Recently in New York City Category

He was within an hour of finishing a pipe bomb, just a couple of days after Muslims protested in front of the NYPD against surveillance of their communities. More on this story. "Terror suspect Jose Pimentel plotted to kill cops and soldiers with bombs he was building in Manhattan apartment, authorities say," by Alison Gendar and Bill Hutchinson for the New York Daily News, November 20:

A lone wolf with an anti-American grudge has been charged with plotting to kill cops and soldiers with bombs he was building in his Manhattan apartment from an Al Qaeda recipe, officials said Sunday.

Jose Pimentel, 27, told cops he was within an hour of finishing a powerful pipe bomb when the NYPD raided his Washington Heights apartment at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Pimentel planned to test three bombs on mailboxes and was plotting to eventually use the explosives on soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kelly said Pimentel, an American citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic, also targeted a police station in Bayonne, N.J., and postal facilities.

Pimentel, who also went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, told a police informant that he hoped his attacks would grab the public’s attention to show “there was mujahideen in the city ready to wage Jihad.”

“The suspect was a so-called lone wolf, motivated by his own resentment of the presence of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as inspired by Al Qaeda propaganda,” Mayor Bloomberg said at a press conference Sunday night, adding there was no evidence Pimentel was linked to an organized Al Qaeda cell....

Like father, like son. At least in this case, that now means both have failed. An update on this story. "Father guilty of protecting subway plotter," from the Telegraph, July 22:

A Brooklyn jury found the father of Najibullah Zazi guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The case featured the evidence of two other family members who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the government to avoid stiff prison terms. They detailed the Afghan-American family's failure to acknowledge Zazi as a budding terrorist and its clumsy attempts to protect him once his plot fell apart.

A cousin of Najibullah Zazi told jurors that, while living in Pakistan, he had introduced Zazi to a cleric who arranged for Zazi and two childhood friends from New York to get explosives and other instruction at an al-Qaeda outpost.

Zazi admitted in a guilty plea last year that he returned from Pakistan to his family's Denver-area home to practise making bombs using chemicals extracted from cosmetic supplies. He then drove to New York in September 2009 with plans to attack the subway system in a "martyrdom operation" before he learned he was being watched by the FBI and fled back to Colorado.

The defendant's nephew and brother-in-law both said that the FBI and immigration agents "put the squeeze" on the Zazi clan as soon as the plot unravelled.

When it became clear Najibullah Zazi was a suspect and family members were getting grand jury subpoenas, the nephew said "Uncle Wali" recruited him to get rid of plastic containers of peroxide and other evidence.

The family agreed to code name the chemicals "medicine" in case the FBI was eavesdropping, he said. The verdict came on the second day of deliberations. Sentencing is set for Dec 2.

Until May of this year, the Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, better known to some by his initials DSK, was the influential head of the International Monetary Fund. His arrest in New York City in May of this year on sexual assault charges has been one of the most spectacular and possibly over-reported news stories of 2011. DSK's downfall has had all the elements of a long-lived scandal: a powerful personality, accusations of a violent and heinous crime, and all brought about by a mere hotel chambermaid. There was more than a whiff of schadenfreude in the media's accounts that eagerly reported on DSK's initial detention at Riker's Island in New York, right down to his daily routine, meals, and even what sort of clothes he had to wear while incarcerated. DSK's reputation as a womanizer who has had numerous liaisons over the years has done little to help his case.

Of course, it just so happens that DSK's accuser, a housekeeper at the Sofitel New York, is duly described in many media accounts as a "...very pious, devout Muslim woman."  And it also so happens that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is Jewish. Coincidence? 'Coincidence' may be what many have thought up to this point, but it may be time to revisit this assumption.

And here's why. Six weeks after DSK's initial arrest, more information is now emerging about DSK's accuser, a woman who migrated from the African nation of Guinea to the US. And these revelations are the reason why the legal case against DSK is unraveling with such amazing speed. Mr. Strauss-Kahn has in fact already been released from house arrest.

The migrant from Guinea, who came into the United States on an asylum claim in 2004, has apparently lied from beginning to end. Her story that her husband was killed opposing the regime in Guinea and she was forced to flee her homeland was all a lie. She lied about her finances in order to secure public housing. She claimed a friend's child as her own in order to increase her Federal tax refund. She has had numerous associations with criminals, including her own boyfriend who is now languishing in an Arizona prison. And her own story of her supposed encounter with DSK has changed over the last six weeks, chock full of inconsistencies. In other words, she's emerged as about the worse sort of witness imaginable for the prosecution.

Probably the most damning evidence to come to light is the fact that, while DSK's accuser spoke to her incarcerated boyfriend by phone, she is reported to have said, in effect, that "...DSK has a lot of money and I know what I'm doing." She attempted to hide these intentions by speaking in an African dialect, but apparently the Feds were listening and eventually had it translated.

This is not the first time a Muslim has tried to run an extortion racket against an 'infidel', with the only difference now being that the target was a very high-profile one. Many Muslims have long been noted for their intimate involvement in the criminal underworld, exploiting Westerners, running welfare scams, and in general 'parasiting' non Muslims and western society at every opportunity. The case against DSK appears to be but a recent and high-profile instance of 'stealth' or 'legal' jihad, when Muslims attempt to exploit the infidels' own laws for maximum advantage.

Why would a Muslim, and a 'pious, devout' one at that, be so adept and experienced at lying? Surely Islam has nothing to do with this woman's pathological lying, and nothing to do with her criminal attempts to extort money from a powerful, rich Jew. Of course.

As jihad-minded and Islamic supremacist Muslims continue to pour into the US and other Western countries, permitted to do so by clueless or complicit authorities, the next attempted shakedown (high profile or otherwise) is but a matter of time. What happened to Dominique Strauss-Kahn will eventually happen again.

The judge said they were "motivated by hatred for Jews." Yes, and... An update on this story. "New York synagogue bomb plotters jailed," from BBC News, June 29:

Three men convicted of plotting to set off bombs at a New York City synagogue and shoot down military planes have been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

James Cromitie, David Williams and Onta Williams were arrested in 2009 after planting what they thought were bombs at a Jewish temple.

Federal Judge Colleen McMahon said the men were motivated by hatred for Jews.

But their lawyers said they were duped by a paid FBI informant and never posed a threat.

The men were convicted in October of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and other charges following testimony from FBI informant Shahed Hussain, who met Cromitie at a mosque north of New York City.

A fourth man, Laguerre Payen, was also convicted but his sentencing was postponed pending a psychiatric evaluation.

'Ticking time bombs'

Prosecutors said the men tried to detonate what they thought were explosives at a Jewish centre in the Riverdale section of the Bronx borough of New York, and plotted to fire missiles at New York Air National Guard planes at a base north of New York.

In surveillance video played at trial, the men were seen examining a shoulder-fired missile launcher in a warehouse.

Jurors also heard recordings of Cromitie, the alleged ringleader, ranting against Jews and saying he wanted to exact revenge against the US for military aggression in the Middle East.

Judge McMahon acknowledged the men never posed a legitimate threat, as they were under surveillance during most of the case and never possessed genuine explosives or weapons.

Lawyers for the men argued the federal government had manufactured the crime, saying the four defendants were motivated by small amounts of cash and meals the informant provided.

But prosecutors had called the men "ticking time bombs".

"This would have been a colossal terrorist attack and the fact that it was all fantasy really doesn't matter because in their minds, they thought it was real," Assistant US Attorney David Raskin said.

"Ticking time bombs" is right. And in that regard, the sting operations that are decried as "entrapment" have been a crucial tool in steering those with the intent to commit mass murder into a controlled "off-ramp" from active plotting into jail. These operations have saved lives across the country by taking jihadists out of action from Springfield, Illinois, to Dallas, Portland, Baltimore, and Lubbock, Texas.

In New York City, the historic, landmarked high Anglican church of the Incarnation was closed as a parish in the 1970s. Unable to tear the thing down—New Yorkers may not all love God, but they do love old buildings—the Episcopal diocese sold the site to a drug-rehabilitation group, who sold it to a real estate developer, who turned it into The Limelight, one of the nastiest, skankiest sites for public hookups and drug use in the city. (People were regularly busted for having full on intercourse in the rest rooms.) No doubt the more twisted or Christ-haunted of the patrons felt a decadent frisson when they looked up at the stained glass windows of Christ or Mary (helpfully backlit even at night) that gazed down on their twisting and shouting. The one time I reluctantly went to the place (to see a European art rock band, not to hook up or score) I could almost feel the ghosts of upright, hard-working 19th-century Americans who'd saved their pennies to build the place, who'd knelt and prayed, blessed their infants, wept over their dead, in this vast Gothic place that now served as a kaleidoscopic aperture into the death throes of the West. I told a friend who was with me that I felt guilty setting foot in the place, and he said back sunnily: “Would you rather they tore it down? Made it a mosque?” And I didn't know what to say.

I'm happy to report that the Limelight is now dead and buried, and the noble old building is being used for the honorable purpose of selling high-end knickknacks and organic food; so it once again meets the religious needs of New Yorkers. But that question my friend asked me, and the grim experience of one night inside the Limelight, came back to me this week when I read the following report by Samir Khalil Samir of Asia News.

A Muslim group has asked to use the empty churches in France for Muslims to pray in, solving (at the expense of Christians) the traffic problems caused by Muslims who pray in the streets. Fr. Khalial Samir Samir, an expert scholar of Islam, reflects on the embarrassing proposal, calling for Islam in Europe to become more "European" and less "Arab".

In a press release published Friday, March 11, 2011, the "Banlieuses Respect " Collective asked authorities in charge of organization of the Church of France, to place at Muslims’ disposal "empty churches for Friday prayers". Hassan M. Ben Barek, a spokesman for the Collective, said the measure would "prevent Muslims from having to pray on the streets" and being "politicians’ hostages”.

In fact, for several years now, every Friday, alongside dozens of mosques in France, Muslims have blocked the surrounding streets for an hour or two, spreading mats on the roads to pray. In many cases, local authorities close their eyes to this offense, and in some cases the police are there to ensure the safety of those who block the streets. This situation is on the rise in France (for example, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier. Montreuil, Nice, Paris, Puteaux, Strasbourg, Torcy ...). A situation that is found all over the world (Athens, Brussels, Birmingham, Cordova, Moscow, New York ...) and also in Italy (Albenga, Canicattì, Como, Gallarate, Milan, Modena, Moncalieri, Naples, Rome ...). In the Muslim world this phenomenon is present, especially in Egypt. On 10 December, in Lyon, Marine Le Pen (National Front) denounced the Muslims "street prayers", which led to negative reactions towards the Muslim community in France.

Why is there even a prospect of Muslims being granted the use of empty churches? However much decadent multicultural guilt has infused the Church in France, there is no major constituency among that country's bishops to grant this typically arrogant Muslim demand. But it isn't up to the bishops. The history of the Church in France is deeply entwined with the State; medieval bishops relied upon the kings of France to suppress violent heresies like Albigensianism, and support the Church financially. In return, French kings demanded (and got) increasing control over the Church, until by the time of King Louis XIV, the king nominated all the country's bishops—for the pope to rubber stamp. The incestuous relations between Church and State got uglier with the French Revolution, when unarmed priests and helpless nuns became the scapegoats for the rage of the Paris mob. In return, the Church supported attempts to restore the monarchy, and aligned itself with nationalist and reactionary groups—culminating finally in the ugly Dreyfus affair, which pitted liberals and secularists against the army and the Church, centering on the fate of a patriotic Jewish officer falsely accused of spying. Because many churchmen (against the wishes of Pope Leo XIII, who defended Dreyfus) supported Dreyfus' persecution, public opinion swung violently against the Church when he was proven innocent—and the Third Republic used this sentiment to take its revenge against the Church: In 1905, all religious orders were expelled from France, and all Church property seized and put in the custodianship of the State. That's right, the French government owns every Catholic church in France, in the same way Russia's Tsar owned every stick of furniture in the hut of every serf. As a result, if a church isn't being put to use—thanks to the sharp decline in Christian religious practice in France—outsiders can petition the State to let them use it. Sometimes they just seize it, as far-right Traditionalists who follow Abp. Marcel Lefebvre seized a historic parish in Paris, and occupied it until the State decided to grant them full use of the place against the fierce objections of Paris' archbishop.

Why is all this historical background important? Because of the precedent this seizure set. Today, French Muslims are asking “nicely” if they can use underutilized churches for their Friday prayers. Tomorrow they will be gathering outside the churches demanding entry, crying “Islamophobia!” at those who keep them out. And in five years, I predict, they will simply start seizing churches—confident that the flaccid, cowardly authorities will refuse to turn them out.

Rev. Samir offers many objections to this plan for Islamicizing the churches of France:

The March 11 proposal of the Collective, calling on the Church of France, to "provide Muslims empty churches for Friday prayers", is astounding. These "empty churches" are consecrated places and it would never occur to a Christian to use them for anything other than the liturgical ceremonies, or sacred music - an exception that is always possible. It would be unthinkable to use them to celebrate a non-Christian cult.

On the other hand, a church that served as a mosque would have to be re-equipped for the needs of Muslim prayer. Many typically Christian elements would have to be removed and typically Muslim ones added. And above all these "empty churches" are not destined to remain empty, but on the contrary to be occupied as soon as possible by a Christian community or a monastic community, which is happening more and more throughout Europe. Now it seems unlikely that such a place, more or less once converted into a mosque, could be "repossessed" and turned back to church. It would be a great loss for the Muslim community and could lead to much bitterness and religious conflicts. The Christians would then be accused of being Islamophobic, revanchists, disrespectful of Muslim sensitivities, unbrotherly towards them, and so on.

If all this happens, it will fit the pattern of Islamic aggression worldwide and over the centuries: Target and seize the religious sites belonging to another faith, then stake a permanent claim of ownership over it—perhaps with the pretence that it always has been a sacred Muslim site. If the previous owners try to reclaim it, they will be guilty of an anti-Muslim atrocity, and the proper object of terrorist attacks—like Jewish settlers in Samaria, or worshippers at the Western Wall. We can see this ugly pattern going back to the very foundation of of Islam. Thanks to a story of Muhammad's trip to heaven launched from that site, Palestinians claim ownership of the Temple Mount, a site where Jews were worshipping millennia before Muhammad emerged from the desert with his extraordinary claims. Then again, Islam pretends that Abraham and Moses were really Muslims, and that the Jews who claim the site as their own are merely descendants of imposters and forgers who falsified their own holy books to hide all the prophecies of Muhammad.

The same type of Islamic colonialism is underway now in France. There are plenty of gymnasia, wedding halls, and other public spaces where Muslims could happily gather for Friday prayers. The Muslims don't want them; they want the churches. Is anyone asking himself why that is? It is because the Muslims overestimate how important Christianity is to Westerners, and view the capture of churches as a great symbolic victory—just as many viewed the (purely secular, finally futile) invasion of Iraq as a Christian “crusade.” Precisely because the Muslims see it this way, every Westerner should unite to reject such claims—to repel the attempts of Muslims to seize any church or synagogue or Hindu temple and use it as their own. Each victory they win they will regard as irreversible, and each one will spur them on to make more outrageous demands—until at last we do indeed live as dhimmis under their whip.

So back to my first question: Would I rather the ancient churches of France, for all their architectural glory, be turned into mosques, or bulldozed? My own preferences are irrelevant. The men who built these marvels are those whose wishes we should respect—and before they turned them over to the service of Muhammad's desert heresy, men like Abbot Suger would cheerfully have torn them down brick by brick. Almost all the "glories" of Islamic civilization, as Bat Ye'or has exhaustively documented, were built from the reassembled ruins of the cultures Muslims had subjugated and destroyed. Why should we add another stolen jewel to their crown?

No, before this controversy, I didn't really know who he was either. It seems that Justin Bieber is a sweet, harmless boy singer who plays upon the heartstrings of tween and teen girls across the Dar al Harb with chipper love songs and winsome smiles. As a middle-aged man, it's just as well that I wasn't fully versed in Bieber's oeuvre; if I knew too much, it might signal that something was wrong with me. I learned about Master Bieber from the teapot-tempest tossed through the careless pen of Andy Sullivan--who's described by the Toronto Sun as "a Brooklyn construction worker who created the 9-11 Hard Hat Pledge under which labourers pledge not to help build the planned mosque and community centre."

It seems that Sullivan read a hoax interview with Bieber, attributed to the girls' fanzine Tiger Beat, which included the following:

Justin Bieber has weighed on the controversy surrounding the so-called "Ground Zero" Mosque. In an interview with Tiger Beat, the pop sensation stressed that freedom of religion is what makes America great, and went on to say that those who oppose the Mosque are motivated by bigotry.

"Muslims should be allowed to build a mosque anywhere they want," the singer said. "Coming from Canada, I'm not used to this level of intolerance, eh."

Bieber went on to say that Muslims are "super cool," Christians are "lame-o-rama," and that the mosque will help "start a dialogue" with all religions about which Justin Bieber song is the most awesome.

"I was like seven when September 11th went down, and frankly I'm surprised people are still going on about it. Move on, already!"

Added the singer, "Everyone needs to just chillax and dance!"

Now, the article was a satire, but Sullivan has a tin ear for the genre. So according to the Sun, Sullivan gave "national interviews about his young children's reaction to the news that their idol, Bieber, was a purported mosque supporter." Informed by the less irony-impaired that the interview was a stunt, Sullivan did the right thing, and said he was sorry: "I offer my most genuine apology to Justin Bieber, his family and fans," Sullivan wrote on his blog. "If I have caused any grief or pain I am terribly sorry."

The whole kerfuffle ended up being covered on CNN, to the glee of the puckish writers at CelebJihad, who concocted the original story.

Why should we be interested in all this? Because of what it says about the climate of opinion. If opposition to the Ground Zero Victory Mosque were indeed the preserve of a tiny contingent of "haters," led by puffed up nonentities like (two-time NY Times bestselling author) Robert Spencer and (author and widely televised commentator) Pamela Geller, with no real constituency... why would it be necessary for Sullivan to apologize? All he was doing was stating that Justin Bieber agreed with the huge majority of Americans, who blithely accept the construction of a mosque on the site of the largest Islamic mass murder in recent history. If most Americans agreed with Bieber's purported sentiments, why would it be libelous for Sullivan to publicize them? Why would Bieber's hotshot lawyers (come on, you know this is what really happened) have twisted Sullivan's arm to the point that he had to publicly apologize?

The only answer is this: 51 percent of Americans surveyed thought the Ground Zero Mosque was the leading news story of 2010, and 61 percent of Americans oppose its construction, because they know what it really amounts to: an endzone dance on 3,000 plus American graves. When Bieber's fans (or more likely, their parents) "learned" that Bieber was on the side of Daisy Khan and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, they went ballistic. They probably looked around the house for Bieber's records so they could burn them--only to learn that the songs were all on iTunes anyway. If opposing the Victory Mosque was such a fringe position, why would it endanger a pop star's career to say that he favored the project?

Bieber's attorneys know the truth about how Americans feel on this subject, and they don't want their innocent client associated with this issue--one way or the other. The satire, which was very clever, put in Bieber's mouth the haughty dismissiveness toward our anger over terrorism that Western appeasers really do display. If Michael Bloomberg had the stones, he might very well say what he thinks about 9/11, and it wouldn't be too much different than "frankly I'm surprised people are still going on about it. Move on, already!"

We are not moving on. We are not jumping up, like browbeaten dhimmis, and moving to the back of the bus. Any politician who supports the Victory Mosque should be targeted with savage attack ads in the next election--sponsored by third party groups (rather than the opposing candidates), with powerful footage of the slaughter enacted that day in the name of Allah. Maybe, if they can obtain the rights, the ads should feature music by... Justin Bieber. Instead of "Never Say Never," he could be asked to sing "Never Again."

If the dangerous clowns of Nigeria's Boko Haram ("Books, Him Bad!") are escapees from an unpublished novel of Evelyn Waugh, the builders of the Ground Zero Victory Mosque and their sickening enablers are creatures whose mischief is even blacker: They are living, breathing characters torn from the pages of The Camp of the Saints.

Really, only Jean Raspail could have come up with this scenario: Muslims fly a plane into the largest building in America, then finagle a way to buy a piece of the crash site for pennies on the dollar using shadowy money they cannot account for, then claim that America's freedom of religion (which they reject on Islamic principle) must permit them to build on the site, then they have the infinite gall to apply for government money to build it--all the while a Christian church destroyed by the Muslims is being blocked by the very same city government, which is run by a Jewish liberal, who's betraying his own people's interests so that he can make inroads with his financial news services in the Middle East. The only way this story could be more lurid and implausible would be if NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg had made his fortune selling rope.

The Camp of the Saints, by the prize-winning French novelist Jean Raspail, has "awakened" countless Westerners to the dangers of mass, non-Western immigration since its publication in 1973. Translated into English, publicized in the pages of National Review (back when that magazine's target market was adults) with a review by Jeffrey Hart, the novel is a bracing, sobering look at the suicidal liberalism that has infected Western elites. In the book, a mass exodus of refugees from India loads itself onto boats and announces it is sailing for the West. (Ironically, for us, the people aboard the ships in The Camp of the Saints are actually meant to be Hindus--who have proved, in fact, to be the most cooperative and productive of immigrant groups. Never mind: it's merely a metaphor.)

The sailing of a million refugees for the shores of France triggers an orgy of Western self-hatred, a masochistic fetish of contrition for the "sins" of the First World on the part of lazy, spoiled leftists who dominate the media. Anyone who expresses caution at the numbers or nature of the refugees is mau-mau-ed by the critics and driven into obscurity--or covertly knifed by roving bands of self-appointed executioners. Because, you see, the real enemies of the West by this point aren't the starving cargo of the refugee armada, but the gangs of razor-wielding Arabs and other self-selected "outsiders" who await the landing of the armada as the signal for an uprising against hated "Whitey." The ghettos in New York, the banlieues and favelas throughout the West, are pulsing with energy, waiting to see if the symbolic blow will be allowed to fall: will the refugee armada land, or will the West blow it out of the water? Will the "weak" be permitted to use their weakness as a weapon, to exploit the chinks in the poorly catechized, post-Christian consciences of Westerners--who will feel too guilty to use force in self-defense? This question will arise in a much sharper way in the next few decades in Europe, as the remaining non-Muslim populations face the threat of takeover, and must choose between sharia and civil war.

Yes, race is used too overtly as a metaphor for the values of the West in The Camp of the Saints. At times, you can't help cringing at how concretely the author equates whiteness with Westernness. That overly material, almost biologistic racialism, if it were more than a metaphor, would be morally reprehensible. But the author is careful at various points to point in another direction: Most of his white characters are cringing, puling post-Christian slave moralizers who seem to deserve their onrushing fate; some of his most heroic, civilized figures are Indians who cherished their Western educations, who wish to help save the West. I wish the author had laid more emphasis on such figures. But hey, I'm not the visionary author who predicted, three decades ago, precisely the sort of auto-destruction that Europe (and New York City) are currently engaged in.

If you haven't read The Camp of the Saints, go get a copy. Indeed, get five copies--enough to give your closest dhimmi friends. If they make it all the way through (it's a brilliant, but harrowing read) they will never look at the world the same way again. It's that kind of book--on the same order as Darkness at Noon, The Black Book of Communism, or Man's Search for Meaning. Anyone who can read it and remain unaffected is pretty much past persuasion.

I should care, I should go around weeping
I should care, I should go without sleeping
Strangely enough, I sleep well
'cept for a dream or two
But then I count my sheep well
Funny how sheep can lull you to sleep

So I should care, I should let it upset me
I should care but it just doesn't get me....

That's as far as Bloomberg would get in this Sammy Cahn tune, for now. At some point, either on a future Election Day, or when a problem that could have been avoided arises from within this mosque, he'll get to the last part:

"I should care, and I do."

"Mayor Bloomberg doesn't care where money to build Ground Zero mosque comes from," by Adam Lisberg for the New York Daily News, August 6 (thanks to Twostellas):

Mayor Bloomberg said he doesn't know where the planners of the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero will get the money to build -- and he doesn't care.

"People say, well, you know, 'Do they have the money? Can they raise the money? Where does it come from?' " the mayor said Friday on his WOR-AM radio show with John Gambling.

"I don't know, and government shouldn't -- do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, 'Okay, now, you know, where do you come from? Who are your parents? Where'd you get this money?'

Big difference: What supremacist middle finger to America is the corner church trying to put up at Ground Zero?

"No! This is just not -- and I can't for the life of me -- a handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves." [channeling a Fred Armisen character from SNL's Weekend Update? - ed.]

Bloomberg gave an impassioned defense of the rights of the Park51 Islamic center this week after the Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the founders permission to tear down the existing structure on Park Place.

Organizers have not yet raised money to construct the proposed 13-story building.

They have said they may accept some foreign donations, but have pledged to weed out any contributions from people and groups with anti-American agendas.

So, no money from Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan? Fabulous!

Yes, you read that right. And Wilders, only Wilders, is standing up to this breathtaking short-sighted idiocy: "'Netherlands Subsidising Mosque by Ground Zero,'" from NIS News, July 21 (thanks to Fjordman):

AMSTERDAM, 21/07/10 - The Party for Freedom (PVV) is demanding clarification by the Dutch government regarding reports that the Netherlands is co-financing the construction of a mosque a stone's throw away from Ground Zero in New York with 1 million dollars of Dutch taxpayers' money.

On the foreign ministry's website, it says that a subsidy of 1 million dollars has been awarded to the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). This organisation is, in partnership with the Islamic organisation Cordoba Initiative, responsible for the Islamic centre including a mosque, costing 100 million dollars, to be built near Ground Zero.

The PVV is demanding an explanation and terms the plans to build a mosque right next to Ground Zero absurd and an insult to relatives of the thousands of victims who lost their lives on 11 September 2001. The party wants the subsidy to ASMA to be withdrawn immediately.

An update on this story. "Feds: NYC Subway Plotters Targeted London, Too," from CBS News and the Associated Press, July 7:

A failed plot to set off bombs in the New York subway system last year was part of larger al Qaeda conspiracy that planned a similar attack in England, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday.

In a terrorism indictment unsealed Wednesday, prosecutors added several al Qaeda figures to the case, including Adnan Shukrijumah, whose name is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists.

Shukrijumah, an al Qaeda leader in charge of plotting attacks worldwide, was directly involved in recruiting and plotting the New York attack, prosecutors said. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that plot one of the most dangerous since Sept. 11, 2001.

Two of the men indicted Wednesday, Abid Naseer and Tariq Ur Rehman, were linked to a previously undisclosed companion plot in England.

"These charges underscore the global nature of the terrorist threat we face," David Kris, the Justice Department's top national security prosecutor said.

After 9/11, Shukrijumah, 34, was seen as one of al Qaeda's best chances to attack inside the United States or Europe, captured terrorist Abu Zubaydah told U.S. authorities. Shukrijumah studied at a community college in Florida, but when the FBI showed up to arrest him as a material witness to a terrorism case in 2003, he already had left the country.

In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft called Shukrijumah a "clear and present danger" to the United States. The U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Three U.S. citizens were arrested in September 2009 before, prosecutors said, they could carry out a trio of suicide bombings in Manhattan. Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay have pleaded guilty and admitted planning to detonate homemade bombs on the subway during rush hour.

A third man, Adis Medunjanin, awaits trial. Prosecutors added new terrorism charges against him Wednesday.

Intelligence officials began unraveling the subway plot last year, when U.S. intelligence intercepted an e-mail from an account that al Qaeda had used in a recent terrorist plot, officials said. The e-mail discussed bomb-making techniques and was sent to an address in Denver, setting off alarms within the CIA and FBI from Islamabad to the U.S.

Najibullah Zazi and two friends were arrested in September 2009 before, prosecutors said, they could carry out a trio of suicide bombings in Manhattan. Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay have pleaded guilty and admitted planning to detonate homemade bombs on the subway during rush hour. A third man, Adis Medunjanin, awaits trial.

A fourth suspect, a midlevel al Qaeda operative known as Ahmed, traded the e-mails with Zazi, who was frantically trying to perfect his bomb making recipe, officials said. The U.S. wants to bring the Pakistani man to the U.S. for trial on charges that are not yet public.

Pakistani officials also have arrested a fifth person, known as Afridi, who worked with Ahmed, officials said....

"War is deceit," Muhammad said, and this tactic would stretch resources thin and tempt residents to take the suspicious packages less seriously until an actual bomb went off among the decoys. "Jihadi Web site asks supporters to plant fake bombs in New York City," by Alison Gendar for the New York Daily News, June 8:

They want to kill us, but in the meantime, terrorists may just mess with our heads.

Psychological jihad is part of the package. Muhammad also said: "I have been made victorious with terror." And Qur'an 8:60 commands believers to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah."

A well-known jihadi Web site called on supporters to plant fake bombs in the city to wreak havoc, exhaust law enforcement and lure New Yorkers into complacency, an FBI alert says.

Local FBI and NYPD sources downplayed the internal report, which was issued out of the FBI's Field Office Intelligence Division in Washington.

"We handle hundreds of false alarms each week, and have for years, and still managed to react quickly when the real thing happens," said an NYPD source.

The alert was part of a routine internal bulletin. FBI sources said the city has a strong system in place to handle suspicious packages.

In the week after the failed May 1 Times Square car bombing, the number of calls to the NYPD for suspicious packages topped more than 140 a day, compared with 80 to 90 a day in the days before the attack.

Even though Shahzad settled on Times Square, to whom did the information on other targets go? "Times Square bomb suspect eyed other targets, official says," from CNN, May 18:

New York (CNN) -- The man accused of attempting to set off a car bomb in Times Square considered other targets in and around New York before the failed attack, an investigator said.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, pondered attacks on Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, the World Financial Center and Connecticut helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky, going so far as to case some of the targets, a senior counterterrorism official with oversight of the investigation said Tuesday.

Dressed in a gray sweatsuit, free of handcuffs, Shahzad appeared before a federal magistrate on Tuesday afternoon to hear the charges against him. As he walked into courtroom, Shahzad gave a slight smile to his public defender, Julia Gatto. At the end of the hearing, Gatto requested that Shahzad be served halal food -- prepared according to Islamic dietary laws -- while jailed.

That is: "Please go to extra trouble on the taxpayer dime to respectfully accommodate the belief system under whose orders (cf. Qur'an 9:5, for starters) my client tried to commit mass murder."

Of course, the politically correct dogma currently in force prevents most in the justice system from acknowledging that Islam has anything to do with jihadist terrorism. But, if for no other reason than fiscal responsibility: How about some Tofurky?

Why the assumption that we have something to prove? Meanwhile, we're expected to take Islam's claims of "tolerance" (which is according to its own definition and standards, not the Western tradition) as an article of politically correct faith. The tasteless positioning of a mosque near Ground Zero is also intended to foist another part of that dogma on New Yorkers -- namely, that Islam had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, so a mosque in that location ought to be quite alright, right?

But there are two problems here: 1. Islamic jihad was the motivation behind those attacks, and 2. it is Islam that has a problem with tolerance, as is made clear by its own texts and teachings (one may start with Qur'an 9:29, 98:6), and the abundance of Islamic nations cited as "Countries of Particular Concern" in the annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Lastly, the fact that this project is called the "Cordoba House" adds a certain level of insult to injury. In that vein, someone might ask Imam Rauf about the Hagia Sophia sometime.

"New Yorkers Wary Of Future Ground Zero Mosque," from CBS, May 6:

NEW YORK (CBS) ― In a building damaged by debris from the Sept. 11 airliners that brought down the World Trade Center and soon to become a 13-story mosque, some see the bridging of a cultural divide and an opportunity to serve a burgeoning, peaceful religious population. Others see a painful reminder of the religious extremism that killed their loved ones.

Anything having to do with that day, that place, carries enormous meaning. Now two Islamic organizations have partnered to build something that they say will bring some good from something very bad.

Organizers say the project will create a venue for mainstream Islam and a counterbalance to radicalism. It earned a key endorsement this week from influential community leaders.

"This is a community center, a community and cultural center, which would include certainly prayer space for Muslims and we hope for non-Muslims as well, to bring about a new discourse in the relationship between the United States, New York City, and the Muslim world," said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative.

He's hoping the 13-story, $100 million Islamic center will join the other buildings; the banks, offices, and apartments, going up at ground zero. It will serve a growing Muslim population in lower Manhattan.

The closest mosque to this area is a dozen blocks away and very over-crowded, but this site was also chosen for exactly what happened here on 9/11, and what America stands for, Rauf told CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City.

"Definitely, this is a victory of American tolerance over hatred," Rauf said.

But some 9/11 victims' families say the issue isn't tolerance.

It's sensitivity.

"I don't like it," said Evelyn Pettigano, who lost a sister in the attacks, during a phone interview on Thursday. "I'm not prejudiced. ... It's too close to the area where our family members were murdered."

"I lost my brother, Sean. He was a fireman," Rosaleen Tallon said.

"As an American I am so proud of our freedom of religion, but I also think we have to be historically sensitive to what happened in that area," Tallon said.

Tallon wants to teach her son, Paddy, to be tolerant of other religions. But she wonders if other religions, like Islam, are teaching their children to be tolerant of hers. There are other places in the city, she said, for another mosque.

"I don't think that they would build a German cultural center right near Auschwitz. Just because you're looking at what happened to the people that died there. That's all that should be focused on," Tallon said.

The organizations publicly unveiled the preliminary plan for the project, known as the Cordoba House, on Wednesday at a meeting of the finance committee of the local community board, which is composed of influential stakeholders in lower Manhattan. While the agency has no authority over what can be developed at the site, their support is viewed as key to gaining acceptance from residents....

Of course, Al-Awlaki did not invent the ideology he has become widely known for propagating. Nor did Osama bin Laden, nor did al-Qaeda. Authorities would have to dig into some highly politically-incorrect territory to get to the root of what motivated Shahzad to pursue violent jihad, especially since his case cannot be written off as the product of poverty or a lack of education. "A Newly Religious Immigrant Is Linked to a Militant Yemeni-American Cleric," by Scott Shane and Marc Mazzetti for the New York Times, May 6:

WASHINGTON -- The Pakistani-American man accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square has told investigators that he drew inspiration from Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric whose militant online lectures have been a catalyst for several recent attacks and plots, an American official said Thursday.

Curious NYT decorum:

The would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, said he was "inspired by" the violent rhetoric of Mr. Awlaki, said the official, who would speak of the investigation only on condition of anonymity.

"He listened to him, and he did it," the official said, referring to Saturday's attempted bombing on a busy street in Times Square.

Friends of Mr. Shahzad have said he became more religious and somber in the last year or so, and asked his father's permission in 2009 to join the fight in Afghanistan against American and NATO forces. Investigators believe he was trained by the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group that previously focused mainly on Pakistani government targets.

A senior military official said Thursday that Mr. Shahzad has told interrogators that he met with Pakistani Taliban operatives in North Waziristan in December and January. Later he received explosives training from the same operatives, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Counterterrorism officials want to know how Mr. Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen who had earned an M.B.A., married and had children and worked in several corporate jobs, came to embrace violence.

It is no surprise to counterterrorism officials to find that an accused terrorist had been influenced by Mr. Awlaki, 39, now hiding in Yemen, who has emerged as perhaps the most prominent English-speaking advocate of violent jihad against the United States.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration took the extraordinary step of authorizing the killing of Mr. Awlaki, making him the first American citizen on the Central Intelligence Agency's hit list.

Mr. Awlaki's English-language online lectures and writings have turned up in more than a dozen terrorism investigations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, counterterrorism experts have said. And in two recent United States cases, Mr. Awlaki communicated directly with the accused perpetrator.

Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November, exchanged about 18 e-mail messages with Mr. Awlaki in the year before the shootings, asking among other things whether it would be permissible under Islam to kill American soldiers preparing to fight in Afghanistan. After the shootings, Mr. Awlaki praised Major Hasan as "a hero" on his Web site, which was taken offline by the Internet host company shortly after the posting.

In addition, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic airliner on Christmas Day, is believed to have met Mr. Awlaki during his training by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

It is unclear whether Mr. Shahzad ever directly communicated with Mr. Awlaki.

A video broadcast on April 26 on Al Jazeera showed Mr. Awlaki speaking in Arabic and accusing the United States of participating with Yemeni forces in two air strikes in December, one of which was directed at a house where Mr. Awlaki was believed to be meeting with leaders of the Al Qaeda branch. The video carried the logo of the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Mr. Awlakiwas questioned by the F.B.I. late in 2001 about contacts with three of the Sept. 11 hijackers who had attended his mosques in San Diego and Virginia. He denied any radical ties and denounced the 9/11 attacks in public statements.

He was imprisoned in Yemen in 2006 and 2007, and after his release he was more overtly approving of violence. Last year, he published a tract entitled "44 Ways of Supporting Jihad" that was widely circulated on the Internet.

There are 50 ways to leave your lover, but only 44 ways to support jihad. Now you know.

Mr. Awlaki's Web site became a favorite for English-speaking Muslims who were curious about jihad, and hundreds of people sent e-mail messages to his site. It is not known whether Mr. Shahzad was among them, and there is no evidence that Mr. Shahzad visited the cleric in Yemen where he was believed to be hiding in a harsh region of desert and mountains.

It ought to be, and it would be long overdue with regard to American tolerance of Pakistan's foot-dragging, highly selective approach to addressing jihadist groups within its borders, and the frequent complicity of the Inter-Services Intelligence with those groups' activities, whether involving Kashmir or the western frontier provinces. "Congressman cites probable link between Shahzad, Pakistani Taliban," from CNN, May 6:

(CNN) -- The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee says "there probably is a strong link" between Times Square car bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad and the Taliban in Pakistan.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra told CNN's American Morning on Thursday that he has drawn that conclusion from a number of sources.

"If this is accurate, it would be a game-changer," Hoekstra said.

"We're going to get much more aggressive and perhaps more creative in terms of how we gather intelligence to find the plots and find individuals to stop them," he said.

He said his committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, will be getting an official briefing later Thursday.

According to a law enforcement source with knowledge of Shahzad's questioning, the suspect made a practice run in Manhattan the day before he allegedly tried to blow up a car bomb in Times Square.

Last Friday, Shahzad drove his white Isuzu from Connecticut through Times Square, where he staked out potential locations for the following night's planned attack, the source said. He then parked the Isuzu several blocks away from Times Square, though the precise location was unclear, and took a train back to Connecticut, the source said.

Separately, authorities in Pakistan have rounded up a number of people for questioning, as U.S. law enforcement officials sought Wednesday to piece together Shahzad's actions and motivations.

Iftikhar Mian, the father-in-law of the suspect, and Tauseef Ahmed, Shahzad's friend, were picked up in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday, two intelligence officials said.

An intelligence source said Wednesday that Muhammed Rehan, an associate of Shahzad, also was detained Tuesday.

New details began to emerge on how Shahzad made his way to Times Square on Saturday night.

With his recently acquired Pathfinder loaded with his makeshift explosives, Shahzad drove southbound along Manhattan's East River on FDR Drive to the 49th Street exit, the law enforcement source said.

Shahzad then pulled over and reached into the Pathfinder's rear compartment where he attempted to set into motion the process needed to set off the homemade bomb, the source said.

The source, who did not explain how Shahzad had attempted to set off the bomb, said he then took a number of turns and wound up entering Times Square by driving south down Seventh Avenue.

It's unclear why Shahzad left the Pathfinder's engine running and hazard lights blinking.

But because of an incredible goof, Shahzad couldn't use his escape car. He had accidentally left the keys to that vehicle in the Pathfinder that he thought was about to blow up, the source said....

"Another clue in the investigation is a video posted online early Sunday morning by persons in Connecticut." More on this story. "Authorities Have Identified Person of Interest in Times Square Bomb Attempt," by Richard Esposito, Pierre Thomas, and Brian Ross for ABC News, May 3:

Federal authorities are closing in on the man they say is a person of interest in the Times Square car bomb attempt this weekend, who is described as a naturalized American citizen who hails from Pakistan and just returned after spending five months there.

There is growing evidence the bomber did not act alone and had ties to radical elements overseas, with one senior official telling ABC News there are several individuals believed to be connected with the bombing and that at least one of them is a Pakistani-American.

Attorney General Eric Holder said today the investigators had made "substantial progress" in tracking the man who drove a Nissan Pathfinder into New York's Times Square with a crude bomb that failed to detonate.

Officials declined to provide the specifics that led them to believe there were overseas links to a larger plot.

Authorities said another clue in the investigation is a video posted online early Sunday morning by persons in Connecticut, who may have been involved in the bomb attempt and are being sought by law enforcement. The video, posted on a site registered one day before the attack, has the Taliban in Pakistan claiming responsibility for the attempted bombing....

More on this story, and what continues to be Pakistan's most prominent export. "Times Square Bomb: U.S. Officials Finding Foreign Links to New York Bomb Plot," by Richard Esposito, Pierre Thomas, and Brian Ross for ABC News, May 3:

Federal authorities are closing in on the man they say tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square Saturday, and there is growing evidence the bomber did not act alone and had ties to radical elements overseas.

Police release video of possible suspect seen near site of failed attack.

One senior official said there are several individuals believed to be connected with the bombing and that at least one of them is a Pakistani-American.

Attorney General Eric Holder said today the investigators had made "substantial progress" in tracking the man who drove a Nissan Pathfinder into New York's Times Square with a crude bomb that failed to detonate. [...]

Other law enforcement officials said the investigation was closing in on the driver of the vehicle and an unknown number of others connected to him.

"This is moving very fast because they left behind a treasure trove of evidence in the unexploded car," one US official told ABC News.

Officials told ABC News Senior Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas that the Connecticut owner of the vehicle told them he had sold the Nissan SUV last month in an unrecorded sale to an "Arabic or Latino looking man" in his 20's or 30's, for a few hundred dollars in cash.

The license plate on the car was apparently stolen from an auto repair shop outside Bridgeport, Connecticut, according to law enforcement officials.

The authorities told ABC News that the previous owner provided a description of the man who bought the car, and told investigators the vehicle was sold for several hundred dollars in cash, with no written records identifying the purchaser. [...]

"They would not have been able to have stopped the bomb if it had been wired properly," said former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "Someone was able to drive into New York with what looks like bomb parts, drive right into the heart of Times Square, pull up on the sidewalk, jump up and run away and not get caught."

The bomb bore similarities to two Al Qaeda-connected attacks on a London nightclub and an airport in Scotland in 2007. Three vehicles used in the attempted bombings contained propane gas tanks.

Al Qaeda has posted videos showing how to construct a bomb using propane tanks and gasoline.

He has citizenship in two of the most prosperous, advanced societies on the planet. How 'bout that gratitude? More on this story. "Aussie on NY terror charges," by Carly Crawford for the Herald Sun, May 1:

The Australian man arrested as part of a growing al-Qaeda probe in New York is a devoted follower of fundamentalist Islam, sources say.

New York-based Sabirhan "Tareq" Hasanoff, who has both Australian and US citizenship, was one of two men charged with conspiring to provide material support al Qaeda in the US yesterday.

He is accused of lending the extremist network his computer expertise and handling huge sums of money for the group in New York.

Hasanoff's co-accused, Wesam El-Hanafi, 33, allegedly travelled to terror hotbed Yemen to receive orders, later purchasing seven digital Casio watches online.

Such watches are often used as timers to set off terrorist bombs.

He and Hasanoff were arrested overseas and flown to the US ahead their court appearance in Virginia yesterday.

They each faced one count of conspiring with al Qaeda between November 2007 and March 2010 and face up to 15 years in jail.

Hasanoff, 34, allegedly received $US50,000 ($A66,000) from an al Qaeda associate in 2007 and later discussed joining the radical terror cell, court documents show.

The tenant who occupies his townhouse in Flushing, Queens, described Hasanoff as a polite family man who, like his wife Wahida, is heavily into fundamentalist Islam.

"She's very religious and her husband is too," Fahima Rustam told News Limited at the neat split-level home yesterday.

"I'm scared - he was very nice, very quiet person," she said.

The FBI interviewed Ms Rustam early one morning about six months ago, digging for details about her landlord.

Hasanoff has two children - a boy aged five and a four-year-old daughter.

Two days ago, Ms Rustam got a phone call from Hasanoff's sister who asked her to start writing her rent checks in the sister's name, rather than her brother's.

"She didn't say why," said Ms Rustam, who has rented the home for the past four years.

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly played down fears of a looming terror attack, saying there was no evidence of a specific plot.

"This was part of an on-going investigation into material support for al-Qaeda," NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said.

"Najibullah Zazi and his two co-defendants wanted to inflict maximum casualties around the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks."

An update on this story. "Source: Terror plot targeted Times Square, Grand Central stations," by Susan Candiotti for CNN, April 12:

New York (CNN) -- The three men accused of plotting to bomb the New York City subway last year planned to attack trains at Times Square and Grand Central stations, a federal law enforcement source said Monday.

Najibullah Zazi and his two co-defendants wanted to inflict maximum casualties around the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the source said.

The trio, wearing homemade bombs, plotted to position themselves in the middle of busy subway cars in order to kill the most people, probably targeting the 1, 2, 3, or 6 line trains, the source said.

Since his arrest, Zazi has given authorities information about the plot. The law enforcement source said Zazi would probably have chosen September 14 for the attack, but was also considering the September 15 or 16.

Zazi's co-defendants, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay, are indicted in the plot and have pleaded not guilty.

All three men went to the same high school in Flushing, Queens, New York.

The plot was foiled when the FBI began following Zazi and police stopped him on a bridge into New York. Zazi said that prompted him to dump his bomb materials and return to Denver, Colorado, where he was working as a shuttle driver, authorities said.

Prosecutors have said they plan one or two more arrests overseas.

Zazi is scheduled for sentencing in June.

Hmmmm. Let's see: a repeated call to "kill Jews," written on paper from a taxicab company. Now what population in New York City contains a significant number of people who are cab drivers, and a significant number of people who want to see another genocide against Jews? It's a real head-scratcher!

"Another sick call to 'KILL JEWS,'" by Stephen Brown in The Brooklyn Paper, January 28 (thanks to Pamela):

Karen Guilbert found a score of slips of paper reading "Kill Jews" during her morning walk on Wednesday -- the second time she's found such a cache of hate in the past two months.

In a stunning display of intolerance, Sixth Avenue in Park Slope was littered with strips of papers reading "KILL JEWS" in capital letters from Fourth to Ninth streets on Wednesday.

Nearly two dozen of the strips were picked up by Karen Guilbert, who had just finished walking her daughter to school....

Before she turned the slips over to the police, Guilbert played amateur detective by turning the strips over and piecing them together. All that emerged was that the slips had been cut from a document from a taxi driving school. Yet there were no addresses or phone numbers on the strips that offered any further clues.

"Someone is trying to be a taxi driver," Guilbert nervously joked. "I sure hope I don't end up in his car."...

Most unsettling, this is not the first time the craven Anti-Semitic litterer has struck.

In addition to Guilbert's Halloween discovery, last September, the same notes turned up in Bay Ridge, Boerum Hill and Clinton Hill.

To top it off, vandals struck two synagogues in Brooklyn Heights in 2007 and left the same message on car windshields.

Andrew McCarthy, with whom I had the pleasure and honor of participating in a panel discussion on free speech along with Steve Emerson yesterday at Restoration Weekend, explains why moving the trial of the 9/11 masterminds to New York is so wrongheaded. "How Obama is courting danger: Civilian trials set back the war on terror," by Andrew C. McCarthy in the New York Daily News, November 22:

The prosecution team I led in 1995 convicted the notorious Blind Sheikh and 11 others for conspiring to wage a terrorist war that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and attempting (unsuccessfully) to attack New York City landmarks.

Consequently, some observers seem puzzled that I'm a vocal critic of civilian trials for our terrorist enemies. But they are confusing litigation success with national-security success. So is the Obama administration in deciding to transfer Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters to federal court in Manhattan.

We certainly can convict terrorists in civilian court. We've done it too many times for that to be a serious issue. It's also indisputable that the U.S attorney's office in Manhattan, where I was privileged to work for 18 years, is without peer in the expertise needed for such complex prosecutions. I have every confidence the Justice Department could convict KSM & Co.

The problem on this ride is not the destination; it's the journey.

We are in a hot war, overwhelmingly authorized by Congress, against vicious enemies still plotting attacks that could dwarf the carnage of 9/11. To deal with war crimes, Congress in 2006 endorsed military commission trials, which have a rich pedigree in our history, are fully consistent with our Constitution, and better enable us to withhold intelligence methods and sources.

Indeed, the Obama administration concedes that military commissions are sound: Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the bombers of the warship Cole will face one.

From a legal standpoint, it makes no sense to try the Al Qaeda quintet in civilian court. Eleven months ago, these men were prepared to plead guilty in their military commission and proceed to execution. Yet the Obama administration pulled the plug on that commission. This was a transparent sop to the left, which wants to judicialize war-fighting and is repulsed by the intelligence-centric, prevention-first counterterrorism strategy that has protected us for eight years from a reprise of the 9/11 atrocities.

Now, our enemies will be given a full-blown civilian trial with all the rights of the American citizens they are sworn to kill. They will get a year or more to sift through our national defense secrets. They will have wide latitude to turn the case into a trial of the Bush administration - publicizing information about anti-terrorism tactics that leftist lawyers will exploit in their quest for war crimes prosecutions in foreign courts against current and former U.S. officials.

In the military system, we could have denied them access to classified information, forcing them to accept military lawyers with security clearances who could see such intelligence but not share it with our enemies. In civilian court, the Supreme Court has held an accused has an absolute right to conduct his own defense. If KSM asserts that right - as he tried to do in the military commission - he will have a strong argument that we must surrender relevant, top-secret information directly to him. And we know that indicted terrorists share what they learn with their confederates on the outside....

Read it all.

Last Tuesday, while I was speaking at NYU, Leftist students created a diversion and threw pies at me and the other speaker, Elan Journo (they missed me, but got Journo on the shoulder).

In brief:

1. This is assault.
2. This shows the utter intellectual bankruptcy of the Left. They can't answer arguments, so they try to shut down the speakers instead.
3. This shows the Left's thuggery and lack of commitment to free speech and free inquiry.
4. The choice of pies as weapons is intended to ridicule the victims, even if the pies were filled with noxious and/or poisonous substances, thus accomplishing not only the disruption of the event but the portrayal of the victim as a clown, not worth taking seriously (which of course is one of the Alinsky rules).

Here are two accounts of the event (thanks to James):

"NYC: Racist Warmonger Gets Pied," from Infoshop News, November 21:

NYU students disrupted a university event this evening featuring Robert Spencer from "Jihad Watch" and Elan Journo from the "Ayn Rand Institute for Individual Freedom." Students called out the panelists for their Islamophobic, warmongering hate-rhetoric, shouting and launching pies at the speakers. One student was detained, and several were escorted out of the building.

Ironically enough, the "Islamophobic, warmongering hate-rhetoric" that prompted the little Stalinist to stand up and start shouting was my quoting Maulana Maududi, the internationally influential Pakistani jihad theorist.

The event, entitled "The Jihad Still Threatens America," encouraged viscous Islamophobia and promoted aggressive military intervention in majority Muslim nations.

"Viscous" Islamophobia, as opposed to the usual clear and thin Islamophobia.

Speaker Elan Journo actively promotes devastating attacks on Iran, claiming that "victory in World War II required flattening cities, firebombing factories, shops and homes, devastating vast tracts of Germany and Japan.... Victory today requires the same: smashing Iran's totalitarian regime and thus demoralizing the Islamist movement and its many supporters, so that they, too, abandon their cause as futile." Fear-mongering comments such as these promote the expansion of US imperialism, and contribute to the wave of anti-Muslim hate that is sweeping our nation....

Where? What anti-Muslim hate? And note that Muslim hate and terror appears to be just fine with these guys.

While it is disturbing to see hate being expressed on such institutional levels on our campuses, the students' refusal to be silent is an inspiration to us all.

Yes, violence in the name of suppressing free speech sure is an inspiration.

Here is the other, apparently mocking the self-contradictory stance of the "tolerancemongers":

"NYU Tolerancemongers Attack Intolerance With Pie," by Hamilton Nolan for Gawker, November 19:

Last week, Forbes columnist and NYU professor Tunku Varadarajan won our Outrage-off for his column about crazy Muslim murderers lurking amongst us. NYU radicals have struck back with a revolutionary pie-ing of Varadarajan's Islamaphobic allies!

A member of the NYU revolutionary vanguard alerted us to the pie-ing, and her note is reprinted in full below. The victims were Elan Journo of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, and Robert Spencer from "Jihad Watch," both of whom were there to talk about how there is apparently a Jihad, threatening America? Did you know about this?

Anyhow the kids were not about to let this intolerance of opposing viewpoints stand, so they interrupted the guys with a pie assault. Spencer himself writes about his close brush with whipped cream here. One eyewitness account says the two speakers "ended up largely unscathed." Our tipster tells us that the revolutionary cameraperson assigned to film the pie-ing for propaganda purposes "was tackled by security at the very beginning and didn't get any footage."

How are we supposed to repel the Jihadists if our military-age youth can't even stage a proper pie attack? Very troubling indeed....

It could jeopardize counterterror programs and thereby endanger Americans, but who cares? "9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to go on trial in New York," from the Telegraph, November 13 (thanks to Anne Crockett):

President Barack Obama said the September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be put on trial in New York City.

Speaking in Tokyo, Mr Obama said Mohammed, the self-proclaimed organiser of the al-Qaeda terrorist plot that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001, would face "exacting" US justice.

Bringing such notorious suspects to US soil to face trial would be a key step in Mr Obama's plan to close the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Obama initially planned to close the centre at the US naval base on Cuba by Jan 22 next year, but his administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

It is also a major legal and political test of Mr Obama's overall approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks, the administration will face second-guessing from those who never wanted it in a civilian courtroom.

Indeed.

The New York case may force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programmes begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method - waterboarding, or simulated drowning - was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned....

It's up to you, New York, New York!

Of course he must not have had anything to do with this plot. How could an imam misunderstand Islam on such a huge scale? Couldn't happen, right? Right? Ahmad Afzali Update. "Queens Imam Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges," from NY1 News, November 2 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Queens imam accused of tipping off a suspected al-Qaida operative pleaded not guilty today during his arraignment....

Prosecutors say Afzali told alleged terror suspect Najibullah Zazi and his father the two were under surveillance and then lied to the FBI about it. Afzali has denied the charges.

Zazi is being held without bond in the city. He is accused of planning to build homemade bombs to use in an attack on the city's mass transit system....

Sheikh Naseem sounds like an abusive husband, but the main problem the wife had was that he wasn't an observant Muslim. And her solution to that was to cut his throat. Why is it that this sort of solution to impiety only ever seems to occur to Muslims? "New Brighton wife tried to kill husband over Muslim principles, cops allege," by John M. Annese for SILive.com, October 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 37-year-old wife from New Brighton tried to slit her husband's throat as he slept because he was not the devout Muslim she believed she married, and pressured her to eat pork and drink alcohol, authorities allege.

In a rambling, four-page handwritten confession, Rabia Sarwar laid out the "mental and emotional cruelty" that led to her trying to kill her husband, Susan Wagner High School teacher Sheikh Naseem, early yesterday morning, a law enforcement source said.

"I tried my best to cut his throat," Ms. Sarwar admitted, according to court papers. Except Naseem woke up during the attempt, and took the knife from her, authorities said.

According to Ms. Sarwar's attorney, Joseph Licitra, Naseem "was a cruel person, he preyed on her."

The day before the incident, "he literally threatened to have her parents mutilated," Licitra said.

The way the law enforcement source describes it, Ms. Sarwar, who is Pakistani, told investigators that Naseem, who is half-Pakistani, had presented himself as a devout Muslim before the two had wed five months ago.

But after the marriage, she discovered more about him, she told investigators -- before meeting her, he had only dated non-Muslims, and he considered Salman Rushdie to be one of his favorite authors....

Ms. Sarwar also told investigators that Naseem pressured her into doing things that were against her religious beliefs.

"He made her do stuff that she didn't like to do -- eating pork, drinking alcohol, wearing short clothes. She did all of that to make him happy," the source said.

At about 3 a.m. yesterday, inside the couple's 80 St. Mark's Place apartment, Ms. Sarwar "snapped," the source said, cutting his neck, right cheek and right hand.

In an interview with the Post, Naseem said his wife was having a hard time adjusting to American culture....

No kidding, really?

Yet another stealth jihad attempt to compel non-Muslims to change their behavior to accommodate Muslim sensibilities. "Spotted Piglet Hiccups: Boozy Breslin Clashes With Mosque," by Meredith Bryan for the New York Observer, October 27 (thanks to Ed):

The much-hyped, soon-to-open Breslin restaurant, situated in the 12-story Ace Hotel on Broadway and 29th, is giving members of the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street some agita. "Five times a day, there's a hundred cabs on the street--the good news is you can always get a cab," co-owner Ken Friedman told the Transom the other evening. He said some mosque visitors "object to seeing people drink alcohol."

After the recent FergusStock, a festival during which famed British chef Fergus Henderson cooked whole pigs for a rapt crowd of New York chefs and foodies, Mr. Friedman said the mosque's leaders called a meeting with the hotel. "They said, 'Can you move the bar?'" he said. "And I laughed. And the guy said, 'Oh, you think that's funny?' And I said, 'Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we're not going to move the bar just because you discovered we're serving booze.' Can you name one restaurant in New York that doesn't serve booze?"

Mr. Friedman and his partner, Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield, did agree to nix plans for a dive bar in a townhouse next door, but as for the restaurant, "I said, 'This is the United States of America and we'll do whatever the f**k we want.'"

At least for now.

He said the mosque had suggested it couldn't control the behavior of "a few bad eggs"; i.e., "we could get a brick through our window." Mr. Friedman said he made the police aware of this threat.

A volunteer at the mosque returning a call from the Transom said that a law forbids serving liquor within 200 feet of a place of worship and that "not more than 200 feet is between the mosque and the bar." To which Andrew Zobler, the hotel's developer, responded: "The law is clear that in order for that to apply it has to be an exclusively dedicated house of worship, and at their space they have both residences and a restaurant, so basically, because of those uses the law allowed there to be a bar within 200 feet. Everyone was aware of that when the liquor license was granted." He added: "Out of neighborliness and respect we've voluntarily acquiesced to covering the window with a curtain." [...]

When the Transom visited, the "doily curtain" covering had not yet arrived, and paper has been taped to the windows to shield the mosque's worshipers from the sight of a gay wedding over the weekend. "They can threaten, but they can't really stop us," Mr. Friedman said.

Oh, they might think of some way.

Hot on the heels of their great Al-Arian victory, another triumph for dimwitted, dhimmi law enforcement. They were probably too worried about "profiling" to keep him in custody or charge him with anything. They don't even seem to have paid any attention to where he was going with those explosive shoes, or why. Keystone Kops Alert: "EXCLUSIVE: Shoe Bomber Alert Preceded Airport Shooting Egyptian Man Had Been Stopped at New York Airport; Shoes Tested Positive for Explosive," from ABCNews, with thanks to Mrs. Obelix:

Dec. 7, 2005 — - Federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News they had been on the alert for a possible shoe bomber when a federal air marshal opened fire at the Miami International Airport today.

In today's incident, an agitated passenger claiming to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal, officials said. No bomb was found.

Officials say a 50-year-old Egyptian man was stopped six days ago at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. Sources say he had a suspicious pair of shoes that tested positive five times for the explosive substance TATP on the interior of his shoes between the heel and sole.

Federal officials say the man's shoes are remarkably similar to those used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines jet over the Atlantic four years ago.

The Egyptian man's destination was Des Moines, Iowa, sources say, and he claimed he was a student at Iowa State University in Ames.

Strangely, after holding him overnight, airport security in New York released him. The FBI was notified after he was released. Now the FBI has put out a nationwide alert.

Hey, that makes me feel safer.

Then the moderate Muslims over at CAIR and MPAC charge us with "Islamophobia" if we raise questions about the loyalty of Muslims in America. Yet such questions are entirely legitimate, and becoming more urgent. "Interpreter From Brooklyn Accused Of Aiding Iraqi Insurgency," from AP, with thanks to Cindy:

NEW YORK -- An Arabic interpreter for the Army may have secretly helped Iraqi insurgents by improperly taking classified documents from Iraq home to Brooklyn, where he made dozens of phone calls to numbers linked to the insurgency, a federal prosecutor said Monday....

Using the name Almaliki Nour, the man became a legal resident of the U.S. in 1993 and went to work for a defense contractor a decade later as a translator for an intelligence unit of the 82nd Airborne Division, according to an FBI complaint.

As he worked in Iraq, the FBI and Department of Defense discovered that he had fabricated his name, birth date, native country, Lebanon, and family background as the persecuted son of a Muslim father and Catholic mother, the complaint said.

Investigators probing the fabrications then discovered that he had extensive ties to people linked to the Iraqi insurgency. His cell phone address book contained two coded entries with the numbers of known insurgents, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Buretta said Monday.

After returning to the U.S. earlier this year, the man had more than 100 cell phone conversations with numbers directly involved with the insurgency, Buretta said, including numbers found at suspected safehouses for Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The man, who has told the FBI he is a Moroccan named Noureddine Malki, also improperly took to his Brooklyn apartment classified documents about combating the insurgency, including one, Buretta said, that contained the heading "current threat."

Timed with Ramadan and the Jewish High Holy Days. "Sources: Subway threat made," from Newsday:

A "credible threat" to the subway system has prompted a vast mobilization of police officers, law enforcement sources said today.

Hundreds of officers were expected to be dispatched as early as this afternoon to every station in Manhattan -- and possibly system wide -- to thwart the attack, which was said to timed to the Jewish High Holidays and the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Scores of officers from various narcotics units are being called in to assist in patrolling the subways, beginning as early as this afternoon. Many were expected to convene first at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The only problem with this is not that profiling is somehow intrinsically evil. The problem is that it is an ideological foe, not a racial one. Most Arabs in the US are not Muslims. Most Muslims worldwide are not Arabs. And what are we doing again to confront the ideology? From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

NEW YORK -- Arabs should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that the police department has been wasting time with random checks in its effort to prevent terrorism in the transit system.

The city began examining passengers' bags on subways and buses after the second bomb attack in London two weeks ago. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said several times that officers will not racially profile.

But over the weekend, state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said police should be focusing on those who fit the "terrorist profile."

"They all look a certain way," said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn. "It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."...

They all look a certain way, eh? Like John Walker Lindh? Richard Reid? Jose Padilla? "Jihad Jack" Thomas?

It's still a good idea. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. If you really don't want terror attacks here, you won't mind being inconvenienced. But it just isn't enough.

But the director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Wissam Nasr, said their push for racial profiling is offensive and ignorant because "terror comes in all shapes and sizes, and certainly there's no legislation or system that's going to identify terrorists on the spot."

In response to Hikind's suggestion, the New York Police Department said in a statement that racial profiling is "illegal, of doubtful effectiveness and against department policy."

The Republican mayor reiterated Tuesday that it is against the law and doesn't work.

"I'm against it for fairness reasons, and we're not going to do it," he said.

This is absurd. I'm against flying planes into the World Trade Center for fairness reasons. Profiling is imperfect, but nonetheless a useful measure -- and certainly less time-wasting than the mad and ineffective airline security checks.

Al-Moayad update. Evidently this is yet another Muslim cleric who has misunderstood Islam. I expect Ibrahim Hooper will be on the phone to him forthwith to explain to him the error of his ways. "Yemeni Cleric Receives 75-Year Sentence," from AP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge on Thursday sentenced a Yemeni cleric who bragged about his ties to Osama bin Laden to 75 years in prison, the maximum penalty in a case that was shaken when the star witness set himself on fire outside the White House.

"Your honor, what have I done?" Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad said as he was led away to begin serving his sentence.

Hmmm. Maintaining the facade until the end, I see.

He was convicted on charges of conspiring to support al-Qaeda and Hamas, supporting the Palestinian group and attempting to support al-Qaeda.

Al-Moayad, 57, was secretly recorded promising to funnel more than $2 million to Hamas in a meeting with two FBI informants in a German hotel room. He was arrested by German police in January 2003 and extradited to the United States....

One of the informants, Mohamed Alanssi, set himself on fire outside the White House in November 2004 in what he later described as an attempt to get more money from the FBI, which paid him at least $100,000 for his work.

Alanssi nonetheless testified at al-Moayad's trial that the sheik had boasted of giving bin Laden $20 million in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Last night I spoke at the New York Tolerance Center in Manhattan -- ironically enough, under protection from the NYPD after a death threat. Some New Yorkers, apparently, were not interested in tolerating my calling attention to the activities and goals of the global jihad network.

Irony was heaped on irony when I was confronted after the talk by a couple of self-righteous young people who informed me that America is the real global terrorist threat, and that I should be just as concerned about Jerry Falwell as about somebody like Ayatollah Sistani, whose equation of unbelievers as unclean in the same sense as dogs, pigs, and excrement I had made reference to during the question and answer period. I will be writing more about my exchange with this pair, since it was indicative of some prevailing attitudes that are important to address. But I mention them in this connection because when I saw this New York Observer article, "Local Insurgents: ‘Islamic Thinkers’ Menace Gay N.Y.," (thanks to JP for the link), I thought of them again: they're anxious to make an equation between Christian and Muslim extremists, while glossing over the fact that Falwell and others whom they like to mention do not call for the deaths of homosexuals, while these people do. This demonstrates the bankruptcy and, ultimately, the danger of such moral equivalence arguments, which are nonetheless ubiquitous today in discussions of Islamic terrorism. But their ultimate effect is to divert attention away from those who are actually committing violence and threatening to do so, and shifting it to others who do not commit or preach violence, as well as to people like me who are merely calling attention to the violence, hatred, and intolerance that is daily manifested by adherents of the jihad ideology.

On the evening of July 11, 2004, Kristine Withers walked down 37th Avenue, a main drag in Jackson Heights, Queens, and passed what had become a familiar sight: a group of tables set up on the sidewalk by the Islamic Thinkers Society, a local group of militant Islamists. On the tables, copies of the Koran and books espousing the group’s strict religious beliefs shared space with tracts on Zionism, pamphlets on the dangers of homosexuality, and signs bearing messages like "Your Terrorists Are Our Heroes."

Ms. Withers, who identifies herself as a lesbian and a political conservative, was offended by the group’s message. The Islamic Thinkers Society had become a regular feature at local gay-pride parades, where they’ve called for the castration and death of gay men, according to several witnesses who spoke to The Observer. But Ms. Withers said it was as much the anti-American messages as the anti-gay ones that riled her up.

"To me, it’s synonymous with the Nazis recruiting on 42nd Street during World War II," she said of her antagonists.

So, in another installment of the then-yearlong series of hostile exchanges between her and the group, she decided to do something. At one point in the exchange, she told the dozen or so bearded young men who make up the group that the prophet Muhammad was a pedophile. They called her a "Christian bitch," by her account. Then she knocked over a sign and stepped on it. Two young bearded men, members of the group, pulled the sign out from under her, sending her flying to the ground.

Soon, police arrived and took a statement from Mohamed Bahi, a student at Queens College who told The Observer that he is not a member of the group. Ms. Withers was charged with incitement to riot and four other counts. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown assigned the case to the unit of his office that handles bias crimes, though Ms. Withers argued that the Queens District Attorney was going after the wrong person for bias.

The Islamic Thinkers Society wouldn’t answer questions about the confrontation, but members of the group relived their confrontations with Ms. Withers on their password-protected Web site, hundreds of pages of which were provided to The Observer by the SITE Institute in Washington, which monitors online extremist groups. In their discussions, group members referred to Ms. Withers as "it" and a "dirty she-male."

"When ‘it’ came back with fists up and ready for action, it got what it asked for," wrote the site’s administrator, who goes by the name "Islamic Revival" and was apparently among the people on the scene. He described "a couple of slaps and snuffs in the face and a few other hits by a brother NOT from us but a brother who sells Islamic Books near us."

"They said what they said," explained Patrick Clark, a spokesman for Mr. Brown, of the Islamic Thinkers’ anti-gay statements. "But there’s also evidence to indicate that there was a crime that occurred, and that the defendant stomped on merchandise and religious artifacts and interrupted the prayer service and shouted epithets."

The case has since been resolved: Ms. Withers pled guilty this year and enrolled in anger-management classes, she told The Observer, to avoid the expense of a lawyer.

The dispute between an irascible lesbian conservative from Queens and a militant new group well on the fringes of the city’s Muslim community might appear to be a marginal conflict. But to New York’s gays and to some of its Muslim leaders, the scene in Jackson Heights bears a worrying similarity to communal conflicts that are challenging the idea of tolerance across Europe, with particular flashpoints in Holland and Scandinavia. There, young immigrants and the children of immigrants have been drawn to a more radical Islamic ideology than that of their parents. On the extreme fringes, these young men have committed acts of violence against Jews and gays, and in a case that shocked Europe, one young Dutchman of Moroccan origin murdered the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in an Amsterdam street.

"It’s almost a cliché to define it like this, but in the end it’s a question of whether you can tolerate intolerance," said Leon de Winter, a Dutch novelist who has written on the Van Gogh murder. "We are defending the openness, the diversity of this society against tendencies from other cultures, in which this kind of openness which we celebrate is being regarded as a threat."

In this conflict, gays have become canaries in the ideological coal mine. Western liberals have tended to cut Muslim groups slack on their ideological pronouncements, in part out of sympathy with some of their causes—the insurgencies in Chechnya and the Middle East, for example—and in part out of a sense that anti-Muslim sentiment in the West is a more pressing problem than anything Muslims themselves might do.

But the rise of gay bashing on European streets has pushed the question of tolerance a step further and led some to question their reflexive defense of a put-upon minority. It has also opened up a heated debate within the gay community, and among liberals in general, over whether the proliferation of intolerant strains of Islam requires liberals in the West to take a harder line on issues like immigration and assimilation.

For some conservative intellectuals, rising anti-gay violence on the streets of Amsterdam, for example, comes as a kind of vindication.

"For liberals, the violent anti-gay hostility of their fundamentalist Muslim allies may be the first thing that really makes them realize they’re not on the same page," said the conservative gay writer Bruce Bawer, who lives in Oslo, and who is writing a book entitled While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within.

Others argue that the rise of conservative Islam in Europe is, in part, a reaction to Europe’s inability to integrate its immigrant populations. By this argument, America is different, given its openness to newcomers and its different set of Muslim immigrants.

"American Muslims are far better educated and far richer than average," said Muqtedar Khan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, who dismissed the Islamic Thinkers and their ilk as "small pockets of angry youth."

But here in New York, perhaps the most European of American cities in its traditional tolerance, some disturbing signs have emerged on the line between gay and Muslim communities. The Islamic Thinkers’ Web site is full of suggestions of anti-gay violence: "Man I can’t stop thinking: shoot the qawm of Lut," wrote one of the site’s moderators on May 20, using a Koranic reference to the story of Lot and Sodom....

The Islamic Thinkers, meanwhile, are not too new to American politics to play another familiar card: victimhood.

The group declined to respond to requests from a reporter to discuss their beliefs and their conflict with Ms. Withers. Instead, the group posted to its Web site (www.islamicthinkers.com) an e-mail from The Observer and warned that "an article would be published to deliberately misrepresent Islamic Thinkers Society and its views."

Later, the group posted a similar response to a forthcoming New York Times article: "Again and again, the Muslims of Islamic Thinkers Society have denied any interviews to the media," the Web site read. "Due to the unavailability of any direct source of information, even the reputable media outlets have turned into tabloids. The goal of the media is to suppress Muslims who stand up for injustice is vindicated even more now."

Even members of the Muslim community who have had limited interactions with the Islamic Thinkers are unsure of their origins or their size. The regular group, which spends weekend afternoons on that Jackson Heights street corner, is composed of about a dozen young Muslims, most of them men, some in traditional dress. Some of the group’s members are apparently American-born, and some are converts to Islam.

The Islamic Thinkers gained national notoriety earlier this year when they posted a video on the Internet—titled "Operation Desecrate American Flag"—that depicted them stomping an American flag into the curb and shouting that the "flag represents the Crusader war on Islam headed by the United State government."

The group has also become a fixture at Queens gay events, holding signs with messages like "Allah Will Destroy Nations That Allow Homosexuality" and "Today: Homosexuality; Tomorrow: Pedophilia; What’s Next? Bestiality?" at the borough’s Pride Parade, which runs through Jackson Heights. Last year, screaming matches erupted between the two sides; this year, police kept them apart.

"Somebody in the crowd started shouting ‘Go back to Osama bin Laden!’ or whatever, and these guys started shouting back," recalled Ayaz Ahmed, a gay Pakistani Muslim who attended this year’s parade. "I was like, ‘Oh, my God—what’s happening here?’"

But even some American Muslim groups who maintain that Islam forbids homosexuality have little time for the Islamic Thinkers. The executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Wissam Nasr, said the group’s style and the destruction of an American flag have caused "dismay" in the city’s Muslim community. The draft of a letter to the Islamic Thinkers, he added, is circulating among religious and communal leaders, and it tells the group: "You really have to know the disapproval that you’re meeting in the Muslim community."…

Other community groups were less willing to distance themselves from the Islamic Thinkers.

Adem Carroll of the Queens-based Islamic Circle of North America, for instance, said that the group was "not my cup of tea," but described it as "a sign of the alienation and anger that’s in the community, adding: "I think the approach of the Bush administration does not help.

"If you’re quoting me, I would hope that whatever I say doesn’t sound like I’m condemning them," Mr. Carroll concluded.

Logged and noted, Mr. Carroll.

The video that I posted below of American Muslims stomping on and then ripping up an American flag comes from a New York-based Muslim group called the Islamic Thinkers Society. According to "Not just another Jihadi face: The Islamic Thinkers Society - Al Muhajiroun's identical twin in NYC" in Militant Islam Monitor, the Islamic Thinkers Society is an American offshoot of the now-disbanded British jihadist group Al-Muhajiroun:

The radical Islamist Al Muhajiroun, appears to have surfaced in Queens under the oxymoronic name of the Islamic Thinkers Society aka Intellectual Thinkers Society. The groups North American spokesman, Kamran Bokhari, is now working as a strategic analyst for Statfor - Strategic Forecasting Inc. run by George Friedman. Stratfor who also employs ex government counter terrorism analysts has dubbed Bokhari their "in house Jihadi"

A little background on Al-Muhajiroun:

British Muslim kids told: Be a suicide bomber

Britain: flag burnt as extremists cheer bin Laden

Muslim cleric says attack on London "inevitable"

Militants in Europe Openly Call for Jihad and the Rule of Islam

The obligation of inciting religious hatred

UPDATE: The original link has been taken down. I have now linked to the video at the Intelligence Summit site, at their kind invitation.

"City Bridge-Photo Terror Suspect Nabbed," from the New York Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

May 5, 2005 -- A New York ringleader of a Pakistani-based terrorist group -- who was seen taking pictures last year of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges -- was arrested yesterday for allegedly lying on his immigration papers about his terror links, officials said.

Tariq Javid is a member of Sipah-e- Sahaba, which is aligned with al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front and has declared jihad against Americans, according to the complaint issued by Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley.

Group members were also implicated in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Afghanistan in 2003. The Patakistani government has banned the group as a destabilizing force.

Patakistani, eh? The Post seems to have New York's governor on its mind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read it all.

Is concern that terrorists might be working in mosques really just "fear of the unknown"? Is an affiliation with MPAC really a palliative? From the Buffalo News, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

In the shadow of the large mosque at the corner of Sycamore and Sobieski streets, fear of the unknown sometimes occupies residents.

Muslims have bought dozens of homes, staking their property with tall, impenetrable fences.

The women journey with groceries from the market in long, flowing dresses and burkas that cover everything but their eyes. The men wear loose-fitting robes, skull caps and untrimmed beards, and walk five times a day to the mosque, Masjid Zakaria, for prayer.

Some of their non-Muslim neighbors wonder why they build their fences so high and rarely say as much as a hello.

"To me, they're very secretive," said Tom Zeiliski, who has lived on nearby Sweet Street for many years. "For the most part, they're pretty quiet, but it kind of makes you a little uneasy when you don't know.

"Some people could be hiding in this mosque. They could be hiding people in there. You don't know," he said.

Suspicion of Muslims lingers thick in Western New York and the rest of the country, buoyed by the 9/11 attacks, the beheading of Americans and others in the name of Islam and the arrest of Yemeni Americans in Lackawanna who had trained in al-Qaida camps.

Those doubts have prodded Muslims - here and elsewhere - into an intense struggle for the soul of Islam.

Three years after Sept. 11, 2001, Muslims in the United States are trying to raise their profile as patriotic people of faith, while distancing themselves from terrorists who act in the name of their religion.

"There is," said Dr. Khalid Qazi, a physician who lives in Amherst, "a real disconnect in some places between what Islam is and what Muslims are."

Qazi, who wears a trademark bow tie and a tiny American flag pinned to the lapel of his sport coat, has led the local effort to better explain Islam and the local Muslim population.

He has presented a series of 90-minute primers on Islam to FBI employees, discussing why Muslims use the term "Allah," the ethnic breakdown of the region's Muslims and how Islam views suicide.

Muslims also have undertaken several new initiatives aimed at inserting themselves more into the mainstream of Western New York. Those efforts include:

• Affiliating with a national organization, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which professes to be moderate and progressive.

• Publishing a 104-page membership and business directory for more than 400 Muslim professionals and Muslim-owned businesses in Western New York.

• Embarking on a grass-roots "Campaign to Fight Terrorism," urging mosques and Muslim community centers to be especially vigilant in reporting suspicious activity to authorities.

• Hosting a "town hall" forum with some of the area's top federal law enforcement officials to discuss combating terrorism.

Here is Daniel Pipes on Salam Al-Maryati of MPAC.

They are taking the latest threats very seriously in New York. From Newsday, with thanks to Miss Moneypenny:

The Holland Tunnel was to close to commercial traffic heading to New York at 12:01 a.m. Monday, officials said Sunday evening.

The ban was "correlated to the warning about the downtown financial districts," said Tony Ciavolella, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Here is more information about how the jihadist plans were discovered: Al-Qaida computer reveals plans to target U.S. and Britain. From AP, :

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan- Pakistani intelligence agents found plans for new attacks against the United States and Britain on a computer seized during the arrest of a senior Al-Qaida suspect wanted for the 1998 twin U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, the information minister said.

The plans were found in e-mails on the computer of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian arrested July 25 after a 12-hour gunbattle in the eastern city of Gujrat, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press on Monday.

"We got a few e-mails from Ghailani's computer about [plans for] attacks in the U.S. and U.K.," he said.

Ahmed said authorities have also arrested another top Al-Qaida suspect believed to be a computer and communications expert, and that that man was cooperating with investigators.

"He is a very wanted man, but I cannot say his name now," Ahmed said.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat confirmed that Ghailani was sharing "vital" information, but he would not comment on what it was.

"He has given us vital information, but we cannot share specifics," Hayyat said. An intelligence official said the information about a U.S. attack appeared to be centered on New York. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Feisal Abdul Rauf (ECTN)

Feisal Abdul Rauf, a New York imam, expects us to believe that jihad warfare was started by the West and can only be ended by the West. He is therefore either concealing or ignorant of the fact that violent jihad is a developed tradition within Islam and found in core Islamic texts (including but not limited to the Qur'an, as well as Hadith and books of Islamic jurisprudence). In those it has nothing to do with the behavior of infidels. It only has to do with the fact that they are infidels. Take, for example, this quotation from the Muslim prophet Muhammad:

When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. . . . If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim, book 019, Number 4294)

That is offensive jihad. It is buttressed by numerous other sayings of the Prophet, by the Qur'an, and by Islamic legal scholars. But Feisal Abdul Rauf puts it all on the West, and gets invited to Australia by Premier Bob Carr.

The US and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end, says an Islamic cleric invited to Sydney by Premier Bob Carr.

New York-based Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who impressed Mr Carr at an international conference last year, arrives in Sydney today for two weeks of meetings and public talks.

Speaking from his New York mosque, Imam Feisal said the West had to understand the terrorists' point of view.

In a move likely to cause controversy with church leaders, Imam Feisal said it was Christians who started mass attacks on civilians.

"The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets."

This is outrageously specious, but it depends on the ignorance of the listeners. The bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima were not justified by the bombers on the basis of Christian theology. The bombings by terrorists -- 9/11, 3/11, etc. -- are justified on the basis of Islamic theology. By claiming that they are equivalent, Abdul Rauf obscures the Islamic roots of modern-day terrorism, thus hindering the prospects for the reform within Islam that is so desperately needed if jihad terrorism is ever going to cease.

Imam Feisal said the bombing in Madrid had made his message more urgent. He said there was an endless supply of angry young Muslim rebels prepared to die for their cause and there was no sign of the attacks ending unless there was a fundamental change in the world.

Yes indeed. But displaying a lack of the self-critical faculty that he shares with radical Muslims, he makes no mention, at least according to this report, of the Islamic roots of terror, and of the need for Muslims who truly (rather than deceptively) oppose terror to address this problem.

Imam Feisal, who argues for a Western style of Islam that promotes democracy and tolerance, said there could be little progress until the US acknowledged backing dictators and the US President gave an "America Culpa" speech to the Muslim world.

Of course. The historical depredations of jihad, they were all the fault of the West. The fall of Constantinople? Probably because of Byzantium's support for Israel.

The Qur'an is now on display in a glass cube atop a brass pedestal at One Police Plaza in New York City.

This one speaks for itself.