Fitzgerald: Esposito, Georgetown, and the DHS

Possibly the scandal of Esposito can be brought to the attention of the Vatican. Possibly the Vatican can persuade the administration at Georgetown to sever all ties with the "Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding." Esposito would still have his Saudi money and his lecture fees. He would still be lean, mean, jogging about, the man who seldom even puts in an appearance any more at the office. But at least the Georgetown prestige would no longer rub, wrongly, off onto him. He would simply be alone, with his "Center."

Surely someone on the Georgetown faculty, or in the Catholic hierarchy, or among powerful lay Catholics, can get the ball rolling on this.

As to the shoddiness of his scholarship -- well, forget about it. Margoliouth and Schacht have recently been reprinted. Antoine Fattal's book on the legal status of non-Muslims under Islam never went out of print. K. S. Lal is easily obtained. Tritton, Arthur Jeffery, Armand Abel, Charles-Emmanuel Bousquet, Snouck Hurgronje -- they are all about to be reprinted, at least in relevant part. Of course, don't think for a minute that Esposito, or any of his crew, are familiar with any of these great scholars, and dozens more. They've probably never read them. They seem actually to believe that the only person to have written about dhimmitude (though her work is profound, she recognizes that it also makes use of the previous work of dozens of other scholars) is Bat Ye'or, whom they like to airily dismiss as "polemical" so that they will not have to confront her meticulous, scrupulous, and irrefutable scholarship.

If ever that silly bumpersticker "Question Authority" was appropriate, it is in relation to the likes of Esposito, and Michael Sells, and tutti quanti. Whether on the take, or simply ill-informed, or lazy, or stupid, or some combination, they are guides to nothing and to nowhere. But their books could be given as incentives to those who sign up for Al-Jazeera on cable -- the perfect coffee-table accompaniment to so many of its programs.

Here is what I put up January 10, 2005:

That the Administration at Georgetown, that the Georgetown alumni, have not yet realized what damage an institutional connection between Esposito's "Center" and Georgetown is doing to the image, and name, of the latter, is a pity. When the Administration, and other faculty, perhaps prompted by expressions of alumni displeasure, do come to their senses, one hopes that all institutional ties between Georgetown and Esposito's Center, which benefits so much from the legitimacy conferred by the name "Georgetown," will be severed.

Perhaps a good place to begin is for the President and Trustees and alumni of Georgetown to educate themselves by reading, and assimilating, the articles on Islam by a real scholar at Georgetown -- Professor James V. Schall, S. J.

Professor Schall is neither an Arab hireling, nor an apologist for Islam, nor a sycophantic supporter of Muslim causes, nor a recipient of Arab Muslim support, and lionizing. For James V. Schall, S. J. answers to a Higher Authority, and has no truck with an Arab tycoon in Beirut, a Hamas-supporter in London, or a gaggle of Saudi princelings, all daggers-and-dishdashas, with their sneers of cold command, performing some celebratory dance in Riyadh and Jeddah.

I hope that James V. Schall, S.J. is thinking about this, and that John Allen is thinking about this, and Sandro Magister, and others who can get, somehow, to the upper regions of the Vatican, to call attention to this agent of Islam -- for what else should we call him? -- who is battening on the Georgetown name.

In World War II, anyone who had the kind of connections and "friends" among Nazis or Nazi sympathizers that Esposito does among the supporters of terrorist groups would have lost his job.

John Esposito, however, has not been stripped of his Saudi-supplied wealth; nor has he lost his job. No, instead he has been invited by the Department of Homeland Security to address one of the meetings it has organized in New Jersey. One's worst suspicions about the DHS, and about who is doing what in our government, appear to be justified. Those suspicions not allayed by reports from within the Pentagon about Muslim officers and aides swaggering about, or Pentagon officials who continue to be taken for "briefings" on Islam with John Esposito. We will have to find those who are just as alarmed, but are capable -- in Congress or the Executive branch -- of doing something about it. The Saudi lobby is very powerful; there is nothing else like it.

Unindicted co-conspirators honor useful idiots

ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. "Islamic Group Honors Religious Left," by Mark D. Tooley for the Christian Post (thanks to DFS):

At its recent convention in Chicago, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) honored the National Council of Churches’ top interfaith official with its “Interfaith Unity Award.”

Undoubtedly, the award was well deserved! The NCC, like most of the Religious Left, defends or accommodates radical Islam, even as it denounces “fundamentalist” Christianity and condemns Israel. Despite the Religious Left’s support for liberal social causes like same-sex unions and abortion rights, it prefers the supporters of Islamic “Sharia” law to Christians or Jews who might sometimes vote Republican.

“You are doing the will of God,” gushed NCC Associate General Secretary for Interfaith Relations Shanta Premawardhana. “You are the ones upholding faith and serving humanity. You are my sisters and brothers.” ISNA says over 40,000 of its Islamic supporters attended its annual convention.

The award inscription read: "Islamic Society of North America presents Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, a fellow activist for peace, justice and reconciliation, a 'Christian believer' as described in Qur'an (3:113) in recognition of his tireless contribution to advancing inter-religious dialogue and partnership, with our prayers for a continued demonstration of energy, understanding and commitment."

Here is Qur'an 3:113: "Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (For the right): They rehearse the Signs of Allah all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration."

The Signs of Allah. That's ayat in Arabic. It refers to the verses -- ayat -- of the Qur'an. Ibn Kathir says in explaining this verse that "there are believers and also criminals among the People of the Book," and that the believers among them "implement the Book of Allah, adhere to His Law and follow His Prophet Muhammad." In other words, they become Muslims. The Rev. Dr. Premawardhana must be so proud.

Egypt: Christians suffer from contradictions in legal system, elements of Sharia

Sharia is making life difficult for Christians in the Egyptian secular state. "In Egypt, Religious Freedom or Shariah? Catholics Struggle With Conflicts in Law," from Zenit (thanks to DFS):

CAIRO, Egypt, SEPT. 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church says that the contradiction in the legal system embodied in the Egyptian Constitution makes life difficult for the faithful.

Patriarch Antonios Naguib explained the difficulties of the Egyptian legal situation to the Germany-based group Aid to the Church in Need.

The patriarch said that on the one hand, the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and conscience while, on the other, it enforces Islam as the state religion and makes Shariah, Islamic law, the "fundamental source of the legal system."

A grave problem for the Church in Egypt, resulting from the unclear legal situation, is difficulty in obtaining permission to build churches, he said.

Patriarch Naguib expressed the hope that things might soon change, as there are some voices calling for the equality of all citizens.

Muzzling in the Name of Islam

Latest from the Washington [bleep].

Here is a good example of the not-completely-wrong sort of writing that does so much to cloud the issue over Islam's fundamentally hostile and intolerant nature. Here Paul Marshall appears critical of practices in Islamic countries such as repressing speech on the grounds of blasphemy. OK. But the article gives the impression -- falsely -- that anti-blasphemy laws are somehow aberrant in the Islamic dispensation. Hardly. Muhammad himself had critics and deriders of his faith assassinated.

Some of the world's most repressive governments are attempting to use a controversy over a Swedish cartoon to provide legitimacy for their suppression of their critics in the name of respect for Islam. In particular, the Organization of the Islamic Conference is seeking to rewrite international human rights standards to curtail any freedom of expression that threatens their more authoritarian members.

Islamic tyrannies hardly need the Swedes to justify repressing Islam's detractors. What isn't pointed out here is that the OIC already does not accede to the UN Declaration on Human Rights but accepts only an "Islamic Declaration of Human Rights," which explicitly accepts the paramouncy of Islam, i.e., the systematic repression of the human rights of freedom of speech, religion, conscience, etc, etc. Maybe the [bleep] could point this out someday?

The issues here go beyond the right of cartoonists to offend people. They go to the heart of repression in much of the Muslim world. Islamists and authoritarian governments now routinely use accusations of blasphemy to repress writers, journalists, political dissidents and, perhaps politically most important, religious reformers.

[...]

As the late Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, and whose novel Children of Gebelawi was banned in Egypt for blasphemy, put it: "no blasphemy harms Islam and Muslims so much as the call for murdering a writer."

A pithy comment -- except that it utterly contradicts Islamic teaching. Blasphemy laws and calls for heads on platters may be bad PR in the West, but it comes straight out of orthodox Islam.

Repressive laws, supplemented and reinforced by terrorists, vigilantes and mob violence, are a fundamental barrier to open discussion and dissent, and so to democracy and free societies, within the Muslim world.

Well, duh. The writer is clearly under the mistaken impression that Islamic countries want "democracy," etc. or that they care about what the infidel world thinks of them.

When politics and religion are intertwined, there can be no political freedom without religious freedom, including the right to criticize religious ideas. Hence, removing legal bans on blasphemy and 'insulting Islam' is vital to protecting an open debate that could lead to other reforms.

This last sentence is a good example of a statement that is simultaneously technically correct and fantastically bone-headed. One might as well have said that stopping the deportation of Jews in Nazi Germany or the destruction of churches in the Soviet Union was "vital to protecting an open debate that could lead to other reforms" -- it completely misunderstands that nature of the regimes in question. It is the nature of Muslim countries to repress anyone critical of Islam just as it was the nature of the Third Reich to be anti-Jewish or the Communists to be anti-Christian.

Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, is writing a book on blasphemy.

A "book on blasphemy?" Another politically correct abstraction that purposefully avoids the peculiar nature of Islamic attitudes toward blasphemy, etc. One expects it will be something like Amanpour's series on religious "fundamentalism" -- projects intended to show that all seriously religious people are dangerous whack jobs just itching for the opportunity to fly a 767 into a crowded office building.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad Sharia world: Saudi wife divorced for watching male TV host

Sharia Alert from the country of the Two Holy Places: "Wife divorced for watching male TV host," from the Times of India (thanks to Hot Air):

RIYADH: A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.

The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.

Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.

In accord with Islamic law.

Dhimmitude and its compensations: Jihadists invite Rosie O'Donnell to Mideast

She would probably accept this invitation sooner than she would accept one from, say, Pat Robertson. "Oh, Rosie! Terrorists invite her to Mideast," from WorldNetDaily (thanks to Tammy Bruce):

Muslim jihadist leaders interviewed for a new book were ecstatic about statements from television talk host Rosie O'Donnell about the war in Iraq and the global war on terror, agreeing with her outspoken views.

Some even invited her on a "fact finding mission" to the Middle East.

"I agree with what this O'Donnell says. ...We welcome Rosie O'Donnell to stay among us and to get to know the truth from being here, like many American peace activists are doing," said Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist organization.

Senakreh and other terror leaders were quoted sounding off about O'Donnell in the new book "Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!," by author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

For one of the chapters of the book, Klein assembles a panoply of senior terrorist leaders and asks them to sound off about the views of high-profile liberals and conservatives.

The terrorists interviewed stated they had never heard of O'Donnell, a former host of ABC's "The View," who made regular headlines with her heated political battles against conservative-leaning co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Klein told the terrorists O'Donnell was a high profile television personality and read to them a series of her political statements, with which they mostly agreed....

"[She can report to Americans that] we are not in love with killing, we like peace, we are human beings, it is the occupation that obliges us to do what we do," Senakreh said.

Yes, you have no responsibility whatsoever for your own actions. Of course.

New sitcom: Muslims pious and polite, non-Muslims bigoted and stupid

Predictable.

"The sitcom 'Aliens in America' plays anti-Muslim hostility for laughs," by Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn for The Associated Press (thanks to Twostellas):

A group of Muslim worshippers were gathered for evening prayer inside the Islamic Center of Southern California when Moses Port and David Guarascio arrived.

"The fact that we're here is bigger than anything we could have even hoped for," said Guarascio, creator, along with Port, of the CW sitcom "Aliens in America." "But being here seems to make sense, you know, appropriate."

Appropriate, certainly, for the bold, satirical comedy, premiering at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 1, which explores Americans' fears and cultural ignorance of Muslims. Port, who's Jewish, and Guarascio, who was raised Catholic, were at the Islamic Center this night to introduce their new series to the faithful.

Though not unique – the popular Canadian series "Little Mosque on the Prairie" also deals with anti-Muslim attitudes – it's rare these days for an American sitcom to tackle such sensitive social and political issues.

At first, "Aliens in America" seems more akin to NBC's short-lived 1999 series "Freaks and Geeks" with its story of Justin Tolchuck (Dan Byrd), a nerdy Wisconsin high school student who just doesn't seem to fit in.

Then the twist: His overly involved mother, Franny (Amy Pietz), agrees to take in a foreign exchange student, hoping it will help Justin become as popular as his sister Claire (Lindsey Shaw). Only the student who arrives is Raja Musharaff (Adhir Kalyan), a Muslim from Pakistan.

Raja is polite, idealistic and hardworking, much to the pleasure of Justin's father, Gary (Scott Patterson). But everyone else in town sees Raja as a potential terrorist.

In one scene from the pilot, Raja sits wearily in class listening to a student confess that she is angry with him because "his people" blew up the twin towers. The teacher then asks if others in the class are angry with Raja and all raise their hands.

The response from the Islamic Center crowd was overwhelmingly positive, just as it has been with TV critics. Although a small minority of columnists complained that the pilot suggests Americans are "bigoted and stupid."

Yes. There is no reason for the teacher or the class to be angry with Raja, and this is a deft and vicious caricature of those who call upon Muslims to repudiate and work against the global jihad movement.

Fitzgerald: The head of Norway's security service: "a bit stupid," yes, but not as regards "diversity"

"We are unexperienced and a bit stupid as regards diversity and a multicultural population, says head of Security Service Jørn Holme to nrknyheter.no."

"We confuse Islam and Islamism. Islamism is after all a very particular form of Islam. I believe many Norwegians mix it up completely." -- from this news article

A "bit stupid as regards diversity"? Meaning not everyone in Norway is convinced that the most important and practically the greatest thing that any government can promote is "diversity"? Is that it? Are there still not enough university rectors in Norway to echo the sentiments of one Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan, in her world-famous address "We Are Diversity"?

And that business about "we [Norwegians] confuse Islam and Islamism." We are all confused. We are confused, and we are alarmed. For the last person in Norway who should make such a remark, that is, the head of the Norwegian security service, confidently tells us that there is a great difference between "Islam" and "Islamism"?

So tell us, please, what those differences are. Be sure to tell us the differences in doctrine, and do not merely describe them as differences in practice. If someone engages directly in violent Jihad, and someone else supports the first person in every way -- money, moral support, attempts to confuse Infidels or keep the security forces from effectively monitoring and doing their job -- is the second person not also supporting violent Jihad? And what of those Muslims who support Jihad, but believe that at this point, with the numbers still against Muslims in the West, and violence possibly likely to work against Muslim interests, that it is better to proceed by non-violent means? That is not a moral argument against violence, but merely a practical one, based on what Muslims may regard as a temporary situation to be endured. They believe that the most effective weapons of Jihad are use of the Money Weapon, campaigns of Da'wa, and, best of all, demographic conquest, as the large Muslim families and continued Muslim immigration unhindered by any Infidel attempts to stop it, show everywhere an inexorable rise in Muslim numbers and therefore Muslim political power and Muslim ability to pressure politicians to bend to their will long before Muslims are a majority.

One thing is not confusing about the statements made by the head of Norway's security service. One thing is crystal clear. He does not understand the texts and tenets and attitudes and atmospherics of Islam. In order to immediately improve the security situation in Norway for Norwegian non-Muslims, the head of the Security Service, Jorn Holme, should be immediately fired. He should be replaced by someone with a solid grasp of Islam, and therefore of the permanent threat that Islam represents to the legal and political institutions of Norway, to its social arrangements, to free inquiry and to art, to the physical well-being of Infidels -- not this fictive "Islamism" that some seem unable to drop or do without, for reasons having to do with their own mental inadequacies or their fear of giving offense or for some other mistaken and two-bit machiavellian calculation.

If Jorn Holme can kindly list the passages in the Qur'an and Hadith that "Islamists" rely on, and tell us how such passages, and such reliance on them, differs from what those who believe not in "Islamism" but "Islam" take as their texts, we will all be happy to accept his superior knowledge and understanding -- a knowledge and an understanding that presumably goes far beyond that of the great Western scholars of Islam, every single one of them in the days before the profession itself became islamized and peopled by apologists. Some of them now are no more than direct or indirect hirelings of the Arabs, such as Esposito, and others who "found the answer" to their own spiritual search in Islam, and still others who, careful careerists, are afraid to offend the Muslim colleagues who now make up nearly three-quarters of the membership of MESA (Nostra) in this country, and who control in most colleges and universities the academic study -- or deliberate non-study -- of Islam.

Ahmadinejad's Holocaust Myths

Alan Dershowitz in FrontPage:

In his speeches, most especially the one at Columbia University, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeats two myths about the Holocaust. The first every reasonable person knows is a total lie: namely that the Holocaust did not occur. The second myth, however, is one that escapes critical attention for the most part, because many people are not aware of its falsity. The myth is that the Palestinian people and their leadership had absolutely nothing to do with the Holocaust. The conclusion that is supposed to follow from this “fact” is that the establishment of Israel in the wake of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people was unfair to the Palestinians. This is the way Ahmadinejad put it in his Columbia talk.

“…[G]iven this historical event [the Holocaust], if it is a reality, we need to question whether the Palestinian people should be paying for it… “The Palestinian people didn’t commit any crime. They had no role to play in World War II.”

These statements about the role of the Palestinians are demonstrably false. The truth is that the Palestinian leadership, supported by the Palestinian masses, played a significant role in Hitler’s Holocaust. The Palestinian leader at the time was Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufit of Jerusalem. As Professor Edward Said has acknowledged:

“Hajj Amin al-Husseini represented the Palestinian Arab national consensus, had the backing of the Palestinian political parties that functioned in Palestine, and was recognized in some form by Arab governments as the voice of the Palestinian people.”

Husseini was “Palestine’s national leader” and it was in that capacity that he made his notorious alliance with Hitler and played an active role in promoting the Holocaust. Here is the true story that Ahmadinejad tried to mythologize.

Read it all.

FBI reaching out to jihadist-linked group

More suicidal politically correct short-sightedness. By Bill Gertz in the Washington Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

The FBI is cooperating with a U.S. Muslim group recently linked to global extremists and is asking the group to provide "cultural training" for its special agents, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee report.

The FBI's "Muslim outreach" community program included talks with the vice president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) about cooperating with the FBI, according to a report recently made public that contains written answers to questions posed by committee members.

The FBI as of June was seeking ISNA's help to "schedule tours and cultural training for FBI [special agents] at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center, and to coordinate the introduction of the community executive seminar training program to the local organizations by the national leaders," the FBI stated in the report.

ISNA was recently identified as part of the Muslim Brotherhood organization in a document submitted into evidence at the federal terrorism trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a group facing charges of illegally funding the Hamas terrorist group.

Disclosure of the FBI link to ISNA comes amid congressional opposition to the Justice Department's participation in an ISNA conference held over Labor Day weekend. Two members of Congress urged the department in a letter not to attend the conference to avoid lending credibility to a group linked to extremists. The department ignored the request.

Reps. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, and Sue Myrick, North Carolina Republican, stated in a letter to the Justice Department that ISNA should not be legitimized by Justice's participation in the conference, because of ISNA's "extremist origins."

An FBI spokesman had no comment.

According to the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document, ISNA is among 29 organizations in the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni extremist group that supports global Islamist "jihad" but publicly says it opposes the use of violence.

UN Human Rights Council: NGO mention of “Allah” taboo

More comments on the current Sixth Session of the Human Rights Council by David G. Littman, NGO Representative of the Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations Office in Geneva:

On September 20, while delivering our third oral statement to the 6th session of the UN Council on Human Rights in Geneva, a representative of Egypt (one of the 47 Member States) raised a ‘point of order’ twice in an attempt to censor our statement, delivered on behalf of the WUPJ and the AWE. His first intervention occurred soon after our reference to Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The Egyptian delegate stated that the mention of Iran (in connection with Hamas) was not relevant to the “situation in Palestine”.

His second intervention came after our quotation from the Hamas slogan (article 8 of its Charter, copied from the Charter of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood of 1928): “Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model; the Koran is its Constitution; Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.” This time, Egypt objected that references to ‘religion’ and to ‘Allah’ were not relevant to item 7 and such declarations were “unwise”. Council President, Romanian Ambassador Toru Romulus da Costea, allowed the NGO speaker to finish his three minute statement.

Our full text is reproduced below with the 2 places indicated (*) and (**) when Egypt’s interventions occurred; they heightened general interest.

After delivering a strong criticism of President Ahmadinejad in another oral statement on September 25, we then learned from the Secretary of the Council that while criticism of a Head of State by NGOs was accepted, any mention of “Allah” should be avoided – and that was perhaps why the Egyptian delegate had made his second ‘point of order’ under item 7.

This is a new development at the Council, maybe due to the persistence by Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan, speaking often on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. In one statement he declared: “Even terrorist acts carried out by non-State actors in the name of religion should be delinked from religion to ensure freedom of religion or belief.”

Paradoxically, many representatives of Muslim States – including Iran and Pakistan – always begin their statements with the first words of the Koran: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to Allah…” As is well-known, this first surat ends with a strong criticism against “… those who have incurred Your wrath” and “those who have gone astray” – this implicitly refers to “the Jews” and “the Christians”.

Our understanding that mention of “Allah” by NGOs was now taboo at the Council was confirmed after the closure of the 6th session of the HRC at 6:00pm on Friday, 28 September, when we asked the Secretary for a clarification on this point. He raised his eyes, stating that “they” (the OIC) did not want a mention of the Divine Name other than by them at the beginning of a statement. This would seem to have been accepted, which would indicate another UN step on the descent to full dhimmitude.

A ‘blasphemy’ accusation by the Sudanese government against the Special Rapporteur on Sudan, Gaspar Biro, occurred at the Commission on Human Rights in 1994. This was followed by the extraordinary ‘Blasphemy Affair’ launched by the OIC on April 18, 1997, that resulted in the Chairman’s censorship decision 1997/125, excising a passage from the Racism Report.
[details in: http://www.intjewishlawyers.org/docenter/frames.asp?id=9259; and http://www.meforum.org/article/379 ; and several articles in The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (edited by Robert Spencer), Part 5 – “Human Rights and Human Wrongs at the United Nations,” pp. 305-50]

The “Defamation of Islam” campaign by the OIC began in earnest from 1999 at the Commission – led by Pakistan’s ambassador – and then, after 9/11, came the all-embracing accusation of worldwide “Islamophobia”.

It would now seem that the mention of “Allah” – even when quoted from the Charter of Hamas or from other Jihadist statements – would be considered unwise unless used as a blessing by Member States of the OIC.

One of the latest examples of this “Islamophobia” campaign by Muslim countries was pronounced on September 25 by Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan, speaking on behalf of the OIC, on the HiCHR’s Report on ‘Defamation of Religions’. There was no official reaction to this very grave calumny by any State Members, but a strong letter of complaint signed by numerous NGOs – initiated by United Nations Watch on – was sent to the ambassador on September 28, the last day of the session. One paragraph of his statement is enough to show the depths of the duplicity being used.

“Accomodation of Muslims and their religious aspirations in the Western world will create space for political and social harmony. All is not dark. Enlightened communities and opinion leaders in Europe and North America are trying to steer their societies in that direction. It is, however, surprising that in many instances Holocaust survivors, instead of promoting such harmony, are campaigning against Muslim symbols in the Western world. They should be the most ardent advocates against discrimination. Islamophobia is also a crude form of Anti-Semitism."

* * * * *

Just before being called to speak under item 9 on September 25, the NGO liaison officer brought me an oral request from the Council President, who had received a copy of our statement. I was given to understand that one particular passage might cause him embarrassment if it was pronounced. He might well have been anticipating a ‘point of order’ or several – and his request was very diplomatic. Having already decided that this passage had to be omitted for lack of time I readily agreed to strike out the quotation from President Ahmadinejad’s advisor that ended with the “….Jews are very filthy people.” (below)

Our severe criticism of the Iranian President was pronounced without any interruption. This is an example of a fair President of the Human Rights Council being wary of pressure from delegates on “Islamophobia”.

* * * * *

Before we spoke, Roy W. Brown, main representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union was able to make his strong joint statement (for IHEU/AWE/AWC/WUPJ) on "Islamophobia”, which was printed in our first report (September 21) when it wasn’t sure that he would be granted the chance to deliver it. ( http://www.iheu.org/node/2806)

* * * * *

Speaking on behalf of the WUPJ and the AWE under item 7, the following oral statement was delivered by David G. Littman on September 20, and a subsequent statement by him under item 9 on September 25. They follow.

Item 7: Human Rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories

The Occupation of the Gaza region by Hamas and its Genocidal Charter

Mr President, this is a joint statement by the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the Association for World Education. Two joint written statements are available that provide fuller documentation on this matter: E/CN.4/2006/NGO/239 and A/HRC/S-1/NGO/4:
http://www.iheu.org/system/files/iheu+statement+239.pdf; http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/HAMAS-AWE-WUPJ-1st%20Sp.Sess-6%20July%202007.pdf

Mr President, is it not time for this Council to recognise that the most serious Palestinian problem today is the occupation of Gaza by Hamas, a recognised terrorist group backed by the Iranian regime, whose president regularly defies the UN Charter by calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map”, and using Hamas and Hizbollah for that genocidal aim. (*) The coup d’état in Gaza and the continuous rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza should be condemned by the Council.

For nearly 20 years we have been warning of the urgent need to consider the evil implications of the Hamas Charter, a genocidal, Jihadist pamphlet. We have a copy of the original Arabic version of 18 August 1988, with an English translation, that we circulated widely to delegates in 1989, in vain. If anyone still doubts the use of the term “genocide” we would advise reading the relevant passages, especially the lethal article 7 – and articles 22 and 32 that refer at length to that infamous century-old forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. It uses almost the identical words of Adolf Hitler. Article 13 makes it doubly clear why peace is impossible with a Hamas-led Palestine: “Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. (...) There is no solution to the Palestinian question except by Jihad. All initiatives, proposals, and International Conferences are a waste of time and vain endeavours.”

Article 8, copied from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Charter of 1928, is at the root of Jihadist ideology. It states: “Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its Constitution; Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.” (**) The Charter quotes Hassan al-Banna – founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, as saying: “Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

[The Palestinian Authorit’s former Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar confirmed this in an interview published two months before the Hamas Gaza coup d’état, when he stated that the 1967 UN Security Resolution 242 is unacceptable for Hamas – and any Partition Plan of Palestine too. He added: “We do not accept anything that recognizes Israel”; and he concluded: “The Koran talks about the end of the state of Israel. Only God knows the unknown.” (Arabic Int. Daily, Asharq alawsat, 13 November 2006).]

Sir, nearly 70 years ago Winston Churchill warned how appeasement had led to a reckless descent of “the staircase which leads to a dark gulf.” The inclusion of the Israel/ Palestinian issue as the only nation-specific item on the Council’s agenda (item 7), together with the three special sessions on Israel last year, are an indication that we are once again on that descent into appeasement and to ‘dhimmitude’ at the United Nations.

May this session prove us wrong by its condemnation of the Hamas occupation of Gaza; of the current Palestinian civil strife; of the rocket attacks on Israel; and of “defamation of Islam” by the constant calls of Jihadists to carry out “Martyrdom” suicide killings in the name of Allah.

* * * * *

Item 9: Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 1948 Genocide Convention (articles III/IV)

Mr President, this is a joint statement with the Association for World Education.
We have examined the 21 page Report of the Special Rapporteur on Racism [A/HRC/6/6], but time does not permit us to stress the numerous omissions in one major field. Although he refers to “Islamophobia” and the “defamation of religions” (mainly Islam) at great length (7½ pages), he refers very briefly to antisemitism (1½ pages) and “Christianophobia” (1 page).

What is particularly striking is Mr Diène’s regrettable failure to address, in regard to racism, the gravest challenge to the UN system and to the whole world. A passing reference in his §43 merely states: “A persistent revisionism manifests itself in the traditional platforms of extreme right-wing parties and even some States, going so far as to deny the Holocaust.”

As Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to address the UN General Assembly in New York today, it should be recalled, as we have done consistently for the last two years, that his repeated statements since 26 October 2005 (first at the Tehran Conference: “The World Without Zionism”) to deny the bloodiest crime of Nazi racism – and in human history – has drawn strong rebuke at the United Nations, by the European Parliament, Governments, NGOs, and individuals. Surprisingly, no State has invoked article VIII of the Genocide Convention in regard to article III, which condemns “Direct and public incitement to commit genocide”, and clearly states, under its article IV, that anyone doing so “shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials, or private individuals.”

Our available written statement provides the background on this, including his early December 2005 prediction to the OIC Summit in Mecca, that: “the presence of the Zionist occupation in the heart of the Islamic region” is the major problem to the Islamic world, and that its “judicial removal (…) will pave the way to the appearance of Islam’s power in the successful management of global [matters].” [E/CN.4/2006/NGO/2: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/106/84/PDF/G0610684.pdf?OpenElement

A recent Geopolitical Affairs study of 95 Iranian text-books of all grades published in 2004, and of 20 teacher’s guides published since 2000 (just as Iran called for a UN “Dialogue of Civilizationa”), presented at the European Parliament on January 30, 2007 and documented by a 25 page article “Iran’s Global War Curriculum”, shows how Iran’s educational curriculum “prepares its students for a global war against the West in the name of Islam.” [Arnon Groiss, Geopolitical Affairs, 10/1/07, Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP)]

[What is odd is that even Chapter I (Purposes and Principles) article 2:4 of the 1945 UN Charter that condemns threats against Member States has been conveniently forgotten.]
[Mr President, so that there can be no doubt as to this deep-rooted Nazi-like hatred of Israel and of the Jews as a people, we have quoted in our text a revealing comment made by his advisor: “Throughout history, this religious group has inflicted the most damage on the human race, while some groups within it engaged in plotting against other nations and ethnic groups to cause cruelty, malice and wickedness. Historically, there are many accusations against the Jews. For example, it was said that they were the source for such deadly diseases as the plague and typhus. This is because Jews are very filthy people.” (Statement by Presidential Advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin, 15/6/06, Rooz (online daily). MEMRI]

Sir, we have here a 68 page documentation (2007), which we would show to you and others, if requested. It is signed by Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel and others, with the title: “Referral of Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the charge of Incitement to Commit Genocide” [Principle author: Justus Reid Wiener, published by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and The International Association for Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. Jerusalem, 2007]

The timing could not be more apposite for this Human Rights Council. The time for words, for “concern” & “warnings”, is past; the time for urgent action is HERE & NOW.

* * * * *

First proposals for Sharia banks in Canada

"Sharia-bank bids trigger concerns," by Steven Chase and Tavia Grant for The Globe and Mail:

OTTAWA and TORONTO -- Ottawa has received its first applications to start up Canadian banks operating within the strictures of Islamic religious law - financial institutions that, if approved, would be among the first in the West.

Canada's bank regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, is studying two proposals for banks that offer services in keeping with Islamic laws that forbid speculation and interest but are in favour of transactions where profit and loss is shared.

The applications came to light in government documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under access to information laws, files that show Ottawa believes there are four other possible applicants keen to start banks operating under Islamic religious law, or sharia.

While some banks in the West offer sharia-compliant products, few aside from the Islamic Bank of Britain are standalone institutions set up expressly for this purpose.

See also this article, which appeared on Dhimmi Watch in May, for a stinging critique of Sharia banking in the West by Tarek Fatah.

[...]

Today, however, demand for sharia-compliant products in Canada remains unclear and several Islamic finance companies have folded.

Whether or not various ventures succeed, Sharia advocates are still laying the groundwork for collaboration with, enforcement, and support of Sharia law by Western governments, setting a disturbing precedent.

New Piety Squad Patrols Ramallah

Abbas' government tries to counter the influence of Hamas, not by trying to boost its ever-undeserved "moderate" credentials, but by demonstrating its zeal for Islamic law. Sharia Alert. By Dalia Nammari for the Associated Press:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - A new squad of morality police has begun detaining Palestinians who eat or drink in public during Ramadan in the West Bank, where the Islamic month of daytime fasting was always widely observed but never imposed.

The 12-member squad appears to be an attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government to challenge the monopoly on religious righteousness claimed by the militant group Hamas, the rival ruler of Gaza.

The sudden deployment of Ramadan police was unexpected in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas' government and the most cosmopolitan and well-to-do of the Palestinian cities. Ramadan squads have not been set up in other West Bank towns.

Watching observers arrive at one of the town's main mosques one recent afternoon, vice squad Lt. Murad Qendah got a radio call telling him a suspect has been spotted in the street imbibing "karoub"—a local soft drink made from carob pods. He ordered his six-man squad to seize the man's papers pending investigation. Police say violators are usually held for 24 hours.

"If anybody violates respect for Ramadan in the street, we take their identity papers and hold them for investigation," said Qendah, 27, whose officers wear red shoulder badges reading "morality police."

Police spokesman Adnan al-Damari said police have arrested at least 50 alleged public morality offenders in Ramallah since the start of Ramadan, but would not be going after people who break the fast in their own homes.

"The duty of the morality police is to preserve public manners in public places, and to preserve the feelings of the people who are fasting," he said. "Violating the holiness of Ramadan is a violation of people's freedom."

[...]

Writer Hassan Dandees, 58, said the government was right to seek to uphold religious standards.

"This is not a violation of anybody's freedom," he said. "Ramadan has a holiness every person should respect."

But Ruba el-Mimi, 21, said she opposes the police action.

"It interferes with the privacy of the individual. People are free to fast or not," she said. "If somebody is not fasting, he's not doing harm."

In addition to booking smokers, snackers and carob juice drinkers, Qendah is also on the alert for young men whistling at girls or drivers playing their car stereos too loud.

Although the piety squad has government sanction, Cabinet minister Ashraf al-Ajrami, said he is uncomfomtable with the operation and the impression that the government was trying to be more zealous than Hamas.

"We are studying this issue, and there's a possibility we shall end it," he said. "We don't want to change the order of things and appear as if we are following in the footsteps of somebody or imitating somebody."

"The Security Service fears that serious harm will be done to Norwegian Muslims in case of a terror attack in Norway"

Not "The Security Service fears that a jihad terror attack will do serious harm to Norwegians." The concern is all with an imagined backlash, not with preventing it by heading off a terror attack, and calling upon Muslims in Norway to be active in anti-terror efforts.

A translation by Christian of this Norwegian article, "Frykter lynsjing av muslimer" in Nyheter.

- Norwegians are stupid and not good at integrating.

This according to Norway's Police Security Service, which fears a lynching mood in case there will be a terror attack.

The Security Service fears that serious harm will be done to Norwegian Muslims in case of a terror attack in Norway.

- We are unexperienced and a bit stupid as regards diversity and a multicultural population, says head of Security Service Jørn Holme to nrknyheter.no.

- We confuse Islam and Islamism. Islamism is after all a very particular form of Islam. I believe many Norwegians mix it up completely.

- The Security Service is particularly worried about the possibility of extreme right-wing elements attacking Muslim compatriots, and that we will have a polarized population attacking and losing confidence in each other.

The minister of justice agrees with the head of Security Service.

- This is a preoccupation shared by all of us. Serious crimes like these create even more stigmatization and even more problems in connection with the preventive efforts, says Knut Storberget (social democrat) to nrknyheter.no.

Wednesday evening the head of Security Service for the first time particepated in a public discussion, arranged by the Muslim Students' Society. As reported by NRK previously this week, many Muslims think they are under surveillance and feel they have to face responsibility for what extreme Islamists do....

So why not actively cooperate, and help police find the "extreme Islamists"? If they were operating someplace known to me, that's what I would do. If they were operating in the name of something I believed in, I would make every effort to stop them, instead of claiming victim status for being under surveillance. Want to not be under surveillance? Take away the reason why anyone would be watching.

Fjordman: Islam, the Greeks and the Scientific Revolution, part 2

Here is part two of Fjordman's essay on Islam and the Greek heritage. Part one is here.

According to scholar Lynda Shaffer, "Francis Bacon (1561-1626), an early advocate of the empirical method, upon which the scientific revolution was based, attributed Western Europe's early modern take-off to three things in particular: printing, the compass, and gunpowder. Bacon had no idea where these things had come from, but historians now know that all three were invented in China. Since, unlike Europe, China did not take off onto a path leading from the scientific to the Industrial Revolution, some historians are now asking why these inventions were so revolutionary in Western Europe and, apparently, so unrevolutionary in China."

The Song dynasty, from the tenth to the thirteenth century, was arguably the most dynamic period in Chinese history. Although printing "was invented by Buddhist monks in China, and at first benefited Buddhism, by the middle of the tenth century printers were turning out innumerable copies of the classical Confucian corpus."

According to Shaffer, "The origin of the civil service examination system in China can be traced back to the Han dynasty, but in the Song dynasty government-administered examinations became the most important route to political power in China. For almost a thousand years (except the early period of Mongol rule), China was governed by men who had come to power simply because they had done exceedingly well in examinations on the Neo-Confucian canon. At any one time thousands of students were studying for the exams, and thousands of inexpensive books were required. Without printing, such a system would not have been possible."

As she explains, "China developed the world's largest and most technologically sophisticated merchant marine and navy." The Chinese "could have made the arduous journey around the tip of Africa and sail into Portuguese ports; however, they had no reason to do so. Although the Western European economy was prospering, it offered nothing that China could not acquire much closer to home at much less cost."

In contrast, the Portuguese, the Spanish and other Europeans were trying to reach the Spice Islands, what is now Indonesia. "It was this spice market that lured Columbus westward from Spain and drew Vasco da Gama around Africa and across the Indian Ocean." In Shaffer's view, technologies such as gunpowder and the compass had a different impact in China than they had in Europe, and it is "unfair to ask why the
Chinese did not accidentally bump into the Western Hemisphere while sailing east across the Pacific to find the wool markets of Spain."

Yes, Asia was the most prosperous region on the planet at this time. Europeans embarked on their Age of Exploration of the seas precisely out of a desire to reach the wealthy Asian lands (and bypass Muslim middlemen), which is why Christopher Columbus and his men mistakenly believed they had arrived in India when they reached the Americas. Asians did not possess a similar desire to reach Europe. But this still doesn't explain why the Chinese didn't embark on the final and most crucial stage of the Industrial Revolution in the West: Harnessing the force of steam and the use of fossil fuels to build stronger, more efficient machinery, faster ships and eventually railways, cars and airplanes.

Printing and literacy greatly expanded during Song times; the world's first printed paper money (bank notes) was introduced and a system of canals and roads was built, all facilitating an unprecedented population growth. Iron smelting and the use of coal multiplied several times over as China reached a stage sometimes called "proto-industrial." And yet China produced no Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen or James Watt to develop successful steam engines, nor a George Stephenson to build railway lines or a Karl Benz to make the first gasoline-powered automobile. Although experiments with flying had been undertaken in many nations around the world, the airplane was made possible only with the invention of modern engines, which is why China didn't produce the Wright brothers.

For thousands of years, human beings were limited by their ability to harness muscle power, of men and animals. This was later supplemented with windmills, watermills and similar inventions, which could be important, but in a limited fashion. The harnessing of steam power for engines and machinery was a revolution which provided the basis for enormous improvements in output and efficiency. For some reason, China never did take this final step, and although the country remained prosperous for centuries, later dynasties never quite matched the dynamism under Song times. Emphasis was on cultural continuity, and China experienced no great cultural flowing or event similar to the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment in Europe. China was in its own eyes the Middle Kingdom. It had some annoying barbarians at its frontiers, but no immediate neighbors to rival its size and power, and thus little incentive for improvement. The result was relative (though not necessarily absolute) scientific stagnation. China could afford to grow self-satisfied, and she did. In contrast, Europeans, who were divided into numerous smaller states in a constant state of rivalry instead of one, large unified state, had stronger incentives for innovation, including in weapons technology.

The Mongol invasion, which ended the Song dynasty, is sometimes blamed for this loss of impetus. After the conquest of Beijing in 1215 the soil was greasy with human fat for months. According to Genghis Khan, "The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters." He believed in practicing what you preach. DNA studies indicate that he may have as many as 16 million descendants living today.

The Mongols were notorious for their brutality, but they had a particular dislike for Muslims. Hulagu Khan led the Mongol forces as they completely destroyed Baghdad in 1258, thus ending what remained of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Christian community was largely spared, allegedly thanks to the intercession of Hulagu's Nestorian Christian wife.

The irony is that many Mongols soon adopted Islam as their preferred creed. Maybe the warlike nature of this religion appealed to them. It is possible to make a comparison between Muhammad and Genghis Khan. Temüjin, who gained the title Khan when he founded the Mongol Empire in 1206, did believe he had received a divine mandate to conquer the world, and he created an impressive military force out of nothing by uniting scattered tribes and directing their aggressive energies outwards. He created a Mongolian nation where no nation had existed before, similar to what Muhammad did with the Arabs. The difference is that the Mongols didn't establish a religion of their own throughout their empire which outlasted their rule. We should probably be grateful for that, otherwise the Organization of the Mongolian Conference would be the largest voting bloc at the United Nations today, our schools would teach us about the glories of Mongol science and tolerance and our media would constantly warn us against the dangers of Genghisophobia.

In Europe, the Mongol conquests had the most lasting impact in the Ukraine and Russia. The city of Kiev was devastated while a new Russian state slowly grew out of Moscow. Ivan the Great in the 1400s expanded the Russian state and defeated the Tatar yoke, as the now Islamized Turko-Mongols of the Golden Horde were called. The Mongols invaded Eastern Europe and in the course of a few years attacked Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Serbia. They had reached as far as Vienna in 1241 when the Great Khan suddenly died and the commanders had to return to elect a new leader.

The Black Death, the great Eurasian plague pandemic, swept from Central Asia along the Silk Road through the Mongol Empire, reaching the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the 1340s. The disease, which killed at least a third of the population and more than 70% in some regions, probably reached Europe after the Golden Horde used biological warfare during a siege of the Black Sea port of Caffa, catapulting plague-infested corpses into the city. It was then carried to the European continent with fleeing Genoese traders. The Mongols thus didn't invade Western Europe, but at least they gave us the plague.

Many historians place great macrohistorical importance on the Mongol conquest. It certainly had a disruptive impact, and the trail of devastation it left behind severely depopulated regions from China and Korea via Iran and Iraq to Eastern Europe. It ended the dynamic Song dynasty, yet even before the Mongol conquest, there were few indications that a development towards modern machinery was about to take place in China. Japan, which has always learned a lot from China, escaped unscathed. A series of typhoons, dubbed kamikaze or "divine wind" by the Japanese, saved the country from the Mongol fleets in 1274 and 1281, but they, too, didn't develop a fully fledged industry until they adopted a Western model during the Meiji Restoration in the late nineteenth century.

Moreover, even if Western Europe escaped the Mongols, we should remember that Western Europeans had recently experienced centuries of political disintegration and population decline, longer than in any period in Chinese history for several thousand years. Europe also had to face a much more prolonged assault by Islam. Belgian scholar Henri Pirenne in his work Mohammed and Charlemagne asserted that the definitive break between the Classical world and the Middle Ages in the West was not the downfall of the Western Roman Empire following the partition in 395, but the Islamic conquests in the seventh century.

In Pirenne's view, although the Germanic tribes caused imperial authority to collapse in the fifth century, Western Europe was not totally cut off from the Eastern Roman Empire. The Mediterranean, Mare Nostrum or "Our Sea" as the Romans called it, still remained a Christian lake. This changed decisively during the seventh century when North Africa came under Islamic rule, as did the Iberian Peninsula. Although the Arab conquest was halted by the forces of Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in France in 732, arguably the most important battle in Western history, Islamic attacks continued for centuries since Jihad is a permanent obligation and should be carried out on regular intervals. Jihad piracy, slave trade and looting across the Mediterranean accompanied by inland raids, occasionally as far north as the Alps in Switzerland, made normal communication between the Christian West and the Christian East extremely difficult. In fact, Jihad piracy and slavery from North Africa remained a serious threat to Europeans for more than a thousand years, even into the nineteenth century. As historian Ibn Khaldun, a devout Muslim and therefore anti-Christian, proclaimed: "The Christian could no longer float a plank upon the sea."

This was certainly true in the West, though the Byzantines still held their ground in the Aegean Sea. The Eastern Roman Empire was attacked by Arab Muslims in the 630s and quickly lost Syria, Palestine and Egypt, but managed to survive. Only a few years earlier the official language had been changed from Latin to Greek. It is custom to call the remaining, smaller and Hellenized state the Byzantine Empire.

The Carolingian Empire, named after Charles Martel (Carolus in Latin), was the "scaffold of the Middle Ages." Although it didn't survive for long, the structures put in place by Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne were to shape Western Europe for centuries. While civilization in Europe had always been centered on the Mediterranean, the center of power in the West was now north of the Alps. The Carolingian capital was established in Aachen in present-day Germany, as Muslims made access to the sea difficult. Charlemagne held his imperial coronation by Pope Leo III in Saint Peter's Basilica in the year 800, yet already in the year 846 Muslims sacked Rome and stole every piece of gold and silver in Saint Peter's. Arabs also occupied Sicily for several centuries, and attacked Naples, Capua, Calabria and Sardinia repeatedly. As Pirenne says, "the coast from the Gulf of Lyons and the Riviera to the mouth of the Tiber, ravaged by war and the pirates, whom the Christians, having no fleet, were powerless to resist, was now merely a solitude and a prey to piracy. The ports and the cities were deserted. The link with the Orient was severed, and there was no communication with the Saracen [Muslim] coasts. There was nothing but death. The Carolingian Empire presented the most striking contrast with the Byzantine. It was purely an inland power, for it had no outlets. The Mediterranean territories, formerly the most active portions of the Empire, which supported the life of the whole, were now the poorest, the most desolate, the most constantly menaced. For the first time in history the axis of Occidental civilization was displaced towards the North, and for many centuries it remained between the Seine and the Rhine. And the Germanic peoples, which had hitherto played only the negative part of destroyers, were now called upon to play a positive part in the reconstruction of European civilization."

Pirenne's thesis has been debated for generations, and new archaeological evidence has been uncovered since it was published in the 1930s. I personally think he underestimated the extent to which civilization collapsed in the West after the Germanic raids, but he is right that the Mediterranean was still open for communication, and that this changed dramatically after the Arab conquest. Though contacts between the Byzantines and Western Europe were limited during this time period, we should remember that they were never zero. Findings from Viking graves indicate that there was trade between the Baltic Sea and Constantinople even at this point, but trade was greatly diminished compared to what it had been previously.

The reason why the Christian West for centuries didn't have easy access to the Classical learning of the Christian East was because Muslims and Jihad had made the Mediterranean unsafe. It has to be the height of absurdity to block access to something and then take credit for transmitting it, yet that is precisely what Arabs do. As stronger states slowly grew up in the West, regular contact with their Eastern cousins was gradually re-established, starting with the Italian city-states. And as soon as direct contact was established, Western Europeans gained access to the original Greco-Roman manuscripts preserved in Constantinople. They didn't need to rely on limited translations in Arabic, which were anyway made from the same Byzantine manuscripts in the first place, and frequently by Christians. Moreover, Muslims have spent more than one thousand years systematically wiping out Greek culture in the Mediterranean region, a process which continues at Cyprus even into the twenty-first century, which makes it patently ridiculous when they now brag about how much we owe them for their efforts at "preserving the Greek heritage." The efforts of Arabs are, in my view, as overrated as those by the Byzantine Empire are underrated.

John Argyropoulos, who was born in 1415 in Constantinople and died in 1487 in Italy, was a Byzantine expert on Greek history who played an important role in the revival of Classical learning in the West. He lectured at the universities of Florence and Rome. Among his students was Lorenzo the Magnificent from the influential Medici family, who sponsored Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and others. Sandro Botticelli was working under the patronage of the Medicis when he in the 1480s painted The Birth of Venus. Pagan motifs inspired by the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome were widely popular at this time. Apparently, Leonardo da Vinci, too, attended the lectures of Argyropoulos. The universal genius was passionately interested in Classical learning, perhaps especially in science and mechanical engineering, a field in which he created numerous inventions. He was certainly familiar with the Ten Books on Architecture by the Roman engineer Vitruvius, the only major work on architecture and technology to survive from the Greco-Roman world, which was also a vital inspiration for Renaissance architects Brunelleschi and Alberti. Leonardo's famous drawing the Vitruvian Man was inspired by Vitruvius' writings about architecture and its relations to the proportions of the human body.

In the words of Deno Geanakoplos, Professor of Byzantine History, "We know that until the ninth century the patron saint of Venice was not Mark but the Greek Theodore, and that in the eleventh century Byzantine workmen were summoned by the Doge in order to embellish, perhaps entirely to construct, the church of St. Mark. Venetian-Byzantine contacts became more frequent in the twelfth century as a result of the growth of the large Venetian commercial colony in Constantinople." These contacts continued to grow during the High Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, and "In the half century or so before Constantinople's fall in 1453, a gradually increasing number of refugees from the East poured into the West. Venice, as lord of important territories in the Greek East, especially the island of Crete, and as the chief port of debarkation in Italy, received the major part of these refugees. This stream quickened rapidly after 1453."

He stresses that it is a mistake to believe that all Greek texts were transported out after the fall of Constantinople. Most of the refugees fleeing the Turkish Jihad could carry few possessions with them. The process of transferring Classical knowledge to the West took generations, even centuries, but was now greatly aided by Johannes Gutenberg's movable type printing press, introduced around the year 1450 in Mainz, Germany.

It was a major stroke of historical luck – a religious person would probably say divine providence - that printing was reinvented in Europe at exactly the same time as the last vestige of the ancient Roman Empire fell to Muslims. The texts that had been preserved by the Byzantines for a thousand years after Rome collapsed could now be rescued forever instead of quietly disappearing. This ensured that the Renaissance marked a permanent infusion of Greco-Roman knowledge into Western thought, not just a temporary one.

As historian Elizabeth L. Eisenstein says in her celebrated book The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: "The classical editions, dictionaries, grammar and reference guides issued from print shops made it possible to achieve an unprecedented mastery of Alexandrian learning even while laying the basis for a new kind of permanent Greek revival in the West. (...) We now tend to take for granted that the study of Greek would continue to flourish after the main Greek manuscript centers had fallen into alien hands and hence fail to appreciate how remarkable it was to find that Homer and Plato had not been buried anew but had, on the contrary, been disinterred forever more. Surely Ottoman advances would have been catastrophic before the advent of printing. Texts and scholars scattered in nearby regions might have prolonged the study of Greek but only in a temporary way."

According to Deno Geanakoplos, in the late fifteenth century "only one city in Italy, Venice, could fulfil all the complex requirements of a Greek press. Venice possessed a class sufficiently wealthy to buy, and the leisure to read, the printed classics. Venice was less subject to papal pressures than other Italian cities. Important too in [printer] Aldus' thinking must have been Venetian possession of the precious collection of Greek manuscripts bequeathed by Bessarion — manuscripts which could serve as paradigms for his books. And hardly less significant for him must have been the presence in Venice of a large, thriving Greek community. (…) By the time of Aldus' death in 1515, his press had given to the world practically all the major Greek authors of classical antiquity."

Historian Bernard Lewis writes in his book What Went Wrong?: "In the vast bibliography of works translated in the Middle Ages from Greek into Arabic, we find no poets, no dramatists, not even historians. These were not useful and they were of no interest; they did not figure in the translation programs. This was clearly a cultural rejection: you take what is useful from the infidel; but you don't need to look at his absurd ideas or to try and understand his inferior literature, or to study his meaningless history."

Muslims who wanted translations of Greek or other non-Islamic works were primarily concerned with topics of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. As Lewis says, they usually ignored playwrights and dramatists such as Sophocles and Euripides, historians such as Thucydides and Herodotus and poets such as Homer. This entire corpus of literature could only be saved from the Greek originals preserved in Constantinople. Moreover, in addition to being selective about Greek works, Muslims showed little interest in Latin writers, for instance Cicero. There was thus a large body of Greco-Roman learning and valuable literature that was never available in Arabic in the first place.

It is true that a number of Greek works were translated to Arabic, especially in the ninth century when a group called Mu'tazilites attempted, without lasting success, to reconcile Islamic with logic. As Ibn Warraq writes about them:

"However, it is clear now that the Mu'tazilites were first and foremost Muslims, living in the circle of Islamic ideas, and were motivated by religious concerns. There was no sign of absolute liberated thinking, or a desire, as [Hungarian orientalist] Goldziher put it, 'to throw off chafing shackles, to the detriment of the rigorously orthodox view of life.' Furthermore, far from being 'liberal,' they turned out to be exceedingly intolerant, and were involved in the Mihna, the Muslim Inquisition under the Abbasids. However, the Mu'tazilites are important for having introduced Greek philosophical ideas into the discussion of Islamic dogmas."

According to writer Patrick Poole, "Western Christianity's rational tradition developed in the Medieval era precisely as a result of the outright rejection of the irrationalism inherent in Islamic philosophy, not the embracing of it." As he states, "a rationalist philosophy had begun to develop under the Mu'tazilite school of interpretation, which advocated for a created, as opposed to an uncreated, Quran. But Caliph al-Mutawakkil [reign 847-861] condemned the Mu'tazilite school, which opened the door for the rival Ash'arite interpretation, founded by al-Ash'ari (d. 935), to eventually take preeminence within Sunni Islam." Rationalism also faced an uphill battle because of the view of Allah as an
unpredictable and whimsical deity, since "only Allah truly acts with real effect; all seemingly natural observances of causation are merely manifestations of Allah's habits, for Allah simultaneously creates both the cause and the effect according to his arbitrary will. This view is best expressed by one of the Islamic philosophers cited by [Tariq] Ramadan, al-Ghazali (1059-1111), in his book, The Incoherence of the Philosophers."

The Koran is, structurally speaking, deeply inconsistent and almost incomprehensible to an average reader. One verse says one thing, the next verse contradicts this. The notion that Allah as incomprehensible and provides no correlation between cause and effect had a serious impact on the development of empirical sciences in the Islamic world. In contrast, for Jews and Christians, God has created the universe according to a certain logic, which can be described and predicted. Kepler firmly believed the solar system was created according to God's plan, which he attempted to unlock. Sir Isaac Newton was passionately interested in religion and wrote extensively about it. Even Albert Einstein, who was certainly not an orthodox, religious Jew, still retained some residue of the idea that the universe was created according to a logic which is, to a certain extent, comprehensible and accessible to human reason: "I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

The Caliph al-Ma'mun (reign 813 - 833), who was influenced by the Mu'tazilite movement, created the House of Wisdom, a library and translation office. The Baghdad-centered Abbasid dynasty, which replaced the Damascus-centered Umayyad dynasty in 750, was closer to Persian culture and was probably inspired by the Sassanid practice of translating works and creating great libraries. Alkindus (Al-Kindi) was appointed to participate in the undertaking. Philosophical and scientific texts were translated into Arabic from Persian and Indian (Sanskrit) sources, but above all from Greek ones. Great efforts were made to collect and buy important Greek works and manuscripts from the Byzantines and have them translated.

In the book How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs, De Lacy O'Leary states that "Aristotelian study proper began with Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (d. after 873), commonly known as 'the Philosopher of the Arabs.' It is significant that almost all the great scientists and philosophers of the Arabs were classed as Aristotelians tracing their intellectual descent from al-Kindi and al-Farabi."

At the heart of these efforts was a Nestorian (Assyrian) Christian named Johannitius (Hunayn ibn Ishaq). He had studied Greek by living in Greek lands, presumably in the Byzantine Empire, and was put in charge of translations at the House of Wisdom. Soon, he, his son and his nephew had made available in Arabic and Syriac Galen's medical treatises as well as Hippocrates and texts by Aristotle, Plato and others. In some cases, he apparently translated a work into Syriac and his son Ishaq translated this further into Arabic. All senior medical doctors in the Islamic world, including Avicenna and Rhazes, were later influenced by these translations of Greek medicine.

In 431 Nestorius, a Christian Patriarch, was expelled from Constantinople for heresy. The so-called Assyrian Church of the East thus split from the Byzantine Church. Their followers found a new home in the Syriac-speaking world and were welcomed in the Sassanid Persian Empire, the rival of Byzantium. They brought with them a collection of Greek texts, among them medical works of Galen and Hippocrates. It was these texts, aided by other manuscripts acquired and bought from Constantinople later, which provided the basis for translations of Greek texts into Arabic. The followers of this Eastern church, usually called Nestorians in the West, had communities spread out across much of Iraq, Iran and Central Asia, and were respected for their medical skills.

According to scholar Thomas T. Allsen, "Nestorians in the East were closely associated with the medical profession. A considerable body of Syriac medical literature, some in the original and some in translation, has been recovered in central Asia. This is hardly surprising, because Eastern Christians were an important fixture in West Asian medicine." Western medicine in Yuan (Mongol ruled) China, often characterized as "Muslim," was almost always in the hands of Nestorians, a situation that Western travelers found worthy of note.

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. It was once the lingua franca of the Middle East and was widely used among Christians and also Arabs and to some extent Persians. It had a major impact on the development of Arabic, which later replaced it following the Islamic conquests. The Nabataeans, a Semitic people associated with the famous rock city of Petra close to the Dead Sea in present-day Jordan, were greatly influenced by Aramaic, and the Arabic alphabet developed out of their alphabet. The most unorthodox scholars even suggest that the Islamic religion itself may have developed closer to this region, at the northern fringes of Arabia, than around Mecca in central Arabia.

Some researchers believe that Syriac, or Syro-Aramaic, was also the root of the Koran. When it was composed, Arabic was not fully developed as a written language. Syriac, however, was widely used in the region at the time. Ibn Warraq estimates that up to 20% of the Koran is incomprehensible even to educated Arabs because segments of it were originally written in another, related language before Muhammad was born. A German professor of ancient Semitic and Arabic languages writes about the subject under the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg. If you believe Luxenberg, the chapters or suras of the Koran usually ascribed to the Mecca period, which are also the most tolerant and non-violent ones as opposed to the much harsher and more violent chapters from Medina, are not "Islamic" at all, but Christian:

"In its origin, the Koran is a Syro-Aramaic liturgical book, with hymns and extracts from Scriptures which might have been used in sacred Christian services. (…) Its socio-political sections, which are not especially related to the original Koran, were added later in Medina. At its beginning, the Koran was not conceived as the foundation of a new religion. It presupposes belief in the Scriptures, and thus functioned merely as an inroad into Arabic society."

Monte Cassino is a monastery in southern Italy, founded by Saint Benedict in the sixth century, which was sacked and burned and its monks killed in 883 by Arabs in one of their countless Jihad raids in Western Europe. It was later rebuilt, and from here the monk Constantine the African in the eleventh century translated medical texts from Arabic into Latin, including those of Hippocrates and Galen done by Johannitius in Baghdad. Constantine also translated medical treatises written in Arabic by the Egyptian Jew Isaac Israeli ben Solomon. He was influenced by Hippocrates, Galen, Aristotle and Plato.

It is easy to track how Arabic translations of Greek texts from Byzantine manuscripts, often done by Christians, made their way from the Islamic East and ended up in the Iberian Peninsula in the Islamic West, where some of them were translated by Christians, for instance in the multilingual city of Toledo in central Spain, back to Latin. It is thus true that some Greek texts were reintroduced in the West via Arabic, sometimes passing via Syriac or Hebrew along the way, but this was always based, in the end, on manuscripts from the Byzantine Empire.

The work led by Johannitius in Baghdad preserved via the Arabic translation some of Galen's works lost in the Greek original. The Greek physician Galen worked in the second century A.D., systematized medical knowledge in the Greco-Roman world and supplied this with his own research. He lamented the fact that he couldn't perform dissection of human corpses, but this wasn't allowed during Roman times so he based his studies of human anatomy on dissections of animals such as dogs, apes and pigs. This is funny if you are familiar with the low status dogs, apes and pigs have in Islam, and know that all subsequent medicine in the Muslim world was inspired by Galen. Since dissection of human corpses was taboo in the Islamic world, too, Galen's errors remained unchallenged for centuries, until the Renaissance in Christian Europe. Leonardo da Vinci made numerous accurate anatomical drawings but didn't share this knowledge much at his time. The final breakthrough came with the anatomist Andreas Vesalius from Brussels, who published his book On the Workings of the Human Body in 1543 based on observation through autopsy. He is considered the father of modern anatomy in the Western world.

Italy: First Islamic bank in Italy to open in 2008

Eurabia Alert. From Adnkronos International:

Rome, 26 Sept. (AKI) - The first Islamic bank respecting Koranic law, is slated to be inaugurated next year in Italy, the Union of Arab Banks president, Adnan Yousif, the Association of Italian Banks (ABI) president Corrado Faissola jointly announced Wednesday.

The Union of Arab Banks, based in Beirut comprises more than 300 Arab financial and banking institutions, representing the biggest Arab banks in the region.

"The next step should be the creation of a real Italian-Arab banking federation, which in perspective could represent a model to follow for other countries in the European Union". said Faissola in a press release in ABI's website.

"The consolidation of dialogue and cooperation opens important opportunities for growth and development not only for the banking sector and for Italy, but for all of Europe, and looking further ahead, for the stabilisation of the entire Mediterranean area and the Middle East", Faissola said.

Why is it always someone else's job to take responsibility for the "stabilization" of the "entire Mediterranean area," and of the Middle East? Are they admitting they can't put their own house in order without outside help, and without passing on the burden of a banking system that is part of the problem -- the drive to implement Sharia law -- where stability is concerned in the Middle East? For that matter, it seems like the northern half of the Mediterranean coast is doing quite alright, except for the large influx of immigrants with unexamined allegiances from the southern coast.

Koranic law forbids the payment and collection of interest and the investment in businesses that are considered unlawful, such as activities involving the selling of alcohol or pork products.

Elections in Al-Ontario

Here (thanks to Carolina) is the list of candidates in the Etobicoke North Ontario Provincial Election, 2007. The 3 major political parties (Conservatives, Liberals and NDP) are all running Muslim candidates. Yet Carolina informs me that Etobicoke North doesn't have a Muslim majority. Evidently, however, they are already a powerful enough bloc to compel all the major parties to pander to them.

Candidates:

New Democratic
BOUDJENANE, MOHAMED

Family Coalition
CEOLIN, TERESA

Progressive Conservative
KASSIM, MOHAMED

Green
KORSHEL, JAMA

Liberal
QAADRI, SHAFIQ

Teresa Ceolin? How'd she get in here?

Qaadri, by the way, is the incumbent.

UK official: rewrite British history to include Muslims

If they weren't there, make it up.

"British history 'needs rewrite,'" by Brian Wheeler for the BBC (thanks to Stephen):

British history should be rewritten to make it "more inclusive", says Trevor Phillips, the head of the new human rights and equality commission.

He said Muslims were also part of the national story and "sometimes we have to go back into the tapestry and insert some threads that were lost".

He quoted the example of the Spanish Armada, which was held up by the Turks at the request of Queen Elizabeth I.

"It was the Turks who saved us," Mr Phillips told a Labour fringe meeting.

For pete's sake. Is Mr. Phillips then also going to include the slave raids that the North African Muslims, clients of the Turks, carried out against British ships and seacoast towns for centuries?

UK Muslim dentist cut fees for women in Islamic dress

Sharia Dentist Update: this is the same fellow who is charged with refusing to treat a woman unless she was wearing a headscarf. Now it comes out that he gave the hijabbed ones a discount, too. "Dentist cut fees for women in Islamic dress," from the Manchester Evening News (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

A MUSLIM dentist has admitted reducing his fees to encourage female patients to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Dr Omer Butt, from Prestwich, told a disciplinary hearing he would ask Muslim women to cover up in observance of Islamic law before he treated them.

But he denied refusing to treat a nurse because she would not follow his rules.

The nurse, known as Patient A, told the hearing she was left `humiliated and upset' when she went to Dr Butt's Unsworth Smile clinic in Bury, in April 2005.

The nurse, a non-practising Muslim, claimed Dr Butt said she would have to find another dentist because she wouldn't wear a headscarf.

Dr Butt told the General Dental Council professional conduct committee the Islamic ethos of his surgery was a `marketing tool'.

He said: "If they are prepared to wear the headscarf, I am willing to reduce the fee or completely waive the fee."

He said he identified the woman as a Muslim because of her name, which has roots in Islam, then `politely' asked her to wear a headscarf.

He said: "I did request her to wear the headscarf. I said `It would help me if you would wear a headscarf'.

"Her response was she looked at me with a smile and said `Oh, that's strange'."

He said it was `unlawful' for him, as a Muslim, to look at a Muslim woman who was not properly covered up. He added: "If she was to adhere to my request, it makes me feel more comfortable.

"It was a polite request. It was a simple request. It was never more than a request."

Disbarred terror-enabling lawyer Lynne Stewart to teach...legal ethics

You just can't parody this stuff. "Terrorist Lawyer Lynne Stewart to Teach Legal Ethics," from Federal Review (thanks to Michelle Malkin):

HEMPSTEAD,NY--A disbarred lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists will be teaching at an upcoming law school ethics conference.

Lynne Stewart, who was found guilty of conspiring with terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, will be speaking October 16 at Hofstra Law School's 'Legal Ethics: Lawyering on the Edge,' in Hempstead, New York.

The speaking engagement comes only a year after Stewart was sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists.

Prosecutors alleged that Stewart had passed on messages to Abdel Rahman's radical Muslim followers, authorizing a resumption of terrorist operations against the Egyptian government.

As a result of the convictions, Stewart was automatically disbarred from practicing law.

Her client, Abdel Rahman, was convicted in 1996 of plots to bomb landmarks around New York City.

Stewart will be speaking at Hofstra Law School's 2007 Legal Ethics Conference, 'Lawyering at the Edge: Unpopular Clients, Difficult Cases, Zealous Advocates.' The conference is scheduled for October 14 to 16, 2007 in the Sidney R. Siben and Walter Siben Moot Courtroom (room 308) of Hofstra Law School.

According to the University's website, the conference will feature 'dynamic speakers who will weigh in on controversial issues such as prosecutorial abuse, the challenges of representing prisoners at Guantanamo, and attacks on lawyers who represent unpopular clients and causes.'

The irony of all this is that among the Hofstra students and faculty, there is nothing unpopular about Lynne Stewart's client or cause. They don't have the first foggiest idea about the Islamic jihad threat, but they know Stewart was striking a blow against Amerikkka, and that's good enough for them.

Norwegians giving aid to Qur'an schools in Pakistan

118 of them. Will they welcome the graduates into Norway?

"Critics blast Norwegian aid to 'Koran schools' in Pakistan," from Aftenposten (thanks to Fjordman):

Norway's Foreign Ministry has been sending financial aid to controversial religious schools in Pakistan. Researchers and local Pakistani experts want it to stop, as does a conservative politician.

Government Minister Erik Solheim said the aid was aimed at promoting dialogue and religious tolerance.

Critics aren't at all sure that's what will happen.

As much as NOK 6 million (more than USD 1 million) has gone to 118 so-called "Koran schools" in northwest Pakistan. Some local experts, however, fear Norway risks supporting fundamentalist groups because it makes no demands on the schools' curriculum.

Karin Ask, a researcher at the Christian Michelsen Institute, told newspaper Dagsavisen that Norway could wind up even supporting jihadists, those encouraging holy war.

Memo to polygamous husbands: don't tell Wife #1 about Wife #2's sexual prowess

After all, "marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess" (Qur'an 4:3). I doubt that comparing one wife unfavorably to another -- to her face -- qualifies as dealing "justly," but human nature being what it is, it's going to happen.

Human Cost of Sharia Alert: "Scorned wife takes knife to man's penis in Malaysia," from Reuters:

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian doctors have reattached a man's nearly severed penis after his first wife, enraged by his comparison of her sex skills with those of his younger second wife, decided to chop it off with a kitchen knife.

The man, a 43-year-old Indonesian worker in southern Johor state, was lying in bed with his 48-year-old wife talking about his newly wed second wife, who is in her 30s, when the incident happened, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

Despite his shock and pain, the man managed to pull on his trousers and ride his motorcycle to a nearby hospital, where doctors had to put in 11 stitches to reattach the organ.

UK: Bakery chain installs Muslims-only toilet in headquarters, even though no Muslims work there

Ready to welcome their new overlords. "Loo With No One To Use It," by Paul Gilbride for the Daily Express (thanks to JD):

BAKERY giants Greggs have installed a Muslims-only toilet at their new Scottish headquarters - despite the fact that no Muslims work there.

Workers at the state-of-the-art factory were shocked when they were given a tour of the building and told a cubicle had been fitted for the use of Muslim employees. The staff said they are baffled at the decision because they are not aware of any Islamic workers at the base in Cambuslang, near Glasgow.

Last night, management at the bakery said they had received several requests from all over the country for the exclusive facility. All their new buildings will now be fitted with the specialised toilet regardless of the number of Muslims in the workforce.

But staff at the new £15million plant labelled the decision "political correctness gone mad".

One said: “We were being given a guided tour of the new factory before moving there when they told us that they had a toilet for use only by Muslims.

"I couldn’t believe, everybody was stunned because we don’t know of any Muslims who are working here. I don’t think anybody is really angry about it, but there just doesn’t seem to be any need for it. This sort of things is just political correctness gone mad."

Another worker said: "The toilet just looks like a ceramic hole in the ground. I don’t think it will be getting much use and I don’t see why we couldn’t all just use the same toilet anyway.

"This sort of thing creates divisions between the workers."

of course does.

The worst book of 2007 (so far)

It's Gene W. Heck's When Worlds Collide: Exploring the Ideological and Political Foundations of the Clash of Civilization, published a few weeks ago by Rowman & Littlefield.

According to Daniel Pipes:

Gene W. Heck has an impressive biography, being "a senior business development economist operating in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Mideast. Prior to joining the private sector, he was a member of the United States Diplomatic Corps, with postings to the U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. He also serves as adjunct professor of government and history with the University of Maryland."

Pipes goes on to detail some of the key points of the book:

* There is nothing bellicose about the Koran, which is no more aggressive than the Old Testament.

* Islam's theological differences with Judaism and Christianity are "surprisingly limited."

* The Shari‘a is completely consonant with the Hague and Geneva Conventions.

* Jihad frequently means "the unending struggle of the devout to be good Muslims."

* The Wahhabi movement is innocent of aggressive intentions.

* Today's troubles go back to the efforts by Western intelligence agencies to further their own interests by sponsoring Islamist organizations – notably British backing for the Muslim Brethren in Egypt and American backing for Islamist groups in Afghanistan.

* Al-Qaeda is basically a Muslim Brethren offshoot.

* "Anglo-American democracy" is exactly what the Muslim world does not need; theocracy is the ticket.

* If Westerners want to help Muslims, they should send them money.

And:

Disclaimer: Heck mentions me (along with Robert Spencer, Bat Ye'or, David Littman, and Ibn Warraq) as one of those who decry "present perceived religious suppression, presumed political discrimination, and alleged civil rights violations in certain Middle East states wherein Islam today is practiced." Well, yes, I guess I am guilty of decrying those perceived, presumed, and alleged problems.

I am honored to be in that company, but the adjectives that Pipes notes here -- perceived religious suppression, presumed political discrimination, and alleged civil rights violations in certain Middle East states -- raise Heck's book to the level of the risible. If it weren't already there for the assertions that "there is nothing bellicose about the Koran, which is no more aggressive than the Old Testament," and that Islam's theological differences with Judaism and Christianity are "surprisingly limited," and that "the Shari‘a is completely consonant with the Hague and Geneva Conventions," and "Jihad frequently means "the unending struggle of the devout to be good Muslims." For detailed refutations of all of those, see my book Religion of Peace?.

In wake of thwarted Yom Kippur attack, Olmert approves release of 90 Palestinians as goodwill gesture for Ramadan

Rice and Olmert indulge in more fantasy-based policymaking. "Rice Wants Syria, Other Arab States, at Mideast Talks (Update1)," by Janine Zacharia for Bloomberg (thanks to Steve):

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Syria and Saudi Arabia to join an international meeting later this year in Washington that will work toward establishing a Palestinian state.

Rice outlined U.S. expectations for a Middle East meeting at talks today in New York with representatives of the so-called Quartet, the peacemaking body formed by the U.S., the United Nations, European Union and Russia.

``There's a sense of momentum in support of the Palestinians and Israelis in their effort to end the conflict,'' Rice said. ``Given that it has been a number of years since the Israelis and Palestinians have expressed their interest in discussing the core issues between them, it is very important that the regional players of the international community mobilize to support them.''

[...]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet today approved the release of about 90 Palestinians from Israeli jails in a gesture of goodwill during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Qatar, Dubai gain control of London Stock Exchange

52 percent. From AFP (thanks to Rosie):

QATAR has upped its share in the London Stock Exchange to nearly 24 per cent, giving the gulf state and its neighbour Dubai a controlling stake of nearly 52 per cent.

Quoting LSE sources, a Qatari newspaper reported the gas-rich Gulf state bought an additional 3 per cent of shares on Friday, a day after it bought a 20 per cent slice of Europe's oldest stock exchange.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the investment unit of the Qatar government, initially bought a 20.8 per cent stake off two hedge funds.

This would put the QIA's overall share in the LSE at nearly 24 per cent.

The United Arab Emirates' group Borse Dubai meanwhile agreed to buy a 28 per cent LSE holding from Nasdaq, meaning the two now hold nearly 52 per cent of the stock exchange.

"Under Syrian law, an honor killing is not murder..."

The New York Times actually notices the phenomenon of honor killing. "A Dishonorable Affair," by Katherine Zoepf (thanks to all who sent this in):

In speaking with the police, Zahra’s brother used a colloquial expression, ghasalat al arr (washing away the shame), which means the killing of a woman or girl whose very life has come to be seen as an unbearable stain on the honor of her male relatives. Once this kind of familial sexual shame has been “washed,” the killing is traditionally forgotten as quickly as possible. Under Syrian law, an honor killing is not murder, and the man who commits it is not a murderer. As in many other Arab countries, even if the killer is convicted on the lesser charge of a “crime of honor,” he is usually set free within months. Mentioning the killing — or even the name of the victim — generally becomes taboo.

Read it all.

Canada: Muslim inmate wins $2,000 for bacon on his plate

He couldn't just not eat it. It had to not be there. And now the Canadian prison system will pay for its sin against multiculturalism. "Prison fries for serving bacon," by Tom Godfrey for the Toronto Sun (thanks to Allahfanculo):

A Muslim inmate has won $2,000 and a partial human rights victory over a Correctional Service of Canada policy not to replace bacon with a halal diet for Islam-worshipping cons.

Duane David, who is serving time in Kingston's Joyceville Institution for an unknown crime, had complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that his rights were being violated as the prison failed to offer a halal replacement for bacon served to inmates with breakfast every Wednesday.

The court heard Muslims are forbidden from eating pork for religious reasons.

A Federal Court of Canada hearing was told the breakfast included three pieces of bacon, two eggs, three slices of toast, jam, ketchup, milk, coffee, juice and cereal.

'REQUEST WAS REFUSED'

"Muslim inmates who follow a halal diet (usually) receive all of these items, except the bacon," Madame Justice Eleanor Dawson was told. "Mr. David had requested a substitute for the three pieces of bacon, but the request was refused by the institution."

Fitzgerald: A tribute to Robert Leiken

The Brotherhood "works to dissuade the Muslims from violence, instead channeling them into politics and charitable activities," said Robert S. Leiken, director of the Immigration and National Security Program at The Nixon Center in a recent article in Foreign Affairs, a publication of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. --from this Dallas Morning News article

That sudden scholar of Islam, Robert Leiken, could cheerfully explain his new "expertise" about the Ikhwan and everything to do with Islam the way that candid crook did in the late nineteenth century, Jay Gould or someone of that railroad-magnate or Tammany ilk: "I seen my opportunities, and I took 'em."

That's Leiken. A presto-chango artist, he went from being an "expert" on Latin America to becoming a great "expert" on How To Deal With Islam. Nothing he has written so far shows a deep familiarity, or any familiarity at all, with the texts or tenets of Islam. Nothing he has written so far shows any deep familiarity, or any familiarity at all, with the 1350-year history of Jihad-conquest and of the subsequent subjugation of non-Muslims (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and many smaller groups), a conquest and subjugation which faithfully put into practice the doctrines of Islam, derived from Qur'an, Hadith, and sira, as further discussed by Qur'anic commentators and jurisconsults, resulting in a system of codification, or Holy Law of Islam (i.e., the Shari'a).

Here's something from the New York Sun, June 20, 2007. Read it and weep:

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...

A State Department spokesman for the Bureau of Near East Affairs, David Foley, confirmed the meeting Wednesday to discuss a new approach to the Muslim Brotherhood. "We do these seminars, they help inform the policy making process. I am not suggesting someone would decide on a new policy on the Muslim Brotherhood as a result of this," he said. "This is the kind of consultations we often do. When there are alternative views, let's hear both sides. We are certainly willing to listen to voices from the outside."

Making the case today for outreach is Mr. Leiken, who co-authored with Steve Brooke a paper for the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs titled, "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood." That paper argues that Ikhwan has drawn contempt from violent Islamists such as Al Qaeda for its general disavowal of armed struggle. Tracing its history to its founding, the paper says the group today, particularly in Egypt, is genuine in its desire to participate in democratic politics.

Mr. Leiken said yesterday that there are two reasons why America should begin to rethink its prohibition of meeting with the brothers. "A new policy begins to combat some of our isolation in the Muslim world. I see the Muslim brotherhood, particularly in Egypt, as having what the communists used to call a two-line struggle, between moderate and dogmatic factions. Our outreach would help the moderates. That would strengthen those forces who are most willing to recognize the fact of Israel's existence and more democratic.”

Mr. Leiken is a Harvard graduate and longtime expert on Latin America who broke with the hard left in the 1980s to oppose the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and who became associated with Social Democrats such as Penn Kemble and Joshua Muravchick. He said he thinks diplomacy with Ikhwan could help us help them to moderate Hamas. "It is conceivable that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, aware Gaza could serve as an index, will try use its influence to get Hamas to be constructive," he said. The Egyptian government has used the Muslim Brothers for at least 10 years as a back channel to Hamas.

Mr. Leiken's Foreign Affairs paper and classified study for the National Intelligence Council has gotten the attention of senior National Security Council officials and Secretary of State Rice, according to two administration officials...

Did you read it? And did you weep? If you didn't, never mind. I wept tears of fury and laughter at the sheer farce of it all, enough tears -- a "portable and compendious ocean" of them -- enough for me, for you, for everyone who read the damn thing.

Robert Leiken. The "expert." The Ikhwan. State Department officials said to be Greatly Impressed. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice....

Say -- do I wake, or sleep?

Fitzgerald: Arbour Day In The Committee Room, Or, Every Little Breeze Seems To Whisper Louise

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Monday that bigotry and prejudice, especially in regard to Muslims, were common in Europe and called on governments to tackle the issue. -- from this news item

The assumptions, the skewed knowledge, the mental set, the entire world view, of Louise Arbour, of all the louise-arbours of this world, need to be anatomized, spread out on a table, or possibly held up for close inspection. How did she arrive at her views, and at her position? What is it that went into her formation? Did she study history? Has she studied Islam? Has she bethought herself, and wondered if, just possibly, she had a duty to study Islam, and a duty to study the history of Islamic conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims -- Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others -- in time and space? Or should she remain content with the bland assumptions of Bush and Blair, that because the word one commonly uses for Islam is "religion," then therefore, Islam is entitled to automatic respect, without more thought, because "religion" is a good thing?

One suspects that Louise Arbour would protest. She would insist she does not see it that way, for she would be horrified, would she not, to be put in the same galere as George Bush. Or as one high Pentagon official, slightly rattled by my presentation but not rattled enough, tried to complacently assure me a few years ago that my view of Islam must be wrong and that Islam "must be alright" because, you see, "more than a billion people believe it." It's the old comical "fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong" -- updated, and far more dangerous as a basis for policy.

How do the louise-arbours of this world obtain their mental formation? As a Canadian civil servant, was she necessarily raised up to define herself as "NOT-American," which explains a good deal of her attitudinizing about the world. This attitude is struck by many others -– although by no means all -- in the Colossus To Our North. A small-scale variant on this are those New Zealand politicians on the left, whose attitudes, one feels, sometimes may be prompted by the desire to demonstrate that New Zealand is NOT-Australia.

The kind of people who make the world their plaything, and who wrap themselves in an unassailable mantle of Doing Good, because, you see, they are doing work for something they call into being, and that does not exist -- that "international community" they love to invoke -- are akin, in many ways, to those whom the historian David Cannadine described as having manned the British Empire. They were middle-class Englishmen who, in India and elsewhere in the Empire, could enjoy a status and a level of comfort that they could never have had at home.

In the modern world, people outside the West find the salaries and benefits of these “international organizations” staggering, and the work conditions comical in the lightness of the load. And for Westerners such as Louise Arbour, or her sister-under-the-skin Mary Robinson, or for that matter the egregious Brian Urguhart, defender of Annan and the U.N., coute que coute (and Annan and his son both coute-ed a pretty penny), or the usual megalomaniacs of the Davos variety (such as Jeffery Sachs of the “I-Can-Solve-The-Problem-Of-Poverty” World Institute, specially created by Columbia for that self-same self-promoting comical Sachs), they have other reasons for being so big on the “international community” and in becoming “spokesmen” for this or that. For they are engaged in a curiously contemporary phenomenon: the citizen of the advanced Western world who identifies completely, or almost so, with some amorphous “international community” -- the chief enemy of which, as they see it, can be located in that advanced Western world. For that Western world is so cruelly inten