UK: Second attack on Anglican priest by teenage Muslim thugs

The first time it happened was in March. This time, the good dhimmi who was attacked wants to make sure that no one plays up the religious aspect of the attack -- thereby ensuring that nothing will be done by anyone to try to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again.

"Second attack on East End clergy by teenage thugs," by Michael Parker for the East London Advertiser, May 9 (thanks to Sparta):

A SECOND priest has been beaten up in his own churchyard in the space of just eight weeks in London’s East End — this time over an argument about a football.

The Rector of St Matthew’s in Bethnal Green, The Rev Kevin Scully, was attacked on Tuesday afternoon by three drunken youths who had returned to take their revenge for a row three days before.

He had taken their ball last Saturday after he saw them using a cross on the church as a basketball hoop.

He has been taunted with religious and racist abuse in the past, but believes the beating was more alcohol-fuelled than anything more sinister.

The attack follows the vicious assault on Canon Michael Ainsworth at St George-in-the-East church in Shadwell in March.

But although that attack was treated as a ‘faith hate’ crime, police consider the latest incident as simple assault.

Fr Scully, 45, who was left with two black eyes, cuts and bruises, told the Advertiser: “I’m still a bit shaken up.

“It came out of an incident where some teenagers were using the front of the church as a basketball hoop.

“I took their ball and told them to leave—but they came back on Tuesday, drunk, to demand their ball back and attacked me.”

He recalled: “One of them was instigating the violence.

“I thought the other two were going to stop it, but in the end they joined in.

“Even a passer-by who saw what was going on and tried to intervene got a kicking too.

“I was punched twice in the face, hard, hit again, and kicked from behind.

“I crouched down to ward off the blows before running to the Rectory and calling police.”

Fr Scully added: “My biggest concern was getting the door locked as I thought they might follow me inside.

“But they ran off and I’ve not seen them round here since.”

He branded them “drunken yobs” and said the area suffered anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Mr Scully, however, insists it was not a ‘policing’ problem, but a ‘community’ problem.

“These are someone’s sons, someone’s brothers,” he said. “These people are known in the community.”

“There is a certain racial and religious element to this,” adds.

“I have been and was taunted religiously — and that is a worrying aspect of it.

“But I would not make that a ‘flag of convenience.’

“These are drunken yobs and that is the shame of it.

“They could probably have a very bright future ahead of them if they only did something about it.”...

Yes, of course. If only they did something about it.

University student leaves school after Muslim threatens his service dog

Unconscionable. The student who made the threat should be expelled. But because this is an issue involving Islam, instead the multiculturalists start speaking soothingly about "misunderstanding," which means surrender.

"SCSU student leaves training at Technical High School," by Dave Aeikens for the St. Cloud Times, May 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A St. Cloud State University student in a teacher-training program at Technical High School left the school in late April because he says he feared for the safety of his service dog.

The school district calls it a misunderstanding, and officials there say they hoped Tyler Hurd, a 23-year-old junior from Mahtomedi who aspires to teach special education, would continue his training in the district.

Hurd said a student threatened to kill his service dog named Emmitt. The black lab is trained to protect Hurd when he has seizures.

The seizures, which can occur weekly, are from a childhood injury.

The dog has a pouch on his side that assists those who stop to help Hurd.

Hurd said he was unable to finish his 50 hours of field training at Tech. The university waived the remaining 10 hours, he said. He plans to do his student teaching outside a high school setting.

“We came up with a solution because I felt threatened by it," Hurd said.

The school district and university are working to make sure a similar situation doesn't happen.

Kate Steffens, dean of the college of education at St. Cloud State, and Tech assistant principal Lori Lockhart met Thursday.

The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to Hurd, St. Cloud State and school district officials.

The Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids the touching of dogs.

Hurd trained at Talahi Community School and Tech. He said his experience at Talahi was good. The Somali students there warmed to the dog and eventually petted him using paper to keep their hands off his fur, Hurd said.

Things didn't go as well at Tech, Hurd said. Students there taunted his dog, and he finally felt he had to leave after he was told a student made a threat. Hurd met with Lockhart but said he did not feel comfortable continuing.

Julia Espe, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for St. Cloud school district, said the school needed to do a better job communicating.

“I think it was a misunderstanding where we didn't really prepare either side for possible implications," Espe said.

Really? So the Muslim student's threats are just a misunderstanding? They ought to be grounds for expulsion.

Turkey: New law restricting sale of alcohol comes into effect

Sharia is creeping forward everywhere, but in modern, moderate, secular Turkey it is creeping even faster than it is elsewhere. "Turkey: Law Banning Alcohol, Sigarettes [sic] Comes Into Effect," from ANSAmed, May 13 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, MAY 13 - A new law to overhaul tobacco and alcoholic beverages usage drew fierce criticism from sector representatives, and is seen as another negative factor in Islamist-rooted AKP's record of conservative arrangements. Law No. 5752, which will take effect tomorrow, bans the sale of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes "by breaking its packaging or dividing them."

Sector representatives say if implemented, it would mean that the sale of alcoholic beverages by the glass at establishments like restaurants and bars would not be allowed. Sector representatives say the government should make new regulations detailing the implementation of this article of the law.

The government passed the law to ban smoking in public areas and the sale of single cigarettes in small markets, a practice commonly used. The representatives of sector organizations say this law makes it virtually impossible to consume alcohol anywhere but in the home. The marketing director of Doluca Wines told Hurriyet the confusion about alcoholic beverages arises because the law described the new arrangements together with those relating to tobacco usage. "The recent shape of the law would kill the sector. Clear definitions should be made," Sibel Kutman said. She added that 35% of annual wine sales are sold by the glass.

Turkish alcohol producers have already been under pressure since the AKP government took the helm. Winemakers had complained of a heavy tax burden and a government which they feel is unsympathetic to the wine industry due to its Islamist roots, however many Turks drink alcohol. Turkey's Islamist-rooted AKP, who faces a closure case on the charge of becoming the focal point of anti-secular activities, denies the charges but has so far not taken any steps to soothe concerns caused mostly by the implementations of local administrations.

Under the law no cocktails will be made by mixing different kinds of alcohol, and giving alcoholic beverages as a gift is also banned. The chairman of the Tourism, Restaurants, Clubs Investors and Operators said he does "not want to believe" such ban will take effect. "I don't think this will be a problem as long as you have a license to sell open bottle alcohol," Baris Tansever added. (ANSAmed).

U.S. drops charges against accused "20th hijacker"

Why?

By Kristin Roberts for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday it dropped charges against a Saudi who U.S. officials say intended to be the "20th hijacker" on September 11 but sent five others to trial for allegedly planning the 2001 attacks.

A Pentagon appointee who oversees the U.S. war court at its Guantanamo Bay military prison did not say why she rejected the charges that prosecutors sought earlier this year against Mohammed al-Qahtani.

She dismissed the charges "without prejudice," a distinction that allows the U.S. government to try to bring charges against Qahtani again.

Murder and conspiracy charges against the five other men accused of planning the attacks, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were approved, the Pentagon said. That means the men, all held at Guantanamo, must be arraigned within 30 days.

They will be tried together in proceedings that should start within 120 days. If convicted, they may face the death penalty....

UK firm to supply communications and data systems to Libya's armed forces

John VI Cantacuzenes Alert: "General Dynamics UK Secures New Export Opportunity: Program builds on aims of UK Government and International Community," a press release, May 9 (thanks to Davsmi):

LONDON, May 9, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited has confirmed that it has signed an 85m pounds Sterling GBP ($165m USD) contract to supply a tactical communications and data system as part of the United Kingdom's initiatives to improve economic, educational and defense links with Libya. It will provide communications and data handling capabilities, together with technical and training support, to the Elite Brigade of Libya's armed forces.

Taliban: "If you do not give up watching televisions, you will face violence"

So would Little Mosque on the Prairie be ok?

Sharia Alert: "Taliban Ban TV In Afghan Province," from Reuters, May 13 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have ordered residents of a province near the capital Kabul to stop watching television, saying the networks were showing un-Islamic programs, officials and local media said on Tuesday.

The order is the last in a wave of curbs that the resurgent militants have announced in areas they are active.

A senior Afghan information ministry official, Najib Manelai, said that dozens of masked men with weapons entered mosques in Logar province at the weekend and threatened residents against watching television

"They threatened the people that 'if you do not give up watching televisions, you will face violence'," Manelai told Reuters.

Media reports quoted residents as saying that the Taliban imposed the ban because TV networks were showing programs that were "un-Islamic and anti-Afghan culture."...

Another honor killing in Jordan: Man drowns sister in Dead Sea

The second reported honor killing in Jordan in less than a week. "Jordan charges man with killing sister suspected of having extramarital affair," from the Associated Press, May 12:

A Jordanian judicial official says the country's state prosecutor has charged a man with premeditated murder who is suspected of drowning his 22-year-old sister for having an extramarital affair.

The official says the unidentified woman's brother beat her with the help of his family Saturday and then took her to the Dead Sea, where he drowned her.

The official says the state prosecutor also charged the woman's parents and another brother Monday with assisting in the murder by knowing about it and for beating the woman before she died. He says they carried out their suspected actions after seeing an unidentified man leaving the slain woman's house.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Fitzgerald: When The Fool of Chelm Is At The Helm, Or, What Peres Did, He Undid

"Although in '98 everything seemed dark because of Rabin's murder, I believed we could still move the peace process ahead more quickly. I did not think we'd have so many problems. I believed the separation between the West Bank and Gaza would make things easier, not harder. I did not imagine that we would leave Gaza and they would fire Qassams from there; I did not imagine that Hamas would show so strongly in the elections." -- from this inteview with Shimon Peres in Ha'aretz by Lily Galili

Since Ehud Olmert was a bit indisposed, the honors fell to Shimon Peres. It was he who as President of Israel met with foreign journalists to remind them -- and they did need reminding -- of what Israel has achieved in the sixty years of its existence. Seven hot wars and two intifadas, along with unceasing economic and diplomatic warfare, did not prevent Israel from becoming the refuge and hope for Jews. And despite having no natural resources -- no oil, for example, to match the trillions that its mortal enemies pile up thanks not to any industriousness or entrepreneurial flair or inventive genius, but purely to an accident of geology -- Israel has become an example to the rest of the world of how to build a nation-state. And this building has been achieved not because of, but despite, having a political class unworthy of its citizens -- a problem not confined to Israel.

One member of that permanent class is Shimon Peres. For the past three decades Shimon Peres has not only played the fool, but has been the fool. Perhaps now, at long last, after the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza, reality has begun to sink in. At least he has publicly admitted his surprise -- he, Peres, is always being surprised -- at what happened in Gaza once the Israelis left, abandoning Jewish towns (not “settlements” but towns), which was, of course, what anyone of sense could, and did, predict. And it is exactly the lesson of Gaza that applies to the “West Bank,” though perhaps Shimon Peres is incapable of drawing that conclusion. He certainly cannot, at this point, begin to ponder the Islamic basis for Arab and Muslim opposition -- murderous opposition -- to the permanent existence of Israel. It would be too painful. He can’t do it.

Shall we let bygones be bygones? Shall those who care about the survival of Israel pay attention, on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, in a spirit of untruth and reconciliation, to what Peres did that was right, long ago, when he helped create Israel’s essential, never-to-be-surrendered nuclear deterrent, and ignore the way he has been, the damage he has done, for the past thirty years, ever since Sadat came to Israel to be hailed as Saint Sadat, Prince of Peace?

Fitzgerald: Deceiving ourselves by our own propaganda

Ordinarily in a war, when one conducts propaganda both black and white, there is always the danger that one will end up deceiving oneself.

This is particularly true where the "war" does not look like a war as we have come to know it, for it does not involve, in the main, a battlefield threat, but rather other instruments of warfare, and where there is no beginning -- no "declaration of war" -- and also no end. In the Jihad that Muslims are taught to regard as a central duty, and which they must participate in either collectively (so that the efforts of some in the collective may relieve others from immediate and direct participation) or individually (so that everyone must participate directly). The goal has no fixed end, until the entire world has had all obstacles to the spread and dominance of Islam removed.

And the instruments of this war are not, pace Bush and others, "terrorism," or even conventional qitaal, or combat. The main instruments are the deployment of the Money Weapon, carefully-targeted campaigns of Da'wa, and demographic conquest. These are all part of what Robert Spencer has called "the stealth jihad," to focus attention on how it proceeds without being seen, or is deliberately overlooked, or willfully -- and woefully -- misunderstood.

Islamic supremacists killing singers, actors, and artists in Iraq

Their work is un-Islamic, you see. Imagine what fun Muslims who share this perspective could have once they gain control in Europe! "Iraqi artists and singers flee amid crackdown on forbidden culture," by Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies in The Observer, May 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Iraqi singers, actors and artists are fleeing the country after dozens have been killed by Islamic radicals determined to eradicate all culture associated with the West.

Cinemas, art galleries, theatres, and concert halls are being destroyed in grenade and mortar attacks in Basra and Baghdad.

According to the Iraqi Artists' Association, at least 115 singers and 65 actors have been killed since the US-led invasion, as well as 60 painters. But the terror campaign has escalated in recent months as both Shia and Sunni extremists grow ever bolder in enforcing religious restrictions on the citizens of Iraq....

In November Seif Yehia, 23, was beheaded for singing western songs at weddings, and painter Ibraheem Sadoon was shot dead as he drove through Baghdad. In February Sunni fighters killed Waleed Dahi, 27, a young actor, while he rehearsed for a play due to open at the Jordanian National Theatre this month.

Culture was encouraged during Saddam Hussein's regime, but no longer. Abu Nur, an Islamic Army spokesman, said: 'Acting, theatre and television encourage bad behaviour and irreligious attitudes. They promote customs that affect the morality of our traditional society.'

Saudis hold "women in the workplace" forum -- with no women present

And meanwhile, at the forum a scholar calls into question the commonly articulated view that Islam improved the lot of women in the seventh century. Of course, the blame is rather characteristically placed on the Greco-Roman tradition, but the subtext here is that women essentially had it better in pre-Islamic Nabatea than they did, and do, under Islam. "Scholar lifts veil on sharia," from Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

When clerics, ministers and businessmen gathered at a forum in Riyadh in April to discuss women in the workplace, there were no women in sight.

Typically for Saudi Arabia, the women who took part were seated in a separate room so the men could only hear them.

Such things are part and parcel of the complex system of social control maintained by clerics of Saudi Arabia's austere version of Sunni Islamic law, often termed Wahhabism. It is a system called into question by scholar Hatoon al-Fassi.

In her study, Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia, the outspoken rights advocate argues women in the pre-Islamic period enjoyed considerable rights in the Nabataean state, an urban Arabian kingdom centred in modern Jordan, south Syria and north-west Saudi Arabia during the Roman empire.

Most controversially, Fassi says women in Nabataea - whose capital was the famous rose-red city of Petra in south Jordan, and which was at its height during the lifetime of Jesus Christ - enjoyed more freedom than in Saudi Arabia today because clerics have misunderstood the origins of Islamic law. She also suggests some Saudi restrictions on women may have their origins in Greco-Roman traditions.

"One of the objectives of this book is to question the assumption of subordination of women in pre-Islamic Arabia," Fassi writes. "Most of the practices related to women's status are based on some local traditional practices that are not necessarily Islamic. Nor are they essentially Arabian."

She argues that women in Nabataea were free to conduct legal contracts in their own name with no male guardian, unlike in Greek and Roman law, and in Saudi Arabia where the guardian is central to the clerics' idea of a moral public sphere....

Scotland: Police bid to tackle Islamophobia

Hmmm. How are they going to tackle Islamophobia? Will they go right to its root cause -- will they get Muslims to stop blowing stuff up in the name of Islam and announcing that they will soon dominate the land and rule by Sharia? Fantastic!

"Police bid to tackle Islamophobia," by Imtiaz Tyab for BBC News, May 9 (thanks to DB):

Scotland's first Muslim Police Association is being created in an attempt to encourage more Muslims to join and stay in the force.

Strathclyde Police hopes the group will also help tackle Islamophobia and improve understanding of Islam.

Pc Amar Shakoor, who was Scotland's first Muslim officer, said negativity had recently been directed towards the Muslim community.

He said the association hoped to put Islam in a more positive light.

"We want to highlight some of the positive things Islam can provide to the communities and not just the police services," he said.

Great, but really, that bit about stopping blowing stuff up will go a long way.

Attempts to stem trafficking of teenage girls in northern Nigeria hampered by... Sharia law

"The [Child Rights Act] has been endorsed by the Nigerian federal government but not as yet by the predominantly Muslim northern state legislatures because it contains clauses which many northerners see as going against their religious and cultural values."

But wait... Islamic law is supposed to elevate women, and bring law and order to the areas it is imposed on, right? Right?

"Trafficking of teenagers on the rise in N Nigeria," from Agence France-Presse, May 11:

KANO, Nigeria - The trafficking of teenage girls from poor villages to northern Nigerian cities to work as domestic help for meagre wages is on the rise, officials said at the weekend.

‘The business of recruiting teenagers as domestic help is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it,’ said Bello Ahmed, head of the Kano office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), in charge of 18 northern and central states.

The girls, usually between the ages of 12 and 17, are paid around 1,500 naira (13 dollars, eight euros) a month, money that they send to their parents, Ahmed told AFP.

However meagre the wage, for the parents it means a little more cash and one mouth fewer to feed.

Ahmed said NAPTIP has succeeded in putting a stop to the practice of ferrying the house girls into the cities in trucks ‘like chickens’.

But if transport methods have improved somewhat, the trafficking continues.

‘In fact it's on the rise. The more the law enforcement agencies perfect strategies to stop it, the more the traffickers find sophisticated ways of running their trade,’ said Mairo Bello, head of Adolescent Health Information Project, a Kano-based NGO.

"Those whom their right hands possess" (Qur'an 33:50):

Some of the teenage workers are raped or beaten by their employers and NAPTIP keeps a dormitory for such girls.

‘We now have two girls in our custody who were raped by their masters, one of them four-month pregnant and another one that had ground chilli pepper poured into her private parts by her mistress for not washing a plate well,’ Ahmed said.

Lack of state-level legislation to prosecute traffickers makes NAPTIP unable to take legal action against them, meaning the best it can do is monitor their activities to keep them in check, according to Ahmed.

The UN-sponsored Child Rights Act provides for five years in jail and a 424-dollar fine on perpetrators of child labour.

The act has been endorsed by the Nigerian federal government but not as yet by the predominantly Muslim northern state legislatures because it contains clauses which many northerners see as going against their religious and cultural values.

‘We are disturbed by this trend of using teenagers as domestic helps which is a form of child labour and we are aware there is a provision in the Child Rights Act that deals with that issue,’ Abdulaziz Garba Gafasa, speaker for the Kano legislature, told AFP.

But he said the legislature would only be able to endorse the act if some clauses are expunged. Failing that, he said Kano plans to introduce measures at the state level to deal with the trafficking issue.

Amnesty International to Saudi Arabia: No lashes for coffee klatsch

Earlier coverage suggested Muhammad Ali Abu Raziza was "framed by the religious police after he angered some of their members at a training course." In any event, public pressure may again work to spare individuals the cruel and unusual punishments of Sharia law. Unfortunately, there will be others in the future, as such reprieves by the Saudi government are clearly acts of damage control rather than compassion or reform.

"Amnesty urges release of Saudi facing flogging," from Reuters, May 11:

RIYADH - Amnesty International has urged Saudi authorities to release a Saudi university professor who is facing flogging and imprisonment for meeting a woman to whom he is not related for coffee in the conservative Islamic kingdom.

Muhammad Ali Abu Raziza, a psychology lecturer at the university of Mecca, has been sentenced to 150 lashes and eight months in jail after the religious police caught him with a woman in a coffee shop, the rights group said in a statement.

Justice ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Saudi Arabia applies an austere form of Islam which bans women from mixing with men to whom they are not related, voting and driving, and punishes men and women found guilty of illegal encounters, known as khilwa offences.

The statement did not say what happened to the woman who was meeting Abu Raziza.

‘Saudi Arabia should stop needlessly persecuting people like this -- we want to see a complete end to people in the kingdom being punished for 'khilwa' offences,’ Amnesty said.

The religious police, known as the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, have wide powers to search for alcohol, drugs and prostitution, ensure shops are closed during prayers in addition to maintaining a strict system of sexual segregation.

Criticism of the force has re-emerged after its members were involved in a series of incidents, which led to the deaths of six people in car chases.

'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

"If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her."

An update on this honor-killing story. By Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies in The Observer, May 11 (thanks to Cindy):

For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. 'If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,' he said with no trace of remorse.

Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city's Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.

Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said.

Rand, who was studying English at Basra University, was deemed to have brought shame on her family after becoming infatuated with a British soldier, 22, known only as Paul.

She died a virgin, according to her closest friend Zeinab. Indeed, her 'relationship' with Paul, which began when she worked as a volunteer helping displaced families and he was distributing water, appears to have consisted of snatched conversations over less than four months. But the young, impressionable Rand fell in love with him, confiding her feelings and daydreams to Zeinab, 19.

It was her first youthful infatuation and it would be her last. She died on 16 March after her father discovered she had been seen in public talking to Paul, considered to be the enemy, the invader and a Christian. Though her horrified mother, Leila Hussein, called Rand's two brothers, Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, to restrain Abdel-Qader as he choked her with his foot on her throat, they joined in. Her shrouded corpse was then tossed into a makeshift grave without ceremony as her uncles spat on it in disgust.

'Death was the least she deserved,' said Abdel-Qader. 'I don't regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,' he said....

The learned Western analysts will continue to maintain, of course, that this is a cultural practice that has nothing to do with Islam. So how is it that Abdel-Qader got this idea?

US public school history books whitewashing and promoting Islam

"Islamic activists use multiculturalism and ready-made American-made political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify the makeover of Islam-related textbook content."

Full report here.

"History textbooks promoting Islam: New report says Muslim activists 'succeeding' in expunging criticism," by Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily, May 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

History textbooks being used by hundreds of thousands of public school students across the U.S. are blatantly promoting Islam, according to a new report by an independent organization that researches and reviews textbooks.

WND has reported several times on issues involving the promotion of Islam in public school texts, including a recent situation in which California parents complained their children were being taught that "jihad" to Muslims means "doing good works."

The new report is from the American Textbook Council, which was established in 1989 as an independent national research organization to review social studies textbooks and advance the quality of instructional materials in history.

In the two-year project, whose report was authored by Gilbert T. Sewall, the ATC reviewed five junior and five high school world and American history texts, concluding:

"Many political and religious groups try to use the textbook process to their advantage, but the deficiencies in Islam-related lessons are uniquely disturbing. History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security."

The report finds that the texts present "disputed definitions and claims [regarding Islam] … as established facts."

"Islamic activists use multiculturalism and ready-made American-made political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify the makeover of Islam-related textbook content," the report continued.

"Particular fault rests with the publishing corporations, boards of directors, and executives who decide what editorial policies their companies will pursue," the report said.

Reviewed were:

* Medieval and Early Modern Times by Jackson J. Spielvogal

* Medieval to Early Modern Times by Stanley M. Bernstein and Richard Shek

* World History: Medieval and Early Modern Times by Douglas Carnine, Carlos Cortes, Kenneth R. Curtis and Anita T. Robinson

* Medieval and Early Modern Times by Dianne Hart

* History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond by Bert Bower and Jim Lobdell

* World History: The Modern World by Elizabeth Gaynor Ellis and Anthony Esler

* World History: Modern Times by Jackson J. Spielvogel

* America: Pathways to the Present by Andrew Cayton and others

* The American Vision: Moder Times by Joyce Appelby and others and

* The Americans: Reconstruction to the Twenty-first Century by Gerald A. Danzer

The report noted that several of the textbooks have found harsh critics among parents and others, and "History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond" published by the privately held Teachers Curriculum Institute has been criticized repeatedly.

In Lodi, Calif., parents "were not objecting to a word or two that they took out of context but to a textbook long on chapters filled with adulatory lessons on Islam."

This was the same book cited by parents who contacted WND with their concerns about such indoctrination.

A parent whose child has been handed the text in a Sacramento district at that time accused the publisher of a pro-Muslim bias to the point that Islamic theology has been incorporated into the public school teachings.

"It makes an attempt to seem like an egalitarian world history book, but on closer inspection you find that seven (not all are titled so) of the chapters deal with Islam or Muslim subjects," wrote the parent, whose name was being withheld, in a letter to WND.

"The upsetting part is not only do they go into the history (which would be acceptable) but also the teaching of Islam," she said. "This book does not really go into Christianity or the teachings of Christ, nor does it address religious doctrine elsewhere to the degree it does Islam."

She said the book's one page referencing Jews "is only to convey that they were tortured by Crusaders to get them to convert to 'Christianity.' (It fails to mention that the biggest persecutors of Jews throughout history and still today are Arab Muslims). It gives four other one-liner references to the Jews being blamed for the plagues and problems in the land. It does not talk about the Jews as making a significant impact on the culture at large."

Bert Bower, founder of TCI, told WND at that time not only did his company have experts review the book, but the state of California also reviewed it, and has approved it for use in public schools.

"Keep in mind when looking at this particular book scholars from all over California (reviewed it)," he said.

One of those experts who contributed to the text, according to the ATC, which earlier released a scathing indictment of that specific project, was Ayad Al-Qazzaz.

"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes," the ATC review said. "Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's 'Arab World Notebook.' AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."

The newest report cited the same issue raised by parents.

"In a passage meant to explain jihad, they encountered this: 'Muslims should fulfill jihad with the heart, tongue, and hand. Muslims use the heart in their struggle to resist evil. The tongue may convince others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research. Hands may perform good works and correct wrongs,'" the new report said.

The ATC report noted a complicating factor is a ban in California, to whose standards most textbook publishers align their work, on "adverse reflection" on religion in school.

"Whatever 'adverse reflection' is, such a mandate may be conceptually at odds with historical and geopolitical actuality," the study said....

There is much more. Read it all.

"It is not possible that a country could want to join the European Union while its army is occupying the territory of another EU country"

So says French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. But actually it is quite possible that a country could want to join the European Union while its army is occupying the territory of another EU country. And it is also possible, although Fillon has suddenly "recalled" this, that the EU, cowed, defensive, lacking any sense of itself, supine and already half-dhimmified, will agree.

"Turkey: Fillon Recalls French Reasons For 'No' To Accession," from ANSAmed, May 9 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - NICOSIA, MAY 9 - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, on a work visit in Cyprus, recalled today that his country opposes the accession of Turkey to the EU mainly due to the occupation by the Turkish army of the northern part of the island. The French prime minister told a joint news conference with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias that "it is not possible that a country could want to join the European Union while its army is occupying the territory of another EU country". "The accession of Turkey to the EU is not a good solution," Fillon said adding that "still today there are many obstacles for similar accession. A privileged partnership between the EU and this large country Turkey is a necessary stage". ...

Jordan: Man kills pregnant sister in "honor killing"

According to the article, this is at least the fifth honor killing in Jordan this year. "Jordan police question family for ‘honour killing’," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

AMMAN - The Jordanian authorities are questioning a 22-year- old man, who allegedly killed his pregnant married sister for reasons related to family honour, the Jordan Times reported Friday, quoting official sources.

The 20-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, received three fatal bullets to the side of her head, reportedly by her brother, at her in-law's house in western Amman Wednesday night.

The suspect immediately headed to the nearest police station and turned himself in, handing over the gun he used to shoot his sibling to officers on duty.

"The suspect told police he had just killed his sister to cleanse his family's honour," the sources said.

The victim became the fifth person reportedly murdered in a so- called honour crime since the beginning of the year, the paper said.

Last year, a total of 18 people were killed for reasons of "honour" in Jordan, according to official sources.

Bangladesh: Muslim villagers, angry at pastor's ministry, gang-rape his 13-year-old daughter

"Besides the religious opposition of some residents, the officer said villagers had no personal or commercial conflicts with the Das family that could serve as a motive for the assault."

"Bangladesh - Pastor's 13-year-old daughter gang-raped," from Compass Direct, May 8:

DHAKA, Bangladesh, May 8 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim villagers in Mymensingh district eager to rid the area of the Christian work of a local pastor have gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter, the girl's father said.

Pastor Motilal Das of United Bethany Church said that at around 3 a.m. on Friday (May 2) the villagers sexually assaulted his daughter, Elina Das, and left her unconscious in front of his house in an attempt to drive him and his Christian ministry out of Laksmipur village in Fulbaria sub-district, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital.

Local residents have long been angry with him for his ministry and evangelism, he said, and he has received death threats.

“I did not pay attention to any of the threats or hindrances – I continued evangelical and pastoral activities with prayer,” Das told Compass. “They targeted me to evict from this area to stop the Christian activities. When nothing stopped me, then they wanted to leave me scarred for life, so that I would be upset and not be able to show my face to the society for shame, and therefore I would leave the village.”

Das, who became the first Christian in the area in 1986 and has been key in an increase to more than 250 Christians and the emergence of 12 churches, said the brutal attack was pre-planned and calculated to stop further expansion of Christianity in northern Bangladesh.

“Otherwise, why would they rape such a minor girl?” he said.

Elina Das is the only Christian student at her school, he said. “Always local boys used to tease her on her way to school,” he said, “and used to tell her filthy words against Christianity and western culture.”

Five villagers attacked her when she went from her thatched house to an outdoor latrine, said investigating officer Sanwar Hossen of Fulbaria police station.

“Five people lying in ambush in the pitch-dark near the toilet snatched her by gagging her mouth with her body scarf [and taking her] to a nearby tea stall, 400 meters from the house, where they gang-raped her,” Hossen said.

Besides the religious opposition of some residents, the officer said villagers had no personal or commercial conflicts with the Das family that could serve as a motive for the assault.

“There was no family vendetta or personal clash or enmity of Motilal with the local people for which his daughter would be raped,” Hossen said. “There was even no land dispute between him and the neighbors, because he does not have any land.”

Family members found Elina Das lying unconscious in front of the house that morning.

“When I woke up in the early morning, I saw my daughter lying unconscious in front of my house,” Das said. “ A few hours after the gang rape, they had left her in front of my house.”

Das said he suspected friends of the rapists and perhaps some of the rapists themselves observed them as they went to the police station to file charges, as they later threatened to harm them if they did not withdraw the case, he said.

“I have received death threats against my entire family if I do not withdraw the case,” Das told Compass. “We, all the family members, were afraid and took shelter in the same police station, where my wife, daughter, son and I stayed for two days and one night.”

Elina Das has identified two of the rapists and could identify the others if she saw them or their pictures, said Das. Police have arrested Shebul Miah, 22. The girl identified another suspect, 32-year-old Dulal Miah, alias Dulu, who remains at large.

Fearful of his life if he returned to his home, Das relocated to the home of a friend in Dhaka on Saturday (May 3).

Derelict Police

When Das initially went to police to file charges, he said, police were reluctant to register the case.

“Police told me that it was a false case,” Das said. “They also said that it was a fabricated drama. Police spoke with my daughter in filthy language and showed prurient interest in the details of the incident in front of us rather than filing the case quickly.”

Area Assembly of God (AG) pastor Sento Mir requested that the local denominational chairman encourage police to file charges. Following a phone call from him on Friday (May 2), police immediately agreed to investigate the incident and filed a rape case in the afternoon.

Area Muslims expressed their outrage at the brutal incident, and they are afraid that the assailants are backed by powerful people, Das said.

“We know Motilal Das as a good man in the locality, though he is a Christian,” said a Muslim neighbor, 42-year-old Ruhul Amin, who owns a tea stall in the nearby area. “He had not any personal clash or enmity with others in the village.”

U.S. withholds $81 million in aid to Pakistan following misappropriation of funds

$81 million out of nearly $1 billion a year: It's only a start, if they even decide to follow through on it.

An update on this story. "Pentagon rejects some Pakistan aid requests," by Peter Spiegel and Greg Miller for the Los Angeles Times, May 7:

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has rejected or deferred millions of dollars in military aid requests from Pakistan amid criticism that the Islamabad government has squandered U.S. funding and allowed Al Qaeda to rebuild a haven in its western tribal regions.

In February, the Defense Department turned down or delayed more than $81 million requested by Pakistan, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The rejection represents a small portion of the nearly $1 billion a year Pakistan has received through a program called Coalition Support Funds, launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But it marks a sudden change in U.S. policy toward Pakistan, which for years has spent American military aid without having to show results in the fight against Al Qaeda and other militant groups. Even some officials in the Pentagon have acknowledged shortcomings in U.S. funding strategy.

The program was set up to reimburse the Pakistani military for offensives against insurgents along the Afghan border and assistance given to the U.S. military operating in Afghanistan.

The Government Accountability Office study says the U.S. has sent more than $5.5 billion to Pakistan under the program, making it the largest portion of the $10.8 billion in U.S. aid Islamabad has received since 2002.

The study was the second by the GAO in a month to criticize U.S. policy in Pakistan. In April, the agency said the Bush administration had not drafted a comprehensive plan to counter the resurgence of Al Qaeda and other militant groups in Pakistan's border areas. [...]

U.S. officials have said that Pakistan used much of the U.S. military aid to pay for heavy equipment better suited for a regional conflict with its archenemy India than for anti-insurgency operations in the frontier territories.

Algeria: $460 fine, one-year suspended sentence for carrying Bible, study materials

"Officials in several instances have cited a February 2006 law governing the worship of non-Muslims. Clarified by subsequent decrees in 2007, the law restricts most religious meetings to approved places of worship and forbids any attempt to 'shake the faith of a Muslim'."

Islamic Tolerance Alert. "Algeria: Christian sentenced for carrying Bible," from Compass Direct, May 10:

ALGIERS, Algeria, May 9 (Compass Direct News) – An Algerian Christian detained five days for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books was handed a 300-euro (US$460) fine and a one-year suspended prison sentence last week, an Algerian church leader said.

Last Tuesday (April 29) a court in Djilfa, 150 miles south of Algiers, charged the 33-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity with “printing, storing and distributing” illegal religious material. A written copy of the verdict has yet to be issued.

The Protestant, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told fellow Christians in his home city of Tiaret that police pressured him to return to Islam while in custody.

The conviction is the latest in a wave of detentions and court cases against Algeria’s Protestants and Catholics. Since January police and provincial officials have ordered the closure of up to half of the country’s 50 estimated Protestant congregations.

Officials in several instances have cited a February 2006 law governing the worship of non-Muslims. Clarified by subsequent decrees in 2007, the law restricts most religious meetings to approved places of worship and forbids any attempt to “shake the faith of a Muslim.”

On the morning of April 25, the Tiaret resident and eight-year convert to Christianity was stopped at a police roadblock in the vicinity of Djilfa while riding in a shared taxi. Officials took the convert into custody upon finding a Bible and several religious study books in his luggage.

A Christian from Tiaret told Compass that Djilfa police appeared to have previous knowledge of the Protestant’s Christian connections. Officers refused to let the convert call friends to let them know of his detention, naming a church member in Tiaret whom they claimed he would contact.

“We will call your family for you,” the officials said, according to the Christian source from Tiaret.

According to one Algerian human rights lawyer, police violated the convert’s rights by refusing him the telephone call.

“Any detained person has the right to call his family,” said the lawyer, who requested anonymity.

A leader from the Protestant Church of Algeria, an umbrella association for mainline and evangelical congregations, said that Christians remained unaware of the detainee’s location for several days.

Precarious Position

The Christian source in Tiaret said that Djilfa police verbally attacked the convert because of his faith during his five-day detention at city’s police station.

“They did not hit him, but they tried to convert him back to Islam,” he said.

Under Algerian law, police can detain a suspect up to 48 hours before bringing him before a state prosecutor, the human rights lawyer told Compass.

“It is not legal for them to hold him for five days,” said the lawyer, who clarified that any detention between 24 and 48 hours had to be approved by a state prosecutor.

After five days in Djilfa’s main police station, the Christian was brought before a state prosecutor and then a Djilfa judge. According to the convert, the judge convicted him of “printing, storing and distributing” illegal religious literature, though the charge remains uncertain until a written verdict is issued.

Libya seethes, Calderoli apologizes for "consequences" of wearing Muhammad t-shirt

Careful wording or abject dhimmitude? "Libya/Italy: Calderoli 'sorry': Berlusconi confident migrant coooperation will resume," from ANSA (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSA) - Rome, May 9 - An Italian government minister whose reappointment was opposed by Libya on Friday apologised for an incident during his last term which many observers have linked to the north African country's decision to halt cooperation on stopping immigrants.

''I'm sorry for the consequences (of the incident),'' said Roberto Calderoli of the regionalist Northern League, who was forced to resign from Silvio Berlusconi's last government after sporting a T-shirt with one of the notorious Danish cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Mohammed.

A Libyan charity run by one of Muammar Gheddafi's sons last week strongly urged Berlusconi not to reappoint Calderoli because of the stunt, which led to riots outside the Italian embassy in Tripoli in which 11 protesters were shot by police.

It said the consequences could be ''disastrous''.

But the premier, fortified by a bipartisan stance that Libya should not interfere in Italy's internal affairs, went ahead and appointed the League heavyweight to a new post aimed at hacking back Italy's jungle of laws.

In the wake of Libya's Thursday night statement on stopping immigrant cooperation - a statement in which the cartoon incident was not cited - Calderoli said Friday his cartoon gesture had been ''misunderstood''.

The freshly sworn-in minister went further than previous claims that he had only wished to defend free speech, calling the display of the offending cartoons ''a message of peace'' between Christianity and Islam.

Speaking on Berlusconi's flagship private TV channel, the minister voiced the hope that ''there won't be problems with Libya''.

''It's over; for me the incident is closed,'' said the minister, who upset Muslims again last September when he suggested pigs should be brought in to thwart plans for the construction of a major mosque in Bologna.

Berlusconi and his foreign minister, Franco Frattini, played down the affair and said they were sure it would soon be cleared up.

''I'm confident we'll be able to clarify the situation and reassure the Libyan authorities,'' said Berlusconi....

What will they be doing to reassure us?

UK cops to step up recruiting of Muslim police officers

Policewomen in Britain, policewomen in Iran

"I'd like to see prayer facilities at work being pretty more universal as they are at the Met where there's a prayer room at New Scotland Yard."

Meanwhile, is anyone asking why Muslims may not want to join the police department, or is that all the British authorities' fault -- doubtless for the inveterate "Islamophobia" they manifest in this very article?

"Police aim for more Muslim staff," from the BBC (thanks to Twostellas):

Ways of recruiting and retaining Muslim police staff will be discussed at a seminar in Bradford on Tuesday.

It has been organised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

Spokesman Rob Beckley said the seminar - the first of its kind to be organised by ACPO - was not in response to any specific incident.

"We want to understand the experiences of Muslim police officers and staff in the police service," he said.

"This will help us identify issues that may impact on the service's ability to recruit, retain and progress Muslim staff," Mr Beckley, assistant chief constable of Hertfordshire, added.

Delegates to the seminar in Bradford - and one later in the week in Swindon - will be addressed by senior officers from forces in England and Wales.[...]

Chief inspector Richard Varley of the Association of Muslim Police said he hoped staff would be able to pool ideas and experiences at the seminars. [...]

"I hope the seminars will result in more improvements in the working conditions and environment for Muslim staff.

"For example, I'd like to see prayer facilities at work being pretty more universal as they are at the Met where there's a prayer room at New Scotland Yard," he said.

It is not known exactly how many Muslims work for the police service, as no religious monitoring is carried out.

However, after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report in 1999, all forces across England and Wales were set a 10-year target for ethnic minority recruitment.

Each force was set individual recruitment targets, which reflect the cultural diversity of the community it serves.

But earlier this year the Metropolitan force admitted it was highly improbable it would meet its target of 25% ethnic minority staff by 2009.

U.S. most charitable nation; oil-rich Muslim countries give almost nothing

The most likely reason for this is that zakat, the almsgiving that is obligatory for all Muslims, is generally not to be given to non-Muslims. Since there is nothing preventing this aid from being given to non-Muslims, they don't give it.

"A Gulf in Giving: Oil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program," by George Russell for FoxNews, May 9 (thanks to DMartyr):

[...] WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses.

The overwhelming bulk of the burden in feeding the world’s starving poor remains with the United States and a small group of other predominately Western nations, a situation that the WFP has done little so far to change, even as it has asked for another $775 million in donations to ease the crisis.

Donor listings on WFP’s website show that this year, as in every year since 1999, the U.S. is far and away the biggest aid provider to WFP. Since 2001, U.S. donations to the food agency have averaged more than $1.16 billion annually — or more than five times as much as the next biggest donor, the European Commission.

Click here to see WFP's donor lists from 2001 to 2007.

This year, the U.S. had contributed $362.7 million to WFP just through May 4, according to the website. That figure does not include another $250 million above the planned yearly contribution that was promised by President George W. Bush in the wake of WFP’s April warning that a “silent tsunami” of rising food costs would add dramatically to the world population living in hunger. Nor does it include another $770 million in food aid that President Bush has asked Congress to provide as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, with oil revenues last year of $164 billion, does not even appear on the website donor list for 2008.

Click here to see the 2008 donor list.

And while Canada, Australia, Western Europe and Japan have hastened to pony up an additional $260 million in aid since WFP’s latest appeal, the world organization told FOX News, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the international oil cartel, tossed in a grand total of $1.5 million in addition to the $50,000 it had previously donated.

The OPEC total amounts to roughly one minute and 10 seconds worth of the organization’s estimated $674 billion in annual oil revenues in 2007 — revenues that will be vastly exceeded in 2008 with the continuing spiral in world oil prices.

The only other major oil exporter who made the WFP list of 2008 donors was the United Arab Emirates, which kicked in $50,000. UAE oil revenues in 2007 were $63 billion.

By contrast, the poverty-stricken African republic of Burkina Faso is listed as donating more than $600,000, and Bangladesh, perennial home of many of the world’s hungriest people, is listed as donating nearly $5.8 million.

Canada: Islamic group calls newspaper cartoon a hate crime

"Under the Criminal Code of Canada, a hate crime is committed to intimidate, harm or terrify an entire group of people to which the victim belongs. The victims are targeted for who they are, not because of anything they have done."

Then, the "hate crime" allegations certainly fall short for a cartoon that was making fun of the behavior of two individuals. Also note the absence of the word "offend" from that definition. "Newspaper cartoon a hate crime, Islamic group claims," from CBC News, May 8:

Police in Halifax are investigating a complaint about a political cartoon that some members of a local Islamic group claim is a hate crime.

The cartoon, published April 18 in the Chronicle Herald newspaper, depicts a woman in a burka holding a sign that reads, "I want millions," and she says, "I can put it towards my husband's next training camp."

The cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon is a reference to Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, a woman from Nova Scotia whose husband was arrested in 2006 in an anti-terrorism raid. Qayyum Abdul Jamal was released from jail after charges against him were stayed on April 15.

Zia Khan, director of the Centre for Islamic Development in Halifax, said the cartoon goes beyond what can be considered free speech.

"You would not put a native American Indian with feathers and say I need money in order to cull white people's heads. You wouldn't do that. This would be libellous," he said.

A false analogy. The cartoon is ridiculing two people for their demands for compensation following a terrorism investigation. More on that below.

Khan's group called police on April 21. He said the group also filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, a hate crime is committed to intimidate, harm or terrify an entire group of people to which the victim belongs. The victims are targeted for who they are, not because of anything they have done.

Dan Leger, the Herald's director of news content, said the cartoon does not take aim at all Muslims.

"The whole purpose of that cartoon was to comment on the outrageous demands of this individual for compensation long before any hearing into her case had ever been held," he said.

In an interview with the Herald before the cartoon ran, Jamal said she wanted to sue the federal government for what her family has gone through and told the reporter, "I want millions," Leger noted.

"[MacKinnon] depicted her exactly the way she looks and used her own words, and that's the genius of cartooning that you're able to do that," he said.

Leger said he first heard of the Islamic group's concerns when the newspaper was contacted by police.