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.

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 intent on not sharing its own riches equitably. It is not eager to roll over and play dead -– not quite yet –- for all the others outside that world.

Such countries’ relative poverty or misrule is never connected to the belief-systems and consequent behavior, or even the natural abilities or inclinations, of the people in those misruled or otherwise un-advanced countries. For to focus on that would be to begin to suggest that some things -– the rule of law, the solicitude for the individual, the recognition of property rights (but not the untrammeled rights to accumulated wealth), freedom of speech and conscience, widespread literacy, an intelligent encouragement of free and skeptical inquiry, and so on -- might just be the reasons for the Western world’s success, and also for its own development of the tolerance which those same “international community” boosters think should be used to force that same advanced Western world to accommodate itself to those who are hostile to everything that makes the West the West. And when some in that West begin to rebel, then the likes of Louise Arbour, of all the little louise-arbours and mary-robinsons, assure us that it must be a matter of “Islamophobia.”

They are a strange and unpleasant breed, these IC-ites of the world. Part of their professional deformation, their fachidiotism, consists in minimizing or ignoring or destroying whatever special ties they might have had to their own country, that make them an American, or a Canadian. These ties of course require a certain interest in, and knowledge of, affection for, the history of their own country, its language, its literature, its art, its history, its good and even its bad. Their lives are half-spent in airports, and then in being greeted by some officious officials, with the usual smiles and handshakes, and possibly a little girl shyly stepping forth with a present of flowers or a hug. So much travel, so much jaw-jaw at so many solemn conclaves or meetings, meetings, meetings, so many Declarations of Principle, so many Peace Processes to “nudge” forward, so much Shuttle Diplomacy to engage in, so many chances To Feel And Be Important. Is it any wonder that all kinds of people find it is so much more fun, once you have graduated from a good college and, say, a good law school, to join some international group, some NGO of the standard America-and-Israel-bashing kind, or the U.N., or something of that ilk? Then you get to travel all over the place, but not wickedly as a “corporate lawyer” or Western businessman, but as someone whose allegiance and sympathies lie entirely with the “international community,” that god-damned non-existent and vicious construct, the “international community.”

Morally self-preening, Louise Arbour makes her appointed rounds, from world capital to capital -- today Davos, tomorrow Dacca -- and works, not quite understanding what she is doing, for the destruction of the very best that has been achieved in statecraft to protect art, and science, and freedom of thought of all kinds. That is, she works to destroy what has been achieved in the advanced West and could never have been achieved in Islam or under Islamic rule.

The Louise Arbours of this world harbor no doubts. They endure no private bouts with a directeur de conscience. She has no need to stare hard at herself in that five-star hotel room mirror and wonder about what will happen to Shakespeare, or Leonardo, or Mozart, or the whole embarrassingly rich panoply of those who were created by the Western world, and who in turn helped to create it, under the Islam that she, in her way, is helping to protect and promote, as the Jihad not of “qitaal” (including what we call “terrorism”) proceeds. Those whose allegiance is to a World Community betray their own countries, societies, and civilizations, and are applauded, feted, and self-applauded for doing so.

Swedish Muslims Upset by Cartoon Ruling

They will "respect" the ruling. But it is unlikely that they will give up their attempts to compel Sweden and other European countries to adopt Sharia blasphemy laws. By Ahmad Maher for IslamOnline (thanks to PRCS):

CAIRO — Swedish Muslims were disappointed Saturday, September 22, at a ruling by Justice Chancellor Goeran Lambertz, who said the anti-Prophet Muhammad cartoon published in a local newspaper did not constitute incitement to racial hatred.

"Of course we reject the ruling, but we can't help but respect it," Stockholm-based Chaka Benmakhlouf, President of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, told IslamOnline.net over the phone.

Benmakhlouf said the powerful Jewish lobby in Sweden had lost a similar case in the past after suing the Stockholm Mosque for alleged anti-Semitism.

"Jewish leaders translated some Islamic books which they said contained anti-Jews materials and forwarded them to Chancellor Lambertz, who overturned the lawsuit on free speech grounds," added Benmakhlouf, who holds Swedish citizenship.

Three Swedish Muslim organizations had asked Lambertz — the only official in Sweden entitled to indict in cases concerning freedom of the press — to press charges of incitement to racial hatred against the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda and its editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.

The newspaper published in August a cartoon that depicted Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as a dog, citing freedom of speech.

Kosovar students defy headscarf ban

And so it begins. By Nebi Qena for Associated Press (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

SRBICA, Serbia - Three students were suspended from school in Kosovo this week for wearing Muslim headscarves, reflecting a debate that is echoing across Europe and complicating the province's quest for independence.

The argument over whether secular society should trump religious rights is similar to those taking place in France, Turkey, Britain and elsewhere.

But some in the breakaway Serb province fear its bid for statehood could suffer if Kosovo is perceived as overly Islamic.

"Not only does religion damage the quest for independence, it damages our entire concept," said Rexhep Ismajli, the head of Kosovo's Academy of Science, a body that includes the province's leading thinkers. "It damages Kosovo's society, it damages our vision."

Your vision, maybe, Rexhep, but not that of many of your fellow Kosovars.

Fatmire Jashari, 18, was suspended from her high school in the central Kosovar town of Srbica — a former stronghold of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla group that fought Serb forces in the 1998-1999 war.

"I hope I won't be pushed to choose between the two," she said. "But if I am, I will choose the headscarf."

Read it all.

IslamOnline: "Indiana wudu basins spark controversy"

Now wait a minute. Didn't David Dawson of the Indianapolis Airport say the other day that "These facilities are for everybody's use"? Yet even while decrying the "Islamophobia" that they think is inspiring the protests against this, IslamOnline seems to be granting the "Islamophobes" their point by calling the footbaths "wudu basins" -- i.e., installations for Islamic religious purposes, and for no other purpose.

"Indiana wudu basins spark controversy," from IslamOnline (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO - The planned construction of wash basins at the Indianapolis International Airport to accommodate the wudu (ablution) needs of Muslim taxi drivers has become a bone of contention between Islamophobes led by a church leader and Muslims who defend the sinks as being practical, The Indianapolis Star reported Saturday, September 22.

Putting sinks on public property would be "unconstitutional, given that their primary purpose is to serve Muslims," Bishop Jerry Hillenburg of the Hope Baptist Church on the Far West said in a letter to Mayor of Indiana Bart Peterson.

The article goes on and on, but never addresses the Constitutional point.

Fitzgerald: What General Abizaid does not realize

Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday.

John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.

"Iran is not a suicide nation," he said. "I mean, they may have some people in charge that don't appear to be rational, but I doubt that the Iranians intend to attack us with a nuclear weapon." -- from this news article

No, the world -- that is, the rational world of Infidels -- cannot "live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran." It is not true that such a regime can be counted on to be a rational actor akin to the Soviet government.

Why not?

Because of what Islam promises. Because of what Islam teaches. Because of what Muslims believe. It makes sense to wipe out Israel, in order to remove that horrible Infidel presence in the midst of dar al-Islam, even if millions of Iranians die in a counter-strike. It will justify man's ways -- the ways of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- to God. It is only in Christianity that one has to justify God's ways to man. In Islam, you take whatever Allah chooses to dish out; the Muslim's lot is never to reason why, the Muslim's lot is but to do -- follow fi sabil Allah -- and, quite often, die.

I used to think Abizaid was sensible. I see that I was wrong.

A few considerations:

John Abizaid is not a Muslim but a Christian (Maronite, I think) of Lebanese descent. He is keenly aware that something is not quite right, and that something is very wrong, with Islam.

It is unclear that he did anything wrong in Iraq. What would constitute doing something "wrong" once the initial invasion as over? Not trying to fulfill the mission? Trying to fulfill it? Trying to fulfill it while coming to the conclusion that it did not make sense?

What his statement about Iran reveals is that he does not realize how irrational, by our standards, Ahmadinajad and others in Iran and elsewhere in Dar al-Islam are. They are simply calculating casualties. And if they can eliminate Israel, which is very small, completely, and only suffer a few million casualties themselves, then some think to themselves that it is worth it. And besides, any Iranians or other Muslims who die will have died in a glorious cause, and Paradise will surely not be denied them. Those who rule Iran really believe this.

It is we who have trouble suspending our own disbelief, and recognizing what to us would be fanatical belief, in others. This Abizaid has not apparently been able to do. Of course, in his everyday activities in Iraq, he met Iraqis -- Iraqis who seemed perfectly rational. But what kind of Iraqis would he have met? The holdover household servants of Saddam Hussein, the tasters and drivers and wait-staff who were mostly Christians. Saddam knew he did not have to fear any violence from Christians, who after the invasion served in the same way for the American generals and high-ranking civilians.

And the Muslim Iraqis Abizaid would have met with most frequently would have been plausible fellows, often the secularists of the Allawi party, or of the Chalabi party, or others. They were real Believers, but were still eager to curry favor with an American general who could be a source of aid and reconstruction projects, if one treated him in the oleaginous way that all too many Middle Eastern Muslims think is the only way to curry favor with the Infidels ("at your feet or at your throat").

He still doesn't see the risk, because his own experience with Islam, which might at first glance seem extensive, turns out to have been skewed -- skewed for him, skewed for all the high-rankers, civilian or military.

Don't attribute anything to Abizaid "because he is an Arab-American." That's silly. But you can attack his remarkable statement for what it reveals about his understanding of minds on Islam. He hasn't yet grasped it. Perhaps someday he will.

Fitzgerald: Blacks, slavery, Islam

On September 18, Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV labeled U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a "black snake." -- MEMRI

Read the comments made by marauding Arabs as they attacked and burned and killed in Darfur. The reports of the survivors offer example after example of the Arabs of the Janjaweed telling them that "you blacks have to die." This kind of thing seldom is reported, and when it is reported, nothing is made of it. It disappears. It should be constantly publicized, along with the Arab enslavement of blacks in the southern Sudan, Mauritania, and even Saudi Arabia itself. Pictures of black Africans, from the 1930s, being sent off to the slave markets of Arabia exist and used to be reprinted, but not in recent decades. For one example of such a picture, see Dagobert Rune's "Tyranny."

And then there is the Hadith quoted by Robert Spencer in his lucid, line-by-line exegesis of the Qur'an:

The believers, meanwhile, are exhorted to “obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you” (v. 59). To obey Muhammad today is, many Islamic authorities say, to obey his dictates in the Hadith, which some contemporary Muslims wish to disregard and say that only the Qur’an has authority. And Muhammad himself is quite clear about the necessity to obey earthly rulers: “You should listen to and obey your ruler even if he was an Ethiopian (black) slave whose head looks like a raisin."

Much has been written about Islam as a vehicle for Arab supremacism. But even that supremacism that puts Arab above non-Arab Muslim, has its degrees. The blacks of Africa were the staple of the Arab slave trade for a thousand years, while the Atlantic slave trade lasted little more than two centuries. The Arab slave trade was stamped out only by the outside, Christian powers, first by using force. Great Britain through naval power managed in the 19th century to end the Arab slave trade in blacks seized and brought to Arabia, though they did not manage to end the practice of slavery by the Muslim Arabs. The French did the same where their writ ran in North Africa.

Slavery was formally abolished in Saudi Arabia only in 1962, with much protesting and grumbling and, in the case of one Saudi princess, a refusal to comply. And there are many reports of its persistence in Saudi Arabia, including one published just this past week by an Arab from the Maghreb who, in the French press, wrote unequivocally that such slavery still exists in Saudi Arabia, beyond the prying eyes or minds of Westerners. Advertisements have been spotted in Saudi papers, offering to swap (yes, just like those folksy swaps in Yankee Magazine, out of Dublin, New Hampshire) girls, Indian or Thai or Cambodian, for a used car -- but please, one in good condition.

After all, the more than million Christians who over the centuries were taken by Arab slavers who raided the coast and made off with whole villages (see Giles Milton's book on Thomas Pellow of Cornwall) in Western Europe, and the other millions taken from the Slavs in the East, and the still other women kidnapped from Georgia and Circassia to supply the choicest members of the harems (which were not limited, as Westerners seem to think, to Ottoman padishahlar or other rulers), not to mention the "slave-rulers" such as the Mamelukes in Egypt, all testify to the centrality of slavery, and its permanent legitimacy that comes from its being recognized in the immutable Qur'an, and in the exemplary practices of 7th-century Arabia preserved as a model for all Muslims for all time in the Hadith and the Sira.

If one denounced slavery, one would be attacking Muhammad, or Islam. In order to denounce it, one would be suggesting that Muhammad was not, in what he permitted, the perfect man for all time. One would be hinting that the Sunna is not the perfect way of life for all time. On what textual basis, therefore, can anti-slavery Muslims propose to convince other Muslims that one can treat the Qur'an and hadith as historical texts, not valid in every way for all time, but to be treated as Christians and Jews treat certain parts of their respective religious texts? It is the intellectual and psychological inability of Muslims to do this, to jettison large parts of hadith and sira and -- Qur'an -- that stand in the way. It doesn't matter if this or that Muslim feels uneasy, or privately distances himself. What matters is what most Muslims think, or choose to think, based on their refusal to reconsider the supposed holiness or immutability of the texts.

Democracy, not terror, is the engine of political Islam

I thought I would include this piece by William Dalrymple in The Guardian because, despite its general muddle-headedness, it nonetheless indicates some kind of improvement in the media's grasp of the nature of the Islamic danger.

Six years after 9/11, throughout the Muslim world political Islam is on the march; the surprise is that its rise is happening democratically - not through the bomb, but the ballot box. Democracy is not the antidote to the Islamists the neocons once fondly believed it would be. Since the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been a consistent response from voters wherever Muslims have had the right to vote. In Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Algeria they have voted en masse for religious parties in a way they have never done before.

Now that is a very trenchant point. We've said it here before, of course, but the idea that "democracy" -- i.e., giving people what they want via the ballot box -- is somehow going to solve our problems in the Muslim world is utter fantasy. While it sounds unseemly, we should be grateful for the dictatorships of Egypt and Jordan -- and the Turkish army -- that keep the hard-core Muslims out of power. Of course, there are good dictatorships and bad dictatorships: Iran and Saudia Arabia are examples of the latter. But we have got to get over the progressivist nonsense that all dictatorships are created equal and that "democracy" can do no wrong. Throughout Islamic history there have been only two types of government: Islamic dictatorships and secular dictatorships: I know which I prefer.

Of course, that "not through the bomb, but the ballot box" quip is hardly accurate. The jihadists are plainly happy enough to use bombs.

Egypt is typical: at the last election in 2005 members of the nominally banned Muslim Brotherhood, standing as independents, saw their representation rise from 17 seats to 88 in the 444-seat people's assembly - a five-fold increase, despite reports of vote-rigging by President Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Alliance. The Brothers, who have long abjured violence, are now the main opposition.

The figures in Pakistan are strikingly similar. Traditionally, the religious parties there have won only a fraction of the vote. That began to change after the US invasion of Afghanistan. In October 2002 a rightwing alliance of religious parties - the Muttahida Majlis Amal or MMA - won 11.6% of the vote, more than doubling its share, and sweeping the polls in the two provinces bordering Afghanistan - Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province - where it formed ultra-conservative and pro-Islamist provincial governments. If the last election turned the MMA into a serious electoral force, there are now fears that it could yet be the principle beneficiary of the current standoff in Pakistan.

The Bush administration proclaimed in 2004 that the promotion of democracy in the Middle East would be a major foreign policy theme in its second term. It has been widely perceived, not least in Washington, that this policy has failed. Yet in many ways US foreign policy has succeeded in turning Muslim opinion against the corrupt monarchies and decaying nationalist parties who have ruled the region for 50 years. The irony is that rather than turning to liberal secular parties, as the neocons assumed, Muslims have lined up behind parties most clearly seen to stand up against aggressive US intervention.

Religious parties, in other words, have come to power for reasons largely unconnected to religion.

Now we are starting to drift, but there still is some good stuff there. It is certainly possible that the US war in Iraq has helped galvanize Muslims against us. But it is not correct to infer that, "Religious parties, in other words, have come to power for reasons largely unconnected to religion." Religious (i.e., Islamic) parties have come to power -- for example, in Iraq -- because of the push for democracy that has opened up the Islamic option hitherto repressed by more secular dictators.

The usual US response has been to retreat from its push for democracy when the "wrong" parties win. This was the case not just with the electoral victory of Hamas, but also in Egypt: since the Brothers' strong showing in the elections, the US has stopped pressing Mubarak to make democratic reforms, and many of the Brothers' leading activists and business backers, as well as Mubarak's opponent in the presidential election, are in prison, all without a word of censure from Washington.

Yet on a recent visit to Egypt I found everywhere a strong feeling that political Islam was there to stay, and that this was something everyone was going to have to learn to live with; the US response had become almost irrelevant. Even the Copts were making overtures to the Brothers. As Youssef Sidhom, who edits the leading Coptic newspaper, put it: "They are not going away. We need to enter into dialogue, to clarify their policies, and end mutual mistrust."

The reality is that, like the Copts, we are going to have to find some modus vivendi with political Islam.

That's easy: pay the jizya and feel yourselves subdued (Quran 9:29).

U.S. admits nearly 10,000 from "terrorism" states

Suicidal idiocy. By David Morgan for Reuters (thanks to Davida):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 10,000 people from countries designated as sponsors of terrorism have entered the United States under an immigration diversity program with relatively few restrictions, a report released on Friday said.

The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the State Department's inspector general warned in 2003 that the Diversity Visa Program posed a significant risk to national security and recommended it be closed to people from countries on the U.S. list of state terrorism sponsors.

But four years later, the program remains open to people from those nations and little is known about what becomes of them once they enter the United States, the GAO said.

From 2000 to 2006, the program allowed 3,703 people from Sudan, 3,164 from Iran, 2,763 from Cuba and 162 from Syria to enter the United States and apply for permanent legal resident status, the report said. That totals 9,792 new immigrants.

"We found no documented evidence of ... immigrants from state sponsors of terrorism committing any terrorist acts," said the GAO, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.

Oh, good. Nothing to worry about, then. Go back to sleep.

Thug-In-Chief to address National Press Club

How proud they must be -- of their high-mindedness, their transcendence of narrow chauvinism, their ignoring of Ahmadinejad's genocidal statements in view of the single most salient fact: that he, like they, hates America above all.

"Iranian President to Speak at NPC's First-Ever Videoconference Luncheon," a National Press Club press release (thanks to LGF):

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak and take questions at the National Press Club's first- ever videoconference luncheon at noon on Monday, Sept. 24.

Ahmadinejad will appear in the NPC Ballroom in Washington via videolink from New York, where he will be attending the UN General Assembly. After Ahmadinejad's speech, NPC President Jerry Zremski will ask questions handed up from the audience for a minimum of a half-hour.

Please note: the format of the luncheon with President Ahmadinejad will differ from the typical NPC luncheon program in many ways. President Ahmadinejad will be introduced at noon. His speech will last a half hour, and will be followed by 45 minutes of questions. Lunch will be served after the speech and question period.

NOTE TO BROADCASTERS: Switched feed is available. Please contact Tiina Kreek in the NPC Broadcast Operations Center at tkreek@press.org or call (202) 662 7510.

Attendance at this luncheon will be limited to NPC members, their guests and accredited media only. Luncheon tickets are $16 for members and $28 for their guests. To reiterate, the only nonmembers to be admitted to this event will be accredited media.

To reserve a seat at the luncheon, call the NPC reservation line at 202- 662-7501. Accredited media with questions should email Melinda Cooke at mcooke@press.org to reserve a seat.

Pope criticizes lack of religious liberty in Muslim countries

Look out for Pope Rage II. "Pope in 'freedom' blast at Islam," by Simon Caldwell for the Daily Mail (thanks to Irish Infidel):

The Pope has again risked provoking the wrath of the Islamic world, by criticising its treatment of Christians.

Benedict XVI attacked Muslim nations where Christians are either persecuted or given the status of second-class citizens under the Shariah Islamic law.

He also defended the rights of Muslims to convert to Christianity, an act which warrants the death penalty in many Islamic countries.

His comments came almost exactly a year after he provoked a wave of anger among Muslims by quoting a Byzantine emperor who linked Islam to violence.

Yesterday, near Rome, the 80-year-old pontiff made a speech in "defence of religious liberty", which, he said "is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right".

In a clear reference to Islam, he said: "The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice."

Addressing the problem of Islamic extremism, he added: "Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God's name and harbour an inexcusable contempt for human life."

UN Council on Human Rights -- “Islamophobia”: The Road to Dhimmitude

A report by David G. Littman, Representative of the World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations Office in Geneva:

The three week 6th session of the UN Human Rights Council at the Palais des Nations, Geneva (September 10-28, 2007) is demonstrating that the Council is not “restoring credibility… on Human Rights” – as Kofi Annan’s High-Level Panel in 2004 had hoped, but – as we predicted from the start – may soon ‘out-Commission the Commission’.

The 1st week ended with Mr. Doudou Diène – the Senegalese UN Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance – presenting his report (A/HRC/6/6) on ‘defamation of religions’. He writes of “the increasing trend in defamation of religions and the factors that explain it, particularly in the context where human rights violations are justified as measures to combat terrorism, to protect national security and preserve national identity.”(…) His report “… also analyses specific forms of religion-based discrimination, including Islamophobia and its manifestations – in particular following the events of 11 September 2001...”. He refers several times to that horrible climacteric in world affairs simply as “the events”, and nowhere does he even mention the term “Jihad” or “Jihadist terrorism”. In his Report of 21 pages, Mr. Diène refers briefly to antisemitism (1½ pages), “Chistianophobia” (1 page), and to “Islamophobia” and “defamation of religions” (mainly Islam), at great length( 7½ pages).
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/137/32/PDF/G0713732.pdf?OpenElement

In presenting his Report, he mentioned three recent developments that illustrate, as he wrote, the gravity of “Islamophobia”: first, a manifestation outside the European Union Parliament in Brussels on 11 September 2007 against the “Islamization of Europe” that took place despite the mayor’s refusal to provide an authorisation to allow it; second, the “intellectual and ideological theorisation of Islamophobia by Norman Podhoretz (editor-in-chief of the influential review “Commentary” and advisor to a U.S. presidential candidate) in his latest book: World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism”; third, increasing restrictions on the construction of mosques in Europe. He also stigmatised the campaign by the Swiss UDC political party to stop further building of minarets, and a caricature of a “black sheep”– representing foreign criminals – being kicked out of Switzerland by a white sheep, with two others watching.

Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan – making several statements on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) – reiterated the usual formulae that: “Denunciations of terrorisms and extremisms have been made by opinion leaders of the Muslim world. A matching response has not been forthcoming.” He added that: “Equating certain religions with terrorism would have far reaching consequences for its followers. Even terrorist acts carried out by non state actors, in the name of religion, should be de-linked from religion to ensure freedom of religion or belief.”

It is a fact that neither he or any other member state of the OIC – nor any Muslim clerics – have condemned the reiterated calls of non-state actors to kill in the name of Allah and of Islam; and all our efforts to add a single phrase to this effect in the Commission resolution on “Combating defamation of religions” that the OIC has sponsored annually since 1999 have proved futile. He also declared that: “the OIC has been cautioning that Muslims are being demonized and dehumanised as Jews were in the interwar period in the last century.” Such an absurd allegation totally ignores the fact that the demonization of the Jews is inherent in sacred Islam texts and continues to be propagated today by Islamic leaders throughout the world. Ambassador Khan also referred to “recent acts of defamation in the shape of blasphemous sketches in Sweden and posters in Switzerland.”

* * * * *

Speaking on behalf of the Association for World Education, the Association of World Citizen and the World Union for Progressive Judaism during the “interactive dialogue” with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief (September 13), we asked Ms. Asma Jahangir the following questions, but none of them received an answer in the eight minutes at her disposal to ‘react’ to the many comments and questions from States and NGOs:

Female Genital Mutilation / Calls to kill in the name of God or Religion /
Rampant Judeophobia

We warmly welcome the very comprehensive report (A/HRC/6/5) of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief.
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/134/40/PDF/G0713440.pdf?OpenElement

As time is of the essence, we shall be brief. We have 3 questions to ask in three minutes:
Regarding vulnerable groups, particularly women, your § 28 refers to “some harmful practices such as genital mutilation [which] are perpetrated in the name of religion or imputed to religion.” In this context, our statement to the 4th session 6 months ago and our written statement on this barbaric crime is very pertinent. (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/NGO/27).
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/149/14/PDF/G0514914.pdf?OpenElement

Reports show that there are over 300 million victims alive today, and roughly 3 million girls are mutilated each year in 32 countries, of which 29 are Member States of the OIC. After the recent mediatised death of two young girls in Egypt – a country where the FGM toll is 97% according to UNICEF, despite a 1997 State law condemning it – would it not be the moment for the Grand Sheikh Sayyed Tantawi to issue an unambiguous fatwa that would effectively take religious precedence over the previous, ambiguous Al Azhar fatwas of 1949, 1951, and January 29, 1981 – that encourages parents “to do their duty?”

Our second question refers to your §44 where you state that “terrorist acts which are carried out by non-State actors in the name of religion ought to be de-linked from religion, so that the actions are not associated with freedom of religion or belief.”

In an academic presentation exactly one year ago at Regensburg University, Pope Benedict correctly used the terms “jihad” and “holy war” when he declared that: “Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.” Our joint written statement Appeal to condemn calls to kill in the name of God (A/HRC/6/NGO/5) [http://www.iheu.org/system/files/IHEU+to+HRC+Killing+in+the+name+of+God.pdf] also contains our recent Appeal to the Secretary-General and the HCHR on 9 August. It too called upon the UN, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and others: “to condemn unequivocally all those who kill or incite to kill in the name of God or religion – and especially to include this phrase in the Council’s resolution: Combating defamation of religions. Surely, this teaching of hate in the path of Jihad, leading to endless ‘Jihadist Martyrdom’ bombings worldwide should not be ignored? And, we would add, the term ‘suicide’ for such Jihadist bombers carried out ‘in the path of Jihad’ is inappropriate.

On February 7, 2007, in a letter to you, Madame, and to Mr. Doudo Diène, the Special Rapporteur on Racism (copy to the High Commissioner for Human Rights) we gave details of the repeated revival of the 1840 “Damascus Affair” Blood Libel Accusation – aired on TelLiban, a week earlier (January 30, 2007). We would like to know what you feel should be done about such a shameful, constant propagation of a Judeophobic / antisemitic culture of hate throughout the Arab world – in the media and also in school books, including Iran – which is in total contradiction with all the International Covenants signed by these States, and is preparing their youth for endless wars? Can you explain why this religious Judeophobic hate is not regularly condemned at the United Nations by all the Special Rapporteurs who should be directly concerned by this grim phenomenon – and also by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, representing the culprit States directly concerned?

* * * * *

Speaking on behalf of the Association for World Education, the Association of World Citizens, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and the World Union for Progressive Judaism, during the debate after the Address by the High Commissioner for Human Rights (September 14), we asked Ms. Louise Arbour questions on her Report:

NGO rights /Iran President’s threats and Child marriage and stoning of women /
OIC aims/ Calls to kill in God’s Name

In the High Commissioner’s address we detected a real anxiety for the credibility of the UN human rights system (“We are acutely aware that the credibility of the UN human rights system hinges upon satisfactory implementation of the review.”) In a written statement to the last Commission on a future Council, we stressed the crucial need for maintaining the precious, hard-earned rights of NGOs and we all wonder, eighteen months later whether they will survive these reviews. (E/CN.4/2006/NGO/1): http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/106/82/PDF/G0610682.pdf?OpenElement

Madame, you referred to your recent Teheran visit when you addressed the Non-Aligned Movement ministerial meeting on Human Rights and Cultural Diversity. We hope that you raised a key issue which was addressed in our January 29, 2007 to the UN Secretary-General and to you regarding the reiterated calls by President Ahmadinejad for Israel’s elimination as a State, which is a call in clear defiance of the UN Charter that states in its Chapter 1, article 2 : 4 that such threats are “inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

You also refer to Iranian women’s rights defenders in the context of respect for fundamental human rights. We would ask: how can one “seek greater understanding and consensus on the issues, particularly as we prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, when a religious law, introduced in 1979 – and renewed in 2000, just as Iran proposed the “Dialogue of Civilizations” Year at the UN – still allows the marriage of girls at only 9 years old and justifies the stoning of women for alleged adultery?

As for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Final Communiqué of the OIC’s Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit, held in Mecca from December 7-8, 2005, provides a clear message on the true vision of the OIC and its Member States:
“The Conference called for considering the possibility of establishing an independent permanent body to promote human rights in Member States as well as the possibility in preparing an Islamic Charter on Human Rights in accordance with the provisions of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam* and interact with the United Nations and other relevant international bodies.” [See, II. In the Political Field, §13].
http://www.oic-oci.org/ex-summit/english/fc-exsumm-en.htm
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[* The 1990 ‘Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam’ – inexplicitly reprinted in the 1997 UN’s Compilation of International Instruments vol. II, Regional Instrument – was analysed by David G. Littman in ‘Universal Human Rights & “Human Rights in Islam”’ (Midstream 45, no.2, Feb./March 1999,: 2-7; republished in (ed. Robert Spencer) The Myth of Islamic Tolerance. How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (Prometheus Books, 2005), Ch. 27: 317- 332.]

[On a ‘point of order’ Egypt’s delegate intervened to stop the speaker, unsuccessfully.]

In regard to your Annual Report covering ‘combating defamation of religions’ (A/HRC/6/4)
http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/6session/A.HRC.6.4.pdf , on August 9, 2007, we appealed to you and the UN Secretary-General to encourage the United Nations and the OIC to condemn all calls to kill in the name of God or religion, and reiterated our vibrant Appeal for this phrase to be included in the Council resolution. It is reproduced with fuller details in our joint written statement to this Council (A/HRC/6/NGO/5). If neither the UN nor the OIC is willing to act, then silence on such an issue would speak volumes. We shall sound the tocsin today with the ringing words of the17th century English poet John Donne: “And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”

* * * * *
In the interactive debate following the presentation of the special Rapporteur, Doudou Diene’s report on Islamophobia, Roy W. Brown, the main representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) was prevented from delivering a three minute oral statement on behalf of 4 NGOs (IHEU / AWE / AWC / WUPJ) . Only four NGOs were able to speak in the reduced total of 10 minutes allotted to NGOs. NGO participation at the HRC is becoming more myth than reality. IHEU's representative has written formally to the president of the Council asking the right to submit written statements when denied the chance to speak.

This censorship of NGOs during a key interactive dialogue could well have been foreseen by certain States – many from the 57 member states of the OIC – who used up much of the limited time available for the debate by repeating what others had already said, so limiting the time available for NGO participation. We cannot exclude the possibility that this was deliberate on the part of some states.

The joint statement that the IHEU would have made – on behalf of four NGOs representing 200 communities or associations with a total of over 6 million individual members – refers to two major omissions from the Special Rapporteur’s analysis of "Islamophobia”. It is given below in full, although there is a chance that Mr. Brown may be able to make his key presentation on September 21 under the item 9 (racism and the “Durban Conference”). [http://www.iheu.org/node/2806]

* * * * *

Human Rights Council, Sixth Session 10-28 September 2007 Agenda Item 9. Report on Islamophobia by the Special Rapporteur on Racism, Mr. Doudou Diène

* * * * *

Joint statement with the Association for World Education, Association of World Citizens and World Union of Progressive Judaism by IHEU main representative, Roy W. Brown, on 14 September 2007 (not delivered; perhaps on September 21)

Islamophobia

Mr President,
The report on Islamophobia by the Special Rapporteur on Racism [A/HRC/6/6] [http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/137/32/PDF/G0713732.pdf?OpenElement]
is seriously flawed in two important respects:
First, he fails to distinguish between, on the one hand, Islamophobia, which he defines as “baseless hostility and fear vis-à-vis Islam”, and on the other, genuine concerns regarding the rise of Islamic extremism. Secondly, he fails to recognise that there are important differences between the Islamic worldview and that of modern Europe that contribute significantly to the problem.
Rather than dismissing Europe’s defence of its identity (which he describes as ‘based on intangible “values”’ in scare quotes) he should recognise that these values are neither intangible nor exclusively “European”, but universal. They include, inter alia, the dignity and autonomy of the individual, equality of the sexes, democracy, and human rights - surely the very rights that this Council should be seeking to defend. That these differences do exist and are far from intangible is evidenced, for example, by the OIC’s promotion of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam as an alternative to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Yet rather than recognising the existence of such differences, the Special Rapporteur condemns as Islamophobic those who portray Islamic values as “fundamentally opposed to those of Western civilisation”. Why does he ignore the fact that there are an increasing number of Islamic leaders who present Islam in precisely this way? It is not “Islamophobia” to oppose such views. It is rather a necessary and legitimate expression of concern.
Furthermore, and in common with the OIC and its repeated calls to combat defamation of religion, the Special Rapporteur also fails to distinguish between opposition to Islamic extremism and hostility towards Muslims. Opposition to Islamic extremism is both necessary and legitimate. Hostility towards Muslims is neither. To imply they are the same thing is to obscure an important step in understanding the problem.
What little, and regrettable, hostility towards Islam there may be among indigenous Europeans did not arise in a vacuum, but is largely a reaction to Islamic extremism. More and more European mosques are promoting hard-line Islamic ideology*, including demonisation of Jews, infidels and homosexuals, and contempt for Western culture and civilisation.
Mr President, in his report the Special Rapporteur fails to address in any meaningful way the problem of Islamic extremism and its contribution towards the rise of religious hatred. In our view, he has rendered a disservice to the Council and to the cause of tolerance which he espouses.
* Cf. Channel 4 Dispatches, “Undercover Mosque” 15 Jan 2007, and The Times, “Hardline Takeover of British Mosques”, 7 September 2007: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402973.ece

UK jihadist was hospital chaplain

Banned at the local mosque, but not at the local hospital. "Extremist was hospital chaplain," from the BBC (thanks to Writer Mom):

A radical Muslim cleric banned from his local mosque was allowed to work as a hospital chaplain, according to a BBC London investigation.

Usman Ali has been banned from his local mosque in Woolwich, London, after trustees won a court injunction.

But the ex-member of banned group Al Muha-ji-roun led prayers for NHS staff at Woolwich's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Hospital staff said they had suspended Mr Ali two days ago after concerns were raised by the police.

Banned for life

The 30-year-old British born preacher was banned for life from entering his local mosque in Woolwich after trustees won a county court injunction against him in January.

It was an unprecedented step and cost the mosque £30,000.

BBC London has seen the judge's order on the case and found that Ali had shown a video to children in the mosque containing clips of planes flying into the world trade centre during which he chanted "God is great".

Mosque trustees said they warned hospital officials about Mr Ali months ago but nothing was done.

Sarkozy begins to roll up the welcome mat

It isn't nearly enough, but it's a start. "Immigration restrictions OK'd in France," by Elizabeth Bryant in the Washington Times (thanks to Ruth King):

PARIS — The National Assembly approved tough new restrictions on immigration yesterday, completing a major step in President Nicolas Sarkozy's program to roll up a famously well-trodden welcome mat.

The bill, which still needs Senate approval and a second vote in the Assembly, requires would-be immigrants for the first time to demonstrate a knowledge of the French language and cultural values.

Its most controversial clauses provide for voluntary DNA testing of applicants seeking to show they are related to current French residents, and legalize some data gathering based on race and ethnicity.

The bill is largely driven by a public perception that the flow of unskilled workers into France contributes to high unemployment and strains the nation's social welfare system. Such fears were crystallized by weeks of riots in suburban areas populated mainly by Muslim and African immigrants in the fall of 2005.

"For many of our countrymen, immigration is a source of concern," said Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux upon introducing the bill. "They see a threat to their security, their jobs, their lifestyle. We must understand the ... hopes of this silent majority."

Men deny 'hate crime' at Tempe mosque

"They are trying to make something out of nothing for their own gain." Considering the trumped-up quality of CAIR's hate crimes report, this is eminently plausible.

By Eugene Scott for The Arizona Republic (thanks to Twostellas):

The three men accused of harassing a Muslim imam at a Tempe mosque on Sept. 11 say the incident has been misportrayed as a hate crime.

"We walked inside the mosque. We were curious about what was in there, like any other church," said Brandon Garcia, one of the three men. "We didn't stop to cause any trouble or to be mean to anyone."

Garcia, Michael Estes and Armando Tolosa were near the mosque on a plumbing job when they decided to go in to learn more about Islam, according to their employer, Richard Yeates, owner of a Mesa plumbing company.

Ahmed Al-Shqeirat, the imam, said Estes cursed at him and made derogatory comments about Muslim children passing by.

Because the incident happened on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Al-Shqeirat and others in the Muslim community have said they consider the incident a hate crime.

Tempe police arrested Estes, 32, on suspicion of disorderly conduct. The other two men were not arrested.

"We basically looked at what the victims told us and we've done an investigation and determined there was a crime committed," said Mike Horn, Tempe police spokesman.

But Garcia and Tolosa said it was Al-Shqeirat who provoked Estes.

Al-Shqeirat said Estes asked him what he was hiding in the mosque. Garcia and Tolosa said Al-Shqueirat's report that Estes asked him what he was hiding in the mosque was untrue. They also said they never made any negative comments about kids.

"We were just asking questions. And (Al-Shqeirat) was fine at first," Tolosa said. "I guess he felt offended."

Al-Shqeirat got more upset as Estes asked more questions, Tolosa said. He said the imam suggested they make an appointment for a tour, which matches the imam's story. Tolosa said they told Al-Shqeirat that they were interested in a tour, but that Al-Shqeirat abruptly asked the men to leave. They complied, he said.

Tolosa and Garcia admit that when Al-Shqeirat began taking pictures of them as they walked out to their company vehicle, Estes cursed at him. Estes' language was in response to them being photographed without permission, they said.

"They are trying to make something out of nothing for their own gain," Yeates said of the imam....

Flight 93 Memorial updates: Mr. Burnett's request to keep Tom Jr.'s name off the memorial will NOT be honored!

An important note from Alec Rawls:

Tom Burnett Sr. is rested up and has renewed his protest against the crescent design with an op-ed column and a new radio interview. Great stuff.

http://errortheory.blogspot.com/2007/09/tom-burnetts-911-protests-against.html

The Memorial Project is refusing to honor Tom Sr.’s request that Tom Jr.’s name not be inscribed on one of the 44 blocks, and the local press is siding with the Project.

http://errortheory.blogspot.com/2007/09/flight-93-memorial-project-will-not.html

The press is also refusing to honor Mr. Burnett’s request for fact checking of my easily verifiable claims. Instead, the Project and the press are both trying to counter my warning that the giant crescent is oriented on Mecca by pretending that there is no such thing as the direction to Mecca!

http://errortheory.blogspot.com/2007/09/no-direction-to-mecca.html

Fjordman: Islam, the Greeks and the Scientific Revolution, part 1

The renowned European essayist Fjordman discusses Islam's encounter with Greek philosophy:

I have written a couple of essays regarding the Greek impact on the rise of modern science, and why the Scientific Revolution didn't happen in the Islamic world. I find this to be an interesting topic, especially since there are so many myths regarding this perpetrated by Muslims and their apologists today, so I will explore the subject in some detail.

I mentioned the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in one of my previous essays. It has been claimed by one researcher that an Arab alchemist in the ninth century managed to decode some of the hieroglyphs. Even if this should be true, his research didn't leave any lasting impact and wasn't followed up by others, which is in itself significant. The proven track record is that Arab Muslims had controlled Egypt for more than a thousand years, yet never managed to decipher the hieroglyphs nor for the most part displayed much interest in doing so. The trilingual Rosetta Stone was employed by the French philologist Jean-François Champollion to decipher the hieroglyphs in 1822. He chose an intuitive (though ultimately correct) approach by employing the Coptic language, the liturgical language of the Egyptian Christians (which was a direct descendant of that of the ancient Pharaohs, as opposed to the language of the Arab invaders) rather than the more mathematical approach of his English rival Thomas Young.

For the sake of historical accuracy, it should be mentioned that when hieroglyphs were finally put out of use, thus ending one of the oldest continuous cultural traditions on the planet, dating back at least to the Narmer Palette celebrating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in the 32nd century B.C., this was also done by Christians. The process was begun in the fourth century AD, before the partition of the Roman Empire, and was completed by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian who abolished the worship of Isis on the island of Philae in the sixth century. As the Egyptian religion was shut down, so the writing system associated with it was forgotten. The remnants of Plato's Academy were also closed in the name of Christian (Nicaean) unity.

Justinian is otherwise remembered for constructing the Hagia Sophia, the grandest cathedral in Christendom for almost a thousand years, and for his ultimately unsuccessful attempts at restoring the unity of the Roman Empire by reconquering the Western lands. This stretched the resources of the Empire, and along with a plague pandemic, drained its strength. The long wars between the Byzantines and the Sassanid (Persian) Empire weakened both states and were one of the reasons why the Arabs could make their Islamic conquests in the seventh century.

Logically speaking, the Middle East should be perfectly situated to combine the knowledge of all major centers of civilization in the Old World, from the Mediterranean and the Greco-Roman world via the Persian and other pre-Islamic cultures in the Middle East to India and the civilizations of the Far East. As I will demonstrate, the Muslim thinkers and scientists whose names are worth mentioning did just that.

According to scholar F. R. Rosenthal: "Islamic rational scholarship, which we have mainly in mind when we speak of the greatness of Muslim civilisation, depends in its entirety on classical antiquity.....in Islam as in every civilisation, what is really important is not the individual elements but the synthesis that combines them into a living organism of its own....Islamic civilisation as we know it would simply not have existed without the Greek heritage."

Greek thought was certainly an important inspiration for virtually all Muslim thinkers, but it wasn't the only one. Alkindus (Al-Kindi), the Arab mathematician who lived in Baghdad in the ninth century and was close to several Abbasid Caliphs, was one of the first to attempt reconciling Islam with Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle, a project that was to last for several centuries and prove ultimately unsuccessful. His other lasting impact was his writings about Indian arithmetic and numerals. Alkindus was one of a handful of people primarily responsible for spreading the knowledge and use of Indian numerals in the Middle East.

India has a long-standing mathematical tradition and the Hindu numerical system is one of its most important contributions to world culture. It was slowly introduced in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, gained momentum after the Italian mathematician Fibonacci in 1202 published his book Liber Abaci and reached wide acceptance during the Renaissance. Europeans learned about Indian numerals via Arabs, which is why they were mistakenly called Arabic numerals in the West. They were superior to Roman numerals in several ways, the revolutionary concept of zero being one of them. There is no doubt that this numerical system reached the West via the Islamic world, but we should remember that since the Middle East is situated between India and Europe, any ideas from India by necessity had to pass through that region to reach Europe. I'm not sure how much credit we should give Islam for this geographical accident.

Al-Razi was a talented Persian physician and chemist who lived in the ninth and early tenth century. He combined Greek, Indian and Persian traditions, and relied on clinical observance of patients in the Hippocratic tradition. He also commented, and criticized, the works of philosophers such as Aristotle. Some of his writings were translated into Latin. As Ibn Warraq writes in his book Why I Am Not a Muslim, "Perhaps the greatest freethinker in the whole of Islam was al-Razi, the Rhazes of Medieval Europe (or Razis of Chaucer), where his prestige and authority remained unchallenged until the seventeenth century. Meyerhof also calls him the 'greatest physician of the Islamic world and one of the great physicians of all time.'" He was also highly critical of Islamic doctrines, and considered the Koran to be an assorted mixture of "absurd and inconsistent fables." Moreover, "His heretical writings, significantly, have not survived and were not widely read; nonetheless, they are witness to a remarkably tolerant culture and society - a tolerance lacking in other periods and places."

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) was a Persian physician who continued the course set by al-Razi of mixing Greek, Indian, East Asian and Middle Eastern medical learning. His book The Canon of Medicine from the early eleventh century was a standard medical text for centuries. A striking number of the Muslims who did leave some imprint upon the history of science were Persians, who could tap into their proud pre-Islamic heritage. Historian Ibn Khaldun admitted that "It is strange that most of the learned among the Muslims who have excelled in the religious or intellectual sciences are non-Arabs with rare exceptions."

It is also interesting to notice that virtually all freethinkers and rationalists within the Islamic world, such as Avicenna or Farabi, were at odds with Islamic orthodoxy and were frequently harassed for this. Whatever discoveries they made were more in spite of Islam than because of Islam, and in the end, Islam won. As Ibn Warraq notes, "orthodox Islam emerged victorious from the encounter with Greek philosophy. Islam rejected the idea that one could attain truth with unaided human reason and settled for the unreflective comforts of the putatively superior truth of divine revelation. Wherever one decides to place the date of this victory of orthodox Islam (perhaps in the ninth century with the conversion of al-Ashari, or in the eleventh century with the works of al-Ghazali), it has been, I believe, an unmitigated disaster for all Muslims, indeed all mankind."

Averroes (Ibn Rushd) was born in Córdoba, Spain (Andalusia) in the 12th century. He held comparatively progressive views on women, was in some ways a freethinker and faced trouble for this, yet he was also a jurist in the Maliki school of sharia law and served as a qadi, Islamic judge, in Seville. He supported the traditional view, held by leading scholars even into the twenty-first century, of the death penalty for persons leaving Islam: "An apostate…is to be executed by agreement in the case of a man, because of the words of the Prophet, 'Slay those who change their din [religion]'…Asking the apostate to repent was stipulated as a condition…prior to his execution."

Still, Averroes is chiefly remembered for his attempts at combining Aristotelian philosophy and Islam. According to Ibn Warraq, he had a profound influence on the Latin scientists of the thirteenth century, yet "had no influence at all on the development of Islamic philosophy. After his death, he was practically forgotten in the Islamic world."

Philosophy in general went into permanent decline. One of the reasons for this was the influential al-Ghazali, by many considered the most important Muslim after Muhammad himself, who argued that much of Greek philosophy was logically incoherent and an affront to Islam. Averroes' attempts at refuting al-Ghazali were ignored and forgotten.

The leading Jewish thinker of this era was the rabbi and physician Moses Maimonides. He was born in 1135 in Córdoba in Islamic-occupied Spain, but had to flee through North Africa when the devout Berber Almohades invaded from Morocco and attacked Christians and Jews in a classical Jihad fashion. Maimonides eagerly read Greek philosophy, some of which was available in Arabic. He also, for the most part, wrote in Arabic. His attempts at reconciling Aristotelian philosophy with the Torah influenced the great Christian thinker Saint Thomas Aquinas, who made similar efforts at reconciling Greek thought with biblical Scripture a few generations later.

It is true that some Greek and other classics were translated to Arabic, but it is equally true that Muslims could be highly particular about which texts to exclude. As Iranian intellectual Amir Taheri explains: "It is no accident that early Muslims translated numerous ancient Greek texts but never those related to political matters. The great Avicenna himself translated Aristotle's Poetics. But there was no translation of Aristotle's Politics in Persian until 1963."

In other words: There was a great deal of Greek thought that could never have been "transferred" to Europeans by Arabs, as is frequently claimed by Western Multiculturalists, because many Greek works had never been translated into Arabic in the first place. Muslims especially turned down political texts, since these included descriptions of systems in which men ruled themselves according to their own laws. This was considered blasphemous by Muslims, as laws are made by Allah and rule belongs to his representatives.

William of Moerbeke was a Flemish scholar and prolific translator who probably did more than any other individual for the transmission of Greek thought to the West. His translation of virtually all of the works of Aristotle and many by Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and others paved the way for the Renaissance. He was fluent in Greek, and was for a time Catholic bishop of Corinth in Greece. He made highly accurate translations directly from the Greek originals, and even improved earlier, flawed translations of some works. His Latin translation of Politics, one of the important works that were not available in Arabic, was completed around 1260. His friend Thomas Aquinas used this translation as the basis for his groundbreaking work The Summa Theologica. Aquinas did refer to Maimonides as well as to Averroes and Avicenna and was familiar with their writing, but he was rather critical of Averroes and refuted some of his use of Aristotle.

Like Aquinas, William of Moerbeke was a friar of the Dominican order and had personal contacts at the top levels of the Vatican. Several texts, among them some of Archimedes, would have been lost without the efforts of Moerbeke and a few others, and he clearly did his work on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, one of the reasons why he did this was because the translations that were available in Arabic were incomplete and sometimes of poor linguistic quality. The Arabic translations, although they did serve as an early reintroduction for some Western Europeans to Greek thought, didn't "save" Greek knowledge as it had never been lost. It had been preserved in an unbroken line since Classical times by Greek, Byzantine Christians, who still considered themselves Romans, and it could be recovered there. There was extensive contact between Eastern and Western Christians at this time; sometimes amiable, sometimes less so and occasionally downright hostile, but contact nonetheless. The permanent recovery of Greek and Classical learning was undertaken as a direct transmission from Greek, Orthodox Christians to Western, Latin Christians. There were no Muslim middlemen involved.

As a result, by the late 1200s, Saint Thomas Aquinas and early Renaissance figures such as the poet Dante and the humanist Petrarch had at their disposal a much more complete and accurate body of Greek thought than any of the renowned Muslim philosophers ever did. What's more, many of the translations that did exist in Arabic had been undertaken by Christians in the first place, not by Muslims.

At the American Thinker, Dr. Jonathan David Carson dispels some of the hype regarding Islam's role in the history of science. In his view, "The 'Islamic scholars' who translated 'ancient Greece's natural philosophy' were a curious group of Muslims, since all or almost all of the translators from Greek to Arabic were Christians or Jews." Moreover, most Greek texts "did not make the long journey from Greek to Syriac or Hebrew to Arabic to Latin, and Western Europeans preferred [surprise!] translations of Aristotle directly from the Greek, which were not only superior but also more readily available."

In A History of Philosophy, Frederick Copleston says that "it is a mistake to imagine that the Latin scholastics were entirely dependent upon translations from Arabic or even that translation from the Arabic always preceded translation from the Greek." Indeed, "translation from the Greek generally preceded translation from the Arabic." This view is confirmed by Peter Dronke in A History of Twelfth—Century Western Philosophy: "most of the works of Aristotle, however, were translated directly from the Greek, and only exceptionally by way of an Arabic intermediary...translations from the Arabic must be given their full importance, but not more."

As Carson sees it, "the great rescue of Greek philosophy by translation into Arabic turns out to mean no rescue of Plato and the transmission of Latin translations of Arabic translations of Greek texts of Aristotle, either directly or more often via Syriac or Hebrew, to a Christendom that already had the Greek texts and had already translated most of them into Latin."

Moreover, the intellectual curiosity was entirely one-sided. As Bernard Lewis states in The Muslim Discovery of Europe: "We know of no Muslim scholar or man of letters before the eighteenth century who sought to learn a western language, still less of any attempt to produce grammars, dictionaries, or other language tools. Translations are few and far between. Those that are known are works chosen for practical purposes and the translations are made by converts or non—Muslims." J.M. Roberts put it this way: "Why, until very recently, did Islamic scholars show no wish to translate Latin or western European texts into Arabic? (…) It is clear that an explanation of European inquisitiveness and adventurousness must lie deeper than economics, important though they may have been."

Much has been made of Spain's glorious Islamic past, yet more books are translated in Spain now in a single year than have been translated into Arabic over the past 1,000 years. As I have shown, what existed of advances in sciences in the early centuries of Islamic rule owed its existence almost entirely to the infusion of pre-Islamic thought, and even at the best of times the translations from non-Muslim ideas and books could be quite selective. Later, even the limited debate of Greek philosophy was curtailed. Muslims were assured of their God-given superiority and did not bother to look into ideas from worthless infidel cultures.

Toby E. Huff, author of the book The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West, explains this. A landmark in Western science was Nicholas Copernicus' The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres from 1543. The same years also saw another milestone in the rise of modern science: Vesalius' On the Fabric of the Human Body, which created the foundations for modern medicine by representing an empirical agenda, the first-hand examination of the body through human dissection (autopsy).

According to Huff, "Vesalius claimed to have corrected over 200 errors in Galen's account of human anatomy," and his "illustrations are far superior to anything to be found in the Arabic/Islamic tradition (where pictorial representation of the human body was particularly suspect) or, for that matter, in the Chinese and (I presume) Indian traditions." In astronomy, "Kepler went far beyond Ptolemy's methods, and discovered entirely new principles for the precise description of the motions of bodies in the heavens," thus proving the elliptical (and hence not perfectly circular) orbit of Mars.

In the eyes of Toby E. Huff, "the twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed a social, intellectual and legal revolution that laid the intellectual and institutional foundations upon which modern science was later constructed. At the heart of this development was the jurisprudential idea of a corporation, a collection of individuals who were recognized as a singular 'whole body' and granted legitimate legal autonomy. Such entities were given the right to sue and be sued, to buy and sell property, to make rules and laws regulating their activities, to adjudicate those laws and to operate according to the principle of election by consent as well as the Roman legal aphorism, what affects everyone should be considered and approved by everyone. Among the entities granted status as legitimate corporations were cities and towns, charitable organizations, professional guilds (especially of physicians) and, of course, universities. Nothing comparable to this kind of legal autonomy emerged in China or under Islam. In short, the European medievals created autonomous, self-governing institutions of higher learning and then imported into them a methodologically powerful and metaphysically rich cosmology that directly challenged and contradicted many aspects of the traditional Christian world-view."

This was also a time period noted for the growth of early modern capitalism, but Huff rejects any simplistic connection between money and science. Christian Europe exhibited an intellectual curiosity, a desire to uncover truth, that could not be reduced simply to a matter of economic interests: "There was indeed a 'commercial revolution' sweeping Europe from about the twelfth century, but that hardly explains the great interest in Aristotle in the universities of that period or the decision by medical practitioners to undertake dissections and to incorporate medical education into the university curriculum. Similarly, there was another rise in commercial activities in the sixteenth century, but this hardly explains either the motivation of the clerical Copernicus, or of Galileo, Kepler, or Tycho Brahe in developing a new astronomy against the interests of the Church."

One of the most groundbreaking innovations in Europe during the High Middle Ages was the creation of an ongoing, university-centered debate. This made all the difference, since, as Huff points out, "it is one thing if an activity is pursued randomly by various actors; it is something else altogether if that activity is carried on collectively as a result of a regularized process." While Islamic madrasas excluded all of the natural works of Aristotle, as well as logic and natural theology, European scholars benefited from "a surprising degree of freedom of inquiry" which "did not exist in the Arab/Muslim world then and does not exist now."

Centers of learning have existed in civilizations throughout recorded history, yet most of them did not possess all of the qualities generally associated with a university today. It is possible that the Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese, the Indians and others had institutions that could be called universities already at this early age; I don't know Asian history intimately enough to judge that. But the Islamic world definitely did not.

The German-Syrian reformist Bassam Tibi points out that the Muslim thinkers who developed Greek rationalism are today despised in their own civilization. As he writes in his book Islam Between Culture and Politics, "rational sciences were – in medieval Islam – considered to be 'foreign sciences' and at times heretical. At present, Islamic fundamentalists do not seem to know that rational sciences in Islam were based on what was termed ulum al-qudama (the sciences of the Ancients), that it, the Greeks."

Science was viewed as Islamic science, the study of the Koran, the hadith, Arab history etc. The Islamic madrasa was not concerned with a process of reason-based investigation or unrestrained enquiry but with a learning process in the sacral sense. Tibi believes it is thus incorrect to call institutions such as Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, the highest institution of learning in Sunni Islam, a university: "Some Islamic historians wrongly translate the term madrasa as university. This is plainly incorrect: If we understand a university as universitas litterarum, or consider, without the bias of Eurocentrism, the cast of the universitas magistrorum of the thirteenth century in Paris, we are bound to recognise that the university as a seat for free and unrestrained enquiry based on reason, is a European innovation in the history of mankind."

It is noteworthy that the first medieval European universities were sometimes developed out of monasteries or religious schools. However, here the Greek knowledge was adopted in a far more unfettered manner than it was in the Middle East. The earliest European universities, such as the University of Bologna in Italy and Oxford in England, were created in the eleventh century. More were established during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for instance the University of Paris (Sorbonne), the University of Cambridge, the University of Salamanca in Spain and the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

According to Bassam Tibi, the situation has changed less than one might think: "In Muslim societies, where higher institutions of learning have a deeply rooted procedure of rote-learning, the content of positive sciences adopted from Europe is treated in a similar fashion. Verses of the Koran are learned by heart because they are infallible and not to be enquired into. Immanuel Kant's Critiques or David Hume's Enquiry, now available in Arabic translation, are learned by heart in a similar manner and not conceived of in terms of their nature as problem-oriented enquiries." As a result, "In contrast to the European and the US-model, students educated in a traditional Islamic institution of learning neither have a Bildung (general education) nor an Ausbildung (training)."

This is a problem members of this culture bring with them abroad if they move. In Denmark, Århus city council member Ali Nuur complained that one of the challenges certain immigrant groups face in the education system is that they are unfamiliar with tests rooted in a rational, critical and analytical way of thinking. Guess who?

Another issue is the lack of individual liberty. I still haven't read Atlas Shrugged, a novel I know many Americans hold in high regard, and I have mixed feelings about Ayn Rand's philosophies. However, one thing I do agree with her about is that "Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men." A Danish man who lived in Iran before the Revolution in 1979 noticed that if he suggested to his Muslim friends that he would like to enjoy some privacy for while, they thought he was crazy. The very notion of "privacy" was alien to them because it implies that you are an autonomous individual with needs of your own. A Muslim is simply an organic part of the Umma, the Islamic community. This lack of individualism and individual liberty is one of the main reasons why Muslims lost out to other cultures.

On the other hand, I believe the West has in recent decades gone too far in making individualism the sole basis of our culture. When a nation is reduced to nothing more than an atomized collection of individuals, with no ties to the past and no obligations to future generations, mounting a defense of a lasting society becomes difficult, if not impossible.

Turkish PM says wants to lift headscarf ban

And so it begins. Sharia Alert from Turkey. From Reuters (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted in the Financial Times on Wednesday as saying he wanted to lift the ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities as part of a planned constitutional overhaul.

The remarks by Erdogan, whose Islamist-rooted AK Party won a new five-year mandate in July elections, could reignite tensions with Turkey's powerful secular elite, including army generals, which suspects him of wanting to boost the role of religion.

"The right to higher education cannot be restricted because of what a girl wears. There is no such problem in Western societies but there is a problem in Turkey and I believe it is the first duty of those in politics to solve the problem," he told the FT in an interview in Ankara.

The secularists regard the headscarf as a symbolic threat to Turkey's separation of state and religion. They also fear any lifting of the ban would put social pressure on uncovered women to start wearing the headscarf in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey.

UN Human Rights Commissioner calls on Euro governments to combat "Islamophobia"

Oh, to be Gordon Brown or Nicholas Sarkozy for a day. Or even an hour. Just long enough to fire off a brief note to Louise Arbour, explaining that the coinage of the term "Islamophobia" is an exercise in blaming the victim, and that if Muslims want to end "Islamophobia" instantaneously, here's how they can do it:

1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.

If Muslims do those five things, voila! "Islamophobia" will vanish. No UN program, and no action by European governments will be needed.

"U.N. rights chief sees bigotry in Europe on Islam," by Robert Evans for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

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.

The remarks from the former Canadian Supreme Court judge, which came in the wake of similar charges issued last week by a U.N. rights investigator, were quickly challenged by a leading global non-religious grouping.

The report by investigator Doudou Diene of Senegal documented what he called an alarming rise in intolerance, and in particular Islamophobia, in European countries, and Arbour said, "I have no reason not to share his concerns."

Europeans "are shocked at times when it is pointed out that bigotry, prejudice and stereotyping is still sometimes very present in their attitude to others," she said.

Diene's work, she declared, highlighted "a challenge for Western countries that needs to be addressed."

Roy Brown, past president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) which groups non-religious organizations around the globe said Arbour was "just plain wrong."

"The little regrettable hostility that does exist among indigenous Europeans has not arisen in a vacuum, but as a reaction to Islamic extremism -- demonization of Jews, infidels and homosexuals and contempt for Western culture," said Brown, the IHEU's representative at the U.N.'s Human Rights Council.

Diene's report said Islamophobia and equating Islam with terrorism created a climate favoring racial and religious hate.

But it also criticized Islamic states for their treatment of non-Muslim minorities and for refusing to recognize the right of people born into Islam to change their religion.

Diene pointed to the recent appearance of a cartoon in a provincial Swedish newspaper that governments of Islamic countries say offended their religion as an example of abuse of the right of free speech to sow suspicion of Muslims.

Watch out. Sharia blasphemy laws are coming.

"The student's religion was not immediately known"

To what lengths will the dhimmi press go to conceal the Islamic aspect of misbehavior committed by Muslims in the name of Islam? I don't think there is any limit, any limit at all -- just check out this story. A Muslim student distributes leaflets calling on people to convert to Islam, and issues threats, and..."the student's religion was not immediately known." Darn those Methodists! They're so ecumenical these days, they're even distributing leaflets calling on people to convert to a different religion!

"Islam Leaflet School Bust," by Larry Celona in the New York Post (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

September 19, 2007 -- A Queens teen was arrested yesterday after placing fliers in his teachers' mailboxes asking them to convert to Islam - then made threats once he was caught, authorities said.

Yaseen Chowdhury, 17, of Woodside, wrote the fliers himself and put them in the mailboxes at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, sources said.

When confronted there about the fliers, he made unspecified verbal threats, according to the sources.

Chowdhury was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime.

A Department of Education spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

The student's religion was not immediately known.

Jordan: Restaurants forced to close for Ramadan

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Jordan. From AKI (thanks to Insubria):

Amman, 18 Sept. (AKI) - Jordan has forced several restaurants with international links to close for Ramadan because it would "violate the sanctity" of the month.

Authorities said serving daily meals is contrary to a directive from the interior ministry that has blocked the opening of restaurants during daylight hours during the month of fasting.

Even though Jordan has a Christian minority of around 5 per cent and Ramadan coincides with the beginning of the autumn tourism season, the interior ministry has decided to close restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King.

Authorities in Amman have made it known that no-one will be permitted to violate the sanctity of the month.

Jordanian laws only allow those restaurants that cater for tourists to supply their services during Ramadan since they are under the supervision of the tourism ministry and not the province.

UK: Muslim dentist 'told patient to wear a headscarf or go elsewhere'

How calls for tolerance of Muslim practices quickly edge over into assertions of Islamic supremacism. By Steve Doughty and Jaya Narain for the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

A muslim dentist made a woman wear Islamic dress as the price of accepting her as an NHS patient, it is alleged.

Omer Butt is said to have told the patient that unless she wore a headscarf she would have to find another practice.

Later this month, Mr Butt will appear before a General Dental Council professional misconduct hearing, which has the power to strike him off.

It is claimed that the 31-year-old dentist asked to speak to the woman in private after she turned up for an appointment at his clinic in Bury.

According to the charges, he questioned her on whether she was a Muslim and told her that if he was to treat her she would have to wear Islamic dress.

He is also said to have read out a number of religious rules to her.

He then told his nurse to give the patient her own headscarf to wear, the accusation says.

It is not known whether the woman was a Muslim.

The charges to be heard by the General Dental Council say that Mr Butt undermined public confidence in his profession by discriminating against a patient and failed to act in her best interests.

of course. But he was certainly acting in his own best interests, and those of Islam, as he perceived them.

Swedish telecoms manufacturer threatened by Al-Qaeda in Iraq

More Lars Vilks Cartoon Rage. Manufacturers will continue to be threatened, as will others, and Cartoon Rage will not ultimately end until Europe adopts Sharia blasphemy laws. "Ericsson Threatened by Al-qaeda in Iraq," from Cellular News:

The Swedish telecoms manufacturer, Ericsson has apparently been threatened in an audio message hosted by an Islamist blog if the Swedish government did not apologize for a recent Swedish cartoon deemed to be insulting to Islam.

Last month, the Swedish newspaper, Nerikes Allehanda published a cartoon which depicted the Prophet, Muhammad as a dog. Over the weekend a message was posted on the Malaysia based, Al-ekhlaas website where the self-declared leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi offered a US$100,000 reward for whoever kills the Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks and a US$50,000 reward for the killing of the news editor, Ulf Johansson.

He further threatened Sweden with "an economic blow against your giant companies such as Ericsson, Scania, Volvo, Ikea, and Electrolux" if it did not repent for "its crime against the Prophet Muhammad."

The Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter itself reproduced the cartoon in smaller form as well over the weekend. "We live in a country where freedom of expression is not dictated by fundamentalists, nor by governments," wrote Dagens Nyheter chief editor in an editorial. "Dagens Nyheter has already published the cartoon. To me, publishing it was the obvious thing to do."

It should be obvious to all Western newspapers.

Swedish media rallies around threatened cartoonist

Euro anti-dhimmitude, and a courageous showing from Lars Vilks. An update on this story. From AFP (thanks to Geeza):

STOCKHOLM -- The Swedish media rallied Sunday behind a cartoonist whose depiction of the Islamic prophet as a dog earned him death threats from Al Qaeda in Iraq, as Swedish companies braced for a backlash.

Cartoonist Lars Vilks said he was ready to die after extremists in Iraq offered $150,000 to anyone who slit his throat, or $100,000 for his murder by other means.

"We must not give in," he was quoted as saying in the Dagens Nyheter daily that republished the cartoon in small format Sunday.

"I'm starting to grow old. I could die at any time - it's not a catastrophe," he said.

The group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq, otherwise known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, also put $50,000 on the head of Ulf Johansson, editor in chief of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper that published the caricature.

Swedish media condemned the threats, issued through the Internet Saturday in the form of a statement in the name of the group's purported leader, Sheikh Abu Omar Al Baghdadi.

"We live in a country where freedom of expression is not dictated by fundamentalists, nor by governments," wrote Dagens Nyheter chief editor Thorbjorn Larsson in an editorial.

And let's keep it that way, shall we?

Hindu woman asks Malaysian court to stop son's conversion to Islam

A case similar to this one -- which sheds light on why the husband is able to do this.

From Kyodo News (thanks to Twostellas):

PUTRAJAYA — A Malaysian Hindu woman began her final bid Monday to get Malaysia's top court to prevent her estranged husband from converting their son to Islam.

The story goes on to say that this case is being closely watched, as it deals with the increasingly vexed question of the overlap between Sharia and civil law.

Malaysia snoop squad targets Ramadan rule breakers

Imagine the scene: "State police! Put down that sandwich and keep your hands in plain view!" Orwell's nightmare featured the Thought Police; even he never imagined the Food Police.

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia. From Reuters (thanks to Twostellas):

A Malaysian state ruled by a hard-line Islamist party has set up a snoop squad to catch Muslims who ignore a religious ban on eating, drinking and smoking during the fasting month of Ramadan. Ramadan, which began last Thursday in Muslim-majority Malaysia, is the holiest month of the Islamic calendar.

Practicing Muslims abstain from food, drink and sex during daylight hours in a discipline intended to purify their souls. Religious officials in the northeastern state of Kelantan, ruled by the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), have detailed 10 municipal officials in plainclothes to keep watch at food outlets, the New Straits Times newspaper said on Monday. "This is the first time the council is taking action as we have received numerous complaints about those who eat openly during the fasting period," said Azman Mohamad Daham, a municipal spokesman in Kota Baru, the state capital.

U.S.: Religous Freedom Report Cites Problems In Iraq, Afghanistan

Yet another manifestation of the incompatibility of the Sharia provisions in the Iraqi and Afghan constitutions with the pluralistic democracy that the State Department and the Administration have declared they want to plant in both countries.

By Andrew Tully for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

WASHINGTON, September 14, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- One day after U.S. President George W. Bush touted successes in local reconciliation in Iraq, the State Department said religious freedom is often a victim in that struggling democracy.

But John Hanford, the State Department's ambassador at large for religious freedom, said these problems involve more the country's fragile security situation rather than any deficiencies in the government's respect for religious freedom. In fact, he pointed to what he called the Iraqi constitution's "robust guarantees" of religious freedom.

Yes, we saw how "robust" that guarantee was in Afghanistan during the Abdul Rahman apostasy case. The Sharia provision gives you all the religious freedom you want, within the limits of Islamic sharia law, which means essentially little religious freedom at all.

"Religious minorities are vulnerable, sometimes due to their small numbers and lack of organization," Hanford said. "For the most part, people are getting caught in the crossfire. In the case of these minorities, though, there have been cases where it's clear that certain groups have been targeted. The real problem that we're dealing with is that, with the sectarian violence -- not necessarily focused on religious practice -- that at the same time religious practice winds up being affected."

Afghanistan faces issues of religious tolerance, too, the State Department report finds. It cites a constitution requiring all laws to be consistent with Islam, nearly three decades of war, a period of rule by the Taliban, and immature democratic institutions as allowing intolerance, harassment, and even violence against religious minorities and some reformist Muslims.

What a surprise!

Egypt: Christian twins forced to convert to Islam

No Compulsion In Religion Alert. Islam forbids forced conversion, so why aren't authorities cracking down hard on this? Because this is a prohibition that is all too often honored in the breach. "Egypt: Christian Twins Forced To ‘Become’ Muslim," from Compass Direct:

ISTANBUL, September 5 (Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian court on Monday (September 3) adjourned the hearing of young Christian twins legally forced to take Islamic education after their estranged father became Muslim.

The attorney for the two young Christian boys forced the adjournment by skipping the hearing, as the outcome of another case involving converts to Islam seeking “re-conversion” could affect the twins’ case.

The twins’ case highlights inequalities non-Muslims face in Egypt, where one’s religion, printed on all official documents, regulates family laws. Custody of children is automatically given to whichever parent is Muslim, according to many interpretations of sharia (Islamic law), enshrined in the nation’s constitution.

Christian twins Mario and Andrew Medhat Ramsis unwillingly “became” Muslim after their father converted to Islam and used his legal right to change the religion on their birth certificates.

In February, the boys’ mother discovered that they had been placed in Islamic education classes at school to reflect their father’s choice, though the Muslim man was no longer living with his Christian family since his conversion and remarriage in 2002.

The twins gained notoriety when they refused to take their Islamic religion exam in May, required in order to pass to the next grade.

“I am Christian,” each boy wrote on a make-up test in July. They turned in the exam with all of the answers left blank.

Egyptian Education Minister Yusri al-Gamal announced on August 25 that he would automatically pass the boys on to the next grade, but the twins’ Christian mother said that an underlying problem remains.

“I was made to understand that Egyptian law grants a mother custody of her children until they are 15, but I lately discovered that this applies only to Muslim mothers,” Kamilia Lutfi said in an August 27 press conference, according to Coptic-owned weekly Watani.

Read it all.

Relief: now you can wash your feet at Indianapolis International Airport

I travel a great deal, and I can't tell you how many times, as I'm existing on stale coffee and plastic food, beaten down by the bustle, the noise, and endless dinning of the numbingly repetitive security announcements ("Report suspicious behavior," they keep saying, in outrageous Islamophobic defiance of CAIR and the Flying Imams), there is nothing I long for more than a chance to sit down, close my eyes, and let some cool water run between my toes.

Don't you feel the same way? Can you think of anything more relaxing? More restorative? Isn't it great that the Indianapolis Airport, like so many others, is now bowing to public pressure and installing these footbaths, so that finally the legions of foot-weary travelers, trudging endlessly through, harried and poked by officious airport personnel, dragging their roller bags, subjecting themselves to what Christopher Hitchens aptly calls the "misery and humiliation" of air travel, this endless succession of Willy Lomans on their way to peddle their paltry wares -- now they have a chance to reach for something higher. Now they have a chance, as the cool water massages their feet, to dream of better things, of better days, of moonlit streams where righteous kings paused a moment to compose psalms.

In reality, of course, I think it very likely that as you have gone through airports throughout your life, you have never once stopped and longed to wash your feet. Not even once. You did not ask, and no one but Muslims ever have asked, for footwashing stations in the Indianapolis Airport or anywhere else. Last night during a layover in a major American city I saw an Oxygen Bar in an international airport. Some airports have massage facilities. Many have big leather armchairs in which, for a small fee, one can repose and become, for a moment, an armchair strategist. But these are truly facilities "for everybody's use," as Indianapolis Airport spokesman David Dawson would have us believe the footbaths are. I tried to explain to Francesca Jarosz when she called me that these footbaths were quite obviously meant to accommodate Islamic prayer and only Islamic prayer, that no one else would want them, and that to pretend otherwise was only a face-saving (or foot-saving) measure. She didn't see fit to print any of that, but I have no quarrel with Francesca Jarosz; I've learned over the years to brace myself for the worst whenever a reporter calls, but she was not as outrageously unfair as most -- in fact, her article is almost balanced. Instead of giving him the last word, she might have called Dawson on his nonsensical statement and asked him to explain just under what circumstances non-Muslims might even want to use the footbaths, and what might happen if a non-Muslim decided on an aqua-foot-massage just as a crowd of Muslim taxi drivers converged upon the footbaths to prepare themselves for prayer, but hey, you can't have everything. "Indianapolis," says Michael Saahir, an imam at the Nur-Allah Islamic Center of Indianapolis, "is coming of age. They need to have accommodations for all of their citizens" -- and that's all that matters. Accommodation is the order of the day, and the one certain thing is that we will be seeing plenty more of it.

"Airport's sinks to help Muslims carry out rituals," by Francesca Jarosz in the Indianapolis Star:

In the parking lot where they wait to be dispatched, some fill plastic bottles with water and pour it over the right foot, then the left. Others clean their feet in the restroom sink.

The practice is the last step in a ritual called ablution -- "wudu" in Arabic -- which involves washing several parts of the body to cleanse before Muslims' five daily prayers.

And by November 2008, when the new $1.07 billion airport terminal is scheduled to be complete, the restroom near the parking lot where taxi drivers stay between runs will include floor-level sinks that will make their daily ritual easier.

Such foot baths have started to crop up across the country, in schools such as the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where more than 10 percent of students are Muslims, and at airports such as Kansas City International Airport.

They have drawn the ire of bloggers and pundits, who say they violate the separation of church and state, and the praise of advocacy groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations....

An official cost estimate for the foot baths won't be ready until November, but Hawvermale said similar sinks cost between $400 and $600 to purchase and install.

The new airport terminal is funded primarily through general airline revenues. About 10 percent of funding, for devices such as safety and flight equipment, comes from federal grants.

But some critics say these foot baths are religious facilities in a public place -- and a clear constitutional violation.

Robert Spencer founded the group Jihad Watch, which aims to raise awareness of what its founders perceive as a proliferation of Islamic law into mainstream society. Spencer compares installing a foot bath in a restroom to putting in a holy water font to accommodate Catholic cab drivers.

"The only conceivable group that will use the foot bath are Muslims for prayer," Spencer said. "It's a religious installation for a religious use."

Airport officials say they see it differently.

"These facilities are for everybody's use," said David Dawson, spokesman for the new terminal project....

Khalid Zouecha, 38, said he rinses his feet with a bottle of water outside the bathroom to avoid the stares of other drivers.

"Most of them look at you like, 'What are those guys doing?' " Zouecha said. "They know what we're doing, but they look at us like they're strange actions."

And some drivers say the water-bottle routine gets old, especially in the winter.

"It's like you are in the jungle, like a primitive human," said Aziz Nachid, 42.

Performing the ritual in these conditions doesn't interfere with its religious aspect, as long as the water is moving and all the body parts are cleaned in the correct order, said Michael Saahir, an imam at the Nur-Allah Islamic Center of Indianapolis.

But he said the drivers deserve better conditions, which the foot baths will provide.

"This is long overdue," Saahir said. "Indianapolis is coming of age. They need to have accommodations for all of their citizens."

Jihad vs. McWorld

Clash of civilizations, the illustrated version

Welcome to Eurabia: Fortress McDonalds opens in Berlin, an event well attended by riot police. No doubt the cops were there to repel trendy Euroveggie neo-fascists, but you also never know in Europe these days when the mujahedin may decide to take revenge against that ubiquitous symbol of American pop cultural hegemony.

"McDonald's Opens in Kreuzberg," by Josh Ward in Spiegel Online (thanks to Ruth King):

It looks like any of Germany's nearly 1,300 other McDonald's franchises. Colorful glossy plastic and shiny stainless steel, bright lights, smiling counter people, a playground, a grasshopper-green manicured lawn, a McCafé and a McDrive. Everything McNormal.

Take a closer look, though, and you see something strange. Hidden in a parking lot around the corner are three police paddy wagons with wire-mesh-protected windows, full of bored police officers in riot gear waiting for a smoke break. Security cameras hang in bunches on light poles like coconuts. Almost everyone outside has a long-lensed camera, video recorder or reporter's spiral notepad.

West: "There is another consequence of our blindness: a terrible indifference to cultural allies in Europe who are fighting its Islamization"

Diana West scores the brutal breakup of the 9/11 demonstration in Brussels. Many have worried that Europe will have to turn to fascism again to resist Islamization; but now it looks as if Europe is turning to fascism again to enforce Islamization.

"Brussels and 9/11," by Diana West in the Washington Times:

The story of the week wasn't Gen. David Petraeus' testimony on Iraq, although it dominated the headlines. The story of the week wasn't the sixth return of September 11 since the jihad atrocity of 2001, although it inspired many public statements and ceremonies. The week's biggest story garnered little press and few comments. But, in a significant way, this overlooked story — an outrageous display of police force in Brussels on September 11, 2007 — symbolizes the missing link in our flawed comprehension of both Iraq and September 11.

There, in the so-called capital of Europe, 200 people marked the day with a protest against the Islamization of Europe — a civilizational shift which, as Europe increasingly accommodates Shariah (Islamic law), is shockingly advanced. Indeed, Bernard Lewis has already predicted Europe will become Islamic by century's end. Absent a reversal of Islamization (which remains possible) I'm guessing sooner than that.

The assembly, sponsored by Stop the Islamization of Europe, was wholly peaceful — at least until Belgian police showed up. With a chopper above, water cannon nearby, they didn't break heads, exactly — nothing so kind as that. In a photo that should be titled The New Face of Fascism (brusselsjournal.com http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2441), we see black-clad Belgian policemen brutalizing a man in a light-colored suit and tie. His hands are cuffed behind his back, his right elbow is clasped in what is known as an arm-bar hold, and he is also being subjected to a genital hold — a vicious grip that, a retired cop friend of mine tells me, would get any American policeman thrown off the force.

Read it all.

Bishop warns that Muslims who convert risk being killed

Islamic Tolerance alert.

By Jamie Doward in The Observer:

One of the Church of England's most senior bishops is warning that people will die unless Muslim leaders in Britain speak out in defence of the right to change faith.

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, whose father converted from Islam to Christianity in Pakistan, says he is looking to Muslim leaders in Britain to 'uphold basic civil liberties, including the right for people to believe what they wish to believe and to even change their beliefs if they wish to do so'.

Some Islamic texts brand Muslims who convert to other faiths as 'apostates' and call for them to be punished. Seven of the world's 57 Islamic states - including Iran - impose the death penalty for conversion.

Some Islamic texts? You mean like the pre-eminent collection of authoritative hadiths, Sahih Al-Bukhari, quoting Muhammad himself?

Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57: Narrated 'Ikrima:

Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"

Where do those extremists get their ideas!

Now Ali, who some see as a potential Archbishop of Canterbury, has told Channel 4's Dispatches programme of his fears about the safety of the estimated 3,000 Muslims who have converted to other faiths in Britain.

'It is very common in the world today, including in this country, for people who have changed their faith, particularly from being Muslim to being Christian, to be ostracised, to lose their job, for their marriages to be dissolved, for children to be taken away,' Ali said. 'And this is why some leadership is necessary from Muslim leaders themselves to say that this is not what Islam teaches.'

I think we may just have hit a snag here, Your Grace. Of course, I guess they could say that "this is not what Islam teaches" even while it does.

Dispatches obtained Islamic texts sold in Britain that say the punishment for apostasy is death - according to all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence. One text called for Muslims to cut off the head of those who reject Islam.

Of course, rigorously logical thought has not exactly been one of the outstanding characteristics of the C of E of late.

The radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which some in Britain want to see banned, states in its constitution that in countries that practise Sharia law, apostates are to be executed. Its message is disseminated on university campuses across Britain and has found a following among a minority of young Muslims.

A poll of more than 1,000 British Muslims, conducted by the Policy Exchange think-tank this year, found that 36 per cent of Muslims aged between 16 and 24 believe those who convert to another faith should be punished by death.

Only 36 percent?

Sheikh Mogra, a senior member of the Muslim Council for Britain, told Dispatches: 'We live in a country where we respect people's choices. It is not right for any British Muslim to harm in any way whatsoever; to bully them, to intimidate them, to threaten them, is all against Muslim law.'

So, as noted, "the punishment for apostasy is death - according to all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence," a teaching given by Muhammad himself -- so how do we make sense of this last quote? Well, it's obviously wrong, but that's not something it seems the Observer -- or anybody else in the dhimmi press -- wants to get into.

WaPo ombudsman: we shouldn't have killed the Opus strips

Muslims didn't even object to them. As you can see from this article, not even CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper, a man who is hair-trigger quick to take offense at the slightest provocation (whether real, imagined, or trumped-up), took offense at these cartoons. The worst thing that can be said about them is that they aren't funny, but that's beside the point. The Washington Post was playing the dhimmi in advance, censoring itself in anticipation of ruffling feathers that weren't ruffled. Such is the absurd state of the "freedom of the press" on this day, Ramadan 3, A.H. 1428.

An update on this story. "Why Were These Comics Dropped?," by Deborah Howell in the Washington Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

Readers were confused and angry that "Opus" comic strips with a Muslim theme did not appear in the Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 Sunday print editions. The strips, created by Berkeley Breathed, were distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group and published on washingtonpost.com.

Most of the controversy involved the Aug. 26 strip, which showed regular character and spiritual seeker Lola Granola in her version of a burqa, declaring she has become a "radical Islamist. Hot new fad on the planet." Her boyfriend, the piggish super-patriot Steve Dallas, is horrified. She tells him he "won't be getting a girlfriend obsessed with Western crud" or one "who resists a man's rightful place." Steve, with a leer and then a concerned look, asks: "Anything else I won't be getting?" Lola answers: "God willing."

Executive Editor Len Downie decided to kill the strip because he felt the language and depiction of Muslim female dress could be offensive. He consulted with other editors, one of whom talked to a Muslim staff member, who believed the strip was problematic.

[...]

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, wasn't offended. " 'Opus' poked fun at the strip's characters, not Muslims or Islam. I see hundreds worse on the Internet every day," he said.

Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic studies at American University, also wasn't offended. He said there is a strong Muslim tradition of satire and self-deprecation. "I think there is a danger of us becoming so politically correct that we end up by blunting the critics' bent and the satirists' wit. Muslims need to be sensitive to the fact that in Western culture there is a healthy tradition of not taking things too seriously."

Spain to host OSCE conference on Muslim discrimination

"The meeting will investigate the "roots of intolerance towards Muslims...'" Will the violence committed by Muslims in the name of Islam be on the agenda as one of the contributing factors, and possibly the most important contributing factor, of this intolerance? Will the imperialistic boasts by Muslim leaders about the impending Islamic conquest of Europe be on the agenda?

I doubt that either one will be discussed. But why not?

From the FOCUS News Agency (thanks to Twostellas):

Madrid. Discrimination and intolerance towards Muslims will be the subject of an October 9-10 conference in the Spanish city of Cordoba under the aegis of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), organisers said Friday, quoted by AFP.

The meeting will investigate the "roots of intolerance towards Muslims, the consequences and the role of the media," a Spanish Foreign Ministry statement read.
Spain currently holds the presidency of the OSCE and Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will chair the meeting....

UN investigator: "Islamophobia" on the rise, especially in Europe

More misplaced alarm about "Islamophobia" in Europe, while the jihadists plot, and legal coercion and demographic conquest proceed. Again, the label "right wing" is the kiss of death, inviting the wholesale dismissal of any issue being addressed.

"Islamaphobia on rise, especially in Europe," from Reuters:

GENEVA - The United Nations investigator on racism on Friday condemned a rising trend of Islamaphobia, especially in Europe, where he said it was being exploited by some right-wing political parties.

Doudou Diene, UN special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, also accused Switzerland’s most popular party, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP/UDC), of inciting hatred.

He urged the withdrawal of the party’s controversial campaign poster calling for expulsion of foreigners who commit serous crimes, depicting three white sheep booting out a black sheep under the headline “For the Security of All”.

“In the current context, Islamaphobia constitutes the most serious form of religious defamation,” Diene said in a speech and report to the UN Human Rights Council, whose 47 member states were holding a debate on religious defamation.

More and more political leaders and influential media and intellectuals were “equating Islam with violence and terrorism,” and some were seeking to “silence religious practices by banning the construction of mosques”, Diene said.

Pakistan, speaking for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called the rise of Islamaphobia “alarming”.

Of course, Cartoon Rage makes an appearance:

“Recent acts of defamation in the shape of blasphemous sketches in Sweden and posters in Switzerland reinforce this conclusion. Such blasphemy should not be encouraged in the name of freedom of expression,” Pakistan’s envoy Masood Khan said.

He said the 57-nation OIC, which represents 1.3 billion Muslims, condemned terrorism in all its forms.

That's nice. What about jihad? Wait, sorry, we're supposed to "de-link" Islam and violence in our minds, according to the OIC.

“The international media continues to use the misguided actions of a small extremist minority as an excuse to malign the entire Muslim world, as well as the religion of Islam,” he said.

“Scapegoating”

Diene, a Senegalese lawyer, said in his 21-page report to the Council that Islamaphobia had grown since the Sept 11 2001 attacks on the United States.

Worldwide, an increasing number of traditional democratic parties were “resorting to the language of fear and exclusion, scapegoating and targeting ethnic or religious minorities in general, and immigrants and refugees in particular”, he said.

In Europe, Muslims faced growing difficulties to establish places of worship and carry out their religious practices such as dietary regimens and burials, according to the UN envoy.

“Political parties with open anti-Islamic platforms have joined governmental coalitions in several countries and started to put in place their political agendas. In sum, Islamophobia is in the process of permeating all facets of social life.”

As we have said here before, the surefire way to end Islamophobia would be to end violent attacks committed by Muslims in the name of Islam.

The Swiss SVP/UDC has launched a referendum to ban construction of minarets in the Alpine country, home to 350,000 Muslims. A similar move is underway in Cologne, Germany.

Switzerland’s delegation defended its system of direct democracy, where multiple issues are put to referendum each year, saying it showed great political transparency although ”sometimes with exaggerated, regrettable views being expressed”.

“The Swiss government has repeatedly stated its commitment to fight racism and the Swiss government will continue to take a clear stance against all forms of discrimination and xenophobia,” Swiss ambassador Blaise Godet said.

Pro-Sharia Islamic political party forms in Finland

I would guess that the Finnish establishment is beside itself with glee over this development, for they take it as evidence that Muslims are assimilating, joining the political process, becoming responsible Finnish citizens. But look at the party program: "The Finnish Islamic Party platform supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children to be excused from school music classes and outings to swimming pools, legal status for ritual animal killing and male circumcision, and the eventual introduction of shari'a law in Finland."

Most Finns, like most Westerners, have no idea what Sharia has in store for them. It involves a lot more than "preventing crime" -- it involves the institutionalized subjugation of non-Muslims and women. The Finns would no doubt now consign such an idea to "racism" and "Islamophobia." But they will find out soon enough what Sharia really involves.

"Islamic party forms in Finland," from Catholic World News (thanks to Josephine):

Helsinki, Sep. 12, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Europe's first Islamic political party has formed in Finland.

The Finnish Islamic Party plans to collect 5,000 signatures in order to qualify for official registration by the end of the year. Counting on support from the 55,000 Muslims living in Finland, the party anticipates some success in next year's municipal elections as well as in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Party spokesman Abdullah Tammi acknowledged to reporters that to date the party has enrolled only a few dozen members.

The Finnish Islamic Party platform supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children to be excused from school music classes and outings to swimming pools, legal status for ritual animal killing and male circumcision, and the eventual introduction of shari'a law in Finland. Tammi added that the purpose of Sharia law was to prevent crime.

Egypt: Islamic scholars reaffirm death penalty for apostasy

Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Islamic Sharia Scholars Call for Applying Apostasy Punishment and Enacting a Law Criminalizing Inter-Faith Marriages," by Ahmed al-Beheri for Almasry Alyoum (thanks to Suzy):

Some participants in the symposium on 'Apostasy Punishment: Problems and Answers', called for the need to enact a law banning and criminalizing inter-faith marriage to overcome the problems that could occur between Muslims and Copts as a result of this marriage.

In his speech at the symposium organized by the cultural committee of the Syndicate of Journalists the day before last, Dr Mohamed Kamal Imam, Professor and Chairman of the Islamic Sharia Department at the Faculty of Law of the University of Alexandria, said why do not we pass a law expressly prohibiting marriage between followers of different faiths, especially in Egypt, so that to eliminate the problems that could occur because of this marriage and set off tension between Muslims and Christians.

He stressed that there is no contradiction between Allah's words: "Then whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve" and "There is no compulsion in religion" on the one hand and the punishment of apostasy in Islam, because the first case – according to him – deals with the belief and carrying out punishments.

Kamal pointed out that Islam is a universal religion that realistically recognizes other religions and allows Muslims to marry non-Muslims and that it is the only religion that permits this, but enacting a law preventing matrimony between Muslims and followers of other religions would eliminate many problems.

Dr. Nasr Farid Wasel, former Egypt Mufti, said that all scholars agree that the punishment for rejecting Islam is punishable by death, because Islam did not sanction apostasy, because it did not force or coerce any one into embracing Islam, therefore a renegade must either repent or be condemned to the punishment of apostasy, because it is the right of Allah, the Almighty.

According to all scholars, from the days of the foremost companions and their followers until this time, the punishment for apostasy was sanctioned to preserve the rights and the unity of the community and therefore non-application of this punishment leads to disunity. Allah the Almighty said: "And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other)".

He pointed out that Islamic Sharia is the practical application of all acts of the people in life, for both Muslims or non-Muslims, and that it took into account every detail of the conditions of human life from birth till one meets his God, explaining that the practice of Sharia was in the area of general issues concerning the rights of God or the people, namely the 'punishments', as the scholars put it, which have been enacted to protect the rights of God and His servants.

"Whoever embraces Islam out of his own volition has made a contract with Allah and with the group, therefore he has no right to revoke it, because he embraced Islam after becoming fully convinced and he should bear the responsibility of his decision", said Wasel.

Read it all.

Afghanistan: Enraged at Buddhist foreign policy, jihadists attack ancient Buddha

Striking out at the rampant Islamophobia displayed by ancient Buddhist carvings, the irrepressible iconoclasts of the Taliban have attempted to continue the work they began when they blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Oh, what fun they'll have in Europe!

"Attack on giant Pakistan Buddha," from the BBC (thanks to John):

Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan.

The statue, thought to date from the second century BC, sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in remote Swat district.

The area has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in recent months.

This is the first such attack in Pakistan and is reminiscent of the Taleban's 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

Dynamite

Officials and witnesses in Swat said armed men arrived in the area on Monday night.

"Militants drilled holes in the rock and filled them with dynamite and blew it up," provincial archaeology department official Aqleem Khan told Reuters news agency.

"The explosion damaged the upper part of the rock but there was no damage to the image itself."

Council of Europe: Europe is threatened by bigots, not by Islam

Terry Davis says that "the fact is that Europe and its values are indeed under threat, but the danger is not coming from Islam. Our common European values are undermined by bigots and radicals, both islamists and islamophobes, who exploit fears and prejudice for their own political objectives."

Moral equivalence of the first water. "Islamophobes" are not flying planes into buildings. They are not predicting their conquest of Europe. They are not physically attacking people who do not conform to their code of conduct.

"Islamophobia"? Stop blowing things up in the name of Islam, and it will disappear. That Terry Davis would ignore all this and equate these two is unconscionable.

"Europe is threatened by bigots - not by Islam," from the Council of Europe (thanks to all who sent this in):

Statement by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, on the march “Against the Islamisation of Europe” today in Brussels

Strasbourg, 11.09.2007 - European values are under threat, say the organisers of a protest march under the banner “Against the Islamisation of Europe” which was due to place today in Brussels in spite of the ban by the city Mayor. The fact is that Europe and its values are indeed under threat, but the danger is not coming from Islam. Our common European values are undermined by bigots and radicals, both islamists and islamophobes, who exploit fears and prejudice for their own political objectives.

The self-proclaimed defenders of European values say that the Mayor has violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. The freedom of assembly and the freedom of expression are indeed essential preconditions for democracy, but they should not be regarded as a licence to offend. I will not enter into the discussion about whether the march should have been allowed or not, but I note that the protesters’ reading of the Convention is selective to say the least. It is very important to remember that the freedom of assembly and expression can be restricted to protect the rights and freedoms of others, including the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This applies to everyone in Europe including the millions of Europeans of Islamic faith, who were the main target of today’s shameful display of bigotry and intolerance.

"...the freedom of assembly and expression can be restricted to protect the rights and freedoms of others, including the freedom of thought, conscience and religion."

Noted: freedom of assembly and expression are on the ropes in Europe. It will be ironic when those whose freedom of thought, conscience and religion Terry Davis is intent on protecting begin to restrict his own freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and that of his friends.

Jihadists: We'll cut off head of 'prostitute' Britney Spears

I guess they really hated her disastrous "comeback" performance the other day.

Certainly Britney Spears and Madonna would do well to retire to convents and leave us alone. But killing them seems a bit...extreme. Of course, being pious Muslims, first they will invite them to accept Islam.

Seriously, this is an important point, since Dinesh D'Souza and others believe that if we did clean up pop culture, the jihad would end. I think this ignores the fact that the jihad existed before the advent of today's corrupt pop culture. Note also that the Qur'an and Islamic tradition and law specify that Jews and Christians must be fought and subjugated -- Jews and Christians, not "corrupt" or "immoral" Jews and Christians.

Sharia Alert: "Terrorists: We'll cut off head of 'prostitute' Britney Spears," from WND (thanks to Rosie):

Muslim terrorist leaders threatened to forcibly convert Britney Spears and Madonna to Islam and warned if they resist, their heads would be cut off for "spreading Satanic culture," according to a new book released today.

The threats, recorded on audio, come as Madonna is due to arrive in Israel Wednesday to celebrate the Jewish new year with fellow Kabbalah practitioners.

"If I meet these whores I will have the honor – I repeat, I will have the honor – to be the first one to cut the heads off Madonna and Britney Spears if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam," said Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

The Committees, largely based in the Gaza Strip, has carried out thousands of rocket attacks against Jewish population centers and scores of shootings and bombings. It is suspected of bombing a U.S. convoy in Gaza in 2003 and took credit for a rocket attack yesterday that hit an Israeli military base wounding 69 – the largest casualty number of any Palestinian rocket attack.

[...]

Abu Abdullah, a senior member of Hamas' so-called "military wing" is quoted in "Schmoozing" describing what his group would do with Madonna and Spears if jihad groups took over the U.S.:

"At the beginning, we will try to convince Madonna and Britney Spears to follow Allah's way. But I honestly don't think they will follow. If they persist with their whoring music, we will prevent them by force. I don't think that I can be in the same place with these singers. They might be killed if they do not respect our laws."

The Committees' Abdel-Al accused Madonna and Spears of "spreading this culture by the Americans as part of the war against Islam."

"If these two prostitutes [Madonna and Spears] keep doing what they are doing, we of course will punish them. First we will call them to join Islam. But if they keep what they are doing ... we can stone them or even we can kill them if they keep ... tempting men in order to put them far from Islam. ... A prostitute woman must be stoned or must be eighty times hit with a belt."

Abdel-El said even before Islam takes over America he would personally kill Madonna and Spears if he ran into them. He boasted he would "be the first one to cut the heads of Madonna and Britney Spears."

Archbishop of Canterbury: US "oppressor"

An implication that even though what they did was wrong, their cause was right -- they should have just emulated Gandhi in their quest to impose a Sharia state and subjugate non-Muslims. "Archbishops uses 9/11 to defend religion," by Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph (thanks to WriterMom):

The Archbishop of Canterbury used the eve of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on America yesterday to defend religion against claims that it promotes division and violence.

Dr Rowan Williams said that although Islam and Christianity had histories scarred with violence, they carried the “seeds of non-violence and non possessive witness.”

Jihad, or holy war, could nowadays be interpreted as a “struggle of the heart” rather than the defence of the Muslim community against its enemies, he said.

He added that both faiths could offer society an ideal of peaceful co-existence despite their violent histories because they were guided by beliefs that transcended human conflict.

The Archbishop’s lecture to a Christian Muslim Forum conference in Cambridge follows mounting criticism of religion as dangerous and destablising.

But Dr Williams argued that religion should not be judged by the failures of its adherents but on its vision of a social order that is “without fear, oppression, the violence of exclusion and the search for scapegoats”.

He compared the “act of nightmare violence” six years ago, when extremists flew aeroplanes into the twin towers in New York, with the birth of Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent protest movement on September 11, 1906, in Johannesburg.

He said that Gandhi’s movement showed it was possible to reject a response to oppression that “simply mirrors what has been done by the oppressor.”

Prisons pulling Jewish and Christian books from libraries so as to bar prisoner access to jihadist books

This is a premier example of how we suffer from not be able to define properly the nature of the conflict. We are afraid to affirm the value of our own civilization. We are afraid to say that Christianity is a religion of peace and Islam isn't, and so have to make these outlandish gestures to appease the god of multiculturalism and relativism.

"Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries," by Laurie Goodstein for the New York Times (thanks to Seymour Paine):

Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.

The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.

Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department, defended its effort, which it calls the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as a way of barring access to materials that could, in its words, “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.”

Ms. Billingsley said, “We really wanted consistently available information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts.”

But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to religious and spiritual materials — all in the name of preventing terrorism.

“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” said Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, a Christian group. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”...

Yep.

Iran: “One of the main grounds for the creation of social and ethical crimes are billiard halls and coffee shops.”

Enjoy that subversive latte. "Iran steps up crackdown against "immoral" activity," from Agence France-Presse:

TEHERAN - Iran is pressing on with one of its toughest moral crackdowns in years, warning tens of thousands of women over slack dress, targeting “immoral” cafes and seizing illegal satellite receivers, local media reported on Monday.

The Iranian police launched the crackdown in April in a self-declared drive to “elevate security in society” that encompassed arrests of thugs, raids on underground parties and street checks of improperly dressed individuals.

Reza Zarei, commander of police in Teheran province, said that since the drive began police in his region have handed out 113,454 warnings to women found to have infringed Iran’s strict Islamic dress rules.

“Of these 1,600 cases have been given to the judiciary” for further investigation, he said.

He added that 5,700 people — including 1,400 men — have been sent to “guidance classes” on how to behave in society.

Zarei said police have been targeting billiard halls and coffee shops — the latter hugely popular in Teheran as a meeting place for men and women — as certain establishments promoted immorality.

“One of the main grounds for the creation of social and ethical crimes are billiard halls and coffee shops,” he said.

The student news agency ISNA and the Kargozaran newspaper quoted Zarei as saying that police had shut down 3,000 coffee shops and billiard halls although the official IRNA news agency said the establishments had merely been given warnings.

“I am pleased to have carried out this plan to elevate security in society,” Zarei said.

Watching satellite television is illegal in the Islamic republic as it is deemed to spread decadence and has long been the target of periodic crackdowns by the police.

Zarei said police had closed down 68 warehouses selling satellite equipment, seized 27,000 receivers and arrested 535 people linked to the underground industry.

Some reformists in Iran have argued that the authorities would be better off combating poverty or traffic rather than moral laxity but conservatives have applauded the police for seeking to restore revolutionary Islamic values.

Ah, but dealing with poverty or traffic would require action more substantive than minding other people's business.

UK: My mother was the victim of honour killing, reveals Muslim playwright

Unspeakable horror, spoken. "My mother was the victim of honour killing, reveals Muslim playwright," by Yasmin Whittaker-Khan in the Daily Mail (thanks to Twostellas):

Britain's most controversial Muslim playwright tells the extraordinary story of her mother's murder and growing up as the daughter of an honour killing.

I was six-years-old when my mother, Shakeela Begum Khan, a beautiful, sassy, educated young Muslim woman, was murdered.

Returning home from school one day in 1976 to the one-room bedsit in East London where we both lived, I found police officers and an ambulance crew removing her body.

I remember that scene now as if it were a vague dream.

Did it really happen, or did I just imagine it?

I have no memory of how I felt, only of what I witnessed.

As I grew up, older relatives had to reassure me that my memories weren't delusional.

Many years later, I also discovered the killer had set up the room to make it look as though it were a brothel, and my mother a prostitute.

As anyone from a Muslim background would instantly recognise, it was the ultimate way to dishonour a woman in the eyes of her family and community.

Soon after my mother's death, her estranged husband, Rasib - my father - was accused of the murder, charged and tried, but he was acquitted.

Taken by Rasib to live with his new wife and a half-brother, both of whom were cruel and abusive to me when my father was not around, I was never allowed to utter a word about my mother.

For the next eight years, I lived in an atmosphere of secrets, lies and crippling fear, reluctantly protecting my vicious stepmother and half-brother from the fury my father would have unleashed on them if he'd known what they did to me.

I lived in constant dread that if I told anybody, the ultimate punishment for them would be death.

Now, three decades later, I have attained a form of poetic justice.

As a playwright, I challenge the forces that try to impose silence and censorship on me.

Having been silenced for so many years of my life, I am now determined to say the unsayable whenever necessary.

Be sure to read the whole thing.

Quebec debate over face-covering during voting sparks row

More from those adorable Canadians. From the Canadian Press:

MONTREAL (CP) — Federal and Quebec political leaders have unanimously blasted an Elections Canada decision to let Muslim women wear traditional face coverings when voting in three federal byelections in Quebec.

Muslims groups say they are mystified about the uproar, saying they never asked for any special treatment.

Perish the thought!

Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday the federal government doesn't support Election Canada's decision to allow burkas and niqabs during voting in three federal byelections in the province on Sept. 17.

[...]

Sarah Elgazzar, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations in Montreal, said it's unlikely many Muslim women will have covered faces when voting.

"We're talking about a minority of a minority of a minority," she said. "It's a very small section of the practising Muslim women, which is already a small enough section of the Muslim community that actually wear the niqab.

"I can almost guarantee that in the Outremont riding . . . there won't be a single woman wearing niqab, so this debate is almost completely and utterly useless."

[...]

Elgazzar said the Elections Canada decision is "a nice gesture but it's completely unnecessary."

"Canada and the rest of the West will soon be part of the global Caliphate, Inshallah, so really it's a moot point," she proceeded not to say.

Fitzgerald: There are no taxes in Islam!

"There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling 2.5 percent. So beware of the deception of those with the capital. And with your earnest reading about Islam from its pristine sources, you will arrive at an important truth, which is that the religion of all of the Prophets (peace and blessings of Allah be upon them) is one, and that its essence is submission to the orders of Allah Alone in all aspects of life, even if their Shari’ahs [Laws] differ.” -- from the speech of Osama Bin Laden

In the crazy hodge-podge that makes up his Invitation to Islam (to be followed by an Invitation to a Beheading) Osama Bin Laden has decided to appeal to the low-tax voters, liberatarians, ronpaulites, admirers of dinesh d'souza. Bizarre, of course.

Muslims traditionally have lived off the non-Muslims in the lands they conquered. Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus paid the Jizyah. In India after tens of millions of Hindus had been killed, the Mughal rulers ceased to engage in such wholesale slaughter. And also, once they had a sufficient local population of Hindus who had been forcibly converted -- out of fear, out of a desire to avoid the miserable condition of dhimmi (or zimmi) -- they allowed the Hindus to be treated as if they were People of the Book, and remain alive so long as they fulfilled the duties of a dhimmi. In that way the Muslim rulers could continue to live on the Jizyah paid by these "zimmis."

They also relied, when full-scale military conquest of Infidel territory was no longer possible, on constant raiding parties, up and down the coasts of Europe, even as far as Ireland or, in one case, Iceland. They looted, they killed, they kidnapped non-Muslims and brought them back to be enslaved. In the west, as well as in the east, raiding parties would seize Slavs (hence "slaves") and also Georgian and Circassian women for the harems.

And now Muslim states exist either on the manna of oil wealth, which they did nothing to deserve and which is merely the result of an accident of geology. Or, where oil is lacking, they exist on the disguised Jizyah of aid from Infidel states (instead of other, but rich, Muslim states). And within much of Dar al-Harb, the Lands of the Infidels where Islam does not yet rule, many Muslims have settled and taken every conceivable advantage, legal and illegal, of the extensive benefits offered by the generous, and innocent, states of Western Europe -- and indeed, raise huge families on those benefits paid for by Infidel taxpayers, while those Infidels, given the expense in Western Europe of raising a child, and the widespread unsettlement and unrecognized apprehension over this same growing Muslim population, have fewer and fewer children themselves. And thus demographic conquest by Muslims continues, unopposed and indeed inadvertently supported by Western welfare states.

"No taxes"? Ask once the Infidels cease paying the Jizyah, or that oil ceases to be quite so abundant. Then the Muslim states will undoubtedly return to the condition of wretchedness that they were in when the Infidels did not supply, as they have for the past century at least, good government, stability, encouragement of agriculture (see the Maghreb, see Egypt under Cromer), the rule of law, and all the other things that allowed economic development and that will not take place, cannot take place, under Muslim rule -- insofar as those Muslims remain devotees of inshallah-fatalism.

Just look at the Muslim oil states. They have received ten trillion dollars, entirely without any effort on their part, since 1973 alone. What have they done with it? They remain hopelessly dependent on armies of foreign wage-slaves. They have failed to create modern, self-sustaining economies. They live on oil, and on the rents from oil. They produce nothing. They offer no services. They do not share their wealth with other, poorer Muslims, but always expect the Infidels to support those other Muslims -- and the Infidels, so far, have been insanely happy to oblige.

"There are no taxes in Islam..."

Osama Bin Laden will apparently try anything. Go ahead. Read His Lips. Give him your vote. Show how impressive you found his campaign speech for the Islam Party, its workers tirelessly treading the True and Shining Path, the sendero luminoso, fi sabil Allah.

Two Pakistani women accused of prostitution beheaded

"Due process" equals summary execution. Sharia Alert. "Two women beheaded by militants in Pakistan," from Agence France-Presse:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suspected Islamic militants beheaded two women accused of prostitution in northwestern Pakistan, police said Friday, in the latest case of Taleban-style justice in the region.

The bodies of the women in their 40s were dumped on the outskirts of the conservative town of Bannu, near the Afghan border, a day after they were abducted by gunmen, district police officer Dar Ali Khattak.

Pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province and its lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan are waging a violent campaign for the introduction of strict Sharia law.

A note left with the corpses accused the women of being involved in prostitution with the support of local officials, and warned others like them that they would be punished in the same way, Khattak told AFP.

Investigations were underway but it appeared that local militants who have been blamed for a string of attacks on pro-government tribal elders and alleged spies for US forces in Afghanistan were responsible, he said.

‘It is the first ever murder case where women were beheaded by suspected militants,’ Khattak added.

Fitzgerald: Stop the Saudi lobby

A Jihad Watch reader recently noted: “When Israel attacked Iraq’s nuclear reactor in July 1981, John West (Ambassador to S.A. 1977-1981) sent a letter to the House of Foreign Affairs Committee asking that punitive action be taken against Israel. As ambassador, West provoked major controversy when he facilitated the contracting of a private public relations firm by the government of Saudi Arabia to lobby for the sale of F-15’s.”

John C. West's old friend Crawford Cook was, at West's urging, hired by the Saudis. On the campus of the University of South Carolina, at some "Center" named after Ernest Hollings (himself a big promoter of the Saudis, as he was a denigrator of Israel), you can find the names of both "John C. West" and "Crawford Cook."

But then there is James Akins, in a class by himself. He was the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia during that critical year 1973, and finally had to be fired even by Kissinger for his blatant behavior. Imagine what James Akins sent back to Washington about OPEC and the quadrupling of oil prices. Do you think he warned anyone that this was dangerous, given what Saudi Arabia was like, because much of that money was likely to be used abroad to promote the spread of Islam? Do you think James Akins -- who still insists that Israel "deliberately" attacked the U.S.S. Liberty during the Six-Day War, which at this point, after the release of the Israeli pilots' tapes, no one except convinced antisemites could possibly maintain -- warned Washington about the future uses of that oil money?

What about Raymond Close, who was C.I.A. station chief in Jeddah, or was it Riyadh, from 1970 to 1977, again during the critical years when policy toward newly-rich Saudi Arabia might have been differently crafted if accurate information about the attitudes of Saudis toward Infidels had been accurately conveyed? Close took early retirement and then immediately went into business with two well-connected Saudi businessmen, one of them a former Saudi intelligence head. When do you think he started getting those job offers from the Saudis -- after he retired, or before? And he then went on to be involved in the banking scandal (was it the BCCI? I can't remember) and various arms transfers, and then of course continued writing about American foreign policy and the need to jettison Israel and be grateful to Saudi Arabia for all it has done for us, and is trying to do. For all I know he continues this to this day, from his home in Princeton. Just a few years ago another contact and sympathizer of his got him a gig as a "Stimson Fellow" at Yale -- these people are all over the place.

And then there is Eugene Bird, that "patriot," that genuine American "patriot," who cares only for the National Interest. That is why he heads up something called the "Council for the National Interest," which somehow has enough money to pay for full-page ads in The Times, and more than once, and which pushes a policy of denouncing...the "Israel Lobby" and offering suggestions identical to those of the Saudi government.

And there are so many others, of both parties -- Fred Dutton, the former Kennedy apparatchik. A dozen different Washington lobbying firms. This also includes everyone who ever got an expensive present from Prince Bandar, who dropped off a Jaguar as a token of his affection for Mrs. Colin Powell. The ostentatiously upright Powell apparently thought that was just swell. He never apparently thought he should refuse to accept it. Yet it not only looks bad, it is bad.

Has Congress taken it upon itself to make such names as "Raymond Close" and "James Akins" and "Eugene Bird" and others well known to the American public? Has Congress asked to see what information was sent back to Washington in 1973, during the quadrupling of oil prices, by both Akins and Close? It hasn't? Why not?

If that information is not made public, and the recipients of Saudi and other Arab largesse not publicly revealed, then what will prevent the Saudis, in the next decade, from spreading their wealth around in exactly the same ways, to exactly the same effect? We cannot take away all their money -- though we can severely limit what they can send to this country to pay for mosques and madrasas where literature preaching hate for Infidels has been found (see the report of the Center for Religious Freedom). But we can subject to close and critical scrutiny those who have in the past received such Saudi and other Arab financial support, directly and indirectly, as a complement to making it illegal to receive sums above, say, $50,000 a year from any foreign country, and to make sure all loopholes are closed and the moral hatches battened down. The American government and the people it presumes to protect can't take much more of this.

That ol' hobgoblin consistency: Islamic seminary forbids photography, issues photo ID's to students

Sheikh Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, reflects a more mainstream view when he argues that photography is acceptable and is not an example of the image-making that is forbidden by Allah, because a photograph merely records Allah's creation, rather than involving human artifice. And of course the practical difficulties created by this Deobandi fatwa are illustrated by the practice of the Dar ul-Uloom itself.

"Photo fatwa," from PTI (thanks to all who sent this in):

Muzaffarnagar, Sept. 6 (PTI): The Dar-ul Uloom has issued a fatwa banning photography, saying it is unlawful and against the Shariat.

However, the Islamic seminary in Deoband has itself issued photo-identity cards to its students and employees.

According to Dar-ul uloom sources, four clerics have ruled that photography, including clicking someone’s picture and posing for a picture, is illegal under the Shariat.

Muslim ambassadors: 'Sweden needs to change its laws'

And that's what this latest episode of Cartoon Rage, as well as the original Cartoon Rage incidents, were all about: forcing dhimmi Europeans to place Islam beyond questioning or criticism -- while the jihad continues apace.

From The Local (thanks to Sid Vicious):

Ambassadors from Muslim countries have indicated that they intend to present the Swedish prime minister with a list of demands when they meet for talks on Friday.

Fredrik Reinfeldt invited the ambassadors from 20 Muslim countries to government offices on Friday following a wave of protests from Muslim countries after the publication of a caricature of Muhammad in local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda.

Reinfeldt's press secretary Oscar Hållén was unable to say which countries had confirmed their attendance.

Egyptian ambassador Mohamed Sotouhi told news agency TT that he and a group of fellow ambassadors had agreed on a list of measures Sweden needed to take if it was to secure a long-term solution to the Muhammad cartoon controversy.

According to Sotouhi, "comprehensive measures" were required if Sweden was to prevent some "amateur artist" from reawakening tensions every other month.

"We want to see action, not just nice words. We have to push for a change in the law," he said.

"Muslims need legal protection against the desecration of the Prophet Muhammad, maybe something similar to the protection enjoyed by Jews and homosexuals."

Disingenuous. Neither Jews nor homosexuals enjoy the protections he is demanding.

While praising the "very constructive steps" taken by Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Egyptian ambassador said that Sweden had much work left to do.

"In the long term the school curriculum has to convince pupils that if they want to express their opinion they should do so in such a way that it doesn't cause offence or hurt. This should also be part of journalism training," said Sotouhi.

"A permanent parliamentary committee also needs to be established to tackle islamophobia," he added.

The ambassador urged Reinfeldt to strive towards "reaching a balance between freedom of speech and taking responsibility to avoid offending Muslims or other religious groups in this society".

"Everybody will compare his wisdom with the situation in Denmark, whose prime minister treated the problem with a sort of arrogance, or at least delayed taking action to prevent the problem from escalating," he said.

Sotouhi described Sweden as a sophisticated country containing talented and creative diplomats.

"They know that proactive measures are necessary and we are ready to cooperate with them," he said.

Algeria's ambassador to Sweden, Merzak Bedjaoui, said the meeting "was an excellent initiative taken in a spirit of appeasement."

"At our level, we are trying to work hand in hand with Swedish authorities to try to create a real bridge between our communities," he said.

"When we speak of a dialogue between civilisations, it can't just be a catchy slogan. I think that the publication of this kind of caricature doesn't help at all," he said.

Earlier in the day the Oscar Hållén said that the meeting would form "part of our dialogue with these countries."

"We want to emphasize the fact that Muslims and Christians live side by side in Sweden in a spirit of mutual respect," he said.

Hållén further added that the government intended to reiterate its earler defence of Swedish laws surrounding freedom of expression.

Good.

Fitzgerald: The "Israel Lobby" and the Saudi Lobby

An integral component of the United States’ war on terror is cutting off funding to terrorists and the infrastructures that promote terror. This report documents the undermining of this US policy and the apparent violation of US law by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas through the funding of Al Quds Open University. Al Quds is a Palestinian university that hosts branches of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations throughout Gaza and the West Bank.

In September 2006 at a ceremony at Al Quds Open University, USAID announced $100,000 of in-kind assistance to Al Quds Open University….US law prohibits funding any "educational institution that the Secretary knows or has reason to believe advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in, terrorist activity... None of the funds...may be made available for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals who commit, or have committed, acts of terrorism.” (Foreign Operations Bill 2006 (SEC. 559.b-c)
Al Quds Open University is ineligible to receive money from USAID because:
Al Quds hosts student branches of Hamas and Islamic Jihad on campus [See Part 1]
Campus activities honor terrorists, past and present [Part 2]
Campus activities advocate terror as legitimate “resistance”
Al Quds University property is used for Hamas assemblies
Al Quds administration members join in terror group events on campus
Al Quds university participates in and sponsors off campus activities honoring terrorists -- from this report at PMW

The only way to not only get such a policy reversed, but get those who continue slyly to promote such policies and to undercut sensible ones, is for the candidates -- Republican and Democratic -- to denounce this and demand that the whole mess be investigated, and jobs lost, permanently. Punish, all over official Washington, those who think the mixture as before of appeasing those who advocate the Local Jihad (against Israel) or the Greater Jihad is okay, by driving them out of positions of any conceivable power and influence. It can be done. It needs to be done.

True, it means standing up against the most dangerous and most powerful lobby in Washington: the Saudi-Arab lobby, the lobby that not only has worked steadfastly against American understanding of Islam (and not merely of the Arab war against Israel, as some fondly believe), but has also prevented any sensible measures that might long ago have been instituted, way back in the early 1970s, to raise the tax on gasoline and institute other measures to steadily diminish the reliance, not on "foreign oil" but on oil, period. That Saudi lobby has, in other words, managed to direct the energy policy of the largest oil-consumer in the world, and hence distorted the entire energy policy of the world, with enormous consequences.

Meanwhile, in Antisemitic La-La Land, Walt and Mearsheimer are now going about the country flogging their book and prating about the "Israel Lobby" that they claim, idiotically, was responsible for the war in Iraq. Do they not know how opposed to the Iraq War the Israeli military was? What do they know, other than that the names "Wolfowitz" and "Perle" and "Feith" for them mean far more than "Bush" and "Cheney" and "Rice"? For them, who know nothing about what really has gone on in Washington over the past 30 years, the "Israel Lobby" is what counts about the Iraq venture that was supported by, inter alios, Wolfowitz, Feith, and Perle (only the first two of whom were government officials, and who have been out of Pentagon posts for at least two years) as well as by everyone else in and around the top who was not named "Wolfowitz" and "Feith" and "Perle."

For what, exactly, does this “Israel Lobby” count? For helping get passed foreign aid for both Israel and -- since AIPAC has allowed itself to believe that Egypt is a "force for peace" (what nonsense!) -- for Egypt as well. For getting a few symbolic resolutions past, and making sure that noises are made quadrennially about moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem, and things at that level. But that's about it for the famously overrated "Israel Lobby," which itself has proven incapable, or unwilling, to understand Islam, and therefore cannot accurately describe what Israel faces -- a Lesser Jihad that can be contained, but to which there is no "solution" (just as there is no "solution" to the Larger Jihad, except permanent containment and a deliberate attempt by Infidels to constrain the power of Muslim states and societies and individuals to wreak harm on Infidels). That "Israel Lobby" has done nothing t help educate Congressmen about Islam -- which would be a service not only to Israel, but to the entire West.

Meanwhile, the real power in Washington is the Saudi-Arab Lobby. It has managed to prevent a sensible policy toward Islam. It has managed to prevent any understanding of the intruments of Jihad -- the Money Weapon, campaigns of Da'wa, demographic conquest -- that now threaten the historic center of the West itself: Europe. It has prevented the development of an energy policy based on the goal of diminishing use of oil and other fossil fuels, that ought to have begun more than three decades ago.

But just ask Walt and Mearsheimer about the Saudi Lobby. They won't know what you are talking about. Ask them about J. B. Kelly's article "Of Valuable Oil and Worthless Policies." They haven't a clue. Today, on NPR, enquiring-silly-mind John Ashbrook had them on, and at the same time was having his audience on, by describing them as "A-List Scholars from MIT and the University of Chicago."

"Scholars." "A-List Scholars."

Malaysia: 'Muslim attire' irritates non-Muslim schoolgirls

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia. "UCAN: 'Muslim attire' irritates non-Muslim schoolgirls," from UCA News (thanks to Designnut):

PADANG, Indonesia (UCAN) – Stefanus Prayoga Ismu Rahardi felt bad seeing his daughters' discomfort at having to wear the Muslim head covering that conceals a girl or woman's ears, neck and hair, as part of their school attire.

"The first time I saw them in jilbab, I could sense they were uncomfortable," the father of three daughters told UCA News Aug. 25. "They did not know how to wear jilbab and got angry," he recalled. "They were irritated."

Agustina, his eldest daughter, is studying at a public junior high school. His second daughter, Yashinta, is studying at a public vocational school. Both schools are in Padang, capital of West Sumatra province, 880 kilometers (about 545 miles) northwest of Jakarta.

The 44-year-old Catholic recalled that in July, during the first days of the school year, teachers often asked his daughters why they did not wear the head covering to school. "I suggested they wear jilbab," he continued, so they would not have to answer the same question over and over again. But he also advised them to regard it as only "an accessory."

"They were in a difficult situation. They had no choice," explained Rahardi, a member of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Padangbaru.

The long dress and long-sleeved shirts characteristic of Muslim attire are more decent than the short dresses and short-sleeved shirts generally worn by students in other regions, he admitted. "But personally, I do mind if non-Muslim schoolgirls have to wear jilbab, because it is identified with Islam."

Since 2002, almost all 19 districts and towns in the province have put into effect local bylaws (Perda, Indonesian acronym) or decrees by mayors and district heads that stipulate mandatory attire for Muslims.

Solok district, for example, issued Perda No. 6/2002. Meanwhile, Limapuluh Kota, Sawahlunto Sijunjung and Agam districts have Perda No. 58/2003, Perda No.2/2003 and Perda No. 6/2005, respectively.

Mayor Fauzi Bahar of Padang issued an instruction obliging all Muslim students from the elementary to senior-high levels to wear Muslim attire.

Bonifasius Bakti Siregar, a staff member of West Sumatra's directorate general for Catholic Community Guidance, says such requirements have strong psychological affects on non-Muslim schoolgirls, who will look different from most of their classmates if they do not wear Muslim attire.

Non-Muslim girls studying at public schools find themselves in a difficult situation, he told UCA News. "They wish they could attend Catholic or Protestant-run schools where they are not obliged to wear jilbab, but these schools do not exist in the rural areas or towns."

Canada: vote early and often! Muslim women don't need to remove veil to vote

Dhimmitude aligns closely with dhummitude. "Muslim women don't need to remove veil to vote," by Brian Lilley for CJAD (thanks to WriterMom):

It was an explosive issue during the last provincial election in Quebec, now it is back. Elections Canada is ruling that Muslim women will not have to remove their veils in order to vote during the September 17th by-elections in Quebec.

A new federal law, which received royal assent in June of this year, will require Canadians to prove their identity before casting a ballot. Voters will be asked for government issued photo-id before being allowed to vote. Those without the required id can provide two other pieces of acceptable identification or have another voter in the district vouch for them.

While Muslim women will be asked for photo-id such as a driver’s license, they will not be required to remove their veil. A spokesman for Elections Canada tells CJAD that women may choose to remove the veil but if they opt not to, they can simply provide a second piece of identification in addition to the driver’s license. Women who choose not to unveil will also be given the opportunity to swear an oath and have another voter vouch for them, but Elections Canada says two veiled individuals will not be allowed to vouch for each other....

Pro-jihad books "inundating" London libraries

Yes, and just try to find even one anti-jihad book. Oh, and who is paying for all these books?

"Radical books in London libraries," by Richard Watson for the BBC (thanks to Down Under):

Public libraries serving the densest population of Muslims in London have been inundated with extremist literature, according to a report.

Multiple copies of books were found in Tower Hamlets that would feature on any jihadist reading list, the report obtained by the BBC said.

Tower Hamlets Council said their Islamic collections had been imbalanced, but they were improving.

The report was by right-leaning think tank the Centre for Social Cohesion.

'Separatism and bigotry'

Its main author Douglas Murray told BBC2 Newsnight: "This is a collection that is warped towards one particular extreme interpretation of Islam."

Most controversially, several books written by two of Britain's most notorious terrorist sympathisers were found in public libraries.

Two books by Abu Hamza, who used to preach at Finsbury Park mosque, are in the collection, as is one book by Sheikh Faisal, whose lectures inspired two of the London bombers.

Both men have been convicted of incitement to murder, but not on the basis of these writings.

The former Islamist Ed Hussain, who grew up in Tower Hamlets, said: "The shocking thing is that this stuff is available and there are people out there borrowing it.

"The worry is how many of those people - it might be a small number, but small enough to cause carnage - who are then prepared to literally act upon those teachings."

Mr Murray said: "Taxpayers' money should not be used to fund extremism... after all the library system is meant to educate and inform, not to cause separatism and bigotry."...

Yep.

The report's authors counted 61 separate copies of Maududi's books including the classic Al Jihad, in which he states: "The objective of Islamic jihad is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule... the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution."

There were also 11 copies of Sayed Qutb's Milestones, which is highly sought after by jihadists.

There were 20 copies of books by the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, and 16 copies of a book by modern day Saudi scholar Muhammed bin Jamil Zino.

Zino's book What a Muslim Should Believe offers advice in the form of hypothetical questions.

"Is it allowed to support and love disbelievers?" he asks. The answer is simply "no".

"Yea, to those who take for friends unbelievers rather than believers: is it honour they seek among them? Nay, all honour is with Allah." (Qur'an 4:139)

"O ye who believe! Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Do ye wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves?" (Qur'an 4:144)

"O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust." (Qur'an 5:51)

"Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah: except by way of precaution, that ye may Guard yourselves from them. But Allah cautions you (To remember) Himself; for the final goal is to Allah." (Qur'an 3:28)

Pakistan: Christian mini truck driver being forced to convert to Islam

Islamic Tolerance Alert. "Christian mini truck driver being forced to convert to Islam," by Jawad Mazhar in the Pakistan Christian Post:

Mandi Bahauddin: September 5, 2007. Gulzar Masih, a Christian mini truck driver is allegedly being forced to recite Islamic Holy Kalima (Holy verses used to mark the conversion to Islam) and convert to Islam, by two Muslim men, Khawar Butt and Baatti. The sole wage earner of the family is living under the threat of being executed or tormented viciously by the Muslim men and scared to return to his home.

Rays of Development Organization (ROD) fact-finding team visited Gulzar Masih, a 45 years old Christian mini truck driver of Chak (village) # 2, Mandi Bhawaldin, Pakistan. Gulzar Masih told ROD fact-finding team that he had been a professional truck driver for last 20 years at Mandi Bhawaldin. He said that he has his own mini truck. (Toyota Hilux # C .5990 Peshawar). Gulzar Masih said that he had been living and working with other drivers in a friendly and pleasant atmosphere, until they came to know that I am a Christian.

Masih said the difficulty started off about 6 months ago, when proprietor of the Ashraf Hotel allegedly asked him not to dine at his hotel, simply because he is a Christian, an untouchable.

Gulzar Masih told ROD that on August 15th 2007, two Muslim men, Khawar Butt and Baatti allegedly forced him to utter the Holy Kalima and embrace Islam. While he, along with three other drivers, was relaxing and chatting under the cool shade of trees near the truck stand, Mandi Bhawaldin.

Terrified Gulzar Masih alleged that after two days of this incident, he was sitting at the shop of local ironsmith Muhammad Iqbal, when Khawar Butt, Baatti and younger brother of the ironsmith Muhammad Khalid, abused and forced him out of the shop, hurling death threats on him, as he had turned down the imposition of conversion. Masih also said “All these men were my good friends, until they learnt that I am a Christian”....

USAID funding of Palestinian university with terror branches in violation of US Law

Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook have the documentation at Palestinian Media Watch (thanks to all who sent this in):

An integral component of the United States’ war on terror is cutting off funding to terrorists and the infrastructures that promote terror. This report documents the undermining of this US policy and the apparent violation of US law by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas through the funding of Al Quds Open University. Al Quds is a Palestinian university that hosts branches of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations throughout Gaza and the West Bank.

Read it all.

This Is Not 'Folkloric Islamic Calligraphy.' It's A Symbol Of Muslim Power

Dhimmitude and willful ignorance at King's University College. "At a 'Catholic' college, the writing's on the wall: This Is Not 'Folkloric Islamic Calligraphy.' It's A Symbol Of Muslim Power," by Barbara Kay in the National Post (thanks to T.):

King's University College, an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario, treasures its 2007 Race Relations Award from the City of London, Ont. It's proof that the Catholic liberal arts college's unusually vigorous efforts to encourage multicultural diversity on campus are working to plan.

Although it is still "proudly and fiercely Catholic" (in the words of King's principal Gerald Killan), the college has already allocated at least two prayer rooms for its growing population of Muslim students. That's perhaps column fodder for another day. Today's concerns King's recent acquisition, with funds provided by donors in the Muslim community, of a vivid green neon artwork of Islamic provenance entitled Kian. It presently occupies a very public space on King's exterior wall and -- according to one's ideological perspective -- either adorns or insults the College's mission.

Kian's creator, Jamalie Hassan, is a third-generation Lebanese-Canadian. She designed the calligraphic installation specifically for King's public face. Hassan says "kian" translates as, depending on whether you see it through a Persian, Arabic or Celtic lens, "benevolent monarch," "soul or essence," or "ancient soul." The King's Web site http://uwo.ca/kings/news/stories/2007-KIAN.html furnishes details of the artist's project concept, including a high-minded quote from the late Arab-American cultural pundit, Edward Said, from whom Hassan takes her philosophical inspiration.

If one accepts Hassan's version of the Kian's provenance and symbolism -- and King's wholeheartedly did: Principal Killan described it to me as "folkloric Islamic calligraphy" -- the installation presents as a charming cultural bridge, aesthetically linking East to West, Islam to Catholicism and ancient kings to modern King's (University College).

But principal Killan's explanation is problematic. The claims that religious symbols may be "folkloric" reflects a decidedly Western trope. Muslims cherish their dogmas far more than modern Christians do. Indeed, Islam has no "folklore," only religious tradition. According to Islamic scholars I spoke with, Hassan has been disingenuous in her description of her creation's origins, and King's willfully naive in accepting and displaying it.

For the last 10 years, retired King's psychology professor Heinz Klatt has devoted himself to the study of Islam. He was shocked by the appearance of Kian on the King's wall, because he recognized it immediately as a tughra with the word "kian" superimposed on it.

The tughra, Klatt explains, is essentially a sultan's signature: It "contains the name of the sultan, his filiation and a programmatic statement. 'It is a powerful Muslim statement of dominance over Christianity, symbolizing Islamic triumphalism, imperialism [and] expansionism.'" He compares Hassan's calligraphic conflation of the word "kian" and the tughra with the word "peace" superimposed on the hammer and sickle.

Gordon Nickel, assistant professor of Intercultural Studies at Trinity Western University in British Columbia., concurs with Klatt on the installation's provenance: "[The design's] resemblance to the tughra-- and to nothing else, really --is clear." He wonders why the artist does not refer to the tughra in her commentary. The tughra, he adds, is particularly associated with strongmen, such as Suleyman the Magnificent and subsequent Ottoman sultans who menaced Europe for centuries.

Read it all.

Swedish Muslim group to sue newspaper over Muhammad drawing

An update on this story, from the Associated Press:

A Swedish Muslim group on Tuesday said it plans to sue a local newspaper for publishing a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. The Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Orebro printed the cartoon made by artist Lars Vilks in an August 19 editorial that criticized Swedish art galleries for not displaying Vilks' art.

Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Federation, said the group would sue the newspaper for inciting hatred against ethnic groups. "It ridicules our religion. This is discriminating and insulting... they want to see just how far they are able to go by pushing the boundaries of press freedom," he said.

All together now: Which ethnic group is Islam again? And for that matter, the paper has not at all overstepped the boundaries of Western freedom of the press -- boundaries which should not be moved to give Islam any special status.

Algeria: 5 sentenced for preaching Christianity

Islamic Tolerance Alert. "5 sentenced for Christian doctrine preaching and public order offences," from El Khabar (thanks to Daryl):

Five people were sentenced earlier in June for charges related preaching Christian doctrine and public order offences by virtue of the law on the religious practice in Algeria approved by the government in 2006. The sentences vary between one year sentence with no remission and one year suspended sentence with a 5000 AD fine.

Public authorities started implementing the legal texts ruling the religious practice in Algeria. Five people are to be tried for Christian doctrine preaching as well as public order offending. Sentences were considered by the indicted as a beach to the freedom of worship established by the constitution and stressed that they were trapped by security services.

The press attaché at the religious affairs ministry Mr. Tammine said he didn’t know about the trial, but all those who practice illegally the religious rituals i.e. outside the religious community. The same legal texts are applicable to Salafist Muslim communities....

Italy: "My future is here" says Nigerian Christian facing stoning

He has asked not to be deported. The Italian authorities should heed his request.

From AKI (thanks to Twostellas):

Turin, 3 Sept.(AKI) - A young Nigerian Roman Catholic who faces death by stoning in his homeland for having had pre-marital sex with his girlfriend, has appealed to Italy not to deport him. "I am safe here. I know by the grace of God I will find life here, Felix Eugene told Adnkronos International (AKI).

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is due to begin considering on Monday whether Eugene, 27, can remain in Italy, where he has been living since 2004.

"I know that as a young man, I can do any kind of work," said Eugene. He been working as a casual labourer unloading goods at a supermarket in the northern Italian city of Turin, and working as a hairdresser in his free time.

Magistrates in Nigeria sentenced Eugene to death by stoning preceeded by public flogging. A Sharia court gave him 20 lashes for 21 days for having tried to convert his Muslim girlfriend Fatima to Christianity. " I wanted to marry her, so she could be the mother of my children," he told AKI.

He said he has not been able to contact Fatima or his family since his escape from jail in Niger State and his flight from Nigeria. "I would like to get in touch with my family and Fatima, but I know it will not be easy to find her," said Eugene....

"Egypt is a good example of a place where Christians and Muslims have gotten along for centuries"

Happy dhimmis gulled in Egypt. "Local educators learn about Islam on trip to Egypt," by Bill Zlatos for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

"The idea is most Americans don't know much about Islam except what you see in the headlines, which is all violence and oppression of women," said Rebecca Denova, visiting lecturer in religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh. "The purpose of the program is we need to teach more about Islam, starting in high school and in colleges."

Denova was one of 12 teachers who went to Egypt from June 24 to July 22 as part of the Fulbright-Hays Program under the U.S. Department of Education. They eventually will hold workshops to train high school teachers about Islam, which has about 1.3 billion adherents, second behind Christianity, which has about 2 billion followers.

Others on the trip were Elaine Linn of Pitt; Christina Michelmore, Charlotte Lott and Deborah Rubin of Chatham University; Tracey-Ann Flynn of Hickory High School in Hermitage, Mercer County; Tony Gaskew of Pitt-Bradford; Fran Leap of Seton Hill University; Michale McKale of St. Francis University; Richard Saccone of St. Vincent College; Eric Tuten of Slippery Rock University; and Michael Yoder of Northside Urban Pathways Charter School, Downtown.

Leap said she came away from the trip with a deeper respect for Muslims and how fervently they practice their religion.

[...]

Another highlight for participants was meeting members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading opposition group in Egypt to President Hosni Mubarak.

I wonder if they learned that that "opposition group" was the direct forefather of Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

Yoder, a history and Spanish teacher, plans to use his experience to develop a class on world religions.

"We generally think of Muslims as radicals or extremists, and I would like to present a case of moderate Islam that has a deep desire to get along with Christians and Jews," he said. "Egypt is a good example of a place where Christians and Muslims have gotten along for centuries."

From 2007 alone:

Threats force Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity to hide

Egypt Christian activists held for 'insulting Islam'

Egyptian Court in Controversial Ruling: Christians Who Convert to Islam Cannot Convert Back

Egyptian Christian seeking asylum to avoid torture, forced conversion, will not face deportation "for now"

Egypt: Muslim mobs attack churches near Alexandria

Egypt forbids 2,000 Christian pilgrims from visiting Israel

Muslims set fire to Christian-owned shops in Egypt amid rumors of romance between Muslim woman, Christian man

Bootylicious Beyonce warned to cover up in Malaysia

Now that Gwen Stefani is "practically Malaysian," why not?

From Agence France-Presse (thanks to JE):

JUST weeks after US singer Gwen Stefani covered up for a concert in Malaysia amid a furore over revealing outfits, her compatriot Beyonce is facing similar calls, Malayasian media says.

Beyonce is due to play Muslim-majority Malaysia in November, but will have to tone down her midriff-flaunting tops and thigh-skimming skirts, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

It quoted concert organiser Razlan Ahmad Razali, who said that the singer would show less flesh than usual.

"As of now, her concert is still on," he told the newspaper.

Stefani performed in Kuala Lumpur on August 21 despite protests from an Islamic students' group which objected to her raunchy performances and outfits.

The platinum-blonde pop star made true to her promise to be a "good girl" and covered her tight-fitting tops in jackets.

She also sported leggings under her dresses and mini-skirts.

"I am practically Malaysian," Stefani told 10,000 screaming fans, including Muslim mothers in traditional headdress toting their young daughters.

Turkish Antisemitism and Jewish Dhimmitude

Andrew Bostom at The American Thinker skewers the craven refusal of American Jewish groups to acknowledge the resurgence of the jihad ideology and antisemitism in Turkey:

The 16th century dhimmi Jewish leadership's deliberate misrepresentation of the actual plight of Ottoman Jewry was described by Hacker with obvious contempt. Tragically, and in our modern era, inexcusably, this pathological behavior persists five centuries later among contemporary Jewish leadership elites, who appear incapable of identifying, let alone adequately defending against, the resurgence of jihadist Islam in Turkey. Gifted writer Diana West's evocative language depicts the ultimate outcome if this self-destructive dhimmitude is not reversed: "in denial there is defeat."

But a liberating victory can still be achieved if the leadership of the Turkish Jewish community, Israel, and American Jewish advocacy groups simply muster the intellectual courage to overcome their own craven denial. Collectively galvanized, they could confront Erdogan's AKP government over the ugly living legacy of anti-dhimmi and Antisemitic discrimination against Turkey's Jews, and demand immediate efforts at amelioration of their plight: marginalization and legal punishment of Turkish politicians and public intellectuals whose discourse incites Jew-hatred, and potentially, anti-Jewish violence; the implementation of concrete reforms, ensuring in practice equal rights, opportunities, and public safety for Jews. And if all these measures were not implemented rapidly, with tangible evidence of success, Turkey's Jews would be allowed unfettered, mass emigration without any economic penalties.

Such bold, forthright action -- joint "anti-dhimmitude" -- would put an end to the ongoing phenomenon of a vestigial de facto dhimmi Jewish community of Turkey (via its dhimmi leadership) holding Israel, and American Jews hostage to the whims of an oppressive Turkish government, in the throes of a transformative fundamentalist Islamic revival.

Read it all.

Swedish paper: no apology for Muhammad cartoon

"Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial, Sweden 'has a duty from now on to defend its principles and present an open dialogue'."

"No apology for blasphemous caricature: Swedish newspaper," from Agence France-Presse:

STOCKHOLM: A leading Swedish newspaper on Saturday said the country would not apologise for the recent publication of a Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) cartoon, which has inflamed devout Muslims around the world.

The article, linked above, is posted at Pakistan's Daily Times, which may explain the "PBUH."

Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial, Sweden “has a duty from now on to defend its principles and present an open dialogue”.

It said offended Muslims would not receive the apologies they were asking for.

Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a blasphemous cartoon on August 18 to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of expression and religion.

The Kabul Times, a religious Afghani newspaper, published on Saturday an article by religious leaders expressing their indignation at this “provocation”, according to Swedish press agency TT.

The publication of the cartoon has prompted angry reactions from Iran and Pakistan, which have both summoned Swedish diplomats to protest. The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference has also condemned the publication and urged the Swedish government to punish the artist and the publisher and demand an apology.

Svenska Dagbladet, another broadsheet, said Sweden was now in a situation “which could escalate and slip away from Swedish control”. Some observers did, however, note important differences with Denmark, where the publication of cartoons deemed offensive two years ago caused deadly riots in several countries.

Unlike its Danish neighbour, Sweden has a reputation for taking in refugees and immigrants, the paper said. Sweden is the primary destination in Europe for asylum-seeking Iraqis, who are the second-largest immigrant community there. On Friday, 200 Muslims protested in Oerebro, a town west of Stockholm where the Nerikes Allehanda is based.

Ulf Johanssen, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, spoke with the head of the demonstration, but refused to offer any excuses to the protesters. “I regret if many (people) felt offended, that wasn’t my objective,” Dagens Nyheter quoted him as saying.

Israeli Archaeologists Say Muslims Damaged Relics at Jerusalem Holy Site

This would be consistent with the proposition that all pre-Islamic artifacts are simply the remnants of jahiliyya, the pre-Islamic period of ignorance, and are hence worthless trash. The destruction of material dating from the ancient Temples, of course, also serves another useful purpose for the Palestinian Authority: it helps efface the Jewish historical claim to the land.

By Robert Berger for VOA News:

Ancient artifacts are at the heart of a fresh dispute between Jews and Arabs at a hotly contested holy place in Jerusalem. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, the dispute points to the simmering religious tensions behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli archaeologists accuse Islamic authorities of damaging artifacts from Biblical times at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The mosque sits on a plaza, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary. The al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site for Muslims. As the site of the two Biblical temples, the Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism. The area is a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trouble began when the Wakf, the Islamic Trust that administers the site, brought in a tractor to dig a trench. The Wakf said it was replacing a 40-year-old electrical cable, but Israeli archaeologists were furious.

"In the last week, the Islamic Wakf authorities on the Temple Mount have carried out a barbaric act of excavating illicitly," said archaeologist Gabi Barkai.

He told a news conference that the digging of the 400-meter long channel has harmed relics from the time of the Temples.

"This channel destroyed several layers of ancient remains upon the Temple Mount," he added. "The trench encountered also a built wall which could have belonged to the outer courtyards of the Temple itself."

Muslim authorities have denied the allegations, describing them as "sheer propaganda." They say they respect antiquities, and the infrastructure work did not cause any damage.

Palestinian worshipper Ismael Ramadan told VOA that Israel has no right to interfere in what happens at a Muslim holy place.

"I grew up and I see [with] my eyes and I see this is [a] mosque. I don't see [a] temple," he said.

Like many Palestinians, he believes the temples never existed.

"It's not true," he said. "No Temple."

For years, Israeli archaeologists have accused Islamic authorities of systematically destroying Temple artifacts in an attempt to erase any Jewish connection with the holy place.

Egyptian man forces his wife to undergo genital mutilation

"Egyptian man forces his wife to be circumcised," from the Associated Press:

CAIRO, Egypt - An Egyptian man forced his 20-year-old wife to be circumcised after a year of marriage, resulting in her hospitalization for acute bleeding, the state-run news agency reported on Saturday.

According to the police commissioner of the Cairo’s gritty northern suburb of Shubra el-Kheima cited by the Middle East News Agency, a dispute erupted between Shaaban el-Menshawi and his wife because she had never been circumcised, a once common operation in Egypt that has since been banned by the government.

When her husband started beating her, Ashgan Riyadh Abdelati fled to her mother’s house. Once there, however, her mother brought in a doctor to conduct the illegal operation on the spot, said the news report.

The escalation from argument to beating brings to mind Qur'an 4:34: "... As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them..."

Abdelati was later admitted to Nasser General Hospital for acute bleeding. Hospital officials declined to comment on her condition.

Egypt has been reeling from two cases of young girls, one 12- and 13-year old, dying from the operation of the summer, prompting the government to renew its largely ineffective ban on the practice.

Female circumcision, which is also known as female genital mutilation, is a widespread traditional procedure in Egypt, practiced by Muslims and Christians alike.

Despite the fact that top clerics insist the practice has nothing to do with Islam, many Egyptians, especially in lower income rural and urban areas, believe the removal of the clitoris lowers a women’s sexual desires and thus helps maintain their honour.

Actually, the practice was traditionally considered obligatory by the Shafi school of Islamic jurisprudence ('Umdat al-Salik e4.3), and the Grand Mufti of Egypt banned it only this past June.

Female circumcision is still practiced in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt, as well as in Yemen and Oman.

A 2003 survey by UNICEF said that 97 percent of married women in Egypt have undergone genital mutilation, though a recent study by the country’s Health Ministry found that only 50.3 percent of girls between the age of 10-18 years have been circumcised.

Afghanistan also irked by new Muhammad cartoon

Cartoon Rage II: They're Back, and They're Even Madder, is gathering steam.

"Indignant Afghanistan slams Prophet Mohammad sketch," by Sayed Salahuddin for Reuters (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan on Saturday condemned the printing of a sketch of Islam's Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog in a Swedish newspaper, calling it hostile towards the Muslim world.

The sketch has also drawn condemnation from neighbouring Pakistan, which condemned the sketch as blasphemous. Muslims believe images of the Prophet are forbidden and also consider dogs to be impure.

"Our Holy Prophet's cartoon in a Swedish paper has provoked all Afghans," wrote The Kabul Times on Saturday, publishing a statement by religious scholars, imams and the Ministry of Islamic Guidance.

"The sold-out enemies of Islam draw the cartoon of the respected Prophet of Islam once more. This has disturbed the Islamic world and aroused the indignation of all Muslims," the statement said, demanding those responsible be handed over to a court for prosecution and punishment.

In other words, they are demanding that Europe adopt Sharia law, at least in this particular.

Reform Jewish leader to unindicted co-conspirators: Together we will fight the opportunists who demonize you

How ironic that Yoffie pledged his help against the demonic Islamophobes at the convention of the Islamic Society of North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. In his address, he sounded as if he were reading straight from the American Muslim advocacy groups' playbook: complaining about "ignorance" of Islam, claiming that the terrorists represent a Tiny Minority of Extremists™ who are twisting the faith, alleging that Judaism and Islam are equally likely to inspire violence in believers, and pretending that those who find justification for that violence in Islamic scripture are not the Muslims who are perpetrating that violence, but the non-Muslims who are reporting on that use of Islamic texts by jihadists.

Yoffie may live long enough to discover that his friends with whom he is so eager to cooperate may have something quite different in mind.

"Reform leader to Muslim Americans: Together we will fight the opportunists who demonize you," by Shmuel Rosner in Haaretz:

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, leader of the Reform movement, spoke this afternoon to the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America. The leadership of ISNA and the Union for Reform Judaism are planning a joint dialogue and education program for synagogues and mosques, Yoffie said. He asked the ISNA to help solve the Middle East crisis.

[...]

"There exists in this country a huge and profound ignorance about Islam," Yoffie said. Hard to argue with that. Yoffie added that it is "not that stories about Islam are missing from our media; there is no shortage of voices prepared to tell us that fanaticism and intolerance are fundamental to Islamic religion, and that violence and even suicide bombing have deep Koranic roots". Thus, "it has been far too easy to spread the image of Islam as enemy".

See -- he gives no hint of the fact that it is Muslims who are telling us that "fanaticism and intolerance are fundamental to Islamic religion, and that violence and even suicide bombing have deep Koranic roots." Like CAIR and other Muslim spokesmen in America, he is trying to create the impression that it is only anti-Muslim analysts who make the connection between violence and suicide bombing and the Qur'an and Sunnah -- when actually it is the jihad terrorists who rely heavily on Islamic texts and teachings to justify their actions.

But the shift of focus is deft and effective. It inhibits most of the mainstream media from discussing what needs to be discussed: the ways in which Islamic teachings are being used by the jihadists to incite to violence, and what can be done about that. Most of the mainstream media is afraid to discuss that, for fear of being labeled "anti-Muslim."

How did this ignorance happen? Yoffie asks and does not hesitate to name names.

"How did it happen that Christian fundamentalists, such as Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham, make vicious and public attacks against your religious tradition?"

"How did it happen that when a Muslim congressman takes his oath of office while holding the Koran, Dennis Prager suggests that the congressman is more dangerous to America than the terrorists of 9/11?"

"How did it happen that a member of Congress, Tom Tancredo, now running for President, calls for the bombing of Mecca and Medina?"

How?

His explanation could be a matter of some debate: He mentions the "profound ignorance" towards Islam in the U.S., but finds fault both with "the terrorists who too often dominate the media, subverting Islam's image" and with the "opportunists in our midst --? the media figures, religious leaders, and politicians who demonize Muslims and bash Islam".

Profile

Yoffie calls for an end to "racial profiling" and "legal discrimination." While these concepts both deal with race, they are not necessarily the same: Profiling is a tool, problematic but sometimes almost unavoidable. Discrimination is always bad.

He says that "the dialogue" the organizations will be conducting "will not be one way, of course. You will teach us about Islam and we will teach you about Judaism. We will help you to overcome stereotyping of Muslims, and you will help us to overcome stereotyping of Jews".

"As a Jew I know that our sacred texts, including the Hebrew Bible, are filled with contradictory propositions, and these include passages that appear to promote violence and thus offend our ethical sensibilities. Such texts are to be found in all religions, including Christianity and Islam", Yoffie admits. However, he says, "the overwhelming majority of Jews reject violence by interpreting these texts in a constructive way".

He believes that similar dynamics work in all religions, but falls short of a full-fledged comparison. In the Jewish faith, he says, there is "a tiny, extremist minority". For Islam he chooses somewhat broader definition: "as we know from the headlines, you have what I know must be for you as well as for us an alarming number of extremists of your own."

Yes, Yoffie. An alarming number indeed. Funny how that happened.

Malaysia considers switch to Islamic law

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia. By Thomas Bell in the Telegraph (thanks to DFS):

Hardline Islamic law could be introduced across Malaysia under reforms proposed by the country's chief justice.

As the nation in south-east Asia celebrated 50 years of independence from Britain yesterday, its government was preparing to discuss a plan that would revolutionise the legal system put in place by its former colonial administrators.

As Kuala Lumpur witnessed celebrations that included parades, fireworks and a fighter-jet fly-by attended by the Duke of York, the proposal pointed to the deep differences which locals say are poisoning social relations beyond the glitter and skyscrapers of Malaysia's modern capital city.

Ahmad Fairuz, the chief justice, told an Islamic conference in Kuala Lumpur that 50 years of independence had failed to free Malaysia from the "clutches of colonialism". Sharia law should be "infused" into the gaps created by abolishing common law, he said.

Malaysia's non-Muslim Chinese and Indian communities, who form 40 per cent of the population, are alarmed at creeping Islamisation.

Abdul Badawi, the prime minister, this month joined other leaders for the first time in denying what the British-authored constitution has said for 50 years - that Malaysia is a secular state.

Sharia law already operates in some Malaysian states and is occasionally applied to non-Muslims, as in July when Islamic officials forcibly separated a Hindu-Muslim couple with six children after 21 years of marriage.

The majority ethnic Malays are defined as Muslim by law and forbidden from converting....

In line with Muhammad's dictum, "If somebody discards his religion, kill him."

Pop music group angers fundamentalists in Aceh, has to take shelter from mobs in police station

"They should not mix on stage wearing indecent clothes and make a lot of jumps ... This is Aceh province wherein the Islamic sharia is applied, so people must adjust to it."

Sharia Alert. "Pop group falls foul of stricter religious climate in Aceh," from The Age:

As in the rest of the world, Indonesian pop songs are about romance, but at concerts in Aceh province boys and girls better not want to hold hands and performers are warned against "erotic" jumping during songs.

As Aceh slowly recovers from the tsunami and decades of secessionist conflict, its youth is receiving a new battering from the forces of fundamentalism.

Interesting choice of words.

Last weekend a music festival began in Banda Aceh, featuring one of the nation's most popular bands, Nidji. The event ended in chaos with Nidji's six members sheltering from mobs in a police station before fleeing the province.

Radical Muslims had complained the festival had encouraged promiscuity and breached sharia (Islamic law) by failing to segregate the audience by gender.

Police closed the festival after one night at the request of the Banda Aceh Ulema Council, the provincial capital's leading religious authority.

Future concerts will face even tougher sanctions, council head Bardad told The Age yesterday. Not only must audiences be strictly segregated, but male and female band members cannot perform together.

"They should not mix on stage wearing indecent clothes and make a lot of jumps," he said. "This is Aceh province wherein the Islamic sharia is applied, so people must adjust to it."

A fatwa (religious decision) covering entertainment activities must be enforced across the province, Mr Bardad said. "According to the fatwa it is not only the spectators that should not mix between opposite sexes but the performers themselves."

It was not natural for unmarried couples to associate in public, he said.

Nidji's manager, Agung Febryanto, said the cancellation was a lost opportunity and the band had planned to adjust its performance to respect Aceh's culture. "We would not do a lot of jumps on stage, we would be more polite and we would engage in conversations with Islamic nuance with the fans," Mr Febryanto said. "But, well, this is what we got."

The band spent one night at the local police headquarters, as no hotels would accommodate them due to fear of fundamentalist mobs.

UPDATE: More on what set off the mobs, from Indonesia Matters (with thanks to Shiva):

Singer Rebecca Soejati Reijman, who is from the Netherlands, was performing on stage in Banda Aceh on 26th August in front of 4,000 people in support of the Jakarta-based band “Nidji” when the head covering that she was obliged to wear in the sharia-law province got caught in the wind and fell off, revealing her head, and the hair on top of it.

Because of this she had to leave the stage and the concert ended abruptly.