December 2010 Archives

Thanks a lot, kuffar. "Danish attack plot suspect in previous arrests," by Nina Larson for AFP, December 31 (thanks to David):

STOCKHOLM -- One of five men held over a foiled plot to massacre staff at a Danish newspaper had twice been arrested abroad suspected of terror links, the foreign ministry and media said Friday.

Munir Awad, a 29-year-old Swede born in Lebanon, had publicly thanked the Swedish secret service, Saepo, for obtaining his release from Somalia where he was detained three years ago.

"We know Saepo brought us home and we are very grateful," he told a newspaper at the time.

Swedish foreign ministry spokesman Anders Joerle confirmed the previous arrests and that Sweden had intervened on Awad's behalf.

"Awad was arrested in Somalia by Ethiopian troops. That was in 2007. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2009," foreign ministry spokesman Anders Joerle told AFP.

"The Swedish foreign ministry helped them. I wouldn't say to free him, but what we did was insist that he either should be tried or set free," he added.

Awad was one of five men arrested in Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday for hatching what Danish officials called a plan to "kill as many people as possible" in an assault on the Jyllands-Posten daily....

Sharia descends upon what had been a largely secular nation. Isn't it great that Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange made Oklahoma safe for Sharia?

"2011 looks grim for progress on women's rights in Iraq," by Shashank Bengali and Sahar Issa for McClatchy Newspapers, December 31:

BAGHDAD -- When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki introduced what he called a national partnership government two weeks ago, he included allies and adversaries, Arabs and Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. One group, however, was woefully underrepresented.

Only one woman was named to Maliki's 42-member cabinet, sparking an outcry in a country that once was a beacon for women's rights in the Arab world and adding to an ongoing struggle over the identity of the new Iraq.

Whether this fledgling nation becomes a liberal democracy or an Islamist-led patriarchy might well be judged by the place it affords its women.

Nearly eight years after American-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, Iraq's record is decidedly mixed.

Maliki's last cabinet included four women, and since 2005 the Iraqi constitution has set aside one-quarter of legislative seats for females. Of 325 lawmakers elected in March, 82 were women, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Yet analysts said their political contributions so far have been limited, and activists and female lawmakers seized on their exclusion from the new cabinet as a sign of women's continued struggle to find a place in Iraqi public life.

"It's a mockery," said Hanaa Edwar, a founder of the Iraqi al Amal Association, a leading women's rights group. "Especially when you take into consideration that this is a retreat from the previous cabinet...it's really a slap in the face for all of us."...

"The Iraqi women feel today, more than any other day, that democracy in Iraq has been slaughtered by discrimination, just as it was slaughtered by sectarianism before," Talabani said, her voice quaking with emotion.

Maliki returned to the lectern somewhat red-faced and said, "I had hoped that this cabinet would have more women than the last." He demanded that party leaders propose female candidates for the handful of vacancies remaining in the cabinet.

The U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Jim Jeffrey, said of the one-sided list: "It surprised us."...

It shouldn't have.

For decades, Iraq led the region in promoting women's rights, beginning in 1959 with the passage of an extremely progressive civil liberties law and the appointment of the first female minister in the Arab world. Even Saddam was a friend to women in the 1970s and 1980s, passing strong legislation against sexual harassment and bringing huge numbers of women into the workforce as part of a drive to industrialize Iraq.

Now, however, Iraqi women are finding their hard-won freedoms limited by a society increasingly governed by religious conservatives. Many Iraqis say that politicians at the local and provincial levels, whether they hail from Islamist parties or merely take cues from them, are putting pressure on women to circumscribe their public role....

"Religious conservatives," i.e., Islamic supremacists.

Markets were closed and roads deserted: people were staying inside, hoping the wrath of these Islamic supremacists wouldn't fall upon them. "Violence as Pakistan strikes over blasphemy law," by Hasan Mansoor for AFP, December 31 (thanks to Block Ness):

KARACHI, Pakistan (AFP) - Violence flared Friday as police and protesters clashed during a mass protest strike that closed businesses across Pakistan over a bid to end the death penalty for blasphemy.

Police said protesters near the home of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari in the financial hub of Karachi pelted stones as they shouted slogans including "We'll sacrifice our lives -- we'll save the sanctity of the Prophet".

Teargas shells were fired to disperse them, while normally busy town centres turned quiet across the Muslim country, AFP reporters said, following a move to amend a law which permits death sentences for those found to have blasphemed.

Conservative religious groups called for a national strike after thousands of Islamists rallied in major cities last week against any change to the law, which rights campaigners say encourages Islamist extremism.

The strike went ahead despite a categorical announcement by deputy information minister Samsam Bokhari on Thursday that the government had no intention of amending the controversial law.

AFP reporters said markets were closed on Friday and roads deserted in the otherwise bustling cities of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and its neighbouring garrison town of Rawalpindi.

Demonstrators said their goal was to defend the honour of the Prophet Mohammed.

"Prophet Mohammed." AFP, like all mainstream media outlets, has decided we're all Muslims now.

"We will start a civil disobedience movement if the government makes any amendment to the law," the chairman of influential Muslim grouping the Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahebzada Fazal Karim, told AFP....

A letter from David G. Littman, representative to the UN-Geneva for the World Union for Progressive Judaism, to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay:

WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM

* * * * *

THE MARTYRED CHRISTIANS OF IRAQ
RENEWED APPEAL (2008, 2009, 2010)... for the New Year 2011

To the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
31 December 2010
Your Excellency,

Having suffered a serious brain haemorrhage on 27 November - and now being treated for acute leukaemia - it seems highly unlikely that I shall be allowed by my doctors to return to the Palais des Nations - without a mask, if at all - to defend universal human rights as I have endeavoured to do for the past 25 years. Hopefully, I shall remain in shape to prepare an 'Appeal' now and again - and perhaps more, if providence should allow.

Our 1st intervention on 3 February 1986 was a written Appeal - on behalf of the WUPJ - to the Chairman of the CHR's 42nd session, condemning the nomination of ex-Nazi Byelorussian, Dr. Hermann Klenner, as one of three vice-chairmen. Our 1st oral statement (12 February) condemned the ongoing Orwellian UN General Assembly Resolution 3377, voted on 10 November 1975 (37 years after the evil 1938 Kristallnacht), equating Zionism with Racism. Our 2rd oral statement (3 March) dealt with the question of "fanatical fundamentalists preaching jihad actions of international terrorism against their sworn enemies: either Muslims, referred to as 'heretics'; or non-Muslims, referred to as 'infidels'." Our 3rd oral statement (7 March), inter alia, dealt with the situation of dhimmis (Jews and Christians in Arab-Muslim lands), providing full details on this historical phenomenon, which slowly emptied 'Arab lands' of their ancient Jewish populations - from time immemorial - numbering over 900,000 in 1948 - under 20,000 by 1986; today they are less than 5,000 (barely ½ of 1%).

Madam High Commissioner, we are providing these 'details' (*), in order to stress that for 25 years we have reminded the CHR (and since 2006 the HRC), to no avail, of that commonplace saying: "after Saturday comes Sunday": i.e. after the dhimmi Jews will have been expelled from Arab lands, it will be the time of the dhimmi Christians. Alas, the 'international community' has shown no interest in "Jewish refugees" from Arab-Muslim lands (representing about ½ of Israel's Jewish population of 5.5 million) - only in "Arab-Palestinian refugees" from UN mandated Palestine, whose tragic plight resulted from the Arab League's 1947 "no!" to international legality and its military attack to destroy Israel. This refusal then to recognise a Jewish State continues today.

The grave human tragedy of the Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, has worsened dramatically since our joint 2008 and 2009 Christmas Day Appeals to you, UNSRs, and at UN bodies. We are enclosing again our last year's joint Appeal and a recent article by a Qatari liberal, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari: "The Perpetrators of the Massacre at the Baghdad Church are 'the Children of the Culture of Hate." [Al-Jarida-Kuwait, 15 Nov. 2010, tr. by MEMRI, Special Dispatch 3473, 27 Dec. 2010].

This 'writing on the wall' has been evident for decades to all with eyes to see and ears to hear. On the eve of the New Year, we call on you as HCHR, on concerned SRs, and UN bodies to strongly condemn this atrocious martyrdom of a religious-ethnic community, dating from the birth of Christianity in the Middle East. There are less than 10 Jews in Iraq from over 140,000 in 1948. If the UN does not act decisively, the 1¼ million or so Iraqi Christians a decade ago (now under ¼ million) will be reduced to mere thousands or hundreds and all their possessions confiscated, as happened to the dhimmi Jews. The plight of Egypt's Copts for decades is another neglected tragedy, totally ignored by the OIC, itself. The HRC is following the CHR - and the UN is suffering irreparable damage to its reputation in all fields: "for yielding pacifies great offences." NOW is the "time to speak" - and not "a time to keep silence."

Respectfully,
David G. Littman - Representative to the UNO-Geneva (Case Postale 205, 1196 Gland - Suisse)
----------
* WUPJ, Human Rights and Human Wrongs, No 1 (1986), pp.1-17 (UN Public Library, NY/Geneva). For historical documentation, see Paul B. Fenton & David G. Littman, L'Exile au Maghreb: La condition juive sous l'Islam : 1148 - 1912 (800 p.), Paris-Sorbonne, Nov. 2010
----------
cc. Ms. Asma Jahangir, SR : Freedom of Religion & belief ; Mr. Githu Muigai, SR: Racism...; Mr James Anava, SR: HR and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples; Ms. Gay J. Mc Dougall, Independent Expert on minority issues; Pr. Walter Kälin, Rep. of S-G- HR of IDP.

You just never know

Good thing Western officials are relaxing laws banning the wearing of masks in public, eh? The problem here is that the West is anxious to prove its tolerance and multiculturalism, and to change its own laws and practices in order to do so, but there was a reason for those laws and practices, and setting them aside will continue to have negative consequences.

"Man in Muslim woman's garb robs Ottawa bank," from the National Post, December 31 (thanks to Twostellas):

OTTAWA -- A man used a Muslim woman's religious garment as a disguise to rob a bank in an Ottawa strip mall on Thursday, police say.

Sgt. Mark Myers said the man was wearing a blue robe and a head scarf concealing his mouth and nose when he passed a note demanding money to a bank teller at a Scotiabank branch in the city's west end.

After the teller handed over an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect fled on foot....

Myers said police are confident the suspect is a man because he spoke in a masculine voice at one point during the robbery....

Maybe Sheikh al-Awda was the source for Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III. In any case, it is disturbing to see this fantastical claim gaining increasing currency, although it isn't really surprising given three well-established tendencies: the inability of Islamic supremacists to acknowledge any responsibility for any wrongdoing, their fanatical Jew-hatred, and their ongoing attempts to portray themselves as victims. "Sheikh al-Awda: 'The Terrorists Work in the Service of Israel and the Zionist Movement,'" from Translating Jihad, December 30:

This is from Saudi Sheikh Salman al-Awda, a prominent member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars run by Yusuf al-Qaradawi (see the original Arabic here):

Sheikh al-Awda:  The Terrorists Work in the Service of Israel and the Zionist Movement

Riyadh - Sheikh Salman al-Awda warned against severe terrorist acts, bombings, and bloodshed, as well as against the groups that carry out these actions and hide behind Islam, carrying the banner of jihad.  He said: "These are tools in the hands of the Zionists, Israelis, Europeans, and Orientals, with the goal of damaging Islam." [...]

Read it all.

Jihadist sentiments among the Iraqi governing authorities? Naaah, couldn't be!

More on this story. "Christians Are Casualties of 10 Baghdad Attacks," by John Leland and Omar Al-Jawoshy for the New York Times, December 30 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

BAGHDAD -- One week after an Islamic extremist group vowed to kill Christians in Iraq, a cluster of 10 bomb attacks rattled Baghdad on Thursday night and sent additional tremors of fear through the country's already shaken Christian minority.

Victims of the October siege of Our Lady of Salvation, a Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad, were remembered there Dec. 24.

Two people were killed and 20 wounded, all of them Christians, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The bombs were placed near the homes of at least 14 Christian families around the city, and four bombs were defused before they could explode....

"We will love Iraq forever, but we have to leave it immediately to survive," said Noor Isam, 30. "I would ask the government, 'Where is the promised security for Christians?' "...

In response to the coordinated bombings in Baghdad, Younadim Yousif, a Christian member of Iraq's Parliament, blamed the security forces for failing to prevent the attacks, especially after the extremist group had announced its intentions. "The government bears full responsibility for these attacks, because they already promised to secure the Christians," Mr. Yousif said.

"I think there is complicity by security forces helping insurgents to implement their attacks, because it is unbelievable that they could plant more than 10 I.E.D.'s in different areas targeting Christians," he said, referring to improvised explosive devices....

Axis of evil. "South American drug gangs funding al-Qaeda terrorists," by Robin Yapp in the Telegraph, December 29 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

South American drugs gangs are providing millions of pounds of funding for al-Qaeda terrorists by paying them to ensure the safe passage of cocaine across north Africa and towards Europe.

Islamic rebels familiar with the barren terrain of the Sahara have struck deals under which they provide armed security escorts for drug traffickers in return for a slice of their profits.

Counter-terrorism experts said that the terrorists belong to the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group, which has kidnapped a series of Westerners and killed a British tourist last year.

They warned that the money they receive from drugs gangs could be used to attract new recruits and plan terrorist attacks on European cities....

I'll say it again: Syria recently scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'"

That's right: two years for murder. And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

What's more, a manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).

In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

That's why these honor killings keep happening -- because they are broadly tolerated, even encouraged, by Islamic teachings and attitudes. Yet no authorities are calling Islamic leaders to account for this.

And this story has an especially absurd edge: the girl was going to become a suicide bomber. To prevent that and preserve the family's honor, her father murdered her instead. Well, that certainly fixed the problem.

"Iraqi killed daughter for being al-Qaeda recruit," from AP, December 25 (thanks to Ken):

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi man told authorities he killed his 19-year-old daughter out of shame after he discovered al-Qaeda had recruited her as a suicide bomber, a police spokesman said....

The father, Najim al-Anbaky, was detained during the raid, and during questioning he told police he had killed his daughter, Shahlaa, a month earlier because he found out she intended to blow herself up in a suicide attack for al-Qaeda, al-Karkhi told The Associated Press....

Another police official said authorities were investigating the possibility that the woman had a boyfriend in al-Qaeda. The official said that according to local police records, the man killed a sister in 1984 in what was described as an honour killing.

A senior Iraqi army official said authorities, acting on a tip that the daughter was going to blow herself up, pulled the father in for questioning, at first not knowing that the daughter was dead.

The father at first denied his daughter had any links to the terror group, but after further questioning admitted to killing her. He described it as an attempt to protect the family's dignity and said his daughter had been recruited by al-Qaeda to be a suicide bomber....

A defeat for human rights. "Pakistan refuses to modify Islamic 'blasphemy' laws," by Aftab Alexander Mughal for Spero News, December 30:

The government of Pakistan has backed out its commitment to review the country's controversial Islamic blasphemy laws. On Dec. 30, 2010, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah requested that merchants and those in favor of the blasphemy laws to call off their nation-wide shutdown of businesses scheduled for Dec. 31 because the government has no intention to change or repeal these laws. The government's move is to appease Islamic religious groups who have announce that they will shutter their businesses on New Years Eve to protest against any move to amend the laws. Just a week ago, the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti declared that despite various pressures the government will definitely review the laws.

Islamic laws against the "blasphemy" of Islam, Muhammad, the Koran, and Islamic personalities were introduced by late Genral Zia-ul-Haq in 1980s and have widely been misused against Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus and liberal Muslims. Christians and human rights groups have been demanding for the total repeal of the laws.

Yesterday, the government in the National Assembly (lower house of the parliament) categorically denied any move to amend or repeal the blasphemy laws. "The government considers that its prime responsibility is to protect this law and it will never support any private members' bill even from the treasury benches in this regard," said the federal minister in a policy statement.

Maulana Attaur Rehman, the younger brother of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a pro-Taliban party, said in the National Assembly the blasphemy laws were a sensitive issue for Muslims and every Muslim has concerns on any effort that made to repeal this law....

They all clearly misunderstand their expansive, generous, peaceful, tolerant religion.

Feel the love. "Iraqi Christians killed in series of Baghdad attacks," from the Telegraph, December 30:

At least two Christians were killed and 12 people wounded in a series of attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad, according to Iraq's interior ministry.

The worst attack was in the central Baghdad district of Al-Ghadir, where a homemade bomb exploded around 8pm (1700 GMT), killing the two Christians and wounding three others, including one Christian, an official from the ministry said.

Al-Ghadir is an area with a significant Christian population, though many have fled following the massacre and in light of threats by al-Qaeda to target them. The number of Christians left in Iraq is estimated at between 450,000 and 500,000, including around 300,000 Roman Catholics (down from 387,000 in 1980)....

Iraq is still recovering from a massacre at a Baghdad cathedral in October. A group of Islamist extremists burst into the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, murdering two priests, holding the congregation hostage and eventually killing more than 50 people....

Yet another unsavory use for Islamic charities. "Albanians deposited Serb organ profits in Islamic charities, prosecutor," from Serbianna, December 17 (thanks to Julia Gorin, who has a great deal more information and background about the entire Kosovo organ trafficking story here):

Serbian war crimes prosecutor says that the Kosovo Albanian criminal boss, Hashim Thaci, used bank accounts designated as Islamic charity to deposit profits he earned by selling organs he extracted from captured Serbs....

Names of some of those accounts are Help For Kosovo, Medicare, Caravan, Al- Haramajin, Taibah International. etc.

Serbian prosecution says that the FBI has also uncovered these accounts after the 9/11 attacks but it is not specified why the FBI withheld the information about Thaci....

Um, maybe because the FBI was on his side -- since, after all, the U.S. has been on the side of the Balkan jihadists since the 1990s?

What a friend we have in Pakistan! "Pakistan says it will defend spy chief in US suits," by Nahal Toosi for the Associated Press, December 30:

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will strongly contest two U.S lawsuits that link its spy chief and his agency to the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the government said Thursday....

It appeared that the goal of the tough Pakistani stance was to get the lawsuits dismissed....

No kidding, really?

The court papers repeat long-standing allegations that Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence has "nurtured and used international terrorist groups," including Lashkar.

"Defendant ISI provided critical planning, material support, control and coordination of the attacks," the lawsuits allege, pressing wrongful death and additional claims against the ISI, its chief Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and others.

The ISI is a powerful military institution that operates largely independently, with little oversight by the civilian government.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said Pasha cannot be made to testify in a U.S. civil court and that the New York City cases should be dismissed.

The Foreign Ministry's statement Thursday indicated that Pakistan, through its embassy in Washington, will seek to get the lawsuits tossed out. It declared that Pasha, the ISI and other Pakistani officials named will be "fully and properly" defended and noted the prime minister's view against pursuing the court cases.

Pakistan has denied any government agency was involved in the attacks in India, its archrival. The two countries have fought three wars since 1947. Pakistani security has detained seven suspects in the case, but their trials have stalled....

Time Magazine offered the deceitful Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as a candidate for Person of the Year.

NBC named Sharif El-Gamal, the thuggish and financially shady Ground Zero Mosque developer, who says that beating people up brings "exercise & stress relief," as its Person of the Year.

The deception, the ties to jihad terror groups, the deadbeat financial activity -- none of it matters. The mainstream media wants to make these people into heroes and sell you the Ground Zero mega-mosque, whether you like it or not.

Although more and more people are onto the game, the mainstream media still controls the narrative to a tremendous degree. So when the viciously dishonest Leftist pseudo-journalist Rachel Slajda says that "people like Pamela Gellar [sic] and Robert Spencer, who for years had been screaming about the dangers of Islam from the fringe, were suddenly front and center," in a certain sense she is reflecting (maybe for the first time in her illustrious career as a journalist/propagandist) an actual fact: Rauf and El-Gamal are lauded by Time and NBC, Geller and Spencer are not. And when someone from our side does make it into a mainstream media outlet, it is in an adversarial context that contrasts sharply with the kid-gloves adulation accorded to the Islamic supremacists: just compare the New York Times profiles of Pamela Geller and Daisy Khan, both penned in part by the Times' Anne Barnard, who is clearly (and unsurprisingly) yet another hard-Left ideologue whose prejudices color her reporting.

And when I appeared on Christiane Amanpour's show on ABC with Khan and Reza Aslan, Amanpour's stacking of the deck was obvious -- Douglas Murray characterizes it this way: "In October, the debate reached one of its nastiest points with an over-booked and badly-chaired studio discussion-cum-slanging-match on ABC. Daisy Khan, the wife of the imam of the proposed mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was one of those who appeared on Christiane Amanpour's panel. The anti-building side were repeatedly defamed. Robert Spencer of the Jihad Watch blog was accused by one of the other guests of being in league with neo-Nazis and was not allowed to respond." Indeed, my mic was actually cut off.

And so yes, in that sense, Rauf and El-Gamal and Khan are mainstream, and Geller and I are not: that is, their views are acceptable in the mainstream, and ours are not. But in a larger sense, we are actually much more mainstream than they are. Our views on the Ground Zero Mosque reflect those of 70% of Americans; that's why Leftist journalists like Amanpour and Barnard, and even discreditable hacks like Slajda, have to work so hard to portray us as "fringe": they don't have the truth on their side, and they don't have the people on their side. They can't win on an even playing field, so they have to tilt the playing field. For actually, there is nothing "fringe" about either Geller or me, and we have never been on the "fringe," much as this has become a new talking point of the Leftist media, echoed by the ever-derivative Aslan. I am such a fringe character that two books I've written have become New York Times bestsellers: The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), and I've led seminars on Islam and jihad for the United States Central Command, the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and more, and have spoken at universities all over the country. As for Pamela Geller, she was so "fringe" before the mosque controversy that she had been featured several times on the Joy Behar Show, Fox's Hannity and Red Eye, and other shows, and had conducted interviews over the years with people such as John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye'or, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Steyn, Steve Emerson, Christopher Hitchens, Natan Sharansky and many others.

Anyway, this is just the game they play, because they know they can't win a fair fight. And it is important for free people to see through their game, and to refuse to accept it. Rauf and El-Gamal and Khan, with their lies, their Islamic supremacist ties, and worse, are the real "fringe characters," whose views are held only by a small minority of Americans. And Pamela Geller, who has led the fight to expose them and stop them from building a triumphal mosque at Ground Zero, is the actual Person of the Year. And so we come to Lou Comunale. Lou Comunale took matters into his own hands and named Pamela Geller the real Person of the Year. Here is his explanation for his award, from his Facebook page:

THE LOU-NEWS 2010 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Blurred vision seems to be creeping up on aging America. At times the nation seems to be unable to discern right from wrong anymore. The generations being spawned today are not only unable to distinguish between good and evil, but they even seek to fight against Godly principles and moral traditions. And they think they're doing right.

This blurring of moral absolutes affects the media too. When national news media (Time Magazine, NBC & CNN, for instance) considers nominating Sharia Law-promoter, Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as Person of the Year, we as a nation are in trouble.

When mainstream media promotes anti-heroes as objects of honor, it is refreshing to balance the scales again and promote real heroes in a world increasingly intolerant against what is good and decent.

My standard for promoting a Person of the Year is one who is making a positive difference in the world, to the point that the person should not only be honored but emulated. The Person of the Year should be one who, in the face of increasing hostility against America's Judeo-Christian heritage and culture, continues to protect and defend our God-given freedoms for the benefit of all.

In an age when Sharia Law is gaining ground around the world, it's important to note Ronald Reagan's words when he said: "Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again."

The honor of this year's Person of the Year Award goes to one who has made herculean strides in protecting our freedoms and fighting the good fight, Pamela Geller.

The story of Pamela Geller is the story of what one person with a website (atlasshrugs.com) can do in the face of insurmountable opposition against truth and righteousness.

For instance, Pamela's latest triumph was in the city of Seattle. Can you imagine any anti-Semite in this day and age purchasing anti-Israel bus ads and any city accepting them? It happened in the state of Washington recently with this ad:

War crimes? I think not. Israel is constantly in a state of protecting itself from hostile neighbors. So, what did Pamela do? She decided to put up her own ads to counter the rhetoric.

The Seattle Transit Authority was in a bind. To avoid a hypocritical stance by not accepting her ads and to avoid the escalation of unnecessary friction by accepting the ads, they rejected the anti-Israel ads entirely, which was set for the next week.

Success.

Turning the head on politically correct arguments is her specialty. In this way, the inherent bias and ungodliness within the politically correct posture is exposed.

But week after week, Pamela unmasks the leftist radicals, stealth jihadists, & biased media in a potpourri of clever reportage and hard-hitting exposés sprinkled with biting humor.

Do you remember Rifqa Bary, the young Muslim-turned-Christian girl whose parents wanted to kill her for converting to Christianity? Thanks to Pamela's beating the drum and calling for protest rallies - and despite the dishonest reporting of the mainstream media - a clearer picture emerged as to the dangers facing Rifqa. And now, upon turning 18, free from the threat of honor killing, Rifqa has vowed to "preach the word to all the nations."

Another success.

It has been claimed that Pamela Geller was the one who made the Ground Zero Mosque story national news and, as a result of exposing the plans of stealth jihadists in the US, has come under such increasing opposition and actual death threats.

Fearless in the face of danger, protecting the common good, this is why I'm nominating Pamela Geller as Person of the Year.

You might, like me, pray for her protection and for her colleague Robert Spencer for all the work they undertake to preserve our Judeo-Christian heritage and to keep truth and freedom alive in America.

The reason for this pick is to encourage us all to be like Pamela Geller - because, if we all spoke out against unrighteousness, the forces that would try to derail this country would not be allowed to flourish.

Blessings, Pamela!

But don't worry: the Pakistani authorities are on the case, so you can be sure the jihadists will be swiftly brought to justice! (Yes, that sentence is sarcastic.) "More NATO tankers torched in Pakistan," from Military World, December 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

Pakistani militants have attacked two NATO supply vehicles transporting fuel destined for US-led forces in Afghanistan and set them on fire in Baluchistan province.

A group of unidentified armed men opened fire on two tankers in Quetta -- the provincial capital of Baluchistan Province -- on Thursday morning. At least one driver was killed in the shootout, Pakistani news television channel AAJ TV reported.

The assailants later torched the tankers and fled the area in a vehicle. Their whereabouts is unknown.

Police cordoned off the area after the incident and launched a search operation to arrest the perpetrators.

The attack came a day after one person was killed and two others sustained injuries as militants attacked two NATO fuel tankers in Landi Kotal district of the border town of Torkham.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants regularly attack NATO convoys in Pakistan.

The US military and NATO rely heavily on the Pakistani supply route into landlocked Afghanistan, more so now that Taliban attacks are increasing....

As well as the London Stock Exchange, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc. More on this story. "U.S. Embassy in London Was Terror Target: State Department Confirms American Embassy in London Was Target of British Terror Plotters," by Luis Martinez for ABC News, December 27 (thanks to Family Security Matters):

The U.S. State Department confirms that the 12 terrorism suspects arrested in the United Kingdom last week had targeted the American Embassy in London.

British authorities arrested 12 men Dec. 20 for suspicion of terrorism. Few details of a possible plot emerged until a court hearing in London today for the nine men still in custody. A British police statement released earlier in the day did not provide a list of targets but said the men had conspired to cause "explosions of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property."

The BBC reported that prosecutors told the court that the nine men had plotted bomb attacks on the American Embassy and the London Stock Exchange in the days before Christmas. The men were also said to have targeted unnamed political and religious figures.

But State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed to reporters today that U.S. Embassy officials in London "are aware of this, are working quite closely with British authorities and appreciate the high level of cooperation that we have with them, and are obviously taking suitable security precautions."

When he was asked if the information had come first-hand from British authorities, he said, "I think you asked me if we were aware that we were on the targeting list? and I confirmed that."...

They'll get you in the end: "The Muslims then say, you can become Protestants, but in the end you have to come to us to get buried, because there is no other place to go." Islamic Tolerance Alert from that model of Islamic moderation, Kosovo: "Kosovo Protestants tell of hardship, survival," by Linda Karadaku for Southeast European Times, December 22 (thanks to Julia Gorin):

The small Protestant church in downtown Pristina has been around since 1985. Since then, its flock has grown to around 6,000 faithful, and 21 additional churches have been built around Kosovo.

But the denomination faces ongoing barriers in a country where the majority religion is Islam, says the community's spiritual leader, Pastor Arthur Krasniqi.

"In this part of the Balkans, among Albanians as well, religion has always played a role in, or [rather] has been abused by, politics for electoral or other purposes," he told SETimes.

Protestants, he said, have to deal with an atmosphere of unease. "They are visited at home, threatened there will be no place for them to be buried when they die, and their families are frequently isolated," he said.

Sometimes, the pressure takes the form of physical violence. In Prizren, Krasniqi says, Muslim extremists beat a Kosovo Protestant, Besim Ajeti, earlier this year. Six people were arrested but released for lack of evidence.

In what the Protestants say was another example of intimidation, the Islamic community in Gjakova decided to post a list of Protestant missionaries and leaders, together with their addresses, on a website.

The information was taken down after complaints to authorities.

According to Krasniqi, Protestants face legal obstacles when they seek to build churches and, in some cases, do not even have the right to bury their dead.

Instead, he said, they must ask Islamic imams to perform the burial and pay a fee to the Islamic Community for this service.

"The Muslims then say, you can become Protestants, but in the end you have to come to us to get buried, because there is no other place to go," he said.

The community has challenged what it says are onerous restrictions and is presenting its case before the Supreme Court. A particular concern, Krasniqi says, is the current law on religious freedom.

"The law clearly says religious communities aren't legal entities in Kosovo. That means we don't have the right to have properties or employ people."

Similarly, the group plans to challenge the education ministry's financing of an Islamic madrasa in the capital. Calling for clear separation of religion and state, they say the government should not be in the business of funding religious communities.

Here is yet another installment in our ongoing series, Why Genuine Islamic Reformers Are So Hard to Find: "Ignorant Wahhabis Killed Fifty Imams and Muftis in North Caucasus," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, December 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

Renowned islamologist Roman Silantyev cited statistics according to which about fifty Islamic spiritual leaders were killed in the North Caucuses [sic] for fighting against Wahhabism.

"Almost 50 people were killed. These people could have formed a big muftiat," he said in the The Faith and the World program on the Voice of Russia radio.

According to the islamologist, there are few such people left in Russia: "they are killed almost every month, losses is some muslim boards are irreplaceable, the greater number of people who were able to actively fight against Wahhabism have been killed."

"Others are demoralized and stopped opposing or just deserted to the enemy. The situation is critical," Silantyev believes.

He is satisfied that Russian authorities ordered to give security guards to Muslim spiritual leaders in the North Caucasus, "or we can just stay without allies."

Jihad Watch reader Paul kindly pointed out that marvelous passage from this dhimmi multiculturalist sob story: "Missing character in kids' literature: Muslims," by Norman Draper in the Star Tribune, December 28 (thanks to Paul):

As the Muslim student population grows in Minnesota, some educators detect a glaring gap: a dearth of books the students can relate to and from which others can learn.

"There wasn't a whole lot in our library that provided a sense of 'this is what's normal,'" said Julie Scullen, a reading intervention specialist at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids, where she took stock of books about Muslims growing up in America.

When colleague Beth Braun, a Northdale media specialist, launched a full-blown national search, she didn't have much luck, either.

"The books are more about what it's like to live in another country and be a Muslim, or what it's like to be from a war-torn nation, not what it's like to be a teenager in America and be a Muslim," Braun said. "Those books are few and far between." [...]

Leah Larson, media specialist at Richfield Middle School, sees an appetite for such books. She pointed to a novel in her media center, "Does My Head Look Big in This?", about an 11th-grade Muslim girl growing up in Australia who decides to wear the hijab, the traditional Muslim head covering, full time.

"I just can't keep it on the shelf," Larson said of the book.

"We have tons of books about Islam. However, the fiction is harder to find...."

Surely you jest, Ms. Larson! The fiction about Islam is easy to find! For your reference, here are some of the most wildly entertaining fictional titles about Islam:

Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed

The Islamic Threat : Myth or Reality? by John L. Esposito

Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong

Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet by Karen Armstrong

No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan

Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization (Originally published as How to Win a Cosmic War) by Reza Aslan

The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists by Khaled Abou El Fadl

They were wearing police uniforms -- "war is deceit," after all, as Muhammad said. "3 suicide bombers used to kill tenacious Iraqi cop," by Barbara Surk for Associated Press, December 29 (thanks to JCB):

BAGHDAD - Police commander Lt. Col. Shamil al-Jabouri knew al-Qaida wanted him dead. He was renowned in the tense northern city of Mosul for his relentless pursuit of the terror group, and insurgents had tried at least five times to kill him for it. On the sixth attempt, al-Qaida left little to chance.

As al-Jabouri slept Wednesday morning on a couch in his office, three men wearing police uniforms over vests laden with explosives slipped through an opening in the blast walls surrounding the compound where his building stood, police said.

Police manning one of at least four observation towers surrounding the compound shot one of the attackers in a yard and his vest exploded. Under the cover of that blast, police said, the other two suicide bombers charged about 100 yards (90 meters) and made it into al-Jabouri's single-story building.

They detonated their vests simultaneously -- one at the door of al-Jabouri's office -- killing the commander instantly and injuring a policeman sleeping in a trailer nearby. The two blasts brought the whole building down, burying the slain commander under the rubble, police said.

The attack on the commander responsible for hunting al-Qaida in Mosul -- a former militant stronghold -- was a reminder of the significant gaps in Iraqi security, the challenges the new government will face in trying to close them and the lengths insurgents will go to take out people they perceive as threats....

An Al-Qaida affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, took responsibility in a statement posted on the Internet. It said al-Jabouri had been targeted several times before, but had not been deterred from fighting al-Qaida....

Peterson said that by killing officials like al-Jabouri, al-Qaida is trying to institute fear in the local population....

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah..." -- Qur'an 8:60

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the persistence of cartoon rage in the face of the latest attempted jihad attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten:

[...] Ultimately, then, the cartoon controversy is a question of the freedom of speech, and of a realistic appraisal of the jihad threat - even if expressed wryly or satirically. The cartoon controversy indicates the gulf between the Islamic world and the post-Christian West in matters of freedom of speech and expression. And yet if the West responds to plots such as the latest one in Denmark by limiting the freedom of speech as the OIC and other Muslim entities are demanding, it may yet turn out that this homage to the idols of tolerance, multiculturalism, and pluralism will mean the end of the hard-won freedoms that made Western civilization great.

Freedom of speech encompasses precisely the freedom to annoy, to ridicule, to offend. If it doesn't, it is hollow. The instant that any person or ideology is considered off-limits for critical examination and even ridicule, freedom of speech has been replaced by an ideological straitjacket. Westerners seem to grasp this easily when it comes to affronts to Christianity, even when they are as sharp-edged and offensive as Andres Serrano's Piss Christ or Chris Ofili's dung- and pornography-encrusted Holy Virgin Mary. But the same clarity of thought doesn't seem to carry over to an Islamic context.

Yet that is where it is needed most today. The cartoon controversy, insignificant and even silly as it may be in its origins, is an increasingly serious challenge to Western notions of pluralism and freedom of speech. As such, those whom Islamic supremacists are targeting in cartoon jihads must be vigorously and unapologetically defended. To do less would mean death for a free society.

There is more.

Priorities: Imagine if all of the time and energy poured into Muslim outrage and plots for violent revenge over a cartoon had been channeled into something productive. You might be driving, say, a small, sporty, efficient Afghan car. For that matter, you might be driving a small, sporty, efficient, flying Afghan car. An update on this story. "Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack," from the Associated Press, December 29:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Five men planning to shoot as many people as possible in a building housing the newsroom of a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were arrested Wednesday in an operation that halted an imminent attack, intelligence officials said.

Denmark's intelligence service said it arrested four men in two raids in suburbs of the capital, Copenhagen, and seized an automatic weapon, a silencer and ammunition. Swedish police said they arrested a 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin living in Stockholm.

"An imminent terror attack has been foiled," said Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET. He described some the suspects as "militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks" and said that more arrests were possible.

PET said it seized a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Lebanese-born man and a 30-year-old who were living in Sweden and had entered Denmark late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The fourth person detained was a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker living in Copenhagen.

Maybe Sweden could've taken him instead, having made a little room forcibly repatriating Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution.

The Danish intelligence service said the group had been planning to enter the building where the Jyllands-Posten daily has its Copenhagen newsdesk and had wanted "to kill as many of the people present as possible." The four men face preliminary charges of attempting to carry out an act of terrorism. They will face a custody hearing Thursday.

Zubair Butt Hussain, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Denmark, called the plan "extremely worrying."

The organization "absolutely condemns any act of terrorism regardless of the motives and motivations that may lie behind," Hussain said. [...]

There remains a problem of a collective lack of anger management rooted in Islamic supremacism and the Qur'an's own endorsement of violence to achieve it.

In early 2006, reaction to the drawings sparked violent protests in Muslim countries where demonstrators said the drawings had profoundly insulted Islam. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Scharf said "there was no need to raise the terror threat alert level" in Denmark.

The men were arrested in Greve, south of Copenhagen, and Herlev, west of the Danish capital.

Danish Justice Minister Lars Barfoed described the plot as "terrifying."

"The group's plan to kill as many as possible is very frightening and is probably the most serious terror attempt in Denmark," he said....

The Muhammad cartoons are still, in the minds of Islamic supremacists the world over, worth killing for. "BREAKING Four Held In Denmark Terror Arrests," from SkyNews, December 29 (thanks to Benedict):

Four people suspected of planning a terror attack against a newspaper that printed controversial cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed have been arrested.

Danish intelligence services said that three of the four men were Swedish residents who entered the country between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning....

And he probably believes that Allah is just fine with those who try to kill for him, and be killed in the process (cf. Qur'an 9:111). "Allah decides whether I am a terrorist, says accused," from the Sydney Morning Herald, December 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

JAKARTA: An Islamist extremist linked to the militant group al-Qaeda in Aceh, which plotted to kill Westerners in Indonesia, has gone on trial facing multiple terrorism-related charges.

Abdullah Sunata, 32, was part of an ''evil conspiracy'' and had organised the cell's military-style training in Aceh province last year, the prosecutor Asep Aminudin said yesterday. He also supplied firearms to the group, Mr Aminudin said....

Sunata was released from jail in 2009 for good behaviour after serving only a small fraction of a seven-year sentence for his role in the 2004 Australian embassy attack, which killed 10 people.

''After he was released, the accused was active in preaching about jihad and the obligation of people to carry out jihad,'' Mr Aminudin said. Several times Sunata met the Islamist militant leader Dulmatin and also received 195 million rupiah ($21,300) from other terrorist suspects to buy firearms, he said. Dulmatin, who planned the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, was killed in March after police discovered the group's training camp in Aceh.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of the charges.

Police had rearrested Sunata in central Java in June on suspicion of planning attacks on the Danish embassy in Jakarta and a police parade, which he denied.

Attacks on the Danish embassy: more Motoon rage.

Wearing a maroon shirt and white cap, Sunata said there was a ''stigma'' associated with convicted terrorists.

No kidding, really?

''That's their accusation. Actually, the term terrorist is neutral, can be positive or negative ... it depends on whose definition,'' he told reporters from his court cell. ''I'll leave to Allah to decide the outcome.''

Maybe the aides were indeed "paranoid," but they were directing the Christians to behave according to traditional strictures for dhimmis in Islamic law: dhimmis -- primarily Jews and Christians under the "protection" of the Islamic state -- are "forbidden to openly display wine or pork, (A: to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays" ('Umdat al-Salik, o11.5(6)).

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: "'Paranoid' aides told church to remove crosses for Najib visit," by Debra Chong in the Malaysian Insider, December 29 (thanks to Yinyangsun):

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 - Catholic church officials were told to remove crucifixes and to avoid hymns being sung when Prime Minister Najib Razak attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur's Christmas tea party last Saturday.

The overzealous bid to protect the prime minister's Islamic credentials was described by sources familiar with what happened as "paranoid" and done without Najib's knowledge.

The sources also noted the actions of officials from the prime minister's office could have jeopardised warming religious ties.

No kidding, really?

The Malaysian Insider understands that Najib's men may have been spooked by the National Fatwa Council's recent repeated announcements over Muslims at non-Muslim celebrations and had tripped over themselves to ensure his attendance at the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur's Christmas Day high-tea passed without a hitch....

Among the directives given were:

. To remove any overt Christian symbol, such as crucifixes, from the party premises

. That carollers not belt out hymns

. Not to quote from Scriptures or say any Christian prayer during the visit.

Similar conditions have been laid in previous Christmas celebrations, including those graced by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong himself, said a member of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), the umbrella body representing the various denominations....

Pointing out a glaring and largely unnoticed double standard. "If Christians Were Treated Like Muslims," by Gary Bauer in Human Events, December 28:

[...] If Muslims were treated like Christians in America, Muslims would have to tolerate the defamation of their holiest images in our national museums, acts which would be called "artwork" -- and, if particularly provocative, even given taxpayer-funded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. They would also have to accept Korans being burned and thrown into toilets, which instead of inciting worldwide outrage and retribution would provoke a collective shrug of the shoulders.

If Muslims were treated like Christians, Muslims would be mocked by late night TV talk show hosts and lampooned in crude cartoon parodies. If Christians were treated like Muslims, conspicuous Christianity would be celebrated by our elites as a sign of our diversity and open-mindedness, not disparaged as an embarrassment, a nuisance and a breach of the law.

If Christianity were treated like Islam, our students would be taught a white-washed version of Christian history, with the troubling bits miscast or omitted from textbooks and lesson plans.

If Christianity were treated like Islam, if an evangelical Christian committed an evil act in the name of his faith, he would be portrayed in the media as a deviation from, not a personification of, the Gospel message. Meanwhile, our political and media elites would hasten to assure the public that evangelical Christianity is a religion of peace and that the vast majority of evangelical Christians do not support terrorism.

If Christianity were treated like Islam in America, our president, a professed Christian, would proudly attend Christian-themed dinners and events while skipping Ramadan dinners, not vice versa. And Muslim politicians would go out of their way to assure people that their faith would not affect their policy-making.

If Christianity were treated like Islam, Christmas and Easter would be publicly celebrated for what they are -- the signature events of Christianity, marking the birth and the death and Resurrection of Christ -- not stripped of all their theological meaning and transformed into secular holidays devoted to crass consumerism.

If Christians were treated like Muslims, NASA would be tasked with reaching out to Christians and recognizing their faith's profound achievements and contributions to science, math and engineering, instead of being told to make Muslims feel good about their rather meager scientific accomplishments.

If Christians were treated like Muslims, the Catholic Church's stances on sex, contraception and human life would be revered as welcome departures from our over-sexed, self-obsessed culture, not condemned as a cause of disease and death in the less-developed world. And if Muslims were treated like Christians, the application of Sharia law around the world would be met not with stony silence but with the outrage it deserves.

If Christians were treated like Muslims in America, amusement parks would celebrate "Christian Family Day," (Six Flags recently celebrated "Muslim Family Day"), and Christians would be asked to embrace, not set aside, their religious convictions at the door when they entered the public square. Meanwhile, Muslim imams, not Christian pastors, would fear hate crimes lawsuits for preaching orthodox views of sexuality and sin.

The notion that American Muslims face discrimination, even to the point of violence, is often posited by America's elites. But that idea evaporates under scrutiny. Remarkably few hate crimes are reported against Muslims (fewer than one-eighth those against Jews). What's more, Muslim immigration to America has risen sharply since September 11, 2001, and Muslims thrive, economically and educationally, once they arrive.

In fact, it is Christians, not Muslims, who increasingly encounter cultural elites who are hostile to their beliefs and values....

In "Weimar Istanbul: Dread and exhilaration in a city on the verge of political catastrophe" in City Journal, Autumn 2010, Claire Berlinski, a resident of Istanbul, assesses the momentous changes taking place in the Turkish political order:

The City grew rapidly, dwarfing in size and population any other in the country. The streets stimulated like cocaine; horns honked, crowds surged, nerves jangled. To step outside was to be electrified by the harlequinade of roaring colors, bright lights, rushing traffic. Sybaritic nightclubs thrummed until dawn and well thereafter; strange and perverse sights were to be found on every boulevard, in every alley, at every hour, the aesthetic of contradiction between civilization and barbarity heightened by the ersatz baroque of the old architecture and the shocking ugliness of the new. Transvestites prowled, thieves pickpocketed, and in the fashionable cafés, intellectuals smoked furiously and complained of their anomie.

The Old World had vanished, and with it its agrarian economy, its reassuring class distinctions and social order. An alien and fragile political order had been imposed in its place. Experimental music, art, and cinema flourished; fascinations arose with utopianism, fortune-telling, mysticism, communism.

But there was at once a paranoid mood, a sense of impending doom. Markers of the City's great imperial past evoked its former glory while proving its decline. The art of the epoch was fueled by the fear of imminent crisis and breakdown. Decadent American culture was hungrily emulated, passionately deplored. Painters produced works genuinely shocking to the eye; writers wrote novels so offensive to bourgeois sensibilities as to provoke threats of murder. A misogynistic terror of women dominated cultural and political debate: Had modernity destroyed their virtue?

If the City was now the undisputed capital of the region's commerce and industry, all remembered the horror of hyperinflation, which had obliterated the fruit of lifetimes of hard work, and all remembered with contempt the feuding coalition governments whose incompetent stewardship had brought the nation to ruin. The economy's recent growth was vertiginous but precarious, funded by overseas loans that massively increased the nation's debt. Unemployment rose and rose. A poorly understood global economic crisis fueled dark conspiracy theories. Daily political violence lent to life a pervasive feeling of menace. The newspapers overflowed with right-wing propaganda. Screaming headlines reported violent clashes in the streets. Intellectuals were assassinated.

The constitution was new and weak, lacking legitimacy and vulnerable to subversion. Many in the City believed that foreign powers were conspiring to weaken and humiliate the nation. Most were cynical about democratic experiments; all were revolted by the selfishness and corruption of their political parties. The cravenness of the industrialists and the business class provoked widespread disgust with capitalism itself. Many yearned for, many openly demanded, a more authoritarian government. Europe, America, and particularly the Jews--those sinister, infinitely powerful magicians--were blamed for the City's discontents.

A shouting demagogue, having once been arrested for his extremist views, now focused on legal methods of attaining power. He would restore the nation to its former glory, he promised. Intellectuals thought him a ruffian and a buffoon.

The City was proud: it was the new vanguard, the greatest metropolis in the world! It was ashamed: look at what had been lost, how ugly it had become! The City "delighted most, terrified some, but left no one indifferent, and it induced, by its vitality, a certain inclination to exaggerate what one saw." So Peter Gay described Weimar Berlin.

But his descriptions, as do all of these, might have been written about the Istanbul in which I live. There is a spookiness to living in a city at the epicenter of an impending political catastrophe, a mood of dread but also of astonishing vitality--economic, creative, artistic. It is a distinctive mood and, to anyone acquainted with history, a familiar mood.

There is, it seems, such a phenomenon as a Weimar City.

What is a Weimar City? It is a city rich in history and culture, animated by political precariousness and by a recent rupture with the past, vivified by a shocking conflict with mass urbanization and industrialization; a city where sudden liberalization has unleashed the social and political imagination--but where the threat of authoritarian reaction is always in the air.

Weimar Cities are not freaks of nature. They may be expected to arise under certain social, political, and historical circumstances. World War I destroyed both Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The remnants of both entities succeeded in imposing alien new social orders on themselves, fragile experiments in democracy. The Turkish Republic has lasted far longer than the Weimar Republic, but the stories do not differ in the fundamentals; they have merely been telescoped or expanded by contingent events.

With the rise to power in 2002 of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, the Turkish Republic has experienced a fresh convulsion. The AKP opened the Pandora's box of political Islam. It has presented its reforms as an exercise in liberalization. In a sense, this is true: religion as a political force had, since the founding of the Republic, been repressed. In another sense, it is not true at all: this particular political force is one that, by its nature, tends ultimately to erase liberal reforms. "Democracy is like a streetcar," Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, now prime minister, said infamously in 1995. "When you come to your stop, you get off."

Turkey is now in the throes of two revolutions. The social transformations over which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk presided have not yet been assimilated; simultaneously, something new--and old--has rushed up to challenge them. The ancient order is thus disappearing doubly. Cultures, it would seem, react in particular ways to the disappearance of ancient orders. The febrile characteristics of Weimar Cities appear at just such times--the in-between times. As fever is a sign of disease, so it is a sign of social dislocation....

Read it all.

In "Islamic Supremacists Envision a Takeover of the Internet" in the American Thinker, December 28, Pamela Geller discusses yet another Islamic supremacist initiative:

It was hardly noticed at the time, but its consequences could be catastrophic.  Late last September, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which assigns internet domain names, approved a huge change in the way it operates.  Europe and North America will now have five seats on its Board of Directors, instead of ten, and a new "Arab States" region will have five seats as well.

How big a deal is this?  ICANN at the same time took a reference to "terrorism" out of its Draft Applicant Guidebook.  Why?  Because Arab groups complained.  And so now jihad terror websites can grow and prosper, as ICANN has removed its own ability to police them.

This has been a long time coming.

Back in October 2009, I warned of a seismic transformation in internet regulation and free speech.  Under the transnational-happy Obama administration, the U.S. relinquished control of the net at that time.  ICANN ended its agreement with the U.S. government.

If not America, who?  Now we know the answer to that.  The new agreement gave other countries (including dictatorships and rogue nations) and the U.N. the ability to set internet use policies.  At the time, I wrote, "[W]atch for Sharia law to find its way into this."

Well, that didn't take long.  The ICANN action in September gave the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other unfriendly nations a prominent internet role -- something they never could get during the administration of George W. Bush.

News analyst Daniel Greenfield explains:

The OIC has already effectively used the UN to push its censorship agenda. But the UN is virtually toothless when it comes to the United States. However if the Muslim world can dominate ICANN the way it dominates the UN General Assembly, then free speech on the internet is dead.

In practice, the new arrangement makes it much easier for Muslim countries to dictate what stays on the internet and what doesn't.  The removal of the material about "terrorism" was just muscle-flexing; there is much more of that kind of censorship coming.  If this stands, anti-jihad sites like my own site AtlasShrugs.com and the JihadWatch.org site run by my colleague Robert Spencer will likely lose their domain names.  It will become harder and harder to find the truth about jihad activity, or any resistance to it, on the internet or anywhere else....

Read it all.

And his audience in Pakistan almost certainly believed him. "Religious parties announce strike on Dec 31," from the Express Tribune, December 28 (thanks to Block Ness):

KARACHI: Religio-political parties including Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Jamait Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP), Jamiat Ahle-Hadith, Tanzeem-i-Islami, Tahreek-i-Islami have announced a complete shutter-down strike across Pakistan on December 31, 2010.

JI's deputy chief, Professor Abdul Ghafoor Ahmed, said on Tuesday that the strike will be held to protest against the "conspiracies" of present rulers to repeal the blasphemy law. Ghafoor said that he regretted that "anti-Islam elements and their local agents" were out to repeal the blasphemy laws in Pakistan to achieve their "malicious goals" against Muslims.

He said that the blasphemy laws had been drafted by clerics from all schools of thought and passed by the National Assembly unanimously.

Ghafoor said that sentences for blasphemy against Jesus Christ are incorporated in the laws of western states, including the United States and the United Kingdom among other countries. He said that no religion in the world allows blasphemy against messengers of God.

The JI deputy chief further said that the JI "pities that some so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of human rights were supporting blasphemy and blasphemers". He called on the trader's community and transporters to take active part in the strike.

In addition to the strike, the religio-political parties will hold a mass congregation in Nishtar Park in Karachi on January 9, 2011.

Piety. More on this story. "Islamic Sect Claims Nigeria Attacks, Toll At 86," from Reuters, December 28 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A radical Islamist sect said on Tuesday it was behind bombings in central Nigeria and attacks on churches in the northeast of the country that led to the deaths of at least 86 people.

The police said on Tuesday that 80 people were killed in Christmas Eve bomb attacks and clashes two days later between Muslim and Christian youths in central Nigeria, while more than 100 are wounded in hospitals.

"We have recovered 80 dead bodies so far in Jos," Daniel Gambo, an official at the Nigerian emergency management agency said late on Monday.

In a separate incident, six people were killed when petrol bombs were thrown late on Friday at churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, in Borno state.

"O Nations of the World, be assured that the attacks in Suldaniyya (Jos) and Borno on the eve of Christmas were carried out by us Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awatu Wal Jihad, under the leadership of Abu Muhammad, Abubakar bin Muhammad Shekau," a statement said on the group's website.

The radical Islamic group Boko Haram has previously used the name Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awatu Wal Jihad....

Boko Haram, which wants Islamic sharia law more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, staged an uprising in Maiduguri last year which led to clashes with security forces in which as many as 800 people were killed.

The chief of defence staff said two suspects had been arrested on Monday in Jos, the capital of Plateau state, in possession of dynamite and dangerous weapons....

Religious violence flares up sporadically in the central "Middle Belt" of Africa's most populous nation, where the largely Muslim north meets the mostly Christian south....

It just "flares up"! There's no telling how, or why! It just happens!

Actually, the Zionist-Crusader conspiracy against Islam wins that prize. That recalls, incidentally, what Al-Qaeda's Adam Gadahn, the first American to be charged with treason since World War II, called me: a "Zionist Crusader, missionary of hate, counter-Islam consultant."

"Gitmo Is Not Al Qaeda's 'Number One Recruitment Tool,'" by Thomas Joscelyn in the Weekly Standard, December 27 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

During a press conference on December 22, President Obama was asked about the difficulties his administration has encountered in trying to close Guantanamo. The president explained (emphasis added):

Obviously, we haven't gotten it closed.  And let me just step back and explain that the reason for wanting to close Guantanamo was because my number one priority is keeping the American people safe.  One of the most powerful tools we have to keep the American people safe is not providing al Qaeda and jihadists recruiting tools for fledgling terrorists.
 
And Guantanamo is probably the number one recruitment tool that is used by these jihadist organizations.  And we see it in the websites that they put up.  We see it in the messages that they're delivering.

President Obama and his surrogates have made this argument before, but they have provided no real evidence that it is true. In fact, al Qaeda's top leaders rarely mention Guantanamo in their messages to the West, Muslims and the world at large.

No journalist in attendance had the opportunity to challenge President Obama's assertion. The president should have been asked: If Guantanamo is such a valuable recruiting tool, then why do al Qaeda's leaders rarely mention it?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has reviewed translations of 34 messages and interviews delivered by top al Qaeda leaders operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan ("Al Qaeda Central"), including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, since January 2009. The translations were published online by the NEFA Foundation. Guantanamo is mentioned in only 3 of the 34 messages. The other 31 messages contain no reference to Guantanamo. And even in the three messages in which al Qaeda mentions the detention facility it is not a prominent theme.

Instead, al Qaeda's leaders repeatedly focus on a narrative that has dominated their propaganda for the better part of two decades. According to bin Laden, Zawahiri, and other al Qaeda chieftains, there is a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy against Muslims. Relying on this deeply paranoid and conspiratorial worldview, al Qaeda routinely calls upon Muslims to take up arms against Jews and Christians, as well as any Muslims rulers who refuse to fight this imaginary coalition.

This theme forms the backbone of al Qaeda's messaging - not Guantanamo....

What a shock, considering that the Qur'an commands Muslims to fight against and subjugate "the People of the Book," i.e., primarily Jews and Christians.

Again with the tired "out of context" defense -- as if there really were a legitimate context for adulatory photos of jihad terrorists, placed next to photos of the couple brandishing rifles, etc.

(An update on this story.)

But deep down, they really, really want peace. "PA daily demonizes Israel as 'a country whose aim is destruction and ruin of humanity,'" by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, December 28:

The PA continues to demonize and incite hatred of Israel. An article in the official PA daily described Israel this way:

Israel is a country -
"whose aim is destruction and ruin of humanity"
"which disseminates destruction, ruin and weapons in the world"
"which acts to kill nations, to threaten them and to occupy their land"
"which acts to disseminate the culture of hatred and racism among human beings"

This article appeared in the sports section of the official PA daily in an article about Qatar being chosen as host of World Cup in 2022. Israel was presented as the example of evil in the world in contrast to Qatar's excellence.

The article also denied the legitimacy of Israel's existence when it labeled the Israeli Carmel Mountains "the occupied Palestinian Carmel Mountains."...

Read it all.

Video courtesy Voice of the Copts.

Video courtesy Voice of the Copts.

We three men, allegiance unnamed; bearing bombs, to kill just the same. "Official says 3 men arrested with bombs in Nigeria," by Giang Nguyen for CNN, December 28:

(CNN) -- Three men were arrested with bombs in their possession one day after blasts ripped through the Nigerian city of Jos on Christmas Eve, a government official said Monday.

"They were heading to bomb a church when they were arrested," said Gyang Choji, a special advisor to the governor of Nigeria's Plateau state. He said one of the suspects is a citizen of the Republic of Chad, while the other two are Nigerian.

Choji did not say the men, who were arrested in the area of Dogon Dutse, were suspects in the Christmas Eve attacks, which killed at least 31 people and wounded 74. He had previously said it was unclear who set off the blasts or whether they were related.

"The security persons are carrying out the investigations," Choji said.

Jos lies on a faith-based fault line between Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria and the mainly Christian south. [...]

Residents of Angwan Rukuba held a press conference Sunday, condemning the soldiers responsible for the shooting. Community members are also petitioning the government to request that those responsible be brought to justice, Choji said.

In recent weeks, the governor's office had received letters purported to be from some Muslim organizations threatening attacks against Christians, Choji had said previously.

"The security officials didn't take the threat letters seriously. They were thought of as gimmicks, and at the end of the day, they became reality," he said....

Dear old Granny

Any friend of al-Awlaki warrants extensive scrutiny. "Indiana Grandmother, a Muslim Convert, Being Investigated for Possible Terror Link," by Jana Winter for FoxNews, December 28:

A 46-year-old Indiana grandmother is under investigation for her possible ties to suspected and convicted international terrorists, FoxNews.com has learned.

Muslim-convert Kathie Smith, 46, a U.S. citizen living in Indianapolis who has blogged about her granddaughter, last year married a suspected German jihadist, and has been flying back and forth between the U.S. and Germany as recently as two weeks ago.

A pro-jihadist video featuring Smith and her husband - alongside photos of members of the Islamic Jihad Union charged with plotting failed terror attacks against U.S. targets in Germany -- is being investigated by the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center. The center is a counterterror intelligence clearinghouse staffed by law enforcement officers from local and federal agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

"Certainly, it's being looked at and evaluated by Indiana State Police, which runs Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, " Indiana Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Emily Norcross told FoxNews.com, adding that the video would be passed along to appropriate law enforcement for further investigation. [...]

In lengthy e-mail exchanges with FoxNews.com, Smith alternatively defended her online postings, denied being anti-American, called the Sept. 11 attacks an inside job, the U.S. a terrorist organization and praised the American-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al Awlaki -- architect, trainer and inspiration for many of the recent terrorist attacks attempted or committed against the U.S. President Obama last April approved Awlaki's inclusion on the CIA's targeted killing list. [...]

In the nearly six-minute video under investigation, Smith and her husband, known online as Salahudin Ibn Ja'far, 28, appear posing and hugging and holding weapons interspersed with photos of known and suspected terrorists and assorted jihadist propaganda, like an Awlaki sermon album cover.

There also are photos of German Taliban Mujahideen -- German nationals who have formed their own splinter group within the Taliban -- and mug shots of members of the Saarland cell of Islamic Jihad Union charged with plotting failed terror attacks against U.S. targets in Germany, including a 2007 plot to bomb the U.S. Air Force base at Ramstein.

Smith said of the Ramstein plotters featured in her video:

"The so-called 'jihadists' you have mentioned are actually personal friends of my husband from childhood. In the video he was expressing his love and gratitude to his friends, who have died fighting for freedom. Just like any other American or European citizen who displays pictures of soldiers who have died on their videos. There is no difference in gratitude and love. It is just that your government has deemed these noble men as 'terrorists' because they are not on the same side. Least us not forget the Mujahideen who fought the Russians for the U.S. They were deemed 'heroes' and lead by Osama Bin Laden at that time, and now because the government says so... they are "terrorists."" [...]

While it is true, and was utterly wrongheaded, that the U.S. aided mujahedin against the Soviets, it is false that Osama bin Laden was in any way involved.

In addition to being close childhood friends of convicted terrorists, Salahudin has posted content from the German Taliban's media outfit and the Islamic Jihad Union on forums and social networking sites. He's also written in support of his "noble leaders" -- bin Laden, Awlaki, the Sept. 11 hijackers and other terrorist leaders.

Salahudin appeared to maintain forums devoted to hosting Awlaki's sermons. Earlier this month he uploaded videos to his since-deleted YouTube account that included German muhajideen training at jihadist camps in Pakistan, and another featuring the widow of a German Taliban jihadist directing the wives of jihadists to fulfill their obligations while their husbands are off fighting. [...]

On Facebook, Smith "likes" Awlaki, has belonged to a Facebook group called "Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb to answer your questions," referring to the North African branch of Al Qaeda. Smith also is Facebook "friends" with pages claiming to be the terrorist groups Al Shabaab and Ansar al Jundullah, in addition to "friends" Sheikh Faisal and Youself al-Khatb, the reported spiritual leader and co-founder of Revolution Muslim, respectively. Her "Likes" and "Groups" are visible to the public; a friend request from this reporter to Smith was not accepted. [...]

On her MySpace page, currently available for viewing via Google cache, Smith wrote: "As salamu alaikum akhi.. it is time for Jihad and it is now Fard ayn for ALL Muslims whether their in the United Snakes or else where...Insha'Allah!!!!" [...]

In classic Islamic theology jihad warfare is fard kifaya, an obligation of the community as a whole but not of every individual believer. Jihad becomes fard ayn, obligatory on every individual Muslim to aid in some way, when a Muslim land is attacked.

"The riots ended when Syria 'felt that "the message had been delivered"'" -- and that message was that the West must curb the freedom of speech regarding Islam and jihad, or else. "Syria helped orchestrate 2006 Mohammed cartoon riots, WikiLeaks cables reveal," from DPA, December 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The government of Syria was active in organizing the 2006 riots that erupted across the Arab world following the publication of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Oslo daily Aftenposten reported Monday, quoting US diplomatic cables released by website WikiLeaks.

"The Prophet Mohammed." DPA, like all mainstream media news outlets, has decided that we're all Muslims now.

The cartoons were originally published in neighboring Denmark in 2005. Their publication resulted in violent protests, including attacks on several embassies in Damascus in early February 2006. Embassies targeted included those of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

A US diplomatic cable published by Aftenposten said the Syrian premier had, "several days before the demonstrations, instructed the Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassoun to issue a strongly worded directive to the imams delivering Friday sermons in the mosques of Damascus."

The riots ended when Syria "felt that 'the message had been delivered'," the cable said, quoting a Sunni sheikh whose name was blacked out....

There is no recorded Muslim outrage over the recently-uncovered jihad plot to bomb Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. But if a couple of Infidels dress up in niqabs, watch out. "Top Gear stars cause religious row after dressing up in burkas on Boxing Day special," from the Daily Mail, December 28 (thanks to David):

Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear co-stars have sparked religious outrage after dressing up in burkas on the Boxing Day special.

Clarkson and Richard Hammond decided to dress in niqabs, a form of the burka where everything but the eyes are covered, in order to disguise themselves on the road.

They also got James May in on the act when they greeted him from hospital after he fell and hit his head on rocks in the Syrian desert.

But their joke backfired after they were slammed by Muslims for mocking their religion.

Islamic extremist Anjem Choudary, said: 'The burka is a symbol of our religion and people should not make jokes about it in any way.

'It would have been equally bad even if they'd not been in a country mainly populated by Muslims.'...

One day it might actually be true

He has said this before. "Ahmadinejad: Iran is now a nuclear state," from Iran's PressTV, December 28:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has downplayed sanction resolutions against the Islamic Republic, saying Iran has now become a nuclear country.

The United States and its allies have been exerting political and propaganda pressure and have issued resolutions against the Iranian nation. All their efforts have failed and Iran has now become a nuclear country, President Ahmadinejad said the in an address to the people of the northern city of Karaj on Tuesday.

The Iranian chief executive further added that world powers have two options in dealing with the Iranian nation, saying they can either go ahead with their previous path of issuing sanctions against the Islamic Republic or interact with the Islamic Republic.

"The result of the first approach is already clear. It is not the right way," he noted.

The Iranian president emphasized that cooperation and not confrontation is the only way to resolve Iran's nuclear energy program.

He also pointed out that Western powers should cooperate with the Islamic Republic and recognize the right of the Iranian nation.

President Ahmadinejad stressed the importance of recognizing the rights of the Iranian nation to pave the way for cooperation.

"We are open to cooperation based on our rights," he went on to say.

"They cannot give back the nuclear energy from the Iranian nation at the present that Iran has become a nuclear country," he said.

President Ahmadinejad also warned Western countries that Iran would give a "regretting" response to anyone who "intends to prevent the Iranian nation from achieving its rights."...

Not surprisingly, there is a possible connection to the Pakistani government: "In his interrogation, Headley claimed that he frequently combined missions for Lashkar-e-Taiba with missions for the main Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI)."

"India issues nationwide terror alert," by Jason Burke in the Guardian, December 28 (thanks to David):

Indian authorities have deployed thousands of security personnel following warnings that Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group, is planning an attack over the New Year weekend.

Police officers and paramilitaries were on high alert across the country, including in India's financial capital, Mumbai, Indian officials said. House-to-house searches were under way in some areas of the city, which was attacked by Lashkar-e-Taiba in November 2008. Airports and railway stations, the city of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat and the popular beach resort state of Goa were also on high alert following the warning, said to be based on "human" intelligence and received in recent days.

Most of the locations covered by the alert had been visited by David Headley, a Pakistani-American and member of Lashkar-e-Taiba who travelled widely in India before the Mumbai attack, one official told the Guardian. Headley was tasked by the extremist group with surveillance of targets in Mumbai itself but also visited Goa and the city of Pune, where there was a blast in February.

According to a secret report by Indian investigators of their interrogation of Headley in June, the undercover militant brought back film and notes on potential targets in India such as Jewish centres and tourist resorts favoured by Israelis which he passed on to his handlers.

In his interrogation, Headley claimed that he frequently combined missions for Lashkar-e-Taiba with missions for the main Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). His last trips to India before his arrest in Chicago in October last year were on behalf of a veteran Pakistani militant with links to al-Qaida called Ilyas Kashmiri, he said....

Hamas is a jihad terrorist group, but to disallow it a presence in London would be "Islamophobic," now, wouldn't it? "London is home to Hamas hub, says Israel," from AFP, December 28 (thanks to David):

JERUSALEM -- Israel's defence ministry has accused a London-based Palestinian centre of "terror-affiliated activities" and being the organisational arm of the militant Islamic Hamas movement in Europe.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and advocates violent opposition to the Jewish state, is designated by the European Union as a terrorist organisation.

An Israeli defence ministry statement issued on Tuesday said that the Palestinian Return Centre in Ealing, north London, organises conferences in Europe at which it plays taped speeches by Hamas leaders who are banned from entering the EU.

"The centre is involved in initiating and organising radical and violent activity against Israel in Europe, while delegitimising Israel's status as a nation among the European community," the statement said.

"Among other terror-affiliated activities, the centre organises many conferences in various European countries for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood activists from all around the world," it added.

On its website, the centre describes itself as "an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees."

Israel however, says it is is "part of the broader Hamas activism and support network within Europe, which is especially strong in England."...

Rowan Williams, Dhimmi Internationale award winner, 2008

Leo McKinstry righteously skewers Muslim victimhood posturing and the dhimmi silence of Western Christian leaders. "Why Does Dr Rowan Williams Never Stand Up For Christianity?," by Leo McKinstry in the Express, December 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

The narrative of victimhood comes easily to followers of Islam. They constantly bemoan the prejudice they have to endure and the oppression they suffer in the bigoted western world, where Islamophobia is supposedly rampant. Every terrorist atrocity, every blood-soaked massacre is justified by reference to imagined grievances.

But by far the greatest persecutors of other faiths are Muslim hardliners themselves. The great Caribbean writer VS Naipaul once described Islam as "sanctified rage". The proof of those words has been graphically illustrated by a growing catalogue of barbarities committed by Islamic militants against Christians, none of them more shocking than the mass murder committed in a Catholic Church in Baghdad at the end of October, when 58 people were gunned down during an act of worship. "All of you are infidels," said one of the killers before opening fire on the congregation.

This kind of lethal oppression against Christians is happening all over the Muslim world. [...]

Yet western political leaders, through a mixture of cowardice and denial, have refused to challenge the Islamic culture of persecution. In any other sphere, they make an absolute fetish of their devotion to the causes of equality and anti-discrimination.

If Muslims were being gunned down and bombed in western mosques by Christian fanatics, there would rightly be a tremendous outcry and Christians themselves would react with horror and fury at what was perpetrated by twisted zealots in the name of their faith. But the entire political establishment remains silent, continuing to pretend that Islamophobia is the real threat to harmony.

Perhaps most disappointing of all has been the enfeebled response of our own church leaders. The Pope made some perfunctory words of condemnation about the Baghdad massacre but has generally preferred to stick to arcane theological debates about the use of condoms.

Even worse has been the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, whose convoluted utterances epitomise the irresolution of the Church of England, whose present core belief is not in God but in a desperation to appease the enemies of Christianity. Woolly in thought and appearance, he is like some undistinguished lecturer in social policy, dressing up the platitudes of conventional Left-wing wisdom in academic jargon and longwinded verbiage. [...]

His sermon did touch on the persecution of Christians abroad, but only in the most mealy-mouthed way. He refused to use the word "Islamist" and when talking of the case of Asia Bibi in Pakistan, he just said that "certain groups" were responsible for "the abuse of the law" that had led to the death sentence against her.

Terrified of any hint of criticism of Islam, he then lavished praise on Muslims in Britain for having "expressed their solidarity" with the beleaguered Christian minority in Iraq. Really? That heroic stance seems to have passed me by....

In particular, there can be little spirit of unity in a country where much of the growing Muslim population prefers separatism to integration. Our society is now forced to accept practices that are entirely alien to the British way of life, such as the brutal misogyny of sharia law, the burkha and forced marriages....

They've had a bit more success over the last ten years. "Telling bin Laden that jihad against West was a total failure shocked and upset him: Ex-Libyan jiha [sic]," from ANI, December 28:

London, Dec. 28 (ANI): A former Libyan militant, who now lives in a bustling north-west London borough, raining [sic] his three children watching his beloved Chelsea and listening to Pink Floyd, recalled how he shocked and upset Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by saying that the jihadi movement over the last 20 to 30 years had been a total failure.

Noman Benotman, 43, was the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) - dedicated to overthrowing that country's dictator, Colonel Gaddafi. And like 200 other militants from across the Arab world, he had been summoned to Kandahar in Afghanistan to discuss Bin Laden's latest strategy in his terrorist war against the West.

That event took place in the summer of 2000 and within a few minutes of arriving at a modest guest house in the city, Noman recalls that he was greeted by his host and former comrade-in-arms, al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

At the Kandahar meeting Bin Laden had a proposal for Noman.

He recalled: "Bin Laden said to me, 'I need your group's help, I need your infrastructure, at least your media knowledge and networking'.

"I told him immediately, 'No, I can't'. I said, 'The last 20 or 30 years, the jihadi movement worldwide has been a total failure'.

"It was a complete shock to everybody. They didn't expect to hear that from someone like me. They stared at me, nobody answered.

"Bin Laden was sitting next to me, smiling, but he was upset."

Noman, 43, described Bin Laden as a very charismatic guy.

Noman said: "One of the most charismatic guys you will ever meet in your life. But, he's very calm, cool and not scary. The meeting was extraordinary. Many people had come from all over the world to Afghanistan to listen to Bin Laden's plans. He was keen to talk about bringing all the different militant groups under his umbrella, including LIFG."

Noman says he spent a week in Kandahar with the who's who of international jihadists including Bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and other key al-Qaeda leaders.

Now, a decade on, sipping hot coffee and eating biscuits in a plush central London hotel earlier this month, Noman told The Sun: "I really pressed Bin Laden hard for the whole week I was there, repeating that jihad had been a failure. He ran out of ideas and arguments.

"Then he said, 'Look, there's one operation coming up and I can't cancel it because if I do it will demoralise my group. I've spent years and years planning it, I can't cancel, it's too late now'.

"He didn't give me details of where and how and whatever.

"He added, 'After that I will stop using Afghanistan as a base to attack the West.

"I sensed they were planning something big and said, 'If you keep escalating the war with the Americans, don't expect the US to respond at the same level you are used to'.

"They believed the Americans were cowards, paper tigers, who would respond with cruise missiles and never engage them on the ground.

"I told them that the West is a very open and liberal society. No one forces the men to be soldiers. It's a career for them."

Noman's protestations fell on deaf ears. A year later 19 al-Qaeda fanatics hijacked four aircraft, slamming two into the World Trade Center towers in New York, killing almost 3,000 innocents.

The US then unleashed its "war on terror", Saddam Hussein was toppled and a decade on conflict still rages in Afghanistan....

They want Sharia in the entire country "whether citizens of the mainly Christian region of south Sudan like it or not."

Isn't it great that Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange made Oklahoma safe for Sharia?

"Sudan: Fundamentalist Clerics Reject South Sudan Referendum, Demand Islamic Laws," from the Sudan Tribune, December 25 (thanks to Twostellas):

Khartoum -- A group of Islamic fundamentalists on Friday overtly faulted the Sudanese government for accepting south Sudan's referendum on independence, and demanded imposition of Islamic Shar'iah law in the entire country whether citizens of the mainly Christian region of south Sudan like it or not.

South Sudan, whose population mostly follows Christianity or traditional beliefs, is bound for secession from the Muslim-ruled north in a referendum vote due in January 2011, a plebiscite stipulated by the 2005's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which in 2005 ended nearly half a century of intermittent civil war between north and south Sudan.

Under the CPA, north Sudan maintained Islamic laws whereas the south was given extensive autonomy under a secular government led by the former southern rebels Sudan People's Liberation Movement [SPLM].

The legitimate League of Muslim Preachers and Clerics (LLMPC), a group of radical clerics existing in parallel to the official clerical body known as the Association of Muslim Scholars, marched in protest on Friday, 24 December, and held a press conference in which the group's leaders declared rejection to south Sudan's referendum on independence and called on the government to implement Shari'ah law in full.

The group's prominent member Mohamed Abdel-Karim addressed the protestors and demanded the government in the north fulfills its long-standing promise to implement Shari'ah Islamic law regardless of what southerners want.

Abdel-Karim, whose name is often cited in association with Al-Qaidah branch in the Land of the Two Niles, said that the implementation of Islamic Shari'ah was currently incomplete in Sudan as evidenced by the fact that president Al-Bashir said he would adopt an Islamic constitution after south Sudan secession.

Sudan president Al-Bashir last week sparked a nationwide controversy when declared that the north would change the constitution to make Shari'ah the only source of lawmaking and Arabic the only language if the south decided to part ways with the north....

"But the opaque talk [about] the Sudanese people I don't know what...is multi-racial and multi-religious, the [Islamic] Shari'a will be the main source for lawmaking....and Arabic language will the official language of the state as will be stipulated in the upcoming constitution," Al-Bashir added.

The group's leaders declared south Sudan's referendum on independence as "null and void" and part of a "Zionist-Western" plot to divide Sudan into five frail states, implying that the government was already aware that signing the CPA would pave the way for the south to secede....

Abdel-Karim further warned that secession would reflect negatively on the Islamic gains in the south under a strong secular drive to boot Islam out of the region.

In August 2009, Mohamed Abdel-Karim and his group sparked concerns of raising religious extremism when they issued a Fatwa branding members of the Sudanese communist party as infidels and instructed that they should be divorced from their spouses and their children to be deemed children of adultery....

In Human Events this morning, I discuss the growing claims that various accused jihadists were entrapped by the FBI, and ask what it would take for you to start killing for Allah:

What would it take for you to commit mass murder in the name of Allah? Would you do it for money? For love? Out of a sense of justice? Out of a sense of religious duty? Absurd as they may seem, these are serious questions, for as jihad mass-murder plots are being uncovered in the United States more frequently than ever, those accused of perpetrating them, and several Islamic groups, increasingly are charging entrapment: that overzealous FBI agents pushed poor innocent Muslims into taking part in a jihad plot that otherwise would never have existed.

And so it was last Tuesday, when a 21-year-old convert to Islam, Antonio Martinez (who now calls himself Muhammad Hussain), faced a federal grand jury and was charged with attempted murder of members of the U.S. military (which he sees as an enemy of Islam), along with attempting to set off a weapon of mass destruction.

The newly minted Muhammad Hussain's defense attorney, Joseph Balter, declared that his client would "vigorously contest the charges," and was considering claiming entrapment. The same possibility has been raised in the case of Mohamed Mohamud, a Muslim in Portland, Ore., who tried to murder those who had gathered for the city's Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Mohamud's case is strikingly similar to Hussain's, in that both involved Islamic jihadists' attempt to explode bombs that they did not know were harmless decoys supplied to them by FBI agents -- rather than the real thing.

Islamic advocacy groups such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have also complained about law enforcement officials' use of informants inside mosques, claiming in some cases that the jihad plots thereby thwarted would never even have existed in the first place if undercover agents hadn't started meddling.

Yet charges of entrapment are silly responses for Muhammad Hussain, Mohamed Mohamud, or any Muslim caught in a jihad terror plot. For there is every indication that Hussain and Mohamud were more than willing to do whatever was necessary to enable them to murder large numbers of Americans. This was not something they needed to be enticed into doing.

Prosecutors in Hussain's case say he passed up several chances to back out, even after he got news about how Mohamud had been caught, and how those he had thought were fellow jihadists turned out to be FBI agents.

What's more, the very fact they went ahead with their plots ought to be sufficient indication in itself that there was no entrapment. Think about it: what would it take to lead you to participate in a terrorist mass-murder plot? If undercover agents approached you and tried to entice you into working to kill large numbers of innocent people, how hard would it be to convince you to do it?...

There is more.

"O Muslims! Do not forget that Allah has enjoined us to make provisions for fighting the disbelievers." They said it. They must be a gang of greasy Islamophobes. "Jos Bombings: Group Claims Responsibility," by Imam Imam and Seriki Adinoyi in This Day, December 27:

A previously unknown group, Jama'atu ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'awati wal Jihad, yesterday claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve bomb blasts in Jos, Plateau State, and attacks in some parts of Borno State which claimed 32 lives.

The blasts led to reprisal attacks in other areas such as Anguwan Rukuba, Tina Junction, Nasarawa, Dutse Uku and Rikkos Quarters....

In a statement posted on website (http://mansoorah.net), the group said it carried out the attacks "to start avenging the atrocities committed against Muslims in those areas, and the country in general".

There was no independent confirmation if the group actually exists as it is also suspected that a agent provocateur could be at work with the claims.

The group also promised to continue with the attacks on "disbelievers and their allies" who are fighting Muslims.

The statement, entitled: "A statement regarding Jos and Borno attacks", read: "In the name of Allah the mighty Who has power over everything, Who made fighting the disbelievers an obligation until justice is established on earth.

"May peace and blessings continue to be upon the last messenger who wage (sic) jihad, the best of it.

"O Nations of the World, be informed that verily the attacks in Suldaniyya (Jos) and Borno on the eve of Christmas was carried out by us, Jama'atu ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'awati wal Jihad, under the leadership of Abu Muhammad, Abubakar bin Muhammad Shekau (May Allah preserve him), to start avenging the atrocities committed against Muslims in those areas, and the country in general. Therefore we will continue with our attacks on disbelievers and their allies and all those who help them, until Allah's deen triumph by His Grace and Will.

"O Muslims! Do not forget that Allah has enjoined us to make provisions for fighting the disbelievers, and for that we are reminding you that the disbelievers of the world are fighting Islam and Muslims. So you must stand and strive to protect your religion and life.

"With Peace Jama'atu ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'awati wal Jihad is waging Jihad in the country called Nigeria."...

Merry Christmas, kuffar. More on this story. "Christmas bomb plot: nine men remanded over plan to 'blow up Big Ben and Westminster Abbey,'" by Caroline Gammell in the Telegraph, December 27 (thanks to David):

Nine alleged terrorists plotted a Christmas bombing campaign targeting sites that included the London Stock Exchange and Big Ben, a court heard.

They are alleged to have carried out reconnaissance missions before deciding on their possible targets.

Police were said to have found a list of six sites, including the full postal address of the Stock Exchange, Boris Johnson's London mayoral office and the US embassy.

Defendants were seen studying the tower of Big Ben, before inspecting Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and the Church of Scientology.

Al-Qaeda inspired books and leaflets, including instructions on making a pipe bomb, were also uncovered during the counter-terrorism operation....

The defendants, aged 19 to 28, were charged on Sunday with conspiracy to cause an explosion and conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism, having been arrested during early-morning raids in Cardiff, London and Stoke-on-Trent on Dec 20....

Among the details were the addresses of the Dean of St Paul's Chapter House and of two rabbis at separate synagogues.

A reconnaissance trip is alleged to have been made from Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall to Westminster Bridge where Big Ben was studied intently....

Police searches are said to have uncovered two issues of the al Qaeda extremist magazine Inspire, which is published in English in Yemen and is aimed at a Western audience. An article in issue one was entitled "How to make a pipe bomb in the kitchen of your mom", while issue two included "What to expect in jihad" and "Tips for our brothers in the US".

Other allegedly extremist material found was entitled 39 Ways which said it was intended to help people "serve and participate in jihad".

Anwar Al-Awlaki, the extremist Yemeni preacher whose teachings support and encourage violent jihad against the West, is alleged to be the inspiration for the plot, the court heard. Between Oct 1 and Dec 20, the men are alleged to have downloaded information from the internet, discussed acts of terrorism and tested explosives while "unlawfully and maliciously" conspiring to "endanger life or cause serious injury" with one or more explosions....

Michael Vick is more important. "Bipartisan effort pressures Obama to help Iraq's Christians," by Bridget Johnson for The Hill, December 25 (thanks to Axel):

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are fervently pressing the White House to stem mounting attacks on Christians in Iraq.

Fearful of fresh violence in Iraq, many of the oldest sects of Christianity in the ancient biblical land are planning low-key Christmas celebrations this year.

Since 2004, 40 Christian churches and institutions have been bombed, according to the Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America, seven on the eve of Orthodox Christmas alone in 2007.

In a recent letter to President Obama, the group warned that the current situation "promises more innocent Christian blood in Iraq, more turmoil in that country, and more shame for America."

Lawmakers hope they can steer the attention of the White House to the intensifying violence.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the only Assyrian member of Congress and a close friend of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), remembers well listening to her grandparents' stories of family members being slain or fleeing the region, as they did when they came to the United States.

"History is repeating itself," the congresswoman somberly told The Hill....

Yes, and it will continue to do so, as long as people continue to believe in the doctrine of jihad.

Dropping the ball

Actually, Obama has done nothing whatsoever about Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who faces judicial murder for blasphemy in Pakistan. But he did find the time to call the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles to congratulate him for giving Michael Vick a second chance.

They've been targeted for kidnapping and murder by the Misunderstanders of the Religion of Peace and Tolerance. "Pak Hindu families seek political asylum in India," from Rediff, December 27 (thanks to Mathews):

Twenty-seven Hindu families from Pakistan's Balochistan province have approached the Indian high commission in Islamabad for political asylum after a series of kidnappings and killings that targeted the minority community, an official has said.

Saeed Ahmed Khan, a regional director for the federal Human Rights Ministry, made the revelation while addressing a seminar on the unrest in Balochistan in provincial capital Quetta on Saturday.

"As many as 27 Hindu families from Balochistan have sent applications to the India (High Commission) for asylum in India," he told the seminar that was attended by leaders of political parties and representatives of civil society groups.

In the latest incident targeting the minority community in Balochistan, unidentified men abducted 82-year-old spiritual leader Maharaja Luckmi Chand Garji and four of his companions on Wednesday.

Three of the men were freed later though Garji is yet to be traced. A strike was observed in Khuzdar and nearby areas this week to protest Garji's abduction.

The strike was called by the All Parties Shehri Action Committee, Balochistan National Party, Anjuman-e-Tajiran or traders' association and Baloch Students Organisation.

Khan told the seminar that Hindus had been living in Balochistan for centuries but several members of the community had been kidnapped or murdered in recent weeks.

This, he contended, was forcing Hindus to seek asylum in India. This was a matter of "great concern" and the government should take immediate measures to improve the law and order situation in Balochistan, Khan said....

An update on this story. "9 charged in British terror case held without bail," from CNN, December 27:

London (CNN) -- The alleged bombing targets of nine men arrested on terror charges in the United Kingdom a week ago included the London Stock Exchange and the U.S. embassy in London, a prosecutor said in court Monday.

The men, ages 19 to 28, appeared before a senior district judge in the City of Westminster Magistrates Court Monday. They were remanded into custody until their next appearance at Central Criminal Court -- London's Old Bailey -- on January 14.

The suspects were ordered them held without bail on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions and other terrorism offenses, West Midlands police said Monday.

"I have reviewed the evidence provided to me by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit and I am satisfied there is sufficient for a realistic prospect of conviction, and it is in the public interest that these men should be charged with these offenses," said Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division.

They were arrested in Cardiff in Wales, and London and Stoke-on-Trent in England during raids on December 20. Three others arrested in the raids were released without charges.

The defendants are charged with "unlawfully and maliciously" conspiring to cause an explosion or explosions "likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom," according to a police statement. They are also accused of conducting research, agreeing on potential targets and testing incendiary material....

Six "extremists." We're not told what they're being extreme about, but we can tell you they're extremely... extreme. Not "moderates." "Morocco arrests six planning terror attacks," from Agence France-Presse, December 27:

RABAT -- Moroccan authorities said Monday they recently arrested six extremists suspected of using the Internet to plan acts of sabotage involving the use of car bombs both inside and outside the country.

"Ring members developed considerable expertise in bomb-making" through the Internet and planned to "carry out acts of sabotage involving the use of car bombs," according to a statement issued by the interior ministry.

It said the suspects were targetting "some foreign interests in the kingdom as well as several key national installations and security posts."

Authorities did not say exactly when the ring was dismantled, but an official speaking on condition of anonymity said the six were arrested around December 10 in the northeastern towns of Oujda and Nador as well as in Casablanca.

He said this marked the first time a cell "specializing in terrorism via the Internet is hunted down and arrested" by Moroccan security.

Indeed, were it not for the dhimmi multiculturalists in Minnesota and elsewhere -- particularly in Britain -- Islamic supremacism would not have advanced nearly as far as it has. An update on this story. "Somalis: We didn't cause Santa flap," by Brian Ojanpa for the Mankato Free Press, December 22 (thanks to Joe):

MANKATO -- Head Start officials erred in ending Santa Claus visits to St. Peter Head Start classrooms and have unfairly made Somalis into scapegoats on the issue, say two Mankato Somalians who have lived in the community a combined 23 years.

"Why put a fire under Somalis?" Lul Ahmed said. "This is a lovely community where we live together. But we're being seen as negative, and we don't want that."

Then it might be a good idea to cut out the jihad.

Fanah Adam, who has children in the Mankato Head Start program, said respect for differing cultures and customs is a two-way street -- a concept that was sullied by prohibiting a Santa appearance because some families in the class reportedly objected to it.

"Santa and the families (were) not the decision-makers; Head Start administrators are who sent Santa away," he said.

Ahmed and Adam fear that the virulent anti-Somali reactions on website comment pages and forums to published reports of the Santa ouster could be breeding grounds for hate crimes.

Yeah, everyone is worried about that. The only thing their scenario lacks is the hate crimes.

Earlier this year Dennis Jackson of St. Peter, who has played Santa for St. Peter Head Start classes the past four years, was told by program officials that his appearance this year would be against some people's wishes.

He said he was given no specifics.

Chris Marben, who coordinates regional Head Start programs through Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Action Council, said this:

"We have Somali families in the program. We're respecting the wishes of the families."

She did not say how many objected to Santa's appearance, nor if Somali families specifically objected.

Head Start officials have made no comments on the matter since then, but Ahmed and Adam think they need to do so.

"They need to make an apology," Ahmed said. "They need to correct this mess."...

I am sure they will race to oblige the demand for an apology.

First, invite the unbelievers to accept Islam. Then, attack:

"Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war...When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them....If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them." -- Muhammad (Sahih Muslim 4294)

Good thing we're importing so many Somalis into the U.S., isn't it?

"Somali Islamist insurgents threaten US attack," by Mohamed Shiekh Nor for The Associated Press, December 27:

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America during a speech broadcast Monday.

"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.

Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia. Al-Shabab holds most of southern and central Somalia and has the support of hundreds of foreign fighters, mostly radicalized East Africans....

The radio message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital, during a meeting of Shongole and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, formerly the leader of insurgent group Hizbul Islam. The two insurgent groups had clashed several times previously but announced a merger last week. Aweys said his group will fight under al-Shabab's command.

"We have united for the sake of our ideology and we are going to redouble our efforts to remove the government and the African Union from the country," said Aweys on Monday....

Sharia forbids the construction of new churches, and Indonesia's permit system has become an informal, but highly effective means of preventing the building of non-Muslim houses of worship across the country (see our archives for years of stories on the permit system). This congregation appears to have defied the Catch-22 authorities tried to set up: they were banned from celebrating Christmas because they didn't have a "proper place of worship." And they can't get a proper place of worship for lack of a permit.

So they found a parking lot. Here, however, the future potential for the story to parallel that of the Christians of Bekasi, who could not worship safely even in an open field, is alarming. But to hear Indonesia's president talk about it, one would think it were a suburban homeowner's association dispute.

The inaction on both the permit system and the violence rewards and encourages the Islamic supremacists, and so they will carry on. "West Java: Catholics celebrate Christmas Mass in a parking lot," by Mathias Hariyadi for AsiaNews, December 27:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Hundreds of members of Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung (West Java) celebrated Mass under the sun and in a tent set up in the parking lot of the Marsudirini Elementary School. Bogor Regency chief's prohibition of Christmas celebration was thus not repealed despite repeated attempts by Tulang Kuning Church leaders to negotiate with local authorities.

The latter justified their decision citing the lack of a permit to build a church. Without it, the local parish is not allowed to perform any public functions even on its own land.

According to Indonesia's constitution however, no one has the right to prohibit any religious community from practicing its faith and celebrating its rites and services. Yet with the rising influence of Islamic radicals, the constitution has been repeatedly violated as local authorities kowtow to Muslim extremists and show greater hostilities towards Christians.

The Parish of Saint John the Baptist has at least 3,000 members. In April of this year, dozens of Muslim extremists threatened those from the community in Tulang Kuning, preventing them from celebrating Easter Mass.

Now wait a minute. I thought that jihad terrorism was a product of poverty and ignorance of the true, peaceful teachings of Islam. Don't these universities in a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim teach any courses about Islam? Isn't education supposed to be a hedge against "radicalization"?

Or maybe what the learned analysts tell us is a load of buncombe, and here is yet more evidence of that. "Malaysian colleges a hotbed for militant recruiting: experts," by Romen Bose for AFP, December 27:

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's universities have become prime recruiting grounds for Islamic militants looking for youngsters to draw into terrorist networks, security experts warn.

Unlike neighbouring Indonesia and Thailand, the moderate Muslim-majority nation has remained largely free of terror attacks but there are fears that lax admission policies have created a haven for jihadists.

Ah. Lax admission policies -- there's your problem. Tighten up those SAT score requirements, and all will be well!

A string of arrests and detentions this year have highlighted the growing presence of radicals using Malaysia as a base to sign up supporters and plan attacks.

"The terror threat to Malaysia is very real in terms of terrorists who come in as students," Zamihan Mat Zin, deputy head of the Malaysian Islamic Training Centre, told AFP.

"They are under the radar so they can recruit and create terrorists in our midst," said Zamihan, who is among a group of Muslim scholars engaged by the government to rehabilitate terror suspects in custody.

In June, authorities deported 45-year-old Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian scholar Aiman Al Dakak along with eight other foreigners from Syria, Yemen, Nigeria and Jordan, most of them students.

Al Dakak gave lectures to Malaysian and foreign students at his Kuala Lumpur home, allegedly indoctrinating them with jihadist ideology and urging them to carry out bombings on places of worship in the multi-ethnic nation.

The following month, engineer Mohamad Fadzullah was detained under internal security laws for trying to recruit students at Malaysia's national university and technical institutes for the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist group....

"As people gathered to observe the destruction" after the first bomb, "another suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest in their midst, said police and hospital officials."

Feel the love.

"Twin suicide blasts targeting government compound in western Iraq kill 9 people," by Hamid Ahmed for The Associated Press, December 27 (thanks to Ima):

BAGHDAD - Two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Monday, killing nine people at the government compound in the provincial capital of Ramadi, local officials in the Iraqi province of Anbar said.

Insurgents frequently go after government targets in an effort to destabilize the U.S.-backed Iraqi authorities, as American troops prepare to leave by the end of next year.

The first blast occurred when a suicide bomber drove a minibus packed with explosives into the entrance of the main government compound of the city, official spokesman Mohammed Fathi said.

As people gathered to observe the destruction, another suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest in their midst, said police and hospital officials.

The officials said in addition to the nine dead, another 43 people were injured by the blasts. Consecutive blasts meant to catch bystanders and rescue personnel have become a hallmark of al-Qaida's tactics in Iraq in the past few years. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the double attack....

Apparently the bomber somehow got the crazy idea that the Qur'an's promise of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111) meant that Paradise was promised to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah.

"Suicide car bomb kills 3 in south Afghan city," by Mirwais Khan for Associated Press, December 27:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide car bombing in the heart of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday killed three and wounded 26 people, most of them policemen, authorities said.

South Afghanistan, a traditional Taliban stronghold, has seen some of the worst fighting this year between the militants and foreign and Afghan troops. President Hamid Karzai issued a statement condemning the attack.

The car exploded at midday near a police compound and a branch of Kabul Bank in the crowded center of the city, said Noor Mohammad, a policeman who was guarding the bank....

They are "thought to have roots in Britain's Bangladeshi community." Will the Islamophobia never end? "UK terror suspects in London court," from Newscore, December 27 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Nine terror suspects appeared in court Monday in London charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in the UK and other terrorism offenses, following dawn arrests Dec. 20.

Three of the defendants were from Cardiff in South Wales, two from London and four from Stoke, central England. They were brought before the City of Westminster Magistrates Court for two brief hearings....

They were charged overnight Monday, according to a statement from Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division: "I have today [Monday] advised the police that nine men should be charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and with engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism with the intention of either committing acts of terrorism or assisting another to commit such acts," she said.

The nine -- aged between 19 and 28 and thought to have roots in Britain's Bangladeshi community -- were among 12 people arrested as part of a major counterterrorism operation by police in the UK....

MPAC has skillfully played the victim card against the Los Angeles City Council, despite the fact that statistics show that hate crimes against Muslims are rare -- much rarer than the incidence of such crimes against other groups. "Hyperbole rules in Muslim debate," from the Los Angeles Daily News, December 26 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

WITHOUT serious debate or examination, the Los Angeles City Council recently passed a resolution that opposes "Islamophobia" and "repudiates" random acts of violence against Muslims.

This admittedly ceremonial resolution apparently accepts the premise that residents of the city commit acts of hate against Muslims so often that it warrants an official resolution from city leaders condemning and repudiating these acts. Is this really the case?

According to the latest hate crime report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, 88 percent of all religiously based hate crimes in 2009 were against Jews. Hate crimes that targeted Muslims (3 percent) ranked slightly above those directed at Scientologists (1 percent). In fact, the commission found that attacks against Christians (8 percent) outnumbered attacks against Muslims.

In any case, the actual number of reported hate crimes based on religion is quite small. In a county that has more than 10 million highly diverse residents, only a total of 131 crimes based on religion took place in all of 2009. Of course, this in no way takes away from the emotional or physical harm that each and every one of these attacks causes.

Since only 3 percent of 131 hate crimes during 2009 was directed against Muslims, it's difficult to understand why city leaders would pass a resolution that zeroes in on the category that has the next-to-lowest numbers recorded by the County's Human Relations
Commission.

It appears that the City Council simply took information provided by an advocacy group, one that's hardly unbiased, and uncritically spat out a resolution opposing "Islamophobia" and "random acts of violence against Muslim-Americans."

This begs the question: Except for some Islam-hating cretins with sub-zero levels of intelligence, exactly who is in favor of random acts of violence against Muslims?

The term "Islamophobia" has crept into popular use, drummed into our consciousness by a sensationalized Time magazine cover story, and activists who exaggerate anti-Islamic bias for the causes they espouse. The term dominated the often angry debates that swirled around the plan to build a mosque 600 feet from Ground Zero in New York. While there are extremists at both the left and right ends of the political spectrum, the issues surrounding this controversial building project are far more complex than anti-Islamic bigotry.

Factually, there is no alarming number of attacks against Muslim-Americans. According to the FBI, the largest number of recorded hate crimes against Muslim-Americans took place in 2001. That year the number dramatically escalated from only 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001 - the year that young Muslim men drove planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field outside of Shanksville, Pa., murdering 3,000 innocent Americans in the name of Islam.

Prior to the City Council resolution, the Muslim Public Affairs Council released a statement expressing skepticism about tactics used by law enforcement among Muslim-Americans. The statement referenced the recent and troubling incident where the FBI says a young Somali man in Portland, Ore., plotted to blow up a public Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The MPAC statement also mentioned a similar case in Baltimore, where the FBI says a Muslim convert planned to bomb a military recruitment center in that city.

This statement from MPAC is in effect a thinly veiled claim that government agents entrapped these wannabe-terrorists. But as we have discovered, this young man's dilemma in Portland was hardly entrapment - in fact, as we know, his father called the FBI to let them know about his son's growing jihadist views. Nonetheless, the claims from MPAC and other Islamic activists groups were taken seriously enough to cause a response from the nation's attorney general. Eric Holder gave a 20-minute speech in San Francisco at the annual dinner event of Muslim Advocates, an Islamic civil rights group....

Sweden returned five Iraqi Christians to the land from which they had fled, saying that a situation of "relative peace" prevailed there. Now the Iraqi government begs to differ.

An update on this story. "We Cannot Protect Assyrians and Other Minorities: Iraqi Official," by Nuri Kino for AINA, December 27:

Stockholm (AINA) -- In a secret meeting in Stockholm by an Iraqi delegation with members of the Swedish government, the Iraqi delegation called on Sweden to stop deporting to Iraq refugees whose applications were rejected for asylum. "We cannot receive Iraqi refugees deported forcibly from Sweden because we cannot protect them and their lives will be at risk if they are returned to Iraq," said an Iraqi diplomat....

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) strongly criticized Sweden last week for forcibly deporting people to Iraq. On December 15, in the same week when the meeting between the Iraqi delegation and the Swedish government took place, twenty Iraqis were forcibly deported to Iraq on a chartered Swedish aircraft; five of them were Christian Assyrians. This act was widely criticized by many organizations, who have pointed to the extremely volatile security situation in Iraq....

At the UNCR they had no problem answering questions about the meeting.

"The Iraqi delegation was clear about their mission; they were in Stockholm to ask the Swedish government to stop forcibly sending back Iraqis," said Hanna Mathisen of UNHCR. "The Iraqi government cannot at this time protect anyone that is threatened. Iraq needs more time, and priority number one now is to stop more emigration, so they asked Sweden to delay all deportations until security and safety returns to Iraq."...

I haven't seen this film -- if any of you have, please add a comment or send me an email at director[at]jihadwatch.org. Maybe it isn't as witless a manifestation of politically correct moral equivalence as it appears to be from this review; if that turns out to be the case, I'll add an update. But from the looks of this review, Celine is fanatical, obsessively pious -- to the extent that she has to leave her convent due to her apparently obvious emotional instability. Then later, when she meets Nassir, she is still fervently Christian, telling him that she is "saving herself for Christ." Nonetheless, she joins him in his jihad terrorist activity, because she believes that "planting bombs will bring her closer to God."

So does Celine convert to Islam in the movie? Or does French director Bruno Dumont think that piety is piety, and that a girl who is "saving herself for Christ" one minute might just as well starting setting off bombs to bring herself "closer to God" the next? After all, all religions have their "extremists," right? And they're all essentially equivalent -- or so the mainstream media dins endlessly into our ears.

There are some hard facts here, however -- indeed, essentially irreducible ones. Christianity contains no doctrines that could lead a Christian to believe that "planting bombs will bring" him or her "closer to God." The rare occasions when someone actually does commit violence in the name of Christianity -- e.g., the handful of abortion clinic bombers, whose actual numbers are dwarfed by their cultural presence as an all-purpose bogeyman of the Left and Islamic supremacist moral equivalence artists -- are acting in defiance of the teachings of every mainstream sect of Christianity. By contrast, the mainstream sects and schools of Islam do contain doctrines that can and do lead a Muslim to believe that "planting bombs" will indeed lead him "closer to God": the Qur'an passage used to justify suicide bombing, the guarantee of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111) is just one of many available examples.

But in the popular culture the mainstream view, reinforced with dogmatic certainty and ostracism for those who dare to dissent from it, was articulated a few years back by Rosie O'Donnell: "Radical Christianity is just as dangerous as radical Islam." And when she said this on some TV show, the studio audience applauded respectfully. This is what everyone takes for granted -- and so we get astoundingly stupid films like this one (or at least so it appears to be). In movieland, fanatical Christians are just a likely, or more likely, to kill you as are Muslims, who are generally not fanatical at all, but wise, patient, and victimized. Apparently self-hating Leftist Westerners feel more comfortable in a world where the Western Christians they've always despised are the perpetrators, rather than the victims, of terrorist violence.

The problem with films like this one -- again, if it is indeed the way it seems to be from this review -- is that it paints a picture of the world that is false, and misleading, and ultimately dangerous, insofar as it weakens the resolve of Westerners to defend themselves from Islamic supremacism and jihad. After all, why bother? Christianity is just as bad, and ergo, the Judeo-Christian civilization, even in its post-Christian form, is not worth defending. Maybe the wise, patient and victimized Muslims will civilize us -- you know, the way they did the proto-multicultural paradise of Al-Andalus.

"Pious novice can't get into the habit," by V.A. Musetto in the New York Post, December 23:

Celine, the troubled young woman at the center of French director Bruno Dumont's "Hadewijch," loves God. Trouble is, she loves Him too much.

When she stops eating and caring for herself, to leave more time to pray, she's asked to depart the convent where she is preparing to become a nun.

She returns to Paris and her parents' posh apartment and cuddly little white dog. In no time, Celine has taken up with Nassir, a young Muslim man she meets in a cafe. She even invites him over to meet her indifferent parents. (Talk about culture shock for all concerned.)

The affair is platonic because Celine is a virgin who says she's saving herself for Christ. "It's not a man I need. It's God," she tells Nassir. "I think you're nuts," he responds, with good reason.

Nassir, we learn, is a terrorist, and he invites Celine to join "the fight." She accepts, because she thinks planting bombs will bring her closer to God....

"Hadewijch" -- an exploration of the power of religion -- should delight Dumont's fans. For others, it will take a bit of getting used to. The effort will prove to be worthwhile.

Common sense over dhimmitude -- this time. An update on this story. "Muslim ham complaint thrown out," from The Olive Press, December 25:

A PROSECUTOR has thrown out a complaint made by a Muslim family against a geography teacher who mentioned pork in their son's class.

The teacher was explaining how cold climate in Granada highlands helps to preserve local Serrano ham.

The Children's Prosecutor of Algeciras, Juan Cisneros, described the complaining pupil's attitude as 'abusive, sectarian, capricious and inadmissible' and ordered the denouncement to be archived.

He said: "There is not even the minimal indication of any type of crime."

The prosecutor went on to condemn the media storm created by the pupil's parents and their opponents. He described the public's interest in the case as 'worrying'.

What's "worrying" is the arrogance, assertiveness, and irredentism of Muslims in Spain.

Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely deny that Islamic law mandates that apostates from Islam be murdered.

"Rev. Lorenz is then quoted in a local television station report saying that if a Muslim leaves his religion and does not return to Islam in a couple of days, then he must be killed. He claims that someone showed him the verse. There is no such verse, Rev. Lorenz. In every faith, apostasy is shunned but ultimate judgment is left to God, not people." -- Salam al-Marayati

"A Muslim's conversion to Christianity is not a crime punishable by death under Islamic law." -- M. Cherif Bassiouni

"It becomes really difficult, in light of this information, to persuasively argue that Islamic Law should permit a death penalty for apostasy." -- Ali Eteraz

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."

And now this story from Malaysia wouldn't make any sense whatsoever unless there actually were a penalty for apostasy.

"Jheains To Enforce Apostasy Law," from Bernama, December 25 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

TAWAU, Dec 25 (Bernama) -- The Sabah Islamic Affairs Department (Jheains) will enforce the apostasy law once its faith rehabilitation centre in Kinarut is ready next year, said its director, Datuk Amri A.Suratman.

He said enforcement of the law was part of Jheains' five-year strategic plan.

Until the rehabilitation centre is ready in June, offenders will be enlightened on the merits of returning into the path of Islam, he told Bernama after closing the Jheains Senior Officers Conference here Friday night.

The conference, among others, touched on scores of Muslim converts, who reverted to their original religions, due to neglect from Islamic religious agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Amri said imams should provide information and counselling to Muslims, especially the younger generation, in their areas to ensure that they understand the syariah law.

This means that they're going to explain to them that apostatizing from Islam could get them killed. Interestingly enough, when Islamic spokesmen in the U.S. talk about making sure people understand Sharia law, they actually mean that they want to make sure people don't understand it. In Malaysia, no such obfuscations are necessary.

On dakwah, he said Jheains would focus its efforts on strategic and rural areas, especially those with a high number of converts, especially on prayers.

"These efforts will be carried out continuously to ensure that Muslim converts are not neglected," he added.

"The dangers of civilian reconstruction in Afghanistan" will continue as long as the jihad there continues, but that will not keep Westerners from trying to win hearts and minds there. "German aid worker killed in Afghanistan," from The Local, December 25 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A German development worker was killed by insurgents in northern Afghanistan on Friday night. Development Minister Dirk Niebel described the killing as a "cowardly attack," while Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her shock.

Merkel said on Saturday she "condemned the attack in the strongest terms," and sent condolences to the bereaved family of the man.

The aid worker, an adviser for German development bank KfW, was fatally injured when the vehicle he was travelling in was shot at....

The worker was reportedly helping with a project to build a road between the towns of Kholm and Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, with a spokesman saying they had killed a German citizen.

Niebel expressed sympathy for the man's family, saying, "This cowardly attack, which is directed against the interests of the local community, shows once again the dangers of civilian reconstruction in Afghanistan."

Because "legislation aimed at stopping forced marriages prevented young people obtaining visas to join spouses or partners in the UK." And we can't have that. "UK court strikes down forced-marriage law," by Dipankar De Sarkar in the Hindustan Times, December 22 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Campaigners against forced marriages were left worried after a British court, ruling on an immigration matter on Tuesday, struck down a law aimed at preventing such marriages. The High Court overturned a ban on married people from outside Europe joining their British spouses if they are below 21 years of age.

The ban was thought to have been well-intentioned as it was aimed at curbing forced marriages in Britain, a practice that often leads to violence against young people and sometimes to honour killings and suicides.

But the court struck down the two-year-old ban as a result of a human rights challenge brought by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), a nonprofit organisation.

The JCWI argued that marriage is a fundamental right and that "legislation aimed at stopping forced marriages prevented young people obtaining visas to join spouses or partners in the UK." Married Britons have no such restrictions, even if they are below 21 years of age.

In Britain, violence over forced marriages affects Sikhs, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslims among other communities.

Common sense. "US home-grown terrorists 'a global threat', warns congresswoman," by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph, December 26 (thanks to David):

America's home-grown terrorists are now a 'global threat' and the US should look to Europe to learn how to deal with the problem, a prominent US congresswoman has warned Barack Obama.

In a letter to the president, Sue Myrick, a member of the House of Representatives select committee on intelligence, says that America is for the first time exporting Islamist terrorism.

She accuses the US of complacency in dealing with the issue and says the country in "far behind" Europe in having measures in place to deal with the growing problem of the radicalisation of young men and their willingness to carry out terror attacks....

In her letter, Mrs Myrick writes: "For many years we lulled ourselves with the idea that radicalisation was not happening inside the United Sates.

"We believed American Muslims were immune to radicalisation because, unlike the European counterparts, they are socially and economically well-integrated into society.

"There had been warnings that these assumptions were false but we paid them no mind." She goes on: "Today there is no doubt that radicalisation is taking place inside America. The strikingly accelerated rate of American Muslims arrested for involvement in terrorist activities since May 2009 makes this fact self-evident. What has been missed is that our home-grown terrorists are now becoming a global threat."...

Some of those arrested over the last year, including Faizal Shazad, the Times Square bomber, "embodied the American dream, at least socio-economically," she adds.

She said that the interpretation that social grievances are at the heart of domestic terrorism is wrong and adds: "The truth is that if grievances were the sole cause of terrorism, we would see daily acts by Americans who have lost their jobs and homes in this economic downturn." The congresswoman said that America knows little about the ideology that drives terrorism and adds: "We are far behind our allies in Europe who have been studying extremist ideology for some time now.

"If we are truly to stem the tide of home-grown terrorism, we must follow the act of some European countries, we must move beyond addressing bombs and bullets to winning hearts and minds." Mrs Myrick, a Republican, called on the US president to convene a bipartisan meeting on counter-radicalisation at the White House for congressional leaders to discuss the issues....

Winning hearts and minds in what way? We've been trying to do that for years in Iraq and Afghanistan. What do we have to show for it?

The "humanitarian aid" flotilla ship arrives back in Turkey as thousands of Turks show by their chants what it was really all about.

"Mavi Marmara Arrives in Turkey; Ankara Holds Out for Apology," by Chana Ya'ar in Israel National News, December 26:

Thousands shouted "death to Israel" and greeted the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship Sunday as it docked in Istanbul, a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists that although Turkey would like to restore its formerly friendly ties with Israel, the Jewish State must first apologize for the deaths of nine terror activists who were killed after they attacked IDF soldiers on the vessel last May.

The "Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief" -- known by the acronym "IHH" -- held a welcoming ceremony for the vessel at the port. The Turkish terror-linked organization was behind the armed, trained mercenary-style "activists" who occupied the vessel during the May 31 incident that has been the focus of tension between the two nations for months.

Davutoglu held firm to the Ankara government's position that Israel is to blame for the rift between the two countries, but he insisted to journalists at a news conference in Istanbul on Saturday, "We have the intention of making peace with Israel."...

The "Allahu akbar" chants show up in this Spanish-language artlcle: "Miles de personas acogen en Estambul al ferry atacado por Israel en mayo," from El Periódico, December 26 (my translation):

Thousands of people waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, have welcomed into a port in Istanbul the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara, aboard which nine Turkish activists died as a result of the Israeli military attack against the humanitarian flotilla that was heading to Gaza May 31....

That paragraph may be more biased than even the English-language press.

The protesters who have come to meet the ship, in response to the call of Islamist organizations and IHH, have greeted it with shouts of "Allah is greater." IHH has denounced the Jewish state and its policy toward the Palestinians.

An angry man

Against the popular will? But...but...isn't an intolerant and supremacist Islam supposed to be the Misunderstood Version held by only a Tiny Minority of Extremists™?

"JUI-F chief slams govt's aim to amend blasphemy law," from the Express Tribune, December 26

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said that the government should reconsider its policy regarding the United States (US) and amending the blasphemy law, stating that it was against the wishes of the people.

Speaking at a gathering in Peshawar, he said that the government wanted to change the blasphemy law as a favor to the US. Fazl also criticised the role of Governor Punjab Salman Taseer in the blasphemy law case, saying it was a sensitive issue and the JUI-F would not allow him to support his agenda.

In "Victory! Seattle Transit Drops Jewish Blood Libel Bus Ads," in Big Government, December 25, Pamela Geller explains how her attempt to place pro-Israel bus ads in Seattle resulted in the exposure of the Seattle Transit authority's Leftist hypocrisy:

Antisemitism is coming into fashion again, and anti-Israel bus ads had been set to start running on twelve buses in Seattle this Monday. The ads featured the hateful slogan, "Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work." But two days after my organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, announced that we would be running king-sized pro-Israel ads on Seattle buses to counter their hate ads, King County Metro Transit folded: Transit officials issued a statement Thursday saying that they would be refusing the anti-Israel, antisemitic ads. They were "changing their policy."

The annihilationist bus ads were rejected!

It was a bad day for Nazis and Jew-haters, and a huge victory for all lovers of freedom.

The AFDI ads were singular and hard-hitting: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Islamic jihad," and "One Billion Dollars to Hamas. Your Tax Dollars at Work."

And this one:

As for the Jewish blood libel being sponsored by the notorious antisemite Ed Mast, Seattle Mass Transit is having second thoughts.

Our objective was achieved: the Jew-hate ads were dropped after we exposed the hypocrisy of the Seattle Transit authorities. But wait. It gets better. King County Metro Transit has also now changed its ad policy. Isn't that special? This policy change enabled them to refuse AFDI's pro-Israel ad as well. King County Executive Dow Constantine explained that the policy change was made because "the escalation of this issue from one of 12 local bus placards to a widespread and often vitriolic international debate introduces new and significant security concerns that compel reassessment."

And who was introducing the vitriol and the significant security concerns, as far as King County Metro Transit was concerned? Me, of course. Who else? They were OK with a Jewish blood libel but hid under their desks when truth demanded equal time.

Sharron Shinbo of King County Metro Transit stated that my AFDI ads would "pose an unacceptable risk of harm, disruption and interference with the transportation system and other breaches of the public safety, peace and order."

So now anti-jihad ads denouncing a terrorist group that all decent people should revile "pose an unacceptable risk of harm, disruption and interference with the transportation system."

Truth is the new hate speech.

This is the heckler's veto. Remember, King County Metro Transit was down with the Jew-haters and their vile advertisement....

Read it all. You can see the images of the ads in a larger size over at BG also.

Yet people still delude themselves into believing that supporting the Palestinian jihad against Israel is to support justice and human right. Islamic Tolerance Alert from the oppressed "Palestinians": "Abbas vows: No room for Israelis in Palestinian state," by Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post, December 25 (thanks to Tanguy Veys):

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Saturday that when a Palestinian state is established, it will have no Israelis in it.

"We have frankly said, and always will say: If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won't agree to the presence of one Israeli in it," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.

He was commenting on unconfirmed reports suggesting that the PA leadership might agree to the presence of the IDF in the West Bank after the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"We are ready to have peace on the basis of international legitimacy and the road map, which we have accepted, as well as the Arab Peace Initiative," Abbas said. "But when a Palestinian state is established, it would have no Israeli presence in it."

The PA president criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and accused him of placing obstacles on the road to peace.

"He who prefers settlements over peace is responsible for the obstacles to peace," he added.

"If he really was interested in peace, he would have at least preferred peace to settlements."...

Abbas hailed Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador, which have recognized a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders. He said that the Palestinians were now hoping that other countries, especially the EU, Russia, Canada, the US and Japan, would follow suit and declare their recognition of a Palestinian state.

"The whole world is now with us," Abbas said. "These countries have recognized us because they love peace and want to support peace."

Yes, the world has indeed gone mad.

Slavery is taken for granted in the Qur'an, and is still practiced in many areas of the Islamic world -- here, in Mauritania. And where are the human rights organizations, as these freedom fighters get railroaded?

"Anti-slavery activists face possible charges in Mauritania," from Middle East Online, December 16 (thanks to Twostellas):

NOUAKCHOTT - Seven anti-slavery activists arrested in Mauritania after a protest to highlight the plight of two young girls have been handed over to the public prosecutor's office, officials said on Wednesday.

The seven, arrested on Monday for violent protest, included the leader of the Mauritanian anti-slavery body the Initiative for the Resurgence of Abolitionism Movement Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid.

"Seven of our comrades have been handed over to the legal authorities," said Mohamed Ould Mahmoud of the group. A judicial official confirmed the information.

Ould Mahmoud said the group had told the authorities that their fight against slavery would continue "with or without him (Biram)".

He also said that the head of the group had suffered head and knee injuries in custody and warned that he would hold the authorities responsible for any mistreatment. He did not give any indication of how serious the injuries were.

The authorities have accused the seven, who were demanding the liberation of two girl slaves aged nine and 13, of attacking the security forces, injuring six policemen, and ransacking a police station.

Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981 but it still persists in some parts of the country.

And that, of course, is what you have always wanted. But how long will it before you start to demand it in the rest of Thailand as well? "Thaworn sees sharia law as way forward," from the Bangkok Post, December 25 (thanks to Weavo):

The introduction of sharia law to the southernmost provinces has taken another step forward, with Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam saying it could help quell the insurgent violence.

He is also pledging to speed up work on a bill introducing a sharia court, which he hopes will help improve the security climate in the troubled region.

The move is part of the government's strategy of "widening the sphere" for Muslim people in the lower South.

A proposed sharia court will look into civil disputes, mostly related to family relationships and inheritance, when both plaintiffs and defendants are Muslims, and base its ruling on Islamic law, or sharia law, he said.

Mr Thaworn said the Justice Ministry has been reviewing a bill on the establishment of a sharia court and he hoped to speed up the process.

The ministry said it would change several regulations to match the way of life in the Muslim-dominated provinces.

The government is looking into making Fridays and Saturdays days off for Muslims so they can attend religious events.

Schools in the lower South under the Education Ministry will also be encouraged to teach Yawi, the local Malay language, Mr Thaworn said.

The strategy is intended to uphold the rights and liberties of Muslims in the area, as well as encourage residents to be more tolerant towards differences and cultural and religious diversity....

Meanwhile, two gunmen have raided a house in Narathiwat's Rangae district and shot and seriously wounded all three members of a family, police said.

Paosee Suamae, 37, his wife, Nureehan, 27, and their five-year-old daughter, Neezme, were having dinner when the assailants broke into their house on Thursday and shot them, police said.

Still more jihadist violence to report against Nigerian churches on Christmas Eve. "Christmas Eve tragedy: Serial blasts, arson in Jos, Borno," by Moses Gbande and Gbenga Akinkugbethe for the Nigerian Compass, December 25:

While the world prepared for the celebration of Christmas yesterday, the residents of Jos, in Plateau State, and Maiduguri, in Borno State were thrown into tears, blood and death .

At least four successive bomb explosions rocked Jos, killing no fewer than 30 people, while suspected members of the Boko Haram sect unleashed mayhem on Maiduguri.

More recent reports indicated seven bombs.

No fewer than two people were feared killed in Maiduguri.

The explosions in Jos, which began around 7:30 pm, occurred at different intervals with the fourth one recorded some few minutes after 9pm.

The blasts sent many people scampering for safety. It occurred at a major area in the Jos metropolis but at different locations.

According to witnesses, the first blast was in front of a popular Catholic Church at Gada Biu which is barely a kilometre to the Plateau State Police Command's headquarters.

The other blasts sites are also within this vicinity but they were not concentrated. [...]

The situation was further aggravated by security agents who were shooting heavily and sporadically. This caused further tension and panic among the already shell-shocked and traumatised public who further took to their heels almost aimlessly.

There was no explanation for the shooting by the members of the security outfits.

This would not be the first time government forces were caught underprepared by jihadists.

Distress calls to the four hot lines of the State Command Police were neither acknowledged nor answered.

In Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, pandemonium reigned as people suspected to be members of the Boko Haram religious group went on the rampage torching churches and structures believed to be owned by Christians.

A pastor of the Baptist Church , Rev. Bulus T. Narya, was confirmed killed at the front of his church at the Alamderi Dala area of the city and the place of worship was set ablaze.

Also, the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) was said to be on fire as at press time.

And like in Jos, security agents were also reportedly shooting sporadically, a situation which forced many of the residents to stay in-doors in self-imposed curfew.

Sources informed the Nigerian Compass on Saturday that the security agencies had a prior knowledge of yesterday's attack by the Boko Haram sect which necessitated the beefing up of security around all the churches in the city.

It was learnt that the intelligence report by the State Security Service (SSS) had it that the attack would take place on Christmas eve. However, despite the seeming preparedness of the security agencies, suspected members of the dreaded sect still struck.

At least one local official questioned the level of preparedness, and how seriously security forces took the threats in Jos.

Meanwhile, the Plateau State government has called for calm.

At first, this statement may seem at odds with recent reports in which Hamas said it is committed to its current "truce" with Israel, but the hudna is never meant to last. It is a temporary cessation of hostilities, and only when it is in the interest of Islamic forces to re-arm and regroup -- not to mention the opportunity it provides for Hamas to deceive the credulous into thinking they could be sincere participants in a meaningful "peace process."

This report only serves to remind that Hamas' ultimate goal, the destruction of Israel, remains unchanged. "Hamas: Israel has two options - death or leaving Palestinian lands," from Haaretz, December 25 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The head of Hamas' armed wing warned Israel on Saturday against launching any new military action in the Gaza Strip, accusing Israel of attempting to escalate the situation. The statement came after days of renewed rocket fire on Israeli communities and Israel Defense Forces strikes in Gaza.

Hamas would not rest until Israel was ousted from Palestine, said Ahmed al-Jabari, leader of the Izz a-din al-Qassam Brigades, adding that Israel had two options - to leave Palestinian territories or face death. He said that Hamas resistance would continue as long as Zionists remained in Palestine.

Also Saturday, Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida warned Israel to refrain from any further aggression in the Gaza Strip, at a news conference in Gaza to mark the second anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, a three-week IDF incursion aimed at halting rocket fire on Israel's southern communities from the strip.

Hudna's working:

"We are now stronger than before and during the war, and our silence over the past two years was only for evaluating the situation," Abu Obeida told the news conference. "We won't face the current attempts of the enemy to escalate the situation with silence."

Abu Obeida said that the news conference was being held to mark the second anniversary of the Gaza war, and the 23rd anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

Israel Air Force warplanes carried out three airstrikes late Friday against targets in the Gaza Strip. Israeli F-16s flying over the coastal enclave fired two missiles at suspected smuggling tunnels on the border between southern Gaza and Egypt. No injuries were reported, witnesses said.

An IDF spokesman confirmed the three air raids, saying the strikes were in response to a homemade rocket fired earlier Friday by Gaza militant groups at southern Israel.

Earlier Friday, a Hamas official said that the organization was committed to the unofficial ceasefire with Israel reached after Operation Cast Lead in 2008, despite the recent rise in violence.

But rocket and mortar fire from Gaza have increased in the run-up to the second anniversary of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, which began on December 27, 2008 and lasted for three weeks.

Has he condemned the Christmas jihad attacks in Nigeria and the Philippines? Or is it only a matter of national interest when Muslims get killed? "US President Obama condemns Pakistan suicide bombing," from the BBC, December 25:

US President Barack Obama has condemned as "outrageous" Saturday's deadly suicide bomb attack on a town in north-western Pakistan.

A female bomber killed at least 43 people in the attack on a large crowd receiving food aid in Khar in the Bajaur region.

The town is in tribal areas close to the Afghan border - a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold.

People displaced by fighting had been getting food at a distribution centre.

Saturday's bombing was the latest in a string of recent attacks in Pakistan's north-west.
Taliban claim

"I strongly condemn the outrageous terrorist attack in Khar, Pakistan," President Obama said.

"Killing innocent civilians outside a World Food Programme distribution point is an affront to the people of Pakistan, and to all humanity," he said....

"The Zero Hour has arrived" for the forces of rage and hate. More on this story. "'Jihadist' issues Christmas bombing threat," from AFP, December 24:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A "jihadist" in an audiotaped threat said fireworks displays will set off terrorist bombs in countries celebrating Christmas, the SITE monitoring group said.

The recording, titled "The Zero Hour has arrived" and directed to "the unbeliever and Christian countries celebrating Christmas," lasts one minute, three seconds and bears the voice of a member of the Shumukh al-Islam forum, said the US-based monitor.

The speaker, according to SITE, said that failure to heed warnings to cease bloodshed in Muslim countries would result in attacks....

It also comes amid Nigeria's warning that Al-Qaeda-linked militants were likely planning attacks during the Christmas holiday, and the accidental death of a suicide bomber in Stockholm two weeks ago who apparently intended to kill Christmas shoppers.

His "accidental death" came as he was trying to explode a jihad bomb in a crowded area.

It isn't just Christmas they hate. There Is No Fun In Islam* Update: "Haia men ready to block New Year festivities," by MD Humaidan for Arab News, December 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

JEDDAH: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) has directed all its branch offices to be on the lookout for any year-end celebration, the director general of the Haia in Makkah province Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ghamdi said in a statement to Arab News on Friday.

"The Haia will immediately dismantle any form of preparations for the celebrations but if these preparations are out of its jurisdiction, it will take up the matter with the authorities concerned," he said, pointing out such prohibitions apply to the celebration of the Hijra new year or the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Sheikh Al-Ghamdi asked the parents to consolidate the Islamic identity of their children and said Saudi citizens and Muslim expatriates should stick to the calls of their Islamic identity.

"This, however, does not prevent Muslims from participating in the celebrations of the non-Muslims on condition that this participation should not touch the basics of the Islamic faith," he said.

Which is doubletalk for, "Don't do it."

The Haia representatives and other authorities concerned are checking markets these days to check for goods with a New Year theme and confiscate them....

The Saudi Permanent Committee for Ifta and Research has said in a fatwa attributed to its chairman Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh that it was against Islam to memorialize the births of prophets, the advent of new calendar years or other holidays.

* The Ayatollah Khomeini said that.

It's funny how none of the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims seems interested in going to Mogadishu to explain to al-Shabaab how they're getting Islam and jihad all wrong, wrong, wrong. Honest Ibe? Brave Ahmed? Boy Reza? Anyone? Anyone? "Somalia: Al Shabaab calls for continuation of 'East Africa jihad,'" from Garowe Online, December 25:

Somali insurgents have called on Al Qaeda terrorist network to 'come to Somalia' and join what the insurgents called 'East Africa jihad', Radio Garowe reports.

Al Shabaab insurgent spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage "Ali Dheere," told a press conference in Mogadishu on Friday that Al Qaeda fighters should come to Somalia to "expand the East Africa jihad."

Sheikh Rage. What an apt name for an Islamic jihad leader.

"We call on our brothers [Al Qaeda] to come to Somalia and to help us expand the East Africa jihad," Ali Dheere said, who was sitting alongside former Hizbul Islam insurgent spokesman, Sheikh Abdifatah Mohamed Ali....

You may want to read this one sitting down. "Report: Karzai open to Taliban setting up office in Turkey," from CNN, December 25:

(CNN) -- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said Friday that he'd welcome a Taliban office opening in Turkey, that country's state-run news agency reported, adding that such a development could help peace talks in his war-torn nation.

Karzai made his remarks during a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, following a meeting of the three leaders at Istanbul's Ciragan Palace.

The Afghan president acknowledged that there have been discussions about Taliban officials setting up somewhere in Turkey "in order to facilitate reconciliation and integration," according to the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

"If Turkey can be kind to provide such a venue we, the government of Afghanistan will be pleased and happy to see that facilitation (in) Turkey," said Karzai.

The president referenced an article published earlier this week in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, in which former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Zaeef said that having the Taliban set up an office in a neutral country may help bring about peace.

Zaeef -- who served time in the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and is now living openly in Kabul -- suggested that a country like the United Arab Emirates, "which is not interested in interfering in Afghanistan like Pakistan or China," would be a good option.

While not an official representative of the Taliban, the former ambassador did attend a meeting in October involving political figures from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Farouq Wardak, Afghanistan's education minister, then said that Kabul was ready to enter a "new phase" in building bridges and making peace with the Taliban.

Officials received threats from Muslim groups in recent weeks, but did not take them seriously. More on this story. "Death toll increases in Nigerian attacks," from CNN, December 25 (thanks to Zulu):

(CNN) -- The Christmas Eve attacks in the volatile Nigerian city of Jos have claimed at least 31 lives, a bloody aftermath in a region long torn by Christian and Muslim hostility.

Choji Gyang, a special adviser to the governor of the west African country's Plateau state, confirmed the death toll on Saturday, and said 74 others were wounded.

Most of the injured have serious wounds, and some of them suffered leg amputations.

Seven blasts rippled through the city as residents celebrated Chrismas Eve, four in the Kabong area and three in Angwa Rubuka. Gyang cited a "lapse in security" by a special task force not "doing what they were expected to do."

"Five different bombs blasts in the heart of Jos. This is the height of insecurity in this city," Gyang said.

Most of the injured have serious wounds; some of them got both legs amputated and the authorities are concerned about their conditions.

Gyang said no one has claimed responsibility but Islamic fundamentalists are suspected of carrying out the attacks. [...]

Gyang, who is special adviser on religious affairs to the governor, said it was unclear who set off the blasts or whether they were related. But the bombs detonated in the "same manner," Gyang said, and they "all went to where people were concentrated."

In recent weeks, the governor's office had received letters purported to be from some Muslim organizations threatening attacks against Christians, Gyang said.

"The security officials didn't take the threat letters seriously. They were thought of as gimmicks, and at the end of the day, they became reality."

A special task force sent to Plateau state by the federal government in the preceding two days had gone on radio telling residents to go about their business and not to worry about the security situation in the area, Gyang said....

Police said "the attacker was a woman, who resisted being searched and hurled a hand grenade at security guards at the checkpoint before triggering her bomb..."

Did they offer her the option of a self-administered pat-down and hand swab?

An update on this story, as recent reports point to a single attacker. "More than 80 dead in Pakistan bombing and raids," from Agence France-Presse, December 25 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

More than 80 were killed in a suicide bombing on a World Food Programme project and a series of helicopter raids against militant camps in Pakistan, officials said.

A suicide bomber wearing a burqa, who some officials said was a woman, killed at least 41 people at a World Food Programme distribution point in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The blast occurred in Khar, the main town of lawless Bajaur tribal district, once a stronghold of Taliban militants who have carried out several bombings and suicide attacks in the area.

"At least 41 people are dead and more than 60 wounded in the suicide bombing," tribal administration official Sohail Khan said.

Separately, 40 militants were killed in Mohmand, another lawless tribal district, in a series of military raids, officials said.

It's not that Mohmand is lawless; the district is simply suffering the upheaval caused by the jihadist imperative to replace any other legal system with Sharia.

There were conflicting reports about the identity of the bomber in Khar with some officials saying the attacker was a woman, while others claimed a man disguised in a burqa was responsible.

The bomber was intercepted at a checkpoint outside the ration distribution centre and the blast occurred during a search, Sohail Khan said.

The deputy administrator of Khar, Tariq Khan, said that the bombing was carried out by a woman. "It was a female suicide bomber," he said.

Tribal police officials Mubashir Khan and Munasib Khan also said the attacker was a woman, who resisted being searched and hurled a hand grenade at security guards at the checkpoint before triggering her bomb....

Merry Christmas, Infidel! Of course, there is no mention of the ideology driving the "terror" plot. "Dutch arrest 12 thought to be ready to launch terror attack," from CNN, December 25:

Dutch authorities have arrested 12 men of Somali origin they believe were about to carry out a terrorist attack, authorities said Saturday.

The country's intelligence service provided information that led to the arrests in Rotterdam, Public Prosecution Service spokesman Wim de Bruin told CNN.

No weapons or explosives were found and there has been no increase in the Netherlands' terror alert level, he said. The suspects are in police custody.

"The attack was said to be imminent so the national police started an investigation which led to the arrest of 12 Somalis later on Friday in Rotterdam," de Bruin said. "We are not sure about what the target was, how they were going to carry out the attack or when."

The men, between ages 19 and 48, were arrested in various locations. Police have searched a pawn shop, four homes and two hotel rooms, de Bruin said.

Six of the suspects live in Rotterdam and one is from Denmark. Some are Dutch citizens. They all are of Somali origin, de Bruin said.

The Byzantine icon above is the work of the 16th-century iconographer Theophanes the Cretan. Many Muslims around the world today would consider it offensive and insulting to Islam. Muslims in the Balkans just a few years ago have entered churches and destroyed icons like this one for precisely that reason.

How does this icon insult Islam? In many ways, including these:

1. It depicts human beings, which violates the traditional Islamic prohibition of images and would be considered idolatrous and blasphemous on its face.

2. It depicts Jesus not as a Muslim prophet, as this does:

Instead, it depicts Jesus in the traditional Christian manner, as the incarnate Son of God: his halo reads ο ων, the One Who Is, a title of divinity derived from the name of God that God gives to Moses in Exodus 3:14), in violation of the oft-repeated Qur'anic injunction that Allah has no Son (4:171; 9:30; 25:2; 39:4; 72:3; etc. etc.).

3. In line with #2, it depicts what Muslims would consider to be idolatry, as the holy child's mother kneels and adores him.

4. In the beam or spear coming from heaven down to the child in the cradle, it depicts the activity of the Divine in the world, assuming the doctrine of the Trinity, which is rejected somewhat imprecisely in Qur'an 4:171 and 5:116.

5. The cradle resembles a casket, foreshadowing the core and heart of Christianity, the redemptive death of Christ, which is denied in Qur'an 4:157.

Now, whether you are a Christian or not, and whether or not you believe all or any of these things, the question that is before us with particular urgency this Christmas is whether or not people should be allowed to believe these things freely, without being brutalized or discriminated against, if they live in, say, Iraq, or Egypt, or Pakistan, or Gaza, or Indonesia, and whether free people of all creeds and perspectives should defend their right to do so.

In those countries, as well as in the Philippines and Nigeria where jihad attacks just took place today, Christians are being kidnapped, imprisoned, wrongly arrested, beaten, and murdered not because of anything they have done, but because they have dared to believe some of the things I have adumbrated above -- beliefs that are considered blasphemous in authoritative Islam. And it is hardly better elsewhere in the Islamic world: nowhere in majority-Muslim countries today do people who believe these things enjoy full equality of rights with Muslims.

We see this at Jihad Watch every day. We see jihadists attacking Christians with increasing fury. We also see the world largely yawning and indifferent as all this goes on. Christianity is a large and multifaceted thing, with so many different and various manifestations, but in the mind of the opinion makers of the West it is Western, white, suburban, wealthy, comfortable, oppressive, and oppressing. Christians are, in the little dramas that play out in mainstream media stories every day, a bit cracked, a bit sinister, a bit dangerous, a bit grasping, and sometimes fanatically jingoistic and xenophobic. They are never victims. Muslims, by contrast, are in the daily mainstream media playlets always cast as non-Western, nonwhite, poor, wise, serene, and oppressed. (The Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan have recently been featured repeatedly in these roles.)

And so when it comes to the specter of non-Western, nonwhite Christians being persecuted by Muslims, the mainstream media's circuitry explodes. They can't handle it. They have no paradigm for doing so. It violates every rule in their playbook. So they either ignore it or mask the identity and/or motives of the perpetrators, and try to cast the focus elsewhere.

And so remember this Christmas: those Christians who are being persecuted in Iraq, and the Philippines, and Nigeria, and Egypt, and Pakistan, and elsewhere in the Islamic world, are standing in your place. The jihadis would just as soon attack you as well, and will eventually if they get the chance. Remember that the Islamic supremacist program has you on its list. You may not be a Christian. You may not be a Jew. You may not be a Hindu. You may not wish to pay attention to the jihad at all. But the jihad is universal, and relentless. And you are on its list.

So this Christmas, may all of us whose conversion, subjugation, or death is envisioned by the adherents of Sharia stand together. Let us stand together as Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, secularists, what have you, and stand up against those who would kill us or subject us to institutionalized discrimination because they find our beliefs offensive.

For be assured: if we do not stand together, they will prevail. And if they prevail, then all the richest manifestations of the unfettered human spirit, from Theophanes the Cretan above to the fashioners of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, from the Hagia Sophia to the temple of Keshava Rai at Mathura, from the works of Socrates and Aristotle to those of Moses Maimonides and Dante Alighieri and Winston Churchill and Oriana Fallaci, will be trampled into the mud, destroyed, exploded, ruined, effaced. We will all be the poorer. Our children will be the poorer.

It is time to fight for our life.

Merry Christmas to all Christian Jihad Watchers who celebrate the Feast on this day.

Over here, sir! Me, sir! I do! I do, sir!

Islamic supremacism and appropriation of history, delegitimizing Christianity as well as Judaism, is rooted in the Qur'an; it goes all the way back to the declaration that Abraham was a Muslim (3:67).

Note also the fiendishly obscene Islamic antisemitism manifested here: Jesus was the "the first Palestinian Shahid," i.e., the Jews killed him. Arafat was trying to turn the Palestinian jihad against Israel into a perverse and evil Passion Play. "Jesus was a Palestinian- 'no one denies that,' says PA TV," by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, December 24:

One of the ways the Palestinian Authority attempts to create a Palestinian history is to deny the Judean/Jewish nationality of Jesus, and misrepresent him as a "Palestinian."

Palestinian Media Watch has documented this ongoing Palestinian Authority historical revision. Recently on PA TV, the author Samih Ghanadreh from Nazareth was interviewed about his book "Christianity and Its Connection to Islam."

The following is the transcript of the discussion describing Jesus as a Palestinian:

Religious program on PA TV: This is our religion
Author: "The Shahid (Martyr) President Yasser Arafat used to say: "Jesus was the first Palestinian Shahid (Martyr)." I heard him say that sentence many times."
PA TV Host: "He [Jesus] was a Palestinian; no one denies that."
Author: "He [Jesus] was the first Palestinian Shahid (Martyr). He (Arafat) attributed this Martyrdom to Palestine, as well."
[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 3, 2010]...

Read it all.

Weirdly, this AFP story concludes with an account of a bus accident in Ecuador, as if jihad attacks against churches were just another variety of accident. "Fresh attacks mar Christmas celebrations," from AFP, December 25 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Fresh attacks against Christians marred the Christmas festival as church leaders condemned religious persecution and called for peace and reconciliation.

Philippines

A bomb in a church during Christmas mass in the southern Philippines wounded six people, including the priest, even as Christian leaders highlighted the plight of believers facing the threat of attacks around the world.

Military officials would not immediately name any suspects in the blast on Jolo island, but the island is a known bastion of the Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to the Al Qaeda network....

Nigeria

In the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Friday, suspected Islamist sect gunmen attacked a church during Christmas Eve services but were fought off by soldiers, a military spokesman said....

Ecuador

A coach journey by passengers heading home for family Christmas celebrations in Ecuador turned tragic Friday when the overcrowded vehicle plunged off the road, killing at least 41, officials said....

Jihad attacks, accidents in overcrowded vehicles -- you know, these things happen...

For the Islamic jihadist, Christmas is evil, but mass murder isn't. "Yule ghouls' jingle bombs," from AFP, December 25:

WASHINGTON -- An Islamic extremist has threatened in an audiotaped message to set off bombs in countries celebrating Christmas.

"Your [Christmas] fireworks will act as an alarm for the time of our devices to blow up -- devices that we, not Santa Claus, are going to offer to you as gifts, to turn your night into day and your blood into rivers," said a member of the Shumukh al-Islam forum.

Hours later, a bomb blast wounded six people today during Christmas Mass at a church in the Philippines.

And in northern Nigeria last night, Islamist sect members launched a failed attack on a church during Christmas Eve services.

This attack follows a smaller one on the WFP in October. The jihadists may be seeking to accomplish two main goals. One is turf control: this is yet another occasion on which non-Muslim organizations have come under threat while trying to deliver aid to flood victims in Pakistan. It is bad for business to have infidels -- vile creatures that they are according to Qur'an 98:6 -- performing acts of mercy, let alone on a grander scale than what the local Islamic groups can manage. Indeed the presence of any non-Islamic authority automatically constitutes a target in this area, and the local community's cooperation with or dependence on such a group is obviously intolerable to the pious supremacists.

The other goal is simply the wearing down of a population into submission. After all, Muhammad said it worked for him: "I have been made victorious through terror" (Sahih Bukhari 4.52.220).

"Bomb kills dozens in northwest Pakistan aid line," from MSNBC, December 25:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suspected suicide bomber attacked a gathering of people receiving aid in northwest Pakistan on Saturday and at least 42 people were killed and 70 injured, NBC News reported.

Just before the blast a woman threw a hand grenade at the crowd and the suicide bomber successfully entered and blew himself up, officials told NBC News.

A crowd had cleared a checkpoint and members were awaiting their turns at a United Nation's World Food Program distribution center in Bajaur Agency headquarters, Khar, near the Afghan border, NBC News said.

"The attack took place when hundreds of people were gathered to receive food rations for people displaced by fighting," Wisal Ahmed, a government official in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border told Reuters news agency.

"I myself have counted 40 bodies but the death could rise as several wounded people are in critical condition," Dosti Rehman, an official at the main government hospital in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border told Reuters.

A Khar hospital doctor said there are injured people were lying everywhere and some lost their lives due to lack of timely healthcare. Some of the injured were sent to nearby districts for treatment.

Khar authorities appealed over loudspeakers for doctors and paramedics to go to the hospital as staff was on leave for a public holiday.

A suicide bomb killed five at a WFP office in Islamabad on Oct. 4....

No word from the Mideast on whether this might also be a Zionist plot, all the way over in Indonesia.

Indeed, one again finds Islam's vaunted "tolerance" being "misunderstood" with striking uniformity in places far removed from one another, by local Islamic groups. So, how did that happen? Did these guys call each other? "Muslim radicals colonising the country, Indonesian bishops say," by Mathias Hariyadi for Asia News, December 24:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Mgr Mathinus D Situmorang, president of the Indonesian Bishops of Conference's (KWI), warned Indonesian political elites on a potentially serious threat to the national interest. The prelate, who is the bishop of Padang (Western Sumatra), delivered his word of caution during the admission ceremony for new members of the Indonesian Catholic University Student Association (PMKRI). In his address, he criticised the state for its powerlessness in the face of dozens of attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalist groups against churches and Christians.

"In the past, Indonesia was occupied and colonised by foreign rulers. However, the present situation is not much better even if we are ruled by fellow Indonesian citizens," the bishop said. Here, he was referring to recent attacks carried out by the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), which stormed two places of worship in Rancaekek, Bandung Regency (West Java), forcing their closure. More broadly, he is deeply concerned that religious intolerance is spreading and taking rook among ordinary people.

That same Islamic Defender Front then offered to "protect" churches at Christmas. Their offer was declined.

Muslim extremists, he explained, had no legal right to interfere with the aforementioned places of worship even if they did not have a building permit. What is more, the situation is getting worse because law enforcement is not stopping the Islamists, and it is not clear why. Nonetheless, for the prelate, "A spirit of intolerance is finding fertile ground because of political interests".

In Parung, Bogor Regency, local authorities issued a ban against the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church to prevent Christmas celebrations.

"If some Christian communities in Indonesia hold religious ceremonies in the streets or in the open, it is out of necessity because they have been unable to secure a building permit for their place of worship, and this, for years," Bishop Situmorang explained.

"If the [central] government and local authorities are stopped by every extremist Muslim group, the situation will get worse and the state's sovereignty will be given away to illegal groups that will carry out actions against the law," he lamented.

Still, the 3,000 parishioners who belong to the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church will be able to celebrate Christmas at a local nuns' compound.

Indonesia's Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is Catholic, rejected the accusation, saying that any violent act would be punished.

Mgr Situmorang is not so sure. For him, the state is powerless and incapable of dealing with the problem. Yet, he is still "proud to belong to a multicultural society, where the spirit of intolerance is restrained".

Incapable, or just unwilling to face the problem. Indonesian president Yudhoyono's characterization of the problem with church building made it sound like a homeowner's association dispute.

In the meantime, hours before the start of Christmas services, the country has been placed under tight security with thousands of police deployed near churches, 8,000 in Jakarta alone. In Bali, police has secured [sic] every strategic site, including churches.

A study by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace warns that whilst most violent actions are carried out by the infamous FPI, less noticeable actions by other radical Muslim groups are equally worrisome, especially since they are increasingly supported by ordinary people and are attracting even liberal groups and moderate clerics.

Slaughter of the innocents. "Christmas requiem for Iraq's Christian community," by Zvi Bar'el for Haaretz, December 24 (thanks to AINA):

In order to meet Iraq's Christians this year, Santa Claus will have to steer his sleigh to Jordan, Syria, Kurdistan or Europe. After Al-Qaida's October 31 massacre at a central Baghdad church, thousands of Christians have decided that their homeland is no longer safe. [...]

"Contacting the authorities forces us to identify ourselves, and we aren't certain that some of the people threatening us aren't the people in the government offices that are supposed to be protecting us," one Christian Iraqi told the newspaper Sawt al-Iraq. Others have reported masked men coming to their homes at night and demanding that they "convert to Islam, leave or die."

Though the Iraqi authorities have posted security forces at churches in major cities, community leaders have decided they will celebrate Christmas Eve only the following afternoon, and are calling upon Christians to celebrate in modest home ceremonies and not to be overly visible in the streets....

Iraqi Christians also have serious complaints about U.S. President Barack Obama, who they say is not doing enough to protect their rights. Vice President Joe Biden has indeed condemned the murder of the Christians in Baghdad and has called upon the new Iraqi government to protect its minorities, but beyond that it does not appear the administration is able to do anything to stop the attacks.

Representatives of the Iraqi Christian community fear that this Christmas will not only be a memorial for the 58 killed in the Baghdad church, but will also mark the loss of the country's Christian minority as a whole. Nassir Sharhoom, 47, who fled last month to the Kurdish capital, Erbil, told The New York Times: "It's exactly what happened to the Jews. They want us all to go." In the meantime, it appears that "they" are on the way to achieving their goal.

Celebrate Christmas Bethlehem 2010 style with "Jihad Bells," from Latma. (Thanks to Nechamnah.)

Tiny Minority of Extremists

Somehow these legions of Misunderstanders of Islam didn't get the memo that Islam is a Religion of Peace and Tolerance. How odd. An update on this story. "Thousands Rally to Uphold Pakistani Blasphemy Laws," from VOA News, December 24:

Pakistani Islamists are demanding the government leave the country's laws against blasphemy alone.

Thousands rallied in Karachi and other cities Friday to warn government officials any effort to repeal the laws would have serious consequences.

Several Pakistani lawmakers proposed changing the law after last month's conviction of a Christian mother of five for blasphemy against Islam.

Asia Bibi is the first woman condemned to die under Pakistan's blasphemy law. She denies claims by local women that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

Pakistan's Minister for Minority Affairs Shabaz Bhatti has recommended Bibi be pardoned or released if her pending court appeal is not quickly addressed.

One Pakistani cleric has said if the government fails to go ahead with the hanging, his mosque will offer $6,000 to anyone who kills her.

Convictions under the law are common, but no executions have ever been carried out.

Protest leaders are calling for a nationwide strike if the government tries to heed calls from the West to change the blasphemy law....

If the mainstream narrative about Islam that we are compelled to accept in the West were true, these leaders would be calling for a nationwide strike if Asia Bibi is put to death, not if the blasphemy law is changed.

"Police search Mumbai for 4 in alleged terror plot," by Rajnish Kakade for Associated Press, December 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

MUMBAI, India - Police searched India's financial capital on Friday for four men who authorities believe entered Mumbai to carry out a terrorist attack, a top police official said.

Authorities issued a terror alert for the city, where a three-day terrorist seige [sic] in 2008 killed 166 people. Since then, police tend to take even minor threats seriously and have periodically raised the alarm, but there have been no subsequent attacks in the city. Despite checkpoints and some road closures, traffic and activity in most of Mumbai was normal on Friday.

Police have received credible information that at least four men belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group have entered the city and were planning to strike during the holiday season, said Himanshu Roy, joint police commissioner of Mumbai Police. India blames Lashkar for the 2008 assaults.

"The four men are planning violent attacks that are going to cause destruction," Roy said. "The four have recently arrived in Mumbai. We believe the threat is serious."

Pakistani officials could not immediately be reached for comment....

Yes, they're busy collecting their latest anti-terror check from the U.S.

India has called on Pakistan to crack down on terrorists thought to be operating from their soil. Lashkar-e-Taiba is banned by Pakistan's government but it still thought to have support in Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence community.

In the 2008 attack, several gunmen laid siege to two luxury hotels -- including the Taj Mahal -- a Jewish center, a popular restaurant and Mumbai's crowded main train station. The lone surviving gunman was captured and earlier this year sentenced to death.

New Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of complicity in terrorist attacks against India. Pakistan denies the charge saying it only offers the militant groups political and diplomatic support.

Oh, well, that's all right, then!

In "UCLA's Professor of Fantasy" in the American Thinker, December 24, Cinnamon Stillwell and Eric Golub expose one of the most egregious academic liars and Islamic apologists on the scene today: Khaled Abou El Fadl, who a few years back said he was willing to "risk his reputation" on his prediction that there would be anti-Muslim hate crimes because of the Crusades movie Kingdom of Heaven (there weren't, of course; so much for his reputation):

The Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) at the University of California, Los Angeles and the UCLA School of Law's Journal for Islamic and Near Eastern Law co-sponsored a lecture (podcast available here) last month by Khaled Abou El Fadl, chair of the Islamic Studies Interdepartmental Program, with the vague title "Shari'ah Watch: A View from the Inside."

The flyer for the lecture promised "an informed discussion about Shariah and its role and impact in the West," yet Abou El Fadl delivered neither. Instead, his audience of 35 -- comprising mostly seniors and left-wing students -- witnessed a meandering, repetitive lecture that had little or nothing to do with the stated premise. Indeed, despite acknowledging the growth of Westerners' interest in Shariah in the wake of 9/11, Abou El Fadl expressed surprise that an intelligent person would find it a remotely interesting topic: "It's exciting for me, but it's rarely exciting for people who do not relish medieval legal discourses ... to say the least it's a rather odd position to suddenly find Shariah jumping into public discourses in the West."

What is odd is why more Middle East studies professors don't relish the opportunity to condemn the medieval practices sanctioned by Shariah -- stonings, beheadings, honor killings, and execution for apostasy, for starters.

Instead, Abou El Fadl spent over fifteen minutes describing alleged acts of violence worldwide against Muslims by non-Muslims, a trend he ascribed to "the effect of the Islamophobic hate tract."

When he did get around to discussing Shariah, it was only to claim that its detractors were motivated by bigotry:

We look at the history of anti-Islamic discourse, particularly in my field, a discourse in which Shariah is flattened to be a symbol of barbarism. ... This is what Edward Said responded to in his famous book, Orientalism. I describe it as a civil anti-Muslim discourse.

Actually, most of its critics merely want to stay alive, for it turns out that barbarism does indeed come with the territory.

In what would come to constitute the bulk of his lecture, Abou El Fadl launched into a litany against what he called a "frenzy of self-appointed experts" -- individuals who have dared to criticize Shariah and who have opposed its implementation in the West:

[There is] a battle over the authority, legitimacy -- in academia, especially -- over who gets to speak for Shariah in the West. ... The various discourses that we find from the Steven Emersons, the Robert Spencers, the Daniel Pipes, countless 'watch' folks, the Jihad Watch folks -- various pseudo-experts on whatever they wish to be experts on. ... The idea is these people [Muslims] don't even respect each other's lives, so how can you expect them to respect anyone else's life? Now this fundamental message of Islam, which is argued to have been from the start to this day: one can politely ignore it, but the fact remains that it is a violent, totalitarian, dominating ideology.

In fact, it's the apologist discourse emanating from the Abou El Fadls of the world that is the "dominating ideology" in universities across the country.

Abou El Fadl then proceeded to examine quotes by writers he believes exemplifies this alarming "discourse" and to which he attributed "serious consequences" and "challenges to the post-humanist ethos." They included Bruce Bawer, Michael Savage, Mark Steyn, Glenn Beck, and, again, Islam scholar Robert Spencer, who, El Fadl claimed:

[j]ust made $4,000,000 dollars last year. ... A lecture like this with him would cost the sponsors $10,000. Islam bashing is very lucrative. Shariah bashing ... is also extremely lucrative.

To make $4,000,000 at $10,000 per speech would require four hundred speeches per year. When contacted by the authors for comment, Spencer confirmed that "I have never made $4,000,000 in a year, or anything close to it. I have never charged $10,000 for a talk, or anything close to it. Khaled Abou El Fadl is lying outright."

This statement points to Abou El Fadl's making things up -- shocking behavior for a professor of law at a leading research university. And it didn't stop there. Abou El Fadl went on to paraphrase a quote from one of Spencer's books:

Spencer summed it up: 'Sure, there are violent quotes in the Bible, but the difference is Muslims don't have an interpretative tradition.' ... But that's what being a Shariah scholar is all about: an interpretative tradition.

To which Spencer has responded:

I never said that. I said that they don't have an interpretative tradition that mitigates the literal force of the Qur'anic verses inciting to violence. Obviously they have an interpretative tradition; I discuss it at length in several books.

Read it all.

Daniel Pipes responds here, and says that Stillwell and Golub "pay particular attention to Abou El Fadl's false statements about Robert Spencer and Steven Emerson - that's the 'fantasy' in the title. His falsehoods about them are so egregious, they deserve to get Abou El Fadl sacked."

Indeed.

Pakistan has in the past funneled to the terrorists themselves the money it received from the U.S. to fight terror. What assurance does the U.S. have that that is not still happening, and will not happen again? Why, none. None at all.

"US pays Pakistan more than $600 million for support," from AFP, December 24 (thanks to Zulu):

ISLAMABAD: Washington transferred more than 600 million dollars to the Pakistani government this week to pay for its efforts in the fight against violent extremists, the US embassy in Islamabad said Thursday.

The 633 million dollar payment under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) programme came on Wednesday, amid reports that top US military commanders in Afghanistan were pushing to expand special forces ground raids across the border into Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

"The Coalition Support Fund is designed to reimburse the government of Pakistan for expenses incurred fighting violent extremist groups," the embassy said in a statement.

It added that the payment covered the first six months of this year and Pakistan had now received "approximately 8.76 billion dollars" since 2001 under the scheme....

Your taxpayer dollars at work. And we have so much to show for it!

Here's the announcement from over at Yahoo News:

AFDI/SIOA Applauds Seattle Kings County Transit for Withdrawing its Sanction of Jewish Blood Libel Bus Ads

NEW YORK, Dec. 24, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A prominent national human rights and advocacy organization today applauded the decision of Seattle King County Metro officials to drop anti-Israel, antisemitic hate ads it had planned to run on its buses starting next Monday.

In a statement by the New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), National Executive Director Pamela Geller said:

"It's a bad day for Nazis and Jew-haters. This is a huge victory for us. Our objective was achieved: the Jew-hate ads have been dropped from Seattle buses after we exposed their hypocrisy."

The King County Metro reversal came two days after AFDI announced that it would be running king-sized pro-Israel ads on Seattle buses to counter the anti-Israel ads.

Ads purchased by a group calling itself Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign had been slated to start running on twelve Seattle buses on December 27. The ads were to feature the slogan, "Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work." Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign spokesman Ed Mast is a former activist with the fanatically antisemitic International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a hard-Left group dedicated to disrupting operations of the Israeli Defense Force. ISM has numerous links to the jihad terrorist groups Hamas and Hizballah.

The AFDI ads, in contrast, were to read: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Islamic jihad," and "One Billion Dollars to Hamas. Your Tax Dollars at Work."

In response to this AFDI initiative, King County Metro Transit officials announced Thursday that rather than accept the anti-Israel or pro-Israel ads, they were changing their guidelines and accepting no political ads at all. Said Geller: "We will pursue this battle legally and roll out the pro-Israel bus ads elsewhere."

Donations to support the human rights efforts of AFDI and its program Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) can be made through Paypal to writeatlas@aol.com.

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.

In "Israel on U.N.'s 2011 Hit List" in Human Events, December 23, Pamela Geller skewers the latest example of the UN's hypocrisy and submission to Islamic supremacism:

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday that one of the United Nations' top goals in 2011 will be bettering living conditions in the Gaza Strip and forcing Israel to end all "settlement" construction in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem. You couldn't make it up. Pressuring Israel is the U.N.'s top goal for 2011. Not the imminent threat of war on the Korean Peninsula or the North Korean nuclear threat. Not the Iranian nuclear threat. Not the very dangerous situation with the ongoing jihad in Pakistan. Not the huge new wave of refugees and illegal immigrants into Europe, Israel and the United States. Not the insoluble situation in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nor did Ban say anything about the referendum for Southern Sudan independence, which is needed to stop the jihadi genocide that continues there. And he was likewise silent about the banking crisis in the Western world and the financial collapse of some European Union countries.

No, none of that matters. The United Nations has to spend its time improving living conditions in Gaza.

What a joke. There is no real "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. Always the Jewish people are clubbed like baby seals with Islamic lies about how Israel is starving the Muslims in Gaza. (There is no such thing as a "Palestinian." There never has been an independent Palestinian state or recognized Palestinian nationality in the history of the world; Arafat and Co. invented it in the 1960s for propaganda purposes.)

The Jewish blockade starves the poor poor Muslims, so that they have nothing to live on except the billions upon billions of jiyza paid by American taxpayers and European Union dhimmis. Want to know how much dough they have left after they purchase their missiles, arms and bombs? Photo after photo has come out of Gaza showing stores overwhelmingly overflowing with food, toys, candy, anything you could want. They recently opened a big luxury mall there. [...]

And now Ban Ki-Moon is set to encourage and embolden the genocidal jihadists in 2011, and help them reach their goal of destroying Israel. Fires are raging all over the globe, and instead of trying to put them out he is bullying the Middle East's only democracy and America's staunchest ally....

Read it all.

Actually it is Honest Ibe Hooper of Hamas-linked CAIR, with his slick deceptions and evasions in the place of honest discussion about Islamic supremacism and violence and what to do about it, and others like him who create "anti-Islamic sentiment." It's actually Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore, who is spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland, is spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer, is spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer, is spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer, is spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber, is spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Muhammad Atta and Anjem Chaudary and Omar Bakri and Abu Hamza and Abu Bakar Bashir and Zawahiri and Zarqawi and bin Laden are spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment." Islamic jihadists, murdering in the name of Islam the world over, are spreading "anti-Islamic sentiment."

But Hamas-linked Hooper, everyone's favorite stomach-stapled beekeeper, would prefer you not notice any of them, or other like them. He would prefer to bamboozle you into thinking that "anti-Muslim sentiment," if any actually exists (hate crimes against Muslims are in reality rare), is because of me. This is classic Islamic supremacist evasion of responsibility. It's an attempt to divert attention from the reality of Islamic jihad, and to claim victim status for Muslims, so that they gain protection rather than scrutiny from law enforcement. The only beneficiaries in such an eventuality would be jihad terrorists. And there you have the goal of the entire initiative.

"Reasons for anti-Islamic sentiment in US," from Iran's PressTV, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Press TV interviewed Head of Islamic Human Rights Commission, Massoud Shadjareh from London, and National Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Mr. Abraham Hooper, and from Washington, Founder and Director of the Democracy Institute, Patrick Basham regarding increasing anti-Islamic sentiment in the US and Europe.

Press TV: I would like to welcome my guests to the program. Head of Islamic Human Rights Commission, Massoud Shadjareh from London, and National Director of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Mr. Abraham Hooper, and from Washington, Founder and Director of the Democracy Institute, Patrick Basham. Thank you all for being with me. I'd like to start off with you Mr. Hooper. Can you explain what has taken place and what is it about all this that is CAIR concerned with?

Hooper: Well, we are obviously concerned when law enforcement authorities around the country are being trained almost on a daily basis by people who have a hate filled anti-Muslim agenda. That's been proven time and time again. You have a guy named Robert Spencer, the head of one of the most vicious anti-Muslim hate groups in the country, and a co-head of this group called Stop the Islamization of America, training FBI agents in Virginia. It's absolutely unbelievable. You have people like Walid Shoebat, a born against Christian who was a former Muslim, who said Islam is of the devil and he's training these people. We are seeing this more and more. So it's inevitable that the law enforcement, policies and practices will eventually reflect this anti-Muslim hatred.

Actually Pamela Geller is the Executive Director of AFDI/SIOA, and I am the Associate Director. Actually Jihad Watch is not "vicious anti-Muslim hate group," but a pro-human rights truth group, hated only by haters of truth and reality. Actually I have indeed given seminars for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies not only in Virginia, but elsewhere, and as long as those agencies continue to be interested in understanding what we are really up against, I will keep on doing so.

Those laws are routinely used to victimize Pakistani Christians, and that is just fine with these religious parties. One would have thought that the members of these religious parties would have known from their studies of the Qur'an and Sunnah that Islam respects the People of the Book and teaches peace and tolerance, and that there is no death penalty for blasphemy -- after all, isn't that what Islamic spokesmen in the West always tell us? Yet somehow these people, despite their dedication to following Islam, have yet again misunderstood it.

"Pakistan parties protest possible blasphemy law changes," by Nasir Habib for CNN, December 23:

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's religious parties are planning protests this week against any attempts to change the nation's blasphemy laws, a party spokesman said Thursday.

Moulana Amjad Khan, spokesman for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal ur Rehman (JUI-F) party, said the JUI-F and other religious parties are going to hold the rallies on December 24.

JUI-F recently left the collation government led by President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party....

In November, a Pakistani court found the 45-year-old Bibi guilty of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed during a 2009 argument with Muslim fellow field workers. The offense is punishable by death or life imprisonment, according to Pakistan's penal code.

"The Prophet Mohammed." CNN, like other mainstream media news outlets, has decided we are all Muslims now.

But an investigation by a Pakistani government ministry found the charges stemmed from "religious and personal enmity" and recommended Bibi's release. Zardari has said he would pardon Bibi, but a court has ruled that the president can't act until the sentence is confirmed by a higher court -- a process her lawyer says could take two to three years.

A Pakistani cleric is offering a nearly $6,000 bounty for anyone killing Bibi.

Moulana Yousaf Qureshi made his announcement in early December, condemning any effort by Zardari to pardon or release her....

"[Pelosi's] decision to not move this legislation forward during her four years as Speaker represents a failure of Congressional leadership on human rights and, sadly, a setback to America's standing in the struggle to end the cycle of genocide."

More Islamic supremacist evasion of responsibility. An update on this story. "Blue Dog 'disappointed' controversial genocide resolution didn't come to floor," by Bridget Johnson for The Hill, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The 111th Congress adjourned Wednesday without bringing up the latest incarnation of legislation that would have recognized the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Lobbying groups were on alert over the weekend on reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would bring the resolution to the floor in the final days of the lame-duck session.

But lawmakers went home for the holidays without passing Rep. Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) resolution, angering Armenian groups and leaving Turkish groups breathing a sigh of relief.

"[Pelosi's] decision to not move this legislation forward during her four years as Speaker represents a failure of Congressional leadership on human rights and, sadly, a setback to America's standing in the struggle to end the cycle of genocide," Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, said in a statement....

Schiff's resolution, which "calls upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide," passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4 by a slim margin, 23-22.

A similar resolution was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2007. Just like this time around, the White House came out against the resolution, fearing it would damage relations with Turkey, and Pelosi did not bring the measure to the floor.

Schiff said that he and co-sponsors had launched a "full-press effort" to get the resolution to the floor in the past weeks.

"We believed that Turkey's burgeoning alliance with Iran, its support for Hamas, and its insincere promise to seek reconciliation with modern Armenia would finally serve to offset Turkey's shameful campaign of denial," Schiff said in a statement....

Schiff's resolution would have called upon Obama to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide" in his annual message.

"Coming in the wake of President Obama's string of broken promises to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Speaker Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution represents a major breach of trust with Armenian American voters," Hachikian said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent Obama a letter Monday asking him to prevent the vote, warning that it could damage ties between the two countries.

"We cannot allow the resolution to hang over Turkish-U.S. ties like a Sword of Damocles," said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who also urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to keep the resolution from passing.

Yes. We can't allow the truth to get in the way of our love.

"They've complained for years, as to why these people are being hired in our food department when we are worried about our safety as Americans, you know, and that's something we all need to think about."

Indeed. Tyson Chicken in Shelbyville went out of its way to be accommodating to its Muslim employees in 2008, when it adopted Eid al-Fitr as an official plant holiday. Of course, maybe it wasn't one of the Muslim employees who wrote "All Americans Must Die" on the wall, but given the prevalence of jihadist sentiments among Somali Muslims elsewhere in the U.S., it is neither rocket science nor "Islamophobia" to put two and two together.

Stuart Appelbaum, the national president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which negotiated the agreement with Tyson that made Eid into a plant holiday, commented at the time: "There's no question that there is a lot of bigotry against Muslims and that this agreement has clearly touched a raw nerve among those who are prejudiced against them. However, the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths."

Great. And yet it seems as if at least one of the workers at the Tyson plant still nurses a deep and violent grievance against the U.S. and Americans, despite this display of magnanimity and strike against "bigotry." Now, why might that be? And why doesn't Tyson have any mechanism in place to try to screen its Muslim employees for jihadist sentiments, insofar as that is possible at all? Because to attempt such a thing would be more "bigotry," of course.

And so the other employees at this Tyson plant are put at risk, and the company has to go to extra trouble and expense to ensure their safety -- all in the name of not appearing "bigoted." Security guards posted at the bathroom! Other guards patrolling through the plant!

Could you have imagined on September 12, 2001 that within ten years, an American business that had nothing to do with terrorism, weapons production, security, or anything of the kind, would have to have armed guards patrolling its hallways, as the price of the privilege of having Muslim employees?

"'All Americans Must Die' Written On Plant Wall," by Deanna Lambert for WSMV.com, December 23 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- The Shelbyville chief of police and a former Tyson employee confirmed that threatening messages surfaced this week, leading to extra security at the plant.

"A couple days ago, they had a terrorist threat that was written on the bathroom walls that said 'all Americans must die,'" said a woman, who said she wanted to remain anonymous to protect her relative, who works inside the plant....

"One day last week, someone set the women's bathroom on fire, and they finally put a security guard at the bathroom door," the woman said.

She said workers are scared.

"Some of them are afraid. They've been talking about it and worried about it and wondering what Tyson is going to do about it," she said.

"We have not been asked to come down to Tyson to make any kind of official report," said Chief Austin Swing.

But Swing said the department has been asked to provide an armed, off-duty officer to patrol inside the plant through the holidays. Tyson didn't explain the reason why....

He said he believes Tyson has already removed the graffiti and is conducting its own investigation into who's responsible.

"They've doubled up the guards in the guard shack outside," the anonymous woman said.

Some at the plant are concerned.

"They've complained for years, as to why these people are being hired in our food department when we are worried about our safety as Americans, you know, and that's something we all need to think about," she said....

The FBI did not returned Channel 4's request of whether it's involved.

You know that if it had said something threatening to Muslims, the FBI would have been all over it in a nanosecond.

Selling them the rope with which they will hang us. "U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations," by Jo Becker in the New York Times, December 23:

Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.

At the behest of a host of companies -- from Kraft Food and Pepsi to some of the nation's largest banks -- a little-known office of the Treasury Department has granted nearly 10,000 licenses for deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of American business.

Most of the licenses were approved under a decade-old law mandating that agricultural and medical humanitarian aid be exempted from sanctions. But the law, pushed by the farm lobby and other industry groups, was written so broadly that allowable humanitarian aid has included cigarettes, Wrigley's gum, Louisiana hot sauce, weight-loss remedies, body-building supplements and sports rehabilitation equipment sold to the institute that trains Iran's Olympic athletes.

Hundreds of other licenses were approved because they passed a litmus test: They were deemed to serve American foreign policy goals. And many clearly do, among them deals to provide famine relief in North Korea or to improve Internet connections -- and nurture democracy -- in Iran. But the examination also found cases in which the foreign-policy benefits were considerably less clear.

In one instance, an American company was permitted to bid on a pipeline job that would have helped Iran sell natural gas to Europe, even though the United States opposes such projects. Several other American businesses were permitted to deal with foreign companies believed to be involved in terrorism or weapons proliferation. In one such case, involving equipment bought by a medical waste disposal plant in Hawaii, the government was preparing to deny the license until an influential politician intervened.

In an interview, the Obama administration's point man on sanctions, Stuart A. Levey, said that focusing on the exceptions "misses the forest for the trees." Indeed, the exceptions represent only a small counterweight to the overall force of America's trade sanctions, which are among the toughest in the world. Now they are particularly focused on Iran, where on top of a broad embargo that prohibits most trade, the United States and its allies this year adopted a new round of sanctions that have effectively shut Iran off from much of the international financial system.

"No one can doubt that we are serious about this," Mr. Levey said....

Oh, I can.

"Obama and Islam" by Robert Spencer and David Horowitz is a new pamphlet now available from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. From FrontPage:

No president in American history has taken a more admiring view of Islam than Barack Obama. Whether it is his repeated insistence that the attacks on Americans and the war that has been declared against the West have nothing do with Islam, or his flattering (and false) description of Islam as a religion "that teaches peace, justice, fairness and tolerance," or his unprecedented revelation that he considers it "part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear," Obama in his first two years of office has spurned no opportunity to speak well of the religion.

Considering the long history of Islamic extremism, the militancy of Islamic religious texts, and the justification that such texts provide for modern jihadist movements, the president's fawning rhetoric may be confused for mere ignorance. But as David Horowitz and Robert Spencer forcefully argue in their new pamphlet, "Obama and Islam," Obama's Islamophilic outreach represents something far more disturbing than naïveté: a conscious effort to appease Islamic supremacism in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, and an energetic willingness to pander to the Islamic world in general. The consequence, the authors show, is a dangerously ill-conceived foreign policy that has betrayed American values, undermined the national interest, abandoned staunch allies like Israel, and forsaken Muslims who are condemned to suffer under brutal Islamic regimes. Cheap flattery has rarely exacted such a high cost.

To read the pamphlet, click here.

Pamela Geller notes: "The release today of documents, emails and various exchanges between Mayor Bloomberg and radical Rauf and his motley crew of Islamic supremacists shows evidence of collusion and inappropriate political support/favoritism of the Ground Zero mega mosque. It's worse than we imagined. Mayor Bloomberg's offices went to extraordinary lengths for the radicals trying to build a mega mosque at Ground Zero -- even writing a letter to the community board for them, newly released documents show....The records of communication between the Office of the Mayor and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf concerning the Cordoba Initiative's proposed Cordoba House project show that the Mayor, on more than one occasion, improperly collaborated with Rauf and co."

Yep. Here is the latest:

"City Hall ghostwrote GZ mosque's letter," by Sally Goldenberg in the New York Post, December 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Dozens of e-mails between Mayor Bloomberg's aides and developers of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero reveal a cordial, if not downright cozy, relationship and the length to which a top city staffer went to help the project -- even drafting a letter for the group soliciting support from the community board, and providing the fax number to send it.

In one exchange, Community Affairs Commissioner Nazli Parvizi penned the draft of a letter to be sent by Daisy Khan, a key sponsor of the project known alternately as Cordoba House or Park51, to the chairperson of Community Board 1, Julie Menin, as the panel prepared to vote on its recommendation on the project.

The letter drafted by Parvizi thanked Menin for being open-minded about the plan for a mosque and cultural center -- which by then had become a flashpoint issue around the nation.

Parvizi e-mailed the draft to Khan and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- ending with the salutation, "Best, Daisy," indicating that she actually was preparing Khan's letter to a city agency.

She also included the fax number and mailing address for CB1 -- which ultimately voted in favor of the project in May -- and offered further assistance....

Opponents of the plan were furious.

"The mayor was touting, ironically, government not being involved in religion, and here you have the mayor's staffer assisting in a public-relations campaign on behalf of a mosque and Islamic center," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother was a pilot of one of the hijacked planes on 9/11.

"I think this is highly improper."

So do I.

He wanted to join the Army so that he could turn and kill American soldiers. "SI man indicted on terror charges," by Mitchel Maddux in the New York Post, December 23:

The Staten Island man who hoped to become a jihadi, operating Web sites calling for a holy war against the West, was indicted today on three counts of lying to FBI agents.

The charges against Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, 21, stem from false statements he allegedly provided to investigators in an effort to hide his interest in joining terror groups in Pakistan.

Shehadeh also allegedly tried to travel to Somalia to join jihadist groups there, but these allegations were not part of the Brooklyn federal court indictment....

In 2008, Shehadeh appeared at the Times Square recruiting station and tried unsuccessfully to join the Army.

Officials said he was hoping to gain sophisticated US military training that he would later use "to fight beside fellow Muslims against their enemies, including United States military forces."...

When faced with a moral challenge, find a way to blame the Jews and claim victim status, even while in the act of trying to commit murder. Islamic antisemitism and Islamic supremacist evasion of responsibility find their apotheosis: "Palestinian family sends mentally ill son to settlement in hope IDF shoots him," by Chaim Levinson in Haaretz, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Palestinian caught trying to infiltrate a settlement Wednesday night claims he was sent by his family members, who had hoped he would be killed by soldiers during the infiltration.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers patrolling the central West Bank near the settlement of Beit El on Wednesday spotted a Palestinian walking toward the settlement and subsequently arrested him.

According to the investigation into the incident, the boy was behaving in a strange manner and the soldiers originally thought that he was drunk. Later on in the investigation, it was clarified that he was actually suffering from a mental illness.

The boy told investigators that his family wanted him dead. He said they threatened him at gunpoint, forcing him to walk towards the settlement with the hope that soldiers would think he was trying to infiltrate and would shoot him.

IDF scouts who searched the area confirmed the boy's version of events and found four family members who had tried to flee the area.

A study in stealth jihad: as Muhammad said, "War is deceit." This report also lends broader context to a recent offer by the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front to "protect" churches at Christmas. While the offer was a poor and obvious ruse to intimidate and gather information for future persecution, it was nonetheless part of a broader (and familiar) pattern of attempts to put a friendly face on a decidedly unfriendly agenda.

"Radical Islamic Groups Gain Strength on the Sly: Setara," by Ulma Haryanto for Jakarta Globe, December 23 (thanks to Twostellas):

While the antics of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front frequently make headlines, other radical groups are working quietly behind the scenes to build a wide base of support, a nonprofit has said.

The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace on Wednesday released a report detailing how radical Muslim groups were shoring up their support by forging political alliances and embracing more liberal groups and moderate clerics.

Another tactic highlighted in the report was for the groups to get their members appointed to the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the country's highest Islamic authority, in an effort to steer Shariah jurisprudence.

The seven groups identified in the Setara report included the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), headed by Rizieq Shihab; Islamic Reform Movement (Garis), led by Chep Hermawan; and the Islamic People's Forum (FUI), helmed by Muhammad Al Khaththath.

It was the FUI, a relatively new group founded in 2005, that appeared to be particularly adept at courting politicians and infiltrating the MUI, the report said. Al Khaththath, its secretary general, was described as "an expert lobbyist."

Al Khaththath started out with Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, and was one of its chairmen when the HTI formed the FUI along with eight other organizations, including the FPI, Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (DDII), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Crescent Star Party (PBB).

NU and Muhammadiyah are the nation's two biggest Islamic organizations and are considered moderate. The conservative PKS is the fourth-biggest political party in the country.

"In 2005, Al Khaththath and the HTI's Ismail Yusanto made it onto the MUI board," the report said. "By the end of that year, he had been appointed to the counterterrorism team formed by Religious Affairs Ministry and the MUI."

The report also said that during the MUI's national caucus in 2005, Al Khaththath was among those who "actively lobbied the MUI to issue an edict forbidding the practice of liberal Islam."

The council would go on to issue an edict "forbidding religious pluralism, liberalism and secularism." It also outlawed the minority Ahmadiyah sect, branding it "outside Islam, false and misleading, and the followers can no longer be called Muslims."

That same year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unofficially endorsed the MUI's religious authority, saying his administration would "embrace the views, recommendations and edicts of the MUI."

The Setara report concluded this had made the MUI an appealing body to infiltrate for radical groups, which have little authority themselves.

Under Al Khaththath's leadership, the FUI in 2008 attempted to widen its support significantly by holding a meeting of 200 influential clerics from across the archipelago. "They were invited to establish a Union of Ulema Council for the FUI," the report said.

One of the clerics invited was Salim bin Umar Al Attas, who boasts 10,000 followers and is based in South Jakarta. He has since allied himself with the FUI. "The FUI is a forum for Muslims, which makes us a member organization," he said. "We have the same agenda: To uphold Shariah law, fight evil and spread goodness. That's why we joined them."

This is how the building of "common ground" so often proceeds. No one in a position of power wants the political liability of being cast as being against things like "fighting evil" and "spreading goodness." In the West as in Indonesia, many are similarly cowed by the semantic blackmail of unexamined, glowing generalities. The devil, of course, is in the details.

Those crafty Zionists! Will they stop at nothing? First came the Zionist squirrels, then Zionist pigeons, and Zionist rats, and Zionist sharks. And now: sexually predatory Zionist cats!

(Meanwhile, I myself, by means of my Zionist black arts, am able to cast verses into the Qur'an.)

Claiming Victim Status, Conspiracy Paranoia and Islamic Antisemitism Updates: "Former Inmate: Guantanamo Jews Used Witchcraft on Prisoners, Made Me Feel a Cat Was Trying to Penetrate Me," from MEMRITV, December 12 (thanks to Michael):

Following are excerpts from an interview with Walid Muhammad Hajj a Sudanese released from Guantanamo Prison, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on December 12, 2010: [...]

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes. The most common method to wear down the brothers was witchcraft.

Interviewer: How did they do this?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: There were, of course, Jews among the [staff of] the Guantanamo Base, and they would set traps for the guys.

Interviewer: Give me an example of witchcraft.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Witchcraft was used on most of the guys.

Interviewer: They would cast a spell on them?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes, but by the grace of Allah, through frequent reading of the Koran and invocation of the names of Allah, they managed to withstand this.

Interviewer: How did you know that somebody was under a spell?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Someone like that would change.

Interviewer: In what way?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: For example, somebody would take his clothes off, all of a sudden, or would sit on his bed for three days straight without sleeping.

[...]

They would use all kinds of witchcraft against the guys.

Interviewer: Tell me more.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: I will tell you how the witchcraft affected the guys. A person would suddenly see his brothers and sisters naked before him.

Interviewer: And they weren't really there?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Absolutely not. It was as if he was in a different world.

Interviewer: You mean, his brothers and sisters from back home.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: That's right. I remembered an incident with a guy who sat next to me in the morning. When they brought the milk, he began to urinate into the milk.

Interviewer: In front of you?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes. I said to him: "Why are you urinating in the milk?" That's when we knew that he was under a spell. After he had recovered a little, after we read Koranic verses to him, he said to me: "The birds on the barbed wire would talk to me, and tell me to urinate in the milk. When the guards pass by my cell, the sound made by their pants talks to me."

Interviewer: They tell him to urinate in the milk?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes.

[...]

Interviewer: Did they ever use witchcraft on you?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: There was one attempt.

Interviewer: How did they do it?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Once, when I was sleeping - on the floor, not on a bed - I suddenly felt that a cat was trying to penetrate me. It tried to penetrate me again and again. I recited the kursi verse again and again until the cat left.

"The kursi verse," or ayat al-kursi, the Verse of the Throne, is Qur'an 2:255: "Allah! There is no deity save Him, the Alive, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtaketh Him. Unto Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that intercedeth with Him save by His leave? He knoweth that which is in front of them and that which is behind them, while they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He will. His throne includeth the heavens and the earth, and He is never weary of preserving them. He is the Sublime, the Tremendous."

Interviewer: But there wasn't really any cat there?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Absolutely not.

Of course not!

Even the Church of the Nativity is depicted without a cross. "Christmas in Bethlehem: the cross banished from souvenirs," from Asia News, December 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

Bethlehem (AsiaNews) - This Christmas in Bethlehem, the cross has been banned from souvenirs for tourists and pilgrims in the Holy Land. Some textile workshops in Jerusalem and Hebron have begun to print and sell T-shirts depicting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem without the cross. Because of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Palestinian territories, the cross was also removed from t-shirts of football teams. Interviewed by AsiaNews, Samir Qumsieh, journalist and director of the Catholic television station Al-Mahed Nativity TV in Bethlehem, said: "I want to launch a campaign to urge people not to buy these products - he says - because the removal of the cross is an intimidation against Christians, it is like saying that Jesus was never crucified."...

This dhimmi journalist blames Israel, but Israel is actually aiding Christian pilgrims:

"In the Holy Land - said Qumsieh - the emigration of Christians is growing, even if the authorities refuse to give precise numbers. Every day there are people who flee to other countries. As Christians, we live in a constant feeling of fear and uncertainty, and if you live in constant tension and pessimism you can not plan anything.

According to the journalist, "people leave because there is no work and movement is restricted under Israeli control." Other factors are the internal problems of Palestine, such as the clash between Hamas and Fatah, which has repercussions on the economic situation. Qumsieh points out that from 2002 to 2010 the Christian population of Bethlehem has dropped from over 18 thousand to 11 thousand people. In Gaza, after Hamas came to power in 2006, Christians have fallen by about 3,200 units, from 5 thousand to less than 1800 in 2010. Only 15,400 Christians (2% of the population) live in Jerusalem, as reported in a study by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. They are 50% less than the 31 thousand registered residents in 1948, when Christians accounted for 20% of the population of the city. [...]

Meanwhile, on the occasion of the celebrations for Christmas, the Israeli military has ordered troops deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories to facilitate the passage of Christian pilgrims at checkpoints. The military has also distributed a brochure explaining the importance of Christmas for Christians and is urging soldiers to avoid unnecessary discussions and obstacles at the borders with the West Bank.

The Karzai government in Afghanistan is supposed to be pro-American, although Karzai himself has threatened to join the Taliban. And now one of the chief enemies of the United States says that he "fully supports" the Karzai government, and the Afghan ambassador responds, "Afghanistan is seeking to utilize all potential to further increase relations with Iran."

This is the fruit of the U.S. Government's unshakable resolve to ignore the jihad doctrine and political Islam in general.

What Are We Fighting For Update: "Ahmadinejad receives new Afghan ambassador's credentials," from the Tehran Times, December 23:

TEHRAN -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received on Wednesday credentials of Afghanistan's new ambassador to Tehran.

Ahmadinejad told the ambassador that the Islamic Republic of Iran fully supports the Afghan government.

"The Iranian and Afghan nations share deep-rooted cultural and religious affinities and have common friends and enemies. Therefore, promoting the level of bilateral and regional cooperation will benefit both nations as well as the region," Ahmadinejad stated.

He added that the enemies do not wish that the prudent people of Afghanistan bring prosperity to their country through reliance on their own capabilities.

However, the Afghan people are strong and history has proven that they are able to defeat their enemies, the president stated.

"Tehran sees no limitation for the development of economic, cultural, and trade cooperation with Kabul and is ready to transfer its experiences to the resistant people of Afghanistan in the spheres of industry, construction, investment, and health."

The ambassador, for his part, said, "Afghanistan is seeking to utilize all potential to further increase relations with Iran."

Of course, few if any serious religious believers of any tradition would agree that "all religions are equally true and equally good." The problem here is that while this Malaysian government entity says that "national unity should be nurtured by encouraging the uniqueness of each religious tradition and simultaneously encouraging the attitude of mutual goodwill, mutual empathy and mutual love as fellow neighbours and fellow human beings," on the ground the situation is not so rosy. Muslims have special legal rights that non-Muslims do not have, which indicates yet again that all too often, when Islamic spokesmen speak about harmony and mutual respect among religions, they do not mean that all religious believers should enjoy equal legal rights.

"Press Statement Institute Of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) on Religious Pluralism," from the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia, December 15 (thanks to Rose):

The Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) wishes to clarify that:

Firstly, Islam rejects religious pluralism which claims that all religions are equally true and equally good.

Secondly, only one religion possesses the perfect and complete revelation, that is, Islam (see the Qur'an, Al-Maidah, 5:3)....

Fourthly, national unity should be nurtured by encouraging the uniqueness of each religious tradition and simultaneously encouraging the attitude of mutual goodwill, mutual empathy and mutual love as fellow neighbours and fellow human beings who originate from one living entity despite their religious differences....

Here yet again a Misunderstander of Islam resorts to Islamic habits of thought to gain perspective. The one element of jihad terrorism that we must ignore is the one that seems to play most on the minds of jihadists.

More on this story. "Terrorism verdicts called 'God's will,'" by Ian Munro in the Sydney Morning Herald, December 24:

THREE worshippers from inner-city mosques were confirmed as Melbourne's second Islamic terrorism cell when a Supreme Court jury convicted them of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack. Two other men, including one who warned that an attack in Australia would be ''a catastrophe'', were found not guilty.

Their target was the Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney's south-west. Their aim was to enter the barracks armed with military weapons and kill 500 personnel before they were killed or ran out of ammunition.

But there was no evidence that the three found guilty - Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 34, Saney Edow Aweys, 27, of Carlton, and Nayef El Sayed, 26, of Glenroy - had weapons when they were arrested on August 4 last year.

Federal police monitored their conversations in Somali, Arabic and English for almost a year as they sought a fatwa, or religious ruling, on the permissibility under Islam of launching an attack on the military in Australia. A Somali sheikh suggested it would do more harm than good for Australian Muslims....

And that is the only consideration that could have caused them to hesitate.

The verdicts drew no immediate reaction from the men. But Fattal, who appeared to be praying before the verdicts were delivered, called out to the jurors as they were dismissed: ''I respect you. Islam is a true religion. Thank you very much.''

The two found not guilty were Abdirahman Ahmed, 26, of Preston, and Yacqub Khayre, 23, of Meadow Heights. Both were embraced by the three guilty men before they left the dock.

When asked about the convictions of his co-accused, Mr Ahmed said: ''It's unfortunate but this is God's will. I just want to tell them to be patient. They'll get out one day.''...

The court heard that the group's motivation was anger at the earlier, and what they regarded as wrongful, jailing of a group of seven Muslim men on terrorism charges. Those convictions resulted in sentences ranging from four years' jail to 15 years' jail. The men convicted yesterday were also angry at the deployment of Australian military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq....

But if they hadn't been angry about that, they would have been angry about something else.

It's incredible how indefatigably the U.S. has pursued accommodation with Islam and encouraged others to do so. Just imagine the U.S. Government in 1943 encouraging anyone on the world stage to open up towards Germany. But of course the analogy founders on the fact that we don't consider ourselves to be at war with Islam; if only we could convince the Islamic jihadists that they are not at war with us. I don't think the Pope saying nice things about Islam under U.S. pressure would accomplish that.

"WikiLeaks: US encouraged pope to open up towards Islam and Turkey," from DPA, December 23:

Madrid - The United States initially saw Pope Benedict XVI as a 'eurocentric' pontiff who was 'unlikely to cut a prominent figure on the world stage,' according to WikiLeaks documents published Thursday.

The confidential US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblower website were quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais.

German-born Benedict XVI would face a 'steep learning curve' on international issues, US diplomats wrote after the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005.

Some of the cables focus on a 2006 academic lecture given by the pope, who quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor saying that the Muslim prophet Mohammed had brought 'only evil and inhuman things.' The quote sparked furious criticism in the Muslim world.

'It taxes the imagination' to suppose that such a reference by the pope 'would pass unnoticed,' a US diplomat wrote.

According to his assessment, the pope made the reference on purpose, but without foreseeing the consequences, which were followed by apologies by the Vatican.

The pope's 'approach toward Islam and toward inter-religious dialogue is cooler than that of his predecessor' John Paul II, the diplomat observed....

'The Holy See does not believe theological agreements with Islam are possible, but is convinced that better mutual knowledge will allay suspicions and facilitate peaceful co-existence,' US diplomats wrote in 2009.

One of those convicted said this after the verdict: "Islam is truth religion. Thank you very much." Oh, you're welcome. But it is again striking that someone whom we are commanded on pain of charges of "Islamophobia" and "bigotry" to believe has misunderstood Islam yet again invokes Islam, and only Islam, in response to the verdict. The element of his motivation that we are commanded to ignore and discount is the one that seems to be most important to him.

"Australian Muslims found guilty of terror plot," By Bonnie Malkin in the Telegraph, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Three men who believed Islam was under threat from western nations have been found guilty of plotting a terrorist attack against a Sydney army base.

Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 34, Saney Edow Aweys, 27, and Nayef El Sayed, 26 - all Australian citizens of Somali or Lebanese origin - were convicted in the Victorian Supreme Court of conspiring to plot a suicide attack on the Holsworthy base, and could face life in prison. Two other men, Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed, 26, and Yacqub Khayre, 23, were found not guilty of the same charge.

As jurors left the court following the verdict, Fattal said: "Islam is truth religion. Thank you very much."

During the three month trial, the court heard that the men had planned to shoot as many people as possible during the attack as revenge for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prosecutors said Aweys had described Australians as "infidels" and said the 2009 Black Saturday bush fires, which killed 173 people, were punishment from Allah.

In one encounter with an undercover officer, Fattall said: "If I find way to kill the army, I swear to Allah the great I'm going to do it."

The group, which met at a mosque in Melbourne, identified the army base as a "soft target" and sought approval for the attack from Somali sheikhs on a visit to the African country....

Officials said the men were motivated by a belief that Islam was under attack from the west, and planned to keep on shooting until they were killed....

Feel safe yet?

Anyway, give the guy a break. He has probably been busy making sure the TSA was hiring enough observant Muslims.

(Thanks to all who sent in this video.)

"Defense attorney Joseph Balter said Martinez will plead not guilty and 'vigorously contest the charges.' He has raised entrapment as an issue." The charges of entrapment are silly for Muhammad Hussain or any Muslim caught in a terror plot to try to pursue. Think about it: what would it take to lead you to participate in a terrorist mass-murder plot? If undercover agents approached you and tried to entice you into working to kill large numbers of innocent people, how hard would it be to convince you to do it?

Speaking strictly for myself, I have absolutely no worries of ever being entrapped in this way; there is simply nothing, under any circumstances, that anyone could say to me to convince me to blow anyone up. And so if someone showed up and started trying to cajole me into doing so, I would find him irritating, but I wouldn't even come close to doing anything that would enable anyone to portray me as guilty of anything. Muhammad Hussain, in contrast, went ahead with his jihad mass-murder plot. Law enforcement agents are not to blame for his choices.

"Indictment returned in Md. bomb plot," from UPI, December 22:

[...] Antonio Martinez, 21, a recent convert to Islam who changed his name to Muhammad Hussain, was charged by a federal grand jury Tuesday in Baltimore with attempted murder of federal officers and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, The Washington Post reported.

He is accused of trying to kill members of the military, whom he saw as enemies of Muslims...

Defense attorney Joseph Balter said Martinez will plead not guilty and "vigorously contest the charges." He has raised entrapment as an issue.

Prosecutors assert the attack was Martinez's idea and he refused chances to back out. He did not work with any terrorist group, authorities said.

Ashish Chawla died suddenly. Then Saudi authorities charged his wife Shalini with murdering him after he became a Muslim, even though an autopsy showed no sign that he had been murdered at all. Shalini says he never discussed converting to Islam with her, and said: "During my interrogation, I heard that my husband died the night before he was going to announce officially in the mosque his conversion to Islam. However, I did not find any proof of his conversion and his name is not registered in any Islamic center."

While it is remotely possible that Ashish Chawla really did intend to convert to Islam and never bothered to discuss it with the woman to whom he was married, there is an odd pattern here. We have seen this before: non-Muslim wives in Muslim countries whose husbands die, and then they're told, to their surprise, that he had converted to Islam while he was away from her -- even though he never got around to giving the momentous news to his wife. The case of Siham Qandah in Jordan is one notorious example. In Malaysia, Kaliammal Sinnasamy was told the same thing about her Hindu husband -- that he had converted to Islam before his death without informing her. Also in Malaysia, Ngiam Tee Kong was told the same thing about his late wife: that seven days before she died, she had converted to Islam without telling him.

In Pakistan, a Christian teenager named Zeeshan Gill was kidnapped, whereupon his mother was informed that he had converted to Islam. The same thing has happened to Christian children in Nigeria, and to numerous Christian girls in Egypt, as well as in Pakistan.

So many people all over the world converting to Islam, many just before their deaths, without bothering to inform those closest to them! What a strange phenomenon! One might almost be tempted to think that this was some kind of Islamic supremacist strategy, but that would of course be "Islamophobic."

"Indian doc cleared of hubby's murder in Saudi, returns home," from Rediff, December 22 (thanks to Mathews):

An Indian lady doctor, accused of poisoning to death her husband in Saudi Arabia after he reportedly converted to Islam, has been absolved of the charges after 10 months of detention which she described as a "nightmare".

Investigations into the death of her husband turned into a trauma for the 36-year-old Shalini Chawla, a woman doctor from New Delhi, as she had to face detention, while nursing her days old baby.

Chawla's travails began when her husband Ashish Chawla died in sleep on January 31, and it was suspected that he had been poisoned by his wife, the Saudi Gazette reported. But an initial medical report from King Khaled Hospital in Najran stated that the cause of death was "myocardial infarction" (heart attack). The report also certified that there was "no sign of any injury, crime, or fight". But Saudi authorities apparently tipped off that the man had been murdered after he became a Muslim, detained the wife to conduct further investigations.

The Indian lady doctor was detained with her then 34-day-old baby boy Vedant. But even the second medical report from the Centre for Toxicology and Forensics in Mecca also said the autopsy report did not confirm any poisoning, and yet the Indian doctor had to continue in detention.

Chawla said, she had no idea who falsely informed the police that she had poisoned her husband. "I heard they were our colleagues but I don't want to know about them." She said that her husband never discussed his intention to embrace Islam. But after his death, his friends revealed that he had become a Muslim.

"During my interrogation, I heard that my husband died the night before he was going to announce officially in the mosque his conversion to Islam. However, I did not find any proof of his conversion and his name is not registered in any Islamic center," she said....

The case was referred to headquarters of the bureau of investigation and prosecution in the capital Riyadh, which ordered a third autopsy by an independent panel of doctors who confirmed it was a heart attack. The Saudi authorities finally closed the case on December 3 clearing Shalini of all charges and allowing her to leave the country with her children and the body of her husband.

Chawla left Jeddah for home with the body of her husband and told Saudi Gazette that he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery. "My late husband died as a Muslim and his funeral will be held as per the Islamic rituals in New Delhi," Dr Shalini was quoted as saying by the paper....

One wonders if Amidhan Saberah of the Indonesian Council of Ulema ever said that the burnings of churches and terrorizing of Christians in Indonesia was "a little too much." Or is it just reindeer and twinkly lights that make him emotional?

Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Indonesia: "Muslim body says Christmas decor at Indonesian malls is too much," from DPA, December 23:

Jakarta - Christmas decorations at shopping malls in mainly Muslim Indonesia are a little over the top, the country's Islamic body said Thursday.

Ornaments such as Christmas trees, reindeer and twinkly lights have graced malls, hotels and other public places in the capital Jakarta ahead of Christmas.

'We know that Christmas is celebrated globally, but in Indonesia where people embrace different religions, the scene is a little too much,' said Amidhan Saberah, a member of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (Muslim scholars).

'Meanwhile, tens of millions of Indonesians are living in poverty and some are still struggling to get back on their feet after disasters,' he said....

"Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"

Muslim shop employees are often required to wear Santa Claus paraphernalia even though it might be against their religious convictions, he said....

Muslims make up more than 80 per cent of Indonesia's 230 million people and are mostly moderate, but small groups of hardliners are clamouring for the imposition of Islamic law, or sharia.

A Tiny Minority of Extremists, yet again unrebuked and unrestrained by the "mostly moderate" majority.

Be sure to check out the highly illuminating photos here.

Here is some background on the KLA. From "Al Qaeda's Balkan Links" by Marcia Christoff Kurop in the Wall Street Journal Europe, November 1, 2001:

[...] Islamist infiltration of the Kosovo Liberation Army advanced, meanwhile. Bin Laden is said to have visited Albania in 1996 and 1997, according to the murder-trial testimony of an Algerian-born French national, Claude Kader, himself an Afghanistan-trained mujahideen fronting at the Albanian-Arab Islamic Bank. He recruited some Albanians to fight with the KLA in Kosovo, according to the Paris-based Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues.

Controversial Relationship

By early 1998 the U.S. had already entered into its controversial relationship with the KLA to help fight off Serbian oppression of that province. While in February the U.S. gave into KLA demands to remove it from the State Department's terrorism list, the gesture amounted to little. That summer the CIA and CIA-modernized Albanian intelligence (SHIK) were engaged in one of the largest seizures of Islamic Jihad cells operating in Kosovo.

Fearing terrorist reprisal from al Qaeda, the U.S. temporarily closed its embassy in Tirana and a trip to Albania by then Defense Secretary William Cohen was canceled out of fear of an assassination attempt. Meanwhile, Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija was formally characterized as a "jihad" in October 1998 at an annual international Islamic conference in Pakistan.

Nonetheless, the 25,000 strong KLA continued to receive official NATO/U.S. arms and training support and, at the talks in Rambouillet, France, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright shook hands with "freedom fighter" Hashim Thaci, a KLA leader. As this was taking place, Europol (the European Police Organization based in The Hague) was preparing a scathing report on the connection between the KLA and international drug gangs. Even Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, officially described the KLA as Islamic terrorists.

Thaçi is now the Prime Minister of Kosovo. He is not only a jihadist, but is involved in organ trafficking and international organized crime. Here is more on this story. "Follow-up to Kosovo ORGANized Crime," by Julia Gorin at Republican Riot, December 20:

It looks like crying “Serbian Propaganda! ™” can fool people for only 12 years. Or so one hopes. This has yet to play out, and the rapporteur Dick Marty is handing the evidence-collection and prosecution over to the EU “justice” mission in Kosovo. So we know what that usually means for the welfare of evidence (or else for the welfare of those collecting it).

The follow-ups to the breaking Albanian organ-trafficking story have continued all week since the EU Council released its report on Tuesday.

Medicus clinic linked in Council of Europe report to alleged Kosovo Liberation Army organ harvesting atrocities

…EU prosecutor Jonathan Ratel told the court the organs had been illegally removed from victims and transplanted into wealthy recipients in the clinic, known as Medicus. Those who paid up to €90,000 (£76,400) for the black-market kidneys included patients from Canada, Germany, Poland and Israel, Ratel said.
…
The story would be shocking enough if it ended there. But what the court did not hear is that the Medicus clinic has been linked in a Council of Europe report to a wider network of Albanian organised criminals. They are said to have had close links to senior officials in Kosovo’s government, including the prime minister, Hashim Thaçi. Their supposed links to the underground organ market allegedly go back more than a decade when, in its most gruesome incarnation, the operation is said to have involved removing kidneys from murder victims.…

The claims initially surfaced two years ago, when the former chief war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, said she had been prevented from properly investigating alleged atrocities committed by the KLA. Marty’s report suggests the KLA held Serbs and other captives in secret detention centres in Albania for almost a year after the war ended…

…Kosovo’s guerrilla army formed “a formidable power base in the organised criminal enterprises” in Kosovo and Albania. A group known as Drenica, led by Thaçi, became the KLA’s dominant faction and senior KLA figures from the group hold senior positions in Kosovo’s government today.

In 1999, Thaçi was identified as the most dangerous of the KLA’s “criminal bosses” by intelligence reports, according to Marty…A KLA medical commander based in Albania, Shaip Muja remains a close confidante of Thaçi’s, and is currently a political adviser in the office of the prime minister, with responsibility for health. “We have uncovered numerous convergent indications of Muja’s central role [in] international networks, comprising human traffickers, brokers of illicit surgical procedures, and other perpetrators of organised crime,” the report states.

There is much, much more. Read it all.

The nonpareil Jamie Glazov has a fine new book out, Showdown with Evil. He is interviewed about it here.

Glazov's singular contribution has been his exploration of the whys and wherefores of the Leftist/jihadist alliance. For that he deserves the gratitude of every free person.

Last night I was on this ABN program with Daniel Pipes, Islamic apologist Abdullah Kunde, and Moustafa Zayed, author of The Lies About Muhammad, the rather preposterous purported refutation of my book The Truth About Muhammad.

Watch the fun as the Islamic supremacists dissemble and divert. But as one caller notes, fewer and fewer people believe them anymore.

Thinking hard about when mass-murder is OK and when it isn't

Ground Zero mosque Imam Rauf has praised Qaradawi, claiming that he has condemned terrorism done in the name of Islam: "The broader community is in fact criticising and condemning actions of terrorism that are being done in the name of Islam. I just came from a conference in Jordan, Amman where there were over 170 leading Muslim scholars from almost every part of the Muslim world, including some of the most important names like Sheikh Tantawi of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, who is the Chief Mufti of Egypt, the Chief Mufti of Jordan, the Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, who is a very very well known Islamic jurist, highly regarded all over the Muslim world."

Al-Qaradawi has also been praised as a "reformist" by Saudi-funded pseudo-academic John Esposito.

And yet here is Qaradawi endorsing jihad-martyrdom suicide bombings against Israel again. I guess his condemnation of terrorism is "nuanced."

"Leading Sunni Scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Supports Suicide Bombings in Palestine and Declares: 'I Am Against the Peace Process,'" from MEMRITV, December 17 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Following are excerpts from an interview with leading Sunni scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Al-Hayat 2 TV on December 17, 2010.

Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: [...] According to Islamic law, in any country that is invaded and occupied by foreign infidels, all the local people should conduct resistance against the occupation, using all the means at their disposal. The jurisprudents said that a woman can set out on Jihad without her husband's permission, a child can set out on Jihad without his father's permission, and a slave can set out without his master's permission. All the people should set out on Jihad. "There is no obedience to a creature in disobedience to the Creator."

The right of the collective supersedes the right of the individual. if the local people are incapable of confronting the [enemies], who are stronger and better prepared than them, their neighbors need to help them.

All the Muslims must help, each according to his ability - with money, with weapons, with expertise. If they have no expertise in anti-tank warfare, they can offer their expertise in the manufacturing of missiles. In such a case, a collective duty becomes an individual duty, incumbent upon all Muslims.

[...]

[The Jews] are the most miserly of all people and the most protective of their lives, yet they devote their lives and their money [to their cause]. The Muslims worldwide must contribute to the regaining of Palestine. Palestine is not merely Islamic land. It is the land of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and of the holy places.

[...]

I am against the hudna, as I have written. I have debated this with the leading Islamic scholars, like Sheik Abd Al-Aziz Ibn Baz and the Sheik of Al-Azhar. They sanctioned peace with Israel. I am against the peace process. I consider this to be a false peace, because this is an Israeli peace, in keeping with the Israeli will, not in keeping with what we want.

What kind of peace is this? From the days of Madrid and Oslo to this day, have we achieved anything? We have achieved nothing but illusions.

[...]

The martyrdom operations which I approve are the ones that target the occupiers. That is why I sanctioned martyrdom operations in Palestine. When I was asked, in London, how I could permit martyrdom operations in Palestine, I said that they are a necessity, because these people want to defend themselves, the things that are holy to them, and their land. I said to them: "You want them to stop the martyrdom operations? Then give them Apache helicopters, planes, tanks, and missiles, and then they will abandon martyrdom operations." They do not have bombs, so they turn themselves into human bombs. This is a necessity.

I permit this for the Palestinians, but not for those who attacked the Twin Towers in the US, because in that case, the passengers of four civilian planes were killed, who were not to blame. In what way were those passengers to blame? Many of them were Arabs or Muslims, and were from various countries, and had nothing whatsoever to do with politics. Take the people inside the towers - they were just employees in companies, and some were even Muslims, who prayed on Fridays. How were they to blame?

I only sanction martyrdom operations in defense of a plundered and occupied land.

I guess that's what makes him a "reformist."

Study after study has shown that jihadists are generally wealthier than their peers, and yet we constantly hear from the learned analysts that poverty causes terrorism, and that what we really need to do is build infrastructure in places like Afghanistan, and that will end the terrorism problem. Yet now we hear that Yemen is too poor to pursue jihad. Come on, guys, can't you get your story straight?

"In poverty-struck Yemen, al-Qaida a low priority," by Sarah El Deeb for Associated Press, December 22 (thanks to Ravi):

[...] More than 50 percent of Yemen's children are malnourished, rivaling war zones like Sudan's Darfur and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. That's just one of many worrying statistics in Yemen.

Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn't have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Water is running out. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding into cities. The government is riddled with corruption, has little control outside the capital, and its main source of income -- oil -- could run dry in a decade.

As a result, al-Qaida is far down on a long list of worries for most Yemenis, even as the United States presses the government to step up its fight against the terror network's affiliate here....

Christmas: does it make you think of STD's, rape, teenage pregnancy, abortion? Me either. Islamic Tolerance Alert from Absurd Britannia: "'Christmas is evil': Muslim group launches poster campaign against festive period," from the Daily Mail, December 22 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have launched a nationwide poster campaign denouncing Christmas as evil.

Organisers plan to put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.

They hope the campaign will help 'destroy Christmas' in this country and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead....

The placards, which have already appeared in parts of London, feature an apparently festive scene with an image of the Star of Bethlehem over a Christmas tree.

But under a banner announcing 'the evils of Christmas' it features a message mocking the song the 12 Days of Christmas.

It reads: 'On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me an STD (sexually transmitted disease).

'On the second day debt, on the third rape, the fourth teenage pregnancies and then there was abortion.'

According to the posters, Christmas is also to responsible for paganism, domestic violence, homelessness, vandalism, alcohol and drugs.

Another offence of Christmas, it proclaims, is 'claiming God has a son'.

The bottom of the poster declares: 'In Islam we are protected from all of these evils. We have marriage, family, honour, dignity, security, rights for man, woman and child.'...

Yes, dignity for women and non-Muslims, as long as they know their place.

This is a bit old, but I just saw it -- and it is worth revisiting for the evidence it provides that yet another "moderate" group is anything but. "Hand Book Shows ICNA's True Goals," from IPT News, December 6 (thanks to Sayyid):

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is preaching a global Caliphate and Islamic Shari'a law over America to its members, according to the 2010 ICNA Member's Hand Book. This is a very different message than the group's public outreach efforts, and contradicts claims that the organization is a tolerant, mainstream Islamic group.

As the hand book spells out, the organization's ultimate goal is "the Establishment of Islam" as the sole basis of global society and governance. It also encourages members to deceive people in its proselytizing campaign to help fulfill this goal. This aim is one that ICNA has been actively pursuing as the group has set its sights on America's constitutional separation of religion and state.

It's not the first example of radicalism by one of America's largest Muslim organizations. ICNA's magazine has featured interviews with terrorist leaders in Pakistan, called on youth to fight abroad in Kashmir, and honored like-minded extremist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and South Asia's Jamaat-e-Islami. Concerns have also been expressed about 5 young members of the group's Virginia mosque, who were arrested and convicted on terrorism charges after attempting to link up with and fight for Pakistani terror groups in December 2009.

As the hand book explains, ICNA doesn't just believe that religion is a private affair. "Establishment of the Religion" extends beyond the individual and family and into the society, state, and world. "These words [Establishment of the Religion] include not only practicing the religion in individual and collective life and propagating its true teaching to others, but also striving to make this Deen [religion] a way of life for all," the hand book reads.

ICNA's charter is even more explicit. It calls for the "establishment of the Islamic system of life" in the world, "whether it pertains to beliefs, rituals and morals or to economic, social or political spheres."

For ICNA, this means being the American branch of a global phenomenon that they refer to as the 'Islamic Movement.' The 2010 Hand Book notes, branches of this movement "are active in various parts of the world to achieve the same objectives. It is our obligation as Muslims to engage in the same noble cause here in North America."...

Read it all.

Going way beyond Gregory III, and without any kind of gun to his head, the execrable pro-Hitler hyperdhimmi Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim echoes the most bizarre claims of Islamic antisemitic conspiracy paranoia.

"Leading priest blames Jews for Greece's problems," from the JTA, December 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ATHENS, Greece -- A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece's financial problems on Tuesday.

The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim also blamed world Jewry for other ills in the country during his appearance on Mega TV.

Mixing Freemasons with Jewish bankers such as Baron Rothschild and world Zionism, the Metropolite said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.

Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's policies? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?"

The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."

Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said....

As long suspected, on both counts. To allow Gadhafi to succeed at blackmail sets a disastrous precedent, and encourages more of the same. "U.K. Pressured Scots to Release Lockerbie Bomber Out of Concern for Oil Deal, Report Finds," from Fox News, November 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Fear of "commercial warfare" from Libya led the British government to pressure Scotland to free the convicted Lockerbie bomber last year, reads a report being released Tuesday by four U.S. senators.

The lengthy report, which calls on the British and Scottish governments to apologize for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's release, concludes that a $900 million oil deal with Libya ultimately paved the way for the Scottish justice system to free al-Megrahi in August 2009.

The report says that faulty medical analysis was used to justify his release on "compassionate" grounds, a decision described as a crass component of a complicated trade relationship between the United Kingdom and Libya.

"The U.K. government played a direct, critical role in al-Megrahi's release," the report states. "The U.K. knew that in order to maintain trade relations with Libya, it had to give into political demands."

The investigation was led by New Jersey Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg and New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. The report comes on the 22nd anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, an attack that killed 270 people, many of them American. [...]

Explanations about the release, challenged from the start by outraged U.S. officials, began to unravel within days after al-Megrahi was allowed to return to his country, where he was given a hero's welcome complete with a greeting on the tarmac by Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi.

Regardless, the senators' latest report claims there was "no medical justification" for his release.

According to the five month investigation, the Scottish government ignored expert opinions challenging the three-month time frame, instead relying on doctors "without the necessary medical training or experience with prostate cancer to provide an accurate prognosis."...

But deep down, they really, really want peace. The proponents of a two-state solution ought to take note of statements like these, and realize that a Palestinian state will not bring peace, but will only become a new base for jihad attacks against what remains of Israel.

"'Palestine is big' -- PA says it includes all of Israel: 3 PA TV shows present Israeli places Tiberias, Rosh Hanikra and all of Israel as 'Palestine,'" by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for PMW, December 22:

Contrary to the repeated statements by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to foreign leaders that the PA recognizes Israel, the PA internally in Arabic continues to deny Israel's existence and to present a world without Israel.

The PA transmits the message to its people that it does not recognize Israel's existence, describing all Israeli land, cities and regions as "Palestinian." Palestinian TV is one tool among many used by the PA to disseminate this message.

In three recent programs on PA TV, which is owned by the PA and operated under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas's office, Palestinians were presented with a world without Israel, which is the most explicit non-recognition:

1. The Israeli city of Tiberias was said to be "in northern Palestine, close to the Palestinian-Jordanian-Syrian border."
- "Palestine" could not share a border with Syria unless Israel did not exist. Tiberias is in northern Israel and not "northern Palestine."

2. The coast of "Palestine" was said in an educational program to be 224 km. long, reaching Rosh Hanikra in northern Israel.
- The coast of "Palestine" could not be 224 km. long unless there were no Israel, since the coast of the Gaza Strip is only 40 km. long.

3. "Palestine is big - 27,000 sq. km.," said PA TV host.
- The area of "Palestine" could not be 27,000 sq. km. unless Israel were to disappear, since the West Bank and Gaza together are only about 6,000 sq. km.

Read it all.

Despite how they're used to victimize innocent people. "Pak: Islamic Body Oppose Repeal of Blasphemy Laws," from Outlook India, December 19:

Pakistan's top Islamic body has opposed the repeal of the controversial blasphemy laws that has been used by a court to sentence a Christian woman to death, which has sparked an outrage in the country and abroad.

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Pakistan's top constitutional advisory body on Islamic injunctions, has opposed the repeal of blasphemy laws, which were promulgated by former military dictator Zia-ul Haq in the 1980s.

A death sentence by a lower court in Punjab to a 45-year-old Christian woman, Asiya Bibi, for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed has triggered a debate on the need to repeal or amend the blasphemy laws.

An official report on Asiya Bibi's case submitted to President Asif Ali Zardari said she had been framed in the case.

Last week, a doctor in southern Sindh province was arrested on a charge of blasphemy after he threw the business card of a pharmaceutical representative into a dustbin....

Minority communities and rights groups have said that the law has been misused to falsely implicate non-Muslims in blasphemy cases.

The police and law enforcement agencies have charged 1,274 people with offences under the blasphemy laws from 1986 to 2010. Sixty per cent of the people charged were non-Muslims. Several of the accused were murdered according to media reports, the report said....

United States and the United Kingdom have called for their repeal, describing it as anti-Christian. The case Asiya Bibi, a mother of five children, has drawn appeals from Pope Benedict XVI and international human rights groups to free her.

However, radical Islamist groups and banned terror outfits like the LeT-linked JuD have openly opposed changes in the blasphemy laws. The leaders of the main religious parties have vowed to resist any move to amend the blasphemy law.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has called for a strike across the country on December 31 to oppose moves to change the law.

In Peshawar, hardline cleric Maulana Yousaf Qureshi of a 17th century mosque offered a reward of Rs 5 lakhs to any person who killed Asiya Bibi.

Jihad Grinch steals Christmas for Iraqi Christians. "There will be only small Mass in one church in Basra without any signs of joy or decoration and under the protection of Iraqi security forces. We are fully aware of al-Qaida threats."

"3 Iraqi cities cancel Christmas festivities," by Yahya Barzanji and Sameer N. Yacoub for Associated Press, December 22 (thanks to JCB):

KIRKUK, Iraq - Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities in three cities across the country as al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege on a Baghdad church.

Church officials in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul along with the southern city of Basra said they will not put up Christmas decorations, have canceled evening Mass and urged worshippers to refrain from decorating their homes. Even an appearance by Santa Claus has been called off.

"Nobody can ignore the threats of al-Qaida against Iraqi Christians," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako in Kirkuk. "We cannot find a single source of joy that makes us celebrate. The situation of the Christians is bleak."

Christians across Iraq have been living in fear since a Baghdad church attack in October that left 68 people dead. Days later insurgents targeted Christian homes and neighborhoods across the capital with a series of bombs.

An al-Qaida front group that claimed responsibility for the church siege vowed at the time to carry out a reign of terror against Christians.

The Islamic State of Iraq renewed its threats in a message posted late Tuesday on a website frequented by Islamic extremists....

Christians in Iraq's second-largest city of Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad decided to cancel all celebrations. Saad Matti, a Christian legislator on the Basra provincial council, said the decision was made out of respect for the victims of the Our Lady of Salvation church siege and because of the al-Qaida threats.

"There will be only small Mass in one church in Basra without any signs of joy or decoration and under the protection of Iraqi security forces," he said. "We are fully aware of al-Qaida threats."

To whom might he have been gabbing?

One wonders to whom he was talking, and what they were discussing. "Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law arrested 'trying to smuggle sim card into Belmarsh Prison under her burka,'" from the Daily Mail, December 22 (thanks to David):

The daughter-in-law of hate preacher Abu Hamza has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his jail under her burka.

Chayme Hamza, 26, was apprehended by guards during a routine search when she went to visit the firebrand cleric in Belmarsh high security prison in south-east London last Friday.

Police were called and she was arrested on suspicion of bringing a prohibited article into a prison.

The sim card was found in a pocket in clothing under her burka, according to The Sun.

Hamza's eldest son Mohamed Kamel Mostafa - Chayme's husband and a convicted terrorist - was arrested over the same incident the next day....

The arrests have raised fears that Hamza has had access to a mobile phone while he awaits extradition to the U.S on terror charges.

The 52-year-old was jailed for seven years in February 2006 for inciting murder and race hate. He is challenging attempts to extradite him....

Sharia forbids the construction of new churches. Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Indonesia: "Catholics in Bogor (West Java) not allowed to celebrate Christmas Mass," by Mathias Hariyadi for Asia News, December 20 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Bogor authorities have banned all public activities or celebrations associated with Christmas, including Christmas Mass, at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung, Tulang Kuning, Bogor Regency (West Java Province). The official ban was issued in a letter that restated the usual reasons, namely the lack of a building permit for a place of worship (Izin Mendirikan Bangunan in Indonesian). Without it, even praying on Church-owned land is prohibited.

In Indonesia, permits are required for any type of building, but when it comes to Christian places of worship, they are issued only after 60 residents living near the would-be church have agreed in writing to the project and the local Inter-faith Dialogue Group has given its approval.

In this particular case, because the application has not yet been approved after a long period of time, worshippers have taken to meeting under a tent or in a restaurant. Complicating matters, local authorities have interpreted the law very restrictively, going so far as to prevent Christians from even meeting in public. Now local Catholics are at a loss because they cannot figure out how to interpret the ban....

The situation is particularly worrying because of past episodes of violence. Some parishioners, who asked their names be withheld, told AsiaNews that the ban was preceded by repeated threats from local Muslim extremists, who are bent on preventing any Christian ceremony in a public place.

The fear is that radical groups might take advantage of the ban to carry out violent acts in case Catholics hold celebrations in a public place, under a tent for example, or in a restaurant in neighbouring villages, which they have done in the past.

In 2005, local hard-line Muslim groups disrupted Easter celebrations. More problems arose in 2008, when hundreds of radical Muslims blocked access to church-owned land. On that occasion too, Easter celebrations were interrupted. Nonetheless, Good Friday and Palm Sunday services were successfully pulled off without an incident.

Parung is home to at least 3,000 Catholics. The local diocese owns 7,500 m2 of land where it wants to build a church. However, Muslim extremists have tried to prevent them....

"A notebook found on Molanda's body had the phone number of one of those charged on Wednesday, Aboud Rogo Mohammed -- who was acquitted in 2005 of involvement in the 2002 bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa which killed 15 people."

"Kenya charges two with al-Shabaab membership," from Reuters, December 22:

NAIROBI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Two Kenyans were charged on Wednesday with being members of the Somalia-based rebel group al-Shabaab, and police linked one of them to an explosion near a Kampala-bound bus in the capital Nairobi earlier this week.

Police said the Russian-made grenade in a plastic bag that exploded on Monday was being carried by Tanzanian Albert Molanda, who was killed by the blast. Police said he planned to transport the device to the Ugandan capital Kampala.

A notebook found on Molanda's body had the phone number of one of those charged on Wednesday, Aboud Rogo Mohammed -- who was acquitted in 2005 of involvement in the 2002 bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa which killed 15 people.

Mohammed and his co-accused, Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, pleaded not guilty in the High Court in Nairobi to charges of being members of al Shabaab, and were remanded in custody pending a ruling on their bail plea.

No one has claimed responsibility for the Nairobi blast, but Kenyan police chief Mathew Iteere said the attacker could have been inspired by al Shabaab....

"Yes, I wrote texts to publish on the internet and collected money. Of course I knew the money would be spent on weapons. Today, I realise that what I did just made everything worse." Worse in what way? Worse because they got caught, or worse because she was aiding in violence and terror? Most non-Muslim observers will assume that she meant the latter, but given that she likely still holds to the jihad belief-system, given her dress in court, that is not established.

"Top terrorist's wife tells German court: I raised the funds," from DPA, December 22:

Berlin - The Muslim wife of a convicted terrorist kingpin admitted Wednesday to a German court that she raised funds for associates of al-Qaeda and posted Islamist videos on the internet.

Her convert-to-Islam husband, Fritz Gelowicz, is now serving 12 years for a foiled plot to set off a series of car bombs in Germany. The couple were fascinated by jihad or holy war against infidels.

Dressed in a black veil from head to toe, the wife, 29, whose parents immigrated to Germany from Turkey, told a Berlin court she had been convinced that funding the jihad was a way of standing up for orphans and poor Afghans suffering from the war.

'Yes, I wrote texts to publish on the internet and collected money. Of course I knew the money would be spent on weapons,' she said. 'Today, I realise that what I did just made everything worse.'

She said she had been been 'carried away' by her outrage over civilian suffering and had re-posted terrorist video messages on the internet out of a sense of defiance.

But she denied knowing about her husband's bomb plot and claimed she only began fund-raising for the jihad after he was arrested in 2007....

And contraceptives are only by permission. Sharia Alert from the Darul Uloom Deoband in India: "Jeans, skin-tight clothes, contraceptives come under Darul Uloom fatwa," from Indian Express, December 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

In a statement that might trigger a dress-code debate, leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has said that wearing jeans or other tight-fitting clothes is not appropriate as per religious beliefs.

In another controversial observation, it said a couple should first seek the opinion of a 'hakim' or Unani practitioner before resorting to use contraceptives if needed for medical reasons.

However, a Muslim social activist and a gynecologist from the community felt that such fatwas are rarely followed by the people.

In a posting yesterday, the seminary said wearing 'skin-tight' dresses is "not lawful" and that clothes should be "loose and simple".

It gave its opinion on the issue when asked by a woman whether wearing "skin tight" trousers and jeans were allowed as per religious beliefs.

"It is not lawful," the seminary said in its response that is posted on the 'fatwa online' section of its website.

More Islamic supremacist displacement of responsibility. If I ever meet an Islamic spokesmen who will acknowledge that Muslims have ever done anything wrong anywhere at any time or place, I will faint dead away. Once again here, Turkey is trying to make sure that the U.S. doesn't tell the truth about the Armenian genocide, which had numerous features of a classic jihad operation. And Obama, predictably, is carrying water for the Turks.

"Turkey warns US of Armenian resolution vote," from World Bulletin, December 21 (thanks to George):

Turkey's Embassy in Washington, D.C. has intensified lobbying efforts against a possible approval of an Armenian resolution at the U.S. House of Representatives that calls for the recognition of Armenian allegations over the the [sic] incidents of 1915 back in the Ottoman Empire.

Diplomatic sources close to the ongoing efforts said Turkish Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Namik Tan personally telephoned Congress members to win their support against the resolution as the ambassador also called former U.S. secretaries of state and defense as well as national security advisors.

The Turkish Embassy also had contacted officials with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to have them exert pressure on Congress members and warn them over possible damage of the resolution on business relations between Turkey and the United States.

The resolution "H. Res. 252" --labelling the 1915 incidents which took place shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire as "genocide" -- was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 23 against 22 last March.

The adoption of the resolution caused wide reaction in Turkey, which recalled its ambassador, who returned to Washington, D.C. a month later.

The resolution may come to the House floor on Tuesday on a call by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Actually, it didn't yesterday, but it may come to a vote today.

"Obama admin in touch with House"

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. State Department Philip Crowley said Monday that they were in touch with the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the Armenian resolution.

Speaking at a daily press briefing in Washington, D.C., Crowley said that the U.S. State Department had made their opposition to such a resolution clear in the past.

We are in touch with the House on the resolution, Crowley said....

A freedom of speech issue? Really? "Anti-Semitic website back online: York U student on the run from Interpol," by Marten Youssef for The Canadian Press, December 21 (thanks to Abe):

VANCOUVER - An anti-Semitic Islamic website police say is operated by an Ontario student who is on the run is now back on the Internet after being shut down earlier this year by a Canadian web-hosting provider.

Salman An-Noor Hossain, 25, of Mississauga, operated a website called Filthy Jewish Terrorists and he and the site were the subject of a five-month investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.

The site was shut down in March and Hossain was suspended from York University as the OPP investigated him.

But the anti-Semitic site has re-launched, using a host in Switzerland.

On Tuesday, Hossain posted a blog identifying himself as the operator of the re-launched site, and using the same design as the old one. The new web site is registered with generic information making it impossible to locate him.

Last July, the OPP said in a statement that Hossain "wilfully promoted hatred and advocated genocide of the Jewish community." His website called for direct terrorist attacks.

Hossain was charged with five counts under the seldom-used hate-crime section of the Criminal Code, but he didn't show up for his court date.

Last month, the Ontario Superior Court issued an international warrant for his arrest on Interpol. Hossain's picture, birth date, height, weight, colour of eyes and hair are listed on the international police web site.

"Every single Muslim in North America and Europe has a right to go and physically fight alongside the Islamic resistance groups in the various regions under external occupation (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, and other places)," the website reads....

The Canadian Press reported Monday that an al Qaeda-linked website names more than 100 Arab Christians living in Canada.

The site apparently targets them, accusing them of playing a role in converting Muslims. The site, Shumuk Al Islam, includes pictures, names, addresses and cell phone numbers of Coptic Orthodox Egyptians mostly living in Eastern Canada....

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday the list of Canadian names is worrisome.

"It's very disconcerting that Canadians would be targeted in this way, but it simply illustrates the fact that Canadians are not immune from terrorism," Toews said.

"There is also a very fine line between what is freedom of speech and what is a criminal act. I think, in this kind of a situation, we are looking at criminal activity and criminal statements and all I can say is RCMP and CSIS are monitoring this very closely and working together with affected people."

Shumukh Al-Islam has also posted dozens of sensitive Canadian sites, such as nuclear facilities and dams, and noted them as potential targets....

Sounds like a criminal act to me, but hey, I'm no lawyer.

This is nothing new, and should come as no surprise. Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "1 in 3 Brit Muslims [sic] students back 'killing for Islam', 40 percent want Sharia law: Wikileaks," from Asian News International, December 22:

The whistleblower website 'Wikileaks' has revealed the outcome of a 2009 poll in the secret US diplomatic cables, saying that 32 percent of Muslim students in 30 universities across the UK believe killing in the name of religion is justified, while 40 percent want Muslims in the country to be under the Sharia law.

The Daily Mail quoted a cable from January 2009 as saying that the survey, which was conducted on 600 Muslim and 800 non-Muslim students, also found that found 54 percent wanted a Muslim party to represent their worldview in the Parliament....

This announcement is going out today:

AFDI/SIOA Rolls Out Pro-Israel Bus Ad Campaign in Seattle to Counter Jewish Blood Libel Bus Ads

NEW YORK, December 21: The human rights group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), a program of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), announced today that it will be running king-sized pro-Israel ads on Seattle buses to counter the anti-Israel bus advertisements that will be running soon on King County Metro Transit buses.

On December 27, ads purchased by a group calling itself Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign will start running on twelve Seattle buses. The ads will feature the slogan, "Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work." Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign spokesman Ed Mast is former activist with the fanatically antisemitic International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a hard-Left group dedicated to disrupting operations of the Israeli Defense Force. ISM has numerous links to the jihad terrorist groups Hamas and Hizballah.

According to Seattle's KING 5 News, Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign paid $1,794 to run the ads. However, King County Metro Transit would not offer the same price to AFDI/SIOA Executive Director Pamela Geller. "I asked for the same deal as the Jew-haters received, but was told that the price in the article was 'misquoted.' So of course they are charging me more." SIOA was quoted a price of $2,760 for its ad.

The SIOA ad reads: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Islamic jihad."

AFDI/SIOA successfully brought suit against Miami-Dade Transit after it refused to run SIOA's religious freedom bus ads offering aid to ex-Muslims threatened for leaving Islam.

Those who wish to support SIOA's Seattle pro-Israel bus ad campaign can Paypal the funds to writeatlas@aol.com. If funds permit, SIOA plans to roll the same campaign out nationwide.

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.

Pamela Geller has more on this, as well as a larger version of the bus ad.

More on the "people" arrested yesterday. Apparently they misunderstood Islam to the extent that they thought Allah would be pleased by mass-murder. How odd that Muslims continue to misunderstand Islam in just this way -- and that the mainstream media keeps pretending that their motivation has nothing to do with Islam at all. "UK terror plot aimed British landmarks, shopping," from the Associated Press, December 21 (thanks to PRCS):

LONDON - A large-scale terror attack was aimed at British landmarks and public spaces, security officials said Tuesday as more details emerged and police searched the homes of 12 British suspects being held for questioning.

The men -- whose ages range from 17 to 28 -- were arrested Monday in the largest counterterrorism raid in nearly two years. At least five were of Bangladeshi origin.

Lord Carlile, the government's independent watchdog for terror legislation, said Tuesday the alleged plot appeared significant and involved several British cities, but he did not identify the targets. Police have up to 28 days to either charge the men or release them.

Possible targets that were scouted include the Houses of Parliament in London and shopping areas around the U.K., according to a security official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing....

To "add a heavy economic burden to an already faltering economy."

Will the Islamophobia never end?

"U.S. buffets and salad bars 'threatened with poison attacks' by Al Qaeda group behind 'ink cartridge' bomb plot," from the Daily Mail, December 21 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Al Qaeda terrorists planned to poison food at multiple US hotels and restaurants over a single weekend, it has been revealed this morning.

The 'credible' plot involved slipping the poisons cyanide and ricin into salad bars and buffets, according to CBS news.

The terrorist group behind the failed 'ink cartridge' attacks on cargo planes in October were said to have hatched the plan.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula branded the plot 'Operation Haemorrhage'.

Militants say the plot consists of 'attacking the enemy with smaller but more frequent operations' to 'add a heavy economic burden to an already faltering economy'....

Here is a transcript of my debate with Dr. Peter Kreeft last month at Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. Video above.

Professor Zmirak: I'm very proud to have with me the most distinguished writers in their fields alive, the most distinguished Catholic philosophical writer in English, Dr. Peter Kreeft, and the leading expert on jihad and political Islam, Mr. Robert Spencer. Dr. Kreeft has written a book called Between Allah and Jesus. It's the third book in the series written exploring the interface and the interactions and the commonalities and divergences between Christianity and Islam. Dr. Kreeft is also a Professor of Philosophy at Boston College and has written more than forty-five books; I've read a large percentage of them and enjoyed them immensely. I'm very honored and proud he was able to make it. Mr. Spencer is author of ten books and he's also the editor of JihadWatch.com.

Our topic is "Resolved: that the only good Muslim is a bad Muslim." Mr. Spencer will be speaking first, in the affirmative, for twenty minutes, then Dr. Kreeft responds for twenty minutes, then there will be twenty minutes of them asking each other questions, then I'll pose a few questions, there will be opportunities for questions from the audience. So Mr. Spencer, if you would like to lead off....

Mr. Spencer: Thank you very much. Thank you all for coming and thank you to everyone at Thomas More College for hosting this. I think this is a discussion that needs to be had in the public square and is all too often ignored and not held where it should be, and so I hope that this will perhaps bring some needed attention to these questions. It's a great honor for me to be appearing with Dr. Kreeft who was my professor many hundreds of years ago.

Dr. Kreeft's book, Between Allah and Jesus, is one that I read with great interest, and I certainly see what is the motive behind what he's trying to do in it, insofar as I understand it correctly and why he would want to portray Islam in this manner. Now the question before us is somewhat uncomfortable; it even seems kind of insulting to say that the only good Muslim is a bad Muslim--especially in a context where we have a Catholic college hosting a debate and it's as if one of the debate participants, namely myself, is saying that religious people from a certain kind should be discouraged from holding to their religion. It seems like something that other religious people should not be in the position of saying and certainly it seems like something that most religious people would reject out of hand on the face of it and say, "Obviously this is not true because we all know that the people who are committing violence in the name of Islam are twisting and hijacking the religion. If they only go back to the tenants of the Qur'an and of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam then this problem and attendant problems of terrorism and Islamic supremacism would evanesce."

And I think it's in that spirit that Dr. Kreeft wrote his book. It is something devoutly to be wished that people of good will of all faiths could find some common accord and work on that common accord for their shared values. We have even seen that happen between the Catholic Church and Islamic countries at the United Nations against various anti-life initiatives. And so this is something many people have great hope for. The great danger is holding such a hope is one that many people fall into and project upon other religious people values which we ourselves may hold, and that therefore we assume that people of other religious traditions must also hold--when actually that's not the case. And unfortunately I must say with regret that I did find a great deal of that kind of thing in this particular book. The idea for example is posited several times in the book by the Muslim character, who I think it's fair to say is the hero of the story. Many times he says that jihad is an interior spiritual struggle. Now that is something that does exist in Islamic tradition. But tonight we are asking, 'Should Muslim piety be encouraged?

Should Muslim people be encouraged to be more rigorous and more devout and more fervent in their religious observance? ' So we have to go back to the wellsprings, to the teachings of Islam in the Qur'an and Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, who is held up in the Qur'an--as in chapter 33 verse 21 which calls him uswa hasana or the Excellent Example of conduct. In Islamic tradition he is even exalted in many places as al-insan al-kamil, the Perfect Man. And in practice, in Islamic tradition, even though Muhammad is rebuked several times in the Qur'an (notably in chapter 80) for his sinfulness, in practice, in Islamic tradition, Muhammad is essentially the touchstone of all behavior, and if he did it, then it's good and right and ought to be imitated. Now that's important for the present question, because when we have the Muslim character saying 'Jihad is an interior spiritual struggle,' he is in fact putting himself in the position of contradicting the words and example of Muhammad and the words of the Qur'an itself. There's an entire chapter of the Qur'an, chapter eight, called al-Anfal: the spoils of war. There are no spoils of war in an interior spiritual struggle. There is no booty to be captured, there are no slave girls to be distributed among the warriors, and yet that chapter of the Qur'an and others contain instruction for doing just that kind of thing. And a fifth of the spoils are reserved for the Prophet himself; he took part in these wars, he actually fought seventy-eight battles during his career as the Prophet, and seventy-seven were offensive in nature. The Qur'an does not teach that jihad is an interior spiritual struggle.

Isn't it great that Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange made Oklahoma safe for Sharia?

In any case, she was lashed, not stoned to death, so her executioners must be moderates. "Bangladeshi 'stepson affair' woman dies after caning," by Ethirajan Anbarasan for BBC News, December 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Sufia Begum's home in Rajshahi district, north-western Bangladesh Women's rights campaigners have also gone to Sufia Begum's village to find out what happened

Two people have been arrested after the death of a Bangladeshi woman who was publicly caned for allegedly having an affair with her stepson, police say.

A group of village elders and clerics sentenced Sufia Begum under Sharia law to 40 lashes for adultery.

The 40-year-old died of her injuries almost a month after the beating in Rajshahi district, her family says.

Bangladesh banned such punishments in the name of religious edicts or fatwas by Muslim clergy earlier this year.

It is thought to be the first case of a fatality linked to a Sharia law punishment since the practice was outlawed....

"According to the information we've received, village elders tied 10 canes together and beat her four times," Masud Parvez, an investigating police officer, told the BBC....

"Her body was swollen and I couldn't even recognise her," said Ms Begum's brother, Taimur Rahman....

Activists say dozens of fatwas are issued under Sharia law each year by village clergy.

Nearly 90% of Bangladesh's estimated 160 million population are Muslims, most of whom practice a moderate version of Islam.

Oh, good!

Only greasy Islamophobes would object to a hijabbed, observant Muslim TSA worker, right? After all, to object would be to assume that all Muslims are jihad terrorists or jihad terrorist sympathizers, and that is the very definition of "Islamophobia," now, isn't it? We should be applauding the prospect of a devout Muslim who has dedicated her time to protecting Americans by working at the TSA, right?

All right. I am sure the TSA employee pictured here is as loyal and patriotic as the day is long. This is the question I have: just imagine the possibility -- admittedly wild and remote, virtually inconceivable -- that jihadis would want to infiltrate the TSA, so as to place operatives in strategic positions who could then ensure that airport security became lax at the precisely opportune moment. One's immediate thought would be that they would be dressed in a secular Western style, as the Al-Qaeda playbook directs, and as Muhammad Atta and his fellow jihad hijackers were dressed on September 11, 2001.

However, another goal could be in view as well: the placement of people dressed in "Muslim garb," as Juan Williams memorably put it, in the TSA forces non-Muslim air passengers to place their safety in the hands of people who clearly hold the same belief-system as did those who made all these security procedures necessary in the first place. Thus we are forced tacitly to acknowledge either that that belief-system had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks -- even though the attackers themselves invoked it and only it as their motivation -- and that therefore we must do nothing to oppose its spread in the West, or that even if that belief-system did motivate the 9/11 jihad attacks, it is continuing to advance in the West and we can do nothing about it.

The two goals may coalesce: in other words, Islamic jihadists who wished to infiltrate the TSA may decide that a hijabbed TSA worker would be preferable to one in secular dress, as a gesture of Islamic supremacist assertiveness as well as the placement of an agent who could weaken security at the right moment. A hijabbed TSA worker is the personification of a dare: Islamic supremacists are daring the TSA to question her about her belief-system, thereby acknowledging that that belief-system has something to do with terror and violence. The TSA almost certainly did not dare to do so: it is virtually inconceivable that the woman pictured, as well as other hijabbed TSA workers and airport personnel, were ever questioned in any attempt to determine how closely their view coincided with those of Osama bin Laden. To have done so would have been "Islamophobic," and would have invited protests from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

And so the TSA hires observant Muslims without making any effort at all to determine whether or not they are jihadist infiltrators.

Yet on what basis can that possibility be ruled out?

Feel safe yet?

Photo thanks to Pamela Geller.

An update on this story -- with gratitude to all who complained to Google about this.

Thanks to everyone!

PMW wants to personally thank our subscribers and supporters.
In response to your many actions - your emails to You Tube, your blogs, tweets, op-eds, and calls to Google - as of this morning the YouTube "Palwatch" account is once again functional.

Much thanks to everyone.
Itamar Marcus

An act of Islamic piety: destroying the Christians' "misguided" books. After all, as the caliph Umar is supposed to have said when ordering the library of Alexandria to be burned: "If the books agree with the Qur'an, they are superfluous. If they disagree with it, they are heretical."

"Islamic Militants Destroy Underground Christian Library in Somalia," from International Christian Concern, December 20 (thanks to AINA):

Washington, D.C. (December 20, 2010)-International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on December 16, members of Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group, destroyed a Christian library in the Luuq district of Somalia.

The militants destroyed the library and brought Bibles, Christian books, and audio/video materials to the city center and burned them after the Muslim noon prayer. The guardian of the library fled the area hours after the library was found by the Islamists. His whereabouts are unknown.

Al-Shabaab's district commissioner in Luuq, Sheik Farhaan Abdi Elmoghe, described the discovery of the library as "a blow to the misguided Somali Christians."

The library was located in a derelict farm on the Juba River. It is not uncommon for the persecuted Somali Christians to literally bury their Bibles and other Christian materials because of intense persecution from Islamists.

Speaking from Mogadishu to ICC, a leader of an underground church said, "The library served as an underground Somali Bible college, [and it's] one of the biggest and the most comprehensive Somali Christian libraries in southern Somalia." He further added that the destruction of the library would not stop the Somali Christians from studying the scriptures.

Al-Shabaab has openly declared that it wants to wipe out Christianity from Somalia. This year alone, the Islamists have killed at least half a dozen Somali Christians. Despite the attacks by Islamists, the number of Somali Muslims converting to Christianity has grown in the past 15 years....

Our old friend and former colleague Raymond Ibrahim here confirms my analysis here of the motivation behind the attack on Sweden: it's all about the Lars Vilks and Motoon and the freedom of speech.

"Swedish Jihad Revelations," by Raymond Ibrahim for Hudson New York (via RaymondIbrahim.com), December 20:

Back in 2004, in one of his most recognized messages to America, Osama bin Laden, responding to then President George Bush Jr.'s claims that Al Qaeda hates freedom, rhetorically asked, "If so [if Al Qaeda hates freedom], let him [Bush] explain to us why we have not attacked Sweden, for example."

Days ago, on December 11, an Al Qaeda affiliated suicide bomber attacked Sweden--the first terrorist attack in Sweden in three decades, and its first ever suicide attack. The attempt largely failed (only the bomber died, two Swedes were injured). Even so, it "could have been truly catastrophic," said one official.

So much for Sweden epitomizing Al Qaeda's "respect" for freedom. Why the change in policy? In fact, according to an audio-recording issued by the terrorists minutes before the attack, the vitriol is such that "all Mujahadeen [jihadists] in Europe and Sweden" are to prepare for action: "Now is the time to strike, don't wait any longer." [...]

As for motives, according to the audio-recording, there are three: Sweden will be a target of the jihad "as long as you do not [1] end your war against Islam and [2] humiliation of the Prophet and [3] your stupid support for the pig Vilks."

The first point--"war against Islam"--appears to be a reference to Sweden's 500 troop presence in Afghanistan. Yet Sweden is only one of nearly fifty countries--including Muslim ones--to have a presence in Afghanistan; Turkey alone has contributed nearly four times as many troops. And most of these nations have not (yet) been targeted. Moreover, Sweden has been a troop contributing nation since July 24, 2003--well over a year before Osama portrayed it as a neutral country, undeserving of attack. (Perhaps he meant Switzerland, which is known for its neutrality, and is often conflated with Sweden by Middle Easterners?)

The second and third reasons cited--"humiliation of the Prophet" and "support for Vilks"--are one and the same and, in fact, the immediate reason behind the attack. Context: back in 2007, Swedish artist Lars Vilks drew unflattering caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Since then, Al Qaeda has set a bounty on him (the reward increases if he is "slaughtered like a lamb"); he has already been physically assaulted and his house nearly burned down.

Swedish freedom of speech and expression, then, is what prompted the attack. In fact, eliminating Western freedoms--or at least conforming them to the dictates of sharia law, which, among other things, forbid mockery of Muhammad--is a longstanding Islamist goal. Nor is it limited to violence; rather, the West's very legal system is being exploited, through Islamist "lawfare" designed to censor free speech concerning Islam (prompting countermeasures such as the Middle East Forum's Legal Project)....

Read it all.

And Reuters would expect us to believe that Hamas is trying to "curb" the rocket attacks. "Israeli air strikes target Gaza after rocket fire," from Reuters, December 21 (thanks to JCB):

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel carried out a series of air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said, after militants from the Hamas-ruled territory fired rockets into southern Israel.

No one was reported killed in any of the strikes that targeted a Hamas training camp, where two gunmen were wounded, as well as smuggling tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt and other, unpopulated areas, Hamas officials and witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokesman said at least 14 rockets had been launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip in the past two days.

A rocket that later struck an Israeli farming community on the Mediterranean coast lightly wounded one person who was taken to hospital, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Media reports said the rocket landed near a kindergarten.

A spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the latest rocket attack and said it was fired in retaliation for Israel's air strikes.

Hamas leaders have tried to curb rocket fire at Israel from Gaza [yeah, surrre -- ed.] , but smaller groups continue to carry out such attacks.

Israel's military said more than 200 cross-border missiles, rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza this year....

But deep down, they really, really want peace!

In Human Events today I allay your fears about the health and safety of Portland would-be jihad bomber Mohamed Mohamud:

Here's an update for those of you who were worried about the health and wellbeing of Mohamed Mohamud, the young Muslim who recently tried to commit mass-murder in the name of Islamic jihad by blowing up thousands of Infidels at the city Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore. Mohamud is in protective custody, separated from the rest of the prison population and supplied with a copy of the Koran, so that he can while away the hours in safety, fortifying his mind and heart with pious thoughts.

According to The Oregonian, Chief Deputy Michael Shults of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office explained that Mohamud was being held in protective custody - having a cell to himself and eating his meals alone - because many of his fellow inmates in Portland's Justice Center jail had friends or relatives at the tree lighting, although "there's no known threat . . . no known persons . . . in our system that [are] actively trying to harm him."

One wonders why The Oregonian saw fit to run a piece about how Mohamed Mohamud was safe and sound and poring over the Koran in his private cell. Does The Oregonian think that the general public is anxiously looking for reassurance about the safety of this would-be jihadist mass murderer? Is it trying to head off claims of mistreatment from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)?

And it sure is a good thing that he has the Koran in his cell, isn't it? The book that probably inspired him to try to kill large numbers of Infidels is now his sole and constant companion -- how reassuring! Now Mohamud has hours and hours to ponder the true, peaceful meaning of Koran verses like these:...

There is more.

The "new Jews" -- as Islamic supremacist Reza Aslan and other have grotesquely dubbed Muslims in Europe -- are driving out the old Jews. We have seen it happening in Sweden, and now in the Netherlands.

"Prominent Jews Leave Amsterdam over Anti-Semitism," by Maayana Miskin for Israel National News, December 19 (thanks to Rosanne):

A son of a prominent rabbi in the Netherlands has announced plans to move to Israel due to anti-Semitism. Benzion Evers, son of well-known Dutch rabbi Raphael Evers, told De Telegraaf that he feels "suffocated and caged" in his home country due to anti-Jewish sentiment.

"I'm fed up with the verbal abuse and the streetfighting," he told Het Parool, another Dutch paper.

"It's not that you can't leave the house, but you need to constantly hide, to be careful," he explained. He related his own cautionary measures, which include avoiding certain neighborhoods, and hiding his kippah (yalmulke) when walking through areas with a high number of Muslim immigrants....

The website purports to "identify and name all of the Coptics throughout the world who hope to defame Islam," by doing things like proselytizing. "Canadian-Arab Christians targeted on website," from The Canadian Press, December 21 (thanks to Fr. E.):

More than 100 Canadian-Arab Christians are listed on an al-Qaeda affiliated website, apparently targeted because of their alleged role in attempting to convert Muslims.

Some of those named say concerned Canadian intelligence officials have contacted them.

The Shumukh-al-Islam website, often considered to be al-Qaeda's mouthpiece, listed pictures, addresses and cellphone numbers of Coptic Christians, predominantly Egyptian-Canadians, who have been vocal about their opposition to Islam.

In a forum on the website, one member named Son of a Sharp Sword, said, "We are going to return back to Islam and all of the Mujahedeen [holy warriors] will cut off their heads."

Three pages of the fundamentalist, Arabic-language website titled "Complete Information on Coptics" sets to "identify and name all of the Coptics throughout the world who hope to defame Islam." The website calls the Coptic Christians living abroad "dogs in diaspora," a derogatory reference in Arabic.

Among those named on the Shumukh-al-Islam website is Samuel Tawadrous, a Coptic Egyptian living in Quebec.

"This is a direct threat against our lives," Tawadrous said in an interview.

"They are trying to inform each other in hopes that someone can carry out this threat. They could be in Egypt and they could be here. Our names and our pictures are listed."

Tawadrous's picture and cellphone number were listed on the site. [...]

Sherif Mansour said he found out he was named on the website when intelligence officials called him.

"They asked me, 'Are you afraid?' I said 'Should I be?"' said Mansour, who has run a business in Quebec for the past 22 years since emigrating from Egypt.

Mansour laughed at the threat, but said he recognizes the seriousness of the matter.

"These issues can't be taken lightly anymore. ... If they [Muslim fanatics] had the guts to fly a couple of planes into buildings and kill thousands of people, what would be the big deal with just one person? Nothing. Am I afraid of it? No, not really," said Mansour, who is an active member of the Coptic church in Canada.

Mansour believes he is being targeted because of comments he made in an interview on CTV where he was discussing the media's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian war.

Mansour said the fact that his picture, cellphone number and comments are displayed on the Shumukh-al-Islam website is an indication that fanatics are keeping a close eye on what happens in Canada.

Shumukh-al-Islam lists more than 200 Arab Christians in Egypt, Europe and North America. More than 100 of them are listed as being in Canada....

An Egyptian priest dares to speak the truth about the Islamic supremacist agenda for Christians in the Middle East. "Priest says Muslim extremists want to rid Middle East of Christians," from CNA, December 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Cairo, Egypt, Dec 19, 2010 / 06:02 pm (CNA).- An Egyptian priest has explained that radical Muslims are trying to rid the Middle East entirely of Christians, who once comprised the largest religious group in the region.

"This is what the Muslim fundamentalists want," the Egyptian Catholic spokesman Fr. Rafic Greische told Vatican Radio.

"They want the Christians to evacuate from the Middle East and leave. And this is what is happening every day." He expressed frustration that governments throughout the region, not noted for their responsiveness to popular concerns, "do not take serious action to relieve or solve these problems."

Egyptian Christians face significant public and private discrimination, including policies that make it nearly impossible for them to build churches. In November, a crowd demonstrating for their right to build a church in Giza clashed with police, who fired on unarmed protesters.

More than 150 people -including some children- remain in jail following that incident, in a country notorious for police brutality and other human rights abuses.

While Christians have difficulty even finding a place to worship in Egypt, some Egyptian Muslims manage to make their antipathy against the country's Christians well-known. Fr. Greische said groups of Muslims are known to "become violent and make demonstrations," often burning pictures of the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church.

They're particularly offended, he noted, by "people who want to change their religion" - specifically, Muslims who want to become Christians, who can expect ostracism and may face death threats. Christians who dare to evangelize Egyptian Muslims can expect violent retribution if their work becomes known.

Even instances of Christians becoming Muslims can make these tensions turn explosive. In October, when suicide-attackers at Iraq's Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation killed almost 60 worshipers at a Sunday Mass in Baghdad, the Islamic State of Iraq group claimed it was an act of retaliation for two alleged female converts from Christianity to Islam, supposedly being held captive by Coptic Christians.

Iraqi experts at the time told CNA that they had no reason to believe the story. Fr. Greische noted that it might simply have been an instance of an ordinary domestic disagreement, being turned into a public libel against Coptic Christians in a climate of suspicion and hostility.

He suspected that the Oct. 31 attack in Baghdad, one of the deadliest acts of anti-Christian terrorism in years, was a response to the Synod for the Middle East that had concluded earlier in the month. That synod ultimately issued only light criticisms of Islamic regimes, and represented an exercise of the kind of religious liberty Islamic extremists disallow.

Fr. Greische said the Baghdad incident had given rise to a climate of fear among Christians throughout the region. "All the churches, we have police all around our churches," he told Vatican Radio. "It's as if we are in a fortress."...

At least they didn't kill her, although they threatened to do so. They must be moderates. Afshan Azad Update: "Harry Potter actress was 'beaten and branded a prostitute by her family after dating man who was not a Muslim,'" from the Daily Mail, December 20 (thanks to Kristian):

A Harry Potter actress was beaten, called a 'slag' and threatened with death after she met a young man who was not a Muslim, a court heard today.

Victim Afshan Azad, 22, played Padma Patil, a classmate of the teenage wizard, in the blockbuster Hollywood films based on the children's books by JK Rowling.

She was assaulted and branded a 'prostitute' after meeting a young Hindu man, a relationship which brought anger from her father, Abul Azad, 53, and brother, Ashraf, 28, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The frightened star, who has featured in four of the popular films, later fled through her bedroom window after threats were made to kill her.

But despite attempts to get her to come to court for the trial of her father and brother, Miss Azad, who is believed to be living with friends in London, would not attend voluntarily, the court was told.

Both men were charged with making threats to kill her and her brother was also charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm on his sister.

Instead of both going on trial today, the prosecution decided to accept a guilty plea of assault by her brother, and both men were formally found not guilty of making threats to kill.

Miss Azad's character was a witch who was in the same year as Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe, at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.

She first appeared as her character, the identical twin sister of Parvati Patil, in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.

She also starred in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, the final film in the saga.

Richard Vardon QC, prosecuting, told the court: 'The incident took place on Saturday 21st of May at the home address of the family in Longsight, Manchester.

'The prosecution allegation in essence is she was the victim of a wholly unnecessary and unpleasant assault by her brother.

'The reason for the assault, apparently her association with a Hindu young man, that apparently being disapproved of by her family who are Muslim.

'Specifically she spoke not only of assault but also threats to kill, made jointly by her father and brother.'

The prosecutor then gave details of the incident.

'The father, having been awoken from his slumbers, with his son shouting: "Sort out your daughter! She's a slag!"

'He continued to further assault her, in disputed Bengali, shouting, "Just kill her!"...

There is more.

Wait a minute. An Iranian "martyr" in Bosnia? But...but...for years we were told that all the Bosnian Muslims were moderates who loved America and just wanted self-determination! How did an "Islamic martyr" get in there? "'Documentary film about the Life of the First Iranian Martyr in Bosnia,'" by Julia Gorin at Republican Riot, December 18:

But Bosnia wasn’t a jihad, right? And all those charges of ‘mujahedin’ presence were just vicious serbianationalist propaganda, right? Right?

In fact, Bosnia and Kosovo weren’t jihads only in the eyes of the West. The Muslim world — including former Pakistan president Musharraf in his book — knows better.

As Liz, who sent me this, wrote:

Everyone shed a tear for this dear, sweet Iranian who “went to Bosnia as 'diplomat of Iran', but was 'martyred' by those ‘racist Serbians.’”

Documentary Film about the Life of the First Iranian Martyr in Bosnia

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - According to the reporter of Navideshahed; the documentary film about the life of "Martyr Rasoul Heydari" has been made and produced by "Revayat - e Fat'h" Institution. This documentary film will be broadcast from Channel One of TV today (Saturday, November 6th 2010) and tomorrow (Sunday, November 7th, 2010).

It should be mentioned that "Martyr Heydari" was born in Malayer City in 1960. He was the only son of his family. Rasoul spent his childhood with religious studies. Since he was a clever boy, he became the honor student when he was at school. He was in the second grade of high school when his family moved to Ahvaz City. They returned to Malayer City after two years. He registered in a technical school in order to continue education when they came back to Malayer City. Since then, he became familiar with the basic alphabet of politics at that time.

Concurrent with the Islamic Revolution of Iran and along with the revolutionary people of Iran, Rasoul participated in anti - regime demonstrations. He was once arrested by the police forces of the Shah Regime. After finishing education in 1979, Rasoul joined Sepah Pasdaran [The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution] in Hamedan City. Later in 1980, Rasoul formed the Sepah Pasdaran in Malayer City. He severely started to fight against the agents of SAVAC [The intelligence service of the Shah Regime before the Islamic Revolution]. After some time, Heydari went to Kordestan Province. He fought against the anti - revolutionary forces in Paveh City there.

Rasoul Heydari created epic in solving the problem in "Serish Abad" and also freeing "Bayangan" in 1979. Following the beginning of the imposed war, he went to the battle fields. He participated in different operations. He was injured in these operations several times.

He got married in 1981. And after some time, he went to the battle fields again. Rasoul fought with the Iraqi aggressive forces in "Gilan - e Gharb" and "Sar - e Pol - e Zahab" battle fields for some time.

In 1984, Rasoul stopped the enemy and prevented the enemy to reach to the considered targets in the North West region of the country. Rasoul sincerely served in the battle fields during the imposed war for 65 months.

Rasoul started to study in "Political Sciences" Course in "Imam Hossein University" after finishing of war. Concurrent with the aggression of the racist Serbian to the Bosnian Muslim people, Rasoul went to Bosnia as the diplomat of Islamic Republic of Iran.

Finally and after years of jihad and fight in the way of truth, Rasoul Heydari was captured by the Serbian forces on "Eyd - e Ghadir" [An Islamic celebration day] of 1993. He was passing over a road at that time. Then he was martyred by the Serbian forces on that day. He was 32 years old at that time. Rasoul Heydari has three children.

Those heartless Serbianationalists!

And on a Muslim holiday, no less. Unlike the Bosnian Muslims and mujahedin of Srebrenica, who would mainly raid and slaughter surrounding Serbian villages on Orthodox Christmas, Easter, Saint George’s Day, Saint Vitus’s Day, and the holiday of Blessed Peter.

In a review of Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution by John R. Bradley in the Fall 2010 edition of Middle East Quarterly, Raymond Ibrahim identifies a chief error that analysts of the Middle East and Islam make all too often: assuming that people in Muslim countries want what Westerners want. Human nature, of course, is everywhere the same; but that doesn't mean that all people everywhere understand "freedom" or "peace" or "justice" in the same way.

But Sharia inculcates a radically different value system from the one generally taught in the West. Had that been understood on September 11, 2001, thousands of lives and billions of dollars would have been spared. But it is still not understood today.

[...] While the Mubarak regime is responsible for many of Egypt's woes, blaming all of the nation's problems on it is misleading. By minimizing the Islamization of society and the influence of the Brotherhood, which the author claims "has made only limited inroads into the mainstream" since Egypt's Muslims are "intolerant of extremist Sunni doctrine," Bradley moves from fact-based evidence to conjecture and, perhaps, wishful thinking.

Indeed, this is the book's chief problem. Bradley is convinced that, given a chance, through the elimination of Mubarak, Egyptians would create a liberal, egalitarian, and gender-neutral society. This tendency to project things that are important to the author (though often not to Egyptians) is highlighted by his fixation on homosexuality in Egypt. The topic permeates the entire book, including a rather out-of-place section recounting the in-and-outs of Western gay tourism in Luxor....

Isn't it great that Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange made sure that Oklahoma would be safe for Sharia? The people arrested seem to have committed the crime of being Shi'ites. Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: "Malaysia may charge 200 for deviating from Islam," from the Associated Press, December 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Malaysian official says more than 200 people, including Iranians, Indonesians and Pakistanis, detained last week may be charged with breaching Islamic laws.

Nurhamizah Othman of the Selangor Islamic Religious Department says Islamic officials arrested the group, who were allegedly followers of the outlawed Shia sect, in central Selangor state.

A few years back, when I posted here at Jihad Watch some material from the intrepid Julia Gorin and others showing that the "moderate Muslims" of the Balkans were a bit more jihad-minded than most of the learned analysts had been saying, the calumnies came thick and fast. Internet libel artists, one of whom -- in a new low even for that clueless dhimmi publication -- now works for Commentary, began a guilt-by-association smear campaign, claiming that to point out the jihadist character of the Muslim forces in Bosnia and Kosovo was tantamount to supporting Milosevic, fascism, genocide, etc. That's like saying that to oppose Communism made one a Nazi, since the Nazis were anti-Communist (except during the years of the Hitler-Stalin Pact), but many were taken in -- and one of the chief charges by those screaming "Fascist sympathizer!" was that the claim that Kosovar jihadists trafficked in Serbian organs was a fabrication.

Well, it wasn't.

Travel has led me to be a bit late with this, but it is worth revisiting: "Richard Holbrooke Dies, and the Next Day his Legacy Comes to Life: Latest 'Serbian Myth' Proves True: Organ Extraction," by Julia Gorin at Republican Riot, December 15:

I’ll tell ya, Albanians give a whole new meaning to the term ORGANized crime.

It’s an interesting day for Balkans observers when one headline comes in reading “Kosovar Leader says People Lost a Friend in Holbrooke” and the one immediately following it reads “Kosovo PM is head of human organ and arms ring, Council of Europe reports” .

Of course, readers of this blog knew that all along.

Allow me to personally leak the U.S. diplomatic cables from yesterday and today, which I can hear from here: “F************************ck!”

(And not because our officials didn’t know about all this, but because it got out.)

In a follow-up to this story last month — which underscored the involvement of an individual who had been a senior-level official (it wouldn’t be an Albanian racket if it didn’t!) — the UK Guardian was the first to report yesterday:

Two-year inquiry accuses Albanian ‘mafia-like’ crime network of killing Serb prisoners for their kidneys

Kosovo’s prime minister is the head of a “mafia-like” Albanian group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe, according to a Council of Europe inquiry report on organised crime.

Hashim Thaçi is identified as “the boss” of a network that began operating criminal rackets in the run-up to the 1999 Kosovo war, and has held powerful sway over the country’s government since.

The report of the two-year inquiry, which cites FBI and other intelligence sources, has been obtained by the Guardian. It names Thaçi as having over the last decade exerted “violent control” over the heroin trade.

Figures from Thaçi’s inner circle are accused of secretly taking captives across the border into Albania after the war, where a few Serbs are said to have been murdered for their kidneys, which were sold on the black market. [Note: The “a few” clearly doesn’t include the couple hundred who were kidnapped and killed for organs during the war, though not all of the 300 captives at the time were Serbian.]

Legal proceedings began in a Pristina district court today into a case of alleged organ trafficking discovered by police in 2008. That case - in which organs are said to have been taken from impoverished victims at a clinic known as Medicus - is said by the report to be linked to Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) organ harvesting in 2000....

There is much more. Read it all.

The jihad persecution of Christians in Iraq continues to go largely unnoticed by human rights organizations and international bodies that are supposed to be trying to protect people who are threatened. "Iraqi Christians get set for a grim Christmas," by Rebecca Santana for the Associated Press, December 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

IRBIL, Iraq-- They saw their brethren murdered during Mass and then were bombed in their homes as they mourned. Al-Qaida vowed to hunt them down. Now the Christian community of Iraq, almost as old as the religion itself, is sensing a clear message: It is time to leave.

And why? Because the international community has abandoned them. No one cares. To care about their predicament in Iraq would be "Islamophobic."

Since the Oct. 31 bloodbath in their Baghdad church, Iraqi Christians have been fleeing Sunni Muslim extremists who view them as nonbelievers and agents of the West. At a time when Christians in various parts of the Muslim world are feeling pressured, Iraqi Christians are approaching their grimmest Christmas since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and wondering if they have any future in their native land.

They have suffered repeated violence and harassment since 2003, when the interreligious peace rigidly enforced by Saddam Hussein fell apart. But the attack on Our Lady of Salvation in which 68 people died appears to have been a tipping point that has driven many to flee northward to the Kurdish enclave while seeking asylum in the U.S. and elsewhere.

'We are afraid'

What seemed different this time was the way the gunmen brazenly barged onto sacred ground, the subsequent targeting of homes by bombers who clearly knew every Christian address, and the Internet posting in which al-Qaida-linked militants took responsibility for the church attack and vowed a campaign of violence against Christians wherever they are.

Ban Daub, 51, narrowly survived the onslaught. She and her nephew were at prayer when they heard explosions. They escaped before five attackers stormed in, but many of their friends did not. A neighbor died clutching his son and daughter in his arms.

Days later a string of bombs went off outside Christian homes across Baghdad. Daub and her family packed a few belongings and headed to a Christian district called Ainkawa in this Kurdish city of Irbil.

"We are afraid for our sons and our children. There is no life in Baghdad for the Christians," she says....

In the Middle East and in Muslim countries beyond, Christians are finding themselves subject to violence and harassment. The Vatican is so worried that it hosted a two-week meeting of Mideast bishops this fall, dedicated to supporting Christian minorities....

Yes, and they singled out Israel for criticism while remaining largely silent about Islamic jihad.

In the Fall 2010 issue of Middle East Quarterly, our great old friend Raymond Ibrahim reviews a new book, Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam across the Centuries by Tarif Khalidi, and finds, entirely unsurprisingly for a product of today's academic establishment, that Khalidi "omits the more troubling images" of Muhammad -- that is, the ones echoed in the behaviors of today's more troubling Muslims."

One other thing is also noteworthy about Raymond's review: that the biographical material about Muhammad in the Hadith is so voluminous and self-contradictory that Muslims can use it to justify virtually anything. Yes, Muhammad teaches peace, but he also teaches war. Yes, he says do not kill innocents, but then he kills people for the crime of making fun of him. And so nowadays we have Islamic spokesmen invoking Muhammad as justification for vastly dissimilar and even contradictory modes of behavior.

Here, by the way, is an alternative. And here is an excerpt from Raymond's review:

[...] It is not that Khalidi does not acknowledge that negative images exist; he just shies from recounting the most notorious. Thus, while the reader will encounter Muhammad the commander, the lawgiver, the ethicist, even the Sufi mystic, images of Muhammad as war-monger, highway-bandit, misogynist, and assassin are lacking.

For example, the worst image Khalidi presents of Muhammad involves his killing an enemy combatant even though the latter begged for clemency. One would have thought Muhammad's assassination of poets by deceit and other means--including one old woman, Umm Qirfa, whose body was rent in half[1]--calls for equal mention. Objectively speaking, such less than inspiring images deserve more prominence. After all, when pious believers pass down anecdotes that may reflect negatively on their prophet, it seems only reasonable to treat these, especially in comparison to the numerous praiseworthy images, as important factors of the Muhammad persona.

Ultimately, however, the book is useful in that it implicitly demonstrates how the concept of sunna (a model of Muslim behavior based on the sayings, customs, and actions of Muhammad) is impractical. For when one compares the many pictures of the prophet, discrepancies abound: Muhammad loves peace, except when he wages war; he hates poetry, but also enjoys it; he bans the killing of women and children, except when they get in the way; he condemns foul speech, but tells his enemies to "bite their father's penis."

Sunna, then, becomes a divine sanction for any given Muslim to follow his proclivities--provided an applicable image of Muhammad can be found. And, as Khalidi's book shows, images of the prophet appear endless.

"This is a large scale, pre-planned and intelligence led operation involving several forces." Against whom? "People." "Men." "Five from Cardiff, four from Stoke and three from London." "Aged between 17 and 28." Are we getting any warmer? "Plotters." "Suspects."

We apparently don't know much of anything about them. They could be Wesleyan fanatics. Amish separatists. Animal rights activists. But one thing we don't know about them is specified in the article: "It is not thought the men have any connection with Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, the Stockholm suicide bomber who lived in Luton for many years."

So that would seem to assume what the article has up to that point studiously avoided telling us: that they were Islamic jihadists, which everyone already knew anyway. But imagine the press in December 1941 talking about "men" who bombed Pearl Harbor, and the article telling us that it was not thought that they had any connection to the Emperor Hirohito. Well, what kind of connection makes a connection? What if they believed the same things and were working toward the same goals? Why not mention Japan? What would have been gained?

"Anti-terror police arrest 12 people in nationwide raids," by Peter Hutchison in the Telegraph, December 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Anti-terror police arrested twelve men on Monday morning in a large-scale counter terrorism operation spanning cities across the country.

The men - five from Cardiff, four from Stoke and three from London - were detained on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in Britain.

Aged between 17 and 28, the suspects were detained at approximately 5am.

Police believe the plotters were planning to set off a number of bombs in "multiple locations", according to reports....

It is not yet known whether police believed an attack was imminent.

Searches are now being conducted at the home addresses, plus the address in Birmingham and another residence in London....

Assistant Commissioner John Yates, national lead for counter terrorism policing, says: "This is a large scale, pre-planned and intelligence led operation involving several forces.

"The operation is in its early stages so we are unable to go into detail at this time about the suspected offences. However, I believe it was necessary at this time to take action in order to ensure public safety."

It is not thought the men have any connection with Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, the Stockholm suicide bomber who lived in Luton for many years.

Timmerman, Geller, Stern, Ramelah, Spencer, Alyami

Last Thursday I spoke in Washington for the human rights group Voice of the Copts, along with Pamela Geller, Kenneth Timmerman, and others. The talks were filmed, so if video becomes available online I will post it.

Here is a message from Dottore Architetto Ashraf Ramelah, the founder and president of Voice of the Copts:

Human Rights Conference: Thank you for Participating

Voice of the Copts thanks all who participated in the December 16, 2010 Human Rights Conference in Washington, DC:

Pamela Geller,

Faith McDonnell,

Sara N. Stern

Robert Spencer,

Ali Alyami,

Jordan Sekulow

Nazir Bahatti,

Kenneth Timmerman

We extend special thanks to Senator Robert Casey and his staff for providing a room on very short notice.

We deeply appreciate and thank our friend, Bernice Lipkin, for her help and advice.

Last, but not least, we thank Mr. Mark Tenelley for his generosity in photographing the event.

Pamela Geller, who is quoted in this article, explains here why this is an offer free people should view with skepticism: "The Saudi offer rings hollow -- particularly after the Wikileak bombshell -- the Saudis are the 'chief funders of al-Qaeda.' And the Saudis are funding over 80% of the mosque building in America. And the Saudis have been spreading 'pure Islam' for decades. And the Saudis fund Hamas groups like CAIR."

"King mulls hospital site for mosque: Ground zero spurs protests," by David Eldridge for The Washington Times, December 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, in an effort to quiet criticism of Muslims in the U.S., is quietly looking into moving the ground zero mosque to a less controversial Manhattan location, according to news reports Sunday.

New York City attorney Dudley Gaffin has contacted officials about the Saudi royal family's interest in moving the mosque from its site, two blocks from the former World Trade Center and within the damage zone on Sept. 11, 2001, to the shuttered St. Vincent's hospital campus in the West Village, the New York Post and other news organizations reported Sunday. [...]

The 87-year-old Abdullah has said previously he would not get involved with the ground zero mosque, but the project's biggest proponents, developer Sharif El-Gamal and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, are actively seeking funding for the project.

The Post reported that the Saudis see funding and moving the mosque project as a way to address concerns and highlight Muslim philanthropy.

The developers of Park51, the proposed Muslim community center and mosque, this month applied for $5 million in grants from a federal fund set up to aid redevelopment of the Sept. 11 attack area.

Mr. El-Gamal has said fundraising for the project is in the initial phases and is on schedule and expects construction to begin within three years, but the developer has been fighting off lawsuits for nonpayment of debt.

Pamela Geller, a blogger who has emerged as one of the leaders of the groups protesting the proposed Muslim mosque and community center, told The Washington Times that opposition to the project has not died down.

"The very idea that they would apply for $5 million from 9/11 funds is really outrageous," she said.

If the project is completed at the Lower Manhattan site, two blocks from ground zero, the mosque will represent a victory for the terrorists, she said.

"They will have stolen something sacred from the American people. Whenever someone mentions 'ground zero,' it will mean the mosque, not the site where thousands of innocent people lost their lives," she said.

"If the mosque is about healing, if that is true, we implore the imam to move it," she said. "This issue is not going to go away."

Mr. Rauf, who has been the target of some of the harshest criticism, announced last week a nationwide speaking tour on behalf of the project.

"We must retake the discourse among religions and cultures from the hands of the extremists around the world who benefit from hatred and violence," the imam said.

The imam feels that "he is in a position where his voice is being heard," said spokesman Gene Grabowski, adding that Mr. Rauf has been invited to speak on several college campuses, including Harvard and Yale universities....

Of course. What would you expect?

That's over $853,000, down the drain for wishful thinking. And that's just in one town. "Muslims in bomber's town get £500,000 to combat terror... but don't give police a single tip-off," by Ryan Kisiel in the Daily Mail, December 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Muslim groups in the town where the Stockholm suicide bomber lived have been handed more than £550,000 of taxpayers' money to combat extremism but have failed to tip off police about a single terror suspect.

The grants were handed out to mosques, schools and women's projects by Luton council to prevent young Muslims being radicalised.

Under the Home Office's Preventing Violent Extremism scheme, Islamic organisations are given money to stop members turning to violence. The groups are urged to reveal the names of those likely to commit violent crimes so they can be put on an 'at-risk' list by police.

But the Daily Mail has learnt that - despite £554,000 being given to groups in Luton since 2008 - not a single name has been handed over....

How drearily predictable.

Yet all the hate speech on its channel came from the Islamic spokesmen it was reporting on, not from PMW itself. It's the same old story: when an Islamic cleric calls for jihad and blood, no one bats an eye. But if Geert Wilders or Palestinian Media Watch or some other freedom fighter notes the Islamic cleric's call for jihad and blood, that's "hate speech." It is all a rather transparent attempt to silence the critics of jihad, so that the jihad itself can proceed unhindered.

A message from Itamar Marcus of PMW:

YouTube closes down PMW account

PMW needs your help. YouTube has closed down PMW's main video account - PALWATCH - for "violating YouTube terms of use", by supposedly propagating hate speech. Of course PMW does not promote hate speech, but exposes the hate speech of the PA and the Hamas, in order to bring about its elimination.

YouTube stated that the account was henceforth terminated "due to repeated or severe violations of our Terms of Use" and they specified the following PMW videos from Palestinian sources, promoting the killing of Jews:

1. "Hamas TV teaches kids to kill Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwN2M6ZIIRU
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 10/02/2009.

2. "Jews are a virus like Aids" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYaGl3KjPUw
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 01/18/2010.

3. "Farewell video before suicide attack of Hamas suicide bomber Adham Ahmad Hujyla Abu Jandal" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYdTudQhWM4
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 06/10/2010.

4. "Hamas suicide farewell video: Jews monkeys and pigs; Maidens reward for killing Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryc7RqXlVdE
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 08/14/2010.

5. "PA cleric: Kill Jews, Allah will make Muslims masters over Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjuDTO8fgqM
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/12/2010.

6. "Hamas suicide terrorist farewell video: Palestinians drink the blood of Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSftYIGH6-w
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/15/2010.

PMW urgently seeks to have this account reopened, since some of these videos have accumulated hundreds of thousands of viewings and the exposure is critical to our ongoing work.
If any of our subscribers could help, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Itamar Marcus

The video is from this story, posted in September.

The fact that public thoroughfares are being blocked for Muslim prayer is almost a side issue in this story, which instead takes the opportunity to accuse Sarkozy of a "lurch to the right," fixating on the farthest of far-right politicians it can identify. But this should not be a left-right issue, and it would not be, were a politically fashionable group not at its center.

If, hypothetically, followers of some other prophet were blocking Paris streets to recite prescribed prayers to their one, true god, Rick, would this behavior be tolerated of the Rickyites for a moment? Possibly once, or twice, but then the novelty would wear off, and it would be time to move along.

But no, to protest conduct on the part of Muslims that would not be tolerated of other groups is to be branded a member of the "far-right," which, as always, is mainstream media-speak for "scares children, barks at other people's dogs, and makes Cratchit work on Christmas."

"Nicolas Sarkozy to target Muslim prayers," by Matthew Campbell for The Australian, December 20 (thanks to Captain Nemo):

NICOLAS Sarkozy will take another lurch to the Right with a speech on New Year's Eve calling Muslim prayers in the street "unacceptable".

After his expulsions of gypsies and a crackdown on immigrant crime, the French President will warn that the overflow of Muslim faithful on to the streets at prayer time when mosques are packed to capacity risks undermining the French secular tradition separating state and religion.

He will doubtless be accused of pandering to the far Right: the issue of Muslim prayers in the street has been brought to the fore by Marine Le Pen, the charismatic new figurehead of the National Front, who compared it to the wartime occupation of France.

Her words provoked uproar on the Left, whose commentators took them as evidence that far from being the gentler face of the far Right, Ms Le Pen, 42, is no different from Jean-Marie, 82, her father, who has been accused of racism and Holocaust denial.

The implication is that objecting to Muslim prayers blocking the streets automatically places one in league with racists and Holocaust deniers.

It does not. And those in power who stand idly by as the streets are blocked should be invited to commute to and from and live in the affected communities, where, as described in the video above, residents cannot enter or leave their homes until prayers are over.

According to his aide, Mr Sarkozy agrees with the junior Le Pen that the street cannot be allowed to become "an extension of the mosque" as it does in some parts of Paris, which are closed to traffic because of the overflow of the faithful. Local authorities have declined to intervene, despite public complaints, because they are afraid of sparking riots....

The intrepid mujahedin, keeping the world safe from female hikers enjoying the outdoors. The clear intention to kill and careful target acquisition show that this was not a random act of violence, as does this detail: "Wilson said one of her attackers took a Star of David chain off her neck, 'then turned me around and stabbed in the place where the Star of David had been'."

"Two women stabbed, one fatally, near Jerusalem," from CTV, December 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An attack on two women that left an American tourist dead and the other in hospital with several knife wounds appears to have been politically motivated, Israeli police said Sunday.

Police found the body of Christine Logan, 40, in a forest just outside Jerusalem, her hands bound behind her back and covered with blood from multiple stab wounds.

Her friend, Kaye Susan Wilson, a naturalized Israeli citizen originally from Britain, survived the attack by playing dead, then running to a nearby road and waving down a passing police car.

Wilson told Israeli media that she and Logan were hiking in the hills southwest of Jerusalem Saturday when they were approached by two Arab men. She said the men asked them for water, and then she and her friend walked away.

When the women headed back to the main trail, they were suddenly and brutally attacked.

"It all happened so fast. They came and attacked us," Wilson, 46, told reporters.

She said one of the men took out a large knife -- "like a bread knife with a serrated edge," Wilson said -- and the men began to stab them.

"It was clear that they came to kill," she added. "Who carries around a knife like that?"

At one point, Wilson said one of her attackers took a Star of David chain off her neck, "then turned me around and stabbed in the place where the Star of David had been."

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities have mounted a massive manhunt for the assailants.

"The main lead line is that the attack was nationalistic, but we haven't ruled out the possibility that it was criminal."

CTV's Scott Laurie said the two women were hiking in an area right on the border between Israel and the disputed West Bank. Police quickly sealed off a nearby highway leading to the West Bank.

"The fear among investigators was that whoever did this may have tried to flee into a Palestinian village close by," he said.

"The suspicion is that in the area there may be small cells of people involved in 'terror.'"...

This is, of course, the same Sudanese president wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, and shielded from prosecution by the African Union and Arab League, with the support of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Here, he lays out his plans for the final Islamization of the remainder of Sudan, with a hefty dose of Arab imperialism. This plan will amount to cultural genocide, likely with some of the old-fashioned kind as well. Life will be made extremely difficult for non-Arabic speakers, and all the more so for non-Muslims, so that they "feel themselves subdued," per Qur'an 9:29, and to coerce them into converting or leaving.

"Sharia law to be tightened if Sudan splits - president," from BBC News, December 19 (thanks to Sam):

The north of Sudan will reinforce its Islamic laws if the south secedes as a result of next month's referendum, President Omar al-Bashir has said.

Mr Bashir said the constitution would then be changed, making Islam the only religion, Sharia the only law and Arabic the only official language.

Correspondents say his comments are likely to alarm thousands of non-Muslim southerners living in the north.

They are currently protected from some of the stronger aspects of Sharia.

"If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution," Mr Bashir told a gathering of his supporters in the eastern town of Gederef on Sunday.

Commence Operation Out-Saudi The Saudis:

"Sharia and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language," the president added.

The imposition of Sharia on the non-Muslim south was one of the reasons for the long civil war, which ended when a peace deal was signed in 2005, the BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum reports.

Under the accord, an interim constitution was drafted that removed Sharia law from the south and also recognised Sudan's cultural and social diversity, our correspondent says.

President Bashir said on Sunday there would be no question of this diversity when a new constitution was drafted, if the south became independent

Senior northern officials are just starting to acknowledge publicly that South Sudan - where most people follow traditional beliefs and Christianity - are almost certain to choose to separate in the referendum.

Separately, Mr Bashir also commented on a recent high-profile case in which a video posted on the internet showed a woman being flogged by police in the north.

Watch the video. All of it. It is disturbing, but this is part and parcel of the cruel, backward, and morally defective legal system that must not be allowed to advance against the rights and protections of Western constitutions. One report adds that women in Sudan are punished with "600,000 lashes a year" according to the total sentences carried out.

"If she is lashed according to Sharia law, there is no investigation. Why are some people ashamed? This is Sharia," the president said.

Human rights activists have accused the police of treating the woman in a particularly brutal way not compatible with Islam.

Qur'an 24:2 on floggings: "Let no compassion move you." They were just following orders.

But to Sweden, this "situation of relative peace" -- just a little peril, supposedly -- provided acceptable circumstances for the forcible repatriation of five Iraqi Christians who sought asylum there.

Speaking of central Iraq, Swedish authorities might ask 3-year-old Adam of Baghdad about the "relative peace" there, except they can't. The jihadists murdered him in cold blood in their massacre at the All Saints vigil on Oct. 31 (where contrasting ideals of "martyrdom" went on full display), but not before he said what too many in comfortable positions of power in the West are afraid to say to jihadist thugs and their enablers: "Enough, enough, enough!"

"Thousands of Christians flee central Iraq after attacks," from the Telegraph, December 17 (thanks to Zulu):

Some 1,000 Christian families, roughly 6,000 people, have arrived in the northern Kurdish areas from Baghdad, Mosul and Nineveh, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. Several thousand have crossed into Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Many spoke of receiving threats or leaving out of fear. Fifty-two hostages and police were killed when Iraqi forces tried to free more than 100 Catholics taken hostage during Sunday mass on Oct. 31.

"Since the awful Baghdad church attack and subsequent targeted attacks, the Christian communities in Baghdad and Mosul have started a slow but steady exodus," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a news briefing.

She said that thousands of people had fled to neighbouring countries but that only several hundred had so far registered as refugees. Churches and aid groups have told the UNHCR to expect more to flee in coming weeks, she said.

Iraq's Christians once numbered 1.5 million out of a total Iraqi population of about 30 million and there are now estimated to be about 850,000, or about 3 per cent of the population.

They have frequently been targeted by militants, with churches bombed and priests assassinated. ...

As reported earlier, Luton itself has become "synonymous with Islamic extremism," and once again, it is living up to that characterization. In the initial report, we were assured -- though without any elaboration on actions taken -- that "many Muslims in Luton have long recognised the problem they have with extremism."

Indeed, the response seems perpetually limited to half-measures and lip service for public consumption, or virtually no action at all, as, for example, "embarrassed officials" at the Luton Islamic Center found themselves having to explain why they did not alert authorities about Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who went on to attempt mass murder in Stockholm.

This is the bottom line: We all know how vigorously Islam calls for the defense of its tenets against heresy and innovation, and the pitch of the Qur'an's rhetoric against beliefs at variance with the ones it preaches. Then, the unwillingness to do more than the bare minimum for basic "cover-your-rear" obligations to uproot such supposed "misunderstandings" of Islam should seem very, very odd, even to those most deluded by the false promises of multiculturalism.

"Stockholm bomber: banned extremists recruit near Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly's Luton home," by Jason Lewis for the Telegraph, December 19 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

MI5 and anti-terrorist police are attempting to unravel what transformed the father of three into an extremist.

Uh, not enough marshmallows in the box of Frankenberry?

But moderate Muslims in Luton, where Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab lived for almost 10 years, claim the authorities are to blame for turning a blind eye to the activities of hard-core jihadi sympathisers.

Unimpeded by the police, the group, now calling itself The Reflect Project, is accused of mounting a campaign of intimidation and violence against those who disagree with it.

The group's members are followers of the radical cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is being held in jail in Lebanon on terrorism charges, and are led locally by Ishtiaq Alamgir or Sword of Islam - a former inland revenue accountant.

Earlier this year, Mr Alamgir helped to organise a protest at a homecoming parade in Luton for troops who had served in Afghanistan. The demonstration ended in violence and arrests.

It is illegal to be a member of Bakri's organisation after it was outlawed for glorifying terrorism and for outspoken statements praising the "magnificent" September 11 hijackers.

But Bakri's supporters still regularly set up a stall on the high street near Abdulwahab's family home to try to recruit more young Muslims to their cause.

Last week, gathered around a trestle table after Friday prayers, Mr Alamgir and a dozen other activists handed out anodyne Introduction to Islam leaflets before quickly disappearing when approached by this newspaper.

Carefully written, apparently to avoid breaching anti-terrorism laws, the leaflet's purpose appeared to be to direct prospective recruits to a website containing inflammatory speeches by Bakri and articles against "the terrorist activities of Britain".

Some claim the group was involved with Abdulwahab, whose "will" told his wife and children he had lived for "the last four years with the secret of being mujahid or, as you call it, terrorist".

The group described Abdulwahab, who studied at the town's university, as a "lone wolf" and denied having anything to do with him.

The group, whose members use an ever-changing variety of names, has been holding rallies in community halls where, until his recent arrest, it was addressed by Bakri over an internet link.

Residents in the mainly Muslim Bury Park area claim Abdulwahab attended these meetings and complain that the government ban has not stopped the group or led to any police action against it. [...]

The Luton Islamic Centre, where Abdulwahab prayed and which forced him out when he attempted to preach about his radical views, admits it did not inform the police.

"We try to work with the extremists, rather than force them underground," a spokesman said yesterday.

Well, no one will dispute that you're "working with the extremists," compromising with evil as the path of least resistance, if not something much worse. You are either lazy enablers, or you are willing accomplices. Which one is it?

And while they say they're trying to "work with extremists," the "extremists" continue their work.

All dhimmitude ultimately amounts to is a protection racket claiming divine sanction. It is protection from the people who style themselves "protectors," because the alternatives to "protection" are so ugly. The options set forth for unbelievers in Qur'an 9:29 are conversion, warfare, or subjugation as dhimmis, accepted with "willing submission."

Thus, in addition to rejecting obvious, fox-guarding-henhouse illogic of accepting the "protection" of the Islamic Defender Front, the churches (whether they are fully aware of it or not) are also declining to buy into the Islamic paradigm and its three options, wisely choosing "none of the above."

"Indonesian Christians say no to Christmas protection by Muslim radicals," by Mathias Hariyadi for AsiaNews, December 17:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Indonesian Christians have criticised the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), an Islamic fundamentalist group, for saying that it would protect Christian communities during Christmas celebrations. "Why would this radical group, which is notorious for its anti-Christian violence, want to be so nice to us? We say no to their offer," a Catholic man from Semarang diocese said.

It would be a publicity stunt and intelligence-gathering mission, all while allowing the FPI to intimidate Christians with their presence.

For background on exactly how brutal and thuggish the FPI is, see past coverage of the Bekasi church attacks (here and here), harassment of Ahmadis, and a frenzied attack on a rally for religious tolerance. Having the FPI in any role as "protector" would not be merely like a fox guarding a henhouse, but more like a pyromaniac fox on steroids and crystal meth guarding a henhouse.

"Let Christians celebrate Christmas in peace. It is their right and all Indonesian citizens should respect that," FPI chief Risieq Shihab said during a meeting with Police Chief Timur Pradopo on Tuesday.

Yet, the peace and protection he has in mind would only be for those Christian communities that respect Indonesia's strict religious laws. For Shihab, his group would stop any Catholic or Protestant celebration held in violation of the law.

Another Christian in Jakarta, anonymous for security reason, said that Shihab's offer and the FPI's close ties to police are sound reasons to be concerned. He pointed out that Chief Pradopo was present at the 12th anniversary of the founding of the FPI.

"The extremists of the FPI want to be recognised by other parties, whilst the police uses the group (which claims thousands of members) to improve its reputation with the population," the source said.

Fr Benny Susetyo Pr, from the Indonesian Bishops of Conference's Interfaith Commission, explained that it was rare for Catholics to organise security details at Christmas time. In fact, he was quite surprised by the FPI statement.

In Indonesia, each parish organises Christmas activities in cooperation with local authorities. In addition, any involvement of Muslim groups has to be examined with members of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a moderate Muslim group involved in interfaith dialogue.

Andreas Yewangoe, chairman of the Synod of Christian Protestant Churches, said that the FPI did not issue any official statement in regards to security measures. Even if it had, very few Christians would actually like to see it present during Christmas celebrations, he said.

For the past seven years, the FPI accumulated a track record of violent attacks against Catholic and Protestant communities. The recent episodes of intolerance in Bandung (West Java) are evidence of that. On this occasion, Muslim extremists destroyed two house churches and five homes belonging to local Christians.

Even the UN called them out on this one. "Five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum returned from Stockholm. UN protest," from AsiaNews, December 18:

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Harsh criticism of the Swedish government by the United Nations Commission for Refugees after they forcibly returned five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in Sweden. The five were part of a group of at least 20 people from Iraq. Thousands of Christians have sought a safe haven outside the borders after the massacre of 31 October in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation. According to unofficial sources the authorities justify the refusal by citing a situation of relative peace in the country.

Perhaps those authorities would like to go for a field trip and enjoy the "relative peace" the remaining Christians are living in.

"We have heard many stories of people fleeing their homes after receiving direct threats. Many new arrivals explain that they left Iraq for fear of an attack, after what happened on October 31," says Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN body in Geneva.

"Some might take only a few things with him," adds Fleming. The deportation of the five Iraqi Christians took place a week after a suicide bomber, born in Iraq and resident in Great Britain, blew himself up in central Stockholm.

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the massacre in Baghdad, and said that Christians are a legitimate target. Killings and other violent incidents have followed, and according to Fleming about a thousand families have fled Baghdad to the Nineveh province in search of relative security in the Kurdish area. The UN officials in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon say that a growing number of Iraqi Christians are coming, and asking for help. In Syria alone about 133 families - 300 people - have sought refugee status in November. In Jordan, the number of asylum applications from Iraq have doubled in a month. The UN says that the return from Sweden comes at a time when officials on the spot report a growing number of cases of attacks on Christians.

St. Peter, Minnesota says Somali jihadists, sí, Santa Claus, no. How long before "St. Peter" itself is renamed so as to avoid further offending Muslims? "One fewer stop for Santa this year: He's banned from Head Start classes in St. Peter," by Joe Kimball at MinnPost.com, December 16 (thanks to Kenneth):

Santa Claus, as portrayed by Dennis Jackson, won't be visiting students at the Head Start classes in St. Peter this year.

Jackson has made appearances the past four years at the classes for students who need help preparing for school, but this year officials said, "No, no, no."

The reason: The classes have many immigrant children who don't celebrate Christmas, says the Mankato Free Press.

Santa's a little frosted, the paper says.

It kind of burnt me up," he said.

The official explanation from Chris Marben, who coordinates regional Head Start programs through Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Action Council: "We have Somali families in the program. We're respecting the wishes of families in the program."

She didn't say how many objections were made, but said more than one would be enough to cancel Santa.

"The simple truth is that southern Minnesota has become a much more culturally diverse society than it was a few decades ago," she told the paper. "Part of our challenge in Head Start is providing an environment where young children from many different cultures can all feel comfortable."...

Yes, but the picture is so much more pleasant when they don't allow all that pesky evidence to get in the way. "Muslim Aid: Hopeless Charity Commission whitewashes yet another Islamist group," by Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph, December 17 (thanks to David):

The Charity Commission, Britain's most ineffective regulator, has once again whitewashed an organisation linked to fundamentalist Islam.

In March this newspaper reported on allegations that the charity Muslim Aid, a close associate of the fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe, had channelled funds to eight organisations linked to the terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Muslim Aid has admitted funding two of the organisations and has repeatedly refused to deny funding the other six.

Now, however, the Commission has published what it is pleased to call a "regulatory case review" into the charity saying that allegations of terrorist links are "unsubstantiated."

It has only been able to reach this verdict by completely ignoring the vast majority of the allegations made against Muslim Aid, and by redefining the single allegation it did choose to "investigate" in a way which allowed it to exonerate the charity. By its own admission, it did not even investigate seven out of the eight allegations which it now claims are "unsubstantiated."

The allegations made against Muslim Aid were as follows:

(1) that it had since July 2009 channelled money to six organisations linked to Hamas:

(a) the Islamic Society of Nuseirat;

(b) the Islamic Society of Khan Younis;

(c) the Islamic Centre of Gaza;

(d) the Islamic al-Salah, Gaza;

(e) the National Association of Moderation and Development;

(f) the Khan Younis Zakat Committee.

The allegations were made by security sources, who provided us with documentary evidence of the dates and amounts.

(2) that it in the year 2005 paid money to another Hamas-linked organisation, the Islamic University of Gaza.

(3) that it had paid money to the al-Ihsan Charitable Society, linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

(4) that it had extensively funded the Muslim Council of Britain, a UK-based political lobbying group. This is contrary to Muslim Aid's declared charitable objects, which are "to relieve the poor, the elderly, children and all those who are in need in any part of the world as a result of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, droughts, famines, epidemics, poverty and plagues, to relieve those who are refugees fleeing from war zones and war victims."

Repeatedly asked by us before publication, over a period of more than a week, Muslim Aid refused to deny the security source allegations that they channelled funds to any of groups 1 (a) to 1 (f). Nor, to the best of my knowledge, has Muslim Aid subsequently denied these allegations. It has admitted both to us and the Charity Commission - see paragraph 14 of the Commission's report - that it did fund al-Ihsan. It has admitted, and its own accounts state, that it funded the Islamic University of Gaza and the MCB.

In its report today, the Charity Commission states that it decided only to investigate Muslim Aid's links with one of the groups, al-Ihsan. The report states that the Commission was "not provided with sufficient evidence to support the allegation that [the] other named organisations [1 (a) to (f) and 2 above] funded by the Charity had the alleged links [to terrorism]." Consquently, it "did not carry out further investigations into payments to them. Given the seriousness of the allegations made, the Commission required material evidence in support of those claims in order for it to consider taking regulatory action."...

There is much, much more. Read it all.

There is nothing in the Qur'an about cutting your daughter's heart out. However, one wonders why the peaceful verses of the Book of Peace didn't pacify this mother and deter her from this horrific murder. "'Mother cuts out the heart of her daughter, four, as she listens to recording of Koran in ritual killing,'" from the Daily Mail, December 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A mother has been arrested after a four year old girl was found stabbed to death with her heart and other organs cut out and strewn around her flat.

The 35-year-old woman was allegedly sitting in a her kitchen chanting verses of the Koran as her daughter's disembowelled corpse lay next to her.

The little girl's heart and other organs were found in different rooms around the flat in Clapton, east London.

Police suspect she she carried out the killing as a religious offering as she listened to the Muslim holy book on an MP3 player at full volume.

The mother, who is understood to have two teenage children of 14 and 16, has since been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and is in a secure unit.

The gruesome scene was discovered by the girl's father when he arrived home to the flat on Thursday to find his partner clutching a kitchen knife.

The man, believed to be a Muslim convert, dialled 999 and paramedics pronounced the girl dead at the scene. Police said next of kin have been informed....

Yesterday another shocked resident, a mum in her 30s, said the mother always wore a black headscarf with a veil.

She added: 'Usually you could only see her eyes.

'I often heard shouting coming from the flat as she and a man argued.

'Their quarrels would become very heated.'

"If Jews were to desecrate a Muslim holy tomb in the same manner, the whole world would rage and erupt." Yep.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from Samaria: "Joshua's Tomb vandalized with Arabic graffiti," from the Jerusalem Post, December 17:

Palestinians vandalized Joshua's Tomb in Samaria's Timnat Heres with Arabic graffiti overnight Thursday.

Hundreds of Jewish worshippers, escorted by the IDF, arrived at the site and discovered graffiti on surrounding walls which supported martyrdom.

"Only barbarians are capable of committing such harmful, menacing acts," head of the Samaria regional council Gershon Mesika said. "If Jews were to desecrate a Muslim holy tomb in the same manner, the whole world would rage and erupt."

This little exercise in moral equivalence, multiculturalism and celebration of the World's Three Great Abrahamic Religions manifests a certain ignorance about one of the three -- a genuine ignorance, not the kind that Islamic apologists routinely charge of those who speak too honestly about the jihad and Islamic supremacism -- on the part of the good folks of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The Islamic calendar is a lunar one with a year of 355 days, so its dates are not fixed: a few years ago Ramadan fell around Christmas time, but in 2010 it started on August 11 and ended on September 9. In 2011 it starts August 1 and ends August 30.

So why is a huge crescent on the lawn of the Wellesley Town Hall along with a Christmas tree and a menorah? Why, because the local multiculturalists needed to show that they considered Islam, Christianity, and Judaism essentially equivalent, and to signal that they were just as "welcoming" of Muslims as of everyone else -- if not more so. And they wouldn't think of challenging the local Muslim community to be proactive and honest in teaching against the belief-system that motivates Islamic supremacists and jihadists to make war against the Infidel. That would be "Islamophobic."

This crescent on the Wellesley Town Hall lawn, and its mistaken commemoration of the Muslim month of fasting that ended three months ago, is a fitting monument to that town's willful ignorance and complacency in the face of the jihad threat in all its forms. And of course, there are so very many other towns like Wellesley, all over the country.

"5 Things You Need to Know Today: Dec. 3: Town Hall's front lawn is decorated with holiday spirit," from Wellesley Patch, December 3 (thanks to Phil):

[...] 5. In front of Wellesley Town Hall there sites a menorah, Christmas Tree and crescent moon to represent Hanukkah, Christmas, and Ramadan respectively.

"Christian Zionists," doncha know: a double whammy in the Islamic Republic. "Iran: Christians jailed for three months over evangelizing activities," from AsiaNews, December 18 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Nine Christians have been held in prison in Iran for three months without charges. On the day of their arrest, 19 September 2010, state television said: "A group of nine Christians have been arrested in Hamadan on charges of evangelization activities." Local sources reported security forces statements, according to which the group's purpose was to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran. The text referred several times to the nine calling them "Christian Zionists."

The names of four of them (five are of unknown identity) are Vahik Abrahamian his wife Sonia Keshish Avanessian (Armenian-Iranian), Arash Kermanjany and Arezou Teimour, Iranians who speak Farsi. The security forces according to the report broke into the house Abrahamian and arrested him together with his wife and two other Christian converts who were his guests. The house was searched, and officers seized various personal items. Later the group was taken to an unknown location....

Here is my rough translation of a Spanish-language article about a manifestation of Islamic supremacism so outrageous that it is hard not to wonder whether or not it is a parody. But it doesn't seem to be one. "Una familia musulmana denuncia a un docente por hablar de jamones en clase," from Diario de Jerez, December 18 (thanks to Eloy):

A teacher at Menéndez Tolosa institute has been denounced by a Muslim family from La Línea because their son, a student in the first year of high school, felt offended during the course of a geography lesson, institute sources informed this newspaper.

This paper has learned that the teacher was lecturing normally on the different climates of the planet and used the Granada town of Trevélez as an example of a cold, dry climate. As an anecdote, the teacher recounted that just such a climate was conducive to the curing of hams. Then the student asked the teacher not to speak of hams since the subject offended him as a Muslim.

According to what this daily learned from sources at the school, the teacher responded that he was simply giving an example and that he did not in his classes take into account the religion that his students practiced.

This could have been simply an exchange of views, but the child's family, which never came to talk to the teacher about this incident in class, did not hesitate to lodge a complaint against the teacher at the National Police station.

Although no one contacted him, apparently a relative of the child did go to the school to talk to the Head of Studies and protest the example that the teacher had given in geography class.

Agents of the Judicial Police went to Menéndez Tolosa yesterday so that the teacher could provide a statement about what happened during the class. In addition, officials have requested disciplinary and academic documentation of the child in this school and the previous center in which he was enrolled.

This paper has learned that the teacher is accused of being the author of an alleged crime of abuse of workers, alleging also racist and xenophobic motives....

Big Fur Hat's astonishing series continues! Part 1 is here, part 2 is here, and part 3 is here.

The idea for this series comes from here, a comment on this story about the new Muslim superheroes.

Obviously we should be giving Pakistan a few billion dollars more than we are giving them already. That will solve this problem right away. Pakistan's Double Game Update: "Pakistani Role Is Suspected in Revealing U.S. Spy's Name," by Mark Mazzetti and Salman Masood in the New York Times, December 17 (thanks to David):

WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency's top clandestine officer in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, was removed from the country on Thursday amid an escalating war of recriminations between American and Pakistani spies, with some American officials convinced that the officer's cover was deliberately blown by Pakistan's military intelligence agency....

American officials said the C.I.A. station chief had received a number of death threats since being publicly identified in a legal complaint sent to the Pakistani police this week by the family of victims of earlier drone campaigns.

The American officials said they strongly suspected that operatives of Pakistan's powerful spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, had a hand in revealing the C.I.A. officer's identity -- possibly in retaliation for a civil lawsuit filed in Brooklyn last month implicating the ISI chief in the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008....

Why is this deemed worthy of a news story? Does The Oregonian think that the general public is anxiously looking for reassurance about the safety of this would-be jihadist mass murderer? Is it trying to head off claims of mistreatment from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)?

And it sure is a good thing that he has the Qur'an in his cell, isn't it? The book that probably inspired him to try to kill large numbers of Infidels is now his sole and constant companion -- how reassuring! Now Mohamud has hours and hours to ponder the true, peaceful meaning of Qur'an verses like these:

"And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter..." -- 2:191

"They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them..." -- 4:89

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies..." -- 8:60

"Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." -- 9:5

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." -- 9:29

"Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens..." -- 47:4

"Jailers hold Mohamed Mohamud, accused in plot to bomb Portland tree lighting, in 'protective custody,'" by Bryan Denson in The Oregonian, December 17 (thanks to Darcy):

The teenager accused of plotting to bomb thousands of Christmas revelers at Portland's holiday tree lighting ceremony three weeks ago is jailed in protective custody to prevent someone from harming him.

Mohamed Mohamud has a cell to himself at the downtown Justice Center jail, where he eats all of his meals alone and doesn't mix with the general inmate population, said Chief Deputy Michael Shults, who heads corrections for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

There are good reasons for the isolation, Shults said Friday. A lot of the jail's inmates had friends and family at the city's annual tree lighting, he said, and jailers want to make sure none of them could harm Mohamud.

"That's a concern of ours," he said. "But there's no known threat ... no known persons ... in our system that (are) actively trying to harm him."...

No threat to him? Never mind. You never know when that "backlash" that so terrifies Muslims in this country might actually show itself.

Within a couple of days of his arrest, Mohamud obtained a copy of the Quran from the jail's chaplain, Shults said. The young man keeps the sacred book of Islam in his cell.

Members of Mohamud's family paid him several visits in the first 16 days of his confinement, according to an inmate visitation log obtained by The Oregonian under the state's open records law.

Mohamud's father, Osman Barre, visited him the day after his arrest and put some cash in his inmate account, records show. Barre visited at least three other times, including twice on the same day as his wife, Mariam H. Barre. The couple is separated but remains in the Portland metropolitan area....

The teenager's defense team, including the top two lawyers in the Federal Public Defender's office and their investigators, have paid him regular visits, said Shults, who also has looked in on Mohamud to make sure he was getting everything he needed.

"He's cooperative," Shults said. "He wants to be safe, and we want to keep him safe."

The Speaker of Iran's Parliament blamed the Zionists and the Americans. Khamenei apparently didn't mention the Zionists; I guess that makes him a moderate. "Iran supreme leader blames West for bombing," from the Associated Press, December 17 (thanks to JCB):

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader on Friday blamed the West for a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque this week, saying the country's enemies were trying to divide Muslims and halt its nuclear activities.

The armed Sunni militant group Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's double bombing outside a Shiite mosque in the southeastern port city of Chahbahar near the Pakistan border, which killed 39 people.

In a condolence message read during funeral ceremonies for the victims, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the attack on "arrogant powers," a reference to the United States and its allies.

"The people have perceived the goals of the enemy and realized that the arrogant powers do not want the Islamic world to have pride or leadership," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA. "The enemies do not want the unity of Muslims ... They do not want to see uranium enrichment in our country."...

"I think that's the wrong approach, when we're forcing the Israelis to make concessions and we're giving the Palestinians anything they want." Indeed. "Ros-Lehtinen: Obama wrong to give 'blank check' to PA," by Hilary Leila Krieger in the Jerusalem Post, December 17:

WASHINGTON - Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted the Obama administration on Wednesday for giving the Palestinian Authority a "blank check" while pressuring Israel, signaling that a Republican-led House would complicate one of the major prongs of the White House's emerging strategy for moving forward with the peace process.

With direct talks between the two sides stalled, the administration announced last week it planned to intensify Palestinian state-building as a means of making progress on the ground toward a peace agreement for a two-state solution. The US has supplied hundreds of millions of dollars toward this end, with the expectation that it would now, if anything, be increasing its assistance.

But Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who will become the chairwoman of the influential committee in January, criticized the current approach to US funding for the PA in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

"It's a bailout for them which provides no incentives for them to reform. So they know they don't have to do a darn thing - with this administration they will get a blank check and they will always get helped out," she said of over $200 million in American funds the Palestinians received this past year alone.

"I think that's the wrong approach, when we're forcing the Israelis to make concessions and we're giving the Palestinians anything they want," she said....

Accidentally, of course. You know, I forget where I put my loaded handgun all the time. And it's just a coincidence that Farid Seif is Iranian, and that there are numerous reports of dry run-type activity in airports and on airplanes. This could just as well have happened to Mr. Smith. "TSA under fire after businessman boards international flight with loaded handgun," from the Daily Mail, December 17:

The effectiveness of security at U.S. ports is being questioned after a businessman accidentally travelled on a flight with a loaded handgun in his luggage.

Iranian-American Farid Seif was screened by Trasport [sic] Security Administration officials at Houston airport in Texas. His hand luggage was also X-rayed before he took off on his international flight.

It wasn't until Mr Seif arrived at his hotel several hours later that he realised that he had forgotten to unpack a loaded snub nose Glock pistol from his luggage before he embarked on his journey.

'It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun,' Mr Seif told ABC News.

'How can you miss it? You cannot miss it.'...

While those Muslims grew steadily more "radicalized."

"Obama admin sought to 'empower' British Muslims," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, December 16:

The Obama administration directed embassy employees in the U.K. to conduct outreach to help "empower" the British Muslim community, according to a classified U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks and reviewed by WND.

A separate cable summarized statistics showing a rise in the British Muslim population and increased radicalization there. The cable referenced a poll that showed 32 percent of Muslims on U.K. campuses believe killing in the name of religion is justified, while 40 percent want Muslims in the U.K. to be under Islamic law, or Shariah.

A cable dated Feb. 5 directed as a "top priority" for the U.S. embassy in Britain to conduct outreach to the Muslim community there.

"Although people of Muslim faith make up only 3 to 4 percent of the U.K.'s population, outreach to this key audience is vital to U.S. foreign policy interests in the U.K. and beyond. ... This is a top Mission priority," stated the cable.

The cable summarized a plan involving "engagement and community capacity-building" to counter "violent extremism."...

Looks as if it worked like a charm.

I linked to Pamela Geller's righteously indignant post on this last Sunday but have been meaning to revisit it when time permitted, as it is indicative of several unfortunate tendencies. Gregory III Lahham, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, and All the East, has said -- if this report is accurate -- that Islamic jihad attacks against Middle Eastern Christians are actually a Zionist plot to discredit Islam. And in doing so, he has illustrated the predicament of Christians in the Middle East in ways that he perhaps did not intend.

"Sidon archdiocese reopens following refurbishment," by Mohammed Zaatari in the Daily Star, December 6:

SIDON: Sidon's Greek Catholic Archdiocese was inaugurated over the weekend along with a center for Islamic and Christian studies, with speakers at the ceremony calling for dialogue of religions and emphasizing coexistence.

A number of religious figures, politicians and businessmen took part in opening the archdiocese which saw a number of refurbishments.

Gregory III Lahham, the patriarch of the Church of Antioch and the entire Levant for Melkite Greek Catholics, participated in the ceremony that took place under his patronage....

Lahham said that attacks against Levantine Christians reflected a "Zionist conspiracy against Islam."

"I believe it is necessary to deeply examine fundamentalism ... and terrorism that are masked by religion, along with violence and disturbances against Christians here and there and on an increasing level. All this behavior has nothing to do with Islam," Lahham said.

"But it is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam," he added.

The Daily Star story immediately follows these statements with a reminder of the recent jihad massacre in Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, implying that Gregory III intends to suggest that even that massacre was a Zionist plot. And that leads to the question: did the Patriarch himself even believe what he said, or were his remarks more along the lines of the American prisoners in North Korea who dutifully read the statements they were given about how wonderfully they were being treated, while signaling with eye blinks and hand gestures that they were speaking under duress from scripts prepared for them by their captors?

Could the Patriarch even have been making his explanation of the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians so absurd as to signal to the world that in Muslim countries today, non-Muslims may say anything they want to about Jews, no matter how outlandish, but cannot utter one remotely critical word about Muslims and Islam, even about how Muslims are victimizing them in the name of Islam -- for if they do, that victimization will get even worse?

This is all speculation; I do not claim to have any insight into the Patriarch's motives in saying this. Maybe he really does believe that Zionists are behind the jihad against Christians, but since that is like saying that someone is a learned, thoughtful man who believes that lizard people are secretly colonizing the planet, I am compelled to search for alternative explanations. So when he says that jihad terror against Christians "has nothing to do with Islam," but is rather "a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations," he must know what is written in the Qur'an and Hadith about Christians and the Islamic imperative to wage war against and subjugate them. After all, in a 2006 interview he said, "When I hear a verse of the Koran, it's not something foreign to me. It's an expression of the civilization to which I belong." He also opined that "after 11 September, there is a plot to eliminate all the Christian minorities from the Arabic world."

Does he really think that plot is a Zionist one, not an Islamic jihadist one, despite the fact that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country in which the Christian population has increased since 1948? Maybe -- or maybe he knows that in Islamic countries today, Christians who don't echo the Islamic political line face hard going. And that Islamic political line is inspired by Qur'an 5:82, which terms the Jews the worst enemies of the Muslims, and is shot through with antisemitic conspiracy paranoia. So it is easy to understand why the leader of a community under threat would echo this in order to appease those who really have a gun to his head.

For according to Islamic law, the "protection" contract between the Muslim community and the dhimmis is violated, leaving the dhimmi subject to execution, if he "mentions something impermissible about Allah, the Prophet, or Islam," ('Umdat al-Salik 011.10(5).) Patriarch Gregory lives in Syria, which does not enforce the fullness of Sharia, but Islamic law remains a strong cultural and political presence even in non-Sharia majority Muslim countries. Christians generally know that if they speak out against the mistreatment to which they are subjected, they will only make matters worse.

Accordingly, the Patriarch, as absurd and outlandish as his words were, was almost certainly trying to protect his people. That he would feel it necessary to do so by retailing outlandish, reprehensible and antisemitic conspiracy theories, while ignoring the reality of Islamic jihad violence against Christians, only makes it all the more incumbent upon free people to speak out and act to end the Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere. Christians and Jews, as fellow dhimmis, are natural allies against the advancing jihad. One day, I hope that even Syria will be free enough to enable a Christian leader like the Patriarch Gregory III Lahham to acknowledge that in safety and without fear of violent jihadist reprisal.

"So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them." -- Qur'an 4:34

"Sudan: Women are punished with '600,000' lashes a year," from AKI, December 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Khartoum, 16 Dec. (AKI) - Forty thousand women in Sudan are subject to police whippings for moral transgressions each year, a figure that came to light after a video was circulated on the Internet which showed the public thrashing of a Khartoum woman.

Sudanese feminist and political figure Mariam al-Sadiq al-Madi brought the issue to the attention of authorities, the Sudanese daily al-Sharq al-Awsat reported.

The drama of the physical punishments against women in Sudan is much more serious than previously believed," al-Madi said. She said that each year around 600,000 lashes are dealt to women in Sudan.

"The situation was worsened by a 1991 law that increased violence against them," she added.

The so-called 'law 152' allows for women to be whipped for an array of 'moral' crimes including wearing trousers as in the case of a journalist, Lubna Ahmad Hussein, who was found guilty of this 'crime' last year.

According to lawyer Nabil Adib, "a vast array of crimes allows for whippings," she said, citing the excessive use of alcohol and gambling to washing one's car in an incorrect location as crimes punishable by flogging.

Seditious?

No, this isn't from the Onion. Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Women with 'seditious' eyes must cover up," from Emirates 247.com, November 14 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Women unveiling their eyes in public in Saudi Arabia will be forced to fully cover up their faces if their eyes are found to be seditious, according to the Gulf Kingdom's most feared Islamic law-enforcement group.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was reacting to last week's fight between one its members and a Saudi husband, who was maddened by the man's orders to his wife to cover up her face, the Saudi Arabic language daily Alwatan reported on Sunday.

Police are still investigating the incident, in which the husband was stabbed in the back during the fight in the southern province of Hael.

"The Commission members have orders to tell any women in public to cover up her face if they find that her eyes are seditious," the paper said, quoting Sheikh Mutlaq Al Nabit, a Commission spokesman in Hael.

Women in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Muslim nations, must veil their faces in public but some of them uncover their eyes.

Nabit did not explain how the Commission members determine that a woman's eyes are seditious.

"We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment." Islamic supremacists are the culprits, of course, and dhimmi Swedish authorities stand by passively.

"Jews warned about visiting southern Sweden," from The Local, December 16 (thanks to Twostellas):

A US-based Jewish group has issued a travel warning urging Jews to exercise "extreme caution" when traveling in southern Sweden.

"We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment," said Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director of International Relations with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, in a statement.

"There have been dozens of incidents reported to the authorities but have not resulted in arrests or convictions for hate crimes."

Samuels, along with Wiesenthal associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, conveyed their concerns for the safety of the Jewish community to Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask during meetings in Stockholm on Thursday.

The statement emphasised that the travel warning had nothing to do with Saturday's suicide bombing in Stockholm.

In issuing the warning, the Wiesenthal Centre cited "the outrageous remarks of Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu, who blames the Jewish community for failing to denounce Israel."...

And the Iranians are blaming "militant Wahhabi groups," i.e., Saudi Arabia. Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update: "Attacks on Shia Teachers and Schools in Pakistan," from Iran's Ahlul Bayt News Agency, December 17 (thanks to Twostellas):

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Militant Wahhabi groups have been linked to sectarian killings of members of the Shia minority, including Shiite members of the Hazara ethnic community.Between January 2008 and April 2010, at least 76 individuals were killed and 62 injured in suspected sectarian attacks.Among those targeted and killed by militants have been at least 22 teachers and other education personnel.

The most prominent assassination was that of the provincial minister of education, Shafiq Ahmed, in October 2009, for which the Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) claimed responsibility.

University professors and grade school teachers in Quetta and Baloch districts have also been attacked.According to government statistics, at least 11 of those who died in targeted killings between January 2008 and April 2010, and 4 of those wounded, were teachers....

And the Christian pastor who has visited Asia Bibi in prison has received death threats. Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan: "ASIA/PAKISTAN - Islamic radicals: a Christmas protest against Asia Bibi, for 'the honour of the Prophet,'" from Agenzia Fides, December 16 (thanks to Twostellas):

Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) - It promises to be a difficult Christmas for the Christian community in Pakistan. An alliance among radical Islamic groups - which includes religious parties, Islamic movements, organizations allied with terrorist groups - has called a large mass national demonstration entitled Namos-e-risalat, that is, defending the honour of the Prophet Muhammad on 24 December, after Friday prayers, to say "no" to the release of Asia Bibi and any changes to the blasphemy law. The alliance has called on the "ummah" (Islamic community) in all the world, demanding universal support in the defence of the Prophet. Moreover, the radical leaders say: "Asia Bibi is a blasphemous woman and should be repudiated by Christians. Anyone who defends her, an ordinary citizen, politician or Minister, is guilty of blasphemy along with her."

Local sources speaking to Fides referred to the fear that the initiative, obviously provocative, may degenerate into open violence and attacks against Christians. The Commission for Justice and Peace of the Bishops of Pakistan expressed to Fides "great concern at the increasing tension, at the possible outcomes of the protest and the situation in which religious minorities may be, especially Christians."...

Meanwhile, the Christian Pastor, Samson Dilawar, who visited Asia Bibi in jail in recent days to bring her assistance and spiritual comfort, has received death threats and has confirmed to Fides that Asia "is in grave danger for her life in prison." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/12/2010)

There is no surprise in this, except for those Westerners who buy the politically correct line that mosques are benign houses of worship that are never used for any nefarious purposes. In reality, mosques have been used to preach hatred; to spread exhortations to terrorist activity; to house a bomb factory; to store weapons; to disseminate messages from bin Laden; to demand (in the United States) that non-Muslims conform to Islamic dietary restrictions; to fire on American troops; to fire upon Indian troops; or to train jihadists.

"Iran Using Western Mosques to Plot Terrorism?," from CBN, December 16:

[...] Reza Khalili: Mosques are supposed to be a place for prayer. A place for submission to God. But they are used as a recruitment center, for backdoor meetings, transfer of arms and cash and putting together terrorist activities and I was involved in some of their meetings.

Erick Stakelbeck: You made a key point, that Iran used mosques and Islamic cultural centers in the West to further its agenda...could you get a little bit more specific about that? How does Iran uses mosques here in the U.S. and in Europe to plot terrorism?

Khalili: I can tell you from experience: I was part of the operation, I was involved in the Islamic community, and I can tell you clearly that out of mosques, there was a big effort within the Afghan communities by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards members--and with Pakistanis, Turks and others. And they would recruit from them, they would transfer cash and arms. And mosques provided a safe haven, and actually, in my view, were one of the centers of the operation. So if an intelligence agency such as the CIA infiltrates a mosque and understands that there is a specific Guards member who runs it, then actually they could be very successful in drawing a chart of all the terrorist activities in that specific region. That's how central the mosque operation was.

Stakelbeck.: And that's in Europe--you were involved in some of these operations in Europe. How about the U.S.?

Khalili: It's absolutely the same. They recruit, they train, they sell the ideology of martyrdom, and many, many are guided and connected to terrorist groups. And you've seen this: many U.S. born citizens, Muslims, unfortunately, have been sold this idea and are sent to Al Qaeda camps or others. But the Iranians are very active in this country through the mosques and Islamic cultural centers to make those connections and run those operations.

Yet another jihad charity. "Texas couple accused of funneling money to Iran," by Nigel Duara for the Associated Press, December 17 (thanks to Block Ness):

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A Texas couple and the head of an Oregon charity secretly sent millions of dollars to an Iranian bank and to a contact in Iran for nine years, violating the U.S. embargo on the Middle East country, according to a federal indictment.

The indictment describes an alleged scheme in which the Texas couple got tax exemptions for their donations to the Portland-based Child Foundation charity. The head of the charity, Mehrdad Yasrebi, allegedly funneled money that was meant for food and other assistance to his cousin and to a bank controlled by the Iranian government.

Working through Iranian corporations and banks in Switzerland and Dubai, the Texas couple and Yasrebi's cousin masked their transfers by using food shipments and other commodities to cover financial donations intended for a sister charity in Iran run by the cousin, federal prosecutors say.

"These defendants are charged with going to extraordinary lengths to conceal the transfer of large sums of money in violation of the Iranian embargo," Dwight Holton, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon, said in a statement Thursday.

A 26-page indictment alleges the Texas couple, Najmeh Vahid and Dr. Hossein Lahiji, conspired to defraud the government and laundered money by purporting to transfer charitable donations to Iran while actually keeping control of the money.

Also named in the indictment as a defendant is Ahmad Iranshahi, cousin of Yasrebi and the head of the sister charity started in Iran by the two men and other family members in 1999.

Yasrebi was identified as a coconspirator in the indictment but was not charged.

Federal officials allege that since Child Foundation's crea