Recently in Pakistan Category

How is it that Abdul Baseer could memorize the Qur'an and miss all of its teachings of peace, and get the idea that jihad had something to do with killing unbelievers? How did this obviously pious and serious Muslim become a Misunderstander of Islam? You'd think that accounts like this would create some cognitive dissonance among those who believe that Islam is a Religion of Peace™. But they don't.

"Behind the scenes of a Pakistani suicide bombing," by Chris Brummitt for AP, April 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Abdul Baseer sent the grenades and explosive vest ahead, then boarded a bus that would take him to his target, accompanied by the 14-year-old boy he had groomed as his suicide bomber.

But before they could blow up their target, a luxury hotel in Lahore where they believed Americans would be staying, the two were arrested and are now in jail -- Baseer unrepentant about having plotted to send a boy to his death, and the boy saying he never knew what was in store for him. [...]

Like many who cannot afford a regular education, Baseer attended three Islamic boarding schools where children learn the Quran by heart and spend little time on secular subjects. The religious schools provide free board and lodging, but are widely criticized for indoctrinating students with an extreme version of Islam.

At least one of the schools Baseer attended, Jamia Faridia in the capital, Islamabad, has been linked to terror.

"Through my studies, I became aware that this is the time for jihad and fighting the infidels, and I saw that a jihad was going on in Afghanistan," said Basser, a rail-thin man speaking just louder than whisper. "I looked for a way to get there."...

On the final trip he took part in the ambush of a U.S. patrol after he and other fighters had lain in wait in the snow for two days."I was happy to be in place where I could kill unbelievers," he said. "I thank God that we all returned safely and had a successful mission."...

"Akhtar has been arrested twice before - in the United Arab Emirates in 2004 and by Pakistani authorities in 2008 - but released each time for unknown reasons." Now, that's interesting. Surely he wasn't released because authorities in the U.A.E. and Pakistan were sympathetic to jihad -- naah, that couldn't be it. An update on this story. "American suspects linked to militants: prosecutor," from AP, April 17 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government presented evidence in court Saturday that allegedly showed contacts between five detained Americans and a reputed al-Qaeda-linked militant leader, revealing the leader's identity for the first time, a prosecutor said.

The northern Virginia men are on trial charged with planning terrorist attacks in Pakistan and conspiring to wage war against nations allied with it. They deny any wrongdoing.

But prosecutors say they made contact with Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami militant network, which is believed to have extensive contacts with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Formed in the 1980s, it recruited militants from the Punjab province to fight in Afghanistan and later Kashmir in operations supported by Pakistani security forces.

Akhtar has been arrested twice before - in the United Arab Emirates in 2004 and by Pakistani authorities in 2008 - but released each time for unknown reasons. At the time of his arrest in 2008, he was publicly accused of involvement in a failed attack on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

Prosecutor Nadeem Akram said the evidence produced Saturday at the court includes documents, phone call logs and retrieved e-mails. The court sessions are taking place behind closed doors in a high security prison in Sargodha.

The Americans, all in their late teens or early 20s, were arrested in December in Sargodha, a city in Punjab province. They were reported missing by their families in November after one left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended....

War Is Deceit, after all, but I can't help but wonder about the implications of stories like this for the West. Multiculturalists are in a tizzy about attempts to ban the burqa in France and elsewhere, and American officials apologize profusely for asking a Muslim woman to remove her hijab (which is, of course, a far cry from a burqa) for a driver's license photo -- but what about the security hazards posed by the nature of the burqa itself? "Bombers dressed in burkas kill 41 in Pakistan: Officials were distributing food to refugees when explosions went off," from The Associated Press, April 17:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Two suicide bombers dressed in burqas blew themselves up Saturday in a camp for refugees fleeing military offensives in northwestern Pakistan, killing 41 people and wounding 62, officials said.

The blasts occurred at a food distribution point, but there were conflicting reports whether the victims were lining up for food or being registered. The camp is sometimes used by foreign humanitarian groups, including the World Food Program, to deliver aid.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani army admitted that civilians were killed in an airstrike last Saturday in the northwest that supposedly targeted militants. It did not say how many had died, but apologized in a rare acknowledgment of an error that could help reduce anger among local tribes, whose support it needs to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The two suicide bombers struck six minutes apart at a camp in the Kacha Pukka area of Kohat, a tribally administered region close to the Afghan border. They were dressed in burqas, the all-encompassing veil worn by conservative Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, local police official Abdullah Khan said....

This working with jihadists goes back twenty years, and continues. And Obama is pressuring India and favoring Pakistan. "Pak used terrorists as a tool in Kashmir: UN," from Indian Express, April 16 (thanks to Slothy):

Pakistan's powerful spy agency ISI continues to have close links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and has used the terror group's services to foment anti-India passion in Kashmir and elsewhere, a UN report said today.

"The Pakistani military organised and supported the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan in 1996. Similar tactics were used in Kashmir against India after 1989," said the much-awaited report by UN-appointed independent panel to probe the killing of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto.

The three-member panel concluded that such a policy of the Pakistan military to use terrorists as a tool to achieve its strategic objectives against its neighbours resulted in active linkages between elements of the military and the Establishment with radical Islamists at the expense of national secular forces.

Noting that the jihadi organisations are Sunni groups based largely in Pakistan's Punjab, the 65-page report said that members of these groups aided the Taliban effort in Afghanistan at the behest of the ISI and later cultivated ties with Al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban groups.

"The Pakistani military and ISI also used and supported some of these groups in the Kashmir insurgency after 1989. The bulk of the anti-Indian activity was and still remains the work of groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has close ties with the ISI," said the panel headed by Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz.

"A common characteristic of these jihadi groups was their adherence to the Deobandi Sunni sect of Islam, their strong anti-Shia bias, and their use by the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in Afghanistan and Kashmir," the report said....

One of the many defects inherent in Sharia, aside from those enshrined in the letter of the law, is how readily it lends itself to further exploitation and abuse, particularly of those already marginalized under its sway. Here is another demonstration of that. "False Charges Filed against 47 Christians in Pakistan," from Compass Direct News, April 8:

VEHARI, Pakistan, April 8 (CDN) -- Police here filed false charges of alcohol possession against 47 Christians, including women and children, on March 28 in an attempt to intimidate and bribe them, Christian leaders said.

Police broke into and ransacked the home of Shaukat Masih at 10:15 p.m. on Palm Sunday, manhandled his wife Parveen Bibi, and threatened to charge them and 45 other area Christians with alcohol possession if they did not pay a bribe, said attorney Albert Patras. The Christians refused.

Those charged include two children and eight women. Patras said that three of the 37 Christian men, Shaukat Masih, Moula Masih and Shanni Masih, secured pre-arrest bail and thus averted detainment by Dane Wall police in Vehari, in Punjab Province. None of the others named in the First Information Report is being held either.

"Police are not interested in their arrest, instead they were trying to extort some money from the destitute Christians," Patras said. "Police thought that Christians, being a soft target, would readily be bribed to save their families, particularly their girls and women."

Non-Muslims with a permit are allowed to possess and drink alcohol in Pakistan, while alcohol is forbidden to Muslims in Pakistan. Shaukat Masih has a government permit to keep and drink alcohol, Patras said, thus making the possession charge baseless.

"No longer using just 'blasphemy' laws, police and fanatical Muslims have begun to use alcohol laws, Section 3/4 of the Pakistan Penal Code, to persecute the destitute Christians of Pakistan," Patras said. "Only Christians in Pakistan are allowed to keep and drink alcohol, so Pakistani police can apprehend any Christian and then level section 3/4 of PPC against him or her."

Patras, head of the Society for Empowerment of the People, told Compass that Sub-Inspector Irshaad-ur-Rehman of the Dane Wall police station, along with two other policemen illegally ransacked the house of Shaukat Masih and Sadiq Masih and threatened to file alcohol charges against them if they refused to pay the bribe....

They first said they had no regrets about plotting jihad against U.S. forces. Then they claimed they weren't terrorists, but merely jihadists, and that the latter should be quite alright. Then they claimed to have just been joking. Then they claimed to have been tortured.

Next excuse: Ready... set... "American jihadi suspects 'set up' by police, say lawyers," by Saeed Shah for the Guardian, April 11:

Police fabricated evidence to incriminate five Americans facing trial in Pakistan on terror charges, lawyers representing the men will argue in court this week.

The men, all Muslims, were arrested in December in the central town of Sargodha, and have been charged with planning terrorist acts in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US.

And the story keeps changing:

While the men admit wanting to travel to Afghanistan, they deny involvement in any jihadist activities and say they were planning to carry out "community work" in the country.

Defence lawyers will argue the men could not have made email contact with a Pakistani extremist linked to al-Qaida in the way the police claim.

According to the police's own summary of the investigation submitted to the court, investigators discovered the email account which was allegedly used to make contact several days after police had briefed journalists on the messages.

Similarly, the police report describes the discovery of maps of alleged target sites and other incriminating evidence more than two weeks after they had already told media about their existence.

The defence will also call into question police claims about the date of the men's arrest, which is several days after their widely reported detention on 9 December last year. Umer Farooq, 24, Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, Ramy Zamzam, 22, Ahmed Minni, 20, and Aman Hassan Yemer, 18, were charged under anti-terrorism laws.

Police say the group's intended target was Chashma Barrage, a complex located near nuclear power facilities in Punjab that includes a water reservoir and other structures. [...]

In a letter to Zamzam's parents seen by the Guardian, the men, who allege they were beaten by police and deprived of sleep and food in custody, face life in prison if convicted on the most serious of the charges.Following the arrest of the men, on 10 and 11 December police gave on-the-record briefings to local and international media about a Yahoo email account used to communicate with a Pakistani extremist called Saifullah.

They also said at the time that maps and jihadi literature were found with the men. But according to the police report lodged with the anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, where the men are being tried, it was only on 17 December that the suspects disclosed "their secret email address along with password" - allowing the investigators to find the communication with Saifullah.

In the document, a copy of which was seen by the Guardian, the police say that they found the extremist literature and maps on 26 December.

Defence lawyer Hasan Dastagir alleges that police misrepresented the date of the men's arrest in order to allow for inconsistencies in the evidence.

"By the ninth, the police had made up their mind what they were going to plant on these boys, because they had nothing on them," said defence lawyer Hasan Dastagir Katchela. "There are going to be some massive surprises (in court)."

The trial of the men resumes this on Saturday, 17 April.

"The persecution of the Ahmadi Muslims continues in Pakistan, considered heretical because they do not recognize Muhammad as the last prophet." And because they eschew violent jihad. "Punjab Muslim fundamentalists against the Ahmadis, three traders killed," by Fareed Khan for AsiaNews, April 8 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - The persecution of the Ahmadi Muslims continues in Pakistan, considered heretical because they do not recognize Muhammad as the last prophet. On April last three traders were killed in Faisalabad - the third largest city of Punjab. The murder was reported by the leaders of the Ahmadiyya community, who speak of a "targeted execution" by an armed commando who immediately fled the scene.

Ashraf Pervez, 60, Masood Javed, 57, and Asif Masood, 24, were returning home after the closure of the shops. Suddenly, attackers riddled them with bullets. The three died on their way to hospital. Pervez and Javed were brothers, while Masood was the son of the latter. Two weeks before their death, reports the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the victims had complained of threats to police. The officers had recommended them to "restrict their movement and recruit bodyguards" to protect their safety....

Faisalabad has long been the scene of targeted attacks against the Ahmadiyya community. In recent years, nine people were killed without the police or government authorities - who know the perpetrators - intervening. The group's leaders points the finger at the movement of Khatme Nabuwwat, Islamic followers according to whom the prophecy reaches its full completion with Mohammed, in charge of persecution against Muslims considered "heretics".

Punjab Law experts can foment violence against the Ahmadis with impunity, claiming that they "be killed" (Wajib ul Qatl). The leaders of the movement denounce the immobility of the authorities, in addition to not punishing the perpetrators of the killings, not even taking a stand against verbal violence.

Since the enactment of the Anti-Ahmadiyya Ordinance in 1984 which allows for persecution of the alleged "heretics" 108 people were killed because of their faith. In a few cases the killers were arrested and the few times have appeared before the judges, they were acquitted or freed after a short prison sentence. So far this year, five Ahmadis have been killed.

My column in Human Events this morning:

Barack Obama's unrelenting pressure on Israel and appeasement of the Palestinian jihadists is not unique: There are signs this week that he is about to start behaving the same way toward Pakistan and India.

The Wall Street Journal revealed Monday that Obama penned a secret directive last December, stating that India had to work harder to resolve its issues with Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan is growing more demanding that the United States intervene in its disputes with India, and both American and Indian officials have acknowledged that the Pentagon wants the U.S. to put more pressure upon India.

All this comes in the context of a new $7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan and a solicitude toward the Pakistanis from the Obama Administration that borders on obsequiousness. Pakistani officials recently visiting the U.S. were enraged when they were subjected to extra airport scrutiny, in line with a new program that mandated additional screening for entrants into the U.S. from 13 jihadist-heavy Muslim countries (including Pakistan), as well as Cuba. They cut short their visit and returned to Pakistan, where they were widely hailed as heroes.

In response, Obama did not point to the high level of jihadist activity in Pakistan, or to the Pakistani connections of the July 7, 2005, London bombers or the New York bomb plotters who were arrested several months ago. Instead, when Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi flew into Manchester, England, on his way to the United States, the American Ambassador to Great Britain, Louis B. Susman, hurried from London to Manchester (a four-hour drive) to make sure that American airline security personnel didn't subject Qureshi to extra screening before he boarded his flight to the U.S.

According to the Washington Post, Susman hastened to Manchester in order to "avoid any unpleasantness-including the possibility that British-based U.S. airline security might insist on body-scanning Qureshi that might start the U.S.-Pakistan strategic dialogue in Washington off on the wrong foot."

In general, the Obama Administration is working hard to overcome what it calls a "trust deficit" with Pakistan--meaning that the United States needs to rebuild Pakistan's trust in it. And what has the U.S. done to shake Pakistan's trust in the first place? Why, ask that the Pakistanis honor their repeated commitments to fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda. The Post reported that Obama was courting Pakistan so assiduously in the hope of gaining "Pakistan's cooperation in shutting down Taliban and al Qaeda havens in that country."

We have been down this road before. In late February 2009, Qureshi declared that "Pakistan is willing to work with the American administration to fight extremism and terrorism. We are determined to defeat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations." This came five months after Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, declared: "I will work to defeat the domestic Taliban insurgency and to ensure that Pakistani territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on our neighbors or on NATO forces in Afghanistan."

None of that was new, either. In August 2005, then-Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz thundered against terrorism: "We will fight a war against this danger to protect our independence and we will defeat it at every level." In August 2004, then-President Parvez Musharraf vowed that he would not let jihadists from Pakistan cross into Afghanistan and attempt to disrupt the elections there-a vow that Western officials met with extreme skepticism, given the sympathy for the jihad that was manifest even then at high levels in Pakistan.

Asked if the Taliban's days were numbered, Musharraf said, "It appears so," on Oct. 1, 2001. And now eight years later, Obama is making concessions to the Pakistanis and pressuring India in order to induce Pakistan to fight against the Taliban.

The Pakistani government has proven itself again and again to be an untrustworthy ally, full of sympathizers of the Taliban and al Qaeda, and unable or unwilling or both to do anything effective to counter their power. Instead of pressuring India, Obama should be strengthening our alliance with India and pressuring Pakistan. How many more American billions is the State Department going to spend for Pakistan's deception and broken promises?

Converts to and Misunderstanders of Islam, and their children and children's children. From Germany, but now living in the Hindu Kush. But remember: resistance to jihad and Islamic supremacism is racism! "The Third Generation: German Jihad Colonies Sprout Up in Waziristan," by Yassin Musharbash, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark for Spiegel, April 5 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] German intelligence agencies presume that Jan and Alexandra are now living in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. It is a world in which al-Qaida and the Taliban are strong and the state is weak, where conflicts are resolved according to the rules of the sharia and local chieftains. This is also allegedly the last refuge, at least for the time being, of Osama bin Laden.

In this remote mountain region, a colony of Germans has sprung up -- expats who have severed all roots and found a new homeland in the Hindu Kush. Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) maintains a list of suspects who have taken off to Afghanistan or Pakistan -- or at least tried to leave -- over the past few years. The list has nearly 100 names. It's a directory of the third generation of Islamist terrorists after the 9/11 suicide pilots and Germany's so-called "Sauerland Cell". Like their predecessors, they are eager to fight the holy war and die a martyr's death. Intelligence agencies are now wondering who among this generation will become the next Mohammed Atta or the next Fritz Gelowicz, the ring leader of the Sauerland Cell -- or who will emulate former Bosch employee Cüneyt Ciftci, who hailed from the quiet southern German town of Ansbach and carried out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan in March 2008, blowing himself to pieces and killing four people.

The list includes Jan and Alexandra from Berlin, Michael W. from Hamburg -- who tried to slip away last spring but was arrested in Pakistan and sent back -- and the 19-year-old Berliner Omar H., who disappeared with his girlfriend last January. They are driven by the dream of a life that they see as a pure reflection of the teachings of Islam. They want to exchange the Western world for an archaic life in barren huts, where they only occasionally have electricity and where the Koran stands above everything....

But...but...don't they understand the peaceful words of that Book of Peace?

Anyway, read it all.

Just as Obama is pressuring Israel and doing all he can to appease the Palestinian jihadists, so his administration is appeasing the Pakistani jihadists and beginning to step up the pressure upon India. "U.S. Aims to Ease India-Pakistan Tension," by Peter Spiegel and Matthew Rosenberg in the Wall Street Journal, April 5 (thanks to all who sent this in):

President Barack Obama issued a secret directive in December to intensify American diplomacy aimed at easing tensions between India and Pakistan, asserting that without détente between the two rivals, the administration's efforts to win Pakistani cooperation in Afghanistan would suffer.

The directive concluded that India must make resolving its tensions with Pakistan a priority for progress to be made on U.S. goals in the region, according to people familiar with its contents.

The U.S. has invested heavily in its own relations with Pakistan in recent months, agreeing to a $7.5 billion aid package and sending top military and diplomatic officials to Islamabad on repeated visits. The public embrace, which reached a high point last month in high-profile talks in Washington, reflects the Obama administration's belief that Pakistan must be convinced to change its strategic calculus and take a more assertive stance against militants based in its western tribal regions over the course of the next year in order to turn the tide in Afghanistan.

A debate continues within the administration over how hard to push India, which has long resisted outside intervention in the conflict with its neighbor. The Pentagon, in particular, has sought more pressure on New Delhi, according to U.S. and Indian officials. Current and former U.S. officials said the discussion in Washington over how to approach India has intensified as Pakistan ratchets up requests that the U.S. intercede in a series of continuing disputes.

Pakistan has long regarded Afghanistan as providing "strategic depth"--essentially, a buffer zone--in a potential conflict with India. Some U.S. officials believe Islamabad will remain reluctant to wholeheartedly fight the Islamic militants based on its Afghan border unless the sense of threat from India is reduced. [...]

A senior State Department official involved in Indo-Pakistani issues said Mr. Singh, in particular, has risked his political standing domestically by suggesting India would decouple talks on issues such as trade and travel from Indian demands that Pakistan act more aggressively against terrorist groups, particularly Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamist movement believed to have masterminded the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

"Our principal interest has always been to encourage the talks to resume, but we also understand where the Indians are coming from, which is that there has to be some progress on these bilateral counterterrorism" issues, said the official....

One would think that would be a basic prerequisite.

Watch for the Pakistani government, our vaunted Friend and Ally, to respond to this by boldly holding its hand out and demanding more dollars. "Islamist Militants Attack US Consulate in Pakistan," by Riaz Khan for AP, April 5 (thanks to Joe of SIOA Columbia):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (April 5) -- Islamist militants attacked a U.S. consulate in northwest Pakistan with car bombs and grenades Monday, killing three people, hours after 41 people died in a suicide attack on a political rally elsewhere in the region....

After the car bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside the consulate in Peshawar, militants dressed in security uniforms fired mortars or rocket-propelled grenades at the heavily fortified compound in an attempt to make their way inside, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

"I think they could not manage to get inside," provincial Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour told reporters outside the consulate.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said the militants attempted to enter the building and fired grenades and other weapons. It said no Americans were killed in the assault, but did not say whether the building itself was damaged....

The three people killed in Monday's attack included a paramilitary soldier, a private security guard and a civilian, said police official Sattar Khan. Four militants were also killed during the attack and three other people were wounded, he said....

Police discovered suicide jackets after the militants were killed and defused them, said Bilour....

Priorities: 'Nuff said. "Islamic groups block shaving contest," by Imtiaz Ahmad for the Hindustan Times, March 31 (thanks to Twostellas):

The banned Jamaat-ut Dawah (JuD) organisation, along with other religious parties in Karachi, have prevented the holding of a promotion event organised by a leading multinational company for its shaving razors by ransacking the venue.

The competition, organised by Gillette Pakistan, was supposed to create a local record of number of people shaving at the same time.

Just as the event was about to get underway, JuD activists forcibly entered the Expo Centre and disrupted the proceedings. They then staged a protest outside the Expo Centre and shouted slogans against the company.

"Anything contradictory to the principles of Islam would not be accepted in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan," Qari Muhammad Usman told men who started converging at the centre. "It is blasphemous and the criminals should be punished."

He also called on people to boycott the MNC and its products. The event was a follow up to a competition held in Mumbai in which 1,700 people had participated, organisers said.

According to the organisers more than 2,600 participants had entered the hall and the shaving kits had been distributed when some police officials and expo centre administration first switched off the lights of the hall and then informed the organisers that they could not be allowed to carry on with their work as the centres administrators had been constantly receiving threats from some unknown people.

And as usual, the authorities abetted the perpetrator. "Pakistani Muslim Prohibits Burial in Christian Graveyard," from Compass Direct, April 1:

GUJRANWALA, Pakistan, April 1 (CDN) -- A Muslim land owner who effectively seized a Christian graveyard here refused to allow the burial of a young Christian at the site on Sunday (March 28).

Christians in Noshera Virkan, Gujranwala, have only one graveyard measuring little more than one acre. This longstanding disadvantage turned into a nightmare when Muhammad Boota, who owns much of the land in the area, prohibited Christians from burying the body of 25-year-old Riaz Masih there on Sunday (March 28).

Social worker Sajjad Masih told Compass that in the midst of the dispute, police from Saddar police station arrived and sided with Boota.

"You may burn your dead, but you cannot bury them in this graveyard," Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Asif Cheema told mourners while beating them and pushing them out of the graveyard, according to Masih.

The Christian mourners dispersed, and then went to the Station House Officer of the Saddar police station with their complaint. He did not pay heed to them, Masih said.

The death of a youth is always seen as a great tragedy in Pakistani culture, he said, making Boota's denial especially callous. Masih said that when the Christian mourners saw no other option, he helped them organize a protest the next day; he and the crowd took the body to the office of the highest police officer in the city, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of Gujranwala. Mourners protested for two hours before the DIG on Monday (March 29), and police later accompanied them to the graveyard to allow the burial.

"We blocked a road and chanted slogans against the police and Muhammad Boota," Masih said, "and after a few hours the DIG called us to his office. After listening, the DIG assured his support and referred the case to the relevant superintendent of the police, who told us that Boota would be arrested, and that he would also suspend ASI Asif Cheema."

The SP said he would also order the arrest of anyone who kept Christians from burying their dead in the graveyard, Masih added.

None of the promises have been fulfilled. Khalid Gill, chief organizer in Punjab Province of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said Boota has not been arrested, nor has ASI Cheema been suspended, as the superintendent of police had only promised those actions to appease the Christian community.

"It is a very common practice of government officials to settle down tensions with false promises that they never fulfill," Gill said....

Apparently they didn't get the elementary message that Islamic apologists in the West constantly tell us, that jihad is an interior spiritual struggle. If CAIR's Honest Ibe Hooper can tear himself away from his bees long enough, maybe he could go over to Pakistan and clear this up for the Taliban. "Pakistani Taliban call for jihad," from UPI, April 1:

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan, April 1 (UPI) -- Jihad will continue against supporters of the United States and their Pakistan backers will face a military defeat, the Pakistani Taliban said Thursday.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told Pakistani newspaper Dawn that Pakistan "forces have been conducting operations against our own people and they are trying to make non-Muslims happy."...

Tariq warned the Pakistani military that it would face defeat in the region, adding the visit to Afghanistan by U.S. President Barack Obama during the weekend was a sign of pending colonialism....

Boy, has he read Obama wrong.

Long-term economic changes wrought by violence, intimidation and the consequent hostile and uncertain climate for continuing to do business. And it's not the first, and won't be the last source of livelihood to be destroyed by jihad and the imposition of Sharia. "Pakistan: Taliban threat forces cinemas to close," by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AdnKronos International, March 30:

Islamabad, 30 March (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The growing influence of the Taliban has forced cinemas to close in northern Pakistan despite support for the film industry from the secular provincial government in the North West Frontier Province. Many cinema owners are demolishing their theatres and replacing them with multi-storey commercial plazas.

Earlier restrictions imposed by the previous religious coalition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government on the display of the female form on cinema billboards have been lifted and cinemas are free to operate.

But most cinema owners are uncertain whether the Taliban might target their businesses or if a new government of any religious party in the future may affect their business.

So several cinema proprietors have moved to demolish their cinemas and are aiming to building multi-storey commercial plazas in and around the provincial capital, Peshawar.

The Falak Sher Cinema in Sadar Peshawar, Tasweer Mahal of Kabuli Bazaar in Peshawar , Novelty and Palwalsha cinemas in Peshawar are among the old cinemas which have been demolished in the last few years and all are being replaced by commercial buildings.

"There was a time in the 1960s and 1970s when cinema was the only entertainment in Peshawar where people used to go with family members or with friends," Peshawar journalist Nasir Dawar told Adnkronos International (AKI).

"However, video cassette recorders and video CD players changed the dynamics. People now prefer to watch the movies at home.

"The Taliban threat was an added woe which further discouraged cinema patrons. So cinema owners chose to demolish the buildings and convert them into commercial plazas.

"Cinemas were lost money for them but now with the commercial buildings they can earn millions of rupees from the rental money," he said.

Despite the Taliban's growing influence and a record number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks in the commercial markets and police posts in Peshawar last year, the famous Shama cinema, owned by a powerful federal minister's family, still shows what are considered to be pornographic English movies.

People flood the cinema every day and it does more business than a commercial market.

During the holy month of Ramadan, however, the Shama Cinema shows only Indian Bollywood movies which attract a comparatively thin crowd. During the sacred month of Muharram, the cinema is closed.

However, obscenity is not the only attraction in the cinema houses.

Well, that's good to know.

The Shabistan Cinema also draws audiences because it screens the latest Pashtu language movies.

Many renowned Pakistani screenwriters believe that cinema patrons lost their enthusiasm for cinema due to unpopular Pakistani films and obsolete cinema technology and the Taliban threat simply forced the cinema owners to switch to another business.

Here's a solution: give them a nuke deal! "Pakistan: Violent attacks rise against Christians," by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AKI, March 25 (thanks to Twostellas):

Islamabad, 25 March (AKI) - There was an increase in violent attacks on religious minorities in Pakistan in 2009 and the government failed to take effective preventive action, according to the Human Rights Commission.The report singled out attacks against the Christian community in areas dominated by insurgents.

"As the militancy surged in the northwestern parts of the country, enforced migration and displacement of thousands of Christians from the Swat Valley, Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera and FATA was reported following threats to them to convert to Islam or face death," the report said.

It also said many were forced to take refuge with their relatives in Punjab and Sindh provinces, and faced immense hardships as the government could not provide adequate protection.

"At the same time many Christian families victims of the blasphemy law were forced to live in hiding in attempts to save their lives. There was little change in their social ostracisation," the report maintained.

However the report said that worst sort of victimisation was done under the Blasphemy law.

Reports said in February last year clerics in Raiwind called on the government to register a case and punish those responsible for alleged desecration of Holy Koran in a private hospita in Lahore run by Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore.

It was alleged that some Christian students had placed the Koran, the Islamic holy book, in shoe boxes. As the clerics protest mounted, the college administration closed down the institution for fear of unrest and violence....

Obama continues his unconscionable persecution of Israel, which has always been a reliable ally of the United States, while bending over backwards to mollify duplicitous and unreliable Pakistan.

Yet another Which-Side-Is-Obama-On Update: "Binyamin Netanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama 'dumped him for dinner,'" by Giles Whittell and James Hider for the Times Online, March 25 (thanks to Pamela, who has some excellent comments on this that you should not miss):

For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of.

Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisors and "let me know if there is anything new", a US congressman who spoke to the Prime Minister said today.

"It was awful," the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting "a hazing in stages", poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House phone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received "the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea"....

I expect that the President of Equatorial Guinea would be treated better.

But meanwhile, the Obama Administration can't do enough to soothe Pakistani sensibilities ruffled by our horrible Islamophobic airport security procedures: "US ambassador in UK ensures no body scan for Pak foreign minister," from the PTI, March 25 (thanks to Block Ness):

WASHINGTON: The extent to which the Obama administration will go to humour Pakistan is highlighted by the fact that its envoy to UK drove four hours to Manchester to ensure that a zealous American airline security does not body scan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi ahead of his arrival here.

When Qureshi's commercial flight to the US stopped in Manchester this week, American ambassador in London, Louis B Susman, drove four hours to be there for the hour long layover.

Susman's mission was to "avoid any unpleasantness - including the possibility that British-based US airline security might insist on body-scanning Qureshi - that might start the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue in Washington off on the wrong foot," the Washington Post reported.

As Pakistan and the US struggle to overcome what both characterise as a mutual "trust deficit," the Obama administration hopes that the upgraded strategic talks will consolidate the new partnership the President promised in exchange for Pakistan's cooperation in shutting down Taliban and al-Qaida havens in that country, the paper said....

UPDATE: "Barack Hussein Obama II's War Against Israel," by Pamela Geller at Big Journalism:

The Jewish people, both in Israel and the diaspora, seem to be suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome. There can be no logical reason why an American Jew could intellectually excuse Obama's twenty-year friendship and closeness with the anti-Semitic Farrakhan acolyte Jeremiah Wright. There is no way an American Jew could explain away or rationalize Obama's connections to Rashid Khalidi, Ali Abunimah, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and know about those connections without knowing what was coming. These Jews (and our history is plagued with them) love ideas, not people. They are so married to their dogma, their ideology, that they cannot, will not, see what is right in front of them. They worship at the church of human secularism. That is their religion. They have no G-d. They are merely wearing a Jewish coat, but do not speak for Jews.

Read it all.

And remember: this is the kind of law that the Organization of the Islamic Conference is agitating at the UN to get Western governments to adopt.

"Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan's 'Blasphemy' Laws," from Compass Direct News, March 24:

GUJRANWALA, Pakistan, March 24 (CDN) -- Police in Alipur have arrested a Christian woman on a baseless accusation of "blaspheming" the prophet of Islam and tried to keep rights groups from discovering the detention, a Christian leader said. Alipur police in Punjab Province denied that they had detained Rubina Bibi when Khalid Gill, Lahore regional coordinator of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) and organizer of the Christian Liberation Front, inquired about her detention after a Muslim woman accused her of blasphemy, Gill told Compass.

"The Muslim woman's name was kept secret by the police and Muslim people, and we were not allowed to see the Christian woman," Gill said. "The Alipur police said they had not arrested her yet, contrary to the fact that they had arrested and tortured her at Alipur police station."

A reliable police source told Compass on condition of anonymity that a First Information Report (No. 194/2010) dated March 20 identified Rubina Bibi of Alipur, wife of Amjad Masih, as accused of making a derogatory remark about the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The charge comes under Section 295-C of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which have gained international notoriety for their misuse by Muslims to settle personal grudges....

Read it all.

Shouldn't Pakistan be working to show the U.S. that it is trustworthy, and not the other way around?

"US says it is open to nuke deal with Pakistan," by Chidanand Rajghatta for the Times of India, March 22:

WASHINGTON: Amid reports of massive 16-20 hour power outages across Pakistan causing public unrest, the Barack Obama administration has indicated it is open to Islamabad's plea for a civilian nuclear deal akin to the US-India agreement, notwithstanding continued disquiet about Pakistan's bonafides on the nuclear front.

The first indication of a possible policy shift by US, which had till now rejected Pakistan's entreaties for a nuclear deal, came in an interview the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, gave to a Pakistani-American journal in which she said the two sides were going to have "working level talks" on the subject during a strategic dialogue on March 24.

Patterson confirmed the claim of her Pakistani counterpart in Washington Hussain Haqqani, which were initially denied, that the two sides had had some initial discussions on the subject. Acknowledging that earlier US "non-proliferation concerns were quite severe", she said attitudes in Washington were changing.

"I think we are beginning to pass those and this is a scenario that we are going to explore," she told a LA-based Pakistani journal.

Another top US official, Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke, was a little more circumspect. "We're going to listen carefully to whatever the Pakistanis say," he replied, when asked about Islamabad's demand for a civilian nuclear deal....

Intimations of a change in US policy came even as new reports emerged about the extent and scope of government-backed Pakistani nuclear proliferation in a book by former weapons inspector and non-proliferation activist David Albright. Successive US administrations, in an effort to absolve Islamabad and save it from embarrassment from past misdemeanors, have suggested that the country's nuclear mastermind A Q Khan acted on his own without permission from the Pakistani government or the military, but this assessment is strongly challenged by the non-proliferation community....

The idea that Pakistan deserves its own nuclear deal to overcome a trust deficit with the United States was first proposed by Georgetown University academic Christine Fair. "More so than conventional weapons or large sums of cash, a conditions-based civilian nuclear deal may be able to diminish Pakistani fears of US intentions while allowing Washington to leverage these gains for greater Pakistani cooperation on nuclear proliferation and terrorism," Fair argued in a newspaper article earlier this year....

The silence from Pakistani authorities is deafening. An update on this story. "Punjab: Christian burned alive dies, Christian community calls for justice," by Fareed Khan for Asia News, March 23:

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Arshed Masih died last night in hospital from the serious injuries - burns covering 80% of his body - which the 38 year old Pakistani Christian suffered when he was set on fire because he refused to convert to Islam. The funeral of man, who died after three days of agony, should take place in the late afternoon, but the family has asked that "before an autopsy is performed." The Christian community of Pakistan condemns "with firmness" the latest episode of violence and denounces the "slowness" of the federal and provincial government to punish those responsible.

On March 19 a group of Islamic extremists burned alive Arshed Masih, a driver employed by a wealthy Muslim businessman in Rawalpindi. His wife worked as a maid in the same estate, situated in front of a police station. Recently disagreements had arisen between the employer, Sheikh Mohammad Sultan, and the couple because of their Christian faith. The couple had suffered threats and intimidation to force them to convert to Islam.

Arshed Masih died last night at 7.45 local time after three days of agony and suffering at the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, Punjab province. His wife Martha Arshed was raped by police en she sought to denounce the violence inflicted on her husband. The couple's three children - ages 7 to 12 years - were forced "to witness the torture inflicted on their parents.

Since 2005 Arshed Masih and his wife had worked and lived on the estate of the late Sheikh Mohammad Sultan. The pressure on them to renounce Christianity had lately become incessant. The owner had come so far as to threaten "dire consequences", to persuade them to embrace Islam. The couple were also accused of a recent theft by the owner who has promised to drop the complaint for their conversion.

Arshed Masih's funeral should be held in the late afternoon, although tension remains high in the area. Local witnesses tell AsiaNews that "the whole family is in shock and I s demanding an autopsy is carried out before burial." Several Christian associations and human rights activists - including Life for All, Christian Progressive Movement, Pakistan Christian Congress and Protect Foundation Pakistan - "protests are being stepped up outside the hospital."

Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church of Pakistan (NCJP), expresses to AsiaNews his "strongest condemnation" for the crime against the man and the rape of women perpetrated by police who should protect law and order . The Catholic organization has been active to ensure protection to the woman and children, of whom there are no immediate reports.

The Catholic activist notes with regret the silence of the Federal Minister for Minorities, the Catholic Shahbaz Bhatti, and denounces "the slow pace and the inaction of the federal and provincial government. "The executive - said Peter Jacob - has not yet taken concrete steps to prevent violence and abuse on minorities and punish the guilty."

The site BosNewsLife.com adds that yesterday the provincial government of Punjab blocked a protest march of Christians, under the pretext of "terrorist threat". The local community wanted to demonstrate against the "refusal" of the police to arrest the perpetrators of the crime.

Now wait a minute. Isn't there "no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256)? Sure. But as far as the Muslim murderers of Rasheed Masih and others like them are concerned, they are merely helping him along to make his free decision to convert to Islam. In general, a system that mandates the institutionalized discrimination of dhimmitude for those who remain non-Muslim within the Islamic state has a broad and expansive idea of what constitutes "no compulsion."

"Muslims Murder Pakistani Christian with Axe Blows," from Compass Direct, March 22:

MIAN CHANNU, Pakistan, March 22 (CDN) -- Six Muslims in Khanewal district, southern Punjab Province, killed a Christian with multiple axe blows for refusing to convert to Islam this month, according to family and police sources.

The six men had threatened to kill 36-year-old Rasheed Masih unless he converted to Islam when they grew resentful of his potato business succeeding beyond their own, according to Masih's younger brother Munir Asi and a local clergyman. The rival merchants allegedly killed him after luring him to their farmhouse on March 9, leaving him on a roadside near Kothi Nand Singh village in the wee hours of the next day.

The Rev. Iqbal Masih of the Mian Channu Parish of the Church of Pakistan said Rasheed Masih was a devoted Christian, and that both he and his brother Asi had refused the Muslims' pressure to convert to Islam.

"As the Christian family strengthened in business and earned more, the Muslim men began to harbor business resentment, as Muslims are not used to seeing Christians more respected and richer than them," the pastor said. "That business rivalry gradually changed into a faith rivalry." [...]

"Our continuous denial to recant our faith and convert gradually turned into enmity," Asi told Compass. The FIR further states, "Both the Muslim men [Rasool and Asif] were not only inviting them to Islam but hurling threats of dire consequences and death on them for the last six months in case they refused to convert."

Police said Rasool - a radical Muslim who along with Asif had threatened to kill the brothers if they did not convert, according to Asi - called Rasheed Masih to his farmhouse ostensibly to purchase potatoes on March 9, and that Rasheed went to it by motorbike at about 5:30 p.m. Waiting for Masih there, police said, were Rasool and Asif with an axe, Amjad and Kashif with iron rods and the two unknown Muslims with clubs.

They began striking him as soon as he arrived, police said. [...]

According to the FIR, when Asi and two Christian friends went to the farmhouse when Masih failed to return after a few hours, they were stunned to hear Masih shrieking as they witnessed him being beaten and struck with an axe. [...]

At press time the Muslim suspects were at large even though police have filed a case strong enough to apprehend and prosecute them, Asi said. He appealed for assistance from Christian rights groups and politicians, as his family is still receiving death threats in a bid to intimidate them into withdrawing the case, he said, and they feel powerless in comparison with the influence and wealth of the Muslim suspects.

We are now ready to continue with our discussion of The Michael Coren show, Part 2. Please take the time, once again, to watch both segments.

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is above. And my discussion of Part 1 is here.

Returning from the station break, this segment begins with Tarek Fatah in apparent medias res explaining that the West's perception of Islam is flawed because it sees everything through the prism of Arab Islam, while the Islam practiced in the subcontinent, Tarek Fatah's neck of the woods, is so very very different.

There's Bangladesh, for example, with 150 million people, and yet in Bangladesh, he says, "whenever they get a chance they vote out the extremists." And neither Michael Coren, nor anyone in the audience, is likely to know what this means, to know who are "extremists" and who the good guys, relatively speaking. I presume that Tarek Fatah means the first head of an independent Bangladesh, back in 1971, Mujibur Rahman, and also Mujibur Rahman's daughter, the head of the "secular" Awami League, where "secular" means, as almost always in such cases, less fanatically a follower of the Shari'a rules, less fervently a Muslim, than those who oppose them. In his passing allusion to Bangladesh, Tarek Fatah makes no mention -- why not? -- of the many current examples of popular Muslim intolerance. He is content to limit himself to the misleading statement that when given a chance, Bangladeshis "throw out the despots." Is that quite enough? He fails to mention, for example, that Taslima Nasrin, the celebrated apostate, had to flee from Bangladesh to India in fear of her life, because of threats by Muslims eager to kill her, and a government unwilling to protect her. Is it the position of Tarek Fatah that if the Awami League were running things, Taslima Nasrin could live safely in Bangladesh?

And he does not mention, either, that astonishingly brave editor and journalist, Mr. Salah Choudhury, who dared to write words of sympathy and support for Israel, and for Hindus and Christians too. Choudhury has been under almost constant pressure - death threats, physical attacks, charges of treason, and finally, arrest and formal charges laid, all because he is a true and brave version of what we in the West would dearly wish all "moderate Muslims" to be. Shouldn't Tarek Fatah have done more than pretend that Islam somehow changes its spots, and so do Muslims, when we move from the Arab countries to Pakistan and Bangladesh?

The Qur'an says there is "no compulsion in religion " (2:256) but Islamic law and the Qur'an itself are actually full of subtle and not-at-all-subtle means of coercion of non-believers (e.g., dhimmi status, the jizya tax, and of course, warfare). Add to that a situation where authorities, steeped in hatred of unbelievers (cf. Qur'an 98:6) are not accountable, and this is what happens.

"News Alert: Pakistan Christian "Burned", Wife "Raped", For Refusing Islam," from BosNewsLife, March 20 (thanks to DJM):

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian man was fighting for his life in Pakistan's Punjab province Saturday, March 20, after Muslim leaders backed by police burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam, while his wife was raped by police officers, Christian and hospital sources familiar with the case told BosNewsLife.

Arshed Masih was burned Friday, March 19, in front of a police station in the city of Rawalpindi near Pakistan's capital Islamabad, following apparent death threats from his Muslim employer Sheikh Mohammad Sultan, an influential businessman, and religious leaders, said the Rawalpindi Holy Family Hospital.

His wife, Martha Arshed, was allegedly raped by police officers. Their three children -- ranging in age from 7 to 12-- were reportedly forced to witness the attacks against their parents.

"Both [Masih] and wife were rushed to the Holy Family Hospital and are under treatment," the hospital said.

He was listed in serious condition with about 80 percent of his body burned.

Local police officials said they were "aware" of the attacks carried out by Muslim leaders and apparently at least some officers and added that an investigation was underway. No arrests were reported yet late Saturday, March 19.

Sheikh Mohammad Sultan could not immediately be reached for comment and it was not clear whether he had been in contact with police Saturday, March 20.

Before tensions emerged about their Christian faith, Masih worked as a driver and his wife as a maid for the Muslim businessman since 2005, Christians said.

The couple apparently lived with their children in the servant quarters of Sultan's estate in Rawalpindi, a key trade and tourist destination. In January, religious leaders and Sultan allegedly asked Arshed to convert to Islam with his whole family. After he refused, the group reportedly threatened him with "dire consequences"

Arshed offered to quit his job, but the businessman allegedly said he would "kill" him if he were to leave.

He apparently also told Christian mediators that he would never allow the Christian family to live somewhere else.

This week tensions raised after Sultan reported a theft of 500,000 Pakistani Rupees (5,952$), according to a document seen by BosNewsLife.

The Christian family members were not named as suspects in the so-called 'First Information Report' from police.

Sources familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told BosNewsLife that the businessman had offered the couple to drop the case if they convert to Islam or "else that both would not see their children again."

However, "Arshed refused to convert and stood firm in his faith. Arshed`s wife was raped by the police and he was burned alive," Friday, March 19, local Christians said, speaking on condition of anonimity.

The case comes at a time when church groups have complained about growing attacks against minority Christians by Muslim militants, often with the alleged support by local law enforcement officials and other authorities.

Emulating Muhammad's profound hostility toward music. "Student beaten to death for playing music," from Big News Network, March 20:

A student has died after being beaten to death by pro-Taliban radicals at a Pakistani university.

The beating, which occurred earlier in the week, culminated in the death of Anan Khan, who attended the University of Engineering & Technology in Peshawar.

He was severely beaten with several other students at the university by members of a student wing of the hard-line Jamiat-e Islami party.

Witnesses have said the IJT attacked Adnan for playing music.

Members of the IJT have a record of breaking up music appreciation functions and dance parties on the campus.

In this article, David Pugliese does his best to portray Ghulam Rasol as an illiterate, manipulated naif, operating (no doubt) according to a twisted, hijacked version of Islam -- a classic Misunderstander of the Religion of Peace™. In reality, however, what Ghulam Rasol did was entirely in accord with Islamic law. His going to Afghanistan to fight the Infidels was in line with the Islamic doctrine that jihad becomes obligatory upon all Muslims whenever a Muslim land is attacked. (Provocations by Muslims from that Muslim land don't factor into this equation -- if the non-Muslim enemy strikes back, that constitutes an invasion of Muslim land.) All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that when a non-Muslim force enters a Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual obligation of every Muslim (fard 'ayn) rather than a collective obligation of the entire umma, from which one is released if others are taking it up (fard kifaya). Bulghah al-Salik li-Aqrab al-Masalik fi madhhab al-Imam Malik ("The Sufficiency of the Traveller on the Best Path in the School of Imam Malik,") says this:

Jihad in the Path of Allah, to raise the word of Allah, is fard kifayah [obligatory on the community] once a year, so that if some perform it, the obligation falls from the rest. It becomes fard `ayn [obligatory on every Muslim individually], like salah and fasting, if the legitimate Muslim Imam declares it so, or if there is an attack by the enemy on an area of people.

The Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi'i schools of Sunni jurisprudence further declare that jihad, once it is fard 'ayn, is no different from prayer and fasting -- in other words, to engage in warfare with non-Muslims in that case is a religious devotion that cannot lawfully be evaded. Hashiyah Ibn `Abidin, an authoritative text of the Hanafi school, says that jihad is "fard 'ayn if the enemy has attacked part of the Islamic homeland. It thus becomes an obligation like salah [prayer] and fasting which cannot be abandoned."

"Would-be suicide bomber explains himself," by David Pugliese for Canwest News Service, March 20:

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Several months ago, Ghulam Rasol packed his bag and quietly slipped out of his village in northwest Pakistan.

He did not tell his parents, his brother or sister what he was doing or where he was going. They still don't know what happened to him.

Rasol decided to leave after being told by mullahs, who had come to his village outside Peshawar, that Afghanistan had been occupied by foreign troops. It was his duty as a good Muslim to kill those infidels, he was told.

The 20-year-old had never been out of Pakistan. He knows little about Afghanistan. Yet he decided it was his responsibility to his religion that he should wage jihad by becoming a suicide bomber.

Rasol acknowledges he has never met a foreigner. He can't tell the difference between a Canadian, U.S. or British soldier. Nor does it matter to him.

"I cannot distinguish between foreigners and we don't care from which country they are from," he explained through an interpreter. "Whoever is not Muslim are infidels for us." [...]

He decided to devote his life to jihad because the mullahs had told him it was his responsibility to do so. After that Rasol was taken to a nearby madrassa, or religious school, where he received his "education."

"They told us that in Afghanistan jihad is allowed, it is legal and they said: 'Go to Afghanistan and start jihad,' " he said. "They told us that we are Muslim and that in Afghanistan there are infidels, so it's our responsibility to go to Afghanistan and do jihad." [...]

He informed the mullahs at the madrassa he didn't want to kill fellow Muslims but he was willing to fight international troops. "I was ready to blow up myself among Westerns," he said. [...]

"It is not for a believer to kill a believer unless (it be) by mistake" -- Qur'an 4:92

In Pakistan, jihadists are folk heroes. And so is Adolf Hitler, for largely the same reasons: genocidal Jew-hatred, militarism, etc. Yet the execrable libelblogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs had the mendacious temerity to smear anti-jihadists as neo-Nazis. "The Führer Cult: Germans Cringe at Hitler's Popularity in Pakistan," by Hasnain Kazim in Spiegel, March 17 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Germans are popular in India and Pakistan, but not always for the right reasons. Many in South Asia have nothing but admiration for Adolf Hitler and still associate Germany with the Third Reich. Everyday encounters with the love of all things Nazi makes German visitors cringe.

Pakistan is the opposite of Germany. The mountains are in the north, the sea is in the south, the economic problems are in the west and the east is doing well. It's not hard for a German living in Pakistan to get used to these differences, but one contrast is hard to stomach: Most people like Hitler.

I was recently at the hairdresser, an elderly man who doesn't resort to electric clippers. All he has is creaky pair of scissors, a comb, an aerosol with water. He did a neat job but I wasn't entirely happy.

I said: "I look like Hitler."

He looked at me in the mirror, gave a satisfied smile and said: "Yes, yes, very nice." [...]

Sometimes it's better to keep quiet about one's German origins. It's embarrassing because people here think they're doing you a favor by expressing their admiration for the Nazi leader. I suspect most Indians and Pakistanis have no idea what this man did. They see him as the bold Führer who took on the British and Americans.

More likely, they love him because he murdered Jews, the worst enemies of the Muslims (cf. Qur'an 5:82).

In the Islamic world, not just in Pakistan but right across from Iran to northern Africa, anti-Semitic sentiment of course plays a role. Conversations with German visitors rapidly turn to the injustice being suffered by the Palestinians who were robbed of their land. [...]

A few days ago a white Mercedes built in the 1970s was driving ahead of me in the center of Islamabad carrying a family of seven. On the back was a sticker bearing a black swastika in a white circle. Underneath it read: "I like Nazi." [...]

English editions of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" can be found in bookshops even in the most remote parts of India. And Indian schoolbooks have been known to celebrate Hitler as a great leader.

Once my wife and I visited the cafe in the beautiful Hotel Imperial in New Delhi. It has a garden lined with palms, excellent tea and friendly waiters in uniforms that recall the colonial era. A young man served us. The name tag on his uniform attracted my interest so I asked him why he had this rather unusual name for an Indian man. "Oh, my parents named me after a great historic person," he explained.

The name, in black letters on a golden plate, read: Adolf.

They have tried to defend themselves by saying they only were waging jihad, and jihad is not illegal in Pakistan. "Pakistani court charges 5 Americans with terrorism," by Zarar Khan for Associated Press, March 17 (thanks to Visvas):

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani court charged five young Americans on Wednesday with planning terrorist attacks in the South Asian country and conspiring to wage war against nations allied with Pakistan, their defense lawyer said.

The men -- all Muslims from the Washington, D.C., area -- pleaded not guilty to a total of five charges, the most severe of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, defense lawyer Hasan Dastagir told The Associated Press....

The men, aged 19 to 25, were charged by an anti-terrorism court inside a prison in Sargodha, the city in Punjab province where they were arrested in December. They were reported missing by their families in November after one left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

Their lawyer has said they were heading to Afghanistan and had no plans to stage attacks inside Pakistan.

The court also charged the men with planning attacks on Afghan and U.S. territory, said Dastagir. The charges did not specify what was meant by U.S. territory but could be a reference to American bases or diplomatic outposts in Afghanistan.

The men also were charged with contributing cash to banned organizations to be used for terrorism and with directing each other to commit terrorist acts.

"This last charge carries life in prison while the rest of the charges have lesser punishments," Dastagir said....

Acting, according to police reports, on instructions from jihadist groups in Pakistan. "2 Indians arrested in alleged Mumbai terror plot," from the Associated Press, March 14:

MUMBAI, India - Indian police said Sunday they prevented a major terrorist strike in Mumbai by arresting two men who were preparing to attack several targets in the city, the country's financial and entertainment hub.

K.P. Raghuvanshi, chief of Mumbai's anti-terrorism squad, said the two Indian men -- both residents of the city -- had targeted a popular shopping mall, a market and a state-owned gas facility. He said Abdul Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali were arrested late Saturday in Mumbai's Matunga suburb.

Police said the men had links with terror groups in Pakistan and were acting on directions from handlers there.

"They were getting instructions from Pakistan to execute their activities here," Raghuvanshi said.

India has blamed Pakistan-linked Islamist militant groups for a deadly November 2008 terror attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. Last month, 16 people were killed in a bombing in a popular bakery in the nearby city of Pune.

It was not immediately clear whether the men were preparing to attack the offices, oil tankers or a housing estate belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Raghuvanshi said.

The suspects will remain in custody until Thursday, when they will appear before a judge and be assigned lawyers, Raghuvanshi said.

Mumbai has been on high alert since the Pune bombing. Following the latest arrests, police have further tightened security measures with additional police patrolling markets and cinemas.

Claiming the Qur'an's guarantee of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111).

"Suicide attack in northwest Pakistan kills 13 people," from the Daily Star, March 14 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A suicide attacker set off a bomb at a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 52, officials and a doctor said, underscoring the relentless security threat to this Islamic nation.

It was the second attack in Pakistan in less than 24 hours. Suicide bombers killed 55 people in near-simultaneous blasts Friday in the eastern city of Lahore.

In the Saturday violence, an attacker driving a three-wheeled motorised rickshaw detonated explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in the town of Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley, police official Qazi Farooq said.

Swat was the scene of months of violence last year between Islamist militants and Pakistan's security forces.

Lal Noor, a doctor at a local hospital, said 13 people died in the attack one soldier, one policeman and eight civilians and another 52 were wounded.

The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after the collapse of peace talks with local Taliban officials who at the time controlled much of the valley.

The military took back the Swat Valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued.

No one claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Islamist militants, who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days....

Good investigative work, fellas!

Another in a long line of stories of abuse of Christian workers by Muslims in Pakistan. This behavior has its roots in the doctrine that unbelievers are "vile" (Qur'an 98:6) and must be subjugated (9:29), and of the lawfulness in Islam of sex with slaves and captives (4:24). "Punjab: Christian maid burned alive to prevent her from reporting a rape," by Fareed Khan for Asia News, March 12:

Lahore (AsiaNews) - A Christian girl was raped and burnt alive by the son of a Muslim master, for whom she worked as a maid. The girl died in hospital yesterday after two days of agony, for the burns on 80% of her body. The incident occurred in a small town in Punjab and has similar details to the sad story of Shazia Bashir, the 12 year old Christian raped and murdered by a powerful lawyer in Lahore, a crime still for which he is still unpunished.

Kiran George worked for a Muslim family in Sheikhupura, a Punjab town. The girl died yesterday at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore, where she was hospitalized on 9 March in critical condition. To unleash the murderous madness of the son of the employer the threat of a complaint of sexual assault.

Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church of Pakistan (NCJP), told AsiaNews that "the house of a Christian family was set on fire" as revenge because "a young man is accused of killing a Muslim." The Catholic activist explains that the suspect, Yasir Abid, is "subject to pre-trial detention. The victim is the son of a Muslim landowner in the village of Kirtu Pandora, in the Narang Mandi".

Mohammad Raza Ahmda raped the Christian girl who, at first, confided only with her friends for fear of losing her jobs. Her family's conditions of extreme poverty had led the young girl to remain silent. When Kiran George threatened her tormentor of telling her story to the police, the young man blocked her escape and closing the door, he poured gasoline all over her with the help of his sister, setting her on fire.

The Muslim master, instead of bringing the girl to the hospital, called her parents telling them that her clothes caught fire while cleaning the kitchen. Kiran George was subjected to two days of slow agony, however, before dying, she told the whole story to the police who opened an investigation file on the young man.

Also in Punjab a crowd of Muslims robbed and burned the house of a Christian family. The assault happened on 10 March in Narang Mandi, a town in the district of Sheikhupura. The extremist's anger was triggered by the alleged involvement of a Christian in the killing of the son of a local landowner. The mob also burnt some copies of the Bible.

Christian families denounced the "deliberate burning" of some copies of the Bible kept inside the home. Police started to investigate and evaluate whether to open a file of investigation for the crime of blasphemy. In this case, says Peter Jacob, the judiciary "will not act under section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, which provides for punishment up to life imprisonment for those who desecrate the Koran, but does not provide for the holy books of other religions".

"We are against the blasphemy laws - concludes activist NCJP - and this applies regardless of the sacred text or who is guilty of the crime." However, he hopes for "thorough investigations" and the punishment of those who "burned the house of the Christian family."

Fruits of Pakistan's appeasement and accomodation of jihadists. As Churchill said, "An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last." "Twin bomb attacks on Pakistani city of Lahore kill 45," from BBC News, March 12:

Twin suicide bomb attacks on the Pakistani city of Lahore have killed 45 people and injured around 100.

Bombers targeted military vehicles as they passed through a crowded area and at least nine soldiers are among the dead, officials say.

Several more explosions were heard in the city later on Friday, but there were no reports of serious injuries.

The attacks follow threats by Taliban militants to send out thousands of suicide bombers.

The earlier explosions took place near the RA Bazaar, in a busy residential and shopping area where army and security agencies have facilities....

"Those who kill humanitarian workers must be reminded that they are not only killing their own country's residents, but also people seeking to improve the lives of victims of poverty and injustice." They don't care about that. As far as they're concerned, the only thing that would improve the lives of their country's residents would be more Islam, and thus these aid workers were enemies of what was good.

"Gunmen kill 6 in Western aid agency raid in Pakistan," by Michael Georgy for Reuters, March 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

OGHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants stormed an office of a U.S.-based Christian aid agency in Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six members of staff in a hail of bullets and a bomb.

Nuclear-armed U.S. ally Pakistan is battling al Qaeda-linked militants who have launched a string of attacks over the past few years, including some on foreign targets.

Gunmen burst into the World Vision office in Oghi village in Mansehra district, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Islamabad, at about 9 a.m. (0400 GMT), police and a witness said.

"About 10 men came, they were all wearing masks. They kicked the doors down, took everyone out of their offices, put them in one place and then started shooting," said an office administrator, who asked to be identified only as Asif.

"They threw a bomb as they were leaving," he said....

World Vision said the six dead were Pakistani members of staff and it was suspending all operations in the country.

Seven members of staff were wounded and one was missing, the aid agency said in a statement, adding that its relief and development work in Pakistan was conducted by Pakistanis.

"Those who kill humanitarian workers must be reminded that they are not only killing their own country's residents, but also people seeking to improve the lives of victims of poverty and injustice," it said....

And who was there to hail them as heroes but my old pal, the artless dissembler Hamid Mir!

An update on this story, and yet another Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "Upset by U.S. Security, Pakistanis Return as Heroes," by Jane Perlez for the New York Times, March 9 (thanks to David):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A tour of the United States arranged by the State Department to improve ties to Pakistani legislators ended in a public relations fiasco when the members of the group refused to submit to extra airport screening in Washington, and they are now being hailed as heroes on their return home.

"People should be thankful, you made them so proud," said Hamid Mir, the host of a popular national talk show, during an interview in his studio on Tuesday with four of the six politicians, who railed against the security precautions at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Meetings with the Obama administration's top policy makers on Pakistan, including the president's special representative, Richard C. Holbrooke, and visits to the Pentagon and the National Security Council, did not allay the anger the politicians said they felt at being asked to submit to a secondary screening on Sunday before boarding a flight to New Orleans. They declined to be screened and did not board the flight.

Pakistan is one of 14 mostly Muslim countries whose citizens must go through increased checks before they fly into the United States, a procedure mandated by the Obama administration in the wake of the failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up an airliner flying from the Netherlands to Detroit on Dec. 25.

The inclusion of Pakistan on the list was broadly criticized as an insult to a country that the United States calls an ally....

Yes, and it is such a reliable ally!

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: Aafia Siddiqui is a heroine in Pakistan. One would think that if the vast majority of Muslims there rejected the ideology of Al-Qaeda, as Charles Krauthammer and so many others assume they do, she would not have attained this exalted status. "U.S. Sees a Terror Threat; Pakistanis See a Heroine," by Salman Masood and Carlotta Gall for the New York Times, March 5 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Relations between the United States and Pakistan often have a through-the-looking-glass quality, where almost nothing appears quite the same from the other side. The latest example is the case of Aafia Siddiqui.

In the United States, authorities say Ms. Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who once studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda. She was convicted by a New York court in February of trying to kill American military officers while in custody in 2008 in Afghanistan. She faces life in prison when she is sentenced in May.

In Pakistan, she has become a national symbol of honor and victimization so potent that politicians of all stripes, Islamists, the news media and an increasingly anti-American public have all lined up to champion her claim of innocence.

In a rare display of unity, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who has described Ms. Siddiqui as a "daughter of the nation," and the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, have promised to push for her release. Last week, senators passed a resolution to demand her return to Pakistan.

Her sister, Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, a neurologist who studied and taught at Johns Hopkins University, has led a countrywide campaign on Aafia Siddiqui's behalf. In recent weeks, hundreds of people, including professionals and civil rights campaigners, have taken to the streets in support.

The broad outpouring has forced the government, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, to publicly assure Ms. Siddiqui's supporters that it will continue its legal assistance, which has amounted to $2 million already. [...]

"The prime minister has suggested to visiting American delegations that releasing Aafia Siddiqui unconditionally would greatly improve the image of the Americans in the public's eyes," a close aide to Mr. Gilani said. [...]

She had a long involvement in jihadi causes, even while a student at M.I.T. and, later, at Brandeis University. The F.B.I. has accused her of opening a post office box in 2002 in the name of Majid Khan, who is suspected of being a Qaeda member and is being held in the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Divorced from her first husband, Dr. Muhammad Amjad Khan, the father of her three children, she married Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of the professed orchestrator of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in early 2003, according to court documents filed in the United States. [...]

She was arrested in July 2008 in Ghazni, Afghanistan, with her eldest child, Ahmed, then 12, who told Afghan investigators they had arrived by road from Quetta, in southwestern Pakistan, two days before. While in custody, prosecutors said, she grabbed a rifle from a police station floor and fired on Army officers and F.B.I. agents, hitting no one. She was shot in the abdomen. [...]

"The iconization of Aafia Siddiqui as an emblem of Pakistani womanhood represents the kind of female rebel acceptable in a rapidly Islamizing Pakistani society," said Rafia Zakaria, a columnist for Dawn, the leading English daily newspaper....

Rapidly Islamizing indeed.

Big surprise here. Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Pakistan: Christians, not Muslims, arrested following attack on Christians," from CatholicCulture.org, March 9 (thanks to Twostellas):

In the weeks following a February attack on Christian churches and homes in Pakistan's largest city, police have questioned 40 Christians and arrested five, according to a report published by the Fides news agency. "It is an ironic accusation," a source said, since "on that occasion, it was the Christian quarter of Pahar Ganj in Karachi that was attacked by a mob of Muslims who wrought havoc in the streets and burned shops."...

Democracy? Yes, because then the Tiny Minority of Extremists in Pakistan, who actually form the overwhelming majority, will vote in a full Sharia government. "'Democracy, jihad, nukes vital,'" by Rana Latif, Jawad R. Awan, Jam Sajjad Hussain, and Khalid Malik in The Nation (Pakistan), March 8 (thanks to Twostellas):

LAHORE - Speakers at a special ceremony held in memory of late Hameed Nizami at Alhamra on Sunday were of the opinion that an independent, Islamic, democratic and welfare state was the cherished goal of the people of Pakistan and this objective was supreme in the eyes of the founders of Pakistan which needed to be emulated by us. Any deviation from this path and the Pakistan ideology would leave the country in chaos.

"However, to achieve these objectives, we have to break the shackles of the US domination and replace the colonial system of education with a uniform education system of our own. Also it is imperative to uphold democracy, spirit of jihad and nuclear capability to maintain political and economic freedom for the well-being of the people," they observed....

Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the worst democracy was better than the good dictatorship and this slogan was carried on the title of Nawa-i-Waqt edited by Hameed Nizami and now by Majid Nizami. This means to propound that the government should function according to the wishes of the people and that wishes were to make Quran and Sunnah supreme and ensure its enforcement in the country. A worst democracy cannot easily ignore the sentiments of the people, he added....

Actually it was a jihad/martyrdom attack perpetrated by Sunnis. Will the Islamophobia never end? "Shia Muslims targeted in Pakistan's suicide attack: police," from Xinhua, March 5 (thanks to Twostellas):

A suicide bomber on foot killed at least five people, including three women, in Pakistan's northwest, a senior police officer said Friday.

The bomber exploded his bomb near a convoy of buses, carrying Shia Muslims, in Hangu district, destroying three vehicles, police officer Islam-ud-Din said.

Commissioner Khalid Khan earlier said that ten people were killed in the attack....

Police described the attack as sectarian as Shia Muslims were targeted. Hangu district has seen a series of sectarian attacks in the past but the area had been calm in recent months....

Read the book, Adam

It looks as if the Revolting Geek is still on the path of jihad. Instead, the one arrested was another Revolting Geek, yet another American convert to and Misunderstander of Islam. "U.S.-Born al Qaeda Arrest News Incorrect," from CBSNews, March 7 (thanks to Pamela):

An "important Taliban militant" was arrested today in Pakistan. But that is where the confusion started.

Earlier it was reported by Pakistani media that intelligence agents had arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born spokesman for al Qaeda, in an operation in the southern city of Karachi.

It was further reported by the Associated Press and Reuters that Gadahn had been arrested, sourcing security officials.

CBS News was told by sources in the Pakistan government that it was Gadahn, even after U.S. officials refused to confirm it was the California native for whom a $1 million reward has been posted.

Now, CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad writes that earlier reports the detained individual was Gadahn proved false. According to a Pakistan security official who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity, the arrested individual is in fact "a Taliban militant leader who is known as Abu Yahya."

The official said evidence compiled from an interrogation of the suspect and information exchanged with U.S. officials verified the man's identify.

The reassessment only added to the confusion surrounding the arrest of a man earlier described by other unnamed Pakistani security officials as Gadahn.

"In the light of our latest information, I can say, this is not looking like Gadahn. But it is still the arrest of an important Taliban militant," said the Pakistani security official who spoke to CBS News late Sunday.

The New York Times, sourcing American and Pakistani officials, reports that the man arrested was Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, and describes him as an al Qaeda commander who was born in Pennsylvania....

Another incident in an ongoing effort to obtain an exemption for Muslims from the body scans that Muslims made necessary. "Pakistani lawmakers refuse body scan, cut short US visit," from DPA, March 7 (thanks to Slothy):

Islamabad, March 7 (DPA) A delegation of Pakistani lawmakers refused to subject themselves to a controversial full-body X-ray scan at a Washington airport, a media report said Sunday.

The six-member group of the parliament members from Pakistan's restive tribal region cut short their official US visit immediately to return home, the Pakistani Express News channel said.

It was the first official delegation that refused to go through the body scanners since they were installed at 19 US airports last month.

Abbas Afridi, the head of Pakistani delegation, said the US State Department had invited them to Washington to discuss security and development projects in the tribal region, with a promise that they would not be subjected to body scanning.

'We were not scanned when we arrived on March 28 in Washington from Pakistan, but on Saturday when we wanted to travel to another city the authorities told us that we would be scanned,' Afridi told Express News.

'We refused the scanning and now we are returning home,' he said....

But it doesn't look as if it is going to fly. And note that they only started claiming to have been tortured after Pakistani authorities rejected their first strategem, which was to claim that they were simply waging jihad, and jihad was not illegal under Pakistani law.

"Arrested US jihad seekers file another petition for release," from Asian News International, March 7:

Islamabad, Mar.7 : The five US youth arrested in Pakistan on charges of having links with Al-Qaeda have filed another plea for their release.

The plea would be heard on March 8 (Monday) in the district sessions court Sargodha, The News reports.

The five American jihad seekers, who were arrested last year from Sargodha, had earlier moved a bail application which was rejected.

The five accused, who were arrested on charges of ties with terror groups linked with the Al-Qaeda, had pleaded innocence, and said that they were being set up and tortured by the FBI and the Pakistani police.

Waqar Hussain Khan (22), Virginia, Ahmed Abdullah Mani (20), Virginia, Ramay S Zamzam (22), Iman Hasan Yamar (17), California and Omar Farouk (24), Virginia, were arrested in Sargodha on December 9, for plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and Afghansitan, and are locked in a Pakistani jail without being charged.

Pakistan has made it clear that the men, all in their late 20s, would not be deported to the US and that they would be prosecuted in the country itself.