July 2011 Archives

"I'm not sure I understand it myself"

When Ellison speaks about people misunderstanding Islam, he doesn't mean people like Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; or Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; or Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; or Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; or Nidal Hasan, the successful Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; or Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; or Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; or Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; or so many other jihad murderers and would-be murderers. He doesn't explain whether or not those men and others like them understand Islam properly. The people he has in mind are those who doubt, even in the face of all the evidence that these men have provided and so much more, that Islam is a Religion of Peace™.

Also, this VOA News puff piece fails to mention, not surprisingly, that Ellison accepted $13,350 from the Muslim American Society to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

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

"Congressman: Misunderstanding of Islam Continues in the US," by Karlina Amkas for VOA News, July 31 (thanks to Maxwell):

Most Muslims around the world will start the fasting month of Ramadan on Monday, August 1. In America, Muslims have been conducting a series of events to welcome the holy month of Ramadan. But, according to a U.S. Congressman, Islam still is mostly misunderstood in the United States.

Keith Ellison, a member of the House of Representatives from the midwestern state of Minnesota delivered greetings on the fasting month.

Islam is still much misunderstood

Ellison took office in January, 2007, and became the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. He was first elected in November of 2006, just five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has won re-election twice since then. [...]

Islam, Ellison acknowledged, is still much misunderstood. But, he asserts, Islam in America is not something new. Islam has been in America for 14 generations. He regrets though, that throughout the world, people treated religion as their identity and are willing to kill or die over the identity associated with religion, not the faith, but religious identity.

"If you use your religion as an identity as opposed to a path to divine, inspirations and guidance, then you are no different than Crips and Bloods [gangs]," he said. "And I want to say that I mean that."

Make this world a better place

Surveys show that about 60 percent of Americans do not understand Islam. To further introduce Islam, Ellison argued, the Muslim community in America should be much more vocal about who they really are, then take actions in their chosen field.

"If you can make a movie, make one. If you could sing a song, sing it. If you could write a play, write it. If you want to run for office - run, but do something to make this world a better place" said Ellison. "And then we don’t even have to worry about what religion we are because we [will] all be united in what we believe, which is service to humanity."...

"Service to humanity."

It's a cookbook!

After blaming me in a front-page story last Monday for the Norway massacre, the New York Times publishes a new piece today that concedes many of my principal points in defending myself against these charges. What will the dhimmi sycophants who have thrown in with the Times' first position do now?

"The Rise of the Macro-Nationalists," by Thomas Hegghammer in the New York Times, July 31 (thanks to all who sent this in):

AT first glance, the 1,500-page manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of the terrorist attacks in Oslo, appears to be a fairly standard ideological treatise of the far right. The document, which Mr. Breivik posted online on July 22 just hours before the attacks and which he titled “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence,” evokes several of the movement’s central themes and cites numerous right-wing ideologues....

A note about this "far right" and "right-wing" business: this is how I am routinely characterized, as are my fellow anti-jihadists -- Hegghammer is merely following the herd. But what is the substance of this mainstream media moniker? Actually, there is no substance to it whatsoever. I have never taken a public position on any other issue besides jihad and Islamic supremacism. I've worked with people who are deeply religious and socially conservative and with people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Wafa Sultan are atheists; Geert Wilders' party is not justifiably called "right-wing" on any issue except jihad. Pim Fortuyn was a gay activist. Yet all of us and all the other anti-jihadists I could name are "far right" for the sole reason that we oppose the advance of Islamic law in the West. Yet note that in a spectacular manifestation of intellectual incoherence, the mainstream media also considers "far right" those who want to see Islamic law advance in the West and everywhere else -- see, to take just one of many readily available examples, this Associated Press article that calls the pro-Sharia forces in Egypt "ultraconservative."

And that reveals the substance of this media label: something that is "far right" or "right wing" or "conservative" simply means something that the hard-Left politically correct media elites don't like, and don't want you to like. They dislike both anti-jihadists in the West and Sharia supremacists in the Middle East, although they hate the former much more than they do the latter, whom they disapprove of but tolerate. After all, they do have their hatred of America and the West in common.

While Mr. Breivik’s violent acts are exceptional, his anti-Islamic views are not. Much, though not all, of Mr. Breivik’s manifesto is inspired by a relatively new right-wing intellectual current often referred to as counterjihad. The movement’s roots go back to the 1980s, but it gained substantial momentum only after 9/11. Its main home is the Internet, where blogs like Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs and Gates of Vienna publish essays by writers like Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Bat Ye’or and Fjordman, the pseudonym for a Norwegian blogger. Mr. Breivik’s manifesto is replete with citations of counterjihad writers, strongly suggesting that he was inspired by them.

Of course, by advocating the mass murder of European politicians, Mr. Breivik goes much further than any counterjihad ideologue has ever done, and his manifesto contains ideas and information that have no precedent in the counterjihad literature. For example, he provides extensive advice on how to build bombs and plan terrorist attacks. The leading counterjihad writers have virtually never advocated violence, and several of them have condemned Mr. Breivik’s actions....

Virtually? That's weaselly. In fact, we never have. Ever. Still, I appreciate Hegghammer's acknowledgement that Breivik's manifesto contains "ideas and information that have no precedent in the counterjihad literature. For example, he provides extensive advice on how to build bombs and plan terrorist attacks."

It also contains a call to make common cause with jihadists. But this sign of Breivik's own deranged intellectual incoherence doesn't fit the media demonization agenda, and so it has not been widely reported. Hegghammer does say this, however.

Indeed, the more belligerent part of Mr. Breivik’s ideology has less in common with counterjihad than with its archenemy, Al Qaeda. Both Mr. Breivik and Al Qaeda see themselves as engaged in a civilizational war between Islam and the West that extends back to the Crusades. Both fight on behalf of transnational entities: the “ummah” — or “community” of all Muslims — in the case of Al Qaeda, and Europe in the case of Mr. Breivik. Both frame their struggle as defensive wars of survival. Both hate their respective governments for collaborating with the outside enemy. Both use the language of martyrdom (Mr. Breivik calls his attack a “martyrdom operation”). Both call themselves knights, and espouse medieval ideals of chivalry. Both lament the erosion of patriarchy and the emancipation of women....

"Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has also begun keeping a close watch on American diplomats in the wake of the raid against Bin Laden as it believed the CIA was running a secret network of American and Pakistani operatives in the country."

Which side are they on, again?

"Pakistan detains US Ambassador at Islamabad airport; asks for NoC," from the Press Trust of India, July 31 (thanks to JW Watcher):

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities recently detained the US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, at Islamabad airport. Pakistani officials said they were enforcing a rule that requires all foreign diplomats to have a "No-objection Certificate" (NoC) for travelling outside Islamabad.

Mr Munter, who reportedly possessed the NoC, was stopped at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, and asked about the document, while he was travelling to Karachi last week. The envoy "strongly protested" the incident, which was subsequently taken up with President Asif Ali Zardari, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The incident reflects the tensions that have characterized Pakistan-US relations in recent since al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by American special forces in a covert raid in Abbottabad on May 2.

Pakistan has threatened to impose "more formal restrictions" where US diplomats will have to provide prior notification before traveling in the country. They however dropped the demand when the US administration threatened similar restrictions for Pakistani diplomats in the US, an unnamed US official was quoted as saying by ABC News.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has also begun keeping a close watch on American diplomats in the wake of the raid against Bin Laden as it believed the CIA was running a secret network of American and Pakistani operatives in the country....

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." -- Winston Churchill

Make no mistake: the attempt to hang blame for the murders in Norway on me and others with whom I work or who work in this field is an attempt to discredit and silence any and all resistance to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. That's why the principal organs of the Left, which in its hardened hatred of the West has consistently been warm and welcoming toward Islamic supremacism, have been leading this charge: the New York Times, NBC News, etc.

The effort is transparent in its double standard and ideological bias: my criticism of jihad activity is supposed to have incited violence, but the Left's criticism of Western policies is never seen to have incited the manifold incidents of terrorist violence against Westerners. This campaign against me and Pamela Geller and others is a transparent attempt to advance the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's long-term agenda of shutting down the freedom of speech in the West and criminalizing all criticism of Islam, thereby leaving the West mute and defenseless in the face of the advancing jihad.

That's why it is dispiriting to see someone who has spoken out against the jihad and Islamic supremacism in the past willingly serve himself up as a useful idiot in this effort, but that is just what Damian Thompson, a British columnist who has written against jihad activity and even praised me and Jihad Watch in the past, is doing today: "Anders Breivik and the echo-chamber of the trolls," by Damian Thompson in the Telegraph, July 29 (thanks to Alan of England):

Speaking as someone who hates the way the mainstream media suck up to radical Muslims, I find it frustrating that websites devoted to monitoring Islamism are dominated by trolls and writers who play up to them. I don’t trust a word that the BBC tells me about “the religion of peace” – but equally, I can’t trust either the articles or the comments on the Gates of Vienna or Jihad Watch websites. (This I learnt the hard way, by quoting on my own blog an anecdote about Muslims besieging a hospital that turned out to be an urban myth.)

Thompson is referring to an on-the-scene account about an incident in Australia that I published at Jihad Watch. Mainstream media versions of the incident didn't match the account here, so the egregious Leftist Guardian columnist Andrew Brown skewered Thompson for picking up the story here -- as if the mainstream media always and in every case tells the story fully and accurately. Thompson thereupon folded abjectly and retreated from writing so frequently about jihad issues.

In any case, I wouldn't hesitate to put my record for accuracy at Jihad Watch up against the Telegraph's and Thompson's, and I have no doubt as to who would come out the winner.

The last thing that anti-jihadists should do when confronted with smear merchants like Brown is fold. As the Left and its Islamic supremacist allies step up their smears and defamation of anti-jihadists, it is all-important for us not to falter in the breach, but to stand on the truths that we tell and not give an inch.

Thompson, however, chooses otherwise:

Someone who did trust them, however, was Anders Breivik, whose manifesto draws far more heavily on anti-Islamic and anti-EU blogs than it does on neo-Nazi sources. This is massively embarrassing for the Right-wing bloggers he cites, three of whom are old friends of mine, but it demonstrates cunning on Breivik’s part.

It also demonstrates monumentally poor judgment and poor critical thinking skills on Thompson's part to endorse this Leftist smear. By the logic of the Left's assault on us over Norway, no one should ever be critical of anything, for fear that some evil person will misunderstand that criticism and commit violence because of it. There is nothing "embarrassing" for me or anyone else in what Breivik writes, any more than the Beatles should have been embarrassed when Charles Manson invoked their songs as his inspiration for the Manson murders. There was nothing in the songs, so only the madman was accountable for his murders. There is nothing in my work that could conceivably be seen as justification for murder by any reasonable person, and so only Anders Breivik is responsible for his actions.

Damian Thompson should know better, and I think he does. He apparently hopes he will be eaten last. But here again, make no mistake: when his turn comes around, the crocodile will still be hungry.

The lack of transparency and cooperation only suggests they have something to hide, and there has indeed been ample evidence of that in other investigative reporting. Take, for example, this video and report from March. The wife tells the Sharia judge: "He has hit me in the past, yes. He hit me once." Almost with a chuckle, the judge says, "Once only, so it's not a very serious matter."

As Baroness Cox noted in her calls to limit Sharia: "Many women say: 'We came to this country to escape these practices only to find the situation is worse here'." Cox noted the practice of valuing a woman's testimony as half that of a man (from Qur'an 2:282, confirmed in Sahih Bukhari 1.6.301), and the gradual, unauthorized expansion of jurisdiction that saw Sharia courts ruling on "family and criminal cases, including child custody and domestic violence."

To fail to follow through in this case is to concede that there are areas of Britain where British law is no longer supreme. And it will invite more stonewalling, more jurisdictional "creeping," and of course, more Sharia courts doing all of the above, unless authorities throw down this gauntlet: If you cannot be investigated to authorities' satisfaction, you cannot operate.

Most communities demand that much of their restaurants in some form -- no inspection, no permit. That is also the least that should be expected of anything styling itself as a court, tribunal, arbitration board, and so forth. "Probe into secretive Sharia law courts scrapped as Muslim leaders close ranks," by Steve Doughty and Neal Sears for the Daily Mail, July 30 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Ministers have abandoned an inquiry into the rise of secretive Sharia councils that deal in Islamic justice – because the Muslim courts refused to help.

The failure of the Ministry of Justice probe has generated new fears among politicians and pressure groups about the increasing influence of Sharia courts.

They are worried the courts' decisions may run against the law of the land, particularly in divorce settlements for women.

The scrapping of the inquiry comes in a week when Islamic extremists have launched a campaign to declare 'Sharia-controlled zones' across Britain.

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed responsibility for the scheme, which has so far seen posters put on lampposts in several London boroughs declaring that within the 'zones' there should be 'no gambling', 'no music or concerts', 'no porn or prostitution', 'no drugs or smoking' and 'no alcohol'.

The Daily Mail has previously published photographs of Choudary in his student days breaking all but one of the zone laws – holding a cannabis joint, downing a pint of cider, playing cards and leering at porn.

The formerly randy "Andy" Choudary.

But the abandonment of the Government's Sharia inquiry has fuelled fears that such radicals will be able to continue their intimidating activities unchecked.

The Ministry of Justice had launched an inquiry into the operation of Sharia courts in Britain because of rising fears that the secretive system has undue influence.

The number of Sharia courts here is unknown, although an estimate of 85 made by the Civitas think-tank in 2009 is widely accepted.

The failure of the Government's investigation was disclosed to MPs by Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly.

He told Tory backbencher Kris Hopkins that before last year's general election his department acted to 'commission an exploratory study of Sharia councils in England with respect to family law'.

Mr Djanogly said: 'This identified a number of challenges to undertaking robust research in this area. The study was therefore limited and adds little to the evidence base.

'The findings cannot be regarded as a representative assessment of the operation of Sharia councils. Following expert peer review of the draft report, the Ministry of Justice decided not to publish the findings.'

A further statement to the Mail made it clear the 'challenges' researchers experienced boiled down to the Sharia courts failing to co-operate.

Excuses:

The Ministry of Justice said: 'The report was essentially an exploratory study which identified a number of challenges to undertaking more robust research. 'The challenges to undertaking more robust research were that the councils are generally run on a volunteer basis, were short staffed and very busy, so there were practical difficulties in speaking with respondents.

'There was also reluctance to discuss the private work of the councils and respondents were wary of the stereotypical ways in which their organisations were represented in the media.'

And how did they think thumbing their noses at authorities would help their public relations?

Sharia law is also under scrutiny in the Lords, where the independent peer Baroness Cox has tabled a Bill seeking to make it a crime for anyone to take over the rights of the state's criminal or family courts.

Will hordes of journalists descend upon Sydney, investigating what created the intellectual climate and line of thought that Khaled Zakaria identifies with? What do you think?

"Man accused of Facebook bomb threat," by Anne Tarasov in The Age, July 31 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A CLEANING business owner used Facebook to threaten to ''kill all Christians and Jews'' and bomb Sydney, police allege.

Khaled Zakaria, 30, faced Parramatta Bail Court yesterday charged with one count of using a mobile phone to menace or harass and two counts of making hoax threats using a mobile phone.

In documents tendered to the court, police said Mr Zakaria, of Greenacre, threatened to bomb intelligence agency ASIO, stab officers at Goulburn's super-max jail and ''get'' officers at Bankstown police station under the Facebook profiles Kay Zee, Khaled Ibn-Al Walid and Khaled Ibn-Alwalie.

Police alleged Mr Zakaria posted threatening comments on the Ban the Burka and Sharia for Australia Facebook pages, including: ''There's going to be a big bang in the City of Sydney on 30th of July, 2011. Watch out. Bang Bang.''

Following Mr Zakaria's arrest on Friday by officers from the joint counter-terrorism team and the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, police searched his house and car and seized two mobile phones and other related items.

Mr Zakaria's lawyer, Derek Druitt, told the court his client may be a victim of mistaken identity because he employs three people, one of whom has a similar name and initials. He said the ''hoax'' messages were posted using a work phone used by everyone at the company....

Yeah, sure, that's it. Mistaken identity! That's the ticket.

This morning I received this email:

Subject: Concerning Anders Behring Breivik

Message: My name is Marie De Rosa, and I´m a Norwegian journalist at the newspaper VG. I have some questions for you, related to the recent terror attacks in Oslo by Anders Behring Breivik. I hope you find the time to answer them. I´ve interviewed the Norwegian professor Lars Gule recently, and he claims that you and others who are mentioned in Breiviks [sic] «manifesto», are partly responsible for Breiviks [sic] extreme actions. Gule thinks that even though you don´t have any legal responsibility for Breiviks [sic] actions, you still have some moral responsibility because you have inspired his world view. Gule thinks that you have contributed to the intellectual climate and line of thought that Breivik identifies with, and that led him to attack the goverment [sic] building and Utøya. Gule claims that by rejecting this moral responsibility, you put yourself outside what is considered decent within a political debate.

Thank you.

I sent back this response:

Gule is thuggishly trying to silence (rather than refute) a point of view with which he disagrees by demonizing it. The problem is that he is using an argument that can be used against him, and anyone. I expect that Gule criticizes American and NATO foreign policy. Yet there have been numerous terror attacks committed by people who oppose that foreign policy. Is Gule partly responsible for creating an intellectual climate and line of thought that led such people to commit terror attacks? Gule is using the same kind of argument that the KKK used when they blamed Martin Luther King for the Watts riots. King was steadfastly non-violent, but he agreed with the political perspectives of the rioters. Was he then responsible for creating an intellectual climate and line of thought that led to the riots? By Gule's logic, no one should be critical of anything, for fear that some evil person will misunderstand that criticism and commit violence because of it. If I am killed in the near future (and I have many death threats), would Gule have blood on his hands?

UPDATE: Heartfelt thanks to the many Jihad Watch readers who have alerted me to the fact that Lars Gule is a convicted terrorist and stooge of the jihad. How interesting that neither Marie De Rosa nor the BBC, which used him to hit me and others a few days ago, thought it necessary to identify him as such. "Media bias" isn't remotely an adequate term for this hard-Left pro-jihad advocacy pseudo-journalism.

Don’t miss my extended live interview this Sunday on the Frank Wuco Radio Show. Frank is a longtime friend and JW supporter. Unless Frank has changed his stripes (and I don’t think he has), you can expect a fair and civil discussion regarding the controversy surrounding the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik’s use of JW’s (and my) good name in his writings. Frank’s show runs from 9AM to 11AM PDT (that is, 12 to 2PM EDT) on Fox News Radio AM 970 WFLA Tampa. It can be streamed live at www.970wfla.com. My interview commences at 10:05AM PDT/1:05 PM EDT.

But it's all right -- they were responding to decades of oppression, doncha know. "Ten die in Xinjiang knife attack, blast," by Peter Parks for AFP, July 31:

Ten people were killed in a knife attack and blast in China's ethnically-tense Xinjiang region at the weekend, state media and authorities said Sunday, in the latest bout of unrest to hit the area.

A knife attack in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar on Saturday saw seven people killed and 28 hurt by two knife-wielding assailants.

One of the attackers was later killed in violence that erupted at a night market, government authorities said.

Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the government of the northwestern region, told AFP the attackers were both members of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, adding the suspect who was still alive had been detained....

An explosion rocked city on Sunday, killing three people, including a police officer, and injuring three others, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Police had already detained two suspects, Xinhua said, although it was not immediately clear what had caused the blasts....

Uh, maybe jihad?

According to tianshannet.com, a website run by the regional government, the suspects in Saturday's attack hijacked a truck that was waiting at a light at the food market in Kashgar, not far from the border with Kyrgyzstan.

They killed the driver, ploughed the vehicle into passers-by on a nearby pavement, then got out of the truck and stabbed people at random, leaving six bystanders dead before the crowd turned on them and killed one attacker.

An English-language report from Xinhua said two blasts were heard before the incident, saying the first came from a minivan and the other was heard almost simultaneously and originated from the market....

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress -- an exile group -- cited local sources as saying the assailants had clashed with members of a civilian force that maintains public security.

"This incident is hard to believe but must be addressed. Beijing should accept the responsibility that repression triggered this incident," he said.

Of course. It is never the responsibility of the jihadists or their allies. And as always, it is a response to oppression -- although ironically, we never seem to see this kind of behavior from the non-Muslims who suffer oppression in Muslim societies such as Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia:

Many Uighurs are unhappy with what they say has been decades of political and religious repression, and the unwanted immigration of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

While standards of living have improved, Uighurs complain that most of the gains go to the Han.

This tension has triggered sporadic bouts of violence in Xinjiang -- a vast, arid but resource-rich region bordering Central Asia, home to more than eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs.

Earlier this month, more than 20 people were killed in a violent clash with police in the remote city of Hotan.

State media quoted an official in Xinjiang as saying that clash was a "terrorist" attack, adding that four people including a police officer were killed when a crowd set upon a police station.

But Uighur activists called it an outburst of anger by ordinary Uighurs and said security forces beat 14 people to death and shot dead six others during the unrest.

Here is a more realistic account of what happened there.

In the nation's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs savagely attacked Han Chinese in the regional capital Urumqi in July 2009 -- an incident that led to retaliatory attacks by Han on Uighurs several days later.

The government says around 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in the violence, which shattered the authoritarian Communist Party's claims of harmony among the country's dozens of ethnic groups.

China threw a huge security clampdown onto Xinjiang after the violence, and many Uighurs are enraged by the arrests and alleged disappearances of people rounded up across the region in the aftermath....

Ah, even Uighurs play the victimhood game. Has Honest Ibe Hooper flown over to Xinjiang to give them lessons?

PETALING JAYA: The Chinese population in the country has declined by 2% last year from the figure recorded in the 2000 population census.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the report did not necessarily mean there were fewer births.

The percentage of Chinese might look like it was getting smaller when a census was carried out, but he stressed that this was “purely arithmetic”.

According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census report, the Chinese constitute 24.6% of Malaysia’s 28.3 million population while 67.4% were bumiputra [i.e Muslim], Indians (7.3%) and others (0.7%).

In the 2000 population census, the Chinese made up 26% of the country’s 23.27 million population.

When the census was carried out in 1991, the Chinese community made up 28.1% of the country’s 18.38 million population.

Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall president Tan Yew Sing said the declining Chinese population was a natural trend due to urban culture.

He said more Chinese were moving to the urban areas, where they preferred to raise smaller families.

“A significant portion of the Chinese community is also known to migrate overseas,” said Tan.

Boko Haram demands the establishment of an Islamic state governed only by Sharia law. Accordingly, their attacks have focused on practices (non-Islamic worship as well as the use of alcohol, and playing card games) and institutions (police, military, legislative, and tribal) that get in the way.

The group will see the invitation to talks as a victory, and as a sign of weakness in Abuja and of the success of their campaign of terror, and will press their demands whether through negotiations or continued attacks. While the government has not given any signals on concessions, any that they would make toward Sharia would invite demands for still more: if they have allowed one such demand for the sake of peace, why not another? For obvious reasons, the negotiations will bear watching.

"Nigeria plans talks with Islamist group Boko Haram," from BBC News, July 30:

Nigeria's government says it wants to start negotiating with Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been blamed for a series of recent attacks.

The government said a panel would open talks with the group and report back by 16 August.

There was no immediate reaction to the statement from Boko Haram.

The group, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is forbidden", is fighting to topple the government and create an Islamic state.

It led an uprising across a number of states in northern Nigeria in 2009, during which hundreds were killed.

In recent weeks it has been blamed for a series of bombings and shootings in Nigeria's north-east.

The government statement said President Goodluck Jonathan had appointed seven people, including the ministers of defence and labour, to a negotiation committee.

It said the panel's role would be to act "as a liaison between the federal government ... and Boko Haram and to initiate negotiations with the sect."

They're playing by the book: "When you meet the unbelievers in battle, strike at their necks..." -- Qur'an 47:4

"Islamic militants beheaded Philippine troops: navy," from Agence France-Presse, July 29:

MANILA - Islamist militants in the southern Philippines beheaded two marines in a brutal knife attack during a major clash that left five other soldiers dead and 26 wounded, a military spokesman said on Friday.

The Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf severed the heads of two of the seven dead marines in Thursday's clash, navy spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Omar Tonsay told reporters in Manila.

'I can confirm two,' Mr Tonsay said when asked if any of the dead marines were beheaded. 'Definitely this is a form of barbarism.' Military spokesmen in the south also raised the number of wounded soldiers from the clash on the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Jolo island to 26, from the 21 initially reported.

Eleven of the wounded were flown to a military hospital in the southern port of Zamboanga on Friday along with their dead comrades, said the regional military spokesman there, Lieutenant-Colonel Randolf Cabangbang.

He said 30 militants were also slain, but gave no indication as to how the military determined the Abu Sayyaf death toll.

He said the government had not recovered any of the militants' bodies, even though the military reported taking control of the jungle area where the clash occurred.

If the shoe were on the other foot and Ahmadis got off easy for committing some crime against Muslims, it would be an outrage. Something would have to be done about it. But the light sentences the murderers got and the lukewarm reaction by officials are all the more proof that non-Muslim lives are already worth less than those of Muslims in Indonesia.

At some point, the letter of the law will simply catch up to practices that already exist, and the laws passed to suppress Ahmadis' beliefs and very presence in public life in the aftermath of the attacks are but a step in that direction. More on this story. "Indonesia rejects outrage over lynch mob sentences," from Agence France-Presse, July 29 (thanks to Twostellas):

JAKARTA - INDONESIA on Friday dismissed expressions of outrage and disbelief over the perceived light sentences handed down to Islamic extremists who killed three minority sect members in a mob frenzy.

The United States and the European Union expressed strong misgivings while local rights groups and international watchdogs issued condemnations and calls for action to address rising intolerance in the mainly Muslim country.

But religious affairs ministry spokesman Zubaidi said the sentences of three to six months for the men accused of leading the murderous assault on the Ahmadiyah sect members in February were the result of a fair trial.

'As an executive body, we cannot interfere in the legal system. We believe in the law enforcers. They have the right to come up with the sentences,' he told AFP.

'Whether the sentences are light or harsh, how it's perceived is relative.' Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, often held up by the United States and others as a champion of pluralism and democracy, made no comment on the sentences. Foreign ministry officials were unavailable to comment.

Human rights activists said prosecutors and the court in Serang had been influenced by Islamic leaders to play down the gravity of the crime. They say violence against minorities is going unchecked in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, and criticise Mr Yudhoyono for failing to defend the nation's pluralist, moderate traditions.

It's not the first time Muslim attackers have gotten laughably brief sentences in recent months. It is also not the first time Yudhoyono has downplayed the extent of the problem of rising Islamic intolerance in Indonesia. When he commented on attacks against Christians last year, one would have thought he were discussing a homeowners' association dispute.

Starting in Holland, "the suspect had planned to travel to Syria to join the al-Qaida network. From there, he would possible travel to Iraq or the West Bank or Gaza." With apologies again to Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the places you'll 'misunderstand' Islam!" "Dutch police reportedly arrest al-Qaida-linked suspect," from MSNBC, July 29 (thanks to Kenneth):

Police in the Netherlands have arrested a 34-year-old man on accusations he sought to join al-Qaida in order to carry out an attack in the Middle East, reports said Friday.

A report at Expatica calls him an "Iraqi man."

Details of the arrest, reported by BNO News and the Dutch-language newspapers De Telegraaf and Almere Vandaag, remained sketchy.

As reported by the by-subscription website BNO News, the country's prosecutor's office said the suspect was arrested earlier this week in the city of Almere.

"The reason for the investigation is a report from the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD)," a statement from the prosecutor’s office said, according to BNO. "The man became the focus of an AIVD investigation into jihadist networks."

BNO, citing the AIVD report, said the suspect had planned to travel to Syria to join the al-Qaida network. From there, he would possible travel to Iraq or the West Bank or Gaza to carry out some kind of attack, BNO reported.

A Rotterdam magistrate extended the man’s detention for at least two weeks, BNO reported.

HERAT, Afghanistan — The two teenagers met inside an ice cream factory through darting glances before roll call, murmured hellos as supervisors looked away and, finally, a phone number folded up and tossed discreetly onto the workroom floor.

It was the beginning of an Afghan love story that flouted dominant traditions of arranged marriages and close family scrutiny, a romance between two teenagers of different ethnicities that tested a village’s tolerance for more modern whims of the heart. The results were delivered with brutal speed.

This month, a group of men spotted the couple riding together in a car, yanked them into the road and began to interrogate the boy and girl. Why were they together? What right had they? An angry crowd of 300 surged around them, calling them adulterers and demanding that they be stoned to death or hanged.

When security forces swooped in and rescued the couple, the mob’s anger exploded. They overwhelmed the local police, set fire to cars and stormed a police station six miles from the center of Herat, raising questions about the strength of law in a corner of western Afghanistan and in one of the first cities that has made the formal transition to Afghan-led security.

The riot, which lasted for hours, ended with one man dead, a police station charred and the two teenagers, Halima Mohammedi and her boyfriend, Rafi Mohammed, confined to juvenile prison. Officially, their fates lie in the hands of an unsteady legal system. But they face harsher judgments of family and community.

Ms. Mohammedi’s uncle visited her in jail to say she had shamed the family, and promised that they would kill her once she was released. Her father, an illiterate laborer who works in Iran, sorrowfully concurred. He cried during two visits to the jail, saying almost nothing to his daughter. Blood, he said, was perhaps the only way out.

“What we would ask is that the government should kill both of them,” said the father, Kher Mohammed.

The case has resonated in Herat, in part because it stirred memories of a brutal stoning ordered by the Taliban last summer in northern Afghanistan.

A young couple in Kunduz was stoned to death by scores of people — including family members — after they eloped. The stoning marked a brutal application of Shariah law, captured on a video recording released online months later. Afghan officials promised to investigate after an international outcry, but no one has faced criminal charges.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi

We moved from the first stage to the second in the last year or so, and from the second stage to the third in the last week.

We have no money. We have no powerful friends. We have no media connections. We have no resources.

All we have is the truth. And that means that victory is assured.

This guy was actively calling upon Muslims to commit violence against members of Parliament. Once again, Pamela Geller said it best: "I anxiously await the same intense and extensive mainstream media coverage and obsession that we witnessed immediately after and in the ensuing days of the Norway massacre to determine the motivation behind this explosive plot at Fort Hood. I expect extremists Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, the NY Times, LA Times, IHT, CNN, BBC, et al, to be just as rabidly obsessed and consumed with investigating what ideology incited this Muslim to recruit for jihad."

Consider: why the double standard? A Norwegian psychopath cites the work of a number of people who point out a problem but have never remotely advocated violence as a solution to it, and suddenly these people are tarred in the international media as creating a climate of "hate" in which someone was inevitably going to "snap." And what follows is an international media firestorm investigating what inspired this killer, with the finger pointed squarely at anti-jihad writers. This demonization campaign dovetails nicely with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's ongoing efforts to silence and criminalize honest discussion of how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence.

So now Bilal Ahmad has an actual death list and calls forthrightly for the murder of MPs. Is anyone going to investigate what inspired him? No, because such an investigation would lead directly back to the Qur'an and Sunnah, and no one wants to go there.

More on this story. "Muslim gets 12 years jail for encouraging fanatics on web site to attack MPs," from the Daily Mirror, July 30:

AN extremist who urged Muslims to kill MPs for voting for the war in Iraq was sent to prison for 12 years yesterday.

IT graduate Bilal Ahmad, 24, called on fanatics to “raise the knife of Jihad” and listed the details of 365 MPs who supported military action.

He posted his comments on RevolutionMuslim.com – a site now taken down – the day after Roshonara Choudhry, 21, was jailed for trying to kill Labour MP Stephen Timms.

The MP survived the attack in May 2010 by the Muslim woman and she was given 15 years....

The "Sharia zones" continue to advance, more or less unchallenged. The lack of a response rewards the Islamic supremacists' behavior, encouraging and guaranteeing much more of it.

An update on this story. "'No porn or prostitution': Islamic extremists set up Sharia law controlled zones in British cities," by Rebecca Camber for the Daily Mail, July 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Islamic extremists have launched a poster campaign across the UK proclaiming areas where Sharia law enforcement zones have been set up.

Communities have been bombarded with the posters, which read: ‘You are entering a Sharia-controlled zone – Islamic rules enforced.’

The bright yellow messages daubed on bus stops and street lamps have already been seen across certain boroughs in London and order that in the ‘zone’ there should be ‘no gambling’, ‘no music or concerts’, ‘no porn or prostitution’, ‘no drugs or smoking’ and ‘no alcohol’.

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed responsibility for the scheme, saying he plans to flood specific Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the UK and ‘put the seeds down for an Islamic Emirate in the long term’.

In the past week, dozens of streets in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Newham have been targeted, raising fears that local residents may be intimidated or threatened for flouting ‘Islamic rules’....

Bilal Zaheer Ahmad Update. As quoted below, in response to Roshonara Choudhry's stabbing of a member of Parliament, he said: "This sister has put us men to shame. We should be doing this" (his own capitalization).

"Radical Muslim jailed for calling for jihad against MPs," by Caroline Davies for the Guardian, July 29 (thanks to Kenneth):

An IT graduate who wrote messages on an Islamic extremist website calling on Muslims to "raise the knife of jihad" and attack and kill British MPs who voted in favour of the war in Iraq has been jailed for 12 years.

Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, 24, posted the threats on the US-based RevolutionMuslim.com website with a full list of all MPs who had voted in the House of Commons in favour of the war and links providing personal contact details.

He called on them to emulate Roshonara Choudhry, who had attempted to murder the Labour MP Stephen Timms with a knife at his East Ham constituency surgery six months previously, Bristol crown court heard.

Ahmad, who worked for an insurance company in Telford, Shropshire, also posted a link to the Tesco website listing cheap knives, urging would-be fanatics to use them to carry out attacks.

Jailing him for 12 years, with an additional five years' extended period on licence, Mr Justice Royce said: "You became a viper in our midst willing to go as far as possible to strike at the heart of our system."

Ahmad, who holds British and Pakistani passports, had purported to be a British citizen, said Royce. "But what you stand for is totally alien to what we stand for in our country." He added that his views were "corrosively dangerous".

"It's important MPs can hold constituency surgeries without the threat of someone pulling out a knife and trying to kill them. You were intent on striking at the heart of our democracy and if our politicians are to be at risk from those like you, then the message must go out loud and clear that this country will not tolerate such threats to its democratic processes."

Ahmad posted his threat on 3 November, the day after Choudhry, a 21-year-old university student, was jailed for life for the knife attack on Timms in May last year. She stabbed him twice with a six-inch knife, damaging his liver and perforating his stomach. She later said she had been influenced by the radical sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based preacher and al-Qaida leader.

Police arrested Ahmad, at the time living in Dunstall, Wolverhampton, on 10 November. He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to soliciting murder, publishing written material with intent to stir up religious hatred and three counts under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which covers collecting information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Mark Dennis QC, prosecuting, said as well as providing the list of MPs he advised "that the best place to 'encounter them in person' was at their constituency surgery". He attached a link to The book of Jihad, a source of inspiration for Choudhry, calling for a renewed attack upon Timms and the "destruction" of not only the MP but also the judge who sentenced Choudhry.

The website was an established source of information for Muslims holding extreme views and those who wanted to carry our their threats, added Dennis.

The day before Choudhry was sentenced Ahmad posted on Facebook: "This sister has put us men to shame. WE SHOULD BE DOING THIS."

On arrest, Ahmad confessed responsibility for the posting. He said: "I shouldn't have let my emotions get away from me. It was completely irrational. It was tongue in cheek, I'm not in a cell or anything like that."

He just meant to raise the spork of jihad.

Daily Mail headline:

'We could have another Timothy McVeigh': U.S. authorities warned against anti-Islamic terrorism after Norway shooter 'inspired' by Robert Spencer and Unabomber

Look at that headline. Named in it are three mass murderers and me.

In my work I have never called for, approved of, endorsed, or advocated violence against anyone, and have denounced attacks on innocent Muslims. If, despite all that, I am responsible for the Norway shootings, then would not the Daily Mail be responsible if someone kills me?

I get death threats all the time, and take them seriously. I don't speak in public places without guards. The possibility that an Islamic jihadist might take me out is much larger than the possibility that some nut might misread my writings and go kill innocent people -- after all, just look at how many jihad attacks there are around the world every day. And now I am more in the bullseye than ever, courtesy the Daily Mail (which should know better, given how much news it prints about the Islamization of Britain).

If I am guilty of incitement, so are they. If I am not, they are not. But they can't have it both ways, and neither can any of the others who are piling on these days. If writing critically about something constitutes incitement to violence, then any critical writing about anything, including writing that is critical of me and my colleagues, constitutes incitement to violence.

Weren't the murders of Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn enough to make them end this hateful rhetoric?

Last year, Abdo said that he wanted to fight "Islamophobia" and "put a good positive spin out there that Islam is a good, peaceful religion."

"Accused Fort Hood plotter got bombmaking recipe from Al Qaeda," by Warren Richey for the Christian Science Monitor, July 29:

A soldier suspected of plotting a bomb and handgun attack against military personnel at Fort Hood, Texas, was using a bombmaking recipe from an Al Qaeda-linked online magazine, according to federal court documents released on Friday.

Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo has been charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device and ordered held without bond. At the time of his arrest on Wednesday, law-enforcement officials recovered a handgun, assorted bombmaking materials, and an article entitled, “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom.”

The article was published in the July 2010 inaugural issue of Inspire magazine, an English-language publication of the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The revelations came in an FBI affidavit filed in conjunction with a criminal complaint against Abdo.

There is no indication in the affidavit of any other contacts with Al Qaeda or other terror groups. Officials have said they believe Abdo was acting alone in his alleged plot.

Abdo reportedly made incriminating statements to police on Wednesday suggesting he was planning to attack military personnel at a restaurant in Killeen, Texas, near the base.

Abdo refused to cooperate during his initial appearance in federal court on Friday in Waco, Texas. As he was being led from the courtroom, he shouted the words: “Nidal Hasan, Fort Hood, 2009,” according to the Associated Press.

The outburst was a reference to a mass shooting by Army psychologist Mr. Hasan in November 2009 at Fort Hood. The attack left 13 dead and 32 wounded. Hasan is awaiting a military trial. He faces a potential death sentence....

"President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombings as brutal and inhumane and said they 'cannot be justified by any religious faith.'"

Yet the Taliban, which Karzai has threatened to join, constantly invoke Islam to justify their actions.

This recalls the fact that last year, U.S. Muslim soldier Naser Abdo condemned the Fort Hood jihad massacre, calling it "an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam." This year, he attempted to pull off his own jihad mass murder at Fort Hood.

"Roadside Bombs Kill 19 Afghans, 2 NATO Personnel," from the Associated Press, July 29 (thanks to Bill):

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two roadside bombs killed 19 civilians Friday in southern Afghanistan as non-combatants increasingly fall victim to the fighting between Taliban insurgents and the U.S.-led coalition. A bomb also killed two NATO service members, the alliance said.

A minibus ran over a bomb in Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand province, setting off a blast that killed all 18 passengers, said Kamaluddin Sherzai, the province's deputy police chief.

"The mine was very powerful and destroyed the vehicle," he said. "They were all civilians. Some were children."

In the second blast, a farm tractor struck a mine in Garmser district, killing one civilian and wounding four others who were riding the vehicle, Sherzai said.

Police who responded to the minibus explosion came under fire from insurgents, but there were no casualties among the policemen.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombings as brutal and inhumane and said they "cannot be justified by any religious faith."

This kind of mass murder has become so commonplace in some Islamic countries that it is hardly even noticed. And certainly no one care to explore its motivations. Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad Update: "Gunmen kill 11 Shiite Muslims in SW Pakistan," from The Associated Press, July 30:

QUETTA, Pakistan—Gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying minority Shiite Muslims in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing 11 people in what appeared to be a sectarian attack, police said.

Two people were also wounded in the ambush in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, senior police official Hamid Shakeel said. The dead included one woman and two children.

Shakeel said the victims were heading to the nearby town of Hazara when the four gunmen ambushed the minibus before fleeing.

Angered over the killings, dozens of Shiites briefly blocked a main road and torched two cars and two motorcycles, Shakeel said. Police regained control of the situation with help from local Shiite elders....

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities have blamed majority Sunni militant groups for such violence in the past....

Koşaner was a hardline secularist. Traditionally the military has been the guardian of Kemalist secularism. But now several military officers have been arresting for plotting to overthrow the government. Erdogan has won, and Turkey is on its way to becoming an Islamic state. "Necdet Özel becomes acting Chief of General Staff after mass resignations," from Today's Zaman, July 29 (thanks to Joshua):

Former Gendarmerie General Commander Gen. Necdet Özel was appointed as Land Forces Commander and acting Chief of General Staff after Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner and the commanders of the air, navy and land forces all resigned from their positions amid controversy over the appointment of generals.

Özel, who is the only commander who did not request retirement, came to the Prime Ministry to meet with Erdoğan late on Friday. Erdoğan met with Özel - the highest-ranking commander who remained in office. Özel was widely expected to become the next head of the military and Koşaner's resignation might speed up the process.

According to Turkish laws, 24 hours must pass for Özel to assume powers of Chief of General Staff.

“The Turkish Armed Forces will continue to do their duty in a spirit of unity,” the office of Prime Minister said in a statement issued after the military's top four commanders quit.

The statement also named Özel as acting Chief of the General Staff. It also said a key Supreme Military Council meeting to decide promotions would go ahead as planned on Monday.

Özel and Erdoğan later went to Çankaya Presidential Palace to have three-way talks with President Abdullah Gül.

By tradition, the head of the land forces replaces the armed forces chief when he retires.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier ruled out any prospects of tension between the government and the military at a Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meeting slated for Monday, saying that the decisions to be made at the meeting will be in accordance with the law.

The resignation of so many top commanders for the first time ever in Turkey signals a deep rift with the government, which has been confident in confronting a military that once held sway over Turkish political life. The arrests of high-ranking military officers would once have been unimaginable.

The resignations of Turkey's top generals came hours after a court charged 22 suspects, including several generals and officers, with carrying out an Internet campaign to undermine the government....

Koşaner, who took over as head of the armed forces in August 2010, is regarded as a hardline secularist, but he has kept a lower profile than previous chiefs of the general staff.

Alongside Koşaner, the land forces head Erdal Ceylanoğlu, air forces chief Hasan Aksay and navy commander Uğur Yiğit have also sought retirement....

The government denies the coup cases are politically motivated and says it is just trying to work to improve democracy.

Erdoğan's ruling party, which won a third term in elections on June 12 in a landslide victory, has said its key goal is to replace a military-era constitution with a more democratic one.

The Turkish military has staged three coups and forced an former prime minister to quit. Coup leaders drew on the support of Turks who saw them as saviors from chaos and corruption, but they were often ruthless.

In a 1960 takeover, the prime minister and key ministers were executed. In a 1980 coup, there were numerous cases of torture, disappearance and extrajudicial killing....

KUALA LUMPUR: The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has apologised to English Premier League side Chelsea after anti-Semitic abuse was allegedly directed at Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun during a friendly last week.

In a statement released yesterday, the FAM did not confirm the abuse took place at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on July 21 but said that if it did, it was only from a small minority of the 80,000 supporters in attendance.

“The FA of Malaysia would like to strongly register that we do not condone any form of racism in football,” the statement read.

Racism is a disingenuous term for what is really going on -- Islamic-condoned religious hatred is more like it. Doesn't this sound 'moderate' to you?

“If such an incident did happen, we would like to apologise to the player concerned and also to Chelsea FC.

“From our initial observations, it would have involved a small section of spectators at the match.

“This surely does not reflect the feelings of the majority of fans in this football-loving country.”

Gearing up, they hope and expect, for the revolution after the revolution. More on this story. "Groups quit Egypt rally saying hijacked by Islamists," by Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad for Reuters, July 29:

(Reuters) - More than 30 political parties and movements withdrew from a rally on Friday that was organized to send a united message to the ruling army about reform, saying the event was hijacked by Islamist groups.

"Islamic law above the constitution," read banners in Cairo's Tahrir Square that was packed with tens of thousands of people. Protesters who fear Islamists will seek to dominate plans to rewrite the constitution demanded they be taken down.

"Islamic, Islamic, we don't want secular," they chanted in the square filled with many followers of the strict Salafist interpretation of Islam.

"There are so many (Islamic) beards. We certainly feel imposed upon," said student Samy Ali, 23. He said Salafists had tried to separate women and men camping there.

Islamists and more liberal groups have diverged on how hard to press the ruling generals for change. They have also been divided over the fate of the constitution, which is to be re-written after parliament is elected later this year.

The Muslim Brotherhood has a head start on organizing over other groups by a long shot, and thus benefits the most from a vote happening as soon as possible. The group was angered in June when the interim prime minister said he preferred to delay elections.

Liberal groups fear the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's best organized group, and other Islamists will dominate the vote.

The various Islamic movements will work together toward an Islamic regime, before they descend into perpetual infighting over how much Sharia is "enough," and consequently, who has the moral authority to govern, even just within the Muslim Brotherhood.

A joint statement by more than 30 groups said Islamists and other groups had agreed on demands to make on Friday "to thwart attempts by the military council to divide the revolutionaries and distort their image." But the groups said "some Islamic currents" violated this agreement.

Abdelrahman al Barr, a senior Brotherhood member, said of the decision by other groups to quit Friday's rally: "Salafist slogans shouldn't be a cause for other political forces to withdraw. Everyone is free to say what they feel like."

But the Brotherhood is home to a broad range of views and some agreed Salafist actions were divisive. "There are certainly some Brotherhood members who are upset over the way Salafist groups have taken over the square," Brotherhood youth member Amr Salah said in Tahrir.

Friday's protests in Cairo and other cities had been called to deliver a unified message to the ruling army council, which took over when Hosni Mubarak was ousted on February 11. Many protesters now say it is not delivering on promises to change....

Interpol has already issued a "red notice" for their arrests. Now that the four Hizballah men have been officially named, Lebanon has until August 11 to inform the U.N. tribunal of the action they will take. In a Hizballah-dominated government, the scope of possible responses is considerable.

They may well attempt to buy time indefinitely by asking to carry out their own "investigation." "Lebanon: UN names Hezbollah men in Rafik Hariri case," from BBC News, July 29:

A UN-backed tribunal has released the names of the four indicted suspects in the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

They are all connected with the Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah.

The wanted men are Mustafa Amine Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah figure, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra.

Hezbollah is a key part of the Lebanese government and has said it will not allow the men to be arrested.

Their identities had already been leaked, as had their association with Hezbollah.

The tribunal said it was releasing the information in order to facilitate the arrest of the men.

Pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen ordered the lifting of confidentiality on the names, aliases, biographical information, photographs and charges against the individuals named in the indictment, the tribunal said in a statement.

Following the issue of the arrest warrants, the Lebanese authorities have until 11 August to inform the tribunal of the action they will take in response....

It is this alliance of rebels that we're banking on to usher in a democratic civil society in Libya. "Islamists suspected over Libyan rebel death," by Rania El Gamal for Reuters, July 29:

(Reuters) - Libyan rebels say the gunmen who shot dead their military chief were members of an Islamist-linked militia that is allied to their struggle to overthrow veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The assassination of Abdel Fattah Younes, apparently by his own side, has hurt the opposition just as it was winning broader international recognition and launching an offensive against Gaddafi's forces in the west of the country.

It will deepen concerns among the rebels' Western backers including the United States, keen to see them prevail in a five-month-old civil war but frustrated by their lack of unity and nervous about the influence of Islamists.

But rushing headlong into funding and arming them nonetheless.

After 24 hours of confusion, rebel minister Ali Tarhouni said Younes had been killed by members of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade, a militia allied to the rebels and named after one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammad, suggesting that Islamist elements were involved.

Whose prophet?

Tarhouni told reporters in Benghazi on Friday that a militia leader who had gone to fetch Younes from the front line had been arrested and had confessed that his subordinates had carried out the killing.

"It was not him. His lieutenants did it," Tarhouni said, adding that the killers were still at large.

Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Thursday Younes had been recalled for questioning to Benghazi but was killed before he arrived. Relatives said they retrieved a burned and bullet-riddled body.

Younes took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969 and served him for four decades. He quit as interior minister in February and defected to the side of the rebels, becoming their military chief.

Parts of the opposition distrusted him because of his long and close ties to Gaddafi.

One rebel commander, who asked not to be named, said Islamists whom Younes had targeted in his job as interior minister may have killed him in retaliation.

"Some of those Islamists are now fighting with the rebels and they have always refused to fight under Younes's command and have always viewed him with suspicion," he said.

"Abdel Jalil could not directly accuse the Islamists because he fears them. And I don't think the investigation will lead anywhere. They don't dare to touch the Islamists."....

Last year, Abdo condemned the Fort Hood jihad massacre: "Abdo's words in court were a sharp contrast to an essay he wrote last year as the first anniversary of the Fort Hood shootings approached and as he petitioned for conscientious objector status. In the essay, obtained by The Associated Press, Abdo said the attacks ran against his beliefs as a Muslim and were 'an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam.'"

"Naser Abdo, AWOL soldier, charged in Fort Hood bomb plot," by Peter Finn and and Jason Ukman for the Washington Post, July 29 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A U.S. soldier who is accused of planning to attack troops near Fort Hood, Tex., shouted out “Nidal Hasan Fort Hood 2009” as he left a federal courtroom in Waco on Friday.

Pfc. Naser Abdo, 21, had told investigators after his arrest Thursday that he was acting in support of Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who has been charged in the killing of 13 people at the base in 2009, according to congressional and federal officials.

Abdo was charged Friday with possession of an unregistered destructive device in connection with a bomb plot and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to federal prosecutors. Abdo made a brief initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Waco.

Abdo was arrested in Killeen, Tex., after authorities said they discovered bombmaking materials in his backpack and in a motel room, as well as a copy of an article from the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, which is produced by the terrorist group’s Yemen affiliate. The article was titled “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom.”

In a criminal complaint, investigators listed some of what they found in Abdo’s possession: a .40 caliber handgun, ammunition, smokeless gunpowder, shotgun shells, shotgun pellets, two clocks, two spools of auto wire, an electric drill and two pressure cookers.

The officials said Abdo was planning to set off bombs at locations outside the base where soldiers gather and to follow the explosions with gunfire.

“I would classify this as a terror plot,” Police Chief Dennis Baldwin told reporters in Killeen. Law enforcement officials said Abdo would be charged in federal court with possession of bombmaking materials, among other offenses....

A U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities have not discovered any direct communication between Abdo and foreign Islamist extremists.

Abdo, attached to the the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., recently sought conscientious objector status because he felt that as a Muslim he could not be deployed to fight in a war zone.

In May, on the same day his status was granted, he was charged with possession of child pornography on a computer he used. Abdo then left Fort Campbell without permission on about the July Fourth holiday and returned to Texas. His home town is listed as Garland.

James Branum, an Oklahoma City lawyer who represented Abdo in his conscientious objector and child pornography cases, described Abdo as gracious, hospitable and “very devoutly religious,” saying he prayed five times a day.

Abdo denied the pornography allegations and said he thought the military was retaliating against him for trying to leave the service.

Who Is Lee Silver? Ask Anders Breivik
by David Klinghoffer

Our local NPR station here in Seattle plays the BBC Newshour after lunch and I happened to be in my car listening when the interview with Robert came on, startlingly all but crediting him as special mentor or private tutor to Anders Breivik. Well, the media see what they want to see, I thought. Little did I realize just then how true that is in this case.

Breivik in his manifesto cites Robert Spencer, and this fact was picked up and trumpeted around the world because it suits a particular imagined narrative that pleases a certain crowd of people who edit prestige news sources. That Breivik’s mixed bag of writings reflects, explicitly and conspicuously, the thought of a distinguished Princeton University professor, Lee Silver, has so far gone almost totally unacknowledged.

Not totally because my Discovery Institute colleague John West picked it up and has written about it searchingly. Who is Lee Silver? He’s the evolutionary biologist and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science who invented the term and concept of “reprogenetics,” a new spin on the old idea of eugenics as a means to perfect the human race. In his manifesto, Breivik goes on about this idea, citing Silver by name along with his book Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family, copying passages from Wikipedia that elaborate on Silver’s proposed scheme.

Breivik likes that in contrast to the old pseudoscience of eugenics, which resulted in forced sterilizations, the new pseudoscience of reprogenetics proposed by Silver relies on voluntary methods -- though it’s hardly less chilling in its way, envisioning a race of near god-men, which Silver calls “cognition-enhance GenRich.” Breivik, however, also drew on earlier influential eugenicists like Madison Grant (cited, again, by name) in theorizing about the superior virtues of the “Nordic” race, being lost through “race-mixing.”

Why does it matter? Because even if you were to imagine an anti-Jihadi running absolutely wild, getting really, really upset about Islam’s being the world religion least inclined to pacifism, just taking that view to a crazy extreme, what do you think someone like that might do? Sneak into Pakistan or Saudi Arabia on a mad mission as a Christian missionary, seeking to win over Muslims to a different faith? Perhaps.

But what of the sinister scientism to which Breivik, in fact, subscribed and that he wrote about in detail? He expounds on the importance of government funding for science, that feeding the poor must not take precedence over science, that feeding the Third World poor is in fact a bad idea, that the size of the human population needs to be halved (through voluntary means!), that “social Darwinism” got a bum rap, that “[t]he never-ending collective pursuit for scientific evolution and perfection should become the benchmark and essence of our existence.”

From the self-interview section of Breivik’s manifesto:

“Q: What should be our civilizational objectives, how do you envision a perfect Europe?

“A: ‘Logic’ and rationalist thought (a certain degree of national Darwinism) should be the fundament of our societies.”

This dark vision is not his invention. It’s a spin-off of what he aptly calls “National Darwinism,” which got its start in the writing of Charles Darwin. While a gentle soul in person and wishing no harm to anyone, Darwin envisioned a picture of the world that equates “extermination” (a favorite word of Darwin’s) with biological advancement. I’ve written elsewhere about the historical, moral consequences of Darwinism, quite apart from any explanatory value of natural selection in biology.

No one sane would blame Lee Silver or Charles Darwin for Breivik’s rampage, but it’s a historical reality that views like theirs, in the hands of madmen and not-so-madmen, have inspired some very evil deeds. This fact, because it suits no liberal or progressive narrative, unlike the irrelevant citation of Robert Spencer, is not something you will ever hear as the subject of an aggressive, obnoxious interview on the BBC.

David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute.

Note the frequent use of "ultraconservatives" in this piece. Again, for AP, to be "ultraconservative" means to want Sharia, and to be "ultraconservative" means to resist Sharia.

I tried to tell you: "Thousands demonstrate for an Islamic state in Egypt," by Ben Hubbard for The Associated Press, July 29 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Calls for an Islamic state have taken over Cairo’s Tahrir Square as the largest demonstration since February has been mobilized by the country’s Islamist organizations. Ultraconservative Muslims turned out in force Friday as hundreds of thousands filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square in a rally marked by a growing rift in the protest movement.

South of the capital, gunmen fired on a car carrying Christians, killing two. While the motive was unknown, similar events have sparked religious violence in the past.

In the largest crowd to fill the square since the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, Salafis chanted for the implementation of strict Islamic law — spurring accusations that they violated an agreement to keep the rally free from divisive issues.

They have come in a show of force to demand that the country’s caretaker authority, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, cease its plans to present a set of principles that will form a framework for a new constitution.

Islamist group’s such as the Muslim Brotherhood – Egypt's best organized political force – and the former terrorist organization Gamaa Islamiya along with disparate Salafist bodies argue that only God’s word is greater than a constitution and that only a parliament chosen by free election can set the terms for a constitution. These groups stayed away from recent demonstrations that sought to keep up pressure on the military council that took power after former president Hosni Mubarak's fall, leading to smaller crowds.

The groups believe that they will poll enough support to dominate such a parliament and thereby set the terms. They fear that a kind of bill of rights could close off the possibility of a state run by Islamic laws.

The secular youths who once dominated this central Cairo square are in a distinct minority these days, and especially on Friday, dominated as it is by Islamists.

Liberal parties endorse the measure in an effort to limit what they fear will be outsized Islamist influence on the new document should religious groups win a large share of the parliament. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has accepted the idea.

Leaders of the original secular groups such as the April 6 Movement have agreed with Islamist leaders that neither side will confront the other today.

In the past 24 hours, the secularists won agreement from the Islamists that the day would be known as the Day of Unity, rather than the Day of Sharia as called for by the Islamists.

No one, however, appears to have told the hundreds of thousands of Islamist supporters packed together in Tahrir Square in the midday sun.

Crowds of ultraconservative Salafis, however, gave a common protests chant an Islamic twist — sparking criticisms from others who said the chants violated an agreement to avoid divisive issues.

Instead of “Peaceful, peaceful,” which demonstrators have chanted during confrontations with security forces, they repeated “Islamic, Islamic.” And instead of “The people want to topple the regime” — a chant made famous in Tunisia and adopted across the region — they yelled, “The people want to implement Sharia,” or Islamic law.

Salafis are ultraconservatives, close to Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi interpretation of Islam and more radical than the Brotherhood. They seek to emulate the austerity of Islam's early days and oppose a wide range of practices like intermingling of the sexes that they view as “un-Islamic.” Many also reject all forms of Western cultural influence....

Earlier this month we saw—or rather, were once again reminded—that Islam permits pedophilia in the guise of “marriage”: Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for girls to marry, “even if they are in the cradle,” and that the only criterion is that “they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men.”

While this practice speaks for itself, it is interesting to witness the great lengths some Muslims go to justify or rationalize it—or even to turn it into a source of pride.

Consider, for example, this Muslim cleric discussing Muhammad’s marriage to the child Aisha when she was nine. Far from blushing for shame, the cleric actually uses this anecdote to boast of the prophet’s “patience” and “magnanimity.” Translation of relevant excerpt follows:

The story of the prophet’s marriage to Aisha reveals to us aspects like the prophet’s conduct with Aisha, and more importantly the aspect regarding the relationship between the husband and wife, to show how one should treat his wife, just as the prophet did with Aisha.

We know that Asia's mother went to take her down from the swing that she was playing on to fix her hair and prepare her for the prophet so he could enter her [have sex with her]—and she did that all on the same day.

Aisha’s own account in Sahih Bukhari is telling enough: she talks about how her mother hurriedly prepared her and then “handed” her over to Muhammad, and how “nothing surprised me but the coming of Allah’s Apostle to me in the forenoon.”

The cleric continues:

So you see, she was playing with her fellow playmates even though her day of consummation was that very same day—and all that they did was to fix her up for the prophet so he could have sex with her.

Now what do we see when the prophet married Aisha? Did he go to her and say “Okay that's it, you're married, you're now a grown up, you’re supposed to be mature, you need to do this and that; you need to forget about your toys and your little friends; you are now a wife of a man, you have to see to my needs” and that's it?

No. The prophet allowed her to continue playing with her toy dolls—indeed, the prophet even sometimes gave her such things to play with. [This hadith has more details, including how Aisha’s little girl friends would “hide themselves” whenever the prophet came to her until he called them out.]

It should be noted that the cleric recounted the above with much awe and amazement—as if to say, “Look how indulgent and open-minded our prophet was!”

In fact, such was the cleric’s whole point: to show that Islam, according to the example of Muhammad, expects older Muslim husbands to be patient with their younger wives: “The older husband should not expect the younger wife to be at his level of maturity; rather, he should go down to her level, for he is capable, whereas she is not.”

As “gentlemanly” as this ostensibly sounds, it is yet another example of how Muslim scholars deal with Muhammad’s lifestyle: because they cannot condemn or ignore his practices, they inevitably go to great lengths to rationalize or justify them—to find the good in every situation their prophet was involved in, while being oblivious to all the bad.

Thus here we have a cleric straining to find a positive aspect to Muhammad’s pedophilia—that he was patient and indulgent of his child-bride—while ignoring the heart of it: that the man Islam is built around desired to have sex with a child in the first place.

Raymond Ibrahim, an Islam specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. He writes regularly for Jihad Watch.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia strongly condemned the bombing of the government offices and shootings at a youth camp in Oslo and Utoeya, Norway yesterday, calling it a heinous crime.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry expressed shock and sadness at the incidents and said that Malaysia sent its deepest condolences to the Norwegian government in its hour of bereavement.

As of now there were no Malaysians involved in the incident. The Malaysian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden was monitoring the situation, it said.

"The government of Malaysia hopes the people responsible for this heinous crime will be brought to justice.

"Both the incidents have highlighted to the international community on the need to take the path to democracy and moderation, and the importance of strengthening cooperation in order to face any type of terrorism and violent extremism," the statement said.

It is no surprise that in an official environment that refuses to speak about "Islam" and "terrorism" in the same sentence -- a policy which must involve quite a lot of mental and verbal gymnastics when jihad terrorists start quoting Qur'an and other Islamic sources -- that the truth about Islam would be ruled out of counterterrorism studies. It is no surprise that in an official environment that thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood is "largely secular" and that jihad is a wholly positive interior spiritual struggle would reject a book that tells the truth about Islam and jihad.

Lysenkoism was ideologically biased junk science regarding biology and agriculture that was adopted as official policy by the Soviet Union under Stalin. The real scientists who told the truth were sent to the gulag.

So far only my books have been sent to the gulag by the FBI. However, as their Lysenkoism grows more entrenched and their heads planted more firmly in the sand, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't stop there.

"FBI ‘Islam 101′ Guide Depicted Muslims as 7th-Century Simpletons," by Spencer Ackerman for Wired, July 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] And this was what the FBI considered “recommended reading” about Islam:

A much-criticized tome, The Arab Mind, that one reviewer called “a collection of outrageously broad — and often suspect — generalizations“
A book by one of Norwegian terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik’s favorite anti-Muslim authors.

Ackerman, like so many others in the mainstream media, is making a fundamental false assumption: that because Breivik cited me, my books must be in line with his will to murder, must be full of hatred and violence, etc. Actually, anyone who has read them will know that is not the case. If Breivik got some perspectives on Islam from me, that does not mean that I have any connection with what he thinks about other matters. He got his desire to commit mass murder from somewhere else.

All this is revealed in a PowerPoint presentation by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Communications Unit (.pdf), which trains new Bureau recruits. Among the 62 slides in the presentation, designed to teach techniques for “successful interviews/interrogations with individuals from the M.E. [Middle East],” is an instruction that the “Arabic mind” is “swayed more by words than ideas and more by ideas than facts.”

My books contain nothing like this kind of broad stereotype -- and I challenge anyone reading this to prove otherwise with specific quotes.

The briefing presents much information that has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with constitutionally-protected religious practice and social behavior, such as estimating the number of mosques in America and listing the states with the largest Muslim populations.

Nothing unreasonable about giving such information.

Other slides paint Islam in a less malicious light, and one urges “respectful liaison” as a “proactive approach” to engaging Muslims. But even those exhibit what one American Muslim civil rights leader calls “the understanding of a third grader, and even then, a badly misinformed third grader.”

One slide asks, “Is Iran an Arab country?” (It’s not.) Another is just a picture of worry beads.

“Based on this presentation, it is easy to see why so many in law enforcement and the FBI view American Muslims with ignorance and suspicion,” says Farhana Khera, the executive director of Muslim Advocates, a legal aid group. “The presentation appears to treat all Muslims with one broad brush and makes no distinction between lawful religious practice and beliefs and unlawful activities.”

A grainy copy of the PowerPoint was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern California chapter and the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based civil rights group, and provided to Danger Room. The two groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year inquiring about government surveillance of American Muslim communities.

“In order for FBI training to be effective it has to present useful, factual and unbiased information. This material fails on all three criteria,” said Mike German, a former FBI agent who now works for the ACLU. “Factually flawed and biased law enforcement training programs only expand the risk that innocent Muslim and Arab Americans will be unfairly targeted for investigation and prosecution, and stigmatized in their communities.” [Full disclosure: My fiancee works for the ACLU.]

Heh.

In response to queries from Danger Room, the FBI issued the following statement about the PowerPoint: “The FBI new agent population at Quantico is exposed to a diverse curriculum in many specific areas, including Islam and Muslim culture. The presentation in question was a rudimentary version used for a limited time that has since been replaced. It was a small part of a larger segment of training that also included material produced by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point.”

It is unclear when the FBI stopped using the PowerPoint.

Among the most provocative aspects of the presentation is its recommended reading list. One book offered is The Truth About Mohammed: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion, by Robert Spencer. Spencer is one of the ringleaders of the protest against the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” and the co-founder of Stop the Islamicization [sic] of America, which “promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda,” in the view of the Anti-Defamation League. A manifesto written by the Norwegian terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik cited Spencer 64 times....

The only one with a conspiratorial agenda here is the Muslim Brotherhood, which according to a captured internal document is dedicated in the United States to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house." But when I quote that, I'm the one with the conspiratorial agenda. Sure.

In any case, note that Ackerman does not -- and cannot -- cite a single thing in The Truth About Muhammad that is inaccurate or false. He simply assumes that if one opposes Sharia and Islamization -- that is, wants to defend the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law -- that one cannot be expected to report accurately about Islamic doctrine. There is, however, no reason why this must be so.

“It’s like asking law enforcement to learn ‘the facts’ about the African American experience by reading a book by the grand wizard of the KKK,” says Khera. “It is deplorable and offensive that the nation’s top law enforcement agency would promote such hateful so-called ‘experts’ on Islam.”

What is hateful is Khera comparing me to the KKK when what I write about Islam is entirely accurate -- but of course playing the race card is a tested weapon in the Islamic supremacist arsenal. In reality, there is nothing hateful about my books. Ackerman could have included a few "hateful" quotes to support his case. He didn't because he couldn't. Nor, by the way, did he contact me for a statement on this story. When you're demonizing someone, reality can just get in the way.

An FBI spokesman said Spencer’s book is no longer on the reading list but was not sure about the others....

Good work, Comrade Lysenko!

To review: he obtained conscientious objector status against being deployed to Iraq after saying "his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting." But he was willing and able to travel to Texas to attempt to pick up where Nidal Malik Hasan left off and slaughter more soldiers at Fort Hood.

An update on this story. "Army: AWOL Fort Campbell soldier admits plotting Fort Hood attack," from the Associated Press, July 28:

An AWOL soldier who had weapons stashed in a motel room near Fort Hood admitted planning an attack on the Texas post, where 13 people died in 2009 in the worst mass shooting ever on a U.S. military installation, the Army said in an alert issued Thursday.

Double standards abound in the vague, hands-off treatment of the suspect's identity in the headline and opening paragraph.

Pfc. Naser Abdo, a 21-year-old soldier who was granted conscientious objector status this year after he said his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting, was arrested Wednesday. Agents found firearms and "items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder," in his motel room, according to FBI spokesman Erik Vasys.

The Army alert sent via email and obtained by The Associated Press says the man arrested by Killeen police "was in possession of a large quantity of ammunition, weapons and a bomb inside a backpack." Upon questioning, the alert says, he admitted to planning an attack on Fort Hood.

Officials have not offered details about Abdo's possible intentions. The infantry soldier from Garland, Texas, had applied for conscientious objector status last year. A military review board recommended this spring that he be separated from the Army.

But the discharge was delayed after he was charged with possessing child pornography and an Article 32 military hearing last month recommended he be court-martialed. He's been absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., since the July 4 weekend.

Abdo's arrest came after the owners of a local gun store - the same store where the 2009 Fort Hood shootings suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the attack - called police, the Army's alert said.

Store clerk Greg Ebert said the man arrived at Guns Galore LLC by taxi Tuesday and bought 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol, paying about $250. Ebert said he became concerned when the man asked questions indicating he didn't know much about the items.

"(We) felt uncomfortable with his overall demeanor and the fact he didn't know what the hell he was buying," Ebert said. "I thought it prudent to contact the local authorities, which I did."

Killeen police learned from the taxi company that Abdo had been picked up from a local motel and that he also had visited an Army surplus store where he paid cash for a uniform bearing Fort Hood unit patches, according to the Army alert.

Vasys said the FBI would charge Abdo with possessing bomb-making components and he would be transferred from Killeen police into federal custody. Vasys said there was nothing to indicate Abdo was "working with others."

An Oklahoma attorney who has represented Abdo said Thursday he hadn't heard from Abdo in weeks and learned of the arrest from a Texas television station.

"I've been quite anxious to get in touch with him," said attorney James Branum.

The attack was videotaped as a crowd shouted "Allahu akbar!" and young boys recorded it on their mobile phones. The savagery of the murders did not lead, as one would logically expect, to enhanced protection of Ahmadis within Indonesia, but to the opposite. They were essentially blamed for causing the attacks by existing, and banned outright in multiple provinces. In West Java, they cannot identify themselves as Ahmadis.

And now, this, from Modern, Moderate, Tolerant Indonesia. "Indonesian court lets anti-Ahmadi mob perpetrators off 'lightly'," from Agence France-Presse, July 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

SERANG, INDONESIA: In what seems to have been a light sentence, an Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced religious fanatics who killed three members of the minority Ahmadiyah Muslim sect in a frenzied mob attack to between three and six months in jail.

Dani bin Misra, a 17-year-old who smashed a victim’s skull with a stone, received three months for manslaughter. While Idris bin Mahdani, who led the mob of more than 1,000 Muslims in the February attack, was convicted of illegal possession of a machete and received five months and 15 days in jail.

Twelve people stood for trial, but none faced murder charges in what human rights activists termed was a travesty of justice in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

The unprovoked violence against the Ahmadiyah sect members in Cikeusik, western Java, was one of the most horrific in a long line of attacks on the minority group in Indonesia in recent years.

Ahmadiyah, unlike mainstream Muslims, do not believe Mohammed was the last prophet and are regarded as heretics and blasphemers by conservatives in places like Indonesia and Pakistan.

A secretly filmed video of the attack brought religious violence in Indonesia under the international spotlight, and provoked condemnation from the United States, Italy and international rights groups.

“When the Cikeusik video went viral, people around the world were shocked and appalled by the savagery of the mob kicking and slashing three men to death,” Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Phil Robertson said.

“But instead of charging the defendants with murder and other serious crimes, prosecutors came up with an almost laughable list of ‘slap-on-the wrist’ charges.

“The Cikeusik trial sends the chilling message that attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyah will be treated lightly by the legal system. This is a sad day for justice in Indonesia.”

It's not the first, and it won't be the last. One will also recall the equally laughable sentences given to the members of a mob that went on a rampage against Christian targets in February. And by rewarding bad behavior, as the judiciary must know, it is encouraging more of it.

Al-Shabaab's conduct is reminiscent of the Saudi religious police who beat schoolgirls back into a burning building rather than letting them out sinfully unveiled. But the Somali jihadists are causing suffering and death on a much larger scale, in what they say is an effort to keep out the "Christian" influence of Western-based charities. Indeed, that is par for the course for a group paranoid enough to ban allegedly Trinitarian samosas. Still, there is also a military advantage to pursue in controlling the flow of aid, and holding the entire territory under their control hostage: hungry people have a harder time fighting back.

For that matter, al-Shabaab has not retreated from their insistence that there is no famine in the first place. And now, they have not only threatened, but "sworn" to attack those who fled to aid camps -- after many barely survived getting to them -- if they didn't turn around and go home. "Somali famine: Fighting in Mogadishu after 'aid threat'," from BBC News, July 28:

Africa Union peacekeepers say they have seized key territory from Islamist insurgents in Somalia's capital after they allegedly threatened aid camps.

The heavy fighting came a day after the UN World Food Programme airlifted in its first famine emergency aid.

An AU spokesman told the BBC the action would increase security and enable aid agencies to get food to people displaced by the severe drought.

Thousands have arrived in government-controlled suburbs in search of food.

The WFP delivery is the first airlift of food aid since the UN declared a famine in two southern areas of Somalia last week.

Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda linked group which controls much of central and southern Somalia, has banned the WFP from its areas.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled these regions to Mogadishu and neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in search of assistance.

The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that some 100,000 people had arrived in Mogadishu and settlements around the city in search of food and water in the past two months.

Dawn fighting

The weak interim government - backed by the 9,000-strong AU force (Amisom) - controls about 60% of the capital, Mogadishu, including the airport, the port, the presidential palace and areas around the city's largest market.

The BBC's Mohamed Dhore in Mogadishu says the fighting started just after dawn when government forces and African peacekeeping troops launched an offensive on an al-Shabab strongholds in the north of the city.

"The al-Shabab have sworn to attack the IDP [internally displaced people] camps if they don't move back to their areas - and therefore this operation was mean to ensure that this does not happen," Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the AU force in Mogadishu, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme....

Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation. Purists will say it could never top The Old Series.

Despite being the number-one brand name in global jihad, al-Qaeda's ideology is not of its own invention, and that is ultimately the source of its resilience. It is a waste of precious time that even being able to discuss the jihad ideology must be a struggle, and it only hamstrings efforts to understand, engage, and defeat al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups. "Spec ops chief warns of al-Qaida 2.0," by Kimberly Dozier for the Associated Press, July 28:

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The top commander of U.S. special operations forces said Wednesday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida is bloodied and "nearing its end," but he warned the next generation of militants could keep special operations fighting for a decade to come.

Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson described the killing of bin Laden by a special operations raid on May 2 as a near-killing blow for what he called "al-Qaida 1.0," as created by bin Laden and led from his hideout in Pakistan.

Olson said the group had already lost steam because of the revolts of the Arab Spring, which proved the Muslim world did not need al-Qaida to bring down governments, from Tunisia to Egypt.

Actually, both bin Laden and Zawahiri (just yesterday) have expressed support for the uprisings. They fully expect more overtly Islamic regimes that are more likely to impose Sharia law, which is the aim of jihad in all its forms. And they fully expect those regimes will be more openly and demonstratively hostile to Israel.

"I think the death of bin Laden was an uppercut to the jaw," Olson told a packed crowd, opening the Aspen Security Forum. "It just knocked them on their heels."

Olson echoed other administration officials who are predicting al-Qaida's demise if a few more key leaders can be eliminated.

But the four-star admiral warned of the fight to come against what he called al-Qaida 2.0, with new leaders like American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, who Olson said understands America better than Americans understand him.

"It will morph, it will disperse," he said of the movement. "It will become in some ways more westernized, (with) dual passport holders" and "fewer cave dwellers," he said.

Olson said others like al-Awlaki will probably refine their message to appeal to a wider audience, and seek ungoverned spaces to operate from, where they can smuggle in weapons and train their followers. He described how current offshoots like al-Awlaki's al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen are cooperating with militants in Somalia, describing what he called an "invisible bridge" between the two.

Nor did the admiral write off bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahri. He said al-Zawahri had not yet put his stamp on the original organization, so U.S. counterterrorist forces do not yet know what kind of threat his leadership will present.

Olson agreed with the White House's newly announced policy to strike terrorists through focused action rather than full-scale invasion, preferably by training and working with the host country's forces. He cautioned against thinking raids would solve all U.S. foreign policy problems.

"This idea of being able to wait over the horizon and spring over and chop off heads doesn't really work," he said, describing the "yin and yang" of special operations as including capture-and-kill raids as well as long-term engagement with host countries' militaries. The latter involves U.S. troops "developing long-term relationships, learning languages, meeting people, studying histories, learning black markets."

"If you don't know that, you won't be an effective counterterrorism force," Olson said....

A gentlemen's agreement, minus the gentlemen. "U.S. accuses Iran of aiding al-Qaeda," by Joby Warrick for the Washington Post, July 28:

The Obama administration said Thursday that Iran is helping al-Qaeda funnel cash and recruits into Pakistan for its international operations, the most serious U.S. allegation to date of Iranian aid to the terrorist group.

Documents filed by the Treasury Department accuse Iran of facilitating an al-Qaeda-run support network that transfers large amounts of cash from Middle East donors to al-Qaeda’s top leadership in Pakistan’s tribal region.

A Syrian national who directs the network has been allowed to operate in Iran since 2005, and senior Iranian officials know about money transfers and allow the movement of al-Qaeda foot soldiers through its territory, administration officials said.

Although U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Iran of assisting al-Qaeda, links between the two have been difficult to prove. Al-Qaeda regards the Shiite denomination, the dominant branch of Islam in Iran, as heretical, and Iran has sought at times to crack down on the terrorist group, deporting some operatives and holding others under house arrest.

U.S. officials asserted that the alleged network offered new evidence of Iranian support. “By exposing Iran’s secret deal with al-Qaeda, allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran’s unmatched support for terrorism,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The new allegations against Iran come as the administration is seeking to increase international pressure on the Islamic republic. The White House has successfully pushed for additional sanctions against Iranian companies while renewing accusations that the country’s leaders support militias inside Iraq that carry out attacks against U.S. forces. [...]

The allegations of a Iran-to-Pakistan network center on a Syrian operative, Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil. Khalil has directed the flow of cash and recruits from Persian Gulf states to Pakistan through Iran, according to U.S. officials and documents.

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Khalil and five other alleged operatives, including Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a senior al-Qaeda leader on the Pakistani end of the pipeline. Rahman, a top spiritual adviser to al-Qaeda, was a longtime aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader slain this year in Pakistan, and he once served as a bin Laden-appointed emissary to the Iranian government.

Individual operatives collected large amounts of cash, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the money passed through Iraq by way of couriers or informal transfer systems known as hawalas, U.S. officials said. Much of the money was collected in Kuwait and Qatar, two countries that administration officials say have been relatively lax about stanching the flow of money from wealthy Arab donors to al-Qaeda.

“Kuwait and Qatar are not in the same league as the Saudis or the Emiratis when it comes to having the capacity or the will” to crack down on illegal money networks, said a senior administration official familiar with the case who insisted on anonymity in discussing sensitive diplomatic matters....

And how better to do that than by murdering a few Infidels?

An update on the conscientious objector who got out of the Army so he could avoid killing his fellow Muslims, but evidently wanted to kill large numbers of non-Muslims at Fort Hood.

War Is Deceit Update: "Devout Muslim Soldier Hopes to Avoid Deployment to Afghanistan," by Sarah Netter for ABC News, August 31, 2010 (thanks to Bill):

[...] Now, he said, he wants out of the Army so he can spend his life combating what he called Islamaphobia [sic] and advocating Islam as a peaceful religion.

"I want to use my experience to show Muslims how we can lead our lives," he said. "And to try and put a good positive spin out there that Islam is a good, peaceful religion. We're not all terrorists, you know?"...

Today I was on Michael Coren's TV show out of Toronto, discussing the mainstream media's exploitation of the Norway tragedy to defame the anti-jihad movement. (Video courtesy the superb Blazing Cat Fur.)

Pamela Geller says it: "I anxiously await the same intense and extensive mainstream media coverage and obsession that we witnessed immediately after and in the ensuing days of the Norway massacre to determine the motivation behind this explosive plot at Fort Hood. I expect extremists Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, the NY Times, LA Times, IHT, CNN, BBC, et al, to be just as rabidly obsessed and consumed with investigating what ideology incited this Muslim to recruit for jihad."

Call the tools. Write them. Ask them why they aren't doing this, and why they won't. Skewer their hypocrisy.

Abdo gained fame when he was granted conscientious objector status as a Muslim -- a Muslim must not kill other Muslims (Qur'an 4:92). The Qur'an unfortunately does not contain a similar prohibition on killing Infidels, and Abdo was apparently aware of that as well.

"AWOL Soldier Arrested in What Police Identify as New Plot to Attack Fort Hood," by Mike Levine and Jennifer Griffin for FoxNews.com, July 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Army private has been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to attack Fort Hood that authorities suggest was close to being carried out. The arrest, first reported by Fox News, comes nearly two years after a deadly shooting rampage at the base.

Pvt. Naser Jason Abdo, an AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell in Kentucky, was arrested by the Killeen Police Department near Fort Hood and remains in custody at the Killeen jail.

Abdo, 21, was found with weapons, explosives and jihadist materials at the time of his arrest, a senior Army source confirms to Fox News. He was arrested at around 2 p.m. Wednesday after someone called authorities to report a suspicious individual.

Eric Vasys, a spokesman with the FBI's San Antonio Office, said authorities found firearms and bomb making components inside Abdo's motel room. Sources also say Abdo was attempting to make a purchase at Guns Galore in Killeen, the same ammunition store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased weapons that were allegedly used to gun down 13 people and wound 30 others at the base on Nov. 5, 2009.

Sources said Abdo had enough materials to make two bombs, including 18 pounds of sugar and six pounds of smokeless gunpowder -- a possible trigger for an explosive. A pressure cooker was also found. Another counterterrorism source said the bomb making materials and methodology came "straight out of Inspire (a terrorist magazine) and an Al Qaeda explosives course manual."

Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin alluded to the severity of the threat at a news conference Thursday afternoon announcing the arrest.

"We we [sic] would probably be here today giving a different briefing had he not been stopped," Baldwin said, and military personnel appeared to be the target.

Police in Killeen received information from the owners of Guns Galore about a suspicious male who entered the store and, after asking about smokeless gun powder, purchased as much as six pounds of the powder, three boxes of 12 gauge ammunition and a magazine for a Springfield 9mm. The man allegedly paid for the items in cash and then left in a cab.

Bob Jenkins, a Fort Campbell spokesman, told Fox News that Abdo was also being investigated for child pornography found on his government computer.

Abdo went AWOL on July 4. On the eve of his first deployment to Afghanistan -- after only one year in the Army -- Abdo applied for conscientious objector status as a Muslim. It was denied by his superiors at Fort Campbell but later overturned by the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Army review board.

"He does not regret what he did. He boasted that he would do it all over again if he had to."

It is no accident or coincidence that Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. 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.

Syria in 2009 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.'" 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."

Nonetheless, the media drumbeat is constant: honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And as long as that continues, we will see more and more murders like this one.

Honour killings: Man guns down six daughters," from The Express Tribune, July 27:

A man gunned down six of his daughters on suspicion that two of them were in relationships with boys in the neighbourhood.

On Tuesday morning, Arif Mubashir called his teenage daughters to his room and shot them while the rest of the family, including their mother, watched. His wife Musarrat called the police after the incident.

Mubashir shot the girls after their brother said two of them were in a relationship. He told police officials that he had killed his daughters because they were both “without honour”. The man said his daughters Sameena, 14, and Razia, 16, were in a relationship with college boys from the neighbourhood and the sisters had helped each other. “I should have been told immediately but the girls sided with each other. They were both corrupt,” Mubashir told Tandlianwala Police Inspector Javed Sial.

Police officials have taken Mubashir into custody and filed a case against him. “He does not regret what he did. He boasted that he would do it all over again if he had to,” Sial told reporters.

Pakistan has repeatedly been termed as one of the least women-friendly countries. In June, the Thompson Reuters Foundation ranked Pakistan as the world’s third most dangerous country for women.

In "Mumbai vs. Oslo" at the American Thinker today, Pamela Geller skewers the media double standard regarding investigating the motives of jihad terror versus the alleged motives of the deranged Norway murderer:

Just days before a barbarian (alone and belonging to no one, no group, just the twisted sickness of a legend in his own broken mind) murdered over seventy people in Norway, the city of Mumbai was attacked in a brutal jihad by Muslim extremists, again. Hear about that? Not so much.

But one cold-blooded killer who has been planning a slaughter in Norway (setting his plan in motion since before 9/11) has become the rallying cry of the dhimmedia in service to the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth.

Where is the same obsessive drive to determine the motivation and the manifesto behind the jihad? Where are the investigative reports on the imams and the mosques that teach, advance, and prescribe violence? Where is the Woodward and Bernstein team to investigate what motivated a Muslim to gun down U.S. soldiers in Arkansas?

Where's the round-the-clock coverage of the Muslim Najibullah Zazi, who plotted to blow up the New York subway system with the help of his father and his imam on the anniversary of 9/11? Where's the relentless outcry and hand-wringing over the ideology that attracts young Muslims in America to join Muslim armies in Somalia? Why are there no television specials on why Osama bin Laden quoted Allah and the Koran extensively? What manifesto incited four Muslims in a jihad plot to bomb New York City synagogues and shoot down military planes with stinger missiles?

Where is the pained outcry over Fort Hood jihadi Major Nidal Malik Hasan and his PowerPoint presentation on Islam and the jihadic doctrine? What motivated a Pentagon attack suspect back in June (a Marine, no less) to plot to bomb the Department of Defense? Was it his religious Al Qaeda notebook? This same pious Muslim was found to be responsible for recent random shootings at military installations in and around Washington, D.C. Diane Sawyer, call your office.

Did Brian Williams, who tried to smear Robert Spencer Monday night with this Norwegian nut, look deeply into the ideology and manifesto that motivated more than one imam who was found guilty of plotting to blow up the fuel tanks at JFK airport, which would have made 9/11 look like amateur hour?

Where is the New York Times' in-depth investigation of who and what inspired six American Muslims (including two imams), who were charged with aiding the jihad by providing the Taliban "material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas, as well as conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization"?

Where is the probe on bomb-making classes in madrasas? Or Islamic belly bombs to beat airport security? Or brutal Islamic "constitutions" in Bangladesh, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran (the world's most brutal nations)? Where is the media feeding frenzy on groups in the United States that are plotting to overthrow the current system of governance and install The United States of Islam? Where are the headlines on the Muslim Brotherhood figure and former spokesman in the West's call to establish a global Islamic state? Where is the media outrage on the Bible ban in Pakistan? What and who was responsible for the Chicago Muslim who was found guilty in a plot to blow up a Danish newspaper? Where was the killer media on the Islamic leader who called for American Muslims to buy guns and start shooting people? Why isn't the media pounding on the manifesto that inspired Muslims' deadly attacks on Christian villages, leaving and the village burned in Nigeria? Where is the Washington Post and the New York Times front-page splash on the Indonesian Muslims who planted a big bomb near a major church ahead of Easter?

Read it all.

ALOR SETAR: Malaysians must break down all walls that seperate [sic] and differentiate them from each other, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Saying that being tolerant is no longer enough, the Prime Minister invited Malaysians to embrace the spirit of total acceptance.

"If we say we are tolerant of each other, that means there still exists walls that will make us fell a bit uneasy with each other.

"But if we accept each other, then we can celebrate our togetherness and be fully united as Malaysians," he said...

Najib may speak of 'acceptance', but never will he, nor any (Muslim) Prime Minister, state for the record that Muslims are the equal of non Muslims, or vice-versa. That would be extremely un-Islamic, and probably 'disruptive' to harmony as well (i.e. Muslims would riot, or at the very least threaten mayhem in such an event).

As for the 'acceptance' that Najib mentions, it's funny how Muslims keep seeking, or more likely. demanding 'acceptance' from every non Muslim in the vicinity. This can really only mean one thing for Muslims -- the acceptance of Islam. Nothing is more paramount for a Muslim than this. 'Breaking down the walls that 'seperate' Malaysians', as Najib has so implored, means that Islam can better flow, with less hindrance, into every nook and cranny of every Malaysian's public and private life.

And making everyone in Malaysia Muslim would certainly fulfill Najib's fervent wishes to be a less differentiated, more united Malaysia. When Najib and his government harangue the nation with their ceaseless '1Malaysia' mumbo-jumbo, this is the real message behind their motto.

Umdat al-Salik (The Reliance of the Traveler), a manual for the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence certified as "reliable" by Egypt's al-Azhar University, explains that non-Muslims are:

... "forbidden to ring church bells or display crosses, recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays, and are forbidden to build new churches" - o.11.5 (6,7)

But don't just take one book's word for it; take the evidence. We have seen similar cases regarding bells and audible non-Islamic worship in Muslim-majority areas quite distant from one another, including Russia, Bosnia, Somalia, Gaza, the Philippines, and even Britain.

"Muslim Attack on Christians in Egypt Provoked By Installation of Church Bell," by Mary Abdelmassih for the Assyrian International News Agency, July 28:

(AINA) -- An exchange of harsh words on July 25 between Ruth, a Christian woman, and Gassem Fouad, a Muslim man who had parked his tricycle in front of her home, escalated into assault by the man on Ruth and other Christian villagers, and the arrest of one Copt. After Ruth, who is 5 months pregnant, was assaulted, a Muslim mob waited for Coptic farmers to return from the fields, where they were intercepted and beaten with iron rods and pipes.

Security forces managed to contain the situation.

Six Christians, including Ruth and her sister-in-law Hannan, were hospitalized with concussions, head injuries and broken limbs. No Muslim was injured.

None of the Muslim perpetrators was arrested. Ruth's husband, Kirillos Daniel, was accused of possessing a weapon -- a rifle found thrown where the Christians were attacked, and is under detention.

In an interview on CTV Coptic TV, Father Estephanos Shehata, of the Samalout Coptic dioceses, said "The real reason behind this assault was the church bell, which has greatly angered the Muslims in the village." He said the dilapidated church in the village of Ezbet Jacob Bebawi, outside Samalout, north of Minya, was given permission to renovate and this was completed last week, and the church bell was reinstalled.

"This is the first time such an incident has taken place in this village," said Father Estephanos, "which is 60-75% Christian, and the reason is definitely the presence of the church bell."

Christian villagers believe this assault was premeditated and they fear their church faces imminent attack, especially since Muslims have been slowly congregating in the village, which has a very weak presence of security forces.

The Shi'ites occupying the site claim it was previously the site of a mosque. If they get their way, the chapel will thus most likely become a trophy-mosque, like so many other churches, including the Hagia Sophia and the former Church of St. John the Baptist in Damascus. "In Lebanon, Shiites take possession of a chapel of the Virgin," by Fady Noun for Asia News, July 28:

Beirut (AsiaNews) – For over two week the Maronite Church has been involved in strenuous efforts to reclaim large areas of land which has been taken over by part of the Shiite population of Lassa, a village in the district of Jbeil Mount Lebanon. The affair erupted when official land surveyors tried survey land on which stands a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. Since 2011 the building has been used, against the advice of the Church as a place of worship for women. In spite of all the past efforts to regulate this sensitive and highly symbolic issue the chapel key was never returned to the Church. For several days the population has prevented the team, with the threat of arms, from carrying out the survey.

Their behavior only sends the message that they know the facts are not on their side.

The conflict has ancient roots, some details date as far back as the nineteenth century. So the Shiites population [sic] claims that the Maronite chapel was already a Shiite place of worship. The Maronite Patriarchate, for its part argues that the plot of land was purchased by the Maronite Church in the nineteenth century, as supported by documents such as title deeds and cadastral surveys dating to 1939. These are the facts that the Church seeks to confirm today, once and for all, with the help of the Lebanese state.

The use of threats by the Shiite population of Lassa has awakened feelings of confessional hostility in Maronite environments. Nurtured by certain personalities this anger has begun to manifest itself. To avoid exacerbating these feelings the patriarchate of Bkerke called a meeting involving all parties concerned, including representatives of Hezbollah and the Amal Shiite movement. The patriarch chaired the meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the police and army. Closing the meeting, and confirming his original direction, the Patriarchate has appointed a commission to resolve the legal problem, expressing the desire to confine the issue to a strictly legal framework and avoid any political and confessional drift.

Legal documents show that the land belongs to the Maronite Church in the village where a Shiite majority and a Maronite minority coexist in about 3.6 million square meters, divided into 95 plots. The plots were registered in 1939. Over 80 cases of trespassing on land belonging to the Maronite Church have been registered, in the form of illegal construction or unauthorised agricultural use. Most buildings were built at the beginning of this century, thanks to the mayor's illegal authorization of the village and with the passive complicity of the local police, responsible for repressing violations of construction law.

Moreover, not content with occupying the Church land illegally, the Shiite population prevents the development of Christian farmers on their own uncontested agricultural land. To the point that one of them was beaten and kicked off the land that he had rented. The lawyers of the Patriarchate, who are in direct contact with a Hezbollah official, Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, ensure that this party does not give political cover to the families illegally occupying the property of the Maronite Church, and that an attitude of firmness is required by all so that justice is done....

It remains to be seen how much of a problem this will pose for the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah, not so much for the Israeli aspect, but because the Palestinian Authority stipulates that death penalty cases must be approved by the PA president. The PA has therefore called these executions illegal, though the odds that Hamas would care about that are slim to none. "Hamas executes father and son for Israeli collaboration," by Guy Azriel and Marwah Jbara-Tibi for CNN, July 26:

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Gaza's ruling Hamas government said Tuesday it executed two Palestinian men for collaborating with Israel.

The father and son, ages 58 and 29, were convicted by a Gaza court in 2004 of assisting the enemy and providing information used to assassinate Palestinians.

"The issue of collaborators is highly dangerous in the Palestinian society," Ihab Elghosen, a spokesman for Hamas' Interior Ministry, told CNN. "We must act forcefully because there is a war underneath the surface between us and the Israeli intelligence and we must win it."

Palestinian law requires death sentences to be ratified by the president. Elghosen said the move was authorized by the Hamas government, but officials in Ramallah called the decision "illegal."

Palestinian Deputy Interior Minister Hassan Alawi told CNN "any decision of this kind has to be signed by the president. Of course, because of the situation between Fatah and Hamas, there was no ratification and it is therefore illegal. To my regret, in the current situation there are many wrongdoings. We would expect our brothers in Gaza to be more tolerant, especially when it comes to human lives because they are irreversible. You cannot revive the dead if there is a mistake."

According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the families of the men received a call at 1 a.m. Tuesday, asking them to visit their relatives. The meeting took place until 3 a.m., and at 6 a.m. the men's bodies were received at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital.

"It appears from the state of the bodies that the men were hanged," a statement from Al Mezan says. The center noted the danger in collaborating with Israel, but said that "(while) it is important to bring them to justice, we strongly object to the use of the death penalty and see the move by Hamas as illegal."

Hamas seized power from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza in 2007.

In a report released in 2010, human rights group Amnesty International's Middle East program director Malcolm Smart said legal proceedings that led to death sentences "failed to meet international fair trial standards" and made any resulting executions "especially abhorrent."

Not that Assad is a friend of Israel, by any stretch of the imagination. He's just not moving quickly enough for those who want a full-blown military jihad now, though one wonders if Damascus would get an "E" for "Effort" from al-Qaeda on the Dair Alzour nuclear plant.

Al-Qaeda's former second banana is also eager to see the end of the Alawite dominance of Syrian politics, and clearly likes the odds of its being replaced with a Sunni Islamic regime more overtly hostile to Israel. "Al-Qaida's Zawahri tells Syrians to also fight US, Israel," from Reuters, July 28:

DUBAI - Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged Syrian protesters to direct their movement also against Washington and Israel, denouncing the United States as insincere in showing solidarity with them, according to an Internet video issued on Wednesday.

"America, which cooperated with (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad during his whole regime, claims today that it stands with you when it saw him floored by the earthquake caused by your fury," he said in the video posted on Islamist websites often used by al-Qaida.

The video carried the date of the Islamic month corresponding to June, when Zawahri was named by the Islamist group to succeed Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in Pakistan in May after a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt.

"You are standing with your bare chests facing tank and artillery shells and helicopters," Zawahri said of the Syrians demonstrating against Assad, whom he denounced as "America's partner in the war on Islam in the name of fighting terror".

"Tell both America and (US President Barack) Obama: ... our powerful uprising will not stop until we raise the victorious banner of jihad (holy war) ... over Jerusalem," said Zawahri, wearing a white turban and robe and seated next to an assault rifle....

It has been labeled as a "terrorist" attack. Hizballah is benefiting nicely from the status quo in Lebanon in its relationship with the U.N. and the Lebanese Army, and though it is the only group named in the report below, it would profit the least from rocking the boat in this way. "Attack on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon condemned," from BBC News, July 27:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned a roadside bomb attack that wounded five French peacekeepers in Sidon, southern Lebanon, on Tuesday.

It was the second such attack on the UN force in two months.

Mr Ban said he was "deeply disturbed".

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack but tensions are rising in Lebanon over a UN-backed inquiry into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

A statement from the UN force in Lebanon (Unifil) said that an explosion targeted a peacekeepers' convoy along the main road leading to the capital at about 18:00 local time.

"Unifil forensic experts are at the scene and Unifil is working in co-ordination with the Lebanese armed forces to determine the circumstances of the incident," it said.

The UN Security Council added its condemnation of the bombing, which it called "a terrorist attack", as well as any attempts to threaten the security and stability of Lebanon. [...]

There are growing concerns over fallout from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which the UN supports. It has indicted members of Hezbollah, but the group refuses to hand over the suspects.

Interpol has issued a "red notice" for their arrest, but not surprisingly, there has not been the political will in a Hizballah-dominated government to do anything about it.

The tribunal is expected to publish more details of the indictments when a 30-day deadline expires at the end of the month.

Reinforcing Islamophobic stereotypes

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Kandahar mayor killed by suicide bomber with explosives in turban," by Jon Boone in the Guardian, July 27 (thanks to Bill):

Afghan insurgents appeared to continue their assassination campaign against key public figures on Wednesday with the killing of the mayor of Kandahar.

Ghulam Haider Hamidi was targeted by a suicide bomber who got into the municipality compound in Kandahar City with explosives concealed under his turban. The technique was first used earlier this month in a mosque in the city during a memorial service for Ahmed Wali Karzai, a regional strongman and half-brother of the president.

Abdul Manan, a municipality employee, said the mayor had emerged from his office into the garden, where he made a call on his mobile phone.

The assassin grabbed him and detonated the bomb.

"I rushed outside and saw the mayor was lying still on the ground," said Manan. "Another headless body was next to him and the mayor had deep wounds on his face and chest.''

The death of Hamidi will raise further concerns about whether military gains by the US military in the Kandahar region, particularly in districts adjoining the city, will be undermined by the remorseless killing of top public figures....

Apparently Ulugbek Kodoriov is yet another Misunderstander of Islam. Maybe he got hold of one of my books instead of one by John Esposito or Karen Armstrong that would have explained to him the true teachings of the Religion of Peace™.

"Uzbek Man Charged With Threatening Obama, Obtaining Weapons," by Edmund DeMarche for FoxNews.com, July 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

An Uzbek man, who was living illegally in the U.S., was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury for allegedly making multiple threats to assassinate President Obama, then gaining possession of explosive material and a machine gun.

Ulugbek Kodoriov is accused of making four threats against Obama from July 9 to 13, the indictment says. Kodoriov, who lived in Jefferson County, Ala., eventually gained possession of a Sendra Corporation Model M15-A1 rifle, which was illegal because of his immigration status, according to the indictment. He also allegedly obtained an explosive intended for use as a grenade.

He was residing at the Oak Mountain Lodge in Birmingham, according to a search warrant obtained by FoxNews.com. Authorities sought any information in his room regarding Obama, as well as sniper rifles, documents relating to assassinations and Jihadist manuals.

On July 9, Kodoriov contacted an FBI source and asked about ways to kill the president by a long-range shot, according to the warrant. Kodoriov allegedly inquired about sniper rifles and said he didn’t care if he lost his life in an assassination attempt.

Kodoriov, 21, is a strict Muslim from Uzbekistan who previously supported Islamic extremists, an FBI source said, according to the warrant....

Kodoriov came to the United States in June 2009 and remained in the country on a student visa, according to the statement. His student visa was revoked April 1, 2010, for failure to enroll in school, according to the arrest affidavit....

He recruited for jihad at a mosque in Minneapolis. Now he continues to do so on Facebook. "Indicted Al-Shabaab Recruiter Continues Jihad on Facebook," by Patrick Poole for Pajamas Media, July 27:

As the House Homeland Security Committee prepares to hold hearings this week on the issue of radicalization in the Somali community, it is important to note the reach that the al-Shabaab terrorist group has into the United States. Earlier this month I reported exclusively here at PJM on a fresh set of al-Shabaab recruits from Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio that were interviewed on their way to Somalia by award-winning Kenyan journalist Fatuma Noor. And in June, I broke the story about an al-Shabaab suicide bomber from Minneapolis — the second Somali suicide bomber from Minneapolis, and only the third recorded case of an American successfully carrying out a suicide bombing (all three were Somali-Americans).

Undoubtedly one of the issues that the Homeland Security Committee will be looking at is how more than two dozen young Somali-Americans, many of whom were good students coming from middle-class families, were recruited to travel overseas to join the global jihad. What will likely never be mentioned: how that recruitment continues unimpeded today.

Not only is the Minnesota mosque that has served as the “radicalization incubator” for many of these youths still churning out jihadist recruits, but one of al-Shabaab’s top recruiters continues his recruiting efforts openly on Facebook and has targeted hundreds of Somali high school and college students.

Cabdulaahi Faarah (Faarax), a naturalized U.S. citizen, has proven to be one of al-Shabaab’s most effective Western recruiters. Now residing in Mogadishu, he uses his Facebook page to continue his recruiting efforts. In just the past week he has added more than 50 new friends — most of them in the U.S. — bringing the total number of his friends on Facebook to more than 500. His Facebook page was linked in a story by the Minneapolis Mirror following the June suicide bombing.

In 2009, Faarah was indicted along with several others for conspiring to kill or injure others outside the United States, in addition to lying to law enforcement investigating the disappearance of more than 20 Somali-Americans who had left to fight with al-Shabaab. According to affidavits submitted to the court at the time of his indictment, Faarah had previously fought in Somalia where he was wounded in the leg, prompting his return to the U.S. But the one-time cab driver continued his support efforts, openly recruiting for al-Shabaab at an unnamed Minneapolis mosque in the fall of 2007, where al-Shabaab officials in Somalia joined in over a telephone loudspeaker. He later led recruiting sessions at a Minneapolis residence. An FBI press release issued upon his indictment said that Faraah was repeatedly interviewed by law enforcement authorities, but each time he denied fighting with al-Shabaab or even knowing anyone who had.

In October 2009, Faarah was part of a group that drove to the Mexican border to travel to Somalia. During their trip they were stopped in Las Vegas by police, and were let go despite the fact that Faarah was on the terror watch list. His picture is even kept on the FBI website....

Read it all.

Here are just three of the death threats I've received, and which name other pro-freedom activists, since the mainstream media and its Leftist and Islamic supremacist allies started blaming me for the Norway murders:

Subject: death

Message: You goddamn fascist scum are the worst evil shits in America.

And another:

Subject: Spencer, Geller, Littman, Wilders and All Bigots have blood on thier Hands

Message: we told this before.
The Western WORLD are not doing enoguh to stop this HATE people from the platforms of spreading HATE and Killing.

They inspired thousands of Young Western Jewhs Boys to join the Zionism and Kill hundered of thousands of innocent Palestinians and Now they are urging the Western youth to Kill MUSLIMS. iN Europe and US

Plse TERMINATE the CANCER of the Spread will continue untill U R Decayed.

Or I will take Some responsibility By my OWN to Stop those HATE-Preaching People.

SPencer, Geller, Wilders, Bet-yaor or Littman, Horowitz, and many others.

They all have blood on their Hands.

And a third:

Subject: I not Stopped There must be somebody take that Responsibility

Message: If Spencer, Geller, Wilders and others like Bat yaor are not stopped by inciting hatred and influencing the western youth to committ large-scale crimes such that of Norway. and thier incitement of Muslims youth to see all western people as thier enemy and commit other crimes then there must be somebody who should take responsibiility.
spencer's hatred will not make me somebody that hates all jewsh and cristians and kill innocent people but will make me more focused on him himself.
Let us together target the two most stupid people in the US Spencer and Geller

US Attorney Preet Bharara announced at an afternoon news conference, "Today we unseal two indictments that provide fresh evidence of what many of us have been seeing for some time, the growing nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism."

Indeed, we have been seeing it for some time. In my 2002 book Islam Unveiled I discussed how the Taliban's involvement in drug trafficking was consistent with the group's theology. It is in line with the sharp distinction in the Qur'an and Islamic tradition between believers and unbelievers: since the buyers were non-Muslims, they had no problem selling the product. And Osama bin Laden himself was once called "one of the world's largest heroin dealers."

"U.S. Attorney Bharara Announces Intl. Narco-Terror Bust," by Peter Thorne for WPIX, July 26:

NEW YORK (PIX11) — Federal prosecutors in New York announced Tuesday the results of a globe undercover sting operation that took down suspected money men for Hezbollah and the Taliban busted in a narco-terror takedown.

Four men are now accused of plotting to sell heroin on the streets of the United States -- and to buy weapons for the Taliban allied with Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department.

US Attorney Preet Bharara announced at an afternoon news conference, "Today we unseal two indictments that provide fresh evidence of what many of us have been seeing for some time, the growing nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism."

Two defendants were arrested in Romania and were identified as Cetin Aksu and Siavosh Henareh. No photos of the men were immediately available. Two other defendants were detained in the Maldives, Bachar Wehbe and Gul Alizai. They've been flown to New York for trial.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said, "Today's indictments relate to two different dangerous narcotics networks. But their aspirations did not end with the sale of Heroin. Both allegedly were also prepared to traffic in terror not just drugs."

Prosecutors say the weapons deal involved: 48 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, 5,000 AK-47 rifles, 1000 M4 rifles and 1000 Glock handguns. Tonight one defendant's attorney told me his client -- who is now accused of being a Hezbollah henchman -- is from Lebanon. He is now in custody in New York, and today entered a not guilty plea....

This one was Monday night. Audio clip via Mediaite, where the commentary is the typical witlessness but the comments generally much more intelligent. Mediaite takes me to task for saying that Breivik was a "lone gunman"; here's a BBC headline this morning: "Norway attacks: 'Breivik acted alone.'" (Thanks to Sean.)

Imagine the lost expenditure of time, labor, and wages represented in the "thousands of meters" of fabric in the Taliban's bonfire. Jihad causes poverty. "Pakistan Taliban make bonfire of ‘un-Islamic’ cloth," from Agence France-Presse, July 26 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A Taliban group in Pakistan on Tuesday burned a huge quantity of cloth taken from shopkeepers, saying it was too thin to be made into suitably modest garments, officials said.

Burlap underwear for everybody!

The Islamist extremists stormed shops in Wana, the main town of the lawless South Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, and made a bonfire of the cloth in a public area near the bazaar.

Shopkeeper Rahimullah Khan told AFP that at least eight armed men burst into his premises and took away bundles of raw cloth that they said was too thin to make respectable clothing.

“They said it was un-Islamic to wear clothes that don’t properly cover the human body,” Khan said.

A local official in Wana who declined to be named said the perpetrators were local Taliban, adding that shop owners calculated thousands of metres of material had been destroyed.

“The men confiscated big bundles of raw cloth which they declared was too thin to wear from dozens of shopkeepers in the main bazaar and burnt them,” he told AFP.

“They had warned shopkeepers almost a week ago to stop selling un-Islamic cloth. Today, the militants stormed the shops and confiscated the rolls.”

Taliban militants in Pakistan have often targeted shops selling music and films that they say break Islamic moral codes.....

Come for the jihad, stay for the samosas -- wait, what? Awww, maaaaan! "Lawmaker: 40 Americans Joined Somali Al-Qaida Linked-terror Group," from the Associated Press, July 26 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says more than 40 Americans have been recruited by al-Qaida-linked terrorists in Somalia and have gone there to fight.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have not reported such high numbers of Americans joining the Somali terror organization, al-Shabab. The government has said at least 21 Somali-Americans are believed to have traveled to Somalia to join the terror group in what began as a push to expel Ethiopian soldiers. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the double suicide bomb attack in Uganda's capital last year, and members have aligned themselves with other anti-Western terror groups.

New York Republican Rep. Peter King's findings are based on his committee's investigation into the threat.

King plans to address the problem Wednesday during his third congressional hearing on Muslim radicalization.

This point does not apply only to al-Qaeda's enmity with Shi'ite Muslims; nor did al-Qaeda make it up. Muhammad said:

"I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform a that, then they save their lives [and] property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah" (Sahih Bukhari 1.2.24, emphasis added).

On a lighter note, Al-Qaeda in Iraq appears to be going broke for the moment. "Al-Qaida in Iraq appeals for fundraising ideas," by Maamoun Youssef for the Associated Press, July 26:

CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida militants in Iraq made an online appeal Tuesday for new fundraising ideas, saying they are in dire need of money to help thousands of widows and children of slain fighters.

Insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq — an umbrella group for Sunni militants— have funded their operations in the past by robbing jewelry stores, banks and offices where the government pays out monthly salaries. But the group has seen its main source of money, funding from abroad, dry up, leaving the group strapped for cash.

In an Arabic statement posted on al-Qaida in Iraq's online forum, website administrator Seif Saad lamented the state of the group's finances and launched an urgent appeal for money to "feed the widows and the orphans" of mujahedeen, or holy warriors.

"A few days ago a brother was martyred, leaving behind a wife and children. There is no need to explain how we were running here and there to collect money for their minimum requirements of life," wrote Saad.

Among the new ideas to raise funds, Saad suggested insurgents find a way to extort money from foreign oil, construction, transport and cell phone companies, as well as international media agencies. If the companies refused to pay, insurgents would disrupt their operations. He did not elaborate.

He also said businessmen and wealthy families should be forced to pay annual zakat, or charity, which Islam stipulates should be roughly two percent of assets, and called for imposing fines on wealthy Shiites in Iraq "who receive aid from America and the West and steal the country's oil revenues."

Mohamed Abdel-Hadi, who identified himself online another administrator for the website, dismissed the idea of taking money from foreign companies, but said he strongly supports fining Shiites.

"All the Shiites, including merchants or government officials, are infidels and confiscating their money is part of jihad," he wrote.

A visitor on the website posted a comment suggesting militants kidnap company executives in return for hefty ransoms that could finance a prolonged insurgency.

Another contributor advised recruiting specialized Internet hackers to transfer money from U.S. banks to trusted people. The contributor did not elaborate.

The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for last year's heists of the Central Bank of Iraq and a state-run investment center.

The global arm of al-Qaida has itself appealed for funds in the past. One request was made by al-Qaida's Ayman al-Zawahri, who became the leader of the group after the death of Osama bin Laden.

Last year, al-Qaida's top commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, also appealed for more funding, saying militants battling NATO forces were hampered by a lack of money and equipment.

Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May, also appealed for more funds in some of his statement, urging businessmen to direct their alms to al-Qaida.

One can't help but wonder how many of the jihadists in the cross-border raids going the other way, from Afghanistan into Pakistan, are Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan has cried foul over the incursions -- it's a crisis when the shoe is on the other foot -- and implied the U.S. and Afghanistan are responsible for a cross-border "safe haven" situation analogous to the one for which Pakistan has become infamous.

"Afghan Nato forces 'kill 35 Pakistan Taliban militants'," from BBC News, July 27:

At least 35 Taliban militants from Pakistan have been killed and several wounded by Nato-led forces inside Afghanistan, officials say.

The militants are said to have crossed over into the Afghan province of Paktia to target coalition forces when they came under attack last week.

Sources in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region told the BBC that many of those wounded had now been brought back.

Some are said to be receiving medical treatment in the town of Miranshah.

Pakistan has been under severe pressure from the US in recent months to prevent militants based in its tribal regions from crossing into Afghanistan to fight Nato troops based there.

Earlier this month Washington said that it was cutting $800m (£500m) in military aid to Islamabad because of "difficulties" in its relationship with Pakistan. [...]

An army spokesman said they don't need it anyway.

Reports suggest many of the dead and wounded belonged to two leading militant leaders in Waziristan - Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Mullah Nazir.

The BBC's Shahzeb Jillani says that both are known for actively targeting Nato-led forces. He says the deaths appear to be a significant blow to cross-border militants feeding the insurgency inside Afghanistan.

The coalition itself has confirmed the raid, saying it believes the fighters were moved into Afghanistan by the Haqqani group, long regarded by the US as an especially dangerous militant faction based in Waziristan.

There have been previous cases of Pakistani Taliban being killed by Nato, but few incidents are reported.[...]

In recent weeks, Islamabad has also complained of a number of cross-border militant attacks in Pakistan's north-west and has lodged official protests with Kabul over the incursions.

Just what you want to hear in a fiscal crisis. "U.S. trucking contracts funded Taliban, source says," by David Ariosto for CNN, July 26:

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. military task force has discovered that part of a $2.16 billion transportation contract was diverted through a murky network of subcontractors and into the hands of a group of Afghan power-brokers, criminals and Taliban insurgents, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Roughly $600 million of the contract had been spent before authorities were alerted to the scandal, the source said, citing an internal report.

Only part of that money, however, is believed to have been diverted to "nefarious elements," the source added.

A Pentagon official told CNN the full $2.16 billion contract covered the movement and transportation of 70% of the material needed for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Officials were first alerted to the possibility of a scandal in June 2010, after a Congressional inquiry prompted the creation of a joint task force to investigate potential criminal dealings surrounding U.S. contracts.

The group gathered financial reports, prime and subcontract documents and other negotiations from between 2009 and 2010, prompting authorities to make major changes in their existing contract award and accounting system.

But much of the damage had already been done.

"There were indications dollars were flowing to criminals or to the enemy," sad the Pentagon official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the record but who has direct knowledge of the U.S. assessment.

The official said it appears some of the payments were given for truckers to be assured of safe passage through insurgent areas of Afghanistan. As has happened in other instances, trucking contractors paid off local drivers who then turned around and paid local security forces, who in turn paid insurgents in their areas.

The year-long investigation uncovered "nefarious" conduct in at least four of eight trucking companies the U.S. government uses to deliver food and supplies to soldiers and civilians in forward operating bases and other U.S. installations across Afghanistan.

The internal document -- which was first reported by The Washington Post -- identified the firms as either exclusively Afghan or as joint ventures with international companies.

CNN reporting comes from an independent source, familiar with the contents of the report.

The companies were later identified as "high-risk" firms, having subcontracted out to smaller entities without sufficient accounting measures, the source said.

In one instance, $7.4 million was transferred into the bank account of a "low-level police officer."

Nice work if you can get it.

After a series of transactions, including multiple withdraws, officials then traced $3.3 million in weapons, explosives and cash transfers "to the enemy," the source said....

You can find the contentious interview here -- I come in right after the eight-minute mark.

Yesterday I discussed the Muslim Brotherhood and how it has exploited time to its advantage for Hudson NY (via RaymondIbrahim.com):

Things are looking good for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the grandfather of all Islamist groups. Despite the organization's hegemonic aspirations—which include "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization … so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions"—the Obama administration recently announced that it "welcomes dialogue" with the Brotherhood; so did the European Union. And under Egypt's military regime, the Islamist organization just "became a legal political party for the first time since President Gamal Abdel Nasser banned it more than half-a-century ago."

Why Nasser banned the Brotherhood, indeed, tried to decimate it, is instructive, and offers an important lesson in—and about—time.

Machiavellian from the start, Nasser collaborated closely with the Brotherhood; many Egyptians still insist he was originally a member. Soon after usurping Egypt's leadership via the 1952 Revolution, the alliance soured, culminating with an assassination attempt on Nasser's life by a Brotherhood member.

Nasser's response was swift and decisive: he dissolved the Brotherhood, burned down its headquarters, arrested some 15,000 members, and executed some—most famously Sayyid Qutb, the spiritual father of al-Qaeda—while leaving others to rot in prison. Many of the remaining members, aware that Nasser meant business, fled Egypt.

Why such a dramatic response? Why not simply punish the failed assassin and his accomplices? Nasser, a pious Muslim, was most likely intimately, if not instinctively, aware of what the Brotherhood was—and still is—all about; he was aware that it is impossible for Muslim organization’s committed to theocratic rule to negotiate or share power, much less be trustworthy allies.

In short, Nasser was aware that, once the opportunity presented itself, the Brotherhood would do everything in its power to take over: unlike secular parties concerned with the temporal, it has a divine mandate—a totalitarian vision—to subdue society to Sharia.

Some people even maintain that Nasser himself staged the assassination attempt as a pretext to eliminate the Brotherhood—an interpretation that only further supports the theory that Nasser knew he had to dismantle the Islamists, and was willing to play dirty to do so.

Nasser’s approach, then, is the real politick approach of one who knows that you must suppress those who would certainly suppress you—once circumstance permits; it is the long-term approach that takes the big picture into account (unlike many Western politicians looking for a quick fix for the duration of their term).

For its part, the Brotherhood learned the great virtues of patience and perseverance; learned to play the game on the enemy’s terms—whether by rejecting violence, going to the kafir [infidel unbeliever] ballot box, our adopting the “pluralistic” language of the West (which Brotherhood affiliates in the West, such as CAIR, have perfected to an art). Indeed, a new document on implementing Sharia appearing on the Brotherhood’s website argues that “Gradual action does not impose Islam at once, but rather step by step.”

Delicious, but haram

I used to frequent an Afghan restaurant in the Washington, DC area that was run by observant Muslims; the wall decorations included Qur'an verses and a wonderful example of Islamic supremacist fantasy: a poster of an astronaut stepping out onto the lunar surface only to find a group of smiling Muslims already there. The caption was, "Houston, we have a problem." In any case, the food was terrific, including the samosas. Unfortunately, the place closed years ago -- or perhaps fortunately for its proprietors, who would no doubt have been shocked to find that one of the most popular items on their menu was haram.

The ludicrousness of Sharia authoritarianism and Islamic anti-Christianity vividly illustrated: "Islamist group in Somalia bans samosas after deciding they're too Western: Militants believe triangular snack 'resembles Christian Holy Trinity,'" by Stewart Maclean for the Daily Mail, July 26 (thanks to Twostellas):

Somalia's al-Shabaab group has banned samosas after ruling the popular snacks are 'offensive' and too Christian.

Militant Islamist fighters last week used vehicles mounted with loudspeakers to announce the bizarre ruling across the regions of the war-torn country it controls.

The extremist group has offered no official explanation for the ban on the triangular snacks, which are commonly cooked up and served across the Horn of Africa.

The bizarre ban comes just days after militants linked to Al-Qaida in Somalia refused to let some aid workers into the country as tens of thousands suffered in the nation's massive famine.

Aid groups including the UN Food Programme say they were not given permission by militants to provide aid in the country, where it has been warned that 800,000 children could die from starvation.

It is now thought islamist militants have taken offence at the three-sided samosa's supposed resemblance to symbol of the Christian Holy Trinity.

Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper today reported that residents of the Somali town of Afgoye, 20 miles south of the capital Mogadishu, had confirmed the samosa ban had been imposed.

The fried snacks, usually filled with spicy meat or vegetables, have been served for centuries in the East African country.

But the newspaper said locals believed al-Shabaab leaders had decided the triangular shape was not compatible with their strict version of Islam.

The unexpected move means Somalis could now expect to be punished if caught cooking, buying or eating samosas, known locally as sambusas.

The ban is the latest in a string of authoritarian rulings introduced by al-Shabaab, a violent Islamist organisation linked to al-Qaeda and classified by several countries as a terrorist group....

Everybody knows that only greasy Islamophobes intent on inciting violence believe that any Muslim has any interest in "subduing the world." Sheikh Ahmed Kayemba must be a greasy Islamophobe. "Uganda People News: LC3 chairman calls on girls to get married," from UGPulse, July 25 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

He who gets a man or woman to marry pleases Allah, the LC3 chairperson for Katwe Butebo division in Masaka, Sheikh Ahmed Kayemba has said.

Kayemba who was yesterday speaking at an introduction ceremony in Kalagala village in Masaka said that he feels irritated when girls refuse to get married and decide to engage in prostitution.

Sheikh Kayemba says that the Koran teaches that girls have to get married, produce children and subdue the world.

Kayemba, who says he has 23 children so far, has also encouraged his fellow Muslims to produce as many children as possible.

Antisemitic pseudo-scholarly fraud calls Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs "extremist."

Leftist dhimmi Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic calls Spencer and Geller "jihadists." I guess he watched all the YouTube videos of our beheadings of Leftist dhimmis.

Paul Woodward at the antisemitic War In Context website cites a poster for a SIOA conference that uses war imagery to claim that our martial rhetoric incited Breivik to murder. Evidently he hasn't heard of the 9/11 attacks, or the many declarations of war against the West by Islamic jihadists, or of the use of martial imagery in metaphorical contexts, such as the war on poverty.

The hapless Adam Serwer in the Washington Post lies outright when he says that "most of Geller and Spencer’s blogging consists of attempts to tar all Muslims with the responsibility for terrorism....assigning collective blame for an act of terror through guilt-by-association." In ten books, hundreds of articles, and over 25,000 blog posts, I have never "attempted to tar all Muslims with the responsibility for terrorism," and challenge Serwer to prove his claim. In reality, I have stated on this site since it began in 2003 that "any Muslim who renounces violent jihad and dhimmitude is welcome to join in our anti-jihadist efforts."

Joost Lagendijk in Today's Zaman echoed Serwer's falsehoods. Do your own work, Joost! Do not copy off your neighbor's paper!

An unsigned editorial in the Los Angeles Times says the same thing, but tries to provide some evidence for the claim: "What Spencer failed to address is the fact that his site, and others cited by Breivik such as The Gates of Vienna, make a habit of blaming all Muslims for the actions of a minority of violent jihadists. As an example of Spencer's thinking, he wrote in November that the Transportation Security Administration should profile and give extra screening attention to Muslim males at airports, because this is the likeliest group to commit acts of terrorism. One could as easily argue that special attention should be paid to white males. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, the Unabomber's reign of terror, the Tucson shootings and, now, the mass murder in Norway, this population also appears prone to terrorist violence."

That's four white male terrorists, versus 17,000+ jihad terror attacks since 9/11 committed by Muslim males (many of whom were white, by the way) and a handful of females. To the LA Times, the existence of those four is sufficient to refute the commonsensical call for the TSA to address the actual source of its troubles and reason for its existence. And somehow also to call for the TSA to focus on the group that is responsible for the overwhelming majority of terror attacks is to blame all Muslims for jihad terror. But the logic of that is so serpentine that I cannot parse it.

Yousef Munayyer in Al-Jazeera claims that "while these writers and bloggers are now franticly [sic] trying to distance themselves from Breivik by claiming that they never advocated violence, they contributed to the horrors that took place in Norway by dehumanising an entire religion and its followers and advancing a fear-inspiring, cataclysmic us-versus-them mentality." Never mind the innumerable imams who actually do advocate violence, dehumanize Jews, Christians, and Hindus, and advance a fear-inspiring, cataclysmic us-versus-them mentality. As always with Islamic supremacists, the fault lies with those who call attention to this activity and disapprove of it, not with the hate preachers themselves.

Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic says that Geller, Mark Steyn and I are not to blame for the Norway murders (gee, thanks, Conor), but that we should nevertheless temper our "rhetorical excesses." Mine is that I exaggerate "the prospect of sharia law being implemented in the United States. Put another way, although there is no chance of it happening, he treats it as an imminent threat that requires a legislative fix." Ridiculous! Who could ever get the idea that such a thing was an imminent threat? Nobody thinks there is any chance of that happening -- except the 20 states that are considering anti-Sharia initiatives. And could they have gotten the idea from the fact that Sharia has been used in court cases in 23 states? Naaaah. It's just rhetorical excess! But as for Spencer, "luckily, few take him seriously" -- except, of course, for Conor Friedersdorf, who considers it worth the time to try (however ineptly) to refute what I say.

Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post takes exception to my comparing being blamed for the Norway murders to the Beatles being blamed for the Manson murders: "The comparison is absurd, of course. There’s nothing in 'Helter Skelter' about Sharon Tate or any of Manson’s other victims; the angriest line is 'You may be a lover but you ain’t no dancer.' Spencer’s oeuvre, by contrast, is all about how Muslims supposedly threaten all who love peace and freedom." The fact that some Muslims do indeed threaten all who love peace and freedom doesn't enter Robinson's mind. I will leave it to him to explain these and others like them (but of course he won't):

"We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don't lobby Congress or protest because we don't recognize Congress. The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it. . . . Eventually there will be a Muslim in the White House dictating the laws of Shariah." -- Muhammad Faheed, Muslim Students Association meeting, Queensborough Community College, 2003

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth." -- CAIR cofounder and longtime Board chairman Omar Ahmad, 1998 (denial noted and full story explained at link)

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future." -- CAIR spokesman Ibrahim "Honest Ibe" Hooper, 1993

"If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate." -- prominent American Muslim leader Siraj Wahhaj, 2002

Finally, a word on the Times hit piece, in which I am a significant presence, and yet neither Scott Shane nor anyone else at the Times bothered to contact me for any comment whatsoever. "Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.," by Scott Shane in the New York Times, July 24 (thanks to all who sent this in). The first clue as to the bias of Scott Shane comes in the title's reference to "Anti-Muslim Thought," as if I am fighting against human beings, rather than against a radically intolerant and repressive ideology. Seven years ago here at Jihad Watch I had an exchange with an English convert to Islam. I said: "I would like nothing better than a flowering, a renaissance, in the Muslim world, including full equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies: freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, equal employment opportunities, etc." Is all that "anti-Muslim"? My correspondent thought so. He responded: "So, you would like to see us ditch much of our religion and, thereby, become non-Muslims."

In other words, he saw a call for equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies, including freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, and equal employment opportunities, as a challenge to his religion. To the extent that they are, these facts have to be confronted by both Muslims and non-Muslims. But it is not "anti-Muslim" to wish freedom of conscience and equality of rights on the Islamic world -- quite the contrary.

[...] His manifesto, which denounced Norwegian politicians as failing to defend the country from Islamic influence, quoted Robert Spencer, who operates the Jihad Watch Web site, 64 times, and cited other Western writers who shared his view that Muslim immigrants pose a grave danger to Western culture.

Jihad Watch commenter Kinana of Khaybar analyzed these 64 citations here, and concluded: "Breivik himself has apparently 'quoted' Robert Spencer by pasting in large unprocessed chunks of material from 3 different sources--the documentary, the crusades piece, and the article on Muslim persecution of Christians. Needless to say, Breivik never in his approximately 1500-page 'compendium' quotes Spencer as supporting his (Breivik's) 'revolutionary' views, values, methods, proposals, and objectives.

More broadly, the mass killings in Norway, with their echo of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by an antigovernment militant, have focused new attention around the world on the subculture of anti-Muslim [sic] bloggers and right-wing activists and renewed a debate over the focus of counterterrorism efforts.

17,000+ Islamic jihad terror attacks since 9/11. Two non-Muslim terrorists: Tim McVeigh and, sixteen years later, Anders Breivik. And Scott Shane suggests that the "focus of counterterrorism efforts" should be shifted from Islamic jihadists to "the subculture of anti-Muslim bloggers and right-wing activists."

In the United States, critics have asserted that the intense spotlight on the threat from Islamic militants has unfairly vilified Muslim Americans while dangerously playing down the threat of attacks from other domestic radicals. The author of a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism withdrawn by the department after criticism from conservatives repeated on Sunday his claim that the department had tilted too heavily toward the threat from Islamic militants.

The revelations about Mr. Breivik’s American influences exploded on the blogs over the weekend, putting Mr. Spencer and other self-described “counterjihad” activists on the defensive, as their critics suggested that their portrayal of Islam as a threat to the West indirectly fostered the crimes in Norway.

Yes, of course. There is no Islamic threat to the West. The Muslim Brothers “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” — Mohamed Akram, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,” May 22, 1991

And as for "indirectly" fostering mass murder, it is noteworthy that none of the quotes of me by this Norwegian psychopath contain any call to violence whatsoever, and Scott Shane can't come up with anything in that line, either. It is tough to make a consistent defense of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people out to be incitement and hate, and Shane and his Islamic supremacist allies can most effectively do so by quoting me as little as possible.

Mr. Spencer wrote on his Web site, jihadwatch.org, that “the blame game” had begun, “as if killing a lot of children aids the defense against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, or has anything remotely to do with anything we have ever advocated.” He did not mention Mr. Breivik’s voluminous quotations from his writings....

I have now. But in any case, the psychopath also praised Obama and plagiarized the Unabomber. Yet no one is holding the president or radical environmentalists responsible for the murders.

Marc Sageman, a former C.I.A. officer and a consultant on terrorism, said it would be unfair to attribute Mr. Breivik’s violence to the writers who helped shape his world view. But at the same time, he said the counterjihad writers do argue that the fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam “is the infrastructure from which Al Qaeda emerged. Well, they and their writings are the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged.”

Sageman says it would be unfair to blame me, and then he does it. This is the same kind of rigorous and insightful analysis that this "expert" displayed when he explained jihad activity as a result of boredom.

“This rhetoric,” he added, “is not cost-free.”

This kind of analysis can be turned every which way. If I am murdered after all this demonization of me, will Shane or Sageman or the SPLC or Michael Isikoff be responsible?

In this report I appear for about five seconds, denying responsibility for the psychopath's murders in Norway. These seconds were taken from an interview with NBC's Michael Isikoff that lasted ten or fifteen minutes. At one point Isikoff brought up the Southern Poverty Law Center, but when I began responding that the SPLC was a hard-Left propaganda outfit that defames everyone to its right, Isikoff cut me off and said he didn't want to make the segment about the SPLC. Now I know why: in the report as it aired yesterday, an SPLC shill immediately follows my appearance and does her best to frame me for the crime.

And here is more "journalism" from the Leftist tool Isikoff:

In this one, Isikoff claims that there has been a "surge" of "right wing attacks" in the last couple of years -- since Obama has been president (racism implication noted). This is sheer Leftist fantasy; meanwhile, Isikoff and NBC completely ignore the very real and readily documented surge in jihad plots in the U.S. over the last two years.

As Pamela Geller said yesterday, "Clearly the media is no longer taking a passive role, or even objective reporting. The media has become an activist voice for supremacists and the far left."

The pioneering historian Bat Ye'or is the latest victim of this irresponsible advocacy. She was misrepresented yesterday as expressing regret for inspiring the mad murderer in Norway, as if she were accepting the media's relentless claim that she had some responsibility for his murders. In fact, that was not the case. Here is her statement:

The immediate rush of the press upon authors mentioned in the writing attributed to the criminal looks like a set up campaign to make them responsible for this crime perpetrated by a psychopath whom no one knew except the police. It is clear that it is a libelous campaign to suppress any criticism and free thinking.

This sudden smear campaign and accusations against authors who live in different countries miles away from Norway, authors that governments want to silence, is very suspicious. Now more things are known: the text of the man could be a fabrication put together at the last minute; the police knew the criminal, yet he could buy all this ammunition and do this massive massacre by himself. And now, authors, writers and politicians disliked by the Norwegian Leftist government are accused of having inspired, by their democratic criticism, this massive crime that the police should have prevented, because this is their duty to do so. Something smells in all that. Is this a new tactic to suppress free thinking and free culture? Universities? Books that displease the regime? Are we going back to dictatorial Nazi or communist regimes, burning books and fabricating proofs to label people?

I do not think that this international campaign against intellectuals will in any way benefit the Leftist Norwegian government, which itself sponsors hatred and violence against another people. It is this government that has to make some self-examination before spreading another media campaign of hate.

Bat Ye’or

This is the inaccurate report to which she is responding: "Author cited by Norway attacker expresses regret," from AP, July 25:

(AP) GENEVA — An author cited in the Norway massacre suspect's rambling, 1,500-word manifesto expressed regret Monday that her writing might have served to inspire his rampage.

Gisele Littman, who writes under the name Bat Ye'or, said that since her books are in the public domain she had no control over who quoted her.

"Of course I regret if this man took inspiration from what I wrote or from what other writers wrote," she told The Associated Press by telephone from her home in Switzerland. "As an insane person he should have been treated before, and I am greatly saddened for all the young innocents who tragically lost their lives, and for their families."...

Islam Set to Become the Dominant Primer of Future Non-Muslim Extremist Violence?
by M. A. Khan

In recent decades, Muslims have obviously been the overwhelmingly dominant perpetrators of religiously-motivated extremist violence, targeting non-Muslims and their allies within the Muslim community, as well as Muslim sects which they consider deviant from orthodox Islam. But over the last couple of decades, extremist violence by non-Muslims, targeting people of differing faiths, has been becoming increasingly frequent. And disturbingly, an Islamic connection is becoming a common motivator of these non-Muslim extremist violence: Non-Muslims commit those violence due to instigation by Muslims or as retaliation to preceding violence by Muslims.

In the West, the last time a non-Muslim extremist committed a major terrorist massacre was the Oklahoma City Bombing by Timothy McVeigh (professed to be an atheist of Christian heritage) on April 19, 1995 that killed 168 people and injured 450. McVeigh's motive was his anger at the Waco Siege at Texas (February 28 to April 19, 1993) by the FBI that left 76 people of the infamous David Koresh-led Davidian Sect dead.

And whenever extremist Muslim groups or individuals have committed similar terrorist atrocities in recent years, we have been reminded by Muslims and their apologists with reference to the McVeigh incident that people of all persuasions -- Islam, Christianity, Judaism, White Supremacism, Communism, and such -- can commit extremist violence. So, Islam should not associated with extremism and terrorism for the actions of its individual followers, just as violence by a Christian or Jewish extremist must not be attributed to their faiths.

Now, in the West, we have a new extremist massacre in Norway: Bombing and a horrendous shooting spree in Oslo, both apparently committed by Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian Nationalist extremist and a Christian, have left nearly 100 innocent people dead. This Oslo extremist violence incident will certainly add further fuel to the Islamic apologists' attempt to shield Islam from criticism for the atrocities radical Muslims commit in the name of their religion.

The purpose of this note is, however, to highlight how Islam is also becoming the dominant motivating or instigating factor behind the extremist violence committed by non-Muslims around the world.

The connection of Breivik's motivation to Islam is already crystal clear. His 1,500-page manifesto, entitled "2083: A European Declaration of Independence”, is all about Europe's "Islam problem" caused by unrestrained Muslim immigration and aided by the predominantly leftist political elite. About Islam's historical problems, Breivik writes (p. 39):

Since the creation of Islam in the 7th century and to up to this day, the Islamic Jihad has systematically killed more than 300 million non Muslims and tortured and enslaved more than 500 million individuals. Since 9/11 2001, more than 12 000 Jihadi terrorist attacks have occurred around the world which have led to the death of one or more non-Muslims [2] per attack. In other words; there are around 150 deadly Jihadi attacks per month around the world. This trend will continue as long as there are non-Muslim targets available and as long as Islam continues to exist.

He mentions of the Norway government's cowardly handling of the Muslim rage surrounding the publication of Prophet Muhammad's cartoons in Danish magazine (2006-2007). His major concern: Muslim immigration, actively promoted by present leftist governments, was bringing in chaos to Europe. When thousands of Muslim enclaves in Europe -- in Norway, Sweden, Britain, France, Netherlands, and other countries -- have already become "no-go zones" for the native Europeans, and more and more neighborhoods with growing Muslim populations are becoming inhospitable to the natives, who are often forced out of those areas through intimidation and even violence by Muslims, Breivik's concern is not at all groundless. And he sees solution to this Tsumani of Europe's "Islam problem" in the waging of a "Western European Resistance Movements (anti-Marxist/anti-Jihad movements)" -- a European Civil War -- by the so-called "patriotic European political activists" against Muslims and their leftist allies; and he predicts it will eventually be won by the Resistance Movement in 2083 with the annihilation of the Leftists/Marxists and deportation of Muslims. His terrorist actions on July 23, 2011, are declaration of that Civil War, in which he targeted youths of Norway's Leftist ruling party.

Apart from the Norway incident, India is another hotspot where we see extremist homicidal violence committed by non-Muslim Hindus that are also connected to Islam: Hindus commit those violence either upon instigation by Muslims or in retaliation to preceding violence by them. An example is the infamous 2002 Gujarat Violence, in which Hindus attacked Muslims and Muslims counter-attacked. The violence resulted in 790 Muslim and 254 Hindu deaths. What is often omitted from discussion about Gujarat riot is that Hindus committed it in retaliation to an earlier Muslim atrocity, in which they set fire on a train full of Hindu devotees, mostly women and children, burning 59 Hindus to death.

Over in Africa, Christians in Nigeria (and other countries) have suffered sustained horrendous violence at the hands of increasingly radicalized Muslims in recent years. And on a few occasions, Christians have hit back in retaliation, causing large-scale homicide of Muslims.

One must consider the fact that the Chinese and Indians (Hindus) are also immigrating to Europe in large numbers, but they are no concern to Breivik; his concern is exclusively directed at the Muslim immigrants. The reason is: the non-Muslim Chinese and Indian immigrants integrate in European societies, or, at least, live peacefully with their native neighbors. But Muslims not only refuse to integrate in the host societies, but also have become a major source of social scourge and violence: all sorts of criminal activities, terrorist attacks, as well as rapes and eviction of the natives.

And source of these problems is Islam, not the individuals. Britain is facing problems with Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan, but not with the equally-large Hindu immigrant community from the same region. The Hindu and Muslim immigrants from the subcontinent are the same as individuals; religion is the only difference between them.

As the burgeoning and increasingly radicalized and violent Muslim populations distress non-Muslims all over the world, including in non-Muslim-majority countries, extremist violence by non-Muslims, like the acts committed by Hindus in India, Christians in Nigerian and the Norwegian nationalist Breivik, are set to become increasingly frequent. A full-scale Civil War in Europe, as anticipated by Breivik, cannot be ruled out. Instead, it remains a real possibility and may spread to other parts of the world.

The indiscriminate and ruthless killing of innocent young people by Breivik to draw attention to Europe's "Islam problem," as well as those committed by the Hindus in India or Christians in Nigeria, are tragic and indefensible. But as the state of affairs stands now, the occurrence of such tragic incidents with increasing frequency in future also looks to be a definite possibility. It is in the hands of governments as well as of Muslims themselves to mitigate the problem. Muslim immigrants can learn from the Hindu or Chinese immigrants in their host countries, while the governments should pay serious attention to a real problem, instead of turning a blind eye to it, which they have done for way too long.

M. A. Khan is the author of Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery and the editor of islam-watch.org.

In Human Events this morning I discuss the Leftist and Islamic supremacist exploitation of the mass murders in Norway:

[...] And yet he is a mass murderer. Accordingly, the blame game has begun in earnest. The New York Times warned that “opposition to Muslim immigrants, globalization, the power of the European Union and the drive toward multiculturalism has proven a potent political force and, in a few cases, a spur to violence.” The leftist English blog Harry’s Place expressed the general line of the mainstream media when it intoned: “The more this paranoid ideology grows, the more the danger increases that there will be other Breiviks. It is time the people who have relentlessly promoted notions of ‘Islamisation’ and impending cultural doom take a long hard look at exactly what they are doing, and exactly where this is likely to go.” The implication is clear: If you resist the increasingly aggressive expansion of Islam in Europe, more children will be murdered.

The logic here is absurd, albeit oft-used on the Left. Just as the deranged Jared Loughner ’s shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was initially blamed on Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin , so now the Left is using Breivik to try to discredit and silence the entire anti-jihad movement, as if this psychopath’s murders prove that his political proclivities are lethal in themselves. This would be like saying that no one can question Western policies vis-à-vis the Islamic world, for to do so would make one responsible for the 17,000 deadly jihad attacks that Muslims have committed worldwide since 9/11. It would be like saying that the Beatles were responsible for the Charles Manson murders because he thought he heard exhortations to kill in their songs, or that Jodie Foster was responsible for the shooting of Ronald Reagan because in John Hinckley’s befogged mind he thought it would impress her.

The intent of this campaign is clear. The scholars, politicians and activists who have spoken out about the threat to human rights and constitutional principles that jihad and Islamization pose have never advocated any kind of violence or illegal activity. By tarring them with the murders of Anders Breivik, the enemies of freedom hope to quash all resistance to the advance of Islamic supremacism in the West. It is ironic that the Left is so energetically pursuing this campaign, given that as soon as they get the chance, the Islamic supremacists for whom Leftists are carrying water will extinguish the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, equality of rights for women, and numerous other rights and freedoms that enlightened multiculturalists take for granted now. But by then it will be too late, as they will have silenced the only people who were sounding a warning.

There is more.

I have long admired the work of Daniel Greenfield and am grateful for his thoughtful and well-reasoned defense at FrontPage this morning:

No tragedy goes long without exploitation, and the atrocities in Norway are no exception to that rule. The media is hard at work accusing researchers who monitor and warn about Islamic radicalism and terrorism of being responsible for the actions of an extremist and a terrorist.

Is silencing researchers who have put years of effort into exposing networks of radicals the right response to a terrorist attack? No reasonable person would think so. But that is exactly what media outlets like the New York Times and the Atlantic are trying to do.

Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic goes so far as to call a prominent researcher into Islamic terrorism, Robert Spencer, a jihadist. The Washington Post admits that Spencer and other researchers are not responsible for the shootings, but sneers nonetheless. And the New York Times and a number of other outlets have picked and touted the “64 times” that Spencer was quoted in the shooter’s manifesto.

Breivik’s manifesto of over 1,500 pages pasted in countless articles, essays and documents. It takes in everything from historical overviews to his gaming habits — particularly one game, Dragon Age, which features a Knights Templar character — a role that Breivik tried to take on. No one is suggesting that the game’s publishers should be held accountable for Breivik’s decision to impersonate a modern-day Templar Knight, and neither should any of the researchers he quoted while studying up on that role.

The “64 times” cited by the Times and its imitators reflects lazy research since the majority of those quotes actually come from a single document, where Spencer is quoted side by side with Tony Blair and Condoleezza Rice.

Many of the other Spencer quotes are actually secondhand from essays written by Fjordman that also incorporate selections of quotes on Islam and its historical background. Rather than Breivik quoting Spencer, he is actually quoting Fjordman who is quoting Spencer.

Quite often, Robert Spencer is quoted providing historical background on Islam and quotes from the Koran and the Hadith. So, it’s actually Fjordman quoting Spencer quoting the Koran. If the media insists that Fjordman is an extremist and Spencer is an extremist — then isn’t the Koran also extremist?

And if the Koran isn’t extremist, then how could quoting it be extremist?

The New York Times would have you believe that secondhand quotes like these from Spencer turned Breivik into a raging madman.

It’s very important to understand that the Koran is not arranged chronologically; it’s arranged on the basis of the longest chapter to the shortest.

Breivik was using sources to build a picture of Islam. And it’s unsurprising that he would have cited one of the most prominent authorities on the topic. But it is often clear that he did not understand what he was citing.

For example, Breivik incorporated some of Spencer’s attempts to demystify the history of the Crusades, without understanding Spencer’s initial warning about the danger of false ideas about the Crusades being used to spread violence today.

As Robert Spencer commented, “What exactly is ‘hate speech’ about quoting Qur’an verses and then showing Muslim preachers using those verses to exhort people to commit acts of violence, as well as violent acts committed by Muslims inspired by those verses and others?”

Tellingly, this citation is absent from the New York Times piece and other articles. While Spencer and other researchers have painstakingly shown the connection between incitement to violence and violence — no similar effort has been made by those attacking him.

The complete absence of quotes in which Robert Spencer calls for anyone to commit acts of terrorism reveals just how empty the media’s case against him is. Instead, the New York Times props up its argument by citing the infamous “64 quotes,” many of them from the same document, others quoted secondhand and none of them calling for violence against Muslims.

And even this is irrelevant because Breivik did not carry out violence against Muslims. Instead, like the Columbine shooters, his main target was a facility with children.

If Breivik was motivated by Islamophobia, then why did he not attempt to kill Muslims? Why did he not open fire inside a mosque?

Breivik was driven by fantasies of seizing power, combined with steroid abuse and escapism. He used quotes from researchers into terrorism to pad out his schizophrenic worldview, combined with fantasies of multiple terrorist cells and an eventual rise to power.

This is not so different from lunatics who picked up a copy of “Catcher in the Rye” and then set off to kill a celebrity. A not uncommon event, for which J.D. Salinger bears no responsibility whatsoever.

Not only did Breivik not target Muslims, but he considered collaborating with Muslim terrorists.

“An alliance with the Jihadists might prove beneficial to both parties,” Breivik wrote. “We both share one common goal.”...

There is more.

Statement of Geert Wilders concerning the massacre in Norway

The brutal murder of dozens of innocent Norwegian civilians several days ago, has shocked the Freedom Party (Dutch PVV). We mourn and stand by the Norwegian people who suffer from a massive blow.

The manifesto of the perpetrator makes clear that this is a madman. He wants to work with Al Qaeda (which he cherishes great admiration for), crave the bombing of cities, dreams of knights themselves surgically mutilate and wants to meet his hero Karadzic.

Breivik also refers to the Netherlands. That the fight against Islam by a psychopath violently abused is disgusting and a slap in the face of the global anti-Islamic movement. It fills me with disgust that the perpetrator to the PVV and me refers in his manifesto.

PVV nor I are responsible for a lone idiot who twisted the freedom-loving anti-Islamization ideals violently abused, no matter how much some people would like that. We are democrats at heart. The Freedom Party has never, ever called for violence and will never do. We believe in the power of the ballot box and the wisdom of the voter. Not bombs and guns.

We fight for a democratic and nonviolent means against the further Islamisation of society and will continue to do so. The preservation of our freedom and security is our only goal.

Geert Wilders

If Somalia is starving, al-Shabaab's opposition within the country is also starving or fleeing. That certainly appears to be a factor in their calculations, as they have dismissed the declaration of famine as "sheer propaganda."

The article below focuses on the supply of aid. There is also the question of distribution. Al-Shabaab is undoubtedly attempting to blackmail aid agencies into allowing them a major (if not exclusive) role in distribution, giving the group the first choice of what they want from desperately needed food resources.

What is curiously lacking is much outrage in the Muslim world at this deliberate and needless loss of life among their brethren, as well as large-scale offers of aid that al-Shabaab would not dismiss as being from "Christian" organizations. After all, Saudi Arabia could certainly afford it. "UN urges 'massive' action on famine," from the Australian Associated Press, July 25:

The United Nations urged a "massive" effort to save millions of people in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, as France said donor countries would meet in Nairobi this week to step up aid pledges.

"The catastrophic situation demands massive and urgent international aid," Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said at the start of emergency talks on the crisis his agency is hosting in Rome today.

"It is imperative to stop the famine," said Diouf, after the United Nations declared a famine in two insurgent-held areas of southern Somalia.

And the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) announced at the talks that it would begin an airlift of food aid into the Somali capital Mogadishu on Tuesday.

An estimated 3.7 million people in Somalia - around a third of the population - are on the brink of starvation and millions more in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have been struck by the worst drought in the region in 60 years.

Al-Shabaab is preventing aid from reaching up to 2.2 million Somalis.

After all, the playbook they have been following has so far bought them all the time and cover they have needed to continue working. "AP Exclusive: Iran prez said pushing for nukes," by George Jahn for the Associated Press, July 22 (thanks to JCB):

VIENNA (AP) — Iran's president wants to shed the nation's secrecy and forge ahead openly with developing nuclear weapons but is opposed by the clerical leadership, which is worried about international reaction to such a move, says an intelligence assessment shared with The Associated Press.

That view, from a nation with traditionally reliable intelligence from the region, cannot be confirmed and contrasts with assessments by other countries that view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as relatively moderate on the nuclear issue compared to the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Attempts to interpret Iran's goals are important because as it expands uranium enrichment, it is moving closer to being able to make a nuclear weapon by the day, even as it asserts that it is not interested in such arms and its programs are geared only to making reactor fuel.

A U.S. official cited one assessment he has seen suggesting Ahmadinejad may be more "moderate" — more open to talks with the international community on resolving nuclear concerns than Khamenei. He asked for anonymity because his information was privileged.

But a blunt comment by Ahmadinejad last month raises questions. While repeating that Iran does not want nuclear arms, he openly reinforced its ability to make them, telling Iranian state TV that "if we want to make a bomb, we are not afraid of anybody."

That defiant statement fits the scenario laid down by the intelligence assessment shared with the AP, depicting Ahmadinejad as wanting to move publicly to develop a nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad is pushing "to shake free of the restraints Iran has imposed upon itself, and openly push forward to create a nuclear bomb," says the assessment. But Khamenei, whose word is final on nuclear and other issues, "wants to progress using secret channels, due to concern about a severe response from the West," says the report.

Officials at the Iranian president's office were not available for comment Friday....

See the previous entry below for a detailed discussion of how chapter and verse help explain why the problem is so widespread in Turkey as well as Gaza. If only Turkey's current establishment were so fixated on women's rights in these areas as in securing their rights to wear the veil. "Marchers demand better protection for women in Turkey," by Jeremiah Bailey-Hoover for CNN, July 24:

Istanbul (CNN) -- Hundreds of people in Istanbul called on Sunday for the Turkish government to be more proactive about protecting women from domestic abuse.

People in the crowd carried mock coffins and wedding dresses as they marched down one of the busiest pedestrian thoroughfares in Istanbul. Protestors also carried signs bearing the names and faces of murdered women.

Demonstrators urged the Turkish government to be more accountable for violence against women.

"We struggle with the government's laws because the government is the first responsible for the women's murders, because they don't protect," said Funda Koc, a 28-year-old teacher and activist.

"We want the government to make strict laws" against harming women, she said.

The organizers of the protest, the Platform to End Women's Murders, say women are murdered every day in Turkey.

According to a 2009 report released by the Turkish government, 42% of women surveyed said they had been physically or sexually abused by their husband or partner.

Turkey has adopted several progressive laws to protect women in the past 15 years, including the 1998 Protection Order against Domestic Violence. Reform of Turkey's Civil Code in 2001 gave women equal legal status to men in the family.

A constitutional referendum last September allowed for affirmative action in favor of women. But critics say the Turkish state has lapsed far behind in implementing these laws.

"Gaps in the law and implementation failures by police, prosecutors, judges, and other officials make the protection system unpredictable at best, and at times downright dangerous," Human Rights Watch said in a recently released report titled, "He Loves You, He Beats You."

This article includes the disclaimer: "like every society [Gaza] is not immune to wife-beating."

But there's something it has that others don't: chapter and verse in the Qur'an instructing men to beat women from whom they "fear disobedience":

"Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great" (4:34).

And yes, it really does say to strike them. Attempts at moral equivalence with the West are disingenuous; no comparable text exists in Christianity. Imagine how dismally different the West would be if, say, St. Paul had added, "and slap her if she gets out of line" in Colossians 3:19. He didn't.

But the Qur'an did permit a man to strike his wife in Qur'an 4:34, and the fruits of that permission appeared quite early. Muhammad's wife Aisha noted: "I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women. Look! Her skin is greener than her clothes!" (Sahih Bukhari 7.72.715).

Similarly, Islamic tradition does not leave much room for the wife to refuse sex:

"If a husband calls his wife to his bed [i.e. to have sexual relation] and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning" (Sahih Bukhari 4.54.460)."

Just this past year, a woman hospitalized in Pakistan with severe injuries from marital rape said her family told her that was why she could not refuse her husband. And there is more, from Muhammad himself:

"By him in Whose Hand lies my life, a woman can not carry out the right of her Lord, till she carries out the right of her husband. And if he asks her to surrender herself [to him for sexual intercourse] she should not refuse him even if she is on a camel's saddle" (Ibn Majah 1854).

A shelter in Gaza -- let alone one guarded by Hamas -- is undoubtedly but the tip of the iceberg, as activists below suggest as well. But not to worry: this report also assures us that Hamas "enforces a conservative though not radical Muslim religious code."

"Wife battering in Gaza spotlight," from Reuters, July 25 (thanks to Twostellas):

Most safe-houses in the Gaza Strip are meant to provide protection for armed militants on Israel's target list. Now Gaza is offering protected shelter to battered Palestinian women.

Its lone women's safe-house, opened two months ago, has had eight clients, all guarded by police from the Islamist Hamas movement that runs the enclave and enforces a conservative though not radical Muslim religious code.

So-called 'honour killings' are rare but not unknown among religious Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, and like every society it is not immune to wife-beating.

"In 2010 there was no record of killing under the motive of family honor and this is a positive development," said Huda Naeem, a Hamas lawmaker who backed the safe house as a way station for women at risk within their own families.

But feminism in Gaza is a very fragile plant.

Women in many Arab communities can be killed by zealous relatives on the slightest suspicion of having relations with a strange man. And jurists in Gaza say there is no clear clause in the Palestinian law setting out the penalty for such murders.

Islam also prohibits adultery and some Islamic teachings call for the stoning to death of offenders.

Sobheya Joma, a woman lawyer at the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), said there was no way to know for sure if honor killings were really eradicated.

"The ICHR is worried because it has recently noticed that some deaths were listed as unexplained or accidental," Joma told Reuters in her Gaza city office.

"As long as there is no investigation into these cases and the real causes were not uncovered, you are still going to have doubts," she said.

For Palestinian women, talking openly about sexual abuse in the family is still taboo. But if it's accompanied by violence, some women can finally opt for the shelter of the safe house.

Of the eight cases of abused women now under the roof of the compound, some were minors. Other women have visited briefly and discreetly, seeking professional advice and support.

"The first case who came to us was a woman who had been subject to physical violence and was raped and then escaped from her home," said resident psychiatrist Suhad Qanita.

"We supported her psychologically ... and, thank God, eventually we were able to find her a husband."

But there's nothing you can't try to pin on Israel:

Local human rights groups say it is the first such refuge in this Mediterranean coastal enclave. At one stage, women under risk were transferred to the other Palestinian Territory - the West Bank - where they could be kept safe from angry relatives.

But it is now virtually impossible for Gazans to get to the West Bank because of an Israeli blockade, which is vigorously imposed following repeated Hamas attacks on the Jewish state. [...]

Qanita said she had been shocked at her new job when she came face to face with problems that were always hidden before.

"I hope this is not a widespread phenomenon, but to some extent it is worrying," she said. "There are girls who are being assaulted with impunity."

"We also try to educate families, and if a problem cannot be solved within the nuclear family we try to find an uncle or a relative ready to shelter the victim, but not in cases where a woman might be killed if returned to the family," Qanita said....

A small boat, but with serious cargo, including "assault rifles, ammunition and other weapons." As noted below, this sort of thing has a funny way of happening from time to time, though not all are as large, famous, or embarrassing as the Karine A. "Israel 'intercepts weapons boat' in Dead Sea," from BBC News, July 25:

Israeli authorities say they have seized a boat carrying arms in the Dead Sea and are questioning two Palestinians who were on the vessel.

The boat was carrying assault rifles, ammunition and other weapons, according to an Israeli military statement.

AFP news agency quoted the military as saying the weapons were being transported from Jordan to the Palestinian territories.

In March, Israel intercepted a ship it said was taking arms to the Gaza Strip.

It said that ship, which was seized in international waters, was carrying weapons meant for militant groups that were to be delivered via Egypt.

The Israeli military described the boat that was reported to have been seized on Monday as a dinghy.

In 2006, Israel detained an Israeli and a Jordanian accused of using an inflatable boat to smuggle guns and drugs from Jordan to Israel.

We are all endlessly told that Islamic teachings do not contain any actual incitement to violence (just ignore all those "slay them wherever you find them" passages: 2:191, 4:89, 9:5), and so we know that somehow Abdulhakim Muhammad drastically misunderstood his new religion after he converted to it. But how? Why? What can we do to keep it from happening again? Such questions themselves are Islamophobic. "Man pleads guilty to recruiting center killing, gets life," from CNN, July 25:

(CNN) -- A man accused of shooting two soldiers at a military recruiting center in 2009 pleaded guilty Monday to the crime and received a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Abdulhakim Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, was charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. The attack happened June 1, 2009, outside a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Muhammad faced 12 charges in total -- capital murder, attempted capital murder and 10 counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle -- according to Stephanie Harris, a spokeswoman with the state court system....

A Muslim convert from Memphis, Tennessee, Muhammad was 23 at the time of the fatal shooting. He was angry at the U.S. military because of "what they had done to Muslims in the past," Little Rock homicide Detective Tommy Hudson has said.

I still intend to examine the New York Times hit piece in some depth, but have been swamped with media requests today: I've done interviews with the BBC, NBC Nightly News (watch tonight), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (will air tonight or tomorrow night), and a host of radio shows. The major media outlets, of course, are anxious to pour the blood of Anders Breivik's victims on my hands -- that that psychopath plagiarized the Unabomber and praised Barack Obama does not make them similarly avid to blame radical environmentalists or the President of the United States. In any case, I will get to the Times piece and others, but in the meantime, my colleague Pamela Geller strikes back hard here: "Pamela Geller strikes back at NY Times for tying her to Oslo shooter," by Matthew Boyle in The Daily Caller, July 25:

Conservative blogger and anti-jihadist Pamela Geller told The Daily Caller it’s “outrageous” that she’s been “assign[ed] blame” for Oslo shooter Anders Behring Breivik’s actions.

“It’s like equating Charles Manson, who heard in the lyrics of Helter Skelter a calling for the Manson murders,” Geller said in an exclusive phone interview. “It’s like blaming the Beatles. It’s patently ridiculous.”...

In the manifesto, Breivik cites Geller and other anti-Jihadists as sources for his inspiration. The appearance earned Geller and company a lashing at the hands of The New York Times and many other mainstream media outlets. Reporters have scoured Breivik’s writings, in his manifesto and elsewhere, looking for a connection to anti-jihad activists like Geller.

Geller points out that while she and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer appear in Breivik’s manifesto, so do several influential historical thinkers. For instance, the New Yorker reports that Breivik cites Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Adam Smith. “Are they responsible too?” Geller asks.

Some bloggers also allege that one of Geller’s contributors, a writer named “Fjordman,” is really Breivik hiding behind a pseudonym. The Guardian has since disproved that accusation.

Geller also told TheDC that those allegations are not true. Fjordman is not Breivik, she says. Geller adds that she has not met or communicated with Breivik at all. Not ever.

“No dealings, no emails, no nothing,” Geller said. “He mentions me once in a 1,500 page ‘manifesto,’ and this is the tie? Does anyone see how completely ridiculous this whole thing is?

“This is a propaganda campaign and, if anything, it shows the true agenda of the media. I find it very revealing. It has nothing to do with me. Nothing.”

Geller added that the media-wide decision to label Breivik a conservative Christian doesn’t make sense. “He himself said he’s not a religious man,” Geller said “There’s nothing in Christianity that calls for this.”

Geller also told TheDC that she’s never advocated in favor of anything violent. “Nowhere in anything that I’ve ever written do I ever in any way promote violence,” she said. “I’m a human rights activist. I fight for freedom.”...

Moving forward, Geller hopes other Americans recognize what she says she has observed in the mainstream media. “This to me is naked agenda bias,” Geller said. “Clearly the media is no longer taking a passive role, or even objective reporting. The media has become an activist voice for supremacists and the far left.”

You can say that again.

The phone has been ringing off the hook this morning, so I haven't had a chance yet to reply to this New York Times hit piece. But David Horowitz has just posted this at FrontPage:

The New York Times today has a wretched editorial masquerading as a news story on Robert Spencer and his alleged complicity in the Oslo massacres because his ideas are cited by the lunatic responsible. Joseph McCarthy could not have done it better. The Times next will blame Noam Chomsky for the crimes of Osama bin Laden and Al Gore for the crimes of the Unabomber since the ideas of both were cited by the lunatics. Chomsky is not only cited by the Islamic terrorists, he openly supports them — yet the Times would be the first to express shock and outrage at mere suggestion of Chomsky’s complicity in the crimes of al-Qaeda, Hizbollah and Hamas.

Robert Spencer has never supported a terrorist act. His crime in the eyes of the left is to have told the truth about Islamic fanatics beginning with the Islamic prophet who called for the extermination of the Jews and said in his farewell speech that he was called to fight until all men say that there is no God but allah. (see Bruce Thornton’s article today’s Frontpage).

The attack on Robert Spencer a man of great courage and decency is just one phase in the war against all those who speak out against Islamic terror and Islamic imperialism. The Times attack is but the latest and most repulsive salvo in this war.

Charles Manson thought he heard instructions to kill in the Beatles song "Helter Skelter," and committed mass murder. There were no instructions to kill in the song. In the video above, Bono says, "This song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back."

The Breivik murders are being used to discredit all resistance to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. But we're stealing it back.

This morning I received this email:

Dear Robert Spencer I am a staff writer at the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. You have probably heard about the tragic terrorist attack in Norway this Friday. Just before the attack took place, the perpetrator published a manifest he has called "A European Declaration of Independence". In the manifest he uses text from your work and also lists you as one of the leading intellectuals he has been inspired by.

Have you ever been in contact with Anders Behring Breivik?

What do you think about being listed as an inspiration for his work?

Best regards
Gunnar Thorenfeldt

I responded:

I have never been in contact with Anders Behring Breivik.

If I was indeed an inspiration for his work, I feel the way the Beatles must have felt when they learned that Charles Manson had committed murder after being inspired by messages he thought he heard in their song lyrics. There were no such messages. Nor is there, for any sane person, any inspiration for harming anyone in my work, which has been consistently dedicated to defending human rights for all people.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, renowned poet Reza Aslan graced us with another masterpiece. He wrote this to me on Twitter:

According to logic used by Robert Spencer and @jihadwatchRS to blame muslims for all terror he is personally responsibility for #Oslo

Yes, it's incoherent, but give the man a break: he's a poet. Here, try it this way:

According to
logic
used by Robert Spencer
and @jihadwatchRS
to blame muslims for
all terror
he is personally
responsibility
for #Oslo

Genius!

In any case, seriously, I know what he means. But he is wrong, of course. The difference is this: Islamic texts and teachings, and frequently imams, directly exhort their followers to commit acts of violence. I do not. Nor does anyone else in the counterjihad. There is nothing Breivik could conceivably have read here as a justification for killing anyone. There is plenty in the Qur'an and Sunnah that jihadists can and do use as justification for murder.

It is no accident or coincidence that Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. 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.

In this case it was not a daughter but a sister who was the victim. Syria in 2009 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.'" 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."

Nonetheless, the media drumbeat is constant: honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And as long as that continues, we will see more and more murders like this one.

"Jordanian man charged over honour killing," from AAP, July 25 (thanks to George):

A JORDANIAN man has been charged with killing his 35-year-old sister when she was released from detention over allegedly having sex outside marriage, a judicial official said today.

"The suspect, in his 40s, was charged on Sunday with premeditated murder after fatally shooting his sister five times in Zarqa," northeast of Amman, the official told AFP.

"She had been in administrative detention since February over a fornication case. Apparently she had (sexual) relations with a man who took advantage of her and pretended he wanted to marry her."

Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but in so-called "honour killings" courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim's family asks for leniency.

Between 15 and 20 women are murdered in such killings each year in the Arab kingdom, despite government efforts to curb such crimes.

Separately, the official said a 35-year-old man was charged with premeditated murder for slitting the throat of his wife's alleged lover, 26, before cutting off his penis in central Amman on Saturday.

"He handed himself in to police on the same day of the murder and confessed, giving them a bag that had the other man's penis. He was charged with premeditated murder," said the official.

Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Anders Gravers, Stephen Gash and everyone in SIOA and SIOE are profoundly grieved by the murders in Norway. There is nothing more painful for a parent than to lose a child, and to do so in such a way is a horror beyond measure that no words can mitigate. We stand in sympathy with the victims’ families and all the people of Norway.

His crimes are a vivid manifestation of everything we stand against as individuals and in our organizations. This calculating and vicious mass murderer’s reported motivation in political fanaticism makes the evil he has done all the more heinous. We stand and have always stood against the evil of using violence for political and religious goals, and against all political and religious fanaticism. We stand and have always stood against the use of violence to advance any political agenda.

This disgusting neo-Nazi, whom we excluded from SIOE because of his Nazi ties, epitomizes the disrespect for life and the contempt for humane values that terrorism embodies, and that we have dedicated our lives to resisting. Whether the challenge to human rights and to the dignity of the human person comes from neo-Nazis or Islamic supremacists, we are determined to continue to resist it, and to do everything in our power to defend the principles of freedom upon which the best of human civilization has always been based.

In this great defense of human rights, we stand with the free people of Norway, and of free people everywhere in the world where the human spirit is struggling against oppression and injustice.

On July 9, 20,000 Malaysians gathered in Kuala Lumpur to demand more transparency in electoral laws in connection with next year's national elections.

Police unleashed tear gas and chemical-laced water on the demonstrators and temporarily detained nearly 1,700 of them. According to reports, authorities also detained six opposition activists without trial and accused them of trying to use the rally to spread communism. Police said they found T-shirts and other materials linked to communist figures.

Apparently, these measures didn't suffice for some of Malaysia's nervous ruling elite. The editors of Utusan Malaysia, owned by Prime Minister Najib Razak's United Malays National Organization ruling party (UMNO), defaulted to a time-tested maneuver: When in doubt, blame the Jews!

The Jews? Most citizens of the overwhelmingly Asian economic giant have never and will likely never meet a Jew in their lifetime. And yet the folks at Utusan Malaysia, which is influential among Muslims in rural areas who rely on government-linked media to shape their worldview, are apparently confident warnings about a "Jewish plot" would resonate in a land without Jews.

To understand why, you need only look at the track record of the man who dominated his nation for a quarter of a century, Malaysia's fourth prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir was credited with engineering Malaysia's rapid modernization and spectacular economic growth. He was a dominant political figure, winning five consecutive general elections. He also used his political clout and controversial laws to detain activists and political opponents.

And Mahathir is an anti-Semite.

Back in 1970, in his treatise on Malay identity, "The Malay Dilemma," he wrote: "The Jews are not only hooked-nosed ... but understand money instinctively. ... Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them the economic control of Europe and provoked antisemitism which waxed and waned throughout Europe through the ages."

In August 1984, a visit by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was canceled when his Information Minister demanded that music by composer Ernst Bloch be deleted from the program. His crime? He was a Jew and the selection chosen was based on Hebrew melodies.

In 1986, Mahathir charged "Zionists" and Jews with attempting to destabilize the country through allegedly Jewish-controlled media. He subsequently banned The Asia Wall Street Journal for three months describing the publication as "Jewish owned." In the 1990s, Mahathir used the Malaysian news agency, Bernama, to accuse Australian Jewry of conspiring to topple him.

Mahathir, who made Islam a central component of Malaysian identity, made this chilling charge in 1997: "We are Moslems, and the Jews are not happy to see Moslems progress."

Perhaps that would help explain the resounding ovation which greeted his screed at a Islamic Leadership Conference in 2003: "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million ... but today, the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

And just last year the elder statesman of anti-Semites said this at a conference: "Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had been confined in ghettos and periodically massacred. But they still remained and still thrived and held whole governments to ransom. ... Even after their massacre by the Nazis in Germany, they survived to be a source of even greater problems to the world."

All this may help explain why Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" are on prominent display at the Malaysian capital's International Airport.

A sternly worded letter? No, they say they "would rather go to war" than give up their campaign for Sharia finance. "Muslim group says no going back on Islamic Banking," by Tony Akowe for The Nation, July 24:

A Muslim group in the North yesterday threatened to defend the implementation of the Islamic Banking system with the last drop of their blood. It warned the Christian community opposed to it to back off or face the full wrath of their anger. The Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria told reporters at the end of its meeting in Kaduna last night that it would rather go to war than give up their agitation for Islamic banking. It said since Islamic banking has been implemented in Britain and other Christian-dominated countries, there is no reason why it cannot be implemented in Nigeria.

President of the group, Dr. Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, who read the communiqué, warned Christians to drop their opposition to the interest-free Islamic banks in Nigeria.

Datti said: “We are very happy that with a lot of efforts Jaiz Bank has now become a reality. The company owning Jaiz has assured us that the bank is coming in September and they have assured us that they will be starting with three branches, namely Abuja, Kaduna and Kano. And they will continue to open the branches rapidly thereafter.

“I want to assure them that nothing can stop the Jaiz bank from coming into been because it’s being brought in according to the laws of Nigeria. There is nothing illegal about it. If they have a Christian bank that they want to establish, they have the freedom to bring it to the Central bank and if they can prove their case, a Christian bank will be opened.

Disingenuous. They know there is no comparable system to Sharia in Christianity in scope or political supremacist motive, let alone the imperative to implement such a system through violence if necessary.

Arabia Felix: not so felix these days. "Deadly car bomb blast strikes Yemeni army checkpoint," from Reuters, July 24:

REUTERS - A booby-trapped car drove into an army checkpoint outside of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden and exploded in an apparent suicide attack that killed at least six people and injured 15 on Sunday, police and medical sources said.

The army has strengthened security around the coastal city to try to stop Islamist militants from slipping into the area after they seized several areas in the neighbouring province of Abyan during months of protests to try to oust the president.

Aden lies east of a shipping strait, where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

“The initial evidence we’ve gathered suggests it was a suicide bomb attack,” a local police source told Reuters.

The blast comes days after a car rigged with explosives blew up and killed a British ship surveyor in Aden, which officials said was a targeted attack against the long-time resident.

Witnesses to the checkpoint attack on Sunday said they saw a car speed into a street cordoned off by armoured vehicles, setting at least two armoured vehicles ablaze.

“The car crashed into a military armoured vehicle, which exploded and caught fire. The soldiers started firing heavily,” a witness said.

Security forces sealed off the al-Harba area of Aden and witnesses said they could still hear heavy gunfire.

Aden sits to the west of the flashpoint province of Abyan, which has descended into daily bloodshed since militants seized at least two cities and a makeshift military base, forcing some 54,000 residents to flee to Aden for refuge.

The army has staged a fierce offensive against the militants, who they say are linked to al Qaeda, but has yet to regain control of those areas.

Reinforcements finally arrived, but only after situation became so dire that a colonel accused the government of deliberately allowing losses to "prove" the country needs Saleh.

To review: the flotilla participants were armed, and filmed participating in the genocidal chant, "Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return." They were spoiling for a fight, and attacked the Israelis, beating them with poles and chairs. Nevertheless, Turkey's demands to enshrine the narrative of victim-hood as fact are an integral part of its proposal for normalized relations with Israel.

Islamic supremacists who are not in a position to demand material tribute have shown a pattern of seeking tribute in the form of demanding apologies. "Israeli ministers mull apology to Turkey over Gaza flotilla," from Haaretz, July 24 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

A forum of the senior-most Israeli eight ministers will meet today in Jerusalem to decide whether to accept the draft of an agreement for ending the diplomatic crisis with Turkey.

As part of the proposed deal, Israel will apologize for operational failures that led to the deaths of nine Turkish citizens during the stopping of a Gaza-bound flotilla in May 2010.

Ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Moshe Ya'alon are opposed to the apology, while their colleagues Ehud Barak and Dan Meridor support it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will risk a coalition crisis with Yisrael Beiteinu if he favors the apology.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated over the weekend his position that, in order for relations between Israel and Turkey to thaw, Israel will have to apologize, pay compensation to the families of the casualties and lift the siege on the Gaza Strip.

The Turkish leader hinted yesterday that if the efforts at reconciliation with Israel fail, he will visit the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

"Turkey is not interested in stirring tension by my visit to Gaza," he said, during a press conference with the Jordanian prime minister, Marouf Bakhit. "It will be wrong to ask for an apology and at the same time visit Gaza. There are those in the Israeli government who support an apology and there are those who are opposed. I will wait for their decision and then I will carry out plan B [to visit Gaza]."...

But as always, the problem of jihadist violence is not the invention of and is not limited to al-Qaeda: "both Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim groups carry out killings, bombings and attacks that happen almost daily."

"Iraqi forces arrest 16 suspected al Qaeda members," by Muhanad Mohammed for Reuters, July 24:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces have arrested 16 suspected al Qaeda members accused of being behind more than 100 killings in the capital, a senior security official said Sunday.

General Ahmed Abu Ragheef, the Interior Ministry's head of internal affairs, accused the men of carrying out the high-profile assassination in May of Ali al-Lami, a senior Iraqi politician who helped purge members of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party from politics after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Militants have stepped up attacks, specifically targeting police and army officers, to try to destabilise the government as U.S. troops prepare to leave by the end of December, more than eight years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

"We managed to arrest the terrorist group that was responsible for the recent assassinations in Baghdad," Ragheef told reporters at a news conference.

Ragheef said the entire operation to arrest the 16 men, including the cell's leader, had taken security forces 20 days.

He said security forces had also uncovered the cell's main weapons cache and a factory in southern Baghdad where silenced guns and sticky bombs were being manufactured.

The cell was also responsible for a failed May 8 jailbreak attempt at an Interior Ministry counter-terrorism unit jail complex in Baghdad in which 18 people, including an al Qaeda leader and a senior Iraqi counter-terrorism official, were killed in a battle between inmates and security officers.

Violence has dropped sharply since the height of Iraq's sectarian conflict in 2006-2007 but both Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim groups carry out killings, bombings and attacks that happen almost daily.

Local Sunni Islamist al Qaeda affiliates are still blamed for much of the violence in Iraq.

Particularly in an attack of such magnitude, the suspicion of involvement by al-Qaeda or a similar group was eminently reasonable: the majority of the terrorist attacks and counter-terror arrests in Europe in recent years have involved jihadist operations. The bomb was comparable not only to the Oklahoma City bomb, but also to those used in embassy bombings in Tanzania and Nairobi. The use of multiple attacks and a focus on symbolic targets are an al-Qaeda trademark, and deceit through the impersonation of military personnel or law enforcement has been a standard operating procedure particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, a jihadist group did briefly claim credit, and that was newsworthy to report. When that fell through, it was also promptly reported.

But there is one other noteworthy angle to the period in which the attack was plausibly speculated to be the work of jihadists: When people thought it was Muslims, the rationalization mill went into overdrive. Comments sections on news reports were riddled with pleas and demands to consider "underlying causes," such as Norway's involvement in campaigns in Afghanistan and Libya that have resulted in the loss of Muslim lives. The implication was that Norway had done it to itself for its treatment of Muslims, and for allying itself with America.

By contrast, no one on whose behalf the bastard Breivik claimed to act has engaged in a comparable defense of or deflection of the blame for his crimes. There was no victim-hood narrative to act as an obstacle to condemning him and his actions properly and unequivocally. "Arab world outraged by Norway attack allegations," by Roee Nahmias for YNet News, July 24:

Less than two days after the fact, everybody knows who carried out the shocking massacre that took place in Norway onFriday: Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian driven by extremist right-wing ideology. But before Breivik's apprehension, the local and international media alluded to an extremist Islamists link for the double attack on Oslo and Utoya island – triggering the rage of many Arabs and Muslims worldwide.

The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat claimed Norway feared Islamist operatives much more than rightist extremists despite a significant growth of such groups in 2010. Another London-based international Arabic publication, Al-Hayat, added that the attacks were perpetrated by a Christian extremist who deplored Islam and Europe's cultural pluralism.

Meanwhile, a short time after news of the attack spread, many Arab and Muslim web surfers claimed that it was Israel who was responsible: "A criminal operation of this magnitude is not carried out without the support and planning of a terrorist state, which stakes out opportunities to shuffle the deck. It is the Zionist state, in collaboration with the extremist Zionist Christians, that wants to hurt Islam in its allie, Norway," a surfer named Omar Ali commented on Al Jazeera's website. "It's not al-Qaeda. The Zionists carried out the attack to punish Norway for supporting Gaza."

Mossad behind operation'

Another web user accused the Israeli secret service for the attack, and explained why: "Before Europe and the US rush to blame us for terrorism, know that the body behind this operation is none other than the Mossad. And why the Mossad? Because Norway recognized the Palestinian state two days ago, and what does it mean when a gas- and oil-rich nation like Norway supports the Palestinians? Israel would never allow it."

A third commentator said that it was clear to him that an intelligence agency, like the Mossad or the CIA – was behind the attack. Yet another surfer, from Jordan, accused the US, adding that "as usual, the American intelligence is pressing Norway to declare that Muslims carried out the bombing."

Another theory attributed the act of terror to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in light of his threats to retaliate against the NATO strikes. Others yet blamed the Syrian regime for trying to divert attention from what is going on in their country.

Shortly after the extent of the tragedy became known, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which counts 58 nations among its members, released a statement condemning the event, calling it a "terrorist attack."

The OIC and other Muslim groups were probably just as likely gearing up for damage control on the same suspicion of jihadist involvement before word emerged of a non-Muslim attacker, just as Muslims were strategizing online for a so-called "sh*t-storm" they anticipated in the media in the event that the Virginia Tech shooter had turned out to be Muslim.

He demonstrated a bit too much Islamic Tolerance toward Hindus, and wanted to reform Islamic education by adding in science and computer programming. Yet another installment of Why We Don't See More Muslim Reformers: "Muslim Seminary Chief in India Is Fired for Pro-Hindu Interview," by Hari Kumar in the New York Times, July 24:

NEW DELHI — India’s best-known Islamic seminary ousted its reformist leader on Sunday, less than seven months after he assumed the post, because he was quoted as speaking favorably of a Hindu nationalist suspected of fomenting deadly anti-Muslim riots.

The reformer, Mullah Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, was appointed in January to lead the seminary, Darul Uloom, in the city of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh State. He had become popular in part because of the success of his madrasas, or Islamic schools, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra that bridged traditional Islamic education with the needs of the modern world by teaching students secular subjects like science and computer programming. He had hoped to bring those innovations to Darul Uloom.

But the effort was almost immediately derailed when he was quoted in an Urdu newspaper as saying that Muslims in Gujarat State needed to move beyond the 2002 sectarian riots there, one of the worst eruptions of religious violence since colonial India was partitioned in 1947. Hindus rampaged through Muslim areas of Gujarat, leaving about 1,000 people dead and leading to reprisals in some areas.

English-language newspapers and television stations in India portrayed Mullah Vastanvi’s remarks as implicitly condoning the actions of Narendra Modi, the controversial leader of Gujarat’s government. Many Muslims blame Mr. Modi for the 2002 violence.

Mullah Vastanvi denied that he had been praising Mr. Modi. Even so, he was swiftly suspended from his seminary post. And on Sunday, 9 of the 14 members of the council that oversees the seminary voted to request his resignation. He refused, and was then dismissed by the council, which appointed one of its members, Mullah Abdul Qasim Nomani, as his replacement....

Some Muslims in Deoband said Mullah Vastanvi’s quoted remarks disqualified him from the job. “Anybody who supports Narendra Modi, lightly or heavily, is not acceptable to Muslims,” said Ashraf Usmani, a local journalist.

But Hindu political leaders said Mullah Vastanvi had been treated unfairly. Mr. Modi’s center-right Bharatiya Janata Party said that Mullah Vastanvi had been punished for speaking the truth about Gujarat’s economic success under Mr. Modi. Gujarat is one of India’s most prosperous and industrialized states, and is a favored destination for investors from India and abroad.

The new seminary leader, Mullah Nomani, hinted that he would not follow in Mullah Vastanvi’s reformist direction.

“I will continue with the traditions of Darul Uloom,” he said. “I take my inspiration from my predecessors and follow the traditional path.”

Pakistan should never again get another penny of American money. An update on this story. "Analysts see Pakistan terror links to Xinjiang attack," by Ananth Krishnan in The Hindu, July 21 (thanks to Mehreen):

Officials on Wednesday said this week's attack on a police station in China's far western Xinjiang region had been “masterminded” by terrorist groups, while security analysts here suggested separatist groups active in Pakistan had a role in the violence.

Officials raised the death toll from Monday's attack in Hotan, a city in southern Xinjiang, to 18. While police shot down 14 “rioters”, four others, including two women, were killed in the attack.

Hou Hanmin, the head of the regional information office in Hotan, told The Hindu in a telephone interview that the attackers were “organised”, and armed with knives and grenades.

The rioters had entered a nearby government office before attacking and setting fire to a police station. They had taken six hostages before the police shot 14 of the 18 reported attackers, according to official accounts.

“They held up a banner calling for ‘holy war',” said Ms. Hou. “The attack was brutal and ruthless. This was clearly an attack masterminded by terrorist groups.”...

No, really, fellas, no kidding

It's all because of ignorance, doncha know. "King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia tells young people that ‘True’ Islam is not terrorism," by Eman El-Shenawi for Al-Arabiya, July 24:

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has urged Islamic scholars to teach young people “true” Islamic principles and avoid extremism and fanaticism.

The king’s remarks were read out by Prince Khaled Al Faisal at an international Islamic conference in Saudi this week.

The king said that scholars should resolve problems facing the international Muslim community, such as the widespread association of Islam to terrorism, the Saudi Gazette reported.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia keeps a tab on the developments in the Muslim World, and pays special attention to the problems confronting the people,” the king said.

“Undoubtedly, terrorism was a product of ignorance of the Islamic principles which advocate moderation, flexibility and tolerance,” King Abdullah said....

And there's a lot of ignorance in Saudi Arabia:

"Wikileaks: Saudis 'chief funders of al-Qaeda,'" by Alex Spillius in the Telegraph, December 5, 2010:

Private individuals in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states friendly to the United States are the chief source of funding for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups, according to leaked US diplomatic cables. Despite extensive efforts to limit the distribution of funds to extremists from the Middle East, the documents show deep frustration in Washington with the level of co-operation from governments in the region.

"It has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority," read a cable from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, dated Dec 30, 2009.

"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," added the document.

The Saudis have recognised that they have trouble policing the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, when it is estimated that millions of dollars are raised for militants who send agents into the oil-rich kingdom under the cover of Muslim pilgrims.

The Saudi interior ministry co-operated when terrorist funding was brought to its attention, but remained "almost completely dependent on the CIA to provide analytic support and direction for its counterterrorism operations", said a cable from the US embassy in Riyadh. "As such, our success against terrorist financing in the kingdom remains directly tied to our ability to provide actionable intelligence to our Saudi counterparts."

There was no accusation of official Saudi government support of militants. The Clinton memo credited the Saudis with "significant progress" under US pressure to deal with the issue, especially disrupting al-Qaeda's finance channels.

However, it claimed that "Riyadh has taken only limited action" to interrupt the flow of money to Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and associated groups which have launched attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. It believed that private funds from Arab states were the Taliban's greatest source of income, above revenues from the opium-poppy trade....

If it doesn't exactly send a tingle up your leg, no worries: more seafaring jihad is in the offing. "We hope that we can widen our presence in international waters and high seas through further planning."

"Leader: Iran's Naval Presence in High Seas Beneficial to All Human Beings," from the Fars News Agency, July 24:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei lauded Iran's naval might and power, and stressed that presence of the Iranian Navy in the country's territorial waters and the high seas serves the interests of all the world people.

Addressing a large gathering of Iranian naval forces and their families in the country's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday night, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to Iran's growing naval presence in the far and high seas, and stated, "Such strategic presence in the high seas that is the result of the efforts and endeavors of the Army and the IRGC naval forces and their families is a service to humanity."

The Leader added that Iran's naval might also heralds a message of dignity for the other nations as it shows that the Iranian nation has been able to achieve his extent of ability and progress through reliance on God, although it has been facing a massive enemy front.

The Iranian Army Navy and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy have tight cooperation in controlling the country's waterways and protecting Iran's interests inside territorial waters and in the high seas.

Earlier in July, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that the country plans to boost deployment of Navy vessels and forces outside Iran's territorial waters.

"We hope that we can widen our presence in international waters and high seas through further planning," Sayyari said, addressing a conference dubbed 'the Strategic Navy Force' here in Tehran at the time....

The deployment of Iranian military submarine in the Red Sea was the first such operation by the country's navy in far-off waters....

Iran's naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces.

According to the report, Iran's Navy has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is effectively in control of the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.

"All we found [in the school] are weapons." An update on this story. "Principal in Islamic school in Bima arrested for terrorism," by Mathias Hariyadi for Asia News, July 23 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Indonesian police identified Abrory M. Ali, principal of an Islamic school (pesantren) in Bima, as a terrorist affiliated with Jamaah Ashorut Tauhid (JAT) and arrested him. He is suspected of involvement in a larger terror plot, police spokesman Brig Gen Untung Yoga Ana said. On 12 July, an explosion occurred in Umar bin Khattab School in Bima (West Nusa Tenggara Province) that left one person dead. Police said students were making bombs for an attack.

Together with Ali, police named other terrorist suspects: Rahmat Ibnu, 36, Rahmat Hidayat, 22, and Mustaqim Abdullah, 17. Two other men, Anas and Heri, are still at large.

During their manhunt, on Bima hills, police found 26 homemade bombs, most of them ready for use, perhaps against police stations in the province.

JAT’s spokesman Sonhadi denied any connection between Abrory M Ali and his organisation. “Ali left JAT more than a year ago because he no longer felt ‘in line’ with the struggle we pursue.”

However, Ansyad Mbaai, the chief of Indonesia’s most influential anti-terror agency (BNPT), said that Abrory M Ali was involved in a string of terror acts in Poso.

Meanwhile, Provincial Governor M Zainul Majdi said that Umar bin Khattab is not an Islamic school. “All we found [in the school] are weapons. The structure passes itself off as an Islamic school only to attract Muslim residents.”

Christian proselytizing is a capital offense under Islamic law. "Riyadh deports a pastor to Eritrea where he could get the death penalty," from Asia News, July 23 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Jeddah (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Eyob Mussie, a Christian refugee in Saudi Arabia, was told that he would be forcibly repatriated to Eritrea where he could be jailed and sentenced to death.

Mussie was arrested on 12 February in front of a mosque in Jeddah, the kingdom’s second largest city. He had gone there to talk to Muslims about Christianity. He was charged with proselytising, which in Saudi Arabia can entail the death penalty.

Saudi authorities initially viewed Eyob as a mental case. A medical test found instead that he was fit to stand trial. He was eventually moved to Briman Prison, a high security prison. However, instead of sentencing to death, the authorities decided to send him back to Eritrea.

In Eritrea, some 3,000 Christians are currently in prison without charges. Some have been held in isolation for years.

The probability that Eyob Mussie would receive the same treatment, including the possibility of the death penalty is very high....

The Taliban have tried and succeeded in using child suicide bombers. Some, they have begun training as young as the age of three. They have no qualms about killing children outright when they believe the jihad stands to gain. That is their only rule of engagement.

This is a group in which the West hopes to find reasonable negotiating partners on behalf of the other jihadists. It will be like looking for a needle in a minefield. "Taliban hang 8-year-old boy in southern Afghanistan," from BNO News, July 23 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

KABUL (BNO NEWS) — Suspected members of the Taliban on Friday hung the 8-year-old son of a local police commander in southern Afghanistan after ordering his father to surrender, according to a news report on Saturday.

The Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) news agency reported that the young boy was kidnapped by militants in the Greshk district of Helmand province on Tuesday. They had ordered his father to surrender to the Taliban or else the boy would be executed.

“The militants had warned his father, who is a local police commander, to surrender with his police vehicle and weapons, otherwise they would kill his son,” provincial governor spokesman Daud Ahmadi told DPA. The boy was hung on Friday.

While child executions by the Taliban are not common, children often fall victim to Taliban militants when they carry out attacks. But children have also been used by the Taliban as suicide bombers.

On May 1, four civilians were killed and 12 others were injured when a 12-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban however have denied that they use children to carry out their attacks.

To participate in society, one must be recognizable. To be recognizable, one must show one's face.

It is one thing to be unidentifiable in a society where one is always under the control of a male guardian and a perpetual minor, and therefore not a full participant in society. But the Carnita Matthews case in Australia demonstrated how the surreal masquerade ball of face veils in an open society becomes a vehicle for gaming the system. It becomes a means of selective participation in society at the whim of the wearer (or in other cases, those who make her wear it), and presumes a right to pick and choose her responsibilities in society. That is not equality under the law, either for men and women or Muslims and non-Muslims. "Belgian ban on full veils comes into force," from BBC News, July 23:

A law has come into force in Belgium banning women from wearing the full Islamic veil in public.

The country is the second European Union nation after France to enforce such a ban. Offenders face a fine of 137.5 euros (£121; $197) and up to seven days in jail.

Two women who wear full veils launched an immediate court challenge, saying the law is discriminatory.

France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim population, enforced its ban in April.

Belgium's law bans any clothing that obscures the identity of the wearer in places like parks and on the street.

It was passed almost unanimously by the lower house of parliament in April 2010.

MPs voted with only two abstentions to back the legislation on the grounds of security, to allow police to identify people.

Other MPs said that full face veils such as the burka or the niqab were a symbol of the oppression of women.

But critics of the law say it could end up excluding women, leaving those who do wear the full veil trapped in their homes.

And they say the measures are over the top - estimates suggest only a few dozen women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of about half a million.

What matters is that the practice has grown -- there used to be none. One could just as well find a situation some time from now where the argument would be they can't be banned because so many women wear them. For something that is wrong in principle, why would one have to try to wait until the number is "just right" -- and according to whom?

"We consider the law a disproportionate intrusion into fundamental rights such as the freedom of religion and expression," Ines Wouters, the lawyer representing the two women challenging the ban, told the newspaper La Libre.

She has taken their case to Belgium's constitutional court, where she will request a suspension of the law, AFP news agency reported.

According to al-Shabaab, there's no famine. And that's that. There are surely some macabre calculations on the part of the jihadists: fewer people to fight and control, and fewer people with the physical wherewithal even to complain. They will starve the country to starve out the resistance to their taking over. "Al-Shabab prevents aid from reaching 2.2M Somalis," by Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press, July 23:

DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — The World Food Program can't reach 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid in militant-controlled areas of Somalia, WFP's director said Saturday, meaning refugee camps in nearby Kenya and Ethiopia are likely to continue seeing thousands of new refugees each week.

The needs of those in Somalia's expanding famine zone are extraordinary, prompting parents to sweep up their small children and start a dangerous walk that can last days or weeks — one that many die on. Livestock have perished, and crops no longer grow after consecutive rains failed to fall in south-central Somalia.

The journey is so long and so perilous that few Somalis are eager to return to their war-torn homeland, a facet of the dual crisis of the Somalia conflict and Horn of Africa famine that has Kenyan officials — who are only reluctantly accepting more refugees — in a bind.

Josette Sheeran, the executive director of WFP, traveled to eastern Kenya on Saturday to visit the drought-stricken town of Garissa and the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Sheeran talked with refugees who just completed the perilous trek from Somalia, and asked if they would consider returning if conditions improve.

"I walked 25 days to get here. I have no money," a translator quoted a refugee as telling Sheeran. He said he had passed many others on the sandy route to Dadaab who dropped off the pace and never made it here. "He said he can't go back anytime soon."

So many people are in need in Somalia because the militant group al-Shabab won't let aid in. The group, in fact, denies a famine is taking place, disputing the U.N.'s view that tens of thousands of people have already died.

WFP can't operate without the militant's permission; 14 WFP employees have been killed there since 2008. Sheeran called Somalia "the riskiest environment we operate in the world today."

Al-Shabab signaled in early July that it would accept aid groups it had previously banned, but changed course on Thursday, saying groups like WFP are not welcome. The group's refusal to accept aid from Western and "Christian" aid groups means millions could starve — or be forced to begin the hike to help to Kenya, Ethiopia or Mogadishu, the Somali capital, which is also being overwhelmed with refugees....

That Islamic supremacist impulse is at the heart of the dispute over Malay-speaking Christians' use of the Arabic loanword "Allah" for "God." Qur'an 29:46 says "Our Allah and your Allah is One, and unto Him we surrender," but it is a talking point for Islamic proselytizing, and a one-way line of discourse in a manner in which a non-Muslim would be prohibited from preaching to a Muslim under Islamic law.

Thus, the attempt to deprive Malay Christians of the use of the name they have always used for "God" is both an attempt to subjugate them, reaching even into how they pray, and a public invalidation of the Christian religion in Malaysian society.

The allegation of a "mis-translation" is not new, but a 400-year-old Malay-Latin dictionary shows that Christians' use of the word "Allah" is far older than the latest round of supremacist posturing against it.

"Malaysia: Christians can not use "Allah" to define God," from AsiaNews, July 22:

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The use of "Allah" for God by Christians must stop because it may cause Islamic anger: this is the position of a prominent Islamic Malaysian Mohd Sani Badron in a speech yesterday at the Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikimono) reopening the dispute over the Bible translation of the vernacular term to refer to God. The Islamic scholar’s attack comes only a few days after the historic meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Pope Benedict XVI, a first step toward diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Holy See.

In his text "Kontroversi Nama Khas 'Allah' Agama Dalam Konteks Pluralism", Badron, Director of Economic and Social Studies, said that "the mistranslation of the word 'God' as 'Allah' in the Malay Bible must be abandoned because it erroneously represents the two religions as equal. " "The translation of 'God' as 'Allah' is very wrong, it should be translated correctly ... we understand not only the word but the meaning and the meaning is wrong and inaccurate." He continued: "Looking at the meaning, the correct term for 'God' in Christianity is 'Tuhan' and the word 'Lord' is also 'Tuhan', not 'Allah'."

Essentially, it's "Anything But Allah." It could be Tuhan, or Ernest P. Worrell, as long as the Islamic supremacists can get their way.

The local Catholic newspaper, the '"Herald Malaysia" has won a lawsuit at the Supreme Court two years ago for the right to publish the word "Allah" refering to the Christian God , but can not use it because there is a pending appeal by the Ministry, and the case has been dragging on since then at the Court of Appeal. The case of Malay-language Bibles blocked in the ports of Klang and Kuching two years ago, and only recently released showed a clear division between Muslims and non Muslims.

They were only released after a dispute about what the government wanted to stamp on the outside (and in some cases, did print on the covers) to warn people of a "Christian only" publication.

According to Mohd Sani Badron the translation of the Christian God as "Allah" is not respectful. "The term 'Allah' is a term of respect for Muslims, this judicial action has spread the perception that Muslims are oppressive, and certainly will raise the ire of the Muslim community."

But Christians have republished a 400 year old Latin Malay dictionary, which shows that from the beginning the word "Allah" was used to define God in the Bible in local languages."

Boko Haram's attacks are consistently quite focused, targeting specific practices and institutions that stand in opposition to their intentions to impose Sharia law, the goal of jihad in all its forms. "Bomb rocks troubled northeastern Nigerian city," by Ibrahim Mshelizza for Reuters, July 22:

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Several people were wounded in a bomb blast in Maiduguri on Saturday, a city in remote northeastern Nigeria which has been plagued by almost daily attacks from a radical Islamist sect.

"Three soldiers have been injured in the Saturday evening bomb blast that occurred close to the Palace of the Shehu of Borno," Hassan Mohammed, an officer in the Joint Task Force (JTF) told Reuters.

The Shehu is a traditional ruler in Borno state, one of the poorest regions in Africa's most populous nation, close to borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Witnesses at a local hospital said at least one body from the blast site had been brought to the mortuary.

Boko Haram, which wants sharia law more widely applied across Nigeria, has claimed responsibility for almost daily bombings and shootings in Borno, mostly targeting police, churches and drinking spots....

Norway's Aftenposten is blaming me, Bat Ye'or and Fjordman for Breivik's mass murders -- as if killing a lot of children aids the defense against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, or has anything remotely to do with anything we have ever advocated.

For that matter, no one has explained or can explain how this guy's supposed anti-jihad views have anything to do with his murdering children.

Scenario #1:

1. Islamic preachers and texts preach violence and hate.
2. Islamic jihadists kill people.
3. Media and Islamic spokesmen say that only Islamophobes think #1 is even happening, or if it is, that it has anything to do with #2.

Scenario #2:

1. Freedom fighters preach free speech, freedom of conscience and equality of rights for all people, against Sharia and Islamic supremacism that denies those rights, advocating only legal means of protest and dissent.
2. Some nutcase who allegedly expressed allegiance with the freedom fighters kills people, none of whom are preaching Sharia or Islamic supremacism.
3. Media assumes that #1 caused #2 and blames freedom fighters.

SIOA and SIOE declare our sympathy for the victims and relatives of the victims of the heinous mass murders in Norway. We denounce the attacker and reiterate our dedication to the defense of free societies and opposition to all vigilantism and violence. Attempts to link us to these murders on the basis of alleged postings by the murderer mentioning us are absurd and offensive. Our work is and always has been wholly focused upon defending humane values and freedoms. There is no way that any sane person could possibly conclude that committing mass murder of children would advance the principles for which we stand. And if he was not sane, then any imputation of responsibility to us falters on that basis. Islamic jihadists and supremacists routinely invoke Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence, and thus those teachings are and should be rightly held up to scrutiny; by contrast, our record of support for human rights and the dignity of all human beings is consistent and unbroken. This murderer should be punished to the full extent of the law; any attempts to tar freedom fighters with his actions is deplorable.

"SIOE Group barred suspected Norway killer from forum," from Reuters, July 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

(Reuters) - A fringe [sic] European anti-Islamist lobby group said on Saturday the man suspected of Norway's gun and bomb massacre had tried to join their Facebook group on the Internet but had been rejected over his apparent neo-Nazi links.

Anders Gravers, founder of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), said Anders Behring Breivik had made the application around 18 months ago.

Breivik said in an Internet posting in December 2009 (here) he had had discussions with SIOE, but Gravers said his organisation had no record of this.

"He has never been in contact with us and he has never given us any advice," Gravers told Reuters.

But he said it was possible Breivik had attended one of its demonstrations.

He said an SIOE member in the Faroe Islands had checked Breivik's Facebook "friends" on the social media site when he tried to join and discovered one who used a picture of Danish neo-Nazi leader Jonni Hansen as his profile picture.

"He advised us not to allow this guy to join or be able to post on the Facebook wall (message page)," said SIOE co-founder Stephen Gash.

SOIE, which says it has 30,000 followers on Facebook, was founded by Gravers and Gash in 2007 with the aim of "preventing Islam becoming a dominant political force in Europe."

Gash said the organisation is unpolitical and opposes both Islam and Nazism....

Honest Ibe Hooper or Boy Reza Aslan or some such genius should go explain to Moshin Khan and his fellow gang members about "Islamic tolerance." "Sikh man 'was beaten up by gang in street,'" from the Leicester Mercury, July 21 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A Sikh man told a jury he was beaten up by a group of Muslim-looking men who knocked off his turban and pulled off his necklace and religious pendant.

The 25-year-old alleged victim suffered a cut head and other injuries after being hit to the ground and struck with a weapon, possibly a spanner, it was claimed.

He said he was at home with his mother, in Evington Valley Road, Leicester, at 1.40 pm when he heard banging on his door and shouting.

He looked out to see five or six Asian males, of Muslim appearance and dress, whom he did not know.

A black Audi was also outside.

The man said he felt "scared," and left through the back door, getting into his car at the rear and drove off.

He said at the Evington Valley Road traffic light junction with Ethel Road a man banged on his car bonnet and shouted at him to stop.

He said he also realised the men from outside his home were pursuing him in the Audi and carried on.

The alleged victim told Leicester Crown Court he pulled into the forecourt of a nearby tyre factory hoping to get help.

The Audi blocked him in and as soon as he got out of his car, he was attacked by several men, including one with a "rod or spanner."

The complainant said: "I fell on the ground and felt someone pulling my chain, which had a religious pendant on.

"They were hitting me."

He said he got up and pushed one of them, but ended up back on the ground being hit.

He added: "I don't know who was hitting me on my head with the spanner.

"I can't remember how many times I was hit.

"Someone was twisting my (gold) bangle but it didn't come off.

"While they were hitting me, it (his turban) was knocked off.

"They were saying something like 'killing you' and swearing."

The prosecution allege that one of the assailants was Moshin Khan (20), of Evington Drive, Leicester.

Khan denies jointly causing actual bodily harm or damaging a gold necklace belonging to the alleged victim on Friday, April 23, last year.

He claims that it is a case of mistaken identity and the complainant had wrongly picked him in a police video identification procedure.

The prosecution say the black Audi's registration number was linked to the defendant's address.

Giving evidence, the complainant said he was "sure" he correctly identified Khan as one of the group.

He alleged that after he managed to stand up, the defendant came towards him (unarmed) and tried to hit him.

He told the jury: "I tried to hit him back.

"Then he hit me back and I went back onto the ground."

The court heard the necklace and religious pendant were later found and returned to the complainant.

Mark Achurch, prosecuting, said one of the witnesses claimed he heard members of the group shouting "Allah, Allah" during the alleged attack....

Pamela Geller has noticed an interesting anomaly:

While the leftist and Islamic supremacist ghouls rush to portray Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik as a Christian and even as an anti-jihadist, the unanswered questions multiply. Why did a jihad group take credit for the atrocities, and then retract? And who altered the murderer's Facebook page? Yesterday, at the time that his name was released, his Facebook page looked like this (hat tip Vivien for the screenshot):

But shortly thereafter, this screenshot started circulating, of an altered Facebook page on which Breivik identified himself as a Christian and a conservative: (screenshot hat tip Vivien)

Did he have two different Facebook pages, one in Norwegian and one in English, and he only identified himself as a Christian and a conservative on the English one? Or did he pause from his murder spree to add "Christian" and "conservative" to his Facebook profile? Or maybe the whole page is a fake, as has been reported here.

But in the case, who faked it, and why? Who is so anxious to portray Breivik as a Christian and conservative? And if this was faked, can we trust any of the material that is now being released about Breivik being anti-jihad?

The Shi'ite Ahlul Bayt News Agency calls Dr. Abid Hussain a martyr. If his Sunni murderers had been killed in the process of murdering him, would they be martyrs also? I suppose it would depend on whether one asked a Sunni or a Shi'ite authority.

Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad Update: "Pakistani Shia Dr Abid Hussain Martyred in Karachi," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, July 23 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The armed terrorists of Wahhabi organization on Friday gunned down a Shia Muslim Dr Abid Hussain in Tesar town Surjani.

The armed terrorists of Wahhabi organization Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lasjkar-e-Jhangvi and Taliban terrorists gunned down a Shia Doctor Abid Hussain (35) s/o Qadir Bux in surjani town.

Giving their opinion on efforts to oppose "extremism." "Attack on Caucasus anti-extremist official kills 2," from Reuters, July 22 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

MAKHACHKALA, Russia, July 22 (Reuters) - Gunmen opened fire on the convoy of Russia's top anti-extremism campaigner for the Dagestan region of the restive North Caucasus on Friday, killing two guards, local officials said.

A car posing as a local taxi in the regional capital of Makhachkala pulled up on the road alongside the convoy belonging to Akhmed Bataliyev, the chief of Dagestan's Centre for Anti-extremist Activities, and started shooting.

"Two people were killed," said a source at the local Investigative Committee, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Nestled between the Caspian Sea and the province of Chechnya, the site of two separatist wars since 1994, Dagestan has become the most violent region in Russia's North Caucasus, where an Islamist insurgency aims to carve out an Islamic state.

Militants in Dagestan regularly target security officials as well as local leaders, and recently killed a school headmaster who opposed female students wearing headscarves, as well as a moderate Islamic educator killed in June.

"Two non-believers were killed ... The top-level criminal survived," rebels wrote on vdagestan.info, which represents the Dagestani section of the insurgency.

Bataliyev was not injured in the attack. Security forces launched an operation to find the gunmen who fled their car on foot after the shooting, the Committee source said....

Despite Moscow pouring billions of dollars into the impoverished region, violence continues and analysts say the insurgency is gaining in numbers and scope before parliamentary elections later this year and the March 2012 presidential poll.

What? Money doesn't solve the problem? Stop the presses!

"The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88

Anti-dhimmitude in an Australian court: "Man who had relationship with primary-school girl jailed for 10 years," by Mark Dunn for the Herald Sun, July 22 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A MAN who claimed it was culturally acceptable for him to have a sexual relationship with a primary-school child who later bore him a son will spend up to 10 years in jail.

The 31-year-old, now classified as a pedophile, had claimed his cultural background meant age was not a relevant factor in choosing a wife or sexual partner, the County Court in Melbourne heard.

But in sentencing the man, who migrated as a refugee from a north-Asian country, Judge Lisa Hannan said his continued sexual relationship with the girl - from the age of eight until she fell pregnant - was repulsive and defied morality.

The court heard the man, who was married to an adult at the time of the offending and already had a child, had an IQ in the bottom 5 per cent for his age group.

"Your conduct is abhorrent to anyone with even a shred of decency or moral compass,'' Judge Hannan said.

"Whether or not it may or might have been acceptable in any culture in any part of the world is irrelevant.''

The court heard the man, who pleaded guilty to charges of persistent sexual abuse of a minor and child stealing, had told authorities in his cultural background "there were no restrictions on age'' for a relationship.

But Judge Hannan said the man knew he was breaking Australian law, that he initially lied about having sex with the child and attempted to procure an abortion before a baby was born in 2010.

"You knew what you were doing was wrong,'' the judge said.

Judge Hannan, in setting a seven-year minimum, said his "disgraceful desires'' had "robbed her of her childhood''.

Judge Hannan also disputed the extent of the man's remorse, noting he continued to try to justify his relationship with her - including saying he loved her "for real''.

"I do not think you are truly remorseful ... indeed you still seek to justify it.''

And no one, of course, will vet what is taught there. To do so would be "Islamophobic."

"Building To Be Reconstructed Into Mosque For Muslim Community In Athens," by Penny Koutourinis for the Greek Reporter, July 23 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The Greek government will finance the reconstruction of building structures into mosques for the Muslim community in Athens. Estimated to cost less than 15 million, the existing plans for the mosque will serve 500 faithful Muslims.

The building of the former Naval Base in Botanikos has been chosen and once it is renovated and converted, it will operate as an Islamic mosque in Athens. According to the amendment tabled in parliament it will be incorporated in a bill being debated by the Ministry of Environment Energy and Climate Change which governs energy issues.

The Steering Committee of the mosque consists of five Greek government officials and two Muslims from recognized associations in Athens. The Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community will be appointed after approval by the Minister of Education.

Still more Islamophobia. "14 rioters shot down in Xinjiang attack," from Xinhua, July 20 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

HOTAN, Xinjiang - Police shot down 14 rioters who attacked a police station in Hotan city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Monday, a Communist Party official in Hotan said Wednesday.

The official, who declined to be named, said the attack left four people dead, including an armed police officer, a security guard, a woman and a teenage girl. At least three others were injured.

Rioters hacked security guard Memet Eli to death while they were trying to break into the Na'erbage police station shortly after 12 pm Monday, said Ablet Metniyaz, chief of the police station.

"He is just 25. He planned to get married in September," said Abliz, an officer of the police station.

In addition to Eli, an armed police and two civilians died in the incident, according to Metniyaz, 38, who has been serving as chief of the police station for three years.

The rioters had taken six civilian people and some police staff hostage, and set fire and smashed things in the police station, leaving damaged computers, printers, furniture and clothes scattered around, Metniyaz said.

Shouting frantic religious slogans like "Allah the only God", the rioters ran to the top floor and police opened fire to stop them, said an anonymous policeman with the police station.

When the attack took place, most of the police station's staff were following Metniyaz to visit local residents in an effort to seek their opinions about safeguarding public security.

The rioters had occupied the police station when Metniyaz led his team back.

"I shouted in Uygur language, asking the rioters to stop doing things that run against the law and to settle disputes in peaceful way. But they kept casting gasoline bottles and rocks to us," said Metniyaz.

"I saw the rioters hacking innocent people, some of them got injuries on their faces, noses and ears."

Rioters also attacked the adjacent industrial and commercial bureau, injuring two staff there....

How about prosecuting them? Either polygamy is illegal or it isn't. To let it go un-prosecuted is to reward it, and to reward it is to guarantee more of it, and bleed an already overtaxed (in so many senses of the word) social welfare system dry. Those who enter into polygamous unions are thumbing their noses in an act of brazen hostility to the rule of British law, and treating it as subordinate to Sharia while prospering from the system their conduct will bankrupt.

In practice, the government is subsidizing families of a size that would not be occurring or be supportable otherwise for one privileged section of society, on the backs of working families who wonder how they will support perhaps one or two children at their own expense.

It is a recipe for disaster on so many levels. "Sharia-style marriages could be officially recorded by the government," by Tom McTague for the Daily Mirror, July 22 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Sharia-style multiple marriages could be officially recorded, it was claimed last night.

A leaked government document by an integration and tolerance working group said polygamous marriages may be registered by authorities to protect women whose partners take a second or third wife.

The Government strongly denied it would make the practice of having more than one wife legal.

But it is feared the idea could end up being the first step towards recognising multiple marriages under Islamic Sharia law, which allows a man four wives.

Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “The public will not support the recognition of polygamous marriages. Any step along that road would be a step too far.”

A Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “Polygamy is illegal and will remain so.”

Treat it like a law, and not a suggestion.

Perhaps they suppose a population sufficiently weakened by hunger will be easier to control. In addition, the idea of having filthy infidels going around performing large-scale acts of mercy and charity is bound to provoke jealousy. It is also bad for business when the people denounced as apes and pigs are the ones with the means and motivation to save lives. "Somali Islamists maintain aid ban and deny famine," from BBC News, July 22:

Somalia's al-Shabab Islamists have denied lifting their ban on some Western aid agencies and say UN reports of famine are "sheer propaganda".

The UN on Wednesday said that parts of Somalia were suffering a famine after the worst drought in 60 years.

A spokesman for al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaeda and controls much of the country, accused the banned groups of being political.

But the UN insists famine exists and it will continue its aid efforts.

Most Western aid agencies quit Somalia in 2009 following al-Shabab's threats, though some say they have managed to continue operating through local partners.

Some 10 million people are said to need food aid across East Africa but Somalia is by far the worst-affected country, as there is no national government to co-ordinate aid after two decades of fighting.

Thousands of people are fleeing areas under al-Shabab control to camps set up in areas of the capital controlled by the weak interim government, which is battling the Islamist insurgents.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) was one of those banned. [...]

The two districts where a famine has been declared - Bakool and Lower Shabelle - are under al-Shabab control and aid agencies have been wary of resuming activities there amid fears for the safety of their staff.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage earlier this month announced that aid agencies, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would be allowed back into Somalia as long as they had "no hidden agenda".

This had prompted the US to say it was lifting its ban on allowing its food relief into areas controlled by al-Shabab, which it calls a terrorist group.

However, Mr Rage told journalists in Mogadishu on Thursday night: "The agencies we banned are still banned. The agencies were involved in political activities."

He admitted there was a drought but said reports of a famine were "utter nonsense, 100% baseless and sheer propaganda.

"There is drought in Somalia and shortage of rain but it is not as bad as they put it."

Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank, told Reuters news agency that al-Shabab were trying to avoid being "seen as people who oversaw a large-scale humanitarian disaster".

And the infidels would be the ones saving the day. Can't have that. When al-Shabaab is hungry, however, their tone will likely change.

Well done. "NATO kills 50 fighters, clears Afghan training camp," by Michelle Nichols, Bashir Ansar, and Sugita Katyal for Reuters, July 22:

KABUL (Reuters) - Foreign troops and Afghan special forces killed more than 50 insurgents during an operation in the east of Afghanistan to clear a training camp the Haqqani network used for foreign fighters, NATO said on Friday.

Haqqani network outage:

The Haqqani network, considered one of the most dangerous militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, was responsible for several high-profile attacks, including the deadly raid on Kabul's Intercontinental hotel in June, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

Disenfranchised insurgents told security forces where the Haqqani network camp was located in eastern Paktika province and the operation began late Wednesday and ended early Friday, the coalition said.

"The encampment site was a staging area for Haqqani and foreign fighters. These fighters were moved into the country by Haqqani insurgents who planned to use them for attacks throughout Afghanistan," ISAF said.

Security forces recovered numerous stockpiles of weapons, including mortars, rocket propelled grenades with warheads, machine guns with multiple crates of ammunition, AK-47 rifles, grenades and military gear, ISAF said.

Like father, like son. At least in this case, that now means both have failed. An update on this story. "Father guilty of protecting subway plotter," from the Telegraph, July 22:

A Brooklyn jury found the father of Najibullah Zazi guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The case featured the evidence of two other family members who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the government to avoid stiff prison terms. They detailed the Afghan-American family's failure to acknowledge Zazi as a budding terrorist and its clumsy attempts to protect him once his plot fell apart.

A cousin of Najibullah Zazi told jurors that, while living in Pakistan, he had introduced Zazi to a cleric who arranged for Zazi and two childhood friends from New York to get explosives and other instruction at an al-Qaeda outpost.

Zazi admitted in a guilty plea last year that he returned from Pakistan to his family's Denver-area home to practise making bombs using chemicals extracted from cosmetic supplies. He then drove to New York in September 2009 with plans to attack the subway system in a "martyrdom operation" before he learned he was being watched by the FBI and fled back to Colorado.

The defendant's nephew and brother-in-law both said that the FBI and immigration agents "put the squeeze" on the Zazi clan as soon as the plot unravelled.

When it became clear Najibullah Zazi was a suspect and family members were getting grand jury subpoenas, the nephew said "Uncle Wali" recruited him to get rid of plastic containers of peroxide and other evidence.

The family agreed to code name the chemicals "medicine" in case the FBI was eavesdropping, he said. The verdict came on the second day of deliberations. Sentencing is set for Dec 2.

A renewed interest in enforcing Sharia consistently results in decreasing tolerance, and increasing harassment and intimidation. In Sudan, president Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, has openly stated his intentions for the cultural and linguistic Arabization of Sudan, and the imposition of Sharia on the remainder of the country following the independence of South Sudan. His recent actions against the Nuba people have already shown he is not wasting any time, and here is yet another such indication.

"Bishop highlights challenges facing Christians in North Sudan," from Catholic Culture, July 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

The auxiliary bishop of Khartoum--the capital of North Sudan--says that Christians there are facing increasing difficulties following the independence of South Sudan.

Bishop Daniel Adwok told a Catholic radio station in South Sudan that the largely Muslim population of North Sudan is increasingly less tolerant of Christians and that the government is poised to implement Sharia law fully.

More: "'Do not forget the Christians in north Sudan"' appeal on behalf of the Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum," from Agenzia Fides, July 21:

[...] For Christians who remain in the north, the situation is not easy, underlines Msgr. Adwok to Radio Good News in Rumbek: Christians in Sudan are having to face a negative attitude by the local population that supports last year's President Bashir’s decree that states that after the independence of southern Sudan, the North will become an Islamic country, where there is full implementation of the sharia, with Arabic being the only official language of the state. Mgr. Adwok also stressed the financial difficulties that Catholic schools are facing in Sudan, to the point that the closure of some schools is being taken into consideration.

At last, some apparently definitive information. After a jihad group curiously claimed responsibility and retracted, and after some terror experts said it was a jihad attack and some said it wasn't, and after the media pointed to jihadists as essentially the only ones with a motive, and Islamic supremacists applauded the attack, it appears that it was not a jihad attack after all. "Norway Camp Shooting: 'As Many As 30 Dead,'" from Sky News, July 22:

As many as 30 people are feared dead in a shooting at a Norwegian youth camp after a bomb in the capital, Oslo, killed at least seven.

Shots were fired by a man dressed as a police officer at a youth meeting of the ruling Labour Party in Utoya - an island around 20 miles from the capital.

He has been named in Norway as Anders Behring Breivik - an anonymous official said he was believed to have been working alone.

Police said they do not think the attacks were linked to Islamic terrorism....

Some are looking to Tim McVeigh, others to al-Qaeda. It is interesting that a handful of attacks by "right wing extremists," as compared to tens of thousands by Islamic jihadists, and yet the suspicion always fastens upon the "right wingers" as much or more than it does upon jihadists. In any case, it is anyone's guess at this point.

"Terrorism experts believe Al Qaeda is behind [attacks]," a translation of this article from Nyheder, July 22:

Several terrorism experts suspect the Islamists of being behind terrorist attacks in Oslo. - It is likely al-Qaeda, according to the Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp.

No groups or individuals have taken the blame for the powerful bomb has killed at least seven people and injured dozens of people.

Police say that there is a connection between the bomb attack in the government quarter and the shooting at Utøya where many are killed.

It is likely al-Qaeda is behind the terrorist attack in Oslo, said the Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp.

The terror expert bases his assumption on the fact that people linked to al-Qaeda have previously been detected in Norway, and Norway's participation in NATO operations in Muslim countries. In addition, the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed outraged Muslims Norwegian, says Magnus Ranstorp.

The extensiveness of the attack also indicates that al-Qaeda is behind it, he said.

He said that the threat is greatly elevated in all of Scandinavia, and especially in Denmark, according to the terrorism expert....

An advisor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Helge Lurås, says that it is difficult to speculate on why Norway seems to have now been affected by terrorism.

But he keeps it likely that this may be linked to other major terrorist attacks that Islamists have perpetrated.

- We see NOK in a fertilizer bomb of great power - some one hundred kilograms - not unlike those we saw during the terrorist attacks in Tanzania and Nairobi in 1998. It is a powerful explosive - one of the strongest we've seen in a long time. The Taliban in Afghanistan use those bombs....

Because the shooter at the Utoya youth camp was Norwegian. No one seems to be wondering whether or not he is a convert.

"Experts point to the extreme-right," a translation of an article from Nyheder, July 22:

The man in police uniform who shot wildly around on Utøya is Norwegian. - It is highly possible that this may be linked to the extreme-right, says Professor Tore Bjørgo at the Police Academy.

Most experts have earlier today speculated that radical Islamist groups or terrorist organizations are behind the bomb in the city center and the shooting at Utøya, where a number of people confirmed killed.

But all indications are that this is not international terrorism.

Police earlier this evening arrested a man who is tall, blond and spoke eastern dialect. Based on the observations that the police believe the man has been arrested after the shooting at Utøya, can also be linked to the attack on government building.

At a press conference late Friday night confirming Justice Minister Knut Storberget that the arrested perpetrator is Norwegian....

Police earlier in the evening received tips about sightings of a Nordic-looking man in police uniform in a brown van outside the government building. Later a man dressed as a policeman opened fire at Utøya an hour later, killing ten people.

Professor Tore Bjørgo at the Police College said earlier tonight that these bloody attacks can come from other communities than Islamist - not least because witnesses Utøya says that the man who shot at people wearing police clothes, had a Nordic look. In addition, the attack directed against a political youth organization....

The renowned Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp said earlier today that this appeared to be Al Qaeda's work. Later he changed his mind.

- Had it only been a bombing, it would be natural to connect it to Islamic extremism. Now we have shootings at the Labour Party's youth as well, and it changes the whole picture, says Searches Torp to the Swedish news agency TT.

He believes that this simply may be a single crazy person's work, he says.

- It's a very strange device if you are inspired by al-Qaeda and attack on a youth camp in this way, he says.

Bjørgo at the police college says that the action is reminiscent of a bomb attack in Oklahoma City in 1995, where the right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people by a powerful car bomb.

Bjørgo said that terrorist attacks may be linked to two to three main suspects environments - and that the extreme right is one of those.

- It reminds me of Oklahoma City bombing. The scenarios we have seen today, is described in the main, right-wing literature, says Bjørgo.

He refers to books like "The Turner Diaries" and "Hunter." The first book deals with a bloody race war, which among other things, the FBI's headquarters are bombed. McVeigh was wearing a copy of "The Turner Diaries" when he was arrested.

- If it is true that the perpetrator had a Nordic look, this increases the credibility of the extreme right can be left behind, says Bjørgo.

He would not speculate on how likely this is.

- This will most likely clarify rather soon, says Bjørgo....

Schadenfreude from the lovers of peace. "Jubel über den Angriff in islamistischen Internetforen" from Spiegel, July 22 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

In islamistischen Internetforen wurden die Nachrichten über eine Explosion im norwegischen Regierungsviertel von Anhängern al-Qaidas als "frohe Nachricht" bejubelt. "Euch bleibt nicht mehr viel Zeit, eure Soldaten aus Afghanistan abzuziehen, oder ihr werdet Blut in den Straßen sehen", schrieb ein User.

Translation:

"Cheers about the attack on Islamic Internet forums"

The news of an explosion in the Norwegian government quarter was cheered as "good news" by Al-Qaida followers on Islamic Internet forums. "You don't have much more time to pull your soldiers out of Afghanistan or you'll see blood in the streets", wrote one user.

Suspicion still revolving around jihad groups. "10 killed at Norway youth camp shooting; seven dead in Oslo bombing, police say," from The Star, July 22:

A man arrested after opening fire at a youth camp in Norway is linked to the bombing in Oslo earlier in the day Friday, police says.

An eyewitness told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he saw as many as 25 bodies at the youth camp where a gunman dressed in a police uniform opened fire following a massive bomb blast in downtown Oslo.

Oslo police say up to 10 people have been killed at the camp.

Andre Scheie says he saw bodies on the shore of Utoya Island where the youth wing of the Labour Party was holding a summer camp for hundreds of youths.

“There are very many dead by the shore . . . there are about 20 to 25 dead.” He also said he saw dead people in the water.

Labour spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl told the Associated Press that a man dressed in a police uniform started shooting at teenagers assembled for the party’s annual youth camp. He said some 700 people, mostly teenagers between 14 and 18 years old, were gathered.

A number of unconfirmed news reports suggested a chaotic and horrifying scene unfolded at the camp. Norway’s TV2 reported that the alleged shooter had been arrested. TV2’s website said that many of the young people at the camp swam away in the lake or were hiding in bushes as the attack took place.

News reports also said police were checking if there were any bombs at the scene. Eyewitness reports said bodies were reportedly found floating in the water around the island.

Norwegian media reports say that a man of “Nordic” appearance has been arrested, and that police have control of the island. A local police spokesman confirmed to Al Jazeera that the suspect is in custody, and that he had said he was at the camp to provide security.

Meanwhile, seven people have been confirmed dead and dozens injured after a loud explosion shattered windows Friday at the government headquarters in Oslo, which includes the prime minister’s office. [...]

So far police say no group or person has taken responsibility for the bombing or the mass shooting, TV2 reported on its website. [...]

The blast comes as the Scandinavian country has grappled with a series of homegrown terror plots linked to Al Qaeda, and six years after an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in neighbouring Denmark.

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he’s deported from the Nordic country.

The indictment centred on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various media, including American network NBC.

Last June, several newspapers quoted threats made by Krekar.

“Norway will pay a heavy price for my death,” he said. “If, for example, Erna Solber deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate.”

Solber is the current leader of the Conservative Party of Norway.

Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered protests in Muslim countries.

Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.

In July 2010, three people were held in an “Al Qaeda-bomb plot” BBC reported.

Two of the men — a Muslim Uighur from China, an Iraqi citizen, and an Uzbek national —were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, said Janne Kristiansen, the head of the Norwegian security police told BBC. They are Norwegian residents.

The men are believed to have links to Al Qaeda and alleged bomb plots in the U.S. and U.K., Kristiansen said.

"Jameela, Messenger of Allah & Defender of Islam" has appeared on this thread and others, spamming the threads with lengthy denunciations of Christianity and Judaism and defenses of Islam.

Longtime Jihad Watch readers will recognize that this person is "Jacquelyn Barnette" or "Jameela," who sent me the threat I posted here, and who has more than once also previously spammed the comments fields here with reams of abusive Islamic triumphalism and hatred toward Jews and Christians -- see, for example, the many comments by "Jacci" on this thread.

She wrote here the same sort of thing she wrote to New York State Senator Ball -- here's a sample: "To those blood-thirsty, racist Christian cannibals who will murder Jesus after his Resurrection for the sole purpose of bleeding him out to bath in his blood; I advise you to reconsider your blasphemous and diabolical worship of a murdered Jew and read the Qur’an and discover your 'real' purpose in life is NOT to worship and serve the Jew’s as you do." And she also threatened Rep. Peter King.

With "defenders of Islam" like this, who needs "Islamophobes"?

On July 21 I discussed how embedded anti-Christian sentiment is to the Muslim world for FrontPageMagazine.com (via RaymondIbrahim.com):

Earlier this month I participated in Coptic Solidarity’s Second Annual Conference in Washington D.C., titled: “Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the ‘Arab Spring’?” Panelists included Middle East specialists, prominent members of the Coptic community, and other minority leaders from the Muslim world, including Kurds, Berbers, and Sudanese animists.

Held at the U.S. Capitol, nine members of Congress made statements and showed their support, including Sue Myrick, Chris Smith, and Frank Wolf. Walid Phares, a Congressional advisor who also participated, asserted that their appearance is encouraging and indicates that at least some members of Congress “are aware about the plight of minorities in general and of Christian communities in the Arab and Muslim world, and are particularly concerned about the Islamist and jihadi threat to these communities.”

Because the conference spanned two days, I spent lots of time surrounded by Christian minorities. The casual anecdotes I heard, spoken not with outrage—the province of the privileged—but simply as backdrops to more mundane stories, revealed how endemic anti-Christian sentiment is to the Muslim world, so much so that Christians themselves have almost become immune to it, expecting it, reserving their actual complaints for times of physical persecution (including but not limited to Islamist-inspired theft, kidnapping, rape, church attacks, etc.).

In other words, if the formal speeches held at the Capitol documented the hostility and discrimination Christians face under Islam, the informal conversations, held over food and drink, drove the point home.

Thus one Coptic businessman complaining about how he lost a legal case in Egypt, though he was clearly in the right, was quickly interrupted by the grinning fellow across him, who asked whether his opponent was Muslim or Christian; when the businessman, rather coyly, said Muslim, everyone laughed knowingly, some even suggesting he was a fool for even going to court.

A women discussing her baby’s erratic sleeping habits revealed why: the mosque next door, which always blasts Koranic verses on the megaphone around 4 a.m., constantly wakes him up in terror and tears; and though the baby does not understand the words, the mother does, pointing out that most of the verses being blared are especially hostile to Christians, like 5: 17, 5:51, and 9:29.

UPDATE 11:38 PDT: Now Will McCants has this: "'Helpers of Global Jihad' now says its claim is not the official claim and it had nothing to do w/ operation. Says wait for official claim."

------------------

It's Motoon Rage. From the Telegraph news feed:

18.03 Will McCants now says that Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami (Helpers of Global Jihad) seem to make a claim of responsibility. They claim it is in response to the occupation of Afghanistan and insults to the Prophet Mohammed. It has come via Shmukh, an elite jihadi forum.

McCants translates part of the message:

"We have warned since the Stockholm raid of more operations & we have demanded that the countries of Europe withdraw from the land of Afghanistan and end their war on Islam and Muslims. What you see is only the beginning and there is more to come."

And here is the full message, in my hasty translation:

Praise be to Allah from his slaves, united and humiliating the people of shirk [worship of others besides Allah] and companions of kufr [unbelief]. Prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, his family and companions and descendents.

The Almighty said: "Then fight in Allah's cause - Thou art held responsible only for thyself - and rouse the believers. It may be that Allah will restrain the fury of the Unbelievers; for Allah is the strongest in might and in punishment. [Qur'an 4:84]

Here another message from the militants has reached the countries of Europe and further proof for the countries of Europe that the mujahideen will not stand idly before their war against Islam and Muslims.

Today Norway has been targeted in order to be a lesson, and a lesson to the rest of Europe. We have warned since the Stockholm raid of more operations and we have demanded that European countries of Europe withdraw their armies from the land of Afghanistan and end their war on Islam and Muslims. We repeat our warning again to the countries of Europe and tell them that the demands of the mujahideen must be carried out. What you see is only the beginning. There will be more.

There were many reasons for the targeting of Norway. The most important is their participation in the occupation of Afghanistan and the abuse of our prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Praise Allah who has enabled his slaves to be united...and pray to Allah to save our brothers and our fighters everywhere.

Glory and praise to Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but you and I repent to you.

Abu Suleiman Al-Nasser
Helpers of Global Jihad

"Norway's intelligence police agency said in February that Islamic extremism was a major threat to the country, AFP reported....Krekar had warned that 'Norway will pay a heavy price' if he were deported."

"Bomb blast rocks government buildings in Oslo, causing deaths and injuries," from Newscore, July 22:

OSLO – A massive bomb rocked government buildings in the Norwegian capital Friday, killing several people, and there were reports that a man dressed as a policeman opened fire with an automatic weapon at a young people's camp on a nearby island, signaling potentially coordinated terror attacks.

Sky News said the reports from the island of Utoya had not been confirmed by police but suggested four dead and others injured at the camp, which is affiliated with the country's Labour Party.

The gunman reportedly was wearing a police uniform and arrived at the island by boat from the mainland, carrying an automatic weapon. Sky said there were an estimated 700 people on the island aged 15-25.

It was not clear if the shooting was still ongoing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the late afternoon explosion in Oslo's government quarter near the prime minister's office, the finance ministry and the country's biggest tabloid newspaper, Verdens Gang (VG).

However, Norway's intelligence police agency said in February that Islamic extremism was a major threat to the country, AFP reported.

Sky News sources said survivors reported a strong smell of sulfur, which led police to investigate whether the blast was caused by a car bomb packed with fertilizer nitrate.

Sky reported that earlier this year, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released a bomb-making handbook which contained notes on how to build fertilizer bombs. [...]

AFP reported that intelligence police chief Janne Kristiansen said last February that Islamic extremism was a major threat to the country and "our main priority and our main concern."

Norway, a member of NATO, has some 500 troops in Afghanistan.

Last year police arrested three Muslim men based in Norway who were suspected of planning an attack using explosives, AFP reported.

Norwegian prosecutors earlier this month also filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, who was accused of threatening a politician with death over his potential deportation from the country.

Krekar had warned that "Norway will pay a heavy price" if he were deported.

No one is claiming responsibility and no one is being blamed at this point, but the news wires are citing the terror charges against Mullah Krekar last week and other jihad-related incidents as possible causes. "Explosion rocks Norway government buildings, 1 reported dead," from the Globe and Mail, July 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A powerful explosion tore open several Oslo buildings, including the prime minister's office on Friday. One person was reportedly killed and several were injured.

The cause of the blast was unknown but the tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building and the damage appeared consistent to witnesses with that from car bombs. Police and fire officials declined comment on the cause.

The blast blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire. Heavy debris littered the streets and smoke rose over the city centre. [...]

NATO member Norway has sometimes in the past been threatened by leaders of al-Qaeda for its involvement in Afghanistan. It has also taken part the NATO bombing of Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to strike back in Europe.

However, political violence is virtually unknown in the country.

David Lea, Western Europe analyst, at Control Risks said: “It’s very difficult to tell what has happened. There certainly aren’t any domestic Norwegian terrorist groups although there have been some al-Qaeda-linked arrests from time to time.

“They are in Afghanistan and were involved in Libya, but it’s far too soon to draw any conclusions.”

The blast comes as the Scandinavian country has grappled with a series of homegrown terror plots linked to al-Qaida, and six years after an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in neighboring Denmark.

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he's deported from the Nordic country.

The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various media, including American network NBC.

Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered protests in Muslim countries.

Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.

Whose prophet?

Playing the Muslims-as-victims card in Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad's jihad murder trial. "Islam Convert After Revenge For U.S. Acts," by Rob Moritz for the Times Record, July 21:

LITTLE ROCK — A Memphis-born convert to Islam became delusional after watching a video of alleged U.S. atrocities against Muslims in the Middle East and drove through three states seeking revenge before shooting one soldier dead and wounding another outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock, a lawyer for the accused killer told a jury at his trial Wednesday.

Abdulhakim Muhammad had a small arsenal in his SUV when he was stopped after the shooting, including an assault rifle and more than 600 rounds of ammunition. He told the police officer there “was a war going on against Muslims ... a holy war,” jurors at his capital-murder trial heard.

Muhammad, 26, could face the death penalty if convicted in the June 2009 shooting spree that left Army Pvt. Andrew Long of Conway dead and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville wounded.

In opening arguments Wednesday, defense lawyer Patrick Benca said his client was unstable and suffering from a mental defect at the time of the shootings.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley told jurors Muhammad had been planning the attack for some time and that they would see a video of his statements to police showing that he was aware of his actions....

After Muhammad watched a video of alleged U.S. military atrocities against Muslim civilians, Benca said, he drove from Arkansas to Kentucky looking for a soldier who was mentioned in the video as being found guilty of the atrocities. The soldier apparently was from Kentucky.

Unable to find the man, Muhammad then drove to a recruiting center in Kentucky, but it was closed, Benca said. He then drove to Nashville, Tenn., where he threw a homemade gasoline bomb at a house he thought was occupied by a Rabbi before driving back to Little Rock.

On his way back home, after driving all night, Muhammad drove by the military recruiting center in west Little Rock and saw Long and Ezeagwula standing outside, “so he goes over ... and shoots them both,” Benca said.

The Judeo-Christian Origins of Islam
by Ibn Warraq
Part 10
Part 1 here; part 2 here; part 3 here; part 4 here; part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here, part 8 here, part 9 here.

Now here is an analysis by a little known scholar, André Regnier, writing in 1939 in the journal Le Muséon:

Sura 3, v. 96-97: “Lo! the first Sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Bakka, a blessed place, a guidance to the peoples; Wherein are plain memorials (of Allah’s guidance); the place where Abraham (maqām Ibrâhîm)…” Then a pilgrimage to this house of worship is recommended. It is acknowledged that Bakka equals Makkah, Mecca. The commentary of the Galâlain, who represents current opinion, gives as the motive for this alteration the symbolic attachment to the root *bakka, to crush, “Because Mecca crushes (or breaks) the neck of the proud”! Some philologists believe Bakka is a dialect pronunciation that confuses the two labials b and m. So be it, but it is strange that the other place where Mecca is mentioned in the Koran (sura 48, v. 24), it takes the form Makka (in a passage concerning the conquest of the city).

It so happens that our Bakka, which one finds a single time in the Koran, in a context relating to the site of worship and pilgrimage, corresponds to a Biblical word Baca, בָּכָא which one finds a single time in the Bible, in Psalm 84:6-7, precisely in a song of pilgrimage! If we look more closely, we find this: “Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.” Thus the pilgrims arrive in the courts of Zion.

Thus there is a similarity of theme, on the one hand a Koranic hapax and on the other a Biblical hapax, and finally, assonance of these two hapax. Let us add some secondary resemblances. First, the Hebrew berâkâh בְּ֝רָכֹ֗ות [Hebrew], some words after bâkâʼ בָּכָא [Hebrew], echoes the Koranic mubârakan [Arabic] immediately after bakka [Arabic]. Then, the Greek version translated ma ̒ yân מַעְיָ֣ן [Hebrew: spring] as τόπος, [topos] having read מׇעו֗ן [Hebrew] (dwelling); so does the Syriac, and the Vulgate with its “in valle lacrymarum, in loco quem posuit” [in the vale of tears, in the place which he has set]: so precisely does the Koran offer us a few words after bakka [A] (and making the latter more precise) its maqâm Ibrâhîm, venerated site and monument of the sacred enclosure: maqâm reflects τόπος, חעון[H].

Here are a few more observations: the versions translated הבכא[H] as if it were הבכה[H], moreover found in some manuscripts, “valley of tears”. But in order for בכא[H] to stick to the Arabic parallel *bk’ (to be deprived of milk, water, tears), it would signify on the contrary drought, supposing that baca, בכא [H] is a poetic and not a geographical term. In any case, someone reading the Hebrew could respect all the originality of this Baca, בָּכָא [H] and keep its form and pronunciation as for a proper name, without either translating it or interpreting it. And, despite the difference in root, the word bakka [A] resembles it as a proper name with the same assonance.

Some will maintain that all this is pure chance, in which case it must be admitted that chance creates singular coincidences. But since we are on the subject, there is something even more strange that we cannot accept as a product of chance: while הַבָּכָא בְּעֵמֶק [H] (in valle Baca, in the valley of Bacca) corresponds to bakka [A] for the characteristic element Baca, it happens that in Surah 48, v. 24, it is the other element, to wit בְּעֵמֶק bə·‘ê·meq [H: the valley] that corresponds to bibaṭni makka [A] (the valley of Mecca), there where makka [A] receives its normal mim [Arabic letter “m” at the beginning of Mecca]]! But we could also suggest that the two Koranic passages are allied in a certain dependence on the Hebrew verbal complex.

And so we retain the word Baca בָּכָא [H] as the radiant term of this first example.

This essay will be continued at a later date.

SEPANG, July 22 — The government will engage with Christians groups here that love peace and respect the country’s Islamic leadership, the prime minister said today.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the Barisan Nasional (BN) government would work with Christians who wished to uphold world peace and harmony as it was committed to the “global movement of moderates”.

“We wish to tell our friends, the Malaysian Christians . . . if they respect us, we will also respect them,” he told some 200 BN supporters at Kompleks Bunga Raya here.

“This is our message. Islam is fair to all. Islam is beautiful, Islam is grand, Islam is pure, Islam is noble.”

Never mind the reams of evidence that conclusively show otherwise.

Putrajaya’s relationship with Christians remains strained following the Home Ministry’s decision to bar the Catholic Church here from using the word “Allah” in the Malay-language version of its newpaper, The Herald.

The case is pending a Home Ministry appeal of the 2009 High Court ruling allowing the church to use the word, which some Muslims argue should be reserved for Islam.

Several churches across the country were fire-bombed in January last year following the ruling.

Matters were further brought to a head when 35,100 Malay-language bibles were seized by the Home Ministry, causing outrage among the Christian community.

Christians have more than ample reason to be outraged at the Malaysian government, but they aren't going to start blowing up anything or anyone as a way to demonstrate their anger. That's generally reserved for followers of a certain other belief system.

The bibles were later released after a flurry of negotiations between church leaders and Putrajaya ahead of the Sarawak state election, on the condition that they be marked with a cross and the words “Christian Publication".

Many Catholics, however, remain unconvinced by Najib’s attempts to pacify the community, as evidenced by a widely circulated letter to the Pope accusing the prime minister of manipulating religious sentiment.

The smart ones are rightly suspicious. The smarter ones have already had enough of the Muslim taqiyya, intolerance, and ultimatums, and have left Muslim Malaysia for good.

Said one Special Forces solder, "I don't think their heart was in it."

That disaster, so early in the war, should have been a warning sign of things to come. Such behavior has largely characterized the dynamics between Western and Afghan forces over the past decade. "Bin Laden's Tora Bora escape, just months after 9/11," by Gordon Corera for BBC News, July 21:

Only a few months after 9/11, American troops located Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan - so how was he able to evade them?

As members of the British Special Boat Service (SBS) team listened in to conversations on a captured short wave radio, they heard a voice they believed to be their target.

Two of the team spotted a tall figure in a camouflage jacket moving with a 50-man protective detail, who went into a cave through a hidden entrance.

Only a few months after the 11 September 2001 attacks, Osama Bin Laden seemed to be cornered in the mountains of Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border.

Tora Bora promised to be his final stand. So how did he escape?

The SBS soldiers had joined an American-led team alongside CIA and US Special Forces who had followed Bin Laden from Jalalabad into the White Mountains and finally to Tora Bora, a remote complex of caves.

Once the team approached the foot of the mountains, they took over a schoolhouse as a base.

Four men headed into the mountains, accompanied by 10 Afghans. It was the most rugged terrain many had ever experienced.

When they reached an outcrop and saw a large group of up to about 900 al-Qaeda figures, the battle for Tora Bora began.

The commander back at base, Gary Berntsen, issued orders to open fire. He only told headquarters after the fact.

The team called in air strikes over the next 56 hours.

"We threw everything at him. I didn't even know we had that many B52 or B1s," one of the Special Forces soldiers who was on the ground told the BBC, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Everybody was trying to get into the fight because… he was there. I can tell you that we dropped so much munitions on this place that we actually changed the landscape. The map is different."

'Political calculations'

More soldiers joined the team, but it never numbered more than 100. Three sections made a push up the mountain.

Further conversations overheard on captured al-Qaeda radios indicated that Bin Laden was still alive. The tone of his intercepted communications changed.

"It became more of desperation that doom is coming," recalls one American soldier. The Americans believed he was within a mile and a quarter (2 km) of one of the teams.

Members of that team wanted to push forward but were told to wait since they lacked numbers.

"Every now and again, we'd talk about mutiny and just moving up," a member recalls.

The strategy, as with the whole Afghan campaign, was to limit the number of American boots on the ground.

Instead Afghan fighters would operate under the direction of the small CIA/Special Forces teams, supported by air power.

But at Tora Bora, the Afghan mujahideen proved unreliable allies. They refused to fight at night leaving al-Qaeda to reoccupy ground that had been painfully won.

At one point they agreed a ceasefire which may even have secretly assisted Bin Laden. "I don't think they were properly trained," recalls the anonymous Special Forces soldier. "And I don't think their heart was in it."

Berntsen asked for 800 US Rangers to be placed between Bin Laden and the border, or to enter the mountains from the Pakistani side. His request was denied.

"Once you have to ask Washington for assistance, then all sorts of political calculations enter in and… unfortunately that's what occurred," Berntsen told the BBC....

Don't they know stereotyping causes alienation, and alienation and poor self-esteem lead to radicalization? Now these poor men are going to have to deal with those additional radicalized Misunderstanders of Middle America and worry about backlash because of their portrayal in this video! And this is going to damage our standing with middle-class white guys abroad in nations that are our Friends and Allies, and create even more terrorists.

Of course, the intention seems obvious. But by bending over so far backward to show they aren't singling out any other group, they appear to have created a study in absurdity. As James Thurber once cautioned, "You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward."

"Who does Homeland Security thinks poses the greatest risk? Video portrays white middle-class as the most likely terrorists," from the Daily Mail, July 22:

A video released by the Department of Homeland Security urging people to report anything suspicious has caused outrage by characterising white middle class Americans as the most likely terrorists.

The promotional video is part of Homeland Security's $10million 'See Something, Say Something' programme as they believe it will help curb random acts of terrorism by individuals.

But the controversial video has angered some Americans due to the fact all the actors who play the would-be terrorists in the video are white, and the people who report them are either black, Asian or Arab.

What would happen - it is asked - if it was the other way about?

Lawsuits. Oodles and oodles of lawsuits.

The ten-minute clip shows a number of scenarios in which different behaviours which could be characterised as terrorism are played out.

These include - wearing a hooded top, driving vans, opposing surveillance footage, using a video camera, talking to police officers and recording something on your smartphone, among others.

The voice over urges viewers not to consider a person's race when making a decision on whether or not they are a terrorist. [...]

DHS has confirmed the video is theirs but adamantly deny there are any racial or politically correct overtones to it.

Another day, another embarrassment for Islamabad, and another outraged response. An update on this story. "Pakistan accuses US of slander over 'agent' arrest," from BBC News, July 21:

Pakistan has accused the US of slander against Islamabad over the arrest of a Kashmiri-born man accused of acting as a Pakistani agent in Washington.

Ghulam Nabi Fai, a 62-year-old American citizen, is accused of working in Washington for a Pakistani spy agency to lobby for Kashmiri independence.

Mr Fai was arrested on Tuesday and charged with failing to register as a foreign government agent.

Meanwhile, Congress rejected a proposal on Thursday to cut off aid to Pakistan.

Mr Fai and a second man, Zaheer Ahmad, a 63-year-old US citizen and resident of Pakistan, were both charged in the case. Mr Ahmad is believed to be in Pakistan.

The pair are suspected of having connections to an effort by the Pakistani government that allegedly funnelled millions of dollars through a front group, the Kashmiri American Council, to Washington to lobby US politicians on behalf of Kashmir.

The US has said the group contributed money to US election campaigns, helped fund conferences and other efforts, including meetings with White House and state department officials.

The US justice department said Mr Fai - who denies the charges - and Mr Ahmad would face five years in prison if found guilty. [...]

The allegations against Mr Fai focused primarily on his work with the Kashmiri American Council, a Washington-based group that is suspected of being run by Pakistan's military intelligence service.

Mr Fai's arrest and the allegations against the Pakistani government sparked an angry response from Islamabad.

"A demarche was made to the US embassy in Islamabad today to register our concerns, in particular the slander campaign against Pakistan," the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

But FBI Assistant Director in Charge James McKunkin said foreign nations attempting to "influence the United States by unregistered agents threaten our national security".

The FBI has already accused the government of Pakistan of paying Mr Fai between $500,000 (£306,712) and $700,000 a year.

Officially, the Kashmiri American Council had a much smaller budget and it said that it received no foreign grants.

Kashmiri separatists condemned Mr Fai's arrest on Thursday, calling it a conspiracy.

Shabir Shah, a senior separatist in Kashmir, told AFP news agency: "We strongly condemn his arrest. It is aimed at suppressing the voices who call for Kashmir's freedom from India."

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee blocked an amendment to a spending bill that would have banned any assistance to Pakistan.

The measure was introduced by Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher, who said aid to Pakistan was "foolishness" at a time when the US is trying to avoid defaulting on its financial obligations.

The desire to engage in nuclear blackmail and possibly slaughter untold numbers of people makes strange bedfellows. North Korea, which trumpets its Juche ideology of national self-reliance (despite abject dependence on foreign food aid), needs a little help from its friends in Tehran. Iran, for its part, has to accept the help of a bunch of infidels who worship a bouffant-haired mortal in platform shoes and a dismal synthetic-fiber track suit as a god.

If either had the power they wanted, they would obliterate the other, quite possibly with nuclear weapons. But for now, each has something the other needs to get the bomb in the first place.

First things first. "North Korea and Iran 'jointly working on building nuclear missile', report claims," by Damien McElroy for the Telegraph, July 21:

According to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), North Korea's weapons programmes are now benefiting from technology from Iran. In return, Pyongyang is supplying technology to Iran's uranium enrichment programme that would allow it to increase its output.

The disclosure marks a disturbing escalation in the race for nuclear weapons technology by the two states which are seen to present the biggest threat to global security.

Mark Fitzpatrick, the IISS expert on weapons proliferation, said North Korea possessed a technological edge over Iran in making nuclear equipment.

It was capable of manufacturing high strength steel that Iran has been unable to manufacture. Iran has instead relied on carbon fibre materials that are less reliable.

"What previously had been a one way flow of North Korean nuclear sales to Iran is now going two ways," he said. "North Korea may be self-sufficient in its uranium programme and there are some areas where Iran can't produce equipment that North Korea has the capacity to produce."

The emergence of a North Korean "comparative advantage" over Iran in uranium enrichment has caught experts by surprise. Iran has been working for 20 years on manufacturing advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium to weapons grade. However North Korea has make the breakthrough to produce advanced machines where Iran had failed.

The IISS's fears over North Korea's activities are widely shared by defence experts.

"North Korea has been assisting Iran in going forward with its nuclear programme," said Bruce Bennett, the senior defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, a US think tank.

"North Korea has been providing help to Iran with missile technology and testing (nuclear) triggering devices while Iran has only more recently done that kind of thing."

North Korea's weapons technology is the regime's main source of foreign earnings and the country has supplied Iran, Syria, Burma and Libya with its latest equipment.

"Not only has it developed nearly the full array of weapons of mass destruction, it has been willing to sell them and its missiles and conventional arms to any would-be buyer," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

The report said it also appeared that Iran has been able to develop more sophisticated versions of North Korea's No-dong long range missiles.

Recent television broadcasts of Pyongyang military parades showed North Korean No-dong 2 missiles with the same "baby-shaped" nose cone that Iran has fitted on its Ghadr-1.

The modified nose on the Ghadr-1 has been at the root of fears that Iran was attempting to develop nuclear capable missiles....

Playing the system like a violin, except that violins are haram: the two, a man and a woman, are described as Pakistani-born "British passport-holders with dual nationality." "British man and woman suspected of planning Taliban attack on UK troops arrested in Afghanistan," from the Daily Mail, July 21:

UK forces have arrested a British man and woman in Afghanistan fearing they may have been planning an deadly attack on British troops in the country.

The Pakistan-born pair were held at a hotel in the western city of Herat in a joint raid with Afghan intelligence service the National Directorate of Security.

The Britons are currently being held in a secure facility in Kandahar where they are being questioned.

The suspects, who are British passport-holders with dual nationality, are now being held by British troops in Helmand Province, according to The Times.

An unnamed senior Afghan official told the newspaper: 'It was terrorism-related. It was a UK-led operation.'

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that two people claiming to be British nationals had been detained.

A spokesman said: 'We can confirm that British forces have detained two individuals in Afghanistan who claim to be British nationals.

'We are not prepared to comment further at this stage.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We can confirm that two British nationals have been detained in Afghanistan.

'Embassy staff are providing assistance.'

Nato forces in Afghanistan normally hold suspects for a maximum of four days before releasing them or handing them over to Afghan authorities.

The Foreign Office spokesman added: 'The UK has a national policy of detaining beyond 96 hours in exceptional circumstances, in particular where it could provide information that could help protect our forces or the local population.'

It comes as British troops handed responsibility for security in the capital of war-torn Helmand province - Lashkar Gah - over to Afghan forces yesterday.

Homemade Sharia courts are mushrooming all over the West. They are a direct attack on our rule, and everybody who is running and using them should be put in front of a judge and charged with sedition. Unfortunately, the police do far too little to find such people.

Shiites and Sunnis in the Caucasus began to seek a common denominator. In confirmation of this is the convergence of the Islamic community in Georgia. They elected a single board of governance.

The interesting thing about this idea is that I heard about it ten years ago. An association of Islamic movements under unified rule was declared in Baku, Azerbaijan. The meeting was attended by representatives of different sects of Islam.

I was told that there were present some members of radical Shiite groups in Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as representatives of the Sunnis from Turkey and the Caucasus. There were representatives of the Taliban, and scholars from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Islamic countries.

It was said that the Nadir Shah Khachilayev, head of the Union of Muslims of Russia, was supposed to come to this meeting. But on August 11, 2003, he was killed in Dagestan.

The meeting was dedicated to the idea of the unification of Islam under a green flag. The idea was to unite all those who acknowledged monotheism, recognizing only Allah, the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad for all Muslims for the sake of jihad.

The conversation was in the Turkish and Russian languages, because all those present understood these languages.

At first, there were minor disagreements over who should be in a key position in this new Islamic group. The Iranians, Afghans, Caucasians, and Turks argued that under the hegemony of Islam, they had made great strides. But in the end, all parties agreed. Of course, a Chechen businessman and millionaire, Hajj Ahmad Nukhayev, was behind this.

He had very close ties to the government of Turkey and Iran. He had several meetings with the leaders of many European countries. He had very close ties with powerful people in the United Kingdom.

Nobody wanted to have as powerful enemies Nadir Khachilayev and Hajj Nukhayev, even the president of Azerbaijan. Because of his cooperation, Nukhayev resolved that he would take any action in Baku and Azerbaijan in general except for the overthrow of the government.

The struggle for primacy in the Islamic world has been going on for a long time. And for just as long, there has been a desire to unite. But lately, this trend towards stronger association has been given a new impetus by two very powerful factors: Iran's nuclear program, and the deterioration of relations between Israel and Turkey. A railway project between Turkey and Iran is currently under construction through the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Iran and Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan all working together on this project to create infrastructure. They have already signed several strategic agreements.

This economic cooperation is leading to political ties. And politics for Muslims means the spread of Islam and Sharia in non-Muslim states.

But the ultimate goal of all these initiatives is to establish a united front to oppose all infidels and kill or subjugate them. In confirmation of this are the words of the Caliph Umar: "Who is seeking the greatness outside the Islam, will be humiliated by Allah. We - people chosen by Allah to be glorified through Islam, and if we seek greatness and glory in something else than Islam, then Allah will humiliate us, too."

On July 19, the Israeli headquarters in the fight against terror, a division of the National Security Council, issued a statement according to which most countries of the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia are no longer a danger to Israelis. The exceptions were Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The statement that the Israelis released said that in these countries there is a risk level 4, which means a constant potential threat. Israelis do not recommend visiting these states if there is no special need, and in such cases, Israeli travelers should exercise increased caution and not gather there in large groups.

Could the Obama-backed al-Qaeda government have anything to do with this? "Israel won't apologize for Turkish flotilla deaths," by Amy Teibel for the Associated Press, July 21 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel will not apologize for killing nine Turkish activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla last year, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Thursday, but he added that not all in government agree with this stance.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon told foreign reporters at a briefing Thursday that he recently held three rounds of talks with the Turks in an effort to put more than a year of animosity behind the one-time close allies.

"We are not ready to apologize," he said. "Apology is taking responsibility." [...]

While the sea blockade remains enforced, the Israeli official said weapons from Libya are making their way into Gaza through Egypt's Sinai desert.

"There is now a new route of weapons smuggled from Libya," he said, adding that smugglers are taking advantage of the chaos prompted by that country's civil war.

He stopped short of providing details about the types or quantities of weapons Israel claims are moving into Gaza from Libya.

Muslim “child-marriage” — euphemism for pedophilia — is making headlines again, at least in Arabic media: Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, just issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.”

Appearing in Saudi papers on July 13, the fatwa complains that “Uninformed interference with Sharia rulings by the press and journalists is on the increase, posing dire consequences to society, including their interference with the question of marriage to small girls who have not reached maturity, and their demand that a minimum age be set for girls to marry.”

Fawzan insists that nowhere does Sharia set an age limit for marrying girls: like countless Muslim scholars before him, he relies on Koran 65:4, which discusses marriage to females who have not yet begun menstruating (i.e., are prepubescent) and the fact that Muhammad, Islam’s role model, married Aisha when she was 6 years old, “consummating” the marriage — or, in modern parlance, raping her — when she was 9.

The point of the Saudi fatwa, however, is not that girls as young as 9 can have sex, based on Muhammad’s example, but rather that there is no age limit whatsoever; the only question open to consideration is whether the girl is physically capable of handling her husband/rapist. Fawzan documents this point by quoting Ibn Batal’s authoritative exegesis of Sahih Bukhari:

The ulema [Islam’s interpreters] have agreed that it is permissible for fathers to marry off their small daughters, even if they are in the cradle. But it is not permissible for their husbands to have sex with them unless they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men. And their capability in this regard varies based on their nature and capacity. Aisha was 6 when she married the prophet, but he had sex with her when she was 9 [i.e., when she was deemed capable].

Fawzan concludes his fatwa with a warning: “It behooves those who call for setting a minimum age for marriage to fear Allah and not contradict his Sharia, or try to legislate things Allah did not permit. For laws are Allah’s province; and legislation is his excusive right, to be shared by none other. And among these are the rules governing marriage.”

Fawzan, of course, is not the first to insist on the legitimacy of pedophilia in Islam. Even the former grand mufti of Saudi Arabia supported “child-marriage,” since “the Koran and Sunna document it.”

Nor is this just some theoretical, theological point; the lives of many young girls are being destroyed because of this ruling. Recall, for instance, the 13-year-old girl who died while her much older husband was copulating with her (it was later revealed that, due to her reluctance, he was tying her up and “raping” her — as if there were another way to describe sex with children); or the 12-year-old who died giving birth to a stillborn; or the 10-year-old who made headlines by hiding out from her 80-year-old “husband.”

Then there are the countless anonymous girls who do nothing to warrant any media attention — such as die — and have learned to live with their elderly husbands pawing at them, like, no doubt, the girl who married Islam’s most popular cleric, Yusuf Qaradawi, when she was 14.

What do we make of the fact that it is always Islam’s religious, authoritative voices — not aberrant voices, not “terrorists,” “extremists,” or any other euphemism coined for the occasion — that are constantly demonstrating Sharia’s savageries? Weeks before this fatwa, a female politician and activist in Kuwait called for institutionalizing sex-slavery (recommending that Muslims buy and sell female Russian captives from the Chechnya war); a popular Egyptian preacher not only said the same thing, but added that the solution to Islam’s poverty is to go on jihad and plunder the lives and possessions of infidels.

Sounds odd? Perhaps; but it is perfectly consistent. After all, distilled and in the eyes of the non-believer, Sharia law is nothing less than a legal system built atop the words and deeds of a 7^th century Arab, whose behavior — from pedophilia and sex-slavery to war mongering and plundering — was very much that of a 7^th century Arab. Having enticed or enslaved his contemporaries into following him, his teachings continue to entice and enslave their descendants; and, now as then, it is always the innocent who suffer.

Islamic law forbids a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man, although a Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman. The idea is to ensure that the Islamic community is always growing, and the non-Muslim community always in decline.

By the way, I suspect that this woman's name is Asma, not "Asthma," and that the latter is an unfortunate spell-check correction for the former. "Muslim woman forced to flee for marrying a Christian," by Jibran Khan for Asia News, July 21 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - The religious intolerance that is destroying Pakistan continues unabated. The latest case in point is that of a couple comprising a Christian and a Muslim, who married without the consent of the families of origin and are now forced to live on the run from one place to another for fear of violence. The bishop of Islamabad has defended them: "Marriage should be free. The state must guarantee them freedom of choice. "

The pair is composed of Asthma Zubaida, a Muslim, and Basharat Masih, a Christian. Both lived in the town of Gujranwala, where they met and fell in love: the first was a teacher in the local government school, while Masih was an official of the Department of the school administration. Without parental consent, they were married in September 2010: since then have started to receive frequent death threats forcing them to flee.

The newlyweds have sought police help. Malik Arif, a police officer, said: "We have been contacted for assistance, they claimed the situation was life threatening. In fact, their complaint explains that her family attacked Masih a couple of months ago, when they discovered the marriage. The attacks also targeted the family of Christians. " "They too have been forced to flee."

One of Masih’s relatives, anonymous for security reasons, said: "We have been threatened, our home came under attack, they have even arrived at throwing stones at us from the street That Basharat is obviously more at risk: they want him dead. We asked for help, but nobody paid any attention to us: neither the police nor the local politicians. " Despite the fact she gave police a statement confirming that the marriage took place without any constraint.

Maulana Muhammad Sultan Haider, a Muslim scholar in Islamabad says that this "does not change anything. Only a Muslim man can marry a non-Muslim woman, because it would water down future generations. I condemn this marriage, I call it illegal, these two could be killed for what they did. "...

PETALING JAYA: PAS' objection to the MTV concert came under fire from various groups which described the party as narrow-minded.

MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said PAS was being insensitive to the reality of multi-ethnic Malaysia by imposing its values on others.

“Young people should be allowed to enjoy popular culture as long as they do not violate societal norms.

“I do not see any contradiction between the Asian values (practised in Malaysia) and the MTV (World Stage Live in Malaysia) concert,” he told The Star yesterday.

PAS Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad and the party's Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi had objected to the concert, scheduled to take place at i-City in Shah Alam on Sunday.

Khalid said he was opposed to the concert because it was being held too close to the fasting month and that the venue was not conducive, while Nasrudin said the party was not agreeable to concerts which encouraged immoral activities.

MCA state secretary Wong Koon Mun said the protest by PAS showed the party might claim to take on a moderate approach, but “intrinsically, PAS remains dogmatic”.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said PAS' opposition proved it was a narrow and conservative party at heart.

The Judeo-Christian Origins of Islam
by Ibn Warraq
Part 9
Part 1 here; part 2 here; part 3 here; part 4 here; part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here, part 8 here.

CC go on to argue that the town we now know as Mecca in central Arabia (Hijaz) could not have been the theater of the momentous events so beloved of Muslim tradition. Apart from the lack of any early non- Muslim references to Mecca, we do have the startling fact that the direction in which the early Muslims prayed (the qibla) was northwest Arabia. The evidence comes from the alignment of certain early mosques, and the literary evidence of Christian sources. In other words, Mecca, as the Muslim sanctuary, was only chosen much later, by the Muslims, in order to relocate their early history within Arabia, to complete their break with Judaism, and finally establish their separate religious identity.

There are many obscure passages in the Koran that can only be elucidated by reference to the Pentateuch or Psalms. Without going into the recondite philology of his arguments [for the details, see Michael Schub, The Secret Identity of Dhu l’Kifl, in ed Ibn Warraq, What the Koran Really Says, pp. 394-395], we can mention Michael Schub’s identification of the term “Dhu l’Kif”, which has puzzled commentators for centuries, with Melchizedeq mentioned in Genesis 14:16, Hebrews [NT] Chapters V and VII, Psalms CX. Melchizedeq is the one of who gets his share, who receives one-tenth of Abraham’s spoils, and who is to be ranked above the Levites, whose primary function under the Law was to collect the tithes, and that is precisely the sense of the Arabic Dhu l’Kifl.

Even more startling is the following example:

Surah III. 95-96; “Certainly the first house appointed for men is the one at Bakkah, blessed and a guidance for the nations. In it are clear signs: (it is) the Place of Abraham; and whoever enters it is safe; and pilgrimage to the House is a duty which men owe to Allah -- whoever can find a way to it. And whoever disbelieves, surely Allah is above the need of the worlds.”

Many translations simply add in brackets after Bakkah (Mecca), without a word of explanation. Modern Western commentators may add a footnote saying Bakkah was an alternative spelling of Mecca, as does the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. The classical Arabic commentary known as Tafsir al-Jalalayn completed approximately in 1467 C.E says, “The use of Bakkah rather than Mecca reflects a Meccan dialect; it is called that because it bears down (bakka) on the neck of tyrants. The angels built it before the creation of Adam whereas al-Aqsa in Jerusalem was built after that.” Here is one Muslim translator’s comments, “Bakkah is the same as Makkah [Mecca] [referrring the reader to Al-Isfahani’s Dictionary of the Qur’an] from tabakk meaning the crowding together of men [ Commentary of Fakhr al-Din Razi]. Others say it is from a root meaning the breaking of the neck, and the name is given to it because whenever a tyrant forced his way to it, his neck was broken [Razi]. Some think that Bakkah is the name of the mosque or the House itself that is in Makkah [Mecca]. The Jews and Christians are told that the Temple at Jerusalem was erected long after Abraham, while the Holy House at Makkah [Mecca] was there even before Abraham, and was in fact, the first House on earth for the worship of the Divine Being.” In other words, the Muslim commentators really do not have a clue as to its meaning.

Again, the essential question in cases like this is, Why would a Muslima want to work at Abercrombie & Fitch in the first place? Wouldn't she find the clothing line, the advertising, and the whole atmosphere objectionable on moral grounds? Shouldn't she prefer to shun such an environment rather than want to work there at all, especially if she is pious and observant enough to want to wear the hijab? Unless, of course, the real point of her getting hired in the first place was to compel an American business to change its practices in order to accommodate Islamic norms, and thereby to assert once again that Islam must dominate and not be dominated. And now Samantha Elauf has succeeded.

An update on this story.

"US Muslim Woman Gets $20,000 in Lawsuit Against Discrimination," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, July 21 (thanks to Twostellas):

A federal jury has awarded $20,000 in compensatory damages to a Muslim woman who alleged that Abercrombie & Fitch discriminated against her because she wore a head scarf.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The six-member panel deliberated more than four hours Wednesday before deciding on damages against the clothing retailer.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued on behalf of Samantha Elauf, who alleged she was denied a job at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Tulsa's Woodland Hills Mall because she wore a hijab. The hijab is part of her religious beliefs.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled last week the store violated Elauf's civil rights when it didn't hire her.

Store officials denied any discrimination but acknowledged having a policy that bars headwear....

In "Keep this 'moderate' Muslim in jail" in WorldNetDaily, July 20, Pamela Geller explains why the man who was once the leading "moderate" Muslim in the United States should stay in prison:

The feds want to cut the 23-year prison sentence of a Hamas-linked one-time leading U.S. "moderate" Muslim. He may shortly be released from federal prison, and as an American citizen, he can stay in this country.

Islamic supremacist Abdurahman Alamoudi is Grover Norquist's good buddy and partner. He has been in jail since 2003, after pleading guilty to illegal dealings with Libya and to being paid over $500,000 (in cash) by Libyan officials as part of an al-Qaida assassination plot against the Saudi king (a longtime target of Islamic jihadists for his Islamic laxity and alliance with the U.S.).

Now, federal prosecutors are asking a judge to cut Alamoudi's prison term. According to the Associated Press, "the documents explaining why prosecutors want to cut Alamoudi's sentence are under seal, but such reductions are allowed only when a defendant provides substantial assistance to the government." What kind of assistance? Who determined its value? Who is behind this? His release could be connected to the Obama administration's plan to open up talks with the Muslim Brotherhood, as a gesture to show the Brotherhood Obama's good will.

Back in 2009, Insight magazine wrote that "Norquist was Alamoudi's most influential Washington facilitator," who "introduced Alamoudi to Washington GOP power circles." Alamoudi "ran, directed, founded or funded at least 15 Muslim political-action and charitable groups" which "helped inch the image of U.S.-based Islamists toward the political mainstream and induced politicians to embrace his organizations," including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. "Alamoudi and other Muslim leaders met with Bush in Austin in July [2000], offering to support his bid for the White House in exchange for Bush's commitment to repeal certain antiterrorist laws."

Alamoudi's influence was huge. He positioned a Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), to approve Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military and prison system. ISNA still has that privilege.

Meanwhile, "canceled checks obtained by Insight show Alamoudi provided seed money to start a GOP-oriented Muslim group called the Islamic Institute, which Norquist originally chaired. Alamoudi gave the Islamic Institute a $10,000 loan and a gift of another $10,000. The founding director of the Islamic Institute was Khaled Saffuri, a Palestinian Muslim who had previously been active in Islamic groups in Bosnia. Alamoudi reportedly also gave $50,000 to the lobbying group Janus-Merritt Strategies, which Norquist co-founded.

In 2008, journalist Paul Sperry wrote that Norquist had a "wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government." Norquist sponsored Kamal Nawash's unsuccessful bid to become Republican Party leader in Virginia; Nawash was Alamoudi's attorney. Norquist also aided previous failed political runs by Nawash – including Nawash's 2003 Virginia state Senate bid, to which Saffuri gave money. Norquist also aided Faisal Gill's failed run for the Virginia state legislature in 2007. Gill, like Nawash, was an associate of Alamoudi. During his run, he took $3,000 in contributions from the pro-jihad Safa group.

Alamoudi was an open supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. In 2000, Alamoudi said at a rally, "I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas. Anybody support Hamas here? ... Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas. I wished they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah." Alamoudi was at that time head of the now-defunct "moderate" group known as American Muslim Council (AMC), and he was active in other Muslim groups in the U.S. that showed sympathy to or support for jihadists....

Read it all.

In Human Events Tuesday I restated the obvious:

Less than three years after the coordinated jihad attacks in Mumbai, India, of November 2008, in which jihadists murdered 164 people, jihadists have again targeted the city, which is India’s financial center. Last Wednesday, 21 people were killed and well over 100 wounded in a series of synchronized bombings. “This was a coordinated attack by terrorists,” Palaniappan Chidambaram, India’s home minister, said. Indian officials named as responsible a jihad terror group known as the Indian Mujahideen.

The jihadists planted Wednesday’s bombs in busy areas so as to ensure the maximum number of casualties. The first explosion went off in the Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai’s renowned jewelry market. The second detonated just one minute later in a building that houses jewelry firms in Mumbai’s business center, the Opera House district. Ten minutes after that, a third bomb went off in a populous area of central Mumbai.

There may be more to come: Narendra Modi, chief minister in the western state of Gujarat, warned that the bombings may prove to be the prelude to another large-scale jihad attack like the one in November 2008, and said that the bombers are trying to prove that “they have the strength to destroy the country.”

Because the Indian Mujahideen’s bomb-making experts are all in prison, authorities are investigating the possibility that the Pakistani jihad group Lashkar-e-Taiba helped construct the bombs used in Wednesday’s attacks. There would be no surprise in the involvement of Pakistani jihadists, or even in the involvement of elements of the Pakistani establishment. Pakistan’s intelligence service has been accused of involvement in the planning of the November 2008 massacres, and the suspicion continues in India and elsewhere that figures at high levels of the Pakistani government may have known about the attacks beforehand or even been involved in planning them.

As a result of this suspicion, last week the Pakistani government spoke out quickly in order to head off speculation that it may have been involved in these latest attacks too. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani quickly condemned the attacks Wednesday, offering condolences to the Indian government and people. Then Zardari headed off to Iran for talks with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who declared: “Iran is ready to reinforce its cooperation with Pakistan in every field.”

The Pakistani government’s latest efforts to forge close ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran is just one reason why legitimate suspicion remains about its involvement in jihad attacks against India. How unequivocal can the Pakistani government be in its condemnation of these attacks when it has already been proven to have aided and abetted jihad activity in Afghanistan, and to have given American taxpayer money that it was supposed to be using to fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban to those very groups?...

There is more.

You've got to hand it to them: those hidden Zionist conspirators are thorough. Not even the fenugreek is safe from their wiles. Somewhere in the Grand Conspiracy Headquarters is a Fenugreek File on someone's desk with all the nefarious plans.

Once again, conspiracy theories are handy for Islamic governments and societies, where they tend to thrive, because they deflect responsibility, and they don't have to make sense as long as they pin the blame on one scapegoat or another and reinforce a sense of righteous victim-hood to at once distract and unite the populace. "In new Egypt, old conspiracies live on," by David E. Miller for The Media Line, July 20:

When a European laboratory announced two weeks ago that an infected shipment of Egyptian fenugreek seeds was the source of an E. coli epidemic that killed 48 Germans and a Swede, the Egyptian agriculture minister didn’t apologize, nor did he call for an investigation into the matter.

The problem had nothing to do with Egypt, the minister, Ayman Abu-Hadid, told Egyptian press.

"Israel is waging a commercial war against Egyptian exports," he explained, and with that the case was closed.

Abu-Hadid isn’t the only minister in Egypt's post-revolutionary government to blame Israel for his country's woes. In June, Deputy Prime Minister Yehia El-Gamal told the Lebanese news site Al-Nashra that Israel was inciting sectarian strife between Muslims and Christians in the country.

“Israel understands that a strong Egypt is a danger for them and they want to make Egypt weak,” El-Gamal said. "Nothing breaks or weakens Egypt more than sectarian tension or clashes between Muslims and Christians.”

Conspiracy theories – with Israel fingered as the power behind the scenes – were common currency in the years Husni Mubarak ruled Egypt. Many Egyptians expected that with the transition to a more open, accountable and democratic society, the politicians and press would no longer need to point to cabals to explain away problems.

Egypt’s press today is freer than any time in the last half century, but the government remains in the hands of the Mubarak-era army leadership, and the cabinet, even after this week’s reshuffle, is made up of veteran politicians. And, even though Egypt and Israel are formally at peace, many Egyptians remain hostile to the Jewish state. Travel, commercial ties and cultural links are minimal.

"Conspiracy theories are part of the texture of our culture," Hani Henry, a psychology professor at the American University in Cairo, told The Media Line. "Even if we have a democratic government, the problem will not go away."

He says blaming Israel for Egypt’s problems could be both a cynical attempt by politicians to distract the public or an honest belief that Israel is constantly conniving against Egypt. In either case however, conspiratorial thinking was deeply ingrained in Egyptian thinking.

The Egyptian government, nominated and directed by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), is struggling with soaring unemployment, a sharp decline in tourism and inflation of nearly 12%. Given these troubles, it is much easier to blame an outside enemy than take responsibility and face public rage, experts say.

The arrest in mid-June of Ilan Grapel, a 27-year-old American-Israeli law student, on charges of spying for Israel and stirring social unrest in Egypt was viewed by many Egyptians as a government ploy to deflect public attention from its shortcomings. Grapel traveled to Egypt as part of his work for a charity helping African refugees. His family, as well as the Israeli government, deny he was involved in espionage.

Then there were those oddly tattooed Mossad guys.

"Those scoundrels want to occupy the people with the spy so that they don’t talk about Mubarak and the gas [exports to Israel] …Come on, it’s the same old regime, nothing has changed," one Facebook commentator wrote.

When protesters and police clashed at Cairo’s Tahrir Square at the end of June, leaving 1,000 injured, SCAF announced that it was all part of an “organized plan” to destabilize Egypt.

“Here we come to the question that blew off the lid of Pandora’s Box: Who sent the thugs? And all kinds of answers start popping up, and with each answer an entire world of sneaky intrigues and mischievous plots reveals itself to an audience yearning for an action-packed story that absolves them from blame and holds some invincible power accountable for their misery,” wrote Sonia Farid, who teaches English literature at Cairo University, on the Al-Arabiya television website.

It's always someone else's fault:

Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo human rights organization, says that decades of Western failure to address the Palestinian issue has caused Egyptians to become bitter and suspicious of the West. However, he added, that doesn’t exempt them from examining their own mistakes.

"I don't like hearing about conspiracy theories," Ibrahim told The Media Line. "Even if we assume there was external intervention, someone from the inside must have contributed."

While he understood why simple Egyptians would blame the Israelis for the E. coli epidemic, Ibrahim says that such statements from an educated government official are unacceptable.

"The government is placating the sentiments of the masses," Ibrahim said. "Rather than leading the way and enlightening the people, they are feeding their fears."...

There's good news here. There's progress. Whoever bought the lingerie for this alleged act of witchcraft, they may have been spared the awkwardness of buying from a male attendant due to prior Saudi rules to uphold Sharia's segregation of the sexes.

You can't make this stuff up. "Saudi Arabia's 'Anti-Witchcraft Unit' breaks another spell," by David E. Miller for The Media Line, July 20 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

When the severed head of a wolf wrapped in women's lingerie turned up near the city of Tabouk in northern Saudi Arabia this week, authorities knew they had another case of witchcraft on their hands, a capital offence in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.

Agents of the country’s Anti-Witchcraft Unit were quickly dispatched and set about trying to break the spell that used the beast’s head.

Saudi Arabia takes witchcraft so seriously that it has banned the Harry Potter series by British writer J.K. Rowling, rife with tales of sorcery and magic. It set up the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in May 2009 and placed it under the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPV), Saudi Arabia's religious police.

"In accordance with our Islamic tradition we believe that magic really exists," Abdullah Jaber, a political cartoonist at the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, told The Media Line. "The fact that an official body, subordinate to the Saudi Ministry of Interior, has a unit to combat sorcery proves that the government recognizes this, like Muslims worldwide."

The unit is charged with apprehending sorcerers and reversing the detrimental effects of their spells. On the CPV website, a hotline encourages citizens across the kingdom to report cases of sorcery to local officials for immediate treatment.

If there's something strange, in your neighborhood...

In the case of the wolf's head, the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in Tabouk was able to break the spell. The Saudi daily Okaz reported on Monday that the unknown family that had fallen victim to the spell had been "liberated from the jaws of the wolf.”

Who you gonna call:

The Anti-Witchcraft Unit was created in order to educate the public about the danger of sorcerers and "combat manifestations of polytheism and reliance on other Gods," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The belief in sorcery is so widespread in Saudi Arabia, that it is even used as a defense in criminal court cases. Last October, a judge accused of receiving bribes in a real-estate project told a court in Madinah that he had been bewitched and is undergoing treatment by Quranic incantations, known as ruqiyah, a common remedy for the evil eye.

Jaber noted, however, that most sorcerers both inside and outside the kingdom were charlatans that take advantage of illiterate citizens who believed they were afflicted by the evil eye. He said that such beliefs were more prevalent among older, rural and often illiterate individuals than with younger, educated Saudis.

"A while ago my arm was hurt and I couldn't draw," the cartoonist said. "Many older people told me that I must have been afflicted by the evil eye and should be treated by a Sheikh."

"It's a matter of ignorance," Jaber added. "If people were more educated they wouldn't believe in this."....

It was that last bomb that didn't quite make the grade. An update on this story. "Dozens of Bombs Found in Indonesian Boarding School," from Agence France-Presse, July 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

Police found more than two dozen home-made bombs in eastern Indonesia following an explosion last week inside an Islamic boarding school suspected of being a bomb factory, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

After the blast that killed a suspected terrorist, police raided the Umar bin Khatab school in West Nusa Tenggara province and ended a three-day standoff on Wednesday with students and teachers armed with swords, machetes and sticks.

Police later found the home-made bombs, but did not say exactly when.

“The 26 pipe bombs were defused,” national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam told reporters. “They planned to use the bombs to attack police stations.”

Police said that the school was linked to radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was jailed for 15 years last month for funding a terrorist group that was planning attacks against Westerners and political leaders.

Obligatory:

Most of Indonesia’s 200 million Muslims are moderates, but the country has struggled to deal with a radical fringe of extremists who have carried out numerous attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Well, we know it won't feature Mickey and Minnie in traditional Islamic garb. That didn't go over so well.

But no matter how seemingly benign and innocent the matter at hand may seem, the jihadist has a knack for turning it into an instrument of death. Even cartoons. "Al-Qaida plans cartoon recruiting film for kids," by Paisley Dodds for the Associated Press, July 20:

LONDON (AP) — An al-Qaida affiliate says it plans to roll out what some have called a Disney-like animated cartoon aimed at recruiting children to the terror network.

Scenes from the proposed short film show young boys dressed in battle fatigues and participating in raids, killings and terror plots. It is the latest attempt by the terror organization to use multimedia to draw in potential recruits. Recently, a Yemen-based extremist group released an online women's magazine with makeup and chastity tips.

News of the animated film was announced by a group called Abu al-Laith al-Yemen on the Arabic-language al-Shamouk jihadist website, the London-based Quilliam Foundation reported Wednesday. Quilliam, which was formed by former jihadists and now aims to stamp out extremism, said it appears the group is affiliated with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

There are screen captures at the Associated Press link above. In truth, the style looks more like a ripoff of Japanese-influenced cartoons than Disney. No word on a jihadi Pikachu, though.

"It's a Disney-like film aimed at kids that tells stories of the Prophet, stories of holy wars and anti-Western propaganda," said Noman Benotman, a former jihadist with links to al-Qaida who is now an analyst at Quilliam. "But I think it could backfire. Families will be angry that al-Qaida is directing this at their children."...

If they believe in the jihad themselves, they won't shield their children from indoctrination.

An update on this story from 2007, which called Daqduq "one of Hezbollah's top special operations commanders, [and] an expert in the use of roadside bombs," who admitted working with Iran's al-Qods special operations unit. He is believed to have played a key role in a brazen ambush on U.S. soldiers who thought they were going to discuss security issues with Shi'ite leaders.

Obviously, this bears watching. "Hezbollah commander could be transferred in days," from the Associated Press, July 21:

A Hezbollah commander held in Baghdad by the US military and considered a threat to American troops could be transferred soon to Iraqi authorities, and US security officials worry he could escape or even be freed.

Ali Mussa Daqduq worked with Iranian agents to train Shiite militias who targeted American soldiers in Iraq, according to the US military. He was captured in 2007 and US officials have linked him to a brazen 2007 raid in which four American soldiers were abducted and killed in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala.

We noticed this over at Weasel Zippers and thought a picture was worth a thousand words. Exactly what those words are, we look forward to finding out.

But he meant the morgue of peace

Interesting that a spy drone may have been around an Iranian nuclear installation. Maybe this portends well for future action against Iran's nuclear program. "Iran: Ahmadinejad threatens to send US, Israel 'to the morgue,'" from AKI, July 20 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Tehran, 20 July (AKI) - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened to destroy the United States and Israel if put on the defensive.

"Resistance will continue until Iran sends its enemies to the morgue," he said on his website, making a reference to the US and Israel who he said are "on the verge of collapse and gasping for their last breathes."

Ahmadinejad may have been reacting to news from Iranian state media that Iran brought down a U.S. "spy drone" flying near its Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province.

State-run Press TV didn't say when the incident happened. US officials said there were unaware that a US unmanned aircraft was downed, according to news reports.

The Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad said on his website "is the region's greatest military power."

Malaysia's civil court has refused a woman permission to leave Islam to avoid being jailed for apostasy.

Kamariah Ali, 60, says she should not be tried under Islamic law because she is no longer a Muslim.

She follows the Sky Kingdom sect, known as the teapot cult because it built a giant teapot to symbolise its belief in the healing purity of water.

But judges ruled that only Malaysia's Islamic courts could decide on the case because Ms Kamariah was born a Muslim.

Malaysia's Islamic courts have authority over only Muslims - the rest of the population are not bound by their rules.

The BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur says Ms Kamariah's case is one of a growing number of legal challenges brought by those caught between the Islamic authorities and the civil courts.

Ms Kamariah had asked the civil courts to declare her freedom to worship, as guaranteed by the [Malaysian] constitution.

As it turns out, any 'guarantees of freedom' made by Muslims or Muslim nations mean very little indeed.

And forcing young girls into marriage, and punishing children for listening to music -- they're misunderstanding Islam on a massive scale. Why aren't any of the groups that rail against "Islamophobia" doing something about this?

"Somali children recruited for combat by Islamists: Amnesty," from AFP, July 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

NAIROBI — Children in drought-struck Somalia are suffering from a range of war crimes including systematic recruitment by Islamist insurgents, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

The London-based rights group urged international action to protect the rights of children in war-torn Somalia, where tens of thousands are fleeing extreme drought.

Children are being "recruited as child soldiers, denied access to education and killed or injured in indiscriminate attacks," Amnesty said in a report.

Islamist extremists, including Shebab rebels who pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda last year, control swathes of southern Somalia and parts of its capital.

"As a child in Somalia, you risk death all the time," said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty's deputy director for Africa.

Children are punished by Shebab if they are caught listening to music or even for just wearing the "wrong clothes," Kagari added.

However, Amnesty also noted that Somalia's transitional government is on a UN "list of shame" for recruiting, using, killing and maiming children in armed conflict.

"It has committed to respect children's rights but has yet to adopt any concrete measures to end the use of children by forces fighting on its side," the report added.

While some children are lured to fight by the promise of money or mobile telephones, Shebab rebels are also using "increasingly threatening recruitment methods", including raiding schools and abduction.

Most children taken to fight appear to be aged between 12 and 18 years old, but refugees told Amnesty that children as young as eight have been recruited.

While boys are mainly recruited to fight, girls are taken to be cooks, cleaners or to carry weapons for the fighters, Amnesty added.

Some girls are forced into marriage with gunmen, the report added, which is based on testimonies from over 200 Somali refugees....

This is the kind of law that the OIC is working through the UN to pressure Western states to adopt. Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Dubai: "Briton fined AED3,000 for insulting Ramadan," by Claire Ferris-Lay for ArabianBusiness.com, July 20 (thanks to Twostellas):

A British expat has been fined AED3, 000 for insulting Ramadan on a social networking site and calling her colleague a dictator, it was reported Wednesday.

The 31-year old woman, who admitted posting a status update on her Facebook page expressing her dislike for Ramadan, was charged at the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours on Tuesday, according to The National.

The colleague of the accused, an Egyptian woman, said in a statement to the court that she had seen a “disrespectful” status update about Ramadan on September 4 last year.

“I told her to not say such things about the holy month as she was in a Muslim country,” she was quoted as telling prosecutors by the paper.

The accused responded by calling the woman stupid and ignorant and saying she was a closed-minded dictator and a follower of bin Laden, said the newspaper.

Police referred the accused to prosecutors eight months later on charges of insulting a religious creed. That charge was dismissed before being referred to the court on insult charges.

Judge Mohammed Ahmed Shoaib fined the accused AED3,000.

Dubai police officials warned last month that non-Muslims risk arrest if they are caught eating during Ramadan, when consuming food and drink is banned under UAE laws between sunrise and sunset.

But they say they've renounced al-Qaeda, so all is well. They couldn't be lying, of course. And if they've renounced al-Qaeda, that must mean they're moderate, right? That must mean they've renounced jihad, and Islamic supremacism, and the oppression of women, and dhimmitude, and the denial of the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience, and are practically by now registered Democrats, right?

"Exiled Islamists Watch Rebellion Unfold at Home," by Souad Mekhennet and Eric Schmitt for the New York Times, July 18:

LONDON — Abu Sohaib spends most of his time online these days, following the news from his native Libya. He is in constant contact with friends on the ground there, helping them map out strategy to fight the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

“I would like to be there myself; I tried to go,” he said, pausing to look at the car keys in front of him. “But Tunisia and Egypt wouldn’t let me in even after their revolution.”

Abu Sohaib, his nom de guerre, is on a watch list for suspected terrorists not only in Libya and its neighboring countries, but also in some European countries. He is a senior commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a former militant organization that once was aligned with Al Qaeda. The New York Times is withholding his real name because he said he fears for his safety.

Today, members of the group have renounced Al Qaeda and are part of the mosaic of rebel fighters united under the umbrella of the Transitional National Council, the opposition leadership that the United States formally recognized as Libya’s legitimate government on Friday.

American, European and Arab intelligence services acknowledge that they are worried about the influence that the former group’s members might exert over Libya after Colonel Qaddafi is gone, and they are trying to assess their influence and any lingering links to Al Qaeda.

Oh, great. Then all is well. As if anyone in the American, European and Arab intelligence services would even dare to ask the right questions of these people they're "assessing," or even know what these questions would be.

The group, whose fighters number more than 500 men, including many with combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan, was part of the social fabric of eastern Libya, its leaders say. Its members’ relatives are in Benghazi, the wellhead of opposition to the government in Tripoli. Its fighters opposed Colonel Qaddafi in the 1990s, were captured and died in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. They hid from Qaddafi security forces in the caves in Darnah until the Libyan revolution. In short, many Libyans say, the men are seen not as an alien, pernicious force but as patriots.

They fought in Iraq and Afghanistan for the jihad and against the U.S. Now we've recognized them as the government of Libya and are helping them out.

Libyans have held positions in the Qaeda ranks in the past, with the most prominent men being Abu Laith al-Libi and Abu Yahya al-Libi. “It is easy to change a name and say, ‘We are not part of Al Qaeda,’ but the question is if they have changed their ideology and I doubt it,” said a senior Arab intelligence official.

An American intelligence official who follows North Africa said that dozens of the former group’s members trained and fought alongside militants in Pakistan’s lawless tribal region.

Abu Sohaib insists that he and his brethren have severed ties to Al Qaeda and have warned the terrorist group it is not welcome in Libya. “It has been made very clear to them, that it is better for them to stay out of the country,” he said....

The formal American recognition of the rebel leadership allows the rebel government access to $30 billion in Libyan assets held in the United States. Of that, however, only about $3.5 billion is in liquid funds, and the rest in real estate and other Libyan government investments, State Department officials say. It is unclear how and when the money will be distributed to the transitional government, and what oversight mechanism will be placed to monitor it....

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was formed in 1995 with the goal of ousting Colonel Qaddafi. Driven into the mountains or exile by Libyan security forces, the group’s members were among the first to join the fight against Qaddafi security forces, although the new transitional leadership has sought to distance itself from the fighters because of their past ties to Al Qaeda. “We wanted to live in a country in which we can live and promote Islam the way it should be,” said Abu Sohaib. “We are sure Islam is good for everyone.”

Except non-Muslims, women, apostates, etc. etc. etc.

Abu Sohaib is a soft-spoken man in his mid-40s, well built and well trained, as his biceps show under his checkered chemise. He has lived for many years in Britain; before that he had been to Saudi Arabia and also Afghanistan and Pakistan. “There was a time when the British wanted to hand us over to Muammar el-Qaddafi , though they knew we would be tortured,” he said, staring at his hands.

He was in Afghanistan and Pakistan waging jihad. And now we are helping out his compatriots.

That distrust of the West still gnaws at other members of the group. A 36-year-old Libyan associated with the fighting group who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Salah and who travels between Europe and Libya said: “We start to question the true intentions of the West in Libya. If they would have wanted to kill Muammar el-Qaddafi, they could have done it several times. I guess this is about making as much money with oil and weapons deals as possible.”...

As always, Islamic jihadists and Islamic supremacists express their lack of trust of the West, not the other way around. The assumption is always that they control the moral high ground. This is another manifestation of the same phenomenon that we see after every jihad plot in the U.S.: law enforcement and media reassuring the Muslim community, instead of the other way around.

“Isn’t it interesting how they were hunting us for years and were working with Muammar el-Qaddafi?” said Abu Sohaib, referring to the United States, which after Libya disbanded its unconventional weapons program in 2003 worked closely with Libyan authorities to combat terrorism. “Now we are cooperating with NATO and the West, those who used to put us in jail.”

Yes, it's very interesting.

It was without any doubt a catastrophic mistake to invite millions of followers of a religion that has a strong negative attitude towards us non-believers and our democratic values to the West. Now they are here; their many children and grandchildren are here, and they all have Western citizenship. When we ask them to integrate and change their views of us and our values, their answer is: "Why should we? We were born here; this is also our country." We can't send them home, and they refuse to integrate. So what to do? We make them an offer they can't refuse.

Here is a four-step guide:

1: Repatriation. Immigrants should be offered repatriation (state-paid emigration). The amount of money must be big enough to make this an attractive option.

2: Integrate or lose social benefits. Lack of integration (speaking the language, getting a job, obeying the law, taking responsibility for one's childrens' behaviour) must be made so unpractical and economically non-beneficial that receiving money for emigrating (repatriation) to the country that one's family comes from becomes more attractive than staying.

3: Stop islamization. Stopping and removing the many forms of islamization will make it harder for Islamic supremacists to practise the traditional and therefore violent version of their religion. This includes the imposition of halal food, the establishment of Islamic schools and the mentally and physically unhealthy practise of inbreeding (cousin marriages). Islamic organisations must regularly prove that they renounce any fatwa and quranic verse that promotes hate or violence, and economic funding from sources that promote hate or violence.

4: Enforce the law. Police must make the necessary effort to enforce the law and the state's ban on violence in Muslim areas. Law enforcement includes a ban of every kind of sharia court, and stricter control regarding social welfare and tax evasion in their shops. It also includes that we make sure that immigrant women are free to enjoy their human rights -- including rights to freely chose their sexual partners, clothing style and religion, and that they know their rights to divorce, family planning and police protection for them and their children. Imprisoned immigrants should be offered reduced sentences if they accept repatriation.

Offering money for leaving, making lack of integration economically non-beneficial, making it much harder for Islamic traditionalists to practise and spread their aggressive doctrine and enforcing the law are the minimum if we want to solve the problem without too much blood, sweat and tears.

The Judeo-Christian Origins of Islam
by Ibn Warraq
Part 8
Part 1 here; part 2 here; part 3 here; part 4 here; part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here.

B. OLD TESTAMENT.

The Koran has references to only the Pentateuch and the Pslams. Moses’ name appears 136 times in the Koran, allusions far exceeding “those relating to other figures of the Islamic history of salvation, including Abraham.”[Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, Vol. 3, s.v. “Moses” p. 419]. Bearing in mind the importance of Moses in the Koran, Patricia Crone and Michael Cook in their important work, Hagarism, put forward the thesis that the influence of the Samaritans was perhaps the decisive factor in the creation of the Islamic identity. The origins of the Samaritans are rather obscure. They are Israelites of central Palestine, generally considered the descendants of those who were planted in Samaria by the Assyrian kings, in about 722 B.C.E. The faith of the Samaritans was Jewish monotheism, but they had shaken off the influence of Judaism by developing their own religious identity, rather in the way the Arabs were to do later on. The Samaritan canon included only the Pentateuch, which was considered the sole source and standard for faith and conduct. The formula “There is no God but the One” is an ever-recurring refrain in Samaritan liturgies. A constant theme in their literature is the unity of God and His absolute holiness and righteousness. We can immediately notice the similarity of the Muslim proclamation of faith: “There is no God but Allah.” And, of course, the unity of God is a fundamental principle in Islam. The Muslim formula “In the name of God” (bismillah) is found in Samaritan scripture as beshem. The opening chapter of the Koran is known as the Fatiha, opening or gate, often considered as a succinct confession of faith. A Samaritan prayer, which can also be considered a confession of faith, begins with the words: Amadti kamekha al fatah rahmeka, “I stand before Thee at the gate of Thy mercy.” Fatah is the Fatiha, opening or gate.

The sacred book of the Samaritans was the Pentateuch, which embodied the supreme revelation of the divine will, and was accordingly highly venerated. Muhammad also seems to know the Pentateuch and Psalms only, and shows no knowledge of the prophetic or historical writings.

The Samaritans held Moses in high regard, Moses being the prophet through whom the Law was revealed. For the Samaritans, Mt. Gerizim was the rightful center for the worship of Yahweh; and it was further associated with Adam, Seth, and Noah, and Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. The expectation of a coming Messiah was also an article of faith; the name given to their Messiah was the Restorer. Here we can also notice the similarity of the Muslim notion of the Mahdi. We can tabulate the close parallels between the doctrines of the SAMARITANS and the Muslims in this way:

MOSES, EXODUS, PENTATEUCH, MT. SINAI/MT. GERIZIM, SHECHEM
Muhammad, Hijra, Koran, Mt. Hira, Mecca

Under the influence of the Samaritans, the Arabs proceeded to cast Muhammad in the role of Moses as the leader of an exodus (hijra), as the bearer of a new revelation (Koran) received on an appropriate (Arabian) sacred mountain, Mt. Hira. It remained for them to compose a sacred book. Cook and Crone [CC] point to the tradition that the Koran had been many books but of which ‘Uthman (the third caliph after Muhammad) had left only one. We have the further testimony of a Christian monk who distinguishes between the Koran and the Surat al-baqara as sources of law. In other documents, we are told that Hajjaj (661–714), the governor of Iraq, had collected and destroyed all the writings of the early Muslims. Then, following Wansbrough, CC conclude that the Koran “is strikingly lacking in overall structure, frequently obscure and inconsequential in both language and content, perfunctory in its linking of disparate materials and given to the repetition of whole passages in variant versions. On this basis it can be plausibly argued that the book [Koran] is the product of the belated and imperfect editing of materials from a plurality of traditions.”

The Samaritans had rejected the sanctity of Jerusalem, and had replaced it by the older Israelite sanctuary of Shechem. When the early Muslims disengaged from Jerusalem, Shechem provided an appropriate model for the creation of a sanctuary of their own. The parallelism is striking. Each presents the same binary structure of a sacred city closely associated with a nearby holy mountain, and in each case the fundamental rite is a pilgrimage from the city to the mountain. In each case the sanctuary is an Abrahamic foundation, the pillar on which Abraham sacrificed in Shechem finding its equivalent in the rukn [the Yamai corner of the Ka‘ba] of the Meccan sanctuary. Finally, the urban sanctuary is in each case closely associated with the grave of the appropriate patriarch: Joseph (as opposed to Judah) in the Samaritan case, Ishmael (as opposed to Isaac) in the Meccan.

What happens in Pakistan's double game doesn't stay in Pakistan: "The money Fai's Pakistani handlers arranged to be funneled to the group was then used 'to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences, and pay for other efforts'."

"FBI arrests VA man charged as unregistered agent of Pakistani ISI," by Laura Rozen for The Envoy, July 19:

The FBI on Tuesday morning arrested a Fairfax, Va., man charged with acting as an unregistered, paid agent of the Pakistani intelligence services for twenty years.

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, a U.S. citizen, "is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose--to hide Pakistan's involvement behind his efforts to influence the U.S. government's position on Kashmir," said Neil MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in an FBI press release.

That press release can be found here.

Fai serves as director of the Washington, D.C.-based Kashmiri American Council (KAC). The outfit, founded in 1990, describes itself as a "not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in the United States about the struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination."

But a 45-page affidavit released by the Justice Department Tuesday alleges that Fai was in almost constant touch with Pakistani intelligence handlers who arranged the funding and messaging for the group.

The Kashmiri Action Council is "actually run by elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan's military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI)," the FBI press release said. The money Fai's Pakistani handlers arranged to be funneled to the group was then used "to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences, and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington," MacBride said.

Beginning in 2007, the FBI repeatedly warned Fai of information--obtained from confidential witnesses, electronic surveillance and physical searches --that his work was being funded by the Pakistani government. The FBI also notified Fai in writing in 2010 of his obligation to register as an agent of the Pakistani government with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), according to the FBI.

But Fai consistently denied "that either he or KAC had ever engaged in any activities for or provided any services to Pakistan or any foreign entity," the Justice Department said.

Also charged Tuesday in the case but still at large was Zaheer Ahmad, 63, a U.S. citizen believed to be residing in Pakistan.

The Pakistani embassy denied Tuesday that it knew anything about the case and said Fai was not a Pakistani citizen.

But on page 42 of the affidavit, it states that as recently as this year -- on January 6, 2011 -- Fai received a message from Fozia Bibi, the third secretary of the Pakistani embassy, "attaching a list of 11 media persons and six intellectuals from think tanks that Fai was encouraged to meet and cultivate."

Asked about the described embassy contact, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani said the embassy had no involvement or knowledge of Fai's allegedly illegal funding arrangements.

"Ms. Bibi was in touch [with] Mr. Fai about an event he organized [with] US officials & scholars present," Haqqani said on Twitter in response to a query posted by the Envoy.

Fai has given donations to both Republican and Democratic U.S. politicians, Politico's Ben Smith reported: "Fai's largest contribution, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, was to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to which he gave $5,000 in 2006 and $1,000 in 2008. He gave smaller sums more recently to the DSCC and the DNC, and has given $5,000 to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), $250 to Barack Obama and $500 Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.)."

The Iranian nuclear playbook in action: Alternately pay lip service to cooperation and stonewall outright, get a scolding in a U.N. resolution and some incrementally more restrictive sanctions, and keep working on the bomb the entire time.

Iran is relying on inertia at the U.N. to stop protests by the French or anyone else from gaining momentum, until essentially symbolic actions from the IAEA and Security Council have allowed enough time to pass for the Islamic Republic's first nuclear test.

"Iran to 'speed up' uranium enrichment at nuclear plants," from BBC News, July 19:

Iran says it is installing newer and faster centrifuges at its nuclear plants, with the goal of speeding up the uranium enrichment process.

The foreign ministry says the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has "full supervision" of the operation.

The French government has condemned the move as a "new provocation".

France and other Western powers fear that Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its programme is for civilian use.

Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs. Tehran insists that it is refining uranium for electricity generation and medical applications.

"By installing the new centrifuges progress is being made with more speed and better quality," said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.

He said the move showed Iran's success in pursuing its "peaceful nuclear activity", but did not say where the new generation of centrifuges would be installed, or provide details on the speed or capability of the machines.

'Suspicions confirmed'

France was quick to condemn the announcement.

"Iran is engaging in a new provocation by announcing the imminent installation of next-generation centrifuges," the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

"[It] clearly confirms the suspicions of the IAEA and of the international community about the finality of a programme with no credible civilian application," the statement said....

Oui.

A "Minnesota man." Lutheran? No. Funny, that. An update on this story. "Minnesota man admits Somalia terror plot," from BBC News, July 19:

A man from the US state of Minnesota has admitted helping men of Somali origin travel to the African country to join the al-Shabab militant group.

Omer Abdi Mohamed admitted one count of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim others in a foreign country.

The 26-year-old's plea came on the eve of what would have been the first trial in a federal probe into the recruiting of US fighters for al-Shabab.

Mohamed faces up to 15 years in jail when sentenced later.

His lawyer, Peter Wold, said his client chose to admit the charge of providing material support to terrorists because he has a family and faced a much longer sentence if convicted.

Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis allowed Mohamed to remain free on electronic monitoring.

Others charged

In a statement posted on the FBI's website, the US Attorney's office said Mohamed had admitted being a member of a conspiracy that recruited young men of Somali descent to travel to Somalia to fight Ethiopian troops. At least 21 are believed to have travelled from the US to Somalia.

The Ethiopian troops are assisting Somalia's transitional federal government but al-Shabab views them as invaders.

Mohamed said in court that he had attended secret meetings and helped the men travel to Somalia.

"I helped them get tickets," he said.

Mr Wold said his client was motivated by patriotism and wanted to help others defend his homeland from "mortal enemies".

"[Mohamed] was only involved in a mission to protect Somalia," he said. "Omer has nothing to do with terrorists."....

How about jihadists?

Why, something to hide?

Talgat Tadzhuddin's call for less coverage brings to mind a strange reversal of the "tree falling in the forest" question: Move everyone out of earshot of trees falling in the forest, and for good measure, stop discussing falling trees. Because we can't hear them anymore, no trees are falling in the forest. Or, perhaps, only a Tiny Minority. Problem solved.

Oh, and if you say otherwise, you hate trees. "Russia's Muslim leader wants less coverage of terrorism," from RIA Novosti, July 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

Russian TV channels should broadcast less news about terrorism and extremism, the chief mufti of Russia, Talgat Tadzhuddin, said on Tuesday at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"Once an explosion occurs somewhere, it is discussed every hour for at least two days," Tadzhuddin said. He suggested instead that media outlets pay more attention to "the lifestyle of the Russian peoples, their traditions and beliefs."

Tadzhuddin also proposed in February the establishment of a "spirituality tax" to raise money for the construction of new mosques and cathedrals. The tax was to be collected from all residents of Bashkiria, regardless of their faith.

Bashkir has a Muslim majority. Money raised from all faiths is far more likely to go to mosques, making it a thinly concealed jizya tax on non-Muslims. It will also siphon off money they could give directly to build their houses of worship. Besides, what do Bashkir's atheists get for their contribution, a bowling alley?

In April, he suggested adding Islam's crescent to Russia's national emblem.

Muslim minorities make up around one seventh of Russia's population. Some analysts suggest that high Muslim birthrates cold mean Islam will become Russia's dominant religion by 2050.

Neither the raid nor the target were small operations: "The raids by around 60 police officers in Baden-Württemberg under the code name 'Iron' recovered propaganda material and close to €10,000 in cash." "Raid targets suspected Islamist fund-raisers," from The Local, July 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

German police raided eight apartments and an office in the Stuttgart area on Tuesday in an operation aimed at cracking down on fund-raising for Islamic extremists abroad, although no one was arrested, authorities said.

The raids by around 60 police officers in Baden-Württemberg under the code name “Iron” recovered propaganda material and close to €10,000 in cash, public prosecutors in Stuttgart said.

The properties were used by six people including four said to be German citizens of Turkish origin, and two Turks aged between 42 and 51. One of them was an imam.

Not "youths." Will we hear next that mid-life crises cause jihad?

Police suspect them of collecting money to send abroad for terrorist purposes and to commit “seditious violence and the formation of a criminal organization.”

The Südwestrundfunk broadcaster said the main suspect was a 51-year-old who has previously been involved with a banned Islamic organization.

One of the suspects is also said to have boasted in the past that he would defend himself with weapons if police approached, which may have prompted the response by so many officers.

Don't let your mouth write checks your, uh, jihad can't cash.

Honoring an alliance and recognizing that Israel and the U.S. face a common foe in the global jihad. "Cain: I would attack Iran to protect Israel," by Ben Birnbaum for The Washington Times, July 18 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday he would attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons or to respond to aggression against Israel.

Asked if he agreed with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton’s contention that the “only realistic alternative … is to use force preemptively against Iran’s nuclear weapons program” since diplomacy has failed, Mr. Cain said he did, with one caveat.

“There would be some other pieces of information I would need before I gave that order, but I’m saying that would be Option B,” Mr. Cain said during an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

“Option A is, ‘Folks, we are not going to allow you to attack Israel‘ … If they call my bluff, they already know — they will know — what Option B is.”

Mr. Cain said that, as commander-in-chief, he would “make it crystal clear [that] if you mess with Israel, you’re messing with the United States of America,” but stressed that his “Cain Doctrine” would not be a “blank check” for Israeli military action.

“There will be a set of conditions and circumstances that I will work with Israel on for them to understand that they cannot abuse that doctrine,” said Mr. Cain, a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

However, if Israel is ever attacked first by Iran, he said he is “not going to sit back and get a vote from the United Nations as to what we ought to do.”

“If they [Iran] start lobbing rockets and stuff over at Israel, then we’re going to shoot back with Israel,” he said.

Mr. Cain dismissed the notion that an attack on Iran is unrealistic: “First of all, we have the most capable military power in the world,” he said. “Air, ground — although we won’t have to use ground for this — submarines, ships, that would be strategically placed in that part of the world.”

Mr. Cain has questioned President Obama’s commitment to the Jewish state, saying during his candidacy announcement that Mr. Obama had thrown “Israel under the bus” by calling for negotiations with the Palestinians to be based on Israel’s borders before the 1967 war.

“The problem we have today is that, I believe, that [Iran] would test this president’s intention to help protect Israel,” he said.

Indeed.

Last January 24, Kerry Rubin of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° contacted me. This was just a few days after Hamas-linked CAIR had tried to strong-arm the Defense Department into dropping me as a consultant to the U.S. military. Rubin led off by saying that Cooper wanted to expand his perspective on jihad issues and wanted to start coming to me for information and as someone Cooper could interview on the air about relevant news items.

Given Cooper's hard Left bias, and the Left's warmly positive view toward the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, this struck me as about as likely as Barack Obama suddenly appointing Sarah Palin as his Secretary of State, but I had nothing to lose by listening to her, and Rubin's real agenda almost immediately became clear. She began asking me about my talks to the military: who organized them, under what auspices did I speak to military groups, how often did I give these presentations, what did I say in them, etc. It was obvious that she and Cooper were carrying water for Hamas-linked CAIR, and wanting to do a hit piece on "Islamophobes" (i.e., truth tellers) consulting for the U.S. military.

I gave terse answers to Rubin's questions, and fairly soon, perhaps sensing that I wasn't falling for her dishonest gambit about Cooper wanting to use me as a consultant, she abruptly claimed she was getting a call that she had to take and promised to call me right back. I never heard from her again -- but her entire approach to me illustrated the low and underhanded tactics that Leftist "journalists" are willing to employ in service of their masters' agenda. Anyway, now it appears that she and Cooper decided, at least for their opening salvo against freedom fighters, to get Walid Shoebat in their crosshairs rather than me. Their attack job on him aired the other night. Here, Joel Richardson sets the record straight in defense of Walid:

"CNN's Anderson Cooper is a fraud, Walid Shoebat is not," by Joel Richardson:

A few months ago, after appearing on the Glenn Beck show, I was admittedly a bit amused to watch the fallout unfold as radical left wing news outlets from George Soros' Media Matters to MSNBC's Fonzie-esque Rachel Maddow dedicated large segments of space to attack me.

I've never had a shred of confidence in such leftist media outlets, but I have to admit I was still quite shocked at the shamelessness with which these so called reporters purposefully lie to their audiences.

For most observers of the daily news cycle, this is all simply par for the course. But until you yourself have been personally attacked and lied about in the national media, its hard to truly grasp how outright evil these people really are.

As far as the attacks against myself, I've never felt the need to respond. But when CNN's Anderson Cooper and Drew Griffin aired an outright hatchet job against my friend Walid Shoebat, I knew I had to speak up.

To keep it simple, there were three primary accusations leveled against Walid, and all three are completely bogus.

First, Cooper and Griffin made great efforts to infer that Walid was not actually using any of his Foundation's monies to help rescue persecuted Christians as he claims. Cooper and Griffin concluded their show by whining that neither Walid nor his manager would reveal exactly how much money was spent for this cause. When asked about this, Walid rightly responded by saying that, "it's none of your business". Darn right!

These "gotcha" reporters have proven themselves to be entirely unworthy of compliance. As the proverb of Jesus says, "do not cast your pearls to the swine".

But in light of the doubts their hit piece will surely sow in the minds of the more gullible of their watchers, I do have some things to say to this issue.

Last year, I was personally involved in the advent of Walid's Rescue Christians project. What began as a cry for help from a man in Pakistan, became a major project that occupied both Walid and his manager for well over a year. I was personally involved in this effort.

I spent hours on the phone vetting this man. I also spent hours networking with Christian missionaries, safe houses in foreign countries as well as Walid and his manager, as they both worked tirelessly and thanklessly to help this man and his family. I heard the frustration in their voices when few ministries would offer more than a willingness to "pray about it". And I am also aware of the tens of thousands of dollars that were spent by Walid and his Foundation on this one family.

So when Anderson Cooper and his partner in crime infer that Walid is a "fraud" or not using funds properly, I can only shake my head in utter disgust.

Another of Cooper's charges was that Walid never spent any time in the Mascubia prison. The primary basis for Cooper triumphal expose were the words of some guy who claims to be Walid's fourth cousin.

And not only was this guy a distant relative, he is also demonstrably a close relative to at least two well known terrorists.

But if relying on such a ridiculous source with proven connections to terrorists is not pathetic enough, what is truly embarrassing is that another left wing hit piece written only three years ago, which is easily available online included an interview with another much closer relative of Walid's who openly states that Walid spent time in the Mascubia prison, exactly as Walid has said all along.

The reporter was Eileen Fleming, who wrote a piece for Op-Ed news, the by line of which is "Progressive Tough Liberal News and Opinion".

In this article, Fleming includes an interview with one of Walid's relatives, Kamal Younis who Fleming claims, had checked his facts with other relatives of Walid. According to Younis,

"In 1976, his sister Mona was coming home from school with her friends and were stopped and beaten up by Israeli soldiers, they nearly broke Mona's back. This made Walid very angry and shortly thereafter he attended his first demonstration against the occupation. In 1977 Walid was caught distributing Palestinian flags and was arrested and held for about two weeks in Mascubia Prison, until his mother went to the Embassy and got him released... But, when he was in jail he met someone who invited him to join a group against Israel."

But Cooper's report leaves one with the clear impression that Walid is lying about his stay in Mascubia prison. Cooper claims triumphantly that CNN checked the records at Mascubia and there was no record of anyone named "Walid Shoebat" having ever been there.

This is both sloppy and deceitful reporting in the extreme. First, "Walid Shoebat" is not even Walid's actual legal name, and any reporter worth his salt would have known this. Second, if Cooper had simply done some simple due diligence, he would have easily found Fleming's interview with Younis. So is Cooper an utter amateur incapable of using Google, or is he simply an agenda driven liar? I see no other options.

Next, Cooper and Griffin attempted to cast Walid as a liar regarding his claims to have planted a bomb on the Bethlehem branch of Bank Leumi. Cooper and Griffin claim to have personally called the bank. The problem is that this bank hasn't existed for years. Called to task, the shoddy reporting team changed their story and claimed to have called the Tel Aviv branch. The problem again is that the Tel Aviv branch doesn't even have records from the Bethlehem branch for the years that they claimed to have searched. Finally, they claimed to have spoken to the Israeli police station in Bethlehem. But once again, Cooper and Griffin were exposed as liars, as there is no Israeli police station in Bethlehem.

But is there any evidence that Walid was involved in planting a bomb at the bank Leumi branch? Once again, if Cooper had simply read Eileen Fleming's interview with Kamal Younis, the relative who was trying to discredit Walid, even he admitted that after Walid, got out of prison, he and some friends "put packages behind a bank".

Beyond this, the Shoebat Foundation has found the UN records of the bombing:

Between December 24 and 27, there were two explosions in that area: “Bethlehem (in Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity)” and “Explosive charge went off outside the local Courthouse 27 December 1977 JP. 2 Jan. 1978 Yediot Aharonot, 2 January 1978.

http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/1751DB3DFEC8CA06052565AE006EEBEC

At this point, are we surprised that these records were ignored by CNN?

Finally, Griffin specifically asked Walid if he was receiving $13,000 for speaking at a Department of Homeland Security event. When Walid asked the reporter from whom he received this false figure, he responded by claiming it came from "reliable sources". Yet this figure just happens to be precisely the same bogus figure that the radical Saudi funded Islamist group CAIR claimed.

So, it's truth time. Will anyone at CNN look into this further? Are Anderson Cooper and Drew Griffin relying on a Saudi funded radical Islamist group for their bogus information and political assassination?

Anderson Cooper and reporter Drew Griffin are frauds, plain and simple. If the executives at CNN had a lick of pride or integrity left, they would fire both Cooper and Griffin out of sheer embarrassment.

Malaysia's government-linked media claimed Monday that foreign Jewish groups might try to use an opposition-backed push to reform electoral laws to interfere in this Muslim-majority country.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's office, however, later issued a rare statement distancing itself from the allegation.

Political activists who recently organized Malaysia's biggest street demonstration in years insisted the accusation by the ruling party's widely read newspaper was an irresponsible attempt to discredit them through appeals to religious prejudice.

The Malay-language Utusan Malaysia daily said in an editorial that Malaysians "cannot allow anyone, especially the Jews, to interfere secretly in this country's business." It offered no evidence of a possible Jewish plot and named no specific group.

The editorial was the latest effort by the newspaper to defend a government crackdown on at least 20,000 people who marched in Kuala Lumpur on July 9 demanding more transparency in electoral laws ahead of national polls widely expected by mid-2012.

Najib's office issued a statement late Monday saying Utusan's claim did "not reflect the views of the government."

But such claims are surely the views of many individuals both within and without of that government.

In a sane world, in the wake of these arrests the Muslim community would be working to reassure the FBI of its loyalty to the U.S., and working with agents to identify and track jihadists and jihad sympathizers. Instead, the FBI is rushing to assure Muslims that they weren't rude while arresting men who are accused of financing jihad terrorism and murder. Is jihad mass murder "rude"?

"Imam Arrests Show Shift In Muslim Outreach Effort," by Dina Temple-Raston for NPR, July 19 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

[...] To understand the events that unfolded two months ago in Miami, you need to know that one of the most volatile things that can happen in a Muslim-American community is the arrest of a religious leader, the imam. Back in May, the FBI's Miami field office ended up arresting two of them: Imam Hafiz Khan and his son, Izhar Khan. They were charged along with several other members of the Khan family with financing terrorism in Pakistan.

Hafiz Khan is the leader of the Miami Mosque in west Miami — the oldest mosque in South Florida. His son runs the Masjid Jamaat al-Mumineen Mosque in Margate, Fla., just outside Miami. What makes these particular arrests unusual is the way the local Muslim community reacted to them: The arrests didn't spark outrage or demonstrations. Instead, the way they were handled is being lauded as a model for the way law enforcement and communities should work together. [...]

"At 6 o'clock in the morning, we have the first prayer of the morning, and it was a little before 6 o'clock, like five minutes before," says Sayeed Shamin Akhtar, standing outside the Miami Mosque. He was there the morning the elder Khan was arrested. "After the prayer started, then someone banged on the door like 'boom, boom, boom.' FBI-style of course, you can understand."

Akhtar was on his knees in the very first row of the prayer hall. "We were all sitting down and standing up and thinking of God and God was looking at us and we were just praying," he said.

While the people inside were praying, more than a dozen agents in their FBI windbreakers had surrounded the mosque. Local police had pitched in. They cordoned off a two-block area in the neighborhood. The Miami Mosque is an ordinary-looking, one-story stucco house in the middle of a quiet, residential neighborhood. Without knowing it was a mosque, one would drive right by it. That Saturday, once the prayers had finished, an agent and a translator approached the imam.

"[The agent] came into the masjid with his shoes off. And he went straight to the imam. He grabbed his hand, and he said, 'You're coming with me,' in Pashto," Akhtar said. (Khan's native language is Pashto.)

The people in the mosque that morning were stunned. "Like a bolt of lightning had happened," Akhtar said.

Gillies, the FBI agent in charge, had been standing outside, and he watched as officers put Khan into a squad car and drove away. Then he picked up his cellphone and started dialing up leaders in the community. One of the people he phoned was Mohammad Shakir, who works for the Office of Community Advocacy in Miami-Dade County.

"The FBI was decent enough that they called us before they called the press," Shakir said. "On the phone, he said, 'Look, this has taken place. I personally was there. I supervised it. I made sure that everything goes by the book. No violation. No rudeness. No discrimination. Not to violate the mosque sanctity.' So we immediately called a meeting and got together and developed a strategy how to respond."

This may all sound like common sense, but these kinds of arrests rarely happen this way. The Muslim community is usually left to sort through rumor and innuendo. It is caught flat-footed when the media call for comment. The worst-case scenarios are often embraced as fact, and it often takes weeks to sort fact from fiction.

In the Miami case, there was a lot of attention to detail. The FBI waited for the morning prayers to end. The agent took off his shoes before entering the mosque. The FBI didn't arrest or handcuff the imam inside the mosque. The leaders in the Muslim community were kept informed. In fact, they saw a copy of the indictment before the media did, and Gillies called them just minutes after the arrest....

Avoid this man's cab

Taha Osman lost his temper and his Islamic antisemitism overflowed at those whom the Qur'an calls the worst enemies of the Muslims (5:82). "Why is that man shouting at you mummy? Taxi driver hurled racist abuse at mums outside Jewish school in Crumpsall," from the Manchester Evening News, July 19 (thanks to Barry):

A taxi driver ranted racial abuse outside a Jewish school after getting stuck in a traffic jam.

Taha Osman shrieked ‘All Jewish children must die!’ after his car was hemmed in by parents picking up pupils outside King David School in Crumpsall.

Two mums on the school run and a teaching assistant were singled out in a foul-mouthed and ‘frightening’ tirade witnessed by kids, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Osman – an Iraqi Kurd who has settled in Britain – also shouted that Jewish people were ‘animals’ who ‘should not be allowed in this country’.

This too is Qur'anic: the Qur'an says that Allah cursed the disobedient Jews and transformed them into apes and pigs (2:62-65; 5:59-60; 7:166).

Projection Alert: It is Taha Osman who should not be allowed in Britain.

The 36-year-old denied causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress in a trial, but was found guilty by the jury.

Sentencing him to a community order, Judge David Stockdale QC said it was a ‘particularly nasty offence’ – but did not warrant a jail sentence....

In the land of the blind, Ali Fazli must be king

The kind of sacrifice and martyrdom that "Brigadier General 'Ali Fazli'" has in mind is that which involves killing and being killed for Allah (cf. Qur'an 9:111). In other words, there is a component of murder in his martyrdom. "Disseminating the Culture of Sacrifice and Martyrdom is One of the Islamic Societies' Necessities," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, July 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The commander of Rahiyan Noor Central Headquarters mentioned that propagating the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom is one of the significant issues for the Islamic society.

Brigadier General ‘Ali Fazli’ in the congress of “Martyrs Servants” in Ayeha Complex of Hashhad city added: “Promoting the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom makes us and our Islamic society secure against the conspiracies of enemies.”

He pointed out to the conspiracies of enemies specially in the cultural fields and soft war against the Islamic society and he said: “Expanding the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and holding the tours of Rahiyan Noor can play an important role for promotion of this culture and it is really necessary for our community.”

He mentioned: “Working for the martyrs, specially the unknown martyrs is really significant, so we should work for the martyrs the same as servants and be so careful that no negligence to occurr [sic] in this field.”

Brigadier General added: “The people of Iran remember the martyrs of Khorasan as the strong martyrs. One of these martyrs was commander Shoshtari. He was in the battlefields of Iran-Iraq war at the age of 60. He fought with the enemies of Islam to preserve the ambitions of our Islamic society.”

He outlined: “In the current year 2931000 persons visited the war zones of Iran-Iraq war in a form of Rahiyan Noor tours. Most of these persons were the university students.”...

He also mentioned: “ More than 350000 students of the second year of Guidance School visited the war zones in a form of Defense Preparation Lesson. Also more than 3000 students expressed their readiness to serve in the war zones as the servants of martyrs.”...

In "Our Complicity in Female Genital Mutilation" at FrontPage this morning, Jamie Glazov interviews Ines Laufer, founder of the TaskForce FGM in Germany that is lobbying for the safe protection of immigrant girls. "In recent years, the organization has been initiating several court-proceedings to prevent girls from being taken to their countries of origin where they would face the risk of mutilation."

Laufer says this about the European political elites' response to the phenomenon of female genital mutilation among Muslim immigrants:

Although politicians continuously affirm that FGM is a grievous violation of human rights, they still refuse to even discuss effective strategies, such as medical check-ups and medical professionals’ duty to report mutilation when they detect it. These strategies can help pave the way for the prosecution of the perpetrators within the families and lead to a prohibition of parents taking their minor daughters to the countries of origin where they would face a high risk of being subjected to FGM.

FP: So what are these politicians proposing to do to change this situation?

Laufer: They support education and information campaigns. Their thinking is that by educating the governments and the population in the concerned countries — as well as immigrants — about the devastating consequences of FGM, we increase the chances of persuading the perpetrators to abandon the mutilations.

FP: And what do you think of this strategy?

Laufer: It is destined to badly fail because it is based on the very wrong assumption that those who perpetrate Female Genital Mutilation do this because of a lack of knowledge, education and awareness. The premise is that they are in a state of uninformed innocence. This approach lets the perpetrators off the hook and disguises the true nature of FGM as a form of systematic violence which intends to keep the subordination of girls and women in the concerned - predominantly Muslim – societies alive.

We can prove with empirical facts and data that those who are in favor of FGM are far away from being unknowing: The educated elites at a high level of wealth mutilate their children at the same or even higher extent than the uneducated and poor classes of population.

FP: Give us some examples please.

Laufer: Sure:

In Sudan, after 70 years of awareness-raising campaigns, the prevalence of FGM did not decline a single percent and remains as high as 89%. The mutilation-rate in highly educated families is 3% higher than in uneducated ones. In the wealthiest class of population, the prevalence of FGM is even 20% higher than in the poorest class....

Read it all.

The Judeo-Christian Origins of Islam
by Ibn Warraq
Part 7
Part 1 here; part 2 here; part 3 here; part 4 here; part 5 here, part 6 here.

The differences between this and the account of Christ's birth as related in the passage in the Qur'an which we have quoted above are but slight. Muhammad mentions a palm-tree, the best-known of all trees to an Arab, in place of the species of flowering tree mentioned in the Buddhist book, since the Sal-tree of India does not grow in Arabia. Doubtless the legend had changed in this way in its transmission, as is generally the case in similar tales. The Indian legend intimates that the exertion made by Buddha's mother in reaching after the flowers growing on the branch above her head brought on the child's birth unexpectedly. The Qur'an seems to give no such good reason at all for the birth occurring below the palm-tree. But the stories are evidently one and the same. We notice here, as in the Qur'an, that the tree bent down its branches to let Maya pluck the flowers — or, as the Qur'an has it, let its ripe dates fall upon Mary.

The other account of this latter incident, — that given in the apocryphal Gospel, — is connected with the Flight into Egypt, when our Lord was an infant. This is parallel with what we read in the Cariya-Pitakam, (cap. i., poem ix.). There we are informed that in a former birth Buddha was a prince called Vessantaro. Having offended his people, he was banished from his kingdom, along with his wife and two little children. As they wandered towards the distant mountains, where they wished to find an asylum, the children became hungry. Then, the Buddhist narrative tells us:—

"If the children see fruit-bearing trees on the mountain-side, the children weep for their fruit. Having seen the children weeping, the great lofty trees, having even of themselves bowed down, approach the children."

It is clear that both the Qur'an and the author of the apocryphal "History of the Nativity of Mary" have unconsciously borrowed from Buddhist sources these particular incidents. This fact of course disproves the truth of the narrative.

Were proof required to show that, even as late as Muhammad's time, Buddhist legends were prevalent in Western Asia and were accepted as Christian history, it would be afforded by the existence of the tale of "Barlaam and Josaphat." This legend was written in Greek in the sixth century of the Christian era, as some hold, though it is more generally attributed to Johannes Damascenus, who flourished at the court of the Khalifah Al Mansur (A.D. 753-74). Josaphat, the Christian prince of the book, is undoubtedly Buddha himself, and his name is a corruption of Bodhisattva, one of Buddha's many titles. The main source of the tale is the Sanskrit legendary story of Buddha known as the Lalita Vistara. Yet Josaphat is a saint in both the Greek and the Roman Churches, in the former of which August 26 is sacred to him, in the latter November 27.

Another apocryphal gospel is of special interest, the Arabic Infancy Gospel. The textual history of this gospel is complex. It was very probably a translation from the Syriac, which was compiled sometime between the Fifth and the Sixth Century, and which in turn depended very much on the Protoevangelium of James, already mentioned, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas [not to be confused with the (Coptic) Gospel of Thomas found at Nag Hammadi]. As J.K. Elliott, professor of New Testament Textual Criticism, University of Leeds, says, “Much of the material is embodied in the Syriac History of the Virgin”, a copy of which was discovered and translated by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge as The History of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the History of the Likeness of Christ [London, 1899]. Elliott continues, “Although there may be no direct link between the two, such comparisons reinforce the argument of the Syriac influence on the Arabic Infancy Gospel. Other links may be seen in the writings of the ninth-century Syriac father, Isho’dad of Merv, who seems to be aware of this Arabic Gospel in his commentary on Matthew”.

The first edition of the Arabic Infancy Gospel [AIG] was made in the Seventeenth Century by H. Sike, with the title Evangelium infantae vel liber apocryphus de Infantia Salvatoris, but the original Arabic text that he used has been lost. However, Arabic manuscripts have been discovered subsequently in Rome and Florence.

There are significant similarities between the Arabic Infancy Gospel and the Koran. Both talk of Jesus’ ability to bring clay models of birds to life, and to cure lepers. [AIG, 18,36; Koran III.48, V.110] Both accounts present Jesus as a baby in the cradle giving an account of his respective mission in each religion in front of Mary:

Arabic Infancy Gospel, 1: “We find what follows in the book of Joseph the high priest, who lived in the time of Christ. Some say that he is Caiaphas. He has said that Jesus spoke, and, indeed, when He was lying in His cradle said to Mary His mother: I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom you have brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel announced to you; and my Father has sent me for the salvation of the world.”

Koran, Surah XIX, 29-34: “But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" He [Jesus] said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; (He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable; So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"! Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute.”

The discussion about the absurdity of frisking Grandma in order for air security to appear "fair" (Fair to whom? Not Grandma) about counter-terror measures is taking place across the pond as well. In any country, not targeting resources to acknowledge the more probable source of the threat is not only wasteful, but reduces security efforts to playing a blindfolded game of chance. "Police 'should ignore racial balance in stop and searches'," by Martin Bentham for the Evening Standard, July 18 (thanks to JG):

Police conducting counter-terrorism stop and searches at airports should abandon efforts to achieve a "racial balance" in the numbers they frisk, an official report says today.

Which race is Islam again?

The Government's terrorism watchdog, David Anderson, QC, says that it is the "antithesis of intelligence-led policing" for officers to ensure that the numbers of each ethnic group searched are proportionate to their presence in the population.

He says that instead checks should be targeted at those groups most likely to carry out a terrorist attack.

Mr Anderson's comments come in his annual report to Parliament on the operation of terrorism laws.

They follow complaints that some travellers, such as elderly white women, are subjected to unnecessary searches to ensure that statistics do not appear "disproportionately" focused on Muslims.

Today, however, Mr Anderson says that the "schedule 7" powers, which allow searches to be conducted at airports and ports without the need to prove suspicion, have been "instrumental" in catching terrorists.

He cites examples such as Sohail Anjum Qureshi, 30, who was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2008 for four and half years for terrorism offences after being stopped at Heathrow en route to Pakistan to carry out a "two-to-three week" terrorist operation.

Another was Yassin Nassari, 28, from Ealing, who was sentenced to three and a half years in 2007 for possessing rocket-making instructions, after being detained at Luton airport.

Mr Anderson's report says that the value of such searches is "therefore scarcely in doubt". The report states: "To use schedule 7 in such a way as to reflect the ethnic balance of the population would be the antithesis of intelligence-led policing.

The proportionate application of schedule 7 is surely achieved by matching its application to the terrorist threat, rather than to the population as a whole."

He added: "If the police have intelligence that there may be someone dangerous on a flight from Pakistan, or a ferry from Northern Ireland, they must be free to concentrate their resources on that flight or that ferry.

"If people are stopped simply for the sake of balance, whether in terms of gender, age or race, the powers will not be used in the most effective way - or in the fairest way."....

Remember "Saifullah" and friends the next time someone calls criticism of Islam "racist." "US drones target white jihadis," by Amir Mir for Asia Times, July 19 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

ISLAMABAD - The July 5 killing of yet another white jihadi commander in an American drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan - an Australian national this time - has given credence to earlier reports by Western intelligence agencies that the Pakistan-based al-Qaeda network is recruiting Western Muslim converts to widen the pool of potential terrorists beyond traditional Asian and Middle Eastern radicals who could foil racial profiling and carry out terrorist attacks in the West.

According to Pakistani media reports, the white jihadi killed by two missiles fired by a drone at around 11 pm on July 5 in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan has been identified as Saifullah, who used to serve as a key aide to Osama bin Laden and had been working in tandem with al-Qaeda's chief military strategist, commander Ilyas Kashmiri, who has been reported as killed in a drone attack on June 3.

Saifullah, 50 years old, has been described as a middle-ranking al-Qaeda leader, though little more is known about him. The deadly strike actually targeted a guesthouse and also killed five other militants. The Mir Ali area, where Saifullah was killed, is in the sphere of influence of Abu Kasha al-Iraqi, an al-Qaeda leader who serves as a key link to the Taliban and supports the external operations network of al-Qaeda, now led by Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Pakistani Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who is still considered by the Pakistani establishment as a "good Taliban", and the Haqqani network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani's elder son Sirajuddin Haqqani, also operate in Mir Ali, a known hub for al-Qaeda's military and external operational councils.

An increasing number of Westerners have traveled to the Pakistani tribal areas in recent years to join the so-called jihad that al-Qaeda is waging against US-led allied forces in Afghanistan. Among the Westerners are Americans, Britons, Germans, French and Australians.

The al-Qaeda-trained white jihadis have formed their own contingents in North Waziristan and are fighting alongside al-Qaeda militants on the Pak-Afghan border. The white jihadis living in North Waziristan wear local clothes and travel in small groups in vehicles or on motorcycles, flaunting weapons including assault rifles, rocket launchers and rocket-propelled grenades.

Recruits bearing Western citizenship are prized by the al-Qaeda leadership, mainly because of their nationalities and English-speaking abilities. More and more Muslim converts from the West are therefore being chosen by international jihadis as recruits to strike in the heart of the West.

The current spike in drone attacks in Mir Ali area is ostensibly meant to target the leadership of the North Waziristan-based white jihadis, which Western intelligence agencies believe have been training and dispatching white men to Europe for carrying out commando-style terrorist raids in the West - similar to the 26/11 attacks in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai that killed 166 people, including many foreigners.

Therefore, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which runs the drone program, has been repeatedly targeting al-Qaeda hideouts in the Mir Ali area, ostensibly to wipe out the white jihadis' networks. So far this year, the CIA has carried out 43 drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan, killing more than 360 people. There were 124 drone strikes in 2010.

Commander Saifullah is not the first Muslim convert from the West to have been killed in Mir Ali. Sixteen Germans and two Britons have been reportedly killed in drone strikes in Mir Ali since September 8, 2010....

It's fizzy, and it's sold in a can, but that's about where the similarity stops. In any event, here is a fine case of a government that is enforcing Sharia intruding arbitrarily on people's lives, and doing so in an apparent rush to judgment. To challenge them would put one in danger of being accused of going against Islam itself, and that's been known to endanger life and limb, even in Chechnya. "Chechnya says energy drinks are un-Islamic and imposes sales ban," from Reuters, July 18:

Chechnya is to ban the sale of energy drinks such as Red Bull to under 18s, saying they are un-Islamic and dangerous, health officials said on Monday.

The ban would be the latest restriction from authorities in Chechnya, where shops can only sell alcohol during a small morning time frame, restaurants and cafes are shut during the Ramadan fasting month, and women must wear headscarves in state buildings.

"Energy drinks are comparable to beer," the deputy minister of health, Rukman Bartiyev, said, adding that they were harmful to health.

The proposed ban was met with praise from the more conservative sectors of society, but angered ordinary Chechens who are growing increasingly frustrated at laws that only apply to Chechnya and sometimes contradict the Russian constitution.

"There are just too many restrictions lately. We are building a small Islamic state in Russia that looks like Dubai," said a Grozny resident who gave her name only as Aset, 41.

A decade after Moscow drove separatists out of power in the second of two wars since the 1991 Soviet collapse, the Kremlin relies heavily on Chechnya's strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov to keep insurgents in check and maintain a shaky peace.

But critics of the hardliner say he runs the republic of 1.1 million as a fiefdom, consolidating power by leading a violent crackdown on opponents and imposing his own vision of Islam, leading analysts to warn that Chechnya could move to autonomy once again.

The Taliban's video of the soldiers' execution by gunfire at close range can be found at Liveleak. Obviously, it is graphic and profoundly disturbing -- watch at your own risk. The reasons given for the execution are telling: the Taliban accuse the troops of killing children, and for good measure, they also declare them apostates from Islam.

The penalty for apostasy from Islam is death, according to Muhammad's own orders. If the murder rap was flimsy, the accusations of apostasy offered another excuse to kill them. "Pakistan Taliban release video showing forces' execution," by Zeeshan Haider for Reuters, July 18:

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Taliban have released a video showing the execution of more than a dozen Pakistani security forces in the northwest last month. The video, posted on the LiveLeak website showed the security forces, all wearing traditional baggy trousers and tunic, lined up before four militants with their faces covered.

"They are enemies of the religion of God. They are apostates," one of the militants shouted as the security forces looked on calmly.

He also accused the security forces of "brutally" killing six children in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat in the northwest.

"They (security forces) were arrested in the operations," the militant said before they opened fire on the soldiers.

The soldiers cried out as they died. Later, one militant fired shots into the soldiers' heads to ensure all were dead.

Pakistani army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said on Monday the security forces were captured during a cross-border raid by militants from Afghanistan in the northwestern Dir district on June 1. He gave no other details.

Pakistani government officials at the time said up to 400 militants crossed from Afghanistan and clashed for more than 24 hours in the village of Shaltalo in Dir. Twenty-seven Pakistani forces and 45 militants were killed in clashes, the officials said. Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan later lodged a protest with Kabul over the attack and called for stern action by Afghan and U.S.-led forces against the insurgents.

"The suspects had planned to target 'crowded facilities and transport infrastructure' and that security officers had confiscated homemade bombs, other weapons and a map with an attack plan."

"Russia says militant attack foiled in Moscow," by Steve Gutterman for Reuters, July 18:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's top security official said on Monday that authorities had averted a "large terrorist attack" in the Moscow area by militants armed with homemade bombs and other weapons.

Russian authorities frequently claim to have foiled attacks by militants from the North Caucasus, a volatile region plagued by an Islamist insurgency, but claims to have foiled large-scale assaults targeting Moscow are rare.

"Literally several days ago ... a large terrorist attack was averted at the preparation stage in the Moscow area," Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov told President Dmitry Medvedev in televised comments.

He said four suspects from the mainly Muslim North Caucasus had been detained and that accomplices had been identified.

Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, president from 2000-2008, have struggled to contain the Islamist insurgency, and the Kremlin is nervous about possible attacks ahead of December parliamentary elections and a March presidential vote.

Medvedev and Putin, still seen as Russia's paramount leader, have suggested that one of them will run for president.

Addressing the Kremlin leader, Bortnikov said the suspects had planned to target "crowded facilities and transport infrastructure" and that security officers had confiscated homemade bombs, other weapons and a map with an attack plan.

Insurgent leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 37 people at Moscow's busiest airport in January and twin bombings on the Moscow metro that killed 40 in March 2010.

Umarov has said he has readied dozens of potential suicide bombers and has threatened more attacks this year.

They don't want to wake the Taliban, but it is actually the U.S. military commanders who are asleep. "Don’t shoot Taliban..you’ll wake locals: Marine’s diary reveals bizarre order to Brit troops," by Andrew Parker in The Sun, July 18 (thanks to Nick):

SOLDIERS were banned from shooting Taliban fighters planting mines - to avoid waking Afghan locals, a former Royal Marine has revealed.

Craig Smith, 36, said US military chiefs routinely frustrated frontline forces by ordering them to exercise "courageous restraint".

Troops were even told they could be charged with MURDER if they shot anyone without permission from command.

Dad-of-one Craig lifted the lid on "outrageous" orders issued to troops in a diary of his six-month tour of Afghanistan's treacherous Helmand province with 40 Commando.

He spoke out after an inquest heard 34-year-old hero Sergeant Peter Rayner was blown up, just days after being told not to fire on insurgents who were seen laying deadly IEDs.

One senior officer stunned troops when he ordered them not to shoot a Taliban fighter because gunfire would "wake up and upset the locals".

Instead they were told they must stand by and WATCH....

Pamela Geller has the info:

We are thrilled to announce that Ezra Levant, one of the leading lights in the West defending freedom of speech against encroaching Islamic blasphemy laws, will be speaking at our Freedom Rally on the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks against America at Ground Zero.

Ezra Levant is a TV anchor, newspaper columnist, author, and lawyer. He was the founding publisher of the Western Standard magazine, the only Canadian media outlet to publish the Danish cartoons of Muhammed. That led to two charges of “hate speech” before the Alberta government’s human rights commission.

There is only one place to be on the tenth anniversary of the bloodiest and biggest attack on American soil in our nation's history -- Ground Zero. Be there; your civilization needs you.

Read it all.

The Imam Moustafa Zayed is coming back for more: despite being thoroughly humiliated in our last debate (watch it below and see), and ignoring The American Muslim's cowardly plea to Muslims not to debate me, he contacted ABN and asked to debate me again. So we're on for Friday night, August 5 from 9 to 10:30pm EST. The topic will be "Islam guarantees women equality of rights with men." I will argue no, and Zayed, believe it or not, will argue yes. No doubt he will be ready with plenty of sand to throw in the eyes of the kuffar. But I will be ready, too.

Note that Ahmed Kilami doesn't deny that this is the Sharia punishment for those who drink alcohol. He just objects to the attackers' taking the law into their own hands. The law is clear: once Muhammad flogged a man forty times for drinking alcohol. "Intruders whip Silverwater man, 31, for drinking," from AAP, July 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Sydney man who was held down on his bed and whipped up to 40 times by strangers had recently converted to Islam and was reportedly being punished for drinking.

The 31-year-old was asleep in his apartment in Silverwater, in Sydney's west, when he woke to find four bearded men in his bedroom about 1am (AEST) yesterday.

Three of the intruders restrained him on the bed while the fourth man used a cable to lash him 40 times.

The attack lasted about 30 minutes and left the man covered in welts, the Seven Network reported today.

The man reportedly told police he had only recently converted to Islam and that fundamental Wahabi Muslims were punishing him for having a few drinks with friends.

Members of Sydney's Muslim community have condemned the attack.

"This criminal act has no place in Islam. As Australian Muslims we are required to follow Australian law, not take the law into our own individual hands," Ahmed Kilami, from the Muslim Village, told the Seven Network.

"I hope these guys are caught and face the full force of the law."

The victim has moved out of his home but hopes what happens to him will not distort people's view of his adopted religion, the network said.

Of course. That would be the worst thing.

I am enormously pleased to announce that Raymond Ibrahim, whose writing appeared at Jihad Watch in 2008 and 2009, is coming back on staff and will once again be contributing regularly to Jihad Watch.

Raymond is a historian and writer on the Middle East and Islam. A Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, he maintains his own section at FrontPage Magazine, “Raymond’s Intersection,” where he explores the pivotal but ignored point where Islam and Christianity intersect, including by examining the latest on Muslim persecution of Christians, translating pertinent Arabic news that never reaches the West, and much more.

Born in the United States to Egyptian parents, Raymond was raised in a bilingual environment and is fluent in Arabic. He received his B.A. and M.A. in History from California State University, Fresno, where he studied closely with noted military historian Victor Davis Hanson. His M.A. thesis examined an early military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on Medieval Arabic and Greek texts. He also took graduate courses at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and studied Medieval Islamic history and Semitic languages at the Catholic University of America.

Raymond’s resume includes serving as Associate Director of the Middle East Forum, where he is currently an Associate Fellow, and working as a Reference Assistant at the Near East Section of the Library of Congress, where he discovered hitherto unknown al-Qaeda treatises written in Arabic, which he went on to translate and annotate into the superb and essential The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007).

Raymond lectures regularly and has testified before Congress. He has written for many journals—including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst — and has appeared on various media, including Al-Jazeera, Fox News, and MSNBC (join his fr