December 2012 Archives

Menendez: The new face of "Islamophobia"

Wajahat Ali is a former official of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Muslim Students Association, so it is no surprise that he would want to defame and smear those who are fighting against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. But in this piece he sinks to a new low, using a criminal act by an obviously insane woman -- just look at her photo above -- to do his smearing.

"Death by brown skin," by Wajahat Ali in Salon, December 31:

Sunando Sen, a 46-year-old Indian immigrant, recently opened a small copying and printing business in New York City’s Upper West Side with his hard-earned savings. Described by friends as “very educated” and “so quiet, so gentle, so nice,” Sen’s American dream ended in tragedy last Thursday when Erika Mendez [sic] fatally pushed him in front of an oncoming subway train.

Ali was in such a hurry to get to the meat of his defamation that he couldn't even be bothered to get the murderer's name right: it's Menendez, not Mendez. But what does a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Leftist "journalist" care for accuracy?

Mendez [sic] admitted the hate crime, explaining she “pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up.”

Never mind that Sen was raised Hindu and the 9-11 terrorist attacks were coordinated by 19 foreign hijackers primarily from Saudi Arabia.

An unbalanced, paranoid mind marinated in our oversaturated Islamophobic environment is numb to such cultural specifics and susceptible to conflate anyone appearing “Muslimy” as the “enemy.”

Although Islamophobes did not cause the NYC murder, they contaminate civil society with their toxic ideological fuel and remain a beacon for bigots, hate-mongers, and the mentally unhinged, all of whom emerge from the same diseased infrastructure.

Notice the little weasel's out sentence so that I don't sue him for libel: "Although Islamophobes did not cause the NYC murder..." But that is just to set up the Orwellian twist that is the focus of his article and the anti-"Islamophobia" industry in general: the claim that people are suspicious of Muslims because of the actions of "bigots, hate-mongers, and the mentally unhinged," rather than because of the actions of Islamic jihadists done in the name of Islam, and which peaceful Muslims are doing nothing of significance to resist or counteract.

Even the deranged killer said she hated Muslims because of 9/11, which probably means that she hated Muslims since 9/11. Muslims committed the atrocities of 9/11 and justified them by reference to Islamic texts and teachings, so seeing someone do evil to someone she thought was a Muslim because of 9/11 should make Muslims who claim to oppose 9/11 redouble their efforts to stamp out the understanding of Islam that leads Muslims to murder and otherwise victimize non-Muslims. Instead, the fact that Wajahat Ali and others point fingers to a non-existent "Islamophobia industry" shows that they have no interest in stamping out that view of Islam, but only in stamping out resistance to it.

This is not to approve of Erica Menendez's crime. It is only to say that if anyone dislikes Muslims, it is because of the actions of Islamic jihadists, and they are the ones peaceful Muslims should be fighting against. The cause of any "Islamophobia" that may really exist is the daily atrocities committed by Muslims in the name of Islam around the world. Just today we see a bombing on a bus, a nail bomb at a church, and more. "Islamophobes" don't set those bombs. And Wajahat Ali, although he may never admit it, knows that.

Citizens of this dangerous, fringe minority include Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 individuals last summer to punish Europe’s alleged leniency towards Muslims and multiculturalism. Upon reviewing Breivik’s 1,500 page anti-Muslim manifesto, which frequently cites notable American Islamophobes, counter-terrorism expert Marc Sagemen concluded this Islamophobic  rhetoric is “not cost free.”

Same old thing. Wajahat Ali, Nathan Lean and others must thank Allah daily for Anders Breivik. Without him, their hit pieces on counter-jihadists would be so much thinner. But it's rather monstrous that they keep using this murderer to advance the spurious claim that resistance to jihad leads to murder, while denying and obfuscating the very real and obvious connection between Islam's doctrines of hatred and violence and murders around the world.

Anyway, Ali wants you to believe that Breivik's "manifesto" cites only "notable American Islamophobes," but actually he cited many, many people, including Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, and Thomas Jefferson -- who are just three of the many who are never blamed for his murders. Also swept under the rug is the fact that whether he is sane or not, Breivik's manifesto is actually quite ideologically incoherent -- so far was he from being a doctrinaire counter-jihadist that he wanted to aid Hamas and ally with jihad groups. I am no more responsible for Breivik than the Beatles are for Charles Manson.

The cost of such hate is mostly borne by members of the AMEMSA (Arab Middle Eastern Muslim South Asian) communities, however the tainted profit is collected by bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, co-founders of the “hate group” Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), part of the lucrative  “Islamophobia network” subsidized by inciting fear-mongering and misinformation against Muslims.

Ali here repeats the Big Lie that there is a well-funded "Islamphobia network." The claim rests on a Center for American Progress report that conflates money received by "Islamophobic" organizations over a period of ten years to give the impression of a huge sum funding some coordinated machine -- when in fact the aggregate amount was less than the budget of the Center for American Progress for one single year, and was spread among seven quite disparate organizations.

The reality is that this claim of Ali is just more projection: in reality the well-funded and coordinated machine, all working from the same talking points, is that of Islamic supremacists working to intimidate Americans away from resisting jihad aggression. The SPLC, with its spurious "hate-group" designation for numerous conservative groups that go against politically correct dogmas, is one of the most well-heeled cogs of this machine. Those of us who are fighting against this and trying to defend freedom are a tiny group of individuals who are always struggling for adequate funding for our efforts.

And the Islamic supremacists need that machine, because they are engaged in a massive endeavor to obscure the truth. That is always a tough thing to do, as reality keeps breaking through. Every time a Muslim kills in the name of Islam, which is pretty much every day somewhere in the world, their claim that people are suspicious of Islam because of "Islamophobia" is shown up. They need to buy more fawning media coverage to paper over the unwelcome truths.

SIOA claims that it is a “human rights organization dedicated to freedom of speech, religious liberty, and individual rights; no special rights for special classes.” However, the Anti Defamation League reviewed SIOA’s activities and concluded SIOA “promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam. The group seeks to rouse public fears by consistently vilifying the Islamic faith and asserting the existence of an Islamic conspiracy to destroy ‘American’ values.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated in its own words, according to a captured internal document, to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within." What does that make the ADL? Just another in a long line of dupes.

In the fall, SIOA purchased inflammatory anti-Muslim ads that continue to appear in New York City and Washington D.C. metro stations and buses.  One ad reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat jihad,” suggesting all Muslims are savages. Another ad features a picture of the World Trade Center towers burning next to two Quran quotes.

The quoted ad only suggests that "all Muslims are savages" if all Muslims support the bloody jihad against Israeli civilians like the Fogel family, murdered in their beds by Islamic jihadists whose deed was then celebrated in Gaza. I expect Wajahat Ali does support that jihad, but for him and other Islamic supremacist writers in the U.S. to suggest that all Muslims do is more than a little..."Islamophobic." Doesn't the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims reject jihad violence, as we are constantly told?

In light of SIOA’s recent propaganda in NYC subway stations, it is not far-fetched to wonder if Mendez’s [sic] hate toward Sen was in some way influenced by these ads.

Yes, it is. The ads aren't actually up now, and Menendez never mentioned them. She mentioned 9/11 only. But Ali wants you to forget that.

After news broke of Sen’s murder, Robert Spencer tweeted what sounded like a justification for senseless, anti-Muslim hate crimes: “If Muslims would stop doing evil in name of Islam and jihad, no one would respond with evil to them.”

It takes a particularly brazen disregard for truth to characterize something I called "evil" as a justification for that action, but again, when have Islamic supremacists ever had any regard for truth or accuracy? What I obviously meant here was what I have said many times before: any negative view of Islam that actually exists is the result of jihadists' actions and the lies and obfuscations, rather than an honest grappling with the problems posed by Islam's violent teachings, of people like Wajahat Ali -- not because of "Islamophobes."

This is typical rhetoric from Spencer, a hack whose writings are so toxic they reverberate globally and damage both national security and our relationship with Muslim communities abroad.

Ah yes, the sweep of my Zionist black arts is truly global! Look on, ye cowardly Islamic supremacists, and fear! Anyway, I'd like to see Wajahat Ali present some evidence that my writings "damage both national security and our relationship with Muslim communities abroad," but he won't, because he can't, because there isn't any.

Before her death, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazhir [sic] Bhutto name-checked Spencer in her biography as an individual who “uses the Internet to spread misinformation and hatred of Islam…he presents a skewed, one-sided, and inflammatory story that only helps sow the seeds of civilizational conflict.”

Ali doesn't bother to tell you that Bhutto in that passage attributed to me a quote that was actually by Ibn Warraq, so careful was she (like Ali himself) for the facts. Much more importantly, Ali doesn't tell you that Bhutto covertly armed and funded the Taliban -- casting serious doubts upon her reputation as a saintly moderate and making it understandable why she would oppose counter-jihadists.

Spencer’s blog “Jihad Watch” was cited more than 162 times in mass murderer Breivik’s manifesto.  Spencer has published the writings of Serge Trifovic, one of the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs during the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. Spencer believes the neo-Nazi group English Defense League “deserves the support of all free people.”

Re Breivik, see above. Re Trifkovic, actually he was never a "leader of the Bosnian Serbs." Re the EDL, it is so far from being a neo-Nazi organization that it is forthrightly and strongly pro-Israel -- pro-Israel neo-Nazis are a recent invention of the Leftist and Islamic supremacist propaganda machine against freedom fighters. Frequently targeted for infiltration by Leftists bent on discrediting it by being photographed making the Nazi salute and the like, the EDL in reality expels anyone from its ranks who advocates any kind of racial supremacism or fascism.

Spencer’s colleague in hate, Pam Geller, who never met an anti-Muslim conspiracy theory she didn’t immediately publish as fact, believes “devout Muslims should be prohibited from military service. Would Patton have recruited Nazis into his army?”

Geller was referring to devout Muslims like Major Nidal Hasan, who passed out Qur'ans and then murdered thirteen Americans at Fort Hood while shouting "Allahu akbar," and Pfc. Naser Abdo, who was intent on imitating him. Does Wajahat Ali want devout Muslims like those two men in the military? If not, how does he propose they be screened out?

She also thinks President Obama is a Muslim,

The link goes to a Geller article discussing Obama's Muslim background and how Obama's presidency has "helped foster America's submission to Islam." She never says Obama is a Muslim. But again: what care Islamic supremacist propagandists for truth?

illegitimate son of Malcolm X who once went to Pakistan for drugs and jihad,

Refuted here.

and that the Arabic language is a spearhead for anti-Americanism.

That claim actually comes from a quote from Mark Steyn, but what cares Wajahat Ali for truth? Anyway, Arabic instruction and Islamic indoctrination do all too often go together: see here for a firsthand account.

She believes stealth jihadists have infiltrated Disneyland because employees wear headscarves to work.

Ali's link doesn't go to a page that mentions Disney, but what do pseudo-journalists care for accuracy? Here is the correct link. Geller's point is not that they wear hijabs to work, but that they want to force Disney to alter its fifty-year-old dress code to accommodate Islamic law. Wherever Islamic law and American custom and practice conflict, they expect the latter to give way -- that is the stealth jihad, that is Islamic supremacism. But since Wajahat Ali is part of this program, of course he would want to obfuscate it.

Like Spencer, Pamela Geller once strongly endorsed the English Defense League writing, “I share the EDL’s goals… We need to encourage rational, reasonable groups that oppose the Islamisation of the West.”

Re the EDL, see above.

In a perfect world, these rantings would be amusing fodder for an amateur comic.  However, when over 60% of Americans say they do not know a Muslim and Islam has its lowest favorability rating ever, extremists like Geller and Spencer disproportionately inform and influence the nation’s conversation and perceptions about Islam and Muslims.

I am flattered at your enormous overestimation of our evil Zionist powers, Wajahat, but most people in America have never heard of Pamela Geller or me. They have heard, however, of the Muslims who keep blowing things up in the name of Islam. They're your problem, not us. As long as they keep acting, Islam will keep on having a low favorability rating.

According to a new quantitive analysis published by the American Sociological Review, sociologist Christopher Bail mentions Stop Islamization of America as one of the “angry and fearful fringe organizations” that “not only exerted powerful influence on media discourse about Muslims in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, but ultimately became some of the most influential mainstream groups in the field. By 2008, these fringe organizations not only permeated the mainstream but also forged vast social networks that consolidated their capacity to create cultural change.”

Pure projection. The media has done its best to ignore and obfuscate the root causes within Islam of jihad violence and Islamic supremacism. The Society of Professional Journalists even has policies in place to that effect.

These Islamophobic memes do not exist in a victimless vacuum. There is a cost to such dissemination of hate.

In 2012, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported a 300 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate groups.

Yeah, and they arrived at this figure by counting anti-jihad websites like this one and others as "anti-Muslim hate groups," often to ludicrous effect: Pamela Geller alone, with Atlas Shrugs and the AFDI and SIOA websites and Facebook pages, is listed as five separate "hate groups." But as long as the money keeps rolling in, the SPLC doesn't care.

In 2010, the FBI reported unprecedented 50 percent rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes, with 160 reported cases. In 2011, the number dipped slightly to 157.

160 cases? 157 cases? In a nation of 300 million people? Why, "Islamophobia" is rampant! Pandemic! All genuine bigotry and victimization of innocent people is absolutely unacceptable, but in fact, Muslims are rarely its victims. FBI statistics show that there is no "Islamophobia." Contrary to media emphases and preoccupations, many "anti-Muslim hate crimes" have been faked by Muslims, and Jews are eight times more likely than Muslims to be the victims of hate attacks.

SPLC mentions the 2010 Ground Zero Mosque debate as the key driver for the recent surge in anti-Muslim sentiment. The controversy and subsequent protests against the Park 51 community center, which is neither a mosque nor at Ground Zero, was directly manufactured and orchestrated by Pamela Geller and SIOA....

What cares Wajahat Ali for truth? Actually, it most certainly is a mosque and nothing else, and it is at Ground Zero.

Then Ali retails a list of crimes and evils he ascribes to "Islamophobia," and follows that with this:

Nearly 31 states have introduced an anti-sharia bill, which is about as necessary as a bill banning big-foot or unicorns.

Then why bother opposing it, as Islamic supremacist groups do with such energy?

Yet, 6 states have passed it (Louisiana, Arizona, Tennessee, Kansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma.) The author of the bill is attorney David Yerushalmi, who serves as counsel to none other than Pamela Geller....

In Ali's perfect world, Pamela Geller would have no legal counsel, or any right to free speech. Nor would any other critic of the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. As we see from what he follows with after retailing more evils:

In America, there exists space for legitimate criticism, debate, and discussion about  religion, race, and ethnicity. But we must finally confront ourselves and ask how do we, as a society, benefit from hysteria, fear and scapegoating? What do these Islamophobes inspire except division and lucrative, personal paychecks?

I think it almost certain that Wajahat Ali makes more than I do, as do other Islamic supremacists like Imam Rauf and Reza Aslan with their lucrative five-figure speaking fees, but never mind. The key here is that Ali is (again) lying. He says that "there exists space for legitimate criticism, debate, and discussion about religion, race, and ethnicity," but there is no one who has ever expressed any criticism of jihad and Islamic supremacism that he supports. He wants to destroy any and all who raise any such criticism.

Yes, we give the KKK a freedom to speak their nonsense, but we as citizens and as a nation have disempowered them, denied them a mainstream platform and silenced their megaphone.

The question now at hand is how many Sens and Sodhis will it take to expose these fringe Islamophobic voices, marginalize them, and move onward, together, as they slither in shame and eventually drown in their own irrelevance.

Ali's problem here is that his Muslim Brotherhood-linked MSA and allied groups are much closer to the KKK in spirit and vision than anything Pamela Geller or I do in defense of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and equality of rights for all. If he and his friends succeed in silencing us and other critics of jihad and Sharia, and they continue to spread in the West, those freedoms will eventually disappear -- and not a few among today's enlightened liberals, like the editors of Salon, will look back at how they aided and abetted this descent into darkness, and wish bitterly that they had it all to do over again.

UPDATE: Ali has now corrected his spelling of the killer's name -- you're welcome, Wajahat. "Benazir" remains misspelled. Ali tries, in other words, to cover up his carelessness, but he just can't quite manage it.

Maybe the people on the bus had put up "Islamophobic" ads. "Bus bomb injures 7 in southern Philippines," from the Associated Press, December 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

ISULAN, Philippines — A powerful bomb exploded in a passenger bus and wounded at least seven people in the southern Philippines in an attack by suspected extortion gangs, police said Sunday.

The homemade bomb exploded in the rear portion of the bus as it traveled late Saturday in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat province, damaging the vehicle and sparking a brief fire but causing no injuries among the vehicle’s passengers and crew, police Chief Superintendent Rolen Balquin said.

The force of the blast, however, shattered the windshield of another passenger bus nearby, wounding its driver and two passengers. Four bystanders along a roadside were wounded by shrapnel from the blast, Balquin said.

The bombing occurred despite a security alert over possible attacks by armed extortion gangs, which have targeted passenger buses in the south in the past.

Balquin said his men captured a member of the notorious Al Khobar extortion gang who detonated a roadside bomb last month in Sultan Kudarat’s Tacurong town and later told investigators the attack was part of an attempt to extort money from a bus company. The bombing prompted the provincial police to go on full alert with intensified patrols of public areas and road checkpoints.

Intelligence agencies also went on alert Sunday, the anniversary of five near-simultaneous bombings by al-Qaida-linked Filipino extremists that killed 22 people and wounded about 100 in Manila on Dec. 30, 2000. Police said they have not monitored any specific terrorist threat, but added that intelligence and counterterrorism agencies traditionally intensify their monitoring on dates when terrorists have staged major attacks.

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Catholic church receives bomb threat post Christmas," by Apriadi Gunawan for The Jakarta Post, December 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

The North Sumatra Police’s bomb squad on Saturday secured an alleged homemade bomb, that contained 500 grams of nails, which was found in the backyard of Salaon Toba Catholic Church in Samosir Island, located at the center of the renowned Lake Toba.

The church’s priest, Herman Nainggolan, said the package was found following a text message received by local district head Ronggur Ni Huta at 11:11 p.m. local time on Friday that read, “There is a bomb in your jurisdiction at the Salaon Church.”

The text message was promptly reported to the police, which sent a team to inspect the church.

“No one had the courage to move it. It [the bomb] was secured only after the bomb squad arrived today,” Nainggolan said on Saturday.

The suspicious package, which was packed in two drinking bottles, stirred panic among the congregation taking part in Christmas mass.

The team arrived at the church at about 11:30 a.m. and brought the package to the Samosir Police headquarters for further examination.

Samosir Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Donny Damanik said the package had been examined and it was not a bomb. It did not contain explosive material, but it was equipped with batteries connected to the nails with cables.

“The bottle that contained batteries, cables and nails did not explode because it did not contain explosives or have a detonator,” Damanik said

Donny said the police were still investigating the perpetrators of the terror act as well as the motives behind the security threat. He added that the threat was unexpected as Samosir had been secure during the Christmas holiday.

“This is the first [threat] of the year. We will investigate it thoroughly,” he said, adding that security measures would be tightened at all the churches in Samosir following the bomb threat. Samosir is home to some 100 churches, but only 60 are still used for religious activities....

In the past few years, a number of cities in the country have seen bomb threats addressed to worship places.

On Sept. 25, 2011, 22 people were injured when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (GBIS) in Surakarta, Central Java.

An object lesson in why our hopelessly compromised pro-jihad pseudo-journalists in the U.S., such as Christiane Amanpour, Manya Brachear, Bob Smietana, Kari Huus, Dave Weigel, Michael Kruse, Eli Clifton, Alex Kane, Adam Serwer, Max Blumenthal, etc., are cutting their own throats by propagandizing for Sharia and defaming freedom fighters.

"In the name of morals and Sharia, media freedoms may contract," by Sarah Carr and Mohamad Adam for Egypt Independent, December 29 (thanks to Twostellas):

President Mohamed Morsy has largely picked up where Hosni Mubarak left off in terms of media freedom. A case in point is the constitution.

Critics argue that the constitution, which was just approved by 63.8 percent, does not go far enough to protect media freedoms.

Article 48 guarantees freedom of the press and media independence “while respecting the sanctity of citizens’ private lives and the requirements of national security.” It makes a court order mandatory for the closure of media outlets.

Article 49 guarantees freedom to publish and own newspapers, while the establishment of radio and television stations is “regulated by law.”

In Article 215, the National Media Council is made responsible for regulating all forms of media including the digital press. Notably, amongst its duties is to “observe the values and constructive traditions of society.”

Karim Abdel Rady, a lawyer with the Arab Network for Human Rights, expresses concern that this could open the door to the imposition of restrictions on media freedom in the name of morals and Sharia.

Meanwhile, Article 216 states that the National Press and Media Association is responsible for state-owned media.

Safwat al-Aalem, head of Cairo University’s committee on media performance and evaluation of the political media, says the formation of the National Media Council will be decisive for the future of media.

Aalem says factors such as its composition, the powers granted to this council and the extent to which it is subject to administrative interference will be critical in determining its role.

Abdel Rady tells Egypt Independent that the constitution is silent on custodial sentences for crimes concerning insulting the president.

“In Mubarak’s era, we faced the problem of insult crimes. It now seems that in the coming period we’ll also be facing problems such as blasphemy crimes. It will be easy to interpret any media content as being in conflict with society’s morals where individuals are criticized,” Abdel Rady says.

He expects increased restrictions on media freedom in the year to come, particularly if Islamist currents gain a majority in the upcoming People’s Assembly elections....

Sunni-Shia and anti-regime jihad bombings. "15 People Killed in Blasts in North, Central Iraq" from the Associated Press, December 31 (thanks to Lookmann):

BAGHDAD (AP) — Bombings across Iraq killed 15 people and wounded at least another 24 on Monday, officials said — the latest apparent attacks by militants aimed at undermining security and confidence in the government.

The deadliest blasts were in the town of Musayyib some 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, where militants planted bombs around two houses, one belonging to a police officer. Two women and two children aged 11 and 14 along with three men were killed, while three others were wounded in the pre-dawn blasts, a police officer said.

In the city of Hillah, a parked car bomb exploded in a busy street where local government offices are located, killing three people and wounding 21, another police officer said. He said some Shiite pilgrims were there making their way to the nearby city of Karbala to mark the 7th century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein.

He didn't say how many pilgrims were among the casualties. Hillah is about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad....

Although violence has ebbed since the height of the insurgency in the past, some groups presumed to be primarily Sunni extremists are still able to launch lethal attacks nationwide against government officials or civilians.

Shiite pilgrims are one of their favorite targets. Each year, hundreds of thousands converge on the southern city of Karbala where the Imam Hussein is buried. Many travel on foot and the mass gatherings are frequently attacked despite tight security.

Actually, all of these murders were carried out by Muslims who believed that by killing their victims they were obeying the commands of Allah as conveyed in the Qur'an. But don't you dare explore the ideology and belief system of those who perpetrated these murders. To do so would be "Islamophobic," and would make you worse than the murderers themselves.

More on these two stories.

"Pakistan militants kill 40 in mass execution, attack on Shiites," from NBC News, December 30:

QUETTA, Pakistan - Pakistani militants, who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, killed at least 40 people in two separate incidents, officials said on Sunday, challenging assertions that military offensives have broken the back of hardline Islamist groups.

A car bomb exploded near a convoy of buses taking Shiite pilgrims to Iran, killing at least 19 people and wounding 30, officials told NBC News, the latest attack on the minority sect.

Earlier Sunday, 21 tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region, government officials said.

Witnesses said the blast occurred as the three buses were overtaking a car about 35 miles west of Quetta, capital of sparsely populated Baluchistan province, site of many sectarian attacks, near the Iranian border.

Pakistan has experienced a spike in killings over the last year by radical Sunni Muslims targeting Shiites who they consider heretics. The violence has been especially pronounced in Baluchistan province, where the latest attack occurred....

UPDATE: As is not surprising given that its source was PressTV, this story has now been widely reported to be an Iranian propaganda fabrication: the Saudi cleric denies having said these things. The material about temporary marriage remains accurate, to the detriment of innumerable women in Iran and elsewhere.

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Shi'ites justify temporary marriage, mutah, by their reading of Qur'an 4:24:

And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you. Lawful unto you are all beyond those mentioned, so that ye seek them with your wealth in honest wedlock, not debauchery. And those of whom ye seek content (by marrying them), give unto them their portions as a duty. And there is no sin for you in what ye do by mutual agreement after the duty (hath been done). Lo! Allah is ever Knower, Wise.

They see in this marriage as something contracted by means of payment ("give them their portions") for a specified time by mutual agreement.

But when a Sunni Muslim cleric calls for the practice in Syria, it becomes an egregious crime, since the Syrian jihadist rebels are fighting against the Iranian-backed Assad regime. Maybe the Iranians want all the Syrian temporary wives for themselves.

"Militants can marry Syrian women: Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia," from PressTV, December 31 (thanks to EZ):

A hard-line Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia has recently issued a special religious decree that permits the militants in Syria to engage in short-term marriages with Syrian women.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Arifi said that the marriages between the foreign-backed militants and Syrian women will satisfy the militants’ sexual desires and boost their determination in killing Syrians.

He added that the marriages, dubbed by him as “intercourse marriages,” can be with Syrian females as young as 14 years old.

He also promised “paradise” for those who marry the militants.

Arifi has issued similar decrees in the past in support of the violence in Syria.

He has also been organizing a fundraiser for the militant groups fighting Syrian government forces.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country as there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

This article says that this practice of temporary marriage, i.e. prostitution behind the hypocritical fig leaf of a "marriage" with a time limit, violates Islamic law. However, it is actually an established Shi'ite concept that is also prevalent among some Sunnis. We saw it taking place in Egypt last summer. It is also rising among Saudis, even though Sunnis ostensibly reject it.

Shi'ites justify temporary marriage, mutah, by their reading of Qur'an 4:24:

And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you. Lawful unto you are all beyond those mentioned, so that ye seek them with your wealth in honest wedlock, not debauchery. And those of whom ye seek content (by marrying them), give unto them their portions as a duty. And there is no sin for you in what ye do by mutual agreement after the duty (hath been done). Lo! Allah is ever Knower, Wise.

They see in this marriage as something contracted by means of payment ("give them their portions") for a specified time by mutual agreement.

"How Arabs buy 'wives' and dump them in a few weeks," from Mid-Day.com, December 28 (thanks to Vankat):

Mumbai: A month-long investigation by MiD DAY journalists has revealed a twisted form of human trafficking that involves rich Arabs, greedy Qazis, sham marriages, agents and girls lured into the flesh trade or those looking for a quick buck.

The modus operandi: set up a temporary or time-bound wedding to a rich Arab. The affluent Arab offers a negotiated amount for the services of a 'wife' during his stay in India. The price for the 'booty' varies from Rs. 15,000 to nearly a lakh for the 10-day marriage. Girls from poor families are sold like commodities to the Arabs, many of whom arrive on tourist visas from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. While this may seem shocking to many, the women involved in this latest form of flesh trade are often willing participants.

The Arab and The Qazi
These predators have been perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer of nikaah, abusing the Islamic rules of marriage. Abusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Mumbai and Hyderabad, but marrying more than one minor in a single trip to the country.

The Pimp and The Victim
A healthy stream of women keep flowing into the city from all parts of the country to solicit the Arab clientele who have turned Mumbai into a sex haven. For as little asRs 2,000 per job, scores of women line up every evening hoping to catch the eye of the adulterous tourist.

Over a month-long operation, Kranti Vibhute posed as a would-be bride and Bhupen Patel as her friend trying to help her get the deal. They found that these deal brokers, prostitutes and Qazis have been running this business quite explicitly.

A Qazi, who solemnises the weddings and also facilitates the divorce proceedings, takes 50 percent of the negotiated price as his cut. The agent, who sources the girls, takes 25 percent of the balance amount.

The pimps, cab drivers and sub-agents charge Rs. 500-1,000 per deal.

The Arab gets a sex slave for a temporary period, who he calls his 'wife', and takes her on a vacation with him. Once the honeymoon period is over, he brings her back dumps her with a 'talaaq' and goes back to the Qazi's office for a new bride. The girl gets her cut and lines up for the next husband to come her way.

The Qazis solemnise these sham marriages, in violation of Islamic principles of nikaah and talaaq. A woman cannot be married off to another man unless her first husband gives her a divorce, or she has sought khula (separation) and has completed the iddat period (a gap of at least three months and 13 days).

Victims?
Owing to abject poverty and wretched living conditions, many women are forced into the world of flesh trade. While some girls have fallen victim to the flesh trade, tricked by the promise of monetary benefits and a better standard of living, others have chosen the path to make a quick buck.

During the course of the operation, MiD DAY discovered that several women, who were once sold as brides to Arabs, have now turned into agents and pimps. The women now scout villages and cities looking for fresh blood to incorporate into the trade.

Today's concluding installment for Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month brings us the one place in the Qur'an where Muslims are directed explicitly to make war against and subjugate Jews and Christians – the “People of the Book":

Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Qur'an 9:29)

According to Ibn Kathir, “Allah commanded His Messenger to fight the People of the Scriptures, Jews and Christians, on the ninth year of Hijrah, and he prepared his army to fight the Romans and called the people to Jihad announcing his intent and destination.” This was a raid that Muhammad supposedly attempted against the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) garrison at Tabuk in northern Arabia in 631, but the Byzantine force moved away before Muhammad got there, and did not engage the Muslims in battle. Still, it is presented in Islamic history as the first Muslim attempt to take on the great Christian empire that the believers would chip away at for centuries and ultimately destroy.

Ibn Juzayy says that this verse is “a command to fight the People of the Book” and, in a reference to the subsequent verse, “denying their belief in Allah because of the words of the Jews, ‘Uzayr [Ezra] is the son of Allah’ and the words of the Christians, ‘The Messiah is the son of Allah.’” Muslims must also fight them “because they consider as lawful carrion, blood, pork, etc.” and because “they do not enter Islam.” He says that “scholars agree about accepting jizya [a religious-based poll tax] from the Jews and Christians.” He specifies that it signifies “submission and obedience.”

The Tafsir al-Jalalayn says that this when this verse specifies that Muslims must fight against those who “follow not the Religion of Truth,” it means those who do not follow Islam, “which is firm and abrogates other deens [religions].” Ibn Kathir gives a hint as to why this is so when he explains that the People of the Book were in bad faith when they rejected Muhammad, and that they are not true believers even in their own religions:

Therefore, when People of the Scriptures disbelieved in Muhammad, they had no beneficial faith in any Messenger or what the Messengers brought. Rather, they followed their religions because this conformed with their ideas, lusts and the ways of their forefathers, not because they are Allah’s Law and religion. Had they been true believers in their religions, that faith would have directed them to believe in Muhammad, because all Prophets gave the good news of Muhammad’s advent and commanded them to obey and follow him. Yet when he was sent, they disbelieved in him, even though he is the mightiest of all Messengers. Therefore, they do not follow the religion of earlier Prophets because these religions came from Allah, but because these suit their desires and lusts. Therefore, their claimed faith in an earlier Prophet will not benefit them because they disbelieved in the master, the mightiest, the last and most perfect of all Prophets.

As-Sawi noted that the payment of the jizya signified that the non-Muslims are “humble and obedient to the judgements of Islam.” It ensured the “willing submission" or "state of abasement" specified by this verse and spelled out by the Bedouin commander al-Mughira bin Sa’d when he met the Persian Rustam. Said al-Mughira: “I call you to Islam or else you must pay the jizya while you are in a state of abasement.”

Rustam replied, “I know what jizya means, but what does ‘a state of abasement’ mean?”

Al-Mughira explained: “You pay it while you are standing and I am sitting and the whip hanging is over your head.”

Similarly, Ibn Kathir says that the subject people, the dhimmis, must be “disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated.” The seventh-century jurist Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab stated: “I prefer that the people of the dhimma become tired by paying the jizya since He says, ‘until they pay the jizya with their own hands in a state of complete abasement.’” As-Suyuti elaborates that this verse “is used as a proof by those who say that it is taken in a humiliating way, and so the taker sits and the dhimmi stands with his head bowed and his back bent. The jizya is placed in the balance and the taker seizes his beard and hits his chin.” He adds, however, that “this is rejected according to an-Nawawi who said, ‘This manner is invalid.’” Zamakhshari, however, agreed that the jizya should be collected “with belittlement and humiliation.”

Thus this verse is the epitome of both Qur'anic hatred and Qur'anic violence, and -- despite the fact that there is much more hatred and violence in the rest of the Qur'an -- a fitting end to our series.

This just in from a believer in the Religion of Peace and Tolerance:

Name: Bruce Book

Email: persiandude234@yahoo.com

Subject: your stupid

Message: I hate you so much and you are nothing but a scumbag - go to hell scum bag Islam will unite - you are nothing but a devil

IP: 72.181.153.110
HOST: cpe-72-181-153-110.tx.res.rr.com

But remember: they have the moral high ground, and only greasy Islamophobes oppose them.

"Syria rebels 'beheaded a Christian and fed him to the dogs' as fears grow over Islamist atrocities," by Nick Fagge for the Daily Mail, December 30 (thanks to Robert):

Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists.

The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.

She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to be a father.

Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix said: ‘His only crime was his brother criticised the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.’

There have been a growing number of accounts of atrocities carried out by rogue elements of the Syrian Free Army, which opposes dictator Bashar al-Assad and is recognised by Britain and the West as the legitimate leadership.

Sister Agnes-Miriam, mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated, has condemned Britain and the west for supporting the rebels despite growing evidence of human rights abuses. Murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery are becoming commonplace, she says.

‘The free and democratic world is supporting extremists,’ Sister Agnes-Miriam said from her sanctuary in Lebanon. ‘They want to impose Sharia Law and create an Islamic state in Syria.’...

The moral inversion of those who do not criticize and condemn this, but rather focus their ire upon those who call attention to it and its motivating ideology, is nothing short of monstrous. "22 killed in three attacks in Nigeria," by Nana Karikari-apau for CNN, December 30 (thanks to David):

(CNN) -- At least 22 people have been killed in three separate attacks in northeastern Nigeria since Friday, including 15 Christians shot Sunday inside a church, according to officials.

The violence began early Friday when unidentified gunmen raided a village in Musari, in Borno state, killing five people, said Joint Task Force Lt. Col. Sagir Musa. JTF troops responded, and a gun battle ensued. Three of the attackers were killed, and troops recovered weapons and ammunition. Musa declined to provide further details of the attack.

Also Friday, gunmen with suspected ties to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram killed two people and wounded another in an attack in Maiha, in Adamawa state, according to Godfrey Okeke, Adamawa state commissioner. The attackers freed 35 inmates from the Maiha prison and set government buildings on fire, Okeke said.

In Sunday's attack, gunmen entered a church in Chibok, also in Borno state, and killed at least 15 worshipers, said Mohammed Kana, a regional official for the National Emergency Management Agency.

"Some of the people had their throats slit," Kana said, citing NEMA staff who responded to the scene.

Sunday's violence comes six days after attackers raided two churches during Christmas Eve services, killing 12 people.

In October, a report from Human Rights Watch addressed the violence plaguing northern Nigeria, particularly from Boko Haram. The group's name means "Western education is forbidden." It seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia law in the Muslim-dominated northern part of the country.

Everywhere Islamic law is applied around the world today, it looks the same as it does in Nigeria: "strict." There is no "relaxed version."

"Suspected members of the group have bombed or opened fire on worshipers in at least 18 churches across eight northern and central states since 2010. In Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, the group also forced Christian men to convert to Islam on penalty of death," it said....

And yet there are people in the world who focus their moral indignation not on the perpetrators of acts such as these, but on those who dare to call attention to them and to the ideology that inspires them. This is a monstrous moral evil. It must not prevail.

"Libya church blast kills two Egyptians: embassy," from AFP, December 30 (thanks to Lookmann):

AFP - An explosion rocked a Christian Coptic church near the western Libyan city of Misrata on Sunday, killing two people and wounding two others, all of them Egyptians, an Egyptian diplomat told AFP.

"Two Egyptians were killed and two were wounded," said the diplomat at the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli who declined to be named.

"The church explosion was in the town of Dafniya in Misrata (province). The consul went directly to Misrata to find out the details. We still don't have clear information," the diplomat said.

Earlier, a security official said one Egyptian was killed and three others were wounded in the blast at a Coptic church. The Egyptian diplomat said that one of those hurt in the explosion died later at the hospital.

Residents said the explosion took place in the early afternoon at a Coptic church in Dafniya, a Mediterranean town 30 kilometres (18.5 miles) west of Misrata, where brigades made up of former rebels hold a major checkpoint.

Charb with the paper's last Muhammad issue

The same photo as it appeared in al-Arabiya

In picking up this story from AFP, al-Arabiya includes the photo above, carefully censored so as not to touch off another round of murderous rage from Islamic supremacists. They thus indicate that violent intimidation works: if someone will riot and kill over what someone else says or does, it is increasingly taken for granted in this thoroughly confused world that the responsibility lies with the one who has given offense, rather than with the one who has taken it. The idea that one is in control of one's own reactions and bears sole responsibility for them is increasingly lost in the face of the Islamic supremacist onslaught against the freedom of speech.

And so it will be with this comic book: if Muslims riot and kill once it is published, there will be new calls, even in the Western "free" press, for self-censorship and criminalization of "insults" to Islam. No one will say that free speech is our foremost defense against tyranny, and that those who riot and kill because of someone else's actions are the only ones responsible for what they do. Such is the madness and cowardice that has overtaken the public discourse.

"French paper to publish comic book life of Prophet Mohammed," from AFP, December 30:

A French weekly known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims said Sunday it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam’s founder that will be researched and educational.

Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam’s prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.

“It is a biography authorized by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said Charlie Hebdo’s publisher and the comic’s illustrator, who goes by the name Charb.

“I don’t think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate,” Charb said.

Oh, just you wait.

The biography will be published Wednesday and was put together by a Franco-Tunisian researcher known only as Zineb, Charb said.

The publisher said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, drawing angry protests across the Muslim world.

“Before having a laugh about a character, it’s better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed,” Charb said.

In September Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.

In 2011 Charlie Hebdo’s offices were hit by a firebomb and its website pirated after publishing an edition titled “Charia Hebdo” featuring several Mohammed cartoons.

Charb, who has received death threats, lives under police protection.

Hizballah on a border that cannot be controlled, because to do so would be "racist" -- what could go wrong?

"Hezbollah's cocaine Jihad," by Eldad Beck for Israel National News, December 29 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

MEXICO – Chiapas is one of Mexico's most exotic federal districts. But the magical forests, appealing Indian communities, colorful towns and intriguing archeological sites – that serve as main tourist attractions – hide a political hell.

In the mid-1990s, a leftist resistance group which calls itself The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) made Chiapas its home. Its attempts to fight the Mexican Army repeatedly failed, but the Zapatistas are still very active in the district's rural areas. Chiapas is considered a dangerous place, where every home has an arms arsenal of its own; and like many other places in Mexico, Chiapas' streets have become the battlefield where the government and local drug lords wrestle for dominance.

Chiapas, however, harbors an even more sinister secret: It is also a hub of radical Islamist activity.

Catholic Mexico is in the midst of a crisis of faith. According to a local businessman, who asked to remain anonymous, it is widely believed that within a decade, Chiapas will be the first federal state in Mexico to turn its back on the Church.

"The Muslim missionaries are very active there," he said. "It's hard to know exactly how many people have converted to Islam over the past few years."

Official data suggests that Mexico is home to some 4,000 Muslims – a fraction in a country whose population numbers 115 million. Theoretically, this is a negligible number, but it is enough to cause concern in the United States – and Israel should be concerned as well.

US intelligence indicates that Mexico is home to some 200,000 Syrian and Lebanese immigrants – most of them illegal – who were able to cross the border via an extensive web of contacts with drug cartels, both in Mexico and in other countries in South America.

These cartel contacts smuggle illegal immigrants – including individuals affiliated with Iran, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups – into Mexico, placing them a virtual stone's-throw away from the United States.

Western intelligence agencies have been able to gather ample evidence suggesting that the drug cartels in Mexico – which are the de facto rulers of the northern districts bordering the US – are in cahoots with Islamic terror organizations, which are eager to execute attacks against American, Israeli, Jewish and western targets; but most of all, the Islamic terror groups are eager to make money, so they can fund their nefarious aspirations.

In December 2011, the US authorities released an indictment filed against Lebanese drug lord Ayman Juma, which exposed Hezbollah's involvement with the Los Zetas drug cartel. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Los Zetas is the most technologically advanced and most dangerous cartel operating in Mexico.

Juma was indicted in absentia for smuggling 85 tons of cocaine into the US and for laundering $850 million for Los Zetas. He was also accused of serving as a go-between for the Mexican crime syndicate and the Shiite terror group....

Read it all.

Where did Ismail Ibrahim get the idea that there was something wrong with Christians asking for equal rights in a majority-Muslim state? Has he been reading Islamophobic literature?

Also: Arabic-speaking Christians were using the word "Allah" the God of the Bible since before the invention of Islam. "Stop demanding religious equality, says ex-Fatwa Council chief," from the Malaysian Insider, December 28 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 ― Non-Muslims should drop their demand to use “Allah” for their gods as the Arabic word is fundamental to Islamic belief and therefore exclusive to Muslims, National Fatwa Council former chairman Datuk Dr Ismail Ibrahim was reported saying in a Malay daily.

Ismail was weighing in on the latest debate over the Arabic word for god, in a row between Islamist opposition party PAS and its secular ally, DAP, which appears to be a hot-button topic in the run-up to national polls due soon.

“Enough is enough, enough with all the other policies, including the ones enshrined in the Constitution that has been claimed for equality, to be granted equal rights... therefore the right to recognise the concept of the divinity in this religion, don’t grab, challenge and manipulate so. The name ‘Allah’ is still something basic and fundamental to Islam.

“The name ‘Allah’, from a philosophical point, its definition and concept is not equal with the name Tuhan, God, Lord and so on in the usage of other religions,” he was quoted as saying by Sinar Harian in its front-page report today.

Ismail was further reported saying those insisting the word “Allah” be allowed for use in Malay bibles should desist due to linguistic and cultural differences.

He gave an example that Arabs could swear by the word “Wallahi” hundreds of times in their daily conversation but the oath was incomparable to that understood by Muslim Malaysians in the local language and that this difference between an ordinary oath and the Syariah term was explained in the Quran.

“The same, therefore, with the use of the name ‘Allah’ that is being attempted to be compared with other languages, especially Arabic, even though this comparison should be understood from a linguistic and cultural angle between Malay and Arabic,” Ismail told the newspaper.

Without naming anyone, he urged the parties against looking for petty reasons to justify the usage of “Allah” for the Christian god.

Christians form 9.2 per cent of Malaysia’s 28.3 million-strong population, with many in east Malaysia using the Malay language and the word “Allah” to refer to their God.

In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word “Allah”, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word “Allah” denotes the Muslim god.

A legal tussle over the use of the word “Allah” remains unresolved, with the Catholic Church still barred from publishing the word in its weekly newspaper, despite winning a High Court decision on December 31, 2009....

What murderous ideology could be behind this? What is being done to combat it? "Pakistan blast kills 20 Shia pilgrims in latest sectarian attack," from Reuters, December 30 (thanks to Kenneth):

A car bomb exploded on Sunday near a convoy of buses taking Pakistani Shia pilgrims to Iran, killing 20 people and wounding 24, officials said, the latest attack on the minority sect.

“The bus next to us caught on fire immediately,” said pilgrim Hussein Ali, 60. “We tried to save our companions but were driven back by the intensity of the heat.”

An official at Mastung district hospital, said 20 people had been killed and 24 wounded.

Akbar Durrani, Baluchistan’s home secretary, said rescue teams were trying to reach victims in the wreckage of the vehicles, one of which was still in flames sometime after the attack. He said the death toll could rise.

A string of attacks on Shias underscores the government’s inability to crack down on groups promoting sectarian violence.

In August, militants made passengers disembark from a bus in a northern province and shot 19 Shias dead after determining from their identity cards whether they were Shias or majority Sunnis.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has noted more than 320 Shias killed this year in Pakistan and said attacks were on the rise. It said the government’s failure to catch or prosecute attackers suggested it was “indifferent” to the killings.

Pakistan has banned several militant groups that openly call for attacks on Shias. But their leaders move around openly, give interviews and often receive police protection. Rights groups say some groups have ties to Pakistani security agencies....

What murderous ideology was behind this? What made the Taliban think murdering these policemen would be a meritorious act? Why do they oppose the Pakistani government, and what kind of government do they want to put in its place?

Don't ask such questions! They are "Islamophobic"!

"21 missing Pakistani policemen found shot dead," by Riaz Khan for the Associated Press, December 30 (thanks to Kenneth):

Peshawar, Pakistan • Twenty-one tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan’s troubled northwest tribal region early Sunday, government officials said.

Officials found the bodies shortly after midnight in the Jabai area of Frontier Region Peshawar after being notified by one policeman who escaped, said Naveed Akbar Khan, a top political official in the area. Another policeman was found seriously wounded, Khan said.

The 23 policemen went missing before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in Frontier Region Peshawar. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks.

Militants lined the policemen up on a cricket pitch late Saturday night and gunned them down, said another local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for the past few years. The tribal region is the main sanctuary for the Taliban in Pakistan.

On Saturday, an explosion ripped through a passenger bus at a terminal in the southern city of Karachi, killing six people and wounding 52 others, some of whom were in critical condition, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at the hospital where the victims were being treated.

Police were trying to determine whether the blast, which reduced the bus to a charred skeleton, was caused by a bomb or a gas canister that exploded, said police spokesman Imran Shaukat. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas....

"Arab Spring" democracy in full flower! "Tensions rising in Egypt as opposition leaders are investigated for high treason," from Asia News, December 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Cairo (AsiaNews) - Egypt's public prosecutor, Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah, has ordered an inquiry into the leaders of the National Salvation Front, Hamdeen Sabahi, Amr Moussa and Mohammed ElBaradei. Appointed by President Mohammed Morsi, Abdallah wants the three opposition leaders, the last two former presidential candidates against Morsi, investigated on charges of "incitement" to overthrow the government and high treason. All three have led mass demonstrations against Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's new Qur'an-based constitution.

The legal action against the three main pro-democracy leaders comes amid criticism against the constitutional referendum, deemed invalid because of a low turnout (one third of the electorate) and numerous cases of electoral fraud by Islamists.

Unconcerned by the prevailing atmosphere of tensions, President Morsi signed the constitution on 26 December. Shortly, he will also announce the official date for new parliamentary elections.

The decision by the pro-Islamist prosecutor is further exacerbating tensions between Egyptians in favour of a secular state and defenders of a Sharia-based government, bringing the country that much closer to a civil war.

In an article published today al-Ahram online, some diplomats close to the opposition said that they had come under pressures from their superiors who want to silence all criticism against Morsi.

According to one diplomat, Egypt is now turning into a dictatorship. "I was summoned into the office of the assistant (foreign) minister," he said. The latter "asked me to be 'careful' and not to confuse my role as a diplomat with that of an activist." Another official "was told that his overt opposition to the president would undermine his chances to go a good post". (S.C)

Today's installment brings the Qur'an's quintessential violent passage:

Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (Qur'an 9:5)

This is the notorious Verse of the Sword, a verse that is much beloved by present-day jihadists. In a 2003 sermon, Osama bin Laden rejoiced over this verse: “Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant and messenger [the Prophet Muhammad], in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood.”

The Qur'an commentator Ibn Juzayy says that this verse abrogates “every peace treaty in the Qur’an,” and specifically abrogates Qur'an 47:4’s directive to “set free or ransom” captive unbelievers. Another, As-Suyuti, says: “This is an Ayat of the Sword which abrogates pardon, truce and overlooking” – that is, perhaps the overlooking of the pagans’ offenses. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn says that the Muslims must “slay the idolaters wherever you find them, be it during a lawful [period] or a sacred [one], and take them, captive, and confine them, to castles and forts, until they have no choice except [being put to] death or [acceptance of] Islam.”

Ibn Kathir echoes this, directing that Muslims should “not wait until you find them. Rather, seek and besiege them in their areas and forts, gather intelligence about them in the various roads and fairways so that what is made wide looks ever smaller to them. This way, they will have no choice, but to die or embrace Islam.” He also doesn’t seem to subscribe to the view commonly put forward by Muslim spokesmen in the West today — that this verse applies only to the pagans of Arabia in Muhammad’s time, and has no further application. He asserts, on the contrary, that “slay the unbelievers wherever you find them” means just that: the unbelievers must be killed “on the earth in general, except for the Sacred Area” – that is, the sacred mosque in Mecca, in accord with Qur'an 2:191.

If the unbelievers convert to Islam, the Muslims must stop killing them. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn: “But if they repent, of unbelief, and establish prayer and pay the alms, then leave their way free, and do not interfere with them.” Ibn Kathir: “These Ayat [verses] allowed fighting people unless, and until, they embrace Islam and implement its rulings and obligations.” Sayyid Qutb says that the termination of the treaties with a four-month grace period, combined with the call to kill the unbelievers, “was not meant as a campaign of vengeance or extermination, but rather as a warning which provided a motive for them to accept Islam.”

Finally, it is noteworthy that, according to As-Suyuti, the jurist “Ash-Shafi’i took this as a proof for killing anyone who abandons the prayer and fighting anyone who refuses to pay zakat [alms]. Some use it as a proof that they are kafirun [unbelievers].” Likewise Ibn Kathir: “Abu Bakr As-Siddiq used this and other honorable Ayat as proof for fighting those who refrained from paying the Zakah.” Thus even Muslims who do not fulfill Islamic obligations fall into the category of those who must be fought. This is a principle that latter-day Salafist movements apply broadly and use frequently in branding governments that do not rule according to strict Islamic law as unbelievers who must be fought by those who regard themselves as true Muslims. This has played out over the last couple of years in the "Arab Spring" revolts.

The Islamic supremacist/Leftist propaganda machine is in high gear tonight, blaming Pamela Geller and me, along with other freedom fighters, for the act of an insane woman in the New York subways:

"Woman charged with murder in NY subway shove," from CBS News, December 29:

NEW YORK A woman accused of pushing a man to his death in front of a subway train was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime.

Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video.

A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Menendez told authorities she hates Hindus and Muslims.

Subway shoving victim Sunando Sen was from India, but it's unclear if he was Muslim or Hindu.

Sen, who lived in Queens and ran a printing shop, was killed Thursday night. Witnesses said a muttering woman pushed him on the tracks as a 7 train entered a Queens station and then ran off....

The Leftists and Islamic supremacists, always looking for fodder for their victimhood posturing, are crowing tonight:

But their game is transparent. If this crazy woman was really motivated by "anti-Muslim bigotry," rather than a general xenophobia (e.g., also including Hindus), it didn't come from me. The causes of anti-Muslim bigotry are not those who trying to defend free societies against jihad terror and Islamic supremacism. The causes of anti-Muslim bigotry, such as any that really exists, are people like Amine Mohamed El-Khalifi, the would-be jihad/martyrdom suicide bomber at the U.S. Capitol; Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; Naveed Haq, the jihad mass murderer at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle; Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh, who hatched a jihad plot to blow up a Manhattan synagogue; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; or the many others like them who have plotted and/or committed mass murder in the name of Islam and are motivated by its texts and teachings, all in the U.S. in the last few years.

If Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. like Ayloush and others really want to end "anti-Muslim bigotry," rather than use it as a tool to destroy the freedom of speech and bring Sharia blasphemy laws to the West, they need to stand against Muslims like the ones I have just listed, rather than against those non-Muslims who are trying to resist them, when "anti-Muslim bigotry" breaks out. That they do not do so shows up the hypocrisy of their entire enterprise.

Moctar Touré, recipient of Sharia justice

While Muslim spokesmen in the West do their best to convince us that the Qur'an doesn't mean what it plainly says, the Islamic supremacists in Mali have no interest in such elaborate games of deception.

"[As for] the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they committed as a deterrent [punishment] from Allah. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise." -- Qur'an 5:38

"Islamists’ Harsh Justice Is on the Rise in North Mali," by Adam Nossiter for the New York Times, December 27 (thanks to Joseph):

BAMAKO, Mali — Moctar Touré was strapped to a chair, blindfolded, his right hand bound tight to the armrest with a rubber tube. A doctor came and administered a shot. Then Mr. Touré’s own brother wielded a knife, the kind used to slaughter sheep, and methodically carried out the sentence.

Souleymane Traoré had his right hand cut off by Mr. Touré’s brother, a police chief in the Islamist-held north.

“I myself cut off my brother’s hand,” said Aliou Touré, a police chief in the Islamist-held north of this divided nation. “We had no choice but to practice the justice of God.”...

After the United Nations Security Council authorized a military campaign to retake the region last week, Islamists in Gao, Mr. Touré’s town, cut the hands off two more people accused of being thieves the very next day, a leading local official said, describing it as a brazen response to the United Nations resolution. Then the Islamists, undeterred by the international threats against them, warned reporters that eight others “will soon share the same fate.”

This harsh application of Shariah law, with people accused of being thieves sometimes having their feet amputated as well, has occurred at least 14 times since the Islamist takeover last spring, not including the recent vow of more to come, according to Human Rights Watch and independent observers.

But those are just the known cases, and dozens of other residents have been publicly flogged with camel-hair whips or tree branches for offenses like smoking, or even for playing music on the radio. Several were whipped in Gao on Monday for smoking in public, an official said, while others said that anything other than Koranic verses were proscribed as cellphone ringtones. A jaunty tune is punishable by flogging.

At least one case of the most severe punishment — stoning to death — was carried out in the town of Aguelhok in July against a couple accused of having children out of wedlock.

Trials are often rudimentary. A dozen or so jihadi judges sitting in a circle on floor mats pronounce judgment, according to former Malian officials in the north. Hearings, judgment and sentence are usually carried out rapidly, on the same day....

Moctar Touré, 25, and Souleymane Traoré, 25, both spoke haltingly and stared into the distance, remembering life before the moments that turned their worlds upside down and made them, as they felt, useless. They gently cradled the rounded stumps that now serve as arms, wondering what would come next.

The two young men had been truck drivers before Gao was overrun last spring. Both were accused of stealing guns; both said they merely acted out of patriotic feeling for the now-divided Malian state, with the intention of helping it regain the north.

In September, Mr. Traoré said, he was summoned from his jail cell after three months of a brutal prison term in which he was often fed nothing. Acquaintances had denounced him to the Islamist police; he was stealing the extremists’ weapons at night, he said, and burying them in the sand by the Niger River.

As ten other prisoners watched, he was ordered to sit in a chair, and his arms were tightly bound to it. With a razor, one of his jailers traced a circle on his forearm. “It pains me to even think about it,” he said, looking down, cradling his head in his remaining hand.

Mr. Touré’s brother, Aliou, the police chief, sawed off his hand. It took three minutes. Mr. Traoré said he passed out.

“I said nothing. I let them do it,” he said.

Moctar Touré had his hand amputated several weeks later. He said it took 30 minutes, though he fainted in the process, awakening in the hospital bed where the Islamists had placed him afterward.

Mr. Touré said his brother had insisted that the sentence be carried out.

“They asked my own brother three times if that was the sentence,” Mr. Touré said. “He’s the commissioner of police in Gao, and he wants to die a martyr,” Mr. Touré said quietly. “He joined up with the Islamists when they came to Gao.”

Aliou Touré, reached by telephone in the Sahara, said the decision was a simple one.

“He stole nine times,” he said of his brother. “He’s my own brother. God told us to do it. God created my brother. God created me. You must read the Koran to see that what I say is true. This is in the Koran. That’s why we do it.”

Moctar Touré had a different story. The Islamists had pressed him into joining their militia, he said, but the training was brutal and Mr. Touré quit. One day they saw him carrying some guns, and they accused him of wanting to subvert the new order. He was jailed.

Sweat streamed down Mr. Touré’s forehead as he recalled the terrible memories, sitting on a bench at a busy bus station here, 600 miles from Gao.

The Islamists had called out five prisoners that morning; four were to be witnesses. They took them all to an unused customs post at the edge of Gao, and Mr. Touré was ordered to wash himself. The Islamists told him what his sentence was to be.

“I was helpless,” he said. “I was completely tied up.”

Now, Mr. Touré spends his days hanging out at the bus station near a cousin’s house. Mr. Traoré hopes to learn a new trade, given that “I can’t be a driver anymore,” he said....

Mr. Oumarou said the Islamists had been busy lately writing “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” in Arabic on the former Malian administrative buildings in Gao....

Will the Islamophobia never end?

"Islamist gunmen kill 15 in Nigeria by slitting throats," by Haruna Umar for AAP, December 29 (thanks to David):

SUSPECTED radical Islamist gunmen have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats and killing at least 15 in the troubled region's latest attack.

The assault happened early on Friday morning in the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

The gunmen, suspected of being members of Boko Haram, shouted religious slogans and later ordered people to gather up into a group, said Mshelia Inusa, a primary school teacher in the village.

Chants of "God is great, God is great" followed, he said.

Later, Mr Inusa and others saw corpses with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut....

It has been abundantly established for years now that much of this money flows to the jihadists whom the Pakistanis are supposed to be fighting. But no one cares. It just keeps flowing.

"CSF: Pakistan receives $688m for ‘war on terror’ expenses," by Sumera Khan for the Express Tribune, December 29 (thanks to Block Ness):

Pakistan received US $688 million on Friday under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), as reimbursement for the expenses of supporting over 150,000 coalition forces deployed on Pak-Afghan border.

Minister of State for Finance and Senator Saleem H Mandviwala confirmed the release of funds, along with spokespersons of the State Bank of Pakistan and the foreign office.

“After the Pentagon’s notification to the US Congress, it was quite obvious that the US would soon release the CSF amount to reimburse Pakistan’s expenses incurred during the war on terror… on Friday the amount has been received by our side,” a source in the foreign office said.

In August 2012, Pakistan had received $1.12 billion from the US under the fund. Sixty per cent of the fund is apportioned to the Pakistan Army while the remaining amount is used to meet the fiscal deficit of the economy.

According to an official source, Pakistan was under immense pressure as a result of its balance of payments schedule, and that the $688 million would help relieve the balance of payments position.

The US Deputy Defence Secretary Ashton Carter had notified Congress of the US Department of Defence’s decision in a letter on December 6. Seeking approval for the case, Carter had written in the letter that “In making this determination, I find that the reimbursement is consistent with the national security interest of the United States and will not adversely affect the balance of power in the region.”

The Defence Department’s spokesperson, George Little, also remarked that “This is a concrete illustration that our security relations with Pakistan are indeed moving forward.”...

Abdul Rauf, however, denies that he prayed for Kasab's soul, and says he is the victim of a power struggle. His words might be more credible, however, if Islamic supremacists didn't always disclaim responsibility for any wrongdoing, and blame someone else.

Noteworthy here is that Rauf was only dismissed after police began an investigation. How many other sympathizers with Kasab and his jihad mass murder remain in the Judge Mukku mosque, and other mosques? What programs have peaceful Muslims instituted in India or anywhere else to make sure that no other Muslims get the idea that massacring innocent civilians is pleasing to Allah? Why, there are no such programs, anywhere. "Kochi mosque official prays for Ajmal Kasab’s soul, gets the boot," by Ajay Kanth for TNN, December 29:

KOCHI: The managing committee of a Jama'at mosque here has initiated disciplinary action against its khatib (preacher leading Friday prayers) for allegedly praying for salvation of the soul of Ajmal Kasab two days after the terrorist was hanged in Pune's Yerwada Central Jail.

Khatib Abdul Rauf, however, preferred to resign from the post than wait for action against him following strong protest from the juma (Friday congregation) that had assembled at the Judge Mukku mosque at Thrikkakkara in Kochi's outskirts.

Though the incident had occurred on November 23, its details trickled out only after police began an investigation on Friday when it, once again, "became a talking point at the juma''.

"We have confirmed the incident. An investigation is on," a source in the police told TOI.

President of the Judge Mukku mosque managing committee Abdul Rehman also confirmed the incident. "Khatib Rauf did include the name of Ajmal Kasab in the prayer for the departed souls after the namaz,'' he told TOI.

"Every Friday we say a prayer for the souls. But to our surprise and shock khatib Rauf prayed for Kasab. There was instant protest from the juma,'' Rehman said.

The committee members immediately decided to suspend him. But before they could issue the suspension order, khatib Rauf offered his resignation.

When TOI contacted him, khatib Rauf maintained that he was being victimized. Rauf said he was being made a scapegoat of a tussle between two groups in the managing committee.

"I didn't pray for the salvation of Kasab's soul. That it was the first Friday after he was hanged I used his case as an example to advise the juma not to lead such a life,'' Rauf said.

All I said was that "Kasab got the punishment he deserved. Believers of Islam should never follow the path of these kinds of people", he said.

"I have been working in the mosque for the last 25 years and this was a ploy to oust me from the post by a group of people," Rauf said.

Egypt's peace treaty with Israel increasingly becoming a paper fiction under the Muslim Brotherhood regime.

"Egypt to pursue relationship with Hezbollah," from the Jerusalem Post, December 29 (thanks to Block Ness):

In shift from Mubarak-era policy, Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon says Brotherhood-dominated Egypt will engage terror group.

In a dramatic policy shift, Egypt will seek to forge "tight" relations with Hezbollah, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Hamdy revealed in a candid interview published Saturday in Lebanon's Daily Star.

“You cannot discuss politics in Lebanon without having a relationship with Hezbollah," Hamdy was quoting as saying, before describing the terror group as a "real force on the ground" with "big political and military influence."

In this respect, Hamdy announced that Muslim-Brotherhood-dominated Egypt would begin “stretching [its] hand out in the proper, balanced way to all regional powers," including Hezbollah, in order to forge "tight" contacts with Lebanon's rulers.

Egypt-Hezbollah relations, generally strained under former president Hosni Mubarak, in large part due to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, reached rock bottom in 2008 during Israel's Operation Cast Lead. At that time, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah called on Egypt, to no avail, to intervene militarily on behalf of Gaza-based Palestinians. For its part, Egypt in the past has accused Hezbollah of operating terror cells in the country.

In his interview, Hamdy denied reports that Hezbollah had sent a delegation to Egypt to meet with President Mohamed Morsi's regime, but confirmed that he personally had met with members of Hezbollah’s political bureau in efforts “to understand each other better.”

“In discussions we said we want Hezbollah to remain as a political force in Lebanon,” Hamdy revealed....

Both hatred and violence in today's installment:

Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved, and they will not [ever] believe -- the ones with whom you made a treaty but then they break their pledge every time, and they do not fear Allah.

So if you, [O Muhammad], gain dominance over them in war, disperse by [means of] them those behind them that perhaps they will be reminded.

If you [have reason to] fear from a people betrayal, throw [their treaty] back to them, [putting you] on equal terms. Indeed, Allah does not like traitors. And let not those who disbelieve think they will escape. Indeed, they will not cause failure [to Allah ].

And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged. (Qur'an 8:55-60)

"The worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved” (v. 55) — another indication that unbelievers are worthy of no respect or consideration, but should merely be despised.

Meanwhile, if the Muslims “fear from a people betrayal,” they should simply break the treaty they have with them (v. 58). Ibn Kathir says this means that Muslims should tell the unbelievers “that you are severing the treaty. This way, you will be on equal terms, in that, you and they will be aware that a state of war exists between you and that the bilateral peace treaty is null and void.”

Then comes war: Muslims should “prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy” (v. 60). Islamic apologists in the West often make much of the next verse: "And if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also] and rely upon Allah . Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Knowing." However, this is the peace of subjugation and dhimmitude (cf. Qur'an 9:29), not a peace treaty between equals. Moreover, some do not believe this truce should be indefinite in length. Sayyid Qutb explains:

At the time when this surah was revealed, God instructed His Messenger to remain at peace with those groups who refrained from fighting him and the Muslims, whether they entered into a formal treaty with the Muslims or not. The Prophet continued to accept a peaceful relationship with unbelievers and people of earlier revelations until Surah 9 was revealed, when he could only accept one of two alternatives: either they embraced Islam or paid jizyah [a tax levied on non-Muslims, per Qur’an 9:29] which indicated a state of peace. Otherwise, the only alternative was war, whenever this was feasible for the Muslims to undertake, so that all people submit to God alone.

That is, to Islam.

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Russian police free child hostage, kill seven militants in Dagestan," from Reuters, December 29 (thanks to David):

(Reuters) - Russian security forces killed seven militants and freed a 6-year-old girl taken hostage in the restive Dagestan region of Russia's volatile North Caucasus on Saturday, a national anti-terrorism committee official told Interfax news agency.

The incident took place in an apartment building in the provincial capital of Makhachkala, according to the Interfax report. The militants broke through a wall, entered an apartment and took the girl hostage, according to the report....

The Interfax report identified the leader of the militants involved in the incident as Gadzhimurat Dolgatov and said he was among the seven killed. The report said those killed had previously served sentences for crimes including murder, extortion, theft and robbery.

During the incident, the militants opened fire and threw a grenade at the special forces personnel while trying to flee, but no security forces were hurt, Interfax reported.

Rebels who say they are fighting for an Islamic state in the strip of North Caucasus provinces often target police and security forces as well as government officials and mainstream Muslim leaders in attacks.

Rights activists say the insurgency is also driven by poverty and anger at the heavy-handed tactics of the Russian security forces.

Of course. "Rights activists" always ascribe jihad activity to the alleged wrongdoing of the non-Muslim party.

Interestingly, he was "detained on the border between Mauritania and Mali as he tried to cross the Sahara on foot to reach the desert stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)." The American jihadist Rasheed Wilson was heading to Mauritania, and may have been planning to do the same thing.

"British student arrested in North Africa for ‘trying to join terror group threatening to take control of entire Sahara,’" from the Daily Mail, December 29 (thanks to David):

A British student is under arrest in North Africa accused of trying to join an Islamic terrorist group threatening to take control over the entire Sahara.

Ahmed Shaheen, 26, from London, was detained on the border between Mauritania and Mali as he tried to cross the Sahara on foot to reach the desert stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The Islamic militants have established a brutal regime in the ancient desert city of Timbuktu and introduced Shariah law, ordering death-by-stoning and limb amputations as punishments.

Last night the Foreign Office said it was seeking further information about the whereabouts of the Briton.

A spokesman said: ‘We are aware of reports of the detention of a British National in Mauritania and are seeking further information.’

Shaheen, who is described as of Asian origin and wearing a beard, had been staying with a nomad family in the small oasis town of Walata, some 700 miles from the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott, posing as an expert in traditional communities.

He had attended prayers at the ancient mosque but was reported missing when he disappeared, after saying he planned to ‘walk to across the desert to Timbuktu’.

He was stopped by nomad tribesmen some 12 miles into the sand on Christmas Day and taken to security services operating in the border area who arrested him.

Shaheen is alleged to have told the Mauritanian Police he was trying to reach Timbuktu, in Mali, on foot, to join the AQIM jihadist struggle....

A crore equals ten million, so 100 crore Hindus would be a billion. He is boasting that the Muslims could essentially wipe the Hindus from the face of the earth in fifteen minutes, if the police look the other way.

This joins the Iranian leadership's many genocidal statements against Israel in being ignored by a world "human rights" community that is consumed with working out a remedy to "Islamophobia."

"Akbaruddin in trouble for hate speech," from TNN, December 29 (thanks to Lookmann):

HYDERABAD: Akbaruddin Owaisi, the firebrand leader of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), was on Friday taken to court over his disparaging remarks against Hindus in a hate speech, the main content of which was that Muslims would need just 15 minutes without the police to show 100 crore Hindus who is more powerful.

In a complaint filed against the MIM legislator, an advocate said he had stumbled upon YouTube uploaded hate speech made at a public meeting at Adilabad on December 24, about 300 km from the city.

The VII additional chief metropolitan magistrate after admitting the petition said the matter will be heard on December 31.

Akbaruddin, who is the younger brother of MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, said Hindus have so many gods and goddesses, and every eight days, there are new gods coming up. "We knew about Lakshmi, but who is Bhagyalakshmi, we are not aware," Akbar said referring to the Bhagyalakshmi temple abutting the historic Charminar....

"Inflammatory speech by MLA Akbaruddin - Remove police for 15 mins, We will finish off 100 crore Hindus," tweeted television commentator and interviewer Karan Thapar, which was re-tweeted by journalist and columnist Swapan Dasgupta.

UPDATE: Jihad Watch reader Christopher has just informed me that Arcapita no longer owns either Church's Chicken or Caribou Coffee. Arcapita sold off Church's back in 2009. They held an IPO for Caribou Coffee in 2011 and subsequently divested all of their shares.

----------------------------------------------

One that used to boast the genocidal Jew-hating Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi among its advisers. Here is the extraordinary expose: "Jihad-Free Holiday Gifts: Check That List Twice!," by David Yeagley, December 28:

What do Caribou Coffee, Church’s Chicken, J. Jill, and PODS Moving and Storage have in common?

They are all owned by Muslim Brotherhood-linked Arcapita Bank (formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank).

Unlike most banks, Arcapita boasts a “spiritual advisor”–none other than Hamas-linked terrorist Youssef al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi, you’ll remember, is the current spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was exiled from Egypt under Mubarak, but now he’s b-a-a-ack, thanks to U.S. support of the “Arab Spring”.

This is the same Qaradawi who has defended Hitler, pushed for Islamic countries to acquire nuclear weapons for use in jihad, and confirmed that chopping off hands for stealing–as taught by Muhammad (Qur’an 5.38)–can be re-introduced into the “new” Egypt at a later date, as Egyptians learn to submit to orthodox shari’a.

Arcapita, presumably short for “Arab Capital”, buys and sells businesses at a profit. The current list of their holdings is available in their 2011 annual statement (pages 12-13). (If there’s no “exit date” listed, they still own that company.)

Arcapita is based in Bahrain, but it’s U.S. HQ is in Atlanta. First Islamic Investment Bank changed its name to Arcapita in 2005, after the Qaradawi connection went public. They had tried “Crescent Capital” for their American branch, but apparently decided the Islamic link was still too obvious with that moniker. Muslims know that Islam is not selling well in the West; they are careful to conceal Islamic ties with name-changes so consumers cannot connect the dots to brand names or distinguish between products that fund terrorism and those that do not.

Arcapita’s spiritual advisor serves on the bank’s “Shari’ah Supervisory Board” (see p. 113) to ensure that all financial transactions are shari’a-compliant, or SCF. What does SCF include? That varies somewhat depending on which Islamic legal school one is consulting, but always bans anything involving “gambling, alcohol, pornography, dealing in pork products, or interest payments.”

Although Qaradawi no longer serves on that board–he resigned shortly after his involvement with Arcapita went public–it is clear that the firm’s allegiance to Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood remains the same. One of the board’s four members, Muhammad Usmani, is involved with both the Islamic Society of North America see p.62)
and the Islamic Circle of North America (see p. 40), both MB front groups. In 2010, Dow Jones dropped Usmani as an Islamic Index advisor when it discovered his terrorist connections.

Three of the four members belong to the Islamic Fiqh Academy, also MB....

There is much, much more. Read it all.

My ABN show from last Wednesday evening.

I expect that some of our hopelessly compromised pro-jihad pseudo-journalists such as Christiane Amanpour, Manya Brachear, Bob Smietana, Kari Huus, Dave Weigel, Michael Kruse and their ilk are hurrying over to Cairo now, eager to aid the Muslim Brotherhood in its conversion of the nation's media into its own propaganda organ.

"Brotherhood’s Shater seeks ‘total control’ of media: Egypt’s opposition group," from al-Arabiya, December 29:

Egypt’s opposition group, the Popular Front, said on Wednesday that it had laid hands on a leaked document signed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy chairman Khairat al-Shater in which he urged the government to claim “total control of the media.”

Shater, who was the Brotherhood’s main presidential candidate before he was disquieted by the election committee, reportedly also called for shutting down TV channels owned by opposition groups.

Al-Tahreer newspaper reported that Shater even advised his brethren at the helm of Egypt’s policy making to find ways to contain the more radical Salafi Islamists. Salafis have strongly stood by the Brotherhood in recent constitutional battles, but the Brotherhood see extremist Islamists as potential future threats....

If these paintings depicted Catholic priests, the artists would be getting grants and articles praising them in the New York Times, which would suddenly remember that it's against censorship. No Catholics would be threatening any violence. But this story is just more of the same: Muslims outraged by perceived "insults to Islam" reacting with violent threats, and the objects of those threats caving in. No one will take particular note of this. "Paintings Outrage Islamic Hard-Liners in Pakistan," by Asif Shahzad for the Associated Press, December 28:

Pakistan's leading arts college has pushed boundaries before in this conservative nation. But when a series of paintings depicting Muslim clerics in scenes with strong homosexual overtones sparked an uproar and threats of violence by Islamic extremists, it was too much.

Officials at the National College of Arts in the eastern city of Lahore shut down its academic journal, which published the paintings, pulled all its issues out of bookstores and dissolved its editorial board. Still, a court is currently considering whether the paintings' artist, the journal's board and the school's head can be charged with blasphemy.

The college's decision to cave to Islamist pressure underscores how space for progressive thought is shrinking in Pakistan as hardline interpretations of Islam gain ground. It was also a marked change for an institution that has long been one of the leading defenders of liberal views in the country.

Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, and the majority of its citizens have long been fairly conservative. But what has grown more pronounced in recent years is the power of religious hardliners to enforce their views on members of the population who disagree, often with the threat of violence.

The government is caught up in a war against a domestic Taliban insurgency and often seems powerless to protect its citizens. At other times it has acquiesced to hardline demands because of fear, political gain or a convergence of beliefs.

"Now you have gun-toting people out there on the streets," said Saleema Hashmi, a former head of arts college. "You don't know who will kill you. You know no one is there to protect you."

The uproar was sparked when the college's Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture over the summer published pictures of a series of paintings by artist Muhammad Ali.

Particularly infuriating to conservatives were two works that they said insulted Islam by mixing images of Muslim clerics with suggestions of homosexuality, which is deeply taboo in Pakistan.

One titled "Call for Prayer" shows a cleric and a shirtless young boy sitting beside each other on a cot. The cleric fingers rosary beads as he gazes at the boy, who seductively stretches backward with his hands clasped behind his head.

Mumtaz Mangat, a lawyer who petitioned the courts to impose blasphemy charges, argued the image implied the cleric had "fun" with the boy before conducting the traditional Muslim call for prayer.

A second painting shows the same cleric reclining in front of a Muslim shrine, holding a book by Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho in one hand as he lights a cigarette for a young boy with the other. A second young boy, who is naked with his legs strategically crossed to cover his genitals, sits at the cleric's feet. The painting has caused particular uproar because verses from Islam's holy book, the Quran, appear on the shrine.

Aasim Akhtar, an Islamabad-based art critic who wrote an essay accompanying the paintings in the journal, wrote that Ali's mixing of images was "deliberately, violently profane," aimed at challenge "homophobic" beliefs that are widespread in Pakistani society.

"Ali redefines the divine through a critique of authority and the hypocrisy of the cleric," wrote Akhtar, an Islamabad-based art critic who is also listed as a potential defendant in the blasphemy complaint.

Once again, the Islamic supremacists mobilize against an effective counter-jihadist. "Doing It Right: My Support For Israel Has Pissed Off All The Right Radical Muslims," by Blazing Cat Fur, December 23 (thanks to Anne Crockett):

Lawfare: Canadian Muslims planning to shut down my husband’s blog

The Islamist lawfare jihad against me has begun but I will not quit, we battled and defeated Section 13 because we knew that it would be used against anyone who dared speak out against the threat of radical Islam. Muslims from Canada's Radical Shia community are now raising funds for my current lawfare opponent, Canada's leading proponent of Section 13.

I am especially hated for my support of Israel - I quote:

"...while the case is being prepared there is an opportunity for you to contribute to legal action against this hatemonger who has insulted Prophet Mohammad (SAW), Quran and continues to spread hate against Muslims and other sections of the society who disagree with his extremist Zionist ideology. He is an equal opportunity hater and a Zionist fascist who, following the footsteps of his settler brethren has played a significant role in damaging the harmonious inter-faith relationships in Canada."

I am proud that my work has contributed to hate crime investigations of the East End Madrassah, and also of CASMO, both organizations are affiliated with Iran's proxies in Canada, organizations that openly operate within Canada's Shia community under the direction of Iran's Ahlul Bayt society. Organizations that openly hate Jews and Israel.

I am also proud that I played a significant hand in our government cutting off funding to both the target="_blank"Canadian Arab Federation and Palestine House, both are among the most anti-semitic organizations in Canada.

I am proud that my work resulted in the another anti-semitic organization, the Canadian Islamic Congress, being exposed and denied an opportunity to spread Taqiyya at Canada's Department of Defense.

I am proud that my work continues to expose the hatred being spread among the Muslim community in Canada. Such as this young girls hate screed in the video below, at a prominent Shia Muslim madrassah, Wali ul Asr, located in Brampton Ontario.

If you can, please donate via the Paypal Kitty Treat button on the sidebar.

That is, the sidebar here.

Hey, he just wanted to study Islam

But he was apparently planning not to stay in Morocco, but to go on to Mauritania, where the Islam is served straight and undiluted, slavery is legal, and it's just a short trip to the hot jihad waging in Mali.

"Alabama Muslim arrested for attempting to flee to Morocco," from RT.com, December 27:

A 25-year-old resident of Mobile, Alabama says he was not trying to plot with terrorists overseas when he bought a plane ticket for him and his family to visit Morocco.

Randy Lamar “Rasheed” Wilson was denied bail over the weekend, and on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges of providing support to international terrorists.

Federal investigators say Wilson, who grew up in the United States, intended on meeting up with fellow Muslims in Morocco in order to plot an act of terror against the United States. His attorneys are adamant about having the charges dropped, however, since they say they are based off of testimonies provided to undercover informants and contain no proof that Wilson intended on committing an act of terror. For the meantime, though, it is likely to be an uphill battle since the government is opposed to unsealing their alleged evidence against Wilson, claiming doing such would endanger national security.

"We are going to fight this all the way," lawyer Domingo Soto told the Associated Press. "We are going to fight the detention, the indictment and the protective order."

In response to his plea, US Magistrate Judge Katherine Nelson has set a tentative trial date of March 3, but cautions that it could be a long ordeal given the unusual circumstances of the case.

"This is obviously the first one of these cases I've handled and maybe the first we've had here in this district," Nelson on Wednesday.

But it probably won't be the last.

The government says Wilson has ties to Omar Hammami, who also at one point resided near Mobile, but later moved to Somalia to join forces with alleged terrorists al-Shabab.

In Mobile on Wednesday, Wilson’s attorney said his client only wanted to take his family to Morocco so that they could study Muslim [sic] in a country where Islam is the dominant religion.

This argument could only possibly fly with those who are ignorant of Islamic teaching regarding jihad.

Now wait a minute. Isn't "jihad" just getting in your exercise and taking the kids to school? And they quoted the Qur'an, that book of peace?

After his trip to Pakistan, I am sure that Hamas-linked CAIR's Ahmed Rehab will hurry over to Syria, so as to disabuse the members of this "opposition group" of their misunderstandings of jihad.

"Syrian opposition group draws on Erbakan in calling for jihad," from the Hürriyet Daily News, December 28:

A group of Syrian dissidents have declared themselves as students of Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister, the late Necmettin Erbakan, while publishing a video online calling for jihad, daily Hürriyet has reported.

The dissidents read passages of the Quran and called on other Syrians to join the holy fight.

The group accuses Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of collaborating with Israel as he has never fought against the Israeli state.

The group also accused Western states of supporting the al-Assad regime by keeping their silence.

The former leader of “Milli Görüş” (The National View), as well as the leader of a number of political parties, Erbakan was known for his Islamist and anti-Zionist stance.

"It also said that any religious scholar will confirm that the defence of dignity, self-respect, life, property and faith was the right of every Muslim and fighting for this right is called Jihad, according to the report." Jihad? The Taliban, a brutal and bloody force for oppression, call what they are doing "jihad"? But...but...I thought "jihad" was just getting in your exercise and taking the kids to school. Surely Hamas-linked CAIR's Ahmed Rehab is jetting over to Pakistan as we speak, so as to disabuse Ehsanullah Ehsan and other Taliban members of their misunderstandings of jihad.

"Taliban wants Sharia in Pakistan, war with India," from NitiCentral, December 27:

The Pakistani Taliban has made a conditional ceasefire offer to the Pakistan Government which calls for an end to Pakistan’s participation in the Afghan war, the imposition of Sharia law in the country, and to avenge the embarrassing defeat of Pakistan in the 1971 War, a GEO News report said.

The offer was made by Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in a telephonic call from an unknown place, the report said.

The letter calls for repeal of all laws in Pakistan which are repugnant to Islam and says the Constitution should be re-written in the light of the Quran and Sunnah, the report said.

The letter says the Taliban was dragged into a war with Pakistan and the Government and the army were responsible for this, the report said.

The war with the Taliban was started by the army and it was their religious right to defend themselves, the letter said.

It also said that any religious scholar will confirm that the defence of dignity, self-respect, life, property and faith was the right of every Muslim and fighting for this right is called Jihad, according to the report.

The Taliban condemned the Pakistan Army’s actions, calling them mercenaries for America. The Taliban said Pakistan should have a “Pure Islamic Army”, the report said.

“Instead of taking out guns against Muslims (Ahle Islam), the Pakistan Army should prepare to take revenge for the 1971 war (with India). This will also add the potential of Kashmiri mujahideen to our forces,” the Taliban said, according to the report.

The Taliban letter said Pakistan was its country and they “love its streets and plains and deserts, but we cannot sacrifice our faith for this love,” according to the report.

“If we are attacked even those who are now away from the fighting will take up arms and many more fronts will open,” it said. The Taliban said now the Government of Pakistan should decide what it wanted to do.

The letter asked this correspondent to convey the Taliban message to the Pakistani nation, according to the report.

As Egypt continues its gallop toward Sharia. "Church representative resigns from Shura Council," from Egypt Independent, December 27:

The Shura Council member recently appointed to represent the Evangelical Church resigned Thursday, citing concerns the upper house of Parliament is dominated by Islamists.

Nadia Henry was one of the 90 members chosen by President Mohamed Morsy to serve on the 270-seat council, the rest of which is elected by the public.

Henry said that one-third of the president's recent appointments are Islamists, which does not ensure appropriate representation for the rest of society.

"I was honored to be among the 90 MPs appointed to the Shura Council by President Mohamed Morsy," Henry said in the resignation letter she submitted to Shura Council Speaker Ahmed Fahmy. "As I am willing to give effort, time and all that is precious to take the country out of its crisis, I accepted this great honor as soon as I heard that the 90 appointed members were originally meant to create the required balance between representatives of all Egyptian people in the respected council."

Henry offered her apologies, saying, "I cannot accept that title, [representative] of people, under the domination of 88 percent of the seats and votes of the respected Shura Council by a single faction, although it is supposed to represent all spectrums of the Egyptian society."...

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." -- Qur'an 9:29

Muslim spokesmen in the West routinely claim that this verse has no applicability in the modern world. They're lying.

"Syrian Jihadist Group Threatens United States," from IPT News, December 27:

A Syrian opposition group tied to al-Qaida has issued a threatening statement against the United States two weeks after the U.S. Treasury Department designated its leaders as terrorists.

A statement published on a jihadist website from Abu Mohammad Tahawi, a leading Jordanian Salafi jihadist who often trumpets the Nusrah Front in Syria, taunts the United States and President Obama and promises bloodshed.

The Nusrah Front "placed you long ago on the terrorism blacklist based on injustice, tyranny and vanquishing people," Tahawi wrote. "They have made a pledge for themselves to obey the oath of Sheikh Osama [bin Laden] … and you will not know a pleasant life, nor quiet and happy sleep until you return to your homes, with bowed heads, weary, miserable; and you pay them the Jizya (tax on non-Muslims), and are humbled ."

Oh, the "Islamophobia"!

"Court: End of Free College for Terrorists," by David Lev for Israel National News, December 25 (thanks to Voice of the Copts):

The High Court ruled Tuesday that terrorist security prisoners were not eligible for free university education in Israeli schools. The permission and assistance extended to prisoners convicted of criminal activities that supplies them with free courses and degree programs at Israel's Open University does not apply to prisoners convicted of terror activities, the court ruled.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by three terrorist prisoners who claimed they were being discriminated against because prison authorities refused to enroll them in an Open University program and pay their tuition. The Open University offers extensive distance-learning programs, enabling students to do coursework via the Internet, with scheduled meetings with mentors.

The court said that discrimination was not an issue in the case. “The court has ruled in the past and continues to rule that the differences in treatment of criminal and terrorist prisoners is not due to discrimination. We believe the same applies to education,” said the three judges who heard the case.

With that, the court said that the prison system should be “considerate” in deciding what to do with terrorists who are already in the midst of academic programs. “We think it would be worthy to consider those in the midst or close to the end of an academic program separately from those who have not yet begun a course of study,” the court said. “If the prisons decide not to continue funding the education of those prisoners, they will be free to file petitions with district courts on the matter.”

In the past, Israeli prisons provided terrorists with free college education, but the practice was halted recently.

Looks like they have a fight on their hands

"There's really no such thing as just Sharia, it's not one monolithic Continuum - Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years in which multiple and competing schools of law have tried to construct some kind of civic penal and family law code that would abide by Islamic values and principles, it's understood in many different ways..." -- Reza Aslan

And yet whenever we see Sharia implemented, it looks the same. Now, why is that?

"Islamist vigilantes step up threats in Egypt's Sinai," from Reuters, December 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Islamist group in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula threatened to launch a crusade against drug use and cigarette smoking in the lawless desert region on Wednesday, prompting fears about the growing influence of radical groups in post-revolutionary Egypt.

The country's new constitution, adopted this week, states that the principles of sharia, Islamic law, are the main source of legislation.

Rights groups say the document contains vague language, such as references to "national" morals, which they believe hardliners can take advantage of to impose religious restrictions on people.

The Sinai vigilante group, which calls itself "Group for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," issued its warning in a leaflet distributed around North Sinai, saying its punishment of those who did not comply would be "very harsh".

"This statement is the first warning, and there will be no second. It is directed at those trading in drugs, specifically cigarettes," it said. "Those traders are destroying the families of Sinai, and flouting God's laws."...

Kandil and Haniyeh: Atrocity theater with boy killed by Palestinians

The cynicism of the "Palestinian" jihad propaganda machine is truly breathtaking. "HRW Confirms Gaza Terrorists Killed Gaza Boy Shown in Iconic Photo of Egypt’s PM and Hamas’s Haniyeh," by Zach Pontz for Algemeiner, December 24 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Human Rights Watch has acknowledged that terrorists killed civilians in Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defense when rockets being fired into Israel fell short.

“Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza and wounded others,” Human Rights Watch said.

The specific case mentioned in the report involves the four year-old boy used as a political tool by Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil during his visit to Gaza.

Holding back tears, Kandil kissed the boy’s lifeless body as he was presented him by Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. Kandil said,”What I saw today in the hospital, the wounded and the martyrs, the boy … whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about.” At the time Israel strongly denied being involved in the boy’s death.

In the report Human Rights Watch places blame squarely on terrorists in Gaza for the boy’s death. “Some rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups fell short and struck inside Gaza. On November 16, a rocket that appears to have been launched from within Gaza hit a crowded street in the Gazan town of Jabalya, killing a man, 23, and a boy, 4, and wounding five people.”

The report, released Monday, accuses terror groups in Gaza of violating the laws of war. It states: “Under the laws of war, parties to an armed conflict are required to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control from the effects of attacks and not to place military targets in or near densely populated areas. Human Rights Watch has not been able to identify any instances in November in which a Palestinian armed group warned civilians to evacuate an area before a rocket launch.”...

Today's Qur'an reading prescribes violence until the world is Islamized:

And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah. And if they cease - then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do. (Qur'an 8:39)

Fitnah is disturbance, upheaval, disorder, chaos. According to numerous early Muslim authorities, including Ibn Abbas, Abu Al-`Aliyah, Mujahid, Al-Hasan, Qatadah, Ar-Rabi` bin Anas, As-Suddi, Muqatil bin Hayyan and Zayd bin Aslam, the statement that Muslims must fight until there is no more fitnah means that they must fight “so that there is no more Shirk.”

Shirk is the association of partners with Allah – i.e., calling Jesus the Son of God. So this verse, although it was revealed in the aftermath of a seventh-century battle between Muslims and pagans, has a universal application: the Tafsir al-Jalalayn glosses it this way: “And fight them until sedition, idolatry, is, exists, no more and religion is all for God, alone, none other being worshipped…”

Muhammad himself said: “I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah.” (Sahih Muslim 30)

Why are Swedish officials so anxious to deport Reza Jabbari? Why won't they explain why? Why are people with weaker cases for asylum allowed to stay in Sweden? It couldn't have anything to do with a policy of favoring the large and growing Muslim minority there, now, could it? Or are the Swedish officials in question just so certain that Islam is a Religion of Peace, and so full of the soothing nonsense of Western Islamic apologists who claim that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, that they're certain that Reza Jabbari faces no danger in Iran?

"Swedish Officials Order Iranian Christian Deported for Second Time," by Steve Little for CBN, December 23 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

An Iranian convert to Christianity seeking asylum in Sweden is once again facing deportation to Iran, according to his pastor. If he’s sent back to Iran, the convert, Reza Jebbari, could be imprisoned or even put to death for leaving Islam.

CBN News first reported on Jebbari’s case last month when Swedish authorities rejected his application for asylum and ordered him deported. A few days later, a Migration Board official announced they were halting the deportation process and granting Jebbari another hearing.

Now, Jebbari’s pastor, Cai Berger, tells CBN News that another migration official has denied the request for asylum and police are seeking to take Jebbari into custody and begin the deportation process.

Jebbari’s lawyer has already filed another appeal, but Berger says they are puzzled at the government’s persistence in its attempts to deport the Christian convert.

“It would seem that we are in a tight spot again and, quite frankly, we're at a loss as to why the Migration services are so determined to deport [him],” Berger wrote CBN News in an email. “People with weaker cases get permission to stay in Sweden, but not him.”

CBN News has yet to receive a reply to an email to the Swedish Migration Board’s press office requesting an explanation for the decision to deny asylum....

Hamas-linked CAIR, ever-lauded by the mainstream media as a "civil rights organization," once again reveals its true colors. "CAIR Protests Saudi Radical's Exclusion From U.S.," from IPT News, December 27:

The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) vows to complain to U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials after they blocked a radical Saudi cleric from entering the country this week to attend a national Islamist conference in Chicago.

Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni was scheduled to speak twice during the Muslim American-Society (MAS)/Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) national convention Dec. 22-25. But a statement released during the convention expressed "the unpleasant and saddening news" that al-Qarni had been removed from his flight from Saudi Arabia despite having a visa from the U.S. embassy, and that he appears to be on the U.S. "no-fly list." Al-Qarni is described as "one of our great speakers" and as someone known "for his logical discourse and balanced views, he promotes understanding and collaboration between all people, regardless of their faith, background, or language."

Al-Qarni has advocated jihad in the past and his preaching on the subject has been described as influential among al-Qaida followers.

CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told an Arabic news outlet that he would protest al-Qarni's exclusion with DHS and State Department officials. "We defend all Muslims who are subject to arbitrary measure, and by this logic, we will act but not formally plead, unless we obtain authorization from him."

It's an ironic protest to make in light of a public relations campaign orchestrated by CAIR's Chicago chapter. "MyJihad" aims to show non-Muslims that the term jihad is more about peaceful, personal attempts at overcoming challenges than about calls for violence and terror.

Through Awad, also a listed speaker at the convention, CAIR is fighting to bring a Saudi cleric into the United States who has argued the exact opposite message. During a 2005 sermon flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), al-Qarni called the jihad against American forces in Fallujah "a source of pride … downing their planes, destroying equipment, slaughtering them, taking them hostage, and proclaiming 'Allah Akhbar' from the mosques, and the worshippers and the preacher cursing them in their prayers, and then come others begging for forgiveness, and requesting a dialogue and a ceasefire and negotiations. Who can say even one word against this true Jihad against these colonialist occupiers?" [Emphasis added]

He belittled Muslims who failed to take action, including "harming the Jews." He invoked Israel's targeted killings of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, saying he prayed that Allah "will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the Communists, and that He will turn them into the Muslims' spoils. I praise the Jihad, the sacrifice, and the resistance against the occupiers in Iraq. We curse them all of them every night and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them apart, and grant us victory over them..."

"Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered," al-Qarni said. "This is the path to victory, to shahada, and to sacrifice."

Read it all.

Jihad Watch reader James sent this video to me asking me if it was a spoof or serious. But I don't know the answer! Islamic supremacists can be so nutty that there is just no way to tell.

The only kind of Santa that is allowed

Just so that you know that the Saudis are cracking down on the really important crimes, like jihad terrorism -- no, wait...

Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Saudi detains dozens for 'plotting to celebrate Christmas,'" from al-Akhbar, December 27 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

Saudi religious police stormed a house in the Saudi Arabian province of al-Jouf, detaining more than 41 guests for “plotting to celebrate Christmas,” a statement from the police branch released Wednesday night said.

The raid is the latest in a string of religious crackdowns against residents perceived to threaten the country's strict religious code.

The host of the alleged Christmas gathering is reported to be an Asian diplomat whose guests included 41 Christians, as well as two Saudi Arabian and Egyptian Muslims. The host and the two Muslims were said to be “severely intoxicated.”

The guests were said to have been referred to the "respective authorities." It is unclear whether or not they have been released since.

The kingdom, which only recognizes Islamic faith and practice, has in the past banned public Christmas celebrations, but is ambiguous about festivities staged in private quarters.

Saudi religious police are known to detain residents of the kingdom at whim, citing loose interpretations of Sharia and public statements by hardline religious leaders to justify crackdowns.

Saudi Arabia's head mufti Sheikh Abdel Aziz bin Abdullah had previously condemned “invitations to Christmas or wedding celebrations.”

A member of the Higher Council of Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Mohammed al-Othaimin recently prohibited sending holiday wishes to "heretics" on Christmas or other religious Christian holidays....

Why we don't see more sincere Muslim reformers, chapter 1,037,382: "Mali Islamists send death threats to Muslim chiefs," from AFP, December 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

Bamako: Radical Islamists controlling the north in Mali have sent death threats to several senior Muslim chiefs in the country, officials said on Thursday.

One of the people to receive the threats is Cherif Ousmane Madani Haidara, who heads a Muslim association that groups tens of thousands of followers.

Haidara “has received numerous death threats by phone over the past several days, either directly or through those close to him”, said close aide Ousmane Diallo.

“It’s the Islamists in the north who telephoned,” he charged, adding that one of the callers said: “We are going to kill you because you want nothing to do with our Islam... we are going to kill you because you don’t want sharia in Mali.”

Haidara heads a Muslim association called Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith), which is the same name as one of the radical Islamist groups that have seized control of the north of the country following a March coup.

“We have nothing to do with the Ansar Dine of the north. We condemn the hands that they are chopping,” Haidara had previously said, referring to the amputations of hands of accused robbers that Islamist groups in the north have carried out.

“We condemn their Islam,” he said.

While most of Malian Muslims follow the Sufi brand of Islam, the Islamists controlling the north adhere to the radical Wahhabi tradition.

Underscoring the stark differences between the two groups, the Islamists this week destroyed more Muslim mausoleums that they consider blasphemous in the fabled city of Timbuktu.

Other Muslim chiefs who said they had also received death threats recently are Mohammad Macky Ba, the president of the Young Mali Muslims union, Mahamadou Diallo, an imam in Bamako, as well as Thierno Hady Thiam, another Muslim preacher.

An official with the Mali security ministry said that the ministry was aware of the death threats and that it had taken “all necessary security precautions to assure the protection of the people threatened”.

Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Rasht to explain to the authorities of the Islamic Republic that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Iran re-arrests Pastor Nadarkhani on Christmas Day," by Lisa Daftari for FoxNews.com, December 26 (thanks to Kenneth):

The Iranian Christian pastor who had been imprisoned in Iran for converting from Islam to Christianity was taken into custody again on Christmas Day, according to several Iranian media sources and individuals close to the pastor and his family.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 35, had been summoned to return back to Lakan Prison in Rasht, the facility where he served time and was then released, based on the charge that he must complete the remainder of his sentence, according to several reports and confirmed by those close to Nadarkhani in Iran.

In September, the pastor was acquitted of apostasy, but the court maintained his three-year sentence for evangelizing Muslims. As he had already served close to three years, the pastor was freed after posting bail.

The court had then stated that the remainder which equaled roughly 45 days, would be served in the form of probation.

Nadarkhani, married and father of two young children, came under the regime’s radar in 2006 when he applied for his church to be registered with the state. According to sources, he was arrested at that time and then soon released.

In 2009, Nadarkhani went to local officials to complain about Islamic indoctrination in his school district, arguing that his children should not be forced to learn about Islam.

He was subsequently arrested.

Since Nadarkhani's release in September, his attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah has been imprisoned and remains in Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison where his health is rapidly deteriorating and is being denied proper dental care, according to his family. He has been incarcerated for advocating Nadarkhani's case and other human rights cases....

Javed: Trying to fool the kuffar again

"Unsanitary practices in the Fremont clinic led to hepatitis C infections in at least 99 patients, several of whom died." But it was all "Islamophobia," don't you see? After fleeing the country to avoid prosecution, "in Pakistan, Javed became a public health official and reportedly blamed the situation in Nebraska on anti-Muslim sentiment."

Islamic Supremacist Chutzpah Alert: "Doc whose Fremont clinic infected patients with hepatitis seeks N.Y. license to practice," by Rick Ruggles for the Omaha World-Herald, December 27 (thanks to LJ):

Dr. Tahir Ali Javed, whose Fremont cancer clinic infected dozens of patients with hepatitis a little more than a decade ago, has applied for reinstatement of his medical license in New York.

Javed, 47, fled to his native Pakistan 10 years ago, when the severity of the hepatitis outbreak became known. His medical license in Nebraska was revoked. He surrendered his New York license.

In Pakistan, Javed became a public health official and reportedly blamed the situation in Nebraska on anti-Muslim sentiment.

Unsanitary practices in the Fremont clinic led to hepatitis C infections in at least 99 patients, several of whom died.

A Fremont-based group called the HONOReform Foundation grew out of the tragedy. It promotes sanitary practices in health care settings. The “One and Only” campaign that it advocates seeks to educate nurses, doctors and others of the importance of using syringes and needles only once.

Javed could not be reached for comment. His Omaha attorney, Michael D. Jones, said he hadn't had contact with Javed in years.

Antonia Valentine of the New York State Education Department, which rules on restoration of medical licenses, confirmed that Javed has applied for reinstatement.

Valentine said in an email that the application will be investigated and referred to two committees before the New York Board of Regents rules on it. It's unclear when the ruling will be issued. Valentine declined to provide further information.

Steve Langan, executive director of HONOReform, said, “Sick people were injured, some of them died, and no justice has been done.”

The Nebraska Attorney General's Office pursued the revocation of Javed's medical license in 2003. It accused him of unprofessional conduct and gross negligence for allowing staffers to reuse syringes, which contaminated large bags of saline with hepatitis. The saline was used to clean out implanted devices that administer chemotherapy and other medications to cancer patients, infecting patients with hepatitis in the process.

The allegations said Javed had been warned multiple times that his office used unsanitary practices in administering the drugs and continued to allow it.

The Attorney General's Office also accused him of exploiting a patient to conduct a sexual relationship with her. The attorney general alleged that Javed, a cancer specialist, gave the woman a false diagnosis and told her not to seek treatment elsewhere because other providers would inform her insurance company and she wouldn't be able to get insurance again.

Documents indicate that Javed admitted to little. The exploitation accusations were dismissed. Javed chose not to contest the case against him and agreed to a settlement in which his Nebraska medical license was revoked in September 2003.

New York records show that Javed surrendered his medical license in that state in 2004, after he chose not to contest the Nebraska allegations.

Travis Bennington, a Fremont attorney who co-wrote a book on the case with one of the victims, Evelyn McKnight, said Javed fled to his native Pakistan before any criminal charges could be filed....

Muhammad owned slaves, and the Qur'an takes the existence of slavery for granted, even as it enjoins the freeing of slaves under certain circumstances, such as the breaking of an oath: “Allah will not call you to account for what is futile in your oaths, but He will call you to account for your deliberate oaths: for expiation, feed ten indigent persons, on a scale of the average for the food of your families; or clothe them; or give a slave his freedom” (5:89).

While the freeing of a few slaves here and there is encouraged, however, the institution itself is never questioned. Slavery was taken for granted throughout Islamic history, as it was, of course, in the West up until relatively recent times. Yet the impetus to end slavery moved from Christendom into Islam, not the other way around. Because the Qur'anic word cannot be questioned, and the book does not contain the Biblical principles that led to the abolition of slavery in the West, there has never been a Muslim abolitionist movement. Slavery ended in Islamic lands under pressure from the West.

"UAE officer ordered to pay $1.2M to former worker," from the Associated Press, December 27 (thanks to Kenneth):

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a naval officer from the United Arab Emirates to pay $1.2 million to a former domestic worker for his family in Rhode Island who accused him of forcing her to work long hours for little pay.

U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in August ruled Col. Arif Mohamed Saeed Mohamed Al-Ali in default for failing to appear in court in a lawsuit brought by Elizabeth Ballesteros, who cared for Al-Ali’s family in East Greenwich when he was studying at the U.S. Naval War College.

On Wednesday, McConnell ordered Al-Ali to pay Ballesteros for forcing her to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and for what he called outrageous and inhumane conduct.

Al-Ali was previously acquitted of criminal charges.

Aboud al-Zomor needn't worry. The Egyptians are going to get Sharia. "Jama’a al-Islamiya: Egyptians want Sharia," from Deutsche Presse Agentur, December 27:

Egyptians voted for the Constitution because they believe in the nation’s Islamic identity and want the application of Sharia, said Jama’a al-Islamiya member Aboud al-Zomor.

Zomor was convicted of plotting late President Anwar al-Sadat’s assassination and spent almost 30 years in prison before being released in April 2011.

He told the German news agency DPA that the Constitution is “a source of stability, development and security, and confirms the Islamic identity of the state.”

“The percentage of those demanding the application of Sharia in Egypt is much higher than the 64 percent that supported the Constitution,” Zomor said. “Some rejected the Constitution because it does not enforce Sharia strictly enough.”

Zomor said that he hopes an article will be drafted to prevent the drafting of any laws that would contradict Sharia. However, he said he was not concerned that such laws would be passed because legislative powers are now in the hands of the Shura Council, “which has an Islamist majority that would not allow any violation of Sharia.”

Egypt’s Copts have no reason to fear that the new Constitution would infringe on their rights or marginalize them in any way. “The Coptic citizen has full rights of citizenship, just like a Muslim,” Zomor claimed....

...as long as he knows his place.

"If you had said ‘yes,’ you wouldn’t have been driven out of paradise. Life is about fortune, father."

The clerics said, Vote yes for the Sharia constitution and you'll be on the way to Paradise. And now even mocking that ludicrous call is, for some, blasphemy in Egypt. "Islamist lawyer accuses Al-Masry Al-Youm cartoonist of blasphemy," from Al-Masry Al-Youm, December 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

An Islamist lawyer alleged that cartoonist Doaa Eladl disparaged Islam for drawing a caricature depicting a man and woman standing next to an apple tree as a third person says to them: “If you had said ‘yes,’ you wouldn’t have been driven out of paradise. Life is about fortune, father.”

Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah referred an Islamist lawyer’s complaint alleging that a cartoon published in Al-Masry Al-Youm was blasphemous to the North Giza Prosecution Wednesday.

The lawyer alleged that cartoonist Doaa Eladl disparaged Islam with her caricature depicting a man and woman standing next to an apple tree as a third person says to them: “If you had said ‘yes,’ you wouldn’t have been driven out of paradise. Life is about fortune, father.”

The complainant argued that the drawing was blasphemous for likening those who voted “no” in the constitutional referendum to Adam and Eve and implying that voters who accepted the document would enter paradise.

Eladl said that she did not mean to mock Islam, pointing out that the concept was based on sheikhs' calls on satellite channels urging people to approve the Constitution as part of the path toward paradise....

It's "inflammatory" to ask whether Muhammad "was a child molester and a murderer" -- inflammatory enough to get you deported from Spain. Does that mean Spain will ban Sahih Bukhari, the hadith collection that Muslims consider most reliable?

Child molester: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." (Bukhari 7.62.88)

Murderer: Regarding the poet Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf, who had mocked him in his verses, Muhammad asked: "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 5.59.369)

Free Speech Death Watch Alert from Eurabia: "Spain revokes asylum status of anti-Islam filmmaker," from El Pais, December 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

The Interior Ministry has decided to revoke the asylum status of Imran Firasat, a Pakistani national living in Spain since 2010 who on December 14 announced his intention to release a video in which, among other things, he asks whether Mohammed "was a child molester and a murderer."

Spanish authorities contacted those in the USA to alert them over Firasat's association with Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who excited the rage of the Islamic world when he laid out his plans to burn copies of the Koran and circulate a video of the event.

A Madrid court banned the release of Firasat's inflammatory work and elected to rescind his asylum status on grounds of a threat to the security of the state. Firasat can appeal the decision but if it is upheld by the judge, he will have to leave the country. The governments of Belgium, France and the US had expressed their concern over the ramifications the release of the video could produce. Belgium raised its security alert level after Firasat announced his intention to upload it to the internet. He had already released a trailer filmed in Madrid's Plaza de Colón with the Spanish flag in full view.

Firasat, who describes himself as an "ex-Muslim," has a weighty police record including an Indonesian warrant for kidnap and murder and has been arrested in Spain for alleged involvement in a robbery. In interviews Firasat has claimed that he is being persecuted for his religious ideology and has said that he has received several death threats. He believes that Islam should be made illegal.

Maybe he really does have that "weighty police record," but if it really includes murder and robbery, why did he have asylum status up to now? Why did it take his making a video about Muhammad to get it revoked?

Dawah in Eurabia -- and what an attractive presentation for Islam these two Muslims made. Who wouldn't have converted under the circumstances?

"Suspected Islamic extremists attack Indian student in Germany," from the Associated Press, December 27 (thanks to Lookmann):

BERLIN (AP) - Police say an Indian student in Germany has been attacked and injured by suspected Islamic extremists who accosted him and demanded that he convert to Islam.

Police spokesman Frank Piontek said on Thursday that two attackers in the western German city of Bonn severely beat the 24-year-old and then slashed his tongue with a knife.

Police say the attackers walked up to the student in a city street late on Monday and demanded that he convert to Islam - then beat him up after he refused to do so.

The fetching Fatima, 13, safely covered, with a photo of dear old (and scandalously uncovered) Mom

And Reuters reports it all without a hint of a critical eye. She must have been mentally ill since she turned her gun on an "ally," right? And the dozens of other Afghans who have murdered their "allies" in recent months were all also mentally ill, right? They must have been -- because above all we know that this couldn't have anything to do with anyone following the example of early Muslims who were bidden by Muhammad to deceive unbelievers so as to get close enough to kill them.

Annoyed by the mockery of the poet Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf, Muhammad asked his men: "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 5.59.369)

But we already know that Islam has nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with the actions of Narges Rezaeimomenabad and others who have murdered their "allies." It must be because she was mentally ill and, of course, desperately poor -- especially because she was poor. See, if the kuffar just come across with more money, all this trouble will go away.

More on this story. "Mental illness, poverty haunted Afghan policewoman who killed American," by Michael Georgy and Mirwais Harooni for Reuters, December 26 (thanks to Darcy):

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan policewoman suspected of killing a U.S. contractor at police headquarters in Kabul suffered from mental illness and was driven to suicidal despair by poverty, her children told Reuters on Wednesday.

The woman was identified by authorities as Narges Rezaeimomenabad, a 40-year-old grandmother and mother of three who moved here from Iran 10 years ago and married an Afghan man.

On Monday morning, she loaded a pistol in a bathroom at the police compound, hid it in her long scarf and shot an American police trainer, apparently becoming the first Afghan woman to carry out such an attack.

Narges also tried to shoot police officials after killing the American. Luckily for them, her pistol jammed. Her husband is also under investigation.

Her son Sayed, 16, and daughter Fatima, 13, described how they tried to call their parents 100 times after news broke of the shooting, then waited in vain for them to come home.

They recalled Narges's severe mood swings, and how at times she beat them and even pulled out a knife. But the children said she was consistent in bemoaning poverty.

"She was usually complaining about poverty. She was complaining to my father about our conditions. She was saying that my father was poor," Sayid said in an interview in their damp, cold two-room cement house.

On the floor beside him were his mother's prescriptions and a thick plastic bag filled with pills she tried to swallow to end the misery about a month ago. On another occasion, she cut her wrist with a razor, Sayed said.

"My father was usually calm and sometimes would say that she was guilty too because it wasn't a forced marriage. They fell in love and got married."

There was no sign in their neighborhood of the billions of dollars of Western aid that have poured into Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, or of government investment.

RAW SEWAGE, STAGNANT WATER, DIRT ROADS

The lane outside their home stank of raw sewage.

Dirty, stagnant water filled holes in dirt roads nearby, where children in tattered clothes played and butchers stood by cow's hooves in shops choked by dust.

Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest nations, with a third of its 30 million residents living under the poverty line.

The sole distractions from the daily grind appeared to be a deck of playing cards and a compact disc with songs from Iranian pop singers, scattered on the floor of a room where Narges would lock herself in and weep, or sit in silence.

At times, Narges would try to focus on building her children's confidence, telling them to be guided by the Muslim holy book, the Koran, to tackle life's problems....

Clearly she herself was thus guided.

Longtime Jihad Watch readers may notice that I have posted the following information before. And I will continue to post it, as long as the near-universal denial and obfuscation continues, which I expect will be until right around the time that hell freezes over.

Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'" And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

In light of all this, until authorities get the courage to tell the truth about honor killing, there will be many more such murders.

"Lawlessness prevails: Six of a family killed in ‘honour killing,’" from the Express Tribune, December 26 (thanks to Lookmann):

YAR HUSSAIN: Six people of a family, including four women, were killed in Swabi district on Tuesday, in what officials said could be a case of honour killing.

The incident took place in the village of Sard Cheena.

Two teenaged sisters, Shamia and Khalida, told Yar Hussain police that three armed men broke into their house in Mera Bakakhel while their family was asleep. The men opened fire and killed their parents, three sisters and one-year-old niece.

SHO Qazi Asmat said that the sisters have accused three brother-in-laws for the crime. Asmat said that initial investigation revealed that the women Naseem Bibi, her one-year-old daughter Raina, Anjuman Bibi and Naqraz Bibi had separated from their husbands and were living with their parents....

If he had ripped pages out of a Bible, would he be on trial today? As Pamela Geller notes: "Instead of defending freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and Western values, the British court is enforcing the blasphemy laws under the infernal sharia."

"Atheist Peter Crawford in court for ripping up Koran at stall in Leicester," by Suzy Gibson for the Leicester Mercury, December 20 (thanks to Magnus):

An atheist shocked Muslim volunteers at a stall promoting Islam when he ripped out pages from the Koran.

Peter James Crawford (52) then threw the holy book onto the ground and told them: "Your religion is a load of b******s."

He is on trial at Leicester Crown Court accused of causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, by demonstrating hostility based on membership of a particular religious group, Islam. He denies the charge.

The incident happened at the Islamic Information Centre's stall, near the Clock Tower in Leicester city centre, on a busy Saturday afternoon, on May 12.

Kamran Qayyum, an employee of the organisation, told the court: "We give out literature to create an awareness of Islam and engage with the public."

He was with four volunteers when Crawford began pacing around nearby.

Mr Qayyum said: "He started tearing up pages from a book and they were going on the floor. He wasn't saying anything. The pages covered a lot of ground, they were everywhere.

"I then noticed Arabic inscriptions and realised it was the Koran. I knelt down and was picking up the papers when he threw the Koran down, just missing me."

Mr Qayyum said: "The Koran is sacred to us and we honour it. We also have a Bible on our stand and we show the Bible the same respect.

"One of the laws of the Koran is it shouldn't be on the floor, it should be high up and our hands should be clean when it's touched. I was shocked."

Mr Quyyum said after the defendant was arrested: "He made a signal to us, shaping his hand in the form of a gun, saying 'See you next Saturday.'

Defence advocate Steven Newcombe said: "There are many who oppose Islam. Did you take it he was expressing anti-Islamic views and disrespecting the religion?"

"Yes," said Mr Quyyum.

Mr Quyyum agreed that apart from a hand gesture – which Mr Newcombe suggested was the pointing of a finger rather than a gun gesture – the defendant did not threaten or provoke any violence.

Another stall volunteer, Zahid Hussein, said: "I saw him ripping up the book. I was in shock, disgusted. It's our life, our way of life and we live by that book – it's very sacred."

He said Crawford told them their religion was "a load of b******s."

Crawford, of Mere Road, Spinney Hill, Leicester, claimed, in interview, he was expressing his disagreement with religion of any kind.

He told the police it was his own copy of the Koran he tore up, and he would have done the same with a Bible as he did not understand either holy book and "hated" all religion.

"I'm not against the people, just their religion," he said.

James Bide-Thomas, prosecuting, said: "The real issue is whether Crawford was insulting and whether it was a crime that we say he committed.

"It's tradition in this country of freedom of speech and people are entitled to say what they want, as long as it's not illegal in relation to the law, which prevents people going out to cause harassment, alarm or distress by insulting behaviour, basically upsetting people.

"It's for you to decide whether what he did was insulting or whether it was a legitimate piece of freedom of speech being exercised or if what he did was deliberately calculated to upset the people from the Islamic Information Centre."...

Today is Beheading Day in Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month:

[Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, "I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip." (Qur'an 8:12)

Plus:

So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favor afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burdens. That [is the command]. And if Allah had willed, He could have taken vengeance upon them [Himself], but [He ordered armed struggle] to test some of you by means of others. And those who are killed in the cause of Allah - never will He waste their deeds. (Qur'an 47:4)

These passages are the chief justifications for the Islamic practice of beheading hostages and war captives. At the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg in May 2004, for example, the late Iraqi jihad leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi invoked the Battle of Badr, a discussion of which is the Qur'anic context of 8:12. "Is it not time for you," al-Zarqawi asked Muslims, "to take the path of jihad and carry the sword of the Prophet of prophets?…The Prophet, the most merciful, ordered [his army] to strike the necks of some prisoners in [the battle of] Badr and to kill them….And he set a good example for us."

One that many still follow.

It worked before, says one of the clerics: “I supplicated against a senior official at the ministry and he received the (cancer) disease and he died; this was because he began
implementing the feminization decision.”

It is not surprising that the lovers of death would pray for disease and destruction. But aside from that, this illustrates the depth of the clerics' revulsion at what they regard as the contravention of Sharia provisions regarding women.

Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Saudi labor minister faces ‘deadly prayers’ from angry clerics," from Al Arabiya, December 26:

A group of religious figures in Saudi Arabia have threatened to strike the labor minister who seeks to create jobs for women with “deadly prayers.” They threatened to pray that he gets cancer like his predecessor Ghazi al-Gosaibi, who died of the disease in 2010.

During a meeting at the labor ministry on Tuesday, about 200 religious figures accused Minister Adel Fakeih of executing a “Westernization” plan and asked him to ban women from working in lingerie shops within a month or he will face their dangerous prayers.

The ministry began in 2011 enforcing a decision to replace salesmen with Saudi women at lingerie shops in a bid to create jobs for women and meet the demands of female customers embarrassed to buy lingerie from salesman.

During the meeting, various religious figures successively attacked the minister and gave him little time to explain his decision and its benefit for the Saudi economy and for Saudi women.

One religious man told the minister, “I supplicated against a senior official at the ministry and he received the (cancer) disease and he died; this was because he began implementing the feminization decision,” according to al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. The man reportedly referred to previous Labor Minister Gosaibi.

Another religious figure told the minister that the government’s job is to employ women and not to decide where they should be employed.

Addressing the minister, another man said, “I am warning you, do not ignite sedition; we only came here to provide advice; your ministry has thrown our daughters in places that don’t suit their values.”

After a wave of attacks the minister finally snatched an opportunity to respond to the bearded men in front of him. He defended the decision to employ women, saying that women occupied jobs during the era of the Prophet Muhammad, adding that it made more sense if women rather than men are in charge of selling women’s lingerie....

Why we don't see more Islamic reform, and more sincere Islamic reformers, chapter 182932: "Saudi Arabia’s Own ‘Salman Rushdie’ Arrested For Mohammad Tweets," by Angelo Young for International Business Times, December 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

It was bound to happen eventually.

Novelist Turki Al Hamad is in detention for recent controversial Twitter posts. In 2000 Al Hamad faced a situation similar to author Salman Rushdie. He wrote a fictional trilogy that led to fataws and death threats. The government subsequently offered him protection. The author defiantly remained in Saudi Arabia, but on Monday his luck and his words caught up with him.

Novelist Turki al-Hamad, 58, one of Saudi Arabia’s more unapologetic and outspoken liberal voices, is now in custody for a series of posts he published on his Twitter last weekend comparing fundamentalist Islamist ideology and its strict social controls to Nazism and suggesting that political Islamists like those allied with Saudi Arabia’s royal family have taken their adulation of Prophet Muhammad too far.

This is dangerous language in a country where apostasy is a capital offense, especially in Saudi Arabia’s non-codified justice system that doesn’t follow judicial precedent and instead allows judges to interpret guilt as they see fit based on Islamic doctrine. Hamad’s arrest on Monday came only a week after a hearing in a website editor’s blasphemy case was referred to a higher court based on an April 2011 royal decree aimed at cracking down on electronic communications that insult Islam.

The Twitter post that most riled the kingdom’s formidable conservative religious establishment and Ministry of Information was this one, written in Arabic: “Our Prophet had come to rectify the faith of Abraham, and now is a time when we need someone to rectify the faith of Muhammad.”

That is a shocking statement to those who believe the Prophet received Allah's perfect and final revelation.

By suggesting the Saudi religious authorities are guilty of the very thing they believe they are defending against, and that this needs to be “rectified,” Hamad’s criticism was viewed as an assault on Islam itself and a direct challenge to state defenders of the faith.

On Monday Hamad was taken into custody by order of the Interior Ministry, Gulf News reported. While he isn’t likely to be executed for apostasy – there hasn’t been a recorded Saudi execution for blasphemy in modern times – he could suffer the same fate as others who have been detained in Saudi Arabia on violations of accepted speech.

Hamad joins Raif Badawi, a 30-year-old website editor from the port city of Jeddah, who is facing apostasy charges for insulting Islam through a website he ran called “Free Saudi Liberals” that allowed users to openly discuss the difference between “popular” and “politicized” Islam....

"Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious." -- Ayatollah Khomeini

"Muslim clerics ban New Year's in Kyrgyzstan," from al-Jazeera, December 26:

Muslim clerics in Kyrgyzstan have issued a fatwa against New Year celebrations in the country as they are not related to Islam and are too expensive.

The chief Muslim authority of the central Asian country have called for the ban urging Muslims to ignore the holiday altogether.

“This New Year is not a religious holiday. It is not related to Muslims at all,” said Ravshan Eratov, head of the Kyrgyz Muslims’ Religious Administration.

He also said that Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha and the Jumah (Friday prayer) are the only holidays in Islam.

“Only those are our holidays. The rest is not about Islam," he said....

Who lost Egypt? Barack Obama lost Egypt. "Egypt's contentious Islamist constitution becomes law," by Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh for Reuters, December 26:

(Reuters) - President Mohamed Mursi admitted on Wednesday that Egypt's economy faces serious problems after he enacted a new, bitterly contested constitution that is supposed to help end political unrest and allow him to focus on the financial crisis....

The presidency announced on Wednesday that Mursi had formally approved the constitution, which was drafted by his Islamist allies, the previous evening, shortly after results showed that Egyptians had backed it in a referendum....

The text won about 64 percent in a two-stage referendum, paving the way for a new parliamentary vote in about two months.

The main opposition group, which has until now boycotted all rounds of national unity talks led by Mursi's office, said it had not changed its position.

"The ongoing talks are farcical and theatrical," Hussein Abdel Ghani, an opposition spokesman, told reporters. He called on Egyptians to demonstrate against the new constitution on January 25, the second anniversary of Egypt's revolution.

He added that the opposition would stick to its policy of peaceful protest against Mursi's government, which he said sought to use religion as a tool to create an oppressive state.

ANOTHER ISLAMIST VICTORY

The referendum result marked yet another electoral victory for the Islamists since veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, following parliamentary elections last year and the presidential vote that brought Mursi to power this year.

The charter states that the principles of sharia, Islamic law, are the main source of legislation and that Islamic authorities will be consulted on sharia - a source of concern to the Christian minority and others....

Mursi's government argues the constitution offers enough protection to all groups, and that many Egyptians are fed up with street protests that have prevented a return to normality.

The charter gives Egypt's upper house of parliament, which is dominated by Islamists, full legislative powers until the vote for a new lower house is held....

The beard of jihad

More on the latest manifestation of the dhimmitude that has overtaken the military at the highest levels. "Why Fort Hood shooter still awaits trial 3 years later," by Jack Minor for WorldNetDaily, December 25:

A new judge in the case of Nidal Hasan, who’s accused of screaming “Allahu Akbar” and gunning down fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, has decided to ignore an Army regulation.

Col. Tara Anderson, replacing Col. Gregory Gross as judge, said that although the Army requires Hasan to be clean-shaven, she would not challenge Hasan’s decision to disobey the regulation.

“I’m not going to hold that against you,” Anderson told Hasan.

The beard is just one of many instances in the case in which the military has relinquished authority.

Hasan, a major and Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood, is accused of walking into the Soldier Readiness Center of the base Nov. 5, 2009, and opening fire on his fellow soldiers. Thirteen died and nearly 30 more were injured.

The attack stopped after Hasan himself was shot and paralyzed.

A survivor reported Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “Allah is greatest,” a phrase commonly uttered by jihadists prior to carrying out an attack. The Fort Hood attack was the worst shooting on an American military base.

Hasan had been on federal officials’ radar screen for at least six months prior to the shooting over postings he made on the Internet. He likened a suicide bomber who kills women and children to a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to give his life in a “noble cause.”

Intelligence officials also intercepted at least 18 emails between Hasan and the radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Hasan told al-Awlaki in one of the emails, “I can’t wait to join you” in paradise. He also asked al-Awlaki whether it was appropriate to kill innocents in a suicide attack, when jihad was acceptable and how to transfer funds without attracting government notice....

In July, the wrinkle over Hasan’s beard developed. During his time in the Army he was clean shaven. However, now that he was in jail for allegedly killing his fellow soldiers, Hasan claimed he has the right to wear a beard, in direct contradiction of Army regulations which require a soldier to be clean shaven unless there is a medical reason.

Hasan told Gross, the judge then hearing the case: “Your honor, in the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim. I believe that my religion requires me to wear a beard.”

Gross ruled that despite his claim, Hasan did not have a religious right to wear a beard and must shave it off. However, he would not enforce his ruling until after Hasan had exhausted all of his appeals.

Earlier this month, an Army appeals court took the unusual step of removing Gross from the case. The U.S Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces announced in its ruling it was removing Gross because he showed an appearance of bias in his treatment of Hasan.

However, the court refused to rule on the merits of Hasan’s claim, stating that if the new judge found it to be an issue, Hasan could start the appeals process all over again, which could delay the trial for months, or even years.

“Should the next military judge find it necessary to address (Hasan’s) beard, such issues should be addressed and litigated anew,” the judges wrote in their ruling.

On Dec. 18, Osborn once again affirmed that Hasan was violating Army regulations by sporting his beard. However, she has also indicated Hasan will not be facing any consequences for violating military regulations.

At the hearing, Osborn asked Hasan if he understood that by wearing the beard he was in violation of Army grooming standards. Hasan responded, “Yes.”

“I’m not going to hold that against you, but some people on the panel may have issues,” she said....

“If he were not a Muslim and murdered 13 people in cold blood he would long since have been tried and convicted by now,” said Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch. “This ridiculous haggling over his beard is part of the general policy of the United States government not to offend Muslims and accommodate them in every way possible.”

Spencer went on to say the Army’s deference to Hasan on the beard issue is particularly appalling because it was his own piety that led him to kill his fellow soldiers.

“This accommodation is particularly unconscionable because Hasan said he has to have the beard because of his Muslim faith. But he also by his own account murdered 13 people because of his Muslim faith,” Spencer noted. “Because of this why should we be giving him any accommodation because of his faith? This would be like making sure a Nazi guard at a concentration camp in prison was later supplied with a copy of Mein Kampf along with a swastika emblem.”

Some have questioned why Hasan had no problems being clean shaven before the shooting and why it only became an issue recently. Spencer explained the reason is Hasan wants to make himself a martyr in the eyes of the Muslim world.

“The martyr goes into paradise in the condition in which they die. A beard is a sign of a Muslim’s piety, and if he doesn’t have it, it is a serious mark against him,” Spencer explained. “He will consider himself to be an Islamic martyr if he is executed for his crimes or even if he dies in prison for his crimes. This is why he has attempted to plead guilty on several occasions.”

Under military law, an individual is not allowed to plead guilty in any case involving the death penalty.

The American court system has increasingly been granting deference to Muslims during legal proceedings....

While rising in the presence of judges has been a centuries-old tradition, an appeals court laid aside the tradition in deference to a Muslim woman charged with funding a Somali terrorist organization.

Amina Farah Ali refused to rise during multiple court appearances despite being warned by Minnesota Judge Michael Davis that she was required to do so. Ali said that because Muhammed told his followers they did not need to stand in his presence, she did not need to honor the judge by standing. Davis subsequently issued her contempt citations.

But an appeals court overturned the citations, stating that requiring Ali to rise in the presence of the judge “substantially burdens the free exercise of religion” for her.

Spencer says the appeals court ruling is actually a ruling against the authority of judges over Muslims in the American legal system.

“Muslims such as Ali don’t stand for the judge because they don’t accept the validity of American law. By allowing it, the court is undercutting its own authority and giving credibility to the proposition that they really don’t have jurisdiction in the very case they are trying.”

The "moderate" Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders.

Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'" And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

In light of all this, until authorities get the courage to tell the truth about honor killing, there will be many more such murders.

"Abbas aide: No plans to outlaw 'honor killing,'" by Soraya Al-Ghussein and Hannah Patchett for Ma'an, December 24 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas has no plans to amend laws that reduce sentences for suspects who claim an "honor" defense for murdering women, his legal adviser says.

"Why change it? This would cause serious problems," Hassan al-Ouri told Ma'an, adding that such a reform would "not benefit women."

In May 2011, the president pledged to amend the law to guarantee maximum penalties for "honor killing" in response to protests over the killing of university student Aya Baradiya in Hebron.

The decision was announced in a phone call to a primetime show on state TV, drawing tears among crowds of mourners shown in a live link-up from the Ramallah studio to Baradiya’s hometown.

Abbas suspended Article 340, which offers a pardon for murder if the perpetrator committed the crime on finding his wife in bed with another man.

The reform was cosmetic: Article 340 had never been used in Palestinian courts since it was legislated in 1960.

"So why did we change the law? To garner public opinion," al-Ouri said in an interview in the presidential compound in Ramallah.

"I, personally, was against the amendment because the crimes that happen in the street have no relevance to Article 340," the legal adviser added.

Al-Ouri says the president will not change the go-to clauses for lawyers seeking leniency for clients who claim they committed murder to defend family "honor."

Articles 97 to 100 of the Jordanian Penal Code, in force in the West Bank, still offer reduced sentences for any act of battery or murder committed in a "state of rage."

"The (law) only addresses 1 percent of the problem. What we need is a new culture," al-Ouri said.

Other officials insist the penal code is the problem.

The law "privileges the killer," Interior Ministry official Haitham Arrar told Ma'an.

"It encourages some people to commit crimes against women, which will go (as far as) killing them," said Arrar, who heads the ministry's democracy and human rights unit.

Abbas fears 'conservative forces'

The Palestinian Legislative Council has not met since 2007, when Hamas and Fatah split, but women's rights expert Soraida Hussein dismisses arguments that reforms must wait until parliament reconvenes.

"For us, for women, all this is irrelevant," said Hussein, general director of the Women's Technical Affairs Committee, an umbrella group of women’s organizations. "Until now, our lives -- in law and in practice -- are seen as less than men's."

The president should issue a decree that "anybody killing anyone else will be sentenced to the highest sentence possible, whether it is a woman or a boy," says Hussein.

"The minute the law is changed and applied, the minute people will think twice," she says. "It's simple and it's not done."

Hussein suggests Abbas is hesitant to pass legal reforms because "he is not ready yet to confront conservative forces."

For Ma'an, as for the mainstream media, you're "conservative" if you support Sharia and honor killings, but if you oppose them you're..."conservative."

In 2009, Abbas ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, but al-Ouri, the legal adviser, says it will only be implemented "so long as it doesn’t contravene Islamic code."

"Look, we are for total equality but if there is a basic tenet of Islamic code that we would be forced to change under CEDAW, then people would revolt and brand us as non-believers," al-Ouri said.

'Dressing up honor'

Lax laws encourage murder suspects to claim "honor" in their defense, officials and women’s rights activists say.

"Because the penalty is one or two months, they consider killing her and dress it up as honor," Minister of Women's Affairs Rahiba Diab told Ma'an.

Khawla al-Azraq, who runs a women’s counseling center in Bethlehem, notes that femicide is a global issue but "now in Palestine, they call this honor killing."

"Sometimes these girls are abused by someone in the family and they need to cover this (up) and they kill her; sometimes because they need her money," she says. "These are the real reasons for killing."

"In Palestine, this is the gap, that until now we don’t have our own legislation that really can protect women."

The Independent Commission of Human Rights says 13 women have been killed this year, but the real figure is likely to be higher.

"There has been historically a problem of documentation," says Hussein, the women's rights expert. The cause of suspicious deaths of women was often recorded as "fate," which could refer to forced "suicides" or being pushed from a building, she explained.

Despite repeated requests since September, the Ministry of Interior did not provide Ma'an with the official number of women whose deaths were recorded as "fate" in 2012.

He has done this before. And so the question is inevitable: what does he have to hide? What does he think the people he is threatening would be "snitching" about?

Hamas-linked CAIR's position is clear. They don't want people "snitching" to law enforcement about jihad activity:

And the mainstream media continues to portray this gang of jihadist thugs as a "civil rights" organization. Clueless, or complicit?

"Senior Hamas leader calls for third intifada," by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post, December 25:

A senior Hamas leader called on Tuesday for a third intifada and the resumption of suicide bombings against Israel.

The demand came in response to the government’s recent decision to approve the construction of hundreds of housing units in east Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim.

Ahmed Halabiyeh, director of the Jerusalem Department in Hamas, said that armed Palestinian groups, including Hamas, should initiate a confrontation with Israel over its plans to build new apartments in Jerusalem and its suburbs.

The Palestinians, he added, should resort to various methods of resistance, first and foremost “martyrdom operations in the heart of Israel.”

He urged Palestinians to “ignite a third intifada to save the Aksa Mosque and Jerusalem.”

The “enemy is waging a fierce onslaught on Jerusalem and accelerating plans to Judaize the city geographically and demographically,” he told reporters in Gaza City.

Israel, he charged, was spreading the “cancer of settlements to all parts of Jerusalem.”

The Hamas official also accused Israel of working to undermine the foundations of the Aksa Mosque to bring about its collapse so it could replace the structure with the Third Temple.

Halabiyeh urged Arabs and Muslims to declare a state of full mobilization to “liberate Jerusalem, the Aksa Mosque and Palestine.”...

Abu Rudaineh also condemned Israel’s decision to withhold tax and customs revenues belonging to the PA as a “criminal and aggressive act.”

Israel would have to bear the consequences of its actions, he declared.

But the "Palestinian" jihadists, not so much.

Many would say yes, but here Jacob Sullum provides a capably argued rejoinder to them. Reason has been a consistently dhimmi publication, eagerly repeating the "Islamophobia" Big Lie and defaming counter-jihadists, so this piece is good to see.

"The Rioter’s Veto: Can violence in the Middle East justify censorship in the United States?," by Jacob Sullum in Reason, from the January 2013 issue (thanks to Ron):

On September 6, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) signed a contract to buy space for this message from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which had concluded that the First Amendment required it to accept the controversial ad. Less than two weeks later, WMATA declared that AFDI’s advocacy was not constitutionally protected after all, pointing to violent Middle Eastern protests blamed on Innocence of Muslims, an online video mocking the prophet Muhammad.

The idea that riots in other countries justify censorship in the U.S. represents a new form of heckler’s veto, making freedom of speech contingent on the predicted responses of the touchiest listeners anywhere in the world. Such a policy is dangerous to freedom of expression, providing a license to suppress speech deemed provocative, and to public safety, encouraging violence aimed at eliminating offensive messages.

WMATA said it was indefinitely postponing placement of the AFDI ad because of concerns about “security and safety.” Specifically, as U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer noted in an October 12 opinion explaining why she had overturned the transit authority’s decision, “WMATA cited two ways in which the ad could threaten public safety: (1) inter-passenger disputes on subway platforms that could result in passengers falling into the tracks or (2) a terrorist attack.”

Collyer mentioned no evidence supporting the first fear, which gives new meaning to the phrase “third rail of American politics.” And the only evidence of a terrorist threat was a general warning from the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration’s opinion that “WMATA’s Metrorail system is a unique target because of its close association with the federal government.”...

Although Collyer reached the right result, her openness to the argument that speech can be restricted based on the anticipated violence of people it offends was troubling. So was her description of the AFDI ad as “hate speech,” a constitutionally irrelevant category....

On September 27, three days after the AFDI ad began appearing in subway stations, the MTA adopted a new policy barring any message it “reasonably foresees would imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace.” For defenders of free speech, those are fighting words.

Indeed. Read it all.

Why were those steel gates and armed security personnel necessary? Are militant atheists patrolling Peshawar? Marauding bands of "freethinkers"? Or maybe the local Christians worried about being caught by mistake in "Islamophobic" attacks on the area Muslims?

Or could it be that Islamic jihadists were menacing the Christians? Naaah. That couldn't be it. After all, as everyone but greasy Islamophobes know, "jihad" is just getting in your exercise and taking the kids to school.

"Christmas celebrations: Merrymaking, hymns and carols colour the day," from the Express Tribune, December 26 (thanks to Lookmann):

Like elsewhere in the country, Christmas was celebrated with religious fervour across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on Tuesday.

Hundreds of resident Christians gathered at Swat Church to offer prayers for peace and prosperity of the country. Enthusiastic girls and boys sang carols in a chorus. The grand function was organised after almost five years.

“It’s a special occasion as people are rejoicing in the company of their family and friends after so long,” said Hina Patrus, a social activist. Maryam, a Christian woman who works in the provincial health department, said she was happy to see people celebrating with their loved ones.

Meanwhile, scores of people also came in from other parts of the province to participate in the function. “Having to celebrate by the scenic valley doubles the joy of Christmas,” said Usha Roy, who had come from Mardan with her family.

Father Samuel Gil, the church in-charge, conducted all proceedings at the event. While talking to The Express Tribune, he said, “the Muslim community in Swat is very warm and welcoming and we all live in harmony. On this occasion, we send out a message of peace and pray for eternal peace in this serene valley.”

The function was organised by the district administration in collaboration with Pakistan Army.

Prayers and presents in Peshawar

Owing to the volatile security situation in the city, most of the celebration was limited to the churches throughout Peshawar. “This year we did not cut the Christmas cake to honour the slain Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour, who rendered great services for our community,” said St. Micheal’s Catholic Church General Secretary Nadeem James.

He added that that although the two main churches are situation in the red zone, the Christians were allowed to move freely to their place of worship....

Strict security measures were taken by installing steel gates manned by armed security personnel. During his sermon, the bishop of the churches stressed on maintaining interfaith harmony....

Yesterday, Christmas day, as Muslims murdered at least twelve Christians in Nigeria and pelted Christians in Indonesia with rotten eggs, urine, and dung, rather than stand up and denounce this supremacist savagery from his coreligionists, a Muslim instead chose to send me this email:

Name: Ishak Abdellah

Email: i.abdellah@hotmail.com

Subject: Shame

Message: Shame on you for creating and propagating a trash filled website like yours. It does little more than create greater hate amongst people. You then have the audacity to present yourself as 'legitimate' through a message of 'tax deductible donations'. What a joke.

Despite all the Islam bashing crap on the internet, the religion still has more converts per year than all other religions combined. You are narrow minded in your understanding of Islam, hoping to ride the 'wave' of Islamophobia, and create a place for yourself on the internet.

Attacking Islam is a mere fashion these days, which will eventually fade away. And websites like yours will eventually also fade away with it.

IP: 76.67.186.157
HOST: bas3-hull20-1279507101.dsl.bell.ca

The real shame is not mine, but that with which Muslims like this man and Muslim spokesmen in America and their Leftist allies cover themselves, as they defame and smear those who stand up against jihad violence and Islamic supremacist hate, blaming those who call attention to it as if they were the problem rather than the jihadists.

But for Islamic supremacists, it is always someone else's fault: they never take responsibility for or even acknowledge any wrongdoing by Muslims. What is really inexcusable is how the mainstream media has made their fictional construct of "Islamophobia" into a genuine object of concern, thus abetting their attempt to deflect attention away from jihad violence.

This hypocrisy is increasingly obvious, and if we had a truly free press in the U.S., it would be discussed in the mainstream.

Today's Qur'an passage brings us the revolting idea that the supreme being created people solely in order to torture them for all eternity:

And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless. (Qur'an 7:179)

These unbelievers are entirely bestial, "like livestock." And they are indeed created in order to drink molten lead and suffer the other tortures of hell: the Qadaris of early Islamic history held that mankind had free will, and was thus capable of choosing to do good or evil. Their opponents maintained that Allah determined everything. While both sides had abundant Qur’anic citations to support their views, eventually Muslim authorities condemned Qadarism as a heresy, as it restricted Allah’s absolute sovereignty over all things. Thus those who reject faith do so because Allah wills it, as per this verse, not because they have free choice. Says the Qur'an commentator Ibn Kathir: “Whomever Allah has written to be miserable, they shall never find anyone to guide them to happiness, and whomever Allah directs to misguidance, he shall never find anyone to guide him.” (A good brief overview of the Qadari controversy can be found in the renowned Islamic scholar Ignaz Goldziher’s Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law.)

Incidentally, the passage that Hamas-linked CAIR recently featured on deceptive subway and bus ads follows not long after this: "Show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant" (Qur'an 7:199) -- or, as the Sahih International translation has it, "Take what is given freely, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant." It is noteworthy that according to one early Muslim authority, Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam, “Allah commanded [Prophet Muhammad ] to show forgiveness and turn away from the idolators for ten years. Afterwards Allah ordered him to be harsh with them.”

As we shall soon see.

It would really be astonishing, if we weren't so used to it, that American news outlets make excuses for these relentless killers, and cover for them, and heap abuse upon those who are trying to stop their advance by exposing their ideology and goals. "Gunmen Kills [sic] At Least Twelve Christians At Church Services in Northern Nigeria," from International Christian Concern, December 25 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

12/25/2012 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that at least twelve Christians, including a pastor and a deacon, were killed by unknown gunmen in separate attacks in Northern Nigeria. The gunmen are suspected to be connected to the extremist group Boko Haram. Witnesses told the press that the gunmen also set a church on fire on Christmas Eve in connection with the attack.

Late on Christmas Eve, gunmen entered the village of Peri in Nigeria’s “middle belt” state of Yobe. “A group of gunmen entered the village around midnight and went straight to the church,” a resident of Peri told the Deccan Chronicle. “They opened fire on them, killing the pastor and five worshipers. They then set fire to the [Evangelical Church of West Africa in Peri].”

The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Yobe State told the African Free Press that many of the worshipers of the Evangelical Church of West Africa were “still missing.”

"I have been informed that six bodies have been recovered," an official told the African Free Press. “Some who lived near the church fled their homes during the attack and it is assumed that they are still hiding in the bush."

Christian houses that were near the church were also attacked and set on fire.

In a separate attack, worshipers at the First Baptist Church in Maiduguri, in Borno state, were also attacked by unknown gunman. A deacon and five church members were killed.

Boko Haram is suspected to be behind this attack even though the group has yet to claim responsibility. Boko Haram is known to target Christians, their places of worship and government institutions. The extremist group is fighting to establish a separate Islamic state in Nigeria’s northern regions. Most of the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram has taken place along Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” region where the predominantly Christian South borders the Muslim majority North. The group is believed to be responsible for killing over 3,000 people since it began its armed insurgency in 2009.

Leading up to the holiday, many Christians and government officials had been preparing for a potential attack by Boko Haram. The extremist group uses the holiday to instill terror into the especially vulnerable Christian population. Many Christians considered not attending church services because of the potential of being attacked.

In "Huffington Post's jihad against freedom" at WND today, Pamela Geller exposes how the HuffPo is yet again covering for jihad violence and Islamic supremacism:

The Huffington Post continues to wage its jihad against freedom and its champions. The Huffington Post, aka the Puff Ho, consistently displays an editorial bias that is almost indistinguishable from that of the designated terrorist news outlet, al Manar.

There was no holiday reprieve from the Islamic supremacists at the Puff Ho. No, on Christmas day, Sarah Sayeed of the “Interfaith” Center of New York wrote: “A new set of ads by Pamela Geller show the Twin Towers in flames next to a passage from the Quran warning that ‘fear that shall strike the hearts of unbelievers.’ Many see the message as Islamophobic and intended to provoke fear about Islam in America.”

Sayeed’s timing was unfortunate, to say the least. On the same day her article appeared, Nigerian Muslims murdered six Christians who were attending Christmas services. And in Indonesia, a savage mob of 200 Muslims, including hijab-wearing women, pelted Christian worshippers with rotten eggs and bags of urine and dung. Both of these Muslim groups were motivated by Quranic teachings like the one quoted in my ad, making it harder for Sayeed to convince anyone who is informed about current events that my ads are “Islamophobic and intended to provoke fear of Islam in America.”

If anyone is promoting fear of Islam in America, it is the Muslims worldwide who kill people in the name of Islam and jihad. Sayeed should be challenging them, not me.

In her article, Sayeed attempted to teach us about freedom, explaining what’s wrong with it, and how we can adhere to the Shariah so that Islamic supremacists won’t get all angry and violent and kill people – which, of course, is their right in the event that we say something that violates the Shariah and upsets them. Sayeed explains “that individual freedom need not compromise collective well-being,” and that freedom of speech should be “responsible.”

Responsible? According to whom? Shariah advocates? She goes on to preach to us that each one of us is “not truly independent.” Not under Islam, Sayeed, but under the Constitution I am.

It pains me that Sayeed is not railing against the oppression, subjugation and slaughter of non-Muslims living in Muslim countries. Nor is she battling the influence among Muslims of the Quranic verses that inspire jihad, such as the one depicted in my ad, or calling for a reform of these Quranic teachings. Instead, she perverts the murder of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Sayeed contends that by pointing out the ideology behind the over 20,000 deadly Islamic attacks since 9/11, I am “boost[ing] their message and potency.” As if the slaughter of hundreds of thousands wasn’t “potent” enough. Does she condemn that? Uh, no.

Sarah Sayeed should be fighting for the rights of non-Muslims under the Shariah. She should be fighting for the rights of women under the Shariah. She should be fighting against forced marriage, female genital mutilation and child marriage. Contrary to the claims of Islamic apologists at the Huffington Post and elsewhere, Islamic clerics justify all of those things by pointing to Islamic texts and teachings. Instead, Sarah Sayeed is fighting … me.

And it’s not just Sayeed: No Muslim group anywhere has any program or initiative for teaching against the ideology that inspires jihad. There is no large-scale or serious attempt at reform going on, despite the fact that Muslims worldwide commit violence in the name of the Quran and Islam on a more or less daily basis. This month Robert Spencer has been running a daily series at his website Jihad Watch, “Hatred and Violence in the Quran Awareness Month.” Seeing it, it’s easy to understand why this violence is happening: The Quran is full of vitriol and contempt for non-Muslims and calls to wage war against them.

Read it all.

In "See No Unholy Alliance, Hear No Unholy Alliance" at FrontPage this morning, Jamie Glazov defends statements he made on Stakelbeck on Terror from a Leftist attack. The points he makes are well taken and worth reading and saving for reference, even though he is arguing with relentlessly blinkered ideologues who have no interest in engaging the valid arguments of their opposition.

In the first sentence of its attack on my appearance on Stakelbeck, I am ridiculed for believing that “progressives and radical Islamists are secretly working together.” First of all, I never said anything about this alliance being a “secret,” basically because there is nothing really secret about it. They are screaming it from the roof tops. Leftist author Naomi Klein isn’t hiding who she is rooting for when she writes “Bring Najaf to New York,” an article in the Nation in which she yearns for Muqtada Sadr’s killing fields to come to America. Noam Chomsky doesn’t ask the cameras to be turned off when he embraces Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.

Progressives and Islamists are completely out in the open about their alliance. Just go to any “Israeli Apartheid Week” on any North American campus and see who is taking part in the Hate-Israel bashing. Take a peek at who marches side by side in the BDS (“Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions”) rallies against Israel. This whole alliance is symbolized best by the “peace” demonstrations that we saw during Bush’s liberation of Iraq in 2003, when leftist and Islamist demonstrators in the West marched arm in arm and chanted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”) — the phrase shouted by Muslim suicide bombers before they blow themselves up along with innocent people. This behavior and the whole alliance in general is all meticulously documented by David Horowitz in his masterpiece Unholy Alliance and by me in United in Hate.

In any case, while mocking the position that there is an Unholy Alliance between the Left and radical Islam, Right Wing Watch curiously never utters one word of truth or criticism about Islamism, Sharia, Islamic Jihad etc. — and does all in its power to stop others from doing so as well. So here is the paradigm: You deny that you are in league with the enemy of our civilization, but at the same time you do everything in your power to prevent the truth from being told about that enemy and its agenda — and thereby make us more vulnerable to its attacks.

If you look at the comments of Right Wing Watch’s readers under the short video clip posted on the site of my guest appearance on Stakelbeck, it is fascinating to see dozens of my critics engage in the key behaviors, and in the articulation of the key themes, of what comprises the Unholy Alliance – while they simultaneously mock the idea that it exists. Here’s an analogy of this absurdity for us to ponder:

Imagine that you are a person who sees Jewish people being exterminated in an Auschwitz-style Nazi death camp, and, because of your own personal and political identity and agenda, you don’t want to save the victims or bring attention to their plight, and you hate your own society so much that you want, and work toward, helping the Nazi exterminators themselves come to your own territory and destroy the foundations and institutions of your own society.

Then there is someone who calls you on it. They point out how you deny what the Nazis are doing, how you deny the suffering and existence of their victims, and how you even deny the very existence of the Nazis and the threat they pose. The key here is that your silence/denial and the silence/denial you impose on society in this matter aids and abets what the Nazis are trying to do in destroying your society. It makes your society fragile and vulnerable. It makes you complicit. Your response to being called on this is ridiculing the person for saying it, mocking their shedding of light on the Nazi threat and denying that you and your ilk are in any kind of alliance. And yet this ridicule, mockery and denial you engage in are exactly what the Nazis need to keep the gas chambers busy and to empower them to bring them unto your own territory.

No wonder the Muslim Brotherhood is so very grateful to you, the deniers of the Unholy Alliance, since you are serving the manipulative, deceitful and malicious agenda that the Islamists pursue in their stealth jihad, all explained in their Explanatory Memorandum that was seized by the FBI in 2004 and used in the Holy Land Foundation trial in 2007.

This kind of toxic and contradictory maneuvering by the Left is typical of course. The Left is always habitually attempting to distance itself from its own history and to obfuscate any straightforward analysis of its political motives, goals, and allegiances. In so doing, leftists intentionally blur their own complicity in the greatest crimes of the twentieth century.

For instance, one of my haters in the comment section under the short video clip Right Wing Watch posts perfectly represents this morbid mindset:

“PrometheusRumiHuxley” scoffs at me for using the word “classless” in a pejorative sense, when I point to the dangers of the Left working toward its dream of a classless utopia. He clearly thinks a classless society is something humans should strive for. I guess the history of the 20^th century, and the 100 million lives that were extinguished on the altar of class hatred, have not made much of an impression on this individual. Somehow I doubt that another 100 million deaths would sober him up. That a classless society by necessity mandates a terrorist component just doesn’t register with the believers — even when they become the victims of the terror themselves, as I document in United in Hate. Yet what does register with Prometheus is that I am an idiot for saying that people like him want to destroy our society, which he says is false — while he hopes for the destruction of capitalism and the building of a classless society. The logic is fascinating and I urge my readers to glance at the comment section under my video clip where Right Wing Watch readers offer their wisdom on where and how I am a deluded evil man. The cesspool in which the leftist utopian mind-state squirms and slides reveals itself in a telling and priceless form.

Overall, what Right Wing Watch does in this context is a carbon copy of the Left’s campaign against David Horowitz’s database, DiscoverTheNetworks.org: A Guide to the Political Left. It’s a campaign that is important to briefly mention here as it crystallizes the concrete point I am making about the Left in general and Right Wing Watch’s attack on me in particular:

Launched in February 2005, DiscoverTheNetworks.org became the first website to define the Left comprehensively and map out its networks of individuals, organizations, and financial supporters. Within hours of the website’s first appearance on the Internet — before there had even been time to read a fraction of the site’s content, which includes thousands of files — leftists lashed out in fury.

A typical assault came from author Kurt Nimmo, who called the new database a “smear portal” and alleged that it unjustifiably lumped together too many disparate people and forces, especially leftists with Islamist terrorists. Nimmo made this charge even though DiscoverTheNetworks.org simply catalogues the support that leftists have given to terrorists — as exemplified by Michael Moore’s praising the insurgents in Fallujah and promoting their victory over an imperialist United States. DiscoverTheNetworks.org meticulously demonstrates, in its profiles of individuals (Moore, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, et al.) and organizations (National Lawyers Guild, International ANSWER, Code Pink, et al.), that the radical Left consistently takes the side of Islamist terrorists in their jihad against the United States.

And here’s the clincher: the absurd irony in Nimmo’s condemning the implication of a leftist-Islamist alliance is that he himself is a leftist who supports and affiliates himself with Islamist terrorists (especially terrorists in Iraq’s Sunni triangle). [1]

Nimmo’s logic clearly exemplifies the Left’s traditional dismissal of any criticism aimed against it. Dedicating their lives to erasing individuality — including their own — and becoming part of a group from whose party line they cannot waiver, progressives nonetheless react with moral indignation when they are classified as being members of that group. This tactic is a desperate attempt by the Left to avoid an honest dialogue about its own historical record. Rather than confront the bloodbath that its ideas have spawned, the Left finds it far safer to engage in historical amnesia and outright Gulag and Jihad Denial.

[B]

The typical personal attacks and attempts to smear an opponent’s character that the Left engages in cannot, naturally, be missing from Right Wing Watch’s attack on me. Tashman writes that:

“The claim that progressives and radical Islamists are secretly working together would be considered laughable if it didn’t inspire violent terrorists like Norway’s Anders Breivik and emerge as a frequent talking point among right-wing activists.”

This attempt to associate truth-tellers and truth-telling with a lunatic mass murderer because he mentioned certain people in his manifesto (he mentioned over 1,600) has become tired and also been totally discredited. For instance, Breivik references leftist radical Naomi Klein in his manifesto and talks about reading the first few chapters of her book Shock Doctrine. Should his crime be placed at her doorstep? His manifesto mentions Karl Marx 27 times, Herbert Marcuse 24 times and Antonio Gramsci 23 times. Where is Right Wing Watch’s campaign against these leftist thinkers and its accusation of their influence on his thought? Where is its demands that their works be banned?

Breivik also champions pro-Islamic viewpoints in his manifesto, showing especially his endearment to the Islamic notion of “martyrdom” and talks about how he yearns to emulate some of the Islamic rituals performed by Jihadists. He greatly admired Osama bin-Laden’s al-Qaida terror network and aspired to create a European counterpart to it. He wrote in support of a restored Islamic caliphate in the Middle East, taking the side of the Left on this matter. Don’t try, of course, to find any talk about this in the mainstream media or at Right Wing Watch, because it diminishes the leftist agenda, so you won’t find it there.

In any case, for one of the best pieces that exposes and discredits the absurd and shameful attempt of the Left to pin Breivik on Islam truth-tellers, see Robert Spencer’s piece “Islam’s Critics Won’t Be Silenced” in the L.A. Times. It is really a must read, written by a modern day freedom fighter, courageous truth teller and one of the sharpest thinkers of our time. Make sure to digest it, for it makes the key points against the totalitarianism of our age.

Read it all.

Still more jihad hatred and violence on Christmas. "Gunmen kill six at Nigerian Christmas service," from France 24, December 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Gunmen killed six people attending midnight mass at a church in northern Nigeria on Christmas Eve, police and residents confirmed on Tuesday.

“A group of gunmen came into the village at midnight and went straight to the church... they opened fire on them, killing the pastor and five worshippers. They then set fire to the church," said Usman Mansir, resident of Peri village, near Potiskum, the economic capital of Yobe state.

Mansir specified that a branch of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) was the congregation that was targeted....

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Rotten Egg Attack Mars Indonesia Christmas Celebration," from AFP, December 25 (thanks to Lookmann):

More than 200 Indonesian Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass near land outside Jakarta where they plan to build a church, police and a witness said.

Some 100 Christian worshippers intended to hold a mass near empty land where they hope to build a church, about 30-kilometers east of the capital, in a project barred by district government and community members in 2009.

Since then, worshippers from the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant have held Sunday services under scorching sun outside the property.

On Tuesday, however, local community members blocked the road near the land, Andri Ananta, a local police chief on Jakarta's outskirts, told AFP.

An AFP photographer witnessed furious locals — men and women wearing Muslim headscarf, with small children in tow — physically blocking the road and throwing rotten eggs at the gathering worshippers.

Ananta said police managed to convince the Christians to drop their plan and return home.

...instead of telling the Muslims to cut out the savage behavior.

"We tried our best to avoid any clash and the Christians agreed to leave," he said, adding 380 police and military personnel including an anti-riot squad were deployed to the area.

Church leader Reverend Palti Panjaitan said the incident came after a Christmas Eve attack on Monday evening when "intolerant people" threw not only rotten eggs but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung at them.

"Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us," he told AFP.

The country's high court last year overruled the district government's 2009 decision, but constant intimidation from Muslims in the area has delayed the church's construction, church officials said.

"The subject peoples ... are forbidden to build new churches." ('Umdat al-Salik, o11.5). Islamic law also forbids Christians to repair old churches.

Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect has escalated since 2008.

Ninety percent of Indonesia's population of 240 million identify themselves as Muslim but the vast majority practice a moderate form of Islam.

Oh, well, then! Will that Vast Majority rein in those "intolerant people"? And maybe pick up the Christians' dry-cleaning bills? Too much to ask?

"The subject peoples ... are forbidden to build new churches." ('Umdat al-Salik, o11.5). Islamic law also forbids Christians to repair old churches.

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Indonesia: "Jakarta Archbishop complains about church permits," from The Jakarta Post, December 25 (thanks to Lookmann):

The Archbishop of Jakarta Mgr. Ignatius Suharyo has complained about the difficulties faced by Christians in Indonesia in gaining building permits when they want to construct churches.

During Christmas celebrations in Jakarta Cathedral on Tuesday, Suharyo expressed his hopes that the government would soon resolve problems related to church-building permits.

“We are not allowed to build our own places of worship. Then we pray wherever we can, in often far from ideal circumstances. But we are not even allowed to do this either,” he said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday. “We don’t know what else to do.”

Suharyo referred to the ongoing disputes in the construction of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi and Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) in Bogor, West Java. The two churches have spent years struggling to obtain permits to build churches but have faced adamant rejection from several hardliner groups.

Suharyo mentioned another case of a church in Karawaci, Banten, which had to wait for 24 years before its building permit was issued.

Suharyo urged the government to take significant steps to resolve the problems, as he believed that every religion should have the same opportunities to build places of worship.

Don't hold your breath, Sayyidna.

"They decided to attend the program because they don’t have sufficient understanding of Islam." So here we have the spectacle of an Islamic hardliner, someone whom Western Muslim spokesmen would say is a misunderstander of Islam and an "extremist," charging "moderate" Muslims with misunderstanding Islam. So both sides now claim that the other side just doesn't get Islam, which is apparently such a glorious complexity that only an extraordinarily tiny minority of its adherents can grasp its true nature.

"MUI nixes Christmas for SBY," by Rabby Pramudatama for The Jakarta Post, December 24 (thanks to Lookmann):

Conservative Muslim leaders are not stopping with edicts forbidding Muslims from wishing Christians a Merry Christmas. Now they want the President not to attend any observation of the holiday in an official or personal capacity.

A representative of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) renewed on Sunday an edict (fatwa) forbidding Muslims from extending holiday greetings to Christians and said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had to skip a national Christmas celebration scheduled for Dec. 27.

“If you talk about the MUI edict, it forbids attendance at the [Christmas] rituals. A Muslim should not attend the ritual, because it is a part of worship activities that should only be attended by Christians,” Ma’ruf Amin, the council’s deputy chairman, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Ma’ruf said that Yudhoyono, as a Muslim, should not attend the national Christmas celebration, which he said would contain a Christian religious element.

Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono, who is also a Muslim, are among the top officials who are scheduled to attend the national Christmas celebration. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali joined the President and Vice President during a similar national observance in 2011.

Several Muslim organizations have echoed the MUI’s call. The United Indonesian Muslims (Persis), for example, said that it was inappropriate for the President to attend the national Christmas celebration.

“Even though they are the country’s leaders, they are forbidden to attend such Christmas celebrations,” Persis chairman Maman Abdurrahman said, as quoted by the website of conservative Muslim organization Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia’s (HTI).

Maman said that Yudhoyono and Boediono should instead order officials from the Religious Ministry’s Protestant and Catholic directorate to come to attend the event on their behalf.

Separately, the infamous hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) said that Yudhoyono and Boediono would “undermine” Islam if they decided to attend the celebration.

Muchsin Ahmad Alatas, the head of the FPI’s campaign division, advised the President and Vice President not to attend the celebration. “They decided to attend the program because they don’t have sufficient understanding of Islam,” Muchsin said. “They should have consulted with people who understand Islam better before making their decision.”

Muchsin said that Yudhoyono should ignore Christians in favor of the nation’s Muslims. “People will understand his decision, because he will have respected the feelings of the [nation’s] majority-Muslim population.”

“If the President shows up, it means that state affairs take precedence over his faith,” he said....

"Christians in Pakistan...live under constant fear of persecution by the state and majority Sunni Muslims." Now, why is that? Why do so many Pakistani Muslims misunderstand the love and tolerance of the Religion of Peace that we have to believe in on pain of charges of "Islamophobia"? And why aren't any of the self-righteous, arrogant, ostentatiously "loving" and "tolerant" Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. doing anything to disabuse their Pakistani coreligionists of their misunderstanding?

"A dark Christmas for Pakistani Christians," by Shamil Shams for Deutsches Welle, December 25 (thanks to David):

In many parts of the world, Christmas means a time of celebration. But for Christians in Pakistan, who live under constant fear of persecution by the state and majority Sunni Muslims, there is not much to celebrate.

Christians make up about two percent of the 180 million people living in Pakistan. Rights organizations say that like any other religious minority, they face legal and cultural discrimination in the Islamic Republic.

Pakistan's non-government human rights commission, HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan), reported that the year 2012 was one of the worst years for Pakistani Christians; a number of them were charged with blasphemy, their churches were burnt and houses looted in many parts of the country.

Blasphemy is a sensitive topic in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where 97 percent of the population is Muslim. Controversial blasphemy laws introduced by the Islamic military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s make life for Christians more difficult. Activists say the laws have little to do with blasphemy and are often used to settle petty disputes and personal vendettas; they say the Christians are thereby often victimized.

Living under blasphemy laws

On August 16, Rimsha Masih - a Christian girl aged between 10 and 14 - was accused of committing a blasphemous act by a religious cleric in her town. The cleric said she had burnt pages upon which were inscribed verses from the Koran. Masih was promptly taken into police custody.

Pakistani officials claimed the girl suffered from Down's Syndrome, a genetic disorder causing major learning disabilities. Western governments expressed serious concern over her arrest. After numerous protests by rights organizations and Western governments, a Pakistani court ordered her release from custody.

But Asia Bibi has not had such luck. In 2010, Bibi, an impoverished farmer, was sentenced to death after her neighbors accused her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. She is still languishing in prison. The liberal Pakistanis who chose to support Bibi were also not spared by Islamists.

A few months after Bibi's conviction, former governor of the Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was murdered by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri. Qadri said he killed Taseer for speaking out against the blasphemy laws and in support of Bibi. In March 2011, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's former minister for minority affairs, was assassinated by a religious fanatic for the same reason.

Farzana Bari, director of Center for Women's Studies at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University, believes discrimination will persist until the government reforms its legislation.

"It is high time that Pakistani government reform these anti-blasphemy laws. These laws are even against the spirit of Islam and are a cause of notoriety for the country," she told DW.

In what way are they against the spirit of Islam?

The government of President Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was heavily criticized by domestic and international rights organizations for failing to reform the laws after the assassinations of Taseer and Bhatti.

But Karachi-based journalist Mohsin Sayeed does not only blame the government. He told DW in an interview that what used to be a small section of society had now become mainstream.

"The days are gone when we said it was a small group of religious extremists, xenophobes, hatemongers and bigots who commit such crimes. Now the venom has spread to the whole of Pakistani society," he said, adding that those who condemned such "barbaric crimes" were now a minority in Pakistan.

He also criticized the Pakistani judiciary for its alleged sympathetic behavior toward the right-wing. "Asia Bibi is still in jail, while Qadri (Taseer's assassin), is still alive," he said.

Here DW uses "right-wing" to refer to the pro-Sharia Islamic supremacists who want to maintain the blasphemy laws and coddle those who murder opponents of such laws. They would also no doubt use "right-wing" to refer to pro-freedom opponents of Sharia. For the mainstream media, "right-wing" essentially means "people we don't like."

Living in fear

Before the rise of Islamic extremism and religious intolerance in Pakistan, Christians celebrated Christmas with much enthusiasm. They would put stars on their houses and decorate their towns with lights and flags. But many now worry about the risk of being conspicuous.

"We are scared. We are frightened. We cannot sit together, we cannot speak loudly, we cannot celebrate openly. We receive threats," Ashraf Masih, a street sweeper, told AFP. "If we sit together and talk, all of a sudden the Muslim owner of the house will come and ask 'Why are you here, what are you talking about?'"

Aslam Masih, a 37-year-old gardener, told AFP in an interview that previously they used to celebrate Christmas in the town church but now it it had been closed.

Attacks on churches

Experts say that the worshipping places of Pakistani minorities are also being increasingly targeted - not only by Islamic extremists, but also by common Pakistanis.

Of course, what makes a "common Pakistani" become an "Islamic extremist" is such an attack on a church.

Abdul Hai, a senior official of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Karachi, told DW that while there were also commercial reasons behind the attacks on the minorities' places of worship, most of the time, the temples and churches were attacked for religious reasons. "Religious fanaticism is growing in Pakistan and religious extremist groups are getting stronger by the day. Unfortunately, the government is not doing anything to protect minorities and their places of worship," Hai said.

One of the most violent attacks on Christians and their places of worship in Pakistan was carried out in 2009 in the central Gojra town of the Punjab when Muslims burnt more than 70 Christian houses and many churches, killing seven people, after a rumor that the Koran had been desecrated.

And this Reuters article devotes attention to the "fear for many" of the possibility of retaliation by Christians, as if the real problem in Nigeria is when Christians defend themselves from jihad violence. "Christmas brings fear of church bombs in Nigeria," by Joe Brock for Reuters, December 24 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

MADALLA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Kneeling over a dusty grave on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital, 16-year old Hope Ehiawaguan says a prayer, lays down flowers and tearfully tells her brother she loves him.

He was one of 44 killed on Christmas Day last year when a member of Islamist sect Boko Haram rammed a car packed with explosives into the gates of St Theresa's Church in Madalla, a satellite town 25 miles from the center of Abuja.

Boko Haram has killed hundreds in its campaign to impose sharia law in northern Nigeria and is the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil exporter.

Two other churches were bombed that day and on Christmas Eve 2010 over 40 people were killed in similar attacks.

This Christmas, the police and military are expecting more trouble in the north. They've ordered security to be tightened, people's movement restricted and churches to be guarded.

But such is the commitment to religion in a country with Africa's largest Christian population that millions of people will pack out thousands of churches in the coming days. It is impossible to protect everyone, security experts say....

The blast in Madalla killed several people on the street and pulled down the church roof, condemning many of those trapped inside the burning building, including a 7-month old boy.

A plaque listing the names of the members of the church who were killed has been placed above their graves. The twisted metal of the cars destroyed in the blast is still there....

Security experts believe Boko Haram is targeting worshippers to spark a religious conflict in a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

SECTARIAN THREAT

The sect has also targeted Mosques in the past and assassinated Imams who have questioned its insurgency. In the group's stronghold in the northeast, where most of its attacks occur, Muslims are equally at threat as Christians.

The fear for many is that more Christmas Day attacks could spark the sort of tit-for-tat sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.

"We have always insisted that Christians should not retaliate," said Sam Kraakevik Kujiyat, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State, one of the areas worst hit by inter-religious violence in recent years.

"But there is fear ... we know not everyone who says he is a Christian acts like one."

Churches were emptier than usual on Sunday in northern cities of Kano and Kaduna, local residents said.

Despite bolstered security in cities across the north, dual suicide bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India's Airtel and South Africa's MTN in Nigeria's second-largest city Kano on Saturday.

The bombers died but no civilians were killed.

No one took responsibility for the attacks but Boko Haram has targeted phone firms before because they say the companies help the security forces catch their members.

At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since Boko Haram launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says....

"One faction of Boko Haram has made several attempts to provoke violence between Christians and Muslims," said Peter Sharwood Smith, Nigeria head of security firm Drum Cussac.

"Unfortunately, I think it is very possible we may see attacks of this type (Church bombings) again."...

No kidding, really?

In my country it is customary for people to celebrate this day of Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month by exchanging gifts, having a big Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness dinner, and spending the day with loved ones. I am not sure where or how this quaint and intriguing custom originated, but I wish you all the happiest of days.

In any case, today's installment again inculcates hatred of Jews and Christians by emphasizing their dishonesty and perversity:

Say, "What thing is greatest in testimony?" Say, " Allah is witness between me and you. And this Qur'an was revealed to me that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches. Do you [truly] testify that with Allah there are other deities?" Say, "I will not testify [with you]." Say, "Indeed, He is but one God, and indeed, I am free of what you associate [with Him]."

Those to whom We have given the Scripture recognize it as they recognize their [own] sons. Those who will lose themselves [in the Hereafter] do not believe.

And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie or denies His verses? Indeed, the wrongdoers will not succeed.

And [mention, O Muhammad], the Day We will gather them all together; then We will say to those who associated others with Allah , "Where are your 'partners' that you used to claim [with Him]?" Then there will be no [excuse upon] examination except they will say, "By Allah , our Lord, we were not those who associated." See how they will lie about themselves. And lost from them will be what they used to invent. (Qur'an 6:19-24)

This passage emphasizes the oneness of Allah, and claims that “those to whom We have given the Scripture ” – that is, the Jews and Christians – “recognize it” – that is, the truth of Muhammad’s message – “as they recognize their sons” (v. 20). That is, the Jews and Christians know that Islam is true. This is because, says Ibn Kathir, “they received good news from the previous Messengers and Prophets about the coming of Muhammad, his attributes, homeland, his migration, and the description of his Ummah.” That is, their unbelief in Islam is not a sincere rejection based on honest conviction, but sheer perversity: they “lie about themselves” (v. 24).

This Reuters report, however, never gets around to mentioning who is doing the persecuting.

"Pakistan's loneliest church celebrates Christmas in Taliban country," by Mehreen Zahra-Malik for Reuters, December 24:

(Reuters) - This Christmas, pastor Nazir Alam will stoke up a fire, lay a fresh cloth on the altar and welcome parishioners as they arrive at his church in Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal area known as an al-Qaeda haven.

"The lights are all up, and the choir boys are ready. The church is looking its best," said 60-year-old Alam, a former missionary who has celebrated his last ten Christmases there. "There's not much left to do but to pray and rejoice."

Outsiders might see little cause for joy. Pakistan is the sixth most dangerous country in the world for minorities, says London-based watchdog Minority Rights Group International. Christians, Shiite Muslims and Ahmadis are victims of a rising tide of deadly attacks....

As always, the mainstream media notes Islamic jihad violence without stating plainly who commits it. "Christians, Shiite Muslims and Ahmadis are victims of a rising tide of deadly attacks," but from whom? Reuters doesn't dare to say.

At PJMedia I discuss the ongoing Islamic jihad against Christmas -- that is, the Muslim struggle to make sure Christians get in their exercise and take their kids to school:

Armed guards are patrolling outside churches in Nigeria. Christians in Pakistan and Indonesia are cowering in fear. Why? Because it’s Christmastime.

Many Muslims take a dim view of Christmas at best, and at worst actively menace Christians celebrating it. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Sheikh Yahya Safi, the head imam of Australia’s largest mosque, summed up an all-too-common view when he warned in a fatwa Saturday that “disbelievers are trying to draw Muslims away from the straight path,” and that “a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them.”

Likewise the chairman of Indonesia’s top organization of Muslim clerics declared: “It’s better if they don’t say ‘Merry Christmas.’ It’s still up for debate whether it’s halal or haram, so better steer clear of it. But you can say ‘Happy New Year.’”

The popular online fatwa site Islam QA of the influential Saudi cleric Muhammad Saleh al-Munajjid explains further: “It is not permissible to imitate the kuffaar [unbelievers] in any of their acts of worship, rituals or symbols, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Whoever imitates a people is one of them.’” Indeed, “it is haraam [forbidden] to imitate the disbelievers and that it is obligatory to differ from those who are doomed to Hell.”

As might be expected from a religion that expects its adherents to be the executors of the divine wrath in this world, these condemnations of Christmas and Christians, and prohibitions on giving good wishes or joining in the celebrations, sometimes metastasize into intimidation and open violence. The Qur’an, after all, says that the unbelievers’ works will come to naught in this world as well as in the next (cf. 3:22), and Muslims must ensure it by making the lives of the infidels as miserable as possible.

“Indonesia is supposed to be a free country, but it doesn’t feel that way, especially at Christmas,” said one Indonesian Christian who is a member of a church that Muslims first forced to close on Christmas day 2009, and which has remained so ever since. The congregation prays on the street outside the church, braving the Muslim mobs that have thrown stones, rotten eggs, and bags of urine at them.

There is more.

"Behind blast walls and with policy nearby." And everyone wanting to go inside was frisked. Such are the dangers of being a practicing Christian in a state where jihadists are active.

"Baghdad Christians attend mass at attacked church," from AFP, December 24 (thanks to Lookmann):

AFP - Behind blast walls and with police nearby, 200 worshippers attended Christmas mass Monday at Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Church, which officially reopened this month after a massacre in 2010.

Sat in wooden pews with a two-metre (six-feet) high inflatable Santa Claus and a Christmas tree placed at the back, many cradled young children as a sermon was delivered with other youths playing in the church's courtyard.

Atop the church stood two Iraqi security forces members with rifles, while people who wanted to go inside were frisked at the entrance to the church compound, surrounded by four-metre (12-feet) tall blast walls and concertina wire.

"This is our first Christmas at this church since the attack," said 40-year-old Nasrat, one of the worshippers. "We are feeling very happy about the reopening of the church."

"Despite the painful attack, the church now looks even more beautiful than before."

Nasrat, who only gave his first name, was referring to an attack on October 31, 2010, when militants stormed the church and killed 44 worshippers, two priests, and seven security force personnel.

Photos of the two priests killed are now posted on either wing of the church, ribbons have been tied across the columns inside, and whereas the building's windows were shattered in the attack, they have since been replaced with stained glass and wood panelling.

Though church services still took place in the aftermath of the attack, it was officially reopened on December 14.

Three men convicted in connection with the massacre have since been sentenced to death.

"When the attack happened, all Iraqis felt deep pain, not just me, because an attack on a church is an act of a non-believer," said Ghassan Idmon Shamun, another worshipper. "Today I feel great coming to this church."

"Thankfully the situation is improving for us Iraqi Christians -- people are coming in, and attending the mass, and there is security present."

The 50-year-old added: "Before, I thought about leaving Iraq, but now as the situation has improved, I am not thinking about leaving anymore."

Iraq's Christian community is one of the oldest of its kind in the world. But along with other Iraqi Christians, they suffered persecution, forced flight and killings in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion.

Before 2003 there were more than a million Christians living in Iraq. Now they number around 450,000.

According to the UN refugee agency, many thousands fled after the 2010 attack, and from 2003 to May 2012, some 900 Christians were killed, while 200 were kidnapped, tortured and ultimately released for exorbitant ransoms, according to the Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation in Iraq.

Let's see. I received this just a few minutes ago, at 2:28AM Pacific Time on Christmas morning. So this clown is saying he will kill me by 5:28AM. So if you don't hear from me after that, merry Christmas! Given the usual Los Angeles area traffic, however, even on Christmas morning, I certainly won't be surprised if he is late.

Name: than@RRRGMAIL.COM

Email: than@RRRGMAIL.COM

Subject: I WILL MAKE TO FUCKED UP

Message: 3 HOURS...........I WILL KILL YOU FUCKER,

IP: 117.204.120.124
HOST: 117.204.120.124

By the way, the IP traces to Thrissur, India.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is time to fight for our life.

Merry Christmas to all Christian Jihad Watchers who celebrate the Feast tonight and tomorrow morning.

When so thoroughly compromised an organization as the Soros-funded Human Rights Watch, which termed Iran's genocidal calls for the annihilation of Israel not "incitement," but "advocacy," admits that Hamas is targeting civilians and violating the laws of war, you can be sure that what Hamas is doing is so far beyond the pale as to have departed from all civilized norms and entered the realm of utter savagery.

"HRW: Hamas rockets from Gaza violated laws of war," from the Jerusalem Post, December 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Armed Palestinian groups firing rockets at Israeli population centers violated the laws of war during Operation Pillar of Defense, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Monday.

“Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim,” said HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. “There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas.”

The group also found that Gazan groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committee, justified targeting civilian centers as reprisal for Israeli strikes, an act also banned under international law.

Furthermore, such groups "repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel, unnecessarily placing civilians in the vicinity at grave risk from Israeli counter-fire," the report said.

The detailed report included examples of rockets being launched from densely populated areas in Gaza, and noted that groups fired from underground tunnels with hatches for the first time. HRW faulted Palestinian armed groups for failing to alert civilians or urge them to evacuate prior to launching rockets in their vicinity.

As the ruling power in the Strip, the human rights group said, Hamas was responsible for reining in the behavior of other groups.

“As the ruling authority in Gaza, Hamas has an obligation to stop unlawful attacks and punish those responsible,” Whitson said.

A week earlier, HRW reported that Israeli attacks on journalists and media facilities during the operation also violated laws of war, saying that Israel provided no specific information to justify claims that they were military targets....

Their moral equivalence is as ridiculous as it is predictable, but it is refreshing that they at least had the residual sense of decency and accuracy to acknowledge Hamas's crimes.

"The school has a very particular uniform policy which is shared with parents...Her parents actively chose us and, before she arrived, we held a meeting which included details of the uniform plan....The parents actively sought our school. They must have done so with their eyes open."

Here again we see an attempt by Muslims to force non-Muslims to change the way they operate their institutions in order to accommodate Islamic law. There are numerous initiatives of this kind going on in the U.S., Britain and Europe, and their underlying goal is always the same: to establish and reinforce the principle that whenever Islamic law and Western law and custom conflict, it is Western law and custom that must give way.

"Muslim family taking Thornton Heath Greek Orthodox school to High Court over hijab ban," by Gareth Davies for the Croydon Advertiser, December 21 (thanks to Palamas):

A GREEK Orthodox school is being taken to the High Court for banning a Muslim pupil from wearing a headscarf.

The nine-year-old girl's parents were so incensed at the decision they have pulled her out of St Cyprian's Greek Orthodox Primary Academy, in Thornton Heath.

Now they have applied to the High Court in an attempt to force the school – the only one of its kind in the country – to reverse its ban on their daughter wearing a hijab.

The parents believe it would be a sin for her head to be uncovered because she has reached puberty and is in the presence of male teachers.

Head teacher Kate Magliocco said the uniform policy was made clear to the parents when the girl arrived in Year 3.

It was not until she moved into Year 5 in September that they wanted their daughter to start wearing a hijab, a traditional headscarf worn by Muslim women which represents the Islamic principle of modesty.

Her parents complained to the governing body, which upheld the ban with the support of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.

Mrs Magliocco said: "The school is being taken to the High Court by parents of a Muslim girl.

"They believe that, because she is nine, she has reached puberty and it would be a sin for her not to be covered because the school has male teachers.

"The decision not to allow her to wear a headscarf was taken by the governing body. The school has a very particular uniform policy which is shared with parents and, as head, I must follow the plan.

"The pupil in question came to us from a private school. Her parents actively chose us and, before she arrived, we held a meeting which included details of the uniform plan. We are the only Greek Orthodox Primary School in the whole country. The parents actively sought our school. They must have done so with their eyes open."...

Indeed they did.

Looks as if Michael is getting the hang of it all quickly:

Name: Michael (new convert)

Email: Urban_soundz4@hotmail.com

Subject: Robert Spencer and his filth

Message: Robby boy change the topic your the biggest prick I have had the misfortunes to read on and watch, you are the problem not the Muslims it's people like you, may the curse of god be on you and you die a slow and painful death. Ameen

IP: 78.105.78.160
HOST: 78-105-78-160.zone3.bethere.co.uk

Islamic apologists in the West maintain that female genital mutilation has nothing to do with Islam, and that only greasy Islamophobes think otherwise. But eventually Muslims themselves get around to vindicating every last charge that greasy Islamophobes have ever made about Islamic belief and practice.

"Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr 'clitoris' [this is called khufaadh 'female circumcision'])." -- 'Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64

"Female circumcision is a right, says imam," by Rachel Baxendale for The Australian, December 24 (thanks to Block Ness):

A MUSLIM leader and outspoken opponent of female genital mutilation says female circumcision, which he defines as the partial removal of the clitoral hood, is not only an utterly distinct practice, but the "divinely ordained right of a woman" under Islam.

Sydney-based Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences and Human Development founder and president, Imam Afroz Ali, appeared on the ABC's 7:30 program in October, condemning female genital mutilation and saying he had been told by community members of its occurrence in Australia.

But Imam Afroz defines female circumcision and female genital mutilation as "two very different, and unrelated, kinds of acts; the former being permissible and the latter completely forbidden under Islamic law".

The imam, who was yesterday unable to be contacted, made the argument in a paper entitled Mutilating Facts: Setting the Record Straight About Female Circumcision & Genital Mutilation, published this year on his SeekersGuidance website.

"Islamic law permits by definition, by prophetic statement and by practice female circumcision," he wrote. "The definition under Islamic law for female circumcision is exclusively the removal of the uppermost extra skin at the top of the clitoral glans.

"Female circumcision in its legitimate form is a personal and human right of a woman; genital mutilation is a horrible crime."

Imam Afroz indicated he believed the practice should only be performed on post-pubescent women. The imam argued his definition of female circumcision was the same as labiaplasty, or genital cosmetic surgery, which was legal in Australia.

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists vice-president Ajay Rane said he had three main concerns about Imam Afroz's paper.

"Firstly, I felt that there was confusion in the article itself. On the one hand, he's saying female circumcision is supposed to be a woman's right in Islam, on the other, he's saying it's a cultural thing," he said. "The second issue is that of consent, and the third is who does these procedures?

"How do you train them to understand the difference between removal of a small and large amount? How do you control that?"...

Indeed.

What is it about Islam that leads so many Muslims to see their cultural patrimony as something to be despised and even destroyed? And why would a Muslim group destroy the mausoleums of Muslim holy men and say that "Allah doesn't like" those mausoleums?

According to a hadith attributed to Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite wife and notorious child bride, as Muhammad lay dying, “he drew his sheet upon his face and when he felt uneasy, he uncovered his face and said in that very state: Let there be curse upon the Jews and the Christians that they have taken the graves of their apostles as places of worship. He in fact warned (his men) against what they (the Jews and the Christians) did” (Sahih Muslim 1082).

Another tradition has the dying Muhammad saying, “Allah cursed the Jews and the Christians, for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets,” and Aisha adding: “And if that had not been the case, then the Prophet’s grave would have been made prominent before the people. So (the Prophet) was afraid, or the people were afraid that his grave might be taken as a place for worship” (Sahih Bukhari 2.23.472).

Muslims who consider the shrines of saints to be idolatrous reason from those traditions that if the grave of Muhammad himself was not to be taken as a place of worship, neither should the graves of lesser Muslims become shrines for prayer and pilgrimage. This is akin to the Islamic disdain for the pre-Islamic cultural patrimony of Muslim lands: any manifestation of idolatry, however artistically or culturally significant, is to be regarded with disdain at best.

"Mali Islamists destroying more Timbuktu mausoleums," by Serge Daniel for AFP, December 23 (thanks to Lookmann):

BAMAKO — Armed groups occupying Timbuktu in northern Mali used pickaxes to smash up any remaining mausoleums in the ancient city, an Islamist leader said.

The rebels' ruthless implementation of their version of Islamic law comes just days after the United Nations approved a military force to wrest back control of the conflict-ridden area.

"Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu, Allah doesn't like it," Ansar Dine leader Abou Dardar told AFP. "We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area."

Witnesses confirmed the claims and one resident, who said he belongs to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), another militant group occupying the city since a March coup plunged the west African state into chaos.

Anything that doesn't fall under Islam "is not good. Man should only worship Allah," Mohamed Alfoul said of the mausoleums, which the armed Islamists consider blasphemous.

The vandalism of the Muslim saints' tombs in the UNESCO World Heritage site came a day after other Islamists in the northern city of Gao announced they had amputated two people's hands.

The continued strict application of sharia law is seen as a sign that the armed Islamist groups are unfazed by the UN's green light for the African-led military operation....

Mainstream media reports frequently reference a "strict application of Sharia," as if the form of Sharia we see in Mali, with its amputations and destructive hostility to the "blasphemous" mauseoleums, were somehow aberrant. But actually, these elements of Sharia are not rejected by any Islamic school of jurisprudence. They are part of Sharia wherever it is fully applied. What causes the confusion is that it isn't always fully applied even in "Islamic Republics." Compounding that confusion are Western Muslim spokesmen lying about the nature and content of Sharia.

This story vividly illustrates the high cost of the "Islamophobia" shell game: politicians and media are afraid to speak out against Muslim persecution of Christians for fear of being defamed as "racist." And so people continue to suffer and die, with no one to speak for them.

"Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East," by Edward Malnick in the Telegraph, December 23 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Christianity faces being wiped out of the “biblical heartlands” in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report.

The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.

And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.

It warns that converts from Islam face being killed in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Iran and risk severe legal penalties in other countries across the Middle East.

The report, by the think tank Civitas, says: “It is generally accepted that many faith-based groups face discrimination or persecution to some degree.

"A far less widely grasped fact is that Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers.”

It cites estimates that 200 million Christians, or 10 per cent of Christians worldwide, are “socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.”

“Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world. That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood,” says the author, Rupert Shortt, a journalist and visiting fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.

He adds: “The blind spot displayed by governments and other influential players is causing them to squander a broader opportunity. Religious freedom is the canary in the mine for human rights generally.”

The report, entitled Christianophobia, highlights a fear among oppressive regimes that Christianity is a “Western creed” which can be used to undermine them.

State hostility towards Christianity is particularly rife in China, where more Christians are imprisoned than in any other country in the world, according to the report.

It quotes Ma Hucheng, an advisor to the Chinese government, who claimed in an article last year that the US has backed the growth of the Protestant Church in China as a vehicle for political dissidence.

“Western powers, with America at their head, deliberately export Christianity to China and carry out all kinds of illegal evangelistic activities,” he wrote in the China Social Sciences Press.

“Their basic aim is to use Christianity to change the character of the regime...in China and overturn it,” he added.

The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith, the report says, quoting estimates that between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or been killed in the past century.

“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” it claims.

The report shows that “Muslim-majority” states make up 12 of the 20 countries judged to be “unfree” on the grounds of religious tolerance by Freedom House, the human rights think tank.

It catalogues hundreds of attacks on Christians by religious fanatics over recent years, focusing on seven countries: Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Burma and China.

It claims George Bush’s use of the word “crusade” after the September 11 attacks on New York created the impression for Muslims in the Middle East of a “Christian assault on the Muslim world”.

“But however the motivation for violence is measured, the early twenty-first century has seen a steady rise in the strife endured by Christians,” the report says.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq left Iraqi Christians “more vulnerable than ever”, highlighted by the 2006 beheading of a kidnapped Orthodox priest, Fr Boulos Iskander, and the kidnapping of 17 further priests and two bishops between 2006 and 2010.

“In most cases, those responsible declared that they wanted all Christians to be expelled from the country,” the report says.

In Pakistan, the murder last year of Shahbaz Bhatti, the country’s Catholic minister for minorities, “vividly reflected” religious intolerance in Pakistan....

Again: Barack Obama and General John Allen should be prosecuted for the deaths of every one of the troops murdered by their Afghan "allies" this year. They are all victims of the politically correct unwillingness to accept unpleasant realities about Islam: that it teaches hatred of and warfare against unbelievers, the virtue of deceit in war, and the impermissibility of cooperating with or allying with infidels on a permanent and lasting basis.

"Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul: NATO," by Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi for Reuters, December 24 (thanks to S.B.):

(Reuters) - An Afghan woman wearing a police uniform shot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working for Western forces in the police chief's compound in Kabul, NATO said.

The incident is likely to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war.

No kidding, really?

It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such an attack.

There were conflicting reports about the victim.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a U.S. police adviser was killed by an Afghan policewoman. Then ISAF said in a statement only that it was a "contracted civilian employee" who was killed.

Mohammad Zahir, head of the police criminal investigation department, described the incident as an "insider attack" in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troops they are supposed to be working with. He initially said the victim was a U.S. soldier.

After more than 10 years of war, militants are capable of striking Western targets in the heart of the capital, and foreign forces worry that Afghan police and military forces they are supposed to work with can suddenly turn on them.

The policewoman approached her victim as he was walking in the heavily guarded police chief's compound in a bustling area of Kabul. She then drew a pistol and shot him once, a senior police official told Reuters....

Still more Jew-hatred: they "misled many," they have "strayed," they are cursed by David and Jesus, Allah is angry with them, and they're the worst enemies of the Muslims:

Say, "O People of the Scripture, do not exceed limits in your religion beyond the truth and do not follow the inclinations of a people who had gone astray before and misled many and have strayed from the soundness of the way."

Cursed were those who disbelieved among the Children of Israel by the tongue of David and of Jesus, the son of Mary. That was because they disobeyed and [habitually] transgressed. They used not to prevent one another from wrongdoing that they did. How wretched was that which they were doing.

You see many of them becoming allies of those who disbelieved. How wretched is that which they have put forth for themselves in that Allah has become angry with them, and in the punishment they will abide eternally.

And if they had believed in Allah and the Prophet and in what was revealed to him, they would not have taken them as allies; but many of them are defiantly disobedient.

You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah ; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, "We are Christians." That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.

And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth. They say, "Our Lord, we have believed, so register us among the witnesses.

And why should we not believe in Allah and what has come to us of the truth? And we aspire that our Lord will admit us [to Paradise] with the righteous people." (Qur'an 5:77-84)

The passage says that while the Muslims will find that these Jews are their fiercest enemies, those closest to them in affection will be the Christians (v. 82). According to the Ma’alimut Tanzil, this verse doesn’t refer to all Christians, but only to those who accept Islam; this is made clear by the subsequent verses, in which these Christians "hear what has been revealed to the Messenger," whereupon "you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth."

This just reinforces the idea that good Jews and Christians will convert to Islam, and that those who do not are simply obstinate in their wickedness and perversity.

Muhammad owned slaves, and the Qur'an takes the existence of slavery for granted, even as it enjoins the freeing of slaves under certain circumstances, such as the breaking of an oath: “Allah will not call you to account for what is futile in your oaths, but He will call you to account for your deliberate oaths: for expiation, feed ten indigent persons, on a scale of the average for the food of your families; or clothe them; or give a slave his freedom” (5:89).

While the freeing of a few slaves here and there is encouraged, however, the institution itself is never questioned. Slavery was taken for granted throughout Islamic history, as it was, of course, in the West up until relatively recent times. Yet the impetus to end slavery moved from Christendom into Islam, not the other way around. Because the Qur'anic word cannot be questioned, and the book does not contain the Biblical principles that led to the abolition of slavery in the West, there has never been a Muslim abolitionist movement. Slavery ended in Islamic lands under pressure from the West.

In fact, when the British government began pressuring other regimes to abolish slavery in the nineteenth century, the Sultan of Morocco was incredulous. “The traffic in slaves,” he noted, “is a matter on which all sects and nations have agreed from the time of the sons of Adam...up to this day.” He said that he was “not aware of its being prohibited by the laws of any sect” and that the very idea that anyone would question its morality was absurd: “No one need ask this question, the same being manifest to both high and low and requires no more demonstration than the light of day.”

Sadiq al-Mahdi, former prime minister of Sudan, would agree. On March 24, 1999, he wrote to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, that “the traditional concept of JIHAD does allow slavery as a by-product.” And so slavery persists in some areas of the Islamic world. The BBC reported in December 2008 that “strong evidence has emerged of children and adults being used as slaves in Sudan’s Darfur region.”

Mauritanian human rights crusader Boubakar Messaoud asserted that in that country, people are born and bred as slaves: “A Mauritanian slave, whose parents and grandparents before him were slaves, doesn’t need chains. He has been brought up as a domesticated animal.” Three years later, nothing had changed. Messaoud explained in March 2007: “It’s like having sheep or goats. If a woman is a slave, her descendants are slaves.” Likewise in Niger, which formally abolished slavery only in 2003, slavery is a long-standing practice. Journalist and anti-slavery activist Souleymane Cisse explained that even Western colonial governments did nothing to halt the practice: “The colonial rulers preferred to ignore it because they wanted to co-operate with the aristocracy who kept these slaves.”

Islamic slavery has not been unknown even in the United States. When the Saudi national Homaidan Al-Turki was imprisoned for holding a woman as a slave in Colorado, he complained that “the state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution.” Where did he get the idea that slavery was a “traditional Muslim behavior”? From the Qur'an.

"Yemen’s hidden slaves," by Ibrahim Jadelkarim for AFP, December 19 (thanks to Lookmann):

Slavery is still being practiced in parts of Yemen, with men, women and children all falling victim to the practice. And according to local human rights activists, the government would prefer to simply sweep the problem under the carpet.

An investigation by the Wethaq Foundation, based on six months of field studies, has revealed 190 cases of slavery in three provinces in the north west of the country. The organisation also found evidence of people being bought and sold, and its report is raising questions about just how widespread slavery is in Yemen.

Yemeni Human Rights Watch had already documented its first case of enslavement in 2008, when activists found evidence of a slave being traded for around 2.000 euros. The case was discovered via local documents used to register real estate which included the phrase: “the slave Qenaf, son of slave Sara, was legally purchased”.

Charity
According to activist Najeeb Al-Saadi, it is not uncommon for individuals from the Arab Gulf to buy slaves in Yemen and then set them free. This, he says, is seen as a charitable act, in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

Al-Saadi also claims his group was able to free a slave called Naseem during its research. The terms of release included keeping the identity of the seller confidential and keeping the slave away from the media. Naseem has now been brought to the capital Sana'a, and the Foundation is searching for someone to adopt him.

Mohammed Naji Allaw is an activist and former member of parliament. He says most slaves were set free back in the 1960s after the September 26 Revolution. They remained hugely disadvantaged though because of their low economic status.

No hope
The new findings by the Wethaq Foundation are backed up by research conducted by the Al-Masdar website in 2010. This confirmed that local communities in the North-West are comfortable with slavery. For those enslaved the situation is grim. In interviews conducted by the website, the slaves said they have not received any education and believed they had little chance of improving their situation.

According to Al-Saadi, the Yemeni authorities have been happy for the slavery question to remain hidden, and the publication of his organisation’s report is raising awkward questions. When Al-Masdar previously wrote about the issue, the authorities’ response was to deny slavery existed and to send troops to the North-West to intimidate those who had spoken out. Al-Saadi hopes his group’s new research will make it impossible for the issue to be swept aside again and that the government will be forced to take action.

Slavery is banned and all people are equal under Yemeni law, but experts say extreme poverty fuels the practice as poor people in rural areas are often totally dependent.

Yes, of course. Throw money at it. That will fix it. It fixes everything. It will change Qur'anic teaching on slavery.

Note how the police aid and abet the imposition of Sharia. "Egypt constitutional vote: 'Things are definitely worse than under the old regime,'" by Richard Spencer in the Telegraph, December 22:

When Alber Saber's mother called police to protect him from a mob baying for his blood, something odd happened: they arrested him. They then threw him in prison, encouraged his cellmates to attack him, and finally took him to court where he was jailed for three months.

Mr Saber's alleged offence was all the more significant in light of the new constitution – being voted on by millions of Egyptians on Saturday – that is at the heart of Egypt's political crisis.

The mob in his Cairo suburb accused him of atheism and disrespect of the Prophet Mohammed, and demanded he be killed; a neighbour had alleged he had posted to his Facebook page the now notorious Islam-mocking video that triggered protests across the world in September.

His mother, Kariman Ghali, cries frequently as she describes visiting him in prison the day after the mob surrounded their apartment block.

"He had blood all over his T-shirt," said Mrs Ghali, who claims her son was put in a wing reserved for dangerous inmates. "The policeman told the prisoners, 'This guy insulted the Prophet, I want to see what you can do with him.' Someone stabbed him with a razor."

He was then taken to another cell where the inmates were urged to see if they could outdo the first set.

Some 250,000 police and soldiers were deployed across Egypt on Saturday to protect voting in the second half of the referendum on the draft constitution, which was drawn up by an Islamist-dominated panel from which Christians and liberals had withdrawn in protest.

Among the many charges levelled against the constitution by both human rights groups, secular and liberal activists, and the Coptic Christian minority, is that its defence of basic freedoms is heavily curtailed when it comes to religion and politics.

Specifically, it will forbid any law that would permit anything deemed insulting either of people or of religion, the Prophet Mohammed or the other figures considered by Islam to be God's messengers. Such a clause could clearly have a chilling effect on free thinking and speech.

Demonstrations continued right to the eve of Saturday's vote, which was expected to lead to a clear but not convincing victory both for the constitution – drafted by an overwhelmingly Islamist assembly – and for President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers, who have pushed it through.

In the first phase of voting in the split referendum last weekend, 57 per cent backed the document, albeit with a low turnout, and a similar result was expected on Saturday.

Yet many are alarmed that it will further enshrine an intolerance that is already on the rise.

"Things are definitely worse than under the old regime," said Gamal Eid, of the Arabic Human Rights Initiative. "It is because of the Islamists having power – their sense that they have won."

That is only part of the story. Despite regular descriptions of ex-President Hosni Mubarak's old dictatorship as "secular", it too made Egypt a country constitutionally obliged to follow the "principles of Sharia". The laws it promulgated were wide enough and flexible enough to turn the Islamist tap on and off at will, according to the Mubarak's regime's short-term interests.

Blasphemy laws have been in place since 1937, and can be used to defend Christianity as well as Islam. But in practice the law was deployed regularly, both as a sop to the Muslim Brotherhood and also simply as a means of state repression.

Nevertheless, Mr Eid says there is a sense that religion can now be invoked to pursue any manner of grievances, in a way designed to emphasise a conservative vision of society.

In one case he has taken up, an 18-year-old girl from a provincial village was arrested for blasphemy after a row with her mother and brother, who had discovered she had met a boyfriend after going away to university.

It was the girl who had complained to the police first, alleging that her mother and brother had beaten her, but when questioned, the mother claimed the girl had cursed her and cursed her religion. That was enough for the police to switch the focus of their attention.

Until the start of the referendum campaign, it appeared that this tightening of personal freedoms was at least going to be kept within a legal framework. Events since have brought this into question.

A lot changed on the night of December 5. During the afternoon, a group of Muslim Brotherhood supporters swept down on a tent encampment outside the presidential palace, occupied by anti-Morsi protesters, and tore them down.

The counter-demonstration that evening was violent and bloody, with both sides hurling stones at each other, and the Muslim Brotherhood claiming that several of its members were shot dead.

But also disturbing was the role earlier of what appeared to be a Muslim Brotherhood militia who seized protesters off the streets and took them for their own "interrogation" before handing them over to police....

This talk of a coup has been used to heighten the atmosphere in ways that stretch beyond the politics of the constitution itself. A preacher linked to the Brotherhood, Safwat Hegazi, for example, was not disavowed by the movement after he threatened in a speech to "splash Christians with blood" if they tried to join in attempts to bring Mr Morsi down....

Video thanks to Golem, who writes: "Shia Muslims have been viciously persecuted in Pakistan for decades...Here is a recent article describing this situation." Note that it is from an Iranian Shi'ite source; still, it gives much illuminating information.

Golem adds about the video above: "Here is a brutal example of this situation, a Shia Muslim who survived a prior attack, being gunned down in the hospital."

Reuters doesn't bother to explain why Iran considers Israel its "arch-enemy." This would lead them into a discussion of Islam and Islamic antisemitism, and there's no way they're getting into that. Nor do they tell readers why Egypt's approval of the Sharia constitution would lead to a thaw in relations with Iran, since the peace treaty with Israel is ostensibly still in force. Clearly the Iranians are aware that the Muslim Brotherhood's ascendancy in Egypt and the new constitution mean that the peace with Israel is not long for this world.

"Iran welcomes approval of new constitution in Egypt," from Reuters, December 23:

(Reuters) - Iran welcomed on Sunday initial results that showed the approval of an Islamist-backed constitution in Egypt, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported.

The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to power in a June election, said an unofficial tally showed 64 percent of voters backed the charter after two rounds of voting that ended with a final ballot on Saturday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast congratulated the Egyptians on the approval of the constitution, adding that Tehran regarded it as "a decisive step towards democracy" in Egypt, according to ISNA.

Diplomatic relations between Tehran and Cairo broke down after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution over Egypt's support for the overthrown shah and its peace agreement with Iran's arch-enemy Israel.

Since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, there have been signs of warming relations. In August, Mursi made the first visit to Tehran by an Egyptian leader in more than 30 years. The two countries have not officially upgraded ties.

"People's participation (in the referendum) will be a great support for the Egyptian government so that in the future, it can take more steps in achieving the great Islamic and revolutionary goals of the Egyptian people," Mehmanparast added.

The noble Rasheed

And he didn't mean getting in his exercise despite a busy schedule, either. "Alabama terror case could hinge on relationships," by Jay Reeves and Melissa Nelson-Gabriel for the Associated Press, December 23:

MOBILE, Ala. — The terrorism case against an Alabama man accused of planning to wage violent jihad in Africa may hinge on just how well he knew a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list.

Federal prosecutors portrayed Randy Wilson as an Islamic radical who wanted to reunite with Omar Hammami, an American who also grew up in Alabama but has since become one of the most well-known jihadists in Somalia. Wilson and another American who lived in Alabama for the last year, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, are accused of plotting to leave the country to join Islamic radicals fighting in North Africa.

The two men were arrested separately about two weeks ago in Georgia. Abukhdair was taken into custody at a bus station; Wilson was arrested as he was about to board a flight to Morocco.

Wilson's attorney has described his client as a devout Muslim who was taking his family to Mauritania to study Islam, not wage jihad. Public defender Domingo Soto also said Wilson didn't live with Hammami, 28, about a decade ago, as the FBI has said, and the attorney questioned how well the two knew each other....

Wilson, 25, has a wife and two young children. He was known around his neighborhood in Mobile, along the Alabama coast, for his big yard sales. He was friendly and outgoing, neighbors said.

Court documents, interviews with acquaintances and a sworn statement by an FBI investigator paint a picture of Wilson's troubled childhood.

Debra Lynn Weaver and Randy Lamar Wilson married in Mobile in 1986 and had Randy Jr. nine months later. Wilson's father was arrested on drug charges in the first of a string of scrapes with the law, and his mother filed for divorce four months later, when he was 1.

Wilson's mother remarried an Egyptian man when he was 5. She converted to Islam with the marriage, and her son eventually became Muslim, too.

Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society, remembered first meeting Wilson when he was attending an Islamic school.

"I knew him as a Muslim as a young boy," said Taufique. "He went by Randy and Rasheed."

Soto said Wilson has never been in trouble. While attending a Muslim school in Birmingham, he was offered prestigious scholarships to study abroad at places including Saudi Arabia, Soto said.

Hammami was the president of the Muslim Student Association at the University of South Alabama, the FBI said.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he was quoted in a campus newspaper talking about the attacks.

"Everyone was really shocked. Even now it's difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this," he told The Vanguard.

Yep, it's virtually inconceivable that a Muslim would try to "slay the pagans wherever you find them" (Qur'an 9:5) or "strike terror" into the hearts of the unbelievers (3:151).

Hammami later wrote in an online autobiography that he already had turned toward radicalism by that time and privately praised Allah for the attacks....

Agents already were watching Abukhdair and Wilson by then. The FBI said Abukhdair moved in with Wilson's family and gave the Friday sermon at a mosque in Mobile about a year ago.

Leaders at the mosque didn't return telephone calls seeking comment, and a worker shooed away a reporter who visited.

The FBI said it kept tabs on the pair through an undercover operative. Wilson "described Hammami as a friend and showed the (undercover operative) an al-Qaeda video on his laptop praising jihad and the downfall of the West," the FBI said.

Wilson and Abukhdair began concocting ways to travel to Africa to join in jihad, an agent wrote.

Wilson, the FBI said, believed he would receive "special treatment" in Somalia because of his connection with Hammami.

"In addition to travel plans, they discussed their joy that Omar Hammami is now on the FBI 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list, and were excited that he is now even more famous," said the FBI statement.

Wilson lived next door to Tom Rothaar for two years. Rothaar said he was a friendly neighbor and who would have frequent yard sales with items he bought in bulk from big-box retail stores.

Rothaar said he was "staggered" by Wilson's arrest and tried to make sense of it during a 5-mile run.

"I couldn't," Rothaar said. "The only thing I can think is all the typical clichés about how I cannot believe he was living next door and seemed so normal."

Another decent fellow.

...as it looks increasingly as if the rebels are going to work to establish an Islamic state, institutionalizing the subjugation of the Christians.

"Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad," by Barbara Surka for the Associated Press, December 23 (thanks to Kenneth):

BEIRUT — With Christmas just days away, 40-year-old Mira begged her parents to flee their hometown of Aleppo, which has become a main battleground in Syria's civil war.

Her parents have refused to join her in Lebanon, but they are taking one simple precaution inside their besieged city. For the first time, Mira says, her parents will not put up a Christmas tree this year for fear that their religion might make them a target.

"They want to stay to guard the property so nobody takes it," said Mira, who spoke to The Associated Press in Lebanon on condition that only her first name be published, out of concern for her family.

"They cannot celebrate Christmas properly. It's not safe. They are in a Christian area, but they don't feel secure to put a tree, even inside their apartment," Mira said.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population of more than 22 million, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence that has been sweeping the country since March 2011. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled Iraq after their community and others were targeted by militants in the chaotic years after dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

During the Syria conflict, Christians have largely stuck by President Bashar Assad, in large part because they fear the rising power of Muslim hard-liners and groups with al-Qaida-style ideologies within the uprising against his rule. Many Christians worry they will be marginalized or even targeted if the country's Sunni Muslim majority, which forms the majority of the opposition, takes over.

The rebel leadership has sought to portray itself as inclusive, promising no reprisals if Assad falls. But some actions by fighters on the ground have been less reassuring.

This week, the commander of one rebel brigade threatened to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria — Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh — saying regime forces were using the towns to attack nearby areas.

The commander, Rashid Abul-Fidaa, of the Ansar Brigade in Hama province demanded the towns' residents "evict Assad's gangs" or be attacked.

Christians and other minorities have generally supported Assad's regime in the past because it promoted a secular ideology that was seen as giving minorities a degree of protection.

The regime and ruling elite are dominated by the Alawite sect, itself a minority offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, but it has brought Christians and other minorities — as well as Sunni Muslims — into senior positions.

Christians have flourished under the Assad regime, which came to power four decades ago under Assad's father, Hafez. The regime divided economic privileges among minorities and certain Sunni families in exchange for giving up political power.

The threat of Islamic extremism resonates deeply in Syria, a country with many ethnic and religious minorities, and the regime has used their worries to try to keep their support. Assad has warned repeatedly that the country's turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions....

Even for those who support the rebels, the nature of the opposition has caused ripples of apprehension. As the fight to overthrow Assad drags on, the rebels' ranks are becoming dominated by Islamists, raising concerns that the country's potential new rulers will marginalize them or establish an Islamic state.

Al-Qaida-inspired groups have become the most organized fighting units, increasingly leading battles for parts of Aleppo or assaults on military installations outside the city....

Kidnapping infidels and releasing them for ransom is fully sanctioned in Islamic law: "As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, 'When you encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks' (Qur'an sura 47, verse 4)" — Abu’l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance), trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192.

"Islamist group claims Nigeria kidnap of French national," from Radio Netherlands, December 23:

The radical Islamist group Ansaru on Sunday claimed the recent kidnapping of a French citizen in northern Nigeria, citing France's push for military intervention in Mali as a justification.

Ansaru "announces to the world, especially the French government, that it was responsible for the abduction of engineer Francis Colump, 63, working for the French company Vergnet," said a statement emailed to journalists.

Late last Wednesday some 30 gunmen stormed Vergnet's residence in Katsina state, where the alternative energy firm has a wind power project.

"The reason for his kidnap is the stance of the French government and the French people on Islam," said the statement written in Hausa, the dominant language in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

The group specifically pointed to "France's major role in the (planned) attack on the Islamic state in northern Mali."

It also cited France's "law outlawing the use of Islamic veil by Muslim women."

Paris has backed plans to deploy a west African force to northern Mali to flush out the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups who took control of the vast desert territory earlier this year.

Last year, France passed a law banning the wearing of the full-face veil.

"We inform the French government that this group will continue launching attacks on the French government and French citizens ... as long as it does not change its stance on these two issues," the Ansaru statement said.

Ansaru is less well known than Islamist group Boko Haram, which is waging a deadly insurgency across northern Nigeria that has killed hundreds since 2009. Boko Haram has said it wants to create an Islamic state in the north.

The two groups are known to have ties but are seen as independent.

In November, Britain's interior ministry identified Ansaru as a "Nigeria-based terrorist organisation" and declared membership or support for it illegal.

The group's full name, Jama'atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan, is roughly translated as "Vanguards for the aid of Muslims in black Africa."

Britain has said the group likely has ties to Al-Qaeda's north Africa franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and may have been responsible for the 2011 kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian in northern Nigeria. Both hostages were killed in March.

French President Francois Hollande on Friday told the Europe 1 radio station that Colump's kidnappers were "probably linked to AQIM or the groups which are today in Mali."

The police chief in Katsina, Abdullahi Magaji, told AFP that there were indications that former or current employees of Vergnet had been involved, arguing that the attack appeared to be "an inside job."...

What? An inside job? "Moderate" employees turned out to be untrustworthy? It's...unprecedented!

Mona in her famous pink coat

"Journalist" Mona Eltahawy, who took pink spray paint to our AFDI pro-freedom ads because they labeled jihadists as "savages," although she had nary a word of complaint when the New York Times and Hillary Clinton also labeled jihadists as "savages," has written a poem in which she obscurely links her fascist vandalism of our ads to the savage sexual assault she endured in Cairo's Tahrir Square, when her assailants, whom she characterized at the time as "beasts," broke her arms.

Be forewarned: the poem is laughably and luridly obscene, calling to mind a twelve-year-old being deliberately naughty and obsessively repeating dirty words she has just learned; it can be found in its entirety here. It is not noteworthy for being horrid poetry, although that it assuredly is; what is striking about it is that this much-lauded pundit and commentator evidently thinks that in both Tahrir Square and the New York subways vandalizing our ad she was standing for freedom. She refers to the vandalism in this passage (in which I have bowdlerized her adolescent obscenities):

Pink is the colour of my spray paint,
Pink is the colour of my p***y,
You want to f**k me in my pink coat.

I don't know who the unfortunate "you" is in the third line, but it most assuredly ain't me, babe. In any case, I have previously praised Eltahawy for speaking out against the Muslim oppression of women, and suggested that she spray-painted our ad in order to get back into the good graces of her Leftist and Muslim friends and colleagues who had harshly criticized her for standing up for Muslim women.

This odd, lurid, embarrassing and barely coherent poem, although it parades in the dress of feminist sexual liberation, is actually another attempt to regain those good graces. For by portraying herself as standing up against both those who "broke my f***king arms" in Tahrir Square and against us who are standing against jihad savagery, Eltahawy is echoing the very common propaganda line that Islamic supremacists are employing today. They claim they are standing against "extremists on both sides," as if committing acts of violent jihad and resisting that violent jihad were two sides of the same coin, and they're standing in the tolerant middle, resisting both "extremisms."

It's an Orwellian sleight of hand, designed to enable the jihad by stigmatizing resistance to it. When Mona Eltahawy took pink spray paint to our ad, she wasn't standing up against any kind of oppression; she was enabling the very same oppression that she had spoken out against earlier. In her poem, when she equates her spray-painting with her getting her arms broken in Tahrir Square, she is enabling that oppression again. Our ads are actually in defense of the freedom she so luridly and obscenely claims for herself in this poem -- and in it, Mona Eltahawy has once again aligned herself with the forces of oppression she professes to oppose.

"This is an Islamic country, and Islam is clear about everything. There is no need for people to voice their opinions about it. And if he truly is an apostate, he should be punished." Again and again we see this: utter certainty about what Islam is all about, enunciated by Muslims in Muslim countries -- and the very same propositions denied by Islamic spokesmen in the West, and those who assert that they're part of Islam denounced as "Islamophobes."

So it in the case of apostasy. Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Sana'a to explain to Yemeni authorities that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"'Repent or die' in Yemen," by Judith Spiegel for Radio Netherlands, December 21 (thanks to Lachlan):

Ali Ali Qasim Alsaidi felt Yemen and its people were drifting away from Islam as it was meant to be. He wrote his findings – substantiated by Qu’ranic [sic] readings – on Facebook. And he’s now accused of apostasy, facing death penalty. It is early the morning when Ali Ali Qasim Alsaidi (43) drives to the Press and Publications Court in Yemen’s capital Sana’a. Dressed in a brown suit, he steers his old Mercedes through the quiet streets of the city. People here are oblivious to the Kafka-like trial Alsaidi will be facing in an hour or so. “It’s sorry or die”, he says. He means that in order for him to be cleared of the apostasy accusation, he has to repent. But he finds this difficult. “The things I wrote on Facebook were the result of research and are religiously correct”, says Alsaidi. He also felt it was his duty to write them down. Galileo of Yemen

Alsaidi is the general director for budget and planning at the Yemeni Higher Judicial Council Secretariat. It was his colleagues who allegedly reported him to the prosecutor’s office. His lawyer Amin Hajar says that Alsaidi’s colleagues did so because they wanted his job. According to Hajar, “they have turned him into the Galileo of Yemen, only 500 years later.”

“Religion in this country is going this way”, Alsaidi points to the right, “and the people are going that way”, he points to the left. This is what he tried to make clear in his Facebook posts, most of which he published in the spring of 2011, when there was heavy fighting between government troops and the tribesmen of Hameed al Ahmar in the Al Hasaba district.

Taboo on discussing religion

“In this country you can discuss everything except religion”, says Alsaidi. And indeed, there is hardly any subject Yemenis do not discuss daily and at great length during their qat sessions, but religion is hardly ever one of them. “Nobody has read the Qu’ran [sic]. People just listen to all kinds of sheikhs.” In his Facebook posts he emphasises the importance of using reason as a means of finding the truth in religious matters.

For this, Alsaidi now stands trial in the Press and Publications Court. There’s a crowd in front of the entrance to the building, where many of Alsaidi’s family, friends and neighbours have gathered. They all believe in his innocence and are annoyed by the affair. “This country doesn’t know what freedom means, and Islah (Yemen’s equivalent to the Brotherhood) is making it worse”, they say angrily.

Article 259

The specialised Press and Publications Court was established in 2009. Many people believe its sole purpose is to silence Yemen’s few independent media outlets. Apparently it is now also being used to silence bloggers and Facebook users. It is questionable whether this court has the authority to do so, which is one of the arguments Alsaidi’s defence lawyers will be using. But then again, if not this court, there’s probably another one in Yemen.

A more important line of defence is that nothing Alsaidi wrote is against Islam and thus in violation of Article 259 of the Yemeni criminal code which states that “anyone who turns back from or denounces the religion of Islam, will receive the death penalty after being asked to repent three times and after having received a respite of thirty days.’

Eliminating apostates

Alsaidi didn’t denounce religion, argues his defence team. Or as the Yemeni journalist Hind Aleryani wrote in her blog: “there is nothing in Alsaidi’s writings that shows he is an unbeliever.’ Support came from other sources as well. Most of them are afraid that if this case succeeds, the apostasy article might be politically (ab)used to get rid of people.

But the media and lawyers aren’t raising the even more fundamental question, at least from a Western perspective, about whether there may be something wrong with the article itself. What if Alsaidi or anyone else were an unbeliever? Should the state have the right to punish people for denouncing their religion?

Religious conservatives

“Of course”, responds a schoolteacher who lives not far from the court and wishes to remain anonymous. “This is an Islamic country, and Islam is clear about everything. There is no need for people to voice their opinions about it. And if he truly is an apostate, he should be punished.’

Which is exactly what Alsaidi’s family and friends are afraid of. “It is not only the court that could punish Ali. Any crazy person who considers him a kafir [unbeliever] might also decide to kill him”, they say. They stroke their chins, referring to men with beards.

"Repent or die"

Then it is time to go inside the courtroom. The hearing doesn’t take long. Alsaidi’s defence team repeat what they’ve said before: their client should not be here. The prosecutor repeats what he said before: Alsaidi is an apostate. The judge says Alsaidi’s defence team should come up with a better defence, next week, same time, same place.

Back in the car Alsaidi is disappointed. This is not good. “Nothing changed. They are delaying the case because they want me to repent, but how can I? I am afraid I will first lose my job, then my wife [under Yemeni law a Yemeni wife cannot be married to an (alleged) unbeliever] and then my life.”

No big surprise there. But only 32 percent turnout? Is the level of indifference in Egypt really that high, or do most Egyptians figure the Sharia die is cast and there is nothing they can do about it now?

"Egypt Islamists say charter passed in referendum," from AFP, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO — A majority of Egyptians have backed a controversial new charter in a two-round referendum that deeply polarised the country, ruling Islamists and the official media said on Sunday.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which President Mohamed Morsi hails from, and the official Al-Ahram newspaper reported that about 64 percent of vote cast were in favour of the charter, according to preliminary results from Sunday's second round of voting.

Turnout over both rounds was roughly 32 percent, according to the Muslim Brotherhood figures posted on its Twitter account.

The results are based on reports from returning officials from all but a few stations over the two rounds, which were held a week apart. The election committee will announce the official final results within two days.

The new constitution, drafted by an Islamist-dominated council boycotted by Christians and liberals, is expected to go into effect this week....

"Out of context"? Sheesh. All these years and they still fall back on that tired dodge? Isn't there anyone in the Islamic Supremacist Talking Points Factory who can come up with anything new and more convincing?

"No merriness here: mosque puts fatwa on Christmas," by Natalie O'Brien for the Sydney Morning Herald, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

THE Lakemba Mosque has issued a fatwa against Christmas, warning followers it is a ''sin'' to even wish people a Merry Christmas.

The religious ruling, which followed a similar lecture during Friday prayers at Australia's biggest mosque, was posted on its Facebook site on Saturday morning.

The head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, had told the congregation during prayers that they should not take part in anything to do with Christmas.

Samir Dandan, the president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, which oversees the mosque, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

The fatwa, which has sparked widespread community debate and condemnation, warns that the "disbelievers are trying to draw Muslims away from the straight path".

It also says that Christmas Day and associated celebrations are among the "falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid ... and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them"....

The fatwa quotes the teacher Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim as saying that congratulating disbelievers for their rituals is forbidden, and if a "Muslim who says this does not become a disbeliever himself, he at least commits a sin as this is the same as congratulating him for his belief in the trinity, which is a greater sin and much more disliked by Almighty Allaah than congratulating him for drinking alcohol or killing a soul or committing fornication or adultery”....

And then: "Christmas wish appears in sky over mosque," from ABC News, December 23:

The Lebanese Muslim Association says it arranged for a Christmas wish to be written in the sky above the country's biggest mosque, in response to reports it had banned Muslims from wishing people a happy Christmas.

Over the weekend, a message appeared on the Facebook page for Lakemba Mosque, saying that Muslims were forbidden from taking part in Christmas traditions or wishing people a merry Christmas.

The entry implied it was a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, and was based on a lecture given at the mosque during Friday prayers.

The Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs the mosque, says the comments were taken out of context and the group harbours no anti-Christmas sentiment.

Samier Dandan from the the Lebanese Muslim Association says a junior staff member of the association copied and pasted text from another website that the mosque had not endorsed.

"From our perspective this is an innocent mistake done by a youth member who's employed by this organisation," he said.

"We are basically not going to apologise for what I perceive to be an innocent mistake, which is not necessarily reflective of the true mindset and belief of this organisation."

This afternoon, the organisation arranged to have the words "Merry Xmas" written in the sky above Lakemba Mosque....

But the earlier report said that "the head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, had told the congregation during prayers that they should not take part in anything to do with Christmas." Is Sheikh Yahya Safi a "youth member" and "junior staff member" also?

Today brings still more Qur'anic antisemitism:

And the Jews say, "The hand of Allah is chained." Chained are their hands, and cursed are they for what they say. Rather, both His hands are extended; He spends however He wills. And that which has been revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief. And We have cast among them animosity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. And they strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters. (Qur'an 5:64)

"The hand of Allah is chained"? It is unclear what Jewish concept, if any, the Qur’an is referring to in this case. Ibn Kathir comments: “Allah states that the Jews, may Allah’s continuous curses descend on them until the Day of Resurrection, describe Him as a miser. Allah is far holier than what they attribute to Him.”

Allah is also absolute will, with hand absolutely unfettered: Allah’s unfettered hand is a vivid image of divine freedom. Such a God can be bound by no laws. Muslim theologians argued during the long controversy with the heretical Islamic Mu‘tazilite sect, which exalted human reason beyond the point that the eventual victors were willing to tolerate, that Allah was free to act as he pleased, even to the extent that he was not bound to govern the universe according to consistent and observable laws. “He cannot be questioned concerning what He does” (Qur’an 21:23).

Accordingly, there was no point to observing the workings of the physical world; there was no reason to expect that any pattern to its workings would be consistent, or even discernible. If Allah could not be counted on to be consistent, why waste time observing the order of things? It could change tomorrow. Stanley Jaki, a Catholic priest and physicist, explains that it was the renowned Sufi thinker al-Ghazali who “denounced natural laws, the very objective of science, as a blasphemous constraint upon the free will of Allah.”

The great twelfth-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides explained orthodox Islamic cosmology in similar terms, noting that Islamic thinkers of his day assumed “the possibility that an existing being should be larger or smaller than it really is, or that it should be different in form and position from what it really is; e.g., a man might have the height of a mountain, might have several heads, and fly in the air; or an elephant might be as small as an insect, or an insect as huge as an elephant. This method of admitting possibilities is applied to the whole Universe.”

Relatively early in its history, therefore, science was deprived in the Islamic world of the philosophical foundation it needed in order to flourish. It found that philosophical foundation only in Christian Europe, where it was assumed that God was good and had constructed the universe according to consistent and observable laws. Such an idea would have been for pious Muslims tantamount to saying, “Allah’s hand is fettered.”

This same verse also says that whenever the Jews “kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it” That is, says the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, “war against the Prophet(s).” According to Bulandshahri, “The Jews make every effort to instigate wars against the Muslims, but Allah foils their attempts each time, either by instilling terror in their hearts or by their defeat in these battles.” The Jews also “strive to do mischief on earth” – that is, fasaad (فَسَاد) – for which the punishment is specified in Qur'an 5:33: “they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land.”

"Syria: Religious Police Patrol Aleppo’s Countryside," by Basel Dayoub for al-Akhbar, December 19 (thanks to Lachlan):

...Residents of the embattled city, whose main concerns revolve around security and survival, were shocked to hear that opposition groups who control the Aleppan countryside are deploying a vice-and-virtue police to enforce a deeply conservative interpretation of Islamic law.

Again: Islamic law as interpreted by all four Sunni madhahib (schools of jurisprudence) is remarkably similar, agreeing on about 75% of all rulings. There is no "liberal interpretation of Islamic law." There is Islamic law, as in Saudi Arabia, and there is the non-enforcement of Islamic law and application of other legal constructs, as in Turkey (for now). In other words, it isn't as if Turkey is applying a "liberal" form of Sharia. It isn't enforcing Sharia at all. For now.

The opposition insists that the new force is the revolution’s version of a civilian police squad, whose primary purpose is to fight crime, particularly those committed by undisciplined members of the armed factions. In fact, there are those who support its creation for this very reason.

One local resident, for example, argued that “there were a number of transgressions committed by some Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters, and this police force will punish those involved – their door is open to whoever wants to lodge a complaint. We shouldn’t judge them before we’ve tried them.”

Then, rumors began to circulate that such a formation was patrolling the streets of the town of al-Bab in Aleppo’s countryside and herding people into mosques during prayer time and preventing women from driving cars. The opposition quickly denied the news.

They insisted that the picture of a religious police office circulating on the Internet was taken in Saudi Arabia and attributed to the opposition to tarnish its reputation. Regime loyalists responded by taking several pictures of the office from different angles to establish its location.

Then, rumors began to circulate that such a formation was herding people into mosques during prayer time and preventing women from driving cars.

The following day, the so-called Revolutionary Military Council in Aleppo issued a statement banning women from driving. The group also released several video clips showing men of various Arab nationalities patrolling the streets and forcing people to pray....

Samer Othman also defended the creation of such a force, noting that their primary role is “to pursue criminals, thieves, and those who drink alcohol – the focus on preventing women from driving is merely to cover up all these positive aspects.”

Of course!

Still more Muslims succumb to the all too prevalent misunderstanding of Islam that gets the crazy idea that it teaches some kind of violence. Yet no Muslim group anywhere has any program for teaching against this view of Islam. Now, why is that?

"Three Men Appear in Court in Mysterious Terror Case," by Mosi Secret in the New York Times, December 21:

Three men appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday on charges that they had trained to be suicide bombers with a Somali terrorist group.

The defendants, Ali Yasin Ahmed, 27, Mahdi Hashi, 23, and Mohamed Yusuf, 29, were arrested in August by authorities in Africa while going to Yemen. They are accused of participating in weapons and explosives training with Al Shabab, a United States-designated terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, during a four-year period beginning in 2008. Court documents show no connection between the alleged crimes and the United States.

Much of the case is shrouded in mystery. For four months, the case remained under seal, and the court documents unsealed on Friday contained little elaboration on the crimes or any indication of why the case was brought in New York. Even the nationalities of the men were unclear. They appeared in court with the aid of a Swedish interpreter.

The case is not the first brought in New York involving foreigners accused of acts of terrorism abroad. In June, an Eritrean man, Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan to conspiring to support Al Shabab. More than 30 defendants have been prosecuted in this country for supporting the group.

Al Shabab is known for a strict Islamist ideology calling for amputations and public stonings for violations of Islamic law....

There we go again with "strict." There is no version of Islamic law that doesn't call for amputations and stonings. Islamic law is by its nature "strict."

They want to make Syria a Sharia state, which means no alcohol or tobacco, or "immoral" movies and TV shows. No one seems to be offering any other vision of Sharia, despite claims in the West that it is so multifarious as to defy easy characterization.

"Jabhat Al Nusra's new Syria," by Balint Szlanko for The National, December 15 (thanks to Lachlan):

The man wearing the balaclava had eyes that never stopped smiling.

Reclining on a pillow in an otherwise empty room, this burly, 41-year-old commander of Jabhat Al Nusra - the most fearsome jihadi group in Syria - exuded an almost disturbing calm, in marked contrast to the loud, chatty air that often characterises more mainstream groups of the Free Syrian Army.

The man, who calls himself Sheikh Abu Ahmed and said he was the military commander of Jabhat Al Nusra in the Hasakah governorate of eastern Syria, spoke to The National in the north-eastern town of Ras el Ayn, where fighting between Islamist rebels and the Kurdish PYD party has killed dozens of militants in recent weeks.

Dressed in plain clothes, Abu Ahmed outlined his group's vision for a new Syria.

"Our first goal is to get rid of Assad. Then we want a state where the Quran is the only source of law," he said. "Sharia is the right path for all humanity - all other laws make people unhappy."

Jabhat Al Nusra has emerged this year as the most powerful and high-profile Salafist group in the Syrian conflict, openly embracing suicide bombing as an important weapon against a technologically superior enemy. It has claimed several successful attacks, many of which have killed civilians, on major government targets such as the Damascus headquarters of the elite air force intelligence service....

Sitting in an unheated room furnished with only a carpet and a few pillows, Abu Ahmed described a new Syria, where alcohol and tobacco would be banned.

"These rules will be introduced gradually. We will advise people at first," he said when this journalist pointed out that enforcing such a law would be difficult in a country where smoking is so widespread.

Cinema and "immoral" TV shows would also be banned. "They corrupt the morals, especially of young people. Just look at the West," he said, adding that he had recently read in a magazine that in Germany, only 10 per cent of women were virgins by the time they got married.

Wouldn't the young be angry at such measures? "Perhaps they will be. But they will get used to it eventually," Abu Ahmed said....

But he didn't think this was a danger. "We don't want to leave modernity behind. We will not get out of our cars and ride donkeys from now on. We simply want our judges to apply Sharia [law] and not the civil code," he said. He also argued that in earlier eras Islam achieved great technological progress. "We are underdeveloped now because we left the path of Allah. Perhaps this is why this war is so cruel: as a punishment for our sins."...

Jabhat Al Nusra has parallels with Al Qaeda and has been endorsed by it as the purest Islamist group in Syria. Abu Ahmed claimed his group had no links to Al Qaeda and stressed that their goals were purely Syrian. "We will respect everybody who respects us," he said.

But he also expressed sympathy with Al Qaeda.

"I like them because they are mujaheddin who want to apply Sharia," he said. He added that the killing of civilians is acceptable as long as it's a response to a similar attack. Jabhat Al Nusra is also linked to at least one execution of captured Syrian soldiers, a probable war crime, and beheadings of suspected spies.

The emergence of such extremist groups has greatly concerned some of Syria's minorities, such as the Christians and the Alawites, many of whom still support the Assad government as a result. Abu Ahmed said the minorities had nothing to fear, pointing to a long history of Christian presence in Muslim countries. "As for the Kurds, they will have no need for autonomy - they are Muslims, too, so we can live together," he said.

Yet in its communications, Jabhat al Nusra has embraced a fierce sectarian message. According to an analysis by the International Crisis Group (ICG), the group routinely refers in derogatory terms to "the Alawite enemy" - the main support base of the regime - and its "Shiite agents"....

Abu Ahmed admitted that there were foreign fighters in his group - mostly from other Arab countries - but he said they were only a very small minority.

Analysts say that many of its fighters are veterans of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. He said they took no financing from external powers and that their weapons were either self-purchased or ghanima - war spoils. The ICG report suggests that they probably receive money from private donors with jihadist sympathies, mainly in the region.

Abu Ahmed worked as a bus driver before the war. He said he'd always been very religious and as a result had problems with the security services.

"We joined the demonstrations in the very beginning but only took up arms when they started shooting at us," he said. "Our faith is very strong and we're not afraid of death, of becoming martyrs. This is what drives us, what makes us brave. We will not stop until the regime falls. And I advise all my people to be good Muslims to help win this war."

"There's really no such thing as just Sharia, it's not one monolithic Continuum - Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years in which multiple and competing schools of law have tried to construct some kind of civic penal and family law code that would abide by Islamic values and principles, it's understood in many different ways..." -- Reza Aslan

And yet whenever we see Sharia implemented, it looks the same. Now, why is that?

"House to Mull Bill Banning Alcoholic Beverages in Indonesia," by Markus Junianto Sihaloho for the Jakarta Globe, December 20 (thanks to Lookmann):

Indonesia would introduce stiff penalties for the consumption of all alcoholic beverages under a controversial bill drafted by the country’s oldest Islamic party, which is seeking an effective ban on the sale, production and consumption of alcohol in the Muslim-majority nation.

Hard alcohol is already heavily regulated in Indonesia, where hefty taxes contribute to some of the highest prices in the region and local bylaws limit the open sale of liquor in some regions.

The proposed legislation, drafted by the United Development Party (PPP), would go further, effectively banning all alcohol, including domestically produced beer like Bintang, in a push that would make Indonesia a dry country.

Those caught consuming alcohol could face up to two years in prison. Distributors would face up to five years in prison while producers could face a maximum of 10 years.

“This will be a total ban, and not just an attempt to regulate production, distribution and consumption of alcohol,” Arwani Thomafi, the PPP secretary at the House of Representatives, said on Thursday.

The bill is among 70 priority bills scheduled for deliberation next year.

The party introduced the bill to bring the nation “in line with religious guidelines” as well as address the negative impact of excessive alcohol consumption on people’s health, Arwani said.

He claimed that alcohol consumption had spurred a rise in crime and offered no significant contribution to state revenue.

Tourist areas and “certain ethnicities” might be spared the ban, Arwani said. He did not explain which tourist areas or ethnic groups would be allowed to drink alcohol under the ban.

Arwani brushed off any potential controversy the bill might generate during its deliberation as a normal part of the legislative process.

“I think it’s part of the usual dynamics in bill deliberations,” he said.

Arwani also confirmed that the bill had been included in next year’s list of priority legislation at the expense of a much-criticized bill to amend the law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

“The alcohol bill has been included in the list of 2013 priority legislation to replace the KPK law revision. There are 19 bills that are still being drafted. A total of 58 new bills have been included in the list of priority legislation,” he said.

He insisted that alcohol was banned in every religion because it could endanger people’s lives....

Yep. Every last one.

Drinking alcohol: haram. Murdering someone for drinking alcohol: pleasing to Allah. "Yemen extremists kill woman in alcohol raid," from AFP, December 21 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Armed extremists killed a woman in Yemen's main southern city of Aden when they raided several homes whose owners allegedly have alcoholic drinks, residents and a security official said on Friday.

"More than ten" armed men on motorbikes stormed three houses in Aden's Memdara neighborhood on Thursday, residents said.

The owners fled except for one woman who remained in one of the apartments, the sources said, adding that the gunmen shot her dead before driving off.

A security official in Aden told AFP that "we have received a complaint stating that Islamist extremists have killed a woman." He did not give any further details.

Extremists took advantage of a year-long uprising in Yemen that ousted veteran strongman president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seizing control of large swathes of territory in the country's southern and eastern provinces.

Despite giving up most of these territories after an all-out army offensive against them that ended in June, many have infiltrated the once bustling port of Aden in an attempt to impose their strict version of Islamic (sharia) law.

Have you ever noticed that mainstream media reports frequently reference a "strict version of Sharia" -- in Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or Nigeria's Kano state, or Yemen, or elsewhere -- but we never read about a "relaxed version of Sharia"? That's because there isn't one. Contrary to the lies of Islamic apologists in the West, the content of Sharia is quite clear. And quite "strict" in all its variations.

Thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the militants operate mainly by night, harassing young couples seen together and sometimes launching deadly attacks against security forces.

We have previously seen this gutter thug threatening "snitches" and applauding the fascist vandalism of "journalist" Mona Eltahawy. In this he makes a call that is tantamount to calling for genocide. But don't worry: he's a "moderate."

"CAIR Leader Mimics Hamas in Calling for Israel’s Destruction," by Joe Kaufman at FrontPage, December 21:

The slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” can be heard regularly from the shores of the Gaza Strip, emanating from members of terrorist groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The river represents the Jordan River, and the sea is the Mediterranean – both sides of Israel. Essentially, this means the destruction of Israel.

Khaled Meshaal, the global head of Hamas, stated something similar, when he made his historic visit to Gaza this month. He said, “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north.” Just one week previous to that, the leader of another Islamist group, Cyrus McGoldrick, repeated the slogan on Facebook and Twitter. Except he did not state it from the Middle East, he made it from the United States.

McGoldrick is the Civil Rights Manager and spokesman for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR-New York. The national organization of CAIR was founded in June 1994 as a part of the umbrella group created by then-global Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook. [Today, Marzook is the number two leader under Meshaal.] As well, CAIR was named a party to Hamas financing by the U.S. Justice Department for two federal trials against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). CAIR had asked people to donate money to the terrorist HLF charity via CAIR’s national website.

When fighting broke out between Hamas, who was firing hundreds of rockets into Israeli civilian neighborhoods, and Israel, who was responding to the Hamas fire by targeting terrorist infrastructure, McGoldrick didn’t flinch as to which side he was supporting. On November 12 on Twitter, he wrote, “Gaza under attack for the last few days. May G-d protect them [Hamas] and grant them victory.” Just two days earlier, McGoldrick had attended a CAIR banquet in Tampa, Florida. Just one day earlier, he had praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On November 15, McGoldrick tweeted, “Palestine is a land occupied by foreign settlers. They [Hamas] have the right to resist, to defend themselves, ‘by any means necessary.’”

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt, took place on November 21. However, that did not stop McGoldrick from tweeting and posting to his Facebook page one week later, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” When McGoldrick said that “Palestine” was “land occupied by foreign settlers,” he wasn’t referring to Gaza and the West Bank; he was referring to all of Israel.

Read it all.

We're constantly told that no Muslims in the West hold to the violent, supremacist, Jew-hating form of Islam we see active around the world. Anyone who is skeptical about this is immediately branded an "Islamophobe." Yet we constantly see evidence to the contrary. From Blazing Cat Fur today comes this Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "GTA Muslim School Girl Praises Hezbollah Leader's Defeat Of Zionist Regime In Madrassah Speech Competition":

In 2010 the Wali ul Asr school, located in Brampton Ontario, staged a speech competition among its elementary school students....

In this clip the young lady opens by denigrating Western society in a discussion on the need to wear the hijab. She concludes with praise for the Ayatollah Khomeini and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the banned terrorist group Hezbollah. Her praise for Nasrallah focuses on his defeat of the "Zionist Regime"...

Read it all.

"Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously blown up telephone masts and offices of phone companies, saying they help the security forces catch its members." And meanwhile, "armed police have been guarding major churches." Will the Islamophobia never end?

"Suicide bombers hit cellphone firms in north Nigeria," by Augustine Madu for Reuters, December 22 (thanks to Izuchukwu):

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of two mobile phone operators on Saturday in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.

India's Airtel and South Africa's MTN were the targets.

Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously blown up telephone masts and offices of phone companies, saying they help the security forces catch its members.

"The one who hit the Airtel office was shot by military men before the bomb exploded ... at the MTN office the car rammed into the fence but no civilians were killed," Ibrahim Idris, the chief of police in Kano, told Reuters. Both bombs went off.

A military source said one security guard was injured and has been taken to hospital.

MTN and Airtel Nigeria's parent company Bharti Airtel, India's top cellphone operator, gave no immediate comment.

The national emergency agency confirmed the bombings and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties. The security forces have played down the death toll in previous bombings.

At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since Boko Haram launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.

The sect wants to impose strict Islamic law on a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

The group has previously targeted churches on Christmas Day and security has been increased in all the major northern cities, although security experts say given the scale of Christian worship in Nigeria they cannot protect everyone.

Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city after the southern commercial hub Lagos, was the site of Boko Haram's deadliest attack which killed at least 186 people in January in coordinated bombings and shootings.

Armed police have been guarding major churches in Kano this week and additional police checkpoints have been set up around the majority-Muslim city, a Reuters witness said....

Security experts say they believe Boko Haram is seeking to spark a religious conflict by targeting Christians in a country where ethnic violence has flared up periodically in recent years, in some cases killing hundreds in the space of hours....

No kidding, really?

Try not to be so ethnocentric. Be more like Michael Potemra of National Review, who wrote: "The Koran is one of the loveliest books ever written, a distillation of monotheism that is full of spiritual wisdom, and I never fail to profit from my reading of it." It's understandable that the pious would want to incinerate anyone even suspected of desecrating one of the loveliest books ever written, now, isn't it?

"Pakistan mob burns man accused of desecrating Quran alive," from Reuters, December 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Hyderabad (Pakistan): A mob broke into a Pakistani police station and burnt a man accused of desecrating the Quran alive, police said Saturday, in the latest violence focusing attention on the country's blasphemy laws.

The man was a traveller and had spent Thursday night at the mosque, said Maulvi Memon, the imam in the southern village of Seeta in Sindh province. The charred remains of the Quran were found the next morning.

"He was alone in the mosque during the night," Memon said. "There was no one else there to do this terrible thing."

Villagers beat the man then handed him over to police. A few hours later, a crowd of around 200 stormed the police station, dragged the man out and set him on fire, said Usman Ghani, the senior superintendent of police in Dadu district.

Ghani said around 30 people had been arrested for the murder and seven police detained for negligence.

At least 53 people have been killed in Pakistan since 1990 after being accused of blasphemy, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, and accusations are becoming more frequent.

Blasphemy in Pakistan is punishable by death but it is not specifically defined by law. During court cases, lawyers often do not wish to repeat evidence against the accused for fear of being blasphemous themselves.

People have been arrested for just discussing or writing about Islam, making mistakes in homework or not joining protests against a film insulting Islam. In some cases, the accusers have had financial disputes with those who are accused....

"The people want the implementation of Shariah. Our souls and blood, we sacrifice to Islam."

"Dozens injured in Egypt clashes as police fire tear gas at Morsi supporters and opponents," from NBC News, December 21 (thanks to Kenneth):

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Supporters of President Mohammed Morsi and his opponents hurled rocks at each other in Egypt's second city on the eve of a final vote on a new constitution shaped by Islamists.

Police fired tear gas as scores of opponents of the constitution and thousands of Islamists hurled rocks across a security cordon separating them near a mosque in Alexandria that was the focus for violence last week.

"God is great," Islamists chanted when the clash began.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health said at least 55 people were injured in the clashes near the al-Qaid Ibrahim mosque in Alexandria, state media reported.

The Islamists had gathered in support of an Islamic vision of Egypt's future a day before a second round of voting in a referendum on the basic law. Opposition supporters had also turned out as worshipers assembled for Friday prayers....

Lines of riot police cordoned off Alexandria's al-Qaid Ibrahim mosque, scene of last week's violence. Islamists chanted pro-Islamic slogans while a smaller group of opponents gathered nearby, chanting against Morsi, propelled to power in a June election by the Muslim Brotherhood.

"The people want the implementation of Shariah," the Islamist sympathizers shouted, in a show of support for Islamic law. "Our souls and blood, we sacrifice to Islam," they shouted.

In one incident, an Islamist filming anti-Morsi protesters was grabbed and roughed up. Islamists on the other side of a security cordon pushed and shoved police trying to reach him.

The opposition, facing defeat in the referendum, has called for a no vote against a document it says is too Islamist and ignores the rights of women and minorities, including the 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian.

Today's installment brings more dehumanization of Jews:

Say, "O People of the Scripture, do you resent us except [for the fact] that we have believed in Allah and what was revealed to us and what was revealed before and because most of you are defiantly disobedient?"

Say, "Shall I inform you of [what is] worse than that as penalty from Allah ? [It is that of] those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of Taghut. Those are worse in position and further astray from the sound way." (Qur'an 5:59-60)

The Tunisian Muslim cleric Ahmad Al-Suhayli showed how seriously Muslims take this in a Friday sermon he delivered just a few weeks ago. From MEMRI, November 30:

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon in Rades, Tunisia, which was delivered by Sheik Ahmad Al-Suhayli, which aired on Hannibal TV on November 30, 3012 [sic]:

Sheik Ahmad Al-Suhayli: Ever since the days of the prophets, the Jews have been obstinate. They rebelled against the decrees and laws of Allah. Whenever Allah commanded them to do something, they did the exact opposite.

[…]

The Jews continued with their deviations and transgressions. Those accursed Zionist Jews even had the audacity to slay the prophets of Allah. Allah said: “They were struck with humiliation and misery, and they drew upon themselves the wrath of Allah, because they rejected His signs, slayed the prophets without just cause, and rebelled and transgressed.” In the days of Allah’s prophet David, a group of Jews was transformed into apes, because they violated the laws of Allah....

Oh Allah, just like you destroyed the people of ‘Aad and Thamud, destroy this gang of Jews. Strike them with a deterring force that will destroy them....

Oh Allah, you know everything that those accursed Jews have done – the corruption they spread on earth, their diverting of people from your path, and their humiliation of your servants. Strike them with a resounding blow, and do not leave a single one of them....

Naughty, not nice

“How can we think about Christmas decorations or a Christmas tree when our church is still sealed off from us?” Will the Islamophobia never end? "Beleaguered Indonesian Churches Still Shut This Christmas," by Lenny Tristia Tambun for the Jakarta Globe, December 21 (thanks to Lookmann):

While Christians across Indonesia are busy decking out their churches with colorful Christmas decorations, two congregations on the outskirts of Jakarta are fighting just to be allowed to enter their churches for the holiday.

For the Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) Filadelfia congregation in Bekasi, the lack of a Christmas tree is the least of his worries.

“How can we think about Christmas decorations or a Christmas tree when our church is still sealed off from us?” he said on Thursday.

“Our focus now is just to be able to hold Christmas prayers in our own church.”

The congregation of around 600 has since 2007 been forced to worship on the street outside its church or in members’ homes as the Bogor district administration continues to deny it a permit.

The congregation has taken the matter to the West Java State Administrative Court and the Supreme Court, both of which ordered the district to issue the permit and reopen the church. But the district has refused to comply, citing residents’ opposition to the presence of the church in their midst.

“It should be a very straightforward matter for us to get the permit, but they keep clouding the issue,” Palti said.

“In reality, it’s only a few people who don’t want us there.”

The group’s plan this year, as it has been every Christmas since 2007, is to keep lobbying the local community and authorities to allow them to hold Christmas services in their church.

Palti said that if their efforts failed this year, they will have to fall back on their now familiar routine of holding a very brief service at another church in Bekasi.

In Bogor, the GKI Yasmin congregation faces a nearly identical quandary, although in its case it was awarded a permit that was promptly revoked by municipal authorities in 2006.

Rini, a congregation member, said that this year the group planned to celebrate Christmas in its church, which remains sealed off despite a Supreme Court ruling ordering it reopened two years ago.

“Whether or not the authorities permit it, we’re intent on worshiping in our church,” she said.

“That’s all we want, so hopefully we can celebrate Christmas properly this year.”

She added that the congregation had also sent an invitation to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to be the guest of honor at the Christmas prayer.

The Yasmin and Filadelfia congregations have for the past year tried to draw the president’s attention to their plight by holding joint Sunday services on the street outside the State Palace.

To date, however, the central government has refused to enforce the court rulings in either case, arguing that under the principle of regional autonomy, the local authorities are free to act as they see fit....

Conversion away from Islam is forbidden on pain of death. Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Somalia to explain to Somali authorities that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Christian Shot to Death in Somalia," from Morning Star News, December 14 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Gunmen in central Somalia on Saturday (Dec. 8) killed an underground Christian who had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam, area sources said.

Two unidentified masked men shot Mursal Isse Siad, 55, outside his home in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu, for leaving Islam, Muslim and Christian sources told Morning Star News. The assailants fled immediately after the murder.

Siad’s oldest daughter (name withheld), 15, said her father was killed “because he failed to attend the mosque for prayers and used to pray at home. He used to share with us about Jesus.” She said that he had received messages on his mobile phone stating, “We know what you are doing, and you must stop, otherwise you risk your life.”

Siad’s 42-year-old wife (name withheld), three daughters and two sons have fled the area, fearing for their lives.

A Christian source in Mogadishu confirmed the killing, and a Muslim resident of the Beledweyne area also said Siad was killed for leaving Islam.

“Siad deserved to die because he was not committed to the Islamic religion,” the resident said....

On this week’s edition of CBN’s “Stakelbeck on Terror” show, Erick Stakelbeck sat down with Frontpagemag.com editor Jamie Glazov, author of High Noon for America: The Coming Showdown, and William “Kirk” Kilpatrick, author of Christianity, Islam and Atheism. The program focused on the unholy alliance between Islamic supremacists and the radical Left, and what can be done to preserve Judeo-Christian, Western civilization.

Qaradawi (second from left) with Awad (right)

And together they're going to produce a whitewashed movie about Muhammad, so as to fool the ever-credulous kuffar. And why not? As head of Hamas-linked CAIR, Nihad Awad has been fooling the kuffar for years, as has Sheikh Qaradawi, who has won praise as a reformist from John Esposito and counts former London Mayor Ken Livingstone among his friends.

Qaradawi is the most popular Islamic preacher in the world. He said on al-Jazeera: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers….”

Qaradawi continued: “I’d like to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom.”

Awad is consistent, at least. In 2002 he was at a prayer service led by jihad terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, and now he is working with Qaradawi. He must think that nothing will shake the faith that government, law enforcement and the media have in Hamas-linked CAIR as a "civil rights" organization. And he's probably right.

"CAIR Leader Teams with Radical, Jew-Hating Imam," from IPT News, December 21 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

One leads an organization that poses as a mainstream civil rights organization, defending individual rights and fighting discrimination. The other is an influential cleric who has repeatedly expressed his wish to kill Jews before he dies.

Together, they are promoters of a new film venture about the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Nihad Awad, co-founder and executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), shared a stage with Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader, during a news conference in Qatar earlier this week.

The Muhammad movie project carries an estimated $1 billion price tag. It will be produced in in English to appeal to non-Muslim audiences and is backed by the al Noor Holding Group, Qatar's al-Sharq newspaper reported.

During the news conference, Awad complained that the American film industry had generated 750 movies "in which Islam and Muslims were noted in a negative way," the article said. The seven-part Muhammad film was an important step in countering the resulting image, Awad said.

Qaradawi, whose extremist rhetoric prompted France to ban him from visiting the country, essentially blessed the script as acceptable under religious law despite its portrayals of the prophet and his companions. He was joined by other trustees from Qaradawi's International Union for Muslim Scholars in supporting the project.

The union's board includes Tunisian Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi, a Hamas supporter who has praised Hamas rocket fire toward civilians and blessed mothers of suicide bombers, and Salah Soltan, a former Ohio imam who has repeatedly called for the killing of Jews.

"There is no excuse for anyone to refrain from jihad after God has removed the affliction, which obstructed us from jihad to liberate Palestine," he said last year. In a speech last week, he called on Egyptians to approve the country's heavily-Islamist constitution, saying it would help lead to Jerusalem's liberation....

Feel the love and tolerance.

"Avoid wishing ‘Merry Xmas,’ insist Indonesian conservative Muslims," from al Arabiya, December 20 (thanks to all who sent this in):

If the world is ready for Christmas with just five days to go before the 25th, Indonesia is yet to decide if they will be a part of the celebration.

Until now, Islamic conservatives are indecisive over whether or not celebrating Christmas the country is “Haram” or “Halal” (whether it’s prohibited or permitted by Islam), reported an Indonesian news site.

Even al Arabiya labels pro-Sharia Islamic supremacists "conservatives," and pro-freedom opponents of Sharia "conservatives."

Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body said on Wednesday that it is best for Muslims to avoid saying greetings such as “Merry Christmas” to others.

“It’s better if they don’t say ‘Merry Christmas,’” said Council Chairman Ma’ruf Amin who was quoted as saying by Jakarta Globe, “It’s still up for debate whether it’s halal or haram, so better steer clear of it. But you can say ‘Happy New Year. ”

According to the council, it is Haram for Muslims to attend Christmas parties or celebrations.

“The MUI has issued an edict forbidding Muslims from attending such rituals, because they are religious in nature. It would be haram for any Muslims to take part,” Ma’ruf was quoted as saying.

The Christian holiday has always been part of the yearly December discussions tackled by conservative groups and clerics in Indonesia.

Din Syamsuddin of Muhammadiyah, one of the country’s biggest Islamic organizations, has previously commented that he greets his friends a Merry Christmas and said that it’s just a simple greeting, however he would still advise fellow Muslims to not say “Merry Christmas” but should respect the rights of Christians from all over the world to celebrate it.

“If it’s just a matter of the greeting, that’s not forbidden,” he was quoted as saying, adding that “We hope that all Muslims will respect the celebration of Christmas and help to keep peace [at churches] during the occasion,” he said....

Killed for deviating from Islamic orthodoxy

Rashad Khalifa may be the first person murdered on American soil for heretical Islamic teachings, but he will almost certainly not be the last. "Man convicted in imam's 1990 slaying," by Kim Smith for the Arizona Daily Star, December 20:

Nearly 23 years after Rashad Khalifa was stabbed and beaten to death, the man accused of doing it has been convicted of premeditated, first-degree murder.

A Pima County jury returned the guilty verdict against Glen Francis, 52, after three hours of deliberations.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Christopher Browning will sentence Francis Jan. 28. He faces up to life in prison with release possible after 25 years.

Deputy Pima County Attorney Casey McGinley told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that "every piece of evidence, every witness and every analysis" pointed to Francis as the killer.

Khalifa's body was found in the kitchen of an East Sixth Street mosque on Jan. 31, 1990. The imam had been stabbed 29 times, beaten and doused with a flammable solvent by a killer who turned on a gas stove's burners in an apparent attempt to destroy the crime scene.

Attorneys for both sides agreed Khalifa, 54, was likely killed because of his religious teachings. After studying the Quran for years, he found a mathematical code and came to believe two verses were satanic. In his English translation of the Quran, he removed those verses. He also taught that people should follow the word of God and not that of human beings.

"His attacker was filled with anger and he was filled with rage and he was filled with the want and desire to kill," McGinley said.

McGinley told jurors the evidence showed Francis moved to Tucson under an assumed name with the express desire to kill Khalifa. He rented an apartment, got a job and a driver's license so he could easily join Khalifa's congregation and get to know the layout of the mosque and Khalifa's schedule.

Mahmoud Abib, a friend of Khalifa's, was the first person to realize Francis might have had something to do with Khalifa's death, McGinley reminded jurors.

Abib recalled how Francis wanted to know more about the Quran but would argue about what it says, McGinley said. Francis also knew how to pray distinct prayers and seemed more interested in the layout of the mosque than the lectures.

By the time Abib spoke to police about Francis he was gone, but he left pieces of himself behind - blood and fingerprints, McGinley said. Physical evidence that would lead to his being named a suspect in 1994 and to his eventual arrest in Canada in 2009.

There is no logical explanation for Francis' DNA to be left at the scene other than that he was the man who killed Khalifa, McGinley said....

The last couple of highlighted passages featured violence. Now we're back to hate:

O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people. (Qur'an 5:51)

Ibn Kathir explains: "Allah forbids His believing servants from having Jews and Christians as friends, because they are the enemies of Islam and its people, may Allah curse them."

Lovely guy, Ibn Kathir. But it's Allah, or Muhammad, or whoever invented both, who deserves the credit.

Maybe some of our hopelessly compromised pro-jihad pseudo-journalists such as Christiane Amanpour, Manya Brachear, Bob Smietana, Kari Huus, Dave Weigel, Michael Kruse and their ilk should hasten over to Tunisia. They would certainly give the Islamic supremacists there the kind of fawning coverage they give to Islamic supremacists in the U.S., and the League for the Protection of the Revolution wouldn't have to resort to these histrionics.

"Islamists throw TVs on beach to denounce 'corrupt' media," from France24, December 19:

Concerned by what they say is incompetent and corrupted media, the League for the Protection of the Revolution (LPR), a group of activists that is, according to Tunisia’s opposition, close to the Islamist party in power, organised a “flash mob” protest in the city of Sousse. Television sets were thrown onto the beach like rubbish. After chanting slogans calling for the purification of the media, the protesters were asked to scatter their television sets and newspapers along Boujafaar beach, situated in the town centre. To explain this, the LPR’s secretary general in Sousse, Lotfi Habchi, told the Tunisian press the media were failing in their duties to “illuminate public opinion, promote transparency, and deliver information objectively”. The LPR says it is fighting against “the return of the old guards of Ben Ali’s regime”. The group already has several exploits to their name. One of the most striking was a clash on December 4 in Tunis between LPR supporters and activists for the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), Tunisia’s largest union. For the LPR, the UGTT should be “cleansed” for taking positions that were too different to those in power. The clashes injured around 20 people....

The LPR is nothing but the militant arm of Ennahda, which is trying to influence every institution in the country. The media are still out of their reach, something that annoys them deeply. The LPR was mainly created as a tool to pressure the population, including journalists, who are considered to be noisy, disruptive elements....

This is no surprise, given the depth of Islamic antisemitism, and the fact that Merah is a hero in his old neighborhood. It will only come as a surprise to those who buy the soothing nonsense that Islamic apologists in the West pump out by the pound.

Video thanks to Blazing Cat Fur.

Ho ho ho

Remember: in Muslim countries, non-Muslims must adapt their behavior so as not to offend Muslim sensibilities. And in non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must adapt their behavior so as not to offend Muslim sensibilities.

"France: Santa's School Visit Cancelled Because of Boycott Threats From Muslim Families," by Cheradenine Zakalwe for Islam Versus Europe, December 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

It's a story that has a nursery school in Montargis, in Loiret, boiling. Now that the end of year celebrations are approaching, the headmistress of the school has decided to deschedule the traditional visit of Father Christmas to the classes. Officially, it's because of financial problems. The parents, stunned, denounce religious motives.

For some parents of the nursery school in Grand-Clos, there is no doubt: the reason for the cancellation of the visit of the gentleman in red with the white beard is "religious". One mother said, this Wednesday, in "Le Parisien - Aujourd'hui en France" : "The headmistress explained to me that she didn't want to get her knuckles rapped by certain Muslim families", she says.

A problem confirmed by the assistant to the mayor of Montargis, responsible for children's affairs. He adds that "each year, families threaten to boycott the school on the day of Father Christmas' visit". The headmistress therefore appears to have given in. For some, "it's too much". According to them, it's a question of the "islamisation of an educational institution".

Source: RTL

Read it all.

Over at Gatestone Institute (via RaymondIbrahim.com) I discussed the extent to which Muslims are expected to be brainwashed:

Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi—one of the most influential Islamic clerics in the world, author of over 100 books on Muslim doctrine, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood—maintains that Muslims must obey the commands of Islam’s prophet Muhammad, even unto murder. This would be the same Dr. Qaradawi that American academics like Georgetown professor John Esposito praise for engaging in a “reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism, and human rights.”

Missed in the West, Qaradawi made this declaration two years ago on his popular Arabic program, Al-Sharia wa Al-Haya (“Sharia and Life”), broadcast by al-Jazeera to an estimated audience of 60 million worldwide.

Towards the end of the show, the host asked Qaradawi what he thought about the fact that Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun, the grand mufti of Syria, had earlier said to an American delegation: “If [Muslim prophet] Muhammad asked me to reject Christianity or Judaism, I would have rejected him.” Visibly agitated, Qaradawi erupted as follows:

No scholar of Islam or even average Muslim would ever say such words. If you believe that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, then you must obey him—for he does not command except that which is good. So, even if he tells you to kill, you must— … The story about our prophet Musa [Moses], when al-Khidr killed the boy and Musa said “you killed and you did!” But then he [Khidr] revealed why he killed the boy, and why he punctured the boat. So we cannot distort the facts in order to please the people. Let the people be satisfied with the Truth [Sharia teachings], not the false.

Syria’s grand mufti said many other things concerning goodwill for Christians that roused Qaradawi’s ire. For instance, before a large Christian gathering in Syria, where he was a guest speaker, he insisted that there were no differences between Christians and Muslims:

If Christianity is about believing in one God, so I believe in one God; if Christianity is about believing in Jesus, so I believe in Jesus; if Christianity is about believing in the New Testament, so I believe in the New Testament; if Christianity is about believing in the Old Testament, so I believe in the Old Testament; if Christianity is about believing that Mary was a pure virgin, so I believe she was a pure virgin, untouched by man; and if Christianity is about believing in the resurrection, so I believe in the resurrection—so what is the difference between me and Christians?...

Since Hillary Clinton vowed to have the Muhammad filmmaker "arrested and prosecuted," and did so, will she do the same for the producers of "Zero Dark Thirty" if Muslims riot over it? After all, we have already established that terrorism works. The only question now is how far this Administration will go to suppress the freedom of speech in order to appease Muslims.

"U.S. on alert for Islamist ire to ‘Zero Dark Thirty,’" by Kristina Wong for The Washington Times, December 20 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

Could the release of “Zero Dark Thirty” provoke violent protests against the U.S. in response to the film’s searing depictions of “enhanced interrogation” — the coercive, super-secret and bitterly debated methods used by the CIA against al Qaeda terrorism suspects?

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s acclaimed docudrama about the pursuit of Osama bin Laden opened Wednesday at five theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

The film, an early Oscar favorite, graphically depicts coercive CIA interrogation techniques, including the waterboarding, domination and psychosexual humiliation of a detainee, who is, variously, collared and leashed like a dog, stuffed into a cramped “confinement box” and stripped naked for questioning in the presence of a female investigator.

Although the portrayal of such treatment given to a prisoner, regardless of his religion, may be deemed offensive by viewers of any faith, the film steers clear of depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad or showing the Koran being desecrated — two acts considered blasphemous by many Muslims.

Muslims have expressed outrage in response to the anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims,” the unintentional burning of Korans and a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.

Although “Zero Dark Thirty” doesn’t enter into any of that territory and nothing suggests a similar chain of events will follow the film’s release, a senior defense official said U.S. forces are always on alert.

“I doubt extremist murderers are going to garner much sympathy in the West or in the Muslim world, but we’ll keep an eye on things,” the official said.

“This isn’t exactly the first time this issue has surfaced. It’s been debated for years, and other major Hollywood productions have fictionalized similar themes. It’s important to keep this in perspective. I haven’t seen the movie, but one thing is for sure: It has a happy ending, not just for the United States, but for Muslims around the world targeted by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network.”

Yet fears of a violent backlash against “Zero Dark Thirty,” which goes into wide release in the U.S. on Jan. 11, are swirling in some corners of Washington and appear to be accentuated by a public perception of a U.S. government consultative role in pre-production research for the film....

On my ABN show Wednesday night, I interviewed Raymond Ibrahim, the Egyptian-American Coptic Christian academic, about what is happening in Egypt.

Does that include videos of shootings? And beheadings? The learned clerics didn't say. "Deoband says shooting videos against Islam," by Sanjay Pandey for the Deccan Herald, December 20:

Clerics issue fatwa against making films of ceremonies

A new fatwa by the prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband, has said that videography conducted at any ceremony or function is wrong in the eyes of shariat and should be avoided.

The religious decree was issued in response to a query by a resident of Pakistan by the Darul Ifta of the Uttar Pradesh-based seminary a few days ago.

The questioner wanted to know if making video of a ceremony and deriving income from such videography was proper in the eyes of Islam.

The clerics of the seminary replied that it was ‘un-Islamic’ and must be avoided. They said the income derived from doing so was also wrong.

“According to Islam, pictures and photographs are improper and hence any income from them will also be improper,” said senior cleric Maulana Mufti Arif Quasmi.

He, however, made it clear that pasting photographs on passports and other documents was permitted. The seminary is known for issuing fatwas at regular intervals, some of them on trivial social issues.

Many fatwas issued by Darul Uloom have drawn flak from a section of the Muslim community and the clergy.

Earlier, the seminary had said that a Muslim woman cannot work as receptionists as it was against the shariat or Islamic laws. It said the religion did not permit women from appearing before men without veil.

In 2002, PBS produced a documentary on the life of Muhammad, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. I wrote in a National Review article at the time that the documentary presented an "attractively packaged, sanitized version of Islam." It features Islamic apologist Karen Armstrong; Daisy Khan, the deeply deceitful "moderate" who shot to national prominence in the Ground Zero mosque controversy, and others of that ilk.

But now Jihad Watch reader Carolynn has alerted me to the fact that it is also noteworthy for capturing the slain jihad terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, who was in contact with Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas underwear jihadist; and others, leading Muslim prayers on Capitol Hill. Screenshots above show the minute mark where you can see him in the video.

Of course, the New York Times hailed al-Awlaki on October 19, 2001 as one of "a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West," and so he was widely reputed to be a "moderate" at the time, but that's just the point. One of the supposed "gotcha" quotes that Leftists and Islamic supremacists like to use against me is one in which I said that there is "no distinction in the American Muslim community between peaceful Muslims and jihadists." This video, however, shows that to be absolutely true: no one was getting up and walking out on al-Awlaki, or saying he shouldn't be preaching or leading the prayers. Many argue that al-Awlaki really was "moderate" then and became "radicalized" later, but even then, there is no record of his former friends and associates repudiating his new "radical" views.

What we do not see is Muslims in the U.S. pronouncing takfir on those who believe in the Islam of al-Awlaki -- that is, declaring them non-Muslim and excluding them from Muslim communities. The reality is that one who holds to the idea that jihad (violent and non-violent) must be waged against Americans in order to impose Sharia upon them is not put out of American mosques, and those who by their actions earn the media title of "extremist" move freely among Muslims in the U.S. until they commit their act of "extremism."

More evidence comes from the same PBS documentary. For also present for al-Awlaki's sermon was Hamas-linked CAIR's Nihad Awad, and I believe that the gentleman to Awad's left is his henchman Ibrahim "Honest Ibe" Hooper:

Awad and Hooper, of course, are routinely cited in the mainstream media as if they were "civil rights leaders." And also present was another man who had been an employee of Hamas-linked CAIR: Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, who is now serving a 20-year sentence for jihad terror plotting. In this screenshot he is on the right:

So if there is a distinction in the Muslim community between peaceful Muslims and jihadists, it certainly wasn't evident at this Capitol Hill prayer meeting, where a jihad mass murder mastermind preached the khutba for a group containing a jihad terror plotter, two leading "moderate" Muslim spokesmen, and a congressman's chief of staff.

Full video:

Over at FrontPage Magazine (via RaymondIbrahim.com), I discuss why Muslim persecution of Christians and other minorities is especially damaging to Islam's image:

Which of the following three headlines is most difficult for the media—including the usual array of liberal pundits, apologists, academics, and politicians—to whitewash or rationalize away? Which most exposes Islam’s inherent intolerance?

A) “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims fire rockets into Israel

B) “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims riot and commit acts of violence in Europe

C) “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims torch a Christian church in a Muslim country

The answer is C—Christian persecution.

Why?

Because in both scenarios A and B, Muslims will always be portrayed and seen as the “underdogs”—and hence always exonerated for their behavior. No matter how violent or ugly, no matter how many Islamic slogans are shrieked—thus placing their behavior in a purely Islamic context—Muslim violence against the West and Israel will always be dismissed as a product of the weak and outnumbered status of Muslims—their status as underdogs, which the West tends to romanticize. And so they will always get a free pass, without further ado.

They may be screaming and rioting, firing rockets and destroying property—all while calling for the death and destruction of the “infidel” West and/or Israel to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” Still, no problem. According to the aforementioned array of pundits, apologists, academics, and politicians, such bloodlust is a natural byproduct of the frustration Muslims feel as an oppressed minority, “rightfully” angry with the “colonial” West and its Israeli proxy. Indeed, that is precisely how even the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. by al-Qaeda were rationalized away by many “experts”—even as al-Qaeda’s own words exposed their animus as a direct product of Muslim doctrine not temporal grievances.

But if Muslims get a free pass when their violence is directed against those currently stronger than them, how does one rationalize away their violence when it is directed against those weaker than them, those who have no political influence whatsoever? Consider the most obvious of these scenarios, the growing epidemic of Muslim persecution of Christians. From one end of the Islamic world to the other—whether in Arab lands, African lands, Asian lands, or Sinic lands, wherever Muslims are a majority—the largest non-Muslim religious group, Christians, suffer untold atrocities.

The rationalizations used to minimize Muslim violence against the West and Israel simply cannot work here—for now Muslims are the majority, and they are the ones violent and oppressive to their minorities, often in ways that would make the worst Israeli treatment of Muslims look kind and benevolent....

We're always told that the Vast Majority of Muslims abhors and rejects violent jihad. Yet again and again we see stories like this one. Apparently Les Izards is full of misunderstanders of Islam. "Neighborhood Is Torn Over a Killer’s Legacy," by Scott Sayare in the New York Times, December 19 (thanks to Block Ness):

TOULOUSE, France — In the spring, shortly after her son’s murder, Latifa Ibn Ziaten took a taxi to Les Izards, a hard-up immigrant neighborhood here, hoping to understand. She approached a group of young men to ask, “Do you know Mohammed Merah?”

Mr. Merah, a 23-year-old French-Algerian who claimed to have ties to Al Qaeda, had killed Ms. Ibn Ziaten’s son Imad, a sergeant in the French Army, with a gunshot to the head. Before dying in a police raid in March, Mr. Merah admitted that killing and those of two other soldiers, a rabbi and three Jewish children. He spent much of his short life in Les Izards.

“Mohammed Merah, you know, he’s a hero, he’s a martyr of Islam,” the men said, Ms. Ibn Ziaten recalled. “You haven’t seen what it’s like to live here?” they continued, gesturing toward their neighborhood of beige housing projects and gravelly concrete. “At least he showed the French what power is.”

She then told the men who she was; one began to cry, she said. A man took her hand, and she worried he meant to hit her.

“I’m sorry, we’re sorry, madame,” he said. They told her of feeling unwanted. “We’re never listened to, here in the projects,” one of them said. “For them, we’re just trash.” They insisted the police would not have killed Mr. Merah had he not been Arab.

“These youth, they feel humiliated,” said Ms. Ibn Ziaten, herself an immigrant from Morocco. They are treated as North Africans in France, she said, and as French in North Africa. “They don’t know where their place is,” she said. Nor did Mr. Merah.

“He took what was dearest to me; he took my son, my friend, my prince,” Ms. Ibn Ziaten said. “But he was a victim of society.”

Other residents of this depressed place say the same, though most do not celebrate Mr. Merah’s crimes. He committed the unconscionable, they say, but he was one of them, shaped by the same forces of rejection and discrimination that they say they know and resent. They understand, to a degree, and they will not denounce him.

To much of France, Mr. Merah was a terrorist, a determined killer who reviled this country, who set out for Afghanistan and Pakistan for training in jihad. In Les Izards he was, and remains, simply Mohammed. The gap between those images, both true but neither complete, seems only to have deepened the sense of alienation in the neighborhood.

“We’re still a bit in shock,” said Frédéric Mercadal, 37, who heads the local soccer club and knew Mr. Merah well. He had his troubles, Mr. Mercadal said, and was frequently childish and needy. But he could also be “courteous and kind,” even “filled with joie de vivre.”

This is invariably a feature of stories about jihad murderers. They're all decent fellows.

Like Mr. Merah, many local youths identify with the Palestinian cause, said Younouss Zeroual, 17, whose closely trimmed black hair peaks in a meticulous ridge. During his standoff with the police, Mr. Merah told negotiators that he had targeted soldiers who were fighting Muslims in Afghanistan — like Ms. Ibn Ziaten’s son — and then chose to shoot Jews, when a separate target failed to appear, to avenge Palestinian deaths.

“Everyone says he was wrong,” Mr. Zeroual said. “But they understand the message he wanted to get across.”

Conspiracy paranoia:

Still, Mr. Zeroual said he believed Mr. Merah was perhaps framed by the government. As an Arab, he had “the look of a criminal” in the eyes of the state, Mr. Zeroual said. Witness descriptions of the killer did not match Mr. Merah, he said.

Lakhdar Chadli, 25, who used to play soccer with Mr. Merah, added, “We didn’t see his body.”

There is ambivalence, even pride, in his crimes. Some young men seem to enjoy the horror they can provoke by calling him a hero, residents and social workers said. Some surely believe he is.

“We’re trying not to talk about it, to move on to something else,” said a local social worker, requesting that his name be withheld. When he has tried to engage young people about Mr. Merah, they have responded only by calling him a “god.” “You can’t have a real exchange.”

In his violence, Mr. Merah has left the area feeling under siege, too, residents say, from the police and the news media, which descended en masse after the killings, and from politicians who have made Les Izards a watchword for violence and hate. In response, there has been a sort of closing of ranks. Residents discuss Mr. Merah among themselves, they say, but consider it a betrayal to discuss him with outsiders.

“I think the neighborhood has had enough of being stigmatized,” said Martine Croquette, a deputy mayor in Toulouse....

The victims! Oh, the poor victims!

The neighborhood is small, with about 4,000 residents, mostly Arabs from North Africa or their children. Many are observant Muslims. About half the youths are unemployed.

Residents “know they’re marginalized, they know people don’t give a damn about them,” said a local businessman and Muslim organizer, requesting anonymity for fear of local reaction. Children are urged into vocational schools instead of universities, he said. Young men say they are turned away from nightclubs because they are Arab.

Yeah, nobody gives a damn about them. That's why they're only getting $25 million (read on).

Residents complain that when potential employers see their postal code, 31200, they are immediately disqualified. Many young men here “go bad in reaction,” said a local woman, a retired nurse, who asked not to be quoted by name. Some turn to the drug trade, others to Islam, though the few radical currents that exist in Toulouse have little hold here, residents say.

Yeah, obviously.

There are occasional concerts, though, a weekly open-air market, the library. “It’s the projects,” the woman said, but the neighborhood can also be “pleasant to live in.”

Meanwhile, French authorities are affirming that terrorism works by forking over the jizya in response to the jihad murders:

The killings have accelerated plans for an urban renovation program here, an investment of about $25 million from the City of Toulouse. The central government recently designated the area for additional law enforcement resources, though many residents do not feel kindly toward the police.

Two days after police commandos killed Mr. Merah in a raid in March, a gray Peugeot sedan rolled to a stop before a cluster of young men in Les Izards. A plainclothes police officer in the passenger seat held his hands to the window, residents recalled, gesturing in celebration of his colleagues’ bloody handiwork: 1-0.

The officer, despised in the neighborhood since well before that episode, still patrols there.

Oh, the poor victims!

And making sure the Christians didn't vote in the referendum. More on this story. "Fear keeps Egypt's Christians away from polls," by Hamza Hendawi for the Associated Press, December 18 (thanks to Betsy):

ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) - A campaign of intimidation by Islamists left most Christians in this southern Egyptian province too afraid to participate in last week's referendum on an Islamist-drafted constitution they deeply oppose, residents say. The disenfranchisement is hiking Christians' worries over their future under empowered Muslim conservatives.

Around a week before the vote, some 50,000 Islamists marched through the provincial capital, Assiut, chanting that Egypt will be "Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians." At their head rode several bearded men on horseback with swords in scabbards on their hips, evoking images of early Muslims conquering Christian Egypt in the 7th Century.

They made sure to go through mainly Christian districts of the city, where residents, fearing attacks, shuttered down their stores and stayed in their homes, witnesses said.

The day of the voting itself on Saturday, Christian voting was minimal - as low as seven percent in some areas, according to church officials. Some of those who did try to head to polling stations in some villages were pelted by stones, forcing them to turn back without casting ballots, Christian activists and residents told The Associated Press this week.

The activists now see what happened in Assiut as a barometer for what Christians' status will be under a constitution that enshrines a greater role for Shariah, or Islamic law, in government and daily life. Even under the secular regime of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's Christians complained of discrimination and government failure to protect them and their rights. They fear it will be worse with the Islamists who have dominated Egypt's political landscape since Mubarak's ouster in February 2011.

"When all issues become religious and all the talk is about championing Islam and its prophet, then, as a Christian, I am excluded from societal participation," said Shady Magdy Tobia, a Christian activist in Assiut. "If this does not change, things will only get worse for Christians."....

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Militants hunt Buddhists in Narathiwat," from the Bangkok Post, December 20 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

NARATHIWAT - A gang of Islamic militants burned down the Bacho Tambon Administration Organisation office on Thursday, after failing to find any Buddhist employees to kill.

Seven armed men stormed into the offices of the Bacho TAO in Bacho district shortly after noon.

Abdulwaha Dulayapinij, the office’s chief administrator, told the police he and seven other employees were just leaving for lunch.

''One of them fired a gun into the air and ordered everyone to stay put in Yawi [a Malay dialect spoken by Muslims in the South] and then asked if there were any Buddhist Thais working here,” Mr Abdulwaha said.

“I told him there were none, and the outlaw was upset and said I had lied to him.”

Mr Abdulwaha then explained there was a female Buddhist Thai civil servant identified as Suchada sae Li working at the TAO as a community development officer, level 3, but she was on leave.

Upset with the answer, two of the gunmen emptied a five-litre container of gasoline into the archive and equipment storage rooms, set fire to it, and then fled the scene.

Staff, villagers and a local disaster relief team tried to put out the fire, but the blaze spread quickly and destroyed the whole building.

Mr Abdulwaha said it appeared the assailants wanted to kill Ms Suchada who was the only Buddhist official at the Bacho TAO, and had planned to use the gasoline to burn her body....

The "Arab Spring" in full flower. "Tunisian imam sued for call to ‘sterilize the wombs of Jewish women,’" by Michael Bassin for the Times of Israel, December 20 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

The Tunisian Association to Support Minorities is suing a prominent Tunisian imam for hateful incitement against Jews.

During a Friday sermon broadcast live on November 30 on Hannibal TV, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Suhayli of Rades, a suburb of Tunis, told his followers at the Khatib mosque that “God wants to destroy this sprinkling of Jews… and is for sterilizing the wombs of Jewish women,” the liberal Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Qais El-Beltagi, a lawyer representing the association, alleges in the lawsuit that Al-Suhayli’s comments violated Tunisia’s 2011 Decree 115, which criminalizes “calls to hatred between races and religions, and the population.” He said that article 52 of the decree calls for “a prison term of between one and three years and a fine ranging from 500 to 1,000 euros” for hate-filled speeches....

What would it take for you to commit mass murder in the name of Allah?

Would you do it for money? For love? Out of a sense of justice? Out of a sense of religious duty?

Absurd as they may seem, these are serious questions, for as jihad mass-murder plots are being uncovered in the United States more frequently than ever, those are accused of perpetrating them and several Islamic groups are increasingly charging entrapment: that overzealous FBI agents pushed poor innocent Muslims into taking part in a jihad plot that otherwise would never have existed.

And so it is here. The same claim has been made in connection with numerous other jihad cases in the U.S. Yet charges of entrapment are silly for any Muslim caught in a jihad terror plot to try to pursue. For there is every indication that Mohamud was more than willing to do whatever was necessary to enable him to murder large numbers of Americans. The very fact that he went ahead with his plots ought to be sufficient indication in itself that there was no entrapment. Think about it: what would it take to lead you to participate in a terrorist mass-murder plot? If undercover agents approached you and tried to entice you into working to kill large numbers of innocent people, how hard would it be to convince you to do it?

Speaking strictly for myself, I have absolutely no worries of ever being entrapped in this way; there is simply nothing, under any circumstances, that anyone could say to me to convince me to blow anyone up. And so if someone showed up and started trying to cajole me into doing so, I would find him irritating, but I wouldn’t even come close to doing anything that would enable anyone to portray me as guilty of anything. Mohamed Mohamud, in contrast, went ahead with his jihad mass-murder plot. Law enforcement agents were not to blame and cannot justly be held accountable for his choices.

These increasingly common charges of entrapment should be seen for what they are: yet another attempt to divert attention from the ugly reality of Islamic jihad activity in the U.S. and around the world, and to place the responsibility for jihadist misdeeds upon non-Muslims – specifically the ones who are trying to thwart the jihadists’ plans. After 9/11, we were assured again and again that the vast majority of Muslims in the U.S. and worldwide were peaceful, and sincerely condemned such violence perpetrated in the name of their religion. Yet eleven years later, we still have yet to see a sincere and effective effort within mosques to expose and report those who hold to the beliefs that led to those attacks.

Instead, we get more finger-pointing. And that means we will also get more jihad.

"Jurors in Mohamed Mohamud bomb-plot trial will inspect massive, but fake bomb," by Bryan Denson for The Oregonian, December 19 (thanks to Kenneth):

A federal judge will allow jurors in the Portland bomb plot case to tour a van -- loaded with a massive, but phony, explosive -- during the terrorism trial of Mohamed Mohamud.

U.S. District Judge Garr M. King made the ruling Wednesday during a pretrial conference attended by the 21-year-old former Oregon State University student. His trial is set for Jan. 10.

The government accuses Mohamud of trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction during the Nov. 26, 2010, holiday tree-lighting ceremony in Portland's downtown Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Mohamud's lawyers have mounted an entrapment defense, arguing that sophisticated FBI operatives, posing as terrorists, goaded their vulnerable teenage client into a crime he would not have devised on his own.

Jurors in King's courtroom will go to the basement garage of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse to view the van, which is still choked with a realistic looking explosive that weighs nearly a ton. FBI bomb techs rigged the fake bomb and the undercover operatives showed it to Mohamud as part of the bureau's sting operation.

"It seems to me it's a part of the case," King said.

Mohamud's lead defense lawyer, Stephen R. Sady, argued to no avail that showing jurors the van would unfairly prejudice them and build drama outside the scope of anything his client did.

King will allow Mohamud to take the tour if he wants, and efforts will be made to conceal his ankle shackles so jurors don't see them....

Why?

Mohamud's defense lawyers, citing potential bias by jurors against their Muslim, African-born client, had asked for six extra chances to strike prospective panelists. But King ruled against them, saying he was calling in a pool of 100 for jury selection. Sady said he didn't think that would be enough to pick a jury, but the judge rejected his motion....

The judge also ruled that words such as "terrorist," "martyrdom" and "violent jihad" could be introduced into evidence, but he expected lawyers to caution expert witnesses not to make inappropriate use of such loaded terms.

What would constitute "inappropriate use"?

King said he was inclined to let Mohamud's lawyers show their client's family photos and to show evidence that he lived a relatively normal life before the events that now find him in Portland's Justice Center jail.

Yes, yes, he was a decent fellow. So what?

The notice, by the international police agency, describes one of Mohamud's contacts -- Amro Alali -- as a wanted terrorist from Saudi Arabia. Interpol said Alali, a Portland State University student in 2008, "helped the Al Qaeda division in Yemen and other countries by providing them with foreign fighters to carry out terrorist attacks against western and tourists interests," government prosecutors alleged.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan D. Knight, who heads the Mohamud prosecution, said the government had significant evidence that Mohamud knew Alali had "terrorist ties." But defense lawyer Lisa Hay, describing the Interpol notice as hearsay, said no evidence would show that Mohamud knew Alali was a wanted terrorist. The notice was an accusation, not a conviction, she noted.

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the heads rolling at the State Department:

After an independent report found that mistakes were made in the Obama Administration’s handling of the Benghazi jihad massacre, Barack Obama immediately took action against those who apparently made them: Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security; and Raymond Maxwell, the deputy assistant secretary of state whose purview included Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, all resigned under pressure.

The report says that “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus” led to a security arrangement “that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

Are we really to believe that it was Eric Boswell, Charlene Lamb, and Raymond Maxwell who were really responsible for the refusal of repeated requests from the Benghazi consulate for more security personnel, and the complete disregarding of warnings from Ambassador Chris Stevens that al-Qaeda was operating in the area? There are numerous indications that all this came from higher up.

After all, the Obama Administration’s entire Middle East policy has since January 2011 been predicated on the unquestioned dogma that the “Arab Spring” uprisings were a glorious outpouring of democracy and pluralism. Speaking about the Libyan revolution in March 2011, Obama warmly praised the dawning in Libya of “the rights of peaceful assembly, free speech, and the ability of the Libyan people to determine their own destiny.” Thus after providing military aid to the anti-Gaddafi rebels despite evidence of their al-Qaeda links, the administration – whether the call really came from the White House or the State Department or both – had every reason to ignore the request from Benghazi for more security, and to pretend that the whole thing was just a spontaneous uprising over a video about Muhammad, not the carefully planned September 11 jihad attack that it proved to be.

Speaking about Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the New York Times said that “the report affirmed there were no protests of an anti-Islamic video before the attack, contrary to what Ms. Rice had said on several Sunday talk shows days after the attack.”

But Susan Rice was in an extremely difficult position. To have acknowledged what was really happening in Benghazi would have been to admit that the Allahu-akbaring mob besieging the consulate was nothing remotely close to a responsible citizenry enjoying their rights of peaceful assembly, free speech, and self-determination. And that would have given the lie to Obama’s description of the uprising against Gaddafi. It would have been to admit that the jihad against the United States would not be turned away from its goal by hearts-and-minds gestures, even if those gestures included the removal of a brutal dictator. The people of Benghazi were no more inclined to welcome the Americans as liberators – and Ambassador Stevens had attempted to play exactly that role, sneaking into Libya during the most difficult days of the uprising and doing everything he could to aid the rebels – than were the people of Iraq when Saddam Hussein was toppled.

The reason in both cases was the same: the rebels against both Saddam and Gaddafi were largely Islamic supremacists who wanted a Sharia state, disdained democracy, and considered the United States to be their enemy not primarily because of various aspects of its foreign policy, but because it is the world’s foremost infidel polity, against whom the mujahedin believe they have a sacred duty to wage war. The Qur’an and Islamic law direct Muslims to wage war against and subjugate the “People of the Book” (cf. Qur’an 9:29) – that is, primarily Jews and Christians – not if they behave badly by supporting Israel or Middle Eastern dictators, but simply because they are not Muslims.

But the White House and State Department not only do not acknowledge this fact – they have done all they can to deny and obfuscate it. The one cardinal proposition that accepted analysts must repeat is that the present conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims have absolutely nothing to do with Islam; indeed, Obama Administration officials are expressly forbidden to link Islam with terrorism, as if Islamic terrorists weren’t busy linking the two on a daily basis. The errors of analysis and wrong decisions that cost lives all follow from this initial false premise.

There is more.

There is no excuse for what Randy Linn did. He is a criminal, and he richly deserves his twenty-year prison term. This incident is being used, of course, as part of ongoing efforts to discredit the anti-jihad movement, but it no more does that than the murdering thug John Brown's massacres discredited the anti-slavery movement.

What is noteworthy here is his explanation of his motive: "Every day you turn on the TV, you see Muslims trying to kill Americans." Hamas-linked CAIR will try to use this to intimidate the mainstream media into making sure that you don't see Muslims trying to kill Americans when you turn on your TV, for such incidents will be ignored and whitewashed. Their response should be to work for Islamic reform such that the texts and teachings of Islam that motivate Muslims to kill Americans are understood in a radically different way from how all too many Muslims understand them now. To do that, however, they'd have to be what they claim to be, a "moderate" civil rights organization, rather than the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood front that they really are.

"Ind. Man: I Burned Ohio Mosque To Avenge Soldiers," by John Seewer for the Associated Press, December 19:

TOLEDO, Ohio -- A former Marine from Indiana admitted Wednesday that he broke into a mosque in Ohio and set fire to a prayer rug because he wanted revenge for the killings of American troops overseas.

Randy Linn pleaded guilty to hate crime charges, saying he'd become enraged after seeing images of wounded soldiers in the news.

"Every day you turn on the TV, you see Muslims trying to kill Americans," said Linn, a truck driver from St. Joe.

When asked by a federal judge whether he thought all Muslims are terrorists, he answered: "I'd say most of them are."

A deal between prosecutors and Linn, 52, calls for him to be sentenced to 20 years next April. He pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging and destroying religious property and two gun-related charges.

U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary told Linn that his acts were an attack on all places of religion and that the mosque was a symbol of peace.

"You are no better than the terrorists or extremists you sought to punish," Zouhary said.

Prosecutors said Linn drove about two hours from his home to suburban Toledo on Sept. 30 and broke into the mosque where he poured gasoline on the rug and lit it on fire.

He estimated that he had drunk 45 beers over several hours before he decided to drive to Ohio.

Linn had several firearms in his car and carried a gun into the mosque, which was empty at the time.

U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said it was fortunate no one was there. "This is a man who had intolerance in his heart and acted with hate," he said. "We can count ourselves lucky."

Linn said he went room by room to make sure no one was in the building. "I was drinking a beer while I was doing that," he said.

A sprinkler system extinguished the blaze, leaving smoke and water damage in the prayer room of the facility, whose golden dome is a landmark along Interstate 75. No one was hurt.

Members of the Islamic center have been unable to use the building and expect repairs to be finished by the end of March.

Dr. Mahjabeen Islam, president of the Islamic Center, said its members been overwhelmed by support from the community and churches. But she was saddened by Linn's statements in court.

"It was heart-wrenching to hear him speak because the ignorance and intolerance is still palpable," she said. "This is an individual who knows nothing about Islam."...

The woman told law enforcement officers that Linn had made comments complaining about the deaths of U.S. military members in the Middle East, recent attacks on U.S. embassies and Muslims' angry reactions to an anti-Islam video posted online....

In "#MyJihad: CAIR’s New Twitter Campaign to Whitewash Islam" at PJMedia today, I expose the dishonesty and hypocrisy of Hamas-linked CAIR's cynical new ad and Twitter campaign to confuse Americans about the meaning of the word jihad:

Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.

Lady Macbeth could have been describing the cynical new ad campaign sponsored by the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which attempts to make Americans believe that “jihad” is all about taking the kids to school and smiling at surly checkout clerks, rather than flying planes into office buildings and blowing up pizza parlors full of infidels.

Like all Big Lies, it has a grain of truth to it. Jihad in Arabic means “struggle,” and the Arabic word carries as many connotations as does the English one. One may struggle to lose weight or to exercise regularly, and the same word is used for great struggles, such as those against Nazism and Communism. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a Department of Agricultural Jihad, which has nothing to do with blowing up farm implements, but merely concerns itself with the struggle to increase crop yields.

And so Ahmed Rehab of Hamas-linked CAIR asserted to one of a seemingly endless stream of eagerly credulous reporters:

Jihad in Islam simply means the struggle to a better place. Whatever barrier or burdens that you have in your life, you are asked, you are tasked to muster in the inner courage, the inner resolve, the inner determination to overcome those personal barriers, personal issues.

Rehab retailed a half-truth. A manual of Islamic law certified by the highest authority in Sunni Islam, Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, as conforming “to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community” explained: “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion. And it is the lesser jihad. As for the greater jihad, it is spiritual warfare against the lower self (nafs).” After thus acknowledging the spiritual, “greater jihad,” the manual never mentions it again, but goes on for many paragraphs about the “lesser jihad,” that “war against non-Muslims,” giving rules for the taking of prisoners, the legal status of captive women, the subjugation of the infidels, and more.

This legal manual stipulates that Muslims must make war “upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until “the final descent of Jesus.” After that, “nothing but Islam will be accepted from them.”

Another manual of Islamic law, from the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, repeats the same injunctions. It insists that people must receive the call to embrace Islam before being fought, “because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith.” However, “if the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax [jizya], it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.”

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering Muslim historian and philosopher, wrote that “in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with “power politics,” because Islam is “under obligation to gain power over other nations.”

There is more.

Today's installment: more savage punishments:

[As for] the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they committed as a deterrent [punishment] from Allah . And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise. (Qur'an 5:38)

Said Muhammad: “Let there be the curse of Allah upon the thief who steals an egg and his hand is cut off, and steals a rope and his hand is cut off.” (Muslim 4185)

Another hadith on this:

Narrated 'Urwa bin Az-Zubair: A lady committed theft during the lifetime of Allah's Apostle in the Ghazwa of Al-Fath, ((i.e. Conquest of Mecca). Her folk went to Usama bin Zaid to intercede for her (with the Prophet). When Usama interceded for her with Allah's Apostle, the color of the face of Allah's Apostle changed and he said, "Do you intercede with me in a matter involving one of the legal punishments prescribed by Allah?" Usama said, "O Allah's Apostle! Ask Allah's Forgiveness for me." So in the afternoon, Allah's Apostle got up and addressed the people. He praised Allah as He deserved and then said, "Amma ba'du ! The nations prior to you were destroyed because if a noble amongst them stole, they used to excuse him, and if a poor person amongst them stole, they would apply (Allah's) Legal Punishment to him. By Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad stole, I would cut her hand." Then Allah's Apostle gave his order in the case of that woman and her hand was cut off. Afterwards her repentance proved sincere and she got married. 'Aisha said, "That lady used to visit me and I used to convey her demands to Allah's Apostle. (Bukhari 5:59:597)

And:

Jaibir reported that a woman from the tribe of Makhzum committed theft. She was brought to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and she sought refuge (intercession) from Umm Salama, the wife of Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him). Thereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: By Allah, even if she were Fatima, I would have her hand cut off. And thus her hand was cut off. (Muslim 4190)

This barbarism is still being practiced today. The photo above is of a recent victim of Sharia justice in Mali.

The hypocrisy is flagrant and systematic, and driven by the largest voting bloc at the UN, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is inveterately antisemitic. "Hypocrisy: UN adopts 9 resolutions on Palestinians & Golan, yet silent on Syrian massacre of Palestinians," from UN Watch, December 19 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

GENEVA, December 18 – The U.N. General Assembly today adopted nine resolutions on Palestinian rights and the Golan, sharply criticizing Israel yet making no mention of Sunday’s massacre of Palestinians by Syrian warplanes firing missiles into a mosque in a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus. Nor did the texts mention the tens of thousands of Palestinians who continue to flee the camp.

By the end of this week, the current 2012 UNGA session will have adopted 22 country-specific resolutions on Israel – and only four on the rest of the world combined, one each for Syria, Iran, North Korea and Burma, noted UN Watch.

Today’s resolutions criticized Israel for “the continuing systematic violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people,” and focused on “the extremely difficult socioeconomic conditions being faced by the Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

One resolution condemned Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, demanding Israel hand the land and its people to Syria.

“It’s astonishing,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “At a time when the Syrian regime is massacring its own people, how can the U.N. call for more people to be subject to Assad’s rule? The timing of today’s text is morally galling and logically absurd.”

“What is also outrageous is that these resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the U.N. proves itself completely oblivious to the actual suffering on the ground, happening right now: Palestinians slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces.”

“Today’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the U.N.’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations remains the scapegoating of Israel,” said Neuer.

“The U.N.’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial and respected international body, and exposes the sores of politicisation and selectivity that eat away at its founding mission, eroding the U.N. Charter promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small,” Neuer added.

“With more than 40,000 killed in Syria, and millions of Syrian refugees suffering now in the cold of winter, it ought to shock the conscience of mankind that the U.N. will devoting more than 80 percent of this session’s resolutions to Israel, and just one, on Thursday, to Syria.”

Below are the draft texts that were endorsed today by the UN General Assembly. In total, by the end of this week the UNGA will have adopted 22 resolutions on Israel — and 4 on the rest of the world combined.

Yet again, Barack Obama does a favor for Islamic jihadists. Indian officials, who have substantial evidence of the ISI's involvement in the attacks, are understandably angry about this. "Mumbai attacks case: India ‘disappointed’ at US immunity for ISI," from AFP, December 19 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday called a declaration that Pakistan’s intelligence service and former chiefs enjoy immunity in a case related to the 2008 Mumbai attacks a “serious disappointment”.

The Indian government has long alleged that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was behind the Islamist attacks which left 166 people dead – an accusation denied by Islamabad.

The Indian statement was in response to an affidavit filed in a US court earlier in the week in which the US government said Pakistan’s ISI and its former chiefs, Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Nadeem Taj, “enjoy immunity” in the Mumbai attacks.

The US affidavit is “a matter of deep and abiding concern”, the Indian government statement said, noting Washington has publicly said it is committed to bringing “those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks to justice”.

“The decision of the US authorities in this case is a cause of serious disappointment,” said the Indian statement.

The New York federal court is hearing a case filed by US survivors of the Mumbai attacks and family members of the victims against Pasha, Taj and other ISI officials.

Leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, including its founder Mohammed Hafiz Saeed, are also named in the suit. India has accused Pakistan’s ISI of collaborating with the LeT to mount the attacks....

One thing we have learned, or should have learned, in 2012 was that the old approaches haven’t worked. The organizations and think tanks that talk endlessly about the problem have failed. Enemies of freedom and enablers of Islamic supremacism are in the mainstream of the media, the government, the educational system, and the entertainment industry. Only one hope remains for free people: going over all their heads for a direct appeal to the people, and by doing so, forcing a public discussion of the issues that matter most in these dark days. And there is only one organization that is doing that, and forcing public discussion of the gravest threats to our freedom: our American Freedom Defense Initiative.

Once again, in 2012 our organization has done groundbreaking work with unprecedented results. There is no group that can match our effective guerrilla style media and legal warfare. And we had come off a very successful year in 2011 in defeating the Ground Zero mosque.

Here is just some of what we accomplished in 2012:

-- Our anti-jihad subway and bus campaigns have forced and are continuing to force a deeply compromised and willfully ignorant media to talk about what they otherwise refuse to discuss: jihad and sharia. We broke out of the ghetto that the media elites have reserved for voices that defend freedom, and made it impossible for them to avoid holding a public discussion and analysis of the most serious threat to our national security.

-- We are exploding the deceptions of Hamas-linked CAIR's cynical #MyJihad campaign with our own ad campaign depicting the actual words about Islam and jihad of actual jihadists.

-- We expanded the "Support Israel, Defeat Jihad" bus campaign to 100 NYC buses to include "Support the Troops, Defeat Jihad"; "Support the Copts, Defeat Jihad"; "Support the Bahais, Defeat Jihad"; "Support the Nigerian Christians, Defeat Jihad"; "Support the Hindus, Defeat Jihad"; et al.

-- We countered Hamas-linked CAIR's deceptive Qur'an ads that are designed to lull Americans into complacency about the jihad threat.

-- We won historic, landmark free speech cases in New York and Washington against politically correct transit officials who refused to run our pro-Israel ads after accepting vicious anti-Israel ads. These cases are crucial in these days of ever-increasing encroachment upon our freedom of speech, our fundamental bulwark against tyranny. See the stories in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.

-- Our anti-jihad conferences and freedom rallies in Stockholm; our bringing the truth to conservatives at CPAC 2012: Islamic Law in America; the Honor Killing Human Rights Conference in Dearborn; our Former Muslims for Freedom conference in Manhattan Beach; and our First International Freedom Congress at the UN on 9/11 raised awareness of these crucial issues across the world. No one had ever focused so much attention to the plight of Muslim apostates and honor killing victims; the exposure of Sharia’s human rights abuses put the Islamic supremacists in the U.S. on the defensive for the first time ever.

-- We exposed pro-sharia media bias when we submitted an exact replica of an anti-Catholic ad that ran in the New York Times, exchanging the falsehoods about Catholicism with truth about Islam. The New York Times refused our ad, but ran the anti-Catholic ad. It made television and mainstream media news round the world, shedding light on media duplicity and hypocrisy.

We never retreat. We refuse to accept a dark future. We fight. We will continue on the offense, but we can't do it without funds.

No one is pushing back and getting the results that AFDI and SIOA has gotten. No one. But we can’t do it alone. We have no big foundations funding us, no big endowment. We can’t do it on fumes.

Every dollar you contribute to AFDI/SIOA goes to the fight. We don’t draw salaries. We don’t have expensive offices or a huge staff (in fact, we don’t have an office or a staff at all).

Please make an effective fight for freedom top priority in your end-of-the-year donations. Donate now to the most effective freedom fighters in the war of ideas today: Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer of AFDI.

Please donate via Paypal to writeatlas@aol.com or tax-deductible to director@jihadwatch.org. And above all, fight for freedom. Never give up. Never give in.

After Western Islamic apologists who assure us that Islam has no penalty for apostasy have finished their work in Khartoum, they can make their way to Bishkek.

"Kygyzstan Girl 'Burned' For Faith In Christ," from BosNewsLife, December 18 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

BISHKEK/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- A young Kyrgyz girl is forced to work in a sewing workshop after being tortured by her parents in Kyrgyzstan because she converted to Christianity, well-informed investigators said Tuesday, December 18.

The troubles began when the girl "accepted Jesus [Christ]" as her Lord and Savior "during a church meeting" despite opposition towards Christians in this heavily Islamic nation, explained aid and advocacy group Open Doors.

"When her parents found out about her decision, they were very upset and took her home to their village" where she was soon mistreated, the group told BosNewsLife in a statement.

"They wanted her to recant and renounce her faith in Christ, so they began to beat her systematically till she lost consciousness." Yet the girl, who was wrongly identified as "Almas" amid security concerns, "did not give in", added Open Doors.

WINTER TORTURE

"It was winter when all of this happened, so her parents put her into a cold room and kept her there for several days. Still they were unable to break her spirit," said Open Doors, which is in close contact with local believers.

"They then started pulling her hair and put her face against the stove, burning her face. In spite of this, she remained faithful," the group claimed.

Her parents reportedly also burned all her Christian literature and decided to closely watch their daughter. "They put her to work in a sewing workshop, where she is forced to work from early in the morning till late in the evening."

Sewing sweatshops are believed to be widespread in the country where many struggle with crippling poverty. "It has become virtually impossible for Almas to have any contact with her Christian friends," Open Doors said....

Conversion away from Islam is forbidden on pain of death. Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Khartoum to explain to the Sudanese authorities that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Two Sudan Coptic priests arrested after 'baptism,'” from AFP, December 19 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Two priests from the Coptic Orthodox Church in Sudan have been arrested after the religious conversion of a Muslim in the Islamist-run state, church sources said.

"I understand there was someone from the Arab origin that accepted Christ and was baptized by them," leading to their arrest within the past few days, one religious leader told AFP.

Other religious sources confirmed the incident but Khartoum's Coptic Bishop Elia was not immediately able to comment.

Under the 23-year Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's minority Copts have not experienced the violence suffered by their brethren in Egypt, where sectarian attacks surged after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and saw Islamists rise to power.

But a little-known group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Nilien States sent a statement to Sudanese journalists on Tuesday threatening violence against Copts unless the woman who converted and was "kidnapped" by the Christians is returned.

And although he is in prison, he is still spreading his patent Misunderstanding of the Religion of Peace and Tolerance via the Internet. But surely those modern, moderate Muslims who spend a lot of time and energy decrying as greasy Islamophobes those who say that Islam mandates death for blasphemy, among other things, are all over this, and are working to counteract Bakri's influence among young Muslims. Aren't they?

"Danish Muslim group supports Syrian hate preacher," by Peter Stanners for the Copenhagen Post, December 18 (thanks to Lachlan):

Imprisoned in Lebanon, Omar Bakri uses technology to get his message out – an increasing trend used to radicalise young Danish Muslims, according to PET

TV2 News reports that a radical Muslim group called ‘Kaldet til Islam’ (The Call to Islam) are being taught by Omar Bakri, a notorious anti-Western preacher.

Bakri may be serving a life sentence In Lebanon for inciting murder, theft and possession of weapons and explosives, but he was still able to speak to a demonstration organised by Kaldet til Islam this September on Kongens Nytorv through a mobile telephone attached to a megaphone.

“Those that make films, pictures or caricatures of the prophet should watch out! Islam promises death to anyone that insults the prophet’s honour,” he told the demonstration according to TV2 News. “Anyone that insults the prophet should be killed.”

According to TV 2 News, Abu Asadullah and Abu Musa, the spokesperson and chairman, respectively, of Kaldet til Islam - which numbers only around 50 members - regularly listen to Omar Bakri's teachings over the internet.

Bakri, originally from Syria, lived in the UK between 1986 and 2005. During that time he established the organisation Al-Muhajiroun. According to UK newspaper The Times, Bakri praised the 19 men responsible for the 9/11 attacks against the US, while “a dozen members" of Al-Muhajiroun "have taken part in suicide bombings or have become close to al-Qaeda and its support network.” Bakri was refused re-entry to the UK from Lebanon after travelling there on a trip in 2005.

The fact that Bakri maintains supporters in Denmark despite being jailed in Lebanon has elicited strong statements from Danish politicians.

“We have freedom of speech and I will fight to keep it even though these people, who don’t know any better, are pushing it to its limits,” Venstre’s immigration spokesperson, Inger Støjberg, told TV2 News “It’s convenient that they live in Denmark because here they can say what they want, whereas where they are from everything has to match the Koran.”

She added: “They should go back to the loser countries where their views are shared.”

Legal spokesperson for the Socialdemokraterne, Ole Hækkerup, found it hypocritical that Danish Islamists were using free speech to call for the death of people that use their freedom of speech.

“What’s most important is that the authorities keep a close eye on these people,” Hækkerup said. “If there is any chance to take them down we should. If they can be charged, they should be brought before a judge.”

Bakri’s use of the internet and technology to spread his message is not unusual, according to the head of Denmark’s domestic intelligence agency PET, Jacob Scharf, who argues that greater efforts need to be made to prevent young Danish Muslims, particularly men, from being groomed by radical Islamists over the internet.

“We are seeing a new tendency develop in which social media is being actively used as a tool for radicalisation,” Scharf told Politiken newspaper....

This is no surprise. As I noted yesterday, last summer a Pakistani Muslim cleric said that polio vaccinations were un-Islamic. And you know what happens to un-Islamic things in Pakistan.

An update on this story. "3 more polio workers shot in Pakistan; 8 dead in 48 hours," by Jibran Ahmed for Reuters, December 19 (thanks to Kenneth):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot Wednesday in Pakistan, and two of them were killed, the latest in an unprecedented string of attacks over the past three days that has partially halted the U.N.-backed campaign.

The United Nations in Pakistan has pulled all staff involved in the immunization campaign off the streets, spokesman Michael Coleman said....

Government officials were surprised by the violence, saying they had not expected attacks in areas far from the Taliban's strongholds and they would have to change tactics in the health campaign.

"We didn't expect such attacks in Karachi," said Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, minister for human rights, who oversees the polio campaign. He was referring to the southern commercial hub where there have been attacks this week.

"In far flung areas where the threats are more pronounced, we have been providing polio teams security."

Wednesday saw four separate attacks. In the northwestern district of Charsadda, men on motorbikes shot dead a woman and her driver, police and health officials said.

Hours earlier, a male health worker was shot and badly wounded in the nearby provincial capital of Peshawar. He was in critical condition, said a doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital where he is being treated.

Four other women health workers were shot at but not hit in nearby Nowshera, said Jan Baz Afridi, deputy head of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation. Two women health workers were shot at in Dwasaro village in Charsadda, police said.

It was not clear who was behind the violence.

Many Islamists, including Taliban militants, have long opposed the campaign. Some say it aims to sterilize Muslims, while one militant commander said it could not continue unless attacks by U.S. drone aircraft stopped.

The Taliban have repeatedly threatened health workers involved in the campaign. Some workers said they received calls telling them to stop working with the "infidels" just before the attacks.

But a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, told Reuters his group was not involved in the violence....

Khokar said Taliban hostility to the campaign increased after it emerged that the CIA had used a fake vaccination campaign to try to gather information about Osama bin Laden, before he was found and killed in a Pakistani town last year.

Over at AtlasShrugs I discuss the new effort to portray jihad as schoolgirls skipping rope, and to package the purveyors of and apologists for the most hateful and murderous ideology active in the world today as lovable lugs who root for the Lakers and giggly girls who can't help indulging their sweet tooth:

Pamela Geller has described the new #MyJihad ad campaign from by the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an “insult to our intelligence,” and that it certainly is. In one of the CAIR ads, a hijabbed woman lifts a barbell while explaining, “My Jihad is to stay fit despite my busy schedule.”

The whole endeavor is reminiscent of Alexander Dubček’s “Socialism with a human face.” In Communist Czechoslavakia in 1968, Dubček limited the power of the secret police and relaxed restrictions on speech; but when the Czechs got too much of a taste for freedom, the Soviet tanks rolled in to remind them of just how human the face of socialism really was.

And now Hamas-linked CAIR is trying to paint a human face on the Islamic doctrine that has caused untold suffering for human beings worldwide for fourteen centuries, and continues to do so today. The leading Islamic supremacist advocacy group in the U.S., treated as a reputable authority by the mainstream media, as well as politicians and law enforcement officials around the country, is trying to manipulate Americans into thinking that because some Muslims think of jihad in benign, peaceful ways, therefore the ones who think of it in its traditional Islamic sense, as a divine command to wage war against and subjugate unbelievers, somehow don’t matter and are unworthy of attention.

But just as sure as the tanks rolled into Prague, no matter how many Muslims think that jihad involves patting puppies on the head and giving dollar bills to noble, grateful homeless people, sooner or later the bombs go off and the heads roll anyway. It’s like trying to convince people that because Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty and legions of earnest high school counselors have waged war on drugs, that therefore it’s “bigoted” to point out that the word war usually involves shooting and killing people.

It is indeed an insult to our intelligence – and it is part of a larger initiative. Pro-Hamas Islamic supremacists such as Zahra Billoo of CAIR and Linda Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York tweet about their love of chocolate and children and their pious good wishes for the people of Newtown, Connecticut, while simultaneously expressing their support for the genocidal Palestinian jihad against Israel, even to the point of retailing fabrications of the Palestinian propaganda machine. Qasim Rashid, an Ahmadi apologist for the Islamic jihadis who are massacring his own people in Pakistan and Indonesia, likewise made a great show of his grief over the Newtown massacre, but couldn’t resist using it to retail Palestinian jihad propaganda, tweeting: “As u pray for the #Newtown children, pray for Palestinian children dying of poverty.” 

Zahra Billoo and Linda Sarsour crave chocolate! How bad could they be? Plenty bad: Billoo has advised Muslims to shun law enforcement and called U.S. troops “terrorists.” Sarsour has claimed that the jihad underwear bomber was a CIA agent – part of what she claims is a U.S. war against Islam. They are part of the Islamic supremacist establishment that is attempting to lull Americans into complacency about the nature and source of the jihad threat, and their just-us-girls tweets about chocolate and cute kids are all part of that, after the manner of the See How Hitler Loves His Dogs photo spreads that Nazi authorities published long ago to humanize der Führer. It’s a sweet jihad, a chummy jihad, a chocolatey jihad – but a jihad just the same.

One clue to this phenomenon comes from jazz musician Tarek Shah, who pled guilty to providing martial arts and hand-to-hand combat with weapons training to Al-Qaeda operatives. In 2004 Shah told a man he thought was a fellow jihadist but who turned out to be an undercover agent, “I could be joking and smiling and then cutting their throats in the next second.”

Of course, Zahra Billoo and Linda Sarsour will never slit our throats. They will just kill us with kindness, insistently and self-consciously trying to show the world that they’re cute and cuddly just like the girl next door while fronting for an inhuman, oppressive ideology that, not coincidentally, has one of the most sophisticated propaganda machines ever seen on the planet.

Today’s jihad terrorists are adherents of a totalitarian, genocidal ideology that teaches them that murders committed under certain circumstances are a good thing. Those murders are committed for the sake of a societal vision that portrays itself as the exponent of all that is good, even while committing unimaginable atrocities to secure and retain power. But it is not good, and anyone who still retains even rudimentary clarity of vision in this increasingly befogged age can see that. 

That’s where Hamas-linked CAIR’s #MyJihad campaign and the sweet-tooth tweets of Zahra Billoo and Linda Sarsour come in: to lull those few who may still be awake into thinking that it won’t be so bad to accept the special accommodations for Muslims upon which CAIR insists, and the continued enabling of Islamic supremacism in U.S. foreign policy. After all, there will still be time to stay fit on a busy schedule, and the need to do so after indulging one’s chocolate craving. Coming from two hijabbed Muslim women, enslaved to the will of men and subject to their every whim, this is abundantly reassuring – isn’t it? There’s chocolate! How bad could slavery be?

In today's installment, a prescription for punishments of unspeakable violence, following right after the Qur'anic verse most often quoted by Presidents and other non-Muslims who want to praise Islam:

Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment. (Qur'an 5:32-33)

One Muslim authority, Sa‘id bin Jubayr, explains the first part of the above quote, v. 32 about saving mankind by saving one person, this way: “He who allows himself to shed the blood of a Muslim, is like he who allows shedding the blood of all people. He who forbids shedding the blood of one Muslim, is like he who forbids shedding the blood of all people.”

In other words, he doesn't envision it applying to non-Muslims, whom many Islamic clerics consider to be not innocent simply by virtue of their not having accepted the prophethood of Muhammad.

Never mentioned by any of those who quote this verse as if it condemns Islamic jihad violence are several important facts: it comes within the context of a warning to the Jews, and is not presented as a universal principle; it contains the important exception “unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land,” and it is followed by v. 33, which specifies the punishment for that mischief: execution, or crucifixion, or amputation of hands and feet on opposite sides, or exile.

Thus this passage is explaining what must be done with Jews who reject Muhammad, not dictating lofty moral principles. Ibn Warraq sums it up: “The supposedly noble sentiments are in fact a warning to Jews. ‘Behave, or else’ is the message. Far from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively point out that anyone opposing the Prophet will be killed, crucified, mutilated, and banished!”

500 Muslim youths riot in Gothenburg, Sweden, to protect honour against sexual rumours
by Birger Silfverströhm

An enraged mob of young immigrants wanted to beat up a 17-year-old girl for spreading sexual rumors on the Internet. This led to violence and vandalism, and police are now looking for a gunman, who was seen in connection with the riots.

It should have been the beginning of a peaceful Christmas Holiday at a Swedish high school in Gothenburg.

Instead, the school is now guarded by riot police.

Yesterday a furious mob consisting of 500 young immigrants wanted to beat up a 17-year-old girl who had spread sex rumors and photos of hundreds of underage girls and boys on the Internet.

500 youths of predominantly Arab and North African origin in Gothenburg, Sweden

"The one who started this wants chaos. I think it will end with violence," a 22-year-old man in Gothenburg told a newspaper.

And he was right.

Should be caught and beaten

The images and texts that the girl had uploaded triggered rage and a cry for vengeance.

On Facebook, people were urged to gather at the high school, Plusgymnasiet, where the 17-year-old is a student. Here they wanted to beat her up.

The call was heard, and before authorities had time to do anything, there were hundreds of aggressive youths gathered in front of the school.

When the police finally arrived, they had stones and bottles thrown at them, and they had to withdraw. Finally, at the second attempt, the police managed to get through the crowd.

Gothenburg riots: Police on the run...

After that the school was barricaded, and the 17-year-old hidden in the school's basement.

Police looking for gunman

Frustration over not getting to the girl led the lynch mob to vandalize the surroundings. Cars, light poles and other public fixtures were destroyed.

Two people, including a young girl, have also been attacked. The girl was chased in the street until she fell and then was kicked by a large group of outraged people.

Youths of Arab and North African origin beat up teen girl in broad daylight

Witnesses also explained to the police that they saw a gunman during the riots.

In Sweden, where weapons are flooding the streets, the police take this kind of information seriously.

Took shelter in stores

The police had to use horses and dogs to get the group away from the high school.

When they finally succeeded, the group went off to a nearby shopping mall.

Here they threatened shopkeepers and customers, who fled into different shops. Shortly afterward, the police arrived and shut down the whole mall.

New calls for violence

A total of 27 people were arrested during Tuesday's riots.

But it may be just the beginning.

The people who want to get hold of the 17-year-old have not given up. They created a new Facebook group, in which people are encouraged to gather at the school again on Wednesday.

The police are now strongly present in the center of Gothenburg. Plusgymnasiet, which was about to prepare for Christmas, remains closed. The same goes for at least one other of the city's high schools.

Showdown between immigrants

Everything indicates that the hostilities are an internal migrant showdown. The 17-year-old girl has, according to the information available, a Bosnian background.

She created a profile on the Internet where she uploaded more than 200 photos of underage girls and boys, which she, among other things, called 'whores'. She also wrote that they had had sex with other named individuals.

Additionally she called for others to post pictures of individuals, who in their opinion deserved to be exposed as ”whores”.

The 17-year-old has subsequently written that the exposure made some of the girls threaten to take their own lives.

When the girl’s identity was revealed, she chose to disclose the names of those who had sent pictures to her.

But her attempt to deflect attention away from herself failed.

Instead, it made everybody turn against her. The girl is now under arrest and in the custody of Swedish police."

The Swedish newspaper The Local's de-ethnified article: Swedish teens riot over Instagram sex rumours.

Not only did Obama Administration officials lie when they blamed the attack on the Muhammad video, but by fixing upon it as the cause of the attack, they were obliquely blaming the freedom of speech, and adding to the case for restricting it. "Analysis of social media in Libya finds no reference to anti-Islam film on day of attack," by Catherine Herridge for FoxNews.com, December 18:

As the State Department began Tuesday to circulate a highly anticipated report into what happened in the Sept. 11 Libya consulate attack, a separate analysis found that the first reference to the anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for sparking the attack was not detected on social media until a day later.

The independent review of more than 4,000 postings was conducted by a leading social media monitoring firm.

“From the data we have, it’s hard for us to reach the conclusion that the consulate attack was motivated by the movie. Nothing in the immediate picture – surrounding the attack in Libya -- suggests that,” Jeff Chapman, chief executive with Agincourt Solutions told Fox News.

Chapman says his analysts reviewed postings in Libya, including those from Benghazi, over a three-day period beginning on Sept. 11.

After identifying a geographic area and isolating a time frame, Chapman says his analysts can then “vacuum” up all of the social media postings, which are then analyzed in the original language using mathematical models. The firm previously has done work for government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.

“We have seen no traffic in Benghazi – in the immediate lead up to the attack - related to the anti-Islam film," Chapman said. "There is a single source reporting on the evening of 9/11 that roads leading to the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were blocked. We also believe we have identified at least one individual who may have been involved - based on our analysis - that he posted a picture of himself attacking the consulate with an RPG.”...

Christmas is coming, after all. And you know how it offends Islamic supremacists. "Hubby planned to bomb bus in Philippines, wife tells cops," from the Associated Press, December 18 (thanks to Al):

MANILA: A suspected terrorist killed by Philippine police snipers after he threatened to detonate a powerful bomb may have been targeting a church or foreign aid workers helping typhoon-devastated provinces, a senior police official said Monday.

SWAT snipers killed Mohd Noor Fikrie late Friday while he threatened to set off a bomb in his backpack outside a crowded park in southern Davao city.

After months of surveillance, military and police intelligence officers had tracked the Malaysian to a budget hotel in the city last week.

Their efforts to capture him peacefully failed when he evaded police, held up a cellphone and threatened to use it to set off a bomb.

"I was just waiting for the blast," said police Senior Supt Ronald de la Rosa. "I thought I would never see my family again."

Intelligence officials had received information that Muslim extremists were planning to bomb foreigners in Davao, said de la Rosa, who heads the police force in Davao, a bustling city about 980km south of Manila.

Fikrie's wife, who was arrested, told investigators she and Fikrie had wanted to bomb a passenger bus for extortion, but de la Rosa said there were signs that the two had really wanted to target foreign aid workers.

Aid workers are using Davao as a hub to provide assistance to nearby provinces recently devastated by Typhoon Bopha, which left more than 1,000 people dead.

The target may also have been a Roman Catholic church, de la Rosa said, adding that two of five major bomb attacks staged in Davao city by Muslim militants in the past have targeted churches. Fikrie was discovered shortly before the start of popular pre-Christmas dawn Masses that pack churches nationwide with huge devotees, he said.

Police say Fikrie, 26, was a Middle East-trained bomb-making expert and close associate of fellow Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, who uses the nom de guerre Marwan and is one of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terror suspects....

No one surpasses the Iranians in their fanatical Jew-hatred. Qur'anic antisemitism leads them to see the Zionists behind everything; the Qur'an brands the Jews as the worst enemies of the Muslims (5:82) and portrays them as wickedly trying to turn the Muslims away from their faith and thwart them at every turn.

"Iran: Newtown massacre was Israeli conspiracy," by Dudi Cohen for Ynet News, December 18 (thanks to Mackie):

"The Newtown massacre was the result of an Israeli conspiracy" an Iranian news website proclaimed Tuesday.

The United States is still reeling from the murderous rampage that left 20 children and six adults dead in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday. Tehran – which on Sunday offered its condolences to the victims and their families – is now promoting an alternative explanation to the horrific event.

Iran's Press TV website quoted Michael Harris, former Republican candidate for governor of Arizona and GOP campaign finance chairman, as saying that "An Israeli death squad was involved in the Sandy Hook shooting."

According to the report, Harris called the Newtown tragedy a "terrorist attack," adding that it was "Israel's revenge" and that it was meant to "teach the US lesson," following the Palestinian's status upgrade in the UN.

According to the report, the shooter, Adam Lazna [sic], was meant to be the scapegoat.

Press TV failed to note where Harris was interviewed. The website also dubbed him an "intelligence analyst," but the GOP member has no known ties to the intelligence community in the US.

The report further quoted him as linking the Connecticut incident to Anders Behring Breivik's murderous spree in Norway, in 2011.

"This is exactly what Israel did in Norway; the political party that voted for sanctions against Israel was retaliated against by a 'lone gunman' who killed 77 children.

"This is what Israel always does, they go after the children… The same thing happened at Sandy Hook. Nobody buys the lone gunman story anymore, not with the Gabby Giffords’ shooting, not with the Aurora 'Batman' shooting, certainly not with Breveik, and certainly not in Connecticut," he said.

Harris, reportedly citing the "numerous inconsistencies" in the shooting's "cover story," said that "This is another case where Israel has chosen violence and terrorism where their bullying in Washington has failed."...

"The prosecutor had demanded the death penalty against the two." How will the Left deal with the fanatical harshness of the morality police once the Sharia they have enabled to come to the West is fully in place?

"Saudi official jailed 25 years, to get 2000 lashes," from Emirates 24/7, December 18 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A Saudi official appears to have paid a heavy price for staging “unethical parties” at his department, with a court in the Gulf Kingdom sentencing him to 25 years in jail and ordering him lashed 2,000 times in public.

The unnamed head of the government office in the southern town of Baha was also convicted of taking drugs, extortion of other officials and involvement in sodomy.

Newspapers said the court also fined the official SR200,000 and banned him from travelling outside Saudi Arabia during that period.

That may be the worst punishment of all.

“He will be lashed in three batches after Friday’s prayers at the place where he committed his crimes in front of people,” Alsaudeh daily said.

It said the court also sentenced his aide to 15 years in jail, 1,500 lashes and travel ban, adding that the judge issued a recommendation the two would not benefit from any future pardon. The paper described it as a reduced sentence as the prosecutor had demanded the death penalty against the two.

“The two were found guilty of engaging in obscene acts, including staging unethical parties, using drugs and extorting other officials. They had also invited officials and other people to practice sodomy,” it said.

The victorious beard

Hasan’s beard is not just facial hair; it is a statement. It is his assertion that he is not an American at all, but a Muslim and a jihadist, someone who regards America as an evil enemy, the “Great Satan” indeed — an enemy that he believes must be fought against as a matter of divine principle. Hasan’s beard is his silent declaration that he is an enemy combatant, and that it is ludicrous to try him as if he were in any meaningful sense an American soldier who has even the slightest degree of interest in following any of the rules of the U.S. military. And it is. Hasan grew his beard because of his Muslim faith? He murdered thirteen people because of his Muslim faith -- by his own account. Under these circumstances, he should not be given any accommodation for his religion.

"Judge indicates Fort Hood suspect can keep beard," from the Associated Press, December 18 (thanks to Lookmann):

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage apparently will be allowed to keep his beard during his military trial, after a new judge indicated Tuesday that she won't force him to shave.

The previous judge's order requiring Maj. Nidal Hasan to be clean-shaven or be forcibly shaved before his trial had tied up the case for more than three months, but an appeals court ousted that judge earlier this month.

The new judge overseeing Hasan's case told him during a hearing Tuesday that the beard, now thicker than when he first appeared in court with it in June, violates Army regulations. The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, said she won't hold it against him but that military jurors might.

Hasan answered "yes, ma'am" when Osborn asked if he grew the beard voluntarily. In a previous court hearing, he said he grew the beard because his Muslim faith requires it and not as a show of disrespect. Osborn asked defense attorneys to draft jury instructions about the issue. Jurors likely will be told not to consider Hasan's appearance when deciding on a verdict.

Hasan, 42, an American-born Muslim, faces the death penalty or life in military prison without parole if convicted in the 2009 rampage that killed 13 and wounded more than two dozen others on the Texas Army post.

Osborn was appointed to the case two weeks ago, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces removed the former judge and tossed his order regarding Hasan's beard. The ruling said Col. Gregory Gross did not appear impartial while presiding over Hasan's case and that the command — not a judge — is responsible for enforcing military grooming standards....

He wanted to carry out a jihad attack in a crowded area in New York, so as to murder as many infidels as possible -- perhaps a jihad-martyrdom suicide bombing, so that he could claim the Qur'an's promise of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (Qur'an 9:111).

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Prosecutors: Fla. man planned NY terror bombing," by Curt Anderson for the Associated Press, December 18 (thanks to Lookmann):

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A Pakistani-born man wanted to avenge the deaths of U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan by blowing up a New York City landmark but lacked the money and materials to carry out the plan, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert said at a bail hearing that Raees Alam Qazi, 20, researched bomb-making techniques on Internet sites affiliated with al-Qaida, including one using Christmas tree lights, and the FBI recorded phone calls and conversations linking Qazi to a purported "lone wolf" plot.

"He fully intended to do this, and thankfully he didn't have enough money," Gilbert said. Referring to casualties in U.S. drone attacks, she added: "He wants to avenge those deaths and kill people."

Qazi traveled to New York last month in hopes of getting a job to fund his terrorist plans, Gilbert said, but wound up sleeping in public transportation, a mosque and in restaurants, and riding a bicycle around the city looking for potential targets. He then decided to return home on a Greyhound bus and was arrested after arriving back in South Florida, she said.

Qazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who attended local Florida public schools, confirmed many elements of the plot in a statement to FBI agents after his arrest in late November, Gilbert said. Investigators also found bomb-making and related components at the Qazi family home in Oakland Park, as well as explosives research evidence on a computer used by Qazi.

Qazi is charged along with his brother, 30-year-old taxi driver Sheheryar Alam Qazi, with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a potential life sentence if the men are convicted of both counts....

Gilbert said Raees Qazi was the intended operative, using either a suicide attack or a remote-control device to kill people in a crowded place such as New York's Times Square, a Broadway theater or perhaps on Wall Street. The elder Qazi supported his brother financially and logistically with the knowledge that Raees was planning a terror attack, the prosecutor said.

In one conversation recorded by the FBI, Sheheryar Qazi compared his brother to a "lone wolf, like the Times Square bomber." Gilbert said Sheheryar Qazi was referring to Faisal Shahzad, who unsuccessfully attempted to detonate a bomb at the New York landmark in May 2010. In another recorded conversation, Sheheryar Qazi says that his brother "wasn't going to be in this world long."

Raees Qazi's attorney, Daniel Ecarius, tried to persuade the judge to allow his release on bail, noting that Qazi had made money by selling bicycles on the Internet, had no criminal past and had already relinquished his passport. Ecarius suggested Qazi could be released on house arrest with electronic monitoring, but Gilbert urged the judge to keep him locked up.

"He wanted to carry out an attack. If he is released from custody, he will," she said.

Last summer a Pakistani Muslim cleric said that polio vaccinations were un-Islamic. And you know what happens to un-Islamic things in Pakistan. "Gunmen Kill Anti-Polio Workers in Attacks in Pakistan," by Salman Masood and Declan Walsh for the New York Times, December 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Five Pakistani women and a man were killed on Tuesday in separate attacks on health workers participating in a national drive to eradicate polio from Pakistan....

The attacks forced health officials to temporarily suspend a large polio vaccination drive in Karachi, the country’s most populous city, where the disease has been making a worrisome comeback in recent years....

The shooting represented a brutal setback to polio immunization efforts in Pakistan, one of just three countries in the world where the disease remains endemic. Pakistan accounted for 198 new cases last year — the highest rate in the world, followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Taliban insurgents have repeatedly vowed to target anti-polio workers, accusing them of being spies.

In the tribal areas along the Afghan border, Taliban leaders have issued religious edicts declaring that the United States runs a spy network under the guise of vaccination programs.

That perception was strengthened after the American commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in June 2011, when it emerged that the Central Intelligence Agency had paid a Pakistani doctor to run a vaccination program in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was hiding, in a bid to obtain DNA evidence from his family.

Pakistani authorities arrested the doctor, Shakil Afridi, shortly after the American raid, and he has been sentenced to 33 years in prison....

Two female aid workers were killed in an attack in Landhi, according to local news reports. In Orangi, unknown gunmen opened fire on a health team, killing one woman and a male volunteer. Another female worker was killed in nearby Baldia Town.

The Karachi neighborhoods where aid workers were targeted Tuesday are being used as safe havens by militants, who have escaped American drone strikes in North and South Waziristan tribal regions, according to police officials. Security forces regularly conduct search operations in these neighborhoods.

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on two sisters who had volunteered to help administer polio drops, killing one....

“Ahmadis, Shias, Hazaras, Christians, child activists, doctors, anti-polio workers — who’s next on the target list, Pakistan?” asked Mira Hashmi, a lecturer in film studies at the Lahore School of Economics, in a post on Twitter.

Who indeed? Who will be the next victim of #MyJihad?

The hopelessly compromised pro-jihad pseudo-journalist Manya Brachear of the Chicago Tribune here once again gives a platform to Ahmed Rehab of Hamas-linked CAIR, without ever bothering to tell her hapless readers that CAIR is a Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood group, several officials of which have been convicted of jihad terror offenses. Brachear doesn't tell you that the Justice Department named Hamas-linked CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. Nor does she mention that CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. She says nothing about how several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. Nor does she mention that CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements, or that its California chapter distributed posters telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI.

Think about that: several officials of the organization for which Rehab works clearly didn't buy his jihad-is-rainbows-and-moonbeams shtick, and clearly endorsed the view of jihad he claims is "extremist." Yet this arouses no curiosity in Brachear, if she even knows about those convictions. It never occurs to her to ask Rehab what Hamas-linked CAIR is doing to teach Muslims, including CAIR employees, not to take up this "extremist" understanding of jihad.

"'MyJihad' campaign hits Chicago buses, along with opposition: After Council on American-Islamic Relations launches ads, American Freedom Defense Initiative asks CTA to OK different message," by Manya A. Brachear for the Chicago Tribune, December 18 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Chicago buses have become a battleground for two groups promoting different definitions of jihad.

We are not "promoting" a definition of jihad. We are pointing out that the definition of jihad that is being advanced by Hamas-linked CAIR is severely misleading and whitewashed, and doesn't correspond to the understanding of jihad that all too many Muslims have, and that is the only one that non-Muslims need be concerned about.

This past weekend, the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched "MyJihad," a national ad campaign featuring individuals' testimonies about what the pillar of Islam means to them.

Jihad, as pivotal as it obviously is in the Qur'an and Sunnah, is not one of the five pillars of Islam.

But on Monday, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, or AFDI, asked the CTA to accept another batch of ads, featuring mock testimonies from high-profile Muslim extremists, including Osama bin Laden.

They're not "mock testimonies." They're the exact words of the jihadis and the case of Major Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass murderer, of an eyewitness to his murders.

The campaign is the second one launched by the initiative, which rolled out a controversial series of bus posters last month urging passengers to "Defeat jihad."

"The MyJihad campaign is about reclaiming jihad from the Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists who ironically, but not surprisingly, see eye to eye on jihad," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR. Rehab also created the slogan.

Note that Rehab follows common and tired Islamic supremacist talking points in tarring as "extremists" both Islamic jihadis and those who resist them. He is trying to imply, with Manya Brachear's willing help, that those who resist jihad are just as lethal, just as dangerous, as those who commit it. The goal, of course, is to intimidate people into thinking there's something wrong with resisting jihad.

He is also trying to hoodwink non-Muslims into thinking that the view of jihad espoused by Hamas, bin Laden, Hasan, the Times Square bomber and Erdogan -- the Muslims featured on our ads -- is "extremist," as if the mainstream understanding of jihad is the bicycling-through-the-meadows type he is pushing. And we, of course, are greasy Islamophobes who are, in our hate, endorsing the view of the "extremists." He doesn't tell the ever-credulous and starry-eyed Brachear, although he surely knows, that warfare against and subjugation of unbelievers is the mainstream Muslim understanding of jihad, as I detailed here.

The people behind the AFDI initiative have become the "premiere promoters of extremism and violence," he said.

Note the sleight of hand: to expose and resist "extremism and violence" is to promote it. And Brachear lets this steaming pile of Orwellian doublespeak slide right by.

Pamela Geller, executive director of AFDI, said the fact that some Muslims consider jihad a peaceful concept does not cancel out the fact that there are others who interpret it violently.

"This usage of jihad is much more influential and widespread among Muslims worldwide than the benign and whitewashed understanding of it" presented in the ad campaign, Geller said.

Brian Steele, a spokesman for the CTA, said the second AFDI campaign is under review. The first CAIR and AFDI campaigns cost $5,000 each, he said. Geller said the second campaign will cost less than $10,000. She expects it to start in January.

Rehab said Geller's attempt to hijack the "MyJihad" slogan amounts to fraud. He said CAIR's campaign includes ads on buses and trains, as well as a social media component on Twitter, where users are asked to tweet their testimony with the #MyJihad hashtag.

Fraud? As the premier purveyor of a massive con job, a huge attempt to deceive the American people, Rehab has a lot of chutzpah to talk about fraud. I also notice that he didn't say a word about "fraud" when MPAC parodied one of our earlier ads.

He added that the campaign has evolved into an interfaith effort, including Muslim mothers who are concerned that their children will be bullied, as well as Jews and Christians.

"We have been overwhelmed with the participation of people of other faiths tweeting their struggles," campaign volunteer and Naperville mom Angie Emara said in a statement. "People of different backgrounds are finding a common language. They're learning to see themselves in one another as they share similar expressions of their daily jihad."

What about mothers who are concerned that their children will be killed in a jihad, a la Beslan? Unworthy of consideration. Greasy Islamophobes.

Still more Jew-hatred in today's installment:

The People of the Scripture ask you to bring down to them a book from the heaven. But they had asked of Moses [even] greater than that and said, "Show us Allah outright," so the thunderbolt struck them for their wrongdoing. Then they took the calf [for worship] after clear evidences had come to them, and We pardoned that. And We gave Moses a clear authority.

And We raised over them the mount for [refusal of] their covenant; and We said to them, "Enter the gate bowing humbly", and We said to them, "Do not transgress on the sabbath", and We took from them a solemn covenant.

And [We cursed them] for their breaking of the covenant and their disbelief in the signs of Allah and their killing of the prophets without right and their saying, "Our hearts are wrapped". Rather, Allah has sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe not, except for a few. And [We cursed them] for their disbelief and their saying against Mary a great slander, and [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah ." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. (Qur'an 4: 153-158)

This translation is from a Muslim site, Sahih International; they added the "we cursed them" glosses in brackets.

This passage retails more hatred of the Jews and the Christians, the "People of the Scripture." Says Ibn Kathir: “Allah threatens those who disbelieve in Him and in His Messengers, such as the Jews and Christians, who differentiate between Allah and His Messengers regarding faith….The Jews, may Allah curse them, believe in the Prophets, except ‘Isa [Jesus] and Muhammad, peace be upon them. The Christians believe in the Prophets but reject their Final and Seal, and the most honored among the prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon him….Therefore, whoever rejects only one of Allah’s Prophets, he will have disbelieved in all of them, because it is required from mankind to believe in every prophet whom Allah sent to the people of the earth.”

After the Jews disobeyed Allah repeatedly, Allah “sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe not, except for a few” (v. 155). The Jews boast that they killed Jesus, but “they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them” (v. 157).

Ibn Kathir explains: “When Allah sent ‘Isa [Jesus] with proofs and guidance, the Jews, may Allah’s curses, anger, torment and punishment be upon them, envied him because of his prophethood and obvious miracles…” They stirred up “the king of Damascus at that time, a Greek polytheist who worshipped the stars” to order his deputy in Jerusalem to arrest Jesus. Jesus, perceiving this, asked those with him, “Who volunteers to be made to look like me, for which he will be my companion in Paradise?” A young man volunteered, whereupon “Allah made the young man look exactly like ‘Isa, while a hole opened in the roof of the house, and ‘Isa was made to sleep and ascended to heaven while asleep.” Then “those surrounding the house saw the man who looked like ‘Isa, they thought that he was ‘Isa. So they took him at night, crucified him and placed a crown of thorns on his head. The Jews then boasted that they killed ‘Isa and some Christians accepted their false claim, due to their ignorance and lack of reason.”

Other sources offer other theories: Wahb bin Munabbah, Qatadah, and Mujahid say that Jesus was with seventy of his disciples when the guards came to arrest him, and all seventy were made to look just like Jesus; one stepped forward and was crucified. The Ruhul Ma’ani identifies the one who was made to look like Jesus and crucified as the one who betrayed him for thirty dirhams — Judas. Allama Baghawi says it was a sentry who was guarding Jesus after his arrest.

In any case, this may seem like mere theological one upmanship, but coming from a book that commands its adherents to wage war against and subjugate those whose belief is deemed unacceptable, it carries with it more than a hint of menace. This hatred has played itself out in Muslim persecution of Jews and Christians for centuries.

The jihad doctrine continues to take lives around the world every day, and yet the mainstream media continues to insist that the real problem is those who dare to call attention to it. "Wave of Iraq attacks kills 48 – ‘Security situation is worsening,’" from AFP, December 17 (thanks to Lookmann):

BAGHDAD: A wave of attacks targeting both Iraqi security forces and civilians killed 48 people yesterday, in a second day of deadly violence ahead of the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US forces.

Yesterday was the deadliest day in Iraq since November 29, when 50 people were killed. The latest violence comes after attacks killed 19 people and wounded 77 on Sunday. US military forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq on December 18, 2011, ending a nearly nine-year war that cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis, thousands of Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars.

Violence in Iraq is down significantly from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but while Iraqi forces have held their own since the US departure, insurgent groups still pose a significant threat, and attacks occur almost daily. In the deadliest attack yesterday, a car bomb exploded at a car dealership in north Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding at least 40, security and medical officials said. In the Karrada area in central Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least one person and wounded at least four, an interior ministry official and a medical source said. “The security situation is worsening,” said Duniyah, a 23-year-old employee of a hotel near the site of the explosion, who was watching the street from inside the hotel entrance, which was strewn with broken glass. Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint on the highway west of Tikrit, then abandoned and detonated their explosives-rigged car when a patrol pursued them, killing a total of five police and wounding five, a senior police officer and a doctor said....

Where indeed? This is a good piece about the double standard against Israel, but it is a bit naive regarding the possibility of peaceful coexistence between Israel and the "Palestinian" jihadists. "Where’s the outrage against Hamas?," by Frida Ghitis for the Miami Herald, December 17:

You say you want to help the Israeli-Palestinian peace process? Here’s one small part we can all do, with thanks to Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal for the reminder.

Meshaal, exiled political chief of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group, has done us a great service by drawing an incandescent line between those who want peace and coexistence, and those who categorically reject negotiations, seeking only to destroy the enemy.

For those who would like to see peace, the choice is very simple. When Meshaal spoke in Gaza a few days ago, calling for Israel’s destruction, the entire world should have spoken out in outrage.

Of course, that did not happen. Reaction to the horrifying speech was rather muted, particularly in Europe, where some may equate criticism of a Palestinian leader with, heaven forbid, support for Israel. But those who want the best for Palestinians should recoil at the words spoken by the Hamas leader during the group’s anniversary celebrations in Gaza earlier this month.

Nothing could be worse for Palestinians than embracing a position that rejects coexistence with Israel. That is a recipe for stalemate, suffering, and continuing strife.

Hamas leaders, emboldened by the victories of their Muslim Brotherhood brethren elsewhere in the Arab world, have engaged in a self-defeating contest to see who is the most extremist among them. The Gaza-based leadership triggered a near-war against Israel a few weeks ago, and their rival Meshaal has now reiterated, “There will be no concession on any inch of the land,” explaining he demands all of Israel, “from the river to the sea,” including Haifa, Tel Aviv, Safed and, of course, Jerusalem. In keeping with efforts to deny any Jewish links to the city, he declared “Israel has no right to be in Jerusalem.”

When the speech came, European leaders were drafting a statement condemning Israel’s announcement that it is moving forward plans for settlement construction in the controversial E1 area. Condemning Israel comes easily in the EU. But when someone suggested the condemnation should also note that a Palestinian leader said Israel should be destroyed — to the cheers of tens of thousands of ebullient supporters, against a backdrop of a mock missile of Iranian design — the Europeans hesitated.

According to Israel Radio, four European countries — Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Ireland — wanted only to condemn Israel without mentioning the words of Hamas, despite the group’s essentially genocidal charter. More diplomatic minds prevailed and a very brief mention of the awful speech was included in the final EU document.

In the U.S., the writer Michael Tomasky chastised his friends. “The left in the developed world,” he wrote, “has let its hatred of imperialism and occupation prevent it from seeing and denouncing” problems within movements it has supported.

Meshaal’s words did not make a lot of waves. The world doesn’t really blink when someone calls for Israel’s destruction. That’s a pity, because that silence magnifies Israelis’ fears that they cannot trust international opinion, and it makes them more skeptical of diplomacy....

In "U.S. Ambassador Tells Georgia to Vote for a 'Palestinian' State" in the American Thinker today, Pamela Geller reveals an extraordinary example of the Obama Administration's ongoing betrayal of Israel:

From the former Soviet Republic of Georgia comes news of an extraordinary betrayal by the Obama Administration. As Obama continues to abandon freedom in his support of Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia revolutions and regimes in Egypt and elsewhere, he has taken behind-the-scenes steps to further the international isolation of Israel, the only democracy in that Middle East.

Just before the November 29 United Nations vote granting non-member state observer status, the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland, an Obama appointee, met with Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. During their conversation, Norland recommended that the Prime Minister that Georgia should vote in favor of a Palestinian state.

This happened despite the U.S.'s official opposition, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counterproductive ... plac[ing] further obstacles in the path of peace." Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on the day of the vote: "None of the vital interests of peace appear in the resolution that will be put forward before the General Assembly today and that is why Israel cannot accept it." He was right. But in Georgia, the U.S. was betraying a steadfast and true ally.

This information comes from Gabriel M. Mirilashvili, a prominent businessman and corporation owner in Georgia, who is Vice-President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and head of the World Congress of Georgian Jews. Mirilashvili says that he heard this from Ivanishvili himself, and that there exists an official record of the conversation between Norland and Ivanishvili. When Mirilashvili urged Ivanishvili to oppose the Palestinian statehood resolution, Ivanishvili responded that the American ambassador had told him to support it.

It is also interesting to note that a few days before this meeting, George Soros came to Georgia and also met with Prime Minister Ivanishvili, and they agreed to collaborate on various initiatives. President Obama's close ties to Soros goes back to the 2007 and the run up to the 2008 presidential election.

Meanwhile, another source said that Georgia is harboring Chechen jihadists -- killers who have Georgian passports. When some of these jihadis were arrested in Turkey, the Turkish press published the fact that they were traveling on Georgian passports. What's more, their leader, Umar Sugaipov, who is not currently in Georgia, is a former deputy head of security for the late President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov....

Read it all.

"There's really no such thing as just Sharia, it's not one monolithic Continuum - Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years in which multiple and competing schools of law have tried to construct some kind of civic penal and family law code that would abide by Islamic values and principles, it's understood in many different ways..." -- Reza Aslan

And yet whenever we see Sharia implemented, it looks the same. Now, why is that?

"Sharia enforcers attack Egyptian cafes," from UPI, December 17 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

CAIRO, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Members of the Hazemoun and Ahrar movements attacked people at cafes in Cairo, chanting "Sharia is lifestyle," witnesses said.

Several people were injured during Saturday's attack, including political activists known for frequenting the cafes, witnesses told al-Shorouk newspaper. They said the attackers fired birdshot and launched fireworks.

Hazemoun is comprised of former presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail's supporters, and Ahrar is a self-styled vigilante youth group that promotes public virtue, Egypt Independent reported.

This new AFDI ad campaign is Pamela Geller's most brilliant campaign yet. (And I am proud to note that I helped choose some of the quotes and images.) It pierces through the ridiculous and condescending deception of Hamas-linked CAIR's attempt to whitewash the concept of jihad, as epitomized by this ad:

Pamela Geller explains the new campaign:

AFDI has created a brand new ad campaign to fight the disinformation and propaganda campaigns of Islamic supremacists and Muslim Brotherhood groups in America. Our new ads will counter the new deceptive #myjihad campaign by unindicted co-conspirator Hamas-CAIR and are a truth antidote to CAIR's deceptions.

It is reprehensible to put a happy face on mass murder, ethnic cleansing, honor violence, religious persecution, etc. Look how powerful Hamas-CAIR says I am:

Local Muslim Launches Campaign To 'Reclaim' Meaning of 'Jihad' Chicagoist
CAIR-Chicago executive director Ahmed Rehab, who's behind the campaign, told the Sun-Times the term "jihad" has been twisted by groups such as Geller's so that its true meaning is obscured and the word is most closely associated with "holy war." ...

Really? Tell that to Osama bin Laden, Nidal Hassan, Anwar Awlaki, Meshaal, Sheikh Qaradawi, et al, and millions of jihadists all over the world.

Our new campaign focuses on how jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. It uses actual quotes by jihadis and Islamic supremacists including Osama bin Laden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as statements from Hamas TV and one of the victims of the Fort Hood jihad massacre. This usage of jihad is much more influential and widespread among Muslims worldwide than the benign and whitewashed understanding of it being pushed by Hamas-linked CAIR, and the fact that some Muslims don’t think of jihad as involving violence does not cancel out the fact that many do. Our AFDI campaign shines the light of truth to break through the fog of CAIR’s deceptions.

Americans need to understand Islamic jihad that so we can counter it effectively. Honest moderate Muslims need to stand up against this and work for Islamic reform rather than blame my ads for pointing out the truth.

MyJihad is a public education campaign that seeks to share the proper and true meaning of Jihad (see below). Much thanks to Big Fur Hat for execution.

Read it all, and get more information from her WND column here.

Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Jeddah to explain to the Saudi authorities that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Saudi rights activist faces apostasy charge," from AFP, December 17 (thanks to Alan of England):

A Saudi court on Monday referred a rights activist to a higher court for alleged apostasy, a charge that could lead to the death penalty in the ultra-conservative kingdom, activists said.

A judge at a lower court referred Raef Badawi to a higher court, declaring that he "could not give a verdict in a case of apostasy," a rights activist told AFP. Apostasy means renunciation of a religious faith

Badawi, who was arrested a June in the Red Sea city of Jeddah for unknown reasons, is a co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network with female rights activist Suad al-Shammari and others.

The network had announced May 7 a "day of liberalism" in the Muslim kingdom, calling for an end to the influence of religion on public life in Saudi Arabia.

A conference which was to be held in Jeddah for the occasion, was however called off after the organisers said they had been "advised" by authorities not to go ahead.

Sharia Islamic law strictly applied in Saudi Arabia stipulates death as a punishment for apostasy, but defendants are usually given the chance to repent and escape being beheaded.

Saudi blogger Hamza Kashgari was deported in February from Malaysia to the kingdom and is being held in jail to face charges of blasphemy over Twitter comments deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

Kashgari's comments triggered a wave of calls to execute him, although he said he repented.

Oh, that's a relief.

More misunderstanders of Islam who somehow got the crazy idea that jihad meant warfare and killing, instead of what it really means: exercising to stay fit despite a busy schedule. "Car bomb kills two in Somali capital," from Reuters, December 14 (thanks to Kenneth):

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed two people in the centre of Somalia's capital Mogadishu capital on Friday in a blast that appeared to target an African Union peacekeepers' convoy, police and residents said....

The bomber struck on the Maka al-Mukaram road, a thoroughfare lined by construction sites and tea-rooms that last year was a frontline in the battle for control of Mogadishu.

"An AMISOM armored convoy passed us and just after we heard a loud explosion. We looked back and saw thick smoke," Samira Hussein, who was travelling down the road in a minibus taxi, told Reuters at the blast site where the twisted wreckage of the car smoldered.

The blast killed the bomber and two civilians and wounded seven others, Abdifatah Sabriye, a senior police commander in Mogadishu's Waberi district, told Reuters.

The al Shabaab rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeting the United States' head of counter terrorism in east Africa....

So were Christians. Clearly the advocates of Sharia were taking no chances that free people might somehow prevail.

Video thanks to Pamela Geller.

More violence against unbelievers:

And do not weaken in pursuit of the enemy. If you should be suffering - so are they suffering as you are suffering, but you expect from Allah that which they expect not. And Allah is ever Knowing and Wise. (Qur'an 4:104)

And do not weaken in pursuit of the enemy. Yet no enemy is specified in the Qur'an except unbelievers of various kinds. And clearly the "pursuit" is physical and martial, not spiritual or rhetorical, for Allah reminds the believers that if they're suffering the privations and difficulties of war, so are the unbelievers: "If you should be suffering - so are they suffering as you are suffering."

But the two are not equal: the believers have the comforts of Paradise to look forward to. Maulana Bulandshahri explains: “While the disbelievers (kuffar) will be subjected to the unending torment and distress in the abysses of Hell, the Muslims shall be rejoicing in the bliss and comforts of Heaven (Jannah), without the slightest worries and concerns. The disbelievers (kuffar) cannot aspire for these stages as these are promised exclusively to the Muslims. For this reason the Muslims have a much stronger incentive to fight and should do so with greater zest and zeal.”

And they do.