Dhimmitude at the LA Times: understanding the "why" of suicide bombing

I received this message from a friend about an article in the LA Times, "Killers rendered in shades of gray," that is aptly characterized as an "erudite and subtle propaganda piece."

Below is a discussion of a new movie that tells the story of a pair of suicide bombers. The author of the article refers to them at one point as "the two heroes."

Increasingly, you will be expected to "understand" the "why" of suicide bombing. Read this erudite and subtle propaganda piece that "squarely places the blame" on the "occupation." But do you have the tools to recognize what is missing from this analysis? To wonder why no mention is made of the brainwashing of Muslims into the ideology of jihad?

There is a total absence of any reference to the perpetual hate messages in the "Palestinian" media; the ingrained Jew-hatred in Muslim society; the role of Muslim clergy who encourage, justify and endorse suicide bombing; and, above all, to the role of Islam in supplying the ideology for such bombings and the promise of their just reward: Paradise.

Do you wonder why the article does not mention how the "occupation" came into being? Why the writer did not tell you that it resulted from relentless warfare and terrorism by Arab states determined to destroy Israel? That when the same land was under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation prior to 1967, its inhabitants were treated to unremitting cruelty, neglect and rejection by their own Arab brethren? And, lastly, do you wonder why the author did not inform you that failed but unremitting aggression against Israel spawned the realization that terrorism would achieve what conventional warfare could not?

Suicide bombing is the Muslim weapon of choice, not because of despair, humiliation or "occupation," but because the Muslim world believes that suicide bombing works.

But now we are asked by our own media to, essentially, "give suicide bombing a chance." See the positive in it. Blame Israel for it. Remove all responsibility from the shoulders of those who recruit for it, finance it, promote it, practice it, celebrate it, reward it, perpetuate it and glorify it. In short, Israel's enemies are absolved.

Clearly, the writer with the obligatory Jewish name is counting on your naivete and ignorance.

On the other hand, perhaps the writer is promoting a powerful idea whose time has come.

Now that she has succeeded in "understanding" aggrieved suicide bombers who kill Jews because of "occupation," next month she just might end up having to "understand" aggrieved suicide bombers who kill people -- other than Jews -- for unrequited love; for personal vengeance; for greed; for pro-choice; for pro-life; for the right to die; for the right to live; for the environment, for the right to have an SUV, for the war against SUVs, for animal rights, for vegetarianism, for anti-vegeterianism, for, for, against, against...etc. etc. etc.

Why is this ideology being foisted upon us?

Can we envision where it will lead?

Has the LA Times no obligation to publish responsibly?

Write a letter to the times if you are so inclined. I can't say I believe it will help.

But I do recommend that everyone go and see another movie, one that might get no attention from the LA Times at all: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You will get to watch a lot of the same material suicide bombers are raised on. And do recommend the movie to Rachel Abramowitz.

And here is an excerpt of the Times piece:

In untangling the roots of Middle Eastern terrorism, two ambitious fall releases find that the heroes and the villains aren't always easy to discern.

WHEN the towers came down on Sept. 11, Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning writer of "Traffic," realized in a flash that "Hollywood has done a terrible job creating villains." It all used to be so simple, so black and white. There were the good guys and the bad guys — not people willing to blow themselves up in orderr to blow up their enemies.

This fall Gaghan and the Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad will release films that represent ambitious attempts to unearth the root causes of terrorism and suicide bombers. Both happen to come from the Warner Bros. conglomerate — Gaghan's $50-million "Syriana," from big Warner's, and Abu-Assad's $2-million "Paradise Now," from Warner's new specialty division, Warner Independent. Both are thrillers in a sense — but without the genre's usual catharsis. In a throwback to the politically engaged films of the '70s, the point isn't to reassure moviegoers but to provoke them....

Abu-Assad's film is much like a Palestinian "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead": It focuses on two people on the periphery of history and watches them breathe. If the culminating event is horrific, the day-to-day buildup is almost surreal in its very mundaneness. When the two heroes make their martyrs' video — in the same spot in Nablus where real suicide bomber farewell videos are shot — the camera fails to work, so they have to redo it. Their guerrilla group handlers watch and noisily eat their lunch — packed by the unsuspecting mother of one of the would-be bombers.

Indeed, the guerrillas appear less ideologues than thugs preying on young men's despair. When one of the friends suggests they'll get to paradise afterward, the other smacks him on the head as if to knock that naiveté right out. One of the protagonists is motivated by family shame — he is the son of an Israeli collaborator killed by Palestinians. Yet their anguish seems palpable — born of some mixture of poverty, hopelessness, fatherlessness and disenfranchisement. Abu-Assad shows their journey from the poor streets of Nablus to the beautiful and prosperous high-rises of Tel Aviv, a shocking journey, no doubt, but for American viewers it is unfortunately no more shocking than a trip from South-Central to Santa Monica.

Abu-Assad is a pacifist who doesn't believe in the values of suicide bombing, but he does place the blame for Palestinian suffering squarely on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and formerly Gaza. Still, he didn't intend to make a polemic. "If this is the case, I could make an article about it. I didn't need to make a film."

Crackdown on mannequins in Iran

Sharia update from Iran! "Alluring mannequins" are now verboten in Iran, and are being impounded. This is in the interests of public chastity, you see. After all, we can't have men falling for mannequins, can we? It might lead them to...join biker gangs!

You Can't Make This Stuff Up Alert: "City tackles titillating mannequins," from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Police in northeastern Iran are launching a new morality drive by confiscating alluring mannequins from boutiques and clothes stalls in the bazaar, authorities in the city of Bojnourd said on Monday.

A spokesman for the city's judiciary, who asked not be named, explained the drive would tackle problems of "public chastity". Sixty five mannequins have been impounded so far.

He explained the crack-down on tailors' dummies was part of a larger offensive against anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and biker gangs.

Muslims issue Internet death threats to Omar Sharif

Because he dared to portray a Christian. "Terrorism: Internet Terror Threats to Omar Sharif," from AKI, with thanks to Erick Stakelbeck:

Rome, 28 Oct. (AKI) - Death threats to the Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif have appeared in Islamist forums on the Internet, after Sharif's appearance as a Christian, Saint Peter, in an Italian biblical epic for television. A threatening message from user 'bachirma1' on one of the forums used by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda, reads:"In my view Omar Sharif is an infidel - enter here". Inside it continues; "He is a crusader who offends Islam and Muslims and is applauded by the Italian people. I give you some advice, my brothers, you should kill him."

From the exchange of messages it would appear that the sender of the death threats may be in Italy. A flurry of insulting messages endorse the condemnation of the 73 year old actor who shot to international stardom in the classic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and with the title role of Doctor Zhivago (1965).

Chesler: Truth on Trial

Phyllis Chesler at FrontPage highlights the cultural conflict that is a growing aspect of the global jihad, and to which few have given any attention:

Are we winning the war against terror or more precisely, against the death-cult ideology of extreme hate that employs terror as one of its weapons? America, Britain and Israel have all committed significant sums of money to fight back militarily and to ensure civilian safety. However, we must fight another very hot war, one which will ultimately decide whether Western Civilization lives or dies. This is a war we are not winning and some argue that it is a war we have not yet even begun to fight.

I am talking about The Culture War, the war that must be fought to oppose the campaign of lies and propaganda that Islamists and western Stalinists launched against the West, beginning with Israel, arguably anywhere from forty to seventy years ago.

The Culture War is a very hot war: no prisoners are taken, no mercy is shown. And there are now penalties for trying to tell the truth about the danger of jihad or about the barbaric and pathological nature of militant Islam today. Indeed, if you try to discuss the Islamic religious and gender apartheid and its dangerous proliferation into Europe and North America (i.e. there have been honor killings in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Jersey City, Toronto, as well as all over Europe and in the Muslim world), this is what will happen to you:

If you tell these truths in the Arab and Muslim world, you’ll be beheaded, probably tortured, certainly jailed, exiled if you are lucky. Many Muslim and Christian dissidents have suffered precisely this fate. There are no more Jews there, the Islamist Caliphate has rendered the entire Middle East Judenrein long ago. Try to say this in Europe and you might be butchered, as Theo Von Gogh was, or simply imprisoned in purdah, veiled, or threatened, forced to go into hiding, or honor-murdered as so many Muslim girls and women are.

Try to tell the moral tragedy that the United Nations represents, or the even greater tragedy that the word “Palestine” has come to represent objectively, and therefore in a non-politically correct way, on European and on North American campuses, or on the increasingly left-dominated liberal media airwaves, and you may not be shot on the spot, but you will be slandered and called a “racist” and a “fascist.” I have been called both.

If you are a North American intellectual, you may not be imprisoned or be-headed but you will be heckled, mocked, and shunned. You might need security in order to speak. If you’re a feminist, you will no longer be taken seriously as an intellectual, nor will you be “heard.”

Expose the permanent Intifada against Western Civilization and against the Jews and you will be sued and driven into exile, as Oriana Fallaci has been, or sued and prevented from traveling to certain countries, as Rachel Ehrenfeld has been. You will be sued and silenced in all those places where you were once published, even lionized. Dare to say that the torturer and genocidal tyrant, Saddam Hussein, is on trial today only because of America and Iraq’s sacrifice and their bold vision of democracy and you will be called a reactionary, a liar, a fool, and the worse epithet of all: a conservative.

Both Western leftists and Islamists brandish many tools against America and Israel in this war. Their first weapon is the systematic misuse of language. Mainstream and liberal newspapers write about “insurgents,” not “terrorists,” whom they describe as “martyrs,” not “killers, and as “freedom fighters,” not as “well educated evil men.”

Anti-American and anti-Israel demonstrators, who are clearly and visibly filled with hate and rage, are described as “peace activists.” Anti-Semitism is legitimized, while the slightest criticism of Islam is banned because of the disallowance of “Islamophobia.” Telling the truth has become an offense which is unprotected by free speech doctrines, which instead protect the telling of lies.

I was once held captive in Kabul, Afghanistan. I experienced, first-hand, what life is like in a Muslim country, one that has never been colonized by the West. I learned that it was both foolish and dangerous to romanticize Third World countries. And, I learned first-hand, that evil and barbarism exist a priori, and are not caused by western imperialism or colonialism or by the “Zionist entity.” It’s where I also learned to reject the doctrine of multiculturalism, that teaches that all cultures are equal, formerly colonized cultures even more so. This leads to isolationism and non-interventionism and condemns millions of civilians to Islamist torture, terror and genocide.

Although, to their credit, a handful of feminist activists and journalists have sounded the alarm, once America invaded Afghanistan, these very activists, all Democratic Party operatives, swiftly opposed the military routing of the Taliban. And why? Because the expedition had not been undertaken, apparently, with women in mind. It’s as if they did not think that bin Laden’s terrorism kills women too.

I hold the Western academy, including the feminist academy, which has been utterly Palestinianized, responsible for failing to expose and condemn the realities of Islamic gender apartheid. I know feminist graduate students who are busy “de-constructing” the veil, polygamy and arranged marriage as possible expressions of feminist or female power—no different than the bikini. None have congratulated President Bush on his excellent choice of Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State and none have given her the slightest credit for her pro-woman, pro-human rights and pro-Israel speeches.

The number of lies being told in the Western academy and among western activists are literally beyond belief. Here’s one: Mohammed was really great to women, especially to one Safiya bint Huyay whom he married—even though she was Jewish. Yes. But first he beheaded her father and her husband and exterminated her entire village. And then he forced poor Safiya to convert to Islam before he married her. This disinformation campaign leaves me speechless.

Our own intelligentsia—our professors—are so politically correct and so multi-culturally relativist, that they refuse to call “barbaric” the act of stoning a woman to death because she was raped or because she refused to marry her first cousin. Nor will they denounce subjecting women to genital mutilation and public gang-rape as “barbaric.” Nor did American media commentators who showed the Palestinian lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah in 2000 describe the event, which they played over and over again, as “barbaric.”

The intelligentsia did not describe what was done to us on 9/11 as “barbaric” either. Indeed, I know American and European intellectuals who are convinced that America and Israel are the greatest barbarians of all, and that we deserved 9/11. According to Islamists and Western academics and journalists, Bin Laden is not an “Islamo-fascist." To them, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are the “Nazi fascists.”

And then there is that vast industry of Palestinian, Arab League and United Nations funded and distributed doctored footage and fake film massacres, fake gun battles, the faked death of Palestinian children at Jewish and Israeli hands. Our Islamist opponents have turned out this propaganda nonstop around the world.

As propagandists, they are far more sophisticated than Goebbels, and far more patient. We cannot afford to underestimate their skill at telling Big Lies. Islamists understood that if they funded madrassas in the East and Middle Eastern Institutes in the West, and if they funded the total Palestinianization of the United Nations and of every international human rights groups that in thirty to fifty years, they would have brainwashed generations to see things their way.

Islam is sacred -- it cannot be insulted. Imagined slights are as important as real slights. Lies have as much weight as the truth. Whether American military forces did or did not flush a Koran down the toilet does not matter. What matters is that Muslims thought they did. No penance is good enough to atone for this crime.

Millions of people have been systematically brainwashed against America, against Israel, against Jews, against women and against the western concept of truth, objectivity, truth-telling, and independent thinking. All are under siege.

We have a serious fifth column in our midst, one that has made common cause with Islamists against us, one that has been well funded by Arab oil billionaires for more than forty years. Now, George Soros too, a fifth column General who, for a variety of reasons, has actually been leading the cultural war against the West. They are fools—but they are dangerous fools. Do they think they will be spared because they are so politically correct? Do they think that they would enjoy the same freedom of speech in Mecca or Tehran that they enjoy in the West?

What must we do in the face of this tyrannical threat? We must rescue language. It must bear some relationship to the truth and morality. Everything is not relative. It is not all Rashomon. We must not allow our media or academics to continue to insist that Islam is not the problem, but that even if it is, that we cannot say so, lest we be deemed racist. We must teach the history of jihad against infidels, and the history of how infidels (Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians) were treated under Islam. We must insist that criticism of America and Israel be balanced, not pathological, obsessive and cult-like as it is now. We must insist on civility in public discourse. We must model it for the coming generations.

We must fund seriously a collective effort to combat vulgar lies and vilification, the propaganda against us which has brainwashed countless generations.

We need a War Room effort to counter the Big Lies. We need international radio and television channels to educate people. We need to teach people about intellectual diversity and tolerance.

This country has birthed two significant waves of feminism. We must now take that feminist vision global. We need our foreign policy to contain serious provisions about women’s rights abroad. Otherwise, democracy cannot and will not evolve or flourish in Muslim countries.

The way I see it, everything is at stake. This is a time when we must all be heroes. We must all stand up to evil in our lifetime. We must acknowledge that Islamist terrorism is evil and has no justification. We must teach this to our children. We must support Muslim and Arab dissidents in their fight against Islamic tyranny and gender apartheid. We can do this. We must do this. Otherwise, we will die, and our history and our values and our entire way of life will die with us. If we fail, we will betray all that we believe in as a free people.

Selective Muslim Silence

Judith Apter Klinghoffer, senior associate scholar at the Political Science department at Rutgers University, and author of Vietnam, Jews and the Middle East, writes this at History News Network about the Denmark Muhammad cartoon controversy:

So, here we are: part of the Muslim community is in the thrall of a totalitarian ideology which turns young Muslims into human bombs. Photos of Muslim and non Muslim civilian body parts flying in the middle of markets, mosques, discos and hotels have become routine. Beheadings of Christian and Jewish men and women are no longer surprising. And what do the ever-silent and passive-defensive Muslim countries, Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League vociferously condemn? They are condemning the publication of cartoons featuring Muhammad in a Danish paper. The absurdity of this action is only matched by its hypocrisy.

Read it all.

France: Church-state debate revived by call for mosque funding

What's causing jihadist sentiments among French Muslims? Must be a shortage of mosques! Yeah, that's it! If we fund mosques, any idea that Sharia must someday be imposed in France will vanish from among French Muslims!

That seems to be the line of reasoning. But is there any evidence to back it up? Any support for it at all? Do they think that if French Muslims come to depend upon the French government for money, they will moderate to please it? Has it escaped their notice that the Saudis have a good deal of money themselves? Will they make it illegal for mosques to receive foreign money? That is not mentioned in this article. Will they attach requirements for teaching to the money, so that mosques will lose their funding if they teach that Sharia must someday reign in France? Will they fax sermons to French imams and not allow them to preach their own, a la the Turks? None of that is mentioned in this article. "Church-state debate revived by call for mosque funding," from AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

PARIS, Oct 31 (AFP) - A call for a change to a century-old French law to allow the state to fund new mosques has sent sparks flying in a society deeply attached to the separation of religion and state.

Concerned that a shortage of mosques is allowing extremists to gain a foothold among Frances 5.5 million Muslims by funding places of worship, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this month named a panel to look into the prickly question.

Due to report to the government in June next year, the committee is being asked, among other things, to suggest ways of reviewing the 1905 secularity law that bans the state from funding places of worship.

The initiative placed Sarkozy squarely at odds with both president Jacques Chirac and prime minister Dominique de Villepin, who sees the century-old law as one of the pillars of our republican system and rejects the idea of updating it.

True, more work is needed to recognise the rightful place of France's Muslims, de Villepin said, but as members of a strictly secular community....

Sarkozy has repeatedly argued that breaking the French taboo to provide public money for mosques and imams would be the best way of bringing the Muslim community into the mainstream, out of the garages and basements it is often forced to use as unofficial prayer rooms.

"To separate French Islam from foreign influences," Sarkozy said last month, "let us give it the means to be independent."

Islamic radicals are already thought to control 20 mosques in the country, according to France's domestic intelligence service, which also says militants are increasingly congregating in secret prayer-rooms, out of sight of the authorities....

In 2003, French Islam obtained its first ever officially-recognised representative body, the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), which has responsibility for issues ranging from the funding of mosques to the ritual slaughter of animals.

Now a recognised public institution, it is the government's main point of contact with the Muslim community.

And in June this year a government-backed 'Foundation for Islam' was also set up to oversee the financing of the religion in France, grouping private donations from France and abroad, held in a state-owned bank to ensure maximum transparency, to pay for building and renovating mosques as well as training imams.

Many in the political establishment are against taking the states role any further, including the CFCM president Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris mosque, who immediately backed de Villepin in opposing any change to the secularity law.

But other voices within the CFCM took a less hostile view and the influential rector of the Lyon mosque, Kamel Kabtane, supports a review of the 1905 law.

Mukhtar Mai speaks in Chicago

This woman, ordered gang raped by her local village council, has been allowed by the Pakistan government to travel after all. "Rape survivor brings fight here," from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Three years ago, Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped on the order of a village council in her native Pakistan, sparking international outrage when she reported the crime. On Saturday, Mai stopped in Chicago to speak out against the feudal justice system that continues to victimize Pakistani women.

"I am fighting against oppression and cruelty where the rights of poor men and women are violated by landlords and feudals," Mukhtar said through an interpreter to a crowd of about 60 people at DePaul University. "You and I will get the victory."

Mukhtar was a 30-year-old Quran teacher in the Pakistani village of Meerwala when she was ordered gang-raped by a tribal council, or jirga, after her 12-year-old brother was seen walking with a girl from a higher-ranking tribe. Mukhtar's brother also was beaten and sodomized for the offense...

On Nov. 2, Mukhtar will be the recipient of one of 12 "Woman of the Year" awards given by Glamour magazine for work on behalf of women's rights.

Before she arrives in New York for the award ceremony, Mukhtar is on a cross-country speaking tour to help raise money for her "I can survive" fund, which will help develop a resource center for victims of violence in Pakistan...

Mukhtar, a soft-spoken woman who could not read or write when she was attacked, stressed that tribal councils that sanction rape and murder do not act in accordance with Islam.

"Where does it say in Islam that you should violate women? Our Islam does not allow this, absolutely not," Mukhtar said, through her host and translator, Dr. Amna Buttar...

A Qur'an teacher who is unable to read or write, no doubt because she is female, speaks authoritatively what is in the Qur'an, informing us that the circumstances in which she finds herself have nothing to do with Islamic law. Of course, if Islam were just applied more perfectly, social harmony would be the natural result...(yes, that's sarcasm).

Fitzgerald: The cultural imperialism of the Arabs

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses how Arab-ness is in many ways inextricable from Islam -- a phenomenon that has had effects even among dhimmi populations.

Within Islam, a supposedly universalist religion where all Muslims in the ummah are equal, there is a special place for the Arabs. But how could it be otherwise? Islam itself, a mishmash of pagan Arab lore, Judaism and Christianity, has its origins in the attempt to take what was available and construct out of it something, a belief-system, that would both promote, and justify, Arab attacks on, and Arab conquest of, far more advanced, settled, and wealthy populations of Christians, Jews, and pagans -- and with the attack on Sassanid Persia, Zoroastrians.

Within Islam, the supremacist ideology is expressed first, and perhaps most importantly, in linguistic and cultural imperialism. The Qur'an is written in Arabic, and was delivered to, given to, revealed to, the Arabs, that best of people. That best of men, Muhammad, was an Arab, and so were the Companions. The Qur'an itself should ideally not be read in any language other than Arabic (the Arabic in which it was written, not in any simplified or updated version). Qur'anic recitation is in Arabic. The students in Pakistan or Indonesia or elsewhere who pass their young lives memorizing Qur'anic passages are essentially memorizing Arabic, a language that they do not know at all, and understand most imperfectly. Yet it is 7th century Arabs, real or imaginary, who must serve as a guide to existence. Was Muhammad against sculptures? Against music? Against painting of living creatures? Very well then. For all time, and in all places, good Muslims will emulate Muhammad. For he is central to Islam, far more significant than Jesus is in Christianity. Yes, it is true that "Allah knows best" but so to does Muhammad – see Qur’an 33:21. They both know best.

Think of all the Pakistanis, clearly the descendants of persecuted or terrified Hindus, who have taken Arab names, or appropriated the honorific Sayeed to indicate their connection to the Prophet. Think of how the Berbers and other non-Arab Muslims have had to struggle to save their own language. The Iranians supposedly managed to prevent linguistic arabization through the superior quality of their own poets -- for after all, "Islamic literature" is mostly a product not of Arabs but of Persians. High Islamic civilization was very much a product both of non-Muslims and Muslims, and in the latter category, the Arabs played a much smaller role than the Persians.

The riots in Tizi-Ouzo a few years ago -- unreported in the Western world except in France -- reflect the unhappiness of the Berbers with this cultural and linguistic imperialism. So does the greater participation of Berbers in such organizations as "Maghrembins laiques" in France. The Kurds, the black Africans with their marabouts and syncretism, and even those described as Malaysian "intellectuals" and Indonesian "intellectuals," have realized that the Arab supremacist view, which encourages all Muslims to ignore their own pre-Islamic or non-Islamic history and heritage, leaves a lot to be desired. This is similar to the phenomenon in Brazil, where what prevails is not always orthodox Christianity, but some blend with pagan African beliefs and traditions that gives rise to Candomble.

And then there are so many examples of Arabs riding roughshod, and worse, over non-Arab Muslims. Think of the treatment of the Berbers, especially but not only in Algeria. Or of the black African Muslims in Darfur, or in Chad, or elsewhere where Arabs and blacks, even if all of them are Muslims, collide. There is also a religious dimension. Though there are non-Arab Sunnis (Turks, Kurds) and Arab Shi'a (see southern Lebanon, Yemen, the Hasa province of Saudi Arabia, the Hazaras in Afghanistan, Bahrain, even Kuwait, especially among Fouad Ajami's worldly Behbehanish friends and hosts), and both Sunni and Shi'a in Pakistan, Sunni Islam is identified with the Arabs, Shi'a Islam with Iran. No getting around this.

In Saudi Arabia there is apartheid: the signs "Muslim" and "Non-Muslim" are everywhere, both physically and in the minds of men. But "Muslims" are further divided into Arab (first class) and non-Arab (second class). This has not escaped the attention of the many Muslim non-Arabs who live in Saudi Arabia -- or at least not the attention of all of them.

As Infidels seek out ways to divide and weaken Islam, surely the exploitation of this linguistic, cultural, and political imperialism of the Arabs should be high on the list. Remember how the "Arabs" were hated even by some of their "Afghan" allies whom they treated with such cannon-fodder contempt --at least according to all the reports that have come out of Afghanistan. The resentment of non-Arabs, of Kurds, Berbers, blacks, Persians, Malays and so on, is perfectly understandable. It is not a Western invention. It has not in any way been fanned by the West. It need not be. It need only be pointed out. And even then, the Arabs themselves help this cause by continuing to show their contempt and indifference for non-Arabs, though they wish those non-Arabs to adopt whatever causes they, the Arabs, deem important.

Part of weakening Islam is to show many Muslims that Islam was simply an Arab invention and export, a poisoned chalice that has lain low higher and superior civilizations. This is likely to resonate especially in Iran among those who have had their fill of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- that is, every thinking and morally aware person in Iran.

The treatment by the Arabs of non-Arabs has been at least high-handed, and as the glinting daggers of Arab aggression tell us, often of a more horrid hent.

Yet at the same time, the pride in Uruba -- Arabness, Arabdom -- that affects so many Arabs, has also convinced many non-Arab people who speak Arabic that they too are or must be or should be "Arabs." The scholar Franck Salameh has written a brilliant analysis of linguistic imperialism, of how the Arabic-user (even the Maronites) comes to believe that he therefore must be an "Arab" -- even if his ancestors clearly were living in, say, the Lebanon long before the Arabs arrived on the scene. It is quite a trick.

Yet almost all of those who left Lebanon and Syria between 1880 and even as late as about 1930, even if their passports identified them in some cases as "Turks" (they were still in the Ottoman Empire) knew that they were something else, and that the best way to describe themselves was as "Lebanese" or as "Christians." Only later did some of them begin to think that they were “Arabs.” Muslims in the United States have tried to create a false sense of an identity of interest, using that meretricious term "Arab-American." This is meant to enroll in the Muslim Arab campaign for acceptance, the descendants of people who not only were not part of the Muslim Arab world, but were the main victims of that very world – people who left the Middle East precisely because of their growing insecurity among the Muslims. From 1860 on there were massacres of Maronites and Assyrians and other Middle-eastern Christians in present-day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

The Christian Arabs, or those who have considered themselves Arabs, needed to find a place in the sun. They knew they had to appeal to something, anything, other than Islam straight up. What was Ba'athism, which the Christian from Damacus, Michel Aflaq (he made a deathbed conversion to Islam) but an attempt to find a way for the Christians of the area to be enrolled in something that, in its philosophy, would be aggressive, totalitarian, but more pan-Arab than pan-Islamic? So it was that Ba’athism was born and found its greatest appeal in the two countries where, for various and complex reasons, the ruling elites (Alawite in one case, Sunni the other) found it useful to have an alternative to pure Islam. For the Alawites were not orthodox Muslims, and had Islam been the only game in town, in Iraq the sectarian majority was Shi'a, not Sunni.

Note that the phenomenon of "islamochristians" is particularly pronounced among the "Palestinian" Arabs. Despite the obvious and steady pressure on Christians and Christianity wherever the "Palestinians" have extended their sway, Naim Ateek and Hanan Ashrawi are both perfect examples of the cunning propagandistic use to which islamochristians can be put. Why, Naim Ateek is the go-to guy for the Christian churches' Middle-Eastern policy, judging by all the divestment measures he has skillfully, sabeellly, managed to push. And we all know of the requited affection between the late Peter Jennings and Hanan Ashrawi, whom he had as a special guest on September 13, 2001, to discuss you-know-what.

Compare, among those who live in or came from predominantly Muslim lands and who are Christians, the non-Arab and the Arab Christians. It is fascinating to see the difference. Christian Pakistanis have nothing to do with Islam. They do not defend it in the slightest. Look at Christian Iranians. They do not defend Islam. They have nothing to do with it. Look at Christian blacks in Nigeria or the Sudan. They have nothing to do with Islam. Look at Christians in Indonesia. They feel no need to defend Islam.

But many (although by no means all) Christian Arabs do -- and the reason is that goddam ethnic pride in being an Arab -- or thinking one is an Arab because everyone tells you that if you speak Arabic you must be (not true, of course). And Islam is the great gift of "the Arabs," and Islam and the Arabs go way back, and well -- it's hard for some, perhaps many, Arab Christians not to end up as Defenders not so much of the Faith (that Faith being Islam) but of the political attitudes and atmospherics and defensiveness that all arise so naturally from Islam.

Second night of rioting in Paris

Here is fruit of the immigration-without-assimilation policy the French have pursued so thoughtlessly for decades -- as detailed in Bat Ye'or's Eurabia. "A police union spokesman says a Paris suburb is seeing 'civil war.'" From CNN, with thanks to Fjordman:

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a suburb of Paris early Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers died fleeing police.

The two teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they fled from police investigating a break-in, media reported.

Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said.

Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.

A police trade union called for help from the army to support police officers.

"There's a civil war underway in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris, an official of police trade union Action Police CFTC, said .

"We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting," he said.

Fjordman has much more.

Prince Charles to plead Islam's case during White House visit

When not busy disgracing his nation and his family through his various peccadilloes, the future king of England, Prince Charles, has regularly assumed the position of lead European missionary in the service of the Islamic faith. As he will tell President Bush this week, it is not Islam's fault that thousands of non-Muslims have been murdered in recent years, but rather the racism of the West. From the Telegraph:

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.

The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America's "confrontational" approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths.

The Prince raised his concerns when he met senior Muslims in London in November 2001. The gathering took place just two months after the attacks on New York and Washington. "I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational," the Prince said, according to one leader at the meeting.

It is understood that Prince Charles did not - and does not - believe that the actions of 19 hijackers should tarnish the reputation of hundreds of millions of law-abiding Muslims around the world.

Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, was also at the meeting at St James's Palace. "His criticism of America was a general one of the Americans not having the appreciation we have for Islam and its culture," he said.

The prince's actions should not strike anyone as surprising, as Charles is hardly a newcomer to the field of Islamic apologetics:

Prince Charles, who is about to embark on his first official foreign tour since his marriage to the Duchess of Cornwall, wants Americans - including Mr Bush - to share his fondness for Islam. He has agreed to attend a seminar on religions at Georgetown University, Washington, on Thursday: the only event where he will not be accompanied by the Duchess.

"The seminar will look at how faith groups can alleviate social problems in their community," a royal aide said.

The Prince and Duchess will attend a lunch and dinner with President Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House on Wednesday.

Prince Charles has done more than any other member of the Royal Family in history to understand Islam. He said in 1994 that when he became Supreme Governor of the Church of England, he would rather be "defender of faiths" than "defender of the faith".

A year earlier Prince Charles made a speech, acclaimed throughout the Arab world, on relations between Islam and the West. He urged the West to overcome its "unthinkable prejudices" about Islam and its customs and laws.

He spoke warmly of the West's debt to the culture of Islam and distanced moderate Muslims from misguided militants. "Extremism is no more the monopoly of Islam than it is the monopoly of other religions, including Christianity," he said.

Richard the Lionheart is rolling in his grave.

Trifkovic: The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill: A Milestone on Britain’s Road to Dhimmitude

Serge Trifkovic explains just why the UK's new Racial and Religious Hatred Bill is so wrong, and dangerous, in this superb piece in Chronicles (thanks to Andy and Steve):

The House of Lords is clashing with Tony Blair’s Labour government over its proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. This is an Orwellian piece of legislation. Its real purpose of preventing any meaningful discussion of Islam. If passed it would enable authorities to charge people with “inciting religious hatred” even if they speak or write the truth about the Kuran, the hadith, the historical practice of jihad, or the long-term aspirations of the Muslim diaspora in the West.

The proposed measure has been denounced by human rights groups and prominent individuals as a new blasphemy law in a dangerous new guise. Stephen Fry, the actor, said the plans were unworkable: “Religion, surely, if it is worth anything, doesn’t need protection against anything I can say.” Rowan Atkinson, one of Britain’s best known comedians, has warned that the prime motivating energy for the Bill did not come from communities seeking protection from bullying,

but from individuals with a more aggressive, fundamentalist agenda, those who have sought, from the very day of the publication in 1989 of Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, to immunise religions against criticism and ridicule—or at least to promote legislation that is so sinister and intimidating, it can provide that immunity without even the need to prosecute anyone. In other words, to impose self-censorship.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the intended criminalization of “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” was hailed by Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, as a “long overdue” measure. Sher Khan, chairman of the group’s public affairs committee, criticized opponents of the bill, and particularly Mr. Atkinson, for having created “a media frenzy by claiming that the proposed law will ban criticism of religious beliefs; it certainly will not.”...

If Racial and Religious Hatred Bill is passed, we will be a step closer to the fulfilment of T.S. Eliot’s warning that the West would end, “not with a bang but a whimper.” In 1899, a 26 year old Winston Churchill expressed hope

that if evil days should come upon our own country, and the last army which a collapsing Empire could interpose between London and the invader were dissolving in rout and ruin, that there would be some—even in these modern days—who would not care to accustom themselves to a new order of things and tamely survive the disaster.

Even Churchill’s prescience could not envisage the possibility that “the invader” would have his Quislings and abettors at No. 10, at the Old Bailey, and at London’s County Hall.

Read it all.

Islam feminists urge gender jihad

Someone recently asked me why I cover women's issues at Dhimmi Watch. The simple answer is that under Sharia, women face discrimination and second-class status, as do dhimmis. This conference aims to undo that. While the stated purpose of holding it in Spain was to reach Muslim women in Europe, I think it is likely that these women are aware of what might have happened to them if they had tried to hold it in Riyadh or Lahore.

From the BBC, with thanks to Leveller:

Women from the Islamic world are attending the three-day conference Organisers of the first international congress on Islamic feminism are calling for a "gender jihad".

Organiser Abdennur Prado Pavon says the struggle for gender equality in Islamic countries involves refuting chauvinist interpretations of Muslim teachings.

The congress is being held in Spain, organisers say, because they want their message to reach the growing number of Muslim women in Europe.

Around 300 delegates are looking at women's rights in the Islamic world.

Mr Prado, of the Catalan Islamic board, believes a common misconception in the West is that women's liberation is not possible in Muslim societies.

Activists representing the Islamic feminist movement are in Barcelona to counter that view and discuss ways of achieving female equality in an Islamic context.

Collaboration

Among the delegates is the Pakistani feminist Riffat Hassan, regarded as one of the pioneers of Islamic feminist theology.

Also here are representatives from the international association, Islamic Feminism.

Islamic Feminism argues that the inferior legal and social status of women in Muslim countries is a result of misogynistic distortions of the teachings in the Koran.

Well, we have been here before. The Qur'an, after all:

1. Likens a woman to a field (tilth), to be used by a man as he wills: "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will" (2:223);
2. Declares that a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man: "Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her" (2:282);
3. Allows men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls also: "If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice" (4:3);
4. Rules that a son's inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: "Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females" (4:11);
5. Tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them" (4:34).

Are these verses capable of a non-misogynistic interpretation?

Hirsi Ali: Minister Ignores Islam Is The Problem

Ayaan Hirsi Ali once again speaks truth to power. From the NIS News Bulletin, with thanks to Jihad Watch News Editor Eric Schwappach:

THE HAGUE, 29/10/05 - Measures to prevent terrorism will not succeed if these do not go hand in hand with the awareness that Islam is the core of the problem, according to conservative (VVD) MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She lashed out at Justice Minister Donner in an interview with public broadcaster NOS on Friday.

Hirsi Ali says Donner does not want to link religion to the murder of her friend Theo van Gogh for strategic reasons. "I consider this (position) fundamentally wrong", said the MP. Politicians must not be afraid to acknowledge that the core of the problem of terrorism "is puritan Islam", in her view. "If politicians run away from that, citizens will always keep the feeling: 'do they actually understand' (the problem)?"

Indeed. The killer attached a note to Van Gogh's body containing Qur'an verses. He said in court that he killed Van Gogh for his religion. The sooner European -- and American -- authorities stop ignoring that and start taking realistic steps to deal with the fact that there are many more Bouyeris out there, the safer we will all be.

Harper College pulls photo exhibit upon Muslim protest

It was supposed to highlight human rights abuses. Instead it became a freedom of speech case. "Harper pulls photo exhibit upon Muslim protest," from the Daily Herald, with thanks to SAC:

An art exhibit that included photographs of nude Muslim women wearing only a head covering was taken down Thursday afternoon just hours after opening for public viewing at Harper College in Palatine.

Muslim students at the college protested to officials about the pieces on display in Building C.

Several students say the pieces — some showing young Muslim men with machine guns — were downright offensive.

“I think they should rip this down,” student Matt George said.

Another student, Hussein Ali, says a number of Muslim students at Harper now are thinking about leaving.

“The Muslim students are thinking about boycotting Harper because of this,” said Ali, 23, of Schaumburg.

Ahmad Basalat, 21, of Bartlett said the exhibit expressed hatred toward Muslims....

The school invited Chicago photographer Amir Normandi to exhibit his works depicting Muslim women in Iran defying the wearing of the jilbab.

Johnson said he thought the exhibit would be an interesting topic because it deals with human rights.

Salma Habed, 20, of Hoffman Estates said some of the pieces continued with the stereotype that Muslim women are oppressed.

“We go to school. We have careers. It’s not like we’re oppressed like some people feel for some reason,” Habed said....

Fitzgerald: And To Think I Could See It On Mulberry Street

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald demonstrates some admirable foresightedness as he begins planning now for the relocation of Europe's treasures:

When Eurabia is a fully-realized entity, what will become of European art? It's never too early to start planning.

Memo to Philippe de Montebello: begin raising money now for that special "Louvre" wing of the Metropolitan that you are going to have to build in 10-20 years. It will require at least that time for all the planning. Actually not a wing -- I'm afraid you are going to have to have a space as big, or even bigger than the Louvre, because everything is going to have to be flown out if it is not to offend Muslim sensibilities, and you know what Muslims do to statutes and paintings of living things, don't you? And for the smaller museums, the Musee Guimet, the Musee Nissim Camondo, and all the rest -- well, why not just reproduce them, as is, and place them in nice cities and towns around the country?

First we (and England) got Panofsky, and Friedmann, and Jakob Rosenberg, and Rudolph Wittkower, and E. H. Gombrich, and Ernst Kitzinger, and Gisela Richter and George Hanfmann and Rudolf Arnheim and so many others, and all of the people they helped to train, and the standards they helped to raise and, for a while, maintain -- and now the art will soon be following.

Are we Americans lucky, or what?

Let's take this idea for a walk, shall we?

The New Rijksmuseum might best be placed where there once stood Nieuw Amsterdam. Close to New York City, but not in it. Mamaroneck, Oyster Bay, Scarsdale so that first you can take in the Hals, Rembrandts, Ruisdaels, and the odd Vermeer, and then stop at well-advertised Zachy's just before getting on the train to go back to the city.

The New Prado, possibly as a tribute to the general Hispanidad, would best be placed either in Miami, or possibly in Texas, or New Mexico. The wild West will come to mean a bit more than sagebrush and the Durango Kid. A little hint of Felipe Segundo right outside Albuquerque, or San Diego, would be most appropriate.

The New National Gallery? Virginia, definitely Virginia. But where? Southside Virginia, Brookneal, and a hint of David K. E. Bruce and the English-Speaking Union? Or better, and more accessible to Washington, would be the riding country, the land of Three-Day Eventing, and admirers of Charles Chenevix French. Yes, possibly Upperville would do for the New National Gallery. And docents, winsome female docents, all of them, please, definitely FFV (First Families of Virginia). Or, if you insist, a handful of interns as well from the Main Line, and the farther shores of Long Island (Jamestown will do).

The New Uffizi? Here we have a problem. I'll leave this one up to you, dear reader. Where do you want to place all those sculptures, and paintings (say, of Guido da Montefeltro, or the Venus on a Half-Shell)which according to Sheik Al-Qaradawi's handy guide to what is haram and what halal, cannot be permitted to exist unless they have been vandalized and defaced, so that they no longer can command respect -- which respect would violate the laws of Allah.

Maybe we can cut a deal here, hmm? After all, Italy does contain 2/3 of the Western world's art treasures. Without Italy, Western civilization is unthinkable (that can't be said for Germany, I'm afraid, or for France). So let's throw the rest of Eurabia completely to the wolves, but Italy must be spared and kept free from Islam. And we Americans will guarantee its security (as, for other reasons, we will guarantee that other essential component in the spiritual heritage of the Western world, Israel).

But if the Muslims prove implacable, then we will have to bring over the contents of the Uffizi, and whatever statues of Michelangelo, Donatello, and others are all over the place, in the Piazza della Signoria, in Rome, everywhere -- lock, stock, and barrel, and offer them a refuge here. Possibly all those Americans now putting their tax-deductible dollars to work in the "Save Venice" Campaign, forgetting that the real sea that may swamp all of Italy, not just one city, consists of adherents of a grim ideology that commands the destruction of art works (and the recent destruction of Joseph's Tomb and of the Bamiyan Buddhas were simply the most recent examples of 1400 years of such destruction of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist artifacts and monuments).

Hanover Street and the North End in Boston being what they now are, with Big-Dig and gentrification changes in the works, one would have to opt for Little Italy and Mulberry Street. Yes, Gennaro, there is a Santa Claus -- and everyone can now visit the Uffizi Without Leaving Home.

And someday someone will write a book about all the art treasures of Italy, kept from harm, as in some fabulous fable, by being housed in the warm embrace of Little Italy, and Big America, the country with a heart. It will be a simple book, with pictures of some of the sculptures and paintings, carefully labelled (Mich-el-ang-e-lo), designed to introduce young children to the wonders of the fine arts. And that future book will be called:

"And To Think that I Saw It On Mulberry Street."

Oops. I think that title's been taken.

As Joe E. Brown once said, nobody's perfect.

Hebron: Jewish holy books desecrated

Pictures may be found here. From Hebron News:

Hebron Arabs, celebrating the impending conclusion of the month of Ramadan, today desecrated dozens of Jewish holy books, at Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. Hebron residents discovered the remains of the books, torn to pieces, in the garden behind the "Gutnick Center," which is in front of Ma'arat HaMachpela. Ripped-up books were discovered on the ground, spread out throughout the garden, and in a garbage pail....

A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: It seems that military and political leaders are more concerned with "Arab sensitivity" as opposed to desecration of Jewish holy books. One can only imagine the response had Arabs discovered 'desecrated Korans' in the vicinity of Ma'arat HaMachpela. It should be remembered that an Israeli woman, Tatiana Soskin, was jailed for two years for 'desecrating' a Koran. It is unheard of that such a desecration should be left unpunished. We demand that Ma'arat HaMachpela be closed to Muslim worship until the culprits responsible for this crime are apprehended, tried and punished.

UK: Mosques targeted for closure

The imam is wrong when he asserts that "radicalisation and extremism does not take place in mosques." We have seen again and again that it does. From the MuslimNews, with thanks to Kemaste:

Religious leaders have expressed alarm at the Government’s new controversial proposals to give the police powers to close places of worship, which fail to comply with an order to prevent them from being used to foment extremism.

Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, has been accused of failing to listen to the advice of Muslim task forces set up in the wake of the July bombings in London in a whole raft of anti-terrorism legislation.
Imam Ibrahim Mogra, Deputy Convenor of the working group on Imams and Mosques said that he was surprised by Clarke proceeding to issue a consultation paper on ‘Preventing Extremism Together – Places of Worship’ on October 5 after he rejected suggestions that mosques would be targeted when welcoming the task forces’ recommendations last month.

“Charles Clarke told us on September 22 that the Government was not intending to close down any mosques but that he wanted cooperation and assistance from the Muslim community,” Mogra told The Muslim News. “I told the Home Secretary that mosques are doing good work and we need to celebrate good practice,”he said.

The Leicester-based Imam, who chairs the Muslim Council of Britain’s Mosques and Community Affairs Committee, warned that the Government’s focus was misdirected. “Radicalisation and extremism does not take place in mosques. It takes place elsewhere. So the shift has to be to other areas where young people are vulnerable,” he said.

Anti-Islamist blog shut down in Austria

I received this email this morning:

Hi,

You might remember me I run one of the very rare german language
anti-islamist blogs in Austria under http://iblis.twoday.net.

Well, I did so until this morning.

In Austria there is no such thing like the first amendment - so my blog was shut down by my internet provider in order to keep up with their perverted idea of "political correctnes".

I had some 45.000 visitors in the first 120 days - I guess this was by
far too much truth for certain people in the p.-c.-establishement...

Maybe you'd like to spread the message - maybe even in your newsletter
and blog... maybe you'd like to ask my provider some questions:
[address removed]

Thanks anyway & best wishes!
iblis
mail2iblis@hotmail.com

If you write to his provider, remember: be polite and respectful. Any insults of any kind will only reinforce his prejudices. Ask him why the blog was shut down. Perhaps offer him information about jihadist activity in Europe, to underscore the urgency of getting this message out.

UPDATE: I just received an email from Iblis' provider asking that his address be removed from here, and I have complied. He says he is talking to Iblis now.

Uzbekistan: Converts to Christianity Face Crushing Opposition

Still more evidence that the freedom of conscience is still severely restricted in the Islamic world, even in countries deemed "moderate." "House Church Faces Crushing Opposition: Village strongman mounts vicious attack against local Christians," from Compass Direct, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Christians in a remote village of Uzbekistan are being beaten, publicly humiliated and hounded out of their homes and jobs for converting to Christianity.

Kaldibek Primbetov, leader of the beleaguered group of Protestants in Janbashkala village, near Turtkul in southwestern Uzbekistan, said one man is orchestrating this harsh opposition against their small congregation.

“There is no place here for Christians,” Primbetov was warned two years ago, when the village’s most wealthy and influential man mounted a vicious campaign against fewer than 100 Protestant believers.

“Our whole population here is Muslim,” village strongman Tokhtabay Sadikov told the families who had converted to Christianity. “So you’d better go to Kazakhstan or Russia, if you want to be Christians.”

As the most powerful man in the village, Sadikov since early 2004 has pressured local police and civic officials, the prosecutor’s office, the secret police and Muslim clerics to impose punishing measures against every villager known to have “abandoned the Muslim faith of their parents” to become Christian.

Protestant believers in the predominantly Kazakh village of 12,000 are now refused access to drinking water for their homes, with men, women and even children subjected to severe beatings for their faith, Primbetov told Compass. Others have lost their jobs or businesses, had their homes attacked or confiscated and faced astronomical fines for participating in house church meetings.

Fitzgerald: What we have lost, and stand to lose

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald lists some of the things we have lost already because of this business of Islamic terror, and what we stand to lose in the future in the West if our supine dhimmitude in the face of an increasingly obvious and large-scale cultural challenge continues:

What have we lost because of Islam? A short list:

Security: At every airport, subway station, bus station, at every sports event, at every public lecture, in every office building, at every museum, at every large gathering and many small gatherings all over this country (particularly those that are specifically Christian or Jewish or Hindu, and certainly all those that are devoted to discussing the menace of Islam), there are now security guards, security checks, long waits that use up, at airports alone, billions of man-hours that were never used up in such fashion before. Why? All is because of the threat not of "terrorism" but rather of Muslim terrorism. Measures may also soon be taken to monitor emails, telephone calls and so on, all of which may affect all of us, and none of which would have been necessary in the absence of Muslim terrorist threats which come out of Islam.

Freedom to travel over much of the world: How many of us now realize that it will be difficult or dangerous from now on out to visit all of the sites of classical antiquity that can be found in North Africa, or the Middle East, or in Turkey, because these lands are in the grip of increasingly restive and aggressive Muslims, not all of whom are content merely to take the dollars of Western tourists? Think of how many attacks there have been, prompted in the minds of the perpetrators by the tenets of Islam, the doctrines of Islam, the attitudes of Islam, against Swiss tourists at Luxor (68 stabbed to death, and many decapitated), or tourists elsewhere in Egypt, or at Djerba in Tunisia, or at Marrakech in Morocco. One may well be indifferent to the little created under Islam, but what is now off-limits is the much created before Islam, or despite Islam.

This is not just a matter of tourism, but of cultural patrimony that is not of Islam, but is located in lands ruled by Muslims and hence by Islam. Only the desire for tourist dollars (and in Egypt some vestigial pride, least strong in the most Muslim, in those pyramids and mastabahs)have kept all the relics of the pre-Islamic past in Muslim countries from falling into disrepair and worse, no matter how cherished they are in the mind of the West. And this indifference, or even hostility, toward their own pre-Islamic past that all those falling under Islam are taught to feel, whether they were forced to convert either by outright threat, or gradually brought to Islam by the slow anguish of the dhimmi status, at times endurable and at other times unendurable (and in those times, many did convert to Islam, only in order to end the unendurableness of being a non-Muslim in a Muslim-ruled world, has brought about an attendant impoverishment of their own societies and themselves.

Freedom to think: How many of those born into Islam over the last 1200 years might have, but for Islam, made some kind of mark on the world, something in art, science, moral philosophy? Something, anything. Instead, what we have is pitiful, compared not only to the Western world, but to the civilizations of the East, and of pre-Columbian America. All of North Africa, all of the Middle East and many other places, subdued to Islam, their peoples deprived of many means of artistic expression, and their ability to engage in free and skeptical inquiry permanently dampened.

Freedom of conscience: the right, which took some time to develop in the West, but is permanently forbidden in Islam, to believe or not believe whatever you wish. Apostasy may not always and everywhere be punished by death, but it is certainly punished by death in some places, and the penalty is threatened everywhere. It is often carried out by vigilantes, as in the case of Farag Foda, the Egyptian writer. Think of what happened to Ali Dashti in the Islamic Republic of Iran, or to Taha Hussein in the Sudan, or to that nice Mr. Qambar (Robert Hussein) in Kuwait about six or seven years back (he was not killed, but it was a close thing). And even in the United States, those who wish to leave Islam are often very quiet about it, afraid of social ostracism (from others who have remained Muslim) and worse.

The extraordinary Total Regulation of Life, from what you eat and what you wear to exactly how you wash, makes people into zombies, following rules that often make no sense, that are ludicrous, but must be followed. Shall I give some of the embarrassing details, about the odd number of stones, and so on, or would you prefer that I spared all of us that sort of thing? Just go to any Muslim website where questions are asked as to whether I can do this or can't do that. Why follow these rules? Oh, because Allah Knows Best. Q.E.D. That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Then there is the equally extraordinary belief that the Qur'an contains everything, all of science, all of knowledge, absolutely everything, if only we have the wit or understanding to detect it. If there is a surer way to stunt the mental growth of hundreds of millions, I can't imagine what it might be.

Those of us who are not Muslims should thank god we were not -- for we might well have been -- born into Islam. It is no great achievement to have avoided Islam by not being born a Muslim. It is a great achievement, a moral and intellectual achievement, apparently, given how fearsome the consequences, to be born into Islam and then to reject it.

It is a negative achievement, an astounding feat of mental self-immolation, to be born a non-Muslim and then to actually wish to become a Muslim. There are those on their Spiritual Search who simply ran out of places to look, or decided to stop at the next inn or caravanserai, the one with Arabic script and the hubble-bubble pipe, and the calligraphy on the green-colored walls.

But is a hubble-bubble pipe and calligraphy worth those mind-forged manacles in exchange?

Denmark: Six charged for honour slaying

Welcome to the New Europe. From The Copenhagen Post, with thanks to Filtrat:

Police have arrested six members of a Pakistani family for hunting down and killing a 19-year-old girl, who had married against the family's wishes.

Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported that with two further arrests in the case, five men and one woman were now in remand for the suspected honour killing of Ghazala Abbas, who was shot to death in front of the central station in the western Zealand town of Slagelse on 23 September.

The day before, Abbas had married a 27-year-old Afghan-born man....

Police said the investigation was hampered by the implicated persons' reluctance to talk, but that the last four arrests had led to a breakthrough in the investigation.

Five of the people arrested are Ghazala's close relatives, including her father and her older brother, who was the one that shot her to death and severely injured her husband in front of a large group of witnesses in broad daylight in Slagelse.

The couple was married the day before they were attacked, supposedly without the bride's family's consent.

Daily newspaper BT reported that a network of Pakistani taxi drivers and the woman arrested had helped the brother track his sister down.

Copts Release Video of Mass Rioting, Destruction of Churches and Bibles: Fear impending ethnic cleansing of Christians in Egypt

A reaction to the Muslim anti-Copt riots in Egypt from the International Christian Union (ICU) and American Coptic Association (ACA):

UNION CITY, NJ: Fearing a repeat of the recent riots against the Coptic Church in Alexandria, which left four dead, over 80 wounded and seven churches defaced, the International Christian Union (ICU) and American Coptic Association (ACA) are calling on the U.S. Government and the United Nations to take immediate action to stop the bloodshed and destruction of churches.

Exclusive video footage released by the ICU/ACA today, reveals the destruction of the Assemblies of God Church for Evangelical Copts in Moharam Bek, on Friday, Oct. 21.

"We are receiving numerous reports that Fanatic Muslim groups are planning to surround the Alexandria churches again on Friday, Oct.28, and at the end of Ramadan on the following Tuesday, promising the death of Christians and the continued destruction of churches throughout Egypt," Dr. Monir Dawoud, president of the ICU/ACA, said.

Dawoud faults the security forces for encouraging violence by first "giving the green light to the mob," and then failing to control the resulting riots. "If the momentum of the riots is allowed to continue, the crowds will be impossible to contain," Dawoud said.

Over 5,000 Muslims demonstrated outside of the Alexandria Coptic Orthodox Church last Friday to protest the production of a drama staged at the church two years ago. The protestors say the play blasphemes Islam. According to recent statements by the Coptic Church, however, the play does not defame Islam.

"Copts and other minorities in Egypt are continually subjected to physical and verbal harassment by extremist Muslim groups. Yet we do not destroy their houses of worship or call for bloodshed," said Amgad Zakhari, one of the youth leaders with the ICU/ACA.

In addition to the protests, the Egyptian newspaper, El Fagr, published threats made by Muslim radicals against the Coptic Pope Shenouda III. According to this report, Muslim radicals publicly announced their threats through mosques in the outskirts of the city of Alexandria and were calling for the death of the Pope in revenge for an alleged insult to Islam's prophet.

The ICU and the ACA are planning a demonstration in front of the UN next week to protest the persecution of Christians in Egypt.

Non-Muslims 'must wear scarves'

"Is this not disrespectful of a plural society?" Why, yes, it is. Islamic tolerance alert from Malaysia. From SA, with thanks to Cyca:

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's government has endorsed a university's ruling that requires non-Muslim women to wear headscarves on its campuses, a report said on Wednesday.

The minister in charge of national unity, Maximus Ongkili, said the decision by the International Islamic University earlier this year was not a religious one, but merely part of university procedures.

"As the rule was approved by the university senate, it is not religious in nature but a matter of uniforms that must be followed. It does not breach basic human rights," Ongkili was quoted as saying in the Star daily....

The growing influence of Islam on Malaysian society over the past two decades has seen a major increase in the number of Malay Muslim women wearing headscarves as a sign of religious devotion.

Formulated

Ongkili told parliament that Malaysians had to respect rules formulated by the government and other institutions to prevent social unrest.

"In a multi-racial country each community must respect one another. But at the same time we must respect the laws of the country, institutions and organisations to ensure there is no disturbance to the community," he said.

He was responding to opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, who had read out an email from a non-Muslim undergraduate from the university complaining she was forced to wear a headscarf to her graduation ceremony.

Lim accused the government of recanting on an April statement that non-Muslims would be "encouraged" but not forced to wear headscarves.

"So why the change now? Is this not disrespectful of a plural society," he said according to the Star.

Banned in the U.K.

Rachel Ehrenfeld in FrontPage details how a Saudi billionaire has used English libel laws to try to silence her:

I was prevented from attending a meeting last weekend that I organized in the U.K. on "How to Combat Terror Financing." Had I gone, I would have been in jeopardy due to British libel laws.

I have been sued for libel in London by the Saudi billionaire Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz because my book, Funding Evil, documents how his charity, the Muwafaq Foundation, “transferred at least $3 million, on behalf of Khalid bin Mahfouz, to Usama bin Laden, and assisted al Qaeda fighters in Bosnia,” according to testimony of former National Security advisor Richard Clarke. Bin Mahfouz sued in London, because British libel laws guarantee that he could win without challenging the facts.

The British libel laws are so destructive that they affect writers and publications who never set foot in Britain and never published there. They are used effectively by Saudi billionaires who can afford the steep legal fees to silence successfully writers and publishers around the world who attempt to expose how the Saudis have funded and continue to fund the spread of Wahhabism, Islamist radicalism, and indoctrination that leads to global terrorism.

British libel laws are not the only tools that the Islamists use to silence their opponents. They exploit the laws that are designed to ensure freedom to subvert democracies throughout the world. And what they cannot achieve by exploiting the laws, they often achieve through intimidation and invoking political correctness.

Their success is demonstrated by Britain’s submission to Islamic will. These include the Dudley Council’s ban on all representations of pigs - “in the name of tolerance” - and the Tate Gallery’s cancellation of John Latham's “God Is Great," portraying Christian, Muslim, and Jewish holy-books, “because it could upset Muslims.” This submission is surprising in a people who stood up to the Nazis and did not bend under the Blitz. But now, the Queen knights a Muslim "community leader," Iqbal Sacranie, after he praises former Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin at his memorial service. In fact, Sacraine has also stated publicly, that "death is perhaps too easy" for Salman Rushdie.

This British submission did not help stop the July 7 bombings or the later bombing attempts. But even after the attacks, the Prime Minister appointed to the new anti–terror task force, which they call “the working group on tackling extremism,” Muslim advisers who are known to support Radical Islam, including Tariq Ramadan. Ramadan's U.S. visa was revoked last year, and he is believed to have connections to al Qaeda. Furthermore, last August, to enable Ramadan to speak at a gathering of Muslim youth in London, Scotland Yard contributed $15,000 of taxpayers money. Ramadan, who is also believed to have organized a meeting between Ayman al Zawahiri and Sheik Abdel Rahman currently teaches at St. Antony College, in Oxford. Another advisor to the Prime Minister’s task force, Inayat Bunglawala, was appointed despite his public praise of bin Laden as a “freedom fighter.”

This submissive attitude also leads the British to turn a blind eye to the sale of books like Mein Kampf and The Protocol of The Elders of Zion, which are printed in Egypt and Lebanon in Arabic and distributed in and from London to the rest of Europe. Clearly, the British legal system that banned my book seems to see nothing wrong with this anti-Semitic propaganda, even though this propaganda helps to create the climate that encourages Jihadist recruits from all over Europe to come to Britain to join the international brigade of Jihadis. From Britain, the Jihadis go on to fight British and American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Statements, new laws and banning terrorist organizations are important, but they are useless as long as Islamo-Fascism is allowed to flourish. As President Bush emphasized earlier this month, Islamo-Fascism cannot be eliminated by appeasement, or by dialogue, or negotiated solutions, as many falsely believe, especially in Europe. Indeed, without the political will to stop the direct and indirect financing of terrorism, no law or convention will stop it.

We should have tried to stop the spread of Wahhabism and Islamo–Fascism two decades ago. Our inaction, as much as their efforts, facilitated the funding of terrorism that has killed and maimed many thousands. In addition, Islamo-Facism has already infected tens of millions around the world with a hatred of democracy and freedom.

Although prevented from doing my job in the U.K., I’m challenging the funders of terrorism in the U.S. so as to defend my First Amendment rights. I have sued Khalid bin Mahfouz in the Southern District of New York.

CAIR Director Attends State Department Ramadan Iftar

"She also spoke about the need to promote universal human rights..." I wonder how this squares with the words of CAIR's former Board Chairman Omar Ahmad: "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

A CAIR press release (thanks to Diana West):

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 10/26/05 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Tuesday night hosted the State Department's seventh annual "Iftar," or Ramadan fast-breaking dinner, in Washington, D.C.

The dinner took place after sunset, in accordance with Islamic practices. Muslim participants broke the fast with water and dates before performing their sunset prayers. (Ramadan is the month on the Islamic lunar calendar during which Muslims abstain from food, drink and sensual pleasures from break of dawn to sunset.)

Those in attendance at the dinner included Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as well as representatives of other local and national Muslim organizations, Muslim students, diplomats from Islamic countries, and State Department officials.

In her remarks, Secretary Rice reflected on the meaning of Ramadan and thanked Muslims for their generosity in donating to relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the recent earthquake in South Asia. She also spoke about the need to promote universal human rights and mentioned the legacy of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who died Monday at the age of 92.

"Oh, you're a Muslim? Well, then, carry on with that wife-beating"

"Police told to respect traditions," from the Herald Sun, with thanks to Terry:

POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits.

Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together.

Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence.

The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background...

Police are told: "In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims."

They are told it would be appreciated in cases of domestic violence if police consult the local Muslim religious leader who will work against "fragmenting the family unit".

Islamic Women's Welfare Council head Joumanah El Matrah called the guidelines appalling and dangerous.

"The implication is one needs to be more tolerant of violence against Muslim women but they should be entitled to the same protection," Ms El Matrah said.

"Police should not be advising other officers to follow those sorts of protocols.

"It can only lead to harm."

Ms El Matrah said Muslim leaders should be brought into domestic violence investigations only if requested by the abused woman.

The tyranny of the minority: elimination of holidays "just an excuse to hide bias against Muslims"

Faced with a school board that decided against giving all students in Hillsborough County, Florida holidays for Yom Kippur, Good Friday or Eid ul-Fitr, Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, unsurprisingly concluded that this was of course "just an excuse to hide bias against the Muslims." (This is from "Schools Scrap Religious Holidays," from Tampa Bay Online, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

It did not occur to him that Catholicism and Judaism, as well as Islam, are minority religions in America, but that in keeping with our American principles of government by the majority with respect for the rights of the minority, students have been excused from school without penalty for religious holidays -- a policy that will continue.

School Board Attorney Tom Gonzalez explained:

"A school board cannot recognize a religious holiday for the sole purpose of recognizing a religious holiday," Gonzalez said at a meeting packed with dozens of members of the Muslim community, some pleading to have no school on holidays for all religions. So many people celebrate Christmas that businesses can't operate on that day, Gonzalez said. If large numbers of students and teachers are absent on other religious holidays, the district may opt to again make those days off, he said.

That is in fact the case in some Michigan and New Jersey school districts where Eid is already a school holiday. School holidays do not imply government sanction, just recognition of the wishes of significant numbers of the population. Of course, it is hard not to notice that the C-word is not used in the calendar:

Winter holidays-- Dec. 18-Jan. 1

The "spring holiday," meanwhile, is nowhere near Easter. It's contemptible that they cannot call it a "Christmas holiday" and that they can't have an "Easter holiday," since the majority of their students celebrate those days. But the confusion the ACLU has sown about the establishment clause predates pressure from CAIR about Eid.

Where Muslims are in significant numbers, there is no problem with schools putting an Eid holiday on their calendar. Muslim students in Hillsborough County can already take a day off from school for Eid without penalty. That that is not enough for Bedier indicates that he does not understand the parameters of American pluralism. And that the school board responded by banning all religious holidays is an unwarranted dhimmi overreaction.

Iran: Feminist websites censored

Sharia alert from AKI, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Tehran, 26 Oct. (AKI) - The wave of censorship in Iran, which began with the rise to power of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, continues after the targeting of newspapers, journalists, internet sites and bloggers. In the past few days, sites and blogs that focus on women's rights and issues have now been censored. Iranian web surfers have been blocked from navigating in particular the websites of 'Womeniniran', 'Irwomen', 'Iftribune' and 'Womeniw', four of the most popular feminist websites in the country.

In total, it is estimated that there are 130,000 websites which Iranians have been prohibited from navigating.

The main Iranian women's groups are currently involved in collecting signatures for an appeal to protest against censorship in Iran. The petition by Iranian women can be accessed at http://new.petitiononline.com/womeno/petition.html.

Anti-dhimmitude in Denmark: Muslim ambassadors will not get meeting over Muhammad cartoons

As noted here last Friday, Muslim ambassadors from eleven nations were irked about depictions of Muhammad that appeared in a Danish newspaper. But they will get no satisfaction from Danish PM Fogh Rasmussen: Denmark, you see, has this funny little principle called "freedom of speech." "Muslim ambassadors will not be granted a meeting with the prime minister on the freedom of speech," from the Copenhagen Post, with thanks to Nosy:

Eleven Muslim ambassadors in Denmark looking to meet with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss what they call a 'smear campaign' in the media against Islam and Muslims have had their request denied.

The prime minister had otherwise been encouraged by the opposition to meet with the group as a way to increase understanding in an increasingly controversial public debate....

Pictorial depictions of Mohammed are frowned upon by Islam.

'This is a matter of principle. I won't meet with them because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so,' said Rasmussen.

Rasmussen reiterated his message that individuals who felt offended by the tone of the public debate should bring their grievances to the courts.

'As prime minister, I have no power whatsoever to limit the press - nor do I want such a power,' he said. 'It is a basic principle of our democracy that a prime minister cannot control the press.'

Fitzgerald: Saudi Arabian accountability

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald urges that Saudi Arabia be called to account even if the Senate Judiciary Committee is not at present up to the task:

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act have been canceled. Saudi Arabian accountability should not be canceled.

Though the debauches of the Saudi princelings far outdo anything mere Westerners could dream up, these practices take place behind high walls of the palaces and palacettes of Saudi Arabia, or in Belgravia, or the Avenue Foch or, especially, in villas in the south of Spain and south of France. (Prince Bandar, to be fair, has the Plantagenet hunting-lodge of Wychwood, not to mention that little place in Aspen, where he had a small American mountain earth-moved, because it annoyingly spoiled his view). Where is the CIA, collecting mountains of incriminating photographs and videos of these people, to threaten them with exposure that will cause them great difficulties among their own puritanical people, and which might be used, not to earn their friendship (which is simply not possible) but their dutiful collaboration, which is?

The tribute the ruling princelings pay, if they are to continue robbing the country (the country which, through its oligopoly rents, is robbing all the rest of us) and to spend what they grab as they see fit, requires them to support to the hilt the religious establishment, and not to veer from Wahhabi Islam. They will lie and delay and pretend that they are practically holding a constitutional convention on the American model, and talk grandly of "reform," and one or two princes will write a "daring" article that more-or-less says something close to the obvious, and we will always be on the verge of some bold new program -- just enough to let Tom Friedman wax poetic about it. A few Senators (including one or two Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee who seem quite soft on Saudi Arabia) will be pleased, and we will have the mixture as before. Saudi princes will not change course, or change their malevolent system and hostile country. They can't. They don't want to. They won't.

Stop talking, stop writing, stop hoping, about "our Saudi ally." Saudi Arabia is not our ally, and never has been. It was not when FDR met Ibn Saud in 1945. It was not when the forces of Abdul Aziz's father, accompanied by Captain Shakespear, were soundly defeated in 1915 when they went out to do battle with the tribesman of Jabal Shammar (yes, the very same Shammar tribe that runs from Syria to northern Saudi Arabia, one of whose leaders is Sheikh Ghazi Yawer, interim president of Iraq). Saudi Arabia sells oil to us, as it sells oil to everyone else. It sells oil to us at precisely the same price it sells oil to everyone else. Got that? It is just a huge gas station. No friendship, no special favors, nothing. When the Saudis "helped" in Afghanistan, they did so not as a favor as us, but to help fellow Muslims against the Infidel Russians. That's it. End of extent of "friendship." Why does the press, why does television, why do people in Washington continue to call Saudi Arabia an "ally," a "friend," or as the BBC likes to do, a "staunch ally"?

The Saudis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Qataris, the "United Arab Emiratians," the Kuwaitis, fill in the rest yourself here, are not and cannot be friends to us, for we are Infidels. We can persuade them, through pressure, to do what we want. Their people are not our friends. Their press and television are not our friends. Their worldview, which comes out of Islam, ensures that they will not be our friends (but will believe everything bad about us, for we are Infidels).
It is time, finally, to defeat the Jihad and Save the Earth (environmentalists, we are with you, but possibly not for quite the same reasons). All at one go. Time to internalize the true costs of that oil that funds the Jihad. Do everything possible to diminish the Saudi revenues. Let them work for a living, the way we Infidels have to.

Yes, some businesses will suffer. Revenues will go down for the house and croupiers at Monte Carlo, and among the arms dealers, and at the houses of high-end cognacs, and also among the champagne-producers in Ai and Epernay and Reims. The taxable income declared by madams in every major Western city will decline. Highest-end leather goods on the via Condotti and via Tornabuoni will also suffer. Too bad. Don't worry, you who will suffer a temporary loss of business: some other group of undeserving tycoons will come along to make it up to you. Undeserving, but not mortal threats to the rest of us, the non-Muslims of the world.

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Saudi Arabia Accountability Act postponed

Ostensibly the reasons were because some staff members of various Senators were unprepared, and need to devote their attention to the Harriet Miers hearings. But the hearing has not yet been rescheduled.

Here and here are two recent articles I have written on Saudi Arabia that underscore the need for these hearings, and for passage of the Act.

Pipes: Islamophobia?

Daniel Pipes makes some cogent and much-needed observations about the spurious phenomenon of "Islamophobia" in FrontPage (many good links in the original):

An Islamist group named Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to bring the world under Islamic law and advocates suicide attacks against Israelis. Facing proscription in Great Britain, it opened a clandestine front operation at British universities called “Stop Islamophobia,” the Sunday Times has revealed.

Stop what, you ask?

Coined in Great Britain a decade ago, the neologism Islamophobia was launched in 1996 by a self-proclaimed “Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.” The word literally means “undue fear of Islam” but it is used to mean “prejudice against Muslims” and joins over 500 other phobias spanning virtually every aspect of life.

The term has achieved a degree of linguistic and political acceptance, to the point that the secretary-general of the United Nations presided over a December 2004 conference titled “Confronting Islamophobia,” and in May a Council of Europe summit condemned “Islamophobia.”

The term presents several problems, however. First, what exactly constitutes an “undue fear of Islam” when Muslims acting in the name of Islam today make up the premier source of worldwide aggression, both verbal and physical, versus non-Muslims and Muslims alike? What, one wonders, is the proper amount of fear?

Second, while prejudice against Muslims certainly exists, “Islamophobia” deceptively conflates two distinct phenomena: fear of Islam and fear of radical Islam. I personally experience this problem: despite writing again and again against radical Islam the ideology, not Islam the religion, I have been made the runner-up for a mock “Islamophobia Award” in Great Britain, deemed America’s “leading Islamophobe,” and even called an “Islamophobe Incarnate.” (What I really am is an “Islamism-ophobe.”)

Third, promoters of the “Islamophobia” concept habitually exaggerate the problem:

· Law enforcement: British Muslims are said to suffer from persistent police discrimination but an actual review of the statistics by Kenan Malik makes mincemeat of this “Islamophobia myth.”

· Cultural: Muslims “are faced with an extreme flow of anti-Islamic literature that preaches hatred against Islam,” claims the president of the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Virginia, Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani: “novels, movies, books and researches. Just among the best selling novels alone there are almost 1000 novels of this type.” One thousand bestsellers vilify Islam? Hardly. In fact, barely a handful do so (for example, The Haj, by Leon Uris).

· Linguistic: A professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, falsely reported (in his keynote speech at a U.N. event, “Confronting Islamophobia,” reports Alexander Joffe) attempts to hide the Arabic origins of English words such as adobe – which derives in fact from ancient Egyptian, not from Arabic.

· Historical: The term anti-Semitism was originally used against Arabs living in Spain, Nasr also stated in his speech, and was not directed at Jews until after World War II. Nonsense: anti-Semitism dates back only to 1879, when it was coined by Wilhelm Marr, and has always referred specifically to hatred of Jews.

Fourth, Hizb ut-Tahrir’s manipulation of “Stop Islamophobia” betrays the fraudulence of this word. As the Sunday Times article explains, “Ostensibly the campaign’s goal is to fight anti-Muslim prejudice in the wake of the London bombings,” but it quotes Anthony Glees of London’s Brunel University to the effect that the real agenda is to spread anti-Semitic, anti-Hindu, anti-Sikh, anti-homosexual, and anti-female attitudes, as well as foment resentment of Western influence.

Finally, calling moderate Muslims (such as Irshad Manji) Islamophobes betrays this term’s aggressiveness. As Charles Moore writes in the Daily Telegraph, moderate Muslims, “frightened of what the Islamists are turning their faith into,” are the ones who most fear Islam. (Think of Algeria, Darfur, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.) “They cannot find the courage and the words to get to grips with the huge problem that confronts Islam in the modern world.” Accusations of Islamophobia, Malik adds, are intended “to silence critics of Islam, or even Muslims fighting for reform of their communities.” Another British Muslim, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, discerns an even more ambitious goal: “all too often Islamophobia is used to blackmail society.”

Muslims should dispense with this discredited term and instead engage in some earnest introspection. Rather than blame the potential victim for fearing his would-be executioner, they would do better to ponder how Islamists have transformed their faith into an ideology celebrating murder (Al-Qaeda: “You love life, we love death”) and develop strategies to redeem their religion by combating this morbid totalitarianism.

Anti-Semitic Material Featured in the Iran Pavilion of this year's Frankfurt Book Fair

Zombie reveals some German dhimmitude:

FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN, GERMANY (Zombietone News) -- The official Iranian pavilion at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair prominently featured virulently anti-Semitic literature, in violation of German law.

The display was noticed by Hamburg-based author Matthias Küntzel, whose first-hand account appeared Sunday on both the euroneuzeit blog and on the German Jewish site Die Jüdische....

Some of the books on sale at the Iranian pavilion at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, The International Jew, and Tale of the "Chosen People."...

With 280,000 attendees this year, the Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's most important (and by far the largest) publishing industry event, with exhibitors, publishers, buyers, agents and authors from over 100 countries arriving every year to make the business deals that keep the book industry humming....

At the time of this writing (Monday, October 24), the media has not yet discovered the story: the only evidence of it is in a blog entry from UK blogger Colin Meade, who provides rough translations of portions of Küntzel's German text, and a news article in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Photos, more details, and addresses to send protests -- all at Zombie's site.

Jihadists threaten to kill Coptic Pope

In revenge for the video shown in the Coptic church. Apparently a stabbed nun and three deaths aren't enough. "Muslim radicals threaten to kill Pope Shenouda III," from the FreeCopts blogspot, with thanks to Susan:

EL FAGR Egyptian newspaper published threats made by Muslims radicals against the Pope of Alexandria. According to the newspaper, Muslim radicals publicly announced their threats through small mosques in the outskirts of the city of Alexandria and regarded the bloodshed of H.H. Pope Shenouda III as Halal (permissible) in revenge for what they considered an insult to Islam's prophet....

On the other hand, the "Mother of All Radicals" or the so called "Muslim Brotherhood" group has been giving out fliers inciting the Muslims to revenge the honor of their prophet.

You can see the flyer and the newspaper article at the Free Copts site.

UK banks ban piggy banks

More on the British headlong rush into dhimmitude and war against pigs: "Piggy banks 'offend UK Muslims,'" from AAP, with thanks to Susan:

British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.

Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here....

Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move.

"This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers," he said.

However, the move brought accusations of political correctness gone mad from critics.

"The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs and the logical result of that process is a bland uniformity," the Dean of Blackburn, Reverend Christopher Armstrong, said.

"We should learn to celebrate our difference, not be fearful of them."

Khalid Mahmoud, the Labour MP for a Birmingham seat and one of four Muslim MPs in Britain, also criticised the piggy-bank ban.

"We live in a multicultural society and the traditions and symbols of one community should not be obliterated just to accommodate another," Mr Mahmoud said.

"I doubt many Muslims would be seriously offended by piggy banks."

Well, I hope not. But banned they are nevertheless: this must have been done to please someone.

Fitzgerald: Victory is not inevitable

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explains why we may end up losing the struggle against the global jihad:

There is nothing inevitable about the defeat of the worldwide Jihad. In fact, if one looks at the emptying out of non-Muslim populations within the last half-century or century, one finds that the non-Muslim population of North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, and Iran, consisting of Christians and Jews, has gone steadily down. And the non-Muslim population of Pakistan and Bangladesh, consisting mainly of Hindus (and some Sikhs and Christians) has gone steadily down. And the non-Muslim population in Malaysia and Indonesia has gone steadily down. In every case, forced expulsion, steady persecution, mass murder, and even genocide, as in Turkey, has helped to explain such a change.

Meanwhile, everywhere in the Lands of the Infidels, millions of Muslims have been allowed to settle. And in India and Lebanon, where they have long been present as a minority, they have been steadily outbreeding the non-Muslims. The percentage of Muslims in the population has steadily, almost it seems inexorably, risen.

If demography is destiny, and if nothing is done to halt Muslim in-migration, and Muslim overbreeding that astounds -- in France the non-Muslims increase by .5% a year, while Muslims increase by 5% per year -- 10 times the rate. In Italy (with a negative birth-rate), in Spain, in England, in Germany, the same kind of results. Anyone can do the simple calculation. It can already be seen that Western politicians, having no sense of their own civilizations or what needs to be retained at all costs, more and more willingly appease Muslim voters. A few years ago a prominent leader of the Socialist Party sent out word to his underlings that they should forget entirely about "the Jews" and Israel, and concentrate entirely on winning the Muslim vote, which can only be won by adopting Muslim demands in foreign policy and meeting Muslim demands for changes in the laws, customs, and manners to be observed within the Infidel land in which they happen to have settled. Much the same kind of cravenness by politicians can be observed in Great Britain, where in local elections, and not only in London with Ken Livingstone, the politicians vie in their desire to appease and please Muslim voters. Those who would like to register their fear and dismay, and their desire to make their country less welcoming to Muslims who do not wish the resident Infidels well, have only the beyond-the-pale (as many of them see it) BNP in England or Le Pen in France. Thus they are without an articulate, respectable figure to lead, to warn, to instruct, and to help rescue those who did nothing to deserve this except to be insufficiently attentive -- for they trusted their own leaders -- to the immutable nature, and menace, of Islam and its adherents, both those who are clearly "immoderate" and those who claim, and for the moment may be, that slippery thing, a "moderate" Muslim.

When Rice prates about how Iraq reminds her of Germany and France after the war -- anyone can in a moment think of three or four major ways in which this analogy crumbles into dust -- or stoutly insists that we will "not falter or fail" and lets alliteration do her thinking for her, when Bush prates about "staying the course" and not "cutting and running," and his fan club, among so-called "Conservatives," shrieks with delight, one begins to despair. And among those who should by this time know better, there is still this willingness to utter inanities and illogical remarks about "democracy" in Iraq, without any argument as to why this "democracy" in Iraq could conceivably lead to a better situation for Infidels, when the best thing that could happen as far as Infidels are concerned is the break-up of Iraq and permanent war, cold or hot, between Shi'a and Sunni along the fault line that now runs through Iraq, as well as the creation of a non-Arab Muslim state, Kurdistan, that might inspire other non-Arab Muslims and cause all of them to focus a bit more clearly on Arab supremacist ideology within Islam.

Last week at the Union League in New York, The New Criterion sponsored a small meeting to discuss the islamization of Europe. As it happened, quite by chance, the person who knows most about this subject in the world, Bat Ye'or, was in the vicinity and, at the last minute, took part. But it was clear from reports that there was a widespread inability, in those who attended and of whom more might be expected, to understand the time-frame in which events in Europe are taking place, and how late things are for the Americans (and the Europeans) to come to their senses. Like our rulers, when they go to Europe they live in certain hotels, meet certain people, and are cushioned by their own ignorance of languages (so that, for example, even reading "Le Monde" or "Le Figaro" or the "Corriere della Sera" or "El Pais" is impossible, and information arrives filtered through the English-language press, or television). Thus they are less alarmed than they should be by the islamization of Europe, and continue to believe that Bush and company must know what they are doing in Iraq, and that despite its seeming illogicality, surely something wonderful or at least hopeful will come of it. No it won't. The most hopeful thing that could possibly come of it is not a stable, well-functioning nation-state, its army thoroughly trained to Western standards by American officers (and no doubt that newly-trained "Iraqi" army will be happy to share all its new expertise with armies of other Muslim states -- just what we need, better Muslim armies, with better logistics, equipment, and morale).

Once the regime was overturned, once Saddam himself was captured and his sons and associates killed or captured, and the country scoured for major weapons, and weapons projects permanently disrupted, and weapons depots blown up where appropriate, the war was won. The Sunnis had been deposed; the Shi'a were now tasting power and would not ever again relinquish it. At that point it was time to leave. It has been time to leave for at least a year. The longer we stay, the more expertly we train Muslim Arabs, whether Shi'a or Sunni, the more men and money we so obviously squander, the more morale in the army will go down -- not among all the troops, but the more thoughtful of them, the ones least inclined to parrot the line from above. The more we stay, the fewer civilians will enlist in the Reserves and the National Guard, and standards for enlistment will go down – and have already. The longer we stay, the more people will heed the siren-song of those who think there is nothing about Islam to worry about and that we should leave Iraq, but for all the wrong reasons, and that we certainly should not exploit the natural fissures within Islam -- because there is nothing wrong with Islam (when everything is wrong with Islam).

And so, while our attention and money and men and materiel and morale are monomaniacally focused on, and squandered in, Iraq, the very years in which Western Europe could still be saved, the years in which other, better leaders could help its people come to their senses about Islam, and could be supported in this by a muscular United States with all of its resources, time is wasted, and much else is wasted as well. The inertia in Iraq, the stubborn refusal to comprehend the irrelevance of this pseudo-"democracy" to the more important task of constaining, containing, dividing, and demoralizing the forces of Islam, maddens. Clocks tick, and eventually, demography becomes destiny.

School for Shar'ia: Islamist School Wins Dept of Education Blue Ribbon for Excellence Award

Beila Rabinowitz at Militant Islam Monitor tells the whole sad story:

October 20, 20005 - Philadelphia, PA - PipeLineNews.org - Jihad through Da'wa [conversion of non-Muslims] in the form of domestic Islamic education has gotten a boost from an unlikely source, the U.S. government.

The administration has just presented the New Horizons Islamic School in Pasadena, California the United States Department of Education's "Blue Ribbon for Excellence" award....

The BIAE, based in Los Angeles - which plans the curriculum of the New Horizons School together with the Islamic Center of Southern California even offers an Islamized version of the Pledge of Alliance on their website. It begins with the phrase - "As an American Muslim I pledge alliance to ALLAH and his Prophet." http://www.biae.net/pledge.html...

As the curriculum provider for the Islamic School of Pasadena, the BIAE underscores the conflict of interests between Islamic education, and the goals of the US Department of Education. The latter insisting that, "schools singled out for national honors will now reflect the goals of our nation's new education reforms for high standards and accountability." This begs the question as to who will be held accountable for the decision to present an award to an Islamist school which aims to replace the Constitution with shari'a. http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/index.html

The clash between the Islamo-fascist weltanschauung of the Islamic school enterprise in the U.S. and the ideals of American education is evident in the activities of Amina Al Sarraf [a consultant and author of textbooks and syllabi for Islamic schools] who serves as the interim principal of the Islamic School of Pasadena.

Most recently Al Sarraf spoke to ISNA [Islamic Society of North America] a Wahhabist Da'wa front.

ISNA is the foremost distributor of Islamist educational materials in North America. ISNA is the founder of the New Horizons schools – such as the one lead by Al Sarraf - both in North America and abroad.

Read it all.

Saudi allows cinema again, but only cartoons

Sharia alert from AFP, with thanks to Fjordman:

RIYADH -- Some 20 years after public screenings of films were banned, the first cinema will open next month in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, but showing only cartoons, a source from the firm handling the project said on Sunday.

The cinema will open for women and children at a Riyadh hotel at the Eid Al Fitr feast at the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan on November 2 or 3, said the source who requested anonymity....

Cinema was once shown in private clubs in Saudi Arabia until all public screenings were banned because they were considered against Islamic law in the early 1980s.

Saudi Arabia is the only country to have banned cinema houses in the Muslim conservative Arab Gulf region.

Saudi Dollars and Jihad

Rachel Ehrenfeld asks key questions in FrontPage. (Yes, yes, thank you, I know that jihad means "struggle," not "holy war," and that that struggle takes many forms in Islamic tradition. Warfare against unbelievers is one of its principal forms.):

Earlier this month, President George W. Bush finally declared that our war is with Radical Islam. He said: “In pursuit of their goals, Islamic Radicals are empowered by helpers and enablers…They are strengthened by front operations – such as corrupted charities – and those who aggressively fund the spread of Radical, intolerant versions of Islam.” Defeating “the murderous ideology of the Islamic Radicals,” he stated, is the “great challenge of our century.” This plague cannot be eliminated by appeasement, dialogue, or negotiated solutions.

The religious and philosophical justifications for promoting Jihad – which means holy war – around the world, is found in the Quran, says Dr. Hussein Shehata, a leading Islamic scholar at al-Azhar University in Cairo. According to Dr. Shehata, the following terms in the Quran seek to justify the spreading of Jihad: in Arabic, Al-Jihad bil-Lisan, which means Jihad of the Tongue, and al-Jihad bil-Qalam, Jihad of the Pen, both combine to promote Jihad.

These commands are complemented by Al-Jihad bil-Mal – the Financial Jihad – which is raising and contributing money to support the Jihad warriors – known as the Mujahideen. The Islamists of al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hizballah – from Egypt and Saudi Arabia to Spain, England, Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, the U.S. and Canada – vow to convert the world to Islam. As documented by Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, Director of Orient Research Group in Toronto, “if a country does not allow the propagation of Islam to its inhabitants, then the Muslim[s] ... would be justified in waging Jihad against that country.”

President Bush declared repeatedly that, “money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations.” Stopping the flow of money to the terrorists would stop the Financial Jihad which feeds the efforts to revive the Islamic Caliphate. It would also stop the financing of terror attacks, hate propaganda and education, and their undermining of democracy. In Israel, Financial Jihad has funded more than 26,000 terror attacks in the last five years, including 144 suicide attacks. This comes to at least 14 attacks a day in a country the size of Vancouver Island.

While acknowledging the dangers of Radical Islam, and the support its propagators receive from “authoritarian regimes ­– allies of convenience like Syria and Iran,” the President neglected to mention Saudi Arabia, and the illegal drug trade that provides major financial resources for Islamist and other terrorist organizations worldwide.

Despite the oil crisis, we can no longer pretend that the Saudis are our allies in the war against Radical Islam. Continuing to do so only sets us up for failure.

Former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform in April this year that “Some $85-90 billion has been spent from sources in Saudi Arabia in the last 30 years, spreading Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world.” The U.S. National Intelligence Reform Act of December 2004 requires development of a Presidential strategy to confront Islamic extremism, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia. So far, says a September Government Accounting Office (GAO) report, U.S. agencies have been unable to determine the extent of Saudi Arabia’s domestic and international cooperation.

Indeed, the Saudis continue to fund terror: in August, Y'akub Abu Assab, a senior Hamas operative, was captured after he opened the Judea regional Hamas Communication Center in East Jerusalem. Assab transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as operational instructions from Hamas headquarters in Saudi Arabia to Hamas operatives in the West Bank and Gaza for terror attacks in Israel, as well as funds for the families of suicide bombers.

On Iqra TV, on August 29, 2005, Saudi Arabia's secretary-general of the official Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission, Sheikh Abdallah Basfar, urged Muslims everywhere to fund terrorism. He said: "The Prophet said: 'He who equips a fighter -- it is as if he himself fought.' You lie in your bed, safe in your own home, and donate money and Allah credits you with the rewards of a fighter. What is this? A privilege.”

Under U.S. pressure, Saudi Arabia declared repeatedly that it would close some charities identified as spreading Wahhabism and funding terrorism. However, the GAO report notes that “in May 2005, ...it was unclear whether the government of Saudi Arabia had implemented its plans.” Despite Saudi promises to establish a new National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad, the GAO said:” “as of July 2005, this commission was not yet fully operational.”

At least two members of the Saudi government, Riyadh Governor Prince Salman and Minister of Defense Prince Sultan, are sponsors of the Saudi High Commission, which evidence in the 9/11 victims lawsuits shows “has long acted as a fully integrated component of al-Qaeda’s logistical and financial support infrastructure.” Moreover, the lawsuits detail that “the Sept. 11 attacks were a direct, intended and foreseeable product of [the High Commission’s] participation in al-Qaeda’s jihadist campaign.”

Princes Salman and Sultan are also affiliated with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), which “had been involved in terror plans and plots and had purposely directed its activities against the United States.” The Princes have also been affiliated with the Saudi Charity al- Haramain, whose U.S. branches were shut down.

The most important finding by the GAO, however, was buried in a footnote. It says: “the distinction between the [Saudi] government’s support and funding, versus that provided by entities and individuals, especially in the case of Saudi charities’ alleged activities, is not always clear.”

While the U.S. Treasury Department is obligated to monitor funders of terrorism, the GAO reports that Treasury is not fulfilling its duty, in that Treasury “does not identify, monitor, or counter the support and funding or the global propagation of Islamic extremism as it relates to an ideology.” This ideology, according to the GAO, “denies the legitimacy of non-believers and practitioners of other forms of Islam, and that explicitly promotes hatred, intolerance, and violence…”

Meanwhile, legal systems in the West are doing their best: the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California decided on October 20th that the U.S. can designate foreign organizations as terrorist groups and bar Americans from financially backing them—in a case involving money raised for the Iranian terrorist group, Mujahedin-e Khalq.

Similarly, The European Court of Justice ruled on September 22, 2005 that the EU has the right to freeze assets belonging to suspected terrorists on a United Nations list. The case was brought by the Saudi based Al Barakaat International Foundation and two individuals, Ahmed Ali Yusuf, a U.K. citizen of Pakistani origins, and Yassin Abdullah Kadi, the Saudi who headed the Muwafaq foundation. Both organizations and individuals were identified as funding al-Qaeda.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting, which was held in Paris earlier this month, and the many other conferences devoted to terrorism financing, have issued self-congratulatory statements and plans for further meetings. But as important as the statements, new laws and banning of terrorist organizations are, they are useless as long as the financing of Radical Islam is allowed to flourish. Indeed, without the political will to stop the direct and indirect financing of terrorism, no law or convention will stop it.

Until we face up to sources of terrorist money being provided or condoned in various ways by our putative allies, we will continue to issue more lame statements condemning future attacks without implementing real measures that can protect our country. We have the ability to end the plague of terrorism if we only target the funding that makes it possible. We owe it to future generations to do so.

Hizb ut-Tahrir comes calling

British MP Harriet Harman got quite the surprise last week when members of Hizb ut-Tahrir came for a visit, taking advantage of Harman’s open-door office policy. The representatives of the violent Muslim group were there to complain about the British government’s efforts to outlaw their organization, in a story recounted by Nick Cohen in the Observer:

A few weeks ago, Harriet Harman was holding a surgery for her Peckham constituents. As always, it was an open house, and every variety of south Londoner was coming to her office. She had dealt with the usual run of complaints and appeals when the door opened and for the first time in her life Harman confronted authentic anti-democrats.

If she had been less startled, she might have seen the funny side. The members of Hizb ut-Tahrir hated democracy and all that went with it - secularism, the separation of church and state, the emancipation of women. It's not just that they would establish a dictatorship if they came to power, the successor parties to the communists and the fascists would do that. The Islamists regarded it as sinful to stand in elections or even vote.

Yet here were totalitarians and misogynists going to a woman democratic politician and begging her to persuade Tony Blair not to take authoritarian measures against their authoritarian sect. The scene could have been bettered only if Harman had been a Jewish lesbian.

In fact, she is a courteous and patient politician. She listened politely to what they had to say and the more she heard the more despairing she became. As they were leaving, she said, 'you're British citizens. Shouldn't you try to play a part in British society?'

'We're not a part of British society,' they told her. 'We stay here like guests in a hotel.'

Indonesian Muslims close local churches

The intimidation campaign waged by Muslim groups against Indonesian Christians continues unabated, leading one Christian leader, Pastor Johan Bandi, to issue “an urgent call for solidarity for the persecuted churches in Indonesia,” per ASSIST News Service:

In recent months, Christians in Indonesia have faced a severe escalation of terrorism, intimidation and persecution.

“This escalation is part of the process to implement Islamic Sharia Law,” Pastor Bandi said.

He pointed out that some of the radical Islamic groups that are publicly known, such as the Defense of Islam (FPI) and the Alliance Against Apostasy (AGAP), have broken into churches in the middle of services, demanded the pastor stop preaching, ordered him and the congregation out of the church, and forced him to sign a statement that the building would no longer be used for church services. Many times they carried out their intimidation and terror with letters of authorization from the mayor and chief of police in their hands, and accompanied by government officials and police, who stood by doing nothing.

“This is not just a West Java problem,” Bandi said. “This is a national problem facing every church group throughout the country.”

Dr. Jeff Hammond of Jakarta-based Bless Indonesia Today, said three churches, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Pentecostal, were closed five weeks ago by the mayor, accompanied by members of AGAP

Then on Sunday, October 16, three more churches in East Bekasi (West Java, about 45 minutes drive from Jakarta) were closed.

On that same day about 150 people marched on a house church in South Sulawesi and forced it to close. The Jakarta Post reported that Muslims for at least six months had been objecting to its functioning without a permit.

Saudi Author: "Imagine You're a Woman"

The Saudi author Badriyya Al-Bishr, who is nothing if not courageous, writes this in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. From MEMRI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

"Imagine you're a woman. You always need your guardian's approval, not only regarding your first marriage, as maintained by the Islamic legal scholars, but regarding each and every matter. You cannot study without your guardian's approval, even if you reach a doctorate level. You cannot get a job and earn a living without your guardian's approval. Moreover, there are people who are not ashamed to say that a woman must have permission to work even in the private sector.

"Imagine you're a woman, and the guardian who must accompany you wherever [you go] is your 15-year-old son or your brother, who scratches his chin before giving his approval, saying: 'What do you think, guys, should I give her my permission?' Sometimes he asks for... a bribe [in return], heaven forbid! [But] your brother avoids taking such a bribe in 'cash' because his self-respect prevents him from touching a woman's money. So he prefers the bribe to be a car, a fridge, or an assurance of money that you will pay in installments [for him], until Allah gets him out of his financial straits...

"Imagine you're a woman, and you are subject to assault, beatings, or murder. When the press publishes your photo [together with] the photo of the criminals and [descriptions] of their brutality, there are people who ask: 'Was the victim covered [by a veil] or not?' If she was covered up, [the question arises:] 'Who let her go out of the house at such an hour?' In the event that your husband is the one who broke your ribs, [people will say] that no doubt there was good reason for it.

"Imagine you're a woman whose husband breaks her nose, arm, or leg, and you go to the Qadi to lodge a complaint. When the Qadi asks you about your complaint, and you say, 'He beat me,' he responds reproachfully 'That's all?!' In other words, [for the Qadi], beating is a technical situation that exists among all couples and lovers, [as the saying goes]: 'Beating the beloved is like eating raisins.'

In accord with Qur'an 4:34. Read it all.

Holland struggles with Muslim immigration

The conflict between secular European societies and their Muslim immigrant populations was once a niche story, relegated to smaller publications who were unafraid to touch on “racial” or “religious” issues. However, with the murder of Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim radical, even large media outlets such as the International Herald Tribune are beginning to pay attention to the growing trend of fundamentalism within the burgeoning European Muslim immigrant community. The focal point of this coming battle is the home country of Van Gogh, the Netherlands, as touched on by the IHT:

Immigration, particularly of Muslims, has long been an issue in Europe, a challenge to overburdened welfare systems and to the self-image of countries where every village hoists a church spire to the sky. But what was once a subject of worthy debate is now more a matter of survival.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Netherlands, where a familiar European combination of troubled history and quiet hypocrisy, wrapped in a veneer of tolerance, has yielded unexpected bloodshed. "We see that our much-vaunted tolerance toward immigrants was often just indifference and we are left wondering: What have we become?" said Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam.

The murders, in 2002 and 2004 respectively, of the taboo-trampling politician Pym Fortuyn and the Islam-bashing movie director Theo van Gogh have left the Dutch bereft of certainties. They are not alone in their questioning.

Islam is now of Europe, a European religion. But Europe, after terrorist killings in Madrid and Amsterdam and London, sees more threat than promise in the immigrant tide from its Muslim fringes.

Geert Wilders is a rightist member of the Dutch Parliament living in a secret location under police protection because Islamic radicals say they will kill him. That, in what was until recently the placid Western democracy par excellence, is extraordinary. "All non-Western immigration must be stopped," Wilders said. "Pure Islam is violent."

Over 10,000 Saudi Students bound for the United States

How else should we reward our certified ally in the war on terror? From Asharq Al-Awsat:

More than 10,000 Saudi students will travel to the US to attend university as part of a government-sponsored program following the adoption of new measures by the Ministry of Higher Education aimed at facilitating travel procedures for Saudis. In total, 21,000 Saudis are expected to take part in the program in the next four years.

Prospective students can submit their applications to the Ministry of Higher Education through a Ministry special office or its website for nine different specializations and will be able to benefit from assistance with their visa applications at the US embassy and its diplomatic missions throughout the country.

Fahd al Manur, a student who decided to enroll in the program told Asharq al Awsat, “I do not fear traveling to the US since Americans are a friendly people. Relations between our two countries have greatly improved recently and travel procedures are easier nowadays after being almost impossible following September 11th 2001.” Studying in the US would be a dream come true, he added, despite recent events. King Abdullah’s visit earlier this year strengthened bilateral relations and “reassured Saudis.”

Currently studying in the U.S., Mohammad al Mateeri described the initiative as an important step and described how in eight years of living in the US, “I have never been hassled, save for an increase in security checks to which a country is entitled to when protecting its citizens.”

His wife, Afaf, also a Saudi national, confirmed that Americans have been very friendly to the couple and treated them with respect. Once, however, she was detained for 24hours at a Washington D.C airport after a short visit to Saudi Arabia because of a mix up in names but was treated with respect and courtesy.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks on US cities, several Saudi students were detained around the U.S. Bandar al Qowaifal, who left home at 18 to attend university in America recalled his arrest. “After al Qaeda’s attacks, I was arrested for one whole month and extradited to Saudi Arabia . They didn’t have anything against me except some minor irregularities in my visa I hadn’t paid attention to. I am waiting for the right to time to go back to the US and resume my studies.” After applying to the exchange program and benefiting from relaxed visa procedures, Bandar is now back in the US studying at his own expense.

Are "relaxed visa procedures" another courtesy being extended to our committed allies?

'Asian' gangs spark Birmingham riots

From the Times Online, with thanks to treehugger:

ONE MAN was killed after violence flared in Birmingham last night following a week of racial tension after it was claimed a 14-year-old Jamaican girl had been raped by an Asian gang. Hundreds of youths ran through the streets of the Lozells area of the city attacking motorists and lines of riot police after a meeting between police and community leaders.

Tension was high after rumours circulated that the girl had been attacked by 19 Asian men but had not gone to police because she is in Britain illegally and feared deportation.

The meeting was intended to reassure the black community and appeal for the girl to come forward. But it is understood a gang of up to 30 Asian youths began throwing stones at some of the 300 people attending the meeting in a church.

Violence then broke out with bricks and bottles thrown at a line of riot police. Cars were set on fire, an ambulance was attacked and shop windows smashed as youths wielding baseball bats ran amok. The dead man, black and in his twenties, was stabbed to death.

Three men were arrested and at least a further 10 were taken to hospital, three suffering from stab wounds and two, including a policeman, having been shot with a ball-bearing gun.

A woman reporter, Alex Thompson, described being attacked in her car: “They were a large group, more than 100 hooded youths with baseball bats running through the streets. They hit my car with the bats and kicked it. They also attacked other motorists.”

India Murray, landlady of the Union Inn in Gerrard Street, said the violence began at 6pm and the pub’s windows were smashed. She locked herself and her customers inside. “Whoever is here is in here because there are no taxis coming, so they can’t leave,” she said.

The area is close to where Letisha Shakespeare, 17, and Charlene Ellis, 18, were shot dead outside a kebab shop in January 2003.

MasterCard Turkey Manager's Imprisonment Demanded

For speaking the truth about the Turkish persecution of Kurds and Armenians. A Let-Them-Into-the-EU alert from zaman.com, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

The investigation about the insulting expressions in the Istanbul City Guide, which was distributed by MasterCard prior to the UEFA Champions League Final Match, was concluded.

Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office demanded up to three years of imprisonment for MasterCard Southeastern Europe General Manager Ayse Ozlem Imece for degrading the Turkish identity, Turkish Republic, foundation and the state bodies in the investigation conducted in the last four months. The documents prepared by Public Prosecutor Huseyin Nazmi Okumus were sent to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office due to the lack of jurisdiction. The case will be opened there in the following days.

The investigation was filed when the insults in the 290-page Istanbul City Guide, which belittled the Turkish Identity, Turkish Republic, foundation and the state bodies, reflected in media. The guide reportedly written by the British journalist Virginia Maxwell was published by the "Lonely Planet" publishing house based in Australia....

Some of the expressions in the booklet that was distributed during Milan-Liverpool Match in Istanbul were as follows: "In 1924, [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk banned any expression of Kurdishness in an attempt at assimilation. Speaking Kurdish was banned. Major battles and atrocities ensued throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and since 1984, nearly 30,000 people have died. The resultant outrage of terrorism (new at the time though all too familiar to us now) set-off a powerful Armenian backslash, resulting in a widespread massacre of innocent Armenians in Istanbul and elsewhere."

Away from the manger - a Christian-Muslim divide

Christians facing persecution in the Holy Land. In the first part of this article, which I have not reproduced below, you will find Christians saying that everything is wonderful between them and the Muslims. But the record is clear, highlighting the fact that here again Christians in the Middle East know what they have to say to get along, however divorced from reality those statements are. From the Jerusalem Post:

In another case, a 60-year-old Christian man was briefly detained by one of the Palestinian security forces because he had forbidden his daughter to date a Muslim security officer. Other Christians who tried to stop Fatah gunmen in Beit Jala from firing into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo in the first years of the intifada later reported that they had been beaten or threatened by the gunmen.

The same gunmen are also responsible for the rape and murder of two Christian teenage sisters from the Amr family. The assailants then claimed that the sisters had been murdered because they were "prostitutes" and had been "collaborating" with Israeli security forces - a claim that has been strongly denied by the victims' relatives and many residents of the town. "The gangsters murdered the two sisters so that they would not tell anyone about the rape," says a family member. "Some of the murderers were later killed by the Israeli army, but others are now living in Europe after they had sought refuge in the Church of Nativity. It's absurd that Muslim men who rape and murder Christian girls are given political asylum in Christian countries like Ireland, Spain and Italy."

Last week Beit Jala was once again the scene of religious tensions after a Christian woman complained that she had been harassed by Muslim men from the village of Beit Awwa in the Hebron area. "Such incidents have become a daily phenomenon," says Mary, who runs a small grocery in the town. "Many Christian families have sent their daughters abroad for fear they would come under attack by Muslim men."

Earlier this year tensions between Muslims and Christians in Bethlehem reached a peak after a Christian family complained that their 16-year-old daughter had been kidnapped by a Muslim man. Following the intervention of senior Palestinian officials and Muslim leaders, the girl was reunited with her family after spending a few days in a village near Hebron. With the help of American diplomats, the girl was flown immediately to the US to begin a new life with relatives and friends.

Some Christians point a finger at the foreign media and diplomatic missions in Israel, accusing them of ignoring their predicament for "political" reasons. "Although most of the foreign journalists and diplomats are Christians, they don't seem to pay enough attention to what's happening to the Christians in Bethlehem," says Bishara, a Christian tourist guide. "They're obviously afraid of damaging their relations with the Palestinian Authority."

While it's almost impossible to find a Christian who's prepared to go public in airing such grievances, Samir Qumsiyeh, a journalist from Beit Sahur, is a notable exception. Last month he was quoted by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera as saying that Christians were being subjected to rape, kidnapping, extortion and expropriation of land and property.

Qumsiyeh, who was not available this week for an interview because he was out of the country, heads a local TV station called Al-Mahd [Nativity]. In a daring step, Qumsiyeh drew up a list of 93 cases of anti-Christian violence between 2000 and 2004.

"This file is incomplete and it's not up-to-date," he told the Italian newspaper. "Look at the case of Rawan William Mansour, a 17-year-old girl from Bet Sahur. She was raped two years ago by four members of Fatah. Even though the family protested, none of the four was ever arrested. Because of the shame her family was forced to move to Jordan.

"Almost all 140 cases of expropriation of land in the last three years were committed by militant Islamic groups and members of the Palestinian police." Qumsiyeh said he was now preparing a book on the conditions of the Christian minority. "I will call it 'Racism in Action,'" he says. "The racism against us is gaining pace in staggering ways. In 1950 the Christian population in Bethlehem was 75%. Today we have hardly more than 12% Christians. If the situation continues, we won't be here any more in 20 years."

Afghan magazine editor sentenced to two years for blasphemy

Sharia alert and Ali Mohaqiq Nasab update from AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

KABUL - A court in Afghanistan has convicted the editor of a women’s magazine of blasphemy after complaints his articles questioned Islam, and sentenced him to two years in jail, a media rights group said on Sunday.

The Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association said it would complain to President Hamid Karzai about the sentencing of editor Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, who has been in jail since his arrest two weeks ago....

Nasab, editor of the monthly magazine Haqoq-e-Zan (Women’s Rights), was arrested after complaints about his articles, including one, which questioned the severity of Islamic punishments for crimes such as adultery.

Holland: Entertainment store sells Qu'ran

From the Wishful Thinking Department comes this one from the Dutch Disease blog (thanks to Cid Martel):

Holland's number one entertainment store, Free Record Shop, has started selling the Qu'ran and the Bible in one package along with a brochure written by an imam and a protestant.

"There's a lot going on in the world today," commercial director Juan da Silva says. "Maybe if we showed some more interesr in one another we would understand each other better."

To help build a bridge between the Qu'ran and the Bible, Da Silva asked imam Abdulwahid van Bommel and reverend Adri van Buuren to write a brochure about Christianity and Islam. According to both clergymen, Christians and Muslims share the same God.

Van Buuren calls the Qu'ran 'some kind of third Testament' and calls on Christians and Muslims to pray together and combine forces. "In service of world peace."

Some kind of third Testament, eh, Van Buuren? I guess Van B. hasn't seen the passage where the Qur'an calls down the curse of Allah on those who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Qur'an 9:30).

Church in Qatar may irk Muslims

Islamic tolerance alert: let them put a mosque in Rome, and then these Christians will have a case when they complain about Qatar -- what's that? There is a mosque in Rome? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

From AP, with thanks to Twostellas:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar may be best known as the home of Al-Jazeera television, but an Anglican congregation now plans to build the country's first Christian church since Islam's arrival in the seventh century, a step that risks angering local Muslims.

Clive Handford, the Nicosia-based Anglican bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf, says construction will start in the Qatari capital of Doha in early 2006 on the $7 million Church of the Epiphany, along with a conference center and meeting rooms....

While some see the construction as a sign of increasing religious diversity throughout the world, Qatar's close-knit Muslim community may become angered if public approval is not sought, said Najeeb al-Nauimi, a prominent lawyer in Doha.

"People will be insulted," al-Nauimi said. "They respect other religions. But to impose this on them is to say that you are no longer a Muslim state. That will hurt."...

Christianity disappeared in most Gulf Arab states within a few centuries after Islam's arrival in the seventh century. But Christian expatriates have migrated to the region over the last hundred years, especially after the discovery of oil.

Tell them how Christianity disappeared, AP. Go on. I dare you. (For those who don't know, see Bat Ye'or's seminal work The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam.)

Qatar now counts some 70,000 Christians, including some 7,000 Anglicans and 50,000 Roman Catholics, largely from the Philippines, according to the World Christian Database. Qatar's Anglican community is its oldest, dating to 1916, the database says....

Energy-rich Qatar has had no purpose-built church since pre-Islamic times, when a chain of churches and monasteries stretched along the western shore of the Gulf from the fourth to the seventh century, Handford said.

Many Qataris, who follow a conservative brand of Islam, were "not enthusiastic" about the return of churches to the tiny country, Handford acknowledged.

The congregation will take security precautions and will not be decorated overtly with Christian crosses, he said, although the walkways and grounds will have crosses and flower motifs resembling those used in early Christian churches....

Public display of crosses is forbidden by the classic dhimmi laws, which exert such a continuing cultural influence that crosses on this church in Qatar will not be "overt."

"We've not yet experienced a backlash," Handford said by telephone from London, where he attended a fund-raiser for the Doha church hosted by the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion.

"I suppose these days there is always a risk, no matter where you are," Handford said. "We're not thinking of putting up razor wire or things like that."

The Anglican archdeacon in Qatar, Ian Young, said the church was one of four planned in the energy-rich Gulf state.

Also in the works are church buildings serving Catholics, Egyptian Coptic Christians and a multidenominational church serving Indian Christians, said Young, a 58-year-old Scot who has served as Doha's chief Anglican priest since 1991....

Al-Nauimi warned that few Qataris would approve of donating public land so expatriate Christians could build a church. Al-Nauimi, who as a child attended a Christian elementary school in Lebanon, said he had heard of no Qatari Christians.

"This is the affair of a foreign community that is here temporarily. Why should they get land for this?" he asked. "I don't know what the reaction will be. There is a risk."

Yes, there is. Baddala deenahu, faqtuluhu and all that, eh, Al-Nauimi?

Fitzgerald: Turkey: prove it

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the present Western stance toward Turkey, as epitomized by former General Brent Scowcroft, and recommends an alternative:

“Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc has said, ‘we have always felt contributions of the United States to Turkey`s EU process.’ Arinc hosted dinner in honor of Brent Scowcroft, chairman of the Board of the American-Turkish Council (ATC), and accompanying delegation in Ankara on Thursday.” — from this article, October 21, 2005

Brent Scowcroft, chairman of the Board of the American-Turkish Council (ATC). Well, of course. It makes sense. Hard-on-Israel ergo soft-on-Islam Brent Scowcroft. The chocolate soldier who rose through the ranks, like the Gilbert-and-Sullivan admiral who polished up the handle of the big front door and became a captain in the Queen's navee, Scowcroft has a lifetime of polishing, apple-polishing for his civilian superiors.

And here is Turkey, the country that wishes to enter the E.U., feting Scowcroft. And here is the government of the United States pushing for Turkey's admission to the E.U., which is a clear sign to all those who think that this Administration "secretly" understands Islam and is "just playing a clever game" (which includes all those who so tiresomely keep defending the wonderful Light-Unto-the-Muslim-Nations Project in Iraq). And Scowcroft is getting how much from the Turkish government, directly or indirectly, for his new post, one no doubt among many?

And who cares if the E.U. has as its largest member Turkey, so that all Turks can, by the rules of the E.U., move freely anywhere within that same E.U, and set up doner kebab shops, and mosques, and swell the ranks still further of those ever-swelling ranks of Muslims who, almost without exception, have everywhere they have settled within Europe made life more unpleasant, more expensive, and more physically insecure for the indigenous Infidels (and for other non-Muslim immigrant groups who, unlike the Muslims, settle in Europe without making life more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous for everyone else)? Brent Scowcroft doesn't. From desk-job after desk-job, he rose high. And now he lives the life of comfort, paid for by those who do not so much wish Turkey and Erdogan well, but those, and there are so many of them, who simply want the money, whether from Turkey pushing in its own way at the Gates of Vienna, or Saudi Arabia trying to prevent any understanding of what Saudi Arabia is and does and always will be and always will do.

He's a type. Brent Scowcroft. He has nothing to do with the officers and men who were in Iraq, and some of whom are paying with their lives for the decades of misunderstanding of Islam that these well-heeled denizens of official Washington receive, in a thousand ways, in order to misinform and misdirect the government, the media, and us.

Were those well-heeled denizens of official Washington suddenly to snap to their senses, here are the three things that must be required of Turkey before negotiations can be continued:

1. Formal recognition of the mass-murder of Armenians in 1894-96, and the mass-murder, amounting to genocide as that term is often applied, in the period 1915-1920.

2. Removal of the green flag of Islam from Hagia Sophia, allowing Western (and Turkish) artisans to restore, as much as possible, the building, and permitting the holding, in Hagia Sophia, of church services -- so that, as a working church, Western and Turkish visitors, both among the permanent residents and tourists, can participate in, or observe, what was the first church in what for a thousand years was the most largest and most important city in all of Eastern Christendom and, for much of that time, the most important city in Christendom, period.

3. Withdrawal of Turkey from the "Islamic club" of the O.I.C. For while the charge that the E.U. is a "Christian club" is nonsense, the O.I.C. is definitely and openly based entirely on Islam as the unifying and animating force. Turkey should not expect as a member of such an "Islamic club" to be admitted into the E.U. -- see the speech of Mahathir Mohamed to the assembled worthies of the O.I.C. to get a sense of what goes on at these meetings.

These are not demands to be met AFTER admission. They are not demands to be met in a few years. They should be the sine qua non, the initial and minimal requirements that must be met.

They can't? Turkey just can't own up to its treatment of the Armenians (not to mention its massacres of Maronites and Assyrians and others, not to mention the mass exile of Greeks and mob violence against the much-diminished Greek remnant in 1955, not to mention the devshirme, not to mention the...). Too bad.

Turkey simply can't can't can't open up the Hagia Sophia and allow it to be used again as a church, though there are mosques in every major and minor city in Europe and North America? Why not?

Turkey can't leave that aggressive and menacing O.I.C. (see – again -- that Mahathir Mohamed speech, and the ecstatic reception it received)?

No?

Too bad. We have been told in the E.U. repeatedly that Turkey is not like those other Muslim countries. Turkey, we are told, is a "secular" state, Turkey is a "modern" state, Turkey is a state that does everything it can to be a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state.

Really?

Three easy ways to begin to prove it.

If even those three steps cannot be taken, then there is no point in further discussions. And it will be hard to make the case that any of these requests were unreasonable -- at least in the rest of the non-Islamic world. Although Scowcroft and his ilk will never make even these reasonable requests.

You remember that business on television a few years ago, declaring someone the weakest link, and wishing him (or her) an abrupt goodbye?

Well, goodbye.

Why Muslims are rioting in Egypt

By all accounts, it's all because of a DVD that was shown in a Coptic church which Muslims think insults Islam. And the play depicted on that DVD, by the way, was performed once, two years ago.

How exactly does it insult Islam?

According to this CNN story (thanks to Special Guest):

The riot was sparked by the distribution of a DVD of a play that was performed at the church two years ago. The play, "I Was Blind But Now I Can See," tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.

So a film depiction of someone converting to Islam and then becoming disillusioned is enough to bring more than 5,000 protestors to the church and injure many, including a nun who was stabbed and three people who were killed? You can see from this how deeply Egyptian Muslims have internalized the Islamic law mandating death for anyone who leaves Islam, and the old dhimmi laws forbidding Christians to proselytize.

An earlier report from Al-Jazeera gives more details that reinforce this point:

The production features a poor Christian university student who converts to Islam when a group of Muslim men promise him much-needed money.

When he becomes disenchanted with his decision, the men threaten him with physical violence to prevent him from returning to his original faith.

So perhaps the Egyptian Muslims are offended that the student originally converted only for money, and that he was threatened by the Muslims when he wanted to return to Christianity. But this, of course, is like CAIR being offended by a book that depicts Muhammad as a warrior: both are taking offense at the truth. There are numerous reports of Copts converting to Islam under pressure, and certainly many Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere take very seriously the command in Islamic law that anyone who leaves Islam should be killed (which is based, of course, on a statement of Muhammad himself: see Bukhari, vol. 9, bk. 84, no. 57).

What offends the rioters, evidently, is that attention be drawn to all this. As the Coptic Bishop Armia said, "Copts would never tolerate anyone insulting Islam." In other words, they know what they have to do to get along. As so many Middle Eastern priests and lay Christians have told me, Christians in the Middle East well know that as a matter of survival, they must say one thing in public and another in private. The Copts who showed this video violated that rule, or at least found themselves in violation of it when news of the showing became known.

It is a pity that Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere don't heed the words of Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury (from "Mockery is good for the faithful, says Carey," in the Telegraph):

"They were very offended by Satanic Verses but I said you are living in a country and civilisation where we are quite used to this," he said.

"They say: 'Why as a Christian don't you condemn the Life of Brian?' I said: 'I love the film and I think it is good for religion to be knocked, to be criticised, to be challenged because we have done a lot of damage in the past'.

"We know religion is a force for good but I don't want to control a writer not to criticise me, because I may need that criticism.

"The Church of England is a broad church, we are used to being mocked. I do believe passionately in this. I wanted to assure Salman Rushdie that although many of his statements may have been in bad taste he had the right to say it as a lapsed Muslim."

If anyone needs the criticism that is apparently contained in the Copts' DVD, it is the very Muslims who are rioting because of it. If they noted and began to work against the intimidation of Copts and the threats against those who leave Islam, life would be better in Egypt for both Christians and Muslims.

Three killed in Egyptian Muslim riots outside Coptic church

An update on the riots in Egypt. "Egyptians protest, say church play against Islam," from Reuters, with thanks to JE:

CAIRO (Reuters) - Three demonstrators were killed when thousands of people protested on Friday near a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria over the staging of a play they said was offensive to Islam, security sources said.

The demonstrators were killed during clashes between police and the more than 5,000-strong crowd which had gathered near St. George's Coptic church in the Mediterranean port city after Muslim prayers, the sources said.

Police used teargas to try to disperse the crowd, which had pelted police with stones and which regrouped on several occasions after prayer times through the day and evening, the sources said. They said protests continued late into the night.

Police formed a cordon to prevent the crowd approaching St. George's church, prompting some of the demonstrators to try to storm another church nearby, the sources said, adding that dozens of police and protesters were injured in the clashes.

Coptic Bishop Armia denied accusations the play insulted Islam, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported, as monitored by the BBC.

"Copts would never tolerate anyone insulting Islam," Bishop Armia was quoted as saying.

He did not give details about the play or what it was about. Coptic officials could not be independently reached for comment.

Jihadis to adopt quake orphans

To prevent them from being adopted by Christian missionaries. "We will not tolerate this. It is an international conspiracy to bring Muslim children into the fold of Christianity and secularism." Horror of horrors! These children could grow up as Christians! Let us make sure they grow up as murderous fanatics instead! From Rediff.com:

The Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six pro-Taliban religious parties, has given a countrywide call through mosque loudspeakers, banners and pamphlets, to adopt children orphaned in the October 8 earthquake.

'We have come to know that the [Pervez] Musharraf regime has decided to hand over the orphans and unaccompanied children to Christian missionaries and the Aga Khan Development Network,' said Naimatullah Khan, the former mayor of Karachi.

AKDN, which plays a key role in primary/secondary level education in Pakistan, has been given the task of revamping the curriculum, and the jihadis are venomous about it. They accuse it of promoting secularism and eliminating jihad through the new curriculum expected to be implemented soon.

'We will not tolerate this. It is an international conspiracy to bring Muslim children into the fold of Christianity and secularism. We urge you to leave your children with us if you are unable to raise them. We will provide them a good future,' said Khan.

Human trafficking in the quake's aftermath

Taking a leaf out of MMA's book and to curtail child trafficking, the Jamatud Dawa (the defunct Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the largest group of Pakistani militants fighting in Indian Kashmir) has announced that it will take responsibility for abandoned, orphan and unaccompanied children.

'The Jamatud Dawa has a huge complex at Misrial road in Rawalpindi, by the name of Maaz bin Jabal. We will set up colonies in the complex where these children would be put up according to their age. Various ayahs will raise them, ensuring motherly love,' says Professor Zafar Iqbal, head of the Jamatud Dawa's education wing.

8:00 AM: Reading. 8:30 AM: Handwriting. 9:00 AM: Math. 9:30 AM: Bombmaking.

Moderate Jordan Airs Antisemitic Ramadan TV Series

Moderate Jordanians are able to absorb a strong dose of hatred on TV for Ramadan, courtesy a Syrian program that aired first in 2003. "Jordanian TV Airs Antisemitic Ramadan Series," from MEMRI, with thanks to Twostellas:

For Ramadan 2005, the new Jordanian TV channel Al-Mamnou' is airing the Syrian-produced TV series Al-Shatat ( "Diaspora" ). [1] The series, which was first aired on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV during Ramadan 2003, purports to tell the story of Zionism from 1812 up to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and, like the Egyptian series Knight Without a Horse [2] that was aired during Ramadan 2002, depicts a "global Jewish government" that is described in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It also depicts the notorious blood libel - Jews slaughtering a Christian child to use his blood for Passover matzos. Al-Shatat was also aired by two Iranian channels during Ramadan 2004.

Prior to this broadcast, Al-Mamnou' TV board chairman Walid Al-Hadidi told the Jordanian news agency Petra that the channel would be airing the series. He also told the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat that the channel would be broadcasting from several other Arab countries as well as from Italy. [3]

The following are clips of nine scenes from the series, along with the transcripts:

Amschel Rothschild Divides Europe among His Sons

In the series' opening scene, set in Romania in 1812, the dying Amschel Rothschild divides Europe amongst his five sons. To view this clip, visit http://memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=887.

The following is the transcript:

Amschel Rothschild: "All the nations that violate the religion of the Jews originated from the seed of a stinking and filthy ass. Rule them in secret and in public, with strength and oppression through deceit and cunning, and do not allow any nation to share your control of the world...

"God has honored us, the Jews, with the mission of ruling the world using money, using science, using politics, using murder, using sex, using any means..."

Yes, projection in the highest degree. Read it all.

West: Twisting history

The impeccable Diana West takes on the peculiar unreality that prevails at the White House:

So what if Article 2 in the Iraqi constitution states, "no law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established." If people participate in an election for anything -- including sharia, including Hamas -- it's the Spirit of '76 all over again, or so our leaders say. Never mind that worried Iraqi Christians, concerned for religious freedom, say they're likely to ask Pope Benedict XVI to intervene. Meanwhile, according to the Bush Happy Face Doctrine, if any religious book goes onto the White House shelf, including one that's uniquely venomous toward "infidel" non-believers, it's a Hallelujah moment....

After September 11, Mr. Bush declared "Islam is peace." Now, he insists that "extremists" "distort the idea of jihad" into a rationale for terrorism. Maybe Mr. Bush will read his new Koran and discover that the idea of jihad is itself extreme. Better still, maybe Mr. Bush will go so far as to add another book to the White House collection: "The Legacy of Jihad" by Andrew G. Bostom. This extraordinary compendium of primary and secondary source material, much of it translated into English for the first time, elucidates the theory and practice of jihad over 1,400 years. With its chronological span across the centuries, "The Legacy of Jihad" goes a long way toward bridging the void in Western understanding of the institutional role of jihad within Islam.

The White House may have its own Koran now, but the president's reckoning with the legacy of jihad is still overdue.

Read it all.

10,000 Muslims Surround a Coptic Church in Alexandria

Pray for the safety of the Copts and for peace in Egypt. Two Islamic tolerance updates from the embattled church in Egypt, from the Free Copts blogspot:

Thousands of angry Muslims are currently surrounding St George Coptic Orthodox Church in Muharam Bek, Alexandria, Egypt.

Muslims are protesting what they considered an "offensive" play that took place 2 years ago !!! Church officials denied these allegations and adhered to their position of refusing to provide an apology, as the Muslim radicals demanded.

Muslim mob burned two police vehicles and a fire truck in addition to injuring many police officers by hurling rocks at them in an attempt to raid the church and burn it.

What is happening in Egypt is a form of intellectual terrorism against Copts that radical Muslims are imposing on everyone that dares to criticize their agenda of having Islam dominate the world.

Update on events in Alexandria, Egypt

Egyptian police fire tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Muslim rallies extended to Cairo and Banha in addition to Alexandria.

In Cairo, few thousands demonstrated in Al Azhar mosque protesting what they considered as insults to Islam.

In Alexandria, one person was killed and over 60 injured when they clashed with security forces.

It seems that security forces are unable to contain the situation that's why some Egyptian army forces are being deployed.

Muslim stabs nun in Egyptian church

Muslim rage at the Copts' theatre performance about Muslim mistreatment of Copts continues to grow, leading more Muslims to mistreat Copts. And in this AKI story, the jihadist spokesman has the audacity to refer to the Coptic Church as the "crusaders' church," disregarding the fact that the Coptic Christians were in Egypt centuries before any Muslims even existed.

Note also how the Reuters headline suggests that this was a random incident, leaving out the salient fact about the man's identity and motive. "Man stabs nun in Egyptian church," from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent these stories in:

CAIRO, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A young man stabbed a nun and a man in a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Wednesday, police sources in the city said.

The man shouted "God is great" when he burst into St. George's Coptic church in the city on Egypt's northern coast.

Some 1,000 Muslims last week held a protest outside the church because they said it had put on a play which was offensive to Islam.

French businesses: Muslims aim to "challenge the rules in order to impose Islamic values"

Secret prayer rooms. Demands accompanied by the threat of repeated strikes. "Islamist influence a growing threat to French business," from the Middle East Times, with thanks to LGF:

PARIS -- The influence of radical Islamist groups is a growing threat to French business, a leading intelligence expert warned on Tuesday, citing the discovery of secret prayer-rooms at the Disneyland theme-park outside Paris.

In a report commissioned by several retail and courier companies, Eric Denece - director of the French Center for Research and Intelligence - said that the Islamists' strategy is to "take control of Muslims within the workforce" and then "challenge the rules in order to impose Islamic values."

"There are numerous instances, even if few businesses are willing to speak openly about them," Denece said in the report, which was based on interviews with police, intelligence officials and company staff.

"For example, around 10 prayer-rooms have been discovered at EuroDisney," he said....

Spokesman Pieter Boterman said: "We are a multicultural and non-discriminatory company with more than 100 nationalities and all the main religions represented. But we do not think the company is the place for people to express private religious convictions."

Denece also quoted the head of a freight company employing 3,000 people at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris who complained to the RG of "the presence of a small group of Muslims bent on imposing their work methods under the threat of repeated strikes".

"The growth in power of radical Islamism is a new menace, which can threaten the integrity of a business," Denece said.

Supermarkets and other large stores are a prime target, according to the 30-page report.

"Hypermarkets have noted that employees who are heavily involved in proselytizing systematically seek out jobs as telephone operators, delivery-men, cashiers and security officers - positions which allow easy exchanges of information, money and goods," the report said.

Muslim women working at supermarket cash registers are also being placed under pressure to wear the headscarf, it said.

According to Denece, the primary threat of Islamism to business is "sectarian", because it can undermine the loyalty of employees and destroy morale. It should therefore be "treated in the same way as the threat from scientology and other sects", he advised.

But he also said that there are increasing instances of patent illegality - including theft, embezzlement and the supply of inside information to criminal gangs.

"These practices have two goals: petty delinquency using Islam as a pretext and local financing of terrorism," the report said....

Last month an RG report to the French government said that Islamic militants are moving away from mosques that they know are now under close surveillance, and are congregating in secret prayer-rooms - often attached to businesses.

Turks irked, demolish Armenian church

A Let-Them-Into-the-EU update from the Armenian National Committee of America, with thanks to a tea-loving snail:

ANCA CONDEMNS TURKEY'S DEMOLITION OF ARMENIAN CHURCH IN DIKRANAGERD

Alerts Congressional Offices to Ankara's Ongoing Practice of Destroying Ancient Armenian Religious and Cultural Monuments

WASHINGTON, DC - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) today forcefully condemned the Turkish government for the demolition of an Armenian Church in the city of Dikranagerd, also known as Diyarbekir.

According to an October 19th report by Bloomberg News, the church, which was under the Turkish government's official protection, was torn down by a construction firm. The article, written by Mark Bentley, added that, "builder Kerem Emre used stones from the demolished church in the province of Diyarbekir to lay the foundations for a mosque" in its place.

"Turkey - which in 1915 committed genocide against the Armenian nation and has since waged an international campaign of threats and intimidation to deny its crime - is, today, in full view of the world, destroying the surviving cultural and religious heritage of its victims, seeking to erase even their memory from the Armenian homeland of four thousand years," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "Sadly, our own government's silence - its failure to confront Turkey's denials -effectively enables, emboldens, even encourages Ankara's ongoing pattern of aggressive behavior toward the Armenian people. The time has come for the U.S. government to finally break this destructive pattern. As a nation, we need to speak with moral clarity on the Armenian Genocide - signaling to Turkey in clear and forceful terms that the American people stand on the side of a just resolution of this crime against humanity."

As part of its ongoing efforts to educate policy-makers and elected officials about Armenian American concerns, the ANCA has informed the Administration and Members of Congress about the desecration of this church.

Muslim anger at Danish cartoons

First they got death threats. Now the ambassadors of ten Muslim countries are complaining. From the BBC, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The ambassadors of 10 Muslim countries have complained to the Danish prime minister about a major newspaper's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

A letter from the ambassadors said the cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten last month showed the Prophet as a stereotypical fundamentalist.

Pictorial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are forbidden in Islam.

A Danish government spokesman said Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was preparing a response.

Iran bans secular foreign films

Being true to these words,

“The state would follow the citizens from birth to death, ensuring their health, education, well-being and leisure. It will guide them as to what to read and write and what “cultural products” to consume so as not to be contaminated by Western ideas.”

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pushes through the Qur'anic vision of a utopian society. From Pakistan's Daily Times:

The Islamic regime has slapped a ban on foreign films deemed to be ‘feminist’, ‘secular’ or pro-American, with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also pushing his vision of a Quranic society.

A ruling by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, a watchdog headed by Ahmadinejad, bans ‘the distribution and screening of foreign films which promote secular, feminist, liberal or nihilist ideas and degrade oriental culture.’

Also forbidden are movies that feature ‘violence, narcotics consumption and propaganda for the world oppression’, a term reserved for arch-enemy the United States, the Shargh newspaper said on Thursday.

The report said the directive has been widely circulated, especially within the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and state television and radio.

“The Iranian people have a mission to create, on this sacred Iranian ground, an ideal society founded on the Quran,” Ahmadinejad was also quoted as telling a local gathering titled ‘Servants of the Quran’.

He promised his government, less than three months into its four-year mandate, would ‘advance with strength to favour the spread of a Quranic culture’.

Bush Praises Abbas in White House Visit

Does he think Abbas doesn't really believe in the jihad imperative? That he really doesn't believe Abbas attributes the Gaza withdrawal to suicide terrorism? Or does he just not care? From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

WASHINGTON - President Bush heaped praise Thursday on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and said he was more confident than ever before there would be peace with Israel and establishment of a Palestinian state.

Bush qualified his optimism a bit by saying "it's hard" and "old feuds aren't settled immediately. And it takes a while."

He was unqualified, however, in his praise of Abbas, although he tried to nudge the Palestinian leader toward taking a more assertive approach to extremist groups.

"President Abbas is a man devoted to peace and to his people's aspiration for a state of their own," Bush said after a one-hour meeting with Abbas in the Oval Office. "And today, the Palestinian people are closer to realizing their aspirations."

Bush Holds Iftar Dinner, Says Muslim Leaders Must Denounce Terrorism

Bush again referred to Qur'an 5:32, "which states that killing an innocent human being is like killing all of humanity, and saving the life of one person is like saving all of humanity," indicating that he still hasn’t considered the implications of the fact that jihadists contend that no Americans or Israelis are innocent, and thus the verse doesn’t apply to their actions. Nor did the President apparently read on to Qur’an 5:33, which stipulates that "the punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter" – a mandate for mayhem that jihadists have skillfully deployed the world over, and an indication that Bush’s reading of 5:32 may be a trifle superficial. Bush has not confronted the deep roots that the jihad ideology has within both Islamic tradition and the contemporary Islamic world. This could lead and has led to policy misjudgments.

From the Muslim American Society website, with thanks to Scaramouche:

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (MASNET & News Agencies) - President George W. Bush told Muslim leaders and diplomats at an Iftar dinner that "all responsible Islamic leaders" must denounce terrorists who claim to act according to Islam.

"I believe the time has come for all responsible Islamic leaders to denounce an ideology that exploits Islam for political ends and defiles your noble faith," he said at the White House, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The remarks came as he hosted diplomats from Islamic nations and leaders of the U.S. Muslim community to dinner to mark Iftaar, the first day of the holy Muslim holiday Ramadan.

"Many Muslim scholars have already publicly condemned terrorism, often citing chapter 5, verse 32 of the Quran, which states that killing an innocent human being is like killing all of humanity, and saving the life of one person is like saving all of humanity," Bush said.

"I appreciate those of you here who have joined these scholars in rejecting violent extremists,” he said....

"We must be very clear about the enemies we face: The killers who take the lives of innocent men, women and children, are followers of a violent ideology, very different from the religion of Islam," said Bush.

"The killers who take the lives of innocent men, women and children are followers of a violent ideology very different from the religion of Islam," he said. “These extremists distort the idea of jihad into the call for terrorist murder against anyone who does not share their radical vision, including Muslims from other traditions who they regard as heretics."

"Their strategy will fail."...

The group interrupted Bush's brief remarks once, when he said a Quran has been added to the White House library for the first time in history, the news agency reports.

Good. I hope he reads the whole thing, and consults the mainstream tafasir (commentaries) to discover how traditional Islam has understood passages such as 9:5 and 9:29, and 8:39, which reads: "And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah." Tafasir-i-Husaini, to take just one example, explains: "Fight them till all strife be at an end," that is, until "no polytheists remain of the pagans or Jews or Christians." (vol. i, p. 239). That is, until the "polytheistic" features of Judaism and Christianity are eradicated, which means, until the Jews and Christians have become Muslims.

With us or against us? Bush meets the enemy

Eric Adler in the New York Press reveals a meeting between President Bush and a legal advisor for the PLO:

Diana Buttu has called Israel "the greatest abuser of human rights" in the world, claimed that the Jewish state is worse than South Africa under apartheid and characterized the Oslo peace process as a Zionist ploy to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. She isn't the kind of woman you'd expect to have the ear of President Bush. But you'd be wrong.

In the October 12 number of the Washington Post, Glenn Kessler details "a private 30-minute meeting in the Oval Office with a group of Palestinian officials last week" held at the behest of undersecretary of state Karen Hughes. Buttu, a legal advisor for the PLO, was among those in attendance. The Post reports that Buttu was stunned to have direct access to the president, and found him conciliatory regarding her concerns about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Last year I attended the Fourth National Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM), where Buttu offered the keynote address, in which she claimed the "the corruption issue [in the Palestinian Authority] has been dealt with."

The PSM is a front-group for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organization dedicated to sending naïve youngsters to the occupied territories to engage in protests aimed at de-legitimizing the state of Israel. In a PSM workshopI attended, ISM co-founder Huwaida Arraf offered a recruitment session for her group, openly acknowledging that the ISM works with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The impromptu chat was the work of Hughes, who had just recently finished her ridiculous five-day "listening tour" of the Middle East. ("I love all kids," she assured a Turkish audience in a typical speech. "And I understand that is something I have in common with the Turkish people.")

The meeting between Bush and Palestinian delegates such as Buttu makes clear that Hughes' "listening tour" has led to more pernicious results than her mouthing of a few ineffective platitudes in the Middle East. After concluding that many Muslims blame Israel for all the world's sins, Hughes set up a presidential get-together with a perverse fanatic. It's enough to make those concerned about the survival of Israel hope that Karen Hughes no longer plays a role in this administration's foreign policy.

The Simpsons convert to Islam

When exported to Muslim lands, various aspects of Western pop culture must be modified in order to accommodate Muslim sensibilities. When Muslims come West, various aspects of Western pop culture must be modified in order to accommodate Muslim sensibilities. Get the picture? "The Simpsons' Exported to Arabs -- Minus Bacon, Beer: Key Aspects of New Middle East Version Get Lost in Translation," from ABCNews.com, with thanks to all who sent this in:

(Oct. 18) -- After 17 seasons of entertaining U.S. audiences, "The Simpsons" can now be seen on Arab television. While U.S. foreign policy is not always a hit overseas, there is a huge audience for American popular culture.

So the Arab satellite network MBC is bringing the cartoon saga of Springfield to the heart of the Arab world. "The Simpsons" has been exported overseas and is now called "Al Shamshoon."

With Omar instead of Homer, and Badr substituting for Bart, MBC hopes to win coveted young viewers. After all, 60 percent of the Arab world is 20 years old or younger....

But with a show that is so disinctly American, Arab media experts say, it's not enough to just translate the language.

"Translating the show linguistically, as well as culturally, as well as socially so that it appeals to the audience that's watching it here, I think there's a lot of details that one has to pay attention to," said Nadia Rahman, a professor at the Zayed University Media Center in the United Arab Emirates. "How does the mother dress? How does the sister dress?"

So MBC is making some changes as the characters go from American to Arab. They will remove references to things forbidden by the Koran, such as bacon, beer, and other references that might be construed as offensive.

From American Beer to Arab Soda

Homer Simpson's ubiquitous Duff beer will now be soda in the Arab version of the show.

Hot dogs will become Egyptian beef sausages, and donuts will become popular Arab cookies called "kahk." Moe's Bar has been completely written out of "Al Shamshoon."

With characters who are Jewish (like Krusty the Clown), Hindu (like Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu) and Christian (like the family's pastor, Rev. Lovejoy), Al Jean — "The Simpsons" executive producer — says those changes mean they aren't "The Simpsons" anymore.

"If he doesn't drink and eat bacon and generally act like a pig — which I guess is also against Islam — then it's not Homer," Jean said.

Some on the Arab street agree. Many bloggers have also expressed discontent.

"It's different," one Arab viewer told ABC News. "We are a totally different culture, so you can't be talking about the same subject and in the same way."

Denmark: Muslim taxi drivers spy on women hiding from families

It is not so easy for Muslim women in the West to break free of the strictures of Islamic culture and religious law. "Immigrant taxi drivers acting as spies," from DR Nyheder, with thanks to EPG:

The Danish nation-wide organisation of Women's Crisis Centres, LOKK, claims that a number of taxi drivers with immigrant backgrounds are spying on female immigrants who are hiding from their families....

Taxi drivers using mobile phones are photographing females, who are seeking asylum in crisis centres, and their whereabouts are being sent onto their families, the president of LOKK told reporters.

According to the daily B.T. it was a group of Taxi drivers who informed a Pakistani man recently, who was looking for his sister, where she could be found.

The man murdered his sister three weeks ago outside Slagelse train station because she had married a man from Afghanistan against her families orders.

Toy pig ban climbdown

A refreshing bit of anti-dhimmitude (and sanity) in the UK, reversing this earlier example of political correctness run amok. From the Express and Star News of West Midlands and Stafford, with thanks to Moon:

Race equality rules are being reviewed at Dudley Council after workers were told to remove toy pigs from desks because they offended a Muslim staff member.

Council leaders say they will not accept "extreme forms of political correctness". Last month the Express & Star revealed how staff in the council's benefits department were told to remove a series of toy pigs sent as a promotion, as well as pig imagery, from their desks.

It came after a complaint from a Muslim worker who said she was offended by the items - the Koran forbids Muslims from eating and touching pork.

Councillor Pat Martin told a full council meeting: "I fully support the actions by management to respond to the concerns from colleagues following established and approved procedures.

"However I'm satisfied these procedures need to be reconsidered to make them compatible with the current law on what's deemed to be offensive in the workplace. Therefore I've ordered an urgent review of the procedures.

"In Dudley we rightly pride ourselves on being fair and reasonable employers but we will not accept extreme forms of political correctness."

After the meeting she said only the benefits department was affected by the request but admitted the policy was "very strict" and that officials would look if they were "too aggressive"....

When the decision was taken, the council's head of finance Mike Williams said it "did not matter why it was considered offensive".

He acknowledged then that some members of the department saw it as "political correctness gone barmy".

Iraqi Bishops May Turn to Pope for Help on Constitution

Many people I respect, and many people I don't, are excited about the new Iraqi Constitution and the relative peace accompanying the referendum. I just hope that in all the excitement the legitimate concerns of religious minorities in Iraq are not ignored. From Zenit, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, OCT. 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- In the wake of Saturday's referendum on Iraq's draft constitution, Church leaders remain fearful that the country is one step closer to becoming an Islamic state intolerant of non-Muslims.

Early results indicate that a majority of voters supported the draft constitution.

Last month, Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly of Baghdad met the president and prime minister of Iraq to spell out the bishops' opposition to key sections of the draft constitution, which they say "opens the door widely" to the possibility of new laws that are unjust toward non-Muslims.

In an interview Monday with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Andraos Abouna said Iraq's leaders had ignored their concerns and that as a result the bishops were likely to call on Benedict XVI to intervene on their behalf.

"The bishops will probably have a meeting with the Pope and will ask him to call for democracy in Iraq," said Bishop Abouna.

He said a papal intervention would step up the pressure after the Holy Father met Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in August and requested that the draft constitution respect religious rights.

"We are looking for freedom -- the government must listen," said Bishop Abouna, 62. "Otherwise the country will be like a dictatorship."

Somalia: Islamic militia attacks studio

Sharia Alert from Somalia. From The Scotsman, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

ISLAMIC militiamen stormed a video studio in Mogadishu where Bollywood films were being dubbed into Somali, destroying equipment and arresting employees.

The gunmen, loyal to the Union of the Islamic Courts, smashed television monitors and escorted six members of staff from the studios in the Somali capital.

The courts consider watching films, listening to music and dancing un-Islamic.

37% of Turks back honor killings

This story from the Christian Science Monitor hastens to assure us that honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And it's a good thing, too: otherwise support for such murders would be even higher among the "secular" Turks. A Let-Them-Into-the-EU update: "Turkish backing for honour crimes," from the BBC, with thanks to Susan:

A survey by a university in Turkey has shown almost 40% support for the practice of "honour killing".

The results come days after a court in Istanbul gave a life sentence for the murder of a girl by her brothers for giving birth to a child out of wedlock.

Turkish law, which used to be lenient on "honour crimes", was heavily revised as part of the country's preparation for EU accession proceedings.

Turkey has started talks with the EU but is not expected to join for years.

The survey was conducted in the conservative south-eastern city of Diyarbakir.

Disfigured

It questioned 430 people, most of them men. When asked the appropriate punishment for a woman who has committed adultery, 37% replied she should be killed.

Twenty-five percent said that she deserved divorce, and 21% that her nose or ears should be cut off.

The survey group was small but the results are a reminder that "honour killing" - a practice where women are murdered for allegedly bringing shame on their family - still has significant support in parts of Turkey.

New Threats Against Christian Coptic Community in Egypt

Islamic tolerance update from AKI, with thanks to Nicolei:

Cairo (AKI) -- The Islamic group 'Egypt's Mujahadeen' - which claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks at Sharm el-Sheikh - has issued threats against the Coptic Christian community in Egypt, posting on the Internet "an urgent message to the followers of the cross living in Egypt". The message made specific reference to the 'crusaders' church' guilty, in its view, of staging a theatre performance offending the Prophet Muhammed. The church in the spotlight, now under state protection, is in the Muharram Bik area, near the town of Alexandria.

After Egyptian newspapers reported Muslim groups protesting against a theatre show, allegedly blasphemous, held in a Christian Coptic church, the Islamic group "immediately thought of destroying the church", says an internet statement. "The mujahadeen prepared themselves but found what they were expecting. The (bloody) police, secret services and internal security forces had surrounded the area of Muharram Bik, protecting the church."

"If those responsible for the offence do not admit their guilt, then every Christian holding a sermon in the incriminated church will become a target of the mujahadeen."

Philadelphia Tells Muslim Police to Trim Beards or Lose Jobs

And like similar cases in the past, this one will no doubt be cast as a rights issue instead of a public health issue. But DeVeaux ultimately lost his case, and so there is hope that common sense may prevail: the issue with both the beard and the hijab involves safety; must the safety of all be compromised to accommodate Muslim practice? From Bloomberg, with thanks to Nicolei:

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Philadelphia police officer Kenneth Wallace, a nine-year veteran of the force, is serving his second month-long suspension for refusing to shave.

Wallace, a 31-year-old Muslim, has asked for an arbitration hearing to challenge the department's 1/4-inch limit on the length of beards. Muslim city workers sued Philadelphia, the fifth-largest U.S. city, beginning in February to challenge grooming and dress codes they claim violate their rights to religious expression....

Muslim emergency workers have challenged grooming policies in cities including New York, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, saying the Koran and other religious teachings require the wearing of untrimmed beards or head coverings.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, who Islamic groups say is the only Muslim running a U.S. police department, softened decades-old rules in August 2003 to allow some beards. He has refused to budge on a requirement that whiskers be no more than a 1/4-inch long and neatly trimmed, said Corporal Jim Pauley, a department spokesman....

Two months earlier, Johnson told the paper that the police department was a ``paramilitary organization'' requiring neatness and uniformity. Johnson declined to be interviewed for this story. Pauley said the department doesn't keep track of the religious beliefs of the 6,400-member force....

Discrimination complaints from Muslim Americans rose 70 percent to 1,019 in 2003, the latest year available, with 234 in the workplace, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said last year. Complaints picked up after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings of four jetliners by 20 Muslim terrorists....

Women on the Philadelphia force are still barred from wearing the scarf known as khimar or hijab, which many Muslims believe is mandated by Allah to show their modesty. Kimberlie Webb, the 43-year-old Philadelphia police officer represented by Thorpe, is suing for the right to wear the khimar.

Webb became a Sunni Muslim two years after joining the Philadelphia force in 1995, according to her federal lawsuit. The department denied her requests to wear the khimar, made in 1998 and again in 2003, and threatened Webb with disciplinary action unless she removed the covering at work, the suit said....

Department officials said the scarf posed a safety risk because it could be grabbed by a suspect. Newspapers and Muslim Web sites reported on Webb's complaints through 2003. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in her favor that November and urged the department to relax its rules....

Philadelphia fire officials, too, cite safety to justify their department's ban on beards. Curtis DeVeaux, a firefighter who was suspended without pay in February for refusing to shave, plans to appeal a Pennsylvania judge's decision last month to uphold the rule....

Fire officials argued that DeVeaux's beard might disrupt the seal on his respirator. DeVeaux, 25, said he converted to Islam in 2000 and shaved to join the department the following year. He sought an exemption from the rule last year after speaking to firefighters in Washington who wore beards and were using the same equipment.

``It's the practice of Muslim men to grow their beards,'' said DeVeaux, who now installs satellite-television dishes for a living. ``I love the job, but I have to adhere to the rules of my beliefs.''

Britain grapples with 'honor killing' practice

Clash of civilizations update from the Christian Science Monitor (hmmm. We're going to have to do something about that name) with thanks to Nicolei:

OXFORD, ENGLAND – In the summer of 2004, Manna Begum was in love with Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, a young Iranian studying in the city of Oxford.

Her Bangladeshi parents had arranged for her to be married, but she wanted nothing of it.

Ms. Begum's parents forbade her to see Mr. Ghorbani-Zarin, but she ignored their wishes. Upon discovering in August that she was pregnant, Begum and her boyfriend decided to get married, according to testimony given in an Oxford court last week.

Three months later, Ghorbani-Zarin was killed and Begum's father and brother are now on trial for the murder - apparently the latest in a series of brutal honor killings to take place in Britain.

"The relationship with the girl brought shame and dishonor on the family," prosecuting lawyer Julian Baughan told the court. "That drove the accused, led by the head of the family, to murder Mr. Ghorbani-Zarin to vindicate the family's honor."

The number of such "honor killings" carried out in Britain is unknown. But in late 2004, British police began reexamining 117 murders to see how many were motivated by honor.

The issue has taken on increased sensitivity since the July 7 bombings in London, which heightened attention on ethnic minority communities and their integration into British society.

"People feel that this is defining an important part of who they are," says Humera Khan, who advises An-Nisa, a respected Muslim women's group she helped to found in 1985.

"Making them give it up is a difficult process - especially when campaigns against forced marriage are often led by feminist groups who are also often hostile to religion."

Read it all.

Iraqis seek aid without crosses

Help us, but only on our terms. Conform to the dhimmi laws forbidding public display of crosses. Your display of what you value and who you are is offensive to us, even as we receive aid from you. From the Washington Times, with thanks to Twostellas:

BAGHDAD -- The president of the Iraqi Red Crescent has urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to stop sending aid marked with red crosses after the internationally protected symbol almost cost four staffers their lives....

"They were seized by a terrorist group who threatened to behead them because they thought the crosses on the water and food containers meant the men were Christian missionaries," said Mr. Hakki, who made his plea during a visit last week to ICRC headquarters in Geneva.

He said the terrorists seemed unmoved by the fact that the two trucks themselves were marked with the red crescent symbol typically used in Muslim countries.

In Geneva, an ICRC spokeswoman said the red cross and red crescent are not religious symbols and that international treaties require that both must be respected everywhere.

"Either symbol should be acceptable in either [a Muslim or Christian] country. ... In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, they use the Red Cross," said Antonella Notari, an ICRC spokeswoman. "People and vehicles bearing these symbols cannot be attacked in any circumstances."

Appeals court hears 'Islamic indoctrination' case

I was an expert witness in this case on its first go-round, so I am following the outcome of the appeal with great interest. Someday I hope to be able to write about this case and its implications. From WND, with thanks to JC:

A case brought by parents and children challenging a California school district for its practice of teaching 12-year-old students to "become Muslims" will be heard in U.S. appeals court today.

As WND reported, the lawsuit was filed by the Thomas More Law Center against the Byron Union School District and various school officials to stop the "Islam simulation" materials and methods used in the Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, widely considered the nation's most liberal, will hear oral arguments in the case.

The Thomas More Law Center says that for three weeks, "impressionable 12-year-old students" were, among other things, placed into Islamic city groups; took Islamic names; wore identification tags that displayed their new Islamic name and the star and crescent moon; handed materials that instructed them to 'Remember Allah always so that you may prosper'; completed the Islamic Five Pillars of Faith, including fasting; and memorized and recited the 'Bismillah' or 'In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,' which students also wrote on banners hung on the classroom walls.

Sudan rejects laws on women rights which contradict Islam

Sharia Alert from Sudan, from the Sudan Tribune with thanks to Twostellas:

Oct 17, 2005 (KHARTOUM)— The Sudanese government has affirmed that it has reservations on some articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), particularly those which contradict Islam.

The minister of justice, Mohamed Ali al-Maradi, said in a press statement following his meeting with the special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, Ms Sima Samar, that Sudan would not accept any article that contradicts the Islamic religion.

He added that women rights are guaranteed in all legislation and the constitution which enable women to assume public work and posts on equal footing with men.

Vahakn Dadrian responds to Guenther Lewy

In the Fall 2005 issue of Middle East Quarterly, Professor Guenther Lewy of the University of Massachusetts examines the mass murders of Armenians in Turkey before, during and after World War I and concludes: "The three pillars of the Armenian claim to classify World War I deaths as genocide fail to substantiate the charge that the Young Turk regime intentionally organized the massacres. Other alleged evidence for a premeditated plan of annihilation fares no better."

Dr. Vahakn N. Dadrian, the world's leading authority on the Turkish genocide of the Armenians and author of The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus, has drafted this comprehensive reply, and kindly given us the privilege and honor of posting it exclusively here at Jihad Watch:

By its very nature historiography can neither be expected to be complete in every respect, nor be free from any number of other shortcomings. This truism is even more pertinent to the study of such a subject matter as the Armenian genocide the historical reality of which for one reason or another is presently being degraded to the level of dubiousness. The principal vehicles used hereby are the publications of a rather small group of authors purporting to be detached and disinterested investigators. Upon closer scrutiny, however, these very same authors reveal themselves as committed partisans boldly pushing certain denialist agendas that are subtly and skillfully woven into texture of their discourses. Hence the denial is attempted indirectly rather than directly; the historical reality of the World War I Armenian genocide is called into question by casting doubt on the appropriateness of the use of the label “genocide.”

When by recourse to a variety of techniques he is decrying as unwarranted the use of such a label with respect to the Armenian case, Professor Lewy is thereby providing a measure of confirmation in this respect. In the process he also is betraying his very limited familiarity with the subject. His article is replete with factual errors, misinterpretations that are accented by some outright falsehoods. On top of all this, he further betrays lack of an adequate level of knowledge of Turkish, not to speak of extinct Ottoman Turkish, on both of which he is significantly relying as primary source medium. One is prompted to wonder as to the origin and nature of the outside help he may have received.

What follows firstly is -- given exigent space limitations -– some samples only of the type of errors mentioned above:

The Yozgat trial series were not conducted in Yozgat but in Istanbul; Kemal was Kaymakam of Bogazliyan county only but not of Yozgat district of which he subsequently became an interim mutassarif by way of transfer and promotion; Cemal Pasha was not the governor of Aleppo, but the commander-in-chief of Ottoman’s IVth Army deployed in Lebanon and Syria (all these on p. 2); Dr. Liparit Nasariantz was not a German missionary (p. 5) but an Armenian political activist who later became a member of the Armenian National Council, an émigré political outfit. Moreover, Lewy’s claim that “there is no indication that German colonel Stange had any role in the Special Organization” is flatly contradicted by several authentic sources. Foremost among these is Dr. Ernst Kwiatkowski, Austria-Hungaria’s Consul at Trabzon, the port city where the Special Organization had its center for logistics. In one of his several reports to Vienna he revealed that “convicts were also enrolled” in Stange’s detachment which actually was the 8th Regiment of the 10th Army corps of the Ottoman III Army operating in the eastern province of Turkey. [1] Even more compelling is the disclosure of a Turkish officer who not only participated in Stange’s military operations, but kept a record of them in his notebook. According to him “Stange was in charge of the Special Organization Regiment that was named ‘Teshkilati Mahsusa Alayi’ ” and that it encompassed the notorious killer bands of two noted chieftains, Topal Osman and Deli Halit, who played a paramount role in the implementation phases of the Armenian genocide. That regiment consisted of eleven battalions (tabur) and was thereafter called the Lazistan Detachment (Lazistan Mufrezesi). [2] Unable to strictly control the secret and covert operations of these contingents of this Detachment, Stange at the end blasted them in his “secret” report to his German superiors in which he expressed his contempt of these “chettes” by calling them “scums.” [3]

According to professor Lewy, the Armenian claim of genocide is predicated upon the “the pillars,” namely, (1) the Turkish Courts- Martial of 1919-20, (2) the role of the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa), and (3) the memoirs of Naim Bey (p. 6). This highly inaccurate description again is reflective of his seemingly limited familiarity with the literature involved. [4] Notwithstanding, they call for scrutiny to “set the record straight.”
Of these, the one involving a lengthy discussion, based on his claim that they are “forgeries,” covers the Naim-Andonian documents. That claim is mainly, if not exclusively, based upon a book produced by two Turkish authors who, following an extensive examination, maintained that the documents are forgeries. Even though at the end of his discussion he finds it expedient to hedge somewhat by allowing that these documents are “at best unverifiable and problematic,” the bulk of Lewy’s arguments with emphasis focus, however, on the forgery angle. Yet, as far as it is known, the two non-Turkish scholars cited by him for support of his claim did not themselves conduct any comparable research, including Zürcher who was content to state that the documents “have been shown to be forgeries.” But on the other end of the spectrum, a German author having very recently uncovered a number of authentic Ottoman documents from the Interior Ministry Section of Turkish state archives, established that these documents

confirm to some degree the contents of two other telegrams ascribed to Talaat in Andonian’s book. Thus the dating of telegrams nos. 840 and 860 as January 1916 appears to be correct…[The two Turkish authors] Sinasi Orel and Süreyya Yüce who have agued that Andonian forged his material, did not consider the source under scrutiny here. Thus their thesis is to be put into question and further research [on this matter] is necessary. [5]

Equally significant in this regard is the fact that Lewy is either unaware or he chose to ignore completely the existence of a very extensive analysis of the validity of these documents which I undertook and which in its entirety was published in the peer reviewed official journal of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. [6] In the light of all this, Lewy’s standards of research are cast in stark relief, especially with respect to his conclusion that “most historians and scholars dismiss ‘these documents’” (p. 5). When dismissing another “pillar” mentioned above, he criticizes the Ottoman criminal justice system as having subverted the basic principles of such justice. Evidently he is unaware of the fact that the Ottoman Penal Code and the Ottoman Code of Criminal Procedure were compendiums essentially modeled after their French counterparts. The entire system is inquisitorial. The judges take the lead in getting the facts in the pre-trial investigative stage as well as in the subsequent actual trial, whereas in the Anglo-Saxon common-law system, called adversarial, lawyers develop the facts thereby consigning the judges to a neutral role. Accordingly, the pre-trial investigation and the preparation of prosecution are conducted in privacy, namely, in secrecy. Defense counsels are denied access to the resulting files and the right to accompany the accused in these pre-trial examinations. Even though in the law of evidence the principle of the “intimate,” i.e., “a deep seated conviction” was adopted in the Ottoman Code of Criminal Procedure whereby the judge freely accords credence to the best of his conscience, for proof of guilt, however, he depends on concrete evidence, as well as defense’s counter-arguments. The composite ingredients of such evidence involve confession, witness testimony, the writings and records of officials, evidence secured through discovery, judicial notice, searches and seizures, and expert testimony (Articles 232 and 233). In all the trial series by and large those conditions obtained, especially with respect to massive testimony provided by dozens of Turkish and Muslim witnesses. [7] Furthermore, contrary to Lewy’s declaration that its text, along with the text of other proceedings, is “not preserved in any source” (p. 3), the fact is that the text of General Vehib’s deposition was not only read into the record in its entirety at the second sitting of the Trabzon trial series (March 19, 1919), but that entire text was published also in several newspapers of the period. [8]

Lewy further complains that the indictment “is not proof of guilt” (p. 3), whereas in the present case it legally served as a major source of evidence-in-chief, unlike in the case of all the other subsidiary indictments. Articles 130, 214 and especially 222, section, 1 and 2, of the Ottoman Criminal Code of Procedures spell out this function of the indictment. [9] The forty two pieces of authenticated documents attached to the key indictment comprised twelve cipher telegrams, three memos, two “communications,” ten signed (and three unsigned) statements obtained by the prosecution in the course of pre-trial interrogations, three depositions, two letters, and “several” other documents relative to the role of the “Special Organization.”

Lewy’s references to three Western High Commissioners, serving in Istanbul following its occupation by the victorious Allies in 1919, as supporting material for his thesis are such as to beg the question. It may be true for example, that U.S. High Commissioner Lewis Heck was critical of some of the procedural aspects of the trials in question. But it is also true that on several occasions he unequivocally recognized and denounced “the great crime” as when he declared, “The great majority of the Turkish officials in the interior either actively participated in, or at least condoned the massacres of the Armenians.” On another occasion he reinforced his view by stating that “…the vast majority of the Turkish race heartily approved” of these massacres. [10] As to the other two, in this case, British High Commissioners, viz., Vice Admiral Sir S.A. Gough Calthorpe and Admiral Sir J. de Robeck, their disapproval and derogation of these trials was, as I have in detail explained elsewhere, [11] primarily derived from their belief that in prosecuting the authors of the massacres the Military Tribunal was lax and inept, and hence the trials were “a farce” and “a failure,” to the detriment of the Armenians, the victims. Nor was Malta, a mere temporary detention center, in any way intended to serve as a venue for any kind of “trials” (p. 3).

Apparently determined to by all means discredit and invalidate the findings of this Tribunal, Lewy proceeds to dispute the method of authenticating the official documents used in the trials -- in complete disregard of the fact that almost all of these officials of the Interior Ministry in charge of verifying these documents were holdovers of the defunct and banished Young Turk Ittihadist Party, i.e., the CUP. In other words the residual partisans of the organization, whose top leaders were being prosecuted for a capital crime, are being accused of assisting the prosecution by way of accommodative dishonesty-because, as Lewy puts it, they are “period officials” (p. 3). What is the definition of the term “stretching an argument”?

Lewy rightly deplores “the loss of all their [i.e., the military courts’] documentation” (p. 3). The fact, however, that this loss remarkably coincides with the seizure of Istanbul by the Kemalist forces in 1922 when the huge archive of the Turkish Military Tribunal vanished without a trace, raises an abiding question:

Did the documents disappear by themselves, or having been collared and despoiled by interested parties, mainly the new masters of Turkey, they met the fate of a “loss”? [12]

His discussion of the Special Organization is no less marked by a plethora of errors and questionable assertions. They were briefly touched on in notes 1 and 2. Unfortunately, Lewy’s sources and data are wanting in some critical respects. The Turkish Military Tribunal through documents attached to the main indictment on four occasions, noted on pp. 4 and 5, of that indictment, reveals the close and very intimate links between the Special Organization and the top leaders of the Ittihad party, CUP, who are characterized as the organization’s central authority. On pp. 6 and 7, there are specific details about the wide-spread massacres the brigands of that organization have committed against the Armenians; on pp. 5, 6, and 7, there are further details as to how these perpetrators were released from the empire’s prisons and deployed in the provinces for massacre duty. Still on pp. 5 and 7, there are six specifications as to how two army commanders and the military governor of the Ottoman Capital, Istanbul, combined their resources to streamline these lethal operations of the Special Organization with the help of Dr. B. Chakir, one of the chief architects of the wartime genocide. [13] These disclosures independently and decades later are largely corroborated by the two most competent Turkish authors and authorities on the subject. [14]

Lewy’s bold contention that “there is no evidence beyond the indictment of the main trial that the Special Organization, with large number of convicts enrolled in its ranks, took the lead role in the massacres,” (p. 4) is flatly contradicted by first-hand Turkish evidence. A prominent editor and close associate of Atatürk in his memoirs reveals that when he at the start of World War I applied for reserve-officer training under a special program initiated by Dr. Nazim, another architect of the Armenian genocide, the latter ended up shocking the young volunteer when revealing that the task did involve commanding para-military units which consisted of ex-convicts, the so-called ”chettes.” Indeed Jevad, the military commander of the Ottoman capital, in the course of the second sitting of the Cabinet Ministers trial (May 4, 1919) testified that Dr. Nazim was in charge of recruiting volunteers (gönüllüs) for operations that were “non-military.” (askerlik haricinde) (T.V. 3543, p. 27). The young applicant wrote that he was repulsed by the idea of such an “army of massacrers” (Katiller Ordusu). [15] In a subsequent article in his newspaper, he went so far as to suggest that the massacres against the Armenians could well be characterized as “genocide,” using exactly this composite Latin-Greek term. [16] Another reserve officer with duties in the Department II, Intelligence, Ottoman General Headquarters, at the start of World War I, and subsequently with duties as deportation official, in a book published in the wake of that war with great compassion lamented the nightmare of the Armenian genocide. In doing so, he singled out the brigands, the “chettes” of the Special Organization who, he said “committed the greatest crimes,” (en buyuk cinayetteri) during that genocide. [17] Still another Turkish publicist and author of several volumes, referring to the same “chettes” of the Special Organization, testified that these criminal bands “directly pursued the goal of extermination” by attacking and destroying countless Armenian deportation convoys. [18] In another book he stated that these deportations “…meant the extermination of the Armenian minority in Turkey.” [19]

Furthermore, it is inaccurate to say that “the Ottoman government released convicts…in order to increase its manpower pool for military service” (p. 4). Available evidence points to a different direction. The most striking testimony contradicting this assertion is provided by Colonel Behic Erkin, the chief of the department for procurement of supplies (Ikmal Subesi) in the Ottoman War Office. In his testimony before the Ottoman Parliament during the war he declared: “The majority of the convicts is not being sent directly to the frontlines but rather to the Special Organization thereby [affording them a chance] to render patriotic services.” [20] As to his argument that there is no evidence that these Special Organization brigands “took the lead role in the massacres” (p. 4), here is a documented evidence ascertained by the Turkish Military Tribunal -- beyond the confines of the Indictment. Harput (Mamuretul Aziz) Verdict “In his capacity as a member of the Central Committee of Ittihad party (CUP), and as Chief of the Special Organization, Dr. Chakir personally oversaw the release of the convicts from the prisons of the empire’s capital, and of Trabzon and the Erzurum provinces. The criminals were subsequently organized into brigand units during the Armenian deportations. These “chettes” then proceeded to engage in killing operations under his leadership” (Takvimi Vekayi, [thereafter T.V.] no.3771, p. 1). A similar condemnation with respect to the murderous role of the same organization is recorded in the Responsible Secretaries Verdict (T. V. no.3772, p. 3).

Even the top leaders of the S.O. did reluctantly admit during their trials the fact of the engagement of those ex-convicts and their cohorts in the operations of “Armenian deportations.” What is so remarkable about this development is that these admissions were made following the abrupt production by the prosecution of documents mostly cipher telegrams, bearing their signatures. The surprised and startled defendants, who until this uniformly [21] and persistently had been denying the involvement of the S.O. in these deportations, reversed themselves and confessed. These defendants also revealed in the course of these trials, and for the first time that the S.O. had two divisions and missions for the purpose of combating external but also internal enemies (T.V. no.3549, pp. 59-60). At the next, i.e., the fifth sitting, S.O. leader Yusuf Riza finally conceded that indeed there were two S.O.s, the second of which was involved, he said, in Armenian “deportations” (tehcir) (T.V. no.3553, p. 88). Of all these S.O. leaders, Atif Kamcil was the one who was most aghast when being forced to face the set of these surprise cipher telegrams. As a result, in two different sittings, the 5th (p. 86) and the 6th (T.V. 3557, p. 103), especially in the latter, he went so far as to admit that he sought and obstained the help of CUP’s Secretary General for the enlistment of CUP’s provincial party cells in the engagement of S.O. cadres and operations. Atif, after indicating that the terms chette (brigand) and “volunteer” (gönüllü) were more often than not coterminous and hence interchangeable, further admitted that Talaat’s Interior Ministry was involved not only in recruiting and deploying the S.O. convict-brigands, but assisted in the enactment of the law allowing their release from the prisons. (T.V. 3557, p. 104).

Three noted Turkish specialists of the S.O. explicitly declare that the Central Committee of CUP served as both the brain and the actively involved organizer of the S.O. [22] Moreover another student of CUP concluded that the S.O. was the creation of CUP’s Central Committee and that while Interior Ministry Talaat chose the operational commanders of the S.O. units, the Central Committee itself specified its modus operandi. [23] Reference may also be made to the biographer of Talaat who referred to the latter’s penchant for illegal undertakings by way of “nurturing and exploring CUP’s secret designs though the creation of a separate organization.” [24]

Lewy evidently failed to understand all these sinister and criminal missions of the S.O., all recorded in Ottoman and modern Turkish, because of the failure to understand the underlying and hence more consequential mission motivating the top leaders of the S.O. The nature of that mission was exposed by a Turkish author investigating it. He wrote “The Special Organization and trustworthy Ittihadists (i.e., CUP), pursued the goal of radically solving (temelden cözülmesi) the Armenian question…they [in fact] organized and carried out the deportations on a large scale and systematically. Dr. B. Chakir championed this policy at the councils of the CUP’s Central Committee.” [25] In fact the same reference to radical, i.e., “final solution” is found in Interior Minister Talaat’s petition to the Ottoman wartime Cabinet when he went through the formalities of seeking authorization for the deportation of the Armenians. The critical import of this formula of radical solution is evinced by the fact that in practically all Turkish works, including that of Y. H. Bayur, the dean of Turkish historians, citing this document, the passage referring to this formula is carefully excised-except in one. [26] Perhaps the most devastating rebuttal of this assertion that the S.O.’s main mission was “covert operations behind Russian lines” (p. 4), which Lewy makes by relying on two American authors, [27] is offered by two most authoritative sources. One of them Arif Cemil (Denker), an insider who singularly chronicled the minute details of these operations on the Caucasus front, stated that “the activities relative to reconnaissance and brigandage (istihbarat ve cetecilik) imputed to S.O. were a cover for the pursuit of such “lofty ideals as the Islamic Union and Turkism.” An almost identical statement is presented by Esref Kuscubasi, whom Lewy identifies as “the leading Special Organization official” (p. 4). Speaking of “the basic objective” (temel gayesi) of the S.O., he disdainfully dismisses “the belief and the supposition that the S.O.’s mission consisted in securing unadulterated information, reconnaissance, and in triggering uprisings and incidents in enemy countries….” He goes on to say that objective in reality consists in “enabling Islam, which we embody as the essence of our moral order, to become an effective force in our foreign policy.” [28] When elaborating on the threat, which these S.O. leaders claim the non-Muslim minorities of the Empire, especially the Greeks on the Aegean coastline, were purportedly posing, this S.O. chief proceeds to offer the following confirmation of the existence of a secret decision to eliminate these minorities.
The S.O., operating outside the sphere of the government but through the agencies of the War Ministry and the CUP’s Cental Committee, primarily became concerned, as a result of a series of secret meetings at the War ministry, about the goal of liquidating (tasfiyesi) the non-Turkish masses of populations which were located in strategic areas and were under foreign and negative influences. [29]

In categorically declaring that this very same S.O. chieftain, Esref Kuscubasi, was in no way involved in the Armenian massacres and, as he puts it, “closer inspection reveals Esref made no such admission” regarding involvement (p. 4), Lewy, inadvertently perhaps, is exposing the stark possibility of his lack any knowledge of Turkish. If so, was he abused or misled by interlopers or any other kind of outside help? The fact is that “closer inspection,” on the contrary, reveals exactly that and then through Esref’s own words as recorded by his biographer, Cemal Kutay, and subsequently verified in writing by him, Kuscubasi. Indeed, in vehemently reacting to wartime Grand-Vizier Said Halim’s assassination by an Armenian avenger in Rome 1921, Kuscubasi voluntarily inculpated himself while exculpating the Grand Vizier. The latter had emphatically denounced “The Armenian massacres” twice in his testimony before the Fifth Committee of the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies investigating the wartime Armenian “deportations and massacres,” and in the same vein had decried the sinister role of the Interior Minister Talaat. [30] The admission by Kuscubasi in question reads:

The assassination of this martyr as a guilty party is a crime and an injustice without example. I categorically reject this accusation in my capacity as a person who performed secret duties in the events [i.e., the Armenian deportations and massacres] that transpired in this respect. [31]

Moreover, he also confirms that the S.O. performed tasks that went beyond “intelligence gathering” and involved the resort to secret operations that served to effectively deal with those non-Turkish elements who were suspect in terms of their fidelity and attachments to the central authorities. “It is certain that these truly secret operations were kept secret even from Cabinet Ministers. They were operations that the regular organs of the government and even security organs could absolutely not handle.” In the same vein he castigated these targeted victim populations as “separatist microbes.” [32]

In the light of all this, Lewy’s apologia that not the Special Organization but “more likely the perpetrators were Kurdish tribesmen and corrupt policemen out for booty” (p. 5), speaks volumes about the level of seriousness with which he evidently has approached this gruesome event in modern history that two prominent eyewitnesses in so many words denounced as genocide. U.S. American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, on duty in Turkey during the genocide, for example, called it “The Murder of a Nation,” [33] and the German-Jewish Zionist leader, Richard Lichtheim, who throughout the stages of that genocide was also on duty in Turkey. He compared “this act of liquidation” of “a people, the majority of whom were peaceful and diligent peasants,” with “the first phase of Hitler’s campaign of extermination against the Jews…. Organized by Interior Minister Talaat, it was the result of a deliberate, cold-blooded policy of mass murder, claiming over one million victims.” [34]

Notes

1. Altay Yigit. Dogu Karadeniz Muharebeleri (The Battles in Eastern Black Sea Regions). v.1, Trabzon: Istikbal Publishing House, 1950, pp. 80-85. For the brigand activities of the Special Organization see the analysis of the late dean of Turkish political scientists and his reference to the brigands, i.e., “chettes”and “the convicts” (hapishanede bulunan mahkümlar). Tarik Zafer Tunaya, Türkiyede Siyasal Partiler v.III, Ittihat ve Terakki (Political Parties in Turkey. Union and Progress) Istanbul: Hürriyet, 1989, pp. 285-6.

2. Austrian State Archives (HHStA), PAI 942, Krieg 21a Türkei . Zl.79/ pol, November 8, 1914; 83/ pol, December 12, 1914; PA21, XL 272, no.56, February 2, 1915. For more details on the activities Stange’s Detachment see Wolfdieter Bihl, Die Kaukasus- Politik der Mittelmächte. Part I. Vienna: 4 Bohlaus, 1975, p. 351, n-24.

3. German Foreign Ministry Archives, Botschaft Konstantinopel (thereafter Vo’kon) 170, J. no.3841, August 23, 1915.

4. The following list is but expository in this regard. Richard G. Hovannisian, The Armenian Holocaust (A Bibliography Relating to Deportations, Massacres, and Dispersion of the Armenian People. (1915-1923) Cambridge: HeritagePress, 1980; Vahakn N. Dadrian, Documentation of the Armenian Genocide in Turkish Sources in Genocide; A Critical Bibliographic Review, v.2, Israel Charny ed., London: Mansell, 1991, pp. 86-138; ibid., Documentation of the Armenian Genocide in German and Austrian Sources in The Widening Circle of Genocide. Genocide: A critical Bibliographic Review, vol.3, Israel Charny, ed., 1994, pp. 77-125. And most recently the massive compendium of official documents assembled in the national archives of Imperial Germany (During World War I), then the political and military ally of the Ottoman Empire, whose civilian and military representatives, deployed in wartime Turkey, besieged Berlin with an unending stream of official reports on the ongoing Armenian genocide. DerVolkermond an den Armeniern 1915/16. (Dokumente aus dem politischen Archiv des deutschen Auswartigen Amts), Wolfgang Gust, ed. Hamburg: zu Klampen, 2005, pp. 675.

5. Hilmar Kaiser, “The Baghdad Railway and the Armenian genocide, 1915-1916.” In Remembrance and Denial. The Case of the Armenian Genocide, Richard G. Hovannisian, ed. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999, p. 108, n. 78.

6. Vahakn N. Dadrian, “The Naim- Andonian Documents on the World War I Destruction of Ottoman Armenians: The Anatomy of a Genocide, “International Journal of Middle East Studies” v.18, no.3 (August 1986): 311-360.

7. In the Yozgat trial series, of the twelve witnesses five were Turks, including a parliamentarian, one lieut-governor, three colonels and one customs inspector. In those of Trabzon, of the thirty eight, twenty nine were Turks including one ex-governor-general, one Appellate Court judge, one judicial inspector, one police chief, one customs inspector, three MD’s, three colonels, one major, two captains, and two lieutenants. In addition, there were introduced as evidence two lengthy depositions from two army commanders. Moreover, some dozen other Turkish witnesses testified in the Harput trial series (Takvimi Vekayi [hereafter T.V.] no.3771, pp. 1-2), Bayburt (T.V. 3618, pp. 6-7), and Responsible Secretaries (T.V. no.3772. pp. 1-2).

8. These publications were Vakit, March 31, 1919; Le Courrier de Turquie, April 1 and 2, 1919 issues (this was the official organ of the patriotic Turkish Association for the Defense of the Fatherland (Müdafai Vatan). The same text is available also in Hayat Tarih Mecmuasi, v.11, no.3, (November 1981): 53.

9. George Young, Corps de Droit Ottoman, v. VII. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905, pp. 248, 259, 260, 261, 262.

10. See Vahakn N. Dadrian “The Specifics of the Documents Lodged with the Key Indictment” in The Armenian Genocide in Official Turkish Records. Collected Essays by Vahakn N. Dadrian, in Journal of Political and Military Sociology (Special edition), v.22, no.1 (Summer 1994):165-171.

11. U.S. National Archives, For the first report of January 9, 1919 see R.G. 256, 867.4016/2, pp. 2 and 3; for the second quotation report to Washington see R.G. 256, 867.00/59, p. 3, January 20, 1919.

12. Vahakn N. Dadrian, “The Armenian Genocide: an interpretation” in America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Jay Winter ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 54-56.

13. Dadrian, The Specifics of the Documents [no.10], pp.156-57, 161-62.

14. Galip Vardar, Ittihad ve Terakki Icinde Dönenler (The Inside Story of Ittihard ve Terakki [CUP] party) Istanbul: Inkilâp, 1960, pp. 313-24. The basis of this disclosure is an exchange between an S.O leader and Dr. B. Chakir in which the latter is indicating that he is in charge of the Armenian deportations and is inviting that the leader to join and benefit from the attendant spoilage and booty. Samit N. Tansu is the editor, who also edited the memoirs of the other author, Hüsameddin Ertürk, Iki Devrin Perde Arkasi (Behind the Curtain Relative
to two Eras) Istanbul: Hilmi, 1957, on p. 146 Interior Minister and party boss Talaat is identified as the instigator of Chakir’s approach to the S.O. leader mentioned above. On p. 217 once, and on pp. 325 and 327, four times he refers to “Armenian deportations and massacres” as a twin phenomenon, and identifies a captain, belonging to the S.O., as the savior of a principal genocide suspect who with the latter’s help escaped from the prison before he could be court-martialed by the Military Tribunal.

15. Falih Rifki Atay, Zeytindagi (The Olive Mountain) Istanbul: Ayyildiz, 1981, p. 36.

16. Ibid., “Pazar Konusmasi” (Sunday Talk) in Dünya December 17, 1967.

17. Ahmet Refik Altinay, Iki Komite, Iki Kital (Two Committees, Two Massacres) H. Koyukan, ed., Ankara, 1994, p. 27.

18. Ahmed Emin (Yalman), Yakin Tarihte Gördüklerim ve Gecirdiklerim (The Things I Saw and Experienced in Recent History) v.1 (1888-1918), Istanbul: Yenilik 1970, pp. 331-2.

19. IVID. Turkey in the World War New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930, pp. 217-220.

20. Meclisi Âyan Zabit Ceridesi (Transcripts of the proceedings of the Senate) v.1, 3d Period, 15th sitting, December 12, 1916, p. 187, right column. For details of this role of Colonel Behic especially his active involvement in seeking legislative approval for the release of convicts through several cipher telegrams, see T.V. 3543, especially pp. 28-29 for the one marked “secret” and dated December 25, 1914.

21. Turkish political scientist Tunaya explains how these defendants while in prison agreed among themselves to “unanimously” (oybirligi) deny any relationship between the S.O. and their political party, the CUP, and deny also any role of the party in the creation of the same S.O. Turkiyede Siyasal Partiler [n.2], p. 281. Author Yalman who shared prison life with these leaders, in his memoirs describes how they would gather in the large room of the prison for their “Cabinet Council” meetings to discuss, with the help of another inmate, Osman Interior Ministry’s Legal Counselor, defense strategy and common grounds Yakin Tarihte [n.18]. pp. 339-41.

22. Ertürk, Iki Devrin [no.14], pp. 297-98, 306; Vardar, Ittihad ve Terakki [n.14]. pp. 244-46, 274.

23. Mustafa Ragip Esatli; Ittihad ve Terakki Tarihinde Esrar Perdesi (The Curtain of Mistery in I. ve T.’s History) Istanbul: Hürriyet, 1975, p. 258.

24. Tevfik Çavdar, Talat Pasa, Ankara; Dost, pp. 190, 210.

25. Dogan Avcioglu, Milli Kurtulus Tarihi. 1838 den 1995e (The History of National Liberation. From 1838 to 1995) v.3, Istanbul: Istanbul publications, 1974, p. 1135. It should be noted that an identical revelation with details about Chakir’s trip to Istanbul from Erzurum is made by an insider. Chakir is laying down and pressing for its acceptance his respective plan during a special meeting with the members of CUP’s Central Committee. Arif Cemil, Ici Dünya Savasinda Teskilâti Mahsusa (The Special Organization in World War I) Istanbul: Arba 1997, pp. 233, especially 245-46. On pp. 73-4, the author likewise reveal’s Talaat’s order to release convicts from Trabzon.

26. Muammer Demirel, Birinci Dünya Harbinde Erzurum ve Cevresinde Ermeni Hareketleri (1914-1918) Ankara: General Staff Publication, 1996, p. 53. In converting to modern Turkish, the author substituted and thereby slightly modified the original Ottoman term “Külliyen izalesi” when using the words “solving [the Armenian Question] in some essential way” (“esasli bir sekilde cözümlenmesi”).

27. One of them, Gwynne Dyer, relied mainly on the work of Philip Stoddard to be commented upon in the next paragraph. Notwithstanding, Dyer repeatedly acknowledged the fact of the Armenian genocide in the following two articles, namely, (1) “Turkish ‘Falsifiers’ and Armenian Deceivers’: Historiography and the Armenian Massacres,” Middle Eastern Studies v.12, no.1 (January 1996). On p. 100 he speaks of “a policy of extermination” in 1915 by “the Ottoman Government;” on p. 107, he even refers to the “final solution” inflicted upon the Armenians. In an earlier piece, he likewise is emphatic about the historical reality of it by arguing that “the Armenian deportations were…. Official Turkish Government policy… used as the cover for a semi-official and ruthlessly applied policy of extermination.” Middle Eastern Studies v.3, (October 1973): p. 379. As to Stoddard, The Ottoman Government and the Arabs, 1911 to 1918: A preliminary Study of the Teskilati Mahsusa Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms, 1963, University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, there too the story is incomplete. Indeed, even though he never explicitly acknowledges the perpetration of massacres against the Armenians. Stoddard, nevertheless, acknowledges the “disdainful…activities…of ‘groups of brigands’ ” In the same vein, he refers to the seditiousness of “certain ethnic groups,” to their “separatist movements that eventually came under the purview of the Tieskilâti Mahsusa,” i.e., the Special Organization (p. 50), which was established “in part to ride herd on all separatist and nationalist groups” p. 6). On p. 157, he admits that the S.O. role consisted “in carrying out the decisions of CUP …,” and on p. 54 he identifies some of its top leaders as having been centrally involved, such as Drs. Chakir Nazim, and CUP’s Secretary General Midhat Sükrü. Even Erik Zürcher, cited by Lewy (p. 5), had, as noted earlier, to rely upon someone else’s work rather than produce his own research results when he wrote that Andonian materials “have been shown to be forgeries.” In the same work however, he wrote that “an inner circle within CUP under the direction of Talât [carried out] the extermination of the Armenians [using] relocation as a cloak.” Turkey A Modern History, London: Tauris, 1994, p. 121.

28. Cemil, Ici Dünya [n.25], p. 11

29. Quoted in Celâl Bayar, Bende Yazdim (I Too Have Written), v.5, Istanbul, Baha, p. 1573.

30. Ittihad- Terakki’nin Sorgulanmasi ve Yargilanmasi (The Interrogation and Trial of CUP). Istanbul: Temel publ. No.98. pp. 82, 84; the verification by Kuscubasi in writing of the accuracy of the material, produced by Bayar, is on p. 1572, in note no.1.

31. Cemal Kutay, Birinci Dünya Harbinde Teskilât-I Mahsusa (The Special Organization in World War I) Istanbul, 1962, n.p., p. 78.

32. Ibid. pp. 18, 44. His criticism that I resorted to “inaccurate paraphrasing” and “selective ellipses” (p. 4) are, I am afraid, just unsubstantiated, hollow declarations revealing once more his lack of knowledge of Turkish.

33. Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, NY: Doubleday, p. 301.

34. Richard Lichtheim, Rückkehr, Lebenserinnenungen aus der Frühzeit des deutschen Zionismus, Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlays- Anstalt, 1970, pp. 287, 341. In an effort to further question the genocidal quality of the mass murder of the Armenians, Lewy invokes the “Nuremberg trials” and the massive documentation involved. But a whole host of Holocaust scholars, thoroughly familiar with those trials, went out of their way to recognize the Armenian genocide in an effort to contest its denial. The most recent example of it is the proclamation of the 127 Holocaust scholars who declared that “The Armenian Genocide is an Incontestable Historical Fact.” Among the signers was Nobel Laureate Elvie Wiesel, as such prominent Holocaust scholars as Yehuda Bauer, Israel Charny, Steven Katz, Irving Greenberg, Irving Horowitz, Zev Garber, and Richard Rubinstein the proclamation appeared in the June 9, 2000 issue of the New York Times. Equally important, the chief assistant to U.S. Justice Robert Jackson at Nuremberg was Robert Kempner, a German Jew. He was the one who discovered in German Foreign Ministry files the original copy No.10 of the notorious Wannsee Protocol that encapsulated the Final Solution. On numerous occasions especially in a law journal article, he emphatically asserted the fact of the Armenian genocide. He stated, among others, “For the first time in legal history, it was recognized that other countries could legitimately combat… genocide without committing unauthorized intervention in the internal affairs of another country.” He was referring to the public declaration on May 24, 1915 of the three Allies, Great Britain, France, and Russia, that “These new crimes of Turkey against the Armenians constitute crimes against humanity for which Turkish officials will be held responsible for these massacres.” Specifically he was referring to “1.4 million Christian Armenians who by order of the Turkish government were subjected to the first genocide of this century.” “Der Völkermord an den Armeniern” in Recht und Polotik, v.3 (1980): 167, 168. Kempner, upon arrival in America, became professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Two other Holocaust scholars reacted even more pungently to the denials mounted against the recognition of the Armenian genocide. Noted author Deborah Lipstadt wrote: “Denial of genocide whether that of the Turks against the Armenians or the Nazis against the Jews is not an act of historical reinterpretation. Rather, the deniers saw confusion by appearing to be engaged in a genuine scholarly effort….The deniers aim at convincing third parties that there is ‘another side of the story….” Lipstadt letter to Congressman Chris Smith, Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Relations, House of Representatives. 106th Congress, 2nd session, September 2, 2000. Under consideration was HR 398, a Resolution Commemorating the Armenian Genocide. Conceivably these intercessions by so many Holocaust scholars on behalf of the victims of the Armenian genocide have, in addition to a pathos for truth, elements of identification and projection. That sentiment was cogently and concisely articulated by Holocaust scholar Katherine Bischoping when she wrote: “The future of Holocaust denial may be foreshadowed by the persistent denial of the Armenian genocide.” “Method and Meaning in holocaust-knowledge Surveys.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies v.12, n.3 (Winter 1998): 463.

Teacher and Muslim school clash over headscarf

A Muslim woman is attempting to stand up for her right not to wear a headscarf while teaching at a Muslim school. From Expatica, with thanks to Dutch Cares.

AMSTERDAM — A 32-year-old Amsterdam Muslim is challenging the decision by an Islamic school not to employ her because she refuses to wear a headscarf.

Samira Haddad, a teacher of Arabic, has asked the equality commission to rule Islamic College in Amsterdam was wrong to demand she cover her head in order to work there.

The case comes a week after Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven said she is in favour of a ban on wearing the all-covering burka in schools...

The headmaster of the Islamic College in Amsterdam said the school's statutes state explicitly that the rules of the Koran and the Sunna must be adhered to.

Non-Muslim teachers can be granted an exemption. "If Miss Haddad was to declare she is not a Muslim then she could, in principle, could come and work with us," a member of the school board said...

Five times more anti-Jew hate crimes than anti-Muslim

So much for the much-vaunted backlash against Muslims in the U.S. since 9/11. Many times on radio and TV shows people have accused me of encouraging crimes against innocent Muslims by speaking about the roots of Islamic violence in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and the failure of American Muslims to excommunicate jihadists. I always respond to this that I abhor attacks on innocent people, that I am simply telling the truth, truths that need to be told so that we can defend ourselves adequately, and that I believe most Americans are decent enough not to victimize innocent people. David Horowitz at his blog (thanks to DC Watson) briefly examines the FBI's latest hate crimes report, before CAIR's spin doctors get to it:

The FBI has released its latest hate crimes report. Jews are five times as likely as Muslims to be the targets of hate crimes. No big surprise when Jew haters hold million man more marches in Washington and C-Span airs the hate speech for hours and hours and hours.

The FBI has released its annual report “2004 Crime in the United States.” The entire report can be read at: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/index.html

Horowitz adds a table of the numbers for anti-Jewish and anti-Islamic hate crimes in 2004, but I can't get it to work here, so here are the numbers themselves:

Anti-Jewish hate crimes: 954 incidents; 1,003 offenses; 1,076 victims; 330 known offenders.

Anti-Muslim hate crimes: 156 incidents; 193 offenses; 201 victims; 124 known offenders.

Pipes: Europe Under Siege

Daniel Pipes ably traces Europe's ongoing descent into Eurabia in FrontPage:

Two recent stories dramatically illustrate Europe’s looming immigration problem.

One concerns a gang estimated to have smuggled 100,000 illegal immigrants, mainly Turkish Kurds, into Great Britain. These economic migrants paid between £3,000 and £5,000 to be transported via an elaborate and dangerous route. The Independent explains: “Their journeys lasted several weeks and involved safe houses, lorries with secret compartments and, in some cases, clandestine flights to airfields in the South-east.”

A senior British police source commented that “It’s a tortuous journey, full of discomfort and danger, but they are determined to get here, given the particular attraction of London’s established Turkish community.”

Turks are hardly alone in wanting access to Europe; the second story concerns human waves of impoverished sub-Saharan Africans storming and breaching fences to enter two tiny Spanish enclaves on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla.

Until recently, these Iberian vestiges of the Crusades appeared to be curious remnants of a bygone age. Now, however, they are (along with the Canary Islands, Lampedusa, and Mayotte) among the European Union’s most isolated and vulnerable entry points, stepping stones feeding illegal immigrants to the whole of the European Union.

Melilla is a town of 60,000 with a six-mile [ten-kilometer] border with Morocco, protected by Spanish Legion and Moroccan civil guard units, high fences bristling with razors, and the latest anti-personnel technology (sensor pads, movement detectors, spotlights, infrared cameras).

The typical African migrant travels across the Sahara desert to reach the Mediterranean coast, where he idles nearby until the right moment for a run to Spanish territory. “We were just tired of living in the forest,” explained a young man from Guinea-Bissau. “There was nothing to eat, there was nothing to drink.”

In mid-September, the Africans began assaulting the frontier en masse. Deploying crude ladders made of branches, they used their weight to bring the fences down in places. As one of them put it, “We go in a group and all jump at once. We know that some will get through, that others will be injured and others may die, but we have to get through, whatever the cost.”

The tactic works. When over 1,000 persons tried to enter Melilla at a single go in September, an estimated 300 succeeded. In early October, 650 persons ran for the fence and 350 are said to have made it. “There were just too many of us” to be stopped, observed one Malian. An estimated 30,000 more Africans await their turn.

The confrontation can resemble a pitched battle. The Africans throw rocks at the security forces, which respond with bayonets, shotguns, and rubber bullets. The assaults left about a dozen Africans dead, some trampled in the rush to Spanish territory, others shot by Moroccan police.

Madrid eventually prevailed on Rabat to crack down on the remaining Africans-in-waiting, which obliged by flying some 2,000 of them to their countries of origin and exiling another 1,000 to Morocco’s southern desert, far from the Spanish enclaves. The removal was done with some brutality, dumping the Africans and leaving them to fend off the harsh elements almost without help. But the unwelcome signal was received. “I will go back now,” said another Malian, in tears. “I will not try to come back. I am exhausted.”

Modern communications and transportation increasingly inspire Turks, Africans, and others (such as Mexicans) to leave their native lands, taking extreme risks if necessary, to reach the West’s near-paradise. In response, Europeans are baring their teeth, brushing aside multicultural pieties such as Kofi Annan’s statement that “What is important is that we don’t make a futile attempt to prevent people from crossing borders. It will not work.”

But preventing people from crossing borders is very much on the agenda; it is probably only a matter of time until other Western states follow Spain and Australia and resort to military force.

Giant smuggling rings and human waves cascading over fortified positions represent the starkest manifestations of profound and growing dilemmas: how islands of peace and plenty survive in an ocean of war and deprivation, how a diminishing European population retains its historic culture, and how states from Turkey to Mali to Mexico solve their problems rather than export them.

With no solutions in sight, however, there is every reason to expect these problems to worsen.

Many good links in the original.

Devenny: Training Our Enemies

Jihad Watch News Editor Patrick Devenny exposes CIA training of Palestinian Arab jihad terrorists in FrontPage:

Last month, NBC News correspondent Lisa Myers tracked down one Jihad Jaara, a veteran Palestinian militant who currently resides in Ireland. Jaara’s career as a terrorist has been a remarkably effective one. As a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade – a violent militia tied to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party – Jaara supervised and planned dozens of assassinations and bombings against a wide-range of American and Israeli targets. One of the more reprehensible actions authorized by Jaara was the kidnapping of Avi Boaz, a 72-year-old American architect who was abducted by Al-Aqsa terrorists while he waited at a Palestinian police checkpoint. His bullet-riddled body was found a few hours later, dumped just outside of Bethlehem. Upon being questioned by Myers, Jaara swore that he had renounced such terrorism, a claim that was dismissed by former associates, who identified him as an important interlocutor between Hezbollah and various Palestinian terrorist groups.

What distinguishes Jaara from many of his fellow Palestinian terrorist leaders is that he plied his bloody trade while simultaneously serving as an officer in the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, a body assigned with combating militants. His official status gave Jaara the ability to travel freely throughout the territories, enabling him to plan his attacks while enjoying the protection afforded to Palestinian officials by the Israelis. While his position gave him some advantages, Jaara was unhesitant when asked what single factor had most contributed to his transformation into a successful terrorist: small-arms training supervised by officers of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The fact that the CIA trained a man such as Jihad Jaara is hardly surprising. For almost ten years, the American government has been engaged in a series of hopelessly misguided endeavors designed to train and fund the Palestinian security services, an initiative which can be deemed, politely, as a dismal failure. Tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars have simply disappeared into the covert bank accounts of corrupt Palestinian officials, while CIA-trainers recklessly lent their considerable combat expertise to fanatics such as Jaara.

The misguided attempt began in 1996, when the CIA led an effort – engineered by then deputy director George Tenet – to train the Palestinian authorities in anti-terror tactics. The initiative was secretly authorized by President Clinton, who later signed a Presidential order sanctioning the expansion of the program to include chaperoned tours of the CIA and FBI headquarters buildings for Palestinian security chiefs. The covert training and funding operation continued over the next two years, existing wholly outside of the public’s view.

In 1998, President Clinton – anxious to cement his legacy as Middle East peacemaker – pushed for an expanded and formalized security assistance effort which would be included as a provision in the Wye River agreement. While the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was initially reluctant to accept such an idea, Clinton managed to browbeat the Israeli delegation into compliance, an acquiescence which ensured the continuation and growth of the formerly covert training program. In doing so, the President ignored the warnings of several veteran Israeli counter-terrorist officials, who repeatedly warned their American counterparts that several high-ranking Palestinian terrorists such as Al-Aqsa Brigades leader Nasser Awis were simultaneously serving as senior security officials in the Palestinian Authority, with responsibility for conducting counter-terrorist operations.

Within months of the Wye agreement, the first Palestinian trainees arrived aboard U.S. government aircraft. Their training regimen was rigorous, far superior to the domestic “boot camps” offered by the Palestinian government or terrorist groups. The Palestinian units were ferried to various military installations, where they were given advanced small-arms training on firing ranges normally used by the U.S. Army and special forces units. Additionally, the recruits were taught how to effectively protect high-value targets and “motorcade operations,” skills that could easily be transferred into protecting terrorist leaders from Israeli capture. Many of the former CIA trainees turned terrorists have since praised the CIA course, including Jaara, who made a point to extol the CIA’s “shooting” course. Perhaps most disturbingly, however, was that the Palestinian officers were given “interrogation” training, which, in the hands of those who work in the espionage services of groups such as Fatah, could prove extremely valuable.

American officials reasoned that – emboldened by their new training – Palestinian authorities would immediately and aggressively crack down on terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who were consistently breaking ceasefire agreements during the late 1990s. To the U.S. government’s dismay, many of the Palestinian security officers quickly joined or began aiding the very terrorist groups which they had been trained to combat. Security personnel were also observed transferring arms and their American training to militia groups such as the Tanzim, which was led by convicted terrorist Marwan Barghuti.

Indicative of the Clinton administration’s staggering ignorance over this issue was a class of 18 Palestinians brought to a top-secret location near CIA headquarters in 1998 for a course in “anti-terrorist techniques.” American officials failed to realize, however, that most of the men hailed from cities where militant infiltration of the police forces was acute, such as Nablus. Not surprisingly, as detailed in the San Francisco Chronicle, several of the students went on to become some of the most dangerous terrorists in the Palestinian territories, including the infamous Khaled Abu Nijmeh, who used his CIA training to supervise multiple suicide bombings in 2001 and 2002 in Bethlehem. More than half of the original class of 18 went on to become fighters in the Al-Aqsa brigades.

Beginning in 1999, Israeli government officials began suggesting that the American training effort be scaled back, in order to better judge its overall effectiveness. In addition, Prime Minister Ehud Barak complained to the White House that Yasser Arafat was using his seemingly close relations with the CIA to bolster his negotiating position, which had become increasingly aggressive. Tel Aviv’s requests fell on deaf ears in Washington, which stubbornly clung to the pipe dream that Arafat’s police forces would – given enough American aid and training – eventually confront the various militant organizations. This expectation was abruptly dashed during the intifada of 2000, in which large numbers of Palestinian police joined militant groups in fighting the Israeli Defense Force. The sight of Palestinian police stripping off their uniforms and engaging in raging street battles with Israeli forces became commonplace. At the same time, the Palestinian authorities failed miserably to curtain the actions of terrorist organizations, who operated with total impunity inside the territories.

Apart from the blowback effect precipitated by the Clinton administration's foolishly training men such as Jihad Jaara and Khaled Abu Nijmeh, the futile quest to prop up a Palestinian security service has been an unqualified financial disaster. All told, the U.S. government has squandered almost one billion dollars in the effort to construct a viable Palestinian state, a large portion of which has gone into building a Palestinian security force. Despite this massive amount of funding, the Palestinian services have shown little signs of progress, as detailed in a July 2005 report compiled on behalf of the U.S. government by the consulting firm Strategic Assessments Initiative (SAI). The SAI report stated that, even with millions of American dollars and years of CIA training, the PA police were wholly ineffective, wracked with divided loyalties and inferior equipment. Many of its officers, charged the SAI analysts, were active or complicit in terrorist attacks or organized crime rings.

Recent events have provided ample evidence of the overall program’s failure. The ongoing chaos in Gaza and the current inability of the Palestinian Authority to enforce its own disarmament provisions with regard to Hamas should serve to prove the utter futility of “reforming” the Palestinian security apparatus. The latest example came on Tuesday, when Palestinian police officers brazenly stormed the offices of the national legislature, complaining that they lacked the basic resources to confront the heavily-armed militant groups. Their lack of weaponry or funding suggests that the tens of millions of dollars in Western aid which was specifically earmarked for arming the police had been directed elsewhere, a violation of the agreed-upon protocols.

Regardless of these past failures, the Bush administration seems determined to follow a similar path, as training the Palestinian security services remains at the heart of President Bush’s efforts to keep the Palestinians involved in the negotiation process. Earlier this year, while visiting London, Secretary of State Rice suggested, "There will need to be some international effort, and the United States is prepared to play a major role in that, to help in the training of the Palestinian security forces and in making sure that they are security forces that are part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

Echoing the Secretary of State’s words was President Bush, who – while meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in May – pledged to “reform” the PA’s security services through a $50 million dollar aid package, assigning an American general to oversee the process. Just two weeks ago, American officials in Ramallah proudly announced the transfer of three million dollars to the Palestinian security services, for the “enhancement of their capabilities.” Additional measures have been approved by the President, chief among them a CIA-run effort which would give the Palestinians a supplementary $300 million dollars for security operations.

These recent overtures are the latest example of our government’s puzzling willingness to pour additional millions into anonymous Palestinian coffers, all in the name of highlighting our “even-handedness” with regard to the peace process. As we have already witnessed, however, any American initiative to reform the Palestinian security services is doomed to fail so long as no credible Palestinian government or judicial systems exists in the territories. Yet – desperate to accrue some sort of good will from our erstwhile Arab and European allies – the Bush administration sees fit to throw such considerations by the wayside, disregarding our security – not to mention Israel’s – in favor of overseas image management.

Pakistan: mullah blocks feeding of earthquake survivors during Ramadan

More Ramadan peace and tolerance as a Pakistani mullah threatens to burn down a refugee camp rather than see earthquake survivors eating during the day during Ramadan. From "Feeding the survivors during Ramadan," from the BBC, with thanks to Tom:

Feeding 1,200 people with no kitchen requires a bit of preparation.

You need to light fires, boil rice and cook meat. It takes several hours. You have to get going in advance.

But one of the local mullahs did not see it that way and he paid Mohammed Mustafa a visit.

"What are you doing?" he shouted. "Don't you know it's Ramadan now? This is just not permitted.

"You can't cook food during the day. It's against Islam. Stop or I'll burn this place down - your tents, your pots, everything."

Iran police kill Ramadan offender

Are you ready to hear such stories from Paris as well as Tehran? Life under Sharia alert from the Sunday Times, with thanks to Designnut:

TEHRAN - Iranian police have been accused of shooting and killing a motorist after he failed to stop when spotted eating during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a press report said.

The victim, identified as 22-year-old Seyed Mostafa, was shot dead in Tehran on Saturday.

He was also playing loud music with his car stereo, the government Iran newspaper said.

"Even if the police claim is right, is eating during the fasting month punishable by death?" the victim's brother was quoted as saying.

It isn't according to traditional Islamic law. The Iranians seem to be getting a bit overzealous; maybe they considered his eating and loud music to be ipso facto evidence that he was a heretic or an apostate.

U.S. Government's Elevation of Sudan's Slavery Status Challenged

A press release from the Sudan Campaign:

U.S. Government's Elevation of Sudan's Slavery Status Challenged Sudan Campaign Calls Presidential Determination "Fundamentally Flawed"

WASHINGTON: The leadership of the Sudan Campaign coalition is protesting against President Bush's decision to upgrade Sudan's slavery status from Tier III (the lowest possible ranking) to Tier II, today. (Switzerland, Israel, Chile, Hungary and Greece are among the Tier II states.)

A State Department memorandum justifying the Presidential Determination, dated 21 September, claims that the Government of Sudan has made "significant efforts" to bring itself into compliance with U.S. anti-trafficking legislation. The head of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (TIP), Ambassador John Miller, reported on September 27 that Sudan and five other countries had taken "real steps" to combat slavery, including:
Establishing new police anti-trafficking units, arresting and charging traffickers, passing anti-trafficking laws, opening victims shelters, holding bilateral meetings to establish anti-trafficking cooperation, and establishing victims hotlines.

Neither the TIP office, nor the Sudanese government, however, have been able to provide details of such alleged measures.

The State Department's Memorandum of Justification defended the Presidential Determination on the grounds that the Government of Sudan has made unspecified "commitments" to implement anti-trafficking measures during the next twelve months.

But the State Department has not made public the details of the "action plan", which, according to the TIP office, is contained within a recently signed U.S.- Sudanese "bilateral" agreement.

Writing to Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice, the Sudan Campaign leadership observed that the meager evidence provided by the State Department does not point to "significant efforts" to combat slavery on the part of the Government of Sudan. Moreover, the Sudan Campaign leaders noted that the 2005 Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General, documented cases of Sudanese government troops' involvement in "abductions and sexual slavery".

The Sudan Campaign has called on the Secretary of State to immediately reverse the "fundamentally flawed" determination and to cooperate in the establishment of a Task Force to Monitor the Eradication of Sudanese Slavery on the basis of partnership with non-governmental organizations.

Fitzgerald: Christianity and Islam: more in common than differences?

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses a recent lecture about Christianity and Islam at Stanford, sponsored by the Islamic Society of Stanford University and the Muslim Students Awareness Network:

"Both Muslims and Christians 'believe in Jesus as the Messiah and accept that he was born of a virgin, that he never sinned,' he said. 'There is more in common than there are differences between us.'" — from this article about a lecture last Saturday by Hisham Mahmoud, a doctoral candidate of Islamic Studies at UCLA, on “Jesus in Islam: The Gospel of Jesus According to Prophet Muhammad”

Perhaps Hisham Mahmoud’s assertion that Christians and Muslims have “more in common” than they have differences is not quite enough to allay our fears, our suspicions, and above all, our knowledge. Certainly, as a kind of gloss on Mahmoud’s homily, one would like to hear from all those Christians who have been on the receiving end of Muslim sharing-and-caring: Copts from Egypt, Maronites from Lebanon, and Indonesian and Pakistani Christians, in addition to ex-Muslims in the West who have become Christians, or if they have not, at least can testify as to what attitudes toward Christians (and other Infidels) are encouraged by the texts of Qur’an, hadith, and sira. It would be fascinating to engage Mr. Mahmoud in live debate which would contain both the testimony of such Christians and that of Christians tortured and imprisoned for their belief in Saudi Arabia, a country whose inhabitants apparently do not share Mr. Mahmoud’s belief that Islam and Christianity “more in common than there are differences between us.” But what do those imams all over Arabia know about Islam, when Mr. Mahmoud knows so much more, and is quick to tell us all about it?

While the naïve remain, their numbers are diminishing. Some simply cannot reconcile the evidence of their senses with the taqiyya and tu-quoque offered up by Muslim spokesmen (CAIR may be the most egregious, given the charges made, and proven, against many of its officers, but it is just the tip of the taqiyya iceberg). Of course, it is possible to find, here and there, bits and pieces of Jewish and Christian lore in the Qur’an. That, after all, is what the Qur’an is: an overlay or mixture of passages, usually misunderstood or distorted from their original sources, taken from the Jewish and Christian holy books and mixed with pagan Arab lore from the time of the Jahiliyya – that is, the Ignorance that prevailed before Islam arrived to clear everything up. Of course we all know that Jesus and Moses and a few thousand others were prophets; Islam took over, lock stock and barrel, all sorts of things from the prior monotheisms, appropriated them, and distorted them into an Islamic version. For example, as Mahmoud emphasizes, Jesus was a prophet but not the Son of God, and did not die on the Cross; the perfidious Jews, however, even though they did not kill Jesus, thought they did and boasted about it (see Qur’an 4:157), and besides, they had a different candidate for the Son of God, one “Uzair” or “Ezra” (Qur’an 9:30), although no real Jews have ever made such a claim about Ezra or anyone else.

These orthodox Muslim and Qur’anic versions of Judaism and Christianity are hardly recognizable to either Jews or Christians. Islam is irreconcilably hostile to both, and never more so than in Sura 9, the very last of the Suras to be written. Yet Mahmoud does not seem to have mentioned the curse of Allah on Jews and Christians (9:30 again) or other inconvenient matters. Not to worry. Just remember his theme: Christians and Muslims have “more in common than there are differences between us.”

Yet those differences are real. Traditional Islam denounces Christianity as “shirk,” (polytheistic, because of the Trinity and divinity attributed to Christ). It is a belief-system that for 1350 years has been persecuting Christians and other non-Muslims (see The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam by Bat Ye’or). It mandates for them the status of dhimmitude: humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity, in which all the non-Muslim’s rights derived from whatever the Muslims wished to offer, and from nothing else. Dhimmitude was imposed on Christians as it was on Jews, and then, in a different way, first to Zoroastrians and then to Buddhists and Hindus (the latter only because there were too many to kill, and besides, allowing them to live and to finance the Muslim state through their “Jizya” made economic sense).

The numbers of unwary Infidels diminish every day. But there are still many who want to believe that there is nothing wrong with Islam, a religion of “tolerance” and “peace.” Such people come away from talks like Mahmoud’s reassured and hopeful. But less credulous individuals should consult not only the likes of Mahmoud. Let them seek a comment from a Copt or a Maronite, or some other Christian who has been on the receiving end of Islam’s “respect” for Christianity. Someone who knew Bishop John Joseph in Pakistan, or who has seen his church attacked or burned down (in the Balkans, in Pakistan, in Egypt, in Indonesia, in the Sudan, in Nigeria).

Why are talks such as Mahmoud’s so readily given, and eagerly received, in our nation’s universities? One principal reason is that over the past 30 years many posts in universities have been systematically created and funded by Arab interests. Arab money funds individual chairs: the King Abdul Aziz II Chair, the “Guardian of the Two Noble Sanctuaries” Chair, the Edward Said Chair, as well as whole “centers” such as Esposito’s “Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding” and the Georgetown Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. This is all about vast financial resources deployed, carefully and with malice aforethought, by the Saudis, the Kuwaits, the U.A.E. And as any study of MESA (Mesa Nostra) would show, there has been over the past three decades an inexorable takeover or infiltration of many university departments. One thinks of Columbia’s Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures -- a situation beyond parody, and beyond belief -- made even more horrific by the crude and transparent attempt to limit scrutiny of the MEALAC department only to the anti-Israel antics of some of its faculty, and not to the fact that the main subject, Islam, including the early history of the Qur’an, a history of Jihad-conquest, and a history of dhimmitude or dhimmitude studies, is simply not even mentioned, much less taught, as part of the standard curriculum. The main function of such departments seems to be to misstate or omit the role of Islam, the belief-system that animates and explains so much of the present behavior and past history of those who live in what are now, but were not always, the countries of dar al-Islam.

At no other time have the citizens of an entire civilization been called upon to educate themselves, since those whose duty it is to instruct them are afraid of telling the truth about Islam and indeed are falling all over themselves misinforming us about its nature. This is done out of fear, out of denial, out of stupidity, out of all sorts of motives except that of recognizing, confronting, and articulating an unpalatable truth -- one that implies a struggle without an end-point, that will require measures to be undertaken that, in the West, many had not thought appropriate even to contemplate.

And because the apologists for Islam have been honing their skills in taqiyya and kitman, and have such well-financed operations, and are not inhibited by any scruples in their campaign to spread Islam and to remove all barriers to its spread within the Bilad al-kufr, a further requirement of Infidels is not only that they learn about Islam, but that they also familiarize themselves with the repertory of rhetorical and other tricks used by Islamic apologists: what are the passages that keep being quoted, what are the appeals that keep being made to win over or disarm Christian (or Jewish) critics, what are the lines of attack, the lines of defense? For there are a small number of these, endlessly repeated.

Mahmoud retails some of the most common. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Legacy of Jihad, Islam and Dhimmitude, and a host of others will help immunize one against the hordes of Hisham Mahmouds. On the Internet, at www.usc.edu, one can find several different translations side-by-side of the Qur'an. The hadith of Bukhari, Muslim, and others are available at the same site. Non-hagiographical works on Muhammad are also easily obtained, including the recently-reprinted one-volume biography by Sir William Muir ($50 at Kessinger Reprints), or the short biographies by Tor Andrae and Arthur Jeffery. Books by Margoliouth on early Islam, and Schacht on Muslim law, have recently been reprinted. Peroncel-Hugoz, a French journalist, wrote The Raft of Muhammad, which deserves to be read. Though out-of-print it can be obtained online.

Armed with information, you can in turn better inform others. You may influence one, or five, or ten people. Every new addition to the ranks of the informed is important. The civilization they help save may be their own.

Muslim-friendly public housing in Britain

"Asian," of course, means "Muslim" in the British press. "Asian-friendly houses in Britain," from IANS with thanks to Lost Budgie, who points out that not only has tax money been used to build these houses, but that Muslims will be given preference over others to live in them. L. B. says: "Imagine the outcry if tax dollars were used to build a public housing project designed to the religious specifications of Christians or Jews - who were then given priority because they would most benefit from the 'culturally-sensitive' design?"

Bristol: An Asian housing association in Britain has built a block of flats especially designed not to offend Muslims - the toilets do not face Makkah.

The 16 flats in the St Paul's area here have been built by Bristol-based Aashyana Housing Association, an Asian-led organisation. The toilets in the apartments have been built in such a way that they do not face southeast.

Farooq Siddique, from the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society, said he welcomed developments that took into consideration the cultural diversity of tenants.

He said: "I think it is a good thing that the flats are designed in this way. We do live in a multi-cultural society and rather than just paying lip service to that, it is important that there are policies in place that address it.

"Having toilets facing the right way is an issue that comes up, as Muslims do not like using them if they are facing in that direction."...

Bristol City Council spokeswoman Kate Hartas said:...

"With all our allocations, we apply the normal criteria.

"But where there are two households of equal priority who qualify for an Aashyana home, we would offer to the household who would most benefit from the culturally- sensitive services that Aashyana provides."

Welcome to multicultural Britain, where tolerance equals preference given to Muslim sensibilities.

The Fight against Jihad: Dealing with India and China

European essayist Wolfgang Bruno discusses the necessity of derailing Europe's path to Eurabia and related matters:

The most important task in the fight against Islamic Jihad is to reunite the West in the defense of its own civilization, which can only happen by derailing Europe's path to Eurabia. Raphael Israeli has suggested an Alliance of Western and Democratic States, at the center of which will be the US, Canada, Israel, Australia and Western Europe. This system may sidetrack the chaotic situation in the UN today, where Islamic countries and dictatorships have too much influence. It would probably also presuppose scrapping the EU in its present form. This alliance should maintain amiable relations with the Russians. Russia under Putin is hardly a model democracy, and its own Great Power ambitions may sometimes make it an unpredictable ally. However, the Russians will probably end up on the right side in the struggle against Islam, in the interest of self-preservation if nothing else. With collapsing non-Muslim birth rates and significant Muslim minorities, the survival of Russian culture is at stake. The alliance should also forge ties with non-Western democracies.

Robert Spencer has called India our partner against Jihad, and suggests that India can and should be working side-by-side with us in this great struggle for freedom and human rights. Democratic India, which has suffered from Jihad for centuries, is in many ways our natural ally. It does, however, also have its problems. Historian N.S. Rajaram has explained how the wounds inflicted by centuries of Islamic rule on a large segment of the Indian intelligentsia and the political class have been so debilitating that they continue to live in a state of constant fear. Muslims in India make up about 150 million people, and their growth rate exceeds those of Hindus and Sikhs. Combined with the populations of Bangladesh and Pakistan, non-Muslims could be a minority on the Indian subcontinent by mid-century. Muslims still consider India to be "unfinished business", which is why the Saudi royal family has cleared plans to construct 4,500 Islamic madrasas in South Asia. This dhimmi-fear of Islamic unrest explains why non-Muslim India was the first country to ban Salman Rushdie's book "the Satanic Verses." It is important that Indians get to know the full scale of Islamic atrocities on their continent, through books such as "Negationism in India - Concealing the record of Islam" by Koenraad Elst and "Indian Muslims - Who Are They" by K.S. Lal.

Another complicating factor in this alliance is the sometimes significant cultural differences between Indians and Westerners. Many Indians harbor some suspicion towards Judeo-Christian monotheism as well as Islam. They should listen to V. S. Naipaul, hardly a soft man in his treatment of Islam, who is a defender of Western civilization and says that the advent of Christianity did not damage India the way Islam did. Quite a few also still hold grudges for European colonialism. There are even those, and not just Indians, who say that Europeans deserve to become colonized by Muslims, after colonizing other nations themselves. This line of thinking is both wrong and dangerous. Non-Muslims should never support Muslim advances elsewhere. Indians should know this better than most. While Pakistan for decades remained a hub of Islamic extremism, Western powers usually ignored it as a "regional" or "Indian" problem. Now, terrorists trained at Pakistani madrasas hit London, and threaten other Western nations. Indians should not make the same mistake. There is no such thing as "local" or "regional" struggles against Islam, only different front lines of the same, global Jihad. There is ample evidence of widespread international cooperation between Jihadis. In the longer term, a Muslim Europe would become just another overpopulated Islamic failure. In the short to medium term, however, Europe's accumulated economic and technological resources would be used to fuel Islamic aggression from Kashmir to Thailand and the Philippines. Most Europeans today are genuinely embarrassed by their colonial past, which is ironically one of the causes of the weakness presently displayed towards Muslim demands. This would not be the case with an Islamic Europe, which with the fresh zeal of the newly convert could seize the mantle of Islam's cause worldwide, the way the Turks once did.

Whereas democratic India is our natural ally, authoritarian China is a more complicated matter. Through its long-standing partnership with Pakistan, China is partly responsible for that country's nuclear capability, which is now threatening to spread to other Islamic countries or even terrorist networks. China's increasing ties with Iran should thus be a matter of some concern for the West. With its growing economy, China, and India, too, is faced with a soaring need for energy, which brings it into the arms of the Iranians, the Saudis and even the Sudanese. In Asia, Japan has been a long-standing American ally. In the war against Islamic Jihad, China will thus be faced by an alliance that includes present superpower USA, former colonial power the UK, Asian rival India and the much-hated Japanese. Even without the Chinese Communist Party, it is not certain that all Chinese will be thrilled at the prospect of joining hands with these nations. On top of this, there is a powerful undercurrent of Chinese nationalism in the country, the feeling of belonging to a glorious, but slighted civilization that will now reassert itself and regain the prominence that is its due. The Chinese populace have been spoon-fed anti-Western propaganda for decades, yet have much less intimate knowledge of Islamic aggression than their Indian neighbors. This explains the occasional outbursts of gloating following 9/11 in the USA, by some Chinese who viewed it as a humbling blow against an arrogant nation. Yes, Chinese authorities are ruthless in suppressing militant Muslim Uighurs in its Western provinces, but this alone does not mean that China has joined the global fight against Islam. It just means that the CCP does not tolerate any kind of dissent, be that Muslims, Tibetan monks or pro-democracy activists.

However, the Chinese are above all pragmatic people. They may need relations with Muslim countries to fill their need for energy, but the Islamic world has little else to offer them. The growth in China's economy, without which the country could disintegrate from internal unrest, is tied to markets and capital in the West and other infidel nations. And even though Chinese nationalism is a given, it may perhaps be redirected towards Islamic targets. Distribute stories of ethnic Chinese who are discriminated against and exploited in Malaysia, even to the point where they are not allowed to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Or of Chinese women being beaten and gang-raped in Indonesia by Muslims shouting "Allah Hu Akbar" and "Kill Chinese." Spread literature explaining that the Chinese, who are largely Buddhists, Taoists or non-religious, are in fact viewed as even lower by Muslim than Westerners of Judeo-Christian stock. Chinese women are seen as infidel whores, and Chinese men as pig-eating barbarians. The mentality of Islamic supremacy is an insult to 5000 years of Chinese civilization, and a giant slap in the face of the proud Chinese nation. Even though Muslims will want them as allies against other infidels today, they will come for them too, eventually. The Chinese large population mass and ruthless pride may defend them for a while, but even China won't be ultimately protected from an entire Eurasian landmass dominated by Islam.

As Hugh Fitzgerald says, this is not about a "Clash of Civilizations" or "East vs. West," it is about infidels vs. Islam. We should have an agreement between Europeans, Americans, Indians and everybody else to deal with Islam today, and then the rest of us can haggle about trade quotas and currency rates tomorrow. That's what civilized people do.

Wolfgang Bruno is a European author. He is writing a book about the
Internet movement of ex-Muslims. All of Bruno's essays can be republished and reproduced for free by anybody who wants to, as long as credit is given to the author.

Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning

Sharia alert from Gulf News, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Tehran: An Iranian woman has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, local media reported on Saturday.

The woman, named only as Soghra, was found guilty of having an affair with her husband's friend, the Etemad daily reported on Saturday.

She was also given a separate 15-year jail sentence for helping her lover kill her husband.

Death for adultery, 15 years for murder. Got it.

Fitzgerald: A tribute to Chris Patten

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald profiles supreme eurodhimmi Chris Patten, who in an interview several days ago reiterated his determination to bring Turkey into the EU:

Chris Patten is an awful man. His pronouncements on the world, and especially on Islam and the Middle East, need to be displayed, laid out for all to see, and ridiculed for what they reveal about his understanding of men and events.

Despite his self-evident clownishness, he has been made Chancellor of Oxford. This is intolerable. What's next -- giving Cornel West a professorship at Princeton? Giving Jeffery Sachs his own "World Institute"? Letting Clinton parade around with his "Clinton Global Initiative"? Giving the Lannan Prize to a "Palestinian" propagandist in verse named Mahmoud Darwish?

The London Library has been opened to non-readers to lounge, chew gum, play music. Oxford itself permitted a business school, the Said School of Business, to sully the atmosphere. There goes the neighborhood, from the meadows of Magdalen to Holywell Manor.

And now Chris Patten is attempting in his criminally negligent way to force Turkey, and 80 million Muslims, down the throat of Europe.

In Europe, as in America, more and more people believe that their ruling classes do not represent them. The distrust of the EU and its bureaucrats, of which Patten was a prime example (and his views were fixed in that role), has become a dislike of the very idea of the European Community -- and rightly. The infiltration of various institutions has proceeded apace – notably, the U.N., where Edward Mortimer is Director of Communications in the office of the Secretary-General. Mortimer is an admirer of Khomeini ("quite the most glorious morning in the history of mankind" was how he began his report on Khomeini's arrival to take power), and antisemite (for only an antisemite can enthusiastically endorse the sinister charge that "Zionists and Nazis" collaborated, a charge made by one Lonnie Brenner in a book to which Mortimer's enthusiastic review is now appended). The BBC has also been infiltrated: John Simpson is world affairs editor. He is also a friend of Peter Hounam (now under arrest in Israel), author of an antisemitic calumny, Operation Cyanide, which purports to show how Israel plotted carefully its "premeditated" attack on the USS Liberty, that staple of antisemitic conspiracy theorists -- a book with an introduction by John Simpson. Then there is the ACLU: google "Nancy Murray" and her daughter "Rebecca Murray" to see who is in charge, in Massachusetts, of the "disinterested" campaign by the ACLU to eviscerate the Patriot Act.

The EU, however, is a different and much larger affair. Its decline into Eurabia began just after the Yom Kippur War and the quadrupling of oil prices. The Europeans were under the impression -- a completely false impression, caused by smoke, mirrors, and an inability to think clearly -- that they had to succumb to Arab demands in order to make sure oil would keep flowing. They did not realize that OPEC countries were simply one large gas station. I am not in the habit of doing special favors to my local Texaco or Shell beyond paying the price posted -- are you? But the EU signed a series of agreements, many of them not publicly known (but Bat Ye'or's Eurabia lays it all out, in all its horrible idiocy), by which it effectively accepted the demands for the spread of Arab "culture" and Arab political views and Arab propaganda throughout Europe. It is no accident that the BBC and Canal Cinq and the rest have engaged in several decades of vilification of Israel, of misstatement after misstatement, omission after sly omission -- all in that querulous and nasty tone that, if you have heard Judy Swallow, or Robin Lustig, or Lyse Doucet, you know all too well. The BBC World Service, under Simpson, is directed not by the regular BBC overlords, but by the Arabists of the Foreign Office. And we all know how successful they have been in keeping prices down and winning hearts and minds in the Middle East.

Patten is, like Romano Prodi and Javier Solana and the rest, part of the EU phenomenon. A monstrous conspiracy of stupidity and hypocrisy, the EU's foreign policy has adopted the cause of the recently-invented "Palestinian people" as its own. It ignores the nature of Jihad and the tenets of Islam that fatally vitiate any possible treaty signed between an Infidel state such as Israel and the forces of Islam. The Pattens, Solanas, and Prodis long ago gave up even a semblance of any fairness toward Israel.

But what is even worse, perhaps, is how, in their deliberately avoiding the real nature of Islam, how they are permitting the destruction of European self-confidence, of Europe as an idea, of Europe as a demographic reality, from within. If Patten is right, and there is nothing to worry about except American policies -- ah yes, America the imperialist power that has behaved so wickedly toward Europe in the last 100 years and continues to threaten it with its mad policies. Patten should leave one speechless. He is essentially stupid – he has also stated that Arabs consistently show a greater desire for democracy than any other people. What? What does he think the word "democracy" means when Arabs are asked "Do you favor democracy?" Does it mean "democracy" with full human rights for women, non-Muslims, and apostates from Islam? Of course not. It means something to them quite different -- shorthand for: “I want the corrupt and cruel government that runs this country (fill in any damn Middle Eastern name of a Muslim regime you care to here) gone, I want democracy.” How stupid can Patten be?

While in Hong Kong, did Patten ever learn the Chinese phrase ta-suan (you know: "swan pan" or abaucs), which means, Pinyin or Wade-Giles, the entirely admirable ability to plan, to calculate ahead, as one should? Has Patten that gift? Can he see beyond next week? What will Europe look like in five years? Ten years? Twenty years? What exactly does he think is going to happen to the ever-increasing Muslim population in Europe? It will be so grateful that the state of "Palestine" exists that everything will be hunky-dory? Is he paying attention to northern Nigeria or to the southern Sudan? Does he think the Buddhists being massacred in Thailand are paying for the putative sins of Wolfowitz, or Abu Ghraib? What about the 2,300 churches that the Barnabus Fund records as the low estimate for the number of churches destroyed in 2003 alone, in Indonesia? Did that reflect dismay with G. W. Bush and American foreign policy? How about those Hindus being raped and killed in Bangladesh, or the Hindus and Christians in Pakistan, or those Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir, all by Muslim murderers? Again, disenchantment with John Ashcroft? Unhappiness with the Patriot Act?

What makes someone able to continue in office when he is so clearly idiotic, as Patten is, so willfully ignorant of what is happening all around him, so absurdly blind in his comments on the belief-system of Islam? How can he not be laughed at everywhere he goes? The only explanation is that the stupidity and hypocrisy are even worse than they were in the 1930s. For at the end of it all, the English and the French were prepared to fight. But Islam is now winning from within, slowly corrupting through the organs of the press and television, such as the BBC, and of the political class, such as the EU bureaucracy -- which contains only little Chamberlains and petits Daladiers, with nary a Churchill in sight.

I'm thinking of going into the real estate business, taking as my niche market those Europeans who wish to buy land in America as a hedge against that future when they will have to flee. We were lucky once, with all those physicists and art historians and nuclear scientists fleeing the Nazis. And lucky twice, with all those computer engineers and biochemists and mathematicians and artists fleeing the Communists. It looks as if we are going to get lucky (and Europe unlucky) again. Meanwhile, let's get that real estate company going. Anyone care to back me?

Malkin: Pussyfooting around Islam

Michelle Malkin (thanks to JE) discusses, in light of the Hinrichs case in Oklahoma, a phenomenon I have noted here and on many occasions at Jihad Watch:

Now, many of my readers wonder why the MSM won't touch the strange and troubling story of the University of Oklahoma bomber, Joel Henry Hinrichs III. On Oct. 1, Hinrichs died on a park bench outside the school's packed football stadium when a homemade bomb in his possession exploded. The Justice Department has sealed a search warrant in the case. The university's president, David Boren, is pooh-poohing local media and Internet blog reports of possible jihadist influences on Hinrichs. The dead bomber was, we are being told, simply a depressed and troubled young man with "no known ties" to terrorism.

Never mind that, according to local news reporters, the bomb-making material found in Hinrichs' apartment was triacetone triperoxide – the explosive chemical of choice of shoe bomber Richard Reid and the London 7-7 subway bombers.

Never mind the local police department's confirmation that Hinrichs had attempted to buy ammonium nitrate a few days before his death.

Never mind the concerns of Oklahoma University student journalist Rachael Kahne, who told me this week in a call for the media's help:

"I've been working on this story since the night it happened and have been stonewalled at every turn. ... Minutes after the explosion, police busted into a student's apartment and arrested four Muslim students who were there for a small gathering (the president of the Muslim Student Association assures me this was in no way a 'party').

"Among those arrested [and later released] was Fazal Cheema, Joel Henry Hinrichs' Pakistani roommate. I was baffled when I heard this. I didn't know how police would be able to identify who Hinrichs was, where he lived, who his roommate was, and then find where his roommate was in a matter of minutes. Something isn't adding up, and I've been wracking my brain for the past week trying to figure out what happened here. OU isn't saying anything more than the typical PR spin, and the FBI won't talk."

Nothing to see here. Move along. Islam is a peaceful religion. Stop asking so many damned questions.

Such is the attitude of the national media, which seems to believe that 'tis better to live in ignorance and indulge in hindsight later than to offend the gods of political correctness.

Holland fears killings over ban on burqa

Islamic peace and tolerance update from Holland, via the TimesOnline, with thanks to RB:

HOLLAND’S Muslims have responded with outrage to government proposals to ban the burqa, and there are fears that Rita Verdonk, the minister behind the move, will be added to a list of “enemies of Islam” targeted for assassination.

The country was on high alert yesterday after talk of a burqa ban coincided with the arrest of a group suspected of planning to murder two politicians....

One of those arrested was Samir Azzouz, a 19-year-old of Moroccan origin, who in April was acquitted of charges of planning to attack Amsterdam airport and blow up a nuclear reactor. A spokeswoman for Verdonk acknowledged concerns that other supporters of Van Gogh’s killer might have added her name to the hit list.

Al-Azhar Boycotts US Over Visa Denial

Much as it breaks my heart that Sheikh Tantawi, who has blessed suicide terrorism, has suspended cooperation between Al-Azhar and American institutions, I think in this case American officials should imitate Tantawi. That's right: imitate him. Instead of sending two billion a year to our putative Egyptian ally, make that aid contingent on Egypt's ceasing to teach violent jihad in its schools and mosques, and granting to Coptic Christians full equality of rights. And if they don't, suspend all cooperation.

From IslamOnline, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

CAIRO, October 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, has decided to shun American officials and freeze cooperation with all US institutions after Washington denied one of its senior officials an entry visa.

"Grand Imam Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi decided to ban US officials from entering the headquarter of Al Azhar Sheikhdom in Cairo suspended cooperation with official American institutions," well-placed sources told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, October 15.

"He also decided not to send Al-Azhar scholars to the US in the future even if Washington granted them entry," they added.

After weeks of procrastination, the US Embassy in Cairo refused to give Sheikh Abdul Hamid Al-Atrash, the head of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, an entry visa, giving no reasons.

Sheikh Tantawi had nominated the prominent scholar to give lectures and sermons at a number of American Islamic centers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The United States requested this year 22 imams and preachers to meet the religious needs of the Muslim minority during the dawn-to-dusk month.

Renewed Crisis

Although there was no immediate comment from the American embassy, sources expected American diplomats to apologize for Sheikh Tantawi and eventually give Al-Atrash the visa.

D.C. Watson: Hey, step off. Go build your own Internet!

D.C. Watson examines the UN's attempts to take over the Internet:

While the United States houses, and provides much of the funding for the United Nations' annual budget, that just doesn't seem to be enough.

The U.N., with many of its own problems, such as astonishing corruption, is now being touted by the European Union as a candidate to control the Internet.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19846

From the column:

Viviane Reding, European IT commissioner, says that if a multilateral approach cannot be agreed, countries such as China, Russia, Brazil and some Arab states could start operating their own versions of the internet and the ubiquity that has made it such a success will disappear.

Well then, why don't these countries go right ahead and build their own and see how they do?

And, you'll never guess who else likes the idea of the U.S. giving up control of the net:

The EU plan was applauded by states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, leading the former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt to express misgivings on his weblog: "It seems as if the European position has been hijacked by officials that have been driven by interests that should not be ours."

So let's see if we understand this. The United States created, funded, developed, and marketed the Internet, yet we’re "hijacking" it? Is there no end to the asinine statements these creatures will make? If that's the case, then I guess I hijacked my own lawnmower yesterday. I cut the grass with it and wouldn't let anyone else push it. The safety of the American people comes first. And since some of these bottom feeders have websites they use to recruit Muslim terrorists and possibly do some illegal Internet banking money transfers from Islamic charities, the United States needs to have its hands on the controls. What would these countries do if they had the control?

Would they attempt to rid the web of anything that is offensive to Muslims? That in itself would likely empty out the entire Internet. Would they attempt to cover up all of their future wrongdoings? Or would they work to monitor and then limit everyone's freedom of speech, for example, "Islamophobic" speech? Does anyone remember U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan's speech confronting "Islamophobia"? http://www.amperspective.com/html/annan_speech_text.html Confronting "Islamophobia"? That's comparable to confronting an iceberg floating in the lake of fire. This might be a good time to contact all State Representatives and Senators to let them know that handing over control of the Internet to that waste of space in New York they call the United Nations would be the dumbest thing they could do, and we all know how handy they are when it comes to doing dumb things. If these other countries want control of an Internet, they should go ahead and develop their own. In a world where wild-eyed Muslims are busy raping babies and swinging machetes at innocent people in Sudan, sawing off heads in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, developing nuclear weapons in Iran, sending foreign fighters into Iraq from Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia to fight Coalition forces, wearing suits, ties, and kufis in Washington, hiding behind the Qur'an as they attempt to guilt-trip Americans into coddling Islam, strapping bombs to themselves in Gaza, fighting for the implementation of Islamic law in Canada, making threats to cartoonists in Denmark, shooting and slicing up filmmakers in Holland, attacking schoolchildren in Russia, bombing subways in London, bombing trains in Madrid, flying planes into buildings, bombing nightclubs in Bali, preaching hate in mosques, threatening to attack the Vatican in Italy, and attempting to blackmail the world with oil, the Internet should never, ever be handed over to a corrupt organization that panders to Islam as does the United Nations.

CAIR on Path of Self Destruction

Bill Petersen at Faith Freedom (thanks to JE) recounts a particularly successful media appearance by my old friend Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR, relating to CAIR's successful intimidation campaign against Boeing:

For anyone that had the misfortune of witnessing the Tucker Carlson “interview” with CAIR mouthpiece Ibrahim Hooper on MSNBC Tuesday night, several things were readily apparent. To the uninformed, naïve middle-American, it should now be obvious not to expect any mercy from the proponents of the “most merciful Allah”. But to those of us burdened with greater insight into the Islamic hate machine, this exposition served as yet another reminder that CAIR’s vision of “American-Islamic Relations” amounts to nothing more than unconditional dhimmitude here in the USA. The CAIR-free days of years past are indeed a distant memory.

Carlson’s brief segment dealt with CAIR’s recent uproar over a recent Boeing print ad featuring their Osprey aircraft “attacking” a fictitious mosque. Pathetically, Boeing has apologized and retracted the ad in response to the deafening Muslim whining. Hooper’s unbridled arrogance in suggesting that Boeing must now investigate and find introspection regarding its motives had Carlson’s (and my) blood well beyond the boiling point. Over and over again, Carlson demanded that Hooper answer one simple question: What is the bigger crime, Boeing’s ad or the fact that Muslim insurgents are using mosques as military strongholds? Yet time after time, Hooper dodged, weaved and denied that any such practice exists, even in the face of hard evidence delivered by the increasingly agitated host. Class, you have just completed a crash course in “Islamic Deceit and Arrogance 101” delivered to your television in a bite-sized 5-minute package.

Read it all.

Russian Novelist Does 'Not Want to Live in a Moscow Caliphate'

The author of a novel entitled The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris, which may be closer to coming true than most people realize or would like to admit. "Window on Eurasia: Russian Novelist Does 'Not Want to Live in a Moscow Caliphate,'" from the UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, with thanks to Ruth King:

Elena Chudinova, the author of the already notorious dystopian novel "The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris," says that she would rather live in a Russia controlled and garrisoned by the Americans than in a Moscow where the Russian Federation's own Muslims have established a caliphate.

In an interview published in the current issue of "Politicheskiy zhurnal," Chudinova said that if Russia were occupied by the Americans – something which she does not like to contemplate -- she and other Russians "would again compose anecdotes, start up samizdat – and live just as we did under Soviet power" (http://religare.ru&print21594.htm) [Note: link doesn't seem to be working -- RS].

But if the Muslims were to succeed in establishing their own rule in Moscow, she continued, then Russian culture, Russians as a people and Russia itself would cease to exist. And because that danger is not unthinkable, she said, she had written her novel calling for a struggle against what she says is the Islamic threat to the Christian world....

The former children’s book writer insisted that recent events in Europe and elsewhere had proven once and for all that "a dialogue between our civilizations [Christian and Muslim] was impossible," and that all attempts to promote it, however well-intentioned, were doomed to complete and total failure....

Muslims, she insisted, even moderate ones like the Tatars and Bashkirs, increasingly are drawn to radicalism by the Internet, an institution that has undermined traditional Islam and give the radicals the chance to propagate their views and win over those Muslims who had opposed them.

She added that the Russian Empire had been much too tolerant of its Muslim subjects and had allowed them "freedom" of religious belief, a tragic mistake for which the Russian writer said contemporary Russians are now "paying for and one she implied should be corrected by a much harsher policy now against the country's Muslim citizens.

Russians as a cultural community must defend themselves, she insisted, by defending their culture and, together with other Christian nations, fighting off the Islamic challenge that threatens the Russian world and the Christian West.

Doing so will not be easy, Chudinova said, because only a relatively tiny share of Russians are in fact committed Orthodox Christians. But at the same time, she indicated that a committed minority could make all the difference, winning over the country's intellectuals and thus putting Muslims on the defensive.

At the end of her interview, Chudinova ringingly asserted that for her "only one thing is important: I read Dostoyevskiy and listen to Rachmaninov and I want people living fifty years from now [to do the same]. I speak Russian and I want them to speak it too," something she said that could be guaranteed only by struggling against Muslims now.

Muslims angered by Coptic play about Muslim oppression of Copts

Say Islam is a religion of peace, or we'll kill you. "The protesters have given the church a week to apologise and dismiss its priest." And what will happen if they don't? "Egypt Muslims protest 'offensive' play," from Al-Jazeera, with thanks to Susan:

About 3000 Muslims have protested angrily outside a Coptic Christian church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, charging that a drama that was presented in the church was offensive to Islam.

City authorities dispatched about 200 police to St Gergis church in the Muharram Bec neighbourhood in Alexandria on Friday to keep the demonstrators from entering and disrupting the play.

The production features a poor Christian university student who converts to Islam when a group of Muslim men promise him much-needed money.

When he becomes disenchanted with his decision, the men threaten him with physical violence to prevent him from returning to his original faith.

DVDs of the performance, entitled I Was Blind But Now I Can See, were being distributed by Coptic Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt's population of 70 million.

Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, a Muslim in Alexandria, said that he had watched a recording of the play and found it "offending".

The protesters have given the church a week to apologise and dismiss its priest, Aljazeera's correspondent in Egypt said.

Muslims 'must take on vile propaganda'

From Kathy Shaidle at Relapsed Catholic:

"The scholar said since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, one book against Islam is published every day".

Wow! Books! Every day, no less. Is one Muslim being killed every day by Christian or Buddhist terrorists? Are mosques being torched? Nope, but... books are being written!

Fitzgerald: Why "integration" won't work

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explains why government funding of mosques in France and other attempts to "integrate" the Islamic community there are ill-conceived:

Some French localities are funding the building of mosques, hoping to foster “integration.” But "integration" is not the answer. It is merely the last desperate attempt to avoid looking steadily at the tenets of Islam, the teachings of Islam, the history of Islam and of Muslim treatment, through time and space, over 1350 years, from Spain to East Asia, of non-Muslims.

This kind of "integration" (which Sarkozy apparently supports, and shows that despite his merits compared to what rules France now, he has his limits) merely delays the day of recognition. That grim anagnorosis had better not be a Shock of Recognition -- a recognition of what large numbers of Muslims necessarily means for Infidels and the Infidel nation-state -- at a time when it is too late. Projects of integration may sooth things over for a time, but in the end, the few Muslims who were likely to leave Islam will leave it, and meanwhile the French state will merely be spending money that, while it may relegate the more obviously sinister clerics to the sidelines, will never silence them. They will not be silenced because what they say is exactly what is contained in Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. The texts are on their side.

Look at Turkey, where for 80 years, under the systematic limits placed on Islam's political and social power, and where the text of every single khutba (sermon) is carefully composed by ministerial authorities to ensure that no dangerous allusions are made, nonetheless, Islam is back with a vengeance. Anti-Infidel attitudes are spreading rapidly, outside of a handful of completely secular Turks -- the very Turks whom Westerners meet as tourists, do business with, may socialize with, and who are completely unrepresentative of the always, and now increasingly fervent, Muslim masses.

And along with renting the temporary loyalties of this or that government-paid imam, other kinds of "integration" projects are apparently being undertaken -- prompted by the same desperate desire not to consider the real measures that will have to be undertaken if non-Muslims are to save themselves, their own culture, their own futures, from encroaching Islam. Language classes. Classes in how to pick up girls in a more engaging and less violent manner. Classes in this, classes in that. As long as Islam is somewhere there, there is always the possibility of a re-embrace of Islam with renewed fervor, triggered by something -- by all sorts of things that are not general but personal (loss of a job, a girlfriend, money, status, a depressive fit).

That is why all attempts to rely on "moderate" Muslims, as distinguished from the other kind, the "immoderate" Muslims, are silly. At least we all finally admit that "too much Islam" is a dangerous thing for Infidels -- that's one understanding that the last 4 years have achieved. First, because when applying the word "moderate" only to those whose views would not worry Infidels, one soon realizes that such a definition excludes all those Muslims who take Islam seriously outside of the Five Pillars of Faith (i.e., the rituals of individual worship) -- so full is Islam of the distinction between, and necessary and uncompromising hostility between, Believer and Unbeliever, Muslim and Infidel. The Muslims who would constitute such "moderates" are so few as to be nearly undetectable. Certainly they are powerless to do anything against the aggressive "immoderate" Muslims who have the texts, those canonical and immutable texts, on their side.

And if the "moderate" Muslim -- "moderate" defined as one who does not pose a danger to Infidels in his beliefs -- is examined further, it turns out that the mere presence of even "moderate" Muslims swells the numbers, and therefore the perceived power, of those "immoderate" Muslims who are hell-bent on changing Infidel societies, on forcing the Infidels to accept all sorts of things that the presence of large numbers of Muslims will make politicians heed more than they should. And even among this small group of supposed "moderate" Muslims, how will we know who is feigning, given the religiously-sanctioned lying (taqiyya and kitman) that Muslims have again and again shown they are willing to engage in? We must take into account their willingness to say what they really believe to audiences of fellow Muslims, and another, quite different thing to win over Infidels. This is now quite a problem, for Infidels have taken to recording those for-Muslims-only speeches and articles, translating them, and making them available; a week ago an Arab Muslim writer wrote about this very problem of being caught in one's own net -- more on this can be found at www.Memri.org.

Even "Muslims-for-identification-purposes-only" Muslims have, somewhere in the background, Islam as a possible alternative, something to be returned to if necessary. We Infidels cannot gauge who will, and who will not, likely in a political fit or a fit of ethnic pride ("Arabness"), or from emotional disarray, make that Return to Islam that, for Infidels, means danger.

What will “integration” efforts achieve? They will only allow those who better use the language to be able to slyly present, in the Tariq-Ramadan fashion, propaganda for Islam. It will only allow those who learn to pick up Infidel girls to find ones they can take advantage of, marry to ensure their permanent residence, and even make one more convert to Islam who will, as a breeder, be used to produce still more Muslims. How will all these attempts to help Muslims integrate undo Islam, do away with Islam? They won't. They will simply be like little KGB spy camps, designed to train agents to better infiltrate into the communities of unsuspecting locals. But the local Infidels will be paying to train those who will be infiltrating, and undoing, them.

Government-funded mosques are a bad idea. They are a stopgap measure that is dangerous if undertaken in lieu of other, much more serious undertakings, to permanently limit the presence, and power, of Islam in the lands whose laws, customs, music, art, manners, mores, were created entirely by Infidels who do not want, do not deserve, to be islamized over time. This is true even of those infidels who have been ignorant, and shown, and their elected leaders shown even more, a heedlessness, a negligence, a stupidity that goes beyond -- belief.

Police vow to crack whip on parties and illicit alcohol in Iran

As the Ayatollah Khomeini said, "An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam." Sharia Alert and Future-Of-Europe Update from Reuters, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

TEHERAN — Iran’s new police chief has vowed to crack down on illicit alcohol, music CDs and parties where people of the opposite sex mingle, months after promising a policy which would respect people’s privacy.

“The crackdown will be on corruption centres where mixed parties are held and gangs distribute alcohol and CDs,” ISNA student news agency yesterday quoted Ismail Ahmadi-Moqaddam as saying.

“Young Iranians are victims of moral corruption. We will strongly react against it,” he said.

Ahmadi-Moqaddam had promised when he took office in July an ethical and modern police force which would respect people’s privacy, countering fears he may roll back fragile social freedoms in the Islamic state.

He was appointed after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected, replacing moderate Mohammad Khatami’s eight-year presidency during which enforcement of social restrictions such as Islamic dress codes for women relaxed....

Indonesia: jihadists attack Catholics praying rosary

No, the jihadists weren't praying the rosary; the Catholics were. Islamic tolerance alert: "Islamic extremists attack Catholics reciting rosary," from AsiaNews, with thanks to Twostellas:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – A group composed of Islamic extremists attacked Catholics praying the rosary on 11 October and threatened to burn down the house they were gathered in. The assailants, who claimed to be part of the Islamic Defender Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI), invaded the house of one of the Catholic community belonging to the parish of Christ Salvator in western Jakarta.

The men forced the marian prayer to stop immediately, threatening to burn the place down. They forced all those present including the Ketua Lingkungan (informal parish leader - ed. note) to sign a declaration that they will not hold any more rosary gatherings in houses in the area.

Fitzgerald: A Starter Kit to deprogram a dhimmi

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers a way for dhimmis in America to break their intellectual chains:

A recent comment at Jihad Watch offered a new and surprising variant on mother-in-law jokes: the mother-in-law who, as leader of a local Christian group, has been so completely won over by the local imam as to become a veritable apologist for Islam and jihad. Indeed, the unwariness, the credulity, the gullibility of all sorts of unwary Infidels won over by past masters who use personal charm (that liquid-brown-eyed sincerity, that soft-voice of sweet reason, the whole Tariq-Ramadan shtick that has been trademarked in all countries) is disturbing. For this mother-in-law's unwillingness to look at the truth of Islam is a little like that of Mr. Podsnap, whose mind was made up, who simply put all disagreeables out of his mind.

Here are a few things to do if you have a mother-in-law in a similar predicament:

1. Buy her Robert Spencer's book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and get her to read some of it. Buy her Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq. Buy her a copy of Leaving Islam -- the testimonies of former Muslims. If she is receptive, there are many other worthy books, some of which are listed here.

2. Print out the essay by Ibn Warraq, from the Internet, on "Islam, Middle East and Fascism."

3. Insist that she look at printouts, from the Internet, on the words "taqiyya" and "kitman."

4. Print out from www.dhimmitude.org a few scholarly articles listing the many disabilities under which all non-Muslims suffered.

5. Print out as many of the quite varied testimonies of ex-Muslims, listed by country of origin, at www.apostatesofislam.com.

6. Print out some of the exchanges that Ali Sina has had with Muslims at www.faithfreedom.org. Print out as well many of the articles on such subjects as Muhammad as a Role Model, the Treatment of Women Under Islam, and so on.

7. Gather a digestible amount of material about the treatment of Christians, of Jews, of Zoroastrians, of Hindus, of Sikhs, of Confucians, under Muslim rule. Perhaps begin by noting that 60-70 million Hindus were murdered, over 250 years of Muslim (Mughal) rule -- that might get her attention.

8. Do not stop. Whoever gets to a particular brain first is likely to prevail -- whether it is that affable, plausible, smiling pleaser, with his falsehoods and fables, whom this mother-in-law was so entranced with, or you, armed with the truth. Remember: the truth does not naturally prevail, unless presented so as to overcome the understandable desire not to accept unpleasant truths, particularly if one is unfairly being assimilated to the vicious racists of yore. You have the evidence of each passing day on your side; he has only lies about the contents of Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. Make sure she understands the doctrine of naskh, or abrogation, the relevance of the Hadith, and many of the most important events in Muhammad's life. Start with his consummation, at age 52, of his marriage to the 9-year-old Aisha: that is something that usually gets the attention of Infidels, and which Muslims must splutter about but cannot explain away -- and remember that Khomeini's first act was to lower the marriageable age of girls in Iran to 9.

There may be no vaccine for the avian flu. But knowledge of what is contained in Qur'an, Hadith and Sira, and of what Islam means for art and science and individual freedom (not least for freedom of conscience -- does your mother-in-law know the punishment for apostasy from Islam?), and of the history of Muslim conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims, so consistent through time and space, is the best vaccine.

That vaccine is readily available. Hundreds of millions -- no, an endless number -- of doses are there for the asking. You should inoculate not only your mother-in-law, but as many others as you can, using the list above as a Starter Kit. You need to get to them first, before their minds are made up by some friendly talk at some Mosque Open House (pita bread and chicken, and baklava for dessert).

Successful long-term treatment requires not only an initial inoculation, but a series of booster shots along the way. Visits to Jihad Watch may help.

And as you grapple with a sinister twist on a celebrated civilizational problem (at least if Jack Benny, George Burns, and other famous philosophers are to be believed), you might find cheering the recording of Jack Buchanan, circa 1930, singing "And Her Mother Came Too."

Dutch cut unemployment benefits to women who wear burkas

Buried at the bottom of an article about a new trial (on new terrorism charges) for the jihadist murderer of Theo Van Gogh comes the interesting news that women who can't get jobs in Holland because they refuse to doff their burkas may now face cuts in unemployment benefits.

This is eminently sensible. The dole was created for those who cannot work because of disabilities or some other legitimate impediment, not for those who refuse to accept the mores of the society in which they live.

"New trial looms for Dutch killer," from the BBC, with thanks to Van Impe:

Meanwhile, Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has proposed a ban on the wearing of Muslim burkas - full-length veils covering the face - in certain public places, to prevent people avoiding identification.

Alarm about Islamist terror has increased in the Netherlands since the Van Gogh murder.

A Dutch MP who campaigned with him against radical Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, defended Mrs Verdonk's plans in a BBC interview.

She told the World Today programme that CCTV cameras, used to help track down terrorists, must continue to reveal suspects' faces.

The CCTV operators "need to see their faces and if you cover your face you cannot be identified".

She said the wearing of masks in the Netherlands was also prohibited except during festivals and under some special circumstances.

She said Muslim women were not obliged to wear the burka, and denied that some burka wearers would be confined to the home.

"We have to find a balance between civil liberties and security - and that debate is raging on in the Netherlands," she said.

Last year several Belgian towns, including Antwerp and Ghent, banned the wearing of the burka in public.

Utrecht benefit cuts

The authorities in the Dutch city of Utrecht have reduced unemployment benefit for women who say their refusal to remove their burkas is preventing them getting jobs.

The measure was prompted by the case of two burka-clad women who said they did not attend job interviews.

Utrecht city council spokeswoman Sylvia Borgman said the 600-euro (£400) per month benefit was initially being cut by 10% in such cases. Further cuts would come if unemployed women continued to wear burkas.

Danish paper that printed Muhammad drawings gets death threats, hires guards

Imagine if this were a Christian group or any other group: the outcry from the international press would be swift and shrill. But when Muslim groups issue death threats, it is just another day at the office. Islamic tolerance alert: "Cartoons have Muslims threatening newspaper," from the Copenhagen Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Death threats have forced daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten to hire security guards to protect its employees, after printing twelve cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.

The newspaper has been accused of deliberately provoking and insulting Muslims by publishing the cartoons. The newspaper urged cartoonists to send in drawings of the prophet, after an author complained that nobody dared to illustrate his book on Mohammed. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Mohammed.

Twelve illustrators heeded the newspaper's call, and sent in cartoons of the prophet, which were published in the newspaper earlier this month.

Muslim spokesmen demanded that Jyllands-Posten retracted the cartoons and apologised.

'We have taken a few necessary measures in the situation, as some people seem to have taken offence and are sending threats of different kinds,' the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Carsten Juste, told national broadcaster DR.

The same day as the newspaper published the cartoons, it received a threatening telephone call against 'one of the twelve illustrators', as the caller said. Shortly afterwards, police arrested a 17-year-old, who admitted to phoning in the threat.

Since then, journalists and editors alike have received threats by email and the telephone. The newspaper told its staff to remain alert, but then decided to hire security guards to protect its Copenhagen office.

Teaching jihadist propaganda in Los Angeles Public Schools

"Teacher Class on Mideast Stirs Doubt," from the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:

An upcoming course on the Middle East for public school teachers has gotten the attention of Jewish organizations for its allegedly unfair tilt toward a pro-Palestinian viewpoint.

Titled “Teaching About the Middle East,” the professional development course, which earns participants points toward salary increases, will be given Oct. 14, 15 and 17 at the Wilshire District headquarters of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the L.A. teachers union.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will send an observer to monitor the sessions. Spokeswomen for both the ADL and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said their organizations are looking into the matter, but withholding judgment.

The heightened scrutiny arises from the complaints of Paul Kujawsky, a teacher at Germain Street Elementary School in Chatsworth and past president of Democrats for Israel. A routine listing of the workshop caught his eye, and on Sept. 1, Kujawsky sent a formal, three-page letter, headed “Propaganda, Not Education” to Superintendent Roy Romer of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and UTLA President A.J. Duffy.

The letter listed two primary observations and allegations:

The course is funded by the Middle East Teacher Resource Project, an arm of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The Quaker organization has a long, honorable history of pacifism and aiding refugees (including this reporter’s parents), but is considered by many in the Jewish community as leaning consistently toward a pro-Palestinian perspective.

“Overall, the AFSC’s position is that the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is the result of European imperialism, not Arab or Muslim refusal to admit that the Jews have any historic or legal right to sovereignty,” wrote Kujawsky, who is undeniably and unapologetically pro-Israel....

In the opinion of Kujawsky, “The Quakers’ goal is to end the Israeli occupation, not to end the Arab war against Israel,” he said in an interview.

Shan Cretin, the Friends Committee regional director in Pasadena, objected to attempts to “politicize” either the teachers’ course or the Quakers’ position on the Middle East, which, she said, is to work toward a nonviolent resolution.

“This workshop grows out of our larger concerns for peace in the Middle East,” she said. “In the wake of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, we believe that students need to know more about Arab and Muslim culture, history and politics to become informed citizens. This is not a workshop focusing mainly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Cretin, who worked with Israelis and Palestinians on health care programs in the mid-90s, acknowledged that “many of our speakers have ties to Arab organizations, but given the topics that are to be the focus of the workshop, this does not seem so surprising.”

The course was deemed appropriate by Ronni Ephraim, LAUSD’s chief instructional officer for elementary schools. She readily provided documents on the course, and explained how it was approved by a three-person committee that included a Jewish member.

The course was proposed and put together by Linda Tubach, an LAUSD staffer in instructional support service who is active in UTLA.

Tubach’s involvement is one concern cited in Kujawsky’s letter. He submitted that Tubach serves on the advisory board of Cafe Intifada, whose Web site states that it raises funds for “cultural programs in Palestine, highlighting the current plight of the Palestinian people.”

Tubach said she was part of the now-inactive advisory board two years ago, when she was involved in a Cafe Intifada pen pal writing project involving American teachers and Palestinian students, but that she no longer had any connections with the organization.

She said that she proposed the course as “a basic survey of Middle Eastern culture, religion and government ... and it is our intention to have dialogues and discussions representing all points of view.”

Nevertheless, she became concerned enough about any real or perceived imbalance to ask Deanna Armbruster, who is leading the session on “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” to team up with an advocate of the Israeli viewpoint.

Armbruster is the executive director of American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahab Al-Salam, a community in central Israel, whose 350 Arab and Jewish adults and children live together, study in the same school and share civic responsibilities.

“I’m very passionate about understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of human experiences,” said Armbruster, and her book, “Tears in the Holy Land,” is based on this passion.

Armbruster, a volunteer with the Friends Committee’s Middle East Peace Education Program, said that the Quaker organization “strives for a better understanding of both the Palestinian and Israeli viewpoints, but it tends to delve more deeply into Palestinian issues and the problems they face” — especially in light of a widespread presumption that the Israeli side gets more favorable exposure, thanks to strong Jewish advocacy.

For his part, Kujawsky perceives a bias in the affiliation of some of the instructors, some of whom have ties to Palestinian organizations.

Among the workshop’s instructors is attorney Ban al-Wardi, who is president of the Los Angeles-Orange County Chapter of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. He will lead the session on “The U.S. and the Middle East: Before and After 9/11.”...

None of the assurances of balance and fairness have satisfied Kujawsky.

“This is not a question of Jew vs. Arab, it’s about truthfulness in teaching,” he said.

Indeed.

French dhimmitude: public money for mosques

France-Echos (thanks to Anthony) reports that the municipal council of La Rochelle in France is giving the tidy jizya sum of 266,000 euros for the construction of a new mosque.

I am quite certain that the good burghers of La Rochelle would think it the height of impropriety to inquire as to exactly what is to be taught in this new mosque about Islam's relationship with non-Muslims. Why, it would be positively rude to inquire as to whether those in the new mosque held to the same ideology as the London bombers of July 7. Like virtually every official in the Western world, those in La Rochelle simply assume that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the West accepts the parameters of Western pluralism and is committed to peaceful coexistence on a permanent basis.

Yet conclusive evidence of this has never been forthcoming.

First Iftar Dinner in the European Parliament

While Turkey indulges its fantasies of war with Europe, the Eurodhimmis do all they can to make them feel welcome. From Zaman.com, with thanks to Jen:

The European Parliament (EP) hosted an iftar dinner for the first time in its history. The “fast-breaking dinner for Ramadan” took place one week after the EU launched accession talks with Turkey; it was organized by the Belgian-Turkish Businessmen Association (BETIAD), the Intercultural Dialogue Platform (IDP) and the EP.

The iftar dinner hosted by EP members Cem Ozdemir, Claude Moraes, Dr. Georges Chatzimarkakis and German State Minister Armin Lachet was said to be the most crowded dinner organized in the EP.

Greek-origin Chatzimarkakis said, "Islam entered the EU with this iftar organization," also mentioned the tolerance of the Ottoman era in a positive way.

See Andrew Bostom's recent articles for more on the "tolerance of the Ottoman era." Chatzimarkakis dishonors his ancestors who fought and died for Greek independence from Ottoman tolerance.

UK: Christian group may seek ban on Qur'an

This was once attempted in India, as Sita Ram Goel recounts in his excellent book The Calcutta Quran Petition. It is noteworthy that Muslim groups sought a specific exemption for the Qur'an from these religious hatred laws: a tacit admission that they know very well what is in the book, despite their public insistence that it is full of peace and tolerance.

Much of this Guardian article (thanks to Tom) is taken up with establishing how the Christian group contemplating this move is a nutty fringe group. But that is really beside the point, and obscures the real issue: whether or not the Qur'an incites Muslims to violence against unbelievers. In a sane world, it wouldn't be nutty fringe groups bringing this up; it would be debated in Parliament -- and the U.S. Senate.

A Protestant evangelical pressure group has warned that it will try to use the government's racial and religious hatred law to prosecute bookshops selling the Qur'an for inciting religious hatred.

Christian Voice, a fringe fundamentalist group which first came to public prominence this year when it campaigned against the BBC's broadcasting of Jerry Springer The Opera, was among the evangelical organisations taking part in a 1,000-strong demonstration against the bill outside parliament yesterday as the House of Lords held a second reading debate on the measure.

Its director, Stephen Green, said the organisation would consider taking out prosecutions against shops selling the Islamic holy book. He told the Guardian: "If the Qur'an is not hate speech, I don't know what is. We will report staff who sell it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that unbelievers must be killed."

Dutch unveil the toughest face in Europe with a ban on the burka

This welcome bit of Dutch anti-dhimmitude will provoke howls from the multiculturalists, but they persistently fail to recognize that the burka is only the most visible symbol of a comprehensive system that would completely overturn and remake Dutch society -- and subjugate non-Muslims in Holland as second-class dhimmis. The pluralism upon which the proponents of the burka base their case in Europe is all in one direction. From the TimesOnline, with thanks to JJ:

THE Netherlands is likely to become the first country in Europe to ban the burka, under government proposals that would bring in some of the toughest curbs on Muslim clothing in the world.

The country’s hardline Integration Minister, Rita Verdonk, known as the Iron Lady for her series of tough anti-immigration measures, told Parliament that she was going to investigate where and when the burka should be banned. The burka, traditional clothing in some Islamic societies, covers a woman’s face and body, leaving only a strip of gauze for the eyes.

Mrs Verdonk gave warning that the “time of cosy tea-drinking” with Muslim groups had passed and that natives and immigrants should have the courage to be critical of each other. She recently cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.

The proposals are likely to win the support of Parliament because of the expected backing by right-wing parties. But they have caused outrage among Muslim and human rights groups, who say that the Government is pandering to the far Right.

No. The Government is trying to save Dutch society.

Turks irked, throng to buy anti-European, anti-US novel

Negotiations with the EU have scarcely begun and the Turks are already irked. They seem to be afraid they are going to be rejected (I hope they're right) and that they will eventually be embroiled in a victorious war with Britain and the US (I hope they're wrong). "Turks embrace novelist's war on EU," from the International Herald Tribune, with thanks to Omo:

ISTANBUL The year is 2010 and the European Union has rejected Turkey. Fascist governments have come to power in Germany, Austria and France and are inciting violence against resident Turks and Muslims. A vengeful Turkey joins forces with Russia and declares war against the EU. Turkish commandos besiege Berlin, obliterate Europe and take control of the Continent.

Some critics will be quick to dismiss "The Third World War," a new futuristic novel by a 30-year-old Turkish writer, Burak Turna, as the wild imaginings of a conspiracy theorist and literary shock jock - and in many ways it is.

But the novel, which dominates bookstore display windows in Istanbul, has sold more than 130,000 copies in just two months and is rising on best-seller lists across the country. As Turkey embarks on 10 years of tortuous talks to join the EU, Turkish observers say the novel's popularity reflects the growing wariness of Turks about a Europe that is increasingly wary of them.

"Turks are getting fed up with the EU's constant demands - and 'The Third World War' has tapped into that," said Sinan Ulgen, a Turkish commentator. He noted that the book's pithy, cinematographic style has helped it resonate with taxi drivers, government officials and housewives alike.

Turna is no fringe figure. His first novel, "Metal Firtina" ("Metal Storm"), became the fastest-selling book in the history of Turkey when it was published in December, a time of deep Turkish ambivalence about the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The book is a fictional account of a U.S. invasion of Turkey that provokes a Turkish agent to detonate a nuclear bomb in a park in Washington, leveling the capital. Overnight, the grungy former journalist and philosophy student became a chat-show celebrity, a cult figure among 20-somethings and an unofficial cultural barometer for his country.

Turna says Turks' fear of U.S. domination, reflected in the popularity of "Metal Storm," is being supplanted by a growing Turkish ambivalence about Europe - an ambivalence that has lurked in the Turkish soul since after World War I....

These days, he says, he spends a lot of time playing video games. His favorite? A game called the Rise of Nations in which countries compete for global domination. "I love to pretend that I'm China and to bomb Europe into the Stone Age," he says.

Cartoons have Muslims threatening newspaper

An update to this report. From The Copenhagen Post, with thanks to Fjordman and DP111:

Death threats have forced daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten to hire security guards to protect its employees, after printing twelve cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.

The newspaper has been accused of deliberately provoking and insulting Muslims by publishing the cartoons. The newspaper urged cartoonists to send in drawings of the prophet, after an author complained that nobody dared to illustrate his book on Mohammed. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Mohammed.

Twelve illustrators heeded the newspaper's call, and sent in cartoons of the prophet, which were published in the newspaper earlier this month.

Muslim spokesmen demanded that Jyllands-Posten retracted the cartoons and apologised.

'We have taken a few necessary measures in the situation, as some people seem to have taken offence and are sending threats of different kinds,' the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Carsten Juste, told national broadcaster DR.

The same day as the newspaper published the cartoons, it received a threatening telephone call against 'one of the twelve illustrators', as the caller said. Shortly afterwards, police arrested a 17-year-old, who admitted to phoning in the threat.

Since then, journalists and editors alike have received threats by email and the telephone. The newspaper told its staff to remain alert, but then decided to hire security guards to protect its Copenhagen office.

'Up until now, we have only had receptionists in the lobby. But we don't feel that they should sit down there by themselves, so we posted a guard there as well,' Juste said.

Muslim organisations, like the Islamic Religious Community, have demanded an apology, but Juste rejected the idea. He said the cartoons had been a journalistic project to find out how many cartoonists refrained from drawing the prophet out of fear.

'We live in a democracy,' he said. 'That's why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn't set any barriers on that sort of expression. This doesn't mean that we wish to insult any Muslims.'

Hopefully, Mr. Juste will stand by his committment and not capitulate to those who do not believe in democratic principles.

End of the vine

A glimpse of life under the Sharia from Iran: the demise of Iran's wine industry. Yes, you read that right: Iran's wine industry. From The Guardian, with thanks to Sir Percy:

The desolate vista resembles an archaeological ruin, or the shattered aftermath of a devastating military bombardment. Once-proud mud-brick homes are uninhabited and partially reduced to rubble. The streets, mere dirt tracks, are potholed and rutted. Identifiable signs of human activity are - for the most part - absent. And even among the dead in the local graveyard, many headstones, bearing elaborate carvings that hint at a long-gone affluence, are damaged or visibly uncared for.

But this is not a war zone. And the life that bustled here disappeared, not thousands of years ago, but within the last generation, shrivelled almost out of existence under the stern new order of Iran's Islamic revolution. This is Khollar, an isolated, once-thriving small town set in a valley amid the Zagros mountains. It stands - though only just - as a salutary example of a world disappeared, swept out of existence by an oceanic wave of political and social change.

Despite the aura of abandonment, around 250 people still live here, somehow squeezing an income from sources such as sheep farming. Before the revolution in 1979, there were several thousand. They were sustained by Iran's long-defunct wine industry.

A verdant landscape of grape plants dominating the surrounding hillsides was picked assiduously and its fruit loaded onto trucks to be transported to a refinery in Shiraz, about 40 miles away, where it was turned into wine. The refinery's Jewish owners sold their produce on the domestic market and abroad, where it gained an international reputation.

"Ten to 20 trucks a day would come in seven days a week during the summer months. It was a very busy town," said Ravanbakhsh Vaseghi, 37, whose father and grandfather earned their living selling grapes to the Shiraz wine merchants. "Before the revolution, I remember friends coming back from Dubai with a bottle of wine. The label was marked 'Khollar, Shiraz, Iran.' Red and white wines were produced from here. It was part of life. The change was sudden."

It was wrought by the revolution, with its strict injunctions against alcohol. The Shiraz refinery was closed. Where it once stood, a sports centre is now being built for employees of the local telecommunications company. The lorries that had guaranteed Khollar a basic level of prosperity stopped coming when the refinery shut. Gradually, the population drifted away in search of new livelihoods....

Ever resourceful and independent of mind, Khollar's few remaining denizens have nonetheless found a way to continue their proud tradition. They do so by pouring freshly squeezed grape juice into clay pots, which are then placed in freshly dug ditches before being covered with sheep droppings to aid fermentation and, coincidentally, escape the eyes of any law enforcement authorities who might have occasion to visit. If they ever do, their detection skills might not stretch to unearthing the illicit alcohol. But they may observe that, shorn of its previous inhabitants and cut off from its time-honoured source of income, Khollar lacks something generally deemed essential in contemporary Iran - a proper mosque.

Read it all.

Racist Road Show

Alyssa A. Lappen at FrontPage exposes yet another shameful case of Christian dhimmitude: Naim Ateek's anti-Israel road show. (Many useful links in the original.)

Autumn tours of North America may become an annual ritual for rabidly anti-Israel Naim Ateek, the founder and director of the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Following an October 2004 “exclusive” Canadian speaking tour, Ateek this month is attacking Israel in a series of U.S. church conferences before heading to a World Council of Churches gathering in Toronto, Canada.

This year's anti-Israel barrage began in Chicago on October 7 and 8 at Hyde Park's Lutheran School of Theology, where several Sabeel proponents held that the time for a two-state solution has past. Besides for that, Sabeel and Ateek are champions of a broad Israel-divestment campaign and advocates of replacement theology. Indeed, their work parallels that of other fraudulent peace groups, which also ultimately seek Israel's dissolution.

While Sabeel in April 2004 ostensibly called for two states—Israel and Palestine—the group at the same conference contended that “the ideal and best solution has always been to envisage ultimately a bi-national state in Palestine-Israel where people are free and equal, living under a constitutional democracy that protects and guarantees all their rights, responsibilities, and duties without racism or discrimination - one state for two nations and three religions.”

The same two-faced pattern applied in Chicago, where Ateek described Sabeel as a non-violent organization seeking a Palestinian state alongside Israel—but then disparaged Christian Zionists. “We believe the Bible has been used as an instrument of oppression,” he said. Next, Harvard-educated Palestinian Authority legal adviser Michael Tarazi openly contended that a two-state solution will no longer work. Many others agreed.

In short, Ateek and Sabeel believe that while 22 Arab and 57 Muslim nations have unceremoniously expelled or excluded Jews and discriminated harshly against Christians, the Jewish people should not have a Jewish state in Israel, even one that gives full citizenship and rights to Christians and some 1 million mostly Muslim Arabs.

Tarazi went on to describe Israel's separation barrier as a consequence of Israeli greed for more land, but failed to note that ceaseless terrorism and suicide attacks made the fence necessary, much less that the barrier has saved countless lives. Tarazi encouraged the crowd to support “morally responsible divestment” as the “only way to hold Israel accountable.”

He described Israel's Gaza withdrawal as a “meaningless concession,” calling that territory as “the largest open air prison in the world.” He termed Israeli policies as “ethnic cleansing.” He also derided the offer of land at Camp David in 2000: “Isn't it weird that they never showed you a map,” he asked rhetorically, ignoring the clear outlines of a map offered for a Palestinian state, according to negotiator Dennis Ross.

Also in Chicago on October 7, International Solidarity Movement co-founder George Rishmawi claimed that Israel uses special gas to impair the musculature of Palestinians, making them easier to arrest, according to StandWithUs activists and Evangelical Lutheran Dexter Van Zile, a United Church of Christ (UCC) member and Executive Director of the Judeo Christian Alliance, who attended the two-day meeting. When asked the name of the gas, Rishmawi skirted the issue, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces always quickly collect gas canisters so that no one will know what chemical is used. Rishmawi is well-known for his espousal of Christian jihad ideology, disseminated through both the ISM and the Rapprochement Center.

Rishmawi's patently false charge (which nevertheless went unchallenged) parallels several other blood libels against Israel, including a 1983 incident in which Palestinian doctors falsely alleged that Israel had poisoned students en masse at several girls' schools. As Professor Raphael Israeli carefully shows in Poison, that case was conclusively proven to be one of mass hysteria—although the international mainstream media never corrected the record.

Sabeel's Chicago speakers included several other well-known Israel bashers too. According to both the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Abunimah, Ali Abunimah, a Sabeel board member, the co-founder of Electronic Intifada and vice president of the Arab-American Action Network, spearheaded a successful effort to have Investigative Project Director Steven Emerson banned from National Public Radio. In Chicago on October 7, Abunimah said “You cannot make a case for what Israel is doing because Israel will always lose the argument. So there is no discussion and the struggle will continue.”

Abunimah simply does not accept Israel's right to statehood, much less the equal rights of Jews. “Ending the occupation does not solve the problem,” he said. “The Jews do not view all human beings as equal. The 1948 borders were calculated to harm Christians, Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims.”

Tel Aviv University Professor Yigal Bronner describes himself as a “conscientious objector who sat in military prison last year for refusing to serve in the occupied territories” and contributed to Alexander Cockburn's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic Politics of Anti-Semitism. He too predictably disparaged Israel, showing the perfunctory anti-Israel images, including photos of Palestinians crossing through security checkpoints.

Among the church, Jewish and African American organizations present were Churches for Middle East Peace, American Friends Service Committee, Tikkun, the Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Wheat Ridge Ministries, August Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, International Solidarity Movement, Peace Not Walls, the Committee for Peace and Justice in Palestine, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Americans for Middle East Understanding, American Educational Trust, Jews for Peace in Palestine and Black Voices for Peace.

According to the NGO Monitor, reliable funding information is unavailable for Sabeel, “but support is apparently provided by church-based groups in North America and Europe, including the Mennonite Central Committee.” Indeed, the Friends of Sabeel North America reported in its August newsletter that “Gifts and pledges from $500, $1,000, $2,500, $5000 and more are providing the funding needed for years to come.” Donations are taxpayer-supported in the U.S. The North American FOS has a Canadian, unit; the group also has Australian, U.K., Scandanavian and International branches.

The extent of Sabeel's U.S. and international support should concern Christians and Jews alike. In addition to seeking an end to Israel, the organization mourns the “loss” of master terrorist Yasser Arafat and excuses suicide bombing: While easy to “quickly and forthrightly condemn it as a primitive and barbaric form of terrorism against civilians,” Ateek wrote in the summer of 2002, people of conscience must understand that “the phenomenon of suicide bombings ...arises from the deep misery and torment of many Palestinians.” He blames the phenomenon entirely on Israel's “illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.” But now, according to Abunimah, discussing the occupation is no longer an Arab cause. In other words, Arabs will understandably continue suicide bombings in Israel until they take the entire land.

Sabeel's position on suicide bombing fails to explain its frequent occurrence in Iraq, much less in Britain, Indonesia, Turkey or elsewhere. Then again, not only is Sabeel opposed to the war against terrorism in Iraq, but the organization actually argues that the “extremist elements in the governments of Israel and the United States,” are “presently seeking to impose their unilateral preemptive strategies and militaristic rule over others, including Palestine and Iraq.” Forget Saddam Hussein. Israel, according to this view, is partly responsible for the conflict. Furthermore, in Chicago, Sabeel speakers blamed the attacks on September 11 2001 on Israel's “intransigence” concerning the establishment of a Palestinian state. “When the next 911 happens look to Israel for the cause,” said Tazari, a point with which several others concurred.

At times, the out-and-out Jew-hatred advanced in Chicago even came from Jews themselves. Baylor University professor of American and Jewish Studies Marc Ellis, for example, gave a power-point presentation featuring photographs of a Torah scroll superimposed with pictures of Israeli tanks and helicopters and Palestinians climbing over Israel's security barrier. “He delegitimized everything Jewish,” says Allyson Rowen Taylor, a western region American Jewish Congress Associate Director who attended. “He said that now, when he reads the Torah to his son, he is afraid. When he sees the Torah taken from the Arc [in a Jewish sanctuary], he is afraid, and he has taught his son to feel the same way. He is basically indoctrinating every Christian at Baylor” to accept classic anti-Semitic portrayals of Jews.

Citing Richard Rubenstein's landmark book, After Auschwitz,—which brought laughter from the audience of 200—Ellis rhetorically asked, “What can Jews say about the covenant after Auschwitz” and then sarcastically answered his own question. “It's broken. There is a necessity for Jews to have power, ... and Israel is an embodiment of that power. No one can ever tell Jews how to have power. They dictate.” As Ellis sees things, Israel's victory in the Six Day War was sinful since the Jewish state's weaponry was superior to that of its enemies—even though they hoped to consign Israel's Jewish population to another Holocaust. Now, he says, in reference to the 613 good deeds required by Jewish law, the “614th commandment” is that “Jews cannot let Hitler win.” He sees Jews in Hitler's role.

Not everyone in the mainstream North American church establishments is happy with these positions. The National Council of Churches hailed as a success its September trip to Israel with of a delegation from American Jewish communities. The groups' visit to Sabeel's Ateek left some UCC members cold, however. The UCC Truths website cites a September Anti-Defamation League report that lays responsibility for the divestment campaigns of “a few mainline churches” including UCC at Sabeel's door. “Unfortunately, the story many in the UCC hear about Ateek and the Sabeel Center is incomplete and ignores [their] anti-Semitism....” The website also bemoans UCC sponsorship of this year's conference in Canada.

Ateek told the September conferees that Israel should have been founded in Munich, Germany after World War Two and not the Holy Land. When challenged concerning his replacement theology, Ateek effectively suggested that Christians have a right to tell their own story, the Jewish people be damned.

But these Palestinian Christians—who behave with the classic dhimmitude of victims of Muslim aggression—go far beyond telling the “Christian” story, says UCC member Dexter Van Zile. “Look, the deicide imagery has been taboo since the Holocaust,” he says. “Ateek is not just telling the Palestinian story. He's telling the Israeli story as well, and if he is truly interested in peace he would never use that language. He would know that that language is deeply troubling to Jews and many many Christians.”

Dawa in Canada

Here is a curious article from the Arab News. A Hindu from birth, but "guided" into Islam while working in Saudi Arabia, Canadian resident Mr. Kapoor realizes dawa opportunities following the September 11th terror attacks.

On the cold, winter night of Dec. 31, 2001, two average-looking Muslims, armed with nothing more than the love of the Prophet Muhammad and Islam, were braving temperatures of minus 16 degrees Celsius on the streets of Toronto. Amid the ringing bells ushering in the New Year, the two men distributed free English translations of the Holy Qur’an among those celebrating the holiday. Little more than three months after the tragedy of Sept. 11, the gesture in an important North American city was courageous to say the least.

One of those courageous Muslims was Suhail Kapoor. He had been in the country only two years, having emigrated from Saudi Arabia in 1999 where he spent nearly 21 years — first as an economic researcher for the Arabic business daily, Al-Eqtisadiah, and then as Western Region sales manager of UPS.

Currently on a monthlong visit to Saudi Arabia, Kapoor recalls that night with pride. “Sept. 11 had spawned all kinds of attacks on Islam and Muslims. New Year’s Eve celebrations provided us with the best platform to distribute copies of the Qur’an. There was a hunger among the revelers to know more about the Holy Book; they scrambled for it. In about two hours we ran out of the 800 copies we had brought to distribute, proving that inter-faith dialogue remains the best option.”

While the Arab News article refers to September 11th as a tragedy, Mr. Kapoor bristled in its aftermath with the idea of an opportunity to promulgate Islam. His concern over spurious "counter-attacks" against Muslims betrays his lack of empathy for the three thousand who were ruthlessly murdered. His misinterpetation of the "hunger amongst the revelers to know more about the Holy Book" is an indication of his single-minded fanaticism. Could it possibly be that those who "scrambled" for free copies of the Qur'an wanted to understand the mindset of the perpetrators of this horrible crime?

He continues to be a man with a mission. “Ever since I have been in Canada, I’ve engaged in dawa (propagation) activities. I visit jails, meet prisoners and tell them about the message of Islam. Normally I go to every little place where I see an opportunity to promote Islam. I have to make sure that the light of peace which was shown to me is shown to others as well. I will stop an airhostess, a rickshaw puller, a doctor, an uncle, a neighbor or a policeman. I leave no one out. If somebody who is a non-Muslim is in contact with me, he will get the message of Islam.”

Kapoor says Islam is a good tonic for the ills of society. “In Western society, where the outside forces are so huge, our gullible youth can become easy prey. The Qur’an Academy provides a place for these youngsters to come together and interact and to connect with the community.” His son, Yousef, has enrolled himself in the academy. The eighth-grader soon will become a hafiz (one who has learned the Qur’an by heart).

“We also provide the government-approved academic education at the academy,” Kapoor said. “Otherwise you will produce a stereotypical Muslim who has no clue about the science of the world. In a country that is so far ahead, you have to have both ‘deen’ (religion) and ‘duniya’ (world).”

Kapoor is looking for resources. He knows people in Saudi Arabia are generous and hopes to move forward with his mission. “Since the academy’s operation is expanding, we are looking to move into bigger premises, and this will need money. We also need donors who can sponsor children at the academy. A scarcity of funds is hampering our activities. We are unable to carry out our commitment in the fullest sense of the word.”

Kapoor also needs free copies of the Holy Qur’an, from 10,000-15,000 copies. Of that number, 10,000 should be in English; the rest can be in French, Tagalog, Chinese or Italian.

Rest assured Mr. Kapoor. The Saudi funds are on the way.

History will not judge us kindly if we fail to treat Turkey with respect

The Foreign Policy Centre has published a pamphlet entitled, Turks in Europe: Why are we afraid? The paper's stated goal is that European multi-culturalism demands acceptance of Turkey into the EU. From EurActiv:

The prospect of Turkey’s entry into the European Union has triggered a remarkable outburst of fear and anxiety in some European member states. In France, many voters that rejected the constitutional treaty in France cited Turkey’s prospective membership as one of the reasons.

This is awkward for Britain, which has taken a strategic lead in ushering Turkey into the EU. British diplomats are working desperately behind the scenes to ensure that the British Presidency is not overshadowed by the collapse of the accession talks. While EU member states agreed last December for the first round of negotiations to go ahead, the rejection of the constitutional treaty gave fresh impetus to those who had nursed the deepest reservations about this historic step in the development of the EU.

In France, Dominique de Villepin has already demanded that an extra hurdle be placed in Turkey’s way, calling upon the Turks to recognise the present Republic of Cyprus before the talks can resume. Similarly, Angela Merkel, has made opposition to Turkey’s membership her flagship foreign policy during the election campaign. Turkey, she argues, should enjoy a ‘privileged partnership’ with the EU – a euphemism for second-class status – a proposal that has backing in other, smaller member states such as Austria.

Despite this strong opposition, it is still likely that – as so often in the deliberations of the EU – a face-saving diplomatic fudge will be negotiated behind the scenes. A probable compromise will be that enlargement criteria generally will be toughened, without singling Turkey out. Thus, the issue will be kept at bay, without the explicit rejection of Turkey’s membership. It is not difficult to imagine how potentially damaging and perhaps disastrous such diplomatic gamesmanship could be when reported in the Turkish media.

It is lazy to write this off as another EU fiasco. The real problem lies in the fear that the governments of certain member states have of their own publics. It cannot be argued often enough, or forcefully enough, that it is in our collective economic, geo-political and strategic interest to bring our key ally in the Muslim world into the EU. European politicians are rightly sceptical of the American inclination to see a ‘clash of civilisations’ in the 21st Century. At the same time, in the wake of 9/11, the Madrid bombings and the attacks on London, we cannot hide from the problem of militant Islam and its appeal to young Muslims living in the West. Here is a supremely important opportunity to welcome a secularised Muslim state into the family of European nations.

But hope will not win over fear unless we understand what makes Europeans frightened of Turkey’s membership. We have to grasp why so many are so afraid, and the role that labour market crowding and supposedly ‘insurmountable’ cultural differences play in nurturing these anxieties.

As Sarah Schaefer argues in this pamphlet, some countries such as Germany that have large Turkish populations fear further migration because they have not yet come to terms with the post-war influx of Turks. Rather than integrating migrants into German society, successive German governments have pursued the opposite policy. The result has been the emergence of so-called ‘parallel societies’ where Turks and Germans live alongside each other, often without subscribing to the same set of basic values and even without speaking the same language.

There is European multi-culturalism in action. No problem. Future European governments will figure out a way to hammer that square peg into the round hole.

Many Turks living in Germany are economically disadvantaged, with unemployment biting particularly hard among the younger generation. In a country that is suffering from soaring joblessness, anxiety about further immigration is inevitable.

But millions of Turks already live in Germany and their alienation from mainstream German society cannot continue if that country wants to preserve a civilised level of social cohesion. Citizenship classes and a fresh focus on German language lessons have a part to play in drawing in the younger generation and ensuring that they feel a sense of belonging. This should be all about empowerment, rather than indoctrination. Common citizenship brings freedom as well as responsibility.

That said, integration is a two-way street, which is one of many reasons why Turkish membership of the EU is about much more than trade and defence. Accession would send a powerful signal not only to Turkey itself, but to those of Turkish extraction already living in Europe; it would be a dramatic step forward in the history of European multi-culturalism and in the more urgent efforts, post-9/11, to find ways of ensuring that Muslims and non-Muslims can live side by side. In the long term, Turkish membership might encourage the emergence of a truly modern, European version of Islam: that is a form of Muslim living that also incorporates a basic set of European values, women’s equality and human rights.

This paper can be read in full at The Foreign Policy Centre's website.

Bridging the cultural divide

An Islamic Television update. From the Arab News:

Muslims should create, develop and make use of the media properly and reasonably, according to S.G.P. Jafry, president of Jafry Communications of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

“The system of messengers is a long-established and well-known tradition. The media is a powerful messenger, and Muslims must earn to use it effectively, especially post-Sept. 11,” Jafry told Arab News yesterday.

He explained that Sept. 11 had opened up more opportunities for the Muslim media. “It has created an environment for the reception of ideas. Questions are being asked, which must be answered in a studied and reasoned manner.”

Jafry said that in the present environment, it was the duty of Muslims to use the media to build bridges of understanding. “The media should concentrate on explaining what Islam really is. For example, when we say that we believe in all the Prophets, it breaks the ice, and helps to remove several mental blocks, and clear some ignorance and misunderstandings,” he added.

Speaking of his company, Jafry explained: “We are a national broadcaster presenting three TV programs — two on cable in Toronto, London (Ontario) and Ottawa and one national all over Canada using CTS — Christian Television Station and Vision TV Network. We are pioneers of Indo-Pak entertainment, having begun in 1969, mainly presenting radio programs. In 1978, we began television programs.”

Jafry Communications also supplies Islamic TV programs to Bridges TV in the United States. “Keys to the Qur’an,” which is prepared from material provided by the Saudi government, is on TV three times a day. Another program, “Calls of the Minaret,” is featured twice a week.

Jafry pointed out that Islam is a full set of rules for mankind’s benefit. He said that the Holy Qur’an speaks of two kinds of duties — duties toward the Creator and duties toward man or society, with a major emphasis on the latter.

“The problem is that we do not give enough attention to our duties toward man. Post-Sept. 11 this has become important and we must explain and show how much importance Islam attaches to the betterment of, and service to, mankind. We have begun producing information, such as the rights of neighbors (including non-Muslims), duties toward parents, looking after the community (which includes non-Muslims) honesty in dealings, why four wives, and so on,” Jafry said.

“In other words, we try to explain to Muslims and non-Muslims what Islam is."

Terrorism Rooted in British Prejudice

An earlier article reports the Church of England suggesting that Christian leaders should apologize to Muslim leaders for the war in Iraq. This report from the Agape Press now has the Church of England suggesting that all Christians should apologize to Muslims for the U.S.-British invasion.

The five Anglican bishops suggested that Christians should apologize to Muslims for the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq and the subsequent overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein. The report -- entitled "Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post 9/11" -- includes a 13-point schedule of "Christian principles" in response to the threat of terrorism, in which the writers call for states to "understand" the perspective of their terrorist antagonists. The September 19 report also alleges that U.S. evangelical Christians promoted and facilitated the war in Iraq because of their purported belief that the United States has a manifest destiny for military conquest.

Mark Tooley with the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy does not give the report much credibility. Tooley says Church of England bishops often rely on stereotypes of U.S. Evangelicals rooted in British prejudice rather than genuine reality.

"The Church of England, of course, is very much a declining institution dominated by liberal theology," Tooley notes, "and I think these bishops -- as do probably many bishops of that institution -- don't even know much about Evangelicals, much less [are] able to comment about Evangelicals across the ocean."

The conspiracy theories laid out in the bishops' report, says the IRD spokesman, are spurious, yet also very revealing about those making the allegations. He believes the Anglican bishops are trying to deflect attention away from their own problems.

"Only a small percentage of British people go to church, and a smaller percentage of that even are Anglican," he points out. "More of the churchgoers in England now are either Catholic or evangelical. So I would surmise that at least subconsciously there may be some resentment and jealousy from the bishops of the Church of England, or least the bishops who wrote this report."

Bostom: Turkey: From Failed Reforms to a Modern Jihad Genocide

Andrew Bostom, editor of the magnificent and essential Legacy of Jihad, here concludes his superb series on Turkey. Part one is here and part two is here. From the American Thinker:

Turkey’s ardent desire to enter the European Union may be fulfilled in the near future. As Europe grapples with the prospect of admitting an Islamic nation with a fast-growing population into the borderless would-be superstate, the claim is being made that Turkey’s history is one of relative tolerance. Europeans are instructed not to worry. This is the third in a three-part series examining the history of Turkey’s “tolerant” version of Islam. Part 1 may be found here, and Part 2 here.

Why did the Tanzimat reforms, designed to abrogate the Ottoman version of the system of dhimmitude, need to be imposed by European powers through treaties, as so-called “capitulations” following Ottoman military defeats, and why even then, were these reforms never implemented in any meaningful way from 1839, until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I ?

Edouard Engelhardt [53] made these observations from his detailed analysis of the Tanzimat period, noting that a quarter century after the Crimean War (1853-56), and the second iteration of Tanzimat reforms, the same problems persisted:

Muslim society has not yet broken with the prejudices which make the conquered peoples subordinate…the raya [dhimmis] remain inferior to the Osmanlis; in fact he is not rehabilitated; the fanaticism of the early days has not relented…[even liberal Muslims rejected]…civil and political equality, that is to say, the assimilation of the conquered with the conquerors.

A systematic examination of the condition of the Christian rayas was conducted in the 1860s by British consuls stationed throughout the Ottoman Empire, yielding extensive primary source documentary evidence. [54]. Britain was then Turkey's most powerful ally, and it was in her strategic interest to see that oppression of the Christians was eliminated, to prevent direct, aggressive Russian or Austrian intervention. On July 22, 1860, Consul James Zohrab sent a lengthy report from Sarajevo to his ambassador in Constantinople, Sir Henry Bulwer, analyzing the administration of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, again, following the 1856 Tanzimat reforms. Referring to the reform efforts, Zohrab states: [55]

The Hatti-humayoun, I can safely say, practically remains a dead letter…while [this] does not extend to permitting the Christians to be treated as they formerly were treated, is so far unbearable and unjust in that it permits the Mussulmans to despoil them with heavy exactions. False imprisonments (imprisonment under false accusation) are of daily occurence. A Christian has but a small chance of exculpating himself when his opponent is a Mussulman (...) Christian evidence, as a rule, is still refused (...) Christians are now permitted to possess real property, but the obstacles which they meet with when they attempt to acquire it are so many and vexatious that very few have as yet dared to brave them…Such being, generally speaking, the course pursued by the Government towards the Christians in the capital (Sarajevo) of the province where the Consular Agents of the different Powers reside and can exercise some degree of control, it may easily be guessed to what extend the Christians, in the remoter districts, suffer who are governed by Mudirs (governors) generally fanatical and unacquainted with the (new reforms of the) law..

In his comprehensive study of 19th century Palestinian Jewry under Ottoman rule Tudor Parfitt made these germane observations: [56]

Inside the towns, Jews and other dhimmis were frequently attacked, wounded, and even killed by local Muslims and Turkish soldiers. Such attacks were frequently for trivial reasons: Wilson [in British Foreign Office correspondence] recalled having met a Jew who had been badly wounded by a Turkish soldier for not having instantly dismounted when ordered to give up his donkey to a soldier of the Sultan. Many Jews were killed for less. On occasion the authorities attempted to get some form of redress but this was by no means always the case: the Turkish authorities themselves were sometimes responsible for beating Jews to death for some unproven charge. After one such occasion [British Consul] Young remarked: ‘I must say I am sorry and surprised that the Governor could have acted so savage a part- for certainly what I have seen of him I should have thought him superior to such wanton inhumanity- but it was a Jew- without friends or protection- it serves to show well that it is not without reason that the poor Jew, even in the nineteenth century, lives from day to day in terror of his life’. …In fact, it took some time [i.e., at least a decade after the 1839 reforms] before these courts did accept dhimmi testimony in Palestine. The fact that Jews were represented on the meclis [provincial legal council] did not contribute a great deal to the amelioration of the legal position of the Jews: the Jewish representatives were tolerated grudgingly and were humiliated and intimidated to the point that they were afraid to offer any opposition to the Muslim representatives. In addition the constitution of the meclis was in no sense fairly representative of the population. In Jerusalem in the 1870s the meclis consisted of four Muslims, three Christians and only one Jew- at a time when Jews constituted over half the population of the city…Some years after the promulgation of the hatt-i-serif [Tanzimat reform edicts] Binyamin [in an eyewitness account from Eight Years in Asia and Africa from 1846 to 1855, p.44] was still able to write of the Jews- “they are entirely destitute of every legal protection”…Perhaps even more to the point, the courts were biased against the Jews and even when a case was heard in a properly assembled court where dhimmi testimony was admissible the court would still almost invariably rule against the Jews. It should be noted that a non-dhimmi [eg., foreign] Jew was still not permitted to appear and witness in either the mahkama [specific Muslim council] or the meclis.

The modern Ottomanist Roderick Davison acknowledges that the reforms failed, and offers an explanation based on Islamic beliefs intrinsic to the system of dhimmitude: [57]

No genuine equality was ever attained…there remained among the Turks an intense Muslim feeling which could sometimes burst into an open fanaticism…More important than the possibility of fanatic outbursts, however, was the innate attitude of superiority which the Muslim Turk possessed. Islam was for him the true religion. Christianity was only a partial revelation of the truth, which Muhammad finally revealed in full; therefore Christians were not equal to Muslims in possession of truth. Islam was not only a way of worship, it was a way of life as well. It prescribed man’s relations to man, as well as to God, and was the basis for society, for law, and for government. Christians were therefore inevitably considered second-class citizens in the light of religious revelation—as well as by reason of the plain fact that they had been conquered by the Ottomans. This whole Muslim outlook was often summed up in the common term gavur (or kafir), which means ‘unbeliever’ or ‘infidel’, with emotional and quite uncomplimentary overtones. To associate closely or on terms of equality with the gavur was dubious at best. “Familiar association with heathens and infidels is forbidden to the people of Islam,” said Asim, an early nineteenth-century historian, “and friendly and intimate intercourse between two parties that are one to another as darkness and light is far from desirable”…The mere idea of equality, especially the anti-defamation clause of 1856, offended the Turks’ inherent sense of the rightness of things. “Now we can’t call a gavur a gavur”, it was said, sometimes bitterly, sometimes in matter-of-fact explanation that under the new dispensation the plain truth could no longer be spoken openly. Could reforms be acceptable which forbade calling a spade a spade?...The Turkish mind, conditioned by centuries of Muslim and Ottoman dominance, was not yet ready to accept any absolute equality…Ottoman equality was not attained in the Tanzimat period [i.e., mid to late 19th century, 1839-1876], nor yet after the Young Turk revolution of 1908…

Indeed, an influential member of the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress, Sheik Abd-ul-Hack, a “progressive” Young Turk, made this revealing declaration writing in a Parisian Muslim review, (Le Mecherouttiete, edited by Sherif Pasha, Paris), in August, 1912: [58]

Yes! The Musulman religion is in open hostility to all your world of progress. Understand, you European observers, that a Christian, whatever his position may be, by the mere fact of his being a Christian is regarded by us as a blind man lost to all sense of human dignity. Our reasoning with regard to him is as simple as it is definitive. We say: the man whose judgment is so perverted as to deny the existence of a one and only God, and to make up gods of different sorts, can only be the meanest expression of human degradation; to speak to him would be a humiliation for our intelligence and an insult to the grandeur of the Master of the Universe. The presence of such miscreants among us is the bane of our existence; their doctrine is a direct insult to the purity of our faith; contact with them is a defilement of our bodies; any relation with them a torture to our souls. Though detesting you, we have condescended to study your political institutions and your military organization. Over and above the new weapons that Providence procures for us through your agency, you have yourselves rekindled, the inextinguishable faith of our heroic martyrs. Our Young Turks, our Babis, our new Brotherhoods, all our sects, under various forms, are inspired by the same idea; the same necessity of moving forward. Towards what end? Christian civilization? Never! Islam is the one great international family. All true believers are brothers. A community of feeling and of faith binds them in mutual affection. It is for the Caliph to facilitate these relations and to rally the Faithful under the sacerdotal standard.

Throughout the Ottoman Empire, particularly within the Balkans, and later Anatolia itself, attempted emancipation of the dhimmi peoples provoked violent, bloody responses against those “infidels” daring to claim equality with local Muslims. The massacres of the Bulgarians (in 1876) [59], and more extensive massacres of the Armenians (1894-96) [60], culminating in a frank jihad genocide against the Armenians during World War I [61], epitomize these trends. Enforced abrogation of the laws of dhimmitude required the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. This finally occurred after the Balkan Wars of independence, and during the European Mandate period following World War I.

Conclusion

Erdogan's efforts to further re-Islamize Turkey are entirely consistent with a return to Turkey's Ottoman past as the heartland of an Empire established by jihad, and governed by the Shari'a. Indeed, both the current Erdogan administration, and the regime headed by the overtly pious Muslim Erbakan, a decade ago, reflect the advanced state of Islam's "sociopolitical reawakening" in Turkey since 1950-1960, when the Menderes government--pandering to Muslim religious sentiments for electoral support--re-established the dervish orders, and undertook an extensive campaign of mosque construction [62]. Despite Frank Gaffney's apparent failure to understand this continuum of related historical phenomena, I share his acute concerns. And ultimately, we agree that Turkey's bid to join the EU should be rejected.

Notes

[53] Edouard Engelhardt, La Turquie et La Tanzimat, 2 Vols., 1882, Paris, Vol. p.111, Vol. 2 p. 171; English translation in, Bat Ye’or. Islam and Dhimmitude- Where Civilizations Collide, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001, pp. 431-342.
[54] Reports from Her Majesty’s Consuls Relating to the Condition of the Christians in Turkey, 1867 volume, pp. 5,29. See also related other reports by various consuls and vice-consuls, in the 1860 vol., p.58; the 1867 vol, pp. 4,5,6,14,15; and the 1867 vol., part 2, p.3 [All cited in, Vahakn Dadrian. Chapter 2, “The Clash Between Democratic Norms and Theocratic Dogmas”, Warrant for Genocide, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, pp. 26-27, n. 4]; See also, extensive excerpts from these reports in, Bat Ye’or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity, pp. 409-433.
[55] Excerpts from Bulwer’s report reproduced in, Bat Ye’or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity, pp. 423-426
[56] Tudor Parfitt, The Jews of Palestine, Suffolk (UK), 1987, Boydell Press, pp. 168, 172-73.
[57] Roderick Davison. “Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian-Muslim Equality in the Nineteenth Century” American Historical Review, Vol. 59, pp. 848, 855, 859, 864.
[58] Quoted in, Andre Servier. Islam and the Psychology of the Musulman, translated by A. S. Moss-Blundell, London, 1924, pp. 241-42.
[59] Januarius A. MacGahan. The Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria. (reprinted) Geneva, 1976; Yono Mitev. The April Uprising and European Public Opinion, Sofia Press, 1978; Philip Shashko. “The Bulgarian massacres of 1876 reconsidered: reaction to the April uprising or premeditated attack?” Etudes Balkaniques, 1986, Vol. 22, pp. 18-25.
[60] Vahakn Dadrian. The History of the Armenian Genocide, Providence, Rhode Island: Bergahn Books, 1995, pp. 113-172.
[61] Dadrian, History of the Armenian Genocide, pp. 219-234.
[62] Speros Vryonis, Jr. The Mechanism of Catastrophe-The Turkish Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, and The Destruction of the Greek Community of Istanbul, New York, Greekworks.com, 2005, p. 555.

Imam demands apology for Mohammed cartoons

Predictably enough, the depictions of Muhammad in Denmark's Jyllandsposten have drawn an angry reaction. Flemming Rose, meanwhile, should run for President of the European Union. From the Copenhagen Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten is facing accusations that it deliberately provoked and insulted Muslims by publishing twelve cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.

The newspaper urged cartoonists to send in drawings of the prophet, after an author complained that nobody dared to illustrate his book on Mohammed. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Mohammed.

Twelve illustrators heeded the newspaper's call, and sent in cartoons of the prophet, which were published in the newspaper one week ago.

Daily newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad said one Muslim, at least, had taken offence.

'This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims,' Imam Raed Hlayhel wrote in a statement. 'Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world. We demand an apology!'

Jyllands-Posten described the cartoons as a defence for 'secular democracy and right to expression'.

Hlayhel, however, said the newspaper had abused democracy with the single intention of humiliating Muslims.

Lars Refn, one of the cartoonists who participated in the newspaper's call to arms, said he actually agreed with Hlayhel. Therefore, his cartoon did not feature the prophet Mohammed, but a normal Danish schoolboy Mohammed, who had written a Persian text on his schoolroom's blackboard.

'On the blackboard it says in Persian with Arabic letters that 'Jyllands-Posten's journalists are a bunch of reactionary provocateurs',' Refn said. 'Of course we shouldn't let ourselves be censored by a few extremist Muslims, but Jyllands-Posten's only goal is to vent the fires as soon as they get the opportunity. There's nothing constructive in that.'

Flemming Rose, cultural editor at the newspaper, denied that the purpose had been to provoke Muslim. It was simply a reaction to the rising number of situations where artists and writers censured themselves out of fear of radical Islamists, he said.

'Religious feelings cannot demand special treatment in a secular society,' he added. 'In a democracy one must from time to time accept criticism or becoming a laughingstock.'

It is not the first time Hlayhel has created headlines in Denmark. One year ago, he became the target of criticism from Muslims and non-Muslims alike, when he said in a sermon during Friday prayer, that Danish women's behaviour and dress invited rape.

Norway: Teacher told to drop Star of David

Because it might offend Muslims, of course. Interesting to note that Aftenposten lists as a "related story" one with the headline "No plans to ban hijab in Norwegian schools." Apparently the hijab offends no one. From Aftenposten, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A municipally employed teacher in Kristiansand has been prevented from wearing a Star of David around his neck. Kristiansand Adult Education Center, where the man works, ruled that the Jewish symbol could be deemed a provocation towards the many Muslim students at the school, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reports.

Teacher Inge Telhaug said he feels this is a violation of his freedom of speech.

"I can't accept this. It is a small star, 16 millimeters (0.6 inches) that I have around my neck, usually under a T-shirt. I see it as my right to wear it," Telhaug told NRK.

Telhaug teaches immigrants Norwegian language and culture at the education center. Telhaug is not Jewish.

"I see it as the oldest religious symbol we have in our culture, because without Judaism there would be no Christianity," Telhaug.

The principal of the school, Kjell Gislefoss, feels that the Star of David can also be interpreted as a political symbol for the state of Israel, and is afraid the star can provoke and offend students, for example immigrants from the Palestinian territories.

"The Star of David would be a symbol for one side in what is perhaps the world's most inflamed conflict at the moment. Many have a traumatic past that they have escaped and then we feel that if they are going to learn Norwegian then they can't sit an at the same time be reminded of the things they have traveled from," Gislefoss said.

Telhaug has hired a lawyer and refuses to give in.

Good for you, Telhaug.

Islamists and secularists working together in Morocco?

Despite the differences in ideologies, these Moroccan activists work together to define the woman's role in Islam. From WeNews:

In a nation that has outpaced its neighbors in liberalizing Sharia family laws, two female scholars in Morocco--Latifa Jbabdi and Nadia Yassine--are swaying the religious debate about women's role in Islam.

Jbabdi is an ex-Marxist and has fought for women's rights in Morocco for a quarter century. Yassine is the daughter of the founder of the Justice and Charity Group, a banned Islamist organization that seeks to establish an Islamic state governed by Islamic Sharia.

While Jbabdi presses for a secular future, Yassine sees the world ahead in religious terms.

Theirs is a debate that is occurring throughout the Islamic world, between religious conservatives and Islamists on one side, secularists and those seeking an Islamic reformation on the other.

That debate is thriving in Morocco, where the young King Mohammed VI has, more than any other Arab ruler, taken concrete steps towards democracy since assuming the throne in 1999.

Increasingly, women are moving to the forefront of this discourse.

As became apparent last month in Saudi Arabia--when a group of Saudi women gave U.S. Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes a tongue-lashing--not all women living in Islamic states share the West's view of women's freedom.

In their own ways, however, women in the region are taking more control of a debate that vitally affects them.

Secularist women are educating themselves in Islam, and challenging the religious status-quo about what the Koran does and doesn't say about women. And conservative Islamist women are starting to penetrate official male bastions such as Al-Azhar University in Egypt, and popular grassroots organizations like Yassine's.

For years Muslim activists such as Jbabdi waged their battles with ideological help from Western pioneers such as Betty Friedan and later with international accords like the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Relying on foreign points of reference such as these, however, they made little progress. The international language of gender equality exerted little sway over their traditional, religious societies.

"A religious fundamentalism began to confront us, calling us infidels, and we wondered, how is this possible?" said Jbabdi, from the headquarters of the Union of Feminine Action in Rabat, the organization she founded in 1983. "We started asking, is Islam truly against the rights of women?"

Jbabdi and her colleagues decided to find out. They took classes and held dozens of study sessions. Today, women such as Jbabdi are abandoning their secular approach, immersing themselves in the Koran and the hadith--the principle sources of Islamic law--and proffering their own interpretations of Islam.

If the modus operandi doesn't spring from Islam, then it must be abandoned. Please read it all.

Laws and culture reject homosexuals

From the AP:

When Ahmad Mahfouz told his mother he is gay, she took him to a psychiatrist, thinking he had a disease that could be cured by antidepressants.

When that didn't work, she urged him to date a woman. He ignored her advice.

"So now, whenever she sees me, she beats me with anything she can lay her hands on: a metal hanger, leather belt, her shoes."

The 19-year-old college student, a Lebanese Muslim, is unusual in his candor and willingness to be identified, though not photographed. But more Arabs are coming out as gays, or at least coming to terms with their sexuality, even though in some countries they face laws that can land them in jail and extremists who beat them up because Islam condemns homosexuality.

On top of that, homosexuality is widely seen as a disease spread by the U.S. and Israel to corrupt Arabs and undermine their religious faith.

In Lebanon, gays can find refuge at the cramped, one-room office of Helem, which says it's the first Arab nongovernmental organization openly fighting for their rights. Helem was set up last year despite a vaguely worded law that punishes "unnatural sexual intercourse" with up to one year in jail.

Lebanon, with its mixed population of Muslims and Christians, has a history of religious pluralism and exposure to the West. But elsewhere, homosexuals are on their own.

Read it all.

Fitzgerald: A brief MESA Nostra taxonomy

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers a glimpse inside the bizarre world of the Middle East Studies Association:

"The vast majority of people in the Arab world sympathize with al Qaeda only because it champions their issues and speaks their language and it's seemingly effective against their enemies." -- the egregious Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution and the University of Maryland

A nice example of deception and even possibly self-deception. It is not because it [Al Qaeda] "champions their issues." It is because Al Qaeda speaks the language of Islam, is deeply rooted in the canonical texts of Islam, and cannot be successfully refuted within Islam. Why not? Because it is true to the letter and the spirit of Islam -- to the Qur'an and Sunna, to the example of Muhammad, uswa hasana (Qur’an 33:21). The origins of Islam to justify and promote the Arab conquest of more advanced, richer, more populous tribes and groups of Christians and Jews, the role of Jihad-conquest in spreading Islam, the long record, over 1350 years, of the subjugation of non-Muslims of every kind, always and everywhere forced to endure the status of dhimmi (although sometimes the rigor of this was modified by the gentleness of an individual ruler, such as syncretistic Akbar in India), if permitted to live at all and to avoid forcible conversion -- all of this may have been forgotten in the Western world.

As The Legacy of Jihad (just out, and I can throw away the galleys I had and now read from the beautifully-bound book) demonstrates, Western scholars in the recent past (1880-1970) without exception understood Islam perfectly. But then something happened. A change of personnel, and a change in funding, and a change in world-views. Those experts on Islam died, or retired. They were not replaced by similar experts. The membership of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA Nostra, or MESA for short), for example, in 1970 consisted almost entirely of non-Muslim Americans: Muslims were about 3% of the membership. In 2005 more than half -- over 60% - of MESA Nostra's membership consists of Middle Easterners, Muslim and in most cases, Islamochristians. There are few Maronites, few Chaldeans or Assyrians, few Copts, but many, many Muslims and above all, the kind of Christians -- "Palestinians" -- who have chosen to identify with the Jihad against Israel and with Islam as the embodiment of Arabdom, Uruba. Some of these are smoother than others; after all, they want to be admitted to the corridors of power, to become "experts" who appear on this or that network, to be quoted -- so they learn quickly exactly how far they can go in their defense of Islam and their deflection of attention away from Islam.

The effect of this has been dramatic. It is hardly possible to learn about the main subject that one needs to learn about -- Islam – with any intelligent understanding of North Africa or the Middle East or the world wherever Muslims are now to be found and are aggressively promoting their demands, their Da'wa, their demographic conquest that proceeds, here fast and there slow, of the local Infidels. That is to say, it is hardly possible to get the truth about Islam almost anywhere you might once have expected to find it..

A near-monopoly has been established among academic centers by the army of apologists for Islam. Many, most of them, are themselves Muslims, with that absence of self-criticism, that quickness to defend -- often in the most transparent and absurd ways -- the claims of Islam against all who, having familiarized themselves with the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira, and with the history of Muslim conquest and treatment of non-Muslims, dare to criticize it. There are the Iranians, who can be divided in two – on the one hand, there is the clownish Hamid Dabashi variety (google "Hamid Dabashi" and "Edward Said" right now -- I never fail to offer this as a surefire way to start your day, and float or row your boat, merrily, merrily, merrily, down the stream of Dabashi's lurid consciousness), who identify totally with the Arabs and Islam. On the other hand there are the Iranians in exile who may have begun to question Islam itself and realized how poisoned a gift the Arabs gave to Sassanian, Zoroastrian, Persia.

Then there are the largely, though not entirely, wacky or slightly off (in some cases) or simply career-minded play-it-very-safe Americans. Some of these are recipients of Arab money, at various academic centers bought-and-paid for by the Saudis and others, holders of Saudi-funded chairs who are not about to bite the hand that not only feeds them, but also holds a dagger. Others are people who simply want to get on with their work in medieval Islamic law, or the history of Islamic astronomy, but do not wish to cause themselves any unpleasantness as they seek tenure, or summer fellowships, or access to manuscripts. They simply wish to be left mostly alone when the hideous administrative assignments are handed out, or do not wish to be odd-man-out among hostile Muslims and their sympathizers. And so they sit silently at those horrible faculty meetings that one can hardly imagine such former teachers as Auden, Frost, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman, or for that matter Erdos, von Neumann, Morgenstern, Hans Bethe, and a few hundred others ever attending or managing to endure.

And let's not even speak of the undergraduates who have no way of knowing what nonsense they are being taught about Islam -- that they may discover afterwards. At this point they only want to regurgitate just the right amount for the desired grade. Then there are the graduate students whose professional advancement depends on being well-pleased pleasers (Joyce, prosti!) of those who rule over them.

I have my own ideas as to where, in this taxonomy, I'd place Shibley Telhami. You?

Rania Al-Baz flees Saudi Arabia, "won't come back"

Rania al-Baz (Arab News)

Battered Saudi wife and former TV presenter Rania Al-Baz has left Saudi Arabia and will not go back. After all, with Sura 4:34 (the wife-beating verse) still part of the Qur'an, what's to prevent this sort of thing from happening again and again, to other women as well as to Rania herself? And before you start reminding me that there are battered women in the West also, let me remind you that in the West the perpetrators of such crimes are prosecuted. They are not given a pass because of words in a holy book.

"Rania Flees, ‘Won’t Come Back’," from Arab News, with thanks to all who sent this in:

JEDDAH, 8 October 2005— Saudi television presenter Rania Al-Baz whose near-death assault by her ex-husband Mohammed Al-Fallata was widely reported, has fled the country and decided not to return. Reports of her alleged escape aboard a foods lorry bound for Bahrain and from there to Paris were posted on Arabic websites two days ago.

The reports claimed that she was prevented from traveling when she went to Jeddah International Airport last week for a trip to Paris where she was supposed to attend a conference on women’s rights. She has been traveling to Paris regularly to continue her plastic surgery treatment of multiple facial fractures caused by her ex-husband’s brutal beatings.

A report in The Guardian newspaper confirmed that she was in Paris and that she “won’t go back”. She said that she was looking for a place to live and find work either in Paris or London.

As for the reason why she fled, Rania told the British paper: “I was not safe any more in Saudi Arabia.”

She left her children, two boys from Al-Fallata and a daughter from a previous marriage, in Jeddah and was “thinking about” them.

Bostom: Ottoman Dhimmitude

Andrew Bostom, editor of the superlative collection The Legacy of Jihad, continues his series on the Ottoman empire (here is part one) in The American Thinker:

Turkey is once again storming the gates of Europe. Not the gates of Vienna, as in 1683, but the political portal at the entrance to the European Union, a borderless economic and political entity which wants to become a superstate counterbalance to America. European opponents of Turkey’s membership are soothed with reassurances that the Ottomans were at heart a tolerant lot, so there is no reason to fear a rapidly growing Islamic population added to Europe’s declining headcountof citizens. Part 1 in this series examined jihad in Ottoman Turkey’s history. Part 2 today examines dhimmitude, the lowly status accorded non-Muslims in Ottoman (and other Islamic) history. Part 3 will appear tomorrow.

In examining how the non-Muslim populations vanquished by the Ottoman jihad campaigns fared, it is useful to begin with the Jews, the least numerous population, who are also generally believed to have had quite a positive experience. Joseph Hacker studied the fate of Jews during their initial absorption into the Ottoman Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries. His research questions the uncritical view that from its outset the, “..Jewish experience” in the Ottoman Empire “..was a calm, peaceful, and fruitful one..”.Hacker notes: [17]

…It would seem to me that this accepted view of consistently good relations between the Ottomans and the Jews during the 15th century should be modified in light of new research and manuscript resources.

The Jews, like other inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire, suffered heavily from the Ottoman jihad conquests and policies of colonization and population transfer (i.e., the surgun system). This explains the disappearance of several Jewish communities, including Salonica, and their founding anew by Spanish Jewish immigrants. Hacker observes, specifically: [18]

…We possess letters written about the fate of Jews who underwent one or another of the Ottoman conquests. In one of the letters which was written before 1470, there is a description of the fate of such a Jew and his community, according to which description, written in Rhodes and sent to Crete, the fate of the Jews was not different from that of Christians. Many were killed; others were taken captive, and children were [enslaved, forcibly converted to Islam, and] brought to devshirme...Some letters describe the carrying of the captive Jews to Istanbul and are filled with anti-Ottoman sentiments. Moreover, we have a description of the fate of a Jewish doctor and homilist from Veroia (Kara-Ferya) who fled to Negroponte when his community was driven into exile in 1455. He furnished us with a description of the exiles and their forced passage to Istanbul. Later on we find him at Istanbul itself, and in a homily delivered there in 1468 he expressed his anti-Ottoman feelings openly. We also have some evidence that the Jews of Constantinople suffered from the conquest of the city and that several were sold into slavery.

Three summary conclusions are drawn by Hacker: (i) Strong anti-Ottoman feelings prevailed in some Byzantine Jewish circles in the first decades after the fall of Constantinople. These feelings were openly expressed by people living under Latin rule and to some extent even in Istanbul.; (ii) Mehmed II's policies toward non-Muslims made possible the substantial economic and social development of the Jewish communities in the empire, and especially in the capital - Istanbul. These communities were protected by him against popular hatred, and especially from blood libels. However, this policy was not continued by Bayezid II and there is evidence that under his rule the Jews suffered severe restrictions in their religious life.; (iii) The friendly policies of Mehmed on the one hand, and the good reception by Bayezid II of Spanish Jewry on the other, cause the Jewish writers of the sixteenth century to overlook both the destruction which Byzantine Jewry suffered during the Ottoman conquests and the later outbursts of oppression under both Bayezid II and Selim I.

Ivo Andric analyzed [19] the “rayah” (meaning “herd”, and “to graze a herd”) or dhimmi condition imposed upon the indigenous Christian population of Bosnia, for four centuries. Those native Christian inhabitants who refused to apostasize to Islam lived under the Ottoman Kanun-i-Rayah, which merely reiterated [20] the essential regulations of dhimmitude originally formulated by Muslim jurists and theologians in the 7th and 8th centuries C.E. Andric’s presentation musters, [21]

…a wealth of irrefutable evidence that the main points of the Kanun, just those that cut the deepest into the moral and economic life of Christians, remained in full force right up to the end of Turkish rule and as long as the Turks had the power to apply them…[thus] it was inevitable that the rayah decline to a status that was economically inferior and dependent

Andric cites a Bosnian Muslim proverb, and a song honoring Sultan Bayezid II, whose shared perspectives reflect Muslim attitudes toward the Christian rayahs: [22]

[proverb] “The rayah is like the grass,/Mow it as much as you will, still it springs up anew”

[song] “Once you’d broken Bosnia’s horns/You mowed down what would not be pruned/Leaving only the riffraff behind/So there’d be someone left to serve us and grieve before the cross”

These prevailing discriminatory conditions were exacerbated by Bosnia’s serving as either a battlefield or staging ground during two centuries of Ottoman razzias and formal jihad campaigns against Hungary. Overcome by excessive taxation and conscript labor,

Christians therefore began to abandon their houses and plots of land situated in level country and along the roads and to retreat back into the mountains. And as they did so, moving ever higher into inaccessible regions, Muslims took over their former sites. [23]

Moreover, those Christians living in towns suffered from the rayah system’s mandated impediments to commercial advancement by non-Muslims: [24]

Islam from the very outset, excluded such activities as making wine, breeding pigs, and selling pork products from commercial production and trade. But additionally Bosnian Christians were forbidden to be saddlers, tanners, or candlemakers or to trade in honey, butter, and certain other items. Countrywide, the only legal market day was Sunday. Christians were thus deliberately faced with the choice between ignoring the precepts of their religion, keeping their shops open and working on Sundays, or alternatively, forgoing participation in the market and suffering material loss thereby. Even in 1850, in Jukic’s “Wishes and Entreaties” we find him beseeching “his Imperial grace” to put an end to the regulation that Sunday be market day.

Christians were also forced to pay disproportionately higher taxes than Muslims, including the intentionally degrading non-Muslim poll-tax.

This tax was paid by every non-Muslim male who had passed his fourteenth year, at the rate of a ducat per annum. But since Turkey had never known birth registers, the functionary whose job it was to exact the tax measured the head and neck of each boy with a piece of string and judged from that whether a person had arrived at a taxable age or not. Starting as an abuse that soon turned into an ingrained habit, then finally established custom, by the last century of Turkish rule every boy without distinction found himself summoned to pay the head tax. And it would seem this was not the only abuse…Of Ali-Pasa Stocevic, who during the first half of the nineteenth century was vizier and all but unlimited ruler of Herzegovina, his contemporary, the monk Prokopije Cokorilo, wrote that he “taxed the dead for six years after their demise” and that his tax collectors “ran their fingers over the bellies of pregnant women, saying ‘you will probably have a boy, so you have to pay the poll tax right away…The following folk saying from Bosnia reveals how taxes were exacted: “He’s as fat as if he’d been tax collecting in Bosnia” [25]

The specific Kanun-i-Rayah stipulations which prohibited the rayahs from riding a saddled horse, carrying a saber or any other weapon in or out of doors, selling wine, letting their hair grow, or wearing wide sashes, were strictly enforced until the mid-19th century. Hussamudin-Pasa, in 1794 issued an ordinance which prescribed the exact color and type of clothing the Bosnian rayah had to wear. Barbers were prohibited from shaving Muslims with the same razors used for Christians. Even in bathhouses, Christians were required to have specifically marked towels and aprons to avoid confusing their laundry with laundry designated for Muslims. Until at least 1850, and in some parts of Bosnia, well into the 1860s, a Christian upon encountering a Muslim, was required to jump down from his (unsaddled) horse, move to the side of the road, and wait for the latter to pass. [26]

Christianity’s loud and most arresting symbol, church bells, Andric notes [27], always drew close, disapproving Turkish scrutiny, and, “Wherever there invasions would go, down came the bells, to be destroyed or melted into cannon”. Predictably,

Until the second half of the nineteenth century, “nobody in Bosnia could even think of bells or bell towers.” Only in 1860 did the Sarajevo priest Fra Grgo Martic manage to get permission from Topal Osman-Pasa to hang a bell at the church in Kresevo. Permission was granted, thought, only on condition that “at first the bell be rung softly to let the Turks get accustomed to it little by little”. And still the Muslim of Kresevo were complaining, even in 1875, to Sarajevo that “the Turkish ear and ringing bells cannot coexist in the same place at the same time”; and Muslim women would beat on their copper pots to drown out the noise…on 30 April 1872, the new Serbian Orthodox church also got a bell. But since the…Muslims had threatened to riot, the military had to be called in to ensure that the ceremony might proceed undisturbed. [28]

The imposition of such disabilities, Andric observes, [29] extended beyond church ceremonies, as reflected by a 1794 proclamation of the Serbian Orthodox church in Sarajevo warning Christians not to

…sing during …outings, nor in their houses, nor in other places. The saying “Don’t sing too loud, this village is Turk” testifies eloquently to the fact that this item of the Kanun [- i-Rayah] was applied outside church life as well as within.

Andric concludes, [30]

…for their Christian subjects, their [Ottoman Turkish] hegemony brutalized custom and meant a step to the rear in every respect.

Finally, Jovan Cvijic, the Serbian sociologist and geographer, observed,

There are regions where the [Serb] Christian population…lived under the regime of fear from birth to death

Despite the liberation of the Balkans in 1912, Cvijic further noted that the Serbs were not fully cognizant of their new status, and this fear could still be read, remaining etched on their faces. [31]

Paul Ricaut, the British consul in Smyrna, journeyed extensively within the Ottoman Empire during the mid-17th century, becoming a keen observer of its sociopolitical milieu. In 1679 (i.e., prior to the Ottomans being repulsed at Vienna in September, 1683; see later discussion of Ottoman “tolerance”), Ricaut published these important findings [32]: (i) many Christians were expelled from their churches, which the Ottoman Turks converted into mosques; (ii) the “Mysteries of the Altar” were hidden in subterranean vaults and sepulchers whose roofs were barely above the surface of the ground; (iii) fearing Turkish hostility and oppression, Christian priests, particularly in eastern Asia Minor, were compelled to live with great caution and officiate in private obscurity; (iv) not surprisingly, to escape these prevailing conditions, many Christians apostacized to Islam. Moreover, as Vryonis demonstrated convincingly for the earlier period between the 11th and 15th centuries [33], the existence of cryto-Christianity and neomartyrs were not uncommon phenomena in the Christian territories of Asia Minor conquered by the waves of Seljuk and Ottoman jihad. He cites, for example, a pastoral letter from 1338 addressed to the residents of Nicaea indicating widespread, forcible conversion by the Turks: [34]

And they [Turks] having captured and enslaved many of our own and violently forced them and dragging them along alas! So that they took up their evil and godlessness.

The phenomenon of forcible conversion, including coercive en masse conversions, persisted throughout the 16th century, as discussed by Constantelos in his analysis of neomartyrdom in the Ottoman Empire: [35]

…mass forced conversions were recorded during the caliphates of Selim I (1512-1520),…Selim II (1566-1574), and Murat III (1574-1595). On the occasion of some anniversary, such as the capture of a city, or a national holiday, many rayahs were forced to apostacize. On the day of the circumcision of Mohammed III great numbers of Christians (Albanians, Greeks, Slavs) were forced to convert to Islam.

Reviewing the martyrology of Christians victimized by the Ottomans from the conquest of Constantinople (1453), through the final phases of the Greek War of Independence (1828), Constantelos indicates: [36]

…the Ottoman Turks condemned to death eleven Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople, nearly one hundred bishops, and several thousand priests, deacons, and minks. It is impossible to say with certainty how many men of the cloth were forced to apostasize.

However, the more mundane cases illustrated by Constantelos are of equal significance in revealing the plight of Christians under Ottoman rule, through at least 1867: [37]

Some were accused of insulting the Muslim faith or of throwing something against the wall of a mosque. Others were accused of sexual advances toward a Turk; still others of making a public confession such as “I will become a Turk” without meaning it.

Constantelos concludes: [38]

The story of the neomartyrs indicates that there was no liberty of conscience in the Ottoman Empire and that religious persecution was never absent from the state. Justice was subject to the passions of judges as well as of the crowds, and it was applied with a double standard, lenient for Muslims and harsh for Christians and others. The view that the Ottoman Turks pursued a policy of religious toleration in order to promote a fusion of the Turks with the conquered populations is not sustained by the facts.

Even the Turcophilic 19th century travel writer Ubicini acknowledged the oppressive burden of Ottoman dhimmitude in this moving depiction: [39]

The history of enslaved peoples is the same everywhere, or rather, they have no history. The years, the centuries pass without bringing any change to their situation. Generations come and go in silence. One might think they are afraid to awaken their masters, asleep alongside them. However, if you examine them closely you discover that this immobility is only superficial. A silent and constant agitation grips them. Life has entirely withdrawn into the heart. They resemble those rivers which have disappeared underground; if you put your ear to the earth, you can hear the muffled sound of their waters; then they re-emerge intact a few leagues away. Such is the state of the Christian populations of Turkey under Ottoman rule.

Vacalopoulos describes how jihad imposed dhimmitude under Ottoman rule provided critical motivation for the Greek Revolution: [40]

The Revolution of 1821 is no more than the last great phase of the resistance of the Greeks to Ottoman domination; it was a relentless, undeclared war, which had begun already in the first years of servitude. The brutality of an autocratic regime, which was characterized by economic spoliation, intellectual decay and cultural retrogression, was sure to provoke opposition. Restrictions of all kinds, unlawful taxation, forced labor, persecutions, violence, imprisonment, death, abductions of girls and boys and their confinement to Turkish harems, and various deeds of wantonness and lust, along with numerous less offensive excesses – all these were a constant challenge to the instinct of survival and they defied every sense of human decency. The Greeks bitterly resented all insults and humiliations, and their anguish and frustration pushed them into the arms of rebellion. There was no exaggeration in the statement made by one of the beys if Arta, when he sought to explain the ferocity of the struggle. He said: ‘We have wronged the rayas [dhimmis] (i.e. our Christian subjects) and destroyed both their wealth and honor; they became desperate and took up arms. This is just the beginning and will finally lead to the destruction of our empire.’ The sufferings of the Greeks under Ottoman rule were therefore the basic cause of the insurrection; a psychological incentive was provided by the very nature of the circumstances.

The Devshirme and Harem Slavery

Those scholars [41] who continue to adhere to the roseate narrative of Ottoman “tolerance”, the notion that an “…easy-going tolerance, resting on an assumption not only of superior religion, but also of superior power”, which it is claimed, persisted in the Ottoman Empire until the end of the 17th century [42], must address certain basic questions. Why has the quite brutal Ottoman devshirme-janissary system, which, from the mid to late 14th, through early 18th centuries, enslaved and forcibly converted to Islam an estimated 500,000 to one million [43] non-Muslim (primarily Balkan Christian) adolescent males, been characterized, reductio ad absurdum, as a benign form of social advancement, jealously pined for by “ineligible” Ottoman Muslim families? For example,

The role played by the Balkan Christian boys recruited into the Ottoman service through the devshirme is well known. Great numbers of them entered the Ottoman military and bureaucratic apparatus, which for a while came to be dominated by these new recruits to the Ottoman state and the Muslim faith. This ascendancy of Balkan Europeans into the Ottoman power structure did not pass unnoticed, and there are many complaints from other elements, sometimes from the Caucasian slaves who were their main competitors, and more vocally from the old and free Muslims, who felt slighted by the preference given to the newly converted slaves. [44]

Scholars who have conducted serious, detailed studies of the devshirme-janissary system, do not share such hagiographic views of this Ottoman institution. Speros Vryonis, Jr. for example, makes these deliberately understated, but cogent observations, [45]

…in discussing the devshirme we are dealing with the large numbers of Christians who, in spite of the material advantages offered by conversion to Islam, chose to remain members of a religious society which was denied first class citizenship. Therefore the proposition advanced by some historians, that the Christians welcomed the devshirme as it opened up wonderful opportunities for their children, is inconsistent with the fact that these Christians had not chosen to become Muslims in the first instance but had remained Christians…there is abundant testimony to the very active dislike with which they viewed the taking of their children. One would expect such sentiments given the strong nature of the family bond and given also the strong attachment to Christianity of those who had not apostacized to Islam…First of all the Ottomans capitalized on the general Christian fear of losing their children and used offers of devshirme exemption in negotiations for surrender of Christian lands. Such exemptions were included in the surrender terms granted to Jannina, Galata, the Morea, Chios, etc…Christians who engaged in specialized activities which were important to the Ottoman state were likewise exempt from the tax on their children by way of recognition of the importance of their labors for the empire…Exemption from this tribute was considered a privilege and not a penalty…

…there are other documents wherein their [i.e., the Christians] dislike is much more explicitly apparent. These include a series of Ottoman documents dealing with the specific situations wherein the devshirmes themselves have escaped from the officials responsible for collecting them…A firman…in 1601 [regarding the devshirme] provided the [Ottoman] officials with stern measures of enforcement, a fact which would seem to suggest that parents were not always disposed to part with their sons.

“..to enforce the command of the known and holy fetva [fatwa] of Seyhul [Shaikh]- Islam. In accordance with this whenever some one of the infidel parents or some other should oppose the giving up of his son for the Janissaries, he is immediately hanged from his door-sill, his blood being deemed unworthy.”

Vasiliki Papoulia highlights the continuous desperate, often violent struggle of the Christian populations against this forcefully imposed Ottoman levy: [46]

It is obvious that the population strongly resented…this measure [and the levy] could be carried out only by force. Those who refused to surrender their sons- the healthiest, the handsomest and the most intelligent- were on the spot put to death by hanging. Nevertheless we have examples of armed resistance. In 1565 a revolt took place in Epirus and Albania. The inhabitants killed the recruiting officers and the revolt was put down only after the sultan sent five hundred janissaries in support of the local sanjak-bey. We are better informed, thanks to the historic archives of Yerroia, about the uprising in Naousa in 1705 where the inhabitants killed the Silahdar Ahmed Celebi and his assistants and fled to the mountains as rebels. Some of them were later arrested and put to death..

Since there was no possibility of escaping [the levy] the population resorted to several subterfuges. Some left their villages and fled to certain cities which enjoyed exemption from the child levy or migrated to Venetian-held territories. The result was a depopulation of the countryside. Others had their children marry at an early age…Nicephorus Angelus…states that at times the children ran away on their own initiative, but when they heard that the authorities had arrested their parents and were torturing them to death, returned and gave themselves up. La Giulletiere cites the case of a young Athenian who returned from hiding in order to save his father’s life and then chose to die himself rather than abjure his faith. According to the evidence in Turkish sources, some parents even succeeded in abducting their children after they had been recruited. The most successful way of escaping recruitment was through bribery. That the latter was very widespread is evident from the large amounts of money confiscated by the sultan from corrupt…officials. Finally, in their desperation the parents even appealed to the Pope and the Western powers for help.

Papoulia concludes: [47]

…there is no doubt that this heavy burden was one of the hardest tribulations of the Christian population.

Why was there never a significant “Shari’a-inspired” slavery abolition movement within the Ottoman states, comparable to the courageous and successful campaigns lead by Western Christian statesmen (such as the Evangelical Parliamentarian,William Wilberforce [48] ) in Europe and America, throughout the 19th century? Deliberately limited and ineffectual firmans issued by the Ottoman Porte failed to discourage East African slave trading [49], and even British naval power, so successful in the Atlantic and Indian oceans [50], was unable to suppress the Red Sea slave trade to the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century. [51] Regardless, as Reuben Levy notes: [52]

At Constantinople, the sale of women slaves, both negresses and Circassians [likely for harem slavery and/or concubinage], continued to be openly practiced until…1908.

Notes

[17] Joseph Hacker, “Ottoman Policy Toward the Jews and Jewish Attitudes toward the Ottomans during the Fifteenth Century”, pp. 117-126, in, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman empire : the functioning of a plural society / edited by Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis (New York : Holmes & Meier Publishers), 1982, p. 117.
[18] Hacker, “Ottoman Policy”, p. 120.
[19] Ivo Andric, The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, (1924 doctoral dissertation), English translation, Durham, North Carolina, 1990, Chaps. 2 and 3, pp. 16-38.
[20] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, pp. 23-24
[21] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, pp. 24-25
[22] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, p.78 note 2
[23] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, p. 25
[24] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, pp. 25-26
[25] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, pp. 26, 80 note 11
[26] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, pp. 26-27
[27] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, p. 30
[28] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, p.30
[29] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, pp. 30-31.
[30] Andric, Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, p.38.
[31] Jovan Cvijic, La Peninsule Balkanique, Paris, 1918, p. 389; Translated excerpt in Bat Ye'or, Islam and Dhimmitude-Where Civilzations Collide, Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, 2001, p. 108.
[32] Paul Ricaut. The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Anno Christi 1678, London, 1679 (reprinted, New York, 1970), pp. 1-30.
[33] Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, pp. 340-43, 351-402.
[34] Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, p. 342.
[35] Demetrios Constantelos. “The ‘Neomartyrs’ as Evidence for Methods and Motives Leading to Conversion and Martyrdom in the Ottoman Empire” The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 1978, Vol. 23, p. 228.
[36] Constantelos. “The ‘Neomartyrs’ ”, pp. 217-218.
[37] Constantelos. “The ‘Neomartyrs’ ”, p. 226.
[38] Constantelos. “The ‘Neomartyrs’ ”, p. 227.
[39] Abdolonyme Ubicini, Lettres Sur La Turque, Vol. 2, Paris, 1854, p. 32; English translation in Bat Ye’or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity, p. 181
[40] A.E. Vacalopoulos. “Background and Causes of the Greek Revolution”, Neo-Hellenika, 1975, pp.54-55.
[41] Stanford Shaw. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 Vols, Cambridge, 1976. See for example, Vol.1, pp. 19, 24.
[42] Bernard Lewis. What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 114-115.
[43] A.E. Vacalopoulos. The Greek Nation, 1453-1669, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 1976, p.41; Vasiliki Papoulia, “The Impact of Devshirme on Greek Society”, in War and Society in East Central Europe, Editor-in-Chief, Bela K. Kiraly, 1982, Vol. II, pp. 561-562.
[44] Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe, pp.190-191. Lewis also describes the devshirme solely as a form of social advancement for Balkan Christians in both the 1968 (p.5) and 2002 (also p. 5) editions of The Emergence of Modern Turkey (Oxford University Press):
…the Balkan peoples had an enormous influence on the Ottoman ruling class. One of the most important channels was the devshirme, the levy of boys, by means of which countless Balkan Christians entered the military and political elites of the Empire.
[45] Speros Vryonis, Jr. “Seljuk Gulams and Ottoman Devshirmes”, Der Islam Vol. 41, 1965, pp. 245-247.
[46] Vasiliki Papoulia, “The Impact of Devshirme on Greek Society”, pp. 554-555.
[47] Vasiliki Papoulia, “The Impact of Devshirme on Greek Society”, p. 557.
[48] Oliver Warner, William Wilberforce and His Times, London, 1962.
[49] J.B. Kelly, Britain and the Persian Gulf, Oxford, 1968, pp. 588-589.
[50] Christopher Lloyd, The Navy and The Slave Trade, London, 1949.

Call to protect Sindhi culture in Pakistan

A 5000-year-old language and civilization struggles to survive. From the The Hindu:

Alleging that the "mullah-military alliance" in Pakistan is the main cause of the human rights situation in the country, the sixth annual World Sindhi conference has urged the Pakistan government to respect the rights and stop discrimination against Sindhis there.

Participants, who had come from Canada, Europe, Sindh and various parts of the United States, urged members of the US senate and the Congress, and the State Department to consider the human rights situation in Pakistan while dealing with Pakistan's military leadership.

"Pakistan's military itself has become a state within a state and a huge human rights crushing machine," they said.

"We are not separatists, however Islamabad must decide whether they want to keep us with justice and dignity or force us away by continuing to appropriate our natural resources, our water, our culture and language," speakers at the conference stressed.

The debasement of Sindhi culture and the blatant revision of their history continues with full support from the Pakistani government.

The participants, particularly, Humaira Rahman, director of WSI's Canada Chapter, and Munawar Laghari, the executive director of World Sindhi Institute in Washington DC, focused on how the public education system had been used by the bureaucracy to systematically downgrade the use of Sindhi as a medium of instruction, while at the same time distorting the authentic history of Sindh and introducing fundamentalism and intolerance in the text books and curricula.

They also pointed out how the control of content of syllabi had created a culture of hate and glorification of Jihad in Pakistani public schools.

Pipes: Arabian Sex Tourism

Daniel Pipes discusses the vile practice of temporary marriage, which I explore in my book Islam Unveiled. From FrontPage:

Indian media have been publishing exposés documenting the foul behavior of Gulf Arabs in the southern Indian town of Hyderabad “Fly-by-night bridegrooms,” by R Akhileshwari in the Deccan Herald and “One minor girl, many Arabs,” by Mohammed Wajihuddin in the Times of India are two important examples. Wajihuddin sets the stage:

They are old predators with new vigour. Often bearded, invariably in flowing robes and expensive turbans. The rich, middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days that we wrongly think are history. These Viagra-enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer of nikaah, the Islamic rules of marriage.

(I have silently corrected some typos). Wajihuddin then specifies the problem:

Misusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Hyderabad, but marrying more than one minor in a single sitting. “The Arabs prefer teenage, virgin brides,” says Jameela Nishat, who counsels and sensitises young women against the malaise.

The Arabs usually “marry” the girls for short periods, sometimes just a single night. In fact, Wajihuddin reports, marriage and divorce formalities are often prepared at the same time, thereby expediting the process for all involved. Akhileshwari notes that “their girl children are available for as little as 5,000 rupees to satisfy the lust of doddering old Arab men.” Five thousand rupees, by the way, equals just a bit over US$100.

An Indian television program recently reported on a show-casing of eight prospective brides, most of them minors, at which they were offered up to their Arab suitors. “It resembled a brothel. The girls were paraded before the Arab who would lift the girls’ burqa, run his fingers through their hair, gaze at their figures and converse through an interpreter,” recalls one of Nishat’s assistants.

Wajihuddin also offers a specific case history:

On the first of August, forty-five-year-old Al Rahman Ismail Mirza Abdul Jabbar, a sheikh from the UAE, approached a broker in these matters, seventy-year-old Zainab Bi, in the walled city, near the historic Char Minar. The broker procured Farheen Sultana and Hina Sultana, aged between thirteen and fifteen, for twenty thousand rupees [DP comment: that equals US$450]. Then he hired Qazi [DP comment: an Islamic judge, usually spelled qadi in English] Mohammed Abdul Waheed Qureshi to solemnise the marriage. The qazi, taking advantage of an Islamic provision, married the girls off to the Arab. After the wedding night with the girls, the Arab left at dawn.

So much for that “marriage.”

Sunita Krishnan, head of an anti human-trafficking organization, Prajwala, makes the only too-obvious point that girl children are not valued. “If a girl child is sold or her life ruined, it is not a national loss, that’s why this is a non-issue, both for community and to society.” With the exception of Maulana Hameeduddin Aqil, the head of Millat-e-Islamia (a local organization, apparently not connected the notorious Pakistani terrorist group), who speaks out against these sham marriages (“They are committing a sin. It’s not nikaah, it’s prostitution by another name”), the Islamic authorities in India are almost all silent about this travesty of the Shari’a.

For their part, Muslim politicians in the city of Hyderabad apparently could care less. “It’s not on the poll agenda of any politician,” says Mazhar Hussain, director of a social welfare organization, the Confederation of Voluntary Associations. The Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslameen, the main party of Hyderabad’s Muslims, is blissfully unconcerned: “You cannot deny that the fortunes of many families have changed through such marriages,” MIM’s president, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, cheerfully points out.

Comments:

(1) Ironically, the girls thus proffered appear all to be Muslim – no Hindus or others need apply.

(2) The behavior of Arabs in India in some way parallels that of Japanese and Westerners in Thailand, with the notable difference that the Indian case involves marriage, an emphasis on virginity, and local authorities seemingly pleased with providing their minor girls for sex tourism.

(3) Arabian sex tourism is not exclusive to India but also takes place in other poor countries.

(4) This trade in persons is merely one dimension of a problem that prevails through Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states (for another dimension, see “Saudis Import Slaves to America”).

(5) Concubinage, forced labor, indentured servitude, slavery – these deep problems are nowhere near being addressed in the Gulf region, much less solved. Indeed, one prominent Saudi theologian has gone so far as to state that “Slavery is a part of Islam” and whoever says it should be abolished “is an infidel.” So long as such attitudes can be articulated publicly, without censure, abuses are certain to continue.

(6) The hypocrisy of this trade is perhaps its vilest aspect. Better prostitution, frankly acknowledged, than religiously-sanctioned fake marriages, for the former is understood to be a vice while the latter parades as a virtue.

(7) Wajihuddin compares the Arabian men to “medieval monarchs” and the analogy is apt. These transactions, involving Muslim minors and conducted under the auspices of Islamic law, point yet again to the dominance of premodern ways in the Muslim world and the urgent need to modernize the Islamic religion.

EU proves again that terrorism works

Although the PA has shown no ability (and little or no genuine desire) to rein in Hamas, and despite the fact that both Abbas and Hamas leaders attributed the Gaza withdrawal to suicide bombings, and although Palestinian Arabs celebrated that withdrawal with blood, looting, and threats, the dhimmi EU is ever-ready to appease, promising the Palestinian Arabs as much as $360 million. No hint of holding the Palestinians to account in any way. "EU announces strategy to help build Palestinian state," from AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission announced ambitious plans to help build a politically and economically viable Palestinian state, including injecting hundreds of millions of euros in extra aid.

The aim is to use the opportunity created by Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and put in place a comprehensive medium-term assistance strategy, external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

"We intend to be a major partner in a viable Palestinian state," she told reporters in Brussels. "We should not let the chance provided by the Gaza withdrawal slip through our fingers."

She said that if the withdrawal led to implementation of the roadmap peace plan and other donors also came forward, she would urge EU states to earmark the Palestinians a further 200-300 million euros (240-360 million dollars).

Fitzgerald: Our love affair with the Shi'a

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald wonders if Shi'ite Muslims are really as wonderful as many American analysts seem to believe:

News item: “Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have caused the deaths of all eight UK soldiers killed in Iraq this year.”

This would be Iran, the Islamic (Shi'a version) Republic of Iran, which the British have just accused, the Iran whose Shi'a are not quite the same though not entirely different from the Shi'a in Iraq. And those Shi'a in Iraq constitute the Muslims whom in recent times quite a few people have insisted are 1) wonderful in all respects or 2) simply wonderful or 3) slightly less than simply wonderful 3) not wonderful at all but probably better than the Sunnis or 4) we can live with them.

There was Tom Friedman, who with his usual modest tone nominated Al-Sistani for a Nobel Prize, until his attention was no doubt drawn to the inclusion of Infidels as "najis" (or "unclean things") on the list at Sistani's official website. Then Friedman, as he does so often, simply silently dropped that little bit of idiocy without owning up to it, or discussing why he was wrong. There is Suleyman al-Kosovi, known to Infidel armchair strategists (well, standing up from that armchair whenever the lecture fee is temptingly high enough, and there are plenty of those) as a "moderate" Muslim because they are looking for those moderate Muslims in all the wrong places -- among Muslims themselves, instead of among by-now pretend-Muslims, the "Muslim-for-identification-purposes" Muslims. Yet even the latter are not the best guides. The best are such straight-talking apostates as Ibn Warraq -- but they are the best among those who continue, for reasons that still deserve to be pondered, to call themselves "Muslims" even though they see right through, and beyond, the whole thing -- even through the reasons why they themselves refuse to give up the need to identify themselves as "Muslims" or, another favorite, "culturally Muslim."

There have been, among so-called Conservatives (these are the people much-enamored of the word "conservative," as in "Conservatives think" and "Conservatives should support" and "Conservatives understand" -- it is all at that level, expressed in that way, and there is nary a Burke among them), the kind who write at My Weekly Standard. These include a few resident "Islam experts" who have been great promoters of the Shi'a as Good Guys. There is – he was alluded to above -- the comical fellow with the baleful influence, the quintessential sufferer from Weiss-Schwartz Syndrome, whose Muslim name (when you convert to Islam, you get to choose a special Arabic name along with the Secret Decoder Ring that comes with every three-volume boxed-set of Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira) ends in the toponymic al-Kosovi. There are a few others who at the same place have similarly have been singing the praises of the Shi'a, and who will never be able to see that it is in the Infidel interest to see that Islam itself, not Wahhabi Islam, nor Sunni Islam, but Islam itself, that needs to be divided and demoralized. They will never be able to recognize how bewitched they have been by the charm and sweet reasonableness of such thoroughly secular Iraqi exiles as Ahmad Chalabi, Ambassador Francke (Rend al-Rahim), Ayad Allawi, or other Shi'a who, in their long exile in the West, became or at least could assume the identity of thoroughly Western, non-Islamic, men and women, nor realize that encounters with such unrepresentative people should not be used to form the basis for decisions about very large numbers of people. Unrepresentative men should be understood as such, and that "unrepresentativeness" can only be apparent if one possesses some information about the history of Iraq, and more importantly, the nature of Islam, its tenets, attitudes, and atmospherics. Policy that is based on unrepresentative individuals from this or that country or belief-system, is likely to reflect the interests of those individuals. Like the "secular" Turks who wish devoutly to have Turkey admitted to the E.U., even though they secretly are well aware of the strenght, and permanence, and danger that Islam poses to the Infidels of the E.U., these Iraqis have had their own fish to fry, but needed America to supply the frying pan, and the fire, and at times, it seems, even the fish.

This little love affair with Shi'a Islam, which requires ignoring much about i