Al-Arian jurors deliberate for ninth day; judge denies mistrial

Al-Arian walk watch: I think the Rumpled Academic is very close to walking, and thereby handing the jihadists and their fellow travelers in the U.S. a decisive victory. Why? Well, if the jury can't make a decision in nine days, I don't think a conviction is imminent. On the other hand, maybe I will be proven wrong: the fact that the defense is still angling for a mistrial may indicate that they don't think good news is in the offing. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TAMPA, Fla. - As jurors in the terrorism conspiracy trial of former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian deliberated for a ninth day Wednesday, the judge denied a defense motion for a mistrial filed last week.

The motion by attorneys for Al-Arian and three co-defendants stemmed from jurors inadvertently seeing the results of a reader's poll printed in the Tampa Tribune Nov. 17. The poll showed that 87 percent of the readers who responded thought the jury would convict Al-Arian of being a key figure in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Although the poll was not cut out of newspapers provided to jurors as other articles about the trial have been, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. said in an order that he didn't think the exposure "created unfair prejudice" to the defendants.

The jury of six men and six women is deciding whether Al-Arian and the others are guilty of raising money to support the mission of the PIJ, a terrorist group blamed for hundreds of deaths in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Muslim Brotherhood's "Project"

Scott Burgess at the Daily Ablution (thanks to LGF) has some extraordinarily important information (here and here) about a recently discovered document that contains "an outline for a strategy - most likely drawn up by the Muslim Brotherhood - to combine jihad, surveillance, infiltration and propaganda (among other techniques) in order to 'establish the reign of Allah throughout in the world' via the creation of the Caliphate and its subsequent dominance."

A few introductory highlights:

This report presents a global vision of a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy [or "political Islam"]. Local Islamic policies will be drawn up in the different regions in accordance with its guidelines. It acts, first of all, to define the points of departure of that policy, then to set up the components and the most important procedures linked to each point of departure; finally we suggest several missions, by way of example only, may Allah protect us.

The following are the principal points of departure of this policy:

[...]

Point of Departure 5: To be used to establish an Islamic State; parallel, progressive efforts targeted at controlling the local centres of power through institutional action.

Point of Departure 6: To work with loyalty alongside Islamic groups and institutions in multiple areas to agree on common ground, in order to "cooperate on the points of agreement and set aside the points of disagreement".

Point of Departure 7: To accept the principle of temporary cooperation between Islamic movements and nationalist movements in the broad sphere and on common ground such as the struggle against colonialism, preaching and the Jewish state, without however having to form alliances. This will require, on the other hand, limited contacts between certain leaders, on a case by case basis, as long as these contacts do not violate the [shariah?] law. Nevertheless, one must not give them allegiance or take them into confidence, bearing in mind that the Islamic movement must be the origin of the initiatives and orientations taken.

Point of Departure 8: To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis without abusing the basic principles, bearing in mind that Allah's teachings always apply. One must order the suitable and forbid that which is not, always providing a documented opinion [? "Il faut ordonner le convenable et interdire le blâmable, tout en donnant un avis documenté"]. But we should not look for confrontation with our adversaries, at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to attacks against the dawa or its disciples.
Point of Departure 9: To construct a permanent force of the Islamic dawa and support movements engaged in jihad across the Muslim world, to varying degrees and insofar as possible.

[...]

Point of Departure 11: To adopt the Palestinian cause as part of a worldwide Islamic plan, with the policy plan and by means of jihad, since it acts as the keystone of the renaissance of the Arab world today.

I believe I just articulated that 11th point in reverse. Read it all.

Washington state Muslim: Walter Mitty jihadist, or the real thing?

He's got an "active fantasy life." Involving real guns. "Sentencing puzzle: family man or radical Muslim?," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TACOMA, Wash. -- Is Zaid Mu'min a mainstream Muslim with "an active fantasy life" or a radical preparing for holy war? Nearly five hours of testimony failed to clear up the mystery.

In the end, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton went with the sentence government lawyers proposed, four years and nine months in prison for being a felon in possession of guns.

"Clearly this case represents a picture in contrasts," Leighton said Tuesday. "I don't know who the real Mr. Mu'min is."...

Assistant U.S. attorney William H. Redkey Jr. recommended the low end of the standard range after Mu'min pleaded guilty in April to being a felon in possession of guns, asserting that prison time was justified because Mu'min hung out in a south Seattle barber shop where radical Muslims talked "jihad smack."

Federal agents raided Mu'min's house on Nov. 18, 2004, as part of an investigation by the Seattle Joint Terrorism Task Force and found an AK-47 rifle with a scope, a Ruger .22-caliber pistol, a Glock .45-caliber pistol, a Browning .38-caliber pistol, a CIA manual on explosives, an Army sniper manual and instruction booklets on urban combat and the use of poisons to kill.

Mu'min's wife Jacquelynn said the guns were hers.

Mu'min told the judge he was just curious about different reading materials and used some of the tactical guides in his work teaching children how to keep themselves safe.

"I don't find or conclude that Mr. Mu'min is a terrorist or someone with terrorist leanings," Leighton said. But he added that Mu'min's explanations about the reading material and the guns "didn't resonate" with him.

Peter Coleman, 44, a government informant who admitted to the court that he committed robberies and assaults to support "a jihad movement," testified that he met Mu'min at the barbershop and learned that Mu'min was providing violent literature to the shop owner and giving martial arts-type jihad readiness training in a Seattle apartment complex.

However, under High's questioning, Coleman said he had never seen Mu'min provide jihad training, didn't know Mu'min provided any literature and didn't know why Mu'min was there.

Mu'min, who converted to Islam in prison in the early 1990s, told the judge, "I am an American. I am not a terrorist. I just happen to be a Muslim." He didn't deny talking to men in the barbershop but said it was while he waited for his Arabic instructor to arrive to teach a class in the shopping complex.

Redkey told the judge Mu'min was either a radical Muslim preparing for jihad, a mainstream Muslim with idle fantasies or a "sleeper" terrorist.

"I'm inclined to think he's got an active fantasy life," Redkey said. "My view is that 57 months in prison will be enough to find out who the real Mr. Mu'min is, and to deter others from indulging in active fantasies."

Ten dead, 21 seriously hurt in Bangladesh's first suicide bombings

Bangladesh jihad escalating. From AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) - Ten people were killed and 21 badly injured in what police said were Bangladesh's first suicide bombings and the latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists.

The government and police accused the hardline Jamayetul Mujahideen, which wants to introduce strict Islamic law in the Muslim-majority democracy, of staging the attacks targeting the legal system.

"Jamayetul Mujahideen is using Islam's name to kill people. The government has taken a hard stand and will now take an even harder stand," Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said during a visit to the south.

"This is the first suicide attack in Bangladesh," national police chief Abdul Kaiyum said after the blasts in the southeastern port city of Chittagong and in Gazipur near the capital Dhaka.

"These were powerful homemade bombs. It seems Jamayetul Mujahideen have stepped up their attacks after we arrested many of their members."

Hizballah Rising

Brigitte Gabriel traces the resurgence of Hizballah in "Hezbollah Rising" in FrontPage:

Hezbollah - the organization that America failed to deal with back in 1983 after it blew up Marines in Lebanon - is now flexing its political muscle, positioning itself to take control over South Lebanon and parts of the Bekaa Valley beside the juncture of Syria and Israel’s northern border. And it is in these very territories that Hezbollah now trains the Syrian and al-Qaida terrorists who flood daily into Iraq.

Our enemies are strengthening, networking and uniting for our destruction, and Hezbollah has emerged as one of the major arteries that fuels the terror that threatens Israel and the West. With the attention of most Americans focused on the insurgency in Iraq and the rhetorical warfare being waged in the halls of the U.S. Congress, Hezbollah’s bombardment and invasion of northern Israel last week went almost unnoticed.

For six hours, mortar shells and Katyusha rockets rained down all along the Israel-Lebanon border and down into the Galilee, driving thousands of Israelis back down into their bomb shelters. Five Hezbollah raiders were killed and more than a dozen IDF soldiers were injured. To the extent that any Americans even heard about it, it was mostly dismissed as just another flare-up of the Israeli/Arab conflict. Most Americans think Hezbollah is a domestic Lebanese problem, or a problem for the Israelis. This is a critical and dangerous mistake. Everything that Hezbollah does is intended to eventually harm the United States.

The stage was set with the recent unilateral Gaza withdrawal and the American pressured decision to cede security control over the Rafah border with Egypt, which the Arabs look at as contemptible weakness. In short, radical jihadists sense this vulnerability and attack. The West needs to wake up to what is coming our way.

Hezbollah is a real danger to the region as it is backed fully by Iran who is bent on “wiping the Jewish State of Israel off the map," as Iranian terror President Ahmadinejad has said not once but twice in recent weeks. Iran now has Russian built spy satellites, long distance Shehab III missiles that can reach Israel and Europe with real chemical, biological or nuclear WMD’s. Its population is teeming with tens of thousands of potential suicide bombing martyrs who can fill Hezbollah's ranks.

In addition, Syria harbors a desire to wreak revenge on Israel for the shame of having lost territory in several wars. It also wants to stick its thumb in the eye of the U.S. who are conducting counter-terrorism actions against terrorists who are using Syria as a base of operations. Bashar Assad is under tremendous international pressure because of Syrian involvement in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Therefore Syria is supporting Hezbollah in its attacks on Israel. Assad believes that by supporting Hezbollah in its attacks on Israel and al Qaeda in Iraq, he can help to rally the support of the Arab world and deflect attention from the Hariri investigation.

Hezbollah receives over $650 million annually in cash from Iran. It earns another $650 million from phone card monopolies and controls the Internet traffic in Lebanon. Hezbollah is rumored to earn an estimated $300 million annually in brokering drug deals in the region. All told, according to reliable sources, it has an annual war-chest of over $1.6 billion, more than enough to fund terrorism and build up a hidden store of tens of thousands of Katyusha rockets and arms in mountain bunkers in the Bekaa Valley. The PLO armed itself with Soviet assistance in the 70's, but the Israelis were able to neutralize much of this threat. With such unbridled access and money, Hezbollah can arm itself for another generation of death.

Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda see only weakness - a weakness arising from Israel’s vulnerability after the Gaza withdrawal and last week’s border crossing fiasco pushed by Condi Rice and the Arabists in the U.S. State Department. They also are pumped up because they see anti-war activists such as Cindy Sheehan and members of Congress in an uproar demanding an early exit in Iraq.

Sensing Israel and the U.S. on the run, they naturally pounce not only because of the prospect of American forces leaving the region, but also because of possible change in party control in Israel’s Knesset next March. Now, will the world, especially the U.S., do what is right by its best ally and military defense force in the Middle East? The terrorists are watching our consistency and conviction waiting for their opportunity to strike.

Norway staging post for terrorists

Fruits of Multiculturalism Update from Aftenposten, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has other persons linked to the 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid and recent terrorism arrests in Italy under surveillance.

The PST believes that Norway is used by 'freelance' terrorists as a place to lie low and plan activities, newspaper VG reports.

By using false identities and convincing cover stories these persons can stay hidden in Norway for long periods, posing as asylum seekers, tourists, or by arranging unfounded family reunions.

Egyptian police detain 1,610 Muslim Brotherhood members

It looks as if Mubarak isn't going to be saguine about the Ikhwan's electoral gains. From Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

CAIRO - Egyptian police have detained 1,610 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the two days before the last stage of voting in parliamentary elections, a Brotherhood spokesman said on Wednesday.

Most of the detentions were in provinces which will vote on Thursday, said Brotherhood spokesman Mohamed Osama. A statement on the arrest of 71 leaders in Dakahlia province said the aim was to thwart the Brotherhood’s election campaign.

British police arrest man in probe into suspected terrorist plots

The article doesn't say so, but it is of course probable that he is an Anglican, since as we all know Christianity is just as prone to violence as Islam. From AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

LONDON - British police said on Wednesday they have arrested a man as part of an investigation into suspected plans to buy weapons for international terrorist attacks.

The 28-year-old was detained on Tuesday morning near a service station off the M25 motorway in South Mimms, Hertfordshire, north west of London.

“The man has been arrested in connection with an ongoing enquiry into the suspected attempted procurement of weapons linked to international terrorism,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

“The arrest was made following an intelligence-led investigation involving police and the security service,” it added.

Iraq: Christian hostages called 'spies'

In reality, they're not spies; they're collaborators. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGHDAD -- Al Jazeera television yesterday aired a video of four aid workers kidnapped over the weekend, apparently being held by a previously unknown terrorist group called the "Swords of Righteousness."

The four -- two Canadians, an American and a Briton, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) -- sat with their backs against a wall, and looked calm.

A taped statement by the terrorists accused the four of being "spies of the occupying forces." Previous hostages charged with being spies have been beheaded or shot.

EU cannot enforce security at Rafah

Condoleeza Rice compelled the Israelis to give control of the Egypt-Gaza border to the Palestinians, and in the last few days there have been numerous self-congratulatory articles about the "freedom" the Palestinians have felt while crossing to and from Egypt without elaborate security checks. But Israel's main objection to giving up control of the crossing -- that jihad terrorists and war materiel would be able to cross unhindered -- has not been addressed. And the exclusion of the EU from the process takes away just one more check against that eventuality. From Middle East Newsline, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- The European Union has been denied enforcement authority at the Palestinian Authority terminal along the Egypt-Gaza border.

An agreement for the operation of the Rafah border crossing has limited the role of EU personnel to monitoring. Under a Nov. 23 accord, released on Monday by the privately-owned Independent Media Review & Analysis, the EU would not have the authority to either detain suspicious people or confiscate baggage at Rafah....

The accord said an EU monitor could require a PA security officer to re-examine baggage or vehicles deemed suspicious.

But the EU monitor could not order PA officers to block the passage of either suspicious people or baggage. The accord said that an EU monitor unhappy with the performance of PA security officers could register a complaint with their commanders.

Spencer: Fallaci: Warrior in the Cause of Human Freedom

Monday morning there was snow, ice, fog, flooding, locusts, flaming frogs, pestilence, sword, you name it here in Secure Undisclosed Locationville, and the planes weren't running. So I took the world's longest taxicab ride through several states so as not to miss what may have been the last public appearance of one of the heroes of our age, Oriana Fallaci. Then, after finding to my surprise that The City That Never Sleeps does so sleep and that a cup of coffee would be hard to come by, I holed up in a hotel room and wrote this report until 6:30AM Tuesday morning. Here it is, with apologies for any sleep-deprived delirium contained therein, from FrontPage:

“We are gathered here tonight,” announced David Horowitz, “to honor a warrior in the cause of human freedom.”

Oriana Fallaci, who received the Center for the Study of Popular Culture’s Annie Taylor Award in New York Monday evening, has been a warrior for human freedom ever since she joined the anti-fascist resistance in 1944, at age fourteen. For over six decades, she has fought against those she has labeled “the bastards who decide our lives,” opposing all forms of tyranny and oppression, from Mussolini and Hitler to Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. She amassed a fearsome reputation as an interviewer, recounting of Ariel Sharon: “‘I know you’ve come to add another scalp to your necklace,’ he murmured almost with sadness when I went to interview him in 1982.” Other scalps on her necklace include that of Henry Kissinger, who termed his interview with Fallaci “the most disastrous conversation I ever had with any member of the press.” While interviewing the Ayatollah Khomeini, Fallaci called him a “tyrant” and tore off the chador she had had to wear in order to be admitted to his presence. According to Daniel Pipes in his introduction of Fallaci Monday night, she is also apparently one of the few who ever made the irascible old man laugh.

Today, at seventy-five years old, Fallaci still stands for freedom. She is suffering from cancer. She stated with her usual directness at the Taylor Awards ceremony: “I shall not last long.” But she has dedicated the four years since 9/11 to trying to awaken her native Italy, Europe and the world to the magnitude global jihad threat, which most analysts continue, whether from willful blindness, ignorance, or a misplaced strategic imperative, to misapprehend. Pipes noted that “she has her differences with the President. When he says that Islam a ‘religion of peace,’ she has said, ‘each time he says it on TV? I’m there alone, and I watch it and say, “Shut up! Shut up, Bush!” But he doesn’t listen to me.’”

And it isn’t, of course, just Bush. Fallaci spoke fervently Monday evening about how Western nations are selling their own homelands and culture to their mortal enemies. “We seem to live in real democracies,” she said, “but we really live in weak democracies ruled by despotism and fear.” Western elites – government and media – are paralyzed by fear, afraid to speak out against the life-destroying aspects of the Sharia law that Islamic jihadists want to impose on the rest of the world. The risk of offending Muslims is, in their calculus, apparently greater than the risk of national or civilizational suicide. Alexis de Tocqueville, according to Fallaci, explained that in dictatorial regimes, despotism strikes the body: the dissenter is tortured into silence. But in democratic regimes that have succumbed to corruption, despotism ignores the body and strikes at the soul. One is not tortured for dissent; instead, one is discredited for it. To affirm the patent fact that Islam is not a religion of peace today renders one “unelectable,” or “bigoted,” or beyond the bounds of what is fit to print. In despotic democratic regimes, Fallaci observed, everything can be spread except truth.

That is indeed the present-day situation. Most of the liberal and conservative mainstream not only will not feature trenchant criticisms like Fallaci’s of the violent and supremacist impulse within Islam; they will not even discuss them. Those who, like Fallaci, speak the truth about the motives and goals of the jihadists are vilified and marginalized, while the purveyors of comforting half-truths, distortions and lies fill the nation’s airwaves and newsprint. Fallaci herself faces the most frivolous of frivolous lawsuits in Italy for defamation of Islam; a Muslim group tried to have banned her searing, passionate response to 9/11, The Rage and the Pride.

Why does all this happen? In her speech Fallaci explained that it was to a great degree because “truth inspires fear.” When one hears the truth, one can only be silent or join the cause. It is a call to a personal revolution, an upheaval, a departure – perhaps forever – from a life of ease and comfort. So most will prefer not to hear the truth -- in no small part because of the difficulty of living up to it. Yet the real heroes, she said, are “those who raise their voices against anathemas and persecution,” while most succumb -- “and with their silence give their approval to the civil death of those who spoke out.”

“This,” Fallaci declared, “is what I have experienced the last four years.” She described how, since 9/11, the whole of Europe has become a “Niagara Falls of McCarthyism” – with the new Grand Inquisitors of the Left persecuting and victimizing all others. “In Europe, we too have our Ward Churchills, our Noam Chomskys, our Michael Moores, our Lewis Farrakhans.” And they are doing immense damage to the unity, will and cultural identity of the people. In Europe as in America, the new thought police ban Christmas observances to avoid offending Muslims; history is rewritten to depict Islam as having built a civilization of peace and mercy (regardless of the preponderance of evidence to the contrary), while Europe’s own Judeo-Christian civilization is regarded as “a spark of a cigarette – gone.” A spent force. In Leftist-controlled municipalities, police stand idly by while Muslim hooligans demonstrate their contempt for European society and culture by urinating upon and otherwise desecrating churches. Fallaci: “This is considered ‘freedom of expression’ – unless the offense is committed against Muslims.”

Meanwhile, the “religion of peace” myth and other falsehoods that interfere with our ability to defend ourselves are propagated aggressively by elected officials, the media, the Hollywood elite, and the justice system. Defenders of freedom are stripped of credibility and denied the means to get their message across. Or if they do get it across, they are not believed. “I really feel as a Cassandra,” said Fallaci, “or as one of the forgotten anti-fascists.” Yet she wears the Left’s attacks with defiant pride. “Since I wrote the trilogy (La Rabbia e l’Orgoglio (The Rage and the Pride), La Forza della Ragione (The Force of Reason), and L’Apocalisse (The Apocalypse), my real medals are the insults I get from the new McCarthyists.”

Fallaci told the audience that she faced three years in prison in Italy if convicted in her trial for hate speech. “But can hate be prosecuted by law? It is a sentiment. It is a natural part of life. Like love, it cannot be proscribed by a legal code. It can be judged, but only on the basis of ethics and morality. If I have the right to love, then I have the right to hate also.”

Hate? “Yes, I do hate the bin Ladens and the Zarqawis. I do hate the bastards who burn churches in Europe. I hate the Chomskys and Moores and Farrakhans who sell us to the enemy. I hate them as I used to hate Mussolini and Hitler. For the cause of freedom, this is my sacrosanct right.”

What’s more, Fallaci pointed out that Europe’s hate speech laws never seem to be used against the “professional haters, who hate me much more than I hate them”: the Muslims who hate as part of their ideology. While Fallaci faces three years in prison in Italy, “any Muslim can unhook a crucifix from a wall in a school or hospital and throw it into the garbage,” with little fear of consequences. Also unprosecuted, she said, were those responsible for a vile little publication entitled Islam Punishes Oriana Fallaci, which urges Muslims to kill her, invoking five Qur’anic passages about “perverse women.” In Italy Fallaci must be guarded around the clock; but no effort has been made to bring those who threatened her to justice.

Yet for all the isolation and the verbal abuse to which her enemies have subjected her, Fallaci remains indomitable – and has found an unlikely ally in Pope Benedict XVI, whom she warmly praised Monday night. Fallaci, who identified herself as an atheist (a “Catholic atheist”), was the first individual granted a private audience with the new Pope. She stated that the Islamic challenge had opened up a void in the West that only spirituality could fill – “unless the Church also misses its appointment with history. But I don’t think it will.”

Despite these warm words for the Pope and the ancient institution he heads, however, Fallaci announced that at the risk of disappointing many of her hearers, “I am not a conservative. I don’t sympathize with the Right more than I do with the Left. I cannot b associated with the Right or with the Left.” Why not? Because, she said, both Right and Left have been guilty of the “abuse of democracy, demagogic egalitarianism, denial of merit, tyranny of the majority, and lack of self-discipline” that are sapping the strength of Europe today. “Europe’s Islamic invasion has been backed by the Left, yes. But it would never have reached the point it has if the Right had not been complicit.”

Another indication of that complicity was, according to Fallaci, the American Right’s support for the entry of Turkey into the European Union – which both Fallaci and her friend in the Vatican oppose. “European citizens do not want Turkey in our home. Condoleeza Rice should stop exercising realpolitik at our expense.” And in America, she asked why the Right was so complacent before Leftist outrages such as the ongoing war against Christmas, the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama courthouse, the amending of the noise ordinance to allow for the Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers (but not church bells) in Hamtramck, Michigan, and others. Why, she asked, was Ward Churchill not fired for calling the 9/11 victims “Little Eichmanns,” while Michael Graham was fired for suggesting that Islam might have something to do with present-day terrorism?

This, Fallaci concluded, is the war we are really fighting. “I do not see Islamic terrorism as the main weapon of the war that the sons of Allah have unleashed upon us. It is the bloodiest, but not the most pernicious or catastrophic aspect of this war.” Far more dangerous to the West in the long run is unrestricted Muslim immigration, which already has brought at least 25 million Muslims to Europe (not counting, Fallaci said, the huge numbers of illegal aliens). That number will double by 2016 and, as Bernard Lewis and others have predicted, almost certainly create a Muslim Europe by 2100.

Yet all this immigration has not been accompanied by integration and assimilation – not because of European racism, but by the Muslims’ own choice. Fallaci noted that many other groups have assimilated into European societies, but Muslims have not. “They don even care to learn our language. They only obey the rules and laws of Sharia.” They do not want to learn European ways; rather, “they want to impose on us their own habits and way of life. They have no intention of integrating with us. On the contrary, they demand that we integrate with them.” Today’s Islamic expansionism, therefore, does not need the armies and fleets with which the Ottoman Empire once terrorized Europe. It only needs the immigrants, whom short-sighted politicians and befuddled multiculturalists continue to welcome. Fallaci said that Europeans – French, Dutch, Germans, English, Italians – are about to reach the status of the Comanches, Cherokees, and Sioux: “We will end up on their reservation.” She noted that some Muslim spokesmen, confident of their imminent supremacy, already refer to non-Muslim Europeans as “indigenous people” or “aboriginals.”

What to do about all this? Establish dialogue with Muslim leaders? Try to strengthen moderate Islam? Fallaci was dismissive of both options. Muslims have no intention of entering into genuine dialogue with non-Muslims, she said, and “I do not believe in moderate Islam. What moderate Islam? Is it enough not to cut heads off? Moderate Islam is another invention of ours.” Adopting Western dress, she said, was easy; adopting Western values was not.

Then Fallaci threw down the gauntlet to the multicultural, politically correct, and fearful. “There is not,” she asserted, “good Islam or bad Islam. There is just Islam. And Islam is the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is the Mein Kampf of this movement. The Qur’an demands the annihilation or subjugation of the other, and wants to substitute totalitarianism for democracy. Read it over, that Mein Kampf. In whatever version, you will find that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit against themselves and against others is in it.” As jarring as such language is to contemporary sensibilities, Fallaci here made a statement of fact that can be verified or disproved. And indeed: Islamic terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Zarqawi, and others have never hesitated to quote the Qur’an copiously to justify their actions. It remains for those who identify themselves as moderate Muslims to convince violent Muslims that they are misusing the Qur’an – if indeed they are – and should lay down their arms. They have had no notable success in this so far.

Fallaci’s a voice of rare courage. “I am not as young and energetic as you are,” she told the crowd Monday night. “I am hopelessly ill. I shall not last long.” When she is gone, we may hope – for all our sakes – that many others will be ready to step into the breach and speak the truth as she did, whatever the cost, as she did. As Oriana Fallaci so memorably demonstrated in her address on receiving the Annie Taylor Award, nothing less than our civilization itself is at stake.

Belgian woman, convert to Islam, ID'd as Iraqi suicide bomber

Welcome to Europe's future -- as a source for jihadist recruits. We now have the first European female suicide bomber. And apparently her Muslim husband put her up to this, since evidently he "organized her trip." "Female Belgian suicide bomber hit Baghdad," from UPI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BRUSSELS, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A woman who carried out a suicide attack in Iraq two weeks ago was identified Tuesday as the first European female suicide bomber.

The Belgian anti-terrorism unit has confirmed that the woman was a Belgian citizen who converted to Islam after her marriage to a Muslim fundamentalist, news service RTL reported Tuesday.

American military forces identified the woman at a combat scene in Baghdad. She was carrying recently issued Belgian identity papers which revealed she had traveled via Turkey. There are no traces of her radical husband who is believed to have organized her trip.

Fitzgerald: Shi'a Islam and reality

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses some prevailing misperceptions of Shi'ite Islam, and their sources:

The "typical representatives" of "Shi'a Islam" known to the editors of My Weekly Standard, and to the U.S. Government, have included such highly typical Shi'a (just the kind you find in SCIRI and DAWA and Moqtada al-Sadr's ranks, or the ranks of Hezbollah, or of the basiji) as these: Fouad Ajami, a Lebanese Shi'a who has been in the United States for 3-4 decades; Kanan Makiya, scion of a well-to-do Iraqi family, who has been out of Iraq for 2-3 decades; Ahmad Chalabi, scion of a very well-to-do Iraqi family who has been in the West for nearly fifty years; and Rend al-Rahim Francke, an American citizen since 1987, out of the Middle East for the past 30 years at least, a graduate of the Sorbonne and the University of Cambridge.

Ah yes, quite a collection of "representative" and "typical" Shi'a. That is why Reuel Gerecht and company can complacently place their hopes and dreams on the Shi'a without bothering too much about the Islamic Republic of Iran, taqiyya, or the fact that in Iraq it is (for some paradoxically) the Sunni Ba'athists who are in fact are less eager to return to the full-court press of Islam than the party leaders of DAWA and SCIRI -- although they are now forced to accept aid from non-Iraqi Sunni Muslims who want even more Islam than do the Shi'a, and hate the Shi'a for being "Rafidite dogs" (i.e. Infidels of the worst kind).

Shi'a Islam is as dangerous to Infidels as Sunni Islam. The belief that it is not is simply one more mechanism for holding out hope that it's not Islam, it's just this brand of Islam, which can be "extremist" or "radical" Islam (carefully undefined) or "Wahhabi" Islam or "Wahhabi Salafist" Islam, or "islamofascism" --just season to taste. But Infidels show up on that list of Unclean Things that Shi'a clerics keep. Khomeini and his successors, and assorted ayatollahs and hojatols, are not fans of Infidels. How could they be? Sunni and Shi'a alike read the same Qur'an, with the same bloodcurdling passages. They read (largely) the same Hadith and take as their model the same Muhammad, his life spelled out in the same Sira. Their paths diverged in 661 A.D., after Muhammad had been dead for nearly 30 years. The fury, the rage, the persecution, the warfare -- all that is based on Ali and Hussein, and a whole subsequent mythology, or theology, that has nothing to do with a lessening of hatred for Infidels.

Too many in the West have learned about Shi'a Islam, or think they have learned, by being charmed by charmers. Those charmers still will not describe Islam as the source of the Muslim world's permanent intellectual disarray, its tendency to despotism, its inshallah-fatalism (a substitute for work and entrepreneurial activity), its mistreatment of women and minorities. They simply cannot bring themselves to utter a public word about Islam except, at times, to claim to be freethinkers (as Kanan Makiya has) and then, in the next moment, to become angrily defensive if it is sensed that Islam itself is being attacked.

Extraordinary. The psychology of the "moderate" Muslim, the unobservant and worldly and practically "Muslim-for-identification-purposes-only" Muslim who nonetheless cannot bear to consider that Islam itself is the problem, is what creates such an abyss between those who have seen their way clear -- the real apostates, such as Ibn Warraq -- and those who just can't, just won't. The value of those who just can’t, to us, the Infidels, is therefore, from here on out, far more limited than we have allowed ourselves, heretofore, to believe. We have been content merely with the fact that Fouad Ajami and Kanan Makiya and Azar Nafisi are good guys (or girls), who saw right through and exposed Edward Said. But they just can't go along the same path with us any longer. Their refusal to analyze Islam limits them.

That's it. It was nice while it lasted. But now the Infidel world has to find its guides to Islam not from the most presentable, plausible, friendly, articulate, unobservant, Western-educated, and entirely unrepresentative Muslims, whether Sunni or Shi'a, but from the defectors from Islam -- just as was done with defectors from Communism, and not the nicest, kindest, most plausible party members, during the Cold War.

A change. A big and necessary change. We were led astray in Iraq. We were prevented from seeing that Islam, the spread of Islam, and the islamization of Europe with or without terrorism, is the problem.

That mistake must not continue to be made. It will be cruel to some to regard them warily, and to take their views as Muslims with assorted grains of sea salt. But there is at stake here something much more important than the hurt feelings of those very nice quasi-Muslims. Much more important.

Iran president had ‘religious vision’ during UN speech

The Thug-In-Chief of Iran imagines himself as an emissary of an apparently equally bullying deity. From Financial Times via Regime Change Iran, with thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

A leading website in Iran has published a transcript and video recording of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad claiming to have felt “a light” while addressing world leaders at the United Nations in New York in September. Baztab.com – a website linked to Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards – said the recording was made in a meeting between the president and Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, one of Iran’s leading Shia Muslim clerics.

According to the transcript, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said someone present at the UN, possibly from his entourage, subsequently told him: “When you began with the words ‘In the name of God’… I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end [of the speech].” Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said he sensed a similar presence.

“I felt it myself, too, that suddenly the atmosphere changed and for 27-28 minutes the leaders could not blink,” the transcript continues. “I am not exaggerating…because I was looking. All the leaders were puzzled, as if a hand held them and made them sit. They had their eyes and ears open for the message from the Islamic Republic.”

Natan Sharansky and Robert Spencer

I am on the left, and the great human rights defender Natan Sharansky is on the right, in Jerusalem, November 20, 2005.

And what are the two books Sharansky is holding?

Jurors' Religion Issue in Moussaoui Trial

I wonder if they will be making sure that every juror believes that Islam is a religion of peace. From AP, with thanks to Sheik Yer'mami:

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors want to know the religious beliefs and practices of potential jurors who will decide whether the only person charged in the United States in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks receives the death penalty or life in prison.

In a court filing Monday, the prosecutors listed 89 questions, many with multiple parts, designed to discern the views that prospective jurors have about Islam, the death penalty, the U.S. government and the defendant, Zacarias Moussaoui, 37, a French citizen of Moroccan descent.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema will decide which questions will be asked. She already has decided that 500 potential jurors will be summoned to the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 6 to begin what is expected to be a month-long jury selection process.

Spencer: Israel, Front Line of the Global Jihad

In FrontPage this morning I expand upon my initial observations on my recent trip to Israel:

Israel has become the world’s new South Africa: the villain du jour, the universal oppressor, the whipping-boy of the United Nations. Its foes have even applied the South African concept of apartheid to its policies. The global Left eagerly propagates the view that Israel, which has been repeatedly attacked by its neighbors, is by virtue of its very existence actually an aggressor state. The only free Western-style democracy in the Middle East (with the increasingly shaky exception of Turkey on the northern margins of the area) has received more world opprobrium than the brutal regimes of Assad, Ahmadinejad, and even the lamented (at least by Ramsey Clark) Saddam Hussein.

Boosters of the Palestinian cause routinely refer to Israelis and their supporters as Nazis. In January 2005, Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain reached the apex of moral equivalence. He announced that his group would boycott a commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp: “we have now expressed our unwillingness to attend the ceremony because it excludes ongoing genocide and human rights abuses around the world and in the occupied territories of Palestine.”

Yet although Muslim spokesmen such as Sacranie, the international Left, and many others -- including some of the Arabic-speaking Christians with whom I am in daily contact -- believe fervently that Israel is the aggressor against an innocent and aggrieved Palestinian people, and that the conflict is wholly and solely about “stolen land,” the facts are otherwise. In reality, Israel is at the front line of the global jihad movement. Ever since the State of Israel was founded in 1948, and even before, it has faced jihadist opposition from groups adamant in their determination to destroy it utterly. Yet I expect that a poll of Americans would find only a tiny minority would affirm that Israel faces the same foe, with the same ideology, as the one the United States has faced since 9/11.

I was recently offered, and immediately seized, an opportunity to see for myself. Last week, I had the chance to:

• Explore the Muslim Quarter and other sections of Jerusalem’s Old City, the world’s holiest place and largest tourist trap. The ancient streets are barely passable, crowded as they are with tiny shops (all holding pretty much the same inventory, with a few minor variations) in which canny Muslim entrepreneurs sell Christian religious articles to eager Western visitors (“And because I love you like a brother, and see that you appreciate the finer things, I will give you a special price…”). One told me how happy he was to see tourists again, after years of intifada had driven them away.

• Visit and pray at the Western Wall, site of so much human longing.

• Peer into Syria from an Israeli bunker on the Golan Heights. The mountainous Golan is breathtakingly beautiful, although that beauty is broken here and there by the remnants of the 1967 and 1973 wars: bullet-riddled bunkers, rusted hulks of war machines. But most of this has been cleared away, for Israel has no room to spare; virtually every inch of land right up to the present border with Syria is cultivated. In stark contrast sits the Syrian ghost town of Quneitra, which the Syrians have left abandoned as a monument to Israeli atrocities ever since the Israelis withdrew from it in 1974. The international media has swallowed this tall tale as well, despite abundant evidence that Quneitra was in ruins before the Israelis ever got there.

• Travel by bulletproof bus through the West Bank, and inspect the security fence.

• Sleep (fitfully) in a Bedouin tent in the desert, and savor the stark magnificence of the rocky, mountainous landscape.

• Walk through the 700-year-old streets of Safed, modern-day home of, among other things, a notable artistic quarter. In this I was not too far from where Hizb’Allah rockets fell – unprovoked, as was noted even by the United Nations -- a few days later near Kiryat Shmona and Metulla.

• Stroll around modern Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

I also had the honor of meeting the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shlomo Moshe Amar, and Soviet dissident and heroic human rights activist Natan Sharansky. In the course of Sharansky’s moving address he noted that Israel had again and again aided Christians -- at their own request -- against Islamic violence and injustice, most notably when the Church of the Nativity was occupied by jihadists in 2002. Yet international Christian leaders, he said, have not responded with similar gestures toward Israel. This is unfortunate in the extreme both for Israel and for Palestinian Christians: those Christians are going to be in for a rude surprise when the Islamic state so many of them are abetting actually takes power, and they find life more difficult for them than it was in Israel. Christians in the Middle East are in a virtually impossible position (which is why they are streaming out of the area). If the support the Islamic agenda, they are signing their own return to the second-class status of the dhimma, as mandated by the traditional Islamic law that jihadists are bent on restoring. If they support Israel, they risk being targeted by the jihadists, who surround them on all sides.

I met a couple who had recently been evacuated by the Israeli government from their West Bank “settlement,” where they had lived and worked for twelve years, and endured daily gunfire from Palestinians since the Al-Aqsa intifada began in September 2000. I met an American who now lives and works on a kibbutz in the Golan Heights, cultivating land just across the Syrian border, in defiance of the danger involved. Like so many other Israelis all over the country, he must carry a gun at all times. I photographed a large, confidently imposing, and clearly thriving mosque near my hotel in Tel Aviv, the very existence of which stands as poignant refutation of the charge that Muslims are oppressed in Israel -- especially in light of the glaring non-existence of synagogues in Muslim lands and the precarious existence of churches in them.

Israel is a country at war, a country under siege. Everywhere I went, even into a shopping mall in Tel Aviv, armed guards stood at the entry, searching everyone. Many Israelis with whom I spoke discussed the weariness of the people after decades and decades of war. They said that many, and maybe even a majority, are willing to cut any deal, even one involving giving up half of Jerusalem, in order to buy a peace that they themselves acknowledge will last only a few years.

Yet the game is by no means over. At the same time, there is a tremendous spirit among the people. I saw the greenhouses and agricultural projects making the desert bloom, and the determination of so many not to be intimidated, not to bow in the face of jihad violence. Long may they prosper.

Israel stands virtually alone in the world not only because of lingering antisemitism, but because Palestinian Arabs and their allies have succeeded in convincing opinion-makers that their land was taken illegitimately by Israel, and that they are oppressed there. The facts are otherwise, as I have discussed in a previous article here. The state was established legitimately and with the approval of the United Nations, and even the “occupied territories” were obtained according to what have been universally recognized throughout history as the rules of war. (Or should the United States give up the “occupied territories” of California, Texas, and other Western states? Should Russia withdraw from its “occupied territories” in Königsberg, eastern Finland and eastern Poland? Should Muslims across North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, India and Southeast Asia withdraw from those “occupied territories” back to Arabia?)

While I am sympathetic to genuine Palestinian Arab refugees, and with my friends from Ramallah and Jenin, I can’t help but notice the role of the neighboring Arab states in exacerbating and prolonging the refugee problem for political reasons that are ultimately rooted in the jihad ideology. I can’t help but notice that I was able to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Mount Tabor, and other Christian holy sites in Israel, which mean a great deal to me personally, while Bethlehem, under Palestinian Authority control, has become a dangerous place from which Christians are fleeing as quickly as they can. I can’t help but notice that there was no call to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when those territories were under Jordanian and Egyptian control respectively -- despite the alleged difference of nationality between Palestinians and Jordanians and Egyptians.

Ultimately, if the nations of the world are interested in defending universal human rights and the equality of dignity of all people, they need to stand with Israel. Misdiagnosis of the problem -- that is, the unwillingness or inability of Western governments to acknowledge the motives and goals of the jihadists who want above all to destroy them -- has largely prevented this.

Yet as Benjamin Franklin said long ago in a far different context, we must all hang together, or we will most assuredly all hang separately.

Stockholm Mosque Calls for Exterminating Jews

Meet the new Europe, same as the old Europe. Note that this call was not just for destroying the Jewish State and rendering the Jews dhimmis. It was for killing them -- probably because they would be considered kuffar harbi: unbelievers at war with Islam.

And this cassette, containing the call, was not sold furtively by some greasy multi-pierced skinhead who would repulse all those who love home and family. This cassette was sold in a mosque in Stockholm, Sweden. And it was sold without any reported uprising from the Vast Majority of Moderate Muslims in that mosque, protesting against the demonization, vilification, and calls to murder their fellow People of the Book, for whom they have so much respect, the Jews. Instead, mosquegoers apparently let it all pass, perhaps due to long years of conditioning about the evil qualities of the Jews as shown in the Qur'an.

From Israel National News, with thanks to Twostellas:

(IsraelNN.com) Swedish Radio News (SRN) reported today that a Stockholm mosque is selling cassettes calling for a genocidal holy war against the Jews. According to SRN, the cover of one of the cassettes shows a picture of the Statue of Liberty draped in a burning American flag.

Sales of cassettes promoting genocide are illegal in Sweden. A spokesman for the mosque blamed volunteers for stocking the mosque bookstore with the cassettes.

Of course, we knew nothing, we never saw it before, etc. etc. etc.

Iran officials said to have met, discussed nukes

1938 update from AP, with thanks to Mackie:

VIENNA, Austria — Top Iranian officials met less than two months ago to weigh whether to restart their country's uranium enrichment program -- a possible pathway to nuclear arms, according to a confidential report cited by diplomats Friday.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, referred to a report being circulated among the 35-board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency citing an Iranian government source on his country's plans for enrichment.

The four-page report cited the Iranian Foreign Ministry source as saying chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani met with members of the country's nuclear negotiating team in late October to discuss the timing of resuming the enrichment program, one of the envoys told The Associated Press.

"It wasn't a particular suggestion that they were ready to do it anytime soon," the diplomat said. Still, he said the meeting was yet another indication that the Iranians were intent on keeping control of the enrichment process -- at least before the prospect was floated several weeks ago of new negotiations with key European powers meant to keep the technology out of their hands.

Jihad Watch: Left or Right?

I haven't wanted to do this, but I have been requested now to do so, as there is an ongoing partisan rumble in the comments field that detracts from what we are trying to do here as much as do the intemperate comments CAIR tried to hang me with (although I didn't write them) and the jihad apologists who also drop in from time to time.

The present conflict revolves around the assumption that because Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald's positions are not recognizably or currently of the "Right," they must be of the "Left." Or that if someone, anyone, is not part of the One, he must be part of the Other.

Beyond the question of Hugh's sense of direction, some are -- and have been for months -- continuing to try to make this site a forum for partisan wrangling, despite bans, threats to ban, mild entreaties, etc. This is as if I had set up a tent in which I could speak my mind, and others set themselves up at its entrance, pushing their own agendas. This is not a matter of free speech -- it is all happening on my nickel only.

In any case, please try to read without prejudice. Both Hugh and I -- Hugh much more eloquently and persistently than I -- have argued that the jihad threat demands a breaking and reconstruction of paradigms. The threat does not come from the "Left" or the "Right," and those hoary old methods of distinguishing the Good Guys from the Bad are now causing more confusion than illumination, more harm than good, more heat than light. They are not helpful. They are getting in the way.

Kerry was clueless. He wanted to give nuclear fuel to Iran. In saying that I must be a Republican, right? Bush is clueless. He continues to allow us to be dependent on the Saudis without making any move to free us from them. In saying that I must be a Democrat, right?

In March 2003, just before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, I wrote an article criticizing as unrealistic the President's plan to bring democracy to the Middle East. I have linked to it here many times. Alas, it seems to have been taken down, but here is a cached link.

I based my argument on the nature of Islam and the Sharia, saying that it was unlikely that Muslims in large numbers were going to forsake what they saw as the law of God for law based on human consensus.

Hugh has expanded on this point in many, many columns. Some have asked if I agree with them. I find the question astounding (which is why I have so far not answered it), since I gave him his position on the Board of this organization of which I am the founder, and I edit and post his columns myself. But from what I have seen, Hugh's position has been persistently misunderstood and misrepresented by those who cannot see out of the old Left/Right box.

Is the idea that the democratization of Iraq is the wrong way to go about defeating the global jihad a "liberal" position, since liberals oppose the ongoing Iraqi adventure for utterly different reasons? Only if your worldview is irremediably bipolar. Why? Speaking for myself, note that my March 2003 article touches on none of the contemporary Leftist concerns: no body counts, no quagmires, none of it. The war, you'll recall, hadn't even started when I wrote it. Yet it is not foursquare with the Republican program. Also, I have criticized Bush and Rice, and allowed them to be criticized in articles here, quite harshly for their persistent misapprehension of the problem we face.

So is all this "Leftist" or "Rightist"? If you answer one or the other, you're not paying attention. Is it possible? Could it be? Might a third alternative be possible -- even desirable? Might our survival as a nation and a civilization demand some new, courageous thinking, and a recognition that all -- all -- our parties and factions are threatened by this thing, threatened mortally, and that none of them -- none -- have yet come to grips with the implications of that? And that since none of them have done so, it is manifestly time for some new formulations?

Other issues? I refuse to discuss them. Are we going to argue about tax rates while the barbarians fly airplanes into our strongholds and use our own tolerance and good will to subvert us from within?

This is not to say, finally, that both sides are equivalent. While I have criticized Bush and Rice, I do believe that at this point the Right is generally less sold out to the jihad than the Left. This opinion is based on evidence, not emotion, and I make no apologies for it. The fact that my publishers are all of "the Right" is one indication of its being correct. I also devoted an entire chapter of my book Onward Muslim Soldiers to this fact. It was called "Everybody must get stoned: the strange alliance between radical Islam and the post-1960s Left." If, however, the Left began to see that its pet causes are mortally threatened by the jihad, and hence the value of defending Western civilization, no one would be happier than I.

Of course, all this will not sit well with partisans of either stripe. My negative reference to the Left in the above paragraph will no doubt soon induce some regular commentators to declaim, yet again, about the depredations of Bush, which supposedly outweigh 1,000 Leftist appeasers and fifth columnists. The fact that I have noted those depredations on many occasions will never be good enough.

All in all, Left, Right, and center, I am going to continue resisting the jihad, in the name of the equality of dignity of all people -- including the non-Muslims and women who would lose that equality in the Sharia states the jihadists want to establish.

And I ask you all to mute your partisanship and try to think of ways we can beat this thing instead of ways we can beat each other. Neither side of the American political divide has been or is perfect on this issue. So what? It is not time for recriminations. It is time for survival.

Bin Laden WMD chief once lived in Canada

Not that this should make anyone rethink the marvelous open borders of Western countries. Oh, no. That would be a violation of the natural human right everyone has to enter a modern Western pluralistic state, even if he wants to subvert it from within.

"Bin Laden WMD chief once lived in B.C.," from the National Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Osama bin Laden's chief weapons of mass destruction broker is a former resident of a Vancouver suburb, a Federal Court judge disclosed yesterday in ruling on a related case.

In a 105-page decision handed down in Ottawa, Judge Eleanor Dawson said Canadian intelligence investigators had determined that Mubarak Al Duri, an Iraqi, had once lived in Richmond, B.C.

The ruling does not say when Al Duri, whom the judge said was "reported to be Osama bin Laden's principal procurement agent for weapons of mass destruction," had lived in Canada.

But she said Al Duri had associated with Toronto-based terror suspect Mohamed Mahjoub after December, 1995, and may have also associated with terrorist Essam Marzouk, who lived in B.C. until 1998.

President Fitzgerald's State of the Union Address

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald, ever ready to be helpful, offers a State of the Union Speech to the President, should he decide to reconfigure America's military posture to bring it more into line with the realities of the global jihad:

Leaving Iraq does not have to be accompanied by defeatist rhetoric, or by any language that will give the jihadists grounds to claim victory in the words of the President himself. Let's put it into a State of the Union Speech:

"Today is an important day in the history of America's war to make the world safer for freedom. In Iraq, the American people can be proud of their soldiers. In three weeks they took down a tyrant who had murdered hundreds of thousands of his fellow Iraqis, a man who had been in power for a quarter-century, and whose regime seemed prepared to rule for another quarter-century. And we did far more than remove a regime. Our soldiers built schools and hospitals. They helped build water-treatment plants, and build or rebuild electricity grids. We cleared, with our allies the British, Iraq's port of Umm Qasr. We did this, we did that. Here is the list of just some of the things our soldiers and civilians in Iraq managed to do (here the President can fill out his speech with some more details about American accomplishments in Iraq, ad libitum).

"And we did more. We trained, to Western standards, from a standing start, the new 'Iraqi' forces, the army and the police. And we realize now that not only are the Iraqis ready to stand on their own, but that -- every opinion poll tells us-- they want to stand on their own. From the support offered by the Iraqi delegation at the Arab League, to every opinion poll among Iraqi Arabs, it is clear that it makes sense for us to leave now. No matter how much we have accomplished, we are still seen, in a sense, as outsiders, and we must be sensitive to local opinion. For if we are not, we would risk, the Iraqis would risk, undoing all that has been done. We entered Iraq in order to enable the 'Iraqis' to stand on their own feet. It is time now for them to do so.

"All of us can agree that it makes far more sense, now that the second set of elections is complete, to allow the 'Iraqis' to arrive at the compromises among themselves that only they can make. Of course we wish them well, and of course we hope now that their fellow Arab and Muslim countries will certainly cancel whatever remaining debt is owed to them, and certainly lend them money against future oil revenues, given all that those Arab and Muslim states have. We have done what we can. We can do no more. Our presence, we conclude, might now lead to the very reverse of what we hope the Iraqis themselves will have the good sense to achieve -- a stable 'Iraq,' in which the compromises that make democracies work will take place.

"Oh, there are the nay-sayers. There are those who keep telling us that Islam and democracy, Islam and respect for minorities, Islam and respect for women and non-Muslims, cannot coexist. Well, we know that isn't true. We know that the 'Iraqi people' will prove that to be untrue. We have great faith in the 'Iraqi people.' We are sure that they are ready to stand on their own, and to defeat the terrorists who would deny them their chance at democracy. From those blue thumbs held proudly in the air last January, to all the careful effort that went into crafting, and then holding a referendum to approve, a Constitution, right to the December elections held just a month ago, Iraq has defied the nay-sayers.

"Well, obviously we have been there a long time. For some of us, far too long. No doubt there are some 'Iraqis' who would wish us to stay for much longer. But we cannot. It isn't good for them, and it isn't good for us. That is why, in my State of the Union message today, I am announcing the withdrawal, by August 1, 2006, of all American troops, and in collaboration with our Coalition allies, of all other foreign troops as well from Iraq. Should a need arise, in a particular region, for special assistance, and such assistance is deemed in the national interest of the United States, requests for such aid will be carefully considered. But we removed a tyrant, and the tyrant's regime -- and he sits now in Baghdad, tried by his fellow Iraqis. It is a splendid moment for democracy, for the United States and for Iraq.

"Goodnight, and God Bless America."

Something like that. The speech above took about 2 minutes to compose. With a staff of ten presidential speechwriters, it shouldn't take the White House more than a week.

Bangladesh: one killed in bomb attack; A-Q threat to blow up US, EU missions

Bangladesh jihad update. "One killed in Chuadanga bomb attack: Threat to blow up US, EU missions, kill SC judges," from The New Nation, with thanks to Nicolei:

Embassies of the USA and the European Union, including the UK in Dhaka received e-mail threat yesterday that members of the Al-Qaida would blow those [sic] up.

An e-mail was sent by one Manik Hossain to the UK Embassy from Faridganj, in Chandpur. The sender identified himself as a member of the Asia Al- Qaida suicide squad....

Meanwhile, in the capital outlawed Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has threatened to kill Supreme Court judges and lawyers for what it said delivering judgement after taking bribes.

Meanwhile, one person was killed and five others were injured in a bomb attack at Alamdanga in Chuadanga district and three other journalists received death threats from JMB in Barisal yesterday.

Philippines: converts to Islam helping jihadists, slipping by cops

Why do converts to Islam turn to violent jihad? Because they are misled by jihadists, or because they approach the Qur'an and Hadith without cultural baggage, and see its demands clearly? The Western world assumes the former. But on what evidence? Is this a safe assumption? Might not this matter bear investigation by authorities? Or would that violate multiculturalist dogma? "In Philippines, watchful eye on converts: Most are peaceful, but some former Christians help Islamic terrorists, slipping by police," from the Christian Science Monitor, with thanks to Nicolei:

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Four years ago, Joey Ledesma went home and told his mother, a devout Roman Catholic, that he had "returned" to Islam.

Her reaction was shock and anger; they argued and fought. In the room where he prayed, she stuck pictures of the Virgin Mary to the wall facing Mecca. A cousin asked him, "Why are you acting so crazy? You're one of us."

Mr. Ledesma, who now calls himself Yousuf, has since separated from his Catholic wife after a tug-of-war over the religious upbringing of their young son.

As his family ties frayed, Ledesma found a stronger sense of community and purpose at the mosque. In particular, he bonded with other converts, known as 'Balik Islam,' or returnees to Islam. Their shared belief is that Filipinos were originally Muslims before Spanish colonizers imposed Catholicism, so they are returning to their faith.

Lesdesma is one of an estimated 200,000 Filipinos who have converted to Islam since the 1970s, joining about 4 million Muslims from the southern Philippines who are ethnically different from the heavily Christianized areas. At first, their numbers were too small to attract much notice from authorities. That is, until Philippine security forces began focusing on the role of Muslim converts in extremist violence.

What they found was a disturbing pattern: Islamic insurgents were using cells of militant converts as terrorist operatives to strike targets in Manila. Police say a detained Balik Islam militant has confessed to planting a bomb on a ferry that killed more than 100 people in February 2004. Other detainees are linked to a foiled truck bombing in Manila that targeted the US Embassy, say officials.

Investigators say that Islamic converts can evade ethnic profiling by police, opening up a new front for groups like Abu Sayyaf that are being squeezed by US-aided military offensives in the south. "This tactical alliance [between southern insurgents and Islamic converts] will emerge to challenge the government in new ways," warns Rodolfo Mendoza, a senior police official who tracks Islamic militants.

Read it all.

Reformers work to rid 'diet of hate' from Muslim textbooks

How far will they go? From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Page after page, self-appointed hate hunters underline passages in Pakistani schoolbooks.

They flag hard-edged Muslim views toward other faiths, such as those describing past efforts by Hindus and Christians to ''erase'' Muslims. They note sections that speak of martyrdom and the duty to battle perceived religious enemies.

So I guess they block out Qur'an 9:29, which commands that Muslims make war against Jews and Christians: "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."

I guess they will block out scores of ahadith supporting this passage as well.

''We are fighting for the future of Islam. Children are sometimes being force-fed a diet of hate, anger and intolerance,'' said Ahmad Salim, leader of a campaign to push Pakistan's education system to remove what activists consider extreme language and images from the curriculum....

In Jordan -- the target of triple suicide blasts Nov. 9 claimed by al-Qaida -- another overhaul is expected in next year's textbooks, part of a process that includes making clear distinctions between terrorism and what that nation sees as legitimate struggles, such as the Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Even Saudi Arabia has started to rewrite its highly conservative lessons after worries they were encouraging home-grown radicals.

Much of the concern among reformers is how students learn about jihad, or holy war -- a concept that encompasses all acts on behalf of Islam. It's clear some textbooks pay homage -- directly or indirectly -- to violence.

'Blood gladdens my soul'

''Recognize the importance of jihad in every sphere of life,'' say the curriculum guidelines for Pakistan's elementary schools. Critics claim the message is often interpreted in malignant ways: strong denunciations of Pakistan's historical Hindu rivals in India or sympathy for Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir and elsewhere.

In a Palestinian seventh-grade Arabic language book, a protest poem called "The Martyr" includes the lines: ''And the flow of blood gladdens my soul. ... And who asks for a noble death, here it is.''

The Palestinians' 11th grade Islamic Culture book has dozens of appeals for Islamic solidarity to confront ''enemies'' such as Israel, its allies and Western culture. ''The Islamic nation needs to spread the spirit of jihad and the love of self-sacrifice [martyrdom] among its sons,'' reads one passage.

So I guess Qur'an 9:111 will have to go also: "Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain..."

And if we're red-lining passages that inculcate love for death, Qur'an 62:6 will have to be nixed: "Say (O Muhammad): O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful."

Etc. etc. etc.

Charity cash for Palestinian poor was siphoned to suicide bombers

This is what the great human rights activists of the Western world are supporting. This is where Palestinian Christians have placed their hope. All on a culture of dishonesty and murder. From The Independent, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Millions of pounds donated by British and other European charities to help the Palestinian poor were unwittingly diverted to fund terror and support the families of suicide bombers, Israeli prosecutors claimed yesterday.

Ahmed Salatna, 43, a Hamas activist from the West Bank town of Jenin, was remanded in custody by a military court charged with distributing €9m (£6.2m) for such purposes over the past nine years. The recipients are alleged to have included the family of a young man who blew himself up at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in August 2001, killing 15 people and wounding 107. Hamas and Islamic Jihad acknowledged responsibility.

The charge sheet names two British charities, Human Appeal International and Interpal. Human Appeal is a broadly based fundraising organisation, currently helping victims of the Pakistani earthquake. Interpal describes itself as "a non-political, non-profit-making charity that focuses solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy of Palestine". No one was available for comment at its London office yesterday. Other charities mentioned were the French CBST, the Italian ABSPT and the Al-Aqsa Foundation, which operates in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.

Mr Salatna, who has directed an Islamic charity in Jenin since Israel released him in 1996 after serving three years for Hamas activity, was arrested in September. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said Mr Salatna directly transferred the European funds to Hamas cells, suicide bombers and their families.

Mr Rosenfeld said: "Jenin is known as the capital of the suicide bombers. There is no doubt in police minds that Mr Salatna's arrest will be a major blow to those who rely on economic support from Hamas in order to carry out terrorist acts and to give their families financial backing."

A friendly reminder

A series of emails I have received lately suggests to me that many of you don't know that Jihad Watch is not one, but two weblogs.

The other is called Dhimmi Watch. It covers the oppression of non-Muslims in Islamic societies, as mandated by Sharia law, as well as the oppression of women, since Sharia also mandates that, and the supine willingness of American academics and media types to parrot jihadist propaganda and whitewash Islamic teachings that inspire violence.

It too is updated daily. Find it here.

Yemen executes Muslim cleric

From the AFP:

A hardline Muslim cleric has been executed by firing squad in Yemen after being convicted of the murder three years ago of an official in the opposition socialist party.

Ali Ahmed Jarallah was executed on Sunday in the courtyard of the main Sanaa prison in the presence of his family, judges and lawyers, judicial sources said, after President Ali Abdallah Saleh upheld the death penalty against him.

Jarallah, an imam or prayer leader at a mosque in Sanaa, was convicted of the murder in 2002 of Jarallah Omar, the deputy leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party, and his sentence was upheld by an appeals court in April.

Jarallah said in a confession in July 2003 that he had acted alone in shooting Omar at a party conference in Sanaa the previous year.

He claimed that the killing was part of a jihad, or holy war, against converts to Christianity and infidels.

Six other people were jailed for between three and 10 years for belonging to a gang that the cleric allegedly created to murder socialists, Arab nationalists and converts to Christianity.

Jarallah had been a member of Yemen's Islamist Al-Islah Party, but quit the movement shortly before the killing, complaining that it had gone soft on Westerners and minority Islamic sects.

Back in the fold

Is this the future of Europe once Turkey is allowed to join the "elite" club? From Iran Focus:

London, Nov. 27 – Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will travel on Wednesday to Turkey, a country that once expelled him for his involvement in terrorism when he was the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Ankara.

Mottaki, 52, has been accused of involvement in a series of terrorist attacks in Turkey in the late 1980s, according to Iranian exiles and defectors from the theocratic regime.

Turkish authorities had asked him to leave the country in 1989, when he was Iran’s ambassador in Ankara, after his role in several terrorist incidents in Turkey became known.

Abolhassan Mojtahedzadeh, chairman of the Brussels-based Association of Victims of the Iranian Regime’s Terrorism, said his group was consulting Turkish lawyers to find legal avenues to have Mottaki arrested in Turkey.

Mojtahedzadeh himself was abducted in Istanbul in 1988 and taken to the Iranian consulate, where he was tortured. Several days later, Turkish police miraculously found him in the boot of an official Iranian embassy vehicle only a few kilometres from the Iranian border, as Tehran’s diplomats were trying to smuggle him to Iran.

According to Simon Bailey of the London-based Gulf Intelligence Monitor, Ankara’s decision to host Mottaki will not help the government’s image as it tries to prove its democratic credentials to be admitted to the European Union.

“Ankara has been taking a very lenient approach to Iran’s excesses”, Bailey said. “Turkish police arrested an Iranian man, Masoud Amiri, in Istanbul back in July, because there was an international arrest warrant for him over his role in the bombing of the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994. But when Iran made some threatening gestures, the Turks let him go”.

Mottaki is a former Deputy Foreign Minister and served as Iran’s ambassador to Japan.

As a radical Islamist in his student days in India’s Bangalore University, Mottaki was a fervent supporter of Ayatollah Khomeini. He returned to Iran during the revolution and joined the ranks of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) soon after the fall of the Shah’s regime in 1979. After taking part in the bloody campaign against Kurdish dissidents, Mottaki moved to the Foreign Ministry, where for some time he was the IRGC liaison officer.

Mottaki was appointed Iran’s ambassador to Turkey in 1985 and it was during his tenure in Ankara that the Revolutionary Guard-turned-diplomat became involved in a number of terror attacks and assassinations of dissidents, according to Iranian opposition figures and defectors. In the 1980s and the early 1990s, at least 50 Iranian dissidents were kidnapped or assassinated in Turkey by Iranian secret agents often working closely with diplomats from Iran’s embassy and consulates.

Dissent in the camp

According to this report from the AP, all is not going well for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

TEHRAN, Iran - Critics say the 1980s-style radicalism of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hurting Iran at home and abroad - to the point that even his natural allies in parliament have rejected his three choices to run the all-important oil ministry.

The Islamic hard-liner appears undeterred, but pragmatists in the ruling hierarchy are growing restless and looking for ways to contain him.

``Ahmadinejad's behavior has annoyed many fellow conservatives. That he doesn't like to consult with anybody outside his small circle of old friends is a reality,'' said Ghodratollah Rahmani, a conservative writer.

``He doesn't consult even with knowledgeable people in his own camp.''

Even extremists within the hard-line camp want Ahmadinejad to be more responsive to their advice.

``If he doesn't want to hear no for a fourth time, he has to consult with people outside his circle of friends,'' said Mohammad Nabi Habibi, leader of the Islamic Coalition Society.

Since taking office in August, Ahmadinejad has jettisoned Iran's moderation in foreign policy and pursued a purge in the government, replacing pragmatic veterans with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners.

The former Tehran mayor's aim is to install a new generation of rulers who will revive the radical fundamentalist goals pursued in the 1980s under the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran's pro-Western shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

All pragmatists, including those seeking better ties with the West, have either lost their posts or likely will lose them soon, pushing the government toward an ever more radical stance in the already volatile Middle East and in the international dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which the United States believes is seeking to build weapons.

Read it all.

Bangladesh: Bomb panic at city high school

On the heels of a crippling nationwide general strike waged by opposition groups determined to oust the ruling Islamist-allied government comes this high school bomb scare out of Dhaka. From The New Nation:

The students and teachers of city’s Khilgaon High School panicked Sunday afternoon at sight of a bomb-like device set under the table of the assistant headmistress in the teachers’ common room.

School sources said a guardian first saw an envelop, which contained a bunch of handwritten letters, lying at a corner of the guardians’ waiting-room at about 1:15PM.

Out of curiosity she picked one letter out of the open envelop that cautioned that a number of time bombs were planted at different places in the school, including the room of the assistant headmistress.

“If Islamic education as per the Quran and Hadith was not introduced in the school within two days, the bombs would be detonated with remote-control,” says the note of warning and ultimatum from the banned Islamic outfit Harkatul Jihad, Khilgaon unit.

Witnesses said the discovery sent all in the sprawling campus into panic, during the rush after the end of one-shift examination and the entry of examinees for the second-shift exam.

After a hectic search, a container wrapped with a red tape and fitted to circuit, batteries and wires was found under the table of Aloka Ghosh, the assistant headmistress. A small tin-pot—like one that holds explosives for a time bomb—was also set to the device.

Headmaster Jasimuddin Bhuiyan claimed it as a “hoax”, saying that someone did it “to create panic among the students and guardians”.

Certainly, the good headmaster must be aware that the "someone" who perpetrated this "hoax" was not joking. Or is he?

Linking Islam to terror 'will divide civilisations'

Memo to Osama bin Laden, Al-Zarqawi, Abu Bakar Bashir, Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza, Fawaz Damra, Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud, etc. etc. etc.: stop associating Islam with terror. Bahrain doesn't like it.

What's that? Bahrain's Al-Mousawi was telling Europeans and other Westerners, not jihadist Muslims, to stop associating Islam with terror? Oh, of course. How could it be otherwise? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe? From the GulfNews, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Manama : Bahrain yesterday warned that associating Islam with terrorism would be a devastating blow to humanity and would deepen the abyss between civilisations.

"Islam is a tolerant and peaceful religion and it is the identity of many nations and peoples. Associating this religion with terrorism amounts to accusing whole nations of supporting it and, eventually, playing into the hands of radicals and extremists. Such a stance is a grave mistake that annihilates understanding between peoples," Shura (upper) Council Chairman Dr Faisal Al Mousawi said at the opening of the international conference in Manama between Bahrain's parliament and the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats.

"History has indicated that terrorism has used false ideologies and misused religious creeds to explain and perpetuate itself. We need to highlight that terrorism is not linked to religion and must not be associated with any particular civilisation, culture or traditions," Al Mousawi said.

Muslim Brotherhood builds Egyptian Parliamentary bloc

The Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoon) was the first modern Islamic terrorist organization. Founded in 1928, it is the the direct forefather of both Hamas and Al-Qaeda. In its Egyptian homeland it has had a checkered history -- and is at present banned. Through it all, its goal has always remained the same: to reestablish Sharia rule in Egypt and elsewhere, whether by peaceful or violent means. And now, despite the best efforts of the Mubarak regime (which, like the Nasser and Sadat regimes before it, has tried to keep the Ikhwan at bay with a combination of force and concessions) to limit its influence, it is gaining strength in Egypt -- through elections.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "Islamists Build Egyptian Parliamentary Bloc," from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood built its strength in Egypt's parliament this weekend, winning 29 seats in elections despite restrictions on voting and arrests of its supporters, official results showed on Sunday.

The Islamist group has now won 76 seats -- more than five times the number it held in the outgoing chamber. About a third of parliament's 444 elected places have still to be decided.

The officially banned Brotherhood is contesting only a third of the seats, not posing a challenge to control over parliament by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which won 75 places in voting on Saturday, bringing its total to about 195.

But the Brotherhood's wins have shown the weight of political Islam as the strongest opposition force in Egypt and caught the government and NDP off guard.

The authorities have curbed leeway given to the Islamists in the early stages of voting. Police restricted voting and detained 860 of the Brotherhood's activists on Saturday -- the fourth of six days of legislative elections.

Riot police cordoned off polling stations in Brotherhood strongholds, either preventing anybody from voting or allowing only a trickle of people to cast ballots.

``The aim was to prevent voters from reaching the ballot boxes and to affect the result,'' Brotherhood deputy leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters. ``But with perseverance the people and the Brotherhood were able to overcome the barriers.''

Teheran 'secretly trains' Chechens to fight in Russia

Here's one for the neocons who support the Chechen jihad because they prefer to see it as a plucky group of independence fighters poking the big bad Russian bear in the eye: welcome to your alliance with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Of course, the Russians themselves need to wake up, too. Across the board, the governing elites and media elites in non-Muslim countries need to realize that while they are playing at pseudo-sophisticated analyses of global conflicts, mostly involving economic and sociological perspectives and solutions, the jihadists see the world only as divided between Muslims and non-Muslims (including, possibly, those they regard as heretical pseudo-Muslims).

The sooner the non-Muslim nations reconfigure their defense postures accordingly, ruling out alliances with states like Iran (alliances which have many precedents and have usually been disastrous, as I establish in my book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)), the more effective those defense postures will be.

From the Telegraph, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary Guards' Imam Ali training camp, located close to Tajrish Square in Teheran, according to Western intelligence reports.

In addition to receiving training in the latest terror techniques, the Chechen volunteers undergo ideological and political instruction by hardline Iranian mullahs at Qom.

The disclosure that Iran is training Chechen rebels will not go down well in Moscow, which regards itself as a close ally of the Iranian regime.

Russia has sided with Iran in the diplomatic stand-off over Teheran's controversial nuclear programme.

France: Extremism on the rise while intertwining with foreign terror groups

While government officials bicker amongst themselves on how to appease blatant rioters, an insidious infiltration is quietly occurring right under the authorities' noses. From the Los Angeles Times:

PARIS — Employees set up clandestine prayer areas on the grounds of the Euro Disney resort.

Workers for a cargo firm at Charles de Gaulle airport praise the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Brinks technician is charged with pulling off a million-dollar heist for a Moroccan terrorist group allegedly led by his brother. Female converts to Islam operate a day-care center that authorities eventually shut down because of its religious radicalism.

As France grapples with the rise of Islamic extremism abroad and at home, the line between legitimate religious expression and extremist subversion can be blurry. But a recent study by a think tank here paints a picture of rising fundamentalism in the workplace, ranging from proselytizing to pressure tactics to criminal activities.

In companies such as supermarket chains in immigrant-heavy areas, for instance, militant recruiters cause workplace tensions by imposing fundamentalist ideas on co-workers and pressuring managers to boycott certain products, the study says.

On a more sinister level, the study asserts that Islamic networks are trying to establish a presence in firms involved in sectors such as security, cargo, armored cars, courier services and transportation. Once they gain a foothold, operatives raise funds for militants via theft, embezzlement and robbery, the study alleges.

"Parallel to these sect-like risks, the spread of criminal practices has been detected in the heart of companies [with] two goals: crime using Islam as a pretext; and in addition, local financing of terrorism," concludes the study by the Center for Intelligence Research in Paris.

The report was issued before the recent riots that spread arson and violence nationwide and focused attention on France's immigrant neighborhoods, which are predominantly Muslim. Although intelligence officials detected only a few cases of extremists inciting unrest, authorities worry that the tense urban climate strengthens the hand of hard-core Islamic networks.

French anti-terrorism officials agree with some of the findings of the study of the private sector, though they say parts of the report exaggerate or simplify a complex issue. In any case, the concern is justified in a wider context, officials say: Extremism is rising in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim community, and intertwining with a foreign threat.

Recent arrests reveal that France has been targeted by an alliance teaming Abu Musab Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, with an Algerian-dominated network, said a senior French law enforcement official, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Zarqawi operatives in Lebanon taught bomb-making to accused militants from the network who were arrested here, including French converts, the official said.

That underscores a development on the home front: a "significant increase" in converts, including women, said a French intelligence official, who also asked not to be identified.

There is much more so please read it all.

Iraq seizes booby-trapped toys

Yes, yes, it is they who are the aggrieved and oppressed. I keep forgetting. From SA, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Baghdad - The Iraqi army said on Thursday it had seized a number of booby-trapped children's dolls, accusing insurgents of using the explosive-filled toys to target children.

The dolls were found in a car, each one containing a grenade or other explosive, said an army statement....

"This is the same type of doll as that handed out on several occasions by US soldiers to children," said government spokesperson Leith Kubba....

Jihadists, including "Hitler," win Palestinian primaries

Barghouti update, Tiny Minority of Extremists alert, and Hitler watch: "Jailed Palestinian Leader Wins Primaries," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and other younger activists swept Fatah primaries, signaling a change of generations that could make the corruption-tainted ruling party more attractive to voters in Jan. 25 parliament elections, according to preliminary results released Saturday.

The Barghouti-led "young guard" had long pushed for a greater say, especially after last year's death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who founded Fatah and controlled it four decades....

Barghouti, 46, is seen as a potential successor to Abbas even though he is serving multiple life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in shooting attacks that killed five Israelis....

"Barghouti was convicted in an Israeli court, a civilian court, I would stress, and sentenced to consecutive life sentences for his involvement in the murder of innocent civilians," said Mark Regev, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman....

Two fugitives from Fatah's violent offshoot, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, also secured high positions. The Jenin winner, Jamal Abu Rob, who gave himself the nickname "Hitler," is wanted for killing several suspected informers with Israel. The Nablus candidate, Jamal Jumaa, is a leader of Al Aqsa in the West Bank's largest city.

Troops Who Burned Taliban Face Discipline

More PC pandering from the U.S. military -- while no one seems concerned that those who mutilated corpses in Fallujah out of malice, not "hygienic concerns," not only were not punished, but were celebrated as heroes. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Four U.S. soldiers face disciplinary action for burning the bodies of two Taliban rebels, but they will not be charged with crimes because their actions were motivated by hygienic concerns, the military said Saturday.

The military started its inquiry into the incident last month after TV footage showed U.S. soldiers using the cremation to taunt other Islamic militants — an act that sparked outrage in Afghanistan.

Islam bans cremation, and the video images were compared here to photographs of U.S. troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, said two junior officers who ordered the bodies burned would be officially reprimanded for showing a lack of cultural and religious understanding, but he said the men were unaware that what they were doing was wrong.

Die in your anger

More demands and tirades are issued forth from the unobstructed mouth of Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From The Scotsman:

Iran's hard-line president has called for the Bush administration to be tried on war crimes charges related to Iraq and denounced the West for its stance on Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

"You, who have used nuclear weapons against innocent people, who have used uranium ordnance in Iraq should be tried as war criminals in courts," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an apparent reference to the US.

"Who in the world are you to accuse Iran of suspicious nuclear armed activity?" asked the Iranian president during a nationally televised ceremony marking the 36th anniversary of the establishment of the volunteer Basij paramilitary force.

Speaking of the Basij, Reuters reports,

Thousands of members of Iran’s volunteer militia, the basij, paraded and formed human chains in Iranian cities on Saturday as a show of force against international pressure on Iran’s atomic programme.

In Teheran, some 3,000 basij, clutching automatic rifles and wearing chequered headscarves, paraded before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and chanted “God is the Greatest”.

Ahmadinejad told them their militia spirit would help thwart foreign powers in an international dispute over Iran’s atomic ambitions.

“Of course the (foreign powers) get angry when they see the power and spirit of the militia now governs our international policy, diplomatic relations and negotiations,” the president said. “In reply to their anger say: Go ahead, be angry but Die in your anger.”

Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien "ET" Civilizations

Oh, for pete's sake. Suicide of the West Alert: this guy is worried about "intergalactic war" while the very real problem of Islamic jihadists operating under the radar screen in Canada and other Western countries is ignored or downplayed, and those who point it out are reviled as "bigots." Beam me up, Scotty. A press release:

(PRWEB) - OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005 -- A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with “ETs.”

By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth.

On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."

Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something."

Iran: Government-run body calls for confrontation with U.S. over Iraq

The Thug-In-Chief of Iran continues to rattle his saber. Note the reference to "pure Islam." How will the West convince Muslims that "American Islam" is preferable to "pure Islam"? This is a question that none of those who like to pretend that peaceful Islam is the real thing wish to confront. "Iran’s radical body calls for confrontation with U.S. over Iraq," from IranFocus, with thanks to Jihad Watch News Editor Eric Schwappach:

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 25 – Radical Islamists allied with hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called this week for Iran to confront United States forces in Iraq.

Ansar-e Hezbollah, an ultra-conservative government-run body fiercely loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote in the latest edition of its weekly paper Yatharat al-Hossein that Iran had a religious duty to defend the “occupied lands of Iraq”.

“Our strategy in the occupied lands of Iraq, taking into consideration the efforts by America to take complete control of the country with the second largest oil reserves of the world, make our duties for the region clear in the present circumstances”, the group wrote in its weekly publication.

The group said that the U.S. was introducing “American Islam” in Iraq in place of theocratic Islam, citing recent remarks by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who visited Iran earlier this week, as a “negative example” of the effects of moderate Islam.

“Based on the teachings of pure Islam and without any moderate posturing, we must oppose deviant currents in this arena and fight off the aggressors in Islamic lands following the teachings of the Quran. Of course, we are ready to carry out the orders of the Supreme Leader as a priority”.

Jihad terrorist leads in early Palestinian vote count

Barghouthi will be running for Fatah -- his chief opposition will come from Hamas. It's the frying pan or the fire. Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "Jailed man leads in early Fatah vote count," from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Jailed Palestinian Marwan Barghouthi was emerging as one of the most popular candidates in a vote called to choose people to run for Fatah in Palestinian elections in January, an official said on Friday.

Barghouthi, who is serving five life terms in jail for attacks against Israel, had a very strong showing in an early count of the vote in the West Bank town of Ramallah where he was running from prison.

Suicide bomber kills 30 near Baghdad

Targeting U.S. troops giving out toys to children. How heroic, how proud are these self-professed "lovers of death." From AP, with thanks to JE:

BAGHDAD -- A suicide car bomber targeted U.S. troops handing out toys to children at a hospital yesterday, killing 30 persons including four police guards, three women and two children, officials said.

Another 35 persons were wounded in the morning attack in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, said Dawoud al-Taie, the director of the hospital.

Northern Ireland: Algerian guilty of downloading bomb data

An asylum-seeker in Northern Ireland was downloading bombmaking data. Does this give anyone the idea that asylum-seekers should be subjected to greater scrutiny before being allowed to stay in Western countries? Not yet. "Algerian guilty of downloading bomb data," from The Guardian, with thanks to JE:

A 27-year-old Algerian asylum seeker was yesterday found guilty of downloading information on bomb making from the internet in the first trial of an al-Qaida suspect in Northern Ireland's no-jury Diplock courts.

Abbas Boutrab had gathered instructions on how to construct explosives and smuggle them on an aircraft. He also learned how to make a silencer for an M16 or AK assault rifle from metal tubing and rubber door stops.

During the seven-week hearing in Belfast an FBI agent, Donald Schtleben, demonstrated that 25 computer disks found in Boutrab's possession could be used to build a bomb capable of bringing down an aircraft. He suggested the devices could have been disguised inside canisters of baby talcum powder.

American White Supremacist David Duke: My Country Is Also Occupied by the Zionists

I just dipped into my voluminous Hate Mail Bag and picked out this gem:

NAZIS NAZIS NAZIS

Hitler must be very very proud of you. You f**king fat kike.

However, in the real world those who actually admire and strive to emulate Hitler are not opponents of the global jihad, but its allies: witness the Aryan Nations' statement that "Islam is our ally, and the 1500 cults all claiming to be 'Christian' are our opposition." And now David Duke, the famous Louisiana racist, has turned up in Syria to provide more evidence of this.

"American White Supremacist David Duke Addressing Damacus Demonstration in Support of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: My Country Is Also Occupied by the Zionists," from MEMRITV, with thanks to JE:

Following are excerpts from a speech by American white supremacist David Duke, aired on Syrian TV on November 24, 2005.

[...]

David Duke: It is only in America and around the world, it is only the Zionists who want war rather than peace.

Interpreter: All over the world... In America, and all over the world, it is only the Zionists who want war instead of peace.

David Duke: It hurts my heart to tell you that part of my country is occupied by Zionists, just as part of your country, the Golan Heights, is occupied by Zionists.

Interpreter: It saddens me and it hurts my heart to tell you that parts of my country are occupied, just as parts of your country, namely the occupied Golan, are occupied by the Zionists.

David Duke: The Zionists occupy must of the American media and now control much of American government.

Interpreter: The Zionists control most of the media outlets, and they also control the American government.

David Duke: It is not just the West Bank of Palestine, it is not just the Golan Heights that are occupied by the Zionists, but Washington DC, and New York, and London, and many other capitals in the world.

Interpreter: It is not just the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights that are occupied by the Zionists. Washington DC, New York, London, and other cities and capitals around the world are occupied by the Zionists.

David Duke: Your fight for freedom is the same as our fight for freedom.

Interpreter: Just as the Europeans are fighting for freedom, the Arabs are fighting for freedom.

David Duke: I bring you a message from many Americans, from many people in Britain, and around the Western world. We say in unison: No war for Israel.

Interpreter: I have brought you a message from most of the Western world, from America, from Britain. The message is: No to war, no to Israel.

Duke: No war for Israel!

Crowd chants along with David Duke

David Duke: No war for Israel, no war for Israel, no war for Israel, no war for Israel!

Interpreter: No to a war for the sake of Israel... No to a war for the sake of Israel... No to a war for the sake of Israel...

Iraqi Sunni Imam Tells of Tortures and Calls on Iraqis to Slaughter American Soldiers for the Muslim Holiday

Moral equivalency alert: can you imagine any Christian cleric, under any circumstances, telling people to slaughter someone for Christmas? Can you imagine a Buddhist monk doing so? Yet statements like this from Muslim clerics are so numerous that the world hardly notices. From MEMRITV, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Following are excerpts from an interview given by Sunni Cleric, Abd Al-Karim Abd Al-Razzaq, the Imam of Omar Al Mukhtar Mosque in Baghdad that was broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) on November 22, 2005:

[...]

Razzaq: I say to the Iraqis whoever cannot slaughter (a sheep) on the Feast of Sacrifice, should take and American soldier and slaughter him.

Ohio Cleric to Be Deported for Terror Ties

Another example of the fact that there is no dividing line in the Islamic community between peaceful and violent Muslims, and that prominent "moderates" can easily become "radicals": remember that Imam Fawaz Damra was one of the signers of the CAIR-endorsed fatwa against terrorism issued some time ago by the Fiqh Council of North America. Fawaz Damra update from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader Friday as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.

Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio's largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.

That conviction was upheld in March, clearing the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.

Damra, 44, was arrested early Friday without incident, the immigration office said....

The Palestinian-born Damra, who is the imam, or spiritual leader, at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s.

In Damra's trial last year, prosecutors showed video footage of Damra and other Islamic leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.

Jurors also were shown footage in which Damra called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs" during a 1991 speech and said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation" in a 1989 speech.

Spencer book: 14th week on NYT bestseller list

No publicity in recent weeks. No reviews beyond three that appeared online when the book first came out. Yet my book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) continues to attract interest.

For the week of December 4, it checks in at #22 on the New York Times Bestseller List (paperback nonfiction). This is its fourteenth week on the list.

Yet the liberal and conservative media continue to behave as if this book represents a marginal perspective, not worth paying attention to. They may be in for a surprise.

Iraq: Interior Ministry Official Among Terrorist Arrests

A Democracy On the March Update from AKI, emphasizing once again that Muslims worldwide have not separated into pro-jihad and anti-jihad camps, but that a "moderate" can turn into a "radical" at any time:

Baghdad, 25 Nov (AKI) - The Iraqi authorities say that they have arrested the leaders of three terror networks operating around Baghdad, two of which were headed by an interior ministry official. General Bassem al-Gharawy told the German newsagency DPA that the third network was headed by the manager of a private investment company.

The networks were based in the al-Ghazaliya and al-Jihad to the west of Baghdad. ''The arrests were carried out in a legal manner, the detainees confessed to have carried out robberies, murders and have set off bombs" al-Gharawy said. "The task of the interior ministry official was to provide weapons, equipment and official documents to facilitate their operations," he added.

Come on and Sephardi now, everybody's learning how, come on and Sephardi with me...

I trust you remember the Beach Boys' classic hit "Surfin' Sephardi." Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that any web surfer can edit, has always been a haven for surfin' ideologues and nutcases. And now they have figured me out: "His Jewish background is cited the main reason for his ant-islamic thesis.He is originally of Sephardic Jewish background." I see that this deliciously ridiculous section, sent to me by Jihad Watch reader Moondog, has been taken down -- but it was too revealing, with its barely coherent paranoia and open antisemitism, to consign unremarked to the dustbin of e-history:

Critics have snubbed Spencer for his confused character which they say,is mirrored in his writings.He is considered psychologically impotent to be a scholar and his writings are mainly based on internet browsing.Most Arab and Western media personaal are even ignorant of his presence as a biased orientalist.The most common accusations he has to face are his zionist cause.His Jewish background is cited the main reason for his ant-islamic thesis.He is originally of Sephardic Jewish background.Publications in major US dailies of his works is mocked by critics as they are alreaddy know n to be Zionist tools.Furthermore neutral Political Scientists throughout the Western world consider his articles as ludicrous and laughable.His Jewish looks are evident of his cover as a catholic as to propagate and incite hatred towards Muslims.

What remains in the Wikipedia entry about me is not much more accurate or pertinent to my work than this, but it isn't nearly as funny. Seriously, however, it is worth noting that neither this section nor the rest of the Wikipedia entry can pinpoint anything I say about Muslims or Islam that is actually untrue. Whether it's CAIR or Omid Safi or Stephen Schwartz or anyone else, my critics can only issue blanket dismissals of my accuracy (without providing any examples), or mutter about my alleged true allegiances and dark motives, or try to smear me for statements I did not make.

These tactics doubtless impress the ignorant and credulous, but others are not so willing to be diverted from the real issues.

UN blames Hizballah for attacks on Israel

From the Pigs Are Flying Department: "U.N. blames Hezbollah for Blue Line fights," from UPI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council has expressed deep concern about hostilities along the Blue Line between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon earlier in the week.

In unusual specificity Wednesday, it said the Monday clashes "were initiated by Hezbollah from the Lebanese side, and which quickly spread along the entire Blue Line," and said it regretted the casualties on both sides.

How a Belgian Town Became a Terror Hub

More evidence of the absence of a dividing line within Islamic communities in the West between peaceful Muslims and jihadists -- and of the dangerous implications of that absence. Note that the burqa-clad women identified themselves as the "only true believers of the Koran." Yet official Washington, Western European authorities, and the media worldwide continue to ignore such assertions, and to pretend -- and call upon all people to pretend -- that within Islamic communities worldwide there is a clear and prevailing understanding that such people are not "true believers," but in fact heretics, excoriated by the majority of Muslims. We hear all the time how "Wahhabism" is a newly-minted, anti-traditional form of Islam. But where is the evidence for these assertions? The only thing untraditional about the Wahhabis is their extravagant taste for takfir, or the declaration of other Muslims as heretics and apostates. What no one wants to face is the fact that Wahhabism shares with all other Muslim groups the idea that Muslims must wage war against non-Muslims in order to establish the hegemony of Islamic law. This is not a tenet of "radical" Islam, but of traditional Islam.

"How a Town Became a Terror Hub: Belgian Haven Seen At Heart of Network," from the Washington Post, with thanks to Jerry Gordon:

MAASEIK, Belgium -- The phones at city hall began ringing nonstop one morning last year when several masked figures were spotted walking through the cobbled streets of this pastoral town. A small panic erupted when one of the figures, covered head to ankle in black fabric, appeared at a school and scared children to tears.

It turned out the people were not hooded criminals, but six female residents of Maaseik who were displaying their Muslim piety by wearing burqas, garments that veiled their faces, including their eyes. After calm was restored, a displeased Mayor Jan Creemers summoned the women to his office.

"I said, 'Ladies, you can be dressed all in Armani black for all I care, but please do not cover your faces,' " Creemers recalled. "I tried to talk to them about it, but it was impossible. They said, 'We are the only true believers of the Koran.' "

What the city elders did not know at the time was that the women came from households in which several men had embraced radical Islam and joined a terrorist network that was setting up sleeper cells across Europe, according to Belgian federal prosecutors and court documents from Italy, Spain and France.

Over the next nine months, Belgian federal police arrested five men in Maaseik, a town of 24,000 people tucked in the northeast corner of Belgium. Each was charged with membership in a terrorist organization, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a fast-growing network known by its French initials, GICM.

With each arrest, investigators uncovered fresh evidence that placed small-town Maaseik at the center of a terrorist network stretching across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The town had served as a haven for suspects in the Madrid train explosions that killed 191 people in March 2004, for instance, as well as an important meeting place for the GICM's European leadership.

Read it all.

My trip to Israel

Israel is at the front line of the global jihad movement. Ever since the State of Israel was founded in 1948, and even before, it has faced jihadist opposition from groups adamant in their determination to destroy it utterly. Yet I expect that a poll of Americans would find only a tiny minority would affirm that Israel faces the same foe, with the same ideology, as the one the United States has faced since 9/11. The Left, of course, and many others -- including some of the Arabic-speaking Christians with whom I am in daily contact -- believe fervently that Israel is the aggressor against an innocent and aggrieved Palestinian people, and that the conflict is wholly and solely about "stolen land."

I was recently offered, and immediately seized, an opportunity to see for myself. I arrived in Israel last Tuesday, November 15, and back home in Secure Undisclosed Locationville yesterday. Among many other things, in the last few days, I have:

• Explored the Muslim Quarter and other sections of Jerusalem's Old City;

• Peered into Syria from an Israeli bunker on the Golan Heights;

• Traveled by bulletproof bus through the West Bank, and inspected the security fence;

• Slept (fitfully) in a Bedouin tent in the desert, and savored the magnificence of the stark land;

• Walked through the 700-year-old streets of Safed, not far from where the Hizb'Allah rockets fell a few days ago near Kiryat Shmona and Metulla;

• Strolled around modern Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

I also had the honor of meeting Natan Sharansky (I gave him copies of my books The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and Onward Muslim Soldiers) and the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shlomo Moshe Amar. I met a couple who had recently been evacuated by the Israeli government from their West Bank "settlement," where they had lived and worked for twelve years, and endured daily gunfire from Palestinians since the Al-Aqsa intifada began in September 2000. I met an American who now lives and works on a kibbutz in the Golan Heights, cultivating land just across the Syrian border, in defiance of the danger involved. Like so many other Israelis all over the country, he must carry a gun at all times. I photographed a large, confidently imposing, and clearly thriving mosque near my hotel in Tel Aviv, the very existence of which stands as poignant refutation of the charge that Muslims are oppressed in Israel -- especially in light of the glaring non-existence of synagogues in Muslim lands and the precarious existence of churches in them.

Israel is a country at war, a country under siege. Everywhere I went, even into a shopping mall in Tel Aviv, armed guards stood at the entry, searching everyone. Many Israelis with whom I spoke discussed the weariness of the people after decades and decades of war. They said that many, and maybe even a majority, are willing to cut any deal, even one involving giving up half of Jerusalem, in order to buy a peace that they themselves acknowledge will last only a few years.

But at the same time, there is a tremendous spirit among the people. I saw the greenhouses and agricultural projects making the desert bloom, and the determination of so many not to be intimidated, not to bow in the face of jihad violence. Long may they prosper.

Israel stands virtually alone in the world not only because of lingering antisemitism, but because Palestinian Arabs and their allies have succeeded in convincing opinion-makers that their land was taken illegitimately by Israel, and that they are oppressed there. The facts are otherwise, as I have discussed in a previous article here. The state was established legitimately and with the approval of the United Nations, and even the "occupied territories" were obtained according to what have been universally recognized throughout history as the rules of war. (Or should the United States give up the "occupied territories" of California, Texas, and other Western states? Should Russia withdraw from its "occupied territories" in Konigsberg, eastern Finland and eastern Poland? Should Muslims across North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, India and Southeast Asia withdraw from those "occupied territories" back to Arabia?) While I am sympathetic to genuine Palestinian Arab refugees, and with my friends from Ramallah and Jenin, I can't help but notice the role of the neighboring Arab states in exacerbating and prolonging the refugee problem for political reasons that are ultimately rooted in the jihad ideology. I can't help but notice that I was able to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Mount Tabor, and other Christian holy sites in Israel, which mean a great deal to me personally, while Bethlehem, under Palestinian Authority control, has become a dangerous place from which Christians are fleeing as quickly as they can. I can't help but notice that there was no call to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when those territories were under Jordanian and Egyptian control respectively -- despite the alleged difference of nationality between Palestinians and Jordanians and Egyptians.

Ultimately, if the nations of the world are interested in defending universal human rights and the equality of dignity of all people, they need to stand with Israel. Misdiagnosis of the problem -- that is, the unwillingness or inability of Western governments to acknowledge the motives and goals of the jihadists who want above all to destroy them -- has largely prevented this.

Yet as Benjamin Franklin said long ago in a far different context, we must all hang together, or we will most assuredly all hang separately.

Happy Thanksgiving

I returned to the U.S. yesterday and have been busy catching up on a mountain of calls and emails. My heartfelt thanks to Jihad Watch News Editors Anne Crockett, Rebecca Bynum, Eric Schwappach and Patrick Devenny for keeping you up-to-date on the latest news from the wonderful world of the global jihad. Unfortunately, there is never a shortage of acceptable material for both the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch sides of this site. My fondest hope is that someday, like the state under Communism, this site would wither away, having nothing to report; however, the likelihood of that happening is about as probable as was that Marxist fantasy.

Anyway, today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and there is, despite the ever-gathering clouds, much for which to be thankful. I am grateful that:

1. Although there have been several notable attempts at another large-scale jihad terrorist attack in the United States, they have all so far been thwarted;

2. Attacks in Britain, France and elsewhere have resulted not solely in calls for dhimmi capitulation, but also in increased resolve in the face of a menace that is becoming increasingly clear;

3. As the wholly unexpected popularity of my latest book indicates, despite the ever-stifling politically correct lockstep in the mainstream media (both left and right) about Islamic terrorism, more and more people are awakening to the truth and speaking out -- like Solzhenitsyn's blades of grass poking through the concrete;

4. This site continues to gain readers, which encourages me, since I don't know of any other site that does exactly what we do: reports on jihad activity all over the world, against Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others, and explains the news stories in light of the larger goals of the jihad movement. In November we are averaging around 500,000 hits every day -- about 25,000 visitors daily, if I am reading these charts correctly -- and that is more than we have ever had. I have also been consulted in the past few months by a Senate committee, a Congressman, and reporters from the BBC, ABC, the Washington Post, and others.

5. As the jihadists continue their activity around the world, they daily make it more difficult for their Muslim and non-Muslim apologists to continue to deflect attention from the fact that we are engaged in a war to defend notions of universal rights and equality of dignity of all people, which rights the jihadists are determined to subvert.

And for what are you thankful?

Senior Iraqi Sunni Leader Killed

"Iraq Insurgents Kill Senior Sunni Leader" But were they really "insurgents"? From AP via Interest Alert:

Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into the home of a senior Sunni leader on Wednesday and killed him, his three sons and his son-in-law on the outskirts of Baghdad, his brother and an interior ministry official said.

Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem was the leader of the Sunni Batta tribe and the brother of a parliamentary candidate in the Dec. 15 election, the official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. Another of the slain man's brothers said the family has been attacked before.

'A group of gunmen with Iraqi army uniforms and vehicles broke into my brother's house in the Hurriyah area and sprayed them with machine gun fire, killing him along with three sons and his son-in law,' said his brother, Nima Sarhid Al-Hemaiyem. 'His eldest son was assassinated one month ago in the Taji area, northern Baghdad, when unidentified men shot and killed him.'

Al-Mohammedawi said government forces were not involved and the investigation was focused on insurgents.

'Surely, they are outlaw insurgents. As for the military uniform, they can be bought from many shops in Baghdad,' he said. 'Also, we have several police and army vehicles stolen and they can be used in the raids.'...

More than 160 Iraqis, most of them Shiites, have died in a wave of spectacular suicide operations across Iraq since Friday.

Iraq's Talabani says Iran promises support against insurgents

From AFX via Forbes:

TEHRAN - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrapped up a landmark visit to neighbouring Iran today, saying he had won promises of support for his bid to end the insurgency ravaging his country.

'Iran is interested in our security just as it is interested in its own security. We should use all means to establish security in Iraq,' Talabani said as he was seen off by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Talabani is the first Iraqi head of state to visit Iran since the late 1960s. He said he had received pledges of support in his closed-door talks with Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei told Talabani that foreign troops were the cause of violence and that Iraqi authorities should demand a timetable for a pull-out.

'The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the American government responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people and all the crimes and assassinations now being committed in Iraq,' Khamenei was quoted as saying by official media.

'The presence of foreign troops is damaging for the Iraqis, and the Iraqi government could ask for their departure by proposing a timetable,' Khamenei asserted, adding that 'the US and Britain will eventually have to leave Iraq with a bitter experience.'...

US to Resume Sales of Lethal Weapons to Indonesia

From VOA:

The United States has decided to resume the sale of lethal military hardware to Indonesia. The State Department announced Tuesday that in the interest of U.S. national security it has exercised its authority under a law passed earlier this month to waive conditions on U.S. military relations with Indonesia.

The State Department statement says "Indonesia has made significant progress in advancing its democratic institutions and practices in a relatively short time." As a result, the department has decided to waive conditions placed on the sale of lethal military equipment to Indonesia and on U.S. financing of Indonesian military purchases...

Congress was divided on the issue, with the House of Representatives voting to remove the restrictions, while the Senate voted to maintain them. The Senate's view was adopted as part of a broader compromise that enabled the law to be passed.

Tuesday's State Department statement notes that Indonesia is the world's most populous mostly Muslim nation, and praises the country as "a voice of moderation in the Islamic world." It also says Indonesia "plays a key role in guaranteeing security in the strategic sea lanes in Asia."

Paper Says Bush Talked of Bombing Arab TV Network

But Tony Blair talked him out of it. So says the Washington Post, also known affectionately as the "Bandar Beacon":

LONDON -- President Bush expressed interest in bombing the headquarters of the Arabic television network al-Jazeera during a White House conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair in April 2004, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Daily Mirror report was attributed to two anonymous sources describing a classified document they said contained a transcript of the two leaders' talk. One source is quoted as saying Bush's alleged remark concerning the network's headquarters in Qatar was "humorous, not serious," while the other said, "Bush was deadly serious."

In Washington, a senior diplomat said the Bush remark as recounted in the newspaper "sounds like one of the president's one-liners that is meant as a joke." But, the diplomat said, "it was foolish for someone to write it down, and now it will be a story for days."

"We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told the Associated Press in an e-mail.

Al-Jazeera has frequently aired recorded statements from al Qaeda figures. Bush administration officials have contended that through that type of broadcasting the network often serves as a conduit for terrorist propaganda...

Nuclear plan could be enriching

Bronwen Maddox says reining-in Iran's ambitions could also help others to explore alternative fuels in this article in TimesOnline, with thanks to Interested.

IN FOUR months of extravagantly bad-tempered diplomacy, Iran’s new President has pulled off one small success. He has sidestepped a fight with the rest of the world tomorrow over his country’s nuclear plans.

That shows a flicker of an instinct for self-preservation by President Ahmadinejad — one of the few compliments that it is possible to pay him since his election in June.

The reprieve, even if temporary, may have a wider benefit, too. It may sketch out an answer to a problem growing more obvious by the day: how to prevent the world’s renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power leading to the spread of nuclear weapons...

One senior European official said it was reassuring that there was "a great deal of common ground". All the countries agreed that there should be a "significant gap in the fuel cycle" — Iran should not be allowed to master all the techniques for making reactor fuel, which would also give it the expertise for making weapons. The plan for the moment, then, is to push Russia’s proposal of a fortnight ago. Iran would be allowed to prepare uranium in the form of gas, but enrichment of uranium into reactor fuel and reprocessing of fuel rods (another route to a bomb) would be done in Russia.

We’ll see. Iran has avoided rejecting this, a move one European official called "tactically sensible". But it also wants to press ahead with its enrichment plant at Natanz...

At worst the Russian proposal has taken the heat off Iran. But at best it will have pointed the way to a solution for other countries wanting an alternative to expensive gas and oil...

Afghans find body of kidnapped Indian engineer

From Reuters:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan police on Wednesday found the decapitated body of an Indian man who Taliban insurgents said they kidnapped and executed, a provincial official said.

The body of the engineer, who had been working on a road project, was found on a dirt road in the southern province of Nimroz, said Mohammad Hashim, a district chief in the province.

"Police have found the body of the Indian national and I can confirm that he has been killed," Hashim told Reuters.

The young man had been beheaded, according to Amanullah Khan, chief of highway police in the province.

The head was placed with the body and a note, apparently written in English was also found, Khan said.

Burglary for hawala cash leaves British cop dead

From NewIndPress:

LONDON: A large amount of cash intended for 'hawala' transactions in the Indian subcontinent was the main target of a burglary at a British travel agency in which one woman police officer was shot dead.

The killing of the officer, Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, last Friday has dominated media coverage here, including the coverage of a public outpouring of grief in Bradford and elsewhere in Britain.

Money-laundering expert Jeffrey Robinson told reporters: "Somebody obviously knew there was money there on Friday but the fact that a gun was involved says to me that this is not just ordinary guys looking for money to buy drugs."

Khalilzad escapes mortar attack on Tikrit ceremony

And a suicide car bomb attack kills 18. From Pakistan's Daily Times:

TIKRIT: A mortar round landed on Tuesday during a ceremony attended by American ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and other top officials in the north of the country.

Bodyguards formed a wall around the US envoy before rushing him away after the mortar shell was fired at a ceremony he and US commander General George Casey were attending near Tikrit, an AFP correspondent reported.

“One round did land several hundred yards away, but did not explode,” US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson said. “There were no injuries,” he added. Casey, bent in half, was surrounded by a number of his officers, and other participants scrambled away for safety...

A suicide car bomb blast killed 18 people, including 10 police, and wounded 28 others in an attack in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, police and doctors at Kirkuk’s main hospital said...

Going door-to-door

Can't get to the mosque for an earful of jihad? No problem. In Kuwait there are traveling preachers who'll bring it to your front door. From ADNKI:

Kuwait City, 22 Nov. (AKI) - Five extremist 'preachers' have been arrested for going door-to-door spreading the doctrine of the terror group al-Qaeda among the inhabitants of a Kuwaiti city. Local newspaper al-Seyassah said the five were detained on Monday morning as they went around the al-Farwaniya area, knocking on doors and stopping citizens to talk to them about the importance of the Jihad (holy war) and the need to re-establish Sharia Islamic law in the world.

The five preachers had effectively been holding impromptu religious lessons on the Jihad all morning, until the police were alerted and they were arrested. The group of fundamentalist preachers was made up of three Egyptians and two Indonesians. The security services are trying to discover how they entered the country and if they had direct contact with terror groups active in Iraq.

Suspect in Assassination Plot Convicted

From AP

Jurors rejected a U.S. citizen's claim he was tortured by Saudi forces to extract a confession and found him guilty Tuesday of joining al-Qaida and plotting the assassination of President Bush.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, could be sentenced to life in prison on charges that include conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to hijack aircraft and providing support to al-Qaida.

Dirty Bomb Suspect Jose Padilla Indicted

From AP

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charges for more than three years on suspicion of plotting a "dirty bomb" attack in this country, has been indicted on three counts alleging he conspired to "murder, maim and kidnap" people overseas.
The indictment naming Padilla and four others was unsealed Tuesday after being returned last week by a federal grand jury in Miami. While the charges allege Padilla was part of a U.S.-based terrorism conspiracy, they do not include the government's earlier allegations that he planned to carry out attacks in America.

Israel's new middle way

Sharon has quit Likud to form a new centrist party ahead of elections in early spring. From the Christian Science Monitor:

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, rarely one to wait for others to act first, made a series of preemptive political strikes Monday that laid the groundwork for a new centrist party and may cement his position as Israel's premier hawk-made-moderate.

After resigning from the hard-line Likud on Sunday and calling for early elections in March, Mr. Sharon Monday announced the formation of the National Responsibility Party. If successful, Sharon's new party could transcend Israel's right-left divide and claim a mandate for negotiating a settlement to the Israel-Palestinian conflict...

"The Likud in its present configuration cannot lead the nation to its goals," said Sharon - the first sitting Israeli prime minister to quit his party - at a press conference to announce the formation of National Responsibility. The Gaza pullout created a "historic opportunity," he said. "I will not allow anyone to squander it."...

"Sharon doesn't care if this is a one-term party," says Ethan Dor-Shav, a political analyst and associate fellow at Jerusalem's Shalem Center.

"He doesn't need to run again, and it's going to be stated quite clearly that this will be a last time for him," he says, "and that he will reach a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority, one that will determine borders, within the next four years."

Israeli jets attack south Lebanon

From the BBC:

Israeli warplanes have bombed southern Lebanon, a day after Lebanese guerrillas attacked Israeli soldiers in a border area. The planes fired rockets at a suspected outpost of the Hezbollah group.

Four Hezbollah fighters were killed in clashes on Monday, which came amid intense artillery fire from both sides.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz says Israel was conducting its most extensive response to Hezbollah attacks since its forces left Lebanon in 2000...

Eleven Israelis were wounded in Monday's clashes - the worst violence in the area since the Israeli pullout...

Iran and Iraq bury past to reopen trade

From Reuters:

BAGHDAD - Once a bitter enemy, Iran is emerging as a trade lifeline for Iraq as Baghdad seeks to rebuild an economy shattered by years of sanctions, neglect and corruption under Saddam Hussein and since his overthrow.

As Iraq picks up the pieces, it is becoming a key market for its neighbours, especially Iran which it fought from 1980-88. Many Iraqi business people say it is easier to get goods like vegetables from Iran than from some parts of Iraq itself, where insurgents sometimes target truck drivers.

"We import fruits and vegetables from Iran because we feel relieved about the safety of the roads our trucks are moving on," Iraqi trader Ali Shahatha said.

Helping to thaw and improve relations with Iran is new Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, an Islamist Shi'ite who has close ties to Shi'ite Iran, where he once lived in exile.

Iranian Commerce Ministry estimates say trade with Iraq could reach $1 billion in the year to March 2006 in everything from fruit and vegetables to refrigerators and building materials. Goods worth $650 million were exported to Iraq in the first 10 months of 2005, official figures show.

Trade ties are much simpler now that Saddam, a Sunni Arab aggressively at odds with his Persian neighbours, has gone...

Iran has long wanted to cooperate with Iraq -- a fellow member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) -- by swapping crude oil and possibly developing joint border oil fields.

Oil aside, Iran has established a $1 billion line of credit to get exports flowing into Iraq and also has a deal to export about 200,000 tonnes of flour to the U.S.-backed country...

Iraq and Iran are also beginning to rebuild trade along southern sea routes. This will become easier after the rebuilding of Iraq's battered port at Umm Qasr is complete...

Islamists say Egypt releases 260 activists

From Reuters:

CAIRO - The Egyptian authorities have released more than half of some 460 Muslim Brotherhood activists arrested in legislative elections this week, a leading member of the Islamist group said on Tuesday.

The activists were rounded up before and during the elections in which the Muslim Brotherhood poses the strongest challenge to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

"About 260 have got out and there are still about 200 (in prison)," Essam el-Erian told Reuters.

The Brotherhood, which is officially banned, has tripled its strength in parliament halfway through the elections with 47 seats. They had 15 places in the outgoing chamber, which was elected in 2000. The NDP has won about 120 seats so far.

The Brotherhood is contesting about one third of parliament's 444 elected seats, not posing a threat to the NDP's control. Brotherhood candidates stand as independents to sidestep the ban on the group...

Iraqi Factions Seek Timetable for U.S. Pullout

100 Sunni, Shiite, Kurdish leaders reach agreement at end of Arab League meeting. From the New Duranty Times:

CAIRO - For the first time, Iraq's political factions on Monday collectively called for a timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces, in a moment of consensus that comes as the Bush administration battles pressure at home to commit itself to a pullout schedule.

The announcement, made at the conclusion of a reconciliation conference here backed by the Arab League, was a public reaching out by Shiites, who now dominate Iraq's government, to Sunni Arabs on the eve of parliamentary elections that have been put on shaky ground by weeks of sectarian violence.

About 100 Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, many of whom will run in the election on Dec. 15, signed a closing memorandum on Monday that "demands a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified timetable, dependent on an immediate national program for rebuilding the security forces," the statement said.

"The Iraqi people are looking forward to the day when foreign forces will leave Iraq, when its armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can enjoy peace and stability and an end to terrorism," it continued.

The meeting was intended as preparation for a much larger conference in Iraq in late February. The recommendations made here are to be the starting ground for that meeting.

In Washington, Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman, said, "The United States supports the basic foundation of the conference and we certainly support ongoing discussion among Iraq's various political and religious communities."

But regarding troop withdrawal, he said: "Multinational forces are present in Iraq under a mandate from the U.N. Security Council. As President Bush has said, the coalition remains committed to helping the Iraqi people achieve security and stability as they rebuild their country. We will stay as long as it takes to achieve those goals and no longer."

Shiite leaders have long maintained that a pullout should be done according to milestones, and not before Iraqi security forces are fully operational. The closing statement upheld a Sunni demand for a pullout, while preserving aspects of Shiite demands, but did not specify when a withdrawal should begin, making it more of a symbolic gesture than a concrete agenda item that could be followed up by the Iraqi government...

Arab shows decry Islamists

But offer no real Islamic alternative. From the Washington Times:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Exploding buildings, booby-trapped cars and bloodied victims began appearing on Arab satellite television recently in daring dramas that deal with Islamic militancy in al Qaeda's main breeding ground.

The producers of the shows say they are another battleground in the war on homegrown religious zealotry, which many Middle East governments are confronting by crackdowns and media campaigns.

"Al Tareeq Al-Waer" ("The Rugged Path") and "Al-Hur Al-Ayn" ("The Beautiful Maidens") were aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a time of peak viewing in the Middle East...

In one scene, a moderate cleric tells worshippers, including a would-be terrorist, that the goal of jihad is to protect society in the event of a clear threat against it.

Another character says jihad is not the killing of civilians, but the struggle to become a better Muslim.

The soaps have received acclaim from some viewers, but their content has raised anger among others. A Saudi newspaper reported that some actors in "The Beautiful Maidens" received death threats.

Last year, Mr. Hamdan's series "The Road to Kabul," which dealt with Afghanistan's ousted radical Taliban regime, was pulled off the air after militant threats. Channels at the time said the show was canceled for technical reasons.

Sunni Leaders: Resistance is a right

From AlJazeera.Net:

Iraqi politicians have saved a reconciliation conference in Cairo from collapse with compromise language saying all peoples have a right to resist, Sunni Arab politicians say.

On Monday, all parties to the three-day meeting called by the Cairo-based Arab League agreed to the formula: "Resistance is a legitimate right of all peoples", said Mezher al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Muslim from the defiant west of Iraq.

Shaikh Emad Mohammed Ali, an official of the Sunni Muslim Iraqi People's Gathering, confirmed the agreement.

The participants in the conference went outside for a group photograph in the grounds of the Arab League headquarters, the venue for the meeting.

The Iraqi government, which depends on US military support, has opposed any language that could be interpreted as support for armed groups that are opposed to the US presence in Iraq and have been fighting to drive US-led troops out of the country.

Sunni Muslims opposed to the government have argued that US occupation is the root cause of the violence in Iraq and US troops should leave as soon as possible.

Iran Is Building Nukes in Underground Locations

According to Alireza Jafardazeh, a spokesman for an Iranian opposition group, Iran has built dozens of underground tunnels and facilities for the construction of nuclear-capable missiles. From ABC News:

Speaking this morning at the National Press Club, Jafarzadeh described an "extensive large-scale operation" for the development of nuclear-capable missiles "in the most sophisticated, hidden way" in tunnels in a mountain range east of Tehran. Jafarzadeh named several Iranian entities involved in Iran's missile program, overseen by the Hemmat Industries Group. He said that eyewitnesses describe the facilities, begun in 1989, as an "underground township." Jafarzadeh added that, in addition to work on the Shahab family of missiles, Hemmat is overseeing work on a new long-range missile, Ghadar, which is still in development and has a projected range of 1,300 to 1,900 miles.

Reports of North Korean cooperation with Iran on its nuclear and missile programs have surfaced previously. In July 2005, Reuters cited a three-page intelligence report charging that North Koreans were teaching secret graduate-level courses at Tehran's Polytechnic University in nuclear technology. The UK's Telegraph reported in June 2005 that North Korean specialists in underground construction had arrived in Tehran to help design their facilities that would better shield Iran's nuclear program from international scrutiny.

Jafarzadeh's allegations come on the heels of the latest report on Iran from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which reveals that Iran received a document from the A.Q. Khan network in 1987 describing the "casting and machining" uranium into "hemispherical forms," a process directly relevant to the design of a nuclear warhead.

A State Department official contacted by ABC News about Jafarzadeh's charges was unable to corroborate them but did confirm that the Hemmat Industries Group was sanctioned in May 2003 as the unlawful recipient of missile technology from Moldova. The Shahab-3 was flight-tested by Iran in 2004. It is known to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and has a range of 1,500 kilometers. Experts do not know how many such missiles Iran has produced or deployed.

Missed It By THAT Much

MSNBC has an update on Zarqawi:

A Pentagon source said that the military did have intelligence that indicated al-Zarqawi was meeting in a Mosul home with high-level Iraq in al-Qaida lieutenants. As soldiers closed in on the site, there was an exchange of small arms fire, then it appears that three al-Qaida suspects blew themselves up to avoid capture.
The military is conducting DNA tests on flesh and blood recovered from the scene, but a Pentagon official said indications are that al-Zarqawi is not among those killed.
"The information was solid. We just missed him," said one Pentagon source.

Terrorists to have therapy

Jihadists just need a good dialog to convince them of their errant ways. From the Gulf News:

The Saudi Ministry of Interior is carrying out a comprehensive orientation programme aimed at conducting dialogue with people arrested in connection with the security events and terrorist acts which took place recently in Saudi Arabia. The programme was announced yesterday by the Director-General of Relations and Guidance at the Interior Ministry, Dr Saud Bin Saud Al Musaibeeh, who is also chairman of the counselling committee formed by the ministry for this purpose.

The committee comprises Muslim scholars, propagators and philosophers specialising in Sharia, psychology and sociology.

In statements to the official Saudi news agency, Dr Al Musaibeeh said the plan was targeted towards those with deviated ideologies to outline to them the danger of their ideologies on Muslim society and to convince them to renounce these destructive thoughts.

Notice that nothing is said about the danger to non-Muslim societies.

"They will be provided with books and will attend orientation courses that will enable them to correct their false beliefs and conception through effective means," he added.

He said all those who benefited from the orientation programme and returned to the right path would be released gradually after confirmation from their families they would not allow them to return to their deviant thoughts.

Dr Al Musaibeeh added the government was extending all sorts of home comforts to the detainees and their families, saying that this may contribute positively to the efforts made to convince them to correct their beliefs.

He urged all people in the kingdom to cooperate with the authorities to protect Saudi youth against all thoughts that contradict Islamic teachings and values.

"Everyone has a responsibility, as much as they can to cooperate with the concerned bodies to fight this delinquency which affects the security and stability of the kingdom," he said.

Gingrich sees Iran threat to U.S. like Nazi Germany

World Net Daily and Newt Gingrich take on Iran.

The threat posed to the national security of the United States by Iran was likened only to the one posed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s, by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested Tehran could be planning for a pre-emptive nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack on America that would turn a third or more of the country "back to a 19th century level of development."
Gingrich made the stunning statements, which echo warning of other congressional leaders and national security experts, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week.

Indonesian terror group struggling for funds - police chief

From AFX:

JAKARTA (AFX) - A terror group once led by bombmaker Azahari Husin is struggling for funds after cash from Saudi Arabia was cut off and now depends on selling cellphone vouchers to get by, Indonesia's police chief General Sutanto said.

Azahari was gunned down by anti-terror police at his hideout in East Java on Nov 9.

Sutanto told a parliamentary commission Azahari's group was short of cash.

'They are now in financial difficulties and their only funding comes from the sales of telephone vouchers, with a profit of about 5 mln rupiah per day,' Sutanto said.

He said the group had in the past received funding from Saudi Arabia but police had in 2003 arrested a man through which the funds were sent.

'With this, their source of funding was disrupted,' he said without giving details.

Azahari and his Malaysian compatriot Noordin Mohammed Top, who is still on the run, were leading members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional extremist group, which has ties to the Al-Qaeda terror network...

PIG to Islam on NYT Bestseller list for 13th week

A Book You’re Not Supposed to Read checked in at #21 on the NYT Bestseller list for November 27.

If you haven't yet read the excellent Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, then you should know that it has many helpful lists of Books You’re Not Supposed to Read if you want to remain in your bubble of politically correct ignorance.

Do you have to spend this Thanksgiving with your moonbat relatives? Are they sure the War on Terror is just a ploy to keep the masses whipped up so Evil Men can prosper from War? Do they think that Christianity is just as violent as Islam? By all means, take this book with you when you visit this year. They may not read it, but at very least, you won't be invited back next year.

Egypt Islamists claim fresh gains

From the BBC:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says it won at least 13 seats in the second round of parliamentary elections on Sunday. The opposition group's gains have yet to be confirmed by official results after a day's voting marred by clashes.

The Brotherhood more than doubled its number of seats in the first round of balloting, gaining 34 seats.

The group is banned in Egypt but fields candidates as independents. An Islamist supporter was killed by a gang of thugs in Alexandria on Sunday, monitors said...

Islamist supporters say many were stopped from voting
"The success recorded by the Muslim Brotherhood during the first phase sparked fear in the regime, which cannot bear the presence of opposition in parliament," said group's deputy leader Mohammed Habib in an interview with AFP.

"The NDP could see it was going to lose and resorted to violence and thugs against the Muslim Brotherhood. All this was aimed at preventing people from voting," he added.

The interior ministry said most of the violence was started by supporters of Islamist candidates...

Iran Votes to Block Nuclear Inspections

More "democracy in action" in Iran. From AP:

Parliament approved a bill Sunday requiring the government to block international inspections of its atomic facilities if the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency refers Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

The bill was approved by 183 of the 197 lawmakers present at the session, which was broadcast live on state-run radio. The vote came four days before the International Atomic Energy Agency board meets to consider referring Tehran for violating a nuclear arms control treaty.

When the bill becomes law, as is expected, it will strengthen the government's hand in resisting international pressure to abandon uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear reactors or an atomic bomb.

The United States accuses Iran of trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran says its program is for generating electricity.

The bill will go to the Guardian Council, a hard-line constitutional watchdog, for expected ratification.

"If Iran's nuclear file is referred or reported to the U.N. Security Council, the government will be required to cancel all voluntary measures it has taken and implement all scientific, research and executive programs to enable the rights of the nation under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," lawmaker Kazem Jalali quoted the bill as saying...

The 35-member IAEA board of governors meets Thursday. In a preparatory report, the U.N. agency found that Iran received detailed nuclear designs from a black-market network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic program. Diplomats say those designs appear to be blueprints for the core of a nuclear warhead...

Morocco Dismantles Terror Network, Arrests 17

From Fox News:

RABAT, Morocco — Moroccan police have dismantled a terrorist network, arresting 17 people, including two former prisoners at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the official MAP news agency reported Sunday. At least some of the suspects were linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Brahim Benchekroun and Mohammed Mazouz -- among five Moroccans freed from Guantanamo in August 2004 -- were among the suspects.

They were arrested Nov. 11 at their homes in connection with a probe into Al Qaeda, a Moroccan security official said, among 17 implicated in the network. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, asked not to be identified by name...

The top two suspects, Khaled Azig and Mohamed R'ha, were recruiting extremists for their cause, MAP quoted police as saying. Members of the network had links with small groups on the Iraqi border and close ties to leading members of the Al Qaeda terror network, MAP reported.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is reportedly holding two Moroccan Embassy employees who disappeared Oct. 20 while driving to Baghdad from Jordan.

Miniter: Sign of Al Qaeda Desperation

Richard Miniter writes in Front Page:

Dead men tell no tales, but luckily for intelligence analysts, live women do.

Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi was not able to detonate her bomb at the wedding party and fled with the guests as her husband exploded himself. Now, she is in the custody of the GID, Jordan's intelligence agency. By all accounts, the interrogation is going slowly. Still, enough information is emerging for us to draw some lessons for the triple bombings in Amman, Jordan, on November 9.

Mrs. al-Rishawi's family history reveals just how effective the U.S. military has proven to be in eliminating insurgents. Jordanian intelligence has learned that three of her brothers were killed by coalition forces in Iraq. Her brother, Thamir al-Rashawi, a member al-Zarqawi's inner circle, was killed in April 2004 in Fallujah, when a missile fired from a U.S. aircraft struck his pick-up truck. Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan al-Mu'ashir described her brother, Thamir, as "the emir [commander] of the Al-Anbar region [of the Iraqi insurgency] in the Al-Qa'idah of Jihad Organization in the Land of Two Rivers. He was the right hand of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi."

Her other two brothers, Ammar and Yassir, died in separate battles with U.S. forces in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005.

Explosives Expert

Mrs. Al-Rishawi's sister had been married to a Jordanian explosives expert, Nidal Mohammed Arabiyat, also killed by U.S. forces in Iraq, according to Agence France Presse.

Though the American media is slow to report it, U.S. forces are relentlessly destroying Zarqawi's senior leadership. A November 2 air strike killed two senior al Qaeda operatives in Iraq: Abu Zahra, the so-called Emir of Husaybah, ran all insurgent operations in that Iraqi city, and Asadallah, Zarqawi's key recruiter. U.S. forces have now confirmed the identities of both dead terrorists...

Violence alters Iraq, city by city

Sunnis and Shiites are rapidly separating in areas that were once mixed towns and neighborhoods. From the International Herald Tribune:

Baghdad - Abu Noor's town had become so hostile to Shiites that his wife had not left the house in a month, his family could no longer go to the medical clinic and mortar shells had been lobbed at the houses of two of his religious leaders. "I couldn't open the door and stand in my yard," he said. So when Abu Noor, a Shiite from Tarmiyah, a heavily Sunni Arab town north of here, ran into an old friend, a Sunni who faced his own problems in a Shiite district in Baghdad, the two decided to switch houses. They even shared a moving van.

Two and a half years after the American invasion, deep divides that have long split Iraqi society have violently burst into full view. As the hatred between Sunni Arabs and Shiites hardens and the relentless toll of bombings and assassinations grows, families are leaving their mixed towns and cities for safer areas where they will not automatically be targets.

In doing so, they are creating increasingly polarized enclaves and redrawing the sectarian map of Iraq, especially in Baghdad and the cities around it.

The evidence is so far mostly anecdotal - the government is not tracking the moves. In a rough count, about 20 cities and towns around Baghdad are segregating, according to accounts by local sheiks, Iraqi nongovernmental organizations and military officials, and the families themselves.

Those areas are among the most mixed and the most violent in Iraq - according to the American military, 85 percent of attacks in the country are in four provinces including Baghdad, and two others to its north and west. The volatile sectarian mix is a holdover from the rule of Saddam Hussein, who gave favors to Sunni landowners in the lush farmland around Baghdad to reinforce loyalties and to protect against Shiites in the south. Shiites came to work the land, and sometimes to own it. Abu Noor moved to Tarmiyah in 1987 after the government gave land to his father.

"The most violent places are the towns and cities around Baghdad," said Sheik Jalal al-Dien al-Sagheer, a member of parliament from a religious Shiite party. "It was a circle. It was invented. It did not exist before."

The result has been carnage on a serious scale. In all, at least eight of Abu Noor's friends and close relatives, including a brother, have been killed since the beginning of 2004.

The motives for the attacks are often complicated. The complex webs of tribal affiliations and social status that rule everyday life in Iraq do not always line up as simply as Shiite against Sunni. But increasingly, despite the urging of some Shiite religious leaders and Sunni politicians, the attacks have been just that: A mostly Sunni Arab fringe is launching vicious attacks against civilians, often Shiites, while Shiite death squads are openly stalking Sunnis for revenge, and the Shiite-dominated government makes regular arrests in Sunni Arab neighborhoods...

Al-Zarqawi unlikely killed in Mosul gunfight, U.S. says

From the Seattle Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight — some by their own hands to possibly avoid capture. The White House said Sunday that it was "highly unlikely" that the terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

Insurgents, meanwhile, killed a U.S. soldier and two Marines in attacks over the weekend, and a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the south.

On Saturday, police Brig. Gen. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri said the raid was launched after a tip that top al-Qaida operatives, possibly including al-Zarqawi, were in the house. Al-Zarqawi heads the group calling itself al-Qaida in Iraq.

During the gunbattle that followed, three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves, Iraqi officials said. Eleven Americans were wounded, the U.S. military said. Such intense resistance often suggests an attempt to defend a high-value target. But Trent Duffy, a Bush spokesman, said reports of al-Zarqawi's death were "highly unlikely and not credible."...

Al-Zarqawi May Be Among Dead in Iraq Fight

Well yes. Maybe he is and maybe he isn't. That pretty much covers it, doesn't it? Clearly AP's weekend headline writer is not first string.

U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight — some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

49 Die in Iraq Blasts; Bombs Kill 5 GIs

So targeting a Muslim wedding in Jordan is a mistake, but hitting a funeral in Iraq is peachy keen, right Zarqawi?
In Baghdad:

A suicide bomber detonated his car in a crowd of Shiite mourners north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 36 people and raising the death toll in two days of attacks against Shiites to more than 120. Five American soldiers died in roadside bombings.
Earlier Saturday, a car bomb exploded in a crowd of shoppers at an outdoor market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood on the southeast edge of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding about 20 others, police reported. Witnesses said they saw a man park the car and walk away shortly before the blast.

Trial focuses on father, son ties to al-Qaida

Another person who found Osama bin Laden "a very nice man."
From Newsday:

In his testimony before a military tribunal, Saifullah Paracha said he first met Osama bin Laden, somewhat by happenstance, on a charity mission to Afghanistan in 1999.
"He delivered the Koran and said he was a prophet. He said very nice things. Very impressive," said Paracha, a prominent Pakistani entrepreneur who split his time between Karachi and New York.
As Paracha tells it, he offered bin Laden his business card, explained that he was involved in television and asked whether he would consider appearing in a film to discuss "the terrorism program."
The project never panned out, but the meeting was one of a series of associations that led the U.S. government to declare Paracha an enemy combatant in 2003 and detain him at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A moderate Muslim who lived in New York from 1971 to 1986 and owns a garment import business with a Jewish partner, Saifullah acknowledged doing business with men since identified as al-Qaida plotters but said he thought they were ordinary Pakistanis.

Canada's Homegrown

The 73-page report, "Paths to Radicalization of Home-Grown Islamic Extremists in Canada," reveals an increasing number of homegrown Canadian terrorists. From Canada's National Post:

A "secret" intelligence study obtained by the National Post says a "high percentage" of the Canadian Muslims involved in extremist activities were born in Canada, a marked shift from the past when they were mostly refugees and immigrants.

"Increasingly, we are learning of more and more extremists that are homegrown," says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service document, adding that the "Canadianness" of the new generation makes them more difficult to detect.

"These radicalized Canadians are involved in a wide range of extremist activities, including downloading and translating documents from the Internet that promote violence, networking and physically training for jihad," it says.

"Some undergo training abroad or in Canada, including commando-like paintball and extreme martial arts," says the report. "In a few cases, Canadian extremists have participated in jihad and a few have been killed in the process."

A handful of such terrorists have already emerged from Canada. Mohammed Jabarah of St. Catharines, Ont., joined al-Qaeda and tried to blow up the American and Israeli embassies in Southeast Asia. His brother Abdul Rahman, a member of a Saudi al-Qaeda cell, was killed in 2003.

Canadian-born Momin Khawaja was arrested in Ottawa last year on charges he was part of a British bombing plot and is awaiting trial. U.S. authorities recently charged Canadian-born Omar Khadr with joining an al-Qaeda faction in Afghanistan and killing a U.S. soldier.

"A small number of Muslims in Canada have adopted the path of violence and jihad in the pursuit of political and/or religious aims," the CSIS report says. "The reasons for this are varied, and include parental influence, the efforts of charismatic spiritual leaders with extremist views and a general sense of anger at what is seen as Muslim oppression.

"There does not appear to be a single process that leads to extremism; the transformation is highly individual. Once this change has taken place, such individuals move on to a series of activities, ranging from propaganda and recruiting, to terrorist training and participation in extremist operations."

Could Allah's injunction to Muslims to terrorize non-Muslims on his behalf - “Strike terror (into the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies” (Sura 8:60) - be the "single process that leads to extremism"?

Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan

Plan calls for troops to begin pulling out after December elections, from CNN:

WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq has submitted a plan to the Pentagon for withdrawing troops in Iraq, according to a senior defense official.

Gen. George Casey submitted the plan to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It includes numerous options and recommends that brigades -- usually made up of about 2,000 soldiers each -- begin pulling out of Iraq early next year...

House Republicans were looking for a showdown Friday after Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and well-respected Vietnam veteran, presented a resolution that would force the president to withdraw the nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq "at the earliest predictable date."

Murtha on Thursday called the administration's management of the conflict "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion" that is "uniting the enemy against us."

"It's time to bring the troops home," he said...

The [Casey] plan, which would withdraw a limited amount of troops during 2006, requires that a host of milestones be reached before troops are withdrawn.

Top Pentagon officials have repeatedly discussed some of those milestones: Iraqi troops must demonstrate that they can handle security without U.S. help; the country's political process must be strong; and reconstruction and economic conditions must show signs of stability.

US and China to cooperate more on terrorism

From Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BEIJING - The United States and China hope to strengthen shared efforts to fight terrorism and "pirate" copying of goods, Washington's top justice official said on Saturday.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a news conference in Beijing he had discussed expanding cooperation with Chinese justice and police officials in talks before President George W. Bush arrives in Beijing later on Saturday for a three-day visit...

China says its biggest terrorist threat comes from separatist forces in its far-western region of Xinjiang, where most of the population is Muslim and belongs to the Uighur ethnic group. But international human rights groups and advocates of Xinjiang independence say China has exaggerated the threat in the region to suppress legitimate protest...

The United States is holding 15 prisoners from Xinjiang in the Guantanamo Bay detention center on Cuba. They were captured in Afghanistan, which neighbors Xinjiang, and China has asked for them to be repatriated...

Baghdad market car bomb kills 13

Unfortunately, the broader jihad goal of dragging the US into a bloody civil war and thereby duplicating Vietnam conditions, as a prerequisite for a US defeat, is ignored by press and pundits alike. By never discussing the goals of the "greater jihad," we prevent ourselves from developing the strategic counter goals necessary to defeat it, or even to contain it. From the BBC, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Thirteen people have died in a car bomb attack on a crowded market in southern Baghdad and a suicide bomber later attacked police in the city centre.

The market bomb was hidden in a parked car near Diyala Bridge, a largely Shia area of the Iraqi capital...

Crown prince sees ‘end of terrorism’ in Saudi in two years

From AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

DUBAI - Saudi Arabia, which has been battling a wave of violence, could put an end to homegrown terrorism in the next two years, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz said in remarks aired on Saturday.

“I can assure you that the watchful eye of the security forces, the intelligence services and the Saudi people could lead ... in the next two years to the end of terrorism in Saudi Arabia,” he told Al Arabiya television.

The crown prince however admitted that “we cannot get rid of it (terrorism) 100 percent.”...

Italy: Algerian Suspects Allegedly Planned To Kill 10,000

From AKI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Brescia and Naples - The three Algerians detained on Tuesday in the Italian cities of Brescia and Naples were planning a massive terror attack - "on a ship as big as the Titanic, packed with explosives" - that aimed to kill "at least 10,000 people", as well as an attack on "Italian citizens and interests" in Tunisia, according phone conversations between the three men, which Italian anti-terror police say they intercepted after al-Qaeda's deadly 7 July attacks on London and on the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

In their tapped phone conversations, Yamine Bouhrama, Mohamed Larbi and Khaled Serai described the 7 July London subway and bus bombings that killed over 50 and injured 700, and the 23 July Sharm El-Sheikh terror attacks that killed 90 people and injured over 150 as "highdays and holidays", according to police. The three also spoke of having "documents ready", "war on the infidel", and "a bigger party" than the London attacks.

They are suspected of being members of the al-Qaeda-linked Algerian militant formation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Investigators allege they were not just in Italy to provide logistical support such as false passports and residency permits, but were actually "potential operatives" who were "ready to attack"...

Bourhama is thought to have undergone training at terrorist camps in Chechnya and Georgia and may be capable of making explosive belts used by suicide bombers. He allegedly had in his possession a bottle of "perfume" containing toxic substances, police said.

While under surveillance, Serai is believed to have been followed to Norway, where Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd who heads the radical Islamic militia group Ansar al-Islam, has lived since requesting political asylum in 1991, despite being wanted around the world. The US has accused Ansar al-Islam of offering sanctuary to al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan, including the now leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi...

Senior al Qaeda militant destroyed in Chechnya

From Itar-Tass, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

KHANKALA - Russian secret services destroyed a senior al Qaeda representative in Chechnya, head of the regional headquarters in control of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus Col-Gen Arkady Yedelev told reporters here on Friday.

The operation was carried out by an army elite reconnaissance unit near the village of Avtury, Shali district, on November 11. The militant, identified as Jaber, was reportedly al Qaeda's mastermind and financier of recent high-profile terrorist attack in the republic, Yedelev said.

Jaber organized terrorist attacks in Znamenskoye and Grozny, and is behind the attack on the village of Roshni-Chu in August...

Iran, in U.S. newspaper ad, defends nuclear program

Which newspaper? Why the New Duranty Times, where else? This story comes from Reuters:

WASHINGTON - Iran on Friday took the highly unusual step of running a costly full-page ad in the New York Times defending its nuclear activities and accusing the United States and European allies of creating an "unnecessary crisis."

As U.S. and other key officials met in London to discuss efforts to force Tehran to abandon what they believe is a weapons-related program, Iran in its advertisement issued a detailed rebuttal of all charges and said it resumed uranium conversion this week because Britain, France and Germany, under U.S. pressure, violated a 2004 agreement.

But Iran also held out the possibility of resolving the dispute, saying "a diplomatic and negotiated framework is the desired approach for a successful outcome and Iran is ready to consider all constructive and effective proposals."

Central to Tehran's argument is the assertion that it is pursuing only peaceful nuclear energy -- not nuclear weapons -- despite concealing its activities for nearly two decades.

"In fact, the predominant view among Iranian decision-makers is that development, acquisition or possession of nuclear weapons would only undermine Iranian security," read the ad, headlined "An Unnecessary Crisis" and issued in the name of Iran's U.N. mission.

Tehran suspended nuclear activities at its facility at Isfahan under a November 2004 deal with Britain, France and Germany -- the EU3 -- but resumed work at the plant in August, prompting the trio to suspend negotiations.

Iranian officials confirmed on Friday that it had resumed uranium conversion at the plant this week...

In a related story: "Iran admits to UN it bought designs for nuclear bomb," from the Telegraph with thanks to Interested.

Iran has admitted obtaining designs that could help it make a nuclear bomb, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said yesterday in a confidential report.

After more than two years of investigations, it is the closest that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have come to linking Teheran's electricity generation project with an alleged weapons programme.

The discovery will raise tensions before next week's meeting of the IAEA board of governors, which will debate whether to report Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

The IAEA report said documents bought by Iran on the black market included designs "on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium into hemispherical forms". Experts said the casts are used in atomic weapons.

The IAEA said Iran had insisted it had not used the designs. But Gregory Schulte, the chief United States delegate to the IAEA, said the find "opens new concerns about weaponisation that Iran has failed to address"...

House GOP Seeks Quick Veto of Iraq Pullout

From AP:

WASHINGTON - House Republicans maneuvered for swift rejection Friday of any notion of immediately pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, sparking a nasty, sometimes personal debate over the war and a Democratic lawmaker's own call for withdrawal.

Furious Democrats accused the GOP of orchestrating a political stunt, leaving little time for debate and changing the meaning of a withdrawal resolution offered by Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania.

For those reasons, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent word to rank-and-file Democrats to vote - with the Republicans - against immediate withdrawal of American troops.

Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said of the nonbinding resolution, "We want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will not retreat."

Democrats went to the floor to denounce the vote, being staged before Congress left Washington for a two week break. And they gave Murtha a standing ovation as he entered the chamber Friday during the Iraq debate and took his customary corner seat.

"This is a personal attack on one of the best members, one of the most respected members of this House and it is outrageous," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, responded: "This is not a stunt. This is not an attack on an individual. This is a legitimate question."

GOP leaders decided to act little more than 24 hours after Murtha, a hawkish Democrat with close ties to the military, said the time had come to pull out the troops.

By forcing the issue to a vote, Republicans tried to place many Democrats in a politically unappealing position - whether to side with Murtha and expose themselves to criticism, or oppose him and risk angering the voters that polls show want an end to the conflict...

A growing number of House members and senators, looking ahead to off-year elections next November, are publicly worrying about a quagmire in Iraq. They have been staking out new positions on a war that is increasingly unpopular with the American public, has resulted in more than 2,000 U.S. military deaths and has cost more than $200 billion...

Al-Zarqawi Threatens to Kill Jordan's King

From AP:

An audiotape purportedly from the head of al-Qaida in Iraq said Friday the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also threatened to kill Jordan's King Abdullah II and bomb more hotels and tourist sites.

"Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al- Zarqawi said, referring to the king.

Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan; hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba; and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq _ saying those areas would be targeted.

Al-Zarqawi said the bomber who detonated his explosives in the Radisson SAS hotel on Nov. 9 was targeting a hall where he claimed Israeli and American intelligence officials were meeting.

That bomb caused part of the roof to fall in the wedding hall.

"We didn't target them. Our target was halls being used by Zionist intelligence who were meeting there at the time," he said. "Our brothers knew their targets with great precision."

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American intelligence agents, and he insisted al-Qaida in Iraq was not targeting fellow Muslims.

"We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," al-Zarqawi said, addressing Jordanians...

Militant suspects celebrated Berg murder

The chilling words of two Italian-based Muslim extremists were released today as part of a 182 page indictment brought against them by Italian authorities, from The New Duranty Times:

MILAN - Playing an Internet video one evening last year, an Egyptian radical living in Milan reveled as the head of an American, Nicholas Berg, was sawed off by his Iraqi captors.

Yahia Ragheh, foreground, and Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed being led into a Milan court last month, charged with ties to a terror network.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed's computer had a picture of a briefcase bomb that could be set off by a cellphone.

"Go to hell, enemy of God!" shouted the man, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, as Mr. Berg's screams were broadcast. "Kill him! Kill him! Yes, like that! Cut his throat properly. Cut his head off! If I had been there, I would have burned him to make him already feel what hell was like. Cut off his head! God is great! God is great!"

Yahia Ragheh, the Egyptian would-be suicide bomber sitting by Mr. Ahmed's side, clearly felt uncomfortable.

"Isn't it a sin?" he asked.

"Who said that?" Mr. Ahmed shot back. "It is never a sin!" He added: "We hope that even their parents will come to the same end. Dogs, all of them, all of them. You simply need to be convinced when you make the decision."

Jurors in Al-Arian terrorism-conspiracy trial break until Monday

From AP:

Jurors in the terrorism-conspiracy trial of a former University of South Florida professor ended their third day of deliberations without a verdict and are breaking for the weekend.

The jury is deciding whether Sami Al-Arian and three other defendants are guilty of raising money to support the mission of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The PIJ is a terrorist group blamed for hundreds of deaths in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Muslim MP backs 'weeding out' radical leaders

So does Australia now have a Muslim Islamaphobe?

From ABC:

A Labor Member of the Victorian Parliament and Australia's only declared Muslim MP says some Muslim leaders need to be "weeded out".
Adem Somyurek says Muslims were not being targeted in the recent anti-terrorism raids in Melbourne and Sydney.

Family of nine massacred by rebels

Lost Budgie alerts us to what happens to those who try to become more moderate Muslims- or perhaps just retire from jihad to spend more time with their families.
From Thailand:

A couple and their seven children were massacred yesterday in southern Thailand, where a Muslim insurgency has killed more than 1,000 people in two years.

Officials said around 30 Islamist militants surrounded a house in the village of Bo-Ngo, firing bullets and grenades before shooting those inside with handguns.

The victims were Luteng Arwarebueza, 44, his wife, and their seven children, aged from one to 20. Nine other people in nearby houses were injured.

The governor of Narathiwat province, Pracha Tearat, said that Mr Arwarebueza was a former rebel who quit the insurgency five months ago.

He "had received constant threats from militants and the massacre was to set a precedent for other defectors," said Mr Pracha.

How terror scuds pose threat to U.S.

Intelligence sources say seaborne attack could wreak mayhem, cripple economy, from WND:

WASHINGTON – Most of the U.S. civilian population, military bases and nuclear-weapons assembly plants are within range of missile attacks by terrorists or rogue nations using merchant ships as launching platforms, warn counter-terror experts.

Both the U.S. military and foreign military forces – including Iran's – have tested missile launches from non-military vessels.

At the top of the risk list is the Russian-made Scud family of missiles, all too often found on the weapons' black market, and, according to counter-terror analysts, undoubtedly on the minds of terror organizations such as al-Qaida, which is known to have shown interest in the Scud maritime option.

A bird's eye view of U.S. coastlines reveals more than 75 percent of the nation’s population, about 290 million people, resides along thousands of miles of shores and up to 200 miles inland.

According to information from the Pentagon and from independent sources, three-quarters of U.S. military assets, from naval bases to nuclear-weapons assembly plants, are within these coastlines, posing highly tempting targets, not only for possibly enemy rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran, but also for global jihadi planners, G2 Bulletin reports...

Another even more terrifying component of the threat from the sea is the possibility of a rogue nation or terrorist group successfully firing a Scud armed with a nuclear weapon and timed for detonation above a U.S. population center.

As G2 Bulletin and WND reported exclusively earlier this year, government officials are increasingly concerned about the threat of this kind of an electro-magnetic pulse attack that could cripple cities and entire regions of the U.S. by knocking out electrical grids and computer technology.

EMP attacks are generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated at altitudes above a few dozen kilometers above the Earth's surface. The explosion, of even a small nuclear warhead, would produce a set of electromagnetic pulses that interact with the Earth's atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field.

[Rep. Roscoe] Bartlett added: "Potential adversaries are aware of the EMP's strategic attack option. Ninety-nine percent of Americans may not know very much about EMP, but I will assure you ... that 100 percent of our potential enemies know all about EMP. I think that the American people need to know about EMP because they need to demand that their government do the prudent thing so that we will be less and less susceptible, less and less at risk to an EMP attack year by year. The threat is not adequately addressed in U.S. national and homeland security programs. Not only is it not adequately addressed; it is usually ignored, not even mentioned, and it certainly needs to be considered."...

Human chain vow from Islamic militiamen

But surely this human chain won't sing,"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
From New Zealand

Iran's volunteer Islamic militiamen are vowing to form a human chain along the length of the country's borders as a show of force against international pressure on Tehran's atomic programme.
Iran faces referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to convince the world its nuclear fuel programme is intended for power stations rather than warheads.

Iraq: 60 killed in suicide blasts on mosques and hotel

From the Timesonline:

At least 52 people were killed and dozens injured when suicide bombers blew themselves up inside two mosques in eastern Iraq during Friday prayers.

Witnesses described how the men walked into the Shia mosques in the town of Khanaqin, on the border with Iran, and detonated explosive belts. The buildings, packed with worshippers on the Muslim holy day, were destroyed.

The explosions came around two hours after a twin vehicle bomb attack on the Hamra, a hotel used by foreign journalists in central Baghdad. At least eight people were killed, including a woman and two children, and 40 more were hurt.

The blasts in the Jadriyah district of the capital were close to a government building at the centre of a new torture scandal, although this is not believed to have been the target.

The first blast - captured on surveillance video - knocked down the walls protecting the rear of the hotel at about 8.20am (0520GMT). A second, bigger explosion followed a minute later as a water truck attempted to drive through the breach but was blocked by the crater and rubble.

The blasts reverberated through the city centre, sending a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air. A third vehicle packed with explosives was found near to another hotel less than a mile away. It was detonated in a controlled expolsion.

Several residential buildings near to the Hamra collapsed from the twin blasts, which gouged a large crater in the road outside. Water from the second vehicle flooded the street.

Firefighters joined neighbours to dig through the debris and under toppled blast barriers to pull victims from the rubble.

The deputy interior minister, Major General Hussein Kamal said the heavily fortified hotel appeared to be the target, with the first bomb designed to breach blast walls and the second to cause devastation...

Australian-US top-level talks highlight counter-terrorism

From Xinhuanet:

CANBERRA -- Top officials of Australia and the United States on Friday agreed to boost counter-terrorism efforts in Southeast Asia as well as in Iraq.

The annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) were held in Adelaide, capital city of Australia's state of South Australia, amid tight security with the attendance of Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Defense Minister Robert Hill and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.

In a joint communique released after the talks, the two countries emphasized the importance of encouraging governments and institutions that promote tolerance and work to counter extremism, but gave no details of the new measures to combat terrorism.

The consultations were held only days after a video tape was seized by Indonesian police showing a masked man warning that Australia will face more attacks unless it pulls its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Australia, who maintains around 1,300 troops in and around Iraq, is the only one in core countries in the US-led coalition forces in the war-torn Middle East country which has never experienced a major attack on home soil.

The two countries pledged in the joint communique to pursue their efforts to defeat "terrorists and insurgents" in war-ravaged Iraq.

Rumsfeld dismissed growing calls for the United States to start withdrawing forces from Iraq, saying Iraq was several years behind Afghanistan as a secure country...

When the Student Becomes the Master

According to the Times Online, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "has outstripped his mentor, Osama bin Laden" by building up "a formidable terrorist network that stretches from Britain to Afghanistan."

Al-Zarqawi commands more people, has access to greater funds and enjoys growing support among young Muslims drawn to his slick internet websites, which give lurid details of his latest attacks on “infidels”.

A recent study about Iraq’s insurgency by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington estimated that 3,000 foreign fighters had gone to Iraq to join the insurgency.

Now, battle-hardened, they form the vanguard of a “foreign legion” ready to take the jihad to their homelands in what US intelligence officials refer to as “bleed-out”.

The National Counterterrorism Centre in America believes that al-Zarqawi’s network extends to 40 countries and that he has developed links with 24 militant groups worldwide.

Already notorious in Iraq for committing the worst outrages of the insurgency, including personally beheading several foreign hostages and killing thousands of Shia Muslim civilians, al-Zarqawi carried out his first big operation abroad last week.

Iraqi suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, the Jordanian capital, killing mainly Jordanian civilians, many of whom were attending a wedding reception. Hala al-Faroukah, the mother of the bride, died of her wounds while in a coma yesterday. Her death brought to 62 the number of people killed in the attacks on November 9.

“This is Zarqawi marking out his new territory,” an Arab intelligence source said. “I believe there’s a leadership struggle under way in al-Qaeda and he wants to establish himself as the new supremo.”

The evidence suggests that the 38-year-old, who grew up in the depressed Jordanian town of Zarqa, may already be well on his way to achieving his goal.

This year the Americans released a letter that they had intercepted from Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s No 2, to al-Zarqawi on their common goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Arab world.

In the 6,000-word missive, al-Zawahiri told al-Zarqawi that after US forces were driven from Iraq the jihad must be waged against “secular countries neighbouring Iraq”. The attacks in Jordan suggest that such a phase may already be under way, as foreign fighters begin to return to their home countries.

Taking the "insurgency" home is documented in this Jihad Watch archive.

The esoteric world of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Is Mr. Ahmadinejad's fanatical devotion to a mystical religious figure the underlying motive for his defiance of the world and his call for the destruction of Israel? From Reuters:

According to Shi'ite Muslim teaching, Abul-Qassem Mohammad, the 12th leader whom Shi'ites consider descended from the Prophet Mohammed, disappeared in 941 but will return at the end of time to lead an era of Islamic justice.

"Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi," Ahmadinejad said in the speech to Friday Prayers leaders from across the country.

"Therefore, Iran should become a powerful, developed and model Islamic society."

"Today, we should define our economic, cultural and political policies based on the policy of Imam Mahdi's return. We should avoid copying the West's policies and systems," he added, newspapers and local news agencies reported.

Ahmadinejad refers to the return of the 12th Imam, also known as the Mahdi, in almost all his major speeches since he took office in August.

A September address to the U.N. General Assembly contained long passages on the Mahdi which confused Western diplomats and irked those from Sunni Muslim countries who believe in a different line of succession from Mohammed.

This fascination has prompted wild stories to circulate.

Presidential aides have denied a popular rumor that he ordered his cabinet to write a letter to the 12th Imam and throw it down a well near the holy city of Qom where thousands of pilgrims come each week to pray and drop messages to the Imam.

But what really has tongues wagging is the possibility that Ahmadinejad's belief in the 12th Imam's return may be linked to the supposed growing influence of a secretive society devoted to the Mahdi which was banned in the early 1980s.

Founded in 1953 and used by the Shah of Iran to try to eradicate followers of the Bahai faith, the Hojjatieh Society is governed by the conviction that the 12th Imam's return will be hastened by the creation of chaos on earth.

Ahmadinejad, who is only the second non-cleric to become president since the revolution, has made clear his immense respect for Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a deeply conservative cleric with close ties to the Hojjatieh-founded Haqqani theological school in Qom.

Conspiracy theorists, never in short supply in Iran, allege that many members of Ahmadinejad's cabinet and other key appointees are Haqqani graduates and Hojjatieh followers.

"It seems that they (Hojjatieh members) have recently become more active and are spread through the government," said a political analyst who declined to be named.

"The president has repeatedly said his government will pave the way for the Imam's return."

MESA NOSTRA Contest Re-opens

It's contest time at Jihad Watch, with our TaqiyyaFest still open for entries, and now a new offer from the Vice President of our Board, Hugh Fitzgerald: The elevation of Juan Cole to the Presidency of MESA Nostra prompts the sudden re-opening of the celebrated MESA Nostra contest, announced here some months ago. Though the contest had been officially closed, at least in the minds of the judges, it is now officially open again. Entries will be accepted before Thanksgiving, and all will be as carefully considered as those sent in months ago. The prize remains as stated in the last line.

Rather than supplying only the laconic link to the original announcement at JW, so demanding because of its difficult-to-execute click, here it is again:

Readers of JihadWatch are aware that MESA Nostra is the professional organization in which, in order to become a uomo d'onore, or a donna d'onore for that matter, no kneecaps need be broken, no nightclubs broken up, no trucks hijacked, no girls put on the streets, no cocaine contraband prescribed by "los medicos" of Medellin be distributed. No, there are only two requirements to become a Made Man in MESA Nostra. The first is easy: you must view the entire Middle East through ideological blinkers, in which Islam scarcely matters, and in which, whatever happens, Jihad-conquest and dhimmitude will be ignored, so that contemporary expressions of millennium-old doctrines, attitudes, impulses will be interpreted without the slightest reference to those doctrines, attitudes, impulses. That is content.

There is also form.

What would Shakespeare have been like had he not forced himself to squeeze his dramatic verse into the Elizabethan doublet of iambic pentameter? Or Spenser, without the Spenserian stanza? It is not only writers in Elizabethan England who found such constraints productive. How impressive that 20th century French writer who managed to produce a novel without using the letter "e," or that other one who composed a series of works based on a single device: the beginning and the final sentences of whatever he wrote were phonetically identical, though semantically wildly different, and he assigned himself the writerly task of beating a plausible path through the overgrown jungle of language, a path that led ineluctably from that first sentence to the same-sounding, but different-meaning, last sentence.

Many of those in MESA Nostra may not realize it, but they are akin to Shakespeare and Spenser, Georges Perec and Raymond Roussel. For them it is not a question of verse-forms, or lipograms, or homophonic puns. Their self-imposed constraint consists in limiting their scholarly lexicon to fewer than fifty nouns, and two-dozen verbs. They harness these exhausted nouns, these over-worked verbs, and put them to work, no matter the subject. No matter the subject.

Thus the prose produced by one member of MESA Nostra will sound remarkably like that of another. Here we mean the enthusiastic, full-throated members of MESA Nostra, those whose interests do not stray very far from "Iraq" and "Palestine" and "colonialism" and "empire," and the obvious ring-changing variants: "occupied Iraq/Palestine," "Iraqi/Palestinian people," "Israeli colonialism," "American empire." Many members of MESA Nostra membership have a deep and abiding personal and professional interest in these matters, as they do in little else. They can do no other.

But a few members of MESA Nostra are members-in-name-only, who remain different in mental makeup, and distant from the bureaucratic intrigues, the political tendentiousness, the anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Western themes and variations. These "non-member" members do not write about the "construction of Palestinian identity" nor the "(de)construction of Israeli identity." Rather, they write about "The Methods of the Mudaddithin," or "Ephraim of Edessa," or "Xavier de Planhol and Agricultural Desolation in the Berber Heartland," or "Yemeni Jews as Chattel Slaves" or "The Destruction of the Coptic Churches of Upper Egypt," or "Schacht, Jeffery, Gottheil: Three Masters of Morningside Heights" or "Arabic but not Qur'anic: The Evidence of Numismatics" or "Twelver-Shi'ism in Mevlevistan" or "Ibn Battuta, the Rihla, and the Destruction of Hindustan" or "Why There Was No Arab Copernicus or Vesalius: An Inquiry" or "Aisha and Marriage in the Islamic Republic of Iran" or "Quran'ic Memorization and Comparative I.Q. Levels in Post-Independence India" or "Sir William Jones and the Re-Discovery of India" or "The Role of Hadrami Traders in the Muslim Conquest of the East Indies" or "The Story of Thomas Pellow" or "Indo-Persian Miniatures of Jihad-Conquest in the British Museum Collections: A Catalogue Raisonee" or "Table-Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge: A Critical Edition" or "Book-Binding at the Abbasid Court" or "The Role of Hungarian Converts in Ottoman History" or "The War Within Islam: Universalist Claims, Arab Supremacist Doctrine" or "The Treaty of Al-Hudaibiyya and Pacta Sunt Servanda: Muhammad and Grotius on the Law of War and Peace" or …well, you get the idea. But these are not the people whom we have in mind when we discuss MESA Nostra at JihadWatch. We are talking about the other kind.

And it was with that other kind in mind – the card-carrying careerists, the blurb-and-reference swappers, the runners-for-office, the risers-high, the much-interviewed, the solemn dispensers of wisdom to the unwary, the True Believers – that we created the MESA Nostra Contest.

The contest is simple. Below is a single paragraph, itself consisting of a single sentence, transparently written in Mesanostran. Contestants are asked to identify the author.

"In conclusion, I feel that this work of analysis, by focusing on the implications of the phallic hegemony of Wehrmacht-helmeted Israeli troops and their supporters throughout the American empire, both equally unappeasable in their demonstrable need for "the Other," does what in a quasi-heuristic sense it was intended to do, as it manages to break away from all Eurocentric approaches to discourses of postcolonial subalternity, or even of meta-alterity, and comes so subversively close in its disjunctive interrogation of the counter- or, more exactly, anti-mimesis which is inherently essential to Mesopotamian or indeed to Cairene, Abbasid, Jordanian or Palestinian thought for, as a native of (Amman, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Islamabad, Ramallah, Teheran, etc. – choose one) and hence a non-European, I am of necessity self-assigned to that category of people best placed to perform such a mission of interrogating all postcolonialist as well as narrativised specificity, but of equal necessity, not as one obviously intent on de-undermining or rather meta-determining the poststructuralist or post-postmodern universalism, with its customary relativised discourse analysis which seldom lends itself to anticipatory prolepsis, but on the other hand my critique is quite meta-consciously deeply para-rooted within, as well as up-rooted out of, and obviously from, Western thought with its inalienably alien constructions of meta-identity and hypersexuality, which necessarily give rise to post-essentialism which, in a larger sense, serves merely to violate all the strategic critiques of hegemonic historiographical constructions of essences, whether of the Orient or of scholars who deny the self-referentiality of all postcolonialist essentializing."

The prize for the first correct entry emailed to director@jihadwatch.org will be a nicely framed copy of Professor Hamid Dabashi's celebrated Poem in Prose to Edward Said, which you may read now by googling "Hamid Dabashi" and "Edward Said." For many, that will be prize enough.

You now have nine days to send in your entries. Winners will be notified, and their names, in whatever form they wish, will understandably be announced only upon receipt of their express permission.

Journalist’s Car Vandalized: "This time it is your car but next time it is you..."

That guy you saw leaving a note on a car in the parking lot? He's not leaving his phone number and insurance info.
From Arab News.

The car of a Hail-based journalist was vandalized yesterday by miscreants who were allegedly angered by his Internet postings

Muslim leaders 'in denial' claim

From the BBC

Britain's most powerful Islamic body is "in denial" about the prevalence of extreme views among its members, one of its founders has told the BBC.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) pledged to tackle extremism "head on" after the 7 July attacks in London.

But in a BBC Panorama special, Mehbood Kantharia and other prominent British Muslims question the MCB's commitment to meeting this challenge.

The MCB has branded the programme "deeply unfair" and a "witch-hunt".

Secretary general Sir Iqbal Sacranie said Panorama had used "deliberately garbled quotes in an attempt to malign the Muslim Council of Britain".

He said it had "the barely concealed goal of drawing British Muslims away from being inspired in their political beliefs and actions by the faith of Islam".

That's just why we were skeptical of Sir Iqbal in the first place.

Indonesian video threatens West

From the BBC:

A masked man - believed to be one of South East Asia's most wanted Islamic militants - has appeared in a video threatening attacks against the West.

The video singles out the US, the UK, Australia and Italy as targets.

Officials believed the man was Noordin Mohammad Top, a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, the radical group blamed for bomb attacks on Bali and elsewhere.

Police found the video in a house they raided last week, when Noordin Top narrowly escaped being captured.

A near-simultaneous raid on another house, in East Java, ended in the death of his associate, Azahari Husin.

"As long as you keep your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslim people, you will feel our intimidation and our terror," the man in the video said.

Pointing at the camera, he said: "America, Australia, England and Italy. You will be the target of our next attack."...

"Especially for Australia, as long as its troops are in Afghanistan and Iraq and engage in intimidation there, you will also feel our intimidation," the man said....

Bostom interviewed on WNWR

Here is a wonderful interview with the indefatigable Dr. Andrew Bostom about his new book, The Legacy of Jihad on the WNWR radio. Go to: Zionist Organization of America Hosted by Steve Feldman. Advance (if you can) to 4:35 into the 58 minutes for the beginning.....ends at 20:52 Requires realplayer.

Iran 'resumes uranium processing'

From the BBC:

Iran has begun to process a new batch of uranium to convert it to a gas that can be enriched into the material for nuclear bombs, diplomats say.

"Conversion has resumed," a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said.

The move comes despite heavy pressure from the US and Europe for Iran to cease all nuclear activity.

Iran denies Western claims that it has a secret nuclear weapons programme, saying it just wants nuclear power...

"It's not good news, no, not at all. Because people were trying to arrange for new talks and now it's more difficult," said a senior European diplomat quoted by the AFP news agency...

Worried about the status of the talks? We should be worried about the status of Iran's nuclear program instead.

Russian President Visits Turkey

Post Cold War political realignments continue, from the Guardian:

SAMSUN, Turkey (AP) - During the Cold War, Turkey's Black Sea coast was the site of U.S. radar stations that looked across the sea into Russia to snoop on the Soviet fleet and nuclear missile tests.

Now, Russian gas warms the Turkish capital, and Moscow is this NATO ally's second largest trading partner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Turkey's Black Sea coast Thursday for a ceremony to inaugurate a $3.2 billion pipeline, another sign of Russia's growing economic influence in Turkey, ties that are so strong that a Turkish general once proposed that Turkey consider an alliance with Russia instead of the European Union.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will also attend the ceremony. Italy's Eni SpA was a key partner in the construction of the pipeline.

Washington had balked at proposals to build the pipeline and has warned Turkey about its dependence on Russia, which now supplies 60 percent of the country's gas and 20 percent of its oil.

But Turkish officials say that in a world of tight gas supplies they have little choice but to increase their dependence on Russia, which produces almost as much oil as Saudi Arabia...

The pipeline ceremony will also highlight growing business ties between the two countries and their burgeoning political relationship. Erdogan and Putin have met five times since Erdogan's party took control of parliament in 2002 and trade with Russia is expected to reach $15 billion this year...

Gen. Tuncer Kilinc - at the time head of the powerful National Security Council - said that Turkey needed new allies and it would be ``useful if Turkey engages in a search that would involve Russia and Iran.''...

Bin Laden: The Book

Can the movie be far behind? "The world of bin Laden: no drinks, no gambling, no pictures of women," from the Telegraph with thanks to Interested.

Osama bin Laden wants the United States to convert to Islam, ditch its constitution, abolish banks, jail homosexuals and sign the Kyoto climate change treaty.

...in that order?

The first complete collection of the Saudi's statements published today portrays a world in which Islam's enemies will take the first steps towards salvation by embracing the "religion of all the Prophets".

Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden is billed as the first accurate compendium of the terrorist leader's words, threats and ruminations from 1994 to 2004.

Its editors have rooted out many statements which they identified as forgeries and retranslated to correct "horrendous" errors.

His terms for America's surrender appeared after the September 2001 suicide attacks and include demands that amount to the abandonment of much of western life.

Alcohol and gambling would be barred and there would be an end to women's photos in newspapers or advertising.

Any woman serving "passengers, visitors and strangers", presumably anyone from air stewardesses to waitresses, would also be out of a job.

The West must "stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you" and has become the "worst civilisation witnessed in the history of mankind".

The publisher Verso said it expected criticism for releasing the thoughts of a terrorist but denied that the volume would be the jihadis' equivalent of Mein Kampf...

Italy arrests terror suspects

From CNN:

ROME, Italy -- Italy's military police have detained three Algerian nationals believed to be connected to a militant group with ties to al Qaeda, authorities said.

The men are being held on suspicion of association with the aim of international terrorism -- charges put in place after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

According to a commander with Italy's Carabinieri, or military police, the arrests were made Tuesday night into Wednesday morning -- two in Brescia and one in Naples...

Italian media said the three were "potential operatives ready to carry out (suicide) attacks." Authorities would not confirm the report to CNN.

Media reports also linked the men to an Algerian militant organization known as the "Salafist Group for Call and Combat."...

Take a long, hard look at yourself, sheik says

The Sydney Morning Herald interviews a Muslim cleric who criticizes Abdul Nacer Benbrika. (Thanks to David for the link). Yet he does not show how his argument is better or stronger than Benbrika's. It is simply his assertion against Benbrika's about what Islam teaches.
And when I look at history and the world today- well, who am I going to believe, Sheik Fehmi Naji el-Imam or my own lyin' eyes? And what would anyone believe?

Referring to Benbrika's flight from Algeria and his life in Australia supported by the welfare system, Sheik Fehmi said he had shown a lack of gratitude to his adopted country.

"If it is true what is said about this man, then when he says he is calling for Islamic jihad, he is calling for his own, fabricated jihad. Islamic jihad does not call for killing innocent men, women and children and to think nothing of it," he said.

"Islamic jihad does not call for the destruction of monuments and to annihilate or kill whoever is inside…"

UK bomber attacks Muslim leaders

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of the four apparent suicide bombers who attacked London on July 7, condemned British Muslim leaders on a video aired for the first time on Tuesday.

In the clip shown on Britain's Channel 4 television, Khan urged British Muslims to take part in jihad - "holy war" or "spiritual struggle" - and accused "so-called community leaders" of being "content with their Toyotas and their semi-detached houses".

The money quote?

"They tell us ludicrous things like 'You must obey the law of the land.' How on earth did we conquer lands in the past if we were to obey this law? By Allah, these scholars will be brought to account.

Teacher Charged With Mocking Religion Sentenced to Jail

I almost let this story go until an old familiar phrase, "misunderstanders of Islam," came to mind. Isn't it odd how the religion teachers are the ones who just don't get it?

The controversial case of Muhammad Al-Harbi, a Saudi high school teacher accused of mocking religion, came to a surprising end on Saturday. Al-Harbi was sentenced to three years in prison and 750 lashes — 50 lashes per week for 15 weeks. The lashes are to be given in the public market in the town of Al-Bikeriya in Al-Qassim.

The kids don't like him because they failed a chemistry test; the Islamic studies had another reason:

Deeply disturbed by the explosions at the Al-Hamra Compound in Riyadh in 2003, Al-Harbi felt it his duty as an educator to enlighten his students and warn them of terrorism and its consequences. He went to great lengths by talking to students, hanging anti-terrorism signs around the school and speaking against terrorism.

“The Ministry of Education has recently ordered all schools to lecture students on the dangers of extremism and terrorism in general, but I was a step ahead of their decision,” said Al-Harbi.

Apparently Al-Harbi’s actions and comments against terrorism upset a number of Islamic studies teachers known for their fundamentalist beliefs.

Muslim Brotherhood wins 20 pct. of Egypt vote

"Democracy is on the march." From the San Jose Mercury News:

CAIRO, Egypt - The Muslim Brotherhood won 20 percent of the overall vote in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, according to initial official results released Wednesday after a day of intense runoff balloting.

The Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, is officially banned as a political party in Egypt but fielded candidates as independents. It won 30 seats, while the ruling National Democratic Party won 50 seats, the semi-official Middle East News Agency reported, quoting judges in counting stations.

The results of Tuesday's runoffs and last week's polling - the first round in the four-week elections - mean the Brotherhood has already captured 34 seats in parliament, more than double the 15 it held in the outgoing assembly. This confirms its position as the biggest single opposition group to President Hosni Mubarak's government.

Scattered violence and rigging allegations marred the runoffs, called to decide the 133 seats where no candidate won more than half the vote on Nov. 9...

The ruling party is not expected to lose its long-held majority in the 454-seat parliament. The elections are seen as a gauge of how far Mubarak is prepared to open the political system. During the past two years, the United States has put increasing pressure on the president to liberalize his authoritarian administration...

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said it saw "increasing instances of election bribes ... collective voting, and in some cases assaults on voters for not supporting NDP candidates."...

Iraq's Growing Civil War

"Raid on torture dungeon exposes Iraq's secret war," from the Independent:

The raid was at a building in central Baghdad. Men armed with automatic rifles burst in and made their way to a set of underground cells where they found 175 people huddled together. They had been captured by paramilitaries and tortured. The terrified, mainly Sunni, captives had been held in an office of the Iraqi interior ministry, and the rescue party were Iraqi police and American soldiers.

Yesterday, 24 hours later, the Prime Minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, promised an investigation after the shocking demonstration of how paramilitary units working for the government, and death squads allegedly linked to it, are waging a savage war in the shadows.

People are arrested and disappear for months. Bodies appear every week of men, and sometimes women, executed with their hands tied behind their backs. Some have been grotesquely mutilated with knives and electric drills before their deaths.

The paramilitaries are not held responsible for all the deaths - some are the work of insurgents murdering supposed informers or government officials, or killing for purely sectarian motives.

You very seldom see American soldiers on the streets of Baghdad now. The Iraqi police are in evidence outside, but so are increasing numbers of militias running their own checkpoints - men in balaclavas or wrap-around sunglasses and headbands, with leather mittens and an array of weapons. An American official acknowledged: "It is getting more and more like Mogadishu every day."...

Although the US forces had ridden to the rescue on this occasion, many of these units have been created, trained and armed by the Americans. According to reports, $3bn (£1.7bn) out of an $87bn Iraq appropriation that Congress approved last year was earmarked for the creation of paramilitary units to fight the insurgency. Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's former head of counter-terrorism, said: "They set up little teams of [Navy] Seals and special forces with teams of Iraqis, working with people who were in senior intelligence under the Saddam regime."...

Hamas, Jihad reject deal on Gaza crossings

From Xinhuanet.com:

GAZA - The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) rejected on Wednesday a US-brokered agreement reached between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel on Gaza border crossings.

The two groups said in two separate statements that the agreement reached under the sponsorship of the United States has harmed the Palestinian sovereignty and despised the Palestinian dignity.

Hamas condemned the PNA's approval of the agreement that was reached on Tuesday after intense mediation by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"The Israelis have the ability to observe the Palestinians or any visitors via the Rafah crossing through cameras and through the joint control room," the Hamas statement said...

Jihad also rebuked the US for interfering into the Gaza border issue for the sake of Israel while neglecting other important issues such as the Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and the building of a separation barrier.

Under the deal, the key Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt borderwill be re-opened as of Nov. 25 under the presence of European Union security monitors. All Palestinian identification card holders can travel through the crossing in both directions.

The Rafah crossing is the only exit for Palestinians living in Gaza to travel abroad. The terminal has remained closed since Israel withdrew from the entire strip in September.

Fearing that the Rafah crossing might be used by Palestinian militants to smuggle weapons, Israel had insisted on monitoring goods and people through the terminal, but Palestinians asserted that no Israelis should be at Rafah.

The two sides finally reached a compromise that Israeli and Palestinian security officers will co-monitor the traffic at Rafah by remote-control cameras in a control room a few kilometers away from the crossing.

Meanwhile, the agreement says a seaport can be constructed in Gaza, the Karni crossing on the eastern Gaza border will be expanded and that Palestinians can travel between Gaza and the West Bank in bus and truck convoys within months.

Dozens Hurt in Bombing in Indian Kashmir

From the New Duranty Times:

NEW DELHI - In the latest in a surge of violence over three days, a large car bomb exploded Wednesday morning in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir province, severely wounding dozens of people and leaving an uncertain death toll.

The bombing was the latest in a practically uninterrupted series of clashes since Monday between Indian authorities and militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, in which at least 8 people have been killed, roughly 70 injured and a fresh current of fear and mayhem has swept across a region still reeling from the devastating Oct. 8 earthquake.

A police officer at the scene said at least three people died in Wednesday's attack, in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. The attack appeared to have been directed at a former militant-turned-politician, Usman Majeed. He was injured.

The Kashmiri violence took a sharp upturn this week, after Indian police stepped up the search for suspects in a synchronized series of bombs in the Indian capital two weeks ago, in which more than 60 people died...

UK to Extradite Muslim Terror Suspect to US

"Clarke to extradite Ahmad to US," from the BBC:

Charles Clarke has ordered the extradition of Babar Ahmad to the US to face trial on alleged terrorism offences, the Home Office has said.

It said the home secretary had "given full consideration" to representations made on Mr Ahmad's behalf.

Mr Ahmad, 31, a computer expert from Tooting, London, is accused of running websites that supported terrorists and urged Muslims to fight a holy war.

His family said they would appeal the extradition order in the High Court...

Nine killed in Thai attack

The jihad continues in southern Thailand. From the AP:

Suspected Muslim separatists have stormed two houses in a southern Thai village and opened fire on the families with assault rifles, killing nine people and injuring nine others.

About 10 armed men on Wednesday entered the homes in the Rangae district of Thailand's Narathiwat province and killed four men, one woman and four children.

The brave jihad warriors obviously perceived a threat to Islam from this woman and the four children.

Seeking martyrdom? Apply here.

From Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14 – An organisation set up by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is holding a rally in a provincial centre in north-east Iran on Tuesday as part of a nationwide drive to recruit volunteers for “martyrdom-seeking” operations, Iran Focus has learnt.

The event, dubbed “Palestinian intifada and martyrdom-seeking”, will be staged on the campus of the Industrial University of Shahroud. The keynote speaker will be Mohammad-Ali Samadi, the spokesman for the “Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement”.

And who says students aren't learning anything at university?

Samadi is a senior officer of the Revolutionary Guards and his organisation is run by the IRGC in an effort to recruit potential suicide bombers. Organisers of the rally said the representative of the militant Palestinian group, Hamas, in Iran, Abu Othmama, will also speak at the rally.

“This event is part of a series of events that we have named ‘Daughters of the Olive’, and in addition to Tehran, similar rallies have already been held in Tabriz and Bushehr”, a local organiser told Iran Focus.

A film on “martyrdom-seeking operations” is planned to be shown at the gathering and a debate will be held regarding the guidelines for suicide operations from both Sunni and Shiite Islam’s perspectives and their impact on “the enemy”, the source added.

Earlier this month, radical fanatics signed up for suicide operations in Tehran to mark the end of the month of Ramadan.

Samadi said that 40,000 volunteers for suicide bombing operations had already enlisted to attack targets on the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Application forms for suicide volunteers to sign up were distributed at the gathering.

The group’s organisers previously said that their targets were three-fold; U.S.-led forces in Iraq, Jews in Israel, and Salman Rushdie, who still has a fatwa against his head issue by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Poor Salman. The guy just can't catch a break, can he?

Who would have thought that it all starts at home?

But what Sydney courts fail to recognize, whether deliberately or not, is that jihad indoctrination is sanctioned by the Qur'an and is passed from generation to generation. It's a cultural thing, silly! Concerning a mother's accountability from The Age:

MOTHERS convicted of inciting their children to kill in the name of Allah may face life imprisonment, according to a terror law expert.

Secretly recorded conversations produced in evidence in a Sydney court this week showed that terror suspects were allegedly told by their spiritual leader to ask their mothers for permission to wage jihad.

"Some people claim to love jihad but don't respect their own parents," Abdul Nacer Benbrika is alleged to have told two of his co-accused, Mazen Touma and Omar Baladjam.

"You need permission from your parents to go to jihad. If your mother says no to jihad, then no jihad."

Two days later, Touma is alleged to have asked his mother for permission to wage jihad. Her response was not given by the police in evidence.

Barrister and terror law expert David Neal said parents convicted of inciting their children to kill could be jailed for life under Victorian law and for up to 10 years under Commonwealth law.

"Incitement to murder carries a maximum penalty of life under Victorian law. If it is believed that you are urging your child to commit a crime, then you have committed incitement," he said.

Fire and Fury on the Euro-Arab Street

The Nation takes stock. Good. If left and right can unite against the external threat, we will have all the time we want to discuss amongst ourselves tax rates, spending, and the scope of government regulation.

"This is the beginning of the war!" a French Muslim boy called out in the middle of the recent riots in Le Blanc Mesnil, just north of Paris.

But is it? Or was the war really going on already?

Few Americans have heard of him, but in Europe, more and more are becoming familiar with the name--and the ideas--of Dyab Abou Jahjah, founder of the now-international Arab European League (AEL) and the Muslim Democratic Party. Handsome, charismatic, well-educated and multilingual, he has the perfect makings of a political leader, or perhaps better said, a man poised to lead a revolution. And he knows it.

More to the point: As the fury of Muslim youth explodes across the landscape of Western Europe, it's time that others know it, too.

The AEL, founded in Belgium in 2000--in other words, before September 2001--now has branches in the Netherlands and France, and intends to spread across the EU, with plans to participate in future European Parliamentary elections as the Muslim Democratic Party. With battle cries like "Whatever Means Necessary" and frequent condemnations of America, Jahjah--who called the 9/11 attacks "sweet revenge"-- recruits Muslim youth to spread his ideology, a vague series of ideas that occasionally appear moderate but, when added together, call for violent resistance, the destruction of Israel and the introduction of Sharia (Islamic) law in Europe.

Most recently, Jahjah issued a public statement supporting Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. "The foundation of Najad's reasoning is intellectually defendable," he writes in English (the statement in its entirety can be found here), "and despite the fact that his regime is no perfect example of political morality, I argue that his position on this matter is the only possible moral one." (Ironically, the man slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh once called "a pimp for Allah" continues his rant with mention of a "mythical racial-religious holy promise by some god in some religious book"--by which, of course, he means the Old Testament. Despite such statements, Jahjah repeatedly insists he has "nothing against the Jews.")

I've thought a lot about Jahjah in the past few days: Jahjah who never condemned the killing of van Gogh by a Dutch Muslim fundamentalist; Jahjah who finds the destruction of Israel "the only possible moral" option; Jahjah who has on several occasions incited riots on the streets of Antwerp and now defends the ongoing rioting of Muslim youth outside of Paris. I've thought of Jahjah as Muslim youths riot, too, in Arhus, Denmark, presumably in protest against the publication in a national newspaper of a cartoon drawing of Mohammed.

As they say, read it all.

Update: The link above disappeared. I have updated it.

"Dear Mr. Ape Pig..."

Dennis Prager has questions; this fellow has answers, but the subject line says it all.

Subject: mr apepig
From: XXXX@XXXXX.com
Date: Mon, November 14, 2005 1:15 pm
To: director@jihadwatch.org

five questions:

1: the reason why muslims are so quite is because they dont own the media and when the anti terrorist march happened in london they didnt recieve any media coverage and remember there are more muslims killed by jews, christians and hindus than non muslims killed by the muslims so thequestion should really be why dont the 4 billion non muslims protest against the terrorism carried out by so called civilised nations?

So countries where Muslims do own the media such as Saudi Arabia and Iran will show us a different pciture?

As for the other assertion, well, I doubt it, but more to the point find me an open-ended command among Jews, Christians, and Hindus to fight against Muslims, until they are killed or submit.

question 2:
how many out of the palestinian population are resisting, the population of christians is even smaller, the christians arnt politically active in palestine and are not targeted like muslims, their churches arnt occupied and isnt there enough christian terrorism in ireland, iraq and afghanistan as was the case in the balkans.

If politically active means prone to blow yourself up in pizza parlours, than I can see why those who aren't politically active aren't targeted.
Would mentioning the standoff in the Church of the Nativity be shooting fish in a barrel?

question 3:
who put these leaders there in the muslim countries in the first place, i.e al saud, who supports them and the reality is that the west is the most occupied and unfree nation in the world.

Yes, that is why so many people flee the West for the more congenial Muslim world.

question 4: any "free" person knows that the real atrocities have been comitted by the non muslims and they exceed those commited by muslims possibly ten folds. I mean hilter was a christian wasnt he?

In a word, No. Hitler was not a Christian.

question 5: which country is governed by islamic law? its actually the non muslims like hiter, stalin, british empire, old rome, israel, the american empire that are the real persecuters.

your reverse physology is s___t man

Prager named the countries governed by Islamic law, the sun has set on the British empire, and Hitler, Stalin, and Ancient Rome are more famous for their persecution of Christians and Jews than the other way around, so let's not dredge up ancient history.

I have only scratched the surface of the fallacies here. Let the comments begin.

Spencer: CAIR Attempts to Smear Me

Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer writes in Front Page:

On Yom Kippur this year I had the honor of speaking at the Temple of the Arts in Los Angeles, and the Council on American Islamic Relations is not pleased. They distributed a press release stating that my Jihad Watch website is a “hate site” that is “notorious for its depiction of Islam as an inherently violent faith that is a threat to world peace.” The organization called on the Temple to feature a speaker of its own choosing. “We would be glad to suggest the names of credible Muslim scholars who can offer Temple Shalom’s congregation a perspective on Islam that is not tainted by hatred and bigotry,” CAIR-LA’s Hussam Ayloush said.

One would think that a statement charging someone with “hatred and bigotry” and protesting a talk he gave would be filled with bigoted statements from the talk. However, CAIR’s press release they don’t quote a single thing that I actually said at the Temple of the Arts. They couldn’t quote anything that I said there because I didn’t say anything hateful. Then they must have quoted what I said at my website, or in one of my books, or articles, right?

Wrong. There is not a word I wrote in all of CAIR’s press release. Hussam Ayloush has had plenty of chances to collect “hate speech” from me. I have debated him at FrontPage magazine. But he quotes not a word I wrote there. I have debated him on the Dennis Prager Show. But he refers to nothing I said there. I have written an article about a talk he gave. But he doesn’t quote a syllable of that.

I have written five books, seven monographs, and scores of articles about Islam and terrorism. Nary a quote from any of them...

Read it all.

Senate Republicans Pushing for a Plan on Ending the War in Iraq

From the New Duranty Times:

WASHINGTON - In a sign of increasing unease among Congressional Republicans over the war in Iraq, the Senate is to consider on Tuesday a Republican proposal that calls for Iraqi forces to take the lead next year in securing the nation and for the Bush administration to lay out its strategy for ending the war...

The proposal on the Iraq war, from Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, would require the administration to provide extensive new quarterly reports to Congress on subjects like progress in bringing in other countries to help stabilize Iraq. The other appeals related to Iraq are nonbinding and express the position of the Senate.

The plan stops short of a competing Democratic proposal that moves toward establishing dates for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. But it is built upon the Democratic approach and makes it clear that senators of both parties are increasingly eager for Iraqis to take control of their country in coming months and open the door to removing American troops.

Mr. Warner said the underlying message was, "we really mean business, Iraqis, get on with it." The senator, an influential party voice on military issues, said he did not interpret the wording of his plan as critical of the administration, describing it as a "forward-looking" approach.

"It is not a question of satisfaction or dissatisfaction," he said. "This reflects what has to be done."

Democrats said the plan represented a shift in Republican sentiment on Iraq and was an acknowledgment of growing public unrest with the course of the war and the administration's frequent call for patience. "I think it signals the fact that the American people are demanding change, and the Republicans see that that's something that they have to follow," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader.

Mr. Frist said an important reason for the Republican proposal was to offer an alternative to the Democratic call for a withdrawal timetable. "The real objective was to get out of this timeline of cutting and running that the Democrats have in their amendment," he said.

Mr. Warner said he decided to take the Democratic proposal and edit it to his satisfaction in an effort to find common ground between the parties on the issue.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said he saw the proposal as a potential "turning point" in Congressional deliberation over Iraq and related issues.

The competing amendments include some of the most specific and expansive Congressional statements on the war in months and are being proposed for inclusion in a measure that also wrestles with the issues of treatment of terror detainees and their rights in American courts...

NATO soldier, Afghan child among 8 killed in attacks

From AP:

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suicide bombers rammed explosive-laden cars into NATO forces in two attacks yesterday.

A German soldier and an Afghan child were among eight people killed, and at least a dozen other people were wounded. A spokesman for NATO's peacekeeping force, Major Andrew Elmes, said the other six bodies were believed to be those of Afghans.

It was the first major assault on foreign troops in Kabul in more than a year.

Today, police blamed Al Qaeda for the bombings. Police commander General Mohammed Akbar said only Al Qaeda has the capability to pull off such a coordinated attack. ''Al Qaeda is definitely behind this attack," he said.

Troops appeared to have thwarted a third bombing by shooting to death three people in a car who reportedly had been racing toward the scene of the blasts.

The bombs went off within 90 minutes of each other on a 500-yard stretch of road, near the headquarters of Afghan-UN election organizers. In each case, the attackers rammed cars into NATO vehicles...

Huge explosion hits Karachi’s KFC, six killed

Our latest bombing (a non-suicide this time) is brought to us by Al Jazeera.com:

A car bomb hit a fast-food restaurant in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi early Tuesday, killing more than six people and wounding 15 others, medics said, according to BBC.

Police sources said the blast struck the front entrance of the KFC outlet and burned several cars on the street.

The car bomb went off in a crowded business area near two luxury hotels at about 0840 (0340 GMT), during morning rush hour.

Karachi police chief Mushtaq Shah said the bomb was concealed in a car parked outside the restaurant.

“It was a high-intensity explosion and its noise was heard in several parts of the city," he said.

"It appears that the KFC was the target."

Shah said the bomb was detonated by a remote control...

It was the second attack on Western fast-food chains in Karachi in recent months. Several people were wounded in bombs attacks on Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s restaurants in September.

In May, six people died when protesters set fire to a KFC restaurant in the city...

Rice Brokers Israeli-Palestinian Accord to Reopen Border Crossings

From VOA:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has brokered a broad agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on operating Gaza Strip border crossings. The deal, announced Tuesday, after marathon negotiations, would re-open the critical Rafah crossing - Gaza's international outlet for Palestinian trade and travel.

The Bush administration badly wanted the borders agreement to restore momentum in Middle East peace efforts that stalled amid violence after Israel's Gaza withdrawal in September.

Intent on keeping pressure on the parties, Ms. Rice postponed a scheduled Monday departure for South Korea and the Pacific region APEC economic summit to shepherd the talks.

She remained at her Jerusalem hotel, meeting alternately through the night and into Tuesday morning with Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, while State Department aides constantly amended the draft agreement on a laptop computer.

Ms. Rice announced the completed agreement at a news briefing before leaving for Asia, saying the accord will give Palestinians control of their borders that they want and Israel that security it requires:

"It is a major step forward for the Palestinian people, in their own movement toward independence in this region, and that is that they have control on one side, the Egyptians on the other," she said. "It's an international border. It will need a third party and obviously nobody wants to have this to be a border that is unsafe, and so I expect that everybody will cooperate as much as they possibly can."

Israel retained control over the Gaza Strip's borders and air space after it removed settlements and troops from the coastal area. It closed down the Rafah border crossing at the time of the disengagement, concerned about lax security there by Palestinian police .

Under the accord, Israel would not have its own security presence at Rafah, which is to re-open by the end of the month. But new monitoring equipment would be installed, giving Israel real-time information on checkpoint activity. Palestinian and Egyptian border agents at Rafah would be augmented by European Union security personnel...

Australian jihadists planned attack on nuclear reactor

Australian authorities have been tightlipped concerning the target of the attack which was apparently thwarted by arrests made last week. Now, we may know, from Reuters:

Eight Sydney men arrested on terrorism charges may have been planning a bomb attack against the city's nuclear reactor, police said on Monday.

Their Islamic spiritual leader, also charged with terrorism offences, told the men if they wanted to die for jihad they should inflict "maximum damage," according to a 21-page police court document.

The document outlines how the men, arrested last week in the nation's biggest security swoop, bought chemicals used in the London July 7 bombs, had bomb-making instructions in Arabic and videos entitled "Sheikh Osama's Training Course" and "Are you ready to die?"
Under the heading "Targets," police said three of the men were stopped near Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004. A security gate lock had recently been cut.

A note from Robert Spencer

I am going to be "out of pocket" until November 23, starting today. I will look in here when I can, but I am not sure that I will be able to post daily.

The site, however, will go on as always. The Jihad Watch News Editors will be posting here, including a new addition, Anne Crockett.

The director@jihadwatch.org email will still be read, although not solely by me, and possibly not by me at all. So if you send me a personal email, I may not see it for awhile. But please continue to send news links to that address.

By the way, I get many hundreds of messages daily to that address, so I apologize to all whose messages I have overlooked; as Charles Johnson said of himself a while ago, my email situation has gotten so far out of control that it's scaring the neighbors. However, I am grateful for all the news links that all of you send in.

Upon return to full-time Jihad Watching I may have a few stories to tell.

UPDATE: Hugh says "out of pocket" means broke. I say no, that it means "out of reach" -- which is what I meant (support for that usage here). What do you think?

Somalia: 12 killed in jihad against movies

"Fight over cinemas kills at least 12," from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

HEAVY fighting apparently sparked by an Islamic militia's moves to close cinemas and video stores in the lawless Somali capital has killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 21.

Clashes between gunmen loyal to Mogadishu's Islamic courts and local militia defending the densely populated Yaqshid district began yesterday and flared again today.

"The Islamic courts' militia are trying to close all entertainment centres of the district," one local resident Ahmed Dhuhulow said.

Three people died yesterday and another nine today in clashes that caused inhabitants to flee the area and shops to close, witnesses said....

Leaders of Mogadishu's influential Islamic courts oppose Western and Indian films which they say promote immorality in the mainly Muslim nation.

Killing 12 people at random isn't immoral?

Ehrenfeld: Saudi Accountability?

Rachel Ehrenfeld discusses the hearings on the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act and what we should do next in FrontPage:

Responding to last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Saudi Arabia’s role in the war on terror, entitled “Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?”, Riyadh’s ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki al-Faisal, charged the committee members with ignorance. "Judging by the statements made at the hearing, it appears that the members of the Committee are not fully aware of the significant steps Saudi Arabia has taken in the war on terrorism and extremism.” Worse, according to the prince, U.S. senators “chose to ignore the realities for the sake of political expediency.”

Did they really? The U.S. National Intelligence Reform Act of December 2004 requires development of a Presidential strategy to confront Islamic extremism in collaboration with Saudi Arabia. So far, however, the level of Saudi cooperation has been difficult to gauge. In September, for instance, a Government Accounting Office (GAO) report noted that U.S. agencies have been unable to determine the extent of Saudi Arabia’s domestic and international cooperation.

Evidence further suggests that Saudi Arabia, far from cracking down on terror, is actively enabling it. Thus, testifying before the Committee, Daniel Glaser, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the Treasury Department, expressed concern that the Saudis are continuing to fund terror despite repeated promises to stop. Indeed, last August, Y'akub Abu Assab, a senior Hamas operative, was captured after he opened the Judea regional Hamas Communication Center in East Jerusalem. Assab transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as operational instructions from Hamas headquarters in Saudi Arabia to Hamas operatives in the West Bank and Gaza for terror attacks in Israel, as well as funds for the families of suicide bombers.

Glaser also noted that, in a “August 29, 2005 program aired in Saudi Arabia on Iqra TV, a Saudi-based station, which solicited funds for the Saudi Committee for the Support of the al Quds Intifadah ... Saudi Arabia's secretary-general of the official Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission, Sheikh Abdallah Basfar, urged Muslims everywhere to fund terrorism.” He said: “The Prophet said: 'He who equips a fighter -- it is as if he himself fought.' You lie in your bed, safe in your own home, and donate money and Allah credits you with the rewards of a fighter. What is this? A privilege.” Basfar asked donors to direct funds to a Joint Account 98 at “all banks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

“Account 98,” according to Glaser, “had been a regular issue of concern that we have raised with the Saudis at all levels. They have repeatedly assured us that Account 98 no longer exists and that they are making efforts to staunch the flow of funds to these groups.” In other words, the Saudis tell us that they are implementing their promises even as they continue to fund terrorism.

Former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform in April this year that “[s]ome $85-90 billion has been spent from sources in Saudi Arabia in the last 30 years, spreading Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world.”

At least two members of the Saudi government, Riyadh Governor Prince Salman and Minister of Defense Prince Sultan, are sponsors of the Saudi High Commission, which evidence detailed in the 9/11 victims lawsuits shows “has long acted as a fully integrated component of al-Qaeda’s logistical and financial support infrastructure.” Moreover, the lawsuits detail that, “the Sept. 11 attacks were a ‘direct, intended and foreseeable product of [the High Commission’s] participation in al-Qaeda’s jihadist campaign.'”

Princes Salman and Prince Sultan are also affiliated with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), which “had been involved in terror plans and plots and had purposely directed its activities against the United States.” The Princes have also been affiliated with the Saudi Charity al- Haramain, whose U.S. branches were shut down.

The most important finding by the GAO’s September report, however, was buried in a footnote. It says: “the distinction between the [Saudi] government’s support and funding, versus that provided by entities and individuals, especially in the case of Saudi charities’ alleged activities, is not always clear.”

While the U.S. Treasury Department is obligated to monitor funders of terrorism, the GAO reports that Treasury is not fulfilling its duty, in that Treasury “does not identify, monitor, or counter the support and funding or the global propagation of Islamic extremism as it relates to an ideology.” This ideology, according to the GAO, “denies the legitimacy of non-believers and practitioners of other forms of Islam, and that explicitly promotes hatred, intolerance, and violence…” Indeed, the propagation of this ideology, known as “DAWA,” is an integral part of Islamic institutions in the West.

Saudi officials, for their part, seem intent on obfuscating the kingdom’s ties to terrorism. “Saudi Arabia now has in place world-class laws and regulations to combat terror financing,” Prince Turki has maintained. At the same time, the prince is unwilling to account for the failure of the Saudi government to fulfill its promises to stop the propagation “Islamic extremism.” But he is perfectly willing to fault American policymakers for holding hearings to determine Saudi accountability in financing terrorism. Following last week’s hearing, the prince complained that “events like the hearing today do not contribute to a spirit of cooperation and only serve to reinforce negative misconceptions and half-truths.”

American legislators, however, have grown impatient with Saudi spin. Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) stated at last week’s hearing that “Saudi Arabia needs to understand that we expect it to be a helpful ally in the war against terrorism and that there will be serious consequences for the U.S.-Saudi relationship if it is not.” In view of the Saudis’ continuing support of Hamas and Prince Turki’s dishonest remarks, it seems the time is ripe for the U.S. to spell out what those consequences are.

At the very least, Saudi Arabia’s lack of cooperation should not be rewarded. From that perspective, last Friday’s decision to grant the kingdom membership in the World Trade Organization is a step in the wrong direction.

Jordan calls for jihad on terrorism

It's a pity that only a Muslim-on-Muslim attack inside Jordan itself brought them to this. They haven't been all that concerned with attacks on non-Muslims outside Jordan. From Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

AMMAN, Jordan -- King Abdullah II called for a global fight against terrorism yesterday as Jordan acknowledged for the first time that al Qaeda in Iraq used foreign suicide bombers to attack Amman hotels, killing 57....

King Abdullah called Zarqawi a growing threat to the Middle East and put the international community on notice that it must cooperate to fight terrorists.

"Terrorism is a sick and cross-border phenomenon. Therefore, eradicating it is the whole world's responsibility," he told the state-run Petra news agency. "The body parts we saw in Amman we see every day in brotherly Iraq and have also seen in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and other countries around the world."

Uh, Yer Majesty, have we seen it in...Israel? Britain? Spain? The United States?

Jihadists Plan World Revolution from Temple Mount

A frank statement of goals. "Islamic Radicals Plan World Revolution from Temple Mount," from Israel National News, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Islamic radicals have been using the Temple Mount as a focal point for planning and preaching the establishment of a world Islamic state with Jerusalem as its capital.

One of the radical groups operating on the Temple Mount is Hizab Altahrir (The Islamic Liberation Party), which espouses an ideology similar to Al Qaeda. Hizab Altahrir’s network spans most Western European countries. The party puts Islamic revolution and an uncompromising form of Jihad (holly war) at the top of its political agenda.

This group is more familiar to Jihad Watch readers as Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

The group advocates subjecting the entire world to Islamic law (Shariya), and destroying non-believing nations and religions.

The party has targeted Europe, specifically Denmark, for spreading its ideology, and providing a springboard for renewing Islamic conquests in Europe. A senior party activist in Jerusalem, Sheikh Issam Amira, expressed this philosophy in a recent speech which he made on the Temple Mount:

“Listeners! The Moslems in Denmark make up three percent [of the population], yet constitute a threat to the future of the Danish kingdom. It’s no surprise that in Bitrab (the ancient name of Medina, a city in Arabia to which Mohammed immigrated) they were fewer than three percent of the general population, but succeeded changing the regime in Bitrab.

“It’s no surprise that our brothers in Denmark have succeeded in bringing Islam to every home in that country. Allah will grant us victory in their land to establish the [Islamic] revolution in Denmark.”

After Denmark, the Sheikh said, the party will carry the revolution to Oslo and change its name to Medina. “They will fight against their Scandinavian neighbors in order to bring the country into the territory of the revolution,” he said. “In the next stage, they will fight a holy jihad to spread Islam to the rest of Europe, until it spreads to the original city of Medina where the two cities will unite under the Islamic flag.”

Sheikh Riyad Salah, head of the Islamic movement in Israel has also been active teaching the tenets of “Islamic revolution.”

“We are at the gates of the Islamic revolution,” he proclaims in his sermons to Arab citizens of Israel. “The global forces of evil will be eliminated from the world and the Islamic nation will remain in place in order to bring about the world Islamic revolution, with its capital, Jerusalem.”...

D.C. Watson: Double-cross

D. C. Watson explores the bullying attempts to limit freedom of speech and overall goals of some American Muslims:

Last week, accusations of “hate speech” and “Islamophobia” were levied against Robert Spencer and the Jihad Watch website by the “esteemed” Council on American Islamic Relations. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008906.php

Then CAIR claimed that the “growing level of Islamophobic rhetoric in American society prompts some individuals to turn their hate-filled views into violent actions.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008931.php

That sounds familiar. Probably because they said it here too, when they went after National Review online for selling a book called “The life and religion of Mohammed.”
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&ie=UTF-8&q=The+Life+and+Religion+of+Mohammed

For some reason, likely because the book tells the truth about this raider, they don’t want people to read it.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17523

Regarding these allegations, unless CAIR can produce evidence of Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer himself making verbal or written statements that can be construed as hateful or incitement to commit violent acts against Muslims, their shameful remarks, which can be added to their long list of shameful remarks, should be dismissed as utter nonsense.

Since we are addressing the issue, some of these so-called “hate filled views” and “violent actions” against Muslims that have been blamed on the American people were falsely reported to American law enforcement. Weren’t they now?

Here is a partial list of Muslims who have reported hate crimes that have turned out to be…nothing at all: Ahmad Nasim, Ahmed Jaffal, Amjad Abunar, Azad Abdullah, Mazhar Tabesh, Mirza Akram, Naveed Khan, Saleh Nawash, Zhaleh Sarabakhsh, Ahmad Saad Nasim, Mazhar Tabesh, Nezar Maad, Aqil Yassom Al-Timimi
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/315
http://www.interfire.org/res_file/acb_kh.asp

Also last week, in a column entitled “Bigotry”, I quoted not only some of the employees of CAIR, but also Muslim leaders throughout the Islamic world. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008932.php

Perhaps CAIR simply took the Jihad Watch readers’ comments on the site out of context. After all, the “out of context” excuse is often used by Islamists once they realize that they’ve gone too far with their own hate speech or idiotic comments: “Muslim leaders clarify anti-Semitic remarks”: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/10/25/muslimleaders_041025.html “Out of context in Australia”. http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/000924.php “Mahathir: Jew-Hatred "Taken Out of Context" http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8629

Nevertheless, as I stated in “Bigotry,” Americans are free to like or dislike anything or anyone they choose. They are also free to express their opinions verbally, in written form, through art, and in song, as it is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the American Bill of Rights.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Are Americans supposed to forget that 9/11 happened, and in what religion the perpetrators believed? After all, the surviving writings of Muhammad Atta make it quite clear that he did what he did in the name of that religion.

Are they supposed to pretend that they don’t hear about Muslim fanatics blowing themselves up on the news on what seems to be a daily basis – and also justifying this on religious grounds?

Are they expected by groups like CAIR to ignore the fact that Islamic beliefs and democracy do not, cannot, and will not correlate, which is proven every day in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran?

Perhaps it would be wise for those in the American Muslim community who enjoy the freedoms that the United States offers, who stringently follow the laws of the United States Constitution, and not the laws of the Qur’an to publicly shun these Islamic groups.

Dr. Daniel Pipes and Khalid Duran have offered a great deal of information about the American Islamic community, and how a good number of Muslims in the United States aren’t practicing Islam as stringently as the Islamic militants here would like. The question arises: do American Muslims need or want their lives to be affected in any way by the activities of these organizations? http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/back802.pdf

These pillars of society have double-crossed the American public, including many Muslims, by speaking out both sides of their mouths. On one hand, they claim to promote dialogue with non-Muslims and aim for pluralism, yet during their Muslim gatherings, they spin a one-eighty and elaborate on their desires for an Islamic United States.

Siraj Wahhaj: “I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and LaGuardia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names.

Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area of no crime, controlled by the Muslims?”
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/77

Zaid Shakir: “Muslims cannot accept the legitimacy of the secular system in the United States, for it "is against the orders and ordainments of Allah . . . the orientation of the Qur'an pushes us in the exact opposite direction as the forces that are at work in the American political spectrum."
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/charen121401.asp

Shamin A. Siddiqi: To permit Islam to attain its rightful place requires that the "ideology of Islam prevail over the mental horizon of the American people. "The future of the Muslim world now depends on how soon the Muslims of America are able to build up their own indigenous movement."
http://www.lorenzenfamily.com/paul/islam/militant-islam.html

Ihsan Bagby: "Ultimately we can never be full citizens of this country (United States). . . because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country."

Apparently, despite the mainstream media’s efforts to ignore this shell game, the CAIR organization and others like it appear to be finding out that at the end of the day, a steadily increasing amount of the American public is onto it. This is the United States, baby. No one bullies us into liking or respecting them. Respect must be earned.

So for these Muslim “leaders” who can’t envision anything in their future but Islam far as the eye can see, who dream of the ideology of Islam prevailing over the mental horizon of the American people, or cannot accept the legitimacy of the secular system in the United States because it "is against the orders and ordainments of Allah”, this is not the place for you, and you should find a society more to your liking.

Jordan ‘strayed from Islam’, say Zarqawi town residents

Yes, Jordanians say here, the bombings were wrong, but Jordan does indeed have to get back on the path of Islam. I.e., ditch the "moderation."

Again and again we see the Salafi appeal that they represent "pure Islam." Yet we are supposed to believe that the incorrectness and impurity of their Islam is self-evident to the vast majority of Muslims worldwide. I hope it is, but the evidence of that has not been available in abundance. From AFP, with thanks to Twostellas:

ZARQA, Jordan: Residents of the impoverished Jordanian town where fugitive extremist Abu Mussab Al -Zarqawi was born said yesterday that the hotel bombings in Amman occurred because Jordan had “strayed from Islam”.

One of Zarqawi’s brothers and his sisters living in Zarqa refused to comment on the possibility one of their own may have masterminded the bloodiest attack in the kingdom’s history that claimed the lives of at least 57 people and wounded about 100....

“Glory to God!” is scrawled in red on a wall near the family home of Zarqawi, who was born Fadel Nazzal Al Khalayleh before changing his name in 1991 when he joined the radical Salafist Islamic group. His brother Mohammed was not home and two of Zarqawi’s seven sisters speaking through an intercom system said they had nothing to say. “Please go away,” said one in a soft voice....

“Those who care about the country’s security and peace should strive to build the umma (Islamic nation) according to God’s tenets,” the mosque’s imam, or preacher, said in his sermon without once directly condemning the attacks. “What befell the umma happened because it strayed from Islam.”

He said Muslim blood should not be spilled and that Muslims “should instead direct their spears against God’s enemies” like America and Israel. Jordan, one of Washington’s staunchest allies in the region, is one of just three Arab countries to have diplomatic ties with its Jewish neighbour.

Many prayergoers condemned the attacks while lamenting what they perceived as the declining Islamic values in the country, whose 5.5 million population is almost 93 per cent Sunni Muslim. “Only 29 per cent of the people are true Muslims and the rest are just so by name,” said Mohammed Musa, 27, a school teacher. Jordan’s King Abdullah II has called for a more tolerant interpretation of Islam.

Further east in Zarqa’s Nuzha neighbourhood and past a courthouse and the Jihad (holy war) driving school is the home of Sayel Al Khalayleh, the eldest of Zarqawi’s three brothers. “I will say nothing, nothing, nothing!” said the craggy-faced man.

Outside his two-storey home a young bearded neighbour wearing a black skullcap and dark robes condemned the attacks but hoped his countrymen would be more pious. “Even though these hotels had bars and brothels, nothing justifies the killing of women and children,” said Ibrahim Baarat, 19, who works at a paint factory and studies Islam.

“We can preach change. This country needs reform and needs to get back on God’s path.”

Iraqi Woman Admits on TV to Jordan Attack

Her brother was once Zarqawi's right-hand man. Another member of the clan is Iraq's defense minister. From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

An Iraqi woman confessed on Jordanian state television Sunday that she tried to blow herself up along with her husband during a hotel wedding reception last week, saying that the explosives concealed under her denim dress failed to detonate.

Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, made her statement hours after being arrested by authorities tipped off by an al-Qaida in Iraq claim that a husband-and-wife team participated in Wednesday's bombings at three U.S.-based hotels. The attackers killed 57 other people at the Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels.

Al-Rishawi's brother was once the right-hand man to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, said deputy premier Marwan Muasher. He said the brother, Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, was killed in the former terrorist stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq.

Officials believe al-Rishawi, who entered Jordan from Iraq on Nov. 5, may provide significant information about the operations of al- Zarqawi's group, which claimed responsibility for the hotel bombings, Jordan's deadliest terrorist attacks. The group said the attacks were retaliation for Jordan supporting the United States and other Western powers.

Al-Rishawi was shown on state television wearing a white head scarf, a buttoned, body-length dark denim dress, and belts packed with TNT and ball bearings. Muasher told CNN the belts were captured with her.

Al-Rishawi said she and her husband, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, 35, were wearing explosive-laden belts when they strolled into a Radisson ballroom where hundreds of guests, including children, were attending a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding reception.

"My husband wore a belt and put one on me. He taught me how to use it, how to pull the (primer cord) and operate it," she said, wringing her hands.

"My husband detonated (his bomb). I tried to explode (my belt) but it wouldn't. I left, people fled running and I left running with them."

Muasher said al-Rishawi's husband noticed her struggle and pushed her out of the ballroom in order not to attract attention before blowing himself up....

Residents of Iraq's Anbar province said al-Rishawi comes from a clan living mostly in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

Ironically, the clan, known variously as the Burishas and the Rishawis, is known for its good ties with the Americans. Its members include Iraq's defense minister, Saadoun al-Dulaimi, who visited Jordan on Sunday....

The wedding was targeted because the bombers wanted to "inflict the biggest number of casualties and victims," Muasher said. The security official said the Radisson also was targeted is because it is a favorite for Israeli tourists.

The bomb strapped to al-Rishawi's husband was packed with the powerful explosive RDX and ball bearings and designed to kill as many people as possible, Muasher said.

The lies escalate

As I have noted, CAIR's press release attacking me did not quote a single thing I have ever said or written, but simply ascribed falsely to me things that I do not believe.

Now the Palestinian Information Center, a UK-based site, has gone farther. In an article entitled "Jewish synagogue in California hosts notorious Islamophobe," the Center asserts this:

Spencer reportedly attacked Islam and Muslims, ascribing to them virulent epithets, such as criminals and Nazis.

I said nothing of the kind at the synagogue. Nor have I ever said or written anything like this anywhere else. This is a wholly fabricated and libelous statement -- as anyone who was at the Temple of the Arts on Yom Kippur, and I expect the crowd was between 800 and 1,000 people, can attest.

Just so you know where they're coming from, the PIC adds this a bit farther down:

Some experts believe that Jewish circles are behind much of the present wave of Islamophobia in the West, especially in North America.

Some of these circles have found a common cause with evangelical Christians in the US in vilifying Islam and its religious symbols.

Well, I have news for them: I am neither a Jew nor an evangelical Christian. The international jihadists have offended more people than just those two groups. Nor am I going to take their lies lightly. I have written to the Palestinian Information Center asking for a retraction and an apology (no, I am not holding my breath). I am not so much concerned about my reputation, which will never rise high among jihadists and jihad-abetters. But I am concerned that they not get away with shamelessly misrepresenting the facts in order to smear those who oppose jihad violence.

Of course, who am I kidding -- shameless misrepresentation of the facts has been a weapon in the jihadist arsenal ever since Muhammad declared that "war is deceit."

Prager: Five questions non-Muslims would like answered

Five superb and important questions formulated by radio host Dennis Prager. From the LA Times, with thanks to Brenda and Paul:

(1) Why are you so quiet?

Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.

There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude? When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror?

(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?

If Israeli occupation is the reason for Muslim terror in Israel, why do no Christian Palestinians engage in terror? They are just as nationalistic and just as occupied as Muslim Palestinians.

(3) Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?

According to Freedom House, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy, of the world's 47 Muslim countries, only Mali is free. Sixty percent are not free, and 38% are partly free. Muslim-majority states account for a majority of the world's "not free" states. And of the 10 "worst of the worst," seven are Islamic states. Why is this?

(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?

Young girls in Indonesia were recently beheaded by Muslim murderers. Last year, Muslims — in the name of Islam — murdered hundreds of schoolchildren in Russia. While reciting Muslim prayers, Islamic terrorists take foreigners working to make Iraq free and slaughter them. Muslim daughters are murdered by their own families in the thousands in "honor killings." And the Muslim government in Iran has publicly called for the extermination of Israel.

(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

No church or synagogue is allowed in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban destroyed some of the greatest sculptures of the ancient world because they were Buddhist. Sudan's Islamic regime has murdered great numbers of Christians.

Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were Christian-based terror groups around the world.

"By staying at home, you have turned your backs on jihad"

Neil Doyle (thanks to Judy) has a video, just released by Al-Qaeda, that contains footage of Mohammad Siddique Khan, one of the July 7 London suicide bombers.

Khan says to British Muslims: "By staying at home, you have turned your backs on jihad."

This is the kind of religious appeal that I have pointed out many times, and to which moderate Muslims have not yet formulated any effective response. Telling Western non-Muslims that Islam teaches peace and, at most, warfare only for self-defense will not induce young Muslims like Mohammad Siddique Khan to lay down their arms.

No 'cheap souk'

Bat Ye'or explains what is going on in France. From World Magazine (scroll down), with thanks to Ruth King:

Egyptian-born scholar Bat Ye'or has written extensively about the treatment of dhimmis, or non-Muslims, under Muslim domination. Her latest book, Eurabia (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005), chronicles Arab determination to subdue Europe as a cultural appendage to the Muslim world—and Europe's willingness to be so subjugated. It is her first book to be published in English before French, a decision Bat Ye'or now says took into account U.S. terror threats but did not foresee the dramatic spike in Muslim-led violence in France. Its publication in French is soon due out.

WORLD: Have the intensity and longevity of the uprisings in France surprised you?

BAT YE'OR: Yes, I was surprised. I did not expect such violence for the accidental deaths of two youths, a tragedy that can happen at any moment in any city, including in Muslim countries; in fact, such a reaction in a Muslim country is not conceivable. Nor did I expect the lethargy and incapacity of parents and the people in the suburbs to control the youth. However, it is the state of total unpreparedness to deal rapidly with an intifada that is worrying.

WORLD: Please explain how its roots go back to the 1970s and even further.

BAT YE'OR: In the 1960s after decolonization, France and Great Britain wanted to establish good relations with their former Arab colonies, while the Arab League was trying to bring Europe to adopt an anti-Zionist and pro-Arab line. The nine countries of the European Community (EC) made a deal with the Arab League countries based on a strategy: the creation of a Mediterranean multicultural and united society. This Euro-Arab alliance was based on three pillars: anti-Zionism and the promotion and support by Europe of Arafat; anti-Americanism and a European policy contrary to that of America; the guaranty of oil supply to Europe. Within this framework, specialists set up numerous unofficial agreements. Muslim immigration is a part of these agreements with a view to create a multicultural Mediterranean society where Christians and Muslims would be reconciled—on the base of anti-Zionism and the delegitimation of Israel and its withering away.

WORLD: Is Europe's Muslim population seeking to be ghettoized?

BAT YE'OR: The radicalized youths of the suburbs of Paris and elsewhere want to control their "territory." [They see] state control as an occupation and an infringement on their rights.

WORLD: Muslim leaders are, according to press reports, working as mediators between angry youths and authorities. Can Islamic leaders come alongside a secular state?

BAT YE'OR: This would make of France an Islamic-type state, or two states: one ruled by French law, with extraterritorial entities ruled by Islamic laws.

WORLD: With these uprisings spreading through Europe, what can European leaders do to halt the violence?

BAT YE'OR: The first thing to do is to stop immigration, and this is not in the cards. Then they should reassess European laws, values, and identity. These have been depreciated by our leaders, fascinated by multiculturalism—the Andalusian utopia, the greatness of Islam—and business profits. We need to re-valorize Europe and stop making it a cheap souk open to anyone. Europe must stop its antisemitism and anti-Zionism, because the biblical values are at the root of Christianity and of Europe's civilization.

Read it all.

ACAIR Founder: My Battle Against Hate

A message from the courageous and clear-thinking Andrew Whitehead of the Anti-Council on American-Islamic Relations (ACAIR) about the recent attacks on me by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):

Since April of 2003, Anti-Council on American-Islamic Relations (ACAIR) has been bringing you the facts about America’s largest Islamic hate group: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is a well funded group that sympathizes with Hamas, a notorious Muslim terrorist group that claims a mandate from God to kill anyone not living up to a radical, repulsive, and perverted brand of Islam: Wahhabism. CAIR has had many senior officials tried, convicted, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms on terrorism and other charges.

Why do I restate what is common, public knowledge?

Several days ago, I received an e-mail from an interested reader calling my attention to comments made by CAIR about the founder of the web site Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer. Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and his latest book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)” appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. He has also authored several other books on Islam.

http://jihadwatch.org/spencer/

CAIR’s problem with Spencer? Let’s read what CAIR had to say:

[Then follows CAIR's press release, which you can read at one of the links above]

What’s wrong with CAIR’s anger at Spencer?

First, it’s misdirected. Read CAIR’s complaint carefully and you will not find one single statement attributed to Spencer. Not one. How can Spencer be held reponsible for something he didn’t say? Only CAIR has the temerity to ascribe blame to what doesn’t exist.

Secondly, CAIR faults Spencer for commentary made to the forums on the Jihad Watch web site. Again, how can Spencer be responsible for something he didn’t author? Is CAIR beginning to believe their own propaganda?

Finally, America is a free country -- we have what no Muslim country on Earth has ever had, or presently has: a constitution that guarantees the right to free speech. If CAIR doesn’t like what Spencer has to say and believes it to be “hate speech”, why doesn’t CAIR file a complaint with law enforcement?

CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush says that CAIR would be glad to suggest the names of “credible Muslim scholars” to speak about Islam.

Before anyone takes CAIR’s offer seriously, let’s read the words of CAIR’s own leadership:

Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesperson: “CAIR does not support these groups publicly.” (Comments on CAIR’s record of supporting Hamas, Hezbullah and other Islamic terrorist groups.)

Hooper, again: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future...”

Omar Ahmad, CAIR Co-founder: "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

Ghazi Khankan, CAIR spokesperson: “I bring you salaams and greetings from the Mujahadeen at CAIR”.

There you have it, four very bigoted, hateful, repugnant, and anti-American statements by three of CAIR’s senior officials that are well-documented -- yet CAIR attacks Spencer and dares to suggest itself responsible enough to recommend speakers on Islam?

How dare they!

Has Spencer:

- Supported Christian groups calling for “jihad” against Muslims?

- Demanded that Christianity be the dominent religion in the United States?

- Defended Christians who have committed terrorist acts based on their faith?

No. But we can point to numerous instances where CAIR has lent moral support to Islamic terrorist groups -- and yet CAIR largely gets a pass from the American people. Why?

Our country is at war.

In the rush to respect the rights of those who deserve no respect, we have forgotten our obligation to the victims of Islamist terror.

Let us not forget the images of our citizens jumping from the twin towers or burning to death in the Pentagon.

What of the brave example of those who fought back, falling to their deaths in a field in Pennsylvania?

The victims deserve better.

Are we worthy of the legacy they’ve left us?

Andrew Whitehead
Director
Anti-CAIR (ACAIR)

Mr. Whitehead, I am grateful -- and proud to stand with you to defend the freedom and human rights of all people.

French police turn on Chirac as officer jailed

Chirac turns on his own men. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

After 16 nights battling urban violence by rioters, Jacques Chirac's government is confronting angry new protests - from the police themselves.

Officers at the forefront of attempts to control the wave of riots and arson attacks across France are furious at moves to prosecute policemen accused of assaulting a youth.

As officers were deployed in force in Paris yesterday following a call on weblogs for a mass demonstration, the police union described the jailing of one officer and the suspension of others as "incomprehensible and unacceptable".

Police officers, who have been targeted with stones, missiles and Molotov cocktails since the trouble broke out, said they were "stupefied" by the action taken against their colleagues. Alliance, the main police union, appealed to members for calm after the decision to take the first steps towards charging five police officers implicated in the assault on a youth.

State television showed images of two officers hitting and kicking a young man while six colleagues stood by watching in the northern Paris suburb of La Courneuve on Monday. One officer is being held in detention while four others are also under formal investigation.

The French interior ministry said the victim had suffered cuts to his face and right foot, but had been declared fit for work.

The case has brought to the surface growing police resentment at the failure by politicians to resolve the crisis, the most serious and protracted outbreak of violence in France since 1968.

Jean-Pierre Raymaud, the leader of another police union, told Le Figaro newspaper: "For 15 days we've been targeted constantly and under a lot of pressure. This isn't an excuse but it has to be taken into account. The police have done their work and I don't think finding one or two scapegoats just to demonstrate firmness is fair."

Fitzgerald: A reading list for enlistees (and civilians)

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers a few reading suggests for the military and others:

Anyone who has gone to Iraq and has not yet read the books of Robert Spencer, Bat Ye'or (I'd give someone The Dhimmi first, then Islam and Dhimmitude and The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam and then, if they have made it through those, Eurabia which is the most difficult read of all), Ibn Warraq, and The Legacy of Jihad -- should. Give them one or more. Send them to the base libraries.

Ibn Warraq's two books on the origins and early development of the Muslim holy book, The Origins of the Koran and What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, & Commentary need to be read by anyone wishing to comment on when the Koran became finally more-or-less accepted in the form it is known today. Contrary to the contentions of the enthusiast and Believer, there is no evidence for this Koran (I will stick in this posting with this spelling) having jelled during the time of Muhammad (i.e., in the period when Believers think Muhammad existed), but very likely much later.

What was the role played in the making of the Koran by, for example, the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus (the same one who placed the "farthest mosque" in Jerusalem)?

And as for "one Koran" -- what shall we say about Hafs and Warsh variants of the Koran, and their differences?

Ibn Warraq traces the history of Western Koranic scholarship (Muslim scholarship is of course identical to the received standard version of Islamic belief, and one can adjust that version only in very tiny ways, at the edges, or face the obvious consequences, if one is a Muslim or still claims to be) in an essay in a recently-published collection that also contains the important article on the Dome of the Rock's supposed "Muslimness" by the scholar Christoph Luxenberg.

Ibn Warraq is also completing his latest book, entitled "Which Koran?" He holds no academic position. No Middle Eastern Department will touch him. He has been invited to speak at a few places, but he is not recognized by the apologists of MESA Nostra. Neither the Muslims who now make up a majority of its membership and are fiercely protective of Islam and will not brook real scholarship about it, and the others, the get-along non-Muslim apologists who fear their Muslim colleagues, or have a sympathy for Islam that possibly led them to such specialization in the first place, will have anything to do with him or his work.

But it is Ibn Warraq, and not they, who had done the most to gather material, his and that of other scholars, and with his own brilliant essays explained that corpus of schoalrship, and its history.

It is he who will enter history -- not a single one of his detractors or those so carefully ignoring him.

They should be embarrassed. Of course they are not. Not in the slightest.

For lives of Mohammad, I like best those by non-Muslims, especially Muir's The Life of Mahomet. It has been reprinted and is available for about $50. There are other biographies by non-Muslims -- Arthur Jeffery, Tor Andrae, and Maxime Rodinson -- all in English. I think any edition of the Sira for Muslims will have all the stuff you might think wouldn't be there -- but it's there. Don’t miss especially Guillaume’s translation of Ibn Ishaq’s early Sira.

As for the Hadith, properly Ahadith in the plural but usage now permits one to use "Hadith" as the plural, and I prefer it -- just fits English better, there is Al Ahadith Al Sahiha (Al Albani), which is a compendium of all the authoritative, good, true and trustworthy, or "Sahih" collections, of which those by al-Bukhari and Muslim (the name of the compiler), are held to be the best, the most authoritative.

But these collections are very expensive. You can find this stuff on line. That's one of the few things about the Internet worth having. The Internet has all this stuff, sometimes very nicely arranged by topic: Infidels, Women, Warfare, and so on.

You might, just for fun, ask the Saudi Embassy or someone for a free compilation of the Ahadith. Perhaps they'll think you are a likely candidate for adult-onset Islam, and want to help you in your Spiritual Search. They've got the money. See what they'll send you. And read around in it slowly so you don't go crazy. It will make you crazy.

Let the too-loyal generals get their potted reading lists, helpfully prepared by the likes of John Esposito and Peter Bechtold.

The officers and men of the regular army, the Reserves, the National Guard, can form a core, and in turn educate others.

That's the secret.

Knowledge.

Arrr matey, Allahu akbar

"SOS as pirate motherships take to the high seas seeking cargo and hostages," from the Sunday Herald, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Global piracy is now one of the biggest threats to world shipping, far eclipsing the risk from terrorism, and Somalia – a war-torn realm in almost complete anarchy – has fast become one of the world’s pirate hot spots. Since March 15 this year, there have been 32 attacks off Somalia. In 2004, there were just two attacks, in 2003, three, and in 2002, six. In the first nine months of 2005, there were 205 pirate attacks worldwide. Murders by pirates are also rising. In 2004, 30 crew members were killed. In 2003, the figure was 21....

Another former British military intelligence officer who has travelled the world advising shipping lines on anti-piracy security measures said that the attacks off Somalia were not believed to be linked to terrorists. “Where there is an overlap between terrorism and piracy, it is in southeast Asia,” he said. He pinpointed the Mallaca Straits – the main shipping route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean – as the key hot spot for acts of piracy linked to Islamist terrorists. “There’s an absolute double-up there,” he said. “Pirates and terrorists are getting into bed together in this part of the world in the same way that the IRA climbed into bed with criminals in Northern Ireland.”

Philippines: 20 killed as jihadists battle military

The jihad intensifies in the Philippines. "Twenty slain as soldiers, Muslim extremists battle in Philippines," from AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - As many as 20 people are believed to have been killed as fighting between soldiers and members of an Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militant group went into its third day in the southern Philippines on Sunday.

Heavy rains were hampering the military's pursuit of members of the Abu Sayyaf on the outskirts of the town of Indanan in the southern island of Jolo, said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, who heads an anti-terror task force on the island.

Aleo said the total number of soldiers killed had risen to four, with 21 others wounded.

Intelligence reports and radio intercepts revealed that 16 Abu Sayyaf members had been killed, although soldiers had only recovered three bodies, Aleo said.

The Abu Sayyaf, a feared Muslim outlaw group, has also received extra support from additional armed guerrillas as the troops advanced, Aleo said.

"By killing Jordanians here in Jordan...they did something that not even a Jew would do"

Moderate Jordanians express their moderate indignation at Zarqawi for killing other Muslims in moderate terms. "Jordanians turn against al-Qa'eda leader over bombings," from the Telegraph, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Sympathy for al-Qa'eda's leader in Iraq turned to hatred in his home town yesterday as clan members and ex-neighbours dismissed the justification for the Amman bombings....

"I feel ashamed of what he did in the name of Islam," said Moussa Rashid Khalayleh, a senior member of Zarqawi's Khalayleh clan.

"I am not ashamed of what his group is doing fighting the US occupation of Iraq, but killing civilians, killing Muslims here in Jordan is shaming."...

In Zarqa, Munder Moomeni, a 38-year-old former soldier who lives next to Zarqawi's house, 13 Ramzi Street, described his former neighbour as "a bastard".

"By killing Jordanians here in Jordan, civilian Jordanians going to a wedding, they did something that not even a Jew would do," he said....

The Moomeni family said they had no dealings with the remnants of the Zarqawi family still living in the two-storey house at No 13. A woman answered the intercom although she politely but firmly told The Daily Telegraph to go away.

"Don't hang around here much longer", other neighbours advised. "They will start throwing stones at you." Some residents remembered the young man who was born there in the late 1960s but who did not immediately adopt religion.

He was known as Ahmed Fadel Nazal Khalayleh and some described him as a loutish teenager. "He was a bit of a thug, always walking around carrying knives," said Amer Hassoun, a 35-year-old man whose parents came to Zarqa as Palestinian refugees.

"But then he went away to Afghanistan and when he came back he had become very religious. If he came down the street today, people would want to see him because they are curious. But he is not regarded as a saint around here."

Interesting. He became very religious and simultaneously became violent. They are angry with him not because he killed civilians, but because he killed Muslim civilians. No one in the mainstream media seems to know or care why these things are so.

Paris: police guard Eiffel Tower, other cultural monuments

"Paris Stays Calm Despite Fears of Violence," from AP, with thanks to JE:

PARIS - The French capital was calm overnight, with authorities reporting on Sunday almost no urban violence despite fears of a rampage that had prompted thousands of police to fan out at high-profile targets such as the Eiffel Tower.

Across the country, the situation appeared calmer, with fewer car burnings — a barometer of the unrest.

National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said there had been a "major lull" in the rioting on the 17th night of urban violence. If the calm continues, "things could return to normal very quickly," he said at a news conference on Sunday.

The number of vehicles burned overnight across the country fell to 374 from 502 the night before and police detained 212 people.

The intensity of the unrest has waned since the government imposed a state of emergency Wednesday, empowering local authorities to invoke exceptional security measures such as curfews for minors.

Australian pol: we will never be an Islamic state. Muslim group: you are instigating hatred

Evidently declaring that one will resist Sharia law is enough to draw the charge of hatemongering. The Lebanese Muslim Association of Australia knows well how to sound the mystic chords of manipulative political correctness. "Islamic preachers drive the poisoning of young minds," from the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to Amzi:

In the wake of last week's counter-terrorism raids, Treasurer Peter Costello declared: "We will never be an Islamic state. We will never observe sharia law . . . We will always be a democracy."

Islamic extremists should leave Australia if they oppose a "secular state with a democratic system and independent courts - and equality for women".

It seemed a reasonable, refreshingly unambiguous statement, echoing the sentiments of most Australians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Yet it was condemned as "unjustified, unacceptable and hatred-instigating" by the Lebanese Muslim Association.

How so? It should not instigate hatred to assert that the Australian democratic way of life is preferable to Australians than some form of rule alien to our culture and values.

But the reaction of the Lebanese Muslim Association reflects a worrying mindset, a sense of grievance and entitlement influenced by a hard-core generation of fundamentalist Muslim preachers, some of whom are associated with a number of the 18 men arrested last week.

There are groups much like the LMA here in the U.S.

Al-Qaeda vs. Queen Elizabeth?

The White House, the Capitol Building, the Pentagon, the British Parliament, George W. Bush, Tony Blair…all of these buildings and figures targeted for attack by Al-Qaeda seem to make some sort of strategic sense. But Her Majesty? From the AP:

Al-Qaida has named Queen Elizabeth II "one of the severest enemies of Islam," the Sunday Times newspaper reported, citing a video message allegedly obtained by Britain's security service.

Government officials were not immediately available Saturday night to confirm the report. A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman refused comment, saying it was a matter for the police.

In the video, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leading lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, says the queen is responsible for what he terms Britain's "crusader laws" and calls her an enemy of Muslims, the paper said.

No doubt Prince Charles is currently en route to Pakistan in order to plead his mother’s case before the court of Bin Laden.

Released from Guantanamo, Russian jihadist resumes war

It appears that yet another Guantanamo Bay-alumnus has taken up arms following his release, this time in Russia, according to the Seattle-Post Intelligencer:

A man who was held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has been detained on suspicion of involvement in attacks on police last month in southern Russia, a senior prosecutor said Friday.

Relatives and lawyers confirmed that Rasul Kudayev, a Russian who was released from Guantanamo last year, had been detained and insisted the charges have been fabricated.

Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said witnesses, along with Kudayev's own confessions, confirmed his involvement in preparing and carrying out the Oct. 13 attacks on government and law enforcement offices in Nalchik, the capital of the troubled Kabardino-Balkariya region.

At least 139 people died in the nearly simultaneous daytime assaults on law enforcement offices, including the 94 accused attackers, according to official tallies. Shepel said more than 40 people have been detained on suspicion of involvement.

Alexandra Zernova, a lawyer for Kudayev, said that her client was physically too weak to participate in the attacks and said he had been tortured into confessing.

Kudayev was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan and linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terror group with alleged ties to al-Qaida.

Kudayev must be one of those poor untried civilians being tortured at Guantanamo that Amnesty International and Jimmy Carter keep talking about.

Who bombed Amman? The Jews, of course

The recent slaughter in Amman enacted by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has raised pertinent questions among Jordan’s population, who may support Zarqawi’s violence against Americans but fail to see how he can justify the slaughter of dozens of Jordanian Muslims. Predictably, those unwilling to honestly address the inherent hypocrisy of mass-murdering terrorists have turned to a familiar target for their blame: Israel. From The New York Times:

The Maktoum Mosque was crowded with worshipers for Friday Prayer as the imam sharply criticized the suicide attacks on three hotels in Amman, saying those who committed the crimes were not Muslims, no matter what they called themselves.

The scene Friday night in Zarqa near a family home and former residence, left, of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, chief of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
Afterward, on the street, people agreed that whoever committed such an act could not be a Muslim. But many meant this literally, that the attack must have been carried out by outsiders, namely Israeli agents.

"Who said it is them?" asked Ahmed al-Zawahrah, referring to claims that members of a radical Islamic group were behind the blasts. "It could be Israel."

Zarqa is the birthplace of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. His relatives and neighbors prayed in the mosque, so one could imagine that it might be especially hard for them to accept that Mr. Zarqawi had taken responsibility for killing so many civilians. But the sentiment heard here is echoed across this country and region.

While most Arabs have long viewed Israel as their enemy, the extent to which Israel weighs on the regional psyche and diverts attention away from social, political, religious and economic issues that cannot be ignored, many social and political analysts say. Blaming Israel is not just a knee jerk, they say; for many Arabs, it is their reality.

"People don't blame Israel out of a vacuum," said Rami Khoury, a Jordanian political commentator and writer based in Lebanon. "There is a very strong historical reason, because Israel has caused a lot of grief for Arab people one way or another."

More from the Ahmadinejad regime

From Iran Focus:

An ultra-Islamist ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran’s parliament told a conference of the radical Ansar-e Hezbollah group on Saturday that the issue of Iran’s nuclear program “has become the frontline between Islam and the Heathens”, referring to non-Muslims.

Haven't Iranian Islamists learned the politically correct term for infidel or heathen yet? The Saudis have suggested the word "other" to be a more tactful label when referring to non-Muslims.

“Nuclear capability is our religious right. We must stand up and fight for it”, the Majlis deputy, Rashid Jalali, said.

“Even if our [nuclear] file is taken to the [United Nations] Security Council we will come through it. We want nuclear energy and we must pay the price”, Jalali said.

Defending the recent threatening remarks against Israel and Arab leaders by President Ahmadinejad, the Majlis deputy from Karaj said, “These comments show our unambiguous position against the occupying regime in Qods (Jerusalem). We had to announce this position”.

That's about as crystal clear as one can get.

Ba'athists: Jihad will continue

More jihad rhetoric being employed by Ba'athists after Saddam's number two dies. From Australia's The Sunday Times:

Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the fugitive former deputy of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, reportedly died as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to the country.

"To continue the jihad (holy war), the Baath party regional command has decided to hand over responsibility for leading the resistance factions in Iraq to Abdul Kader Talab al-Duri, deputy to the secretary-general of the party," the statement said.

Self-confessed militants found Australian refuge

It now appears that some members of the infected community suffered from their malady prior to being given a safe haven by Australian authorities. From The Age:

Before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US changed security perceptions, Muslim militants of all complexions sought Australia as a haven from security forces hunting them in their own countries.

A search of Refugee Review Tribunal records between 1993 and 2001 reveals that scores of self-confessed militants from Algeria and Egypt asked for and, in many cases, were granted political asylum after convincing authorities they were fleeing persecution, jail and torture.

Others claimed to be former members of Islamist groups, such as Algeria's GIA (Armed Islamic Group) or Egypt's al-Jihad before becoming disillusioned with the culture of assassination and brutality and choosing to desert. Al-Jihad (Holy War) is a secret organisation of militant Muslims. It split from the Muslim Brotherhood and is responsible for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and bomb attacks on tourists.

Disillusioned with murder, eh? Well that's good. Would you like claim political asylum?

A spokeswoman for Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said yesterday ASIO was routinely involved in assessing refugee claims, but declined to say whether there had been any attempt to review old claims.

According to Amnesty International reports, during the bloody upheavals of the 1990s, armed Islamic groups in Algeria murdered journalists, writers, intellectuals, political activists, civil servants, teachers, magistrates and women accused of un-Islamic behaviour. Security forces responded with an equally bloody crackdown.

Official figures show that the refugee tribunal dealt with about 600 applicants from Algeria and Egypt in the seven-year period and many were accepted.

Several rejected applicants married Australians and later secured a visa.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

One successful Algerian applicant told the tribunal that he was heavily involved in a political group in Australia and produced evidence to prove it. He argued that his continued involvement with the "Islamist agenda", which included the imposition of sharia law on "democratic" Algeria, had made him a target for security forces.

Another 34-year-old man said he was in danger of detention on return to Algeria because of his strong Islamic beliefs. He said he had been involved with fundamentalist groups since secondary school and worked as a spy and organiser for militant groups.

The tribunal member concluded that as the man was a supporter of the "Islamist agenda" he would be at risk if sent home and was granted a visa.

Other cases involved applicants who were members of militant groups.

A husband and wife fled Egypt after being told by an Al-Jihad Party official to rob a store and kill the Christian owner. They said they quit the party because they feared for their lives if they failed to carry out the order.

Up until their desertion the husband had worked "persistently" to recruit young unemployed men into the party and attended religious classes.

An examination of the cases shows that before September 11, 2001, tribunal members judging asylum claims took an open approach to Islamic political refugees persecuted by repressive governments battling terrorism.

Read it all.

The day one man infected a community with hatred

Contrary to the impression one may get from this article, hatred is not an STD. Nor can it be transmitted through sneezing or coughing, or by handshakes or other casual contact. The gorilla in the living room of this article is why so many of his hearers believed the teachings of Abdul Nacer Benbrika. If they didn't catch them as one might catch a cold, what did happen? Could it be that what he said resonated with what they knew of the teachings of the Qur'an, Hadith and Sira? Of course, no one wants to admit that, because no one wants to deal with its implications.

But what if the media (liberal and conservative) and policymakers did admit that Islam contains incitements to violence within its traditions, theology and law? What would these dreaded implications be? Genocide? Of course not. Acknowledging this would simply be a step toward calling the Muslim communities in the West to account, asking them specific questions about their commitment to Western pluralism and disavowal of the Sharia. Of course, the answers, if favorable, would have to be followed up with education and action. But no one can even ask those questions today because we are all not supposed to notice that Islam contains any elements that might be incompatible with Western pluralism in the first place.

From The Australian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

IT was the day that changed the life of accused terrorist ringleader Abdul Nacer Benbrika. Other Muslims see it even more darkly - as the day when al-Qa'ida first infected Australia's Islamic community with its toxic distortion of Islam.

Now for the first time The Weekend Australian can reveal what unfolded on a country property in Victoria in the sunset of 1994. There, in front of the nation's leading Islamic fundamentalists, including Benbrika, a bearded cleric in flowing robes was giving a sermon which many now believe gave birth to radical Islam in Australia.

The speaker was Abu Qatada, now the spiritual leader of al-Qa'ida in Europe. Qatada had been invited to Australia by his childhood friend and fellow hardliner, Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran. His message mesmerised the group - and Benbrika.

"He spoke out against Arab governments for not being Islamic enough, for not adhering to pure sharia law," recalls one senior Muslim who asked not to be named.

"He was radical and politicised - we had never heard this stuff before. His impact was enormous and that is where it all began. This is how the ideology of Abu Bakr (Benbrika) entered Australia. Prior to Abu Qatada's visit, most radicals were just normal guys."

And so it goes. Normal guys became jihadists. They were "infected." And this preposterous non-analysis is printed in a major newspaper.

Car Torchings Rise Slightly in France as Police Fan Out in Paris to Face Feared Attacks

Police fan out in Paris!

Today is November 12. The rioting began on October 27. Police are just fanning out now?

French Surrender Alert from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

PARIS (AP) - The number of cars torched overnight in France climbed slightly over the previous night to 502 in a 16th night of unrest that took its heaviest toll on the French provinces, police said Saturday.

Security was boosted in the capital with some 3,000 police officers fanning out around strategic points to counter feared weekend attacks targeting Paris. Gatherings were banned from Saturday morning until Sunday morning....

Two Molotov cocktails were tossed at a mosque Friday evening in the southern town of Carpentras, but it was not immediately clear whether the attack was linked to the unrest that has wracked the poor suburbs and small towns of France since Oct. 27. President Jacques Chirac demanded that investigators quickly find out who was behind the attack.

I trust he has made a similar demand regarding the two churches and two synagogues that have been torched.

Hugh Fitzgerald explains what this site, and open comments, are for

Recently Jihad Watch has been embroiled in controversy over the comments field. Not only did CAIR try to trump up a case against me using not my words, but those of unmoderated commenters here, but also I have been receiving a series of emails complaining about various commenters who have been banned and various comments that have been erased, and others that have not been -- with the complaint made that we favor one side of an alleged debate.

That is, of course, false. Comments, as I have said many times, are unmoderated. Anyone is free to take whatever side and to disagree with or criticize me or Hugh, as anyone who reads the comments for an extended period can attest. One can easily find in the archives many, many dissenters from our positions and even apologists for violent jihad. And, pace CAIR, I have also said many times that comments that are abusive, genocidal, paint all Muslims with a broad brush, etc., are unwelcome. Off-topic rants, politically motivated baiting, etc., are unwelcome also.

However, as I actually spend my days tracking jihad activity and writing about it, I don't have time to monitor the comments. I remove posts that are brought to my attention. Since I don't see most comments and this is an unmoderated forum, no fair-minded person can draw any conclusions about what I believe from those that remain -- although I am aware that there are many people with agendas reading the site (Hi, Hussam! Hi, Ibrahim!).

Do we ban people with whom we disagree? As Hugh wrote to me this morning, "Then we'd have to ban everyone in the world, and then you'd have to ban me, and I'd have to ban you, and the page would be blank, blank, blank, beneath the blaze of noon."

Why do we continue to allow comments at all? Because we believe that the antidote to bad speech is more speech, and that a free and open discussion of issues relating to Islamic terrorism is needed now more than ever, and is increasingly difficult to come by.

Anyway, Hugh recently had an encounter with a commenter who represented himself as a Roman Catholic and parroted many lines, as longtime readers can see, of apologists for Islamic terror. Of course, he doubtless was who he said he was, as there are useful idiots in every camp, but in any case, after receiving many substantive replies, he responded indignantly that he thought this was a place for the free exchange of ideas, and stalked away. Hugh asked me to post his rejoinder as an article, and I am happy to oblige:

"I somehow mistakenly believed that this was a forum for trading ideas/facts/arguments back and forth." -- from a posting by a wounded and disillusioned poster here

You were mistaken. This is in the main a pedagogic site, with occasional time out for paronomastic play and musings on language. Postings cannot be patrolled, though egregious examples of a lack of decorum will be removed when brought to the attention of the bouncer in the back, the one chatting up the hat-check girl. That some choose to trade insults with one another, to crudely or rudely emote, or to bite at the proferred bait of those trolling invitingly for unwary fish in McElligot's Pool, is not part of the site's intent, is not encouraged, is actively discouraged. And not only by the bouncer and that fetching hat-check girl.

There are many sites where people can "trade," as you put it, "ideas/facts/arguments" -- in short, all that Internet equivalent of the late-night discussion of such fascinating freshman dorm-room topics as "Is there a God?" and "Free Will and Determinism" and "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" and "Why Good Things Happen to Bad People," and "Whether Pigs Have Wings." These are sites where no one really rises beyond a certain level. The cretins come to dominate, because they have the most stamina, while the intelligent, if they ever showed up in the first place, often drop out dismayed. True equality in the Great Democracy of the Internet is as much to be deplored as Democracy and Equality in any school or classroom, from that of the first-grade teacher in the hopelessly progressive school who has his charges vote on whether the next unit should be on dinosaurs or on Greek mythology, to the college teacher who glows as he tells you about how his students acquire the "Learning Experience" and complacently assures you that "I don't teach my students -- my students teach me. I learn so much from them."

Give me the sober atmosphere of the series of lectures on "Our Debt to Antiquity," delivered in 1903 by Dr. Zielinski of the University of St. Petersburg to the highest classes of that city's secondary schools, or Professor Nikolai Trubetzkoy in 1934 delivering lectures on Slavic phonology at the University of Vienna, or Dr. Yuri Lotman in 1977, in his Tartu exile, speaking on "Literature and Literariness in Pushkin" to rapt listeners who had arrived by train from Moscow and even Siberia in order to hear him speak. In each case, however passionately divine the icy intellect, human warmth heaved behind the glinting glasses. And a perfect internal thermostat, to be adjusted as needed, between that human and that divine. No nonsense, no sentimental "democracy in the classroom" or "learning" through trading of "ideas/facts/arguments," no voting by students as to whether they'd like to build models of a Triceratops this month or would prefer to draw pictures of Hercules killing the Erymanthian Boar. Spare us, please, all that yearning for earnest freshman-year exchanges of "ideas" and "arguments" -- as you optimistically call them.

There are many websites where you can engage, ad libitum, in those Yankee-swapmeets of "ideas/facts/arguments" in which you express such an interest. Your own postings offered little in the way of fact, or cogent argument, so one wonders. Exaggerated attention was given to such matters as the religious affiliation of your best friend, and the ethnic and religious identification of those to whom you are related by marriage, and you took great care to identify yourself (who cares?), more than once, as a "Roman Catholic." All of these inconsequential details -- conservative Jewish best friend, Lebanese Christian in-laws, Roman Catholic faith -- are apparently supposed to place your youth-wants-to-know disingenuous apologetics for Islam, no matter how lame or inane, as beyond criticism, because of that best friend who davens, that sister-in-law who cooks such fabulous kibbeh, and your own unforgettable if largely forgotten memorizing of the Baltimore Catechism when you were a kid and what you really wanted was to watch the Baltimore Colts on television. You have been semaphoring that not only are you most definitely not a Muslim (who cares?) but that you are surrounded by those who are most definitely not Muslims either, and that it must follow, therefore... -- therefore, what must follow?

At those thousands of sites where you can trade "ideas/facts/arguments" with the like-minded or unlike-minded, the kind of thing you have offered by way of ex-ungue-leonem sample would fit right in. And at the same sites, at no extra charge, you may exchange thoughts and feelings with others about what you think and especially what you feel, to your heart's content.

This site is not one of them.

Washington-area Muslim Cleric Condemns Amman Bombings, But Supports Palestinian Suicide Bombers

An important revelation from the Counterterrorism Blog (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Brian Hecht of The Investigative Project has this comment on the reaction to the Amman bombings by one Washington-area Muslim cleric: This morning’s Washington Post ("Bombing Victims Mourned in D.C. Area") reports on a sermon at Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Northern Virginia, in which their Imam, Shaker Elsayed, condemns the horrific, multiple suicide bombing attacks in Amman, Jordan. The Post’s Tara Bahrampour describes the scene:

"Addressing more than 200 worshipers last night at the Falls Church mosque, Sheikh Shaker Elsayed said: "Brother Al-Alami and Brother Hwail lost 17 members of their family through . . . this senseless act -- people who did nothing but go about celebrating the wedding of their son and daughter."

While Mr. Elsayed’s sentiments, in this instance, are appreciated, it should be noted that he has built a career justifying, and applauding, similar attacks, as long as the victims were non-Muslims. Before Elsayed was a preacher at Dar al-Hijrah, he was the Secretary General of the Muslim American Society (MAS). At a December 2002 conference sponsored by MAS and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Elsayed had the following to say, in Arabic, about Palestinian suicide bombers:

“… about the subject unfairly named suicide bomber, homicide bomber, murderers, or killers. Our answer to this issue is simple…The Islamic scholars said whenever there is an attack on an Islamic state or occupation, or the honor of the Muslims has been violated, the Jihad is a must for everyone, a child, a lady and a man. They have to make Jihad with every tool that they can get in their hand. Anything that they can get in their hand and if they don’t have anything in their hand then they can fight with their hand without weapons.”

At a June 5, 2001 press conference and sit-in at the State Department, Elsayed, was asked “[d]o you condemn the terrorist attacks from Hamas and the suicide bombings?” He responded:

“I made a statement that we do stand in support the Palestinian resistance … The so-called Israeli settlers are not civilian population. They are military reserves, they are armed, trained and dangerous. They invade the Palestinian neighborhoods at night and they squander everything. They kill, they maim, and they destroy homes … If I were there, I would use every power in my hand to defend my family.”

Read it all.

Welsh convert to Islam held for gun-smuggling in Afghanistan

Now why would a Welsh grandfather end up gun-smuggling in Afghanistan? Well, he was a convert to Islam. Yet somehow all the peaceful teachings of the religion that we keep hearing so much about don't seem to have had much of an effect on him.

The problem of the radicalization of converts is ongoing. Some analysts argue that they join jihad groups because of their relative ignorance of the Qur'an and Islam in general; they are, in other words, easily misled. Others point out that they come to the Qur'an and Islam without cultural baggage and preconceptions, and are in a better position to evaluate Salafi claims to represent "true Islam." In that case, the fact that any of them at all join jihad groups should be pondered carefully by government and law enforcement officials.

I doubt they are doing so.

"Grandad held for gun-smuggling," from icWales, with thanks to Twostellas:

A WELSH grandfather has been arrested on suspicion of gun smuggling in Afghanistan.

It was revealed yesterday that electrician Peter Eaton, 52, was arrested on October 12, and has been in Kabul prison ever since.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed last night the father-of-three from Hakin, near Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, was being held, "on suspicion of weapons smuggling offences."...

Mr Eaton converted to Islam after meeting his Samoan wife-to-be, a Red Cross translator, while working in Kuwait after the first Gulf War.

He has also worked in Bosnia, and has spent much of the past decade abroad, although he has visited the Milford Haven area, where he owns several properties, up to four times a year.

Spencer book on the New York Times bestseller list for 12th week

After a one-week hiatus, my book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) has for the week of November 20 once again made the New York Times Bestseller List (paperback nonfiction). It is at number 21 in its twelfth week on the list.

There have been no new reviews, and no major media appearances (although Fox News called today, but I was flying back to Secure Undisclosed Locationville after addressing a Marine Corps birthday celebration last night). I can only attribute the book's continuing success to the force of world events, and to the increasing popular perception that the conventional wisdom and official dogma on Islamic terrorism are false and misleading -- and dangerously so.

Indonesia: jihadist was planning Christmas attacks against churches

I have recently been corresponding with a befogged leftist who thinks current jihad activity is attributable entirely to American foreign policy. Well, Christian churches in Indonesia, those bastions of American power and arrogance, were on the target list for this Christmas in Indonesia.

"Azahari was preparing Christmas terrorist attacks against churches," from AsiaNews, with thanks to Michael Rose:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) –Azahari bin Husin and his terrorist group were preparing a series of bomb attacks against churches in Malang to coincide with the Christmas festivities, this according to police sources. Police are still trying to determine why Azahari had rented a villa in Batu, a mountainous tourist resort near the city of Malang (East Java), but intelligence sources believe that his “target was a very big church in Malang”.

Yesterday Azahari allegedly blew himself up to avoid capture by a special police anti-terrorist squad after a two-hour operation in Batu. And today police sources confirmed that the human remains that were tested were those of the wanted terrorist.

Malang is a tourist resort area 80 km south of Surabaya, capital of East Java province. It is home to many Catholic religious orders like the Verbites and Carmelites as well as a major seminary that received hundreds of seminarians from different orders to study philosophy and theology.

The St Joseph College Senior High School is another well known local Catholic institution and is run by Carmelite sisters. The Bishop’s residence is close to the school.

In addition to Catholic institutions, there are several Protestant ones.

Investigators believe that Azahari was planning a series of bomb attacks on Christmas night and during the festive season. Something similar had already occurred on Christmas day 2000 when bombs exploded in five churches in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities.

Jihadist lawyer: Ireland could be targeted

He said the same thing in August. "Islamist lawyer: Ireland could be targeted," from UPI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

An Islamic fundamentalist lawyer has said Ireland is a "legitimate" target for a terrorist attack.

Anjem Choudary, speaking at a debate Thursday at Dublin's Trinity College, claimed Ireland was open to attack because of the government's decision to allow U.S. troops to refuel at Shannon Airport, the Irish Independent reported Friday.

"If you are going to allow your country to be used to refuel a U.S. plane which is going on a bombing raid, what do you expect our reaction to be? This is not neutrality," he said.

"A U.S. pilot is no different from the Irish person who allows the plane to land. They are collaborators," said Choudary, who is under police surveillance in Britain.

Another Muslim extremist, Umran Javed, told the debate that although he did not see an attack on Ireland as likely, retaliation would come "swiftly" if Ireland increased its support for the United States....

Senior Irish police are studying Choudary's remarks to determine if they represent an incitement to hatred.

Study hard, fellows, but heavens to betsy, everyone knows that such remarks are not an "incitement to hatred." It's only an incitement to hatred when someone calls attention to them in the name of the defense of human rights against jihad terror. Got it?

Fitzgerald: Muslims attacking Muslims?

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the significance, or lack thereof, of the Muslim-against-Muslim attack in Jordan:

No one should allow himself to be confused because some Arab regimes may also be targets of Al Qaeda. This will, and has already been used, by the Saudis to pretend that the larger, worldwide terrorism is not "Muslim" in nature, nor part of a Jihad, but rather directed by those "extremists" who have "attempted to hijack a great blah blah..." No, the attacks on the domains of the son of the "plucky little king," or on the corrupt House of Al-Saud, are not seen by the attackers as attacks on fellow Muslims, but on regimes that are corrupt -- and "Infidel" in their willingness to now and again (but very much now and again) help, or at least not completely hinder, the Infidels.

The attacks in Jordan do not mean -- as the apologists for Islam would attempt to convince us -- that, after all, this is really just a "war within Islam." Nonsense. It remains a Jihad; the primary target remains non-Muslim Infidels. No Jordanians or Saudis seem to object to a Jihad that confines itself to Infidels, or to such targets as the Lebanese Christians targeted in a previous bombing of a housing complex. What they do find disconcerting, and unacceptable, and contrary to Islam, is that Muslims should kill fellow Muslims. That is all.

The problem for the Saudis is to reassure their fellow Muslims that despite their liquor, their Western call-girls (taken on board by the boatload for the delectation of assorted Saudi and other Arab yacht-owners vacationing off Monte Carlo or Malaga), despite the coziness of Prince Bandar with some in Washington, they really and truly are Muslims, and should not be considered Infidels, still less bombed as such. Jordan’s Abdullah has much the same task, if not the same pattern of flamboyant consumption.

The attack in Jordan was most likely undertaken only because Abdullah's regime was seen by some as insufficiently Islamic, so that he can be regarded as an "Infidel" and not a genuine Muslim at all. This whole business of attacks that result in "Muslim" casualties should be correctly understood and not cause for greater confusion.

Clarity by non-Muslims is important. The fact that some bombs go off in Muslim countries, almost always, but not exclusively, against Western targets, should not lead us to believe that, for example, the Saudis have ceased to support all sorts of terrorism outside of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-financed mosques everywhere, from London and Paris and Rome, to the Comoros and Capetown, to Bosnia and Uzbekistan, and even throughout the United States, and Saudi-financed madrasas (especially in Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia) remain the most powerful weapon of Jihad. They turn out vast numbers of Jihadis or influence the beliefs of millions of potential Jihadis, a classic fifth column in posse if ever there was one.

Not too long ago Jordan’s Abdullah asserted in a speech to rabbis: “We face a common threat: extremist distortions of religion and the wanton acts of violence that derive therefrom. Such abominations have already divided us from without for far too long."

What "common threat" is that? What "extremist distortions of religion" do Judaism and Christianity offer that "threaten" poor helpless cowering timorous Muslims worldwide, whether in Iraq, or Jordan, or Egypt, or in Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, London, Madrid, or New York or Washington or Lackawanna or Portland, Oregon or Falls Church, Virginia? What are the "wanton acts" that non-Muslims, especially apparently Jews, have "inflicted"?

Or did King Abdullah not mean to offer a false symmetry, but couldn't manage even to utter the words (false, but less false than what he did say) that "extremist distortions of Islam" (not "religion") "threaten" and have been responsible for "wanton acts" of violence? That would have been a little better.

As it is, his speech is another example of the realization that Islam is beginning to be understood, and that this is not a good thing. Perhaps both Abdullah and Pakistan’s Musharraf, who recently also made a self-conscious and hollow outreach to Jews, feel, in their vulgar way (the same vulgar way that King Hussein dedicated some book -- you can search the Internet and find it listed -- not to "Mr. Fulano de Tal" but rather "To my Jewish friend" -- yes, some of his "best friends" etc. -- even the most enlightened Arab monarchs and rulers think, at best, in those terms -- let's imagine Clinton signing a book for the late Vernon Jordan, and writing "to my black friend") that it is "the Jews" who can be appealed to. For it is “the Jews” who some Muslims assume are so eager to believe that Muslim hostility toward Israel, and toward Jews, is merely a matter of "extremists," and so let's make overtures to them, and see if they, won over, will be the stalking-horses for the "real -- i.e. good" Islam, became the new apologists for Islam. There were many ovations for Musharraf's outrageous speech, and no doubt for King Abdullah's.

We are just not going to get anything like candor, something asymptotically close to the embarrassing home truth about many Muslims and about Islam (as embodied in Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira -- note that Muslim organizations, so quick to mail out Qur'ans, are silent on any offers of collections of Hadith, or a version of the Sira, in the same version that Muslims read), from these people. Even many of those seemingly fully Westernized and integrated Bright Young Muslim Things in the Western world, talking about "reforming Islam" and so on, once you show that you are not fooled, and not impressed one whit by Islam, immediately dissolve into a hysterical fury and Defense of the Faith. I have experienced this again and again from people one would never have expected to act in such a strange fashion. Islam has a hold, and that hold is connected most especially with matters of what some like to call "identity" and "self-esteem." Ethnic identification with "Arabness" reinforces Islam. Apostates from Islam tend far more often to be Iranians, Turks, Pakistanis, Berbers, Kurds, and other non-Arabs, not only because they lack that "Arabness" that can cause even Christian -- especially "Palestinian" Arabs -- to exhibit "islamochristian" sympathies, but because having thought about things, they may begin to resent the use of Islam as a vehicle for Arab supremacist ideology, to see through the universalist claims and resent, among other things, the cultural and linguistic imperialism that comes with the arabization that often arrives with islamization. This is particularly noticeable among the Berbers of the Kabyle.

Many Muslims who among themselves may conceivably begin to discuss their own tentative gropings toward comprehension of what the Qur'an inculcates, nonetheless will almost never share their own misgivings, or skepticism, if they have it, with Infidels. They will not speak directly and truthfully about what is actually in the Qur'an and Hadith and Sira. They can't. Try to have such a conversation -- you'll see what results. But don't ever give in or think you have misunderstood something. You haven't. All you have misunderstood is the psychology of these Westernized Muslims, which for many of us remains a mystery to be plumbed.

And now some will be telling us that the attacks in Jordan constitute evidence of a "civil war" within Islam. Abdullah will gain support from the West as a result. More jizyah in the form of foreign aid. More friendliness to such "staunch allies" as Mubarak and the House of Al-Saud. More attention to the need to promote "democracy" in Iraq which will naturally have -- well, some kind of effect on something. Exactly how events in Iraq will help prevent the islamization of Europe, the death threats against individuals in Holland, the death threats against an entire country in France, we aren't told. Meanwhile those threats are eagerly presented by the Craig Smiths of this world as merely a desperate attempt by outsiders who want wholeheartedly to participate in France, to be French, but through no fault of their own, nothing to do with their own attitudes and beliefs, are cruelly being prevented from doing so by those beastly, racist French. No one dares to investigate, to even suggest investigating, the relationship of Islam to the attitudes of those who are not only rioting because it's fun, but to get back at the "French" -- which is to say, the non-Muslim "French" who do not deserve to dominate and to rule, and to tell Muslims anything about anything. It is against the natural law -- the law of Allah. And if the French are so intolerably racist, how have all those people of non-French background, with names like Sarkozy, or Todorov, or Semprun, or Trinh Vinh Luong, or Aimé Césaire, managed to rise so high in the French establishment? No, let's just keep our attention carefully deflected from the growing islamization of our own countries, and just as carefully keep insisting to ourselves and everyone else that "Islam is not the problem." Why not? Because if it were, everything would be too difficult, too unpleasant, too much beyond our poor power to add or substract. Let's stick to platitudes and bromides -- a round of geopolitical alka-seltzer for everyone to calm them down. After all, that's what the boys in the back rooms of the White House, 10 Downing Street, and the Elysée are having.

And the jihad will go on.

Bali bombers "said their action was for a noble cause and they would go to heaven"

I think they are in for a rude surprise. "Bali bombers left video message," from UPI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Indonesian police have found a video message from the three suicide bombers who carried out attacks on tourist spots in Bali in October, killing 20 people.

"The video contains the confession of the three suicide bombers, explaining why they were prepared to carry out the suicide bombings," National Police Chief General Sutanto told a press conference Friday.

"They said their action was for a noble cause and they would go to heaven."

"They vowed to die and they chose the shortest route to receive the blessings of God"

In accord with At-Tawba 9:111, the Qur'an's verse that promises Paradise to those who "slay and are slain" for Allah, A-Q has declared in a statement that the bombers in Jordan have chosen the "shortest route to receive the blessings of God." This idea, rooted as it is in Islamic theology and tradition, is what the protestors in Jordan will have to combat if they really want to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

"Group: Four Iraqis Carried Out Bombings," from AP:

AMMAN, Jordan - Police said Friday they had arrested 120 people, mainly Iraqis and Jordanians, in the nationwide manhunt for those behind the triple Amman hotel bombings. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed the bombings were carried out by four Iraqis — including a husband and wife team....

Jordanian authorities have not yet said with certainty that Iraqis were involved in Wednesday's attack, Jordan's deadliest ever, but speculation has been high that al-Zarqawi has been trying to spread his terror group's influence outside of Iraq.

"All of these are Iraqis from the land between the two rivers," the al-Qaida statement said, alluding to Iraq's ancient name, Mesopotamia. "They vowed to die and they chose the shortest route to receive the blessings of God."

The statement, signed in the name of the group's spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, claimed the four Iraqi bombers included a husband and wife "who chose to accompany her husband to his martyrdom."...

"Al-Zarqawi you are a coward, Amman will remain safe," chanted some 3,000 protesters winding through Amman past the city's al-Husseini Mosque after midday prayers.

Brooklyn man confesses to Al-Qaeda chemical plot

More U.S. jihad plot news. "B'klyn Man Confessed to Plot: Feds," from the New York Post:

November 10, 2005 -- A Pakistani man living in Brooklyn confessed in "chilling detail" how he tried to sneak an al Qaeda operative into the U.S. to carry out a deadly chemical attack, a prosecutor charged in opening statements yesterday.

Jurors in Manhattan federal court heard how Uzair Paracha, 25, allegedly agreed to further the terror plot during a series of meetings in Pakistan attended by two al Qaeda members and his father, a businessman now held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

"This trial is about the defendant's role in helping al Qaeda penetrate this country and attack the United States from within its own borders," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce....

After his arrest in March 2003, Paracha confessed to helping al Qaeda operative Majid Khan in a scheme to obtain U.S. travel documents "knowing full well that he was plotting a terrorist attack," Bruce said.

Fitzgerald: Hashemite Dreams, Iraqi Schemes

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the moderate Muslims in general and the moderation of the Hashemite rulers of Jordan in particular:

In the aftermath of the Al-Qaeda bombings in Amman one hears, yet again, about the moderate rulers of Jordan, the Hashemites. In this case as in all others, the phrase "moderate Muslim" should not be used unless it is clearly defined. I suggest that any Muslim who misleads non-Muslims about the central tenets of Islam -- whether or not he agrees with them -- is objectively furthering the Jihad, by rendering non-Muslims unwary, and keeping them in a state of naive trustingness that can only cause them harm. So that even if one who is routinely thought of, and describes himself, as a "moderate Muslim," does not subscribe fully to orthodox Islam, if he does not tell the truth about what Islam inculcates or what its canonical texts contains, to Infidels, the likely effect of his words is to further the Jihad.

And in any case, the mere presence in the Dar al-Harb even of "moderate Muslims" can swell the perceived political power of all Muslims, and especially of those who tend to be found in full-time Islam-related activities and as often "immoderate" Muslims quick to push Muslim demands for accommodation, and change in Infidel ways, on the larger society. These can reasonably be described not as "moderate" but as "immoderate" Muslims, but becuase the two kinds cannot readily be distinguished or such distinctions necessarily be relied on, the costs to Infidel taxpayers for increased monitoring of all Muslims, mosques, madrasas, meetings, rises as their number rises. This has been true throughout Western Europe, where security costs, including those of guarding all sorts of institutions that were never guarded before, keeps going up. And there is always the possibility that an ill-defined "moderate" or even "Muslim-for-identification-purposes-only" Muslim, who out of some inner prompting, perhaps filial piety, perhaps the perceived need to declare some kind of identity, perhaps the belief that calling oneself merely a "Muslim in the cultural sense" should be sufficient to indicate at the same time both unbelief (i.e., I don't accept all that Islam teaches, I may even be a complete freethinker) and identification. But when someone who really no longer believes in Islam still cannot bring himself to declare, in the manner of Ibn Warraq or Ali Sina or Ayaan Hirsi Ali or Azam Kamguian or tens of thousands of others, that he is no longer a Muslim, and if he has children, and if those children are raised to be indifferent to Islamic belief but nonetheless are still taught to consider themselves Muslim, rather than as the non-Muslim children of an open ex-Muslim who is perfectly truthful with him in explaining what Islam is all about and why he is, therefore, an ex-Muslim, there remains available to them the temptation or need or desire to revert to Islam, not the "for-identification-purposes-only" Islam, nor in a form fruste, but rather Islam in its mainstream, orthodox, and therefore worrisome-to-Infidels form. As Infidels have no way of distinguishing those who are the true believers in Islam from those who are not, and individuals themselves may change in the fervency of their belief (Mike Hawash comes to mind, and others like him), it is hard to see what Infidels can do other than to regard anyone who insists on being considered a Muslim as a potential threat, no matter how unobservant he may be at present. Infidels who study the texts of Islam, and the history of Islamic conquest and mistreatment of the subjugated non-Muslims, may come to believe that the growth of Muslim populations in Infidel lands threatens the laws, customs, manners, understandings of the people in those lands, subjecting them to constant challenge and threat. The governments of the Western world have not helped; they have not dared to instruct their own citizens in the nature of Islam. Perhaps they have decided they do not dare to do so because Islam is called a "religion" and "religions" are never to be attacked unless that "religion" is sufficiently new, and small, and powerless to be called a "sect." Since governments have so far been so ineffectual, it becomes the duty of others to assume the task that should rightly be assumed by the government. Many outside the government, and no doubt many in (but not those who presume to speak for all of us) realize that they are under no obligation to commit civilizational suicide, and they will work to avoid it.

There are many in Holland, in Italy, in France, in Denmark, in England, in Sweden, in Germany, in Spain who today are just beginning to realize that they have been misled by their own elites into permitting the large-scale entry of Muslims who are bearers of an ideology that requires them to be implacably hostile to the un-Believers, to regard the lands of Dar al-Harb as Muslim by right, and to work, through the seemingly unopposed instruments of Da'wa and demography, to turn Dar al-Harb into dar al-Islam.

Among the most plausible of those charmers may be the Hashemites -- whether it is the stolid current king, that American-accented graduate of Deerfield , or his late father (the "oily little king," as Alan Clark cruelly dismissed King Hussein in his, celebrated political memoirs, the monarch conventionally described by his admirers in the West, from the Times columnist Anthony Lewis to Prince Charles, as the "plucky little king" -- a phrase which evokes those Soglow cartoons in old New Yorkers), or -- most soothing of all (but look online at the claims he makes for Islam when addressing Jordanian audiences) -- Hasan bin Talal, he of the plummy Philippe-de-Montebello voice (should the latter get laryngitis, one can imagine the Prince could happily do those Met audiotapes in his stead).

In 2003, Prince Hasan bin Talal, though not named directly, was promoted, in a political advertisement in The Wall Street Journal pretending to be an Opinion Article, co-signed by that enthusiast, James Woolsey, and by the more reserved Bernard Lewis -- who has been a guest of the Prince in Jordan -- as a suitable candidate for being set on the throne of Iraq as a Hashemite (and therefore Sunni)monarch. Such a proposal offers some idea of how both Woolsey and Lewis gauged, or failed to, the depth of Shi'a and Kurdish resentment at the treatment they had received from Sunni Arabs, not only during the regime of Saddam Hussein, and throughout the history of modern Iraq, but in the case of the Shi'a, a resentment that goes back a long time, th a rift that began more than a thousand years before the United States was founded. An implausible notion, this putative Hashemite Sunni monarch, and in the course of their article Woolsey and Lewis offered other implausibilites. In their view "democracy" ws not "impossible" in Islam. This charge, which corresponded to the rhetoric by Bush about how it "all people want freedom" and the other charge coming from some in the Administation that is somehow "racist" (again, note this irrelevant word "racism" being used so often to deflect discussion of an ideology), has in fact never been made. The charge is different: that the principle of the Shari'a, that the Islamic ruler obtains his legitimacy from Allah and not from the will of the people, which is why all political discontent in Muslim lands is expressed in Muslim terms. If the Al-Saud are corrupt, then it is not their corruption that we charge them with, even if that is the cause of our discontent: we charge them with being "Infidels" who are too friendly to Western Infidels. The simple charge of mass theft of state funds will not do, is not enough. It is not his despotism, but rather his not being a true Muslim, that is the only cause to rise up against a despotic ruler. The social contract theorists, Hobbes and Rousseau and Locke, the limited powers theorist (Montesquieu), offred views that guided the Framers of the Constitution in the first great Western democracy. The next country in the West to express the democratic impulse, France, relied less on Locke's conservative insistence on the right to "life, liberty, and property" and more on Rousseau's General Will; still others had other emphases. But not one of the Western democracies would have said that the only languge in which one could express politicla discontent, the only grounds for opposing a despotism, was that "the Ruler" was insufficiently Christian. Democracy in the Western world was always far more, right from the Bill of Rights, than mere head-counting.

Having set up the straw man to be knocked down, Woolsey and Lewis insisted that far from being impossible in Islam (as noted, a charge never actually maintained) , had actually maintained), was part of Islam, had a long history within Islam. This Op/Ed, which for his own reputation Lewis no doubt wishes he had never agreed to co-sign, alluded to a piece by Amartya Sen that had appeared a week or two before in The New Republic, in which Sen maintained that democracy had never been a product solely of, or limited only to, the West, and that other versions and variants, of "democracy" had long existed elsewhere, and particularly, in the Islamic world. Woolsey (and Lewis) described the piece as "brilliant." It wasn't.

In this capacious, too-capacious, version of democracy, it is apparently not important to believe that government obtains its legitimacy from the people (and not, say, from Allah, or the Qur'an, or the Shari'a), not important that there be great attention to minorities and care as to how they are treated before the law, not important that there be great solicitiousness for individual rights, including at a minimum the right of freedom of conscience (which includes the right to free exercise of religion, the right to free speech, the right to embrace one belief, to change that original belief for another, or to embrace unbelief), which help to define and distinguish the kind of democracies one sees in the advanced Western world from those defined as mere head-counting. The notion that when Muslim rulers consulted with a few or many or none of their subjects, this natural arrangement should be promoted to being called a version or variant of "democracy," was not far from that Aramco propaganda about the Saudi majlis, where ordinary citizens could come in and complain to the King or various princes, and these royal "office hours" somehow became transmogrified into Western-style democracy. One could see them practically holding a New England Town Meeting in a royal palace in Riyadh, but without the old-fashioned town moderator in shirtsleeves right out of some Frank Capra movie.

Lewis and Woolsey appeared to believe that the Hashemites in Iraq had overseen a relatively benign and smooth rule, with just a blip here and there. But they left out so much of that country's blood-drenched history. In their version of Iraq, the one that would welcome a Hashemite monarch to guide this new "democracy" where Sunni lion would lie down with still-unwary Shi'a lamb, much was left out. There was no mention of the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians by Muslims in 1933, a few months after the British left. They also forgot about the Farhud, of June 1-2, 1941, in which great fun was had all over Baghdad tying up hundreds of Jews and killing them, sometimes by throwing them under the wheels of passing buses and motorcars; the mass killings of Jews all over Iraq in 1948; the bloody coup of 1958, when Nuri al-Said's body, still in the women's clothes he had put on in his attempt to escape, but with masculine organs cut off and placed rather indecorously elsewhere on his corpse, was dragged through the Baghdad streets. And so on and so forth, including the coup against the 1958 plotter, Qassem, and then the resistible rise of Saddam, and of course, what has happened since during the American adventure in Iraq: the deposing of Saddam Hussein and, with him, of the despotic rule by the Sunnis and the inevitable seizure of power, through purple-thumbed democracy, of the Shi'a; the pocketing of as much American aid as possible, to be followed by a return, sooner or later, to Islam, and all that that ideology implies for the hopes and dreams and best-laid plans that already so obviously gang agley of those trusting, hopeful, hardworking and brave Americans. Those Americans are so ignorant of Islam, so miscomprehending of Iraq, that they persist in trying to make Iraq a quasi-decent nation-state, and at the moment expend, indeed squander, at a time when husbanding resources for a longer conflict would make more sense, men's lives, and materiel, and money, and moral capital, and military and civilian morale, all on what has become an impossible task, and a pointless task, in Iraq.

For instead of this Light-Unto-the-Muslim-Nations Project, or Iraq the Model, we should be relieved to take the next obvious occasion to announce our departure, carefully phrased: "We have done what we can, we have removed a tyrant, we have seen Iraq through an election, and the formation of a Constitution, and a referendum on that Constitution, and now through a second election, and it is time for us to go, for Iraq needs to be able to stand on its own, to prove to its own people that there really is an Iraq, and we Americans can be proud of what we accomplished -- list here of schools, hospitals, electicity grids, water-treatment plants, etec. -- and wish Iraq well." This will mean that no longer must Americans endure waiting for the Iraqis to signal when they -- they! -- are good and ready for American troops to return home.

The Shi'a would just as soon have the Americans stay as long as possible to fight the Sunnis for them, and not incidentally, pour in more money, and more know-how, and possibly leave some of that impressive military hardware behind for the "Iraqi" (i.e., Shi'a) army when they finally figure out what is going on, and leave without the permission of the Iraqi government.

If one consoles oneself with the dreamy idea that all that is going on is a "war on terror," and that Islam itself, as a belief-system, is no threat to the countries of the Bilad al-kufr, the Lands of the Infidels, then of course it is more difficult to see that "victory" in Iraq -- not "total" victory but some kind of gain to the Infidel side, can only come if the two countries which were the chief beneficiaries of Saddam Hussein being removed from power, Sunni (Wahhabi) Saudi Arabia, and Shi'a Iran, the two most dangerous Muslim states because of the kinds of power each possesses, are put back into the condition they would have been in "but for" the war in Iraq.

The best way to do this is to allow the natural sectarian and ethnic divisions in Iraq, which simply reflect larger divisions in Islam outside Iraq, to be fully expressed, and acted upon, and to hope that outside powers, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, will now be the ones to engage in a proxy war in Iraq. In so doing, it is they, and not the United States, that will be expending, or squandering, men, materiel, money, and morale. And while the Arabs in Iraq, Sunni and Shi'a, are occupied with one another, perhaps the Kurds will at long last manage to get that independent state they crave, and deserve, and which the Americans have discouraged them from attempting to establish. It is even possible that the Shi'a Arabs will not object, and might even welcome, a Kurdish attempt to undo the consequences of the forced arabization that took place over the past decades, and attempt to evict Arabs from Kirkuk or even Mosul.

The Americans have until now so discouraged the Kurds, because the dissolution of Iraq into the three Ottoman vilayets of which Iraq was originally constituted, by Sir Percy Cox, in the first place, is not part of Official Policy. That Policy is against Kurdish self-determination, and requires, for no good reason, that the state of Iraq remain exactly as it has been, despite the long history of despotism, persecution, discrimination, and mass-murder by the Arabs of the Kurds and Christians (no Jews are left to persecute), and of the Shi'a Arabs by the Sunni Arabs. Some, with diminishing enthusiasm, continue to repeat the slogans about Iraq the Model that were used initially, when all sorts of hopes were raised, based on two kinds of ignorance -- general ignorance of Islam, its theory and practice, the attitudes and atmospherics to which it naturally gives rise, and ignorance of the specific history of Iraq, and the sectarian and ethnic conflicts within it. But there is not, and will not be, Iraq as a Model but as a new cause of Sunni Arab resentment, and there cannot possibly be Iraq as a Light Unto the Muslim Nations. Never mind the fallacy of believing that the territory of the Abbasid Caliphate could be lost by the Sunnis to the now-dominant Shi'a, who are for many Sunnis if not "Rafidite dogs" then something close to Infidels.

Of course, a state where the Sunnis lost their grip on power, and the Shi'a were now the "democratically-elected" rulers, could not possibly serve as a Light Unto the (Sunni) Muslim Nations. But who was thinking about that? And who took seriously the universal desire of the Kurds not for autonomy, which they are for the moment constrainted to accept, but for full independence? Of course, successive American administrations have become tongue-tied when it is time to read the riot act to the Turks. But the Arab riots in France surely have put paid to the slender chances of Turkey to enter the E.U. Turkey needs American support more than ever. Turkey did not permit that fourth American division to enter Iraq. Turkey is no longer needed as a place for listening-posts and airbases to be used against Russia. It should not be beyond the wit of the Administration to explain to the Turks that the Kurdish state will come into being, that the Turks will receive an American guarantee that no territorial demands will be made by that state on Turkey, and any Kurds who do not like that state of affairs in Turkey can simply move to the new Kurdish state, and that the only states that might suffer from this new state would be Iran and Syria. Turkey needs military supplies, training, cooperation, diplomatic support, favorable trade treatment, knowhow of all kinds, from the United States.

And Kurdistan, so dependent on the Americans, can be asked not only to drop any territorial ambitions in Anatolia, but also to provide within its borders a refuge for those Christians now in Iraq who are suffering from mistreatment by some of the Muslims who are no longer held in check by Saddam Hussein (who used Christians as his waiters, tasters, household staff, for he understood that they were perforce apolitical, and could not possibly threaten him). With the return of a more virulent form of Islam than that permitted expression under Ba'athist rule, Muslims of every kind have been showing their hostility to the local non-Muslims in all the expected and time-honored ways.

The sectarian and ethnic resentments and even hatreds that exist in Iraq were not created by the Americans. The Americans now in Iraq have been trying in every way they can to discourage Kurdish dreams of independence, to train military units that will be neither Sunni nor Shi'a but "Iraqi." Both goals are not merely difficult, but impossible. What is most maddening about them is that they are the exact opposite of what the American policy should be. This deeply unpopular venture, if continued, will lower military morale, and hence both the number of new recruits, and those willing to re-enlist. The soldiers are not fools. Some may allow themselves to believe, still, despite all the evidence, that the current policy in Iraq -- with those non-existent "Iraqis" being trained to "defend Iraq" -- makes a kind of sense. But many, and more every day, are fed up with the self-evidently nonsensical policy that does not accord with what they have experienced in Iraq. Unless they are at the level of the highest officers, who must be good company men and stick with the program, and parrot, though with evident diminishing enthusiasm, the party line on Iraq policy, and more and more of them, especially those who are now out of the service, and running for office, will mince no words about the Iraq folly.

Why should the American forces leave Iraq promptly? They should leave because those ethnic and sectarian divisions within Iraq that they are apparently working so hard to overcome do not work to American, or Infidel disadvantage. Whatever "victory" is to be achieved in Iraq was achieved a while ago, and no further additional "victory" can come. It was achieved when Saddam Hussein's rule was ended, and the ballot put in place, for that was the end of Sunni rule, and this "democracy" insured permanent Shi'a dominance. That will not change no matter how long the Americans stay. There is no possibility of the Sunnis in Iraq, convinced that they have a mandate to rule, for in their view the Shi'a are not full or complete or orthodox Muslims even if not all Sunnis would take the Wahhabi position that the Shi'a are "Rafidite dogs," but they certainly have been terribly treated by the Sunnis (and not only in Iraq, but also in Pakistan, in eastern Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere), and the Sunnis are convinced that not only do they themselves deserve to retain their rule, but that even under this "democracy" they, the Sunni Arabs constitute not 20% of the population -- the real figure -- but rather 42%, and that anyone who says otherwise is lying. Ahd what's more, when they include the largely-Sunni Kurds as part of the Sunni total, the Sunnis become the majority in Iraq. The Sunnis in and out of Iraq will never permanently reconcile themselves to this loss of power in what was the site of the Abbasid Caliphate. It will always rankle, always remain unacceptable. This permanent conflict between dispossessed Sunnis and newly-enfranchised Shi'a is not something to discourage, as some in Washington appear to think. Whatever encourages division and demoralization within Islam is not something that should alarm Infidels.

If the Sunni and Shi'a within Iraq are forced, in the absence of the generous, good-hearted, far-too-unmachiavellian Americans, to deal with each other civilly, they may surprise all of us and do so.Fine. In that case the effort may be declared a success, and Iraq the Model will be on display in time for the Fall Fashion Show, or the Midterm Elections. And if they succumb to violence? If the Shi'a began to fight back, when attacked, as the Americans would never have permitted themselves to fight> And if, further, aid comes from outside, from Iran and Saudi Arabia, to co-religioinists on both sides? And so what? Was the Iran-Iraq War a good thing from the Infidel point of view, or a bad thing? Suppose there is a low-level Sunni-Shi'a war that simmers along, here and there now hotter, now colder. No longer will it be American men, American money, American materiel, American morale, American attention, being squandered in Iraq. The American solders who have been fighting and dying to suppress both kinds of Sunni insurgency (the dispossessed Ba'athist kind, and the Al-Qaeda kind) would return, and the military, which will have many tasks in the future, by no means all of them limited to the Middle East or to Islam, will be able to come to its senses, to recover its morale, to raise the standards again for recruitment as recruitment again becomes possible, and to raise the re-enlistenment rate for the young officers, so many of whom, after repeated tours in Iraq, where they have seen with their own eyes the difference between the Official Policy Line and the reality in Iraq, have been leaving the army.

And then the Americans, military and civilian, can concentrate their own efforts on what will be a very long Cold -- and from time to time possibly Hot -- War of self-defense against the Jihad. The kind of remark that Bush made last week -- that in Iraq "we will accepot nothing less than total victory" -- shows how uncomprehending of the situation he is, and how he must be made to comprehend it. The statment means nothing unless one really believes that all we are fighitng is a "war on terror" and that the number of recruits on the other side is limited, and can be eliminated. In fact terror is merely one, and not the most effective, of the various instruments employed in the world-wide Jihad to spread Islam, by overwhelming, and cause to end their opposition to the spread of Islam, all those who can be overcome, from within, by the judicious use of money, or the "wealth weapon," by propaganda conducted by a small army of apologists both Muslim and non-Muslim (the weapon of "pen, speech"), and by Da'wa (the Call to Islam), and in the last few decades, more and more openly, through demographic conquest. Neither the American army, nor any other army, can achieve a "total victory" over the permanent impulse to Jihad, prompted by the canonical texts -- Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira -- of Islam. The very invocation of "total victory" is telling; it is one more example of Bush's failure to understand that this is not and never was solely a "war on terror" -- a phrase that like its creator now invites, and receives, ridicule.

While in an Iraq without the Americans jockeying for power between groups will go on, here and there rising to the level of attacks and counter-attacks, or perhaps a bit more than just a small-scale attack here and antoher there, and these hostilities will likely preoccupy the two powers that gained the most from the removal of Saddam Hussein -- Iran and Saudi Arabia. And as that occurs, the Americans and those Europeans coming to their senses can concentrate on Iran's nuclear plans, and on consulting with one another about how the countries of Western Europe, where some are awakening from Abou Ben Adhem's "deep dream of peace," and from the slogans and assumptions and idols of the age, can together craft ways to head off, and reverse, what might otherwise be the inexorable islamization of Western Europe, with consequences for the very idea of the West, and for the survival of what makes the West the West, that one can hardly imagine. The sooner such measures are taken, the less drastic they will have to be. The Western world, with its laws, customs, manners, understandings, its wide variety of artistic expression, its encouragement of free and skeptical inquiry, its insistence on the equality of the sexes and on freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, finds this all being challenged. How did this state of affairs come to be? Infidels are now now menaced, right in the heart of Europe, because they were negligent. They remained ignorant as long as they could -- and many are determined to remain so -- about both the tenets of Islam, and the long history of Jihad-conquest and subjugation of the conquered non-Muslims. Millions of Muslim migrants were allowed to enter, and settle within, the Dar al-Harb, which is to say, within those lands which those aware of the permanent hostility between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb rightly regard as behind enemy lines. Damage has been self-inflicted. Now that damage, the result of a colossal oversight, must be repaired, and people educated so that the same mistake is not again repeated.

The United States and other Infidel countries able to cooperate should be attempting to create the conditions under which Muslims themselves will produce their own Ataturks as a response to a felt need. If Muslims themselves can be made to see the connection between say, Islamic ideas of government and the prevalence of despotism in the Muslim countries, or to point to jizya-dependence (including the disguised jizya of foreign aid) and inshallah-fatalism as the main cause of economic underperformance (an underperformance which, given the $10 trillion in unearned OPEC reveneus, can no longer be explained away), or to link, in their own minds, the scientific backwardness of Muslim societies with the habit of mental submission, and discouraging of free and skeptical inquiry, that is part of Islam as a Complete Regulation of Daily Life, and a Total Explanation of the Universe. Finally, if Muslims begin to see the mistreatment of women and of non-Muslims as the moral failure it is, then like Ataturk, more will come to realize that even within Muslim societies, in which, given the immutability of the canonical texts, Islam cannot be reformed, nor can the meaning of those immutable texts be interpreted away (no further "interpretation" is permitted in Islam; the gates of ijtihad swung shut long ago) then, just as Ataturk did, they may try to limit the social and political power of Islam, in order to improve the condition of their countries and the lives of their people, and relegate Islam which officiallly should regulate and determine everything, to a much narrower sphere in the lives of Muslims. The example of Turkey shows both that this is possible, and that at the same time, the force and appeal of Islam unchained will require the secularists to remain eternally vigilant, and at times, as ruthless as Ataturk could be but as many of his more recent beneficiaries have not been.

Otherwise, as Infidels realize what it is they are in danger of losing -- that is to say, everything -- and finally prove themselves unwilling to peacefully submit to the transformation of their own countries through unhindered Da'wa, and demographic trends, it is hard not to be full of all kinds of forebodings.

Terror attacks spark fury in Jordan

Zarqawi has not won any hearts and minds in Amman. From CNN, with thanks to Kemaste:

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Three terror bombings that killed at least 56 people in Jordan's capital sparked furious protests against al Qaeda on Thursday after a Web site carried a claim that the group was behind the attacks.

Jordanians flooded Amman blaring car horns and waving the nation's flag to protest the suicide attacks at three hotels with Western connections.

Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" after the terrorist group he leads claimed responsibility for the blasts....

Protesters also rejected the idea that the explosions were carried out to protect Islam.

Groom al-Akhras said, "The world has to know that this has nothing to do with Islam."

Well, we always hear that. It would be easier to believe if people like Al-Akhras joined together in large numbers to eradicate the philosophy espoused by Zarqawi. Maybe this will help them do that.

Al-Qaida ops busted at Mexican border?

Did three A-Q members recently cross into the U.S. from Mexico? More evidence of why the border issue is a national security issue from WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON – In announcing the introduction of legislation aimed at preventing illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses yesterday, a North Carolina Republican member of the House of Representatives casually dropped a bombshell that went over the heads of most of the media covering the event – that three members of al-Qaida were recently captured trying to enter the U.S.

"This isn't aimed at any one race," said Sue Myrick, who is being mentioned as a potential candidate for governor of the state. "Our main concern is: Who's in our state? This is a critical issue today. They just arrested, down on the border, a couple of weeks ago, three al-Qaida members who came across from Mexico into the United States."

That's how she was quoted in her local daily – the Charlotte Observer. An audio recording of the event confirms the quotation's accuracy.

There was no follow-up by the reporters present.

11/9

Dr. Walid Phares ably explains the attacks in Jordan in FrontPage. While he is absolutely right that Jordan represents a more moderate form of Islam than that of the Saudis, the Jordanians still have some ways to go to come up to the universal norms of human rights.

After every jihadist terror attack or violent outburst around the world, the mainstream media always advances its myriad theories about the so-called “root causes” of the particular attack in question. Unfortunately, most of the time their analyses are fictions. That was the case last week with the interpretations of the French Intifada. And this is the case again just hours after terrorists struck three hotels in downtown Amman, Jordan.

Some commentators rushed to conclude that Jordan was targeted just because it was an ally of the United States and a backer of the war in Iraq. From al-Jazeera's opinion-makers to mainstream news agencies in the West, the common wisdom overflowed: had the small Arab Kingdom not involved itself in Iraq “regime change,” the angry nationalists wouldn't have shed Jordanian blood. Unfortunately, this equation misses the mark.

So what then is behind the surge of terror in the Hashemite Kingdom?

First, one has to consider the weight of Jordan's. Jordan is ruled by a prominent Arab Muslim dynasty, the Hashemites, who are a serious competitor to the Wahhabis. The Hashemites are not the equivalent of Monaco's princes in Europe. In the Arab world, the ancestors of King Abdallah were the legitimate rulers of Mecca and Medina until the Saudi clan "invaded" Western Arabia in the 1920s. The remnant of the Hashemites established TransJordan with the help of the British as Wahhabism took hold of the peninsula and its religious shrines. Since then, the Saudi Kingdom exported fundamentalism, while the Hashemite Kingdom established a monarchy. The result: two fundamentally opposing views of Islam and the world.

Next, al-Qaeda grew out of the Cold War. While bin Laden pledged to destroy America and the infidels, King Hussein remained a faithful ally of the West and a proponent of a peaceful settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians. After his passing, his son, Abdallah, pledged to resume his father's anti-terrorism stance.

King Hussein didn't participate in Operation Desert Storm, nor did his son, King Abdallah, engage Jordanian troops in the removal of Saddam Hussein. Moreover, the country opened its borders to Iraqi refugees, including many Sunnis, particularly Saddam's family. Despite the protests of commentators offering lightning-quick analysis, Iraqi Sunnis do not resent Jordan's alleged involvement in Iraq's war. To the contrary, many in the West and among the Shi'ites criticized Jordan for being too soft in its support for Iraq. Thus, there is no Arab frustration over Jordanian intervention in Iraq. But there is another frustration for another reason.

The jihadists have many reasons to dislike Amman's monarch, but Iraq does not figure in this assessment. Rather, King Abdallah has endorsed his father's signing of a peace treaty with Israel. But even this is not the main reason for why Islamic fundamentalists have targeted this kingdom.

The “root cause” of Islamist action against Jordan is this: the Hashemites are moderate Muslims, possibly the most successful in distancing their religion from Zarqawi's barbarism. Jordan is modernizing and has become friendly with the U.S., the UK, Europe, and Arab moderates.

The Hashemites have contained radicalism and denied the jihadists safe haven within the country. Amman rejected Damascus’ occupation of Lebanon, Syria's support of terrorism, and al-Qaeda's extremist ideology. Lately, government officials say Jordanian imams were able to reform Islamist militants jailed for violence. The concept of participating in the war of ideas has been tested in Jordan: successfully or not, moderate clerics, supported by the government, attempted to use parts of the Koran to negate the Wahhabi doctrines, allegedly based on a literal interpretation of that same Koran.

There is also a basic personality clash: Abu Massab al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian national. His bloody role in Iraq has reached the zenith of jihad. He wanted to teach the apostate monarch and his Western educated queen a lesson. This takes on added importance for the terrorist, because it is his homeland. Zarqawi wants to attack Jordan, not because he misses the souvenirs of his childhood, but out of geopolitical ambitions. The Sunni triangle’s closest and most natural borders are with Jordan. By striking in downtown Amman, Zarqawi will be opening a Western front, thereby creating more room for his terror network which is under increasing strain as Iraq strengthens its democracy, military and police.

For al-Qaeda, Jordan is ripe for violence. The Islamists inside the country have reached an apex of influence, but they have also reached their limitations. Zarqawi attempted to use biochemical agents two years ago to destabilize the regime – an attempt which failed and exposed Syria's deep role in jihad, since Zarqawi's men came through Syria.

Al-Qaeda believes that a majority of Jordanians are sympathetic to its views. In fact, the Islamists in Jordan make up about 18 percent of the population, and hence, the parliament. The majority of the fundamentalists are members of the Palestinian community in Jordan. They are still a minority, but their community is growing quickly, and the Islamists believe they will have a majority in the future. But the jihadists also believe they don't have to wait to achieve a numerical majority. Their points are based on regional considerations.

Jordan is an ally of the United States and is training Iraqi security forces. Once Iraq securely establishes a pluralistic, democratic nation capable of defending itself, Jordan's jihadist threat will be contained. Thus, al-Qaeda's strategists plotted to strike two birds with one stone: by destabilizing Jordan, they would deprive Iraq of its most serious regional ally. By destroying the Hashemites, the terrorists would serve the interests of the Wahhabis.

Hence al-Qaeda struck downtown Amman against tourist symbols, as it did in Bali. The jihadists expect to start a chain reaction: Jordan's economy dwindles, civil war erupts, its support for the War on Terror vanishes, its potential alliance with Iraq goes down in flames, and eventually an Islamic emirate or caliphate rear its head in the region.

Al-Qaeda is living out a fantasy. Unfortunately, if we do not hold a tough line in Iraq, its fantasy could become Jordan's nightmare.

Rioters are Muslims, but don't say it

An insightful piece on the media reluctance to call the rioters in France what they are. From the Washington Times, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

The rioters who have burned out neighborhoods in cities across France for a fortnight are overwhelmingly of North African and Arab ancestry, overwhelmingly young, overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly cut off culturally and economically from the larger French society -- and overwhelmingly Muslim.

But saying they're Muslim is a subject of angry dispute. French officials downplay the religious connections, and some newspapers, particularly in the United States, avoid identifying the rioters as Muslim....

Most of the rioters do not appear to be foreigners, but French citizens, young men from first- and second-generation immigrant families from Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia -- former French colonies -- and other North and West African nations.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin blames the rioting on "structured groups," apparently euphemism for "Muslim," but French officials say they have no evidence that international Muslim radical groups are involved in promoting the violence.

"For the moment, we see no link at all with the networks that we work on," French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Francois Ricard said in Paris. Arrest figures released so far indicate that most of the hoodlums are young and male. About half are younger than 18.

They're technologically savvy. Investigators say the rioters are using the Internet, cell phones and text-messaging to coordinate attacks. Der Spiegel, the German newspaper, quoted one of the text messages from one rioter to another: "We aren't going to let up. The French won't do anything and soon we will be the majority."

Al-Arian Lied to the Press and Immigration Authorities, Lawyer Concedes

Hard times for the Rumpled Academic. From the New York Sun:

TAMPA, Fla. - A defense attorney for a former college professor on trial for his alleged leadership role in a terrorist group conceded in court yesterday that his client lied to the press and immigration authorities in what the lawyer described as an effort to keep a Palestinian Arab think tank afloat.

Al-Qaida Claims Credit for Jordan Blasts

Misunderstanders of Islam at it again, this time in Jordan. Motive? Well, it seems that "the tyrant of Jordan has made the backyard garden for the enemy of the religion -- Jews and crusaders." You may have missed Richard Coeur De Lion's last expedition into Jordan, but A-Q is on the case. "Al-Qaida Claims Credit for Jordan Blasts," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Al-Qaida claimed responsibility in an Internet posting Thursday for three suicide attacks on Western hotels that killed at least 57 people, as police clamped down on security and began running DNA tests to try to identify the bombers.

The nearly simultaneous attacks late Wednesday also wounded more than 115 people, police said. Several arrests were made overnight, although it was unclear if those arrested were suspects or witnesses.

The claim of responsibility, signed in the name of the spokesman for the group Al-Qaida in Iraq, said that "after studying and watching the targets, places were chosen to carry out an attack on some hotels that the tyrant of Jordan has made the backyard garden for the enemy of the religion _ Jews and crusaders."

The authenticity of the posting could not be immediately determined, though it was made on a Web site frequently used by Al-Qaida operatives.

Here is an excellent New York Sun editorial on the significance of the attacks.

And here is the text of the A-Q statement (thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater).

D. C. Watson: Bigotry

D. C. Watson offers some interesting quotes related to the recent CAIR/JW controversy:

Bigot: One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

On November 8, 2005, the Council on American Islamic Relations posted a column on their website entitled: “CA Synagogue That Hosted Islamophobe Urged to Invite Muslim Speaker,” which included the following footnote: “Hate-filled comments on speaker’s website compare Muslims to animals and Nazis.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008906.php

The so-called “Islamophobe”: Robert Spencer
The website: Jihad Watch

Is this supposed to be their big idea of challenging critics, as they proposed doing at the Islamic Society of North America’s 42nd annual convention? The one that I addressed here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008033.php

That’s it? Name calling? Predictably anemic, but par for the course.

Phobia: "A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous."

Question: At what point exactly, do Islamic scholars become “Islamophobes”? How does someone who has studied Islam for more than two, and in some cases three decades, become afraid of it?

Answer: They don’t. Unfortunately for CAIR and their ilk, the speeches and writings of authors like Spencer, Pipes, Ye’or, Sina, Fitzgerald, Emerson, and many others have no sugar-coating. What is spoken and written is raw, and unprocessed.

If they are incorrect about what they say and write, what is stopping the Council on American Islamic Relations from stepping on stage with them and presenting their points?

Regarding their complaint about the “hate filled comments” at Jihad Watch that “compare Muslims to animals and Nazis”: Tell them once, tell them a thousand times. This is America, and Americans are free to like and dislike whatever they damn well please. Free to talk about it, free to write about it, free to draw cartoons about it, and free to sing about it.

Americans are aware that not every Muslim in the world possesses the desire to be the ruler of the world. If this were not the case, Muslims wouldn’t kill other Muslims in the large volumes that they do.

Are there similarities between the mindsets of Nazis and Islamic jihadists?

Review of some of the words of Islamic leaders and words of Adolph Hitler. What shakes out is -- well, you decide.

Adolph Hitler: "Was there any form of filth or crime...without at least one Jew involved in it. If you cut even cautiously into such a sore, you find like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light - a Jew." http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Jews_Nazi_Germany.htm

Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, top-ranking cleric in the Sunni Muslim world: Jews: "The enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs."
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR01102

Adolph Hitler: "The Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end.......spying on the unsuspicious German girl he plans to seduce..........He wants to contaminate her blood and remove her from the bosom of her own people."
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Jews_Nazi_Germany.htm

Saudi Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis: Jews: "The scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs."
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR01102

It appears that these comparisons have also taken care of distinguishing who compares whom to animals.

On the topic of bigotry and “hate speech”, here are some examples of prominent Muslims doing exactly what they continually accuse their critics of:

Sheikh Omar Bakri: "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians…Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value." "We will use your democracy to destroy your democracy."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/2005/07/007262print.html

Omar Ahmad, Former Chairman of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR): “Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran…should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32341

Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris: “We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain.” “Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.”
http://memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=669

Abu Hamza al-Masri, Islamic Cleric: "The real weapons of mass destruction are the desire for martyrdom. Millions of you are ready to be shaheed. Half a million martyrdom shaheed is enough for Muslims to control the whole of earth forever. In the end of the day, Islam must control earth, whether we like it or not."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/10435138?source=Evening%20Standard

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President, on Israel: "a disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the face of the earth". "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, while any Islamic leader who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1601414,00.html

Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR: “I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6473

Abu Bakr, Muslim Cleric: "I am telling you that my religion doesn't tolerate other religion. It doesn't tolerate. The only one law which needs to spread, it can be here or anywhere else, has to be Islam"
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/07/australia.terror.bakr/

With all this evidence, does CAIR actually think that Americans and the West are supposed to read the trash being spewed by leading Muslims and act as if they have never read it? If they are the spokespersons for Islam, and this is what comes out of their mouths, are free societies supposed to roll out the red carpet for Islam? If this is what they truly believe, then it would appear that they have greatly underestimated the backbone of freedom, and those who live in it.

CAIR defames me again

Showing a fine contempt for the fair dialogue that they claim to be trying to promote, the Council on American Islamic Relations has smeared me in a new press release:

The Washington-based council said the growing level of Islamophobic rhetoric in American society prompts some individuals to turn their hate-filled views into violent actions.

Just yesterday, CAIR urged a Los Angeles synagogue that hosted a speech by Robert Spencer, the operator of a virulently anti- Muslim website, to offer its congregation a more balanced perspective on Islam. Comments and articles on Spencer's site, which is used as reference by a number of Islamophobic commentators, compare Muslims to animals and Nazis and portray Islam as an inherently violent faith that must be confronted.

New comments on that site today include "death to islam (sic)," "islam must be destroyed..destroy islam (sic)," "ISLAM = DEADLY PARASITE," and "Islam IS the NAZISM of our generation."

Although these comments were, I believe, taken from the thread on which I issued the challenge, CAIR has ignored my challenge to produce one false statement about Islam from any of my own writings. Once again, although I have written reams about Islam and terrorism, they don't quote one syllable of my own writings. Instead, they have once again quoted things I didn't write, selecting material from this unmoderated forum to suit their own ends, and ignoring postings from the same unmoderated thread that did not suit the smears they were trying to make, like this one:

"...the Qur'an is protected by God Himself, no one can change His words, and since the revelation was revealed to Muhammad, peace be upon him, the words have not been changed."

In other words, what we have here at Jihad Watch is what is known as "free discussion." CAIR may hate it, but it is protected by American law. I have removed some of the comments that are objectively offensive, as I routinely do when they are called to my attention. As longtime readers here know, many times I have told people that offensive comments are not tolerated and will be removed -- when I see them, which is not all that often. I have often been tempted to end comments, but for a variety of reasons have not done so; and I certainly am not going to do so now, under pressure from this group that has shown so little interest in fairness or true dialogue. But I am not also going to be held responsible for material I did not write. Ibrahim Hooper, Hussam Ayloush, I challenge you again: quote me. The fact that you do not and cannot indicates that you know how empty and despicable your attacks on me are.

It is particularly despicable that CAIR is trying to associate me with attacks on innocent people. If CAIR really thinks I am encouraging such attacks, let it establish that from my own writings. My own writings.

Meanwhile, I just searched in vain on their website, where their first attack on me is now featured, for any condemnation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's genocidal call for the destruction of Israel, which both Iran's President and Foreign Minister tied to Islam: "The world will see the anger of the Islamic world against this regime."

If CAIR really believes that hate-filled rhetoric leads to violence, let it condemn Ahmadinejad. If CAIR really believes that hate-filled rhetoric leads to violence in America, let it condemn the vitriolic hatred of Jews and Christians that is taught in American mosques and schools.

CAIR has not condemned either one.

Egyptian elections: "Islam is the solution"

State Department and Administration myopia leads to an increase in religious rhetoric in Egypt's elections. Nice going, folks. "In Egypt vote, Islamist influence grows," from the Christian Science Monitor, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

CAIRO - In electoral districts throughout Egypt, campaign posters reading simply "Islam is the solution," urge voters to choose Muslim Brotherhood candidates for parliament when they go to the polls Wednesday. Ahmed Omar, a literature student, will heed the call.

"I'm not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood but I'm voting for them," says Mr. Omar. "They have values, morality, and wisdom and they hold the word of God above all else."

He is not alone. With the opposition group expected to at least triple its numbers in parliament, a significant shift in the country's political dynamic is afoot. Today, for the first time in decades, not a single Muslim Brother sits in jail, and candidates are campaigning openly as Muslim Brothers.

These parliamentary elections, more so than the country's first multi-candidate presidential poll last month, are seen as a test of the government's commitment to reform.

The incorporation of the Muslim Brotherhood into Egyptian politics is a step forward for US democratization efforts in Egypt, and may in fact be a direct response to US pressure.

If it is, the State Department policy wonks responsible should hang their heads in shame. The Muslim Brotherhood is the direct forefather of Hamas and Al-Qaeda, and holds to the same ideology of caliphate and Sharia. That is an ideology that denies essential freedoms -- freedom of consequence, equal rights for religious minorities and women -- and the U.S. has no business promoting it.

The Islamist group's rise, however, has led traditionally secular political parties to place added emphasis on religion in order to compete. The result is that women and the country's 10 percent Coptic Christian minority are being squeezed out of politics.

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Cairo last June and told audiences that "fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty," many here interpreted it as a call for the Egyptian government to lighten up on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Unlike past parliamentary elections in 1995 and 2000, when thousands of the group's members were imprisoned, the officially banned Islamic organization is campaigning free of government harassment....

In the Cairo electoral district of Nasser City, the Muslim Brotherhood's lone female candidate, Makarim Eldeiri, is focusing on family values and, of course, Islam in her campaign.

"Our message is that Islam is the solution, and this is a complete program for all aspects of government and family life," she says.

While it's no surprise that a Brotherhood candidate would stress Islam, what is worrying to many is the affect that her campaign has had on her opponent. Faced with a strong challenge from Ms. Eldeiri, the ruling party incumbent has responded by adopting "The Koran is the solution" as his slogan.

The phenomenon has repeated itself in other districts.

The ruling National Democratic Party nominated just two Coptic parliamentary candidates out of a total of 444 this year....

"There is no desire to give the Copts representation in parliament and this is among the reasons that the Christian feel oppressed," says Milad Hana, a secular Coptic writer. "There is more and more a sectarian air within the ruling powers in Egypt."

The situation for women is equally grim, say women's rights activists. Though President Hosni Mubarak repeatedly stressed the empowerment of women during his reelection campaign earlier this year, his party has nominated just six women to compete for parliament. The alliance of opposition forces has nominated just seven. Both those numbers are down from 2000, when 11 women ran from the ruling party, and 22 from the opposition.

Thanks, apparently, to the U.S.A.

French-fried politics

Bert Prelutsky in WND, with thanks to Ruth King:

To me, the worst thing about Muslims, aside from their longing to be returned to the good old days of the eighth century, and to drag the rest of us, kicking and screaming, along with them, is the fact that far too many politically correct imbeciles feel compelled to accommodate them and to find rationales for their violence.

Two such enablers who come to mind, I'm sad to say, are George Bush and Condoleezza Rice. Both have promoted the lie that Islam is a religion of peace and good will. Perhaps in some parallel universe where day is night, up is down, and love is hate, it is so. But here on planet Earth, Islam is a religion whose mullahs preach sermons of death to the infidels. And just in case you haven't noticed, that includes everybody who doesn't spend several minutes every day bowing down to Mecca.

Yet we have the spectacle of American and European leftists arguing in the defense of people who regard suicide bombings of school buses as a legitimate form of guerrilla warfare; who speak up on behalf of men who treat their wives and daughters as chattel; and who refer to those butchers who hack the heads off innocent civilians as freedom fighters....

In a brilliant tongue-in-cheek essay, Joseph Farah wondered if the intifada currently taking place in France would cause Jacques Chirac and his political cronies to resolve their problem with Islamic fanatics in the same fashion they have long argued that Israel should solve hers – namely, by turning over large parcels of territory so that the blood-thirsty fanatics can have their own sovereign nation...

Read it all.

Fitzgerald: Douce France

We first posted this piece by Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald on dhimmitude in France at Dhimmi Watch in 2004. Over the last two weeks I have had many, many requests to repost it. Normally I don't like to do such things, for if I start reprinting archived material there could be no end to it, and there is a perfectly good list of Hugh's articles here (scroll down), from which any one of them can be easily accessed.

However, ultimately I decided to repost this piece, because it is not so much archival as it is more pertinent than ever. And this time, because of the weight of current events, I post it here, on the Jihad Watch side, rather than on the Dhimmi Watch side of this website. For a jihad is what -- it is increasingly clear -- France now faces and will face for quite some time to come.

Imagine that you are a cosseted member of the French elite. One child is doing the khâgne, aiming for rue d’Ulm. Another is now a politechnicien. You are very comfortable, working for the state. You and your spouse are journalists, or writers, or one of that vast tribe of people conducting “recherches” and life is comfortable, good, the way it should be. Yes, you do notice more and more Muslims about you as you walk, no longer in the banlieues, but in the center of Paris, or Toulouse, or Lyon. And you remember how uneasy you felt, four years ago, when you happened to be walking on the Cannebière in Marseille. You decided, then and there, that you would not return.

And you have friends who live in the south. And they tell you that the beurs – some call them maghrébins -- make life hell for everyone. They attack French children on the way to school. They vandalize cars. They threaten, and do more than threaten, anyone who is still foolish enough to walk out wearing a kippah or a cross. Whole areas of cities in the south, as in the north, and east, and west, have become off-limits to non-Muslims. In the schools, the teachers have lost authority. They cannot even cover the subjects of World War II, the Resistance, and the murders of the Jews as the state prescribes; they fear, with reason, the violent reaction of the Muslim students.

And as the schools become more and more dangerous for non-Muslim students and teachers, with more time and resources devoted to discipline rather than to learning, French parents and would-be parents are now silently factoring into their childbearing plans the present value of the future cost of what, they see, will now have to be added: private school tuition. And that means, of course, that those French people will plan on smaller families. And they will also be factoring in the growing cost, paid by them, those French taxpayers, for the whole expanding edifice of security, the guards in the schools, the guards at the train stations and métro stations and airports and at government buildings everywhere, the costs of keeping the gravestones from being vandalized, the costs of protecting the synagogues and the churches, the costs for all those tapped phones and agents in mosques, and subsidies to lawyers and judges to hear charges and try cases against Muslims, and the costs of monitoring da'wa in the prisons (more than 50% Muslim).

But the Muslims are indifferent to expenses incurred by the French state. France is part of the world; the world belongs to Allah, and to his Believers. That doctrine has remained immutable for 1400 years. Imam Bouziane, the one they keep trying to deport, had 16 children by two wives, all living on the French state: a representative Muslim man. Over time, the difference between average family size of Muslims and non-Muslims steadily increases. And, over time, the education system continues to disintegrate. Right now, perhaps, you cannot see it. Your children go to the best schools, followed by the best lycées. You vacation in Normandy, or Brittany, or the Ile de Ré. And you do not take the metro often enough, or walk in the right districts, or work in the right factories or offices, to understand what tens of millions of your fellow Frenchmen now have to endure. You, for the moment, are still immune, still willfully unaware. You have spent the last few decades learning about the Muslim world from Eric Rouleau, and his epigones (after they silenced Peroncel-Hugoz, the one journalist who reported the truth) in Le Monde. You are deeply-versed in the constantly reported-upon, endlessly dilated-upon, perfidy of the mighty empire of Israel. You know what we have all had dinned into us: that the Arab Muslims are reasonable people, with clearly-justified grievances, grievances so reasonable and so limited in scope, that justice demands they be satisfied. Everyone agrees on the “solution.” It is called a “two-state solution” and of course it is a “solution” for otherwise, of course, it would not have been called a “solution.”

And everything looks the way it always has looked: the linden trees, the river, the bridges, the réverbères, the étalage in the neighborhood boulangerie. Douce France, cher pays de mon enfance. At the end of the school day, chic mothers still congregate in little towns, or small cities, outside the school – this or that Ecole Jules Ferry -- waiting to pick up their children. Here come the littlest ones, from Maternelle, running up now -- just look at how small they are. And here are the CE1 group, with those huge cartables on their tiny backs. Run, run, run, to Mommy. Oop-la. And then the years of study, study, study marked by ever-larger cahiers -- "cahier" and "cartable" are the words that identify French DNA better than Piaf or gauloises, isn't that true? And now we will read the books, and study the subjects, set down so completely and precisely by the Ministry of Education. And now we are up to the final year, preparing for the Bac, with copies of blue-backed BALISES, guides to Les Châtiments and La Peau de Chagrin. And just look at the results listed in the newspaper: Claire-Alix has a mention très bien. Fantastic. Everything is fine, everything will always stay the same, whole countries cannot change. It’s not possible.

But it is changing, coming apart, quietly, slowly -- let’s not look too closely, we mustn't pay too much attention -- the streets, the schools, the hospitals, the ability to speak the truth about things, about life as it is lived, la vita vissuta as they like to say in a neighboring country. Dominique de Villepin always knew there was nothing to worry about; he was born, after all, in Salé, next to Rabat, even spent a few years of his infancy there; of course he knows his Arabs, his Muslims. And surely Eric Rouleau, who for decades in Le Monde was the resident expert on the Middle East (he was so knowledgeable that he never had to so much as mention the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunna), surely he knew everything, didn't he? And those French translations of Edward Said that denounced with such passion the Islamophobia, and those vicious cliches with which the blind and rotting West has always caricatured the Arab Muslim world. Oh, we have been so terrible to the Arabs, we colonialists, we French, we Westerners. And then there is the never-ending outrage of Israel, that running colonial sore. Of course, they have every right, those Muslims, to come here to France. We went to their countries once, now they come to ours. And they have every right to hate us, don’t they?

So now we have decided not to understand, and to cut all ties of sympathy to, Israel -- and how did we ever have any sympathy for it in the first place, the way some of our parents did back in 1948 or 1956 or 1967? How could they not have seen what the "Palestinian people" had to endure? Hanan, Yasser, Said, Saeb, Aziz, Walid, Rashid, Mohammed -- you have won our hearts and minds. Take us, do with us what you will.

No one will mention what is happening or what kinds of things we must begin to think about doing to save ourselves. No one of any decency. And whatever Le Pen and Megret say, we must say the opposite (except, of course, when they show their hostility to "the Jews"). Do not say those things, do not think them. Free thought is all very well in theory, but really -- consider the consequences. Don't dare to think outside that box brimming with idées reçues. Défense de penser au dehors du box.

No, everything will be all right as you stroll down the Avenue Paule-Anne. Those Muslims will never be a match for us. Why, just look at those legionnaires marching à pas lent down the Champs-Elysées, think of that string of desert victories. Inside our heads, it is 1930 and over here is the Exposition coloniale. You remember, tu t’en souviens, that painting by le Douanier Rousseau, don't you, with the burnoosed Arab standing next to the black Senegalese? I have it right, don’t I? France will always be France. Nothing will ever change.

At a certain point, and despite everything that causes you not to see what is staring you in the face, you realize that something has gone irreparably wrong with your country, and you, and your children, are in danger of losing that country, down to every village and house, qui m’est une province et beaucoup davantage. And you do not know what to do, or how to explain this feeling to others, or in whom to confide your secret fears, or what can be done. It is so confusing, and so upsetting. You cannot vote for Le Pen. You cannot endorse "cowboy" Bush or those ridiculous Americans. You have no place to go.

And then you learn what Jacques Chirac -- who now has a Muslim grandchild himself -- and Dominique de Villepin, do not wish you to learn. For if you did, you might be very angry. You discover that 1 out of every 3 babies born in France today is a Muslim baby. And that means, in 20 years, one of every three 20-year-olds in France will be a Muslim twenty-year-old. And that means, twenty years after that, at present rates of reproduction, France will have a majority Muslim population. Where shall we hide the statues from Marly-le-roi? And the Venus de Milo? And what about all those paintings of animated life -- all those portraits in the Louvre, and the Grand Palais, and the Musée Guimet down there in linden-lined Aix, and everywhere else in art-filled artful France, mère des arts, des armes, et des loix -- that are absolutely forbidden according to the immutable strictures of the Qur'an. Should they be sent for safekeeping to those Americans across the seas? By then most of the Jews in France will have left, gone across the oceans for their own safekeeping, to Israel or to English-speaking Canada (they were worried about the Muslim population of Quebec, you see, which had been allowed to grow under the Province of Quebec's policy of encouraging francophone immigrants, preferring North Africans to potential immigrants from Italy, Greece, Spain), and above all, to America. What luck those Americans have had. No more bequests to France by the likes of the Rothschilds, or Nissim Camondo. No more Donations from another Pierre Lévy. Enjoy the Kufic calligraphy; some find it endlessly fascinating.

For the moment, you allow yourself to believe that something will come up. Most likely, all those Muslims will simply convert. I mean, they do that, don't they, quite easily I'm told. Of course, why didn't I think of it, that is exactly what will happen. The situation is always saved in time. Just like during the war. Nothing to worry about. Nothing.

Explosions hit hotels in Jordan; 7 dead

Jihad attack in Jordan? Just in from AP:

AMMAN, Jordan - Explosions rocked two hotels in the Jordanian capital late Wednesday, killing at least seven people and sending ambulances screaming across downtown. The cause of the explosions was unclear.

The first bomb, at 8:50 local time (1:50 p.m. EST), struck the Grand Hyatt, completely shattering the stone entrance. An AP reporter saw at least seven bodies removed from the hotel, and many more wounded carried out on stretchers.

Police said a second explosion hit a wedding hall at the nearby Radisson SAS hotel, and there were believed to be casualties.

Both hotels, in the commercial Jebel Amman district, are frequented by American and European businessmen and diplomats.

One police official said scores of people were believed killed.

Sarkozy orders deportation of foreign rioters

The latest on the Muslim riots in France from AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

PARIS, Nov 9 (AFP) - Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday issued orders for non-French rioters convicted in the wave of urban violence to be deported -- a measure directed at youths of Arab and African background living in the high-immigrant neighbourhoods involved in the unrest.

Sarkozy told prefects, or regional governors, to apply the order to foreigners including those who have valid French residency visas.

He told parliament that "120 foreigners, not all of whom are here illegally, have been convicted" of taking part in the nightly rampages that have occurred since October 27.

"I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa," he said.

UK: 'Terror tape' given out at mosque

Good news: it looks as if mosque members brought this to the attention of authorities. From the BBC, with thanks to Greg:

Police have launched an investigation into claims that video tapes and DVDs handed out at mosques in Dewsbury were being used to recruit terrorists.

The tapes, purporting to contain readings from the Koran, were given to Muslims attending two mosques in Savile Town during the weekend's Eid festival.

Local resident Safiq Patel said: "When people played them they realised they were violent jihad videos."

West Yorkshire Police confirmed they were studying one of the tapes.

Mr Patel told BBC News: "These tapes were left at points of public access in the reception areas of the mosques.

"People picked them up thinking they were prayers or readings from the Koran.

"They were shocked to find messages of jihad. It is someone trying to drum up violence, especially among the younger members of the community.

"Somebody is trying to infiltrate their consciences, decision-making and values in the hope of perhaps recruiting the terrorists of the future from this community."

A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "Members of the local Asian community have brought to our attention these matters.

"On Tuesday we received a copy of the video which is being looked at to establish whether it contains material which would incite violence, racial hatred or acts of terrorism."

Go home in the name of Allah, order imams with megaphones

Muslim leaders, defying the well-established fact that the riots in France have nothing to do with Islam, order the rioters to desist in the name of Allah. The mainstream media in the United States obligingly looks the other way. It will be interesting to see if the rioters heed this call after ignoring calls for calm from Chirac and other non-Muslim French authorities.

From the TimesOnline, with thanks to Romy:

BEARDED Muslim activists have been wading into the night-time mayhem of the housing estates, megaphone in hand, and addressing the rioters “in the name of Allah”.

Far from inciting the violence, they have been urging the rioting teenagers to stop destroying property and go home. For the Government, the Muslim mediators have been playing a useful role calming youngsters from the mainly Arab estates who respect their authority far more than that of the police and local officials.

However, the Muslim mentors, who style themselves “big brothers”, are also causing unease in France because they symbolise what many see as a root of the unrest: the isolation of the ethnic Arab and black minorities into ghettos where Muslim law and outlook prevails. There is also a widespread belief — denied by the authorities — that the unrest is being fostered by the Islamists.

State Department Spurns Senators On Saudi Arabia

Senate hearings on the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act are on again, but it doesn't seem as if the State Department is all that enthusiastic. From the New York Sun, with thanks to S.:

WASHINGTON - The State Department's last-minute withdrawal from a Senate hearing yesterday into Saudi Arabia's sponsorship of terrorism maddened lawmakers and hearing witnesses, who faulted the State Department for soft-pedaling on Saudi Arabia in advance of a visit to the kingdom tomorrow by Secretary of State Rice.

Yesterday morning's Judiciary Committee hearing - titled "Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?" - featured testimony by investigators and analysts of the Saudi kingdom who told the committee's chairman, Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, and its ranking Democrat, Senator Leahy, of Vermont, that Saudi Arabia has been ineffective in curbing the propagation of anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-American ideologies.

The director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, Nina Shea, testified that the Saudis had also distributed extremist Wahabi "hate materials" at mosques here in America inciting violence against Jews and Christians. Committee members also showed video clips of Muslim clerics urging, over Saudi government-controlled television, that "throats must be slit" and "skulls must be shattered" in the fight against infidels. The video was translated and provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Conspicuously absent from the proceedings, Messrs. Specter and Leahy said, was a representative of America's Department of State. Both senators repeatedly denounced the State Department's absence from the hearing as a "disappointing" development....

Read it all.

Arrests, injuries as unrest continues across Belgium

From Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BRUSSELS — In the third successive night of unrest in Belgium, vandals torched cars, trucks and cellars in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent on Tuesday, while two suspected arsonists were arrested after they were admitted to hospital for burns injuries. Belgian police suspect agitators are committing copy-cat acts to the arson attacks witnessed during heavy rioting in France in the past two weeks.

However, a spokesman for the federal government's crisis centre said each case was an "isolated" incident and that there were no large gathering of youths. The crisis centre also said there were no clashes with police.

Despite the assurances, Ghent police are taking the attacks very seriously, but also warned against overreacting: "This does not make a Paris of Ghent".

State of Emergency Begins in France

...with rioters defying it. But look on the bright side: only 617 cars were torched last night. French Impotence Alert from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

PARIS — Rioters defied a state of emergency that took effect Wednesday, as they looted and burned two superstores, set fire to a newspaper office and paralyzed France's second-largest city's subway system with a firebomb.

However, the number of car burnings — a barometer for the unrest — dropped sharply, suggesting the movement lost steam. Overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, youths torched 617 vehicles, down from 1,173 the previous night, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. Incidents were reported in 116 towns, down from 226 the night before.

President Jacques Chirac announced extraordinary security measures, which began Wednesday and are valid for a 12-day state of emergency, clearing the way for curfews after nearly two weeks of rioting that began in neglected and impoverished suburban neighborhoods with large Muslim communities....

Towns included on the list stretched from Nice on the Mediterranean to Strasbourg on the German border and Le Havre on the English Channel, giving an indication of how widespread the unrest has become.

Al-Qaeda Warns: Native European Converts Are Waiting to Strike

Those Islamophobes in Al-Qaeda continue to link conversion to Islam and jihad violence. From Israel National News, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

(IsraelNN.com) In a message carried by the Global Islamic Media Front, considered an Internet mouthpiece for the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, Islamists warn that there are native European converts to Islam dubbed - Rakan Bin Williams - roaming the continent, preparing to strike.

"Al Qaeda's new soldiers were born in Europe of European and Christian parents. They studied in your schools. They prayed in your churches and attended Sunday mass. They drank alcohol, ate pork and oppressed Muslims,...

Yeah, that about sums up Christianity for most people.

...but al-Qaeda has embraced them so they have converted to Islam in secret and absorbed the philosophy of al-Qaeda and swore to take up arms after their brothers. They are currently roaming the streets of Europe and the United States planning and observing in preparation for upcoming attacks," the web-communique threatened, according to the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Police fear that terror suspects arrested in Denmark are linked to a British plot to attack the US White House

Anglican plot against the White House u