Muslim rule in Nigerian state "chokes" Christian community

Islamic Tolerance Alert, and an update on the plight of Christians in Nigeria. "Nigeria - Muslim Rule in Kebbi State Chokes Church," from Compass Direct:

KALGO, Nigeria, June 29 (Compass Direct News) – For Kebbi state pastor Nuhu Mamman, to become a Christian was to have a death sentence passed on the life he knew: converting killed his past, and his future appeared moribund as family, friends and fiancée abandoned him.

[...]

“My Muslim blood relations don’t like me – they dislike and keep away from my family as if we are a plague to be avoided,” Rev. Mamman said. “They hate us because we have abandoned Islam. Our predicament has even been made worse as even Christians from other non-Muslim communities still don’t trust us. They believe that we are still Muslims despite our conversion to Christianity. This is very tough on us.”

Rev. Mamman, from the Hausa ethnic group of Kebbi state, says persecution of Christians is widespread in the state.

“In the northern part of Kebbi state, Christians face serious difficulties,” he told Compass. “We are always being forced to transfer former Muslims who have become Christians to other parts of this country in order to shield them from persecution.”

The church works hard to protect converts to Christianity from Muslim extremist attacks. After Adamu Muhammed, a Muslim from the town of Birnin Kebbi, became a Christian in 1997, Muslim radicals sought to kill him. As they hunted for him, Rev. Mamman said, the church moved him to Jos in central Nigeria, where he became a Bible student.

In 2003, Rev. Mamman added, a Muslim named Ibrahim Jega from Jega town converted to Christianity.

“His family members and other Muslims threatened to kill him,” Rev. Mamman said. “We were forced to take him to Zuru town for safety. Another convert from Islam to Christianity, Mohammed Abara from Sabon Birni town, also had to be taken to Pisabu by us in order to save his life.”

Of course, such actions follow the orders of Muhammad himself: baddala deenahu faqtuhu -- "If anyone changes his religion, kill him" (Sahih Bukhari 9.84.57).

Equally difficult is obtaining places for converts from Islam to worship.

“Even if we succeed in getting land to provide such converts with places of worship, Muslims who are in government will not allow us build such churches,” said Rev. Mamman, who was ordained an ECWA minister in 1994.

“Whenever we go to renew our land documents or even pay land rent for our church lands, Muslim government officials usually refuse to accept such payments,” he said. “But then, this is deliberate, as after a period of time they usually declare our church buildings as illegal structures, just to find reasons to demolish our places of worship.”

As one example of arbitrary demolitions of places of Christian worship in the state, Rev. Mamman cited the destruction of a church in Danbargo village by government agents.

“In Danbargo village of Shanga Local Government Area, almost all the villagers last year decided to become Christians after listening to the gospel preached to them,” he said. “We built a place of worship for these Christians, but the local government council authority of Shanga demolished this church building.”

Rev. Mamman said the local council also told the Christian villagers that if they refused to recant their belief in Christ and return to Islam, the government would seize their farms.

“Without any visible means of surviving this attack,” he said, “these Christians in Danbargo village went back to Islam.”

The Rev. Adamu Sunday Peni, vice chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kebbi state chapter, told Compass that lack of land for building places of worship – along with forceful conversion of Christians to Islam and discrimination against Christian public workers – is among the most pressing problems Christians face.

Man Sexually Assaulted in Pakistan After Refusing to Convert to Islam

No Compulsion In Religion Alert from Pakistan. From Christian Today (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Lawyers in Pakistan are investigating a report that up to 30 men tortured and gang-raped a young Christian man for refusing to convert to Islam.

The victim is seriously injured and unable to move, Release International’s partner in Pakistan has reported. However, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) the police are keeping him locked up and have denied him medical treatment.

The police are also refusing to register the rape following a counter-claim made by his principal attacker – “a man of influence”, Release International has told Christian Today.

According to CLAAS, the Christian was invited to a game of cricket. A quarrel broke out and he was beaten up. Later that evening, the father of one of the Muslims asked the Christian over to his house.

Joseph Francis, the National Director of CLAAS, explained: “When he entered the drawing room, he found it filled with unknown people. They began to beat him severely. They threatened him with dire consequences if he did not accept Islam. After his refusal, they committed sodomy with him one by one for the whole night.”

Francis said that they later threw their victim out on the street unconscious.

CLAAS has visited the victim and his family. They believe the counter accusation that he stole money and a mobile phone is false. They say the charges were drawn up by the attacker, who has used his influence to put pressure on the authorities.

“We’re deeply concerned about the growing number of attacks against Christians in Pakistan,” says Release International’s CEO Andy Dipper. “We are receiving reports of rape, abductions and forced conversion. Pakistan is becoming an increasingly difficult place for Christians to live.

“To make matters worse, the government is pushing through a law which could impose the death penalty for any Muslim man who converts to Christianity – and life imprisonment for any woman."

Indian Muslim and Israeli tennis doubles team tries again after "militant" pressure split them

An update on this story. "Mirza plays down Peer pairing," by Pritha Sarkar for Reuters:

LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) - India's Sania Mirza hopes her decision to renew her doubles partnership with Israel's Shahar Peer at Wimbledon does not stir up another religious storm.

"We're playing tennis, we're not making statements. We're just here to play tennis and we're here to perform and be the best we can be," the Indian number one said on Thursday.

Me and Shahar are playing just like the way me and (Eva) Birnerova played the French Open, just like the way I played with anyone else the last six weeks. It doesn't make any statement."

The last time Mirza, a Muslim, joined forces with Peer at the 2005 Japan Open, their association was short-lived.

Under pressure from militants furious over a Muslim and a Jew playing together, Mirza called for some time out.

Mirza has also had a fatwa issued against her for wearing "revealing" clothing at matches.

She hopes their second stab at success will be remembered more for their on-court exploits.

"We've grown up together. We're great friends. So we said, why not?" said Mirza, who comes from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

"We were both very lucky to find each other because it's someone who suits each other's game. I have a big forehand, she has a big backhand. We've done well in the past.

"We really don't care whether she's from Israel or I'm from Pakistan. At the end of the day it matters whether we win a match or not."

Doubles partnerships between Muslim and Jewish players have not gone down too well in the past.

In 2002, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi was threatened with a suspension from Pakistan's tennis federation when he entered the Wimbledon men's doubles with Israel's Amir Hadad.

The partnership won the duo a humanitarian award from the organisers of men's tennis but Mirza does not want any similar recognition.

"I'm here to play tennis and so is she. That's the end of that. It has nothing to do with anything else," she said.

Malaysian state stiffens penalties for those who leave Islam

No Compulsion in Religion Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: "Tougher law for Malaysia converts," from Al-Jazeera (thanks to LGF):

The only opposition-ruled state in Malaysia has approved stiffer penalties to deter people from trying to convert Muslims to other faiths. Under the revised law passed by Kelantan state, anyone found guilty faces a maximum penalty of six lashes with a rattan cane, five years in prison and a fine of almost $3,000.

Kelantan is a moderate Muslim area. If it were imposing Sharia strictly, those who leave Islam would be executed, per Muhammad's instructions: "If anyone changes his religion, kill him."

Kelantan is the only Malaysian state led by the opposition Islamist party, PAS. Hassan Mohamood, who heads Kelantan's Islamic affairs committee, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the stiffer laws are useful "as a form of deterrence". The previous maximum penalty was two years in prison and a fine of RM5,000 ($1,400). Proselytising of Muslims is forbidden under federal laws, but the recent case of Line Joy, a Malay-Muslim woman who sought legal recognition of her right to pick her religion of choice, raised fears among some in Malaysia over mass conversion.

Yes, and we can't have that. Just imagine -- Christians in Malaysia! The horror!

Sudan rape laws 'need overhaul'

This report, characteristically enough, never mentions Islam, and implies that these laws are all particularly Sudanese. Yet every legal provision it mentions is Sharia-based. It sounds from this as if Sudan's rape laws are based on Sharia, which allows for rape and adultery to be established only by the testimony of four male Muslim witnesses who actually saw the act. This is based on Qur'an 4:15 and other passages, along with ahadith about an accusation of adultery against Muhammad's favorite wife, Aisha.

By Amber Henshaw for BBC News (thanks to JE):

Sudan must overhaul its legal system to stop mass rape from being committed in the war-torn region of Darfur, an aid agency says in a report.

Rape victims have almost no access to justice and even risk being prosecuted for having had sex outside marriage.

Because if they cannot produce four witnesses and they end up giving birth to a child, the pregnancy becomes evidence against them.

Refugees International said government soldiers and affiliated militias were often responsible for the rapes.

Khartoum denies that rape has been used as a weapon of war in Darfur and says Sudan already punishes rape harshly....

Refugees International said the government was more likely to take action against those who reported and documented rape than those who committed it.

Its report said the Sudanese rape laws needed to be completely revised to protect women and girls from systemised sexual attacks.

The report said the high incidence of sexual violence in Darfur had been well documented in the past, but existing regulations made it "all but impossible" to prosecute rapists.

It added that women who admitted being raped also risked being prosecuted themselves for having sex outside marriage - an offence punishable by 100 lashes or death by stoning.

That is in accord with Qur'an 24:2, which mandates the hundred lashes, and several ahadith, notably this one, in which Muhammad stones adulterers.

The report made 24 recommendations for change, including the need for more judges to be trained and more female police officers to be recruited.

Yeah, that'll change Sharia law, all right.

The report also urged Sudan to expand its definition of rape to include sexual assault with objects, including rifle barrels.

It said courts should also give equal weight to the evidence of both men and women.

Islamic law disallows the victim's evidence in her own rape case. And the Qur'an values a woman's testimony in general as half that of a man (2:282). So the report is asking Sudan to discard the Sharia in this particular. I expect that the derivation of these laws will make Sudanese officials reluctant to heed this report and do away with them.

Netherlands: "Cut benefits to burqa wearers"

If "the behaviour of the job seeker prevented him or her from finding a job," that is the responsibility of the individual in question, not of the state.

"'Cut benefits to burqa wearers,'" from Expatica (thanks to Dave):

THE HAGUE – A majority in Parliament wants the government to allow municipalities to cut benefits if the recipients are unable to find a job because they wear a burqa.

A motion to this effect from Liberal VVD MP Atzo Nicolaï and Labour PvdA MP Hans Spekman was passed on Tuesday.

Coalition party PvdA and opposition party VVD are concerned about a verdict from the court in Amsterdam earlier this month. The court found in preliminary proceedings that the municipality Diemen had unlawfully docked the benefits of a Muslim woman who wears a burqa because she had been unable to find a job after four job applications.

[...]

Aboutaleb has said in earlier debates with Parliament that the case in Diemen should be put in perspective. He says it is just "one case," while there have also been court verdicts that have found in favour of municipalities in cases where the behaviour of the job seeker prevented him or her from finding a job. One of these cases also concerned the wearing of a burqa.

Burqas: hazardous to your health

Human beings need sunshine. "Are Muslim dress codes bad for women's health?," by Preeti Aroon for Foreign Policy (thanks to WriterMom):

Conservative Muslim dress codes may be causing vitamin D deficiency in women by limiting their exposure to sunlight, humans' main source for the vitamin, according to new research.

Scientists had previously found high rates of vitamin D deficiency in Arab and East Indian women living in the United Arab Emirates. A follow-up study investigated the effect of vitamin D supplements on 178 UAE women, many of whom covered themselves entirely, faces and hands included, when outside their homes. Only two of the women did not have vitamin D deficiency prior to receiving supplements. The results were published by a team of scientists in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Read it all.

UK to spend over a million dollars to "unlock potential of Muslim women"

"New fund 'to unlock potential of Muslim women,'" from 24dash.com (thanks to WriterMom):

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly is announcing a new community leadership fund today to support Muslim communities to unlock the potential of women and young Muslims in making communities resilient and stronger in facing down the voices of violent extremism.

She will launch a new £650,000 Preventing Violent Extremism: Community Leadership Fund which will provide grants to programmes across the country.

Ruth Kelly believes that supporting Muslim communities to play a greater leadership role in civic life and shaping the places they live will help promote greater equality and strengthen resilience to extremism in local communities.

The fund is expected to support the following types of projects:

* New community-led programmes that break down the barriers to the progression and participation of Muslim women in mosques and wider society. For example, building on the work of organisations such as the British Muslim Forum and the Sufi Muslim Council who are encouraging greater access to mosques and mosque committees for women.
* A major expansion in community leadership training courses for Muslim women and young Muslims, including work around confidence building, communication skills, negotiation and mediation. Courses run by organisations like Common Purpose could cover the chance to meet and work as apprentices for senior decision-makers and leaders across communities, business and voluntary sectors. Participants can also visit prisons, housing developments, businesses, hospitals and manufacturing plants to help learn the leadership skills necessary in influencing people and confronting difficult issues.
* New local projects that promote opportunities for Muslim women and young Muslims to play a greater role in civic life such as becoming magistrates, local councillors or school governors. This will help promote equality and the skills that strengthen communities’ resilience to extremism. Roughly only 0.4 per cent of councillors are Asian women. In 2006 there were 75 Asian female councillors and 438 Asian male councillors. In total, only 2.8 per cent of councillors were Asian, compared 4.6 per cent of the adult population.

Anything about "teaching against the jihad ideology of Islamic supremacism"? Of course not.

Bush coddles American apologists for jihad

So says Steve Emerson in "Radical Outreach: Bush coddles American apologists for radical Islam" in National Review (thanks to Andrew Bostom):

At Wednesday’s rededication ceremony of the Saudi-funded Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., President Bush missed a perfect opportunity to repudiate apologism for radical Islam, and instead announced his latest plan to get the Muslim world to stop hating America: appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Bush praised the OIC, saying, “We admire and thank those Muslims who have denounced what the Secretary General of the OIC called ‘radical fringe elements who pretend that they act in the name of Islam.’” The special envoy’s mission, Bush said, would be to “listen and learn” to OIC ambassadors.

While this may sound nice, it is rooted in complete ignorance of the rampant radicalism, pro-terrorist, and anti-American sentiments routinely found in statements by the OIC and its leaders, including referring to “Islamophobia” — and not the mass slaughter of innocents in the name of Islam — the “worst form of terrorism,” as OIC did last May.

In 2002, the OIC published its “Declaration on International Terrorism.” Therein, the authors stated, amongst other outrageous claims, that there was no such thing as Palestinian terrorism, writing, “We reject any attempt to associate Islamic states or Palestinian and Lebanese resistance with terrorism.” To the OIC, groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and Hezbollah are not terrorists, but “freedom fighters.”

Read it all.

U.S. approves contacts with Muslim Brotherhood: 'Region is going Islam'

Leiken's naivete and willful ignorance win the day. For now. From the World Tribune (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has been quietly engaging the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Officials said the State Department has approved a policy that would enable U.S. diplomats to meet and coordinate with Brotherhood leaders in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and other Arab states. They said the program would first be restricted to elected officials from the Brotherhood and eventually be extended to their political chiefs.

"The region is going Islam," an official said. "We see this in nearly every country in the Middle East. We either understand it and engage with it or find ourselves completely out of the picture."

The Brotherhood has been regarded as the inspiration for Muslim movements throughout the Arab world. The organization, founded in Egypt, spread through Saudi financing and has served as the inspiration for Al Qaida.

Many Arab countries have banned the Brotherhood. But in Egypt, a party composed of Brotherhood members has won 20 percent of the seats in the National Assembly and plays a major role in domestic policy.

[...]

The State Department has been discussing the new policy with the U.S. intelligence community. On June 20, the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research convened a meeting with members of the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency to expand dialogue with the Brotherhood.

The proposal was based on a study by Robert Leiken, a researcher at the Nixon Center. The study, commissioned by the National Intelligence Council, urged the United States to open a formal channel to the Islamic movement.

Such a channel would include formal meetings with Brotherhood leaders throughout the Arab and Islamic world and invite members to study or work in the United States. Officials said the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI, opposes the proposal, concerned that this would facilitate Al Qaida plots to attack the United States.

At the State Department forum, Leiken was opposed by Hillel Fradin, an Islamic expert from the Hudson Institute. Fradkin was said to have argued that engaging the rigidly ideological Brotherhood would dash any hope for reform within political Islam.

"You make them partners," Zeyno Baran, Fradkin's colleague at Hudson, told the New York Sun. "They might Islamize the Muslims, but it's okay because they can think or do what they want as long as they are not violent. That is the misunderstanding and mistake."

Iranian cartoon pulled from film festival

Iran demonstrates the long reach of Islamic Tolerance. From Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

THAILAND has caved in to pressure from Iran and withdrawn the animated movie Persepolis, about a girl growing up and feeling repressed under Islamic rule, from next month's Bangkok International Film Festival.

"I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown," festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya said today.

"It's a good film, but there are other considerations."

The film, based on the popular French comic books of Iranian director and writer Marjane Satrapi, drew complaints from the government-affiliated Iran Farabi Foundation when it was screened at this year's Cannes Film Festival in France.

In a letter published by several news organisations, the foundation said the film "presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts"....

And that isn't allowed in Thailand, evidently.

Iran's rulers are criticised in Persepolis but so are Western democracies for backing the Shah and supplying his government with weapons.

Pennsylvania: Attempted honor killing

"A woman who did not identify herself said this was not a criminal case but a family matter between them and their daughter's boyfriend." That's how such cases are treated now all over the Islamic world. And how they will soon be treated in Europe, and eventually in Pennsylvania, unless Westerners start to wake up.

Police: Father, Son Try To Kidnap Daughter's Fiancé," from Philadelphia's NBC10.com, with thanks to SCC:

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A Bucks County father was accused of going to extremes to break-up his daughter's romance.

Police said the father and his son tried to kidnap her fiancé by beating him up and tossing him into a sport utility vehicle.

Robert Webber, of Middletown Township police, said he thought he was being dispatched to a Bucks County diner Friday night for a fight but once he got there he was in the middle of a family disagreement turned violent.

"The victim advised me that his fiancée's family was trying to kill him, drag him into a car and take him somewhere, where he believed he was going to be killed," Webber said.

Webber said the alleged victim told him his fiancée's family was upset the two had moved in together.

He said there were cultural differences and that's why 48-year-old Mohd Nasher and his son 20-year-old Mohammed Nasher were allegedly gunning for the fiancé.

"The father and son came in, grabbed our victim, pulled him outside, began choking and beating him. Drug him into the back of a Ford Explorer and that's where they advised him that they were going to take him somewhere. He jumped out the other side window in fear for his life and as he went to run away the father told him, 'I'm going to find you and I'm going to shoot you.' The son went and grabbed a bat and went to chase after him," Webber said....

NBC 10 left several voicemails asking for comment and when a call was returned, a woman who did not identify herself said this was not a criminal case but a family matter between them and their daughter's boyfriend.

Giuliani: Let's not be fooled again, let's help Fatah

Rudy says we must not get fooled again, and fall for someone like Arafat. So, he says...let's aid Fatah. Hard-nosed and unfoolable as ever, eh, Rudy?

"Giuliani Calls for Increasing American Support for Fatah," by Marc Santora for the New York Times (thanks to WriterMom):

VIRGINIA BEACH, June 26 — Rudolph W. Giuliani addressed Israeli-Palestinian discord on Tuesday, saying it was pointless for the United States to negotiate with Hamas, the Islamic group that has seized control of the Gaza Strip, and that Washington should work with Egypt and Jordan to bolster Fatah and its control over the West Bank.

As he advocated active American engagement, Mr. Giuliani urged caution and broadly criticized the Clinton administration’s approach in the 1990s, trying to broker peace with Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

“Let’s not become like starry romantics like we were with Arafat, where he was leading us down the primrose path and we were helping him get the Nobel Peace Prize,” Mr. Giuliani said in a speech here at Regent University, which Pat Robertson, the evangelist, founded.

Setting out a position that largely tracked Bush administration policy and the positions of Egypt, Israel and Jordan, Mr. Giuliani suggested that the best course was to bolster Fatah, which Mr. Arafat controlled until he died and is now run by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

“Let’s see if we can’t get Jordan and Egypt to help us try and create something with Abbas in the West Bank,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Hey, great idea, Rudy. You may recall that Jordan ruled the West Bank from 1948 to 1967, and there was no Palestinian nationalist movement then. Now, why was that?

More incisive analysis from Giuliani here. He's missed a chance to explain what the war is, and what can be done to weaken the global jihad more effectively.

"Giuliani Slams Bill Clinton on Terrorism," by Bob Lewis for The Associated Press:

In his comments Tuesday, Giuliani said Democrats would abandon Iraq while giving terrorists the U.S. "timetable for retreat."

Giuliani remained aligned with President Bush in keeping U.S. forces in Iraq even as two more senior Senate Republicans Indiana's Richard Lugar and Ohio's George Voinovich in the past two days suggested the president's policy is failing and said he should begin bringing troops home.

In his Rockville appearance, Giuliani compared the war in Iraq to the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

"What happened in Gaza is a microcosm of what's going to happen in Baghdad" if the United States withdraws. "It will become something that inflames the entire region."

Rice: Hamas a "Resistance Movement"...MSM covers up for her

The US State Department recognizes Hamas as a terrorist organization. However, to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice it is a "resistance movement." What's next, Condi? American aid for Hamas? Khaled Maashal in Washington?

"Rice calls Hamas 'resistance movement': But unscripted remarks about terror group not published by paper," by Aaron Klein for WND:

JERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice twice referred to Hamas as a "resistance movement" during a meeting with reporters from the New York Daily News earlier this month, but the newspaper did not report her remarks, WND has learned.

Rice's interview is transcribed in full on the State Department website.

Rice's statements mark the second documented time in recent months she called Hamas a "resistance movement" during unscripted chats with journalists.

Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shooting attacks and rocket firings. It's classified by the State Department as a terror organization. The group's official charter calls for the murder of Jews and quotes widely from the anti-Semitic creed, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

During the interview June 8 with the editorial board of the Daily News, Rice was asked about the recent history of democratic elections in the Middle East resulting in the rise to power of terror groups, such as Hamas.

Rice told the paper it was "very interesting to see Hamas trying to come to terms with no longer being really a resistance movement, but having to deal with politics."

Rice then referred to Hamas as a resistance movement a second time during then interview.

"A moderate Palestinian friend of mine said, 'You know, they (Hamas) used to be the great resistance, running the streets with their faces covered and going after Israel. And now, they look like a bunch of politicians who also can't make the sewer system work.'"

She went on to reference Hamas' terror cells, calling them the group's "military wing," which regularly carries out terror attacks, including shootings and firing of rockets into Jewish population centers.

"And they're (Hamas) clearly uncomfortable in that framework, which is part of why I think you see the military wing of Hamas trying to make this again about Israel and the Palestinians, not about the contestation of politics inside the Palestinian territories," Rice said.

According to Rice, there are no longer any terrorist groups. Only resistance movements remain.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Baghdad Christians: “It was a kind of genocide killing”

A genocide no one noticed.

"Baghdad Christians Find New Life in Kurdish North," by Sabrina Tavernise in the New York Times:

KARA-ULA, Iraq — The 70 houses of this tiny village spring from the treeless, arid plain here in the northern tip of Iraq with the uniformity of an army camp.

Built over the past four years of war, they house Christian refugees from some of Baghdad’s most dangerous neighborhoods: Dora, New Baghdad and Mashtel.

There the residents did not know one another, busy with their city lives. Now a barber, a bank manager, a news anchor and an electrician are comrades in the misery of flight.

“We saw everything a human can see,” said Majida Hamo, a mother of four who came from Mashtel recently. “It was a kind of genocide killing.”

“We were saying to Jesus, ‘See us and save us.’ ”

The Iraqi exodus is one of the largest displacements in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948. Many have fled to Jordan and Syria, countries where Arabic is spoken. Others have stayed within Iraq’s borders, moving into the largely peaceful Kurdish north, which is more foreign to them than neighboring countries because the main language is Kurdish, not their native Arabic.

The choice of this small patch of land along the Turkish border was not arbitrary. On a gray day in 1975, the refugees’ parents were driven from their farms here, caught in one of Saddam Hussein’s cruel sectarian relocation plans, residents said. They were given a few hours to gather their possessions and get into army trucks. They ended up in Baghdad.

In the capital, the families — farmers and shepherds — became city dwellers, taking jobs as taxi drivers, maids and barbers. Samir Bibadro was born the year his parents arrived. They settled in Dora, a bustling lower-middle-class area with a large Christian population.

For most of his adult life Mr. Bibadro worked as a barber, giving trims and close shaves in his southern Baghdad neighborhood. After the American invasion, Sunni militants moved in to control it and began killing barbers, because the Prophet Muhammad wore a beard.

Read it all.

Afghan Women Journalists Targeted

Sharia Alert from Brave New Democratic Afghanistan. From AP (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

Farida Nekzad began receiving menacing calls on her cell phone a half hour after arriving at the funeral of a fellow female journalist assassinated by gunmen.

"'Daughter of America! We will kill you, just like we killed her,'" she quoted the man on the phone as saying as she stood near the maimed body of Zakia Zaki, the owner of a radio station north of Kabul.

Part of Zaki's face was blown away by three attackers who entered her home and shot her seven times with pistol and automatic rifle fire in front of her 8-year-old son this month.

"'At least people can recognize her from one side of her face. We will shoot your face, and nobody will recognize you,'" Nekzad quoted the caller as saying before she hung up on him.

[...]

When Afghans talk about Shaima Rezayee, a popular music video show host shot to death in 2005, they speak in hushed tones _ about the racy, un-Islamic way she dressed and behaved on TV, as if this justified her death.

And it appears Zaki may have been targeted because of her radio programming.

The radio host had been critical of warlords who warned her to change the programming on her station. Two suspects being held for her slaying are connected with the militant group Hezb-e-Islami, officials said.

In a second killing of a female journalist this month, Shokiba Sanga Amaaj, a newscaster for private Shamshad TV, was shot in her home in Kabul on June 1. Two family friends have been detained in the case....

Nekzad, 29, who works for the news agency Pajhwok Afghan News, forwarded an e-mail to an Associated Press journalist that warned her, "We will kill you as soon as possible, INSHA ALLAH" _ if God wills it.

The message, dated June 8, accused her of sexual impropriety and of working for NATO. It was signed "Habib from Hezb-e-Islami," the same militant group authorities suspect in Zaki's death. The authenticity of the e-mail could not be verified.

Nekzad said Afghans began paying attention to her fears only after she told foreign journalists, who took the dangers she faced seriously. She said she wondered if her own role as a journalist could somehow have saved Zaki.

A year ago, Nekzad assigned a reporter to interview Zaki about death threats she had received. Zaki later decided against airing the story, so the reporter scrapped it and erased the videotape.

"If it were published, maybe the international community would have taken it more seriously, but after her death, it has no meaning," Nekzad said. "Nobody paid attention, not even the international community or the government."...

"Maybe they will kill me after six months, after six days, after six minutes," she said. "We know that one day we will leave this world, but if you are informed that you will be killed, it is very, very bad. Every second kills you."

250 acts of treason

A summary of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's statement of surrender. "PM Olmert Plans to Release 250 Fatah Terrorists From Jail," by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz for the INN :

Addressing his remarks to the PA Arabs, Prime Minister Olmert said that Israel is just as sensitive to the issue of its kidnapped soldiers as the residents of the PA are to the issue of their relatives serving time in Israeli jails.

Prime Minister Olmert then announced, "Out of sensitivity to the matter of the prisoners, I decided today to bring before the government of Israel a decision according to which we will release 250 prisoners, members of Fatah, without blood on their hands, and who will commit themselves to refrain from further involvement in terrorism. I do this because I understand the importance of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority."

Who is going to guarantee the commitment? Abbas? He just merged the murderous al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade into his own security force! And that force is about to increase by 250 members.

He added that the intended mass prisoner release had another purpose, as well: "It is important that every Palestinian knows that whoever is prepared to have peaceful and conciliatory relations with us will receive our hand outstretched in peace."

What every Palestinian knows now more than ever is that terror pays. I would paraphrase Olmert's statement as follows: "It is important that every Palestinian knows that as long as the terror continues, you will receive our arms outstretched in surrender."

In addition, Olmert promised to transfer withheld tax revenues to the PA, to make "meaningful" improvement in the freedom of movement of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria, and to renew commercial ties with that population.

More money for terror. More money to line the pockets of the corrupt Fatah leadership.

Israel will not cut basic supplies to Gaza, either, the Prime Minister avowed, saying, "We will not punish the Gaza population for the actions of the Hamas leaders."

Why punish the population who brought Hamas to power? Did the US support the German population during WWII? Israel supplies Gaza with water and electricity, while it hastily turns off service to Israelis who are suffering economic distress due to the effects of terror. Qassam-besieged Sderot still has not received the proper protection promised by the government so long ago. Residents of the north still do not have the adequate bomb shelters promised by the government so long ago.

What is important to the Olmert government is that Gazans are taken care of. But why? Israel disengaged. Let Egypt feed them. Let Egypt supply them with water and electricity.

According to Prime Minister Olmert, the new Abbas- and Fatah-led government of the PA "recognizes Israel's right to exist," accepts the "two states for two peoples" solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, "opposes terrorism," and "includes no representatives of terrorist organizations."

Fatah's response? "Al Aqsa Brigades spokesperson urges Palestinians to support resistance," from Ma'an News Agency:

Gaza - Ma'an - Spokesman for Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Brigades, Abu Fuad, on Monday urged the Palestinian people to support the "choice of resistance".

In a press statement made in Gaza he said "the Israeli policies will be frustrated on the rock of the steadfastness of the people, as before. We confirmed that we are putting the issue of the prisoners at the top of our priorities".

He urged the Palestinian leaders to move immediately to "expose the Israeli position and the barbaric way they are treating the Palestinian people." He also urged "the Arab League and the Islamic organizations to take a step forward, act in more responsible way and support the Palestinian people."

So much for Olmert's goodwill gestures.

According to "Olmert agrees to free Palestinians" in Al Jazeera, the 250 acts of treason committed by Olmert will result in…..nothing!

But the "goodwill" measure will not help increase Abbas's popularity across factional divides because Ehud Olmert said the prisoners had to be members of Abbas's Fatah faction.

They also had to be "without blood on their hands" and willing to renounce terrorism.

The Arab media is already planting the seeds to negate the "goodwill gesture."

Olmert released 250 Jihadists and all he well get in return is a demand for more. And terror, of course. All the while Gilad Shalit still sits in Gaza.

In "MK Ahmed Tibi embraces Ehud Olmert's Sharm statements" in the Jerusalem Post, we find two noteworthy responses from Israel's right:

MK Zvi Hendel of NU\NRP said that "Olmert continues to gallop at breakneck speed towards the precipice of a destroyed path and the annihilation of Israel's might. If the prisoners who are to be released were imprisoned subsequent to the Oslo accords then what has changed? Hendel asked, and answered that "Then too we said that Fatah was peace-loving and that we should caress them and hug them, and yet they committed crimes against the citizens of Israel. Every minute that goes by with this man (Olmert) still in power intensifies the danger to Israel."

MK Arye Eldad, another member of Hendel's party, said that "Irrespective of the practical failure of the Sharm summit for furthering peace in the Middle East, Olmert was forced into the Pavlovian response of releasing prisoners and rewarding terror."

At least some people get it. It's treason.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Jews, Neo-Nazis protest huge mosque in Germany

Neo-Nazis? Here is yet another indication of the deleterious effects of the abdication of the European political mainstream. Its refusal to confront and deal with the many and various effects of rapid, large-scale Muslim immigration into Europe leaves the field open to unsavory groups. Then the presence of such groups taints the whole issue and give ammunition to the Leftists and jihad apologists who claim that anyone who opposes the Islamization of Europe is a crypto-Nazi anyway. In a sane Europe, prime ministers and parliaments would be discussing Sharia, deciding just how much of it, if any, they intend to allow, and moving sternly against those who are trying to implement Sharia in their states. But we do not live in a sane age in Europe's history.

"Huge mosque stirs protests in Cologne," by Harry de Quetteville in the Telegraph, with thanks to Jay:

The construction of one of Europe's biggest mosques near to a globally famous Christian landmark has sparked a furious row in Germany. Immigration and integration are hugely sensitive questions in Germany, which is home to a Turkish community of several million. But almost within the shadow of Cologne Cathedral, political correctness has now been replaced by bitter confrontation as the city's Muslims begin to build a 2,000-capacity mosque with twin minarets that will reach 170ft.

"Muslims have been here for 40 years, yet people are praying in back rooms," said Seyda Can, an Islamic theologian at the Turkish Islamic Union in Cologne. "There are 120,000 Muslims in Cologne, that's 12 per cent of the population. We should not hide."

Work will begin in the autumn on the £15 million mosque, which will include huge glass and stone cupolas and two six-storey minarets.

[...]

"With this mosque Muslims will no longer think of their old countries as their home, but of Germany," she said.

That will do it, eh? No need to deal with any questions about Sharia or the overarching loyalty to the umma, transcending loyalty to any nation state, that has always been part of Islam? All that will just fly out the window as soon as this mosque is completed, I suppose?

"Two hundred years ago the first Protestant church was built in Cologne. It was a long process for Protestants to be accepted but today, of course, they are. Why can't we be the same?"

Because Islam is not the same. Protestantism is not incompatible with the European separation of religion from state power. Islam traditionally recognizes no such separation. What assurance can you give us that Muslims in Germany will acquiesce to this separation without any intention to impose Sharia in the future?

However, others believe that the mosque in the city's Ehrenfeld district, just two miles from the Gothic spires of Cologne Cathedral, will foster, rather that heal, divisions.

"It's not a popular plan," said Joerg Uckermann, the district's deputy mayor. "We don't want to build a Turkish ghetto in Ehrenfeld. I know about Londonistan and I don't want that here."

Mr Uckermann is part of a curious coalition of protest that has united Jewish intellectuals and neo-Nazis. Leading the charge is Ralph Giordano, a prominent Jewish author, who wrote recently that Germany was witnessing a "clash of two completely different cultures" and questioned whether they could ever be reconciled.

Stating that he had received death threats for his opinions, he added: "What kind of a state are we in that I can face a fatwa in Germany?"

Good question.

Pastors Settle 'Vilifying Islam' Case

Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot have long been embroiled in this battle for free speech. Why should vilifying Islam, or vilifying Christianity, or vilifying anything you like, be against the law at all?

From CBNNews.com, with thanks to all who sent this in:

CBNNews.com - A five-year battle over free speech in Australia's state of Victoria is over.

Pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scott were charged with vilifying Islam.

They have reached what is being called a mediated settlement in the case.

The Islamic Council of Victoria state has agreed that citizens have the right to "robustly debate religion" and "criticize religious beliefs" within the limits of the law.

Terms of a monetary settlement have yet to be disclosed.

However, both sides must share legal costs.

The two pastors spent more than $500,000 defending their right to criticize Islam.

Mufti of Egypt bans female circumcision

Ali Gomaa, the statue-hatin', wife-beatin', Hizballah-supportin' Mufti of Egypt, now says that female genital mutilation is wrong, apparently reversing the Shafi'i school's traditional judgment that it is obligatory (cf. 'Umdat al-Salik e4.3). It will be interesting to see what actions, if any, he takes in order to back up this ruling.

"Mufti bans female circumcision," from Reuters (thanks to JE):

Egypt's state-appointed Grand Mufti said today female genital cutting is forbidden by Islam.

His pronouncement came after an 11-year-old girl died while undergoing the procedure at a private medical clinic in southern Egypt.

Genital cutting of girls, often referred to as female genital mutilation or circumcision, is banned in Egypt although the practice remains widespread as a rite of passage for girls and is often viewed as a way to protect their chastity.

"The harmful tradition of circumcision that is practised in Egypt in our era is forbidden," Mufti Ali Gomaa was quoted as saying by the Egyptian state news agency MENA.

There are a couple of weasel words in there. Does he mean that if it is practiced in a different way from how it is practiced in Egypt in our era, it would be all right?

The statement was the strongest yet against the practice by the Mufti, who is the government's official arbiter of Islamic law. The Grand Sheikh of Cairo's prestigious al-Azhar mosque, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, had previously described the practice as un-Islamic, although some other clerics have supported it.

Both Tantawi and Coptic Pope Shenouda, the leader of Egypt's minority Christian community, have said that neither the Koran nor the Bible demand or mention female circumcision, which is usually performed on pre-pubescent girls....

The practice is performed on both Muslim and Christian girls in Egypt and Sudan, but is extremely rare in most of the rest of the Arab world. It is also common in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

A 2005 UNICEF report on the practice showed that 97 per cent of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 had been circumcised.

Egypt's campaign to end female cutting has included television programs aimed at persuading parents to abandon the ancient practice.

'My father tried to murder me' by honour killer daughter

Yet another harrowing story from the Brave New UK. By Ferzanna Riley for the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

I remember clearly the first time I feared for my life. My father was visiting my mother and their new baby in hospital, leaving my ten-year-old sister and me at home taking care of the younger children.

The other two babies, aged one and two, were asleep and the original Godzilla film was on television. We were so absorbed that we didn't hear my father come in.

Hearing my baby sister Farah grizzling in the cot, he strode over to discover her nappy had leaked and her clothes and bedding were a mess. The room shrank as my father loomed, more terrifying than Godzilla, very real and very angry.

Predictably, the verbal and physical abuse was directed solely at me, but although I was used to his assaults, on this night the violence took a terrifying new turn. To my horror, he grabbed a big knife from the kitchen. Roaring that he was going to butcher me like an animal, he pulled my head back by my hair, exposing my neck, and held the knife across my throat.

I was barely conscious, but aware these were the final moments of my life. My sister fell weeping to her knees, begging my father not to kill me. He released me and left us both cleaning up the mess, sobbing in fright. My father had almost murdered me. I was six years old.

I grew up being called a bitch, a bastard and an idiot. I answered to a variety of names that roughly translated into the same thing. Sali, harami, haramzadi, kameeni were the insults in Urdu that I was most familiar with. Bhahenchode (sisterf***er) and maaderchode (motherf***er) were ones I heard frequently, but only understood years later.

Read it all.

Call for descendents of Muslims expelled from Spain in the seventeenth century to be given preferential terms for Spanish citizenship

And so it begins: the application of the "right of return" rhetoric that has worked so well in Israel to Spain, another land that belongs by right to the Dar al-Islam, and now must be reclaimed from the infidels. This demand will probably be granted, with no Spanish politician savvy or courageous enough to demand reciprocal favorable terms for the descendents of dhimmis who were exiled from the crumbling Ottoman Empire when their people were judged to be kafir harbi -- infidels at war with Islam -- and were given the choice of conversion or exile, or in many cases conversion or death. No one will demand reciprocal terms for the descendents of dhimmis who have streamed out of the Middle East to escape the institutionalized discrimination and harassment they lived under there for centuries.

All I want is a villa in Tsesmes, bought and paid for by the Turkish government, along with 24-hour guards to safeguard me from angry jihadists there. As soon as the Turks come across, I will support this call in Spain.

"Citizenship call from Spain's uneasy Muslim past," by Jason Webb for Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

MADRID, June 21 (Reuters) - A call for descendents of Muslims expelled from Spain in the seventeenth century to be given preferential terms for Spanish citizenship has highlighted the country's uneasy relationship with its Islamic heritage.

The proposal was made at a meeting this week in Cordoba, a city in Andalusia which was the centre of Islamic civilization in the Iberian peninsula during nearly eight centuries of Moorish rule of much of what is now Spain and Portugal.

In 1609, Spain's King Philip III ordered all Muslims to leave his kingdom, leading to the expulsion of about 300,000 people. Their descendents today mainly live in North Africa and still regard themselves as "Andalusians", after the old name for Muslim Spain -- "Al Andalus"

Giving them preferential terms for Spanish citizenship would be an act of symbolic reconciliation, said Mansur Escudero, head of Spain's Islamic Board, the biggest group representing Spanish Muslims.

"The Andalusians who live in North Africa, most of them in Morocco, in Tunisia, in Libya, they're part of those societies and aren't going to want to come to Spain," Escudero said.

"It would be more of an emotional, moral gesture, a recognition of an historic injustice," he told Reuters, adding that some "Andalusian" families still preserved keys to houses they left behind four centuries ago.

Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492, already have a special right to obtain Spanish citizenship after two years legal residence in Spain, a privilege also available to citizens of Spain's former colonies.

And the Left chimes in to help out their allies:

A small left-wing party, Izquierda Unida, has backed the call for preferential citizenship for descendents of Spanish Muslims. The governing Socialists, who have promoted an "Alliance of Civilizations" between the West and Islam, have yet to give their response, Escudero said....

Saudi religious police trial postponed

The victim, whom the muttawa targeted for being seen with an unrelated woman, "went into custody a healthy man. He got out in a funeral procession."

By Donna Abu-Nasr for the Associated Press:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A judge on Saturday postponed the trial of three members of Saudi Arabia's religious police for their alleged involvement in the death of a man arrested after being seen with a woman who was not his relative.

The judge did not set a new date for the trial, the first of its kind in this conservative nation, but assured the man's family the postponement was just procedural, according to a family representative.

Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, a retired border patrol guard in his early 50s, died in custody shortly after his June 1 arrest by religious police in the northern city of Tabuk.

"He went into custody a healthy man. He got out in a funeral procession," his cousin, Audah al-Bulaiwi, who is representing the family in court, told The Associated Press by phone from Tabuk.

The police became suspicious after they observed the woman getting into his car near an amusement park, according to accounts published by the local media. Under the kingdom's rules, a woman cannot drive, and can only go out in public with her father, brother, son or husband.

An investigation showed that al-Bulaiwi, who supplemented his pension by working as a driver, was asked by the family of the woman, who was in her 50s, to drive her home, according to press reports.

Al-Bulaiwi's cousin said the trial was postponed because the documents he presented to the judge were incomplete. While Saudis are allowed to appoint lawyers, many choose to send a family representative instead.

A statement by the governorate of Tabuk this week did not say how long the trial would last, what the charges against the men were or what punishment they could face if found guilty.

Still, the case was seen as a major setback for the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a feared government body that employs the religious police. It has long been resented for intimidating people and meddling into the most minute aspects of their lives.

The religious police, informally known as the muttawa, patrol public places, including malls, to ensure that women are covered in the mandatory black abaya, or cloak, that the sexes do not mix in public, that shops close five times a day for prayers and that the men go to the mosque and worship.

The muttawa don't wear uniforms, but are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men.

The Tabuk governorate said al-Bulaiwi died as a result of a severe drop in blood pressure and failure of the respiratory system.

Those tend to accompany death. Bet his heart stopped, too.

UK schools: Christian chastity ring no, Muslim hijab yes

Still more evidence of Britain's wholesale cultural abdication. "British High Court Wrestles With Symbol of Premarital Purity," by Alan Cowell in the New York Times, with thanks to Michelle Malkin:

LONDON, June 22 — At a time of passionate debate over religious clothing and emblems, a 16-year-old member of an evangelical Christian movement protested in court on Friday because her school has refused to allow her to wear a so-called purity ring, symbolizing her commitment to premarital chastity.

The case offered a counterpoint to a broader discussion concerning Muslim women who wear the full-face veil known as the niqab. But it also revealed stirrings of resentment among some members of Britain’s Christian majority, who say they are the victims of discrimination over how they display their faith.

The young woman, Lydia Playfoot, said her school, at Horsham, south of London, had told her that the ring broke the school’s rules on uniforms and jewelry.

But Ms. Playfoot argued that the prohibition breached her right to express a religious belief. Not only that, she said in a statement to the court, Sikh and Muslim pupils were permitted distinctive dress to show their religious identity.

Mid-East madness

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is on his way to the "Sharm Summit," where he will officially cave in to the international demand to strengthen the Fatah terrorist organization. Caving in to demand actually might not be the appropriate phrase, as Olmert is willing to capitulate all on his own. Israel will agree to send more money, guns and armored vehicles to a group that has not for one second ceased its terror activities. Israel will also start dismantling the same checkpoints which have saved so many lives.

Fatah is expected to demand even more. "Abbas to demand release of Barghouti," by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to demand the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails during Monday's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, PA officials said.

The officials also said Abbas would call for supplying the Fatah-controlled security forces with more weapons to thwart attempts by Hamas to try to take over the West Bank.

"We want thousands of rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles and a lot of ammunition," one PA official told The Jerusalem Post. "We also want Jordan and Egypt to help train our forces in the West Bank."

Another official said that Abbas and his aides would ask Israel torelease senior Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti and hundreds of Fatah prisoners to enhance Fatah's status. "We will also ask Israel to remove most of the checkpoints in the West Bank and to increase the number of Palestinians who are permitted to work in Israel," he said. "These measures are needed to boost Fatah's standing in the West Bank and to prevent Hamas from establishing bases of support there."

He said Abbas would also ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to instruct the IDF to stop pursuing Fatah gunmen and to refrain from raiding Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank.

Nice stuff. Doesn't anyone in the Bush or Olmert Administration see the insanity in the whole process? How long can Israel continue to support and arm a terrorist group that is bent on the destruction of its benefactor?

The newest Israeli aid package is being marketed as an anti-Hamas campaign. Taking into account this piece, which specifically states that Fatah officers aided Hamas in the Gaza coup, it is just surreal. "‘Fatah officers cooperated with Hamas in Gaza,’" by Ali Waked for Ynet:

"Dozens of officers in the (Fatah-affiliated) security forces are suspected of cooperating with Hamas during the Islamist group’s takeover of the Gaza Strip,” a senior Palestinian security official said Sunday.

According to the official, some senior officers have been suspected of cooperating with Hamas even prior to the decisive round of clashes with Fatah. He said the officers received money from Hamas in exchange for transferring information on the deployment of Palestinian Authority forces in the Strip.

Taking Fatah under your wing is bad enough; aiding Fatah against Hamas while Fatah actually aids Hamas is downright insanity. Is there any nation in the world that arms its enemy in the time of battle? Did the US send money and arms to Germany and Japan during World War II? Did the US send nukes to the Soviet Union during the Cold War?

The Israeli Government is not the only guilty party here. The Bush Administration is just as guilty. Every last bullet and dollar that finds its way to the Fatah coffers has upon it the US seal of approval -- and I'm not even talking about the millions of dollars and tons of weapons that the US transferred directly. The same weapons that are currently in Hamas hands.

The insanity must stop. Israel is well on the road to financing its own destruction. However, it's not too late. The first step in restoring order is the removal of the Olmert Government. The lives of millions have been entrusted to his dhimmi hands. Not only is he not protecting them, he is putting every Israeli civilian in harm's way, at Israeli taxpayer expense. I am financing the next terror attack. I am supporting the next Qassam launch.

I will also pay for the next funeral.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Israel to give hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority

Wishful Thinking Update: "Israel frees tax funds for Abbas," from The Australian, with thanks to Mackie:

ISRAEL agreed last night to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's emergency government, a measure designed to undercut Hamas Islamists controlling the Gaza Strip.

The money, Palestinian tax revenues withheld by Israel since Hamas came to power in an election last year, is part of an initial package to bolster Mr Abbas that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is likely to announce at a summit in Egypt tonight.

Israel wants to isolate Hamas economically, diplomatically and militarily in Gaza, which the Islamist group seized control of more than a week ago, while allowing funds to flow to Mr Abbas's Fatah administration in the West Bank.

The boost to Mr Abbas before tonight's summit at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh came as Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfiq al-Tirawi said Iran had played a "big role" in Hamas's seizure of Gaza.

The withholding of the tax receipts over the past 15 months - now totalling $US700 million ($827million) - sparked a financial crisis for the Palestinian Authority, leaving it largely unable to pay its staff or contractors.

"We have taken a decision in principle to release the money," Mr Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

"We will discuss with the Palestinian President tomorrow, and with the Palestinian Government in the summit's aftermath, how we release thefunds."

Dear Mr. Fantasy

Some people just don’t get it. They’ll stand in the midday sun and swear that night has fallen. They will stare down the barrel of a gun and claim they see an olive branch. Welcome to the world of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"Things in Gaza are turning around, Olmert says," by Ahiya Raved for Ynet:

Olmert spoke in a conference held by The Foundation Fund (Keren Hayesod), an organization dedicated to raising funds for Israel all over the world.

“I'll be meeting with President Mubarak, King Abdullah and Abu Mazen on Monday, and together we'll try to create a fresh start for us and for the Palestinians," he said.

Another fresh start. Someone please remind me how many of these starts we have seen. I have lost count.

"We'll have the hand of the US guiding us. President Bush wants to see the vision of a Palestinian state co-existing peacefully alongside Israel realized before he leaves his presidency.

Forget it. The Palestinians will see that it never happens. They don’t want it to. They never did. There may be a Palestinian state, but it will never co-exist peacefully alongside Israel.

Some say it (the violence in the Strip) only proves we have no partner for peace. I choose to see the chances, not just the difficulties. I think things in Gaza are turning around for the better.”

The icing on the cake. Things in Gaza are getting better? Excuse me, Mr. Olmert…but have you watched the news lately? Are you aware that Iran is sitting in your backyard? Are you aware that the worst kind of Islamic state is just on the other side of a security fence?

Are you serious?

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Iranian police beat, torture young men for wearing Western clothing

Michelle Malkin and others have posted the photos and asked that they be distributed far and wide. The young men below are being forced to wear around their necks and drink from cans Iranians use in toilets to clean themselves. They are being beaten and tortured for wearing Western dress. Michelle has much more, along with some pointed questions about whether these photos will capture the attention of the moral-equivalence Leftists who were up in arms over Abu Ghraib. Of course, we already know the answer.

Church leaders against the “Occupation”

They have it all backwards. It’s the Palestinians who are illegally occupying Israeli land. "Church Leaders Urge End to ‘Illegal Occupation,’" by Abdul Jalil Mustafa for Arab News:

AMMAN, 22 June 2007 - More than 130 Church leaders representing 550 million Christians worldwide yesterday ended a conference in Jordan by calling for an end to Israel’s “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territories.

The three-day meeting, held under the auspices of the World Council of Churches (WCC) endorsed the central committee’s decision to launch the “Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum.”

The forum seeks to “catalyze and coordinate new and existing church advocacy for peace aimed at ending the illegal occupation in accordance with UN resolutions, and demonstrate its commitment to inter-religious action for pace (sic) peace and justice that serves all the people of the region,” a WCC statement said.

“Churches have woken up to the issues in the Middle East like never been before. Another time we woke up is when we fought apartheid in Africa. This is another apartheid,” WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia told reporters. “The WCC core group will reconvene before late September to begin making appeals for immediate action,” he said.

In their “urgent plea,” which stresses the UN resolutions are the basis for peace, the church clerics and affiliated associations vowed to take action as a united front.

The document expressed support for the Palestinian self-determination, described the Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories as “illegal and an obstacle to peace” and dubbed the separation barrier built by Israel as “a grave breach of international law.”

So often prejudice gets in the way of the facts. It is impossible to refer to Israel as an occupier of Palestinian lands, since strictly speaking there is no such thing as Palestinian territories. Before Israel’s capture of the so-called Palestinian territories in 1967, they belonged to Syria, Egypt and Jordan. There was no Palestine of the Palestinians. It was under the British Mandate until partition in 1948. The Arabs rejected the partition and declared war.

Before the British, there were the Turks, and so many others all the way back to the Kingdom of Judea, which was destroyed by the Romans nearly 2000 years ago. During this entire period, the land in question was never under Palestinian rule. Never. In fact, before 1967, when Egypt controlled the Gaza strip, they were never considered occupiers of Palestinian land. The Jordanians were never considered occupiers of the West Bank. There was no occupation, because the land had never been under the rule of the Palestinians.

The lands were only considered occupied once the Jews took charge. That was just a bit too much for everybody.

Fact: there never was a Palestine ruled by Palestinians. Therefore, no country can ever be accused of occupying Palestinian territory. There simply is no such thing.

And what’s with the comparison to apartheid? This is not a racial issue at all. If the Palestinians stopped killing Israeli civilians, there would be no need for this "apartheid."

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Israeli cabinet considers release of PA tax funds to help Fayad

From the Jerusalem Post:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will present Sunday's cabinet meeting with a series of measures designed to bolster the new Palestinian government headed by Salaam Fayad, which was sworn in last week.

Israel wants to send a message that there is a new positive approach from Jerusalem ahead of Monday's four-way summit in Sharm e-Sheikh to be attended by Olmert, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

The plan to be presented to the cabinet includes the reversal of the government decision to freeze the transfer of Palestinian tax revenues, which was instituted after Hamas came to power early last year.

The tax funds collected by Israel since the freeze are believed to amount to between $300 million and $400m. An official said the money would be transferred in stages after coordination with the Palestinians.

The cabinet will also discuss policy toward the new Palestinian government and ways Israel can strengthen Abbas following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip two weeks ago.

Among the measures likely to be approved are removing more West Bank roadblocks and pressing ahead with peace talks if the Fayad government shows it is acting to prevent terrorist attacks.

A diplomatic official in Jerusalem stressed that there would be neither an additional transfer of weapons to the Palestinians nor a release of Palestinian security prisoners at this juncture.

Not a good sign when your diplomatic corps has to reassure everybody that, in fact, you won't be giving your avowed enemies more weapons they can use to kill you.

The source stressed that although Jerusalem viewed the new Palestinian administration very positively it was still very early and the Fayad government still had to prove itself.

What a relief. For a second it looked as though Olmert's government might be exercising poor judgement.

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman is expected to be among the minority of ministers to vote against measures to boost Abbas.

Speaking over the weekend, Lieberman said: "Even if we give Abbas F-16s he still has no chance to succeed against Hamas. It has already been proven that giving weapons and money to Fatah goes toward strengthening terror and not toward fighting it."

Interesting point. Too bad no one else has been able to put 2 and 2 together. Maybe they should skip the F-16s and hand over an a-bomb or two?

[...]

On Saturday an official in Jerusalem told Israel Radio that Egypt could do more to prevent the smuggling on its border with Israel if it wished to do so.

He also confirmed that the sky is blue, kittens and puppies are cute, and that, as a statesman, husband, and role model, Caligula left much to be desired.

Egypt and Jordan must prevent terror operatives from becoming more confident for they endanger stability not only in Israel, but in their countries as well, he added.

Yeah, but more in Israel, I'd bet.

Furthermore, Israel must make it clear that violence would not advance anything and that Abbas would be guaranteed cooperation by the international community to combat violence in the PA-controlled territories, the official said.

[Insert your own biting comment here.]

House votes to ban aid to Saudi Arabia, White House not cooperating with efforts

"In the past three years, Congress has passed bills to stop the relatively small amount of U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia, only to see the Bush administration circumvent the prohibitions."

"US house votes to ban aid to Saudi Arabia," by Richard Cowan for Reuters:

Washington (ANTARA News) - The US House of Representatives voted on Friday to prohibit any aid to Saudi Arabia as lawmakers accused the close ally of religious intolerance and bankrolling terrorist organizations.

The prohibition, reflecting persistent tensions with the kingdom after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, was attached to a foreign aid funding bill for next year that has not yet been debated by the Senate.

It also faces a veto threat from the White House because of an unrelated provision.

A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington declined to comment on the legislation.

In the past three years, Congress has passed bills to stop the relatively small amount of U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia, only to see the Bush administration circumvent the prohibitions.

Now, lawmakers are trying to close loopholes so that no more U.S. aid can be sent to the world`s leading petroleum exporter.

"By cutting off aid and closing the loophole we send a clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that they must be a true ally in advancing peace in the Middle East," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat.

According to supporters of the legislation, the United States provided $2.5 million to Riyadh in 2005 and 2006.

The money has been used to train Saudis in counter-terrorism and border security and to pay for Saudi military officers to attend U.S. military school.

"Saudi Arabia propagates terrorism. We all know that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat. She added that Saudi youths had entered Iraq to "wage jihad" against U.S. forces fighting there.

[...]

Lawmakers also complained that with Saudi Arabia`s vast wealth from oil revenues, U.S. taxpayers do not need to subsidize training Saudis.

"With poor countries all over the globe begging us for help, why are we giving money to this oil-rich nation?" Berkley said.

Not to mention the many possible domestic uses for the money.

The U.S. State Department has routinely criticized Saudi Arabia for religious intolerance, disenfranchisement of women and arbitrary justice.

U.N. committees and groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also have been critical of the Saudi legal system and its rights record, including punishments such as flogging and amputation.

Riyadh tends to dismiss the criticism by saying it follows the traditions of Islamic law.

[...]

Once again demonstrating the urgent need to develop and use alternatives to oil:

According to the Energy Information Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia are the third largest after Canada and Mexico.

Egypt: Muslim mobs attack churches near Alexandria

Still more persecution of the Copts. "Egypt: Mobs Attack Churches Near Alexandria," from Compass Direct:

ISTANBUL, June 15 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim rioters attacked two Coptic Orthodox churches, damaged Christian-owned shops and injured seven Christians in two unrelated incidents in northern Egypt during the past week, local Christians said.

Witnesses said that a mob in Zawyet Abdel-Qader, 20 miles west of Alexandria, had freely vandalized the town’s Christian quarter for 90 minutes the night of June 8 before police intervened.

In a second incident in Dekheila, six miles west of Alexandria, police immediately halted a mob attack on the Church of the Holy Virgin on Tuesday night (June 12), preventing all but minimal damage from occurring.

Local Christians confirmed that each attack was triggered by a fight between a Muslim and a Christian, but Akram Anwar Bekheed, a local member of the National Democratic Party in Zawyet Abdel-Qader, laid partial responsibility on the government.

Bekheed said that the government had created a permissive atmosphere for sectarian violence by allowing previous attacks on churches to go unpunished in the interest of keeping peace.

Read it all.

Khatami denies shaking hands with women; protesters: "Death to the Clerics' Foe"

Iranian Ex-Presidents Gone Wild Update. "Iran’s ex-president denies touching women," from Agence France-Presse:

TEHERAN - Iran’s former reformist president Mohammad Khatami on Thursday vehemently denied breaking Islamic rules by shaking hands with women on a trip to Italy, amid growing condemnation from conservatives.

Khatami’s old hardline foes have expressed outrage over video footage circulating on the Internet which apparently shows the former president shaking hands with several women.

‘Khatami officially denied that he had shook hands with any woman and the film circulating is not based on reality,’ said a statement from his office reported by the ISNA news agency and Ham Mihan newspaper.

‘This film circulating on some conservative websites which shows him shaking hand with some Italian women is a version that has been edited and Khatami wholly denies this.’

YouTube has several videos. Forbidden handshakes at approximately 4:28 here (with, at times, the surreal accompaniment of a string ensemble playing a tango), and more in this one, sarcastically subtitled "love story."

According to Islam’s sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related. Whether at home or on trips abroad, Iran’s officials studiously avoid handshakes with females.

[...]

The alleged handshake has already been condemned in the ultra-hardline press, who took a strong stance against Khatami’s cautious attempts at social reform during his 1997-2005 presidency.

Meanwhile, Etemad newspaper said several ultra-conservatives staged a protest against Khatami in the holy northeastern city of Mashhad and handed over a complaint to a special clerical court demanding he be put on trial.

The paper said the crowd, carrying placards like ‘Defrock Mohammad Khatami’ and ‘‘Death to the Clerics’ Foe’, successfully lodged their complaint and handed over copies of the film and other documents to the court.

It said the protests were part of a drive against Khatami ahead of key parliamentary elections in Iran on March 23 where moderates will seek to challenge conservatives for control of the chamber.

Khatami has said he will not himself stand in the elections, but he remains a hugely charismatic figurehead for moderates and retains a following despite the acknowledged failures of his rule.

The New York Times: Mouthpiece for terrorist propaganda

It should come as no surprise that the New York Times elected to give Ahmed Yousef, political adviser to Ismail Haniya, a platform to spew Hamas propaganda. After all, editorial choices like this are what separate the Times from papers that don’t give comfort to the enemy. Last I checked, the U.S. still recognizes Hamas as a terrorist organization. No American media outlet should provide Hamas with the vehicle to express the freedom of speech that Hamas withholds from so many.

Here are some samples;

It has consistently offered a 10-year cease-fire with the Israelis to try to create an atmosphere of calm in which we resolve our differences. Hamas even adhered to a unilateral cease-fire for 18 months in an effort to normalize the situation on the ground. None of these points appear to have been recognized in the press coverage of the last few days.

At what price the ceasefire? Only Israel’s return to the 1967 borders, the right of return for Palestinians, and the release of prisoners held in Israeli jails. These terms seem very similar to those offered to Israel at the Mecca Accord…for a peace treaty!

And what happens after 10 years?? Peace, love and understanding?

Hamas did not adhere to their ceasefire. Not at all. The fact that they were in power since 2006 and did nothing to prevent hundreds of Qassams being fired from Gaza makes them as culpable as anyone.

The press didn’t cover these “facts” simply because they don’t hold water, and because they pale in comparison to the brutality Hamas has displayed.

Nor has it been evident to many people in the West that the civil unrest in Gaza and the West Bank has been precipitated by the American and Israeli policy of arming elements of the Fatah opposition who want to attack Hamas and force us from office.

As always…blame the Americans and Israelis for you insatiable blood lust. And when the Israelis are no longer in Gaza, the Muslims find cause to kill each other. But hey, its not their fault.

The streets of Gaza are now calm for the first time in a very long time. We have begun disarming some of the drug dealers and the armed gangs and we hope to restore a sense of security and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

The streets are calm because your enemies are either dead or running for their lives. Everyone else is following your orders issued by the barrels of your guns.

I am sure your schools beckon for your precious children, whom you so brazenly send to their suicidal deaths. Summer is coming…Jihad camp is open.

Any further attempts to marginalize us, starve our people into submission or attack us militarily will prove that the United States and Israeli governments are not genuinely interested in seeing an end to the violence.

And for the finale, the veiled threat.

The Times should be ashamed of itself. If only it had shame.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

UK: New group for those who renounce Islam

Such a group is much needed, unfortunately. This is really something Western governments should be doing, if they had any sense of what they are trying to defend when they resist the jihad. "New group for those who renounce Islam," by Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph (thanks to all who sent this in):

A new organisation, representing former Muslims who fear for their lives because they have renounced their faith, is to be launched at Westminster tomorrow.

The Council of ex-Muslims of Britain plans to speak out against Islamic states that still punish Muslim apostates with death under Sharia law.

It also aims to become the voice of non-religious ex-Muslims who do not want to be represented by "regressive" umbrella groups such as the Muslim Council of Britain.

The council is being headed by Maryam Namazie, an outspoken human rights activist, following the formation of similar branches across Europe. Miss Namazie, a Left-wing feminist who was awarded the title of "Secularlist of the Year" in 2005, has herself faced death threats.

In Islam, apostasy is called ridda (turning back) and it is considered by Muslims to be a profound insult to God, which deserves harsh punishment. The nature of the punishment, however, provokes passionate debate between scholars, with most believing that it should attract the death penalty for men and life imprisonment for women.

Apostasy is punishable by death in a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan. In other parts of the world they can be shunned by family and friends.

Bush Weighs Reaching Out To ‘Brothers'

More willful blindness. Patrick Poole eviscerated Leiken's naive and self-deluded report calling for this in three parts here, here, and here.

By Eli Lake in the New York Sun (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is quietly weighing the prospect of reaching out to the party that founded modern political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Still in its early stages and below the radar, the current American deliberations and diplomacy with the organization, known in Arabic as Ikhwan, take on new significance in light of Hamas's successful coup in Gaza last week. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is widely reported to have helped create Hamas in 1982.

Today the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research will host a meeting with other representatives of the intelligence community to discuss opening more formal channels to the brothers. Earlier this year, the National Intelligence Council received a paper it had commissioned on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood by a scholar at the Nixon Center, Robert Leiken, who is invited to the State Department meeting today to present the case for engagement. On April 7, congressional leaders such as Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, attended a reception where some representatives of the brothers were present. The reception was hosted at the residence in Cairo of the American ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, a decision that indicates a change in policy.

Dhimmi Carter pleads for Hamas

Read this one sitting down. "Carter blasts US policy on Palestinians," by Shawn Pogatchnik for the Associated Press:

DUBLIN, Ireland - Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate Fatah movement.

Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.

Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.

[...]

During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" — but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."

Fitzgerald: The farce of supporting Fatah

The farce of supporting the Slow Jihadists of Fatah, consisting of suitably be-suited grey-faced men (with emphasis on the plausible technocratic facade presented by Fayyad, whom a Muslim or Muslim-apologist reader makes so much of in order to "reward" it for something), infuriates. For what are we rewarding Fatah? For its leaders, from Arafat on down, being corrupt and building villas, and parcelling out all that Western Jizyah-aid to themselves and keeping it away from those in Hamas? For having been so easily defeated, and so publicly humiliated, by the far smaller forces of Hamas, while Fatah had three or four times as many men under arms in Gaza, and had been receiving all kinds of weaponry, and training (see General Dayton's "mission") from the Americans, but ran away anyway? They ran away because Hamas consists of True Believers, and Fatah of men on the make, men who are happy to work for Israel's destruction, but have for now chosen to differ with Hamas on timing and tactics, in order to ensure that they keep receiving that Jizyah.

It is a terrible thing, in the ongoing war, to continue to pay, or to resume payment, to any Muslims, by any Infidels, of what is essentially a Jizyah -- that is, a payment which the Muslim recipients believe is their due, and for which they show no gratitude. To stop it is to behave against the will of Allah, for Infidels should be paying these sums. When they stop, this is the stoppage of the transfer of billions of dollars from Infidel taxpayers to Muslim recipients who have long been used to being on sort of dole or another, whether it be the Jizyah from Christians and Jews extracted, once their lands were conquered, over the last 1350 years, or the vast wealth taken from the enslaved (or murdered by the tens of millions) Hindus in India, or the vast wealth received from Hindus and Buddhists elsewhere, in Central Asia, in the East Indies, everywhere that Islam managed to dominate and Muslims to rule. There is even the disguised Jizyah of the "bumiputra" system in Malaysia.

And in Indonesia, the Muslim-dominated governments have over the past few decades, since the days of the Dutch and of Sukarno (far more tolerant than Suharto and those following) passed many laws that discriminated against Christians and Buddhists, or even prevented the rebuilding of churches and temples by those defined as insufficiently "Indonesian" -- that is, by the ethnic Chinese (both those born in China and those who have lived in Indonesia for generations). They have also placed many other constraints on the linguistic, cultural, and religious practices and freedoms of the ethnic, i.e., non-Muslim, Chinese. The humorful Abdurrahman Wahid finally removed that systematic legal discrimination only in 2000, when he was briefly in power. This is the same Wahid who, as his visit to Israel suggested, is an unusual Believer, if a Believer at all.

The war of self-defense against the Jihad, that is the war that must be fought by all Infidels, to withstand the state of permanent war that Islam mandates for all Muslims against all Infidels -- a state of war if not always open warfare -- should not be called a "war that will take generations" or even "a long war." Both such descriptions miss the point. It is a war without end, but a war that can be made manageable, endurable, if the Infidels, or enough of them, recognize the nature of that war, the promptings of that war, the instruments of that war, and the weaknesses as well as the strengths, within the Camp of Islam, and the way to diminish those strengths and to exploit those weaknesses. Those strengths can be diminished chiefly by diminishing the use of oil, and therefore diminishing oil revenues on which Arabs and Muslims are so dependent for their Money Weapon. Chiefly to be recognized and exploited are the potential divisions and demoralization of the Camp of Islam arising from the sectarian divide, or Sunni-Shi'a, split, the ethnic divide, or Arab-non-Arab split, and the financial divide, or oil-rich/oil-poor Muslim split.

This is an entirely manageable situation, if the money weapon is diminished and if the rich Arabs are made responsible for sharing their wealth with the poor Arabs (while the Infidels lay down forever, and do not pick up again, not even for a minute, the Infidel Man's Burden), and if campaigns of Da'wa are carefully monitored, carefully circumscribed, and countered by anti-Da'wa campaigns that will convey certain disturbing truths about Islam. These truths include the undeniable fact of Islam's inculcated hatreds, the view of the world as being permanently divided between Believer and Infidel, with the latter having eventually to submit, as by right, to the former, as well as the habit of mental submission (which explains the absence of scientific investigation, as well as free and skeptical inquiry), and the severe limits placed on both artistic expression and human autonomy, including freedom of conscience, by the collectivist mind-forged-manacled, retrograde, doubly-totalitarian -- in G. H. Bousquet's phrase -- Total System of Islam.

Such a "war" of self-defense can be won, in a sense, by keeping Islam from spreading, by keeping every potential division within the Camp of Islam simmering. The environmental crisis insures that billions of Westerners who might, for other reasons, be inattentive or indifferent to the menace of Islam, will nonetheless be working, for other reasons, toward a goal of reducing reliance on fossil fuels -- that is, will be working toward a goal which, if achieved, can only weaken the Camp of Islam. That is a good thing. Fewer boots on the damn ground. More lightening raids, when called for, to damage or destroy major weaponry possessed by Muslim states or groups. An end to policies held in thrall to the desire not to offend but rather to placate Muslims. All that is to the good.

The rewarding of Fatah by the Bush Administration, the unseemly haste with which it has done so, disturbs and disgusts. Fatah is no better today than it was yesterday. Its ultimate goal remains the same. The fact that members of Hamas attacked Fatah positions and overran them does not imply any turn toward genuine and permanent acceptance of an Infidel state by Fatah, or for that matter by Muslim Arabs. No such acceptance is possible, and it is silly to work for it. The government should have taken advantage of the new situation to declare the "two-state solution" now unworkable. It should have hinted that "other things would have to be undertaken" -- and then worked to make sure that the Infidels around the world understand that the war on Israel is a Lesser Jihad, and that any "peace" treaty that Muslims make with Infidel states is a treaty that they believe they not only may but are required to break whenever they, the Muslims, become strong enough (on the model of the Treaty of Al Hudaibiyya, which is the basis of Muslim treaty-making with non-Muslims). If this is understood, it will be clear also that the continued pressure on Israel to willingly give up more land, and control of the aquifers and the invasion routes, so that Israel, already the state whose people are most imperiled in the world today, lives permanently on the edge of a volcano, is both cruel and stupid.

We need Israel. We need Israel for geopolitical reasons. If the Israelis are not pushed back further, they can continue to be a strong ally, militarily, to Infidels, and by example, can continue to be a civilizing example to the Muslim locals. We need Israel for civilizational reasons. Christians and those who are part of Western civilization that is so connected to Christianity can only be guaranteed access to the Holy Land if Israel retains control. If the Muslims should ever triumphantly seize it, that would be the end of such access, save on the same terms of abasement that were once in place. We need Israel for moral reasons. After all that has happened to the most persecuted tribe in human history, the Jews, the damage to Western morality, and morale, if Israel were to be thrown to the Islamic wolves only because Western leaders were at a loss as to know how to handle Islam, and thought that appeasement, paid in the coin of Israeli lives and Israel's existence, was the way to go, those still capable of thought would find all thought intolerable.

Fatah is not "better" than Hamas. Fatah is run by men whose shared goal is not to build a "Palestinian" state so much as it is to build a "state" that will be a way-station on the road to the necessary, inevitable destruction of another state, the intolerable, because Infidel, state of Israel. Fatah differs from Hamas only in two things. First, its leaders are more realistic, in its choice of tactics and its timing. Second, its leaders are eager to turn on the Jizyah tap, because they have lived all their lives not on the fruits of any hard work or entrepreneurial flair or anything like that, either on their own part or that of the so-called "Palestinian" people, but rather on the amounts that long ago Arafat and the PLO found they could squeeze first from other Arabs (such as the Saudis), and then, in the early 1990s, found they could extract much more easily, in much larger amounts, from Infidel governments that were so willing to believe, just because it was absurd, in the goodness of Arafat and the benign intentions of the peace-processing PLO.

Now, after that revealing display of the contempt felt for Fatah's corruption, after the trashing even of "beloved" Chairman Arafat's villa (one of so many he possessed, just like all those bank accounts, with those Infidel billions for "Palestinian" aid squirreled away, and now apparently not to be found, for only a few, such as Mahmoud Abbas, know where the money really went), would be the perfect time to do nothing. Do nothing to help out Fatah, and certainly not to turn on the aid tap which means turning on the renewed possibilities for corruption, and for Hamas to point to that corruption as justifying its approach. Do nothing. Let the "Palestinian" cause in all its hideousness and obvious disarray be put on display for Infidels. Then perhaps even those of the BBC and The Guardian and Le Monde will begin to realize that the war on Israel is not a "nationalist" struggle -- as it has been carefully presented ever since the 1967 defeat brought home to the Muslim Arabs the need to re-package the Lesser Jihad against Israel, and to use against it the refusal of the Arabs to make a real peace, and therefore to use the renamed local Arabs, and those in other countries, as "Palestinians" rather than as "Arabs" or "Arab refugees." That is what they had always been called, not least by Arab diplomats and leaders, since 1948.

Part of the waking-up to their own dismal reality and the menace of Islam requires that those in Western Europe realize that the war against Israel is based on Islam, the tenets of Islam, the attitudes and atmospherics of those raised up in societies suffused with Islam. Those attitudes have been adopted as well, even long internalized as part of the coping strategy of menaced dhimmis, by such "Palestinian" islamochristians as Hanan Ashrawi. At this point, despite the clear attacks on Christians in both Gaza and in the "West Bank" in such places as Bethlehem, its Christian population dimidiated in the little-more-than-a-decade of rule under the "Palestinian Authority." See what foreign clergymen have reported about Bethlehem, see what the bravest Arab Christians have dared to testify to about their treatment at the hands of "fellow" but Muslim "Palestinians."

If the war against Israel is seen, properly, as a Lesser Jihad, then all those wasted efforts at shuttle diplomacy, and negotiations, and peace-processing, and final photo ops in the Rose Garden while the photographers swarm and the phony handshakes and phony smiles are exchanged, will come to an end, and the true peacekeeper in the Middle East -- that is the IDF, and its ability to prevent, or respond to, or punish, military aggression -- will be recognized, along with the principle not of treaties (for there is no "pacta sunt servanda" in the Muslim world -- treaties are not to be obeyed, but to be disobeyed, to be breached, by the Muslim side, whenever that becomes possible), but of Darura. That's it. For the Jihad’s hideous goals remain the same.

This understanding of the Lesser Jihad, and how to limit its effect, is a necessary prelude or accompaniment to girding various national loins in preparation for a large-scale effort to halt and reverse the Muslim advance through demographic conquest in the lands of Western Europe.
The black-balaclav'ed Kalashnikov-clutching bezonians goosestepping in Ramallah, and called "Islamic Jihad" or "Al-Aksa Martyr's Brigade" -- two groups that will benefit, being tied to Fatah, by the turning on of the tap of European and American Jizyah -- are little different. They are in fact no different from the black-balaclav'ed Kalashnikov-clutching bezonians goosestepping triumphantly in Gaza City.

They are peas in the same damn pod. They are like the Bloods and the Crips. If the Bloods were to promise to be just a little bit less gruesome in their behavior than the Crips, or perhaps agree to give up dealing in one particular drug, would that mean we should fall all over them and let incarcerated leaders of the Bloods out of jail (as one Israeli idiotically suggests should be done for Mahmoud Barghouti, currently serving time for five murders of Israeli civilians, in order to "strengthen Fatah")? Should we then pile on the money, from everywhere, just to show how fond we are of this group of b-b K-c b's as they goosestep about?

No. For god's sake, no.

Fitzgerald: The flight into Israel

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip - Trapped by Israeli tanks and Hamas gunmen, hundreds of terrified Palestinians holed up in a stench-filled concrete tunnel at a border crossing Tuesday, desperate to flee the Islamic militants now ruling the Gaza Strip.

Israel took in two people hit by Hamas gunfire, 24 hours after they were wounded in an assault on the tunnel, but officials remained steadfast in rejecting pleas to throw open the border. Three people wounded in the Gaza fighting last week also were allowed into Israel. -- from this article

This flight into Israel by those dedicated to eliminating the Jewish state, and who spend their time trying to kill Israelis and demonizing them, though they know, in the end, that the Israelis are not the demons they paint them but far milder (always and everywhere) than their fellow Muslim Arabs, also took place more than 30 years ago, during the fighting between Black September and the Jordanian army.

Here is an in-medias-res excerpt:

The fighting began the following day, with the Jordanians laying down an artillery barrage against the PLO stronghold of Zarqa. Within hours similar attacks were taking place throughout Amman, at the strategic Jabal Al Hussein, and against refugee camps such as Al Wahdat (which had been the first to raise the flag of the Republic of Palestine). Arafat used the word 'genocide' to describe what was happening to the Palestinians, while urging his fighters to resist. The Palestinians fought well, but there were already discouraging events in the works. Iraqi army units which Arafat had counted on refused to come to his aid and were seen retreating to a distant safe area.

On September 18th, Arafat's men were still holding out, and the Jordanian army was failing to make any progress at all, let alone the easy victory that was expected. The Arab League issued appeals for a cease to the fighting, but little real action was taken. By the end of the day, poor logistics and disorganization among the Palestinians began to take a toll, and several units were running out of ammunition. By early morning on the 19th of September, armored units from the Palestinian Liberation Army and and regular units from Syria invaded northern Jordan, driving towards Amman. Arafat's propensity for propaganda was put to use as he declared northern Jordan a liberated area.

The fighting in the streets of Amman was bloody. Neither side took any prisoners, many innocents were raped and killed, and much of the city was set ablaze. Following this battle, there were several meetings to attempt to bring an end to the violence between the sides. Despite ever-rising animosity between Arafat and Hussein, a truce was hammered out between the sides by Sharif Nasser. However, immediately after this truce was set, Nasser died suddenly, and the agreement was never observed.

Arafat returned to Jordan after the negotiations and set up headquarters in Ajlun, a city in the north. He sent repeated messages to Hussein professing moderation and promoting a policy of live and let live, but the atmosphere had already become too poisoned for any amicable settlement. The final Jordanian move to liquidate the Palestinian resistance took place in July 1971. The Jordanian army pushed the Palestinian forces to a corner of the country, bordering Israel and Syria, and crushed them there. Arafat's screams of genocide drew Arab protests and led to the closure of the Iraqi and Syrian borders with Jordan and suspension of Kuwaiti aid, but these measures could not alter the fate of the Palestinian fighters. Another three thousand Palestinians died in the next two weeks of fighting. The ferocity of the onslaught forced many of the Palestinian fighters to flee across the Jordan River to seek asylum in Israel. After hiding in a cave for some time, Arafat managed to call in a favor from Munib Masri, a member of the Jordanian Cabinet, and escaped into Lebanon with two thousand of his fighters.

Please note that penultimate sentence: "The ferocity of the onslaught forced many of the Palestinian fighters to flee across the Jordan River to seek asylum in Israel." And so they threw away their guns, waded across the river, into the comparatively benign, and certainly mercifully non-Muslim arms, of the waiting Israelis.

A moment to ponder.

And so is the one right now, the sight of those Fatah-men, trying to escape into Israel.

We have a whole series of paintings called "The Flight Into Egypt."

Who will produce for these kraussian last-days-of-mankind times, paintings called "The Flight Into Israel"?

Ohio's Governor Speaks at CAIR Banquet; Ohio’s Press Snoozes

Imagine if Ohio Governor Ted Strickland had spoken at a banquet hosted by an organization that had been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving funding for the Ku Klux Klan. Do you think the Ohio press would have ignored that? Or what if Ohio Governor Ted Strickland had spoken at a banquet hosted by an organization that had been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving funding for Kach, Meir Kahane's group that has been included on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations? Would the Ohio press ignore that?

But Strickland actually spoke at a banquest hosted by CAIR, which has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving funding for the jihad terrorist group Hamas. So who cares?

NewsBusters has details (thanks to all who sent this in).

Hirsi Ali: "Islam unreformed, as a set of beliefs, is hostile to everything Western"

In "The Role of Journalism Today," a speech to the National Press Club, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells truths that the assembled journalists cannot bear to hear from anyone else.

...It is not the end of history. The 21st century began with a battle of ideas, and this battle is about the values of the West versus those of Islam.

Tony Blair, a leader I admire, wrote in the first issue of this year's Foreign Affairs magazine that what we were facing after the 11th of September was a battle of ideas, a battle of values. In his article, Blair began by incisively outlining the most crucial conflict of our time, but then lost the line of his argument in inconsistency when he came to clarifying the parties involved in the war of values. He backpedaled against his argument and declared that the Koran is a great book, ahead of its time and good for women.

Why are Westerners so insecure about everything that is so wonderful about the West: political freedom, free press, freedom of expression, equal rights for women and men, gays and heterosexuals, critical thinking, and the great strength of scrutinizing ideas--and especially faith?

It is not the end of history. The 21st century began with a battle of ideas, and this battle is about the values of the West versus those of Islam. Tony Blair and the Pope should not be embarrassed in saying it, and you should stop self-censoring. Islam and liberal democracy are incompatible; cultures and religions are not equal. And perhaps most important of all, Muslims are not half-wits who can respond only in violence. The Koran is not a great book; it is reactionary and full of misogyny. The Byzantine emperor's analysis of Muhammad was correct: he spread his faith by the sword.

Read it all.

Olmert's capitulation to the jihad

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert went to Washington to represent the State of Israel, but no one benefited more from his visit than the Palestinians. No one will suffer more than the Israelis. No wonder he has a 3% approval rating.

"Olmert: Israel to agree to 'more far-reaching' checkpoint removal in West Bank," by Aluf Benn and Shmuel Rosner for Haaretz:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday in Washington that the cabinet would on Sunday approve the release of tax revenues collected by Israel on the behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking after a series of meetings in the White House, including a two-hour session alone with President George W. Bush, Olmert added that the new Palestinian government should be given assistance and a chance to succeed.

"The new Palestinian government deserves a chance, and also assistance," he said.

More chances and more money. This bankrupt policy has been a disaster since the days of Oslo and Madrid. Time after time, Abbas has proven himself to be nothing more than a corrupt politician and an enabler of terror. Another chance?

Olmert said that Israel would also agree to a "more far-reaching" removal of checkpoints in order to increase Palestinian freedom of movement inside the West Bank.

The dramatic drop in terror attacks originating from the West Bank is in no small part due to checkpoints and an Israeli presence on the ground, which Israel no longer has in Gaza. The removal of checkpoints will only ease the movement of jihad terrorists and the transport of weapons. It will not jumpstart the Palestinian economy. Abbas' corrupt government has long taken care of that problem.

Measures will also be taken to bolster the forces loyal to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, he added.

The same forces that include the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which continues to plan and execute terror attacks against civilians -- both Israeli and Palestinian. The same forces that proved themselves totally ineffective against Hamas. The same forces that have proven that, despite all the American weapons and the crack training of Lt. General Dayton, they are just as effective against Hamas as the French were against the Germans.

Referring to the Gaza Strip, Olmert said: "We will provide all that is necessary to meet humanitarian needs and we will not be indifferent. This suffering has been caused by Palestinians against their own people."

Correct. And that's why we shouldn't be involved at all. Remember the disengagement? It's their problem now. Egypt has withdrawn their consul. Fatah has cut off all talks. Only Israel, the present and future target of Hamas, continues to play Mother Teresa.

Regarding the plight of refugees waiting at the Erez crossing, Olmert said that anyone whom security checks prove is not a terrorist will be allowed to pass through.

Perfect. Export the Gaza problem to the West Bank. This allows Palestinians currently on the other side of the security fence to enter the West Bank. This is a virtual ticket to Israel. Olmert is destroying the same security fence that has saved so many lives. Even Egypt is smart enough to have closed its borders to the Palestinians.

Olmert has once again shown his willingness to sacrifice the safety and security of Israeli citizens for the sake of his political survival. Over the past 15 years, Israeli politicians have waved the peace (surrender) flag any time a distraction was needed to avert political pressure. In light of the Winograd Report, Ehud Barak's sudden rise to power in the Labor Party and the PM's own abysmal approval rating, no one needs a distraction more than Olmert.

There is absolutely no way to rationalize giving more concessions to Fatah. Fatah is no less a terrorist organization than Hamas. The goals are the same. Only the approach differs. To support Fatah is to support terror. To support Fatah is to support the jihadist destruction of Israel.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

India: Fury as presidential hopeful urges women to throw off ‘veil of invader’

While the Islamic world in general works itself up into another paroxysm of Rushdie Rage, in India the Rage Du Jour is Pratibha Patil Rage. She dared to criticize the veil, you see.

"Fury as presidential hopeful urges women to throw off ‘veil of invader,’" by Jeremy Page in the TimesOnline (thanks to all who sent this in):

The woman nominated by India’s ruling Congress party to become the country’s first female president was at the centre of a national furore yesterday after she urged Muslims to throw away their veils.

Pratabha Patil appeared relatively uncontroversial when she was put forward by Congress last week for the largely ceremonial but symbolically important post. Seen as a moderate Hindu, the only criticism levelled at the 72-year-old governor of Rajasthan was that she lacked national stature.

By yesterday, however, Mrs Patil’s name was on the lips of Muslim leaders, who accused her of insulting Islam. Outraged by her comment that the veil has been imported to India by Muslim invaders, they are calling on Congress to ditch her and choose a more secular presidential candidate....

Mrs Patil, who is a member of Congress, made her remarks about the veil, or “purdah”, at a conference in Udaipur over the weekend. “Women have always been respected in the Indian culture. The purdah system was introduced to protect them from the Muslim invaders. However, times have changed. India is now independent and hence, the systems should also change,” she said.

“Now that women are progressing in every field, we should morally support and encourage them by leaving such practices behind.” Muslims make up nearly 14 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people and many Indian Muslim women still wear headscarves and veils. Orthodox Hindu women also cover their faces before elderly male relatives although it is not an obligation of their religion.

Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said God had asked women to wear the veil and that the tradition was enshrined in the Koran.

Yahya Bukhari, a member of the consultative committee of the Jama Masjid, Delhi’s largest mosque, called Mrs Patil’s remarks “anti-Muslim”.

“It is a purely religious matter and she has no right to interfere in matters of any religion,” he said. “Pratibha Patil is an educated woman but her statement reeks of ignorance.”

Maulana Mehmood Madani, general secretary of Ulema-i-Hind, another Muslim organisation, accused her of trying to rewrite history. “She must apologise and withdraw her observations,” The Times of India quoted him as saying.

Fitzgerald: Funding Hamas, funding Fatah

What is infuriating is not that Saudi Arabia, our mortal enemy, is funding Hamas, but that it is not being asked to fund Fatah as well. It is absurd that the American government, that any Infidel government, that any Infidel taxpayers are being forced by their governments anywhere to support Muslims in the style to which they have grown accustomed -- to wit, living on the disguised Jizyah of foreign aid from Infidels. They consider themselves entitled to this even though they remain implacably committed to the Islamic view of Infidels and, certainly in the case of the “Palestinian” Arabs of Fatah, determined to make life hell for the Israelis.

They intend to keep every kind of economic, diplomatic, and military pressure on (including terrorism, which is hardly limited to Hamas but was copyrighted by the “Palestine Authority’s” presiding genius, Yassir Arafat, and continues today with such organizations, having nothing to do with Hamas and everything to do with Fatah, as the redundantly-named Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aksa Martyr’s Brigade).

The Instant Makeover of Fatah as some “moderate” organization sticks in the craw of every educated person who has been following its non-evolution, its permanent commitment to Jihad.

The only thing that distinguishes Fatah from Hamas is that the former group of gangsters are a little more willing to utter a word or two to turn on the tap of the Jizyah, and apparently Abbas’s casper-milquetoast appearance is enough to disguise or make everyone forget his own history as the right-hand man of Yassir Arafat -- his collaborator and assistant in everything. And that is all one needs to know about Mahmoud Abbas, save perhaps for his Holocaust-denying doctoral thesis, and his directly contradicting his smooth assurances to the Americans when he addresses audiences of fellow Arabs and Muslims. That is, Fatah, being more corrupt, and more worldly, is more interested in getting that Jizyah started. And, furthermore, being more worldly, Fatah understands that before going in for the kill, the “Palestinians,” aided by other Arabs and Muslims, must spend another decade or so subjecting Israel to constant pressure, pushing it back, literally, forcing it to give up territory, and control of aquifers and invasion routes, that will make the daily life of Israelis absolute hell, and cause Israel, whose citizens already live daily with a level of danger that no other country must endure, to live in a state of maximum peril from here on.

It is a quarrel over loot. Look at the glee with which the Hamas members vandalized and took things from the symbols of Fatah’s wealth, those villas, belonging to Dahlan, to Abbas, to Arafat himself. They wanted that loot for themselves, they wanted their share.

Everywhere Arabs and Muslims who claim they need support should no longer get it from Infidels, for they take it as if by right, as Jizyah. And the donors begin to give it as if they must pay it or no longer remain in the good graces, as they see it, of those Muslims to whom they give that money. This is psychologically bad, for it encourages Muslim triumphalism, and encourages a state of dhimmitude among the Infidel donors.

On the other hand, if Fatah has to receive money from rich Arabs -- remember that famous Community of Believers, that umma al-islamiyya? -- then it will never be satisfied with the paltry amounts it will be given. It will never be grateful. It will always ask for more, and the rich Arabs, who are incredibly selfish, will be put on the spot, because they are supposed to share their wealth with fellow Muslims. And what will happen if the poor Muslims begin to mutter that the “oil wealth” should be shared with all the world’s Muslims? That isn’t exactly what residents of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates, Qatar, want to hear, want to have bruited about.

And we, as Infidels, want as much dissension and rancor and envy within the Camp of Islam and Jihad as possible. And we want as much as possible of their discretionary income, in the rich oil states, soaked up supporting Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and the so-called “Palestinians,” because that is then money that the Saudis and others will not have available to spend on mosques and madrasas and campaigns of Da’wa and local hirelings, all over the Western world.

A Presidential candidate or two must speak out about this. If they do, and if they begin to use that word “Jizyah” and to denounce the payment by our government of what they will call Jizyah, they will go sky-high both in the opinion polls, and in the opinions of the educated, and they will deserve to.

Who is going to speak truthfully about this matter? Who is going to do it first?

Three-state solution: Appalling naivete from the New York Sun

In "Three-State Solution," a New York Sun Editorial (thanks to Ruth King), the nameless editorial writer demonstrates that he or she doesn't even realize the implications of what he or she is writing:

For years the debate in respect of Israel and the Palestinian Arabs has been between partisans of a one-state solution and partisans of a two-state solution. The one-state solution is advanced by those Jews — at this point a minority, though distinguished, faction — who believe that Israel can remain a Jewish state and a democracy while also ruling the West Bank and Gaza, lands with which the Jewish people have longstanding religious and historical ties. It is also advanced by those Arabs who believe that Israel's destruction as a Jewish state can be achieved by a demographic and military triumph of the Arabs between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The two-state solution is advanced by those who believe the best solution to the competing demands of the Jews and the Arabs is to create an Arab state called " Palestine" in the West Bank and Gaza, a state that partisans of this idea claim would co-exist with Israel in peace. President Bush put the case for a two-state solution in his June 24, 2002, remarks in the Rose Garden this way: "A stable, peaceful Palestinian state is necessary to achieve the security that Israel longs for." What the latest developments in Gaza and the West Bank herald is the possibility of a third option — a three-state solution, in which Gaza and the West Bank are not artificially mashed together into a single Palestinian state with no real historical precedent or logic, but allowed to go their own separate ways. This, by the way, is the situation that obtained in the first 19 years of Israel's modern existence. Three states occupied the land now controlled by Israel and the Palestinian Authority — Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank. It was hardly an ideal situation — Egyptian territory was used as a base for attacking Israel, while Jordan desecrated Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem. But, with important modifications, it might provide at least on an interim basis a better pattern for a way forward than either the one-state or the two-state solutions.

Just a few of the many things wrong with this:

1. The author postulates a "three-state solution" as an alternative to, among other things, a unified Arab jihadist state, which is "advanced by those Arabs who believe that Israel's destruction as a Jewish state can be achieved by a demographic and military triumph of the Arabs between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea." But what evidence is there that any "Palestinian" state of any kind would not be dedicated to Israel's ultimate destruction?

2. The author criticizes the "two-state solution" for "artificially mas[ing] together" Gaza and the West Bank "into a single Palestinian state with no real historical precedent or logic." But no Palestinian state has any historical precedent or logic. There never has been a Palestinian state in the history of the world. So it is hardly a strike against one solution or another to say that it has no historical precedent: no solution involving a Palestinian state does. (This is not to say I favor a two-state solution; I don't, because of the jihad ideology which makes it quite clear that any Palestinian state will just be a base for further attacks on Israel.)

3. The author doesn't notice that there was no clamor for Palestinian statehood while Egypt and Jordan controlled Gaza and the West Bank. Now, why was that? And seeing as how Egypt and Jordan used their control of Gaza and the West Bank to launch attacks against Israel, as the author notes, what makes him think the Palestinians won't, when they've shown no sign of stopping up to now?

Iraq's Christian community fights for survival

An informative video report from Christian World News (thanks to Elias).

Christians warned: Accept Islamic law

"Here I refer to what was said in the early '90s by Britain's Prince Charles at Oxford University. He spoke about Islam and its important role in morality and culture. He said the West must learn from Islam how to bring up children properly and to teach them the right values." And here we go.

By Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily.com (thanks to all who sent this in):

JERUSALEM – Christians can continue living safely in the Gaza Strip only if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza told WND in an exclusive interview.

The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly."

The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group.

"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations school in Gaza last month, after the school allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in that attack.

[...]

"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," Abu Saqer told WND.

"Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly."

Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of "proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals."

"This missionary activity is endangering the entire Christian community in Gaza," he said.

Abu Saqer claimed there was "no need" for the thousands of Christians in Gaza to maintain a large number of institutions in the territory.

About 2,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of over 1 million.

Abu Saqer said Hamas "must work to impose an Islamic rule or it will lose the authority it has and the will of the people."

His comments come after gunmen Sunday attacked Gaza's Latin Church and adjacent Rosary Sisters School, reportedly destroying crosses, bibles, pictures of Jesus and furniture and equipment. The attackers also stole a number of computers.

[...]

A month before the U.N. school was targeted, Palestinians bombed a Christian book store in Gaza reportedly funded by American Protestants that exclusively sold Christian books. Two nearby Internet cafes also were bombed.

At the time, Abu Saqer, who didn't take credit for the attack, told WND the Christian bookstore was "proselytizing and attempting to convert our people."

"As a principle, we believe that Jews and Christians will always do everything in order to keep Muslims far from their religion," Abu Saqer said.

[...]

In response to the uproar, Hamas chief in Gaza and former foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar told WND in a recent interview: "I hardly understand the point of view of the West concerning these issues. The West brought all this freedom to its people but it is that freedom that has brought about the death of morality in the West. It's what led to phenomena like homosexuality, homelessness and AIDS."

Asked if Hamas is seeking to impose hard-line Islamic law on the Palestinians, al-Zahar responded, "The Palestinian people are Muslim people, and we do not need to impose anything on our people because they are already committed to their faith and religion. People are free to choose their way of life, their way of dress and behavior."

Al-Zahar said his terror group, which demands strict dress codes for females, respects women's rights.

"It is wrong to think that in our Islamic society there is a lack of rights for women. Women enjoy their rights. What we have, unlike the West, is that young women cannot be with men and have relations outside marriage. Sometimes with tens of men. This causes the destruction of the family institution and the fact that many kids come to the world without knowing who are their fathers or who are their mothers. This is not a modern and progressed society," al-Zahar explained.

The terror chieftain told WND the West can learn from his group's Islamic values.

"Here I refer to what was said in the early '90s by Britain's Prince Charles at Oxford University. He spoke about Islam and its important role in morality and culture. He said the West must learn from Islam how to bring up children properly and to teach them the right values."

UN Sec'y General: Darfur culprit global warming, not jihad

Sheesh. If this is true, then why did Arab Muslims in the Sudan murder over a million Christians and animists? Because it was getting so hot, they lost their tempers?

"A Climate Culprit In Darfur," by Ban Ki Moon in the Washington Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

It would be natural to view these as distinct developments. In fact, they are linked. Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political shorthand -- an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias against black rebels and farmers. Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex dynamic. Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.

Two decades ago, the rains in southern Sudan began to fail. According to U.N. statistics, average precipitation has declined some 40 percent since the early 1980s. Scientists at first considered this to be an unfortunate quirk of nature. But subsequent investigation found that it coincided with a rise in temperatures of the Indian Ocean, disrupting seasonal monsoons. This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming.

It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the drought. Until then, Arab nomadic herders had lived amicably with settled farmers. A recent Atlantic Monthly article by Stephan Faris describes how black farmers would welcome herders as they crisscrossed the land, grazing their camels and sharing wells. But once the rains stopped, farmers fenced their land for fear it would be ruined by the passing herds. For the first time in memory, there was no longer enough food and water for all. Fighting broke out. By 2003, it evolved into the full-fledged tragedy we witness today.

Fitzgerald: A tribute to Ehud Olmert

What complete idiots Ehud Olmert and his Israeli collaborators have turned out to be. And nowhere more have they proven to be complete idiots than in their complete inability today to take advantage, for the sake of the people and government of Israel, of the clear disarray among the Arabs -- including among the so-called "Palestinians" who have in recent days put on a display of such astounding internecine ferocity and viciousness.

This internecine war has exposed every bit of nonsense ever spouted by the supposedly beloved "Chairman Arafat." His villa and some of his loot was ransacked in a rage by those who were not part of the ruling class, that is, not part of Fatah, but who instead had to endure the spectacle of the extraordinary diversion of funds by Arafat and his henchmen. The same diversion of funds still goes on today, and will go again at the old accustomed levels if, as Olmert promises, Israel eagerly promotes the crazed notion that Fatah should be supported over against Hamas.

In reality, the Slow Jihad of Fatah is not a whit better than Hamas. Oh, Fatah is more corrupt, to be sure, and the two groups differ on such matters as tactics and timing, but that's all. Both Hamas and Fatah share the same goal of destroying Israel, destroying any possibility of an Infidel, in this case Jewish, sovereign state, and they will each do whatever it thinks best to achieve that end. The end is illegitimate, as are the "legitimate" rights of the non-existent "Palestinian" people. The Arab Muslims are not entitled to rule in that small sliver, Western Palestine, that was the only part set aside by the Mandate for Palestine for the Jewish national home. There are vast territories with vast unmerited riches inhabited by Arabs. There are twenty-two Arab Muslim states where not a single non-Muslim or non-Arab minority has a stake or say in the government, and where not a single non-Muslim or non-Arab minority enjoys autonomy, nor the tender solicitude that the "Palestinians" have managed to receive because of both the machinations of the Islamintern International at the United Nations, and of assorted willing collaborators of Islam and the Arabs.

Some of these collaborators are merely antisemites; others are merely wildly uninformed about the history, and the context, and the significance, of the respective Jewish and Arab claims. They are also certainly uninformed about Islam and its claims -- claims that cannot be met by further Israeli concessions of any kind.

The farce was exposed. Ehud Olmert had only to point it out, or at least do nothing to get between that "Palestinian" unmasking, of everything, and the spectators worldwide. But Olmert couldn't do even that. He is now trying to help -- for god's sake, help -- the suddenly wrapped-in-the-mantle-of-pious-virtue the equally violent, slightly less strident, and much more corrupt Slow Jihadists of Fatah.

Ehud Olmert is easily the worst leader Israel has ever had. He is far worse even than Ariel Sharon, or Menahem Begin with his sentimentality and pathetic desire to please -- please, that is, the likes of his "friends" Anwar Sadat and Jimmy Carter -- at Camp David. Given its size, given its state of permanent imperilment, given the gigantic size and the unmerited wealth of the forces arrayed against it, Israel cannot easily endure, or even survive, much more of this political mediocrity.

It is bad enough for the United States when it is held in thrall to policies that make no sense, for the United States is militarily and economically, thank god, still the most powerful country on earth, though its political class has proved itself most adept at squandering so much of the wealth and well-being of its citizens. Tiny Israel does not have the Atlantic and the Pacific doing guard duty, nor a benign state on its borders, as the United States has Canada to its north, and Mexico that is not a military threat, whatever other kind of threat unhindered migration from the south might pose.

For Israel today, as ever, there is no margin for error. And Ehud Olmert and those who still take him seriously are that error.

Church destroyed in Gaza, Gaza's Christians fear for their lives

Islamic jihadists continue to display their tolerance for other religions.

"Gaza's Christians fear for their lives," by Khaled Abu Toameh for The Jerusalem Post:

Christians living in Gaza City on Monday appealed to the international community to protect them against increased attacks by Muslim extremists. Many Christians said they were prepared to leave the Gaza Strip as soon as the border crossings are reopened.

The appeal came following a series of attacks on a Christian school and church in Gaza City over the past few days.

Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in the Gaza Strip, said masked gunmen torched and looted the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church.
"The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church," he said. "Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment."

Musalam expressed outrage over the burning of copies of the Bible, noting that the gunmen destroyed all the Crosses inside the church and school. "Those who did these awful things have no respect for Christian-Muslim relations," he said.

Welcome to Hamastan.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Israel to release frozen tax revenue to the PA

The billions of dollars and tons of arms that have already been sent to the PA have done absolutely nothing to strengthen the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas. But in yet another self-defeating gesture to terrorism and bureaucratic ineptitude, Israeli PM Olmert is promising more. "Olmert: I'll release tax funds to PA," by Herb Keinon for The Jerusalem Post:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday evening he would release frozen tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority and remove some West Bank blockades. His words came on the eve of his visit to Washington, where the US Administration was expected to ask him to take significant steps to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in order to show the Palestinians what they have to gain under the "moderates," as opposed to what they have to lose under the extremists.

"We will cooperate with this government," Olmert said in a Manhattan address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "We will defreeze monies that we kept under our control because we didn't want these monies to be taken by Hamas to be used as part of a terrorist action. And we will do what we can to upgrade the quality of life [in the West Bank]."

Olmert said that there were still terrorists in the West Bank waiting for the opportunity to attack Israel, and that the right balance had to found to allow more access to the Palestinians in the West Bank, without risking Israel's security.

"In the new circumstances we can perhaps take more risks than in the past," Olmert said. "The purpose is to project to the Palestinians that when they are ready to refrain from terrorism, there is a genuine chance for a different life for them and ourselves."

Abbas is expected to once again prey on Olmert's appeasement policy and ask for even more. "PA sources: Abbas to ask Israel to bolster Fatah, release prisoners," by Avi Issacharoff and Aluf Benn for Haaretz:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas intends to demand that Israel immediately implement the American "benchmarks" proposal for increasing Palestinian freedom of movement in the territories. In addition, he will ask Israel to release a massive number of Palestinian prisoners, first and foremost Marwan Barghouti, advisors to Abbas said yesterday.

The advisors said that these steps are necessary to strengthen Abbas' Fatah movement in both the West Bank and Gaza.

It's beyond me how the release of terrorists from Israeli jails will improve the quality of life for the Palestinians. It will boost Abbas' power only in his fight against Israel. It has been proven that this kind of support is fruitless against Hamas. It is beyond belief that Israel would even consider releasing Barghouti, who is serving five consecutive life terms for terror activities.

It almost appears as if Olmert is more concerned about helping the Palestinian cause than about aiding the Israeli cause. Olmert seems to have forgotten that more than 70% of the Palestinians voted for Hamas in the 2006 elections. Are they exempt from paying the price for their folly? Is Abbas to be awarded for failing to halt Hamas in Gaza? Is Abbas to receive hundreds of millions of dollars, of which no small portion will find its way to the hands of the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade?

The appeasers continue to appease and the innocent civilians will continue to pay the price.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Fitzgerald: The BBC, and the Muslims who have it in thrall

"…sent a joint complaint to the BBC after a presenter on its Football Focus program on March 24 mentioned that Jerusalem was Israel's capital and "historic soul.'" -- from this news article

What was the mistake? Jerusalem is Israel's capital. It is the place where the Knesset meets, and the President has his house, as well as the Vice-President. Jerusalem is also the "historic soul," as the keen presenter put it, of Israel. Where is the Western Wall? Where is the Old City itself, with that Western Wall? And where, despite Arab depredations, remains so much of what is central to Jewish history and Jewish life?

The fact that in 1948 the Arab Legion managed to seize the Old City and hold onto it until the Six-Day War, does not make Jerusalem less a center, the "historic soul," of Israel. And since the Six-Day War, because of Arab blackmail, based on a quite unnecessary fear of offending what are essentially gas station owners who need have no favors done them beyond paying the posted price for their gas, the Western world has forgotten the legal, moral, and historic claim of the Jews to Jerusalem. It has proceeded to believe that the Arab claim, which is based not on history but on the belief that a single phrase in the Qur'an (Jerusalem is nowhere mentioned in that Qur'an) about the "farthest mosque" (al-masjid al-aksa) must mean that that mosque is located in Jerusalem, right on Temple Mount (which is where, after some initial squabbling, Muslims of the time of the Umayyad Caliphate based in nearby Damascus, as a symbol of the power of Islam and the conquering Muslims, decided to place it, in the city holy to Jews and Christians, right smack on the site most important to Jews).

It is a matter of regret that Western countries did not immediately recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, thereby getting it over with forty years ago. It is too bad, but it reflects not history, nor a historical judgment, but merely cowardice and laziness. One can compare this inattention to real history, with the alacrity with which, after the Six-Day War, the Western world, or much of it, accepted the hastily-created "Palestinian people" out of what had always been -- not least among the Arab diplomats and leaders -- merely the "Arabs" of the area.

Those Arabs suddenly acquired not merely a name, but a hasty "construction of 'Palestinian' identity" out of people identical in language, culture, religion, in every way, to those other Arabs around them. They took on this purely verbal cloak to disguise, for obvious propagandistic reasons, the Arab war against the Infidel state of Israel, which is nothing but a classic Jihad, the Lesser Jihad.

The BBC can apologize all it wants to the Arabs and Muslims who have it in thrall. This is merely of a piece with its entire editorial policy, and its speakers and speakerines, of a piece with the head of its World Service, John Simpson (who, or possibly which, google along with "Jihad Watch" to find out about his enthusiastic delight in the antisemitic conspiracy history of one Lonni Brenner). And it is of a piece with the hideous crap the British and world public have been fed about the Middle East, and that has aroused the fury not only of those with a particular sympathy for Israel, but of all those who are still capable of seeing through the manipulation by and of the media -- such people, for example, as the celebrated Soviet dissident, long resident in Cambridge, England, Vladimir Bukovsky, who finds the BBC Stalinoid.

A very few of the individual reporters who spewed their venom have been transferred away from the Middle East. There was Barbara Plett, who wept when Yassir Arafat died (for more on Arafat, see the account of Magdi Allam in the just-published "Viva Israele"). There was Orla Guerin, who was herself married to the mob -- that is, she was married to a 'Palestinian' who told her all she needed to know, and which she was intent, every day, on helping the larger public know as well. She reported on the Arabs and Israel. Her accounts of the 'Palestinians' in their self-inflicted wretchedness and hate and cultivated primitivization reflected a diseased sympathy. She got to be even too much for the BBC, which has now switched her to southern Africa, while Barbara Plett reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan. But so many others remain in place, including those whose voices became immediately hostile when the word "Israel" was mentioned, and whose "interviews" with Israeli officials became exercises not in mere skepticism, but in hectoring abuse, while the assorted "Palestinians" and "Arabs" were treated with kid gloves, and all kinds of local open supporters of terrorism, including an open supporter of Hamas, were welcomed on the BBC, introduced with respect, and allowed to speak their piece.

That's the BBC.

Fitzgerald: Photography and the real Saudi Arabia

Students and staff at Pathshala, the Dhaka-based South Asian Institute of Photography, received death threats over the weekend from proponents of Islamic law in Bangladesh. The letters, sent to at least three students and 16 staff, faculty and board members, allege that the school's photographers are violating Islamic law in their work. -- from this article

Imagine if the Departments of Arab and Muslim Propaganda had been unable to enroll their own, and especially so many willing hirelings, in the dual aims of depicting their enemies (with a heavy concentration, from 1967 on, on the Mighty Israeli Empire, and from 2003 on, the Crazed Colonialist All-For-Oil Americans In Iraq) as worse than wild beasts, and, secondarily, depicting the wise and just rulers of the Arab and Muslim societies.

In the first category, we have all the staged atrocities, including the re-use of a single children's corpse during the Hizballah War last year, and the attribution to Israel of deaths clearly caused -- possibly even deliberately -- by the PLO and its various versions and avatars: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and so on. (Solemn parsing of the names, and deep discussions of their differences, are absurd when that leads to overlooking their overwhelming agreement, the shared worldview, when it comes to Infidels). Then there are the endless pictures of the wounded in hospitals -- a particular feature of Al Jazeera, showing the effects of those monstrous Americans. Yes, those same monstrous Americans who poured in tens of billions of dollars to build schoolhouses, build power grids, re-outfit hospitals, and so on -- and would have continued to do it forever had the locals not blown them up, or attacked them, as they tried to do these things, or merely waited and destroyed whatever it was the Americans built.

And the other use of photography comes in such things as the deplorable features shown in National Geographic -- which has a lot to answer for, in the last forty years of its local-color gullible and vacuous treatment of such places as Saudi Arabia. What would the Saudis, what would ARAMCO Magazine (I have a dozen back issues in front of me) be without pictures of those wise Saudi rulers, at the majlis, or engaged in some folkloristic dining under the stars in the desert, or dancing, in dishdashas, with daggers, or those pictures of dhows, and the new "Museum of Arab or Islamic Art," and pictures of calligraphy, and don't forget the skyline of Dubai.

Think of what Robert Azzi used to offer up, and the images impressed on Western brains about modern, bustling, Saudi Arabia. And now compare that to the real Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabia whom "The Religious Policeman" (a disaffected and humorful Saudi) used to blog about, the Saudi Arabia whom the expatriate workers, or the more piercing of them, recollect in tranquility and horror, the Saudi Arabia of those Bin Baz sermons, those ranting textbooks that American reporters were so amazed (see McFarquhar of the New Duranty Times) to discover, when such textbooks, and teachings, have been the stuff of Saudi life since the first school was opened, round about 1930.

Why not take the pictures of the real Saudi Arabia into account? Why not then have the Americans arm and back to the hilt the huge tribe of the Jabal Shammar, that bestrides both Iraq and Saudi Arabia, long ago defeated by Ibn Saud's Wahhabi warriors, and help them retake Nejd and Hasa, and promise the Shi'a around the oilfields much better treatment? We could thus crush the Wahhabis and let up on the use of oil money for the worldwide support of mosques and madrasas.

Did I forget to mention that all assets of the Saudi royals should be seized by Infidel governments, sold, and the profits be used to pay for the increased security made necessary by Saudi expenditures just over the past three decades? Possibly the Hejaz, or the Two Holy Sanctuaries could be -- temporarily -- left as a consolation prize to the Al-Saud. They can live on the tourist dollars, what with all the high-rises and other gaudy attractions they are building like nobody's business all over supposedly "sacred" Mecca. That, and other Hajj-related revenues, should tide them over.

Fitzgerald: Non-Muslims in India and the "wrong signals"

The visit of a senior IDF officer to the Jaimu and Kashmir provinces of India has triggered a major row in Kashmir, with mainstream and separatist parties calling it a “dangerous liaison” that could send wrong signals among the people of the Muslim-majority state. -- from this article

The many non-Muslims of India have always been the recipients of the “wrong signals” from the Muslims there. This has been true of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, and even the handful of Jews (there are a few, including a former chief of staff, and as everyone knows, non-Muslim India never offered a hint of antisemitism or any other venerable form of intolerance, for Hinduism was less an ideology than a way of life that one could, but need not, accept).

However, until the Muslim conquerors brought Islam, India was the most tolerant of countries. Those who like to adduce what they consider to be examples of "Hindu fanaticism," generally fail to note that that “fanaticism” is mostly a justified response to the long history of Muslim depredations, persecution, and murder. Some may here and there find examples of intolerance exhibited toward Christian missionaries, but such intolerance is not part of Hinduism. Rather, it reflects the belief that such missionaries always target Hindus, never Muslims, and furthermore, what intolerance has been exhibited unwontedly by Hindus, has been learned from Muslim example, Muslim tutelage.

Surely the non-Muslim government in India, and especially those in the all-important governments of the individual states, such as Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh or Kerala -- and the importance of those states, and their separate ways, is insufficiently understood by foreign makers of policy -- should take note of Islam's tenets and the history of Jihad-conquest. They should note the demographic conquest that India is now enduring in slow motion. The government and people of India should know, and keep constantly in mind, and make known elsewhere, the results of the discrimination, persecution, and even murder of Hindus by Muslims in Pakistan, where the Hindu percentage of the population has become one-tenth of what it was when Pakistan was formed. In Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) that population is one-fifth what it was, and has gone down steadily in both parts of Kashmir, where 400,000 Kashmiri pandits were driven out by the Muslims, and in India itself, where the Muslim share of the population steadily rises. And they should not hesitate to act decisively to make sure that the policy of appeasement of Islam, reflected in India's past foreign and domestic policies, does not continue.

Mrs. Gandhi, and to some extent Sonia Gandhi, seem determined to pretend that Islam is fine, that there is no problem, no menace posted to the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Buddhists (there are some), and Jews (there are a few) by the Muslims in India. This is false, and it is absurd for mainstream political figures, and all those Indians of Hindu descent who go abroad, become famous abroad, to strive to show Westerners that they are free of any "taint of communalism," by which is meant -- any hint of belief that there is a distinct problem posed by the Total Belief-System of Islam.

For every mordant truth-teller such as Naipaul, or for that matter such apostates as Anwar Shaikh and Ibn Warraq, there are a hundred, such as Amartya Sen, who acquire a reputation in one field, and then proceed, as natives of India, to present themselves as experts on Islam, its tenets, and the history of Islam. See Sen's article two years ago on "democracy and Islam," that should, but does not, embarrass him. In Amartya Sen's case, his self-assured presentations on Islam may, as a model to be emulated, have had an influence on his former close friend, Martha Nussbaum. Nussbaum, who like Jeffery Sachs and a few others has become an academic Irwin-Corey ("World's Greatest Authority"), has now, after a few lightning visits to India, become so much of an expert on India and on Islam as to have begun -- it doesn't take much prompting -- to set down her definitive and authoritative thoughts on the matter.

That should make Hindus going on pilgrimages to this or that village or shrine of Ganesh feel a whole lot better. Nothing to worry about, if only they rein in, those Hindus, their own "crazies." Islam itself is hunky-dory. Ask Martha Nussbaum. She knows.

Fitzgerald: Boys, let's turn on the tap for Fatah

The surpassing corruption of Arafat and of all of his henchmen, such as Mahmoud Abbas, and of all of his henchmen's henchmen, such as Mohammed Dahlan, is what enrages the true-blue less corrupt members of Hamas. What enrages them, that is, is not the murderousness of Arafat and Fatah when murder was its main instrument, but the money that Arafat and Company received "for the 'Palestinian' people" from Infidel taxpayers. Those taxpayers were often oblivious to the amounts being sent by their own foolish governments, governments whose idea of dealing with the Arabs is to "win hearts and win minds" by taking a special interest in the least legitimate, and certainly least deserving of non-Muslim largesse: those who are so easily called, with such carelessness, "refugees" -- "Arab refugees" before the Six-Day-War, and presto-chango, "'Palestinian' refugees" after that war.

It was not the business of the world's Infidels to be inveigled into paying for them when they became what are too-easily and often inaccurately called "Arab refugees," and certainly not to make them the most spoiled group of "refugees." What is blandly described as the land of "refugees" turns out to be the usual not very attractive but standard Arab conurbations to be found all over Arab lands. And of course there are the usual shops with electronic goods, and DVD stores, and Internet cafes, and plenty of money left to outfit "security services" and "fighters" in what is surely the largest source of employment, if you can call it that, among people who have become used to permanent support by the world's Infidels. They like that support. They do not think they need to try to figure out how to sustain themselves, much less stop having families with 12 and 15 children. How often do you read of the complaint of Abu Thisorthat, a "grizzled farmer with 14 children" who can't "support them"? I'll bet he can't, and I'll bet no one dares to suggest that perhaps the Arabs with their dozen children as a small family should cease to presume that Infidel taxpayers, who carefully limit their own family size because, in many cases, of the cost, should start to do likewise, or find some source of income from their own efforts, or from rich fellow Muslims in the Gulf. And then we'll see how the Saudis and Kuwaitis and Emiratis respond to being asked to pay, forever, for the ever-expanded population of "Palestinians."

The corruption is partly visible, and partly hidden. When Arafat died, the "Palestinian authority" somehow discovered it was missing billions and billions of dollars -- perhaps as much as $5 billion. It was money from Infidel taxpayers, in North America and Western Europe. Where did it all go? Hundreds of millions must have gone to Suha Arafat, living lavishly in Paris, attending fashion shows and suchlike, while we, the taxpayers of Europe and America who made this possible, are not visiting Paris (it's too expensive), not to mention Dior or Chanel, any time soon. Why was this money not retrieved? Why was it not sufficient cause to cut off all further funds?

We know why. The "Palestinian Authority" is nothing but a gang, and this gang, called Fatah for shorthand, now has another, rival gang, a gang less corrupt, but even more fanatically religious. The gang of Fatah can be called the Slow Jihadists. They want to eliminate Israel, but they want to eliminate it a little more slowly, in a decade or two or three, by pushing it back into thoroughly indefensible borders, by making its protection even more of a nightmare than it is today (for god's sake just look at a map). They want to push it back to the armistice lines of 1949 -- never the "borders," as the BBC and NPR like to call them, for the Arabs never agreed to recognize those armistice lines as "borders," even though the Israelis kept offering to do so for nearly two decades, until the Six-Day War. Young law students learn that in the formation of contracts, an offer once made and then rejected disappears, and cannot be revived on the mere decision of the offeree to change -- for whatever reason -- his mind. And certainly the Arabs not only rejected the offer for turning those 1949 armistice lines into permanent borders through peace treaties. They have also made war against Israel for more than fifty years. They have conducted Jihad sometimes by open warfare (qital) or through terrorism, but always by economic and diplomatic pressure designed to weaken and isolate Israel. And it is ludicrous for them to pretend that nearly sixty years have not made a difference, and that they can go right back to pressing for Israel to return to the 1949 Armistice Lines, when there is nothing to require this, and indeed, it is Israel that should be stressing its legal, moral and historic claims to the territory it now possesses, which is roughly Western Palestine, consisting of 22% of the territory that was originally assigned to Great Britain as the Mandatory Authority for Palestine. The other 78%, including all of Palestine east of the Jordan, was assigned by the British unilaterally (and the members of the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations were horrified at what the British had done) to a "country" quickly concocted for Abdullah, of the Hashemite sons, and called "The Emirate of Transjordan" (later promoted to "the Arab Kingdom of Jordan").

Then the money from Infidel lands started to come in, mostly through UNRWWA. Ever since the "Palestinian Authority" took control of Gaza (save for the Jewish villages that were abandoned intact, their farms and especially those greenhouses turned over intact, a turn-key operation that the local Arabs had only to use productively -- and instead they dismantled and destroyed the whole thing, overnight) and of the Arabs ("Palestinians) of the West Bank, the money has poured into that "Authority." Or rather, it has poured into the coffers of Arafat, and Abbas, and Dahlan, and the tens of thousands of Fatah-men who march around in black balaklavas, killing whatever Jewish family they manage to catch alone in an outing, or hitchhiking, or shopping in an Arab town (in order to help the "Arabs" that naive Jewish visitor must have thought) or visiting an Arab friend or colleague. These unwary visitors are unaware of the depth of the hatred and the surpassing murderousness, by dint of non-stop cradle-to-grave inculcated Jew-hatred, of so many who are now free of all constraints under the "Palestinian Authority."

The Fast Jihadists of Hamas, being True Believers even truer than the Slow Jihadists, may share the desire of Fatah to destroy Israel, but they don't want to have to do even the minimum -- even the transparent wink-and-nod of Abbas, about "recognizing" Israel. They don’t want to do this even though it is a meaningless phrase, or rather, a phrase that means only that Abbas is willing to offer a transparent lie to Infidels (for he continues to tell the truth about his ultimate goal to Arab audiences, just as Arafat did). And what is perhaps worst of all, those Infidels are eager, desperate, not to believe him, but just to pretend to believe him, so that they may turn on the tap of the disguised Jizyah of foreign aid. And that is exactly what they are doing today -- hastening in a disgusting fashion to reward Fatah. For what? For its corruption and misuse of billions of dollars in Gaza?

Will giving Fatah help end the Lesser Jihad against Israel? It will simply allow the buying of more villas in southern France, more apartments in Paris and London, more children of the mahmoud-abbases being sent to study at expensive schools in Europe and America. And meanwhile, the fury will grow, too, in the "West Bank," as the same diversion of funds continues. For there is no idea that government under Arab Muslim rule is anything other than a way of laying your hands on riches. Those riches do not come, and cannot come, from their own economies. Those economies are in a state of permanent backwardness because of both inshallah-fatalism and the historic Arab penchant for living on riches seized from, or inveigled from, others -- the tradition of the nomadic raider and warrior. Where there is some modest agriculture, all improvements have come from outside, from the West, for innovation does not come easily to, and certainly is not a feature of, Muslim societies suffused with hatred for "bida" or "innovation," and where, beginning in the mosques but extending to all areas of life, the habit of mental submission is encouraged.

Those riches for some, in the last several decades, have come from the bonanza of oil (and now gas) revenues. And how are those riches distributed? Well, in every case the rulers, the ruling families, seize a very large amount for themselves. And in Islam, the ruler is to be obeyed. The notion that political legitimacy could come from the expressed will of the people, when the people are merely slaves of Allah, long-inured to the idea of submission, and not from the will expressed by Allah in Qur'an (and glossed by the contents of Hadith and sira, which together form much of the Sunnah), makes no sense in Islamic societies, to Muslim minds. So the rulers rule, and take and take. The Al-Thani take the gas wealth of Qatar. The As-Sabah take the oil wealth of Kuwait. Even those who rule lands do not have much or any oil, such as the Al-Maktoum of Dubai, owe their wealth to the oil and gas revenues of those all about them, who enjoy the local luxe that Dubai, dhow-shaped hotels and all, offers. And the biggest theft in world history is surely that of the Al-Saud. They came out of the Nejd, and slowly conquered most of Arabia, and in 1920 finally defeated the Shammar tribe, the largest tribe in eastern Arabia, extending into Iraq, and thus laid claim to an "Arabia" that they then modestly named after themselves as "Saudi" Arabia.

If the Americans and Europeans are foolish enough to now try to keep "the dream of 'Palestinian' statehood alive," that means the dream of the Lesser Jihad against Israel, pursued by the weapons of choice of the Slow Jihad. By keeping this “dream” alive they will be cruelly transferring to Israel the policy fruits of their own ignorance of Islam. The permanent peril in which Israel lives is not mitigated but enhanced by any further concessions, immoral and a-historic, forced upon that tiny country. And if the Western governments are unable to recognize the Lesser Jihad against Israel, and the Islamic basis of that Jihad, if they still persist in pretending that the Slow Jihad is no Jihad at all, but that Abbas is a "moderate" and "pragmatic" and ultimately "wants peace," they do not harm Israel alone.

They will, if they pile more aid onto Abbas and Fatah, simply provide the aid that inevitably will enrich the local Arab rulers, and increase, rather than decrease, the popular appeal of Hamas, which whatever else it is, holds appeal for those not in the circle of rulers, not those who have been enjoying the diversion of outside funds for their own and their families' benefit. Turning on the tap of Jizyah for Fatah will help Fatah buy weapons to kill Jews, and simply make the Israelis still more insecure, when they live in a condition of such peril that no Western government or people can possibly comprehend and certainly no government or people has shown the imaginative sympathy to fully comprehend that daily peril, not least because the Israelis manage, somehow -- god knows how -- to take it in stride.

But such aid will reinforce, in the local Arabs, the belief that such aid coming from the Infidels is theirs by right -- that the Infidels must turn it on, and all that the Arabs need to is utter a meaningless phrase or two, and those purely for Western consumption. We can continue to have the propaganda of Jihad-hate streaming out of every radio and television show, especially those for children. We can put up posters everywhere of suicide bombers and hold their examples up for admiration and emulation. We can, in short, do everything Hamas does, except that we can also utter a phrase or two, and that Jizyah will flow.

And such aid will reinforce, in the minds of the donors, that they, the Infidels, simply must supply such aid, otherwise....otherwise, what? The idea has somehow become established that there is an Infidel Man's Burden, and that everywhere there are poor Arabs and Muslims, so that tens of billions of dollars, or at this point hundreds of billions, must be transferred from the Western, Infidel lands, beyond the ten trillion transferred to Muslim members of OPEC since 1973 alone. Thus Egypt has received, from the United States alone, some $60 billion in economic and military aid, while it remains a center of anti-American venom (though described often as an "American ally"). Pakistan, too, has been receiving, and could not exist without, Western aid of every kind. American generals loved those ramrod-straight, terry-thomassed-moustachioed, Pakistani generals. For that matter, so did the Dulles-line of anti-Communist thought, which saw Islam as a "bulwark against Communism" -- and that, apparently, was all ye knew on earth and all ye needed to know. Compare those stout Pakistan generals (Musharraf is only the latest in the line), with those bandung-conferencing, beatrice-and-sidney-webbistic, practically Bolshevik Indian rulers, such as Nehru and his foreign minister Krishna Menon. They were no good against the Communists; they even had Soviet experts building steel mills and such. But the Pakistani generals... ah, there was an ally!

And now the curtain rises again, on what should have been the third and final act of the farce known as the "Palestinians" and the Quartet and the "Two-State Solution," as the audience of credulous Americans and Europeans, claps and demands that the tragicomedy go on forever. The curtain now rises on "West Bank.” The Good, Moderate, Pragmatic Representatives of the Palestinian People Are Seen Hard At Work, Tilling the Soil, Or Busily Innovating At Their Workbenches. Two workers now cross the stage carrying some highly advanced-looking piece of equipment, which in fact is made of cardboard. Or they are Tirelessly Typing on Computers. Meanwhile, a handful of disgruntled fanatics, who have NOTHING TO DO with the good Fatah-land Arabs, all of whom look strangely like Mahmoud Abbas at his most colorlessly trustworthy, wearing three-piece suits and carrying under one arm a copy of the American Constitution and under the other arm a copy of the Uniform Commercial Code, try to cause trouble. But in vain, because Abbas and Co. Beat Them Back With American Aid.

What a relief. What a relief to know that the "Palestinian Authority" is now thoroughly under the control of the Good Guys. The "moderates." The "pragmatists." The people who learned the responsibilities of rule under Chairman Arafat himself, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, and presiding genius, in every respect, of the "Palestinian Authority." He was the presiding genius also of that devoutly-wished for, among those in Western capitals who have given up even the pretense of trying to think straight about things, “two-state solution.” This will ultimately and inevitably be, given Al-Hudaibiyya and the goals shared by the Slow Jihadists of Fatah and the Fast Jihadists of Hamas, just another step on the road to Israel’s destruction. On this Fatah and Hamas agree, even if they quarrel over tactics and timing, mainly because Fatah wants the money-tap of the Infidels turned on again -- there are apartments to be bought in Europe, villas on the "West Bank" to be furnished at Western levels of opulence, children to be sent to school in the West.

So, boys, let's turn on that tap. Bush and Rice are willing. All of Western Europe is chomping at the bit. Look at how that money flows. My god, it flows and flows and flows. Don't let it ever stop.

Lal Masjid cleric issues death fatwa against owners, publishers of magazine for publishing "half-naked" images of Adam and Eve

Will censored copies feature a burqa sewn from fig leaves?

Sharia Alert. "Adam-Eve pictures attract clergy's ire - Pakistan," from the Times of India:

ISLAMABAD: Publication of "half-naked" photographs of Hazrat Adam and Amma Hawwa, considered the first creations of [God], by a Pakistani magazine has attracted the ire of a section of the clergy who has demanded death to its owners and publishers.

A fatwa was issued against the publication by Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid who has in the recent past hit headlines for the capture of a girls' seminary run in his complex for several weeks and an edict against the country's Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.

Aziz alleged in his Friday sermon said the owners and publishers of the monthly magazine Octane had committed blasphemy of the first prophet of Allah Almighty - Hazrat Adam and Amma Hawwa - by publishing their half naked images in its latest issue.

The edict was latest in a series of measures from a section of the clergy against liberal mores.

[...]

More Talibanization:

Meanwhile, at Lakki Marwat in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), shopkeepers selling garments and cosmetics for women have received letters in which they have been warned of dire consequences if they don't close down their businesses immediately.

A shopkeeper said he had received the letter on Saturday morning containing "a word from the Taliban".

The province has been home to sympathisers of the Taliban fugitives from neighbouring Afghanistan who too espouses extremist ideas against art, music and want women confined to their homes.

"The visit of women to the cloth market and other business centres is harmful and against the norms and principles of Sharia. This practice is one of the main causes promoting obscenity and vulgarity in the society," the letter said.

It alleged that shops had been turned into brothels where women were being sexually abused, Dawn reported on Sunday.

The letter asked shopkeepers to refrain from selling such items to women and warned that failure to comply with the advice could result in loss of their lives and businesses.

Iran on Rushdie knighthood: "Knighting one of the most hated figures in the Islamic world is a clear sign of Islamophobia among high-ranking British officials"

"Honouring a hated apostate will definitely put the British statesmen against the Islamic community and hurts their feeling once again." You mean there was a recent interval where there wasn't a general sense of grievance against the West?

"Iran slams British knighthood for Rushdie," from Agence France-Presse:

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Saturday accused British leaders of "Islamophobia" for knighting Indian-born author Salman Rushdie, who was issued with a death fatwa by Iran's revolutionary leader 18 years ago.

"Knighting one of the most hated figures in the Islamic world is a clear sign of Islamophobia among high-ranking British officials," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

"Honouring a hated apostate will definitely put the British statesmen against the Islamic community and hurts their feeling once again," he said of the novelist, who was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday.

"Insulting Islamic religious sanctities is not accidental but organised and is taking place with the support and direction of some Western countries."

[...]

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in January 2005 that he still believed the British novelist was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.

Seattle Episcopal priest: "I am both Muslim and Christian"; bishop "finds the interfaith possibilities exciting"

In a Western society, Ann Holmes Redding is a person who has developed an odd set of beliefs that is heretical to both of her religions. In an Islamic state, she would be both that, and also marked for death for blasphemy. Not only would she have to choose, but having professed the Islamic faith, abandoning the Islamic religion would put her life in jeopardy.

By contrast, the Episcopal church beyond her supervising bishop may -- and should -- challenge her right to continue in their priesthood, but will not, she should note, challenge her right to continue living.

"I am both Muslim and Christian," by Janet I. Tu for The Seattle Times, with thanks to Sheik Yer'Mami:

Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.

On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.

She does both, she says, because she's Christian and Muslim.

Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she's ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she's also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.

Her announcement has provoked surprise and bewilderment in many, raising an obvious question: How can someone be both a Christian and a Muslim?

But it has drawn other reactions too. Friends generally say they support her, while religious scholars are mixed: Some say that, depending on how one interprets the tenets of the two faiths, it is, indeed, possible to be both. Others consider the two faiths mutually exclusive.

"There are tenets of the faiths that are very, very different," said Kurt Fredrickson, director of the doctor of ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. "The most basic would be: What do you do with Jesus?"

Indeed, according to the New Testament:

Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. No one who denies the Son has the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. (1 John 3:22-23)

But the Qur'an says:

For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. (19:92, see also 4:171, 19:35)

With that, it should be obvious to Redding that she can't have both. The article continues:

Christianity has historically regarded Jesus as the son of God and God incarnate, both fully human and fully divine. Muslims, though they regard Jesus as a great prophet, do not see him as divine and do not consider him the son of God.

"I don't think it's possible" to be both, Fredrickson said, just like "you can't be a Republican and a Democrat."

Redding, who will begin teaching the New Testament as a visiting assistant professor at Seattle University this fall, has a different analogy: "I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I'm both an American of African descent and a woman. I'm 100 percent both."

Redding doesn't feel she has to resolve all the contradictions. People within one religion can't even agree on all the details, she said. "So why would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam?

Some "details" are pretty important.

"At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need."

She says she felt an inexplicable call to become Muslim, and to surrender to God — the meaning of the word "Islam."

"It wasn't about intellect," she said. "All I know is the calling of my heart to Islam was very much something about my identity and who I am supposed to be.

"I could not not be a Muslim."

Redding's situation is highly unusual. Officials at the national Episcopal Church headquarters said they are not aware of any other instance in which a priest has also been a believer in another faith. They said it's up to the local bishop to decide whether such a priest could continue in that role.

Redding's bishop, the Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, says he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting. Her announcement, first made through a story in her diocese's newspaper, hasn't caused much controversy yet, he said.

Some local Muslim leaders are perplexed.

Being both Muslim and Christian — "I don't know how that works," said Hisham Farajallah, president of the Islamic Center of Washington.

But Redding has been embraced by leaders at the Al-Islam Center of Seattle, the Muslim group she prays with.

"Islam doesn't say if you're a Christian, you're not a Muslim," said programming director Ayesha Anderson. "Islam doesn't lay it out like that."

Redding believes telling her story can help ease religious tensions, and she hopes it can be a step toward her dream of creating an institute to study Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

"I think this thing that's happened to me can be a sign of hope," she said.

Read it all.

Israeli officer visits Jammu and Kashmir; Kashmir Muslims "up in arms"

Shock horror! "On one hand, India and Pakistan are inching towards friendship and on the other, the Israeli military officer is visiting Kashmir."

"Kashmir Muslims Up in Arms Over IDF Officer's Visit," from Israel National News, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

(IsraelNN.com) The visit of a senior IDF officer to the Jaimu and Kashmir provinces of India has triggered a major row in Kashmir, with mainstream and separatist parties calling it a “dangerous liaison” that could send wrong signals among the people of the Muslim-majority state.

IDF deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, along with a delegation of IDF officers, arrived on a visit to the provinces last Thursday to discuss various issues with Indian army and government officials. He met with senior officers and held discussions on issues of mutual interest to Israel and India.

But the main opposition party, the National Conference, has cautioned that his visit will hurt the ongoing Muslim-Hindu reconciliation peace process and defeat the basic concept of friendship between India and Pakistan. “The visit of the Israeli army officer is fraught with danger. It sends a wrong signal that the center is not ready to solve the Kashmir issue politically,” said Dr. Mehboob Beg, provincial president of the National Conference.

Beg warned that the India-Pakistan peace process is at a crucial stage and any wrong step will derail the entire process. “On one hand, India and Pakistan are inching towards friendship and on the other, the Israeli military officer is visiting Kashmir. People in the Valley generally abhor Israel because of its oppression against Palestinians,” he said.

Oh, is that why?

Fear of Islam on Rise in US, Says CAIR Report

Down but not out. From Barbara Ferguson in Arab News:

A prominent US Islamic civil rights group has released a study showing a significant increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim bias in the United States between 2004 and 2005. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations report blamed the trend of anti-Muslim bias including hate crimes, discrimination, and harassment on lingering animosity toward Muslims and a growing use of anti-Muslim rhetoric by some political, religious and media figures.

The organization said the increase is due to the lingering impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim community and what the group says is a general increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in American society.

According to the study, called “Presumption of Guilt,” that total is a 25.1 percent increase over the preceding year’s total of 1,972 cases. One of the most significant increases is in the category dealing with government agencies, which rose sharply from 19.22 percent of total reports in 2005 to 36.32 percent in 2006. This increase, said CAIR, was due primarily to the number of cases related to immigration issues such as citizenship and naturalization delays.

[...]

“These disturbing figures come as no surprise given growing Islamophobic sentiments and a general misperception of Islam and Muslims,” said CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar, who wrote the 62-page report.

Blah, blah, blah. CAIR (now representing 90% fewer Muslims) has become the proverbial mosquito buzzing in the public ear: small, annoying, something you'd like to ignore but which just might be carrying ebola or whatever. One hopes that they will continue to whine their way into irrelevance.

The astonishing thing, really, is the restraint shown by Americans following 9/11. I heard a Muslim comic put it this way: after 9/11, "hate-crimes" against Muslims went up one-thousand percent -- which puts them fourth behind blacks, Jews, and gays. Hurt, he scratches his head and wonders aloud, "I mean, what do we have to do?"

U.K.: Special units to crack down on honor killings

An update on this story. "Special units to crack down on honour killing," by Karen McVeigh for The Guardian:

Dedicated teams of senior prosecutors are to be deployed in the UK's honour killing hotspots in the wake of the failings exposed this week by the case of a young Kurdish woman murdered by her family.

The prosecutors, who have all had experience of complex organised crime cases, will start work this month as part of an overhaul of how cases are handled. The move is designed to boost conviction rates and improve protection for victims.

The Crown Prosecution Service has revealed the changes after the justice system was criticised for doing too little to protect vulnerable women. Senior police officers told the Guardian that there are systemic failures in how cases are handled - measures proposed years ago have been shelved, delayed or ignored, they warn.

Chief constables and the Home Office are also working together with other agencies to ensure that women in danger are identified early and dealt with properly to improve protection for victims. Plans to be published soon by the Association of Chief Police Officers will tell forces to follow new risk assessment models to ensure women are taken seriously if they complain of family violence.

The changes come after Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Kurd, was murdered by her father and uncle because they disapproved of her boyfriend who was not a strict Muslim and was not of their tribe.

She was found dumped in a suitcase, with the shoelace used to kill her around her neck. She had repeatedly told police her family were trying to kill her. In one instance where she had escaped from her father, she was not taken seriously, and described as melodramatic and manipulative by an officer who interviewed her.

A police inquiry is under way.

The CPS will this month pilot its new approach in four "hotspot" areas. A team of 20 prosecutors are to be based in London, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Lancashire. Each one will be trained by a number of different agencies including the police, the government's forced marriage unit and the independent victims group, the Southall Black Sisters.

The complex investigation and three-month trial for Ms Mahmod's murder relied on initiatives more often used to tackle organised crime, such as the use of covert investigative techniques and special measures for key witnesses, two of whom needed police protection. Such techniques are increasingly used to deal with honour crimes.

The CPS will also introduce a "flag" for any forced marriage or honour crime cases, so they can be logged and monitored.

Nazir Afzal, the CPS lead on honour-based violence, said that such crimes are often elaborate, pre-planned and can involve many suspects.

One in nine honour killings in the UK is carried out by hit men, he said. It is also common for the youngest member of the family to carry out the murder, with the others playing a lesser role.

"Some families carrying out these types of crimes are very subtle in how they go about it," said Mr Afzal. He said the CPS was determined to prosecute every individual involved. Under the new Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act, if a person fails to intervene to protect a family member they too can face justice.

Mr Afzal said that the CPS was committed to extraditing honour crime suspects who flee abroad and that it was seeking to extradite the two remaining suspects in Ms Mahmod's murder, believed to be in Iraqi Kurdistan. Ms Mahmod named the two, Omar Hussein and Mohammed Ali, as among those she believed were plotting to kill her in a letter she handed to the police the month before she was killed nearly 18 months ago.

However, the service is facing legal obstacles. The new 2005 Iraqi constitution does not allow subjects to be extradited.

A lot of Muslims "think it’s their duty to silence or kill these types of people; 'Kafirs'"

A revealing "Interview with an Arab atheist - Does Islam drive its youth away?" By Esra'a (Bahrain) at the Mideast Youth site (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

While I was in the UAE earlier this week, I conducted an interview with one of my friends who is an atheist.

So I’d like to share this interview with Adel Jalal, a 23 year old business student in Abu Dhabi.

Q: Hi Adel. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A: Yes. I’m Adel, a student from the UAE. I love everything about classical Arabic music and I’m addicted to Arabic literature.

Q: Interesting introduction, but I must ask, why do you stress the love of Arab culture so much?
A: I don’t hesitate to describe myself as atheist, but when you describe yourself as such here tell me the first thing that comes to your mind? Probably brainwashed, Satan worshiper, traitor.

Q: True, but that doesn’t really answer the question. Why do you boast about your love of Arab culture, specifically? I noticed that when we first discussed this, you said that you’re an atheist shortly before you tried to convince me that you’re not anti-Arab. Explain to me why you feel the need to do that?
A: Because non-Muslim Arabs are left out. We feel like we have no real space in society, especially in any intellectual field. When I say I’m atheist, people always tell me that I have become traitor. A sell-out. Someone who doesn’t know what it truly means to be “Arab.” Why? Because Arab means Muslim and Muslim means Arab? What does personal religious views have to do with my culture, my past, my identity? An Arab, this is something I am. This is something I take much pride in. Why do people attach my personal opinions to who I am, to my nationality? Does being Arab mean being intellectually identical to every other Arab out there?

Q: Hey, who’s the one asking the questions?! Kidding. I’m very interested in what you’re saying, especially about the left out part, in fact I previously interviewed an Arab Jew who stated just that. It’s a shame really when people aren’t accepting of differences, be it political or religious. So tell me, were you born a Muslim?
A: Yes and raised a Muslim. To be honest this is what drove me against religions.

Q: What do you mean?
A: I mean that religion is everything to a person. Especially when you strictly practice it, it quickly consumes everything you have. If you don’t honestly believe in any religion then you shouldn’t identify yourself as a believer of any religion.

Q: So your choice of being a Muslim has much to do with socialization rather than Islam itself?
A: Precisely. I have a problem with any existing religion that people are forced into. In any normal society there should be a choice, and whatever that choice is, it needs to be respected.

Q: What about Islam? When people learn that you are an ex-Muslim, do they ever imply that you’re anti-Muslim too?
A: Yes even though the connection for me isn’t really there. For a lot of ex-Muslims you will see that they have a major problem with Islam itself most likely due to the societies they live in. My reasons aren’t Islam, in fact I have a bigger problem with Christianity than Islam, and I have no problem with being in a Muslim culture and living around Muslims or being a part of a Muslim family. But I have a problem when someone is offended with my decision of not being a Muslim, and in the Arab world this is a huge problem as I’m sure you know.

Q: Yes, my problem is with Islam being enforced upon people who don’t really accept it but don’t have the balls to say “I don’t want this religion and I don’t respect it.”
A: Exactly and this is what our youth faces today, fear. If they say it they are damned to Hell by not only their families and friends but by society as a whole.

Q: Look at the case of Kareem Amer for example.
A: Yes it’s indeed a very discouraging example of the risks we face if we publicly state anything our society disagrees with.

Q: And that’s exactly why a group of us Muslims are fighting for Kareem despite what he said about Islam … and his main supporters represent Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, and Morocco, so it’s Muslims from all over the Arab world fighting for Kareem. It doesn’t mean we agree with him, it just means that we need to allow these ideas to be stated without people facing harsh consequences, especially a prison sentence!
A: I agree but it’s going to take years for anyone to be really convinced of that. Remember that most Muslims think it’s their duty to silence or kill these types of people; “Kafirs.”

Q: Most Muslims? Come on.
A: Okay, a lot of them.

Read it all.

UN unveils plan to bridge gap between Islam and the West

Of course, neither "Preventing Islamic jihadists from carrying out terror attacks" nor "Educating Muslims to reject the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism" are part of the plan.

"Education and media aspects of UN bid to bridge Islam and West: envoy," from APP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

UNITED NATIONS, June 15 (APP): A two-year plan to bridge the divide between Islam and the West was presented Thursday to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the U.N. envoy heading the global campaign on the issue, known as the "Alliance of Civilizations." Speaking to reporters in New York after his meeting with Ban, Jorge Sampaio, the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, explained that the initiative is about "building bridges between societies, promoting dialogue and understanding, and forging collective political will to address the world's imbalances, tensions and sources of conflict."

He said the Alliance will be focusing on four main fields of activity; education, youth, media and migration. "Teaching about other cultures and religions heightens students' awareness of the beliefs and traditions that shape other people's lives," he said.

"Media consists of the most powerful means to promote knowledge about other cultures, understanding [and] mutual respect," he noted, adding that migration is "a natural bridge between diverse communities."

The plan presented today sets out a range of projects and initiatives which the Alliance will support and help develop over the next two years, including a media fund to promote productions developed across cultural, religious and/or national lines, a Youth Employment Centre aimed at increasing work opportunities for young people in the Middle East, and a project aimed at expanding international student exchange programmes, according to a press release issued by the Alliance....

Queen knights Rushdie

Is the Queen making a statement against the Islamization of Britain? Will Sir Salman, Sir Paul and Sir Mick lead a new band of merry men against the jihadists?

"Rushdie knighted in honours list," from the BBC, with thanks to Leon:

Salman Rushdie, who went into hiding under threat of death after an Iranian fatwa, has been knighted by the Queen.

His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and a bounty was placed on his head in 1989.

But since the Indian-born author return to public life in 1999, he has not shied away from controversy.

A devout secularist, he backed Commons Leader Jack Straw over comments on Muslim women and veils and has warned against Islamic "totalitarianism"....

His fourth book - The Satanic Verses in 1988 - describes a cosmic battle between good and evil and combines fantasy, philosophy and farce.

It was immediately condemned by the Islamic world because of its perceived blasphemous depiction of the prophet Muhammad.

It was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities and in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's spiritual leader, issued a fatwa, ordering Sir Salman's execution. It was not formally lifted until 1998.

Despite living as a virtual prisoner, with full police protection, Sir Salman continued to write and produced several novels and essays during his confinement.

His re-emergence has not been without controversy.

In backing Jack Straw over his comments on Muslim women wearing veils, Sir Salman said veils "suck" as they were a symbol of the "limitation of women".

He also weighed into the furore surrounding the Danish cartoons, which satirised the Prophet Muhammad, warning against Islamic "totalitarianism".

Sister of UK honor killing victim speaks: Dad tried to kill her, too

Banaz Mahmod Update. "'Honour killing' sister breaks her silence," by Helen Weathers for the Daily Mail, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

Britain was appalled by the horrific 'honour killing' of a girl murdered by her father for daring to kiss the man she loved.

Here, her sister, who narrowly escaped death herself and now lives in fear of her life, breaks her silence.

Every time Bekhal Mahmod leaves the safety of her home, she wears the hijab with a black veil covering her face - even though she would give anything for the freedom not to have to.

She has no family to turn to, few friends, and has to lie to new acquaintances about who she is and where she is from. She is constantly looking over her shoulder.

"My life will always be at risk," says 22-year-old Bekhal. "There are people in my community who want to see me dead, and they will not rest until I am. I will never be safe. I wear the veil so no one can recognise me."

It is a desperately lonely and isolated existence, but at least she is alive - unlike her younger sister Banaz.

Both young women brought "shame" on their strict Muslim Iraqi Kurdish family by disobeying their father Mahmod.

Bekhal, 22, ran away aged 16 rather than agree to an arranged marriage to a cousin in Iraq.

She survived an attempted killing by her brother, but her sister Banaz, 20, paid the ultimate price for leaving her own arranged marriage and then falling in love with an "unsuitable man" of her own choice.

On the orders of her 52-year-old father and uncle, Ari Mahmod, 50, she was strangled with a bootlace by Kurdish assassins, her body stuffed in a suitcase and buried six feet down in the garden of a house belonging to an associate in Birmingham.

Read it all.

Australia: Man who raped a Muslim woman because she showed an interest in Christianity given five years in prison

An update on this story. "Man jailed over 'Bible' rape," from AAP, with thanks to JE:

A MAN who raped a Muslim woman because she showed an interest in Christianity has been jailed for at least five years by a Sydney court.

As Abdul Reda Al-Shawany was sentenced today, the Downing Centre District Court heard a harrowing statement from the victim, revealing that her shame and fear had been compounded by her cultural background.

The woman, who cannot be named, arrived in Australia as a refugee from Iraq.

But she said that even when she was jailed by dictator Saddam Hussein, she never feared for her life the way she did after the rape.

"It is better if I'm dead," she told the court.

Al-Shawany's trial was told that he visited the woman, an acquaintance, at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre with another man.

The woman had been reading the Bible and Al-Shawany noted her contact with Christians.

The men told her they were "infidel people" and if she went with them, her killing "would be halal" - meaning her killer would go to heaven.

In September 2002, Al-Shawany lured the woman to a unit at Warwick Farm, claiming to have news about her family in Iraq.

She was hit on the head and had her hijab tied around her face before Al-Shawany raped her twice in what Judge Brian Knox described as a degrading, humiliating and brutal attack.

Afterwards Al-Shawany told her: "Let your Christ benefit you now".

It took the jury less than half an hour to convict him of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.

BBC sorry for calling Jerusalem capital of Israel

How could they have made such a terrible mistake?

This from Jonny Paul for the Jerusalem Post:

The BBC apologized this week for referring to Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and promised not to repeat "the mistake," following a complaint by four British organizations.

Arab Media Watch, Muslim Public Affairs Committee, Friends of Al-Aksa and the Institute of Islamic Political Thought sent a joint complaint to the BBC after a presenter on its Football Focus program on March 24 mentioned that Jerusalem was Israel's capital and "historic soul."

This from the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit:

Complaint:

A representative of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK complained that the reporter in the film broadcast immediately before the England v Israel football match in Football Focus (BBC1, 24 March 2007) had referred to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Although the programme-makers had apologised privately for the error and removed it from the programme's website, the matter was one of such sensitivity and concern to the Palestinian people that the complainant believed a broadcast correction and apology was necessary.

BBC Editorial Complaints Unit's ruling:

The reference was a passing one in a context where the focus was on sport, not politics. While recognising the sensitivity of the issue of the status of Jerusalem, the ECU took the view that the programme-makers had taken sufficient action by acknowledging the error and rectifying the website.

Further action: Complaint resolved

The BBC bent over backwards to appease the Muslim groups. This from the BBC's appeasement letter:

"We of course accept that the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and that the BBC should not describe it as such. I was therefore pleased to see that Katherine Tsang [BBC Information adviser], when she wrote to you in April, acknowledged the error and apologized for it. [Presenter] Steve Boulton and other senior managers in BBC Sport told us they very much regret the mistake and apologize for it."

"Senior managers will try to ensure, as you suggest, that the mistake is not repeated. Because it appears on the Web site, there will be a public acknowledgement of the error, and the action taken in consequence."

"I'd like to add my apologies for this most regrettable, but I'm sure accidental, factual mistake. I appreciate that the status of Jerusalem is of particular concern to Palestinians, and it is important that it is not misrepresented. I am confident that lessons have already been learned, and they will be emphasized as a result of my decision."

Just as Jerusalem's status as the capital of Israel preceded the existence of the BBC, so it shall remain the capital of Israel long after the BBC is buried in history's graveyard.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

The jihadists' trail of blood

More finger-pointing, and utter failure to take responsibility for the actions of Muslims, from a Muslim spokesman. From "Debate between German Lutherans and Muslims," from Deutsche Presse Agentur (thanks to Fjordman):

Ayyub Axel Koehler, chairman of the Council of Muslims...told the church-people that Europe should be ashamed of the "trail of blood" that it had left throughout the world down the centuries.

Fjordman comments at the Brussels Journal:

It would be interesting to see Muslims deal with the trail of blood they have left behind on several continents, from Thailand via India to Armenia, during more than 1300 years. To quote Paul Fregosi’s book Jihad in the West:

“The Jihad, the Islamic so-called Holy War, has been a fact of life in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East for more than 1300 years, but this is the first history of the Muslim wars in Europe ever to be published. Hundreds of books, however, have appeared on its Christian counterpart, the Crusades, to which the Jihad is often compared, although they lasted less than two hundred years and unlike the Jihad, which is universal, were largely but not completely confined to the Holy Land. Moreover, the Crusades have been over for more than 700 years, while a Jihad is still going on in the world. The Jihad has been the most unrecorded and disregarded major event of history. It has, in fact, been largely ignored. For instance, the Encyclopaedia Britannica gives the Crusades eighty times more space than the Jihad.”

“Western colonization of nearby Muslim lands lasted 130 years, from the 1830s to the 1960s. Muslim colonization of nearby European lands lasted 1300 years, from the 600s to the mid-1960s. Yet, strangely, it is the Muslims, the Arabs and the Moors to be precise, who are the most bitter about colonialism and the humiliations to which they have been subjected; and it is the Europeans who harbor the shame and the guilt. It should be the other way around.”

Eurabian art exhibition in Rome to celebrate "common Mediterranean identity"

A note from Fjordman:

Hello from Fjordman. I notice that even at Jihad Watch there are those who question whether the Eurabia thesis presented by Bat Ye'or is correct. I have spent a considerable amount of time checking it, and in my view, her conclusions are perfectly sound. Louis Michel, at present a member of the European Commission, the EU's unaccountable government, told the Belgian parliament that the European Union will eventually encompass the entire Mediterranean basin, including North Africa and the Middle East. The EU is actively working towards this goal on a daily basis, and spends large amounts of money on promoting the Euro-Arab Dialogue. The most dangerous aspect of this is how they rewrite European history books to erase any traces of the 1300 years of continuous Jihad warfare against Europe, Asia and Africa. The EU as an organization is so thoroughly corrupted by such pro-Islamic sentiments that it is simply impossible to fight the Islamization of Europe without getting rid of the EU. Here's an example, clearly encouraged by the EU, of an Eurabian art exhibition in Rome dedicated to celebrating a "common Mediterranean identity," whatever that is:

ITALY: MEDITERRANEAN MAN EXPLORED IN ROME ART SHOW

The works of twenty-one contemporary artists from around the Mediterranean basin went on display in Rome exploring through experimentation and tradition the identity of the region. "This exhibition is an utopia, of bringing together united in dialogue the countries of the Mediterranean, with their wealth of history and culture, too often divided by tragic conflicts" explained Maria Teresa Benedetti who curated the show. The language of the artists on display in central Rome is experimental and seeks to launch a message which underlines the existing historic links between the people of this region, who all face onto a sea which should serve to unite different cultures who share a common if turbulent history. "There is no point in denying it, the idea of a common Mediterranean identity has been betrayed by centuries of history, of cruel wars, of tensions and fears" acknowledged the president of the Lazio region Piero Marrazzo in a statement. "It is certainly true that today, every day, it is betrayed by the difficulty of spreading out equitably resources and opportunities to all the citizens of the Mediterranean. "Yet there is a deep bond that united us. The light of democracy and dialogue - against the darkness of totalitarianism and intolerance. Building together the tools to fully express their common core will help consolidate the cultural, economic and political integration between the peoples of the Mediterranean" Marrazzo said.

Fitzgerald: The absurd ban, and dangerously broad language, of Superintendent Del Burns

The former Enloe High School history teacher who invited a Christian evangelist [actually an Egyptian Copt] to speak to his students is not taking his reprimand quietly....

The question is this, he said: "Are we going to be open to a variety of different perspectives versus are we going to limit and censor and shut down the educational experience and environment to keep out people with certain views?"

Escamilla, who readily avows his own Christian faith, acknowledges that Solomon was not neutral toward Muslims. But he insists that his guest did not denigrate Islam or attempt to convert students to Christianity during the visit….

The school system sees it differently. In a sharply worded release last month, Wake County Schools Superintendent Del Burns said Solomon's primary message was to convey his anti-Muslim and pro-Christian views. Burns has apologized to Muslims for Solomon's visit. And he issued new guidelines that require guest speakers to sign forms saying they will not denigrate any culture, race, gender, national origin or religion."-- from this article

Disgusting. Disgusting because we know that that form which one is now forced to sign would not stop any "Palestinian" or other Arab or Muslim from presenting a highly tendentious view of the Lesser Jihad against Israel. That view would tend -- as it has tended all over Western Europe -- to both exploit pre-existing hatred, and to promote the pathological mental condition known as antisemitism.

Disgusting because the treatment by the Egyptian government of Christian Copts is a subject of great and enduring interest. If an Egyptian Copt now lives in the area, if he can testify as to the treatment of Copts by Muslims in Egypt today, and to the role of the Egyptian government in this treatment, should he be prevented from doing so? On what theory? What does Superintendent Del Burns think of Francis Bok and the other "Lost Boys" of the southern Sudan, the Christian and animist black Africans who were enslaved or killed -- some 1.8 million killed -- because of the deliberate policies of the Arabs who run the Sudan?

If Francis Bok were to be willing to come and speak before student groups in North Carolina (and here's an idea: invite him), would Superintendent Burns prevent him from speaking? Would Francis Bok not be allowed to testify as to what the Muslim Arabs of the north did to the black Africans of the south? Would that be impermissible because, in the view of Superintendent Del Burns, such statements would "denigrate any culture, race, gender, national origin or religion"?

It is this absurd ban, and the dangerously broad language, of Superintendent Del Burns that should be the subject of strict, and devastating, scrutiny. And it is he, rather, who should, pour encourager les autres like him all around the country, lose his job, his mandate. He's in the wrong job, in the wrong country. I'm sure he can get a job working for John Esposito at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, beavering away at the task of protecting Islam and Muslims from the slightest criticism, no matter how eminently justified.

Surely the treatment of the Copts can help to explain what is now happening, and has been happening, to hundreds of thousands of Assyrians and Chaldeans, and to Mandaeans, and Yazidis -- that is, to all non-Muslims in Iraq -- at the hands of those who can now practice their Islam without being reined in any longer, for reasons that had nothing to do with sympathy for Christians and everything to do with calculated realpolitik, by the late Saddam Hussein.

But this lesson will not be learned. The understanding that might come from greater understanding of how Christians or other non-Muslims are treated not just in Iraq, but in Egypt, or in Lebanon (where only the size of the Christian community has helped to keep it from outright persecution, but the steady pressure of Islam is whittling down the Maronites who are the original inhabitants of Lebanon, and who were there before the Arabs arrived with their "gift" of Islam), will not be permitted as long as Superintendent Del Burns is there to enforce the Don't-Say-Anything-Uncomplimentary-About-Islam Act that he himself proposed, and immediately passed, without any discussion with himself, and with nary a dissenting vote.

Australia: Court upholds ban on bin Laden book

Of course, Join the Caravan is readily available online, but nonetheless, this is a good principle to uphold. Would these "civil libertarians" have fought for the right to circulate Mein Kampf among Germans in the U.S. during World War II?

"Court upholds ban on bin Laden book," from AAP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Civil libertarians have failed to overturn the ban on the sale of two books, one containing a preface written by Osama bin Laden.

In the Federal Court on Thursday, Justice Richards Edmonds dismissed an application by NSW Council for Civil Liberties Inc relating to the books Join the Caravan and Defence of the Muslim Lands.

The Classifications Review Board banned their sale last July after concluding both books "promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence".

But the civil libertarians took issue with that conclusion, also arguing the two decisions involved errors in law.

The books originally were allowed for sale, but were banned after the federal attorney-general asked for a review of the December 2005 Classification Board decision.

Justice Edmonds said the review board noted the author of Join the Caravan, Sheik Abdullah Azzam, was often referred to as the Godfather of Jihad.

His motto, quoted in the book, was "Jihad and rifle alone. No negotiations. No conferences and No Dialogue".

"The review board considered that the book was `written in an emotive and passionate appeal to Muslims undertaking Jihad'," the judge said.

It also considered the book was, in its own words, "one of the principal inspirations for thousands of Muslims from all over the world to go and fight in Afghanistan to defend Muslim blood, property and honour".

The second book, written by the same Sheik, contained a preface by Osama bin Laden.

Iran moves to execute porn stars

Iran, like every other country, can do without pornography. But killing all those involved? Here is yet another example of how Sharia morality does not involve the cultivation of virtue, which requires freedom, but is simply coercion. Those who are moved by the Islamic moral critique of the West should keep that in mind.

From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that could lead to death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.

With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corruptors of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corruptors of the world."

The term, "corruptor of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.

That would be 5:33: "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom."

The "main elements" refered to in the draft include producers, directors, cameramen and actors involved in making a pornographic video.

The bill also envisages convictions ranging from one year imprisonment to a death sentence for the main distributors of the movies and also producers of Web sites in which the pornographic works would appear.

Besides videos, the bill covers all electronic visual material, such as DVD and CDs. Other material, such as porn magazines and books are already banned under Iranian law.

Netherlands: Parliament backs amnesty for 30,000 immigrants

"Anyone convicted of war crimes or sentenced to more than a month in jail is excluded from the new measure." Whew. That'll keep jihadists out. From AKI, with thanks to WriterMom:

Amsterdam, 13 June (AKI) - In a political U-turn, the Dutch parliament has approved residence permits for 30,000 immigrants who applied for and failed to get asylum before 2001. Anyone convicted of war crimes or sentenced to more than a month in jail is excluded from the new measure. The amnesty was proposed last November by the parliament elected in polls that led to the centre-left Labour party entering the governing coalition at the expense of the Liberal VVD party. The governing coalition is led by the Christian Democrats (CDA).

Former immigration minister, hardliner Rita Verdonk, ordered the deportation of 26,000 asylum seekers. However, the previous government collapsed last June following a political row sparked by its handling of the disputed citizenship of Somali-born Dutch politician and feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The immigration issue has gripped Dutch politics since the murders of two prominent campaigners against Muslim extremism - rightwing independent politician Pim Fortuyn and film-maker Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh was murdered in an Amsterdam street in 2004 by a Muslim extremist after his film 'Submission' highlighting domestic violence against Muslim women was aired on Dutch television. Hirsi Ali received death threats over the short film, for which she wrote the screenplay.

Muslim sisters risk life for college in Mumbai

Women trying to get book-learnin'? That could get them killed -- why, it's "un-Islamic"!

From Mangalorean.com, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Mumbai June 11: The Bombay High Court has asked the police to protect two Muslims sisters after they were threatened for attending college.

Samina Shaikh (19) and Zarina Shaikh (18), who study at St Xavier's College and the Maharashtra College, moved the court for police protection after they were "terrorised and threatened".

The sisters allege their neighbour Mohammad Ali Nisar Ansari assaulted their parents and brother on May 11. Ansari allegedly asked the sisters father Yasheen Sheikh not to send them to college.

Ansari and other men in their locality believe that "only girls with bad character go to college" and did not want sisters to study after school. The family was told that Islam does not "permit" girls to study.

Having fled Iraq, she died at the hands of her father – and all because of a kiss

“We are Muslim and Kurdish. We are not like the English where you can be boyfriend and girlfriend.”

This article from the Times Online (thanks to Sr. Soph) tells the whole tragic story of Banaz Mahmod, an honor killing victim in Britain. Here is the chronology of events:

Dec 4, 2005 Banaz Mahmod tells police of her uncle’s threats to kill

Dec 5 Police visit her home. She asks them to leave, adding she does not want to pursue allegations

Dec 12 She gives police a letter naming potential killers

Dec 31 Her father tries to kill her but she flees. WPC Angela Cornes attends. Rahmat Sulemani records Miss Mahmod’s allegations. She returns to his home

Jan 2, 2006 She meets her sisters and mother and is persuaded to return home

Jan 22 A Kurdish gang threatens Mr Sulemani

Jan 23 He reports incident to Kennington police. Miss Mahmod tells Mitcham police of death threats. She refuses a place in a women’s hostel

6.30pm The couple speak secretly on mobile phone

Jan 24 Miss Mahmod is murdered. Police call at the family home. Her father says she is out

Jan 25 Police visit her parents who say they do not want to report her missing

Jan 26 Police class her as a high-risk missing person

Jan 27 Full-scale investigation is launched

April 28 Her body is found in a suitcase in Birmingham

Pink for ladies, red for gentlemen - taxis in Dubai

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Dubai. By Diala Saadeh for Reuters, with thanks to Writer Mom:

DUBAI (Reuters Life!) - For the comfort of Muslim women who do not wish to ride taxis with men, Dubai is now offering pink-coloured cabs with a female driver.

"Ladies Taxis" are the latest fad in the booming city, a business, tourism and commercial hub for more than 203 nationalities.

"Our society is conservative and our women do not want to ride with men alone at night or when they arrive at the airport at two or three in the morning," Ammar Bin Tamim, director of Dubai Taxi, told Reuters.

"We decided to operate this service after complaints from women who did not want to ride with men, especially at night."

Fifty women-only cabs operate in Dubai. Outside Dubai airport's arrivals terminal, the busiest in the Middle East, women drivers wearing white headscarves and pink hats wait in their pink and beige cabs in line for their female-only customers.

A policeman at the airport taxi stand directs women to hop into a pink cab, and men to the red-topped cars.

Teacher fights on in flap over anti-Islam speaker

"Are we going to be open to a variety of different perspectives versus are we going to limit and censor and shut down the educational experience and environment to keep out people with certain views?"

Hmmm. That's a tough one. Better ask Omid Safi.

By Yonat Shimron for the Raleigh News & Observer, with thanks to Twostellas:

The former Enloe High School history teacher who invited a Christian evangelist to speak to his students is not taking his reprimand quietly.

Social studies teacher Robert Escamilla said the Wake County school system squelched free speech and academic freedom -- and he is finding a growing group of supporters.

In the days since he was reassigned to Mary E. Phillips High School, 100 of his former students have signed a petition to have him reinstated at Enloe. The chairwoman of the social studies department at Enloe wrote a forceful letter to the school board calling him a "sacrificial lamb." A Web site (www.freeesco.com) is being built and bank account has been set up to help with his legal bills.

Escamilla maintains he did nothing wrong when he invited Kamil Solomon, an Egyptian-born Christian who lives in Raleigh, to speak to 300 or so Enloe students about his persecution at the hands of the Egyptian government. On the contrary, Escamilla said, he thought the visit by the evangelist was an educational exercise that exposed his students to different opinions and challenged them to form their own views.

The question is this, he said: "Are we going to be open to a variety of different perspectives versus are we going to limit and censor and shut down the educational experience and environment to keep out people with certain views?"

Escamilla, who readily avows his own Christian faith, acknowledges that Solomon was not neutral toward Muslims. But he insists that his guest did not denigrate Islam or attempt to convert students to Christianity during the visit.

The school system sees it differently. In a sharply worded release last month, Wake County Schools Superintendent Del Burns said Solomon's primary message was to convey his anti-Muslim and pro-Christian views. Burns has apologized to Muslims for Solomon's visit. And he issued new guidelines that require guest speakers to sign forms saying they will not denigrate any culture, race, gender, national origin or religion....

Minnesota Muslim cabbies "really upset" about non-discriminatory regulations

"They believe they have been forced into something against their faith, something against their religion." Ultimately that is going to have to be sorted out, and not just for Minneapolis cabbies. Is the U.S. going to accept Sharia provisions, or reject them? We cannot ignore the problem forever.

"Minnesota Muslims in culture clash at airport," by Todd Melby for Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - For Mahamed Jama, a Minnesota taxi driver, the Islamic restriction on drinking alcohol is a seamless rule for life.

"He who carries alcohol, he who drinks and he who sells it are the same thing," he says.

That belief could affect his livelihood.

The commission that runs the Minneapolis airports in May began enforcing a new policy allowing it to revoke the licenses of drivers who refuse to ferry passengers carrying alcohol -- something that has happened to 4,854 travelers trying to get a cab at Minneapolis International Airport in the last five years.

"The increased penalties appear to have brought drivers into compliance," airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said of the policy -- a 30-day license suspension for a first infraction and a two-year license revocation for a second.

Although Hogan said the measure was implemented without incident, it has provoked outrage among some of the 900 cab drivers who work the airport. About three quarters of them are Somali, most of whom are Muslim.

"A few of them are really, really upset about it," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in neighboring St. Paul. "They believe they have been forced into something against their faith, something against their religion."...

Dutch court shelters Muslim woman from the consequences of her lifestyle

Muslim Accommodations, Eurabia Division Update: this woman insists on wearing a burqa, despite the fact that it makes employers not want to hire her. And instead of telling her to get out of the burqa and adapt to European society rather than requiring European society to adapt to her, a Dutch court is now ordering that she be given welfare payments.

"Dutch council to pay blocked welfare to Muslim woman," from Middle East Times, with thanks to WriterMom:

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands -- A local council in the Netherlands has been censured for cutting welfare payments to a Muslim woman who could not find work due to her preference for the burqa, an Islamic garment that covers the eyes.

A court in Amsterdam ordered the Diemen district authorities to pay more than a year's worth of blocked welfare payments as well as the woman's legal fees.

A judge said that the authorities' decision to stop payments in April last year was "very heavy" and criticized them for failing to take Islamic customs into account....

Three employers had refused to hire the woman due to her preference for the garment. The woman had rejected a fourth job as a telephone marketer because it involved a lottery business, saying that gambling was forbidden under Islam.

Christian seeks US asylum to avoid torture by Muslims

Sameh Khouzam, a 38-year-old Egyptian Coptic Christian, is seeking asylum in the US. He fled from Egypt nine years ago to escape forced conversion to Islam. The US, however, is threatening to deport him back to Egypt -- where he will likely face torture or death.

"Christian fears torture if deported," by Bob Unruh for WND:

A Coptic Christian from Egypt is battling for a court ruling to allow him to remain in the United States and avoid the sure torture he would face under Egypt's Islamic law, according to his supporters. Sameh Khouzam, 38, who has been in the United States for about nine years already, is facing a court date June 18, when a decision will be announced on that deportation order.

His supporters say the issue is the torture he would face if returned to Egypt, which he fled under threats from Muslims who demanded that he and his family members convert to Islam.

A spokesman, Sam Grace, said because Egypt's constitution says that laws derive from the Quran, the persecution of Christians there is not only allowed, but endorsed, by government officials.

"In the last 10 years, more than 5,000 Christians have been massacred in Egypt," he told WND. "Hundreds of businesses and homes first have been looted, then burned and destroyed. Churches have been burned and destroyed.

"And you know what? Not one Muslim has been indicted, let alone convicted," he said.

"Especially on Friday, after the Friday prayers, the Muslim mobs are incited on attacking Christians," Grace told WND. "It happened last Friday. Mobs attacked businesses and burned them, and Christian homes and two churches in Alexandria."

"The life of a Christian in Egypt is now worth zero. Every Muslim now knows killing a Christian [is not prosecuted,]" he said.

A report from the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights concluded that Coptic Christians in Egypt have been harassed, tortured and killed by Muslims for 1,400 years already.

"They have been subjected to all kinds of hate crimes including, the abduction of young Coptic girls, the killing of Coptic women and children and the destruction of their places of worship," the report concluded.

So what about Khouzam?

In Khouzam's case, a federal court banned his deportation based on the threats he's reported. But now administration officials are planning a deportation anyway, citing "diplomatic assurances" from Egypt that the man will not face torture. His arguments are being pursued by Human Rights Watch and others, who are arguing that the use of torture in Egypt is so routine and well-documented deporting Khouzam would expose him to harsh treatment and violate the Convention Against Torture.

That prohibits foreign citizens from being repatriated to countries where they stand a reasonable chance of being tortured.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an agency created by Congress, lists Egypt on its watch list of countries, noting that it had "a poor overall human rights record."

Egypt is considered by the Bush Administration to be one of the model Middle Eastern democracies. Think again.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

HRW condemns Palestinian war crimes

The Messiah must be on the way. Human Rights Watch condemns Palestinian war crimes and makes no mention of Israel or the "occupation."

"Gaza: Armed Palestinian Groups Commit Grave Crimes," from HRW:

(New York, June 13, 2007) – During recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, armed Palestinian groups have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, in some cases amounting to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today.

In internal Palestinian fighting over the last three days, both Fatah and Hamas military forces have summarily executed captives, killed people not involved in hostilities, and engaged in gun battles with one another inside and near Palestinian hospitals. On Saturday, armed Palestinians from Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade used a vehicle with a “TV” insignia to attack an Israeli military position on the border with Gaza.

“These attacks by both Hamas and Fatah constitute brutal assaults on the most fundamental humanitarian principles,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. “The murder of civilians not engaged in hostilities and the willful killing of captives are war crimes, pure and simple.”

On Sunday, Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Muhammad Swairki, a cook for President Mahmoud Abbas’s presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City. Later that night, Fatah military forces shot and captured Muhammad al-Ra’fati, a Hamas supporter and mosque preacher, and threw him from a Gaza City high-rise apartment building. On Monday, Hamas military forces attacked the home in Beit Lahiya of Jamal Abu al-Jadiyan, a senior Fatah official, captured him, and executed him on the street with multiple gunshots. On Tuesday, there were reports of additional killings of individuals not involved in hostilities.

In the June 9 incident, four armed Palestinians drove a white jeep bearing “TV” insignias to a fence on the Gaza-Israel border and fired at Israeli soldiers. The Israelis returned fire, killing one Palestinian. Spokesmen for Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack. An Islamic Jihad spokesperson denied that Palestinians had put press markings on the jeep used in the June 9 attack, and accused the Israeli military of doing so after the fact. However, photos taken by the Associated Press as the attack was under way show the letters “TV” written in red on the front of the jeep.

If you need information on where to send your donations to further aid the Palestinian cause, please contact the EU.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Eurabia: 'Conspiracy' or Policy?

Andrew G. Bostom in The American Thinker takes down Phillip Jenkins' contention that the Eurabia initiatives detailed by Bat Ye'or in her book of that name really only amount to a conspiracy theory concocted by Bat Ye'or and popularized by others.

America must reckon with the reality of a long term project to create a Euro-Arab alliance based on far-reaching cultural integration measures. Yet some dismiss the warnings of those who speak of the dangers for America as the ravings of conspiracy theorists.

Phillip Jenkins, in his recently released book God's Continent makes the following statement:

... the forces driving Muslim immigration were so overwhelming that there is no reason to imagine the conspiracy theory devised by Bat Ye'or and since popularized by Oriana Fallaci and others, which suggests that European elites collaborated with Arab states to create a Eurabian federation spanning the Mediterranean. Given the economic forces demanding labor and the political factors conditioning supply, it would be difficult to imagine any outcome much different from what actually occurred.

Sadly, and not so "incidentally", this reductio ad absurdum argument -- focused inappropriately on the secondary issue of immigration as if that were the sine qua non of "Eurabia", and imbued with a non-sequitur, defamatory charge of conspiracism -- reveals little more than Mr. Jenkin's own thoroughly inept research.

Despite its widespread usage, there is almost universal ignorance about the origins of the term "Eurabia". We'll get to that shortly. Here is a bit of historical context, to which Mr. Jenkins is completely oblivious, dating back to the early to mid-1970s, as characterized in meticulous (if dry and forbidding) detail in Bat Ye'or's seminal, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis.

Born of the Arab League's October, 1973 defeat in their Yom Kippur war against Israel and the related oil embargo, The Euro-Arab Dialogue has created an alphabet soup of European Community, and later European Union-funded organizations charged with planning joint political, cultural, social, industrial, commercial, and technical-scientific projects.

This entity first met officially at a ministerial level on July 31, 1974, in Paris, to discuss the Dialogue's organization. In attendance were the Secretary General of the Arab League, the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, the President of the European Community Commission, and the President of the European Community. As Bat Ye'or observes,

In the course of the meetings that followed, the European foreign ministers of the Nine [i.e., the original European Community member states] laid the foundations for their cooperation with the Arab countries, through an institutionalized structure linked to the highest authorities in each European Community country. This...made it possible to harmonize the European Community policy of trade and cooperation with the Arab League countries.

The Dialogue rapidly spawned a European Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation whose members represented a broad spectrum of European Community political groups. Biannual Euro-Arab Parliamentary meetings convened alternately in Europe and the Arab nations. Roughly 100 European and Arab members of their respective Parliaments attended, along with observers from the European Community/European Union Commission, the Arab League, and other international organizations. During an initial meeting in Damascus, September 14-17, 1974, the Arab delegates established their political preconditions for economic agreements with Western Europe, specifically demanding:

* 1. Israel's unconditional withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines * 2. Arab sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem * 3. Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) participation (lead by Yasser Arafat), in any negotiations * 4. European Community pressure on the United States to detach it from Israel and bring its policies closer to those of the Arab states

Read it all.

Iraqi Christian refugees in legal limbo

A tragic illustration of Western nations' misplaced priorities in granting asylum. By Slobodan Lekic for the Associated Press:

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Forced from their Baghdad home by sectarian violence, an Iraqi Christian couple in their 70s have spent the past two years bounced between detention centers in Greece and Belgium, terrified of being forced back to Iraq.

Their odyssey underscores the plight of thousands of Iraqi Christians denied refuge in Europe while European Union nations argue over who is responsible to help them.

Many are caught in a legal limbo. With the notable exception of Sweden, Western governments — wary of letting in a seemingly never-ending stream of refugees from various countries — are not prepared to accept large numbers of Iraqis. But the Christians say returning to Iraq is tantamount to a death sentence.

The fate of people like the Iraqi couple, given the pseudonyms Abel and Leah by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is only now beginning to generate concern at the highest levels.

On Saturday, President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI discussed the worsening problems of Iraqi Christians during a meeting at the Vatican. Bush said the pope lamented the community's fate, saying it seemed the new Iraq "would not tolerate the Christian religion."

[...]

Although relatively few have made it to Europe, the EU is bracing for a bigger influx. Some 40,000 Iraqis are expected in 2007, double that of 2006 — itself twice the number in 2005. The United States pledged to accept 7,000 Iraqis this year — up from only 202 in 2006.

UNHCR officials say many Iraqis seeking asylum in Europe are Christians, terrified by attacks like the kidnapping of a priest and the killing of another together with three parishioners this month.

The Iraqi couple's saga began after gunmen broke into their home in 2004 and threatened to kill them unless they paid $50,000. They fled Baghdad for Greece, hoping to later join their son, who has been recognized as a refugee in Belgium since 1999.

Journalists are not allowed into the Steenokkerzeel Detention Center near Brussels Airport where the couple is being held. Their Belgian attorney, Dirk Vanheule, asked that they not be identified by name because of the fear they could become targets if forced to return to Iraq.

When the couple reached Athens and applied for asylum two years ago, Greek authorities rejected their request and ordered them to leave Greece after a three-month detention.

They went to Brussels, and sought asylum when they arrived. Belgian authorities initially detained them, but then sent them back to Greece, where they were again placed in detention. The Greeks then issued a second expulsion order.

Belgian authorities argued that Greece was responsible for the couple's asylum claim under the EU's 2003 Dublin Regulation, which declares that the EU member state where asylum seekers first enter the EU is responsible for processing their claims.

But the regulation also allows that a different member state may take over a case for humanitarian reasons, particularly those based on family considerations.

The Iraqi couple, with no other place to go, returned to Brussels four months ago, and have been held incommunicado at Steenokkerzeel since then. On Thursday, a Belgian judge ordered their release but they were immediately arrested by officers of the Federal Aliens' Office and returned to detention, pending deportation to Greece.

Vanheule is now preparing an appeal on behalf of the couple to the European Court of Human Rights, stating the government's actions represent an abuse of human rights law and the principle of family reunification.

"By using a legal technicality, in practice what the Belgian state is doing is getting around the judicial review process that is guaranteed by law and is guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights," he said.

Hundreds of 'honour' crimes take place in Britain and are on the increase

Banaz Mahmod is not alone. "Britain's hidden 'honour' crimes," from Metro.co.uk, with thanks to IG:

Hundreds of 'honour' crimes take place in Britain and are on the increase, a leading Human Rights barrister has warned.

Usha Sood, who specialises in Asian family cases, said they were becoming more common in the UK.

The alarm call comes as the victim of Britain's latet 'honour killing' had been dismissed by police as a fantasist as her father and uncle were convicted of murder.

Banaz Mahmod, 20, told officers her life was in danger four times and even gave them a list of three men she thought would murder her because she had fallen in love with someone her family disapproved of.

One of the men later admitted his part in the crime, while the other two have fled the country.

Weeks after she sent the list, Banaz's father, Mahmod Mahmod, lured her to her grandmother's house on New Year's Eve and made her drink alcohol....

Diana Nammi, of the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, also told the BBC Five Live that there "lot of cases" of honour killings in the UK.

"There are lots of suicide cases where woman have been forced to commit suicide," she added.

Banaz feared for her life when her father came towards her menacingly, wearing gloves, and she jumped through a window.

Her boyfriend Rahmat Sulemani filmed her on a hospital trolley saying she was 'really scared'.

But when she told a police officer, PC Angela Cornes, about what happened, her account was dismissed as fantasy.

Ms Cornes even wanted to have her charged with criminal damage for breaking the window....

Banaz last went to police in January last year following a kidnap attempt on her boyfriend but declined an offer of a safe house.

She was murdered the next day.

Mosque funding madness

Why are British Christian churches funding mosques?

By Damian Thompson in the Telegraph, with thanks to K:

Why is the official body representing Britain’s Churches funding the activities of a radical mosque?

Ihsan Mosque in Norwich posts some pretty strong stuff on its website, including an anonymous blog that sneers at “democracy’s decomposing entrails” and calls on Muslims to “anticipate and pursue the demons in our midst”.

But those demons presumably do not include the Churches’ Commission for Racial Justice, whose Racial Justice Fund subsidises children’s holiday activities run by the Ihsan Mosque.

Read it all, and follow the links.

Pakistan: 1,000 honor killings a year

That's almost three honor killings a day.

"U.N. women's rights group criticized Pakistan for honor killings, trafficking," from The Associated Press, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

UNITED NATIONS: A U.N. committee charged with promoting women's rights expressed concern over an increasing number of reported "honor killings" in Pakistan and criticized the country for failing to adequately address the trafficking of women.

Members of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women questioned Pakistan's sincerity in tackling the issue of the extrajudicial killings, asking why they appear to be rising even after a new law aimed at banning them was passed in 2004.

"Have all the criminals guilty of these murders been prosecuted?" asked Maria Regina Tavares da Silva, a committee expert from Portugal, according to transcripts of the meeting obtained this week. "There is leniency and tolerance toward this crime."

The committee was meeting to review the progress of countries that have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Since 1979, 185 countries have acceded to it, pledging to implement laws to end discrimination against women.

The committee pointed to a shadow report submitted by a group of Pakistani rights organizations that alleged that Pakistan has not done enough to eliminate tribal courts and practices such as "honor killings," an ancient custom in which those accused of committing adultery or violating other sexual mores are killed by relatives. Most of the victims are women.

The groups contended that such extrajudicial killings are on the rise, though representatives from the Pakistani government argued that a rise in reported killings did not represent an increase in the number of incidents.

The government said the rise is evidence of progress since such acts have traditionally gone largely unreported.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, citing government figures, said in a report last year that about 1,000 women die annually in honor killings.

Fitzgerald: Sarkozy: Curb your enthusiasm

Some previous curb-your-enthusiasm posts (lightly edited for clarity) about Sarkozy, who nonetheless is much better than any of the others, save Philippe de Villiers, whose time may well come:

1.

Here's a fine how-de-doo. Sarkozy, on whom so many hopes were placed, comes down on the side of equality of outcome, and does not dare touch the subject that needs to be touched: what is it about Islam that explains subpar economic performance, even in the Muslim lands that have no excuse, for they have received nearly $10 trillion dollars over the past 34 years and have failed everywhere to create the semblance of a modern economy. Nor does he dare touch on what explains the dismal performance of Muslim immigrants, compared to other non-Muslim immigrants -- Hindus, Vietnamese Buddhists and Christians, Chinese -- all over Europe. What is it about Islam that stands a permanent obstacle to integration with Infidels? Could it be, might it be, the very attitudes of hostility and even murderous hatred that one can find set out in Qur'anic passages, in Hadith stories, in details of the life of Muhammad set out in the Sira? No, none of that for Sarkozy.

And what a surprise to see the deplorable Dominique de Villepin stand up for -- well, essentially, for the grandes ecoles, and the meritocracy of examinations, and Long live the khagne! Long live the agregation! For if that goes, then the entire cult of intelligence and merit goes with it. And even though there are plenty of reasons to deplore the recent examples of graduates of ENA and suchlike, the destruction of the examination system, and the obstacle course set up in its place, would be the last nail in the coffin of Jules Ferry and la carriere ouverte aux talents, as well as of the cartable for the little ones, and the cahier, and the cahier de vacances, and the bac, and everything that is left to which even D. de V. sees has its points.

But he, too, does not dare explain what it is about Islam that stunts mental growth, or that prevents genuine integration of Muslims in a society where they do not receive what they regard as their due -- that due being, in the end, the modification over time of that Infidel society to accommodate Muslim demands at every level, until, as has happened everywhere that Muslims become a majority or a too-powerful minority, Islam comes to dominate and Muslims rule. It does not always take place through outright military conquest. See the East Indies, where traders from the Hadramaut settled in Java, and one thing led to another, with the results that can be observed.

[Posted by: Hugh at November 26, 2005 07:26 PM]

2.

Le Pen is disreputable in a hundred collaborationist, poujadist ways. Philippe De Villiers is fine, far more perceptive than Sarkozy, in whom so many (possibly misplaced) hopes have been placed. Some lepenistes apparently believe that Philippe De Villiers is doing Chirac's work for him, but this is never quite explained, since Chirac will soon be out of office, trying to stay out of jail.

It is Le Pen who has been inconsistent. He stood stoutly by Saddam Hussein, and appears to find the Muslim Arabs perfectly acceptable in the conduct of their Lesser Jihad against Israel, possibly a reflection of his most unsavory aspect. The best thing that could happen now for the emergence of a sensible anti-Islam movement in France would be the disappearance of Le Pen, and those of his supporters who supported him slightly or very unwillingly, malgre eux, can turn their attention, and support, to Philippe De Villiers, to give him power that he can trade on.

[Posted by: Hugh at October 28, 2006 1:08 AM]

3.

Sarkozy is good, but Philippe de Villiers is better. One hopes that Sarkozy will not engage in any idiotic "reaching out" to the "youths" in the "banlieues," but instead will make sure that they know that a different view of things now prevails, and the nonsense of the past will no longer be tolerated. Sarkozy was very good on television with the sinister Tariq Ramadan (for whom the jig is up in France, and in Switzerland, which is why he moved on to a temporary post in England, and hopes to take his show on the road to credulous America, where willfully naive Scott Appleby and Notre Dame still await him -- or so he devoutly believes).

Sarkozy has spoken in the past about the possibility of "integrating" the Muslims of France, and has even suggested the desirability of special programs to favor them in employment and with a kind of affirmative action in the schools. He still doesn't realize that teaching Believers French, teaching them about French culture, will not make them any better able to accept Infidel institutions, or make them necessarily loyal to the Infidel nation-state of France, but will assuredly provide many with the tools to better conduct Da'wa, to better promote their own, Muslim, aims. Such courses will be akin to those KGB schools for spies, where the spies were taught the languages and cultures of the West -- but still remained loyal to the Soviet system. Putin, for example, knows German perfectly. He knew exactly how to fit in to East Germany (and there were other KGB agents like him in what was then West Germany). But those KGB agents were not "integrated" into the West, though they were living in that West, and had been taught all about it.

Sarkozy must be very careful. And not hesitate to turn that ship of state completely around so that it rises higher in the water. The motto of the city of Paris, quondam Lutetia -- fluctuat nec mergitur (it bobs up and down on the waves, but doesn't sink, as if Paris were a bar of Ivory soap) just will not do, not for Paris, and not for France.

"Not sinking" isn't enough of a goal. Nor will the faith in making France "prosperous" again sufficient. The Muslim presence is, of course, an enormous economic weight, and drain on the welfare state. But more importantly, it is a great political, social, civilizational weight, a general demoralizer for those who see the problem, and those who perform the mental equivalent of salti mortali in order not to see it.

Sarkozy can help to disabuse the permanent French establishment about the Deux-Rives notion, that somehow France, or France as the leader of Europe, shares a civilization with the Arab Muslims of North Africa (google "Deux-rivistes" and "Jihad Watch"), and that the differences are merely those of that pesky Mediterranean in the middle. And assorted olivier-roys and gilles-kepels should lose their positions of unmerited and baleful influence, and if possible, their government employment at one of those many Centres de Recherches Scientifiques that provide sinecures for so many of the well-degreed and well-connected.

[Posted by: Hugh at May 7, 2007 10:28 AM]

U.S. Raps Several Arab Allies For Human Trafficking

Might the eagerness of people from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar to engage in this kind of activity be related to the Qur'anic allowance for slavery, and failure of reformers to address this head-on and reject slavery on principle? From Reuters, with thanks to Davida:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States accused its Arab allies Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar on Tuesday of being among the world's worst offenders in permitting the sale of people into the sex trade and indentured servitude....

The others in this category were Algeria, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela....

"Trafficking in persons is a modern-day form of slavery," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an introduction to the report....

EU ends freeze…will fund jihad against Israel

Goodbye boycott. For the first time since January 2006, the EU will donate money to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The EU plans to transfer 4 million euros.

"EU Breaks Freeze on Funding PA," by Hana Levi Julian for INN:

The European Union has agreed to transfer 4 million euros (approximately $5 million) to the coffers of the Palestinian Authority government, effectively ending a freeze by Western nations on funding the Hamas terrorist-led entity.

“The EU is resuming its support of the Palestinian Authority in a direct manner through the finance ministry,” announced PA Finance Minister Dr. Salem Fayyad at a news conference Monday.

The money is to be used for a project “to assist the Minister of Finance in ensuring the proper use of Palestinian taxpayers’ money” and that expenditures are accounted for, said EU representative John Kjaer.

The Quartet, of which the European Union is a member as well as the United States, Russia and the United Nations, declared a freeze on funding to the PA until the Hamas-led government officially recognizes the State of Israel, renounces terrorism and fulfills past agreements.

The Quartet members had also said they would not acknowledge the Fatah-Hamas unity government until it fulfilled the conditions.

The freeze went into effect in January 2006, immediately after the Hamas terrorist organization, whose charter plainly states its intent to destroy the State of Israel, took control of the PA government in a landslide victory.

Needless to say, Hamas has not fulfilled any of those conditions. Yet the EU sees fit to "show them the money" anyway.

The financial move raises the status of the PA without formal acceptance. It is also likely to result in increased pressure on Israel to release $700 million in tax revenue collected for the PA but withheld following the Hamas victory, leading to an accelerated disintegration of Western resolve to boycott the terrorist organization.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently returned to pressuring Israel into releasing the funds, despite America’s ban against transferring money to Hamas.

In explaining her actions, she told The Associated Press, "I understand the Israelis' concerns about what might happen to tax revenue, but we think that there are mechanisms that they could use in the ways that they have in the recent past to support important activities."

Considering that Rice has pandered to Iran and financed Fatah and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, financing Hamas is totally understandable.

But is anyone still fighting the "war on terror"?

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

President of Al-Azhar and former Mufti of Egypt explains wife-beating in Islam: "It's not really beating, it's more like punching"

Oh, well, why didn't you say so before? Who could possibly object to that?

"President of Al-Azhar University and Fomer Mufti of Egypt Ahmad Al-Tayyeb Explains Wife Beating in Islam," from MEMRITV, with thanks to Suzy:

Following is an interview with President of Al-Azhar University and former Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, which aired on Nile News TV on May 25, 2007.

Ahmad Al-Tayyeb: With regard to wife beating... In a nutshell, it appeared as part of a program to reform the wife. [According to the Koran], first "admonish them," [then] "sleep in separate beds, and beat them."

That's Qur'an 4:34.

Interviewer: I think we must stress that this pertains to a rebellious woman...

Ahmad Al-Tayyeb: Of course. It's not that anybody can start beating as he sees fit. [Westerners] who claim this talk about an Islam which is a figment of their imagination. They are villains because they know there's no such thing in Islam, and they want to pin this interpretation on it. Why? Because Islamic culture is the only culture that is spreading, and is viewed with fear by people of other cultures. In any case... This method appeared as part of the treatment of a rebellious wife. I am faced with two options - either the family will be destroyed by divorce, or I can use means that may bring my wife, the mother of my children, back to her senses. The first means is admonishment.

[...]

The second means of treatment is "sleeping in separate beds." Why? Because this targets the honor... A lot could be said about this. The strength of a woman lies in her ability to seduce the man. The man is strong and can do whatever he wants, but the woman has a weapon of her own. This weapon can be targeted. Many women will come back to their senses, when they realize that this is what's involved.

[...]

By Allah, even if only one woman out of a million can be reformed by light beatings... It's not really beating, it's more like punching... It's like shoving or poking her. That's what it is.

Sarkozy invites Hizballah to France

So much for Sarkozy.

"Sarkozy invites Hizbullah to France," by Yaniv Salama-Scheer and Herb Keinon for the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

In a significant diplomatic shift, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will invite Hizbullah to take part in a conference on Lebanon scheduled for later this month in Paris, and begin "engaging" Syria, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

New French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has invited delegates from across Lebanon's political and religious divide to the conference aimed at quelling Lebanon's violence and political strife.

In another sign that France has decided to step up its involvement in the Middle East, Sarkozy is to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Tuesday.

Regarding Syria, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said France had let Damascus know it was willing to reengage with it, but that it would not in any way back down from its firm support for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, or from its demand that Damascus "keep its hands off" of Lebanon.

Khatami criticized for 'shaking woman’s hand'

"Recently a video has been circulating on the Internet showing a former top official visiting Italy, shaking the hands with several women and young girls ... We do not want to publish the address of the Internet site where this film can be seen, in order to avoid propagating corruption in society."

Suggested title: Iranian Ex-Presidents Gone Wild! Sharia Alert. "Iran ex-president criticised for ‘shaking woman’s hand’," from Agence France-Presse:

TEHERAN - A hardline Iranian daily on Monday launched an attack on former reformist president Mohammad Khatami who it said had publicly shaken hands with women while on a visit to Italy last month.

‘Recently a video has been circulating on the Internet showing a former top official visiting Italy, shaking the hands with several women and young girls,’ said the Siasat-e Rouz daily, one of Iran’s most ultra-conservative papers.

‘We do not want to publish the address of the Internet site where this film can be seen, in order to avoid propagating corruption in society,’ it added.

The paper carefully avoided naming Khatami although he is the only ‘former top official’ to have visited Italy in recent months. Khatami’s trip at the start of May saw him meet Italian leaders as well as Pope Benedict XVI.

According to Islam’s sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related. Pictures circulating on the Internet show Khatami shaking hands with several female tourists.

Whether at home or on trips abroad, Iran’s officials studiously avoid handshakes with female foreign dignitaries and, at most, place their right hands on their hearts to express gratitude.

Even Iran’s conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accused of ‘indecency’ in the hardline press last month after he publicly embraced and kissed on the hand an elderly woman who used to be his school teacher.

Kuwait bars women from night jobs

And jobs that "contravene with public morals." Sharia Alert, from Agence France-Presse:

KUWAIT CITY - The Kuwaiti parliament on Monday passed a law banning women from working at night, except those in the medical profession, and barring them from jobs considered ‘immoral.’

The law, which was passed unanimously, prohibits women from working between 8:00 pm and 7:00 am and in jobs that ‘contravene with public morals and in all-men service places at any time.’

This law seems to have the same open-ended quality as that which granted women the right to vote and hold office in Kuwait, as long as they "abide by Islamic law." Indeed, if the point of the law is to maintain control of a segment of a population, placing limitations on it would defeat the purpose.

Conservative and Islamist MPs, who form a majority in the 50-member house, said the law aims at protecting women from ‘being exploited in immoral activities.’

Fitzgerald: The New Duranty Times and the explanatory heart of the matter

This story about “jihadi etiquette” appeared in The Sunday Times on June 10, 2007.

It has been nearly six years since the World Trade Center attack. It has been four decades since the Six-Day War, which signaled for the Arabs and Muslims a recognition that regular warfare, in the Lesser Jihad against Israel, would not do, and terrorism would have to be employed. And so began plane hijackings, and letter-bombs in embassies, and the seizing of schoolchildren and their subsequent murders (Ma'alot), and the explosions of planes in mid-air (that TWA plane that rose to a certain height and then, bam!), the smuggling of explosives onboard through the use of innocent Infidels (that pregnant Irish girl, given a "package" to unwittingly deliver on an El Al flight by her "Palestinian" boyfriend whom she loved so very much -- but apparently he had other ideas).

It has been four and a half years since the Iraq War began, a war whose folly can only be properly understood not by those who counsel appeasement, not by those who oppose the war because "it is all about oil," but only by those who have understood how the Administration has misunderstood the real problem, in its "war on terror" and in its misunderstanding of Iraq and the usefulness of establishing, or thinking there might be established, a Light Unto the Muslim Nations in Iraq. And so in this misunderstanding it began a war that has now cost this country $880 billion, that is, more than the total cost of all the wars, save World War II, ever fought by the United States.

Yet The New Duranty Times, the insufferably inaccurate and negligent goddamn New York Times, has been unable until now even to hint at what Islam has to do with it. Instead, The New Duranty Times has hidden behind -- oh, haven't they all, haven't almost all of them, done so? -- such phrases as "radical Islamist extremists." That phrase has that unnecessary adjective fore, "radical," and that unnecessary noun aft, "extremist," and in the middle, just to be sure of misleading the reader, that little suffix "ist" put in to transform the true word, the word that does not hide behind that ill-concealing suffix -- that is, the word "Islam," which tells the intelligent student of both Islam (its tenets, attitudes, atmospherics) and of the history of Jihad-conquest (over 1350 years, from Spain to East Asia) all that they need to know to make sense not only of what is happening, but of what can be done to make what is happening happen less, or happen to the advantage and not the disadvantage of the confused and inarticulate and besieged Infidels.

Four-and-a-half years after the catastrophic war in Tarbaby Iraq began, The Times continues to be against it. But it continues to be against it incoherently and unintelligently. It cannot explain satisfactorily (this website can, this website has) how the ignorance of Islam led to the folly of the polypragmonic intervention in Iraq. It cannot explain why that intervention was undertaken not to swiftly find and destroy certain kinds of weaponry and then leave, but instead in order to bring "freedom" and "democracy" to "ordinary moms and dads" in the Middle East. That Light Unto the Muslim Nations Project was colossally misguided. It was fed by trust in plausible Shia in exile, and also fed by a belief that Islam, being a "religion," could not possibly be very different from other world religions, and the very word "religion" in some quarters commands automatic, salaam-salaam respect.

The New Duranty Times has over the past several decades failed to investigate Islam. It has failed to see, in its coverage of the Middle East, in the tens of millions of words it has published, the centrality of Islam. And so have many others. But at a certain point, that negligence or ignorance became intolerable. After the 9/11/2001 attacks, and after the attacks on non-Muslims all over the world became better known, and even, at times, reported on, what was the excuse of the Times in not finding out?

All over the world non-Muslims have been attacked, some across borders, and some within the borders of countries in which Muslims dominate. The Arab siege of the Infidel state of Israel remains what it has always been -- not a "nationalist" desire for "the legitimate rights of the 'Palestinian people'" but an implacable war, not limited to military means, against the continued existence of the one Jewish state. And that has received attention both exaggerated and misconceived. The Times has devoted thousands of articles, over several decades, to the so-called "Peace Process" without once -- not once -- ever bothering to examine the Muslim view of treaties with Infidels. It has done so without once -- not once -- studying the Treaty of Al-Hudaibiyyah and its central role in Muslim treaty-making (see Majid Khadduri, "War and Peace in Islam"). The very idea of presuming to discuss either the Arab attitude toward Israel, or the real nature of Ba'athism (the reasons for the creation of the Ba'ath movement, and why it succeeded, for similar but distinct reasons, only in Syria and Iraq -- have been repeatedly laid out at this website, and for all I know, possibly somewhere else), without any reference to Islam here either shows how poorly The New Duranty Times has performed.

It is called here "The New Duranty Times" to remind readers of how badly The Times covered Soviet Russia in the 1930s, when its Pulitzer-award winning correspondent (his award worth about as much as the Pulitzer awarded to the terminally jejune Tom Friedman) Walter Duranty failed to notice Stalin’s famine. Now the Times fails to notice the Christians in Pakistan and the Philippines and the Moluccas of Indonesia, the Hindus of Bangladesh and Pakistan and even the last remaining Hindus in Afghanistan under the Taliban, the Christians and animists in the southern Sudan, and the Christians of southern Nigeria. When the Biafra War was covered, no one noticed, no one wanted to notice, that it was a classic Jihad against the Christian Ibo -- no one, except Col. Ojukwu and the Christians of Nigeria themselves.

The New Duranty Times is not alone. The newspapers, the radio pundits, the television talkshows and sound-bite rapid-fire interviewers, have ignored the nature of Islam, the history of Islamic conquest of non-Muslim lands and subsequent subjugation of vast numbers of non-Muslims, over time forcibly islamized and in the Middle East and North Africa, arabized as well.

But The Times has never been able to coherently explain much of what it covers, that is, much of what is merely reported, but about which neither The Times, nor its readers therefore, can make sense. For by leaving out the teachings and promptings and atmospherics of Islam, it leaves out the explanatory heart of the matter.

UK: 'Honour killing' relatives guilty

"Banaz had made several attempts to warn police that her life was in danger, even naming those she thought would kill her. In footage recorded following an earlier attempt on her life by her father in December 2005, she said she was 'really scared'. However her statement following the assault was allegedly not taken seriously enough by investigating officers." Why not? Were they afraid of being labeled "Islamophobic"?

"'Honour killing' relatives guilty," from the BBC, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A father has been found guilty of killing his daughter in what police have described as an honour killing.

The body of Banaz Mahmod, 20, was found in a suitcase buried in a garden in Birmingham last year.

Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and uncle Ari Mahmod, 50, from Mitcham, south London, were both convicted of murder at the Old Bailey.

A third defendant, Darbad Mares-Rasull, was cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Ari Mahmod was also found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Mohamad Hama, 30, of West Norwood, south London, an associate of Ari, has pleaded guilty to the murder.

Miss Mahmod was killed after falling in love with a man her family did not want her to marry.

Her father and uncle ordered the murder because they believed she had shamed the family, the three-month trial heard.

Banaz had made several attempts to warn police that her life was in danger, even naming those she thought would kill her.

In footage recorded following an earlier attempt on her life by her father in December 2005, she said she was "really scared".

However her statement following the assault was allegedly not taken seriously enough by investigating officers.

Detroiters fear for Christian Iraqis

"There is a genocide going on, and most people don't realize it."

"Detroiters fear for Christian Iraqis," by Niraj Warikoo for the Detroit Free Press, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

Alarmed by the increasing violence directed at Christians in Iraq, local Iraqi Americans are mobilizing to push for their protection.

Several Iraqi groups met Friday in West Bloomfield to discuss how to publicize the plight of Iraqi Christians, many of whom have close ties to metro Detroit. The Southfield-based Network of Iraqi American Organizations sent urgent letters to the Iraqi government, the White House and the United Nations. Others are planning to rally this month in Oak Park to bring attention to what has happened in the last month to Iraqi Christians, known as Chaldeans or Assyrians....

"The situation is very, very bad," said Jacoub Mansour, a medical doctor from West Bloomfield. "We need them to protect us. We are part of Iraq, the first people of Iraq. ... We want to stay there."

As with most of metro Detroit's sizable Chaldean population, Mansour -- who was born in Iraq -- has relatives there, and he worries about them.

About half of his cousins have fled Baghdad for northern Iraq because of threats. Three of his relatives were kidnapped a few months ago. One of them was beaten severely, he said.

"It's so bad now for the Christians," Mansour said. Other innocent people are getting killed too, but Christians "are the targets lately."

Nabil Roumayah, who heads the network, fears that Iraq's minority populations soon could disappear unless the Iraqi government acts quickly. "Take some action and enforce the law," he said. "We need protection now."

Roumayah said that some leaders have said they're concerned about Iraq's minorities, but no action has been taken to protect them or to invest in Christian areas....

"There is a genocide going on, and most people don't realize it," said Martin Manna, head of the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce, based in Farmington Hills. "They need to be protected."

Pakistan: "Police register blasphemy cases under pressure"

An update on this story. "Abuse of blasphemy laws: ‘Police register blasphemy cases under pressure’," by Ali Waqar for the Daily Times:

LAHORE: Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) additional inspector general Malik Muhammad Iqbal said on Sunday in many cases the people with religious sentiments pressure police to lodge the blasphemy cases.

He said the religious sentiments were rampant in society and sometimes it was quite difficult to handle the situation sometimes. He cited the example of Imam-e-Kaaba’s visit. He said no one was invited to receive him, but thousands of people had thronged to receive him and offer prayers behind him.

The CCPO said despite all the pressure the courts had been providing relief to the blasphemy-convicted people. He said no doubt people have been taking advantage of the blasphemy law, but this couldn’t be stopped without controlling religious sentiments.

Sure, abuses occur, but hey, what can you do? Here's an idea:

On the other side, the human rights organisations across the country have repeatedly been demanding the annulment of the law.

On April 1 in Toba Tek Singh six Christians were charged with blasphemy under Sections 295 A, C, 452, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code without the inquiry by an SP. Younis Masih['s] case was also lodged without following the due procedure. According to the statement of Younis Masih’s counsel, a sub inspector completed the investigation within a day.

From May 9 to June 9 three incidents have been reported in the press in which public pressure had been allegedly used to misuse blasphemy laws mainly to grab the property of the accused persons. The cases were lodged under public pressure claiming that the alleged blasphemers have hurted [sic] their sentiments. Younis Masih had been sentenced to death on May 30 on charge of blasphemy...

[...]

On May 9, 79-year-old Walter Fazal Khan was bathing in the morning when Riaz, who lived at the same house, knocked at his door and told him that something was burning in the house. Later, they found a burnt book in the drawing room, which Riaz found to be a copy of the Holy Quran. Riaz ran out immediately, called local clerics and tried to beat Walter. Police were called and a case was lodged against Walter under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. Walter was bailed out of jail on May 29.

In a latest incident that happened on June 8 the Shahdara Town police registered a blasphemy case against a mentally- handicapped person Nadir Ali for allegedly burning his house, which had a few copies of the Holy Quran on June 9. The case was registered against Nadir under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Overcome with "religious sentiments":

Several neighbours alleged the complainant Shahid wanted to grab Nadir’s property. The police officer concerned told Daily Times the police had registered an FIR against Nadir under the public pressure. He admitted that there were reports that Shahid had wanted to grab Nadir’s property.

Indonesia: Sunday school teachers jailed when Muslim children attended class freed one year early, Muslims protest

An update on this story. "Indonesia - Imprisoned Sunday school teachers released," from Compass Direct:

DUBLIN, June 8 (Compass Direct News) – A small crowd gathered to welcome Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun as they walked free from the Indramayu district prison in West Java, Indonesia early this morning. They had served nearly two years of their three-year sentence.

The three women were arrested in May 2005 and sentenced to prison that September for allowing Muslim children to attend their Sunday school program, even though the parents had consented to their children’s attendance. After several legal appeals failed, the women were delighted to be granted an early release on parole following international advocacy campaigns on their behalf.

Authorities quietly moved the release from 9 a.m. to 6 a.m. after Muslim extremists said they would gather outside the prison to protest the reduced sentence. During their trial in 2005, Muslim extremists had made murderous threats against the three women within and outside the courtroom.

The Christian Peace and Prosperity Party sent two busloads of people to the prison to ensure safety for the women. Supporters and a handful of local and international journalists were also present to witness the release.

Inmates File Suit After Prisons Ban Some Religious Books Over Terrorism Fears

Jihad training -- is that a First Amendment right? The issue here seems to be clouded by the removal of books that aren't jihadist or Islamic at all. Officials need to sharpen their focus -- if they dare.

From AP, with thanks to Jesse Petrilla:

NEW YORK — Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial Day — hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves.

The removal of the books is occurring nationwide, part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.

Three inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy, saying their Constitutional rights were violated. They say all religions were affected.

"The set of books that have been taken out have been ones that we used to minister to new converts when they come in here," inmate John Okon, speaking on behalf of the prison's Christian population, told a judge last week.

Okon said it was unfortunate because "I have really seen religion turn around the life of some of these men, especially in the Christian community."

The government maintained that that the new rules don't entirely clear the shelves of prison chapel libraries....

Feldman said the removal order stemmed from an April 2004 Department of Justice review of the way prisons choose Muslim religious services providers. It is not exactly clear why it took so long for the order to be put into effect, but prison officials said they needed time to examine a long list of books.

Feldman said the study was made out of a concern that prisons "had been radicalized by inmates who were practicing or espousing various extreme forms of religion, specifically Islam, which exposed security risks to the prisons and beyond the prisons to the public at large."

Feldman said the review by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons concluded that prison chapel libraries were not adequately supervised.

"The presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers in the BOP's correctional facilities can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security if inmates are encouraged to commit terrorist acts against the United States," the bureau's report said.

The review suggested audio and video monitoring of worship areas and chapel classrooms and screening of religious service providers. It also recommended that prisons reduce inmate-led religious services and consider constant staff monitoring of inmate-led services....

Inmate Moshe Milstein told the judge by telephone that the chaplain at Otisville removed about 600 books from the chapel library on Memorial Day, including Harold S. Kushner's best-seller "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," a book that Norman Vincent Peale said was "a book that all humanity needs."

"There is definitely irreparable harm done to us already, and we would like the court to issue the injunction to get the books back as soon as possible," he said.

Inmate Douglas Kelly, who described himself as a representative of the prison's Muslim community, complained of "a denial of our First Amendment rights."

He said books on Islam already were the least represented in the library's collections and were reduced by half in the Memorial Day removal.

"A lot of what we are missing were definitely prayer books or prayer guides and religious laws on the part of the Muslim faith," he said....

Ron Kuby, a civil rights lawyer who has represented a former head Islamic chaplain banned from the state prison system after he was accused of making extremist statements, called the prison book removal "a mass Memorial Day book burning."

But he also said there might be limits to relief the prisoners can seek because prisoners' First Amendment rights are severely limited.

Killers of Chaldean priest, deacons in Iraq wanted their conversion to Islam

No Compulsion in Religion Alert. "The killers of Fr. Ragheed and the three deacons wanted their conversion to Islam," from AsiaNews:

Mosul (AsiaNews) – Before opening fire on Fr. Raghhed Gani and his three deacons, the killers demanded their conversion to Islam. These emerging details of the murder of the 4 Chaldeans have been posted by the Arab site Ankawa.com which in these last few days has been re-creating the ferocious nature of the Mosul attack through eye-witness accounts.

This information confirms the theory of a target murder, well planned and in step with the vast campaign of persecution against Christians currently underway in Iraq. So far there has been no claim of responsibility for the “senseless gesture”, as it was defined by Benedict XVI who [yesterday met] president George W. Bush in the Vatican.

In the interim a press statement released by Iraq’s highest authority for Sunni Islam, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) has condemned the murder of the Chaldean priest and his three sub-deacons, which took place June 3rd last following Sunday mass. The declaration attributes all blame for the deaths to the “occupation forces” and the “current Iraqi government”. The Sunni academics also denounce the fact that “what is happening on the ground in Iraq is pure terror, killing and destruction, due to a total deterioration in security”.

While tensions rise, some politicised Christian groups in the United States are pushing for the creation of an autonomous region for the “Assyrians in Iraq”, which they see as the only solution for their survival. In the past local bishops on the ground have expressed their strong opposition to this “dangerous” project.

The Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See, Assyrian Albert Yelda, agrees with the bishops. The diplomat described the Mosul killings as a “shameful crime, a tragic event for all Iraq”. “The government – he continued – condemns attacks, repression, and persecution against any minority”.

In an interview with AsiaNews he underlines that now, the priority is to “regain stability, guarantee security for the entire population and keep the country united, not create barriers”. “Now is not the time to speak of safe haven for Christians, an idea which I do not support at all” he underlined. “Christians must remain in their homeland and the government is doing all it can to guarantee their security not only in Baghdad, but also in those areas where terrorism has so far not taken over”.

Only “by remaining united, Christians, Muslims, Turkmen, Kurds and Yezidi will we be able to uproot this evil from Iraq and the entire region”. Ambassador Yelda underscored that “the issue of terrorism is a global problem; this is why the international community must provide the Iraqi government with the necessary means to quash this ideology of evil which they are attempting to impose on us”.

But how many Muslim groups in Iraq are willing to work with Christians as equal partners, not as subjugated people who are "protected" (i.e., as dhimmis) insofar as they are politically unproblematic?

“External elements – he added – are trying their very best to divide the government and the people; this is why the world cannot, must not abandon us. The International Community must remain by our side, because if there is no peace in Iraq, then there cannot be peace in the rest of the region."

UK: Girl, 11, rescued from marriage

"The forced marriage unit deals with 250 cases a year." And that number is certain to climb.

"Girl, 11, rescued from marriage," from BBC News, with thanks to Darcy:

An 11-year-old girl has been rescued from a forced marriage, the Home Office has said.

Minister Baroness Scotland said the girl, who was born in Britain, was taken to Bangladesh at the age of six to care for her disabled mother.

At 11, she was forced into marriage but her aunt in the UK reported the case to authorities who brought her back to Britain and put her in foster care.

It is one of 5,000 cases handled by the government's forced marriage unit.

Baroness Scotland told the BBC's Asian Network: "We've just rescued an 11-year-old who'd been forced into marriage, who'd been raped.

"Since she was six she'd been looking after her disabled mother and two siblings. And with the help of her aunt we were able to rescue her and bring her back."

The forced marriage unit was set up just over two years ago to help victims and survivors of forced marriage.

It deals with 250 cases a year and has rescued 300 people, many of them very young girls.

German Cardinal wants to celebrate Mass in Saudi Arabia

Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Bishop of Mainz, wants to exercise a bit of reciprocity. Since there are now so many mosques all over Europe, he wants to celebrate Mass in Saudi Arabia. And why not? Because, of course, tolerance and respect for other religions is a one-way-street.

German-language article here (thanks to W. Dorfner.)

Pope, Bush discuss plight of Iraq's Christians

As anyone who has kept up with reports coming from Iraq knows, the Pope's worries are well founded. Brave New Democratic Iraq, the Light Unto the Muslim Nations, doesn't seem to have much of a place for Christians. Does Bush realize how hollow this makes his fledgling democracy (as if more confirmation were needed)? Does he care? Did he tell the Pope he would make sure that Christians in Iraq were protected?

"Bush, Pope discuss war in Iraq," by Jennifer Loven for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

ROME - President Bush said Saturday that and he and Pope Benedict XVI discussed the pontiff's deep worries that Christians in Iraq would not be embraced by the Muslim majority.

"We didn't talk about just war," Bush said in a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi during a swing through Europe.

"He was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion. ... He's worrisome about the Christians inside Iraq being mistreated by the Muslim majority."

Hizballah digs in and rearms -- under the watchful eye of the U.N.

Ominous signs from Israel's northern border: Hizballah is preparing for Round Two, and the UN is doing nothing about it. As usual.

"Hezbollah ‘has stockpiled rockets’ on Israeli border," by Uzi Mahnaimi Zarit for the Times Online:

HEZBOLLAH, the powerful Iranian-backed militia that fought the Israeli army last summer, has built a network of underground military bunkers under the feet of United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon close to Israel’s border.

It has rebuilt its fighting capability and Israeli intelligence now estimates that it has stockpiled 20,000 rockets.

“Hezbollah will never leave southern Lebanon,” said Shaul Mofaz, the former defence minister, last week. “It’s now armed with rockets that could hit central and even southern Israel.”

Hezbollah, which was forced to move away from the border as part of last August’s ceasefire deal, has returned by stealth. “Since the Israeli forces left, Hezbollah has been building formidable military underground posts under the noses of the UN,” said an Israeli intelligence officer.

Remember that UNSCR 1701 states that the Lebanese Government is to "exercise its full sovereignty so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon."

It also calls for "full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon."

As always….nothing from the UN.

Soon after the ceasefire agreement Hezbollah began to rebuild its positions in Shi’ite villages close to the Israeli border.

“The entrance to an underground post is usually in the backgarden of a Hezbollah supporter,” said one source. “The householder receives compensation for the use of his garden.”

Modern equipment is used to sink the shafts, sometimes as deep as 70ft. Some bunkers are as wide as a football field, others can hold fewer than 10 fighters.

They are equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and many are believed to be connected by tunnels, limiting Israel’s ability to destroy them from the air.

Since last August huge quantities of arms, including Russian-made antitank missiles, short- and long-range rockets, small arms, mines and ammunition have been smuggled into Lebanon from Syria and Iran.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Al Qaeda's Ultimatum to Baghdad's Christians

Baghdad Christians have been in a heap of trouble for quite some time, and it is only getting worse. Now Al-Qaeda jihadists have issued them an ultimatum. "Insurgent group steps up its campaign against Baghdad's Christians," by Hannah Allam and Leila Fadel for McClatchy Newspapers:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -An al-Qaida-affiliated insurgent group is giving Christians in Baghdad a stark set of options: Convert to Islam, marry your daughters to our fighters, pay an Islamic tax or leave with only the clothes on your back.

A U.S. military official said American forces became aware of the threats only last month and now have erected barriers around the largest Christian enclave in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood in an effort to protect its residents.

Christians in Baghdad refuse to discuss the threats for fear of retribution. But in Syria, where thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled, tales abound of families that were killed or driven from their homes because they either refused or couldn't afford to pay the jizya, a tax usually levied on non-Muslim men of military age that's been part of Islam for more than 1,000 years.

"Two or three months ago, we heard we were going to be forcibly removed from Dora," said Rafah Elia Daoud, 53, who fled to Damascus, Syria's capital, on May 24. "Not everyone got a paper with the threat, but we knew. The choice was to convert, pay the jizya or get out."

"My brother was threatened; my sister was threatened. All of them had to pay the jizya," added her husband, Jamal Antone Karoumy, 66. "One of my brothers got a note and a single bullet under his door. The note said, `If you don't pay the jizya to the resistance, you'll be killed.'"

According to classic Islamic law, these choicess should be given to all who are not Muslim. No negotiations, no compromises.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

UK's Blair sees some encouraging signs from Hamas

Tony Blair falls for it. This from Reuters:

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - Palestinian group Hamas is sending some "not unhelpful" signals about the Middle East peace process but should be clearer on where it stands, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview broadcast on Friday.

Asked by Al Jazeera television about hints by some members of Islamist group Hamas about a potential change of position, Blair drew a parallel with the Northern Ireland peace process, saying those talks had only been successful when rival parties had agreed on shared principles.

"Some of the signs coming out of Hamas are not unhelpful, but we need to know where they really are," Blair said in the interview, which was recorded on Monday.

He did not specify which signs he was referring to.

Blair did not mention which helpful "signs" have been coming from Hamas, because there simply haven't been any. The comparison between Northern Ireland and Hamas is totally unfounded. Northern Ireland fought for independence. The Northern Irish Catholics wanted to unite with the Irish Republic and eliminate English rule from their territory. They did not want to wipe England or the Northern Irish Protestants off the map, as Hamas wants to wipe Israel off the map.

This is a classic example of liberal rhetoric which totally distorts the truth.

Read Hugh Fitzgerald's piece on Tony Blair here.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Fitzgerald: No public funds for Islamic footbaths

DEARBORN -- The University of Michigan-Dearborn plans to spend $25,000 for foot-washing stations, making it easier for Muslim students to practice their religion but sparking questions about the separation of church and state.

The university claims the stations are needed to accommodate Muslim students, who must ritually wash their bodies -- including the feet -- up to five times each day before prayers. But critics hit conservative blogs and radio airwaves Monday to argue public money shouldn't cover the cost. -- from this article

I have been in airport bathrooms when someone will come up, paying no attention to right or left, and start performing his wudu, while water flies all over the place as that person places his feet, one after the other, in the sink and washes them. While these -- to many -- nauseating public ablutions take place, most people hasten away without going near even the empty sinks.

There is no god-given right to come to other countries and inflict one's behavior, in fulfilling some kind of faith-based mandate, in public places. The nurses who were arrested for singing Christmas carols behind closed doors, in their own apartments in Western apartment complexes, in Saudi Arabia, were not inflicting this on anyone: it was the religious police checking up, as they do everywhere they can. But, for example, the slitting of a sheep's throat, and letting it bleed to death on the street, can and should be banned -- whether or not this is considered "part of Islam."

If Muslim students wish to have foot-washing sinks available, then they can certainly pay for them. After all, there is hardly a mosque or a madrasa in this country that does not receive, when it needs it, all kinds of financial support from those who, across the seas, batten on the unmerited oil trillions, and by this point have used, collectively, more than one hundred billion of it (the estimate for Saudi Arabia alone) to pay for mosques, madrasas, armies of Western hirelings, and propaganda of every sort.

A mere $25,000 shouldn't faze the Saudis. And you might argue that $25,000 is so little -- why not spend it ourselves? But it is a symbolic act, an act that will be, and is, taken by Muslims not as a kind act, an act of accommodation (as those behind it might naturally think, for they think in terms of sweet reason, and compromise, and all that), but instead is taken in quite a different spirit, as one more indication (see the postings at Jihad Watch of the commenter who calls herself “Naseem,” passim) that Islam Is On the March, that here and there, little by little, the Infidels are yielding. It is of great symbolic value to Muslims. And it will not result in gratitude, but merely in a swelling of the sense that obstacles, one by one, to the spread of Islam are being removed. And that, after all, is what Jihad is partly about: the removing of those obstacles, and of obstacles of all kinds wherever they are, so that Islam may spread and dominate, and eventually Muslims come to rule. The dismissal of this as merely an alarmist fantasy shows that the dismisser has not been paying attention -- not to the tenets of Islam, not to 1350 years of Islamic history and the subjugation of non-Muslims, and certainly not to what has happened, over just the last 2-3 decades, in the lands of Western Europe.

Every concession, every misuse of public funds, every Muslim employee of city or state government who has been permitted undiscovered or unpunished to be relentlessly pushing for special deals in order to promote Islam or to make sure that fellow Muslims are hired here, and here, and here -- all of this, every single act, needs to be noisily (and also quietly) opposed. (See that Boston Redevelopment Authority employee, working to get city-owned land sold in a sweetheart deal for a mosque, and see what else that employee did on his still-unexplained trip or trips to Saudi Arabia.) "We must fight them over here so we don't have to fight them over there" would be an apter description of what needs to be done, although in truth there is no place where such "fighting" (not necessarily of the conventional, military variety) will not have to take place.

Swiss Prez Offered To Host Iran At A Holocaust Conference

How ironic that the President of Switzerland, the same state that served as the notorious banker of Nazi Germany, secretly offered his services to Iran: he is willing to host a Holocaust conference in Geneva. The topic? "Various Perceptions of the Holocaust."

"Switzerland offers 'Holocaust perception' meet with Iran," by Gil Yaron for YNET:

Switzerland secretly approached Iran offering to hold a conference regarding "various perceptions of the Holocaust" in Geneva, the Swiss magazine Weltwoche reported earlier this week.

The proposal was made via confidential memorandum from Switzerland's President, Micheline Calmy-Rey, to Iranian deputy foreign minister Saaid Jalili, during his visit in Switzerland last December.

The Swiss foreign ministry objected to the idea, annulling it. Calmy-Rey's proposal, which would have voiced anew the Iranian doubts over the very existence of the Holocaust, outraged many Jewish organizations, which demanded she apologize.
Calmy-Rey was subject to her own party's criticism as well, as her accusers said that should her proposal be realized she would have compromised Switzerland's international diplomatic status.

Western diplomats described the proposal as a "clumsy, dangerous idea, intended to help Iran out of its seclusion." The Weltwoche magazine, which broke the story, called the idea "a stupid, naïve notion" saying the Iranians would have clearly used the conference for their own agenda.

The Swiss president, the magazine assumed, hoped the proposal would push the Swiss initiative for alternative negotiations between Tehran and the West over the Iranian nuclear plan.

Dhimmitude personified.

The Swiss president refused to comment on the report in the Weltwoche, but issued a statement saying "the existence of the Holocaust is a historical fact and must never be doubted."

Then why offer Iran a chance to deny the Holocaust on Swiss soil?

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

UK: Cabbie banned for guide dog bar

What an idea! If a cabbie tries to impose Sharia rules in his cab, fire him! Now, why didn't anyone think of that before?

All he got here was a seven-day suspension. But it's a start.

"Cabbie banned for guide dog bar," from the BBC, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A cab driver who refused to let a blind customer bring her guide dog into his car has been disqualified from driving.

Liakath Ali, 21, shouted "no dog" at Paula Thomas, of London, leaving her distraught as she tried to enter the taxi, Westminster magistrates heard.

It has been compulsory for licensed taxi drivers to carry guide dogs since the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Ali, of Woodstock Road, Bedford, was banned for seven days for refusing to carry a person with a guide dog.

District Judge Quinton Purdy rejected Ali's claim he has an allergy to dog hair and told him he behaved disgracefully.

Mr Quinton said: "You knew they wanted a cab and offered no explanation at all.

"Your own doctor acknowledged no apparent problem with you."

Fitzgerald: A tribute to Omid Safi

"'Given what's happened in Iraq and Palestine, I would be shocked if there wasn't discontent,' said Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." -- from this article

Omid Safi made it out of Hamilton, New York, did he? He'd been trying desperately to claw his way onwards and upwards. Leila Ahmad tried to smuggle him into Harvard Divinity School (William Graham and Diana Eck being her dutiful accomplices) but the faculty wasn't buying -- someone was on the qui vive, thank god. And if only someone had been on the qui vive at Harvard Law School when plausible Noah Feldman presented his plausible, conventionally-wonderful resume. If only there had been someone there who actually knew what Joseph Schacht would have made of the likes of Noah Feldman, with his "After Jihad" (the title itself gives him away) and the support he received from, inter alia, John Esposito, Roy Mottahedeh (many cuts above Esposito, but not up in the firmament, not even close, with Schacht and Snouck Hurgronje), and the Two Noble Sanctuaries Adjunct Professor of Islamic Law at Harvard, whose name I have forgotten.

Omid Safi didn't get to move to Francis Avenue, but apparently he's made it out of Hamilton, New York to Franklin Street in beautiful Chapel Hill. And here's how: Carl Ernst must have pushed and pushed and pushed. Carl Ernst, the one who thought the bowdlerized simpering version of the Qur'an by Michael Sells was just the sort of "introduction to Islam" that University of North Carolina freshmen should be required to read: "The Lyrical Suras" -- which perhaps even its composer, Michael Sells, must surely be having second thoughts about.

Oh, it's a closed circle of apologists, hiring and promoting each other and keeping out with care and cunning all those who might upset that MESA Nostra applecart.

In such cases, it is up to the Dean and the President to keep careful watch -- and for other departments, such as that of History, to be careful to mind the who's-teaching-about-Islam store. We can't let this MESA Nostra business continue too much longer; it is now almost impossible to teach, or be taught about, Islam in a sensible no-nonsense fashion, one that Schacht and Snouck Hurgronje and a hundred other great scholars of the past would recognize as the real thing.

So, if you are the kind of alumnus to whose phone calls the Development Office will urge the President to reply, or if you can organize a group of such unhappy alumni, do so. Force these Administrators hiding behind the idea of "faculty autonomy” to get out and get under, get out and get under the scandalous vehicle for misrepresentations of Islam all over academic America. For these misrepresentations prevail all over, not only where Saudi and other Arab money has set up "centers" and endowed well-upholstered chairs -- King Abdul Aziz This, Two Noble Sanctuaries That -- in order to keep young, ignorant, easily impressionable American students still ignorant, and impressed with the Received Version of Islam that the Omid Safis and Carl Ernsts (the man who fell in love with Sufism on his own Spiritual Search) present. They keep out the real version as best they can. And they are well-practiced at this, and have so many willing collaborators.

Omar Safi's schtick is the Nice Guy, the understanding professor, the one who is "genuinely" interested in his students (those innocents can be fooled by so little). But he will not do the one thing students most need: teach them the truth about the subject he purports to be teaching them. This, out of embarrassment, or ignorance, or filial piety, or defensiveness, he cannot do. His Colgate U course on, inter alia, “Islamophobia,” recalled the brainwashing that took place when you were a helpless POW in places like Pyongyang, Hanoi, and Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution one had to denounce one's own counter-revolutionary sins, don a dunce cap, and be publicly humiliated while expressing public remorse. Now, instead of Mao's Little Red Book, we have the little Blue Books of American exam-taking, in which dutiful, submissive, and grade-fearing students bow their heads, and regurgitate the pap their "professors of Islamic studies" demand of them.

This "professor's" ludicrous course featured some palpable pap about "Islam confronting modernity," with a breathless parroting of fashionable academic terms that carefully avoided the little matter of what Islam is actually all about. Omid Safi has shown himself to be completely uncomprehending of what free, skeptical, and disinterested inquiry can be. His task is to present assorted straw-men, knock them down, and make sure the students, just like those Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, are forced to denounce them (albeit in "papers" and "exams"). And, he devoutly hopes, once programmed they will go out into the world to pooh-pooh all those who have dared to criticize Islam. And students will fear to take issue with the sinisterly amiable lecturer, master of all he surveys, with the all-important power of the grade over his cowed students, and especially over any who dare to dissent.

This is a travesty of learning. This is lecture-hall thought-control. Grades are a way to reward the submissive regurgitators -- verily, Islam means "submission" -- and to punish those guilty of the "thought-crime" of, well, thought. Can the students, the faculty, the administration, the Trustees in Chapel Hill really have welcomed this?

Fitzgerald: Prince Bandar: still in the ballpark?

A Saudi prince who negotiated a £40bn arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia received secret payments for over a decade, a BBC probe has found.

The UK's biggest arms dealer, BAE Systems, paid hundreds of millions of pounds to the ex-Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

The payments were made with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Defence.

Prince Bandar "categorically" denied receiving any improper payments and BAE said it acted lawfully at all times….

The investigation found that up to £120m a year was sent by BAE Systems from the UK into two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington.

The BBC's Panorama programme has established that these accounts were actually a conduit to Prince Bandar for his role in the 1985 deal to sell more than 100 warplanes to Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of one of the accounts was to pay the expenses of the prince's private Airbus.

David Caruso, an investigator who worked for the American bank where the accounts were held, said Prince Bandar had been taking money for his own personal use out of accounts that seemed to belong to his government.

He said: "There wasn't a distinction between the accounts of the embassy, or official government accounts as we would call them, and the accounts of the royal family."

Mr Caruso said he understood this had been going on for "years and years".

"Hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars were involved," he added.

-- from this article

Prince Bandar is a friend of both Bushes (and the senior Bush does not deserve to be favorably compared to his son, as some may think, but deserves whipping for different reasons). He is a tennis partner of Colin Powell, and Sugar Daddy to so many in and out of Washington.

With his walking-around money, he has a knowing port-and-cigars look, a look that suggests that corruption is something that worldly gentlemen all accept, that powerful grownups realize it is unavoidable, that everyone does it. And besides, possibly even they might somehow, oh in some quite undetermined way, like a little help -- with their favorite charity, or presidential library, or some help for a relative, nothing vulgarly direct mind you. Thus come those smiling donations for which the Al-Saud and their courtiers have become famous.

Bandar defended the ruling Al-Saud by suggesting it was not the fact of corruption, but rather, the extent of it, that mattered. And then he would explain just how great were the riches flowing into Saudi Arabia, and so how, by comparison, even a billion or five or twenty, spread out among tens of thousands of Al-Saud princes, princelings, princelettes, was "a small price to pay" for continued stability in the Kingdom.

Well, if Bandar had $2 billion diverted to him alone, as is charged, does that strike you as still "in the ballpark" of what is reasonable, as Prince Bandar would say? Bandar must be furious that he was condemned, essentially, to be exiled to his own country when he was called back from Washington. For no worse exile exists for rich Saudis and other Arabs than to be forced to live, once they have enjoyed the freedoms of the West, in what now seem to them -- though they can't express it or perhaps even admit it to themselves -- in the stifling hell-holes, no matter what the level of luxe, of their own countries. No worse exile exists for rich Arabs than to be forced to live in their own countries, no longer able to visit the West as combination Brother and Fun Fair. Everyone assumed that Saudi pressure had put paid to any news connected to the squashed investigation of the BAE Al-Yamamah scandal. Apparently, some were so outraged at this insult to Maitland, Coke, and Bracton, that they decided that even if British justice were not to be done, and were seen not to be done, still some of the most important details were going to be made known to the British public.

Bandar would no doubt dismiss this charge as coming "out of left field." Taking the metaphoric field ourselves, in the bottom of the ninth, as the music swells and it looks like the Al-Saud are going to pull off yet another undeserved victory, this one a squeaker, what American or possibly British heart does not swell at the sight of Mighty Bandar striking out, while the home team has hit....what looks like...yes it is, a homer, and with bases loaded.

Why Israel Offered The Golan And Why Syria Won’t Accept It

Israeli PM Olmert is ready to give away the farm. With only a 3% approval rating in hand, he has offered to give away the strategic Golan Heights for a Syrian promise. "Olmert to Assad: Israel willing to withdraw from Golan Heights," from Ynet News:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently relayed a secret message to Syrian President Bashar Assad saying Israel knew what the price of peace was and would be willing to pay it, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

According to the report, Olmert told the Syrian leader Israel would return the Golan in exchange for a comprehensive peace agreement and the severing of Damascus’ alliance with Iran and terror groups in the region.

A senior official in Jerusalem was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Assad has yet to respond to Israel’s offer.

We get two interesting details from "Syria Continuing to Mobilize for War" by Hana Levi Julian in INN:

The prime minister told the Syrian president last month that Israel would be willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights if Syria were prepared to make peace, according to the Hebrew newspaper Yediot Aharonot. The Syrian ruler responded positively to the offer, the newspaper stated.

Firstly, the offer was made last month. Secondly, Assad responded positively. If those things are true, Assad is now behaving very curiously. If he did “respond positively,” then why did the Syrian Government issue an ultimatum earlier this week? Why is Syria massing troops and heavy equipment along the border? Why did Assad just last week call for “better cooperation between Tehran and Damascus”?

The answers are obvious. Syria has no intention of breaking ties with their main financier, Iran. Syria is a poor country and can in no way afford to let go of Iran’s petro-euros. Syria has no intention of regaining its lost pride by signing a piece of paper, as worthless as that paper may be. Syria needs to correct the wrongs of 1967. That can only be accomplished by spilling Jewish blood, and lots of it.

Syria has no intention of breaking ties with the terrorist organizations whose activities have put Syria front and center in the Middle-East. After all, without terror and without Iranian money and weapons, Syria is a poor man’s Somalia.

Olmert, for his part, is making a huge miscalculation. It can be argued that he is looking to expose Syria and put it in a situation in which it must refuse even a most generous offer. Even if this were to be true, you can’t deny the fact that the Olmert proposal is a blatant display of weakness. If Olmert was looking to make a stand, all he needed to say to Syria was “go for it.”

Olmert is playing his pair of aces like offsuit 2-7. He is bending over backwards to make it appear that a deal, at any cost, is in the works -- just to solidify his very shaky political position. Knowing full well that the Arab world views such chatter as weakness, he does not stop his insane outbursts for even a minute’s time.

The final round of the Labor Party primaries are days away. At that time we will know who will lead the call for new elections and the fall of the Olmert government. Olmert learned his lessons from the father of political manipulation, Ariel Sharon. Sharon managed the Gaza disengagement in order to turn the public focus from the many criminal investigations that were hanging over his head. Once the left wing, liberal MSM got wind of major appeasement on the horizon, all of Sharon’s alleged criminal activities were swept under the rug.

Olmert is attempting to do the same. He is trying to hypnotize the media and the public with a Syrian peace deal in order to cover up his alleged criminal activity and very weak political position. In Assad, he found the perfect vehicle.

Olmert shouldn’t offer the Golan, and Assad won’t accept. The fate of many innocent civilians hangs in the balance of a very dangerous political game. This is the worst time for a man like Olmert to be at the helm. But the again, any time would be a bad time.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

London mayor Livingstone launches anti-"Islamophobia" coalition

"The coalition is being set up in the light of 'claims that different communities and faith groups openly expressing their culture or faith threaten community relations in Britain.'”

Yes, that could never be true.

"Livingstone plays the 'Islamophobia' card," from the National Secular Society, with thanks to WriterMom:

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has launched a new “Coalition to defend freedom of religious and cultural expression." The coalition is being set up in the light of “claims that different communities and faith groups openly expressing their culture or faith threaten community relations in Britain.”

Speakers at the launch included the Mayor of London; peace campaigner and activist Bruce Kent; writer Ismail Patel from the British Muslim Initiative; Dr Daud Abdullah, Deputy General Secretary, Muslim Council of Britain; Edie Friedman, Director, Jewish Council for Racial Equality; Andrew Stunell MP; and Steve Sinnott, National Union of Teachers.

The launch document for the group says: “The coalition is being set up in the light of continuing media and other claims that different communities and faith groups openly expressing their culture or faith threaten community relations in Britain. Such claims have been most recently and strongly directed at the Muslim community, particularly focusing on the right of Muslim women to wear the veil. But such attacks have also recently included a high profile case where a staff member at British Airways was prohibited from wearing a crucifix. The established rights of Sikh community to wear turbans have also come under assault.”...

Strangely there are no secularist groups among those invited to participate in the coalition, and the MCB obviously thinks that the whole thing is there to protect Islam. In its statement it says: “The MCB welcomes this important initiative. It constitutes a major step toward the protection of religious rights that have become increasingly under threat in the name of security.”...

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Obviously everybody wants to increase understanding between communities that are ignorant of each other, but Ken Livingstone is not the man to do it. His claims that assaults against Muslims are widespread and common is highly suspect. If you take out the politically motivated arguments about veils and crosses there is very little in the way of aggression towards Muslims beyond the racism that all minority communities suffer. I am highly suspicious of this ‘coalition’. We have to beware that it is not just another instrument for pressurising the Government into giving some kind of undesirable protection to religious beliefs.”

UK police prevented by law from taking fingerprints and DNA from terror suspects

More control order follies. "DNA loophole hinders terror police, says Reid," by Philip Johnston in the Telegraph, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Police are prevented by law from taking fingerprints and DNA from terrorist suspects on control orders, John Reid, the outgoing Home Secretary, admitted yesterday. The revelation shocked opposition parties who said it was the first they knew of this startling omission in the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, called it ''an astonishing revelation''. He added: ''It merely underlines the profound flaws in the whole control-order regime.''

Six people on control orders have absconded, their whereabouts still unknown.

Cerie Bullivant, 24, Lamine Adam, 26, and his brother, Ibrahim, 20, are among Britain's most wanted men after vanishing last month. The Adams's third brother, Anthony Garcia, was one of the fertiliser bomb plotters and was jailed for life in April.

Bestun Salim, an Iraqi, vanished from his Manchester flat last summer after being charged with seven offences of breaching his control order.

Another suspect, known only as AD, escaped from a mental health unit last September, and is alleged to have been a friend of Asif Hanif, a British man who detonated a suicide bomb in Israel.

The final absconder is a Pakistani who fled in January.

London paper: Wouldn't an Islamic London be great?

Time Out London thinks it'll be just great to be a dhimmi, explaining why in "Is London's future Islamic?" (thanks to all who sent this in):

It’s the capital’s fastest growing religion, based on noble traditions and compassionate principles, yet Islam can still be tainted by mistrust and misunderstanding. Here Time Out argues that an Islamic London would be a better place

[...]

Public health

On the surface, Islamic health doesn’t look good: the 2001 census showed that 24 per cent of Muslim women and 21 per cent of Muslim men suffered long-term illness and disability. But these are factors of social conditions rather than religion. In fact, Islam offers Londoners potential health benefits: the Muslim act of prayer is designed to keep worshippers fit, their joints supple and, at five times a day, their stomachs trim. The regular washing of the feet and hands required before prayers promotes public hygiene and would reduce the transmission of superbugs in London’s hospitals.

Alcohol is haram, or forbidden, to Muslims. As London is above the national average for alcohol-related deaths in males, with 17.6 per 100,000 people (Camden has 31.6 per 100,000 males), turning all the city’s pubs into juice bars would have a massive positive effect on public health. Forbid alcohol throughout the country, and you’d avoid many of the 22,000 alcohol-related deaths and the £7.3 billion national bill for alcohol-related crime and disorder each year.

Ecology

‘The world is green and beautiful,’ said the prophet Muhammad, ‘and Allah has appointed you his guardian over it.’ The Islamic concept of halifa or trusteeship obliges Muslims to look after the natural world and Muhammad was one of the first ever environmentalists, advocating hima – areas where wildlife and forestry are protected. So we could expect more public parks under Islam, but halifa also applies to recycling: in 2006, 12,000 Muslims attended a series of sermons at the East London Mosque explaining the theological evidence for a link between behaving in an environmentally sustainable way and the Islamic faith.

Education

Presently, Muslim students perform less well than non-Muslim students. In inner London, 37 per cent of 16 to 24-year-old Muslims have no qualifications (the figure for the general population of the same age and location is 25 per cent). When it comes to university education the picture is equally gloomy: 16 to 24-year-old Muslims are half as likely to have degree level or above qualification than other inner London young people.

Again, social factors rather than religion have led to this state of affairs. Young Muslims in London are often of south Asian origin and therefore more likely to live in households where English is not the first language, more likely to encounter racism (both intentional and unintentional) during their education, and more likely to suffer from poverty and bad housing conditions.

But Tahir Alam, education spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, claims Muslim children do better in their own faith schools than in the mainstream state sector: ‘Muslim schools have their own distinct ethos. They use the children’s faith and heritage as primary motivators to provide the backdrop for their education and behaviour. This ethos is consistent with the messages that children are getting at home, so it is a very coherent operation between the home and the school.’

If Islam became the dominant religion in London the same ethos could be applied to schooling across swathes of underprivileged and deprived areas of the city. This could have a revolutionary effect on educational achievement and, perhaps just as importantly, general levels of discipline and self-respect among London’s young people. While controversy rages over faith schools, there are 37 Muslim schools in London. As of 2004, only five were state schools, but there is growing pressure to bring more into the state sector which, according to Alam, will ‘help raise achievement for many sectors of the Muslim community. Many private Muslim schools are under-resourced and if they can be brought into the state sector this valuable experience can be extended to more children.’

Food

Application of halal (Arabic for ‘permissable’) dietary laws across London would free us at a stroke from our addiction to junk food, and the general adoption of a south Asian diet rich in fruit juice, rice and vegetables with occasional mutton or chicken would have a drastic effect on obesity, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorders and associated public health problems. As curry is already Londoners’ and the nation’s favourite food (see our Brick Lane food feature), it would be a relatively easy process to encourage the adoption of such a diet. Not eating would be important as well. The annual fasting month of Ramadan instils self-discipline, courtesy and social cohesion. And Londoners would benefit philosophically and physically from even a short period when we weren’t constantly ramming food into our mouths.

Inter-faith relations

In an Islamic London, Christians and Jews – with their allegiance to the Bible and the Talmud – would be protected as ‘peoples of the book’.

As long as they pay protection money, that is.

Hindus and Sikhs manage to live alongside a large Muslim population in India, so why not here? Although England has a long tradition of religious bigotry against, for instance, Roman Catholics, it is reasonable to assume that under the guiding hand of Islam a civilised accommodation could be made among faith groups in London. This welcoming stance already exists in the capital in the form of the City Circle (see Yahya Birt interview), which encourages inter-faith dialogue and open discussion.

Arts

Some of the finest art in London is already Islamic. The Jameel Gallery at the V&A houses ‘ceramics, textiles, carpets, metalwork, glass and woodwork, which date from the great days of the Islamic caliphate of the eighth and ninth century’ up until the turn of the last century. Or take a free daily tour of the Addis Gallery of Islamic art (at the British Museum). London-based Nasser David Khalili, an Iranian-born Jew, has amassed what is considered to be the world’s largest private collection of Islamic art. Islamic influences have also flourished in other areas of the arts, with novelists, comedians (Birmingham-born Shazia Mirza was an instant hit on the London circuit), and music (from rappers Mecca2Medina on, to the less in-your-face Yusuf Islam).

Or you could take in a lovely stoning, or amputation.

Social justice Each Muslim is obliged to pay zakat, a welfare tax of 2.5 per cent of annual income, that is distributed to the poor and the needy. If the working population of London, 5.2 million, was predominantly Muslim this would produce approximately £3.2bn each year. More importantly, everyone would be obliged to consider those Londoners who haven’t shared their good fortune. London would become a little less cruel.

Except for the small matter of those jizya payments, but who's counting?

Race relations

Under Islam all ethnicities are equal. Once you have submitted to Allah you are a Muslim – it doesn’t matter what colour you are. End of story.

Yes, but it matters very much whether or not you are an Arab.

Sharia cabs in Dallas?

I got this email today from Jihad Watch reader Paul:

I've been through the airport here several times in the last 2-3 weeks, and from what I see, all the cabs at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) airport have adopted the same restrictions as the ones in Minneapolis -- no alcohol, no pets (likely to include seeing-eye dogs, etc., although I didn't have time to ask) -- and no one has said anything locally.

Does anyone have any more information? If you're flying into Dallas anytime soon, buy some fine Scotch and hail a cab, and then email me.

German "Qur'an judge" will not be disciplined

The German judge who used the Qur'an to make a ruling in a German court will not face any disciplinary action.

"Investigation Dropped Against German 'Koran Judge,'" from Spiegel Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A German judge under investigation for ruling against a speedy divorce for an abused Moroccan woman -- who based her decision on the supposed Islamic "right to castigate" -- will not be disciplined.

In her disputed ruling, the judge cited a controversial verse from the Koran that some say allows a husband the "right to castigate."

That would be 4:34, and the "right to castigate" is a mainstream view.

The German judge who sparked controversy when she denied a speedy divorce to a battered woman because of her Islamic background (more...) will not be disciplined, an investigation has ruled. The Justice Ministry in the German state of Hesse has decided that the Frankfurt judge's ruling did not overstep the acceptable limits of judicial independence.

The case began in October 2006, when a 26-year-old woman filed for immediate divorce from her husband, who had been making death threats to his wife after she left him because of his abusive behavior. German law requires that a couple wait a year between separation and divorce, but the woman's lawyer believed that her circumstances met the "hardship" classification that allows for a speedier ruling.

But in January the judge -- who cannot be named for legal reasons -- denied the woman's request because the couple was of Moroccan origin, citing a Koran verse that some say gives the husband the "right to castigate." The lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, filed a subsequent claim, saying the judge should remove herself from the case due to conflict of interest, which was also rejected. The judge, did, however, put a restraining order on the husband and grant the couple's apartment to the wife.

In a March interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Becker-Rojczyk said she and her client were shocked by the ruling, and had decided to go public. Shortly thereafter, politicians began calling for an investigation (more...), and the Frankfurt court removed the judge from the case. A different judge later granted the disputed early divorce.

Despite strong criticism from the German Judges Association (DRB), Hesse Justice Minister Jürgen Banzer authorized an investigation into the judge's behavior. However the investigation found no reason to discipline the judge because she protected the woman with the restraining order, and her Koran reference was actually in a decision to deny legal aid, and not within an official ruling.

Malaysian government bans 37 books on Islam alleged to contain "twisted facts"

Keeping their monopoly on twisting facts for the Malaysian public. Sharia Alert. "Govt Bans 37 Publications On Islam Containing Twisted Facts," from Bernama:

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 (Bernama) -- The Internal Security Ministry has banned 37 book titles and publications on Islam containing twisted facts that can undermine the faith of Muslims.

Secretary of the Publications and Quranic Texts Control Division Che Din Yusoh said today 21 of the publications were in the English language and published in the United States, United Kingdom and Jordan while 16 were in Bahasa Malaysia and published in Malaysia and Indonesia.

All the book titles and publications were banned by a prohibition order under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, he said in a statement.

He said the prohibition order was imposed on the publications because their contents and text on Islam twisted facts and true Islamic teachings or contained elements that misled the faithful and humiliated the prophets.

"These publications can cause confusion and apprehension among Muslims and eventually jeopardise public order," he added.

The list of book titles and publications, the names of the authors, compilers or translators and publishers as well as the country of publication are contained in the Government Gazzette dated April 26 2007.

The full list can be found at the link above.

Blair calls for end of academic union's boycott of Israel

Blair's hit-and-miss pattern of anti-dhimmitude (if he only knew what it is) continues, almost in regular alternation.

An update on this story. "Blair: End Israel boycott," by Yaakov Lappin for Ynet News:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called on his country's main academic union to cease its boycott of Israel on Wednesday, according to a report by the BBC.

Speaking to the House of Commons, the British prime minister said, "I hope very much that decision is overturned because it does absolutely no good for the peace process or for relations in that part of the world."

"The only solution ultimately is to re-launch the framework for a negotiated peace with a two-state solution at the heart of it and that is what we will be working on in the time to come," Blair added.

The boycott was also blasted by Labour MP Andrew Dismore, who said that "the University and College Union's boycott of Israeli universities is misguided, undermines academic freedoms and contributes absolutely nothing to trying to bring peace to the Middle East."

Last week, the UK's University and College Union (UCU) voted to approve a resolution calling on its members and to "circulate the full text of the Palestinian boycott call to all branches," and to "encourage members to consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions."

The resolution has since come under heavy criticism around the world, and has prompted calls for a counter-boycott in Israel.

UK: Police guard girl 'forced to become Muslim'

"We are working closely with the police to deal with a number of sensitive issues being raised by members of the community and will be working together with other interested parties to consider the wider and longer term implications for the city." I hope they will consider those implications to the fullest possible extent.

"Police guard girl 'forced to become Muslim,'" by Mark Cowan for the Birmingham Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

A TEENAGE Sikh girl was today being guarded by police amid claims she had been forced to convert to Islam.

An armed gang smashed their way into a house in Erdington last month and threatened the occupants, apparently in search of the girl.

She was reported missing from her family home in West Bromwich a few days earlier.

They are concerned that the girl, understood to be a student at Sutton Coldfield college, could have been forced to switch religion, it was reported.

"This lady has been located and is currently in the care of West Midlands Police," a force spokesman said.

"We would like to reassure the community that this lady is safe and well."...

"We are conducting inquiries into the motive for this attack," the spokesman said.

"We are not ruling the possibility this may be linked to a report received concerning the whereabouts of an 18-year-old female from West Bromwich, who was reported missing by her family."

He added: "Her family are clearly concerned about her welfare as are the wider communities.."

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said: "We are working closely with the police to deal with a number of sensitive issues being raised by members of the community and will be working together with other interested parties to consider the wider and longer term implications for the city."

Pakistan: Public Execution for Adultery

Sharia Alert, although the sentence was not carried out according to Sharia prescriptions. By Irfan Ashraf for OhmyNews (thanks to IG):

A jirga (meeting of tribal elders) publicly executed four people, including a woman, on charges of adultery in Khyber Agency, some 25 kilometers west of Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The political administration of Khyber Agency confirmed the incident, saying that the woman and one of the men were from Mardan. The other two men, an Afghan and a local tribesman, were still lying in a Tehsil Bara building at Khyber Agency.

The head of the jirga of the Sipah tribe, Haji Khan Gul, said it had unanimously decided on execution. The three men and the woman were accused of committing adultery in the jurisdiction of Sipah village in Tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency.

Gul says the local tribesmen organized a raid Sunday night on a house where a family from Mardan had recently moved to in the tribal area. He said the jirga arrested the three men and the woman having caught them red-handed in an objectionable position.

Gul said the culprits admitted in front of 600 tribesmen, including elders of the jirga of Sipah, that they were committing adultery. He said the jirga handed down the death penalty to the culprits. They were shot dead the next morning in front of the tribal people in the Spera Dam area of Khyber Agency.

College's plan to use public money to construct foot baths for Muslims sparks protests

Would the college use public money to construct holy water fonts?

"College's foot bath plans spark backlash: Project for Muslim students draws accusation U-M Dearborn is giving faith favored treatment," by Karen Bouffard for The Detroit News (thanks to Kemaste):

DEARBORN -- The University of Michigan-Dearborn plans to spend $25,000 for foot-washing stations, making it easier for Muslim students to practice their religion but sparking questions about the separation of church and state.

The university claims the stations are needed to accommodate Muslim students, who must ritually wash their bodies -- including the feet -- up to five times each day before prayers. But critics hit conservative blogs and radio airwaves Monday to argue public money shouldn't cover the cost.

"Technically, they've got a problem, because it's public money they're using to pay for this," said Hal Downs, president of the Michigan chapter of Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"It's one of those issues that we're going to be facing more and more in this community."

The issue may push hot buttons in Metro Detroit -- home to as many as 250,000 Muslims -- but in nearby Ypsilanti, no one raised objections when Eastern Michigan University included a private bathroom with a foot-washing area in a new student union that opened in November, said Glenna Frank Miller, its director.

U-M Dearborn will include the floor-level stations at two bathrooms to be constructed in August at the University Center and Fairlane Center buildings, said Terry Gallagher, spokesman for the university. The units are necessary because some students resorted to washing their feet in sinks.

The university of 8,600 students doesn't track them by religion, Gallagher said.

"This was a reasonable accommodation," he said.

Gambian imam: Prophet Muhammad spoke well of FGM

The Daily Observer in The Gambia printed a piece saying that female genital mutilation was un-Islamic, and now Alhaji Abdoulie Fatty, the Imam of State House Mosque, says Not So Fast: you can't say anything about Islam without a degree in Islamic studies, and you can't say anything about FGM unless you've been through it. But does Dr. Jack Faal qualify on either count?

"Imam Fatty rebuts FGM claim," by Sanna Jawara in The Gambia's Daily Observer, with thanks to Twostellas:

Alhaji Abdoulie Fatty, the Imam of State House Mosque has rebuted claims published on 1st June edition of the Daily observer, entitled “Female Genital Cutting Unislamic” as utter rubbish.

In an interview with the Daily Observer, Imam Fatty said “as far as Islam is concerned “we do observe circumcision not mutilation”.

He then noted that the tradition has been in existence hundreds of years ago, well before the advent of the modern civilisation.

According to him, “in the Muslim ummah nobody can tell us what is good or not good for our tradition. Before anyone tells us about our tradition, you must convince us that you have a degree or degrees in Islamic studies”

He did not hesitate to describe the publication as a big insult to the Muslim ummah and then urged the perpetrators to desist from such in the interest of religious tolerance and world peace.

According to Imam Fatty, a person who has never experienced Muslim circumcision cannot say anything genuine about it. “If the individual has undergone through the process, and as a result, contracted HIV/AIDS, and died at delivery process or the child died, this can then serve as an evidence of the dangers associated with the practice,” he added.

Imam Fatty further stated that as far as Islam is concerned, Prophet Muhammad (PBU), and his disciples, Islamic Schools of thoughts and Haddish, have all spoken well of the circumcision. He then quoted verse 36, which states that ‘Those who disbelieve and spend their wealth to hinder ‘men’ from the part of Allah, so will they continue to spend it. But in the end it will become an anguish for them. They will be overcome and those who disbelieve will be gathered unto hell”.

The Imam made several quotations from Dr Jack Faal, a renown Gynaecologist, who conducted extensive research on female circumcision, saying “despite all that has been said about it, the surgery in Female Circumcision is simple. What happens is a cutting of the skin, a piece of skin, no bone is involved in it. It amazed people who say you bleed to death in circumcision”.

Islam Presents Life-Death Challenge in Chad's Hospitals

Sharia Alert from Chad. By Phuong Tran for VOA News, with thanks to Twostellas:

..."When a woman comes to the hospital, first her husband must be consulted about her care," she explains. "Even if he agrees, her father must also. And her uncles. All the men have to agree. This delays the woman's care, but we have to wait."

Senegal-based sociologist Djiby Diakhate says Islam presents a challenge to doctors who are taught to save lives under all circumstances.

Diakhate says even though doctors take a professional vow to protect life, they must also obey cultural beliefs.

The sociologist says health care workers in Muslim countries must accept what many believe is taught by the Koran, Islam's religious text, that a woman is completely dependent on her husband to make all important decisions.

He says for the patient who lost her baby, the midwives could have saved the child's life, but he says they chose to follow tradition to not risk angering God.

Diakhate says Muslims prefer to follow traditions, preferring to sacrifice the life of one child rather than face widespread death and retaliation from an angry God and ancestors.

Cameron condemns lack of Muslim integration in Britain

Of course, for this "cultural separatism" to be really effectively addressed, Cameron and others would have to confront the reality of Islam as a political and social system as well as a religious faith. But that is something they show no sign of doing.

From the Daily Mail, with thanks to all who sent this in:

David Cameron has launched himself into the debate on 'Britishness' claiming that young Muslims are becoming more separated from society than their parents.

He claimed the UK was facing a growing problem of "cultural separatism" where the next generation of British Muslims were further away from mainstream society than the previous generation.

In an attempt to remedy the problem the Tory leader has said advocated lessons on "being British" and said all immigrants should speak English.

Warning that the country had failed to build a sense of common citizenship Mr Cameron said Britain should follow the example of the US, which had succeeded in achieving a real sense of "what it means to be an American".

He called for history to be taught "properly" in schools in a way that celebrated Britain's positive achievements at home and abroad.

His comments echoed recent remarks and concerns raised by senior Labour figures.

Leader of the Commons Jack Straw has also pointed to the US example, while a pamphlet today by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly and Immigration Minister Liam Byrne called for a national "Britain" day to strengthen citizenship.

Blair pledges £1 million to "improve" teaching of Islamic studies at universities

There are several interesting aspects of recklessly throwing money at a problem. For one, it is a visible, verifiable effort on the part of the spender, who can cite the money he parted with as a measure of his sincerity. It is also a gesture of trust that the recipient of a charitable donation will do with the money what the donor intended -- a trust that the recipients here have not earned. Lastly, money buys convenience: When wishing to avoid directly confronting a problem on one's own that is uncomfortable or intimidating, pay someone else to do it.

In the spirit of all of the above, Islamic studies programs in Britain can expect a parting windfall of jizya from Prime Minister Blair.

An update on this story. "Blair promises to improve teaching of Islamic studies," by Stephen Bates and James Meikle for The Guardian:

Tony Blair yesterday pledged to spend £1m improving the teaching of Islamic studies at universities, as Downing Street said more imams should be trained in Britain to reduce reliance on foreign-trained clerics.

One small problem, Mr. Blair: The studies will still rely on the same Qur'an and the same hierarchy of ahadith, certainly with much of the same commentary and accompanying literature originating with Middle Eastern scholars. Blair seems to envision a team of British imams who would craft a sort of "Western Reformed Islam." However, even if that were achieved, those teachings would largely be condemned as bida, or innovation, in the Islamic religion.

In a speech to a conference of moderate Muslims in London, the prime minister accepted that British politicians should listen more carefully to the views of "the calm voice of moderation and reason" within the community. He insisted that his government's foreign interventions had not been based on religion.

Mr Blair said: "The voices of extremism are no more representative of Islam than the use in times gone by of torture to force conversion to Christianity represented the teachings of Christ."

Key words: "Times gone by." In addition, Blair would do well to take note that while such acts by Christians contradicted the teachings of Jesus, the imperative to offer unbelievers conversion, subjugation, or war until the world is under Islamic law comes from the words of Allah himself in the Qur'an (9:5) in what is widely considered the last revelation Muhammad received. Blair can then have a staff member do a web search on the doctrine of naskh, or abrogation, and discover what that means for the earlier, peaceful verses so often quoted to non-Muslims, according to long-respected Qur'an commentators such as Ibn Kathir (1301-1372).

Among those invited by the Cambridge inter-faith programme were the grand muftis of Egypt and Bosnia, but not representatives of more extreme or politicised lobbying groups. The guest list was criticised by the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and also by the Labour peer Lord Ahmed, who told the BBC: "The conference is fronted by Cambridge University but organised by Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the communities department, who have deliberately chosen to exclude those Muslims who disagree with Government policy ... It's a colonial style of governing."

The conference coincides with a government-commissioned report which criticises university courses for concentrating too narrowly on the Middle East and insufficiently on the modern realities of Muslim life in Britain.

The report, published yesterday by the Islamic Foundation-funded Markfield Institute, recommends that universities should recruit traditionally trained scholars, consider the appointment of Muslim chaplains or advisers, change syllabuses to focus on aspects of Islam relevant to the contemporary practice of the faith and provide "add-on" elements to help give students an edge in the jobs market.

The report said: "The study of Islam and its civilisation remains anchored in the colonial legacy and mainly serves the diplomatic and foreign services. Teaching and research programmes need to be reorientated."

UK: Muhammad to top boys’ names list

Islamization of Britain Alert: "Muhammad to top boys’ names list," by Helen Nugent and Nadia Menuhin for the TimesOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Muhammad is now second only to Jack as the most popular name for baby boys in Britain and is likely to rise to No 1 by next year, a study by The Times has found. The name, if all 14 different spellings are included, was shared by 5,991 newborn boys last year, beating Thomas into third place, followed by Joshua and Oliver.

Scholars said that the name’s rise up the league table was driven partly by the growing number of young Muslims having families, coupled with the desire to name their child in honour of the Prophet.

Muhammad Anwar, Professor of Ethnic Relations at Warwick University, said: “Muslim parents like to have something that shows a link with their religion or with the Prophet.”

Although the official names register places the spelling Mohammed at No 23, an analysis of the top 3,000 names provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) puts Muhammad at No 2 once the 14 spellings are taken into account. If its popularity continues – it rose by 12 per cent last year – the name will take the top spot by the end of this year. It first entered the Top 30 in 2000.

[...]

Mufti Abdul Barkatullah, a former imam at the Finchley mosque in northwest London, said: “Parents who name their son Muhammad believe that the name has an effect on their personality and future characteristics. They are saying that this boy will be of good character.

“Some people may not really understand the history of the Prophet Muhammad and the name but they still want the association so they can be recognised as one of his followers.

“In Arab countries, the name Muhammad is said when you don’t know the name of someone. On the sub-continent, it is different: Muhammad can be used either before or after another name.

“When you get to the UK, it is essentially about translating the sound of the Arabic into English. A nonArab Muslim would have the name ending in -ed while an Arab Muslim would adopt the -ad ending.”

Overall, Muslims account for 3 per cent of the British population, about 1.5 million people. However, the Muslim birthrate is roughly three times higher than the nonMuslim one....

PC brigade ban pin-ups on RAF jets - in case they offend women and Muslims

Because after all, offending Muslims is the one thing that must be avoided at all costs. From the Daily Mail, with thanks to IG:

In killer heels and little else, they have a definite deadly charm.

But the risque images of women that have decorated warplanes since the First World War have been scrubbed out.

The Ministry of Defence has decreed they could offend the RAF's female personnel.

Officials admitted they had no record of any complaints from the 5,400 women in the RAF.

But commanders are erring firmly on the side of caution and "nose art", as it is known, has been consigned to the history books.

Harrier jump jet bombers currently launching daily airstrikes against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan have been scrubbed clean to comply with the orders.

Critics said the MoD should be focusing on more important issues - such as the quality and quantity of equipment available to British forces sent off to war.

Nose art first appeared on warplanes during the First World War and enjoyed a golden age during the Second World War when thousands of American fighters and bombers were decorated with pictures of glamorous women.

Military commanders tolerated the practice as a morale booster....

The decision to ban the images followed a visit by glamour models to southern Afghanistan before Christmas. During the trip they signed paintings of themselves on RAF aircraft.

Commanders decided the images were sexist and insisted there was no place for them in the modern armed forces.

There was also concern that they could cause offence in a muslim country where until 2001 all women were forced to wear the head-to-toe burkha in public.

Dutch political party, fearing it will lose Muslim votes, tries to muzzle party member who is working to protect Muslim apostates

Who cares about human rights if it will mean losing votes? "PvdA Tries to Muzzle Muslim Apostate," from NIS News, with thanks to Fjordman:

THE HAGUE, 05/06/07 - Labour (PvdA) has been trying to muzzle a young PvdA member who is fighting for the rights and safety of Muslim apostates. An internal memo shows that the party fears the campaign of Ehsan Jami will cause it electoral damage and enrage Muslims.

Jami announced in May he was setting up a Committee for Ex-Muslims. The committee wants to break the taboo on lapsing from the Islamic faith. The 22 year old Jami, himself an apostate of Islam, says many Muslims do not dare to renounce Islam for fear of reprisals, including death.

Jami, who is a PvdA council member in the town of Leidschendam-Voorburg, will launch the committee officially in September with an international press conference. He says he has already had hundreds of e-mails from Muslims from throughout the world who support him. But his own PvdA is trying to muzzle him, it emerges from internal correspondence obtained by newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

'Progressive' filmmaker Eddy Terstall, who is active on behalf of the PvdA behind the scenes, spoke with Jami on behalf of the party. An e-mail in which he reported to PvdA MPs and ministers last week on this meeting leaked to NRC Handelsblad....

The e-mail reveals an attempt to manipulate Jami on 11 points. Terstal advised him to "choose his words more carefully" and take into account the fact that his message could go down badly with the PvdA's big immigrant following. Terstall concluded with the message that he is prepared to "guide" Jami further.

Jami is supported by philosopher and political commentator Afshin Ellian. NRC Handelsblad quoted MP Wolfsen as saying that Ellian has "a very anti-Islam agenda." But apart from Ellian, who is an Irani refugee, Jami is "almost exclusively surrounding himself with whites", which is unwise, Terstal's email states.

Terstall also revealed that Jami received hate mails from PvdA executives. He suggested that NRC Handelsblad had obtained these emails too. Because the content "exceeds legal boundaries" liable for criminal prosecution, he is "hoping" that the newspaper would not publicise the internal PvdA threats. NRC Handelsblad has not to date done so. The paper did yesterday publish Terstal's email in full (www.nrc.nl/redactie/binnenland/eddyterstall.pdf).

Terstall acknowledged in a reaction that his intervention was to some extend dubious, but necessary in the party's interests. "I do not want to rein in Jami's enthusiasm, but he must be effective. There are words that he uses that act like a red rag to a bull in the Muslim community, which already has little self-confidence." For other parties, "it is much easier for such a committee to be set up without compromise" because they have fewer Muslim voters.

Terstall also sent the e-mail to Jami himself. Jami said yesterday in NRC Handelsblad and in newspaper De Volkskrant that he is not surprised that his party is trying to 'guide' him. "It is typical of the PvdA. They do not seem to be able to deal well with this sort of question."

The Muslim community has little self-confidence? Really? So little that a campaign that asserts that people ought to be able to leave Islam without fearing for their lives will offend them? Wouldn't they demonstrate much more self-confidence by publicly asserting that Islam is not threatened by people who leave it, and that they may live in peace?

Pak minorities being victimised by blasphemy law: Priest

Speaking out against Pakistan's vicious blasphemy law. From ANI, with thanks to all who sent this in:

London, June 3: Christians and other non-Muslim minorities have claimed that they are being victimised by Pakistan's blasphemy law.

"Numerous Christians and others have been victimised by the blasphemy law and, it has also been widely used to silence opposition, prevent free speech and to settle scores," Michael Nazir Ali, a former Karachi priest, said.

According to Ali, who is now working as a bishop in Rochester, various human rights organisations have reported an increase in Christians' arrest on blasphemy charges.

Non-Muslim minorities, including Christians, Hindus and Parsis are helpless onlookers and are often made victims of escalating extremism in the country.

"Their treatment is an important barometer of the direction Pakistan may be taking," the Dawn quoted Ali, as saying.

The present stance of the government looks very much like an appeasement of Mullahs, Ali said.

Indeed.

Saudi official says non-Muslims can worship -- in private

A breakthrough of Islamic tolerance and magnanimity. (Actually, this is nothing new, as al-Sudairy himself notes.) From AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

RIYADH (AFP) - Non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia are free to practise their religion in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom but must do so in private, the head of a government watchdog told AFP on Monday.

"This matter is well known and doesn't require reasserting -- non-Muslims can conduct their religious ceremonies in secret but not in public," said the head of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Turki al-Sudairy.

International human rights groups say Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict interpretation of Sunni Islam, does not tolerate religious practices by non-Muslims.

Sudairy stressed that allowing non-Muslims to openly practise their faith would conflict with the "religious politics of the kingdom" and "cause a number of problems, the most serious being preaching... in the cradle of Islam".

Jihadists storm Indonesian church

Islamic Tolerance Alert. "Muslim hardliners storm Indonesia church," from Agence France-Presse:

JAKARTA (AFP) - Muslim hardliners stormed a church in Indonesia during services, smashing images of Jesus Christ and demanding that it be closed down, the pastor said on Monday.

Dozens of churches have had to be closed in the Muslim-majority country in recent years, and Sunday's attack was the second on the small Protestant church in the West Java town of Soreang since 2005.

Reverend Robby Elisa, who heads the church, said around 100 hardliners attacked while Sunday school was in session. He said his wife was beaten and that at least four stained glass depictions of Jesus were smashed.

"They came and forced their way into the church," he said. "The attackers claimed to be from the Anti-Apostate Movement Alliance. The same group had already attacked the church in 2005."

The secretary of the church's headquarters in Jakarta, Reverend Budi Setiawan, said that the attack had been reported to the Indonesian Church Association (PGI).

West Java, where Islam is strong, has seen a series of attacks on churches to force their closure.

The Jakarta Post newspaper said that more than 30 churches have had to close their door in West Java since 2004 because of attacks by Muslim hardliners. Dozens of churches have also been forced to close in other provinces, it said.

According to a current decree by the religious affairs ministry, houses of worship must obtain the approval of at least 60 percent of local residents and have at least 90 followers to be able to operated.

Elisa said that his church was small and only had a congregation of some 20 adults and 40 children and teenagers.

"Where else can we go? We are too far from the city and our congregation needs a place to worship," Elisa said.

The district police chief could not be immediately reached for comment, and the officer on duty at the district police declined to comment.

[...]

Although the constitution gives all religions equal footing, laws make it difficult for religions other than Islam to establish houses of worship.

New Hampshire Muslim leader: Polygamy is not so bad, and hey, fewer than 20,000 Muslims in America practice it

Sharia Alert from New Hampshire: polygamy is, like all of Islam, just great and severely misunderstood. "Multiple wives often misunderstood, Muslims say," by Chloe Johnson for Foster's Online, with thanks to WriterMom:

While the practice is not legal in the United States, polygamy is accepted in some parts of the world and permitted under certain circumstances in some religions, including Islam.

Abu-Ibrahim Mohamed, a member of the Islamic Society of the Seacoast Area in Dover, said Muslims look to their faith for guidance in life, including a perspective on polygamy.

"Islam presents a unique world view and a complete way of life," he said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Muslims look upon marriage as a scared institution and a serious commitment, he said.

Polygamy is a highly regulated contract that multiplies the vows of marriage. So it's an additional challenge for the faithful, he said.

"Many times, polygamy is looked at as man's right to legally marry more than one woman," he said. "This is a totally flawed way of looking at the matter."

He said people should consider looking at it as a woman's right to be cared for and provided for, and to have the full legal rights of a wife.

The Quran regulates polygamy, like other aspects of life, he said.

There are conditions that make polygamy permitted at times and prohibited at others, and recommended for some and not others depending on the circumstances, he said. The issue is misunderstood by many, even some Muslims.

Stereotypes also cause misunderstanding. This has led many Muslims in the United States to take a defensive or sometimes apologetic approach resulting in more inaccurate representations, he said.

Mohamed said many Muslim Americans would agree that the outlawing of polygamy is denying certain citizens their full freedom of religion.

Also, he said, many Muslim Americans "can't understand the reasons behind outlawing polygamy while tolerating other practices or affairs that are void of any legal commitments or moral values."

But legalizing polygamy does not mean conditions are appropriate for its practice, he said. Prevailing cultural norms, economic conditions, or other regulations might not make polygamy viable.

That's why it is "highly unlikely" that many Muslim Americans would practice polygamy even if it is legalized, he said.

Debra Majeed, an assistant professor in religious studies at Beloit College in Wisconsin, has conducted research on polygyny among Muslim Americans.

The practice of polygyny (a husband taking more than one wife) is limited to a minority of the global Muslim community, and less than 1 percent of the American Muslim population practices it, she said.

Taking the Pew Research Center's figure of 2.35 million Muslims in America, that's less than 23,500 polygamists in the United States.

Egypt Moves Closer To Iran, Follows US Lead

With every passing day, President Bush’s ”tree of appeasement” bears new fruit. Egypt and Iran are meeting today in order to explore the possibility of renewing diplomatic relations, which they severed in 1979. Why? If the US can talk to Iran, why can’t Egypt?

"Iran, Egypt to mull renewal of ties," from Zvi Barel for Haaretz:

Egypt and Iran will hold a round of talks in the coming days aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations. The rapprochement was apparently made possible by the recent thaw between the United States and Iran.

The US is helping Iran recruit friends.

According to sources in Egypt, Cairo's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, is expected to meet with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, to discuss opening embassies in Tehran and Cairo.

Last week, Aboul Gheit sent Mottaki a message saying Egypt was willing to talk about restoring relations with Iran. The message was sent in response to a statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said that "should Egypt signal that it wants to restore relations, we would be willing to open an embassy in Cairo the very next day."

The current drive to renew relations, which were severed in 1979 following the Islamic revolution in Iran, apparently results from the recent thaw between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. The two foes have been engaged in contact in recent months after Washington's decision to include the Iranians in talks on Iraq's future.

"The idea of renewing relations with Iran had surfaced twice before, in 2000 and 2004," an Egyptian source told Haaretz. "We never followed through because of American pressure. But now the U.S. is itself engaging in direct contact with the Iranians, so no one can argue now that renewing relations is an anti-American motion."

It’s hard to see what the “thaw” in the US/Iran relationship is accomplishing other than bringing other nations closer to Iran. It’s just as hard to imagine that Egypt will maintain its “hear no evil see no evil” policy in regard to weapon smuggling from the Sinai to the Gaza Strip. As always, appeasement is a deadly game.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Malaysia Chief Justice: "A Muslim can renounce his faith but the way one leaves a religion is set by the religion itself, in this case Sharia law"

Ominous words, considering the penalty for apostasy established by Muhammad's own orders: baddala deenahu faqtuhu -- "If anyone changes his religion, kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57).

"A Muslim can renounce his faith, but only as set out by Sharia," from AsiaNews:

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – “A Muslim can renounce his faith but the way one leaves a religion is set by the religion itself, in this case Sharia law”. Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, has stepped into the heated debate which has arisen in the aftermath of the Federal Court ruling on the Lina Joy case. May 30th, two of three judges, rejected the Christian convert’s appeal, to have the National registrar cancel the word “Islam” from her documents, given she is no longer a Muslim. The countries highest court has referred the decision to the Islamic Court, whom the Registrar is asking to, declare the woman an apostate in order to modify her documents. In fact two legislations exist in the country: Islamic and constitutional, which are often conflicting. In the case of Lina Joy this is evident: the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion; Islamic law punishes conversion to another religion.

Now more than ever the religious minorities [in] Malaysia feel threatened and denounce the imposition of the Sharia even in the case of non Muslim citizens.

As reported in the daily newspaper The Star, the Chief Justice strongly supported Federal Court verdict explaining: “To say that she is not under the jurisdiction of the Sharia Court – because she no longer professes Islam – is not appropriate, (in so far as) the way one leaves a religion is set by the religion itself”. He said a mere statutory declaration that one has renounced Islam is not sufficient to remove the word “Islam” from a Muslim person’s identity card, “This is because apostasy is an issue dealing with Islamic laws”.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi today clarified that “no political pressure influenced the Federal Court Judges’ decision, while admitting that the issue of non Muslims and Islamic courts needed to be dealt with, but exclusively by the government. The Christian community has [long] appealed to the authorities to reaffirm the supremacy of the Constitution over Islamic laws.

Fitzgerald: A tribute to Lt. Col. David Kilcullen

"If I were a Muslim, I'd probably be a jihadist. The thing that drives these guys -- a sense of adventure, wanting to be part of the moment, wanting to be in the big movement of history that's happening now -- that's the same thing that drives me, you know?" -- David Kilcullen, senior counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, senior commander in Iraq

The "impressive" and "brilliant" (first in his class in military school in Australia) Lt. Col. David Kilcullen should be asked a number of questions about his all-purpose, one-size-more-or-less- fits-all (after a little softening of the boots-on-the-ground leather) "rules of counterinsurgency." He should be questioned about how and why he thinks the insurrection in Malaya, or that in Greece, are like that in Iraq. He might tell us who in those "insurgencies" played the role of the Sunnis, or rather of the two main Sunni groups, which yesterday collaborated with each other and yet today are apparently at daggers drawn, and which tomorrow might yet collaborate against the Shi'a, and which in any case are, all of them, against the Infidel Americans (though the "Anbar tribes" of which we hear so much are happy to pocket American aid).

And he might tell us who in those "insurgencies" played the role of the Shi'a, or rather of the different groups of Shi'a -- of Moqtada al-Sadr, and of Hakim of SCIRI, and Maliki of the Da'wa Party. And he then might tell us who, in Greece or Malaya or Aden or Kenya or East Timor or wherever it is that provides him with the "data" for his "counterinsurgency" ideas, played the role of the Kurds, who though Muslim are more grateful and reliable for American purposes than any of the Arab groups.

And then one might ask Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, he of the impressive strine accent (any accent but an American one can woo and win the easily-impressed likes of Condoleeza Rice), if he sees anything that might distinguish Iraq otherwise from his "counterinsurgency" "laws" and "rules" and "lessons." For example, what is the significance of the existence of Shi'a Iran on one side of Iraq, along its longest border, and of states (Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the U.A.E., Egypt, even Syria -- which is 70% Sunni though the Alawites are not, and Sunni Muslims as well as most Shi'a do not regard them even as real Muslims, given their cult of Mary) dominated by or largely peopled by Sunni Arabs on the other side? Does the ability of both sides to aid their co-religionists, and their keen awareness of the need to do so, not give pause to Lt. Col. David Kilcullen and to those who are impressed with him?

Do they not see beyond Iraq to a larger war, a war not simply with what Lt. Col. David Kilcullen has described as "a kook in a room" whom we must prevent from having mass appeal? Jihad already has, and always will have, "mass appeal" to Muslims. And Bin Laden is not a "kook"; Khomeini was not a "kook"; Nasrallah is not a "kook"; the leaders of the Ikhwan, wherever the Ikhwan has its many cells, are not "kooks" -- they are perfectly traditional Muslims, who choose to act on the central duty of Jihad by direct participation, rather than offering other kinds of support, such as promoting Da'wa in the Western world, or buying up Western hirelings, or merely contributing their mite to demographic conquest and a slow undoing of Infidel legal and political institutions. The enemy is Jihad, or more bluntly, the supremacist Belief-System that Lt. Col. David Kilcullen self-assuredly think she knows quite enough of, when he knows dangerously little. And that little, that ignorance of Islam, and of the ethnic and sectarian fissures in Iraq, explains the fiasco to date.

Final question: who, in all those other "insurgencies" from which the Kilcullens of this world and those who are impressed by them draw their "laws," played the role of the Chaldeans, and the Assyrians, the people who are, like the Mandeans and Yazidis, the ones who have fled, or are fleeing, or are being killed, because Islam, you see...is Islam? The Kilcullens of this world and those who are impressed by them do not see the complete picture, of which Iraq is only a part. Nor do they see the need in Iraq to end with a result that justifies the colossal investment, that is, a result that will guarantee further divisions and demoralizations within the camp of Islamic supremacism.

Iran official encourages temporary marriages to fight "illicit" sex

Temporary marriages, also known as "mutah," are nothing new; they are a long-standing practice of Shi'ite Islam, justified by the Shi'ite reading of Qur'an 4:24:

And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you. Lawful unto you are all beyond those mentioned, so that ye seek them with your wealth in honest wedlock, not debauchery. And those of whom ye seek content (by marrying them), give unto them their portions as a duty. And there is no sin for you in what ye do by mutual agreement after the duty (hath been done). Lo! Allah is ever Knower, Wise.

Even among consenting adults, mutah falls well short of Western expectations of marriage -- including civil marriages, but especially religiously sanctioned marriage. But since the legal age of marriage for girls is nine according to Islamic law, nothing prevents the practice from being an appalling means of exploitation.

"Iranian official backs temporary marriage," by Ali Akbar Dareini for the Associated Press:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line interior minister is encouraging temporary marriages as a way to avoid extramarital sex, a stance many in this conservative country fear would instead encourage prostitution.

A temporary marriage, or "sigheh," refers to a Shiite Muslim tradition under which a man and a woman sign a contract that allows them to be "married" for any length of time, even a few hours. An exchange of money, as a sort of dowry, is often involved.

Although the practice exists, it's not very common in Iran, a Shiite majority nation where many consider it a license for prostitution. Others, however, have advocated institutionalizing the tradition, saying it would help fight "illicit" sex in a country where sexual relations outside marriage are banned under Islamic law.

"Temporary marriage is God's rule. We must aggressively encourage that," state-run television quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi as saying.

The minister, who made his comments Thursday, was the first Iranian official to support the disputed practice in more than a decade. Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani raised the issue in the early 1990s but was opposed by the country's hard-line clerics.

"We have to find a solution to meet the sexual desire of the youth who have no possibility of marriage," Pourmohammadi was quoted as saying by local newspapers.

Half of Iran's population of 70 million is under 30. Taxi driver Reza Sarabi, 23, expressed the frustration of many young Iranian men who can't afford to buy a house and get married.

"I have no money to set up a matrimonial life. I don't want prostitutes. What should I do with my sexual needs?" he said.

The "sigheh" is banned in Sunni Islam, but similar practices can be found in Sunni countries. One such practice is the "urfi" marriage, an unofficial arrangement that is often kept secret. Although an urfi marriage involves signing a document in front of witnesses, the marriage can be broken by destroying the paper.

In addition, temporary marriage -- misyar, or "traveler's" marriage -- is gaining popularity in, for example, Saudi Arabia.

In Iran, temporary marriage has been reported as a way some widows and poor women help support themselves. But critics of the practice believe such arrangements only exacerbate the country's prostitution problem and undermine Iran's values.

"It will damage the foundation of the family," said lawyer Nemat Ahmadi, who argues it gives wealthy men religious cover to have affairs. "This will only promote prostitution."

Prostitution was banned in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution but has increased in recent years. There are no official statistics available in Iran on the number of prostitutes, but unofficial figures published by some media outlets put the number at several hundred thousand.

Boycott? What Boycott?

"We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." -- From the transcript of President Bush's address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, September 20, 2001.

Who is the President with? Is he starving terrorists of funding or are his terrorist funding activities leading other nations to do the same? "Further Erosion of PA Boycott as PLO Account Set Up as Loophole," by Ezra HaLevi for INN:

Holland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates have all decided to renew funding to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The countries are following the lead of the United States, which authorized funding of the Fatah faction in the PA through a PLO account set up by Fatah official Salem Fayyad.

US President George W. Bush announced Friday that he intends to deposit $18.8 million into the new PLO account set up by Fayyad – ostensibly to help Fatah fight Hamas. Hamas is not technically a member of the PLO.

A May 14 letter from the US to the European Union authorized the deposit of funds in Fayyad’s PLO account – a move seen by many as effectively ending the international boycott of the PA in place since the PA public voted the internationally recognized terrorist organization Hamas into power.

The White House recently gave Fatah $59 million for training and weapons for armed groups controlled by Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas later claimed it had intercepted weapons purchased with the money.

One of the recipients of such training, Khaled Shawish, was arrested by Israeli security forces last month for scores of shooting attacks on Israeli civilians he oversaw – including the murder of Binyamin Ze’ev and Talia Kahane.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that it will be dispatching a “special grant” of 6.3 million euros ($8.4 million) to the PA in the coming months. Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen insisted that the funding is "also in Israel's best interests" as the money would improve the humanitarian situation for 17,000 armed men and their families.

The United Arab Emirates have also shown their support to the PA, transferring $80 million in aid to the PLO, of which Hamas is not a member of and therefore does not violate US anti-terror laws.

In recent weeks, Qatar gave $44 million, Norway gave $10 million and Saudi Arabia donated $50 million to the PA.

Japan is also considering renewing direct funding of the PA. It has donated about $900 million to the PA since 1993.

The European Union is also planning to resume funding of the PA, with external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner saying that, "Hopefully at the next council we will be able to take a decision.” That meeting is scheduled for June 18. The plan is to supply $30 million a month to the PA.

According to my calculations, the President's question is a non-starter. "Us" and the terrorists are one and the same.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Islam-wary Swiss to ban minarets

Two cheers for the Swiss.

From the Brunei Times:

Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned.

They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system.

Signatures are now being collected to force a nationwide referendum on the issue which, under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, would be binding.

The move has shocked Switzerland's 350,000 Muslims, many of whom have been campaigning for decades for more recognition for their faith.

[...]

A recent opinion poll for one Swiss newspaper found that 43 per cent of those surveyed were in favour of a ban on minarets.

"We have our civil laws here," insisted Freysinger. "Banning minarets would send a clear signal that our European laws, our Swiss laws, have to be accepted. And if you want to live here, you must accept them. If you don't, then go back."

"I think Swiss Muslims will be angry and bitter over this," said Reinhard Schulze, professor of Islamic Studies at Berne University. "And we know that anger and bitterness among a community can lead to radicalisation, even to militancy."

Boy, you said it Reinhard. Resisting the spread of religious fascism is a sure way to get it mad at you. Much better to go with the flow.

The Swiss government is extremely nervous about the prospect of militancy among Swiss Muslims; three cabinet ministers have already spoken out against the campaign to ban minarets.

There is also a growing fear that the debate will damage Switzerland's traditionally good relations with the Arab world.

And wouldn't that just ruin everything? I mean, how could Switzerland even exist if not for the Arabs?

Human Rights Watch calls on Egypt to legalize Muslim Brotherhood

The whitewashing of the Brotherhood's bloody history and Islamic supremacist agenda continues. "Egypt: legalize Muslim Brotherhood- US-based group Human Rights Watch," by Bonny Apunyu for Reuters, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

(SomaliNet) The Egyptian government was on Thursday urged by the US-based group Human Rights Watch to legalize the Muslim Brotherhood, the influential movement outlawed in the 1950s, and stop arresting people for membership.

Meanwhile, Brotherhood sources said government crackdown on the movement continued on Thursday when police made dawn raids in the provinces of Giza and Beni Suef. Seventeen members were detained, including senior figures in the group's provincial hierarchy.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), like the Brotherhood, linked the recent wave of detentions to preparations for elections on June 11 to the upper house of parliament, or Shoura Council.

"The Egyptian government has never convincingly justified its continued ban of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has renounced violence for more than 30 years. Human Rights Watch called on the government to lift the ban and to cease arresting people solely for their alleged membership in the organization," HRW added in a statement:

It said 223 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition movement despite its outlawed status, were currently imprisoned.

"In the week Egypt boasted about its election to the UN Human Rights Council, it was arresting scores of people solely for exercising their right to free association and free speech," HRW Deputy Director Joe Stork said in the statement.

Mubarak is certainly a scoundrel. Of that there is no doubt. But that doesn't make those who oppose him into angels.

Gaza jihad group "Swords of Truth" threatens to behead "immodest" women broadcasters

Coming soon: Niqab News Network. Sharia Alert. "Fundamentalists in Gaza threaten to behead 'immodest' women broadcasters," from the Associated Press:

A Muslim extremist group threatened to behead female TV broadcasters if they don't don strict Islamic dress, leaving the women terrified and marking a further downward spiral in Gaza's anarchy.

The threat to "cut throats from vein to vein" was delivered by the Swords of Truth, a fanatical group that has previously claimed responsibility for bombing Internet cafes and music shops.

The new threat was the first time the organization targeted a specific group of people, and adds to a growing climate of extremism, fear and suspicion in Gaza.

In many parts of the Muslim world, religious conservative policies keep women out of TV anchoring positions or only let them take the jobs if they wear headscarves. But in some countries scarves are uncommon, like Lebanon and Jordan, and Egypt even keeps newscasters who wear them off its TV stations.

Most of the 15 women broadcasters on government-run Palestine TV wear headscarves. But they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which is not considered strictly observant by the extremists.

The Swords of Truth issued the statement Friday in an e-mail sent to news organizations. "We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation."

The group accused the broadcasters of being "without any...shame or morals" and said it knew where to find the women.

Prior to the statement, some women broadcasters said they had received personal threats through their mobile phones. It was not clear if those threats were from the same group.

One anchorwoman who does not wear a headscarf said she was too frightened by the threat to go to work on Saturday.

"It's a dangerous precedent in our society. It will target all working women," said the broadcaster, who declined to give her name out of fear. "The statement frightened us."

Another presenter who wears a headscarf, on Palestine TV, said she couldn't understand why they were targeted. "I hope they take it back. I hope not a bullet will be fired at us," she said.

[...]

Understatement of the year:

This is not the first display of recent Islamic extremism in Gaza. Only last month, Muslim hardliners lobbed a bomb at a UN-run school, accusing the world body of "turning schools into nightclubs" for holding a display of traditional Palestinian dancing.

More from the Jerusalem Post:

According to one official, "The day will come when we will miss Hamas. These are extremely dangerous groups that are trying to take Palestinian society back to the Dark Ages."

You're off to a great start.

A leaflet distributed by the Righteous Swords of Islam specifically referred to the women who appear on Palestine TV. "The saying these days is that the enemy has withdrawn from the Gaza Strip and so have our morals," it read. "It's indeed disgraceful that the women working for the official Palestinian media are competing with each other to display their charms."

Referring to the fact that most of the female presenters were not wearing the niqab, a veil covering the face of Muslim women as a part of hijab, the leaflet asked: "Where are the decision-makers in this regard? Have we lost our conscience? Have the brothers, fathers and husbands stopped caring about their women?"

The group warned that its members would strike with an "iron fist and swords" against the women who are refusing to cover their faces. "We will destroy their homes," it announced. "We will blow up their working places. We have a lot of information about their addresses and we are following their movements."

Egypt frees Muslim Brotherhood blogger

Why not Kareem?

"Muslim Brotherhood Blogger Released," by Nadia Abou El-Magd for AP:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A Muslim Brotherhood blogger was released Saturday after a 45-day detention, but the crackdown against the group continued, with 51 Brotherhood members arrested in recent days, police said.

Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, 27, a well known blogger and correspondent for the London-based Al-Hewar Arabic TV Channel, and 23 others, mostly students, had been held since mid-April for being members of the banned group. The fellow detainees were also released Saturday, said the police, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

Surveillance of Thai Muslims in Sweden [UPDATE: Never mind]

Jihad Watch reader cAi writes:

This is a welcome brake in Swedish dhimmitude. Sweden's Condoleeza Ricei, Carl Bildt, has promised Thai authorities that the Swedish secret police will monitor Thai Muslims, in an attempt to find those who have connections with the Islamic terror group PULO (Pattani United Liberation Organisation).

This Swedish-language article also mentions a web address located in the infamous Rosengård that is linked to Thai Muslims in Sweden.

UPDATE: Not so fast. "Thailand 'misinterpreted Bildt' over intelligence handover," from The Local, with thanks to Fjordman:

The Thai government reckons that Sweden is willing to hand over information about militant Muslims in the country to Thailand's military junta, according to Thai newspaper The Nation.

However, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has denied the claims, saying that the Thai government has misunderstood what was said in a recent meeting.

Following a meeting between Bildt and Thailand's foreign minister Nitya Pibulsonggram in Hamburg last Tuesday, The Nation interviewed Tharit Charungvat, a spokesman for Thailand's foreign ministry. He said that the meeting addressed cooperating over the supervision of Muslim radicals exiled from Thailand,

"Carl Bildt informed us that Sweden was watching this group of people carefully. The Swedish authorities are ready and willing to share intelligence at our request," said Charungvat.

He added that the cooperation would be in accordance with Swedish law so that the freedom of movement for Swedish citizens and foreign citizens in exile would be protected.

But now Carl Bildt has claimed that Charungvat misinterpreted what was actually said at the meeting. On Saturday morning Martina Ränk, an advisor to the foreign minister, read a short statement from Bildt about what he said in the meeting:

"I spoke about freedom of speech and organisations in Sweden, irrespective of where one comes from, but also that we obviously do not tolerate violence and that in this case I am aware of certain tendencies in that direction."

Pope: Pakistan, safeguard the religious freedom of minorities

"Safeguard religious freedom, especially for the minorities, defence against violence and terrorism, promotion of political and human rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women: in Benedict XVI’s view these are the main challenger which face Pakistan..." Oh, is that all? Well, I'm sure they'll get right on that.

Seriously, it is very good for the Pope to be making such statements. This is exactly what we have been standing for here all this time, and his calling for these things is an acknowledgment that they don't actually exist now. From AsiaNews, with thanks to Insubria:

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Safeguard religious freedom, especially for the minorities, defence against violence and terrorism, promotion of political and human rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women: in Benedict XVI’s view these are the main challenger which face Pakistan on its journey towards becoming a democratic nations, respectful of the person.

Today’s presentation of the letters of credence by the new Pakistani Ambassador to the Holy See Ms. Ayesha Riyaz, gave the Pope the opportunity to reiterate those principals which the Catholic Church sees as fundamental for a just and peaceful coexistence between peoples. “Our common goal of fostering peace and justice in the world to secure a better future for mankind – he said - can only be accomplished when there is genuine cooperation between peoples, religions and nations”. As such the Pope expressed his appreciation of Pakistan’s decision to commitment to work together with the international community to bring greater stability to your region and to protect innocent lives from the threats of terrorism and violence. “The road to national and international security is long and difficult. It takes great patience and resolve. Notwithstanding the obstacles encountered along the way, all efforts to keep open the pathway to peace, stability and hope should be encouraged and promoted”.

The Pope also underscored the Catholic Churches particular commitment to furthering education in Pakistan, “regardless of faith”. “Christians and Muslims both worship the One God, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. It is this belief that moves us to unite minds and hearts as we work tirelessly for peace, justice, and a better future for mankind”.

Then facing the question of religious freedom in the country, often openly impeded, the Pope affirmed that “A robust democratic society depends on its ability to uphold and protect religious freedom—a basic right inherent in the very dignity of the human person. It is therefore essential to safeguard citizens who belong to religious minorities from acts of violence. Such protection not only accords with human dignity but also contributes to the common good. During an era in which threats against religious freedom are becoming more ominous throughout the world, I encourage Pakistan to bolster its efforts in securing freedom for people to live, worship, and perform works of charity according to the dictates of their conscience and with immunity from intimidation”....

"For one night, on May 9, the quaint colonial town of Amherst, New Hampshire, was transformed into a Saudi Arabian Bedouin tent community"

Welcome to our school, kuffar!

Seventh-grade school project. And for extra credit, they stoned an adulteress.

"‘Open tent’ at Amherst Middle School," from the Cabinet Press, with thanks to Cinnamon Stillwell:

AMHERST— For one night, on May 9, the quaint colonial town of Amherst, New Hampshire, was transformed into a Saudi Arabian Bedouin tent community, with the help of 80 seventh-graders at the Amherst Middle School. The weather cooperated, providing 85 degree temperatures to give an authentic Saudi feel to the evening.

More than 250 guests arrived at the open tent and were welcomed with an Arabic greeting of “Marhaba” by students at a Saudi customs desk.

During the check-in, guests selected a traditional Arabic name for their name badge and completed an actual Saudi customs form, which warned in bold letters “Death for Drug Trafficking ” at the top.

Were crosses, Bibles, stars of David, and all other non-Muslim religious articles confiscated and destroyed?

Once inside, guests were encouraged to circulate among 14 different stations created by the students.

The Arabic food-tasting station offered four entrées, curried chicken, lamb, tomato chicken with cardomom, and Moroccan chicken, served with pita breads, hummus, and couscous. Fresh fruits, cardomom coffees, and spice teas were also served.

Flowing fabrics hung from the ceiling separated the family and men-only dining sections. The tables were set on large rugs and lowered so that the diners sat on the floor.

Only the seventh-grade boys were allowed to host the food stations and the Arabic dancing, as the traditions of Saudi Arabia at this time prevent women from participating in these public roles.

"At this time." It'll get better, folks. They're just going through a phase.

"We will never surrender Islam in the face of human rights concerns"

He said it. "Iranian regime’s judiciary advisor defends the inhumane punishment by stoning," from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (thanks to Ig):

NCRI - Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the mullahs’ Judiciary Chief Advisor and an ideologue within the clerical regime, attended a gathering of “Prosecutors from Islamic Capitals in Tehran,” in which he defended the inhumane punishment of stoning and said, “We will never surrender Islam in the face of human rights concerns … During the adoption of these (human rights) laws, the world of Islam was in complete ignorance while liberals and secular parties formulated and imposed these laws onto the entire world … We must elucidate punishment by stoning clearly to those who denounce it. We had a revolution so that Islamic laws would be implemented … We will never give up Islam in the face of these challenges” (State-run news agency ILNA, May 30, 2007).

In another development, Saeed Agha Sadeghi, an advisor to the Chief of the Iranian regime’s Prisons Organization announced that the youth arrested and charged with being “thugs and hooligans” during the recent wave of crackdowns “will be denied all privileges in prison.” This is clearly an inhumane measure, which blatantly violates all international norms with regards to treatment of prisoners.

The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the United Nations Secretary General, High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council, and all international human rights organizations to the rising and systematic human rights violations in Iran. It also calls for the referral of the mullahs' appalling human rights record to the UN Security Council for the adoption of binding decisions.

Blair consults Muslim leaders at Cambridge University conference on Islam

It's unlikely that any good will come of this. From Associated Press of Pakistan, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

LONDON, June 1 (APP): British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to meet Muslim leaders from all over the world at a major conference on Islam, hosted by University of Cambridge next week. The June 4 and 5 event, aims to explore ways in which greater unity and understanding might be fostered between Muslims and non-Muslims in the societies in which they live. Representatives from more than 30 countries will be attending, said a media release of the Cambridge University....

That is, they want to foster greater unity and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in the West. They will almost certainly not discuss the plight of non-Muslims in Muslim countries, although it is getting worse all the time.

The conference is being organized by The Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme (CIP), based in the University's Faculty of Divinity. CIP is a teaching and research programme that seeks to achieve a deeper understanding of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It also aims to develop public outreach programmes for the benefit of faith communities and wider society.

The event will open with a video message from HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, while the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, will host a reception in the evening.

Other speakers will include the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shaykh Ali Gomaa; the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Mufti Mustafa Ceric; Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow; the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres; the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly and the Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron.

About Ali Gomaa, see here. Mustafa Ceric has repeated the misleading fiction that "the Muslims and Jews have contributed to European development [as much] as Christians did"; while he is right that the Jews made an immense contribution to European culture, historically Muslims have contributed to Europe the way the fox contributes to the henhouse. About Cameron, see here. About Ruth Kelly, see here.

Professor David Ford, Director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, said:

"There is an urgent need for Islam and traditionally Christian cultures to understand one another specifically from a religious perspective.

"The conference will focus on the relationship between Islam and the non-Muslim world, inviting Muslims from this country and abroad to discuss the challenges we all face in creating communities that can accommodate and thrive on the religious diversity that exists in Britain, Europe and beyond.

"In the past, policy has too often focused on the question of integrating Muslims into secular society. In fact we live in a complexly religious and secular society where the expression of religious beliefs remains important to huge numbers of people."

So forget about getting Muslims to integrate -- at least until they start rioting as in France. Then the government will be blamed for not integrating them.

Speakers and guests will be encouraged to consider the contribution Islamic debate has made to a host of contemporary topics including citizenship, the place of Islamic law, women and human rights.

What does this mean? What contribution has "Islamic debate" made to questions of "citizenship, the place of Islamic law, women and human rights," except to threaten the rights of women and non-Muslims, as well as the very concept of citizenship itself? How does Islamic law make any contribution to Britain except as the goal of those who would destroy British civilization once and for all?

Timothy Winter, lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, said:

"The question facing British society, and society as a whole, is not how we encourage minorities to engage with western countries, but how those countries define themselves as a collage of different religious cultures. We hope that this conference will enable those responsible for encouraging and building unity in communities to approach the task from that perspective.

Once again we hear that Britain has no culture of its own, but is a clearinghouse, or here a "collage," of different cultures. And indeed, if Britain has no culture of its own that any British leader thinks is worth defending in itself, it certainly will lose the vestiges of what it does have.

"If we are to overcome the problems of religious ignorance and misunderstanding, we need to have precisely these sorts of conversations and collaborations across religious and secular boundaries."

"Britain's cultural and spiritual heritage are under threat."

Anti-dhimmitude from a senior member of the House of Lords. "'UK jihadis threaten Israel'," from YNet News

Radicalized British Muslims continue to pose a security threat to Israel, a senior member of the House of Lords told Ynetnews on Thursday.

Baroness Caroline Cox, former deputy speaker of the House of Lords for 20 years, and author of "The West, Islam, and Islamism," and Dr. John Marks, co-author of the book, are in Israel for a BESA Center conference on radical Islam being held at Bar-Ilan University.

Cox told Ynetnews Israel "does need to be concerned" about another attempt by al-Qaeda affiliated British Muslims to attack the country, a precedent set in 2003 by the suicide bombing carried out by two British Muslims on the Mike's Place pub in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and injuring dozens.

Cox added that the possibility of another terrorist attack on Britain was a constant looming shadow. "Terrorists only have to get it right once. It's difficult to have a fail proof way to stop them," she said.

The good news is that there is so much more that can be done. The bad news is that there is so much that hasn't yet been done.

"Britain has become a base for training and teaching militant Islam," Cox declared, adding that moderate Muslims who opposed extremism faced threats and a harsh campaign to silence them. Dr Marks warned that "radical groups are multiplying and continuing to recruit."

[...]

Marks said Britain's Jewish community was also under threat. "I wish they would do more to inform the rest of society of the threat they face," he added.

[...]

Muslims schools in Britain 'like Hamas schools'

Textbooks being used in Saudi-funded Muslim schools in Britain contained the "same anti-Semitic texts based on the Koran that you find in Palestinian Hamas schools," Marks noted.

Cox quoted a senior British bishop as saying that "most of our educational institutions have been infiltrated," and said university campuses were prime recruitment grounds for Islamist groups. "

"They are using our institutions to recruit young people, and preventing any critical analysis of Islam. I recently visited a theology college in Wales. The first thing you see when you walk in is a giant plaque thanking a wealthy sheikh for his contribution. I thought, is there any way that a realistic assessment of Islam can take place at this college?" she said.

[...]

"The feeling is that we are all the time putting out fires," Cox said. She discussed proposals to construct a gigantic mosque in east London which would house 70,000 people in prayer. "The symbolism of the mosque is clear, it dominates over its surroundings, which submit to it," Cox said.

[...]

"We need to wake up, draw a line in the sand, and say enough is enough," she said, adding that "Britain's cultural and spiritual heritage are under threat."