Muslim Apostasy: When Silence Isn't Golden

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross at FrontPage says what must be said about dhimmi Western silence regarding Islamic apostasy law:

Last month, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that Prince Charles was leading efforts to combat the Islamic law of apostasy, under which leaving the Muslim religion is at the very least illegal and is often punishable by death. Charles had held a private summit of Christian and Muslim leaders at Clarence House to discuss the issue. There was, however, one hitch: The Muslim delegation at the summit cautioned the prince and other non-Muslims not to speak publicly about apostasy laws, and some of the Christian leaders in attendance were reportedly “sympathetic” to this concern.

Although the proffered reason that non-Muslims should not speak publicly about apostasy laws was that Muslim moderates could better influence the debate without outside intervention, this argument does not stand up to scrutiny. After all, virtually every observer agrees that the West cannot prevail in the war on terror unless Muslim moderates can counter their co-religionists’ more militant outlook, yet Westerners do publicly criticize Islamic terrorism, loudly and repeatedly. Western silence on the apostasy issue will not help Islamic moderates; rather, silence is more likely to make both Muslims and also converts out of Islam believe that the issue is unimportant to the outside world.

Many Westerners, however, appear hesitant to speak out on the issue of religious freedom for converts out of Islam. There are two apparent reasons for this hesitation. First, in our multiculturalist society, many feel awkward about speaking up on behalf of those who leave Islam out of concern that attacks on apostasy laws could be seen as criticism of Islam itself. Moreover, apostasy laws affect small numbers in comparison to the large-scale threat of terrorism. Thus, many people may believe that it is not worth making waves over the issue.

This base view should be rejected. In pursuing interfaith dialogue, the treatment of apostates from Islam is one of the crucial issues that Prince Charles and other Westerners should address because the ability to change one’s faith is a fundamental right. Freedom of belief lies at the very heart of an individual’s identity because one’s theological outlook is central to one’s moral and philosophical understanding of the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights thus proclaims that everybody should have the “freedom to change his religion or belief.”

Read it all.

Jersey Jihadists

Joel Mowbray on media dhimmitude in reference to the New Jersey murders at FrontPage:

When a family of Egyptian immigrants was murdered in Jersey City recently, the media’s response was to wring its hands about anti-Muslim bias. But the truth is more complicated, and reveals the media’s own bias--against America.

Anti-Muslim bias had nothing to do the killing of the Armanious family; they were Coptic Christians. It wasn’t the religion of the victims that concerned the press; it was the religion of the suspected murderers.

Over the weekend, the Associated Press wrote of the “dirty looks and shouted slurs” directed at Muslims in Jersey City following the slaughter of an Egyptian Christian man, his wife, and two young daughters, which many reports attribute to local radical Islamists upset about something the man wrote in an Internet chat room.

The AP followed in predictable fashion: “The strife is particularly distressing in light of efforts the area’s Muslim community made to reach out to other faiths and strengthen ties after the 9/11 attacks.”

What the AP conveniently ignored, however, was known and suspected radical activity in northern New Jersey's Muslim community.

The former imam at the El Tawheed Islamic Center of Jersey City, Alaa Al-Sadawi, was convicted in July 2003 of attempting to smuggle more than $650,000 in cash to the terrorist Global Relief Fund in Egypt in April 2002.

One of Al-Sadawi’s former mosque-goers was convicted last March of murdering in the name of Islam. Alim Hassan, then 31, killed his pregnant wife, her mother, and her sister on July 30, 2002. He reportedly stabbed the women more than 20 times each because they refused to convert to Islam. According to reports, Hassan prayed regularly at El-Tawheed.

Al-Sadawi and Hassan were hardly the first Muslims in the area, though, to appear on authorities’ radar.

Read it all.

Jihadists Act to Suppress Dutch Film and Art Show

Even the New York Times (Walter Duranty, Executive Editor) can't help but take notice. From "Militant Muslims Act to Suppress Dutch Film and Art Show" (thanks to Anthony for the link):

PARIS, Jan. 30 - Can angry young Muslims dictate what is and is not acceptable in the traditionally open-minded world of Dutch arts? In the last few weeks, it appears, the answer has been yes.

The Netherlands' main film festival, now going on in Rotterdam, canceled a showing of a short documentary denouncing violence against Muslim women that was made by Theo van Gogh, who was killed 10 weeks ago. An Islamic militant is accused of the crime.

The film's producer said he had pulled the film on the advice of the police after receiving threats.

At about the same time, a Moroccan-Dutch painter went into hiding after a show of his work opened on Jan. 15 at a modern art museum in Amsterdam. The museum director said the painter, Rachid Ben Ali, had received death threats linked to his satirical work critical of violence by Islamic militants.

The two incidents have reinforced fears among many Dutch that fast-growing non-Western immigration is having a negative impact on social attitudes in the Netherlands. Newspaper columnists and members of Parliament have warned in recent days that if people capitulated to intimidation, they would only encourage Islamic militants.

Some have pointed to the recent events as signs that militants are trying to impose their agenda and are undermining the constitutional right to free speech in the Netherlands. A few people have quietly asked if self-censorship might be acceptable to keep the social peace.

Norway: Terror suspect returns for the 8th time

A series of links from Ali Dashti tells an appalling story from Norway. First, a story about an asylum seeker who planned to carry out a suicide mission:

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article946717.ece

In 2003 an asylum seeker was prepared to carry out a suicide mission on a domestic Norwegian flight. Police revealed the man's intentions. When they intervened, the refugee's bags were packed and plans were found, along with a farewell note to his family. The Norwegian Police Security Service believe the man was capable of taking down a commuter plane in the northern Norway network. In the man's suicide note to his family police said that the act was planned as part of "the struggle against the USA and Norway". Upon his arrest the man was considered psychotic and put under constant medical attention, rather than going through criminal process.

And from Ali Dashti, some comments and brief summaries of related articles:

According to reports on national Norwegian TV (TV2) the man has applied for asylum in Norway no less than seven times. The asylum reception center where he was arrested the last time had not received any information about his past involvement in planning a terror attack and allegedly being psychotic. The Norwegian Pilot's Association is quite upset over the whole story.

http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/innenriks/article335477.ece

Nettavisen reported that the man was back again in Norway, for the eighth time. After being deported to Germany a few days ago he made his way back to Norway by bus. In the interview with TV2 he insisted he would keep coming back to Norway seeking asylum, because "he likes Norway so much." Mr Sandberg, immigration spokesman for the Progress Party, and member of the parliament, demanded he be placed on a military flight and transported directly to Kabul, Afghanistan, rather than just being deported to Germany again.

Newspaper VG claims that this man alone has cost Norwegian tax payers about $100,000 (US dollars):

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=264348

My comments: What makes matters even worse is that only a few months ago, another Muslim asylum seeker almost managed to crash a plane by entering the cockpit and attacking the pilots with an axe:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/003394.php

Euro Socialist politician beats up Jihadist axeman!

Most of the media, with a few exceptions, and the political establishment immediately blamed the incident on "insanity." It has recently been revealed that the psychiatrists who have evaluated the man thought he was perfectly sane:

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nrk_nordland/4450948.html

My comment: The police also claim the attack was planned. The man was a very devout, religious Muslim who wanted to become an imam. Still, it is not acknowledged here that it most likely was a Jihadist terror attack and attempted suicide mission, despite the fact that Norway has been mentioned twice by Al-Qaida number two as a potential target:

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article882192.ece

An audio tape said to be from senior al-Qaida official Ayman al-Zawahri called for organized resistance against invading "crusaders" in the Muslim world. The tape, aired by Al Jazeera satellite television on Friday, mentioned Norway as a US ally.

Assyrians Prevented By Kurds From Voting in North Iraq

Christians denied voting rights in Iraq. After all, what rights do dhimmis have to determine the fate of a Muslim state? From the Assyrian International News Agency, with thanks to the Center for Religious Freedom:

(AINA) -- In a brazen and nearly unbelievable move, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headed by warlord Masoud Barzani has prevented voting by Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) Christians of the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq. According to a series of reports from inside Iraq, the KDP effectively blocked the delivery of ballot boxes to six major Assyrian towns and villages in the Plains around Mosul including Baghdeda, Bartilla, Karemlesh, Shekhan, Ain Sifne and Bahzan.

Thousands of would be voters were left stranded outside polling places awaiting an opportunity to cast their ballots. Inquiries to voting authorities brought frequent promises that the ballot boxes were en route only to result in a series of disappointments throughout the day. Infuriated Assyrians filled the streets of Baghdeda- the largest Assyrian town in the Nineveh Plain-and demonstrated against the KDP's overt disenfranchisement of Assyrians.

According to Iraq sources, the ballot boxes had been stored in Arbil, the stronghold of the KDP. The resulting unavailability of ballot boxes affected up to 100,000 Assyrian voters and tens of thousands of Yezidis, Shabak, and Turkman voters. The outright denial of voting rights to Assyrians and other non-Kurdish minorities culminates several months of intimidation, beatings, beheadings, burnings, and mutilations of Assyrian Christians in the Nineveh Plain. Just two weeks before the elections, Archbishop Basil George Casmusa of the Syriac Catholic church was also kidnapped. Although he was released one day later, his abduction and the series of escalating attacks were earlier reported by numerous sources (AINA, 09-13-2004, 08-07-2004, 06-20-2004) as an attempt to drive out Assyrians from their homes and to intimidate potential remaining voters into staying home on election day.

However, to the KDP's dismay, thousands of Iraqi Assyrians defied the KDP's terror tactics and ventured out to vote only to discover that ballot boxes never arrived. Assyrians in other areas of Iraq such as Mosul, Baghdad, and Karkuk were not expected to turn out in large numbers due to threats and a deteriorating security situation. The lack of voting in the Nineveh Plain has left Assyrians worldwide reeling. As one observer summarized "Not only was the in country vote prevented to a large extent by the KDP and the overall security situation, but the out of country voting was abysmal due to discriminatory placement of polling places by the IOM (International Organization for Migration) in areas favoring Kurds and others at the expense of Assyrians (AINA, 01-18-2005). In the US, less than 10% of eligible voters were registered by the IOM, a complete failure on their part."

Hollandistan Follies : Dutch government financed courses will teach Moroccans how to pick up women

Beila Rabinowitz, the director of Militant Islam Monitor, has made a translation of this Dutch piece from Algemeen Dagblad. (Thanks to Anthony for the link.)

Moroccan Youth will shortly be able to follow a course in how to pick up women. The city district center is offering a 'pick up' course, according to the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

The holder of the youth portfolio of the district Beatrijs Tolk, thinks that the atmosphere in the city center will improve if Moroccan youths learn how to pick up women. "The boys just don't know what to do."

This leads to problems , especially on the "shopping evenings," explained Tolk.

Many youth from the African side of the Mediterranean Sea are very awkward when it comes to picking up girls. It is more harassment and molesting then trying to pick them up. That can lead to a very nasty atmosphere."

Comments Rabinowitz:

Theo van Gogh wrote an about the Moroccan's view of Dutch women in an article entitled "How Come?" and said that he would not even consider forbidding his son to play with the Moroccan children on his street despite a series of vicious incidents involving Muslims and rhetorically asked :

"...Should I remind him about how his mother was continually cursed at by Moroccan girls and called a 'Dutch whore' ?

Should I remind him of the dyed in the wool, no prejudices against anyone, Green Left neighbor, who very soon after the events in New York, had a friend over to visit who told her, "I came to you by bicycle".On the corner there were several Moroccan youths of about fourteen or fifteen. One biked next to me and said ; "What do you think we can do with you, whore?..."

Egyptian court to investigate academic who said Christians are oppressed there

Taking a page from Turkey's memory-hole treatment of the Armenian genocide, Egypt is about to prosecute Saad Eddin Ibrahim for daring to note that Christians have a tough time there. From Deutsche Presse Agentur, with thanks to Twostellas:

CAIRO — A Cairo court is to investigate claims that a renowned professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo used his academic status to attack the Egyptian regime and damage Egypt’s international reputation, the daily Al Akhbar reported yesterday.

Dr Saaddin Ibrahim, who is director of Ibn Khaldon Centre for Development Studies, is accused of using his role at the centre to insult Egypt and brand the grand Imam of Al Azhar a terrorist. Lawyer Samir Shehata, who filed the report against Ibrahim, claims that Ibrahim used his centre to issue statements claiming that Christians in Egypt are oppressed.

Some links for Ibrahim's defense team:

Egypt: Muslims throw stones at church building site; riot ensues

Egyptian Authorities Refuse to Charge Christian Prisoner

Scathing Egyptian Movie About Copts Draws Street Protests

Egyptian police drive vehicle into canal, killing 3 Copts, including priest

There are more in the archives here.

Cairo to Host Conference on Humanity of Islam

As if "Islamophobia" is created ex nihilo, or from the febrile imaginations of hatemongers. Why aren't there any international conferences to discuss rising levels of Buddhismophobia and distorted images of Buddhism? Why is it only Islam that seems to have this problem? Of course, some groups really are the victims of irrational prejudices, but in this case that is an unproven assumption -- and the one thing we can be virtually certain will not happen at this Cairo conference is an honest self-examination. No one will confront the fact that Islam has doctrines mandating warfare against unbelievers, and that Muslims worldwide are acting upon those doctrines today. If those Muslims are mentioned at all at this conference, it will be to claim, with no explanation or justification whatsoever, that they are twisting Islam.

From IslamOnline, with thanks to Twostellas:

CAIRO, January 28 (IslamOnline.net) – In an effort to confront rising Islamophobia worldwide, Cairo is to host a conference on the humanity of Islam and how to clear distorted images of the religion.

The conference, slated for April 17, is to be attended by a cohort of Islamic affairs and waqfs (religious endowment) ministers, muftis and representatives of Muslim and international organizations.

Muslim and western scholars from 80 countries would show up for the event, under the title, “Humanity of Islamic Civilization” and organized by the Higher Council on Islamic Affairs in Egypt.

The main purpose of the gathering is to highlight the Islamic values and civilization in order to stand up to the ferocious international campaign against Muslims, said Egyptian Waqfs Minister Mahmoud Hamdy Zaqzouq Thursday, January 27.

The title reflects two main calls, the first for Muslims to abide by the true values of their religion and the second for the world to reverse attitudes towards Islam, he said.

Four Pivots

The conference is to touch on four pivots during the four day of discussions, according to Zaqzouq.

The first is “Islam's stance on the other”, as well as principles of equality and multiplicity in the religion.

The second is Islam’s relation to other civilizations. Claims on clash of civilizations, along with the influence of Islam on western civilizations, will be tackled by the participants.

The humanity of Islam, abhorrence of hatred and racism, respect for prophets, in addition to the world’s need to highlight Islamic values would make up the third pivot.

The fourth probes Islam’s views on woman, discusses the honoring of women by Islam, legal personality of women, marriage contracts and political role, in addition to inheritance, testimony and polygamy issues.

Muslim call irks Danish leader

Once again, the misapprehension that this is a racial issue. And once again, no sign of awareness among Danish officials that Islam is any different from Christianity in its relation to the political sphere. Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen has a lot to learn, and chances are that in the coming years, he'll learn it. From Financial Times, with thanks to Anthony:

A vitriolic row over race relations erupted into the heart of Denmark's general election campaign yesterday when Islamic leaders urged the country's 170,000 Muslims to vote against the ruling centre-right coalition.... However, the race row erupted after Kasem Said Ahmad, a prominent Muslim community spokesman, said he advised all Muslims to oppose the government in next month's vote. Mr Ahmad said he was organising a gathering of 25 imams (Muslim clerics), who plan to issue an anti-government message at next week's Friday prayers.

Mr Fogh Rasmussen responded angrily and immediately to the proposed intervention of Denmark's imams: "They should keep their fingers out of politics," Mr Fogh Rasmussen said. "In Denmark we keep politics and religion separate. Imagine if Danish priests were to use church pulpits to urge people to vote for particular parties," he said.

Turkey Wins Removal Of Armenian Genocide From German Schools

Signs are already emerging that Turkey's entrance into the EU will not change Turkey as much as it will change Europe. And look: it was half a sentence. Someone in Turkey is paying very, very close attention to these matters. From Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA), with thanks to Kemaste:

(dpa) - Pressure from Turkey has resulted in the removal of a reference to the Armenian genocide from a German school curriculum, reports said Wednesday.

The eastern German state of Brandenburg has eliminated half a sentence on the Armenians included in ninth and tenth grade history classes after a Turkish diplomat complained to state Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, the newspaper Die Welt reported.

In a chapter entitled "War, Technology and Civilian Populations" the school book text said "for example, the genocide of the Armenians population of Anatolia." That passage has now been removed from school textbooks, the newspaper said.

Platzeck met regularly with Turkish diplomats and was "steeled" against their influence, the newspaper quoted him as saying. The prime minister added that genocide was too important an issue to be dealt with in just half a sentence. "Brandenburg's curriculum was the only one in Germany which up until now included a reference to the murder of the Armenians," said Die Welt.

Most historians say that between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 and 1916 under the Ottoman Turks during World War I. The Turkish government, which denies that a genocide took place, speaks of 200,000 dead.

A Turkish embassy spokesman in Berlin declined to comment directly on the report, but noted the initiative had come from the Turkish consulate responsible for Berlin and Brandenburg - not from the embassy itself.

Here, from September 2000, is "'Genocide? What genocide?'," David Kupelian's account of how the Armenian genocide affected his family. (Thanks again to Kemaste.) It begins:

When my father was three years old, he was sentenced to a brutal death, along with his mother and infant sister, by the Turkish government. Along with hundreds of thousands of other Armenians, they were earmarked to be herded into the Syrian desert where they would die of starvation, disease, or worse -- torture and death at the hands of brutal soldiers or hordes of roving bandits.

Read it all. When I hear Islamic apologists speak of the "illustrious Ottoman Empire," it is hard for me to take them seriously, knowing so many stories like Kupelian's of exile and murder.

College dean stirs Islam controversy

"Duke is under fire for comments he made about Islam not being a peaceful religion." Times are exceedingly tough when you can come "under fire" for telling the truth. From WND, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The dean of a Bible college has stirred up a controversy in Tennessee after challenging a neighboring school's class on Islam and declaring that the religion is not peaceful.

Kerry Duke is dean of Tennessee Bible College in Cookeville, Tenn. After hearing about a plan for Tennessee State University to host members of the Islamic Center of Nashville for a free course on Islam, Duke sent a letter to TSU President James Hefner questioning the use of a government-funded university for a course on religion, reported the Nashville Tennessean.

''Are you not using government money to promote religion – a single religion?'' Duke wrote in his Jan. 14 letter. ''Would you allow me to lecture at TSU on Christianity?''

Soon after the letter was received, TSU canceled the class on Islam without much of an explanation....

Besides the letter, Duke is under fire for comments he made about Islam not being a peaceful religion.

''I've been to the mosque several times and I'm well aware of the teachings of the Quran,'' Duke said. ''I disagree with their claims that their religion does not promote violence, and I can show there are statements in the Quran that encourage violence to non-Muslims.''

Gay Welch is chaplain at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where the course on Islam will now be held. Welch disputed Duke's charge about the religion.

''A lot of violence has been committed in the name of all religions, and there's no reason to lay it all at the feet of Islam,'' she told the Tennessean. ''If you look deeply into the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad, you find that both promoted benevolence, peace and unity.''

I challenge Gay Welch to show from the Qur'an and Hadith that Muhammad promoted benevolence, peace, and unity for anyone but Muslims, and to find anywhere in his teachings anything comparable to Jesus' "love your enemies."

Muslims threaten Christian man in Pakistan after his acquittal in blasphemy case

Death is the traditional penalty for blasphemy, as well as the current penalty in Pakistani law. Such laws are frequently used against Christians and other religious minorities there -- which is why State ought to make their repeal the price of friendship with the United States. From AP, "Militants threaten Christian man in Pakistan after his acquittal in blasphemy case," with thanks to Susan:

Anwar Masih, 28, received the threats from Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, in the eastern city of Lahore, said Joseph Francis, coordinator with the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, a Christian rights group.

Last month a court exonerated Masih of the charge that he had insulted Islam and ordered the man to be freed, Francis said.

Masih had been arrested in July after a Christian convert to Islam allegedly reported to police that Masih insulted his Islamic beard.

On Thursday, Francis said Masih was in hiding and his life was in danger.

"The people from the militant organization frequently visit his family and demand that he (Masih) be handed over to them," he said.

Under Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, insulting Islam or its prophet Muhammad is an offense and the offender can be punished by death.

Local and international human right groups and Christian right activists in Pakistan have demanded that the country's blasphemy laws be scrapped. They say the laws have been abused to prosecute Christians, who are a minority in Pakistan.

Hundreds of people are believed to be in jail in Pakistan under the blasphemy laws, most of them Christians.

"Why don't you convert to Islam?"

Dawa, Taliban style: this is the story of Zablon Simintov, the last Jew in Afghanistan, from "Afghan Jew Becomes Country's One and Only" in the Washington Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Moreover, the former carpet trader said he had spent years watching Afghanistan's once vibrant Jewish populace shrink to virtually nothing. The community dated back 800 years and still numbered 5,000 in 1948, but most remaining families fled the violence and repression that followed the Soviet invasion of 1979....

The Taliban government, which was in power when Simintov returned to Kabul in 1998 after working for several years in Turkmenistan, did not look kindly on his faith. On many occasions, he said, Taliban officials carted him and Levin off to jail, where they were beaten with electric cables and rifle butts for days.

"The Taliban would shout at me, 'Why don't you convert to Islam?' And I would say, 'Not if you paid me one million dollars,' " Simintov recalled.

The Taliban was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001. The fact that both remaining Jews survived the Taliban's five-year reign is something of a miracle. Taliban authorities, determined to stamp out practices they considered un-Islamic, outlawed music, whipped men who failed to grow long beards and demolished two enormous Buddha statues that were carved into a cliff 13 centuries ago.

Kabul's synagogue, an unassuming, white-washed building that was erected around a small courtyard on Flower Street 40 years ago, may have escaped a similar fate because it was so modest, and also because it was deserted and in disrepair when the militia came to power after a four-year civil war that virtually destroyed Kabul.

Still, in 1998, after Levin and Simintov were released from their first detention, they found the Taliban had ransacked the synagogue for almost all items of value it still contained, including a silver pointer and four tiny silver bells. A few months later, a Taliban commander confiscated its last, most precious treasure: a handwritten Torah scroll that Simintov estimates was about 400 years old....

"I didn't want anyone to finish the Jewish name in Afghanistan," he said. So he stayed on, trading carpets and handicrafts to support the wife and two daughters he had sent to Israel. But in 2001, he said, Taliban customs officials robbed his warehouses of all his supplies.

"I have nothing. I live like a dog," he complained. Now, having resisted leaving Afghanistan for so long, Simintov said he may consider joining his family in Israel. "This is the last house of the Jews," he said.

Somali militia building mosque over cemetery

The other shoe drops in the story of the cemetery desecrated by Somali Muslims. From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:

Mogadishu - Somali militiamen on Wednesday began building a mosque over an Italian colonial-era cemetery where they prompted outrage by unearthing hundreds of skeletons last week.

The militia, allied with Mogadishu's Islamic courts, brought in construction workers and building materials, and encouraged area residents to come to the site to pray, residents said.

"We are not ready to pray at the location of dead bodies that human beings are harming," resident Abdinasir Hussien said.

The militia dug up hundreds of corpses last week and threw them into a dump near a Mogadishu airport, drawing a strongly worded protest from the Italian government and from residents of the Somali capital....

Some analysts have speculated that the exhumations were a mesage of opposition to the new government, which has warm relations with Rome and is disliked by the Muslim militants who control the courts.

Most of those disinterred were former Italian colonial officials and soldiers.

Pakistan: tribal council wants raped doctor killed

In Islam, the emphasis is on purity. The emphasis here is not so much on the fact that this poor woman is a victim, but that she sullies the purity of the community. It is a positive development at least that the PMA official has called for the jirga to be arrested. From the Daily Times of Pakistan, "‘Jirga wants doctor killed,’" with thanks to Twostellas:

PESHAWAR: A tribal jirga in Sindh has decided to kill a woman doctor who was allegedly gang raped in Sui to restore the “lost honour” of her tribe, a Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) official told a press conference on Wednesday. PMA President Dr Umer Ayub said the husband and in-laws of the doctor had told him of the jirga or local council’s decision in Gumbat Khairpur. He demanded the members of the jirga be arrested, and the alleged rapists of the doctor be hanged at Minar-e-Pakistan to deter such crimes. He criticised the federal interior minister for not visiting the woman doctor and her family. He also slammed the NWFP Assembly for not condemning the alleged rape.

Female Muslim Entertainer Faces Threats

From Fox, with thanks to Richard:

LONDON — It's not as if her look or her act are that shocking, but her moves have brought the wrath of Islamic fundamentalists upon her.

Deepika Thathaal, or Deeyah, was born in Norway of mixed Asian roots. Her father got her into music and has supported her throughout her career. All was going well until she dared to show a little skin — and that’s when the threats started.

"I would get very abusive phone calls," she said. "I would get abused as I walked down the street. I would have people spit at me."

At a concert in Norway, she was attacked on stage by angry Muslim men who thought she was degrading their culture.

Dutch dhimmitude: Screening of murdered director's movie pulled at Rotterdam film festival

From AFP, with thanks to Kemaste:

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The producers of "Submission", a film about Islam by the murdered Dutch movie director Theo van Gogh, have cancelled plans to show the film at this week's Rotterdam film festival due to security fears, organisers said.

"The festival will respect the decision by Column Producties," the organisers of the 34th International Film Festival Rotterdam, which opens on Wednesday, said in a statement.

The film, which deals with Islam and the abuse of women, was due to have been shown amid tight security on January 30 on the sidelines of a major debate about freedom of expression in filmmaking.

Louisiana: Muslims require special treatment

From the Times-Picayune, "Workshop focuses on Muslim culture: Session designed to aid understanding," with thanks to Twostellas:

If a Muslim or Arab family is slow to respond to a note sent home by a school or is running late for a teacher conference, school officials should not feel snubbed but should understand the cultural influences behind that behavior.

That's been the message delivered this week to about 250 Jefferson Parish public school teachers and administrators as part of a four-day workshop designed to help them work better with Muslim and Arab families in the school system.

The seminar, which comes after an incident last year in which a teacher was accused of using religious slurs against a Muslim high school student, focused not only on religious tenets but also on the geographical and cultural aspects of Muslim life.

"I want them to be able to better understand their Arab and Muslim students and their families," said Audrey Sabbas, a nationally known speaker on Middle Eastern culture who ran the workshop Wednesday for about 50 teachers and principals.

Sabbas, who is married to an Arab man and converted to Islam decades ago, discussed a list of values that guide Muslim life, including family-based support systems, a need to build trust with those with whom they work and a strong respect for authorities, especially educators and doctors.

Those values can affect practical, everyday matters, Sabbas said.

Because Muslims like to build trust, verbal communication tends to get better results than written documents, she said. Correspondence sent home by schools is the "least effective" way to communicate as opposed to a phone call or visit, Sabbas said.

"They want to develop a sense of you before getting down to business," she said.

In addition, Muslims have a different "time orientation," she said. Immediate matters, such as a family member stopping at their house unexpectedly, take precedence over previously scheduled events, Sabbas said.

That can lead to a parent missing, canceling or running late for appointments, including teacher conferences, she said, prompting some grumbling from the audience.

One educator asked how she could better stress the need for Muslim families to keep their appointments. "You just have to keep delivering that verbal message," Sabbas said.

At the suggestion of visiting families' homes, a principal quietly complained about giving that kind of attention to one student in a school that serves hundreds.

Indeed.

Hajj pilgrim returns from Mecca, slits daughter's throat

One would think, if all the "This is Not Islam" talk is to be believed, that somewhere along this man's pilgrimage to Mecca or in his work at the Islamic Affairs Ministry he might have picked up the idea that he shouldn't do this sort of thing. But Islam's fundamental ideal is purity: anything that sullies that purity must be destroyed. From the BBC, "Kuwaiti 'slit daughter's throat'," with thanks to all who sent this in:

A Kuwaiti man has reportedly confessed to killing his 14-year-old daughter because he believed she was having sex.

Adnan Enezi - an employee in the Islamic Affairs ministry - had just returned from the pilgrimage to Mecca.

He allegedly bound and blindfolded his daughter, Haifa, knelt her down in front of her two brothers and sister and then cut her throat.

Forensic tests showed Haifa was still a virgin, police sources said. Mr Enezi is being questioned about the case.

Thousands of women are killed by relatives each year in the Middle East and Asia in so-called honour crimes - usually over suspected adultery, pre-marital sex or after having being raped, or marrying without family consent....

The daily said that after cutting Haifa's throat the first time, he swapped the knife for one with a sharper blade as she bled and screamed in front of her siblings.

Minor sentenced to death in Iran

Sharia alert. From IranFocus, with thanks to Kemaste:

Tehran, Jan. 26 – A seventeen-year-old boy was sentenced to execution by a Tehran court. The boy, only identified by his first name Sattar, was accused of murder.

Sattar allegedly stabbed to death a man by the name of Mahmoud a few months ago after a scuffle at a phone booth in Islamshahr (southern Tehran)....

Last week a young man who was accused of killing a member of Iran’s security forces when he was a minor was hanged in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.

Iman Farrokhi who was 17 at the time of the offence was on death row in the Tehran Centre for Reform and Education (Juvenile Prison).

Mohammad T., another teenager currently in one of Iran’s Centers for Reform and Education, is to also be hanged to death in the coming weeks for allegedly stabbing someone when he was 14.

His sentence was approved by Iran’s Supreme Court.

Under Iranian law, girls above the age of nine and boys above the age of fifteen are considered as adults and could be executed for capital offences.

Why is the age so low for girls? Probably because of the example of Muhammad's marriage to Aisha when she was nine and he was 52.

Egyptian Newspaper: UN Marks the "So-Called Holocaust"

Rewrite a nation's history and you can control its future. From Israel National News, with thanks to Kemaste:

(IsraelNN.com) An Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram Al-Messa'i, commented today on what it called Israel's "investment" in "the so-called holocaust" and the United Nations session commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The newspaper complained that, in hosting the memorial session, "the UN adopted the Israeli standpoint, paying no heed to the sufferings of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation."

Judge Bars Terror Evidence Against Sheik

Al-Moayad and Zayed walk watch. Some of the evidence dates from the time before Al-Qaeda was designated a terrorist group, so it is inadmissable, you see. From the New York Times, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

In an important victory for a Yemeni sheik charged with financing terrorism, a federal judge yesterday prevented prosecutors from introducing what they have described as vital evidence during their initial presentation to the jury.

The judge in federal court in Brooklyn, Sterling Johnson Jr., ruled that the prosecutors cannot display three items they have said are their only corroboration for secretly recorded conversations in which they say the sheik and an aide plotted to take money for terrorist organizations....

The ruling was important because the items the judge banned were the prosecutors' only way of proving that the defendants' supposed plan to take money for Al Qaeda and Hamas was part of a long-running effort to provide financial support to terrorist organizations.

The sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31 are charged with conspiracy and providing financial support for Al Qaeda and Hamas.

The ruling, which created palpable anxiety among the prosecutors, said the prosecutors cannot show jurors an application of a mujahedeen fighter for entry into an Al Qaeda training camp. The prosecutors said the application, found in Afghanistan in 2001, listed Sheik Moayad as the fighter's sponsor.

The ruling also stopped prosecutors from introducing into evidence address books taken from two Muslim fighters in Bosnia in 1996. The prosecutors said the books included entries for Sheik Moayad.

Judge Johnson said that "we don't know what the source" of the Al Qaeda application was and that the address books were from a time too remote from the alleged fund-raising by the sheik in 2003. Judge Johnson said they dated back to before Al Qaeda was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States government.

The third item he banned during the prosecution's initial presentation was a videotape of a wedding in Yemen that the prosecutors said included images of Sheik Moayad cheering about the death of Jews in a Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.

Focusing on a central vulnerability for the prosecutors, Judge Johnson noted that the videotape was taken by the prosecution's main informer, Mohamed Alanssi. Mr. Alanssi drew attention to a history that included bad debts and legal troubles when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November.

After that act, the prosecutors suggested they would not call Mr. Alanssi as a witness. Yesterday, Judge Johnson said the prosecutors could not show the wedding videotape unless Mr. Alanssi testified.

"If the informant wants to come in and testify as to what he saw and observed, I'll allow it," Judge Johnson said from the bench.

Sheiks of hate turn freedom against us

The truth is beginning to get out. From David Penberthy in the Daily Telegraph, with thanks to JS:

HERE'S a challenge for swimwear designers. Britain's advertising watchdog last week banned a series of television commercials featuring bikini-clad women because they were offensive to Muslims.

Stand by for the burqini, a fetching one-piece ensemble made entirely of black hessian, measuring 2m in length and equipped with a small vent through which women can stick their snorkel.

Also in Britain, the Fox network has agreed to demands from the Muslim Council of Britain for talks over a BSkyB drama depicting middle class Muslims as members of a terrorist sleeper cell. Just where do television executives dream up such fantasy?

Unless they were aiming for an accurate account of that September 11 hiccup, where middle class Muslims who were members of a terrorist sleeper cell murdered 3000 innocent people....

In Britain, the cancer of political correctness seems all the more malignant, fuelled perhaps by the fabled determination of the Brits to be unfailingly polite.

As a result, the country looks through Australian eyes like a multicultural worst-case scenario, where befuddled Poms tie themselves up in knots to address all sorts of ludicrous grievances and in doing so undermine the values which have made this country a beacon for democracy and free expression throughout the civilised world.

The above cases are almost comical. The biggest story of this past week involves a particularly nasty scumbag by the name of Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Read it all. It's a good take on the infamous Bakri.

Religion must remain open to criticism

A wise column by Geoffrey Robertson in The Scotsman (thanks to Teri), although I doubt that his prediction that a Muslim cleric will fall victim to the statute will prove true in the current climate:

TODAY, my friend Salman Rushdie - whose life is still under threat from Islamic extremists - will lead a delegation of writers to ask the Home Office to abandon its plans for a new offence of "inciting religious hatred". The proposed offence has nothing to do with combating terrorism or crime: it is an entirely unnecessary restriction on a freedom to criticise religion that is more necessary now than ever....

"Religious hatred" is defined as widely as possible: it means "hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief". Incredibly, this would include Satanists and secularists as well as Rastafarians, Sikhs and children of God.

The offence is committed if religious "hatred" (ie intense dislike of its dogma) is likely to be "stirred up" (whatever that colloquial phrase may mean).

This clumsy drafting has produced a very serious offence - seven years’ imprisonment is also the maximum sentence for arms smuggling - which can be committed by harsh but truthful attacks on the most unprepossessing people, merely if they belong to a group "defined by reference to religious beliefs" and are likely to take offence, for reasons that may be paranoid or vicious....

False hopes seem to have been raised in Muslim communities that critics and apostates will be jailed for blaspheming against Islam.

But the real victims of the new law will be those very people whose punitive expectations have been raised so high. Just as the black power advocate Michael X was the first to be jailed for "incitement to racial hatred", back in 1968, so I expect that it will be a Muslim cleric who has railed against Christianity who will be the first to suffer prosecution for inciting religious hatred. The law will serve to create martyrs - laws which criminalise free speech always do - and jury acquittals of offensive speech will serve as public relations triumphs for bigots and fanatics.

Italian judge drops terror charges

Guerrillas, not terrorists. And of course the judge has probably no idea what a "mujahid" is. From Reuters, with thanks to Teri:

MILAN, Italy (Reuters) -- An Italian judge has dropped terrorism charges against five North Africans accused of sending suicide bombers to Iraq, saying they were guerrillas, not terrorists -- a ruling that drew a fierce government reaction.

The five men were charged with sending militants to Iraq and planning attacks in Europe, but the judge said Monday there was no evidence of plans to bomb Europe and that sending fighters or funds to Iraq did not amount to terrorism.

In documents seen by Reuters, Judge Clementina Forleo said there was no evidence the four Tunisians and one Moroccan were involved in anything beyond what might be considered "guerrilla" activities and which could be defined as "terrorism."

Saudi Court sentences 12-year-old boy to 80 lashes

Sharia alert. From "Saudi Court in Makkah Lashes 12-Year-Old Boy 80 Times," from the Saudi Institute, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

(Washington DC- January 24, 2005) … A 12 year old boy was lashed 80 times in the street by a Saudi court hours after he was arrested at the annual Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj), Saudi newspaper Okaz reported Monday.

The paper said the boy who is from Bangladesh was arrested in Mena, three miles outside the holy city of Makkah, where two million Muslims gathered for the annual pilgrimage after he was allegedly caught pick pocketing pilgrims.

The paper said an AdHoc court that operates during the annual pilgrimage sentenced the boy only hours after his arrest, and applied the punishment on the street outside the court. No lawyers or family members were present during the process, but the boy was later handed to his family.

UK: Police spent £900,000 to give Hamza street pulpit

That's almost two million dollars. I have no problem with their spending money to have people there to monitor what he was saying, but that doesn't seem to be what it was spent for. From the Times Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The Metropolitan Police has disclosed, after a successful Freedom of Information Act request by The Times, that the cost of supervising weekly gatherings outside Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, was £874,387. The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation....

Patrick Mercer, the Conservative frontbench spokesman on homeland security, said the taxpayer was facing a huge bill for allowing an extremist message to be preached on the streets of the capital.

“The effect of the police action was to make it easier for poison and subversion to be preached openly on our streets,” Mr Mercer said.

The open-air meetings began in January 2003 after the mosque, where Hamza had been the imam, was closed. The Egyptian-born cleric gave his sermons in St Thomas’s Road, close to Highbury stadium.

Initially large numbers of officers were involved in policing the events at which Hamza, 47, would deliver lectures in Arabic and English.

Tarpaulins were spread on the road, on which his congregation, often numbering 150 or more, would pray before listening to Hamza speak.

Between 12 and 18 uniformed officers were deployed to the site of the meetings for up to two hours each week. More police were required when counter-demonstrators threatened to disrupt an event.

Contest: Taqiyya Awareness Week at UCLA!

The Muslim Student Association at UCLA is holding Taqiyya Awareness Week -- I mean, that is, Islamic Awareness Week: "Muslims hope to educate with awareness week," from the Daily Bruin (thanks to Anthony).

Friends, I thought that rather than answer all the distortions and dissimulations in this article, which I have answered on this site and in my books a hundred times before, I'd throw open the floor to you. That's right: let's play Spot the Taqiyya! You answer the assertions made in this article.

Feel free to make use of the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch archives, and note that for some reason some searches will search both, but sometimes only one. So search in both places. And please, no "Muzzies" talk or other speech that is not only objectively offensive but also plays into the hands of those who would destroy us.

The prize: an autographed copy of my book Onward Muslim Soldiers, suitable for light reading, reference on Islam, and doorstop use. Winners, will be announced later. It is best if you don't just quote Qur'an verses to the contrary, unless the claim is explicitly one about Islamic scripture only, as is Malcolm Clark's claim about women's rights in Islam. Anyone can pile up mountains of passages from the Qur'an and Hadith, but in my books and articles I generally go farther: your rebuttal will be more effective if you show some evidence that the verses are understood by mainstream Muslims in the way you are using them.

Post your entries as comments on this thread. Show your awareness of the threat of Islamic jihad -- and have fun.

Islam for Dhimmis author interview

The Baltimore Sun has an interview with Malcolm Clark, author of Islam for Dummies: "Required reading for American officers: 'Islam for Dummies' author hopes to dispel, correct misconceptions." (Thanks to Anthony for the link.) The deathless classic Islam for Dummies, of course, has made it to General Vines' infamous reading list.

Predictably, Clark seems to have a few misconceptions of his own.

I think of the way women are regarded in Islam. That's an area I might have trouble with. To see women heavily veiled - this varies greatly from one Islamic context to another, from the head scarves that cover almost nothing to cloaks that cover the whole body - usually causes a negative reaction. Or seeing a woman walk behind her husband. This subject is a matter of debate within Islam. Muslim feminists say repression of women is cultural and has nothing to do with Islam. There's scriptural support for that view.

I wonder if Malcolm Clark has been discussing this with Julia Roach. But in any case, whatever scriptural support he might have in mind for the idea that the repression of women in cultural, there is also considerable scriptural support for the repression of women itself. How many of these do you think he quotes in Islam for Dummies?

1. 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);
2. It 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);
3. It 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);
4. It 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);
5. It 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).

Clark also says:

Many Americans equate Islam and terrorism. That's not historically true. Go back 20 years; the majority of terrorist acts against America happened in South America and came from a leftist ideology. Still, there's a feeling that Muslim groups in the U.S. haven't been forthcoming enough about condemning Islamic terrorism. In fact, all the major Islamic organizations in the U.S., such as the Islamic Society of North America, unequivocally condemned the [9/11] attacks.

Yes, ISNA did condemn the attacks. I wonder if Clark knows that the Senate Finance Committee in January 2004 included ISNA on a list of groups that "finance terrorism and perpetuate violence"? Does Clark know that ISNA has received funding from the Saudis -- that's right, the Wahhabi bogeymen that Islamic apologists and their allies try to convince us are responsible for all Islamic terror?

When asked by the interviewer if the Qur'an permits Muslims to lie to non-Muslims, Clark answers:

I don't recall the specific passage that gets cited to that effect. But no, it's not a general notion that it's OK to deceive others.

I'll refresh Clark's memory: the Qur'an verses referring to religious deception (taqiyya and kitman) are 3:28 and 16:106. I have made frequent reference to these on this site, and have been criticized by some for applying what they think is solely a Shi'ite concept to all of Islam. In the first place, there is abundant evidence that taqiyya is practiced today by Sunni Salafis; I discuss some of it in Onward Muslim Soldiers. Here also is an extended and extremely revealing argument by a Shi'ite that taqiyya attempts to "demonstrate and prove that the concept of "al-Taqiyya" is an integral part of Islam, and that it is NOT a Shi'ite concoction." It contains numerous important hadith references.

Finally, it turns out that Clark, like the Saudi interior minister and the tinfoil hat crowd, believes that the West created jihadist Islam. I guess that means that he doesn't realize that any jihads were fought before the existence of the United States:

Do you agree with President Bush that Islam is a peaceful religion that has been "hijacked" by extremists?

Generally, yes, but "hijacked by fanatics" suggests the fault lies completely with that group. Western and American actions have created a climate ... for that hijacking to occur.

UK: Muslim group targets poster nudity

I don't like it either, but the question is: will Muslims in the UK and other Western countries live peacefully in a pluralistic society, without acting unilaterally (or violently) against things of which they disapprove? There are peaceful and orderly ways for them to register their disapproval of such things, and in the UK they will probably find officials ready to bend over backwards to please them.

From the Times Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A website giving advice on how to vandalise billboards and listing potential targets has been set up by a group calling themselves Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD).

The campaign has gathered momentum since the Advertising Standards Authority banned an underwear advert from being sited near mosques.

Advertisements for perfume, hair dye, bras and television programmes are among those that have been attacked. Photographs of semi-dressed women are the most frequently targeted, with the offending body parts painted over or ripped off.

A poster advertising the Channel 4 programme Desperate Housewives is the most recent target; the images of two scantily-clad actresses have been torn from an East London billboard but three fully-dressed characters were left intact. Adverts bearing Dove’s “Real Women” adverts — six ordinary women pictured in their underwear — were painted over at several locations last year.

MAAD, based in Birmingham, gives an index of defaced adverts in the city, including Levi’s, Wonderbra, PaddyPower, a radio station and a strip club. It says on its website that it believes in “direct action” and “has paint and isn’t afraid to use it”, adding: “There is no longer any need to cringe as you walk past a sleazy poster, we’ll improve it.”

Advice on how to attack posters is also given: “The procedures outlined here are based on our six months’ experience of executing poster attacks professionally, safely and without injury or arrest.

“A paint roller, a blithe spirit and a balmy night are all you really need.

“After choosing your board, be sure to inspect it both during the day and at night. Take note of all activities in the area. Who is about at 2am? How visible will you be?

“Bring a camera — it’s a good cover for doing anything you’re not supposed to. Check your escape routes.

“For work on larger boards we recommend walkie-talkies . . . the ground crew should monitor oncoming traffic and maintain radio contact with the lookout on the board.”

UK: Muslims boycott Holocaust remembrance

From the Times Online, with thanks to Jeremy Langton, the deliberate confusion of a historical event with a highly tendentious political assertion:

BRITISH Muslims are to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict.

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Charles Clarke, the home secretary, saying the body will not attend the event unless it includes the “holocaust” of the Palestinian intifada.

He said similar events held in other European countries was an “inclusive day” that commemorated deaths in Palestine, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the former Nazi death camps.

“We wrote to the Home Office three or four weeks ago. We said the issue of the Holocaust is not really the concern. But we have now expressed our unwillingness to attend the ceremony because it excludes ongoing genocide and human rights abuses around the world and in the occupied territories of Palestine,” he said.

"The person they admired most in the world was Osama bin Laden"

I don't usually find much that is useful in the writings of Thomas L. Friedman, but here he seems to be getting an inkling of what is happening in Europe. From "Divided We Stand" in the New York Times, with thanks to Nicolei:

I spent Friday morning interviewing two 18-year-old French Muslim girls in the Paris immigrant district of St.-Ouen. (It is about a mile from the school where in March 2003 a French Muslim girl, who had refused the veil and rebuffed the advances of a Muslim boy, was thrown into a garbage can by three Muslim teenagers, who then tossed lighted cigarette butts into the can and closed the lid.)

Both girls I interviewed wore veils and one also wore a full Afghan-like head-to-toe covering; one was of Egyptian parents, the other of Tunisian parents, but both were born and raised in France. What did I learn from them? That they got all their news from Al Jazeera TV, because they did not believe French TV, that the person they admired most in the world was Osama bin Laden, because he was defending Islam, that suicide "martyrdom" was justified because there was no greater glory than dying in defense of Islam, that they saw themselves as Muslims first and French citizens last, and that all their friends felt pretty much the same.

We were not in Kabul. We were standing outside their French public high school - a short ride from the Eiffel Tower.

Anti-dhimmitude in Germany: hundreds of jihadists to be deported

It looks as if German patience is running out with liberal laws that have allowed jihadists to operate in the country, possibly even with welfare support from the German government. How long will it be before other countries — notably Britain — follow suit? "Germany to Deport Hundreds of Islamists - Magazine," from Reuters, with thanks to Louise:

BERLIN (Reuters) - German officials are drawing up lists of hundreds of Islamic militants to be deported from the country under a new law making expulsions easier, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday....

Since the revelations in 2001 that Arab students who had lived for years in Hamburg led the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Germans have questioned their liberal laws under which some suspected militants even draw welfare benefits.

Interior Minister Otto Schily has suggested that evidence of training at an al Qaeda camp should be clear grounds for expelling a foreign national. Distributing videos calling for "holy war" could also be punished the same way.

DC Watson: "Islamophobia": More smoke and mirrors?

Here is a new piece by DC Watson, on "Islamophobia":

Merriam-Webster: “pho-bia”: an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear.

In January 2005, Muslim groups reportedly met with U.S. State Department officials to discuss issues related to American foreign policy.

They presented State Department officials with a proposal for cooperative efforts to challenge both “Islamophobia” and anti-Americanism.

The proposal stated that "by challenging anti-Muslim bigotry, we can help reduce anti-American attitudes in the Islamic world."

Certainly the Muslim world takes issue with the United States over many aspects of our foreign policy, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian situation. But what will changing our policies on these issues accomplish, either internationally or domestically? Have we somehow missed another low budget bin Laden video, telling Americans to be kind to Muslims, and in return, he’ll command the Islamic world to love the United States? No. For the record, Muslim Americans' median household income of about $70,000 is comfortably above the national average. If "anti-Muslim bigotry" were as rampant as is claimed by these groups, how did American Muslims attain to this comfortable standard of living? Several Muslim physicians I work with will attest that "anti-Muslim bigotry" is actually at quite a low level in the United States.

Could the true reason for this State Department meeting be stemming from the recent Cornell University survey, which reported that 44% of Americans would curtail Muslim civil liberties?

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec04/Muslim.Poll.bpf.html

The following statements have been extracted from published columns. They were made by prominent so-called moderate Muslims living in the United States of America. Some of these same prominent so-called moderate Muslims attended this meeting with the U.S. State Department, or are involved with groups that were represented there.

Some of these same prominent so-called moderate Muslims are on record labeling millions of Americans as ignorant, biased, bigoted, hateful “Islamophobes,” incapable of understanding Islam.

This is an open invitation for the peaceful and decent people among the Muslims in America to consider this question: do you realize who is speaking on your behalf?

We’ve all heard a radical statement here, or a threatening statement there. But the comments below are tied together by an obvious common agenda -- an agenda that calls for the destruction of this nation as a philosophical, economic, and legal entity.

1992. Siraj Wahaj, New Jersey: “If only Muslims were more clever politically, they would take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a Caliphate” [Islamic leadership body]. “If we were united and strong, we would elect our own leader and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if the 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”

http://www.blessedcause.org/Antichrist%20ID/ACLU%20attacks%20Constitution.htm

1994. Nihad Awad, at a Barry University forum: “I am in support of the Hamas movement.”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6473

1998. Omar Ahmad, at a Flamingo Palace Banquet Hall event in California: “Muslim institutions, schools and economic power should be strengthened in America.” “Those who stay in America should be “open to society without melting (into it)”

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/888598/posts
Look for the reference to a newspaper article entitled “American Muslim Leader Urges Faithful to Spread Word,” by Lisa Gardiner, San Ramon Valley Herald, July 4, 1998. Five years after this story appeared, Ahmad denied saying this, but Gardiner sticks by the accuracy of her reporting.

November 2000. Abdurrahman Alamoudi, at a rally against Israel, Lafayette Park, across from the White House: “Hear that, Bill Clinton! We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody support Hezbollah here?”

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/commentprint110500e.html

1993. Ibrahim Hooper, Minneapolis Star Tribune: “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future....But I’m not going to do anything violent to promote that. I’m going to do it through education.”

Omar M. Ahmad: Suicide bombers “kill themselves for Islam” and so are not terrorists”.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c172.html

Nihad Awad also wrote in the Muslim World Monitor that the World Trade Center trial, which resulted in the 1994 conviction of four Islamic terrorists, was "a travesty of justice." That's despite the fact that some of the perpetrators confessed to involvement in the 1993 attack.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/news1/an010929-14.html

Anis Shorrosh, author of Islam Revealed, has published an "analysis of the Islamic invasion of America, the agenda of Islamists and visible methods to take over America by the year 2020." He asks: "Will Americans continue to sleep through this invasion as they did when we were attacked on 9/11?"

Method number 1: Terminate America's freedom of speech by replacing it with statewide and nationwide hate-crime bills.

Method number 4: Nominate Muslim sympathizers to political office to bring about favorable legislation toward Islam and support potential sympathizers by block voting.

Method number 5: Take control of as much of Hollywood, the press, TV, radio and the Internet as possible by buying the related corporations or a controlling stock.

Method number 7: Yell "Foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation, hate crime, Zionist, un-American, inaccurate interpretation of the Qur’an" anytime Islam is criticized or the Qur’an is analyzed in the public arena.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33898

Imam Siraj Wahaj calls for the replacing the American government with a caliphate, warning that America will crumble unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6473

August 2003: Ibrahim Hooper on President Bush’s appointment of Dr. Daniel Pipes to the United States Institute of Peace: “This back-door move by the president is a defeat for democracy and an affront to all those who seek peace. Pipe’s appointment calls into question all of President Bush’s previous statements claiming that the war on terrorism is not an attack on Islam and shows disdain for the democratic process.”

http://www.anti-cair-net.org/press_021_03

Other Muslims, however, expressed an opposite point of view regarding Pipes’ appointment:

Ms. Fatima Sayyed: “Many moderate American Muslims, frustrated by and angry at the extremist policies of militant Islamist organizations in the US and their efforts to portray themselves as the sole voice of Islam, have welcomed the nomination of Daniel Pipes.”

Tashbih Sayyed, President of Council for Democracy and Tolerance: “The United States of America has welcomed Muslims with open arms, irrespective of their sect and ethnicity, and it is the duty of all American Muslims to condemn these representatives of Islamist extremism.”

Dr. Younus Mansour, an Egyptian scholar and author: “Daniel Pipes is doing a service for the Muslims by warning America against the designs of CAIR, MPAC, and their ilk. These organizations want to divide American society. Any country that supports freedoms and democratic values is our friend and all those who work against the American interests are the enemies of American Muslims.”

April 2004: UC Berkeley Lecturer Hatem Bazian calls for an Intifada in the United States during a San Francisco Peace Rally: “We’re sitting here and watching the world pass by, people are being bombed, and it’s about time that we have an Intifada (uprising) in this country that change fundamentally the political dynamics in here”. “They’re gonna say some Palestinian being too radical, well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2004_05.php

And yet after all this, American Muslim advocacy group leaders still have the audacity to talk about "Islamophobia." In December 2004, Nihad Awad said: "Elected representatives, government officials and other opinion leaders must finally recognize that Islamophobia is a growing phenomenon in American society that must be urgently addressed"

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/12-17-2004/0002639656&EDATE=

It's true: there are issues that must be urgently addressed. The statements I have quoted above confirm that. Those statements should be addressed by our elected officials, and by anyone who shares a deep respect for this nation, its culture, and all it offers.

If the individuals who made the statements above while on American soil are wondering why so many Americans have negative views of Islam, all they have to do is look at their own words.

These statements must be addressed so that these groups will not succeed in their aim (which they hope to attain by waving a phony race card) of placing limitations on Americans' right to free speech. Americans are free thinkers. The Muslims who made the statements above should have the spine to stop running to the government crying "Islamophobia" when Americans react negatively to such words, and explain their remarks publicly. But of course, crying "Islamophobia" seems to be all part of their plan.

Denmark rejects headscarf plea

From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:

Denmark's Supreme Court has ruled that a supermarket chain had the right to fire a young Muslim woman for wearing an Islamic headscarf to work.

The woman, who worked as a cashier in the supermarket, claimed damages for discrimination and wrongful dismissal.

But the court said Dansk Supermarked chain was allowed to fire the woman who had signed a contract which banned headgear in front of customers....

A supermarket spokesman said the company wanted the appearance of its employees to be in line with its political and religious neutrality.

The court accepted that the company had a right to specify the appearance of its employees and that this outweighed their individual right to wear religious garments.

Form Pits Texas Christians Against Muslims

Another story about the TAPP controversy. From Fox, with thanks to DC Watson:

HOUSTON — An application form to join a parochial schools group that was sent to Texas Islamic schools has created misunderstanding and anger between local Muslims and Christians.

The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which is 90 percent Christian, sent 10 questions to the Dar-ul-Arqam school in Houston after the group applied to join the association.

The Islamic Society of Greater Houston, which runs Dar-ul-Arqam schools at three locations, wanted students to be able to compete with other parochial schools in extracurricular events.

One question that upset Dar-ul-Arqam administrators focused on perceived intolerance: "The Koran clearly tells you not to mix with (and even eliminate) the infidels. Christians and Jews fall into this category. Why do you wish to join an organization whose membership is basically in total disagreement with your religious beliefs?"

Iesa Galloway, Houston Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the questionnaire was "rooted in deep-seeded ignorance of the religion of Islam and the Muslim people."

Well, the Qur'an does say those things. See 5:51, 3:28, and 9:29. How exactly is it a manifestation of "deep-seeded" ignorance to ask how Muslims understand such verses?

But the outcry over the form has surprised the parochial association's president.

"If there was anything offensive in the letter," said TAPPS President Edd Burleson, "that should have been addressed to us so that we'd have the opportunity to clarify and make sure that everyone understood there was no animosity."

The Dar-ul-Arqam school group is now drafting a letter of its own to respond to the questions.

I look forward to seeing that.

Dutch Right-wingers Cast a Pall Over `Eid

No concern, of course, about the pall the murder of van Gogh has cast over the safety and security of non-Muslims in the Netherlands. No discussion of the implications of a Sharia murder in Amsterdam, with Qur'an verses pinned to the body. No honest discussion of the extent to which Dutch Muslims are attached to Sharia, and want an Islamic state in the Netherlands. Then they wonder why they have aroused the ire of "right wingers and xenophobes."

It seems that the Dutch must simply play the dhimmi. Any finger lifted in their own defense is just a provocation of the Muslim community.

From IslamOnline, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

THE HAGUE, January 19 (IslamOnline.net) – As Muslims throughout Europe celebrate Thursday, January 20, `Eid Al-Al-Adha (feast of sacrifice), Dutch Muslims brace themselves for an almost joyless festival in view of incessant harassments and bothering by right-wingers and xenophobes.

Some one million Muslims in the Netherlands felt really hard done-by because of their religion after the November killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Moroccan, following his insulting documentary about Islam.

Even before the murder, Dutch Muslims have been targeted by the extremist agenda of the influential right-wing parties.

Much to their annoyance, housing companies ordered all satellite dishes to be removed from balconies and rooftops just before the start of the most important feast in the Islamic calendar.

These dishes are, in effect, the one and only window for the Muslim community, mostly hailing from Moroccan, Iraqi and Turkish origin, on the Arab and the Muslim world.

This `Eid, they will be deprived of the pleasure of tuning in to a host of Arab and Islamic channels with fingers pointing at right-wing schemes.

“These companies have indeed cast a gloomy atmosphere over `Eid,” Mohammad Akshar, an employee at the Moroccan Cultural Society in Rotterdam, told IslamOnline.net Wednesday, January 19.

Under pressure from Chirac, Sarkozy drops planned vote on Turkey-EU

From AFP, with thanks to Ali Dashti, who suggests that Chirac may be bowing down to his Muslim masters:

PARIS, Jan 20 (AFP) - Under pressure from President Jacques Chirac, his arch-rival Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday dropped plans to present a resolution opposing Turkey's full entry to the European Union before the national council of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.

In what was widely described as a deliberate provocation of the president -- who supports Turkish entry -- Sarkozy last week told journalists that the 1,500 member council would be asked to vote in March on a motion to grant Turkey "privileged partnership" rather than membership.

Sarkozy -- the UMP president -- has the backing of most party members in opposing full membership for Ankara, which is to start accession talks later this year.

However leading Chirac supporters criticised Sarkozy for opening a divisive issue when the party needs to be united behind the campaign for approval of the EU constitution -- to be put to a referendum in the coming months.

The UMP president said Thursday that he had decided instead to present a composite resolution on the EU to the national council, in which the Turkish issue would be less prominent.

Quran to be banned in the UK?

Muslims in Britain are pushing for the new religious hatred law, and jihadists will be the happiest to see it instituted, since it will muzzle honest consideration of the Islamic roots of jihad terrorism. However, at least one jihadist group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which runs the site Khilafah.com, doesn't look at the new law with unalloyed joy: they see that it could be turned against them, and the Qur'an.

Maybe they do have something to worry about. After all, a man was stopped from quoting the Qur'an in an Australian court because to do might have constituted incitement. Oh, wait -- that was a non-Muslim, and by reading the Qur'an he was alleged to be inciting hatred of Muslims.

Also, this presupposes a British politician who is not so much of a dhimmi as the others, and there are no such on the horizon, so Hizb-ut-Tahrir can breathe easy.

From Khilafah.com, with thanks to DC Watson:

The proposed British legislation relating to religious hatred may be perceived by many Muslims as a real benefit. Others may see it as something of a double-edged sword. However it is best described as a dagger in our back. The adoption of an “incitement to religious hatred” law will be an attempt to muzzle Muslims from quoting from the Quran, and the other sacred texts of Islam. The new law, under consideration in the Westminster Parliament, would mean Muslims convicted of incitement would face up to seven years in jail. Quoting from the Quran in a “threatening, abusive or insulting” way will become a crime in the amendment to Part 3 of the Public Order Act of 1986. Rather than introduce new legislation on the vague but broad concept of religious hatred, the UK government has decided to slip the new provisions into amendments. These are planned to change a range of minor matters in the existing Act. These include additional protections for the victims of “animal rights” activists, or greater sanction against trespass on Crown land or “a site belonging to the Monarch or Heir to the Throne”. This comes in the wake of high profile publicity stunts staged at royal residences (Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace) during the past few years.

Muslims will take particular note of the new definitions of religious hatred, which several high profile comedians have already complained about. The comedians are concerned that they will be restricted in their ability to pour scorn on all forms of organised religion, a not inconsiderable percentage of the typical comedic routine. They needn’t be concerned. In Schedule 10 of the bill, Religious Hatred is defined as “hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief”. The emphasis is clearly upon the adherents of belief (or rather perversely those of no belief). Quite how one can express religious hatred against someone who has no religion will be interesting to note. Legal commentators have indicated that expressing insults, abuse or worse against religions per se including Islam is perfectly OK in the planned scheme of things. To express any such thoughts, and hatred in particular against members of any belief/non belief will not be allowed....

It also cannot be ignored that the British Labour government will soon face a general election, and amidst rising unpopularity, due to its foreign policies, it needs to court the Muslim community. Rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the UK in the wake of 9/11, and the war against Islam is hardly surprising. This legislation will do little or nothing to protect Muslims, and is more likely to be used against those that carry and propagate Islam. Liberty has warned that the new law will be directly used against Muslims rather than protecting them: “We are particularly concerned that Home Secretary has publicly stated a desire to target and prioritise certain Islamic clerics for prosecution once the proposed extension of the law is passed”. The now former Home secretary David Blunkett when presenting the amendments to parliament stated: “It is possible to quote or misquote passages of sacred texts out of context so that they become threatening, abusive or insulting and intended or likely to stir up hatred. Such activities would rightly be caught by the scope of the law”. That these “paragons of secular virtue” now feel able to distinguish clearly between legitimate quoting and misquoting of sacred texts would be laughable if it was not so serious.

There is no shortage of verses in the Quran to excite the interest of the British judiciary. The dozens of verses exhorting Jihad for starters, or perhaps the verses warning of the plans of the Jews or Christians, or which castigate the unjust!

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى أَوْلِيَاء بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاء بَعْضٍ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ

“O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.” [Quran 5:51]

At a time in which the Muslims living in the Western nations need to be even more vocal in presenting the clear guidance of the Quran to both Muslims and non-Muslims we find ourselves again under pressure to adhere to poorly defined and biased legislation to silence the call to Islam.

يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِؤُواْ نُورَ اللّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللّهُ إِلاَّ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

“They wish to extinguish Allah’s guiding (light) with their utterances, but Allah will not allow (this to pass) for He has willed to spread His light in all its fullness, however hateful this is to those that deny the truth” [Quran 9:32]

Anti-dhimmitude from the Spanish King: King snubs Moroccan plea for apology

The King should apologize to this as soon as international Islamic ulama apologizes to Middle Eastern Christians for conquering their lands and forcing dhimmi status upon them. And will the Moors in turn apologize to the King for conquering Spain 700 years before they were expelled?

"King snubs Moroccan plea for apology," from The Telegraph, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Descendants of the Moors expelled from Spain 500 years ago failed to receive an apology from King Juan Carlos as he toured Morocco yesterday.

Residents of Tetouan, many of whose ancestors were driven from the Iberian peninsula by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, said an opportunity had been lost to heal an historic wound, which has become all the more sensitive in recent years.

Osama bin Laden has often talked of the tragedy of the loss of al-Andalus, the Moorish region of Spain. The terrorists who attacked Madrid last year, killing 192 people and wounding 1,900, spoke of Spain with the same sense of historic vengeance. Three million Muslims were expelled in 1501.

The king, who is on his first state visit to Morocco since 1979, cancelled his visit to Tetouan at the last minute. The official reason was lack of time but unofficially it appeared that sensitivities had arisen because Tetouan was the old Spanish colonial capital.

King Juan Carlos said in a speech earlier this week that the legacy of an Arab and Andalusian heritage was a key to "the positive image'' in Spain of "Arabic culture and Islam''.

The king has apologised for the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and the descendants of the expelled Moors say he owes Muslims the same respect.

Somali Muslims target Italian cemetery

Another manifestation of the Islamic division between believers and unbelievers, which is so deep and wide as to preclude even respect for the artifacts of the past -- and, in this case, human remains. "Somali militias target cemetery," from the BBC, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Militias from the Islamic courts set up in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, are destroying a colonial Italian cemetery.
They are digging up the graves and dumping human remains near the airport.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan says he was horrified to see a large number of abandoned human skulls. Young boys were playing with one as a toy.

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991 and rival militias have divided it into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

There are thousands of graves at the cemetery, of which some 700 have been destroyed.

The militias refused to let our correspondent enter the cemetery in dangerous north Mogadishu but locals say the gunmen want to turn it into a base.

Hundreds of people have gone to the former air force base, near the ruined international airport to see the dumped human remains.

Local resident Geedow Awaale Ali said the remains had been dumped overnight and he was worried about the spread of disease.

Law and order

Mogadishu was under Italian colonial control until World War Two and many of the graves belong to Italian soldiers and expatriates.

The Islamic courts were set up by businessmen in Mogadishu to bring some semblance of law and order to a city without a police force.

Germany: Parliament calls for Jewish immigration limits

With Germany and all of Europe facing a huge and growing problem of large numbers of unassimilated Muslim immigrants streaming into the country and growing at a rate far faster than the native population, the German Parliament has finally decided to act decisively and limit immigration ... of Jews.

From Expatica, with thanks to Anthony:

BERLIN - The German parliament's Home Affairs Committee said on Wednesday that Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union should continue, but urged de facto limits by calling for migrants to undergo German language tests and checks on their employment qualities.

Dieter Wiefelspuetz, the committee spokesman from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD), said that in the future there would have to be a stronger emphasis on integration for Jews arriving in Germany.

"There should still be Jewish immigrants in the future," he said.

The German government is seeking hammer out a deal on limiting Jewish immigration with Germany's 16 Laender, the federal states, and the country's Central Council of Jews, which is wary about any restrictions.

Agreement on a new Jewish immigration law may not be achieved until summer given that the government wants a green light from the Central Council of Jews. Among criteria being considered to cut Jewish immigration are imposing language tests and an employability ranking system.

In the meantime, some 27,000 Jews who have already applied and received a green light to come to Germany will be admitted under the old regulations, officials say.

UK: Conservative party leader praises Muslim contribution to British life

Pandering to the Muslim vote, without sufficient attention to the overall attachment of British Muslims to the Sharia, which according to theorists such as Qutb and Maududi (and many others) must ultimately displace the British government and remake its society -- as it must also do everywhere -- seems to be a bipartisan affair.

From Politics.co.uk, with thanks to Anthony:

Conservative Party leader Michael Howard last night spoke of the "immense" contribution Muslims have made to British life.

Unveiling his party's new Muslim Forum, Mr Howard said the body had two main remits - to act as a gateway to learn from the Muslim community and to allow Muslim Britons to play "their full part in the Conservative Party - at the highest level".

Mr Howard said the "economically vibrant, culturally creative, socially aware" British Muslim community enriched modern Britain.

The new forum aimed to "give a formal institutional expression to our ties of friendship and shared values," he said.

"There are many natural ties, of friendship, common outlook and shared values that unite the Muslim community and the Conservative Party.

"I believe we share a commitment to the integrity of the family, a respect for the wisdom of tradition, an opposition to the drugs culture, social breakdown and crime, a belief in the importance of compassion and the need to help the vulnerable, a commitment to enterprise, hard work and individual ambition.

"And a desire for peace across the globe."

Holocaust lessons meet Muslim rebuff in France

From Reuters, with thanks to Anthony:

PARIS (Reuters) - "Filthy Jew!" schoolchildren howl at a classmate. "Jews only want money and power," they tell their teachers. "Death to the Jews" graffiti appear on school walls outside Paris and other French cities.

These are not scenes from the wartime Nazi occupation or a fictional France where the far-right has taken control. Outright anti-Semitism like this is a fact of life these days in the poor suburbs where much of France's Muslim minority lives.

After a slow response when this "new anti-Semitism" flared four years ago, France has made fighting prejudice against Jews into a national priority. Holocaust education in state schools now starts with pupils as young as nine years old.

But even the best plans for teaching about the Nazi massacre of Jews can fall short when confronted with an Islamic identity spreading among a minority of France's five million Muslims.

"It works with those who are ready to listen," said Iannis Roder, a history teacher in the tough northern suburbs of Paris. "But it doesn't work with those who won't listen. They have their minds made up."

Roder is one of several history teachers who sounded an alarm in 2002 about a wave of anti-Semitism among Muslim pupils, much of it a reaction to the uprising by Palestinians against Israeli control of their lands.

Their outspoken book "The Lost Territories of the Republic" opened France's eyes to classrooms where some Muslim pupils openly denounced Jews, praised Hitler and refused to listen to any non-Muslim teacher talking about the history of Islam.

Such tension has prompted Jewish pupils in these areas to switch to private Jewish or even Catholic schools.

"Muslim pupils react less now to what happens in the Middle East," Roder said. "But the situation hasn't really changed. As soon as you talk about Jews in some historical event, there are (anti-Semitic) comments."

Azerbaijan: Birth certificates denied to children with Christian names

"AZERBAIJAN: Will Christian children now get birth certificates?" From Forum 18, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Having repeatedly refused to register 18-month old Luka Eyvazov's birth, because his parents gave him a Christian name, the authorities have at last given him a birth certificate, after Forum 18 News Service reported his case. Unusually, the authorities also apologised to Luka's parents "for making us wait and suffer for so long," Luka's mother Gurayat Eyvazov told Forum 18. Without a birth certificate, Luka was not able to go to kindergarten or to school, get treatment in a hospital, or travel abroad. Luka's case was the last known case of a series of Baptist parents in the mainly-Muslim town who were refused birth certificates for their children because they had chosen Christian, not Muslim first names. However, Mrs Eyvazov said it was unclear if the next time Baptist parents try to register a child's birth with a Christian name they will face similar refusals. "Officials said nothing on this." At the age of nearly 18 months, Luka Eyvazov has finally received his birth certificate just weeks after Forum 18 News Service reported the authorities' repeated refusals to issue a birth certificate because they did not wish to register him with a Christian name. Luka's parents, who are ethnic-Georgian Baptists, live in the small town of Aliabad in the north-western region of Zakatala [Zaqatala] close to the border with Georgia. "The town administration phoned my husband on 17 December to say the birth certificate would be there and he collected it on 20 December," Luka's mother Gurayat Eyvazov told Forum 18 from Aliabad on 10 January. "They said they had no permission earlier to issue the birth certificate and even apologised to us for making us wait and suffer for so long."

Luka Eyvazov is the fourth child of Novruz Eyvazov, the leader of one of three Baptist congregations in Aliabad.

Qaradawi Defends Dhimmi London Mayor

Who was upset when London Mayor Red Ken Livingstone defended Qaradawi, defender of suicide attacks? Why, Zionists, of course. "Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Defends London Mayor and Said Doudin Accuses MEMRI of Committing Racist Crimes," from MEMRI, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

The following are excerpts from Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi's weekly religious show on Al-Jazeera TV. The show was broadcast on January 16, 2005.

Sheik Dr. Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: I remember what was said by the mayor of London, this noble and courageous man, Ken Livingstone. We witnessed his courage last summer, when he stood up against the Zionists and their lies, and now, again, he adopted a noble and courageous position in his statements. He revealed what was concealed and exposed the secrets behind which hid those who organized these things. He, with all his courage, exposed them. He revealed that they are from the Mossad and from a certain institute. He wrote all this in a retort. I'd like to use Al-Jazeera TV to congratulate and thank this man, because Islam teaches us that he who does not thank people does not thank God. We must thank this man, who adopted a position avoided by many Arabs and Muslims, who do not say the truth although they know it. This man spoke the truth although it will cost him dearly, when the Zionist lobby attacks him and tries to distort his words, and harm my reputation. I say to him: Continue in your path. The free and honorable people of the world are behind you.

Muslim's case against Islamic apostasy law falls short

From Women Living Under Muslim Laws: News and Views, a book review by a moderate Muslim who comes out against the Islamic law mandating death for those who leave Islam. That is, he sort of comes out against it. Ali Dashti, who kindly sent me this link, observes: "you will notice that people like Ibn Warraq and Ali Sina, who will be judged as being active in 'conspiracies' against the Islamic state, would still be deserving of death, according to this "reformist". And his arguments are weak." Indeed.

Nowhere in the Qur'an, Subhani notes, is the death penalty for apostasy mentioned. The Qur'an refers to apostasy in some ten verses, but the punishment for it is clearly suggested as being reserved for the afterlife, not in this world itself. Hence, Subhani argues, killing apostates simply because of their change of faith goes against the express commandments of the Qur'an itself. Forcing people to declare themselves as Muslims when they do not actually believe in Islam is nothing short of hypocrisy, which the Qur'an considers a heinous sin.

Not finding support for their position in the Qur'an, advocates of the death punishment for apostasy draw on the corpus of Hadith, traditions attributed to the Prophet. Subhani mentions a number of such traditions or ahadith in which the Prophet is said to have ordered the killing of apostates. He accepts some of these as genuine reports, but argues that they need to be seen in what he regards as their proper historical context. Further, he argues that they must also be understood in the light of the Qur'anic dictum 'There is no compulsion in religion'.

Subhani's point is that many of the ahadith that lay down death for apostates relate specifically to those Muslims who abandon Islam and actively engage in treason or what what Subhani calls 'conspiracies' against Islam and the Islamic state. These ahadith that do not apply to other apostates, who are free to choose any religion they want.

So Subhani seems to be advocating the position that as long as an ex-Muslim remains quiet and uncritical of Islam, he will be unmolested. This is not genuine freedom of conscience, and it is not enough.