravenes the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005 and can land offenders a £1,000 fine unless they certify they have a dog allergy.

Mrs Dix, 71, said this was the first time her golden retriever-labrador cross had been rejected from a taxi.

She said: "I can barely see, but saw the driver wave his hands and say 'no, no, no' as we approached his cab.

"We were both very upset and were made to feel really small, but just got the next taxi in the end. "We're moving to Stafford soon and this is a very poor start indeed." Eight-two-year-old Mr Dix, whose eyesight is worse than his wife's, was "appalled" by the driver's behaviour.

He said: "I've been registered blind for 28 years and have never been discriminated against by a taxi driver before this.

"If he isn't willing to pick up certain people, then he shouldn't be in a queue of taxis earmarked for shoppers.

"The driver we eventually used agreed it was appalling it made me feel like a second-class citizen."...

Get used to it. More is coming.

In recent years, there have been reports of Muslim drivers refusing the blind due to their doctrine's assertion that dogs are unclean.

However, the DDA does not consider this an excuse....

Yet another Islamic charity ends up financing jihad terror. Once authorities realize that this is one way for Muslims who are not prepared to join in hot warfare to aid the jihad, they will no longer consider this kind of thing anomalous. "U.S. Adds Islamic Charity To Terror Black List Over Its Links To LeT," from AHN, November 25:

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) - The United States has added Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, an Islamic charity group, which was the key aid provider to hundreds and thousands of flood-displaced people this year, to its terrorist black list over its al-Qaeda links.

There were speculations that the notorious Jihadi group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is blamed for 2008 deadly Mumbai attacks, was using the charity, which also runs ambulances' fleet across Pakistan, as its front.

Announcing it on the blacklist, State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, Daniel Benjamin said, "LeT has attempted to use Falah-e-Insaniyat as a way to evade scrutiny. This designation will help put to an end to that attempted evasion."

Benjamin added that the group's leader Hafiz Abdur Rauf along with two other LeT-linked men Mian Abdullah and Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan were also named on the list of "specially designated global terrorists"....

"Most importantly, the resolution still seeks to curtail and penalize speech." Indeed. That's exactly its purpose. The point here is to criminalize honest discussion of how Islamic jihadists and supremacists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify their activities. The OIC wants to render the West mute, and hence defenseless, against the advancing jihad threat.

"Blasphemy Resolution Passes U.N. Committee," by Adelle M. Banks for Religion News Service, November 25 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A resolution combating the "vilification of religions" was adopted Tuesday by a United Nations committee, but religious freedom advocates who oppose the measure say support for it continues to diminish.

The resolution by Islamic countries is scheduled to be considered by the U.N. General Assembly in December.

The vote -- 76 yes, 64 no, and 42 abstentions -- received fewer affirmative votes than last year, said Freedom House, a human rights group that has worked against the resolution....

Days before its passage, the Organization of the Islamic Conference relabeled the resolution as condemning "vilification of religions" instead of "defamation of religions," but U.S. officials and advocates continued to oppose it.

"We are disappointed to see that despite our efforts and discussions on this resolution, the text once again seems to take us farther apart, rather than helping to bridge the historical divides," said John F. Sammis, an official of the U.S. Mission to the U.N., told the committee considering the resolution. "Most importantly, the resolution still seeks to curtail and penalize speech."

V. S. Naipaul has had to withdraw under pressure from an event in Turkey because Muslims were outraged over his saying that Islam "has had a calamitous effect on converted peoples. To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter.'"

Meanwhile, in Wonogiri, a regency in Central Java province in Indonesia, newly elected district chief Danar Rahmanto is withdrawing public funding for traditional, pre-Islamic Javanese performances. Muslim leader Ahmed Sukino explained: "The traditional ceremonies are misleading people. And the offerings to the sea include a buffalo's head and harvest produce. Rather than let the food be wasted like this, why don't we give it to the poor?" He was in effect saying, in Naipaul's words, "my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter."

"Wonogiri Pulls Funding for Traditional Performances on Islamic Groups' Urging," by Candra Malik for the Jakarta Globe, November 25 (thanks to MMC):

Wonogiri, Central Java. Bowing to pressure from local conservative Islamic organizations, the new head of the Wonogiri district in Central Java is withdrawing his administration's support, financial or otherwise, for traditional events.

District authorities have in the past supported and also chipped in for the holding of several time-honored ceremonies and processions, but newly elected district chief Danar Rahmanto is changing all that.

"I will only remove three cultural events from local government budgets, but I won't forbid the people of Wonogiri to run them in a self-financing arrangement," he told the Jakarta Globe.

The district administration had in the past few years annually earmarked some Rp 3 billion ($340,000) for all tourism programs, including the three events which are all major happenings on the district's tourism calendar.

Danar said he was morally bound to the political contract he had entered with a number of Islamic organizations and three political parties, namely the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the National Mandate Party (PAN), and the United Development Party (PPP), for their support in the regional elections.

Other organizations that backed Danar's candidacy were the Koran Tafseer Assembly (MTA), the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Institute (LDII), Muhammadiyah, the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI), the Indonesian Brotherhood of Hajjis (IPHI) and the Youth of Kabah.

MTA chairman Ahmad Sukino said the group has asked the new district head "to keep his promises."...

"The traditional ceremonies are misleading people. And the offerings to the sea include a buffalo's head and harvest produce. Rather than let the food be wasted like this, why don't we give it to the poor?" Sukino said.

He added that traditional ceremonies were not going to help people get closer to God and would not guarantee them protection.

Wonogiri PPP chairman Anding Sukiman said the party would withdraw support for Danar if he did not pull budgetary support for the events. "This is a political consequence," he said.

Islamic hard-liners in Central Java have previously launched attacks on popular all-night-long wayang [shadow puppet] performances, saying they were rife with drinking....

Standing up for the rights of women will get you branded a racist and a sexist these days. And while women in Australia are free to wear the burqa, apparently Sergio Redegalli is not free, at least in the eyes of many, to call on them not to wear it. Yet another Islamic challenge to the freedom of expression: "Complaint lodged over burqa mural," by Josephine Tovey for the Sydney Morning Herald, November 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

IT HAS become a lightning rod in the public debate about the right of Muslim women to wear the burqa, attracting protests, the censure of a mayor and messages of support from talkback radio.

But now the Newtown mural of a woman in a full-face Muslim covering with a strike symbol over her face and the words ''Say No to the Burqa'' is the subject of an anti-discrimination complaint.

Cigdem Aydemir, 27, a Muslim, artist and high-school art teacher, said she felt ''completely offended and insulted'' when she saw the mural pop up in her neighbourhood.

The work of a local artist, Sergio Redegalli, the piece adorns a wall of his studio facing the street and the busy rail line.

''My sister-in-law wears a burqa ... my mother wears a veil,'' she said. ''I wore a veil for 10 years of my life. I think everyone has the right to wear whatever they want on their body and that kind of diversity needs to be protected.''

Aydemir went to the police and then the council to try to make the complaint, but as the mural was painted on private property neither could intervene. She lodged her concerns with the Anti-Discrimination Board, who this week notified Redegalli.

He said he had painted it to open debate about the burqa, but now felt his right to freedom of expression was on the line.

''There's a problem about the right to free expression, the loss of the ability to say something without instantly being branded a racist,'' Redegalli said. He cited a number of reasons for his opposition to the garment, including concerns about security and the rise of Islamic extremism in Australia.

''There's thousands that can say we don't actually feel comfortable about this - that's not being taken seriously,'' he said.

But Aydemir said: ''It's Islamophobic; it's feeding the racist and sexist attitudes we have in our society.''

The image has drawn fire from locals, and has been defaced at least 20 times. The former Marrickville mayor, Sam Iskander, said in September the mural ''goes against the values which the Marrickville community has believed in and practised for generations''.

Like what? The equality of rights of women?

Historically, if dhimmis complained about their treatment, their contract of "protection" was revoked and their lives were forfeit. Even today, that idea remains as a cultural hangover in the Islamic world: non-Muslims who are persecuted know they better keep silent about that persecution, or things will get even worse.

"Al-Azhar asks Coptic Church to denounce US religious discrimination claims," from AlMasry AlYoum, November 26 (thanks to Rights and Freedom for the Copts):

Al-Azhar attempted to persuade Egypt's Coptic Church on Thursday to rebuff a US report claiming that Christians in Egypt were discriminated against.

The Coptic Church had--for the first time--welcomed an annual US report on religious freedoms, saying there was indeed discrimination against Christians in Egypt. The Church held the government responsible for the report's conclusions, since it had ignored previous criticisms.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry, for its part, rejected the report, saying that Washington had no right to assess religious freedoms in the country.

The Islamic Research Academy, which is affiliated with Al-Azhar, held a meeting on 6 December to discuss the report following consultations with church representatives.

Al-Azhar spokesman Ambassador Mohammad Rafaa al-Tahtawi said the objective of the meeting was to take a "patriotic stance" representing all citizens, both Muslim and Christian alike. He said Al-Azhar considered the report "unacceptable interference" in Egypt's domestic affairs.

The US State Department's international religious freedoms report, released Wednesday, details alleged abuses of religious freedoms around the world. This year's report criticized "the practice of religious discrimination against Christians and Baha'is" in Egypt, pointing out that they did not enjoy equal representation in high-level government positions.

The report went on to claim that converts from Islam to Christianity were subject to numerous restrictions, the most noteworthy of which was the refusal of the authorities to issue them new national identity cards reflecting their conversion to Christianity.

Newsmax illustrates here that cluelessness about the jihad threat, and an appallingly naive willingness to accept the Muslims-Are-Victims narrative that is constantly being pushed by Islamic advocacy groups and Islamic spokesmen in the U.S., are not solely the province of the Left.

I don't think it's coincidental that my colleague Pamela Geller's Newsmax column was suddenly dropped after she criticized the negative influence on the Republican Party and conservatives in general of the man who is arguably most responsible for the infiltration of Islamic supremacists into high levels of our government: Grover Norquist.

"Newsxam," by Julia Gorin in Republican Riot, November 21:

The “max” in Newsmax, if pronounced backwards, is “scam.” So the above is pronounced “News-scam.” This time it’s because the cover story of the November issue — “The Truth about Islam in America” — is handled in a way that would make the mainstream media proud.

Because it’s almost indistinguishable. In addition to being an overall puff piece, there is a flattering timeline titled “Important Events in Muslim-American History” (printed in an Indiana Jones-type font), which goes through all the contributions by Muslims in America. When it gets to the contribution on September 11, 2001, instead of an active sentence such as “Muslim hijackers fly airplanes into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, killing 3,000 people,” we get: “The 9/11 terror attacks fuel a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment across America that continues today.”

So the victims in that sentence are Muslims. And the main point about that day is that it triggered anti-Muslim sentiment. Then we get to 2002 and it reads, “The FBI reports that hate crimes against Muslims have risen 1,600 percent since 2000.”

What that statistic doesn’t tell you is that the increase amounted to a total of 481 crimes in 2001, nationwide. Which is less than one-sixth of the number of people killed by Muslims in just one day, in just three locales. It also doesn’t tell you that by the following year the number was down to 155 — compared to 931 hate crimes against Jews, who in contrast did not kill 3,000 people....

Read it all.

In "Muslims Project Islam's Worst Traits onto Israel and the Jews" in Hudson New York (via RaymondIbrahim.com), November 17, our old pal Raymond Ibrahim notes an important and recurring phenomenon:

Sometime back, I noted that Muslims have been projecting the worst aspects of Islam(ism) onto the Copts, Egypt's Christian minority. This raised more questions: Is Islamist projection onto the Copts a unique phenomenon? Do Muslims project against other non-Muslims? Is there a trend?

To answer this question, it seemed logical to begin with how Islamists approach their archenemy: Israel and the Jews. Thinking this may be difficult to prove--it is one thing to hate your enemy per se, another to project unconsciously your worst traits onto them--I expected this might require some research. I went to MEMRI and, lo and behold, in mere minutes, came across three blatant examples. Consider the following excerpts, especially the italicized portions:

On September 7, Egyptian cleric Abdallah Samak made the following remarks on Al Rahma TV: "The Jews are known for their merciless, murderous, and bloodthirsty nature... The number one characteristic of the Jews - which appears in the Bible - is that they are always prepared for combat. They believe that it is their fate and destiny to be in a state of perpetual war. This is not what we want. We are seekers of peace and security. We seek to spread love. But we are dealing with a people, a society, that believes that its destiny is linked to war. The number one characteristic of the Jews is that they are a people that believes that its destiny is linked to war. They cannot live without war. They can only live if they attack others. They can only live through annihilation, revenge, and mercilessness."

In fact, the notion of "perpetual war" is straight out of Muslim doctrine and history--best recognized by the word "jihad"--and has no corollary in Judaism or any other religion. Even temporary truces are permissible only when Muslims are weak and incapable of going on the offensive: according to sharia, once Muslims are strong enough and have proper leadership (e.g., a caliph), they are obligated to expand the realm of Islam through offensive jihad until, in the words of the Koran, "all religion belongs to Allah" (8:39). History unequivocally attests to this approach. Moreover, while the Old Testament certainly contains many allusions to violence, these are of a historical, as opposed to doctrinal, nature. Conversely, Koranic verses dealing with violence have been codified in sharia and thus have a juridical and perpetual quality (note the word "until" in the most violent passages of the Koran, e.g., 9:5 and 9:29; see here for more on the differences between Judeo-Christian and Muslim violence). Finally, by quickly adding that Muslims "do not want" perpetual war, but instead seek "to spread love," Samak reveals that, immediately after evoking "perpetual war," Muslims naturally came to his mind, betraying a rather telling train of thought....

Be sure to read it all.

Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely deny that Islamic law mandates that apostates from Islam be murdered. Unfortunately for the apostates, the facts are otherwise.

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and supreme example of conduct for the Muslim (cf. Qur'an 33:21), said: "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him." (Bukhari 9.84.57)

The Tafsir al-Qurtubi, a classic and thoroughly mainstream exegesis of the Qur'an, says this about Qur'an 2:217: "Scholars disagree about whether or not apostates are asked to repent. One group say that they are asked to repent and, if they do not, they are killed. Some say they are given an hour and others a month. Others say that they are asked to repent three times, and that is the view of Malik. Al-Hasan said they are asked a hundred times. It is also said that they are killed without being asked to repent."

All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence all teach that a sane adult male who leaves Islam must be killed. They have some disagreements about what must be done with other types of people who leave Islam, but they have no disagreement on that.

The internationally renowned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has been praised as a "reformist" by pseudo-academic John Esposito, has said this about Islamic apostasy law: "That is why the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed."

An update on this story. "Iran Court: 'Pastor To Be Executed By Hanging,'" by Stefan J. Bos for Worthy News, November 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)-- A detained pastor of a major network of Christian house churches in Iran will be executed by hanging for "apostasy", or abandoning Islam, according to translated court documents seen by Worthy News Wednesday, November 24.

The 11th Chamber of The Assize Court of the province of Gilan said Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani had proved his "apostasy" by "organizing evangelistic meetings and inviting others to Christianity, establishing a house church, baptizing people, expressing his faith to others and, denying Islamic values."

Nadarkhani is "an apostate [and] will be executed by being hung...Somehow his soul is taken from him," the court wrote. [...]

The 33-year old Nadarkhani, who was detained in October last year, is currently held in a security prison in Lakan, Iran, just south of his hometown of Rasht.

He was arrested after protesting against the enforced reading of the Koran, viewed as a holy book by Muslims, to Christian children including his own. His wife Fatemeh Passandideh was released October 11 by a court in Gilan province, after she was detained on similar apostasy charges, Christians said.

In comments accompanying the death sentence, the court claimed Nadarkhani confirmed he converted to Christianity from Islam, despite possible execution. "Even in his last defense...when he was asked [by the prosecutor] 'from the age of puberty until the age of 19, what religion have you had?', he replied... 'Since I was born in a Muslim family I was Muslim until I converted to Christianity at the age of 19'."

Nadarkhani said the persecutor "induced" him "to believe whoever is born from Muslim parents and does not choose any religion after passing the puberty age, is a Muslim," the court acknowledged. [...]

"It has been proven to the members of the jury that Mr. Yousef Nadarkhani, son of Biram, has been born from Muslim parents, choose Islam [but] abandoned it at the age 19. His actions according to the fatwas of all Shia theologians is considered as inherent apostasy from the sacred religion of Islam."...

"The Muslims reportedly set several crucifixes alight and threw stones at the Copts..." Islamic supremacists in Egypt are very different from the KKK, but as they burned crosses in their recent clashes with Copts, their motive is the same as that of the KKK: to intimidate, to frighten. They want to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah" (Qur'an 8:60).

An update on this story. "Egypt: Coptic pope Shenuda III deplores 'anti-Christian' violence," from AKI, November 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenuda III on Wednesday deplored the violent clashes with security forces in Cairo's Giza district when thousands of minority Christians marched to demand permission from the government to build a church.

Shenuda III was quoted by pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi as saying he wanted to "forcibly resist action of this kind."

He said he wanted to "work to restore calm and prevent further acts of violence in the city."

A group of Muslims reportedly gathered in the area of Giza where some 3,000 Coptic Christians were reported to have protested outside the office of the local governor.

The Muslims reportedly set several crucifixes alight and threw stones at the Copts....

This incident is yet another attempt to force American businesses to adapt to Sharia mores. Non-Muslims must always change their behavior to accommodate Muslims; it's never the other way around.

An update on this story. "Connecticut Roller Rink Defends Policy on Headscarves After Muslim Woman Complains," by Edmund DeMarche for FoxNews.com, November 24:

A roller skating rink in Connecticut is standing behind its decision to ask a Muslim woman to remove her headscarf because it could present a danger to skaters if it fell off.

Marisol Rodriguez-Colon was set to attend her 4-year-old niece's birthday party at Ron-A-Roll but apparently didn't make it very far past the check-in counter before she was stopped by a rink employee, who offered her two options: remove her headscarf or wear a helmet over it.

Rodriguez-Colon said she felt "mortified" when an employee at a rink asked her to wear a helmet on top of her religious headscarf, or hijab.

But Jennifer Conde, the operations manager at the Ron-A-Roll, said the rink's main priority is the safety of its patrons.

"We are not insensitive to people's religion," she said. "We just focus on safety."

In a statement to FoxNews.com, Ron-A-Roll said it has a policy that prohibits headwear to be worn in the building. Safety helmets are offered to those that are unable to remove headwear for any reason, because they are secured with a chin strap....

Ron-A-Roll's meticulous attention to details, in this case, is troubling to Mongi Dhaouadi, the executive director of the Connecticut office for the Council on American-Islamic Relations[.]

Even Fox makes no mention of the fact that CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several of its former officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. Two of its other officials have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR also was involved in the Flying Imams' intimidation suit against the passengers who reported their suspicious behavior.

Dhaouadi said the rink has all but turned a deaf ear when he asked to talk about the matter.

"These were two women who were not allowed in because they wore this headscarf," he said. "They had absolutely no intention to skate."...

Then why did they want to come in? Just to provoke this confrontation?

If only we had leadership like this in the United States. "Canada won't attend Durban racism 'hatefest,' Kenney calls it 'charade,'" from The Canadian Press, November 25 (thanks to Ima):

OTTAWA - Canada will not attend a United Nations conference on racism next year, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday.

"Our government has lost faith in the Durban process," Kenney told a news conference. "Canada will not participate in this charade. We will not lend our good name to this Durban hatefest.

"Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."

The New York conference next September, dubbed "Durban III," is intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 meeting in South Africa aimed at defeating racism.

Canada and other countries walked out of that conference after Iran and several countries began ganging up on Israel.

The conference, which ended days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, produced the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.

The 62-page document raises 122 "general issues," among them "concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation." It "recognizes the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the right to an independent state."

But most offensive to Canada and several other countries were speeches laced with anti-Israeli rhetoric. Canada led a boycott of Durban II in Geneva last year, where Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against the Jewish state....

The controversy started when Egyptian authorities halted the construction of a church. Traditional Islamic law, which is not fully implemented in Egypt, forbids non-Muslims to build new houses of worship or repair old ones. "Egypt: 156 detained over Christian riots," from AP, November 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO - Egypt's prosecutor general leveled severe accusations Thursday against 156 Christians, including explosives possession and attempted murder, following clashes with police over the building of a church.

One person died and 68 others were injured when security forces halted construction on a church citing violations of building permits.

Angry Christians hurled stones while riot police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets near the church and later in clashes outside the governor's office.

The prosecutor general ordered a renewable 15-day-detention for those arrested, on accusations of sabotage, assault, possession of explosives and attempted murder of police.

Some 15 police officers were injured in the clashes. No one arrested or charged over the death of one protester, killed after being shot in the thigh according to forensic reports.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million. They complain frequently of discrimination, though they generally live in peace with the Muslim majority despite occasional flare-ups of violence, especially over limits on church building.

In his first comment after riots, Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenouda III blamed the local authorities of using violence against the Christians....

The construction had been ordered halted in this case because the building was not licensed to become a house of worship, a government statement said....

The Coptic community says authorities in Egypt are reluctant to approve permits to build churches, which they say they need to accommodate growing numbers of worshippers.

Human rights groups say attacks on Copts are on the rise, underscoring the government's failure to address chronic sectarian strains in a society where religious radicalism is gaining ground.

Israeli police appear to be hesitant to interfere in cases of domestic violence among Muslims; perhaps they're afraid of being labeled "Islamophobic." This story shows that such political correctness does nothing but endanger women. "'Inaction puts Arab women at risk from domestic violence,'" by Ruth Eglash in the Jerusalem Post, November 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

As official figures showed that a high percentage of women murdered last year by their husbands or partners were from the Arab community, Itach (Women Lawyers for Social Justice) released statistics on Wednesday showing that only about half of the 200 complaints police received about domestic violence were passed on for prosecution.

"It's important to be aware that the women murdered do not represent the full picture. The full picture is the thousands of women who live in fear that they will be murdered," said lawyer Keren Shemesh-Perlmuter, director of Itach.

"We see from the statistics that many Arab women turn to the police, but their complaints are not dealt with properly," she said. "This means that women who are trapped in a cycle of violence have nowhere to turn. They keep it to themselves and either are killed or end up suffering for many years."

Shemesh-Perlmuter said that "even if they do complain, the process goes on forever and ever, and in nearly half the cases, the police simply close the case.

This means that other women are reluctant to come forward and lodge complaints in cases of domestic violence."

According to the Itach's findings, out of 148 detectives specially trained to work in domestic violence cases, only 33 can speak Arabic, 10 are from the Arab community and only two are Arab women.

"This makes it even more difficult for Arab women to feel comfortable about reporting domestic abuse," Shemesh- Perlmuter said. "It also means that the police are not equipped to properly investigate the cases, and in 50 percent of them, it ends up being the woman's word against the man." [...]

Official figures released on Wednesday - a day ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - revealed that 18 women were murdered by their husbands or partners so far this year; seven of them were from the country's 1.5- million-strong Arab population.

I don't think the Qur'an should be burned. I think it should be read. But this is a question of whether Britain will preserve the principle of the freedom of expression, or implement Sharia norms regarding reverence for the holy book of Islam. This is an example of the latter. "Girl, 15, arrested over 'Facebook Koran burning video,'" from the BBC, November 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after allegedly burning an English language version of the Koran.

The 15-year-old, who lives in the West Midlands, allegedly posted the video, filmed two weeks ago on her school premises, on Facebook.

The video was reported to the school and subsequently removed, police said.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of making threats. Both have been released on police bail.

It is thought the girl, who lives in the Sandwell Council area, was allegedly filmed setting the booklet alight while other pupils watched.

Two Facebook profiles have also been removed from the site, police added.

It is understood that the group who published that version of the Koran have since been to the school to talk to pupils....

Well, that's a relief.

This is a safety issue, but for Marisol Rodriguez-Colon and Hamas-linked CAIR, it's another opportunity to reinforce the idea that Americans must change their behavior to accommodate Sharia norms. "Muslim woman says roller-skating rink discriminated against her," by Jeane MacIntosh for AP, November 25 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A Muslim woman claims that a Connecticut roller-skating rink discriminated against her because it wouldn't allow her to skate in her headscarf.

Marisol Rodriguez-Colon, 40, said she was "mortified" when she and another female relative showed up for a niece's birthday party at the Ron-A-Roll rink in Vernon and were barred at the door.

The venue's rules, posted at the entrance, read: "No Hats. No Headwear. No Exceptions."

Colon said her religious hijab shouldn't count under that policy -- and tried to appeal to a rink manager.

"We wear this for religious reasons," Colon said. "But they didn't want to hear that."

The manager, Colon said, gave the women two choices: take off the headscarves, or wear a helmet over them.

Taking off the hijabs was "not an option," Colon told WTIC-TV in Hartford. [...]

Ron-A-Roll management issued a statement spelling out its "no headwear" policy. It said helmets are offered for safety purposes.

"You are not allowed -- you are not welcome here. That is what that says to me," Colon said of the statement.

She said she was insulted that the rink would deny entrance to people "because of what they believe and what they are wearing because of those beliefs."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said yesterday it filed a complaint with Connecticut's Human Rights Commission.

No mention, of course, of the fact that CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several of its former officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. Two of its other officials have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR also was involved in the Flying Imams' intimidation suit against the passengers who reported their suspicious behavior.

Several years ago, University of Albany student Zahra Shah was barred from wearing her headscarf at an upstate New York roller rink.

That arena, citing insurance reasons, also banned headwear.

An employee at the time told Shah that other skaters could trip and get hurt if the hijab fell off.

When Shah explained that she wore the scarf for religious reasons, one rink employee told her it was like a cowboy "religiously" wearing a cowboy hat.

After a barrage of phone calls from activist groups and others, the rink management apologized and said Shah could skate with her headscarf.

Of course. And so what if someone gets hurt? At least we won't be "Islamophobic."

In 2008, Grandmama Obama was reported to be a Christian:

From AP, March 5, 2008:

"In the world of today, children have different religions from their parents," she said. She, too, is a Christian.

In 2009 and again this year, she went to Mecca for the hajj, which Christians don't do.

Why the deception? And who was behind it? AP? The Obama camp? Someone else? What was its purpose?

In any case, now she is unsatisfied with her grandson's unstinting solicitude for the Islamic agenda, and wants him to convert outright:

"Barack Obama's grandmother 'prays he converts to Islam,'" from the Telegraph, November 25:

Barack Obama's Kenyan grandmother has said she prayed for the US president to convert to Islam, according to reports.

Sarah Omar, 88, who was on hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, told the Al-Qatan Saudi daily: "I prayed for my grandson Barack to convert to Islam".

The paper said that Ms Omar was in Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage along with her son, Mr Obama's uncle Saeed Hussein Obama, and four of her grandchildren.

Ms Omar told the newspaper that she could only discuss hajj matters and would not comment on Mr Obama's politics.

The family appeared to have been hosted by the Saudi government for hajj. Saeed thanked King Abdullah for his "kind hospitality," the paper said....

That's worth a bow.

"Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews..." -- Qur'an 5:82

But he was depressed, you see. "Man gets two years in prison for bomb threat," by Andy Grimm for the Chicago Tribune, November 24 (thanks to Mary):

A West Rogers Park man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 months in prison for mailing a letter threatening to blow up a Jewish high school.

A half-dozen friends and neighbors testified that Mohammad Alkaramla, 25, was a peaceful man with many friends in his multiethnic neighborhood until his estranged wife moved to Jordan with their son. The caring man known to friends as "Mo" then became depressed and feared Middle East strife would make life dangerous for his son, they said.

Of course. The first thing a peaceful, caring man will do when he starts having domestic trouble is mail off a bomb threat to a Jewish school. It could happen to anyone!

Alkaramla, who was born in Jordan, mailed a letter in late 2008 to the Ida Crown Jewish Academy, threatening to plant a bomb there if Israel didn't withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip within two weeks, said his father, Tawiq Alkaramla.

"He knows all people are the same," his father said to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer. "He went crazy like with stress. ... He thinks Gaza is by Jordan. All he knows is what he sees on the TV."

At a bench trial in July, Pallmeyer found Mohammad Alkaramla guilty of a single count of making threats against the school. Investigators traced his fingerprints and a stamp on the letter to his home. They found he had searched for targets on the Internet in the days before the letter was mailed.

"Will Give You until 01.15.2009 to back OFF from Gaza in Palestine or will set our explosive in your areas," the letter said in part.

Alkaramla, who has been in custody since July, briefly read from a written statement.

"I realize I was in a downfall of my life, thinking of myself," he said of the decision to make the threat. "I regret and am deeply sorry for all my troubles."...

I received the same email from Sharia4Belgium that was sent also to Pamela Geller and Rusty Shackleford:

Name: sharia

Email: sharia4belgium@hotmail.com

Subject: sharia in belgium

Message: i know you dislike that sharia is talking over the world, but
that is a fact, so get used to it!

first great britain, now belgium, then the netherlands, and we will
continue inshaallah until the rule of Allah swt is applied on the
whole world!

www.sharia4belgium.webs.com/

"Belgium terror probe nets 11 arrests," from CNN, November 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

(CNN) -- Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with a suspected terror plot targeting Belgium, officials there said Tuesday.

The suspects were using a jihadist website to plan an attack on an unspecified target, police said.

"Long months of undercover investigation" led to the arrests, the authorities said.

It was "clear to us that the target was Belgian soil, just not clear enough to say where and when," Belgian public prosecutor Lieve Pellens told CNN.

Seven of the arrests were in Antwerp, Belgium, she said. One was in Aachen, Germany, and the other three were in the Netherlands. Those arrested are Belgian, Dutch, Moroccan and Chechen, authorities said.

A senior European counter-terrorism official told CNN that members of the group arrested in Antwerp, and their associates in Germany and the Netherlands, had discussed targeting Jews in Belgium as well as NATO vehicles in the country. However, officials say no specific targets appear to have been identified. [...]

Authorities are investigating the links between members of the Antwerp group and Sharia4Belgium, a Belgian Islamist organization, a Belgian counter-terrorism official told CNN. [...]

The sources say police have visited 15 locations in Brussels, Belgium's capital, as part of a continuing investigation into a terrorist cell linked to Bassam Ayachi, who was charged in 2009 with preparing terrorist attacks.

The intentions of that cell are "dangerous but not imminent," Pellens said.

Ayachi, a French citizen, was detained in Italy in 2008. He was head of the Belgian Islamic Center (Centre Islamique Belge or CIB), based in Molenbeek in Belgium.

A senior European counterterrorism official also told CNN that one of the people targeted in the Brussels operation had engaged in jihadist activities in Iraq and returned to Belgium two years ago.

This morning I received yet another death threat:

You are about to END

Message: YOu will go OFF. and We will live forever.

Die with your ANGER and unexpected things. ALLAH can stop who he wants from what he want.
on the other hand america's suffering financially shows how your money stolen from the land of Muslims given you by these useless kings is drying UP.

More FIRE We will see that TRUTH will Prevails and a STUPIDs LIKE SPENCEr will DRY up like a WET MUD.

And another:

If Muslims had the Chance

Message: A good example is North Koreas response to the agression of the south. they defended them selves and no body was in hurry to criticize them why..cause they know that They HAD N-Weapons.

If some Mulsim countries LIKE Palestine would have such chnace there would be no Spencer for sure.

And yet I live, and so do you. We are still, for the moment, free. I am able to write this, you are able to read it. With an Obama Administration repeatedly on record favoring restrictions on the freedom of speech, we should never take for granted that those who are threatened by Islamic supremacism and jihad will always be able to speak freely about that threat -- and that includes Americans as well.

So we must work hard to defend freedom, and to ensure that murderous thugs like the people who wrote me these emails do not prevail. Work hard. Make the most of every moment.

Give thanks today that you are free. Take a moment to savor all the things that make life worth living, and freedom worth defending. And then set out again to work, to do whatever you can, wherever you are, in whatever situation you're in, to turn back the tide of Islamic supremacist encroachment upon free societies everywhere.

I keep returning to Reza Aslan here because he is an excellent example of a deceptive Islamic supremacist who is widely taken as a "moderate." He is therefore a perfect illustration of how such Islamic supremacists bamboozle the ignorant and unwitting.

The adolescent literary pretender Aslan continues to race around the country promoting his new literary anthology and trying to claim a spurious victim status for Muslims by whining about "Islamophobia," but his moderate pose wears increasingly thin. He has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate not only with Ahmadinejad but with Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia. He has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as "the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon" -- recalling the useful idiots and fellow travelers who used to praise Stalinist Russia and even Hitler's Germany for their social services apparatuses.

Also, he is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. And so not surprisingly, in this piece about the trouble Iran's Thug-In-Chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is facing at home, he offers not one critical word about Ahmadinejad's genocidal antisemitism, or the regime's persecution of non-Muslims. Instead, he praises certain domestic policies of Ahmadinejad.

Yes, and Hitler built the autobahn.

"Ahmadinejad's Days Are Numbered," by Reza Aslan in The Daily Beast, November 23:

The irony is that Ahmadinejad is unquestionably doing the sensible thing in pushing ahead with the removal of government subsidies. Subsidies account for approximately 30 percent of Iran's entire annual budget. That is simply untenable for an economy that just last month saw the value of its currency drop by a staggering 13 percent against the dollar. Iran's oil industry, its most lucrative source of revenue, is in shambles after the recent departure of four oil companies-- Shell, Total, ENI, and Statoil. The carpet industry, once valued at $500 million, has disintegrated thanks to increased sanctions. The government claims that 22 percent of Iranians are unemployed (experts say the number is closer to 40 percent), three-quarters of them under the age of 30. Some 40 percent of Iranians live below the poverty line. Inflation is officially at 10 percent, though many economists believe it to be more like 24 percent. With the price of oil remaining stable and Iran's international isolation increasing, the government simply cannot afford to keep paying out nearly a third of its entire budget in subsidies.

But while what Ahmadinejad is doing may be the right thing for the country, it is the way he is doing it--by virtual fiat--that has parliament up in arms. In order to alleviate some of the economic hardships that Iranians will no doubt face, Ahmadinejad is personally doling out millions of dollars to families in need. According to the Iranian newspaper Payvand, some 60 million people (out of a population of 75 million) will receive about $40 a month to offset the inevitable rise in prices.

"It's all right, kaffir, I have checked myself and found nothing!"

From a press release sent out by Hamas-linked CAIR -- a group that never saw an anti-jihad terror initiative that it could support -- today (thanks to Twostellas):

If you wear the Islamic head scarf and you are selected for secondary screening, ask the TSA officer if the reason you are being selected for secondary is because of your head scarf. If the officer confirms you were referred to secondary because of your head scarf, before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer, who should be of the same gender, that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They should not subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down. You can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officer perform a residue swab of your hands.

The problem with that "residue swab," and with airport security in general, is that some explosive substances are undetectable by such methods.

Marisol here has some fairly extensive commentary on all the things that are wrong with CAIR's air security advice.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan: "Protesters oppose pardon for Pakistani Christian," from AP, November 24:

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- Around 250 hard-line Muslims staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, warning the president not to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting Islam.

They also denounced any attempt to change Pakistan's blasphemy law, which critics say is often misused to persecute Christians like Asia Bibi and other minorities. Her case has prompted outrage from human rights groups and a personal appeal from Pope Benedict XVI for her release.

But hard-line Islamic groups in Pakistan have pushed back and some have even threatened officials in the past who suggested reforming or repealing the blasphemy law. These groups have significant power since politicians from the major parties rely on them for votes.

"We are ready to sacrifice our life for the Prophet Muhammad," chanted protesters in Lahore -- many of whom were students from Islamic seminaries in the city.

The rally was organized by the Movement for Protection of the Prophet's Honor, a group of hard-line Sunni Muslims that was formed in 2001 to oppose changes in the blasphemy law....

If Zardari gets it into his head to be merciful to this persecuted woman, other heads will roll. "Pakistan president urged not to pardon Christian woman," by Reza Sayah for CNN, November 24:

Islambad [sic!], Pakistan (CNN) -- Two prominent Pakistani Muslim leaders threatened Wednesday to call for nationwide protests if the president pardons a Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

"If the president pardons Asia Bibi, we will raise our voices across the country until he is forced to take his decision back," nationally known mufti Muneer Ur Rehman said.

Hafiz Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer, a leading cleric in Lahore, said pardoning the woman would be "criminal negligence" and would cause inter-religious tension.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer told CNN Tuesday that President Asif Ali Zardari would pardon Bibi if the High Court did not grant her request for mercy.

Bibi, who has been jailed for nearly 15 months, was convicted in a Pakistani court earlier this month of breaking the country's controversial blasphemy law by insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammed, a crime punishable with death or life imprisonment, according to Pakistan's penal code. She was sentenced to death. [...]

Prosecutors say Bibi, a 45-year-old field worker, insulted the Prophet Mohammed after she got into a heated argument with Muslim co-workers who refused to drink from a bucket of water she had touched because she is not Muslim.

In a brief news conference at the prison where she's being held, Bibi said last weekend that the allegations against her are lies fabricated by a group of women who don't like her.

"We had some differences and this was their way of taking revenge," she said....

Muslims in the U.K. are traveling to Afghanistan and spending part of the year fighting jihad for the Taliban. Then they go back to driving cabs in Birmingham. "UK-based Taliban spend months fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan," by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and Jon Boone in the Guardian, November 24:

British-based men of Afghan origin are spending months at a time in Afghanistan fighting Nato forces before returning to the UK, the Guardian has learned. They also send money to the Taliban.

A Taliban fighter in Dhani-Ghorri in northern Afghanistan last month told the Guardian he lived most of the time in east London, but came to Afghanistan for three months of the year for combat.

"I work as a minicab driver," said the man, who has the rank of a mid-level Taliban commander. "I make good money there [in the UK], you know. But these people are my friends and my family and it's my duty to come to fight the jihad with them."

"There are many people like me in London," he added. "We collect money for the jihad all year and come and fight if we can."

His older brother, a senior cleric or mawlawi who also fought in Dhani-Ghorri, lives in London as well.

Intelligence officials have long suspected that British Muslims travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan each year to train with extremist groups.

Last year it was reported that RAF spy planes operating in Helmand in southern Afghanistan had detected strong Yorkshire and Birmingham accents on fighters using radios and telephones. They apparently spoke the main Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, but lapsed into English when they were lost for the right words. The threat was deemed sufficiently serious that spy planes have patrolled British skies in the hope of picking up the same voice signatures of the fighters after their return to the UK.

The dead body of an insurgent who had an Aston Villa tattoo has also been discovered in southern Afghanistan....

Last Friday at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Restoration Weekend, I had the honor of presenting the Annie Taylor Award for courage to my colleague Pamela Geller, in recognition of her indefatigable work, in the face of vicious abuse, to raise awareness of the Ground Zero mosque issue, Islamic honor killing, Islam's death penalty for apostates, and so much more in the cause of freedom.

Previous winners of the Annie Taylor Award include the great Oriana Fallaci, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Ilario Pantano, Ron Silver, Iranian freedom fighter Amir Abbas Fakhravar, and many others who put themselves on the line to fight against various forms of tyranny.

This post is entitled "A Tribute to Hugh Fitzgerald," but not in the manner of the devastating series of "Tributes" of various academic poseurs, craven politicians, and useful idiots that Hugh himself wrote for Jihad Watch. (You can find them, among a great deal more of enduring value, in his Archives here.) This one is a genuine encomium to a writer and analyst of extraordinary ability.

It is with great regret that I must announce that Hugh Fitzgerald is no longer writing for Jihad Watch. This unfortunate parting has come about because of budget constraints. Contrary to wildly misleading media reports, resisting the jihad is not lucrative, and while I tried to stave off this day for a year and a half, ultimately it proved impossible.

Hugh will be writing for other publications, and I strongly urge you to seek out his work, as he is a singular voice: an astoundingly erudite, deeply insightful, and marvelously witty writer whose Jihad Watch articles are as engaging as they are instructive. There is simply no one like him. Over the years at Jihad Watch he manifested an astonishing breadth and depth of knowledge about the history and present conditions of nations and regions spanning the globe. His analyses of why the American adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan were doomed to failure, and were, in fact, counterproductive if the goal was to contain the spread of jihad, Sharia and Islamic supremacism, were widely derided in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by those who had bought in to the prevailing simplistic and shallow declarations that we would soon bring "freedom" to those unhappy lands. But the passage of years has shown Hugh to have been entirely correct, even prophetic.

Equally prophetic are his evocations of what an Islamic Europe would mean for Western culture and Judeo-Christian civilization, and so much more that you will discover if you make it a habit to peruse Hugh's Jihad Watch archives, which you can find here and which will remain on the left sidebar of the site. I recommend that habit very strongly: take one every morning and read it. The topical events that inspired it will scarcely render it dated; the jihad is with us more than ever, and there is a certain recurring quality to the Jihad Watch archives in general: jihadists keep blowing things up, and killing people, and terrorizing infidels, in various places in various ways, while Islamic supremacist con men and academic useful idiots in the West lie about the reasons why these things are happening, and aid and abet cultural, stealth jihad encroachments upon our freedoms that may ultimately prove more devastating than a jihad bombing. And meanwhile, our politicians continue to pursue fantasy-based policymaking based on what they wish Islam and jihad were, rather than on what they actually are.

The dreary sameness of all this, along with the limpidity and enduring quality of his analysis, ensure that Hugh's Jihad Watch articles are never dated. And what's more, they're an utter delight to read. Hugh Fitzgerald is a prose stylist without peer. To be sure, in his comments on Jihad Watch posts he would, in his haste and Swiftian indignation, sometimes fail to resolve dependent clauses, leave out key words, or commit other stylistic infelicities that shrouded his insights in confusion. But his articles are generally polished and clear. And in addition to the sharp-eyed analysis contained within them, they are brimming with his remarkable wit and humor, strengthening one's resolve to face and decry our wholesale cultural capitulation to the jihad with a new determination to preserve the good things in life -- like wit and humor, and laughter, and music, and art, and literature: all the things that Hugh Fitzgerald loves so well and conveys his love for so brilliantly and beautifully.

Hugh Fitzgerald is a deeply private man, and has made few public appearances. This led several Islamic supremacists and their Leftist dupes to conclude, and loudly insist, that I myself must be Hugh Fitzgerald, writing (for what reason?) under another name. While I do not have the honor of being Hugh Fitzgerald, I was always aware of the compliment they were paying me: they were saying that I was capable of laying aside my generally vanilla prose and pedestrian insights, and - like Clark Kent turning into Superman - suddenly become a brilliant writer of English prose and an even more brilliant analyst of the current scene.

If only.

Hugh Fitzgerald is irreplaceable. He will be sorely missed at Jihad Watch. But there is one thing that we all can do in his absence from this site: READ HIM.

Pujiono Cahyo Widianto may simply have been imitating Muhammad: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88

Child marriage is common in some areas of the Islamic world in imitation of Muhammad's example, since Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct for Muslims (cf. Qur'an 33:21). And so here again we confront the irony: Islamic spokesmen in the West routinely denounce as "Islamophobes" those who point out that Muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha when he was 54 and she was 9, and claim that Aisha was much older, but in the Islamic world the Misunderstanders of Islam once again abound, and engage in or condone child marriage in imitation of Muhammad. Indonesia jailed Pujiono Cahyo Widianto; the Islamic Republic of Iran, however, lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in imitation of Muhammad. And so it goes.

"Indonesian cleric jailed for marrying 12-year-old," from The Associated Press, November 24:

SEMARANG, Indonesia -- An Indonesian Muslim cleric who sparked a national outcry by marrying a 12-year-old girl was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison.

Judges at the Semarang District Court said Pujiono Cahyo Widianto, 46, was found guilty of sexually abusing a minor.

The cleric, who also ran an Islamic boarding school and owned several businesses, hosted a lavish wedding in Central Java province in 2008 that was attended by thousands of people.

He claimed at the time he hadn't done anything wrong because he had no plans to consummate the marriage until the girl reached puberty.

But few in the predominantly Muslim nation of 237 million were mollified, especially when he went on to say he also intended to marry two other girls, aged 7 and 9.

Complaints came from the religious affairs minister, child rights groups and the Indonesia Ulemma Council - the country's top Islamic body....

The panel was stacked, the ad hominem smears outrageous, but Pamela Geller stands her ground and tells the truth.

(Video via Atlas Shrugs.)

The Iranian playbook at work again, on Israel's doorstep. "Syria's nuclear stonewalling deepens: IAEA report," by Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters, November 23:

VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria is refusing U.N. nuclear inspectors access to multiple suspect sites and has provided scant or inconsistent information about its atomic activities, an International Atomic Energy Agency report showed.

For over two years Syria has blocked IAEA access to the remains of a desert site which U.S. intelligence reports say was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor to produce bomb fuel.

The site, known as either al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, was bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007. Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever having an atom bomb program.

Earlier this year the IAEA gave some weight to suspicions of illicit atomic work at the site by saying that uranium traces found in a 2008 visit by inspectors pointed to nuclear-related activity.

"With the passage of time, some of the information concerning the Dair Alzour site is further deteriorating or has been lost entirely," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano wrote in a confidential report obtained by Reuters, adding that it was "critical" that Syria cooperated without delay. The agency wants to re-examine the site so it can take samples from rubble removed immediately after the air strike.

Washington has said the IAEA may need to consider invoking its "special inspection" mechanism to give it the authority to look anywhere necessary in Syria at short notice.

The agency last resorted to special inspection powers in 1993 in North Korea, which still withheld access and later developed nuclear bomb capacity in secret. The IAEA lacks legal means to get Syria to open up because the country's basic safeguards treaty with the U.N. nuclear watchdog covers only its one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor. [...]

The report also showed Syria had refused an IAEA request for access to a pilot plant used for acid purification. The agency wanted to make checks on a by-product of the plant, uranium ore, which if further processed can be used as nuclear fuel.

Syria said it needed more information from the IAEA before allowing a visit.

Amano also repeated a call for IAEA access to three other Syrian sites under military control whose appearance was altered by landscaping after inspectors asked to visit.

Syria has allowed inspectors to visit the research reactor in Damascus where they have been checking whether there is a link with the Dair Alzour site after discovering unexplained particles of processed uranium at both.

Some analysts say the uranium traces raise the question of whether Syria used some natural uranium intended for a reactor at Dair Alzour in tests that could help it to learn how to separate bomb-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, like North Korea.

The report showed Syria dodging agency questions about nuclear material at the Damascus site, failing to keep to an inspection and monitoring plan agreed earlier this year and giving inconsistent information in letters to the IAEA.

"These (letters) did not clarify the issues identified (by the IAEA) and the plan of action. In addition, the letters appear to have added further inconsistencies concerning the preparation of the uranyl nitrate and subsequent irradiation activities." Amano wrote.

Ask the federal Minister for Tourism about the Swat Valley, which used to be a major tourist attraction -- the "Switzerland of Pakistan" (Swat-zerland?). In recent years, it has become a war zone, courtesy of his "true followers of Islamic ideology." One supposes he's quite alright with that, or just conveniently blames the infidels.

"Taliban true followers of Islamic ideology: Pakistan minister," from Indo-Asian News Service, November 24 (thanks to AIC):

Islamabad, Nov 24 (IANS) The Taliban are 'the true followers of Islamic ideology', says a Pakistan minister who also believes that 'America is the biggest terrorist of the world'.

According to federal Minister for Tourism Maulana Attaur Rehman: 'Ulema and Taliban are the true followers of Islamic ideology and America is the biggest terrorist of the world, which is creating hatred against them.'

Dawn quoted Rehman as saying at a public gathering in Allai area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Tuesday that terrorism could not be brought to an end until the US and the world gave equal rights and respect to the Muslims.

'It is a misconception that ulema and Taliban are against co-existence of people with different religions. In fact it is America which is against the interfaith harmony to maintain its hegemony on the world,' said Rehman.

The Pakistan Army has been battling heavily armed Taliban guerrillas in the mountainous Waziristan region. The well-entrenched rebels put up a stiff resistance against the advancing soldiers.

The country has faced a string of terror strikes and the Taliban has been blamed for the Dec 27, 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.

Marisol summarized part of the problem with this here: "Meanwhile, the thug Sharif el-Gamal has been sued for an unpaid loan, and faced eviction from his SoHo office over $39,000 in back rent. He was found to owe $21,000 in fines on a property with 13 violations. And there are other unanswered questions."

El-Gamal has also threatened a Muslim opponent of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero; spoken at an event for Hamas-linked CAIR; and has a history of thuggishness, including a recent comment about how beating people up is "exercise & stress relief."

So why is NBC honoring this thug? Because the mainstream media is avid to get this Islamic supremacist mosque built, and the will of the people be damned. You see how the chips are stacked against the 70% of Americans who oppose the mosque: if the media reflected their concerns at all, Pamela Geller would be Person of the Year for her leading the effort to stop the mosque. Instead, this.

"NBC Names Ground Zero Mosque Developer a 'Person of the Year,'" from Pundit Press, November 23 (thanks to R.S.):

NBC and its affiliates have been trounced in ratings over the last several years. With stations like MSNBC under their belt and liberals such as Matt Lauer and Keith Olbermann hosting programs, NBC is clearly disconnected with the average American. Another clear sign of their mismanagement: naming Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the Ground Zero Mosque, one of their "People of the Year."

In an interview set to air on Thanksgiving Day, Matt Lauer sat down with El-Gamal and discussed the "Park 51 Project." El-Gamal, who was apparently pleased to be named one of NBC's people of the year, seemed very comfortable answering questions. The excerpt released so far shows that Mr. Lauer gave El-Gamal a decidedly softball interview. Here is a partial transcript of El-Gamal's opening statements:

"There's going to be a facility here that's going to provide aquatics, uh, uh, uh, a gym, just like a Jewish community center or, or a YMCA. It's going to provide, uh, much needed facilities to the residents of Lower Manhattan."

El-Gamal doesn't mention the inconvenient facts that the JCC has no synagogue and the YMCA has no church.

Lauer responds that there is "one major exception" to El-Gamal's statement, describing the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, El-Gamal's quickly responded:

"Not once have I held my faith accountable for the horrific events of 9/11. I am an American. I am an American who has a specific belief system, and my belief system, in order to be a Muslim you have to be a good Jew and a good Christian."

This is an Islamic supremacist statement. Islam considers itself to be the perfection and true embodiment of Judaism and Christianity, so El-Gamal's statement is not one of ecumenical generosity, but of supremacist replacement theology indicating the complete delegitimization of Judaism and Christianity.

Yet another Islamic charity ends up financing jihad terror. Once authorities realize that this is one way for Muslims who are not prepared to join in hot warfare to aid the jihad, they will no longer consider this kind of thing anomalous. More on this story. "Feds seek terrorism boost on tax fraud sentence," from AP, November 23:

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- The co-founder of an Islamic charity once based in Oregon faces sentencing.

Pirouz Sedaghaty (Say-dah-GAH-tee), also known as Pete Seda (SAY-dah), was due in U.S. District Court in Eugene on Tuesday to be sentenced on convictions he helped smuggle $150,000 out of the country in 2000 as part of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation's efforts to support Islamic fighters in Chechnya.

Court papers show prosecutors want to sentence him to eight years in prison, justifying the maximum sentence for tax fraud and conspiracy with evidence the money was used to promote terrorism. They also want unpaid taxes of $81,000....

Obama continues on his relentlessly anti-Israel, pro-jihad course. "Obama's UN Officials Silent on Nine Anti-Israel Resolutions," by Chana Ya'ar for Israel National News, November 22 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The United Nations Human Rights Council this month adopted nine resolutions against Israel. The United States opposed nothing....

Other UNHRC members responded with a verbal assault against the Israeli diplomat, which was also not stopped by the Obama administration representative.

"There is no other terrorism on the surface of the planet like the terrorism committed by Israel," claimed the Syrian delegate. "This entity was established on the basis of terrorism."...

Islamic tie

Kaffir tie

It's a Religion of Peace, of course, but the "Islamic tie" is nonetheless shaped like...a sword. Pamela Geller calls it "cutting edge fashion for fascists."

Story here (thanks to all who sent this in).

"Our community is terrorized and is seriously thinking about leaving Mosul."

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Two Christian brothers killed in Mosul," from Asia News, November 22 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - Anti-Christian violence and persecution continue in Iraq. Two days after a Christian home was attacked in Mosul (northern Iraq), two Iraqi Christians were killed in the city's Sina'a neighbourhood.

Sources told AsiaNews that unknown thugs entered a store owned by two Christian brothers, Saad and Waad (Raad) Hanna, 43 and 40 respectively, and shot them in cold blood. Waad died instantly, Saad, two hours later.

This is the latest incident in a surge in violence that has hit the Christian community hard in the past few weeks. The bloodiest episode occurred on 31 October when an al-Qaeda affiliated commando stormed the Syriac-Catholic cathedral of Baghdad during Mass. Almost 60 people were killed, including 44 worshippers and 2 religious. For al-Qaeda, Christians are "legitimate targets".

In view of the latest act of barbarism against them, local Christians have issued a new appeal: "Pray for us persecuted Christians". (LYR)

Is anyone listening?

The fruit of jihad. "Iraq: Mosul Christians 'terrorized' and 'ready to leave,'" from AKI, November 22 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

(AKI) - Terrorist attacks against Christians have caused those living in Mosul to consider leaving the city in Iraq's north, according to Emil Shamoun Noona, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul.

"Our community is terrorized and is seriously thinking about leaving Mosul," Noona told Adnkronos International in an interview. "Many Christian families have asked for ecclesiastic documents needed to move abroad and this indicates their intention to emigrate."

Fifty-eight people died during people the 31 October attack on a church in Baghdad that was claimed by an Al-Qaeda linked group. Further threats have been made against Christians in the Middle East and northern Africa.

There are approximately 500,000 Christians remaining in Iraq but last month's attack on Our Lady of Salvation and a string of subsequent bombings have left the country's Christians in fear for their lives.

Noona says he has little faith in Iraq's ability to protect its Christians.

"The solution is in the hands of the state that is responsible for the protection of its people but in my opinion it is totally incapable to do this," he said in the interview.

Iraq's leaders have spoken out against the violence and pledged to protect the religious minority, but "we continue to be threatened and killed. We've been forced to leave."

The leaders are all talk. Now, why is that, exactly?

The humane face of Sharia. Luckily, in this case this is not an opinion that is unanimously received. "Darul fatwa says donating blood un-Islamic," from IndianExpress, November 23 (thanks to Twostellas):

In a potentially controversial decree, Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has said that donation of blood and body parts was against the tenets of Islam, but observed that giving blood to save the life of a near and dear one was acceptable.

However, the opinion of the prominent Islamic seminary has not gone down well with several Muslim intellectuals who have asserted that religious bodies have already stated that there was no (no) problem with blood donation.

In a 'fatwa' issued in response to a question, the seminary said donating blood or body parts was not permitted in Islam as human beings are not the "owners" of their bodies.

The decree is posted on the website of Darul Uloom's fatwa section dealing with 'haram and halal' issues, where a questioner asked the seminary its opinion on whether taking part in blood donation camps is right or wrong.

This video has already gone around the world and back, but it is worth posting here to emphasize that this whole absurd TSA controversy has come about because of the government's refusal to admit the nature of the threat. If the TSA, and the DHS, and the State Department, and all the rest of them, acknowledged the reality of the Islamic jihad against the U.S. instead of ignoring and denying it, it would be possible to formulate some sensible screening policies. That is the easy solution to this problem, and one that will never be adopted.

As I wrote here, the TSA wastes "huge amounts of time, money, and resources by pretending that everyone is an equal threat to launch a terror attack -- Baptist grandmothers in wheelchairs just as much as young Pakistani Muslim males. The only answer at this point, and even it is not perfect, would be to institute Israeli-style profiling of air passengers. The Israelis have run an efficient and terror-attack-free air service for years, without all these invasive security measures. But to emulate them, of course, would mean to recognize in an official way that Muslims are a greater risk to commit terror attacks than Methodists or Mennonites. And in today's politically correct environment, the Obama Administration and the TSA would rather see another jihad mass-murder of American citizens on the scale of 9/11 or worse than do anything to suggest that."

Video thanks to Pamela Geller, who has some good remarks on this issue here.

The jihadists "wished to drive a wedge between people of different nationalities and religions." That much is true. But do "true believers, no matter what religion they belong to," really "always respect other religious and cultural traditions"? Not always.

"Church bombing in Ingushetia aims to spark interreligious feud - Patriarchate," from Interfax, November 22 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Moscow, November 22, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate has condemned the attack on an Orthodox church in Ingushetia.

"True believers, no matter what religion they belong to, always respect other religious and cultural traditions. Only heathens could have done that," Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky told Interfax-Religion on Monday.

He said that the attackers "wished to drive a wedge between people of different nationalities and religions."

"They keep escalating tensions and inciting local residents," the priest said.

He called the attempts to spark an interreligious feud senseless and said that "Muslims and Orthodox people had always lived together [in the North Caucasus and Russia] and the country had never witnessed interreligious conflicts."

A grenade launcher round was fired at a cupola of an Orthodox church in Orjonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia, in the early morning hours of Monday. The damage was minor. None of the clerics were hurt. Police are investigating the incident and looking for suspects.

"I think it's an insult to the 9/11 families. It's another smack in the face." Indeed. And remember, the Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan and Sharif El-Gamal, in innumerable mainstream media whitewashes, have insisted that this mosque is all about promoting harmony and reconciliation between Muslims and non-Muslims. Yet their fanatical intransigence in the face of numerous entreaties to move, and their appalling insensitivity in actions like this one, show the true face of their initiative.

More on this story. "Park51 developers apply for $5M federal grant, outraging opponents of mosque near Ground Zero," by Bill Hutchinson for the New York Daily News, November 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

Developers of a mosque near Ground Zero are fanning a new flame of controversy by applying for a $5 million federal grant reserved for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan.

"I think it's an insult to the 9/11 families. It's another smack in the face," said retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose 29-year-old son, Jim, a firefighter, was killed on 9/11.

"I think it's becoming more and more comical," he said of the latest twist over the proposed 13-story Islamic community center and mosque. "Now we're going to have to pay for it."

Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the proposed Park Place project, confirmed his group has applied for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. grant.

He said the grant would fund social service programs open to all lower Manhattan residents--such as domestic-violence prevention, Arabic and other foreign language classes--and two multicultural art exhibits.

Grant money would not go to pay for the mosque at the 13-story center two blocks from Ground Zero, according to a report posted on TheDailyBeast.com Monday.

"Park51 remains committed to exploring all sources of revenue and funding to build the community center in lower Manhattan," said El-Gamal, adding that the $100 million project will "provide hundreds of construction jobs" and 150 permanent jobs once opened....

Diane Horning, 63, founder of the WTC Families for a Proper Burial, scoffed at the developer's application and questioned the LMDC's use of federal money.

"All I know is that we asked for assistance from the LMDC to give our dead decent and proper burials and were rejected," said Horning, referring to a proposal to re-comb the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island for remains of 911 victims.

In Human Events this morning I discuss the latest apostasy trial in Afghanistan, and its implications:

Afghan Interior Ministry intelligence authorities have arrested an Afghan citizen, Said Musa, for apostasy - converting from Islam to Christianity, in yet another case that raises serious questions about what the U.S. is hoping to accomplish in Afghanistan, and how likely it is to be accomplished.

This has happened before. In 2006, an Afghan named Abdul Rahman made international news for being arrested and facing the death penalty in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rahman was ultimately spirited away to live in freedom, albeit in hiding, in Italy. But the questions his case raised about the Karzai regime and the nature of the "freedom" that the U.S. was bringing to Afghanistan were never answered, and have reappeared with the Said Musa case.

Qamaruddin Shenwari, director of the Kabul courts' north zone, explained that Islamic law - which mandates a death penalty for apostates from Islam - would be a determining factor in Musa's case: "According to Afghanistan's constitution, if there is no clear verdict as to whether an act is criminal or not in the penal code of the Afghan Constitution, then it would be referred to sharia law where the judge has an open hand in reaching a verdict."

Indeed, the Afghan Constitution stipulates that "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam." It declares that "the religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam," and that "followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law." And the "beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam" forbid Muslims to leave that religion, on pain of death. The Islamic death penalty for apostasy is as old as the Muslim Prophet Muhammad's command that if a Muslim "discards his religion, kill him."...

There is more.

Note the exceptionally high level of competence of Western intelligence officials. An incident like this is on par with the keenness of their analysis of Islam and jihad.

War Is Deceit Update: "Taliban Leader in Secret Talks Was an Impostor," by Dexter Filkins and Carlotta Gall for the New York Times, November 22 (thanks to Bill):

KABUL, Afghanistan -- For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

"It's not him," said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. "And we gave him a lot of money."

American officials confirmed Monday that they had given up hope that the Afghan was Mr. Mansour, or even a member of the Taliban leadership. [...]

Others suspect that the fake Taliban leader, whose identity is not known, may have been dispatched by the Pakistani intelligence service, known by its initials, the ISI. Elements within the ISI have long played a "double-game" in Afghanistan, reassuring United States officials that they are pursuing the Taliban while at the same time providing support for the insurgents....

War Is Deceit, after all. "Staten Islander accused of trying to join Taliban may cop plea, report says," from SILive.com, November 22:

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- A former Staten Islander accused of trying to join the Taliban may plead guilty to charges he lied to federal authorities about his alleged plan, according to a published report.

The attorney for Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, 21, formerly of Annadale and Prince's Bay, revealed the plea negotiations today during an appearance in Brooklyn federal court, the New York Daily News is reporting....

A criminal complaint unsealed last month said the FBI and the New York Police Department had been investigating Shehadeh "and several other individuals in connection with a plot to travel overseas and wage violent jihad against the United States and other coalition military forces."...

In October 2006, the complaint said, Shehadeh went to Times Square to try to join the Army. It said when a recruiter asked him if he'd traveled overseas, he lied and said he'd only been to Israel....

The complaint said that under questioning, he admitted that one of his websites was "designed to mirror and reformat the teachings of radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki" and "that in the past, he agreed with and sympathized with al-Qaida's violent jihad against the West."

The complaint said Shehadeh insisted he tried to go to Pakistan for religious, not military, training.

But witnesses who knew him told investigators that he instructed them that it was the duty of Muslims to fight jihad - and that signing up in Times Square was the best way to achieve his goal.

Shehadeh "informed (one witness) that he hoped to be deployed to Iraq," the complaint said. "At the time he was applying to join the military, Shehadeh told (the witness), when he arrived in Iraq, he intended to commit 'treason' and fight United States soldiers."

The complaint said Shehadeh traveled to Hawaii in April 2009. There, he bought an airline ticket to Dubai in June, but was intercepted by FBI agents who told him he was on a "no fly" list. In subsequent interviews, he allegedly admitted he had hoped to join the Taliban and receive "guerrilla warfare" and "bomb-making" training, the complaint said.

Aslan: Did he ever meet a jihad terror group he didn't like?

Reza Aslan is a prime contemporary example of a deceptive Islamic supremacist who is widely taken as a "moderate," and is thus a good illustration of how the ignorant and unwitting -- especially Leftist NPR multiculturalist types -- can be taken in by such people.

The adolescent literary poseur Aslan is racing around the country promoting his new literary anthology and trying to claim a spurious victim status for Muslims by whining about "Islamophobia," but his moderate mask just keeps on slipping: it is already known that he is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has also called on the U.S. Government to negotiate not only with Ahmadinejad but with Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia.

And now there is more. The Investigative Project's recent survey of apologists for the jihad terror group Hizballah in the U.S. contains this:

Other supporters argue that Hizballah is a legitimate political party in Lebanon. Despite its ugly side, they say, Hizballah is a multi-faceted organization that also provides social services. "You may think of Hizballah as a terrorist organization, and certainly they have engaged in terrorist acts, but they are also the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," writer and Muslim scholar Reza Aslan explained in a 2009 speech.

Well, sure, Reza, and Hitler built the autobahn.

Nor is that all. Aslan's "Islamophobia" Muslims-Are-Victims-Ignore-That-Jihad-Terror Tour last week had him appearing at Columbia University, at an event jointly sponsored by the Muslim Students Association and Hillel. From the MSA website:

Park 51 Reevaluated: Reza Aslan on Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism

Submitted by luqman on Mon, 11/08/2010 - 5:34am

Join the MSA & Hillel for a discussion on Park 51, Islamophobia, and Anti-Semitism with the CNN featured acclaimed author and professor Reza Aslan. Professor Aslan will also present and sign his latest book, Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, on neglected Middle Eastern literature in the English-speaking world. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Gil Anidjar of Columbia's Religion and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies departments.

The MSA and Hillel, eh? The Muslim Students Association was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. In "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991, the MSA is listed as one of the Brotherhood's allied organizations. And the memorandum explains that the Brotherhood's agenda in the U.S. is subversive: the Muslim Brothers "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

So now we have this vaunted moderate excusing Hizballah, calling for negotiations with Hamas, appearing for the MSA, and serving on the Board of a group that runs interference for the Iranian mullahs.

Has the "moderate Muslim" Reza Aslan ever met a jihad terrorist or Islamic supremacist he didn't like?

As U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange does the bidding of Hamas-linked CAIR, does she really know anything about what Sharia is or how it contradicts the U.S. Constitution in numerous important particulars? "Oklahoma City judge extends ban on prohibition of Sharia Law," from NewsOK, November 22 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

An Oklahoma City federal judge today extended a temporary ban on implementation of a constitutional amendment that prohibits state courts from considering international or Islamic law.

U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange said she will rule Monday after weighing the issues.

Seventy percent of Oklahoma voters approved the measure in the Nov. 2 election, but Muneer Awad, who is Muslim and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma, filed a lawsuit.

Awad said the amendment demonizes his faith.

No mention, of course, of CAIR's Hamas links, its status as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case, the jihad terror convictions of several of its former officials, etc.

And as for the amendment demonizing Islam, Pamela Geller says it best: "No, Awad, Sharia demonizes the faith. Sharia demonizes and brutalizes women and children and Jews and Christians and Hindus and Sikhs and other living things."

A jihad terror group finds support in the U.S. from an official of Hamas-linked CAIR and others.

"Hizballah's Brash U.S. Supporters," from IPT News, November 18:

(Part two of three) Green and yellow flags bearing an emblem of a hand grasping an assault rifle waved at a September rally in Washington. The flags of Hizballah, the Iranian-backed foreign terrorist organization, flying in the nation's capital, are a sign of defiance.

For a group responsible for more American deaths than any terrorist group other than al-Qaida, whose leaders continue to view America as the enemy, Hizballah enjoys surprisingly open support within pockets inside the United States.

From rallies like September's Al Quds Day protest featuring Hizballah flags and images of its leaders, to speeches endorsing its activity by national Islamist leaders, to a radical student movement that gives voice to its dogma, the Lebanese-based terrorist group that is considered an Iranian proxy is cast as a legitimate political player and heroic resistance movement.

In fact, the rally's purpose - honoring Al Quds Day - continues a legacy established 30 years ago by the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, a continuing source of inspiration to Hizballah.

Al Quds is an Arabic reference to Jerusalem and protests oppose Israel's control of the city. In addition to support for Hizballah, Al Quds rallies routinely feature incendiary rhetoric and call for Israel's destruction. The most recent event in Washington's Dupont Circle included a claim that the 9/11 attacks were a Zionist plot "in order to justify to occupy the land of the Muslims such as Afghanistan, such as Iraq, such as Pakistan, now moving on to the rest of the areas."

The Hizballah flag and images of the group's leaders, like Hasan Nasrallah, are ubiquitous at anti-Israel rallies throughout the country. A 2006 protest outside the Los Angeles Israeli consulate featured chants of "Long Live Hizballah." A 2000 rally in Lafayette Park featured the nation's most prominent Muslim political activist at the time garnering enthusiastic cheers when he asked the crowd if they supported the organization.

Ideological support for Hizballah in the United States, however, is not limited to flag waving and chanting.

U.S. government officials have accused one U.S. Muslim student group of providing intelligence to Hizballah's biggest financial and political supporter, Iran.

In 1987, a group of Persian speaking Muslims publicly pledged allegiance to the Iranian government and handed out literature written by the then- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini during a conference in Dallas.

The group, the Muslim Students Association, Persian Speaking Group (MSA-PSG), is also known by its Farsi name, Anjoman Islamie.

Federal officials have repeatedly linked the group to Hizballah and the Iranian government. A 1994 FBI report on Hizballah activities in the U.S. obtained via the Freedom of Information Act said "Hizballah also is known to be in contact with the Anjoman Islamic [sic], an Iranian student group active in the United States."

In 1998 testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, then-Chief of the International Terrorism Section of the FBI Dale Watson said that members of the Anjoman Islamie are heavily relied upon by the Iranian government "for low-level intelligence and technical expertise." Watson added that, "the Anjoman Islamie also provides a significant resource base which allows the government of Iran to maintain the capability to mount operations against the United States." [...]

Other supporters argue that Hizballah is a legitimate political party in Lebanon. Despite its ugly side, they say, Hizballah is a multi-faceted organization that also provides social services. "You may think of Hizballah as a terrorist organization, and certainly they have engaged in terrorist acts, but they are also the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," writer and Muslim scholar Reza Aslan explained in a 2009 speech.

Likewise, CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid emphasized earlier this year to an audience at Washentenaw County Community College in Ann Arbor, that there are "different wings" of Hizballah. "They run schools, hospitals, humanitarian aid, and they have a military wing," he said. "But the whole organization has been lumped as a terrorism organization."

The U.S. Supreme Court specifically rejected the legitimacy of this argument in its opinion which recently upheld a federal statute which prohibits material support of any part of a designated terror organization:

"'[F]oreign organizations that engage in terrorist activity are so tainted by their criminal conduct that any contribution to such an organization facilitates that conduct.' ... 'Material support meant to 'promot[e] peaceable, lawful conduct,' ... can further terrorism by foreign groups in multiple ways.... Such support frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends. It also importantly helps lend legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups--legitimacy that makes it easier for those groups to persist, to recruit members, and to raise funds--all of which facilitate more terrorist attacks. 'Terrorist organizations do not maintain organizational 'firewalls' that would prevent or deter . . . sharing and commingling of support and benefits.' ... '[I]nvestigators have revealed how terrorist groups systematically conceal their activities behind charitable, social, and political fronts.' ... 'Indeed, some designated foreign terrorist organizations use social and political components to recruit personnel to carry out terrorist operations, and to provide support to criminal terrorists and their families in aid of such operations.'"

Holder et al. v. Humanitarian Law Project at al, 561 U.S. , ___, 130 S. Ct. 2705, 2725 (2010), (citations omitted).

There is much, much more. Read it all.

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has claimed that "anti-Muslim hate crimes" have risen sharply in the U.S. since 9/11. In fact, the rate of such crimes has actually dropped, and as this new study shows, it is quite low compared to hate crimes against other groups. CAIR exaggerates the number and seriousness of hate crimes against Muslims because it knows that victimhood is big business: insofar as it can claim protected victim status for Muslims in the U.S., it can deflect unwanted scrutiny and any critical examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism.

That's most likely why CAIR and others have not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating "hate crimes." They want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them for political points and as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.

Reality, however, is a consistent witness against CAIR.

"Blacks, Jews most likely victim of US hate crimes: FBI," from AFP, November 22 (thanks to JCB):

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Blacks and Jews were the most likely victims of hate crimes driven by racial or religious intolerance in the United States last year, the FBI said Monday in an annual report.

Out of 6,604 hate crimes committed in the United States in 2009, some 4,000 were racially motivated and nearly 1,600 were driven by hatred for a particular religion, the FBI said.

Blacks made up around three-quarters of victims of the racially motivated hate crimes and Jews made up the same percentage of victims of anti-religious hate crimes, the report said.

Anti-Muslim crimes were a distant second to crimes against Jews, making up just eight percent of the hate crimes driven by religious intolerance....

Here is yet another missed opportunity for Western officials, most notably Barack Obama. Obama could make a statement about this, saying that it didn't matter whether she was innocent or not, but that blasphemy should not be a capital offense in a society in which free people differed in conscience on basic principles. He could, in other words, have used the Asia Bibi case as a teaching moment to show the virtues of Western pluralistic society. Of course, even to speculate on his doing something like this is to enter the realm of fantasy.

"Official: Pakistan Christian innocent of blasphemy," by Kay Johnson for The Associated Press, November 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD -- A Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam is innocent, a government minister investigating the case said Monday, adding he was hopeful she would be granted a presidential pardon and be freed.

The sentence against Asia Bibi has called new attention to Pakistan's blasphemy law, which critics say is used to persecute minorities, fan religious extremism and settle personal vendettas.

Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five, has already spent 1 1/2 years in jail.

A court sentenced her Nov. 8 to hang after convicting her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

She says she was falsely accused by a group of village Muslim women angry with her after a dispute over whether they could share the same water bowl.

Pope Benedict XVI appealed last week for her release, and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has asked for a review of the facts of the case, raising the possibility of a presidential pardon.

Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who is preparing the report for Zardari, said his preliminary investigations indicate that Bibi was wrongly accused.

"I am convinced that she is innocent and she was wrongly sentenced to death," Bhatti said....

They cite security concerns, but their concern for security appears inconsistent. Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan: "Pakistan prohibits visiting Sikh pilgrims' nagar kirtan," by Amir Mir for DNAIndia, November 23 (thanks to S.K.S.):

Pakistani authorities have stopped hundreds of visiting Sikh pilgrims from organising nagar kirtan, a religious procession, to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev at Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Punjab's Nankana Sahib district.

The pilgrims have also been prohibited, citing security concerns, from performing parkash (prayer) at Nankana Sahib's seven adjacent gurdwaras affiliated to Guru Nanak.

Nagar kirtan carries Sikhs' sacred book Guru Granth Sahib in a palki (palanquin) through the streets of Nankana Sahib touching seven gurdwaras affiliated to Baba Guru Nanak....

There used to be an air conditioned bus to carry Guru Granth Sahib, but the practice was suspended after law and order situation in Pakistan started deteriorating.

The Sikh visitors have criticised the restrictions imposed by the Pakistani authorities, saying if Muslims are allowed to take out processions, they too should be given permission....

Uh, yeah.

This is standard Islamic supremacist historical revisionism, on a par with the invention of a tolerant, pluralistic Muslim Spain. "Jews have no right to Western Wall, PA 'study' says," by Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post, November 22 (thanks to Hanna):

The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Haram al-Sharif [the Noble Sanctuary], according to an official paper published on Monday by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information in Ramallah.

The paper, which has been presented as a "study," was prepared by Al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the PA Ministry of Information to "refute" Jews' claim to the Western Wall.

In the past, PA leaders and officials had also denied Jews' right to the Kotel, insisting that the Temple Mount had never stood in the area.

The new paper claims that the Western Wall, or Al-Buraq Wall as it is known to Muslims, constitutes Waqf property owned by an Algerian-Moroccan Muslim family.

It claims that there isn't one stone in the wall that belongs to the era of King Solomon.

The "study" also found that the path next to the Wailing Wall was never a public road, but was established only for the use of Muslims living in the area or making their way toward the mosques on the Temple Mount.

"The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel," Taha, who is also a renowned Palestinian poet and writer, wrote in his project. "The Al-Buraq Wall is in fact the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

He added that the Jews had never used the site for worship until the Balfour Declaration of 1917. "This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction," he wrote.

"During the British mandate in Palestine, the number of Jews who visited the wall increased to a point where the Muslims felt threatened and then there was the Al-Buraq Revolution on August 23, 1929, where dozens of Muslims were martyred and a large number of Jews were killed."...

But just keep repeating it to yourself: the real neo-Nazis are those who are resisting the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. There are still a few hardcore Leftist useful idiots who believe it. "Iran Nazi website allowed to re-open," from Reuters, November 22 (thanks to Maxwell):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian Internet site for devotees of Nazi Germany has been allowed to reopen after being blocked briefly by government censors, a news website reported, raising questions about the official attitude to anti-Semitism.

The site, irannazi.ir, says it is the home of the "Historical Research Society for World War Two and the Third Reich." According to conservative news website TABNAK it was blocked temporarily but then reopened, saying the suspension had been due to complaints by Iranian Jews.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has many times denied the Nazis' extermination of millions of Jews during World War II. Ahmadinejad angered Israel and its allies by calling the Holocaust a "myth" and a "lie" and has predicted the end of Israel as a state....

The Nazi website does not appear in any way linked to the Iranian state, but with strict controls on the Internet blocking many sites deemed undesirable, TABNAK criticized the government for granting permission to the Nazi website.

"Why has the Culture Ministry given permission to the so-called Iran's Nazism society ... we hope the authorities have a proper reason for that," TABNAK said.

Considered close to Ahmadinejad's electoral rival Mohsen Rezaie, TABNAK said the website was dedicated to "spreading (Adolf) Hitler's fascistic ideologies."

"It had once been blocked but then unblocked," TABNAK said.

"Does it mean the activities of this extremist cult have been approved by our authorities?"

Hard to escape that conclusion.

A request made all the more outrageous by the fact that Rauf & Co. have shown themselves to be some of the most startlingly incompetent managers of money and property in recent memory:

In late August, we found out that the mosque developers were tax deadbeats to the tune of $224,000. In an application for tax-exempt status, Rauf claimed to operate a mosque that could hold 500 people, but in reality was an apartment that could not hold so many worshipers if they were crammed in like clowns in a Volkswagen. Rauf has filed a false tax return. He is a slumlord -- the worst in Union City, New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the thug Sharif el-Gamal has been sued for an unpaid loan, and faced eviction from his SoHo office over $39,000 in back rent. He was found to owe $21,000 in fines on a property with 13 violations. And there are other unanswered questions.

And now they want more money -- your money. The sense of entitlement that pervades the entire Ground Zero mosque project never ceases to amaze, as unsurprising as it is given the triumphalist agenda that drives it.

"Mosque Money Shocker," by John Avlon for the Daily Beast, November 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Developers of the controversial Park51 Islamic community center and mosque located two blocks from Ground Zero earlier this month applied for roughly $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The audacious move stands to reignite the embers of a divisive debate that dominated headlines surrounding the ninth anniversary of the attacks this fall, say people vested in the issue.

The application was submitted under a "community and cultural enhancement" grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation (LMDC), which oversaw the $20 billion in federal aid allocated in the wake of 9/11 and is currently doling out millions in remaining taxpayer funds for community development. The redevelopment board declined to comment on the application (as did officials from Park51), citing the still ongoing and confidential process of determining the grant winners.

While news of the application has not previously been made public, developer Sharif El-Gamal outlined it in closed-door meetings, according to two individuals he spoke with directly. The thirtysomething, Brooklyn-born El-Gamal is motivated more by real estate ambition--one of these sources describes him as aspiring to be the next Donald Trump--than Islamic theology or ideology.

Well, he's not The Donald. But why couldn't it be both?

Park51's developers clearly had a legal right to apply for the grant. A list of Frequently Asked Questions that accompanied the application specifically states that religious organizations can make funding requests for capital projects "as long as the request is for a facility or portion of a facility that is dedicated to non-religious activities or uses." According to an individual familiar with the Park51 application, it requests funds to cover a number of cultural, educational and community development aspects of the proposed 13-story building--but the prayer room is excluded from the grant application.

But the question on whether they could have is trumped by the question of whether they should have. The stated aim of the Park51 developers is to provide a community center for lower Manhattan's 4,000 Muslim residents. Their own website explained that they understood the need to "appeal to the undecided, and change the conversation about Muslims in America." It's pretty clear that this play for federal dollars will generate none of that, starting with the lack of disclosure or community consultation before developers submitted their application, which was due November 5th.

"If Imam Feisal and his retinue want know why they're not trusted, here's yet another reason," says Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam and Director of the Moral Courage Project at NYU, when I asked her about the grant proposal. "The New Yorkers I speak with have questions about Park51. Requesting money from public coffers without engaging the public shows a staggering lack of empathy--especially from a man who says he's all about dialogue." [...]

But the project likely doesn't quality for a grant in the first place. Specifically, the grant criteria mandate a demonstration of a project's financial feasibility, based on benchmarks set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The government will help complete development projects--but it does not provide seed capital. And in their last public financial statement, Park51 was found to have less than $20,000 in the bank for a project with a slated cost of $100 million.

With apologies to Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Misunderstand Islam. It happens in Jamaica, too, again demonstrating what should be a striking uniformity of the ways in which Islam's vaunted peaceful teachings are so terribly "misunderstood." That should suggest a stronger motivating factor than this or that conflict that is cast as "nationalist," or the grievance du jour. But we're not supposed to talk about that.

We do anyway. "Jamaican Imam Abdullah el-Faisal wants to be next terror big, U.S. fears," by Alison Gendar and James Gordon Meek for the New York Daily News, November 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

Counterterrorism agents in New York and Washington are keeping tabs on a Jamaican imam whose death-spewing sermons in English raise fears he'll radicalize American Muslims.

You'd think "radicalization" were like catching a cold -- it's just going to happen. What should be of interest is why the message continues to find an audience and willing foot soldiers, beyond the usual stopgap "underlying causes."

The NYPD intelligence division, CIA and FBI are concerned Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal is becoming a new Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni Al Qaeda cleric who went from preaching to plotting.

"El-Faisal is focused on propaganda," one U.S. counterterror official in Washington told the Daily News. "But the last few years, he's dabbled in operational things like recruitment and facilitation."

He also inspired Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and failed airplane underwear bomber Farouk Abdulmutallab.

"His reach goes far beyond Jamaica," the U.S. official said. "He's trying to expand his network in Africa and Asia."

A law enforcement source said El-Faisal "has a big ego" and hates "playing second fiddle" to perceived rival Awlaki - targeted for death by the U.S. for his links to the Fort Hood shootings and Abdulmutallab.

El-Faisal started out giving fiery sermons in London that were posted online by New York-based extremist website Revolution Muslim, which regards him as an in-house imam.

Then he graduated to promoting terrorism, counterterror officials said.

"Be a suicide bomber and die with dignity, honor and prestige," El-Faisal said in a typical speech.

Known as Imam Al-Jamaikee, he preached to Al Qaeda shoe bomber Richard Reid, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and 2005 British train bomber Germaine Lindsay before the U.K. jailed him on a terror rap for four years.

Experts see a direct link between the rise of English-speaking radical imams and the increase in homegrown terrorists.

"The number of American wanna-be jihadists has increased since more English speakers landed on the scene," said Mitch Silber, head of the NYPD's intelligence analysis division.

"It's more effective ... than someone ranting in Arabic pointing a finger at Western audiences."

El-Faisal is charismatic like Awlaki, but "willing to say things that would make even Awlaki turn pale," said terror expert Evan Kohlmann.

El-Faisal, who declined interview requests through his "agent," once said an "aim and objective of jihad is to kill [nonbelievers] to lessen the population."

To lessen the population of unbelievers, that is.

An island insider who knows El-Faisal said he's "becoming very frustrated" that the Islamic Council of Jamaica muzzled him from speaking in mosques since he returned in February. So he's recruiting through sermons posted on YouTube.

The Kenyan government jailed him early this year, and had to pay $500,000 for a charter jet to fly him home because no airline would....

Another plot to murder thousands to please Allah leads to more restrictions on the activities of non-Muslim Westerners. "Reichstag dome closed amid terrorism fears," from The Local, November 22 (thanks to Fjordman):

Police have closed the dome and roof terrace of Berlin's Reichstag in a dramatic security clampdown following reports that Islamists were planning a Mumbai-style attack on the building.

The press office for the German parliament or Bundestag announced Monday morning the dome and roof, popular tourist attractions that offer panoramic views of the capital, would be closed indefinitely.

The announcement followed a weekend report in news magazine Der Spiegel that said Islamic extremists were planning an armed raid on the 116-year-old building, which houses the parliament, in the style of the 2008 Mumbai attack, in which at least 175 people were killed....

Germany has nearly 5,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan and this is seen as a key source of Islamist anger against the country.

What will the learned analysts say when German troops leave Afghanistan and Islamic supremacists continue to plan jihad plots against Germany? They'll find another pretext for "Islamist anger against the country," and continue to ignore or deny the jihad imperative that is embedded within the Qur'an and Sunnah.

Again, imagine if such resourcefulness in controlling costs and building the printer cartridge bombs were put toward something constructive, rather than slaughter in the cause Islamic jihad. Yemen would certainly stand to benefit. But it is a matter of priorities.

"Magazine details al Qaeda cargo plane plots," from CNN, November 21:

(CNN) -- A recent terror operation involving parcel bombs on UPS and FedEx flights cost just $4,200, according to a report in a magazine that analysts say is published by al Qaeda's branch in Yemen.

It is a mad magazine. But with no fold-in, and no fatwas from Imam Potrzebie. There is, however, the "Usual Gang of Idiots."

Inspire magazine dedicates its latest issue to the plot, which it calls "Operation Hemorrhage."

Somewhere, a death metal band wants its album name back.

"The operation has succeeded in achieving its objectives. We thank Allah for His blessings," says the magazine, released late Saturday.

The article repeats al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's claim of responsibility for the October plot to ship bombs disguised as printer toner cartridges on cargo planes.

On October 29, local authorities in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates intercepted parcel bombs sent from Yemen and addressed to U.S. synagogues.

Al Qaeda bombmakers designed the parcel bombs to pass through detection devices and elude sniffer dogs, according to the article. It lists -- excluding metals from detonators, making the explosive mimic printer toner and integrating the bombs' circuits into printer cartridge circuits -- as methods of averting security detection.

The magazine also repeats a controversial claim of responsibility for the September 3 crash of a UPS flight in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which killed the two crew members....

Advocates for Sharia in the West, such as the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, are never confronted about their views on aspects of Sharia such as the amputation of the hand for theft, which is not negotiable in Islamic law since it is rooted in the Qur'an (5:38). This story shows, however, that Muslims are bringing such elements of Sharia to Western countries -- along with a substantial dose of conspiracy paranoia vis-a-vis the Jews, the "worst enemies" of the Muslims (cf. Qur'an 5:82).

"British pupils taught how to carry out Sharia punishments at Islamic schools," from AFP, November 22 (thanks to George):

PUPILS at Islamic schools across Britain are being taught how to chop off a criminal's hand and that Jews are conspiring to take over the world, a BBC investigation has found.

Up to 5000 pupils aged between six and 18 are being taught Sharia law punishments using "weekend-school" text-books which claim those who do not believe in Islam will be subjected to "hellfire" in death.

A text book for 15-year-olds advises: "For thieves their hands will be cut off for a first offence, and their foot for a subsequent offence."

"The specified punishment of the thief is cutting off his right hand at the wrist. Then it is cauterised to prevent him from bleeding to death," it added.

Young pupils are warned that the punishment for engaging in homosexual acts is death by stoning, burning with fire or throwing off a cliff and that the "main goal" of the Jews is to "have control over the world and its resources."

The schools are part of the "Saudi Students Clubs and Schools in the UK and Ireland" organisation. The BBC investigation claimed that one school in London is owned by the Saudi government.

Education Minister Michael Gove told the BBC program: "I have no desire or wish to intervene in the decisions that the Saudi government makes in its own education system.

"But I'm clear that we cannot have anti-Semitic material of any kind being used in English schools. Ofsted (Britain's education watchdog) will be reporting to me shortly."

Oh, good. Then everything will be all right.

Recently an erroneous story circulated to the effect that ISNA and CAIR had been removed from the unindicted co-conspirator list -- see here. The story turns out to be even worse for Hamas-linked CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT, three of the most important Islamic supremacist organizations in the U.S. today: the judge's actual ruling has just been unsealed, and as it turns out, the judge reaffirmed the three organizations' links with Hamas. He was only taking issue with the publication of the unindicted co-conspirator list. "Judge's ruling on Islamic groups as 'unindicted co-conspirators' made public," by Josh Gerstein at Politico (of all places), November 19 (thanks to D. C. Watson):

A federal judge's long-secret ruling that federal prosecutors violated the rights of three major American Islamic organizations and others named as unindicted co-conspirators in a Texas terrorism support case finally became public on Friday.

However, publication of the ruling is a mixed blessing for the groups: the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust. That's because U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented "ample evidence to establish the association" of the three organizations with Hamas, a Palestinian group that the U.S. has labeled as a terrorist organization and with a defunct charity convicted in the terrorism support case, the Holy Land Foundation.

NAIT appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to overturn Solis's ruling and have it unsealed. The federal appeals court recently agreed that the ruling should be unsealed and suggested that parts of it went too far, but the appeals panel refused to change it....

He left behind four kids along with the proud wife to go die in jihad. Priorities: gotta love 'em. Of course, there's a cushy welfare state to fall back on when hubby decides to slay and be slain in Allah's cause (Qur'an 9:111). "Swedish suicide bomber in Iraq," from Stockholm News, November 19 (thanks to David):

The Swedish 36-year-old went to Iraq - to die as a martyr for the terrorist group The Islamic State of Iraq. In the city of Mosul, he blew himself up and killed several people. Back home in Sweden he left his wife and four children.

Information about the man was published on a Internet forum used by the terrorist network Al Qaeda, writes the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Also on other forums there are details on the 36-year-old, a Swedish citizen written on an address in a Stockholm suburb.

The man was born in 1974 in Tunisia and came to Sweden in 2000. The year before he married his Swedish wife abroad. In 2003 he became a Swedish citizen and started up a cleaning business which he ran until 2005.

According to newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, in 2008, he enlisted for The Islamic State of Iraq, a terrorist group supported by Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

In 2010, in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, the father of four blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack which kill and injure several Iraqi policemen. The exact date is unclear.

He is now hailed as a martyr and hero for this deed on Islamic websites.

Back home in Sweden lives his wife and young children. His wife knew that her husband was in Iraq to fight in the war, she tells newspaper Expressen.

She was told that her man had died over the telephone.

"There was a man who called me. He said very short: 'Your husband is dead. He has become a martyr.' And hung up," she told the newspaper.

"What he has done is right. I'm proud of him."

In his Cairo address, Obama spoke in defense of the rights of Muslim women who want to wear the hijab if they so choose. Where is he for those who choose not to wear it but are forced, as is happening in Chechnya right now? Those who are suffering under the steady encroachment of Sharia and all of its violations of human rights might not mind a little "outreach" either. But they just don't seem to be fashionable enough of a cause, just as women's rights are always a lower priority when demonstrating "respect" for Islam is also at issue.

"Enforcement of Islamic Dress Code for Women in Chechnya," from Human Rights Watch, November 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

In the past few years the situation of women's rights in Chechnya has deteriorated significantly, requiring immediate attention from the Russian government and Russia's international partners.

Chechen women have essentially become the target of a quasi-official "virtue" campaign. For several years, the Chechen authorities have discriminated against women who refuse to wear headscarves, prohibiting them from working in the public sector. Female students are also required to wear headscarves in schools and universities. Though these measures have not been codified into law, they are strictly enforced and vocally supported by the republic's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is directly appointed by the Kremlin. This paper describes violence and threats against women to intimidate them into adhering to Islamic dress co des. The documented incidents took place from June through September 2010 in Grozny, Chechnya's capital.

Russian law guarantees all women, including those in Chechnya, the freedom to choose how they dress as part of their constitutional right to freedom of conscience, but to date the Kremlin has taken no action to put an end to this unwritten but unlawful policy in Chechnya. In the upcoming round of EU-Russia human rights consultations, the EU should urge the Russian government to take action to guarantee the protection of women's rights in Chechnya and to ensure that the wearing of a headscarf remains a personal choice and that no one will be punished or experience discrimination as a result of her choice.

International and European Standards

The enforcement of an Islamic dress code on women in Chechnya violates their rights to private life, personal autonomy, freedom of expression and to freedom of religion, thought, and conscience. It is also a form of gender-based discrimination prohibited under international law.

That's Sharia for you. There may be "no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256) in theory, but in practice, there is layer upon layer of coercion designed to leave no other choice but to submit to Islamic law. And of course, there is the death penalty for apostasy, per Muhammad's own orders.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees people's right to freedom of religion, as reflected in article 18.2, which states that "no one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his [or her] freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his [or her] choice."....

Note the siege mentality: why the leap to the conclusion that the U.S. must have gratuitously entered Afghanistan in order to "destroy Islam"? And with the U.S. building hospitals and schools and roads in Afghanistan, the notion is laughable -- but that never stopped the conspiracy paranoia before. "Think tank: 92% of Afghans never heard of 9/11," by Daniel Tencer for Raw Story, November 19 (thanks to Mackie):

Fewer than one in 10 Afghans are aware of the 9/11 attacks and their precipitation of the war in Afghanistan, says a study from an international think tank.

A report (PDF) from the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) shows that 92 percent of those surveyed had never heard of the coordinated multiple attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001. It also shows that four in 10 Afghans believe the US is on their soil in order to "destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan."

To be sure, the survey can't claim to be definitive: It only canvassed men, and relied primarily on respondents from Helmand and Kandahar, the two most war-torn provinces in the country. But the results nonetheless show that Western forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan have largely failed to connect with the local population.

"We need to explain to the Afghan people why we are here, and both show and convince them that their future is better with us than with the Taliban," ICOS lead field researcher Norine MacDonald said in a statement....

Good luck with that, Norine.

Said Musa faces death for apostasy from a government the U.S. installed and in accordance with a Constitution that the U.S. endorsed. An update on this story. "Afghan Christian faces trial for alleged conversion from Islam," by Matiullah Mati for CNN, November 21 (thanks to Mackie):

An Afghan Christian, detained for months for allegedly converting to Christianity from Islam, could face trial as early as next week - and could face a potential death penalty, officials said Sunday. [...]

The Afghan Constitution does not mention converting from one religion to another, so the judge will take Islamic law into account, officials said.

"According to Afghanistan's constitution, if there is no clear verdict as to whether an act is criminal or not in the penal code of the Afghan Constitution, then it would be referred to sharia law where the judge has an open hand in reaching a verdict," Shenwari said.

Under sharia law, converting from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death....

Nice of CNN to admit it, after obfuscating it before.

The U.S. State Department said last week in its annual International Religious Freedom Report that "respect for religious freedom" decreased in Afghanistan in the last year, "particularly toward Christian groups and individuals."

And yet no pressure whatsoever comes from that State Department to the Afghan government we're propping up, to improve that situation.

Christians, Hindus and Sikhs - as well as Muslims whose practices don't satisfy the government or society - suffer "intolerance in the form of harassment, occasional violence, discrimination and inflammatory public statements," the report said. It estimated the Afghan Christian community ranges from 500 to 8,000 people.

Yeah, be like him! Note how even a genocidally-inclined, bloodthirsty authoritarian like Ahmadinejad can denounce "extremism" in favor of an authentic version of Islam: when Muslims in the West speak this way, their non-Muslim hearers all assume they're saying that Muslims should renounce violence and supremacism and coexist peacefully as equals with non-Muslims in a state without an established religion on an indefinite basis. It is doubtful, however, that Ahmadinejad means that.

Note also the wooing of Pakistan, and Pakistan's apparent willingness to be wooed.

"Iran - President: Extremism should be replaced with Islamic thoughts," from Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, November 20:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that restoration of security in Pakistan is of prime importance and all should strive to help replace extremism with genuine Islamic way of thinking inspired by Great Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

President Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Pakistani Federal Minister for Population Welfare Firdous Ashiq Awan.

President Ahmadinejad said that the Islamic Republic of Iran sets no limits on expansion of all-out relations with Pakistan, calling for enhanced economic, scientific and energy cooperation and sharing experience in health sector and medical treatment.

The Islamic Republic of Iran fully backs Pakistan and during the recent massive flood which devastated the country, Iran extended humanitarian assistance and is willing to continue with helping the victims in the future, President Ahmadinejad said.

The President said that Iran and Pakistan would cooperate on international issues and helping the oppressed nations worldwide.

The Pakistani minister, for her part, said the Islamic Republic of Iran is an exemplary model for Pakistan as well as the world Muslims....

Still, the defense pleads that Seda "has been a respected community leader and a strong force for peace and inter-faith harmony" in his own town.

In Chechnya, well, not so much. More on this story. "Government seeks maximum for Seda," by Mark Freeman for the Mail Tribune, November 19 (thanks to S.):

Convicted money-launderer and tax-evader Pete Seda was well aware he was helping fund a radical Muslim jihadists' training camp in Chechnya when he laundered money through his Islamic charity in Ashland on their behalf, the government claims in new court filings.

The former Ashland arborist and peace activist kept apprised through e-mails of Chechens' fight to secede from Russia and form an Islamic state, helped translate Internet postings about their terrorist acts and even expressed a desire to fight alongside the jihadists he helped fund, documents claim.

Recently declassified documents also state agents from Russia's successor to the KGB discovered that about $130,000 of the roughly $150,000 Seda helped smuggle out of the country in March 2000 went directly to a camp that required graduates to perform acts of terror.

A month later, Russian spies intercepted a telephone conversation in which one of Seda's co-directors in his Ashland-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation chapter tells the camp's head that Al-Haramain-bought grenade launchers, sniper rifles and other weapons were on their way, records show.

Prosecutors assert that such evidence links Seda philosophically and financially to the Muslim rebels deemed terrorists in Chechnya.

It also highlights the government's argument for a so-called "terrorism enhancement" in its quest to see Seda sentenced Tuesday in Eugene to the maximum eight years in prison for his tax evasion and conspiracy convictions.

But defense attorneys counter that the government's portrayal of Seda relies upon "unfounded speculation" and that there is no legal basis for sentencing Seda under a terrorism enhancement, court filings state.

Seda's legal camp also asserts that the Russian-supplied evidence is prejudicial and unreliable hearsay, and that the government's presentencing report generally violates federal law.

Seda, also known as Pete Sedaghaty, instead should be sentenced to six months in prison with credit for his time served while awaiting sentencing since his September conviction, defense lawyers argue.

"Pete Sedaghaty has been a respected community leader and a strong force for peace and inter-faith harmony in Ashland since the 1990s," according to a defense memorandum. "Even at his own personal peril, Mr. Sedaghaty has repeatedly spoken out against terrorism and the forces of evil."....

It's very easy to denounce "terrorism" and "evil." But how does he feel about jihad? His actions speak volumes.

The ultimate goal of jihad in all its forms is the imposition of Islamic law. This is the common thread in numerous, bloody wars being fought in places far removed from one another, including Thailand, Mindanao in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Somalia, and Chechnya.

"'Demand Muslim state, terrorists were told'," by Shibu Thomas for the Times of India, November 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

MUMBAI: The Pakistani handlers, who were instructing the 26/11 terrorists, had asked them to take as many hostages as possible and demand a "separate state for Muslims".

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the HC that the terrorists were given Indian identities to make it seem as if locals were behind the attacks. Nikam said that the charge of ''waging war against the country'' on which Pakistani gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab was convicted was justified.

''Kasab and his associate, Abu Ismael, were headed towards Malabar Hill (where VIPs such as high court judges, ministers and the governor reside) to hold VIPs as hostages to fulfill their demands," Nikam said.

Besides a Muslim state, The terrorists were asked to seek liberation of Kashmir and release of militants. The handlers' telephonic conversations were intercepted during the attacks. Nikam pointed out that Kasab had confessed that Abu Ismael had the knowledge as to why they were going to Malabar Hill. Kasab was to be told the plans only after reaching Malabar Hill, said Nikam, referring to the confession statement.

Imagine if the initiative and resourcefulness put into inflicting wave after wave of slaughter in Islamic jihad were instead put into something constructive. But, alas, there are priorities: Allah promises paradise to those who "slay and are slain" in his cause (Qur'an 9:111).

"Bicycle bombers kill 4 and wound 31 in east Afghanistan," by Rafiq Sherzad for Reuters, November 20:

MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban suicide bombers on bicycles killed four people and wounded 31 in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the latest attacks to underscore the challenges NATO leaders face as they plan an exit from the war.

One bomber detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint in Mehtar Lam, the provincial capital of Laghman province, with the second striking several hundred meters away, Laghman Governor Mohammad Iqbal Azizi told Reuters.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came after a spike in violence over the past week and on the second day of a NATO summit in Lisbon. Leaders at the summit endorsed plans to start handing responsibility for security to Afghans next year and transfer control of the entire country by the end of 2014.

"We are not sure what the target of the second bomber was but we think he may have detonated his explosives prematurely," Azizi said. Earlier reports said the attacks had taken place in neighboring Alisheng district.

Where is the outrage against the Taliban's indiscriminate conduct in warfare?

All of the dead were civilians, Azizi said, and most of the victims had been riding in two motorized rickshaws, a common form of transport in rural areas that can carry many passengers.

Taj Mohammad, one of the rickshaw drivers, said he was on his way to the hospital when one of the bombs exploded.

"I had three female passengers and I was taking them to the hospital. When I was near to the hospital, I heard a huge bang. After that I did not know what happened, when I opened my eyes I was at the hospital," Mohammad told Reuters.

Blood-stained sandals could be seen lying near the blast sites and the windows of nearby shops had been shattered by the explosions, a Reuters witness said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the hardline Islamist group had carried out the attack and that the target had been Afghan police and intelligence officials....

Being "Iran's top human rights official" is like being Nazi Germany's foremost Jewish rights advocate. "UN Moves to Censure Iran for Human Rights," by Amy Kellogg for FoxNews.com, November 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

On Thursday a U.N. committee voted to censure Iran for its human rights abuses, including its crackdown on regime opponents.

Despite Iran's efforts to block the move, the General Assembly's committee responsible for social, humanitarian and human rights adopted the resolution with a vote of 80 to 44, with 57 abstentions.

And just coincidentally, there are 57 members (56 nations plus the Palestinians) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. (I haven't yet seen the list of the countries that abstained, but I do suspect that there is considerable overlap between that list and the OIC's member list.)

Iran's top human rights official Mohammad-Javad Larijani told the Wall Street Journal the vote was part of a wider campaign of the U.S. and its allies to get at Iran's nuclear program in any way....

The arrests of lawyers, student demonstrators and the stoning sentence meted out to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani are issues that have most concerned many in the international community.

Larijani told the Wall Street Journal that there has been a moratorium on stoning in Iran for some years now. But he defended the practice saying: "Stoning means you should do a number of acts, by throwing the stones in a limited number, in a special way, in the eyes of some people, stoning is a lesser punishment than execution because there is a chance you should survive."...

Oh, well, then! Stone away, Larijani!

Tommy Robinson's response is spot-on. This is a supreme example of British dhimmitude, since in saying this police have completely adopted the Islamic supremacist perspective -- that is, the tendency to deny all responsibility and to blame those who are defending themselves against jihad for the conflict itself. "English Defence League demos 'feed Islamic extremism,'" by Phil Mackie for the BBC, November 19 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Right-wing groups like the English Defence League are turning parts of Britain into recruiting grounds for Islamic extremists, police have said.

The EDL emerged last year and has held demonstrations in a number of towns and cities against radicalisation.

But the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit has told BBC Radio 5 live there is evidence EDL events can encourage extremists.

Officers also say they are worried about radicalisation inside prisons.

Many EDL demonstrations and counter-demonstrations have ended in violence, and Det Supt John Larkin says they have witnessed signs of radicalisation afterwards.

"In some areas, we have evidence that once they have gone and the high-profile policing of the event has occurred, there's fertile ground for those groups who would come in to encourage people to have this reality - this is the way white Western society sees us," he said.

"And that's a potential recruiting carrot for people and that's what some of these radicalisers look for - they look for the vulnerability, for the hook to pull people through and when the EDL have been and done what they've done, they perversely leave that behind."

EDL leader Tommy Robinson said it was "ridiculous" to blame his organisation.

"9/11 was our fault, 7/7 was our fault, there's been 17,000 terrorist attacks since September 11th, I guess they're our fault," he said.

"I guess the last 1,400 years of history, where Islam's been at war with non-Islam, is our fault. It's ridiculous.

"We're not the cause. The root cause of the problem is the Koran, it's Islam."

The Department of Homeland Security needs to clarify its position here without delay. CAIR advised Muslim women in the press release quoted here that:

"Instead of the pat-down, you can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area"...

Two facts should be self-evident to demonstrate how outrageous this idea is. First, the whole point of being searched by someone else is to find concealed objects. A "self-pat-down" clearly defeats that purpose and is a completely unacceptable lapse in security. Let's remember the stakes here: if something goes wrong in air security in the wrong place at the wrong time, people die. There is enough margin for error in the system already without adding this variable.

Secondly, the fact that Napolitano could even be considering such a measure highlights a double standard for special treatment that would not be considered for any other religious group, but is extended to Muslims without a second thought. What is going on here is a politically correct sort of anti-profiling: by all appearances, the air security apparatus bends over backwards to profile Muslims as not being a threat, in a way that it does not strive to reassure other demographic groups in the traveling public.

We are told time and again that Muslims in America just want to be treated like everyone else. Ergo, if you want equal treatment as a Muslim woman, participate in your social responsibilities equally even when it is awkward or inconvenient, rather than acting like some kind of demigoddess whose head and neck are untouchable by sullied human hands in the screening line. Your head and neck are as human as that of the next non-Muslim lady in line who is no more thrilled to be there than you are.

But let's remember why we're standing there waiting with our shoes in a plastic bin, and why so many security procedures have come into being in the first place: Islamic jihadists keep trying to bring down our planes, more and more with explosives concealed on their bodies.

"Napolitano considering allowing Muslim women to pat themselves down at Airports!" by Jack Minor for the Greeley Gazette, November 17 (thanks to C.):

With the holidays fast approaching, the Transportation Safety Agency has announced new security procedures requiring passengers selected for secondary screening to go through a machine that produces a full body scan producing a nude but grainy, black and white image. Passengers choosing to opt out of the scan will face a full body pat.

The problems these security measures pose should be discussed in the interest of the entire traveling public, pilots, and flight attendants, and not as the problem of one group.

The head of Homeland Security has indicated the government is considering the request of an Islamic organization that has suggested Muslim women be allowed to pat themselves down during a full body search that is part of new enhanced procedures at airports.

Since implementing the procedures, numerous complaints have arisen that the search is not a "pat-down" but rather feeling and grabbing along a person's genitalia and other areas until they meet resistance. Critics have said the pat-downs would be considered sexual assault if performed elsewhere.

The TSA defends the procedures as necessary in light of last years "underwear bomber" and the recent issues involving printer cartridges being used in an attempt to blow up cargo planes.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, has expressed concern with the TSA over the regulations and recommended special procedures for dealing with Muslim women. The organization issued a travel advisory for Muslims over the procedure.

In the advisory CAIR advises all Muslims to contact them and file a complaint with the TSA if they experience any "disturbing incidents" with the new procedures and they feel they have been unfairly singled out for screening.

It goes on to make special recommendations for Muslim women wearing a hijab covering their face. The advisory says women are to inform the officer they are only to pat down the head and neck and says "They should not subject you to a full-body or partial body pat-down." They also recommend that women should be permitted to pat themselves down and "have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands."

Barack Obama's Homeland Security Czar, Janet Napolitano, is considering changes to the procedures to address the issues raised by CAIR....

Funny how these cases with Islamic charities keep coming up. One reason they do is that, while the Western understanding of charities draws a sharp distinction between combatant and non-combatant roles and places charitable work firmly in the latter camp, the Islamic tradition does not. Qur'an 9:60 includes "those fighting in the cause of Allah" as eligible for zakat.

And of course, in Muhammad's own words, "War is deceit." An update on this story. "Feds seek prison sentence for Islamic charity co-founder Seda," by Jeff Barnard for the Associated Press, November 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

GRANTS PASS -- Prosecutors want to send the co-founder of an Islamic charity based in Oregon to prison for eight years for conspiring to smuggle $150,000 to Islamic fighters in Chechnya and trying to cover up the money on the organization's tax return.

Pete Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, was convicted in September of conspiracy and tax fraud.

The former Ashland tree surgeon and co-founder of the U.S. branch of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

Federal prosecutors contend in a sentencing memo obtained by The Associated Press that Seda's sentence should be longer than normal for his crimes because he "intended to promote" terrorism by helping Islamic fighters battling Russia in Chechnya and asked that he be sentenced to eight years.

Prosecutors wrote they will call a colonel in the Russian Federal Security Service as a witness in the sentencing hearing. Sergey Ignatchenk will appear by video link to testify about terrorism in Chechnya.

The memo also cites evidence Seda tried to obstruct the investigation, and that the scheme was sophisticated, further reason for a longer than normal sentence.

The government also wants $81,000 in unpaid taxes.

Defense attorneys contend the time Seda has already spent in jail is enough. They filed papeers [sic] arguing that the terrorism enhancement is not called for because the evidence prosecutors used was questionable, Seda never obstructed the investigation, and he should not be liable for unpaid taxes....

Marisol's point here about the statement that Muslim dress makes about Western society is important. In addition, it is worth noting how this is yet another illustration of a fake Muslim hate crime. Portraying oneself as a victim so as to gain the special protections and freedom from scrutiny that victim status offers -- it's a growth industry.

This one was a claim of victim status that backfired, as it did for Safia Jilani, another hijabbed Muslim woman who faked a hate crime against herself. More on this story. "Hijab woman sentenced to six months," by Sarah Malik for NineMSN, November 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Muslim woman has lodged an appeal after she was sentenced to six months in prison for falsely accusing a police officer of forcibly removing her veil.

Carnita Matthews, a 46-year-old mother of seven, broke down in tears as Magistrate Robert Rabbidge described her crime as "deliberate, malicious and ruthless".

"There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she knew that the complaint she was making was false," he told Campbelltown Local Court on Friday....

Another update in the current wave of threats against Germany. Prior reporting named the country's Christmas markets as a possible target for such a mass-casualty attack. The symbolism is obvious, as is the potential economic impact. "Germany says guarding against Mumbai-style attack," by Brian Rohan for Reuters, November 18:

BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities are on guard against threats of armed attack on civilians of the kind that killed 166 in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Thursday.

Police are taking added precautions, de Maiziere said, a day after Germany tightened security measures citing threats from Islamist militants.

"What we are basically preparing ourselves for, is that terrorists, coming from abroad, commit an attack soon after arrival, without warning, in a building or public place, knowing that they may not survive," de Maiziere told broadcaster ZDF.

"In shop talk, we'd call that something similar to what happened in Mumbai," he added.

Wednesday, Germany said it had strong evidence Islamist militants were planning attacks in the next two weeks, and it ordered security at potential targets such as train stations and airports to be tightened.

Security officials in Berlin said on condition of anonymity then that three scenarios existed -- one involving senior al Qaeda leader Younis al Mauretani, another involving the Mumbai-style attack, and a third pointing to sleeper cells already in Germany.

As de Maiziere spoke, German police were on route to Namibia to aid a separate investigation into a suspect package found at Windhoek airport during security checks for a German tourist flight to Munich.

De Maiziere said he was waiting for results of the investigation before he could say what had happened or if there had been any connection to other threats.

"We don't know yet what happened," he said. "By all means there is evidence it could have been a test, but no confirmation," he said.

In Germany, threats also existed from lone "fanatic operators" and not only a Mumbai-style group attack, de Maiziere said, adding that such large-scale killing would be prevented.

"God willing, as long as we work well, this attack scenario will not happen in Germany, and the measures we are taking -- visibly and behind the scenes -- are helping," he said.

Left: Carnita Matthews. Right: Uh, maybe we'll get back to you on that.

Handily demonstrating one of the many practical problems inherent in wearing the burqa. To conceal one's face is not to fully participate in society. That arrangement may work more easily in a society where a woman is the legal responsibility of a male guardian and a perpetual minor, but the face veil must not be allowed to be used in an open, egalitarian society as leverage with which to game the system.

"It wasn't me in that burqa, says accused," by Nathan Klein for the Daily Telegraph, November 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

COVERED from head to toe in a burqa, with just a slit through which to see, a Muslim woman charged with making a false complaint to police now argues she has been a victim of mistaken identity.

Carnita Matthews was charged in June after allegedly falsely claiming that a highway patrol officer handled her in an attempt to see her burqa-hidden face during a random breath test.

She has pleaded not guilty.

After arriving at Campbelltown Local Court yesterday with an identically dressed friend, Matthews watched the in-car police video of her being pulled over and asked to lift the burqa so the officer could verify her licence photo.

The court was told that after being issued an infringement notice for not properly displaying her P-plates, the 46-year-old branded the officer "a racist" and claimed he only booked her because of what she was wearing.

"I've got my P-plates on my car ... there was nothing wrong with how they were displayed," Matthews said on the video.

"You look at me and see me wearing this and you couldn't handle it. All cops are racist."

The court heard that Matthews then drove to Campbelltown police station to complain that she was unfairly treated by the officer.

Giving evidence yesterday, the station officer who took the complaint said he had told Matthews the officer had been right to ask for identification.

In a statement read to the court, Sergeant Paul Kearney said he told her: "I'm looking at you and all I can see is two eyes."

However, the court was told that an officer who three days later accepted a statutory declaration from a burqa-clad woman he assumed to be Matthews failed to check her identification.

Matthews' lawyer Stephen Hopper said there was no way for police to prove that his client was the one who signed the statutory declaration at Campbelltown police station on June 10.

Mr Hopper said that meant Matthews should not have been charged with the offence of making a false complaint to police.

The hearing continues today.

Good for this jury, which rejected the idea that the officers should have compromised their own safety, so as to allow these Somali suspects to go alone into another room to put on hijabs. They were arguing that cultural considerations should trump the value of a police officer's life.

"Jury rejects Somali family's civil-rights claims over failed drug bust," by Mike Carter for the Seattle Times, November 17 (thanks to Phil for the link and the observations above):

A federal jury in Seattle has rejected claims by a Somali family that their rights were violated when armed narcotics officers entered their home without announcing themselves during a 2006 federal crackdown on the illegal stimulant called "khat."

Ali Dualeh, his wife and their five children were taken into federal custody by members of the Valley Narcotics Task Force, under the supervision of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as part of a national crackdown called Operation Somali Express.

Dualeh was never convicted of a crime....

Dualeh had initially claimed that officers roughed him up and pointed firearms at his wife and young children -- the oldest was 8 at the time during the raid at their Kent home. His wife claimed that she was forced to remain in the presence of the officers without wearing a head scarf, in violation of her Muslim beliefs.

Most of those allegations were dismissed or thrown out by U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly before trial.

The sole issue to make it to the jury involved allegations that the officers violated the requirement that they "knock and announce" themselves before entering the home, in keeping with the Fourth Amendment's protections against illegal searches and seizures.

But the officers claimed that the search team was compromised as they moved across an apartment parking lot when they were seen by someone in an upstairs window. As a result, they said concerns for officer safety and evidence protection justified their breaking into the apartment without first announcing themselves.

The jury deliberated 90 minutes before finding in favor of the officers Tuesday following a three-day trial.

Earlier this year, the federal government paid another Somali woman, Habibo Jama, $40,000 to settle her claim that officers ignored her pleas to allow her to cover herself during another "Operation Somali Express" raid at her home.

In hindsight, federal law-enforcement officials have acknowledged that the raids were ill-conceived and alienated the U.S. Somali community, which has been targeted for recruiting by Islamic militants.

The U.S. Somali community, meanwhile, doesn't seem concerned about having alienated law-enforcement officials.

There Is No Humor In Islam* Alert: "Vodafone drops Muslim scientist ad after complaints," from AFP, November 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

AFP - The Egyptian unit of telecom giant Vodafone has dropped an advertisement depicting an early Muslim scientist, Abbas Ibn Firnas, as a dim man who fell off a cliff when trying to fly with feathered wings.

The Britain-based company made the decision after receiving complaints from viewers, who took to the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to complain about what they said was an insult to the historic Islamic figure.

Vodafone said the advertisement was supposed to be funny but "due to the fact that some of our customers perceived (it) as offensive, we decided to remove this ad from YouTube and from our official Facebook fans page."...

Ibn Firnas, a Muslim Berber scientist who died in 887, is said to have jumped from a height, wings attached and covered head to toe in feathers, in a failed attempt at flying, although he survived the jump.

The advertisement, for Vodafone's USB internet service, shows three young men, who starred in an Egyptian time travel comedy, materialising before Firnas with a laptop and a USB stick to try talk him out of the experiment.

He grunts his refusal, even after they show him a Wikipedia entry on the Wright brothers, who pioneered aviation in the 20th century, and hurtles himself down the cliff.

In another advertisement, the trio try to persuade an imperious Richard the Lionheart, the medieval English king and crusader, not to battle the Muslim leader Salahuddin, by offering him a war game on a laptop.

Watch for the riots by Christian followers of Richard the Lionheart -- no, wait...

* The Ayatollah Khomeini said that.

"No Muslim tolerates a man who commits blasphemous acts."

"Man accused of blasphemy killed in Pakistan," from Indian Express, November 18 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

A man accused of blasphemy was shot and killed near his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore shortly after being granted bail by a court, according to a media report.

Imran Latif, 22, was accused of burning pages of the Quran in a case registered at Sherakot police station in Lahore and spent five months in jail.

He was released on bail on November 3 after the man who filed the complaint of blasphemy told the court he was not sure that Latif was guilty.

Latif was shot by armed men near his home on November 11 but police learnt only later that he had been accused of blasphemy, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Inspector Rafique Ahmed, who is investigating the murder, said Latif's killing was likely linked to the blasphemy case. "No Muslim tolerates a man who commits blasphemous acts," he said.

Latif's family had not mentioned the blasphemy case when they reported the murder, he said.

Latif's 60-year-old mother Sharifan said two men armed with pistols had knocked at the door of their house near Pir Makki shrine on November 11 and asked Latif to accompany them.

"A few yards from the house, they suddenly opened fire," she said. She said her son was shot five times and the attackers fled on a motorcycle.

"There were policemen present in the street but no one tried to stop them," she said....

"The blasphemy laws are being so widely exploited here. It seems that the life of a person ends when (he is) accused of committing blasphemy," said Mehdi Hasan, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan....

Yes.

I'm still waiting for her statement on the restrictions on religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt and other majority-Muslim countries. "Clinton critical of religious freedom in Europe," from AFP, November 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Wednesday the state of religious freedom in Europe, as Washington highlighted policies and attitudes toward Muslim veils and Islam as a whole.

"Several European countries have placed harsh restrictions on religious expression," Clinton said, without elaborating as she unveiled the State Department's report on international religious freedom for the last year.

Her assistant secretary for human rights, Michael Posner, cited France's ban on wearing the niqab and other face coverings in public places and a Swiss motion passed last year that bans building new minarets.

Both measures have been criticized as intolerant moves stigmatizing Europe's growing Muslim population.

Posner acknowledged "growing sensitivity and tension in Europe" over Islam.

"What we are urging our European friends to do is to take every measure to try to alleviate that tension," he added....

In other words, surrender, already.

In a story about the Asia Bibi blasphemy case in Pakistan, CNN goes out of its way to say that the Qur'an and Hadith do not contain a death penalty for blasphemy, thereby implying that Asia Bibi is in danger of death because of cultural or political factors, not because of anything that needs to be addressed within Islam. This is a familiar mainstream media practice when it comes to stories about honor killing or genital mutilation: the story will inevitably assure the reader that the practice in question has nothing to do with Islam, and give no hint of why it is so widely tolerated and practiced in Islamic countries. This only assures that the human rights establishment will never address these issues properly, and thus these practices will continue.

"Family waits to see if mother, accused of blasphemy, will be hanged" by Reza Sayah for CNN, November 18 (thanks to Slothy):

Neither the Koran nor the prophet Muhammad's teachings in the Hadith call for the execution of blasphemers, but Islamic scholars and jurists from generations past included the death sentence when drafting Islamic law.

Islam QA disagrees, and uses both Qur'an and Hadith to make its argument:

I heard on a tape that whoever insults the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) should be executed even if he shows that he has repented. Should he be killed as a hadd punishment or because of kufr? If his repentance is sincere, will Allaah forgive him or will he go to Hell and his repentance will be of no avail?

Praise be to Allaah.

The answer to this question may be given by addressing the two following issues:

1 - The ruling on one who insults the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)

The scholars are unanimously agreed that a Muslim who insults the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) becomes a kaafir and an apostate who is to be executed. This consensus was narrated by more than one of the scholars, such as Imaam Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Qaadi 'Iyaad, al-Khattaabi and others. Al-Saarim al-Maslool, 2/13-16

This ruling is indicated by the Qur'aan and Sunnah.

In the Qur'aan it says (interpretation of the meaning):

"The hypocrites fear lest a Soorah (chapter of the Qur'aan) should be revealed about them, showing them what is in their hearts. Say: '(Go ahead and) mock! But certainly Allaah will bring to light all that you fear.'

If you ask them (about this), they declare: 'We were only talking idly and joking.' Say: 'Was it at Allaah, and His Ayaat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) and His Messenger that you were mocking?'

Make no excuse; you disbelieved after you had believed"

[al-Tawbah 9:64-66]

This verse clearly states that mocking Allaah, His verses and His Messenger constitutes kufr, so that applies even more so to insulting. The verse also indicates that whoever belittles the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is also a kaafir [unbeliever], whether he was serious or joking.

With regard to the Sunnah, Abu Dawood (4362) narrated from 'Ali that a Jewish woman used to insult the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and say bad things about him, so a man strangled her until she died, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) ruled that no blood money was due in this case.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in al-Saarim al-Maslool (1/162): This hadeeth is jayyid, and there is a corroborating report in the hadeeth of Ibn 'Abbaas which we will quote below.

This hadeeth clearly indicates that it was permissible to kill that woman because she used to insult the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

Abu Dawood (4361) narrated from Ibn 'Abbaas that a blind man had a freed concubine (umm walad) who used to insult the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and say bad things about him. He told her not to do that but she did not stop, and he rebuked her but she did not heed him. One night, when she started to say bad things about the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and insult him, he took a short sword or dagger, put it on her belly and pressed it and killed her. The following morning that was mentioned to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He called the people together and said, "I adjure by Allah the man who has done this action and I adjure him by my right over him that he should stand up." The blind man stood up and said, "O Messenger of Allaah, I am the one who did it; she used to insult you and say bad things about you. I forbade her, but she did not stop, and I rebuked her, but she did not give up her habit. I have two sons like pearls from her, and she was kind to me. Last night she began to insult you and say bad things about you. So I took a dagger, put it on her belly and pressed it till I killed her." Thereupon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Bear witness, there is no blood money due for her."

(Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood, 3655)

It seems that this woman was a kaafir, not a Muslim, for a Muslim could never do such an evil action. If she was a Muslim she would have become an apostate by this action, in which case it would not have been permissible for her master to keep her; in that case it would not have been good enough if he were to keep her and simply rebuke her.

Al-Nasaa'i narrated (4071) that Abu Barzah al-Aslami said: A man spoke harshly to Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq and I said, 'Shall I kill him?' He rebuked me and said, 'That is not for anyone after the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) .'" (Saheeh al-Nasaa'i, 3795)

It may be noted from this that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) had the right to kill whoever insulted him and spoke harshly to him, and that included both Muslims and kaafirs.

The second issue is: if a person who insulted the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) repents, should his repentance be accepted or not?

The scholars are agreed that if such a person repents sincerely and regrets what he has done, this repentance will benefit him on the Day of Resurrection and Allaah will forgive him.

But they differed as to whether his repentance should be accepted in this world and whether that means he is no longer subject to the sentence of execution.

Maalik and Ahmad were of the view that it should not be accepted, and that he should be killed even if he has repented.

They quoted as evidence the Sunnah and proper understanding of the ahaadeeth:

In the Sunnah, Abu Dawood (2683) narrated that Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqaas said: "On the Day of the Conquest of Makkah, the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) granted safety to the people except for four men and two women, and he named them, and Ibn Abi Sarh... As for Ibn Abi Sarh, he hid with 'Uthmaan ibn 'Affaan, and when the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) called the people to give their allegiance to him, he brought him to stand before the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He said, "O Prophet of Allaah, accept the allegiance of 'Abd-Allaah." He raised his head and looked at him three times, refusing him, then he accepted his allegiance after the third time. Then he turned to his companions and said: "Was there not among you any smart man who could have got up and killed this person when he saw me refusing to give him my hand and accept his allegiance?" They said, "We do not know what is in your heart, O Messenger of Allaah. Why did you not gesture to us with your eyes?" He said, "It is not befitting for a Prophet to betray a person with a gesture of his eyes."

(Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood, 2334)

This clearly indicates that in a case such as this apostate who had insulted the Prophet (S), it is not obligatory to accept his repentance, rather it is permissible to kill him even if he comes repentant.

'Abd-Allaah ibn Sa'd was one of those who used to write down the Revelation, then he apostatized and claimed that he used to add whatever he wanted to the Revelation. This was a lie and a fabrication against the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and it was a kind of insult. Then he became Muslim again and was a good Muslim, may Allaah be pleased with him. Al-Saarim 115.

With regard to proper understanding of the ahaadeeth:

They said that insulting the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) has to do with two rights, the right of Allaah and the right of a human being. With regard to the right of Allaah, this is obvious, because it is casting aspersions upon His Message, His Book and His Religion. As for the right of a human being, this is also obvious, because it is like trying to slander the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) by this insult. In a case which involves both the rights of Allaah and the rights of a human being, the rights of the human beings are not dropped when the person repents, as in the case of the punishment for banditry, because if the bandit has killed someone, that means that he must be executed and crucified. But if he repents before he is caught, then the right of Allaah over him, that he should be executed and crucified, no longer applies, but the rights of other humans with regard to qisaas (retaliatory punishment) still stand. The same applies in this case. If the one who insulted the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) repents, then the rights of Allaah no longer apply, but there remains the right of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), which still stand despite his repentance.

If it is said, "Can we not forgive him, because during his lifetime the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forgave many of those who had insulted him and he did not execute them?" The answer is:

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) sometimes chose to forgive those who had insulted him, and sometimes he ordered that they should be executed, if that served a greater purpose. But now his forgiveness is impossible because he is dead, so the execution of the one who insults him remains the right of Allaah, His Messenger and the believers, and the one who deserves to be executed cannot be let off, so the punishment must be carried out.

Al-Saarim al-Maslool, 2/438

Insulting the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is one of the worst of forbidden actions, and it constitutes kufr and apostasy from Islam, according to scholarly consensus, whether done seriously or in jest. The one who does that is to be executed even if he repents and whether he is a Muslim or a kaafir. If he repents sincerely and regrets what he has done, this repentance will benefit him on the Day of Resurrection and Allaah will forgive him.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) wrote a valuable book on this matter, entitled al-Saarim al-Maslool 'ala Shaatim al-Rasool which every believer should read, especially in these times when a lot of hypocrites and heretics dare to insult the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) because they see that the Muslims are careless and feel little protective jealousy towards their religion and their Prophet, and they do not implement the shar'i punishment which would deter these people and their ilk from committing this act of blatant kufr [unbelief].

And Allaah knows best. May Allaah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and all his family and companions.

Such an attack would cause economic damage, with the additional symbolic impact of attacking an event related to a non-Muslim religious celebration. More on this story. "'Ilyas Kashmiri plotting attacks in Germany'," from the Times of India, November 18:

BERLIN: German intelligence agents have received evidence from the US that al-Qaida has sent two to four terrorists to Germany and UK via India and the UAE, media reported on Wednesday.

The mastermind behind the possible attacks was named as Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri, a leading al-Qaida figure from Pakistan. He is also alleged to be behind a bomb attack earlier this year on the German Bakery in Pune, India, in which 17 people were killed. Kashmiri reportedly recruited the men for the latest planned attacks in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. Their identity was not known.

Germany said on Wednesday it was tightening security at airports and train stations after receiving concrete evidence of planned terrorist attacks in the country, including one this month. "From today, there will be a visible police presence. I thought it should be explained to citizens," interior minister Thomas De Maiziere told a hastily called press conference in Berlin.

"There will also be a variety of measures that will not be visible. There is reason for concern, but no reason for hysteria," he added.

"According to information from a foreign partner which came to us after the Yemen incident, we suspect a planned attack is due to be put into action at the end of November ," De Maiziere said.

Last month authorities discovered two US-bound parcel bombs originating from Yemen, one of which went through Cologne airport in western Germany. Citing security sources, the Tagesspiegel daily said the United States had tipped off Berlin that between two and four al-Qaida operatives were on their way to Germany and Britain to attempt attacks.

Among the targets Tagesspiegel cited were Germany's popular Christmas markets. The paper added the militants were expected to arrive in Germany on November 22 via India or the United Arab Emirates....

This year's Eid greetings say, in part:

On Eid, Muslims around the world will commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, and distribute food to those less fortunate -- a reminder of the shared values and the common roots of three of the world's major religions.

Less informed Americans will read that and recall the account of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham's son by Sarah and a Biblical patriarch of the Jewish people. On the other hand, in an effort to demote Jews in its Islamic supremacist ordering of life, the universe, and everything, Islamic teachings hold that the son in this account was not Isaac, but Ishmael. That's a rather significant jab at "the common roots of three of the world's major religions."

Does this mean Obama is a practicing Muslim behind the White House walls and the mask is slipping? No.

But it is noteworthy in that it is sloppy. If it is intentional, it is disingenuous. If it is unintentional, it is alarmingly bumbling. In either case, it is symptomatic of a policy based on a glossing over of differences, and on lofty but false assumptions of common values, and compatible ideals of human rights and dignity. And the rest of that paragraph only continues to demonstrate all of those issues.

Utterly ignoring Islam's teachings on the subjugation of women and non-Muslims, cruel and unusual punishments prescribed in the Qur'an, the death penalty for apostasy, and other abuses that hold many Muslim societies in arrested development and threaten human rights in the West does not make those teachings go away. Nor does it do away with the widespread human suffering caused by them.

Wishful thinking is an alarming basis for policy, whether economic, diplomatic, or for national security. And as the old military adage cautions: "Hope is not a method."

On one hand, there are people who fought for actual human dignity, equal representation and democracy. On the other, there are jihadists fighting to impose Sharia and rid the world of imaginary Zionist-Crusader conspiracies, like David Hicks.

One of these groups is not like the other. Click above and let the One, True Mr. Hooper explain.

"Amnesty honours a jihadist," by Andrew Bolt for the Herald Sun, November 19:

Looking for a Christmas present for the militant activist in your life?

Then let Amnesty International Australia make a suggestion.

Its website's shopping page offers several books, including ones on Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama, and, just in, a biography by a fourth human rights hero, David Hicks.

Yes, as in the Hicks who trained four times with al-Qaida, including after September 11, 2001.

As in the Hicks who boasted in letters he "got to fire hundreds of bullets" at targets in Kashmir as a fighter for the terrorist group, Lashkar e-Toiba.

As in the Hicks who told his parents he was"very well trained for jihad in weapons", and prepared to fight the "Jews (who) have complete financial and media control".

So why would Amnesty International sell the book of such a man?

Because the Americans held him without charge for six years at cruel Guantanamo Bay, AIA's fundraising director, Peter Thomas, replies, and "many of our supporters would be interested . . . to gain another perspective on his personal story and his case".

Besides, "this is only one of many books we have sold on Guantanamo Bay", by which Thomas means to imply that other books sold by AIA give a very different side of the Hicks case, explaining just why it was right to detain a foot soldier of a terrorist group caught fleeing the battlefield.

In fact, I suspect the real reason is that Amnesty has been captured by ideologues more interested in American and Israeli "crimes" than in the mortal threat posed by Muslim terrorists to their citizens' most fundamental right -- the right to live.

You see, Hicks' book does not give "another perspective" to the crimes to which he ultimately confessed, because less than one of the 456 pages tells of his training with al-Qaida, and most of that little pretends he didn't really.

Second, this is not "another" perspective, but the only one Amnesty recommends. Hicks' is the only book about his case - or even the war on terrorism - sold on this AIA website, and I'm yet to find a single one Amnesty has ever sold that gives a counter version.

Which leaves Amnesty promoting just one perspective - a whitewash by a former jihadist who trained with killers, and is now honoured with a place next to Mandela.

Asia News is leading an effort to deliver as many messages as possible, whether through their site or directly to Pakistani President Zardari, demanding not only the release of Asia Bibi, but also lasting and meaningful reforms that remove Pakistan's laws against blasphemy and insulting Islam as the scourge that they are on minority rights and freedom of conscience. They write:

Rome (AsiaNews) - At our reader's request, AsiaNews has decided to launch an international petition to be sent to President Asif Zardari to save the life of Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to hanging for blasphemy. AsiaNews is also asking President Zardari to cancel or change the unjust blasphemy law, which kills many innocent victims and destroys coexistence in the country. We are asking you to support this initiative by sending a message to the following email:

salviamoasiabibi@asianews.it

Or you can send a message directly to the Pakistani President:

publicmail@president.gov.pk

This is particularly important. Note the role of pressure from the mob outside the courtroom in the second story posted below. The major question at the heart of this case is: who is in control of Pakistan? By doing nothing, Zardari would acknowledge that he is not in control.

Our campaign is one of many being launched in Italy (with Tv2000), Pakistan, India and the United States.

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman of 45, mother of five children, was sentenced to death for blasphemy on November 7 last. A Punjab court in ruled that the woman, a farm worker, offended the Prophet Mohammed. But in reality, Asia Bibi was first insulted as "impure" (because not-Islamic), then forced to defend her Christian faith in the face of pressure from other Muslim labourers. The husband of one of them, the local imam, decided to launch charges and denounce the woman, who was first beaten, then imprisoned and finally, after one year, sentenced to death.

Asia Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih have decided to appeal to overturn the ruling. Meanwhile, the mother now faces months of imprisonment at the mercy of prison guards or some fanatic who could kill her under the misguided belief that he is giving glory to Allah.

Up until now, the blasphemy law had not led to an execution of any accused or convicted. But 33 people charged with blasphemy were killed in prison by guards, or in the vicinity of the court. The latest such case involved two Protestant Christians, Pastor Emmanuel and his brother Rashid Sajjad, shot at point blank range as they left the court in Faisalabad on 19 July. However we can group these deaths with those killed in the massacres of entire villages, in Gojra, Korian, Kasur, Sangla Hill, where hundreds of houses belonging to Christians were burned and where women and children were killed or burned alive, just because one member of the village had been accused of blasphemy.

It is now startlingly clear that this law has become a tool in the hands of fundamentalists that pit Muslims against Christians in order to measure the extent of their power over Pakistani society. It is also clear that almost all the accusations of blasphemy are born from envy, revenge, competition, and that the arrest of the accused is but the first step to allow the expropriation of land, looting and theft....

Indeed. Again, the spirit as well as the letter of absurd and inherently abusive laws (of which Sharia has so many) lend themselves to further abuse.

Here, also, Bibi's own account -- she is named here as Asia Noreen -- of how the case came about in the first place. Even with the deck so stacked against her, she never got to defend herself in court at any time during her detention and trial -- not even as a formality. "Pakistani Mother Condemned for 'Blasphemy' Stunned, Shattered," from Compass Direct, November 18:

... "I don't know why - when I walked into court that day, I just knew," she said, tears returning to her eyes and her voice shaking. "And when the judge announced my death sentence, I broke down crying and screaming. In the entire year that I have spent in this jail, I have not been asked even once for my statement in court. Not by the lawyers and not by the judge. After this, I have lost hope in any kind of justice being given to me."

In an interview with Compass at the jail northwest of Lahore, Punjab Province, Noreen said the triggering incident resulted from a "planned conspiracy" to "teach her a lesson," as villagers in Ittanwali, near Nankana Sahib about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Lahore, resented her and her family because of a few mishaps.

"What my village people have accused me of is a complete lie," she said. "I had previously had a row over a trivial issue of water running out of my house onto the street, and a man called Tufail verbally abused me. On June 14, when I was out picking falsas [a type of berry] with about 30 women, they again asked me to convert to Islam."

Noreen said the women of the village frequently asked her to renounce Christianity while they worked in the fields, and that she refused each time.

"This time, too, I said that I saw no reason why I should leave my own religion," she said. "They then asked me about Jesus Christ, and I told them to go and ask the local mullah and not to bother me with those questions."

Meantime, one of the women asked her for water, she said. After she had fetched it, the others told the woman not to drink water brought by an "untouchable" and "dirty woman," Noreen said.

"I asked them if Christians were not human ...why the discrimination?" she said. "This annoyed them, and they started verbally abusing me. We were soon engaged in a heated argument."

She said that five days later, a mob led by Qari (one who has memorized the Quran) Muhammad Saalim burst upon her after some of the women told him about the incident in the fields. The mob pressured her to admit that she had blasphemed.

"They have been saying that I confessed to my crime, but the fact is that I said I was sorry for any word that I may have said during the argument that may have hurt their feelings," she said.

Police arrived as they were beating her and took Noreen into custody, where they registered a case under Section 295-C of the blasphemy laws against her based on the complaint of the imam.

"They [police] registered a false complaint, because the complainant [Saalim] was never present at the scene," she said. [...]

"How can an innocent person be accused, have a case in court after a false FIR [First Information Report], and then be given the death sentence, without even once taking into consideration what he or she has to say?"

A pastor from Sharing Life Ministry who has been ministering to Noreen during her confinement and was present at all hearings told Compass that the judge had retired to his chambers three times before announcing the verdict.

"He was visibly tense," the pastor said. "The presence of a mob outside the courtroom was instrumental in the delivery of this harsh verdict."

We have seen again and again over the years that Islamic supremacists never take responsibility for anything they have done, but instead constantly point fingers at others and claim victim status. And so it is with Muzzammil Hassan, the founder of Bridges TV, a network designed to show the true, peaceful face of Islam, and was doing it quite well until Hassan beheaded his wife in its studios. Neither the Buffalo News nor any other mainstream media outlet will explore the abundant evidence that this was an Islamic honor killing -- an ugly result of the contempt for women, and approval of violence toward them (cf. Qur'an 4:34), that mars so much of Islam's teachings about women.

"Beheading suspect says jail deputies tortured him," by Matt Gryta in the Buffalo News, November 17 (thanks to Mark):

A court hearing Wednesday on whether a television reporter must turn over notes of an interview with accused killer Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan instead became a forum for Hassan to accuse his jailers of torturing and plotting to kill him.

Hassan asked a judge to "fire" Sheriff Timothy B. Howard because of the alleged actions of sheriff's deputies in the Erie County Holding Center, claims that a Sheriff's Office spokesman called "preposterous."

Hassan, 45, who is awaiting trial on charges he murdered his wife in Orchard Park last year, told Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk he was attacked and beaten by 16 jail guards -- whom he referred to as "white Nazis" Ñ [sic] Nov. 10 and last Thursday. He also claimed he had been "waterboarded" in the jail.

Oh yes, prisoners are routinely waterboarded in American jails.

"I don't feel safe," Hassan told the judge....

Just imagine how safe his wife must have felt.

Erie County Undersheriff Mark N. Wipperman, who has overall command of all jail operations, said Hassan "has been a troublesome and problematic inmate" since his February 2009 jailing.

What a shock!

"Mr. Hassan's diatribe today in Judge Franczyk's court is preposterous, and the conduct he described in these absurd allegations will never be tolerated in the Erie County Sheriff's Office. Mr. Hassan has been treated fairly and humanely since the inception of his incarceration," Wipperman said.

Hassan, jailed since he turned himself in to Orchard Park police, is accused of beheading his estranged wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, on Feb. 12, 2009, in the cable television station they founded. The homicide occurred a week after Aasiya Hassan began divorce proceedings.

Franczyk also reserved decision on a prosecution request for the notes and memos of a WGRZ-TV reporter who conducted a Sept. 8 jailhouse interview with Hassan. In that interview, Hassan reiterated earlier claims that he killed his wife in self-defense because he was a victim of "battered spouse syndrome."...

Could the Guardian be waking up? Today they've run a piece by Pamela Geller on the Ghailani trial that, with its commonsensical, reasonable approach, differs sharply from that publication's usual editorial line. "The lesson of Ghailani's trial fiasco," by Pamela Geller in the Guardian, November 18:

On Wednesday, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantánamo detainee to be tried in civilian court in New York, was acquitted of all but one charge, that of conspiracy for his role in jihadist terror bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, which killed 224 people. His acquittal is the first poisonous fruit of Obama's policy of treating acts of war as law enforcement issues. It also shows what is wrong with doing so.

Apparently, the evidence charging him with 224 counts of murder could not be used in court, because "coercive" techniques were used to get information from him. The jury did find him guilty of "conspiracy to destroy government buildings". So, the al-Qaida terrorist killed 224 people and he's guilty of... destruction of public property?

This is a serious setback for the US - another breathtaking failure on the part of the Obama administraton, yet again putting Americans and national security at risk.

Yet, former prosecutor and executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth has argued that such trials, including the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, should be in New York, since "the victims' families have a right to witness these trials." Yet, on 11 September 2001, all of America was under attack, not just the 9/11 families - it was an act of war against the United States of America.

Roth claims that "by choosing a federal court over the discredited military commissions, the US would show that it values the rule of law, trying even those accused of the worst crimes in a system that is broadly recognised as fair." In reality, by choosing a federal court, we are once again refusing to address the root cause. By pretending that these attacks were not intended to take down America, and work toward overthrowing the government and installing a Sharia-based Islamic government, we yet again surrender to Islamic supremacism and imperialism.

There have been close to 20,000 documented Islamist-inspired attacks worldwide since 9/11; all were inspired by the same Islamic jihadi ideology and given the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric. This is war. It takes incomprehensible delusion and a denial of objective reality to think that combatants in that war are comparable to civilian criminals and should be tried in the same way....

Read it all.

You'd think they would have come out of the mosque in a state of calm and serenity, but clearly they misunderstood the message of peace they heard there. "Violence erupts in Kashmir Valley after Eid prayers," from The Economic Times, November 17 (thanks to Maxwell):

ANANTNAG: Protestors burnt a police vehicle near the Eidgah here on Wednesday as violence erupted in various parts of Kashmir Valley after the Eid prayers.

The mob reportedly raising anti-India slogans set ablaze a police vehicle and started pelting stones on the security personnel deployed in the area soon after the Eid prayers today.

The police personnel had to later open fire in the air to disperse the mob....

He worked for Osama bin Laden. He had a blasting cap in his room, and bought the gas tanks used in the truck bomb. And he is acquitted of everything but conspiracy.

This case shows how unequipped civilian courts are to deal with cases like this. "Gitmo detainee acquitted of all but 1 charge in NY," by Tom Hays for The Associated Press, November 17 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

NEW YORK -- The first Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial was acquitted Wednesday of most charges he helped unleash death and destruction on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 - an opening salvo in al-Qaida's campaign to kill Americans.

A federal jury convicted Ahmed Ghailani of one count of conspiracy and acquitted him of all other counts, including murder and murder conspiracy, in the embassy bombings. The anonymous federal jury deliberated over seven days, with a juror writing a note to the judge saying she felt threatened by other jurors.

Prosecutors had branded Ghailani a cold-blooded terrorist. The defense portrayed him as a clueless errand boy, exploited by senior al-Qaida operatives and framed by evidence from contaminated crime scenes.

The trial at a lower Manhattan courthouse had been viewed as a possible test case for President Barack Obama administration's aim of putting other terror detainees - including self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - on trial on U.S. soil.

Ghailani's prosecution also demonstrated some of the constitutional challenges the government would face if that happens. On the eve of his trial last month, the judge barred the government from calling a key witness because the witness had been identified while Ghailani was being held at a secret CIA camp where harsh interrogation techniques were used....

Prosecutors had alleged Ghailani helped an al-Qaida cell buy a truck and components for explosives used in a suicide bombing in his native Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998. The attack in Dar es Salaam and a nearly simultaneous bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

The day before the bombings, Ghailani boarded a one-way flight to Pakistan under an alias, prosecutors said. While on the run, he spent time in Afghanistan as a cook and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and later as a document forger for al-Qaida, authorities said....

"This is Ahmed Ghailani. This is al-Qaida. This is a terrorist. This is a killer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Chernoff said in closing arguments.

The jury heard a former al-Qaida member who has cooperated with the government describe how bin Laden took the group in a more radical direction with a 1998 fatwa, or religious edict, against Americans....

A prosecutor read aloud the fatwa, which called on Muslims to rise up and "kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they can find it."

Other witnesses described how Ghailani bought gas tanks used in the truck bomb with cash supplied by the terror group, how the FBI found a blasting cap stashed in his room at a cell hideout and how he lied to family members about his escape, telling them he was going to Yemen to start a new life....

"Call him a fall guy. Call him a pawn," lawyer Peter Quijano said in his closing argument. "But don't call him guilty."

Quijano argued the investigation in Africa was too chaotic to produce reliable evidence. He said local authorities and the FBI "trampled all over" unsecured crime scenes during searches in Tanzania.

Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely deny that Islamic law mandates that apostates from Islam be murdered. Unfortunately for the apostates, the facts are otherwise.

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and supreme example of conduct for the Muslim (cf. Qur'an 33:21), said: "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him." (Bukhari 9.84.57)

The Tafsir al-Qurtubi, a classic and thoroughly mainstream exegesis of the Qur'an, says this about Qur'an 2:217: "Scholars disagree about whether or not apostates are asked to repent. One group say that they are asked to repent and, if they do not, they are killed. Some say they are given an hour and others a month. Others say that they are asked to repent three times, and that is the view of Malik. Al-Hasan said they are asked a hundred times. It is also said that they are killed without being asked to repent."

All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence all teach that a sane adult male who leaves Islam must be killed. They have some disagreements about what must he done with other types of people who leave Islam, but they have no disagreement on that.

The internationally renowned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has been praised as a "reformist" by pseudo-academic John Esposito, has said this about Islamic apostasy law: "That is why the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed."

"Iranian Pastor Accused of 'Thought Crimes' to Die by Hanging," by Michael Ireland for Assist News Service, November 13 (thanks to Dos):

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) -- An Iranian court has passed down a death sentence on a Christian pastor, who was found guilty of so-called "thought crimes."

According to www.presenttruthmn.com, the official verdict has now been delivered in writing to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, stating that he is to be hung for the crime of apostasy....

She "perceived" that he was looking at her when he said it. And so he is duly suspended, because the new cardinal rule is that one must not offend the new Privileged Class. They say they suspended him because her feelings were hurt -- yet if that became the criterion for suspension in high school, there would be no more than one or two students in class at any given time. "Bullying dispute erupts at Wayne school over 'Taliban' comment," by Andrea Alexander for the Record, November 12 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

WAYNE -- On one side, a Wayne Valley High school student claims that his use of the word "Taliban" was innocent, mentioned in a conversation about a video game, according to his mother.

But to a Muslim student who overheard it at school on Thursday, it was upsetting. And she had perceived that he had looked at her when he said it, Principal Robert Reis said.

Now the boy is facing a one-day suspension on Monday, because, Reis said, he continued to talk about the incident and it got back to the girl and upset her. Reis said she felt the boy was boasting that he'd gotten away with something.

"This has nothing to do with the fact that the boy used a word," Reis said. "This has everything to do with the boy hurt a girl's feelings." And after the boy was told by administrators not to discuss what happened, Reis said, "He went back and hurt her feelings a second time."

But the boy's mother, Rosa Giordano, said the incident "is totally being blown out of proportion" and she plans to fight the disciplinary action....

"I don't want this on his record as a racial slur and bullying," she said. "I am sorry the girl got offended by the world 'Taliban.' I will make sure my son never says the word again ... the poor kid is so upset he doesn't want to go to school."

Actually, Mrs. Giordano, "Taliban" is not a race.

Reis said administrators had planned to treat the situation as a teachable moment and meet simultaneously with both students to talk about it. The boy was suspended after the girl came to Reis upset a second time....

"A teachable moment" -- in other words, more Muslim claims of victimhood and evasion of responsibility.

An Islamic hate site that offers excuses for jihad terror and windy pseudo-refutations, rife with errors of fact and logic, of my work has now crossed the line into open death threats:

Mosizzle says:
November 11, 2010 at 1:18 pm

"Robert Spencer...[a] canny operative who likely has the inside track on the State Department's Middle East affairs desk should the tea party win the White House in 2012″-NY Mag.

Like all cancers, this one needs to be cut out before it spreads.

How ironic, but not at all surprising, that this would appear on a website designed to show that Islam is really a Religion of Peace and that many who believe otherwise do so because of me, not because of the violence committed in the name of Islam on a regular basis.

(Thanks to James for the heads-up.)

The Daily Mail's headline is part of the problem: "Five Muslim boys and white girl." "Muslim" is not a race, and Darius Gill was not threatened because of race. He was threatened by children who are being raised in a radically intolerant, supremacist belief system that inculcates hatred of and contempt for people of other belief-systems. They do, however, call Darius "racist" for posting a tribute to British soldiers, because they have already learned from their elders that this is an effective tactic they can use to claim victim status -- even in the midst of issuing murderous threats.

Note also that the principal says that Facebook is the problem. As Pamela Geller notes, "So Facebook is the problem? The method of delivery is the problem, but not the nature of the death threat. Delusional." If they wrote the threats on paper, I guess they'd be banning spiral notebooks from the school.

"Five Muslim boys and white girl, all 12, excluded over Facebook death threats to classmate who supported British troops," by Claire Ellicott in the Daily Mail, November 17 (thanks to John):

As the nation paused on Remembrance Day to honour those who had sacrificed their lives for their country, one schoolboy felt particularly proud.

Moved by their bravery, Darius Gill penned a patriotic and heartfelt tribute to the soldiers who had lost their lives at war.

But unknown to the 13-year-old schoolboy, some of his peers took exception to his comments.

A gang of 12-year-old pupils made up of five Muslim boys and one white girl, began plotting a vicious attack on Darius - whose father is Asian - for supporting British troops.

The pupils, none of whom can be named for legal reasons, have now been suspended from a school in Coventry and may be expelled after posting their chilling threats online.

One message - littered with spelling mistakes - said: 'Fight on Monday gonna be heavy knuckle dusters nd knifes hopefully I don't die.'

Another pupil added: 'ill bang him ma slef am a terrorist.'

One member of the gang also posted a picture of himself holding a rifle and threatened to hijack a plane.

Other pupils - who have set up a Muslim Defence League which celebrates British deaths in Afghanistan - also added comments condemning Darius....

Even yesterday, one of the yobs, who can't be named because of their age, bragged about being quizzed by police and continued his threats to attack Darius.

He posted: 'IM IN TROUBLE WIV DE POLICE CUZ OF SUSSPICIAN OF THREAT TO DARIUS OVER FB U HAVE A RITE TO REMAIN SILENCE!!! (JOKES) BUT IM IN TROUBLLE WIV DE POLICE IM BANGGIN DARIUS THURSDAY NO1 JUMP IN 1 v 1.'

The abuse and threats came after Darius posted two pictures showing British troops on Armistice Day on facebook.

On November 11, he wrote: 'RIP TO ALL THE LADS WHO NEVER MADE IT HOME.'

He was then branded 'racist' and two of the accused pupils began a flurry of MSN messages to each other setting out what they were going to do to Darius.

One wrote to Darius on facebook saying 'r u being racist?' and criticised him for failing to acknowledge the dead soldiers in the Middle East....

The unnamed pupil's facebook profile is full of chilling references to Islamic fundamentalism and shows a picture of him posing with an AK47 rifle.

He also penned a terrifying poem about hijacking a plane.

On November 12, he wrote: 'You better watch what the **** flies outta ya mouth.

'Or I'ma hijack a plane and fly it into your house Burn your apartment with your family tied to the couch.

'And slit your throat, so when you scream, only blood comes out.'

Principal Wendy Thomas said facebook was an increasing concern for schools.

She said: 'Darius is the victim of bullying. All the students involved have told me they did not mean what they said but they will learn a hard lesson from this.

'Facebook is a big concern for schools and we urge all parents to monitor what their children say on the site....

Facebook ain't your problem, Wendy.

In recent months, every criticism of Islam in the West has been met with accusations of hatred (often "incitement" as well), and with the demand that one should just stop all of that. "Tolerance" and criticism are now mutually exclusive, lest someone be insulted.

But have restricted rights to free speech for the sake of avoiding "insults" made Egypt a kinder, gentler, happier, and more compassionate society? No, quite the opposite, and the West should take note as the Organization of the Islamic Conference seeks a "legally binding institutional instrument" at the UN to protect Islam from insults.

The climate of fear created over absurd and arbitrary laws does not make anyone "nicer." It just cows them into submission, and paves the way for a less open, more brutal society as laws that are inherently abusive of human rights lend themselves to further abuse. Add to that the sense of entitlement to rule and to use violence to maintain Islamic rule that permeates the letter and spirit of Sharia (which informs Egyptian law even where the letter does not), and brutality is all but assured.

Just ask Kareem Amer. "Egypt blogger released after 4 years in jail: rights group," by Marwa Awad for Reuters, November 17:

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian blogger has been released after serving four years in prison on charges of insulting Islam and the president, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil, 26, known as Kareem Amer, was in bad health and was beaten by security officers before his release on Tuesday. The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Amer, a student at the state-run religious al-Azhar University, was arrested in 2006 on charges of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak in his blog posts. He was sentenced to four years in prison and expelled from the university.

"Kareem was released on Tuesday morning and his health is bad but he is safe now," Gamal Eid, head of ANHRI, which represented Amer at court, told Reuters.

"He was detained for 11 days beyond his court sentence and beaten by officers who did not give any reasons," Eid added.

The first blogger to face trial in Egypt for online content, Amer was first released on November 5 from Alexandria's Borg el-Arab prison where he stayed for four years.

But he was immediately re-arrested by state security for 11 days without charge and beaten, ANRHI said.

"His situation has gotten worse after he was detained despite completing his sentence," said Eid.

Amer was unavailable for comment but Eid said the blogger would speak to the media in a few days.

International human rights groups had protested Amer's detention beyond his court-sentence and called for his release.

The "misunderstandings" of the Religion of Peace just keep on coming. Funny how that keeps happening, not to mention the uniformity with which Islam is so routinely "misunderstood." "Germany tightens airport security over attacks threat," from BBC News, November 17:

Germany is increasing security at airports and railway stations in light of "concrete indications" of terrorist attacks being planned for the end of November.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it followed a tip-off from another, unnamed country.

Germany had information on "sustained efforts" by Islamist extremists to carry out attacks, he said.

He said the extra security would remain in place "until further notice".

"There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria," Mr de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

The federal police force has been ordered to step up checks at airports and train stations, he added.

Yemen connection

Mr de Maiziere said Germany had received a tip-off after two parcel bombs were intercepted en route from Yemen to the United States last month. [...]

You've lost that dismissive feeling:

The BBC's Stephen Evans, in Berlin, says a month ago, Germany was dismissive of American warnings of attacks. That feeling has now gone.

Don't judge this too harshly. After all, don't we hear about shootouts in churches all the time, over who has to clean up after the potluck supper, or who gets to be head of the parish council? Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes, It's Really A Religion of Peace Update: "Pakistan mosque shootout leaves 18 injured," from the Associated Press, November 17:

A shootout in a mosque in south-western Pakistan, caused by a dispute over who should lead prayers on one of Islam's most important holidays, has left 18 people injured, police said today.

Followers of the two rival religious leaders pulled out weapons and began shooting after arguing over which one should start Eid al-Adha prayers at a small mosque in the Khuzdar district of Baluchistan province, Javed Ahmed, a police official, said....

And given the ever-present journalistic imperative to whitewash Islam, AP hastens to assure us that this is not the norm in a paragraph that would never find a counterpart in a story about a pedophile priest or money-grubbing evangelist:

Millions of people throughout Pakistan have been peacefully celebrating Eid al-Adha....

Oh, well, then!

But deep down, they really, really want peace! "Demonization of Israel in staged bloody scene on PA TV," by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, November 16:

A PA TV documentary about Palestinian paramedics, intended to show a medic's typical experiences, includes a scene staged with actors that shows a Palestinian being intentionally targeted by unseen Israeli soldiers, then being shot in the forehead. (Hebrew speech is heard in the background.)

The video indicates the Israeli soldiers' "intentional" targeting of the young man with a red circle marking his forehead. When he is "hit," a thick stream of "blood" shoots out from a hole in his head as it would from a water hose or a faucet....

Well, they'll have to get used to it sooner or later. Islamization of Britain Update: "Commons canteens 'served halal chicken,'" by Craig Woodhouse in The Scotsman, November 16 (thanks to Steven):

Halal meat has been served in the House of Commons without MPs and staff being told, it emerged last night.

The Commons catering service used poultry slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law and customers were "not made aware", Sir Stuart Bell, representing the House of Commons Commission, said.

This year it emerged that halal meat was being served in many schools, hospitals and pubs without diners being told....

And so innocent people continue to be victimized. "Family leads outcry at blasphemy death penalty," by Andrew Buncombe (what a perfect surname for a mainstream media journalist!) in the Independent, November 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Campaigners in Pakistan say the case of Asia Bibi - the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy - highlights the need for urgent reform of laws that are routinely used to persecute minorities and settle grudges.

The 45-year-old Christian, who has at least two children, was sentenced to death by a court in Sheikhupura, near Lahore, after prosecutors accused her of insulting the Prophet Mohamed and promoting her own faith. Her family have rejected the allegations and launched an appeal. "We have never ever insulted the Prophet or Islamic scripture, and we will contest the charges," said her husband Ashiq Masih.

Note yet again how the journalist Buncombe and Ashiq Masih both refer to Muhammad as "the Prophet," although probably neither one really believes he was a prophet at all. In Ashiq Masih's case, it's perfectly understandable; he and his family are in enough trouble as it is. In Buncombe's, it is just a manifestation of a journalistic laziness and reflexive dhimmitude that we have noted here many, many times.

While Mrs Bibi may be the first woman to be sentenced to death, Pakistan's blasphemy laws - particularly section 295C of the penal code, introduced by the late dictator Zia ul-Haq - are commonly used against both non-Muslims and Muslim minorities.

Earlier this year, police reinforcements had to be called to Faisalabad when two Christians charged with blasphemy were shot dead outside the court. In 1998, John Joseph, the then Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad, committed suicide to protest against the treatment of Christians.

The campaign to confront the country's blasphemy laws has existed for some years but activists say the movement is hampered by the danger of being accused of undermining Islam. Because of fear of religious conservatives, some of those who would like to see the laws scrapped feel compelled to call for reform rather than repeal.

Human Rights Watch is among the groups that have called for sections 295 and 298 to be scrapped. "Asia Bibi's case should serve as a wake-up call to Pakistan's independent judiciary which urgently needs to address bigotry and incompetence in its ranks and to the government that needs to find the political will to repeal," said the group's Pakistan spokesman, Ali Dayan Hasan.

"The laws are discriminatory and intended as such and are used for precisely that purpose. So, the issue is not of their misuse but of the laws being on the statute books at all. Vague all-encompassing wording allows the laws to be used as an instrument of political and social coercion, legal discrimination and persecution."

Veteran human rights campaigner Asma Jahangir, who was recently elected head of the country's powerful Supreme Court Bar Association, is among those who have defended people accused of blasphemy, most famously in the case of a 14-year-old boy, Salamat Masih, who was accused of writing blasphemous words on the wall of a mosque. After Ms Jahangir successfully defended the teenager on appeal, the judge who acquitted him was murdered....

The precise details of Mrs Bibi's case are unclear. Reports say the woman, who lives with her family in the village of Ittanwali, west of Lahore, had been working in the fields in June last year when she was sent to fetch water. When she returned, some Muslim women refused to drink it, saying it was unclean because it had been carried by a Christian. The women then fought....

Last night, Mrs Bibi's husband told The Independent: "My wife was picking phalsa in the fields when she had a fight with her other workers over some triviality. The other three got together and accused my wife of desecrating the Holy Koran It was not even a men's fight in the village, but a trivial tussle between women."...

While no one has yet been executed for blasphemy, the laws carry severe punishments. Earlier this year Pakistan's Supreme Court released a woman who had been held in jail for 14 years for blasphemy.

The court said the woman, Zaibunnisa, 60, from Rawat, near Islamabad, had been held even though "no evidence" had been found against her.

He's a "man," a "23-year-old man," a man who lives in "Dunstall, Wolverhampton." And those, of course, are the details that the Telegraph considers salient in helping the reader understand why a certain "Bilal Zaheer Ahmad" decided to get involved with a hit list of British MPs. Farther down in the story we do hear, without much explanation, about a rogue website, revolutionmuslim.com, but that and this man's name are the only clues we get to what it is going on here. And so it always is with mainstream media sources: the only scenario in which they would have dared identify Bilal Zaheer Ahmad as a Muslim would have been if he helped inform on a jihad plot, not if he participated in one.

"MP 'death list' blog: man charged with soliciting murder," from the Telegraph, November 17 (thanks to John):

A 23-year-old man has been charged with soliciting murder and other terrorism offences in relation to a blog listing MPs who voted for the Iraq war.

Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, of Dunstall, Wolverhampton, was arrested last Wednesday in connection with the website which influenced a student who tried to kill MP Stephen Timms....

He was also charged with three counts of possessing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The hit list of MPs who voted for the Iraq war was removed from the extremist website revolutionmuslim.com after the Home Office urged the US to act against it.

The post hailed the student who tried to kill Labour's Stephen Timms as a "heroine".

The site was among those cited as an influence by Roshonara Choudhry, 21, who was jailed for life earlier this month for stabbing East Ham MP Mr Timms twice in the stomach at his surgery.

Tolerance: the MSU and other Islamic supremacists on various campuses "maintain a double standard--one that regards any negative comment about Islam or Muhammad as hate speech (and deserving of punishment or death, according to some) but considers violent rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish people a duty." "'We will fight you,'" by Jill Nelson in World Magazine, November 20 (thanks to AKW):

When a Muslim organization on a campus known for free speech tries to shut up those with a different viewpoint, what's the right penalty? At the University of California, Irvine (UCI), home to approximately 23,000 students and one of the most virulent Muslim student groups in the nation, administrators are choosing a slap on the wrist.

UCI's 2010 travail began in February when the Muslim Student Union (MSU) orchestrated a protest of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech at UCI. Emails obtained by administrators revealed the MSU plan for students one by one to heckle the ambassador. Campus officials issued a warning the group chose to ignore.

The interruptions continued--consuming more than 30 minutes of the ambassador's speech--until police escorted from the building and arrested 11 protesters, eight of them UCI students. Then the remaining protesters exited, chanting slogans in unison as they left. UCI suspended MSU, which is funded by compulsory student fees, for 12 months, but in September cut the suspension by two-thirds: The suspension will now end on Dec. 31, with MSU remaining on "probation."

MSU has a history of disturbances and support for terrorist groups.

In May it sponsored a speech by Amir-Abdel Malik-Ali, an imam associated with the Muslim organization As-Sabiqun. Malik-Ali gripped a campus podium displaying the slogan "Israel, the Fourth Reich" and called Jews "the new Nazis." He thrust forward a thinly veiled threat: "Your days are numbered. We will fight you. We will fight either until we are martyred or until we are victorious!" A group of students responded with the jihadist battle cry, "Allahu Akbar!" [...]

After this year's "Israeli Apartheid Week," Wolf launched a campaign to refund a portion of the estimated $6,500 in mandatory students fees allocated to the MSU for the four-day event. Malik-Ali's vocal support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad--all considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. government--constitutes a breach of campus policy, Wolf said. Last year MSU hosted British politician George Galloway and allegedly solicited funds for his organization, Viva Palestina, which has links to Hamas documented by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

The university has not reached a decision about the student refunds, but the ultimate goal, according to Wolf, is to prevent future student fees from being used to sponsor speakers like Malik-Ali or Galloway.

Neelie Milstein, a December 2009 graduate of UCI, says she hadn't felt attacked for being Jewish until she came to the university in 2006. She recalls her first encounter with some of the MSU's more visual propaganda: "I first saw an Israeli flag and thought, 'Where's the hate in this?' And then as the flag continued to blow in the wind, I realized there was blood all over it." [...]

Other visual demonstrations are equally disturbing: posters of Muslim women saying, "God bless Hitler," swastikas and the Star of David displayed side by side, a mock "apartheid wall" complete with students dressed as Hamas "freedom fighters," and posters of Muslim women sporting AK-47s are a few of the group's choice props.

Some Jewish students claim they've also been physically attacked. None has reported serious injuries but many are clearly frustrated by what they say is a lackluster response on the part of the university. "They cause a lot of hate on campus," Milstein said.

UCI, like other college campuses, appears to be entangled in a discussion about First Amendment rights. The crux of the disagreement centers on the definitions of free speech and hate speech and to whom these rules apply. Radical Muslims maintain a double standard--one that regards any negative comment about Islam or Muhammad as hate speech (and deserving of punishment or death, according to some) but considers violent rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish people a duty, according to Islamist interpretations of the Koran, and a constitutional right under the First Amendment....

Read it all.

"Muslim foreigners who commit adultery are lashed and deported, while non-Muslims are jailed and deported." Sharia Alert from the modern, moderate U.A.E.: "'Unlawful sex': lovers sentenced to 100 lashes," from AFP, November 16 (thanks to Block Ness):

A Filipina maid and her Bangladeshi lover will each receive 100 lashes and be deported for having sex out of wedlock in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, a newspaper said on Monday.

The Sharjah Sharia Court ordered the woman to be lashed and deported for "unlawful sex", the Gulf News reported.

The man would be lashed 100 times for adultery and jailed for a year for entering the house belonging to the maid's sponsor without permission.

He will then be deported....

The report said Muslim foreigners who commit adultery are lashed and deported, while non-Muslims are jailed and deported.

Both the Filipina and the Bangladeshi are Muslims, it said....

Leftist pseudo-journalist/propagandist David Edwards uses a suspicious story about a domed church in Arizona that people are supposedly "fearing" because they think it is a mosque to claim that "Islamophobia" is reaching a fever pitch, and that Pamela Geller and I played a role in that by successfully "dubbing" an "Islamic center that is planned near Ground Zero" a "Ground Zero Mosque."

"Church in Arizona protested because it looks like a mosque," by David Edwards in The Raw Story, November 16:

Islamophobia may have reached a point in this country where people condemn Christians that they suspect are Muslims without ever checking the facts.

In Phoenix, Arizona, a new Christian church has residents fearing that it is an Islamic mosque.

The Light of the World multidenominational church is being built just off of Interstate 10 and features a dome-like structure.

"Since the distinctive dome shape went up, church leaders said they have received phone calls from concerned neighbors who've mistaken the building for an Islamic mosque," KPHO reported.

"I heard many people, they came over and they say, 'Is this a Muslim temple?' No, it's not," church member Juan Calixto told KPNX.

"It is unfortunate that people are so intolerant to differences that they aren't willing to see that the place of worship is not a mosque," said Tayyibah Amatullah of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Arizona chapter....

No mention from Edwards, unsurprisingly, of CAIR's Hamas links, the terror convictions of various of its former officials, etc.

Officials are trying to avoid the type of backlash received by the Park51 Islamic center that is planned near Ground Zero.

The cultural center was largely ignored when The New York Times first reported about it in December 2009.

The project received wider notice in May 2010 when a community board considered the construction plans. Conservative bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer dubbed the proposed center the "Ground Zero Mosque" which started a national controversy.

"But with so many high-profile figures selling unfounded, anti-Muslim fear to the public, is it any wonder that all many Americans can see in Islam is a phantom menace?" asked Tanya Somanader at the liberal blog Think Progress.

David Edwards must think that the American people are very stupid, if he really believes that Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer could hoodwink the 70% of Americans who oppose the Ground Zero Mosque into thinking that it was a mosque at Ground Zero in the first place, when it's really just an innocent "Islamic center that is planned near Ground Zero."

In reality, most Americans believe that the Ground Zero Mosque is a Ground Zero Mosque because they can see with their own eyes that it is a Ground Zero Mosque.

The Burlington Coat Factory building that will be torn down to build the mosque is part of the attack site, as the landing gear from one of the 9/11 planes crashed into its roof and fell five stories to the basement. The building is thus an essential part of Ground Zero itself, which will greatly enhance the mosque's symbolic value in the Islamic world as another triumphal mosque, a la the Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (the grandest cathedral in Christendom for a millennium, converted to a mosque in 1453, now a museum), and thousands of others throughout the Islamic world.

What's more, mosque organizer Feisal Abdul Rauf in December 2009 spoke happily about building the mosque on a site "where a piece of the wreckage fell." In other words, the Ground Zero location is very much part of the point for him.

And as for its not being a mosque, it will contain a mosque, and thus it isn't in the least unjustified to call the whole thing a mosque, as did Daisy Khan, one of the organizers of the Ground Zero mosque initiative. No one says that the evangelical mega-churches that contain swimming pools and counseling centers, etc., are not churches because they contain things other than a worship space.

I noticed in the story Marisol posted here about a toy pig being pulled from a farm set that someone remarked, "This is political correctness gone loopy."

That sounded familiar, so I searched the site and found eighteen stories posted here over the years that contained some variation on the idea of "political correctness gone mad," and six more containing the phrase "political correctness run amok." It seems as if political correctness has a general tendency to go mad, to exceed the boundaries of reason, and to outrage common sense and common decency.

And it's true: banning toy pigs and piggy banks, building huge mosques in prisons, renaming pubs -- all this and more done in order to avoid offending Muslims -- it is madness embodied, and yet it is simultaneously the very embodiment of political correctness and multiculturalism: the myth that Muslims are perpetual victims, and that the West is the perpetual aggressor, and that placating Muslims in this way is rational and worthwhile.

In other words, political correctness gone loopy, political correctness gone mad, political correctness run amok, is the natural state of political correctness itself. It in itself is a form of madness, an inversion of truth and reality, and a rewriting of history.

Consequently free people must reject it in all its forms. Above all that means never accepting the Leftist/Islamic supremacist narrative in any detail -- the charges of "racism" and "fascism" against decent people, the characterization of freedom defense initiatives as manifestations of "hatred," etc. Freedom fighters can all too easily allow themselves to be put on the defensive. Don't let that happen to you. Remember that yours is the side of truth, and the politically correct side is the party of madness. Point out their contradictions, lies, and travesties of logic. Always be ready with the facts. And never, ever, give up.

Rioting over rumors is getting to be rather commonplace in the Islamic world -- cf. the riots over the Qur'an-burning that never happened. In any case, this story also shows that the old laws of dhimmitude are still very much a cultural hangover in the ostensibly secular "Arab Republic" -- not "Islamic Republic" -- of Egypt. "Muslims torch Christian homes in southern Egypt," by Salah Nasrawi for Associated Press, November 16 (thanks to Maxwell):

CAIRO - Muslims set fire overnight to at least 10 houses belonging to Coptic Christians in a village in southern Egypt over rumors that a Christian resident had an affair with a Muslim girl, security officials said Tuesday.

The officials said security forces have sealed off the village of al-Nawahid, in Qena province some 290 miles (465 kilometers) south of Cairo, to prevent the violence from spreading to neighboring towns. They said several people were arrested.

The attacks started after locals spotted a young Copt and a Muslim girl together at night inside the village cemetery, the officials said. They added that both were put under police custody as authorities investigate....

Islamic law forbids Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men. Muslim men may marry non-Muslim women, however; then, since the woman becomes part of the man's household, these laws ensure that the non-Muslim community is always declining at the expense of the Muslim community.

Clashes between Christians and Muslims occasionally occur in southern Egypt, mostly over land or disputes over church construction....

The traditional laws of dhimmitude forbid Christians to build new churches or repair old ones.

Human rights groups say attacks on Copts are on the rise, underscoring the government's failure to address chronic sectarian strains in a society where religious radicalism is gaining ground.

The government insists Christians enjoy the same rights as Muslims.

They have a very nice bridge to sell you, too.

Big Fur Hat has done it again! Part 1 of his side-splitting series is here, and part 2 is here.

The idea for this series, by the way, comes from here, a comment on this story.

What about the fact that the toys are also graven images? While we're tiptoeing around certain unnamed "religious sensibilities," can we expect an animal-free farm set, too?

Of course, this decision defies logic on so many levels, but it is part of a broader pattern of illogical assumptions and expectations. There is the unnecessary, self-inflicted burden taken on by non-Muslims to assume all responsibility for not offending Muslims -- in other words, pre-emptive dhimmitude. There is the self-inflicted sense of helplessness and bewilderment in the face of threats of "radicalization" brought about by an unwillingness to address the supremacist impulse and sense of entitlement to rule that is inherent in Islamic teachings. There is the hope against hope that if one is just "nice," and gives people everything they demand, that will solve the problem and there can be peace once everyone's "hearts and minds" are set aright.

And so, illogic generates more illogic: are toy plastic pigs now ritually unclean? Is the company afraid of going under due to poor performance in the overseas market for farm sets against their non-pig-including competitors? Are they afraid of an interview on the BBC 15 years from now where a jihadist explains: "Well, it was the pig in my farm set all those years ago. That's what put me over the edge. That's what did it"?

On the bright side, consumer outcry did manage to reverse this decision, unfortunate as it is that it could happen in the first place. "Toy pig pulled from farm set on religious grounds," by Josie Clark for the Independent, November 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A retailer withdrew a toy pig from a children's farm set to avoid the risk of causing offence on religious grounds, it emerged today.

This is not, however, the first time something like this has happened.

A mother who bought the Early Learning Centre's (ELC) HappyLand Goosefeather Farm for her daughter's first birthday contacted the store after finding that the pig was missing, the Sun newspaper reported.

The £25 set contained a model of a cow, sheep, chicken, horse and dog but no pig, despite there being a sty and a button which generated an "oink".

But ELC chiefs have since decided to reintroduce the pig, with parents who have bought the set invited to get the toy from the company's website.

The mother, named only as Caroline, posted about her experience in a forum on parenting website Netmums.

She wrote: "Checked the box and discovered that there isnt a piggy. Went online, nope no piggy. So I emailed ELC and the response that I had makes my blood boil...(The ELC wrote) 'Previously the pig was part of the Goosefeather farm however due to customer feedback and religious reasons this is no longer part of the farm."'

Caroline added: "This is political correctness gone loopy. On what basis did they remove it?

"This is as bad as no more 'baa baa black sheep' or other such things. Stuff like this is just insipid, it worms its way into every aspect of our lives and we just let it happen. Surely if someone has issue with a toy that they don't agree with, then don't buy it!"

A mother called Chouli responded: "Does it have a disclaimer on it, though? 'Pig sold seperately (sic)'? Perhaps they keep a stash of them in the back somewhere in brown paper bags?"

And another named Safiyyah said: "I'm Muslim and it doesn't bother me. It's just another animal.

"What are the store going to do next? Ban the Peppa Pig cartoon? Stop selling books with pigs in? This is a multi-cultural country."

The ELC later said it had decided to reinstate the pig.

A spokeswoman said: "ELC is a truly global brand, which means we need to be aware of the full range of customer expectations and cultural differences. The decision to remove the pig from our Goosefeather Farm set was taken in reaction to customer feedback in some parts of the world.

So, British customers don't matter, and simply have to conform to the tastes of the "global" market. Classy.

"We recognise that pigs are familiar farm animals, especially for our UK customers. Taking on board all the customer feedback, we have taken the decision to reinstate the pig and to no longer sell the set in those international markets where it might create an issue.

"Any customers who have bought Goosefeather Farm in the last few months will be able to order a pig free of charge to complete their set via our website in the coming weeks."

But wait! I thought all the learned analysts had assured us that there is no death penalty for apostasy in Islam! Isn't that right, Dr. Bassiouni? Mr. Kruse? Ms. Heagney?

Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government has done this before. Remember Abdul Rahman?

"Mossa's day in court," by Mindy Belz in World Magazine, November 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

For more than a decade, the second Sunday in November has been commemorated in churches worldwide as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This year it is also the day that Sayed Mossa, an Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity, has been scheduled to stand trial.

Afghan government officials announced earlier this week that they have scheduled that court date for Mossa's case--which WORLD has been covering (see "Fugitives," Aug. 28, 2010, and "Deeds done in darkness," Nov. 20, 2010)--even though the charges and his legal representation remain in doubt.

According to Westerners closely following his case in Kabul, Mossa is likely to be charged with espionage and with conversion to Christianity, or apostasy--crimes that may be punishable by death under Islamic law. The court session may be televised, officials have said, and it is likely that Mossa will be asked to renounce his faith.

Mossa was arrested in late May as part of a crackdown against Afghan converts to Christianity that followed a television broadcast of several baptisms. He has been held in a prison in Kabul under worsening conditions and has been subjected to daily beatings, torture, and sexual abuse. Court-appointed legal counsel, all Muslims, have refused to take his case because he is considered an apostate. Officials from the International Committee on the Red Cross, where Mossa worked for 15 years, visited him twice, and he has received other Western visitors, including representatives from the U.S. embassy. They confirmed that Mossa had been tortured and successfully pressured the Afghan government to move him to another prison, away from other prisoners. That took place Oct. 29....

UPDATE (Nov. 15, 2010):Court officers on Sunday postponed the trial of Afghan convert Sayed Mossa due to the Muslim holiday of Eid. They say trial will be held next Sunday, Nov. 21. Meanwhile, according to Westerners close to the case, Afghan officials have not formally stated the charges against Mossa (though they are likely to be conversion from Islam and espionage), they have not allowed him legal representation, and they have refused requests from family members to see his court file.

Chants reported here. It is doubtful that anyone there noticed any contradiction. When Sheikh Abdul Aziz al Sheikh began condemning terrorism and extremism, most of his hearers probably thought he was referring to the actions of America and Israel. "No terrorism in Islam: Saudi grand mufti," from the Daily Times, November 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LAHORE/ARAFAT: Islam is a religion based on justice and equity, which does not admit terrorism, extremism and injustice, a private TV channel quoted Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al Sheikh as saying on Monday.

Delivering a Hajj sermon at the Nimra Mosque at Mount Arafat, the grand mufti said that Allah had endowed the people with a host of blessings and boons and that guidance of Islam was one of them. He added that Islam is not a theoretical but a practicable religion. He said Islam impressed upon its followers to take better care of their families and societies, adding that the religion had discrete ways of worshipping God and five-time prayers, fasting, zakat, charities and calling on people to do good and avoid bad were among them.

The mufti said Islam forbade markup and prohibited extravagance, as it is a religion of moderation. He stressed that Islam strongly condemned terrorism and extremism, and warned of strict punishment for those who unjustifiably spilled blood and spread mischief, the channel said....

Unjustifiably.

As the now-jailed Bakri himself declared while he was still in Britain a few years back. "We'll Fly Black Flag Of Islam From No10: Hate Mob In Threat Over Jailed Cleric," by Keir Mudie for the Daily Star, November 16 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

HATE-filled Muslim extremists vowed: "The black flag of Islam will fly above Downing Street."

The protesters, supporters of jailed cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, made the threat while demanding his release from a life sentence in Lebanon.

Abu Saalihah, a student of Bakri's, said: "We will not rest until the black flag of Islam is flown over the White House and 10 Downing Street." Bakri, who was banned from Britain in 2006, was sentenced in his absence to life for training and fundraising for al-Qaida. He was then detained at gunpoint by Lebanese security services after refusing to recognise the court.

The 52-year-old has referred to the hijackers behind the 9/11 attacks as the "Magnificent 19".

At the demonstration outside the Lebanese embassy in London, supporters clutched placards reading: "Release all Muslim prisoners" and used a megaphone to chant: "Lebanese burn in hell."...

They claim they were tortured, and the British government is going to pay them off rather than reveal intelligence secrets. More courtroom jihad: "Government to compensate ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees," from the BBC, November 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Around a dozen men, who accused British security forces of colluding in their torture overseas, are to get millions in compensation from the UK government.

Some of the men, who are all British citizens or residents, were detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

At least six of them alleged UK forces were complicit in their torture before they arrived at Guantanamo.

A ministerial statement on the out-of-court settlement is due to be made in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

It is believed the government wanted to avoid a lengthy and costly court case which would also have put the British secret intelligence services under the spotlight.

Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Martin Mubanga were among those who had begun High Court cases against the government.

They had claimed that UK intelligence agencies and three government departments were complicit in their torture and should have prevented it.

In May, the Court of Appeal ruled that the government was unable to rely on "secret evidence" to defend itself against the six cases....

In Human Events today I discuss a new lawfare case and freedom of speech assault by Islamic supremacists:

Islamic supremacists are at war with freedom of speech in the West: The 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference has been campaigning for years now at the United Nations to compel Western states to criminalize "religious hatred"--that is, honest discussions of how Islamic jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and to recruit peaceful Muslims to their cause. One little-noted weapon in this war is the courtroom: using libel and defamation laws as weapons to cow critics and intimidate them into silence. My courageous and indefatigable colleague Pamela Geller is the latest target.

Muslim foes of the freedom of speech have used this weapon frequently over the years. The Hamas-linked Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has sued many, and has threatened legal action against many more. In 2006 CAIR dropped a $1.35 million libel suit against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR, who had called CAIR a "terrorist front organization," after Whitehead's lawyers asked probing questions about the group during the discovery process.

In another notable case, billionaire Saudi Khalid bin Mahfouz sued writer Rachel Ehrenfeld in libel-friendly Britain for writing in her book Funding Evil that he was involved in funding Hamas and al-Qaeda. Bin Mahfouz denied that he had knowingly given money to either. This case became the foundation for new laws protecting American writers from libel rulings in other countries.

Now Ohio lawyer Omar Tarazi has filed a $10-million defamation lawsuit against Geller for elements of her reporting on the case of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who kicked off a year-long custody battle when she fled from her home in fear for her life after her Muslim father discovered her conversion to Christianity. (The battle ended when Rifqa turned eighteen and was free to live on her own as a Christian.)

Tarazi was the lawyer for Rifqa Bary's parents. Tarazi objected to Geller's referring to him as their "CAIR-appointed lawyer," although his connections to CAIR had actually been reported by others earlier, and there was photographic evidence that CAIR was extensively involved in advising Rifqa Bary's parents. Geller's lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss based on the fact that her reporting about the case included "accurate reports of statements of others" and "true statements simply." But there are larger implications of the suit itself....

There is more.

A day of prayer and meditation would naturally lead to chants of hatred for the Great Satan and the Little Satan, no? "Anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans begins [sic] in Arafat desert," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, November 15 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The pilgrims chanted anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans during the ceremony also attended by the Supreme Leader's representative for Hajj affairs, Hojatoleslam Ali Qazi-Asgar.

'God is the Greatest', 'Death to Israel', and 'Death to America', were among slogans chanted by the masses in unison as they gathered in the Desert of Arafat, 20 kms (12 miles) from Mecca, for a day of prayer and meditation.

The faithful - men clad in two-piece seamless white shrouds and women all covered except for their hands and faces to symbolize equality -- converged on Arafat.

A message by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the Hajj pilgrims was also read by Qazi-Asgar during the ceremony.

The fourth Muslim so charged in San Diego in the past month. "CA woman charged with terrorist aid," from Associated Press, November 15:

SAN DIEGO -- A California woman has been charged with providing money and personnel to a terrorist group in Somalia to help carry out killings in the African nation, according to a federal indictment obtained Monday.

Nima Ali Yusuf supported al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked militia trying to create an Islamic state in Somalia, federal prosecutor Sabrina Feve said.

Yusuf was the fourth person charged in the past month in San Diego with helping al-Shabab. Authorities described her as a lawful permanent resident of the U.S....

Clown on autopilot, or literary genius?

Invite all to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious... -- Qur'an 16:125

Recently I've written about Reza Aslan several times (see especially here and here), as he is a quintessential example of a deceptive Islamic supremacist who is widely taken as a "moderate," and is thus a good illustration of how people can be taken in by such snake-oil peddlers. The pint-sized literary poseur Aslan is trying very hard to appear as a reasonable, fashionably liberal voice of Islam, but the deceptiveness of this is shown by the fact that he is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has also called on the U.S. Government to negotiate not only with Ahmadinejad but with Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia.

Anyway, because despite all the evidence of his dishonesty, including his lies about the organization SIOA, an organization of which I am associate director, on national television, I still always hold out hope for some honest discussion with anyone whose writings I analyze and criticize. So over the last few weeks I sent, without comment, links to each of the Reza Aslan posts that I wrote at Jihad Watch to Aslan himself.

These are the responses I received:

1. You don't actually think I read the drivel you send me do you? You're a clown and the only proper response to clowns is laughter. Unless of course your obsession with me is motivated by something else. In that case, I must tell you that I'm flattered but you're really not my type.

2. I don't know how else to tell that I'm just not attracted to you. You and I are never going to get together Robert. You should stick to men your own age and weight.

3. I told you. I'm into women not walruses.

4. Ok. Fine. I'll think about it. But first you have to shave and lose some weight.

5. If I send you a picture will that satisfy your lust for a while?

I wrote here that I planned to publish these emails, since they showed Aslan's utter intellectual bankruptcy, gutter mentality, and inability to engage in rational discussion, and I repeated that Sunday. At that point Aslan noticed, and I received this from the same email address as the ones above, aslanmedia@me.com, with the sender labeled as "Reza Aslan":

Dear Mr. Spencer. This is Mr. Aslan's assistant. You seem to be under the impression that Mr. Aslan is actually opening, reading, and responding to your emails. I assure you he is not. The email responses you are receiving are automated responses set to respond to your emails indefinitely. You can't actually think he is interested in reading anything you have to say. Mr. Aslan is a world renowned, best selling scholar. There is nothing about you or your "work" that would interest him in the slightest. Still, we hope that you will keep up your writings about him. Not only does everything you say validate Mr. Aslan's importance. But you are a source of immense amusement for our team. Thank you.

Roshi

This came, once again, from the sender "Reza Aslan." Come on, Reza, spring for separate email accounts for your team! How expensive can it be? Ask the Saudis for the dough if you're hard-up. There really is a Roshi who works for Aslan, and she deserves her own email account, don't you think? Here she is:

Those emails from Aslan were automated responses, said Roshi! A better world through discourse and communication indeed! Behold, the Golden Age of Islamic invention has returned! Reza Aslan and his trusty sidekick Roshi have invented the automated insult generator! Send Reza an email and he will send you one back accusing you of being gay or fat or both! (Do his editors at the Daily Beast know that he traffics in such homophobic insults?) And no one is even writing it! It's automated abuse! How imaginative! How innovative! How Islamic! The people who brought you suicide bomb vests now bring you...automated gay/weight slurs!

Try it yourself -- aslanmedia@me.com! I hope your luck will be better than mine, for unfortunately, although Roshi/Reza promised that the above five emails were examples were "automated responses set to respond to your emails indefinitely," I sent Reza two test emails today, and received...nothing. How terribly disappointing, to be deprived of the fruits of this great Islamic invention so quickly after being introduced to it.

Nonetheless, I have the ones above to console me. And given Reza's literary fame as editor/compiler of the new literary anthology Tablet and Pen, I am proud to be able to offer a Jihad Watch exclusive: an original poem by Reza Aslan himself! I am honored to offer this, without any claim of royalty, for inclusion in the sure-to-be-forthcoming Tablet and Pen II:

You don't actually think
A poem by Reza Aslan

You don't actually think
I read the drivel you send me
do you?
You're a clown
and the only proper response to
clowns is
laughter.
Unless of course your
obsession with me
is motivated by something
else.
In that case,
I must tell you that I'm
flattered
but
you're really not my
type.

I don't know how else to tell
that I'm just not
attracted to you.
You and I are
never
going to get together
Robert. You should
stick to men
your own age and weight.

I told you.
I'm
into
women not
walruses.

Ok.
Fine.
I'll think about it. But
first
you have to
shave and lose
some weight.

If I send
you
a picture
will that satisfy your
lust
for
a while?

Last week in Texas

A fairly good and reasonably accurate summary -- great by the lights of most journalism today -- of my talk at Texas A&M last Thursday. "Jihad Watch director discusses the 'religion of peace' argument," by Meagan O'Toole-Pitts for The Battalion, the Texas A&M student newspaper, November 14 (thanks to Justin):

American liberty is in danger, said Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam."

"The freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the principle of the equality of rights of all people before the law are under attack today by Islamic supremacists," Spencer said. "Free people, Muslim and non-Muslim, must stand together against that attack."

Spencer was invited by the Texas Aggie Conservatives to speak Thursday in a lecture and question and answer session called "Is Islam a Religion of Peace?"

"The question before us tonight is 'Is Islam a religion of peace?' which is obviously not just an abstract theological or religious question but a question of pressing political moment, and everyone has an opinion on it," Spencer said. "I don't, actually. I think that the best way to answer the question is to go to the sources themselves and not to rely on what various spokesmen will tell you, but go straight to Quran, the Islamic holy book, and to the teachings and example of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and see what they say."

Reading from the Quran, Spencer discussed parts that evoked tolerance and parts that demand followers to "slay the pagan."

"How is one going to understand balance between, like Chapter 109 which enjoins tolerance and a chapter like nine, verse 29, which enjoins warfare and subjugation?" Spencer said. "Once again, I would say we need to go to Islamic authorities to answer that question."

Spencer did not offer an answer to the question "Is Islam a religion of peace?" said Meigan Goff, TAC event planning officer and freshman general studies major.

"He made a clear point that you can't decide whether Islam is peaceful or not. There's different definitions of peace for everyone and so you can't just ask that question," Goff said. "There's many things that go into that question - it all depends on where you come from, what your beliefs are; it's your viewpoint, really. It's not a right or wrong answer."

TAC is conducting activities throughout November to raise awareness of Fundamentalist Islam and Shariah Law.

"[We hope that] students will better understand the threats we face from fundamentalist Islam and be able to combat it through the ballot box or their future careers," said TAC President Justin Pulliam. "These religious arguments are not brought to light in either academia or the media, so Spencer revealed truths that are not well-known in the Western world because of political correctness. Once we understand Islam, we can help reform the violent aspects to ensure peace and protect human rights."

The initiative started with passing out fliers on campus, titled "Islam: Oppression of Women" and "Fundamental Islam: Deceiving the Infidel."

"The quotations [in the TAC fliers] were accurate," Spencer said. "Let the [Muslim Student Association] show the quotes to be inaccurate, and then they might have a case against these messages. Otherwise, they do not. They are just covering up inconvenient truths."

TAC invited the Muslim Student Association to participate in a debate with Spencer, but the offer was declined.

"They will not debate me or get a speaker to debate me because they know that I'm right and that what I'm saying about Islamic supremacism and jihad is true, and don't want that fact to become obvious," Spencer said.

Though controversy has surrounded the TAC's initiative and many students disagree with Spencer's message, Spencer is not to blame for Islam's bad publicity, Goff said.

"A lot of people pointed fingers at him, but he made it clear that he's not the reason, or people like him that speak out against Islam, for the way Islam is looked at. It's not him. It's the terrorists that do the bad things; they are the reason for the bad outlook on Islam."

There are plenty of reasons to oppose naked body scanners and the recent groping incidents, but this response to them from Hamas-linked CAIR exposes its Islamic supremacist agenda like nothing else does. The scanners, and the whole TSA security apparatus, exists in the first place because of Islamic jihad terrorists, and now CAIR is demanding an exemption from such scanning for the very group from which comes the subgroup that made it necessary. In CAIR's world, the one group that would be subjected to lighter airport security checks than any other group would be...Muslims. And that would in turn make things easier than ever for jihad terrorists. Surely that can't be CAIR's objective, now, can it?

Obviously, as I have pointed out many times, the TSA's security measures will never be adequate to stop the Islamic jihadists. The TSA is always prohibiting or restricting or searching things pertaining to the method of the previous jihad attack attempt -- shoes, liquids, etc. -- but they have no way to anticipate or head off the method of the next attack. And they waste huge amounts of time, money, and resources by pretending that everyone is an equal threat to launch a terror attack -- Baptist grandmothers in wheelchairs just as much as young Pakistani Muslim males. The only answer at this point, and even it is not perfect, would be to institute Israeli-style profiling of air passengers. The Israelis have run an efficient and terror-attack-free air service for years, without all these invasive security measures.

But to emulate them, of course, would mean to recognize in an official way that Muslims are a greater risk to commit terror attacks than Methodists or Mennonites. And in today's politically correct environment, the Obama Administration and the TSA would rather see another jihad mass-murder of American citizens on the scale of 9/11 or worse than do anything to suggest that.

"CAIR: TSA Can Only Pat Down Muslim Women's Head, Neck," by Meredith Jessup for The Blaze, November 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a travel notice to Muslim airline passengers, warning them that new regulations from the Transportation Security Administration violate certain religious rules.

According to CAIR, the TSA's new "enhanced pat down" policy should be limited to searching only around Muslim women's head and neck if they are wearing a hijab and that Muslims objecting to the enhanced full-body scans have the right to request the pat-down procedure be done in a private place.

From CAIR's press release:

Special recommendations for Muslim women who wear hijab:

* If you are selected for secondary screening after you go through the metal detector and it does not go off, and "sss" is not written on your boarding pass, ask the TSA officer if the reason you are being selected is because of your head scarf.
* In this situation, you may be asked to submit to a pat-down or to go through a full body scanner. If you are selected for the scanner, you may ask to go through a pat-down instead.
* Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.
* You may ask to be taken to a private room for the pat-down procedure.
* Instead of the pat-down, you can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands.

In February, the Figh [sic] Council of North America, a group of Islamic scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that full-body scanners violate Islamic law.

"It is a violation of clear Islamic teaching that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," the ruling states. "Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of the faith. The Qu'ran [sic] has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts."

According to the Detroit Free Press, CAIR endorsed the fatwa.

If any passenger refuses the full-body scan, new regulations call for new, enhanced "head to toe" pat down procedures. "Pat downs are one important tool to help TSA detect hidden and dangerous items such as explosives," a TSA statement issued on Oct. 28 stated. "Passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, among others."...

Hey, if Islamic divorce is possible via Skype, why not this?

In Islamic law, if a man says "talaq" (you are divorced) to his wife three times, even jokingly (as you can see below) or in a fit of temper, they must separate, and cannot reconcile until she marries another man, consummates that marriage, and is divorced by him. This bizarre law is based on the Qur'an: "A divorce is only permissible twice: after that, the parties should either hold together on equitable terms, or separate with kindness....So if a husband divorces his wife (irrevocably), he cannot, after that, re-marry her until after she has married another husband and he has divorced her." -- Qur'an 2:229-230

Women's Rights In Islam Alert: "Talaq uttered by Muslim man on cellphone valid: Deoband," from PTI, November 15:

DEOBAND: Talaq uttered thrice by a Muslim man on a mobile phone will be considered valid even if his wife is unable to hear it all the three times due to network and other problems, a fresh fatwa has ruled.

The fatwa was given by Darul-Ifta, the fatwa department of leading Sunni Islamic seminary Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, in reply to a query by a man.

The man in his query had asked that in case no witness was present when he utters talaq thrice to his wife over phone whether it would be considered valid or not.

"I angrily said talaq three times to my wife on cell phone but she claimed that she didn't hear it even once and nobody was around both of us. Please tell me whether talaq has taken place," he asked.

In its reply, Dar-ul-Ifta said, "If you have given three talaqs to your wife, all the three took place and she became haram (forbidden) for you."

The fatwa said the woman will be free to marry anywhere she likes after her iddat (three month period after divorce) is over.

"It is not necessary for talaq to take place that the wife hears it or the witnesses are present," it ruled.

In October, the seminary had ruled that saying talaq three times even on a humourous [sic] note is valid as per the Sharia (Islamic Law) and the marriage stands nullified.

A youth in his query had stated that while chatting with his wife over net he had jokingly punched talaq thrice.

Claiming to have less knowledge about Islam, the youth said he didn't know how talaq is executed.

The youth had stated that he was happily living with his wife and wanted to live with her in future as well.

Darul-Ifta in its reply had said once talaq is put out three times it amounts to divorce and her wife was "haraam" for him.

"We were holding a majlis outside the college peacefully, but some people tried to disrupt our proceedings," said the Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad. And so naturally the proper response to that was to go ape and start burning and destroying things. "Cleric detained, supporters go on rampage in Lucknow," from Indian Express, November 15 (thanks to Java):

Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad was on Sunday detained by the police during a demonstration against a board meeting of the trustees of Shia Post Graduate College.

Jawad, a board member, wanted the meeting to be cancelled as Sunday was the day of martyrdom of one of the Prophets.

The detention triggered violent protests by his supporters in the old city of Lucknow. People, including women and children, indulged in arson and vandalism in Hussainabad, Chowk, Kashmiri Mohalla and other areas for more than four hours. The protesters also set a roadways bus on fire. The police resorted to lathicharge and lobbed teargas shells to control the crowd....

Additional District Magistrate O P Pathak said: "Around 10.30 am, Kalbe Jawad along with his supporters staged a protest outside reached the Shia College. They tried to prevent members from enteringthe college premises."

The police said though Jawad and others were released after two hours, they refused to leave the police line. The cleric wanted the police to arrest those present inside the college premises, alleging that they had tried to attack him and his supporters.

Jawad said he had gone to the college to hold a majlis (religious congregation). "We were holding a majlis outside the college peacefully, but some people tried to distrupt [sic] our proceedings," he said.

They're not Saudi-funded. Apparently the businessmen in question share their point of view. How odd, at least if one buys the perspective of the learned analysts, that they all misunderstand Islam in the same way. "The Wahabi money trail," by Imtiaz Ahmad in the Hindustan Times, November 9:

There is a misconception, say Karachi police officials, that Pakistan's Wahabi revolution is being funded by Saudi Arabia and Arab countries. Pakistan's deobandi seminaries are more or less financially dependent on local resources, much which come from private donors and businesses within the country, content [sic] intelligence officials.

Despite several efforts to trace the funding of Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan, the government has been unsuccessful. For one, many of the Sunni extremist parties were initially funded by the country's own intelligence agencies. "That is where the seed money came from," comments Amir Mir, in his book The True face of Jihadis.

Apart from that, petro-dollars, primarily from welfare and religious organisations in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries helped set up Madrassas as far away as the Northern Areas, where the need was to convert the majority Ismaili population to Sunni Islam.

However, as time passed Saudi interest in Pakistani madrassas waned and religious organisations had to look for alternate sources of funding.

Today, many Deobandi madrassas and organisations run on the goodwill of local businessmen, many of them based in Karachi, which is the commercial capital. Millions of rupees are donated daily, say intelligence officials. But the government looks the other way. [...]

While the government has been able to keep tabs on funds that come from abroad, the worry is that nothing is being done to check or monitor funding of Pakistan's extremist parties from within. "We were going to work on this but somehow all this got delayed," comments Moinuddin Haider, a retired general and former interior minister under General Musharraf.

So far, little has been done, by the government or the law enforcing agencies. As a result, say intelligence officials, the money continues to flow and the militants keep their well oiled terror machine running.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference is already the largest voting bloc at the UN, but a place on the Security Council would cement its control. "Kashmir removed from UN list of disputes," from Rediff, November 15 (thanks to Ravi):

In a significant development, Jammu and Kashmir has been removed from the UN list of unresolved disputes, giving a setback to Pakistan which has been asking the world body to intervene on the issue.

The omission of Jammu and Kashmir from a list of disputes under the observation of the UN Security Council was noticed by Pakistan whose envoy has lodged a protest.

"Jammu and Kashmir dispute was not mentioned in the context of unresolved long-running situations," said Amjad Hussain B Sial, Pakistan' acting envoy to the UN.

"We understand this was an inadvertent omission, as Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest disputes on agenda of the Security Council," he added.

Sial was speaking at the UN General Assembly session, which was discussing the functioning and reform of the Security Council. It was organised by the UK that holds the presidency of the Security Council this month. [...]

Pakistan, which objects to India being on the Council, argued that the new council should include a few large states, a number of medium sized States and a majority of smaller States.

"We support the position of the Organization of Islamic Conference demanding adequate representation of Muslim Ummah in the Security Council," said Sial.

"Because who among us," remarks Kathy Shaidle, "can forget the fateful day when Mennonites drove their horse drawn buggies into the lobbies of the World Trade Center...?"

"Muslims Told To Reject West: Report," by Stewart Bell in the National Post, November 14 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):

A newly released intelligence report says hard-line Islamist groups want to build a "parallel society" in Canada, which could undermine the country's social cohesion and foster violence.

The de-classified Intelligence Assessment obtained by the National Post says extremists have been encouraging Muslims in the West to reject Western society and to live in "self-imposed isolation."

The report focuses on groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which do not advocate terrorist violence but promote an ideology at odds with core Western values.

"Even if the use of violence is not outwardly expressed, the creation of isolated communities can spawn groups that are exclusivist and potentially open to messages in which violence is advocated," it says.

"At a minimum, the existence of such mini-societies undermines resilience and the fostering of a cohesive Canadian nation."

The report was written by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, which monitors threats to Canada's national security and is composed of representatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Foreign Affairs, National Defence and other agencies.

It was circulated internally last year after Hizb-ut-Tahrir invited Muslims to a conference in Mississauga, Ont., to discuss the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. A copy of the document was recently released under the Access to Information Act.

"While the issue of violence by Islamist groups has continued to be a counter-terrorism priority for Western governments and particularly security services for many years, Islamist social ideology appears to have gone unstudied, precisely because the use of violence is either unsupported or understated," it says. "Nevertheless, several Islamist movements advocate a rejection of Western society and mores, and encourage self-imposed isolation of Muslims in the West."

It says Islamists believe that Islam should govern all aspects of society and that Sharia law and state law should be "synchronized." Extremists forced to flee Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt now preach these beliefs in the West, it says, adding, "By definition, their world views clash with secular ones. A competition for the hearts and minds of the diaspora Muslims has hence begun."

That competition has surfaced in the United Kingdom, where the outlawed Al Muhajiroun told Muslims not to submit to any "man-made law," while in Denmark some Muslims are administering their own form of justice, it says....

The report notes that Mennonites and Doukhobors have also sought to isolate themselves form the mainstream. "Why then, should Canadians be worried about Islamist extremists who reject democracy or isolate themselves from non-Muslims?" it asks....

This is, of course, just one man's opinion: "CentreRight.com is a hub for the British conservative movement. Like the National Review's Corner in the US, it is essentially a high quality, multiple-authored blog written by some of the best conservative thinkers and commentators around....It goes without saying that ConservativeHome doesn't necessarily endorse what the authors write, the authors don't necessarily endorse what ConservativeHome writes, and the authors don't necessarily endorse what the other authors write!"

Nonetheless, it is a manifestation of Britain's abject and wholesale cultural collapse.

"Islam should become our state religion," by Melanchthon at Conservative Home at CentreRight, November 13 (thanks to Matt):

[...] Our Establishment cannot, any longer, find inspiration in Christianity, so it must look elsewhere. I shall argue that the best alternative is Islam. [...]

It's time to move on. We need to abandon the last vestiges of Christian role in our constitution, and regard Christians as the minority we are, entitled to proper protection in a liberal society of the sort we automatically extend to Muslims and Hindus. But we cannot hope to abandon religious inspiration in our constitution. All that does is create a disconnect between an irreligious polity and our ineliminably religious Folk, and will make our Establishment despised rather than perceived as the rulers and leaders it should be. So we must have something. As I have said above, Christians accept the dictats of evidence over intuitive reason, but Islam is the most straightforwardly intuitive religion of all. Its core doctrines make perfect sense: there is one God over all the earth; He is our creator; He commands obedience from us; He will judge us at the end of our lives sending the virtuous to paradise and the wicked to hell. How could it be any more obvious? Islam is also clearly tempting to our Establishment - they admire its disciplines, certainty, self-confidence and clear hierarchies of authority. If Muslim politicians express matters in moral categories or talk about their prayers, they are not condemned in the way that Christian politicians are. If our Establishment adopted Islam as its religion of inspiration, and we chose Islamic religious leaders to listen to as our society's moral guides, The Folk could be diverted from their superstitions and decadence into more morally purposeful and energetic projects. Our lethargic, morbid Establishment could be quickened into life by clear moral goals provided by those they could respect and listen to. Sunni Islam has also (and crucially), historically been the second most successful structure for promoting tolerant multi-cultural societies (behind Protestantism and ahead of Catholicism).

Our society is not the atheist materialist place that Guardian writers fondly imagine it, and it cannot and will not ever be so. Atheist materialism is simply not well-designed to provide a moral inspiration to societies, for the simple reason that it offers no answers to the big questions. Christianity cannot serve that role any longer in Britain, and the notion that it does has become a threat to individual devout Christians - the Establishment's self-hatred becomes manifest in oppression of Christians. The next best alternative is Islam. That would be the best way to go from here.

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka of Baghdad says that "the invasion of Iraq by America and its allies brought to Iraq in general, and especially to its Christians, destruction and ruin on all levels." Certainly that is true of Iraq's Christians. But then the Archbishop goes on to say, "Churches were blown up, bishops and priests and lay persons were massacred, many were the victims of aggression."

Note the passive voice. Since that is the very next sentence after the one beginning with "the invasion of Iraq by America and its allies," the uninformed reader could get the impression that America and its allies blew up churches and massacred bishops and priests and laypeople. But of course Islamic jihadists did that -- yet instead of calling upon the world to note that fact and protect Iraq's Christians, this piece goes out of its way to deny the obvious: that the mass-murderers of Iraqi Christians were acting in the name of Islam.

Yet can the problem really be properly addressed if it is not properly diagnosed?

"Silence around Christian massacre troubling," by Fred Henry, Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary, for The Calgary Herald, November 15:

On Oct. 15, Syrian Catholic Archbishop Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka of Baghdad delivered one of the most memorable interventions during the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East -- words made even more poignant by the Oct. 31 attack on worshippers at his cathedral. What follows is an excerpt from his text:

" . . . Iraq does not cease living a situation of instability of trials and wars. The last being the American occupation. Christians have always had their part in the sacrifices and tribulations: with the martyrs in the wars and all sorts of different hardships.

"Since the year 2003, Christians are the victims of a killing situation, which has provoked a great emigration from Iraq . . . without a doubt there are only about 400,000 Christians left of the 800,000 that lived there. The invasion of Iraq by America and its allies brought to Iraq in general, and especially to its Christians, destruction and ruin on all levels.

"Churches were blown up, bishops and priests and lay persons were massacred, many were the victims of aggression. Doctors and businessmen were kidnapped, others were threatened, storage places and homes were pillaged . . . here still is the fear of the unknown, insecurity and instability, as well as the continuation of emigration . . . . The tears are continuous between the different religious and political composing elements, as well as external influence by external powers, especially neighbouring countries.

"Seven years have passed and Christianity is still bleeding. Where is the world's conscience?"

His intervention was moving, prophetic and provocative.

There is a basic deep-seated misunderstanding that needs to be exposed; we are not talking about a "religious" problem. What is at stake is the possibility of people exercising their human rights, of which religious ones are an important and vital component.

Consider the remarks by Corbishop Philip Najem, procurator for the Chaldean Catholic Church following the Baghdad attack.

"This attack has been condemned by the whole Iraqi community! It is not a matter of faith! Certainly, the intention is to create chaos. There are dark forces that have entered the country only to create this division and to prevent the process of pacification of Iraq . . . I heard yesterday that there were many Muslims who had gone to donate blood for the victims who were injured in the church. The extremists have been condemned by Muslims themselves: by that Islam that knows God, that knows faith, that knows love, that knows charity! . . . . This is a barbaric attack, different from other attacks . . . no one can say that this has been done in the name of a religion, a faith or a god. This is an attack against humanity, against the Church, against religion, against faith, against the dignity of the human being."...

Actually, those who perpetrated the barbaric attack can and do say that it was done in the name of their religion, faith, and god.

Facebook doesn't conform to Sharia values. "Facebook gets chopped off the web in Saudi Arabia: Deals out Sharia law," by Lawrence Latif in The Inquirer, November 15:

PRIVACY SHREDDING SOCIAL NETWORK Facebook has been blocked by Saudi Arabia because authorities there claim that it doesn't conform to the country's moral values.

The social notworking website has been blocked by Saudi Arabia's Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) due the website's content having "crossed a line", according to a spokesman. Apparently blocking Facebook is a temporary measure.

The block was put in place on Saturday, with those trying to access Facebook receiving an error message, though the use of tunneling and proxies is likely to circumvent the roadblock.

Such is the state of affairs in Saudi Arabia, the spokesman only spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The country follows a strict version of Islam and the Facebook block comes days before the Hajj pilgrimage and the religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic new year celebration....

Earlier this year Pakistan and Bangladesh imposed similar blocks on Facebook, but those were soon lifted. It is likely that Facebook will make some concessions to Saudi Arabia's CITC to ensure that it will be able to continue to generate money from arguably the richest country in the Middle East.

Arguably!

Aslan: Playing the clown

This is what passes for serious analysis these days, at least among the easy marks who publish The Daily Beast. (Emails to me from the Islamic supremacist snake-oil salesman Reza Aslan, which will expose him further, coming soon.) "Why Obama Can Be Proud of Indonesia," by Reza Aslan in the Daily Beast, November 10:

As President Obama departs Jakarta, the city of his boyhood, he can celebrate Indonesia's turnaround from dictatorship to vital Muslim democracy--and just maybe a vision of the future of Islam. [...]

At a time when most Americans believe that Islamic values and democratic ideals cannot be reconciled, Indonesia has proved otherwise.

Indonesia, on the other hand, is a prosperous and pluralistic democracy--a free country with free elections and a constitution that guarantees religious freedoms for all its citizens. It is a nation that has thrown off the yoke of dictatorship and created a successful indigenous democratic system founded upon the mores and values of its Muslim majority yet equally protective of the rights and freedoms of its many ethnic and religious minorities.

By no measure can Egypt still be considered the center of the Muslim world; no country in the Middle East can legitimately make that claim. This may be the region where Islam was born, but it is also the place where Islam has lately festered and decayed. While Muslims in the Middle East are still fighting each other over whose vision of Islam will rule them all, Muslims in Indonesia have almost effortlessly fused their Islamic identity with the requirements of a modern constitutional state.

True, Indonesia still deals with a tiny radical fringe that claims loyalty to al Qaeda and employs terror to try to overthrow the state. But unlike in many parts of the Middle East, these radical groups enjoy no sympathy from the wider population. In last year's parliamentary elections, Indonesia's largest and most successful Islamist party, the PKS, barely managed 8 percent of the popular vote. [...]

So as the president moves on to the next country on his Asia tour, he should be proud that the country he is leaving behind, the country in which he spent his boyhood years, is today not only one of America's most vital Muslim partners. It just may be the future of Islam.

Here is a bit of what the clownish Aslan didn't tell you about Indonesia:

"Indonesia: Uphold Religious Freedom: Cease Threats Against Ahmadiyah Community to Ban Their Religion," from Human Rights Watch, November 4:

(New York) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should uphold freedom of religion in Indonesia and repudiate statements by his religious affairs minister calling for the banning of the Ahmadiyah religion, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Indonesian president.

Since August 2010, Religious Affairs Minister Ali Suryadharma has repeatedly called for the Ahmadiyah faith to be banned in Indonesia. President Yudhoyono has failed to repudiate those statements, leading many to believe that he supports such an action. In recent years Islamist militants have repeatedly attacked and burned Ahmadiyah homes and mosques. Anti-Ahmadiyah violence has increased since Yudhoyono announced a prohibition on teachings or public displays of the Ahmadiyah religion in June 2008.

"President Yudhoyono gave a nationwide speech about religious tolerance in the United States, but what will he tell visiting US President Barack Obama about the burned Ahmadiyah mosques in Indonesia?" said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Yudhoyono should take clear steps to protect religious freedom, starting with loudly rejecting any ban on the Ahmadis, and ensuring that those responsible for attacks on Ahmadiyah homes and mosques are prosecuted."

"USCIRF Annual Report 2010 - The Commission's Watch List: Indonesia," from the UNHCR, April 29, 2010:

The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has taken positive steps to address terrorism and past sectarian violence in the regions of Ambon and Central Sulawesi, to bring peace to the region of Aceh, and to build popular support for democracy. However, during his presidency, religious minorities have experienced harassment, intimidation, discrimination, and even violence perpetuated by groups espousing intolerance and extremism under the banner of Islamic orthodoxy. The activities of some extremist groups are sometimes tolerated by segments of the Indonesian government. In addition, despite legal protections for religious freedom, national decrees and provincial laws have been used to restrict rather than advance the freedom of religion and belief.

Based on these concerns, USCIRF continues to place Indonesia on its Watch List for 2010. Indonesia has been on the Commission's Watch List since 2002, after sectarian violence erupted in Central Sulawesi and the Makukus.

And recently at Jihad Watch:

Indonesia: Muslims offended by church named after Mother Theresa, prevent its construction

Indonesia: Muslims demand removal of Buddha statue on temple roof

Indonesia: Arson attack on Roman Catholic chapel

Indonesia: Rock-throwing Islamic supremacists yelling "Allahu akbar" disrupt puppet show

Puzzler: Religious intolerance rising among Indonesian Muslims

There are many more where those came from. Search the archives and you'll find plenty.

And, with an indifference reminiscent of officials in Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia, police did nothing. "Israeli student attacked by Palestinians in Italy," by Menachem Gantz for Ynet News, November 14 (thanks to Joel):

An Israeli student at the University of Genoa in Italy was harassed and threatened by Palestinian students last Tuesday, only to be ignored by the police.

Assaf, a 26-year-old Israeli architecture student, was eating at the cafeteria when Ibrahim Haji, a student from Gaza, came and began taunting him.

"He came towards me, punched me and said 'why are you looking at me?' I told him I wasn't looking at him, and asked him to let me eat in peace," Assaf said. "A minute later he was back, swinging a fork, and called me in front of everyone to come outside while cursing Israel and declaring his intention to kill.

I understood that I have to avoid this dangerous situation. I told my Italian friends, who were eating with me, that I'm going back to my room so as not to respond to this provocation. On my way out I turned to the cashier and told her, 'Call the police. You heard the man threatening to kill,' and she responded, 'It's not my job to separate Jews and Arabs.'"

'I saw death in front of my eyes'

Assaf's attempt to distance himself from the fight failed. Ibrahim waited for him outside and went for the attack. As Assaf tried to defend himself, Italian passersby stepped in to intervene and held him back. Ibrahim took the opportunity to draw a large kitchen knife. The Italian students tried to stop him.

"I saw death in front of my eyes. I broke free and ran into the storage in the kitchen and locked myself in. After a few minutes more Muslim students arrived and began shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) and 'Itbach el Yahud' (slaughter the Jews). Later I understood that there are over 40 angry students there.

The Italians disappeared; they were scared to deal with them. I managed to get myself into the trash facility. I climbed a three-meter wall and jumped. I told myself it's better to break a leg than to get killed."

Assaf said that he went to the police but was ignored, until he turned to the community rabbi and additional Jewish families for assistance. "We filed an official complaint with the police, and they even informed the local investigation agency," said Chaim Amar, a 28-year-old medical student who serves as a security officer at the local synagogue. "Unfortunately, nothing came of it so far."

According to Amar, the police are familiar with Haji from previous violent incidents. It wasn't his first time threatening the life of an Israeli student, and he reportedly harasses female Israeli students regularly. "It's a matter of time before his next violent outburst," Amar said.

Fellow students turned away

For Assaf, life has yet to return to normal. "Only one lone Italian student came up to me and said that he was willing to testify to the police about what happened. All the rest - even the guy who shares my dorm room and witnessed the incident - saw everything but are afraid to be associated in the case. The house mother at the dorms came up to me and said, 'why are to turning to the police? It will ruin his life.' In her opinion, if I'm kicked out of the dorms it would be the best solution."...

Shameful.

"We have gone through hundreds of asylum rejections with lawyers, and we have seen fatal mistakes being made."

"Why Iraqi Christians Are Running Scared -- in Sweden," by Vivienne Walt in Time Magazine, November 13 (thanks to AINA):

With numerous attacks against Iraq's Christians in recent weeks -- including a Halloween day massacre in a Baghdad church, which left 52 dead -- the country's religious minority fears for its survival within the boundaries of the Middle Eastern nation. Yet, a long way from their native land, many Iraqi Christians are also living in terror in a far more serene place: Stockholm.

Swedish immigration officials have been deporting Iraqi refugees to Baghdad on flights about every three weeks, declaring that some of them have no legitimate claim to political asylum in Sweden. That includes Iraqi Christians -- a category that does not automatically imply a risk of persecution, according to Swedish guidelines. Of the 80,000 or so Iraqi refugees in Sweden, about 6,000 of them are Christian, according to estimates by the Syriac Orthodox Church in Stockhold. That Swedish interpretation of the main criterion for refugee status under U.N. treaties has spread widespread panic among refugees. "There are hundreds of Iraqis here who are not legal who have simply disappeared," says an Iraqi engineer in Stockholm, a Catholic, who fled Baghdad in 2004 with his family after Islamic militants ordered them to leave their home, or be killed. "The refugees are hiding in churches or basements, working illegal jobs, trying to survive, transferring from place to place."

Sweden is not alone in deporting Iraqis. Under agreements signed with Iraq's government, Britain, Norway and Denmark have also sent back hundreds of Iraqis who fled during the most violent years of the war. Alarmed at the deportations, U.N. refugee officials warned last September that many of the returned Iraqis could face grave dangers back home, or place huge burdens on Iraq's neighbors, were millions of Iraqi refugees have also fled. "Serious risks, including indiscriminate threats to life, physical integrity or freedom.... are valid reasons for international protection," the U.N. refugee spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters last September.

The European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg agrees. Last month it sent E.U. governments a letter urging them to suspend the deportation of Iraqis, because of mounting violence in their native land. The Netherlands immediately halted the deportations, while Britain has said it would not force Iraqis to leave, if they petition the European court.

Sweden, on the other hand, appears to have assumed the toughest attitude. [...]

Sweden now demands that, in order to be granted permanent residency, each family must prove it faces real risks if sent back to Iraq. Since many fled without documents, finding evidence of personal threats has grown immensely complicated. And many whom Sweden has deported in recent months have felt far too scared to remain back in Iraq. "Most of the Christians who are deported are fleeing again to neighboring countries like Syria and Jordan after they land in Baghdad," says Nuri Kino, a freelance journalist in Stockholm, who has spent months tracking Iraqi refugees. Kino says that after examining the files of many Iraqi refugees, he is convinced that Swedish officials have deported some who face real threats in Iraq. "We have gone through hundreds of asylum rejections with lawyers," he says, "and we have seen fatal mistakes being made."

This lengthy piece contains numerous revealing extracts from writings by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who murdered one soldier and wounded another in a jihad attack outside a military recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas. He makes his Islamic motivations fully clear. I didn't reproduce here the material from various learned analysts explaining how Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad has gotten jihad and Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong, because ultimately the article offers no evidence of anything that the Muslims who supposedly reject Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad's understanding of jihad are doing to make sure that other Muslims don't misunderstand Islam the way he did. And that's because they aren't doing anything to ensure that more Muslims will not misunderstand Islam in this way.

Note also that Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad attempted to firebomb the home of a rabbi -- acting out the Islamic antisemitism that he learned in the Qur'an that told him that the Jews are the Muslims' worst enemies (5:82).

"Memphian drifted to dark side of Islamic extremism, plotted one-man jihad vs. homeland," by Kristina Goetz in the Commercial Appeal, November 14 (thanks to Axel):

What I had in mind didn't go as planned but Allah willing He will reward me for my intentions.

He planned for weeks, buying guns secondhand to avoid the FBI.

Then, to test whether the feds were watching, he bought a .22-caliber rifle over the counter at Walmart. He stockpiled ammo and practiced target shooting at empty construction sites.

By his own account, he was preparing for jihad.

From a black Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Memphis native, watched two soldiers in fatigues smoking outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. He aimed an assault rifle out the window and fired.

Muhammad sped away, hoping to flee 150 miles to Memphis where he would switch cars. But a wrong turn in a construction zone led him to police.

He stepped out of the SUV wearing a green ammo belt around his waist.

"It's a war going on against Muslims, and that is why I did it," an officer heard him say. "You see how I gave up with no problem."

Much of this account emerges from police reports and an 18-page mental-health evaluation contained in court files. But Muhammad tells a far broader, detailed story in seven handwritten letters to The Commercial Appeal. Taken together, those letters are not just an admission of guilt but a profession of failure for having not caused more death and destruction.

The letters, written in pencil between May and October, provide a rare glimpse into the thoughts of a self-described jihadist, according to one national security expert. Muhammad describes in his own words how he took his declaration of faith in a Memphis mosque; his motives for moving to Yemen and his attempt to travel to Somalia for weapons training; how and why he planned multiple attacks in the U.S, including ones in Nashville and Florence, Ky., that didn't go as intended; and how he allegedly executed the Little Rock assault.

In his own words:

It's a war out against Islam and Muslims and I'm on the side of the Muslims point blank ... The U.S. has to pay for the rape, murder, bloodshed, blasphemy it has done and still doing to the Muslims and Islam. So consider this a small retaliation the best is to come Allah willing. This is not the first attack and won't be the last.

Muhammad is yet to convince U.S. authorities he's anything other than the murderer of Pvt. William A. Long of Conway, Ark. He's being held on state charges, awaiting a February trial.

But one senior consultant to the U.S. government on global terrorism believes Muhammad's self-described attack in June 2009 and others like it -- lone gunmen with no formal al-Qaida training or direction -- illustrate the new nature of an old enemy.

Al-Qaida has shifted from a far away, tough-to-join group to a social network that almost anyone, anywhere can join. Even a middle-class, Baptist kid from Memphis, born Carlos Bledsoe, who played youth basketball and worked at Chuck E. Cheese's. [...]

"Regarding my pre-Islamic past ... I don't like to talk about it," he wrote to the newspaper. "... I was known as Bledsoe in the neighborhood and did things most teenagers do." [...]

During a visit to a Nashville mosque, he watched the synchronized movements of 50 to 75 people as they bowed and prostrated themselves in prayer. He was amazed.

"So I attempted to join and after realizing I didn't know what I was doing, somebody (asked) when did you become Muslim? I said I'm not just interested in it? And when I said that the whole place lit up. I mean brothers shouted 'Allahu Akbar'!! (Allah is the greatest) and embraced me like I was a long (lost) brother."

A man from the mosque explained the religion's fundamentals -- belief in one God, angels, the revealed scriptures, the prophets, predestination and the day of judgment. He also gave Muhammad a copy of the Quran.

Later, at Masjid As-Salam in Memphis, Muhammad recited the Shahada in Arabic: There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

"They are not Mujahideen or militants or preach jihad," Muhammad wrote about the Memphis mosque. "But that's where I became Muslim."

So to make a long story short I believed in it wholeheartedly and decided to become a Muslim in a local Memphis masjid. I took my declaration or testimony of faith and bore witness to the truth. The year was 2004 and I was 19 years old.

* * *

A senior member of Masjid As-Salam and the Muslim Society of Memphis board, Mohammed Moinuddin, facilitated a meeting between mosque members and the FBI after the shooting at the agency's request. Muhammad spent very little time at the mosque, he said, but the few who remembered him described him as calm, not belligerent or hostile.

Moinuddin said he encourages people to speak up if they know about potential threats so law enforcement officials can be informed.

"Islam, our religion of faith, does not believe in killing people and stuff like that," he said. "It's a very peaceful religion. The very meaning of the word Islam means peace. And therefore it's kind of ironic that people are sometimes distorting the image of Islam."...

You can tell Moinuddin is lying right off, when he claims that the word Islam means "peace," when actually it means "submission." And he must know that. So it is hard to credit anything else he says.

By 2007, Carlos Bledsoe had become deeply observant and legally changed his name.

"So step by step I became a religiously devout Muslim, Mujahid -- meaning one who participates in jihad," Muhammad wrote. "I was a jihadist before I traveled to Yemen. I've loved jihad every since I became Muslim." [...]

And he ultimately went to Yemen, where he got involved in jihad activity:

He declined to answer certain questions about other Muslims for "security reasons." He also said in one letter that he was "asked many times to carry out a martyrdom operation in America" but "didn't have proper training in regards to explosives."

He did not elaborate.

Muhammad spent his days studying and then taught English after the Asr, or third prayer of the five daily prayers. He felt uncomfortable teaching "the language of the enemy" and considered it only a source of income. He learned Arabic by interacting with native speakers.

Muhammad met an elementary school teacher to whom he taught English and eventually married. He told the state psychiatrist he sold his car in America to help pay for the dowry.

When Muhammad had been married about two months, he was arrested at a roadside checkpoint. He carried a fake Somali passport and lacked the proper government permissions to travel.

He also had videos and literature about the daily operations "by our Muslim soldiers in different parts of the world," literature from people such as Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American Islamic cleric who uses the Internet to spread al-Qaida's message, and explosive manuals that included tips such as how to make gun silencers, he said.

Muhammad's plan had been to travel to Somalia for training in how to make bombs, particularly car bombs.

Instead, he was imprisoned in Yemen's Political Security Organization.

(H)ad I got this training my story would of ended a lot differently than it's going to end now. My drive-by would of been a drive-in with no one escaping the aftermath!! [...]

In regards to the CIA & FBI yea they followed me, yea they tapped my phone, read my emails, interrogated me not once, not twice but three times before my jihadi attack on the crusader recruiting center but what good did it do? I outsmarted them and they know it. That's why they don't want to pick these charges up and are leaving me in state court to be hung. ...

I know the real reason why they're so (quiet). And it's because they dropped the ball with me and not just me. Nidal (Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army major charged in the Fort Hood shootings), Umar Farouk (the Nigerian charged for trying to detonate plastic explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight), Faisal (Shahzad, the Pakistani-American sentenced to life in prison for his failed attempt to bomb Times Square) and others who evaded their agents and devices and paid-informants posing as Muslims.

They can't catch us all....

Muhammad bought several guns and stockpiled ammunition over a period of weeks because he was "on a budget." He didn't use a credit card to buy supplies because "Muslims don't believe in interest."

When he bought the rifle at Walmart and wasn't questioned, he recalled walking to the parking lot with the new gun, thinking: "It's on," meaning he was not under surveillance. "The FBI had not put a hold or checked."

Plan A, as he called it in one letter, was to assassinate "3 Zionist rabbis in Memphis, Little Rock and Nashville. Then target recruitment centers from the South to the nation's capital. And other Zionist organizations in the northeast. That was the plan, which mostly failed."...

Next he drove through Memphis to Nashville. He had prepared a carton of Molotov cocktails, lit one and threw it at what he believed to be the home of an orthodox rabbi. But it bounced off the glass. [...]

We believe in an eye for eye not turn the other cheek. ...We are all brothers under the same banner fighting for the same cause. ... (T)he war has no boundaries as you can see. ... Unless the U.S. government pulls fully out of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop(s) helping Israel in (its) massacre of Muslims, blood will flow in the U.S.A. like tap water.

* * *

On the morning of June 1, 2009, Muhammad drove down Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock. His Plan B, he said, was a "random and unplanned attack" for which he chose the recruiting center.

"I went around the corner so they (couldn't) see me," he said of the soldiers standing outside smoking. "I did not want them to see me coming. I had the SKS with me and put it out the window. I rolled by and started shooting."

He made his intent clear: "I was trying to kill them." [...]

He also explained that when he returned to America, he had hatred for the U.S. and was angry at what he saw as news outlets such as CNN filtering its reporting. He accused military personnel of target shooting the Quran and urinating on it.

Muhammad said he'd have killed more soldiers had more been in the parking lot.

Muhammad also told police there were at least six Molotov cocktails in a milk crate in the bed of his truck -- green and clear bottles filled with gasoline and oil and duct taped.

"And compared to what I had planned originally it was like a grain of sand," Muhammad wrote about the attack. "One crusader dead, one wounded, 15 terrorized, big deal. Nidal Malik (Hasan, the accused Fort Hood shooter) is the real Islamic warrior, and my plan A was on that scale."

Days after his arrest, Muhammad called The Associated Press to say he wasn't guilty of murder because "murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason."

I'm just one Muhammad There are millions of Muhammads out there. And I hope and pray the next one be more deadlier than Muhammad Atta!! (peace be upon him) commander of the blessed raids in NY and D.C. on 9/11.

In one letter, Muhammad explained what jihad means to him:

"In Islam there's a call to duty -- jihad -- and it's of different types but the one I'm mentioning is a defensive struggle or fight with weapons against those who attack, kill, maim the Muslims. And this is a part of Islam." [...]

Far as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula I won't say much but yes, I'm affiliated with them. And it's more of a Islamic Revivalist Revolutionary Movement than an organization. Same with other Al-Qaeda fronts. Our goal is to rid the Islamic world of idols and idolaters, paganism and pagans, infidelity and infidels, hypocrisy and hypocrites, apostasy and apostates, democracy and democrats and relaunch the Islamic caliphate ... and to establish Islamic law (Shari'ah) -- Allah's law on earth and anyone who strives for this is affiliated with the movement.

So yes I'm Al Qaeda and proud to be. [...]

Muhammad now spends 23 hours a day alone in a cell in the Pulaski County Detention Center. He speaks to no one and can't see out the windows. His only book, he said, is the Interpretation of the Noble Quran. [...]

Good thing he is reading that, eh? Twenty-three hours a day with nothing but the Book of Peace and fairly soon he will be as "moderate" as the day is long!

I knew this would end with the enemies of Allah killing me. But the good thing is -- Martyrs don't die! Allah says, "Don't think of those who are killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather they are alive with their Lord and they have their provision!" (Qur'an 3:169) And that's what I believe. The jihad lives on. May Allah accept my jihadi operations and grant me what he promises all of the ... (martyrs) Ameen. [...]

Allah willed otherwise! An update on this story. "Radical Preacher Bakri Mohammad Arrested," by Huw Borland for Sky News Online, November 14 (thanks to Steven):

Lebanese police have arrested radical Islamic preacher Omar Bakri Mohammad days after he boasted he would "not spend one day" of a life sentence behind bars.

A security official said Lebanese intelligence agents seized the cleric near his home in the northern city of Tripoli....

Sky's home affairs correspondent Mark White said Mohammad was stopped by intelligence agents who had been following a vehicle he was travelling in.

White said: "Omar Bakri Mohammad was pulled from the car at gunpoint. It was members of the Lebanese internal scurity forces who arrested him."

Mohammad, who lived in Britain for 20 years, is a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim.

He has praised the September 11 attacks on America in 2001 and hailed the terrorists as the "magnificent 19"....

Although the laws of the dhimma mandating a second-class status for Christians are not fully in force in the Islamic world today, in many areas they remain as a cultural hangover, manifesting themselves in various ways to the detriment of equal rights for Christians and other non-Muslims. An update on this story. "Asia Bibi's conviction is an incitement to crime, says Justice and Peace official," from AsiaNews, November 12 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - "The sentence against Asia Bibi is a veritable incitement to crime. There was never any insult to Islam in the case and the judge did not take into account how the blasphemy law is being abused. So he came down with a harsh sentence," said Peter Jacob, secretary of the Church's Justice and Peace Commission, as he spoke to AsiaNews about the death penalty inflicted on a 37-year-old female farm worker by a court in Punjab last Sunday. "We absolutely condemn this way of doing things; we call on the government to intervene and stop the law from being abused," he added.

Asia Bibi, mother of two, is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy. She has been in prison since last year. The trial judge accepted the prosecutor's contention that she insulted Muhammad in a heated discussion with colleagues. In fact, all she did was to object to her fellow workers' name-calling (infidel) and their attempt to get her to renounce Christianity. For this, Asia was beaten and reported to police in Ittanwali (Punjab) who arrested her on false blasphemy charges.

For Nazir S. Bhatti, who heads the Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC), Asia's case is a clear attack on inter-faith dialogue because she was sentenced to death for her comment on Muhammad, not for any insult to the prophet.

"According to the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president of Pakistan or the interior minister have the power to withdraw any case," Bhatti said. "There are examples of cases of terrorism withdrawn by the government of Pakistan. Why then the Pakistani administration is silent on Asia Bibi's sentence?"

"In Pakistan, some 2.8 million Christians are treated as second class citizens, whilst Islamic government feel no shame to release Muslim criminals and terrorists," he said....

Aslan unhinged: We are always on his mind

On November 3, I wrote here about Islamic supremacist pseudo-moderate Reza Aslan's emails to me (which I will publish once I've collected a few more of them) that Aslan "will not deal on the level of facts and discuss matters rationally, but instead works consistently from the gutter. It is the only refuge he has given his manifest and abject intellectual vacuity."

Abject intellectual vacuity was an understatement. On October 30, I wrote here that "Islamic supremacist pseudo-moderate Reza Aslan is a clown." And so on November 12, a report about an appearance Aslan made to promote his new literary anthology noted that he veered weirdly from the topic of the evening to call Pamela Geller and me "clowns." I guess next he'll be calling me an "Islamic supremacist pseudo-moderate."

The diminutive Aslan is trying very hard to appear as the reasonable, fashionably liberal voice of Islam, but in this he is plainly deceptive: he is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has also called on the U.S. Government to negotiate not only with Ahmadinejad but with Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia.

And so it is in his interest, and in the interest of the forces he serves, to defame people who are standing up to the political and supremacist aspects of Islam in the name of human rights. But his desperation is showing when he has to go out of his way to bring us up at an event that was supposed to be about literary works, and had nothing to do with Sharia, or the resistance to it, at all. We seem to be a feature of every talk he gives lately, no matter what it's supposed to be about. I gave two talks this week, one at Texas A & M and another at a wonderful event with Pamela Geller in Fort Worth, and in neither one did I mention Reza Aslan; in fact, I have given a great many talks over the years, and don't remember every detail of them all, but I don't think I've ever mentioned Reza Aslan in any of them. Yet we seem to play on his mind so -- he is showing the signs of a man who knows his deceptions are being exposed.

"Novels » Tablet and Pen: Humanizing the 'other,'" from Palestine Voice, November 12:

Washington - Reza Aslan, reknowned [sic] Iranian-American scholar and author, appeared at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC Thursday night to promote his latest work, an anthology of modern literature from the Middle East entitled Tablet and Pen. [...]

Aslan began by warming up the crowd with a few quips on anti-Muslim sentiment in the US. He sarcastically congratulated the anti-Sharia Oklahoma activists for their work to "finally" bring the state under the Constitution and lampooned other popular anti-Islam "clowns" like Sharron Angle, Pamela Gellar [sic], and Robert Spencer.

The subject of this satirical monologue, however, is not an integral part of Tablet and Pen. The anecdotes Aslan drew upon were to illustrate his point that Islam is becoming "other-ized", and that the best way to combat this trend is to build relationships through a mutual appreciation of the "other's" arts. [...]

Yeah, a few good poems will make us forget all about the recent letter bomb jihad plot against synagogues in Chicago, the recent jihad mass-murder in a church in Baghdad, the Fort Hood jihad shooting, the Arkansas recruiting center jihad shooting, the Christmas underwear bomb jihad attempt, the Times Square jihad car bomb attempt, the Fort Dix jihad plot, the North Carolina jihad plot, the Seattle jihad shooting, the JFK Airport jihad plot, and on and on. See, the real problem here, folks, is that Islam is becoming "other-ized"!

Note that even in this literary anthology, the pathetically derivative Aslan drags out a tired theme of victimization vis-a-vis the West:

What really ties all the authors together is their common experience within their respective nationalisms in the face of Western colonialism and imperialism. It is this shared narrative, rather than what Aslan referred to as an "imaginary" construction of what constitutes the "Middle East", that is at the heart of the book.

The anthology's introduction makes note of revered scholar Edward Said's seminal work, Orientalism, in looking at the "Middle East" or the "Orient" as a symbol for what the West or the "Occident" is not. By using the classical definition of the "Orient", Aslan is purposely both mocking and paying homage to an outdated worldview that still has a significant hold on contemporary East-West relations....

Ibn Warraq gave Said and Orientalism a debunking -- or, as Aslan has said, a "bunking" -- for the ages in this book.

Aslan continued:

"There's been a lot of complaint that Americans don't really 'get' the Palestinians. I'm hoping that this anthology could help change that," he said....

Oh, we "get" them loud and clear, thanks.