Cyberspace as a combat zone: The phenomenon of Electronic Jihad

Cyberspace is indeed a combat zone, in many ways, and an arena of the jihad, as we have noted here many times. Here is a useful overview from E. Alshech in the Jerusalem Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

Alongside military jihad, which has been gaining momentum and extracting an ever growing price from many countries around the globe, Islamists have been developing a new form of warfare, termed "electronic jihad," which is waged on the Internet. This new form of jihad was launched in recent years and is still in its early stages of development. However, as this paper will show, Islamists are fully aware of its destructive potential, and persistently strive to realize this potential.

Electronic jihad is a phenomenon whereby mujahideen use the Internet to wage economic and ideological warfare against their enemies. Unlike other hackers, those engaged in electronic jihad are united by a common strategy and ideology which are still in a process of formation.

This paper aims to present the phenomenon of electronic jihad and to characterize some of its more recent developments. It lays out the basic ideology and motivations of its perpetrators, describes, as far as possible, its various operational strategies, and assesses the short and long-term dangers posed by this relatively new phenomenon. The paper focuses on electronic jihad waged by organized Islamist groups that mobilize large numbers of hackers around the world to attack servers and Web sites owned by those whom they regard as their enemies.

Organized Electronic Jihad

In the past few years Islamist Web sites have provided ample evidence that Islamist hackers do not operate as isolated individuals, but carry out coordinated attacks against Web sites belonging to those whom they regard as their enemies. As evident from numerous postings on the Islamist Web sites, many of these coordinated attacks are organized by groups devoted to electronic jihad. Six prominent groups of this sort have emerged on the Internet over the past few years: Hackboy, Ansar Al-Jihad LilJihad Al-Electroni, Munazamat Fursan Al-Jihad Al-Electroni, Majmu'at Al-Jihad Al-Electroni, Majma' Al-Haker Al-Muslim, and Inhiyar AlDolar. All these groups, with the exception of Munazamat Fursan Al-Jihad and Inhiyar alDolar, have Web sites of their own through which they recruit volunteers to take part in electronic attacks, maintain contacts with others who engage in electronic jihad, coordinate their attacks, and enable their members to chat with one another anonymously.

The Majmu'at Al-Jihad Al-Electroni Web site, for example, includes the following sections: a document explaining the nature of electronic jihad, a section devoted to electronic jihad strategy, a technical section on software used for electronic attacks, a section describing previous attacks and their results, and various appeals to Muslims, mujahideen, and hackers worldwide.

A more recent indication of the increasingly organized nature of electronic jihad is an initiative launched January 3, 2007 on Islamist Web sites: mujahideen operating on the Internet (and in the media in general) were invited to sign a special pact called "Hilf Al-Muhajirin" (Pact of the Immigrants). In it, they agree "to stand united under the banner of the Muhajirun Brigades in order to promote [cyber-warfare]," and "to pledge allegiance to the leader [of the Muhajirun Brigades]." They vow to "obey [the leader] in [all tasks], pleasant or unpleasant, not to contest [his] leadership, to exert every conceivable effort in [waging] media jihad...[and to persist] in attacking those websites which do harm to Islam and to the Muslims..."

This initiative clearly indicates that the Islamist hackers no longer regard themselves as loosely connected individual activists, but as dedicated soldiers who are bound by a pact and committed to a joint ideological mission.

There is much, much more. Read it all.

Professor at Kent State University running Jihad web site

"Are You Prepared for Jihad?" IN THE NAME OF OBL. 2007: THE YEAR OF ISLAMIC VICTORY!" "OBL" -- you know who that is. Talk of "Crusaders" and praise for suicide bombers. Run by a Kent State prof.

"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard," by Mike S. Adams (thanks to all who sent this in):

Yesterday afternoon, I logged on to the "Global War" blog (global-war.bloghi.com) of Associate Professor Julio Pino – a Muslim convert who teaches at Kent State University. The heading for the site used to read "The Worldwide Web of Jihad: Daily News from the Most Dangerous Muslim in America." Now it reads "Are You Prepared for Jihad?" IN THE NAME OF OBL. 2007: THE YEAR OF ISLAMIC VICTORY!"

Hardly able to believe what I was reading, I called Pino at his office in Ohio around 4 p.m. According to his secretary, he had not been at work that day (he only has office hours two days of the week). He was drawing a paycheck from the people of the State of Ohio while trying to launch a Jihad against people like me. In fact, just five minutes before I called he posted an entry under the title "Crusaders Can’t Take Anymore in Afghanistan!"

Pino began his morning of not going into his office at Kent State by penning a post under the title “Frightened British Crusaders Rush More Troops to Occupied Afghanistan.” Using terms like “occupation” and “Crusaders” it isn’t really necessary to read these posts in order to ascertain who this employee of the State of Ohio is rooting for in the War on Terror.

But, just in case you were curious about the purpose of this site, it is provided in the upper right corner: "We are a jihadist news service, and provide battle dispatches, training manuals, and jihad videos to our brothers worldwide. All we want is to get Allah’s pleasure. We will write ‘Jihad’ across our foreheads, and the stars. The angels will carry our message throughout the world."

There is also an "Oath of Freedom" in the upper right corner: "We were born free. We will live freely and when death comes to us, we will die freely. Jihad is changing all that can be changed; freeing ourselves through our own efforts; and the conviction that truth will prevail, inshallah."

Under the entry "Sister Detonates Herself to Eliminate Shia Traitors" there is a description of a female suicide bomber who recently killed 41 people. Just in case you wondered how the host of the site feels about the suicide bomber, the next line tells you: "Now she lies on the Golden Couch of Paradise."

UPDATE: More on Pino here.

Taliban beheads US "spy," carves message into his forehead

The use of the word "hypocrite" indicates that they regard this U.S. "spy" as akin to the "hypocrites" of Muhammad's day, who supposedly pretended to be Muslims while plotting against Muhammad. The Qur'an frequently rails against them. So this is another indication of how the jihadists see this present conflict in religious terms, while the learned Western analysts do their best to deny that religion has anything to do with the real causes of jihad terrorism or Islamic supremacism.

"Militants behead 'US spy', carve grisly message," from AFP, with thanks to JE:

PAKISTANI Taliban militants decapitated an Afghan accused of spying for US forces and scrawled the word "hypocrite" across his forehead, tribal officials said today.

The man's remains were found in a sack by the side of the road in the town of Jandola in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, in the fifth such killing in Pakistan this year, the officials said.

A note in Urdu was pinned to the bag identifying the man as Akhtar Usman, an Afghan, and saying his death “is a result of spying for Americans” across the border in Afghanistan, the officials said.

Local authorities brought the body to their office in Jandola and placed it outside to be formally identified.

Militants last week cut off the hands and feet of a suspected spy in neighbouring North Waziristan. On February 6 the bullet-riddled bodies of two more were found in the same area, while another was killed around February 1.

Now why would these "militants" have done such a thing? Might it have been because of this? "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter." -- Qur'an 5:33.

Fitzgerald: Cat's out of the bag

Those at the Emory Wheel are reduced to this transparent nonsense of Taqiyya and Tu Quoque. How else can they proceed? They know what is in the texts. They know what states, societies, families suffused with Islam are taught. They know the tenets. They know the attitudes. They are well used to the atmospherics. They just don't know how to handle those Infidels who also know those texts, those teachings, those attitudes, those atmospherics.

And there is nothing they can do to stop more and more Infidels, as they pick up their newspapers or turn on the evening news, from realizing how much of it is about this or that local manifestation of the worldwide and permanent Jihad -- which can only get worse, and examples of which will only proliferate. Those Infidels will find out, slowly and then more rapidly, in greater and greater numbers, about Islam. There is nothing Islamic apologists can do about this, try as they will to lie, or to hide, or to distract with irrelevancies, or by appeals to Western "guilt" and false claims of victimization. Islam itself, as the vehicle for Arab imperialism, is the most successful imperialist project in history, the force which caused whole peoples to jettison and ignore, or despise, their own histories, pre-Islamic or non-Islamic. In light of that, the raising of idiotic claims of "racism" will not forever prevent Infidels, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and all others, everywhere and not just here in this country, from finding out about Islam.

It's too late. Cat's out of the bag. The Qur'an is just a click away (www.quranbrowser.com). And so are the Hadith. And so is the Sira -- or you can read the texts about Muhammad, the Muslim texts, the texts of Qur'an and Hadith and Muslim Sira, and Muslim commentators and historians, with connective tissue and organizing principle supplied by Robert Spencer.

There is nothing these people can do about all that, except what they have been doing all along: "three Abrahamic faiths," "one of world's great religions," "hijacked" or "perverted" by "extremists," or adducing in support of this preposterousness a handful of Qur'anic phrases: "there is no compulsion in religion" (which does not mean what an Infidel who reads only those words would naturally take it to mean), and 5.32 but not 5.33 (Bush does it, Blair does it, even semi-educated fleas do it). Or if not the Qur'an, then one of the inauthentic Hadiths from one of the unauthoritative collections: Karen Armstrong loves the one about Muhammad returning from the "Lesser Jihad" of war to the "Greater Jihad" of domestic life, without recognizing that the hadith in question is not widely accepted as authentic. Why, I can write the Mosque-Outreach script for Infidels myself, and so can you, dear reader, and so can any man.

Here’s a case study, based on the posts of a Muslim who dropped by Jihad Watch a few days ago. He asked:

My questions to you are: Do you personally know any Muslims? Do you have any Muslim friends? Do you know about the Muslim experience in the post 9/11 America? Have you ever visited a Mosque? Have you ever been to an inter-faith event (e.g. poetry recital)? Have you ever read the Holy Qur'an or any of the other Islamic spiritual texts such as the works of Jalaluddin Rumi or al-Ghazali, Rabia al-Adawiyyah, Muhammad Iqbal, etc.?

The questions are misplaced. Many of the readers at this site have visited those Mosque Outreach exercises in Taqiyya-and-Tu-Quoque. Many have read the Qur'an, and have read and reread it, keeping in mind several things:

1) About 20% of it makes no sense, even to Muslims who know classical Arabic. See Christoph Luxenberg for one attempt to solve that matter of philology.

2) The internal contradictions in the Qur'an are resolved through the doctrine of "naskh" or "abrogation," so that, as in the systems of common law, where the doctrine of stare decisis ordinarily holds but later decisions, when different, cancel the effect of earlier ones (e.g., Plessy v. Ferguson is not valid after Brown v. Bd. of Education).

3) The doctrine of "naskh" allows the so-called Meccan suras, the softer ones, which were presumably the product of a time when Muhammad still felt the need for support and had not yet become as harsh toward Infidels as he became once he had taken control in Medina (Yathrib), to be cancelled or overruled or overturned by the much harsher so-called "Medinan" suras.

4) While there are more than 150 Jihad verses in the Qur'an -- though only 27 appearances of the word "qitaal" or combat, the most dangerous ones, such as those contained within Sura 9, are among the very last “revealed,” and hence possess great authority.

5) In English or French, as Western scholars of Islam familiar with the original texts have noted, the Qur'an's verses are far less harsh than they are in the Arabic. Many of the words involving the treatment to be meted out to Unbelievers, that is Infidels or non-Muslims, are of this kind.

6) The official Muslim groups tend to distribute the translations that are much milder than the real thing. Even those used by Muslims, such as that of Yusuf Ali, do not always adequately convey the real meaning. But that can be found usually in the notes, and it is important for Infidels to read those Muslim annotations.

7) The Qur'an by itself does not yield up its full meaning, and the Sunnah, that is the customs and practice of Muslims of the time, of Muhammad and the Companions, is the true interpretive aid, the essential means by which obscure meanings are teased out. That is why Muslims so often refer to "Qur'an and Sunnah."

8) Islam is a collectivist faith that does not admit of free exercise of conscience. That is, it will not permit -- often on pain of death -- individuals from deciding for themselves that they wish to leave Islam, sometimes for another faith, sometimes for no faith at all. That Islam does this makes it akin to other totalitarian belief-systems that do not tolerate anyone leaving that closed system. In a sense, a Muslim who leaves Islam is treated as a deserter from the army of Islam, just as someone who is persuaded to become a Muslim, even without any real understanding and with very incomplete (often deliberately withheld) knowledge, merely by reciting the single verse of the Shehada, is regarded as a recruit to the army of Islam, someone who has been signed up, rather than someone who has been carefully taught in order to save his individual soul.

9) Yes, not only have many of those posting here visited mosques during those phony Outreach Programs, but we have made it a point to attend those utterly phony presentations of Islam, in which none of the real questions -- about how Islam divides the world uncompromisingly between Believer and Infidel, and territorially between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb -- ever come up. And of course there is never a discussion of Muhammad, that is of the killings of Abu Afak and Asma bint Marwan, the decapitation of the bound prisoners of the Banu Qurayza, the attack on the inoffensive Jewish farmers of the Khaybar Oasis, the tale of little Aisha, and so much else.

It makes no sense whatsoever, given the smooth taqiyya-and-kitman-and-tu-quoque so well-practiced and presented, for Infidels to attend any Muslim event without having thoroughly prepared themselves by learning about Islam, by reading the immutable texts of Islam, by talking to those who have grown up in Islam and left it, or those who, as Infidels, grew up in lands dominated by Islam -- such as Hindus from Bali or Bangladesh, Christians from Egypt or Iraq or Pakistan, Jews from Yemen or Egypt or Syria, Zoroastrians, what few are left, who have escaped from Iran, and so on. One can expect only apologetics from Muslims -- that is what our experience, individual and collective, demonstrates again and again. One can only take so much nonsense and lies, before even the most naive start to have things begin to make sense. They figure the whole thing out.

You offer, instead of honesty, a list of all kinds of irrelevancies. Jihad Watch is a pedagogic site. It is a site devoted to presenting all kinds of material about Islamic behavior and Islamic doctrine, and showing their connection. And it is also devoted to revealing the ways in which Infidels, in and out of the West, do or do not exhibit the traditional behavior of dhimmis -- that is, the non-Muslims under Islam who were allowed to stay alive, and even to practice, within severe limits, their non-Muslim religions, but who were subject to a host of economic, political, legal, and social disabilities that together amounted to a permanent condition of humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity.

In conclusion, a few questions, in turn, for you.

Have you ever compared the treatment, meted out over the past 1350 years, in all the lands conquered by Islam, toward the indigenous non-Muslims, with the way in which Muslims have been received and allowed to settle deep behind what they themselves are taught to regard as enemy lines?

Have you ever given the slightest thought to the possibility that the belief-system of Islam, with its Total Regulation of Life and Complete Explanation of the Universe, was essentially akin to a totalitarian doctrine?

Have you ever wondered about, or gone to hear, or read the books of, the many brilliant and articulate apostates from Islam, including but not limited to, Ibn Warraq (Why I Am Not a Muslim), Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ali Sina (whose site www.faithfreedom.org relentlessly offers arguments against Islam from those who finally left it, and in so doing found intellectual and moral peace), Anwar Shaikh (who has described Islam as a vehicle for Arab supremacism in "Islam the Arab National Religion"), and many others, the most impressive people born into Islam, thoughtful, articulate, coherent -- and being joined by other thoughtful, articulate, sensible people who through no fault of their own were born into Islam.

Eventually some Pakistanis and Bangladeshis and Indian Muslims may be able to slough off Islam as an ideology through a re-embrace of what could be seen as an original identity: that they were merely the descendants of Hindus, or in some cases Buddhists, who were forcibly converted to avoid either death or the onerousness of the dhimmi condition. Similarly, in the case of some North African "Arabs," they may recognize themselves as the descendants of the indigenous Berbers -- so many of whom, under the cultural and linguistic imperialism of the Arabs, were so arabised as to become “Arabs” themselves. And they not only became “Arabs,” but in turn to oppress the rights of those Berbers who still, steadfastly, have managed to resist the very arabisation that the ancestors of the “Arabs-from-Berbers” did not. Similarly, given how educated and intelligent Iranians are, including some who once worked to overthrow the Shah, they will come to see the use to which Islam is naturally put, the damage it has brought to Iran. This can be made to frame the incipient anti-Islam sentiments of many Iranians in national terms, see the primitive desert Arabs as having brought the “false gift” of Islam to the superior civilization of Persia. Discussion of what misery the Arab “gift” of Islam has brought to Iran, and a recognition by Iranian Muslims that they are the descendants of Zoroastrians whose last adherents are now so oppressed in Iran, might be one point of purchase to undo or at least limit the appeal of Islam. Have you given that Arab supremacism for which Islam is a vehicle any thought yourself?

And you ask, who has read the Qur’an? You should have asked: Who has read the Qur’an, the Hadith, and the Sira, should you not? In turn, one might ask: Have you read the Bible? Have you gone to a church merely to observe Christian worship? What do you know about the field of comparative religion? And would you allow other Muslims, your siblings or your children, to freely visit churches and synagogues and Hindu temples, and to read the holy scriptures of other faiths, and even to study those faiths formally, as many non-Muslims study Islam and the history of Islam? Would that be something you think should be encouraged for Muslims, both in Dar al-Islam, and in the Lands of the Infidels?

Tell us all about it.

Fitzgerald: Is anyone else getting bored?

A reader asks, "Is anyone else getting bored with Iraq and Islam?"

I am. I am getting bored, quite bored, with Iraq and Islam. In fact, I've long been bored silly with the whole business of Iraq and Islam. It is not terribly interesting in itself, except as a case study offering a rich variety of different kinds of willful ignorance, sentimentalism, and avoidance of the obvious -- as well as of sheer stupidity in so many different, and differently unappealing, forms. It must have been the same for all kinds of people who encountered similar phenomena, although perhaps it was not boring for Winston Churchill to have to again and again say the obvious things (or obvious now) about Adolf Hitler, about the Storm Troopers, about Nationalsozialismus, and about how Mein Kampf was meant seriously and should not be dismissed.

Or it may not have been similarly boring for all those who wrote about Japanese militarism and emperor-worship, that is Kodo, in Japan beginning in the 1920s, with the full menace already clear to some by 1930: one Western student of the subject laid it all out, and even predicted the exact places the Japanese would attack.

And don't you think the members of Giustizia e Liberta would have preferred to do other things in southern France then have to worry about being picked off by the secret police of Il Granitico, with those endless harangues matched only by the crazed speeches of Hitler? Imagine having to watch those speeches, or having to read anything written by either one, or having to solemnly study, for example, the kind of thing Kremlinologists used to have to study: what went on at the First Party Congress in Minsk, and what Comrade Lenin wrote about Renegade Kautsky, and when Comrade Stalin first started airbrushing that wrecker Bukharin out of those photographs of the Soviet leadership.

Who in his right mind could stand it then? Who in his right mind can stand it now?

And why would we want to follow, day by day, what general or admiral in the Japanese Imperial War Office is in, or out, or on his way up, or on his way down, and the ideological origins of Emperor-worship and bushido-cults and all the rest, when one would much rather, if one were reporting on Japan in those days, write about the cherry-tree ceremony, or Murasaki Shikibu, or possibly that nice exhibit of wazikashi blades in the Japanese War Ministry's museum?

We're all bored, just as bored, even more bored, than you are with Islam, and Jihad, and with having to listen to solemn parsing of speeches by Bin Laden, or Ahmadinejad, or Mahathir Mohammed, or with having to analyze some promise made by Hosni Mubarak or Pervez Musharraf or Mahmoud Abbas. Why should primitive peoples with primitive belief-systems take up our time? Because they can. Because they must. Because the Western world made a big mistake, over the past four decades, and now it is paying for it. And the Western world will, if something is not done, pay much more for that big mistake of letting into its midst, at the moment of maximum sentimentality and softness in the collective Western brain, people who do not and cannot wish that Western world, its legal and political institutions, well.

And politics, just writing about anything involving large numbers of people -- so that one writes, actually writes and can't quite believe it, such phrases as "the Iraqis" or "the Arabs" or "the French" or "the Israelis" or "the Hindus." One writes, and then still has to look at oneself in the mirror to keep from cutting oneself when shaving. One simply has to agree to the rules of the public game, in an age of the degradation of the democratic dogma. What else can one do? No one in the world could be as bored with Islam as I am, not even you, given my natural bent and interests and hierarchy of values. But it has to be discussed, until enough people understand what the whole thing is all about, and by helping them make sense, they can be helped to come to their senses.

"The Ayatollah Sistani is an Islamist bent on establishing a theocracy not far removed from that found in Iran"

Of course, readers of Jihad Watch have known this since at least April 17, 2004, when I wrote here that "we used to hear all the time that Sistani was a moderate. But it should be clear to everyone now that he wants Sharia in Iraq, and, in accordance with Sharia principles, will not side with infidels against a fellow Muslim."

"Mugged By Reality," by Hugh Hewitt (thanks to Andrew Bostom):

John Agresto's memoir of his service in Iraq as senior advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education came out this week. He'll join me in the third hour today.

It is a very personal book, full of regret and sober observations on the mistakes made throughout the post-invasion period. There is plenty of blunt talk as well. Example:

We insisted that the Ayatollah Sistani was surely a "moderate" and a friend to civil and religious liberty despite all the hard evidence to the contrary. Let me repeat my previous observations and predictions: The Ayatollah Sistani is an Islamist bent on establishing a theocracy not far removed from that found in Iran. He is an open anti-Semite and a not-too-subtle anti-Christian. he threw his support behind democratic elections because they were the handy vehicles for imposing religious authority all over Iraq. Nor is he the only one, or even the worst, only the most prominent. Yet while I believe the evidence is as clear here as it is in the case of Chalabi, we only see what we want to see,, not what's visible. In our religious lives, Hope may well be a virtue -- but in foreign policy it is more often a sin, a temptation to willful blindness.

Yes, the willful blindness is everywhere, isn't it, Mr. Hewitt?

See also these other Jihad Watch posts:

Fitzgerald: Sistani for Nobel? No thanks

Sistani funnels money to Iran

Sistani: "Sodomites should be killed in the worst manner possible"

Jaafari: Sistani wants Islamic law in Iraq

And there are more where those came from.

Also, Andrew Bostom's article, "Is Paul Bremer 'Unclean'?," dates from February 20, 2004.

Russian FM: Hamas promises end of attacks against Israel

Bridge for Sale! From AP:

The supreme leader of Hamas has promised that the group will end missile attacks and other violence against Israel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.

"Hamas should use its authority to stop violence including missile attacks against Israel," Lavrov said at a news conference after his meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

Vague language, complete with the use of the passive voice to mask just who would be taking those steps:

"We received confirmation that such steps will be taken," Lavrov said.

However, Mashaal said at a separate news conference that the group is not ready to recognize Israel.

Renouncing violence and recognizing Israel are both key demands of international peace negotiators.

And the usual, deliberately vague pledge:

"First of all, Israel has to end its occupation of Palestinian territory and put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people," Mashaal said when asked about the recognition issue. "When Israel does that, the Palestinian people will make their position clear."

In remarks before his morning meeting with Mashaal, Lavrov called for international support for the power-sharing arrangement between Hamas and Fatah and for lifting an international financial aid blockade against the Palestinian Authority.

However, the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, which includes Russia, has said recognizing Israel is a key condition for resuming aid. It was not immediately clear if Russia's expression of support for the Hamas-Fatah power-sharing agreement meant it was stepping back from the Quartet demands.

Former Georgia imam sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for financial support of Hamas

Mohamed Shorbagi Update. "Muslim leader sentenced for backing Hamas," from AP:

ROME, Ga. (AP) -- The former Imam of a Rome Muslim congregation has been sentenced to more than seven and a half years in prison for providing monetary support to the terrorist organization Hamas.

U.S. District Judge Harole Murphy sentenced 42-year-old Mohamed Shorbagi today in Rome.

Federal prosecutors said Shorbagi had sought donations from his mosque that were sent to the Palestianinan terrorist group. They also said he provided logistics for them by creating media materials that ultimately were distributed oversesas.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Dammers suggested that his sentence be reduced from 15 years in prison because of Shorbagi's help in testifying for the government in other terrorism-related trials.

After the sentencing, Shorbagi shook hands with about a dozen friends and family members who were gathered at the court before he was taken away.

At the sentencing, Shobagi said he realized that some of his actions were wrong, which was why he decided to cooperate with the government.

He pleaded guility in August to a charge of providing material support to Hamas.

He is a citizen of the Palestian territories but is in the United State legally. He says he has been in America for 22 years.

No Sharia in Minnesota

Jihad Watch reader Greg writes from Minneapolis with an update about the Sharia Cab Controversy:

I attended the MAC hearing today about increasing refusal-of-service penalties for cab drivers. It was very well attended, especially by the Somali cabbies (must have been 100 of them). Also present were the NCAA, a Teamsters Union representative, Northwest Airlines, the vistor bureau, a couple of imams, a number of blind people with their dogs and a whole lot of media.

After about 2 1/2 hours there was a break. A couple of cabbies took the opportunity to pray, and chose an interesting location for that activity.

As you can see.

Indian train blast: Jihad groups suspected

However, no group has claimed responsibility. "Indo-Pak peace train hit by terror; 67 dead," from NewsLocale:

Terror struck the Samjhauta Express early Monday morning when a bomb blast ripped apart the peace train causing the death of at least 67 people and injuring many others. The attack involved two crude bombs and occurred near the Indian city of Panipat.

The train links New Delhi with Lahore and was restarted in 2004 as a mark of peace between the two warring neighbors. It is not clear how this will affect the peace process, but one fact was significant. This is the first terror attack to target innocent citizens of both countries.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf called the attack wanton and vowed that it would only strengthen the peace process rather than derail it. "Such wanton acts of terrorism will only serve to further strengthen our resolve to attain the mutually desire objective of sustainable peace," he said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the culprits would be brought to book. The finger of suspicion is being pointed at Islamic terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, although no group has claimed responsibility.

Taliban 'knew of Cheney visit'

How did they find out? Probably through contact with people who work with the Americans -- in other words, this is likely another indication of the fact that there is no firewall within Muslim communities between jihadists and peaceful Muslims. Jihadists have never been expelled from Islamic communities, but rather move freely within them. And so things like this are virtually impossible to prevent.

An update on this story from AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Islamabad - A suicide attack at an Afghan air base where US vice-president Dick Cheney was staying shows that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have penetrated local intelligence agencies, analysts and officials said.

The blast early on Tuesday at Bagram air base near Kabul also highlights the increasing sophistication of the extremist outfits as they prepare for a feared spring offensive against Western troops, they said.

[...]

"This shows how much the militants have penetrated the intelligence of the Afghan security forces. It is a most shocking attack," retired Pakistani general turned analyst Talat Masood told AFP.

Visit unannounced

Cheney's visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan were unannounced and shrouded in even tighter secrecy than when US President George W Bush travelled to the two countries in March 2006.

[...]

A senior Pakistani counter-terrorism official said the "sophisticated" attack "indicates the militants' preparedness and the quality of their intelligence collection in the run-up to the so-called spring offensive".

He added: "They must have had information (a) few days before that the US vice-president would be in town and stay at Bagram. This is not something you can plan with 12 hours notice."

Rage at the Emory Wheel

On February 16 I sent this letter to the Emory Wheel, the newspaper of Emory University, in response to a letter they had printed protesting an advertisement from our Terrorism Awareness Program at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

The Emory Wheel printed it a few days later, whereupon I wrote here: "I predict right now that none of the responses will deal with the fact that this letter is made up largely of quotations from Islamic sources, except possibly to claim (falsely) that these sources are "marginal" and that no Muslims pay attention to them. However, while the claim will be made that my quotations are 'cherry-picked,' 'out of context,' and so on, no actual documentary evidence will be offered that the schools of Islamic jurisprudence do not actually teach warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. No such evidence can be offered, because they do teach this." I might have added that I would almost certainly be personally attacked as a "hatemonger."

Anyway, as if on cue, no less than four authors, Sharefa Aria, Ridwan Khan, Huma Mirza and Aneel Naeem, have collaborated to defame me and Jihad Watch in The Wheel: "The Wheel Prints Hate Against Islam," in the Emory Wheel (thanks to Jihad Watch News Editor Marisol Seibold):

What is the difference between the Internet hate site jihadwatch.com and the Wheel? Not much, if you read Robert Spencer's commentary on the Wheel's decision to run an advertisement equating jihad with bigotry against non-Muslims, women and homosexuals ("A Bestselling Author Offers a Different Definition of Jihad," Feb. 20).

Jihad Watch is in favor of freedom of conscience, equality of rights before the law, and other elements of Western societies that are contravened by Sharia. If that makes it a "hate site," then the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights are hate literature.

It is apparent that Muslims, including Emory's sizable Muslim community, have become the new "other" - a scapegoat for terrorism, war, cavities and whatever other ills currently plague society.

What other community could be compared to Mussolini's black shirts or the Nazis with impunity on the pages of a major university newspaper? Were the same things said about Zionists, the paper would understandably baulk about running such material. Evidently it is acceptable, however, to print such work attacking Muslims.

Who compared Muslims to Fascists or Nazis? Read my letter. It wasn't I, yet this sizable writing team is only discussing my letter. The writing committee, I suspect, is setting up a straw man, which is easier to knock down than what I actually wrote.

When talking about Spencer, for example, the Wheel demurred from printing the entire title of his book, The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion. As is evident from that title, Spencer has no academic background in Islam, but is rather a polemicist whose expertise is in Islamophobia.

I'd welcome any evidence -- from today's world, not tendentious and politicized historical accounts -- that any other religion is more intolerant than Islam. Sharefa Aria, Ridwan Khan, Huma Mirza and Aneel Naeem can send it to me here, at director@jihadwatch.org.

Spencer's specious arguments and David Horowitz's original ad use cherry-picked quotes without any context to stigmatize a community, which comprises nearly one-fifth of our world population.

This sentence makes me feel like a prophet, but anyway, I wrote in my letter about the teachings of Islam, which are a matter of record. Anyone who wishes to discover what they are can do so. The fact that the teachings of Islam mandate warfare against unbelievers does not mean that all Muslims are pursuing or will ever pursue this warfare, any more than all Catholics will ever forgo contraception. That is why it does not follow from the fact that "a community, which comprises nearly one-fifth of our world population" is stigmatized. If Sharefa Aria, Ridwan Khan, Huma Mirza and Aneel Naeem renounce these teachings and begin to work to convince other Muslims to do so, I will not only not stigmatize them, but I will congratulate them.

When the Wheel first ran Horowitz's ad, we believed that the paper's staff simply prioritized revenue before civic duty. However, running Spencer's editorial suggests a more active agenda to malign Islam and hurt the Emory Muslim community. To see the kind of hate Spencer spawns and which the Wheel facilitates, one need not go further than the comments section of the newspaper's website. Like-minded bigots across the country congratulate Spencer for exposing "barbaric" Islam, while another claims Islam is not "religion, but a mental illness." Is this the kind of discourse with which we wish to define Emory?

For both the Wheel's record as well as Mr. Spencer's, we'd like to say that we are Muslims, and being maligned by the Wheel is unacceptable. It is our very Islamic beliefs that command us not to threaten or transgress against our fellow man, but rather to be productive members of both the Emory and greater human communities. No Muslim at Emory is proud of Al-Qaeda, but at the same time we can distinguish between the religion and those who exploit it for political motives. This kind of exploitation is not relegated just to terrorists, but is also used by Islamophobes like Spencer - and now the Wheel - to erroneously smear every Muslim....

I have never in my life said or written anything about what "every Muslim" believes or does. To do so would be asinine, but of course to characterize me as having done so is part of how Sharefa Aria, Ridwan Khan, Huma Mirza and Aneel Naeem evidently hope to compel people of good will not to pay attention to what I am saying.

In my prediction I said that "no actual documentary evidence will be offered that the schools of Islamic jurisprudence do not actually teach warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. No such evidence can be offered, because they do teach this." And indeed, Sharefa Aria, Ridwan Khan, Huma Mirza and Aneel Naeem do not offer any such evidence. They can't.

Nor does Ammara Abbasi in another letter in the Wheel, "Jihad Isn't Just Warfare" (thanks again to Marisol). After indulging in some familiar tu-quoque arguments, Abbasi says:

And for those interested in one point of view, by all means go to Jihad Watch's website. Unfortunately, Robert Spencer's earnest attempts to make his points are marred by his sensationalist approach. Spencer's words inevitably dehumanize and ostracize Muslims in what should be a respectful dialogue.

In fact, I'm all for a respectful dialogue. I have invited numerous Islamic scholars to a respectful dialogue, including Ahmed Afzaal, Omid Safi, Akbar Ahmed, Jamal Badawi, and Carl Ernst. All have either declined or never quite gotten around to getting back to me. There have been others also. If I am really the ignorant hatemongering flamethrower of myth, one of these guys ought to agree to debate me, mop the floor with me and show me up before the world, no? But I will be happy to engage in a respectful dialogue with Ammara Abbasi. I can be reached, again, at director@jihadwatch.org.

Chicago cousins were seeking "training in jihad"

Chicago Jihad Update. "Cousins sought `training in Jihad,' prosecutors say," by Jeff Coen in the Chicago Tribune, via the KRT Wire, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

CHICAGO - Two Chicago-area cousins linked to a terrorism conspiracy last week traveled to Egypt in 2004 and planned to head to Pakistan for military training, federal prosecutors told a judge Monday.

Zubair A. Ahmed, 27, and Khaleel Ahmed, 26, were seeking "training in Jihad," prosecutors said during a detention hearing on whether Khaleel Ahmed should be kept in custody as he is transferred to Ohio to face the charges.

The trip was not a vacation as the Ahmeds have maintained, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vickie Peters said.

"It was intended as the first stop of a trip that would land him on the battlefield of Iraq fighting U.S. servicemen," Peters told U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown.

Pakistan: More polio cases if resistance continues; Islamic clerics say those who die of polio are 'martyrs'

An update on this story. "More polio cases if resistance continues: NIH, WHO," from the Daily Times, with thanks to Twostellas:

ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Health (NIH) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) fear that more polio cases will crop up in the Bajaur and Malakand agencies since workers are denied access to children amid threats by Taliban-backed clerics, Daily Times learnt on Monday.

A senior official at the NIH said that health authorities had confirmed yet another polio case in the Nowshera. He said that the polio victim was originally from the Bajaur Agency. In addition, the Health Ministry has also reported three more confirmed polio cases in urban and rural Sindh.

The clerics, including Tehreek Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) leader Maulana Fazlullah and his supporters in the Malakand Agency, have been ‘warning’ people during sermons in mosques or through illegal FM radio stations not to administer polio drops to their children since it was against religious norms and brought infertility. Maulana Fazlullah is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, ex-chief of the TNSM.

To complete the polio immunisation drive, the WHO and the Ministry of Health are contemplating enlisting the help of the district/tehsil and union council nazims, political and religious leaders, public representatives and tribal elders, sources said.

Some religious leaders in the Bajaur and Malakand agencies are telling the people not to get their children vaccinated since the practice is un-Islamic, and that those that die of polio would be considered martyrs.

Hizballah building new line of defense in anticipation of resumption of war with Israel

"The state of Hezbollah is already in existence in south Lebanon."

"Hezbollah land grab heralds war," by Nicholas Blanford for the Times via The Australian, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

HEZBOLLAH, the militant Shia organisation, is building a new line of defences just north of the UN-patrolled zone in south Lebanon ahead of a potential resumption of war with Israel. The military build-up, only six months after the last Lebanon-Israel conflict, is being conducted in valleys and hillsides guarded by uniformed Hezbollah fighters in the rugged mountains north of the Litani river - the limit of the 12,000-strong UN Interim Force In Lebanon (Unifil).

Christian and Druze-owned land is being bought for cash by a Shia businessman.

Hezbollah's opponents believe the goal is to create a Shia-populated belt spanning the northern bank of the Litani, allowing the Lebanese group to operate away from prying eyes.

"The state of Hezbollah is already in existence in south Lebanon," the Druze leader and arch Hezbollah critic Walid Jumblatt said.

Since the end of the month-long clash last northern summer, Unifil's strength has increased sixfold, with reinforcements from European countries such as France, Italy and Spain.

An additional 20,000 Lebanese troops have flooded the area, making it impossible for Hezbollah to resurrect its military presence along the border with Israel.

"There have been no instances of attempts to smuggle weapons into the area," Unifil senior adviser Milos Strugar said.

Instead, Hezbollah's fighters are preparing a new system of fortifications and expanding old positions in the mountains on the northern bank of the Litani.

Residents say the activity has increased lately, and peacekeepers confirm this.

"We can see them building new positions. There's a lot of trucks coming into the area as well," a Unifil officer said.

"Russia will work to end sanctions on Palestinians"

The Russians, of course, don't see the ideological kinship between the Palestinians and the jihadists who are threatening them. But why not?

From AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MOSCOW - Russia will push for the lifting of an economic embargo against the Palestinian government, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday during a visit by Hamas political director Khaled Meshaal.

‘We are striving to have the international community support the peace process and make it irrevocable, including helping end the blockade’ against the Palestianian government, Lavrov told journalists.

The so-called Middle East diplomatic Quartet -- Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations -- imposed the sanctions after Hamas took control of the Palestinian government in elections last January and refused to recognize Israel or renounce violence.

Meshaal met Lavrov on the second day of a visit to Moscow aimed at marshalling support to lift the crippling sanctions, and said Russia was the next logical destination after Hamas and rival party Fatah struck a power-sharing agreement in Mecca earlier this month.

‘From the very beginning we wanted to make Moscow the first place we visited after the talks in Mecca in order to consult with you about steps that need to be taken after the Mecca agreement,’ Meshaal said.

Jihad bombing prevented in Moscow

While the Russians continue to pursue short-sighted and ultimately self-defeating aid to Iran -- the same country that is backing the anti-Russian jihadists in Dagestan.

"Terrorist Bombing Prevented in Moscow," from MosNews, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

According to Moscow police security officials prevented a bomb attack in the Russian capital the day before the country celebrated a national holiday last week, the Bloomberg news agency reports.

The Federal Security Service and city police detained a 29-year-old man from Dagestan with a 500-gram explosive device on a trolleybus in northwest Moscow on Feb. 22.

“The device was in a solid cylinder, and filled with buckshot, nails and other pieces of metal,” the police said in an e-mailed statement. The man, identified as Farid Magomedov, was traveling to a metro station and had a remote-controlled detonator in his pocket, police said.

British in Afghanistan: "We do not use the word 'win'"

"Officials say the new tactics are to identify 'Talibs who are sick of fighting' and persuade them to rejoin their tribes and benefit from the human rights laws and state structures being set up in the country." Good luck with that, but it is certain to come up against the objection that such things are "un-Islamic." But that is territory that neither the British nor any other Western powers wishes to venture into.

"Britain switches tactics to undermine the Taliban," by Richard Norton-Taylor in The Guardian, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Britain has launched a "reconciliation" drive to undermine support for the Taliban after Whitehall strategists concluded that a decisive military victory in Afghanistan cannot be won, the Guardian has learned.

In a significant shift in tactics, senior British officials have stopped talking about winning a war. "We do not use the word 'win'," one said. "We can't kill our way out of this problem."

The admission came as Des Browne, the defence secretary, announced a larger than expected 1,400 increase in British troops deployed in southern Afghanistan, with extra armour, artillery, and aircraft. It brings the total number there to 7,700, more than there are in Iraq.

Officials say the new tactics are to identify "Talibs who are sick of fighting" and persuade them to rejoin their tribes and benefit from the human rights laws and state structures being set up in the country. Captured fighters may also be offered alternatives to incarceration, while more deals will be sought with tribal elders.

They hope increasingly to damage the Taliban without relying on a shooting war, a tactic which has often proved counter-productive in the past, notably when Nato air strikes kill civilians. "We are convinced most people do not support the Taliban and want to take a route through it," said one source. British officials distinguish the Taliban from al-Qaida, describing it as a "more fluid" organisation.

Contrasting the Taliban with al-Qaida, a one said: "Al-Qaida's operations are more sophisticated than the Taliban and al-Qaida is very choosy about who they work with."

An official familiar with British policy on Afghanistan described the difference this way: "The Taliban is not a homogenous group. It is a mixture of characters - criminals, drug dealers, people out of work. There is a wide variety of different people. The Taliban pays them to carry out these attacks so there are ways to tackle the problem, to split off the disillusioned."

Ruined poppy farmers join ranks with the Taleban

Dinesh D'Souza, call your office: these farmers are being radicalized not by the immorality of American culture and the audacity of American writers who criticize the elements of Islam that give rise to violence and Islamic supremacism, but because they are being prevented from growing opium. Anti-drug American cultural conservatives who seek to ally with "traditional Muslims" like these, in accordance with D'Souza's recommendation, would be in for a rude surprise.

By Tim Albone and Claire Billet in the TimesOnline, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The tractor roared through the field, the plough tearing through the valuable poppy crop as the farmer looked on. A helicopter searched for insurgents and armed police stood watch, their uniforms replaced by robes and turbans to make them less conspicuous.

“The people are unhappy with this eradication campaign; if it goes on they will all join the Taleban,” Dilbar, a poppy farmer in Helmand province, told The Times.

The prospect of such a surge in Taleban numbers is bad news for the 5,000 British troops based in Helmand and 1,400 more heading there after the announcement by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary. The fiercest fighting since the Taleban were overthrown in 2001 came last year, with more than 4,000 people killed, and intelligence reports predict a new offensive this spring.

Poppy eradication is a double-edged sword. Afghanistan provides nine out of every ten grams of heroin sold on the streets of Britain, and officials are determined to stamp out poppy growth. Yet a successful campaign would leave many unemployed as potential recruits for the Taleban.

Afghans, ever the pragmatists, have devised their own solution. “We leave some fields without destroying the poppy so everyone is happy . . . otherwise they will go and support the Taleban,” said Aminullah, 21, a policeman with the eradication force in Helmand.

Spain: A dozen jihadists "infiltrated army base"

Another indication of the fact that there is no firewall within Muslim communities between jihadists and peaceful Muslims. Jihadists have never been expelled from Islamic communities, but rather move freely within them. And so things like this will always happen. "Dozen Islamic militants 'infiltrated army base,'" from Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MADRID — A dozen radical Islamists have infiltrated the Spanish army garrison in Madrid's North African enclave of Ceuta, a magazine claimed on Tuesday.

Interviu magazine, citing what it describes as reports from a now-defunct spy unit, said Spanish military intelligence discovered the infiltration.

The unit had been conducting a special review for several years of the army units in Ceuta and Melilla, cities that have large Muslim populations.

The report came as 29 men - including 15 Moroccans - are on trial in Madrid for the 11 March, 2004 train bombings that left 191 dead and more than 1,800 others wounded in the Spanish capital.

The massacre was blamed on Muslim radicals angry with Spain's then-conservative government for backing the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Interviu denounced the "fundamentalist infiltration" found by military intelligence in one Ceuta-based unit that has a "long tradition of native troops and today has a large number of soldiers of the Muslim faith".

In the case of Ceuta, nearly 40 percent of the troops stationed there are Muslims.

Taliban: Cheney target of explosion in Afghanistan

The Taliban continues to reassert its presence in Afghanistan. "Cheney OK after explosion in Afghanistan," by Alisa Tang for AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber killed and wounded some two dozen people outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.

The blast happened outside the base at Bagram, north of the capital, Kabul. Cheney's spokeswoman said he was fine, and the U.S. Embassy said the vice president later met with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

There were conflicting reports on the death toll. Provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said 20 people were killed, but NATO said initial reports indicated only three were killed, including a U.S. soldier, a South Korean coalition soldier and a U.S. government contractor whose nationality wasn't immediately known. NATO said 27 people were also wounded.

It was unclear why there was such a large discrepancy in the reports.

Associated Press reporters at the scene said they had seen at least eight dead bodies carried in black body bags and wooden coffins from the base area and into the market area, where hundreds of Afghans had gathered to mourn.

Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the vice president. "He wasn't near the site of the explosion," Mitchell said. "He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion."

However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack.

"We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base," Ahmadi told AP telephone from an undisclosed location. "The attacker was trying to reach Cheney."

Mahathir: No such thing as a moderate Muslim

The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir "Jews rule the world by proxy" Mohamad, says now that Islam is by its very nature moderate, and so the label "moderate Muslim" is simply redundant. He does not address in detail, however, the jihadist intepretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah, or show why it is wrong: such a refutation remains the Great White Whale of moderate Muslims.

"No such thing as a moderate Muslim - Dr M," from Bernama, with thanks to Ken and Elisabeth:

(Bernama) -- Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today asked Muslims to do away with false assumptions when declaring themselves as moderate followers of Islam because the religion is indeed moderate.

The former prime minister said Muslims did not need to defend themselves as moderate or liberal Muslims as this gave a picture that were only partial followers of Islamic teachings while others (teachings) were deemed extreme.

"Islam is already a moderate religion...there is no need for us to show that were are more liberal Muslims than others. We are Muslims...period," he said when opening the 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Muslim Welfare Organisation of Malaysia (Perkim) here.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Perkim president, said that even if some Muslims were labelled extremists, it was not because of the teachings of Islam but a lack of understanding of them or the religion being manipulated by irresponsible followers.

"There is nothing extreme about Islam if we follow its teachings as contained in the Quran," he said.

Dr Mahathir said the ummah (faithful) and Islamic nations must intensify efforts to dispel the notion held by many of Islam as being extreme, its followers ignorant, poor, do not know how to administer a country and are fond of asking for help from others.

He said that if the negative perception of Islam continued, it would adversely affect efforts to spread the religion as "no one would be interested to join a religion whose followers are seen as losers".

"People will only be attracted when there is a successful track record...as such only when Muslims become successful in all spheres or better than others in them can we successfully carry out effective missionary activities," he said.

According to Dr Mahathir, efforts must also be intensified to give a clear an correct picture that the religion was not an obstacle to progress.

"We must encourage followers who want to be successful and competitive. We should show that Islam does not stand in the way of followers who want to attain great achievements," he said.

Gaza: Synagogues transformed into military base

Yes, Secretary Rice, clearly the Palestinian people want peace. "Plowshares beaten into swords in Gaza: Palestinians: 'Looting and burning' of Jewish holy sites 'was a great joy,'" by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

TEL AVIV – The ruins of two large synagogues in Gush Katif, the evacuated Jewish communities of the Gaza Strip, have been transformed into a military base used by Palestinian groups to fire rockets at Israeli cities and train for attacks against the Jewish state, according to a senior terror leader in Gaza.

When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, it left in tact 20 synagogues of the Gush Katif Jewish communities following an Israeli Cabinet decision against demolishing the structures.

Immediately after the Israeli evacuation was completed, Palestinians mobs destroyed most of the Gaza synagogues, including two major synagogues in Neve Dekalim, the largest Gush Katif community. In front of international camera crews, the Palestinians ripped off aluminum window frames and metal ceiling fixtures from the Neve Dekalim synagogues, which were situation close to each other in the center of town. Militants flew the Palestinian and Hamas flags from the structures before mobs burned down the synagogues.

Speaking to WND from Gaza, Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees terrorist organization, said the area where the synagogues once stood now is used to fire rockets at Israel.

"We are proud to turn these lands, especially these parts that were for long time the symbol of occupation and injustice, like the synagogue, into a military base and source of fire against the Zionists and the Zionist entity," Abu Abir said.

"The liberated lands of the destroyed ugly and Nazi settlements [Gush Katif] is our property, and we have the right to do whatever we feel is suitable for the struggle against the occupation and for the general interest of the Palestinian people," the Committees leader said.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader: Iran providing instructions in case U.S., Israel strike nuke plants

1938 Alert: "'Devastating response' if Iran nukes attacked: Terrorists say Tehran providing instructions in case U.S., Israel strike atomic facilities," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

JERUSALEM – Iran is anticipating a U.S. or Israeli military strike on its nuclear facilities and has been providing Palestinian terrorists and other regional allies with contingency plans for attacks against the Jewish state and American regional interests in the event of war, according to Palestinian terrorist leaders.

A senior leader of the Islamic Jihad terror group, which Israel says is backed by Iran, told WND Tehran is expecting to be attacked, but he didn't provide a time frame in which Iran anticipates a strike.

He claimed during any attack his organization has been directed by Iran to "wreak havoc" on Israel with suicide bombings, rocket attacks and "special surprises." He said rocket attacks would be launched from both the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank, which borders Jerusalem.

He threatened his terror group will target American interests in the Middle East whether any purported strike against Tehran is carried out by Israel or the U.S.

"The Zionists and the Americans are coordinated 100 percent. It doesn't matter who attacks Iran, we are planning to hit them both," said the Islamic Jihad leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said the topic was "very sensitive."

He said overall Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah has been coordinating war plans with Iran, Syria and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Lebanese militia. Shallah resides in Damascus and travels frequently to Tehran.

Shallah, you may recall, is confessed Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian's friend and former colleague at the University of South Florida.

Bill Maher: Islam "was extreme to begin with. Muhammad was a warrior"

I just about dropped my teeth when I saw this clip of Bill Maher agreeing with Ayaan Hirsi Ali that Islam is not a religion of peace and has not been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, and that Muhammad was not exactly the 7th-century Gandhi of Karen Armstrong's imaginings. It was also good to see Hirsi Ali coolly correct Darrell Issa's PC vaporings about how wonderfully Muslims, Christians, and Jews coexisted in the Middle East for centuries, but the most striking aspect of this segment is that Maher here casually affirms something that the mainstream media has been denying and laboring to refute for years.

Of course, it is part of the silliness of our culture that a black female ex-Muslim can say things that a white male non-Muslim would never be brought on to say -- is not the truth the same no matter who says it? But it is good that they are finally being said.

And Mr. Maher: if CAIR contacts you with demands for an apology and equal time on your show, I'd be happy to help you prepare. Contact me at director@jihadwatch.org.

Newsweek calls Hirsi Ali a "bombthrower"

From our Unintended Irony Department comes "Only One Side of the Story" by Lorraine Ali in Newsweek, in which Ali serves up a hatchet job on Ayaan Hirsi Ali and calls her a "bombthrower." The real bombs often thrown by those whom Hirsi Ali opposes don't seem to faze Lorraine Ali one bit.

Spencer: Beware the Christian Jihad?

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the new fashion in the mainstream media: exposing the alleged plot to establish a theocracy in the U.S. -- the Christian plot, that is (news links in the original):

A new book that is climbing the New York Times Bestseller List warns Americans of a dedicated minority of religious fanatics who are hijacking a great religion and actively working to destroy the United States Constitution and set up a theocracy in America, in which nonbelievers will be discriminated against or even summarily killed. Nor is their nefarious vision confined to the United States alone: this small but influential and wealthy band of religious zealots is also trying to turn events in the Middle East to their own advantage, so as to advance their religious agenda there also.

Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Muhammad Atta? No, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Tim LaHaye. The book in question is Chris Hedges’ American Fascists, which argues that America as we know it is under threat – not from Islamic jihadists, but from a small group of evangelical Christians who are determined to remake the United States as a Christian state. Warning about “Christianism,” a neologism coined to parallel “Islamism,” has become fashionable. Ranging from the merely hysterical to the ranting and paranoid, books sounding the alarms about Christian theocracy are appearing in large numbers. Among the crop published in 2006 alone were, besides Hedges’ book, American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips; The Baptizing of America by James Rudin; Kingdom Coming by Michelle Goldberg; The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege by Damon Linker; Thy Kingdom Come by Randall Balmer; Piety & Politics by Barry Lynn; and Religion Gone Bad by Mel White. Other popular books sound many of the same themes, including The Conservative Soul by homosexual activist and blogger Andrew Sullivan and the atheist apologetics The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris.

A general tendency of such books is to equate to varying degrees, often in an off-handed manner suggesting that the equivalence was self-evident, Christian and Muslim “extremists,” “radicals,” or “fundamentalists.” Hedges declared that “the Christian Right and radical Islamists, although locked in a holy war, increasingly mirror each other. They share the same obsessions. They do not tolerate other forms of belief or disbelief. They are at war with artistic and cultural expression. They seek to silence the media. They call for the subjugation of women. They promote severe sexual repression, and they seek to express themselves through violence.” Sure, we’re told, the Islamists are working to impose religious rule on their societies, but so are the Christianists, and the Christianists posed the far more immediate and serious threat. Some even charge that just as the Taliban practiced stonings and beheadings, so would these “Christianists” if they got half a chance.

The threat is imminent. Hedges claims that “those arrayed against American democracy are waiting for a moment to strike, a national crisis that will allow them to shred the Constitution in the name of national security and strength.” He even asserts that “those in the movement often speak about such a moment with gleeful anticipation.” For now – but only for now – the Christian Right is “forced to function within the political system it seeks to destroy.”

If there really is a domestic threat of religious authoritarianism that threatens to destroy the Constitution, this would be a matter of considerable concern. But as the Qur’an says, “Bring your proof, if you be truthful” (2:111; 27:64). Good advice.

In support of his claims that “those arrayed against American democracy are waiting for a moment to strike, a national crisis that will allow them to shred the Constitution in the name of national security and strength,” Chris Hedges offers only a single quotation from “right-wing strategist” Howard Phillips, who said in a speech to the Council for National Policy that “it is time to leave the ‘political Titanic’ on which the conservative movement has for too long booked passage” and to “build an ark so that we can and will be ready to renew and restore our nation and our culture when God brings the tides to flood.”

A call to shred the Constitution? Phillips’ words read more plausibly as a call to a conservative movement demoralized by defeat after defeat not to give up, but to develop a new strategy and await a day in which their message will be received more favorably.

The primary focus of the theocracy foes’ fears is a movement arising from Calvinistic circles in the United States, Christian Reconstructionism. According to the anti-theocracy writers, Christian Reconstructionism has insinuated its adherents into the highest levels of government, and want to replace the Constitution with laws mandating the stoning of homosexuals and adulterers. The proof for this comes largely from the writings of the intellectual guiding lights of the Reconstructionist movement, and the chief villains of virtually every piece devoted to exposing its enormities: two American Calvinists, Rousas John Rushdoony (who died in 2001) and his son-in-law, Gary North.

Rushdoony and North may be well cast in this villain’s role, for at least according to some reports they apparently do depart from Christian tradition in calling for capital punishment for crimes such as adultery and homosexuality, as specified in the Book of Leviticus. In a 1998 piece in Reason magazine, Rushdoony is said to defend Biblical punishments for a variety of offenders: “blasphemers, heretics, apostate Christians, people who cursed or struck their parents, females guilty of ‘unchastity before marriage,’ ‘incorrigible’ juvenile delinquents, adulterers, and (probably) telephone psychics.” North is quoted in the same article defending the ancient Biblical punishment of stoning: “Why stoning? There are many reasons. First, the implements of execution are available to everyone at virtually no cost.”

Foes of theocracy point to statements like this one from the popular Presbyterian minister and writer George Grant: “Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in the civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness. But it is dominion that we are after. Not just a voice. It is dominion we are after. Not just influence. It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time. It is dominion we are after. World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less….Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land -- of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. It is to reinstitute the authority of God’s Word as supreme over all judgments, over all legislation, over all declarations, constitutions, and confederations. True Christian political action seeks to rein the passions of men and curb the pattern of digression under God’s rule.”

Strong words. But do statements like these amount to a manifesto to subvert the non-establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution and establish Christian rule in the United States? The “theocrats” themselves deny this. Chris Ortiz of Rushdoony’s Chalcedon Foundation explains: “The paranoid secularist reads this portion of Grant and links it with the political activism and lobbying of the Religious Right in order to assemble a frightening monster of religious fascism. But, Grant would likely be the first to argue that there is no theocratic conspiracy….In other words, don’t confuse the rhetoric or ideology of certain radical thinkers with the mass of conservative Christianity.”

Grant is indeed first to argue that there is no theocratic conspiracy, or at least, if there is, that he opposes it. Responding to claims that the passage above is a declaration of intent to destroy the U.S. Constitution, he wrote in an email to me:

1. My body of work demonstrates that I am an ardent defender of the 1st Amendment.

2. I am an opponent of “state churches.”

3. I am an opponent of confusing, blurring, or overlapping the spheres of authority and jurisdictions between church and state and family. […]

The quoted passage is from a long discussion regarding cultural evangelism, not petty partisanship. It is from a discussion of ends, not means. The language is the culmination of a discourse in the realm of eschatological theology, not practical activism….

In a similar vein, Rushdoony’s Chalcedon Foundation declares: “We propose an explicitly Biblical system of thought and action as the exclusive basis for civilization. Only by restoring the Christian Faith and Biblical law as the standard of all of life can Christians hope to re-establish Christian civilizations.” Theocracy? Maybe, but the statement goes on to say: “We believe that the source of godly change is regeneration by the Holy Spirit, not revolution by the violence of man…. No government in any form can make men Christians or truly obedient; this is the work of God’s sovereign grace. Much less should civil government try to impose Biblical law on an unbelieving society. Biblical law cannot be imposed; it must be embraced.”

In fact, much of the evidence that theocracy foes point to in order to establish their point that Christians intend to subvert the U.S. Constitution and replace it with Biblical law is actually evidence only that Christian pastors and leaders have for some years been reasserting the right and duty of Christians to participate in American public life, as over against the radical secularists who contend that any political activity by Christian groups constitutes a violation of the Establishment Clause.

The more conspiracy-minded among the theocracy foes, of course, brush aside such denials. The whole thing is a secret plot, you see – what else would you expect but that the plotters would deny their plotting? After all, according to Chris Hedges, the American values of “compassion, tolerance and belief in justice and equality” are “being dismantled, often with stealth…” There can be no rational response to such paranoia, or any definitive refutation of it, but it is noteworthy to compare these denials to the open statements by Muslim leaders about the Islamic supremacist imperative. For while there is no shortage of Muslim spokesmen who proclaim their rejection of terrorism, those who are pursuing the jihad are generally quite open about their intentions – in stark contrast to the flat denials from the very Christian leaders who are supposed to be leading the push for theocracy.

Before he left Britain one step ahead of law enforcement and returned to his native Lebanon, the jihadist Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad often boasted of his intention to “transform the West into Dar Al-Islam” and establish Islamic law on British soil. “I want to see the black flag of Islam flying over Downing Street,” he said, and his now-disbanded al-Muhajiroun group was dedicated to this goal. The transformation of Britain into an Islamic state could come in two ways, he explained: “if an Islamic state arises and invades,” in which case “we will be its army and its soldiers from within.” But if no such Islamic state arises, Bakri said that Muslims would convert the West to Islam “through ideological invasion...without war and killing.”

Al-Qaeda’s second in command, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, articulated a global vision in the summer of 2006: “War with Israel is not subject to a treaty, cease-fire, Sykes-Picot Treaty agreements, patriotism or disputed borders, but it is jihad for the cause of God until the entire religion is for him only. Jihad seeks the liberation of Palestine, the entire country of Palestine and to liberate every land that used to be a territory of Islam, from Spain to Iraq. The entire world is an open field for us…With the grace of God, we have now returned to the field….Dear Muslim brothers everywhere, today we must target the Jewish and the American interests everywhere.”[1]

Until November 2003, when adverse publicity compelled them to take it down, the Islamic Affairs Department (IAD) of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington carried this statement of Islamic supremacism and belligerency on its website: “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. If Muslims do not take up the sword, the evil tyrants of this earth will be able to continue oppressing the weak and [the] helpless…”[2]

In other words, if a country is perceived to be hindering the spread of Islam, Muslims are obliged to wage war against it. The spread of Islam must continue at all costs. There can be no half-measures or peaceful coexistence with unbelievers as equals on an indefinite basis. As the Egyptian jihad theorist Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), whose works are still widely influential among Muslims worldwide, put it in his jihad manifesto Milestones (Ma’alim ‘ala Al-Tariq), which has circulated throughout the world and been published in well over a thousand editions: “Islam cannot accept any mixing with Jahiliyyah [the society of unbelievers]….Either Islam will remain, or Jahiliyyah: Islam cannot accept or agree to a situation which is half-Islam and half-Jahiliyyah….Command belongs to God, or otherwise to Jahiliyyah; God’s Shari’ah [Islamic law] will prevail, or else people’s desires. ‘And judge between them according to what God has revealed, and do not follow their opinions, and beware of them lest they confuse you in matters which God has revealed’ (Qur’an 5:50)…‘And if they do not respond to you, then know that they are following their own opinions; and who can be more misguided than one who follows his own opinion against the guidance from God? Indeed, God does not guide the wicked people.’ (Qur’an 28:50)….The foremost duty of Islam in this world is to depose Jahiliyyah from the leadership of man, and to take the leadership into its own hands and enforce the particular way of life which is its permanent feature.”[3]

The jihadist website Khilafah.com puts it succinctly: “Islam makes it a duty upon all Muslims to work to change their countries from Dar al-Kufr [the land of unbelief] to Dar al-Islam [the land of Islam]…” It exhorts Muslims to “carry Islam to the world through invitation and jihad.”

Andrew Sullivan, while sounding the alarm about Christian theocrats, concedes that Christian Reconstructionists are “marginal, extremists, and largely disowned by the fundamentalist mainstream.” Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Islamic jihadists, who are active in numerous countries around the world, and whose version of Islam is not being effectively combated by any significant movement of peaceful Muslims anywhere.

Should we turn our attention away from a real threat to an imagined one? That is what Chris Hedges and the other anti-theocracy writers are asking us to do. While fiction has always competed with reality in the public discourse about the Islamic jihad, the Christian theocracy scare books represent projection on a massive scale. Unfortunately, while Chris Hedges leads the hunt for Christian theocrats under our bed, real theocrats continue to advance a violent supremacist agenda worldwide. We ignore or dismiss that at our own risk.

Notes:

[1] “A Video Speech from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri Regarding the Events in Lebanon and Gaza – 7/27/2006,” SITE Institute, July 27, 2006.

[2] Steven Stalinsky, “The ‘Islamic Affairs Department’ of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C.,” Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) Special Report - No. 23, November 26, 2003.

[3] Sayyid Qutb, Milestones, The Mother Mosque Foundation, n.d., pp. 130-131.

Islam responsible for "almost all" of world's social ills

From Christian News Wire:

Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff comments on Islam and Sudan:

"Today Islam is responsible for almost all of the human sufferings from war, persecution, and poverty, particularly in the country of Sudan.

"Since the 1983 start of the civil war in the southern Sudan more than 4 million people have been displaced, and an estimated over 2 million have been killed because Islam has declared the Holy War (Jihad) (Qur'an 9:5) against the non-Muslim black indigenous people. Islam is responsible for more than 100,000 children either killed or sold as slaves in Muslim homes. Islam is responsible for raping and kidnapping more than 50,000 women during the war (Qur'an 4:3). Islam is responsible for cutting hands and feet of hundreds of innocent people because Islamic laws were applied; bringing shame and infirmity to many families for the rest of their lives. Islam is responsible of abusing millions of women every day through beating, atrocious treatment and emotional deprivation because of the Islamic teaching (Qur'an 4:34).

"It is a shame for any African American to embrace Islam which makes them a participant in these disgraceful acts. It is a shame to embrace Islam to enforce the practice of slavery, abuse of women and children and to humiliate human kind through persecution, poverty and destruction. Unfortunately, Islam always has two faces. The Islamic missionaries always present the peaceful, respectful and the nice face of Islam. The fact is, there is a real violent face of Islam that Muslims in North America try to hide. It is a shame for anyone who embraces Islam without thinking, asking questions or reading about the true face of Islam. Islam is responsible today for the destruction of lives and cultures. Sudan is a vivid example. Why would you want to be a Muslim and participate in their wicked ways?"

Why indeed?

Nashville cabbie: "Hitler was right"

Ibrahim Ahmed Update: "Men Claim Cabbie Praised Hitler Before Attack: Victims Say Driver Claimed 'Hitler Was Right,'" by Laura McPherson for WSMV.com, with thanks to Jennifer:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Two college students involved in an alleged attack by an angry cab driver last month testified Monday that his rage came seemingly out of the blue.

Video: Crash Victim Says Cab Driver's Rage Unexpected

They said they weren't arguing or discussing religion, but that the cab driver went on a rant saying, "Hitler was right" and that "white people should be eradicated from the earth.”
Click here to find out more!

The students said they paid their fare, but that the cab driver accelerated and ran over Jeremy Inbus.

Inbus suffered a broken leg and an injured pelvis.

Inbus said he didn’t remember the crash but that he recalled what the cab driver, Ibrahim Ahmed, told him and passenger Andy Wilson while they were in the cab.

“’Hitler did what he did and he was right for doing what he did because,’ the term he used, ‘Jews were responsible for the evil and corruption and the sin in the world. At some point, I believe Jews maybe became white people, and, you know, that’s why Hitler was a good person because he was trying to cleanse the world of these people,’” Inbus testified in court.

Ahmed is charged with attempted murder.

Police said Ahmed was driving Inbus and Wilson to the Vanderbilt area when the conversation turned to religion.

Wilson and Inbus said they told Ahmed to stop the cab once the conversation became heated.

“I just briefly said, ‘If you’re going to live in a country like ours, you’re going to have to learn to tolerate and accept other people’s beliefs and faiths, even if you don’t believe them yourself,’” Wilson testified.

“He(Ahmed) said he had become offended at the remarks the boys made and that made him very angry,” Officer John Pepper testified.

Iranian MPs enraged over test accused of mocking Muhammad

It's not just the Danes anymore. But although the questions below seem to have been understood as mocking, the Hadith contains much information about Muhammad just like the material here. In my book The Truth About Muhammad I quote Muqtedar Khan of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy: "No religious leader has as much influence on his followers as does Muhammad (Peace be upon him) the last Prophet of Islam…So much so that the words, deeds and silences (that which he saw and did not forbid) of Muhammad became an independent source of Islamic law."

By Robert Tait in The Guardian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Iranian MPs have demanded an apology from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after teachers were given government-sponsored tests deemed "insulting" to the prophet Muhammad.

Why? Did the Thug-In-Chief write these questions?

The exam - sat by teachers seeking promotion - provoked outrage by posing questions which appeared to degrade Islam's holiest figure by alluding to personal habits and proclivities. Most of the 40 multiple-choice questions have been judged so mocking that Iran's state-controlled media has refrained from publishing them.

One less offensive question, reproduced by local newspapers and websites, lists four choices when asking how Muhammad compared himself with the prophet Joseph. They are: "A) I am more beautiful than Joseph; B) Joseph is more beautiful than me; C) I am cuter than Joseph; D) Joseph is more beautiful than me but I am cuter than him." Others refer to his hair and beard colour.

The national teachers' representative body protested after the test was given to diploma and higher-diploma level teachers in Tehran province. The local education authority admitted the questions were "in bad taste" and withdrew them. An alternative exam is being drawn up for teachers who failed, although the results of those with pass marks have been declared valid.

Some MPs branded the incident a deliberate plot to undermine Iran's Islamic system and likened it to last year's row over Danish cartoons satirising Muhammad, which provoked outrage throughout the Muslim world after they were published in several European newspapers.

"What is the difference between these questions and the caricatures drawn in Denmark against the prophet?" said Emad Afrough, the fundamentalist head of the cultural committee in Iran's parliament.

[...]

Teachers were given 30 hours off classroom duties to study a biography of the prophet by the late Ayatollah Muhammad Tabatabai, a Shia philosopher whose teachings inspired many senior figures in Iran's Islamic revolutionary movement. Its strong focus on personal characteristics - including hygiene, physical appearance and eating habits - was the subject of staffroom gossip and jokes. "Some teachers were even exchanging notes on the book's content in text messages," one teacher told the newspaper Etemade Melli.

Personal questions

The test posed questions on the minutiae of the prophet Muhammad's life, including:

God's prophet never ate food with

a) Two fingers

b) Three fingers

c) Four fingers

d) Five fingers

God's prophet's hair was

a) Black

b) White

c) With the exceptions of a few hairs, predominantly black

d) Whitened at the end of his life

What colour was the prophet's beard?

a) Totally white, even upon his chin

b) Totally black, even over his chin

c) White over the chin and the rest salt and pepper

d) Salt and pepper over the chin and the rest white

On which side did God's prophet sleep?

a) On his back

b) On his chest

b) To the right

d) To the left

Saudi Arabia: 3 French travelers killed in Muslims-only area

They had stopped to rest. "3 French travelers slain in Saudi desert." from AP:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Three French travelers were killed by gunmen Monday in the Saudi Arabian desert when they stopped their car to rest on the side of a road leading to the holy city of Medina in an area restricted to Muslims only.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said it was too early to determine whether the attacks were terror-related. Saudi Arabia has been waging an intense campaign against al-Qaida militants since a wave of suicide attacks on foreigners in the kingdom in 2003.

The travelers were resting on the side of a road about 10 miles north of Medina when gunmen fired at their car, instantly killing two of the men. The third man died later after he was taken to a hospital, and the fourth Frenchman was in serious condition at an area hospital, al-Turki said.

Then AP speaks of "the Prophet Muhammad" in capsule form, with no caveat such as "Muslims believe that...":

The area the group was traveling in is restricted for Muslims only. Non-Muslims are barred from the area around Medina and neighboring Mecca, the holiest cities in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca, where he began spreading the message of Islam, until he fled to Medina. From Medina, he spread Islam until he died and was buried in the city. Muslims perform the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and usually visit Medina as well.

Ahmadinejad: Tomato price hikes an enemy plot

Partly the usual paranoia, and partly deflection of responsibility for failed economic policies. "Tomato price hikes an enemy plot: Iran president," from Reuters:

TEHERAN - Iran’s president said on Sunday the country’s enemies had hatched a range of plots to push the Islamic Republic to give up its disputed nuclear programme, including driving up the price of tomatoes and other food.

Zionists, the Great Satan, or both?

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said such tactics would not work, Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Rising prices, particularly the cost of tomatoes which form an important ingredient in Iranian food, have prompted growing public criticism of Ahmadinejad’s government. The president has often dismissed complaints as media exaggeration.

‘In order to harm us, they (enemies) make plots, for instance they come and push tomato prices up in the market. They think we will give up our ideals with their plots,’ Ahmadinejad said in a speech in which he said Iran would not reverse its atomic plans.

The West accuses Iran of seeking atomic bombs and demands Teheran halt sensitive atomic work, a step Teheran has rejected.

The United Nations has slapped restrictions on aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme and Washington has imposed sanctions on two Iranian banks and three firms. Ahmadinejad’s opponents blame price hikes on government spending policies not sanctions.

[...]

In a speech in January presenting the new budget to parliament, he also dismissed comments that tomatoes had risen to 30,000 rials ($3.25) per kg from 12,000 rials, suggesting shoppers should be more discerning about where they bought.

‘Come and buy them from the fresh fruit and vegetable market next door to us. Why are you buying them from expensive places?’ the president, who won over many voters in the 2005 presidential race with his down-to-earth style, told lawmakers.

Some shopkeepers cite the early onset of cold weather for the particularly sharp rise in the price of tomatoes, a reason Ahmadinejad has also cited in the past.

Ahmadinejad swept to power promising to share out Iran’s oil wealth more fairly, but he has been blamed for fuelling inflation by what critics call his profligate spending policies of the country’s windfall earnings from high crude prices.

Ahmadinejad says ‘no brakes’ on Iran nuclear drive

"Going off the rails on a Crazy Train" in Tehran. From AFP:

TEHERAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday defied Western threats to impose more sanctions over Iran’s contested nuclear programme, comparing its atomic drive to a ‘train with no brakes’.

Ahmadinejad’s declaration came a day before the UN Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany are to meet to discuss more possible punitive measures against Teheran.

‘Iran has reached the technology to produce nuclear fuel and Iran’s movement on this path is like a train on a one-way track with no room for stopping, reverse gear or braking,’ the president told a gathering of religious leaders.

‘A while ago, we threw away the reverse gear and the brakes of the train and we announced to them that this Iranian train has no reverse gear or braking,’ the ISNA and Fars news agencies quoted him as saying.

The UN Security Council in December imposed limited sanctions against Teheran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

A report by the UN atomic watchdog has confirmed that Iran is still continuing with uranium enrichment work in defiance of the UN Security Council, opening the way towards possible further sanctions.

The United States has never ruled out the prospect of military action to halt Iran’s nuclear programme and Vice President Dick Cheney reignited such speculation by saying that ‘all options are still on the table.’

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Teheran denies the charges, insisting its atomic programme is peaceful in nature.

Hmm. A Nuclear Program of Peace?

‘We have prepared ourselves for any situation, even if war happens,’ Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi told the ISNA news agency

He added that Iran was prepared for talks with the United States but without preconditions. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has insisted she would only hold talks if Teheran first agreed to a suspension of enrichment.

‘We have had unofficial meetings with Americans over Afghanistan and Iraq, but they say first Iran should accept US conditions and then the talks take place,’ Mohammadi said.

Ahmadinejad shrugged off the impact of a resolution against Iran, saying such a move would neither hurt the Islamic republic economically and nor affect the progress of the nuclear programme.

‘They think they can hurt us economically. Since they have threatened us and issued a resolution against us we have had record contracts. They cannot do anything,’ Ahmadinejad said.

Huh?

‘Our revolution is going fast towards the summit like a bulldozer. The enemies think they can stop this bulldozer by throwing a few pebbles at it. They then magnify their small pebbles 500 times in psychological warfare’

[...]

In another move that could increase tensions, Iran said on Sunday it had successfully launched its first rocket into space in a possible first step to launching its own satellites.

Rice: Pakistan must control border area

Indeed it must. But will it? In any case, it is good to see the White House at least doing something to call Pakistan to account.

By Terence Hunt for AP:

WASHINGTON - The White House is pressuring Pakistan to crack down on al-Qaida and Taliban operatives in the lawless border area with Afghanistan that President Bush recently said was "wilder than the Wild West."

The move comes amid growing concern in Congress and the administration that terrorist forces are regrouping in the border area and preparing for a spring offensive in Afghanistan.

Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Pakistan on Monday for talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. The Bush administration wants Musharraf to be more aggressive in hunting down al-Qaida operatives, and has raised the possibility that Congress could cut aid to Pakistan unless it takes tougher steps.

Cheney praised Pakistan's contribution in the war against terrorism but also "expressed U.S. apprehensions of regrouping of al-Qaida in the tribal areas and called for concerted efforts in countering the threat," Musharraf's office said.

"He expressed serious U.S. concerns on the intelligence being picked up of an impending Taliban and al-Qaida 'spring offensive' against allied forces in Afghanistan," the statement said.

February 26, 1993

On this day fourteen years ago, Islamic jihadists set off a bomb in the World Trade Center, killing six people, wounding 1,000, and causing $500 million in damage.

Over eight years later, Islamic jihadists brought down those same Towers.

One might have been forgiven for thinking, in the interim between February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001, that the problem of "terrorism" was under control, and that the 1993 strike was a lucky hit that would not be repeated.

These days, likewise, I am frequently asked in radio interviews whether I think there is really a problem with terrorism on American soil, since, after all, there has not been a terrorist attack here since September 11. Well, this has not been for want of trying, as the archives here abundantly illustrate. But what's more, we should note that those who grew complacent between 1993 and 2001 were wrong to do so, and so are those who have grown complacent now.

More "misconceptions" about Islam

In "Removing the ‘cloak’ of religious extremism" for the Common Ground News Service (via Middle East Online), Laura McAleer, a student at Georgetown University, and Hala Ali, a student at South Valley University of Cairo, who together participated in a "Western-Arab intercultural dialogue program," spin some fanciful but familiar tales:

Washington, D.C./Cairo Egypt - In the wake of September 11th, many in the Western world have struggled to correctly identify acts of terrorism and their perpetrators. Often, people reading newspapers and watching television news reach the conclusion that such acts were committed in the name of jihad, the Islamic concept commonly, and incorrectly, defined as "holy war."

Why do they rush to such a conclusion? Could it be because of statements urging "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders"? Of course not. The primary culprit here is -- who else? -- Westerners. Oh, and "others" do it too, which is like saying "In 1933 in Germany a regime came to power consisting of some established German politicians such as Franz von Papen, along with some others."

Many Westerners (and others around the world) equate the two, developing misconceptions about Islam and the Muslim community. This misunderstanding is detrimental to relations between the U.S. and the Arab world, and it can only be mitigated by recognising the distinct definitions of both terrorism and jihad.

The U.S. State Department, according to the official National Strategy for Combating Terrorism policy document, defines terrorism as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents," usually intended to influence an audience. It is an act condemned by all religions that aims to shake the stability of major world powers and seeks to undermine their capabilities and threaten their futures.

The events of September 11th clearly fit this description. However, the fact that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were committed by a group of people acting in the name of Islam has lead to a great deal of prejudice toward the Muslim community in the United States and around the world. This is evidenced by a March 2006 Washington Post-ABC News Poll, which reported that 33% of Americans believe Islam condones violence against non-Muslims (up from 14% in 2002). Even Americans who said they understood Islam and were more likely to see the religion overall as peaceful and respectful were no less likely to say it harbours harmful extremists, and they were also no less likely to have prejudiced feelings against Muslims.

You see that the 33% of Americans who believe that Islam condones violence against non-Muslims do not understand Islam, while those who see it as peaceful "understand it." Unfortunately, McAleer and Ali do not explain how such passages as Qur'an 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, as well as ahadith such as Sahih Muslim 4294, and innumerable other similar passages, can be understood in a way that does not somehow condone violence.

Also, does the Islamic world harbor "harmful extremists"? Even if they have "hijacked" the religion, isn't that self-evident with every day's headlines?

What is the definition of jihad that Muslims feel is accurate and want the Western world to understand?

The best way to get the Western world to understand this would be to live it out, and to rein in those who commit violent acts in the name of jihad.

The word "jihad" is derived from an Arabic root (J H D) that means to make good use of your virtues, good nature, and God's gifts to help please yourself and others. More specifically, one could say that to practice jihad is to make every effort to worship and obey God, to gain knowledge, to advise others how to be good and true believers in God, and to work hard to spread peace, freedom, love, and tolerance. Moreover, the word "Islam" is derived from the Arabic word "saalam", which means peace.

Actually no, it is not derived from "saalam"; rather, both Islam and salam are derived from the same SLM root. And "Islam," of course, means "submission."

The events of 9/11 and terrorism acts committed since then cannot, when the true meaning of 'jihad' is considered, be seen as acts of jihad. Rather, they were planned and executed by those who chose to use their religion as a sort of cloak. A comparison can be made to the Crusades: the Crusaders of Europe acted in the name of Christianity, but the tenets of Christianity (both then and now) do not allow for their horrible, even "terrorist" actions. The Islamic extremists who commit acts of terrorism are somewhat similar to the Crusaders; they have misunderstood, misinterpreted, and grown accustomed to distortions of Islam, and they have used these misrepresentations as a basis for action.

It is exceedingly odd, then, is it not, that those Muslims who hold to an undistorted, unmisrepresented version of Islam have not managed to mount any large-scale, comprehensive program to teach Muslims to reject the jihadist version of Islam. If what McAleer and Ali are saying is true, this shouldn't be difficult. Is it too much to ask for?

Clearly, those Muslims who have been involved in terrorism have been acting on their own personal beliefs which do not accurately represent the tenets of the faith or the convictions of the majority of the world's Muslim population. Rather, the Qur'an teaches that "anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he murdered all people. And anyone who spares a life, it shall be as if he spared the lives of all people…"

This is the oft-quoted verse 5:32, which is followed by 5:33, which says: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land..." What's more, in condemning "anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes," the Qur'an leaves a huge loophole for someone who believes that he is killing someone who has committed horrendous crimes and thus deserves his fate. And that's just what Osama bin Laden thinks.

The basic truths about the concept of jihad have not been widely disseminated in the West.

I couldn't agree more!

The resulting dearth of information is not only a disappointing disconnect between two cultures, but also a major cause of further terrorist acts.

So are McAleer and Ali saying that Americans' alleged "ignorance" about jihad causes terrorism? I can't begin to figure out how the reasoning behind that one goes, unless they're making a D'Souza-like point -- something like, our thinking jihad can be violent so enrages Muslims that they turn to...jihad violence.

And yes, that is what is going on:

The fact that many Americans and other Westerners fail to make an effort to understand Islam and, as revealed by the polling described above, are suspicious of all Muslims they meet, can only serve to drive more and more Muslims under the "cloak" of Islamic extremism. This cycle of misperception leading to further violence can only be stopped through education. With proper definitions and through mutual understanding, the "cloak" can be removed from those who have engaged in acts of terrorism in the past, and future acts can be prevented.

So we are to believe that Westerners' suspicion of Muslims, arising from 9/11, drives Muslims to become "extremists." So put yourself in that position: imagine yourself as a Muslim who "understands" Islam, and is aware that jihad is a peaceful interior struggle, and that those who commit violence in the name of jihad lack any justification whatsoever within Islam itself. Then 9/11 happens, and some Americans start being unkind to you. This so enrages you that you begin to misunderstand Islam, and join a group that promotes violent jihad. Anger toward being unjustly suspected has led you to throw the truth of your religion overboard and to join a gang you had hitherto regarded as heretics and criminals.

This is the Dinesh D'Souza theory of one of the causes of jihad violence. I think its absurdity is self-evident.

The myth of Muslim support for terror

Terror Free Tomorrow, an organization that recommends jizya as an antidote to terror, says that Islamic terrorism isn't that big a deal anyway. In "The myth of Muslim support for terror: The common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews" in the Christian Science Monitor (thanks to Ahsen), Kenneth Ballen, the founder and president of Terror Free Tomorrow, explains that poll results show that more Americans support terrorism than do people in majority-Muslim countries:

WASHINGTON - Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.

The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified."

Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are "never justified"; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent.

It would have been interesting to see how the results would have changed if the people in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria had been asked about jihad violence, instead of about terrorist violence.

Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?

Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that's an understandable polling result.

Mr. Ballen is generous to grant that. He might have added that the evasions and smear tactics that self-professed moderate Muslims frequently employ in the West against those who are exploring the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify their actions only feed the suspicions of Westerners who are unfooled by the reflexive cries of "racism" and "bigotry."

But these stereotypes, affirmed by simplistic media coverage and many radicals themselves, are not supported by the facts – and they are detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical views to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that has the very real effect of marginalizing critical allies in the war on terror.

Who in the West really "attributes radical views to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims"? What the Qur'an and Sunnah teach, and how those teachings have been interpreted by the schools of Islamic law, is one thing, but what any given Muslim knows or cares about all that is quite another. By conflating the two, as is common practice in the mainstream media, Ballen is just setting up a straw man and obscuring the crucial effort need in order to distinguish true "critical allies in the war on terror" from false ones.

Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.

I don't believe it when Dinesh D'Souza says it, and I don't believe it when Ballen says it. Stereotyping is always annoying, but the idea that it would make peaceful people turn violent is, at the mildest, unproven. And if Ballen means by stereotyping examinations of the violent elements of the Qur'an, Sunnah, and Islamic law, I still maintain that any genuine Muslim reformer will not react with rage and radicalism to an exploration of the elements of Islam that need reforming.

Terror Free Tomorrow's 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 percent of bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 percent in Pakistan said they thought more favorably of the United States as a result of American humanitarian assistance in their countries – not exactly the profile of hard-core terrorist sympathizers.

Nonsense. If America wants to pay jizya, the jihadists certainly will not refuse it.

For most people, their professed support of terrorism/bin Laden can be more accurately characterized as a kind of "protest vote" against current US foreign policies, not as a deeply held religious conviction or even an inherently anti- American or anti-Western view.

This view founders, of course, on the fact that jihad violence is much older than current US foreign policies.

In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews. Whether recruits to violent causes join gangs in Los Angeles or terrorist cells in Lahore, the enemy is the violence they exalt.

Indeed. But how to address this phenomenon, and combat it? In Lahore it cannot be ignored that people join terror cells because they believe it is their religious responsibility to do so, and that they will be rewarded with Paradise. To ignore this because of political correctness would be silly, and possibly dangerous.

Our surveys show that not only do Muslims reject terrorism as much if not more than Americans, but even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology can be won over by positive American actions that promote goodwill and offer real hope.

America's goal, in partnership with Muslim public opinion, should be to defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on our common humanity. And we can start by recognizing that Muslims throughout the world want peace as much as Americans do.

D'Souza couldn't have said it better, Mr. Ballen. But neither you nor he explain how we can identify these peace-loving Muslims, much less build alliances with them. Maybe the Muslims throughout the world who want peace as much as Americans do could start off the kumbaya party by taking decisive and effective action to pronounce takfir on Osama bin Laden and all violent jihadists and Islamic supremacists. Takfir is the declaration that they are so far outside the pale of Islamic orthodoxy that they are non-Muslims. One would think that since most Muslims abhor what they do, that shouldn't be a difficult operation to perform, should it?

Muslim insurgency stokes fear in southern Thailand

From the International Herald Tribune:

PATTANI, Thailand: Some are already calling it war, a brutal Muslim separatist insurgency in southern Thailand that has taken as many as 2,000 lives in three years, with almost daily bombings, drive-by shootings, arson and beheadings.

It is a conflict the government admits it is losing. A harsh crackdown and martial law in recent years seem only to have fueled the insurgency, generating fear and anger and undermining moderate Muslim voices.

A new policy of conciliation pursued by Thailand's junta since it took power in a coup five months ago has been met by increased violence, including a barrage of 28 coordinated bombings in the south that killed or injured about 60 people a week ago.

"The momentum of violence is now beyond the control of government policy," said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkhla University here.

[...]

"Buddhist monks have been hacked to death, clubbed to death, bombed and burned to death," said Sunai Phasuk, a political analyst with the Human Rights Watch monitoring group. "This has never happened before. This is a new aspect of violence in the south."

Some remote areas in the south have become, in effect, no-go zones for the police or military, according to Francesca Lawe-Davies, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Exactly the sort of thing happening in the major metropolitan centers of Western Europe.

"It appears in the last year or so that insurgent groups are actually starting to control territory in a more conventional sense," she said.

Some Buddhist and Muslim villages have begun sealing themselves off from one another. People say that old friendships and patterns of cooperation are being undermined by mistrust.

In a report published last month, Zachary Abuza, the author of "Militant Islam in Southeast Asia," said that entire Buddhist communities have fled in a "de facto ethnic cleansing."

"The social fabric of the south has been irreparably damaged," he said.

[...]

"In the local communities in the red zones, it already is a war situation," Srisompob said. "It is different now from last year, from the last two years."

About 1.3 million ethnic-Malay Muslims form a majority in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, accounting for a tiny percentage of Thailand's overwhelmingly Buddhist population of 65 million.

The Muslims have complained of discrimination and attempts at forced assimilation since Thailand annexed the former Sultanate of Pattani a century ago. Armed insurgencies have risen and subsided over the past four decades, but the government may now be facing its most dangerous challenge.

"What is new about the current conflict is the level and degree of violence, the Islamist agenda of the insurgents, and their unprecedented degree of cooperation and coordination," Abuza said.

"The level of violence in Thailand's south has never been higher," he said. "Nor has it been more brutal."

He said there had been more than 24 beheadings in the past three years and as many as 60 attempted beheadings.

Human Rights Watch counted more than 6,000 violent incidents over the past three years. It said that more than 60 teachers and 10 students had been killed and 110 schools — the most visible signs of central government authority in many places — had been set ablaze.

The insurgency is all the more difficult to combat because it does not show its face. Unlike similar movements around the world, this one has not set out its demands or published a manifesto. It is a collection of violent groups without an identifiable central leadership.

"We are fighting a ghost," said Chidchanok Rahimmula, a lecturer in security at Prince of Songkhla University.

The new policy of conciliation was put in place by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, a Muslim, who took power after Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as prime minister in a coup in September.

Surayud apologized for the harsh policies his predecessor implemented during his six years in office, promised to investigate abuses and restructured the military command for the south.

People in rural areas say that soldiers and police officers have become less aggressive and are attempting to reach out by attending local fairs and holding dialogues.

Last week, Surayud conceded that none of this was working. "We can't see the results in three to four months because the painful feelings of southern people in the past four to five years run deep," he said. "This is not easy to cure."

Indeed, the insurgency has responded by stepping up its violence, in an apparent effort to block any peace process. There has been no serious reply to Surayud's offer of negotiations.

People who live here, both in the villages and urban areas, say they have never been so frightened.

Lawsuit over Roxbury mosque dismissed

An update on this story. "Lawsuit over mosque site is dismissed," by Stephen Kurkjian for the Boston Globe:

A Suffolk Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit that contended the Boston Redevelopment Authority's sale of a parcel of land in Roxbury for a price significantly below its appraised value to the Islamic Society of Boston violated the constitutional separation between religious groups and the state.

Judge Sandra L. Hamlin ruled that James C. Policastro of Mission Hill did not have legal standing to challenge the sale because he did not file his lawsuit within 30 days of the sale, which the Legislature set as the BRA's deadline for appealing the agency's decisions. Policastro filed his suit on Sept. 28, 2004, more than 16 months after the BRA sold the parcel. The sale price for the parcel was $175,000, and the society spent another $43,820 to improve the land. It had been appraised at more than $400,000.

The Islamic Society planned to build the largest mosque in New England on the site, along with a school and a cultural center, but completion of the project has been delayed by funding problems and controversy over extremist remarks by two former officials of the society.

In her decision, Hamlin rejected Policastro's contention that he was not bound by the BRA's deadline but instead should be afforded the court's customary three-year period to bring the suit because he was contesting the agency's decision on constitutional grounds.

Hamlin, however, said she was basing her ruling on a 1988 Supreme Judicial Court decision that held that taxpayers were limited to the 30-day period to appeal decisions of redevelopment agencies.

In an interview yesterday, Policastro said that because he was not paying for the lawsuit himself, the decision whether to appeal would be up to his lawyer, Samuel Perkins of Boston. Perkins said yesterday that he would appeal. Policastro and Perkins both declined to say who was paying for the lawsuit.

Perkins said Policastro remains determined to find out why the BRA was so intent on selling the 45,000-square-foot parcel, located in Roxbury Crossing, to the Islamic Society. A related suit filed by the David Project, a nonprofit Jewish advocacy group, to force the BRA to release all documents related to the sale, remains open.

"The city isn't getting full payment for the land, and there are a lot of things that we need to be aware of that we are not," Policastro said yesterday.

A spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Boston praised Hamlin's decision in a statement.

"We are very pleased that the court put an end to the legal campaign against the Islamic Society of Boston, which is part of a greater effort by those seeking to oppose area Muslims from building a place of worship," said Jessica Masse, the society's inter faith coordinator. "Part of Mr. Policastro's suit demanded that the ISB return the land and the mosque be torn down. Now this threat is gone. It is full steam ahead now -- we will see our mosque built to completion."

Albert L. Farrah Jr., a lawyer for the Islamic Society, said Hamlin's decision was a proper one that would discourage legal objections to redevelopment projects long after contractors had broken ground on the jobs.

About $12 million has been spent on the project so far, and Massie said yesterday that the Islamic Society hoped to raise another $2 million to complete construction of the mosque and part of the school in time to open by the beginning of the Ramadan season in September.

With a great deal of funding coming from the usual suspects, the Saudis.

A message and a reply

In this post I quoted several Qur'an verses that are being used by Muslims today to justify mistreatment of women and warfare against non-Muslims. A comment appeared in the comments field there that I thought worth a separate posting, along with my reply.

Here is the comment, a message to me:

Robert,

As a Muslim and aspiring filmmaker, it hurts and disturbs me that you make a living off of criticizing and vilifying my beautiful and peaceful way of Life. I just want you to know that Muslims all around the world, including the CAIR organization will always be there to stand up and speak out against your immaturity, ignorance, and prejudice.

Hate never did the world any good and I personally think you should be ashamed of yourself for calling yourself a Christian while you demonize your Abrahamic brothers/sisters. I think there's still a lot you need to learn about being a human being. I'm only 23 years old, yet I have learned in life that not all adults are mature and grown up. From the quality of your work, it shows that you don't care about compassion or peace, but separation and war.

Don't you feel ashamed of yourself at all for being so negative and prejudice? Is this the type of world you want people to live in? Do you want to keep spreading intolerance and ignorance in the United States? Do you want your children to be just as hateful and ignorant as you? Let me tell you something, I would NEVER IN MY LIFE insult another religion or direct my work at a specific group of people because I CARE about other people's feelings. Islam teaches us to journey outside of ourselves and help people who are in need. I could easily get a book published if I said some bad things about my religion because that's what the world wants, they like when ex-Muslims write negative things about Islam, but no thank you, I choose God over worldly "success" because His Love is Greater than anything people like YOU have ever known. The Love I have for my people is greater than yours because my work stems from Truth and flows with compassion and peace, they came from my Heart. Yours are filled with lies and deception. How are you making the world a better place?? You're making it worse. Because of people like you, I have to worry about my children being picked on just because of their ethnicity and religious background. Because of people like you, I can't stand up for my rights without someone complaining and saying Islamophobia is some "myth." A myth? I've been pulled over by police officers so many times while working on my independent films, just because I'm brown skinned, but do I judge all Americans and say they are evil? No, of course not! America is a country founded on religious freedom and tolerance, Mr. Spencer, and even our elementary schools teach us to treat others as human beings and to never judge people based on the color of their skin, religion, or nationality.

Shame on you, Mr. Spencer.

No matter what you do, Muslims will always be here. And I know that bothers you. Just remember that peace, tolerance, and Love is being taught to you RIGHT NOW by a Muslim, and I hope one day, insha'Allah, you will see my films.

Salaam, Shalom, Shlama, Peace

~JehanZeb~

al-jahil 'adoww nafsoh
The ignorant is his own enemy

And my reply:

JehanZeb

Thanks for your note. For someone who supposedly eschews hate, it is interesting that it is so full of insults and inaccurate, pejorative characterizations of my work.

It is also interesting that you don't address any of the Qur'an passages I quoted above, or explain what you plan to do to keep Muslims from interpreting them, as you well know that many do, in a way that harms women and non-Muslims. As long as you and others like you continue to claim that such Qur'an quotes only manifest "ignorance" and "hate" on the part of those who quote them, and as long as you engage in defamation of those who explore the elements of Islam that are giving rise to violence in the world today instead of setting out some positive ways to mitigate the effects of such verses among Muslims, you will be contributing to the climate of suspicion toward Muslims that you claim to be a victim of.

And you are contributing to that climate of suspicion far more effectively than I ever could.

Cordially
Robert Spencer

Report: Jihadist threat to Britain worst since 9/11

"It is thought the plotters could number more than 2,000," up from the 1600 estimated last November. "Secret report: Terror threat worst since 9/11," by Sean Rayment for the Telegraph:

The terrorist threat facing Britain from home-grown al-Qaeda agents is higher than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001, secret intelligence documents reveal.

The number of British-based Islamic terrorists plotting suicide attacks against "soft" targets in this country is far greater than the Security Services had previously believed, the government paperwork discloses. It is thought the plotters could number more than 2,000.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert:

Under the heading "International Terrorism in the UK", the document - seen by The Sunday Telegraph - states: "The scale of al-Qaeda's ambitions towards attacking the UK and the number of UK extremists prepared to participate in attacks are even greater than we had previously judged."

It warns that terrorist "attack planning" against Britain will increase in 2007, and adds: "We still believe that AQ [al-Qaeda] will continue to seek opportunities for mass casualty attacks against soft targets and key infrastructure. These attacks are likely to involve the use of suicide operatives."

The document, which has been circulated across Whitehall to MI5, Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorist Command, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence, also reveals that al-Qaeda has grown into a world-wide organisation with a foothold in virtually every Muslim country in North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director general of MI5, warned recently that there were more than 1,600 "identified individuals" actively engaged in plotting terrorist attacks. There were 200 known networks involved in at least 30 terrorist plots. It is thought that the number of British citizens involved in plots could be well in excess of 2,000.

MI5 believes that soft targets, such as the transport system and economic targets such as the City of London and Canary Wharf, are most at risk.

A senior political source said the picture painted by the document was "particularly bleak and unlikely to improve for several years".

He said: "The Security Services have constantly warned that the task of countering Islamist terrorism is a daunting one. There will be more attacks in Britain."

Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman for homeland security, said: "This document absolutely underlines the threat and makes me wonder why the Government still has a counter-terrorist strategy that has been officially declared obsolete. It does make the Government's response look hugely complacent."

Entitled Extremist Threat Assessment, the document, which was drawn up this month, also discloses that Afghanistan, where more than 7,000 British troops will be based by the end of May, is expected to supersede Iraq as the location for terrorists planning Jihad against the West.

It says that al-Qaeda's influence extends from North Africa, including Egypt, through to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, and into Somalia and Sudan. Al-Qaeda is "resilient and effective" in Iraq, its "operating environment and financial position" in Pakistan has improved and a new group had emerged in Yemen.

CAIR outraged at NC high school class

This Raleigh News & Observer story about Kamil Solomon's presentation on Islam at Enloe High School in North Carolina, "Students told to shun Muslims" by Yonat Shimron and Kinea White Epps, quotes CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper and a student, but not Kamil Solomon himself. As such the claims about what was said have to be taken with a grain of salt. And a few elements bear closer examination:

RALEIGH - A national Muslim advocacy group has rebuked the Wake County Public School system for allowing a Christian evangelist to speak at Enloe High School and distribute pamphlets denouncing Islam.

The Council on American Islamic Relations said the school system will have created a "discriminatory, hostile learning environment," violating federal civil rights law, if it does not investigate the incident and apologize to students.

The complaint stems from a guest appearance last week in several classes by Kamil Solomon, a Raleigh-based Christian evangelist, who urged students to shun Muslims.

"When you bring in somebody to distribute hate-filled literature without an opportunity for rebuttal, you have a disturbing situation," said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the national council, known as CAIR....

Great, Ibrahim. I am available to rebut your literature whenever and wherever you distribute it. You know where to contact me.

Solomon's appearance Friday in teacher Robert Escamilla's social studies classes at Enloe, a magnet school for gifted and talented students, shocked many who took the pamphlets home and showed them to their parents, students said. One pamphlet, comparing Jesus with Muhammad, says the Muslim prophet "enslaved people, abused women and taught Muslims to terrorize non-Muslims and force them into Islam."

Well, that's a summary statement, of course, but a case can be made for it. The N&O assumes prima facie that it is false, but on what evidence? Hooper's word?

One wonders, however, why people keep getting this impression about Muhammad. Hooper could do more to keep this sort of thing from happening by dropping the bully-boy intimidation tactics and addressing the elements of the Qur'an and Sunnah that give rise to this view of Muhammad. Did he enslave people? Of course. His life, as detailed in the earliest Islamic sources (which I used for my own biography, The Truth About Muhammad) is full of battles, after which his men enslaved their captives. This is also in the Qur’an, which assumes that a Muslim will be a slaveowner, and prescribes freeing a slave as the penalty for breaking an oath (5:89). The Qur’an also includes directions about marriage with slaves: "And marry such of you as are solitary and the pious of your slaves and maid-servants" (24:32).

"Abused women"? Well, the Qur'an does sanction wife-beating: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them" (4:34).

"...taught Muslims to terrorize non-Muslims and force them into Islam"? Terror is in the Qur'an too: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies..." (8:60). "Force them into Islam"? Forced conversion? No. But non-Muslims, including the "People of the Book" -- Jews and Christians -- are to be fought until they are subjugated and made to pay a poll-tax (jizya) from which Muslims are exempt: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (9:29).

So is Kamil Solomon being vilified for telling the truth? Memo to Ibrahim Hooper: non-Muslims can read those Qur'ans you're sending out. In fact, I encourage them to do so. And they can see that when people do what I just did -- quote some problematic passages -- you don't explain them, or make any effort to keep Muslims from taking such passages as marching orders. Instead, you vilify the non-Muslim who quotes them as "hateful." Well, people are seeing through your game. Until you engage these issues honestly and forthrightly, people will see you as disingenuous or worse -- except the mainstream media, I suppose, and that's all that matters.

Back to the article:

"He basically told us Muslims were bad and we should convert to Christianity," said Alyssa Kaszycki, 14, of Cary, who heard Solomon during a freshman seminar class. "He told all the girls we should never marry a Muslim man because they would take away our freedom and beat us."...

Did he really tell her "Muslims were bad"? Maybe he did, but I doubt it. I don't know Kamil Solomon, but I expect he is as aware as we all are that human nature is everywhere the same, people are people everywhere, some are good, some are not so good, and no one is perfect. But none of that negates the fact that some Muslims do act upon Qur'an 4:34 and other verses regarding women, and their presence in the Islamic holy book, unmitigated by any interpretative tradition that rejects literalism, makes the mistreatment of women systemic and self-perpetuating.

Michael Evans, Wake County schools spokesman, said the district was looking into the matter.

"We're going to take the accusations seriously," Evans said. "It is part of our ongoing investigation. We need to ascertain what happened and what comments were made."...

I hope they do, accurately, without allowing themselves to be mau-maued by CAIR.

Fitzgerald: We are not Jimmy Carter -- are we?

A poster at Jihad Watch recently expressed conventional wisdom when he wrote: "The Iraqi military is not ready yet. Chaos would be the result. Iran would take the opportunity to control the southern half of Iraq, along with substantial additional oil resources. If the U.S. will not aggressively deal with Iraq, there is no chance it will deal with Iran."

I replied:

What is the "Iraqi military"? Is it Sunni Arab? Is it Shi'a Arab? Is it Arab rather than Kurd? Explain to me exactly the makeup, and real desires of, and size, and competence, of this "Iraqi military" you posit. Are there Sunni units and Shi'a units, or mixed units, and if there are mixed units, how do you think they perform now together? In the future? Ever?

And why do you say that "chaos would be result"? Would not a civil war be the result? It would not necessarily be "chaos," for most of the country is clearly Sunni-Arab-ruled, or Shi'a-Arab ruled, or Kurdish (non-Arab)-ruled, save for Baghdad. Would chaos exist for a long time? Would not the armed parties on either side quickly establish their own lines, and then would not something like the civil war in, say, Russia, ensue, with here the Sunnis defeating the Shi'a or being defeated, and here the Kurds pushing out the Arabs, or vice-versa? Is that "chaos"?

And if it were "chaos," why would that be bad for us, the Infidels? Why do you have such a difficult time envisioning an area of constant warfare, and unsettlement, with that very warfare, those hostilities, that constant unsettlement, keeping everyone preoccupied, each with each? And what's more, there would be the interference of co-religionists, chiefly of Iran and of Lebanon's Hezbollah, on the side of the Shi'a, supplying money, men, and weapons. Saudi Arabia and other rich Arabs would supply money to the Sunnis of Iraq, while Sunni volunteer soldiers might arrive from everywhere in the Sunni Arab lands, but especially from Egypt, Jordan, and even Syria, whose Alawite rulers would be glad to see those Sunni warriors go elsewhere to fight and die.

Why is this a bad thing? Why is this not a good thing, as good or possibly even better than the eight-year Iran-Iraq War?

And why are you so quick to predict that the Shi'a of Iran will, whatever aid they send, simply come naturally to control southern Iraq? What makes you say that? The Islamic Republic of Iran cannot even control the Arabs now within its borders, in Khuzistan. What makes you think the Arabs of Iraq would not simply take Iranian aid, to be used against the Sunnis, but still wish to preserve their own independence? This business of one vast Shi'a state is a fear now being whipped up by the governments of Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, in order to inveigle the Americans to remain as long as possible in Iraq to protect the Sunnis -- even as the Sunnis in Iraq assume that they can continue to try to kill as many Americans as possible. It's a false fear that the Sunnis are attempting to raise in Washington, a kind of bookend to the false hopes that were raised by plausible westernized Shi'a in exile, such as Ahmed Chalabi, who wanted to inveigle the Americans into getting rid of Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Shi'a. Remember all those promises about how the "liberation of Baghdad would make the liberation of Kabul look like a funeral procession"? That was, I believe, Bernard Lewis, but it could have been any number of American advisors and strategists who were confusing the secular, westernized Chalabi, Alawi, Kanan Makiya, Rend al-Rahim et al., with the real Shi'a of Iraq, who are represented much more truthfully by al-Hakim, and al-Maliki, and al-Jaffari (the man who on his Washington visit called for a "Bush Plan" for Iraq, just like the Marshall Plan for post-war Europe), and of course the ineffable los-de-abajo Moqtada al-Sadr.

We were fooled by Shi'a hopes, and now are being fooled by the exaggerated fears of the Sunnis. When, for god's sake when, will Americans in both the Executive and Legislative branches, finally become immunized to this kind of middle-eastern-souk bargaining, promises ("I love you, effendi, I love you more than I love my mother, I love you more than I love my father"), threats, and all the rest of the Arab blague? Good God, how naive can people be? After all, we are not schoolgirls, we are not Samantha Smith, we are not Jimmy Carter -- are we?

Canada court rejects terror law

How very interesting that a law that has been in place since 1978 would only now be found to be at variance with Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. From the BBC, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Canada's Supreme Court has struck down a controversial system that allowed the government to detain and deport foreign-born terror suspects.

The nine judges ruled that the security certificate system - in place since 1978 - violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The debate over the law pitched security against individual rights
Canada's Supreme Court has struck down a controversial system that allowed the government to detain and deport foreign-born terror suspects.

The nine judges ruled that the security certificate system - in place since 1978 - violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The system allowed a suspect to be held indefinitely or deported on the basis of evidence presented in secret.

The case was brought by three men who deny accusations of links to al-Qaeda.

'Fair process'

The Supreme Court has given parliament one year to rewrite the section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act - under which the certificates are issued - to comply with the constitution.

"Before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process," wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin on behalf of all nine judges.

ACLU: US Can't Bar Terrorism Supporters

From AP:

A civil rights group asked a judge Friday to find it unconstitutional for the federal government to exclude a prominent Muslim scholar or anyone else from the United States on the grounds that they may have endorsed or espoused terrorism.

Another blow for civil liberties in America: "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Terrorism."

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the papers attacking the policy in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The group included in its submissions a written declaration in which the scholar, Tariq Ramadan, said he has always "opposed terrorism not only through my words but also through my actions."

The ACLU said schools and organizations who want to invite Ramadan and others into the United States are concerned about what is known as the ideological exclusion provision.

It said an entry in the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual says that the provision is directed at those who have voiced "irresponsible expressions of opinion."

The group said the provision violates the First Amendment and has resulted since 2001 in the exclusion from the United States of numerous foreign scholars, human rights activists and writers, barred "not for legitimate security reasons but rather because the government disfavors their politics."

The ACLU said some foreign scholars and writers are now reluctant to accept invitations to the United States because they will be subjected to ideological scrutiny and possibly denied entry.

And might have their feelings hurt, one hastens to add.

Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for government lawyers, said she had no comment Friday.

You could have managed better than that, Rebekah.

Before his visa was revoked in 2004, Ramadan had spoken at Harvard University, Stanford University and elsewhere. He said he continues to decline numerous invitations to appear in the United States, including a request by The American Academy of Religion to speak next November at its annual meeting.

Jihadists killed when their bomb explodes prematurely

Whoops. "Biking militants die when bomb explodes prematurely," from AP, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

CHEECHA WATNI, Pakistan (AP) -- Three Islamic militants died in eastern Pakistan when a powerful bomb they were transporting by bicycle accidentally exploded Saturday near a bustling cattle market, police said.

Mohammed Shakil, a police inspector at the scene, told The Associated Press one of the men riding a bicycle had strapped explosives to his body that exploded prematurely, killing himself and the two others in Cheecha Watni, a town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Multan, a city in Punjab province.

Shakil said the slain men were students of a local seminary and had links with Sipah-e-Sahaba -- a Sunni militant group outlawed by the government in 2001 in an effort to purge Pakistan of extremism.

Local police chief Mohammed Bashir said the cattle market with hundreds of customers may have been the target, or police who had gathered for a funeral service at the home of an officer recently killed in a gunbattle with militants.

The severed head of one of the militants was found in a nearby field, Shakil said. Police collected the suspects' remains for DNA testing.

Fitzgerald: What was done, what is being done, what should be done

It was right, proper, necessary to destroy Iraq's military power, and its regime. The Ba'athist regime owed its origin to the desperate attempt of Syrian Christians to concoct an ideology that would be an alternative to naked Islam (Michel Aflaq, the founder of Ba'athism, converted to Islam on his deathbed; his life was one of pathetic dhimmitude, while his Communazi Ba'athism did little, really, to defang Islam). Despite being ostensibly "secular," whenever necessary the Ba’athist regime made appeal to Islam: witness Saddam Hussein's use of the Battle of Qadassiyah, the Qur’anic inscription put on the flag, the Qur'an written using his own blood, etc. Like that other "secularist," Nasser, Saddam Hussein was a Muslim through and through in his essential attitudes -- simply one who wanted to start with a unified Arabdom rather than aim for a worldwide Caliphate a la Bin Laden.

But the current campaign is a diversion of men, materiel, and attention. We should be winning back Europe by promoting a long-overdue alarm about the demographic invasion. We should expose the international alliance of fellow-travellers of Islam, from certain members of the BBC (such as John Simpson) and Agence France Press (which is, in its Middle East coverage, virtually a handmaiden of the PA) to some in the European media and in the EU hierarchy, including Javier Solana, Chris Patten, and others. Their antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes are mutually reinforcing. Those who display either or both are obviously, in their analyses and attitudes, the ones least inclined to see Islamic tenets as a threat to Western (and other) civilizations, and most inclined to ascribe our problems to that pesky affair in western Palestine -- like the antisemites who were those most inclined, of course, in the 1930s to pooh-pooh the Nazi threat.

But the winning of "hearts and minds" in Iraq cannot be accomplished. It is a chimera, a Sisyphean and hopeless task, and it is cruel to cause American soldiers to risk their lives to do something which is impossible. There is almost no gratitude directed at the Americans by more than a small fraction of the Iraqi population -- for rescuing them from a monstrous regime. There are many reported cases -- and returning soldiers have many more to tell -- of mobs celebrating the killing of Americans. They will pocket the rebuilt infrastructure, the electricity grids, the dams, the hospitals, the schools, the soccer balls handed out by touchingly trusting and hopeful Americans. But what will be taught in those schools? What will that electricity light up? How will that hydroelectric energy be used -- if not to recreate an even more Muslim civilization, at least as hostile, and perhaps more potent in its hostility, toward Infidels, as anything Iraq has seen before?

It is not "democracy" that matters, but human rights -- the rights enshrined in the International Declaration of Human Rights, which, as Reza Afshari, Ibn Warraq, and others have shown, are in every single particular contradicted by Islam and the Shari'a. Will the new Iraq allow real free exercise of religion? Will those born into Islam be allowed to convert out, or openly show their lack of belief? Will women be given equality? In Islam, the greatest reforms that Infidels should welcome -- that is, the reforms which limit precisely the power of Islam -- have not emerged from "democracy" (a democratic but Muslim state is only more, not less dangerous, to Infidels), but from enlightened despots. These include the vain, stupid, but relatively decent Shah Reza Pahlavi, the farsighted Habib Bourguiba and the Destour Party in Tunisia, King Mohammed V of Morocco, King Hussein of Jordan (the "oily little king," as Alan Clark once dubbed him, was a great favorite all over the West, from that eternal innocent, Anthony Lewis, to Prince Charles, that great admirer of what he takes to be Islam), and by far the most important, Kemal Pasha Ataturk.

The "democracy" industry -- all those bright-eyed people in Washington with Centers for This and That Pertaining to Democracy -- has failed to adequately study, understand, and thoroughly assimilate the doctrines of Islam, or to study Islamic history. They understand there is something deeply wrong, but they cling to the notion that it is not the basic texts of Islam itself, but some perversion of those texts. They have it wrong.

No, the troops should not all come home, but a much smaller force, in the Syrian desert, well away from roadside bombs, should replace the current crazy "hearts and minds" effort. The invasion was completely justified; that was War #1. The remaining around to search for, collect, and destroy major weaponry (not just WMD), to find Saddam Hussein, to capture or kill most of the top Ba'athists, was also fully justified. That was War #2. But the current attempt to do the impossible, to make those three former Ottoman vilayets into a single nation-state is hopeless. Since 1920, the Arab treatment of the Kurds, and the Sunni treatment of the Shi'a, has only made things much worse. The Administration should declare that it has done all it can: removed Saddam Hussein, sought for and destroyed WMD programs, sought and destroyed all major weaponry, effectively demolished the Ba'athist structure, and left a small -- 50,000 combat troops -- force in the desert to keep the essential peace.

It is time to get serious about destroying the real WMD threat in Iran, which incidentally will put a nail in the mullahocracy. If the U.S. fails to do so, and the Iranian regime obtains such weaponry, its prestige among the simple Iranians will be sky high and the reformers will be doomed -- so they too have a vested interest in seeing us destroy the Iranian WMD program.

Now notice: I posted the original draft of this article on February 20, 2004, and have done nothing in this version except make some revisions for clarity. In three years, what has changed?

Fitzgerald: Virgil Goode and the 17 Republicans

WASHINGTON — A Muslim group said Monday it had invited Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., to expand on biting remarks he made last week during debate on a House resolution disapproving of President Bush's decision to send more than 21,000 U.S. troops into Iraq.

The Muslim American Public Affairs Council has "extended this invitation to Congressman Goode to give him a venue to explain his recent comments about Muslims and Islam," MAPAC Executive Director Marc Conaghan said in a statement. MAPAC also asked Goode to share a dialogue with Jamal Badawi, an Islamic and comparative religion scholar….

Last week, Goode said the nonbinding resolution would provide "comfort and encourage the radical Muslims who want to destroy our country." He also said Islamic jihadists want U.S. currency to say "In Muhammad We Trust," with an Islamic flag flying over the White House and U.S. Capitol. -- from this article

Congressman Virgil Goode should start to figure out that in his entirely justified suspicion of Islam he does not go far enough, and does not make sense of all of the information available.

If he were to do so, he would not be supporting the "surge" in Iraq with its perfectly predictable outcome. He would be furiously opposing -- for all the right reasons -- the squandering of men, money, and materiel in Iraq to obtain a goal that is the exact opposite of the goal that should be sought: not "freedom" for "ordinary moms and dads in the Middle East," and certainly not a "war on terrorism" that "we are fighting over there so we don't have to fight them over here."

Note that among those 17 Republicans who voted correctly, that is, against the surge, there were a number from the districts that include large military installations. These included Congressman Coble, whose district includes Fayetteville, North Carolina -- that is, Fort Bragg. That should have been made much of, but who would have made much of it? The Bush Administration wouldn't have. Those Democrats who opposed the resolution against that "surge" would not have done so either, for their reasons are completely different from those of many of the 17 dissenting but correct Republicans.

Those 17 Republican Congressmen included those most attuned to how the soldiers and Marines think, and feel. And even if not all of them know a thing about Islam, they know as a practical matter that the continued effort in Iraq, and the goals of Bush, Cheney, and Rice, of McCain and Lieberman and the two Kagans and those smug young lochinvars of the lecture circuit, including the comical William Kristol (issuing pronunciamentos about "victory" in Iraq at My Weekly Standard), are impossible of achievement. They know this because they talk to those officers and men who return, and then go back, and then return, all because the Administration is too obstinate and too confused to figure things out.

There is still time for them to figure out, and to spread among the other Republicans, the understanding not only that the "victory" Bush seeks in Iraq is impossible to achieve, but that the only "victory" that makes sense is a different one, and it was achieved well within the first year of the American invasion: the removal of Saddam Hussein and the toppling of all the pillars (his sons, his face-cards, his Sunni-run army) of that regime. That toppling made inevitable -- not possible, not probable, but inevitable -- the transfer of power from a Sunni despotism to the Shi'a of Iraq. And this, in turn, made possible, though not quite as inevitable, spillover effects in other Muslim countries, wherever Sunnis and Shi'a would identify with their co-religionists fighting or being fought in Iraq, and would lead to sectarian divisions widening all over Dar al-Islam. And if the Kurds are supported in making their move, then the spectacle of non-Arab Muslims throwing off the Arab yoke could inspire other non-Arabs, beginning but not ending with the Berbers in North Africa.

This too would contribute to the only goal that ever made sense, and certainly the only goal that justifies the crazed expenditure of $750 billion. That is now the average estimate for what the war in Iraq will have cost the American taxpayers even if the Americans announce their total withdrawal within the next few months, as of course they should, and should have done so, at the latest, by February 2004.

Pakistan: Blast That Killed U.S. Diplomat Tied to Al-Qaeda

"The case is one of the first in Pakistan to underline in court the links between splinter cells of Pakistani jihad groups and Qaeda operatives in Waziristan."

"Blast That Killed U.S. Diplomat Tied to Qaeda," by Carlotta Gall in the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb. 22 — The suicide bombing that killed an American diplomat here last March, just before a visit by President Bush, was organized by a small cell of Pakistani militants and masterminded by an operative of Al Qaeda based in the Pakistan’s tribal areas, Pakistan says.

The charge is being made by Pakistani officials as they present evidence — the result of months of investigations by the police, assisted by F.B.I. investigators — at the trial of two men accused in the plot.

The men, Anwar ul-Haq, 27, and Usman Ghani, 26, both ethnic Pashtuns from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, grew up in the teeming working-class neighborhoods of Karachi and fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the investigators say. On Thursday, they sat behind bars, wearing long beards and knitted prayer caps, at the back of a courtroom in Karachi’s central jail, listening intently to an investigator outline the evidence against them.

The case is one of the first in Pakistan to underline in court the links between splinter cells of Pakistani jihad groups and Qaeda operatives in Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s tribal areas, which have come under increasing scrutiny as a staging area for suicide bombers and Taliban insurgents battling NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.

Missouri Muslim accused in arms case is indicted

"We're going to war." Who is "we," Mousa? What kind of "war"? It may be that gang warfare was indeed all Mousa Abuelawi had in mind, but mines? Did he expect the gangs to lay landmines in St. Charles, Missouri?

An update on this story. "St. Charles man accused in arms case is indicted," by Robert Patrick in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with thanks to Cindy:

ST. LOUIS — A St. Charles man accused of buying automatic weapons and a Claymore mine and bargaining for grenades was indicted this week on four federal machine gun charges.

Mousa M. Abuelawi, 22, of Franjoe Court, was originally arrested Dec. 29 and charged with three counts of illegal possession or distribution of a machine gun and conspiracy to violate machine gun statutes....

Abuelawi was indicted Thursday and accused of receiving, transferring and possessing a machine gun, according to federal court documents made public Friday.

An affidavit filed with the court by FBI Special Agent Stephen M. Smith laid out the alleged weapons purchases this way:

During November and December, Abuelawi bought two M-16s, a Heckler & Koch MP-5 fully automatic submachine gun and a Claymore mine from a government informer, not knowing they had been rigged not to work.

He also negotiated to buy a box of 30 grenades and said he wanted any guns the informer could get, "big or small." The grenades were never delivered.

The men met several times in the 5700 block of West Florissant Avenue, where Abuelawi worked. One of Abuelawi's co-workers, Thaed Abde Sumad, met with the men once, according to the indictment, and "stated he wants to buy as many explosives as possible because, 'we're going to war.'" In an interview earlier this month, Sumad said he didn't remember the comment and suggested it may have been a joke.

Sumad said the purchases were intended as a money-making venture supplying St. Louis street gangs in a turf war. Sumad said he had no role in handling the weapons and was not involved in the negotiations. Sumad said he has been interviewed by FBI agents.

Daniel Pipes' Mad Hacking Skillz

Dr. Rusty Shackleford has some more info on the infamous Pipes and Spencer Hacking Caper (actually, Pipes and Spencer sounds more like a department store than a hacking team). He even reveals the true culprit, who actually was no culprit at all, but just someone who took over Imam Musa's site after Musa apparently took down his page himself. (Musa is now back.)

Thanks, Rusty, for the credit for the phrase!

Video: passenger who alerted flight crew about Flying Imams speaks

I am told that the Flying Imams incident has accomplished just what it was probably intended to accomplish: I have information that Islamic sensitivity training, often led by CAIR, has intensified among law enforcement officials in direct response to this incident. But there are still a number of troubling questions about the imams' behavior.

Here is a video interview with one of the passengers who complained about the imams: "Hear from the passenger that alerted crew of 'suspicious actions,'" at KSTP.com (thanks to Nate).

Imam Musa's Myspace page is back

The Washington, DC imam whose Myspace page Daniel Pipes and I are alleged to have hacked is back. It's here. (Thanks to Marked Manner.)

A few highlights:

While incarcerated, Imam Musa accepted traditional, orthodox Islam before his release. For many years after his release, the Imam continued his studies of Islam and was a keen observer of the political and social events taking place in the Muslim world. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, in a move that was rare for Sunni Muslims, Imam Musa publicly expressed his support for the Islamic Republic and its leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Since the early 1980s, he made several visits to Iran as a representative of Muslims in the United States and a supporter of the Islamic revival. He made connections with a wide array of Muslim leaders during the decade--both Sunni and Shia--and stressed that unity was a primary objective for the Islamic movement's success. After searching for leadership for several years without success, he took it upon himself to create an organization--the As-Sabiqun--that was capable of supporting the unique needs of Muslims living in the US while simultaneously incorporating an international outlook and agenda. His methodology draws heavily on the writings of Malcolm X, Maulana Mawdudi, Sheikh Uthman dan Fodio, Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Kalim Siddiqui, and Imam Khomeini. New members of the group are encouraged to individually familiarize themselves with the works of these Islamic thinkers in addition to attending daily classes and lectures on classical Islamic studies, (Qur’an, Hadith, fiqh, Seerah, etc.). Special emphasis is placed on personal development and growth based on the Qur'an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), as well as incorporating tightly knit family units within the overall community structure. The movement has spread across the US and is extremely popular among college students and African-American youth. Imam Musa has been regularly invited to speak at college campuses and Islamic events around the world. Critics have suggested that he promotes anti-Semitism in his speeches, which he claims are directed at Zionist supporters of Israel and not at Jewish people in general. During a rally in July 1999 Imam Musa displayed a cashier's check made out to "Hamas, Palestine," to protest the 1996 U.S. law which declared Hamas a terrorist organization. On July 7, 2000, Imam Musa suffered harassment at the hands of the police when he was assaulted, threatened with a gun and then arrested while stopping the policemen from brutally beating a motorist. Imam Musa was charged with "assaulting the police." He spent two nights in jail before appearing before a judge on July 10. In court, the police reduced the charge against him to a misdemeanor. On October 31, 2001, Imam Musa, along with Imam Muhammad al-'Asi and others, appeared at the National Press Club and, in a program which was televised by C-SPAN, disputed the official story of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, implying that the U.S. government was involved based on its historical pattern of creating wars to benefit pre-conceived agendas. The re-airing of this program was cancelled due to complaints by the Anti-Defamation League.

Pipes and Spencer, hackers

A couple of weeks ago I posted here about Imam Musa, a Washington D.C.-area imam whose Myspace page praised the jihad theorists Sayyid Qutb and Syed Abul Ala Maududi, as well as the Ayatollah Khomeini. That Myspace page has since been taken down, but before it was it was apparently taken over by an opponent of Imam Musa. Over at Shiachat.com, they are certain that this is the nefarious work of none other than "Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer who are part of jihadwatch.org and dhimmi watch."

Dear Brothers and Sisters, The page of Imam Abdul-Alim Musa's khutbahs have been destroyed after being hacked into by zionists entities. They are connected with Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer who are part of jihadwatch.org and dhimmi watch. They have replaced the page with zionists pictures and blasphemous sayings cursing the Prophet (SAW) and Allah (SWA) and have also placed a song about Prophet Muhammad (SAW) being a pedophile *ASTAGHFIR'ULLAH!!!!!!*. The page that has been hijacked is www.myspace.com/imammusa. Some of you may remember Imam Musa as the Imam who a couple of years ago gave a khutbah on the Ahlul-Bayt going to Sunni sources to show the importance of the Household of the Prophet (SAW) and the importance of unity. For those of you who know him or know of him and respect him and what he does please let him and the world know you support him. Don't allow the spineless, heartless, hide behind rocks and trees zionist entities discolor, discredit and paint him in a bad light. Furthermore, don't allow them to present Islam in ways other than it is. At this time it is important that we maintain solidarity and present ourselves as one solid block. please pass this on to your friends and to people who would be interested in this sort of thing. Jazak'Allahu Khayr. these are the websites on which they proudly (and stupidly) boast about their exploits.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015226.php

and

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/186516.php

At neither place, as you'll see, do Dr. Pipes or I "boast" about our "exploits," since of course we had nothing to do with the removal of Imam Musa's Myspace page. I admire and support his work, but Dr. Pipes is not involved with Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch. That makes no difference to Shiachat, which is a world of conspiracy theories: any two people working in the same field must be -- obviously! -- working together.

This story is making the rounds at a number of Islamic websites. Another (scroll all the way down) has it that Jihad Watch is "controlled" by the infamous Pipes:

Recently, the myspace profile created to spread Imam Musa's message of truth, justice, and hope for our Ummah was destroyed by hackers who have loaded it up with anti-Islamic, pro-Zionist garbage (check it out: www.myspace.com/imammusa). It looked organized with the amount of info put up in such a short of time period. It was brought to my attention yesterday that the Imam Musa myspace profile was (coincidentally?) VERY recently mentioned on the website of Jihad Watch--a website that I believe is controlled or supported by Daniel Pipes, an ardent Islam-hater--as well as a related site.

Yet another, although I don't have the link for this one, goes farther:

Daniel Pipes Racist Website Slandering Imam Musa former Black Panther

[15 February 2007?]

A dear friend of mine Imam Musa a former black panther and now Muslim has had his myspace page hacked by republican Isreali Zionist. I am not down with none of that they replaced all his lectures and placed a picture calling for a “Crusade Against Muslims”. Imam Musa has been active since the 1960s helping African-Americans and Latinos in Americas ghetto. I am proud to say that he helped me along the way when I first became a Muslim. Without people like him I probably would have gotten killed in L.A. gang banging drama.

Imam Musa has established programs across the country for the poor, drug addicted, women, men, children etc. Many children in Oakland and Washington D.C. are recieving education due to his efforts. Many drug dealers in California and across the country have stopped selling dope because of Imam Musa. Imam Musa has helped to educate the countries ghettos about being black in America.

Daniel Pipes is a house hold name to Muslims. His name is like David Duke (former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan) to African Americans. Daniel Pipes is behind this and he says that Imam Musa’s movement As-Sabiqun (The Vanguard) wants to “ wage war against unbelievers in order to establish over them the hegemony of Islamic law and subjugate them as dhimmis.”

Those are my words. I don't know where this is quoted from, but since I say it about ten times a day, I recognize it as mine.

Daniel Pipes is a racist plain and simple. Dhimmi is a tax paying citizen of an Islamic State. The Dhimmi is a legal status that non-Muslims are given that means they are citizens of whatever country. Muslims in Islamic law are required to pay mutliple taxes called Zakat or Sadaqah (Jews says Sadaka in Hebrew). The Dhimmi is required to pay the Jizyah an annual tax. Okay, and... arent you preparing your annual taxes now anyway whats the difference? Mr. Pipes uses his knowledge of Islam to fill ignorant Americans with fear and hatred of Muslims. He hopes this fear and hate will continue to fuel Americas support for Israels government and war machine with our taxes coming from America.

Mr. Pipes I was at that protest in 1999. I am sure you were filming everyone there protesting against Israeli’s killing civilians and oppressing Muslim and Christians in Palestine. If the United Nations would not give money to the PLO and would give money to Hammas only was Imam Musa wrong for sending that check? Hammas is not a terror organization it is a religious social welfare organiation and now is the democratically elected government of Palestine.

I hope Daniel Pipes and all the Israeli’s have a great black history month. Maybe Mr. Pipes should speak on how Dr. Martin Luther King was assisinated after speaking up about Palestine and Vietnam.
“My American Dream has become the American nightmare”
Dr. Martin Luther King

All this outrage makes me wonder who really did hack Imam Musa's site. But it's interesting that these people are so certain about who did it, in the absence of a shred of evidence to that effect.

A request from Daniel Pipes

Daniel Pipes has sent around this email about the ongoing Minneapolis airport cab controversy:

Dear Reader:

A further decision is due in the controversy over taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who refuse to transport passengers visibly carrying alcohol. The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which has jurisdiction over the drivers, invites the public’s opinion; and I urge your involvement.

MAC has sent a notice (which I have posted in full on my website, at http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/679#meeting) that recounts developments since its decision in October 2006 to deny requests by drivers to distinguish between Shar’i-compliant and –noncompliant taxis. MAC writes:

For the past several months, the Metropolitan Airports Commission has worked with airport taxi industry representatives and with leaders from the Muslim American Society and the Somali Justice Advocacy League. The goal was to find a solution acceptable to everyone and transparent to the customer seeking airport taxi service. Unfortunately, those discussions have not resulted in a workable, voluntary, consensus-based solution. As a result, the Airports Commission is proposing stricter penalties for refusal of service: a 30-day suspension of a driver's airport taxi license for the first instance, and license revocation for a second instance.

Bravo to MAC. It is important that the drivers be sent a strong signal that they must obey the regulations. Were they allowed to boycott travelers with alcohol, I pointed out in “Don't Bring That Booze into My Taxi,” that would intrude Islamic law “into a mundane commercial transaction in Minnesota” and could lead to the transport system as a whole being divided “between those Islamically observant and those not so.”

I appealed to readers in October to urge MAC to impose penalties on those who insist on imposing Shar’i norms in Minnesota and to send a message that this practice is unacceptable. The barrage of e-mails and phone calls had the hoped-for effect. According to airport spokesman Patrick Hogan back then, “we’ve heard from Australia and England. It’s really touched a nerve among a lot of people. The backlash, frankly, has been overwhelming. People are overwhelmingly against any kind of cultural accommodation.”

Again now, I appeal to all those opposed to application of the Shari‘a in the United States to make their views heard in Minnesota. You can do this in either of two ways.

In writing: MAC is asking for “input from the public” through Friday, March 2, 2007, before it makes a decision on the proposed increase in penalties. Written comments should be addressed to:

Landside Operations Department
Metropolitan Airports Commission
MSP International Airport/Lindbergh Terminal
4300 Glumack Drive
Suite LT-3129B
Saint Paul, MN 55111-3010.

In person: For those living in the Twin Cities area, MAC will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, February 27, 2007, at 2 p.m., to solicit testimony from the public via verbal or written testimony. The location will be at:

Ramada Mall of America (formerly, the Thunderbird Hotel)
2300 East American Boulevard
Bloomington, Minnesota

I thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Pipes

Tony Blair: It would be wrong to take military action against Iran

Evidently it would be the decent thing to do just to allow them to nuke Israel. "Fears grow over Iran," by Tom Baldwin and Philip Webster in the TimesOnline, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Tony Blair has declared himself at odds with hawks in the US Administration by saying publicly for the first time that it would be wrong to take military action against Iran. The Prime Minister’s comments came hours before the UN’s nuclear watchdog raised the stakes in the West’s showdown with Tehran.

[...]

Condoleeza Rice, the Secretary of State, is also opposed to using force, while Steve Hadley, the President’s National Security Adviser, is said to be deeply sceptical.

The hawks are led by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, who is urging Mr Bush to keep the military option “on the table”. He is also pressing the Pentagon to examine specific war plans — including, it is rumoured, covert action.

But Mr Blair, in a BBC interview yesterday, said: “I can’t think that it would be right to take military action against Iran . . . What is important is to pursue the political, diplomatic channel. I think it is the only way that we are going to get a sensible solution to the Iranian issue.”

Associated (with Coverups) Press

In this week's Jihad Watch videoblog at Hot Air I discuss the strange reluctance AP seems to have to identify Muslims who commit crimes as Muslims -- a reluctance they do not display when the perps are Christians.

U.S. troops find large amounts of chemicals in car bomb factory raid

Chemical Jihad Update. "U.S. troops find chemicals in Iraq raid," from AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops raided a car bomb factory west of Baghdad with five buildings full of propane tanks and ordinary chemicals the military believes were to be used in bombs, a spokesman said Thursday, a day after insurgents blew up a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the chlorine attack Wednesday — the second such "dirty" chemical attack in two days — signaled a change in insurgent tactics, and the military was fighting back with targeted raids.

"What we are seeing is a change in the tactics, but their strategy has not changed. And that's to create high-profile attacks to instill fear and division amongst the Iraqi people," he told CNN. "It's a real crude attempt to raise the terror level by taking and mixing ordinary chemicals with explosive devices, trying to instill that fear within the Iraqi people."

But he suggested the strategy was backfiring by turning public opinion against the insurgents, saying the number of tips provided by Iraqis had doubled in the last six months.

One of those tips led U.S. troops to a five separate buildings near Fallujah, where they found the munitions containing chemicals, three vehicle bombs being assembled, including a truck bomb, about 65 propane tanks and "all kinds of ordinary chemicals," Caldwell said. He added that he believed the insurgents were going to try to mix the chemicals with explosives.

"Ordinary," perhaps, but there are many such chemicals that weren't meant to be burnt or inhaled, not to mention the myriad unsafe combinations of otherwise generally harmless substances that could increase the body count, as well as the level of panic, that a car bomb can cause.

Blogger gets 4 years for insulting Islam

By Nadi Abou El-Magd for AP:

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt -- An Egyptian blogger was convicted Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and Egypt's president, sending a chill through fellow Internet writers who fear a government crackdown.

Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, an Islamic institution, was a vocal secularist and sharp critic of conservative Muslims in his blog. He also lashed out often at Al-Azhar -- the most prominent religious center in Sunni Islam -- calling it "the university of terrorism" and accusing it of encouraging extremism.

[...]

Judge Ayman al-Akazi issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and the prophet and inciting sectarian strife and another year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak.

Nabil, wearing a gray T-shirt and sitting in the defendants pen, gave no reaction and his face remained still as the verdict was read. He made no comment to reporters as he was immediate led outside to a prison truck.

Seconds after he was loaded into the truck and the door closed, an Associated Press reporter heard the sound of a slap from inside the vehicle and a shriek of pain from Nabil.

His lawyer, Ahmed Seif el-Islam, said he would appeal the verdict, saying the ruling will "terrify other bloggers and will negative impact on the freedom of expression in Egypt." Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison.

Egypt arrested a number of bloggers last year, most of them for connections to Egypt's pro-democracy reform movement. Nabil was arrested in November, and while other bloggers were freed, Nabil was put on trial - a sign of the sensitivity of his writings on religion.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a pro-reform blogger who was detained for six weeks last year, said the conviction for insulting Mubarak will "have a chilling effect on the rest of the bloggers."

"We (the Egyptian people) are enduring oppression, poverty and torture, so the least we can do is insult the president," he said.

Interesting point.

The judge said Nabil insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad with a piece he wrote in late 2005 after riots in which angry Muslim worshippers attacked a Coptic Christian church over a play put on by Christians deemed offensive to Islam.

"Muslims revealed their true ugly face and appeared to all the world that they are full of brutality, barbarism and inhumanity," Nabil said of the riots. He called Muhammad and his 7th century followers, the Sahaba, "spillers of blood" for their teachings on warfare - a comment cited by the judge.

In a later essay, not cited by the court, Nabil clarified his comments, saying Muhammad was "great" but that his teachings on warfare and other issues should be viewed as a product of their times.

Big no, no.

He blasted Al-Azhar, calling it the "other face of the coin of al-Qaida" and called for the university to be dissolved or turned into a secular institution. He said it "stuffs its students' brains and turns them into human beasts ... teaching them that there is no place for differences in this life" and criticized its policy of segregating male and female students.

Sigh.

Hamas' military wing calls off "truce" with Israel

Hamas has repeatedly abused and violated the truce, but now sees fit to call it off. One can expect continued, outwardly mixed signals from the "political" wing of Hamas, eager to buy more time by misleading the gullible in Washington and Tel Aviv. "Hamas' military wing: Truce is over," by Yaakov Lappin for YNet News:

Hamas's Qassam Brigades have declared an end to a ceasefire with Israel, according to a statement released on Wednesday evening.

The call to end the truce appeared on Hamas's official website, in both English and Arabic, and is the first time in months that Palestinian armed forces directly under the control of the Hamas government openly threatened to attack Israel.

Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, said in the statement that "the truce with the Israeli occupation is no longer valid," citing the "assassination of Islamic Jihad commander" Mahmoud Qassem as the reason.

Qassem was shot dead in the West Bank by Israeli Border Police on Tuesday, after security forces traced a foiled suicide bomb attack planned for Tel Aviv back to him.

In Hamas' statement, Abu Obaida said: "This crime falls in line with a plan to liquidate Palestinian resistance in the West Bank in particular."

"The Zionist enemy continues to try to separate between the Bank and Gaza, and we will not accept that. The assassination in Jenin comes as part of an attempt to take out the Palestinian resistance, especially in the West Bank. We demanded from the start that the ceasefire must include the entire homeland and not be divided at the enemy's discretion," he said.

Abu Obaida called for Palestinian organizations to "unite" and "retaliate" against Israel, saying that "the time has come to restore the honor of the Palestinian resistance."

He added that the Qassam Brigades were "reorganizing their lines in the West Bank after sustaining painful strikes."

Hamas's terrorist cells were largely destroyed in the West Bank by IDF operations in response to a series of bomb attacks between 2001 and 2004, although Hamas remains the strongest armed force in Gaza.

Throughout the duration of the 'truce,' rockets launched from Gaza have continued to land in southern Israel, and security forces say they foiled many terrorist attacks aimed at targets within Israel.

2nd chlorine gas attack in Iraq

The second chemical attack in as many days. "Iraq insurgents use 2nd 'dirty' attack," by Brian Murphy for AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents exploded a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters Wednesday — the second such "dirty" chemical attack in two days — while a U.S. official said ground fire apparently forced the downing of a Black Hawk helicopter. All nine aboard the aircraft were rescued.

The attacks offer a sweeping narrative on evolving tactics by Sunni insurgents who have proved remarkably adaptable.

Military officials worry extremists may have recently gained more access to firepower such as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rockets and heavy machine guns — and more expertise to use them. The Black Hawk would be at least the eighth U.S. helicopter to crash or be taken down by hostile fire in the past month.

The gas cloud in Baghdad, meanwhile, suggests possible new and coordinated strategies by bombers trying to unleash toxic — and potentially deadly — materials. "Terrorists are using dirty means," said Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said initial reports indicated the chopper was brought down by "small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades" north of Baghdad, but gave no further details. All nine aboard were taken away on a rescue helicopter, he said.

In Baghdad, a pickup truck carrying chlorine gas cylinders was blown apart, killing at least five people and sending more than 55 to hospitals gasping for breath and rubbing stinging eyes, police said.

On Tuesday, a bomb planted on a chlorine tanker left more than 150 villagers stricken north of the capital. More than 60 were still under medical care on Wednesday. Chlorine causes respiratory trouble and skin irritation in low levels and possible death with heavy exposure.

In Washington, two Pentagon officials said the tactic has been used at least three times since Jan. 28, when a truck carrying explosives and a chlorine tank blew up in Anbar province. More than a dozen people were reported killed.

A third Pentagon official said the United States has been concerned about Iraqi militants' ability to get weapons like chlorine bombs and use them effectively. But the official cautioned that chlorine bombs are just one threat on a long list of possible attacks that Iraqi fighters may try to carry out.

It was unclear whether the confluence of new insurgent tactics — attacking isolated combat posts, targeting helicopters more intensely and using chlorine bombs — was coincidental or in response to the U.S. troop increase.

W. Patrick Lang, a former official at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the insurgents are always "seeking to achieve higher levels of effectiveness" and these new tactics are part of the normal "evolution of sophistication."

Lang said trucks filled with chlorine gas are "really quite deadly" because the gas is potent and spreads easily.

Some authorities believe militants could be trying to maximize the panic from their attacks by adding chlorine or other noxious substances.

Spencer: Covering for Islam

In FrontPage today I discuss the coverage of some recent cases (news links in the original):

On Sunday morning, a cab driver in Nashville named Ibrahim Ahmed picked up two college students, Andrew Nelson and Jeremy Invus, at a city bar and drove them to the campus of Vanderbilt University. Along the way, the three got into an argument, apparently leaving Ahmed enraged: after they paid their fare and left his cab, he tried to run down Nelson and Invus. Nelson eluded the cab, but Ahmed hit Invus, who was seriously injured.

What were they arguing about? The only widely available news reports on the incident are not very specific. Nashville’s WSMV reports that “a fight over religion became heated.” Newschannel 5, also of Nashville, has little more to add: “Police said Ibrahim Ahmed chased down visiting students Jeremy Invus and Andrew Nelson after an argument over religion.” Associated Press has it that “police said he ran over one of his passengers after they got into a religious argument.”

What kind of religious argument? A comparison of the relative capacity of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism to transport its adherents to Nirvana? A discussion of whether or not Mark 16:18 justifies snake-handling? An examination of Reform and Orthodox Judaism? There’s no telling. Neither WSMV nor Newschannel 5 nor AP give any details about the argument. And all we learn about Ibrahim Ahmed himself is that he worked for United Cab, and that he was charged with assault and attempted homicide, as well as theft, since it turns out that his cab was sporting a stolen license plate. We’re also told that he has previous convictions for “evading arrest in a motor vehicle” and “driving on a suspended license.” But about who Ibrahim Ahmed is, and what may have led him to try to kill two of his passengers because of an argument, we hear nothing at all.

One might suggest to the Nashville news outlets, as well as to AP, that Ibrahim Ahmed’s religion, as well as that of Andrew Nelson and Jeremy Invus, would be relevant to this story, and may help readers understand how a religious argument could turn murderous. After all, AP has not shied away from reporting on the religion of perpetrators of crimes in another recent case. Around the same time that Ibrahim Ahmed was running down Jeremy Invus, a man in Chicago apparently bludgeoned three women – a woman, her stepsister, and their mother -- to death and attempted to kill himself. AP doesn’t give the suspect’s name, but does tell us that according to a neighbor and ex-husband of one of the victims, “the family was Assyrian Christian, a minority group in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.” Is religion involved in this case? Did the murderer kill his victims because of some imperative he believed arose from his Christian faith? That seems unlikely: AP also says it was a “domestic dispute,” and notes that “the couple had been having marital problems.” The Chicago Tribune adds that the suspect, Daryoush Ebrahami, “felt ‘disrespected’ by the women, who had told him ‘he was not a man.’”

So why is Ebrahami’s Christian faith relevant? The Tribune tells us that he was recently granted asylum on the basis of the possibility that as an Assyrian Christian, he could face religious persecution in Iran. That is an interesting detail, albeit irrelevant to the murders, but it is absent from AP’s piece -- which mentions Ebrahami’s Christianity anyway.

Now compare that to the initial AP report about the Salt Lake mall shootings: “Police: Teen Shot Mall Victims at Random,” by Jennifer Dobner. All we learn about Sulejman Talovic beyond his name is that he was a “trench coat-clad teenager” who lived with his mother.

Now, when people point out that the religion of nominally Christian murderers isn’t noted in news stories, and that Talovic’s religion should therefore not have been either, they are assuming that in both instances religion played no factor in the killing, and was hence an irrelevant detail. However, while it is extraordinarily unlikely that Ebrahami killed his victims in the name of Jesus Christ, or would attempt to justify the killings by reference to Christ’s teachings, it was at very least a possibility that Talovic, like so many others around the world every day, as well as other lone jihadists in the U.S. like Mohammad Reza Taheri-azar, killed in the name of Allah and with justification from the Qur’an and Sunnah. That’s why Talovic’s religion at least merited a mention, and some investigation.

The FBI has ruled out Islamic terrorism as a factor in the Talovic killings. One hopes that agents have done so after sufficient consideration of the possibility – which seems to have been absent from other cases with some similarities to that of Talovic. But in the wake of this, some have rushed to condemn me and others who publicly noted the mainstream media’s reluctance to identify Talovic as a Muslim, and to explore the possibility that his killings were jihad-related. This criticism was misplaced, for that reluctance is real, but it does not apply to all religions – as the Ahmed and Ebrahami cases show. Ibrahim Ahmed is, of course, probably a Muslim, and his murderous rage may have been reinforced by Islam’s belief that those who insult Islam have forfeited their right to live. The refusal of the Associated Press even to consider such possibilities, and its inconsistency in doing so, is readily apparent.

All this becomes even more noteworthy in light of the recent revelation that Ali Abu Kamal, who killed one person and injured six in a shooting at the Empire State Building in 1997, “wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel” – according to the New York Daily News. The explanation that has prevailed for ten years was that Abu Kamal was despondent after losing a large sum of money, but the killer’s daughter now says that Palestinian officials fabricated that story in order so as not to “harm the peace agreement with Israel.” She added that she tried to make his actual goal known, but no one was interested: “When we wanted to clarify that to the media, nobody listened to us.”

The media should start listening, and stop covering up details that may be pertinent to the cases they report. While Sulejman Talovic may not have been a jihadist, and Ibrahim Ahmed may not be one, in their selective disclosure of the facts they may find themselves covering up for the next jihadist who does strike. And they may already have done so.

A Protestant, a Catholic, and a Muslim got into a cab...

In this update on this story, the cabbie's name is given as Ibrahim Sheikhamed; in earlier reports, and therefore also in an article and a videoblog that I put together Monday and which should both appear today, it is given as Ibrahim Ahmed.

Anyway, the cab appears to have been stolen, too.

"Muslim Driver Who Allegedly Ran Over Men After Religious Argument Due in Court Thursday," from FoxNews, with thanks to Twostellas:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Muslim cabbie charged with assault and attempted homicide after allegedly trying to run down two fares after an argument over religion will be in court Thursday.

Ibrahim Sheikhamed is due in Nashville and Davidson County criminal court at 9 a.m. ET. His case is supposed to be reviewed by a judge, but the district attorney's office told FOX News the hearing likely will be continued to another date.

Sheikhamed is also being charged with theft, since the license plate on his cab was listed as stolen.

Sheikhamed, a 37-year-old Sunni Muslim from Somalia, tried to run over two men near Vanderbilt University early Sunday morning after getting into an argument over religion, police said. One of the fares was Protestant, while the other was Catholic.

Ahmed picked up the two fares — two men visiting Nashville from Ohio — near the Vanderbilt campus, according to the incident report. After the argument, Ahmed allegedly tried to run his cab over the two men; he struck one of them, according to the incident report.

One of the students, identified as Jeremy Invus, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries. The other passenger, Andrew Nelson, avoided the cab.

It was first believed that Sheikhamed worked for United Cab Co., but owner Roderick Brown told FOX News on Tuesday that he was not an employee and was fired last year after a high-speed chase with Nashville police.

Brown thinks Sheikhamed, who teaches English as a second language next door, took the keys to the cab, stole the vehicle, put stolen tags on it, and was pocketing the fares for an unknown period of time.

Two Chicago men arrested on charges of planning, recruiting for "violent jihad"

Great Lakes Jihad. "Two Chicago area men arrested in Ohio terrorism case," from AP:

CHICAGO Two Chicago-area cousins are facing charges that accuse them of conspiring to commit terrorist acts against Americans overseas, including U-S military forces serving in Iraq.

Authorities say 27-year-old Zubair Ahmed of North Chicago and 26-year-old Khaleel Ahmed of Chicago were arrested today. A grand jury in Cleveland returned an indictment charging them and three others who had already been facing terrorism charges.

Update (2/22): More recent reporting from Reuters has confirmed that those "three others" are the same arrested in last year's "Toledo Jihad" case. The Ahmed cousins, arrested yesterday, bring the number of indictments in this case to five.

According to the indictment, the conspiracy included finding fresh recruits to wage "violent jihad" against Americans and locating sites for training them in the use of firearms, explosives and hand-to-hand combat.

The two cousins are both American citizens. The indictment alleges that they traveled to Cleveland in 2004 to meet with a trainer and discuss possible training in the use of weapons.

What Every American Needs to Know About Jihad

At FrontPage today, a new initiative:

Is Islamic jihad just a harmless form of spiritual struggle -- as is often argued by Western apologists for radical Islam? Is Jihadi violence simply a twisted, hijacked version of Islam, rejected by traditional Muslims? The David Horowitz Freedom Center's new Terrorism Awareness Project, which seeks to educate Americans, and especially college students about jihad, confronts questions such as these. It has produced a powerful new flash video, What Every American Needs to Know About Jihad. This video is adapted from a new pamphlet by Robert Spencer, which puts the threat of jihadist ideology into historical perspective. As Spencer makes clear, the religious imperatives of jihad demand the subjugation or killing of infidels and form the poisoned logic of Islamists' expansionist war against America and the West.

To view the flash video, click here.
To read Spencer's essay, click here.

Suspected Muslim insurgents set fire to Thai rubber warehouse

A cornerstone of the regional economy. Watch for protests to any anti-jihad resistance the government may mount (if it mounts any at all): "No blood for rubber!"

From AP, with thanks to Twostellas:

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand set fire Wednesday to a large warehouse for rubber -- a cornerstone of the region's economy -- with firefighters unable to control the raging blaze for hours, police said....

The fire followed a bold, coordinated assault by separatist rebels which killed eight people and wounded nearly 70 in a 24-hour period beginning Sunday night. Three people were arrested shortly after the attacks, Lt. Gen. Viroj Buajaroon, regional commander for the south, said Tuesday.

Police said suspected rebels set fire to the largest rubber warehouse in Yala, owned by the Southern Land Rubber Co., shortly after midnight and it was still burning more than eight hours later.

Bulgaria busts two jihad sites calling for overthrow of the state

Bulgarian Jihad Update: "Bulgaria busts two radical Islamic Internet sites," from the FOCUS News Agency, with thanks to Twostellas:

Sofia.Bulgarian police said Tuesday they had arrested four people for publishing two Internet sites used to preach radical, violent Islam and call for the overthrow of the state, AFP reports. "The texts published on the sites are preaching the radical form of jihad, the holy war against all non-Muslims," the interior ministry said in a statement.

It said they were also urging "Muslims around the world to assist the war against the unbelievers physically, with money and weapons."

The sites also "propagated a change of the constitutional order in the country and its substitution for the so-called sharia state."

The two men and two women arrested were part of the "Union of Muslims in Bulgaria" founded in 2006.

Suicide bomber disguised as health worker wounds 3 in Afghanistan

Barbarism. "Suicide bomber targets Afghan hospital," by Amir Shah for Associated Press, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide attacker disguised as a health worker blew himself up at a hospital opening ceremony in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, wounding at least two NATO soldiers and a hospital staffer, the provincial governor said.

Afghan security forces had blocked the attacker from approaching a crowd of about 150 people who had gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open an emergency ward at the main government hospital in the city of Khost, said Gov. Arsalah Jamal.

U.S. troops who took the man away shot him in the leg when he tried to escape. As the crowd took cover, the attacker blew himself up, Jamal said.

Ahmadinejad rejects UN nuclear deadline

Surprised? From AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a looming UN deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, saying it would not halt the sensitive nuclear activity as a precondition to talks.

"We are in favour of dialogue. But in order for us to talk they are imposing a condition that would deprive us of our right," Ahmadinejad said Tuesday in a public rally in Rasht, the capital of the northern Gilan province.

Young Moroccans leave to fight in Iraq

Modern, moderate Moroccans journeying to Iraq to join the jihad. By Craig Whitlock in the Washington Post via MSNBC, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

TETOUAN, Morocco - In the Arab world, this hilly North African city is about as far as you can get from Iraq. But for many young men here, the call to join what they view as a holy war resonates loudly across the 3,000-mile divide.

About two dozen men from Tetouan and nearby towns in the Rif Mountains have traveled to Iraq in the past 18 months to volunteer as fighters or suicide bombers, according to local residents and officials. Moroccan authorities said the men were recruited by international terrorist networks affiliated with al-Qaeda that have deepened their roots in North Africa since the invasion of Iraq four years ago.

To stanch the flow, U.S. intelligence and military officials have tried to trace the fighters' steps. On the basis of DNA evidence recovered from the scenes of suicide attacks, as well as other clues, officials have confirmed that at least two bombers came from Tetouan, a city of more than 320,000 across the Strait of Gibraltar from southern Spain.

One of them, Abdelmonaim el-Amrani, a 22-year-old laborer, abandoned his wife and infant child in Tetouan to go to Iraq. On March 6, 2006, just before sunset, he drove a red Volkswagen Passat stuffed with explosives into a funeral tent in a village near Baqubah, Iraq, according to witnesses. Six people were reported killed and 27 injured. It was months before Amrani's family in Tetouan learned of his fate from Moroccan police.

Foreign fighters in Iraq account for only a small percentage of the combatants attacking U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies. U.S. military officials and independent analysts peg the number at no more than a few thousand. But as the war drags on, it continues to serve as a powerful rallying tool for radical Islamic networks around the world that have developed recruiting pipelines as far afield as Europe and Southeast Asia.

Anti-American feelings soar as Muslim society is radicalised by War on Terror

From the Times Online:

The War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling, according to the largest survey of Muslims ever to be conducted.
Seven per cent believe that the events of 9/11 were “completely justified”. In Saudi Arabia, 79 per cent had an “unfavourable view” of the US.

Gallup’s Centre for Muslim Studies in New York carried out surveys of 10,000 Muslims in ten predominantly Muslim countries. One finding was that the wealthier and better-educated the Muslim was, the more likely he was to be radicalised.

While there was widespread support for Sharia, or Islamic law, only a minority wanted religious leaders to be making laws. Most women in the predominantly Muslim countries believed that Sharia should be the source of a nation’s laws, but they strongly believed in equal rights for women.
This finding indicates the complexity of the struggle ahead for Western understanding. Few Western commentators can see how women could embrace the veil, Sharia and equal rights at the same time.

“We find that Muslim radicals have more in common with their moderate brethren than is often assumed. If the West wants to reach the extremists, and empower the moderate majority, it must first recognise who it’s up against.”

Muslims in Germany becoming "more religious," Islamic associations are "fostering the trend"

"Under the guise of religious tolerance, German society stood blithely by as some parts of its Muslim communities began turning into parallel societies." Note also that the fact that young Muslims are the ones who are becoming more fiercely Islamic belies the common assumption that exposure to Western culture will mitigate jihadist tendencies.

"A Parallel Muslim Universe," by Andrea Brandt and Cordula Meyer in Spiegel Online, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

Germany's Muslim population is becoming more religious and more conservative. Islamic associations are fostering the trend, particularly through their work with the young -- accelerating the drift towards a parallel Muslim society.

[...]

Surveys in the country have charted a significant increase in fundamentalist attitudes, particularly among younger Muslims. The experiences of Ekin Deligöz, a member of the German parliament representing the Green Party, underscore the potential dangers. Having called on Muslim women to remove their headscarves, Deligöz faced death threats and now receives police protection.

Disturbing as this trend may be, it cannot be pinned exclusively on Muslim groups. Under the guise of religious tolerance, German society stood blithely by as some parts of its Muslim communities began turning into parallel societies. For years, the country's courts have been excusing Muslim girls from coed swimming lessons and class outings - citing the most absurd reasons for their rulings.

[...]

School is one of the few places where young Muslims come into contact with the non-Islamic environment. As a result, the teachers often see what is happening most clearly. Dietmar Pagel, principal of the Hector-Peterson High School in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, actively seeks dialog with his students. But with increasing frequency, he and his colleagues feel they are banging their heads against a brick wall. "Lots of our adolescents have a fundamentalist outlook on life," he says. Many more girls are wearing headscarves, and almost all the Muslim students fasted during the major Islamic holidays, with catastrophic consequences for their performance at school. "The further we get into Ramadan, the more distracted the pupils become."

He often feels let down by the politicians who discuss the problems of integration more passionately than ever, yet won't appoint the additional social workers and teachers he needs. But Pagel refuses to give up. After the caricatures of Mohammed were published, he attempted to debate the controversy with his pupils. But the discussion was hopelessly lopsided. The children contributed a few bits of factual information, the principal relates, but then "the room fell silent when it came to the moral dimension, so the teachers simply held forth on their own ideas."

He cannot get through to his pupils any more, Pagel complains. "If I say that headscarves are worn less in Turkey than here, they simply counter: 'That's why we came to Germany, so that we can openly practice our religion.'" And sometimes they simply remind him that - as a non-Muslim - he would be better off keeping such views to himself.

Read it all.

London-based Sunni historian: Iran plotting to annihilate the Sunnis, establish global Shi'ite government

The Shi'ites, according to Mahmoud Al-Sayyed Al-Dugheim, are even worse than (gasp) the Zionists! The fervid conspiracy theorists are beginning to trip over their Protocols. "London-Based Syrian-Born Historian Mahmoud Al-Sayyed Al-Dugheim on Al-Jazeera: Iran Established Global Shiite Government, Operating in Accordance with the Protocols of the Mullahs of Qom, to Annihilate the Sunnis," from MEMRI:

The following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian-born historian Mahmoud Al-Sayyed Al-Dugheim, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 30, 2007.

TO VIEW THIS CLIP: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1380.

Mahmoud Al-Sayyed Al-Dugheim: "We consider the Zionist plan to be dangerous to the Arab nation, but even more dangerous is the Safavid Sassanian Iranian plan to restore the Empire of Cyrus, which would range from Greece to Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula, in addition to other regions. The Zionist plan was unable to penetrate the ranks of Islamic unity, the way the Safavid Iranian plan did. The collaborators with the Zionists throughout the Arab and Islamic world are too ashamed to reveal themselves, while the collaborators with the Sassanian Safavid plan boast about it in public. Wasn't it one of their leaders who said yesterday: 'We are a Lebanon in Iran, and an Iran in Lebanon?'"

[...]

"While the Zionist plan targets Jerusalem, which is holy to us, the Safavid plan targets Mecca and Al-Madina. If you go back to their books - which they do not mention in the media, yet these books exist and are accepted by them - they claim that their Hidden Imam will come to Mecca and Al-Madina, destroy the Al-Haram Mosque and the Mosque of the Prophet, and dig in the graves of Abu Bakr and Omar and burn them both, and then he will command the wind to blow them away. He will also dig in the grave of Aisha, the Mother of the Believers, and will execute her. All this is part of their plan."

[...]

"The Shah was most definitely one of the sworn enemies of the Arabs, but he did not legislate a law to persecute the Sunni Muslims, who constitute one-third of the Iranian population. The new Iranian constitution persecutes Sunni Muslims in Iran, while it gives constitutional rights to the Zoroastrians, the Jews, and the Christians. This constitution denies the Sunnis these rights. There is no Sunni mosque in Tehran, even though there are over two million Sunni Muslims there."

[...]

"All these actions are part of the 50-year plan of the Protocols of the Mullahs of Qom. This plan has been published and is well known. It aims to infiltrate the Sunni Muslim countries, to annihilate them, and to sow civil strife between the ruler and his subjects, all within fifty years."

[...]

"Listen to the following secret communiqué: 'At the command and with the guidance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Guide of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and under the title 'The Shi'a of Ali Are Victorious,' the extended conference of the world's Shiites was held in the holy city of Qom. It was attended by the leaders of all Shiite parties and religious authorities. The conference decided that a global organization must be established to annihilate the people who are left, to examine and analyze the current regional situation, to build a military force, to infiltrate governmental institutions through the women's organizations everywhere, and then to infiltrate intelligence agencies, and to finish off the Sunni leaders, even by assassination.' This is the plan of the Hashashin, which still exists.

[...]

"While the American target is economic oil, the Iranian Persian goal is to massacre the Arabs, as is evident in all their writings."

Afghanistan's upper house of parliament approves resolution granting "mujahedeen" immunity from war crimes charges

"If they bring leaders of the mujahedeen to court it will tarnish the name of jihad," one legislator argued. An update on this story. "Afghanistan weighs amnesty in war crimes," by Matthew Pennington for AP:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The upper house of parliament passed a resolution Tuesday that calls for an amnesty for Afghans — including some lawmakers and members of the government — who are suspected of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting, an official said. President Hamid Karzai will now decide whether it should become law, said Kadamali Nekpai, chief of the upper house's press department.

The resolution, which has been condemned by the United Nations and international human rights groups, was passed by the lower house Jan. 31 and covers the mujahedeen leaders who led the anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s and plunged Afghanistan into civil war in the early 1990s. Many of them sit in parliament.

Senators on Tuesday approved the same resolution by a 50-16 majority, Nekpai said.

Although lawmakers describe it as a resolution rather than a bill, they also say it would be made law if Karzai approves it.

Sen. Abdullah Haqahaqi said if Karzai rejected the resolution, it would be voted on again by the lower house and if two-thirds of lawmakers were in favor, it would still become law.

And that law would set a precedent for upholding a double standard where crimes were committed under the banner of "jihad."

Karzai has not made any public comment on the resolution, but his chief spokesman has said the president will not sign anything that goes against Afghanistan's constitution and has asked his lawyers to assess its legality.

The resolution only applies to those who accept Afghanistan's constitution and government authority, so an amnesty would apply to a minority of former Taliban who have reconciled with the government, but not for current insurgent leaders such as Mullah Omar.

Tens of thousands of Afghans died during the years of civil conflict that followed the Soviet occupation.

"One thing must be very clear, and it should be clear worldwide: amnesty for gross violations of human rights and for war crimes shouldn't exist," Tom Koenigs, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, told reporters Monday.

A U.S.-backed invasion in late 2001 toppled the hard-line Taliban regime and ushered in an era of democracy, but it also has seen a number of powerful warlords elevated to high office or seats in parliament.

"Unfortunately, the majority of the lower and upper houses of parliament are warlords and people with blood on their hands," said Nafas Gul, a female senator for Farah province who voted against the resolution. "It's a betrayal of the rights of Afghans."

But another senator who voted in favor said it would promote national unity.

"It's a good step because we want the unity in Afghanistan. If they bring leaders of the mujahedeen to court it will tarnish the name of jihad (holy war)."

Islam Is (Not) the Enemy, Part Deux

We may be witnessing something of a public conversion. Last week, I posted an article on JW from Townhall.com by Frank Pastore entitled "Islam Is Not the Enemy!" in which he criticizes those who see Islam and the West as incompatible. I thought it a good example of conventional misunderstanding. I see that it attracted 311 comments over at Townhall.com and got an average vote of two-out-of-five. I even think I saw a few Jihad Watch noms de plume chiming in.

Well, Mr Pastore is back with "Islam is Not the Enemy, Part II" -- and no exclamation point. Let's see what he has to say.

The elevator doors opened and in walked a young woman dressed in the traditional veiled hijab -– I’m assuming she was a Muslim -– and I thought to myself, “Is she my enemy?” Looking at the reaction to my last column, there’s a whole bunch of people whose default position is to believe so –- and maybe they’re right. In their minds, “Islam is the enemy. We’re at war. She shouldn’t be here.” It’s that simple to them.

I suppose there are some people that simple, but most I expect are able to distinguish between the ideology and the individuals who may or may not fully subscribe to it.

After a brief Platonic interlude, Mr Pastore continues:

As Americans, we believe in the free exercise of religion, including Islam -- but this belief is not reciprocal.

Hmmm.

So, how do we deal with tolerating a religion that is itself intolerant of us? Ought we to pride ourselves on our tolerance and eagerly embrace their intolerance even if it leads to our own destruction? Or, perhaps we ought to abandon our First Amendment and be intolerant of Islam while tolerating only those “acceptable” religions that we decide are “peaceful”? Or, should we intolerantly force them to abandon their religion and embrace a “moderate” replacement that we approve of?

[...]

See, the problem is, Christianity teaches the Golden Rule while Islam doesn’t. The Koran teaches that every Muslim is superior to every non-Muslim and that men are superior to women. A Muslim may treat a Jew, a Buddhist, or a Christian with respect, but they will never be considered equals, for they are dhimmis, a near-slave status in Muslim teaching. This is the fundamental reason why Islam is incompatible with democracy and thereby the West.

The plot thickens!

In Islam, the world is divided into the world of believers, dar al Islam, and that of unbelievers, dar al harb. Islam is not merely at war with the West, it is at war with the world. No authority is higher than the infallible divine law contained in the closed canon of the Koran. Sharia law trumps all other claims to divine law, all natural law, and all positive law. No Muslim can be under any authority other than sharia law. To do so is to render oneself apostate and deserving of death. Reason itself is unable to inquire into the morality of the divine law. This is why the concepts of state, citizen, nation, pluralism and tolerance are alien to Islam. It is also why perhaps there is no more clear instance of the reformer’s di-lemma in all of history. To reform one must question, and to question is forbidden.

[...]

The challenge of the West to live peaceably with Islam is made perhaps impossible by both the historical record and simply by looking around today. What do nearly all the problem spots around the world have in common? What dominant Muslim country has anything approaching real human rights? Where are the Muslim denunciations of violence, terrorism, genocide, and slavery coming from the many mosques, universities, newspapers and capitols throughout the Muslim world? For that matter, where are the condemnations of these things coming from the American Muslim community? There are over one billion Muslims on this planet and their collective silence on these evils is deafening and threatening. What are we non-Muslims to think, other than that the vast majority of Muslims must either support if not tolerate such things? Perhaps “moderate” Islam is merely a Western fiction created to avoid addressing the unavoidable and inevitable reality of civilizational incompatibility.

The loudest and most clear message we non-Muslims hear from the Muslim world is “Convert, submit to Dhimmitude, or die.” Come to think of it, I’m not hearing any other message. And that is what is so deeply troubling.

Well! Quite a turnaround. I see Mr Pastore's rating has gone from two- to four-out-of-five. Not bad.

Mortar blasts rock Mogadishu

Somali Jihad Update. By Guled Mohamed and Sahal Abdulle for Reuters:

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A wave of pre-dawn mortar attacks pounded Mogadishu and killed at least 16 people on Tuesday in one of the most brutal bombardments since an Islamist movement was forced out of the Somali capital last month.

The hilltop presidential palace, Villa Somalia, and the coastal city's defense headquarters were among the targets hit in attacks that struck many quarters of Mogadishu and sent hundreds of residents fleeing to outlying towns.

"They showered us with rockets and a mortar also hit the compound. Luckily no one was hurt," said a government soldier who was in Villa Somalia during the attack but declined to be named for fear of reprisal.

"Our troops and those from our ally Ethiopia were forced to fire heavy artillery," he told Reuters. "We had to retaliate. These elements are being paid to cause all this destruction."

A spate of near-daily attacks have challenged the government's effort to impose security on the city recaptured in December by government forces and their Ethiopian allies from Islamists who controlled it for six months.

The death toll climbed throughout the day on Tuesday as more reports came in from across the chaotic capital, with witnesses and officials putting the total at 16 -- all of them civilians.

[...]

Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle accused Islamist remnants of paying the gunmen in the impoverished city where jobs are scarce and being a hired gun has long been one of the steadiest sources of employment for young men.

"The insurgents are paying $100 a day to whoever fires rockets and mortars at the government and people," he said.

At least 5 killed, dozens injured by chlorine tanker bomb in Iraq

Chemical warfare. "Scores choke in poison gas attack," from CNN:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A cloud of deadly toxic gas engulfed an Iraqi town Tuesday, killing six people and leaving dozens of others choking on fumes after a tanker carrying chlorine exploded outside a restaurant.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry officials said the blast in the town of Taji, 12 miles (20 km) north of Baghdad, was caused by a bomb on board the tanker.

There were contrasting figures on the casualty toll. Baghdad security plan spokesman Gen. Qassim Atta told state-run al-Iraqiya TV that five people died in the blast and 148 were poisoned by the gas.

Frank Gaffney exposes Suhail Khan

Another Norquist protege. Article is at FrontPage.

When I debate Dinesh D'Souza at CPAC next week, Suhail Khan will be the moderator. Should be interesting.

A "different" definition of jihad

Kudos and thanks to the Emory Wheel for actually printing this. Now watch for the firestorm. I predict right now that none of the responses will deal with the fact that this letter is made up largely of quotations from Islamic sources, except possibly to claim (falsely) that these sources are "marginal" and that no Muslims pay attention to them. However, while the claim will be made that my quotations are "cherry-picked," "out of context," and so on, no actual documentary evidence will be offered that the schools of Islamic jurisprudence do not actually teach warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. No such evidence can be offered, because they do teach this.

"A Bestselling Author Offers a Different Definition of Jihad," from The Emory Wheel.

Background here and here.

U.S. Official: Multiple groups of jihadists training in Pakistan for attacks in West

This report corroborates the account in a Newsweek article last December of a twelve-man team training in Pakistan to stage attacks in Western countries. Apparently, there is more than one such team. "Qaeda camps in Pakistan to train operatives: US official," by Jim Mannion for AFP:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Al-Qaeda is believed to have established compounds inside Pakistan to train small groups of operatives for possible attacks in the West, a US official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the compounds had been detected over the past year in a semi-autonomous tribal area along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.

The compounds are "not big ones. These are small," the official told AFP. "They are not like the big camps that they had seen in Afghanistan previously."

But they were being used to train groups of 10 to 20 people at a time for what were believed to be operations in the West, particularly in Western Europe, the official said.

The Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, played down the developments.

"There may be an odd place. And when we find out we take it out. We have done that recently," he said in an interview with CNN. "But saying they have reestablished themselves, and there are a lot of compounds, and they have rejuvenated. That is incorrect."

The compounds suggest that Al-Qaeda, once seen as having been reduced to a largely inspirational role in an increasingly dispersed, decentralized international jihadist movement, is rebuilding its capacity to mount international operations.

The US government is concerned about a stream of Muslims with British passports traveling between Europe and Pakistan as a source of recruits for Al-Qaeda operations, the US official said.

Also known as the "Al-Qaeda Pipeline."

In the intelligence community's most recent public threat assessment, former director of national intelligence John Negroponte told Congress January 11 that Al-Qaeda's core elements continue to plot attacks against the United States and other targets.

"And they continue to maintain active connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders' secure hideout in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, northern Africa and Europe," he said.

A sharp increase and timeliness of public messages by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's number two, is among the indications that the group has reconstituted its command and control over networks of operatives, the official said.

"That's part of his command and control -- how he communicates," the official said.

The New York Times, which first reported the new developments, said the compounds were operated under the loose command of groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al-Qaeda.

According to the Times, with cited US analysts, they receive guidance from their commanders and Zawahri. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared to have little direct involvement, the Times said.

[...]

Incidentally, a report in today's Telegraph does suggest bin Laden is increasingly back in control, though it was said he had not been for a while. The AFP article continues:

The Times said intense debate within the administration failed to resolve a dilemma over what to do.

Some in the Pentagon advocate air strikes on the camps and while others in the State Department worry that too much pressure will undermine the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Clashes with Shi'ite rebels kill more than 100 in Yemen

With allegations that Iran and Libya are backing the rebels. "Clashes in Yemen kill more than 100," by Ahmed al-Haj for AP:

SAN'A, Yemen - Ongoing clashes between the Yemeni army and followers of a Shiite rebel leader in the north of the country have killed more than 100 people in the past five days, military officials said Monday.

About 90 of the dead were in the Yemeni army, including six killed on Monday, an army official said.

Government forces have fired artillery bombardments over the areas where followers of Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi are believed to be hiding out in Saada, about 112 miles north of the capital San'a, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Close to 200 army and police officers have been killed in clashes in recent weeks.

There are no official statistics on rebels casualties, but tribal officials have estimated that more than 100 have been killed since the clashes broke out in late January.

Last week, members of the Yemen Supreme Defense Council voiced concerns, saying the Shiite rebels were receiving funds and assistance from outside countries, according to one of the council's members.

The member, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, did not name the countries. But state-owned newspapers have reported that the government suspects Iran and Libya are backing the rebellion.

[...]

The rebels are part of a Shiite Muslim group known as "The Young Faithful Believers" that accuses the government of being corrupt and too close to the West.

Yemen, the ancestral land of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has largely allied itself with the United States in the war on terror.

The government has been fighting the rebels since June 2004 when rebel Shiite cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al-Hawthi — the brother of the current leader — led his forces in an uprising.

Muslim group calls Virgil Goode on the carpet

Jamal Badawi's group is upset with Congressman Virgil Goode, evidently because he told the truth about jihadist aspirations. One might have thought that Badawi, as a prominent moderate Muslim, would stand with Goode in opposition to Islamic supremacism. No such luck. "Group Wants Congressman Virgil Goode to Explain Comments About Muslims," from FoxNews:

WASHINGTON — A Muslim group said Monday it had invited Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., to expand on biting remarks he made last week during debate on a House resolution disapproving of President Bush's decision to send more than 21,000 U.S. troops into Iraq.

The Muslim American Public Affairs Council has "extended this invitation to Congressman Goode to give him a venue to explain his recent comments about Muslims and Islam," MAPAC Executive Director Marc Conaghan said in a statement. MAPAC also asked Goode to share a dialogue with Jamal Badawi, an Islamic and comparative religion scholar.

Goode's position on the invitation wasn't clear Monday evening. Phone calls to Goode's office went unanswered. Most government offices were closed on Monday for observation of the President's Day holiday.

MAPAC, based in Raleigh, N.C., also did not immediately return messages seeking further comment.

Goode's remarks recently have raised eyebrows among U.S. Muslim groups.

Last week, Goode said the nonbinding resolution would provide "comfort and encourage the radical Muslims who want to destroy our country." He also said Islamic jihadists want U.S. currency to say "In Muhammad We Trust," with an Islamic flag flying over the White House and U.S. Capitol.

I can't imagine why Badawi would be upset about this. Jihadists have already made pictures of the Islamic flag flying over the White House:

Thailand warns of more attacks after wave of coordinated bombings

Thai Jihad Update. 49 bombings, shootings, and arson attacks overnight, and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont is still talking about winning "hearts and minds." "Thailand warns of more 'terrorist' attacks," by Boonradom Chitradon for AFP:

BANGKOK (AFP) - Islamic separatists could stage more "terrorist" attacks, Thailand has warned, after nine people were killed in overnight strikes as many Thais began celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Thailand's army chief of staff said the insurgents, who have battled the government for three years in Muslim-majority provinces of southern Thailand, could try to stage new attacks during upcoming Buddhist holidays.

"The violence may increase, and it will be the same kind of terrorist tactics," General Montri Sangkasap told reporters Monday after an emergency security meeting in Bangkok.

Thailand's junta chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont had summoned military and security chiefs over the attacks that killed nine and wounded 44.

Surayud insisted that no more troops were needed in the region, and said that instead he would pursue his "hearts and minds" campaign to win over the area's residents to the government side.

"Our work now needs to focus on building cooperation between government officials and the people, to get rid of their apprehension of authorities," Surayud said.

The insurgents staged some 49 bombings, shootings and arson attacks late Sunday and early Monday, targeting mainly homes and businesses owned by Buddhists or ethnic Chinese, army officials said.

Three people were killed in shootings and six others in bombings in the 12 hours of violence, the officials told AFP. A total of 44 people were injured, they added.

On Monday evening, four more people were injured when militants staged two more shootings and a bombing in Yala province, police said.

"They want to frighten Buddhists and ethnic Chinese living there so that they will leave the region," army spokesman Colonel Acar Tiproch said.

Montri said officials believed the attacks were timed to coincide with the Lunar New Year holiday observed by many ethnic Chinese in Thailand.

Of course, this year's Lunar New Year also marks the start of the Year of the Pig.

"The violence happened because it was a holiday period when there were many people celebrating. We have to be careful during the next religious festivals," especially during important Buddhist celebrations in March and April," Montri said.

Council on American-Islamic Relations Exposed

Here is a terrific video by Anti-CAIR at YouTube (thanks to News4U). Catch it before YouTube deletes it.

Now you see it, now you don't: Ahmed Younis and the "Jewish lobby"

Last night, Jihad Watch reader Eric sent me a link to a story in Qatar's The Peninsula, featuring remarks by Ahmed Younis, the former national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Eric included the piece in his email, but I clicked on the link, read the story at The Peninsula site, and decided to put it up in the morning.

However, this morning it is gone. The link Eric sent goes to a blank page at The Peninsula site, and the story is not referenced anywhere else on that site. A Google search turns up a link to the article, complete with a photo of Younis, but the link leads to the same blank page.

Why did The Peninsula remove the story? I can only speculate, but I doubt it was because Younis repeats the common defamation of Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson, David Horowitz and me as "anti-Islamic." I think it is more likely because Younis, a prominent moderate leader, is here seen speaking about the "Jewish lobby" and discussing the "national identity" of Muslims in the U.S. -- a national identity that is apparently not American.

Anyway, many thanks to Eric for including the piece in his email, enabling me to bring it to you:

Doha • There are elements in the US fuelling “Islamophobia” who have strong influence in the media, politics and other fields, according to Ahmed Younis, former national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a leading American civil society organisation.

Talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the US-Islamic World Forum, Younis said, the anti-Islamic propaganda being carried out by such elements is not provoked by ignorance about Islam and can not be tackled by entering into a dialogue with them. “Muslims can counter such elements only by stressing their national identity and trying to influence the American public opinion. They should become 100 per cent American and at the same time 100 per cent Muslims,” said Younis.

The Jewish lobby is just one faction influencing the American public opinion. There are other groups which are more hostile to Islam and Muslims. Robert Spencer, Stephen Emerson, Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz are some of the prominent figures heading the anti-Islamic campaign in the US, he added.

He noted that after 9/11, the American Muslim organisations have become more vocal and active. More Americans are now interested to learn about Islam and many of them are being attracted to the religion. Currently there are six to eight million Muslims in the US, of whom about 40 per cent are the indigenous black Americans, while the remaining comprise immigrant Muslims from South Asian countries ( 35 per cent) and the Middle East (22 per cent).

A recent development among the American Muslim community is the Sunni-Shi’ite differences, which have come to the fore as a fall out the conflicts in Iraq. This can prove extremely harmful to the community if their leaders do not find ways to handle it, said Younis.

“Arabisation of the Islamic identity” is one of the major challenges facing the Muslim community in the US, he remarked. “We have been importing Imams from the Arab world. Obviously these Imams are not able to properly communicate with native Americans. Now we are setting up religious schools to produce American Imams,” he said. Younis noted that American foreign policies, especially those concerning the Middle East remain as a major obstacle before creating a better understanding of Islam among the American population.

Indonesian jihadists: Al Qaeda brainwashed us

Basri's story does not add up: He mentions desiring revenge against Christians following a sectatian clash in 2001, but, according to the article, did not take an oath of secrecy and join the al Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah until 2003. "Terror suspects: Al Qaeda brainwashed us," from CNN:

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Basri sports a crude tattoo of Mickey Mouse on his wrist and spent his youth drinking alcohol and jamming to Nirvana songs in a rock band.

He was never religious, and even now struggles to remember verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book.

Yet until his arrest this month, the 30-year-old was one of Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militants.

He was accused in the beheadings of three Christian girls and a string of other attacks on Sulawesi island, a key terror front in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

In interviews with The Associated Press, Basri and four other militants detained with him said they were uneducated men, seeking to avenge relatives killed in a Muslim-Christian conflict six years ago.

They said they were brainwashed by members of the al Qaeda linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.

"I was like buffalo with a ring though my nose," Basri said in the interview, which was arranged by police officers who were present through most of it. "If I was pulled, I had no choice but to follow."

[...]

Police say Basri has formally confessed to taking part in the school girl attack in late 2005, including personally beheading one of the three girls as they walked to school along a quiet jungle path overlooking the town of Poso.

Basri and the other suspects said they evaded arrest for years, learning weapons handling and bomb-making skills from revered Jemaah Islamiyah instructors who either fought or trained in Afghanistan or the southern Philippines -- another Southeast Asian terror hotspot just a short boat journey from Sulawesi.

The crackdown on Sulawesi that netted Basri saw more than 20 suspected Islamic militants killed or arrested -- including several Jemaah Islamiyah ringleaders. But police warn that several more escaped and have likely traveled to the country's main island of Java.

Basri repeated his confession to the AP, describing in detail its planning and execution.

"The preachers told us it was a form of worship," he said. "They said, 'The Christians cut of the heads of Muslim girls in the war, so know it is payback time."'

[...]

Basri claimed he was sorry "not just from my mouth but from deep in my heart."

But he nevertheless joked and laughed as he described how it took two swipes of his machete to lop the head off one of the girls.

[...]

Several Arab and Spanish al Qaeda members spent time in the province, handing out weapons and instructing Indonesian fighters at a coastal camp, according to Gen. Abdullah Hendropriyono, the intelligence agency's head at the time.

"It is a fact that al Qaeda took these people to Poso in 2001," he said after showing a reporter video footage of terror training seized from an Arab fighter at the time. "They wanted to create a religious war."

Basri, who goes by a single name, said he did not take part in those training sessions, but was nevertheless a frontline fighter in the war, describing how he saw several relatives killed.

[...]

Basri and the other men described how they took an oath of secrecy with Jemaah Islamiyah teachers in 2003 before joining them for weekly indoctrination lessons that were wholly focused on the need for jihad, or holy war, against unbelievers.

In 2005, he and other militants took shooting lessons on a boat at sea, he said.

"These men did not pray or fast, they were gangsters seized upon by these preachers, who told them what they were doing was good, legal and justified by Allah," said Nasir Abbas, a former Jemaah Islamiyah leader in Sulawesi who has since turned police informant.

West-Islam civilisations clash rejected

Here is the fruit of years of relentless politically correct indoctrination about Islam as a Religion of Peace and Muslims as the peaceful, innocent victims of a decadent, rapacious West.

By Michael Gordon in The Age, with thanks to all who sent this in:

WORLD opinion emphatically rejects the idea that Islam and the West are heading for an inevitable clash of civilisations, according to an ambitious poll of public attitudes across 27 countries, commissioned by The Age and the BBC World Service.

But a significant minority across the world — and a narrow majority in Indonesia — said violent conflict between Islam and the West was inevitable.

Big majorities in Australia, the United States, Canada, Lebanon, Mexico and most European countries believed common ground can be found between the Muslim and Western cultures.

There was also a consensus in most of these countries that intolerant minorities on both sides, rather than fundamental differences between the two cultures or intolerant minorities on one side or the other, were to blame for tensions between Islam and the West.

The optimistic tone of responses was also reflected after citizens were asked whether differences of religion and culture or conflicts about political power were the source of tensions.

The most common view in 24 of the 27 countries was that tensions arose from conflicts about political power and interests — 52 per cent of the total sample of 28,000 respondents held this opinion.

Almost three in 10 surveyed said tensions primarily arose from differences in culture and religion.

"Perhaps the strongest finding is that so many people across the world blame intolerant minorities on both sides for the tensions between Islam and the West," the president of international polling company GlobeScan, Doug Miller, said.

Intolerant minorities on both sides? And just who is sawing off heads and calling for world conquest in Kentucky or West Virginia or Bend, Oregon?

"84,000 Canadian Muslims think it's justifiable to behead our democratically elected prime minister and blow up the very symbol and centre of our democracy!"

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update. "Disturbing reality buried: Fear of causing offence and wilful blindness will only end the day innocent Canadians die," by Licia Corbella in the Calgary Sun, with thanks to James:

In the news business, it's called burying the lead.

It means you missed the most important or interesting part of a story and led with something less significant.

On Feb. 13, the CBC published and aired the results of an Environics poll, which on their website was billed as "Glad to be Canadian, Muslims say."

Apparently "more than 80% of Canada's roughly 700,000 Muslims are broadly satisfied with their lives here."

[...]

Waaaay down in the online CBC story about this poll is the news that when "asked about the arrests last summer of the 18 Muslim men and boys who were allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in southern Ontario, 73% of Muslim respondents said these attacks were not at all justified." That portion of the poll ended there. No more details. Why? The Environics website made no mention about this portion of the poll either.

However, on CBC's The National television program on the same day, this part of the poll was fleshed-out and the results are alarming.

Fully 12% of Muslim Canadians polled by Environics said the alleged terrorist plot -- that included kidnapping and beheading the prime minister and blowing up Parliament and the CBC -- was justified.

Predictably, the CBC managed to find a talking head -- in this case York University sociology professor Haideh Moghissi -- who dismissed this disturbing revelation.

"It's really negligible that 12 percent feel that the attacks would be justified," said Moghissi. "I don't think it even warrants attention."

Clearly, other news agencies and those who put the poll results on the CBC website agree with Moghissi.

But just how "negligible" is 12% of 700,000 people.

Well, if Moghissi knew arithmetic like she knows denial, she'd know if this poll is accurate, 84,000 Canadian Muslims think it's justifiable to behead our democratically elected prime minister and blow up the very symbol and centre of our democracy!

[...]

Isn't this significant news?

Considering this poll was published on the same day it was learned al-Qaida -- the Islamic terrorist organization behind the 9/11 attacks -- was urging its followers to target all oilfields, including Canada's, should wake complacent Canadians up.

"We should strike petroleum interests in all areas which supply the United States and not only in the Middle East, because the target is to stop its imports or decrease it by all means," it states.

That threat was made on an al-Qaida online magazine called Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War) and was discovered by a U.S. non-profit group that monitors militant websites called Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE).

In other words, the Environics poll indicates anywhere between 49,000 to 84,000 Muslim Canadians likely would view attacks on our oilsands development justifiable, and if that's the case, it's safe to assume some portion of those tens of thousands of people might be prone to carrying out such an attack.

We already know calls to martyrdom and jihad have been made from Canadian mosques, including one in B.C. and the one in Ontario the 18 alleged wanna-be beheaders attended. It's safe to assume there are more.

But, hey, this is Canada, where in the interest of political correctness and fear of offending, the lead on these kinds of stories gets buried and our heads remain planted where there is no illumination and therefore, no truth.

That wilful blindness will likely only end the day innocent Canadians get buried instead of just leads by those who justify terror on their fellow citizens and country.

Yes. And this applies not just to Canadians.

Nashville: Muslim cabbie tries to run down two students after "fight over religion became heated"

Some stand on streetcorners and hand out religious tracts. Some use different methods of persuasion. "Cabbie Runs Down Students: Religious Argument Leaves One Hospitalized," from WSMV.com, with thanks to Jerry:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A local cab driver allegedly tried to run over two customers after a fight over religion became heated.

The incident happened early Sunday morning on the Vanderbilt campus and left one man hospitalized and a cab driver arrested, said police

Two students visiting from Ohio were coming from a bar downtown when they got into an argument with their driver over religion, said police. After they paid the driver he allegedly ran them down in a parking lot.

Ibrihim Ahmed, of United Cab, was arrested and charged with assault, attempted homicide and theft. One of the passengers, Andrew Nelson, managed to outrun the cab but Jeremy Invus was taken to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center with serious injuries, said police....

On mentioning religion

A few days ago I wrote this about the Salt Lake City shooter:

This story confirms that Talovic was a Muslim -- which of course we already knew, for if he had been a Christian the mainstream media would not have failed to take prominent note of that fact.

Many people took issue with this, saying that Christians murder people in America all the time, and their religion isn't noted, and that it shouldn't be noted anyway unless it had something to do with the crime. And of course this is true in regard to murders committed by Americans, but I stand by my assertion that if Talovic had been a member of Bosnia's Christian minority, that fact would have been noted in mainstream media reports. And today comes evidence of that fact from another case, "Three women found bludgeoned to death in Chicago," a report from AP (thanks to Aunt Bea):

(CHICAGO) -- Three women were found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in two apartments on the city's far North Side, and police had a suspect in custody Sunday....

They also found a man hitting himself on the head with a blunt object, apparently trying to kill himself, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. The 56-year-old man was hospitalized in police custody and was in fair condition early Sunday, authorities said....

Authorities did not release the name of the victims, but neighbors and friends identified two of the women as Karmin Khooshabeh, 44, and her stepsister, Karolin Khooshabeh, 40. They said the third victim was their 60-year-old mother....

Estrepaniance said the family was Assyrian Christian, a minority group in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. He said he and his former wife had fled Iran in 1995, fearing persecution for their faith. Her parents came to the United States about four years ago, and the family arranged for Karmin Khooshabeh and her husband to immigrate about three months ago, he said.

Chicago's Assyrian community -- about 100,000 -- is one of the largest in the country.

Now compare that to this initial AP report about the Salt Lake mall shootings: "Police: Teen Shot Mall Victims at Random," by Jennifer Dobner. All we learn about Sulejman Talovic beyond his name is that he was a "trench coat-clad teenager" who lived with his mother.

Now, when people point out that the religion of nominally Christian murderers isn't noted in news stories, and that Talovic's religion should therefore not have been either, they are assuming that in both instances religion played no factor in the killing, and was hence an irrelevant detail. However, while it is extraordinarily unlikely that the Khooshabeh killed his victims in the name of Jesus Christ, or would attempt to justify the killings by reference to Christ's teachings, it is at very least a possibility that Talovic, like so many others around the world every day, as well as other lone jihadists in the U.S. like Mohammad Reza Taheri-azar, killed in the name of Allah and with justification from the Qur'an and Sunnah. That's why Talovic's religion at least merits a mention, and some investigation.

But AP has it exactly backwards, identifying Khooshabeh's Christian faith but not Talovic's Islamic faith. This is just another manifestation, of course, of the fog of suicidal political correctness in which we all live and move and breathe. AP, like almost everyone else, cannot conceive of Christians as anything other than evil, and of Muslims as anything other than victims. Facts that don't fit this paradigm are consigned to oblivion.

Relatives of killer: 1997 Empire State shooting was revenge for U.S. support for Israel

Ten years ago a Palestinian Arab shot seven people, killing one, at the Empire State Building. After insisting it wasn't a political attack for ten years, now his family admits that it was indeed an attack in service of the jihad against Israel.

With all the talk these days about how terrible it is for some people to question whether or not the killer's Islamic religion had anything to do with the Salt Lake City mall murders, this is an especially intriguing story.

"Killer's daughter admits it was political," by Mahmoud Habboush in the New York Daily News, with thanks to MJN:

GAZA CITY - Ali Abu Kamal's relatives say they are tired of lying about why the Palestinian opened fire on the observation deck of Empire State Building, killing a tourist and injuring six other people before committing suicide.

Kamal's widow insisted after the shooting spree that the attack was not politically motivated. She said that her husband had become suicidal after losing $300,000 in a business venture.

But in a stunning admission, Kamal's 48-year-old daughter Linda told the Daily News that her dad wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel - and revealed her mom's 1997 account was a cover story crafted by the Palestinian Authority.

"A Palestinian Authority official advised us to say the attack was not for political reasons because that would harm the peace agreement with Israel," she told The News on Friday. "We didn't know that he was martyred for patriotic motivations, so we repeated what we were told to do."

But three days after the shootings, Kamal's family got a copy of a letter that was found on his body, they said. The letter said he planned the violence as a political statement, his daughter said.

"When we wanted to clarify that to the media, nobody listened to us," she said. "His goal was patriotic. He wanted to take revenge from the Americans, the British, the French and the Israelis."

She said the family became certain that he carried out the attack for political reasons after reading his diary.

"He wrote that after he raised his children and made sure that his family was all right he decided to avenge in the highest building in America to make sure they get his message," said Linda, who works for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees....

Fitzgerald: A giant Leno casting call

Baluchis are treated miserably by the Iranian government, just as, across the border, Baluchis in Baluchistan are the poorest people in Pakistan, and deserve whatever autonomy they can win. Indeed, the case for an independent Baluchistan, carved out of eastern Iran and western Pakistan, is strong. Such a state would, from the Infidel point of view (which is the only point of view Infidels should care about) weaken both Iran and Pakistan, and therefore it would be a good thing.

One thing has not been noted in the news stories about the bombing of Revolutionary Guards in Baluchi-populated, Iranian-ruled lands. The Baluchis are largely Sunnis. In Iran, that adds a dimension to their mistreatment that is not to be found in Pakistan, and to their fury.

Stories about this bombing have not mentioned the relevance of the Baluchis being largely Sunni in Shi'a Iran, but of course what can one expect? It is only in the last few days that Mike Schuster, the NPR correspondent who for years has misunderstood so much about the Middle East, has suddenly discovered the Sunni-Shi'a conflict. He has now attempted to begin to understand it -- of course not by studying anything about Islam or its texts or history, but instead by stringing together highly misleading statements by various Muslims -- Sunni or Shi'a. Such statements always manage to be tendentious and do not, as Schuster may think, somehow add up, since both sides are presented, to "the truth." Rather, they amount to something far less than the sum of its parts.

And it is only in the last few months that the mirror-image of Schuster and of NPR, the Bush Administration, has begun to understand that there is this Sunni-Shi'a split. But it still does not demonstrate in any way that it has any idea of the depth, and duration, and obvious consequences of that split.

A good example of the continuing failure of the press in this matter is how this bombing was covered. In all the reports, no explanation is offered as to who the Baluchis are, or what their grievances might conceivably be, and so on. Nor has one read a single article -- outside of many at Jihad Watch -- explaining, country by country, exactly how that Sunni-Shi'a split has grown, even in the absence of Shi'a (as in Egypt, or Jordan), and how it can be found up and down the western littoral of the Persian Gulf, in the Eastern Province (Al-Hasa) of Saudi Arabia, in Dubai (where many Iranian Shi'a now live, and where they own many tens, and possibly hundreds of billions of dollars of property), in Kuwait, and in Yemen. In Yemen, the two groups are almost even in population, and in the past, it was, curiously, the Shi'a tribes that were supported by the Saudis against the "Marxist" -- they wore their Marxism lightly -- people in the south.

But it's complicated. It requires a few weeks of study. Who wants to do that?

Who wants to do that, when it is so much more fun not to study -- especially as long as no one else is studying, or no one else is around to challenge you, and to force you to learn something.

Isn't it better for our columnists, our reporters, our Congressmen, our generals, our think-tankists, to all keep playing the same game, so as to ensure that all the same safe banalities are uttered, until one fine day along comes reality, and then people are forced to learn just a bit more than they did? Or at least some of them are, anyway.

Meanwhile, the entire population of Official Washington seems hell-bent on trying out for their shining moment on television.

No, I am not thinking of "Jeopardy."

I'm thinking of Jay Leno's Jaywalking All-Stars, the ones who cannot identify who was the American President during the Civil War.

Think of Washington as a giant Casting Call for the Jay Leno Jaywalking All-Stars (Islam Division). For that's what it is.

Ms. Rice, Mr. Bush, Mr. Reyes: Mr. Leno would like to have a brief word with you. Just a few questions, please. Step over here to the camera. No, don't worry. You're all ready for your close-up.

Spot the common problem

"I know! I know! It's American pop culture's depravity!"

No, Dinesh, for the hundredth time, no. Now sit down.

Anybody else want to try to spot the common problem?

US, Israel will not work with PA government unless it recognizes Israel

I wonder how long this will last. Unfortunately, I expect it will not last very long. "US and Israel agree boycott plan," from the BBC, with thanks to Davida:

The US and Israel will not work with a new Palestinian unity government unless it recognises Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

He was speaking as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared for talks with Mr Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Olmert said he and US President Bush agreed on their position on Friday.

Gulf News: US 'ready to strike' Iran

Following a report in The Guardian. It would be irresponsible of the Bush Administration not to have made such preparations, given the repeated bellicose statements coming out of Iran, but whether it will ever actually put such a plan into action is another matter.

"US 'ready to strike' Iran," from Gulf News, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Dubai: The Bush administration is in the "advanced stages" of preparing for a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites, according to a report quoting US officials and analysts.

Washington's current military build-up in the Gulf would allow it to mount an attack by spring, the Guardian reported yesterday. The report comes a day after Defence Secretary Robert Gates reiterated that the US was not planning a strike against Iran.

In Abu Dhabi, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for the Middle East, Mark Kimmitt, told a Gulf security conference yesterday that the US is not seeking a military confrontation with Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme.

But the Guardian quoted Vincent Cannistraro, a US intelligence analyst and former CIA official, as saying: "Planning is going on, in spite of public disavowals ... Targets have been selected."

Therapy plan for terror suspects

Psychological counselling and anger management. Of course! Why didn't anyone think of this before? This will solve that nasty old jihad problem in a jiffy! Poor dears -- they just have low self-esteem! The jihad ideology? What's that?

By Renee Viellaris in The Courier-Mail, with thanks to all who sent this in:

TERROR suspects could be given taxpayer-funded counselling for being angry or having low self-esteem.

Under the proposal, the Federal Government would provide psychological counselling and anger management support to terror suspects and those subject to control orders.

But secrecy surrounds the initiative because the Australian Federal Police has refused to reveal the specifics of its proposal.

Scant details were released through a Federal Government question on notice.

"Some of the options considered include religious education, psychological support and assistance with issues such as anger management, low self-esteem, social identity and family separation," the AFP said, responding to a question on voluntary education programs for terrorists.

Religious education, i.e., that ever-elusive Secret Qur'anic Decoder Ring that turns "fight against those who believe not in Allah or the Last Day...even if they are of the People of the Book" (9:29) into "be tolerant and peaceful toward those who believe not in Allah or the Last Day...even if they are of the People of the Book." This Ring is said to be in the possession of many self-proclaimed moderate leaders, but they have never shared its inner workings with the masses.

The Opposition has also demanded to know what research shows a link between terrorism and people with low self-esteem.

Good for the Opposition.

(More) Islamic Terror in Kosovo

From Christian Broadcasting Network:

An Albanian Muslim extremist from Kosovo was recently arrested after allegedly plotting to blow up the parliament building in Montenegro.

55-year-old Dodu L. was arrested by Austrian authorities last month while trying to board a flight in Vienna. 12 other ethnic Albanians were reportedly involved in the plot.

There is growing concern that Kosovo, a disputed region in the southern province of Serbia, is emerging as a bastion of radical Islam.

Growing concern, indeed, but not fast enough. At CBN Worldbeat, there is an excellent interview with James Jatras on the whole situation and NATO/UN connivance in letting Albanian Muslims force out the indigenous Kosovar Serbian community. Click HERE for the video.

Assad, Ahmadinejad vow to form alliance against U.S., Israel

You mean, they haven't already? From Haaretz, with thanks to James:

Iranian President Mahmoud Adhmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday vowed to form an alliance against what they called U.S. and Israeli conspiracies against the Islamic world.

Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the Islamic world in general and Iran and Syria in particular should maintain their vigilance and neutralize conspiracies aimed at sowing discord among Muslims.

Ahmadinejad said that what the U.S. really aims for under the pretext of development in the region "is just another effort to strengthen its own status and that of the Zionists."

The Iranian president also praised the agreement by rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to form a unity government.

"Dispute among Muslim factions has always been harmful for regional nations and useful for Islam's enemies," he said.

ISNA quoted Assad as saying that expansion of Tehran-Damascus ties would help resolve the problems of the Islamic world. He accused the U.S. of trying to attract public opinion within the Islamic world by undermining Iran-Syria relations.

"America's policies have failed in the region ... By creating divisions among Muslim nations, Washington wants to pursue its aims," IRNA quoted Assad as saying during his meeting with Ahmadinejad, who urged "Muslim countries to preserve unity."

Official leading polio drive in Pakistan killed; locals accuse workers of "coming here disguised as polio campaigners to spread vulgarity”

An update on this story. "Official leading polio drive killed," by Masood Khan for the Daily Times:

KHAR: A senior government official was killed on Friday when a remote-controlled roadside bomb exploded in Salarzai, a village about 50 kilometres northeast of Khar, the main town in Bajur Agency, when he was returning from a jirga (tribal council) to convince people to immunise their children against polio, local administration officials said.

The blast killed Dr Abdul Ghani Khan, chief surgeon at the main government hospital in Bajur, at the scene and injured three others in his car, the officials said. One of the injured is critical, they added. “The surgeon was killed and three others injured in the blast in the Salarzai area at 3:30pm.”

Dr Amir Khan, medical superintendent (MS) at Khar District Headquarters Hospital, said that residents of Mullah Said Banda in the Salarzai area had earlier refused to get their children vaccinated against polio and added that Dr Ghani was visiting the area to allay misperceptions about the vaccination. “The locals had also warned polio teams against visiting the area,” the MS said.

Paramedic Hazrat Jamal, who is one of the three injured in the explosion, said that the residents of Mullah Said Banda were against the polio campaign. “As soon as we reached there, an armed prayer leader warned us against visiting the area. Some locals said: ‘On one hand, our enemy (a reference to the United States) is bombing us for no reason while on the other hand you are coming here disguised as polio campaigners to spread vulgarity,” he told Daily Times at the hospital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion, but local tribal militants are suspected to be behind the attack. The Friday’s attack is the second since February 5 when a pro-government elder was killed in a similar fashion.

Bombing mastermind: "We are close to victory. The time for jihad has come"

In other words, Louai al Sakka and others believe they are in striking distance of overthrowing the secular government in Turkey. "'It is time for jihad'," from News24:

Istanbul - A Syrian al-Qaeda militant on trial for masterminding suicide bomb attacks on Jewish and British targets that killed more than 60 people in Istanbul in 2003 called on supporters on Friday to wage a holy war.

Louai al Sakka is charged with planning and securing finance for the truck bombings of two synagogues, the British consulate and a branch of HSBC bank in November 2003 - one of Turkey's worst episodes of peacetime violence.

A Turkish cell in the al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"We are close to victory. The time for jihad (holy war) has come, but don't worry about me. I will get out, then I will once again join your jihad," Sakka said in court ahead of a final verdict.

Nine out of some 70 people on trial on charges related to the bombings were in court. The court is expected to deliver its verdict later on Friday on at least some of the defendants.

It did, and CNN reports that Sakka and six others received life sentences. More from al Sakka and another defendant in that article:

"Beware, beware, don't give up for any reason!" he said, and also recited verses from the Koran.

[...]

A third defendant, Harun Ilhan, who has taken responsibility for the bombings, criticized Turkey's secular system and expressed hope for the establishment of an Islamic state.

"We know that one day this regime will crumble and an Islamic regime will be established," he said. Turkey's government has Islamic roots, but its leaders are moderate and the powerful military is viewed as a champion of secular rule.

"Before the day comes that you wish you were Muslims... I invite you to become Muslims," Ilhan said in his address, reflecting his belief that most Turks are not devout followers of Islam.

"I invite you to Allah's religion, Islam," he repeated over and over.

"I am not a theoretician of al-Qaeda. I am a warrior," the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Ilhan as saying Friday.

Abbas to U.S.: We're with Hamas. Deal with it

In a sane world, Abbas would be apologizing to Welch and promising to do more to combat Hamas, jihadism, and even anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment. After all, he's on our payroll; what are we buying? But instead, he barks, because he knows when he does, we will jump.

"U.S. State Dept. official meets Abbas," by Mohammed Daraghmeh for Associated Press, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a defiant message to a U.S. envoy on Saturday, saying that the world would have to learn to live with a new coalition between his Fatah movement and the Islamic militant Hamas.

The alliance has raised concerns in the United States, and American officials have told Abbas they would shun any Palestinian government that does not explicitly recognize Israel, according to Abbas' aides. The platform of a Hamas-Fatah government agreed at a meeting in Mecca last week only contains a vague promise to "respect" previous peace deals with Israel, at best implying recognition.

"President Abbas told David Welch that the Mecca agreement was the only possible agreement and the world must deal with it," Abbas' aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said, after the meeting in Ramallah with Welch, a senior State Department official. Abbas is to host Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday and attend a three-way meeting Monday with Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"In the three-way meeting with Olmert and Rice, President Abbas is going to say that this government should be given a chance." Abu Rdeneh said.

How many chances? How many chances has it already been given? How many times has it already shown its true colors?

Syrian - Iranian summit in Tehran

Assad goes to consult with his superiors. From Al-Bawaba, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad heading a high-ranking delegation arrived in Tehran on Saturday to confer with Iranian officials on regional development. According to IRNA, the Syrian president and his entourage were welcomed by Iranian Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeedi Kia at Mehrabad Airport....

During his stay in Tehran, Assad is scheduled to confer with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on matters of mutual interest.

Fitzgerald: Crazinesses and conspiracy theories

"The parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumours that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilise innocent Muslim children." -- from this article

The assorted crazinesses and conspiracy theories (I like best that well-known one about Neil Armstrong hearing the azan on the moon -- one giant step for Homo Islamicus, apparently) that are widely believed in the Islamic world provide yet another example of the susceptibility to lunatic ideas and the most absurd rumors among populations of people who have been brought up in societies where they are deliberately taught not to think.

For Islam teaches that Allah must never be questioned. The products of his will or whim are simply there. Ours not to reason why, for Allah Knows Best. And that is how the ask-mr-fatwas sites, in giving their opinions which have the effect of unappealable rulings to the inquiring ("Can I wear a bouffant hairdo?" "Can I defecate in a toilet if the water in the bowl is still?" "Can I inherit property from the parents of my 'reverted' spouse?") always conclude: Allah Knows Best.

The habit of submission in Islam (Islam means "submission") is not merely one of submission to Allah over rituals. It is a larger submission, a Total Submission. And that submission includes the habit of Mental Submission. That helps to explain why, after a very short period, in the first few centuries of Islam, that is at a time when the lands conquered by Muslims were still largely inhabited by Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, there was here and there the transmission of discoveries made by non-Muslims (e.g., Hindu mathematicians), and also very modest development of what might be called science. The modesty of Islamic science and technology can be seen by quickly consulting any of the authoritative histories of science and technology. But one discovers that:

1) many of those involved in these scientific endeavors were either Christians or Jews, or were Muslims whose parents or grandparents had been Christians and Jews, and therefore their mental formation, and that of the societies in which they grew up, had not yet been thoroughly islmamized; and

2) the people involved held views that in most cases were dangerously un-Islamic. Ar-Razi, for example, could reasonably be described as a freethinker. In other words, what brief scientific effort there was, between, say, 800 and 1200, in what is called High Islamic Civilization, was not the product of Islam, but was rather the product of individuals, many of them not themselves molded by Islam or even believers in Islam.

The habit of mental submission leads not only to susceptibility to every kind of crank belief, or even to the entertaining of two separate and contradictory beliefs ("The Arabs could not have been responsible for 9/11/2001 and it must have been the Mossad" and "The Americans had it coming to them and they will get more of it from us"), but to a touching desire to find validation in some praise for Islam uttered here and there, over the centuries by this or that non-Muslim. For it is with a desperate eagerness that Muslims quote the list of cranks and oddballs who, in the Western world, converted or "reverted" to Islam: a French doctor, Bucaille, who treated the Saudis; Leopold Weiss (Muhammad As'ad); an upper-class twit like the son of Lord Burt, former head of the BBC; and assorted others including all the female yvonne-ridleys who have found in Muslim dress something that answers their felt need, their need to be "someone special" or that "special someone" in a world that otherwise pays them no never mind.

Muslims are inculcated with and exhibit a sense of superiority: we are Muslims, we are the Best People (cf. Qur’an 3:110), "Islam must dominate and is not to be dominated," Allah will prevail and Muslims have a right to, and will, rule everywhere. At the same time, they can see that there is something wrong with Muslim societies and polities. They can see that they have produced nothing of cultural or scientific significance, or at least they have some inkling of that. They can see that the Muslims have produced nothing, and their wealth is merely the result of an accident of geology. They can see that not only the ancient hated rival, Western Christendom (as they still regard it), long ago pulled away from them -- and so have the formerly impoverished countries of East Asia. They can see, and Arab "intellectuals" who write reports for the U.N. can identify, the failure of Arab (and other Muslim) societies to produce scientific papers, to publish books, to translate other books, to create their own universities that are semi-decent. Their societies are, culturally and artistically, failures.

But they cannot conceivably blame Islam itself for those failures. That cannot be done. They cannot point to the limits on artistic expression and mental freedom that is part of Islam. They cannot dare to note that the habit of mental submission is at the heart of Islam. So they must blame...the Infidels. They must, that is, again and again, if they are even willing to admit that something is wrong, blame those Infidels -- because otherwise they would have to blame themselves. They would have to blame what created and molded them, which is Islam.

And that they will not do.

But we, by noting all this, we the Infidels, by being aware of it ourselves, can force at least some Muslims to make that connection themselves. We need not accept blame for what is the fault of Islam. We need to do this for many reasons. We need to do it to shut off the possible appeal of Islam to the economically and psychically marginal by showing them not so much that Islam is "for losers" (an unpleasant phrase) but that Islam itself creates whole societies of "losers" -- or of those that exhibit political, economic, social, intellectual, and moral failures directly attributable to the teachings, the attitudes, the atmospherics of Islam.

And by understanding this ourselves in the Infidel lands, more people will be keener to recognize the nature of Jihad and the variety of its instruments. They will then better understand the full civilizational menace to themselves and their descendants of the spread of Islam and the growth of Muslim populations deep within Infidel lands.

Finally, if there is to be hope of appealing to the most intelligent Muslims, those who at least admit there is a grave problem, helping them to dare to make the connection between the failures of Islamic societies and of Islam may cause the growth of incipient self-doubt and self-questioning. This will, at the very least, weaken the hold of Islam on its brainwashed or fearful adherents, and may even cause some, especially among non-Arabs, to begin to see Islam as a vehicle of Arab imperialism, cultural, linguistic, and political, and to begin to consider returning en masse either to the faith (Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, even in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans Christianity and Judaism) of their forcibly converted ancestors, or perhaps to another belief, or no belief at all.

New York resident arrested on jihad funding charges

"Man held in New York on terror funding charges," from AFP:

NEW YORK (AFP) - US authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of transferring funds abroad to finance training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a New York district attorney said.

US resident Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, whose nationality is not known, is accused of having agreed to transfer 152,000 dollars abroad supposedly to buy night vision glasses for a camp in Afghanistan.

Also known by the alias Michael Mixon, he was arrested on Thursday and was to be charged with attempting to finance terrorism, international money laundering, and material support to terrorism, as well as conspiracy and wire fraud.

According to the US Attorney for the southern district of New York, Michael Garcia, Alishtari was also behind a six-year scam from 1998 to 2004 when he stole millions of dollars from victims via a phoney loan investment program.

It would be interesting to find out where that money went, as well.

He faces up to 95 years in prison if convicted of the charges, Garcia added.

Nasrallah: "Hizballah has the right to secretly transfer arms"

Not very secret anymore, is it? "Hizbullah has the right to secretly transfer arms," from the Jerusalem Post and Associated Press:

Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that the terror organization "had the right to secretly transfer arms in order to hide them from the Israeli enemy."

Nasrallah said in yet another televised speech that he would not forgive Lebanon for confiscating one of the group's trucks last week which was carrying weapons to the group.

Speaking at an event commemorating the death of Abbas Musawi, Nasrallah's predecessor, he admitted that "Hizbullah has many types of weapons," and that he is "ready to give the Lebanese army weapons if needed."

He would not forgive anyone who confiscated even one bullet, he added, referring to the government.

Hizbullah, he said, had been willing to join forces with the Lebanese army during the latest clashes between the army and the IDF on the northern border.

"In Maroun al-Ras we were ready to join and assist the officers and soldiers of the Lebanese army. If another conflict breaks out, our weapons, our blood and our youth will stand with Lebanon's army," he insisted.

He vowed to continue the opposition campaign to force Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to share power or step down. Nasrallah said he was confident of eventual triumph, claiming the group had the resources for it.

"No one should imagine that the opposition's coffers have emptied," he said. "If the (demands) are not met, the opposition will continue its actions by means which it finds appropriate."

Polio cases jump in Pakistan as clerics declare vaccination an American plot

Those Southern Baptist clerics have carried on their war against modern science long enough! Why, this is an outr--what's that? Islamic clerics? "60% of the refusals" of the vaccine "were attributed to 'religious reasons'"? Islamic religious reasons? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

By Declan Walsh in The Guardian, with thanks to DFS:

The parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumours that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilise innocent Muslim children.

The disinformation - spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations, and by word of mouth - has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 39 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2006, up from 28 in 2005. The disease is concentrated in North-West Frontier Province, where 60% of the refusals were attributed to "religious reasons".

"It was very striking. There was a lot of anti-American propaganda as well as some misconceptions about sterilisation," said Dr Sarfaraz Afridi, a campaign manager with the WHO in Peshawar.

The scaremongering and appeals to Islam echoed a similar campaign in the Nigerian state of Kano in 2003, where the disease then spread to 12 polio-free countries over the following 18 months. Pakistan is one of just four countries where polio remains endemic. The others are Nigeria, India and Afghanistan.

The North-West Frontier Province government made strenuous efforts to counter talk of an "infidel vaccine". Health workers fanning across the province last month were equipped with copies of a fatwa, or religious order, endorsing the vaccinations and signed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leaders of Pakistan's most powerful religious parties.

The move reassured many doubters. More than 5.7 million children were vaccinated in January, with another 3 million targeted in a second round due to start next Tuesday. "The elephant is over. We are left with just the tail," said Dr Afridi.

But the tail has a deadly sting. Even though only 24,000 children missed the vaccine, the WHO officials said failure to vaccinate in small pockets of the country gave the virus a fresh toehold to spread.

The vaccination struggle is entangled with the confrontation between the government and powerful militants in the tribal areas. Refusals were highest in areas where conservative clerics and self-styled "Pakistani Taliban" fighters hold sway, flouting government authority and making their own strict laws....

In nearby Swat Valley, a young firebrand cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, denounced the polio campaign through a local FM radio station. His brother was killed in a Pakistani army attack on a madrasa, or Islamic school, late last year. Almost 4,000 children were not vaccinated in Swat....

Aid workers fear they are being pushed into the frontline of the struggle between the government and tribal militants, some linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Last weekend a grenade was lobbed into a Red Crescent compound in Peshawar, damaging vehicles but killing nobody.

Some linked the attack to a fatwa issued in Dara Adam Khel, a lawless town famous for its gunsmiths, just before Christmas. A cleric named Mufti Khalid Shah declared a fatwa on employees of the UN, WHO and all other foreign organisations. "Killing their employees is in line with the teachings of jihad in Islam," said a notice.

The Guardian sneers at LGF, Jihad Watch

In "Playing with fire" in The Guardian, Dan Glaister reduces himself to vilifying Charles Johnson and me for asking politically incorrect questions, and demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of his position by offering no arguments against the questions we have raised. Just sneers.

"Salt Lake Jihad?" asks David Horowitz's conservative Frontpagemag.com. The question refers not to some Latter Day Saints-Osama Bin Laden merger but rather to speculation about the shootings at the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City on Monday. While much has emerged about the shootings, and about the shooter's family background in Bosnia, the conservative blogosphere, such as it is, is awash with suggestions that the mainstream (as in, liberal) media has deliberately suppressed the fact that Sulejman Talovic, the 19-year-old perpetrator, was Muslim.

"Conservative" = evil. "Such as it is" = insignificant -- albeit apparently significant enough for a full denunciation in The Guardian. "Suggestions": i.e., not statements, and in fact just questions, but never mind. They were the wrong questions.

Glaister goes on to denounce Little Green Footballs for noting that the media did not report the Salt Lake killer's Islamic faith, and parrots many of the charges made in the Deseret Morning News. Then he has the decency to quote Charles Johnson's explanatory note, but not approvingly:

"Please note," wrote LGF's Charles Johnson, "I have not expressed any opinion on whether the mall attack was an act of jihad, personal or otherwise. I've raised the issue, with good reason. But I have deliberately refrained from expressing a conclusion, because we obviously do not know enough at this point to do that.

"I have come to the conclusion, however, that the media are doing everything possible to hide connections to Islam in cases like this. It's an absolutely predictable pattern, and they do it every time."

His view was echoed on the mildly-named Jihadwatch, plaything of writer Robert Spencer. "The bottom line is this," he wrote, "in light of the fact that there have been several attacks similar to Talovic's committed by Muslims in the last year ... and that in each case authorities have discounted the possibility. All I am asking is that the possibility that such attacks are motivated by the jihad ideology, even in the absence of an institutional connection to a group like al-Qaida, be duly considered. Is that too much to ask?"

Spencer even addresses the contention that Talovic had not attended a mosque.
"It is unfortunately possible that he could never have gone to the mosque at all and still be jihad-motivated. Consider, for example, that an al-Qaida manual directs operatives to 'avoid visiting famous Islamic places (mosques, libraries, Islamic fairs, etc)'."

Back in the real world, concern was evident for members of Utah's Bosnian community. While there were accounts of threats against Bosnians in local papers, none were reported to police. But the incident - both the shooting and the atmosphere in its aftermath - prompted Bosnia's ambassador to the US, Bisera Turkovic, to visit the city to express sorrow and to talk about some of the trauma that many of the refugees living in Salt Lake went through before they arrived in Utah.

"Mildly-named Jihadwatch"? So it isn't even permissible, as far as The Guardian is concerned, even to monitor jihadist activity? "Plaything" = not a serious endeavor, such as that of the clearly high-minded Mr. Glaister.

Anyway, I'm sorry, Mr. G., but I still don't understand what's wrong with the questions I asked above, and I fail to see how your following them with "back in the real world" makes clear what's wrong with them. Does the Al-Qaeda manual I quoted not exist because Glaister said "back in the real world"? Does the possibility that Talovic, like Taheri-azar and all the others, was a lone jihadist disappear because Glaister said "back in the real world"? Besides the utter vacuity of Glaister's response to what Charles and I wrote, note also the familiar shift of focus: once again, we see an attempt to deflect attention away from crimes committed by a Muslim and onto Muslims as putative victims -- although no actual threats "were reported to police."

That meeting at the Bosna restaurant, with reporters, the mayor and local police chiefs, produced a more moderate message: of understanding and tolerance.

"I will not allow my officers to profile individuals because of race," said Salt Lake police chief Chris Burbank. "We are not profiling a community because of their race." Burbank added that there's no place for "fear and hatred and mistrust of others based solely on their race, their nationality, what language they may speak, or what religious preference they may have. That's very dangerous for police to wander into. I think it's dangerous for society."

I suppose Dan Glaister considers that quote the coup de grace, but it actually reveals his complete intellectual muddle. Of course the jihad is not a race, but an ideology that is held by people of all races. However, that is not the end of the muddles here: Burbank is talking about racial profiling in a case involving not an Arab, but a white European, a Bosnian Muslim. Burbank is so hopelessly mired in political correctness that he cannot even discuss religious profiling directly long enough to dismiss it. He has to disavow it in terms of racial profiling, which has no conceivable place in this case, sneaking it in after race, nationality, and language.

And Glaister proudly repeats his words, thinking himself broad-minded and tolerant all the while, when all he has really done is parrot Leftist platitudes upon which he has clearly not reflected.

UPDATE: Charles weighs in:

Do you notice anything missing from this limp-wristed attack? For example, a counter-argument? People like Glaister think it’s sufficient to simply quote statements and point disapprovingly. Why strain his logical faculties? All decent people will automatically agree with him, after all.

Read it all.

Ellison calls cops on Tancredo

By now you have all seen this story in ten different places, but note one thing: during the kerfuffle over Congressman Virgil Goode's remarks about swearing in on the Qur'an and Muslim immigration, Ellison struck a magnanimous pose. He was quoted in the Washington Post saying: "Look, we're trying to build bridges. We're trying to help bring about understanding. We don't want issues of misunderstanding and division to exist if they don't have to."

In contrast, on December 7 I wrote that "Keith Ellison, meanwhile, is moving into an office in the Longworth House Office Building right next door to that of Colorado's intelligent, perceptive, outspoken and courageous Tom Tancredo. Interesting choice. I wonder if Ellison is interested in the comings and goings in Tancredo's office." And now I wonder if he is interested in engaging in deliberate harassment in order to try to keep his neighbor off-balance and on the defensive.

This story shows that Ellison is not in the least concerned about building "bridges" and bringing about "understanding." Instead, he is already behaving like a bully, in the manner of his friends at CAIR.

"Rep. Ellison calls the cops to snuff Tancredo’s cigar," by Betsy Rothstein in The Hill, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes it is his right as a Muslim to be sworn into Congress with the Quran. But apparently, the freshman lawmaker doesn’t believe it’s Rep. Tom Tancredo’s (R-Colo.) right to smoke a cigar in his congressional office.

Ellison’s office called the Capitol Hill Police on Tancredo last Wednesday night as Tancredo was in his office smoking a cigar. The lawmakers have neighboring offices on the first floor of the Longworth House Office Building.

Tancredo was still stunned a day later. “It’s very bizarre,” said Tancredo, who has never met Ellison. “Seemed to me not a good way to say hello.”

And let’s face it. Calling the cops on a colleague takes the cake for the nerviest behavior so far among members of this year’s freshman class of Congress.

This is how it all went down. On Wednesday evening, around 6 p.m., Tancredo was preparing for his trip to Mississippi. And as he so often does, he was unwinding with a cigar.

Soon enough, however, a police officer walked in to check on the smoke. The officer told Tancredo that the officer came because he was required to do so and not because the officer wanted to. The officer had already told Ellison that Tancredo was permitted to smoke in his office. The visit was more a formality.

Tancredo said he would not stop smoking in his office. “Heck, no!” he said. “If he [Ellison] would have [had] the courtesy to say something I’m sure I would have been more accommodating to his wishes.”

To help keep his office free of impurities, Tancredo has three air purifiers. And he has no plans to meet Ellison anytime soon. “I’m sure we will, but I’m not going to make a point [of it],” the presidential hopeful said, adding that he supported Ellison’s right to be sworn in with the Quran.

Wilders: get rid of half of Koran!

Here is one politician with the courage to bring up the cause of the problem, and speak honestly about it. From Expatica, with thanks to all who sent this in:

AMSTERDAM – If Muslims want to stay in the Netherlands, they should tear out half the Koran and throw it away. And they shouldn’t listen to the imam. Faction leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) Geert Wilders said this in an interview with daily newspaper De Pers on Tuesday.

He said the holy book of Islam contains “plenty of terrible things.” Wilders said once again that Islam is a violent religion. “If Mohammed lived here today, I would propose he be tarred and feathered as an extremist and driven out of the country,” he said.

The politician wants to impress on people that Islam is “the greatest danger threatening us.” He says that other political parties avoid topics like this. “Everything we are proud of, we are selling to the devil. Former head of the Mossad Efraim Halevy says that World War III has begun. I would not use those words, but it’s true,” said Wilders, who in the past has voiced his fear of a “tsunami of Islamisation in the Netherlands.”

Wilders: “Take a walk down the street and see where this is going. You no longer feel like you are living in your own country. There is a battle going on and we have to defend ourselves. Before you know it there will be more mosques than churches!”

A constant element of mainstream Islamic theology

Yesterday evening I shortened this post and sent it as a letter to the Emory Wheel. Do you think they will publish this? Whether they do or not, note that Caldwell's letter was yet another example of something we have seen here again and again and again: in response to specific information about what Muslims believe about jihad, an Islamic apologist makes broad-brush but unsubstantiated charges of ignorance and hatred. This letter provides in response more specific information aboout Islamic teaching on jihad. What will be the reply?

In “Jihad Means Much More Than Violence,” Will Caldwell objects to the David Horowitz Freedom Center's ad, "What Americans Need to Know About Jihad,” as “propaganda,” and calls for it to be censored. He asserts that “most in our community are educated enough to understand that statements like ‘The goal of jihad is world domination’ are completely ignorant and intentionally provocative.”

Unfortunately, however, jihad as warfare against unbelievers in order to institute Sharia worldwide is not propaganda or ignorance, or a heretical doctrine held by a tiny minority of extremists; instead, it is a constant element of mainstream Islamic theology. It is affirmed by all four principal schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence (madhahib): the Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali, and Shafi’i, to which the great majority of Muslims worldwide belong, as well as of all the other schools.

These schools formulated laws regarding the importance of jihad and the ways in which it must be practiced, centuries ago. Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (d. 996), a Maliki jurist, declared: “Jihad is a precept of Divine institution….[Unbelievers] have the alternative of either converting to Islam or paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared against them.”

Likewise, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), a Hanbali jurist who is a favorite of Osama bin Laden and other modern-day jihadists, taught: “Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.”

The Hanafi school sounds the same notes: “If the infidels, upon receiving the call [to Islam], neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax, it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them…” (Hidayah)

The Shafi’i scholar Abu’l Hasan al-Mawardi (d. 1058 ) agrees, saying that if unbelievers “refuse to accept [Islam] after this, war is waged against them…”

All this is not merely of historical interest. A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law that in 1991 was certified by the highest authority in Sunni Islam, Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, as conforming “to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community.” This manual, ‘Umdat al-Salik (available in English as Reliance of the Traveller), after defining the “greater jihad” as “spiritual warfare against the lower self,” devotes eleven pages to the “lesser jihad.” It defines this jihad as “war against non-Muslims,” and spells out the nature of this warfare in quite specific terms: “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.”

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes 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.”

Extremists? Propaganda? No, this is the Islamic mainstream.

Will Caldwell calls upon the Wheel “to provide the community with reliable and useful information.” Reliable and useful information about jihad was in the ad and is in this letter. I'd be happy to discuss or debate this, and what can be done about it, with Will Caldwell or anyone else. I can be reached at director@jihadwatch.org.

Islam challenges European view that religion is private

by Stephen Brown:

The growth of Islam in Europe is challenging deeply-held notions that faith is a private matter which should be banished from public life, a prominent sociologist of religion has told a gathering of European Christian leaders.

"We ignore the presence of Islam at our peril," Professor Grace Davie of the University of Exeter in Britain told leaders from Europe's main Christian traditions at a 15-18 February meeting in Wittenberg in Germany. "This is a catalyst for a much more profound change in the religious landscape of Europe."

[...]

"The presence of Islam is a catalyst that has reopened issues that Europeans thought were closed," Davie said on 16 February. "You cannot privatise Islam. We have seen that." But she said Christian churches had a major task in helping to find ways to deal with such public expression of religion.

"Public expression of religion." Here we have a good example of the tendency of commentators to take refuge in vague language. Such a statement could only be made by a religiously unserious person. The earlier observation that "Islam cannot be privatised" is right on, but how, exactly, are "Christian churches" supposed to help with this problem? If "faith is a private matter," what business does Christianity have tackling a public problem?

Davie was presenting the results of recent research on the place of religion in Europe, in which she wrote about the controversy over the cartoons: "The lack of comprehension on both sides of this affair, together with an unwillingness to compromise, led alarmingly fast to dangerous confrontations, both in Europe and beyond."

The notion that religion should be banished from public life -- and particularly from the state and from the education system -- was widespread in Europe, Davie noted.

"Religion should be banished from public life." Europe so far has done a stellar job scrubbing itself clean of the religion that made its existence possible -- Christianity -- all the while failing to realize that not all religions are created equal. This is not a struggle between secular Europe and "religion" but between a Europe drained of its cultural life-blood and Islam.

But in part due to the presence of Islam, religion was increasingly likely to penetrate the public sphere in Europe, a tendency being encouraged by the ever more obvious presence of religion in the modern global order.

This semantic shell game of "Islam" and "religion" has got to stop. It's not "religion" that's the problem here; it is a VERY PARTICULAR religion.

However, this was "probably more of a problem for the secular elite than the Christian churches", Davie suggested in her comments in Wittenberg. She said, "We need to grasp how to deal with religion in the political sphere and here Christian churches have a huge contribution to make."

If Christianity has been excluded from the public square -- and quite rightly it would seem according to Professor Davie -- how is it supposed to make a "huge contribution"? Now that SS Secular Europe is in danger of being swamped by the rising Islamic tide, now they turn to Christianity for help. Better late than never, but as long as "religion" is relegated to the public sidelines -- in Europe and elsewhere -- Islam will continue to vault from strength to strength.

Jihad means much more than violence (but it also means violence)

In "Jihad Means Much More Than Violence" in the Emory Wheel, Emory University senior Will Caldwell, a Muslim, objects to the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Terrorism Awareness Program for the ad it placed in the Wheel, "What Americans Need to Know About Jihad." (Other campus newspapers are simply refusing to run it.)

After reading the advertisement in last Friday's Wheel, "What Americans Need to Know About Jihad," I was outraged. Then I laughed.

David Horowitz, the man who paid for half a page of space to "educate" Americans on the threat of jihad, is clearly as much of an extremist as the terrorists he feels compelled to fight. It's easy enough to take hatred like Horowitz's in stride. What continues to upset me is that the Wheel allowed the ad to run.

Ad hominem attack and call for censorship. Good start, Will.

Emory is the last place in America that I would expect such propaganda to have any real effect. Most in our community are educated enough to understand that statements like "The goal of jihad is world domination" are completely ignorant and intentionally provocative. However, this does not mean the Wheel should offer its complicity in spreading ignorance.

Unfortunately, jihad as warfare against unbelievers in order to institute Sharia worldwide is not propaganda or ignorance, or a heretical doctrine held by a tiny minority of extremists; instead, it is a constant element of mainstream Islamic theology. Islamic law contains unmistakable affirmations of the centrality of jihad warfare against unbelievers. This is true of all four principal schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence (madhahib): the Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali, and Shafi’i, to which the great majority of Muslims worldwide belong, as well as of all the other schools.

These schools formulated laws regarding the importance of jihad and the ways in which it must be practiced, centuries ago. Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (d. 996), a Maliki jurist, declared:

Jihad is a precept of Divine institution. Its performance by certain individuals may dispense others from it. We Malikis maintain that it is preferable not to begin hostilities with the enemy before having invited the latter to embrace the religion of Allah except where the enemy attacks first. They have the alternative of either converting to Islam or paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared against them.

Likewise, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), a Hanbali jurist who is a favorite of Osama bin Laden and other modern-day jihadists:

Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought. As for those who cannot offer resistance or cannot fight, such as women, children, monks, old people, the blind, handicapped and their likes, they shall not be killed unless they actually fight with words (e.g. by propaganda) and acts (e.g. by spying or otherwise assisting in the warfare).

The Hanafi school sounds the same notes:

It is not lawful to make war upon any people who have never before been called to the faith, without previously requiring them to embrace it, because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith, and also because the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war… If the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax, it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.

And so does the Shafi’i scholar Abu’l Hasan al-Mawardi (d. 1058 ), who echoes Muhammad’s instructions to invite the unbelievers to accept Islam or fight them if they refuse:

The mushrikun [infidels] of Dar al-Harb (the arena of battle) are of two types: First, those whom the call of Islam has reached, but they have refused it and have taken up arms. The amir of the army has the option of fighting them…in accordance with what he judges to be in the best interest of the Muslims and most harmful to the mushrikun… Second, those whom the invitation to Islam has not reached, although such persons are few nowadays since Allah has made manifest the call of his Messenger…it is forbidden to…begin an attack before explaining the invitation to Islam to them, informing them of the miracles of the Prophet and making plain the proofs so as to encourage acceptance on their part; if they still refuse to accept after this, war is waged against them and they are treated as those whom the call has reached…

Underscoring the fact that none of this is merely of historical interest is another Shafi’i manual of Islamic law that in 1991 was certified by the highest authority in Sunni Islam, Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, as conforming “to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community.” This manual, ‘Umdat al-Salik (available in English as Reliance of the Traveller), after defining the “greater jihad” as “spiritual warfare against the lower self,” devotes eleven pages to the “lesser jihad.” It defines this jihad as “war against non-Muslims,” noting that the word itself “is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion.”

It spells out the nature of this warfare in quite specific terms: “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by a Jordanian jurist that corresponds to Muhammad’s instructions to call the unbelievers to Islam before fighting them: the caliph wages this war only “provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya) . . . while remaining in their ancestral religions.” Also, if there is no caliph, Muslims must still wage jihad.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes 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.”

Extremists? Propaganda? No, this is the Islamic mainstream.

Will Caldwell continues:

As journalists, it is your job to provide the community with reliable and useful information. Using time and resources to help spread hateful rhetoric while it could be spent providing real knowledge - or just a fast food ad - is simply a poor choice.

I just provided some reliable and useful information about jihad. I'd be happy to discuss or debate it, and what can be done about it, with Will Caldwell or anyone else.

As a Muslim, I feel it is my duty to correct Horowitz's claims about jihad - if for no other reason than to provide the Wheel the opportunity to correct its mistake.

Jihad, the struggle to preserve Islam in a Muslim's day-to-day affairs, as well as from those who would oppress it, is something binding upon all Muslims. Using the words of a few extremists like Bin Laden and Nasrallah to pass off terrorism as jihad is nothing short of libel.

Note that the people I quoted above were venerable Islamic jurists, not modern-day "extremists." Yet they support the meaning of jihad presented in the ad.

By helping Horowitz spread such misinformation, the Wheel has allowed itself to become an accessory. I urge you to be more conscientious when choosing ads in the future.

In other words, censor ads that report uncomfortable facts.

The intimidation of moderate Muslims in the U.S.

Erick Stakelbeck at Hot Air reports on the continuing persecution of Jamal Miftah, a Muslim in Tulsa, who has been called "un-Islamic" by the imam of a U.S. mosque for daring to condemn Osama bin Laden. "It was not an express threat," says Miftah of what mosque leaders were saying about him, "but it is an implied message to the others: that he isn't Islamic, you kill him, you go to heaven."

The Al-Salaam Mosque in Tulsa, which kicked out Miftah, said they would take him back if he apologizes for the op-ed he wrote against bin Laden -- although now they say they only kicked him out because he was too loud during Islamic services. Sure. You'd think they'd put up with the inconvenience of his loud voice considering the fact that he was articulating the moderation that we're constantly told that they all believe in, wouldn't they? After all, Muslim leaders complain that moderate Muslims get no attention from the media -- surely they would all want to stand behind Jamal Miftah, wouldn't they? Wouldn't they?

Terrorism not ruled out in Salt Lake case

Art Moore in WND says that investigators are still considering the possibility of jihad terrorism in the Salt Lake mall shootings:

While the FBI stated it has found no evidence Islamic terrorism was a motive in the Salt Lake City mall shooting, investigators have not ruled it out, a police spokeswoman told WND.

FBI agent Patrick Kiernan declared to reporters Wednesday he had no reason to believe the random, dispassionately executed murder of five people by 18-year-old Bosnian Muslim immigrant Sulejman Talovic Monday night had anything to do with Islamic terrorism, calling it "just unexplainable."

But Salt Lake Police spokeswoman Robin Snyder told WND the FBI is still working with her department on the case, and investigators continue to explore the terrorism angle.

"We will pursue every single lead," she said. "There is not one lead we are not willing to pursue. At this point, we don't have any idea of any motive. Nothing is ruled out."

Snyder told WND, however, she was not aware family members say Talovic often attended Friday prayers at the Al-Noor mosque, about a block from the site of the shooting, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Talovic stopped coming to the meetings in December, the paper said yesterday, when, under pressure from his father, he got a full-time job to help support the family.

Bruce Tefft, a former CIA counter-terrorism official who advises the New York City Police Department, told WND he was "flabbergasted" by the FBI's statement Wednesday that it saw no possible connection to terrorism.

Nevertheless, Tefft – a founding member of the CIA's counter-terrorism center in 1985 – said the FBI's quick downplaying of terror ties in such cases is all too frequent and believes spokesman Kiernan probably was embarrassed by his statement.

"It's almost a joke in any counter-terrorism circles that within half a day of most unexplained incidents the FBI comes out and says it isn't terrorism," he said. "They'll come out with a conclusion based on no information."...

When the FBI uses extreme groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations as sensitivity trainers, "that's ignorance and political correctness, that's not a deliberate psychological warfare tactic," he said.

"I suspect they are just being politically correct to avoid a backlash by Muslims," said Tefft.

There's much more to this story, some of which also appears in this. Anyway, it is good that investigators haven't ruled out the terrorism possibility, but this Salt Lake Tribune story (thanks to Debbie Schlussel) notes that they didn't take any computers from Talovic's home:

Salt Lake City police spokeswoman Robin Snyder said Wednesday that police have not discerned a motive or found anything resembling a suicide note. With the permission of Talovic's parents, detectives searched their home but did not take any computers or video games, she said.

As Schlussel asks, "Why the heck not? What kind of investigation is this? What kind of investigators are these?" Indeed. In this age of heavy jihad recruitment and other activity on the Internet, this is an inexcusable omission -- and one that could result in the investigators being completely misled.

Immigration follies

Governor Ted Strickland speaks out against the Bush Administration's immigration madness. "Strickland: No Iraq refugees," from Associated Press, with thanks to A Girl Scout:

COLUMBUS - Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday had a message for President Bush: any plan to relocate thousands of refugees uprooted by the Iraq war to the U.S. shouldn't include Ohio.

The Bush administration plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.

The United States has allowed only 463 Iraq refugees into the country since the war began in 2003, even though some 3.8 million have been uprooted.

Strickland, a Democrat who opposed the war as a U.S. House member, said Ohioans cannot be expected to have open arms for Iraqis displaced by the war. More than 100 Ohioans have been killed since the war began.

"I think Ohio and Ohioans have contributed a lot to Iraq in terms of blood, sweat and too many tears," Strickland said. "I am sympathetic to the plight of the innocent Iraqi people who have fled that country. However, I would not want to ask Ohioans to accept a greater burden than they already have borne for the Bush administration's failed policies."

The decision to allow about 7,000 Iraqis to come to the United States answers mounting political and diplomatic pressure on the administration to do more to remedy the consequences of a war it largely started. Only 202 Iraqis were allowed in last year.

The administration also said it will immediately contribute $18 million for a worldwide resettlement and relief program....

The U.S. proposal also includes plans to offer special treatment for Iraqis still in their country whose cooperation with the U.S. puts them at risk.

Utter madness, and Strickland doesn't mention the real reason why: if these Iraqis are admitted to the U.S., it will be with absolutely no screening to determine if they are jihadists or jihad sympathizers. As I noted in my 2003 book Onward Muslim Soldiers, immigration is a national security issue, and should be treated as such. There is an increasingly urgent need to revise the immigration application to allow for the screening out of jihadists, and (as I have tried to convince several legislators) to criminalize advocacy of replacing the U.S. Constitution with Sharia, and of elements of Sharia that are at variance with the U.S. Constitution and mores. These 7,000 Iraqis will almost certainly include some, and probably even a majority, who believe Sharia to be the ideal form of government. Will they work to that end in the U.S.? Are we so paralyzed by political correctness that we cannot even ask this question, although our national survival could be at stake?

Apparently not. A madness has overtaken us. Consider this: In "Jews jeopardized by Muslim immigration," the insightful Ilana Mercer notes:

Following Sept. 11, immigration from Muslim countries tapered off, but, as the New York Times enthused, it has rebounded with a vengeance: "In 2005, more people from Muslim countries became legal permanent United States residents … than in any year in the previous two decades." Although Bush is unlikely to allow millions of displaced Iraqis the prerogatives he bestows on illegal Mexicans, the reality is that he is responsible for rendering a Muslim country uninhabitable. This makes it harder for the U.S. to reject Iraqi immigrants and asylum seekers. Starting this year, up to 20,000 Iraqis will be granted asylum in the U.S. They will join close to 100,000 "Muslim from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia," who arrived in 2005.

Immigration (and the war in Iraq) ought to be the most crucial question in the 2008 election. It is the issue that will ultimately decide whether American values and institutions endure. Unfortunately, it's a debate American Jews can put off no longer, although it's too late for their European, British and Canadian brethren. To speak plainly: A gathering danger threatens the Jews of America – to whom George Washington promised peace and goodwill in a 1790 address to a synagogue congregation in Newport, R.I.

American Jewry has "lived up to the standard asked of them by Washington," observed philosopher David Conway in his inquiry into the "Place of Nations in Classical Liberalism." But "The stock of Abraham," which has flourished in the New World – producing uniquely entrepreneurial, creative and philanthropic citizens – is now threatened by what it perversely promotes: mass immigration. And in particular, immigration from Muslim countries, where anti-Semitism and extremism are imbibed with mother's milk.

Before 1965, immigration to the U.S. occurred in manageable ebbs and flows, ensuring the new arrivals were thoroughly assimilated and integrated. Multiculturalism was unheard of. In 1965, without voter approval, the U.S. Congress replaced the national-origin immigration criterion, which ensured newcomers reinforced the historical majority, with a multicultural, egalitarian quota system, which divided visas between nations with an emphasis on mass importation of people from the Third World. The new influx was no longer expected to acculturate to liberal democratic Judeo-Christian values. With family reunification superseding economic or cultural requirements, every qualified immigrant would henceforth hold an entry ticket for his entire tribe.

Stephen Steinlight of the Center for Immigration Studies – in "High Noon to Midnight: Does Current Immigration Policy Doom American Jewry?" – courageously (for it runs counter to the views of most of his fellow American Jews) highlights the bizarre situation where entire villages from rural Mexico and the West Bank in Israel have U.S. citizenship. How so? One member qualifies and then imports the entire town. In addition to having huge extended families, Muslims and Mexicans share an anti-Americanism, a tendency to crab about historical grievance and cling to a militant distinctiveness, and a predilection for aggressive identity politics (which the New York Times finds "strikingly positive"). Second only to Latinos, the relatively new (roughly 30-year-old) Muslim community is the most anti-Semitic community in the U.S., its members harboring the greatest propensity to act on their hatred.

Although Jews don't benefit in the least from open-door immigration, having long since settled in the U.S., Israel, and other First World countries, the liberal Jewish community has continued to generously support this policy.

Indeed. Illustrating Mercer's point is this update to this story: "Muslim quota comments draw fire," from AAP (thanks to JE):

THE Jewish Board of Deputies has distanced itself from comments by an Israeli academic who says Australia should limit its number of Muslim immigrants.

Professor Raphael Israeli is quoted in the Australian Jewish News as saying that without such a migration cap Australia risks being swamped by Indonesians.

But Prof Israeli told Fairfax newspapers his comments had been misunderstood.

"When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems," he told Fairfax.

"That is the general rule - so if it applies everywhere, it applies in Australia."

But NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff today distanced his organisation from the comments.

"The Jewish community dissociates itself from the comments by Israeli academic Raphael Israeli that Australia should limit the number of Muslim immigrants," he said in a statement.

Mr Alhadeff said the Jewish community did not believe racial or ethnic quotas were helpful.

"We do not believe in racial or ethnic quotas or stereotyping," he said.

"These comments do not reflect the position of the Jewish community and are unhelpful in the extreme. The Jewish community has a strong and proud record in fighting racism, and condemns all expressions of bigotry."

Racism and bigotry. Sheesh. Does Vic Alhadeff really think this is a racial question or a matter of bigotry? Has he not noticed all the furor over statements by Al-Hilali and other Muslim leaders in Australia? Does he think, Dinesh-D'Souza-like, that if he reaches out to "traditional Muslims" that the jihad ideology will somehow evanesce? Has he not noticed that the Jews are targeted for jihad and subjugation in the Qur'an (9:29) regardless of whether or not they oppose "racism and bigotry"? Does he really think that none of the Muslims streaming into Australia now will take that seriously?

And it gets worse. Australian Jews are shooting the messenger: "AIJAC 'dumps' scholar over Muslim remarks" (thanks to Andrew Bostom for the link).

UPDATE: This has happened before.

Yusuf Islam and Salman Rushdie

Yesterday I expressed skepticism at Yusuf Islam's claim that he never supported the death fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Jihad Watch reader Tex emailed me this late last night:

Mr. Islam is lying through his teeth. I saw him on at least two separate occasions around '89/90 openly advocating the death penalty against Rushdie.

The most telling was his appearance on the 'Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals' program, a sort-of round table discussion/debate dealing with the fatwah.

Islam was asked specifically what he would do if he came upon Rushdie. He said he would telephone the ayatollah and make sure Rushdie's whereabouts were made known to people "who would do more damage to him than I could".

Tex is right: see this New York Times story from May 23, 1989: "Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie," by Craig R. Whitney (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON, May 22 -- The musician known as Cat Stevens said in a British television program to be broadcast next week that rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author Salman Rushdie, ''I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing.''

The singer, who adopted the name Yusuf Islam when he converted to Islam, made the remark during a panel discussion of British reactions to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's call for Mr. Rushdie to be killed for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his best-selling novel ''The Satanic Verses.'' He also said that if Mr. Rushdie turned up at his doorstep looking for help, ''I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like.''

''I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is,'' said Mr. Islam, who watched a preview of the program today and said in an interview that he stood by his comments.

Sen. Tom Coburn: Voice of America Harming U.S. Interests in Iran

In this, of course, the VOA does not differ from the mainstream media. By Kenneth R. Timmerman in Newsmax, with thanks to Lamecherry:

WASHINGTON -- Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn has released a pair of bombshell reports on U.S. government broadcasting to Iran, writing to President George W. Bush that the broadcasts "undermine U.S. policy on Iran, often even supporting the propaganda of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Last year, the administration asked Congress for an additional $50 million to fund Persian-language broadcasts by the Voice of America television and Radio Farda (Tomorrow), which is jointly managed by VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

But the government's interagency Iran Steering Group found in a report released by Coburn that neither network has been effective at representing the views of the U.S. government, a mission defined in VOA's charter, let alone at promoting democracy.

"Neither station is a primary source of news for Iranians," the Steering Group report found.

The report found that Radio Farda, whose mission is to be a "surrogate radio" similar to the Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Poland during the Solidarity movement, "rarely takes a stance that could risk antagonizing the Islamic Republic."

The radio's "normal coverage of views inside Iran seems to vary between sympathetic and neutral with respect to the regime," the report added. Before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took over as Iran's president in August 2005, Radio Farda was known derisively inside Iran as "Radio Khatami," after Ahmadinejad's predecessor, the much-touted "moderate" Mohammad Khatami.

Rather than present original reporting from sources inside Iran, "the majority of the news read on Radio Farda is actually from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of the Iranian regime," the report states. "Residents of Iran do not need to turn to Radio Farda to receive IRNA news. This is probably one reason why Iranians do not turn to Radio Farda as a source of fresh news."

The situation at the Voice of America, which is seeking to expand into a 24/7 television network, is arguably worse.

VOA's Persian service rarely invites U.S. government officials to debate or even explain U.S. policy. But it has given ample air-time to top Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon, and to anti-American advocates, the report found.

Read it all.

Video: Jihad in Kosovo

At CBN News (thanks to Sparta) is video of Jihad Watch Board member James Jatras discussing the jihad in Kosovo.

Iran blames Britain, US for bomb attack on bus carrying Revolutionary Guards

1938 Alert. "Iran rounds up 65 over attack on Guardsmen," from Agence France Presse, with thanks to DFS:

TEHRAN: Iran has arrested scores of people over a deadly bomb attack on a bus carrying Revolutionary Guards, alleging links to US and British intelligence, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Thursday. "Some key members linked with the Jund Allah terrorist group were arrested last night," said Brigadier General Mohammad Ghafari, a top police official in Sistan-Baluchestan Province. Jund Allah is a shadowy group that claimed responsibly for the Wednesday attack, which killed 11 members of the elite military unit and wounded 31 in the city of Zahedan. Ghafari said that "65 suspects as well as the three responsible for the attack were arrested ... One of the main bombers was killed." He did not specify how many among the suspects were linked to Jund Allah. "A video seized from the rebels confirms their attachment to opposition groups and some countries' intelligence services such as America and Britain." He added that police had seized 36 kilograms of TNT, as well as weapons, in a raid on a "house belonging to the key members of Jund Allah." Iranian officials have repeatedly accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in sensitive border areas.

UK: Sixth man charged in jihad soldier kidnapping case

Another jihadist charged in Britain. "Another Suspect Charged," from Sky News, with thanks to Scotsguy:

A sixth man has been charged with a terror offence following last month's police raids in Birmingham.

West Midlands police said Basiru Gassama will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court in the morning.

The 29 year old, from Birmingham, is accused of withholding information about a potential act of terrorism.

It comes after five men appeared before Westminster magistrates on terror charges earlier in the day.

One - 36-year-old Parviz Khan - is accused of plotting to kidnap and kill a British soldier.

Khan and the four other suspects were remanded in custody.

They were identified in court as Amjad Mahmood, 31, Mohammed Irfan, 30, Zahoor Iqbal, 29, and Hamid Elasmar, 43.

Pelosi: Bush Lacks Power to Invade Iran

Playing politics with national security, and ignoring Iran's genocidal bellicosity. By David Espo for AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Bush lacks the authority to invade Iran without specific approval from Congress, a fresh challenge to the commander in chief on the eve of a symbolic vote critical of his troop buildup in Iraq.

Pelosi, D-Calif., noted that Bush consistently said he supports a diplomatic resolution to differences with Iran "and I take him at his word."

As if a diplomatic resolution were possible.

At the same time, she said, "I do believe that Congress should assert itself, though, and make it very clear that there is no previous authority for the president, any president, to go into Iran."

This is just silly in light of how Presidents, Democratic and Republican, have waged war since World War II.

Iraqi official: Al-Qaida in Iraq leader wounded

Reports conflict on this, but possibly al-Zarqawi's successor in Iraq has at least been wounded. From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was wounded and an aide was killed in a clash Thursday with Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The clash occurred near Balad, a major U.S. base about 50 miles north of the capital, Brig. Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.

Khalaf said al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri was wounded and his aide, identified as Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai, was killed.

Khalaf declined to say how Iraqi forces knew al-Masri had been injured, and there was no report on the incident from U.S. authorities.

Congress blocks aid to Palestinian militias

Finally, some sense from Washington. By Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to D. C. Watson:

JERUSALEM – The U.S. Congress yesterday blocked the transfer of $86 million to security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party following the objection of several lawmakers.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month told reporters the U.S. is working with Fatah to create a unified Palestinian security force. The Bush administration had pledged $86.4 million to strengthen the Fatah forces, including Force 17, Abbas' security detail, which also serves as de facto police units in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

But yesterday, Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who also heads the foreign appropriations subcommittee, informed the State Department the funding pledge required clarifications.

According to congressional sources, Lowey acted at the behest of her Republican colleague, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the ranking minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Only committee chairmen are allowed to place information-related holds on foreign operations funding.

Ros-Lehtinen's office had raised a number of questions regarding Fatah militias and whether some of the money could be used to support terrorism.

The move comes after Hamas and Fatah last week signed a unity government that includes a clause for Hamas' 20,000-member Special Forces unit to be incorporated into the Palestinian government's main militias, which are controlled by Fatah. But according to congressional sources, Ros-Lehtinen's objections preceded the unity government deal by several weeks.

While the aid is being temporarily blocked, it wasn't immediately clear if U.S. weapons would continue to be transferred to Fatah. The U.S. has been regularly shipping convoys of weapons to Fatah security forces in Gaza and the West Bank.

WND reported the U.S. in recent weeks transferred 7,000 assault rifles and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition to Fatah militias.

Unconscionable.

Venezuela to Al-Qaeda: Hey, don't threaten us, we're on your side

"We should confirm the authenticity of these reports. It seems illogical that Al-Qaeda, which is against the US imperialism, is going after a State that is precisely fighting this hegemony, this imperialism, yet using other methods." Hmmmm. Cabrera, has it ever occurred to you that once Al-Qaeda has finished with American imperialism, it might see itself as having a few more battles ahead?

Note also the utter moral collapse here, as a band of bloodthirsty murderers is elevated to "freedom fighter" status yet again.

"Venezuela to verify 'illogical' threat from Al Qaeda," from El Universal, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Rear admiral Luis Cabrera, one of the members of President Hugo Chávez' Joint Chiefs of Staff, Thursday asked for verification of the "illogical" threat Al Qaeda allegedly launched against Venezuela, as this country is fighting US imperialism too, but using other methods.

"We should confirm the authenticity of these reports. It seems illogical that Al-Qaeda, which is against the US imperialism, is going after a State that is precisely fighting this hegemony, this imperialism, yet using other methods," Cabrera told official TV channel VTV.

Reports from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday claimed that the Saudi branch of Al Qaeda has urged followers to strike oil facilities in all countries around the world supplying oil to the United States, including Mexico, Canada and Venezuela.

The call came in an article called "Bin Laden and the Oil Weapon," featured in the latest edition of on-line magazine Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), of the so-called "Al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula," Efe reported.

The article urges the Mujahideens (Islamic fighters) to target oil premises for attacks not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout the world.

Yusuf Islam "appalled" at Rushdie's misunderstanding

Now wait a minute, Yusuf. From Contact Music, with thanks to all who sent this in:

YUSUF ISLAM, the artist formerly known as CAT STEVENS, was "appalled" when newspapers accused him of calling for SALMAN RUSHDIE's head on a platter. Newspapers linked the singer to a Fatwa proclaimed after Rushdie committed blasphemy in his 1989 novel THE SATANIC VERSES. But Islam insists he merely questioned Islamic law. The 58-year-old says, "I never supported the Fatwa. "At a lecture back in 1989, I was asked a question about blasphemy according to Islamic law. I simply repeated the legal view according to my limited knowledge of the scriptural texts, based directly on the historical commentaries of the Koran (which states that blasphemy is a capital offence). "The next day, newspaper headlines read: 'Cat Says Kill Rushdie'. I was appalled."

Yusuf, can you clear something up for me? If "historical commentaries of the Koran" state that "blasphemy is a capital offence," why did you "never" support the death fatwa against Rushdie? Or was the idea that "blasphemy is a capital offence" an erroneous conclusion you came to based on your "limited knowledge of the scriptural texts"?

Yusuf clarifies matters at his website:

I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini - and still don’t. The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary international crisis.

When asked about my opinion regarding blasphemy, I could not tell a lie and confirmed that - like both the Torah and the Gospel - the Qur’an considers it, without repentance, as a capital offense. The Bible is full of similar harsh laws if you’re looking for them.[13]

Sure. That's why Jewish leaders and the Pope routinely sentence people to death for blasphemy.

However, the application of such Biblical and Qur’anic injunctions is not to be outside of due process of law, in a place or land where such law is accepted and applied by the society as a whole.

In other words, Rushdie should only be killed in a Sharia state. He is apparently saying that he only opposed the death fatwa because Rushdie lived in England, where Sharia was not in effect. He nowhere says that there should be no death penalty for blasphemy.

Limit Muslim migration, Australia warned

That warning doesn't just go for Australia, but few are heeding it. By Barney Zwartz in the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to Bark:

LIFE can become untenable when the Muslim population of a non-Muslim country reaches about 10 per cent, as shown by France, a Jewish expert on Islam says.

The Australian Jewish News yesterday quoted Raphael Israeli as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians.

Professor Israeli told the Herald that was a misunderstanding. But he said: "When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia."

Professor Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities.

He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.

"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilaly [a reference to the controversial cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly of Lakemba mosque]. Why?"

Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence.

"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."

In Australia, Muslims account for about 1.5 per cent of the population.

Professor Israeli said that in France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political, economic and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.

"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return.

"If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."

Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence. "You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."

He said some Muslims wanted to impose sharia (Islamic law) in their adopted countries, and when propaganda did not work they turned to intimidation.

Professor Israeli said his task was to describe, not prescribe. He also said his warning did not include immigrants, including Muslims, who simply wanted to improve their lot. As long as they respected the law and democracy, their numbers — Buddhist, Muslim or Jew — were immaterial. It became material when a group accepted violence.

"The trains in London and Madrid were not blown up by Christians or Buddhists but by Muslims, so it is them we have to beware," he said.

Here is the predictable response:

Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said "Not only religious clerics need to be screened before entering Ausralia but also academics … this type of academic does nothing but create hatred, suspicion and division … We should review not only what the man has said but also those who have sponsored him, to see if they endorse those comments."

Note that Trad, true to form, deals with none of the substance of what Israeli said, and offers no alternative vision.

Arabic Translator Who Faked Identity Pleads Guilty To Having Secret Data

He probably found this fairly easy to accomplish because of the government's eagerness to demonstrate its political correctness by hiring as many Muslims as possible, without -- obviously -- doing sufficient background checks. "Translator Who Faked Identity Pleads Guilty To Having Secret Data," by Josh White in the Washington Post, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

An Arabic translator who used an assumed identity to get work as a contractor for the U.S. Army in Iraq pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of possessing classified national defense documents, including sensitive material about the insurgency that he took from an 82nd Airborne Division intelligence group in 2004.

The translator obtained U.S. citizenship under a false identity before securing a job in August 2003 with Titan Corp., which supplied translators to the U.S. military to aid in fighting the war in Iraq. The man then used his false identity to get secret and top-secret clearances -- access to extremely sensitive material that is supposed to be given only after thorough background checks -- Justice Department officials said.

Authorities said yesterday in a news release that they do not even know the translator's real name and that they refer to him in court documents under several of his aliases, including "Abu Hakim" and "Abdulhakeem Nour."

The man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in New York to having several documents in his Brooklyn apartment after two deployments to Iraq. He earlier pleaded guilty to charges of using a false identity to obtain U.S. citizenship and to gain access to classified military material.

Fitzgerald: The precarious position of Turkey today

“…Gül said that, in the case that the [Armenian] bill is accepted at the House of Representatives, there will be ‘a real shock in Turkey' and that the Turkish government could not contain the demands by the public to halt cooperation with the United States…” (Hürriyet Web site, Feb. 08). -- from this article

The so-called Kemalist Revolution -- that is, the putting of systematic restraints on Islam as a political and social system, lasted roughly a quarter-century, from 1925-1949. When Menderes came into power in 1950, the counter-revolution began, with the dervish orders re-emerging, and a campaign of government mosque-building, and other measures that answered the demands of the mass of primitive Believers who then and now make up most of Turkey's population. In 1955 came the attacks on the Greek community of Istanbul (see Speros Vryonis, "The Mechanism of Catastrophe"). The Americans failed to comprehend or to worry. After all, Turkey was a member of CENTO (which lasted, mostly as figment of American and British imagination, until 1958, when the overturning of the Iraqi regime by Col. Qassem changed everything).

Secularist Turks, advanced westernized Turks, the Turks who are the kind of Turks one meets abroad or in fashionable gatherings in Istanbul (and fails to see, much less read the minds of, all those other Turks who wait on you, or wait on the secularized westernized Turks who are your hosts), do not represent Turkey. They represent a part of Turkey. Perhaps they represent as much as a quarter of the population. But not more. And they will lose unless they do more to protect and to constantly expand the Kemalist undertaking. And that means as well being willing to rely on the army, that protector of the flame in Ankara, the one at Ataturk's tomb, the one that is at the centre of the narrative woven of the Great Man, and the Great People, intended to supplement or even to supplant the narrative of Islam.

As for Gül's threat, he seems not to realize that the need for Turkey now is not what it was once perceived to be. Russia is no longer a military threat. The listening posts, the airfields, are only of value if they can be used against the forces of Islam. If they cannot be, and so far they haven't been, then they are no use at all. That fourth division was not allowed to enter Iraq from the north, from those American bases in Turkey -- so what good are those bases, they must be asking themselves in the Pentagon, if they cannot be used as we will obviously be needing to use them?

Turkey's significance to American plans has gone way down. Turkey's behavior -- its willingness to allow the crudest anti-American and antisemitic books and movies ("Valley of Wolves"), and for its political figures not merely to oppose the war in Iraq (good god, I oppose the war in Iraq) but also to depict the American soldiers as "worse than Nazis" -- has not gone unnoticed and will not be forgotten here.

There are other things that should not be forgotten as well. A few years ago, a naive visitor, I was invited to dinner in Istanbul by those who might once have been called "Ottomans" in contradistinction to "Turks." These secularist Turks had studied or sent their children to study in the West. They greatly disliked all signs of resurgent Islam, and were acidulous on the subject of how Muslim women would stand in line at the American consulate or embassy to obtain visas, carefully removing their hijabs and putting on earrings and lipstick just before entering the premises. And once they had made their pitch or filled out the right forms, upon existing removed those earrings, wiped off that lipstick, and put back that hijab.

Yet in my innocence I asked why the Hagia Sophia could not be made again into a church. They looked at me as if I simply had not understood, could not understand, Turkish reality. What seemed to me (and some other Western guests) a perfectly reasonable thing to do, struck them as a fantastic request. "If we did that," the most vocal among the Turkish hosts replied, "we would have a revolution on our hands."

I began to understand that even in "secular" Turkey, Kemalist Turkey, the Turkey for which Bernard Lewis had offered such a stout defense, was not the Turkey that Westerners imagine. The Turkey for which several figures recently prominent in the Administration once worked as registered foreign agents, was not the real Turkey. Turkey remained deeply Muslim, and one has only to turn to the astonishing apologetics of Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (google his name, and "Jihadwatch" for more), a prominent historian of Ottoman science and now the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Countries, to see that the standards one normally applies cannot be applied in the case of many prominent Turkish academics. Filial piety, loyalty to Islam, simply clouds the mind and leads to the uttering of and belief in all sorts of nonsense.

No, the Hagia Sophia will not be turned into a church. And if it were, it would only be in order to win points from the Infidels that could be traded in for economic gain, and would not reflect any kind of spontaneous impulse to do right by the non-Muslims of what was once Byzantium and has been steadily islamized ever since -- perhaps never so bloodily and cruelly since the early centuries of Seljuk and Ottoman conquest as in the 20th century.

See Vahakn Dadrian on the Armenian genocide, see Speros Vryonis ("The Mechanics of Destruction" or his polemic against Sanford Shaw).

Abdullah Gül has it all wrong. It is Turkey that should be trembling. Turkey that should be doing everything it now can to placate the Americans. It is Turkey that will not be allowed into the E.U. It is Turkey that needs American guarantees in the future chaos and confusion that will inevitably result -- thank God -- from the inevitable American withdrawal from Tarbaby Iraq.

He should get it right, or be replaced.

Why?

Because he doesn't understand the precarious position of Turkey today.

But he will.

Deseret Morning News hits "ultraconservative" websites for suggesting Salt Lake shooting was jihad-motivated

In "Vitriolic e-mails zero in on 'Muslim,'" Elaine Jarvik and Deborah Bulkeley in the Deseret Morning News (thanks to all who sent this in) do not deign to consider the possibility that the Salt Lake mall shootings were jihad-motivated. Instead, the onus is on those with the poor taste to suggest such a thing:

On ultraconservative Web sites like littlegreenfootballs.com, the story of Monday's shooting rampage at Trolley Square has been reduced to one fact: "Salt Lake City Killer Was a Muslim."

"Ultraconservative" = "bigoted, racist, evil."

"The media did everything they could to avoid mentioning it, but it's confirmed today that the mass murderer who terrorized a mall in Salt Lake City was a Bosnian Muslim," reads the intro at littlegreenfootballs.com.

That's simply a statement of fact. Most news stories about the shooting don't mention this.

At MichaelSavage.com, the Muslim connection is a running-banner headline.

At jihadwatch.org, the story begins "Sudden Jihad syndrome? Maybe."

Maybe, i.e., possibly, not certainly. But will Elaine Jarvik and Deborah Bulkeley consider that possibility, and look at other cases in which evidence pointing in this direction has been discounted? Of course not. To do so would be "ultraconservative."

The online stories, as well as Tuesday's and Wednesday's stories in the Deseret Morning News, have resulted in a barrage of vitriolic e-mails to the News from people either angry at the paper for not mentioning the religion of shooter Sulejman Talovic in Wednesday's Web edition, or certain that because Talovic is Muslim that he must be a terrorist.

See? Only angry, vitriolic people think this way, and rush to certainties where no certainties can be found. Oh, and never mind that "maybe" at Jihad Watch. Let's sweep it aside with a flood of "vitriolic emails."

There is no record that Talovic attended any of the mosques in the Salt Lake area, according to both Tarek Mosseir, a spokesman for the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake, or Bobby Ravish of Muslim Forum. Mosseir noted that many Bosnian Muslims are more secular than religious.

"Having lived under Soviet Union rules for decades, where religious freedom was not an option, a majority of these people" are not practicing Muslims, he added. "What I hear is that he came a couple of times at most, to Eid prayers, but I can't confirm that he came."

"There is no record" that he attended. "He came a couple of times at most." Even if these men are telling the truth, this doesn't establish what Elaine Jarvik and Deborah Bulkeley want it to establish. It is unfortunately possible that he could never have gone to the mosque at all and still be jihad-motivated. Consider, for example, that an Al-Qaeda manual directs operatives to "avoid visiting famous Islamic places (mosques, libraries, Islamic fairs, etc.)." Am I suggesting that Talovic was an Al-Qaeda operative? No, I am not. I am suggesting that it is at least a possibility that someone planning a jihad attack would avoid the local mosque.

Although Salt Lake City police have not yet established a motive for the shootings, a handful of Bosnian refugees were verbally harassed at their workplaces on Wednesday, according to the Utah Consortium of Multicultural Groups. Local police report no incidents of violence against Bosnian or other refugees.

Here we have the predictable shifting-of-focus which has occurred after countless jihad attacks: from Muslim-as-mass-murderer to Muslims-as-victims. Several people were shot dead in the mall, but never mind that: some Muslims were "verbally harassed"!

"Why dont (sic) you guys just come out and say this was a terrorist attack because he was MUSLIM," wrote one e-mailer to the Deseret Morning News. "There is no doubt in my mind that this young man was carrying out Islamic jihad," wrote another. And another: "Why is it that when I heard about a mall shotting (sic) I thought — Muslim? Sure enough. Are you people in Utah that clueless?"

Note the "sics." The message here is that only idiots could possibly think this way.

"He was a Muslim terrorist and you know it you deceitful, cowardly liar," wrote a man with "MD, PhD" after his name.

Why, how absurd! How could a right-wing Islamophobic bigot possibly be a doctor with a PhD!

"Welcome to my world," said Ibrahim Hopper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., about the angry e-mails. "I get tons of it every day."

At least we get your name right here, Mr. "Hopper." Anyway, note that Elaine Jarvik and Deborah Bulkeley show no sign whatsoever of looking into the background of Mr. Hooper's organization.

Anyway, the bottom line is this: in light of the fact that there have been several attacks similar to Talovic's committed by Muslims in the last year, as I detail here, and that in each case authorities have discounted the possibility. All I am asking is that the possibility that such attacks are motivated by the jihad ideology, even in the absence of an institutional connection to a group like Al-Qaeda, be duly considered. Is that too much to ask?

UPDATE: Charles Johnson also responds at LGF.

President Rush Limbaugh, Vice President Ann Coulter

Hmmm...State or Defense...State or Defense...how to choose...

Sharia chic video

I've been a bit under the weather this week, but the Jihad Watch videoblog goes on; Bryan Preston kindly and ably delivers my Sharia Chic script at Hot Air today.

Report: Mahdi army commanders withdraw to Iran to lie low during security crackdown

"Mahdi army commanders withdraw to Iran to lie low during security crackdown," by Michael Howard for The Guardian:

Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official told the Guardian yesterday.

On the day the Iraqi government formally launched its crackdown on insurgents and amid disputed claims about the whereabouts of Mr Sadr, the official said the Mahdi army leadership had withdrawn across the border into Iran to regroup and retrain.

"Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army," he said. The aim of the Iranians was to "prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia militias" in the Iraqi capital - one of the chief aims of the US-backed security drive.

Plotting to let the U.S. do the dirty work, and then come back and get on with the Iranian client state:

"The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return and fill the vacuum," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Tehran authorities were "playing a waiting game" until the commanders could return to Baghdad and resume their activities. "All indications are that Moqtada is in Iran, but that is not really the point," he added.

Uprisings

One of the main aims of the latest government crackdown - codename Imposing Law - is to halt the work of the Shia militias and death squads thought to be behind much of the sectarian violence gripping the capital.

[...]

"They [the Iranians] are calculating that the security operation will continue for a certain period of time, and that it will do serious damage to the Sunni jihadists and the insurgents," the official said. "While in Iran they will be able to get more training and then once the Sunnis have been pacified, they plan to return."

The claims appeared to be partially confirmed in the holy city of Najaf, south of the capital, yesterday by a senior figure in the Mahdi army, Karim al-Moussawi. He said most of the militia leaders had gone to Iran, but on their own initiative. "They were neither ordered to go by Sayid Muqtada nor invited to enter by the Iranian authorities," he said. "Simply they were seeking sanctuary as individuals from expected targeting by the US occupying forces during the security drive in Baghdad." A number of commanders had also gone to Najaf and the southern provinces, he added. "The US forces should be targeting the real terrorists," he said.

The US has long blamed Iran - and Syria - for letting militants use their territory to slip into Iraq to attack US and Iraqi forces as well as civilians. Yesterday George Bush said he was convinced Iranian weapons were being used by insurgents in Iraq and promised to "do something about it".

Iraqi authorities, although regularly echoing the US charges against Syria, rarely repeat claims of interference from Iran, with which the Shia-led administration in Baghdad has close ties.

Vanishing

Reports of the vanishing Mahdi fighters came amid mounting speculation over the whereabouts of Mr Sadr. The chief US military spokesman in Baghdad said the anti-western cleric had fled to Iran. "He is in Iran and he left last month," said Major General William Caldwell. US forces were tracking him "very closely", he said.

An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has supported the claim that al-Sadr is in Iran in this AP story, but insists he's just visiting.

The assertion was hotly contested by senior members of the Sadr movement, who said their leader had been in Najaf meeting local officials. One pro-Sadr satellite channel showed footage of Mr Sadr that it said was taken in Najaf three days ago. Falah al-Akaily, a pro-Sadr MP, said: "This is just a rumour sent around to confuse people. Sayid Moqtada is available and has not left Iraq. Why would he need to do so? The movement has declared its support for the security crackdown and its full cooperation in defeating the terrorists."

A statement by the Sadr movement's office in Sadr City accused the US of playing games: "This is a lie put out as part of a psychological and media campaign by the US occupation to hurt the reputation of the brave national leader."

Of course. What might the Mahdi Army rank-and-file think if they found out their leadership had fled the country and left them behind as cannon fodder?

Spencer: Salt Lake Jihad?

In this morning's lead article at FrontPage, I discuss the Salt Lake shootings (news links in the original):

When Sulejmen Talovic entered the Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City Monday night with a shotgun, a pistol, and a backpack full of ammunition, he intended to “kill a large number of people,” according to Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank. Talovic killed five people and wounded four before he himself was killed by an off-duty Ogden police officer who happened to be in the mall.

Why did Talovic do it? No one knows. Talovic’s aunt, Ajka Omerovic, told reporters: “We want to know what happened, just like you guys. We have no idea...We know him as a good boy. He liked everybody, so I don’t know what happened.” Talovic, who was eighteen at the time of the murders, was a Bosnian Muslim who came to the United States with his family in 1998. Could he have been motivated by jihadist sympathies?

FBI special agent Patrick Kiernan discounted that possibility. “We’re working closely with the Salt Lake P.D. and we’re obviously aware that that [terrorism] is a potential issue out there,” he explained. “But at this point there is nothing that is leading us down this road.” And with Talovic dead and apparently having acted alone, unless something he wrote explaining his actions is discovered, it is unlikely that his motive will ever be definitively known.

But was Kiernan really correct that “there is nothing that is leading us down this road”? Unfortunately, he didn’t explain how he came to this conclusion. Talovic joins an unfortunately growing list of Muslims who have committed random acts of violence, only for officials to assure us that their actions have nothing to do with terrorism. Maybe none of them do, but the list is full of troubling details:

* On January 31, Ismail Yassin Mohamed, 22, stole a car in Minneapolis. He went on a rampage, ramming the stolen car into other cars and then stealing a van and continuing to ram other cars, injuring one person. His father told officials that Mohamed was suffering from mental problems; his mother added he had been depressed and hadn’t been taking his medication. During his rampage, Mohamed repeatedly yelled, “Die, die, die, kill, kill, kill,” and when asked why he did all this, he replied, “Allah made me do it.”

* Omeed Aziz Popal, a Muslim from Afghanistan, who killed one person and injured fourteen during a murderous drive through San Francisco city streets in August 2006, during which he targeted people on crosswalks and sidewalks, identified himself as a terrorist after his rampage, according to Rob Roth of San Francisco’s KTVU. Later the murders were ascribed to Popal’s mental problems, and to stress arising from his impending arranged marriage.

* On July 28, 2006, a Muslim named Naveed Afzal Haq forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Once inside, Haq announced, “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel,” and then began shooting, killing one woman and injuring five more. FBI assistant special agent David Gomez stated: “We believe...it’s a lone individual acting out his antagonism. There’s nothing to indicate that it’s terrorism-related. But we're monitoring the entire situation.”

* In March 2006, a twenty-two-year-old Iranian student named Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV onto the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, deliberately trying to kill people and succeeding in injuring nine. After the incident, he seemed singularly pleased with himself, smiling and waving to crowds after a court appearance on Monday, at which he explained that he was “thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah.” Officials here again dismissed the possibility of terrorism, even after Taheri-azar wrote a series of letters to the UNC campus newspaper detailing the Qur’anic justification for warfare against unbelievers, and explaining why he believed his attacks were justified from an Islamic perspective.

None of these were terrorist attacks in the sense that they were planned and executed by al-Qaeda agents. And it is possible that all of them were products of nothing more ideologically significant than a disturbed mental state, although it is at least noteworthy that each attacker explained his actions in terms of Islamic terrorism. As such attacks grow in number, it would behoove authorities at very least to consider the possibility that these attacks were inspired by the jihadist ideology of Islamic supremacism, and to step up pressure on American Muslim advocacy groups to renounce that ideology definitively and begin extensive programs to teach against it in American Islamic schools and mosques.

In October 2006, a pro-jihad internet site published a “Guide for Individual Jihad,” explaining to jihadists “how to fight alone.” It recommended, among other things, assassination with guns and running people over. Is it possible that Sulejmen Talovic and some of these others were waging this jihad of one? It is indeed, but with law enforcement officials trained only to look for signs of membership in al-Qaeda or other jihad groups, and to discount terrorism as a factor if those signs aren’t there, it is a possibility that investigators will continue to overlook.

French judge warns of terror threat

Elaborating on the growing al Qaeda threat there, as authorities also detained 11 suspects in pre-dawn raids in Toulouse and Paris. Eurabia Alert. By Kirsten Grieshaber for Associated Press:

NEW YORK - The risk of terror attacks in Europe is high and is increasing, France's leading anti-terrorism judge said, warning that a recent alliance between al-Qaida and a North African terrorist group poses a grave threat.

The Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, staged seven nearly simultaneous attacks in Algeria on Tuesday, targeting police in several towns east of Algiers, killing six and injuring around 30, according to officials, police and hospital staff.

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, the new name for the GSPC, claimed responsibility for the strikes.

"The GSPC wants to carry out attacks in Europe, especially in France, Italy and Spain, and destabilize North Africa," Jean-Louis Bruguiere told The Associated Press on Tuesday night in New York.

French counterterrorism police arrested 11 suspects as part of efforts aimed at dismantling an alleged al-Qaida-linked recruiting network to send radical Islamic fighters to Iraq, police officials said Wednesday.

Nine suspects were detained in and near the southern city of Toulouse before dawn Wednesday, following the arrest of two others late Tuesday at Paris' Orly airport, police said. The two had been sent home by Syrian authorities, investigators said.

Bruguiere said the threat to Europe is "pretty high." France rates four on a scale of one to five, he said

He linked the increased threat level to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"Actors of jihad have become radicalized and have tried to demonstrate that their means have not been diminished since September 11," he said.

So they were only mild to moderate jihadists before that?

Al Qaeda claims responsibility for simultaneous bombings in Algeria

The group formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) seems to be intensifying its activity. "Algeria hit by bombings, six dead," by Larbi Louafi and Zohra Bensemra for Reuters:

SI MUSTAFA, Algeria (Reuters) - Seven bombs went off almost simultaneously in Algeria on Tuesday, killing six people east of the capital Algiers in an elaborate assault by suspected Islamist rebels.

Residents said four of the attacks targeted police stations.

"I was woken by a huge blast. I thought it was an earthquake," said Aaref Jumaa, a resident of Si Mustafa village close to Boumerdes town 50 km (30 miles) east of Algiers.

The Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), claimed responsibility for the bombs in a statement posted on the Internet and said it had targeted police stations.

The authenticity of the statement, posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants including al Qaeda, could not be verified.

The group has stepped up a campaign of bombings and ambushes in recent months.

An Interior Ministry statement quoted by the official APS news agency said six people, including two members of the security forces, were killed in seven attacks in the Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou districts east of Algiers.

Thirteen people were wounded, including 10 members of the security forces, the ministry said, adding that five of the seven bombs were rigged in vehicles.

Four people were killed in Si Mustafa village while two were killed in Meklaa, it said. Other bombs blasted Draa Benkheda, Meklaa, Illoula Oumalou and Souk El Had, which was hit twice.

Jumaa, standing near the blast-pocked walls of Si Mustafa's police station, said the bomb went off at 4:15 a.m. (0315 GMT) beside the building, which is across the street from his home.

[...]

In Draa Benkheda, a resident who declined to be identified said he saw several presumed attackers filming the immediate aftermath of the blast.

Spencer: Sharia Chic Comes to London

In FrontPage today I discuss the latest in London fashions (news links in the original):

Sharia chic has come to London. During London Fashion Week, Fashion East designer Louise Goldin sent a model down the catwalk wearing an outfit that obscured the model’s entire face, all except her eyes, and covered her head entirely. Nor was this the only such outfit Goldin featured during London Fashion Week. The outfits were clearly modeled after Islamic dress, particularly the niqab, the full-face veil.

London is not the only place Sharia chic has appeared. In December, Marie Claire magazine ran a photoshoot featuring three glamorous women, all wearing hijabs and black dresses down to their shoetops -- and sporting ipods, designer handbags, and other evidence of their modernity and sophistication.

Meanwhile, Urban Outfitters is selling the Palestinian kufiya, worn by murderous jihad terrorists for decades, as a “Skull Desert Scarf.”

Obviously there is no reason for the fashion world to be immune to the fashionable contempt for Western culture and values that pervades most creative fields these days, but it is one thing to hold that contempt and quite another to proffer it to the masses as the vanguard of contemporary culture. Contrast the Urban Outfitters item with the fact that in the 1930s, the British considered banning the kufiya, as it had become a symbol of Arab nationalist resistance to their rule. In the 1930s, the British were unafraid to do what they had to do to protect their own interests; in 2007, the U.S. pledged to give 86 million dollars to the government of Mahmoud Abbas just as a former official of Abbas’ Fatah party appeared on Palestinian Authority television saying to Al-Qaeda: “Do to Bush whatever you want, and we wish you success...We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you!” The official, Abu Ali Shahin, was of course wearing a kufiya.

Likewise, was Louise Goldin or anyone else connected with the pseudo-niqab fashions displayed in London this week aware of the nature of the culture they were aping. Those who are likely to prefer that women never venture outside without covering everything except their eyes are likely also to believe that women are essentially the possessions of men: the Qur’an likens a woman to a field (tilth), to be used by a man as he wills: “Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will” (2:223).

The Qur’an also declares that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man: “Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her” (2:282). Likewise, this is also a culture that allows men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls also: “If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice” (4:3).

The same holy book rules that a son’s inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: “Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children’s (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females” (4:11).

Worst of all, the Qur’an tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives: “Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them” (4:34).

Finally, the Qur’an allows for marriage to pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures “shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated” (65:4).

And it is the culture of those who revere the Qur’an as the supreme authority for human behavior that has produced the niqab. Is that the culture Louise Goldin wishes to bring to Britain? Or does she perhaps think its presence there is a fait accompli, since Muslims who clearly believe in Islamic supremacism have become such a prominent feature of the British landscape? Does she regard her fashion creations as a necessary attempt at inclusion and accommodation?

More accurately, they manifest the cultural weariness that has allowed those Islamic supremacists to become quite vocal in Britain, as the recent Dispatches documentary revealed. One may hope that the British will before too longer remember that they were once made of sterner stuff.

Fitzgerald: They will punch the holes themselves

Cotabato (AsiaNews) – The voice of those who do not know Islam “is becoming louder” and hate texts published by those who “barely understand the Koran” are appealing to Muslim youth more and more.

The conviction that this phenomenon should be “countered by all possible means” has prompted the Guardians of the House of Opinion – a group of muftis in the south of the Philippines – to write 55 sermons that will be read in mosques across the country throughout the coming year....

The mufti said the decision to write the sermons was taken because “there is nothing in common between Islam, which stands for peace, harmony, order, justice and compassion, and acts of hatred, vengeance and evil committed by a fringe of Muslims.” -- from this article

If copies of these khutbas can be obtained, then one will be able to see just how they do it: what they avoid, and what they willfully misconstrue, and what they use to divert attention from the essence of Islam.

And if those copies can be obtained, they should be published online, so Infidels can point out just how removed they are from the reality of mainstream Islam. They did the same in Turkey, for 80 years. They managed, by systematically constraining Islam as a political and social force, to make Turkey what it is today. That is to say, they made it into a country that has indeed created a "secular" class. That class, however, constitutes at most a fourth of the population, and is under constant threat by the Turks who, despite every effort, and all those pre-fabricated khutbas written in a ministry of religion especially devoted to constraining Islam and monitoring the mosques, have remained loyal to the true, that is the menacing Islam, with which we are all, alas, now so familiar.

Or we can skip our own punching of holes in these efforts, and wait for Muslims to do it themselves. It will not be hard to do. You only need a Qur'an, copies of Bukhari and Muslim, and the Sira in any of the authoritative, for-Muslims-only versions. That's all. And the futility and hopelessness of the project will be clear.

No matter how many times the mantra is repeated that "moderate Muslims are the solution," it remains untrue and unprovable. That the West needs to find ways to divide and demoralize, and thereby weaken, the camp of Islam is true. But it is not the "moderates" facing down the "immoderate" Muslims, with those "moderate" Muslims being given every assistance, and we Infidels doing nothing, saying nothing, about Islam that might "offend the moderates."

No, the real divisions within Islam that need to be exploited are those between:

1) Sunnis and Shi'ites (Ibadi Muslims hardly count). It is to the advantage of Infidels that this sectarian conflict in Iraq continue, widen, and have spill-over effects in neighboring countries, which will undoubtedly feel they must send "volunteers" and money and weapons to aid their coreligionists in Iraq. It is no different from the Iran-Iraq War -- which, from the Infidel point of view, should have gone on forever.

2) Arab and non-Arab Muslims. An independent Kurdistan might serve as a heartening example to other non-Arab peoples -- especially the Berbers in Algeria and elsewhere in North Africa -- who might observe the Kurdish example, and, deeply resentful of Arab cultural and linguistic imperialism, the most successful in human history, insist on re-berberizing themselves. How many of those who bear Arab names in Algeria, or who think of themselves as Arab, are in fact Berbers forcibly converted long ago, who need to rediscover their own individual and collective history and to come to regard Islam, which intelligent people born into Islam will seek reasons for fleeing, as mainly a vehicle for Arab supremacism?

3) Oil-rich Arabs and Muslims, and the other Arabs and Muslims, who right now obtain vast sums and every other kind of assistance not from fellow Muslims, but from Infidels. All Infidel aid must stop, and Arabs and Muslims without oil wealth encouraged to go to the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Qataris, the people of the Emirates, and ask them to help fellow members of the Umma. Either they will be turned down, or they won't. If they are turned down, they will be furious. If they are not turned down, they will still be angry, because whatever they are given will, they feel, not be enough. They will resent the rich members of the Umma for squandering what should, some of those Arabs and Muslims will start to insist, be part of the collective wealth of the whole Umma. And the givers, the Saudis and others, will also resent those they are giving money to, and there will be constant mutual recrimination and resentment -- which can only be good for Infidels. And of course, every dollar sent to Egypt or Jordan or "the Palestinians" for staples, will not be money available to spend building mosques, and maintaining them, and paying for propaganda and well-financed systematic campaigns of Da'wa, or for those traitorous Western hirelings to be found all over the West, doing the Saudi bidding.

These are the three potential divisions within the Camp of Islam that the Pentagon and the State Department, and Congress, and the press, and the television, and people who pay for all of that, to focus on.

Here's an idea. Let there be a contest. Let it be announced. Let the prize be big. Not as big as Richard Branson's $25 million offered to the person who can come up with the best idea for saving the world from further environmental damage. Let it be offered for the best set of proposals on how to contain the worldwide Jihad. Let's set the prize at, say, $5 million.

That's big enough.

Oh, I claim the first annual one, based on about a thousand postings setting out precisely those things that must be done, at this very website.

Where shall I pick up my check? Now I can discharge other duties, sweetly, and put it all in book form.

FBI: No reason to believe Salt Lake mall shooter was motivated by religious extremism or terrorism

The pro-forma "Nothing To Do With Terrorism" announcement, which would be much more convincing if it weren't for the fact that even self-professed jihadists like Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar have seen their attacks dismissed as having nothing to do with terrorism. "Utah Mall Reopens After Deadly Shooting," by Paul Foy in the Bismarck Tribune:

SALT LAKE CITY - A shopping mall where five people were gunned down this week reopened Wednesday, as authorities tried to figure out why a teenage Bosnian immigrant committed the rampage and how he got his hands on a gun.

FBI agent Patrick Kiernan, in Salt Lake City, said the bureau had no reason to believe Sulejman Talovic, who was killed by police, was motivated by religious extremism or an act of terrorism.

"It's just unexplainable," Kiernan said Wednesday. "He was just walking around and shooting everybody he saw."...

How such behavior would be inconsistent with an act of jihad violence, or on what basis the Bureau determined that this attack had nothing to do with jihad, Kiernan doesn't explain.

Investigators said they knew little about Talovic, except that he lived in Salt Lake City with his mother. He was enrolled in numerous city schools before withdrawing in 2004, the school district said.

Talovic and his family moved to the U.S. in 1998, after living as refugees in war-torn Bosnia for five years, people close to the family told The Associated Press. Talovic was only 4 when he and his mother fled their village of Talovici on foot after Serbian forces overran it in 1993, they said.

"Many left the village, but only a few made it," said Murat Avdic, a friend of the family.

Up to 200,000 people were killed and 1.8 million others lost their homes in Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Avdic said he was convinced the war in Talovic's homeland somehow contributed to the Utah rampage, especially the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Serb forces in the northeastern enclave of Srebrenica. The boy had been in Srebrenica about two years before the massacre occurred, he said.

Interesting idea. I wonder why Avdic would think that Talovic might decide that shooting people in a shopping mall in Utah would be suitable revenge for Srebrenica.

Taliban flee battle using children as shields: NATO

The ugliest of tactics in the jihad against a hydroelectric dam. By Terry Friel for Reuters:

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydro-electric dam, NATO said on Wednesday.

The Taliban have used human shields before, but never children, local residents say.

The fighting occurred during Operation Kryptonite on Monday, an offensive to clear insurgents from the Kajaki Dam area in southern Helmand province to allow repairs to its power plants and the installation of extra capacity.

"During this action ... Taliban extremists resorted to the use of human shields. Specifically, using local Afghan children to cover as they escaped out of the area," Colonel Tom Collins, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told reporters in Kabul.

The Kajaki Dam fighting was in an area where 700 mainly foreign fighters, including Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks, arrived from Pakistan this week to reinforce Taliban guerrillas.

[...]

The Kajaki dam has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces, mainly British and Dutch.

NATO-led forces have been conducting operations in the area for several months to allow reconstruction on the dam and the power transmission lines to boost output, after fighting halted repair and development work last year.

The Taliban cannot destroy the dam, which would also flood a large area of the Helmand Valley, but its tactics are aimed at making it too unsafe for work to go ahead.

The dam was first built on the Helmand river in the 1950s.

Its hydroelectric plants, with a generating capacity of 33 megawatts, were installed in 1975. Once fully operational, the dam will bring electricity to 1.8 million people, NATO says.

Al Qaeda group calls for attacks on U.S. oil sources

Another thing we wouldn't have to worry about if we gained independence from foreign oil. "Al Qaeda group calls for attacks on U.S. oil," from Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) -- A Saudi wing of al Qaeda called for attacks on U.S. oil sources across the world, saying targets should not be limited to the Middle East and listing Canada, Venezuela and Mexico as U.S. oil suppliers.

The threat appeared in the al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula's e-magazine, Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War), which was posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants.

As opposed to Voice of Inner Spiritual Struggle.

"It is necessary to hit oil interests in all regions which serve the United States not just in the Middle East. The goal is to cut its supplies or reduce them through any means," it said.

The group was behind the February 2006 failed suicide attack on the world's largest oil processing plant in Saudi Arabia.

Abbas sends warmest greetings to Iran's Ahmadinejad, wishes Iran "further progress and prosperity"

Quick, Mr. Bush, send this guy more millions!

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook at Palestinian Media Watch:

At a time when Iran is being isolated by most of the world for its nuclear program and its calls for the destruction of Israel, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has sent a telegram of effusive greetings to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Iran's national holiday.

According to the PA daily Al-Hayat Al Jadida, Abbas's greeting earlier this week also wished for "further progress and prosperity" for Iran.

The following is the paper's account of the message:

"The president said in the greeting: 'I am happy to express to your excellency and, through you, to your honorable government and to your brother people, on behalf of the Palestinian people and their leadership and on my behalf personally, the warmest, most heartfelt wishes, in a prayer to Allah, that He shall bestow on you on this holiday further progress and prosperity. We wish you and your people happy holidays.' President Abbas expressed the greatest wishes of wealth, health and joy to the President of Iran, and to his people and his sister country, continuous respect, glory and well-being."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, February 12, 2007]

Salt Lake City shooter "a good boy"

Sudden Jihad Syndrome? Maybe. This story confirms that Talovic was a Muslim -- which of course we already knew, for if he had been a Christian the mainstream media would not have failed to take prominent note of that fact. The serenity with which he dispatched his victims suggests that he may have thought he was doing the will of Allah. But there is no firm indication either way. "6 minutes of horror," by Pat Reavy and Ben Winslow in the Deseret Morning News, with thanks to Rick:

In just six minutes, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic left a tragic path of destruction that forever changed the lives of dozens of people.

"His intent was to shoot as many people as he possibly could," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank.

[...]

Witnesses told the Deseret Morning News that Talovic appeared to be "hunting" people. Some described a calm expression on his face as he aimed his shotgun and fired.

[...]

On Tuesday morning, police detectives were in South Salt Lake, questioning employees at the Aramark Uniform Supply business where Talovic had worked since December. Aramark managers and a company spokeswoman declined to comment. One employee described Talovic as "quiet."

Police said Talovic had a juvenile record of only four minor offenses. None of his arrests were for violent crimes.

The man had lived at a house with his mother and three younger sisters near the Utah State Fairpark. Neither his mother nor his sisters would answer the door or respond to phone calls Tuesday, although a person inside would pick up the phone and then quickly hang up.

Ajka Omerovic, who said she was Talovic's aunt, visited the home Tuesday afternoon. She told the Deseret Morning News that Talovic had been "a good boy." She said the family are Muslims from Bosnia who had lived in the vicinity of Sarajevo.

Omerovic said she believed the young man's mother had been living here for about four years. Omerovic was extremely distraught and at first said she did not speak English. But she did try to conduct an interview. She and a younger man went inside the home and left with a large cage with two birds in it.

"We want to know what happened, just like you guys," Omerovic told reporters. "We have no idea.... We know him as a good boy."

Asked what he was like, she replied, "He liked everybody, so I don't know what happened."

His mother is in "a difficult situation — she is very sick," she added.

A loner

Many neighbors said that while the mother and young girls were always pleasant and the girls often played with other neighborhood children, Talovic kept to himself.

"I don't even know that there is a man living there," said neighbor Yasmin Castellanos.

[...]

"It's always these kinds of kids," Schwam said. "It's the kids who are distraught, who have nothing to live for...who cause the most severe damage. They don't know what else to do. In their mind, they're at the end of their rope."

Maybe.

Judge orders deportation of suspicious driving student

Mohammed Yousuf Mullawala is the fellow who wanted to learn how to drive a truck, but not to back up.

"Judge orders deportation of driving student," by Tom Mooney in the Providence Journal, with thanks to Peg:

BOSTON — A federal judge yesterday ordered an Indian national whose behavior at a Smithfield trucking school spawned a nationwide antiterrorism investigation be deported.

Mohammed Yousuf Mullawala la “is not the person who he claims to be,” said U.S. Immigration Judge Matthew J. D’Angelo, as a shackled Mullawala listened a few feet away at the court room’s defense table.

While Mullawala’s “ultimate intentions and motives have not yet been revealed in full,” the judge said, “this court reaches a finding that mirrors the grave concern expressed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, The Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Fusion Center” — which spearheads local homeland security matters....

[...]

He has been under investigation since Nov. 29, after an instructor at the Nationwide Tractor-Trailer Driving School became suspicious of him and contacted authorities. According to court papers, Mullawala’s lack of interest in learning how to back up a tractor-trailer, his request to buy software on hazardous materials and his queries on whether fingerprinting would be required for a commercial driver’s license raised concerns with the instructor.

Six days after the investigation began, Mullawala walked into the state police headquarters in Scituate to file a harassment complaint against a detective who called him on his cell phone. After questioning, he was taken into custody on a student visa violation.

During an immigration hearing last month Mullawala admitted he lied to the state police, as well as on applications for permanent residency, admission to colleges, driver’s licenses and the trucking school. But he denied being a criminal or a threat to anyone....

In his written decision, D’Angelo said he was unimpressed by Mullawala’s testimony.

“The respondent’s admission to submitting false information was by no means rehabilitated by his testimony.

“Rather than fully responding to questions posed to him, the respondent’s testimony was instead vague and evasive and attributed any discrepancies in his testimony or documentation to other individuals.”

The explanations that Mullawala did provide, D’Angelo wrote, “were implausible and appeared to be those of an individual struggling to fabricate a cover rather than of one who truly wishes to explain his or her actions.”

For example, said D’Angelo, when asked why he changed residences so frequently — 11 different places in four states since his arrival from India in 2002, and some in New York City where he stayed for only a month — Mullawala explained it was because he had “difficulty finding parking.”

“While it is admittedly difficult to find parking in New York and other major metropolitan areas, it seems highly unlikely that one would change residences on what appears to be an almost-monthly basis simply to secure better parking.”

D’Angelo said he also found “implausible” Mullawala’s explanation for why he withdrew from Johnson & Wales University, where he was majoring in computer science, and transferred to the University of Bridgeport. Mullawala said he transferred — even though Johnson & Wales offered him a “substantial” scholarship — because the Providence-based school didn’t offer computer engineering as a major.

Yet, the judge said, Mullawala described the two majors as “essentially the same.”

“Not only was the respondent’s testimony rife with vague, farfetched, evasive and implausible statements,” D’Angelo wrote, “but the written documentation he submitted to both [the Department of Homeland Security] and various state government agencies contained numerous inconsistencies and outright falsehoods.”

For example, in Mullawala’s application for the Nationwide Driving School, he indicated he had lived in Providence for five years and listed an individual named “Jahdish” as one of his character references.

Later Mullawala admitted the application was a lie, the judge said: “… at the time he submitted his application, he had not even resided in the United States for five years and [admitted] that Jahdish was a ‘fake character witness.’ ”

Mullawala’s deportation could ban him from reentering the country for at least 10 years.

Only ten years?

Ex-Texan Charged With Aiding Terrorists

From ABC News which refers to an "Ex-Texan" in the headline. Hmmm. A Methodist, perhaps? Surprisingly, no.

A former Houston man arrested in Kenya last month has been charged in Texas with teaming with al-Qaida to overthrow the Somali government and form an Islamic state there.

Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, a Muslim convert also known as Daniel Aljughaifi and Abu Mohammed, was ordered held without bail Tuesday on federal charges of undergoing military training with a terrorist organization and conspiring to use a destructive device.

More from the charming "Ex-Texan":

Maldonado told FBI agents in Kenya that he went to Somalia to fight "jihad," or holy war, for a true Islamic government, according to the complaint.

"I would be fighting the Somali militia, and that turned into fighting the Ethiopians, and if Americans came, I would fight them, too," he is accused of telling the agents. He also told the agents he had "no problem" with killing Americans or with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the complaint says.

Look for press releases from the Council on American Ex-Texan Relations (CAER) to note rising levels of violence and bigotry against Ex-Texans.

Salt Lake City: Bosnian teen wanted "to kill a large number of people"

The killer in Salt Lake City turns out to be a "Bosnian refugee." Sudden Jihad Syndrome? I don't know. But I do know that that is one possibility that will almost certainly remain unexplored by investigators.

"Police: Teen Shot Mall Victims at Random," by Jennifer Dobner for AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

SALT LAKE CITY Feb 13, 2007 (AP)— A trench coat-clad teenager who opened fire on shoppers at a mall had one thing in mind: "to kill a large number of people," and he likely would have killed more than five had an off-duty officer not confronted him, the police chief said Tuesday.

"There is no question that his quick action saved the lives of numerous other people," Police Chief Chris Burbank said of the officer.

Burbank identified the gunman as Sulejmen Talovic, an 18-year-old who lives with his mother in Salt Lake City, and said he had a backpack full of ammunition, the shotgun he was using and a .38-caliber pistol.

The teen killed five people and wounded four at the Trolley Square mall, including two people shot in the parking lot as he arrived around 7 p.m. Monday, another at the entrance and then five people inside a card store, the police chief said.

"It appears to be very random," Burbank said. "There was no sense to why he was doing what he was doing."

"The suspect in this particular circumstance had one thing on his mind, and that was to kill a large number of people," Burbank said.

3 killed in bus bombings in Lebanon

Targeting commuters in a Christian area. Is the bombing connected to the anniversary of the Hariri assassination, as many in the article suggest, or is it a coincidentally timed attack aiming to intimidate that population into behaving like good dhimmis? By Sam F. Ghattas for Associated Press:

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Bombs packed with metal pellets tore through two commuter buses in a mainly Christian area of Lebanon on Tuesday, a day before the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. At least three people were killed and 20 wounded in the coordinated attack, the state-run news agency said.

A senior politician speculated the blasts were meant to scare people away from a rally Wednesday to commemorate Hariri, a gathering that has heightened sectarian tensions in Lebanon and highlighted its political paralysis.

There were no plans to cancel the rally, organizers said. Senior government, military and security officials were meeting Tuesday to consider ways to keep the demonstration from turning violent.

President Emile Lahoud denounced the explosions, saying they aimed to deepen the divide between the pro-American government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, made up of Hariri's allies, and the opposition, led by Hezbollah, the Shiite guerrilla group backed by Iran and Syria.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media, said the explosions went off minutes apart. As people rushed to the scene of the first bombing, a second bus drove up and blew up, the official said.

"We ran away when the second explosion occurred for fear of more," said Genevieve Hayek, the owner of a nearby snack bar who is in her 70s. "May God's wrath fall on all of them who did this. What is the fault of the people just going to work?"

The attack happened shortly after 9 a.m. on a road in the village of Ein Alaq, just south of the town of Bikfaya in the mainly Christian province of northern Metn, some 30 miles northeast of the Lebanese capital.

The Voice Of Lebanon radio station said the buses, which each had about 20 seats, were taking people to work. Such buses run in 10-minute intervals, ferrying people from Christian mountain villages to the coastline and Beirut.

[...]

Security officials said the bombs were shaped like bananas and weighed at least 4 pounds and as much as 7 pounds. They were packed with metal pellets and placed under seats in the two buses, officials said.

[...]

The bombings come a day before supporters of the U.S.-backed government were to mark the anniversary of Hariri's 2005 assassination with a huge rally in Beirut.

Walid Jumblatt, a senior pro-government politician, said the explosions were meant to scare people away from the rally.

"It's to terrorize people who are willing to come," Jumblatt told Al-Jazeera television.

The assassination — still the subject of a U.N.-led investigation — set in motion a reshuffling of Lebanon's political order. Public outrage at Syria, which many Lebanese blame for the attack, forced Damascus to withdraw its military from Lebanon after nearly three decades as power brokers.

Bombings and shootings have rocked Lebanon since then, targeting anti-Syrian politicians and journalists, and raising fears the country is on the verge of another civil war.

"This is an act to undermine Lebanon, so that we might end up like Iraq, with strife and people leaving their country," said Nabil Nekoula, a lawmaker from the district who visited the bomb scene.

Edy Abilamaa, a leading member of the Christian Lebanese Forces pro-government faction, said the way the explosions took place clearly shows they aimed to "kill as many people as possible."

"I believe that those who kill in Lebanon are known," Abilamaa said in a veiled allusion to Syria, which denies it was behind the Hariri killing and other explosions in Lebanon.

Abbas Is Deceiving the US, Israeli Minister Says

At last someone points out that the emperor has no clothes at all. By Julie Stahl for CNSNews.com, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The upcoming Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. summit is intended to "crystallize" the political horizon with the goal of helping Palestinian moderates, an Israeli official said on Tuesday. But at least one government minister thinks the point of the summit should be to expose Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as a deceiver.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas are scheduled to meet next Monday to discuss ways of moving the political process forward. Their meeting comes about two weeks after Abbas' Fatah faction agreed to form a national unity government with the radical Hamas group.

Olmert and Abbas already have clashed over the agenda of the summit, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on Tuesday.

Quoting unnamed government sources, the paper said that Olmert was refusing to discuss final status issues at the summit. Those include the status of Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

Those contentious issues were supposed to be discussed during the second and third phases of the road map peace plan. But the two sides got bogged down in the first phase, which called for (among other things) the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian areas. It never happened.

Regev said it's clear that the only way for Israel and the Palestinians to make progress is through the road map, and that means the Palestinians must do their part to put an end to terrorism.

If the Palestinians agree to move forward on the road map, there could be a Palestinian state soon, he said. But the Palestinian people must decide for themselves.

All Israel can do is to explain to the Palestinian people that political extremists, terrorists and Hamas can offer them nothing but more violence and a political dead end, while the moderates (Washington considers Abbas to be a moderate) can offer "tangible political progress," Regev said.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Liberman believes that Abbas is deceiving Rice and the U.S., which has given its complete backing to Abbas in his power struggle against the Hamas-led government.

The recent "unity government" agreement between Abbas and Hamas leaders -- does not meet any of the three benchmarks outlined by the international community, Lieberman said in a radio interview. Those benchmarks include recognizing Israel, abandoning terrorism, and abiding by previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Abbas is not a partner, Liberman charged. "This is not a unity government," he said. "This is a Hamas government."

D.C. imam glorifies Khomeini, justifies suicide bombing, preaches Islamic supremacism

It's all about the Saudi Wahhabis, you say? Other Muslim groups teach peace? Consider this: here is a Washington, D.C. Muslim community that is at odds with the Saudis, and has had several bitter confrontations with them. Details here. But the leader of the anti-Saudi group, Imam Mohammad al-‘Asi, doesn't seem to have any disagreements with them regarding what ought to be done with infidels. He excoriates them for making deals with the kuffar -- unbelievers. In "The Unknown Prophet: Forgotten Dimensions of the Seerah," he writes:

Our first priority should be to rediscover and relearn how our commanding Prophet approached the issue of power: how he set about dislodging the power of kufr [unbelief] and consolidating the power of Muslims. This should be the burning issue for every Muslim who no longer tolerates a continuation of generations and centuries that have been spent on explaining matters of personal hygiene, night prayers, and a terrifying argument about the exact minute if not the exact second when a Muslim should break his fast (in other words, does night begin with sunset or with nightfall?)! The millions of Muslims who are lost to hunger, illiteracy, malnutrition, refugeehood, and warfare every year do not allow us the ivory-tower and slow-motion ‘da'wah approach' (favored and sponsored by those arch-enemies of the Prophet's Sunnah and Seerah, the usurpers of the Haramain) [that is, the Saudis] that are responsible for our sad state of affairs from Morocco to Makkah as well as from Mongolia to Madinah. We should not be studying hair-splitting fiqhi issues in halaqat (study sessions and circles); we should be learning how to consolidate our social will-power and how to form active and status-quo-challenging units throughout our African and Asian lands to reclaim them for Islam.

In other words, we must work to reestablish Sharia in Muslim lands. Will he stop with Muslim lands? I doubt it. To do so would be to transgress Muhammad's command.

His conclusion is that Muhammad's example should become the basis for a revolutionary movement, just as Maududi, Qutb, and other contemporary jihad theorists have emphasized:

Imagine if there were Muslims who took Islam as seriously as the Prophet did, and at this level of understanding, would we be where we are today? Billions of dollars that are spent of individualizing and secularizing Islam would become the concern of the Islamic movement that draws its inspiration from the way the Prophet of Allah set about on his 23 year mission of destroying the injustices that come from wealth and power accumulations and excesses. This much-needed reconsideration of Muhammad (saw) is the rapturous issue of our time; the past several generations have proven that as long as the Prophet is unidentified as a model for radical ideological change the Muslims will continue to limp from one setback to another.

In the Lecture at the bottom of this page, he lionizes Khomeini, the man who said: "Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]…. Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim."

And in the Q&A below that, he justifies suicide bombing.

(Thanks to Bobby for the heads-up.)

UPDATE: Dr. Rusty Shackleford notes that Al-'Asi is also a Holocaust denier.

SECOND UPDATE: Here (thanks again to Bobby) is video of this imam discussing the Holocaust.

EU document: Iranian bomb unstoppable

Nothing can be done, says the EU. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

An internal European Union document has concluded that there will be no way to prevent Iran from enriching enough weapons-grade uranium to develop a nuclear bomb, the British newspaper The Financial Times reported Tuesday.

According to the report, the document states that the Iranian nuclear program has not been affected by diplomatic pressure, and has only been delayed due to technical limitations.

"At some stage we must expect that Iran will acquire the capacity to enrich uranium on the scale required for a weapons program," the Times quoted the document as saying, warning that "the problems with Iran will not be resolved through economic sanctions alone."

The document was dated February 7, and was reportedly circulated to the EU's 27 national governments ahead of a foreign ministers meeting Monday.

Islamic Jihad threatens US attacks if chief captured

Hamas has threatened this also. From AFP, with thanks to Twostellas:

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Radical Palestinian faction Islamic Jihad has threatened to attack US interests to avenge any harm inflicted on its leader after the United States put a five-million-dollar price on his head.

"Any harm to the secretary general of Islamic Jihad will endanger American interests everywhere in the region," Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said in a statement Tuesday.

On Monday, the United States offered five million dollar rewards for the capture of Damascus-based Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah and a member of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militia, Mohammed Ali Hamadei.

Both are on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list.

"The Al-Quds Brigades, together with all the resistance factions, will confront decisively any American stupidity against the leaders of the Palestinian people, whatever their allegiance," the group added.

The spokesman threatened the US secret services and their agents in the region with a "wave of violent attacks targeting all American interests if they come to harm secretary general Shallah or any other symbol of the resistance."

D’Souza Knows Not: A Letter to Dinesh D’Souza from the Traditional Muslim World

From Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers (thanks to Mike):

[Editor’s Note: Dinesh D’Souza’s recent work on Muslim culture and the decadent West has received a great deal of criticism, but not quite like the letter below recently sent to the website.]

Dear Mr. Hanson,

I greatly appreciated your just and thoughtful critique in "The Enemy at Home." As a woman from South Asia, originally from a "traditional Muslim" community, and now domiciled in the U.S., I have much to say to Mr. D'Souza — but feel there's no use in doing so. I have seen him on TV and believe he will not be open to a differing opinion, not even if it comes from a Muslim woman from one of the cultural groups at the heart of his thesis. So I address this to you.

My first question to Mr. D'Souza would be: "whom do you mean when you speak repeatedly of traditional Muslim societies, how many women from these societies did you interview in your research for this book?" This is a rhetorical question because I know the answer to it already — hardly any. Women in traditional Muslim societies are not prone to spending time alone with unrelated men, freely expressing opinions on matters central to their community.

If Mr. D'Souza thinks he has had such interviews he is mistaken. He may have spoken to women from more liberal Muslim communities who do not as yet represent the majority of women in Islam. That he has spoken to men is clear, of course. This analogy is a stretch, but I am going to use it anyway to make my point. It is as though Mr. D'Souza, in writing about the Holocaust, bases his conclusions on conversations he has had with the guards at concentration camps because he had no access to the prisoners.

That being said, I would like to tell Mr D'Souza that he is wide of the mark — not completely without an insight or two, but so wide that his thesis has no value to Muslim or non-Muslim. Mr D'Souza believes that it is not freedom but the abuses of it that threatens patriarchy in Islamic societies: the clothes that Britney Spears wears, same sex marriage, pronography etc. A classic example of not being able to see the woods for the trees.

What threatens patriarchal Muslim communities are not the excesses of Western societies but its very norms. Individualism and the relatively equal position of women manifest themselves in the opportunities females have to pursue education and economic independence. And these principles of individual freedom and equality, even Mr D'Souza will agree, are neither Right nor Left, but simply American. There is no way that Muslim women, in great numbers, can be granted similar opportunities without it eventually shaking their societies at their very foundations. Whatever else the Taliban is obtuse about, they understand perfectly the concept of the slippery slope — allow a girl child to be educated at all, and you never know where she will end up — perhaps like me, with only tangential ties to some of the core values of the conservative Islamic community I was raised in.

When I go back home to my country of birth, as I frequently do, I see the changes that education and economic independence have wrought in a once very orthodox community, which slowly allowed its women a more Western lifestyle. Women are waiting longer to get married, having fewer children (going against the Islamic obligation to increase the "Umma" — the community of Muslims), going out of the home to work, often choosing a spouse against the wishes of the family, and initiating divorce in numbers that were unthinkable in the past. The great strength of Muslim societies, the stability of its families, and the cohesiveness of its communities, is beginning , in some places, to fray at the edges and the anxiety provoking question for those who care about this, as I do, is —how much can the foundational thread of conservative Islamic societites, —women's submissiveness, and their economic and social dependence on men — be pulled out, without it unraveling the entire fabric?

In the face of this challenge there are those who believe that the solution lies in reverting to fundamentalist Islam, and among such people could well be some future terrorists. There are others who know there is no going back. To do so would be to tolerate, for instance, some of the rules that governed my mother's life. No leaving the house without a chaperone, no signing your own marriage certificate, and most tragic of all, no going to school, no matter how much you love to learn. Or it could mean, as it did with a schoolmate of mine, a seventeen year old girl would be forced to marry a fifty six year old man, because her family forced her to. If she could have fended for herself, she may have fled her family. But she could not, and went through the marriage ceremony tears pouring down her face.

How can Muslim societies strike a balance between the needs of the individual and the need of the community so as to stay true to some of its better traditions and avoid the breakdown of family and society that has taken place in the West? There are no easy answers to that, and certainly none so easy as staying as far away as possible from pornography, or even making it more difficult for a woman to get a divorce. If Mr D'Souza has any advice to give on this issue, I would like to hear it. Turning the TV off when Britney Spears appears, I know to do on my own.

Thank you for your time.

Purported Zawahiri message lashes out at "Crusaders and Zionists," "charlatan" Muslims, Bush, Democrats

Something for just about everyone in this message. "Purported al Qaeda message: Unite with Taliban," from CNN:

(CNN) -- In a message released Monday, al Qaeda's No. 2 leader called on Muslims to unite under Taliban leader Mullah Omar and stop attempting to form secular governments.

They should follow only the strict Islamic Sharia law, said Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The remarks were delivered in a message on an Islamist Web site. The video contained a still picture of Zawahiri with English subtitles over Arabic remarks in audio. CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the tape.

A text translation also accompanied the tape and was provided to CNN by lauramansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism.

Zawahiri pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar and called on all his followers to reject animosity and differences and come together under Mullah Omar's banner.

Mullah Omar is the elusive, shadowy Taliban leader who slipped away in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. Before the U.S.-led invasion, the Taliban held Afghanistan with an ultra-conservative government and sheltered al Qaeda.

Calling the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, allied with the United States, "traitors," Zawahiri warned the United States "is about to depart and abandon them, just as it abandoned their like in Vietnam."

But Zawahiri did not reserve his venom only for the "Crusaders" and "Zionists."

He also targeted the "charlatans" of Islam, saying their "long beards, huge turbans, majestic titles, purported lineages and popular myths are no substitute for the truth."

He called on Palestinians to drop their secular government and instead govern themselves by Sharia (Islamic) law.

"A sovereign government will only be achieved if you liberate Palestine from the Jews and their agents, and only if you set up a government which rules by Sharia," he said. "Otherwise, the soap opera of embargoes and pursuits and killings and denunciations will just go on and on."

Like Zawahiri's last message released on January 22, this message contains harsh words for President Bush and the United States.

Zawahiri said Bush was "addicted to drinking, lying and gambling" and that "the American people are the ones who chose him twice, out of greed for the Muslims' treasures and in animosity to them."

"That's why the intelligent person does not absolve them, the British people and all peoples of the Crusader Alliance from responsibility, for they are the ones who elected Bush, Blair and their allies and supported them in their aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

Zawahiri also took aim at Democrats, directing a part of his message to them.

"The people chose you due to your opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq, but it appears that you are marching with him to the same abyss, and it appears that you will take part with him in the defeat and certain failure, with God's permission," he said. "And the American people shall discover that you are all one side of the same coin of tyranny, criminality and failure."

Kosovo (and Europe) in the balance.

Serge Trifkovic of Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad fame has an excellent analysis in Chronicles Magazine of the continued international pressure on Serbia to hand over Kosovo to Albanian Muslims and the terrorist KLA:

On February 2, U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari finally unveiled his much-anticipated plan for the final status of the Serbian province of Kosovo which has been under NATO-UN occupation since Bill Clinton’s war against the Serbs in 1999. While avoiding the contentious word “independence,” Ahtisaari presented the framework for a new Albanian state that would have all key attributes of sovereign statehood. [...]

The period of international supervision envisaged by the plan, as well as a host of “guarantees” and promises of “substantial” municipal autonomy for the few remaining Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province, are but a fig leaf meant to conceal the plan’s reality: that on the fundamental issue of Kosovo’s legal, constitutional and political status Ahtisaari gives everything to the Albanians and nothing to the Serbs. Even without using the “I” word, the plan proposes de facto separation of Kosovo from Serbia. Its primary focus is to finalize the detachment of Kosovo from the last formal vestiges of Serbia’s authority, with the definition of its future status a secondary consideration.

The promise of a “review” after two years is mendacious: if on their current church-burning, dope-smuggling form, the KLA terrorists and criminals who run Kosovo are deemed worthy of independence, it is preposterous to assume that someone—anyone—would dare suggest otherwise two years from now, once they are even more firmly entrenched in power. If 150 Serbian churches went up in flames, and a quarter-million Serbs and other non-Albanians were ethnically cleansed while tens of thousands of KFOR soldiers and UNMIK policemen were stationed in the Province, what would be the worth of Ahtisaari’s “guarantees” once they all leave and the KLA (under whatever current name) takes over?

Ahtissari’s plan is [...] deeply destabilizing because it helps create a base for jihad-terrorism in the heart of Europe and sets a dangerous precedent that will be emulated by each and every disenchanted minority around the world: from Transylvania, to southern Slovakia to the Basque Country to Northern Cyprus to the Crimea, not to mention Transdnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. (To this there may come yet another assurance from the State Department that “no precedent would be set”; yet, while Foggy Bottom bureaucrats may impact reality, they certainly cannot control it.)

[...]

The 1999 NATO war against the Serbs was ostensibly waged for human rights, but—judged by any rational standard—the NATO-UN mission in Kosovo has been, and still is, an unmitigated disaster. The pretense that this is not so is nevertheless maintained by Ahtisaari and his mentors, amidst murders, unreversed ethnic cleansing, rampant crime, prostitution, drug-smuggling, and general dysfunctionality of a thoroughly failed, violent, and dysfunctional polity, a black hole utterly devoid of a single redeeming feature.

[...]

[Ahtisaari’s] goal is to create a new Muslim state in the heart of Europe that would be a veritable black hole of criminality, lawlessness, and jihad terrorism. He must not succeed: pandering to Islam’s geopolitical designs—in the Balkans, or anywhere else—is not only bad, it is counterproductive, and violating laws of God and man along the way is evil.

Sadly, the whole sorry process of wrenching Kosovo away from Serbia (analogous to handing New England over to a Quebec full of jihadists) has been driven by American and Western foreign policy that seems to think that throwing the Serbs to the jihadist wolves will sate their appetite. Not likely. For those who want to get up to speed on the whole Balkan situation, may I recommend Diane Johnston's Fool's Crusade, which blows out of the water the persistent myths of the Balkan wars of the past fifteen years.

Egyptian MP: Nothing will work with Israel except nuclear bomb that will wipe it out of existence

1938 Alert: "Egyptian MP: Nothing will work with Israel except nuclear bomb," from The Associated Press, with thanks to An Art Major:

Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem sparked angry reactions on Monday from Egyptian parliament members, including one who said only a nuclear bomb could stop Israel.

The excavations, which aim to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex also sacred to Jews, have angered many Muslims who fear the work will harm the foundations of al-Aqsa mosque. Israel says the holy places will not be harmed.

"That cursed Israel is trying to destroy al-Aqsa mosque," Mohammed el-Katatny of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) told a heated parliament session held to discuss the Israeli digging.

"Nothing will work with Israel except for a nuclear bomb that wipes it out of existence," he said.

Iranian leader dismisses U.S. charge

Bridge For Sale Alert. By Nazila Fathi for the International Herald Tribune, with thanks to Mackie:

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed accusations that Iran was arming Shiite militants in Iraq in an interview made public Monday and said Iran opposed any kind of conflict in Iraq.

"Our position for Iraq is very clear," he said, in an interview with ABC News, which was reported on its Web site. "We are asking for peace, we are asking for security, and we will be sad to see people get killed, no matter who they are."

Even Zionists, Mahmoud?

Filipino muftis write year of sermons to counter Muslim terrorism

These "will be a strong weapon against terrorists and their lies. The faithful will understand because each of our words, as opposed to those who preach hatred, is based on authoritative and authentic Islamic sources." Great. I hope these will be published widely -- especially since the jihadists themselves routinely base their writings on "based on authoritative and authentic Islamic sources," and peaceful Muslims have never yet mounted any significant or effective counterattack on Islamic grounds. It will be very interesting to see how these muftis make their case, and how effective it will be.

By Santosh Digal in Asia News, with thanks to News4U:

Cotabato (AsiaNews) – The voice of those who do not know Islam “is becoming louder” and hate texts published by those who “barely understand the Koran” are appealing to Muslim youth more and more.

The conviction that this phenomenon should be “countered by all possible means” has prompted the Guardians of the House of Opinion – a group of muftis in the south of the Philippines – to write 55 sermons that will be read in mosques across the country throughout the coming year.

The leader of the guardians, Ustadz Abdulwahid Inju, said the khutba [group of sermons] will be delivered to ulemas who will have the task of adapting them to different social contexts in the Philippines.

The mufti said the decision to write the sermons was taken because “there is nothing in common between Islam, which stands for peace, harmony, order, justice and compassion, and acts of hatred, vengeance and evil committed by a fringe of Muslims.”

Indeed, he continued: “Islam and terrorism stand at opposite ends. In Islam, life is so sacred. It is a gift from God that He alone has the right to take back. Murder and the killing of innocent civilians are strictly forbidden, just as it is a grave sin to kill people as they worship, even if they are not praying in a mosque and not praying to Allah.”

The muftis of Cotabato, Basilan, Lanao Sur, Maguindanao, Marawi City, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi were involved in the drawing up of the sermons. They were acting upon an invitation issued by the government in its Security Law unanimously approved on 8 February.

In the law, the government urges “all those who have the possibility” to “act to prevent acts of terrorism and violence, baseless and harmful for security and national unity.”

For Ustadz Esmael Ebrahim, member of the House of Opinion and the muftis of Mindanao, the writings of the group “will be a strong weapon against terrorists and their lies. The faithful will understand because each of our words, as opposed to those who preach hatred, is based on authoritative an