September 2011 Archives

A bad day for the Usual Gang of Idiots who incited and instructed prospective jihadist murderers.

This, too, is likely to be painted as a petty political "assassination" by an annoyed government, even though Khan was reported to be "increasingly involved" in operational activities by al-Qaeda. Al-Awlaki was certainly the main target of the strike; that they would travel together was an overconfident miscalculation. "American Jihadi Samir Khan Killed With Awlaki," by Mark Schone and Matthew Cole for ABC News, September 30:

A young American who edited al Qaeda's English-language magazine, and had urged Muslims to mount deadly attacks on U.S. targets, was killed in the same CIA drone strike that eliminated Anwar Awlaki in Yemen Friday, U.S. officials said.

Khan, 25, was the Saudi-born, New York-raised editor behind "Inspire" magazine, the English language online publication of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Khan had become a rising figure in jihadist propaganda and an "aspiring" Awlaki, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

But while Awlaki relied on sermons to recruit jihadis, Khan used sarcasm and idiomatic English in an attempt to appeal to Western youth. As Khan himself has said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I [am] Al Qaeda to the core." He titled a rebuke of toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak "A Cold Diss." Khan's ability to use American vernacular, like a graphic depicting graffiti that reads, "Jihad 4 Eva," had prompted concerns that young Muslims with an interest in jihad and al Qaeda would be drawn to a voice similar to their own.

"He does appear to be increasingly involved with operational activities [of Al Qaeda]", a U.S. official told ABC News in 2010.

British officials found copies of "Inspire" in the apartments of several suspects arrested and charged in connection to a bomb plot in the U.K.Officials said the suspects were avid followers of both the magazine and Awlaki.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American college student charged with plotting an attack on a Christmas lighting event in Portland, Oregon, last year, was in contact with Khan, and wrote articles for him, authorities say.

Mohamud, who was arrested in an FBI sting, is accused of attempting to detonate what he believed to be a car bomb in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square via cellphone during the annual lighting of the Christmas tree, which had drawn a crowd of thousands. The FBI affidavit alleges that Mohamud told FBI agents that he had written four articles since 2009 for two different on-line jihadist magazines edited and distributed by Samir Khan.

Khan had edited seven separate issues of "Inspire" since launching the publication in 2010, penning such articles as "How To Build A Bomb In the Kitchen of Your Mom." Inspire carried sermons by Awlaki and other jihadi figures, boasted about the failed "printer bomb" cargo plane plot, and paid tribute to Osama bin Laden before and after his death. It outlined various techniques for jihadis to attack Americans with U.S. borders, including using pick-up trucks to mow down pedestrians, how to blow up buildings with natural gas, and how to use an AK-47 automatic rifle. The magazines grew in graphic sophistication with each issue, and Khan seemed to write, edit or design the majority of the content.

In the latest issue, which expressed frustration with Iran for spreading conspiracy theories about 9/11 instead of giving credit to al Qaeda, the editor-in-chief called himself "Yahya Ibrahim," but U.S. officials suspect that's just a pseudonym for Khan....

This just went out in the "American Muslim News Briefs" email from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):

CAIR: Al-Awlaki's Calls to Violence Rejected by U.S. Muslims Civil rights group concerned about constitutional issues raised by assassination of American citizen

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/30/11) -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today reiterated that the calls to violence made by Anwar al-Awlaki, who has reportedly been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, have been firmly rejected by American Muslims.

In a statement reacting to al-Awlaki's death, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

"As we have stated repeatedly in the past, the American Muslim community firmly repudiated Anwar al-Awlaki's incitement to violence, which occurred after he left the United States. While a voice of hate has been eliminated, we urge our nation's leaders to address the constitutional issues raised by the assassination of American citizens without due process of law." [MEDIA NOTE: Because of the sensitivity of the issue, please use the statement in full.]...

You got it, Ibe. But once again Hamas-linked CAIR reveals its true colors. It denounces al-Awlaki as a "voice of hate" (note that that is the same language it uses of anti-jihadists who, unlike al-Awlaki, never conspired with anyone to commit mass murder or approved of any kind of violence), but is "concerned" that "constitutional issues" have been "raised by the assassination of American citizens without due process of law."

Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen, yes. He was also a traitor. He was waging war against his native country. He was an enemy combatant. If an American citizen had gone to Germany and joined the Wehrmacht in 1942, and was killed in battle against American forces, would anyone have been raising "constitutional issues" over the killing?

Hamas-linked CAIR: this century's German-American Bund.

UPDATE: Jihad Watch reader Axel points out Hamas-linked CAIR's use of the word "assassination," which implies moral culpability on the part of those who did the killing. Enemy combatants are not "assassinated." Unless, of course, one does not consider them the enemy.

The argument is completely immaterial. If, for example, there is an active shooter in a shopping center, school, or neighborhood, he is a clear and present danger to others, and the focus is on stopping him. "Due process" happens for the most part after the perpetrator is in handcuffs. If he won't stop shooting and put down the gun, the SWAT team is not denying him "due process" by stopping him.

Surely we would have captured al-Awlaki alive if we could have, and a fit of legal hand-wringing about every step of how his case was handled would ensue, just as lawyers were standing by in case bin Laden were taken alive.

Another option would have been to try him in absentia, but there would then have been complaints that it was a show trial, and he could not defend himself. And he would not have been "able" to defend himself because he could not be captured in order to be present at trial. The argument begins to go in circles. Meanwhile, al-Awlaki was actively waging war against the people of the United States, and was an ongoing and obvious danger.

This operation was not a petty, grudge-based "assassination" by an annoyed government "whacking" a citizen who turned against it. But this commentary notably avoids discussion of the threat al-Awlaki posed (calling him a "marginal figure"), and the plots he was behind or incited in order to support that impression.

"The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality," by Glenn Greenwald for Salon, September 30 (thanks to Mackie):

It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was "considering" indicting him). Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even has any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki's father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were "state secrets" and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki's inclusion on President Obama's hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that "it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing."

After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its. The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for The Next bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.

What's most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists -- criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.

From an authoritarian perspective, that's the genius of America's political culture. It not only finds way to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process). It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.

At last, silence from al-Awlaki

A desperately evil man who was linked to the 9/11 attacks (he was "spiritual adviser" to a couple of the hijackers) as well as to the Fort Hood jihad murder, the Christmas underwear jihad bombing attempt on an airplane over Detroit, and the Times Square jihad mass murder attempt, has apparently gone to his fiery grave. "U.S. Born Terror Boss Anwar al-Awlaki Killed," from FoxNews.com, September 30:

SANAA, Yemen – Terror mastermind and senior Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is dead a senior U.S. official confirms.

Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in Al-Qaeda's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said.

The Yemeni government and Defense Ministry announced al-Awlaki's death, but gave no details. A senior U.S. official said American intelligence supports the claim that he had been killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders said al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans. They said pilotless drones had been seen over the area in previous days....

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 -- making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, was believed to be key in turning Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen into what American officials have called the most significant and immediate threat to the Untied States. The branch, led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi, plotted several failed attacks on U.S. soil -- the botched Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up an American airliner heading to Detroit and a foiled 2010 attempt to main explosives to Chicago.

Known as an eloquent preacher who spread English-language sermons on the Internet calling for "holy war" against the United States, al-Awlaki's role was to inspire and -- it is believed -- even directly recruit militants to carry out attacks....

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other Al-Qaeda leaders, in Al-Qaeda strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

Al-Awlaki also exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims. The cleric similarly said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack....

In "A Rational Fear of Islamism" in National Review today, David Horowitz and I discuss "Islamophobia," showing that not all fears are irrational, nor criticism unwarranted.

In recent months, several reports have appeared to a generally uncritical reception in the press, which purport to expose alleged conspiracies organized by “Islamophobes” against American citizens who mean us no harm. These reports single out for condemnation a dozen prominent conservative figures (and mostly the same dozen) who have publicly criticized the misogyny, bigotry, and terrorism promoted by many (but not all) Islamic institutions and religious texts.

The term “Islamophobia” itself was invented by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the political fountainhead of Islamic terror, having spawned al-Qaeda and created Hamas. Not coincidently, the reports themselves have been produced by Brotherhood fronts like CAIR, and jihadist apologists like the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the latest and most elaborate Islamophobia report, transparently derivative of its predecessors, has been issued by the Center for American Progress, which is a brain trust of the Democratic party. It thus marks a disturbing development in this ugly campaign.

On examination, the term “Islamophobia” is designed to create a modern-day thought crime, while the campaign to suppress it is an effort to abolish the First Amendment where Islam is concerned. The purpose of the suffix — phobia — is to identify any concern about troubling Islamic institutions and actions as irrational, or worse as a dangerous bigotry that should itself be feared.

Is fear of terrorists inspired by Islam irrational? There have been 17,800 terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims in the name of Allah since 9/11. Is it unreasonable to be concerned that 30,000 shoulder-ready surface-to-air missiles have recently gone missing in the Muslim nation of Libya, where both government and rebels support the Islamic jihad against America and the West?

Would not a reasonable person be concerned about the attacks plotted and carried out by Muslims in the United States who claim to be inspired by the Koran and who regard themselves as holy warriors in the jihad declared by Osama bin Laden and other Muslim fanatics? These Muslim attacks include the successful massacre of unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood by Nidal Hassan, a self-declared Muslim warrior whose anti-infidel rantings were ignored by the military brass.

These Muslim terrorists include Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; and Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; and Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; and Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; and Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; and Naveed Haq, the jihad mass murderer at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle; and Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh, who hatched a jihad plot to blow up a Manhattan synagogue; and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; and many others.

If the FBI and law-enforcement agencies had not had serious fears of Muslim fanatics, had not been possessed by a species of “Islamophobia,” all those would-be terrorist attacks would be successful attacks and carry long lists of dead innocents — infidels — along with their names....

There is more.

A CAIR-linked lawyer fails in his attempt to punish and marginalize a truth-teller. "Victory for Truth and Free Speech Over Islamic Supremacism," by Pamela Geller in Human Events today:

A years-long battle is over, and Islamic supremacism has suffered a stunning and well-deserved defeat in its ongoing war against free speech and those who dare to tell the truth about Islam. Omar Tarazi, a lawyer linked to the Hamas front group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has dismissed his frivolous, harassing $10 million libel lawsuit against me with prejudice, which means that it cannot be refiled.

This case was about much more than just Tarazi’s false charge that I libeled him. His dismissal of the case is a huge victory for the First Amendment, truth and the anti-Sharia movement in this country, which is exposing an insidious cancer that brings progressives and Islamic supremacists together in the common cause of attacking anyone who criticizes Islamic supremacism with the threat of lawsuits, actual lawsuits, or even worse, violence.

Tarazi is a lawyer based in Columbus, Ohio. He represented the parents of Rifqa Bary​, the teenage girl who fled from her home in fear for her life in 2009 after converting from Islam to Christianity. He sued me for $10 million after I criticized him in a series of blog posts at my website, AtlasShrugs.com, pointing out his ties to Hamas-linked CAIR and his efforts to harass and demoralize Rifqa by, among other initiatives, denying her the Christmas cards that I had encouraged my readers to send to her.

The larger implications of Tarazi’s lawsuit were clear from the outset. His lawsuit was filed as part of the Islamic supremacist “lawfare” campaign against critics of Sharia, jihad, Islam’s death penalty for apostates, and honor killings, and I refused to capitulate. And at the end of the day, Tarazi blinked and folded.

Tarazi claimed that I had libeled him by linking him to CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood​/Hamas front group that the Department of Justice named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case. But during discovery, my ace legal team, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, who works with the Thomas More Law Center, established that Tarazi did in fact have personal and professional links to CAIR, and that my statements therefore could not be defamatory, because they were true. [...]

We will continue to fight the implementation of Sharia blasphemy laws restricting free speech under the guise of the fictional construct of a “phobia.”

That’s why I wrote my new book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance to show Americans how to fight back. And in the ongoing Islamic battle to destroy free speech, we’ve won an important victory this week.

Read it all.

Youcef Nadarkhani could be executed at any time. An update on this story. "Iranian Pastor Sentenced to Death: Nadarkhani Refuses to Convert," from International Business Times, September 29 (thanks to Kenneth):

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is facing the death penalty, again refused to convert to Islam to save his life.

Nadarkhani was arrested in 2009 for the crime of apostasy because he allegedly abandoned Islam for Christianity. As a pastor, Iranian clerics believe that Nadarkhani was preaching in order to convert Muslims.

Like apostasy, the propagation of non-Islamic religions is forbidden under Islamic law.

Before his last hearing Wednesday, Nadarkhani had been given three previous chances to repent, and all three times he has refused. After his final refusal Wednesday, no verdict has been announced, but many expect that he could be put to death as soon as Friday.

The case has slowly garnered international attention, and there are a number of Christian rights groups advocating for his release.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner also has spoken out against Iran. "While Iran's government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith. This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity. I urge Iran's leaders to abandon this dark path, spare [Nadarkhani's] life, and grant him a full and unconditional release," said Boehner.

There were rumors on Wednesday night that Nadarkhani's execution sentence was to be waived after the final trial, but contradicting reports indicate that the news was incorrect.

"We've had some reports that there has been a verbal announcement from the court in Iran that the sentence is annulled but we urge caution," said Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a religious group campaigning for Nadarkhani's release.

"It's been known that verbal announcements have been directly contradicted by later written statements. We are still calling for international pressure to be kept up."

The American Center for Law and Justice said in a message titled "Troubling News" that the rumors were spread by the Iranian secret service in an attempt to get the media to stop reporting the story. ACLJ said Nadarkhani's lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah called the center Wednesday to say the death sentence hasn't been overturned.

Even if the sentence were commuted, Nadarkhani could still face life in prison. And even if he were released, there would still be danger.

"In Iran about 18 years ago, they had released a pastor, but then came and assassinated him and his bishop later. We cannot stop the pressure," Pastor Firouz Sadegh-Khandjani, a Member of the Council of Elders for the Church of Iran, told the ACLJ.

Between June 2010 and January 2011, more than 200 people in Iran were arrested for their religious beliefs, according to Elam Ministries, a United Kingdom-based church with ties to Iran....

His name is Mujahid. It looks like he grew into his name. An update on this story. "Birmingham terror arrests: Seventh man faces charges," from BBC News, September 29:

A seventh man is to face charges relating to a recent counter-terrorism operation in Birmingham, the Crown Prosecution Service says.

Mujahid Hussain, 20, is charged with entering into a funding arrangement for the purposes of terrorism.

Six other men have already been charged with terrorism offences.

Four of the men were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two with failing to disclose information.

Mr Hussain will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday accused of both helping fund a terror plan and of providing information of "material assistance".

The six others, all from Birmingham and aged between 25 and 32, have been remanded in custody until October.

Irfan Nasser, 30, of Sparkhill, and Irfan Khalid, 26, of Balsall Heath, are accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, including travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, making a martyrdom video and planning a bombing campaign.

They are accused of "being concerned in constructing" a home-made explosive device for terrorist acts and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Unarmed arrests

Ashik Ali, 26, of Balsall Heath, is accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, which involved planning a bombing campaign, providing premises for the planning of terrorist attack and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Rahin Ahmed, 25, of Moseley, is accused of helping fund terrorist acts.

Mohammed Rizwan, 32, of Ward End, and Bahader Ali, 28, of Sparkbrook, are both charged with failing to disclose information about potential acts of terrorism.

It is alleged that between 29 July and 19 September this year, both had information which they knew might help prevent the commission of an act of terrorism but did not disclose the information.

Mr Ali is also charged with providing money for the purposes of terrorism....

The Great Libyan Jihadist Garage Sale continues. Of all things, a Human Rights Watch official below is reportedly miffed at Obama's decision not to put ground troops into Libya, blaming it for allowing this situation to materialize. "Free for all: Up to 20,000 anti-aircraft missiles stolen in Libya," by Neal Munro for the Daily Caller, September 27:

A survey of weapon depots in Libya shows that up to 20,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are now missing, partly because President Barack Obama has refused to send troops to guard the weapons depots, according to a left-of-center advocate.

“We were quite disappointed after talking to administration officials … that nothing more was done, even about the [storage] facilities in Tripoli, which are unsecured now,” said Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies at left-of-centre group Human Rights Watch.

‘“The major impediment [to action] is that the administration doesn’t want ‘boots on the ground,’” he said.

“If these weapons get into the wrong hands, any civilian aircraft operating in the region will be threatened,” said Bouckaert, who has just returned from a visit to Libya. The missing missiles are Russian-made SA-7s and SA-16s: Shoulder-launched missiles that can home into the hot exhaust trails from civilian and military jets. The SA-16 is only five feet long and weighs just 24 pounds.

A few of those types of missiles were used by al-Qaida’s allies in Iraq. Al-Qaida’s allies in Yemen have also showcased their possession of a number of the missiles.

In the last few weeks, Bouckaert said, administration officials have met to discuss the threat. “This has moved sharply up on Obama’s agenda,” partly because the administration-backed National Transitional Council can’t guard the weapons depots, he said.

“European intelligence agencies are also very concerned about these missiles, and they’ve been in contact with me,” he added. The European intelligence agencies “have a larger capacity on the ground [in Libya] because they’re not operating under the same restrictions that President Obama has placed himself in,” Bouckaert explained.

Obama sent aircraft and missiles to help the rebel tribes push back the heavily-armed army, but has consistently refused to send U.S ground troops to win land battle or to protect the fledgling democratic government once dictator Muammar Gaddafi fled the Libyan capital of Tripoli in August. When Obama announced the U.S. intervention on March 18, he was explicit: “The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya.”

“The problem is that the missiles are already out of the storage facilities and in the hand of unknown people,” Bouckaert said. “Libya has thousands of miles of unsecured desert borders to Chad, Mali and Algeria,” where an al-Qaida subgroup now operates, he said.

The al-Qaida subgroup is called al-Qaida in the Maghreb.

The missing missiles and other weaponry has gotten relatively little publicity, despite the danger posed to the U.S. and European and African countries. In October 2004, in contrast, the New York Times ignited a political scandal just days before the 2004 presidential election by publishing a front-page report claiming that a few hundred tons of explosives had been stolen by gunmen from the Iraq’s al Qa’qaa storage facility.

“I was in Iraq in 2003 and the amount of weaponry floating around in Libya is much greater than the anything we saw in Iraq,“ said Bouckaert.

You'll never guess why the churches are now constant guard. "Christians dispossessed and silenced in Mindanao," from Asia News, September 29:

Manila (AsiaNews) - In Jolo, Marawi, Basilan and other areas of Mindanao, the Christian minority is suffering harassment and pressure from the Muslim population, AsiaNews' sources in Mindanao say. Government officials are forcing Christians to sell their land to make room for Chinese industries.

According to sources, the climate of impunity, the abductions, the continuing clashes between the army and extremist Islamic groups and the economic crisis have created an unbearable atmosphere for the Christian population, who are afraid to express their faith in public.

"Jolo Cathedral", they explain, "is located at the center of the city, and has always been a symbol of unity and friendship between Muslims and Christians. Until a few years ago, the main door was open at all hours, but due to the continuous episodes of vandalism, the Cathedral can now be accessed only through the side entrance. The churchyard is guarded day and night by military and police."

Sources say that the situation is the same in Basilan and Cotabato. Here in recent weeks both churches were hit with paper bombs that damaged the part of the walls and windows. These acts provide publicity for the young extremists, who learn intolerance against Christians from unscrupulous preachers, often funded by foreign countries, who aim to spread a restrictive and fundamentalist vision of Islam. "The situation is very difficult", AsiaNews sources explain, "Christians are not permitted to react. The only alternative to escape is to suffer these abuses in silence."...

For all his many faults, Assad doesn't rule strictly by Sharia. Thus Christians, although they do not have equal rights, live better than they do in Sharia regimes. "Fearing Change, Many Christians in Syria Back Assad," from the New York Times, September 27:

SAYDNAYA, Syria — Abu Elias sat beneath the towering stairs leading from the Convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, a church high up in the mountains outside Damascus, where Christians have worshiped for 1,400 years. “We are all scared of what will come next,” he said, turning to a man seated beside him, Robert, an Iraqi refugee who escaped the sectarian strife in his homeland.

“He fled Iraq and came here,” said Abu Elias, looking at his friend, who arrived just a year earlier. “Soon, we might find ourselves doing the same.”

Syria plunges deeper into unrest by the day. On Tuesday, government troops attacked the rebellious town of Rastan with tanks and machine guns, wounding at least 20 people. With the chaos growing, Christians visiting Saydnaya on a recent Sunday said they feared that a change of power could usher in a tyranny of the Sunni Muslim majority, depriving them of the semblance of protection the Assad family has provided for four decades....

They fear that in the event the president falls, they may be subjected to reprisals at the hands of a conservative Sunni leadership for what it sees as Christian support of the Assad family. They worry that the struggle to dislodge Mr. Assad could turn into a civil war, unleashing sectarian bloodshed in a country where minorities, ethnic and religious, have found a way to coexist for the most part.

The anxiety is so deep that many ignore the opposition’s counterpoint: The government has actually made those divisions worse as part of a strategy to ensure the rule of the Assad family, which itself springs from a Muslim minority, the Alawites.

“I am intrigued by your calls for freedom and for overthrowing the regime,” wrote a Syrian Christian woman on her Facebook page, addressing Christian female protesters. “What does freedom mean? Every one of you does what she wants and is free to say what she wants. Do you think if the regime falls (God forbid) you will gain freedom? Then, each one of you will be locked in her house, lamenting those days.”

The fate of minorities in a region more diverse than many recognize is among the most pressing questions facing an Arab world in turmoil. With its mosaic of Christians and Muslim sects, Syria has posed the question in its starkest terms: Does it take a strongman to protect the community from the more dangerous, more intolerant currents in society?

The plight of Christians in Syria has resonated among religious minorities across the Middle East, many of whom see themselves as facing a shared destiny. In Iraq, the number of Christians has dwindled to insignificance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, driven away by bloodshed and chauvinism. Christians in Egypt worry about the ascent of Islamists. Christians in Lebanon, representing the largest minority by proportion in the Arab world, worry about their own future, in a country where they emerged as the distinct losers of a 15-year civil war.

This month, Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic patriarch urged Maronites, the largest community of Christians in the country, to offer Mr. Assad another chance and to give him enough time to carry out a long list of reforms that he has promised but never enacted.

The comments by the patriarch, Bishara Boutros al-Rai, prompted a heated debate in Lebanon, which lived under Syrian hegemony for 29 years. A prominent Syrian (and Christian) opposition figure offered a rebuttal from Damascus. But Patriarch Rai, who described Mr. Assad as “a poor man who cannot work miracles,” defended his remarks, warning that the fall of the government in Syria threatened Christians across the Middle East.

“We endured the rule of the Syrian regime. I have not forgotten that,” Patriarch Rai said. “We do not stand by the regime, but we fear the transition that could follow. We must defend the Christian community. We, too, must resist.”...

But while the promise of the Arab revolts is a new order, shorn of repression and inequality, worries linger that Islamists, the single most organized force in the region, will gain greater influence and that societies will become more conservative and perhaps intolerant.

Note how the New York Times calls pro-Sharia Islamic supremacists "conservatives," and those who oppose them "conservatives."

“Fear is spreading among us and anyone who is different,” said Abu Elias, as he greeted worshipers walking the hundreds of stone steps worn smooth over the centuries. “Today, we are here. Tomorrow, who knows where we will be?”

The Nigerian government shouldn't be negotiating with these mass-murdering jihadist thugs in the first place. But where are all the moderate Muslim spokesmen to explain to Boko Haram that they're Misunderstanding Islam, and that it's a Religion of Peace that doesn't involve waging war against infidels? "Nigerian Islamists reject talks with government: spokesman," from AFP, September 28 (thanks to Wimpy):

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — A purported spokesman for a Nigerian Islamist sect blamed for scores of attacks, including last month's bombing of UN headquarters, has rejected a proposal to negotiate with the government.

A spokesman for Boko Haram told journalists in a conference call late Tuesday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where the sect has carried out most of its attacks, that the group would push ahead with its violent campaign.

"We are not going to enter into any dialogue with the government as the Galtimari committee has recommended," Abul Qaqa said, referring to a panel appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan that this week urged negotiations.

"We do not recognise the Galtimari committee and, as far as we are concerned, its recommendations are of no effect."

He added: "We still maintain our cause of ensuring strict implementation of Islamic law in Nigeria and waging war against infidels."...

While most of its attacks have been in the northeast, Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the UN bombing on August 26 in the capital Abuja that killed at least 23 people.

There was a jihad murder in Frankfurt last March. The jihadist murderer was inspired by a jihadist rapper in Germany. They've seen Islamic honor killing. In response, German authorities are stepping up monitoring of mosques and of Islamic communities in Germany, right?

Of course not. Get real. They're planning surveillance of "Islamophobes" -- i.e., those who want to resist the jihad and the advance of Sharia oppression in Germany. Germany Suicide Watch Update: "Authorities Debate Surveillance of Islamophobes," from Spiegel, September 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Officials from the BfV, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, will discuss the country's increasingly vocal Islamophobe scene at a meeting on Thursday. There have been calls to put right-wing populist and anti-Muslim groups under increased surveillance.

Islamophobes in Germany could come under increased surveillance by the country's domestic intelligence agency. There are concerns that the anti-Muslim scene is becoming increasingly dangerous, and some intelligence officials want it to be subject to greater scrutiny, despite stringent German privacy laws.

The subject will be discussed at a meeting on Thursday between the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Heinz Fromm, and the agency's leaders in the 16 German states. Officials in Bavaria are considering putting right-wing populists under observation as a new form of extremism, while Hamburg has declared it is watching an internet discussion forum similar to anti-Islamic website "Politically Incorrect" (PI).

A spokesman from the North Rhine-Westphalia interior ministry told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper that PI was not currently under observation by intelligence agents, but that the blog was being read closely and that the opinions and comments published on it were "undemocratic." The xenophobic comments were calculated to "incite young people", the spokesman added.

Most states are reluctant, however, and the federal interior ministry has also not yet committed itself on the matter. In essence, the question is whether the hatred of Muslims is enough to endanger freedom of religion and international understanding -- or whether it is a radical but legitimate expression of opinion by individual authors within the limits of the constitution.

Are Muslims in Germany being murdered? Brutalized? Or are the victims of jihad the only ones about whom that can be said?

Amid the Perry camp's patent dishonesty over what exactly the content of the curriculum really is, and brusque dismissal and ad hominem attacks against those who dare to raise questions about it, it is good to see former Congressman Tom Tancredo seeing things more clearly and confronting the problem more honestly. "Governor Perry’s Muslim blind spot," by Tom Tancredo in the Daily Caller, September 27:

[...] Perry’s connections to Muslim groups in Texas are well documented. A recent Christian Science Monitor story said, “Perry has attended a number of Ismaili events in Texas, brokered a few agreements between the state and Ismailis (including the legislation introducing Islamic curricula into Texas schools), and even laid the first brick at the groundbreaking ceremony for an Ismaili worship center in Plano in 2005.”

The Muslim Histories and Cultures (MHC) project was formalized in 2004 in a signed agreement between the University of Texas at Austin and Aga Khan University in Pakistan. The announcement of the MHC project credited Gov. Perry by name with being “instrumental” in its launch.

The agreement calls for an extensive program of bi-cultural teacher training funded jointly by both parties. More than 200 Texas teachers have been trained in the program, which is ongoing. The project’s curriculum units were initially available for viewing on the university’s website, but have since been scrubbed from the Internet. It appears Texas officials do not want the curriculum examined by Texas taxpayers.

Islam scholar Robert Spencer, head of Jihad Watch, examined the program and concluded, “The curriculum is a complete whitewash and it’s got the endorsement of Perry. It’s not going to give you any idea why people are waging jihad against the West — it’s only going to make you think that the real problem is ‘Islamophobia.’”

Perhaps Spencer exaggerates the curriculum’s bias? Examine it for yourself here.

Perry’s close ties to Muslim groups led the political blog Salon to headline a recent story: “Rick Perry: The pro-Sharia candidate?” Evidence in support of that theme comes from Gov. Perry’s refusal to support legislation sponsored by Texas Republican legislators to outlaw Sharia law in Texas.

Perry’s close alliances with pro-Islamic Republican activists like Grover Norquist give additional cause for concern. Norquist supports open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens and is well known in Washington, D.C. circles for his tireless efforts to build Republican bridges to pro-amnesty groups and to slander advocates of immigration enforcement as “racists.” Norquist also has close ties to the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose Houston chapter bragged in a recent newsletter that “Rick Perry’s relationship with Muslims may set him apart.” Precisely so, but not in a way that helped him with voters in the Florida straw poll....

The American Library Association is a foremost bastion of Useful Idiots who talk a good game about censorship and the dangers of book banning, but are led by their political biases into inconsistency in their understanding of what constitutes a "Banned Book." What they really mean by "Banned Books Week" is "Books Disliked by Conservatives and Freedom Fighters Week." Books that are disliked by their favored groups -- as mine are by Islamic supremacist groups such as Hamas-linked CAIR -- are never considered to be books that are "banned or challenged," no matter now often they are actually banned. Books that are genuinely controversial but go against their cherished Leftist multiculturalist assumptions are kept out of libraries and never given a fair shake.

The American Library Association, champion of banned books, has itself banned me, for daring to enunciate truths that they would prefer not be known. So do you want to read a real Banned Book for banned books week? Try The Truth About Muhammad, incinerated in the video above for telling truths the book-burner didn't like being aired (and yet in stark contrast to the aftermath of the threat of the burning of the Qur'an, nary a riot will ensue, and nary an innocent person will be harmed).

To be sure, my book is not "holy," and exhorts no one to kill, enslave or subjugate anyone for any reason. Maybe if it did, it would get on the ALA's list for Banned Books Week.

"Banned Books Week: Read 'The Hunger Games' or the 'Koran,'" by Liz Kelly Nelson for Zap2It, September 27:

Thanks to the vigilance of the American Library Association (ALA), the list of books banned or challenged in 2010-2011 isn't as long as it could be, but it's long enough to keep a person out of books for at least a year. Every year during Banned Book Week the ALA works to keep books considered controversial, obscene or profane on library shelves and in schools....

Except those that are controversial because they outrage the ALA's Leftist pieties.

The ALA asks that from Sept. 24 - Oct. 1, lovers of literature read a banned book. Below, some titles from the 2010-2011 list to get you started:

"The Hunger Games," Suzanne Collins
"The Diary of Anne Frank," Anne Frank
"Water for Elephants," Sarah Gruen
"Brave New World," Alduous Huxley
"The Koran"
"The Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger
"Push," Sapphire
"Slaughter-house 5," Kurt Vonnegut
"Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India," Joseph Lelveld
"My Mom's Having a Baby," Dori Hillested Butler

What "radicalized" this guy, one too many drummer jokes? This case is yet another successful FBI sting, which has been a highly effective tool for steering jihadists intent on murder into a controlled "off ramp" that only leads to jail. Nonetheless, stand by for the standard claims of "entrapment."

There is one musician joke that does apply here: What do you say to a (jihadist) drummer in a suit?

"Will the defendant please rise?"

More on this story (with apologies to all non-jihadist drummers). "Mass. musician accused of D.C. terrorist plot," from CBS News, September 28:

(CBS/AP) A 26-year-old Massachusetts man has been arrested and accused of plotting to attack the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol with large remote-controlled aircraft filled with explosives.

CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that U.S. officials say the suspect, Rezwan Ferdaus was deadly serious about his plans, but the plot had no chance of succeeding.

Ferdaus, an U.S. citizen and Northeastern University graduate, went by the name "Bollywood" when he played in a Massachusetts band. However, U.S. officials say the drummer is also a self-radicalized jihadist, intent on attacking Americans in the U.S. and overseas.

Ferdaus now faces charges of plotting attacks and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

Ferdaus was arrested after he bought what he believed to be 25 pounds of plastic explosives, three grenades and six automatic assault rifles from undercover FBI agents posing as al Qaeda operatives.

Over the past nine months, the agents recorded multiple conversations in which Ferdaus laid out plans for an aerial attack. He bought one small drone aircraft and planned to buy others which he hoped to fill with explosives and fly into Pentagon and Capitol from a park along the Potomac River.

He travelled to Washington to do surveillance taking pictures of his targets.

Officials stress that at no time was Ferdaus outside of the control of his undercover handlers, so he presented no actual danger. But, he repeatedly told the agents that he was driven to kill Americans which he called "enemies of Allah."

He told the undercovers: "I just can't stop. There is no other choice for me."

Ferdaus' college degree is in physics, and he apparently has some proficiency with building explosive devices. In the course of the investigation, officials say he converted eight cell phones into detonators, which he thought were being used in Iraq to trigger IEDs against U.S. soldiers.

Ferdaus was scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Worcester on Wednesday afternoon.

There is a good chance Ferdaus will try to claim he was entrapped by the undercover FBI agents, but agents say they gave him multiple opportunities to get out of it during the course of their investigation.

A one-time overruling is not reform. Authorities still have the punishment to inflict if and when they see fit.

Outrage spread quickly over this sentence, and surely influenced the outcome, but another sentence at another time, or under the next king, may go forward without a reprieve.

An update on this story. "Saudi woman driver's lashing 'overturned by king'," from BBC News, September 28:

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has overturned a court ruling sentencing a woman to 10 lashes for breaking a ban on female drivers, reports say.

The ruling, although not officially confirmed, was tweeted by a Saudi princess and reported by AP news agency citing an unnamed official.

The woman, named as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.

The sentence came two days after the king announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015.

The elderly king kicked the can so far down the road, he may not even be alive when 2015 finally arrives. A great deal can happen in four years, and there are ample forces within Saudi society that will strive to ensure the vote never happens, or the ballots from conveniently segregated women are not counted.

More on why the vote in this case is not as spectacular as it might sound can be found here.

"Thank God, the lashing of Shema is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved king," tweeted Princess Amira al-Taweel, wife of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

"I am sure all Saudi women will be so happy."

Two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges, reports say.

In recent months, scores of women have driven vehicles in Saudi cities to put pressure on the monarchy.

The Saudi interpretation of Islamic law includes the guardianship system under which women need permission from a male relative to participate in public life.

That is, to go outside.

However, correspondents say King Abdullah has struck a reformist stance since he ascended the throne in 2005, especially in regard to women's rights.

Even so, Pakistan has "decided not to take action against the Haqqani network for the time being." "US confronts Pak with proof of ISI's terror link," from the Press Trust of India, September 28 (thanks to K):

Washington: The US confronted Pakistan with "concrete evidences" of links between the ISI and extremist organisations like the Haqqani network and LeT, before it launced [sic] a frontal attack on the spy agency for its terror ties, Pentagon officials have said.

"They (ISI) provide financial support (to extremist organisations). It provides technical support. It provides physical support. They (Pak officials) are allowing the safe heavens [sic] to operate," a defence official said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Another defence department official said that Pentagon has been providing such evidences to Pakistan "since ages" but it is only after the recent attack on a hotel in Kabul and the US Embassy in Kabul that this crossed all limits and the Defence Department decided to go public.

But the senior defence official maintained that these evidences gives concrete proof of the relationship between ISI and the extremist organisations including Haqqani network and LeT.

The senior defence official familiar with it refused from giving further details of the type of evidences that the US has provided to Pakistan, based on which Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a key Congressional committee, last week that the Haqqani network "acts as a veritable arm" of Pakistan's ISI.

Officials said Mullen shared his thoughts and text of his remarks with Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, before he went to make such a strong comment against Pakistan in a public hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Someone overreached a bit in the saber-rattling. The cost, logistics, and the capability that would be required are simply too much. That said, analysts did note that Iran's chances, if it were that determined to pull off such a stunt, would improve with a little help from its friends -- perhaps Venezuela.

More on this story. "White House, experts dismiss Iran naval threat to U.S. coast," by Ashley Fantz and Tom Cohen for CNN, September 28:

(CNN) -- The White House on Wednesday dismissed an Iranian threat to deploy warships near the U.S. coast, and military experts said Iran lacks the naval capability to do so.

Overnight Tuesday, Iranian state news quoted a commander as saying his country plans to have a "powerful presence" near the U.S. border.

In response, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that "we don't take these statements seriously, given that they do not reflect at all Iran's naval capabilities." Pentagon spokesman George Little echoed Carney's point, saying Iran has the right to send vessels into international waters, but "whether they can truly project naval power beyond the region is another question."

"I wouldn't read too much into what came out of Iran today," Little said, adding: "I think what is said and what is actually done can be two different things."

State-run Press TV in Iran said similar plans were announced in July. However, no Iranian warships ever deployed. In February, two Iranian navy vessels traversed the Suez Canal in the first such voyage by Iranian ships since 1979.

Richard Herrmann, director of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University, said Iran's navy is too small with too miniscule a budget to remain for long off the U.S. coast.

"This is hard to take seriously, because Iran's navy is very small. This force, whatever it may be, is going to be puny, especially compared to the U.S. Navy," said Herrmann, who specializes in the use of imagery and posturing in international conflicts. "Iran doesn't have the capability to come within close proximity to (the United States) to conduct hostile activities. Even if (Iran) launched missiles, we would sink their ships immediately."

Iran lacks battleships or aircraft carriers. Its forces are capable of patrolling the Persian Gulf and sailing a short distance in the Indian Ocean, Herrmann said, but keeping ships stationed near the United States, so far from Iran, would be too expensive for the government.

"They would need a place to resupply, refuel, restock crews with food and water. They couldn't afford that unless they got help," Herrmann said. "I would imagine they could get help from somewhere in South America, maybe Venezuela."

Venezuela and Iran are allied by their anti-U.S. sentiments.

Michael Connell, the director of the Iranian studies program at CNA, a Washington-area think tank that specializes in naval analyses, agreed with Herrmann.

"Their navy can't reach our coastline right now," Connell said, describing the Iranian announcement as "bombastic rhetoric."

"It's posturing" by Iran intended for both its domestic and regional audience, Connell said. Making such pronouncements projects a dominant role including naval power, whether or not they can back it up, he added....

The "Usual Gang of Idiots" continues to write new material for al-Qaeda's mad magazine, Inspire, which sounds less like a jihadist tract and more like a bargain brand from the toiletries aisle. In any event, the latest round includes a denunciation of Ahmadinejad's peddling of 9/11 conspiracy theories that fail to give al-Qaeda due credit for its acts of jihadist murder.

And so for a moment, the Sunni-Shi'ite rivalry degenerates into "Did not! Did too!" "Al Qaeda chides Iran over 9/11 'conspiracy theories'," from BBC News, September 28:

Al-Qaeda has accused Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of spreading "conspiracy theories" about the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Inspire, an al-Qaeda-linked online magazine, described Mr Ahmadinejad's controversial speech to the United Nations last week as "ridiculous".

The Iranian leader said he believed the World Trade Center towers could not have been brought down by aircraft.

The article said such a belief "stands in the face of all logic and evidence".

Entitled "Iran and the Conspiracy Theories", the Inspire article said Iran used the theory "as a rallying call for the millions of Muslims around the world who despise America".

Iran "is a collaborator with the US when it suits it" nonetheless, the Yemen-based author said.

Could it be Imam Potrzebie? Or Samir Khan?

There have been sharp sectarian tensions between mainly Shia Iran and Sunni Muslim al-Qaeda - although are both fiercely opposed to US influence.

Mr Ahmadinejad's speech last Thursday triggered a walkout from the General Assembly by diplomats from more than 30 countries.

What is it that "radicalizes" a "26-year-old Massachusetts man" like Rezwan Ferdaus? Reading about the exploits of Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty? A rough game of touch football with Jack, Bobby and Ted? And what, oh what, could be the inciting literature to which this poor fellow was exposed? Common Sense? Democracy In America? The mind boggles. "Massachusetts Man Arrested in Alleged Plot to Destroy Pentagon, U.S. Capitol," from the Associated Press, September 28 (thanks to Philip):

BOSTON – A 26-year-old Massachusetts man has been arrested and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol with large remote-controlled aircraft filled with explosives.

Rezwan Ferdaus of Ashland was arrested Wednesday in Framingham when undercover federal agents delivered materials he'd requested for his alleged plan, including grenades, six machine guns and what Ferdaus believed was C-4 explosive.

Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen and Northeastern University graduate, was scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Worcester on Wednesday afternoon....

What? A Northeastern University graduate? Doesn't Ferdaus know that poverty and ignorance cause jihad?

According to the federal affidavit, Ferdaus began planning "jihad" against the U.S. in early 2010. He allegedly believed he would have a large psychological impact by killing Americans, who he described as "enemies of Allah."

Wishing a happy and sweet new year to all Jewish Jihad Watchers, and to all Jihad Watchers of whatever background who are friends of Israel.

Israel is, now more than ever, on the front lines of the global jihad. With all the calls for the establishment of a Palestinian State, which would like Gaza become simply a new jihad base for new offensives against Israel, Israel is more threatened than ever before. Dhimmis and collaborators all over the West are out for blood, rushing with more fervor than ever to placate the Palestinian jihadists and destroy the Jewish State.

As this new year begins, let us renew our resolve to stand with Israel, to stand for freedom, to stand for Judeo-Christian civilization and with all free people, and to pledge -- as our forefathers did before us in the same cause of freedom and human dignity -- our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai was arrested on charges that he broke into a cash machine. See, if Australia would just be more generous with the jizya, this poor chap would never have been "radicalized" by al-Awlaki. "Man with terror links held after raid," by Dylan Welch for The Age, September 29 (thanks to Block Ness):

A SYDNEY man with ''demonstrated connections'' to one of the world's most dangerous terrorist preachers has been arrested by Sydney police over allegations he broke into a cash machine.

Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai was arrested after three other men were prevented from robbing a cash van at gunpoint in far western Sydney yesterday morning.

Ahmadzai, 21, is alleged by Australia's domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, to have had contact with the Yemen-based al-Qaeda preacher, Anwar al-Awlaki.

Awlaki is of great concern to Western intelligence agencies due to his repeatedly demonstrated ability to radicalise via the internet young Muslim men in Western countries.

Awlaki is seen as such a threat that last year he was placed on a CIA ''catch or kill'' list.

Last year, Ahmadzai was one of 23 Australian residents whom ASIO judged of such concern that it alerted US authorities to them. The US State Department subsequently added them to a domestic no-fly database, according to a leaked cable from the US embassy in Canberra.

But yesterday morning, Ahmadzai was in a different type of trouble, arrested by detectives from the New South Wales Police robbery squad at his home in Ermington in Sydney's west.

He was arrested shortly after three other men, aged between 24 and 29, were found by detectives in a car park in Cecil Hills in Sydney's outer suburbs.

The three men were in two stolen cars and police allege they found a rifle, two handguns and several balaclavas with them. An armoured cash van was also in the car park when the arrests occurred.

The three were taken to western Sydney police stations and charged with robbery and firearms offences.

After the arrests, police executed search warrants at Ahmadzai's home and five other locations, seizing a Subaru WRX, a pistol, ammunition, Australian and US currency, a pill press, anabolic steroids, two-way radios, laptop computers, mobile phones and passports....

Historically, non-Muslims whose lands were seized by the jihad had three choices: conversion, dhimmitude, or death. Today, however, they have a fourth option largely unavailable to their forbears: quit their lands of origin—emigrate—the latest testimony to the nature of Islam.

A recent report indicates that unprecedented numbers of Copts, Egypt’s indigenous Christian population, are emigrating from their homeland in response to the so-called “Arab spring”:

The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations (EUHRO) published a report today on emigration of Christians from Egypt, saying that nearly 100,000 Christians have emigrated since March 2011. The report, which was sent to the Egyptian cabinet and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), warned that this emigration has been prompted by the escalating intimidation and attacks on Christians by Islamists. “Copts are not emigrating abroad voluntarily,” said Naguib Gabriell, the director EUHRO, “they are coerced into that by threats and intimidation by hard line Salafists, and the lack of protection they are getting from the Egyptian regime.”

The report goes on to list a number of attacks on Copts and churches—including the killing of Coptic youth in Moqattam, the Imbaba and other church attacks—adding “Salafist clerics, who gained political influence after the January 25 Revolution, have become emboldened, calling Copts Dhimmis who have to pay the jizya (tax paid by non-Muslims to the state) because they are not first class citizens and can never enjoy full citizenship rights, or obtain sensitive posts.”

Indeed, this boldness is a harbinger of things to come—and Copts know it, hence the emigration. Wagdi Ghoneim, a popular cleric and former imam in California, recently called Copts “Crusaders” on Al Jazeera—about the worst thing to call someone in the Muslim world—insisting that they do not deserve equal rights with Muslims in Egypt, because they are infidel dhimmis. Likewise, Abu Shadi, a top representative of the Salafis, told Tahrir News that the Copts must either convert to Islam, pay jizya and assume inferior status, or die. These are just a couple of examples of the countless Muslim leaders openly hostile to Egypt’s native population.

Nor is this phenomenon limited to the Copts of Egypt:

Gabriel sees a parallel with the Christian emigration from Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. “After the massacre of the congregation of Our Lady of Deliverance Church on October 31, 2010, and other attacks in Iraq, the ratio of Iraqi Christians went down from 8% to 2%; in Palestine to just .5%, and in Lebanon from 75% to 32%. If emigration of Christians, who constitute nearly 16% of the Egyptian population, continues at the present rate, it may reach 250,000 by the end of 2011, and within ten years a third of the Coptic population of Egypt would be gone.”

Bear in mind these large numbers are not simply indicative of those who want to emigrate, but those who simply can: not only does it take years to work out the legalities of emigrating, but many simply cannot afford it. In other words, if emigration was a simple thing, the number of Christian emigrants from the Muslim world would be even higher.

As professor Habib Malik confirms, “It is principally the violence visited sporadically upon these Christian communities in their native towns and villages across the Middle East, and the absence of any reliable means of protection in a region seething with religious fanaticism and despotic forms of rule, which impels Christians to flee and not return” (Islamism and the Future of the Christians of the Middle East, pgs. 36-37).

But it’s more than this; in fact, we are witnessing another manifestation of history—witnessing firsthand how formerly non-Muslim lands become Muslim. For just as conversion to Islam (out of force, out of necessity, out of cynicism) and the outright killing of non-Muslims saw the ranks of Islam grow, so too does emigration fit in this same paradigm of Islamization.

Beyond the authoritative primary sources which unequivocally demonstrate the violent nature of Islam—including history and theology texts—which many prefer to dismiss as “dead books,” here, then, is yet another live example. And yet the West’s leaders, from academics to politicians, will continue insisting that Islam is the “religion of peace”—testimony to the endemic blindness inflicting this age.

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 contributes regularly to Jihad Watch

Prosecutors had said Pete Seda was "well aware" the money was helping to fund Chechen jihadists, and the judge agreed. "Islamic charity leader sentenced to nearly 3 years," by Jeff Barnard for the Associated Press, September 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

EUGENE, Ore. -- The leader of the U.S. branch of a defunct Islamic charity was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years in prison after being convicted of helping smuggle $150,000 to Saudi Arabia.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan said that while he has no doubt the money went to Islamic fighters battling the Russian army in Chechnya, as the prosecution maintained, there's no proof directly linking Pete Seda to terrorism.

For that reason, Hogan said he wouldn't apply the so-called "terrorism enhancement" that could have sent Seda to prison for eight years. Instead, Hogan sentenced Seda to 33 months in prison, ordered him to pay the Internal Revenue Service $80,980 in restitution, and allowed him to remain free for 60 days before reporting.

Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, is an Iranian-born U.S. citizen who ran the U.S. chapter of the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation based in Ashland. He worked in Ashland as a tree surgeon and was an outspoken proponent of the peaceful aspects of Islam. He was known for marching in the local July 4 parade with his camel.

Seda was convicted last year of tax fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government for helping Saudi Arabian national Soliman Al-Buthe convert a contribution from a doctor in England into traveler's checks, which Al-Buthe took with him on a flight to Saudi Arabia without declaring it to authorities. Prosecutors have been unable to force Al-Buthe to return to the U.S. to face the same charges as Seda.

Acting U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton said federal prosecutors felt they had proven Seda's connection to terrorism, but respected the court's ruling and were satisfied with the sentence.

"Money is the lifeblood of terrorist organizations," Holton said. "We are working very hard to cut off that lifeline. Shutting down al-Haramain internationally and here was an essential part of that."

Last week the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the U.S. Treasury Department rightly designated the Oregon branch of the Saudi Arabia-based charity a terrorist organization in 2004 for financing terrorist activities in Chechnya and Albania. But the appeals court found the department improperly seized the group's assets.

The unanimous three-judge panel found the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control violated the charity's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure by improperly using a "blocking order" to freeze the charity's assets without a warrant.

The foundation disbanded after the department froze its assets.

Seda declined to comment, citing the advice of his lawyers. Defense attorney Steve Wax said they planned to appeal both the convictions and the sentence....

A society that accepts death as retribution for cartoons is morally, intellectually and ultimately materially impoverished. That is what is at stake in upholding freedom of speech against violent intimidation. An update on this story. "Norway charges three in terror plot over cartoons," from BBC News, September 27:

Prosecutors in Norway have charged three men with conspiracy to commit terrorism in connection with the 2005 Prophet Muhammad cartoon controversy.

The three are accused of planning to attack Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published his cartoons.

The men - of Iraqi Kurdish, Chinese Uighur and Uzbek origin - were arrested in Norway and Germany in 2010.

They had allegedly acquired bomb components and tried to buy a gun.

The three are expected to be tried next month.

They were named as Mikael Davud, a Norwegian of Uighur origin, Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd residing in Norway, and David Jakobsen, an Uzbek also living in Norway.

International pressure got the hikers freed; theirs was a fashionable cause in the mainstream press and among prominent left-wing figures. Would Hugo Chavez, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Cindy Sheehan, Noam Chomsky, and Sean Penn care to stand up for Yousef Nadarkhani's human rights?

An update on this story. "Christian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani faces potential execution," by Jordan Sekulow for the Washington Post, September 27:

Just days after Iran released two Americans accused of spying, an Iranian court has upheld the apostasy conviction and execution sentence of Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.

The 11th branch of Iran’s Gilan Provincial Court has determined that Nadarkhani has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Iran’s supreme court had previously ruled that the trial court must determine if Youcef had been a Muslim before converting to Christianity.

However, the judges, acting like terrorists with a hostage, demanded that he recant his faith in Christ before even taking evidence. The judges stated that even though the judgment they have made is against the current Iranian and international laws, they have to uphold the previous decision of the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court in Qom.

When asked to “repent” by the judges, Youcef stated, “Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?” The judges replied , “To the religion of your ancestors, Islam.” To which he replied, “I cannot.”

It is reported that Youcef was able to see his children for the first time since March and was in good spirits speaking of how he longed to serve the church upon his release.

Pastor Youcef will be brought to the court for two additional “hearings” on September 27th and 28th for the sole purpose of being called upon to recant his Christian faith. The ACLJ’s sources report that although Pastor Youcef’s attorneys will attempt to appeal the case, there is no guarantee that the provincial court will not act on its own interpretation of Sharia law and execute pastor Youcef as early as Wednesday.

Technically, there is no right of appeal, and under Iran’s interpretation of Hadith and Sharia law, Pastor Youcef is to be given three chances to recant. He has already been asked to recant twice, and will be asked to do so again Tuesday. If he does not recant his Christian faith, he could be executed at any time.

We are continuing to press for the international community to take note of Youcef’s situation and call for his unconditional release. We are also continuing to work with members of Congress and are urging the State Department to get involved to save the life of this Christian pastor.

There is still time to save this pastor’s life.

We have filed suit against the MTA for refusing to run our pro-Israel ads. Here is a section from the suit, and Pamela Geller has much more here:

Plaintiffs American Freedom Defense Initiative (hereinafter referred to as “AFDI”), Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer (collectively referred to as “Plaintiffs”), by and through their undersigned counsel, bring this Complaint against the above-named Defendants (also collectively referred to as “MTA”), their employees, agents, and successors in office, and in support thereof allege the following upon information and belief:

INTRODUCTION

1. This case seeks to protect and vindicate fundamental constitutional rights. It is a civil rights action brought under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, challenging Defendants’ restriction on Plaintiffs’ right to engage in protected speech in a public forum created by Defendants based on the content and viewpoint of Plaintiffs’ message (hereinafter “Free Speech Restriction”). Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction prohibited Plaintiffs from displaying advertisements on MTA buses that travel throughout the City of New York.

2. Plaintiffs seek a declaration that Defendants violated their clearly established constitutional rights as set forth in this Complaint; a declaration that Defendants’ Free Speech

Restriction violates the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as set forth in this Complaint; a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining the enforcement of Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction as set forth in this Complaint; and nominal damages for the past loss of Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. Plaintiffs also seek an award of reasonable costs of litigation, including attorneys’ fees and expenses, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and other applicable law.

The controversy is over this ad:

Geller explains the suit on WPIX in the video above and in "The battle for free speech and against the savages" in WND today:

[...] Howard Marcus of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) told me that our ad "contains language that, in our view, does not conform with the MTA's advertising standards regarding ads that demean an individual or group of individuals." The AFDI ad says, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat Jihad."

The MTA's problem is with the word "savage," and mainstream media news reports have stated falsely that the ads are "anti-Muslim," calling every Muslim a savage. Of course New York Daily News reporter Pete Donahue resorted to Muslim Brotherhood smears like "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Islam" when referring to me. It seems that the leftist media are unable to accurately report anything. I am, in fact, counter-jihad. The New York Post started out a bit more even handed, calling me merely "controversial," although it described my ad as inflammatory. Truth is inflammatory.

Then in a follow-up piece the next day, I went from controversial to radical. Who is spiking Post reporter Jennifer Fermino's Kool-Aid? Lay off the Muslim Brotherhood sources, Jen. I am a "radical"? Truth is radical. Morality is radical. But a genocidal ideology is not radical or savage. The media are utterly corrupt, and the culture is subsumed by evil and the inability or unwillingness to distinguish between right and wrong. In my new book, "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance," I show just how bad things have gotten, and what we must do to stop this now.

The ad is actually referring to the Islamic jihadists who are determined to destroy Israel. And they are savage.

Tell me again why the word "savage" is inaccurate. Everyone is shocked (shocked, I tell ya) by the use of the word savage for savages. As long as the Palestinian Authority continues its savage policy to foment violence and promote hatred, and teaches its children to hate, the number of young Muslims willing to blow themselves up or to slit Israeli throats will continue to increase. That is savage. The Palestinian Authority propaganda of "Holocaust denial, racial slurs, anti-Jewish epithets and glorification of terrorists" is savage.

The targeting of civilians is savage. The relentless 60-year campaign of terror against the Jewish people is savage. The torture of hostage Gilad Shalit is savage. The bloody hacking to death of the Fogel family was savage. Munich was savage. The unspeakable torture of Ehud Goldwasser was savage. The tens of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel (into schools, homes, etc.) are savage. The vicious Jew-hatred behind this genocide is savage. The endless demonization of the Jewish people in the Palestinian and Arab media is savage. The refusal to recognize the state of Israel as a Jewish state is savage....

Read it all.

Pamela Geller was on Hannity last Friday discussing the latest front of the Palestinian jihad against Israel: the United Nations. It is refreshing to see some common sense on the airwaves.

Get the urgently needed book, the only one that offers free citizens practical and proven strategies for resisting the advance of Sharia in the U.S.: Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

Although Turkey is a NATO member, she has always supported the jihad in the North Caucasus.

The Turks have never openly supported the jihad, but always tried to use the jihad and jihadis for their own interests. And many Muslims made their way from Turkey to the Mujahideen, joining the jihad in Chechnya and Dagestan.

Many of the wounded jihadists received treatment in Turkish hospitals. And for many of them, that country became a refuge from persecution. There has been a great deal of Turkish emigration to Europe and other countries.

Confirmation of all this are certain telling facts. Three official representative of the leader of the Caucasus jihadists, Doku Umarov, were killed in Istanbul on September 16, 2011.

Until recently, Turkey tried to pursue a balanced policy between NATO and the Islamic world. However, Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan and his team are now seeking new contacts and relationships in the Islamic world.

Turkey had to enlist the support of its neighbors in order to begin openly to promote its ambitions in the Islamic world and the region.

Over the last year the Turks have made great strides in the region. They rendezvoused with Georgia and Iran, securing a secure Eastern border. They started a few ambitious energy projects. And they began to build a railroad that will connect them with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran. This railroad completely changes the balance of power in the region.

I remember that I was told about a meeting that was supposed to ensure a steady supply of arms to the North Caucasian Mujahideen. A former military man, a Turkish citizen, promised to give the Mujahideen weapons seized from the Kurdish fighters. This project failed. The Mujahideen were wronged by the Turkish military, and said that as long as Turkey does not become an Islamic state, the Turkish military cannot be trusted.

After Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly began the Islamization of Turkey, the jihadists found fertile ground there. Turkey appeared ambitious to become the leader of Islam in the region.

Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davidoglu began to make up for lost time, and to prove their commitment to Islam, they began to support a terrorist organization, IHH. They began to advocate for the recognition of Palestine and began to speak openly against Israel.

An interesting fact is that Turkey has a problem of separatism, and not in its interest to support separatists elsewhere. In spite of this, the Turkish establishment is exacerbating relations with its former partner, Israel.

Turkey, like Iran, now has a real chance after the "Arab Spring" to gain prestige and influence extending to northern Africa.

The trend that we observe in the Caucasus, Turkey and North Africa, clearly proves that what has happened in these regions should not be called "Arab Spring"; it should be called "Islamic Spring," or better, as it says in the Qur'an, Jihad.

Hundreds of Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and many Asian countries are now being sent to Turkey under the guise of being tourists. The bulk of these so-called tourists are men between the ages of 18 and 40. According to them, they're going to rest on the Mediterranean Sea, close to the border with Israel.

On the Australian passport, only Muslims are allowed to cover facial features.

Only religious reasons are acceptable excuses for covering hair, ears and facial contours. And only Islam has such religious reasons. From the Australian Govermnent's general photograph guidelines:

The photograph must show you without any hat or other head covering. However, if you wear a head covering for religious reasons we will accept a photograph of you wearing it, but your facial features from bottom of chin to top of forehead and both edges of your face must be clearly shown.

Islam -- A (Jewish-) Christian Sect? (Part 2)
A short history-of-dogma examination
By Peter Bruns
Translated by Anonymous
Translation edited by Ibn Warraq
Part 1

Until the middle of the previous century[20], a certain optimism prevailed about the historical applicability of Koranic as well as extra-Koranic materials. The results of Watt and the older Koranic scholarship by Nöldeke[21] and Schwally at the time appeared to be completely worthless, when the genuineness of the Koran itself and the historical existence of Mohammed were doubted. What is amazing, in fact, is the monstrous naïveté of Western students of Islam relative to the Muslim fairy tale of the redaction of the Koran established under the "rightly guided" Caliph ‘Uthmân in 653.[22] Those same exegetes who would indignantly reject the reports of bishop and church writer Eusebius on the origin of the Gospels and New Testament literature, follow much more blindly the claims of late Muslim tradition. Thus the modern juxtaposition of Bible and Koran, Jesus and Mohammed suffers from the contemporaneity of what is not contemporaneous, or put otherwise, the asymmetry of the methodological procedures: hypercriticism and basic mistrust of church tradition on one hand, blind trust in the late literary sources of Muslim historians on the other. A preliminary glance into contemporary church historical writing can teach modern historians better. In 1930, Fritsch states: "The knowledge and concomitantly the refutation of the Qoran does not begin for Christian authors until the 8th century because it was not yet literarily fixed."[23] According to Mingana's[24] investigations from the early 20th century, Christian writers of the 7th century, like Katholikus Ischojab III, the chronica minora, as well as Johannes bar Penkaje,[25] are not yet acquainted with any Muslim holy book. The same can be said of Coptic author Johannes of Nikiu. A systematic refutation of the Qoran begins only with Johannes of Damascus (died ca. 750) and the Nestorian Katholikos Timotheus I (died 785), as well as the Melkite Theodor abû Qurra (died around 800). Christian criticism aims at both a textual tradition as well as content. It had not escaped the Christians that the Koran did not have an established and generally recognized textual form from the start. The apologist ‘Abd al-Masîh (Christodoulos) al-Kindî[26] in the 9th century proves especially well informed about the origin and collection of the Koran. Al-Kindî belongs among the sharpest Koran critics. In particular, he distinguishes three forms of the law: the complete law of divine mercy and love which Christ has brought, the law of balance, which is that of Moses (eye for an eye, etc.), and finally the "satanic law of the use of violence" (see "satanic verses"!), as derived from the Koran and the "ridiculous tales" of Mohammed (Hadîth). Other refutations of the Koran, like those of Abû Nûh an-Anbârî (9th century), have not come down to us. Muslim apologists, meanwhile, brought great embarrassment to the convoluted textual history, since they were accustomed to accuse Jews and Christians of a forgery (tahrîf) the Bible[27], while they themselves were not one bit better off with their holy book.

A change of direction in Koran scholarship appeared under John E. Wansbrough[28], who made a radical break with the previous schools of thought. In his view, what is presently called the Koran developed during a time period which reached into the ninth century. This would accord approximately with the statements made by al-Kindî. Within these two centuries, the different text fragments -- differently formed -- would have grown in the framework of an anonymous editing process into a sacred text. Therefore, the Koran cannot be valid as the ipsissima vox Mahometi, to say nothing of Dei. The question Tilman Nagel posed to himself -- how to explain the abrupt transformation in Mohammed's biography from patient sufferer to power-seeker (or put another way -- how the Mecca phase relates to the Medina phase)[29] reveals pure illusion, since the figure of Mohammed is fictitious and its relation to the literary product, "Koran", is not given. Preparation for Wansbrough's hypothesis were Lüling's investigations, expanded by Luxenberg to the reconstruction of a non-Arabic, Syriac basic text. The hermeneutic key, or rather general key for this kind of Koran exegesis is the postulation of a pre-Islamic-Christian archetype, a Syriac "original text," which only became an Arabic text in the course of a long editing process. Utterly surprising is the return of an old apologetic motif in a new costume. From the history of Muslim-Christian polemics[30], it is sufficiently well-known that Arab Christians turned the tables of written proof by invoking individual Koran citations against the Muslims as proof of the truth of their own religion -- thus striking the enemy with his own weapon. For traditional Koran exegesis, of many Western Islam scholars as well, insight into the history of text and tradition of the Koran, at any rate, means a great shock which has not yet been digested.

The theories of the Oxford scholar fell on fertile ground in the French scholarly world, in the case of -- among others -- Dominique and Marie-Thérèse Urvoy. Their study, "Psychological action of the Koran", investigates the rhetorical example of Islamic propaganda and of the didactic purposes in the Koran. Regarding the Koran and its origin, the authors summarize:

"The history of the Koranic text is marked by a series of socio-political choices: progressive establishment and imposition of an official version, eliminating other versions -- rallying of intellectuals around the agreed-upon version, even if it constitutes -- in the case of the philosophers -- a simple concession in numbers; hardening by the theologians of that unanimity by means of an interpretation privileging the cultural criteria of one group (Arabs) within the unity of the Muslim world. In this respect, the Koranic text appeared as the result of a veritable collective shaping."[31]

Peter Bruns is Professor at the Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, Germany. This article appeared in German in Forum Katholische Theologie, 26 (2010) 1., pp. 1-23.

"Even at the time it was seen as a turning point by officials managing day-to-day relations with Pakistan," but attack was "glossed over" to maintain the relationship with Islamabad. A fine lot of good that did. "Pakistanis Tied to 2007 Border Attack on Americans," by Carlotta Gall for the New York Times, September 27:

KABUL, Afghanistan — A group of American military officers and Afghan officials had just finished a five-hour meeting with their Pakistani hosts in a village schoolhouse settling a border dispute when they were ambushed — by the Pakistanis

An American major was killed and three American officers were wounded, along with their Afghan interpreter, in what fresh accounts from the Afghan and American officers who were there reveal was a complex, calculated assault by a nominal ally. The Pakistanis opened fire on the Americans, who returned fire before escaping in a blood-soaked Black Hawk helicopter.

The attack, in Teri Mangal on May 14, 2007, was kept quiet by Washington, which for much of a decade has seemed to play down or ignore signals that Pakistan would pursue its own interests, or even sometimes behave as an enemy.[...]

Though both sides kept any deeper investigations of the ambush under wraps, even at the time it was seen as a turning point by officials managing day-to-day relations with Pakistan.

Pakistani officials first attributed the attack to militants, then, when pressed to investigate, to a single rogue soldier from the Frontier Corps, the poorly controlled tribal militia that guards the border region. To this day, none of the governments have publicly clarified what happened, hoping to limit damage to relations. Both the American and Pakistani military investigations remain classified.

“The official line covered over the details in the interests of keeping the relationship with Pakistan intact,” said a former United Nations official who served in eastern Afghanistan and was briefed on the events immediately after they occurred.

“At that time in May 2007, you had a lot of analysis pointing to the role of Pakistan in destabilizing that part of Afghanistan, and here you had a case in point, and for whatever reason it was glossed over,” he said. The official did not want to be named for fear of alienating the Pakistanis, with whom he must still work.

Exactly why the Pakistanis might have chosen Teri Mangal to make a stand, and at what level the decision was made, remain unclear. Requests to the Pakistani military for information and interviews for this article were not answered. One Pakistani official who was present at the meeting indicated that the issue was too sensitive to be discussed with a journalist. Brig. Gen. Martin Schweitzer, the American commander in eastern Afghanistan at the time, whose troops were involved, also declined to be interviewed.

At first, the meeting to resolve the border dispute seemed a success. Despite some tense moments, the delegations ate lunch together, exchanged phone numbers and made plans to meet again. Then, as the Americans and Afghans prepared to leave, the Pakistanis opened fire without warning. The assault involved multiple gunmen, Pakistani intelligence agents and military officers, and an attempt to kidnap or draw away the senior American and Afghan officials. [...]

To stem the flow of militants, the Afghan government was building more border posts, including one at Gawi, in Jaji District, one of the insurgents’ main crossing points, according to Rahmatullah Rahmat, then the governor of Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan.

Pakistani forces objected to the new post, claiming it was on Pakistani land, and occupied it by force, killing 13 Afghans. Over the following days dozens were killed as Afghan and Pakistani forces traded mortar rounds and moved troops and artillery up to the border. Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, began to talk of defending the border at all costs, said Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the senior American general in Afghanistan at the time.

The border meeting was called, and a small group of Americans and Afghans — 12 men in total — flew by helicopters to Teri Mangal, just inside Pakistan, to try to resolve the dispute. They included Mr. Rahmat. The Afghans remember the meeting as difficult but ending in agreement. The Pakistanis described it as cordial, said Mahmood Shah, a retired brigadier and a military analyst who has spoken to some of those present at the meeting.

The Americans say the experience was like refereeing children, but after five hours of back and forth the Pakistanis agreed to withdraw from the post, and the Afghans also agreed to abandon it.

Then, just as the American and Afghan officials were climbing into vehicles provided to take them the short distance to a helicopter landing zone, a Pakistani soldier opened fire with an automatic rifle, pumping multiple rounds from just 5 or 10 yards away into an American officer, Maj. Larry J. Bauguess Jr., killing him almost instantly. An operations officer with the 82nd Airborne Division from North Carolina, Major Bauguess, 36, was married and the father of two girls, ages 4 and 6.

An American soldier immediately shot and killed the attacker, but at the same instant several other Pakistanis opened fire from inside the classrooms, riddling the group and the cars with gunfire, according to the two senior Afghan commanders who were there. Both escaped injury by throwing themselves out of their car onto the ground....

Read it all.

The threatened deployment would be an expensive spectacle to attempt to make a point. Whether they go through with it is another matter altogether: talk, after all, is cheap. "Iran says could deploy navy near U.S. coast: report," by Hashem Kalantari for Reuters, September 27:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran raised the prospect on Tuesday of sending military ships close to the United States' Atlantic coast, in what would be a major escalation of tensions between the long-standing adversaries.

"Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders," the head of the Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, Sayyari gave no details of when such a deployment could happen or the number or type of vessels to be used.

The declaration comes just weeks after Turkey said it would host a NATO early warning radar system which will help spot missile threats from outside Europe, including potentially from Iran. The decision has angered Tehran which had enjoyed close relations with Ankara.

And it comes a few months after Iran sent warships through the Suez canal, after the fall of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the first time the Islamic Republic had deployed navy vessels in the Mediterranean.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to stop it getting nuclear weapons. Tehran denies it is developing nuclear arms saying its atomic program is for purely peaceful purposes.

Wink-wink.

Iran has dismissed the threats, warning that it will respond by hitting U.S. interests in the Gulf and Israel if any such attack happened.

Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40 percent of all traded oil passes.

The Islamic state often launches military drills in the country to display its military capabilities amid persistent speculation about a possible U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

In August, France's top counter-terror judge opined: "It's been shown that AQIM is only able to strike in its own zone, by wanting to kill tourists — and we have seen nothing emerge as a significant foreign operation in Europe that was really organized by AQIM." But U.S. General Carter Ham and other European authorities disagree, warning of a pan-African jihadist network that will be better equipped and connected to carry out attacks across the Mediterranean as well as on the African continent.

The presence of financiers is a foot in the door. "Police in Spain arrest 5 suspected of financing terrorists," by Al Goodman for CNN, September 27 (thanks to Alexandre):

Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- Civil Guards arrested five Algerian men early Tuesday in northern Spain on suspicion of providing logistical and financial support for Islamic terrorist activities, Spain's interior ministry said.

The suspects, aged 36 to 49, allegedly supported "terrorist groups that operate in the Algerian area of the Maghreb, specifically for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," a ministry statement said.

They also had suspected links to Islamic militants in Italy, France and Switzerland.

Some 150 Civil Guards took part in the operation, making nearly simultaneous arrests and conducting searches of homes and premises linked to the suspects in two towns of northern Guipuzcoa province and two others in neighboring Navarra province, the statement said.

Computer hardware and software was seized and will be analyzed. Spain's National Court, which handles cases of terrorism, is supervising the operation, the statement said.

Spanish authorities have said repeatedly in the past few years that the group known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is of key concern, because of its operational base in northern Africa, just across the Mediterranean Sea from Spain and southern Europe.

Last week, Civil Guards arrested a Cuban man on Spain's Mallorca Island in the Mediterranean for allegedly recruiting and indoctrinating others for Islamic terrorist activities.

A judge released the suspect from custody Friday, but he must report daily to police while authorities investigate computer documentation seized when he was detained.

Since the Madrid train bombings of 2004 that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others, Spanish police have arrested more than 400 suspected al Qaeda militants or collaborators, the Interior Ministry website says. Most have been of North African or Middle Eastern origin, with a few from Latin America.

An update on this story. This report explains and translates the exact misspelling, and also sets her age as several years younger. Whatever her age, the uproar this supposed offense has caused among grown adults is beyond absurd.

"Pakistan: ten year old girl accused of blasphemy and sentenced for a spelling mistake," by Jibran Khan for Asia News, September 28:

Abbottabad (AsiaNews) - A spelling error has led to an accusation of blasphemy, and serious consequences for a Christian girl of 10 years of age and her family in Abbottabad. Faryal Bhatti, the daughter of a nurse, Sarafeen Bhatti is a student at Colony High School Havelian POF. On September 22, during an examination she misspelled a word in Urdu, putting the full top in the wrong place. Thus the word, referring to the prophet Muhammad, was transformed from "poem of praise" (naat) to "curse (lanaat). The Urdu teacher, Mrs. Fareeda, sternly rebuked Faryal in front of the class and took the matter to the headmaster, even though the child defended herself saying that it was a mistake.

The news of the alleged insult to Muhammad spread through the school, among teachers and the direction accused the girl of blasphemy. The school authorities informed the religious authorities who together with the inhabitants of the colony staged a demonstration, demanding the child be reported to police, expelled from school and her family expelled from the Colony. A mob chanted slogans against Christians, and in Friday sermons religious leaders denounced the episode as "a conspiracy against Islam", which was to be crushed.

In a meeting with teachers and religious leaders the child (in tears) and her mother explained that it was a mistake and apologized. Maulana Syed Ejaz Ali, a religious leader of the Jamia Masjid saw the piece of paper, talked with the child and mother and concluded: "I have no precise idea about the intentions of Faryal, her eyes filled with tears show her innocence, but the error has transformed the word into an insult and this is sufficient reason for a punishment, she should never throughout her entire life, think against Islam. "

To appease the religious the school administration expelled Faryal from school, Islamic clerics lobbied the Colony administration resulting in the mother being fired and forced to leave the residence. Both mother and daughter were transferred to Wah Cantonment by the hospital management. The Masihi Foundation has asked two Islamic clerics in Islamabad to give their opinion on the matter, Maulana Mehfooz Ali Khan and Hussain Ahmed Malik. Maulana said: "It is the innocent mistake of a child. Many Muslim students in the madrasas incorrectly pronounce the Arabic words, changing their meaning, you can not punish a child for an honest mistake, the girl was only 10 years old, she will carry this trauma with her. Faryal Bhatti has been subjected to all of this only because she is Christian, I protest against the decision to expel the young child and to transfer the mother. "

The bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Anthony Rufin, told AsiaNews: "I condemn the incident. Now, even Christian students are victimized and accused of blasphemy. Society is becoming so intolerant that a tiny error gets major attention. The ulema have decided on the punishment of a child who does not even know what she did wrong. They should have explained the mistake to her, if it really was a terrible mistake, in this way gaining her confidence and making a service to religious dialogue. What happened is exactly the opposite. "

Beyond the imposition of Islamic law, which is the fundamental aim of jihad in all of its forms, the next strikingly common trait among jihadist groups is the utter lack of concern for civilian casualties. Fatwa after vague fatwa about "innocents" won't stop them: it all depends on your definition of "innocent."

"Amnesty Accuses Thai Muslim Insurgents of War Crimes," from Voice of America News, September 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

Amnesty International says Muslim rebels waging an insurgent campaign in three southern provinces of Thailand have committed war crimes by deliberately targeted civilians.

Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat since 2004. In a report released Tuesday, the human rights group says civilians from all walks of life, including teachers, civil servants and farmers, have been indiscriminately targeted in the attacks....

It gets worse: who says they were "indiscriminately" targeted? Often, civilians appear to have been targeted because they are Buddhists. On other occasions, the jihadists have sought to make an example of Muslims friendly to or representative of the current government, and to attempt to intimidate the population into submission.

But hey, it's not all bad: they can vote for Islamic Supremacist #1 or Islamic Supremacist #2! "Saudi woman to be lashed for driving car," from the Telegraph, September 28 (thanks to E.):

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to to 10 lashes for challenging a ban on women driving.

Amnesty International reported the sentence just two days after Saudi King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections....

Two other women are also believed to be facing charges related to driving, the Amnesty statement said.

Najla Hariri, one of the women facing charges, told Reuters: "They called me in for questioning on a charge of challenging the monarch on Sunday... I signed a pledge not to drive again, although my driving was a result of necessity not an act of defiance."

Presidential candidate Herman Cain won the Florida Straw Poll the other day, and my only question is, Which Herman Cain won it?

Was it the Herman Cain who, as Pamela Geller reported yesterday, promised that he would "aggressively pursue a criminal investigation of CAIR and all Muslim Brotherhood groups named as co-conspirators in the largest Hamas funding trial in our nation's history"? Cain also avowed that he would prosecute the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), another group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Or was it the Herman Cain who, as Geller reported in August, "met with Mohamed Magid, who is also the head of the Islamic Society of North America" and other Islamic supremacist leaders, and told them that he was "humble and contrite for any statements I have made that might have caused offense to Muslim Americans and their friends"?

Is Cain's campaign bio entitled The Three Faces of Herman Cain? Or are two faces enough?

"We are not in a position to undertake an operation at this point."

Great. When will you be in control of your country again so we can pencil that in on our calendar? More on this story. "Officials: No action against Haqqani network by Pakistan military," from CNN, September 26:

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani Army has decided not to take action against the Haqqani network for the time being despite a fresh wave of intense pressure from Washington for a military offensive against the Pakistani-based militant group, two military officials told CNN on Monday.

The decision was made by senior Pakistani generals on Sunday in an impromptu meeting called by Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the officials said.

The military has decided not to target the Haqqani network because the army is stretched too thin with several other operations against militants in northwest Pakistan, one of the officials said. "We are not in a position to undertake an operation at this point," he said.

The meeting of Pakistan's top generals comes days after the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, accused Pakistan's top intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and its attacks against U.S. targets in Afghanistan, including the attack two weeks ago on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Mullen's statement has further ratcheted up tensions between Islamabad and Washington and sparked a bitter war of words.

"The allegation of Pakistan's involvement in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul is just a conspiracy against us," one of the officials said. [...]

[Pakistani Prime Minister] Gilani has instructed Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to forcefully project Pakistan's point of view when she addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, according to a statement from Gilani's office.

KOTA BARU: PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has hit out at DAP for making a fuss about the hudud issue “when the party has nothing to do with Islam”.

“I really do not know why everyone who has nothing to do with hudud is so scared as if they have seen a ghost.

“DAP has nothing to do with Islam and I want to know its reasons why it wants to leave Pakatan Rakyat,” he told reporters at his residence at Pulau Melaka here yesterday.

He was asked to comment on press reports quoting DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng as threatening the mass resignation of the DAP leadership from the Pakatan council if the Islamic state agenda is included in the group's election manifesto.

Nik Aziz, who is the Kelantan Mentri Besar, reiterated that hudud law had nothing to do with non-Muslims and they should not be unduly worried.

When asked to comment on the move to include hudud in the lists of Syariah punishments, Nik Aziz said this would be at the pleasure of the Sultan of Kelantan.

The Muslims, whether of PAS, UMNO or some other political party, whether Malaysian or otherwise, can be counted to keep reciting from the same script over and over: relax, infidels, do not fear Islam and go back to sleep. But if Islam is so 'noble and pure' and what-have-you, then why would those ungrateful kufr have to be continuously reassured  as to Islam's intentions in the first place? Perhaps because Islam is not so benign after all?

These particular useful idiots are the hikers that Iran just freed from captivity. My column in FrontPage this morning:

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the leftist American hikers who unwittingly ventured across the Iran/Iraq border and were convicted of espionage and imprisoned for two years in Iran, have been freed – and at a press conference Sunday, revealed that they were none the wiser for their ordeal.

They indulged in some moral equivalence: “Two years in prison is too long, and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.” They assured the right-thinking world that their hearts (obviously not their minds) were in the right place: said Bauer, “The irony is Sarah [another hiker who was freed earlier], Josh and I oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility.”

They thanked some of the world’s leading enemies of freedom and Useful Idiots for fighting for their freedom, including Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, limousine leftist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Code Pink’s manipulative propagandist Cindy Sheehan, hard-Left America-hating pseudo-scholar Noam Chomsky, and the addle-brained actor/activist Sean Penn.

Bauer appeared to be on the verge of an independent thought when he said: “We were convicted of espionage, because we are American. It’s that simple. No evidence was ever presented against us. That is because there is no evidence and because we are completely innocent.” But any hope that he might realize that the Iranian hostility toward the United States is similarly irrational and unjustified proved unfounded. For above all, Bauer said: “The only explanation for our prolonged detention is the 32 years of mutual hostility between America and Iran.”

The “only explanation”? Really? Well, actually in other remarks Bauer made it clear that he thought that America was more culpable than Iran: “In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay. They would remind us in other parts of the world and the conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S. We do not believe such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment. However, we do believe these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran to act in kind.”

It is clear from this that Shane Bauer, like Barack Obama, Ron Paul and so many others on all points along the political spectrum, believes that the actions of the United States provoke Muslims to behave badly, and that if the U.S. would only behave decently, then the Muslims would calm down, and a new era of peace would dawn. While this view is common among followers of Paul on the Right, it is much more prevalent on the Left, and indeed forms the underlying assumption of all of Obama’s foreign policy.

The bitterly ironic aspect of this assumption is its underlying paternalism. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, as well as Barack Obama, no doubt regard the nineteenth century British colonialist notion of the “White Man’s Burden” to civilize nonwhite peoples as racist, arrogant, and ethnocentric; nonetheless, they hold to a modern-day form of the same racist, arrogant and ethnocentric notion....

There is more.

It isn't even really intended to bring peace. My Human Events column this morning:

Millions around the world believe that when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application to the United Nations Friday for admission of Palestine as an independent state, he was setting the stage for a new era of peace in the Middle East. Unfortunately, nothing is more certain than that those hopes—like all the hopes raised by the accords and treaties and agreements and road maps that have come before—will met with disappointment.

Abbas, not surprisingly, blamed the failure of earlier negotiations on Israel. He complained that “the Israeli government ... frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the state of Palestine. Settlement activities embody the core of the policy of colonial military occupation of the land of the Palestinian people and all of the brutality of aggression and racial discrimination against our people that this policy entails.”

Are the Israeli settlements really the problem? No, they’re just the obstacle du jour. In fact, the Palestinian Arabs rejected the United Nations’ original proposal to create a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947, long before any “settlements” were on the horizon. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained in his own UN address on Friday: “Our conflict has been raging for—was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. ... [Abbas] said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn’t say from 1967, he said from 1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict.”

The Arab states surrounding Israel opted not to accept a “two-state solution,” but instead to go to war with the new Jewish state in 1948, assuming that they would be able to destroy that state easily and obviate the need for a new Arab state alongside it.

They were wrong, of course. And subsequently Egypt occupied Gaza and Jordan occupied the West Bank for the next 19 years, until 1967—yet during that time, there was no talk among the Palestinian Arabs about the humiliation of occupation and their need for a state. Only after the Six Day War, when Israel took over administration of those areas, did such talk begin. And so on Friday when Abbas retailed a long list of grievances, they were all merely the latest in a long line of pretexts justifying what is ultimately an implacable animus toward Israel, which will never be satisfied by anything other than the total destruction of the Jewish state.

Neither Abbas’ PLO nor its rival Hamas, which controls Gaza, has ever recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And Islamic theology does not allow for the legitimate existence of an infidel polity on what is considered Muslim land. Hence the goal remains, for all too many Palestinians, the utter destruction of Israel. The creation of a Palestinian state will simply be a stepping stone toward that goal....

There is more.

Islam -- A (Jewish-) Christian Sect?
A short history-of-dogma examination
By Peter Bruns
Translated by Anonymous
Translation edited by Ibn Warraq

The question of whether it is allowable to even inquire into Islam in the context of a Christian history of dogma was already posed by Adolf Harnack in his Leipzig dissertation from the year 1874, with the promising Latin title: Muhamedanismum rectius quam Manichaeismus sectam Christianam esse dixeris.[1] (Would you say that Muhammedanism rather than Manichaeism is a Christian sect?) He proceeded from the "striking similarities between the two religions" and discussed the possibility of tracing Islam in some sense from the history of the Christian church.[2] Since that time, research interest in an exact determination of the relationship of Islam to Christianity has grown mightily, if nothing else, in the relationship of the two founders of the religions[3] to each other. For the historian in general and the church historian in particular, it is a matter of course to interpret sacred texts in the respective context in which they have developed. For the Islam researcher -- even the secular one[4] -- this is unexplored territory in reference to the Koran, although respected religious historians Richard Bell[5] and Tor Andrae[6] almost a century ago called attention to the relationships between the origins of Islam and contemporary, oriental, especially Syrian, Christianity. Much remains to be done in this area, and therefore an initial, rough, broad-brush sketch of problems from the perspective of dogma history is indicated, without losing ourselves too much in philosophical details. Finally, in evaluating the rich source materials, we must not completely lose sight of later polemic literature between Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages.[7]

Destruction of the Bastions -- The Battle over the "Urkoran"

"Mohammedanism is a rigid system which firmly encloses the whole of life. The Bible, on the other hand, has borne the fearsome impact of historical criticism and was able to survive it because it already carries relativism within itself in the relationship of its two parts and because the New Testament has the difference between the word of God and the word of the apostles. Islam cannot withstand the impact -- at least it is not foreseeable how that could succeed. It is based not just on Allah, but also on Mohammed, who is 'the book,' namely the Koran, filled with fables and inferiorities."[8] [I assume the author is using a formula similar to "And the Word was with God, and God was the Word." That is, the Koran does not exist outside of Mohammed.]

Such a blow, in Harnack's sense of shaking the philosophical structure of Islam, was delivered some time ago by the Erlangen orientalist Günter Lüling[9] and [an independent scholar] writing under the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg[10], who caused some upset recently in Islam scholarly circles[11]. Since both authors dealt explicitly with the pre-Islamic Christianity of the Arabian peninsula, in this case, the judgment of the Syrologist and church historian is also called for.

Traditional Islam scholarship is fed from three sources: the Koran, the standard-setting tradition (Hadîth) and finally the lives of Mohammed (Sîra). To the latter belong the standard biography of Ibn Ishâq (died 767/768)[12] in the revised edition of Ibn Hishâm (died 834)[13] and finally the annals of Tabarî (died 923), who, thanks to his Nestorian sources, has passed on much Iranian material from the time of the Sassanids. If we compare these lives with the Jesus tradition which was placed essentially within a few decades between the resurrection of Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem -- even Paul, although he did not know our Lord in the flesh, is writing close in time to the Jesus phenomenon -- the immense distance between the life of Mohammed and the account of his biographies is astounding. All of this has allowed severe doubt, extending to skepticism in reference to the historical reliability of the source of the type "sîra."[14]

The confidence of European Islam scholarship in the historical validity of the oral tradition (Hadîth) disappeared no later than the nineteenth century. No less than the great Islam scholar Ignaz Goldziher[15] recognized and in individual cases was able to prove that a hadith reflected in many ways the early Islamic party conflict that had broken out decades -- even centuries -- after Mohammed's death. He processed a great deal of non-Islamic as well Christian material, but definitely did not -- as Muslims and some Western Islam scholars believe -- contribute anything to authenticate the life and work of Mohammed. Recently in Turkey, there was an excitement at the prospect of a new critical edition of the Hadîth, put out by the Ministry of Religion, enthusiastically praised by many an observer as a "revolutionary new interpretation of Islam."[16] A "radical modernization of the religion" was intended, which showed Islam as more accepting of modernity, i.e., for instance, not so inimical to democracy or women.[17] For the foreseeable future, Hadîth scholarship[18] will continue to be a field replete with land mines, to which theologians and philologists should give a wide berth. After the abating of the first shock, we have become used to distinguishing more strictly between the Mohammed of history and the Mohammed of pious thought[19] or legend. Off in the distance [and far in advance in comparable research on the life of Muhammad] is liberal investigation of the life of Jesus.

Peter Bruns is Professor at the Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, Germany. This article appeared in German in Forum Katholische Theologie, 26 (2010) 1., pp. 1-23.

Earlier, Turkey had threatened to attempt to prosecute the personnel on this list for "torture and premeditated murder."

They have been caught in a bluff, having claimed they got their information from IDF soldiers who opposed the raid, but this report says the names were "from previous lists that were published on anti-Israeli websites following Operation Cast Lead."

"War is deceit," but getting caught in it is embarrassing. "Turkish list of flotilla soldiers a sham?" by Sa'ar Haas for YNet News, September 27:

Reports in Turkish media claimed IHH compiled list of 174 soldiers, security officials who took part in raid on Gaza-bound ship, but closer glance reveals that names were recycled from previous lists, belong to soldiers who already completed military service during 2010 naval operation

The Turkish media called a list of 174 names of soldier and security officials allegedly connected to the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound ship as "extremely valuable," but a deeper examination reveals that the IDF personnel appearing on the list have no direct link, if at all, to the flotilla raid.

The list is headed by former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, Navy Commander Eliezer Marom and former Commander of IDF Intelligence Branch Major General Amos Yadlin, but the rest of the names are of soldiers who already completed their military service at the time of the 2010 raid.

Among the 174 names listed, many belong to low-ranking officers and soldiers who had nothing to do with the raid, such as a Golani maintenance officer, a Paratroopers' company command and an Artillery battery commander.

According to the report in Turkish media outlets, "almost all the soldiers who killed the nine activists and injured 30 people were identified," but the Turkish government denied ever asking its National Intelligence Organization (MIT) to confirm the identities of Israeli commandos involved in the raid.

Istanbul's deputy prosecutor said that a lawyer for the IHH submitted a list of soldiers' names to his office and said it will be examined.

'Psychological warfare'

The IDF Spokesperson's Office stated in response: "After examining the reports in the Turkish press, it is clear that the names do not belong to soldiers who were involved in the Marmara raid incident, but were rather recycled from previous lists that were published on anti-Israeli websites following Operation Cast Lead.

"The IDF and the relevant governmental offices are closely following these attempts to launch legal proceedings against those who acted on behalf of the State of Israel as part of its war on terror, and are taking the necessary steps," the statement said.

Military officials noted that the report is part of a psychological warfare conducted by the Turks, following Israel's refusal to apologize over the flotilla raid and in wake of the Palmer Report, which recognized the legality of the naval blockade on Gaza.

More about the seriousness of this case continues to emerge, in an update on this story. "Six remanded over 'suicide bomb plot'," from BBC News, September 26:

Six men have appeared in court charged with terrorism offences including a suspected suicide bombing campaign.

The six, all from Birmingham, appeared at West London Magistrates' Court.

Irfan Nasser, 30, of Sparkhill, Irfan Khalid, 26, and Ashik Ali, 26 both of Balsall Heath, and Rahin Ahmed, 25, of Moseley, have been remanded in custody until 21 October.

Bahader Ali, 28, of Sparkbrook, and Mohammed Rizwan, 32, of Ward End, have been remanded until 24 October.

Mr Nasser, Mr Khalid, Mr Ashik Ali and Mr Ahmed are due to appear at the Old Bailey, while Mr Rizwan and Mr Bahader Ali - who is the brother of Ashik Ali - are to appear before Westminster magistrates.

Mr Nasser and Mr Khalid are accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, including travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, making a martyrdom video and planning a bombing campaign.

They are accused of "being concerned in constructing" a home-made explosive device for terrorist acts and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Ashik Ali is accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, which involved planning a bombing campaign, providing premises for the planning of terrorist attack and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Mr Ahmed is accused of helping fund terrorist acts, collecting money for terrorism and helping others travel to Pakistan for training in terrorism.

Seventh man

Mohammed Rizwan and Bahader Ali are charged with failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism

Mr Rizwan and Bahader Ali are both charged with failing to disclose information about potential acts of terrorism.

It is alleged that between 29 July and 19 September both men had information which they knew may help prevent the commission of an act of terrorism.

Mr Ali is also charged with "arranging the availability of property for terrorist purposes".

Mr Rizwan made no application for bail, while Mr Ali was refused bail.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between Christmas Day 2010 and 19 September this year.

The men were arrested after a police operation in Birmingham last week.

A seventh man from the city, aged 20, who was arrested on Thursday, continues to be questioned. Officers have until 29 September to charge, release or apply for further time....

Samer Allawi "offered to use his position as a reporter to promote Hamas interests," and "traveled to Qatar and met with additional Al Jazeera reporters, who the Shin Bet said were Hamas operatives, and discussed the possibility of using their position to advance Hamas by criticizing the US military in Afghanistan."

How many more operatives are there? Does al-Jazeera care to find out? "Al Jazeera journalist admits to being Hamas operative," by Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post, September 26:

During a Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) interrogation, former Al Jazeera Afghanistan bureau chief Samer Allawi said he traveled to Syria to help a terror group.

Allawi reached a deal with the Israel State Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday, under which he will receive a suspended sentence of three years, after he confessed to conspiring in Hamas operations.

Allawi, a Palestinian, was arrested in August on the border between the West Bank and Jordan.

He said he was recruited into Hamas in 1993 and served there until 2004 in a senior committee that oversees Hamas operations abroad, and is responsible for fundraising.

In 2001 and 2003 he traveled to Syria where he reported on his activities to Mousa Aba Marzook, deputy to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, in Damascus.

Aba Marzook offered Allawi to become an official Hamas representative in Iran, but he rejected the offer.

During the interrogation with the Shin Bet, Allawi said he attended a meeting in 2000 in Saudi Arabia in which he said he would be part of a terror operation on behalf of Hamas. He also offered to use his position as a reporter to promote Hamas interests.

In 2006, Allawi traveled to Qatar and met with additional Al Jazeera reporters, who the Shin Bet said were Hamas operatives, and discussed the possibility of using their position to advance Hamas by criticizing the US military in Afghanistan.

During his interrogation, the Shin Bet said he also discussed his activities as a member of the mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1988 to 1992, during which he said that he participated in a rebel raid on an Afghan military base and participated in guerrilla operations against Soviet forces.

This is the same NTC which refused to extradite Megrahi, who took a timely turn for the worse by the end of August as Tripoli fell, at which time he was said to be "comatose and near death."

These are but signs of things to come in future dealings with the NTC, whose members have developed selective amnesia about how they were able to take over. "Libya's NTC says Lockerbie case closed," by William Maclean, Peter Griffiths, Stephen Addison, and Michael Holden for Reuters, September 26:

LONDON (Reuters) - The investigation into the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland is closed and Tripoli will not release more evidence that could lead to others being charged, Libya's interim leaders said on Monday.

The British Foreign Office, however, said the investigation into the bombing "remains open."

Scottish prosecutors had asked Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) to give them access to papers or witnesses that could implicate more suspects, possibly including deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi turned them down, telling reporters: "The case is closed."

But the Foreign Office in London said it had talked with the NTC late on Monday and it had promised continued cooperation.

"NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil has already assured the prime minister that the Libyan authorities will cooperate with the UK in this and other ongoing investigations," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

"Having spoken with the NTC this evening, we understand that this remains the case. The police investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and the police should follow the evidence wherever it leads them."

Former Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 and sent to a Scottish prison to serve a life sentence. The Scottish government released him and sent him back to Libya on compassionate grounds in 2009 because he had cancer and was thought to have only months to live.

The medical case was a sham. Libyan authorities were shopping around for a bad prognosis. There were energy deals at stake, and Gadhafi threatened jihad if Megrahi died in Scotland.

His release and return to a hero's welcome in Libya angered many in Britain and the United States, home to most of the victims.

Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter was among those killed in the attack, told Reuters in an emailed statement: "Suggesting that the Lockerbie case is closed is ludicrous.

"I am not surprised that the new interim government might want to avoid getting involved, but this is a miserable attempt to avoid a perfectly reasonable request for any information or evidence that there might be in Libya. Perhaps there is nothing."

No one at Scotland's public prosecution service was available to comment on the Libyan minister's statement. A spokesman earlier said Scotland had asked the NTC to supply "any documentary evidence and witnesses which could assist in the ongoing inquiries."

"Lockerbie remains an open enquiry concerning the involvement of others with Mr Megrahi in the murder of 270 people," the spokeswoman said before the Libyan statement....

As I have said many times in the context of many similar incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no reliable way to distinguish a peaceful Muslim from a jihadist. This is yet more fruit of the unwillingness to make even a cursory attempt to take that fact into account.

And every few weeks (the last time was August 4), I find the paragraph above in the archives and post it again.

And yet the dim bulbs in the intelligence community in Washington are busy making sure that none of their teaching materials offend terror-linked Islamic supremacist groups in the U.S. This is the fruit also of their witless useful idiocy and political correctness.

An update on this story. "Attack on Kabul CIA office kills 1 American," by Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez for the Associated Press, September 26 (thanks to Maxwell):

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan employed by the U.S. government killed one American and wounded another in an attack on a CIA office in Kabul, officials said Monday.

The shooting Sunday evening is the most recent in a growing number of attacks this year by Afghans working with the country's international allies. Some assailants have turned out to be Taliban sleeper agents, while others have been motivated by personal grievances.

Gunfire was first heard sometime after 8 p.m. local time around the former Ariana Hotel, a building that ex-U.S. intelligence officials said is the CIA station in Kabul. The spy agency occupied the heavily secured building just blocks from the Afghan presidential palace in late 2001 after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.

The U.S. Embassy said an Afghan employee of the complex shot dead an American citizen and wounded another before being killed.

"The motivation for the attack is still under investigation," the embassy said in a statement....

Uh...maybe...jihad?

NATO bases and embassies have ramped up security following a number of attacks over the past year by Afghan security forces against their counterparts. Since March 2009, the coalition has recorded at least 20 incidents where a member of the Afghan security forces or someone wearing a uniform used by them killed coalition forces. Thirty-six coalition troops have died. It is not known how many of the 282,000 members of the Afghan security forces were killed.

In December 2009, an al-Qaida double agent blew himself up at a CIA base in eastern Khost province, killing seven CIA employees. The attacker, a Jordanian man named Humam al-Balawi, had been brought into the base because he had claimed to be able to reach high-level al-Qaida leaders....

Earlier on PJM (via RaymondIbrahim.com) I discussed some of the differences -- and similarities -- between Muslims and "Islamists":

What are the differences between the traditional Muslim and the so-called “Islamist”? As words dealing with Islam continue to morph and multiply, it is important to differentiate, for there are real, if subtle, differences.

A recent Arabic talk show on Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak’s trial sheds some light. The question was whether Mubarak, in the sight of Sharia law, should stand trial and be punished for, among other things, selling gas cheaply to Israel—or, as popularly portrayed, traitorously giving away Egypt’s precious resources to its mortal enemy.

Two Islam authorities debated. Taking the controversial position—that Mubarak should not be condemned—was Sheikh Mahmoud Amer, leader of Ansar al-Sunna, or, those who imitate prophet Muhammad’s way of living, which, of course, is what traditional Muslims—literally, Sunnis—have always done. His opponent, arguing that Mubarak deserves to be tried without mercy, was famous Islamist lawyer Montaser al-Zayyat (who most recently professed his “love” for Osama bin Laden).

Sheikh Amer, representing traditional Islam, stressed two points to exonerate Mubarak: 1) Dealing with the enemy (in this case, Israel) is permissible according to Sharia; Muhammad himself often appeased his infidel enemies, including Jews, when to his advantage, “for”—as the Sheikh quoted Muhammad—“war is deceit”; 2) According to Sharia, the only justification for deposing a ruler is if he becomes an infidel; if he is unjust, violent, and tyrannical to his Muslim subjects, that is not reason enough.

In fact, the Sheikh’s position is very much in keeping with Sharia...

The other night I watched a British documentary about the Ground Zero mosque controversy (for which I was interviewed, and in which I appear) that portrayed Sharif El-Gamal as a good-hearted schlub who was trying to do a good deed and ended up getting beset by cynical sharpies like Pamela Geller and me. Anything about his criminal past, his glorification of physical violence, his numerous shady financial dealings? Of course not! That wouldn't fit the narrative! But in reality, the man behind the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero Mosque is an Islamic supremacist thug: "Mosque falls short," by Andrea Peyser in the New York Post, September 26:

“We don’t know what they’re really going to do. They’ve said they wanted to do a lot of things,’’ said a board member who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. Still, he confessed to being weary of the fight.

“It’s been emotionally and physically draining. After the anniversary [of 9/11] passed, I have to distance myself from it.’’

“I don’t trust this guy as far as I can throw him,’’ said another board member, concerned about El-Gamal’s long rap sheet, another thing you’ll never read about in the Times.

El-Gamal has been busted at least seven times since 1990 for DWI and disorderly conduct, and charged with failing to pay more than $200,000 in taxes. Most recently, in 2005, El-Gamal was arrested for assaulting a man who sublet an apartment from his brother, punching the guy and breaking his nose and cheekbone. El-Gamal at first said he didn’t hit the man, but WCBS/Channel 2 discovered records that show El-Gamal conceded “his face could have run into my hand.’’

I tried to talk to El-Gamal and give him a chance to turn me around to the sunny face of Islam. He refused. Can you blame him?...

Jewish Christianity and the Origins of Islam and the Koran
by Ibn Warraq

Professor Peter Bruns of the Otto-Friedrich-Universität (Bamberg, Germany), provides a very useful, critical survey of recent research on Islamic origins, but from an important dogma-critical perspective. He reminds us that not only Günter Lüling and Christoph Luxenberg’s pioneering philological approach, but also the historical one which pays proper attention to tracing the origins of Islam by examining the history of the Christian church, will lead to insights and pay scientific dividends. There is a crying need, argues Professor Bruns, to interpret the Islamic sacred texts in the respective context in which they have developed -- something quite common for Christianity but unexplored territory for Islam. “Much remains to be done in this area,” says Bruns, “and therefore an initial, rough, broad-brush sketch of problems from the perspective of dogma history is indicated, without losing ourselves too much in philosophical details. Finally, in evaluating the rich source materials, we must not completely lose sight of later polemic literature between Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages.”

Bruns also takes to task Christian scholars such as Martin Bauschke, whose efforts, in their ecumenical frenzy to please Muslims in putative Muslim-Christian Dialogues are “attempts at new interpretation or re-interpretation of fundamental doctrines amount to the self abandonment of Christianity in the name of Christian-Islamic dialogue.”

Bruns mentions William Montgomery Watt, who is one of the first modern apologists of Islam -- even in its fundamentalist mode – who were Christian scholars who perceived a common danger in certain economic, philosophical, and social developments in the West: the rise of rationalism, scepticism, atheism, secularism; the Industrial Revolution; the Russian Revolution and the rise of communism and materialism. Sir Hamilton Gibb writes of Islam as a Christian "engaged in a common spiritual enterprise". [1] But let us beware of skepticism: "Both Christianity and Islam suffer under the weight of worldly pressure, and the attack of scientific atheists and their like," laments Norman Daniel. [2]

Hence the tendency amongst Christian scholars to be rather uncritical; a tendency not to wish to offend Muslim friends and Muslim colleagues. Either there were explicit apologies if the writer felt there was something offensive to Muslim eyes, or to use various devices to avoid seeming to take sides, or to avoid judging whatever issue was under discussion.

Christian scholars such as Watt, who was curate of St. Mary Boltons, London, and Old St. Paul's, Edinburgh and ordained Episcopalian minister, and who was one of the most influential Islamic scholars in Britain of the last fifty years, and Sir Hamilton Gibb saw skepticism, atheism and communism as the common enemy of all true religion. They followed Carlyle in hoping for spiritual inspiration from the East. Here is Watt: "Islam - or perhaps one should rather say, the East -- has tended to overemphasize Divine sovereignty, whereas in the West too much influence has been attributed to man's will, especially in recent times. Both have strayed from the true path, though in different directions. The West has probably something to learn of that aspect of truth which has been so clearly apprehended in the East."

However, Bruns points to a number of recent Christian scholars who have dared to examine the Koran with a critical eye, scholars such as Dominique and Marie-Thérèse Urvoy, Karl-Heinz Ohlig, and Edouard-Marie Gallez. Along the way, Bruns examines pre-Islamic Christianity on the Arabian Peninsula, and summarises fascinating research into the religious development of the Yemen. Bruns has some scathing observations on Christian surrender in the section From Jesus to ‘Îsâ : Christology in the Wake of the Christian-Islamic Dialogue. Bruns is quite right to point to the research into Jewish Christianity as of great importance in helping us to understand the Sectarian Milieu out of which Islam emerged: writings such as the Pseudo-Clementines, or the works of Epiphanius, and the Ebionites all give clues to the various sources of the Koran. Bruns clearly hopes that research into the Sectarian Milieu will provide new insights into the origins of Islam and the Koran, and ends with a quote from Hans Joachim Schoeps, who wrote as early as 1949:

"Although the exact demonstration of the connection may not be realized, the indirect dependence of Mohammed on sectarian Jewish Christianity is beyond all doubt. And a paradox of truly universal historical magnitude, is the fact that Jewish Christianity disappeared, to be sure, into the Christian church, but was preserved in Islam and reaches into the present day with some of its driving impulses."

[1] This early work was published in the Beigaben zum Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, vol. II., Die Entwicklung des kirchlichen Dogmas I. (Tübingen 41909, Darmstadt 1990), 529-538.
[2] Cf. HARNACK, Lehrbuch II, 529.

Professor Bruns' piece "Islam -- A (Jewish-) Christian Sect?" will follow in the coming days at Jihad Watch.

The term "aggression" used in the fatwa is vague, and likely to be deliberately so: all hell can break loose at a time and place of their choosing. "Fatwa for Jihad against America," from The Nation, September 26:

LAHORE – As many as 50 religious scholars associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a conglomerate of 20 Barelvi school of thought groups, have declared that Jihad against the US would be obligatory for the entire [sic] in case of aggression against the country.

In recent months, the SIC has threatened "anarchy" if Asia Bibi is pardoned for blasphemy, and staged protests demanding Pope Benedict XVI apologize for criticizing the blasphemy law.

According a press release issued here on Sunday, the scholars had issued a decree for Jihad against the US, terming it real Jihad in defence of the homeland.

The fatwa also declared as haram (illegitimate) calling the US super power, saying only Allah Almighty deserved the title.

The scholars called upon the government to end the country’s role as front-line state in the so-called US war on terror and try to establish a new bloc comprising China, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They also urged the government to start preaching Jihad in the way of God with the armed forces making preparations to counter any foreign aggression. They urged all politicians to bring back their assets from abroad as well as returning bank loans got through political influence.

Leftists have a taste for authoritarianism. Every time the hard Left has been in power, the freedom of speech is destroyed. Thus it is not surprising that these Leftist Useful Idiots would be idolizing thugs who are enemies of the freedom of speech. "Supporters rally around the 'Irvine 11' at town hall event," by Nicole Santa Cruz for the Los Angeles Times, September 26 (thanks to Maxwell):

The room was packed full of people who gathered to applaud an unlikely bunch: a group of men who had been convicted of misdemeanors less than 48 hours ago.

The men -- part of the "Irvine 11" found guilty of disrupting a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren—told those gathered at the Islamic Institute of Orange County of their activism and expressed gratitude for community support. At one point, the nine men stood to applause.

On Friday, a jury found the 10 Muslim students guilty after deliberating for two days. A judge sentenced the men to community service, probation time and fines. Charges against an 11th defendant will be dropped pending completion of community service.

The students were in support of the Palestinian cause, and shouted phrases such as "You sir, are an accomplice to genocide," at Oren during the event, held at UC Irvine.

The case generated a national debate regarding free speech, and defense attorneys plan to appeal the convictions.

"I assure you that this case is going to affect my children, your children and generations to come," said Samer Soubra, vice chair of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, a co-sponsor of the event.

Rev. Sarah Halverson of Fairview Community Church in Costa Mesa thanked the students for their "bravery," but said as a Christian, she is outraged by the convictions.

"Folks, we know that Islamophobia is alive and well in Orange County," she said.

What a tool. Halverson doesn't know anything about dhimmitude, although she is already a compliant dhimmi, but one day she may find that Samer Soubra's words, "I assure you that this case is going to affect my children, your children and generations to come," are true -- although not in a way that anyone in that room realized. And then, as her children and children's children are forced into lives of precarious "tolerance," discrimination, harassment, and institutionalized contempt and hatred, Halverson will rue her naivete and Useful Idiocy.

The defendants downplayed attempts to portray them as heroes.

"I honestly don't see myself as a hero," said Khalid Akari.

Akari said he had the support of his family, lawyers and the others involved.

"I never had to stand alone in this," he said.

Besides the students, three of their lawyers and community leaders spoke. The event coincided with customary evening prayers. Shortly after the event began, after sunset and following the panel, people went into a nearby room to pray, kneeling on the floor.

Attorney Reem Salahi said what is noble about the students actions wasn't just the interruption of the speech.

"The reason they are heroes in my mind is because they had the strength to fight it," she said, then recalled the investigation process, from search warrants to an indictment.

Mohamed Abdelgany, said the most "heart touching" thing about the case has been how it has brought the Muslim community together.

"We are OK, we really are," he said. "I just wanted to relate that."

Walid Nassar, the father of Shaheen Nassar, said his son is not a hero.

"He was just doing his job," he said. "He's not the first one and he's not going to be the last one."

Oh, that much is certain.

Our friend and ally Pakistan is holding anti-American rallies. From Reuters (thanks to Maxwell):

Girls hold placards while standing on a U.S. flag during an anti-U.S. rally in Hyderabad, Pakistan, September 25, 2011. REUTERS/Akram Shahid

"Go America Go." Heh. Good advice. We should go, and leave the Pakistani jihadists to their own devices, without American funding for their jihad.

For this, international authorities ought to condemn the Red Cross. But they won't. "Israel arrests Hamas lawmaker in Jerusalem," by Daniella Cheslow for the Associated Press, September 26 (thanks to Maxwell):

JERUSALEM (AP) — Undercover Israeli police officers on Monday arrested a Hamas lawmaker who had been hiding in the Red Cross' office in east Jerusalem for the past year.

Ahmed Abu Atoun had fled to the Red Cross compound last year after Israel ordered him expelled from the city. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that when Abu Atoun stepped out of the building, plainclothes officers grabbed him. Israel Radio reported that the police were disguised as Arabs.

Abu Atoun was among four politicians Israel arrested in 2006 for their connections to Hamas, an Islamic militant group that Israel considers a terrorist organization.

After spending time in jail, they were all ordered to leave the city. They sought shelter at the Red Cross to avoid expulsion.

One of the other men in hiding, former Cabinet minister Khaled Abu Arafa, told a Gazan radio station that Israeli police arrested Abu Atoun in a tent on the Red Cross lawn.

Red Cross spokeswoman Cecilia Goin said the Hamas politicians often receive visitors in the tent. She confirmed Abu Atoun was arrested, but said the Red Cross was still investigating the circumstances.

Abu Atoun is the second member of the group to be arrested. Another lawmaker, Mohammed Abu Teir, was taken into custody earlier this month after venturing out of the compound....

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the big news for women's rights out of the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places:

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has announced that women will have the right to vote in the next Saudi elections. Pardon me if I am underwhelmed. Women will be able to vote in Saudi Arabia, but presumably they will have to walk to the polls, since they still aren’t allowed to drive. And once they get there, with blistered feet from the long walk and suffering from heatstroke from having to walk while fully veiled under the desert sun, they will face a choice of candidates that is about as broad and diverse as a choice between Charles Rangel or Cynthia McKinney.

Offering Saudi women the right to vote in a country that doesn’t offer its citizens even the semblance of any real choice in the voting is a hollow victory at best. How excited would you have been if you had heard that some previously disenfranchised group had finally been awarded the right to vote in Stalin’s Russia?

Nevertheless, some of the perennially starry-eyed may think that King Abdullah, in announcing this great breakthrough on Sunday, was paving the way for further advances in Saudi women’s rights. The reaction from Washington was predictably fatuous: National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the move recognized the “significant contributions” women have made in Saudi Arabia, and will give them a share in making “the decisions that affect their lives and communities.”

Who knows? Maybe King Abdullah’s generous decree is a harbinger of more good things to come for Saudi women, who have made so many “significant contributions” to Saudi society, by having many Saudi babies, and cooking many Saudi meals, and cleaning many Saudi floors. Maybe this is just the beginning. Maybe in another year, the Saudis will let women leave the house without being chaperoned by a male guardian.

Maybe in two years the testimony of Saudi women will no longer be valued as only half that of a man. Maybe in three years women will be able to inherit a share equal to that of men if the person writing the will so desires. Maybe in four years women will be able to have some recourse when they are beaten. Maybe in five they’ll be able to protest when they’re used as commodities in business deals, given in arranged marriages the way others trade horses or cows. Maybe in six they’ll be able to speak out against the dehumanization of polygamy, and in seven years, who knows? Maybe pre-pubescent girls will be able to reject being married off to men decades older than they are.

But these further advances are, in fact, unlikely. For unlike the restriction on voting, these other limitations on the lives of women in the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places are rooted directly in Islamic law, and thus are not likely to be revised or discarded by a regime that is not only explicitly and self-consciously based upon Islamic law, but is beset by hardliners who believe that it is nonetheless still not Islamic enough. Al-Qaeda and other Islamic jihadists deride the Saudi royals as hypocrites already; imagine their fury if those royals started letting Saudi women be loosed, even just the tiniest bit, from their gilded shackles.

There is more.

He helped fellow jihadists who were going to kill themselves in an act of murder. He seems to be just a bit selective about how and when he cares about "human rights" and personal safety, and that is because of the double standard that is part and parcel of jihadist rationalizations about killing civilians: it all depends on your definition of "innocent."

"Terrorist we can't kick out: Released after half his sentence but still 'a risk to the public'... the suicide bomb fanatic who's free to stay - thanks to his human rights," by Chris Greenwood for the Daily Mail, September 25:

A fanatical terrorist has escaped being thrown out of the UK because it would breach his human rights.

Hate-filled Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, graded the highest possible risk to the public, was released after serving just half of his nine-year sentence for helping the July 21 bombers.

He now mingles freely among the Londoners his co-plotters tried to kill six years ago.

Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was killed on July 7, said he was ‘filled with despair’.

He said: ‘These people were plotting to commit mass murder - what about the human rights of victims and families?

‘These people had no consideration for the women and children they were trying to kill. How can they claim we should look after and support them?’

Ali, 35, knew about the potentially murderous July 21 conspiracy and helped the fanatics clear up their explosives factory.

He was jailed for 12 years in February 2008 for aiding and abetting the Al Qaeda cell. Judge Paul Worsley QC said he must have ‘harboured the hope’ the bombers would ‘destroy society as we know it’.

The sentence was reduced to nine years on appeal and after time Ali spent in jail while awaiting trial was taken into account, he was automatically released on licence several weeks ago. He is now living at a bail hostel on a leafy residential street in north-west London. He has been seen travelling on the Tube and catching buses.

With music headphones plugged into his ears and a bag slung casually across his shoulder, he appeared to be caught on camera chatting on a mobile phone.

It is understood that Ali is being monitored around the clock and must obey a curfew and other conditions, including a ban on using the internet.

He is the second high-risk terrorist linked to the July 21 attacks to win the right to remain in the UK on human rights grounds in recent weeks.

Ismail Abdurahman, 28, who hid would-be bomber Hussain Osman for three days, escaped being deported to his native Somalia after judges feared for his safety. Abdurahman is also living at a bail hostel in London despite the protests of police and Home Office officials.....

An update on this story. "Six charged with terrorism offences," from BBC News, September 25:

Six men have been charged with terrorism offences, including a suspected suicide bombing campaign, West Midlands Police have said.

Four of the men were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two with failing to disclose information.

It follows a police operation in Birmingham last week.

The six, all from Birmingham and aged between 25 and 32, will appear at West London Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Irfan Nasser, 30, of Sparkhill, and Irfan Khalid, 26, of Balsall Heath, are accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, including travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, making a martyrdom video and planning a bombing campaign.

They are accused of constructing a home-made explosive device for terrorist acts and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Seventh man

Ashik Ali, 26, of Balsall Heath, is accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, which involved planning a bombing campaign, providing premises for the planning of terrorist attack and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Rahin Ahmed, 25, of Moseley, is accused of helping fund terrorist acts.

Mohammed Rizwan, 32, and Bahader Ali, 28, both of Sparkbrook, are both charged with failing to disclose information about potential acts of terrorism.

It is alleged that between 29 July and 19 September this year, both had information which they knew may help prevent the commission of an act of terrorism but did not disclose the information.

Mr Ali is also charged with providing money for the purposes of terrorism.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between Christmas Day 2010 and 19 September this year.

A seventh man from the city, aged 20, who was arrested on Thursday, continues to be questioned. Officers have until 29 September to charge, release or apply for further time.

The men were arrested as part of an operation carried out by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. The arrests were unarmed, pre-planned and intelligence-led.

The fact alone that the location has been publicized as a CIA station suggests a problem. "Afghan attack: Gunfire heard at Kabul 'CIA station'," from BBC News, September 25:

Gunfire and a blast have been heard from a compound said to house the CIA station in the Afghan capital Kabul.

A US official confirmed there was an attack on the facility previously known as the Ariana hotel, describing the situation as "fluid".

The CIA has not commented, but Afghan counter-intelligence sources told the BBC at least one attacker was killed. [...]

The gunfire at the US compound was heard on Sunday evening.

It was not clear if the incident took place inside the building or just outside.

"The situation is fluid, and the investigation is ongoing," said the US official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official declined to provide further details.

Afghan intelligence sources told the BBC that their personnel in the area had heard one explosion and gunfire which lasted nearly 10 minutes.

They said that "at least one attacker was dead", without giving any further details.

One source said: "The only thing we can confirm is they (the CIA) must have invited someone inside and he turned out to be an attacker. This is the only logical assumption."

The compound is located in the most secure part of Kabul - near the US embassy and Nato military bases.

Meanwhile, a source in the nearby Afghan presidential palace told the BBC:"After the explosion was heard, an Afghan National Army (ANA) vehicle was passing. CIA-employed guards opened fire on the vehicle, thinking it had attacked them."

The sources said that two ANA soldiers, one CIA guard and one presidential guard were injured.

This kind of abuse is not a crisis for Islamabad. Pakistani authorities have demonstrated that they do not care for Christian victims, or Ahmadis, Shi'ites, Afghans, or Indians, but the same Islamic supremacists who commit violence against those groups will ultimately come calling at Islamabad's gates as well. "Girl accused of blasphemy for a spelling error," by Muhammad Sadaqat for the Express Tribune, September 25:

ABBOTTABAD: It may have been a mere misplaced dot that led to accusations of blasphemy against a Christian eighth-grader, whose miniscule error led to her expulsion from school and uproar amongst local religious leaders.

Faryal Bhatti, a student at the Sir Syed Girls High School in Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) colony Havelian, erroneously misspelt a word in an Urdu exam while answering a question on a poem written in praise of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The word in question was ‘laanat’ instead of ‘naat’ – an easy error for a child to make, as the written versions of the words are similar.

According to the school administration and religious leaders who took great exception to the hapless student’s mistake, the error is ‘serious’ enough to fall within the realm of blasphemy, Saturday.

Spelling out her punishment

On Thursday, Faryal’s Urdu teacher was collecting the answer sheets from her students when she noticed the apparently offensive word on her pupil’s sheet. The teacher, Fareeda Bibi, reportedly summoned the Christian girl, scolded her and beat her. Her punishment, however, did not end here. When Faryal’s class fellows learnt of the alleged blasphemy, the teacher brought the principal’s notice to the matter, who further informed the school management.

In the meanwhile, the news spread throughout the colony. The next day, male students of the POF colony school as well as certain religious elements took out a rally, demanding the registration of a criminal case against the eighth-grader and her expulsion from the area.

All this, for a spelling error.

Prayer leaders within the community also condemned the incident in their Friday sermons, asking the colony’s administration to not only take action against Faryal but her entire family. In the wake of the increasing tensions, Managing Director POF Colony Havelian Asif Siddiki called a meeting of colony-based ulemas and school teachers to discuss the situation. The girl and her mother were asked to appear before the meeting, where they explained that it was a mere error, caused by a resemblance between the two words. The two immediately apologised, adding that Faryal had no malicious intentions.

Was this a spelling error, or a deliberate misinterpretation of handwriting?

In a move that was apparently meant to pacify the religious elements clamouring for action against the teenage ‘blasphemer’, the POF administration expelled her from the school on Saturday. Faryal was not the only one who got in trouble for her spelling error, however, as her mother, Sarafeen Bhatti, who was a staff nurse at the POF Hospital Havelian for several years, was immediately transferred to POF Wah Cantonment Hospital.

Decision applauded

While talking to The Express Tribune, Maulana Alla Dita Khateeb of Gol Masjid praised the decision of the POF colony administration, claiming that he had personally seen the answer sheet in question. He further went on to say that he had met the girl himself, who had apologised for the word used in error. Asked whether the incident still fell within the realm of blasphemy and whether Faryal deserved expulsion when she had misspelt the word unintentionally, Khateeb said that although he was unclear about the intentions of the girl, the word she had used was sacrilegious.

The managing director of POF Colony was not available for comment.

Hamas-linked CAIR distributed this poster in California

The FBI is in full surrender mode, apologizing to Islamic supremacists and Leftist pseudo-journalists for teaching agents the truth about Islam, but it isn't good enough for Hamas-linked CAIR. Certainly all laws regarding the rights of those under investigation should be strictly observed. But behind all of Hamas-linked CAIR's talk of civil rights below are the assumptions that gave rise to the poster above, and the fact that Hamas-linked CAIR has opposed essentially every anti-terror measure ever proposed or enacted.

The idea that the hyper-PC FBI of today is full of rogue agents trampling on Muslims' civil rights is a level of paranoid victimhood-mongering that boggles the mind. The real FBI is blushing furiously and apologizing over the handful of its agents who let some of the truth about jihad and Islamic supremacism get through. It is teaching agents that Islam is a Religion of Peace™ that is only occasionally and unaccountably Hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists, and conducting outreach to Islamic supremacist and Muslim Brotherhood groups that smile benignly and guffaw behind closed doors at the naivete and pliability of these bumbling Useful Idiots.

And yet for all the FBI's pains to appease the enemy, the Islamic supremacists still portray the feds as angry rednecks with ties, banging down doors, trampling mud on the mosque floor, and casting Qur'ans to the ground with arrogant disdain as they haul away terrified, pious hijabbed Muslimas with American flags on their walls for relentless, hammering hours of questioning based on nothing but the agency's ingrained Islamophobia. The contrast between that picture and the real FBI of earnest young every-political-opinion-acceptable milquetoasts with heads filled with nonsense from Karen Armstrong and John Esposito, spending their days reassuring the local Muslim Brotherhood-linked imam that they're on the watch for any sign of "right-wing extremism" or "Islamophobia," couldn't be more stark. The FBI can't win for losing.

From CAIR-Tampa's September mailing (thanks to L):

Alert! FBI Harassing Tampa Area Muslims

CAIR-Tampa has recently received several reports from professional, law abiding American Muslims who are complaining of being singled out for harassment by FBI agents. These are individuals who would never have expected to be targeted by the FBI. CAIR-Tampa would like to take this as an opportunity to remind the community what to do when contacted by law enforcement .

CONTACT CAIR-TAMPA IF YOU ARE BEING HARASSED OR FEEL THAT YOU HAVE BEEN MISTREATED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT

10/2/11 Community Forum: Know Your Rights

CAIR-Tampa will host its first monthly community forum on Sunday, October 2nd at 6:00pm. The topic of the first forum will be regarding what rights we have as Americans and on how to protect yourself and family against harassment and discrimination.from private individuals, businesses, and the government.. Forum will be at the CAIR office at 8056 N 56th Street.. Refreshments will be served.

CAIR-Tampa will hold monthly community forums at the office, free to empower the community. Suggestions for future topics of discussion are welcomed. Please join us.

What to do when contacted by law enforcement

American Muslims strongly support law enforcement and the protection of our national security. As Americans, we also value the civil rights of all Americans. All Americans have the constitutional right of due process and to be politically active.

If you know of any criminal activity taking place in your community, it is both your religious and civic duty to immediately report such activity to local and federal law enforcement agencies.
If you are visited by federal law enforcement agencies, remember:
You should have a lawyer present when speaking with federal law enforcement agencies. Under the law, you have the legal right to have a lawyer present when speaking with federal law enforcement agencies. This is true even if you are not a citizen. This is your legal right. Refusing to answer questions cannot be held against you and does not imply that you have something to hide.
You do not have to permit them to enter your home or office if they do not have a warrant. Under U.S. law, law enforcement agents must possess a search warrant in order to enter your house. If they say they have a warrant, kindly demand to see it before allowing them to enter. The warrant will specify exactly what can be searched and if they have a warrant, be courteous and polite and remember that you are under no obligation to answer questions without a lawyer present.
You should never lie or provide false information to any law enforcement agencies. Lying to law enforcement agents is a federal crime and should never be done under any circumstance.

What better way to spend Armistice Day than in the company of fellow freedom fighters? I have already received word from one Muslim saying he was going to meet me at this conference in Nashville and kill me there, so whether you're friend or foe, a splendid time is guaranteed for all. Register here.

The Constitution or Sharia: Preserving Freedom Conference will be the first national conference on Sharia and the Islamization of America. Topics will include:

• Sharia and Jihad
• The European Experience
• The Dehumanization and Diminishment of Women in the West Under Sharia
• The Muslim Brotherhood In America
• Sharia and Legal Action
• Grassroots Organizing Against Sharia and Rabats (including Mega-Mosques)
• Defending Liberty In Legislatures
• Fighting Islamist Propaganda in the Media

This is not just another educational conference.  Speakers, such as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, are action oriented and you will finish the day with an understanding of how to fight the advance of Sharia Law in the United States.

 

Confirmed Speakers include:

 

• Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of America and Atlas Shrugs
• Robert Spencer of Stop Islamization of America and Jihad Watch
• Jay Sekulow of  American Center for Law and Justice
• Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel
• William J. Murray of Religious Freedom Coalition and No 911 Mosque
• Frank Gaffney of Center for Security Policy
• Christopher Holton of Center for Security Policy
• Lou Ann Zelenik of Tennessee Freedom Coaltion
• Andrea Lafferty of Traditional Values Coalition
• James Lafferty of Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force
• Barrister Paul Diamond, United Kingdom
• Father Keith Roderick
• Bishop Earl W. Jackson
• Fred Grandy - Actor and former congressman
• Wafa Sultan 
• Rev. Dr. Mark Durie, Australia

Invited Speakers/Panelists include:

• Stephen Gele
• Rep. Michele Bachmann

EVENING BANQUET: The day will be followed by a banquet, which will be a completely separate event, requiring a separate ticket. The banquet will include major national speakers such as activist and author Pamela Geller. Actor and former congressman Fred Grandy will also make a special appearance. Sponsorships of tables of ten are available. Please call 202.742.8990

Sponsors of this event include:

• WorldNetDaily
• American Freedom Defense Initiative / Stop Islamization of America
• Religious Freedom Coalition
• Center for Security Policy
• Tennessee Freedom Coalition

Co-Sponsors of this event include:

• GrassTops USA
• Traditional Values Coalition
• Vision America
• American Center for Law and Justice
• STAND America

Why does the Wall Street Journal publish terrorists?
by Julia Gorin

This year brought the Council of Europe’s report on the murder-for-organs scandal involving top echelons of the Kosovo Liberation Army, now wearing suits as Kosovo’s “legitimate” rulers. While top Albanian and Kosovo officials are being indicted for corruption, war crimes and deep mob ties, a Brooklyn man from Albania was arraigned on charges of providing material support to terrorists and planning to join a radical group in Pakistan -- just months after an Albanian Kosovar shot five American servicemen in Frankfurt, killing two. (Which hearkens back not only to last year’s “North Carolina Eight” that included two Kosovo Albanians and targeted a Marine base, but also to the 2007 Ft. Dix plot in which three Albanian-Americans wanted to “kill as many American soldiers as possible”.)

And so one is almost tempted to the fanciful hope that The Wall St. Journal might finally feel a tinge of reservation if not shame about unequivocally following the Foggy Bottom line on the Balkans, which unconditionally implements the maximal Albanian agenda in the Balkans.

Instead, the newspaper publishes the terrorists who won the Balkans, this time "Prime Minister" Hashim Thaci -- criminal alias “The Snake.” With no irony whatsoever, on August 29th The Journal treated us to “A Better Future for the Western Balkans,” by Thaci. This is despite his internationally long-known connection to drug- and organ-trafficking, his notoriety in Greater Albania for running every kind of racket, not to mention his intimidating witnesses in the organs affair and ordering untold murders. ( “Cadavers have never been an obstacle to Thaci’s career,” explained Bujar Bukoshi, of the late Ibrahim Rugova’s 1990s government-in-exile.)

Take it from a narco-terrorist prime minister now suppressing the press in “liberated” Kosovo on what constitutes “a better future.” And yet it’s the “rampant criminality” of Kosovo's Serb-populated north that Thaci wants to bring under his “rule of law” (the “rampant criminality” being a resistance to rule by the criminality of the rest of Kosovo). This is a gangster solidifying his turf.

North Mitrovica is the last part of Kosovo that we’re trying to submit to the thugocracy, and it’s also one of Kosovo's last multi-ethnic remnants, where a non-Albanian can leave his immediate vicinity without risking dismemberment. Ergo the Serbian “stubbornness” that our bureaucrats — and The Journal — regularly scold.

The 2008 Italian documentary “Infinite War” shows a Serbian monk serving liturgy surrounded by NATO tanks and troops. “In liberated Kosovo, this is the maximal possible freedom for Christians to profess their faith,” narrates journalist Riccardo Iacona, adding that 223,409 Serbs were cleansed after the 1999 war (the number has grown since).

It was done with the help of the never-disbanded KLA, which answers directly to high-level Kosovo politicians. “And this is how they finance themselves,” Iacona summarizes a classified UN report, “by trafficking of drugs and arms, and by extortion…They smuggle oil and practice destruction…Then, there is a list of the superiors of this organization, and the links between this military structure and politicians in PDK, Thaci’s party.”

Albanian journalist Bardulaj Ajeti was writing for the daily Bota Sot, investigating “the relations between the ex-KLA fighters and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. He was shot in the head on June 7, 2005…[One Ajeti article] speaks about a shadow government, controlled by Thaci, giving names of those who comprise it. All of them are ex-KLA commanders. Then there is one incredible interview with Mr. Ymer Ymeri…whose brother was killed by the UCK (KLA)…[He says] the UCK erected dozens of prisons in Albania where Rugova’s men were being tortured and killed, and Thaci, the current prime minister, knew about it…”

Iacona asks Ymeri’s wife (Ymeri had fled to Germany after giving the interview), “Do all the opponents of Thaci’s UCK get killed?” She replies, “Yes, it’s like a mafia.”

According to a 2007 Institute for European Policy report, Kosovo "'is a Mafia society' based on 'capture of the state' by criminal elements...[The authors] quote a German intelligence service report of 'closest ties between leading political decision makers and the dominant criminal class' and name Ramush Haradinaj, Hashim Thaci and Xhavit Haliti as compromised leaders..."

Leading up to the war crimes trial of Haradinaj, Thaci’s predecessor and also a former KLA commander, witnesses started dropping dead, going missing, or dropping out to prevent either fate. In 2003 two Kosovo police officers who insisted on investigating the murder of witness Tahir Zemaj (found in a well with his father and cousin) were likewise killed and a third wounded.

The U.S. has systematically blocked international investigations and prosecutions of our favored mobsters and has tampered with evidence from their crime scenes, such as when officials from Camp Bondsteel removed bullets from the walls at the scene of a Haradinaj gunfight and then helicoptered him to Germany, denying UN investigators access to him. A British ex-soldier who described our Haradinaj as ‘a psychopath’ terrorizing his own men and locals into loyalty told the UK Sunday Observer in September 2000, “Someone would pass him some information and he would disappear for two hours. The end result would be several bodies in a ditch.” The charred remains of Suad Qorraj, “who had operated a satellite telephone for a rival KLA commander…were found in a nearby forest. The burial notice said he had been ‘killed by Serbs.’”

In 2001, detective Stu Kellock asked for a special task force on a bus bombing of Serbs visiting a cemetery (11 dead, 40 injured). Instead, “‘evidence from the scene was suppressed and destroyed,’” Kellock said in an interview which also quoted Washington Post: “‘NATO paved over the crater on the Nis highway within hours.’ Furthermore, NATO did not share intelligence with the UN police, phone logs of suspects’ calls were hidden in Monaco, where Kosovo’s main mobile operator is based, and the main suspect miraculously escaped from the most secure location in all of Kosovo — the American Camp Bondsteel.”

(Indeed, the European Policy study called the U.S. out for "'abetting the escape of criminals' in Kosovo as well as 'preventing European investigators from working.' This has made Americans 'vulnerable to blackmail.'")

The Italian documentary offers a post-script on the escaped suspect in question, Florim Ejupi. “For three years Florim remained at large. And then in 2004 he reappeared on this road that leads toward Pristina, wearing a Serbian uniform, in the company of three other Albanians. They wanted to commit an attack and ascribe it to the Serbs. In the end, they killed a police officer of the United Nations. Now Florim is in prison. He was sentenced to 40 years, but he never spoke. So we don’t know who the others were, and above all who gave him the orders to blow up the bus.”

Ejupi served just a year or two of that sentence when in March 2009, as its very first ruling, a EULEX (EU rule of law mission) appeals court released him. The only explanation offered was the Kosovo usual: “not enough evidence.”

Hashim Thaci, whom The Journal sees fit to print (as it did his equally ruthless predecessor and war crimes indictee Agim Ceku) is among Kosovo’s “elite that operates above the law,” as a February Foreign Policy article titled “Thug Life” summed up, adding:

Kosovo’s thugocrats owe their rise and continued impunity to the toleration or outright support of the international community — particularly the United States…In 1999, the U.S. endorsement of Thaci as hero was sealed with a kiss planted on his cheek by then Secretary of State Madeline Albright…In 2004, every American staffer at the U.S. Embassy was invited to attend Haradinaj’s wedding — and, despite his links to organized crime and impending indictment on war crimes, they went. Most recently, the night after the raid on [Transportation Minister Fatmir] Limaj’s home and offices, U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell was seen laughing and chatting with the minister at a well-attended party in Pristina. [Limaj was also twice indicted but not yet convicted of "inhumane acts during the war.”]

It is difficult to see how democracy or respect [for] the rule of law could develop and flourish amid such overt displays of American support for a corrupt and criminal leadership…The war crimes taking place throughout the 1998-1999 conflict and in the immediate aftermath have never been fully investigated — in fact, in some cases they have been covered up…UNMIK (UN Mission in Kosovo) ran an incomplete investigation into the organ trafficking case brought to light by [Council of Europe rapporteur Dick] Marty in late 2010. The documents date from 2003 — when UNMIK was in full control of the internal war crimes investigations and prosecutions.

As the Italian journalist Iacona speaks with locals who won’t tell him or investigators anything they know about the “unsolved” murders whose perpetrators boast of their crimes, he realizes that “liberated” and “democratic” Kosovo is ruled by fear.

When Thaci writes about the still Serbian north as “the creation of a sort of state-within-a-state…evident trafficking of drugs, people and arms, and daily intimidation of both Albanians and Serbs by private armies who are the only ones benefiting from the absence of the rule of law,” the man is writing about how Kosovo itself was won. A classic case of projection.

He also has a bit of a Freudian slip when he refers to an internal issue “that once again pitted Serbs against Kosovars.” Clearly, by “Kosovars” he means Albanians, tacitly admitting not only that he -- a leader ostensibly representing all citizens -- does not consider Serbs Kosovars, but that the nationality the U.S. concocted to help wage the KLA’s war for independence is just another word for “Albanian.” It is also an admission of what Serbs and Albanians alike have been telling us: that Kosovo is just one leg of the plan to consolidate parts of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Greece into a Greater Albania.

Julia Gorin writes at Republican Riot.

Two weeks ago, a Muslim died in a traffic accident. Around the time of his funeral, a rumor spread via text message that he was tortured to death by Christians, sparking a wave of violence and incitement to further attacks against Christians. Whatever the group and the motive, an official hands-off approach (at best) to Muslim persecution of non-Muslims in Indonesia has enabled and encouraged more of the same.

These are the consequences. More on this story. "Solo Suicide Blast May Be Linked to Ambon Violence: Police," by Farouk Arnaz for the Jakarta Globe, September 25:

The suicide bombing that killed at least one person and injured 20 at a church in Solo on Sunday may be linked to the recent sectarian violence that broke out in Ambon on Sept. 11, a police source said.

“Early analysis of the motive of the bomber links him to Ambon and the culprit will not be far from radical groups. It’s revenge. The motive of course can only be confirmed when the network is revealed,” a member of the anti-terror squad Densus 88 told the Jakarta Globe under condition of anonymity.

The recent clash in Ambon was sparked by rumors that spiraled out of control after a motorcycle taxi driver suffered a fatal traffic accident.

The driver died from his injuries on his way to the hospital, but a viral SMS fueled false reports that the driver had been tortured and killed by Christians. That prompted a violent clash between two groups that left at least seven dead and prompted law enforcement to question anyone trying to enter the city.

A provocative text message also began circulating in East Java urging Muslims to go to Ambon to wage jihad.

Ali Fauzi, a self-confessed jihadist in Ambon and the younger brother of convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Ali Imron and Ali Ghufron, agreed that the bombing in Solo was prompted by the Ambon violence.

“I feel that it is so,” he said....

More on the bombing, and the bomber: "Suicide bombing at Indonesian church injures 22," by Slamet Riyadi for the Associated Press, September 25:

SOLO, Indonesia (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Indonesian church as hundreds of worshippers were filing out after the Sunday service, injuring at least 22 people, police said.

The bomber's mangled body lay at the entrance of the Tenth Bethel Gospel Church. Around him, screaming people were splattered in blood.

Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said the low-intensity device appeared to be attached to the man's stomach.

"We are now waiting for DNA test results to confirm his identity," Pradopo said. "We hope to reveal it soon."

A woman working at an Internet cafe near the church in the Central Java town of Solo said the man had visited her shop an hour before the explosion and browsed websites about al-Qaida and a local Islamist group.

He left a bag behind containing a copy of the Quran, a mask and a cellphone charger, Rina Ristriningsih told The Associated Press. She said all of the items had been confiscated by police. [...]

It appeared that the bomber entered the church through a side door, mingled with worshippers, and then, when the service was over, headed out with them.

He detonated his device near the entrance, killing himself and wounding at least 22 people, said Pradopo, the police chief.

"Everyone was screaming," Fani, a witness, told Metro TV. Like many Indonesians she goes by only one name.

"I saw fiery sparks and, near the entrance, a man dead on the ground, his entrails spilling out. People around him were splattered with blood."

Members of the congregation said they did not recognize the bomber.

"He walked about 4 meters (yards) behind me," Abraham, who attended the service, told El Shinta radio. "I believe he was disguised as a churchgoer."

"War is deceit," Muhammad said.

Critics say President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who relies heavily on Islamic parties in parliament, has remained largely silent as minorities have been attacked by hard-liners or seen their houses of worship torched or closed.

However, he was quick to speak out after Sunday's attack.

"Whoever is behind such violence has to be arrested," he said, adding that neither religious nor ethnic differences can justify such actions. "Crime is crime, terrorism is terrorism."

Jihad is jihad. But he can't say that, of course.

Regarding the Georgia public school exercise that praises Islam and polygamy, about which we have written here and here, Pamela Geller has a great deal more here -- including pages from the classroom material itself (one of which I have posted above; see more in larger versions at Atlas).

Free citizens must stand up against this. Please contact Ethan Hildreth, the superintendent of the Henry County School District, where this material is being used, and explain to him politely that a curriculum that promotes polygamy and veiling of women is demeaning to women and contradicts American notions of the equality of rights of all people, as well as Judeo-Christian notions of the equality of dignity of all people. Tell him that this flagrant advertising for Islam also effectively amounts to proselytizing, of a kind that would never be tolerated in public school material if the religion were Christianity.

UPDATE: Pamela Geller has much more new information here.

For years non-Muslims have been asking where moderate Muslims in any significant numbers are actually speaking out against Islamic jihad and Islamic supremacism. And now here they finally are.

Much as I hate to be the one to throw a rotting cabbage onto the sofa, I must yet again point out that Qadri "says killing innocents is forbidden in Islam," but who defines who is "innocent"? Islamic jihadists believe that "non-Muslims are never innocent, they are guilty of denying Allah and his prophet." So if they believe that non-Muslims are never innocent, a Muslim who declares that killing innocents is forbidden in Islam is not going to stop them from mounting attacks against non-Muslims.

And what do they mean by fighting "extremism"? Last year Qadri published a fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombings. "Terrorism," of course, is a tactic, and as liberally as the term is applied in common usage, condemning it doesn't tell us a whole lot. After all, nobody likes terrorism. Abbas at the UN on Friday condemned terrorism, "especially state terrorism," by which he meant that he was condemning the actions of Israel, not of Islamic jihadists. Qadri really is referring to Islamic terrorism, evidently, but what about the jihad imperative to impose Sharia? He said yesterday: "I want to address those who are lost, who have a total misconception of jihad -- I want to send them a message -- come back to normal life. Whatever you're doing is totally against Islam." Do those who have a proper conception of jihad still wish to work in non-violent ways to impose Sharia and subjugate non-Muslims?

Qadri is a member of the Barelvi movement, a Sufi-tinged form of Islam that originated in India and, although as much as half of the Pakistani population subscribes to it, has been violently persecuted by Islamic hardliners. His membership in a group that is considered by the larger body of Muslims to be of doubtful orthodoxy at best makes it unlikely that his stands will gain wide acceptance. And al-Qaeda even infiltrated his anti-terror summer camp.

"Muslims rally against Islamic extremism: London gathering of thousands intended to promote inclusive vision," by Sylvia Hu for the Associated Press, September 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON — Thousands of Muslims gathered at a rally in London on Saturday to fight extremism and promote a moderate, inclusive version of Islam.

The event’s organizers Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International say some 12,000 Muslims are expected at Wembley Arena. The event will be broadcast live to dozens of countries around the world.

The group’s founder, the Pakistan-born Islamic scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, says killing innocents is forbidden in Islam and Muslims must integrate into the societies in which they’re living.

Some Islamic scholars have warned that a power vacuum in North Africa and the Middle East could lead to militant and extremist groups gaining ground in elections arising from the so-called Arab Spring.

"If these elements come into power, it will be a big disaster," Tahir-ul-Qadri told The Associated Press.

Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International says it represents a moderate vision of Islam that works for peace and integration....

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A suicide bomber attacked an Indonesian church packed with hundreds of worshippers [sic] Sunday, killing himself and wounding at least 20 other people, police and hospital officials said.

The blast in Solo town in Central Java province occurred just as people were filing out at the end of the service.

"Everyone was screaming," a witness told Metro TV. "I saw fiery sparks and, near the entrance, a man dead on the ground, his entrails spilling out. People around him were splattered with blood," said Fani, who goes by only one name, like many Indonesians.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombing.

Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 237 million, has been hit by a string of suicide bombings blamed on the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah and its offshoots since 2002, when a strike on two Bali nightclubs killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Subsequent attacks have been far less deadly, however, and the last occurred more than two years ago, owing to a security crackdown that led to the arrests and convictions of hundreds of Islamic militants.

Witnesses said they believed the perpetrator was not a church member.

"He walked about 4 meters (yards) behind me," Abraham, who attended the service, told El Shinta radio. "I believe he was disguised as a churchgoer."

It is not just that the lesson "positively slants toward Islam" to the exclusion of other religions, which would be bad enough. The letter excerpted below, along with other components of the lesson, amount to dawah, or Islamic proselytizing, and children in a public school were made a captive audience to a sales pitch for Islam.

More on this story. "School’s curriculum on Mideast adjusted after parent protests," by Lindsay Field for the Marietta Daily Journal, September 22:

MARIETTA – Campbell Middle School has adjusted its curriculum on the Middle East after a parent complained that material provided for one assignment “positively slants towards Islam.” The creator of the materials, though, said she doesn’t understand the objection.

Hal Medlin said the assignment, sent home with his seventh-grader in late August, was aimed at helping students outline the pros and cons of school uniforms. The material includes a letter from a woman who is explaining why she is “proud and happy” to be Muslim and a list of seven conditions for women’s dress in Islam.

Neither Medlin nor district officials would identify the teacher.

But he's... "conservative!" (On cue, lightning flashes, and a horse neighs in the distance.)

“I thought this was absurd,” said Medlin, who describes himself conservative. “(The teacher) was trying to compare Islamic rules of dress and how they compared to school uniforms, which I thought was a stretch. The principal and the (superintendent) agreed with me … but they wouldn’t agree with my premise that it put Islam in a positive light because of the (statements).”

Here are excerpts from some of the material Medlin objected to, titled “My Name is Ahlima” and copyright by InspirEd Educators Inc. It is printed here with permission:

“My name is Ahlima and I live in Saudi Arabia. … Perhaps two differences Westerners would notice are that women here do not drive cars and they wear abuyah. An abuyah is a loose-fitting black cloth that covers a woman from head to toe. I like wearing the abuyah since it is very comfortable, and I am protected from blowing sand. … I have seen pictures of women in the West and find their dress to be horribly immodest. … Women in the West do not have the protection of the Sharia as we do here. If our marriage has problems, my husband can take another wife rather than divorce me, and I would still be cared for. … I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia.”

Said Medlin: “If you take these three pieces of paper at face value and stick them out there, how can you not say that it’s positively promoting religion, particularly Islam? I want them to agree that it should not go out.”

But Sharon Coletti, the founder of Roswell-based InspirEd Educators and the creator of the material at issue, said she does not see Medlin’s objection.

“This particular sequence is a two-day social studies lesson. They read this letter and then examine stereotyping. The next lesson is a compare and contrast on the role of women in the middle East. Yes, the Muslim girl stereotypes Western women, but are there ways we stereotype Muslims? I have no idea what the objection is,” she said.

All public middle school students in Georgia spend 12 weeks learning about the Middle East, and that includes religions in that region, including the dominant Islam, she said.

“It’s important for kids to have some empathy for other people in the world. Some people think we’re trying to teach their children to be Muslims, and that could not be more ridiculous,” Coletti said.

The double standard becomes clear if one plugs any other religion into the material being pushed here for the sake of Islam, especially on the level of the contents of that "letter" quoted above.

Her company’s lessons have helped raise test scores in at least one south Georgia district, she said.

“We teach kids to think and to reason. The letters are fictitious, and we present it in different way rather than just a textbook,” she said.

Dale Gaddis, who is the area superintendent over Campbell Middle, acknowledged, “The use of that material could have been served in a better way.”

“The dad was correct in what he was talking about, but since then we’ve decided to select better materials. The issues that we had, we actually took care of. We worked with the teacher. The material would be used but we worked with our curriculum folks to verify the material and how it should be used,” he said....

Make that 32 squandered opportunities for peace. "Palestinian leader rejects intl peace blueprint," by Amy Teibel and Mohammed Daraghmeh for the Associated Press, September 25:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly suggested Saturday that he would reject a peacemaking blueprint put forward by international mediators, saying he would not agree to any proposal that disregarded Palestinian conditions for the resumption of peace talks.

Abbas, who returned to the West Bank on Saturday after submitting a statehood bid at the United Nations a day earlier, told reporters accompanying him that he was still studying the proposal by the peacemaking Quartet — the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia.

But he appeared to tip his hand by saying "we will not deal with any initiative" that doesn't demand a halt to Israeli settlement construction or negotiations based on borders before the 1967 War when Israel captured land the Palestinians claim for their state.

The Quartet statement made no such demands.

Abbas dug into his positions after resisting heavy, U.S.-led pressure to abandon his bid to have the U.N. recognize a state of Palestine in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. His willingness to stand up to Washington has won him newfound respect at home, where he had been considered a lackluster leader. The unilateral bid for statehood and U.N. membership reflects deep-seated Palestinian exasperation over 44 years of Israeli occupation.

Israel has had no comment on the Quartet plan to resume long-stalled negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, which mediators regard as the only way to establish a Palestinian state. Israeli leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the long-standing conditions Abbas has put forth, saying talks must go forward without imposing terms.

Netanyahu opposes negotiations based on 1967 lines, saying a return to those frontiers would expose Israel's heartland to rocket fire from the West Bank. And he says the fate of settlements should be left to negotiations.

The Quartet urged both parties to draw up an agenda for peace talks within a month and produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. Mediators aspire to a final deal within a year, but similar plans have failed to produce a peace agreement in the past, and this latest proposal offered no program for bridging the huge differences that have stymied negotiations for most of the past three years.

The Quartet plan was meant to rechannel to negotiations any momentum the Palestinians would gain from their statehood application. A U.N. nod would not deliver any immediate changes on the ground: Israel would remain an occupying force in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and continue to restrict access to Gaza, ruled by Palestinian Hamas militants.

But Palestinians are hoping that any upgrade in their international status would give them more clout in any future talks with Israel.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon relayed the Palestinians' statehood request to the Security Council on Friday, shortly after Abbas formally submitted it. It is expected to be shot down there, either because it won't win the required support of nine of the Council's 15 members, or because the U.S. will make good on its threat to veto it. The Security Council will meet Monday to deal with the membership request, but final action is likely to take weeks or months....

Interestingly, this report is from the Fars News Agency in Iran, where Facebook is officially blocked. Otherwise, heaven knows young Iranians might start some kind of unholy water fight.

But the Iranian government never met an attempted U.S. embassy takeover it didn't like, and that apparently trumps the use of a method of organization that is proscribed in Iran. "Egypt's Youths Vow to Raid US Embassy if Palestine Bid at UN Vetoed," from Fars News Agency, September 24:

TEHRAN (FNA)- A group of Egyptian youths in a call via an internet social network called for demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Cairo to take over the US compound if Washington vetoes the Palestinian bid for UN membership.

According to a report by Palestine al-Yawm (Palestine Today) news network, the young Egyptians have posted a request on their Facebook webpage and blasted Barack Obama's speech after his presidency in Cairo in which the US President pledged a new approach towards Muslims.

They said that the threat by the Obama administration to veto the Palestinian bid for UN membership revealed the realities about Obama and the fact they "he is a liar and is no different with his predecessors in supporting Israel and blatant violation of the Arab nations' rights".

The Egyptian youths said the attack on the US embassy would serve as a strong message in response to the US hegemonic policies.

They further warned the US to refrain from vetoing the Palestinian bid, saying that such a move by the US would encourage violence in the world.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas has brought a Palestinian request for UN membership to New York, where top officials of all the member states of the world body have convened to attend an annual General Assembly sessions.

The future Palestinian state would include the West Bank and Gaza, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. The PA says it believes that more than 130 countries would recognize the state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders.

Israel and the US strongly oppose the Palestinian move. Washington, which supports Tel Aviv's position, claims that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through talks with Israel.

Just in case you forgot you were reading a report out of Iran:

Palestinians stress that they have never gained anything through talks with the Zionist regime, mentioning that negotiation with the racist regime is a waste of time and gives the Zionists the chance to push their settlement construction plans ahead and come along with their international and internal problems.

He also says it has become a "common practice." As long as the victims are lower on the totem pole than Sunni Muslim Pakistanis, Islamabad will not see a crisis. But the same supremacist conduct they look the other way from when it is perpetrated against non-Muslims or non-Sunnis is gradually eroding the stability of the entire society and its institutions. "Punjab: armed Muslims rape a Christian, a 'common practice'," by Jibran Khan for Asia News, September 24:

Lahore (AsiaNews) – The rape of Christian women in Punjab has become a "common practice" an "outrageous" phenomenon compounded by the fact that "the police protect the guilty" and not the victims. This is the bitter synopsis of Fr Jill John, of the Diocese of Lahore on the last recorded case of sexual violence against a Christian mother. The family calls for justice, but is struggling against a society in which the defenders of the law support the rapists. Even human rights groups like Masihi Life for All Foundation have intervened on the matter, asking government authorities to target the perpetrators of crimes and punish the corrupt and conniving police officers.

The incident dates back to Sept. 15, but the news filtered through only in recent days. Arifa Mushtaq (name changed for security reasons - ed) 32, mother of five was abducted and raped by three Muslims . Her husband Muashtaq Masih a worker at the Kasur sanitation department, in a devastated condition said, "Arifa use to work in a garment factory, on the y evening of 15 September she was coming home from work, she got off the bus, two local Muslims grabbed her from the back. Another armed accomplice came and put a gun on her head".

The woman began to scream, then asked the trio to leave her free to think their children who were waiting at home. Instead, the men took Arifa by force to a house and, one by one, they raped her. The family is in shock and even their attempt to report the rape has added insult to injury: the Muslims have threatened her husband, warning him to withdraw the lawsuit. Otherwise, his children will have to go through what his wife has gone through. The police has also protected the perpetrators, putting pressure on Muashtaq Masih.

Fr. Jill John confirms that "the police helps the guilty, with omissions and gaps in the compilation of complaints to favor their freedom." The family of the raped woman, added the priest, are now living in fear while criminals are free to roam the streets of the town. "How much longer - he asks – will we see the children of God suffer? And when will Mushtaq Masih's family get justice? ". He appealed to the police chief of Punjab and the Minister of Justice to target the corrupt police officers and protect the family.

The headlong pursuit of "hearts and minds" continues at the expense of life and limb.

Here, a NATO report acknowledged the risks posed by the inability to tell a "moderate" member of the Afghan army from a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome waiting to happen, but its recommendations were never implemented for fear of damaging the "trust" of the recruits. "Commanders ignored warnings that British troops were at risk from attack by Afghan allies," by Sean Rayment for the Telegraph, September 24:

The report, ordered after a rogue Afghan policeman shot dead five British servicemen, recommended that British troops should be armed with 9mm pistols at all times - even when sleeping - because of the high risk of being attacked.

It also called for British soldiers to have separate sleeping and living quarters from Afghan troops, and for all British "administrative areas" to be covered by armed sentries, such were the fears of further incidents.

But the rulings were never implemented amid fears they would lead to a breakdown in trust between members of the Afghan security forces and the British troops who train them and fight alongside them.

If the situation is really so volatile that the collective loss of "trust" is such an issue in what should be a professional, working relationship, that would appear to point to a bigger problem.

Only eight months after the deaths of the five servicemen, three more British troops were killed when a member of the Afghan army ran amok in a rocket and machine gun attack at a patrol base in central Helmand.

Subsequent attacks by rogue Afghan soldiers and police have led to the deaths of 15 further members of Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), including American and Spanish servicemen.

In November 2009, a group of British soldiers were relaxing after a patrol at a check point known as Blue 25 when an Afghan policeman known as Gulbuddin, who was working alongside them, opened fire at close range.

Three members of the Grenadier Guards and two Royal Military Policemen were killed, and a further six soldiers were injured. All were unarmed and none were wearing body armour.

Less than two weeks after the attack, a "Nato Secret" post-incident report was circulated to commanders recommending the extra arming of British troops.

In the second incident, in July 2010, three members of the 1st battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles were killed when a member of the Afghan Army ran amok at a base known as Patrol Base Three in the Nahr-e-Seraj area of central Helmand.

Talib Hussein, an Afghan soldier working alongside the Gurkhas, shot dead Major Josh James Bowman while he slept.

He then fired a rocket propelled grenade into the company operation's room killing Lieutenant Neal Turkington, 26 and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun, a senior Nepalese Gurkha soldier.

The MoD maintains that even if the Gurkhas had been issued with pistols, their deaths would not have been prevented.

However, at an inquest earlier this year, Lieutenant Colonel Roly Walker, who was the Commanding Officer of the Grenadier Guards in November 2009, said that following the five deaths at Blue 25 he had ordered that all of his soldiers working alongside the Afghan security forces should be armed at all times as a deterrent against future attacks.

This newspaper has also learnt that some British commanders have independently ordered that soldiers due to take over the mentoring of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) troops should be trained in pistol "close quarter battle" techniques by members of the special forces in case they are attacked.

Troops are being tested in a variety of scenarios in which they have to respond to surprise attacks by members of the Afghan army and police within the confines of a secure compound.

Besides the victims from Nato countries, soldiers and police in the Afghan security forces have also been killed in attacks by rogue colleagues.

Although the Taliban have claimed that such assaults are part of a carefully orchestrated plan, there is no hard evidence to suggest high levels of inflitration by insurgents, and the attacks are thought largely to have been the work of individuals acting alone.

That should be no surprise. The Taliban did not invent the jihadist ideology and certainly does not have a monopoly on it.

Despite the deaths, commanders maintain that there has been no breakdown in trust between British and Afghan troops....

In other words: Stop calling us out for not acting like friends, or we'll stop pretending to be friends.

The rhetoric from our Frenemy and Ally is escalating because Pakistan is cornered. They are reportedly intimidated by the monster they have created in backing the Haqqani network, but have also been caught out in their double game by the U.S. and have run out of excuses.

All they have left to do is to claim victim status and threaten to discard the entire alliance, such as it is. "US must not cross ‘red lines’, says FM Khar," from the Associated Press, September 24 (thanks to Sanjay):

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister on Saturday warned the United States against sending ground troops to her country to fight an Afghan militant group that America alleges is used as a proxy by Pakistan’s top intelligence agency for attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.

The warning came as a top US military commander was in Pakistan for talks with the army chief at a time of intense strain between the two countries. The US Embassy said Gen. James Mattis, head of US Central Command, arrived in Pakistan late Friday, and that he will meet the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Ties between Islamabad and Washington are in crisis after American officials stepped up accusations that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence was aiding insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan, including those who took part in an attack on the US Embassy last week in Kabul.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said in an interview Saturday that there are red lines and rules of engagement with America, which should not be broken.

”It opens all kinds of doors and all kinds of options,” she told Pakistan’s private Aaj News TV from New York. The comment was in response to a question about the possibility of US troops coming to Pakistan.

When Pakistan is under scrutiny, it's a "blame game":

Khar, however, insisted that Pakistan’s policy was to seek a more intensive engagement with the US and that she would like to discourage any blame game.

”If many of your goals are not achieved, you do not make someone a scapegoat,” she said, addressing the US.

The US allegations have seen a strong reaction from Pakistan.

Kayani, the Pakistani army chief, said on Friday that the charges were baseless and part of a public ”blame game” detrimental to peace in Afghanistan. Other Islamabad officials urged Washington to present evidence for such a serious allegation. Khar warned the United States is risking losing an ally in the war on terror.

The row began when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday accused the ISI agency of supporting Haqqani insurgents in planning and executing last week’s 22-hour assault on the US Embassy and a truck bombing that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.

Kayani said the allegations were ”very unfortunate and not based on facts.”

The claims were the most serious yet by an American official against nuclear-armed Pakistan, which Washington has given billions in civilian and military aid over the last 10 years to try to secure its cooperation inside Afghanistan and against al-Qaeda.

The Haqqani insurgent network is widely believed to be based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area along the Afghan border. The group has historical ties to Pakistani intelligence, dating back to the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The relationship between the two countries has never been smooth, but it took one of its hardest hits when US commandos slipped into Pakistan on May 2 without informing the Pakistanis of their mission and killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad.

The "relationship" was already damaged. The need to keep the bin Laden raid secret was a result of that, and of well substantiated fears the Pakistanis would tip bin Laden off. Finding bin Laden where the Navy SEALs did just brought that reality out into the open.

Sep 23 - A top Catholic bishop has thrown his support for the implementation of the Islamic criminal laws stipulating deterrent punishment on serious crimes, or hudud, in Kelantan, provided non-Muslims were given "a cast-iron guarantee that it will not be implemented on us".

In comments on the issue sparked by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's challenge to Kelantan Menteri Besar Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, said it was wise for non-Muslims not to oppose such laws among Muslims "if they so desire".

“I say it's time to allow Muslims in Kelantan, if they so desire, to implement shariah only for them and with that the hudud enactments provided non-Muslims are exempt from its implementation,” online news portal Malaysiakini quoted Dr Paul, also the titular head of Catholics in the Melaka-Johor diocese, as saying.

Even Baroness Warsi has acknowledged that fear expressed as "cultural sensitivity" has prevented authorities from going after offenders and stopping the various ruses by which men bring in additional wives from overseas.

Islamic law allows a man up to four wives. But British law does not. It would be bad enough if Muslims in Britain were undertaking this illegal practice and showing such disrespect for the rule of British law on their own dime, but polygamy is in fact dependent on the welfare system, as this report demonstrates. How else would the "pizza delivery driver" below fund multiple wives and families?

Meanwhile, many British families who play by the rules struggle to afford to support one or two children with what is left after taxes.

Britain is funding its own collapse by subsidizing a supremacist demographic conquest by people with no intention of putting back into the system what they take out. This state of affairs is all the more outrageous in the midst of a spiraling, debt-driven global economic crisis.

"The truth about polygamy: A special investigation into how Muslim men can exploit the benefits system," by Sue Reid for the Daily Mail, September 24:

Ghulam is a taxi driver who lives in Blackburn, a once-booming textile town in Lancashire. He has a terrace house near his local mosque (one of 53 in the area), a silver Nissan car and a very complex private life.

For he has so many children that he struggles to remember their names, and five wives from various countries, including Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and his own birthplace, Pakistan.

Ghulam’s latest bride is a shy 20-year-old called Hafeza. He brought her to Britain from Morocco, soon after his 45th birthday earlier this year. They married in an Islamic wedding ceremony called ‘the Nikah’ in her village, with Hafeza’s pleased parents among the guests.

Thirty miles across the Pennines in Yorkshire, pizza delivery driver Wasim, 27, has an equally complicated domestic life.

He lives in a part of Dewsbury called Savile Town, a network of 11 terrace streets dominated by one of the biggest mosques in Europe, where most residents are Asian with origins in Pakistan or India.

Wasim has three wives, the first of whom lives with him and their three teenage sons. His other two wives have separate houses in Savile Town, one down the road and another round the corner. He visits each two nights a week.

The women have had several of Wasim’s children and he hopes the youngest bride (aged 19) will soon present him with another baby.

I learned of Ghulam and Wasim this week while investigating a subject that is taboo in politically correct Britain. It is the huge rise of bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy (more than two) in our Muslim communities.

The issue was recently bravely highlighted by Baroness Flather, a crossbench life peer who was herself born in Lahore, now part of Pakistan.

She warned the Lords (and also wrote an article for the Mail on the subject) about how our shambolic benefits system is being exploited by men hailing from Pakistan and other Muslim nations who indulge in multiple marriages — with taxpayers forced to foot the bill.

As Baroness Flather explained: ‘The wives are regarded by the welfare system as single mothers, and are therefore entitled to a full range of lone parent payments.

'As a result, several “families” fathered by the same man can all claim benefits, as they are provided for by the welfare state, which treats them as if they were not related,’

Lady Flather also lamented the reluctance of politicians to address the issue: ‘It is certainly difficult to discuss this phenomenon of serial marriage and exploitation of the benefits system, with few people in Britain seeming to want to confront the disturbing truth.’

Two years ago, another peer, Baroness Warsi, born in Dewsbury to Pakistani parents, and now a Coalition Cabinet Minister, also voiced her concerns. She said cultural sensitivity was stopping politicians addressing the problem.

Yet this week I found those — from within the heart of the Asian communities — who were prepared to speak out.

Although the Government says there are only 1,000 such bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK, two experienced Lancashire social workers — one of Indian-English heritage and the other with Pakistani origins — told me that, although it’s difficult to be precise, in their estimation the figure is closer to 20,000.

The social workers said the multiple marriages are encouraged by a welfare system which allows a second, third or fourth wife to be treated as a single mother who gets a house and an array of other state payments for herself and her children.

Controversially, it means that a man can take a new spouse (from anywhere in the world), sire any number of children with her, and yet have no responsibility for this family’s upkeep or care.

To avoid breaking Britain’s matrimony laws, the men marry their extra ‘wives’ in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, either in their own homes or a mosque. [...]

While it has long been a cliche for men to complain that their wives and children take up most of their income, the reality for polygamous husbands is that the more babies he sires, the more money pours in for him and his wives.

As Tariq Ali, the 45-year-old co-founder of Project BME (Black Minority Ethnics), a charity based in Darwen, Lancashire, admits: ‘There are thousands of bigamous and polygamous marriages in the UK’s Pakistani community — the same community into which I was born.

'Every single man of my age who I bump into seems to have a third, fourth or fifth wife.

‘The issue is going unreported but in the Asian communities this is becoming a way of life. I think the number of polygamous relationships must be 20,000.

‘The men find second wives in the UK as well as any Muslim country abroad. The new favourite places to find women are Turkey and Morocco, because the men can drive there by car to meet them and bring them back.’ [...]

‘What’s more, they are virgins — which the men like. But it means British laws are being abused, and something should be done by the Government. A first step would be the registration of Nikah weddings in this country at least.’ This would prevent many bigamous marriages....

Once again, as ever, we see this baldly asserted, without supporting evidence. The fact that Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism, and to make recruits among peaceful Muslims, is never countered or even addressed. So it is in the U.S. also: we are constantly admonished that we must accept that Islam is a Religion of Peace™ that has been Hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists, but this is never explained. We are constantly excoriated for pointing out that Osama bin Laden and other jihadis portrayed themselves as the exponents of True and Pure Islam, and told that this amounts to accepting bin Laden's view of Islam. But no coherent alternative that explains a different way to view those Islamic texts and teachings is ever presented.

"Islam promotes peace: Advisor," by B K Tahir for the Pakistan Observer, September 24:

Bahawalpur—Islam is the religion of peace, love, tolerance, harmony, brotherhood and care so we can overcome all problems through following the teachings of Islam in its true spirit as Islam also orders to fully protect and care the minorities for healthy society. These views were expressed by the speakers in a function held to promote Inter-Religion Harmony among all the religions of the country to establish peace and solidarity in the country.

The function was organized by a local NGO, Cholistan Development Council of Pakistan, Bahawalpur, the Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Baleegh-ur-Rehman was the chief guest on the occasion while Haji Zulfiqar Ali (MPA), Syed Tabish Alvri (Ex MPA), eminent political, social and literary personality of the area, Malik Habibullah Bhutta, Station Director, Radio Pakistan, Bahawalpur, Sajid Hassan Durrani, renowned literary figure, Dr.Javed Iqbal, Director, Public Relations, Bahawalpur, Ejaz Ghouri, notables of the city, representatives of the Christian and Hindu communities of the area and females besides media men largely attended the function and appreciated the efforts of the Cholistan Development Council of Pakistan for the promotion of peace, social, cultural and literary activities side by side the uplift of Cholistan.

The Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Baleegh-ur-Rehman remarked on the occasion that the Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif had been taking keen interest in the uplift of the Cholistan.

"It is impossible to find out where the campaign funds come from or what kind of society the party has in mind." Then why is Nahda called in this article a "moderate Islamist" party? What is a "moderate Islamist," anyway? They want "a democratic regime based on the values of Islam" -- in what way will such a regime reject any part of Sharia? Islamic law, after all, including its denial of the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience, and equality of rights for women, is "based on the values of Islam."

When I started warning last winter that Islamic supremacists were in the best position to take advantage of the uprisings in Tunisia (and Egypt), I was enunciating a minority view. One commenter here at Jihad Watch asserted that "these revolts are spontaneous outbursts against the ruling elite. There is not one shred of evidence of any Islamist involvement." Another's scorn was intense: "You are taking advantage of the ignorance of your readers to spoon feed them this nonsense about jihad in tunisia [sic] while the Tunisian people are clamoring for democracy and freedom."

These comments are indicative of a tendency: Islamic supremacists generally charge their opponents with "ignorance" and treat them with arrogance and contempt, even when those upon whom they are heaping contempt are correct, and even when the Islamic supremacists know that they are correct.

And so on this yet again: I tried to tell you.

"Mosque & State: Tunisia's Moderate Islamist Party Is Favored In Next Month's Vote," by Julie Gommes for Le Temps/Worldcrunch, September 23:

TUNIS – At a meeting last week, Tunisia's moderate Islamist party Nahda (Renaissance) outlined its policy proposals for next month's parliamentary elections. Simultaneous translation headphones, staff hired specifically to answer every foreign journalists’ whim: everything was aimed at improving the party’s image, as Tunisians voters prepare to vote next month. Indeed, Nahda is leading in the polls.

The party’s program, a mix of Turkey’s market-oriented Islamism and more traditional values, included such measures as economic reform, a new union of Arab countries and the reduction of women’s weekly working hours, so that they can "devote more time to their families."

The gathering opened with the assembly chanting verses from the Koran and every speech began with "In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.” This probably won’t improve the party’s image in Tunis, a city that is increasingly Europeanized. But Nahda knows that it’s in villages that it will win seats for the Constituent Assembly. Therefore, the program underlines the importance of fishing and farming, but also stresses the need to raise low salaries and give more to poor families.

Besides outlining the party’s program, Nadha also wanted to emphasize its modernity: "Islamists have always been misunderstood. We only want to keep the most objective principles, like peace and science. Religion is between you and God," confessed Mondher Ounissi, a doctor. Supporters have mastered a well-oiled speech. It is impossible to find out where the campaign funds come from or what kind of society the party has in mind.

Nahda’s president, Rashid Al-Ghannushi, learned the lessons of the revolution and now advocates "a participative society, a market-oriented economy supported by a new social contract." He says he wants to build "a democratic regime based on the values of Islam." Tunisians may be in for the long haul as there have been repeated talks of “extending the planned two presidential terms.”...

Not a word about headscarves

Riding the wave of fashionable themes – an independent judiciary system, a strong cooperation between the people and the state and above all, creating about 600,000 jobs – Nahda wants to create an Arab Maghreb Union to challenge the Union for the Mediterranean when it comes to dealing with Europe. The same goes for the economy: a "common North African market with our Libyan and Egyptian brothers," coupled with investments that would contribute to "GDP growth."

There was, however, no word on the Islamic headscarf or on polygamy (Tunisia is the region’s only country where men are allowed to marry only one woman). Rashid Al-Ghannushi only mentioned the decline in the number of divorces as a result of the decision to reduce women’s weekly working hours....

Your tax dollars, given to the Palestinians as foreign aid, at work. "Palestinian Authority employees ordered to participate in anti-Israel protests," from the World Tribune, September 23 (thanks to Rosanne):

RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority was said to have mobilized thousands of civil servants for anti-Israeli demonstrations in the West Bank.

Opposition sources said the PA has ordered the more than 100,000 civil servants to participate in demonstrations for Palestinian statehood. They said PA and Fatah officials ensured that government employees attended anti-Israeli protests during work hours.

"PA employees have been told that if they don't attend these demonstrations, they will be fired," an opposition source said.

As I showed in my 2008 book Stealth Jihad, there is material like this in textbooks being used all over the country. And sometimes this kind of thing is promoted in high places. "Father upset over homework promoting polygamy, Islam," from WSBTV.com, September 23 (thanks to Ben):

COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- A father's complaint that his daughter's homework promotes the Muslim faith could lead to a lesson change in Cobb County.

Channel 2's Tom Regan talked to the father who showed him where his daughter’s homework which said there's nothing wrong with having multiple wives.

The assignment went home with seventh-graders at Campbell Middle School.

The school told Regan the assignment was used to compare the pros and cons of the school's dress policy.

But one parent said he thinks the material shows bias toward Islam and is completely inappropriate for the kids.

"Trying to relate this to school uniforms, the context they put it into, doesn't make much sense to me," parent Hal Medlin said.

Medlin showed Regan the assignment brought home by his 13-year-old daughter. The assignment consisted of a letter from Ahlima, a 20-year-old Muslim woman, and touts the advantage of a wearing a Burqa and finds the way western women dress to be "horribly immodest," according to the assignment.

The assignment shows Ahlima saying she doesn't mind if her future husband takes more wives. "I understand that some Westerners condemn our practice of polygamy, but I also know they are wrong," the assignment said.

"It's promoting or positively depicting their belief that polygamy is fine, if that’s what they believe. But I don't know how you could possibly state that and not have any kind of disclaimer that this is what these people think, but not necessarily what all of us believe," Medlin said.

Another page of the assignment lists the seven conditions for women's dress in Islam, including:

-It cannot resemble the clothing of nonbelieving women -It must protect women from the lustful gaze of men

It also states, "Islam liberated woman over 1,400 years ago. Is it better to dress according to man or God?”

"It represents Islam in a positive manner. That doesn't offend me as much as the fact that it represents no other religions," Medlin said. "To me, this material is being used the way it's used is like tearing a page out of text book and saying here's the whole story."

On Friday afternoon, Regan got an email statement from a Cobb Schools saying the school district didn't create the materials, they were provided by the state. The representative went on to say, “The district will review the material in question and determine if it can be taught in a more balance [sic] way or if it should no longer be used.

Egyptian girls for Sharia: "Egyptian girls hold posters that read, in Arabic, 'Islamic Egypt,' during a demonstration held by a Salafi group to protest the emergency law, in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Sept. 23, 2011. Photo: Khalil Hamra / AP"

Those defending the "Irvine 11 (minus 1)" have had to try and make the case into something it is not, attempting to downplay what actually occurred (but the video does not lie), and trying to divert the focus to the supposedly violated rights of the students, while ignoring those of the Israeli ambassador and those who came to hear him. "Freedom of speech for me, but not for thee," indeed.

One need only imagine their response had the shoe been on the other foot to realize the double standard that is at work.

The prosecutor says it well. Their carefully planned spectacle was an act of "censorship by a few." And it is indeed a victory for free speech, intellectual freedom, and basic standards of acceptable behavior that they were convicted.

An update on this story. First, the sentencing: "U.S. Muslim students get probation in speech case," by Tori Richards for Reuters, September 23:

(Reuters) - Ten Muslim college students from Southern California were convicted on Friday of unlawfully disrupting a speech by Israel's ambassador to the United States last year and placed on probation.

The students, whose so-called "Irvine 11" case touched off a furor over free speech rights at the University of California at Irvine, were also ordered to perform 56 hours of community service.

An Orange County Superior Court jury of six men and six women convicted them of one count each of conspiracy and disturbing an assembly -- a verdict that was greeted by wails from spectators in a packed Santa Ana courtroom.

The students were to remain on probation for three years but could have that reduced to a year once they complete the community service. Charges have been tentatively dismissed against an 11th defendant.

"We're going to continue fighting this. We're going to appeal this decision," supporter Marya Bangee, 25, told Reuters outside the court....

And it goes on like that. The prosecutor's statement: "‘Irvine 11’: Prosecutor calls verdict a victory for free speech," from the Los Angeles Times, September 23:

As protesters took to Twitter to express disappointment and anger at the conviction of 10 Muslim students over a campus protest last year, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas called the verdict a clean victory for free speech.

“Today, an Orange County jury sent a strong message that 1st Amendment rights belong to every American and we will not tolerate a small band of people who want to hijack our freedoms,” the district attorney said Friday in a prepared statement.

Rackauckas said the actions of the students – who became known collectively as the Irvine 11 – amounted to “organized thuggery.”

“This is censorship by a few and it is illegal," he said. "The defendants acted as censors to block the free flow of ideas and infringed on the rights of 700 people who had gone to the campus that evening…. History requires us to draw a line in the sand against this sort of organized thuggery.”

Pakistan has overreached in its double game, and has been caught. About all they have left is to play the victim and make threats. More on this story. "Pakistan Scorns U.S. Scolding on Terrorism," by Jane Perlez for the New York Times, September 23:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The public assault by the Obama administration on the Pakistani intelligence agency as a facilitator of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan has been met with scorn in Pakistan, a signal that the country has little intention of changing its ways, even perhaps at the price of the crumpled alliance.

In injured tones similar to those used after the Navy Seals raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, Pakistani officials insisted on Friday that theirs was a sovereign state that could not be pushed by America’s most senior military officials, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Leon E. Panetta, the secretary of defense. [...]

The connection between the spy agency and the militants has been at the center of American complaints about Pakistan since the start of the war in Afghanistan, but never before has the United States chosen to expose its grievances in such unvarnished language in the most public of forums.

In his public reply, the chief of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said Mr. Mullen’s accusations were “not based on facts,” and suggested that they were unfair given “a rather constructive” recent meeting. The ISI did not support the Haqqanis, General Kayani said.

Similarly, the country’s defense minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, said Pakistan was a sovereign nation “which cannot be threatened.”

Put that fig leaf back:

The foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, said it was “unacceptable” for one ally, the United States, to “humiliate” another, Pakistan. “If they are choosing to do so, it will be at their own cost,” Ms. Khar said.

Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States who is close to the military, underscored that point. “Relations are headed towards a breakdown if the U.S. continues its coercive approach of threats and public accusations,” Ms. Lodhi said. “What is its plan B if there is an open rupture with Pakistan?”

The anti-American feeling in Pakistan, and within the army, surged after the raid that killed Bin Laden, which was kept secret from Pakistan’s leadership. It remains intense, making the idea of bowing to American demands to take on the Haqqanis almost unthinkable, Pakistani politicians, businessmen and analysts said.

They said General Kayani, who was under great pressure from his troops after the humiliation of the Bin Laden raid, had recovered some ground and recouped some prestige. He has no intention of giving in to the Americans now because he is betting that they still need Pakistan as the supply route for the Afghanistan war, they said.

But the larger reason is a divergence of strategic interests with the United States. The Haqqani network is seen as an important anti-India tool for the Pakistani military as it assesses the future of an Afghanistan without the Americans, a situation Pakistan sees as not far off.

Pakistan's obsession with extending its influence over its borders against India may yet cost it Pakistan itself.

General Kayani has said he fears that as the Americans exit, India will be allowed to have influence in Afghanistan, squeezing Pakistan on both its eastern and western borders, Pakistani analysts say. [...]

Losing control:

In talks with the Americans, the leader of the ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, has said he has “contact” with the Haqqanis, a senior American official said. “But he denies he has command and control.” The official said it appeared that the Haqqanis had developed into such skilled fighters over several decades that they had the Pakistani Army cowed. [...]

According to American officials and Pakistani analysts, it appeared that the Pakistani Army had struck a bargain with the Haqqanis: The Haqqanis would be free to fight in Afghanistan, in part looking after Pakistan’s interests, and in return, the Haqqanis would not attack Pakistan.

If the Pakistani army attacked Haqqani fighters in their bases in North Waziristan, the blowback in the form of terrorist attacks in Pakistani cities and towns could be overwhelming, Pakistani military analysts say.

In a startling image of the apparent symbiosis between the Pakistani military — which controls the ISI — and the Haqqani fighters, both forces have bases in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. [...]

The Pakistani Army struggled to defeat the Pakistani Taliban in battles in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan in 2009 and 2010, but the Taliban are still present in both places, a senior American military official said. “So why would they take on the Haqqanis, who are world class fighters?” the official asked....

Muhammad was not a fan of music, to say the least. Musical culture has persisted or re-emerged nonetheless in many Muslim countries, or has adapted to certain strictures, because it is simply so hard to suppress such a fundamental facet of human nature in its entirety. But objections to music and violent attempts to root it out in Islamic societies far removed from one another also keep occurring because they are inspired by and are in imitation of Muhammad's own hostility toward it.

"The Persecution of Music and Musicians in the Islamic World," by Geoffrey Clarfield for the American Thinker, September 23:

At a recent conference on ethnomusicology held in the U.S., I met an Arab researcher. His paper on traditional Arab music was indecipherable and full of postmodern jargon. After he finished his presentation, he confided to me in private, "We have to be careful what we say about music -- the fundamentalists are everywhere." And they certainly are. The tyrannies that control the Islamic world are at war with music and musicians, and they seem to be winning.

Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish expert on the status of musicians in the Islamic world, writes, "States and local authorities have taken action against heavy metal musicians, female singers, music, videos and public concerts. Islamist and conservative Islamic organizations ... try to disturb and breakup [sic] concerts, demand censorship on recordings, or call for the punishment of individuals for being blasphemous. At times musicians are killed or attacked physically[.]"

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they tried to ban all music based on a Hadith (saying of the Prophet) that states, "Those who listen to music and songs in this world will on the Day of Judgment have molten lead poured into their ears." And so, inspired by the Taliban, a radical Islamic group kidnapped the well-known Algerian Berber singer, Younes Matoub. Before they killed him, he was told, "You are the enemy of God...you and your songs[.]"

To insure that this banning or strict state and religious control of the arts is secure from the intrusiveness of new technologies such as satellite TV and the internet, in February 2008, 21 information ministers from Arab countries agreed on new restrictions for satellite TV. Their charter states that broadcasters should not damage "social peace and national unity and public order." Only Qatar abstained, as its autocratic and non-democratic government is home to the notorious Al Jazeera station, staunch enemy of the West, Israel, and liberal democracies.

Such an environment of fear allowed for the arrest of men like Saudi journalist Rabbah Al Quwai'i, who protested in print against Muslim extremists who burn books and musical instruments. He received death threats, his car was smashed, and he was arrested. The grounds for his incarceration were "destructive thoughts."

Less violently but perhaps more absurdly, last year the Saudi government announced that there should be no music or dancing when young girls graduate from school. And for those who thought that when King Abdullah took the throne in 2005, there would be greater artistic freedom in the kingdom, the Saudis have canceled their summer film festival.

In Egypt the government censors and the Islamic authorities provide licenses for musicians and performers that significantly restricts their artistic freedom in countless ways. But this cannot guarantee the safety of Egyptian musicians. The most recent example was the brutal assault of 23-year-old Ramy Essam, the famous anti-government protest singer of Tahrir square, who was attacked by police and soldiers and tortured with an electric detonator.

On May 18, 2010, Elton John, pop star and renowned gay activist, was set to play a concert in Cairo. When the authorities heard that he had said that Jesus was gay, they canceled the event. Unlike many pop stars, who endorse the craziest of causes, Sir Elton is very clear about the realities of life in the Islamic world. He has said, "Try being a gay woman in the Middle East -- you are as good as dead."

In the West, he can say such things, and people will channel their disgust into not buying his music or watching his performances. Under Sharia, his life would in danger on so many counts.

This year the Iranian government adopted a new censorship rule that bans love poetry that is secular, while also making the musical use of traditional Sufi love poems difficult for musicians to record or perform in public. This strikes at the heart of the Iranian musical tradition, which has been immersed in Sufism and Sufi mystical poetry for centuries. The Iranians also have a rule against female soloists. Female voices must make Iranian men very, very upset (or excited).

Before their resounding electoral success, the Islamic government of Turkey promised musicians continued freedom of artistic expression. However, they seem to have made a major exception when it comes to Turkish citizens of Kurdish culture.

Singer Ferhant Tunc received a 25-day jail sentence for comments that he made during a performance. Other performers like Pinar Sag and Mehmet Ozcan were sentenced to ten months in prison for comments that they made during performances. Three members of the Kurdish band Koma Aheng got ten months each for comments that they have made.

In the case of Pinar Sag, the Istanbul branch of the Contemporary Lawyer's Association have accused the state of "judicial terror," which is not a bad way of characterizing the rule of sharia law in the modern world. In countries like Saudi Arabia, judicial terror is a way of life. If the average Turk thinks that his new government is not headed in that direction, then he is living in a dream.

So where do Arabs and other Muslims turn to when their tyrannical governments have uprooted the wellsprings of their music? Israel, of course. The rallying cry of the Syrian opposition to dictator Bashir el Assad is a song called "Zini Zini," written by the Israeli singer-songwriter Amir Benayoun.

Benayoun is an orthodox Jew whose family moved to Israel after the Algerian war of independence, during which Arab nationalists assassinated the great Algerian Jewish musician Sheikh Raymond Leyris (father-in-law of French pop star Enrico Masias) and which some say triggered the Algerian Jewish migration to Israel that caused Benayoun's parents to emigrate.

Since the early days of the state, Israel has had a thriving Near Eastern and Arabic musical culture. Some of the most famous classical Arab musicians from Iraq and Kuwait were Jews. When they came to Israel in the 1950s, many of the best got jobs with the Arabic orchestra of Israeli state radio. One of the most famous was Daudi Al Kuwaiti (David the Kuwaiti), whose broadcasts of Arabic music on Israeli national radio during the sixties and seventies were listened to by millions of Arabs across the Middle East.

Israel's annual oud (Arabo Turkish lute) festival is a draw for those musicians from the Islamic world who know that the only free musical country in the Middle East is the state of Israel. Israel also allows Arab protest singers to write and sing about "the occupation."

Israeli archives are full of Arab and Near Eastern music from Israel itself and all of the neighboring Islamic states. It is also a world center for the free practice of ethnomusicology. If the Arabs lose their broadcasting and other musical archives -- which is a distinct possibility, given current trends -- the Israelis, like the Irish monks of the middle ages, will preserve Arab and Islamic music for them in their archives and concert halls until the time when their Arab cousins reclaim their common Near Eastern cultural heritage. On that day, the musicians of the Islamic world will finally be free.

But do not despair. There is a silver lining to this story. The Saudis adamantly defend the broadcast of the song "Jingle Bells" on their airwaves, for their religious authorities have ruled that the song contains no hint of Christian religious symbolism.

One analyst posed the rhetorical question: "How, precisely, does allowing hundreds of thousands of captive fellow Muslims to starve advance any Islamic or Somali cause?"

It is about control. A weakened population of citizens who must devote all of their energy to securing their next rations is in no position to fight back. By controlling access to aid, al-Shabaab keeps the remaining population at its mercy, and the group can attempt to purge the country of its enemies, real and imagined, and Christians, to whom it has denied aid.

For its part, al-Shabaab has consistently denied the famine exists, calling it a conspiracy to drive Somalis toward "Christian" influences.

"Islamist Shebaab push starving Somalis back into famine zone," from Agence France-Presse, September 23:

Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked rebels said yesterday they were moving over 12,000 starving families back into famine zones they had fled, where the UN has warned they will die without help.

Draconian aid restrictions imposed by the extremist Shebaab are blamed for turning harsh drought across the Horn of Africa into famine in the areas they control, with 750,000 people at risk of death in coming months, the UN has said.

“The mujahedeen fighters, in their bid to help people displaced by drought, started working on plans to send them back home where they will be assisted, God willing,” said Sheik Mahad Abu-Safiya, a senior Shebaab official.

The families, estimated to number at least 50,000 people, were “taken back to their homes with packages to feed them for three months,” he added. Witnesses said the packages included rice, maize and cooking oil.

However, the Shebaab have refused most international assistance, and blocked people fleeing drought and famine in the Bay and Bakool regions from travelling in search of aid to Mogadishu, where relief efforts are centred.

Crowded trucks began moving people late on Wednesday from camps in and around the Shebaab-held town of Baidoa back to their original villages, up to 50km southwest of the town, officials and witnesses said.

“The process has started and we have moved the first of the 12,000 displaced families to their original locations,” Mohamed Walid, another Shebaab official, told reporters.

“Most of the displaced people were moved from a big camp at Baidoa airport, they were taken on long trucks,” said witness Osmail Mohamed.

“I have seen people returning onboard trucks with food distributed to them by the Shebaab,” said Abdulahi Derow, who said the food they were given was “enough for a month.”

Local aid workers said the Shebaab had ordered them to help move people back to the villages they had fled from.

“The Shebaab group started sending people back to their homes, and gave them some food,” said one Somali aid worker said, asking not to be named. “But people are still in need of help.”

Shebaab fighters last month pulled out of positions in the war-torn capital Mogadishu where they were battling the weak Western-backed government, but they still control swathes of south and central Somalia.

The UN has declared six regions in south Somalia famine zones, the majority in Shebaab-controlled areas.

Drought, high food prices and fighting in Somalia have increased the number of those in need of humanitarian assistance across the Horn of Africa to 13.3mn, according to the UN.

Access to Shebaab areas is a major concern, with a group of 20 international and Somali aid agencies calling on Wednesday for talks with the Shebab to create “free passage of assistance.”

The agencies warned the situation was the worst they had ever seen in decades of work in Somalia, and was expected to deteriorate further with rains next month likely to worsen conditions for disease.

“Never before have we faced such acute suffering with so many lives at stake,” they warned in a joint letter. “Somalia is at a turning point.”

Ken Menkhaus, professor at Davidson College in the US state of North Carolina, called for a “diplomatic surge” from the “West and the Islamic world” to ensure both the Shebaab and the Western-backed government allow access to affected people.

Writing in a paper yesterday for the Washington-based Enough pressure group, Menkhaus called the Shebaab an “Islamic Khmer Rouge, in which an armed group with a deeply twisted interpretation of the faith presides over the mass deaths of its own people.”

The Shebaab “must be made to justify its policy to Islamic leaders and scholars,” Menkhaus added.

One would think there would be a wave of outrage and outpouring of assistance from nearby Islamic countries. Perhaps what Mogadishu needs to do is find a way to blame Israel.

“How, precisely, does allowing hundreds of thousands of captive fellow Muslims to starve advance any Islamic or Somali cause?”

Not surprisingly, little appears to have changed since the last round of flooding. "Asia/Pakistan - Floods "wanted by the government": Caritas, the only channel that gives humanitarian aid to religious minorities," from Agenzia Fides, September 22:

Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) - "The only channel to get humanitarian aid to displaced people belonging to religious minorities, Christians and Hindus, is Caritas, although government agencies and other Muslim NGOs deny it" says Fr. Mario Rodrigues to Fides, national Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Pakistan, after severe floods hit Sindh in past weeks, causing over 7 million refugees and 1.1 million homes damaged or destroyed. The Director of the PMS said: "We must be careful: After the floods of 2010, Catholic organizations have also provided humanitarian aid through local NGOs, but did not give assistance to religious minorities". During the severe floods of 2010, several sources denounced discrimination in the distribution of humanitarian aid, which were denied to religious minorities. Now such incidents have been repeated in the district of Bedin.

Fr. Rodrigues complains: "What seems clear from this latest tragedy is that the government has failed in the prevention. It wanted the floods and allowed the floods to devastate, in order to receive money from abroad. The poor people suffer the consequences. Among the thousands displaced are Christians, who live in almost all the districts of Sindh".

The United Nations has issued an appeal for solidarity to raise 365 million dollars in favor of the affected populations. But the donor countries are asking the Pakistani government to establish a monitoring system to ensure transparency in aid management and to control that the funds actually reach the flood victims. Much of the money raised in 2010, in fact, according to the denunciation of some observers, went lost in the rivulets of corruption, cronyism and misgovernment.

Justice prevails over Islamic supremacist intimidation and thuggery. An update on this story. "Jury: Muslim students guilty of disrupting speech," by Amy Taxin for the Associated Press, September 23 (thanks to David):

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Jurors found 10 Muslim students guilty Friday of disrupting a lecture by the Israeli ambassador at a California university in a case that stoked a spirited debate about free speech.

Jurors delivered the verdicts in Orange County Superior Court in the case involving a speech by Ambassador Michael Oren in February 2010 at the University of California, Irvine.

The students were also convicted of conspiring to disrupt Oren's speech.

They were charged with misdemeanor counts after standing up, one by one, and shouting prepared statements at Oren such as "propagating murder is not an expression of free speech."

About 150 people, including relatives and supporters of the students and Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, attended the verdict. Some community members gasped and started crying when the verdict was read and about a dozen of them walked out.

The students showed little reaction but later huddled with their attorneys and shared hugs with family and friends.

Of course the victim card was duly played:

Shakeel Syed of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California said he was shocked.

"This is yet another reaffirmation that Islamophobia is intensely and extensively alive and thriving in Orange County," he said. "I believe this will be used as precedent now to suppress speech and dissent throughout the country. This is the beginning of the death of democracy."...

No, Syed, the actions of the students were an attempt to suppress speech and dissent. As you no doubt know full well.

And he spoke honestly about the UN's demonization of Israel. "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Addresses U.N. General Assembly, Says Palestinians Are Not Interested in Peace," from FoxNews, September 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

In addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to Palestine’s request for statehood. Netayahu said, “It’s here, year after year that Israel, is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined.”

Netanyahu said that he didn’t come to the United Nations for applause, but instead came to speak the truth. He continued, saying, “The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East, at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security.”

He argued that peace can’t be achieved through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations, which Palestine isn’t interested in.

Netanyahu went onto describe militant Islam as a “malignancy [that] is growing between East and West,” that seeks to destroy.

Indeed.

Islamic supremacist stealth moderate Reza Aslan lies so many times in this interview that it is clear that lying is something he has practiced extensively and honed as a craft.

"Reza Aslan: Expert in Exile," by Aaron Ross in Mother Jones, September 23:

Mother Jones: You've argued that anti-Muslim sentiment in the US has gotten significantly worse of late, especially within the last few years. Why do you think that is?

Reza Aslan: This is the great irony of course. Despite the previous administration's demonization of Islam, the truth is that in the United States during the early part of the Bush years, anti-Muslim sentiment was not nearly at the levels that it is today. Certainly there are a number of reasons for this, but as we now know, there has been a well-organized and deliberate attempt by a very small group of individuals, funded by a handful of foundations to the tune of 40 million dollars to convince Americans that Islam is the enemy.

There are indeed "a number of reasons for this," including Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; and Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; and Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; and Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; and Nidal Hasan, the successful Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; and Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; and Naveed Haq, the jihad mass murderer at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle; and Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; and so many other Islamic jihad murderers and would-be murderers in America, all of whom (along with many others) were inspired and motivated, by their own admission, by Islamic texts and teachings.

And regarding the "very small group of individuals, funded by a handful of foundations to the tune of 40 million dollars to convince Americans that Islam is the enemy," Aslan doesn't bother to mention that the $40 million figure covers a period of nine years and several different organizations. He gets his figure from the Center for American Progress's "Islamophobia" report, about which Daniel Pipes notes: "It's pretty rich that CAP, on organization whose 2009 budget was $38,187,695, focuses on 8 organizations receiving about that sum over a period of 9 years."

MJ: You appeared on an ABC special in October called "Should Americans Fear Islam?" alongside Robert Spencer of the anti-Islam site Jihad Watch and Rev. Franklin Graham, who's called Islam "wicked." Why did you agree to do that?

RA: When Christiane [Amanpour] asked me to be on the show I said I would be happy to do so. Then a couple of days before the show, when they told me that one of the panelists was going to be Robert Spencer, and that Pamela Geller was going to be invited to speak, I said, "I'm out." I have no interest in legitimizing these fringe individuals and organizations by pretending that they belong in a debate about Islam. As I said to Christiane, "If we were having a debate on race in America, would you invite members of the KKK?"

This is the Big Lie of the Left and the Islamic supremacists like Aslan: that any critical stance toward Islamic jihad and Islamic supremacism in the U.S. constitutes hatred and bigotry on par with the Ku Klux Klan. By this means they are trying to discredit and marginalize everyone who dares to stand up against the Islamic supremacist agenda. And certainly they've had great success, due to the cowardice and pusillanimity of many on the Right.

But in any case, the comparison of me to the KKK is just propaganda without substance; my work has always been in defense of human rights -- the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law -- and neither Reza Aslan nor anyone else cannot produce and never has produced any statement of mine that is genuinely hateful, racist, bigoted, or anything but accurate about Islam and the jihad threat. So since Aslan cannot answer me, he tries to destroy my reputation.

And she not only withdrew the invitation to Pamela Geller, but she assured me that I would get an opportunity to really call Spencer on the bullshit that he peddles in the guise of academic research.

Here Aslan is lying yet again. In fact, Pamela Geller was never invited on to this show. There was no invitation to withdraw.

Note also the "objectivity" of "journalist" Amanpour, who promised him he would have an opportunity to smear me. And he did: at one point Amanpour mentioned that I was co-founder of Stop Islamization of America, but instead of going to me for comment, or even to ask me some pointed question, she said that Aslan had background on the roots of the Stop Islamization movement in Europe, and went to him. Aslan then lied outright, claiming that the movement was neo-Nazi, and slinging charge after unsubstantiated charge that I was a bigot, a hatemonger, a racist, a pseudo-scholar, an eater of babies, etc. When I tried to respond, Amanpour put her finger to her lips and shushed me, although I went on anyway -- however, I later learned that my mic had been cut off and none of my responses made the broadcast version.

He's churning out these completely made-up statistics about how 80 percent of mosques in the US are preaching radicalism, whereas the fact-checkers and the producers and the reporters at ABC themselves on camera said that there are simply no research whatsoever that backs up that claim.

"No research whatsoever." Not "research that we don't trust," or "research we don't believe," but "no research whatsoever." Aslan lies all the time, even when he doesn't have to: he could have said he didn't trust these studies. But he is saying they don't exist. Here are the facts:

In 1998, Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi leader, visited 114 mosques in the United States. Then he gave testimony before a State Department Open Forum in January 1999, and asserted that 80% of American mosques taught the "extremist ideology."

Then there was the Center for Religious Freedom's 2005 study, and the Mapping Sharia Project's 2008 study. Each independently showed that upwards of 80% of mosques in America were preaching hatred of Jews and Christians and the necessity ultimately to impose Islamic rule.

And in the summer of 2011, after the Amanpour show, came another study showing that only 19% of mosques in U.S. don't teach jihad violence and/or Islamic supremacism.

But, next thing you know, here's Peter King in his discussions about why the US Congress needs to have hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims, and his reasoning was that 80 percent of mosques in the US are breeding radicalism. That gives you an understanding of how this Islamophobia industry works. You find a pseudo-scholar to make pseudo-scholarship claims, those claims get picked up by politicians and by Fox News, and they become part of the American dialogue about Islam....

Indeed, because they were accurate, unlike anything Reza Aslan says. Aslan is one of the most unsavory and dishonest Islamic supremacist spokesmen on the scene today. Despite his pretentious puffery and literary mummery, he has revealed himself to be a arrogant gutter-minded buffoon who appears incapable of staking out or defending a coherent intellectual position, and instead retails tired and oft-retreaded Islamic supremacist talking points about Muslim victimhood.

His Islamic supremacist ties and proclivities are becoming more ill-concealed by the day; nonetheless, he remains a heralded and media-saturated "moderate" Muslim. In reality, Aslan is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has tried to pass off Iran's genocidally-minded President Ahmadinejad as a liberal reformer. He has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad himself, as well as with Hamas -- that is, with two of the most barbaric and murderous adherents of Sharia.

Aslan has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as "the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," as well as the Jew-hating, women-hating, kuffar-hating Muslim Brotherhood, which is dedicated in its own words to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within" -- including, presumably, the works of Andy Warhol. Aslan wrote: "The Muslim Brotherhood will have a significant role to play in post-Mubarak Egypt. And that is good thing." If, in 1932, someone had written that "the National Socialist Party will have a significant role to play in post-Weimar Germany, and that is a good thing," he would have rightly been called a Nazi sympathizer.

Aslan has also spoken at events sponsored by the Muslim Students Association, a Brotherhood group, and at an event co-sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of Hamas-linked CAIR, and moderated by the notorious Edina Lekovic, the Muslim Public Affairs Council flack whom Steve Emerson caught lying on national television, denying she was editor of a Muslim student publication that praised Osama bin Laden as a great mujahid. Emerson produced copies of the rag showing Lekovic's name on the masthead as editor on the very same page on which the praise for Osama appeared.

Earlier this month in the West Bank, “settlers attempted to burn two mosques, and vandalized an IDF base as part of the latest ‘price tag’ attacks. The attacks came in response to the demolition of three buildings earlier this week in the West Bank settlement outpost Migron, 14 kilometers north of Jerusalem.”

Accordingly, on September 9, the U.S. State Department unequivocally denounced these attacks, calling on those responsible to “be arrested and subject to the full force of the law.” Likewise, when another mosque and copies of the Koran were burned earlier, the State Department said “We condemn this attack in the strongest terms and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.”

This prompts the following question: If the State Dept. is concerned over places of worship, why do the epidemic attacks on churches in the Muslim world go largely unnoticed?

To be sure, the State Dept. has condemned the bloodiest and most savage of church attacks, including the Baghdad, Iraq attack, which saw at least 58 Christian butchered, and the New Year church bombing in Alexandria, Egypt, which left 23 Christians dead.

Yet one searches in vain for formal condemnations, let alone acknowledgment, of the majority of church attacks, most of which, if not as deadly as Alexandria or Baghdad, are much more brutal than the West Bank mosque attacks.

For instance, where is the condemnation for the attack in Sool, Egypt, when a Muslim mob torched a church, even as an imam called for Muslims to “Kill all the Christians?” As for the Imbaba attacks in Egypt, when Muslim throngs torched three churches and killed several Copts, the U.S. embassy issued a statement condemning “sectarian violence” while not once mentioning that any churches were attacked.

During last month alone, two churches were set aflame in Indonesia, two churches were bombed in Iraq, three churches were bombed in Nigeria. Of all these, only one of the Iraq church attacks—which left 23 worshippers seriously injured—received a condemnation by the State Dept.

Of course, the issue here is not that the State Dept. needs to condemn all church attacks (who can keep up with their frequency?); nor do these statements amount to much more than mere words, anyway. Even so, as words, they offer some revelations.

First the obvious: It seems that the State Dept. mentions attacks on churches only, but not always, when people are killed, whereas the condemnation of the West Bank mosques have only to do with attacks on buildings. In other words, attacks on churches around the Muslim world that do not necessarily lead to the loss of life, are ignored, whereas attacks on West Bank mosques that do not target or kill Muslims are strongly condemned.

The language of the condemnations is also telling: the Alexandria attack killing 23 Copts doesn’t even call on bringing the perpetrators to justice; Kirkuk is treated with “confidence”: “We are confident the Government of Iraq will take all necessary steps to bring the people responsible for this horrific act to justice.”

Contrast this with the language used when Jewish settlers vandalize mosques, but kill no one in the process: then the U.S. unequivocally calls for them to “be subject to the full force of the law.”

Yet even now, it might be argued that one is stretching the issue, focusing too much on words and statements. Perhaps—until one realizes that many of the most oppressive Muslim nations just got a free pass from the State Dept.

Days ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. Amazingly, countries like Pakistan, notorious for making non-Muslim life a living hell, including through “blasphemy laws,” were not even cited as “countries of particular concern.”

In other words, the vast majority of Muslim nations persecuting their religious minorities do not, according to the Obama administration, qualify as countries that are “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” the definition of a "country of particular concern." Even Egypt—which this year alone has already seen over fifty Copts killed, not to mention the many churches burned or bombed—was not listed.

One would have hoped for a bit more objectivity and moral balance from the government of the United States, but such is the current state of affairs.

Raymond Ibrahim, a widely published Islam-specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. He contributes regularly to Jihad Watch.

“Since 9/11, militant Islam has slaughtered countless innocents. The most dangerous threat is that these fanatics arm themselves with nuclear weapons and this is precisely what Iran is trying to do. Can you imagine that man [Ahmadinejad] armed with nuclear weapons?”

"Netanyahu: Palestinians want state without peace," from Ynet News, September 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

The Palestinians should recognize Israel as the Jewish state and make peace with it, before seeking a state of their own, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly Friday.

“Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established,” offering Israel’s response to a fiery anti-Israel speech delivered by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas earlier.

Netanyahu said that he extended his hand to the Arab nations of the Middle East “on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people,” and mostly to the Palestinian people, “with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.”

“I came here to speak the truth. The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians, but they want a state without peace, and the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen,” he said. “The Palestinian should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. After peace is signed, Israel won’t be the last country to accept a Palestinian state – we will be the first.”

'Recognize Jewish state'

Declaring that Israel is a Jewish state, Netanyahu said: “We don’t want the Palestinian to change the Jewish character of the state. We want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians. “

The prime minister added that settlements were not the main obstacle to peace, saying: “The core of the conflict is not the settlement, the settlements is a result of the conflict. The core of the conflict is the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.”

“Recognize the Jewish state and make peace with us,” he said, referring to Palestinian President Abbas.

Referring to the terrorism threat faced by Israel, the PM said: “Thousand of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand why Israelis rightfully ask what’s preventing it from happening again.”

“Would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the life of your families?” he said.

“Since 9/11, militant Islam has slaughtered countless innocents. The most dangerous threat is that these fanatics arm themselves with nuclear weapons and this is precisely what Iran is trying to do. Can you imagine that man armed with nuclear weapons?” Netanyahu added, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Abbas delivers anti-Israel speech

Earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations on Friday to recognize a state for his people, accusing Israel of engaging in ethnic cleansing in his United Nations speech....

"She warned the U.S. that it risked losing Pakistan as an ally and could not afford to alienate the Pakistani government or its people." Go along with our covert pro-jihad activities and our duplicity and complete unreliability as an ally, and don't complain, or else. More on this story. "Don't humiliate Pak, it will be at your own cost: Hina Rabbani to US," from the Associated Press, September 23 (thanks to JW Watcher):

New York: Pakistan has lashed out at the U.S. for accusing the country's most powerful intelligence agency of supporting extremist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan - the most serious allegations against Islamabad since the beginning of the Afghan war.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar dismissed the claims as mere allegations. She warned the U.S. that it risked losing Pakistan as an ally and could not afford to alienate the Pakistani government or its people.

"If they are choosing to do so, it will be at their own cost," Khar told Geo TV on Thursday from New York City, where she is attending a U.N. General Assembly meeting. "Anything which is said about an ally, about a partner publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it is not acceptable."

Khar's comments were first aired in Pakistan on Friday.

The foreign minister spoke following congressional testimony by the top U.S. military officer about Pakistan....

The relationship took one of its hardest hits when U.S. commandos sneaked into Pakistan on May 2 and killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad.

The covert raid outraged the Pakistani government because it was not told about it beforehand, while bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad raised further suspicions among U.S. officials about the country's duplicity in the anti-terror fight.

The Ground Zero Mosque project is way off schedule and has been knocked off balance by all the opposition it has faced. But the mainstream media is doing its best to get it back on track. "Big Media Lauds Imaginary Opening of Ground Zero Mosque," by Pamela Geller in Big Government, September 22:

One year ago, Ground Zero Mosque leader Daisy Khan, the wife of stealth Islamic supremacist Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, said that they would be breaking ground on September 11, 2011 for the 15-story monster mosque going up in a building that was destroyed in the Islamic attack on America on 9/11. It was redundant. They had broken ground on September 11, 2001.

Well, nonetheless, the jihadist radical Rauf and his third wife (one more, papa, and you are maxed out) have been kicked off the Ground Zero mosque project and the developer grifter Sharif El-Gamal has lopped off ten stories from his triumphal mosque. In other words, we have successfully halted the project, for now.

But the media and Islamic supremacists create their own fantasy, and they started claiming Monday that the mosque had actually opened — because the grifter El-Gamal hung some photos of kids on the main floor of the building. Pathetic. In fact, the mosque in the former Burlington Coat Factory building has been open and they have been praying there for several years now. It took the leftwing media monster a year to fine-tune its manipulative rhetoric and rather disgusting propaganda campaign to advance the building of the Ground Zero mosque, despite the overwhelming grief and pain and it has caused the majority of Americans.

The incredibly corrupt and intellectually bankrupt New York Times, long bereft of any integrity or objective journalism, devoted an entire section to a Ground Zero Mosque photo exhibit to raise funds for the mosquestrosity. In a stupid and obvious attempt at manipulation (using children, no less), this photo exhibit gets incredible New York Times coverage for a Mr. Danny Goldfield (work that last name), who “had to teach himself how to take photographs as he started the project.”

A photography exhibit by a man who isn’t even a photographer, but who gets a full spread in the New York Times? Only because it advances this cultural obscenity. These people play so dirty. No morality at all. Still, the story went worldwide, with all the mainstream media lemmings jumping on. There’s a ton of media on this fictitious story. WNYC, the Boston Globe, even the New Zealand Herald. Why? How many people attended this charade outside of media and mosqueteers? How many more patriots attended our 9/11 Freedom Rally that got zero coverage? America, you are being so played.

London’s Daily Mail reported happily: “The first part of Park51, the controversial Lower Manhattan Islamic community centre, is opening on Wednesday with an art exhibition featuring photographs of children.” It quoted El-Gamal saying: “I met Danny Goldfield when Park51 was still a new idea. I said his photographs should be the first event at Park51. I am proud to say the idea has been realized. Opening this incarnation of the community centre is a fantastic accomplishment.”

CNN also jumped on the bandwagon, reporting this: “Islamic center near ground zero touts first big event as center’s grand opening.” The report gushed: “This week, another grand opening – this one steeped in controversy – is scheduled for just a few blocks away from the site where the Twin Towers once stood.”

“A few blocks.” CNN lies. That building is 600 feet from the tower site, and it is part of Ground Zero. The landing gear from one of the 9/11 planes crashed through its roof....

Read it all.

Because he won't surrender to the jihad against Israel. Clinton here is just being self-serving as usual, touting the agreement he helped forge as the one that would have brought real peace, but in this case his self-serving fatuousness plays right into the hands of the Palestinian jihadists. "Bill Clinton: Netanyahu killed the peace process," by Josh Rogin in Foreign Policy, September 22 (thanks to Mark):

Who's to blame for the continued failure of the Middle East peace process? Former President Bill Clinton said today that it is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- whose government moved the goalposts upon taking power, and whose rise represents a key reason there has been no Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Clinton, in a roundtable with bloggers today on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, gave an extensive recounting of the deterioration in the Middle East peace process since he pressed both parties to agree to a final settlement at Camp David in 2000. He said there are two main reasons for the lack of a comprehensive peace today: the reluctance of the Netanyahu administration to accept the terms of the Camp David deal and a demographic shift in Israel that is making the Israeli public less amenable to peace.

"The two great tragedies in modern Middle Eastern politics, which make you wonder if God wants Middle East peace or not, were [Yitzhak] Rabin's assassination and [Ariel] Sharon's stroke," Clinton said.

Sharon had decided he needed to build a new centrist coalition, so he created the Kadima party and gained the support of leaders like Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert. He was working toward a consensus for a peace deal before he fell ill, Clinton said. But that effort was scuttled when the Likud party returned to power.

"The Israelis always wanted two things that once it turned out they had, it didn't seem so appealing to Mr. Netanyahu. They wanted to believe they had a partner for peace in a Palestinian government, and there's no question -- and the Netanyahu government has said -- that this is the finest Palestinian government they've ever had in the West Bank," Clinton said.

"[Palestinian leaders] have explicitly said on more than one occasion that if [Netanyahu] put up the deal that was offered to them before -- my deal -- that they would take it," Clinton said, referring to the 2000 Camp David deal that Yasser Arafat rejected....

"They said that Taliban commander deceived them in the name of jihad and Islam."

Qur'an 3:28 warns believers not to take unbelievers as "friends or helpers" (َأَوْلِيَا -- a word that means more than casual friendship, but something like alliance), "unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them." This is a foundation of the idea that believers may legitimately deceive unbelievers when under pressure. The word used for "guard" in the Arabic is tuqātan (تُقَاةً), the verbal noun from taqiyyatan -- hence the increasingly familiar term taqiyya.

Ibn Kathir says that the phrase Pickthall renders as "unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them" means that "believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers" may "show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda' said, 'We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.' Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, 'The Tuqyah [taqiyya] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection." While many Muslim spokesmen today maintain that taqiyya is solely a Shi'ite doctrine, shunned by Sunnis, the great Islamic scholar Ignaz Goldziher points out that while it was formulated by Shi'ites, "it is accepted as legitimate by other Muslims as well, on the authority of Qur'an 3:28." The Sunnis of Al-Qaeda practice it today.

Also, there is Muhammad's statement, "war is deceit" (Bukhari 4.52.267). He also allowed for lying in battle and between a husband and wife (Muslim 6303). And when he gave permission to one of his followers, Muhammad bin Maslama, to murder one of his critics, Ka'b bin al-Ashraf, he also gave Muhammad bin Maslama permission to lie to Ka'b in order to lure him close enough to be killed (Bukhari 5.59.369).

And Muhammad is the "excellent example of conduct" for Muslims (Qur'an 33:21).

"Beheaded bodies of abducted tribesmen found in Mohmand," from Dawn, September 21 (thanks to Wimpy):

GHALANAI, Sept 21: The beheaded bodies of three tribesmen, kidnapped by militants a month ago, were found in Khawezai tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Wednesday.

Sources said that Mian Hazrat, Nazeem, and Habib had been kidnapped by militants about a month ago from Palosai area of Khawezai tehsil. Their beheaded bodies were found in Sam Ghakay area of the tribal region. Sources said that volunteers of local peace committee and officials of political administration brought the bodies of Mian Hazrat and Nazeem to agency headquarters hospital in Ghalanai and later handed them over to their relatives. The body of Habib was still lying there, they added....

In Bajaur Agency, 25 militants laid down arms and surrendered to security forces on Wednesday.

Sources said that the surrendered militants belonged to different areas of Salarzai tehsil. They said that the militants, including three commanders, laid down weapons and surrendered to security forces during a tribal jirga.

They told the jirga on oath that they would not keep contacts with militants nor would they provide any kind of support to them in future. They said that Taliban commander deceived them in the name of jihad and Islam....

Hypocrisy, stemming from the same well that ensured that no Palestinian Arab would be crying about "occupation" or demanding a state in the West Bank and Gaza while they were occupied by Jordan and Egypt between 1948 and 1967. "Interview: Refugees will not be citizens of new state," by Annie Slemrod for The Daily Star, September 15 (thanks to Wimpy):

BEIRUT: Palestinian refugees will not become citizens of a new Palestinian state, according to Palestine’s ambassador to Lebanon.

From behind a desk topped by a miniature model of Palestine’s hoped-for blue United Nations chair, Ambassador Abdullah Abdullah spoke to The Daily Star Wednesday about Palestine’s upcoming bid for U.N. statehood.

The ambassador unequivocally says that Palestinian refugees would not become citizens of the sought for U.N.-recognized Palestinian state, an issue that has been much discussed. “They are Palestinians, that’s their identity,” he says. “But … they are not automatically citizens.”

This would not only apply to refugees in countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan or the other 132 countries where Abdullah says Palestinians reside. Abdullah said that “even Palestinian refugees who are living in [refugee camps] inside the [Palestinian] state, they are still refugees. They will not be considered citizens.”

Abdullah said that the new Palestinian state would “absolutely not” be issuing Palestinian passports to refugees.

Neither this definitional status nor U.N. statehood, Abdullah says, would affect the eventual return of refugees to Palestine. “How the issue of the right of return will be solved I don’t know, it’s too early [to say], but it is a sacred right that has to be dealt with and solved [with] the acceptance of all.” He says statehood “will never affect the right of return for Palestinian refugees.”

The right of return that Abdullah says is to be negotiated would not only apply to those Palestinians whose origins are within the 1967 borders of the state, he adds. “The state is the 1967 borders, but the refugees are not only from the 1967 borders. The refugees are from all over Palestine. When we have a state accepted as a member of the United Nations, this is not the end of the conflict. This is not a solution to the conflict. This is only a new framework that will change the rules of the game.”

The Palestinian Liberation Organization would remain responsible for refugees, and Abdullah says that UNRWA would continue its work as usual....

A U.S. veto in the Security Council, Abdullah says, would only harm the great power. “The United States is propagating that it is the champion of freedom and democracy around the world, and if it denies the Palestinians the right to be free, to be democratic, and to live in dignity, it is not a good sign for the U.S. It leaves a dark stain … It’s not good for America,” he says. “America deserves better.”

He says the U.S. should be mindful of “signals in the region … that are ringing a bell.” He mentions the tension between Turkey and Israel and the recent eruption of protests at the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

“If wrong policies are adopted in the U.S., it will only give a freer hand to extremism. It only empowers negative forces. And this will make it more difficult and complicated for rational forces to prevail.”...

Threat noted.

Misunderstanding yet again that Islam teaches peace. "Six killed in Tunisian clashes near Algeria: diplomat," from AFP, September 23 (thanks to David):

Clashes this week between Tunisian soldiers and an armed group that crossed the border from Algeria left six dead among the infiltrators, a western diplomatic source said Friday.

"According to our reports, six attackers were killed," the source said, while the Tunisian ministry of defence said one body had been found so far.

The fighting took place on Wednesday when the Tunisian army neutralised an armed convoy of nine vehicles fitted with anti-aircraft guns that crossed over from the Algerian desert near Bir Znigra....

According to the diplomatic source, seven attackers were taken prisoner and the group was probably made up of Algerians and Libyans.

A regional security source who asked not to be named said that "it was about a score of heavily armed terrorists of Ql-Qaeda [sic] in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who attacked the Tunisian troops."

"At this stage, we have no details on the identity of the group. It could be AQIM, it could be a band of armed smugglers. It is too early to identify these men with any certainty," the official in the Tunisian defence ministry said.

We have long covered the abduction of the three hikers and their use by Iran while in custody as pawns in its jihad against the U.S. Having now landed in Oman, Shane Bauer has now made such a statement of outright fiction and outrageous moral equivalence.

As Iran dragged its feet in releasing Bauer and Fattal, one report noted that "the Americans' release might be drawn out to bring attention to inmates Iran wants freed." Bauer now appears to have taken up that cause anyway, and it seems like a long shot to pin it on Stockholm Syndrome.

The following commentary says it very well. "Shane Bauer's ingratitude," by Eliot Abrams for the Council on Foreign Relations, September 22:

In the last year I have written several blog posts about the American hikers imprisoned in Iran, hoping to help keep attention focused on getting them freed. Like every American I was delighted to see them out, finally, yesterday.

Indeed. They were wrongfully imprisoned in deplorable physical and psychological conditions by an enemy regime. Now that they are free:

But like many Americans, I was not delighted by the statement made immediately by one of the two, Shane Bauer. After thanking the Sultan of Oman for helping get them out, he said this:

"Two years in prison is too long and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran."

Who exactly are the “political prisoners” in America?

Can we have some names? Who exactly are the “unjustly imprisoned people” in America, and how precisely does Mr. Bauer know them to be “unjustly imprisoned” rather than convicted according to due process of law?

Given that Mr. Bauer has just suffered two years imprisonment by Iran for the crime of hiking and mistakenly crossing a border, is he entirely comfortable with his comparison of the two countries in the statement just quoted? So it would appear. Thinking of the immense diplomatic activity this country undertook to free him and the enthusiasm with which his liberation was greeted yesterday, that statement of his leaves a very bad taste.

That about sums it up. Ahmadinejad's spectacle at the UN has become something of a tradition by now. If the UN sold popcorn at this gathering, this speech would outsell anyone else's. Once again, he does not disappoint where antisemitism and conspiracy paranoia are concerned, with an extra touch of megalomania. "Walkout at U.N. as Ahmadinejad speaks," from CNN, September 22:

United Nations (CNN) -- Delegations from the United States and several European nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly Thursday during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech, in which he repeatedly condemned the United States and said some countries use the Holocaust as an "excuse to pay ransom... to Zionists."

Delegates from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were among those who walked out. Delegations from Canada and Israel were not present from the beginning.

In his remarks, Ahmadinejad called the September 11, 2001, attacks "mysterious" and said they were a pretext for a U.S.-led war against Afghanistan and Iraq.

He said the United States killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden instead of assigning a fact-finding team to investigate "hidden elements involved in September 11."

He also placed blame on the United States for numerous global problems including the financial crisis, criticizing it for dominating the world's "policy-making establishments," overspending on the military, and "printing trillions of dollars" that triggered inflation, according to an English translation of his speech provided by Iran's U.N. mission.

Ahmadinejad said the U.S. government views Zionism as "sacred," and that "European countries still use the Holocaust after six decades as the excuse to pay (a) fine or ransom to the Zionists."

After assailing the United States, Ahmadinejad said "the main question is the quest for the root cause of such attitudes. The prime reason should be sought in the beliefs and tendencies of the establishment. An assembly of people in contradiction with the inner human instincts and disposition who also have no faith in God and in the path of the divine prophets, replace their lust for power and materialistic ends with heavenly values. To them, only power and wealth prevail, and every attempt must bring into focus these sinister goals."

On the eve of the address, the Iranian president declared his country to be "a new model for life to the world."

He also said that the United States might be willing to "hijack" the Middle East uprisings, according to the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA, but did not further explain his assertion.

Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations in New York comes a day after two U.S. hikers, held in an Iranian prison for more than two years, were released.

Wednesday evening, Ahmadinejad met with a group of U.S. university students, and then gave an interview to Iranian satellite television.

His office provided translated quotes from both.

The Iranian leader said "that the world is in need of change, and Marxism, liberalism, humanism and the West could not solve man's problems," his office said. Ahmadinejad added that "relying on its culture and rich civilization," Iran is "the only nation" that "can offer a new model for life to the world."

He told the students "that the U.S. may be willing to hijack the regional uprisings but a stormy movement is under way," IRNA reported.

"Elsewhere in his speech, he said that the U.N. was set up with the objective of preventing bullying in the world, but this did not happen," IRNA reported....

Indeed. The OIC has made a booming business of it.

It was a 1500-pound truck bomb that left a 20 foot crater. For all the suicide bomber's trouble, no Americans were seriously wounded; all were expected to return to duty. The attack did kill 2 Afghans and wound 25 others, but there is scant outrage from Islamabad as long as the attacks are directed out of Pakistan and not into it, and as long as the victims are Americans, Christians, Ahmadis, Shi'ites, or over the border in Afghanistan.

But the state of affairs appears to be going downhill fast, as allegation after damning allegation piles up regarding the involvement of the Haqqani network jihadists in a series of high-profile attacks, reportedly urged on by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. "US bomb warning to Pakistan ignored," by Declan Walsh and Jon Boone for the Guardian, September 22:

The American commander of Nato in Afghanistan personally asked Pakistan's army chief to halt an insurgent truck bomb that was heading for his troops, during a meeting in Islamabad two days before a huge explosion that wounded 77 US soldiers at a base near Kabul.

In reply General Ashfaq Kayani offered to "make a phone call" to stop the assault on the US base in Wardak province. But his failure to use the American intelligence to prevent the attack has fuelled a blazing row between the US and Pakistan.

Furious American officials blame the Taliban-inspired group the Haqqanis – and, by extension, Pakistani intelligence – for the 10 September bombing and an even more audacious guerrilla assault on the Kabul US embassy three days later that killed 20 people and lasted more than 20 hours.

On Thursday the US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, described the Haqqanis as "a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [spy] agency". He earlier accused the ISI of fighting a "proxy war" in Afghanistan through the group.

Pakistan's defence minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, rejected the American accusations of Haqqani patronage as "baseless". "No one can threaten Pakistan as we are an independent state," he said.

The angry accusations lift the veil on sensitive conversations that have heretofore largely taken place behind closed doors. On 8 September, General John Allen, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, raised intelligence reports of the impending truck bomb at a meeting with Kayani during a visit to Islamabad.

Kayani promised Allen he would "make a phone call" to try to stop the attack, according to a western official with close knowledge of the meeting. "The offer raised eyebrows," the official said.

But two days later, just after Allen's return to Kabul, a truck rigged with explosives ploughed into the gates of the US base in Wardak, 50 miles south-west of Kabul, injuring 77 US soldiers and killing two Afghan civilians.

Afterwards the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker, blamed the Haqqanis. "They enjoy safe havens in North Waziristan," he said, referring to the Haqqani main base in the tribal belt.

Allen's spokesman said Nato "routinely shares intelligence with the Pakistanis regarding insurgent activities" but he refused to confirm the details of the conversation with Kayani.

The Pakistani military spokesman, General Athar Abbas, said: "Let's suppose it was the case. The main question is how did this truck travel to Wardak and explode without being checked by Nato? This is just a blame game."

US allegations of ISI links to Haqqani attacks stretch back to July 2008, when the CIA deputy director, Stephen Kappes, flew to Islamabad with intercept evidence that linked the ISI to an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

But American disquiet has never been so uncompromisingly expressed as in recent days. The issue dominated three hours of talks between the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar.

On Tuesday Mullen said he had asked Kayani to "disconnect" the ISI from the Haqqanis. In Washington the CIA chief, David Petraeus, delivered a similar message in private to the ISI chief, General Shuja Pasha. Even the soft-spoken US ambassador to Islamabad, Cameron Munter, has joined the chorus of condemnation, delivering a hard-hitting message through an interview on Pakistani state radio.

"We've changed our message in private too," one US official said. "Before, we used to make polite demands about the Haqqanis. Now we are saying 'this has to stop'."...

Pakistan appears to have finally overreached in its double game, and the tangled web it has woven is unraveling rather suddenly. Acting insulted just might not get Pakistan out of this one. "Pakistan 'backed Haqqani attack on Kabul' - Mike Mullen," from BBC News, September 23:

The most senior US military officer has accused Pakistan's spy agency of supporting the Haqqani group in last week's attack on the US Kabul embassy.

"The Haqqani network... acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency," Adm Mike Mullen told a Senate panel.

Some 25 people died in last Tuesday's 20-hour attack on Kabul's US embassy and other official buildings.

Pakistan's interior minister earlier denied links with the Haqqani group.

Rehman Malik told the BBC Pakistan was determined to fight all militants based on its border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have consistently denied links with militant groups.

US-Pakistan ties deteriorated sharply after the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil by US commandos in May.

The relationship was already shot. The raid, kept secret from the Pakistanis for fear that they would tip bin Laden off, was a result of the inability to trust Islamabad. Going in after bin Laden and finding him where they did, hiding under the noses of the Pakistani military establishment, just brought that reality out into the open.

'Credible intelligence'

The Kabul attack on 13 September left 11 civilians dead, as well as at least four police and 10 insurgents.

"With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted a truck bomb attack [on 11 September], as well as the assault on our embassy,"said Adm Mullen.

"We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the 28 June attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations."

In July Adm Mullen, who steps down this month as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan's government of sanctioning the killing of investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad.

Pakistan called that statement "irresponsible".

Correspondents say that during his tenure, Adm Mullen has been a forceful advocate for maintaining dialogue with Pakistan and with its military establishment.

He was said to be close to the Pakistani army's chief of staff, Gen Ashfaq Kayani. Indeed, Adm Mullen is thought to have made more visits to Pakistan than any other senior US official or chief of staff in recent times.

But, correspondents say, the latest comments are yet more evidence of his patience wearing thin, and suggest he is prepared to be more outspoken as his term in office draws to a close.

Strained ties

The Haqqani network, which is closely allied to the Taliban and reportedly based in Pakistan, has been blamed for several high-profile attacks against Western, Indian and government targets in Afghanistan.

It is often described by Pakistani officials as a predominantly Afghan group, but correspondents say its roots reach deep inside Pakistani territory, and speculation over its links to Pakistan's security establishment refuses to die down.

US officials have long been frustrated at what they perceive to be Pakistani inaction against the Haqqani network, and analysts say US concern about the group's capabilities is particularly acute as Nato begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, Washington said it could target the Haqqani network on Pakistani soil if the authorities there failed to take action against the militants.

But on Thursday, Mr Malik told the BBC that Pakistan's government had taken "very, very strict actions" whenever it had received information about militant groups.

No, seriously.

"We will not allow any terrorist to operate from our area, from our side, irrespective of any country, including Afghanistan," he said. "I assure you that, if their presence is there and which is detrimental, action is going to be taken."...

An update on the "most significant" jihad terrorist case in Britain this year, though any mention of the ideological affiliation is politely buried in an understated final paragraph. "Seventh arrest in Birmingham terror inquiry," from BBC News, September 22:

A seventh person has been arrested in connection with an anti-terrorist operation in Birmingham.

Mad Methodist?

A 20-year-old from Yardley was detained on Thursday evening on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK.

Angry Anglican?

He was arrested at a police station in the city, which he had agreed to attend.

Six men arrested earlier in the week are still being questioned. Police have until Sunday night to hold them.

Livid Lutherans?

A woman who had been held in relation to the inquiry has been released on police bail, West Midlands Police said.

Cranky Catholic?

The arrested men are aged from 20 to 32 and are from Moseley, Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath, Ward End and Yardley.

Petulant Presbyterians?

The arrests were made on Monday, when specialist teams searched homes and other properties in Birmingham. Computer equipment was removed and is being examined.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the arrests were considered to be the most significant this year.

It is understood the investigation relates to suspected Islamist extremism but it is not thought an attack or threat was imminent.

And the accusations have mosque trustees...outraged. "London mosque accused of links to 'terror' in Pakistan," by Kurt Barling for the BBC, September 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

A south London mosque is at the centre of allegations it helped promote of [sic] acts of terror and hate in Pakistan.

Leaflets circulating in Pakistan calling for the murder of members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect directed readers to a website naming Stockwell Mosque.

The website mentioned on the leaflets in turn advised people with queries to contact the mosque in Stockwell.

Angry trustees at the mosque said its name had been misused and it had no links to the Pakistani organisation.

Trustee Toaha Qureshi said: "We don't have any linkage with this organisation which is promoting hate."

Of course. Who ever heard of a mosque promoting hate? Well, maybe the people in this mosque; or this one; or this one that was used to house a bomb factory; or this one that was used to store weapons; or this one that was used to disseminate messages from bin Laden; or this one that was used to demand (in the U.S.) that non-Muslims conform to Islamic dietary restrictions; or this one that was used to fire on American troops; or this one that was used to fire upon Indian troops; or this one that was used to train jihadists.

I suppose the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) of Malaysia, who is of course a Muslim -- and must always be so -- thinks that he is reassuring Malaysia's perennially nervous (and oppressed) 'religious minorities' with his latest remarks about Malaysia not yet being 'ready' for 'hudud', which can be defined as the most vicious aspects of Shariah -- the Islamic laws that deal with theft, fornication, alcohol and apostasy. Of course the implementation of hudud laws in Malaysia is but a matter of time. In fact, much of Shariah is already on the books and actively enforced in this country. Another take on this story: "DPM: [Malaysia] not ready for hudud laws", The Star, 22 Sept 2011:

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is not ready for the implementation of hudud law, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Deputy Prime Minister said as a multi-racial and multi-religious country, Malaysia was not ready to introduce hudud laws as brought up by PAS leaders.

"Our stand is that in Malaysia, we cannot
implement it in the present situation. I do not think in the present condition, it is suitable for implementation. We did not question the need to implement hudud law," he told a news conference after chairing a Cabinet Committee on Supply and Prices meeting here Thursday.

Muhyiddin said hudud laws could only be implemented when the situation was really conducive.

In other words, once the numbers of non Muslims in Malaysia are reduced to insignificance via migration and conversion, then full-blown implementation of hudud laws will eventually become politically feasible.

He said explanation and understanding of these [hudud] laws needed to be extended to cover all the people in the country so that they truly understood them.

Muslims, be prepared to utter ever more lies to spread your belief system. With the march of Islam comes disinformation and lies, by the truck load.

"As a Muslim, I cannot reject hudud law. This is a fact from the Islamic law aspect but its implementation has become a subject of debate today. If Nik Aziz (Kelantan Mentri Besar) said it would be implemented in Kelantan, it is his wish," he added.

Under hudud laws, thieves hands are chopped off, adulterers stoned to death and murderers executed. - Bernama

In addition, hudud laws render apostasy as a capital crime, sanction second class (or worse) treatment of women, and viciously persecute competing belief systems, among other barbarities.

The Taliban have not staged their usual touchdown dance through their propaganda operations, as usually follows a high-profile attack. And so "diplomats are bracing themselves for the possibility that blame will be pinned on the Haqqani network, a militant group that nominally follows Omar but is believed to be heavily influenced by the [Pakistani] ISI."

More on this story. "Taliban stay quiet on killing of former Afghanistan president Rabbani," by Jon Boone for the Guardian, September 21:

The Taliban have refused to accept or deny responsibility for the assassination in Kabul of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, which has plunged the country into a deep political crisis.

Rabbani was assassinated by a turban bomber who claimed to be carrying an offer of peace from the Taliban.

On the first of three days of national mourning following the killing on Tuesday of Hamid Karzai's chief peace negotiator, the Taliban's spokesmen published a statement on their website refusing to discuss the incident and contesting an earlier report by the Reuters news agency that said the Taliban accepted responsibility.

"Our position on this issue is that we can't talk about it and all the media reports that claim responsibility are groundless," it said. "Right now we don't want to talk."

Their reticence to comment on the killing – by a man posing as a senior Taliban envoy with explosives hidden in his turban – is in stark contrast to the aftermath of other spectacular attacks in the capital: the Taliban's PR department often feeds details to the media while their operations are still ongoing.

Diplomats say it raises the possibility that Mullah Omar and other high-ranking Taliban leaders may not have approved, or even have been aware of, an operation conducted by a splinter or affiliated group linked to Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency, the ISI, which has long-standing ties to militant groups.

A western expert on the Taliban, who did not want to be identified, said senior figures within the movement had tried to bypass the ISI and hold direct talks with Karzai's government and the US, and Pakistan had responded with ruthless efforts to reassert control of any negotiations.

He said spectacular attacks in Kabul in recent months were probably designed to derail any independent Taliban contacts with the government, while the killing of Rabbani could have been aimed at putting all talks on hold for several months.

"It is not that they want to close the door on one set of negotiations [with Rabbani] but on all kinds of negotiations," he said. "They would rather have no talks than some talks that they can't control."

Diplomats are bracing themselves for the possibility that blame will be pinned on the Haqqani network, a militant group that nominally follows Omar but is believed to be heavily influenced by the ISI. If the recent rhetoric of US ambassadors in the region is anything to go by, it is already in a state of apoplectic anger over Pakistan's role in supporting Haqqani, which has been blamed for several major attacks, including last week's 20-hour assault on the US embassy in Kabul.

That fury would grow if Haqqani was implicated in the hugely destabilising killing of Rabbani.

"There is no doubt that there is a very serious conspiracy by those opposed to peace talks," said Ahmed Rashid, an influential Pakistani commentator who strongly supports a political settlement in Afghanistan. "They are trying to sabotage them before they take off."

There was no love lost between Rabbani and the Taliban, a movement he fought against. And the Taliban have a stated policy of trying to kill members of the high peace council, the body that Rabbani chaired.

But some analysts think killing him would be a step too far, even for the Taliban. Wahid Mujda a political analyst who held a mid-level position within the old Taliban regime, said its Quetta Shura would be reluctant to claim credit for killing a figure who commanded respect among a large group of Afghans, not least among his fellow Tajiks....

Sharia is a package deal, as even Imam Rauf knows. As the deputy PM makes clear, once Sharia has attained sufficient strength within a society, the rest of it will fall into place. A society that has not resisted Sharia when it was a minor force will be even less able to do so when it is a major force. Hence the gradualist approach in Britain, and as seen here in Malaysia.

Denial is not reform, but often passes for it in the West. The moment a non-Muslim notes a troubling tenet of Sharia, Sharia becomes a shape-shifting jellyfish of a law: that's not really Sharia, we're told, or that's only Sharia in scary places like Saudi Arabia. Or it's cultural and tribal baggage that could never, ever happen in the West because the West is "different" (And how and why is it different?). Or those punishments only happen in special cases to very bad people -- as if punishments like amputation or stoning, which are cruel and unusual in principle, are any less so when applied if we really didn't like the defendant.

And yet these same punishments enter the discussion wherever Sharia gains sufficient strength. That, of course, is because they are prescribed in the Qur'an, and in ahadith -- the recorded sayings and example of Muhammad -- that were deemed reliable ("Sahih," or "sound") by the consensus of Muslim scholars. That includes amputation for theft (Qur'an 5:38) and for "spreading corruption in the land" and "waging war against Allah" (5:33), lashes for adultery (24:2: "let no compassion move you"), and stoning for adultery (Sahih Bukhari 8.82.816).

"Malaysia Not Ready To Practise Hudud Law, Says Muhyiddin," from Bernama, September 22:

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is not ready for the implementation of hudud law, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Deputy Prime Minister said as a multi-racial and multi-religious country, Malaysia was not ready to introduce hudud laws as brought up by PAS leaders.

"Our stand is that in Malaysia, we cannot implement it in the present situation. I do not think in the present condition, it is suitable for implementation. We did not question the need to implement hudud law," he told a news conference after chairing a Cabinet Committee on Supply and Prices meeting here Thursday.

Muhyiddin said hudud laws could only be implemented when the situation was really conducive.

He said explanation and understanding of theses laws needed to be extended to cover all the people in the country so that they truly understood them.

"As a Muslim, I cannot reject hudud law. This is a fact from the Islamic law aspect but its implementation has become a subject of debate today. If Nik Aziz (Kelantan Menteri Besar) said it would be implemented in Kelantan, it is his wish," he added.

Under hudud laws, thieves hands [are] chopped off, adulterers will be stoned to death and murderers executed.

UPDATE: Now that pictures of these markings have finally been released, we can see that they aren't Arabic at all. They don't even look like Arabic. Someone who was investigating this case was a complete idiot.

---------

This is not just graffiti. This is not "Kilroy was here." The messages are unlikely to be saying, "Islam is a Religion of Peace" or "Islamophobia is the real problem." This is not casual scrawling: note that "the writing appears to have been etched using a chemical process and is visible only after an auxiliary power unit is turned on." "Southwest Airlines, Feds Investigate Arabic Markings on Planes," from NewsCore, September 21:

Mysterious messages that appeared to be scrawled in Arabic writing on the underbellies of several Southwest Airlines jets were being investigated Wednesday by the airline and the FBI, Los Angeles radio station KNX-1070 reported.

The graffiti, which began appearing in February on 737-model planes, has been found more often in recent weeks, according to the report.

The writing appears to have been etched using a chemical process and is visible only after an auxiliary power unit is turned on.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King confirmed that the company is "conducting an internal investigation." The FBI and Transportation Security Administration were also making enquiries.

The airline denied that the vandalism posed a safety or security threat.

Of course not. Who ever heard of Arabic-speaking people targeting airplanes for terror attacks?

Yet another convert to Islam, Daniel Boyd, spectacularly misunderstands his new, peaceful religion. Yet "moderate" Muslim groups in the U.S. and their Leftist allies spend their time demonizing those who call attention to this jihad activity, rather than directing their efforts to making sure that converts to Islam understand the Religion of Peace™. Now, why is that? (As if we didn't already know the answer.) "FBI informant says Triangle terrorist cell leader intent on jihad," from WRAL.com, September 21 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

New Bern, N.C. — An FBI informant testified Wednesday that the man accused of heading up a terrorist cell in the Triangle routinely spoke about waging a holy war.

The informant, a Muslim of Moroccan descent who goes by the code name "Jawbreaker," told a federal jury in New Bern that he got so close to Daniel Patrick Boyd that he was with him at the time of his arrest in July 2009.

Boyd pleaded guilty in February to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons in a foreign country. He is expected to be a key witness in the trial of three other men charged in the case.

Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and Hysen Sherifi face multiple felony charges related to allegations they conspired to attack targets overseas. Sherifi also is accused of plotting an attack on the Marine base in Quantico, Va.

A federal indictment unsealed in 2009 alleges that eight Triangle men raised money to buy assault weapons and conduct training exercises and that they arranged overseas travel and contacts to help others carry out violent acts on behalf of a radical jihadist political agenda....

In audio recordings of conversations between Boyd and Jawbreaker that were played in court, Boyd talked about his intentions to attack Quantico. He spoke of how easy it would be to get on the base because it's also a city.

"I did some preliminary reconnaissance, and what I saw was amazing. I saw the residences of all their commanding officers," Boyd said in one recording, adding that Sherifi was in on the plan.

Jawbreaker said Boyd was intensely loyal to Afghanistan, where he traveled in 1989 to join the fight against Soviet occupation. Boyd always wanted to fight non-Muslims, the informant said.

"Every single day, it was about jihad and fighting," Jawbreaker testified.

An FBI search of Boyd's Willow Spring home in 2009 turned up about two dozen guns and more than 27,000 rounds of ammunition....

Looks as if they had quite a diverse crowd at their "opening"

Crocodile tears. If El-Gamal were in earnest about allaying people's concerns, he would be talking to 9/11 family members now. And he would have accepted our invitation to come to our forum on the Ground Zero Mosque at CPAC last February. And he would not be aiding and abetting the ongoing campaign of defamation and vilification of opponents of the triumphal mosque at Ground Zero. "GZ Islamic center boss: We blew it," by Erin Calabrese and Tim Perone in the New York Post, September 22:

The controversial Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero opened to the public for the first time last night with a photography exhibit -- as its developer said he regretted not consulting with families of the 9/11 victims earlier.

“We made incredible mistakes,” Sharif El-Gamal said as the Park51 Islamic community center welcomed visitors to an exhibition featuring pictures of New York children of more than 160 ethnicities.

“The biggest mistake we made was not to include 9/11 families,” El-Gamal said.

“We didn’t understand that we had a responsibility to discuss our private project with family members that lost loved ones.”

If you didn't understand it then, you understand it now. And in light of that understanding, you should abandon this project. Yet you are not doing so. Now, why is that? (As if we didn't already know the answer.)

About 150 people attended last night’s exhibit and there were no protests.

They got international press coverage for this sham "opening," which wasn't actually an opening at all, as Muslims have been praying in that building for years, and they have not broken ground on their mosque, as they had originally planned to on September 11, 2011. (Daisy Khan and others affirmed that, but it went down the memory hole when it proved politically damaging.)

And they drew 150 people -- far fewer than those who came from all over the U.S. and Europe and made it past the police mazes and roadblocks on September 11 to attend our AFDI/SIOA 9/11 Freedom Rally, and yet that got no coverage at all. Now, why is that? (As if we didn't already know the answer.)

El-Gamal said he hopes that people who don’t want the center and prayer space so close to where the 9/11 attacks occurred will now see what it’s all about.

“There’s tremendous excitement with this opening,” he said.

“Park51 is about bringing people together.”

Except those who stand in its way, whom they are determined to destroy.

In using deception to lure Rabbani to his death, this Muslim was imitating Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, who once took offense to Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf, a poet who had mocked him, and asked his followers: "Who is willing to kill Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?" One of the Muslims, Muhammad bin Maslama answered, "O Allah's Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?" When Muhammad said that he would, Muhammad bin Maslama said, "Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab)." Muhammad responded: "You may say it." Muhammad bin Maslama duly lied to Ka'b, luring him into his trap, and murdered him. (Bukhari, volume 5, book 59, number 369)

Of course, Muhammad also famously said, "War is deceit."

More on this story. War Is Deceit Update: "Afghan president: Rabbani's killer staged a ruse," by Amir Shah and Deb Reichmann for the Associated Press, September 22 (thanks to Bill):

KABUL, Afghanistan—The suicide bomber who killed Afghanistan's former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani​, gained access to him by presenting officials beforehand with an audio recording of a purported Taliban peace offer, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday....

The assassin, who hid a bomb in his turban, killed the 70-year-old former Afghan leader Tuesday at his home in Kabul.

Karzai said that before he left for New York last weekend, one of his advisers, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, told him that the Taliban had a message for the Afghan peace council. Stanekzai is a top peace council official who was wounded in the attack that killed Rabbani.

"Stanekzai brought me a message that someone had come from the Taliban movement and brought with them an audio CD in which there was a message from a Taliban representative," Karzai said.

The president said he listened to the audio before leaving to attend the U.N. General Assembly. The voice on the recording spoke respectfully about Rabbani, he said. "There were a couple of questions and suggestions mentioned regarding peace."

Karzai said he then talked with Rabbani, who rushed back home from a trip to Iran to listen to the recording.

"It was not a peace message. It was a trick," said Karzai, speaking at a podium set up in a courtyard of the presidential palace. "The messenger was the killer."

Shafiqullah Tahiri, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, said officials believe Rabbani's killing had been planned for four months and that the Afghan Taliban's governing council known as the Quetta Shura, named after the city in Pakistan, was behind the assassination....

Rahmatullah Wahidyar, a member of the peace council who had brought the bomber to Rabbani's house, told reporters that when the attacker entered the room, Rabbani stood up and went to hug him.

"There was a bang," Wahidyar told reporters at a news conference held by the intelligence service. "I have small fractures on my face and right side."

Shortly after Karzai's remarks, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker pledged support from the United States and international community for Afghan peace efforts, and called Rabbani's killing a "brutal murder."...

He also said that Rabbani's death "raises very serious questions" as to whether the Taliban and those who support them have any real interest in reconciling with the Afghan government.

No kidding, really?

But they're not "savage." Oh, no. "Arabs Throw Rocks at 20 Month Old Baby," by Gil Ronen in Israel National News, September 21 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Arabs threw rocks Wednesday at an Israeli car between Migdalim and Tapuach Junction in Samaria. A 20 month old girl was injured in the face.

The baby girl received treatment from Samaria Regional Authority medics and evacuated to a hospital. The Authority Head Gershon Mesika said: "The 'men of peace' of the Palestinian murder authority provide yet more proof, to those who still need it, as to just whom we are facing. We face low life terrorists who try to murder babies."...

"It is narrated by Sa'b b. Jaththama that he said (to the Holy Prophet): Messenger of Allah, we kill the children of the polytheists during the night raids. He said: They are from them." (Sahih Muslim 4322)

Bravo. A Palestinian state would become just another jihad base for a renewed onslaught against a diminished Israel. There has never been a Palestinian state or even a distinct Palestinian nationality. The whole thing was invented in the 1960s to distract from the reality of tiny Israel surrounded by a large number of hostile Arab Muslim states. A return to reality and honesty about these matters in Washington would be refreshing, albeit wildly unlikely.

"Hatch: Defund UN if it votes for Palestinian state," by Joel Gehrke for the Washington Examiner, September 21 (thanks to Wimpy):

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced the Solidarity with Israel Act today, a bill that would defund the United Nations if that body votes to recognize Palestine as a state.

“This vote undermines Israel’s security, and should the United Nations change Palestine’s current status, this legislation would prevent valuable American resources from funding the United Nations," Hatch said. "Make no mistake, there will be consequences associated with efforts to undermine the security of America’s friends and allies."

And that's exactly what this push toward Palestinian statehood is.

The United States will veto any vote by the UN Security Council that recognizes Palestine as a state, but Hatch's bill would pull funding if the General Assembly voted to classify Palestine as an "observer state," which the United States cannot interdict.

"In offering the first explanation of why he chose the name, Reeve said it was a decision made by his family in an exercise of free speech after teaching his children that in some parts of the world they could be sentenced to death for doing so." That is absolutely true, and Reeve should not apologize until Hamas-linked CAIR apologizes for opposing anti-terror efforts, defaming freedom fighters, and aiding and abetting the stealth jihad in the United States. "Reeve Explains 'Muhammad' as Dog's Name," by Jenna Chandler for the San Juan Capistrano Patch, September 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Naming his dog Muhammad, and later announcing it during a public meeting, was not meant to be disparaging to Muslims, San Juan Capistrano Councilman Derek Reeve said Tuesday.

In offering the first explanation of why he chose the name, Reeve said it was a decision made by his family in an exercise of free speech after teaching his children that in some parts of the world they could be sentenced to death for doing so.

Reeve mentioned his dogs' names Sept. 6 (the other is named America), as the council voted on plans for a dog park in the Northwest Open Space.

Dogs are traditionally considered unclean in the Arab world—a perception that caused Councilman Larry Kramer to ask the rest of the council to talk about proper decorum at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

"We are in a position of authority. It's important we choose our words wisely," Kramer said. "I hope the council will say this kind of speech is not OK."

Once you start down that road, Kramer, one day someone will say that something you're saying is a kind of speech that is not OK, and no one will be left to speak up for you.

Kramer asked the council to discuss its standards of conduct and to rewrite its rules on decorum—requests that went unfulfilled.

Reeve, commenting on the 45-minute discussion that ensued with comments from the public, said, "What's most offensive [to me] is that we're not talking about anything important. We're talking about my damned dog."

Indeed. One would think that the continued treatment by the mainstream media of a group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case and has had several of its officials convicted of jihad terror-related offenses as a neutral civil rights organization would be much more important.

Some residents agreed. Several who spoke during a public hearing said they preferred to have the council focus on other, more "pressing" issues, such as the city's infrastructure, high water rates and finances.

Reeve at some points during his explanation got choked up. He said this week had been a difficult one, with a "terrorist organization" reprimanding him for his public declaration of his dog's name.

Mayor Sam Allevato also had harsh words for Reeve.

"You have to be really careful about what you say" from the dais, Allevato cautioned. "These types of comments are not acceptable" and could lead to what some could consider a hostile work environment for City Hall employees, he said.

In other words: Don't insult these people, Reeve, because they have been known to murder those who insult them, and other innocent people as well.

Allevato ought to be ashamed of himself for acquiescing to this violent intimidation.

Allevato said a Muslim in the audience during the last City Council meeting was offended by Reeve's remark. He also said allowing such comments to be made would be a "slippery slope."...

A "slippery slope" to what? Dogs named Jesus? And who exactly would fly into a rage or kill over that? Allevato's words, on the other hand, represent a slippery slope toward saying that the if people fly into a violent and irrational rage over something we do, we have to change our behavior, rather than call upon them to grow up and act civilized.

On Friday, the Greater Los Angeles area office of the [Hamas-linked] Council on American-Islamic Relations asked Reeve to apologize for his comment. In a press release, it said he showed "disrespect toward Islam’s revered prophet Muhammad by making [the] derisive public comment."

One would think that the Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Indonesia and elsewhere who go on murderous rampages because someone drew a cartoon of Muhammad would be showing more disrespect to Muhammad than someone who named a dog after him, but evidently not in the moral calculus of Hamas-linked CAIR.

Useful idiots in training. "Columbia Students 'Excited' About Dining With Ahmadinejad," by Clare M. Lopez for Radicalislam.org, September 17:

Students at Columbia University say they are "excited" about the prospect of dining with one of the world's most brutal chief executives, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Scheduled to speak on 23 September 2011 at his fifth United Nations (UN) General Assembly appearance, Ahmadinejad has somehow been permitted to invite Columbia student members of a group called CIRCA, the Columbia International Relations Council and Association, to a private dinner. When threatened with civil and criminal legal action by the Israel Law Center, Columbia president Lee C. Bollinger hastened to clarify that the event would not be held on campus. Nevertheless, the failure of Columbia students and faculty to recognize the moral repugnancy of appearing anywhere willingly in public with a man personally responsible for directing the vicious suppression of his own people's struggle to be free, as well as his country's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs and global terrorist activities is troubling, to say the least....

To say the least.

The head shake heard 'round the world occurs around 1:50. As Bill Clinton found out, there can be no breakthrough if one side is coming to the table in bad faith. Clinton himself told Yasser Arafat: "A summit’s purpose is to have discussions that are based on sincere intentions and you, the Palestinians, did not come to this summit with sincere intentions."

That was but one of 31 opportunities for statehood the Palestinian side has discarded, while Nabil Shaath now insists the UN spectacle is the "only alternative to violence."

As we have noted before, the Palestinian Authority does seem to have calculated a win-win situation by forcing the issue at the UN: either they get what they want, or they get an excuse for another intifada, with all of the gratuitous invocations of the "Arab Spring" that are bound to accompany it.

"'The only alternative is violence': Palestinian fury after Obama urges them to drop U.N. independence bid," by Mark Duell for the Daily Mail, September 21:

Barack Obama triggered fury among Palestinians tonight just hours after he pushed them to withdraw their United Nations independence bid.

Nabeel Shaath, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said after Mr Obama’s speech to the General Assembly in New York that going to the U.N. is the ‘only alternative to violence’.

During the President's speech, a Palestinian representative was caught on television shaking his head when Mr Obama said the Palestinians and Israelis must learn to 'see the world through the other's eyes'.

Hours after Mr Obama's address, a top Palestinian official said Mr Abbas had no plans to agree to a delayed vote on his bid for membership in the U.N. - rejecting mounting pressure from the U.S. and France.

The Palestinians plan to submit their application on Friday when Mr Abbas is to speak to the General Assembly, but he faced a withering lack of support as the world body opened its annual meeting.

Mr Obama said there could be no ‘shortcuts’ in the quest for Middle East peace – but Mr Abbas’s senior aide Saeb Erekat stated: ‘We will not allow any political manoeuvring on this issue’. [...]

The graphic show of displeasure by a Palestinian official at the speech will enrage White House aides who want to promote Mr Obama’s bid to play a central role in finding a Middle East breakthrough....

That would certainly explain Islamabad's unwillingness to go after the Haqqanis, and their intense display of indignation when Secretary of Defense Panetta criticized them for it.

Pakistan appears to be approaching a point where it has overextended itself in its double game, losing control to the jihadist groups it has attempted to leverage toward its own purposes, and being caught double-crossing its "allies." They have ceded sovereignty on the frontier for all intents and purposes, and have looked the other way from all manner of jihadist attacks. As long as the victims are Americans, Christians, Shi'ites, Ahmadis, or over the border in Afghanistan, there does not seem to be a sense of crisis.

The irony is on the level of a Greek tragedy, whereby Pakistan's use of proxy warfare to spread its influence beyond its borders in Afghanistan and India (particularly in Pakistan's obsession with Kashmir) may yet precipitate Islamabad's loss of Pakistan itself. "Pakistan ISI urged attacks on U.S. targets: officials," by Mark Hosenball for Reuters, September 21:

(Reuters) - U.S. officials say there is mounting evidence that Pakistan's chief intelligence agency has been encouraging a Pakistan-based militant network to attack U.S. targets.

The allegations, if fully confirmed, heighten a painful dilemma for President Barack Obama's administration. Washington is under growing political pressure to take action against the Haqqani network after a spate of deadly attacks U.S. officials have attributed to it. These include last week's strike against the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Some U.S. intelligence reporting alleges that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) specifically directed, or urged, the Haqqani network to carry out the September 13 attack on the embassy and a NATO headquarters in Kabul, according two U.S. officials and a source familiar with recent U.S.-Pakistan official contacts. However, officials cautioned that this information is uncorroborated.

Another U.S. official familiar with internal government assessments said that at the very least, the available intelligence strongly suggests the ISI has been egging on elements of the Haqqani network to launch attacks at American targets in the region.

While American officials have aired allegations of ties between the ISI and the Haqqani network in recent days, they have not publicly cited evidence that the Pakistani agency, or elements of it, urged its proxy to attack U.S. targets.

While the ISI's motives in any such attacks are not clear, Pakistan has long wanted to play a major role in Afghanistan's future after the departure of NATO troops, and to counter what it sees as the growing influence there of arch-rival India.

This week, top U.S. officials, including Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, demanded that Pakistan's leaders take action against the Haqqanis, who are based in that country's tribal areas and are considered among the most dangerous insurgent groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

Still, despite the threats and an intensified campaign of violence that threatens U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, the Obama administration has few options for increasing pressure on Pakistan and none of them are good.

After years of efforts to cajole, coax and threaten Pakistan into cracking down on a host of militants operating from within its borders failed to bear fruit, U.S. officials are exasperated.

For the United States one alternative -- another cross-border raid, like the Navy SEAL mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May -- may be tempting in some quarters. But the risks are high and the backlash from Pakistan would be fierce, almost certainly harming what counter-terrorism cooperation exists. [...]

"The (U.S.) administration has thrown everything at this -- high-level meetings, tons of money, all of these overtures, and it hasn't gotten us anywhere," said Caroline Wadhams, a security analyst in Washington.

"This can't go on forever," she said, "but the problem is that we have so little leverage."

"Pakistan values its relationship with the U.S. and is committed to eliminating terrorism in Afghanistan and from our soil," said A senior Pakistani official. "We will look at all evidence shared by the U.S. side and deal harshly with anyone and everyone responsible for terrorism."

The long-simmering tension between the sometime allies, sometime adversaries came to a head last week after the brazen attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. It was a major blow as Obama hopes to nudge Afghanistan toward stability and gradually bring home U.S. forces after a decade of war.

Since then, American officials, including Obama's ambassador in Islamabad and Mullen, his top military officer, have issued unusually blunt criticisms of Pakistan's failure to curb the Haqqani group -- and made frank statements accusing Islamabad of links to the group.

Mullen, in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Tuesday he had pressed Pakistan's army chief in a four-hour conversation on Friday to break the country's links with the Haqqanis.

"We covered ... the need for the Haqqani Network to disengage, specifically the need for the ISI to disconnect from Haqqani and from this proxy war that they're fighting," Mullen said.

The Haqqanis, just one of a host of militant groups that have used western Pakistan as a base for attacks in Afghanistan, are seen as allied to both al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. Supported at times in the past by the CIA, they have had long-standing ties to the ISI.

As is probably to be expected, there are rather few details below on what occurred to motivate this development. However, "the suit is free to be refiled and certainly similar suits may be filed by others."

An update on this story. "Insurance giant withdraws 9/11 lawsuit against Saudi Arabia," from the Daily Mail, September 21:

An insurance firm has withdrawn its lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, which had claimed the country funded the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

A division of Lloyd's of London had filed documents in a U.S. court on September 8 demanding the return of $215million compensation it paid victims.

According to the earlier report linked above the lawsuit stated: "Absent the sponsorship of al-Qaida's material sponsors and supporters, including the defendants named herein, al-Qaida would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan and execute the September 11th attacks"

But the lawsuit has now been dropped.

Attorney Stephen Cozen of law firm Cozen O'Connor, which represents Lloyd's, told Insurance Journal that he cannot comment on why Lloyd’s decided to drop the case less than two weeks after filing the complaint.

Mr Cozen told the journal: 'We were instructed to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice. That of course means that the suit is free to be refiled and certainly similar suits may be filed by others.'

Lloyd's is voluntarily dismissing its lawsuit 'without prejudice,' meaning the motion seeks to close the case without precluding the possibility of renewal at a later date, the court clerk's office said.

The lawsuit - filed in Johnston, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines flight 93 crashed on 9/11, named nine defendants, including a leading member of the oil-rich state's royal family.

The defendants also included "Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya, Saudi Red Crescent Society, the Saudi-based National Commerce Bank, Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Co. and three Saudi citizens connected to the organizations."

Saudi Arabia has always denied claims that Osama bin Laden's organisation received official financial and practical support from his homeland.

Attorney Stephen Cozen of law firm Cozen O'Connor, which represents Lloyd's, told Insurance Journal that he cannot comment on why Lloyd’s decided to drop the case less than two weeks after filing the complaint.

Mr Cozen told the journal: 'We were instructed to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice. That of course means that the suit is free to be refiled and certainly similar suits may be filed by others.'

Lloyd's is voluntarily dismissing its lawsuit 'without prejudice,' meaning the motion seeks to close the case without precluding the possibility of renewal at a later date, the court clerk's office said.

The lawsuit - filed in Johnston, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines flight 93 crashed on 9/11, named nine defendants, including a leading member of the oil-rich state's royal family....

Yet the Fantasy-Based Policymakers at the UN and in Washington continue to believe that a two-state solution will bring peace. In fact, it will only embolden the Palestinian jihad. "In UN, PA Maps Erase All of Israel," by Gil Ronen for Israel National News, September 21 (thanks to David):

Palestinian Authority representatives in the United Nations are handing out maps of "Palestine" that show it in place of all of Israel, including Tel Aviv, reports David Bedein of the Israel Resource Review.

Bedein, who is currently in the United States, told Arutz Sheva: "They do not want a Palestinian state, but all of Palestine. The maps they hand out in their offices include all of 'Palestine.' They erase Israel completely in their maps."...

Yes, and what are the implications of that? We should do what is right, come what may. Sarkozy is suggesting that we should give in to violent intimidation, and that terrorism and Islamic supremacist thuggery should be rewarded.

"Sarkozy Says USA Veto On Palestine Will Spark Violence," from AGI, September 21 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

(AGI) New York - Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, French President Nicolas Sarkozy rejected Barack Obama's position stating that a USA veto to the Palestinian PNA's request for U.N. nationhood will spark "a new wave of violence in the Middle East."

More on this story. From MarketWatch:

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- AFDI/SIOA co-founder and Executive Director Pamela Geller has won an important victory for free speech. Omar Tarazi, a lawyer linked to the Hamas front group the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has dismissed his ten-million-dollar libel lawsuit against Geller with prejudice: it cannot be re-filed.

Geller explained: "This is a huge victory for the First Amendment, truth, and the anti-Sharia movement in this country, which is exposing an insidious cancer that brings progressives and Islamic supremacists together in common cause to attack anyone who criticizes Islamic supremacism with the threat of lawsuits, actual lawsuits, or even worse, violence."

"The message," she added, "is that we will not be silent. We will continue to fight the implementation of Sharia blasphemy laws restricting free speech under the guise of the fictional construct of a 'phobia.'"

Tarazi, an Ohio-based lawyer, represented the parents of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who fled from her home in fear for her life in 2009, after converting from Islam to Christianity. He sued Geller for $10,000,000 after she criticized him in a series of blog posts at her award-winning website, AtlasShrugs.com, pointing out his ties to Hamas-linked CAIR and his efforts to harass and demoralize Rifqa Bary by, among other initiatives, denying her the Christmas cards that Geller had encouraged her readers to send to the girl.

Geller pointed out the larger implications of Tarazi's lawsuit: "This lawsuit was filed as part of the Islamic supremacist lawfare campaign against critics of Sharia, jihad, Islam's death penalty for apostates, and honor killings, and I refused to capitulate. At the end of the day, Tarazi blinked and folded. The years-long battle is over, and Islamic supremacism has suffered a stunning and well-deserved defeat."

The voluntary dismissal with prejudice followed the filing of a court document by David Yerushalmi of the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C., and Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center (who represented Geller pro bono because of the important free speech implications of this case), asking the court to rule in Geller's favor. It prevents Tarazi from refilling the lawsuit in the future. The settlement requires Geller to pay no money, and stipulates only that she remove five of the dozens of AtlasShrugs.com blog posts about Tarazi's role in the Rifqa Bary case.

Although Geller agreed to remove these posts criticizing Tarazi, dozens of other posts remain at AtlasShrugs.com detailing his conduct in the Bary affair, and the settlement places no restrictions on Geller writing about Tarazi's role in the Bary case in the future. Tarazi had complained that Geller had libeled him by linking him to CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas front group that U.S. Department of Justice has named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case.

However, during discovery, Geller's lawyers established that Tarazi did in fact have personal and professional links to CAIR, and that Geller's statements could not be defamatory because they were true.

Geller also reported information from other sources critical of Tarazi's actions - including allegations that he had perjured himself in court filings in the Ohio juvenile proceedings on the Bary case. Here again, however, Geller's lawyers explained how Tarazi had indeed not been completely honest with the juvenile court, and that Geller's statements were true. Geller thus asked the court to dismiss Tarazi's lawsuit entirely.

The case began when Tarazi sued Geller for libel in September 2010, demanding damages of $10,000,000. He filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Two months later, Yerushalmi and Muise filed a motion to dismiss Tarazi's suit on the grounds that Geller's remarks were protected speech under Ohio Free Speech law and under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court never ruled on that motion.

In August 2011, Tarazi filed a motion for summary judgment, asserting that he had proven his case and asking the court to grant judgment on liability and to schedule a trial to determine the amount of damages. On September 19, 2011, Yerushalmi and Muise countered this, arguing that not only had Tarazi not proven his case, but that all of Geller's published statements were true and not defamatory.

On September 20, Tarazi gave up, asking Yerushalmi for a settlement. Geller refused Tarazi's request to keep the terms of the settlement confidential in light of the important implications of the case for the freedom of speech.

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

Western politicians are free to pick and chose -- or take them all:

Crime

The basic goal is to fight immigrant crime with all means possible.

1) Illegal immigration is, yes, illegal, and should be punishable.
2) Criminal immigrants without citizenship must be deported.
3) All who are voluntarily involved in the use of Sharia courts must be punished.
4) Law and order must be imposed by all means in areas where the country's laws are challenged by Sharia, high crime rates and resistance against authorities.
5) Religions and religious teachings that preach hate, suppression or violence must be outlawed.
6) Religious organisations must declare and be able to prove that they do not preach teachings or condone religious books that incite criminal acts.
7) Immigrants must at arrival declare that they will support the country's constitution and follow the country's laws.
8) A main function of the EU should be to protect Europe against illegal immigration.

Culture

The basic goal is to protect and support the country's original culture and values.

9) Immigration from non-Western countries must be stopped. Time-limited working contracts should still be allowed.
10) Religious buildings that do not belong to the country's original culture should not be dominant (no minarets, no loud calls to prayer).
11) Religious customs (e.g. Islamization) that are not connected with the country's original culture should not be allowed in the public sector.
12) The state should actively protect and support the country's culture and values.

Integration

The basic goal is to make the lack of will or ability to integrate so unpractical and economically non-beneficial that repatriation will be the only attractive option.

13) Immigrant women should be informed about their rights to divorce, women's shelters, family planning and police protection.
14) Immigrants should pay for their own integration programme. The programme should include education in democracy, human rights and women's rights. It should also include information about how to support one's children's integration and education.
15) Immigrants should pass tests on the language, history, and politics of their new country. Immigrants should pay all expenses for language training and examination.
16) Repatriation (state-paid emigration and resettlement) should be offered to all immigrants from non-Western countries.
17) Immigrants should be able to support themselves economically.
18) Immigrants should earn their right to free medical care, to economic support for education and to social benefits. Immigrants must pay their own interpreters.
19) Immigrants who do not speak the country's language at an acceptable level must pay for special education for their children, because the parents are not able to support the children's schooling.
20) Refugees should be offered safety, food and medical care in refugee camps close to their home country. A Western level of living standard in Western countries for refugees is far too expensive and not necessary.
21) The country should put a much greater effort in fighting benefit fraud and tax fraud (both of which are widespread among immigrants).
22) The country should improve possibilities for the protection of women and their children who are fleeing violent family members.
23) Immigrants should put down a large deposit when entering the country. The deposit will be used to pay fines, taxes, expenses in connection with deportation, etc., if the immigrant breaks the rules of the country.

More suggestions? Please send them to: nicolaisennels@gmail.com

"When the New York City Transit Authority accepted those [antisemitic] ads, they made it the forum. And now you cannot punish me because you do not like my message." Indeed.

The problem is that Pamela Geller's ads call the Palestinian jihadis "savage." But the word is well chosen, as she explains: "Everyone is shocked (shocked, I tell ya) by the use of the word savage for savages. The targeting of civilians is savage. The relentless 60-year campaign of terror against the Jewish people is savage. The torture of hostage Gilad Shalit is savage. The bloody hacking to death of the Fogel family is savage. Munich was savage. The unspeakable torture of Ehud Goldwasser is savage. The tens of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza into Southern Israel (into schools, homes, etc.) are savage. The vicious Jew-hatred behind this genocide is savage. The endless demonization of the Jewish people in the Pali and Arab media is savage. The refusal to recognize the state of Israel as a Jewish state is savage. The list is endless."

Biased mainstream media reports here and here.

A press release from David Yerushalmi:

Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C. Win Important Victory for the First Amendment & Conservative Blogger

CAIR-linked lawyer dismisses $10 million defamation suit against AtlasShrugs.com blogger Pamela Geller

For more information:
David Yerushalmi, Esq.
Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C.
ContactYerushalmiLaw@verizon.net
646.262.0500
www.davidyerushalmilaw.com

September 21, 2011 – New York, New York: Omar Tarazi, the Ohio lawyer who represented the parents of Rifqa Bary and who had filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against AtlasShrugs.com blogger Pamela Geller, has dismissed his lawsuit with prejudice. The dismissal came on the heels of a court document filed by David Yerushalmi of the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C., and Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, asking the court to enter a judgment in favor of Pamela Geller. The voluntary dismissal with prejudice prevents Tarazi from refilling the lawsuit at some later date and was part of a settlement in which Ms. Geller paid no money and only agreed to remove five specific blog entries out of dozens criticizing Tarazi’s involvement and handling of the Rifqa Bary juvenile proceedings.

Ms. Geller, who blogs from New York City, also refused to agree to keep the terms of the settlement confidential. As she put it, “This lawsuit was filed as part of the Islamist lawfare against critics of sharia, jihad, and honor killings, and I refused to capitulate. At the end of the day, Tarazi blinked and folded.”

Ms. Geller was unflinching in her assessment of the outcome of this suit: “This is a huge victory for the First Amendment, truth, and the anti-sharia movement in this country which is exposing an insidious cancer that brings progressives and Islamists together in common cause to attack anyone who criticizes Islamists with the threat of lawsuits, actual lawsuits, or worse, violence.”

Mr. Tarazi came under intense criticism by Ms. Geller during the Rifqa Bary litigation, which arose after the 17-year old Rifqa converted from Islam to Christianity and ran away from her Ohio home in the summer of 2009 to take refuge with Christian friends in Florida, alleging that her father threatened to murder her in an honor killing. The case garnered enormous media coverage both nationally and internationally and involved vituperative juvenile proceedings in both Florida and Ohio.

Ms. Geller blogged about the case extensively given her work at the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an organization Ms. Geller founded and directs, the mission of which in part is to protect young Muslim women from the violence of honor killings.

In the course of her blogging about the case, which also included a rally she organized in Ohio to advocate for Rifqa’s right not to return to her parent’s home, Ms. Geller reported on various stories published at My Pet Jawa and televised on Fox News critical of Mr. Tarazi’s legal representations in court. The central allegation against Tarazi was that he had allegedly perjured himself in court filings in the Ohio juvenile proceedings.

Mr. Tarazi filed his lawsuit in September 2010 against Ms. Geller and Rifqa’s Florida lawyer, John Stemberger, seeking $10 million in damages. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio based upon diversity of citizenship. Ultimately, Mr. Tarazi and Mr. Stemberger entered into a confidential settlement and Mr. Tarazi dismissed his complaint against Mr. Stemberger.

Soon after the lawsuit was filed, Ms. Geller’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss in November 2010, asserting that Ms. Geller’s comments were protected speech under Ohio Free Speech law and under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court never got around to ruling on that motion.

In the meantime, the parties conducted discovery and in August 2011, Mr. Tarazi filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that he believed he had made out his case for liability, and asked the court to grant judgment on liability and to set a trial just on the amount of damages.

On September 19, 2011, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise filed an opposition to Tarazi’s motion and argued that not only had Tarazi failed to make out a case of defamation, but also that all of Ms. Geller’s published statements were true and not defamatory. The 400+ page opposition detailed to the court just how Tarazi had been less than candid with the juvenile court, resulting in “truth” as a defense. In the opposition papers, Ms. Geller also raised Free Speech defenses and asked the court to award her judgment and to dismiss the lawsuit against her in its entirety.

The very next day, Tarazi called Mr. Yerushalmi and asked to settle. Although Tarazi sought to keep the terms of the settlement confidential, Ms. Geller refused.

Mr. Yerushalmi explained the calculus during the settlement negotiations which culminated in a voluntary dismissal the very same day: “I explained to Mr. Tarazi: you can walk away now with no money and no secrecy agreement, or you can wait until the court dismisses your suit and renders a formal judgment that you were not truthful to the Franklin County Juvenile Court. Take your pick.” The settlement agreement and voluntary dismissal with prejudice were negotiated, drafted, and filed with the court before the close of business.

Although Ms. Geller agreed to take down and not re-post five specific blog entries that directly mentioned and criticized Tarazi, dozens of critical blogs remain and there are no restrictions on Ms. Geller’s future blogging on the Rifqa Bary affair and Tarazi’s role.

One of the claims of defamation lodged by Tarazi was that Ms. Geller had linked him to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group, which the U.S. Department of Justice had previously named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial in Texas. The trial culminated in guilty verdicts for all defendants.

During discovery, Ms. Geller’s lawyers uncovered that Tarazi in fact has personal and professional links to CAIR and argued to the court that Ms. Geller’s statements linking Tarazi to CAIR could not be defamatory because they were true. (A copy of the memorandum is available at www.davidyerushalmilaw.com under Recent Events).

Tarazi, an Ohio licensed lawyer, represented himself during the proceedings. Ms. Geller was represented by David Yerushalmi of the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C. (New York and Washington, D.C.) and by Robert J. Muise, senior trial counsel to the Thomas More Law Center (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Patrick Dunphy of Falke & Dunphy, LLC, in Dayton served as local counsel.

About David Yerushalmi, Esq.

David Yerushalmi has been practicing law for more than 27 years. He is a litigator specializing in securities law, public policy relating to national security, and public interest law. Mr. Yerushalmi is licensed and practices in Washington D.C., New York, California, and Arizona and serves as General Counsel to the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., one of the nation’s leading national security think tanks founded by former Reagan administration official Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

Today on Hudson NY (via RaymondIbrahim.com) I discuss yet another example of Muslims in authority openly and unabashedly persecuting the innocent and weak, only to complain to the international community about the need for "human rights," when it serves their purposes:

In a globalized world where debate and diplomacy predominate, there is one sure way to discern the sincerity of any particular government: see how it behaves at home, where it is in power; see especially how it treats its minorities.

Consider the government of Iran. Gearing up for the Durban III Conference, supposedly against racism, scheduled to take place in New York City this week, Tehran and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad no doubt plan on complaining to the international community about Israel as in former conferences—portraying the Jewish state as “the most cruel and repressive racist regime,” a “barbaric” government that engages in “inhuman policies” against the Palestinians.

Yet what sort of government runs Iran—that is, how do Ahmadinejad and the mullahs behave on their own turf, where they are in control? One need only look to Iran’s daily domestic affairs to get a clear idea of what “barbaric,” “cruel,” and “inhuman policies” are truly like.

In the last few days alone, officials launched a Bible burning campaign, confiscating and destroying some 7,000 Bibles, many publicly burned, even as the mainstream media, which provided round-the-clock coverage on Terry Jones—one nonofficial American who destroyed one Koran—ignores a government’s mass Bible bonfires. Likening its tiny Christian minority to the “Taliban and parasites,” the regime is also in the process of “cracking down” on Christians, who make up less than 1% of the entire population.

The West’s endless supply of apologists —the sort who think it makes them appear “sophisticated” and “enlightened” to be tolerant of anything, so long as it doesn’t directly affect them—will likely argue that the Bible is just a book. As for “cracking down” on Christians, “Who knows,” these dedicated relativists will probably argue, “maybe Iran’s beleaguered Christian minority is just as bad as the Taliban?”

Here, then, is an indefensible example of Iran’s blatant savagery—proof that it should not cast stones until it joins the concert of civilized nations. According to Compass Direct News:

A pastor in Iran found guilty of leaving Islam awaits the outcome of a judicial investigation into his spiritual background to see if he will be executed or, if possible, forced to become a Muslim... The court-ordered investigation will take place sometime this fall to determine whether Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, 34, was a Muslim as a teenager before he became a Christian at 19....

They must have finally found the judge. Iran cut short its game of brinkmanship and psychological warfare against the hikers and their families, but got a handsome payday for doing so. "Iran frees jailed US hiker 'spies' Bauer and Fattal," from BBC News, September 21:

Two US men given an eight-year jail term by Iran for spying have been released on bail, reports say.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are believed to have been in a convoy including Iranian, Swiss and Omani cars which has left Evin prison.

The pair were arrested in 2009 after crossing into Iran from Iraq, where they said they were hiking, and were sentenced in September this year.

Iran's state news agency reports they have been flown out of the country.

The country's judiciary reportedly set each bail at five billion rials ($500,000).

The two men, both 29, left the prison compound just minutes after their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he had finished the paperwork for their release, obtaining the signatures of two judges on a bail-for-freedom deal.

He told AFP news agency the bail funds had been provided by the state of Oman, a US Gulf ally which has good relations with Iran.

"Immediately after their release, the two American nationals left for Mehrabad airport," the official Irna news agency reported.

It added that the Swiss ambassador to Tehran, who represents US interests in Iran, and a delegation from Oman were present when the hikers were released.

From Tehran's international airport, the pair are being flown to a third country, expected to be Oman.

It ain't over 'til it's over:

US officials said they would only release a statement on the developments once the men had left Iran. [...]

The release comes a day before Mr Ahmadinejad is expected in New York for a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

The rationale for declining to prosecute Abdul Nacer Benbrika largely seems to boil down to "Eh, we don't feel like it." The judge also opined that it would be "oppressive" to the jihadists, and "the oppression outweighs the public interest in trying the accused."

Surely their "hearts and minds" have been duly won.

First, a profile of who might be freed so soon: "Terror cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika headed twin cells," by Cameron Stewart for The Australian, September 21 (thanks to J):

The nation's two largest terror cells were linked by a common spiritual leader, joint terror training camps and close friendships between extremists in Melbourne and Sydney.

After a Victorian judge yesterday threw out a second round of charges against convicted terrorists, it can be revealed that self-proclaimed Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika was considered the central figure and the driving force behind both cells in Melbourne and Sydney.

The groups' targets were to have included a terrorist strike on the 2005 AFL grand final between the Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles, Melbourne's Crown casino during Grand Prix weekend in 2006 and Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

Benbrika, who is currently serving a minimum 12 years in jail for leading a terrorist organisation, was recorded telling one of his followers: "If we want to die for jihad, we have to have maximum damage. Maximum damage. Damage their buildings, everything. Damage their lives. To show them, we'll have to be careful."

The close links between the two extremist groups - potentially the most deadly in Australia's history - can be revealed for the first time after the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday threw out new charges against four members of the Melbourne cell and lifted 21 supression orders that had blanketed names and evidence from the twin trials in Melbourne in 2008 and Sydney in 2009.

Judge Terry Forrest rejected a proposed second trial for the four men, Benbrika, Aimen Joud, Fadl Sayadi and Ahmed Raad, who were charged with conspiracy to do acts in preparation of a terrorist act, as an abuse of the court process. All four had already been jailed for most of their criminal conduct and if found guilty, would not receive "significant additional terms of imprisonment".

"While I have found that this second prosecution was commenced in good faith, I consider the objective effect of trying each accused a second time is oppressive," Justice Forrest said.

The lifting of the supression orders, which had obscured from public view the shared purpose and co-operation between the groups, means that the full extent of Benbrika's network of extremist followers can be exposed.....

More: "Abdul Benbrika and other terrorists wanted to kill but can't be prosecuted," by Keith Moor for the Herald Sun, September 21 (thanks to Twostellas):

Radical Muslim cleric Abdul Benbrika has escaped trial over his plot to bomb Australia and he could walk free from jail in only six years.

One of his co-accused Melbourne terrorists already has been released and the other two are eligible to be freed in November.

The decision to abandon the case was made despite terror cell members associated with Benbrika ordering or buying all the chemicals and equipment needed to make a "Mother of Satan" bomb capable of killing hundreds.

Police planted many listening devices in the homes of various cell members and secretly recorded 16,418 hours of Benbrika and the Melbourne and Sydney cell members talking during a 16-month inquiry.

They also tapped hundreds of phones and monitored 97,480 calls between Benbrika and Melbourne and Sydney cell members in relation to their alleged plot to commit a terrorist act, which would not be put before a jury.

The police and legal costs associated with trying to get Benbrika and three of his followers to trial on conspiracy to commit a terrorist act charges were at least $20 million.

Police disappointed case scrapped

This morning police were philosophical that the case would not go ahead.

Acting Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said he could understand officers being "a little bit disappointed’’ the case against Benbrika and three other Melbourne terror cell members would not proceed. [...]

But Victorian Supreme Court judge Terry Forrest recently granted a defence application to permanently stay the conspiracy case against Benbrika, Joud, Sayadi and Raad, saying it would be "oppressive" to subject them to a second trial.

Police and prosecutors are privately disappointed the case has been abandoned as they consider the evidence against Benbrika and his three co-accused was overwhelming.

In handing down his decision to abandon the conspiracy to commit a terrorist act charges, Justice Forrest said if it had proceeded it would be "lengthy, complex and expensive".

Justice Forrest also found each of the men would not receive a significantly longer sentence if convicted in the second trial.

"I have concluded that the proposed conspiracy trial is an abuse of the court's process and that I ought to stay it permanently in respect of all accused," he said.

"The public interest in bringing the accused men to trial is diminished by the fact that they have already been prosecuted and punished for most of their criminal conduct and that they will not receive significant additional terms of imprisonment.

"While I have found that this second prosecution was commenced in good faith, I consider the objective of trying each accused a second time is oppressive.

"It is oppressive because each of the accused has already been the subject of a very lengthy first criminal trial involving at times unconscionably harsh conditions of incarceration and transport.

"I am satisfied that all four accused men have made out their individual cases for abuse of process on the basis of oppression.

It is a common jihadist practice to claim abuse and torture in custody. Al-Qaeda has provided step-by-step instructions.

"In each case, in my view, the oppression outweighs the public interest in trying the accused."...

Groups that are technically banned, they observe, not only roam free, but do so armed. Funny how that keeps happening. "Human rights commission blames govt inaction for anti-Shia violence," by Anita Joshua for The Hindu, September 21 (thanks to Twostellas):

Outraged by the targeted killing of 29 Shia pilgrims in Balochistan on Tuesday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday said persistent lack of action against “sectarian militant groups” had emboldened them. They were taken off a bus, lined up and shot down after scrutiny of their identity cards.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has claimed responsibility for the attack first on the pilgrims and then some of the ambulances that were going to their assistance. Given that sectarian violence has been going on for years now — particularly in Balochistan — and LeJ’s own agenda, the HRCP questioned the absence of action against the outfit which is technically banned in the country. “How do they still manage to roam free with their weapons and vehicles?”

Meanwhile, in Quetta, the government came under scathing attack for continued attacks on the community as Shias gathered for a mass funeral of those killed in the targeted killing.

In a statement, the HRCP said it was appalled by the gruesome killing of Shia pilgrims near Mastung and found the utter lack of protection for them outrageous, particularly when pilgrims travelling in the area — en route Iran to visit shrines there — had been attacked previously and were known to be at risk.

Referring to the provincial administration’s contention that the pilgrims had not informed the Home Department about their pilgrimage nor sought security, the HRCP said: “How convenient that instead of finding those who failed to perform their duty, the victims have been blamed. This just adds insult to injury.”

Describing Tuesday’s attack as a failure on many levels that once again exposed the diminishing writ of the state, HRCP asserted that “continued sectarian bloodshed across the country, particularly in Balochistan, is a direct consequence of the authorities’ perpetual failure to take note of sectarian killings in Quetta which have been going on for many years”

Of the view that official condemnations following such attacks are futile in the absence of follow-up action, the HRCP urged the government to move beyond rhetoric and its current casual and reactive approach to law and order challenges and start functioning as a responsible authority.

The Shia community of Quetta — was not even spared on Eid this year with a blast targeting them as they were returning from their prayers on August 31; killing ten people and injuring several others. What makes them all the more vulnerable in Balochistan is that they are predominantly Hazaras who have very distinctive Mongoloid features.

More on this story. "Islamists go on Dhaka rampage," from UCA News, September 20 (thanks to Twostellas):

Several hundred supporters of the country’s largest Islamist party went on the rampage in Dhaka yesterday during a protest to demand the release of several of their top leaders arrested on war crimes charges.

The crimes allegedly took place during Bangladesh’s fight for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to try and disperse members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, who were conducting a country-wide campaign yesterday against the imprisonment of their leaders, who were arrested amid a probe into individuals accused of collaborating with Pakistan and committing atrocities during the war.

More than 100 people including two dozen policemen were injured in the clash which, according to police, flared when the protesters suddenly became violent.

Jihad causes poverty:

At least 230 cars, including five police vehicles, were set on fire or attacked and many shops were vandalized during the trouble, police sources said.

Media reports said similar incidents took place in a number of districts across the country.

According to police, at least 120 people were arrested during the course of the Dhaka violence, which took place in the Kakrail district close to where St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Archbishop’s House and St. Joseph’s Seminary are located.

“I haven’t seen clashes like this for twenty years. We’re lucky no Church buildings were affected even though the road outside the cathedral looked like a battlefield,” said Father Kamal Corraya, the Dhaka archdiocesan social communications commission convener.

Archbishop Paulinus Costa of Dhaka wasn’t so lucky, having been struck by a stone in Ramna Park, which is next to the cathedral, just as the clash began.

The prelate was exercising in the park when he was struck and several seminarians went to his assistance, but luckily the prelate was unharmed, Archbishop’s House sources said.

Holy Cross Fr Pankaj Nokrek, who had travelled to Dhaka for a meeting yesterday, had to run for cover when the violence broke out.

“I had to run through tear gas and scenes of chaos. It was an awful experience, but at least I and some other people managed to find safety in a nearby house,” he said.

That defense should disintegrate with a look at the video.

An update on this story. "Atty: Muslim students' speech rights not absolute," by Amy Taxin for the Associated Press, September 21 (thanks to Northern Virginiastan):

SANTA ANA, California (AP) — Ten Muslim students broke the law by shouting down a speech by an Israeli diplomat at the University of California, Irvine in a carefully drafted and executed plan that flouted repeated calls to behave by campus officials, a prosecutor said Monday.

Defense attorneys countered that students acted within the law when they stood up, one by one, and read from pre-scripted statements and never intended to halt Ambassador Michael Oren from speaking about U.S.-Israel relations.

Attorneys delivered closing arguments in the case that has stoked a spirited debate about free speech not just in the courtroom but in the affluent suburban community south of Los Angeles.

Many of the facts of the case are not in dispute: The students carefully planned their February 2010 protest and were escorted out by security officials.

Jurors in the case will be asked to decide whether students broke the law or were exercising a right to demonstrate freely.

The students face misdemeanor charges of conspiring to disrupt a meeting and disrupting a meeting. If convicted, they could face sentences ranging from probation with community service and fines to a year in jail.

The case also raised questions about prosecutorial discretion, with some members of the public calling the trial a waste of taxpayers' money. Other community members have said the defendants were being singled out because they are Muslim.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Dan Wagner told jurors the students acted as censors to block the free flow of ideas and infringed on the rights of 700 people who had gone to the campus that evening to hear Oren. He said emails among members of the Muslim Student Union showed students were aware they could be arrested before the protest.

"The right to free speech is not absolute," Wagner said before a packed courtroom of more than 180 people in Orange County, with more observers waiting outside. "If hecklers' vetoes were allowed, then nobody, nobody, none of us would have the right to free speech."

Defense attorney Reem Salahi said the students followed a series of protests at UC Irvine and elsewhere during which demonstrators shouted during lectures but weren't arrested or sanctioned.

In this case, UC Irvine officials expressed their displeasure with students' actions during the demonstration but didn't give hard rules on what was or wasn't permitted, she said.

"This is merely an admonition to be polite," she said. "But in America, we don't prosecute people for being impolite."

This time, it's no big deal. Imagine the uproar if the shoe were on the other foot in this incident.

Salahi — who represents two of the defendants — said students never intended to stop Oren from speaking but instead wanted to express their views — perhaps unpopular that evening — on the Israeli government's actions in Gaza.

On Monday, Wagner and defense attorneys also showed dueling pie charts breaking down how much time the students demonstrated, how much time their supporters cheered, and how much time Oren spoke in an effort to prove whether the meeting suffered a significant disruption.

Duration alone is not the greatest indicator of the the magnitude or impact of the disruptions. The repeated disruptions have a cumulative effect. There is also the question of volume, and the number of people involved, as the disruptions in the video above were accompanied by a very loud cheering section.

On to theatrics:

Near the end of her argument, Salahi said she wanted to share a personal story related to the trial but Wagner objected and Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson said she couldn't proceed.

She paused for a moment then told the jury, "I can't tell you the story — I got shut down," to thunderous applause from the courtroom.

That brought an admonition Wilson, who said he would clear the courtroom if there was another outburst from the public....

According to Anjem Choudary, Cheryl Cole has commited an "act of aggression against Islam and Muslims." He attempts to tread a fine line, claiming there is a "covenant of security" between Muslims in Britain and the rest of the country, though "not everyone abides by that."

Authorities will have to decide whether his colleague at Muslims Against Everyone and Everything Crusades has fallen off that tightrope by calling her a "legitimate target," according to the original Daily Star report. Meanwhile, Choudary's organization has included a disclaimer on its press release that "We would like to reiterate that this press release is NOT a 'death threat'..."

Sure. "UK troops' 'sweetheart' Cheryl Cole gets death threat from al-Qaida" [sic], from Asian News International, September 18:

London, Sept 18 (ANI): Pop icon Cheryl Cole has become a "prime target" for al-Qaida after she visited the British troops in Afghanistan recently.

According to UK-based radicals, the 28-year-old singer has put herself in danger and could now be targeted by the Jihadis.

"I find it completely outrageous that Cheryl Cole can go to Afghanistan and start praising the soldiers when thousands of innocent men, women and children are being slaughtered by the Americans and their allies," inflammatory cleric Anjem Choudary told Daily Star Sunday in an exclusive interview.

"A large percentage of the population has been murdered. Far from going over there and supporting the war effort she should be condemning what is taking place in Afghanistan," he said.

"She has put herself in great danger by being such a high-profile visitor to the region. The more she is seen as the sweetheart of the forces and the more she is involved in Afghanistan, the more she will create enemies among the Muslims. She will only have herself to blame for the repercussions on her own security," he added.

Choudary also said that the singer would only have herself to blame for the repercussions on her own security.

Doublespeak:

"Obviously as Muslims living here in Britain we have a covenant of security with regard to the life and sanctity of everyone. But not everyone abides by that as we have seen with 7/7 and as we see almost on a daily basis around the world," he said.

"It is incredibly foolish of her to go to Afghanistan in relation to her public profile," he added.

Choudary's associate Abu Saalihah also said that Cole was a legitimate target and has been warned on Muslims Against Crusades' (an Islamist group) website.

The Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades, who are close linked to Choudary, warned Cole on their website saying, "Cheryl Cole has made the disastrous decision to go to Afghanistan in a bid to support and boost the morale of British soldiers presently fighting Muslims in Afghanistan. In a bid to improve her own public image, she has put her security and life at risk, Muslims will view this as an action of aggression against Islam and Muslims."

"Oh Cheryl, you were used by Ashley Cole, you were used by Simon Cowell, don't be used by the tabloid press and British government for a war that has nothing to do with you," the statement read.

Someone would have to be keeping up on filthy infidel pop culture to write that, eh, "Andy" Choudary?

Why not roses and lilies? From our Beyond Parody Department: "Why not Islamist radio station in Somalia giving guns, bombs to children," from the San Francisco Examiner, September 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Islamist militia-run radio station in Somalia said it is awarding guns and bombs to three children who won a Quran recital contest. Andulus radio station — operated by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab rebels — announced that the first prize winner in the contest received a rifle and $700, the second prize winner got a rifle and $500, and the third prize winner received two bombs. All three children also received Islamist books.

"Mustafa Abdul Jalil...told cheering crowds in Tripoli that Islamic shariah law would be the 'main source' of legislation in the new Libya." -- the Telegraph, September 12

"President Obama Praises Libya's Political Transition," by Michele Kelemen for NPR, September 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

President Obama met Libya's interim leader Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and held up the country as a model of what the U.N. can do to protect civilians from atrocities.

Obama also pledged continued support and encouraged Libya's new leaders to keep their promises to forge a just, democratic society....

Obama met with the chairman of Libya's Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, who is again asking for access to billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets. Abdul-Jalil also reassured the countries gathered at the U.N. that he's given Libyans clear orders not to seek retribution against Gadhafi's supporters.

"The Libyan authorities will bring to justice all accused of the Gadhafi regime before a just trial, and we will work for the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation over the coming period," he said.

"The entire world is watching you," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took the lead in supporting rebels in Libya. He told Tuesday's meeting at the U.N. that he has faith in the country's new leadership. British Foreign Secretary William Hague echoed that, saying the time is up for Gadhafi and his supporters....

In Human Events today I discuss the sad condition of mainstream journalism:

The International Islamic News Agency (IINA) reported Sunday that “in a bid to run correct news reporting about Muslims, two American universities have launched a project to teach journalists how to tackle Islam-related issues. ... Titled 'Covering Islam in America,' the project was co-launched earlier this week by Washington State University and the Poynter Institute’s News University.”

The course, we’re told, “is designed to prepare reporters to run accurate information when reporting about Muslims and Islam-related issues.” Developed by Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent, the course “covers a wide range of topics on Islam ranging from the Islamic teachings and the history of Muslim immigration to the role of women in Islam and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.”

We certainly could use some accurate information about Islam. The mainstream media is universally fawning and obsequious when it comes to reporting about the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. Journalists consistently downplay or ignore altogether the invocations of the Koran and Muhammad’s example that Islamic jihadists make on a routine basis, and continually assume that any Muslim who is not actively engaged in terror activity is a “moderate”—as the jihadist Imam Anwar al-Awlaki was dubbed in a glowing portrayal in the New York Times shortly after 9/11.

But that is not the kind of accurate information that this course is preparing journalists to supply. “We have no ax to grind, other than a desire to see accurate, balanced reporting of this topic,” Pintak insisted, but his courses is actually predicated on the assumption that Muslims and Islam are getting negative press coverage. That is, of course, howlingly absurd. After every jihad plot and jihad attack, journalists fill their publications with stories about pious, wise Muslims fearing a “backlash"—that never comes. As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approached, the mainstream media was full of stories about how wise, pious Muslims were bearing up after a decade of discrimination and harassment—despite the fact that hate crimes against Muslims are much rarer than hate crimes against Jews and others. News reports about Islamic jihad activity routinely characterize the perpetrators as “militants” or “insurgents,” or if they’re lone-wolf jihadis, as suffering from emotional or psychological problems—never as what they are, Islamic jihadis.

Ibrahim Hooper, old “Honest Ibe” himself, and others from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are frequently quoted in news stories as if they’re representatives of a neutral civil rights organization, while those who are trying to stem the advance of Sharia and Islamization in the West are just as routinely demonized in the press, hung with negative labels or undercut in their statements in a way that Hooper or Feisal Abdul Rauf or any of the others would never believe even possible....

There is more.

Obama continues to throw Israel to the wolves. "Turkey, Trying to Isolate Israel, Gets Cordial Treatment From Obama Administration," by Patrick Goodenough for CNS News, September 20 (thanks to Wimpy):

(CNSNews.com) – As Turkey’s leaders intensify efforts to isolate Israel internationally, the cordial treatment they are receiving from the Obama administration this week will add to concerns some Americans have about the strength of its support for Israel.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as “excellent” her talks in New York City on Monday with her Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu. President Obama is scheduled to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan there on Tuesday. All are in the city for this week’s U.N. General Assembly sessions.

The Clinton-Davutoglu meeting came a day after the Turkish foreign minister announced that his government had blocked an Israeli attempt to open a liaison office at NATO headquarters in Brussels – the latest in a string of moves aimed at punishing Israel over a deadly commando raid on a Turkish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists to the Gaza Strip in May 2010.

Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning government earlier this month angrily rejected a U.N. report on the incident that called the Israeli raid “excessive and unreasonable” but also described the attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory as “reckless” and concluded that the blockade was a “legitimate security measure.”

While Israeli leaders have expressed a desire to heal the rift between the one-time allies, Turkey imposed sanctions on Jerusalem and declared its intention to use all international forums to make its views on Israel known.

Erdogan used a high-profile tour of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya last week to repeatedly condemn Israel and throw his weight behind the Palestinian U.N. recognition bid. And Turkish media reported that a government minister, Egemen Bagis, staged a symbolic walkout of an international conference in Ukraine on Friday when Israeli President Shimon Peres was about to deliver a speech.

In a fresh development, Davutoglu told CNN’s Turkish channel on Sunday that Turkey had threatened to veto an Israeli application this month to open an office at NATO headquarters.

“We said we would veto this attempt and the issue was not even put on the agenda,” Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper quoted him as telling the news channel. It said Davutoglu also denied that Israel would benefit in any way from a recent decision to house a NATO missile defense radar on Turkish soil.

Early this month, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was asked about Turkey’s claim that it made non-intelligence sharing cooperation with Israel a condition of its decision to accommodate the radar.

“This is a NATO system, and it is designed to protect NATO,” she replied. Israel is not a member of NATO.

The 28-member transatlantic alliance takes decisions by consensus, and the blocking of an Israeli office in Brussels is not the first time in recent months Turkey has wielded its clout on issues of importance to Washington.

Last November it insisted that a key NATO document on missile defense not name Iran as a potential missile threat, and Erdogan also opposed NATO intervention in Libya last spring, before shifting stance as the crisis deepened.

In the CNN Turk interview, Davutoglu said it was too late for U.S. mediation between Turkey and Israel, and that Turkey would not relent on its insistence for an Israeli apology over the flotilla incident.

‘Turkey must choose where it belongs’

Following Monday’s almost hour-long Clinton-Davutoglu meeting, a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity that the secretary had “encouraged Turkey to keep the door open” on improving the strained relationship with Israel.

But asked whether Clinton had offered any specific ideas in that regard, the official said, “This is something they have to sort out between the two.”

The official rejected suggestions that Washington should make it clear to Turkey that the U.S. would side with Israel in the event of a confrontation.

“Both of these countries are longstanding and close friends and partners of the United States. And it’s not a question of taking sides; it’s a question of believing that we would benefit, and they would benefit, if they can repair the unfortunate breach in their relationship.”...

This is the kind of leader that the President of the United States should be. "Palestinian UN statehood gambit ‘counter-productive,’ Harper says," by Campbell Clark for the Globe and Mail, September 20 (thanks to Wimpy):

Stephen Harper is telling Palestinians to go back to the negotiating table with Israel if they want a sovereign state, rather than seeking recognition at the United Nations.

The Palestinian Authority’s campaign for a United Nations vote that would recognize their statehood – even if it has no effect on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza – is dominating discussions as world leaders descend on New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly.

Mr. Harper has made it clear that Canada will oppose the Palestinian bid, but he warned forcefully Tuesday that it could damage Mideast peace prospects, and appeared to put the onus on the Palestinian Authority to restart peace talks .

“I think there’s no likelihood of this initiative by the Palestinian Authority doing anything to further the peace process. I think it’s possible that it could be counter-productive,” Mr. Harper told reporters at UN headquarters in New York after a high-level conference on Libya.

“But I would say if the Palestinian Authority is serious about establishing a sovereign state, the method to do that is not a declaration here at the United Nations. It’s to get back to the negotiating table and negotiate peace with Israel.”...

What Muslim group has ever apologized for 9/11 itself? None of them. They all say it had nothing to do with them, and ignore how the 9/11 hijackers used the texts and teachings of Islam to justify the attacks.

In reality, no one is discriminating against Muslims. Some businesses have declined to change policies that have stood for decades in order to accommodate Muslim practices, and are duly being sued. And also in reality, hate crimes against Muslims are infrequent:

Anti-Jewish attacks 70% of hate crimes, anti-Muslim attacks 9% of hate crimes -- Senate to hold hearings on "anti-Muslim bigotry"

Just-released New York 2009 report: Hate crimes against Jews: 251. Hate crimes against Muslims: 11.

Backlash! Anti-Muslim hate crimes only eight percent of hate crimes, far less than those against Jews

And so in order to deflect attention away from jihad activity and try to portray Muslims as victims, so as to shame non-Muslims into not investigating or even being suspicious of further jihad activity, Islamic supremacist groups have resorted to making it up. Hamas-linked CAIR and other Muslims have not hesitated to fabricate "hate crimes." CAIR and other groups like it want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them for political points and as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.

And Quigley is playing right into the hands of Hamas-linked CAIR.

Video thanks to Pamela Geller.

Which causes more global outrage: a cartoon of a turban bomb, or real turban bombs causing real casualties? "Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani assassinated," by Laura King for the Los Angeles Times, September 20:

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan— Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed by a suicide bomber on Tuesday in his home in the capital, the latest in a series of high-profile assassinations to rock the country in recent months.

Rabbani was the head of a government panel set up last year to try to begin negotiations with the Taliban, and his death was seen as a serious blow to those still-nascent efforts.

The bomber, who apparently had explosives concealed in his turban, entered Rabbani's home in an upscale Kabul neighborhood on the pretext of visiting him, said Gen. Mohammed Zaher, the head of criminal investigation for the Kabul police.

The powerful blast injured at least two other people, Zaher said, possibly including at least one other member of the High Peace Council, as the reconciliation body was known.

The Associated Press reported that four of Rabbani's bodyguards were also killed, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

Rabbani served as Afghan president in the early-to-mid 1990s, and was the head of government at the time of the Taliban takeover.

He was a Tajik, one of Afghanistan's largest ethnic groups. Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Taliban or other insurgent groups, the killing is likely to heighten ethnic tensions. Most Taliban are Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group.

President Hamid Karzai's office said the Afghan leader was cutting short a visit to the U.N. General Assembly to return home.

Afghanistan's political climate, always violent, has become much more so in recent months.

Karzai's younger half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was assassinated by a close family associate in July. A close Karzai aide, Jan Mohammed Khan, was killed that same month, as was the mayor of the southern city of Kandahar, Ghulam Haidar Hamidi.

Earlier, he was said to be "vacationing." He must have partied hard, if you believe the official story. "Iranian Hikers' Release Is Delayed Again," by Kevin Dolak and Jim Sciutto for ABC News, September 20:

The release of the two U.S. hikers who have been jailed in an Iranian prison for over two years has been delayed again after the judge who must sign their release order didn't appear in court.

Masoud Shafii, the lawyer representing jailed Americans Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, arrived at court Tuesday -- the day the final judge needed to sign their release order was supposed to return from vacation -- but was told that the judge was not in.

"I went to the court as I was told [by the judiciary], but the judge whose signature we needed is not back to work yet … They said they will contact me as soon as the judge comes back to work," Shafii told ABC News.

The continued delay of the Americans' release may be a sign of a growing rift between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country's ruling clerics, who control the courts.

Ahmadinejad announced plans to release Bauer and Fattal on $500,000 bail each last week, just ahead of his appearance before the U.N. General Assembly. Though one judge signed the paperwork Saturday, Ahmadinejad left for his meeting in New York on Monday with the two American still behind bars.

Sources in Iran told ABC News that they believe that it is unlikely Bauer and Fattal will be released while the Iranian president is in New York. The delay may be a possible attempt by Ahmadinejad's political rivals to prevent him from gaining traction on the world stage.

Bauer and Fattal's release has been beset by mixed signals since Ahmadinejad indicated a fast-track release last week. Iran's judiciary, which is directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – swiftly reminded the public that only the courts have the power to control the release's timing....

The court found that Padilla's original sentence of 17 years did not take into account his training in an al-Qaeda camp. The defense is making all the allegations it can think of -- including that Padilla was drugged with LSD while in custody -- and may attempt to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. "Court says Padilla terror sentence was too lenient," by Curt Anderson for the Associated Press, September 19:

MIAMI (AP) — The 17-year prison sentence imposed on convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla is far too lenient for someone who trained to kill at an al-Qaida camp and also has a long, violent criminal history, a federal appeals court ruled Monday as it threw out the sentence.

A divided three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing for Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert convicted in 2007 along with two co-conspirators of several terrorism-related charges. Padilla, 40, was held for more than three years without charge as an enemy combatant before he was added to the Miami terror support case.

The ruling affirmed the convictions of Padilla, Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi on terrorism support and conspiracy charges. The sentences of Hassoun and Jayyousi — more than 15 years and more than 12 years, respectively — were also upheld.

Federal prosecutors objected in 2008 to Padilla's sentence and the appeals panel's majority agreed that U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who presided over the four-month trial, made several errors in essentially discounting his sentence by 12 years. Among the mistakes, the appeals court found, was not taking into account Padilla's training at the al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan.

"Padilla poses a heightened risk of future dangerousness due to his al-Qaida training," the judges ruled in a 73-page order. "He is far more sophisticated than an individual convicted of an ordinary street crime."

The judges also noted Padilla's 17 prior arrests, including involvement in a deadly fight as a juvenile, and ruled it was wrong for Cooke to use as a reference point several other terrorism cases in which defendants got relatively light sentences. The appeals panel also found error in Cooke's decision to reduce Padilla's sentence to account for his three-plus years at a South Carolina military brig as an enemy combatant.

"Although some downward variance is allowed in this circumstance, the district court abused its discretion," said the ruling written by the 11th Circuit Chief Judge Joel F. Dubina, who was joined by Circuit Judge William H. Pryor.

Dissenting was Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett, who found some problems with an FBI agent's testimony during trial and said that Padilla was not informed of his Miranda rights when he was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2002. Padilla was initially suspected of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S., but that allegation was discarded long before the trial.

In her 39-page dissent, Barkett also said she found no abuse of discretion in Cooke's sentencing of Padilla.

"The sentence imposed on Padilla should not be disturbed by this court, because doing so simply substitutes this court's sentencing judgment for that of the trial judge," Barkett wrote.

Padilla's attorney Michael Caruso said he would use Barkett's dissent to either ask the entire 11th Circuit to consider the case or take it directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We continue to believe that the government introduced improper evidence and violated Jose's rights," Caruso said. "Furthermore, Judge Cooke, who presided over Jose's case for years, imposed a fair and reasonable sentence."

The Miami U.S. attorney's office, which prosecuted the case, declined comment.

Padilla's lawyers tried before trial to get the case thrown out by claiming his treatment during his time at the brig amounted to torture, which U.S. officials have repeatedly denied. His attorneys say he was forced to stand in painful stress positions, given LSD or other drugs as "truth serum," deprived of sleep and even a mattress for extended periods and subjected to loud noises, extreme heat and cold and noxious odors.

His defense attorneys also tried to introduce "defensive jihad" as an excuse. The judge did not buy it.

Cooke ruled against Padilla and her decision was upheld Monday by the appeals panel.

"Official figures estimate that more than three million people were killed and thousands of women raped when West Pakistan sent in its army to stop the [Bangladeshi] independence movement."

"Bangladesh police clash with Islamist party supporters," by Anbarasan Ethirajan for BBC News, September 19:

Police in Bangladesh have fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse supporters of an Islamist party.

Members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party were protesting against the arrest of their leaders on war crimes charges.

The crimes were allegedly committed during the country's liberation war from Pakistan in 1971. All five leaders deny the accusations.

Officials said at least 50 people, including dozens of police officers, were injured in the clashes.

It was the first major clash between protesters and security forces since the Awami League-led coalition came to power in January 2009.

The protest was part of a country-wide agitation by Jamaat-e-Islami - the country's largest Islamist party - against the continued detention of their five senior leaders on war crimes charges.

"The protesters suddenly turned violent. They started throwing stones at our officers. Around 46 police officers were injured and many vehicles were set on fire," police spokesman Habibur Rahman told the BBC.

He said that about 120 Jamaat-e-Islami activists, including three senior leaders, had been arrested in connection with the violence in the capital Dhaka.

But a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami denied the police version of events.

"We were protesting in a peaceful way but the police suddenly started taking tough action," Dr Shafiqur Rahman, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, told the BBC.

"We never believe in this type of violence. It was a clear suppression of our right to protest."

Violence was reported in other protests by supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami in the southern port city of Chittagong and in other areas of Bangladesh.

East Pakistan became Bangladesh 40 years ago, after a bloody battle for independence.

Official figures estimate that more than three million people were killed and thousands of women raped when West Pakistan sent in its army to stop the independence movement.

Last year, the Bangladeshi government set up an International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka - to try those Bangladeshis accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces and committing atrocities.

So far, seven people, including two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and five from Jamaat-e-Islami party have been arrested. One of the BNP leaders has been given bail.

The two opposition parties accuse the government of carrying out a vendetta. They have also denounced the tribunal as a political show trial.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya would pose a threat to the ruling military establishment as well as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Even without this group as a formal political entity, however, disagreement over enforcement of the specific tenets of Sharia threatens to be a destabilizing force in Egypt. Since Sharia governs every aspect of Islamic life, there can always be more of it to enforce. As Imam Rauf knows, where they are believed to be Allah's own laws, Sharia's rules do not lend themselves to compartmentalization. Someone will always demand more and be willing to fight and overthrow governments to get it.

Meanwhile, as a formerly "militant" group, al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya's reaction bears watching. They "renounced" violence following an earlier uprising, but we may yet find out how much they meant it. "Egypt bars Islamist hard-liner political party," from the Associated Press, September 19:

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has barred formation of a new political party by an Islamist group that was once involved in a bloody insurgency against the government. Egypt's state news agency said the Political Parties' Affairs Committee rejected on Monday the request by al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya because its proposed party is based on "religious grounds in violation of the law".

It was also rejected because it advocates a strict interpretation of Islamic law, under which thieves can be punished by cutting off their hands and murderers can face beheading.

Amputation for theft is prescribed in Qur'an 5:38. That is why it keeps appearing where Sharia is enforced, and why Islamic groups keep demanding it.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, once Egypt's largest militant group, waged an insurrection against the government in the 1990s, but have since renounced violence.

Pakistan's own policy of attempts at steam control and leveraging of jihadist groups to its own purpose has increased the bloodshed suffered by its citizens. "Eight die in attack on Karachi police officer's home," from BBC News, September 19:

A bomb targeting the home of a senior police officer in Karachi has killed at least eight people, officials say.

A car packed with explosives blew up destroying a large part of the home of Chaudhry Aslam Khan, the chief of the crime investigation department.

He and his family were unhurt. Most of the dead were police guards posted outside the house.

He blamed the Taliban for the attack but there have been two claims of responsibility from militant groups.

In a way, it is surprising if there has never emerged a jihadist "troll" organization whose sole purpose for existing is to enrage other groups by claiming credit for their attacks. Then again, that would require something of a sense of humor.

One came from the Pakistani Taliban who said the attack was to avenge those militants they say were killed by Mr Khan and his forces.

Earlier, a little-known group, Al-Mukhtar - which admitted to having some links with the Taliban - said it had carried out the attack.

Counter-terror chief

Mr Khan said he had received threatening letters from militant groups including the Pakistani Taliban.

"They are cowards... They call themselves Muslims but they are unbelievers. This will make me even more determined to carry on operations against them," he said.

If only the rest of the government were so vociferous and determined against the Taliban.

"Such things do not scare me... I'm staying right here. They can try and come for me whenever they want and I'll be ready."

Correspondents say that Mr Khan is a well-known figure in Karachi, responsible for counter-torror [sic] operations in the city.

Since 2008, his unit has been involved in the arrests of dozens of militants - including would-be suicide bombers - planning attacks in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.

Some witnesses said the driver of the car rammed it into the gate of the house, causing the explosion. But the police said it was a suicide attack. Karachi's police chief, Saud Mirza, said that the attackers used 300kg of explosives.

A woman and her son who were passing their house on their way to school were among those killed....

Notably missing from this report is any plea on his behalf from Sudan. If Sudan indeed stood on the sidelines, it would certainly be in keeping with the Sudanese president's own statement that "Sharia law has always stipulated that one must whip, cut, or kill."

"Saudi Arabia beheads Sudanese 'sorcerer'," from Agence France-Presse and NOW Lebanon, September 19:

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man by sword in the western city of Medina on Monday after he was convicted of practicing sorcery, the Interior Ministry announced.

Abdul Hamid al-Fakki "practiced witchcraft and sorcery," which are illegal under Saudi Arabia's Islamic sharia law, said a ministry statement carried by state news agency SPA.

When reached for comment, a man claiming to have been turned into a newt said, "I got better."

In October last year, Amnesty International said it had appealed to King Abdullah in a letter to commute Fakki's death sentence.

His execution brings to 42 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally based on official and human rights group reports.

In June, London-based watchdog Amnesty International called on Saudi Arabia to stop applying the death penalty, saying there had been a significant rise in the number of executions in the previous six weeks.

It said 15 people were executed in May alone.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

"[Samuel] Huntington said the truth even though he was a liar, for the coming struggle is the clash of civilizations, and Islam will be victorious and rule the world with an Islamic caliphate." So says popular Muslim leader, Abu Shadi: "The Muslim Caliphate is Coming; Christians Must Choose Between Jizya, Conversion, or War," by Salah Labin for Tahrir News, September 1, translated by Coptic Solidarity:

“Nobody denies that the Salafi current has the greatest share in initiating the revolution, as it exposed to the people the loyalty of the Arab regimes to the West, their squandering of the resources of the Umma [Islamic Nation], and their failing to preserve its holy sites." This is what a leader of the Jihadi-Salafi current, Muhammad Mustafa, also known as "Abu Shadi", said, stressing that the Salafis never stayed away from politics, but rather applied it in accordance to their understanding of Sharia, and that they also played the role of "enlightening before revolutionizing," recognizing that popular revolts are the greatest means for change. Abu Shadi also confirms that he was one of Tahrir Square’s preachers during the revolution, and that Jihadi Salafism is present in Egypt, and in large numbers, in the millions, according to him.

In Abu Shadi's view, the street [i.e., the average Muslim Egyptian] is in complete agreement with Salafism, and the attack on the Salafis comes from the "enemies of Islam," or, in his opinion, "the forces of infidels and crusaders.” Moreover, he confirms, with confidence, that the Egyptian Islamic movements have the "mechanism to deal with the infidels".. Abu Shadi sees that it was only fear, and perhaps error [of judgment], which led some Salafi preachers to call against going out [to protest] against Mubarak. He pointed out that Mubarak fought Islamists, and harmed Islam, because he helped the crusaders occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that "there is no obedience to whoever does not govern according to Sharia." For him, the conditions to be a ruler of a Muslim state are to be Muslim, masculine, and possess [religious] knowledge—even to the degree of being an exegete.

He called upon the Islamic movements to carefully distinguish between believers and infidels. The leading Salafi explains: "We do not transgress against the Nassara [or “Nazarenes,” the Quranic appellation for Christians], but they must either pay jizya [tribute, and assume inferior status], convert to Islam, or war. He adds: [Samuel] Huntington said the truth even though he was a liar, for the coming struggle is the clash of civilizations, and Islam will be victorious and rule the world with an "Islamic caliphate"... Abu Shady belittles the symbols of secularism in the "lands of Muslims," describing them as few [in number], and points out that there is confusion among the people regarding "the fact that they are infidels.” He threatened that a statement will be shortly published by the Salafis, revealing the truth about them [the secularists], which "will make the masses beat them with shoes, for we must fight them because they are in the trench of infidelity,” according to the Salafi leader..."

That, of course, is not what the PA emphasized in this case, portraying her as a victim because she has a total of seven sons in Israeli prisons.

For reasons the PA did not exactly intend, she indeed could not be a better symbolic choice to personify their bid for statehood, combining propaganda, deception, claiming victim status, and the evasion of accountability all in one package.

"Mother of 4 terrorist murderers chosen by the PA to launch statehood campaign," by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, September 18:

The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others, as the person to launch their statehood campaign with the UN. In a widely publicized event, the PA had Latifa Abu Hmeid lead the procession to the UN offices in Ramallah and to hand over a letter for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

The official PA daily reported that she launched the UN campaign last week, and noted that she is the "mother of seven prisoners and of the Shahid (Martyr) Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Hmeid." However, the paper did not mention that 4 of her imprisoned sons are murderers.

Palestinian Media Watch reported last year that Abu Hmeid then had 4 sons in Israeli prisons who were each serving between two and seven life sentences, a total of 18 life sentences. At that time she was in the news because the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, decided to honor her with an award, "the Plaque of Resoluteness and Giving... inscribed with the names of her four sons who are imprisoned."

Remember, these are supposed to be the "moderate" guys:

The PA minister explained then why the mother of 4 murderers of Israelis deserves such honor:

"It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor."

The four sons are serving a total of 18 life sentences for the following crimes:

Nasser Abu Hmeid - 7 life sentences + 50 years - commander in Fatah's military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Ramallah. Convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders.

Nasr Abu Hmeid - 5 life sentences - Member of terror faction of Fatah, Tanzim, and convicted of involvement in two terror attacks and arms dealing.

Sharif Abu Hmeid - 4 life sentences - a member in one of the brothers' units carrying out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. Accompanied a suicide bomber to his attack in March 2002.

Muhammad Abu Hmeid - 2 life sentences + 30 years - involvement in terror attacks.

A fifth son, Abd Al-Mun'im Muhammad Yusuf Naji Abu Hmeid, the one referred to as "Martyr," was a member of the military wing of Hamas, Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, and planned and carried out the ambush and murder of an Israeli intelligence officer.

PMW has not been able to determine for which crimes the rest of the sons are imprisoned.

The following are the reports about the mother of the terrorists launching the PA statehood campaign:

PA TV News interviews Abd Al-Mun'im Wahdan, a member of the "Palestine - the 194th state" national campaign:

Wahdan: "We of the 'Palestine - the 194th state' national campaign [calling for] a Palestinian state with full sovereignty on the territory of Palestine, send a delegation from institutions, organizations, and popular factions. This delegation was headed by Um Nasser Abu Hmeid - this fighter woman, who is the mother of seven prisoners and the mother of the heroic Shahid (Martyr) from the [military wing of Hamas] Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. This campaign included a letter in which the people demand that the UN recognize Palestine as a state with full sovereignty, like the other countries." [PA TV (Fatah), Sept. 8, 2011]

"The 'Palestine - the 194th State' campaign has embarked on its national activities in support of realization [of the appeal to the UN] in September and obtaining UN membership for the State of Palestine, by conveying a letter to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, via his representative in Ramallah. The campaign started out opposite the UN building in Ramallah, with the participation of a number of heads of factions and national forces, representatives of official and popular institutions, independent personalities, and members of trade unions. Hajja Latifa Abu Hmeid, mother of seven prisoners and of the Shahid (Martyr) Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Hmeid, handed the letter to the representative of the UN Secretary General in Ramallah." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 9, 2011]

"[In a procession which set off] yesterday from opposite the Cultural Auditorium in Ramallah in the direction of the UN representative office in Ramallah, the 'Palestine - the 194th State' national campaign was inaugurated... when Latifa Abu Hmeid, known as the 'mother of the prisoners', handed over a letter addressed to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, via his representative in Ramallah... She was chosen [for this] because she is a symbol of Palestinian suffering as a result of the occupation's (i.e., Israel's) policy... She is the mother of prisoners Muhammad Abu Hmeid and his brothers Nasr, Nasser, Sharif, Basel, Islam and Jihad. She is prevented from seeing her sons who are sitting in the occupation's prisons." [Al-Ayyam, Sept. 9, 2011]

That'll show those jihadists how serious British authorities are. The Revolting Geek of Mass Proportions himself, Adam Gadahn, has already remarked on this phenomenon: "If it's Allah's will that you be captured, then it's not the end the world, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison," and "Over these past few years, I've seen the release of many, many Mujahideen whom I had never even dreamed would regain their freedom."

Britain is obviously less safe if prison sentences for jihadists lose whatever deterrent power they may still have. "'Invisible ink' al-Qaeda plotter released early from prison," by Martin Evans for the Telegraph, September 19:

Habib Ahmed, 32, was convicted after being caught smuggling code books written in invisible ink into the country.

He was part of a British terror cell, headed by Rangzieb Ahmed, that police believe were planning a massacre in Britain.

But despite being jailed for ten years in December 2008, he has now been released and is living at a bail hostel in Manchester.

During his trial the court heard how Ahmed downloaded a document called “a study of assassination” and looked up bomb-making techniques.

He was caught when British Customs found notebooks containing names and phone numbers of key al Qaeda figures as he flew from Dubai to hand them to Rangzieb.

Ahmed was arrested in 2006 and so had spent five years in prison including time spent on remand.

A spokesman for the National Offender Management Service said: “Serious offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions and controls.”

Exactly how would Israel benefit from yet another regime in the region being replaced by an even more hostile one? That's the handy thing about conspiracy theories, of course: they do not have to make sense, and even evidence against the conspiracy is somehow evidence of the conspiracy's existence.

"Algeria links uprising call to Camp David peace accords," from Middle East Online, September 15 (thanks to Twostellas):

ALGIERS - Foreign parties linked to Zionists are behind an online campaign urging Algerians to stage anti-government protests this weekend, Algeria's interior minister told local media Thursday.

Since late August, a call for an "Algerian revolution on September 17, 2011" has circulated on Facebook encouraging young people to flood the streets in opposition to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's regime.

"Had it been people inside (the country), we would have exposed and arrested them, but the clues point us toward foreign parties in relation with the Zionist entity," Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia told the Ennahar daily newspaper.

The "proof":

The "proof", according to Ould Kablia, is that date chosen for the uprising is the anniversary of the Camp David peace accords, signed by Egypt and Israel on September 17, 1978.

The minister further noted that the massacres of Palestinian refugees carried out by an Israeli-allied Christian militia at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon happened on the 16th and 17th of September, 1982.

"The choice of September 17 is no accident for the enemies of the Arab people," Ould Kablia told the paper.

"The calls are failing to elicit any response and there won't be any demonstrations or any trouble on this date," he said.

Protests in Algeria, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, intensified at the start of the year, but were effectively suppressed by the government.

Since then scores of political and social movements have emerged across the country, prompting Bouteflika to create a presidential panel that is currently weighing reforms.

Since the holy fasting month of Ramadan ended in August, riots broke out over insufficient housing.

"The arrests are thought to be the most significant this year." But just remember: the real problem is "Islamophobia." Just keep repeating it, and eventually it will come true: the real problem is "Islamophobia." The real problem is "Islamophobia." The real problem is "Islamophobia." "Seven held in Birmingham anti-terror operation," from the BBC, September 19 (thanks to Steven):

Six men and a woman have been arrested in Birmingham in a large anti-terrorism operation, West Midlands Police say.

The men, aged between 25 and 32, are being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK.

The woman, 22, is held on suspicion of failing to disclose information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000.

The arrests are thought to be the most significant this year, BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said.

It is understood the investigation, which has involved security service MI5, relates to suspected Islamist extremism.

But the arrests are not thought to be related to the Liberal Democrats' conference which is taking place at the city's International Convention Centre....

Earlier this year, Hollywood cancelled making a movie in Sweden about Jews, because they estimated that "Sweden [is] a VERY unsafe place for the Jewish community due to the large and increasingly hostile community of Muslims.” During the 2nd World War, Sweden was a safe haven for Jews. Now Jews have to flee Sweden because of Muslim immigrants' hateful and violent anti-Semitism.

Finally, the Swedish government takes action. Not by limiting immigration of Islamic supremacists, but by spending a (ridiculously small) amount of money on the "protection of Jews":

From the Swedish government's official homepage:

Four million kroner (620,000 USD) for security of Jewish minority

Press release, September 5th 2011
Department of Work

The Government will spend four million kroner in 2012 on increasing the security and decreasing the vulnerability of the Jewish minority. Research shows that even though tolerance is increasing in society, anti-Semitic views have not decreased to the same extent. The Jewish minority is the subject of anti-Semitic hate crimes and harassment. Even children are harassed in everyday life. Many Jews in Sweden are afraid of openly showing that they belong to the Jewish minority.

This family abruptly fled the country shortly before 9/11, "leaving behind three vehicles, food in the refrigerator and toys in the swimming pool." Mohammed Atta may have visited their home. The FBI insists they had nothing to do with the 9/11 jihad plot, and has been extremely reticent about sharing information about their investigation.

Just how compromised is the FBI? First we see their full retreat from telling anti-terror investigators the truth about Islam after a hard-Left journalist and Hamas-linked CAIR complained, and now this. "FBI: No link between Sarasota family and 9/11 plot," by Dan Christensen for The Miami Herald, September 16 (thanks to Ken):

A top Florida FBI agent said Thursday that members of a Saudi family living quietly near Sarasota were questioned after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but no evidence was found that linked them to the hijackers who slammed jetliners into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

A week after The Miami Herald published a story showing ties between the family and some of the terrorists, Tampa’s head FBI agent, Steven Ibison, released a statement Thursday saying the FBI investigated “suspicions surrounding” the Sarasota home, but never found evidence tying the family members to the hijackers.

“There was no connection found to the 9/11 plot,” said the statement, released to the St. Petersburg Times.

The agency’s statement came just days after U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., asked for a House investigation into the events surrounding the Sarasota family, which abruptly left the home several days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leaving behind three vehicles, food in the refrigerator and toys in the swimming pool.

The FBI’s official version, the second in a week, conflicts sharply with reports from people who worked at the homeowners’ association and a counterterrorism officer who joined the investigation.

A senior administrator at the luxury community told The Herald that cars used by the 9/11 hijackers — the tag numbers noted by security guards at the gate — drove to the entrance asking to visit the family at various times before the attacks. One of the cars was linked to terrorist leader Mohamed Atta, said administrator Larry Berberich.

In addition, a counterterrorism officer who requested anonymity said agents also linked telephone calls between the home and known hijacking suspects in the year before the attacks.

So far, the FBI’s response to the discovery has drawn criticism from former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who said he was never told of the Sarasota investigation when he was co-chair of the congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. Thursday’s FBI statement said the agency provided all the information to the congressional inquiry.

Graham, who appeared on national television this week, said the FBI failed to provide information in the years after 9/11 linking members of the terrorist team to other Saudis in California until congressional investigators discovered it themselves.

“It was not because the FBI gave us the information. We had a very curious and effective investigator who found out,” Graham told the MSNBC cable television network.

In an appearance Monday on MSNBC, Graham said he spoke with President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism advisor. He said he has gone to the White House’s chief of counterterrorism to ask that the administration look into the Sarasota case.

Oh, that's gonna help.

The FBI, which has not released any results of its investigation, said family members who lived in the home owned by Saudi financier Esam Ghazzawi were tracked down and interviewed about the case after the attacks.

It was not clear from Thursday’s statement whether the FBI or Saudi intelligence conducted the interrogations. The family was believed to have flown to Saudi Arabia after briefly stopping in Virginia several days before Sept. 11....

Where in Virginia, and for what purpose?

According to the Danish police, you are not allowed to wear a hat or a cap on passport pictures. But you are allowed to wear an Islamic veil that covers both your hair, your ears and the general contour of your head:

See step 3 and step 4 as outlined by Nicolai Sennels here. "Islamic Sharia Law Court Opens in Belgium," by Soeren Kern in Hudson New York, September 15 (thanks to David):

An Islamic Sharia law court has been established in Antwerp, the second-largest city in Belgium.

The Sharia court is the initiative of a radical Muslim group called Sharia4Belgium. Leaders of the group say the purpose of the court is to create a parallel Islamic legal system in Belgium in order to challenge the state's authority as enforcer of the civil law protections guaranteed by the Belgian constitution.

The Sharia court, which is located in Antwerp's Borgerhout district, is "mediating" family law disputes for Muslim immigrants in Belgium.

The self-appointed Muslim judges running the court are applying Islamic law, rather than the secular Belgian Family Law system, to resolve disputes involving questions of marriage and divorce, child custody and child support, as well as all inheritance-related matters.

Unlike Belgian civil law, Islamic Sharia law does not guarantee equal rights for men and women; critics of the Sharia court say it will undermine the rights of Muslim women in marriage and education.

Legal experts say the Islamic court will also undercut the state's ability to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of so-called honor crimes. In 2007, for example, Belgium outlawed the practice of forced marriage. Those convicted of forcing someone into marriage by violence or coercion face a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine of up to €2,500 ($3,500). This law is likely to be undermined as Muslim marriage disputes come under the jurisdiction of the Sharia court.

Sharia4Belgium says the court in Antwerp will eventually expand its remit and handle criminal cases as well.

The Sharia4Belgium group consists of Islamists who are committed to bring everyone living in Belgium (including all non-Muslims) under the submission of Islamic Sharia law....

Read it all.

All over Europe, Islamic parallel societies are developing. Many of them seem to move towards becoming Gaza-like areas, characterized by overpopulation, a low level of education, high crime rates, racism against Jews and other non-Muslim groups, an Islamic political and economic infrastructure, and a general hateful and often violent attitude against non-Islamic authorities and the surrounding non-Islamic areas.

This is the five-step evolution model of how European areas develops into violent areas violently fighting for autonomy and secession. Each steps naturally leads to and supports the next.

1) Social housing areas. Low income and the natural wish to live with people of same faith and culture lead Muslims to move together into areas with cheap apartments. Social housing areas thus develop into Muslim areas.

2) Muslim areas. Muslim culture and religion become dominant in the areas, which allows Islamic values to take root. Muslim areas develop into Islamic areas.

3) Islamic areas. Homemade sharia courts, police-like groups of adult men, imams, and Islamic havala banking appear. An unofficial political and economic Islamic infrastructure is in place, and its political identity and influence grows.

4) Political areas. Demands for official recognition of the unofficial religious infrastructure appear. Islamic areas develop into political forces that are steering towards conflict with secular laws.

5) Violent areas. Religious fanatics see it as their religious right to use threats and violence in order to get their demands fulfilled. They are born and raised in the country, they have citizenship, and they feel they have just as much right to live as they wish to as democratic-minded citizens feel. Besides: According to the Quran, it is a sin to submit to secular law and non-Islamic authorities. Islamic politics has developed into a continuous conflict, that often erupts into violence.

Examples

Islamic areas in China, Thailand, Russia, the Balkans and Africa already reached step five many years ago. Dozens of countries surrounding the birthplace of the Muslims' prophet were once Christian, Hindu, Buddhist etc. -- but have now reached step 6: Severe lack of human rights especially for women, no free speech, no real democracy, no scientific development etc. In short: they have become Islamic countries.

In Europe, thousands of cities already have Muslim areas. Hundreds of European cities have Islamic areas. Islamic organisations already made political demands that a handful of European areas should receive autonomy under Sharia law. A scenario in which Islamic supremacists will forget about their demands and not use undemocratic methods in order to reach their goal is unlikely.

Solutions?

A few reasonable solutions:
- Immigration from non-Western countries must be stopped.
- Illegal immigration must be punished with prison and fine.
- Repatriation (state-paid emigration and resettlement) should be offered to all immigrants from non-Western countries.
- Islamization must be stopped, in order to make resident Islamic supremacists feel "homesick" and to counter development of Islamic areas and values in our societies.
- The crushing power of secular law, secular police and secular Justice must be enforced in order to -- by all means -- reinstate law and order in lawless areas.
- All who are voluntarily involved in the use of Sharia courts and honour-related crimes must be punished.
- Lack of will or ability to integrate must be made so unpractical and economically non-beneficial that repatriation will be the only tempting offer (immigrants should: pay for their own interpreters; earn their right to free medical care, education, social benefits, etc.; pay for special education for their children if they as parents cannot speak the language, and thereby support their childrens' schooling, etc.).
- Immigrants should only be offered citizenship if at least one of their parents have citizenship. They can stay as long as they can support themselves and obey the law, but we have enough citizens already.
- Refugees should be offered safety, food and medical care in refugee camps close to their home country. A Western level of living standard in Western countries for refugees is far too expensive and not necessary.

Curiously, terrorism charges against those who were arrested "were later changed to preparing murder [,] and the prosecutor said it related only to one individual." It is not entirely clear from the wording of that sentence whether the defendants were believed to be targeting only one person, or if only one of the three is to face the most severe charges.

However, one will recall that earlier reports focused on Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks as a possible target, and an arts center was evacuated on the night of an event Vilks had at one point stated that he would attend.

"Swedish security police raid mosque in Goteborg," from the Associated Press, September 18:

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden's security police raided the administrative office of a mosque in the country's second largest city , the force said on Sunday. Security police spokeswoman Sirpa Franzen said Thursday's raid against the Bellevue Mosque in Goteborg was prompted by prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstrom, who heads the investigation against three men arrested on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Mosque officials weren't immediately available for comments.

Franzen declined to say if the raid was connected to the arrests and wouldn't give more details. The force only confirmed the operation, following a report in a GT tabloid.

The men, of Somali and Iraqi origin, were arrested as around 400 people were evacuated from an arts center and were initially suspected of plotting a terrorist attack. However, the charges were later changed to preparing murder and the prosecutor said it related only to one individual....

This development drags out the current situation until at least Tuesday. What happens after that is anyone's guess. An update on this story. "Deal to free 2 Americans jailed in Iran hits snag," by Barbara Surk and Nasser Karimi for the Associated Press, September 18:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A bail-for-freedom deal for two Americans jailed as spies in Iran hit a snag Sunday because a judge whose signature is needed on the bail papers was on vacation, the prisoners' lawyer said, dashing hopes for their immediate release.

The attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he could not complete the paperwork on the $1 million bail deal because a second judge who must sign the documents is on vacation until Tuesday. One judge already signed the papers Saturday.

"I have no choice but to wait until Tuesday," Shafiei told The Associated Press.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29 years old, have been jailed for more than two years in a case that has deepened the mistrust between Iran and the United States.

They were detained along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 with their friend Sarah Shourd. She was released last September with mediation by the Gulf nation of Oman after $500,000 was paid.

Iran still officially maintains they were spies. Only the Iranian officials know if they are actually that paranoid, or just brutal opportunists.

The men were convicted of spying for the United States and illegally entering Iran and were each sentenced last month to eight years in prison. They denied the charges and appealed the verdicts, opening the way for the possible deal to free them in exchange for $500,000 bail each.

They say they were just hiking in Iraq's scenic north and may have mistakenly crossed an unmarked border with Iran.

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Saturday the courts are willing to commute the Americans' sentences in the "near future" as a gesture of Islamic mercy, but did not say when the pair could be released.

However, Mohammed Javad Larijani, the head of Iran's Human Rights Council and a brother of the country's head of the powerful judiciary, said the men's "crime was not limited to illegal trespassing." Bauer and Fattal were spying for the U.S. and "we do not award the spies," Larijani told the semiofficial Fars news agency Sunday.

The mixed signals could reflect the bitter internal political feuds inside Iran between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country's ruling clerics, who control the courts. Ahmadinejad and his allies are accused of trying to challenge the power of Iran's Islamic establishment.

The first word of the bail plan for Bauer and Fattal came earlier this week from Ahmadinejad, who said the Americans could be freed in a matter of days. But Iran's hardline judiciary then responded that the bail provisions were still under review....

"I think that what we're doing is what we should be doing as a school board and that is accommodating students' needs no matter what their religion is." Still, I doubt that the same policy would have been implemented for Christian or Jewish or Hindu students. Can the Toronto District School Board point to any school in which any comparable accommodation has been made for any non-Muslim students?

"Tempers flare over prayer in schools," from the CBC, September 18 (thanks to Ima):

Two sides squared off outside Toronto District School Board headquarters Saturday over religious prayer in classrooms.

A rally held to recognize the Toronto District School Board for allowing rights and freedoms turned into a shouting match Saturday between religious groups.

About 200 people squared off outside the Toronto District School Board's head office, concerned about Muslim prayer in the city's public schools.

Groups including the Jewish Defence League of Canada, the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and the Christian Heritage Group, are upset that a middle school in the city's north end has provided Muslim students cafeteria space for a weekly prayer service, saying the board showed favouritism to Islam.

Chris Andrewsen who organized what was supposed to be a day of appreciation for the TDSB, said they should be allowed to express their beliefs.

"If we are religious people then we should be allowed to express that. It's not an imposition on other people," Andrewsen said.

But some opponents say allowing students to pray on school property goes against the school board's policy that schools should be a place of study free from cultural or religious influence. While others say the right should be left open to all groups.

"We want respect for all religions. We want the Toronto District School Board to be consistent and stop discriminating [against] one religion over others," said Tony Costa, who is part of a multi-faith coalition opposed to Islamic prayer services in public schools.

Despite the opposition, school board officials say they will continue to allow the prayer inside the school....

Valley Park Middle School opened up cafeteria space for the Friday service three years ago after it noticed that Muslim students who left to attend midday services at a nearby mosque often failed to return to classes.

The prayer session is led by a local imam. The cost of the service, available for the more than 300 Muslim students at the school, is paid for by the Muslim community.

"I think that what we're doing is what we should be doing as a school board and that is accommodating students' needs no matter what their religion is," said Gerri Gershon, a Trustee for Don Valley West, where Valley Park Middle School is located.

Woman with head uncovered: sin. Destroying that woman's life and seriously injuring her by spraying acid in her face because her head is uncovered: not a sin. "Acid attacks: 7 women burned in two days," by Shamsul Islam in the Express Tribune, September 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

FAISALABAD: A total of seven women suffered acid attacks in the past two days in Faisalabad in separate incidents.

According to police officials, a first-year student suffered serious burns after being attacked in the limits of Police Station City Jaranwala. First year student Tayyiba was on her way back home from a local tuition academy when students Ali Raza and Hamza allegedly chased her and threatened her life.

“Both boys go to the same college as me and they were heckling me for not wearing a dupatta on my head. They tried to grab me and when I yelled at them they attacked me with acid,” Tayyiba told police officials before being admitted to the hospital. “She said that both men had said she ‘deserved for her face to be ruined because she had not covered her head’,” Station House Officer Malik Zafar Iqbal said.

The victim’s parents filed a complaint and approached the parents of the accused. “Instead of asking for forgiveness they opened fire on us and we barely managed to escape,” Tayyiba’s father Asad said. Area police filed a case on the report of Adnan, a brother of the victim, after having registered a case against the accused under Section 324, 511, & 34 PPC but no arrest has been madeso [sic] far. In another incident, a man and his two friends allegedly threw acid at his wife and five other women from her family. According to police officials, Chak 132 GB Dijkot resident Umar Hayat attacked his wife Nabila and five women of her family after she refused to leave with him. “The couple had quarrelled after he beat her several times. She came home saying she feared for her life and when he came to take her back she refused to leave,” Nabila’s father Muhammad Munir said. “He told her he would never hit her again if she left with him and when she refused he threw acid on her and all the other women,” he added.

Umar also attacked five women of Nabila’s family, who refused to let him take her from their house near the Nawan police station. Neighbours said that Umar Hayat had made several attempts to reconcile with his wife Nabila and had also approached elders and a Panchayat to intervene on his behalf.

“She refused to return with him. She kept saying that he beat her and that she did not want to put her life in danger,” a neighbour Manzoor said. On Thursday night, Umar Hayat, along with two of his accomplices, forced entry into the house of his in-laws by breaking the door when the family were asleep. Hayat sprayed acid on his wife Nabila, sisters-in-law Shakila Munir and Razia, mother in-law Riaz Bibi and Nazia, the wife of his brother in-law. The victims sustained serious injuries to their face and bodies.

All the burnt victims have been admitted to the Gojra Civil Hospital and are reportedly in serious condition. Three of the victims have sustained over 80 percent burns and are in critical condition.

“Three women are in critical condition and their faces have been completely burnt but the others are in recovery and have been admitted to the burns unit,” said Dr Rizwan Basheer. The condition of Skakila Munir is stated to be serious and she has been shifted to Allied Hospital....

These courses are predicated on the assumption that Muslims and Islam are getting negative press coverage. That is, of course, howlingly absurd. After every jihad plot and jihad attack, journalists fill their publications with stories about pious, wise Muslims fearing a "backlash" -- that never comes. As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approached, the mainstream media was full of stories about how wise, pious Muslims were bearing up after a decade of discrimination and harassment -- despite the fact that hate crimes against Muslims are much rarer than hate crimes against Jews and others. News reports about Islamic jihad activity routinely characterize the perpetrators as "militants" or "insurgents," or if they're lone-wolf jihadis, as suffering from emotional or psychological problems -- never as what they are, Islamic jihadis. Ibrahim Hooper, old "Honest Ibe" himself, and others from Hamas-linked CAIR are routinely quoted in news stories as if they're representatives of a neutral civil rights organization, while those who are trying to stem the advance of Sharia and Islamization in the West are just as routinely demonized in the press, hung with negative labels or undercut in their statements in a way that Hooper or Faisal Abdul Rauf or any of the others would never believe even possible.

And yet after all this, we're told that Americans still have a negative view of Islam? That isn't because of biased media coverage. That's because of Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; and Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; and Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; and Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; and Nidal Hasan, the successful Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; and Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; and Naveed Haq, the jihad mass murderer at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle; and Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; and so many other Islamic jihad murderers and would-be murderers in America.

No number of seminars, no blizzard of fawning press coverage, is going to erase the impression those men and others like them have made upon non-Muslims in America. But I am sure academics and journalists will keep trying.

"USA/Islam-Press: US Journalists Taught How to Cover Islam," from IINA, September 18:

WASHINGTON, 20 Shawwal/18 Sept (IINA)- In a bid to run correct news reporting about Muslims, two American universities have launched a project to teach journalists how to tackle Islam-related issues.

“In our increasingly polarized media landscape, having the facts about any topic is vital to good journalism,” said Howard Finberg, director of interactive learning at the Poynter Institute, reported Ahlul Bayt News Agency.

“And this is especially important when covering topics such as religion.”

Titled “Covering Islam in America”, the project was co-launched earlier this week by Washington State University and the Poynter Institute’s News University.

The course is designed to prepare reporters to run accurate information when reporting about Muslims and Islam-related issues.

“We have no ax to grind, other than a desire to see accurate, balanced reporting of this topic, which has such broad impact on American society today,” said Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent who developed the project.

The course covers a wide range of topics on Islam ranging from the Islamic teachings and the history of Muslim immigration to the role of women in Islam and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.

“Our e-learning module on NewsU is an effective and accessible way for journalists to get the training they need to cover Islam and Muslims in America,” Finberg said.

In addition to the online course, a version with more readings and analysis called “Islam on Main Street” is offered through WSU’s Center for Distance Education.

Sections about the diversity of religious expression, women and Islam, and Islam and the black community are also planned.

Though it is mainly initiated for journalists, bloggers and students, the course is also useful to educators, government officials and anyone involved in the conversation about Islam in America.

Reporters will be instructed by top-notch journalists and academicians, who have a long experience in reporting about Islam and Muslims.

“We turned to the scholars who know this subject inside out and helped them present their knowledge in a way accessible to general assignment reporters on deadline,” Pintak, said.

In addition to Pintak, instructors also include Stephen Franklin, a former Chicago Tribune Middle East correspondent, who spent years covering the Muslim world.

Pintak said the online course offers the kind of education about the Muslim community that he wished he had received before he was assigned by CBS to Beirut 30 years ago.

“I had been reporting on wars in Africa, so I knew how to dodge bullets. Of Islam, the dominant religion in the region, I knew essentially nothing,” Pintak said.

Hostile sentiments against US Muslims, estimated between six to eight million, have been on the rise since the 9/11 attacks.

A US survey has revealed that the majority of Americans know very little about Muslims and their faith....

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the US largest Jewish movement, had also accused US media and politicians of demonizing Islam and portraying Muslims as “satanic figures”,

A recent British study accused the media and film industry of perpetuating Islamophobia and prejudice by demonizing Muslims and Arabs as violent, dangerous and threatening people.

It's so reassuring to know that there are all those "moderates" out there. "Syria: Anti-Assad Sheikh Threatens To 'Tear Christians Apart,'" from ANSAmed, September 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

(ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 16 - A Syrian sheikh who has been exiled to Saudi Arabia and has become one of the voices of the uprising against Assad, urges his followers, in television sermons that have been broadcast in Syria as well, to ''tear apart, chop up and feed'' the meat of all supporters of the current regime ''to the dogs,'' including all Christians. The fundamentalist turn part of the Syrian opposition is taking is denounced on the website Terrasanta.net, of the Franciscan Custody.

Many Syrian Christians, the website reads, are terrorised; in some cities, like Homs, they are even afraid to leave their houses. Some churches have already been burned down. These appeals to hate were made in this context by sheikh Adnan al Aroor, who is described in a profile of television network Al Arabia as a 'moderate Sunni', a 'symbolic figure' for the anti-Assad activists, a man who invites people to 'peaceful and non-violent' rebellion. The sheikh broadcasts on the Islamic satellite channel al Safa, which has its headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The channel is very popular in Syria. In one of the sheik's sermons that have been examined by the editorial staff of 'Terrasanta', al Aroor explains that Syrians can be divided into three groups: ''the first includes people who are for the revolution and against Assad. When the President falls, the winners will look with favour on this group. The second group consists of people who are not for nor against the revolution. They can expect no privileges from the new regime. The third group opposes the revolution and backs Assad. The meat of these people - in the words of Al Aroor - will be ''torn apart, chopped up and fed to the dogs.'' This is an explicit threat to Christians, who have always been considered to be protected by the current regime. ''Each Friday'', Terrasanta.net writes, ''crowds called by the peaceful call of the social networks fill the squares. But there are also those, and that is a cause for concern, who come after being urged by unscrupulous preachers. They all come to challenge a government that is unable to show evidence of real reforms. Whoever wins, the future of Syria remains unclear." (ANSAmed).

Alan T. DeVona was the World Trade Center Patrol Sergeant who was on duty during the 9/11 jihad attack. This first responder was welcome at our event, unlike the "official" ceremonies.

Nelly Braginsky lost her son Alex in the 9/11 attacks.

Unlike the official ceremonies, prayers were not banned at the AFDI/SIOA 9/11 Freedom rally. Prayers were offered by William J. Murray, who is the chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, an organization dedicated to aiding Christians in Islamic and Communist nations. He is the author of several books, including Let Us Pray and The Church Is Not For Perfect People; his most recent book is The Pledge: One Nation Under God.

Bhupinder Singh Bhurji is Chairman and CEO of Namdhari Sikh Foundation and a Sikh Priest.

Dr. M. G. Prasad teaches recitation of Sanskrit prayers, Vedic chanting, Hindu scriptures and worship practices for children, youth and adults. He has written four books on Hinduism. He is member of the board of directors of Hindu University of America in Orlando, Florida. He was joined in the prayer by his associates, Nanda Gorur and Vivek Vasanth.

Books? Haram. Western education? Haram. Video? A-OK, apparently. An update on this story. "Nigerian 'bomber' videos emerge," from Agence France-Presse, September 18:

Lagos - Videos have emerged purporting to show members of a Nigerian Islamist sect preparing for suicide attacks, including a young man said to be responsible for last month's bombing of UN headquarters.

The two videos obtained by AFP are said to be from the sect known as Boko Haram and come as concern intensifies over whether it has formed links with outside groups such as al-Qaeda's north African branch.

The possibility of such links has led to deep concern among Western nations and mounting pressure on the government in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and its largest oil producer.

General Carter Ham, the head of the US military's Africa Command, said on Wednesday that al-Qaeda's north African branch, Shebab militants in Somalia and Boko Haram have expressed a will to "more closely collaborate and synchronise their efforts".

Boko Haram's attacks have grown increasingly sophisticated, and it had not been known to target international institutions before the United Nations bombing in Abuja.

Claimed responsibility

A man who identified himself as a spokesperson for Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombing on the day of the August 26 attack.

The two videos said to be from the group include speeches totalling about 25 minutes from the alleged UN bomber.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the videos, but they seem to offer a window into a form of Islamist extremism in Nigeria that authorities have so far shown little capability of addressing.

They bear hallmarks of past Boko Haram clips and feature speeches by a man identified as Abubakar Shekau, its suspected leader who went into hiding following a 2009 uprising by the group put down by a military assault.

While the sect was long considered a domestic group targeting symbols of Nigerian authority, the videos also show an international emphasis.

Funny how that keeps happening. See also: the former Salafist Group for Call and Combat, now al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Shabaab. If they put bumper stickers on truck bombs, they might read "Think jihad globally. Wage jihad locally."

They are mostly in the Hausa language widely spoken in the country's mainly Muslim north, but also partly in Arabic.

Praising Osama bin Laden

The voice said to be Shekau's calls the UN headquarters a "forum of all the global evil," while also offering praise for Osama bin Laden.

The video focusing on the UN bombing, which killed at least 23 people and was among the deadliest targeting the world body, is more than an hour and 15 minutes long.

A soft-spoken, 27-year-old smiling man said to be the UN bomber pleads with his family to understand his actions, and a vague warning is sent out to "Obama and other infidels."

During much of his time on the video, he holds an AK-47 while two others lean against the wall. Two gas canisters are on the floor at his feet.

He is rail-thin and wears a striped, polo-style shirt, a turban and what looks to be a suicide vest.

In a phone interview with AFP, a man who claimed to be a spokesperson for the sect identified the alleged bomber as Mohammed Abul Barra, a married auto repair worker with a son from the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where the group has carried out most of its attacks [...]

The videos refer to the group by a name roughly translated as "People Committed to the Prophet's Teachings for Propagation and Jihad," as a previous video has done.

This is the other side of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's ongoing efforts to compel the West to criminalize "defamation of religion" -- that is, realistic and truthful portrayals of Islam. Once the foolish kuffar has done that, then this other shoe will eventually drop.

Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Religious Unity Regulation prohibits preaching a religion except Islam," from Haveeru Online, September 17 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

MALE, September 17 (HNS) – President’s Office has gazetted the controversial Religious Unity Regulation, declaring it an offence to preach a religion except Islam in the Maldives.

The 12-clause regulation makes it mandatory for preachers of Islam, both locals and foreigners, to have a first degree in a field of Islamic education from a ministry-approved college, university or centre....

The regulation, which instructs scholars to consider the social harmony, states practices that should be avoided in preaching Islam in the Maldives, including the practice of making comments in contradiction with prophetic traditions and majority view of the scholars....

The regulation also prohibits comments of hatred towards people of other religions, spreading a religion other than Islam and using an object that resembles a sign of a religion other than Islam.

A person who violates the regulation will be sentenced to 2-5 years in prison, banishment or house arrest.

The jihadis in Pakistan are relentless in their determination to make everyone too terrified to oppose them. After all, Muhammad said, "I have been made victorious through terror" (Bukhari 4.52.220)

"Pakistani Taliban vow to attack weddings and funerals of their enemies," by Nasir Habib for CNN, September 16 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani Taliban declared Friday they will target the weddings and funerals of anyone involved in pro-government activity against them.

The threat came as the Taliban claimed responsibility for Thursday's suicide blast targeting a funeral procession for a member of an anti-Taliban militia.

"Anyone who supports the U.S. and Pakistani military will face the same fate," Taliban spokesman Siraj-ud Din said. "We will target funeral processions and wedding ceremonies of those who support the U.S."...