Somali Troops Close In on 3 Wanted for U.S. Embassy Bombings

Wanted in the 1998 Embassy bombings. From AP, with thanks to Twostellas:

KISMAYO, Somalia — Fighting erupted Sunday on the outskirts of the last remaining stronghold of Somalia's militant Islamic movement, as thousands of residents streamed from the area ahead of the feared battle with Ethiopian-backed government troops.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said the militants in the coastal city of Kismayo were sheltering three men wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people.

"If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the United States," Gedi said.

Fitzgerald: The re-primitivization of the world

As Saddam was being hung, the voices of several of those present in the room were heard crying out. They didn't cry out "a bicameral legislature!" They didn't cry out "checks and balances, for god's sake let us have checks and balances." They didn't cry out "we want a government of limited powers." No, they cried out "Moqtada al-Sadr, Moqtada al-Sadr."

Amurath an Amurath succeeds.

And will, until it is realized that people suffused with the tenets and attitudes of Islam are not interested in Western parliamentary democracy. Nor are they interested in guarantees of the rights of minorities and especially of the individual, or in the Spirit of Liberty, which is defined by Learned Hand as the spirit that is "not quite sure that it is right." Try to imagine a Muslim Washington, a Muslim Jefferson, a Muslim Adams, a Muslim Madison, James Wilson, Clay or Webster or Calhoun or John Randolph of Roanoke, a Muslim Lincoln, or for that matter a Muslim John Marshall, a Muslim Louis Brandeis, a Muslim Oliver Wendell Holmes. You can't. And you know why.

And unless, and until, the Camp of Infidels understands that it must not only understand, but make its constant theme, the connection between those assorted amuraths and the politico-religio-legal system of Islam, that refuses to locate legitimacy in the will of mere mortals, all of them rightfully slaves of Allah, and that urges submission to the ruler, no matter how despotic, as long as he is declared to be a Muslim, you never will be able to imagine such creatures. They will continue to be chimerical as long as the connection between the inshallah-fatalism of Islam and the economic backwardness, despite the OPEC trillions, of Muslim lands (where the only real economies are found, in some form, in those countries where Islam has been constrained -- as in Turkey or Tunisia) continues to go unnoticed. And the connection between the social failures, the moral failures, the intellectual failures, of Muslim societies must be connected to the doctrines, the teachings, the attitudes, the atmospherics of Islam. The case for such a connection is overwhelming. It will not be easy to deny it, and at the very least, the world's Infidels will see that connection, and so will the most advanced people born into Islam. It will put Islam permanently on the defensive among its own adherents, who will indeed begin to wonder why their countries have a series of despots succeeded by other despots, why their countries are so naturally violent in their politics, why they are, despite such oil revenues, unable or unwilling to create advanced economies, why their societies, so hostile to non-Muslims and to women, will remain estranged from the rest of the world as that world passes them by, and why the habit of mental submission encouraged by Islam will always prevent them from the enterprise of science, or from all else that requires the encouragement, and not the punishment, of free and skeptical inquiry.

Mahdi this, and Mahdi that. "What do you want to do tonight, Mahdi?"

"I don't know, Angie, what do you want to do tonight?"

"Jeez, I don't know, Mahdi, what do you want to do tonight?”

God, it's going to be boring under the new dispensation.

The re-primitivization of the world proceeds, proceeds because the advanced peoples do not appreciate their own achieved advancement. The uncivilized are inheriting that civilization, because the civilized themselves are insufficiently grateful their own legacy, and indifferent or ignorant of the conditions that were necessary for its achievement over time. And the uncivilized, seizing control of that very civilization they had so little a hand in creating, will determinedly undo it. They already are.

En passant par la Lorraine... (old song)

En passant par l'Irak...and then leaving at long last, and while removing all the planes, all the helicopters, all the Humvees, all the Bradley fighting vehicles, all the trucks, all the tanks, all the everything -- now remember, boys, don't leave any war materiel behind, including computers, including absolutely everything, god knows American taxpayers have spent or committed nearly $500 billion to hideous Iraq and its largely hideous people, and nothing should be left behind.

Let Moqtada al-Sadr be forced to deal, without the Americans to do the fighting for the Shi'a, with those stout-hearted Sunni yeomen of Fallujah, Ramadi, and Tikrit.

That will be fun. That will make it pleasant, and not disturbing, to get up in the morning, and read the latest dispatches from "Iraq."

Iran website heralding 'Mahdi' by springtime

And then the fun will begin. From WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to Davida:

An official state media website in Iran has posted a message heralding the coming of the Shiite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, noting he could arrive by the spring equinox.

"Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca," the message says.

The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting website said in a program called "The World toward Illumination," that the Mahdi will form an army to defeat the enemies of Islam in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.

The Mahdi's far sightedness and firmness in the face of mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa.

Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other. ...

After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina. ... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast ... finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists.

The Iranian series also claims the Mahdi will reappear on Earth with Jesus: "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' ... Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."

Release of up to 80 jihadists puts Pakistan counterterror efforts 'back to square one'

"As many as 80 hard-core militants are on the loose after being cleared by the courts or released on bail." Friend and Ally Update. "Freed jihadis put Pakistan's war on terror 'back to square one', say senior officers," by Massoud Ansari and Gethin Chamberlain for the Telegraph:

Anti-terrorism forces in Pakistan have been told to brace themselves for a wave of atrocities. Intelligence officials warned that the security situation is now more precarious than it was before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Senior officers say they are "back to square one" in their fight against international terrorist groups after the release of dozens of militants by Pakistani courts. High-ranking police officials say that as many as 80 hard-core militants are on the loose after being cleared by the courts or released on bail.

They are believed to have been involved in crimes including the attempted assassination of President Pervez Musharraf and a suicide attack on the American consulate in Karachi.

A memo sent by Pakistan's interior ministry to law enforcement agencies around the country warns of a plot to use suicide bombers to target Britons and Americans, including diplomats, in a coordinated campaign involving some of the country's most notorious terrorist groups. The ministry warned that the bombers were also believed to be looking at high-profile individuals and military installations as potential targets.

Last month, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, warned of the growing threat from within Pakistan. She said young British Muslims were being groomed to become suicide bombers and that most of the 1,600 suspects being tracked by her agents were British-born but linked to al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

MI5 is reported to have compiled detailed dossiers on British Muslims travelling to jihadist training camps in Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, the region where the United States believes Osama bin Laden is hiding. At least two of the British Muslims involved in the Tube and bus bombings in London on July 7 last year are known to have visited training camps in Pakistan.

Anti-terrorism officers in Pakistan say they are deeply alarmed by the security situation. "We are back to square one and the situation is more precarious than it was before 9/11," one senior officer told The Sunday Telegraph. "They are planning more attacks. They have got huge backup. There are so many youths who are joining them. The old ones who are released from the prison are guiding and training the new cadres."

The interior ministry memo warns: "We would like to direct all the concerned -security departments to tighten security around important personalities inside Pakistan, and to keep a constant eye on the movement of people who had previously provided shelter to militants linked to terror organisations."

Counter-terrorism officials are aghast at the decision by the courts to free so many people suspected of involvement in attacks. Police say many have since disappeared off the radar of intelligence agencies and are believed to be planning to strike.

Among those released recently are Sohail Akhtar (aka Mustafa), the operational commander of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami group. He has been blamed for a campaign that included a suicide attack in Karachi in which 11 French engineers died, the suicide attack on the US consulate, and the failed attempt on the president's life. Intelligence officers say Mustafa — who was initially sentenced to death before a court overturned the verdict — is also believed to have travelled to Iraq to establish contact between al-Qaeda and terrorists there. His interrogators described him as "a terrorist genius".

One official said: "He was the one who cobbled together all the jihadis, working under various organisations, by coining the slogan, 'The ways should be different but the goal should be one'."

Officials said they had intercepted jihadist manuals which Mustafa wrote while in the prison, in which he had set out precise instructions on how to carry out attacks and maintain security.

Other militants released by the courts include Fazal Karim, who is believed to have been present at the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, and Qari Mohammed Anwar (also known as Abu Darada). Anwar was arrested at an al-Qaeda safe house in Karachi along with Khalid al-Atash — who is wanted by the FBI in connection with the USS Cole bombings off Yemen — and Ammar al-Balochi, who was allegedly involved earlier this year in a plot to attack Heathrow airport.

The government has called a meeting in Islamabad this week to discuss the release of militants. It may put forward a strategy to deter the courts from clearing suspects or releasing them on bail.

That would be nice.

But police admit that their own methods have contributed to the problem. A senior official said police had taken to producing false witnesses because members of the public were too scared to testify in court. In addition, officers did not have the modern forensic tools to gather evidence.

"The prayers of all Muslims when they cast their stones at the devil must be directed at Bush and his devilish allies in America and the Arab world"

"The number one Satan is America."

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: this kind of thing seems to play very well at the Hajj. "Muslim haj pilgrims perform devil-stoning ritual," by Souhail Karam for Reuters, with thanks to LGF:

MENA, Saudi Arabia, Dec 31 (Reuters) - More than 2.5 million Muslim haj pilgrims performed devil-stoning rites on Sunday, amid tight security to prevent overcrowding and protests following the execution of Saddam Hussein.

The 5-day haj, marred by deadly stampedes in recent years, was overshadowed by the hanging on Saturday of the former Iraqi leader, a hero to some Sunni Arabs because of his anti-U.S. stance, but hated by many Shi'ites.

"The number one Satan is America," said Iraqi pilgrim Suleiman Awadallah, who described himself as "a resistance fighter", after performing the stoning ritual.

"The prayers of all Muslims when they cast their stones at the devil must be directed at (U.S. President George) Bush and his devilish allies in America and the Arab world."

Ahmed al-Dosary from Kuwait agreed. "I prayed for myself, my family and for the end of the main evil, the United States."

India: jihadists hide bombs in toys

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Bombs found hidden in toys - police," from Agence France-Presse, with thanks to Mao:

TWO suspected Islamic militants had been arrested with explosives hidden inside toys which they planned to blow up at a busy market in New Delhi, Indian police said today.

Samimullah and Ali Mohammad, both from Indian Kashmir, were arrested at a New Delhi railway station on suspicion of belonging to pro-Pakistan militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, senior police official Karnal Singh said.

The arrests came amid tight security in the Indian capital ahead of New Year festivities.

"We received a tip-off that the two men would be coming by train from Jammu (the winter capital of Indian Kashmir)," Mr Singh said.

"We detained them and during interrogation they admitted to being members of the Lashkar, and their plan was to plant two explosive devices."

In their luggage, a bomb disposal squad found two boxes with the toys - a toy duck and a toy bus - filled with explosives, he said.

"It took the squad around three hours to deactivate the two bombs."

Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of several groups battling Indian rule in Kashmir, was blamed for the October 29, 2005 triple bomb attacks in New Delhi, just ahead of the main Hindu festival of Diwali.

Those attacks killed 66 and injured at least 200 others.

The group was also blamed for the July 11 commuter train attacks in Mumbai this year that killed 186 people and injured about 800.

Shi'ite-Sunni rift laid bare by hanging

As predicted here by Hugh Fitzgerald.

By Lauren Frayer for AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGHDAD -- As Iraqis awoke yesterday to television images of Saddam Hussein's neck twisted by a hangman's noose, Shi'ites cheered, Sunnis vowed revenge and at least 80 persons died from bombings and death squads -- not far from the daily average.

In Baghdad's Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City, victims of Saddam's three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets celebrating, dancing, beating drums and hanging Saddam in effigy.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in other Shi'ite neighborhoods across the country.

Outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital, loyalists marched with Saddam pictures and waved Iraqi flags.

Defying curfews, hundreds took to the streets vowing revenge in Samarra, north of Baghdad, and gunmen paraded and fired into the air in support of Saddam in Tikrit, his hometown.

"He's gone, but our problems continue. We brought problems on ourselves after Saddam because we began fighting Shi'ite on Sunni and Sunni on Shi'ite," said Haider Hamed, 34, a candy store owner in east Baghdad whose uncle was killed in one of Saddam's many brutal purges....

There was no immediate sign of a feared Sunni uprising in retaliation for Saddam's execution.

But the London Sunday Telegraph reported that 400 to 500 Shi'ites had been kidnapped in the past two months and messages to relatives said they would be killed if Saddam died.

The responses within Iraq to Saddam's death echoed the larger reaction across the Middle East, with his enemies rejoicing and his defenders proclaiming him a martyr.

Iranians and Kuwaitis welcomed the death of the leader who led wars against each of their countries.

Some Arab governments denounced the timing of the 69-year-old former president's hanging just before the start of the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Adha.

Libya announced a three-day official mourning period and canceled all celebrations for Eid.

1,500 in Minneapolis protest ouster of Sharia government in Somalia

What are 1,500 supporters of Islamic jihad and Sharia law doing in Minneapolis? What are the implications of this for our own national security? Why is no one with any power or influence even asking these questions?

"Area Somalis want peace for homeland: Many of the 1,500 protesters in Minneapolis were angered that the U.S. gave tacit support for ousting of Islamists," by Liz Fedor in the Star Tribune, with thanks to CGW:

More than a thousand Somalis gathered in Minneapolis on Saturday to call for Ethiopian troops to withdraw immediately from Somalia.

Their protest capped a week in which transitional government troops retook Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, with the backing of Ethiopian infantrymen.

The U.S. government "gave the green light" to Ethiopia to work in concert with the transitional federal government in Somalia, and that action was "totally wrong," said Hassan Mohamud.

He is the president of the Somali Institute for Peace and Justice in Minneapolis, which organized Saturday's rally.

"We ask the president of the United States, Mr. Bush, and his administration to stop supporting the terrorists. Ethiopian troops are terrorists," Mohamud said to a cheering crowd.

Somali men, women and children gathered Saturday morning in Peavey Park in Minneapolis, and they carried an array of signs. Some said "No more war" and "Islam is the solution."

Lt. Rick Thomas of the Minneapolis Police Department estimated the crowd at about 1,500 people for a rally that ran for more than two hours.

Mohamud said he and other Somalis want the United States to support talks that can yield "peace and reconciliation."

Somalia has not had a stable government in 15 years, but many attendees at the rally said that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) had brought some peace to the country during the past six months.

When that Islamic group took over the capital in June, many people were optimistic about the future, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis.

"They brought back security," Jamal said in a telephone interview. "We were all hoping that the moderates would be able to take the lead in the organization of the UIC. But unfortunately, the radicals hijacked the process."

Don't they always.

Jamal said the large Somali community in Minnesota "is divided," adding that many local Somalis supported the overthrow of the Islamists over the past few days.

Jamal said he attended the rally as an observer....

Sadia Egal, 23, said she had been planning to visit her parents in Somalia in January. But the recent military actions prompted her to postpone the trip. She is fearful that her teenage brothers in Somalia could be killed in revenge slayings. "My dad asked them to stop going to school," she said, so they could stay home and avoid being targets for violence.

Egal, who lives in north Minneapolis, has not returned to Somalia since she left the country with her aunt when she was 12 years old. She works as a parking attendant and interpreter and has been saving her money for six months to pay for her plane ticket.

Abdullahi Hassan, a small-business owner from Eden Prairie, said, "What brought me here [to the rally] is our country is under occupation by foreign forces." He said the United States should support a process that would allow highly educated Somalis to find solutions to stabilize the country and build hospitals and schools that will serve the people.

Tacit U.S. approval

A member of the Somali Institute for Peace and Justice, Abdul Mohamed of Minneapolis, said the military advances last week by Ethiopian troops created "one of the worst moments in Somali history."

Mohamed disagrees with U.S. policy in Somalia, which he said is driven by "Islamophobia."

If anyone in the American government had any courage, they would tackle this head-on, explaining that they opposed the Somali jihadists not only because they had ties to Al-Qaeda, but because Sharia government institutionalizes discrimination against women and religious minorities and denies freedom of conscience, and is in general an outrage to the dignity of the human person. In other words, they would engage the ideological challenge posed by the global jihad by asserting the superiority of the values of the modern West, and of the civilization built on Judeo-Christian values. But they don't dare.

U.S. agencies missing links between illegal immigration and jihad terrorism

Another story highlighting the howling need for immigration reform, and underscoring its status as a national security issue. As the embattled Congressman Goode said, illegal immigration must be stopped, and legal immigration drastically curtailed -- with an eye toward keeping jihadists from entering the country. "Of special interest: U.S. agencies missing links between illegal immigration and terrorism," by Sara A. Carter in the San Bernardino County Sun, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

COLUMBUS, N.M. - On Sept. 5, a man calling himself Miguel Alfonso Salinas was apprehended off a deserted highway near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The tinted windows on Alfonso Salinas' vehicle aroused the suspicion of Border Patrol agents patrolling a dark and desolate stretch of Highway 9, which runs parallel to the border and is the site of large numbers of illegal crossings.

The agents discovered three Mexican migrants in the vehicle with Alfonso Salinas.

But what they discovered several days later made a far greater impression.

Alfonso Salinas was not who he seemed, according to U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security documents. He lied to the agents about who he was, where he came from and what he was doing.

It would take nearly a week of interviews with federal agents before Alfonso Salinas would give his real name: Ayman Sulmane Kamal, a Muslim born in Egypt - a country designated as "special-interest" by the United States for sponsoring terrorism.

Kamal's case is not an isolated one.

Evidence of "special-interest aliens" using the Mexican border to gain entry to the United States has been kept secret from the American public, according to federal law-enforcement agents, terrorism experts and critics of U.S. foreign policy with Mexico.

In 2005, the Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2million people illegally in the U.S. Of those, 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico, and roughly 650 were, like Kamal, from special-interest countries, according to the Border Patrol.

Those interviewed by the Sun's sister newspaper, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, say agencies including the FBI and CIA are not using information from Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration agents to make connections between the drug trade, illegal immigration and terrorist organizations.

"For us to believe that Mexican smugglers will not assist, knowingly or unknowingly, foreign terrorists trying to enter the United States is incomprehensible," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who, along with other representatives, has pushed for stricter border security policies.

Read it all.

Not a shot was fired yet the Somali jihad was suddenly over...

Yes. It was sweet -- although many among the Western elites would prefer a "stable" Sharia-ruled Somalia. By Xan Rice in The Guardian:

Their fortress fell without a shot. After just nine days of clashes in Somalia's hinterland, the Islamists who had vowed to fight to the death abandoned Mogadishu, the city they had governed since June. From having controlled most of southern and central Somalia, they were holed up yesterday in the southern port city of Kismaayo, facing annihilation by Ethiopian troops.

Ali Mohamed Ghedi, Prime Minister in Somalia's transitional government - an irrelevance until last week - rode triumphantly into Mogadishu on Friday, announcing the end of 'terrorism' in the country. Ethiopia, which together with the US has stoked fears about the rise of a terrorist state in the Horn of Africa, was basking in the success of a campaign that was swifter and more successful than anyone had predicted.

'Nobody expected the Islamists to show this little political resilience,' said Matt Bryden, a consultant to the conflict-monitoring body, International Crisis Group. 'They were the first movement to pacify southern Somalia for 16 years, yet they crumbled like a pack of cards.'

The Guardian also recently published an article entitled "International lawlessness: The US-backed invasion of Somalia to topple its Islamists is a dangerous, illegal act of aggression," by Salim Lone, UN spokesman in Iraq in 2003 and a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya (thanks to Douglas Murray).

Zawahri: "Those who had sold Palestine, the secular traitors, can not be your brothers"

Another religion-based appeal from Al-Qaeda's #2 man. "A-Zawahri: Abbas sold out Palestine: Al-Qaeda No. 2 lashes out at moderate Arab leaders for being traitors for cooperating with United States in audiotape posted on Islamic Web site," from Associated Press, with thanks to Kemaste:

...Ayman a-Zawahri's wished the Palestinian people a happy Eid al-Adha but lashed out at Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement.

"Those who had sold Palestine, the secular traitors, can not be your brothers. Do not recognize their legitimacy... and don't sit with them ... and do not sign with them the documents that will make you lose Palestine," said a-Zawahri in the 15-minute audiotape posted on a Web site commonly used by Islamic insurgents.

A-Zawahri did not mention Saddam Hussein's execution in the tape, suggesting it was made before the ousted leader's hanging on Saturday....

The No. 2 al-Qaeda leader denounced US ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in an apparent reference to recent arrests and detentions of several members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

"I greet my brothers inside the prisons of Mubarak, the traitor," he said.

A-Zawahri also extended his Eid greeting to Iraq, praising the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, and urged Muslims in Somalia, Chechnya, Indonesia, the Philippines and Algeria to keep on fighting the "infidels and crusaders."

"The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase"

Reactions ranged from hailing Saddam as a hero to condemning him as another Hitler. "Jubilation and anger," from Reuters:

..."There is a feeling of surprise and disapproval that the verdict has been applied during the holy months and the first days of Eid al-Adha," a presenter on the official al-Ikhbariya TV said after programming was broken to read a statement.

"Leaders of Islamic countries should show respect for this blessed occasion ... not demean it," said the statement, which was attributed to official news agency SPA's political analyst.

[...]

"This is the worst Eid ever witnessed by Muslims. I had goosebumps when I saw the footage," said Jordanian woman Rana Abdullah, 30, who works in the private sector.

Hesham Kassem, an Egyptian newspaper publisher and human rights activist, said airing the images was controversial, but added: "This man was one of the most brutal mass murderers in the history of mankind. He stands alongside Hitler and Stalin."

But in the impoverished Iraqi village where Saddam was born, residents vowed revenge. "We will all become a bomb," said one young man in Awja, 150 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Libya, the only state to show solidarity with Saddam in his death, declared three days of mourning and cancelled public Eid celebrations. Flags on government buildings flew at half-mast.

While many Arab governments refrained from comment, a senior aide to Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called the execution "a tragic end to a sad phase in Iraq's history".

"We hope that the Iraqi people would focus on the future to be able to pass this stage, stop the violence and achieve reconciliation," Hesham Youssef told Reuters in Cairo.

The Foreign Ministry in Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, expressed regret that authorities in Iraq went ahead with the execution, and for carrying it out on the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast.

"We hope that carrying out the execution ... would not lead to more deterioration in the situation," the official MENA news agency quoted the ministry's spokesman Alaa El-Hadidi as saying.

The government of Iraqi neighbour Jordan said it hoped the execution would not have "any negative repercussions".

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said Arabs wondered who most deserved to face trial: "Saddam Hussein, who preserved the unity of Iraq, ... or those who engulfed the country in this bloody civil war?"

No street unrest was reported in Arab capitals, where Muslims were preoccupied with the Eid holiday, but thousands of Indians, mostly Muslims, staged anti-US protests.

Tajeddine El Husseini, a Moroccan international economic law professor, said Saddam's "symbolic sacrifice" on a religious day when Muslims slaughter animals would make things worse.

In Afghanistan, a Taliban commander said Saddam's demise would galvanise Muslim opposition to the United States.

"His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," Mullah Obaidullah Akhund told Reuters by telephone.

News of Saddam's death shocked Palestinians, many of whom had seen him as an Arab hero for his missile attacks on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War that ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.

"The Americans wanted to tell all Arab leaders who are their servants that they are like Saddam, nothing but a sheep slaughtered on Eid," said Abu Mohammad Salama at a Gaza mosque.

Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said Saddam's execution was a "proof of the criminal and terrorist American policy and its war against all forces of resistance in the world".

In Kuwait, where Saddam is reviled for his 1990 invasion, parliament speaker Jasim Mohammad al-Kharafi hailed the execution, saying it had brought the country "two Eids".

Fitzgerald: Arab secularism

"Like Arafat, Nasser, and Assad, he [Saddam Hussein] was a secular Arab nationalist who lived and wielded power according to rules that were hardly uniformly Islamic." -- from the comment by Robert Spencer

The phrase "secular Arab nationalist" may lead to some misunderstanding. Nasser and Saddam Hussein had pretensions to become King of the Arabs, but they were Muslims. They were ready whenever necessary to appeal to and exploit Muslim history. Neither one was impelled by a genuine sense of the "secular."

In Nasser's case, it would have made no sense, in the years before OPEC trillions (which Egypt in any case did not share in), or the millions of Muslim immigrants settled deep behind the enemy lines of Western Europe, for him, an army colonel interested in modernizing Egypt and in enlarging his own power and greatness, to appeal to any pan-Islamic sentiment. After all, his main threat were those who were completely Muslim, the Ikhwan al-muslimin or Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Tariq Ramadan's grandfather Hasan al-Banna back in 1928, when thes dansants at Shepheard's Hotel were still in full swing, and the syce-runners waiting patiently outside, and Levantines were reading The Egyptian Gazette.

Nasser's only political rivals were the fanatically Muslim, and he represented not true "secularism" but rather, a less intense form of Islam. But, as he demonstrated again and again, he was prepared to use, and be used by, Islam -- and his seizing the property of, and throwing out of the country, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Italians and others could be seen as an act of "nationalism," but could also be seen as an act against Infidels. Certainly his rhetoric before and during the Six-Day War was dripping with Islamic themes, and so was, for years, the Egyptian press. How could it be otherwise? Egypt was largely Muslim. And it is today.

As for Saddam Hussein, he realized that the Shi'a were more numerous than the Sunnis (though not quite to the extent that they have become today), and that the best way for a Sunni despotism to survive would be to disguise it as something else. Any Islam-based opposition to the rule of Saddam Hussein would have to be, among the Arabs, mosque-based. And that meant many of them would be Shi'a mosques, and that would be dangerous for the Sunni rulers of Iraq.

In Syria, Ba'athism helped to disguise the Alawite dictatorship, and since the Alawites are about 12% of the population, and with their cult of Mary are dangerously un-Islamic. In fact, one of their achievements was to receive, in recent years, a fatwa from Shi'a Muslims in Iran offering the opinion that Alawites were indeed orthodox Muslims -- but as the Sunnis might say, this may be a case of needing a second opinion. They needed such a disguise. The Alawites, a minority despised by the Sunni Arabs, came to power only as a result of their having served the French as part of the "Troupes Speciales," and then having formed a kind of military caste. Finally, the Air Force officer Hafez al-Assad put himself and other Alawites (the only people he could fully trust) in power. He could not possibly abandon "secular" Ba'athism, because he had to appeal not only to Christians (with Armenians forming one of the special household-guard units), who realized the Alawites were their only protectors against the real Muslims, but also to those Muslims who were more alarmed by the Ikhwan than they were offended by the syncretistic Alawites.

In Iraq, a similar disguise was needed by the Sunnis, which is why Iraq was the only country, other than Syria, where Ba'athism took hold. Ba'athism was the perfect disguise for Sunni despotism. It appeaed to be, on the surface, a party open to all, free from sectarian or ethnic bias, so that Shi'a Arabs, Kurds, and even the odd Christian (and Tariq Aziz was very odd) might join the Ba'ath Party and to some modest degree at least claim or pretend to have a share in the power. Behind Ba'athism, however, were always the Sunni Arabs, determined to treat both Kurds and Shi'a Arabs (the Arabic-speaking Christians hardly counted, and Jews, who had in 1920 constituted one-third of the population of Baghdad, had disappeared unlamented from Iraq, having left in a hurry, harried out, sent packing, and the pogrom of 1941, or the little pogroms of 1948-1950, or the public hanging of innocent Jews as "Zionist spies" in January 1969, before a Baghdad crowd of a half-million howling with hysteria and rapturous hate, made sure that any who remained would not remain for long).

Saddam Hussein appealed to Islamic history again and again whenever he felt the need. He naturally named his battles and campaigns against Iran after famous battles in that history. He named his war against the Kurds "Al-Anfal" after a sura in the Qur'an. He built mosques, and was building the largest mosque in the world when he was so rudely interrupted by three American divisions. He commissioned Qur'ans, including one calligraphed using an ink consisting mainly of his, Saddam Hussein's, own blood. He put a Qur'anic inscription on the Iraqi flag. He spoke more and more with Qur'anic phrases and allusions to Islam. It hardly mattered how deeply he felt it; he certainly was no true secularist, but merely someone more interested in the power of the Arabs, and that power meant the power of the Sunni Arabs, and of the Sunni Arabs, it had to mean their great champion, Saddam Hussein, and whatever it took for him to retain and enlarge his power, including being open, for example, to the education of women, not because he had been reading Mary Wollstonecraft but because those educated women could learn such useful things as weapons technology (and Dr. Germs and Dr. Anthrax did), or otherwise make his Iraq, and therefore make him, more formidable.

And had Nasser lived longer, instead of dying of a broken heart from his loss in a war that he alone brought on himself in June 1967, one would not have been surprised to find that he, too, as the occasion arose, would have embraced Islam more fervently, as Saddam Hussein found himself doing in his last decade of power. First, out of political necessity, to keep the allegiance of a Muslim population. Second, because in the end, these were not true "secularists" as this word is commonly used in the West. They were simply just a bit less fanatically Muslim than some other Muslims who were their political rivals. Pan-Arabism was merely the only game in town in the early days, when independence had just come to Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, when Pakistan was still arranging itself, and Indonesia was under the control of the still-secular Dutch-educated local nationalists, and there was no oil wealth to support global dreams. Pan-Arabism is best seen not as an alternative to, but merely as a subset of, pan-Islamism.

And in any case, pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism overlap so much that to set them in opposition is to mislead. For in Islam it is the Arabs who, though they now constitute about one-fourth or one-fifth of the world's Muslims, continue to dominate all non-Arab Muslims. Those non-Arabs must read the Qur'an in Arabic, pray toward Araabia, take as models seventh-century Arabs, claim if they can Arab lineages, even in many cases take Arab names. Fulfillment of a pan-Arab dream would merely be a logical stepping-stone to the next goal, a pan-Islamic state, a single Caliphate with a single, undoubtedly Arab Caliph, that would use the tens of trillions still to come, and the billion unswerving believers, and the tens of millions of Believers now multiplying behind what they themselves are taught to regard as enemy lines.

Arab "secularists" do exist. Bourguiba was one. But neither Saddam Hussein, nor Nasser, were "secular" in anything like the way as the Arab Bourguiba, or the non-Arab Ataturk. Both wished to curb their political rivals, but neither was intent on systematically constraining Islam; rather, each wished to exploit Islam for his own ends. They alluded to Islamic history, appealed to their adoring mobs with Qur'anic passages, gave speeches impregnated with, or rather reflecting, attitudes naturally emanating from Islam. OPEC money, Muslim migrants in the West, and technological advances in the dissemination of Islam's message, all contributed to replace the pan-Arabism of Nasser (first self-proclaimed King of the Arabs) and Saddam Hussein (second self-proclaimed King of the Arabs, by unpopular demand) with what had once seemed merely an impossible dream: pan-Islamism.

But real "secularists" in the Western sense? Never. Not possible.

Saddam: "I have spent my life in jihad and fighting aggression"

One man's jihad is not another's. "New Videos Show Graphic Saddam Images," by Qassim Abdul-Zahra for AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

One of the most notorious dictators of the late 20th century, his hands bound behind him, was led up the stairs of the gallows by masked men in leather coats. A few seconds later, a trapdoor snapped open and _ with a crash _ Saddam was dead.

He may have been the first chief of state executed in the age of the Internet and the camera phone. Probably because of that, his death was graphically documented on video, and available worldwide, within hours.

By several accounts, Saddam was calm but scornful of his captors, exchanging taunts and accusations with the crowd gathered to watch him die _ insisting that he was Iraq's savior, not its tyrant and scourge.

[...]

After his captors brought Saddam into the execution chamber, his hands _ which were tied in front of him _ were untied, then tied in the back, Haddad told the BBC.

"He said we are going to heaven and our enemies will rot in hell and he also called for forgiveness and love among Iraqis but also stressed that the Iraqis should fight the Americans and the Persians," Haddad told the BBC.

The New York Times reported that Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for Iraq, stood next to Saddam before he mounted the scaffold, and asked him if he felt remorse and fear.

"No," the Times quoted Saddam saying. "I am a militant and I have no fear for myself. I have spent my life in jihad and fighting aggression. Anyone who takes this route should not be afraid."

Al-Rubaie told the Times that one of the guards grew angry. "You have destroyed us," he reportedly shouted. "You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution."

"I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persian and Americans," Saddam responded, al-Rubaie told the Times.

"God damn you," the guard said.

"God damn you," Saddam said, according to the Times.

[...]

In the video, one of those attending the execution called out praise for Dawa Party founder and Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, who was executed along with his sister by Saddam in 1980. The Islamic party has been locked in a fierce decades-old battle with Saddam's now outlawed secular Baath party. Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful and radical Shiite cleric in Iraq, is a distant relative of the Dawa founder.

Saddam appeared to smile at those taunting him from below the gallows, and said they were not showing their manhood.

Then Saddam began reciting the "Shahada," a Muslim prayer that says there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger.

"Saddam did so but with sarcasm," Haddad said. But to others, Saddam's tone sounded calm and measured, neither sarcastic nor frightened.

Saddam made it to midway through his second recitation of the verse. His last word was Muhammad, according to a translation by the Associated Press.

The floor dropped out of the gallows, there was a crash and the chamber erupted in shouting.

Saddam's last words: "Muqtada al-Sadr"

In Saddam's last thoughts

UPDATE: The cellphone execution video that is making the rounds does not seem to bear this out. (Thanks to Jesse Petrilla.)

SECOND UPDATE: The incident does seem to have occurred. The shouts of "Muqtada" can clearly be heard on the video, as well as what is apparently the voice of Saddam responding derisively by saying "Muqtada" and possibly laughing. The New York Times has this:

The room was quiet as everyone began to pray, including Mr. Hussein. “Peace be upon Mohammed and his holy family.”

Two guards added, “Supporting his son Moktada, Moktada, Moktada.”

Mr. Hussein seemed a bit stunned, swinging his head in their direction.

They were talking about Moktada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose militia is now committing some of the worst violence in the sectarian fighting; he is the son of a revered Shiite cleric, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, whom many believe Mr. Hussein ordered murdered.

“Moktada?” he spat out, mixing sarcasm and disbelief.

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

Perhaps an unwitting nod to Iraq's new masters. From CNN, with thanks to Ray:

As the noose was tightened around Hussein's neck, one of the executioners yelled, "long live Muqtada al-Sadr," Haddad said.

Hussein mockingly uttered one last phrase before he died: "Muqtada al-Sadr," according to Haddad.

Western media, bent on discrediting Islam and jihad, plants bomb on Iraqi bus -- no, wait...

It was Sunni jihadists, taking time out from their inner spiritual struggle to set off a bomb on a minibus full of Shi'ites. "Bomb kills 31, wounds 58 in Iraqi town," by Lauren Frayer for Associated Press, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A bomb planted on a minibus killed 31 people in a fish market in a mostly Shiite town south of Baghdad on Saturday, and the man blamed for parking the vehicle was cornered and killed by a mob as he walked away from the explosion.

There was no indication that the explosion, in Kufa, a Shiite town 100 miles south of the Iraqi capital, was related to the execution of
Saddam Hussein. The attack came on the eve of when Iraq's Shiites begin celebrating Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar. Shoppers had crowded the market to buy supplies for the four-day festival.

At least 58 people were wounded, said Issa Mohammed, director of the morgue in the neighboring town of Najaf.

A couple of book reviews

I just discovered that two book reviews I recently wrote for Middle East Quarterly are online.

Review of The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization by Richard W. Bulliet

Review of Jihad: From Qur'an to Bin Laden by Richard Bonney

More on Bonney and his book here.

Many Somalis in Oslo support jihadists

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update. "Islamist support from Oslo," from Aftenposten:

"If the Ethiopians continue to occupy Somalia, we won't sit here. We will go back to Somalia and fight as one!" says Zakharia Ahmed, banging his fist on the table.

The scene is the Café Bolsho in Oslo's downtown immigrant district Grønland. Dozens of compatriots are gathered round in the noisy café, and Ahmed clearly has full support. "Yes, we will go back and fight," the others shout.

Aftenposten has chosen this Somali café at random. The conversation is animated, takes place in Somali, English and Norwegian, and here there is total agreement.

Strong opinions

"What this is about is that the regime in Ethiopia has not forgotten the war in 1977 when Somalia went into the Ogaden province in Ethiopia. Now the rulers in Addis Abeba are out for revenge. The so-called UN-recognized government in Somalia is nothing but marionettes for the Ethiopians. I have been in contact with my relatives in Mogadishu. Ethiopian soldiers are already raping women and cutting the throats of civilians in the city. It is all in return for their humiliating defeat in 1977," says Abdi Muhamed, who lived in Mogadishu before coming to Norway four years ago.

The café crowd, entirely made up of young men, emphasize strongly that the Islamist regime in Somalia brought law and order to a country marked by 16 years of fear and chaos. Muhamed is convinced, though he hasn't seen it first hand.

"I have not been in Somalia for a long time but my sister has been back to Mogadishu after the Islamists came to power. She said that everything was better. This is also the impression I get when I talk to relatives in Somalia. There is virtually no one in Somalia, or Somalians here in Norway, who do not support the Islamist regime," Muhamed says.

Other opinions

Some Somalian leaders in Norway do take an opposing stance. Shirdon M. Abdikarim, head of the Somalian Council in Norway, which includes 11 member organizations, said his group wholeheartedly backs the UN-approved government in Somalia.

"Somalia has never been a sharia (Islamic) state and will not be one in the future," Abdikarim told Aftenposten.

Abdikarim has heard that some Somalians with Norwegian citizenship support the sharia tribunals, as Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi was quoted as saying in an interview with Norwegian web site Nettavisen on Thursday. Gedi also was cited as saying significant sums of money were being transferred to the Islamists via Norway.

"There are 8,000 Somalians with Norwegian citizenship. Quite a number of Somalian refugees have gone back to their homeland from Norway, but no one knows how many. Somalia's borders have been open in recent years, and there has been [sic] no checks of who has traveled in and out of the country," Abdikarim said.

Saddam, just before execution, shouts: "God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab"

Saddam Hussein is dead, executed by the Iraqi government for his part in the murder of 148 Shi'ites.

Saddam was one of the last of a dying breed. Like Arafat, Nasser, and Assad, he was a secular Arab nationalist who lived and wielded power according to rules that were hardly uniformly Islamic. Like Arafat and others also, he made use of jihadist rhetoric whenever it suited him to do so, and increasingly so in his latter years, as Sharia supremacists grew more powerful than they had been for some time. While the jihad was not his cause, he didn't hesitate to try to co-opt it for his own ends, even to the extent of sponsoring jihad terror activity. If he had remained in power, it would have been interesting to see who ultimately co-opted whom.

With Saddam out of power, there is no one with the will or the strength to keep Iraq united, except possibly Iran -- the chief beneficiary of the American democracy project. Here is yet another fruit of the wholesale ignorance of and wishful thinking about Islam that prevails in Washington.

The Boxer story

This morning a lot of people have been sending me this story from Newsweek about Senator Barbara Boxer rescinding an award to a CAIR operative.

We had that story a week ago.

Jihad Watch: first with the jihad news -- sometimes!

Wales: Muslims claim police bias -- for being detained 20 minutes at the airport

Apparently the effort to place out of bounds any scrutiny of Muslims at airports is international. "Muslims claim police bias," by Helen McCormack in The Independent, with thanks to Twostellas:

A Muslim couple who missed a flight out of Britain after being detained under terrorism laws said yesterday they plan to take legal action against the police.

Aisha Pritchard and her husband, Sadi Elhaloul, a Palestinian, were trying to board their flight from Cardiff International Airport to Dubai on 14 December. The couple claim officers from South Wales Police questioned them for around 20 minutes and then decided to remove their luggage and search it.

They agreed, but say that when they were released they were told their plane had departed and, as their tickets with the KLM airline were not transferable, they would have to pay £1,500 to take the next flight.

Ms Pritchard said they had passed through securitywithout issue and were only stopped as they neared the boarding gate. They have received no apology and Ms Pritchard said she believed her husband's nationality and race were the sole reason they were held.

South Wales Police would only confirm the couple were detained under the Terrorism Act 2000. The human rights group Liberty is representing the couple and is investigating the possibility of legal action against the police.

Two good articles about Keith Ellison

By Don Feder at FrontPage.

And by Alamgir Hussein at Islam Watch.

Fitzgerald: The execution of Saddam Hussein

No doubt when the Americans decided to put Saddam Hussein on trial, rather than simply kill him or let the government kill him, their minds were full of a blend of the Nuremberg Trials and those "Truth and Reconciliation" businesses that are all the rage these days. No doubt, too, they thought that "the Iraqis," suffused with eternal gratitude toward their "liberators" ("The liberation of Baghdad will make the liberation of Kabul seem like a funeral procession" -- also sprach Bernard Lewis, and so many others after him), would all be able to unite around their indignation and fury at mass-murdering Saddam Hussein.

But Saddam Hussein's mass murder of Kurds never did elicit a single syllable of protest from the Arab League, or any Arab government, or any significant Arab body – or, indeed, from any Arab at all, save for Kanan Makiya and one or two others. And Saddam Hussein's mass murder of Shi'a, similarly, was never a cause for indignation among Sunni Arabs inside or outside Iraq.

It should have been expected that once Saddam Hussein was permitted to live and stand trial, that he would become a symbol of a Sunni put on trial by a Shi'a-dominated government. And hence, for many Sunnis (even for those who suffered under him) Saddam Hussein became a symbol of their former status and supposed well-being, and of their new and unjustly humbled condition – unjust to them, in their refusal to recognize their real numbers or to acquiesce in the loss of power.

For they do not care what happened to them under Saddam Hussein. Their memories are fluid, picking out what they wish to remember, forgetting what they don't. Why would it be otherwise among people raised in societies suffused with a belief-system where what happened in the seventh century, or eighth, or ninth, or eleventh, the battles, the men, the deeds of valor and of treachery are kept fresh, and mean far more than what happened, say, a year or so ago when the Infidels sent aid to Pakistan or to Aceh, or a few years before that when they rescued Muslims in Kosovo and Bosnia.

Yes, Saddam Hussein, having been captured alive, and allowed to live and stand trial, did not become a rallying point, based on shared hatred of him, for "Iraqis," but rather a would-be martyr for almost all (except the most morally aware) Sunnis. And so now he is on the verge of no longer being a would-be martyr, but the very thing. The Shi'a and the Kurds remember him as murderer rather than as martyr. And so his trial, his sentence, and his execution will not serve, as dreamy and endlessly ignorant and obstinate policy-makers in Washington and their confused and besieged claque once thought, to unite and rally "Iraqis" to "Iraq."

How silly those Americans were, how uncomprehending, how little able to think or plan ahead.

So much nonsense. So much vzdor. So many stupidaggini. So much crap.

The execution of Saddam Hussein will exacerbate matters wonderfully. For he who has recently been adopting a magnanimous tone, addressing himself to all "Iraqis" and not only to his Sunni supporters. He has even repeatedly called on "Iraqis" not to "hate" the Infidels but only their governments. He may also, in his wild calculations, have thought that there was a chance that the Americans would see him as a possible savior-of-their-bacon in Iraq, and free him. Still, he will in death be a Sunni martyr, a figure of myth and poetry, the Sunni Arab put to death by those Rafidite dogs and Persians.

And as a bonus, Nouri al-Maliki has decided to have him executed forthwith, before he can be tried for the Anfal campaign against the Kurds, or for any of his attacks on fellow Sunnis. And in ignoring any of the non-Shi'a victims of Saddam Hussein, al-Maliki and the Shi'a supporting this hastened execution are ensuring that resentments among the Kurds will grow: they will now not get those months in court to state their case against him, and to let facts be presented to a not-very-candid world about the Arab persecution of the Kurds. The execution itself will further separate Sunni from Shi'a Arabs. But the timing of the execution, taking place after a single trial in which the victims were 148 Shi'a, and only Shi'a, at Dejail, and without any attempt to hold a trial about his killing of 182,000 Kurds in all of Kurdistan, or 300,000 Marsh Arabs in the south, will alienate the Kurds from the Shi'a. They are already angry at the Sunni Arabs, for it was the Sunni Arabs who eagerly supported the man who mass-murdered them, and it is Sunni Arabs who have moved in, or been moved in, to formerly Kurdish villages and even cities. In contested Kirkuk, it is largely Kurds against Sunni, not Shi'a, Arabs.

If one understands that the right goal is not to bring "democracy" to people who, because of the belief-system of Islam, cannot conceivably locate legitimacy in the expressed will of the people, but rather will always re-locate it in the will expressed by Allah in the canonical texts, and as glossed by the sayings and acts of his Prophet, Muhammad, then one will see the folly of Bush's enterprise. He doesn't. But never mind. The Muslim Arabs in Iraq are behaving as one would wish them to behave. Nouri al-Maliki, in putting Saddam Hussein to death tonight, will be ensuring the Sunni martyrdom of Saddam Hussein (even among Sunnis who suffered during his regime), and the Kurdish resentment at the (Shi'a) Arab indifference, as the Kurds will see it, to their own much greater (as the Kurds see it) suffering from Saddam Hussein.

If what one believes that the best way to defend the imperilled Camp of Infidels is by weakening the Camp of Islam, by exploiting its own natural divisions, the execution of Saddam Hussein tonight will be something to welcome. For leaving aside the matter of justice, it will help promote our ends, our goals. Not in the way Bush or many others assume it will, by "showing Iraqis that they can have justice through the judicial process." But in another way, a way visitors to JW by now understand perfectly.

And so, too, will Infidel interests be promoted by such things as the Saudi cleric's judgment expressed in this article. Here are his words:

"The rejectionists (Shi'ites) in their entirety are the worst of the Islamic nation's sects. They bear all the characteristics of infidels," Sheikh Abdel-Rahman al-Barrak said in the fatwa, or ruling, distributed on Islamist Web sites. “They are in truth polytheist infidels, though they hide this," it said, citing theological differences 14 centuries after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, such as reverence of shrines which followers of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school consider abhorrent."

Reading such words puts a bounce in my step and a smile on my face. Many Infidels no doubt have experienced something similar.

Islamic leader vows to stay in Somalia

The jihad will continue. By Les Neuhaus for Associated Press, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

AFGOYE, Somalia - The U.N.-backed Somali government on Friday moved swiftly to assert authority over the capital city Islamic fighters abandoned the day before, though the leader of the insurgents vowed they would continue to fight.

Somalia's prime minister was preparing to enter the capital, Mogadishu, which Islamic forces held for six months before a string of defeats in the last 10 days to government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers and jets.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the executive leader of the Council of Islamic Courts, told The Associated Press Friday that his fighters would not be pushed out of Somalia.

"We will not run away from our enemies. We will never depart from Somalia. We will stay in our homeland," he said from the southern coastal port of Kismayo, where his forces retreated from Mogadishu.

Thailand: Western media, bent on defaming Islam, kills and burns Buddhist teachers -- no, wait...

The real perps were, believe it or not, Islamic jihadists, although the Bangkok Post doesn't deem that fact worthy of notice. "Insurgents kill, burn Buddhist teachers," from the Bangkok Post, with thanks to LS:

Southern violence continues, as two teachers were gunned down by insurgents in Yala while a village defense guard was killed in Narathiwat.

Extremists shot two male teachers in Muang district Friday morning as they were travelling to their school to teach. After shooting the two men, the insurgents dragged their bodies out of the pick-up and set them on fire. As the last act before fleeing, they set fire to the vehicle.

What’s the difference between Jihad and militancy?

Sheikha Sajida explains it all for you at Al-Jazeera. She begins her answer by saying that the concept of jihad has been -- you guessed it -- "misinterpreted by the Western media," and it just goes downhill from there. But this is a good example of how in appearing to put a good face on things, or at least attempting to, an Islamic apologist actually confirms the legitimacy of jihad violence in the service of Sharia supremacism.

Hi Sheikha,

What is Jihad? We keep hearing this word even in our media, however, regardless to the negative portrayal the main stream Western media provides, I’m sure many Europeans and Americans, as much as I, don’t know the exact meaning of the word.

Is it terrorism? Is it carrying weapons to attract more adherents to your religion?

Or is it carrying weapons to fight the infidels, like what the Muslims used to do some 1400 years ago?

Steve B. from the States

Dear Steve,

The concept of Jihad has been misinterpreted by the Western media as what some refer to as “religious militancy”, in ther words, using weapons to fight for the cause of one’s religion, regardless of whether fighting is against a true enemy or not, and regardless of weather it’s justified and being carried out against the right target or not.

Sure. The Western media made up the idea that jihad was religious militancy fought with weapons. Osama bin Laden works for the New York Times, after all, doesn't he? But as you'll see, the Sheikha herself doesn't object to jihad with weapons in every case. Read on.

But “religious militancy”, even if I’m opposed to it, doesn’t arise from vacuum. Human history has many examples of people becoming extremists and carrying weapons to fight dictator rule or bad social circumstances.

In other words, I may be opposed to it, but it may be justified.

“Religious militancy” in my view, is the outcome of extremism, which had been attributed to many factors including poverty, suppression, dictator rule, injustice, unemployment… etc.

In this the Sheikha sounds just like most Western analysts and government officials. Never mind the relative affluence of most jihadists, as has been amply documented by many studies we have noted here over the years. But the main object of her statement is to shift attention away from anything in Islam that might be giving rise to violence. And of course, nobody much is willing to consider the possibility that such elements of Islam might exist.

Despite continuous attempts to link Jihad to militancy, or so-called religious militancy, the concept of Jihad, carries a totally different meaning.

The word Jihad means to fight or struggle in the way of God, and the verb “fight” here is not limited to "fight" using weapons, it can be fighting to become a respectable and successful Muslim, fighting one’s greed, fighting one’s evil intentions by praying and fasting regularly. It means fighting for the cause of Islam, which still doesn’t mean aggressive warfare. Jihad can be by tongue, by words and by knowledge.

It "still doesn't mean aggressive warfare," except when it does -- again, read on.

It can be carried out by being a successful and an effective member in the society.

But Jihad using weapons, exemplified in the Palestinians’ fight against the Israeli occupiers (which is definitely justified) is the only meaning the West stress in their interpretation of Jihad, linking it to terrorism and militancy, and limiting its meaning to “killing the enemies of Islam” in an attempt to further shatter the image of Islam and its followers, whom they always portray as “evil souls”.

"Evil souls." I don't know who she is claiming to quote here, but in any case her position is completely ludicrous. The aggressive warfare carried out by the Palestinians against Israel, including evidently jihad martyrdom attacks on civilians, is "definitely justified," while it is "the West" that has "limited" the meaning of jihad to "killing the enemies of Islam," all in a dastardly attempt to ruin Islam's pristine image.

Well, I've got news for you, Sheikha. It isn't "the West" that has ruined Islam's image by focusing attention on jihad violence. It is Osama bin Laden, and the 7/7 bombers, and the 3/11 bombers, and the Bali bombers, and the perpetrators of the Beslan massacres, and jihadists from Nigeria to Thailand to Indonesia who have focused attention on the meaning of jihad that involves killing, and tarnished the enemies of Islam. "The West" doesn't give two hoots about the meaning of jihad as inner spiritual struggle, Sheikha, because your inner spiritual struggle doesn't explode all over a bus and kill innocent civilians.

Do you want to improve Islam's image, Sheikha? Then stop railing against "the West," and work to eradicate whatever you might consider as illegitimate "religious militancy" from the Islamic community -- if there is indeed any Islamic religious militancy that is not justified as far as you're concerned.

But it gets even worse:

Another point I need to stress here is that while Jihad is linked to Muslims and Islam- militancy, extremism and terrorism on the other hand are not limited to Muslims, we have Jewish and Christian militant groups, terror organisations and extremists.

Theodore Hertzl, a Jew, was the founder of terrorism in occupied Palestine. And we have the American Christian terrorist Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber. But those who wish to ruin the image and the world’s respect for Islam focus only on Muslim terrorists, as if the world’s followers of Islam are all terrorists.

Unfortunately, while religion should be a weapon to mobilize and unite people, it had always been misused throughout human history.

But of course Herzl was not a terrorist at all, or an observant religious Jew. McVeigh, as useful as he continues to be to those who issue sly justifications for jihad violence (like this one), never attempted to justify the OKC bombing according to Christian religious principles, and his actions were of course never endorsed by any Christian sect -- in stark contrast to Osama bin Laden's Qur'an-filled communiques, and the wide acceptance of jihad violence in the Islamic world.

One might expect this sort of thing from Al-Jazeera. But Sheikha Sajida's reply could just as easily be talking points for the mainstream media and a good number of prominent conservative news outlets as well.

West: Will 2007 be "The Year of Shutting Up About Islam"?

If CAIR et al get their way, it will. Of course, for many liberal and conservative media outlets, we are already there. "A question for 2007," by the ever-perceptive Diana West:

...Our elites seem not to have the slightest clue how devastating such a change, which comes under the rubric of Islamization, would be to our Judeo-Christian-rooted civilization. Indeed, it is increasingly clear that they don't know the difference between "an Islamic order" and Judeo-Christian-rooted civilization — or even that there is a difference.

There are exceptions. In November, there was Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida Republican, who stood up for constituents' free speech under CAIR pressure. Now Rep. Virgil Goode, Virginia Republican, has become both the lone standard-bearer of free speech about Islam and the favorite whipping boy of the PC elites. In a letter to constituents about the decision of Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat, to use a Koran at his swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Goode expressed what I take to be his recognition that the laws of Islam — which prohibit religious freedom, freedom of speech and conscience, equality before the law and women's rights — do not augment but rather contravene the founding principles of the United States.

He also wrote: "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America." It's difficult to argue with Mr. Goode's logic. Indeed, the test case of the age — Europe — demonstrates that Islamic immigration brings Islamic law, which is demonstrably at odds with American values and beliefs. Forgoing debate, however, Mr. Goode's critics have resorted to name-calling and platitudes about "tolerance," failing utterly to notice the gross intolerance of the Islamic tradition. Worst of all, their tactics seem designed to shut up Mr. Goode, and anyone else who might follow his bold example. Will they?

It's the question of 2007.

Influential Saudi cleric denounces Shi'ites as infidels

The article accurately notes that this fatwa could have far-reaching implications on Sunni-Shi'ite conflicts everywhere, particularly in the growing Saudi-Iranian rivalry, and concerning the Shi'ite minority within Saudi Arabia. Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update. "Revered Saudi cleric denounces Shi'ites as infidels," from Reuters:

DUBAI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - An influential cleric of Saudi Arabia's hardline Sunni school of Islam has denounced Shi'ite Muslims as "infidels" in a new religious edict that comes amid rising sectarian tension in the region.

"The rejectionists (Shi'ites) in their entirety are the worst of the Islamic nation's sects. They bear all the characteristics of infidels," Sheikh Abdel-Rahman al-Barrak said in the fatwa, or ruling, distributed on Islamist Web sites.

"They are in truth polytheist infidels, though they hide this," it said, citing theological differences 14 centuries after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, such as reverence of shrines which followers of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school consider abhorrent.

Concern is growing in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, over Shi'ite-Sunni violence in Iraq which has taken the northern neighbour to the brink of civil war. Sunni-Shi'ite tensions are also high in Lebanon, where Shi'ites are leading efforts to bring down a Sunni-led cabinet.

"The Sunni and Shi'ites schools of Islam are opposites that can never agree, there can be no coming together unless Sunnis give up their principles," the fatwa said.

Barrak, an independent scholar, has come to be regarded by many as the highest authority for Wahhabi Muslims.

Clerics of the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam have long dismissed Shi'ites as virtual heretics and Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority complains of second class treatment.But Barrak's fatwa was the strongest in recent years.

The fatwa, which was published on Barrak's Web site in response to a follower's question, also appeared to criticise efforts by some government-backed Saudi preachers at reconciliation between Sunnis and Shi'ites.

Saudi Arabia fears that violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites could lead to the break-up of Iraq and spill over its borders.

Barrak was among 38 clerics who issued a statement this month calling on world Sunnis to support their brethren in Iraq.

Somali troops enter Mogadishu to cheers

A victory for the free world, and for Somalia -- if they can make it stick. By Mohamed Olad Hassan for Associated Press:

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Jubilant Somalis cheered as troops of the U.N.-backed interim government rolled into Mogadishu unopposed Thursday, putting an end to six months of domination of the capital by a radical Islamic movement.

Ethiopian soldiers stopped on the outskirts of town, after providing much of the military might in the offensive that shattered what had seemed an unbeatable Islamic militia. Islamic fighters fled south vowing to continue the battle.

"We are in Mogadishu," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi declared after meeting with local clan leaders to discuss the peaceful hand-over of the city.

Despite the celebrations in the streets, worries about the future were widespread in a country that hasn't had an effective national government since clan warlords toppled a longtime dictator 15 years ago.

Many in overwhelmingly Muslim Somalia are suspicious of the transitional government's reliance on neighboring Ethiopia, a traditional rival with a large Christian population and one of East Africa's biggest armies. Witnesses said crowds threw rocks at Ethiopians troops on the city's northern edge.

Somalia's complex clan politics also are a big worry, having undone at least 14 attempts to install a central government in this violent, anarchic nation.

Gedi's government, set up in 2004 with U.N. backing, is riddled with clan rivalries, most notably between the young prime minister and elderly president.

"The future of Somalia is very bleak and Somalis will share the same fate with Iraq and Afghanistan," a Mogadishu resident, Abdullahi Mohamed Laki, told The Associated Press. "The transitional government has no broad support in the capital."

Muslim World League wants lawsuits for "abuse of Islam and the Prophet"

Another attempt to stifle all honest discussion of the roots within Islam of Islamic jihad violence and what can be done about them. "MWL Wants Lawsuits for Abuse of Islam and the Prophet," by P.K. Abdul Ghafour in Arab News, with thanks to all who sent this in:

JEDDAH, 28 December 2006 — A two-day conference organized by the Makkah-based Muslim World League yesterday called for a consultative commission in order to take legal action against those who abuse Islam and its Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Islamic sanctities, at local and international courts of justice, the Saudi Press Agency said.

The conference titled “In Defense of the Prophet” called upon Islamic countries and governments to stand united to defend the Islamic faith and its Prophet. It denounced the smear campaigns to tarnish the image of the Prophet and urged Muslims to make all-out efforts to project the true picture of Islam and the great divine teachings of the Prophet.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, who presided over the conference, called upon Muslims to follow the Prophet’s teachings.

“Our enemies are exploiting Muslims’ weak adherence to the Prophet’s Sunnah,” said Al-Asheikh. “We should not be ashamed of implementing his Sunnah. On the other hand, all Muslims must observe his teachings in all walks of their life.”

MWL Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki said the attack on the Prophet was an expression of enmity toward Islam.

“The whole Muslim Ummah, including its leadership, scholars and ordinary people was outraged by such attacks and this again shows the lofty position the Prophet has in their hearts,” he said in reference to the Muslim response to cartoons depicting the Prophet.

MWL plans to launch an international program to introduce the Prophet and the conference called for setting up a fund to support the program. “The anti-Islam campaign also intends to trigger a cultural conflict between the Islamic world and the West and create a situation of clash and conflict in place of dialogue and peaceful coexistence,” the MWL chief said....

Jamal Badawi, a Canadian-Muslim expert on Islam, spoke about the Prophet’s outstanding influence on human history.

“There is no other personality who has made such a positive impact on history,” he told the conference.

Spencer nominated for Anti-Idiotarian of the Year 2006

I've been nominated for Little Green Footballs' Anti-Idiotarian of the Year 2006, along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, John Bolton, Canadian PM Stephen Harper, Australian PM John Howard, Melanie Phillips, Pope Benedict XVI, Mark Steyn, Stuck Mojo, and Wafa Sultan.

I don't really belong on this list -- all the other candidates are worthier than I am, so go and vote for someone who deserves it, but I am honored to be included on it.

Report: Hizballah paying for Qassam rocket attacks

"Hizbullah paying for Kassam attacks," by Herb Keinon and Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post:

Hizbullah is paying Palestinian splinter groups "thousands of dollars" for each Kassam rocket fired at the western Negev, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

According to Israeli intelligence information, Hizbullah is smuggling cash into the Gaza Strip and paying "a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said the Islamist organization paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded.

"We know that Hizbullah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official said.

"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon afterward and the money gets transferred a short while later."

According to the officials, while Islamic Jihad was behind most recent rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded 14-year-old Adir Basad in Sderot - several splinter terrorists groups are also involved and have received direct funding from Hizbullah.

According to security officials, Islamic Jihad gets the money via its headquarters in Damascus while Fatah's Tanzim terror group and the Popular Resistance Committees receive payment from Hizbullah in Lebanon.

That's the same Fatah Israel just allowed Egypt to arm.

All of the money originated in Iran, the officials said.

Government officials said Hamas was not currently involved in firing missiles, but was doing nothing to stop those who were.

Israel lets Egypt ship arms to Fatah -- with the blessing of the U.S.

There's no indicator of cluelessness quite like arming one's enemy. From the Jerusalem Post:

In response to continued violence between the Hamas and Fatah factions in the Palestinian Authority, Israel approved on Wednesday night the transfer of 2,000 automatic rifles, 20,000 ammunition clips and 2 million bullets, to the Fatah security forces in the Gaza Strip.

The decision, taken following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting last Saturday with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, marked the first time Israel agreed to allow arms into Gaza in some six months.

With the approval of the United States, the weapons were transferred from Egypt via the Kerem Shalom crossing, after which a police escort guarded the guns as they were moved to the Karni crossing, where representatives of Abbas collected them.

Likud MK Yuval Steinitz called the move a "bad mistake."

"A lot of IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians will be killed with these weapons," Steinitz told Army Radio. "We haven't yet seen that Abbas is determined to contain terrorism, and there's a greater chance that these weapons will be used against [our] soldiers, and we'll have to combat terrorism."

National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer rejected Steinitz's comments and insisted that the arms would be put to good use by Abbas.

"The weapons delivery is intended to give Abbas the ability to cope with those organizations which are trying to ruin everything. If it helps Abbas become stronger, I'm for it," said Ben-Eliezer in an interview with Army Radio.

Late Thursday afternoon, an Abbas spokesman denied that Egypt had given Fatah any weapons.

Israel's decision to allow the arms shipment to Fatah was a sign that the government was starting to think in more complex terms, Lt.-Gen. (res.) Yochanan Tzoref told Israel Radio.

Tzoref explained that while Fatah might be at a disadvantage as far as its arsenal in its struggle with Hamas, the real challenge facing the organization was that it had lost the faith of the Palestinian public.

"Fatah has to undergo an internal process that will strengthen it, and allow it to compete with Hamas in the public's eyes," Tzoref said.

Hamas had the [Palestinian] public's support almost "instinctively," Tzoref continued, whereas the Fatah "old guard" was holding up necessary reforms.

Meanwhile, a source in Abbas's Presidential Guards denied on Thursday that Fatah had received weapons and ammunition from Egypt. The unnamed source told Israel Radio that the Egyptian shipment had contained an X-ray machine, televisions, and computers to be used at the Gaza border crossings.

Saeb Erekat, a spokesman for Abbas, declined comment, as did Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin and the Defense Ministry.

Jihad Watch at Hot Air on Goode and Ellison

In this week's Jihad Watch videoblog at Hot Air, I discuss the Keith Ellison/Virgil Goode Qur'an controversy.

Fitzgerald: A teaching moment

Voting for Keith Ellison was a way for Minnesotans in his district to demonstrate, to themselves and to others, that they were certifiably tolerant, impeccably broad-minded. All the better if it was done without even making a move to find out what might be in the texts, tenets, attitudes, and atmospherics of Islam to cause disquiet.

Such holier-than-thou voters were not really voting for Ellison. They were voting for themselves. And in voting for themselves, in giving themselves a pat on the back and a vote of moral self-confidence, they did not wish to have their minds violated by facts, by what they might have found out if they had actually looked into Islam. That would only have confused them. That would only have been an obstacle in the project of self-appreciation.

As he enters the voting booth and makes his little marks on the computer-legible piece of paper, this kind of voter hears the distant voice of someone reading from "Leaves of Grass":

"Do I celebrate myself? Very well then, I celebrate myself."

Vote for someone, so that when you cast that vote -- never mind the actual positions or possible dangers of that candidate winning -- you can feel good about yourself. Isn't that what life is supposed to be all about? Feeling Good? And isn't Feeling Good About Yourself part of Feeling Good? Of course it is. Vote for Ellison.

Voting as a branch of Self-Esteem Studies.

But now that he has been elected by these self-satisfied Minnesotans, everything should be done to clarify his positions. Interviewers should use the occasion of his swearing-in on the Qur’an to read aloud 9.29 and 9.5 and the rest of Sura 9, and then all the other Jihad verses, and then from the hadith, and then from the life of Muhammad. Others will scream, "a man's religion should not be an issue" and "that's un-American." Let them. A man's religion should be an issue -- if that "religion" is far more than a religion, if it is a complete politico-religio-socio-economico-whateveroyouwant, then it is legitimate, it is incumbent upon any incumbent or non-incumbent to raise the question. Simply reply that a belief-system as all-encompassing as Islam has become a political issue because Ellison has made it one. Ellison, after all, voluntarily subscribes to it and made an effort to belong to it (rather than simply being one of those people born into it). He has had years to discover what Islam teaches, what it is all about, so he cannot at this point claim, "I was unaware of those passages." His answers, therefore, about how these passages are to be taken will be instructive.

What are we to make of a Congressman who professes to believe in a holy book that includes 9.29 and 9.5 and so much else? What are we to believe of a Congressman who believes that Muhammad is the Perfect Man, uswa hasana, al-insan al-kamil? We want to know details. We have to know details. We have a right to know details. What about the attack on the Khaybar Oasis? What about all the rest, all of which is now no longer hidden, but is becoming every day the common talk of non-Muslims as they begin to find out more about this?

Where does the Congressman stand on the Danish cartoons? On "treaties" signed by Israel with Muslim states or polities and the Muslim model for all such treaties, the agreement of Al-Hudaibiyya? And there is so much more to discuss. Any journalist who refrains from asking about this would be doing the public a disservice. We need to know. And we need to know, finally, what Mr. Ellison makes of Taqiyya and Kitman, what he makes of Muhammad's statement "war is deception," and what he actually knows of the real Islam, and not, possibly, His Own Private Islam.

Once upon a time some of this might, in our innocence, have been overlooked. It might still be overlooked by some, who think it infra dig to ask such questions. Our safety, and our lives, depend on the asking, and re-asking, of such questions.

Make it an issue. Ask Ellison what he thinks of Muhammad's behavior with the Banu Qurayza, or with Asma bint Marwan. Do not forget to mention little Aisha. Ask what he thinks. He will either have to denounce all that, or he will not -- and if he does not, that will be telling.

Use his election as a Teaching Moment.

And resist all attempts to head off such questioning by saying that this is "beyond the scope of legitimate debate" and so on and so bloody forth. It isn't. It must not be.

Fitzgerald: Moral preening

Those who are criticizing Congressman Virgil Goode these days are engaging in moral preening, without any felt need of responsibility to study carefully both the actual contents of the belief-system too easily assumed to be a "religion" (and therefore, presumably, to be accorded the status of a Good Thing). It is assumed, furthermore, to be a "religion" just like, more or less, any other (because we are told or allow ourselves to believe that All Religions Stand for the Same Thing).

Nor is there any felt need to study the actual history of Jihad-conquest and of the subsequent treatment, according to well-elaborated rules that are to be found in the Shari'a (see Antoine Fattal, "Le status legal des non-musulmanes en pays d'Islam" for the best compendium), of non-Muslims. There is, after all, a complete doctrine set out for Muslims, and the division of the world between Believer and Infidel remains central to Islam, and does not differ between Sunni and Shi'a, or for that matter, in any important way, among the four schools of Sunni jurisprudence.

Moral preening: we know, say the editorial writers of the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. So sayeth Susan Estrich, still casting about for something else to say since her long-ago book on rape and flurry of brief fame for some world-conquering purchase on the universe: we know all about Islam. How do we know? Oh, we just know. And therefore we just know that Virgil Goode is a bigot, and we know that the people in France, Italy, England, Germany, and Holland who are worried to death about the colossal presence of Muslims have nothing to worry about. And we know that all those who do worry aloud about the islamization of the Western world -- such as Bassam Tibi, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina -- are bigots all, and so too is the scholar of the dhimmi condition Bat Ye'or, and Professor Bernard Lewis, and Professor Hans Jansen, and so many other of Europe's true scholars (as opposed to the apologists paid for by the Saudis and other Arabs). So too was the late Oriana Fallaci (wasn't she practically a Fascist? Wasn't her family part of Mussolini's crowd?), and Alain Finkielkraut, and Alain Besancon, and Pavel Kohout, and those crazed right-wing editors of Jyllands-Posten, and that crazed bigot Theo van Gogh, and all the others who have concluded that Jihad is something to be resisted. They are bigots all, although some have come to their conclusions about Jihad from their direct experience with large numbers of Muslim immigrants to the Lands of the Infidels (as Muslims call them). Others have come to these conclusions through their study of the canonical texts of Islam -- Qur'an, Hadith, Sira. Still others have come to them through their study of the history of Muslim conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims. Finally, some have realized that Jihad is a menace through taking in, and making sense of, observable Muslim behavior in the southern Sudan, in Nigeria during the Biafra War caused by the "Jihad" against the Christians (as Col. Ojukwu noted in the Ahiara Declaration), in Thailand, and in Bangladesh and Pakistan (where life has led to a steady outward flow of Hindus and other non-Muslims escaping Muslim persecution and murder, while the Muslim population of India itself steadily rises both relatively and absolutely). They have observed the treatment of non-Muslims everywhere in Dar al-Islam. The states -- such as Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran -- that are most fanatically Muslim in their application of the Shari'a are the most dangerous for non-Muslims. Life is only better for non-Muslims in the handful of Muslim states that have mitigated the force of Shari’a, either through the benefits of Kemalism, as in Turkey, or because of the Soviet campaign against religious belief and the forced secularization of so many now-nominal Muslims, as in Kazakhstan (the other four "stans" are another matter).

No, none of this is studied, and a good deal more is ignored as well. Don't confuse us with facts. We are good Americans. Virgil Goode is a bad American. Only a Bad American -- the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun suddenly have draped themselves in the mantle of, and are channeling the voices of, Martin Dies and the House Un-American Activities Committee -- can conceivably worry about Islam or about Muslim immigration.

Just look at France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden. Look in particular at Malmo, and at Rotterdam. What's the problem? What's worrisome about any of that?

Jihadists abandon Mogadishu

"Islamic forces abandon Somalia's capital," by Salad Duhul for Associated Press:

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Clan militiamen poured into the streets of Somalia's capital Thursday after the Islamic movement that has controlled Mogadishu for months abandoned the city and government forces advanced to within striking distance.

Gunfire echoed through the streets and hundreds of gunmen who had backed the Muslim militants demonstrated they had broken allegiance by switching from uniforms to civilian clothes.

... or possibly shifting gears for guerrilla warfare.

Some began looting buildings deserted by the Islamists. One resident said three men and a woman had been killed in a scramble for ammunition and food.

"We will capture Mogadishu any time within the coming hours," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told The Associated Press, saying the country was in a state of emergency. "We are now at the entry points of the city."

President Abdullahi Yusuf was expected to offer the clans a truce later Thursday.

Residents south of the city said Islamist forces were streaming south toward the port city of Kismayo. Yusuf Ibrahim, a former Islamic fighter who quit Thursday, said about 3,000 fighters left for Kismayo.

Islamists acknowledged they had left Mogadishu but said they were not giving up their fight. Abdirahman Janaqow, a senior leader, told The Associated Press he ordered his forces out of the capital to avoid bloodshed.

"We decided to leave Mogadishu because of the safety of the civilians," Janaqow said in a telephone interview. "We want to face our enemy and their stooges in a separate area, away from civilians."

A well-known clan leader, Hussein Haji Bod, asked people to remain calm and said elders would meet Thursday to discuss the "future of the capital." The largest market in the capital was closed for fear it would be looted.

The Council of Islamic Courts seized Mogadishu in June and went on to take much of southern Somalia, often without fighting. They were later joined by foreign militants, including Pakistanis and Arabs, who supported their goal of making Somalia an Islamic state.

[...]

Ethiopian and Somali government troops advanced on the capital from the north and the west, capturing the country's most important airfield and driving Islamic fighters out of Jowhar, the last major town on the northern route. As troops entered Jowhar on Wednesday, an independent radio station began blasting Western music, which the militias had banned.

The commander of Ethiopian forces in Somalia, Gen. Salem Hagos, met Thursday with government commanders to discuss their next move. Col. Ahmed Omar, a Somali officer, said Ethiopian troops would stop advancing on the capital, but government forces would approach the capital.

[...]

The competition for control of Mogadishu since 1991 has involved the Abgal and Habr Gadir clans, who came together earlier this year to support the Islamic council. Most of the shooting and looting in Mogadishu on Thursday was coming from Abgal clan strongholds.

Spencer: A Bigot in Congress?

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the controversy over the letter written by Congressman Virgil Goode (news links in the original):

Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA) is being censured by almost everyone for his remarks about incoming Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Muslim immigration. “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States,” Goode wrote in a letter to a constituent, “if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.” He also noted Ellison’s intention to be sworn in on the Qur’an, declaring that “if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”

In an unsigned editorial entitled “A Bigot in Congress,” the Washington Post huffed that besides being a bigot, Goode was “colossally stupid” and suffering from “xenophobic delirium.” Goode, opined the Post, was “evidently napping in class the day they taught the traditional American values of tolerance, diversity and religious freedom. This country's history is rife with instances of uncivil, hateful and violent behavior toward newcomers, be they Jewish, Irish, Italian or plenty of others whose ethnicities did not jibe with some pinched view of what it means to be American. Mr. Goode’s dimwitted outburst of nativism is nothing new.” The “real worry” was that “the rest of the world might take Mr. Goode seriously, interpreting his biased remarks about Muslims as proof that America really has embarked on a civilizational war against Islam.”

The Post was not alone. The Baltimore Sun scored Goode for his “ignorance” and “mindless prejudice,” and editorialized that “Americans sincerely trying to put aside their biases are not well-served by elected officials who proudly espouse wrongheaded views fostering distrust and hatred.” And the New York Times, also in an unsigned editorial, “Fear and Bigotry in Congress,” scolded both Goode and radio host Dennis Prager (who also voiced objections to Ellison’s using the Qur’an in his swearing-in): “As for Mr. Prager and Mr. Goode, we appreciate their help in demonstrating how very fast things can get both nutty and unpleasant once the founding fathers’ wise decision to avoid institutionalizing any religious faith gets breached.”

Fox talking head Susan Estrich said that “the Virgil Goode position on immigration is, basically, to stop it, especially immigration by Muslims. God forbid the world, especially the Muslim world, should see us as a country where diversity is valued and respected, and freedom of religion guaranteed….Where in the Bible does Mr. Goode find his basis for such hatred? And how in the world does Mr. Goode think we will ever fight terrorism, especially terrorism by Muslims, if we do not have the support, cooperation and trust of leaders in the Muslim community? If we are viewed, at the highest levels, as damning all those who believe in the Koran, who will take our side? Don’t we want to encourage Muslims to believe in the political process and participate in it?”

All these criticisms share a common core assumption: that Goode has no reason to be concerned about Ellison, the Qur’an, or Muslims, and that any suspicion he does have is simply evidence of his bigotry and ignorance. In raising the specter of nativism, the Post was suggesting that America has been down this road before, and has nothing to show for it but shame. Suspicions about previous waves of immigrants amounted to nothing more than xenophobia, there was no Jewish conspiracy or Popish plot to subvert the United States Constitution, and concerns about Muslims and the Qur’an are just as hysterical and unfounded. Ellison, for his part, sounded a defiant note in an address in Dearborn, Michigan. To cries of “Allahu akbar” from a Muslim crowd, he declared: “On January 4, I will go swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I’ll place my hand on the Quran.”

Ellison said these words at a convention hosted by the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America. According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune article, “A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America,” the Muslim American Society was founded in 1993 as the United States arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian based terror group that has spawned both Hamas and Al-Qaeda. MAS members now maintain that the group has no ties to the Brotherhood, but there are indications that many in the group want to see the U.S. Constitution replaced by Islamic law. “We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state” in America, said a speaker at a 2002 MAS conference, but “we mustn’t cross hurdles we can’t jump yet.” The Muslim American Society’s chapter for Ellison’s home state of Minnesota hosts a website that offers in an “Online Library” texts by the jihad theorists Syed Abul Ala Maududi and Sayyid Qutb. Qutb in his jihad manifesto Milestones asserts that “Islam is the way of life ordained by God for all mankind, and this way establishes the Lordship of God alone -- that is, the sovereignty of God – and orders practical life in all its daily details. Jihaad in Islam is simply a name for striving to make this system of life dominant in the world.” Likewise, according to terror expert Steven Emerson, the Islamic Circle of North America “is a Jamad Islamia group, which is on record as calling for jihad in the United States, to promote the notion of an Islamic world. ICNA also published something very recently saying that they are against suicide bombings, except when it comes to killing Israelis.”

Is it reasonable to ask Ellison if he shares such views? When he speaks at a conference sponsored by such organizations, is it simply bigotry to ask him if he holds views they are on record as having? When Muslim leaders around the globe have spoken about the necessity to impose Islamic law upon the world, is it sheer nativism to ask Ellison and American Muslims if they hold the same views? On June 29, 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that “the wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world.” As late as November 2003, the website of the Islamic Affairs Department (IAD) of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, D.C. stated that “the Muslims are required to raise the banner of Jihad in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in this world, to remove all forms of injustice and oppression, and to defend the Muslims.” This is a venerable idea within Islam: even the noted Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), whose name adorns the pro-democracy Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo, taught that “in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with “power politics,” because Islam is “under obligation to gain power over other nations.”[1]

On the basis of what evidence do Goode’s many detractors assume that neither Ellison nor any other Muslim in the United States subscribes to these views? Bigotry is an obstinate and irrational hatred of a particular group. Is it obstinate or irrational, or any kind of act of hatred at all, to ask Ellison to clarify where he stands on the MAS’s desire for the eventual imposition of Islamic law in the United States? He has chosen to be associated with MAS and ICNA. He ought to be willing to clarify matters accordingly. And the mainstream media ought to be willing to take time out from vilifying Virgil Goode long enough to entertain the possibility that this case doesn’t quite fit their preconceived notions.

[1] Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, translated by Franz Rosenthal; edited and abridged by N. J. Dawood, Princeton University Press, 1967, p. 183.

Another death threat

Most of this message from "mohammed_souljha@hotmail.co.uk" was unrepeatable, but it ended with these Christmas wishes (yes, I put in the asterisks):

i will f**kin chop you up and put chilli powder all over your wounds. ps bin laden

What never ceases to amaze me about this sort of thing is that some people in the West still tend to equate speaking honestly about the jihad ideology and jihad violence with "hate speech," while messages like this one from jihadists, and jihadists who commit actual violence in the name of that ideology, don't faze them at all.

U.S. says captured Iranians can be linked to attacks

An update on this story. By Sabrina Tavernise for the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Dec. 26 — The American military said Tuesday that it had credible evidence linking Iranians and their Iraqi associates, detained here in raids last week, to criminal activities, including attacks against American forces. Evidence also emerged that some detainees had been involved in shipments of weapons to illegal armed groups in Iraq.

In its first official confirmation of last week’s raids, the military said it had confiscated maps, videos, photographs and documents in one of the raids on a site in Baghdad. The military confirmed the arrests of five Iranians, and said three of them had been released.

The Bush administration has described the two Iranians still being held Tuesday night as senior military officials. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell IV, the chief spokesman for the American command, said the military, in the raid, had “gathered specific intelligence from highly credible sources that linked individuals and locations with criminal activities against Iraqi civilians, security forces and coalition force personnel.”

General Caldwell made his remarks by e-mail in response to a query about the raids, first reported Monday in The New York Times. “Some of that specific intelligence,” he said via e-mail, “dealt explicitly with force-protection issues, including attacks on MNF-I forces.”

MNF-I stands for Multinational Force-Iraq, the official name of the American-led foreign forces there.

American officials have long said that the Iranian government interferes in Iraq, but the arrests, in the compound of one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite political leaders, were the first since the American invasion in which officials were offering evidence of the link.

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Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, had invited the two Iranians during his visit to Tehran, his spokesman said Sunday, but by Tuesday, some Iraqi officials began to question if Mr. Talabani had in fact made the invitation. His office was unavailable for comment Tuesday night.

“We know when they caught them they were doing something,” said one Iraqi official, who added that the Iranians did not appear to have formally registered with the government.

Some political leaders speculated that the arrests had been intended to derail efforts by Iraqis to deal with Iran on their own by making Iraqis look weak.

But the military seemed sure of what and whom it had found.

At about 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the military stopped a car in Baghdad and detained four people — three Iranians and an Iraqi. The military released two of them on Friday and the other two on Sunday night, General Caldwell said. The Iranian Embassy confirmed the releases.

But the more significant raid occurred before dawn the next morning, when American forces raided a second location, the general said. The military described it as “a site in Baghdad,” but declined to release further details about the location.

Iraqi leaders said last week that the site was the compound of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite political leaders, who met with President Bush in Washington three weeks ago. A spokesman for Mr. Hakim said he had not heard of a raid on the compound.

A careful reading of General Caldwell’s statement makes it clear, however, that the location itself was of central importance. The military gathered “specific intelligence from highly credible sources that linked individuals and locations with criminal activities,” it said. The crimes were against Iraqi civilians, security forces and Americans.

In that raid, American forces detained 10 men, 2 of them Iranians. They seized documents, maps, photographs and videos at the location, the military said. The military declined to say precisely what the items showed, nor did it specify if the Iranians themselves were suspected of attacking Americans, or if the Iraqis arrested wi