Anti-dhimmitude: Judge kills CAIR's suit against ex-Rep. Ballenger

CAIR finally loses one. Good thing Ballenger didn't retain Rich Lowry as his lawyer. "Judge kills suit against ex-Rep. Ballenger," from the Charlotte Observer, with thanks to Daniel Pipes:

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has dismissed a $2 million lawsuit filed against former Rep. Cass Ballenger by an American Muslim civil rights group for linking it to terrorists during an October 2003 interview with The Charlotte Observer.

In a seven-page decision released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon agreed with the Hickory Republican's argument that he made the comments "in the scope of his employment as a federal employee" and that the suit should be converted into one against the U.S. government.

And because a doctrine called sovereign immunity bars most suits against the federal government, Leon threw out the case.

In the newspaper interview, Ballenger blamed the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly on the stress of living near the group's Capitol Hill headquarters, which was so close to the Capitol that he and his wife worried "they could blow the place up."

He also called the Council on American-Islamic Relations "the fundraising arm for Hezbollah."

In its lawsuit, CAIR said that these and other comments by Ballenger damaged its reputation and good name.

But it ain't over:

Arsalan Iftikhar, CAIR's national legal director, said Wednesday that the group plans to appeal the ruling, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Young Muslim immigrant killers deported from Denmark, leftists mourn

From the Norwegian Kafir's superb Fjordman blog:

One of the men, Hizir Kilic, was born in Denmark, while his cousin Ferhat Kilic came to the country when he was three. The two men were minors at the time of the crime, and had therefore not yet become Danish citizens, since anyone born to immigrant parents in Denmark must be at least 18 before requesting to become a national. Two young criminals have been sentenced to deportation to Turkey, after killing an Italian tourist in Copenhagen in 2003. Two teenagers were sentenced to deportation by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, for murdering an Italian tourist in Copenhagen's Nørrebro quarter in 2003. The cousins Hizir and Ferhat Kilic were 16 and 17 years old when they assaulted and stabbed a young Italian traveller, Antonio Currà, and left him to die on the street.

The court sentenced them to 10 and 8 years in prison for the murder, and to be deported to the country of their
birth, Turkey, even though they had lived almost all their lives in Denmark.

'The deportation is ten times worse than the prison sentence,' Hizir Kilic told the court last week. 'I won't be able to go to Turkey and survive.' The cousins' defense attorneys tried in vain to convince the court's seven judges, that the boys' young age and strong roots in Denmark should exempt them from new laws, which allow courts to have criminal immigrants deported.

And here is a translation of some Danish leftist reactions, courtesy Faith Freedom:

By Christina Rosendahl, film director:

"Dear Hizir and Ferhat,

You guys did a dirty trick. You stabbed a young Italian man, someone almost like yourselves. He was a living human being. Now he is dead. You have to go to jail and you guys have deserved that, of course. But I want to apologize to the both of you on behalf of Denmark. Sorry about the arrogant and narrow-minded vindictiveness that you meet in the Danish streets. Sorry about all those Danes who think it is all right to send you guys out of the country although you have been given a gigantic prison sentence.

Although you have lived here all your life and even are born here, went to school, made friends and have been petty criminals and even smoked pot (as they claim on the radio), there seems to be different rules for you than for other criminals.

Sorry about all those Danes who gladly are being interviewed on TV or on the radio who want to 'honor' us all with their home-spun philosophy: »We really cannot accept people killing each other in the streets « or »it is their own fault, we want them out of the country «. Thank god I'm not the only one who feel sick about the Danish rhetorics of fear. You guys are going to prison and you have deserved that. How I had hoped that the Danish community would take responsibility and give you lots of help: Psychiatric help, psychological help, help at school, more financial help and helping you guys knowing how to kill time in stead of killing people; help getting an education, getting work and a family eventually. And more hope for the future as well as self-esteem. Sorry about those Danes who live in a different century. I hope the best for you. Even though you did do a dirty trick!"

The Death of France's "Multiculturalism"

The great Nidra Poller, writing in Frontpage (thanks to EPG):

October 2000, Place de la République in Paris: the first of what would become an endless series of ambiguous pro-Palestinian demonstrations welcomed the snake of anti-Semitism into its heart. "Death to the Jews" rang out loud and clear that day as policemen stood by, journalists watched with apparent indifference, and the mass of demonstrators thronged and thrust as demonstrators do.

8 March 2005, Place de la République: a thousand young toughs pierced the heart of a student demonstration and unleashed their rage, not against the police but against the "privileged classes" in their own age group--the protesting lycée students. Operating in gangs of ten and twenty, the casseurs (smashers) in brand-name sweat suits swept through the march like pirate ships, zeroed in on their prey, attacked from behind. They threw kids to the ground, gratuitously beating and kicking them, snatching handbags, ipods, wallets, and cell phones. Riot police looking like robots with their thick leather padding stood by as the predators cut through the crowd wielding knives, clubs, and tear gas bombs....

Read it all.

Muslims plan to disrupt Temple Mount visit

From World Net Daily, with thanks to EPG:

JERUSALEM -- A plan by a grassroots Jewish organization to bring 10,000 Jews to the Temple Mount has prompted an Islamic group allegedly connected to Hamas to instruct followers to disrupt the visit, a high-ranking Jerusalem police official told WND.

Revava, a group with the stated mission of ''restoring self-esteem to the state of Israel by restoring national pride and values,'' has planned the April 10 event at the heavily restricted Temple Mount to spark Israeli dialogue about reclaiming the holy site from its Islamic custodians.

The Jerusalem police last week told WND they would not allow thousands of Jews on the Temple Mount at once.

Shmulik Ben Ruby, a police spokesman, said the current government restrictions of allowing only small groups of about 30 to 50 non-Muslims to ascend the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, will apply on the day of the scheduled gathering.

''We will not let so many Jews up at once. This is not the usual habits on the Temple Mount," Ben Ruby said. "We have to ensure that every Jewish group is going up in safety and will go up quietly."...

The Islamic Movement [which plans to disrupt the event] has been accused by Israel of urging its members to join Hamas, and was blamed for participation in several terror attacks, including a car bombing in September 1999. Many Movement members allegedly recruited by Hamas in the West Bank have been arrested in recent years....

Ben Ruby told WND although Jews are barred from the Mount in large groups, the Israeli police would allow thousands of Muslims to ascend.

Latinas Embrace Islam

Another article about Latinas converting to Islam, in Florida this time. From the TBO News, with thanks to Skeetstreet:

TAMPA - As a child, Amy Perez attended different Christian churches, praying at Catholic Masses and singing at Baptist revivals. But she never felt satisfied with the answers those faiths provided to her questions.

At 12, Perez left Webb Middle School for the Universal Academy of Florida, a Muslim school in Tampa, because she did not like the cliques and social scene at Webb. And she wanted to learn more about Islam.

Perez read about the Muslim faith and asked her classmates questions.
After much research and contemplation, Perez took the Shahada, the declaration of faith to become Muslim.

She was 14.

``I finally found peace,'' said Perez, 22, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent. ``A peace that I had never known. Everything made sense to me. Every question I had, there was an answer for. It was truly remarkable.''

Perez's sentiments seem to resonate with U.S. Latinas, who are embracing Islam in increasing numbers. They join a faith dominated in the United States by blacks, who make up about half the estimated 6 million followers, according to a 1990 study by the American Muslim Council, the most recent available. Followers of South Asian and Arab descent constitute about 35 percent.

Numbers of Muslims are difficult to determine since faith is not included in the U.S. census, but there is abundant anecdotal evidence that more Hispanic women are adopting Islam....

Once again, still searching for a reporter with the guts to ask one of these converts what she thinks of Qur'an 4:34.

Dhimmitude at the Treasury Department

"Outside View: Terrorist Financing and Crime" is an egregious piece of ignorance and dhimmitude by Juan Carlos Zarate, U.S. assistant secretary of the Treasury Department for terrorist financing. Among other duties, Zarate is responsible for formulating and coordinating the department's counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering efforts. From UPI, with thanks to EPG:

Washington, DC, Over the last several years, the U.S. Treasury has established an important relationship and dialogue with the Muslim and Arab-American communities as we work together to deal with the corrosive effects and threat of terrorist financing to the United States and the Muslim and Arab worlds. This relationship is acutely necessary as we work to protect and preserve the sanctity of charitable giving and Zakat from terrorist groups like al-Qaida, which have purposely usurped the goodwill and donations of Muslims around the world to fuel their terrorist agenda.

This relationship is also critical to advancing our collective mission of promoting charitable relief and development around the world to those most in need of our assistance. The American Muslim and Arab communities are uniquely situated because they have the powers of the purse and persuasion to affect global practices and perceptions that are essential to advancing both of these goals and winning the long-term battle against terrorism.

Charitable giving is a proud and vibrant component of virtually every community in America, regardless of religion, culture or background. This is especially true in the case of Islam, where Zakat -- charity -- is a pillar of the faith. The unfortunate reality of the post-9/11 world is that terrorist groups like al-Qaida and Hamas have abused charitable organizations to finance their lethal schemes. Terrorists have created charitable fronts and have sought out corrupt or vulnerable non-profits to raise and move money, to transport operatives and materiel, to recruit and indoctrinate new members, and to support family members of operatives or deceased suicide bombers.

Yes, and nobody -- but nobody -- who gave money to these groups had any idea of where their money was going. Every last one of them was shocked, shocked!

This is the sad reality of a violent minority that has corrupted the goodwill of the donor community, and in particular, the good faith of Muslims....

If you plan on reading it all, it might be wise to keep a bottle of Pepto-Bismol handy.

Conyers helps Muslims keep official out of U.S.

From the Detroit Free Press, with thanks to EPG:

Michigan Muslims of Indian descent are hailing the U.S. government's decision to deny a prominent Indian minister entry into the country because of his intolerance toward religious minorities.

The State Department's move came after U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, sponsored a congressional resolution last week to condemn Narendra Modi, chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. In 2002, anti-Muslim riots broke out in his state after a train carrying Hindu activists was attacked. Some Muslim and human-rights groups said Modi failed to stop the violence and has allowed a culture of intolerance to take hold in the state where Mohandas Gandhi was born....

Hmmm. Modi didn't start any violence...he just "failed to stop" the violence actually started by Muslims -- and he's the "intolerant" one.

Conyers said Thursday that he was urged to action by the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C....

Well well, these are heady days for CAIR. We might as well elect Ibrahim Hooper President and get it over with.

The decision brought protests from some Indian Americans and the Indian government, which asked the United States to reconsider, noting that Modi was a democratically elected official and should have been given the respect afforded elected officials....

"I personally call him the Hitler of Gujarat," Quayid Saifee, a computer consultant from Rochester Hills born in India, said Thursday....

Conyers' resolution, introduced March 15, was supported by U.S. Reps. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Trent Franks of Arizona, both Republicans. They also expressed concern about Modi's treatment of Christians.

In the resolution, Conyers noted that the Indian Supreme Court had admonished Modi for his inaction in the 2002 riots.

Conyers said he hopes the move won't adversely affect America's relations with India. "We consider ourselves allies of India," Conyers said Thursday. "We just have this one problem."

We sure do.

Arabs, Muslims being wooed by NJ governor candidates

From AP, with thanks to EPG:

NEWARK -- From a living room festooned with dozens of elephants in all shapes and sizes, Sherine El-Abd is busily raising money for gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler, whose call for lower property taxes she loves.

It's only March, but the Edison woman, an Egyptian immigrant and Republican organizer, is already planning candidate forums for October.

In Denville, Aref Assaf is supporting U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, warming to his willingness to include more Arabs and Muslims in his administration and to fight what the Democrat considers the excesses of the USA Patriot Act.

Great. Any word from Assaf on what he plans to do to eradicate elements of the jihad ideology from the American Muslim community?

Three and a half years after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Arab-American and Muslim communities are important to candidates for the New Jersey governor's office. The growing political organization -- and prodigious fund-raising potential -- of Arabs and Muslims in New Jersey make them an appealing source of votes and campaign cash.

Candidates are already speaking at Arab-American dinners, taking out congratulatory ads in souvenir journals and asking for money from a group almost giddy with its newfound political influence.

"We are becoming players," said Assaf, a Palestinian activist and president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee's New Jersey chapter. "It's a recognition of the fact that the Arab-American community is coming center stage on the American political stage. We are no longer a liability; we are an asset."

With an estimated 250,000 Arab-Americans and an additional non-Arab Muslim population of about 450,000 in New Jersey, these communities could prove decisive in a close election, said Magdy Mahmoud, president of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations....

A ridiculous and ominous decision in Britain

Could this be National Review's last article critical of the creeping Islamization of Europe? "Wrong from Head to Toe: A ridiculous and ominous decision in Britain," by Theodore Dalrymple in the March 28 issue of NR, via The Manhattan Institute, with thanks to EPG:

In the long annals of judicial stupidity, there can rarely have been a more idiotic judgment than that recently given by Lord Justice Brooke of the British Court of Appeal. It reads like the suicide note not of a country alone, but of an entire civilization.

A young Muslim girl, Shabina Begum, who attended a state school in Luton, England, four-fifths of whose pupils were Muslim, started a legal battle when she was 13 to be allowed the jilbab, a form of dress that leaves only her face and hands exposed. She was almost certainly put up to this by her older brother, a supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Muslim party that seeks to establish a Muslim world state, that believes democracy is blasphemy, and that denies that the Western citizenship of Muslims is real or meaningful, or confers any privileges or imposes any duties.

The school in question had, in fact, worked out a dress code for Muslim girls that satisfied almost everyone. It was extremely accommodating: Various forms of modest dress were allowed, including certain types of scarf. But, after two years of accepting the dress code, Shabina Begum suddenly started to appear in her jilbab. The school demanded that she go home and change into a costume that accorded with the dress code, but she refused. Eventually she brought a case, supported and possibly funded by the Hizb ut-Tahrir, under the U.K.'s Human Rights Act. She claimed that the school was denying her right to an education.

She lost the case, and also an appeal, but won at the last hurdle. The Guardian reported that after her victory, she said she "could scream with happiness."

When they heard of her victory, many Muslim women around the country must have wanted to scream with quite different emotions, despair and rage prominent among them. For Lord Justice Brooke's ruling, that Shabina Begum's human rights had been denied, and that she had been discriminated against illegally on religious grounds, displayed a complete and invincible ignorance of the social context of the case. Lord Justice Brooke saw no evil, heard no evil, and felt no evil. In effect, therefore, he was giving succor to those Muslim men who still abuse women in a medieval fashion.

Regardless of whether Shabina Begum acted in this case without duress and of her own free will, which seems to me highly unlikely given that the traditional place of Muslim women is not the public spotlight, the fact is that substantial numbers of young Muslim women are virtually enslaved in Britain; they grow up in what can only be called a totalitarian environment. I know this from what my patients have told me. They are not allowed out of the house except under escort, and sometimes not even then; they are allowed no mail or use of the telephone; they are not allowed to contradict a male member of the household, and are automatically subject to his wishes; it is regarded as quite legitimate to beat them if they disobey in the slightest. Their brothers are often quite willing to attack anyone who speaks to the women in any informal context. They are forced to wear modes of dress that they do not wish to wear. Their schooling is quite often deliberately interrupted, so that they are not infected by Western ideas of personal liberty; ambitious for a career, they are kept at home as prisoners and domestic slaves.

Worst of all are the forced marriages to which they are subjected. They are taken by their parents, often at a young age, "back" to Pakistan, where they are told that they are getting married, often to a first cousin. Their fathers regard their British passports with all the respect Hitler accorded to treaties. The young women have possession of their passports only fleetingly, as they pass through immigration. Thereafter, they are confiscated by the father and held as ransom against their good behavior, which in this, as in every other, instance means doing as they are told.

If by any chance they should object to their marriage, they are mercilessly beaten and in some cases killed. All the young women who are taken to Pakistan are aware of such cases: Like the shooting of Admiral Byng, such cases are committed pour encourager les autres. Very occasionally, the parents do not even transport the recalcitrant girls to Pakistan to kill them: They do it in England. Recently in the prison in which I work, I met a young man of Pakistani origin who was afraid of the other young men of Pakistani origin in the prison. Why? Because he had previously given important evidence in court in a case in which a girl who had refused to marry the husband selected for her by her parents was murdered by her father and brothers. The other young men of Pakistani origin thought the man who had testified was a traitor to their religion and culture; for in fact it is a religion and culture very convenient to the young men, whom it supplies with a domestic slave and mother of children while they can entertain themselves elsewhere. The whole evil system would break down if any of the young women were allowed their freedom, which is why the men must stick together. Like any form of totalitarianism, it is strong but brittle.

I have spoken to Muslims about this, and they tell me that what I am
describing is customary or cultural practice, not a religious requirement. I am not scholar enough to know whether they are right, but it is certainly customary practice over a large area of the earth's surface. And so long as this practice, be it religious or customary, is widespread, the word of no Muslim girl who claims to want to wear increasingly "modest" dress can be taken at her word, any more than a public figure in the USSR could have been taken as expressing his own personal opinion. If the judge was aware of this, he took no notice of it....

Read it all.

"Islamic law has been there since it was passed on from Allah to the Prophet Mohammed, it cannot be re-written now"

Sharia alert. As I have pointed out many times, this is what makes reform in Islam virtually impossible: when reformers seek to set aside practices such as polygamy, hardliners see it as a transgression of Allah's will. "Ugandan Muslims March in Defense of Polygamy," from Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

KAMPALA - Hundreds of Ugandan Muslims demonstrated in the capital on Tuesday to protest a proposed restriction on polygamy they see as an affront to their religion.

Under Islamic law, a Muslim man is allowed to take up to four wives, as long as he can provide for all of them equally.

But a domestic relations bill being debated by Uganda's parliament says Ugandan Muslims should have to seek approval from their first wife before marrying again.

"Islamic law has been there since it was passed on from Allah to the Prophet Mohammed, it cannot be re-written now," one of the protesters, Bukulu Haruna, told Reuters....

"Other cultures want to overcome Islam, but we will not allow it. People are willing to die so that no one will trample over them," one demonstrator said.

Human rights campaigners in Uganda have called for polygamy to be banned....

"God gave us guidelines on how marriage should be handled. Telling us how many women we should marry makes the bill ridiculous and infringes on our freedom of worship," Kampala district Khadi Sheikh Silman Ndilangwa told reporters.

The domestic relations bill, first seen by parliament last year, also
includes proposals on the scrapping of bride-price, one of the requirements of a Muslim marriage....

Fitzgerald: In Turkey, Islam is permanent, Kemalism transient

The nonpareil Hugh Fitzgerald on false dhimmi assumptions made about Islam vis-a-vis Turkey, and much more:

The refusal to allow the American government to use an American airbase for which a large rent is paid, the attacks by important members of the Turkish government or Parliament decrying the Americans in Iraq as "worse than the Nazis," the acceptance of Arab propaganda about the "Palestinian people" which the Turks, who controlled the relevant territory, know perfectly well is a convenient political fiction designed to disguise the relentless Arab Jihad against Israel as merely a matter of "two tiny peoples," and "compromise," and "adjustment of borders" (all nonsense, all misunderstood by those who wish to misunderstand),the inability of the Turkish secularists to properly defend aginst the ruthlessness and guile employed by the Islamic forces in Turkey that are busy throwing off the constraints on Islam that Ataturk had so carefully constructed and deployed -- all of this should cause a few grim conclusions to be drawn in Washington.

To wit:

1) Islam is permanent, Kemalism transient. Islam will always be a threat, as long as it has not been so discredited, so weakened, so tied down, that it cannot again escape from its box.

The lesson of Turkey is that eternal vigilance on behalf of secularism is necessary, and those who have been the beneficiaries of such secularism are foolish not to recognize that it occasionally requires military force (that of the Turkish Army) and constant reinforcement of legal measures taken against the outward expression of Islam as a political and social force, to keep Islam in its place, since it cannot otherwise be dealt with or transmogrified into something less menacing.

2) The Cold War led to some assumptions about Islam which were false. The Americans did not know anything about Islam (and still that government knows very little). But they knew that Islam was incompatible with Communism, and that was good enough for them. They knew that the Turks they were likely to meet, the members of the Defense Ministry in Ankara, were stout fellows, secular, just the kind you could trust. In the same way, they "knew" that Iraq under "strongman" (that was his heroic epithet, until his mutilated corpse was dragged through the streets of Baghdad following the 1958 coup) Nuri al-Said, or Nuri Pasha, would stoutly be on "our" side and was therefore a linchpin in that ill-conceived CENTO (which died a natural death after that 1958 coup). They "knew" that the Shah was Our Man in Teheran, a "pillar of stability" (as Jimmy Carter called him, in making a toast to his regime). They "knew" that those Sandhurst-educated, ramrod-straight, delightly, almost Terry-Thomasly mustachioed Pakistani generals were, like those Turkish generals, "our sort," and could be trusted to help us in the world-wide Campaign Against Communism, and so much more trustworthy than those slithery Indian leftists, with that Krishna Menon, and that pious Fabian-tainted Jawaharlal Nehru, still smelling of bouquets of flowers that bedecked him at Bandung.

And every single time the Americans have made an investment in a Muslim country, a Muslim regime, the good faith of Muslim people, the permanence and the unhindered use of a military base put up at great expense, by the Americans, they have been disappointed. The Moroccan base, the Wheelus Air Base outside Tripoli, the bases in Saudi Arabia -- all gone, or going. The hopes for permanent bases in Iraq, in Kuwait, in Qatar are the fantasies of people who would save themselves a lot of time, and the taxpayers a lot of money, and the Infidel world a lot of heartache, if they only realized this.

It is too late to do what should and could have been done back in 1978 -- demanding that Sadat allow America to stay in the Sinai, both to guarantee the peace and to take over those Israeli-built airbases in a region smack dab in the center of the Middle East, yet largely unpopulated by hostile locals (and with friendly Israelis nearby for R and R, and medical care, and supplies). It is not too late to figure out that wherever there is Islam, sooner or later there will always be hostility to Infidels, and the more powerful those Infidels, the more unwilling those Infidels are to bend to the dictates of Islam, the more hostility there will be.

3) The lesson of Turkey should be applied to Iran. Within a year, or two, or three, it is possible that the hideous Islamic Republic of Iran will fall. And it will be followed by a government reflecting the widespread disgust, in Iran, with Islam as a political force, and even with Islam, period. There may be those who will publicly embrace Zoroastrianism, not out of deep belief but out of a desire to be something, anything, other than Muslim -- and why not the original, pre-Islamic belief that has the sheen of Persian history about it, in the same way that Firdowsi is treated as a nationalist hero for helping, linguistically, to prevent the arabization of Iran and the disappearance of Farsi.

But again, no one should assume that Iran is permanently de-Islamized. Islam will come back, inevitably. And that is why Iran must, whether or not it seems to favor Islam, has to have its nuclear project removed -- because Islam is a permanent threat to Infidels, and no country, with a history of Islamic rule, can be trusted to have permanently put paid to Islam. In Turkey, after 80 years of a systematic attempt to constrain and weaken Islam, Muslim attitudes toward non-Muslims have come back, in a big way. That is the assumption that Infidels must make about Iran as well.

In other words, there can not be any let up in wariness, no let up in what should be a relentless and imaginative campaign to exploit all fissures, all internecine warfare, all resentments, within dar al-Islam. Jihadists have carefully exploited such pre-existing mental conditions as antisemitism and anti-Americanism, not least to split asunder the two parts of the West -- Europe and America.

Two can play that game. But the Infidel side has not even begun. If it had, it would be using Iraq as a point to exploit the Sunni-Shi'a fissure, instead of attempting, crazily, to patch things up and make sure the Shi'a do not respond. And Iraq is the perfect place as well, by promoting an independent Kurdistan, to begin to let other non-Arab Muslims (such as Berbers in North Africa) begin to have hope that the Arab supremacist ideology within Islam can, in fact, be overcome.

These are both worth pursuing. But the spirit of geopolitics, grand strategy, the kind of thing that would have been obvious to any schoolboy in the age of Alfred Thayer Mahan or Sir Halford Mackinder, is now regarded as unseemly, not the kind of thing nice graduate students taking solemn seminars in "International Relations" at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, or the Georgetown Foreign Service Institute, or the Johns Hopkins Center for International Whateveritis, are likely to do -- it smacks of Olden Days, and wallmaps with pins on them, and mad generals and crazed strategists, when we all know that the world has changed utterly, and we all need to find ways of Getting to Yes, in the time-honored manner of -- oh, I don't know, Roger Fisher or Tariq Ramadan or Rodney King or Kofi Annan or the "International Community" or the Easter Bunny, it hardly matters.

Why not?

Dhimmitude at the Wall Street Journal: the Journal touts MPAC

The Wall Street Journal has shown some disturbing dhimmi tendencies in the past, but it really takes the cake today with a puff piece by George Melloan on the Muslim Public Affairs Council. (WSJ is a paid subscription site, so no link.) In it, Melloan says:

Muhammad was a different kind of prophet also in the sense that he was temporal ruler as well, building his political base in Medina and then conquering the Arab city that had once rejected him, Mecca. After his death, in June 632 by traditional account, Arabs rapidly built an empire stretching from the gates of the Mediterranean to the far side of India, spreading Islam as they went. On the whole, they were tolerant of Christians and Jews in the lands they conquered, acknowledging that all three religions claimed the same origins....

Here's an antidote to that old chestnut. But the WSJ has not come precisely to praise Islamic tolerance, but to sing the glories of the Muslim Public Affairs Council:

A group called the Muslim Public Affairs Council is trying to promote better relations between Muslims and law-enforcement agencies. To that end it has launched its own counterterrorism and civil-rights campaign, working with imams at mosques, Muslim community leaders, law-enforcement agencies and the media. Their credo: "It is our duty as American Muslims to protect our country and to contribute to its betterment."

The executive director of MPAC is Salam al-Marayati, a Baghdad-born former chemical engineer long engaged in Democratic politics in Los Angeles. He and two colleagues, Ahmed Younis and Edina Lekovic, dropped by the Journal's New York office last week to talk about their project. Ms. Lekovic, a Montenegrin by ancestry, is the group's spokeswoman. Mr. Younis, national director, has studied in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Cuba. He wrote a book titled "Voir Dire (Speak the Truth)," discussing the blending of American culture and Islamic values, while studying law at Washington and Lee University.

Mr. al-Marayati is relatively upbeat about the status of Muslims in the U.S., particularly in comparison to Europe. "In Europe, they tend to become 'ghettoized' because they are never really accepted," he said. In the U.S., Muslims are more easily assimilated and find it easier to work within the system....

Mr. al-Marayati apparently has had his moments of alienation as well, judging from a 1999 article by Daniel Pipes, a frequent critic of Islamists, that called him an extremist. But in a speech at the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism last fall, the MPAC director asserted: "We reject using Islam as an instrument of political change."

Six years of the kind of history the world has logged since 1999 can change a man. The MPAC group clearly sees it as the wisest choice for American Muslims not only to come to terms with the society of which they are a part, but to actively participate in the struggle against religious extremism. They are well aware of their vulnerability to anti-Muslim sentiments and of the opportunities the liberal U.S. political system offers them for combating that danger....

I once had a memorable exchange with Salam Al-Maryati on the Michael Medved Show, and I wrote this about MPAC in an article refuting their all-out attack on Steve Emerson:

For months now, MPAC has been touting its new “National Anti-Terrorism Campaign” (NATC), garnering uncritical publicity in the media and even praise from government officials. The Campaign’s glossy brochure proclaims that “It is our duty as American Muslims to protect our country and to contribute to its betterment.” But like the old Whip Inflation Now campaign of the Ford Administration, the NATC is long on style and short on substance. It recommends, for example, that “All activities within the mosque and Islamic centers should be authorized by legitimate, acknowledged leadership…” That sounds great until one realizes that if a mosque is involved in terrorist activity, it is most likely with the complicity of mosque leadership — as per the Naqshbandi Sufi leader Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani’s 1999 testimony before a State Department Open Forum that eighty percent of American mosques were controlled by extremists.[1] The rest of MPAC’s recommendations are in the same vein, appearing to be more concerned about misbehavior by non-Muslim law enforcement officials in mosques than about the possibility of terrorist activity in those mosques. WIN buttons are one thing, but the consequences of false advertising by MPAC are much more deadly. Now with the publication of this new report, MPAC’s counterterrorism agenda seems to boil down to one substantive point: Steve Emerson, not Islamic terrorism, is the enemy....

Of course, when the MPAC report charges that “Emerson’s lack of precision leads him to conflate legitimate organizations that can help America and secure the homeland with others that are neither genuinely American nor transparent,” it becomes clear why MPAC is in such a froth about Emerson: because of what he knows about MPAC itself. In American Jihad, Emerson notes that when Abdurrahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council, who is now serving a 23-year prison sentence for a terrorism financing conviction, encouraged the Muslim crowd at an October 2000 rally cosponsored by MPAC to declare their support of the jihad terror groups Hamas and Hizballah, “MPAC’s Political Advisor, Mahdi Bray, stood directly behind Alamoudi and was seen jubilantly exclaiming his support for these two deadly terrorist organizations.” This was just three weeks after Bray “coordinated and led a rally where approximately 2,000 people congregated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.” Emerson reports that “at one point during the rally, Mahdi Bray played the tambourine as one of the speakers sang, while the crowd repeated: ‘Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is calling us, let’s all go into jihad, and throw stones at the face of the Jews [sic].’”[18]

There is much more. Emerson’s Investigative Project has documented MPAC’s indefatigable and consistent opposition to the war on terror; its magazine The Minaret has dismissed key anti-terror operations as part of “[t]he American crusade against Islam and Muslims.”[19] Emerson has called attention to the fact that in a book called In Fraternity: A Message to Muslims in America, coauthor Hassan Hathout, who has served as MPAC’s President, is identified as “a close disciple of the late Hassan al-Banna of Egypt.”[20] MPAC’s magazine The Minaret spoke of Hassan Hathout’s closeness to al-Banna in a 1997 article: “My father would tell me that Hassan Hathout was a companion of Hassan al-Banna…Hassan Hathout would speak of al-Banna with such love and adoration; he would speak of a relationship not guided by politics or law but by a basic sense of human decency.”[21]

This is noteworthy because Hassan al-Banna founded the prototypical Muslim radical group of the modern age, the Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt in 1928. The Brotherhood is the direct ancestor of both Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Al-Banna wrote in 1934 that “it is a duty incumbent on every Muslim to struggle towards the aim of making every people Muslim and the whole world Islamic, so that the banner of Islam can flutter over the earth and the call of the Muezzin can resound in all the corners of the world: God is greatest [Allahu akbar]! This is not parochialism, nor is it racial arrogance or usurpation of land.”[22] He told his followers: “Islam is faith and worship, a country and a citizenship, a religion and a state. It is spirituality and hard work. It is a Qur’an and a sword.”[23]

Do Hassan Hathout and MPAC also believe in “a Qur’an and a sword”? What Emerson and the Investigative Project have uncovered about them suggests at very least that the group should receive serious scrutiny. The fact that MPAC has singled out Emerson for such a focused and singular attack only lends credence to these suspicions. For how better to obscure the message than to discredit the messenger?

It is disheartening to see the Wall Street Journal putting on the blinkers and falling for MPAC.

Dubai: Teachers object to book showing Jewish children

Why? Because the book was called "Friends Forever," and thus seemed to suggest that Muslims should become friends to Jews. From the Khaleej Times, with thanks to Teri:

DUBAI — Education authorities here have promised to review a book taught in an international private school that features a photograph of two Jewish children sporting plaited hair and yarmulke.

Dr Obaid Butti Al Mohiri, the Director of Curriculums Centre at the Ministry of Education, said he would order the withdrawal of the book for primary Class I of the Dubai International School if the complaints raised were found genuine.

Several teachers of the school telephoned Khaleej Times, complaining against the picture, captioned ‘We play together; we stick together’, featured in the book Friends Forever. The teachers said that of all the pictures in the book, the students reacted sharply to only this picture.

"O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk." — Qur'an 5:51

West has little clue about Islam, says don

Muhammad Abu Layla plays us for dummies, or dhimmis. It would be refreshing if he would bother to explain to his fellow Muslims, the jihad terrorists around the world, how they have misunderstood Islam. From the Star Online, with thanks to Nicolei:

KOTA KINABALU: Islam continues to be one of the most misunderstood religions due to its misrepresentation in the Western media, a prominent Islamic scholar said.

Al-Azhar University professor Muhammad Abu Layla said the religion followed by 1.3 billion people had constantly been wrongly portrayed by the western media.

“It is unfortunate when we hear that Islam encourages terrorism,” he said in his talk titled “The Misunderstood Religion” during a special session at the International CEO conference here.

Prof Muhammad said even the term jihad had been misunderstood, as the common perception of it was that of an armed struggle.

“Jihad has never meant to hold the sword. It is instead to initiate efforts to be peaceful, to protect the weak,” he added.

Prof Muhammad said those who propagate violence in the name of Islam were only twisting it to suit their needs.

Let's see. Jihad was never meant to hold the sword, eh? Yet there are over a hundred verses in the Qur’an that exhort believers to wage jihad against unbelievers. “O Prophet! Strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be firm against them. Their abode is Hell, an evil refuge indeed” (Sura 9:73). “Strive hard” in Arabic is jahidi, a verbal form of the noun jihad. This striving was to be on the battlefield: “When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly” (Qur’an 47:4). This is emphasized repeatedly: “O ye who believe! Fight the unbelievers who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you: and know that Allah is with those who fear Him” (Qur’an 9:123).

“Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them captive, and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is forgiving, merciful” (Qur’an 9:5). The “poor-due” in this verse is zakat, which is a central obligation for Muslims. Thus the verse is saying that if the “idolaters” become Muslims, leave them alone.

Jews and Christians were to be fought along with “idolaters”: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29).

Paradise is guaranteed to those who “slay and are slain” for Allah: “Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth” (Qur’an 9:111).

One may attempt to spiritualize such verses, but there is no doubt from the historical record that Muhammad meant them literally.

Google deletes Hamas ad

An update of this story from Ynet News, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Google has removed the Hamas-funded advertisement that linked to the website of the terror organization's military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, following Ynet’s inquiry into the matter.

Internet surfers who entered the word “Hamas” in Arabic in the Google search engine, viewed, in addition to the search results, an AdWord message that linked directly to the website of the organization’s military faction Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades....

Google Spokeswoman Debbie Frost said the advertisement was a breach of the search engine’s policy and was therefore removed.

"Since 9/11 we have to bend over backwards for them"

Al-Muhajiroun in New York. "Defending Terrorism: Interview with Kristine Withers," from the Global Politician, with thanks to Nicolei:

Kristine Withers claims to have been assaulted by the Islamic Thinkers' Society, a group she says is likely tied to Al-Muhajiroun, which is a radical Islamic group that is believed to have worked with Al-Qaeda. The following is our conversation about ongoing threats to her from the group, and charges that have been brought against her by the group.

Ryan Mauro: First of all, Kristine, what got you involved in looking at the activities of these Islamic protesters you are warning about?

Kristine Withers: I noticed a group of Muslim men, demonstrating against the War on Terror and advocating the pro-fundamentalist Islam view, about 6 months after 9/11/01. I could not help notice them because they were demonstrating a block from me, which is also a busy commercial area for the Islamic-Hindu merchants, in an area I frequent because of the stores and transportation (to get to the subway). They had signs showing the 9/11 tragedy and were handing out brochures advocating fundamentalist Islamic. Upon research, based upon their literature, I found out they were connected with the Al-Muhajiroun group. At that time their brochure contained web links to that fundamentalist websites. I notified the NYPD anti terrorist taskforce, and this group disappeared.

Then around late May of 2003 I noticed the same people were out demonstrating again in the same area. They also knew who I was. I again notified the NYPD, and was told they had a permit. I went to my councilmen, and was ignored. Little by little their space grew with more and more signs, Television and stereo equipment. The crowds around them started to grow. I observed them to gain more information, but that let to verbal sparring with them. I admit it was a bad tactic, but I was genuinely offended that the people that were declaring war against my country, and western civilization, were there to recruit potential terrorist.

RM: Can you describe how you've been threatened and in your view, treated unfairly?

KW: My friend and I were walking our dogs, when we heard some loud voices. As we walked the voices became clearer, then we saw the a group of Islamic men demonstration. They had a loud amplifiers, they were about 3 feet tall, that was blaring out something in Arabic. The reason this caught my attention was because the week before, when I spoke to my State Senator, he informed me that they were not permitted to have sound equipment. I gave my dogs to my friend so she could take them home. I crossed the street to call the police, then I went over to the group, to inform them that I believed they were overstepping their permit, because of the sound system and because they were on both sides of the street. As I crossed to them, I observed their placards on the street (typical al-Muhajiroun stuff : US the real terrorist, oppose the war on terror, God hates the US because they have Homosexuals, restoration of the Caliphate, pictures of Abu Gharab, 9/11 pictures saying it was justified, etc..) Anyway I knocked down one of the signs, (the unaltered abu Gharab pictures, which showed naked people), next thing I know I was engaged in a verbal yelling match with them, they started threatening me and knocked me down. During this period (approx.. 20 mins before the police arrived) I turned down the rest of the signs, and held off a growing angry crowd of mad Muslims. They were telling me how wicked America and I was. A member of the group was also telling me, "we will kill you", and "next time we will get all of NYC". A man punched me in the face, knocking of my glasses. These were not just a group of individuals. These people (that started the demonstration) were men in their 20's who were radicalized, mostly from the Mid-East, who were controlled by one elder man. They had great discipline that you would not see in just a mob. They were also videotaping this whole incident, with the elder man shouting "film this, it will get us more recruits." Any way the police came finally. After a few minutes finding out about the incident, they took me away alone. This even after I informed them that I was assaulted, a fact which was verified by a few witnesses. When I asked the officer why they did not bring the people who assaulted me in, I was told that "since 9/11 we have to bend over backwards for them."

Since that incident I have had other run-ins with them, been assaulted and threatened, but each time the police take me away.

RM: What group was behind the protests and what leads you to suspect them of being tied to radical Islamists?

KW: The group calls itself the The Islamic Thinkers Society. They fly the Al-Muhajiroun, and use Al-Muhajiroun tracts.

RM: And what is so significant about their ties to Al-Muhajiroun?

KW: Al-Muhajiroun is a group which advocates the control of society based on the rule of a Universal Caliphate, and ruled by Islamic law, the shiara. As a member said "we do not seek to coexist with other religions in America, we seek to dominate them". They want to see Islamic rule imposed worldwide. In their propaganda they portray Islam as an ideology, and an alternative to Democracy. They advocate the advancement of their goal by violence and terrorism. One of their members were a part of the team that conducted the 9/11 attacks. They also advocate the self imposition of Sharia in neighborhoods where they are the majority....Another reason that I find Al-Muhajiroun
dangerous is their ability to recruit new adherents, especially among the youth whom they aim their recruitment at. They accomplish this by knowing how to manipulate the system, and take advantage of political correctness. This allows them to recruit openly, while they form a core of true believers in their closed meetings to be used for their Jihad.

RM: Can you explain the reaction of law enforcement to your information?

KW: I cannot explain the reaction of the police, which is what I would describe as apathy and fear. I cannot explain why they would allow a group, which has links to groups which killed fellow officers, to recruit and propagandize our enemies cause. The only logical reasons, in my opinion, would be one of three. First: fear of lawsuits. This precinct (the 115th) was almost sued by a group of Muslims, because they treated the Koran with disrespect when they arrested illegal vendors. Second: political correctness....Three: Political and Police graft. The local politician, Helen Sears, is beholding to the large indo/Muslim merchants, who are represented by the Jackson Heights Merchants Association. Either way it must be seen as corruption or incompetence. This group has such a clear connection with terrorist groups that to allow them to recruit and operate is clearly collusion. This is especially surprising from the NYPD which experienced an attack by these people....They are trying to spread their Islamic Fundamentalist propaganda, as well as recruit members. They use the cover of religious tolerance to spread their political message....

Read it all.

Turkey Shrugs Off Success of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'

Turkey's Hitler Fan Club update, from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's government Monday played down soaring sales of Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") and said there were no racists in the large Muslim country.

Booksellers say "Mein Kampf," or "Kavgam" in Turkish, has featured among the top 10 bestsellers in the past two months, to the dismay of the country's small Jewish community and of the German embassy in Ankara.

Asked to comment on the phenomenon, government spokesman Cemil Cicek said: "We cannot allow prejudice against people for belonging to a certain race."

"We have never had such an attitude in our culture, nor in our history, and we do not have it now ... It's not possible for people to choose their races ... Turkish society's idea about this issue is clear. There is no racism in this country."...

Gee, Cemil, that's great. Have you ever thought about applying for the job of Iraqi Information Minister? Oh, and by the way, I suppose there are no trees in Turkey, either, eh?

Anti-Semitism has traditionally been weak in Turkey, a Muslim but secular country that has forged close security ties with Israel in recent years.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire offered refuge to Jews and other minorities fleeing persecution in Europe from the time of the Spanish Inquisition onwards.

That last paragraph is a textbook example of a beast that is slain in a volume called The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.

Political analysts say "Mein Kampf" probably reflects rising nationalism and anti-American sentiment rather than anti-Semitism or specific support for Hitler and his ideas.

Why, of course. These sweet, tolerant Turks couldn't possibly be indulging anti-Semitic, Hitlerian thoughts. After all, the Ottoman Empire was tolerant.

Many Turks are worried their country is having to make too many concessions to the European Union as it prepares for the start of long-delayed entry talks later this year.

There is also widespread anger about the U.S. occupation of neighboring Iraq.

Yeah, I can see how those things would drive people to read Mein Kampf. Why, just yesterday I was in a bookstore and I heard someone say: "I am so upset about the new earthquakes in Southeast Asia that I am going to buy a copy of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'"

The current No. 1 bestseller in Turkey, ahead of "Mein Kampf," is "Metal Storm," which depicts a U.S. invasion of the country. The Turkish hero avenges his homeland by destroying Washington with a nuclear device.

I am going to get one of my Turkish-speaking contacts to translate that one into English: it will be a sure bestseller among certain segments of the American voting public.

ADDENDUM: Andrew Bostom has just kindly sent in this illuminating background information:

• In Adolf Boehm's history of the Zionist movement, he depicts in detail the way the Young Turkish leader and Army Commander, Ahmet Cemal (Djemal), reduced the Jewish population of Ottoman Palestine by deportation and massacres, wiping out entire families of Jewish nationalist leaders. Boehm concludes: "If Palestine had not been freed by the English at the end of 1917, the Jewish Yishuv (settlement) would have been exterminated by Djemal. By the war's end, it was reduced to 55,000 souls, that is, half of the pre-war population." [Boehm, Adolf: The Zionist Movement (Die zionististsche Bewegung). Vol. 1: The Zionist Movement until the end of the World War. 2nd, enlarged ed. Tel Aviv: Hozaah Ivrith Co. Ltd., 1935, page 643 ff. Published in German.]

• The Turkish publisher Cevat Rifat Atilhan (1892-1968), who introduced the slogan "Turkey for the Turks!" was an ardent Nazi and Jew hater, and an admirer of Julius Streicher.

• The myth of the universal omnipotence of Jews is still popular in Turkey today and was publicly reiterated on August 17, 2004, in an article in the Turkish newspaper "Vakit." The author, a writer named Karakoc, praised both Hitler and Osama bin Laden for their fight against the alleged Jewish/Israeli threat.

Afghanistan: Campaign against "anti-Islamic" TV stations

Sharia alert from the Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss Department in Afghanistan: "Conservatives wage new campaign against 'anti-Islamic' TV stations," from Reporters Without Borders, with thanks to the Norwegian Kafir:

Reporters Without Borders today called on President Hamid Karzai to take a clear and definitive public stance in support of cable television and diversity in the broadcast media in response to a new wave of pressure from conservatives, especially the Ulema Council led by supreme court president Fazl Hadi Shinwari, for a ban on "anti-Islamic" TV stations. The Ulema Council asked the government on 13 March to make the country's state and privately-owned TV stations stop broadcasting "immoral and anti-Islamic" programmes. Around 100 of the council's members meeting in Kabul singled out the only privately-owned broadcast station, Tolo TV, for criticism.

One representative of the Council told Pajhwok Afghan News agency : "We have decided this in accordance with the constitution and we have also called for a ban on telecasts which have dances as this is absolutely contrary to the Sharia." Article 3 of the constitution says no law can be contrary to the Sharia, while article 34 protects freedom of expression.

Germany: College Launches Disputed Islamic Program

From Deutsche Welle, with thanks to the Norwegian Kafir:

Frankfurt University is the most recent German college to launch an Islamic studies program. But it's already under fire for working closely with Turkey's state religion authority....

Mehmet Emin Köktas and two professors of Protestant theology have been working on the curriculum for two years. Köktas, a Turk, is able to teach in Frankfurt thanks to an agreement signed between the university and the Turkish Presidium for Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

Criticism followed public announcement of the cooperation, alleging Turkey meant to use the new degree program to influence the training of Islamic scholars in Germany. But its supporters vehemently deny the Turkish state plays any role in the project.

Diyanet, however, is a state agency, and it represents Sunni Islam as taught in secular Turkey, a modern, non-fundamentalist form of Islam -- but that is strictly controlled by the government.

But the dean of the university's Protestant theology department, Stefan Alkier, can't understand the criticism of the cooperation with Diyanet. On the contrary, he's pleased that the deal to fund the position brought a renowned Islamic scholar to his faculty.

"We could have carried out the course of studies with our own resources, but it's much more interesting for students that we have Muslim professors," Alkier said. He stressed that Diyanet has no direct influence on who is appointed to the position.

Hmmm. It seems that American universities aren't the only ones susceptible to the lure of Islamic money.

Islamic teachers suspended for praising essay on killing Jews

But would they have been suspended, or even reprimanded, and would the principal have been shocked, shocked!, if reporters hadn't discovered this essay to begin with? From The Telegraph, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Two teachers at an Islamic school in Canada who praised a pupil's essay about killing Jews with hand grenades and machine guns have been suspended for allegedly inciting racial hatred. The pupil, who has not been identified, illustrated his creative writing assignment, which was written in Arabic, by drawing a picture of a Star of David in flames next to a machine gun. He also drew a Palestinian flag on top of the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. Claims that the essay was put on display in a glass case at the entrance of the school, in Ottawa, are being investigated.

The boy's story told of a fictitious "hero", Ahmed Yassin, born in Gaza two weeks after Israel assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a co-founder of the terrorist organisation, Hamas. One passage describes how, watched by a friend called Salah, Ahmed attacks Jewish soldiers with a gun and bombs.

"Without thinking, Ahmed took his M16 machine gun and threw the bombs, and he showered the Jews; this resulted in the killing of the soldiers," the story reads. "Salah said: 'You killed them all.' Ahmed answered: 'Praise be to God'."

At the end of the story, the boy's fictitious heroes say: "We promise God and the heroes of Al-Aqsa that we will continue the path, we will continue in spite of the difficulties and the hardships until the victory of the martyrdom, we will not surrender; we will fight for the sake of God until the end."

The essay drew praise from one of the teachers of Arabic at the Abraar Islamic School, who wrote on the story: "God bless you, your efforts are good. The story of the hero Ahmed and the hero Salah is still alive. The end will be soon when God unites us all in Jerusalem to pray there." The teacher's name has not been released.

It is unclear how long the story was on display before it was brought to the attention of The Ottawa Citizen newspaper, which obtained two translations of the story before confronting the school. The headmistress, Aisha Sherazi, who is originally from Wimbledon, in south-west London, said that the school was "extremely shocked, disturbed and concerned" about the boy's story.

Google advertises Hamas

From Ynet News, with thanks to Alain:

Terror organizations are advancing their recruitment and public relations methods: Internet surfers who enter the word “Hamas” in Arabic in the Google search engine, will view, in addition to the search results, an AdWord message that links directly to the website of the organization’s military faction Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The link also appears in a search of several other words, such as the “Gaza,” “Palestine,” “Jihad.”

This indicates that a Hamas source has paid Google, the most popular search engine on the web, for the advertisement.

Instructions for a dhimmi

"How to Influence Muslim Minds and Capture the Arab Hearts" is the title of this piece by Ibtissam Al-Bassam in Arab News (thanks to Skeetstreet), but a better title might be "How to Flatter Muslim Minds and Cater to Arab Hearts." Dina Powell is going to the Middle East, and when she's there, she better not criticize anything:

Since Arabs have little tolerance for people who criticize their faith or disparage their culture, Mrs. Powell should refrain from any criticism of the way Arab and Muslim men women and children eat, live, think or dress. She should avoid stating, or insinuating that Western values are superior to Muslim and Arab values. She should never recommend that they exchange their cherished identity for a Western one.

Smile and play the dhimmi, Ms. Powell, and you will be beloved all over the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia: Makeshift Hindu temple razed, three worshippers deported

From the Malaysian Manorama, with thanks to Twostellas:

Riyadh: Saudi religious police have destroyed a clandestine makeshift Hindu temple in an old district of Riyadh and deported three worshippers found there, a newspaper reported.

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, Thursday stumbled across a room converted into a temple while raiding a number of flats suspected of being used to manufacture alcohol and distribute pornographic videos, pan-Arab Al-Hayat said.

"They were surprised to find that one room had been converted into a Hindu temple," it said.

A caretaker who was found in the worshipping area ignored the religious police orders to stop performing his religious rituals, the paper added. He was deported along with two other men who arrived on the scene to worship. All forms of non-Muslim worship are banned in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest shrines.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an advisory panel, last month urged the US government to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia, as well as Vietnam and Eritrea, for violating religious rights....

And has the US government complied? Yet?

Iran: six demonstrators killed; arrested female soccer protesters to be lashed

And the worldwide media maintains a respectful dhimmi silence. "Official death toll rises from Iranian soccer protests; Arrested female soccer protesters to be lashed," from the Student Movement for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI)

At least six demonstrators were killed in the Greater Tehran and several other in some of the riots which rocked cities, such as, Khoram-Abad, Esfahan, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Sari, Ardabil, Babol, Rasht, Mashad, Hamedan, Mahabad and Oroomiah (former Rezai-e) due to popular demonstrations which happened following Iran's win over Japan in the frame of the qualification games for the 2006 Soccer World cup. Tens of other have been severely injured and some are in critical conditions.

Brutal militiamen were seen using clubs, chains and knives against demonstrators with the firm intention to kill anyone standing against the regime. Several female protesters were seen beaten to death in Guisha and Fatemi as they took off their veils.

Islamic regime's propaganda tools, such as, the official so-called "Iran Students News Agency" (ISNA) have qualified some of these deaths as due to "having been trampled under the spectators' feet" or "Dying of heart attack due to excitement". Foreign news agencies, such as, Reuters, AP, Xinhua or AFP have ignored the existence of street riots while echoeing the official version due most likely of fear of seeing their correspondents expelled or due to their financement by major lobby groups interested in continuing business with the Islamic republic....

Arrested female demonstrators are to be lashed for their "un-Islamic behavior" before getting released. Such decision has been announced to some of the families who have searched for their missing members arrested following yesterday's Soccer riots....

Family members are afraid about the consequences of the methodic barbarian lashing punishment on the health of the arrested demonstrators who are mostly slim due to their often young age. The Islamic regime is applying the backwarded Islamic Sharia Law by which stoning, mutilation, amputation, lashing or eye for eye punishments are promoted....

A Muslim Umma, But No Christian Community: Grim Observations at Eastertide

In The Spectator, Anthony Browne, European correspondent for The Times of London and a man with whom I once had the great pleasure of appearing on BBC Radio along with the illustrious jihadist leader Omar Bakri, reports on the world-wide persecution of Christians, beginning with post-Saddam Iraq (thanks to Mark Durie for the link):

For most citizens of Iraq, the invasion meant the end of tyranny. For one group, however, it meant a new start: the country’s historic Christian community. When the war stopped, persecution by Islamists, held in check by Saddam, started.

At a church in Basra I visited a month after the war ended, the women complained of attacks against them for not wearing the Islamic veil. I saw many Christian-owned shops that had been firebombed, with many of the owners killed for exercising their legal right to sell alcohol. Two years and many church attacks later, Iraq may still be occupied by Christian foreign powers, but the Islamist plan to ethnically cleanse Iraq of its nearly 2,000-year-old Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities is reaching fruition.

There is nothing unusual about the persecution of Iraqi Christians, or the unwillingness of other Christians to help them. Rising nationalism and fundamentalism around the world have meant that Christianity is going back to its roots as the religion of the persecuted. There are now more than 300 million Christians who are either threatened with violence or legally discriminated against simply because of their faith — more than any other religion. Christians are no longer, as far as I am aware, thrown to the lions. But from China, North Korea and Malaysia, through India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, they are subjected to legalised discrimination, violence, imprisonment, relocation and forced conversion. Even in supposedly Christian Europe, Christianity has become the most mocked religion, its followers treated with public suspicion and derision and sometimes — such as the would-be EU commissioner Rocco Buttiglione — hounded out of political office....

Browne finds that, despite their power, Christian states or peoples seem remarkably unwilling to use any of that power or strength in defense of oppressed fellow Christians:

While Muslims openly help other Muslims, Christians helping Christians has become as taboo as jingoistic nationalism....

But just as Christian-majority armies control Iraq as it ethnically cleanses itself of its Christian community, so the power of Christian countries is of little help to the Christian persecuted where most Christians now live: the Third World.

Across the Islamic world, Christians are systematically discriminated against and persecuted. Saudi Arabia — the global fountain of religious bigotry — bans churches, public Christian worship, the Bible and the sale of Christmas cards, and stops non-Muslims from entering Mecca. Christians are regularly imprisoned and tortured on trumped-up charges of drinking, blaspheming or Bible-bashing, as some British citizens have found. Just last month, furthermore, Saudi Arabia announced that only Muslims can become citizens.

The Copts of Egypt make up half the Christians in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity. They inhabited the land before the Islamic conquest, and still make up a fifth of the population. By law they are banned from being president of the Islamic Republic of Egypt or attending Al Azhar University, and severely restricted from joining the police and army. By practice they are banned from holding any high political or commercial position. Under the 19th-century Hamayouni decrees, Copts must get permission from the president to build or repair churches — but he usually refuses. Mosques face no such controls.

This is in full accord with Sharia provisions forbidding Christians to build or repair churches -- and yet learned commentators still maintain that Sharia is only found today in Saudi Arabia and Iran. And that's true in terms of full implementation -- but Christians still suffer in various ways as dhimmis all over the Islamic world. Read on:

Government-controlled TV broadcasts anti-Copt propaganda, while giving no airtime to Copts. It is illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity, but legal for Christians to convert to Islam. Christian girls — and even the wives of Christian priests — are abducted and forcibly converted to Islam, recently prompting mass demonstrations. A report by Freedom House in Washington concludes: ‘The cumulative effect of these threats creates an atmosphere of persecution and raises fears that during the 21st century the Copts may have a vastly diminished presence in their homelands.’

Fr Drew Christiansen, an adviser to the US Conference of Bishops, recently conducted a study which stated that ‘all over the Middle East, Christians are under pressure. “The cradle of Christianity” is under enormous pressure from demographic decline, the growth of Islamic militancy, official and unofficial discrimination, the Iraq war, the Palestinian Intifada, failed peace policies and political manipulation.’

In the world’s most economically successful Muslim nation, Malaysia, the world’s only deliberate affirmative action programme for a majority population ensures that Muslims are given better access to jobs, housing and education. In the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, some 10,000 Christians have been killed in the last few years by Muslims trying to Islamify the Moluccas.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, most of the five million Christians live as an underclass, doing work such as toilet-cleaning. Under the Hudood ordinances, a Muslim can testify against a non-Muslim in court, but a non-Muslim cannot testify against a Muslim. Blasphemy laws are abused to persecute Christians. In the last few years, dozens of Christians have been killed in bomb and gun attacks on churches and Christian schools.

In Nigeria, 12 states have introduced Sharia law, which affects Christians as much as Muslims. Christian girls are forced to wear the Islamic veil at school, and Christians are banned from drinking alcohol. Thousands of Christians have been killed in the last few years in the ensuing violence....

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Barnabas Trust, which helps persecuted Christians, blames rising global religious tension. ‘More and more Christians are seen as the odd ones out — they are seen as transplants from the West, and not really trusted. It is getting very much worse.’...

You get the gist. Dr Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Centre for Religious Freedom in Washington, estimates that there are 200 million Christians who face violence because of their faith, and 350 million who face legally sanctioned discrimination in terms of access to jobs and housing. The World Evangelical Alliance wrote in a report to the UN Human Rights Commission last year that Christians are ‘the largest single group in the world which is being denied human rights on the basis of their faith’....

But the BBC, despite being mainly funded by Christians, is an organisation that promotes ridicule of the Bible, while banning criticism of the Koran. Dr Marshall said: ‘Christians are seen as Europeans and Americans, which means you get a lack of sympathy which you would not get if they were Tibetan Buddhists.’...

To this day, while Muslims stick up for their co-religionists, Christians — beyond a few charities — have given up such forms of discrimination. Dr Sookhdeo said: ‘The Muslims have an Ummah [the worldwide Muslim community] whereas Christians do not have Christendom. There is no Christian country that says, “We are Christian and we will help Christians.”’...

Today is a good day to read the entire article. And to give it to others to read.

Safety of Muslim VCU professor discussed

From the Times-Dispatch (thanks to Twostellas), more on the continuing saga of Amina Wadud, a Muslim woman had the temerity to lead a prayer service in New York City, thereby angering male Muslims the world over, and raising murderous ire in some.

Virginia Commonwealth University officials met yesterday to discuss concerns about the safety and security of a female professor of Islamic studies who defied Islamic tradition by leading a prayer service that included men and women.

The professor, Amina Wadud, has been threatened and sharply criticized in many parts of the Islamic world since the March 18 prayer service in New York that was attended by an estimated 80 to 100 people, about half of whom were men. Traditionally, Muslim women do not lead prayers in a mosque, and they pray separately from men.

Wadud called in sick yesterday, according to Pamela D. Lepley, director of university news services. Wadud's home telephone has a security system that permits only calls from approved numbers to go through, and she could not be reached for comment last night.

Lepley said the discussions at yesterday's "debriefing" focused on Wadud's security "and the security and safety of the whole institution." She added that such sessions are routine during high-profile matters.

VCU officials have been in touch with state and federal agencies to be certain "we're all doing what we need to do," Lepley said. She did not elaborate....

The events surrounding Wadud's prayer service come at an unsettling time for VCU.

Last Saturday, a day after Wadud's prayer service, a suicide car bomber struck a theater in Doha, Qatar, about 7 miles from where VCU's Qatar-based College of Design Arts is located.

About 10 faculty members and students from the college were at the Doha Players Theater watching a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" when the bomber struck.

None of the faculty or students was injured "beyond a scrape on an ankle and a bruised shoulder," said Richard E. Toscan, dean of VCU's School of the Arts in Richmond, in a news conference this week.

Lepley said all information so far indicates no link between the car bombing and Wadud's prayer service.

However, VCU has stepped up security on its Qatar campus, as has the Qatar government.

The design college in Qatar, one of the richest nations on earth thanks to oil and natural-gas reserves, has been a godsend to VCU since it was opened in 1998.

Fees paid to VCU by the Qatar Foundation, which provides funding for the school, have provided the resources for a meteoric rise of the Richmond-based School of the Arts to the top tier of arts schools in the United States....

Sudan: Company takes over church property

"Sudan: Company Takes Over Episcopal Church Property: Khartoum judge refuses to enforce court injunction," from Compass Direct, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

March 24 (Compass) -- The Sudanese Arab company claiming ownership of a disputed church property in Khartoum moved into the building last week, ignoring a court injunction barring any alterations or use of the property before a judicial ruling on the case.

Stunned representatives of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) discovered during a March 15 trial hearing before the Khartoum Public Court that the United Al Azra Company had arbitrarily taken possession of their church headquarters and guesthouse, first confiscated at police gunpoint 10 months ago....

Before last week’s hearing began, ECS lawyer Aziza Ismail asked Judge Wahhabi Ibrahim what action had been taken to enforce the court injunction, in response to last month’s court-ordered engineer’s report. The report had confirmed that “extensive repairs” amounting to “a complete renovation” were being made on the property in blatant violation of the court injunction ordered last June.

“What is the problem? Why is the church complaining?” the judge reportedly asked.

“Your honor,” the lawyer replied, “you are letting them trample on the court order. It has been ordered that nothing should be done on this building until you have made your ruling on the case.”

Shrugging off the complaint, the judge commented, “Yes, that is the order of the court. But it is up to me to decide what to do with the fact that the law has been broken.”

Judge Ibrahim brushed aside the church’s request to post a guard at the property, declaring that they should not be worried, “Because in the end, you will get the building back in better shape than it was before!”

Britain's Muslims praised by British Chancellor

Brown needs to revisit the source material. "Britain's Muslims praised by Brown," from the Telegraph, with thanks to Effractor:

Gordon Brown last night paid tribute to British Muslims as "modern heroes" who brought hope and idealism to the country.

The Chancellor said they had contributed to Britain spiritually and economically because Islam was a religion that encouraged fair play, social justice and equality.

Please, Mr. Chancellor, show me where I can find in the Qur'an and Sunnah the idea of equality for non-Muslims.

"Islam teaches us that we are all part of one moral universe, that humanity is intertwined and interlinked like different parts of a human body, reflecting each other's condition. This is a universal moral principle we can all learn from," he said.

Many of Britain's 1.5 million Muslims supported Labour until the Iraq war and the party is now working hard to try to win them back.

"As Chancellor, I want in particular to thank you for the enormous contribution the Muslim community makes to our economy. I have learnt much from your entrepreneurial flair and talent," Mr Brown said in a speech at the Muslim News awards for excellence.

"But the contribution of British Muslims to British life goes far beyond the economic realm."

Mr Brown, whose father was a Church of Scotland minister, praised the teachings of Islam and defined a hero as "someone who has given their life to something bigger than themselves"....

"What we share in common is the belief in fair play, in social justice and in the equality and potential not just of some but of all," he said.

If that is so, why do non-Muslims not enjoy full equality of rights with Muslims in any majority-Muslim state on the planet today?

And they lived happily ever after - maybe

Remember this story?

Here's an update from Israel National News, with thanks to Romy: "Sweden: Gazan Guilty of Kidnapping Children."

An Arab was found guilty today in a Swedish court of kidnapping his children from the country and bringing them to the Gaza Strip.

Ismail Nawaja, of the Gaza Strip kept his children with him from June 2004 until December, when they were taken back to their mother. Nawaja has been detained in Sweden since January.

"In 1492, we lost everything"

Traditional Islamic theology holds that any land that has once belonged to the House of Islam belongs to it forever. That is the ultimate impulse behind the efforts to eradicate Israel, and a growing parallel movement in Spain. "Andalusia's connection," from the Toronto Star:

At the Jamal Islamiya mosque in this seaside town, a Muslim lament of historic proportions is proclaimed in large letters on a framed poster: "In 1492, we lost everything."

For the mosque's leader, and much of the Muslim world, the year marks the traumatic conclusion of Islam's golden age, a time remembered like a collective wound.

It's a period when the last piece of Muslim-held territory in Spain fell to Catholic monarchs, ending almost 800 years of Moorish rule on the Iberian peninsula.

Centuries when poetry, science and architecture flourished under Islamic caliphs expired with bonfires of Arabic manuscripts, mass expulsion and extermination in the Inquisition.

To the east, the Muslim empire of the Ottomans would reign for another four centuries. But many would trace its long decline to the fall of Al Andalus, the Moorish name for Andalusia.

The result is a yearning that today makes Spain, more than any other
European country, a battleground in the name of Islam.

"They stole 500 years of history from us," says Omar Checa Garcia, who heads the Jamal Islamiya mosque and cultural centre. "We want it back, but we don't want revenge."

What does it mean to want it back without wanting revenge? Just restore the Islamic state and there will be no reprisals?

Others are not so accommodating. Osama bin Laden uses what he calls the "tragedy of Al Andalus" as a rallying cry for his deadly brand of Islamic jihad against "the crusaders and Jews."

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri, drew a parallel between the loss of the Iberian peninsula and the struggle of Palestinians.

"We will not accept that the tragedy of Al Andalus be repeated in
Palestine," he said....

On March 11, 2004, a cell of mainly Moroccan extremists, calling themselves "the brigade situated in Al Andalus," detonated 10 bombs that killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains....

Read it all.

Athens opposes 'Arabisation' of Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem

Why are the Palestinian MP's doing this? Because the Greeks are thought to have sold land to (gasp) the Jews! From AFP, with thanks to Charles Martel:

ATHENS (AFP) - The Greek government said it will defend the historical character of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, following Palestinian calls for its "Arabisation."

In Ramallah, on the West Bank, Palestinian MPs -- furious at the alleged sale of Jerusalem land to Jewish investors by the Greek patriarchy -- voted Tuesday for Arab Orthodox Christians to secede from the Greek patriarchy.

They passed a resolution urging the Palestinian Authority to no longer recognise the authority of the Greek Orthodox patriarchy over the Orthodox Arab community.

Denials of the alleged land sale, issued by Greek Patriarch Irineos I in Jerusalem, fell on deaf ears.

A Greek government spokesman, Evangelos Antonaros, said here that the Greek Orthodox patriarchy in Jerusalem had a history spanning centuries, and he believed most of the flock would not want to abandon it.

An investigation into the matter is under way, assisted by Greek foreign ministry experts who arrived in the Old City on Monday.

"Taking the results of the investigation into consideration, we will decide on steps that will defend the patriarchy's historical characteristics," Antonaros said. ...

UK: "porking yard" sign offends Muslims, owner hauled into court

Galloping UK dhimmitude alert. You just can't make up this sort of thing. (But what's an "Asbo"?) "Car Park Sign Asbo 'A Joke' Says Pub Landlord," from the Scotsman, with thanks to plishman:

A man who was made subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Order for putting up a sign saying "porking yard" in his pub car park, because it was offensive to Muslims, today described the court action as "a joke".

Leroy Trought, 42, was given a two-year Asbo at a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Magistrates ordered him to change the wording of the "porking yard" sign at The Swan With Two Necks in St Judes, Bristol, to "parking yard".

He was ordered not to display any signs that may be threatening, abusive or insulting at the pub, which is next to a Somali mosque....

But Mr Trought today said that imposing the Asbo was a joke.

He said the sign was intended to commemorate the large number of butchers' shops that used to be located in the area and he had never intended to cause any offence.

He said: "We ran a competition in the pub to think of a funny name for the car park and one of the customers came up with the name 'the porking yard'.

"I grew up in Bristol so I know that this area has traditionally had a lot of butchers. It was always known as 'pork alley' so 'the porking yard' just seemed to fit.

"There's a butcher across the street that has been here for more than 100 years. It's political correctness gone mad....

That it is, my good man.

Beat manager Adrian Williams, of Avon and Somerset Police, welcomed the Asbo.

He said he had received complaints about the sign from school teachers, community leaders and members of the Somali community.

He said: "We are very pleased that the order has been made following
complaints from the community.

"It shows that this kind of behaviour, which is provocative, will not be tolerated."

Will anything non-Islamic be long tolerated in Britain?

Berlin-Based Hate Preacher Expelled

Anti-dhimmitude in Germany. From Deutsche Welle, with thanks to Cathy J. Palmer:

Invoking new anti-hate legislation, a Berlin court ruled Wednesday that a well-known Turkish religious leader accused of preaching hatred should be extradited to Turkey.

The administrative court in Berlin accused 59-year-old Yacub Tadshi of asking for God's protection for suicide bombers in Israel and Iraq during a rally in the city center in 2004.

That same year, the Muslim preacher of Turkish origin who has lived in Berlin since 1971 used the occasion of an early Ramadan prayer to lash out against native Germans in his Mevlana mosque in Kreuzberg. Tadshi said Germans could only expect the flames of hell for their weird beliefs.

German public TV correspondent Reinhard Laska filmed the Imam's address.

"We were able to show how the Imam insulted all Germans in his Berlin mosque," he said. "He repeatedly said that all Germans were stinking people and doomed to go to hell because they were useless creatures and infidels. His words were all the more shocking as shortly before, the press spokesman of this mosque had told us about the Turks' strong interest in fostering good relations with native Germans. He said it was so important for people of different faiths to share views and live together peacefully - what a lie that turned out to be!"...

A lie? From the press spokesman of a mosque? We're shocked, shocked to hear of such a thing!

Pakistan: Religion Column Restored in Passport

This is what makes for pandemic discrimination against and harassment of Christians in Pakistan. From Arab News, with thanks to Twostellas:

ISLAMABAD, The government of Pakistan has restored the column of religion in passport, said Federal Minister of Defense Rao Sikanader Iqbal here yesterday.

The column identifying the bearer's religious affiliation will be restored to the Pakistani passport, in a bid to avoid a clash with Islamic parties threatening a countrywide strike over the issue....

The move came ahead of a strike called by six-party Islamic alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal to protest the government's policies including the deletion of religion column from the machine readable passports, which were launched late last year.

The Islamists have said the deletion of the column was a deliberate attempt by President Pervez Musharraf to damage the Islamic identity of the 150-million strong overwhelmingly Muslim nation....

Bat Ye'or on radio tonight

The pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, Bat Ye'or, will be on the John Batchelor show tonight at 10:00PM EST (thanks to Jerry Gordon for the notice).

Listen in to hear continuing discussions of Eurabia, which is the title of Bat Ye'or's new book about the encroaching Islamization of Europe.

Go to www.wabcradio.com and listen live tonight.

UPDATE: Bat Ye'or's appearance has been postponed until March 31.

Islamic school suspends teachers over student's hate-filled tale

Caught in the act. From the Ottawa Citizen, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Two teachers at the Abraar Islamic school in Ottawa were suspended yesterday pending an investigation into the encouragement or incitement of hatred against Jews expressed in a young student's violence-laden writing project.

Principal Aisha Sherazi said the seven-member school board and
administration were "shocked" by teacher involvement in the project that was brought to her attention by the Citizen yesterday morning, and decided at an emergency meeting to suspend the instructors.

I'm sure they were shocked, shocked!

One teacher was apparently involved in the artistic production of the eight-page story of killing and martyrdom. Handwritten in Arabic and titled The Long Road, the cover page was illustrated by a drawing of a burning Star of David beside a machine-gun and Palestinian flag atop the Dome of the Rock, an ancient Muslim shrine in Jerusalem.

The other teacher had written comments on the student's paper, praising the boy's story of revenge for the assassination by Israeli forces a year ago of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a co-founder of Hamas, in retaliation for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

"God bless you, your efforts are good," the teacher wrote on the title page.

"The story of the hero Ahmed and the hero Salah is still alive. The end will be soon when God unites us all in Jerusalem to pray there."

On the margins inside the story, the teacher had written a note endorsing the boy's fantasy of a young Ahmed Yassin and his friend, Salah El-Dine, ambushing Israeli soldiers.

"Without thinking, Ahmed took his M16 machine-gun and threw the bombs, and he showered the Jews; this resulted in the killing of the soldiers," the boy's text reads. "Salah said: 'You killed them all.' Ahmed answered: 'Praise be to God.'"

The fantasy heroes are quoted at the end of the story saying: "We promise God and the heroes of Al-Aksa that we will continue the path, we will continue in spite of the difficulties and the hardships until the victory or the martyrdom, we will not surrender; we will fight for the sake of God until the end."

Mrs. Sherazi declined to name the student, for privacy reasons, or the teachers until the investigation is complete. "Then we'll see what action we decide we want to take," she said.

Mrs. Sherazi, a 32-year-old teacher who took over as principal in recent months, does not speak or read Arabic. She expressed surprise about the drawing and the story, even though it had reportedly been displayed in a glass case at the school.

The Citizen obtained two translations of the story before asking the principal about it. She said such a subject was not on the curriculum, but it may have been a submission in a creative writing contest for the Arabic studies class, where students could choose their own topics....

Saudi slavery: Guest Worker May Lose Digits, Toes After Being Tied Up in Bathroom for a Month

From Arab News, with thanks to Twostellas:

JEDDAH, A 25-year-old Indonesian woman who came to Saudi Arabia as a guest worker will have several of her fingers, toes and part of her right foot amputated because of gangrene after being tied up for a month in a bathroom by her Saudi sponsor, who also apparently beat her severely, injuring her eye and knocking several of her teeth out.

The reason given was that the woman, who worked as a maid, had not finished cleaning the house. The Indonesian government is demanding justice as Riyadh police continue to investigate this disgusting crime....

Nour Miyati told Fathallah that her sponsor punished her because she had not finished her housecleaning completely. She also told the official that her hands and feet had been tied up and that she had been imprisoned in a bathroom for a month. She said her sponsor warned her not to talk to police or embassy officials.

The medical report showed that there had been no sexual
assault....

Gee, I guess by comparison to other Saudi slaves, she got off lucky.

All-Arabic Preschool Classes in Swedish City

Fjordman reports on the galloping Islamization of Sweden:

Malmö, Sweden's third largest city, which should be known to those following Muslim immigration to Scandinavia, has now taken another step towards its Islamization: Starting from the fall of 2005, the district of Hyllie will begin education in Arabic only for groups of immigrant preschool children. This seems logical, given that Muslims already make up close to one third of its population, and may well be the majority within a few years as native Swedes are leaving the city in record numbers. The idea is that once the children learn the language of their parents, it will become easier for them to learn Swedish as well. So the Swedish state paying for educating Swedish citizens on Swedish ground in Arabic is somehow supposed to increase integration. The idea is so ridiculous that even the regional newspaper Sydsvenskan is skeptical.

Fitzgerald: The Post's Arab media dhimmitude

Hugh Fitzgerald, the Vice President of the Jihad Watch advisory board, discusses a choice bit of dhimmitude from Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief:

“The US needs to find a way to engage the Arab media, rather than shut down, marginalize, and ostracize news mediums such as Al-Jazeera,” said Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief.

No, we don't have to "engage the Arab media." We should be doing everything we can to "shut down, marginalize, and ostracize news mediums [sic] such as al-Jazeera."

Hundreds of thousands of households in the United States receiving propaganda for the Jihad, for that is what the worldview of Al-Jazeera is all about, is a security threat. Does Rajiv Chandrasekaran speak as one who has studied what Islam teaches, in all of its main canonical texts, or is he one more Tom Friedman, skimming on the surface and, as a mere reporter (not all reporters are mere reporters -- think of Peroncel-Hugoz, or Arnold Hottinger -- but a good many are), who may believe that because he was the Washington Post's "Baghdad bureau chief" (what a satisfying phrase that must be for reporters -- "bureau chief"), he understands things in the Middle East. But without an understanding of what is essentially kept from the superficial Western reporters, with their breathless reports on what happened that day, that hour, an understanding of the deepest wellsprings and promptings of Muslim behavior, of the role of Islam in the life of any Muslim society (simply incomparably more present and vital and overpowering than any that of any other faith, so that Westerners have a hard time understanding just how omnipresent Islam is, especially when they are likely to have their closest contact with people who know exactly how to minimize this, to present themselves as quasi-Western men).

Al-Jazeera is a cross between TASS and Der Stuermer. During World War II the Americans would not have stood for one minute to have Nazi propaganda broadcast into this country. During the Cold War, the Russians were ultimately allowed only to produce one glossy magazine, full of smiling kholkhozniks fulfilling the glorious five-year-plan on a collective farm, and of course articles about "50 Years of Soviet Rule in Azerbaijan" and "Pushkin and the Great October Revolution." But we already have a small army -- no, a large army -- of apologists for Islam abroad in the land. We have a hundred different Muslim groups, spreading a view of Islam far more deceptive than the best the clumsy Soviet propagandists could ever come up with.

Al-Jazeera is a spreader of lies and nonsense. It has the blood of Americans -- beginning with Americna soldiers in Iraq -- on its hands. Allowing it to broadcast in this country is madness.

We are run, in large part, by people who are ignorant, and utterly obstinate in that ignorance, of Islam. Part innocence, part stupidity, part denial because to recognize the truth means to recognize how much of what has been done, over the past few decades, implicates so many of our ruling class in past and present follies, this phenomenon is akin to what one observed in the 1930s. But the folly of the 1930s came to an end with Hitler's invasion of Poland. Reality broke in.

There will be no cross-border attack of large, mechanized forces of Islam. The attack is different; it involves not so much qital, or battlefield combat, as the use of "wealth" and "pen, tongue" (propaganda) and demography, the latest weapon of the Jihad to create conditions everywhere so that Islam may triumph. This is not a fiction, a dystopia. Right now, in tolerant Holland, the leader of a major political group, Geert Wilders, lives in hiding, moving from army base to army base. The same is true for one of the most outstanding members of the Dutch parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. In England, one Will Cummins lost his job even for writing some very mild home truths about Islam; so did a popular BBC host. At the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, when evidence was produced that high-school textbooks in Egypt contained Qur'anic passages urging the killing of Infidels, the Pakistani ambassador, speaking for all 56 or 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Countries, called such a charge an act of defamation and incitement to hatred, and prevented the textbooks to be shown. In other words, Muslims can inculcate hatred of Infidels (and it is all over the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira), but those who point this out are guilty of "whipping up hatred" themselves.

One wonders of Rajiv Chandresekar has any idea of what is really in Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. Now that he has returned from being "Baghdad Bureau Chief" with all of its excitement, he can actually begin to study what Islam teaches, and what has been the treatment meted out to non-Muslims -- Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists -- under Muslim rule. It would be instructive.

If the Administration will not ban Al-Jazeera, then Congress should do so. And the Democrats, who by being even worse in their misunderstanding of Islam, make this Administration look good even when it is far from being what it should be, need to come up with a few more Henry Jacksons, and many fewer William Fulbrights.

Who's funding the terrorists?

Why, we are. Annie Jacobsen explains how in Women's Wall Street (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Center for Security Policy, a non-partisan, non-profit project in Washington DC., recently released an analysis of the investment patterns of America's public pension funds. The 100+ page report, The Terrorism Investments of The 50 States, points out that America's top 100 pension systems invest between 15 to 23 percent of their portfolios in companies doing business in terrorist-sponsoring states. The State Department identifies terrorist-sponsoring states as Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Cuba and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Read it all.

Violence Against Chinese Christian Women in Indonesia Warrants Asylum

"Violence Against Chinese Christian Women in Indonesia Warrants Asylum, Ninth Circuit Panel Rules," from the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, with thanks to Twostellas:

Violence against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, particularly against women and Christians, is sufficiently pervasive to require that a Chinese Christian woman be found eligible for asylum, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.

Overturning a ruling by a divided panel of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the court ruled that Marjorie Kinda Lolong's petition for review be granted. The attorney general will now have the final decision as to whether Lolong, who applied for asylum while here as a student in 1998, may remain permanently in the United States.

Senior Judge Betty B. Fletcher, writing for the Ninth Circuit, noted that elements within the Indonesian military have been linked to the violence, even though the country's president and other leaders have called for tolerance.

"Evidence of the government's willingness to control the perpetrators of ethnic and religious violence in Indonesia fails to rebut the
overwhelming evidence of the government's inability to control those forces," Fletcher wrote.

The jurist cited a "voluminous record that documents ongoing discrimination and violence against the ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia," which the court addressed in another asylum case last year.

Lolong, the judge noted, filed her application just months after
riots in which dozens of ethnic Chinese women were raped; the State Department has estimated the number at 300. Lolong testified that one of the victims was a friend of hers, and that another friend had escaped a rape attempt; both women became afraid to leave their homes, she said.

Fletcher also cited evidence that anti-Chinese violence has spread to areas of the country where it had been rare. "Indeed, the Indonesian government's decision to permit Chinese language press and cultural displays has caused heightened resentment and acts of retaliation," the judge said....