Recently in United States Category

This is an extremely important case, as it touches on the nature of Sharia and the U.S. Government's role in promoting it, which gallops ahead in other areas today. I was one of the experts who testified for the plaintiff. "AFLC Attorneys to Argue Before Federal Appellate Court that AIG Bailout Was Unconstitutional," from the American Freedom Law Center, January 30:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has announced that it will hear oral argument in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 20, 2012, in an appeal challenging the AIG bailout.  The case, which is captioned Murray v. United States Department of Treasury, et al., was brought by American Freedom Law Center attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, representing the plaintiff, Kevin Murray, a taxpayer and former combat Marine who served in Iraq.  The federal lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government’s takeover and financial bailout of AIG was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Specifically, at the time of the government bailout (beginning in September 2008 and continuing to the present), AIG was (and still is) the world leader in promoting sharia-compliant insurance products.  Sharia is Islamic law, and it is the identical legal doctrine that demands capital punishment for apostasy and blasphemy and provides the legal and political mandates for global jihad followed religiously by the world’s Muslim terrorists.  By propping up AIG with taxpayer funds, the U.S. government is directly and indirectly promoting Islam and, more troubling, sharia.

In May 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Zatkoff, who presides in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, rejected a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and later rebuffed their efforts to stay the proceeding so they could avoid discovery and take an extraordinary appeal to the Sixth Circuit.

After a year of document requests, depositions of current and former government witnesses, and three separate subpoenas issued to AIG and the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Yerushalmi and Muise filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the undisputed facts demonstrate that the government, through its absolute control and ownership of AIG, and with tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, has directly and indirectly promoted and supported sharia as a religious legal doctrine in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

What makes this case all the more egregious is that this doctrine — sharia — also happens to be the underlying legal and military doctrine animating jihad against the West by Muslims from the Middle East, Asia, Russia, Africa, and even right here at home, as evidenced by the tragic Fort Hood massacre.  Each and every one of the domestic and foreign jihad terrorists has proclaimed allegiance to sharia and its call for “jihad against apostates and infidels.”

Two experts on sharia, sharia-compliant finance, and jihad testified at length through affidavits in support of the plaintiff’s case.  The government could not — and did not — oppose this expert testimony with any contrary evidence....

Read it all.

One bit of good news in this is that the U.S. actually demanded substantive action from the Taliban and not just words, as prior reports implied. An update on this story. "US, Taliban talks on prisoner swap falter," by Mustaf Yusufzai for NBC News January 29:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States in Qatar almost failed as the Taliban leadership reportedly refused to accept the U.S. demand of a ceasefire before swapping prisoners.

Sources in the Afghan Taliban said the Taliban had set up an office in Qatar hoping that it would help in a prisoners' swap, especially for their five top commanders held at the Guantanamo Bay base since 2002.

The Taliban sources said their talks with the U.S. had been going for the past few years in exchange for an American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province in June 2009, bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan.

Maulvi Sangeen, a senior commander of the powerful Haqqani terror network, had initially claimed responsibility for kidnapping the U.S. soldier.

The Taliban sources said U.S. officials had earlier promised them they would exchange prisoners and later start peace talks.

However, according to the sources, the U.S. demanded that the Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down.

"Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan," a Taliban source said.

The Afghan Taliban leadership is also worried about the reaction from their field commanders and fighters if a ceasefire were announced without getting anything to show in exchange.

Some members of the 140-strong Taliban delegation that went to Qatar had started leaving after no breakthrough was seen in talks with the U.S.

Escalation -- if it happened. "Nato denies Iranian military's claim to have shot down U.S. spy plane," from the Daily Mail, December 4:

A Nato official said there was no indication a U.S. reconnaissance drone had been shot down in Iran, despite reports to the contrary from the country's media.

Military forces had shot down an unmanned spy plane, according to the country's semi-official Fars news agency.

The Iranian report could refer to an unarmed U.S. spy drone that went missing in Afghanistan last week, according to Nato.

The Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted an unnamed military source, who said: 'Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran.'

The military insider added that Iran's response to the downed U.S. drone's violation of its airspace will not be limited to the country's borders.

A report on English-language Press TV said the drone was 'downed with minimum damage' and seized by Iranian officials.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said in a statement: 'The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week.

'The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status.'

A U.S. official added: 'There is absolutely no indication up to this point that Iranians shot down this drone.'...

It is no accident or coincidence that Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'" And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

Nonetheless, the media drumbeat is constant: honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And as long as that continues, we will see more and more murders like this one.

"New Jersey Father Suspected of Murdering Daughter, Son-in-Law in Pakistan 'Honor Killing,'" from NewsCore, November 25 (thanks to Wkujoy):

GUJRAT, Pakistan -- A New Jersey resident whose daughter and son-in-law were gunned down while on a trip to Pakistan was named as the chief suspect in their deaths.

Muzaffar Hussain is suspected of murdering his New York native daughter Uzma Naurin, 30, and her husband, Saif Rehman, 31, in an "honor killing," the Daily Mail reported.

Naurin and Rehman were shot dead Nov. 1 when their car was ambushed near the northeastern Pakistan city of Gujrat. The car's driver and several other passengers were uninjured.

The couple -- who were living in Scotland but planning to relocate to the US -- were in Pakistan to attend a family wedding which Hussain was also attending. Hussain has since returned to his home in Jersey City, N.J.

Pakistani police spokesman Nasir Butt said that the 58-year-old cab driver is being treated as the chief suspect in the case.

Members of Naurin's family were unhappy about her marriage to Rehman, a friend of the couple told the newspaper. Naurin was married previously, but her first husband committed suicide. Naurin subsequently refused to enter an arranged second marriage with her dead husband's brother.

The never-ending cycle of incrementally more restrictive sanctions against Iran will not end in Iranian cooperation, transparency, or the halting of its nuclear program. It will end in an Iranian nuclear test, followed by a war of endless finger-pointing in the West over how it could ever have happened and why firmer action was not taken sooner. 20/20 hindsight will not make Iran un-nuclear.

Iran will not change its ways without a sense of necessity. Truly, the sanctions do less for Iran, and more for other world powers and the Security Council, who can reassure themselves they have taken action, while kicking the can down the road on any more uncomfortable engagement with Iran. If there is a strike on Iran, or when there is an Iranian nuclear test, it will be due to the failure of diplomacy to break this cycle of complacency that has gone on for years.

"US, UK, Canada to Announce Coordinated Sanctions on Iran," by Kirit Radia for ABC News, November 20:

The United States and its British and Canadian allies are preparing to roll out a coordinated set of sanctions against Iran on Monday amid growing concern that Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, sources tell ABC News.

U.S. officials familiar with the plans say they target Iran’s nuclear sector as well as plugging key gaps that have allowed Iran to work around existing sanctions on its energy and financial sectors. The United Kingdom and Canada are both expected to announce unilateral measures to limit Iran’s access to their economies, with the UK essentially cutting off Iran’s access to its financial sector.

European Union ministers are expected to meet on December 1 to consider their own sanctions.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the diplomatic sensitivities involved, say the State Department will sanction Iran’s petrochemical industry, which is normally used to produce products like plastic and styrofoam but is increasingly used to refine petroleum, as international sanctions have constrained the capacity of Iran’s energy sector. The new measure aims to discourage foreign companies from investing in that industry because it could inadvertently aid Iran’s energy sector and undermine previous sanctions.

The State Department is also expected to target both foreign and Iranian entities, many controlled by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, that have begun to help out with critical tasks in Iran’s oil and gas sector, picking up the slack as foreign companies pull out for fear of running afoul of sanctions.

A State Department spokesman declined to comment for this story.

The Treasury Department, meanwhile, is expected to issue a finding that the Iranian financial system is a “jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern.”

The finding, made under section 311 of the USA Patriot Act, enables the Secretary of the Treasury to require American banks to conduct additional reporting to ensure their corresponding foreign accounts are not indirectly dealing with Iran. That extra vigilance, officials say, will have a cascade effect where foreign financial institutions are more reluctant to do business with Iran.

The State Department and Treasury Department are also expected to designate additional Iranian entities for their role in Iran’s nuclear program.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman also declined to comment for this story.

The United States and its allies have long feared that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program. Those fears were reinforced by a new report by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Association earlier this month, which for the first time sounded the alarm about “possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”

The report detailed “credible” evidence that Iran has been covertly developing a nuclear weapon design and testing components. It said Iran has built computer models to study the explosion of a nuclear bomb and is working to develop detonation devices. The report said Tehran has also built a containment vessel in which it can conduct explosive experiments and is studying how to mount a nuclear warhead on its Shahab-3 long-range missiles.

Iranian officials have dismissed the report. On Tuesday, one senior Iranian official called it “laughable.”

The IAEA report reignited calls on Capitol Hill and from prominent Republicans like presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the Obama administration to sanction the Iranian Central Bank, a move they say would cripple Iran’s economy and its ability to pursue a nuclear weapon. Last Thursday, House leaders including Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Obama urging him to sanction the Central Bank.

Despite the renewed pressure, sanctions on the Iranian Central Bank and bans on Iran’s oil and gas sector will not be included in this latest round, according to one U.S. official, citing fears that such measures could lead to a spike in oil prices that would harm America’s own economic recovery.

The United States and its allies have resorted to unilateral sanctions as other multilateral routes to pressure Tehran have been blocked. U.S. and European officials say they would like to pursue additional sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, something they have successfully done four times in recent years, however they have been met with resistance by veto-wielding Russia and China.

European countries are reportedly pursuing their own additional sanctions, though officials say none are expected to be part of Monday’s coordinated announcement....

Why not? No screening -- absolutely none -- is done of Muslims who immigrate to the U.S. to try to determine whether or not they hold jihadist sentiments. As imperfect as such screening would inevitably be, the fact that there is none is an indication of how willfully blind official Washington is. They assume that only a tiny minority of Muslims are "Islamists," and know that it would be the height of "Islamophobia" to question prospective entrants into the country about these matters in any way. "Man with US passport blows himself up in Pakistan," from AP, November 19 (thanks to D. C. Watson):

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A suspected militant who blew himself up in southern Pakistan during a raid by security forces was carrying a U.S. and a Pakistani passport, authorities said Saturday.

According to a statement by Pakistan's paramilitary Rangers, the dead man has been identified as Saeed Abdul Salam. He detonated an explosive device Thursday when troops raided his apartment in the port city of Karachi.

Post-mortem tests on Salam's body confirmed the man died due to the explosion of a hand grenade, it said, adding "documents used for acts of terrorism were also recovered" from his possession....

You probably saw that coming. More on this story. "Iran rejects US plotting accusations," from Iran's own Press TV, October 11:

Iran has categorically rejected the US accusations that the Islamic Republic was involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, calling it a 'prefabricated scenario.'

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said on Tuesday that such 'ludicrous' claims hinged on the hostile joint stances adopted by the US and Israel against the country.

"These threadbare attitudes, which are based on the age-old and hostile American-Zionist policies, are a ridiculous show in line with certain [instances of] scenario fabrication of divisive ends on the part of the enemies of Islam and the region," Mehmanparast said.

He also condemned all acts of terrorism, adding that Washington was employing the legerdemain to divert attention from the growing domestic protests it was facing.

No, not the legerdemain! Of course, it's all the pugilistic prestidigitation of practiced purveyors of Zionist plots.

The Iranian official asserted, “Plotters of such manufactured scenarios seek to sow division and help the Zionist regime [of Israel] out of its current isolation.”

He emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran was a establishment founded on Islamic ethics and values and that the country had always warned that the enemies of the region were plotting against it.

The US Justice Department has accused Iran of involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir, with help from a suspected member of a Mexican drug cartel.

Reports point to the United States efforts to wage media warfare against Iran, while Tehran says Washington's ulterior motive is to deflect international attention from the runaway protests it is facing against corruption and the excessive influence of corporations on its policies.

The US is also the main supporter of Saudi Arabia -- one of the most repressive and undemocratic regimes in the world.

Said the pot to the kettle.

Forcing the issue over the vote is a virtual win-win situation for the Palestinian Authority, as they either get what they want, or they get an excuse for another intifada, as this report notes the fear of a "wave of anger" in the Palestinian territories and across the Arab world. Indeed, this is blackmail.

The proposal of peace talks as an alternative could place great pressure on Israel, which will be held to the higher side of a double standard on expectations of its willingness to compromise. They may well be pressed just to give the Palestinians what it takes to get the job done, as if this were some golden opportunity, and not just the Palestinian Authority's attempt to make the world "an offer it can't refuse."

"U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood," by Steven Lee Meyers and Mark Landler for the New York Times, September 3:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats.

The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20.

The administration has made it clear to Mr. Abbas that it will veto any request presented to the United Nations Security Council to make a Palestinian state a new member outright.

But the United States does not have enough support to block a vote by the General Assembly to elevate the status of the Palestinians’ nonvoting observer “entity” to that of a nonvoting observer state. The change would pave the way for the Palestinians to join dozens of United Nations bodies and conventions, and it could strengthen their ability to pursue cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Senior officials said the administration wanted to avoid not only a veto but also the more symbolic and potent General Assembly vote that would leave the United States and only a handful of other nations in the opposition. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic maneuverings, said they feared that in either case a wave of anger could sweep the Palestinian territories and the wider Arab world at a time when the region is already in tumult. President Obama would be put in the position of threatening to veto recognition of the aspirations of most Palestinians or risk alienating Israel and its political supporters in the United States.

“If you put the alternative out there, then you’ve suddenly just changed the circumstances and changed the dynamic,” a senior administration official involved in the flurry of diplomacy said Thursday. “And that’s what we’re trying very much to do.”

Efforts to head off the Palestinian diplomatic drive have percolated all summer but have taken on urgency as the vote looms in the coming weeks. “It’s not clear to me how it can be avoided at the moment,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian negotiator who is now executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine in Washington. “An American veto could inflame emotions and bring anti-American sentiment to the forefront across the region.”

While some officials remain optimistic that a compromise can be found, the administration has simultaneously begun planning to limit the fallout of a statehood vote. A primary focus is to ensure the Israelis and Palestinians continue to cooperate on security matters in the West Bank and along Israel’s borders, administration officials said.

“We’re still focused on Plan A,” another senior administration official said, referring to the diplomatic efforts by the administration’s new special envoy, David M. Hale, and the president’s Middle East adviser on the National Security Council, Dennis B. Ross. Mr. Hale replaced the more prominent George J. Mitchell Jr., who resigned in May after two years of frustrated efforts to make progress on a peace deal.

The State Department late last month issued a formal diplomatic message to more than 70 countries urging them to oppose any unilateral moves by the Palestinians at the United Nations. The message, delivered by American ambassadors to their diplomatic counterparts in those countries, argued that a vote would destabilize the region and undermine peace efforts, though those are, at least for now, moribund....

Compare these two captions on this photo from the White House website. Details here.

They don't want to wake the Taliban, but it is actually the U.S. military commanders who are asleep. "Don’t shoot Taliban..you’ll wake locals: Marine’s diary reveals bizarre order to Brit troops," by Andrew Parker in The Sun, July 18 (thanks to Nick):

SOLDIERS were banned from shooting Taliban fighters planting mines - to avoid waking Afghan locals, a former Royal Marine has revealed.

Craig Smith, 36, said US military chiefs routinely frustrated frontline forces by ordering them to exercise "courageous restraint".

Troops were even told they could be charged with MURDER if they shot anyone without permission from command.

Dad-of-one Craig lifted the lid on "outrageous" orders issued to troops in a diary of his six-month tour of Afghanistan's treacherous Helmand province with 40 Commando.

He spoke out after an inquest heard 34-year-old hero Sergeant Peter Rayner was blown up, just days after being told not to fire on insurgents who were seen laying deadly IEDs.

One senior officer stunned troops when he ordered them not to shoot a Taliban fighter because gunfire would "wake up and upset the locals".

Instead they were told they must stand by and WATCH....

Perhaps more so. They are sheltered and sponsored in Pakistan even more than al-Qaeda, which is a foreign group, while LeT is homegrown, and owned and operated by the ISI. And they have already "plotted mayhem and murder from nondescript locations in the United States."

LeT is much more central to Pakistan's double game. "LeT as dangerous as al-Qaeda: US," from the Hindustan Times, May 27:

The US joined India on Friday to call for “effective steps by all countries” to eliminate safe havens and infrastructure for terrorism, ranking the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the same league as the al Qaeda. “I think in my judgment, the LeT ranks right up there with the al Qaeda and related groups as terrorist organisations, one that seeks to harm people and take innocent lives,” US secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano said on Friday at the end of the first Indo-US Homeland Security dialogue.

Napolitano’s assertion comes in the backdrop of Chicago trial of Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Rana, a co-accused in the 26/11 case, in which Lashkar operative David Coleman Headley is the star witness. He has exposed the close links between the Pakistan spy agency ISI and the Lashkar.

Home minister P Chidambaram opened the dialogue earlier in the day, saying Pakistan, the global epicenter of terrorism, had become a “fragile” state, with terror groups nurtured for long as an instrument of state policy joining hands against the state.

With the dialogue coinciding with US secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Islamabad visit, Napolitano avoided any reference to the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan at a presser later in the evening.

In a joint statement, India and the US pledged to defeat the forces of terrorism. Without naming Pakistan, the statement also “called for effective steps by all countries to eliminate safe havens and infrastructure for terrorism”.

To a question on the US approach towards the Lashkar, Napolitano, ranked the outfit in the same bracket as the al Qaeda.

“Our perspective, the US perspective, is LeT is very very, I do not want to say important as that gives it too much credibility, but an organisation that is of the same ranking as the al Qaeda-related groups,” she said, with Chidambaram by her side at the press conference....

If only he could be president of the United States. "Netanyahu: Militant Islam threatening the world," from AP, May 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is telling Congress that militant Islam is threatening the world.

Netanyahu urged the U.S. on Tuesday never to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. He said Iran would be able to put a bomb anywhere, from an Israeli subway to a missile that could one day reach Washington.

He called the threat posed by militant Islam the "greatest danger of all."

UPDATE: Here is what Netanyahu actually said:

When I last stood here, I spoke of the consequences of Iran developing nuclear weapons. Now time is running out. The hinge of history may soon turn, for the greatest danger of all could soon be upon us: a militant Islamic regime armed with nuclear weapons.

Militant Islam threatens the world. It threatens Islam.

"It threatens Islam" -- i.e., the real Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been Hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists. This unreality is disappointing to see, and will not bode well for Israel insofar as it continues to translate into policy. Nonetheless, even to acknowledge that the threat has any Islamic character at all is a huge advance over Obama, George W. Bush, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, et al.

Some of the legion of appeasers and useful idiots in the U.S. will see this as a sign that we should, in the words of the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, "give up Israel." In reality, however, it is another indication of why all free people should stand with Israel.

"Bin Laden vows no US security in final tape: website," from AFP, May 8 (thanks to Benedict):

Osama bin Laden warned in the final tape he recorded before being killed by American commandos there will be no US security without Palestine security, an Islamist website reported Sunday.

In an audio message addressed to US President Barack Obama, he said: "America will not be able to dream of security until we live in security in Palestine. It is unfair that you live in peace while our brothers in Gaza live in insecurity."

"Accordingly, and with the will of God, our attacks will continue against you as long as your support for Israel continues," he warned...

Why? Aren't moderate Muslims thronging the streets, dancing in celebration and handing out candy? Didn't bin Laden represent a Tiny Minority of Extremists™ despised by the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims?

"US warns of anti-American violence after bin Laden," by Matthew Lee for the Associated Press, May 1:

WASHINGTON – The State Department early Monday put U.S. embassies on alert and warned of the heightened possibility for anti-American violence after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by American forces in Pakistan.

In a worldwide travel alert released shortly after President Barack Obama late Sunday announced bin Laden's death in a U.S. military operation, the department said there was an "enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counterterrorism activity in Pakistan."

"Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, U.S. citizens in areas where recent events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations," it said....

For the Muslim Brotherhood and kindred spirits, implementing discrimination against women and non-Muslims is not a "hijacking" of the revolution; it's a charter flight. And we're back to Square One: A democracy is only as good as the values that inform its participants.

The most dismal aspect of this story is that anyone is surprised that intolerance and discrimination rooted in Islamic texts and teachings are actually playing a role here. But those are the fruits of fantasy-based policy. "Clinton warns intolerance threatens Arab revolts," by Matthew Lee for the Associated Press, April 15:

BERLIN -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning that rising intolerance toward women and religious minorities threatens to hijack democratic transitions around the Arab world and spread violent extremism.

Clinton told an award ceremony in the German capital on Friday that she was disturbed by recent developments in post-revolt Egypt in which women and Coptic Christians were singled out for attacks and abuse. She said such incidents test the unity of pro-democracy demonstrators whose peaceful protests ousted Egypt's authoritarian president and could fracture the reform movement.

Clinton said she feared similar backsliding elsewhere in the Mideast and stressed it was critical for Egyptians and other Arabs whose nations are in the throes of change to resist intolerance and demand that their new leaders embrace open and inclusive governments.

One of the resolution's sponsors notes that "continued use of the report by the U.N. shows a bias against Israel." It would be an uphill battle to get the U.N. to admit 2 + 2 ≠ 5 when the OIC, which initiated the report, insists it is so. An update on this story. "US Senate wants UN to retract report accusing Israel of war crimes after author backtracks," from the Associated Press, April 15:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is calling on the U.N. Human Rights Council to revoke a report that accused Israel of war crimes after the study's author retracted his conclusions.

In a unanimous vote late Thursday, the Senate backed a nonbinding resolution sponsored by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, and Republican James Risch. pressing for the council to rescind the report. Richard Goldstone, who wrote the study, has backtracked on his claims.

The Senate resolution also urges Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to deal with the damage to Israel's reputation caused by the report.

Gillibrand said Goldstone's admission of error was not enough to undo the damage and libel against Israel and pressed for the Council to act. Risch said continued use of the report by the U.N. shows a bias against Israel.

I can't wait for the episode in which Cookie Monster straps on a bomb vest and blows himself up in a crowd of Infidels.

The real problem with all these hearts and minds initiatives, besides how they drain the U.S. Treasury, is that they won't work. A few episodes of Sesame Street are not going to change the text of the Qur'an or efface the jihad imperative.

"US to fund $20m remake of Sesame Street for Pakistan," from BBC News, April 8 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The United States is funding a Pakistani remake of the popular TV children's show Sesame Street.

In a new effort to win hearts and minds in Pakistan, USAID - the development arm of the US government - is donating $20m (£12m) to the country to create a local Urdu version of the show.

The project aims to boost education in Pakistan, where many children have no access to regular schooling.

The show is to be filmed in Lahore and aired later in the year.

"The programme is part of a series of ventures that is aimed at developing the educational infrastructure in the country," Virginia Morgan, a spokesperson for USAID, told the BBC.

"Education is one of the vital sectors that need help in Pakistan."

The show will be set in a village in Pakistan - rather than the streets of New York - with roadside tea shop and residents sitting on their verandas.

The remake will star a puppet called Rani, the six-year-old daughter of a peasant farmer, with pigtails and a school uniform, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.

The Rafi Peer group has been a leading light in Pakistani theatre for nearly 30 years. The group has been in the news in the past for its off-the-cuff productions - but also for the threats it has received.

In 2008 its highly popular World Performing Arts festival in Lahore was bombed. Although no-one was injured, the attack set back the arts in what is regarded as the country's cultural capital...

No kidding, really?

You might not have given much thought to it—perhaps no one you know suffers from this addiction—but the most dangerous mind-altering substance afflicting Americans today is a drug called Interventitron. Developed in 1917 by the Princeton researcher (and American President) Woodrow Wilson, Interventitron is better known by street names applied to various brands by different dealers: “War to End All Wars," "Just Cause,” “Enduring Freedom,” and most recently “Odyssey Dawn.” This drug was once confined to certain subcultures in Washington, D.C., and parts of Manhattan, and it has been shown to have legitimate use in treating diseases—for instance, its application from 1941-1945 proved to be life-saving. But the drug proved highly addictive, and was frequently over-prescribed in subsequent decades for phantom illnesses, or conditions where its medical benefits were clearly outweighed by its potent side effects. Among these side-effects, clinicians have identified the following as the most serious:

• Massive, uncontrolled pauperization, especially through metastasizing military and foreign aid expenditures—which once induced by a heavy dose of “Interventh,” have proven almost impossible for policymakers to stabilize, much less halt. Debilitating outcomes have included the U.S. occupation of Iraq and of Afghanistan.


• Hyperactivity of the military gland, which in moderate to severe cases can cause morbidity in otherwise healthy young men, especially between ages 18-25. This phenomenon often proves crippling or fatal; between 1963 and 1975, some 58,209 Americans died as a direct result of Interventitron abuse.


• Debilitating hallucinations, which result in violent behavior that proves destructive to self or others. The best-documented example of this phenomenon afflicted the nation of Yugoslavia in 1999, when Interventitron-induced delusions led NATO and the U.S. to conclude that a vast, one-sided campaign of genocide was underway against Bosnian Muslims—whom the drug further led Westerners to perceive as tolerant and secular. While few NATO lives were claimed, hundreds of thousands of Christian Serbs were displaced from their homes, and thousands of them killed, by soldiers of the new Kosovo Albanian regime. Solid evidence of the “genocide” which NATO had claimed was occurring could never be adduced, leading some researchers to claim that it was merely a phantom produced by near-toxic doses of Interventitron, which has been the drug of choice among American policymakers from the late 1990s onward. Heavy users of the drug, many of them prominent in government and media subcultures, continue to insist that evidence for their claims will prove forthcoming—and have conducted enormously expensive, inconclusive “war crimes” trials in the vain attempt to justify their behavior while intoxicated.


• The failure of self-protective autonomic instincts. Here, medical observers have pointed to the seemingly inexplicable decisions of prominent addicts such as Donald Rumsfeld, who while “juiced up” on the drug disbanded the Iraqi Army and outlawed its once-dominant Ba'ath Party—leaving an entire country to descend into civil war, and to slide into de facto military alliance with America's enemy, Iran. Other cases of morbidity include the long French involvement with Algeria—begun as an anti-piracy measure in 1830—which resulted in the mass colonization of the host by hostile, parasitic Muslims.


• Severe memory loss. Long-time abusers of Interventitron have shown that they are virtually incapable of remembering or learning from past events, leading them to indulge in repeated instances of counterproductive, repetitive and compulsive behavior, in the full expectation of different results. Hence, when faced with the evidence that small doses of Interventitron almost invariably escalate into long-term, debilitating addiction, heavy users insist that “this time” their proposed application of the drug will be a “quick, surgical strike” that will not, they promise, “turn into a quagmire.” Assurances that they can “stop any time they want” invariably prove hollow. Evidence for this sad medical conclusion can be seen in the large American military establishments still present in such bizarre, entirely peaceful outposts as Okinowa and Germany—suggesting that the aftereffects even of medically indicated doses of Interventitron (as in 1941-45) can prove costly in the long run.


• Serious, sometimes crippling lapses in judgment, which can lead Interventitron addicts to perceive strangers who either wish or can do them no harm as deadly enemies—and implacably hostile forces as friends or natural allies. The current NATO and American effort to depose the defanged dictator Muammar Qaddafi and replace him with an unknown coalition of forces based in the deeply Islamist, anti-American eastern region of Libya, is a clear instance of advanced Interventitron poisoning. Attempts to organize an “intervention” that would confront American users with the consequences of their disease have proven futile, thanks to the final, and perhaps the gravest side-effect of this mind-altering substance:


• Drug-induced mania, whose symptoms include grandiosity, an impregnable self-righteousness and hostility to critics, and a debilitating preoccupation with the “verdict of history.” Once an Interventitron user displays these “third-stage” effects, any treatment is generally contraindicated as it tends to injure the patient without diminishing the symptoms. As fiscal systems strain and finally fail, self-protective mechanisms become hyperactive and indiscriminately attack healthy organs, and undetected pathogenic organisms (falsely identified as native or friendly) replicate themselves unchecked within the host. After such a fatal prognosis is reached, the focus of caregivers in tertiary Interventitron dependency is harm-reduction and pain management. Some activists have called for the use of doctor-assisted suicide in such cases, claiming that terminal patients such as the European Union have the right to “death with dignity,” but civilizational ethicists are still conflicted over such proposals, and others argue for hospice care as the most compassionate alternative to offer nations in their last few decades of life.

The fact that Gaddafi is a reprehensible human being and no friend of the U.S. does not automatically turn his opponents into Thomas Paine. "U.S. to deploy more ships to support Libya planning," by Phil Stewart for Reuters, March 18:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will deploy additional amphibious ships to the Mediterranean, the military said on Friday, as part of the Obama administration's plans for responding to ongoing violence in Libya.

The USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group will deploy on March 23 "ahead of its original schedule in order to relieve units from the USS Kearsarge (Amphibious Ready Group) currently positioned in the Mediterranean Sea," it said in a statement....

Curiouser and curiouser. An update on this story. "U.S. denies paid compensation over Pakistan killings," from Reuters, March 16 (thanks to Block Ness):

CAIRO (Reuters) – The United States did not pay compensation to the families of two Pakistanis killed by a CIA contractor who was acquitted of their murder on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The contractor, Raymond Davis, 36, was acquitted and released by a Pakistani court after a deal to pay "blood money" to the victims' families, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told Reuters earlier on Wednesday.

Clinton told reporters in Cairo: "The United States did not pay any compensation." Asked who did, she replied: "You will have to ask the families."

She also refused to say if the Pakistani government had paid, saying: "You will have to ask the Pakistani government."...

"We have communicated our strong support for the relationship between Pakistan and the United States which we consider to be of strategic importance and are looking forward to continuing to strengthen it based on mutual respect and common interest, " Clinton said.

Powerful religious parties in Pakistan condemned the release and analysts said there was a risk of a backlash against the government.

Don't those greasy Islamophobes know that a "backlash" can only happen against Muslims?

This is a concern only in Britain? And does anyone care now, or did they only care in 2006? "US terrorist concern on UK sharia banks -WikiLeaks," from Reuters, March 15:

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities expressed concerns that Britain's growing sharia banking sector may be exploited to channel funds to terrorists, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

According to WikiLeaks, the U.S. State Department's concerns were such that it ordered diplomats in London to compile a report on the activities of sharia banks in Britain.

The report cited a cable sent from the office of Condoleezza Rice, former President George Bush's then Secretary of State, in June 2006.

This cable requested information on "Islamic financial institutions' vulnerability to exploitation for illicit or terrorist purposes, such as structuring accounts to mask illicit activity or money laundering", the report said.

$2.34 million!

The Islamic principle of qisas, or retaliation, allows for blood money (diyya) to be paid by the perpetrator to the relatives of the deceased in cases of accidental death or even murder. This is not just an Islamic ritual; it is part of Islamic law and suffices as punishment for the murder if the relatives of the deceased agree.

In any case, the amount of compensation required is higher if the victim was a Muslim than if he was a non-Muslim. Only the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence allows for the possibility of capital punishment in the case of a Muslim who has murdered an unbeliever. The Maliki and Hanbali schools set a Muslim's life as worth twice that of a non-Muslim. The Shafi'i school sets a Jew's or Christian's life as worth two-thirds that of a Muslim. Polytheists are valued less. The Shafi'i Sharia manual 'Umdat al-Salik dictates: "The indemnity for the death or injury of a woman is one-half the indemnity paid for a man. The indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid for a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth that of a Muslim." (o4.9)

The Iranian Shi'ite Sufi Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh explains: "Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution...Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash....Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim...then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed....Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." -- Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

And why is the U.S. submitting to Sharia in this regard? In better days, a team of commandos would have done the job.

"Pakistan: CIA contractor released after '$2.34mln in blood is money paid,'" from AKI, March 16 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Lahore, 16 March (AKI) - A Pakistani court on Wednesday freed an American CIA contractor hours after he was formally charged with two counts of murder, officials said.

Raymond Davis, 36, shot dead two men in the eastern city of Lahore on 27 January. He said he defended himself during an armed robbery.

Davis was acquitted after family members of the victims received "blood money" as compensation in accordance with sharia law, Pakistani English-language daily Dawn cited Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah as saying.

A lawyer for the families of two Pakistani men killed by an American CIA contractor says the United States paid $2.34 million in "blood money" to secure the man's release, according to an Associated Press report....

United States ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter on the release of Davis said :”I wish to express my respect for Pakistan and its people, and my thanks for their commitment to building our relationship.”...

"Moderates." "U.S.-trained forces arrested in bloody slaying of kids," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, March 14 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

JERUSALEM – Two members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' official security forces were arrested in conjunction with this past weekend's bloody massacre in which five family members were brutally stabbed to death inside their home in the Jewish village of Itamar, WND has learned.

The names of the apprehended suspects will be released to the Israeli media within hours but were revealed to WND by security officials working on the murder.

Two cousins are now in Israeli custody and are suspected in the slayings. Ahmed Awad is an officer in Abbas' Preventative Security Services in the northern West Bank city of Nablis. Iyad Awad is an officer in Abbas' General Intelligence services in Ramallah.

Both the Preventative and General Intelligence services of Fatah are armed, trained and funded by the U.S.

The duo did not personally carry out the murders, but rather they assisting in the planning and logistics, informed security sources told WND.

Since the late 1990s, the U.S. has run training bases for PA militias. The U.S. also has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid and weapons to build up the PA militias....

They say Mohammed Junaid Babar has agreed to become an informant. "Jihadi who helped train 7/7 bomber freed by US after just five years," by Shiv Malik in The Guardian, February 13 (thanks to Block Ness):

An American jihadist who set up the terrorist training camp where the leader of the 2005 London suicide bombers learned how to manufacture explosives, has been quietly released after serving only four and a half years of a possible 70-year sentence, a Guardian investigation has learned.

The unreported sentencing of Mohammed Junaid Babar to "time served" because of what a New York judge described as "exceptional co-operation" that began even before his arrest has raised questions over whether Babar was a US informer at the time he was helping to train the ringleader of the 7 July tube and bus bombings.

Lawyers representing the families of victims and survivors of the attacks have compared the lenient treatment of Babar to the controversial release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

Babar was imprisoned in 2004 - although final sentencing was deferred - after pleading guilty in a New York court to five counts of terrorism. He set up the training camp in Pakistan where Mohammad Sidique Khan and several other British terrorists learned about bomb-making and how to use combat weapons.

Babar admitted to being a dangerous terrorist who consorted with some of the highest-ranking members of al-Qaida, providing senior members with money and equipment, running weapons, and planning two attempts to assassinate the former president of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf.

But in a deal with prosecutors for the US attorney's office, Babar agreed to plead guilty and become a government supergrass in return for a drastically reduced sentence....

Why is the U.S. so important for the future of Islam? Because it is the foremost secular republic in the world, and thus the chief competitor to the Islamic vision of the Sharia state. If it falls, so will the rest of the free world. "Egyptian Journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal: 'The US Will Be Transformed into an Islamic Republic,'" from MEMRITV, December 12, 2010 (thanks to Observer):

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Egyptian journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal, which aired on Al-Rahma/Al-Rawdha TV on December 12, 2010.

'Ata Abd Al-Aal: The rate of converts to Islam in the US is very high. This is of great alarm to the Zionist circles in the US, because this rate is rising on a daily basis. These converts adhere to Islam with total conviction. They become preachers themselves, and convince others to convert to Islam. You are more knowledgeable than me in this issue, and you know that many Americans convert to Islam every day. [...]

[Ultimately,] the US will be transformed into an Islamic republic, as a sheik in the US told me. He said that the most important place for the future of Islam, after Mecca and Medina, was the US.

By insisting on the one-person-one-vote in Iraq, the U.S. unwittingly aided the ascendancy of the Shi'ites, who constitute a majority of the Iraqi population. In doing so, the U.S. helped create what Iran is working hard to turn into a Shi'ite client state of the Islamic Republic. Nonetheless, that was presumably the result not of some vast conspiracy, but of the short-sightedness and ignorance of Islam that is pandemic in the State Department.

"Al Qaeda: U.S. and Iran in Christian-Shiite alliance against Sunnis," from Asia News, January 29 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An "alliance" between Christians and Shiites against Sunnis. This is the claim carried in an audiotape released yesterday evening by al Qaida, which claims that there is an anti-Sunni agreement between the U.S. and Iran. The affirmation of the terrorist movement sees "a confirmation" of the conspiracy in last month's meeting in Yemen between U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and former foreign minister of Iran, Manouchehr Mottaki, in the "Manama Dialogue "on security on the Arabian Peninsula.

In reality, especially in Iraq, Shiite and Christian communities are the targets of terrorist attacks linked to al Qaida and its not uncommon to see images of Jesus and the father of Shiism, Imam Hussein (pictured) side by side. Such was the case during the Christmas period and again during a call from religious leaders inviting Christians not to leave the country.

The message of al-Qaida urges Sunnis to "pay attention to the massacres" that "happen in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, while you are unarmed." "Take up your weapons and prepare yourselves before it is too late." "Buy weapons, even if it costs a lot, to protect your religion, your lives and your honour."

Whom did they tell? Did the U.S. officials involved notify the Swedes? If not, why not? Why was Taimour Abdulwahab still traveling around freely and able to engage in a jihad mass-murder plot?

"'Abdulwahab was trained in Iraq,'" by Tommie Ullman for Stockholm News, January 7:

The Arabic Tv-channel al-Arabyia claims that the Iraqi security service got information about Taimour Abdulwahab two month before he blow up himself in Stockholm. Abdulwahab had then already been trained in Mosul, north Iraq.

Abdulwahab was in Mosul for three month, were he learnt how to make explosives. This is said to al-Arabya by the Iraqi counter terrorism authority.

The Iraqis informed USA about Abdulwahab states the tv-channel. Captured Al-quaida fighters had said that targets in USA or Europe were to be attacked by the end of December. The Swedish security service, Säpo, does not want to comment on whether or not the information reached them.

Could it be that the Army fears offending Muslims but knows that Jews will not react with irrational violence to being denied their wishes? Naaah, couldn't be...

"NYC rabbi sues Army over no-beard policy: Menachem M. Stern cites rule waiver for Sikhs, Muslim in lawsuit," by Joe Gould in Army Times, January 2 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

A rabbi from Brooklyn, N.Y., is suing the Army over its "no-beard" policy, claiming the service violated his religious freedoms when it rejected him because he refuses to shave.

Menachem M. Stern's lawsuit argues the Army is discriminating against him because it has waived the "no-beard" rule for several Sikhs and a Muslim, but not for him. Advocates hope the case, if successful, will pave the way for more bearded rabbis to become chaplains and minister to historically underserved Jewish soldiers.

"While they're stalling me, they're taking in other religions, for instance, Sikhs and Muslims with beards and turbans at the same time," Stern said. "At that point, my question became, 'Who says yes and who says no?' It shows how in a great institution such as the Army, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing."...

Or maybe they know all too well.

It's incredible how indefatigably the U.S. has pursued accommodation with Islam and encouraged others to do so. Just imagine the U.S. Government in 1943 encouraging anyone on the world stage to open up towards Germany. But of course the analogy founders on the fact that we don't consider ourselves to be at war with Islam; if only we could convince the Islamic jihadists that they are not at war with us. I don't think the Pope saying nice things about Islam under U.S. pressure would accomplish that.

"WikiLeaks: US encouraged pope to open up towards Islam and Turkey," from DPA, December 23:

Madrid - The United States initially saw Pope Benedict XVI as a 'eurocentric' pontiff who was 'unlikely to cut a prominent figure on the world stage,' according to WikiLeaks documents published Thursday.

The confidential US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblower website were quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais.

German-born Benedict XVI would face a 'steep learning curve' on international issues, US diplomats wrote after the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005.

Some of the cables focus on a 2006 academic lecture given by the pope, who quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor saying that the Muslim prophet Mohammed had brought 'only evil and inhuman things.' The quote sparked furious criticism in the Muslim world.

'It taxes the imagination' to suppose that such a reference by the pope 'would pass unnoticed,' a US diplomat wrote.

According to his assessment, the pope made the reference on purpose, but without foreseeing the consequences, which were followed by apologies by the Vatican.

The pope's 'approach toward Islam and toward inter-religious dialogue is cooler than that of his predecessor' John Paul II, the diplomat observed....

'The Holy See does not believe theological agreements with Islam are possible, but is convinced that better mutual knowledge will allay suspicions and facilitate peaceful co-existence,' US diplomats wrote in 2009.

A day of prayer and meditation would naturally lead to chants of hatred for the Great Satan and the Little Satan, no? "Anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans begins [sic] in Arafat desert," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, November 15 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The pilgrims chanted anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans during the ceremony also attended by the Supreme Leader's representative for Hajj affairs, Hojatoleslam Ali Qazi-Asgar.

'God is the Greatest', 'Death to Israel', and 'Death to America', were among slogans chanted by the masses in unison as they gathered in the Desert of Arafat, 20 kms (12 miles) from Mecca, for a day of prayer and meditation.

The faithful - men clad in two-piece seamless white shrouds and women all covered except for their hands and faces to symbolize equality -- converged on Arafat.

A message by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the Hajj pilgrims was also read by Qazi-Asgar during the ceremony.

When is the Embassy seminar on Jewish entrepreneurs and business in Ireland? When is the Embassy seminar on Christian entrepreneurs and business in Ireland? When is the Embassy seminar on Hindu entrepreneurs and business in Ireland? When is the Embassy seminar on Buddhist entrepreneurs and business in Ireland?

There would seem to be a Constitutional issue involved here -- isn't the U.S. Government involving itself in promoting a religion via such a seminar? And what a surprise that that religion would turn out to be Islam. "U.S. Embassy sponsors Irish Muslim business conference: Imam calls for Sharia Law in all business dealings," by Patrick Cooper for IrishCentral.com, October 7 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The U.S. Embassy in Dublin has sponsored a seminar on Muslim entrepreneurs and business in Ireland. A main point of the conference was the need for Sharia law compliant financial products to be used.

The U.S. Embassy supported the conference as part of President Obama's outreach to Muslims around the world.

Ambassador Dan Rooney congratulated the organizers on Wednesday and said that the U.S was "solid partners" in the venture. He gave a copy of President Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope " to Imam Hussein Halawa, of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, who opened the event.

At the conference, Thomas Cooney, academic director of the Dublin Institute of Technology, stated that 76 per cent of Muslim business people in Ireland say securing finance is their biggest problem and 90 per cent said there is a need for financial products to be compliant with Islamic law.

There are 45,000 Muslims in Ireland and Islam is the third largest religion reported on census forms.

Imam Hussein Halawa said the Muslim culture was deeply dependent on ethics in business and that the paying or charging of interest on loans was forbidden.

"The Islamic objective is to avoid all transactions leading to disharmony among people," he said....

The dhimmis will experience plenty of harmony as long as they submit.

Comments by David G. Littman - NGO Representative of the Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations in Geneva:

Robert Spencer's "Islamic Nazis" is a very welcome reminder of what's on the horizon for us all.

In his recent idiocies at a ceremony held for a book titled Civilizations, Nomadic Migrations, Empires and The Trail of Islam at the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur, former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Muhammad seriously referred to the 9/11 Jihadist horror jokingly, with the following comments :

"The way the tower came crashing down was also funny (...) I have great respect for the Arabs but for them to hijack four planes is not very Arab. Just imagine the amount of planning that would be involved." Rejecting any claims that he was being insensitive to the victims, Mahathir stressed that he was "being more sensitive to the victims" as he was simply saying the attacks were carried out "deliberately." He also said that his views about how 9/11/2001 attacks were carried out would not affect Malaysia's chances of attracting foreign investment. "I have said this many times even when I was the prime minister. But we still have the foreign direct investment. However, we cannot rely on foreign direct investments alone. We must build on our own system," he said.

On several occasions I have denounced, at the UNCHR, the crass lunacies of Mahathir bin Muhammad - but no condemnation emanated from the 'international community's conscience of the world'. Below is an extract from WUPJ's Appeal to Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, which I drafted 6½ years ago, having raised the matter earlier in an oral statement at the UN Commission on Human Rights. Rabbi François Garaï and I signed it and The National Review reprinted it in Oct. 21, 2003.

URGENT APPEAL
To Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan  
on Prime Minister Mahathir bin Muhammad's Madding Judeophobia

(...) In fact, Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad was simply true to form. Already in October 1986, a day after PLO-dissident Abu Nidal's killers massacred 23 Jews at worship in Istanbul's "Gates of Peace" synagogue (Neve Shalom), he told the 101-Member Movement of the Non-Aligned countries (Harare, Zimbabwe): "The expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land some two thousand years ago and the Nazi oppression have taught them nothing. If at all, it has transformed the Jews into the very monsters that they condemn so roundly in their propaganda material. They are apt pupils of Dr Goebbels." (New York Times / IHT - October 8, 1986).

On that occasion also, not one 'Non-Aligned' delegation reacted. Two months later Malaysia inaugurated an "Anti-Jews Day" (New York Times, Dec. 8, 1986), and during his State visit to Great Britain in July 1987 he again affirmed: "The Jews have been apt pupils of Dr. Goebbels." In March 1994 Schindler's List was banned in Malaysia - on the grounds that it was "Jewish propaganda." In 1997 he blamed the Asian financial crisis on the "Jews," explaining his views: "We are Muslims, and the Jews are not happy to see Muslims progress."

Abdulmutallab could be just the beginning, if this report is accurate. "25 Brits in jet bomb plots," by Anthony France and Alex West for The Sun, December 27 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.

The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.

It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet.

The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London.

They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike.

A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of many ready to attack planes and kill tens of thousands.

"We know there are four or five radicalised British Muslim cells in the Yemen.

"They are due back within months when they will be under constant surveillance."

The 25 suspects, of Pakistani and Somali descent, were radicalised in UK mosques.

Uh, how'd that happen? I thought they were all serenely moderate.

Siding with the Saudis against Iran. "'US fighter jets attack Yemeni fighters,'" from PressTV, December 14:

US fighter jets have attacked Yemen's Sa'ada Province, Houthi fighters say. Yemen's Houthi fighters say the US fighter jets have launched 28 attacks on the northwestern province of Sa'ada.

The US has used modern fighter jets and bombers in its offensive against the Yemen fighters, Houthis said in a statement.

According to the statement, the US fighter jets have launched overnight attacks on the Yemeni fighters, Arabic Almenpar website reported.

The development comes as The Daily Telegraph on Sunday reported that the US has sent its special forces to Yemen to train its army.

The reports of the US military intervention in Yemen come as Saudi Arabia is also lending full support to the Yemeni government's crackdown on Yemen's Houthi minority....

Which besmirches the "Religion of Peace" more? A cartoon about the mistreatment of women in Islam, or the mistreatment of women in Islam? For the Daily Star of Lebanon, it is decidedly the former.

Of course I run up against this all the time. When I report what people like this say, I'm told by the likes of CAIR that it is I who am "spreading hate" and "defaming Islam."

Come off it, Ibrahim. Come off it, Dr. Ghazi Falah. This is one dhimmi who isn't buying. It is Osama bin Laden who is defaming Islam. It is Mukhlas who is defamining Islam. And Omar Bakri. And Abu Hamza. And Abu Bakar Bashir. And Zarqawi. And Shehzad Tanweer. And hordes of others.

The press is, as any regular Jihad Watch reader knows, extraordinarily reluctant to say anything about the Islamic component of jihad violence. We are all accustomed to reading about "gunmen," "activists," "extremists" and "insurgents," and hardly ever about "Muslims" or even "jihadists." Yet Dr. Falah would have us believe, from the comfort of his study in Akron, that some terrible campaign is going on in the press to vilify Muslims because there is any reporting of (and just a bit of lampooning of) Islamic violence at all.

Well, the press can't talk about Baptist extremists, or Methodist gunmen. It does have to stick around within the general neighborhood of what is really happening. Stereotyping? Vilification? Hardly. If Muslim women weren't oppressed, if Muslim preachers weren't yapping constantly about Zionist pigs, you would never hear a peep of any of this.

Note also who is behind this: it comes from the Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud Center for American Studies and Research. That's the guy who is making FoxNews, Harvard and Georgetown dance happily to his tune.

"Effect of U.S. media on perceptions: Press plays key role in stereotyping arabs, Muslims," from Spencer Osberg in The Daily Star, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

BEIRUT: "The Muslim world is a strange and formidable place to an average American, in some ways a perennial zone of magic, mystery and disorder," said Dr. Ghazi Falah, of the University of Akron, Ohio, on Monday at the American University of Beirut. It is regarded in "a framework of violence, disorder and unreason contrasted with the rationalism of the West."

Falah was one of three presenters for "Media and Film Representations of Arabs and the Middle East," one session held as part of a three-day "America in the Middle East-The Middle East in America" conference. The conference is an initiative of the Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud Center for American Studies and Research.

"I focus on the way in which an American newspaper makes or decides on a certain 'editorial arrangement' in presenting material concerning Muslim or Arab topics, to serve specific political or geo-political ends or respective governments," said Falah, noting the construction of Arabs as 'the other' - different and inferior to Westerners - is central to American foreign policy....

Informative examples of a newspaper's "definition of a situation" are the editorial cartoon, says Falah, which "are useful sources of data because they are aimed at a mass audience, are full of caricatures and often have action themes with underlying story or meaning."

He pointed to two cartoons which appeared in the Los Angeles Times. On January 1, 2003, the paper printed what Falah describes as a "classic assault on the Arab world and its people," where the Arab world is represented as a yappy dog barking about "America" and "Zionist Pigs," while the dog jumps in the lap of a robed person with the words "Islamic Extremist" on his chest.

"What's the message?" asks Falah. "While the noisy Arab world accuses America of being in the lap of Zionist pigs, they are themselves in the lap of Islamic extremists and in their control."

On November 27, 2002, the Los Angeles Times printed another cartoon depicting three fully veiled women walking across a stage under the banner "Al-Islam sponsors the Miss Muslim World contest." The sashes the women wore read "Miss waiting to be stoned," "Miss can't vote" and "Miss illiteracy," while two Afghani-looking men watched, one of which had a rifle.

"Perhaps some would argue this cartoon contains a kernel of truth, and targets only radical Islam and not all Muslims, but how could such an insulting and crude cartoon be considered newsworthy enough to be published in the Los Angeles Times?"

He notes the cartoon was placed on the same page with an editorial about the Bush administration's preparations for war in Iraq, creating a juxtaposition of "the bad Islam" with the "good Bush administration" coming to the rescue.

"Newspapers enjoy extraordinary freedom to frame, and bend and distort the ways in which information is reported, interpreted and packaged," says Falah, leading to much misrepresentation of the Arabs and Muslims.

CAIR attempts yet again to shift the focus away from Muslims as possible perpetrators of violent terror acts to Muslims as victims of discrimination and harassment. One principal effect could be an inhibition of investigations involving Muslims, making us all less safe. Is that what CAIR wants? A follow-up to this story. "Group Tells Muslims to Document Treatment," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

WASHINGTON - Muslim-Americans trying to re-enter the United States after international travel should record instances in which they're singled out as security risks, a civil rights group said Tuesday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked traveling Muslims to record any examples of excessive security checks or fingerprinting when returning from a religious conference in Canada this weekend or from the annual hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, next month.

Last year, three dozen Muslim-American men and women were searched, questioned, fingerprinted and photographed without explanation at two western New York border crossings after returning from a from an Islamic conference in Toronto.

No one in the group was charged, and the civil rights council filed a lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department in response. The lawsuit is ongoing.

"Americans of all faiths should be free to travel without fear of being singled out based solely on their religious practices or associations," council legal director Arsalan Iftikhar said in a statement Tuesday.

Why not? Islam is a religion of peace, right? Egregious Dhimmitude Alert from WND, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

JERUSALEM – While the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for a halt in funding to the Palestinians if Hamas wins upcoming parliamentary elections, the U.S. government is currently in the process of funding a Gaza town run by Hamas.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, in conjunction with the Islamic Development Bank, reportedly contributed $392,000 for construction of roads and public facilities in Bani Suhaila, a Gaza village outside the populated Palestinian city of Khan Yunis.

U.S. AID has contracted a company specializing in road development and will oversee the road construction project, a spokesman for the agency told WND.

Israel Resource News Agency and Middle East Newsline reported the mayor of Bani Suhaila, Hamas activist Abdul Khader Al Rokab, told the Palestinian media he expects additional funds from U.S. AID for development of other projects in his municipality.

I am not in favor of security measures that can be legitimately established as violating Constitional protections. I also think that in light of the international situation, Constitutional issues should be made absolute top priority and resolved quickly, clearly and decisively.

From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that senators who are blocking renewal of the terrorism-fighting Patriot Act are acting irresponsibly and standing in the way of protecting the country from attack.

"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," the president said in a live broadcast from the White House of his weekly radio address.

Senate Democrats, with the aid of a handful of Republicans, succeeded Friday in stalling the bill already approved by the House. The vote to advance the measure, 52-47, fell eight votes shy of the 60 votes required to end debate.

"That decision is irresponsible and it endangers the lives of our citizens. The senators who are filibustering must stop their delaying tactics and the Senate must reauthorize the Patriot Act," Bush said.

Opponents of renewing the law, most of whom are Democrats, argue that it threatens constitutional liberties at home.

Bravo, Archbishop Chaput. So few people are willing to speak out. From LifeSiteNews, with thanks to all who sent this in:

WASHINGTON, DC, United States, December 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Charles Chaput, of the diocese of Denver, broke free from politically correct restrictions to speak openly about growing Moslem persecution of Christians, in an address to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, of which he is a member.

“Anti-Christian discrimination and violence seem to be growing throughout the Islamic world,” said Archbishop Chaput. “In the past several years, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and even Moslem-controlled areas of the heavily Catholic Philippines have all seen extraordinary acts of bloodshed against Christians.”

The Archbishop expressed his concern over consistent lack of media attention given to acts of violence against Christians.

“Three things distinguish anti-Christian persecution and discrimination around the world. First, it’s ugly. Second, it’s growing. And third, the mass media generally ignore or downplay its gravity.”

Read it all.

In "...as al-Zawahiri Tries to Boost Jihadi Morale" at Global Terrorism Analysis, Stephen Ulph lays out evidence that Zawahri is trying to combat low spirits among his troops. The archterrorist also has a few harsh words for Muslims who are not aiding the jihad.

An extended audio statement from Ayman al-Zawahiri, believed to have been made in mid-September, was posted on December 9 on the al-Safinat jihadi forum (http://202.71.102.108/~alsafnat/vb). Under the rubric "Four years on since the attacks on New York and Washington," and dated Sha'ban 1426 (September 2005), the 48-minute tape was produced by al-Sahab Media Productions, an organization that has come to be known as al-Qaeda's video production company. The statement is worth examining in detail since, amid the rhetoric of denunciation and challenge, it reveals much about the present state of morale within the al-Qaeda organization.

The presentation, entitled Mu'awwiqat al-Jihad (Obstacles to Jihad), is provided with English subtitles and is hence intended for the widest possible circulation. It starts off in a buoyant tone: "I wish to speak to you about the victory that, with Allah's permission, is imminent; for a simple reason, that the key to victory is in our hands." Subsequently, however, the tone shifts, indicating some exasperation at the lack of the "final push" required to ensure the success of the jihad, outlining that "the primary cause of defeat is in ourselves." As if to counter a mood of despondency, al-Zawahiri underlines how the jihad has already achieved successes. In Iraq, he maintains, the resistance "stabs America every day and makes it scream and search feverishly for a way out of its predicament there." And in Israel, "were it not for the mujahideen's confrontation of Israel and its agents (our rulers) Israel would have now expanded to many times its current size." The mujahideen have also, he asserts, effectively defended Islam from the "puppet rulers," under whom "the corruption would have worsened and they would have sought to eradicate Islam."...

For all the bullish talk of triumph, the message of al-Zawahiri's address appears equally crafted as a last-minute appeal for support to help prevent the defeat of the mujahideen. "The key to victory is in our hands," he states, "and in turn, the primary cause of defeat is in ourselves." This part of the message is particularly noteworthy, in that the reproach and call for jihad contradict the image of success he maintains the jihad has already achieved. Al-Zawahiri gives his diagnosis for the problems besetting the jihad: "The first battle we must win is our battle with ourselves, our battle with out weakness and helplessness and clinging to the earth; our preference for small gains." He then goes on to encourage the mujahideen by belittling the enemy as having little else but technology on their side, and "driven only by fear and desire; in the field they don't make a stand in any honest encounter." At root of the problem of the lack of victory is Muslims' "fear and ignorance of fighting" and their "submission to [the regimes'] terrorism and intimidation." Al-Zawahiri then develops this theme on the disastrous passivity of the Muslims; taking the example of the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat by Khalid al-Islambouli, he notes how everyone subsequently abandoned them to their fate and contented themselves with "passive praise." Another example is Saudi Arabia, where Muslims who called for reform were "left to fight alone" and (in a probable reference to the penitent Saudi jihadi shaykhs) "some callers to reform relapsed and turned around to stab their brothers, the Mujahideen, in their backs."

Al-Zawahiri appears genuinely exasperated at the lack of enthusiasm in the Muslim community for the rigors of jihad and the ability of the broader community to content itself with the war of words. He scoffs, from his position out there on the front line in the hills, at the armchair commentators. "If each one of us wants to turn into a debater, analyst, and specialist who dresses in elegant clothes, attends seminars and appears on screen, then returns to his house safe from the tyranny of the Crusaders and their agents, then there is no hope for deliverance."...