February 2008 Archives

What's all this fuss I hear?

Turkish Islamic authorities got some people's hopes up just a few days ago, when they announced a major reevaluation of the Hadith. But never mind: "No Muslim in the right mind would dare delete any hadith or tamper with the Prophet's heritage." Oh.

"Turkey Classifying Not Revising Hadith," by Ahmad Maher for IslamOnline (thanks to g hadi hater):

CAIOR [sic!] — Eighty scholars from 23 Turkish universities are working on a major project to classify and translate the Hadith (the collection of sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him).

"Make no mistake, we are not after modifying or revising the Hadith," Mehmet Gormez, deputy director of the religious affairs authority Diyanet and supervisor of the project, told IslamOnline.net in a phone interview.

"What we are actually doing is re-classifying, re-categorizing the Hadith and translating it into Turkish, no more no less." [...]

"We have compiled all hadiths and read them to reclassify them anew," he explained.

"We have also taken into account the unauthentic ones or those attributed falsely to the Prophet because to understand the true Hadith, you really need to (understand) the unauthentic sayings."

Muslim scholars believe Hadith is integral to the understanding of Qur'an, since they are inseparably linked to each other.

They say it is impossible to understand the Qur'an without reference to Hadith because the Qur'an is the message and the Hadith is the explanation of the message by the Messenger himself. [...]

He shrugged off media suggestions that Turkey was re-writing the Hadith and creating a new Islam.

"They made too much fuss and took the project out of its real context.

"We are neither fashioning a new Islam nor dare to alter the fixtures maxims of Islam," Gormez said emphatically.

"The Western media have read what are doing from a Christian perspective and understood it in line with their Christian and Western cultures."

When it comes to Islam, Gormez said, the Western media is used to focusing on women's status and jihad.

Several British newspapers on Wednesday, February 27, ran stories on the Turkish project .

The Guardian headlines the story as "Turkey strives for 21st century form of Islam."

A day earlier the BBC reported the project under the headline "Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts."

Gormez also refuted claims they would and edit out some hadiths, especially about women.

"No Muslim in the right mind would dare delete any hadith or tamper with the Prophet's heritage."

I trust that all those Muslim spokesmen in the West who assured us during the Abdul Rahman controversy in 2005 that Islamic law did not actually have a death penalty for apostasy will be winging their way to Tehran forthwith to explain to the mullahs that they're Misunderstanding Islam.

From Spiegel Online (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

Apostasy -- or the formal renunciation of religion -- is already punishable in Iran with death. But now, Iran wants to make the death penalty for apostasy part of the penal code. The European Union is concerned and has asked Iran to reconsider.

The European Union this week sent a letter to authorities in Iran expressing its concern over a proposed change to the penal code that would make apostasy punishable by death.

The EU is responding to news that the Islamic Republic is planning to subject "apostasy, heresy and witchcraft" to the Hudud -- the body of fixed punishments assigned to crimes that are considered violations of the "claims of God." Other Hadud crimes include alcohol consumption, theft, highway robbery and illegal sexual intercourse.

As the news agency Reuters reported earlier this week, the EU, which opposes the death penalty as a matter of policy, expressed "acute concern" over the proposed penal code revision.

"These articles clearly violate the Islamic Republic of Iran's commitments under the international human rights conventions," Slovenian leaders, who currently head the rotating EU presidency, wrote in a statement.

"The EU calls upon the Iranian authorities, both in government and parliament, to modify the draft penal code in order to respect the obligations."

The death penalty has already been applied to apostates in Iran -- but this was never, since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979, institutionalized as a matter of legal practice.

Iran typically dismisses Western criticism of its legal system, claiming that Islamic law is fundamentally different.

Indeed it is. Most Westerners, however, would rather not acknowledge that.

Feel the love. From AKI (thanks to C. C.):

Mosul, 29 Feb. (AKI) - Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean bishop of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was kidnapped on Friday after he finished celebrating the rite of the Via Crucis at a local church.

Eyewitnesses said that a group of armed men stopped the bishop as he was travelling in his car and took him by force.

From a government-sponsored rally on Wednesday

Let's see... No.

Anti-dhimmitude. "Denmark to oppose Sudan debt relief," from the Associated Press:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Denmark said Thursday it will oppose any debt relief deal for Sudan in response to the Sudanese president's comments urging the Muslim world to boycott Danish goods over the publication of a Prophet Muhammad cartoon.

Interior Minister Ulla Toernaes said she summoned Sudan's ambassador to Denmark to demand an explanation of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's comments a day earlier.

Al-Bashir said Wednesday that he would bar Danes from Sudan and told tens of thousands of people at a government-backed rally in Khartoum that the Muslim world should boycott Denmark because of a cartoon reprinted recently in Danish newspapers.

Danish newspapers reprinted a cartoon showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban on February 13 to show their commitment to freedom of speech after police uncovered a plot to kill the artist who drew it.

The drawing was one of 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper in 2006 that triggered major protests in Muslim countries. The republication again sparked protests in several Muslim countries, including Sudan.

Sudan owes Denmark nearly $405 million and after Sudan's government and southern rebels signed a peace agreement in 2005, international donors said they would consider debt relief.

But now, "in the international talks about a possible debt relief to Sudan, it will be Denmark's point of view that Sudan should not get such a debt relief agreement," Toernaes told the online edition of the Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

However, she said Denmark would not cut development aid to Sudan. "Our support is not a support to the Sudanese president or, for that matter, to the government," Toernaes said.

Sudan is one of the largest recipients of Danish aid, receiving $26 million in aid in 2006. A $100 million humanitarian and reconstruction package is planned through 2009.

"It surprises me that Sudan's government apparently is willing to cut the cooperation with a donor like Denmark on development aid because of a caricature in Danish newspapers," Toernaes told the newspaper.

Let them "cut cooperation" with Denmark. I hear the Saudis have a few bucks to spare...

She could not be reached for comment Thursday but her office confirmed that the quotes were correct.

All lovers of freedom should be outraged that such a sentenced was ever handed down. "Woman freed from sentence for being 'Christian,'" from WorldNetDaily (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Egyptian woman sentenced to three years in prison for putting her religion as "Christian" on her marriage certificate more than two decades ago has been released, according to her lawyer.

The release of Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, came only a few weeks after WND reported on plans for a rally in Egypt on behalf of the woman who was unaware that when she was two years old, her father briefly left Christianity to pursue Islam, before returning to Christianity.

Under Egyptian law, that made her a Muslim for life, so she was charged with, and convicted of, fraud for putting "Christian" as her religion on her marriage certificate in 1982.

However, according to published reports in Egypt, the nation's attorney general ordered her released, citing a "mix-up" over her religion designation.

The case stems from the woman's marriage as a Christian, a restricted practice in Egypt. There Christians are not allowed to marry Muslims, only other Christians.

Read it all.

He wuz framed, I tell ya. Framed!

By Michael Theodoulou for the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

A university professor allegedly caught in a Saudi-style honey trap has been sentenced to 180 lashes and eight months in jail – for having coffee with a girl.

The man, a prominent and well-respected Saudi teacher of psychology at Umm al-Qra University in the holy city of Mecca, was framed by the religious police after he angered some of their members at a training course, his lawyer said.

The academic has not been named by the local media, which have given his case wide coverage, but one senior Saudi journalist told The Times he was Dr Abu Ruzaiz, a married man in his late 50s with children.

“He is highly respected and above-board. Nobody believes the religious police’s version of what happened. The whole of Jeddah (the main city near Mecca) is in uproar about this. Everyone believes he is innocent and was set up,” the journalist said.

Good. Maybe this will herald the beginning of a mass public rejection of such "crimes."

From our ever-growing "You Dare To Suggest That Islam Is Not A Religion Of Peace, Therefore We Must Kill You" file, this just in from NIS News (thanks to all who sent this in):

AMSTERDAM, 28/02/08 - The terrorist network Al-Qaeda has given orders for the assassination of MP Geert Wilders, newspaper De Telegraaf reports. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader must be 'slaughtered', the orders say, because he has insulted Islam and the prophet Mohammed.

The newspaper based its report on a recent message on a protected web forum of internet site al-ekhlaas.net, which De Telegraaf claims is affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The internet threat, which was posted on 28 January, was intercepted by the American research institute SITE Intelligence Group, the newspaper reports.

"In the name of Allah, we ask you to bring us the neck of this unbeliever who insults Islam and the Muslims and ridicules the prophet Mohammed," the site says about Wilders, according to the newspaper.

The message honours Mohammed Bouyeri as a hero. This Amsterdam-born Moroccan Muslim cut Islam-critic Theo van Gogh's throat on 2 November 2004. The message also appeals for readers to "terrorise" the Netherlands to prevent Wilders' controversial film on the Koran from being broadcast....

Anti-dhimmitude: Wilders will not kowtow to violent intimidation, despite the entreaties of his cringing Eurodhimmi colleagues.

"Dutch minister appeals against anti-Islam film," from Radio Netherlands (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Hague - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has called on right-wing politician Geert Wilders not to release his planned anti-Islam film. Mr Verhagen is the first member of the cabinet to make a direct appeal regarding Mr Wilders' controversial film plans. The Labour party has criticised the minister's statement as premature, since there is still no clear information about the content of the film.

The foreign minister's Christian Democrat party has also spoken out against the film, saying Mr Wilders should take responsibility for the possible consequences for the safety of Dutch citizens and for the Dutch economy. The Taliban previously threatened to step up attacks on Dutch troops in Afghanistan if the anti-Islam film is broadcast.

Mr Wilders, who is head of the right-wing Freedom Party, has responded in a text message by saying his critics can "get lost".

In the featured article at FrontPage this morning, I discuss the MSA's stealth jihad efforts.

Muslim students at Australian universities have demanded that class schedules be changed to work around their prayer times, and that male and female students be provided with separate cafeterias and recreational areas.

This is in line with similar initiatives in the United States, where the Muslim Students Association carries, on the “Muslim Accommodations Task Force” page of its website, pdfs of pamphlets entitled “How to Achieve Islamic Holidays on Campus,” “How to Establish a Prayer Room on Campus,” and “How to Achieve Halal Food on Campus.”

The MSA directs Muslim students to present these demands in the context of multiculturalism and civil rights. “Most campuses,” explains the publication on getting recognition of Islamic holy “include respecting diversity as a part of their mission statement. They consider enrollment of diverse students an asset to the community, as they enhance the classroom learning experience and enrich student life. Try to find these statements specific to your campus, and explain that recognition of Islamic holidays would serve as a practical example of upholding these ideals.”

Man of the hour

The film that has the world holding its breath could appear today. "Dutch film to slam Islam," by Leander Schaerlaeckens in the Washington Times (thanks to Sparta):

BRUSSELS — Europe's uneasy relationship with its Muslim minority faces another blow next month, when Dutch politician Geert Wilders releases a 15-minute film that compares Islam to Nazism and communism.

The film is called "Fitna," an Arabic term for "discord." It intersperses verses of the Koran with footage of terrorist attacks and other Islamist-inspired violence.

"The film will show that the Koran isn't a dead work, but the face of Islam — a tremendous hazard," Mr. Wilders told the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

He said the film calls the Koran "the latest test to Western democracies since Nazism and communism."

Mr. Wilders said the film will be finished tomorrow and will be posted on a Web site, www.fitnathemovie.com, when it airs on television.

Several Pakistani Internet providers tried this week to block YouTube on the orders of the government because it carried a movie trailer for the film. The effort caused a worldwide crash of the popular online site for sharing videos.

The next part of this article, you'll note, has no perpetrator. Insults to Islam somehow, inexplicably, "turned deadly," leading to "worldwide riots" that "left more than 100 people dead" -- at whose hands? We don't know. At least we do hear that van Gogh's killer thought of his victim as an "enemy of Islam":

In recent years, other perceived insults to Islam in Europe have turned deadly.

Worldwide riots after the 2005 publication of editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad left more than 100 people dead.

In 2004, a terrorist killed Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in broad daylight over another short film titled "Submission," which told the tale of abused women in the Muslim community.

The assassin called Mr. van Gogh, a descendent of the 19th-century artist, an "enemy of Islam" in a note that threatened the life of then-Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for the film.

Ms. Hirsi Ali now lives in the United States under tight security....

I'm not sure that's accurate at this point, but then again, I wouldn't know.

The Iranian justice minister requested his Dutch counterpart to ban the latest film, calling it "satanical and undermining," according to Iranian press agency IRNA.

The Dutch government has thus far refused to act, citing the principle of free speech.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, director of the Washington-based Center for Islamic Pluralism, said it was "strange" and "ahistorical" to think that a 1,400-year-old text could become a threat to the West.

"My advice to Muslims is to ignore such trivial provocations, maintain their dignity and faith and work to improve their communities," Mr. Schwartz said. "Mr. Wilders has a right to make whatever films he wants and Muslims have a right to ignore them."...

I'm glad that Schwartz, as a Muslim spokesman, says that Muslims "have a right to ignore" Wilders' films, which presumably suggests that Muslims also have a right not to start going mad, smashing things, issuing murderous threats, and attacking people because of Wilders' current film. But Schwartz's statement that it's "'strange' and 'ahistorical' to think that a 1,400-year-old text could become a threat to the West" is, well, strange and ahistorical. Muslims motivated by Qur'anic texts conquered the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Spain, and much of India, and threatened Europe for 1,000 years. At any time during that period if anyone had asked any of the jihad warriors what he was fighting for, he would have answered with Qur'anic references.

And after that, when the Islamic world grew weak and jihad against the West became an historical memory, this change was not the result of a new understanding of Qur'anic imperatives to wage war against and subjugate Jews and Christians (cf. 9:29) and war against other unbelievers also (9:5). Rather, it was simply a matter of being too weak to act upon these imperatives, until Saudi money and the communications revolution changed all that. Strange and ahistorical? When jihadists today unanimously frame their actions in terms of the Qur'an? No. It appears that Mr. Schwartz is indulging in that all-too-common feature of today's public discourse: Fantasy-Based Analysis.

"Geert Wilders spreads hatred. We want to be an open, tolerant and democratic society and he preaches the opposite," said Michael van der Vlis, a former city councilman of Amsterdam who is one of Mr. Wilders' fiercest critics.

Mr. van der Vlis began his own Web site, "Don't spread hatred," to counter Mr. Wilders.

Within a few weeks of opening the site last year, he received thousands of supportive e-mails but eventually abandoned the effort when faced with a never-ending stream of hate mail.

"Yes, we have a problem with a part of the Muslim community and you can't ignore that, but you should solve it very differently than the way Wilders tries to," Mr. van der Vlis told The Washington Times.

"You should attract people, not make them outcasts. [Mr. Wilders] preaches ripping up half the Koran and the fight against Islam. This shows extremely little respect for those with a different religious opinion. He does not contribute to a tolerant Netherlands."...

The problem is, neither do the jihadists. Wilders, by calling attention to the problematic aspects of the Qur'an, is providing an opportunity for the Muslims who profess to reject jihad violence and Islamic supremacism to explain how they approach such texts, and how they propose to disabuse jihadists of their understanding of them. But instead: rage.

It still wasn't those Christian fundamentalists, who are, as we all know, more dangerous than Islamic jihadists. They just haven't gotten around to mounting any terror attacks yet, and with the number of Islamic jihad attacks standing now at 10,647 since 9/11, they have a bit of catching up to do.

"Six arrested in Norway, Sweden in terrorism raids," from AFP (thanks to all who sent this in):

STOCKHOLM : Norwegian and Swedish police said they arrested six people on Thursday in Oslo and Stockholm suspected of financing and planning attacks in a coordinated action.

"It was a coordinated action in Norway and Sweden," Jakob Larsson, a spokesman for the Swedish police's security service Saepo, told AFP.

In Stockholm, "three Swedish citizens, all men" were arrested on suspicion of financing and planning attacks, Larsson said, providing no further details on their identities.

In Oslo, three people were arrested "suspected of ... financing acts of terrorism abroad," the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said in a statement.

According to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet's online edition, the three arrested in Oslo were all of African origin....

"The support activities in Norway primarily involve money transfers to individuals or groups abroad who are believed to be linked to radical Islamist organisations," PST said.

"Various forms of support for foreign terrorist organisations remain the primary type of activity (linked to terrorism) in Norway," it added....

"They were very aggressive and shouted at an employee that the poster should be taken down otherwise they would throw stones and use violence."

By Madeline Chambers for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin gallery has temporarily closed an exhibition of satirical works by a group of Danish artists after six Muslim youths threatened violence unless one of the posters depicting the Kaaba shrine in Mecca was removed, it said on Thursday.

The Galerie Nord in central Berlin said it had closed its "Zionist Occupied Government" show of works by Surrend, a group of artists who say they poke fun at powerful people and ideological conflicts.

On Tuesday, four days after the exhibition opened, a group of angry Muslims stormed into the gallery, shouting demands that one of the 21 posters should be removed, said the gallery.

"They were very aggressive and shouted at an employee that the poster should be taken down otherwise they would throw stones and use violence," the gallery's artistic director Ralf Hartmann told Reuters.

The Muslims objected to a depiction of the Kaaba -- the ancient shrine in Mecca's Grand Mosque which Muslims face to say their prayers -- which gave a "bitingly satirical commentary against radicalism," said the gallery in a statement.

SECURITY REVIEW

Hartmann said the gallery was working with German authorities to improve security and he hoped to re-open the show as soon as possible.

"It would be unacceptable if individual social groups were in a position to exercise censorship over art and the freedom of expression," said the gallery in a statement.

Yes, it would!

UPDATE: A friend sends me this important point: "The key point here--which you are always warning about, as in the story on Front Page--is the expansion of demands. There is now a demand that no picture of Muhammad be shown. Now this is a COMPLETELY NEW demand and one even less grounded in Islam: that the Kaaba not be shown. No doubt more will be added in future. A point worth making, this isn't just a demonstration against an art exhibit but an additional demand never heard before."

Naive Kids Update: They tried to get this evidence thrown out on the grounds that the arresting officer was racist -- evidently because he mentioned the Taliban, which is not a race -- but common sense prevailed this time.

"Judge says USF student evidence can be used," from My Fox Tampa Bay:

TAMPA - A federal judge says controversial evidence against two USF students accused of having explosives can be used in their trial.

Defense lawyers had challenged the use of evidence seized in a search of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed's car because of statements made over the radio by the deputies who stopped them in South Carolina.

The men used terms like "terrorist" and Taliban" to describe the students, and lawyers argued that showed bias, and that the deputies didn't have probable cause to search the car.

Despite those arguments, a judge says the search was legal, and the evidence gathered - including pipe bombs and a computer - can be used.

Quaking dhimmi Dutch call Qur'an critic on the carpet, as if he is responsible for any irrationality and violence with which Muslims may greet his film.

"Wilders accuses ministers of intimidation," from Expatica (thanks to Dave):

THE HAGUE – Freedom Party PVV leader Geert Wilders is furious about a talk ministers Ernst Hirsch Ballin (justice) and Maxime Verhagen (foreign affairs) held with him on Wednesday afternoon regarding his film on the Koran.

"It was an hour of intimidation," Wilders said after the talk.

The politician did not want to disclose what had been said. A spokesperson for the justice ministry confirmed that a talk had taken place after reports about it on NOS Journaal.

The spokesperson would only say it was a continuation of a talk held in November last year when the government expressed its concerns about the consequences the film could have in the Netherlands and abroad.

Sources in The Hague say Hirsch Ballin, who called the meeting, has now also pointed out to Wilders that there could be legal consequences for Wilders if the film contains elements that could be considered hate inciting or blasphemous....

If Europe and the U.S. were standing for free speech, that would not be a consideration.

Outrage

Ready for Obama Photo Rage?

"Kenyan elders want U.S. apology over Obama photo," by Noor Ali for Reuters (thanks to Hot Air):

ISIOLO, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan elders demanded an apology from Washington on Thursday ahead of a planned protest over a controversial photo of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama in traditional Somali dress.

[...]

The dispute has angered many in Kenya, especially ethnic Somalis from the northeast, who resent the implication that Obama did anything wrong during his visit.

Wajir residents plan to demonstrate after Friday prayers to show their support for the Illinois senator.

Mohamed Ibrahim, who attended one of two crisis meetings held in Wajir on Thursday by clan members who hosted Obama on his trip, said Washington must immediately make amends to them and especially to the elder pictured with him.

"The U.S. government must apologise to us as a clan and the old man," Ibrahim told Reuters by telephone. "We have been offended and we cannot afford to just watch and stay silent."

He said it was essential Clinton "clear her name" too.

The old man in question was retired chief Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, a senior elder who deserved great respect, local residents said.

"He was the right person to perform any such activity like dressing a visitor like Obama with traditional Somali clothes," said another Wajir community leader, Mukhtar Sheikh Nur.

"We give special treatment and respect to any visitor."

If there was no apology, the elders said, they would demand the expulsion of U.S. troops based near Garissa town....

On the way to his Nobel Peace Prize

Not that Bush, Rice, or anyone else who have so much hope invested in this man will care to notice.

"Abbas: 'Armed resistance not ruled out,'" from the Jerusalem Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said that he does not rule out returning to the path of armed "resistance" against Israel and took pride in the fact that he had been the first to fire on Israel and that his organization had trained Hizbullah.

In an interview with the Jordanian daily al-Dustur, Abbas said that he was opposed to an armed struggle against Israel - for the time being.

"At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different," he said.

The PA president also expressed pride both in himself and in his organization, Fatah, for trailblazing the path of resistance.

Ah, a real point of pride!

Signalman Hassan Abu-Jihaad, USN

When Hassan Abu-Jihaad joined the Navy, did anyone ask him about his loyalty? His attachment to the jihad ideology? I expect not. I think it likely that no one would have dared, and if anyone had done so, he would have been branded a racist and an "Islamophobe."

"Navy Says Leak Posed A Threat," from AP :

NEW HAVEN — - The U.S. Navy would have immediately changed plans had it known that details of ship movements had been leaked to suspected terrorism supporters, a top Navy official testified Wednesday at the trial of a former Navy sailor on terrorism charges.

Hassan Abu-Jihaad, 32, of Phoenix, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging that he provided material support to terrorists and disclosed classified national defense information. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

Abu-Jihaad, an American-born Muslim convert formerly known as Paul R. Hall, is accused of leaking information that could have doomed his own ship. He was a Navy signalman and received an honorable discharge in 2002.

He is accused of leaking details included the makeup of his Navy battle group, its planned movements and a drawing of the group's formation when it was to pass through the Straits of Hormuz on April 29, 2001....

Due to her hatred of Jews and "personal family problems," she volunteered for this mission, and went to Mecca beforehand to purify herself.

"Would-be teen bomber arrested in J'lem," by Etgar Lefkovits in the Jerusalem Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

A 17-year-old female Palestinian from Jerusalem was arrested three weeks ago for allegedly offering to carry out a suicide bombing in the city, police said Thursday. The girl was apprehended in a joint Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and police operation.

The would-be bomber, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor, is suspected of having suggested to Islamic Jihad operatives in the West Bank that they use her to carry out a terror attack, due to her hatred of Jews and "personal family problems," Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

The teen, who has confessed to the allegations against her, said that her family had no knowledge of her plans to become a suicide bomber, police said.

As part of her enlistment, the teen traveled to Mecca to "purify" herself, after undergoing a series of tests by the Palestinian terror group to ensure that she was not an Israeli mole, police said....

Premature detonation: it's the jihadist's ever-present fear.

"Premature Blast Kills Philippine Bomber," from AP (thanks to James):

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A grenade exploded during a town fiesta in the southern Philippines, killing a would-be bomber and wounding four people, police said Thursday.

The police chief in General Santos city, Senior Superintendent Robert Po, said the grenade held by the bomber went off before he managed to penetrate crowds celebrating the city's foundation anniversary late Wednesday. [...]

Po said investigators were working to determine the bomber's identity and affiliation, but suspected he may have been linked to a notorious extortion gang, the Al-Khobar group.

The group, which authorities believe has ties to Muslim extremists operating in the southern Philippines, has been blamed for at least a dozen explosions in the region targeting bus companies and business establishments....

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews. -- from this news article

These opinion polls, where it is Muslims who are being polled, are always skewed -- but not, as with other opinion polls, skewed now this way and now that way. These are skewed in only one way. No Muslim, being interviewed as to whether or not he "approves" of a terrorist act, is going to say he approves of it if he does not. In other words, there will be no cases in which someone will declare, falsely, that he approves. Compare this to a public opinion poll about support for candidates, in which one can imagine, in a despotism, people lying about whom they will support, or even in a democracy, lying in order to meet the expectations, as they see it, of the interviewer. How many Americans right now may be afraid of being thought either "racist" (so answering one way) or "sexist" (so answering another)?

They are especially skewed because Muslims know perfectly well when the results are to be disseminated among non-Muslims, and they know perfectly well that non-Muslims are watching keenly for signs of support for violence.

Not that wearing it is compulsory or anything. She is free to insult Islam, and to face the consequences for doing so. "Egypt goalie slammed for move to Swiss club; Wife accused of insulting Islam for removing veil," from Al-Arabiya (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

...Adding to his troubles, a picture of Hadary's wife appearing in public in Switzerland without the veil has also drawn criticism back home.

Religious watchdog group Hamasna ("Our Enthusiasm"), which led the International Campaign for Defending Hijab a week ago, issued a statement urging Hadary's wife Sabrine to put the veil back on.

"We understand that the situation of Muslim women in the West is a special case, but she has to amend what she did before other players' wives follow her example," the statement read. "She must realize that her husband is a player in Egyptian national football, and they are a religious team."

The Grand Imam of al-Azhar has issued a fatwa – religious ruling – saying that Muslim women living in the West can take off the veil if required under local laws. The fatwa, issued in the context of the ban on the veil in educational institutions in France, sparked much controversy at the time.

Hamasna said it supports Hadary and wishes him luck in his new club. It added that he should continue to kneel in prayer when his team scores a goal and not feel awkward about performing the religious act on the field even with his new Swiss team.

"The God of Switzerland is the God of Cairo and the God of [Ghanaian city] Kumasi, the God of all the people," the group said....

Shelves of books all about Islam, and a rifle -- but don't get the crazy idea that this has anything to do with Islam

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Relax Bulletin, the revelation that there are only 91 million admitted jihadists, comes the latest from former CIA agent Marc Sageman, who says that the jihadists only number a few thousand bored youths, looking for thrills. No ideological component, no religious component. So relax, will you?

"The Fading Jihadists," by David Ignatius in the Washington Post (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Politicians who talk about the terrorism threat -- and it's already clear that this will be a polarizing issue in the 2008 campaign -- should be required to read a new book by a former CIA officer named Marc Sageman. It stands what you think you know about terrorism on its head and helps you see the topic in a different light.

[...]

The heart of Sageman's message is that we have been scaring ourselves into exaggerating the terrorism threat -- and then by our unwise actions in Iraq making the problem worse. He attacks head-on the central thesis of the Bush administration, echoed increasingly by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, that, as McCain's Web site puts it, the United States is facing "a dangerous, relentless enemy in the War against Islamic Extremists" spawned by al-Qaeda.

The numbers say otherwise, Sageman insists. The first wave of al-Qaeda leaders, who joined Osama bin Laden in the 1980s, is down to a few dozen people on the run in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. The second wave of terrorists, who trained in al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan during the 1990s, has also been devastated, with about 100 hiding out on the Pakistani frontier. These people are genuinely dangerous, says Sageman, and they must be captured or killed. But they do not pose an existential threat to America, much less a "clash of civilizations."

From Ignatius's account at least, Sageman appears to ignore entirely the other active and violent jihad groups around the world, operating in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Kashmir, Chechnya, Nigeria, etc. etc.

He also seems to ignore the abundant evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood's -- in their own words -- "grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” This statement comes from a 1992 Brotherhood memorandum, in which many prominent American Muslim groups, including the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Students Association, are named as "friends."

If Sageman mentions any of this, Ignatius doesn't pick up on it.

It's the third wave of terrorism that is growing, but what is it? By Sageman's account, it's a leaderless hodgepodge of thousands of what he calls "terrorist wannabes." Unlike the first two waves, whose members were well educated and intensely religious, the new jihadists are a weird species of the Internet culture. Outraged by video images of Americans killing Muslims in Iraq, they gather in password-protected chat rooms and dare each other to take action. Like young people across time and religious boundaries, they are bored and looking for thrills.

"It's more about hero worship than about religion," Sageman said in a presentation of his research last week at the New America Foundation, a liberal think tank here. Many of this third wave don't speak Arabic or read the Koran. Very few (13 percent of Sageman's sample) have attended radical madrassas. Nearly all join the movement because they know or are related to someone who's already in it. Those detained on terrorism charges are getting younger: In Sageman's 2003 sample, the average age was 26; among those arrested after 2006, it was down to about 20. They are disaffected, homicidal kids -- closer to urban gang members than to motivated Muslim fanatics.

I have no doubt whatsoever that many people join jihadist groups because they're bored, or because all their friends are doing it, or because they're looking for thrills, or some such. But "disaffected, homicidal kids" may not be an entirely accurate formulation on the very day that the LA Times publishes a story about a jihadist cell in Morocco consisting of politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats, pharmacists, a police commander, and a TV journalist.

I don't know how Sageman knows that these bored youths don't read the Qur'an, but the fact remains that virtually every statement from Osama bin Laden, or al-Zawahri, or even Adam Gadahn, or from the British jihadists, or from Abu Bakar Bashir, or from virtually every other leader of this movement anywhere in the world, quotes copiously from the Qur'an, couches its appeal in terms of the religious obligations of Muslims, and presents the jihad movement as the embodiment of pure and true Islam. This is readily documentable -- here is one example, and here is another, and here is a third, and there are plenty more where those came from.

This focus on Islam is strange behavior for a movement that is not essentially religious, and forces us, if we accept Sageman's analysis, to believe that the vast majority of young men join jihadist groups while ignoring, being indifferent to, or outright rejecting the dominant ideology and goals of those groups. I wonder if he has any documentation of any jihadist who has ever stated such things. I rather doubt he does.

Sageman's harshest judgment is that the United States is making the terrorism problem worse by its actions in Iraq. "Since 2003, the war in Iraq has without question fueled the process of radicalization worldwide, including the U.S. The data are crystal clear," he writes. We have taken a fire that would otherwise burn itself out and poured gasoline on it.

Would it have burned itself out in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, etc. -- all those places I named above and others? Would it have ended the Brotherhood's subversive action inside the United States?

The third wave of terrorism is inherently self-limiting, Sageman continues. As soon as the amorphous groups gather and train, they make themselves vulnerable to arrest. "As the threat from al-Qaeda is self-limiting, so is its appeal, and global Islamist terrorism will probably disappear for internal reasons -- if the United States has the sense to allow it to continue on its course and fade away."

Sageman's policy advice is to "take the glory and thrill out of terrorism." Jettison the rhetoric about Muslim extremism -- these leaderless jihadists are barely Muslims. Stop holding news conferences to announce the latest triumphs in the "global war on terror," which only glamorize the struggle. And reduce the U.S. military footprint in Iraq, which fuels the Muslim world's sense of moral outrage....

Ultimately, more comforting hogwash, diverting us from the reality of the situation.

This fact makes the LA Times scratch its venerable head in puzzlement. I mean, doesn't everybody know that poverty causes terrorism, and only the desperate, uneducated and easily led join jihadist groups?

Of course, we have documented here for years that the opposite is the case, and just yesterday Saudi pseudoacademic shill John Esposito admitted it himself: "The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims." But it never seems to get through to the clueless, indifferent, PC-addled mainstream media.

"Morocco's unlikely group of terrorism suspects," by Sebastian Rotella for the Los Angeles Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):

RABAT, MOROCCO -- They are politicians and businessmen, bureaucrats and pharmacists, a police commander and a TV journalist.

Police arrested them and seized an arsenal in nationwide raids this month, the biggest crackdown in Morocco since suicide bombings killed 45 people, including the 12 bombers, in Casablanca five years ago. [...]

The recently arrested alleged leader of the group was a well-off Moroccan immigrant in Belgium who is accused of financing his activity with multimillion-dollar hold-ups and committing assassinations in that European country dating back 20 years. Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said in an interview that the group plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers, military chiefs and Jewish leaders to destabilize this moderate Muslim nation. [...]

"The leaders of this network had the opportunity to train in Afghanistan, to meet leaders of Al Qaeda, and to go to Algeria to train in [rural outposts] in 2005," Benmoussa said.

Some aspects of the case against the suspects perplex analysts. The three politicians arrested belong to small parties that mix Islamist and leftist ideologies. Their defenders say they are moderates.

Their longtime ties to Shiite Muslim movements, including Hezbollah, may have been a factor in their arrests. Sunni Muslims are the majority here, but authorities worry about the danger of extremism among the small Shiite minority and sympathetic Sunni radicals.

Sunni and Western governments fear that the recent assassination of a Hezbollah military chief in Syria could foment Shiite-inspired violence around the world, says Abdellah Rami, an expert on Islam at the Moroccan Center for Social Studies.

But Rami sees contradictions in the official version alleging that the Moroccan group of suspects was influenced by both Sunni-led Al Qaeda and Shiite Hezbollah.

"I find it hard to believe that all these movements were mixed together in the same cell," said Rami, who knows the jailed politicians. [...]

Sound strategy, or more British dhimmitude? It's hard to tell at this point. I am all for law enforcement officials becoming well-versed in the Qur'an and Sunnah: the more they understand the motives and goals of the jihadists, the better able they will be to combat them. But if this will be just another exercise in politically correct whitewashing and kowtowing to Islamic supremacism, as the Shadow Home Secretary seems to think, then it will be worse than worthless.

"Bobbies will be taught Sharia law and the Koran in secret plan to counter terror at local level," by James Slack for the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

Police will be trained on the importance of Sharia law and the Koran to Muslim communities, under new plans to fight extremism.

The lessons in Islamic faith and culture will become part of the formal training of constables working in towns and cities across the country.

Chief constables say that - by understanding the community they are policing - officers will build better relationships.

These could prove crucial in rooting out extremism and preventing a terrorist attack, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers.

But critics have described the plan as 'politically correct thinking' .

Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, said: "Police officers are not there to implement Sharia law. They are there to implement British law.

"This idea is misguided. We will only get community cohesion when everybody signs up to being British and following British law."

Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "Of course it is sensible for the police to have an understanding of the Koran and Sharia law as long as we do not allow the situation to slip so that Sharia law is regarded on an equal basis with British law. British law is and always must be pre-eminent."

Under the Acpo plans, police will not have to learn the 'depth and complexity' of Sharia law, but would be expected to understand Islamic culture - which includes Sharia law and the Koran.

It is part of a wide-ranging strategy to prevent extremist ideas gaining hold in primary schools, colleges, the internet and prisons....

Barry Rubin discusses some of the revelations of the funeral of Imad Mugniyah:

A funny thing happened at the funeral of Imad Mugniyah. Those who had for years been denying any connection with him and his international terrorist activities--Iran, Syria, and Hizballah--suddenly admitted that he was one of their favorite people.

At the same time, other critical points came out. Mugniyah's critical position as the link between those three allies, in their conduct of terrorism and subversion, stood out clearly. In addition, Mugniyah's career as an international terrorist, who often operated against Western targets, showed how Hizballah--along with its backers in Tehran and Damascus--were second only to al-Qaida in their global operations of violence.

[...]

When Iran, Syria, and Hizballah embrace such a person as a great hero and role model they are:

* Openly admitting their association with many past acts of terrorism.
* Making clear that they favor murderous attacks deliberately designed to kill civilians.
* Showing their past denials of involvement to be lies.
* Urging people to commit many more such attacks in future, include genocide against Israel and its people.

Now that Hizballah, Iran, and Syria have "taken credit" for Mugniyah's past killings and urged many more in the future, the world should confront the fact that these groups are engaged in a systematic terrorist policy and react accordingly.

Read it all.

The refusal of Muslim medics to wash their arms in a way that would require them to be uncovered is spreading. Here again is a clear choice: will Britain enforce British law, or kowtow to Islamic law? An update on this story. "Muslim medics refuse to roll up their sleeves in hygiene crackdown - because it's against their religion," from the Daily Mail (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Health officials are having crisis talks with Muslim medical staff who have objected to hospital hygiene rules because of religious beliefs.

Medics in hospitals in at least three major English cities have refused to follow the regulations aimed at helping tackle superbugs because of their faith, it has been revealed.

Women medical students at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool objected to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands and removing arm coverings in theatre, claiming it is regarded as immodest.

Similar concerns were raised at Leicester University -and Sheffield University reported a case of a Muslim medic refusing to "scrub" because it left her forearms exposed.

Some students have said that they would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, but hygiene experts said no exceptions should be made on religious grounds.

The film has been condemned in advance, sight unseen. Just for a moment of clarity, think back to the riots that greeted the work of the nineteenth-century European Biblical higher critics, or the Jesus Seminar, or the many skeptical/critical examinations of the Bible. What riots? Exactly.

And ask yourself: if someone reacts to something I say by going mad, breaking things, and targeting innocent people, is that my responsibility or his? When you are insulted, do you consider it a license to destroy things and hurt people, or do you consider it incumbent upon yourself to exercise some self-control?

"Dutch Islam film 'nearly ready,'" from the BBC (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has said that this week he will finish a film about Islam which has already triggered Muslim outrage.

Mr Wilders said he was determined to release the film despite government warnings that this would damage Dutch political and economic interests.

Good for him. What they're saying here is, "People will react to this with violent irrationality. Therefore you must kowtow to them."

Mr Wilders says the film is about the Koran, without giving details.

In the past, he has called for the Koran to be banned and likened it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The project has already been condemned by several Muslim countries, including Iran and Pakistan.

'Death threats'

"It is very good news. the film will definitely be finished this week, that is to say before 1 March," Mr Wilders told Reuters.

Well, that makes it today or tomorrow. Watch for updates.

He would be tortured back home, see. "Ministers argued the right of the public to be protected against terrorism should be balanced against a suspect's rights not to be ill-treated," but to no avail.

"Court bans deportation of terror suspect," by Clare Dyer for the Guardian (thanks to Davida):

Government hopes of deporting dozens of terror suspects to their home countries suffered a serious setback today with the European court of human rights ruling against one such attempt.

The grand chamber of 17 judges at the Strasbourg court ruled unanimously that an attempt by Italy to send a man back to Tunisia violated the ban on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in the European convention on human rights.

The case was brought by Nassim Saadi against Italy. The British government intervened in the hope the court would sanction the return of suspects regardless of their home country's human rights record.

Ministers argued the right of the public to be protected against terrorism should be balanced against a suspect's rights not to be ill-treated.

The court ruled that protection against torture is absolute and Saadi cannot be sent back, even though he has been convicted of terror-related offences in both Tunisia and Italy....

And that, to some minds at least, proves that this problem has nothing to do with Islam. The idea that the jihad ideology could have been deemphasized for a long period and then reasserted, as in pamphlets such as "Jihad: The Forgotten Obligation," creating an energetic minority, a jihadist vanguard within the Islamic world, does not enter this scenario. We are supposed to feel great that only 91 million share radical views -- or at least only 91 million were dumb enough to tell a Gallup rep that they held such views.

"Major survey challenges Western perceptions of Islam," by Karin Zeitvogel for AFP (thanks to Ansik):

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A huge survey of the world's Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence.

The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism.

It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington.

"Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): 'It is time we admitted that we are not at war with terrorism. We are at war with Islam'," Dalia Mogahed, co-author of the book "Who Speaks for Islam" which grew out of the study, told a news conference here.

"The argument Mr Harris makes is that religion in the primary driver" of radicalism and violence, she said.

"Religion is an important part of life for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and if it were indeed the driver for radicalisation, this would be a serious issue."

But the study, which Gallup says surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world's Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity "does not translate into widespread support for terrorism," said Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.

In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming majorities said religion was a very important part of their lives -- 99 percent in Indonesia, 98 percent in Egypt, 95 percent in Pakistan.

But only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed -- the radicals -- condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.

Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed.

"Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Koran -- for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity," she said.

Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.

The survey shows radicals to be neither more religious than their moderate counterparts, nor products of abject poverty or refugee camps.

"The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims," John Esposito, who co-authored "Who Speaks for Islam", said....

Better educated? But...aren't they ignorant of Islam?

Do you think John Esposito even noticed the chasm of cognitive dissonance widening at his feet?

The poll has given voice to Islam's silent majority, said Mogahed.

"A billion Muslims should be the ones that we look to, to understand what they believe, rather than a vocal minority," she told AFP.

Yes, we should look to them, and ask them why they aren't doing much of anything to challenge that 91 million.

Looks like he got away with it, too

"There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies." But Aulaqi was American-born, indicating that the jihad problem, while it contains a very serious immigration component, is not solely an immigration matter.

"Imam From Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided Al-Qaeda," by Susan Schmidt for the Washington Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.

New information later surfaced about his contacts with extremists while in the United States. Now, U.S. officials are saying for the first time that they believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaeda networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia. In mid-2006, Aulaqi was detained in Yemen at the request of the United States. To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Aulaqi was released in December.

"There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies," said a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities were limited in how far they could push Yemen to hold Aulaqi, officials said, because they have no pending legal case against him. The officials said ongoing intelligence-gathering efforts here and abroad prevented them from providing details about Aulaqi's suspected activities.

Aulaqi, 36, was the spiritual leader in 2001 and 2002 of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, one of the largest in the country. In a taped interview posted this New Year's Eve on a British Web site, Aulaqi said that while in prison in Yemen, he had undergone multiple interrogations by the FBI that included questions about his dealings with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"I don't know if I was held because of that, or because of the other issues they presented," Aulaqi said without elaborating. He said he would like to travel outside Yemen but would not do so "until the U.S. drops whatever unknown charges it has against me." Aulaqi did not respond to requests for an interview.

[...]

After 9/11, Aulaqi publicly condemned the attacks. But in comments published in English on Sept. 17, 2001, on IslamOnline, Aulaqi suggested that Israelis may have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks and that the FBI "went into the roster of the airplanes and whoever has a Muslim or Arab name became the hijacker by default."

Weeks after leaving the United States in the spring of 2002, he posted an essay in Arabic titled "Why Muslims Love Death" on the Islam Today Web site, lauding the fervor of Palestinian suicide bombers. Months later he praised them in English at a lecture in a London mosque that was recorded on videotape.

[...]

Dar al-Hijrah's spokesman and others in leadership positions at the mosque did not respond to requests for interviews for this article.

Does anyone there agree with Aulaqi's point of view? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?

Nasreen Suleaman...of the Beeb

"I don't think I needed to" contact police. Not even "I didn't think I needed to." Just "I don't think I needed to."

"BBC knew of link to failed 21/7 bombers," from the Telegraph (thanks to Mark):

A BBC producer failed to give police information that would have helped track down the July 21 bombers, the trial was told.

Don't Panic, I'm Islamic, which featured the group paintballing and an interview with Mohammed Hamid, was shown on BBC2 on June 12, 2005.

Nasreen Suleaman, the producer, told the court that Hamid said he would use his £300 fee to settle the fine he had been given by magistrates for racially abusing two policemen at his Oxford Street stall.

Called as a defence witness, Miss Suleaman admitted that she had spoken to Hamid in the days following the July 21 attacks and found out he knew the wanted men. [...]

Miss Suleaman claimed she told BBC managers of the situation but no one passed on the information to the authorities.

She looked visibly shaken when told that two of the July 21 bombers, had joined Hamid on another paintball trip two weeks before the bombings.

Miss Suleaman saw Hamid a few days after July 21, 2005 and he seemed "very shocked that the men he knew were accused of this".

Duncan Penny, prosecuting, said: "Did you tell him to go to the police?"

Ms Suleaman replied: "I don't think I needed to."

Could this be what we have all been waiting for? Possibly. It will be interesting to see its content, and what reception it receives from Islamic authorities outside of Turkey. My guess would be that that reaction will be hostile, because to accept this would be to assume that Islam has gone drastically wrong almost from its inception -- militating against all the claims of Allah's careful protection of his umma. But we shall see.

By Robert Pigott for the BBC (thanks to all who sent this in):

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.

That is, the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The BBC, like Reuters, often forgets this.

As such, it is the principal guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran and the source of the vast majority of Islamic law, or Sharia. But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam.

It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted.

Certainly Muhammad never uttered a significant number even of the ahadith that are generally considered sahih, or reliable. Whether the Turks will be able to convince any significant number of Muslims of that is another matter.

'Reformation'

Commentators say the very theology of Islam is being reinterpreted in order to effect a radical renewal of the religion.

Its supporters say the spirit of logic and reason inherent in Islam at its foundation 1,400 years ago are being rediscovered. Some believe it could represent the beginning of a reformation in the religion.

Turkish officials have been reticent about the revision of the Hadith until now, aware of the controversy it is likely to cause among traditionalist Muslims, but they have spoken to the BBC about the project, and their ambitious aims for it.

"Controversy" is understated.

The forensic examination of the Hadiths has taken place in Ankara University's School of Theology.

An adviser to the project, Felix Koerner, says some of the sayings - also known individually as "hadiths" - can be shown to have been invented hundreds of years after the Prophet Muhammad died, to serve the purposes of contemporary society.

"Unfortunately you can even justify through alleged hadiths, the Muslim - or pseudo-Muslim - practice of female genital mutilation," he says.

It is refreshing to see an Islamic authority admit and confront that. For pointing that out I have been called an "Islamophobe" and worse -- which name-calling, of course, does absolutely nothing to end the widespread Islamic approval of the practice.

"You can find messages which say 'that is what the Prophet ordered us to do'. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition."

The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control.

This is where it really starts to get silly. The Hadith is, for better or worse, the core of Islamic tradition. And since the ninth century, after Bukhari and Muslim and the rest made their efforts to winnow out the false from the true and published their collections, there has been a broad consensus (whether or not it was in fact correct) as to which ahadith were genuine and which weren't -- although there is serious disagreement about some. So to say that this whole process represented a "hijacking" of Islamic tradition is tantamount to saying that the whole thing was "hijacked" from the very start, before it even got off the ground.

Of course, that may be the only way of selling the idea that ahadith considered authentic should be junked.

Leaders of the Hadith project say successive generations have embellished the text, attributing their political aims to the Prophet Muhammad himself.

Revolutionary

Turkey is intent on sweeping away that "cultural baggage" and returning to a form of Islam it claims accords with its original values and those of the Prophet.

But this is where the revolutionary nature of the work becomes apparent. Even some sayings accepted as being genuinely spoken by Muhammad have been altered and reinterpreted.

Prof Mehmet Gormez, a senior official in the Department of Religious Affairs and an expert on the Hadith, gives a telling example.

"There are some messages that ban women from travelling for three days or more without their husband's permission and they are genuine.

"But this isn't a religious ban. It came about because in the Prophet's time it simply wasn't safe for a woman to travel alone like that. But as time has passed, people have made permanent what was only supposed to be a temporary ban for safety reasons."

The project justifies such bold interference in the 1,400-year-old content of the Hadith by rigorous academic research.

Prof Gormez points out that in another speech, the Prophet said "he longed for the day when a woman might travel long distances alone".

So, he argues, it is clear what the Prophet's goal was.

Original spirit

Yet, until now, the ban has remained in the text, and helps to restrict the free movement of some Muslim women to this day.

As part of its aggressive programme of renewal, Turkey has given theological training to 450 women, and appointed them as senior imams called "vaizes".

They have been given the task of explaining the original spirit of Islam to remote communities in Turkey's vast interior.

One of the women, Hulya Koc, looked out over a sea of headscarves at a town meeting in central Turkey and told the women of the equality, justice and human rights guaranteed by an accurate interpretation of the Koran - one guided and confirmed by the revised Hadith.

She says that, at the moment, Islam is being widely used to justify the violent suppression of women.

"There are honour killings," she explains.

"We hear that some women are being killed when they marry the wrong person or run away with someone they love.

"There's also violence against women within families, including sexual harassment by uncles and others. This does not exist in Islam... we have to explain that to them."

'New Islam'

According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy.

He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam.

"This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation," he says.

"Not exactly the same, but if you think, it's changing the theological foundations of [the] religion. "

Fadi Hakura believes that until now secularist Turkey has been intent on creating a new politics for Islam.

Now, he says, "they are trying to fashion a new Islam."

Significantly, the "Ankara School" of theologians working on the new Hadith have been using Western critical techniques and philosophy.

They have also taken an even bolder step - rejecting a long-established rule of Muslim scholars that later (and often more conservative) texts override earlier ones.

Here again, it is refreshing to see a Muslim scholar acknowledge what I have been vilified and smeared for noting.

"You have to see them as a whole," says Fadi Hakura.

"You can't say, for example, that the verses of violence override the verses of peace. This is used a lot in the Middle East, this kind of ideology.

"I cannot impress enough how fundamental [this change] is."

Indeed.

The perpetrator of this hostility was an actor. The victim was an actor. The whole incident was trumped-up, rendering the significance of the reactions suspect to say the least. ABC could not, you see, count on a veiled Muslim woman encountering hostility anywhere in this U.S. -- otherwise, they could have simply sent her into a few stores and filmed the uncanned reaction. So they had to create an "Islamophobic" store clerk as well, to guarantee the outcome they wanted.

Then they highlight the negative reactions with nary a hint that the Muslim community in the U.S. might have the power to change such boorish and hostile reactions -- by being more transparent, by being more honest, by being more specific and forthright in opposing the jihad ideology -- if it indeed does. Obnoxiousness is obnoxiousness, but when people turn on the news and see rage and threats of murder over cartoons, and terrorist act after terrorist act committed in the name of Islam, they aren't blind. They shouldn't react by verbally abusing some random Muslim woman in a store, but the idea that all this is some example of gratuitous racism is ridiculous.

Note also that the "skyrocketing" rate of hate crimes against Muslims is largely trumped-up. And of course while ABC's companion piece to this one relies heavily on "information" from CAIR, there is no mention of CAIR's unindicted co-conspirator status, or its connections to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, or the convictions of various of its officials on terror-related charges.

"Witness to Discrimination: What Would You Do? Bystanders Turn Away When Muslim Actor Hired By 'Primetime' Encounters Hostility," by Ann Sorkowitz and Julie N. Hays for ABC (thanks to Kemaste):

The Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and suicide bombings worldwide have changed not only the way we live but the way we look at those around us, especially Muslims. "Islamophobia" has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common.

But what if you witnessed "Islamophobia" in action and saw someone being victimized because of someone else's prejudices? What would you do?

ABC's production crew outfitted The Czech Stop, a bustling roadside bakery north of Waco, Texas, with hidden cameras and two actors. One played a female customer wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf, or hijab. The other acted as a sales clerk who refused to serve her and spouted common anti-Muslim and anti-Arab slurs.

The polarity of reactions was shocking, from support to seething disapproval. Never did we expect customers to be so passionate or candid.

Our actor, Sabina, walked into the bakery in search of apple strudel. When she reached the counter, an actor posing as a sales clerk was quick to greet her with hateful anti-Muslim language.

"Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from," he said. "You got that towel on your head. I don't know what's underneath your dress. Just please take your business and go elsewhere with it."

"Sir, I am an American, I was born and raised here," she said.

The other customers seemed to hear the exchange but they barely looked toward our actors. When no one came to her defense, Sabina made a direct appeal to one customer.

"Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That's why I am here," Sabina said.

Though visibly shaken by the hateful words, the man gave Sabina the cold shoulder, completed his purchase, and walked out of the bakery. "I really think that a person who owns his own business should be able to say who they sell to," he said after we told him about the experiment. In fact, it is illegal for public establishments to deny service based on someone's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Regardless, this man was not the only customer to defend our sales clerk's "right" to discriminate.

A Narrowly Defined America

A little while later, Sabina again entered the bakery, and again our sales clerk refused to serve her. This time, one man spoke up, but not on behalf of the Muslim woman. He was adamant that our sales clerk did the right thing. "She wasn't dressed right," he said. "If I was running the place I'd do the same thing." Once again, our sales clerk garnered customer support. After Sabina left the bakery seemingly frustrated and empty-handed, one man thanked the sales clerk for his discriminatory behavior. He then gave our actor a thumbs-up, not once, but twice. Jack Dovidio, a social psychologist at Yale University, said these men seemed to define "American" based on the way people look. They connected with the sales clerk and considered our female actor an outsider. "When we as Americans feel threatened from the outside, we're going to define ourselves in very rigid fashions," Dovidio said. "Either you're with me, and if you're not really one of me, then you must be somebody else who's against me."

A Very Different America

The young woman in our experiment was an actor, but many of the hateful words she heard were based on the experiences of Chicago-born Nohayia Javed, who was watching our experiment from the control van. Javed said she has continually suffered verbal abuse and said she has even been physically attacked by fellow Americans just because she is Muslim. "They always start off with, 'you're a terrorist, Osama-lover, towel-head, camel jockey' on and on," Javed said. "If I tell them I'm American, they're like, 'No you're not. Just because you were born here doesn't make you American.' And I'm like, 'What makes you American?'"

Javed is not alone. The number of anti-Islamic hate crime incidents in the United States has more than quadrupled from 28 incidents in 2000 to 156 incidents in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most recent figures....

At Human Events this morning, I discuss the rights that jihadists now appear to have guaranteed:

Congress -- with its endless squabbling with the Bush Administration over FISA, the equally endless torture law debates, and the relentless handwringing over Gitmo -- has made its position clear: Pelosi and Co. are concerned, deeply concerned, with terrorists’ civil liberties. As Jed Babbin put it last September in his article “The Terrorist Bill of Rights,” “The Democrats’ national security agenda seems designed, point by point, to destroy the means by which we have been protected since 9-11.”

But try to see it from their point of view. After all, if we become like our enemy, all is lost! So with this longstanding solicitude of the Democrats and the Left in general for the jihadists confirmed yet again this week, it’s time to step back and codify the jihadists’ hard-won gains -- the fruit of the political correctness and misbegotten attempts to win hearts and minds that have guided current policy to an alarming degree. That’s right: it’s time for a Terrorist Bill of Rights.

So with the appeasers and the willfully self-deceived running the show, exactly what rights to the jihadists have?

Cultural Collapse Update: First there were the Dutch Catholics who renamed Lent "Christian Ramadan," and now this. From the Brussels Journal:

Le Salon Beige, a French blog, received an email from a reader who took his children to visit the Basilica of Saint Denis, near Paris, where the kings of France are buried. The blog writes:

He was surprised by the brochure entitled "Tour of Discovery for the Young":

First, on page 8, he read: "Dagobert, the first king buried in Saint-Denis. [...] A contemporary of Mohammed, Dagobert was King of the Franks from 629 to 639."

Then, on page 9, [...] "In the Bible we find the story of the Angel Gabriel, the very one who would bring the Koran to Mohammed, who announces to Mary, a young girl engaged to Joseph, that she will soon give birth to a son named Jesus."

It seems that Christianity is being explained and taught only in relation to Islam. It is as if young people in France can only relate to Christianity through references to Islam.

Also, if this text is taking it for granted that the Gabriel who appeared to Mary is the same Gabriel who brought the Qur'an to Muhammad, it has essentially become a Muslim text already. Because what Gabriel told Mary in a Muslim context is radically different from what Gabriel told Mary in a Christian context.

On February 5, we were informed that Stephen Coughlin, the sole expert on Islamic law in the Pentagon, was not going to be fired after all, after it looked as if he was going to be at the behest of Hesham Islam, an aide to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. And not long after that it looked as if Islam himself would be out, under a cloud of accusations of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the forbear of Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

But now, in "The Coughlin Affair," Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. says that the bad news is all back on: Coughlin is out, Islam is in.

Imagine trying to fight a war without a clue as to what motivates your enemy or governs his strategy for your destruction. Actually, you don’t have to work too hard to get your head around such an insane idea; it is the current practice of the United States government.

This is not, of course, the way it is supposed to be. According, for example, to the Pentagon’s own guidelines as reflected in the Army’s Field Manual 34-130 dealing with Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), one of the first tasks in any conflict is to “Evaluate the threat.” This job requires military personnel to “update or create threat models: convert threat doctrine or patterns of operation to graphics (doctrinal templates); describe in words the threat’s tactics and options; [and] identify high value targets.”

Such guidance is eminently sensible and needed, not only at the tactical or battlefield level, but also at the strategic level. In fact, most national security practitioners would find it, well, unimaginable to try to do otherwise.

Yet, Stephen Coughlin, one of the very few people working for the U.S. government who has rigorously studied the current “threat doctrine” – the wellspring in the traditions, practices and Shariah Law of today’s totalitarian ideology known as Islamofascism – is, as of this writing, still being cashiered at the end of next month.

Worse yet, the individual who seems to be most responsible for shutting down Mr. Coughlin’s essential doctrinal analysis and training by driving him out of the Pentagon – one Hesham Islam – seems to be staying in a sensitive position working for the Defense Department’s Deputy Secretary, Gordon England. This notwithstanding serious questions raised about Mr. Islam’s public biography, conduct in relation to Muslim outreach, the Coughlin affair and his top secret security clearance.

Read it all.

Andrew Bostom reports at his blog:

An open letter calling for “dialogue” was introduced this Monday, February 25, 2008, by Tariq Ramadan, ballyhooed by its promoters in grandiose terms as the “World’s First Cross-Denominational Statement from Muslims to Jews.” A press release sent to me directly by one of the Muslim organizers of the initiative, Dr. Akbar Ahmed, touted two Jewish leaders, Rabbi David Rosen, “International President, Religions for Peace and Advisor on Interfaith Relations to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel,” and Rabbi Danny Rich, described as “Director of Liberal Judaism,” who had quickly endorsed the statement.

Rabbis Rosen and Rich should disavow their naïve endorsements because support for this initiative, as framed in the letter, is an egregious error.

Find out why at Andy's site. Here is just one part:

Salient examples of Jew hatred from these foundational Islamic sources, ignored, conveniently by the Muslim authors of the “Call to Peace, Dialogue, and Understanding”, include:

· How as a central anti-Jewish motif, the Koran decrees an eternal curse upon the Jews (Koran 2:61/ 3:112) for slaying the prophets and transgressing against the will of Allah. This motif is coupled to Koranic verses 5:60 and 5:78 which describe the Jews transformation into apes and swine (5:60), having been “…cursed by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary’s son” (5:78). The related verse, 5:64, accuses the Jews—as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did in a January 2007 speech, citing Koran 5:64—of being “spreaders of war and corruption,” a sort of ancient Koranic antecedent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Koranic curse (verses 2:61/3:112) upon the Jews for (primarily) rejecting, even slaying Allah’s prophets, including Isa/Jesus (or at least his “body double”), is updated with perfect archetypal logic in the canonical hadith: following the Muslims’ initial conquest of the Jewish farming oasis of Khaybar, one of the vanquished Jewesses reportedly served Muhammad poisoned mutton (or goat), which resulted, ultimately, in his protracted, agonizing death. And Ibn Saad’s sira account maintains that Muhammad’s poisoning resulted from a well-coordinated Jewish conspiracy

· How the Koran’s overall discussion of the Jews is marked by a litany of their sins and punishments, as if part of a divine indictment, conviction, and punishment process. Specifically—the Jews wronged themselves (16:118) by losing faith (7:168) and breaking their covenant (5:13). The Jews (echoing an ante-Nicaean, Marcionite polemic) are a nation that has passed away (2:134; repeated in 2:141). Twice Allah sent his instruments (the Assyrians/or Babylonians, and Romans) to punish this perverse people (17:4-5)—their dispersal over the earth is proof of Allah’s rejection (7:168). The Jews are further warned about both their arrogant claim that they remain Allah’s chosen people (62:6), and continued disobedience and “corruption” (5:32-33) Other sins, some repeated, are enumerated: abuse, even killing of prophets (4:155; 2:91), including Isa [Jesus] (3:55; 4:157), is a consistent theme. The Jews ridiculed Muhammad as Ra’ina (the evil one, in 2:104; 4:46), and they are also accused of lack of faith, taking words out of context, disobedience, and distortion (4:46). Precious few of them are believers (also 4:46). These “perverse” creatures also claim that Ezra is the messiah and they worship rabbis who defraud men of their possessions (9:30). Additional sins are described: the Jews are typified as an “envious” people (2:109), whose hearts are as hardened as rocks (2:74). They are further accused of confounding the truth (2:42), deliberately perverting scripture (2:75), and being liars (2:78). Ill-informed people of little faith (2:89), they pursue vague and wishful fancies (2:111). Other sins have contributed to their being stamped (see 2:61/ 3:112 above) with “wretchedness /abasement and humiliation,” including—usury (2:275), sorcery (2:102), hedonism (2:96), and idol worship (2:53). More (and repeat) sins, are described still: the Jews’ idol worship is again mentioned (4:51), then linked and followed by charges of other (often repeat) iniquities—the “tremendous calumny” against Mary (4:156), as well as usury and cheating (4:161). Most Jews are accused of being “evil-livers” /“transgressors” /“ungodly” (3:110), who, deceived by their own lies (3:24), try to turn Muslims from Islam (3:99). Jews are blind and deaf to the truth (5:71), and what they have not forgotten they have perverted—they mislead (3:69), confound the truth (3:71), twist tongues (3:79), and cheat Gentiles without remorse (3:75). Muslims are advised not to take the Jews as friends (5:51), and to beware of the inveterate hatred that Jews bear towards them (5:82).

· How the Jews’ ultimate sins and punishments are made clear in the Koran—they are the devil’s minions (4:60) cursed by Allah, their faces will be obliterated (4:47), and if they do not accept the true faith of Islam—the Jews who understand their faith become Muslims (3:113)—they will be made into apes (2:65/ 7:166), or apes and swine (5:60), and burn in the Hellfires (4:55, 5:29, 98:6, and 58:14-19).

Once again, read it all.

"Osama bin London": "Bin" caught, "bin" convicted.

Loch Ness Jihadists Update. "7 convicted in Muslim terror camps in UK," by David Stringer for the Associated Press:

LONDON - Clad in mud-smeared combat fatigues, the young Muslims trained on picturesque British farmland, hurling imaginary grenades, wielding sticks as mock rifles and chopping watermelons in simulated beheadings.

A four-year inquiry, which came to a close Tuesday with guilty pleas from the last two of seven gang members, has exposed a network of alleged British terrorism training camps meant to prepare recruits for mass murder.

Security officials believe hundreds of men — including a gang that made a failed attempt to bomb London's transit network — passed through camps set up across the English countryside.

Investigators say it was a worrying discovery at the heart of Britain's homegrown terrorism: training camps once thought to be exclusive to northern Pakistan or Afghanistan are being held in sleepy rural England.

"The exposure to that ideology — that radicalism, that extremism, that 'them-and-us' mind set — starts here on our streets in Britain," a former extremist, Ed Husain, told Britain's first police counterterrorism conference in Brighton.

Husain said British officials had been too tolerant of Islamic radicalism taught in universities and mosques during the 1980s and '90s.

The two training camp ringleaders — one who claimed to be the "No. 1 al-Qaida in Europe" and the other who nicknamed himself "Osama bin London" — will be sentenced next month on charges of running the camps and inciting participants to murder. Five others were each sentenced Tuesday to at least 3 1/2 years in prison on charges of attending terrorism training.

And after those 3 1/2 years or so, then what? Deportation? Loss of citizenship? Something like control orders?

Their convictions — two Tuesday, one last year and the rest last week following a four-month trial — could be reported for the first time Tuesday after a judge lifted restrictions banning publication of details of the case.

Prosecutors told a court hearing that the men set up camps in idyllic spots across England to train in military skills.

National parks in the Lake District of northern England, the New Forest in the south and quiet corners of the southern counties of Berkshire, Kent and East Sussex were all used for training, including a former school.

"This was not innocent activity taking place on a camping weekend," said Peter Clarke, Britain's most senior conterterrorism detective.

Officials fear the case shows that British Muslims can be radicalized, trained and funded to carry out terror attacks — without ever leaving the country.

The British camps also offer a glimpse of the training centers that British-based Islamic extremists allegedly hoped to open in Oregon before authorities upended the plot.

"Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines that everyone else has to follow."

Indeed. Especially when lives and health are at risk. An update on this story. "Muslim medics in Alder Hey stand-off," by Caroline Innes for the Liverpool Echo (thanks to WriterMom):

HEALTH officials are having crisis talks with Muslim medical staff who have objected to hospital hygiene rules because of religious beliefs.

Women students at Liverpool’s Alder Hey children’s hospital have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands because it is regarded as immodest.

Minutes of a clinical academics’ meeting at Liverpool University revealed that female Muslim students at Alder Hey children’s hospital had objected to rolling up their sleeves to wear gowns.

Similar concerns have been raised at Leicester University, and Sheffield University also reported a case of a Muslim medic who refused to “scrub” as this left her forearms exposed.

Some students have said that they would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, but hygiene experts said no exceptions should be made on religious grounds.

A Royal Liverpool hospital spokesman said they had experienced issues of Muslim staff not sanitising their forearms with alcohol gel although this had now been addressed.

Dr Steve Ryan, medical director at Alder Hey said that while the “bare below the elbows” dress code is a matter of patient safety, the trust would work with Muslim students to find a solution.

He said: “We specify bare below elbows, no wrist watches, nail varnish or false nails in clinical areas."

“Good hand hygiene is one of the most important and simplest actions we can take to prevent healthcare associated infections.

“A number of female Muslim students had approached the University of Liverpool to ask if we would provide facilities for them to change their outerwear and Hijab for theatre scrubs.

“We were pleased to accommodate this request and these facilities have now been incorporated.”

Dr Charles Tannock, a Conservative MEP and former hospital consultant, said: “These students are being trained using taxpayers’ money and they have a duty of care to their patients not to put their health at risk.

“Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines everyone else has to follow.”

But the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam.

It said: “No practising Muslim woman – doctor, medical student, nurse or patient – should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow.”

New rules for doctors

NEW Department of Health guidance introduced this month stipulates all doctors must be “bare below the elbow”.

The measure is deemed necessary to stop the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C.difficile), which have claimed the lives of hundreds.

I believe the children are the future

Want to see into Europe's future? In "Europe's Muslim Radicals: The Next Generation" at World Defense Review, Abigail Esman comments on this story.

"American kill," said the five-year-old boy. "Bush I kill." And as his proud father watched, beaming, he demonstrated how to cut the evil American's bare throat.

So it was in a Birmingham, England, home – as recorded secretly by British security services a few months ago while investigating the child's British-Pakistani father, Parvis Khan, then a suspect in a plot to kill a Muslim British soldier. This week, after his plan had been thwarted by MI5, Khan was sentenced to life in prison.

And what will become of the boy?

If he is lucky, he will learn from the example made of Dear Old Dad, and steer away from Islamic extremism completely. More likely, angered by the British infidels who took his father away from him, he will follow in Parvis' footsteps and endeavor to continue the work his father started.

And he will be, indeed, a formidable soldier for jihad: if he can slit a person's throat at five years old, just imagine what he can do at 20. (After all, Mozart, whose father Leopold was neither Muslim nor Pakistani but did serve as his teacher, began composing at the age of five. I leave it to readers to do with that parallel what they will.)

Read it all.

Patrick Poole, in "What the Islamic Scholars Forgot to Tell the Pope" at Pajamas Media, has uncovered even more evidence that the much-celebrated "Common Word" document from last October was not a sincere effort at interfaith outreach, but was solely designed to fool the credulous.

Last October, the international media establishment was abuzz over a letter sent by 138 Islamic scholars representing the elite of the worldwide ulema to Pope Benedict, entitled “A Common Word between Us and You”, in response to his papal address at Regensburg in September 2006. The letter extols the common bonds between Muslims and Christians, and their common belief in the love towards neighbors. It further declares that “justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part of love of the neighbor.” Many Christian leaders have responded by welcoming this effort and affirming the Islamic scholars’ letter.

The letter was the product of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan, and its chief scholar, Sheikh Said Hijjawi, was one of the 138 signatories (#49). In fact, according to the introduction, the letter was presented by the Institute to the Islamic scholars gathered at a conference held at their facilities in September 2007.

There is one thing, however, amidst all the flowery overtures, theological discussion, and representations of religious pluralism that the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute and the 138 Islamic scholars forgot to mention: The Institute, which operates a website, AlTafsir.com, which it calls “the largest and greatest online collection of Qur’anic commentary, translation, recitation, and essential resources in the world,” includes in an “Ask the Mufti” section a number of fatwas on apostasy issued by the Institute’s chief scholar, Sheikh Hijjawi, that call for the death of Christian reverts (Christians converting to Islam and then returning to the Christian faith) and Muslim apostates. Further they state that if the Christian reverts and Muslim apostates are not killed, they should be deprived of all rights and accorded the status of non-persons.

Read it all, and follow the links at PJM.

"A Common Word Between Us and You" was, you may recall, received with great enthusiasm by the mainstream media at the time of its release. Noting the Muslim scholars’ declaration that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians,” the Telegraph‘s headline was typical of the coverage: “Muslim scholars’ olive branch to Christians.” Reuters burbled about an “Unprecedented Muslim call for peace with Christians.” But was it really?

Rheil Ghraibeh, a spokesman for Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, demanded an apology from Denmark. ‘Holocaust denial is targeted by laws in Europe. Why can’t we have laws that protect all religions and prophets?’ he asked." -- from this article

But the "Holocaust" (perhaps "Nazi murder of European Jews," a formulation less abstract and less easily alluded to in pro-forma fashion) is an event in history. The denial of it is participated in only by the most sinister, those who show an obvious lack of sympathy for the Jewish victims (impliedly "exaggerators") and plenty of sympathy for the perpetrators (impliedly wrongly accused). Holocaust-deniers are simply lying about history.

But cartoons about this or that figure in this or that system of belief (in this case exhibiting some of the features of what we are accustomed to call a "religion") do not deny history. Isn't it true that in the Qur'an Believers are told to "strike terror" into the hearts of Unbelievers? Isn't the Qur'an full of Jihad-verses, about using violence to subdue -- to kill -- non-Muslims? Do those who have engaged in what we have no trouble defining as "terrorism" merely engaged in combat, or qitaal, as mentioned 27 times in the Qur'an -- that is, directly participating in Jihad through violence rather than through other means? If someone in the West (say, a Danish cartoonist or ten) wishes to express what an Infidel thinks of this, is he not entitled to?

An update on this story. "Pakistan lifts curbs on YouTube," from the Associated Press:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's telecoms regulator said Tuesday it has lifted restrictions on the YouTube Web site that led to the knocking out of access to the popular video-sharing site in many other countries for a few hours over the weekend.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered 70 domestic Internet service providers to restore access to the site after removal of what government officials had deemed a "blasphemous" video clip.

Pakistan ordered YouTube blocked on Friday over a clip featuring a Dutch lawmaker who has said he plans to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence. As a result, most of the world's Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours on Sunday.

An Internet expert said Sunday's problems came after a Pakistani telecommunications company complied with the block by directing requests for YouTube videos to a "black hole." So instead of serving up videos of skateboarding dogs, it sent the traffic into oblivion.

The problem was that the company also accidentally identified itself to Internet computers as the world's fastest route to YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc. That led requests from across the Internet to the black hole.

Accidentally? Really? The world may never know.

UPDATE: The AP article above says in the second paragraph that YouTube removed something the Pakistanis didn't like. However, this Fitna promo can still be found here.

We sure do.

From a special preview in Commentary of Andrew C. McCarthy's forthcoming book, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad, about the jihadist cell that bombed the World Trade Center 15 years ago today and related matters:

Would a successful interdiction of Kahane’s murderer, or swift and thorough investigation of Abdel Rahman’s circle in its aftermath, have prevented the monstrous deeds of subsequent years? That is of course unknowable. But an aggressive effort by United States authorities would have indicated a seriousness of purpose toward the threat of Islamic terrorism that itself might have changed the story of our times for the better. We still live, and will continue to live, with the consequences of our own blindness.

Read it all.

"Costa Rica hoped to encourage peace talks on Feb. 5 when it recognized a Palestinian state - a key demand on the part of the Palestinians."

Sure. Just give them everything they want and maybe there will be peace. To recognize a "state" that has not renounced territorial claims on the rest of Israel, and cannot or simply will not control its militias or those of other groups is to start down a slippery slope, with no assurance, and no reasonable expectation given the track record, of a lasting peace. And while one Central American country's recognition may not amount to much by itself, it does set an undesirable precedent.

From the Associated Press:

Israel has postponed a planned meeting with Costa Rican officials over the Central American nation's decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

The meeting between President Oscar Arias and an Israeli diplomat, scheduled for Wednesday, "was postponed, but we are looking to reschedule," Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel had summoned the Costa Rican charge d'affaires and instructed its ambassador to convey a message to San Jose.

"We would like to express our disappointment over this regretful decision of the government of Costa Rica to establish full diplomatic relations with the 'state of Palestine,' " Mekel said. "This act of Costa Rica totally contradicts the traditional friendship that characterized its relations with Israel since its establishment."

Stagno has said Costa Rica hoped to encourage peace talks on Feb. 5 when it recognized a Palestinian state - a key demand on the part of the Palestinians.

"We thought it was necessary to send a message to both sides about the need to sit down and negotiate on the key issues in the conflict," he said then.

In August 2006, Arias' administration announced that Costa Rica would move its embassy to Tel Aviv from the hotly disputed city of Jerusalem.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, but most nations don't formally recognize that claim. Post-1982 Costa Rica and El Salvador had been the only two countries with embassies there until announcing in the same month that they would relocate.

I'll hold the sign, you watch for "Christions."

Motoons Rage, stoked by the Muslim Brotherhood, in Modern, Moderate Jordan. "Jordanians burn Danish flags to protest cartoon," from Agence France-Presse:

AMMAN - Jordanian demonstrators on Monday torched Danish flags outside the Copenhagen embassy to protest the reprinting of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in Denmark’s newspapers.

Carrying national flags and banners of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country’s main political party, around 300 protesters demanded the expulsion of Denmark’s ambassador as well as a boycott of Danish products.

‘There should be no Danish embassy on Jordanian territory,’ they shouted during a one-hour sit-in, calling on Muslim and Arab leaders to ‘defend Islam and revenge for blaspheming the Prophet.’

‘We came today to send a clear message to the entire world that we reject the repeated targeting of our prophet and religion,’ IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Rsheid told AFP.

Rheil Ghraibeh, a spokesman for Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, demanded an apology from Denmark.

‘Holocaust denial is targeted by laws in Europe. Why can’t we have laws that protect all religions and prophets?’ he asked.

One question for Ghraibeh: How exactly do cartoons harm religions and long-deceased prophets?

That's nice. But two missing links render such condemnations of "terrorism" hollow: One is the matter of armed jihadist activity: The question of when and whether it is legitimate to use violence to further Islamic causes is left untouched. The other is the definition of innocents. We're expected to supply our own cultural definition of innocents and non-combatants, and assume that their definition does not differ.

"Terrorism is un-Islamic: Dar-ul-Uloom," from IBN:

New Delhi/Deoband: Hundreds of Islamic scholars gathered at the country's top Islamic seminary on Monday and passed an edict declaring all acts of terrorism as ''un-Islamic''.

"Rabta Madaris Islamiah Arabia (Islamic Madarasas Association) condemns all kinds of violence and terrorism in the strongest possible terms," said the edict passed at a conclave organised by the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh.

''Islam has considered mischief, rioting and murder among the severest sins and crimes,'' said the declaration by Darul Uloom, which has often been accused of promoting obscurantism and intolerance.

The declaration asked Islamic scholars not to be influenced by anti-Islamic or anti-national forces. ''We don't have any link or association with terrorism, terrorists, whatsoever. We reject terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Terrorism completely negates the teachings of Islam, which is the faith of love and peace,'' Maulana Marghoob-ur Rahman, chief rector of Darul Uloom, told UNI.

Reciting verses from the Quran, Maulana Rahman said Islam preaches equality and compassion among all human beings. "Madarasas, which are the real flag bearers of the Islamic teachings, hereby declare without mincing words that they don't have any truck with terrorism.''

The declaration accused the government of being ''partial'' against madarasas while investigating terrorism cases. Anti-terror probes were preceded ''by a malicious campaign against these seminaries unleashed by communal forces''.

''Madarasas spread in every nook and cranny of the country teach humanity, peace, reconciliation and love,'' said Maulana Rahman. He requested the custodians of madarasas to usher in more transparency in their financial dealings and ensure a pure Islamic environment in their schools.

''Any terrorist activity which targets innocent people directly, contradicts Islam's concept of peace,'' said Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, vice-rector of Darul Uloom.

Inherent in that statement is a challenge to prosecutors to examine the Qur'an, ahadith and Sira themselves and confront the passages that call for open-ended warfare to effect the conversion, subjugation, or death of unbelievers. It would be great if such an examination of Islamic texts and teachings were actually to take place, but Benbrika surely knows that officials are much more likely to be confounded by the politically correct article of faith that Islam is peaceful (or at least, that all religions are equally prone to violence), and the resulting inability to move beyond apologists' insistence that armed jihad and the imperative to establish sharia law only exist in the minds of misunderstanders and Islamophobes.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika Update. "Terror suspect admits to being evasive," from AAP:

The leader of an alleged Melbourne terror cell admitted to his supporters he had been "evasive" when asked for his views on jihad during a television interview, the Victorian Supreme Court has heard.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, a self-taught religious instructor, told an ABC television interviewer he did not encourage followers to take part in so-called holy wars (jihads) overseas or in Australia.

He said he merely passed on the teachings of the Koran.

"When I teach, I teach what Allah and his prophets said," Benbrika told the interviewer.

"I'm not telling people to go .... the student understands.

"I tell him what Allah said and he can then decide."

Prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, said the statements Benbrika made in the interview were at odds with other evidence already presented to the jury.

"Benbrika is being as evasive and shifty as he can possibly be," Mr Maidment told the jury.

The interviewer also asked Benbrika if he had ever planned to carry out an attack in Australia.

Benbrika replied that it was against his religion to kill innocent people.

"I would have done it a long time ago," Benbrika said.

But Mr Maidment pointed out that in secretly-recorded conversations already in evidence, Benbrika told his followers in Melbourne that killing innocent Australians was acceptable.

But did he call them innocent himself? That's an important distinction for prosecutors to grasp.

"He is completely deceptive," Mr Maidment said.

After the ABC interview, according to the secretly-recorded conversations between Benbrika and his followers, the cleric admitted he had been misleading.

"I was being evasive," Benbrika said on the tape.

"I told him (the interviewer) this was what Allah said, this is what the Prophet said."

Benbrika and his 11 co-accused in Australia's largest terrorism trial have pleaded not guilty to charges including being members of a terrorist organisation.

The trial before Justice Bernard Bongiorno is continuing.

Somalia Jihad Update. "Somali town overrun by Islamists," from the BBC:

Somalia, 02/25 - Somali Islamists seized control of a southern town on Sunday, killing nine government troops. The rebels, armed with rocket launchers and machine guns, voluntarily retreated after three hours, said a police officer in Dinsoor, Mohamed Ahmadey.

He said the town had been under "no-one's control" since the incident, in which eight soldiers were wounded.

For more than a year, government forces backed by Ethiopian troops have struggled to assert control in Somalia.

The capital, Mogadishu, has often been the focus of the fighting between the government forces and the Islamists they ousted from power.

But the incident on Sunday shows the Islamists are increasing their attacks outside Mogadishu, says the BBC`s Mohamed Olad Hassan in Somalia.

A spokesman for the Islamists' Shahab youth wing, Sheikh Muktar Ali Robow, told local radio that he was leading the rebel unit that seized the town.

"Our troops moved into the town to dismiss bandits under the cloak of Somalia`s honourable army. We defeated those, burned three of their military vehicles and seized two others,” he said.

“We spoke to the town's residents in public and told them that we were not in a position to harm any one and ordered them to maintain their ordinary activities, and later withdrew from the town,” he said.

Residents of the town confirmed the incident, but there has been no comment yet from any senior government official.

And when you get both obesity and terrorism, watch out

Just put down those chips, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Let's-Focus-On-The-Real-Threat Update: "Obesity more dangerous than terrorism: experts," from AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

World governments are focussing too much on fighting terrorism while obesity and other "lifestyle diseases" are killing millions more people, an international conference heard Monday.

Overcoming deadly factors such as poor diet, smoking and a lack of exercise should take top priority in the fight against a growing epidemic of chronic disease, legal and health experts said.

Global terrorism was a real threat but posed far less risk than obesity, type two diabetes and smoking-related illnesses, US law professor Lawrence Gostin said at the Oxford Health Alliance Summit here.

"Ever since September 11 we've been lurching from one crisis to the next which has really frightened the public," Gostin told AFP later.

"We live together in one community, it only makes sense for everyone to compromise slightly in order for everyone to live happily." Sure. But the ideology you are accommodating is itself uncompromising, and supremacist.

"To accommodate Muslim students, Harvard tries women-only gym hours," by Abbie Ruzicka in the Daily Free Press (thanks to Writer Mom):

Harvard University has moved to make Muslim women more comfortable in the gym by instituting women-only access times six hours a week to accommodate religious customs that make it difficult for some students to work out in the presence of men.

Men have not been allowed to enter the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center during certain times since Jan. 28, after members of the Harvard Islamic Society and the Harvard Women's Center petitioned the university for a more comfortable environment for women.

Harvard Islamic Society's Islamic Knowledge Committee officer Ola Aljawhary, a junior, said the women-only hours are being tested on a trial basis. The special gym hours will be analyzed over Spring Break to determine if they will continue, she said.

Aljawhary said that she does not believe that the women-only gym hours discriminate against men.

"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she said.

Though the policy was in part initiated by the school's Islamic group, Aljawhary said women-only hours are not a case of "minority rights trumping majority preference" and said women of different faiths have showed interest in the hours.

"We live together in one community, it only makes sense for everyone to compromise slightly in order for everyone to live happily," she said. "This matter is simple: Can't we just display basic decency and show tolerance and inclusion for people not a part of the mainstream majority?"

In the mainstream media's never-ending quest to ignore or downplay the jihad imperative within Islam, and to attribute the present global jihad to some other factor or factors -- any factor, as long as it's external to Islam -- few farragos have been as ridiculous (or as successful in bamboozling those aching to be bamboozled) as Dinesh D'Souza's contention that they hate us because of the immorality of Western pop culture. A hint of how successful this idea has been is here, in John Stossel's uncritical repetition of it as if it is axiomatically true.

On the surface it sounds plausible. Jihadists do rail against American immorality, and proffer Islam as a moral alternative to the out-of-control libertinism, as they see it, of Western culture. The problems with this idea, however, are many. One is that the jihadists were fighting against non-Muslims long before the advent of the Vagina Monologues and Britney Spears. Another is the coercive nature of morality in the Islamic world, which becomes all too often a recipe for hypocrisy and externality -- rendering the jihadist moral critique hollow.

Here is another example of the latter phenomenon, from Indonesia: "2.5mn illegal abortions performed annually," from DPA (thanks to all who sent this in):

JAKARTA: At least 2.5mn abortions are performed annually in Indonesia, although the practice is illegal in the predominantly Muslim country, state-run media reported yesterday.

"The figure does not yet include abortions effected with non-medical assistance," Jurnalis Uddin, a professor at the Jakarta-based YARSI University was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

Uddin claimed that research conducted at medical facilities had led to the conclusion practice of illegal abortions needs to be given serious attention by the government and society.

2.5 million abortions annually. That's more than twice the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. And Indonesia's population is 234 million, with 300 million in America.

More than twice the number of abortions annually, and they hate us for our immorality? Tell me another, Dinesh.

Of course, jihadists in Indonesia (as well as D'Souza) might say that this is all because of Western influence, and that that is precisely why they are waging jihad against the West. But I think it is just common sense to realize that a coercive external conformity such as is fostered by Islamic culture will only lead to more of this kind of thing, not less.

And so we're right back where we started: maybe they hate us for their own reasons, within their own way of looking at the world.

Our first Somali elder President

From Geeska Afrika Online (thanks to Andrew Bostom):

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, right, is dressed as a Somali Elder by Sheikh Mahmed Hassan, left, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya, near the borders with Somalia and Ethiopia. The area is at the epicenter of a severe drought that has hit the Horn of Africa region, after erratic and insufficient rains during the April-June season

Now don't get all excited. Is that really all that different from this?

Jammie Wearing Fool notes that this comes from the Clinton campaign. And I stand by my assessment of the "Obama-Is-Secretly-A-Muslim" rumors -- "That's a lot of hooey":

I do, however, think that the identification that he evidently feels with the Islamic world, and they with him, will lead to disastrous concessions that could seriously imperil U.S. security.

UPDATE:

Give me Bugs any day

They suggest that the Danish cartoonists drew the cartoons to mock the Muslims' weakness, but by Allah, they'll show them. They'll kill those cartoonists for love of Muhammad. More edifying children's fare from Hamas: "Hamas Bunny Assud Urges Boycott of Danish Goods and threatens to Kill Danes over Muhammad Cartoons," from MEMRITV (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Following are excerpts from a Hamas children's show, "The Pioneers of Tomorrow", which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 22, 2008:

Child host Saraa Barhoum: Amani, you've seen the kind of attack that the West launched against the Prophet Muhammad. What do you have to say on behalf of the Prophet Muhammad?

Amani, by phone: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I say to those cowardly infidels...

Assud the Bunny: Those criminals...

Amani: Yes, those criminals... You mock our Prophet Muhammad, but look, my beloved Prophet Muhammad, how Allah responded to them: "Allah shall pay them back for their mockery, and He leaves them alone in their excess, blindly wandering on." My beloved Messenger of Allah, they mocked you with their drawings, because they do not know the mercy in your heart. My beloved Muhammad, if they had known the mercy in your heart, they would not have done this to you. Allah knows that we love you, and that we will redeem you with our souls, our blood, and our hearts.

[...]

Assud: Do you boycott Israeli and Danish products?

Amani: Yes, Assud. I do.

Assud: You've stopped eating them altogether?

Amani: I have.

Assud: That's great. Keep it up.

Saraa: All of us will definitely boycott Danish products, and even before that, we will boycott Israeli products, Amani.

Amani: With your permission, I'd like to continue.

Assud and Saraa: Go ahead.

Amani: Finally, I'd like to apologize to the Messenger of Allah. May Allah curse these infidels, who have gone astray. We the soldiers of the pioneers of tomorrow, apologize to you, beloved Messenger of Allah. Denmark has spoken heresy, but you are a source of pride and mercy for Islam and the Muslims.

Assud: The [American] cowboys have spoken heresy as well.

[...]

Amani: Our brothers, the Americans, have affronted the Prophet Muhammad...

Assud: They are not our brothers, they are criminals.

Amani: What?

Assud: They are infidels, not our brothers.

Amani: They are enemies of Allah, and they have affronted the Prophet Muhammad.

[...]

Saraa: How did these Danes have the audacity to affront the Messenger of Allah? Do you have an answer to that, Assud?

Assud: No, I don't. Maybe because the Arabs and Muslims keep silent, [the Danes] humiliated them and did these things to them.

Saraa: That's one reason, but there is an even more important reason, Assud.

Assud: I have no idea.

Saraa: It's because the West has seen that we've moved away from the religion of Allah, and from the Sunna of our Prophet Muhammad. They have also seen that we have forsaken the religion of Allah, and therefore, they could affront the Prophet, because... We have done nothing to redeem the Prophet Muhammad. But I say to them: You haven't seen anything yet. Allah willing, the soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow will redeem the Prophet Muhammad with all that they possess, and even with their blood, Assud. They will not allow them to do this again.

Assud: If they do it again, Saraa, we will kill them, right?

Saraa: Allah willing.

Assud: I will bite them and eat them up.

Saraa: Yes.

[...]

Assud, we are not terrorists. All we want is to get our beloved homeland, Palestine, back. We want all of Palestine to be ours. We are not terrorists...

Assud: Because it was ours to begin with, right?

Saraa: Right. They say we are terrorists merely because we want this, but of course, we're not terrorists...

Assud: They are the terrorists.

Saraa: Yes, Assud. Allah willing, we will regain the cities under Zionist occupation, such as Jaffe, Haifa, Acre, Ashdod, the village of Hoj, and all the Palestinian cities.

Assud: Saraa, do you know what I'm hoping for? I want us to take Jaffe, Acre, Haifa, and all of Palestine, Allah willing, and then we'll go to Iraq. All the borders will be opened. Between Egypt and us, there will be no barriers, and the same goes for Jordan and Saudi Arabia. We'll come and go by car. I hope this comes true. Do you think this will come true?

Saraa: Allah willing, this will come true soon.

Assud: Allah willing, when I am martyred, a tiger will take my place... Allah willing, I will be the one to fix things, and there won't be any tiger. The "Pioneers of Tomorrow" and I will make this dream come true.

[...]

Who will host this show if you are martyred? Will 100,000 Saraas take your place?

Saraa: Allah willing, Assud.

Assud: We'll take them from among the Pioneers of Tomorrow, Allah willing.

Saraa: Allah willing, there are thousands of soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow.

Assud: Martyrdom for the sake of Allah is what we hope for, right?

Saraa: Right, Assud.

[...]

Saraa: What do you have to say to the cartoonist who started all this, and affronted the Prophet by drawing him?

Assud: He's a criminal...

Saraa: Yes, a criminal.

Tasnim, by phone: I say to him, and to all of them, that no matter how much they try to hide him, we will manage to kill him, to assassinate him.

Assud: Allah willing.

Saraa: I pray that Allah makes the earth swallow him up, so that he serves as a lesson to others like him, Tasnim.

[...]

Assud, it appears that our show is coming to an end. What do you have to say to this criminal, the cartoonist who affronted the Prophet by drawing him?

Assud: I say to him what you already said: You criminal, you lowlife, you scum of the earth – right, Saraa? Allah willing, the day will come when you will regret what you did.

Muhammad’s famous Night Journey (Isra and Miraj) is the basis of the Islamic claim to Jerusalem as an Islamic holy city. The only thing the Qur’an has to say about it is this the first verse of sura 17, which says that Allah took Muhammad from “the Sacred Mosque” in Mecca “to the farthest [al-aqsa] Mosque.” There was no mosque in Jerusalem at this time, so the “farthest” mosque probably wasn’t really the one that now bears that name in Jerusalem, but Islamic tradition is firm that this mosque is in Jerusalem.

Muhammad’s vision of this journey was as dramatic as his initial encounter with Gabriel. According to Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad described the vision to one of the Muslims as beginning “while I was lying in Al-Hatim or Al-Hijr,” that is, an area in Mecca opposite the Ka’bah, identified by Islamic tradition as the burial place of Hagar and Ishmael, when “Gabriel came and stirred me with his foot.” Soon after that “someone came to me and cut my body open from here to here” – and he gestured from his throat to his pubic area. The one who had come to him, Muhammad continued, “then took out my heart. Then a golden tray full of Belief was brought to me and my heart was washed and was filled (with Belief) and then returned to its original place. Then a white animal which was smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey was brought to me.” This was the Buraq, which Muhammad further described as “an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof a distance equal to the range of vision.” It was, he said, “half mule, half donkey, with wings on its sides with which it propelled its feet.”

For over a year now I have been filming regular (or semiregular, when things really got busy) videoblogs for Hot Air, at the kind invitation of Michelle Malkin. You can find most or all of them here; I think there are 52 of them in all.

Hot Air also runs my weekly Blogging the Qur'an series. I am immensely grateful to Michelle for her support of my work at a time when most media figures, both liberal and conservative, shy away from examining and confronting the ideology of our enemies, and prefer to purvey comforting fantasies and half-truths.

The Qur'an Blog will continue, but the video series is probably over with the departure of Bryan Preston from Hot Air -- so I thought this would be a good time to let you know that without Bryan it wouldn't have been possible in the first place, and it was he, and certainly not I, who was responsible for any quality that the videos may have had. It was Bryan who set up the studio and worked over the video and jumble of pictures I sent him into a coherent whole. (And sometimes he would find much better images on his own.) I am very grateful for his kindness and help in so many ways, and wish him great success in his new gig with Laura Ingraham.

I say the series is probably over because Michelle has asked for anyone with video editing skills (they're looking especially for someone with chroma key experience) who may be interested in helping me keep turning out the vids to contact them at tips@hotair.com. And if any of you care and would like to see the videos continue, please let us know. If someone does emerge, I will be happy to retrieve my nifty red diamonds tie (the one here) from its sealed, air-cooled vault (with walls six feet thick, of course) and tilt at some more windmills. Otherwise, it's keyboard-only tilting from here on out, and once again, mille grazie, Bryan, shukran jazeelan!

Benbrika said they should be like Amrozi: unrepentant. Australian Jihad Plot Update: "Plan to 'blast' buildings," by Reko Rennie in The Age (thanks to JE):

The alleged leader of a terrorist organisation said he would "blast" buildings, a prosecutor told a Victorian court.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, told the jury in the Supreme Court trial of 12 men accused of being members of a terrorist group that Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 47, of Dallas, was recorded discussing an alleged terrorist attack.

"It's not something small," Benbrika allegedly said in a conversation intercepted by authorities.

"We will damage buildings, blast them.

"It has to be proper."

In another recorded conversation, Benbrika and one of his co-accused, Aimen Joud, 22, of Hoppers Crossing, discussed convicted Bali bomber Amrozi Nurhasyim.

Mr Maidment said Benbrika had told Joud to do what Amrozi did when he was caught by police.

'Do like Amrozi'

"Do like Amrozi," Benbrika allegedly said.

"Tell the judges off then," Joud is alleged to have replied.

"He said, 'If you kill me ... there will be others to come after me'," Benbrika allegedly said.

Benbrika and Joud — along with Fadal Sayadi, 27, of Coburg, Ahmed Raad, 24, of Fawkner, Abdullah Merhi, 22, of Fawkner, Amer Haddara, 27, of Yarraville, Shane Kent, 30, of Meadow Heights, Majed Raad, 23, of Coburg, Hany Taha, 32, of Hadfield, Shoue Hammoud, 27, of Hadfield, Bassam Raad, 25, of Brunswick and Ezzit Raad, 25, of Preston — are charged with various terrorism charges.

Sharia Alert from the Islamic Republic. "WITNESS: "Hijab problem" sparks police standoff in Tehran," by Fredrik Dahl for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Wearing a brightly colored headscarf and high-heeled boots, the woman refused to be bundled into the police van without a fight.

Protesting loudly and even trying to escape, her standoff with Iranian police cracking down on women violating the Islamic dress code lasted several minutes.

But the outcome of the drama shortly after dusk on a cold winter's day on Tehran's most famous boulevard was never in doubt.

Two female police officers in head-to-toe black chadors pushed her into the white vehicle which then drove off into the bustle of tree-lined Vali-ye Asr Avenue.

"Hijab problem," one male onlooker said, referring to the clothes women must wear in Iran to cover their hair and disguise the shape of their bodies to conform with Iran's Islamic laws.

Based in Tehran for the past year, I have often written about police detaining women who challenge the dress codes that have been more strictly enforced under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But this was the first time I saw it happening.

To judge by the passers-by who stopped in the lamplight on the snowy pavement, or the people peeping out through the windows of the neighborhood grocery store where I was buying milk, my curiosity was shared.

The dark-haired woman, who appeared to be in her 30s, argued in a high-pitched voice with a burly, bearded male police officer towering over her in his green uniform.

When his female colleague put a hand on the woman's shoulder to lead her into the van, she angrily pushed it away and shouted. Then suddenly she turned and tried to run away.

She did not get far. The two female officers grabbed her and shoved her into the police vehicle. The door was slammed shut and the van disappeared into Tehran's evening rush hour....

That Proper Interpretation of Islam which will allow for Muslims to coexist peacefully with non-Muslims as equals on an indefinite basis, without implementing any endeavor to impose Sharia, continues to be the great unicorn in which everyone believes but no one has actually seen.

It would be great for the Pakistani authorities to reform the madrassas. But what will be taught in the reformed madrassas? How will the reformed madrassas counter the jihadist claim to represent the pure, true teachings of Islam? If such a counter to that claim is readily available, why do the condemnations of terrorism by American Muslim advocacy groups continue to be so vague and hollow?

Everyone believes in this Proper Interpretation of Islam that is peaceful and tolerant -- why then is it so hard for Muslims actually to point to it and explain its contents in contradistinction to the Islamic arguments of the jihadists?

Perhaps in reply someone will trot out the soothing theories of some Western academic, the latest from Akbar Ahmed or Khaled Abou El Fadl or Reza Aslan or the moderate du jour. These are, however, in the final analysis, just that: theories. Where is the mainstream Islamic theological construct that abjures Islamic supremacism? The peaceful Muslims of the world, who exist in huge numbers, are the products of cultural and political factors, not of theological reform of Islam's jihad doctrines. Consequently the exponents of such doctrines can always portray themselves as the exponents of the full, and true, and pure practice of Islam. And they do.

By Hina Farooq and Adnan Lodhi in the Daily Times (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

LAHORE: Students from various educational institutions have concluded that misinterpretation of Islam is one of the major root causes of terrorism in Pakistan, which, according to them, has become a label for the country.

Talking to Daily Times, they said terrorism and extremism were being attributed to Pakistan across the world.

The students said that misinterpretation of Islam, poverty and unemployment had been the causes of terrorism in the country. Moreover, most of the students held external forces responsible for it, adding that violence had been nurtured during the Ziaul Haq regime. They said the madrassas (seminaries) that groomed students in the name of jihad (holy war) and ‘promoted’ extremism were also responsible for cultivating this scenario.

Memona Yousaf of the Lahore College for Women University said Pakistan’s image had been adversely affected by terrorism, which had given an open invitation to the United States to enter the country in the name of the fight against extremists. “The government is not taking positive steps to control the situation. The current strategies are leading us towards a civil war,” she said. “The government should control inflation, create internal peace boundaries, restore the judiciary, and maintain law and order in the country.”

Sanniya Khan of the Defence Degree College suggested that there were two schools of thought in the country; one was supporting liberalism and supporting the war against terrorism, and the other was promoting extremism, urging people to die in the name of jihad and fight for the spread of Islam. “The government is taking action to some extent, but only to show the western media that it is trying to resolve the issue,” she said. “ The government should facilitate and bring reforms in madrassas instead of attacking them, call back the Army from Waziristan and Swat, and negotiate with the militants in order to protect the lives of other Pakistanis.”

"If you disagree, that must be met by counter-arguments, not by trying to silence people." I never have cared for tattoos, but there's a statement that I am tempted to go out and have emblazoned on my forehead.

An update on the UK Bishop who dared to note that some areas of Britain have turned into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims: "Bishop of Rochester reasserts 'no-go' claim," by Jonathan Wynne-Jones for the Telegraph (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who received death threats for airing his views on Islamic issues, has vowed that he will continue to speak out.

His claim that Islamic extremism has turned some parts of Britain into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims led to fierce rows between political and religious leaders over the impact of multiculturalism on this country. [...]

The bishops' views in The Sunday Telegraph sparked a storm of criticism and raised questions over the role of the Church in society but, most seriously for Dr Nazir-Ali, led to threats that he and his family would be harmed.

Yet, in his first interview since the sinister calls were made to his home, the Bishop of Rochester remains steadfastly defiant. He will not be silenced. "I believe people should not be prevented from speaking out," he says. "The issue had to be raised. There are times when Christian leaders have to speak out."

He arrived in Britain in the 1980s and seems to have taken up the mantle for defending the country's values he fears are being threatened by a loss of its Christian heritage.

Dressed casually in a roll-neck jumper and sports jacket, he seems relaxed now as he walks around his study in Bishopscourt, but it has clearly been a stressful time.

Threats were made warning that he would not "live long" and would be "sorted out" if he continued to criticise Islam.

"If you disagree, that must be met by counter-arguments, not by trying to silence people. It was a threat not just to me, but to my family. I took it seriously, so did the police. It gave me sleepless nights."

However, it's not the first time that his life has been endangered.

Shortly after being made a bishop in Pakistan - at 35 he was the youngest in the Anglican Church - he was forced to flee to Britain to seek refuge from Muslims who wanted to kill him.

He says that he never expected to suffer the same treatment in Britain and expresses concerns over recent social developments.

"The real danger to Britain today is the spiritual and moral vacuum that has occurred for the last 40 or 50 years. When you have such a vacuum something will fill it.

"If people are not given a fresh way of understanding what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a Christian-based society then something else may well take the place of all that we're used to and that could be Islam."

Indeed. Read it all.

More stealthy advancement of Sharia under the guise of religious rights.

"Muslims want unis to fit prayer time," by Richard Kerbaj and Milanda Rout for The Australian (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

MUSLIM university students want lectures to be rescheduled to fit in with prayer timetables and separate male and female eating and recreational areas established on Australian campuses.

International Muslim students, predominantly from Saudi Arabia, have asked universities in Melbourne to change class times so they can attend congregational prayers. They also want a female-only area for Muslim students to eat and relax.

But at least one institution has rejected their demands, arguing that the university is secular and it does not want to set a precedent for requests granted in the name of religious beliefs....

Good for them.

Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update. "Bombers, gunmen attack Shiite pilgrimage in Iraq," from CNN:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 Shiite pilgrims and wounded 60 others Sunday as the pilgrims made their way to Karbala to commemorate one of the holiest days of the Shiite calendar, the Interior Ministry said.

Women and children were among the casualties, the official said. Most of those killed or wounded were pilgrims.

It marked the second deadly attack on pilgrims Sunday, the official said.

The bomber detonated an explosive vest in Iskandariya about 3 p.m. while the pilgrims were en route to Karbala for al-Arbaeen, the official said. The holiday falls on Wednesday.

Earlier Sunday, militants armed with guns and grenades attacked a group of pilgrims in southern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding more than 30 others, officials said.

The wounded included two police officers, the ministry said.

Iraqi officials had expected problems for pilgrims and issued a ban on carts in Baghdad on Friday.

A Defense Ministry official said the ban was ordered after a horse-drawn carriage blew up near a restaurant in the Karrada district, killing three civilians and wounding six others.

There was no indication when the ban would be lifted.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims amass in Karbala for al-Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Ahmadinejad warns the West about its insolence. "U.S., allies should 'apologize' for sanctions on Iran: Ahmadinejad," from CBC News (thanks to Hot Air):

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the U.S. and its allies Saturday to "apologize" to Iran for accusing it of seeking nuclear weapons, and said no amount of sanctions would deter his country from pursuing its uranium enrichment program.

"If they want to continue with that path of sanctions, we will not be harmed," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying Saturday during a television address. "They can issue resolutions for 100 years."

It comes a day after a report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency found Iran has increased transparency in its atomic program, but still has not shown enough evidence to demonstrate its goals are peaceful.

But Ahmadinejad said the report vindicated Iran and warned that his country would take unspecified "reciprocal measures" against any country that imposed additional sanctions against it.

The best way for the U.S. and its allies to "compensate for their mistakes" is to "apologize and pay compensation," he added....

Back off or else. "Pakistan Taliban warn new government to keep clear," by Kamran Haider for Reuters:

ISLAMABAD, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Pakistan militants linked to al-Qaeda warned any incoming civilian government on Sunday that they would strike even more viciously if President Pervez Musharraf's war on terror was continued in tribal areas.

Following last week's inconclusive election, several political parties are in talks to form a coalition big enough for a ruling majority in the National Assembly. How they deal with the militants will be one of their most pressing challenges.

Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that any new operation against militants in tribal areas would lead to violence. "Whoever makes the government, we want to make it clear to them we don't want fighting. We want peace, but if they impose war on us, we will not spare them," he said.

"We don't want political parties to repeat the mistake which Musharraf committed and follow a path dictated by the U.S."

I am pleased to announce that my weekly Jihad Watch Blogging the Qur'an series is now being translated into Italian by Professor Paolo "Buraq" Mantellini. You can find the segments on the first three suras here, and more are coming. Molto grazie, Buraq!

You can also find it in German here, and in Czech here.

Oh, and it's also in English.

UPDATE: I was just informed that Blogging the Qur'an is also available in Danish.

Roger Kimball at Pajamas Media makes a modest proposal for resisting the spread of Sharia in Britain.

[...] That’s the new mantra, you know: “for fear of offending Muslims.” We don’t give away piggy banks (to say nothing of other “pig related items”) “for fear of offending Muslims.” We don’t draw cartoons of Mohammad “for fear of offending Muslims.” We mustn’t publish articles pointing out the demographic disparity between the Muslims of Canada and Europe and other parts of the population “for fear of offending Muslims.” We mustn’t even publish books saying critical things about “Saudis and terrorists” “for fear of offending Muslims.”

It’s all part of the campaign of soft jihad. Traditional jihad is waged with scimitars and their contemporary equivalents, e.g., stolen Boeing 767s, which make handy instruments of mass homicide. Soft jihad is a quieter affair: it uses and abuses the language and the principles of democratic liberalism not to secure the institutions and attitudes that make freedom possible but, on the contrary, to undermine that freedom and pave the way for self-righteous, theocratic intolerance. Soft jihad is patient. It can add and multiply as well as Mark Steyn can (and here). It, too, sees the demographic writing on the wall and is content to wait a few years to occupy the West’s real estate—it’s so much easier, when you come right down to it, than blowing the stuff up and then finding yourself with a massive clean-up and rebuilding bill. Just sit tight and watch the infidels tie themselves into knots making excuses for you while, elsewhere in their lives, they embrace barrenness as an “environmentally friendly” alternative to Genesis 1:28.

Speaking as a right-wing, knuckle-dragging Eurocentric infidel, however, I feel it incumbent on me to point out that where traditional jihad is probably best dealt with by talented chaps like General Petraeus, soft jihad might often be more effectively countered by quieter crusades. Clever readers will doubtless have many fertile ideas to contribute to the fulfillment of what I hope will become the West’s new Quiet Crusade to make the World Safe for Christendom (remember that?). Here’s a modest proposal to get the ball rolling. It was suggested to me by another story from the London Times today. Under a headline shouting “Muslims shocked to learn that crisps contain alcohol” is the illuminating news that that Walkers snacks “contain traces of alcohol” and that eating them is therefore prohibited by Islam.

Shuja Shafi, who chairs the food standards committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he intended to investigate. “Certainly we would find it very offensive to have eaten food with alcohol.”

Is that so? Well, here’s my modest proposal, which I offer to British Food and Beverage industry free and for nothing: start putting a bit of alcohol in everything edible or potable. There are, of course, other reasons for wishing to increase one’s usual consumption of alcohol, but here is a patriotic imperative to guide you: what if you went into Harrod’s food hall or your local grocery shop and every item had at least some trace amount of alcohol (or, alternatively, pork residue)? I understand that there might be certain logistical difficulties, but if the EU can effectively police the system of mensuration used in its jurisdiction, if it can prohibit certain types of bananas because they deviate too markedly from the perpendicular, then surely they can employ the vast apparatus of their bureaucracy to assure that a drop of alcohol or a dollop of bacon fat is added to any food stuff sold in Britain.

It’s only a start, I realize, but from a tiny acorn the might oak does grow.

How ironic that a site that has richly earned the moniker DhimmiTube still can't please the Pakistanis.

"Pakistan blocks YouTube for 'blasphemous' content: officials," from AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan has ordered all Internet service providers to block the YouTube website for containing "blasphemous" content and material considered offensive to Islam, officials said Sunday.

An inter-ministerial committee has decided to block YouTube because it contained "blasphemous content, videos and documents," a government official told AFP.

"The site will remain blocked till further orders," he said.

Other officials said the site had been blocked because it contained controversial sketches of the Prophet Mohammed which were republished by Danish newspapers earlier this month.

One major service provider, Micronet, said in an email to subscribers that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority had directed all ISPs to block access to YouTube "for containing blasphemous web content/movies."...

Worth three years in the slammer?

Sanity in Belarus, yes, but note that Reuters continues the increasingly common practice of referring to the "Prophet Muhammad," as if his prophetic status is a universally accepted truth. Imagine the outcry if they published a story referring to "the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," with a similar lack of qualifiers.

An update on this story. "Belarus court frees Mohammad cartoon publisher," by Andrei Makhovsky for Reuters (thanks to Jammie Wearing Fool):

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus's Supreme Court on Friday freed an editor jailed for reproducing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, one of three detainees whose release is seen by the West as key to improving ties with the ex-Soviet state.

Alexander Sdvizhkov, editor of the independent Zgoda (consensus) newspaper, was jailed for three years last month. He was freed after Belarus's Supreme Court reduced his sentence to three months.

"The Supreme Court backed the appeal and, based on health and humanitarian considerations, reduced the sentence to three months," said court spokeswoman Anastasia Tsimanovich. "Given the time spent in detention, he was released."

By now you have all probably seen the latest: Muslims in Britain are outraged that some potato chips contain trace amounts of alcohol that was not listed on the packaging.

"Muslims shocked to learn that crisps contain alcohol," by Valerie Elliott for the Times (thanks to Jammie Wearing Fool):

Senior Muslim figures have said that they are shocked that a number of Walkers snacks contain traces of alcohol and eating them is therefore against their religion.

A tiny amount of alcohol is used in some products as a chemical agent to extract flavour.

The use of alcohol was discovered by Besharat Rehman, who owns a halal supermarket in Bradford, and reported in the Eastern Eye. Mr Rehman said: “Our suppliers were unaware of the alcohol. Walkers must make it clear on the packaging so customers can make an informed choice.”

Shuja Shafi, who chairs the food standards committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he intended to investigate. “Certainly we would find it very offensive to have eaten food with alcohol.” [...]

However, a Walkers consumer care team representative was unapologetic. She said: “There is not enough room on the packaging to list things beyond allergy-causing ingredients that can make people ill. A minimal amount of alcohol is used to extract the flavour of some crisps.”

Snacks that are likely to be boycotted by Muslims are Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli, Doritos Chilli Heat Wave and Quavers Cheese.

I haven't put this up sooner because -- unless Potato Chip Riots break out -- this particular outrage is not unreasonable. I don't think it's an example of the cultural mau-mauing we see with increasing frequency from Muslims in Britain and the U.S., but since it is getting attention everywhere, I thought I should comment on it here. Anyone who fasts or abstains from certain foods, or avoids them for any reason, Muslim or non-Muslim, ought to be able to know what he's eating. The Muslims in this case have a legitimate grievance. What they will do in response may not be legitimate, but that doesn't change the fact that the potato chip manufacturer simply should do what it takes to list all the ingredients.

An update, and clarification, on this story. "The law of the land: Adopting Shariah is no way to bridge cultures," from the Dallas Morning News (thanks to Joe):

...First, let's debunk the myth: Shariah is not now and should never be a part of the Texas legal code. We live in a secular society where the laws are designed specifically not to be influenced by religion or reflect a religious preference.

The question arose when an Arlington Muslim couple, Rola and Jamal Qaddura, filed for divorce in 1999. After prolonged court battles, they agreed to arbitration by a private Richardson-based group, the Texas Islamic Court. The arbitration agreement wound up in the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, which upheld its validity in 2005.

Throughout the case, our courts never relinquished judicial control. And that's how it must always be. In the eyes of the law, the Texas Islamic Court has zero judicial authority and was brought in only as a private civil arbiter, a common practice.

The British and U.S. secular legal systems are rooted in the Magna Carta. The law of our land should never adapt to the ebb and flow of migrants from countries where other legal codes prevail – particularly not a religious code like Shariah, which authorizes harsh treatment of women and severing the hands of thieves....

It isn't as if we haven't seen this coming. For years now I have pointed out the shallowness and flimsiness of condemnations of terror by American Islamic groups, and noted that American mosques and schools have no programs to teach against the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism, as one might have expected them to institute after 9/11 if they really stood where they claimed they stood.

And in 1999, the Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani testified before a State Department open forum that eighty percent of American mosques had extremist leadership. And then there was the January 2005 report from the Center for Religious Freedom, "Saudi publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques" (pdf here).

"Study: 3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism," from WorldNetDaily (thanks to TCS):

An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned.

The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.

"So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said.

Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.

Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.

The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:

* Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.

* Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim's duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called "martyrs" are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S.

* Solicitation of financial support for jihad.

* Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.

Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.

Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques indentified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism.

It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called "jihad qital," which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.

Dar al-Hijrah's ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law.

Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.

Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques....

Which is an ongoing scandal.

"The newspaper report said the men who were arrested Thursday could be released if they could prove they did not flirt with any women. Otherwise, they will be transferred to court and stand trial."

Sharia Alert. "Saudi Men Busted for Flirting With Women in Public," from the Associated Press:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested after allegedly flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported.

The country's religious police arrested the men Thursday night, alleging behavior that included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing, according to the Okaz newspaper, which is deemed close to the government.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice runs the religious police, who are charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

The police — informally known as the muttawa, literally "enforcer" — don't wear uniforms. But they are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men. They also shun the black cord that sits atop the headdress worn by most Saudi men.

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear a long, enveloping black cloak called an abaya and to cover their hair with a headscarf.

The newspaper report said the men who were arrested Thursday could be released if they could prove they did not flirt with any women. Otherwise, they will be transferred to court and stand trial, the paper added.

It wasn't long ago that a Yemeni political analyst noted: "Yemen is like a bus station — we stop some terrorists, and we send others on to fight elsewhere ... We appease our partners in the West, but we are not really helping."

Friend and Ally Update. "American Among FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Appears in Yemen Court, Walks Free," from the Associated Press:

SAN`A, Yemen — A Yemeni-American, one of the FBI's 26 "most wanted" for terrorism, appeared at a session of his trial in a Yemeni court Saturday with bodyguards and then walked free, apparently not subject to any form of incarceration, eyewitnesses said.

The 41-year-old Jaber Elbaneh attended a session of the trial for him and 22 other Al Qaeda members charged for a series attacks on oil facilities, an eyewitness said speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Footage of the suspect entering and leaving the court unimpeded also appeared on the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite channel, al-Arabiya.

"He entered the courtroom surrounded by four bodyguards, introduced himself to the judge then he left," the eyewitness said about Elbaneh who is believed to be living with his family in the province of al-Dalai, some 220 kilometers south of San'a, despite being on trial.

According to the FBI Web site, the State Department is offering up to US$5 million for information leading to his arrest.

Elbaneh was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in November in a lower court on charges of masterminding two attacks in the eastern Marid and Hadramawt provinces in Sept. 2006.

He and 22 other Al Qaeda prisoners broke out of their Yemeni jail in February 2006 by digging a tunnel to a nearby mosque.

He surrendered in May to Yemen authorities but was then never sent back to jail despite the ongoing trial.

Security authorities have declined to comment about Elbaneh legal situation.

In May 2003, U.S. prosecutors charged Elbaneh in absentia with conspiring with a group, known as the "Lackawanna Six" after their New York state hometown, to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

The U.S. then asked Yemen to hand over Elbaneh and while he was subsequently arrested by authorities in January 2004, he was never extradited.

Elbaneh is a former resident of Lackawanna, N.Y. He left the United States in spring 2001 as part of a larger group that traveled to Usama bin Laden's al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda has an active presence in Yemen despite government efforts to destroy the network. The group was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French oil tanker, the Limburg, that killed one person two years later.

Things like this certainly call into question the sincerity of those "government efforts to destroy the network."

Muhammad Djabir has summed it up well: "Enough is enough. They have to stop insulting Islam." That's the position of the OIC, Qaradawi, and all the rest. Will the West acquiesce and place Islam beyond insult, unlike virtually anything or anyone else? The jury is still out.

"Indonesians Protest Muhammad Drawings," from AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — Muslims protested in two Indonesian cities Saturday over drawings in Denmark portraying the Prophet Muhammad, with some calling for the artist to be put to death.

"Enough is enough. They have to stop insulting Islam," said Muhammad Djabir, one of about 1,000 protesters in the mostly Muslim country's second-largest city, Surabaya.

Others in the crowd outside the Danish consulate shouted "Death sentence for the cartoonist!" [...]

Protesters also gathered in Medan, Indonesia's third largest city.

"There is a big agenda among enemies of Islam to discredit the faith and we cannot just keep quiet," said protester Zainuddin, who goes by a single name....

Knorbert the piglet: haram

European Cultural Collapse Update. "Piggy banks are given the chop as bank tries to attract young Muslims," by David Charter in the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

Knorbert the piglet has been dropped as the mascot of Fortis Bank after it decided to stop giving piggy banks to children for fear of offending Muslims.

The decision has been viewed in the Netherlands as the ritual slaughter of a popular pig by political correctness. To some, it is the latest sign of uncertainty in Europe's most tolerant country about how far it should go to accommodate the sensitivities of minorities. It comes as the country is braced for a backlash against the plans of Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician, to release a critical film about the Koran.

Pigs are considered an unclean animal by Muslims and Jews, and Knorbert was culled after seven years as the Fortis mascot. A spokesman told the Dutch media that “Knorbert does not meet the requirements that the multicultural society imposes on us”. The bank added that there had been “a number of reactions to the pig” and that a new gift and character were being developed that would be “fun for children of any persuasion”. Children who had received a Knorbert piggy bank for opening a EuroKids account will be given a junior encyclopaedia instead....

Which star is Denmark again?

Motoons Rage Update. "Pakistani cartoon protesters burn Danish, US flags," from Agence France Presse via the Khaleej Times (hence the "pbuh"):

KARACHI - Hundreds of angry Muslim youths rallied in major cities in Pakistan on Friday and torched Danish flags to protest against the recent republication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh).

Witnesses said about 150 supporters of fundamentalist party Jamaat-i-Islami gathered outside a mosque in the port city of Karachi, flying banners demanding Pakistan sever diplomatic ties with Denmark.

“We don’t need to have diplomatic relations with a country that hurts our religious sentiments,” the banners read, as demonstrators burned Danish and US flags and chanted: “Death to the cartoonist.”

In the capital Islamabad, cries of “Say no to Denmark” rang out as about 300 students from colleges and Islamic schools crowded outside the city’s biggest mosque, witnesses said.

They burned an effigy of the Danish cartoonist amid chants of ”Crush Denmark” and “We love our Prophet.”

Up to 200 religious studies students held similar rallies in the central city of Multan.

Protest leaders vowed to continue their demonstrations.

“We are observing this protest across the country today and we would not avoid sacrificing our lives for this sacred cause,” said Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, one of the demonstrators.

To Muslims, such drawings are blasphemous since Islam prohibits any images of the prophet.

Pakistan on Tuesday summoned the Danish envoy in Islamabad to lodge a “strong protest” over republication of the cartoons in Denmark.

It is noteworthy that Egypt is monitoring this situation very closely, but we have never heard of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry monitoring, closely or otherwise, any of the acts of violence committed in the name of Islam, which have led to this film's being made in the first place. From AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt on Friday deplored what it called gratuitous attacks on Islam and said it was closely monitoring plans by a Dutch filmmaker to release an anti-Koran film.

"It is regrettable that European lawmakers and politicians use gratuitous methods to gain electoral votes by attacking the sacred values and religions of others," foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.

Dutch far-right deputy Geert Wilders has said he will be airing on television in the Netherlands in March a controversial anti-Islam film called "Fitna" (Ordeal), which accuses the Koran of inciting people to murder.

Such politicians, Zaki said in reference to Wilders, "focus their hatred on Islam" and plan to broadcast a film undermining Islamic symbols.

These acts "feed hatred against Muslims and encourage extremism and confrontation instead of opting for dialogue based on mutual respect," Zaki said.

Egypt is monitoring the situation "very closely," he added, but also noted the "comprehension" of the Dutch authorities over Cairo's concerns....

Livni says, "All indirect support for Hamas, even via discussions about opening the [border] crossings or about the humanitarian situation, only weakens those parties that are interested in reaching a [diplomatic] agreement." True. The only problem with her statement is that she likely believes, or is compelled to say publicly, that Fatah is one of those parties interested in a peaceful settlement that will allow Israel to continue to exist indefinitely. Fatah will happily sign an agreement, but that will not end the jihad against Israel even for its part.

"U.S. to announce new aid plan for West Bank, Gaza," by Barak Ravid for Haaretz (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The United States plans to announce tens of millions of dollars in new aid for the West Bank and Gaza next week to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The funds will be channeled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, which handles U.S. and other assistance for food, health, education and other areas, said U.S. officials, who declined to provide the exact figure as the official announcement will be made during a trip to the region next week.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice while both are in Japan next week. The meeting was requested by Rice. It is particularly surprising because Rice is due to come to Jerusalem for a working visit the following week....

Government officials predicted that the meeting would focus on the situation in the Gaza Strip, and said that Rice probably wanted to express her concern over the humanitarian situation there.

General William Fraser, the U.S. envoy responsible for monitoring implementation of the road map peace plan, visited Israel this week and met with officials in the Prime Minister's Office, the defense establishment and the Foreign Ministry. Fraser's job is to determine whether both sides are fulfilling their obligations under the road map's first stage, which includes evacuating illegal settlement outposts for Israel and fighting terror for the Palestinian Authority. [...]

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responded to these sentiments at two different diplomatic meetings Thursday, one with the Romanian foreign minister and one with the EU envoy for the peace process, Marc Otte.

"Europe must understand that Hamas is not an organization that is interested in setting up a Palestinian state," she told her Romanian counterpart. "It is not seeking rights for the Palestinians; it wants to deprive others of their rights."

"All indirect support for Hamas, even via discussions about opening the [border] crossings or about the humanitarian situation, only weakens those parties that are interested in reaching a [diplomatic] agreement," she said. "The Palestinian people has no future with Hamas, and Israel will continue to fight the terror that Hamas perpetrates."

At her meeting with Otte, Livni was even blunter. "Israel wants to advance the diplomatic process, but we cannot allow ourselves to close our eyes to the difficult reality of terror in Gaza," she said. "The international community's desire to see a change on the ground sometimes leads it to ignore the reality and is liable to [lead it to] push for compromises that those who live here cannot permit themselves. Europe ought to understand that it is either Hamas or the moderates."

It is divine law. "Hezbollah slams Israel vows to avenge Mughniah," from AFP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday vowed to avenge the death of one of his group's top militants through the destruction of Israel, which he said was destined to disappear.

"The disappearance of Israel is inevitable, it is divine law," said Nasrallah at a ceremony to mourn the death of Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniah and other militants killed in attacks blamed on Israel.

"The presence of Israel is but temporary and cannot go on in the region," Nasrallah added in comments transmitted via video link to thousands of Hezbollah supporters massed in southern Beirut. "Oh Hajj Imad, I swear by God that your blood will not have been spilled in vain."...

You gotta use your head to understand these things

Dhimmi Saudi-funded academic John Esposito has praised Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradawi as a "reformist," and here he is reforming, saying that it is wrong to calls today's Jews apes and pigs. (Actually, there is nothing reformist about this -- it is a mainstream and venerable Islamic position, as I explain in this segment of my Blogging the Qur'an series.)

It would be wrong to call them names, you see, but not wrong to murder them.

"Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, Recently Barred from the U.K., Reiterates His Position on Suicide Bombings and Declares: Jews Are Not the Offspring of Apes and Pigs," from MEMRTV (thanks to all who sent this in):

Following are excerpts from addresses by Islamic scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Al-Hiwar TV on February 15, 2008 and on Al-Jazeera TV on February 18, 2008.

Al-Hiwar TV, February 15, 2008:

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: I am known in the Islamic world as the preacher of the mainstream.

[...]

I sanctioned these operations to anybody who is forced to carry them out in defense of his homeland. In my opinion, our brothers in Palestine are forced to do so. In Iraq, they have a wide variety of weapons. They are able to use weapons against their enemies. But the weapons of the Palestinian brothers are no match for their enemies' weapons – they do not have even one percent or one permille of their weapons. That's why I sanctioned these operations for [the Palestinians], but not for [the Iraqis]. In addition, I did not approve using this kind of operation in New York and Washington, on September 11, 2001. I did not approve of these operations in the London and Madrid bombings. I sanctioned bombings and sacrifice operations for the Palestinians only – not because their enemies are Jews, but because they are occupiers, and the Palestinians cannot fight them. They kill Palestinians on a daily basis, destroy their homes, burn their fields, uproot their trees, and so on.

Al-Jazeera TV, February 18, 2008:

I denounced some contemporary religious preachers, who curse the Jews and the Christians, saying: "Allah, annihilate the Jews and the Christians." Where did this come from? There are Jews and Christians in our Muslim countries. There are Copts in Egypt, and Christians in Syria. So how can you curse them? Not only that, but they curse: "Allah, turn their children in orphans," "Allah, destroy their homes." Who sanctioned such prayers? The Koran does not call to turn children into orphans or to destroy homes. There are no such things in the prayers of the Prophet Muhammad.

I denounced some people who said that the Jews are the offspring of apes and pigs. That's not true. When God transformed some people into apes and pigs, they did not have any offspring, as is written in the Al-Muslim compilation. When God transforms people into something else, they do not have offspring. They die and are annihilated straight away. Besides, this is a curse, and Islam forbids cursing.

Some might characterize this as a generous ecumenical gesture, but in any case it is one that will never in a million years be remotely reciprocated. "Church of England donates cash to aid Muslim prayer," by Ruth Gledhill for The Times :

A diocese of the Church of England is giving an unprecedented £250,000 towards a multi-faith building in which the largest amount of worship space will be reserved for Muslims.

The Guildford diocese is one of the wealthiest in the UK. The Bishop of Guildford, the Right Rev Christopher Hill, today handed over the £250,000 cheque to Surrey University for the first multi-faith building of its kind in Britain.

The £6.5 million building will contain separate worship spaces for the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Sikh communities, along with a further shared space for Buddhists and Hindus.

All faiths will share the cafe in the basement, with a shared staircase down from the upper floors.

Converting each other will be strictly forbidden, an insider said, but it is hoped that the different faith members will form friendships, learn to respect each other and enhance each other’s understanding.

Muslim chaplain Dr Abdul Mateen Sansom, said: “As well as being a sorely needed practical solution to student needs, I believe the design and underpinning ethos of this project have potential for notable impact nationally and internationally.”

I expect it will at that.

Again. From WorldNetDaily :

WASHINGTON – Two more Iraqis with false Bulgarian passports were detained by Mexican officials in Monterrey – bringing the total to four this month.

Wisam Gorgies, a 34-year-old man, and Rana Nazar Peyoz, a 26-year-old woman, reportedly flew from Madrid and landed in Monterrey, according to reports in two Mexican newspapers today.

Following questioning, the pair admitted they intended to reach the United States. They were taken to Saltillo in the state of Coahuila, for final determination of their status.

Mexican officials said the are investigating "a network that could be made up of Mexicans operating in Greece who are selling false Bulgarian passports for $10,000 to European and Middle Eastern citizens."

Earlier this month, El Universal, a daily in Mexico City, reported two other Iraqis, Markos Ramy, a 25-year-old man, and Sollem Pate, a 20-year-old woman, presented Bulgarian passports upon arrival at the Monterrey airport after a flight from Spain.

They told customs officials they came as tourists for a couple days. But because they spoke no Bulgarian, their passports were determined to be fraudulent. The Bulgarian consulate did not acknowledge them as citizens and their hotel reservations proved to be phony.

Only after their cover story was blown did the couple admit to being Iraqis. They claimed to be fleeing the war.

Last year, dozens of Iraqis were discovered attempting to enter Monterrey with phony ID – 17 of them in a single event.

The employment of "filthy bacteria" by Iran's Ahmadinejad can be compared not only to the imagery, with murderous consequences, of the Nazis, but to the standard Arab metaphor for Israel. It is a "cancer." Now one does not merely shrink the size of a cancer,but allow it to remain. One excises it, removes it, altogether --sometimes by first shrinking it, and then removing what fails to disappear entirely, sometimes by simply cutting the whole thing out.

By their metaphors shall ye know them. And that "cancer" metaphor for Israel (like Ahmadinejad's Der-Stuermer-like "filthy bacteria") is telling. An Infidel nation-state interrupts the smooth flow of the Dar al-Islam. If Arab Muslims actually had the slightest bit of real "tolerance" in the Western sense, they would first come to understand that in the vast areas of the Middle East and North Africa, there are others besides themselves -- both non-Muslims such as the Jews now in-gathered into their historic homeland which they managed to rebuild with no natural resources and, until the last few decades, almost no aid save what co-religionists sent, but also Christians (the Copts who are the descendants of the original inhabitants of Egypt who managed to reject islamization), the Maronites in the Lebanon, the Chaldo-Assyrians, and smaller groups), and non-Arab Muslims (the Kurds, the Berbers). They have a chance to redeem themselves from the charge that Islam treats non-Muslims only as inferiors, allowed to avoid the other alternatives (death or conversion) only by submitting to the status of dhimmi, by accepting the Infidel nation-state of Israel. But in order to win this redemption they must do so not with treacherous intent, not trying merely to win its trust so as to inveigle it and its Western supporters to get it to be diminished even further in size, with no control over invasion routes, or aquifers, and then to renew the pressure until daily life in Israel becomes so intolerable, so perilous, that there will be an out-migration and a weakening within, and the Arabs can go in for the kill.

1938 Alert. By Markus Becker in Spiegel Online (thanks to DFS):

New simulations carried out by European Union experts come to an alarming conclusion: Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium to build an atomic bomb by the end of this year.

Could Iran be building an atomic bomb? When the US released a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) late last year, it seemed as though the danger of a mullah-bomb had passed. The report claimed to have information indicating that Tehran mothballed its nuclear weapons program as early as autumn 2003. The paper also said that it was "very unlikely" that Iran would have enough highly enriched uranium -- the primary ingredient in atomic bombs -- by 2009 to produce such a weapon. Rather, the NIE indicated "Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough (highly enriched uranium) for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 timeframe."

It didn't take long for experts to question the report's conclusion that Tehran was no longer interested in building the bomb. And now, a new computer simulation undertaken by European Union experts indicates that the NIE's time estimates might be dangerously inaccurate as well -- and that Iran might have enough fuel for a bomb much earlier than was previously thought.

Read it all.

"Damage their buildings with everything, damage their lives - just show them." Show them that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet, you see. Piety.

"Jihad call for maximum damage, trial told," by Katie Bice in the Herald Sun (thanks to JE):

THE alleged leader of a home-grown terror cell told two Sydney associates they should cause maximum damage in the name of jihad.

The Supreme Court heard Abdul Nacer Benbrika spoke with two men from interstate in February 2005 about a 1600-page document he had found on the internet.

The court heard he told them: "If we want to die with jihad we do maximum damage," he said.

"Damage their buildings with everything, damage their lives - just show them.

"You be careful (inaudible) trust no one."

Not surprisingly, this article doesn't let on that Islam could have anything to do with that, what with wife beating sanctioned in Qur'an 4:34, and in the sayings and example of Muhammad. He himself struck his child bride, Aisha, for following him out of the house without permission; her father, Abu Bakr, is recorded hitting her even after her marriage to Muhammad. And on the subject of leaving the home, Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveler) instructs:

The husband may forbid his wife to leave the home because of the hadith related by Bayhaqi that the Prophet ... said: "It is not permissible for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to allow someone into her husband's house if he is opposed, or to go out if he is averse" (m10.4).

If women's rights activists and would-be Muslim reformers truly wish to make a difference in combating domestic violence, they must confront passages such as these.

"Muslims speak up about domestic violence," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

SYDNEY - Women and children are beaten by their menfolk in homes across Australia. Mostly the spur to domestic violence is alcohol but sometimes cultural mores are at work that allow men to excuse their behaviour.

“They view wives and daughters as an extension of their honour and when they deviate from what they would view as accepted ... they see it as an undermining of their own status,” said Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed.

He was talking about violence in Muslim homes and commenting specifically on a call from the Muslim Women’s National Network Australia (MWNNA) to tackle those in the community who use religion to justify domestic violence.

“It’s a real problem,” MWNNA president Aziza Abdel-Halim told The Sydney Morning Herald. “There’s wife beating, there’s children beating. Some of them go to the extent of forbidding the woman to leave the home.”

Ahmed said Muslim victims of domestic violence were reluctant to go to the police. If they went to the imam of their mosque, he was likely to side with the perpetrator.

“Very rarely would you get the imam trying to punish the man,” he said. “They’ll see it more as, if not culturally appropriate, then culturally understandable.”

That is, about the jihad. Ain't it the truth.

"US Military Commanders Bemoan Lack of Concern About Terror Threat," by Julie Stahl for CNSNews.com (thanks to all who sent this in):

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - While Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are seeking to destroy the Western way of life, Americans are more concerned about the life of movie stars and going out for a hamburger than issues crucial to their freedom, several senior retired American military officers said here.

"We know far more in the United States about what Britney Spears is doing than we know about the issues," said retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Norman Saunders.

Speaking to a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the fifth annual Jerusalem Conference, Saunders said that the U.S. faces a "very serious challenge from the fanatical Muslim population that would seek to do away with the way of life of the Western World as we know it."

"We listen to our presidential candidates - [in] what is probably a very critical election for our country if not the world - talk constantly about change without any definition of what that represents. What would they change? How would they confront the threats? Are there new ideas that they would bring forward?" Saunders asked.

Good questions. Here are some more.

Jihad Watch Travelogue.

From our Agra office

What lengths will we here at JW not go to to get the truth for our readers? Braving jet lag and traveler's diarrhea (and blowing the travel budget through 2020), we can now confirm, absolutely, positively, that Islam has, in fact, from time to time, produced some really nifty buildings.

The great Taj was built by Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor, in memory of his late wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It was completed in 1648 after 200,000 man-years of labor. Koranic verses adorn the four exactly symmetric entrances and appear to remain of constant size even as they recede from the observer. The minarets tilt slightly away from the main structure so as to fall outward in the event of earthquake. Pretty clever!

It seems that Shah Jahan had actually begun construction on a second Taj exactly opposite the first on the far bank of the Jamuna river. It was to be built entirely from black marble in order to compliment the first, made entirely of white. But his son managed to throw the old man into prison before he could truly break the bank. Still, that would have been something.

Interestingly, Shah Jahan was something of a religious syncretist, who incorporated Hindu, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Christian themes into the otherwise distinctively Islamic edifice. According to our Muslim guide (I think I did detect a raised eyebrow when I produced my sign), he wanted to found a new religion based on the belief that all religions lead to God. Shocking as our readers will find it, his idea went exactly nowhere. Yet his magnificent accomplishment remains: another great achievement wrought -- as has so often been the case in the course of Islamic history -- by a heretic.

BTW, I will be on "Newshour" on the BBC Radio World Service tomorrow, Friday, February 22, to discuss my documentary, Islam: What the West Needs to Know, at 8pm GMT, 3pm EST. Apparently, there will be an interlocutor, yet to be determined, but an imam of some kind, I am told. Could prove interesting. We now have a full-length English version up at Google Video, here.

Have a look and post something supportive!

Still more genocidal sabre-rattling. "Israel faces 'certain death': Iran leader adviser," from Agence France-Presse:

TEHRAN (AFP) — The assassination of a top commander of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has hastened the "certain death" of Israel, the top military adviser to Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday.

General Yahya Rahim Safavi, in the latest of a spate of anti-Israel verbal attacks by Iran, said the murder of Imad Mughnieh in a Damascus car bombing last week had enraged thousands of young members of Hezbollah.

"With this anger, the certain death of the Zionist regime had been brought forward," he said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Safavi, who was for a decade top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, again accused Israel of carrying out the attack that killed Mughnieh but also said that "security terrorists" from the United States and "one Arab nation" had cooperated.

He did not name the Arab country.

Iran has stepped up its rhetoric against Israel in the last days after the murder of Mughnieh, which it blamed on the Jewish state. Israel has denied any involvement.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called Israel a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal".

The current head of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, Mohammad Ali Jafari, weighed in with a prediction that Hezbollah would destroy the Jewish state.

Israel said it had protested to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after Ahmadinejad's latest tirade.

"I have told the secretary general of the United Nations that these are demented remarks that are reminiscent of Nazi propaganda," ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman told Israeli public radio.

Indeed.

...you might have trouble keeping your story straight.

Here's an email I received from "james mitchell" on March 12, 2007:

i am a jew. please try to justify those verses from the bible.

There followed the usual litany of verses from the Hebrew Scriptures, trying to portray the Bible as just as violent as the Qur'an, and conveniently ignoring the fact that Jews and Christians are nowhere committing acts of violence that they are justifying them by reference to these verses, while Muslims are committing violence and justifying it by reference to the Qur'an all over the world.

Anyway, "james mitchell" kept writing to me now and again. And October 28, 2007, he wrote this:

yes the "truth" is hard to take. you constantly bash and demonize our religion. you say the reason terrorist do this is 100% because of islam. when in reality it has other factors. there are may people NON-MUSLIMS who know this. Ron paul, sagemen, pape, dennis kusinich and millions of others. every action has a reaction.

Our religion? But wait -- I thought "james" was Jewish, and here he was criticizing me for allegedly "bashing" his religion -- Islam!

And this afternoon I heard from him again:

listen i am a proud jewish man. i know that sounds absurd to you that a jewish man can stand up for muslims but i love everyone. what you say has been refuted. i can EASILY REFUTE everything you say. and zioism is not judaism. it is idiots like you who are ignorant, blind of world affairs and in a state of denial and not open to debate. people like you give jews like me a bad name. and i wrote the subject like that cause i know you would try to belittle a ignorant "subject". so i have got the measure of you. and post this up with the rest of your "hate"-mail

yours truly james mitchel ( a proud jew who is against zionism)

The subject he is referring to was "idiot you." But "james," "james," how can I get all worked up about how you've refuted me when you can't even remember if you're a Jew or a Muslim? Or is it that you keep converting from one to the other? If so, be careful none of your Muslim friends of the more fanatical variety get it into their heads that you're an apostate, or you might lose your own!

"MP to Hizb ut-Tahrir: 'Go to hell,'" from The Copenhagen Post (thanks to all who sent this in):

In an uncharacteristic move, Villy Søvndal, leader of the Socialist People's Party, responded to the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir's demonstration last Friday, by severely criticising them in his blog.

He stated in his blog that the group was to 'seek other pastures' and that their 'undertakings had no perspective, nor future, in Denmark'.

In an interview with Jyllands-Posten newspaper, he continued to lash out at the extremist group whose demonstration had delivered a direct threat towards Danish society, telling them to 'go to hell'.

'If they want to live in a religious dictatorship so badly, they can go to those countries in the Middle East where such dictatorships exist,' he said.

They won't, however. They will keep on trying to set one up in Denmark. Will Søvndal join the Resistance?

Come and get me

At least in Eurabia. Bruce Bawer, author of the essential While Europe Slept, reports (see February 13):

It is reported today that Imbera, a Norwegian firm that hosts the website of Human Rights Service, removed three items from that site without notice because two of them were illustrated with Kurt Westergaard's famous Muhammed cartoon from Jyllands-Posten and one was illustrated with a Muhammed drawing by Lars Vilks. Imbera claimed to be acting in accordance with the EU directive on electronic commerce, and law professor Jon Bing says that Imbera had not only a right but a legal obligation to do what it did. But Nils Øy of the Association of Norwegian Editors disagrees, while Per Edgar Kokkvold, head of the Norwegian Press Association, calls Imbera's action "unacceptable," noting that if Internet hosting services can do this to HRS they can do it to newspapers, too.

Read it all.

He was "too much of a security risk." Unconscionable. This man should be a hero of every freedom-loving Dane. "Danish Caricaturist of Muhammad Fame Now Homeless," from Spiegel (thanks to all who sent this in):

Draw a picture offensive to Muslim extremists, and you might find yourself without a roof. Ask Kurt Westergaard, one of the twelve Danish cartoonists whose autumn 2005 Muhammad caricatures lead to violent protests throughout the Muslim world. He was booted from his police-protected hotel room on Feb. 15 for being "too much of a security risk." And now the 73-year-old cartoonist and his wife are without a place to live.

Westergaard was forced to leave his actual residence in November after the Danish security and intelligence agency, PET, informed him of a "concrete" plan to murder him, according to the paper that originally published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten. Westergaard and his wife have been living under police protection since....

More witless moral equivalence from the mainstream media, distracting attention from the reality of the global jihad. Seven murders of abortion doctors since 1973, and that's more of a threat than over 10,000 jihad terror attacks since 2001. Got it.

"AP Hints Pro-Lifers Bigger Terrorists Than Foreign Radicals," by Dave Pierre at Newsbusters (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Let me get this straight: On September 11, 2001, terrorists brutally exterminated nearly 3,000 Americans, obliterated the landscape of lower Manhattan, and pummeled the headquarters of the United States's national defense. And since that same date nearly six-and-a-half years ago, pro-lifers have committed a grand total of zero murders, attempted murders, and bombings directed at abortion workers and clinics across the United States and Canada.

So the Associated Press implies that the bigger threat of terrorism to this country comes from ... pro-lifers? Here's how the AP tells it:

When it comes to fears about a terrorist attack, people in the U.S. usually focus on Osama bin Laden and foreign-based radical groups. Yet researchers say domestic extremists who commit violence in the name of their cause — abortion or the environment, for example — account for most of the damage from such incidents in this country.

"The network raised money by waging holdups, [and] selling stolen goods..."

Muhammad told the Jews at Bait ul-Midras: "If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle" (Sahih Bukhari 4.53.392). Then, the lives and property of those who do not convert or leave are fair game, as seen in early Muslim battles (including those in which Muhammad participated), Barbary piracy, and so on, and once again in this case.

An update on this story. " Morocco: Terrorist network dismantled," by Angela Doland for the Associated Press:

PARIS - Morocco's government said it has dismantled a terrorist network that had plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers and members of the North African kingdom's Jewish community.

Authorities believe the network has links to al-Qaida and local terror groups, the official MAP news agency reported Wednesday night. A total of 32 people were arrested in sweeps this week, Moroccan newspapers said.

Morocco also has banned an Islamist political party, Al Badil Al Hadari, because some members were linked to the network, MAP said, citing the interior minister.

The network raised money by waging holdups, selling stolen goods and taking contributions from its members, the report said. One suspected member of the group waged a heist of an armored truck in Luxembourg in 2000, netting the group $25.65 million, MAP said.

Gold jewelry stolen in Belgium was melted down by a goldsmith who belonged to the network and then sold, it said.

The group had plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers, army officers and members of the Jewish community, Interior Minister Chakib Benoussa was quoted as saying. Only a few thousand Jews still live in the largely Muslim kingdom, as many have emigrated to Israel and elsewhere.

Interior Spiritual Struggle, natch: “The convention calls upon the Muslims to take part in the peaceful jihad against such terrorist groups.” But of course, the problem is all the fault of "imperialist forces."

"Madrassa teachers call for jihad against terror groups," from Express News Service (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

KOZHIKODE: A convention of madrassa teachers against communalism and extremism, held here on Wednesday, has dismissed the allegations that madrassas across the country have turned ‘terrorist training centres’.

The convention, in a resolution, maintained that such allegations were false, and expressed anxiety over the large number of terrorist organisations sprouting in the name of Islam.

“The convention calls upon the Muslims to take part in the peaceful jihad against such terrorist groups,” it said. [...]

The imperialist forces and their supporting media have gone far ahead in propagating that Islam is a terrorist outfit, he added.

Not that Muslims have had anything to do with creating that impression!

Madrassas, he said, had played a vital role in maintaining peace in the state, where communal riots are a few. It is unfortunate that these learning centres are dubbed as the centres of terrorism activities, he added.

Thangal also called upon the madrassa teachers to shoulder the responsibility towards the betterment of religion and practices.

IUML leader M.K. Muneer, who is also the president of DaSHA, said terrorism was anti-Islamic and that steps should be taken to prevent fundamental forces from making their entry in various fields.

“Awareness programmes will be conducted in the coming days with the support of media and victims of terrorism," he added.

Great. Even granting that this is a sincere effort, which their blaming of the media casts into doubt, the question remains: why haven't we seen more direct action by peaceful Muslims against the jihad ideology over the past six years?

Happy to do business with ya

Still, there is no concept within his frame of reference for a permanent peace under any government except one constituted according to Islamic law.

"Iraqi mosques to read al-Sadr statement," by Qassum Abdul-Zahra for Associated Press (thanks to Jihad Watch News Editor Marisol Seibold):

BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will have a statement read in mosques at Friday prayer services addressing whether his Mahdi Army will extend a six-month cease-fire that's helped reduce violence throughout Iraq, a Shiite lawmaker said.

The Iraqi legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, told The Associated Press on Thursday that "tomorrow there will be a statement from Sayed Muqtada to be read during Friday prayers."

"No one can predict what decision will be taken," he said. "Whether it will be an extension of the freeze or not."

Al-Sadr's decision to take his militia off the streets last August has been widely credited with slashing improving security throughout Iraq, along with a boost in American troop levels and Sunni fighters turning against their former allies from al-Qaida in Iraq.

Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said Wednesday that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying the cease-fire was extended, "then that means the freeze is over."

I'll let the great moderate Ayatollah Sistani say it:

The following ten things are essentially najis [unclean]:

1. Urine
2. Faeces
3. Semen
4. Dead body
5. Blood
6. Dog
7. Pig
8. Kafir [unbeliever -- i.e., non-Muslims]
9. Alcoholic liquors
10. The sweat of an animal who persistently eats najasat [unclean things].

From FoxNews (thanks to all who sent this in):

A 70-year-old Iranian man was arrested and sentenced to four months in jail and 30 lashes for walking his dog, Adnkronos.com reported Tuesday. Police caught the man on the street with his dog in Shahr Rey, a suburb of Tehran.

Owners of domestic animals are forbidden from taking them on the streets of the city because Islam considers dogs to be impure. An Islamic judge later charged the man for "disturbing the public order,” Adnkronos.com reported.

Despite repeated warnings by the police, dog owners continue to defy authorities by taking their dogs outside their homes. Typical punishment for people caught with dogs outside is a fine or the "detention" of their animals in a pound, Adnkronos.com reported.

Of course, the school didn't teach "race hate" at all, but rather religious hate: "Jews" and "Christians" are not racial groups any more than "Muslims" is. But the British legal system cannot conceptualize such a thing.

And even more importantly, the British cannot dare to conceive of the possibility that this problem is deeper than just a matter of a few textbooks. The source of the identification of Jews and Christians with apes and pigs is the Qur'an itself:

Say: "O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?" Say: "Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil; these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!" (5:59-60)

The implication of this is that the People of the Book -- Jews and Christians -- by rejecting Muhammad, are risking the same kind of bestial transformation.

"Muslim school 'that taught pupils from race hate textbooks made photocopies after order to shred them,'" from the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

A prestigious Islamic school in London was forced to shred 2,000 textbooks used to poison pupils' minds with lessons of hate, a former teacher claimed yesterday.

Colin Cook, who taught English at the King Fahad Academy for 18 years, told a tribunal how "incompetent" Ofsted inspectors reported that the school's teaching of Islamic studies was "mostly good".

But their report was wildly inaccurate, he said, because pupils as young as five were being taught by rote from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as "monkeys" and Christians as "pigs".

Mr Cook said that when he exposed the racist teaching, the school's head Dr Sumaya Alyusuf lied on television, insisting that hateful passages had never been taught.

Under public pressure the Academy eventually agreed to destroy 2,000 books but photocopied them first for future use, he told the tribunal.

The school, in Acton, West London, opened in 1985 for the children of Saudi diplomats and is funded and controlled by the Saudi government.

Its 1,250 pupils have included the five children of jailed claw-handed cleric Abu Hamza and those of Abu Qatada, who was said to be Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe....

Read it all.

The Hate Mail is pouring in more copiously the last few days, but this one from this morning seems a bit, well, misdirected:

listen my brother,i wanna say some thing.i m hindu from london.my loyality is 2 uk.there should be shame on u.why dont u go back 2 pakistan,and preach from there.den i can see u made some sacerfice.u here on benfits,and same time curseing this country.tell me having 3 wives not haram?if ur wife have 3 husband,u will stone her 2 death.wat a brave muslim u r.

And why shouldn't he be? A press release from Americans Against Hate:

(Coral Springs, FL) Yesterday, February 19, 2008, the Legislative Director from U.S. Representative Ron Klein’s Washington, D.C. office, Mira Kogen, informed Americans Against Hate (AAH) Chairman Joe Kaufman that Rep. Klein (D-Florida) will not be removing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) from the recently created Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism (CTFAS). Klein co-chairs the task force with U.S. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana). CTFAS was created by Holocaust survivor, Rep. Tom Lantos, who passed away earlier this month.

Last week, an AAH delegation met with Rep. Klein to ask him to remove Rep. Ellison. AAH spent over a half hour showing Klein documentation proving direct contact between Ellison and radical Muslim organizations, which included the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Both MAS and CAIR had recently been named by the U.S. government as being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and CAIR had been linked by the FBI to Hamas.

According to Kogen, Rep. Klein approached Ellison to ask him about the information he (Klein) received from his meeting with AAH, and Ellison told him that he had “publicly denounced” and would continue to publicly denounce the anti-Semitism from the groups (MAS and CAIR). Kogen told Kaufman that Rep. Klein was satisfied with Rep. Ellison’s statements to him and that they were consistent with the principles of the anti-Semitism task force.

However, Americans Against Hate points out that, to its knowledge, never has Keith Ellison publicly denounced any of the organizations in question. He has never denounced the anti-Semitism from the groups nor any of the terrorist connections of the groups. To the contrary, Rep. Ellison has praised the groups and has spoken on a number of occasions at the groups’ conferences. Last May, Ellison was the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of MAS, at the same time the organization had on its website statements calling for the murder of Jews. The statements still remain.

AAH Chairman Joe Kaufman stated: “We are profoundly disappointed that Ron Klein has chosen not to remove Keith Ellison from the anti-Semitism task force. Ellison has never denounced MAS or CAIR, and if anybody has proof that he has, we would like to see it. He has only supported these organizations. As long as Keith Ellison sits of the anti-Semitism task force, the task force will have absolutely no meaning.”

Americans Against Hate calls on citizens to contact Representative Ron Klein’s offices to demand that he remove Keith Ellison from the Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism (CTFAS) immediately.

In World Net Daily today I discuss a disquieting court case in Memphis:

With two young girls murdered in Texas, likely victims of an "honor killing" by their father just weeks ago, is it wise for American authorities to ignore death threats issued by a Muslim father to his non-Muslim children? That's just the latest disquieting question emerging from a contentious divorce case in Tennessee.

Rosine Ghawji has for years now contended that her ex-husband, Maher Ghawji, is a Wahhabi and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that he has been involved in terrorist activities. Maher Ghawji has contested this, but new statements by their two sons give the allegations a new urgency and raise serious questions about how the judge assigned to the case has treated concerns for the boys' safety.

Rosine Ghawji has marshaled an impressive array of evidence to support her claims about Maher Ghawji's ties to the global jihad, but Judge Donna Fields of the Shelby County Circuit Court was unmoved. In her Final Decree of Absolute Divorce, she wrote: "Wife has seriously alienated the children from Husband with unproven and baseless accusations." She even decreed that Maher Ghawji would have the final say over the religious upbringing of the couple's two children, Louis, now 19, and KK, 16 – thus ensuring that they would be raised Muslim at least until they attained majority. Louis Ghawji notes that at Judge Fields' final ruling on the divorce case in February 2007, she declared: "Those children will have to follow the Muslim religion." She ordered them to accompany their father on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – which is only open to Muslims.

James George Jatras, director of the American Council for Kosovo, explains in WorldNetDaily why Kosovar independence is so ill-advised:

Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking the rhetorical question: "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg."

That pretty much sums up the recent unilateral declaration of independence by Albanian Muslims in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Several countries, disgracefully led by the United States, have recognized Kosovo. Major media have hailed creation of the "world's newest country." But calling Kosovo a country doesn't make it one.

Serbia has denounced the move as the illegal creation of a "separatist entity" on its sovereign territory and has handed down criminal indictments against several of the top Albanian Muslim leaders. Now under way is a sharp global competition to see which governments will recognize Kosovo and which will not. Under heavy pressure from the U.S. State Department, most European countries will meekly comply. Some, like Cyprus with its Turkish-occupied north and Spain with its Basque separatist movement, will not.

In short, an action State Department bureaucrats touted as "settling Kosovo's status" has resulted in anything but. Outside of Europe, the picture is even fuzzier. Russia will reject Kosovo's independence, and expected to take the same line are China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil and many others. Russia will veto any effort to extend Kosovo membership in the United Nations.

Some choice entries in the Jihad Watch Hate Mail Bag tonight. What happened -- did Abu Hamza or the Blind Sheikh denounce us or something?

First, from a fan of "Hilter":

YOUR ZION WILL SOON BE DESTROYED!!

ITS A FIGHT BETWEEN 1.2 BILLION AND A FEW MILLION, LET'S SEE WHO WINS!!!

BY THE WAY...HILTER WAS'NT ALL THAT BAD!

ALWAYS REMEMBER:FOR MUSLIMS,REPRODUCTION IS NOT A PROBLEM!

Second, from a master of his thoughts:

Soldiers who occupy and facilitate the corporate plundering of other countries deserve to die, and who would not celebrate when such devils perish. America is the number one killer of civilians, its not just that Dajjal Bush, but throughout the past 100 years America have shitted on the world. America is a fascist state, and has no regards for others, eg Filipino, Koreans, Vietnamese, Africans, Latin Americans, and Arabs, have all been suffered at the hands of the USA. Your lies and manipulation disgrace the Bible, eg Fox News is really a neo con christians extremist propaganda machine. Your not even a real Christian. The Khlilafat will return. Ohhh yeah, America invited 9/11 and 9/11 is a direct result of US oppression in Mid East. The "they hate our life" BS is only believed by idiots, which comprises 90% of Americans. I think Osama is a more honorable man than Bush, and i pray victory is given to those who fight to remove foreign imperialism from their lands. We hate you and Israel because of what you do, not because of your religion or pathetic way of life. Take care,

Slave of Allah, Master of my thoughts.

And finally, the piece de resistance, from an "atheist":

I have no problem with most of the things said on your site. But one guy requesting some sort of Ban on Islam pissed me off. If we want to talk about banning a religion because of current crimes, lets ban christianity for crimes past. f**king pig little religion started crusades against the honorable muslims of the middle ages. and the spanish inquisition was more of the christian scum killing non-christians. How about we ban christianity, judaism, and islam all 3. and make it a death penalty crime. atleast 1/3 deaths will be no doubt deserved by the putrid little followers of christ.

P.S. I'm atheist.

P.S.(part 2) f**k your little site, I hope suicide bombers find your address's and give you what you need.

Yes, I put in the stars.

So did they kill themselves willingly, in order to seize hold of Allah's promise of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Qur'an 9:111)? No telling at this point.

An update on this story. "US: Bombers didn't have Down syndrome," by Bradley Brooks for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed.

Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said the women used in the Feb. 1 pet market bombings had been identified as residents from the northeastern outskirts of Baghdad who were in their late 20s or early 30s.

The two attacks killed nearly 100 people, and Iraqi and U.S. officials said at the time the women appeared to be unwitting attackers.

Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, said soon after the attacks that photos of the women's heads showed they had Down syndrome, but he did not offer any other proof.

A U.S. military spokesman for the Baghdad area, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, also said at the time that medical experts with his division had examined the photos and agreed the women probably suffered from the genetic disorder. "They were both females and they both looked like they had Down syndrome," Stover said on Feb. 2.

A cell phone image of one of the heads viewed by The Associated Press was inconclusive.

There was speculation that the heads could have been distorted by the blast, leading police initially to believe they had Down syndrome.

On Wednesday, Smith backed away from the claim about Down syndrome while responding to a question concerning the psychiatric histories of the two bombers.

"Both had recently received psychiatric treatment for depression and/or schizophrenia. From what we know now there's no indication that they had Down syndrome," Smith said, citing records obtained by the military.

Smith also said one of the women was married but that neither had criminal backgrounds. He said it was not clear how they were linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, which the military has said was behind the bombing....

Come on, it's probably just a bookmark

"Officers found books in the backpack titled 'Muhammad in the Bible,' 'The Prophet's Prayer' and 'The Noble Qur'an.' He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible...."

"TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book," by Thomas W. Krause for The Tampa Tribune:

TAMPA -- A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said.

About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.'s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration.

When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled "Fear Itself." The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside.

After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates.

Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book.

Officers found books in the backpack titled "Muhammad in the Bible," "The Prophet's Prayer" and "The Noble Qur'an." He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible....

A sound basis for a truce!

"Hamas Warns Of Blasts Unless Israel Lifts Sanctions," from AFP (thanks to Sr. Soph):

GAZA CITY (AFP)--A senior advisor to the Hamas-run administration in Gaza on Wednesday warned of "explosions" unless the international community helps to lift the Israeli sanctions on the Palestinian territory.

"If the international community does not move in a serious way to end the siege and the attempt to topple Hamas, then the next explosions, God only knows how large, will take everyone by surprise," Ahmed Yussef said in a statement.

"Hamas has spoken about a truce more than once, but Israel wants to continue its heavy-handed policies of killings, assassinations and incursions," he said. "This condition calls for a response from the resistance."

...from this thread, "USF Muslim students trying to get bomb evidence thrown out, say cop was racist."

I am accumulating evidence that such comments are planted here by provocateurs, so as to discredit this site. The most notorious example of this was a comment left here last summer that was up on this site for about an hour -- long enough for the Council on American Islamic Relations to snag it, so that Ibrahim Hooper could use it to sandbag Dennis Prager on the Paula Zahn show that night, acting as if I had written it and asking Prager to denounce me accordingly.

If you advocate the violent suppression of those with whom you disagree, you are not welcome here, and that is not what we are about. I ask all readers of good will (and of course I know that isn't all of you), and all people who want to defend human rights and human freedoms from jihad violence and Islamic supremacism, to alert me immediately at director@jihadwatch.org about comments that are genocidal, advocating vigilantism, racist, etc., if you see them here, and I will remove them.

The comment I just removed was up on the site for no longer than ten minutes. It will be exceedingly interesting to see if it pops up in a CAIR press release.

They didn't waste any time in starting to exploit the situation in Kosovo, and the precedent that Western recognition of its independence has set. Some interesting questions remain, however: Would they unilaterally declare the "West Bank" an independent state? Then, what about Hamas-controlled Gaza? And, of course, an independent state has borders. Where would they draw those, and would they commit to them permanently, even on paper?

By Mohammed Daraghmeh for the Associated Press:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinians should follow Kosovo's example and unilaterally declare independence if peace talks with Israel fail, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday, but the Palestinian president said the proposal was premature and pledged to keep negotiating until the end of the year.

The mixed Palestinian messages came a day after the latest meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The two men formally relaunched peace talks at a U.S.-hosted summit in Annapolis, Md., last November. While the sides meet regularly, Palestinian officials have complained the talks are proceeding slowly and that President Bush's goal of brokering a peace treaty in 2008 is not realistic.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian negotiator and top aide to Abbas, said in an interview Wednesday that the peace efforts "are going nowhere."

He said the Palestinians' "first option" is success in the negotiations. "If this doesn't happen, we have another option," he said, noting Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia earlier this week.

"Kosovo is not better than Palestine," he added. "If the whole world, the United States, the European Union, the majority of its states, have embraced the independence of Kosovo, why shouldn't this happen with Palestine as well?"

Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian leadership is discussing the proposal. However, Abbas reacted coolly to the idea, saying in a statement that he remained committed to reaching a negotiated peace agreement this year.

"If we are unable to do that ... we will return to our Arab (brothers) to take the appropriate decision," he said.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia, quickly quashed the idea of a unilateral decision and said such a proposal was never discussed by the Palestinian leadership.

"Decisions should be taken and then declared, and not be declared and then be taken," Qureia told The Associated Press, in apparent criticism of Abed Rabbo.

Qureia said the negotiations with Israel are serious and are touching on all major issues, but concurred with Abed Rabbo that no progress has been made so far.

Normally talkative Israeli and Palestinian officials have released few details on the status of their talks. Palestinian officials say the White House has urged the sides to maintain secrecy, fearing leaks could hurt progress.

Olmert also is wary of publicizing progress because a key coalition partner has threatened to pull out of the government if he makes any concessions on the issue of Jerusalem. If the ultra-Orthodox Shas party follows through on its threat, Olmert would lose his parliamentary majority.

The Palestinians have already declared independence before, in 1988, but the international community did not recognize the declaration. At that time, there was no territory under Palestinian control.

Feel the love.

Thai Jihad Update: "Man burnt alive in Thailand," from AFP (thanks to Fanabba):

YALA (Thailand), Feb 19: A 46-year-old Buddhist man was shot and then set ablaze as he tried to escape an attack by suspected Islamic separatists on Tuesday in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, police said.

Netr Noh-uma, a highway department official, was shot as he was riding a motorcycle with a colleague in Pattani, one of three provinces along the Malaysian border hit by four years of separatist unrest, police said.

A 34-year-old man was riding the motorcycle with him. He was also shot but managed to run away, police said.

Netr was too seriously wounded to escape. Police said that when he fell off the motorcycle, two militants doused him with petrol and set him on fire.

“They burned him alive after he was shot and fell from his motorbike.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Jordan. "Jordan arrests eight Evangelists," from the Media Line News Agency (thanks to Davida):

Eight people have been arrested in Jordan for propagating the Christian faith, according to a Saudi newspaper.

Jordanian security forces arrested eight people, mostly foreigners, after they were caught distributing missionary material to Bedouin families north and east of the Jordanian capital, Amman, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported....

Sources said they were "enticing" impoverished youngsters by paying them money and calling on them to marry foreign girls....

Evangelism is a practice frowned upon in the Muslim world, and often associated with Western imperialism.

The Jordanian government prohibits conversion from Islam and the proselytizing of Muslims. The Shari'a courts have the authority to prosecute people trying to convert Muslims, according to the United States State Department's annual report on religious freedom.

Muslims in Jordan who convert to another religion face social and governmental discrimination, the report said.

Hmmm. Now, why is that?

He didn't explain how exactly Israel was oppressing Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc.

"Ahmadinejad: Israel filthy bacteria," from the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Anne Crockett):

In yet another verbal attack against Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Jewish state a "filthy bacteria" whose sole purpose was to oppress the other nations of the region.

"The world powers established this filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast," the Iranian president told supporters at a rally in southern Iran.

"[Israel] won support [from the other nations] which created it as a scarecrow, so as to keep the people of this area under control," Ahmadinejad said.

Referring to the assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, the Iranian leader said that Israel "uses terror as a threat every day, and afterwards is happy and joyful."...

No, fellas, I am standing up. Why?

More saber-rattling from the peaceful Islamic Republic. "Iran says nuclear will stronger than big powers," from Reuters (thanks to Sr. Soph):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's determination to continue its disputed nuclear work has brought major powers "to their knees", the Iranian president said on Wednesday ahead a report this week by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

In a typically defiant speech as the International Atomic Energy Agency prepares to issue its report, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would not heed calls by major powers to halt the sensitive nuclear work that has led to two rounds of U.N. sanctions.

"The Iranian nation will not allow any power to trample even on its smallest (national) right," he said in a televised address to a rally in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

The IAEA report is expected to be released on Friday. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said the agency has made "good progress" in resolving outstanding issues.

U.N. Security Council members are expected to scrutinise the details in his report before finalising any new sanctions text, which is now being considered.

"The Iranian nation's will to continue nuclear work has won over the will of big powers ... (and) brought them to their knees," the Iranian president said.

"Today the agency, which is legally in charge of this case, has prepared a report and announced that Iran's activities are legal and there is no diversion," he said.

Poverty Causes Terrorism Update, from Reuters:

RABAT (Reuters) - Teachers, lecturers, a police officer and a journalist were among 32 people arrested by Morocco's security services in an operation to break up a suspected jihadist cell, the government said on Tuesday.

The suspects were rounded up in the capital Rabat, in Casablanca and other towns across the country in the past two days and security analysts have expressed surprise at the varied background and high profile of some of those held.

The best known are leading Islamist political figures Mustapha Moatassim, Mohammed Amine Ragala and Mohamed Merouani.

Others include company directors, government employees, a hotel manager in the popular tourist destination of Marrakesh and a correspondent for Hezbollah television channel Al Manar, according to a list published by state news agency MAP.

The cell's alleged leader, Abdelkader Belliraj, is a Moroccan living in Belgium. MAP said the group was "very dangerous" and had links with other organizations active in Morocco and abroad.

Since suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca five years ago, the Moroccan authorities have rounded up thousands of Islamists suspected of planning to overthrow the north African country's secular-minded monarchy and imprisoned hundreds.

More bombings hit the normally peaceful country last March and April when seven men blew themselves up in Casablanca, killing themselves and a police officer.

The government made dozens of arrests in the months following the bombings, raised its national security alert to maximum and deployed extra security personnel. The alert was lowered after September elections passed off peacefully.

As with the 2003 attacks, many of last year's bombers were poor, jobless and impressionable young slum dwellers drawn to violence on the promise of eternity in paradise.

But someone has to indoctrinate and issue orders to the impoverished, impressionable youths -- and trusted authority figures such as teachers would have a virtually captive audience.

It bears repeating that all of the Wahhabists' material comes from the Qur'an, ahadith and Sira -- anti-Semitic material which may be ignored, but has not been repudiated on a large scale by Muslims and Islamic institutions.

"Kosovo Jews uncertain about future," by Dana Spritzer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

... There are some 50 Jews left in Kosovo. Belonging to three families, or clans, they all live in the city of Prizren, a rare gem of ancient architecture amid a landscape devastated by war, poverty and Communist-era concrete.

The United Nations took over the administration of Kosovo in 1999 after a brutal conflict between Kosovo Albanians seeking independence and Serbian troops controlled by strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Ethnic Albanians account for 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2.2 million. The Albanians are Muslim, but largely secular. [...]

Distressed by a war they watched from the sidelines and facing an uncertain future, the Jews of Prizren are gloomy. When the war started, the other Jews in Kosovo - the 50 living in the capital city of Pristina - fled to Serbia, where they spoke the language and felt a part of the culture. But those in Prizren, where Jews speak Albanian and Turkish - there is a large Turkish population there - stayed.

Now, with Kosovo having broken away from Serbia, those like Votim Demiri, Quono's father, who made a decent living under communism, find it hard to leave the homes they built, despite fears of growing tensions with their neighbors.

"There was not anti-Semitism in the past, but with the Saudi charities here now we are seeing a Wahabi influence for the first time," Demiri said, referring to the fundamentalist Islamic ideology Saudi Arabian clerics have tried to export, with little success, in the Balkans. "I think the newspapers these days are not portraying Jews in such a positive light."

"Little success" is debatable. Not that it wouldn't be great to see the Saudis' efforts fail miserably, but the extent to which they're failing or not relevant to Kosovo Muslims' hostilities toward Jews only underscores the fact that there is more to Islamic anti-Semitism than the current wave of Saudi influence.

You can vote here for cities to be included in a new edition of Monopoly featuring cities of the world. But Carl in Jerusalem points out that while you used to be able to vote for "Jerusalem, Israel," now it's just "Jerusalem."

Looks as if the gentle voices of peace and tolerance have gotten to Hasbro, which now produces the Monopoly game.

The American ambassador to the Philippines makes sure the MILF, a jihadist group, doesn't get nervous. "U.S. Assures Muslim Rebels on Philippine Exercises," from Reuters (thanks to PRCS):

MANILA (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines met the leader of the country's largest Muslim rebel group on Tuesday in an effort to defuse tensions over U.S. soldiers entering Muslim areas in the south.

Earlier this week, thousands of people protested against the U.S. military's plans to hold humanitarian missions in areas controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as part of annual training exercises with Philippine troops.

"The U.S. ambassador assured us the U.S. soldiers would not be involved in any combat activities," Mohaqher Iqbal, head of the MILF peace panel with the government, told Reuters.

Because that makes them not representations of the human form, which are forbidden in Islam. In the same spirit, Muslim conquerers scratched out the eyes of Christian icons in churches in Eastern Europe. Sharia Alert: "Sharjah shops told to 'behead' mannequins," by Mariam M. Al Serkal for Gulfnews (thanks to Mathew):

Sharjah: Mannequins in Sharjah shops should be headless and only model “decent” clothing, a Sharjah Municipality circular has stated.

The municipality has urged shopkeepers to abide by a ban that prohibits the display of mannequins with facial features, said a senior Sharjah Municipality official.

“The only clothes on display now should be decent and the mannequins should be headless,” said Khalid Al Jaberi, head of market control at Sharjah Municipality.

A circular was recently sent to all shops stating the heads of mannequins be removed and that they are forbidden to wear underwear, to uphold the traditional and religious values of the emirate....

And guess who is involved

Video here from MyFoxTampaBay (thanks to Cumulus Nine).

Naive Kids Update: it seems that the arresting officer in South Carolina, who found pipe bomb materials in the trunk of the car being driven by Ahmed Mohamed and Youseff Megahed, said, "Damn terrorist. I think they're part of the **** Taliban....Maybe they're gonna practice the suicide bombing here."

He also evidently noted their race as "Islamic," which should endear him to the politically correct crowd that continues to insist that opposition to the global jihad constitutes racism, but in this case it has gotten him in hot water, because -- as the newscaster says, in probably the first time this has been acknowledged in the mainstream media -- "of course we all know that's not a race, that's a religion."

Question: If this cop is a vile Bull Connor-type racist, does that make the pipe bomb evidence vanish?

Meanwhile, Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American Islamic Relations is speaking out here. He is affiliated with an organization that was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case, has had several of its officials convicted on terror-related charges, and was founded by members of an organization that was named by a Muslim Brotherhood operative as part of its "grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house."

Here, he is saying that the pipe bomb evidence should be thrown out because apparently the police officers found a Qur'an in the car and thought that suspicious, while they would not have thought a Bible in the car to be suspicious. Of course, Bedier would not want you to recall that Muslims all over the world are committing violence and justifying it by reference to the Qur'an, that suicide bombers pose with rifles and the Qur'an before they go to kill and be killed for Allah (cf. Qur'an 9:111), and that the Qur'an, unlike the Bible, contains open-ended commands for believers to wage war against and subjugate unbelievers (cf. Qur'an 9:29). Just forget all that, and chant "racism...racism...racism," and pretty soon you'll have come around to the illustrious Mr. Bedier's point of view.

Photos and story come from Gateway Pundit (thanks to Doug).

What's wrong with a minaret with loudspeakers? As long as there is a mosque in St. Louis, why shouldn't there be a minaret with loudspeakers? Well, the Islamic call to prayer resounding all over the city will certainly change the ambiance of the place, and announce in a way that no one can ignore the Muslim presence there. But that in itself is not the problem.

Strictly speaking, the loudspeakers aren't necessary. They obviously aren't traditional, and in an age of automobile travel and air-conditoned offices they would have to be far more powerful than they can possibly be to reach the ears of everyone who might actually attend prayers at the mosque. So in Egypt, the loudspeakers have become a vehicle of Islamic supremacism: the call to prayer is blared into Coptic churches during the hours of Christian worship in a manifestly purposeful manner.

Will they become an expression of Islamic supremacism in St. Louis? Well, who is funding the mosque there? Is the mosque connected to any of the organizations that are forwarding the Muslim Brotherhood's "grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house"? Is anyone even trying to find the answer to that question?

Who said that? Andrew Bostom? Matthias Kuntzel? Bernard Lewis? Robert Spencer? No, it was that Australian Misunderstander of Islam, David Hicks. Where did he get that idea? What are Muslim leaders in the West doing to ensure that other Muslims don't get that idea?

"Hicks kept 'jihad diary,'" from The Australian (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

DAVID Hicks's handwritten "jihad diary" gives new insight into the sophisticated terrorism training he underwent, exploding claims that he was an innocent abroad.

The confessed terrorism supporter used a school exercise book - complete with boy's-own images of fighter aircraft - to write up the detailed instruction he received in weapon use, explosives and military tactics from Islamic extremists in Pakistan.

After describing how "to kill a VIP", Hicks noted that guerilla war involved "sacrifice for Allah". He sketched the mechanism of the telescopic sight of a sniper's rifle and the circuitry of deadly rocket-launched warheads....

Hicks, now living in Adelaide, revealed in the book that he had been trained to carry out armed raids and ambushes, and to designate potential targets including police and railway stations.

At one point, he wrote: "To kill a vip (sic) we must penetrate 5 security circles then defend ourselves. The security is nearly the same all over the world."...

Hicks made extensive notes on the specifications of the Heckler & Koch submachine gun, the M-16 assault rifle, RPG-7 grenade launcher and anti-tank rockets. Another drawing detailed where an anti-tank missile was to be aimed at a tank.

The exercise book was filled out by Hicks while he was training with the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group in northern Pakistan between March and June 2000.

The Adelaide man, now 32, went on to train with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, where he was captured and handed over to US forces.

He remained in US custody, mostly at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before being repatriated to Australia last May to serve out a prison sentence imposed by a US military commission.

Hicks had pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

Hicks is believed to have sent his "jihad diary" home to Adelaide before it was seized, along with other documentation, in raids by ASIO and Australian Federal Police on the homes of his parents and other relatives.

The magistrate released a rambling letter to his mother, Susan King, sent soon after he arrived in Pakistan. Hicks said he wanted her to understand why he had taken up arms in an Islamic jihad.

Satan was aligned with Western society, which was "full of poison" introduced by Jews, he wrote. "Muslims fight against Jews and they kill them," he wrote, purporting to quote an Islamic text, the Book of Hadith....

Of course there is no "Book of Hadith." There are many books of Hadith. Probably this is what Hicks had in mind:

Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him." (Bukhari 4.52.177)

Whereas genocide – the murder, or plan to murder, an entire people – is a crime against all humanity;

Whereas genocide is a crime that has metastasized in the modern era, leading to the murders of millions of Armenians, Cambodians, Tutsis, Sudanese, Bosnian Muslims and others;

Whereas the largest and most devastating genocide on record is the Holocaust of European Jews;

Whereas a new genocide of the Jews is being called for by Islamic leaders in the Middle East;

Whereas global forces are being mobilized by the Iranian regime to eliminate the Jewish state;

Whereas the genocide of the Jews is called for in texts understood by some Muslims as authoritative and echoes through sermons in some mosques today, and is proclaimed by certain leaders of the Islamic religion;

Whereas Catholicism and other Christian denominations have condemned the Holocaust and repudiated anti-Jewish pronouncements that have stained their religious past;

We call on all Student Governments and campus Muslim groups to:

1. Condemn and repudiate the Hadith which reads: "The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time [of judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" Sahih Muslim book 41, no. 6985
2. Condemn and repudiate the Hamas Charter which says: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”
3. Condemn Ahmadinejad who has said “The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible."
4. Condemn Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah who has said:

"The Jews are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment."

"There is no solution to the conflict except with the disappearance of Israel."

“If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”

5. Affirm:
* The right of all people to live in freedom and dignity
* The freedom of the individual conscience: to change religions or have no religion at all
* The equal dignity of women and men
* The right of all people to live free from violence, intimidation, and coercion

We call upon all campus political, cultural, ethnic and religious groups to stand with us in opposing all forms of religious supremacism, violence and intimidation.

Sign the Declaration here.

Intimidation. "Iran MPs want action on Dutch, Danes over cartoon," from Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian lawmakers have urged the president to review ties with Denmark and the Netherlands over the reprinting of a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish and Dutch newspapers, Iranian media said on Monday.

Protests and rioting erupted in 2006 in Muslim countries around the world when the cartoons, one showing the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb, first appeared in a Danish daily. At least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies attacked.

Most Muslims consider depictions of the Prophet Mohammad offensive.

Danish newspapers reprinted one of the drawings last week in protest against what they said was a plot to murder the cartoonist who drew it. At least two Dutch newspapers published pictures of the Danish newspapers, with the cartoon visible.

In a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some 215 MPs in Iran's 290-seat assembly said Iran should review trade and political links with Denmark and the Netherlands to respond to "an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current" in the two countries.

"We, representatives of the honorable Iranian nation, condemn this devil measure. We ask the president ... to seriously review Iran's political and trade ties with these countries," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, state radio said.

DNA testing is being conducted. "Bali bomber believed killed in southern Philippines," from Agence France-Presse (thanks to JE):

THE terrorist who built the bombs used in the 2002 Bali atrocities is believed to have been killed in the Philippines, according to local military.

The body of a man thought to be Indonesian bomb expert Dulmatin, one of those behind the Bali bombings, was recovered from a shallow grave in the island of Tawi-tawi, said Major General Ben Dolorfino.

"As of now, we are conducting a DNA test to confirm if it is really his body,'' said Maj-Gen Dolorfino, adding that an informant had led them to the grave.

The US government has offered a $10 million bounty for Dulmatin, who has been hiding out in the southern Philippines with local militants for most of the past five years.

There is a group -- call them the Guirardians -- that continues to believe that Americans can best defeat "terrorism" by reaching out to the "good Muslims," the "moderate Muslims," who must be constantly reassured of such things as that we know, we Americans know, that "Jihad," rightly understood, is a Good Thing. And therefore, whatever it is that Bin Laden and Mughniyeh and all those others are doing, all over the world, when they say they are conducting Jihad, or living a life of Jihad, or giving their life for Jihad, they surely must misunderstand the true, the good, the beautiful meaning of "Jihad."

Why must they "surely have misunderstood, etc."? Well, because we know now, we can no longer deny, that "Jihad" is a central duty for all Muslims. And so, in order not to have to consider that just possibly the meaning that Muslims endow that word "Jihad" with -- the "struggle" to remove all barriers to the spread, and then the dominance, of Islam -- is what the word really means, we play a game of Let's Pretend.

Madness. But who will have the courage to stand up and call it that? From the Jerusalem Post (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Muslims worldwide should bomb Denmark's embassies and kill it diplomats following last week's republication of caricatures of Muslim prophet Muhammad, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip said on Monday.

Israel Radio reported that the spokesman, speaking to demonstrators burning Danish flags, said anyone involved the drawing, printing, or publication of the caricatures should be "slaughtered."

Among major world powers, both Russia and China are opposed to an independent Kosovo. Even within Europe there are nations that oppose this independence -- Spain -- and others where many are uneasy. It would have been politically possible for the American government to have thought a bit more about the implications, the consequences, of having another Muslim state -- the product of centuries of Ottoman rule -- within Europe, and to have thought a bit more about the historical treatment of the Serbs under that same Ottoman rule, and their understandable bitterness.

There is an independent Albania. Those Albanians who might wish to be in a state that politically embodies their desires could move. The notion that when Muslim populations exist, they must never be asked to endure minority status, and that only the non-Muslim populations are to be asked to do so, is wrong.

Parviz Khan Update: a transcript of this Muslim in Britain asserting that for a Muslim to join the British Army is forbidden, and planning to kill to demonstrate the seriousness of this.

"'They'll say they killed one of our soldiers. These people will go crazy,'" by Vikram Dodd for The Guardian (thanks to all who sent this in):

MI5 has released a transcript of a bugged conversation between two men discussing a plot to kidnap and murder a British Muslim soldier. The transcript is from a recording made on November 6 2006, between Parviz Khan (PK), who pleaded guilty to hatching the plot, and Basiru Gassama (BG), who admitted failing to inform the authorities.

PK: You have to, you want to go to Islamic countries, with, fight with kuffar [non-believers] against Muslims? OK, I have some brothers there. Maybe you, maybe some other brothers speak Arabic. We give like a (Bis), we give the judgment, well then cut it out/off like you cut a pig, man

BG: Would you wear this, man?

PK: Like that, I think you cut it out/off like you cut a pig. Then you put it on a stick and we say, this is to all Muslimee, man, we likes to, we want to join the kuffar army, this is what will happen to you. Then we throw the body, burn it, send the video to the chacha, the chacha can release it there. These people gonna go crazy. Didn't say the chacha, he do this in the other country he release it there. Where is the chacha? He could be next door, he could be upstairs, he could be downstairs. These people will go crazy, man.

BG: So what happens? True man.

PK: These people will go mad. This is what they call you will terrorise them, they will go crazy. They will start searching. Are they London, Birmingham, Newcastle, where are these people? They killed one of our soldiers in country. They've gone into countries, they're in our countries. They'll go crazy, Achi.

BG: True man.

PK: Then all these other people who slowly joining the British army, these Pakistani, these Afghan, these Gambia. They gonna say, no man, I don't want that. Look like, chop him up, man! We don't to join this army. At least we can stop them from doing the haram. We, first, we give them da'wa. Don't join the army, it is haram. Wait til you go into kuffar. They're not listening. So now we have to use force. Obviously, if they were insa'an they would listen to our word and listen to the ...

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, congratulates Kosovo on behalf of the Islamic umma.

"Secretary General of the OIC declares support to the Kosovo Independence," from the OIC site (thanks to Sparta):

With regard to the declaration of independence by Kosovo yesterday, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu made the following remark today (18 February 2008) in Dakar at the opening of the OIC Senior Officials Meeting preparatory to the forthcoming OIC Summit to be held there on 13-14 March 2008:

"…a very important event took place yesterday. Kosovo has finally declared its independence after a long and determined struggle by its people. As we rejoice this happy result, we declare our solidarity with and support to our brothers and sisters there. The Islamic Umma wishes them success in their new battle awaiting them which is the building of a strong and prosperous a state capable of satisfying of its people. There is no doubt that the independence of Kosovo will be an asset to the Muslim world and further enhance the joint Islamic action."

What joint Islamic action do you mean, Professor?

"The choice of Khan to oversee a program dedicated to expanding dialogue between religious communities is beyond parody, as Khan himself has a record of thwarting dialogue, at least with Israeli veterans."

"Coddling Islamists," by Winfield Myers at FrontPage (links at FP):

The U.S. Department of State has awarded a grant worth $494,368 to University of Delaware political scientist, Brookings Institution fellow, and Pentagon consultant Muqtedar Khan, who last fall objected to serving on a panel with a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces. According to a UD press release, the grant is to be used, “to initiate a dialogue on religion and politics between key members of religious and community organizations in the Middle East and the United States.”

The press release continued:

Under the grant, participants from Egypt and Saudi Arabia will be on campus this summer for a brief period before traveling to other locations, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Later a group of American scholars will travel to Egypt and Saudi Arabia to take part in similar activities in those countries. A documentary film is planned of the visit to the U.S.

In Human Events today I discuss the porous border in terms of questions of national security.

Three Afghanis were arrested Wednesday at an international airport in India’s Kerala state for flying with forged Mexican passports. They had just arrived there from Kuwait, where officials examined the passports identifying them as “Antonio Lopez Juan,” “Javier Sanchez Alberto,” and “Atonio Lopez Ernesto,” and found that they didn’t understand any Spanish. Maybe they were also suspicious of these inept attempts to ape Spanish names.

“Antonio,” “Javier,” and “Atonio” insisted they were trying to get to France, but given their newly-minted Mexican identities, that seems about as likely as the possibility that Hillary Clinton will cede the Democratic nomination gracefully to Barack Obama. Now what could Afghan nationals who don’t speak Spanish want with Mexican passports? Maybe they were really tired of Afghan fare and were craving some enchiladas. Or maybe they were hoping to craft a new brand of Afghan/mariachi music.

"Mr Maidment said Mr Benbrika agreed that he should give the group proof that the Koran supported taking money from the kuffur, or enemies of Islam." It would be interesting to know what proof Benbrika provided, and how Western spokesmen who claim that the Qur'an contains no such justification, such as Ibrahim Hooper and Salam Al-Marayati, would respond to the case he made.

"Cell debated killing Howard, court told," by Norrie Ross for AAP (thanks to JE):

A MEMBER of an alleged Melbourne terrorist cell asked if it was permissable to kill former PM John Howard in a revenge attack, a Supreme Court jury heard today.

According to the prosecution in a secretly bugged conversation Abdullah Merhi, 22, discusses with Abdul Nacer Benbrika, described as the leader of the group, how he can commit a terrorist act.

In the tape played to the court Mr Merhi says: "If John Howard kills innocents... Muslim families... do we have to kill him?".

Mr Benbrika says that he can only tell him what Allah says.

In the conversation, Mr Merhi says: "sheikh (Mr Benbrika) I'm not waiting 20 years or two years."

Prosecutor Richard Maidment SC said Mr Merhi was referring to his impatience to carry out a terrorist act and that Mr Benbrika tells him that Allah will provide an opportunity for him.

Mr Maidment said that Mr Merhi indicated to Mr Benbrika that he was prepared to travel overseas to commit a terrorist act and adds "I can't believe how hard it is".

Mr Merhi says:"The kuffur (unbelievers) have got control. They've got us like this. Bad"

Mr Benbrika tells him there are millions of "brothers" overseas and says to Mr Merhi "you can make jihad here", .

In a number of bugged conversations members of the group talk about "doing something" and Mr Maidment said it was the Crown case that this was code for a terrorist act.

Twelve members of what Mr Maidment described as a home grown terror group are on trial on a range of terrorist-related charges.

They have all pleaded not guilty. [...]

In another part of the conversation Mr Benbrika "you shouldn't do just one, two or three" and adds "like the station, like the train".

Mr Merhi asks: "like Spain?" and Mr Maidment said this was a reference to the Madrid train bombings in which 191 people were killed and 2000 injured. [...]

On trial are: Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 47, of Dallas, Shane Kent, 31, Meadow Heights, Majed Raad, 23, Coburg, Abdullah Merhi, 22, Fawkner, Aimen Joud, 23, Hoppers Crossing, Ahmed Raad, 24, Fawkner, Fadl Sayadi, 28, Coburg, Ezzit Raad, 26, Preston, Hany Taha, 33, Hadfield, Shoue Hammoud, 28, Hadfield Bassam Raad, 26, Brunswick and Amer Haddara, 28, Yarraville.

Mr Maidment said that in another conversation, secretly bugged, Mr Benbrika was urged to give members of the group more instruction on the religious basis for violent jihad.

Mr Maidment said Mr Benbrika agreed that he should give the group proof that the Koran supported taking money from the kuffur, or enemies of Islam.

Mr Joud, told Mr Benbrika he had to provide "the base of jihad".

Mr Maidment reminded the jury that in a previous bugged conversation another member of the group, Ezzit Raad, was concerned that stealing and cutting up cars to raise funds might not be legitimate in Islam.

Mr Joud told Mr Benbrika, who was known in the group as 'sheikh', that the raising of such doubts was "not good". [...]

"Fiend or Ally?" Update. "U.S. partner's 'military wing' named for arch-terrorist," by Aaron Klein for World Net Daily:

JERUSALEM – The declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization has formed a cell to attack Israel named after assassinated Hezbollah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyah, WND has learned.

Mughniyah, one of the most-wanted terrorists in the world, was killed in a bomb blast last week. He was responsible for infamous deadly attacks against the U.S. and Israel, including involvement in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon.

Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for a shooting attack yesterday against an Israeli bus in the northern West Bank. No one was injured in the shooting.

Brigades leaders told WND the attack was perpetuated by a new cell of their group calling itself the "Cells of the Martyr Mughniyah."

The new Mughniyah cell consists entirely of Fatah gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said the Brigades leaders.

"This cell will lead more attacks to commemorate this huge man Mughniyah and his contributions to the Palestinian revolution and fight against Israeli occupation. The Palestinian people owe him many operations and his huge support for the intifada," Abu Oudai, a senior Brigades leader in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, told WND.

Oudai threatened that Fatah's Mughniyah terror cells would carry out more attacks to avenge the Hezbollah leader's death, including suicide bombings inside Israel.

Senior Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders confirmed to WND the formation of the new Mughniyah cells. They said it was officially sanctioned by the Brigades.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's official military wing, took responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel in 2005 and 2006 and for scores of deadly shootings and rocket attacks.

As a gesture to Abbas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June granted amnesty to hundreds of Brigades members on condition they turn in their weapons and refrain from attacks. Most gunmen continued to carry out anti-Israel attacks and openly brandished their weapons.

U.S. policy considers Abbas moderate. Olmert is negotiating with Abbas, aiming to create a Palestinian state by the end of the year in line with last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit.

With Allah on our side. "Iran says God protects nuclear program," by Nasser Karimi for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that God would punish Iranians if they do not support the country's disputed nuclear program, state radio reported.

"The Iranian people openly announce that they will defend their rights... God will reprimand them if they do not do so," state radio quoted Khamenei as saying.

The 68-year-old ayatollah, who has final say on all state matters, said Washington's claim that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon is false. The Iranian government has long insisted its nuclear activities are only for peaceful generation of fuel.

"They know that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, and they are just trying to block the Iranian nation from achieving advanced technology," Khamenei was quoted as saying in Tehran.

Yes, of course it isn't.

Prime Minister of Zebibahstan

Several Jihad Watch readers commented on the prayer-bruise in the middle of terrorist Parviz Khan’s forehead. For pious Muslims, this replaces the pineal gland that the Cartesian French may flaunt. The name for this sign of zealotry is "zebibah."

Infidel officers, attempting to deal with Muslim rioters, might give the order "Don't fire until you see their zebibahs."

Of course, the notion that only those with telltale zebibahs need worry us is comforting, but because it offers false comfort, it is itself a source of worry. It is not only those who flaunt that bathetic bruise of piety who are deeply committed to the duty of Jihad, but hundreds of millions of Muslims who take that duty seriously, but need have no zebibah as an outward sign of an inward determination.

They justify suicide bombing, also. Misunderstanders of Islam? Actually, this is a statement by 30 prominent Islamic scholars in Pakistan. "Statement by 30 Prominent Pakistani Islamic Scholars: "The Taliban Are Not Terrorists; Do Not Look Through American Eyes at [Those You Call] 'Terrorists,'" from MEMRI (thanks to Sr. Soph):

In late January 2008, 30 prominent Islamic scholars and principals of madrassas in Pakistan issued a joint statement, published in Pakistan's newspapers, discussing the state of affairs in the country and suggesting ways to deal with it. The signatories, who belonged to different schools of Islamic thought and who control a vast network of madrassas, affirmed: "We do not belong to any political group; neither do we have any political agenda."

The following are excerpts from the statement as it appeared in the London edition of the Urdu-language Pakistani newspaper Roznama Jang: [1] [...]

"Can a Suicide Attack be Carried Out to Cause Serious Harm to the Enemy During A Right And Justified War?"

In their statement, the scholars examined the justification of suicide attacks according to shari'a. A thin difference emerges between a suicide committed by an individual in despair and suicide bombings as a tactic of war. They discuss the conditions under which suicide bombings can be justified, stating:

"These are collectively the apparent situations which created irritation in the hearts of some individuals that is appearing in the form of suicide attacks. Insofar as the status of suicide attacks in shari'a is concerned, almost all Muslims know that [individual] suicide is forbidden in Islam, and in this regard the orders of the Koran and the hadith are absolutely clear.

"But can a suicide attack be carried out to cause serious harm to the enemy during a right and justified war? As per jurisprudence and shari'a, there can be two different opinions about this.

"Some scholars think that if a need is realized during a right and justified war, and if targets are not innocent people, then a suicide attack is right. This would be the type of suicide attack [carried out] at the Chavinda Front during the 1965 [India-Pakistan] War, when the soldiers of Pakistan's army tied bombs to their bodies and crashed into Indian tanks, and as a result of which the advance of the tanks was stopped - and tales of this are popular.

"Because this is an issue for ijtihad [reasoning by consensus as a source of legislation in Islam], and if an individual took such a step [i.e. suicide bombing] during a right and justified war, then there is hope that Allah will accept his sacrifice in consideration of the beauty of his intention." [...]

How refreshing! They have reopened the gate of ijtihad, closed for centuries, but not in order to create a framework for peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims as equals on an indefinite basis. Rather, they are only engaging in this new legal reasoning in order to justify suicide bombing.

Admit That the American Strategy has Failed; Military Operations Should Be Stopped; Turn Musharraf's Anti-U.S. Statements Into Policy

In their statement, the Islamic scholars list a series of measures for the consideration of Pakistani government and policy-makers. Some of these measures are:

1. "We [should] admit with open heart that the American strategy we have adopted blindly in the name of the 'War on Terror' has failed completely. This strategy has given us nothing, but has snatched much from us; it is the fundamental reason for our internal conflicts, and because of it, it appears that our dearest nation itself is at stake...."

2. "The military operations in the Northern and Tribal Areas [should] be stopped forthwith, and an effort must be made to understand the causes of the insurgency there. Talks should be held with the leaders of those areas with open heart, and importance should be given to their just demands, which they deserve."

3. "Realize this reality: The Taliban are not in fact terrorists, and neither do all of them have extremist sentiments. There are among them elements with whom talks can reasonably be held."...

"I suspected that my daughter had a relationship with a man and I had to stone her to death as she had besmirched my honour. I had no other choice."

Of course!

From AKI (thanks to all who sent this in):

Tehran, 18 Feb. (AKI) - A man known as Sharif has reportedly stoned his fourteen-year-old daughter to death in southeastern Iran because for allegedly having a relationship with a man.

Sharif's wife reported him to police after he and a friend killed the girl in Zahedan, capital of Baluchistan province.

Sharif showed no sign of remorse, telling police who interrogated him: "I suspected that my daughter had a relationship with a man and I had to stone her to death as she had besmirched my honour."

"I had no other choice," he said, telling police how he had carried out the stoning....

From "Kosovo Declares Independence From Serbia: Braces for a Bitter Showdown," by Nabi Qena and William J. Kole for the Associated Press:

In the capital, Pristina, the mood was jubilant. Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved subfreezing temperatures to ride on the roofs of their cars, singing patriotic songs and chanting: "KLA! KLA!" the acronym for the now-disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.

From "KLA rebels train in terrorist camps," by Jerry Seper for the Washington Times in 1999:

Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden...

Is this independence venture really something the U.S. should encourage?

Proud papa

Feel the love. Parviz Khan Update: "Leader 'groomed children for terrorism,'" by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph:

In one recorded conversation of May 2006 he was heard shouting at his five-year-old son when he made a mistake reading the Koran from heart.

He made him stand in front of him with his hands by his side and demanded: "Who do you love?"

The child answered: "I love Sheikh Osama bin Laden."

"And?" said Khan.

"Sheikh Abdel-Rahman" referring to the "Blind sheikh" in prison in the US.

"And?" asked Khan.

"Sheikh Abu Hamza" referring to the jailed imam at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London.

"Who do you kill?" asked Khan.

"America kill," said the boy.

"Who else you kill?" said Khan.

"Bush I kill," said the boy.

"And who else?" demanded Khan.

"Blair kill, both people kill."

"Who else you kill?" asked Khan.

"Saddam, Saddam," said the boy.

Then the pair began chanting at each other.

Khan said: "Kuffar [non-believers]" the boy said: "Kill."

Khan said: "Mushrik [polytheists]" and the boy said: "Kill."

Then it continued with: "Hindu?... Kill... Sheedi [blacks]?... Kill... Pathan [thieves]?...Kill...Sharab [alcohol]?...Kill...And who do you love?...Sheikh Osama bin Laden, I love."

On another occasion, he paraded his daughter, then three, in front of "Uncle Zahoor" Iqbal, saying: "Listen to this, when you go in the mountains what are you going to make for mujahid [holy fighters]? Say it louder. What else are you going to make them?"

She could be heard talking about food and Khan went on: "You know sometimes when she's sleeping, two o'clock in the morning, she always says to me. What are you going to cook in the mountains? Chapattis.

"Inshallah [god willing] she'll marry into them and give birth to them. Inshallah."...

"The scheme would mark one of the most significant economic advances of sharia law in the non-Muslim world." Looks as if Rowan Williams was right.

"New sharia row over Chancellor's plans for 'Islamic bonds,'" by Simon Walters for the Daily Mail (thanks to James):

A new sharia law controversy erupted last night over Government plans to issue special "Islamic bonds" to pay for Gordon Brown's public-spending programme by raising money from the Middle East.

Britain is to become the first Western nation to issue bonds approved by Muslim clerics in line with sharia law, which bans conventional loans involving interest payments as "sinful".

The scheme would mark one of the most significant economic advances of sharia law in the non-Muslim world.

It will lead to the ownership of Government buildings and other assets currently belonging to British taxpayers being switched wholesale to wealthy Middle-Eastern businessmen and banks.

The Government sees sharia-compliant bonds as a way of tapping Middle-East money and building bridges with the Muslim community.

But critics say the scheme would waste money and could undermine Britain's financial and legal systems.

Yep. And that undermining could be fatal -- Sharia, after all, is an all-encompassing system.

Jihadists targeting civilians. "Car bomb kills 35 Afghan civilians," from AP (thanks to JE):

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed 35 civilians at a busy market in southern Afghanistan, a police official said.

At least 28 people were wounded in the attack in Spin Boldak, a town in Kandahar province near the border with Pakistan, said Abdul Razeq, the Spin Boldak border police chief. Three Canadian soldiers were lightly wounded, he said.

The attack comes one day after Afghanistan's deadliest bombing since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. More than 100 people were killed by a suicide bomber outside Kandahar city on Sunday.

The back-to-back bombings could indicate a change in tactics by militants. Though attacks occasionally have killed dozens, insurgents in Afghanistan have generally sought to avoid targeting civilians.

More genocidal threats. "Hezbollah will soon destroy Israel, says Iran Guards," from GulfNews (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Tehran: The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that Israel would soon be destroyed by the "hands of Hezbollah", the Fars News Agency reported.

"In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous existence of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants," said Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the Revolutionary Guards said in a letter to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Sura 16, “The Bee,” is another in the string of late Meccan suras that began with sura 10. Its title comes from v. 68, which tells us that Allah taught the bee to do what bees do.

Verses 1-19 emphasize that Allah has created all things, and provides for all of humanity’s needs, and that all created beings bear witness to him. Ibn Kathir says that the “ways that turn aside” from the Straight Path of Islam (v. 9) are “various opinions and whims, such as Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism.” The Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs concurs, saying: “it is Allah Who guides to monotheism, and some of the religions are crooked and unjust such as Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. And if Allah had willed, He would have guided you all to His religion.” So once again, belief or unbelief is up to Allah, not to the individual.

John Bolton says what we have been saying here all along.

"Free Kosovo a Door for Islamic Radicals," from Javno (thanks to larwyn):

Independent Kosovo will endanger the stability in the Balkans once again, estimated the American ambassador at the UN, John Bolton.

I think that there is a significant risk that the instability in the Balkans will continue in Bosnia and other areas where ethnic groups do not live in a country they refuse, said Bolton in an interview for Glas Amerike reported in Serbian language.

Kosovo will be a weak country submissive to Islamic radical forces which will spread its influence in the area with the support of singular Albanians and so potentially open the door to radicals in Europe, Bolton estimated.

Great. So these guys dislike Al-Qaeda, but they still believe in the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. But that, apparently, is just fine. "Hardline imams sought to fight terror," by Richard Kerbaj for The Australian (thanks to PRCS):

HARDLINE Muslim spiritual leaders who preach the fundamentalist Salafi brand of Islam espoused by Osama bin Laden have become the latest recruits in combating global terrorism.

Australian security agencies have been urged by former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism expert Robert Lambert to enlist key Salafi leaders - who are widely perceived to be part of the radicalisation problem - to help prevent young Muslims from embracing al-Qa'ida's ideology.

Mr Lambert, co-founder of Scotland Yard's Muslim Contact Unit, said Salafi spiritual leaders, who follow a puritanical interpretation of the Koran and are often accused of being proponents of terrorism, had a vested interest in discrediting al-Qa'ida because the network had hijacked and distorted their true beliefs.

"As far as they're concerned, al-Qa'ida distorts the Salafi view of the world," Mr Lambert told The Australian during an interview in London. Australian Salafi leaders yesterday backed the idea of imams working with the authorities to prevent young Muslims from becoming radicalised, but they admitted it would be difficult for them to trust the counter-terrorism agencies.

Prominent Salafi cleric Toufic Mallah said counter-terrorism agencies should have been working closely with fundamentalist leaders to combat radicalisation from the beginning. He accused the authorities of discriminating against and singling out Salafis as extremists.

"These people (in authority) who are genuine I wouldn't mind working with," the Sydney-based imam told The Australian.

"But for those who want to use me to achieve what they want to achieve, then no, I don't want to work with them. But the thing is how do you pick out the genuine from the non-genuine?"

Good question!

Not that the Taliban have any sudden affinity for animal rights: The apparent target was a police commander who stood up to the group in the '90s. "80 die in bombing at Afghan dog fight," by Allauddin Khan for the Associated Press:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores on Sunday, an Afghan governor said. It appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

A prominent militia commander who stood up against the Taliban was killed in the attack and officials said he may have been the target.

Several hundred people, including Afghan militia leaders, had gathered to watch the competition on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar. Witnesses reported gunfire from bodyguards after the blast but it was not immediately clear how many of the casualties might have been caused by bullets.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said 80 people had been killed in the attack. Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, said 70 were wounded.

Khalid blamed the attack on "the enemy of Afghanistan," which typically means the Taliban. The attack's apparent target, Abdul Hakim Jan, served as a commander of an auxiliary police force, a government-backed security force made of area tribesmen that is often shorthand for a local militia operating with government approval.

But a Taliban spokesman denied the militant group was behind the attack.

"That is not our work and I will not take responsibilty for it," Qari Yousef Ahmadi said.

The Taliban often claim responsibility immediately after major attacks against police and army forces — often naming the bombers — but shy away from claiming attacks with high civilian casualties.

Kandahar, the Taliban's former stronghold and Afghanistan's second largest city, is one of the country's largest opium poppy producing areas. The province has been the scene of fierce battles between NATO forces, primarily from Canada and the United States, and Taliban fighters over the last two years.

Unlike in the U.S., where star Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison for his role in a dogfighting operation, dog fights are a popular form of entertainment in Afghanistan.

German shepherds, bully kuttas and Afghan mastiffs do not fight until death but rather until one dog pins another or one of the fighters runs away. The dogs have clipped ears and tails and carry the scars of battle.

The events can attract hundreds of spectators who cram into a tight circle around the spectacle. The sport was banned under Taliban rule.

Yes, dog fighting certainly is bad. But in their mindset, apparently suicide bombings and other acts of jihadist violence are nonetheless just fine.

The blast crumpled several Afghan police trucks and left bloodstains around the barren dirt field. Afghan soldiers donated blood at Kandahar's main hospital after the attack, said Dr. Durani, who goes by only one name.

"There are too many patients here," he said. "Some of them are in very serious condition."

Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and the president of Kandahar's provincial council, said the target of the attack was Jan.

Jan was the provincial police chief in Kandahar in the early 1990s and was the only commander in the province to stand up against the Taliban during its rule, said Khalid Pashtun, a parliamentarian who represents Kandahar.

"Hakim Jan is one of the important, prominent jihadi commanders in Kandahar," Pashtun said. "There were so many people gathered and of course the Taliban and al-Qaida usually target this kind of important people."

Still not an "interior spiritual struggler."

Jan was most recently appointed the commander of an auxiliary police force — a government-backed security force made of area tribesmen that is often shorthand for a local militia operating with government approval — to protect the Arghandab, a strategic area north of Kandahar.

"The Prophet." Everyone knows who that is. No need to say "Muhammad." No need, above all, to say "the Islamic Prophet." Not over at the reliably dhimmi Observer, which is, after all, an arm of the Guardian.

Anyway, while I respect this "defiance," ordinarily talking about Wikipedia defying anything is silly. Wikipedia doesn't defy. For the most part it is a sandbox with no grownups. Anyone can come in with a can of spray paint and "vandalize" any topic he chooses. Just the other day I was alerted to the fact that on my ridiculous bio there, a poster had added "died 2008" after "born 1962." Classy! It's gone now, but it demonstrates anew how worthless Wikipedia really is, despite its good stand on this issue. It is too easy to sow disinformation (and, in my case, make threats) there.

Still, the refusal to kowtow is refreshing.

"Wikipedia defies 180,000 demands to remove images of the Prophet," by Caroline Davies for The Observer (thanks to Davida):

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, is refusing to remove medieval artistic depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, despite being flooded with complaints from Muslims demanding the images be deleted.

More than 180,000 worldwide have joined an online protest claiming the images, shown on European-language pages and taken from Persian and Ottoman miniatures dating from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, are offensive to Islam, which prohibits any representation of Muhammad. But the defiant editors of the encyclopaedia insist they will not bow to pressure and say anyone objecting to the controversial images can simply adjust their computers so they do not have to look at them.

The images at the centre of the protest appear on most of the European versions of the web encyclopaedia, though not on Arabic sites. On two of the images, Muhammad's face is veiled, a practice followed in Islamic art since the 16th century. But on two others, one from 1315, which is the earliest surviving depiction of the prophet, and the other from the 15th century, his face is shown. Some protesters are claiming the pictures have been posted simply to 'bait' and 'insult' Muslims and argue the least Wikipedia can do is blur or blank out the faces.

Such has been the adverse reaction, Wikipedia has been forced to set up a separate page on its site explaining why it refuses to bow to pressure and has also had to set up measures to block people from 'editing' the pages themselves.

In a robust statement on the site, its editors state: 'Wikipedia recognises that there are cultural traditions among some Muslim groups that prohibit depictions of Muhammad and other prophets and that some Muslims are offended when those traditions are violated. However, the prohibitions are not universal among Muslim communities, particularly with the Shia who, while prohibiting the images, are less strict about it.

'Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with the goal of representing all topics from a neutral point of view, Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of any particular group.

'So long as they are relevant to the article and do not violate any of Wikipedia's existing policies, nor the law of the US state of Florida where Wikipedia's servers are hosted, no content or images will be removed because people find them objectionable or offensive.'...

It's a dhimmi church to begin with: it will not have crosses outside the building. And note well that the church is meant only to serve Christian foreigners who are working in Qatar, not native Qataris. But even that is too much for some hardliners.

Islamic Tolerance Alert. "Qataris Divided on First Church," from IslamOnline (thanks to PRCS):

DOHA — The construction of the first-ever church in Doha has sparked a hot debate in Qatar with a group pressing for granting the Christian minority this right and another viewing it as an imposition on the Islamic nature of the Gulf state.

Having "places of worship for various religions is a fundamental human right guaranteed by Islam," former dean of the Shari`ah Faculty at Qatar University Abdul Hamid al-Ansari told Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, February 16.

Ansari attributed the opposition to "a fanatic culture resulting from religious teaching (stipulating) hatred for the other and from social norms that denied non-Muslims their rights on the basis of old political and security considerations that have become obsolete."

Let's all welcome the presence of churches in Qatar... as a demonstration of Islamic tolerance and human brotherhood," he said.

The $7 million Roman Catholic St. Mary's church will be inaugurated on March 15 by Vatican envoy Cardinal Ivan Dias.

The complex will include conference facilities, temporary living accommodations, a library, and a cafe.

The land was given by Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Catholics comprise the majority of Qatar's estimated 70,000 Christian expatriates.

Not Secular

The church construction, however, has drawn fire from some Qataris, who saw the building imposed on them.

"Qatar is a Muslim, not secular state, as per its constitution," Former justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi told AFP

He called for holding a referendum on church construction in Qatar.

"There should have been a referendum on the building of these churches in order to ensure they are socially accepted."

Rashed al-Subaie echoed a similar view.

"Christians should be allowed to practice their faith but should do so in line with public morals without being given licenses to set up places of worship."

St. Mary's parish priest, Father Tomasito Veneracion, a Filipino, said the church would be "merely a place for collective prayer."

He said it would not have crosses outside the building or serve as a platform for proselytizing.

Unconscionable. "Victims of Palestinian terror ask US not to hinder their cases," by Hilary Leila Krieger for the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater):

Terror victims from across the US and Israel came here this week to urge the Bush administration not to interfere with their multi-million-dollar lawsuits against the Palestine Liberation Organization. They left feeling they'd been listened to, but not necessarily heard.

"I hope that they understand deeply now what we need from them, what we're going through, that we're seeking justice the way we're supposed to," said Shayna Elliot, one of more than 20 American victims of terror attacks and bereaved family members who met with officials at the State Department and Department of Justice on Wednesday and Thursday.

They made the trip after learning that the State Department might submit a "statement of interest" at the urging of the PLO, telling the court that the Palestinians shouldn't have to pay out on the judgments delivered against them....

Read it all.

What "Western campaigns against Islam"? Why, the Motoons, of course. No word yet from these "Jordanian political and cultural organizations" on any plans to confront Osama bin Laden and others who have allegedly "hijacked" their peaceful religion.

"Jordanian political and cultural organizations call for Confronting Western Campaigns against Islam," from the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Amman : Political and cultural Jordanian organizations have denounced the western media campaigns against Islam and Muslims.

They condemned, in a statement released here today, re-publishing the drawings, which insult Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, by the Danish newspapers.

The organizations pointed out that these biased campaigns stand as a witness for the existing fanatic racial mobilization against the Muslims and their sanctities.

They called for boycotting Denmark at all economic, political and cultural domains in a gradual manner.

The organizations said the Danish government is fully aware of the fact that these campaigns against Islam and Muslims can never be justified by freedom of expression.

Why not?

The organizations underlined the importance of taking wise and practical measures for ending these campaigns against Islam.

Wise and practical. Hmmm. I expect that we shall see what they mean by that very soon.

Yes, I can see their point. Mild weather always makes me want to burn cars and vandalize schools. "Suspected Danish cartoon rioters torch cars," from Reuters (thanks to JE):

GANGS of rioters set fire to cars and garbage trucks in northern Copenhagen after demonstrators evicted from a youth centre earlier in the year tried to occupy a new building.

Five youths were arrested in the capital after 28 cars and 35 garbage trucks were burned, Copenhagen police duty officer Jakob Kristensen said.

Danish media said arrests in other towns brought to 29 the number of people police were holding.

Scores of cars and several schools have been vandalised or burned in the past week.

Police could give no reason, but said that unusually mild weather and the closure of schools for a winter break might have contributed.

Police arrested two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent on Tuesday for planning to kill a cartoonist who drew one of the cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper two years ago that roused a storm of protest in Muslim countries.

Fifteen Danish newspapers reprinted his drawing on Wednesday in protest against the alleged murder plot.

Several hundred Muslims gathered in central Copenhagen yesterday to protest against publication of the cartoon.

Well, there's always Cola Turka, eh, Chevy?

"Pepsi’s headscarf attitude sparks protests," from Zaman (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A condition in a photo contest run by Pepsi stating that photos with people wearing a headscarf will not be accepted has triggered numerous protests.

Calls to boycott the company's products are becoming widespread, despite the fact that Pepsi removed this condition following earlier complaints. After a similar move by the Consumers Association, the Craftsmen and Artisans Association (ESDER) has announced that they will boycott Pepsi products until the company issues a public apology. ESDER President Mahmut Çelikus emphasized that saying "those wearing headscarves cannot participate in the contest" is discrimination based on people's beliefs.

Çelikus noted that companies operating in Turkey, where 99 percent of the population is Muslim, have to respect the values of the public. Calling for Pepsi to apologize, Çelikus stated that should Pepsi refuse to do so, ESDER will begin a boycott in accordance with its members' demands. Pepsi had previously announced on the contest Web site -- www.duygularinigoster.com -- that contest photos with people wearing the headscarf would not be approved by moderators. The company then replaced "headscarf" with "religious, political [content] photos as well as those that may be misconceived," because of further criticism. Pepsi then made a third correction, announcing that photos violating laws and general ethics would not be published.

"While retaliation in the U.S. homeland is unlikely, Hezbollah has demonstrated a capability to respond outside the Middle East to similar events in the past." And remember: there are already Hizballah cells in the U.S.

"FBI warns of possible Hezbollah revenge in U.S.," by Josh Meyer for the Los Angeles Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):

WASHINGTON -- The FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent a bulletin Friday to state and local law enforcement authorities advising them to watch for potential retaliatory strikes by Hezbollah, one day after the Lebanese militia group vowed to avenge the death of a top commander by attacking Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.

"While retaliation in the U.S. homeland is unlikely, Hezbollah has demonstrated a capability to respond outside the Middle East to similar events in the past," said the intelligence bulletin sent to about 18,000 state and local law enforcement officials late Friday afternoon.

The FBI also said it was intensifying its domestic intelligence-gathering efforts to identify any potential Hezbollah threats in the United States in the aftermath of Tuesday's car-bomb assassination of Imad Mughniyah in Syria.

On Wednesday, the FBI sent a confidential internal bulletin to its 101 Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country warning of the possible domestic consequences of Mughniyah's killing. As part of that effort, FBI officials at headquarters told the bureau's field offices and multiagency task forces to increase monitoring and surveillance of suspected Hezbollah operatives and to conduct fresh interviews with sources and informants about the U.S.-designated terrorist group, according to two FBI officials.

U.S. authorities have long described Hezbollah as the "A-Team" of terrorism, with far more discipline than Al Qaeda, vast financing from the government of Iran, and a global network of sleeper operatives who could be called on to launch an attack at any time. Various federal investigations and prosecutions have uncovered dozens of Hezbollah fundraisers and supporters in the United States, but few people are believed to be actual "bomb throwers," according to a senior FBI counter-terrorism official who focuses on Hezbollah....

Hate, of course, is the third rail of today's public discourse. By saying that he hates anything, Wilders has rendered himself anathema to the mainstream. But when Wilders says, "I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people," how is that different from saying that he has a problem with any other tradition, culture, ideology? Would his mainstream critics really reject such a statement aimed at Nazism? Did the likelihood that there were Nazi party members here and there who were nice guys foreclose any examination of the elements of the ideology that gave rise to murderous fanaticism?

Now, one doesn't have to think that Islam is remotely like Nazism to see my point here. Should any ideology, any system of beliefs, really be placed off-limits for criticism? Should criticism of any ideology really be classified as "racism"? After all, it was no lesser a luminary than CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper who said, "Islam is an ideology. It's not a race." So if it is an ideology, it can be liked or disliked, and subjected to critical scrutiny like any other, no?

By Ian Traynor for The Observer (thanks to all who sent this in):

A TV addict with bleached hair who adores Maggie Thatcher and prefers kebabs to hamburgers, Geert Wilders has got nothing against Muslims. He just hates Islam. Or so he says. 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology,' says Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic right-winger, 'the ideology of a retarded culture.'

The Dutch politician, who sees himself as heir to a recent string of assassinated or hounded mavericks who have turned Holland upside down, has been doing a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic sacred text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, he wants the 'fascist Koran' outlawed in Holland, the constitution rewritten to make that possible, all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave and all Muslim 'criminals' stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported 'back where they came from'. But he has nothing against Muslims. 'I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people.'

Wilders has been immersing himself in the suras and verse of seventh-century Arabia. The outcome of his scholarship, a short film, has Holland in a panic. He is just putting the finishing touches to the 10-minute film, he says, and talking to four TV channels about screening it.

'It's like a walk through the Koran,' he explains in a sterile conference room in the Dutch parliament in The Hague, security chaps hovering outside. 'My intention is to show the real face of Islam. I see it as a threat. I'm trying to use images to show that what's written in the Koran is giving incentives to people all over the world. On a daily basis Moroccan youths are beating up homosexuals on the streets of Amsterdam.'

[...]

'My allies are not Le Pen or Haider,' he emphasises. 'We'll never join up with the fascists and Mussolinis of Italy. I'm very afraid of being linked with the wrong rightist fascist groups.' Dutch iconoclasm, Scandinavian insistence on free expression, the right to provoke are what drive him, he says.

Read it all.

Syed Soharwardy has dropped his human rights complaint against Ezra Levant, but he has brought upon himself some unwelcome scrutiny. "Imam undercuts himself by twisting his own words," by Licia Corbella for The Calgary Herald (thanks to all who sent this in):

Earlier this week, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy spent nearly two hours with the Herald's editorial board before announcing he would withdraw his two-year-long Alberta human rights complaint against Ezra Levant, the publisher of the defunct Western Standard magazine.

Soharwardy lodged the complaint after Levant published Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were central to murderous protests around the world by Muslims, including renewed violence in Denmark on Friday.

Soharwardy is trying to take back his complaint, but it's already too late. Levant's resolve is too strong and freedom of expression too fundamental a right to be so easily shrugged off after the microscope of world attention ended up being turned on Soharwardy.

The founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC) asked for a meeting with the Herald's editorial board via an e-mail, arguing that Levant was "attempting to paint me as a hate-mongering, anti-Semitic, Wahabi radical who wants to see Canada governed under sharia law. Nothing could be further from the truth."

While preparing for the meeting, a quick search on Canwest's library system showed a Jan. 17, 2004, column written by the cleric.

In it, he wrote: "Sharia cannot be customized for specific countries. These universal, divine laws are for all people of all countries for all times."

In the same column he also boasts: "I am one of the founding members of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. The mandate of the institute is to resolve disputes within existing Canadian laws by using the principles of conflict resolution from Islamic Law, or sharia."

His column is clear. He wanted to bring sharia to Canada and even helped found the organization that spearheaded the drive to do so.

Indeed. Read it all.

Just something for the learned analysts to consider as they continue to urge that Al-Sadr be "included in the political process." "Muqtada Al-Sadr Declares Three Days Of Mourning For Mughniya; Source: Mughniya Trained Mahdi Army, Assassination Squads," from MEMRI (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The Sadrist Shi'ites in Iraq, led by Muqtada Al-Sadr, have declared a three-day mourning period for Imad Mughniya.

An Iraqi security source said that Mughniya had entered Iraq via Iran, and had trained some 500 members of the Mahdi Army, which belongs to the Sadrists.

He added that he had also trained a number of squads in planning and carrying out assassinations within Iraq.

Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, February 15, 2008

"The Algerian minister further hoped that the event would help open a new chapter in Tehran-Algiers bilateral ties." Iran solidifies its ties to a Sunni state. "Algerian minister lauds Iran's services to Islam," from IRNA (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Algerian Culture Minister Khalida Toumi said that the Iranians have rendered great services to the Islamic culture and civilization.

She made the remarks while addressing the inaugural ceremony of Iran's Cultural Week.

Such Iranian services are great honor for all Arab states and Muslim nations throughout the globe, she added.

She further praised Iranian culture and civilization particularly during the post-Islam era.

On Iran-Algeria bilateral cooperation, she said the two countries' leaders are seriously determined to further boost all-out ties, particularly in the area of culture.

Expansion of cultural relations between the two states would help boost bilateral ties in other fields, Ms Toumi added.

She said holding Iran's Cultural Week is a good opportunity for the Algerian people to become familiar with the Iranian culture and civilization.

The Algerian minister further hoped that the event would help open a new chapter in Tehran-Algiers bilateral ties.

Anti-dhimmitude. "Danish lawmakers cancel trip to Iran," from AP (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A group of Danish lawmakers have canceled a trip to Iran because Tehran demanded they condemn the reprinting of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in newspapers, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

Mette Vestergaard, a committee official, confirmed the cancellation. "The Iranian ambassador asked the Foreign Policy Committee to condemn the drawings. They can't and they won't," she said without giving more details.

"We must not allow the freedom of speech ... to be used as a cover for assaulting the sensibilities and exalted moral and religious values which are respected by all of humanity," said Justice Minister Gholamhossein Elham.

But he's got it wrong. This is what he should have said: "We must not allow a sense of offense that is exaggerated beyond all proportion ... to be used as a cover for assaulting innocent human beings, destroying the principles of free inquiry (on which rests the harmony of a society in which people of good faith differ in their religious and philosophical perspectives) and imposing the supremacism of one belief-system upon everyone."

"Iran urges Dutch not to air Koran film: report," from Reuters (thanks to Hot Air):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has urged the Netherlands to prevent the screening of a film in which a right-wing populist lawmaker plans to lay out his view of the Koran, a news agency in the Islamic Republic said on Saturday.

Justice Minister Gholamhossein Elham expressed concern about what he called the making of an offensive film against the Koran in a letter to his Dutch counterpart Ernst Hirsch Ballin, the Fars News Agency said.

He called on Ballin to prevent this "provocative and satanic act on the basis of European Convention on Human Rights," the news agency report, picked up by the BBC in London, said.

"We must not allow the freedom of speech ... to be used as a cover for assaulting the sensibilities and exalted moral and religious values which are respected by all of humanity," Elham, who is also government spokesman, said in the letter.

"No to double standards"! Exactly! The Archdhimmi of Canterbury, in calling for Islamic law in Britain, was calling for double standards -- Islamic laws for Muslims, secular laws for everyone else. Those who opposed him were standing up for equal citizenship and equal rights -- exactly what these groups profess to want. And keeping out Qaradawi? I would hope that if the Mayor of London wanted to bring in a Presbyterian proponent of suicide terror, that he would be kept out also -- equal rights for all!

And what about the bugging of Sadiq Khan? His "jailed constituent" is accused of running a website that raised funds of the Taliban and Chechen jihadists. I'd be fine with any member of Parliament, Muslim or non-Muslim, being bugged when he visits constituents who are plotting the mass murder of innocent people and their subjugation under a draconian legal system that would deny them equality of rights. How would that be? Equal rights for all!

"Muslim groups prepare for Downing Street protest," from Independent Television News :

Muslim groups are preparing to stage a demonstration outside Downing Street after what they describe as a week of "bias, prejudice, xenophobia and even borderline racism".

It has been organised by the British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and supported by 20 other Muslim groups including the Muslim Council of Britain and British Muslim Forum.

They are calling for equal rights under the slogan: Yes to equal citizenship, No to double standards.

The BMI have said the demonstration is a response to the past week's events including the controversy provoked by the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments that adoption of some aspects of Islamic sharia law in the UK seem "unavoidable".

It is also protesting over the Home Office's rejection of Egyptian-born, controversial scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi's visa application to enter the UK.

The revelation that counter-terrorism officers had secretly recorded discussions between MP Sadiq Khan and a jailed constituent has also led to angry reactions from Muslims.

A BMI statement said the three events "provide further evidence of bias, prejudice, xenophobia and even borderline racism rampant in wide corners of the media as well as in the corridors of government."

BMI spokesman Anas Altikriti said: "It all gives out a message that Muslims can never be trusted and any discourse must be banned and no-one, not even the esteemed Archbishop of Canterbury, can say anything about Muslims.

"This vigil is about all Muslims coming together and asking to be treated as equal citizen with rights. And at the same time we are calling for issues to do with Muslims to be dealt with fairness and balance."

What's with the Saudi millions, Dr. Esposito? Are the Saudis buying influence at Georgetown? Are they influencing your curriculum, and/or what you say about Islam and jihad? Darth Emerson wants to know, and I'm sure Darth Pipes is interested in the answers also, as am I, Darth Spencer.

"Wolf to Georgetown: Detail Use of Saudi Millions," by the intrepid Steven Emerson for IPT News (thanks to all who sent this in):

A U.S. congressman is asking Georgetown University about its academic scrutiny of Saudi Arabia and its use of $20 million donated by a Saudi prince in 2005.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) wrote to Georgetown President John DeGioia Thursday, saying he was concerned about how the money was being spent at the university's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Of particular concern, Wolf said, was the university's role in training current and prospective U.S. foreign service personnel.

"The Saudi government continues to permit textbooks to contain inflammatory language about other religions," Wolf wrote. "Restrictions on civil society and political activists continue to be pervasive. No changes have been made to the underlying legal authority relating to non-Muslim worship that the Saudis have relied on to enforce these rules. The Saudis have cleansed their own country of religious liberties by severely restricting public religious expression to their interpretation and enforcement of wahhabism."

Wolf's letter seeks assurances the Georgetown center "maintains the impartiality and integrity of scholarship that befits so distinguished a university as Georgetown."

Uh, Congressman Wolf, I can answer that one for you right now.

Michael Lucas is described at the end of this piece in this way: "Gay pornographic actor and activist Michael Lucas is the CEO and founder of Lucas Entertainment, a New York-based gay adult film company." Unlike most gay activists, he seems to have realized that there is a big difference between Osama bin Laden and Pat Robertson -- and has accordingly been charged with being "racist" and "intolerant" by the thoroughly propagandized students at Stanford University. Here is his defense:

"Op-Ed: Racism and intolerance: disappointing at a liberal university," by Mike Lucas in the Stanford Daily (thanks to Paul):

Let me first address the “racism” remarks and the accusation of me being “racist” [“Adult film star’s remarks spark debate,” Feb. 14]. I was disappointed (but not very surprised) by the reaction that I got from some of the students at Stanford (as I’ve been wrongly accused of racism before).

Speaking of racism in relation to religion, not to a race, is a big disservice to language and to intelligence. I never in my life said or wrote a bad word about Arabs — go read any of my articles. My criticism was always addressed towards the religion and ideology of Islam. So I would like to ask Stanford students not to exploit the word ‘racism’ at their own convenience. It’s shocking to me that some students do not know what that term means but handle it with such wanton impudence. Maybe such a hole in the education should be brought to the attention of the teaching faculty of your university.

In fact, some of my role models are Arabs for whom I have tremendous admiration. I’m talking about the likes of Wafa Sultan, who has confronted and condemned Islam on many occasions and for whose lectures I will travel across the country, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose book “Infidel” also helped me to shape my opinions. Both of these women secularized, as Islam in their opinion is the ideology of backwardness and hate. They rightly point out that Islam hasn’t changed, or evolved, for 1,400 years; it has always suppressed every progressive thought. Needless to say, these women were forced to live in exile in the United States and live with hired security 24 hours a day. As I hope you know, Islam does not forgive. It forbids any criticism. Think Salman Rushdie. Think Theo Van Gogh, for his portrayal of the misery of women in Muslim countries. Think of the Danish cartoonists who are hiding in safe houses. The list is long.

What fostered my distain for Islam? The contempt that Muslim men vomit on women, treating them with less respect than camels. That includes the infibulation — female circumcision — of young girls; the imposition of chadors and burqas; the decapitation of adulterous wives (but never adulterous husbands); the fact that, in most Muslim countries, women cannot go to school, see a doctor or even leave their own houses without a male escort; the approval of polygamy; the arranged marriages that involve girls as young as 9; the barring of women from taking part in public life or in any receptions, even those of their own weddings; the death penalty for drinkers of alcohol; the mutilation penalty for thieves; the public killings of homosexuals. Doesn’t all of this originate from the Koran? Have you ever thought that, instead of protesting me, you should protest against those atrocities, maybe organizing some short demonstration in front of Muslim embassies? Why instead are you unleashing your hate against one who speaks against those crimes? Why are you denying my right to compare the Koran, the text in which these facts originate, to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf?” The Koran, that for 1,400 years has tormented humanity more than the Bible, the Gospels and the Torah combined? Do not suppress or boycott someone who has a different opinion, even if you disagree with this opinion. Debate it. Argue it. In a civilized manner. Otherwise, what is the difference between you and Islam?

I do very well realize where this reaction is coming from. Stanford is a liberal university, and I very much hope that the good word “liberalism” is not degraded in your institution as it has been degraded by the likes of Michael Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Ward Churchill, Noam Chomsky and many others. I hope the word “liberal” in the mind of Stanford students still means “progressive” and “broad-minded.” The left symbolizes progress. At least, it has done so in the past. It has always stood for women’s rights, for gay rights, for the rights of African-Americans. The reaction which I see today at Stanford demonstrates to me that there are changes in the left and that these changes are for the worst. What I read today in The Stanford Daily is nothing more than intellectual terrorism. A dogmatism that I can only compare to one of religion. (If-you-don’t-think-what-I-think,-you-are-an-idiot-and-a-delinquent.) It’s difficult for me to understand how the progressive left can defend the most backwards and reactionary ideology on earth, the ideology of Islam.

Presumably the member-states of O.I.C. were consulted on this attempt to suppress freedom of speech, as it is commonly understood, all over the advanced Western world, and to substitute for it a non-freedom freedom-of-speech, that is the one recognized in Islam, which is a very different thing. Therefore, one wishes to know, before another trillion dollars goes down the drain, if the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, which owe their existence, as well as uncountable (save possibly by those locals who have decamped with so much of the loot) billions of dollars lavished on them and their permanently ungrateful (they are Muslims, we are Infidels) peoples, also subscribe to this attempt by the O.I.C. to suppress not only freedom of speech in Denmark and all over Western Europe, but in the United States as well.

As for Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, he was chosen to be the head of the O.I.C. because he was a "moderate" Turkish Muslim and a presumably-respectable "historian of science." But he turns out to be not that but rather an historian, and defender, of "Islamic" science, who attempts to tortuously explain away the absence of science in the Islamic world since its brief flourishing thanks to Christians, Jews, and those who, while they were called Muslims, were only a generation or two away from being something else, in a milieu still heavily influenced by non-Muslim elements -- which, when greatly reduced, also reduced the atmosphere in which science could be conducted.

In his address, Al-Ghazzawi (whose name means "from Gaza") urges the Palestinians to participate in the war against "the unbelievers, headed by the U.S., Europe and Iran" who are attacking Islam. He stresses that they must begin by fighting the Jews, who are their nearest enemies."…

"We say to our sheikh, Shaker [Al-'Absi], as well as to Osama [bin Laden], Ayman [Al-Zawahiri] and Abu Omar [Al-Baghdadi]: 'Set forth with Allah's blessing and fight – and we shall fight at your side. Oh Muslims [worldwide] and people of Gaza... you are our support, and through you we shall receive help from Allah... Borders should not come between us... Our God is one, our religion is one, and our enemy is one..." -- from this MEMRI translation

It is precisely this truth -- the real nature of the war on Israel, which is simply a Lesser Jihad -- that the Arabs have tried to conceal from the Western world, even as they have never made much of a secret about it among themselves.

After the Six-Day War, the local Arabs -- not those within Israel as defined by the 1949 Armistice Lines (who continued to simply be called "Arabs") -- but those Arabs who were in the territories won by Israel in a war of self-defense, in Gaza, and in Judea and Samaria (which had been carefully renamed by Jordanian Arabs, in the late 1940s, as "the West Bank" [of the Jordan River] -- a most peculiar designation for such an ear-shaped area), carefully renamed themselves as the "Palestinian people." And the Arabs collectively repackaged their refusal to contemplate the existence of the State of Israel as a “nationalist struggle.” But what has always been behind it is the fact that Islam inculcates the need to retake any inch or dunam of land that has ever been under Muslim control, no matter how tiny that land area may be, or how inoffensive its current Infidel possessors.

More Sharia encroachment -- as well as a brazen flouting of immigration laws, which are weak enough in the first place. "Dial-a-marriage, eh! Islamic law allows telephone nuptials, which enables Muslims to sponsor loved ones to Canada," by Tom Godfrey for the Toronto Sun (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

Long-distance telephone marriages can be dialled up under sharia law and then used to sponsor loved ones into Canada, Muslim leaders say.

Two Muslim leaders have told the Toronto Sun telephone marriages are permissible under Islamic law and require two witnesses and imams here and abroad to conduct the vows, which may have the bride in Pakistan and the groom in Toronto.

Once completed, a marriage certificate is obtained abroad legitimately in Muslim countries and can be used by the groom for sponsoring his new wife to Canada, one Mississauga imam said.

Mumtaz Ali, of the Canadian Association of Muslims, said he conducted a telephone marriage between a student in Toronto and his about-to-be wife in India.

"He was a university student and couldn't leave," Ali said. "It is a civil contract and the vows were conducted over the phone."

A marriage certificate was obtained and the student was able to sponsor his wife to Canada, he said.

The vow takes less than five minutes and a dowry is exchanged to seal the ceremony, Ali said....

What happens when violent jihadists are confronted with democracy in action? This.

"Pakistan suicide blast kills 27: interior minister," from AFP (thanks to JE):

A suicide bomber has killed at least 27 people at an election rally in the northwestern town of Parachinar that borders Afghanistan, interior minister Hamid Nawaz told AFP on Saturday.

"It was a suicide attack, there were people outside the candidate's house and they were waiting for food when this man attacked. I have been told 27 people died and the number of injured is quite high," Nawaz said.

For Pete's sake. This is politics today?

Obama's fainters.

And Bill's and Hillary's.

More on this story from WorldNetDaily (thanks to all who sent this in):

An organization that reaches out to persecuted Christians worldwide, International Christian Concern, says a new Egyptian court ruling allowing 12 Christians who converted to Islam to return to Christianity actually isn't religious freedom, and will place them in grave danger.

The Washington-based human rights group said the recent ruling followed another in which the judge concluded that no one – ever – is allowed to leave Islam.

The difference between the two cases is that the single man seeking to have his national identity card in Egypt reflect that he is a Christian was born a Muslim, while the more recent case, affecting 12 people, involved individuals who were Christian, turned to Islam, and then sought permission to return to Christianity.

On its surface, the ICC said, the ruling appears generous and beneficent. "The ruling enables the Christian identity of the 12 converts to be indicated on their government-issued identity cards," the organization noted. They had been "fighting for their re-conversion to be recognized by the Egyptian government" and now it has.

"Egypt's highest civil court has broken from Islamic tradition and official permitted someone to convert to some other religion than Islam," ICC noted.

However, the "victory" is only partial, and, in fact, "may indeed end up harming more than it helps," the organization said.

"The reason the court recognized these 12 conversions is because they had been Christians before they were Muslims. This does not help Muslim-born Egyptians who convert to Christianity," ICC said.

The group noted the only Muslim-born convert to Christianity to seek Egyption permission to be listed with his Christian identity, Mohammed Hegazy, has been rejected by Egyptian courts.

In that recent decision, Judge Muhammad Husseini said it violates the law for a Muslim to leave Islam.

The report said Husseini cited Article II of the Egyptian constitution, making Islamic religious law the "source" of Egyptian secular law, as the basis for his conclusion.

Since Islam is the "final" and "most complete" religion, Muslims already have full freedom of religion and are not allowed to return to the "less complete" Christianity or Judaism, the ruling said.

"Freedom of religion doesn't mean getting in and out of Islam to another religion, but only means that each person is free to practice his own religious rites, and not playing games with Islam or contradicting sharia law," the website said the judge concluded.

International Christian Concern noted that Hegazy now lives in hiding because of the many death threats from Muslims who consider him apostate, which under Islamic law results in the death penalty.

"Most Muslim-background Christians face such intense persecution that they do not even ask for official recognition of their Christianity for fear of discrimination and persecution from the government and from Muslims," the ICC said.

In the cases involving the 12 actually given permission to be listed, again, as Christian, the danger is just beginning, according to Magdi Khalil, director of the Middle East Freedom Forum.

Since the judge also ordered those Christians to display their "previous Muslim identity" on their national ID cards, the decision creates a high level of danger, Khalil said.

When extremists see their IDs, the Christians could be subject to discrimination or even killed, since they are considered apostates, Khalil explained....

Their radicals

"By reprinting these cartoons we are heading toward a bigger conflict and that shows that both sides will be hostages of their radicals." Our radicals print cartoons. Theirs burn stuff and kill people. And watch it, now: if our radicals keep printing those cartoons, their radicals will be at it again soon.

This is just organized thuggery. The OIC, by issuing this threat, shows itself to be an organization of thugs. Now is the time for Western authorities to stand up strongly and reaffirm the principle of free speech, and explain violent reprisals in the face of a perceived offense are irrational, immature, unacceptable, and will be dealt with in the strongest possible terms. Anyone up for that? Mr. Bush? Mr. Brown? Anyone? Anyone?

"Reprinting of Prophet cartoons sparks outrage," from Lebanon's Daily Star (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) denounced on Friday the reprinting of a Danish cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad, warning it could lead to confrontations between Muslims and Christians. "By reprinting these cartoons we are heading toward a bigger conflict and that shows that both sides will be hostages of their radicals," OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a Turk, said in Istanbul. The Jeddah-based OIC is the world's largest pan-Islamic body, with 57 members.

"It is not a way of improving your rights and exercising your freedoms when you use these rights for insulting the most sacred values and symbols of others and inciting hatred," he said. "This is a very wrong, provocative path - unacceptable."

No, Mr. Ihsanoglu, you are the one inciting hatred, by suggesting that violence in response to a cartoon is morally acceptable. Insulting the sacred values and symbols of others may be obnoxious, but what should be done about it? If you make it a crime to insult those symbols, you are in effect affirming their sacredness as a universal value: those who do not accept the sacredness of those symbols must behave as if they do, so their sacredness becomes a fundamental assumption of the culture at large.

If you make it a crime punishable by law in the West, which I know you want to do and which your coreligionists are already trying to do under the guise of "hate speech" laws, you will have forced Western societies to accept the sacredness of those symbols. And thus the openness to question this status will be removed, and free inquiry about these symbols will be foreclosed. Thus the West will have begun to accept the priority and superiority of Islamic values, which in the context of the total societal model that Sharia represents, means that it will have taken one large step toward its own Islamization.

I am sorry the cartoons offend you, Mr. Ihsanoglu, but I must stand and defend the right of the cartoonists to draw them, and -- in the face of the violent intimidation coming from the Islamic world -- defend also what has become the moral duty of publications to publish them. We live in a world where people in good faith come to differing views of religious truth and virtually everything else also. In a free society, those people live together in peace, being willing to accept the possibility of being offended as the price of being able to have their say also, even if what they have to say might give offense to others. The alternative is to demand that all people, whatever their own perspective, acknowledge and pay obeisance to the superiority and primacy of one value-system and belief-system over all others. And that, of course, is the goal of the Islamic supremacist imperative in the first place.

At first glance this appears to be in clear violation of Islamic law, for punishment by burning is "Allah's punishment," and should not be used by humans -- as indicated by this hadith:

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.' "

However, the Al-Qaeda op in this video says that he is punishing his victims with "the same fire which they committed their crime with" -- although we do not learn what fire these people are supposedly guilty of setting. In any case, that kind of retaliation is allowed by the Qur'an (5:45):

We ordained therein for them: "Life for life, eye for eye, nose or nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal." But if any one remits the retaliation by way of charity, it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) wrong-doers.

So if the jihadists believe these men harmed the Muslims by way of fire, they can lawfully burn them to death.

From FoxNews (thanks to CR):

Al Qaeda's latest display of terror has made its way onto the Internet, showing horrifying images of what appear to be prisoners in Iraq being doused with an inflammatory liquid and then burned alive.

The video, which appears to have been posted first on Google last December in an alleged anti-Al Qaeda Web film, shows five insurgents standing behind three blindfolded prisoners kneeling at the edge of a burning pit.

"And now that we have captured these scums who committed this dreadful crime, we will burn them with this fire," the Al Qaeda leader says in Arabic. "The same fire which they committed their crime with.

"And I swear by God almighty that, I swear by God almighty that we will have no mercy on them," he continues. "Allahuakbar, Allahuakbar."

As he speaks, two of the insurgents pour liquid on the blindfolded prisoners. Then they push the bound men into the pit, where they are engulfed in flames.

You may recall that before the illustrious Dinesh D'Souza was a would-be C.S. Lewis, he was a would-be Bernard Lewis -- and in his disastrous book The Enemy At Home, surely a candidate to be named The Most Wrongheaded Book of the Twenty-First Century, he declared: "If they want Sharia, let them have it."

And he repeated this grand Let-The-People-Rule sentiment just weeks ago, at which time I first noted the analogy between D'Souza and Stephen A. Douglas, who didn't care whether slavery were voted up or down as long as it was voted on -- and I expressed a preference not for a new Stephen A. Douglas, but a new Lincoln.

But now D'Souza is singing a decidedly different tune, excoriating the Archdhimmi of Canterbury for saying that accommodation of Sharia law was "inevitable" in Britain, saying that the Archdhimmi's modest proposal was "absurd," and "a little dangerous to boot."

Now, Dinesh D'Souza knows absurd -- he is, after all, the man who claimed that I want to see Islamic societies replace the Qur'an with the Torah. But this volte-face of his is peculiar. I mean, what if a majority of Britons voted for Sharia? Would he still think it "absurd" and "a little dangerous" to give it to them? What about the almighty popular will?

Or could Dinesh D'Souza actually be waking up to the fact that the things he objects to in his latest post, "chopping off limbs and...honor killings" and all that, might not be so easy to separate from the rest of Sharia? Perhaps this is an encouraging sign: you can't ignore or deny the truth forever. Reality is breaking out all over!

He calls on Sunni Muslims to wage war against the unbelievers. Unbelievers. You mean, he thinks this struggle has something to do with religion? What are you, Al-Ghazzawi, some kind of Islamophobe?

It's-Just-A-Nationalist-Struggle-For-Land Update: "Commander of Fath Al-Islam in Palestine: Palestinians' War with the Jews is Part of Global Jihad," from MEMRI (thanks to Sr. Soph):

An audio recording posted February 12, 2008 on the Islamist website Al-Hesba (hosted by NOC4Hosts Inc. in Florida, USA) featured a 21-minute address by Abu 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Ghazzawi, who, according to the accompanying message, is the commander of Fath Al-Islam in Palestine.

In his address, Al-Ghazzawi (whose name means "from Gaza") urges the Palestinians to participate in the war against "the unbelievers, headed by the U.S., Europe and Iran" who are attacking Islam. He stresses that they must begin by fighting the Jews, who are their nearest enemies.

It should be noted that Al-Ghazzawi refers to the commander of Fath Al-Islam in Lebanon, Shaker Al-'Absi, as "our sheikh," which suggests that the organization in Gaza is connected to Fath Al-Islam in Lebanon.

The following are excerpts from the address:

"We do not follow [the dictates] of the Shi'ite state [i.e. Iran] or the 'Alawi state [i.e. Syria]. We reject tyrants... like those who adhere to democracy, socialism and secularism. Hence, we will begin our battle in Palestine, [with the help of both] the muhajirun [foreign fighters] and the ansar [the local fighters]... uniting our ranks and our opinions... in a war of faith... against the Jews. The war against the nearest enemy [i.e. the Jews] is the most urgent [one]...

"We say to our sheikh, Shaker [Al-'Absi], as well as to Osama [bin Laden], Ayman [Al-Zawahiri] and Abu Omar [Al-Baghdadi]: 'Set forth with Allah's blessing and fight – and we shall fight at your side. Oh Muslims [worldwide] and people of Gaza... you are our support, and through you we shall receive help from Allah... Borders should not come between us... Our God is one, our religion is one, and our enemy is one..."

Stop the Presses!

Palestinians? "'Syria arrests suspects in Mughniyeh assassination,'" from the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Louis):

Syrian security forces have arrested several Palestinians suspects in connection with the assassination of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese security source told Reuters on Friday.

The source added that Hizbullah had appointed a successor to Mughniyeh within hours of his death in a car bomb blast in the Syrian capital.

Earlier Friday, Iran's state news agency reported that Syria and Iran agreed to conduct a joint investigation into the assassination of Mughniyeh,

An Iranian television station aired what it said was mobile phone video footage of the car bomb blast that killed Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

A Tiny Minority of Extremists™ in Gaza rages against free speech and free inquiry.

From AP:

Palestinian Hamas supporters march during a demonstration against the re-publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers, in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008. Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a gesture of solidarity Wednesday after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature that sparked deadly riots in the Muslim world. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

It's Friday, the Friday sermons have been delivered, and you know what that means...

It's Rage Time!

From AP:

Pakistani men burn a Danish flag during a protest rally, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, in Karachi, Pakistan. Angered over the reproduction of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in Denmark, some hundreds of people rallied Friday in various parts of Pakistan, setting fire to Danish flags and demanding the ambassador's expulsion. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Burning thousands of books. But who needs them, if they disagree with the Qur'an? "Militants bomb Gaza YMCA library," from the BBC (thanks to all who sent this in):

Gunmen have attacked the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Gaza City and blown up its library, burning thousands of books, its director says.

Eissa Saba said 14 men overpowered the centre's two security guards before placing bombs in the library and main office. The latter did not explode.

The YMCA in Gaza City is open to Palestinians from all communities.

Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, is home to 3,500 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox.

Some have spoken of intimidation, but correspondents say Hamas itself has not shown hostility towards Christians since it ousted its Fatah party rivals from the territory in June.

Of course not.

Islam forbids stoning, say the disingenuous apologists in the West. But they do not say it to those who need to hear it, such as those who operate the Sharia Courts in Nigeria. Sharia Alert from Reuters (thanks to James):

LAGOS (Reuters) - Six people convicted by Islamic sharia courts in a northern Nigerian state are awaiting death by stoning, while 46 others are waiting for amputation, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported on Friday.

The men on death row in Bauchi state include a 52-year-old sentenced in 2004 for getting his teenage step-daughter pregnant and another who was sentenced in 2002 for having sex 13 times with his friend's wife, the agency said.

The report did not say how many people were facing such penalties in 11 other northern Nigerian states that have criminal courts using sharia law. Such data is not collated centrally.

The Bauchi convicts awaiting the amputation of their hands include a 46-year-old trader, Husseini Maidoya, who was convicted in 2002 for hacking off the leg of his wife after accusing her of unfaithfulness.

A sharia court had then ruled that Maidoya be amputated without the application of anaesthesia.

The sentences have not been executed because the state government is yet to ratify them, the news agency said, quoting the acting secretary of the Bauchi state Sharia Consultative Council, Ishiaku Tijjani.

Bauchi is one of 12 states in Nigeria's mainly Islamic north that adopted a harsh sharia-based criminal code eight years ago. The move alienated large Christian minorities and sparked bouts of sectarian violence that killed thousands....

The world-famous professional protestor is back, aided and abetted by a complicit media, and he's raging lustily at the kuffar in the latest round of Muhammad Cartoon Rage.

Once again, Brian C. Ledbetter at Snapped Shot is on the case.

That's part of a limerick Pamela wrote for her introduction of Mark Steyn at CPAC. Read the rest here.

Yes, I'm a bit late with this, but I just saw it, thanks to Michelle Malkin.

And here's a column I wrote awhile back, "Stand By Steyn."

A Stop-The-Presses! Alert from Dhimmi Britannia. From the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

Britain has become a soft touch for terrorists, leading defence experts warn today.

The world-renowned Royal United Services Institute has delivered an unprecedented attack on the Government's security policy.

It warns that a failure to "lay down the line" to immigrant populations is undermining the fight against domestic extremism.

It condemns the country's "fragmented" national identity and obsession with multiculturalism.

And it accuses ministers of a "piecemeal and erratic response" to urgent threats to the nation and of starving the armed forces of cash to the point of "chronic disrepair".

The security think tank, which has unrivalled contact with senior political and military figures, urges ministers to abandon "flabby and bogus strategic thinking" and to make the defence of the realm the "first duty of Government".

The bleak assessment comes as top security officials warn that planned job cuts could undermine the UK's intelligence performance.

Read it all.

What's that? It wasn't Islamophobes who did this? It was Muslim-on-Muslim jihad violence? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

"Twin suicide attacks at Iraq mosque kill four," from AFP (thanks to Sr. Soph):

MOSUL, Iraq - A double attack on Friday by two suicide bombers outside a crowded Shia mosque in the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar killed at least four people and wounded 17, police said.

Tal Afar police chief Brigadier General Ibrahim Al Juburi said security forces shot both bombers but that the men still managed to detonate their suicide vests.

The attacks came during Friday prayers when the Shaikh Jawad Al Sadiq mosque was crowded with worshippers.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family." -- from the British report quoted here

This is Prince Bandar, smiling Prince Bandar. The one with the estate in Virginia. The one with the vast chalet in Aspen, where he had the top of an entire mountain removed so as to improve his view. The one who has that Plantagenet hunting-lodge outside London. The one who became the longest-serving diplomat in Washington, who entertained so lavishly all of his many good and great friends of both parties. The one who defended the massive thievery of the Al-Saud with his usual actor's routine, as he served the port and distributed the box of cigars, that "after all, all governments are corrupt and it is only a matter of degree" -- and how, after all, could the Americans present, all of them recognizing the corruption in their own government, and of which some of them were no doubt more than observers, disagree?

Prince Bandar, the Smiler With the Knyf Under the Cloke, the one who was allowed in, or rather allowed himself in, to secret policy-planning sessions just before the war in Iraq. Prince Bandar, the one who was a regular tennis partner of Colin Powell, to whose wife he gave a jaguar, the very same one she had once possessed, and had let drop in conversation how much she missed it. Prince Bandar –whom did he not touch? Was there a President, or a Secretary of State, or a National Security Advisor, or members of key Congressional committees, or generals preparing arms sales of all kind, from AWACS back in 1980 to the most advanced weaponry now, or people in the Energy Department who never managed to come up with even the semblance of an intelligent energy policy, who never met Prince Bandar?

This ought to be front-page headline news all over the world. Why isn't it?

And is the State Department looking into the implications of this? Or will Bush return hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia, in the spirit of his recent (rejected) request for a lowering of oil prices, and ask, Please, Sir, will you ease up on the global jihad?

Can there really be any further doubt about which side the Saudis are on?

Friend and Ally Update: "BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince," by David Leigh and Rob Evans in The Guardian (thanks to Davida):

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was "just as if a gun had been held to the head" of the government.

Read it all.

Of course, helping the KLA was all the rage at one time, with the usual short-sightedness and Fantasy-Based Analysis that generally prevails in Washington. We can only hope that if McCain is elected (and I still rather suspect that the Clinton Machine will prevail over all obstacles and win the big prize, although I'd be just fine with being proven wrong), this is one of those things he wouldn't do again.

Why? D Martyr explains at Al Salibiyyah: "The KLA - The Kosovo Liberation Army - is an Islamic terrorist group responsible for beheadings, torture, rape, burning down churches filled with Christians, and other atrocities. To this day, the KLA insurgency continues the systematic persecution and genocidal cleansing of Serbian civilians residing in Albania. The former leaders, enjoying life as high paid politicians in the Albania Government, are unapologetic for the crimes committed."

From Svet (thanks to D Martyr):

"He did everything that we asked of him, including arming the KLA", said Albanian lobbyist Joe DioGuardi. The Albanians collected one million dollars for the presidential campaign of this senator.

Americans of Albanian heritage collected a million dollars in one evening for the presidential campaign of Republican Senator John McCain, said the Albanian American Civic League yesterday, the lobby group headed by former Congressman Joe DioGuardi. A reception for McCain was held January 22 at the Saint Regis Hotel in Manhatten, and the senator, who is now leading in the runoff for the Republican party candidacy in the November elections, cut his campaign in Florida by one day to attend this gathering.

"Even in 1998 when we had problems with Milosevic, McCain did everything that we asked of him to the benefit of the Albanian people, including arming the KLA", announced DioGuardi. "We are American Albanians and we need a leader who will strengthen this country... We must support John McCain because he did everything we asked of him for Kosovo, from supporting the Kosovo Liberation Army to supporting the independence of Kosovo. Two years ago he spoke in Brussels and said that independence is the only solution", concluded this former congressman who has been fighting for the independence of Kosovo and Metohija for more than twenty years.

He explained that the first thing McCain said to him when he entered the hotel in Manhatten on January 22: "Joe, I saw your people in Michigan, and in South Carolina and in New Hampshire", from which this lobbyist deduced that all Americans of Albanian background will be voting for the senator from Arizona....

But I'm just an "Islamophobe."

What's the matter, John, didn't you get the memo?

The above image was posted in 2005 by the Islamic Thinkers Society, the outfit that trampled on the flag on video and then wished painful torment from Allah on me when I posted the video -- which is tantamount to asking that someone fulfill Allah's will in this regard.

Anyway, seriously, Cinnamon Stillwell has a terrific piece at FrontPage on the Saudi-funded pseudo-academic John Esposito speaking at Stanford, tracing Esposito's continued peddling of the most absurd excuses and apologetics for the global jihad.

Burning cars makes it all better. Not better yet? Better burn more cars.

Cartoon Rage Update. As usual, the demographics of the "youths" aren't even hinted at, beyond their being from a "predominantly immigrant area," until the issue of the Muhammad cartoons is raised. So... are we to suppose bored, non-Muslim "youths" were rioting over Muhammad cartoons? "Copenhagen police arrest six in fifth night of riots," from Agence France-Presse:

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Six youths were arrested in Copenhagen for setting cars and dumpsters ablaze and throwing stones at police in a fifth night of riots in a predominantly immigrant area of the Danish capital, police said Friday.

"We've had six arrests so far. They've been charged with throwing stones at police and setting fires to cars and waste containers," Chief Inspector Henrik Olesen of the Copenhagen police told AFP.

At least 11 cars were torched in various neighbourhoods of Copenhagen, and 10 others in the nearby town of Kokkedal.

On Thursday, 17 youths were arrested for rioting the previous night.

"We don't know why they're rioting. I think it's because they're bored. Some people say it's because of the cartoons but that's not my opinion," Olesen said.

He was referring to the reprinting of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in 17 Danish newspapers on Wednesday.

The drawing, published in Denmark for the first time in 2005, sparked several months of angry protests in the Muslim world in 2006. It depicted the prophet with a turban resembling a bomb with a lit fuse.

Protests have flared up again in several Muslim countries including Kuwait and Pakistan following the reprinting. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas also condemned the publication.

The caricature was reprinted this week after Danish police uncovered a plot to kill the cartoonist.

Three people were arrested for planning the murder, including two Tunisians who have lived in Denmark for more than seven years and whom Denmark has decided to expel without a trial.

That decision has been heavily criticised by human rights associations and some politicians and legal experts in Denmark.

That's nothing. Toto almost got neutered.

Witchcraft! Sure, that's the most plausible explanation. More on this story. "Rights group urges Saudi king to spare woman convicted of 'witchcraft," from Agence France-Presse:

DUBAI (AFP) — Human Rights Watch appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Thursday to spare the life of a woman who was condemned to death for "witchcraft".

"King Abdullah should halt the execution of Fawza Falih and void her conviction for 'witchcraft,'" the New York-based HRW, adding it had delivered the appeal in a letter to the Saudi king.

"The religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence against absurd charges," it said.

"The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes like witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective criminal investigations," said Joe Stork, the Middle East director at HRW.

It charged that the judges relied on Falih's "coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had 'bewitched' them to convict her" in April 2006, following her arrest in May 2005.

Falih had "retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and that as an illiterate woman she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint", said HRW.

"At one point, she had to be hospitalised as a result of beatings" at the hands of the religious police, called the "mutaween" in the ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, it said.

HRW said: "The judges never investigated whether her confession was voluntary or reliable, or investigated her allegations of torture.

"They never even made an inquiry as to whether she could have been responsible for allegedly supernatural occurrences, such as the sudden impotence of a man she is said to have 'bewitched'."

HRW said that an appeals court had ruled Falih could not be sentenced to death for "witchcraft" as a crime against God because she had retracted her confession.

She had been condemned to death in April 2006 for "witchcraft, recourse to jinn (supernatural beings), and slaughter" of animals, it said.

But lower court judges then sentenced her to death "on a 'discretionary' basis, for the benefit of 'public interest' and to 'protect the creed, souls and property of this country'", it said.

HRW did not specify Falih's nationality but referred in its letter to the king to her relatives in Jordan.

In November, Egyptian pharmacist Mustapha Ibrahim, who worked in the northern city of Arar, was beheaded by the sword for "sorcery" under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic laws for allegedly trying to separate a married couple.

"What do you mean, no virgins for a planned attack?"

He was planning with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others. "Mughniyeh Was in Midst of Planning Mass Terror Attack," by Hillel Fendel for Israel National News (thanks to Sr. Soph):

(IsraelNN.com) A Kuwaiti newspaper reports that Hizbullah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car-bomb attack in Damascus on Tuesday, was in the midst of planning major terrorist attacks in moderate Arab countries when he was killed.

Al-Watan reports that American intelligence had learned that Mughniyeh arrived in Damascus three days earlier with instructions from, and in coordination with, the Iranians. His objective was to meet with Hizbullah leaders and coordinate a mass attack, for which he was to receive help from Syrian intelligence.

The American involvement in the killing is explained as being in retaliation for a recent car bomb attack that targeted a U.S. Embassy vehicle...

Another Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Siasa, reports that Mughniyeh took part, shortly before he was killed, in a secret meeting in the Iranian School in Damascus. Also participating in the meeting were Syrian Intelligence Chief Gen. Aisaf Shwackath, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, and an Islamic Jihad representative. On the agenda: planned attacks in Arab countries that refuse to take part in the coming Arab League summit in Damascus. The newspaper entertains the possibility that the meeting was merely a camouflage for Syrian involvement in Mughniyeh's killing.

There's more to this story than one bombing, and one hospital administrator. "U.S. military: Al Qaeda in Iraq seeks female patients as bombers," by Arwa Damon and Jomana Karadsheh for CNN:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Al Qaeda in Iraq is recruiting female patients at Baghdad's two psychiatric hospitals for suicide missions -- with the help of hospital staff -- according to the U.S. military.

The U.S. military believes al Qaeda in Iraq has operatives within the hospitals' staffs who are passing on patients' files and contact information to the militant group, a senior U.S. military official said, requesting anonymity.

The apparent recruiting effort came to light this month when Iraqi officials said that two female bombers in deadly pet market attacks in Baghdad that left nearly 100 dead were mentally challenged.

One of the female bombers had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression at Baghdad's Ibn Rushd psychiatric hospital, where she received electric shock treatments, the hospital's director said in an exclusive interview.

As part of the investigation into the February 1 attack, U.S. and Iraqi forces detained the acting director of Baghdad's main psychiatric facility, Rashad Hospital, on Sunday.

He faces questions about whether he provided patient files and contact information to al Qaeda in Iraq, a U.S. military spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, said Wednesday.

The U.S. military is looking into whether there is a direct link between the two hospitals, which are treating an overabundance of Iraqis suffering from psychiatric disorders brought on by the war.

A U.S. military official said information from a source led them to Rashad Hospital's acting director. The U.S. military also said it believes that al Qaeda in Iraq is trying to use other women released from Rashad Hospital to carry out future suicide bombings.

The detained hospital chief took over the position after Rashad's director was fatally gunned down in December reportedly for refusing to cooperate with al Qaeda in Iraq.

Nicholas Sarkozy delivered a speech recently that, by contemporary standards, was not entirely deplorable. But not everything in Sarkozy's speech was good. There were two deplorable parts:

"Evoquant les négociations actuelles entre Israéliens et Palestiniens, il a jugé qu'un accord ‘d'ici la fin de l'année est possible’, plaidant pour la création d'un ‘choc de confiance’ à même de susciter une adhésion populaire au processus né de la conférence d'Annapolis, cet automne."

This shows the limits of Sarkozy's understanding of Islam, and therefore of the Lesser Jihad against Israel, and of how impossible, and also damaging, the mere holding of such negotiations, leading to one more version, of so many, of the Treaty of al-Hudaibiyyah, in which Israel will exchange its solemn commitments, faithfully to be obseerved, for false promises by the Slow Jihadists of Fatah, not one of which will be honored.

Still worse was this:

The WND subhead calls this an "astonishing claim," but there isn't really anything astonishing about it. Qur'an 3:67 says that Abraham was a Muslim, and deny they'll help restore burned tomb, and 12:38 has Joseph himself saying, "Never could we attribute any partners whatever to Allah" -- a hallmark of Islamic belief. 12:101 has Joseph praying, "Make me die a Muslim (مسلما)."

What few people realize is that Islam does not consider itself to be the third "Abrahamic faith," contrary to the fond imaginings of Jimmy Carter and George Bush and Karen Hughes and all the rest. It considers itself to be the only Abrahamic faith, the true faith of all the patriarchs and prophets, including Joseph and Abraham, and of which Judaism and Christianity are but falsifications and perversions.

By Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

In the wake of an attempt by Palestinians to burn down Joseph's Tomb – Judaism's third holiest site – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction issued a statement denying it will help restore the shrine, referring to both the shrine and the biblical patriarch as "Muslim."

"Pay no attention to the rumors that we will work with Israel to restore the burial site of the holy Muslim Joseph," said the statement, issued from Nablus, the biblical city of Shechem. "We are going to guard this holy Muslim site."

Joseph's Tomb is the believed burial place of the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became viceroy of Egypt.

Palestinian security officials in Nablus said Monday they were called to the tomb to find 16 burning tires inside the sacred structure. A Palestinian police official who inspected the site told WND there was some fire damage to the tomb.

He said the Palestinian Authority, fearing embarrassment, immediately formed a joint committee from the PA's Force 17, Preventative Security Services and Palestinian intelligence, to find out who was behind the fire.

The move comes after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced last week he would ask Israel's Defense Ministry to work with the PA to reconstruct and restore the tomb, parts of which were destroyed in 2000 by Palestinians, including known PA security officers....

Via Snapped Shot, where Brian C. Ledbetter has more.

Poisoning food with feces is detailed as a tactic in the Al-Qaeda manual found a few years ago by British intelligence.

"It was not our fault but I don't want to talk about it," said Hasmi. Whose fault was it?

"Shop-owners sold chocolate cake sprinkled with human faeces," from the Daily Mail (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Two shop-owners were today fined for selling chocolate cake - which had been sprinkled with human faeces.

A horrified customer ate the foul-smelling gateaux but noticed that it didn't taste or smell "quite right" and handed the cake to public health scientists.

The analysts soon established that the sweet treat was covered in faeces and legal proceedings against the shop owners were started.

Shop owners Saeed Hasmi, 25, and Jan Yadgari, 23, were fined £1,500 for selling food unfit for human consumption.

The pair - who ran the Italiano Pizzeria in Roath, Cardiff - admitted the charge but did not say how the chocolate cake was contaminated.

The takeaway is a favourite with late-night revellers and students living around the takeaway close to Cardiff University. [...]

Hasmi and Yadgari at first denied the charge but pleaded guilty at Cardiff magistrates court before the trial.

Hasmi, of Roath, Cardiff, and Yadgari, of Adamsdown, Cardiff, were each fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £200 costs.

After the case Hasmi said: "It was not our fault but I don't want to talk about it.

"I'm not working in the food industry anymore. I want to do something else.

"We are sorry for the people who ate it," he said.

"The statements of the [mayor] show that the city of Amsterdam is creating a parallel systems for Muslims, by Muslims and based on Muslim values."

Klein Verzet (thanks to the Constantantinopolitan Irredentist) has the report:

...The mayor told this after questions, in the city council, of local Christian politician Maurice Limmen. In the ensuing debate he said it did not matter if government workers discriminated against woman or homosexuals. As long as they did their work, he did not see any problem. He was explicitly referring to street coaches and social security personnel. The street coaches are a kind of light police force, who work in the predominately Muslim neighborhoods. The statements of the major show that the city of Amsterdam is creating a parallel systems for Muslims, by Muslims and based on Muslim values.

But of course, this has nothing to do with Islam. Everyone knows that.

"It is all designed to incite would-be pursuers of jihad to pursue violent jihad and to stir themselves to get on and do it." Of course, British authorities would disagree.

"Libary designed to stir up jihad, says prosecutor," by Katie Bice for the Herald Sun (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

AN ARTICLE praising the September 11 hijackers and videos of Muslim extremists beheading hostages were found in raids on a home-grown terror cell, a court heard yesterday.

A "common library" of terror manuals and videos was shared by group members and was designed to stir them up to commit violent jihad, prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, said.

He said Abdullah Merhi was found with a book entitled The 19 Lions, which heaped praise on those involved in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in 2001 that killed almost 3000 people.

"It glorifies the 19 aircraft hijackers responsible . . . and hails them as martyrs, suggesting they will go down in history for perpetrating one of the greatest victories that has ever been perpetrated in the name of Islam," he said.

"It is all designed to incite would-be pursuers of jihad to pursue violent jihad and to stir themselves to get on and do it."

The Victorian Supreme Court jury was told the book says the 19 were "martyrs" who made a glorious and noble oath to carry out the terror attack, and it terrified non-believers "to their very core".

Another document held by seven alleged group members, entitled Clarification of what occurred in America, said that the atrocity was justified in Islam.

But of course, this has nothing to do with Islam. Everyone knows that.

I know, I know, what else is new? But after Mughniyeh has gone to his virgins, the saber-rattling is increasing.

"Al-Qaida in Iraq threatens Israel," by Maamoun Youssef for Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - The purported leader of al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq called in a new posting on a militant Web site on Thursday for attacks on Israel and proposed that Iraq's territory be a "launching pad" to seize Jerusalem.

In the 30-minute audiotape, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, said to head the Islamic State of Iraq, lashed out at Arab and Palestinian groups — especially the Palestinian Hamas — for failing to liberate the Palestinians. [...]

In the latest audiotape, al-Baghdadi also threatened moderate Palestinians, saying that jihad makes "no distinctions between the infidel Jews and the renegade Palestinians ... between (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert and his criminals and (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas and his gang."

He called the state of Israel a "wicked germ sown in the (Palestinian) nation's body which should be uprooted, even if the traitors signed thousands of surrender treaties."

Much of the audiotape was devoted to threats against Hamas political leaders "who betrayed the nation and turned against the blood of the martyrs," al-Baghdadi said, also saying that Hamas has been pressuring its military wing not to stage rocket attacks on Israel but to accept a truce.

Al-Baghdadi called for "opening new fronts to ease the American and Jewish pressure off the Palestinians while bolstering the fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan." He urged every "working Muslim to spare 2 dollars a month, half of it would go to our Palestinian brothers and the other half to finance other fronts."

As for attacks on Israel, al-Baghdadi said the "Islamic state in Iraq will be the cornerstone for the return of Al-Quds" and added the group was trying to use Iraq's western province of al-Anbar as a launching pad for missiles against Israel — the same way the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired 31 missiles against the Jewish state in the Gulf War.

"The Jews and the Americans have realized this and tried by all means to prevent us from achieving this target including the fierce campaign on al-Anbar, knowing that it is easy to fire missiles on Israel from some parts there," al-Baghdadi said.

"Hezbollah chief threatens Israel," by Sam F. Ghattas for Associated Press:

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The chief of Hezbollah threatened Thursday to retaliate against Israeli targets after accusing the Jewish state of killing the militant Imad Mughniyeh in Syria.

Hassan Nasrallah addressed supporters of the Lebanese Islamic militant group in a videotaped eulogy broadcast on a giant screen at the Beirut funeral for Mughniyeh, who was accused of masterminding dramatic attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s.

"You have killed Hajj Imad outside the natural battlefield," Nasrallah said in remarks directed at Israel. Hezbollah has long contended it only fights Israel within Lebanon and along their common border.

"You have crossed the borders," Nasrallah said. "With this murder, its timing, location and method — Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this war be open."

Sure, pal. Like it wasn't already.

From Amazon.com: The "Robert Spencer Loves Me" T-Shirt!

And I do. Every last one of you.

Seriously, I have no idea who is making these t-shirts, or why, although I'm sure they have nothing to do with me. There is a Broadway actor who has the misfortune of sharing a name with me, and I suspect that both the shirt above and the "I love Robert Spencer" t-shirt are referring to him. Nevertheless, this is a day for "fun," which is highly un-Islamic according to the irascible and fantastic old Khomeini, and so in celebration and defense of the Civilization of Joy and Fun, I offer you the greetings of the day.

Hmmm. What would masked men in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, want with nuclear experts? Perhaps they want to discuss how nuclear bombs violate the peaceful teachings of Islam. Yeah, that must be it. "Nuclear experts kidnapped in Pakistan," from Agence France-Presse (thanks to Dav):

TWO Pakistani nuclear energy officials have been abducted by masked men from a troubled northwestern area near the Afghan border, police said today.

The kidnappers bundled the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) workers and their driver into a vehicle in Sheikh Badin, a town in militancy-hit Dera Ismail Khan district, local police chief Akbar Nasir said.

"They were technicians from the PAEC, they were whisked away early Monday morning," Mr Nasir said.

The officials were on a routine visit to conduct a geological survey for mineral exploration in the mountainous area, which adjoins Pakistan's lawless tribal regions, the police chief said.

"We don't know if the abductors were militants or members of some criminal gang," he said, adding that they were believed to be from the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

"A search is underway, we are contacting local people ... We are all trying but so far we have no clues."...

I got better.

Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Saudis to execute a woman for witchcraft," by Donna Abu-Nasr for Associated Press (thanks to Louis):

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the kingdom's religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law."

Falih's case underscores shortcomings in Saudi Arabia's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Witchcraft is considered an offense against Islam in the conservative kingdom.

And of course it is that very thing!

Leftist/Jihadist Connection Update. "Cindy Sheehan in Egypt for Islamists," by Maggie Michael for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO, Egypt - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan joined a protest Wednesday seeking the support of Egypt's first lady in ending a military trial of members of the country's largest Islamic organization.

Under the watchful eyes of dozens of black-clad and helmeted anti-riot police, some 50 heavily veiled wives and children of 40 senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood detained for the past year, gathered in front of the headquarters of first lady Suzanne Mubarak's National Council Women carrying banners calling for their release.

"I am here to protest the trial of civilians in front of a military tribunal as this is a violation to international law," said Sheehan, who gained fame in the U.S. for her sit-in outside President Bush's Texas ranch following the death of her son in Iraq.

"As a mother of a son who was killed in the war, I presented a letter to Ms. Suzanne Mubarak to realize how those women and children are suffering."...

Hmmm. Now what could Afghan nationals who don't speak Spanish want with Mexican passports? It boggles the mind! Maybe they were hoping to make their way to Mexico City for conferences with Mexican leaders on improving Afghan/Mexican relations. Or maybe they were hoping to craft a new brand of Afghan/mariachi world music. Or maybe...

"Three Afghan nationals held at Nedumbaserry Airport," from United News of India (thanks to the Jawa Report):

Kochi, Feb 13 (UNI) Three Afghan nationals were arrested at the Nedumbaserry International Airport, near here, today for travelling on fake Mexican passports, Immigration officials said.

The three were earlier in the day deported from Kuwait after authorities there doubted their claim to be Mexican nationals.

Immigration and other security officials interrogated the three for several hours and finally arrested them on charges of travelling on forged passports.

According to Immgiration officials, they were Afghan nationals trying to go to France. However, their real names have not been disclosed so far.

The Mexican passports which they were carrying identified them as Antonio Lopez Juan (42), Javier Sanchez Alberto (20) and Atonio Lopez Ernesto (16). They had left from Nedumbaserry Airport on February 11 for Kuwait en route to France.

However, the emigration officials at Kuwait had found them to be suspects as they reportedly could not understand any Spanish. They also suspected the passports to be forged. The three were then deported to Nedumbaserry today....

In FrontPage today I discuss the almost universally un-noticed genocidal aspect of today’s global Islamic jihad:

The genocidal aspect of today’s global Islamic jihad has received scant attention from the media or from human rights activists. Yet it is unmistakable. The jihadists aim to eradicate or subjugate all non-Muslim peoples, and to destroy and efface not only all non-Muslim governments, but all societies and cultures that are not Islamic.

The most prominent non-Muslim society in the jihadists’ sights is, of course, Israel. Islamic leaders have repeatedly reaffirmed their desire that the Jewish State cease to exist – an outcome that could only become reality in a genocidal context. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the President of Iran, has expressed this on many occasions, saying flatly that “the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come.” He has affirmed that “the Islamic umma (community) will not allow its historic enemy [Israel] to live in its heartland.” Israel’s end is near: “There is no doubt that the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot [Israel] from the face of the Islamic world.” America’s, too: “The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible.”

In this Jihad Watch video at Hot Air, I discuss the "shameful" practice of some presidential candidates: they dare to (gasp!) "link Islam with terrorism"!

The noted academic Juan Cole figures in this one. Care to debate this question, Dr. Cole? If so, I can be reached at director@jihadwatch.org.

In the featured article at Human Events today I discuss the joyless reaction to Valentine's Day in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Good grief. No Valentines for you, Charlie Brown. At least not in Kuwait. And no roses or cards with red hearts for you, Lucy. Not in Saudi Arabia. The ever-tolerant Muslim world is now condemning Valentine’s Day.

Jamaan al-Harbash, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, has called for Valentine’s Day celebrations to be banned. “We call on the commerce minister,” he declared in a fine froth of moral indignation, “to perform his duties by banning celebrations of Valentine’s Day which is alien to our society -- and contradicts our religion’s values and teachings.” Another Kuwaiti MP, Waleed al-Tabtabai, chief of a committee in parliament that monitors “alien practices,” said his committee will undertake a study this week on how to stop Valentine’s Day from initiating the “moral corruption” of Kuwaiti youth.

Over in Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the notorious religious police who go by the name of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have banned red roses. The Virtue Cops have even ordered florists and gift shops in Riyadh to take any red item off the shelf, lest Saudi lovebirds associate red with hearts and start a-spooning. Nothing new in that: in 2004, the Saudi fatwa committee forbade Saudis from celebrating the day: “It is a pagan Christian holiday and Muslims who believe in God and Judgment Day should not celebrate or acknowledge it or congratulate (people on it). It is a duty to shun it to avoid God’s anger and punishment.”

This is not just an Arabian Peninsula thing, either. Last year in Malaysia, a government official, Muhammad Ramli Nuh, declared, according to the Bernama News Agency, that “celebrating the Day could be regarded as recognizing the enemies of Islam because Valentine or Valentinus took part in planning and attacking Cordoba, once a well-known centre of Islam in Spain, causing its downfall.” Actually, St. Valentine was a third-century Christian martyr in the Roman Empire, but give Muhammad Ramli Nuh points for imagination.

In FrontPage yesterday I reviewed Ibn Warraq's superb new book, Defending the West:

With jihad terrorists around the world making recruits and justifying their actions by reference to Islamic teachings, academic study of Islam is needed more urgently than ever. Yet in today’s universities, political correctness almost completely forecloses any honest examination of the elements of Islamic culture or belief. Much of this is the result of the work of the late Edward Said, a hugely influential professor and author of the book Orientalism, which has set the tone for Middle East Studies in the United States ever since its first appearance in the 1970s. Said contended that Western academic study of Islam and the Middle East was deformed by notions of cultural superiority, and was a racist handmaiden of Western colonialism and imperialism.

Said’s word has become law. On most campuses today any examination of matters Islamic that is even remotely critical is shouted down and labeled bigotry and “hate speech.” Pre-1960 works by Western scholars on Islamic and Middle Eastern studies are disparaged or ignored. Said’s influence has for three decades now had the baneful effect of inhibiting academic and public debate about crucial issues such as how Islam must be reformed and whether or not this reform can be accomplished, and how Muslims and non-Muslims can develop a framework for peaceful coexistence as equals on an indefinite basis.

For a very worthwhile two hours, I encourage you to tune into The Schnitt Show, hosted by Todd Schnitt of Tampa, Florida, today from 1:00-3:00PM PST, 4-6 EST, on AM 970 WFLA Tampa. The show can be streamed live at www.970wfla.com. It is also broadcast nationally on XM Channel 152.

The guest on the show role-plays an Islamic jihadist, interviewed in character by Schnitt and taking live calls. I have seen him do this in person; he does an outstanding job, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the jihad ideology and a comprehensive understanding of the jihadist mindset. He is so authentic that some native speakers of Arabic in the audience were sure he also was a native speaker.

This presentation pulls no punches and is, to say the least, eye-opening. Invite your Paulian and Obamaist friends and sit back and watch the fun!

If this "makes" you riot, you have a bigger problem than being offended.

Anti-dhimmitude. By Jan M. Olsen for the Associated Press:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad today that triggered rioting in Muslim countries two years ago.

The newspapers said they republished the cartoon to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after the arrest Tuesday of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

The drawing by Kurt Westergaard and 11 other cartoons depicting Muhammad enraged Muslims when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers in early 2006.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even a favorable one, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, reprinted Westergaard's cartoon in its paper edition Wednesday. Several other major dailies, including Politiken and Berlingske Tidende, also reprinted the drawing.

"We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend," said the Copenhagen-based Berlingske Tidende.

Tabloid Ekstra Bladet reprinted all 12 drawings.

At least three European newspapers – in Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain – also reprinted the cartoon as part of their coverage of the Danish arrests.

Intelligence police arrested two Tunisians and a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin in western Denmark on Tuesday for allegedly plotting to kill Westergaard.

The Danish suspect was released Tuesday after questioning, his lawyer Henning Lyngsbo said.

"He has no knowledge about the case," Lyngsbo told The Associated Press. "It doesn't seem that the evidence is very strong.''

Intelligence service chief Jakob Scharf had indicated the man would be released, but could still face charges of violating a Danish terror law. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark because they were considered threats to national security, Scharf said.

Danish Muslim leaders condemned the alleged murder plot, but also said reprinting Westergaard's cartoon was the wrong way to protest.

"There could have been other ways to do it without the drawing, which I personally do not like," Abdul Wahid Petersen, a moderate imam, told The Associated Press.

Imam Mostafa Chendid, the leader of the Islamic Faith Community, said his group was considering staging a rally in front of Parliament. The Copenhagen-based group spearheaded protests against the cartoons in 2006.

"We are so unhappy about the cartoon being reprinted," Chendid told the AP. "No blood was ever shed in Denmark because of this, and no blood will be shed. We are trying to calm down people, but let's see what happens. Let's open a dialogue.''

What remains to be seen -- and it's a longshot -- is whether the U.N. will put any substantive pressure on the Saudis to change their ways, or accept lip service to the notion of human rights, the usual claims that Islamic law is perfectly compatible with women's rights, and assurances that change will come if we're all just patient a little longer.

More on this story, which included a claim from Riyadh that "generally there was 'no discrimination against women in the laws of the kingdom'." "Saudi women complain of discrimination, abuse," from Agence France-Presse:

RIYADH - A UN expert on women’s rights said on Wednesday she had heard accounts of serious discrimination against women and abuses by religious police during a visit to ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia.

There also appears to be no timeframe for lifting a ban on women’s driving, Yakin Erturk, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, told reporters at the end of a 10-day visit to the Muslim kingdom.

Fear not: There's always the Cadillac with rear-seat controls. Really empowering, isn't it?

Erturk said that while some Saudi women she met during her visit at the government’s invitation expressed satisfaction with their lives, ‘others have raised concerns of serious levels of discriminatory practices against women that compromise their rights and dignity as full human beings.’

Others related ‘the domestic abuse they systematically encounter with little prospect of redress.’

Erturk said that progress had been made in women’s access to education, but there has been no comparable increase in their participation in the labour force, mainly due to sex segregation in the workplace, and they are ‘particularly excluded from decision-making positions.’

She said many of her interlocutors complained about the behaviour of the religious police, or Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice who are commonly known as Muttawa and enforce a strict Islamic moral code.

‘The Muttawa are said to be responsible for serious human rights abuses in harassing, threatening and arresting women who ‘deviate from accepted norms’,’ the UN official said, citing an incident reported during her visit in which they arrested a businesswoman for sitting in a coffee shop with a male colleague in Riyadh.

Erturk said she had not met any officials from the religious police during her visit, which followed a report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which stated that women in the kingdom were the victims of systematic and pervasive discrimination across all aspects of social life.

Women in Saudi Arabia, which applies a rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism, face a host of constraints, including the driving ban. They are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and cannot mix with men other than relatives or travel without written permission from their male guardian.

Erturk, who met officials and human rights groups, said she had raised the driving ban during her talks but did not feel there was a specific timeframe for solving the issue.

What matters in enabling women to drive is that this would give them freedom to move and work, she said.

Erturk, who will report to the UN Human Rights Council, said recently adopted judicial reforms which foresee the establishment of family courts, together with a draft law on domestic violence, were ‘promising initiatives,’ but more needed to be done to combat violence against women.

This includes adoption of a legal framework based on international human rights standards that would cover violence and family matters, establishment of a ‘national machinery for women’ to intervene in cases of violence, and ‘positive action policies and plans’ to empower women.

As long as officials deny any connection between such institutionalized abuse of women with Islam, which Erturk does here, there certainly will be no "specific timeframe" for resolving any of those issues.

Sure. More murder is just the thing to refute the point of a cartoon like this.

The Jawa Report has this update on the latest from Samir Khan (the North Carolina resident behind the website "Inshallah Shaheed") :

If this isn't an incitement to murder, I don't know what is. Samir Khan, the Charlotte, NC al Qaeda supporter & blogger on Kurt Westergaard and other cartoonists who defied Islamist demands drawing pictures of Mohammed should be illegal, as required by Islamic law. He first shows an image of Westergaard, and then warns:

Keep fearing for your life you white trash....

Anyone who wages war against Allah and His Messenger defiantly and arrogantly, will inevitably face the banner of Laa Ilaaha Illallaah: they will face those who will show them no mercy. “Humble with the believers, harsh against the Disbelievers.”

See Qur'an 5:54.

We wish we were able to express our extreme anger… and Walahi, our blood is boiling and our veins are shaking and our muscles are tightening…

All we can say to the cartoonists is: you fools seem to forget the end of Theo Van Gogh (may Allah’s curse be upon him) and forget to realize that even many of the Danish citizens who are Muslims will not tolerate it because they know the story of Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf and what the Companions of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wassallam) did to him and they know that their Religion allows such a thing.

For more on Ka'b bin al-Ashraf, see Bukhari 5.59.369. But remember that if you speak Arabic (because we're always told the English version loses something and thus allegedly disallows a critical reading of it), Ka'b actually gets a cookie bouquet at the end of the story.

The more these cartoonists act in defiance of Allah and His Messenger, the more they attract a culture of Mujaahideen. Bush didn’t seem to learn from that nor do these low-life cartoonists. So keep showing your chest O Enemies of Allah! You are helping the process of waking up our nation as violent lions who tear apart their enemies with their bare hands.

International pressure gets results, in an update on this story. "Saudi Arabia to reunite divorced couple: UN," from Reuters:

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has promised to allow a couple who were forced to divorce by a religious court to live together again, a UN official said on Wednesday, ending a case that has embarrassed the Islamic state abroad.

Fatima Azzaz and Mansour Al Timani were forced to separate in 2006 after her brothers persuaded judges that her husband was not of sufficiently prestigious tribal stock.

It is one of a series of cases that have drawn international criticism of human rights in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally which is also the world’s top oil exporter.

‘I met Fatima and Mansour and they are both in a terrible state, they are both suffering,’ Yakin Erturk, UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women said.

‘I have been assured by the authorities this issue will be dealt with and, God willing, they will reunite,’ she told reporters after a 10-day fact-finding trip to the country of 24 million.

Fatima Azzaz is being held in a government home for orphans with a young son. She refuses to return to her family home as required by a court order divorcing her from her husband, who has custody of their daughter.

‘It has no basis in Islam, that’s for sure, because in Islam everybody is equal,’ said Erturk, a Muslim from Turkey.

Some are just more equal than others, in little matters such as domestic violence, testimony in court, inheritance, or, on the other hand, Muhammad's survey of the demographics of hell.

Maybe they wanted it for a rousing game of Cops and Robbers. "Five students win terror appeal," from the BBC (thanks to all who sent this in):

The convictions of five young Muslim men jailed over extremist literature have been quashed by the Appeal Court.

Freeing the men, the Lord Chief Justice said there was no proof of terrorist intent. The lawyer for one said they had been jailed for a "thought crime".

A jury convicted the students in 2007 after hearing the men, of Bradford and Ilford, east London, became obsessed with jihadi websites and literature.

The Home Office said it would study the judgement carefully.

'Serious threat'

It said it understood the Crown Prosecution Service was considering whether to appeal against the ruling, which it must do within seven days.

It added that the threat of terrorism remained serious and real and the government was committed to ensuring it had the strongest possible anti-terrorism legal framework.

Irfan Raja, Awaab Iqbal, Aitzaz Zafar, Usman Malik and Akbar Butt were jailed for between two and three years each by the Old Bailey for downloading and sharing extremist terrorism-related material, in what was one of the first cases of its kind.

But at the Court of Appeal, Lord Phillips said that while the men had downloaded such material, he doubted if there was evidence this was in relation to planning terrorist acts.

He said the prosecution had attempted to use the law for a purpose for which it was not intended.

'Huge implications'

Lawyers for the men say the decision to restrict how the law on extremist literature works has huge implications for counter terrorism prosecutions.

Critics inside the Muslim community and civil liberty campaigners say section 57 of the 2000 Terrorism Act has been used as a blunt instrument to prosecute young Muslim men where there is no proof of genuine links to terrorism.

The BBC understands there have been three other convictions under this legislation - more cases are expected before the courts this year.

Imran Khan, solicitor for Mr Zafar, said the five had been prosecuted for "thought crime" and that the ruling would have an significant impact.

He told BBC News: "Young Muslim men before this judgement could have been prosecuted simply for simply looking at any material on the basis that it might be connected in some way to terrorist purposes."

He said section 57 of the 2000 Terrorism Act had been written in such wide terms that "effectively, anybody could have been caught in it" but prosecutors would now have to prove such material was intended for terrorist purposes....

Why else would they want it?

Journalist Jihad Update. "Sadrists say CBS journalists to be freed," by Hamid Ahmed for Associated Press :

BAGHDAD - A deal has been reached with kidnappers for the release of two CBS News journalists, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Basra said Wednesday.

Harith al-Ethari, a director of al-Sadr's office in the southern Iraqi city, said negotiations had persuaded the kidnappers to release the British journalist and his Iraqi interpreter later Wednesday.

"We reached an agreement with kidnappers to hand over the Iraqi interpreter to the police command in Basra and the British journalist will be handed over to al-Sadr's office in Basra this afternoon," al-Ethari told The Associated Press. He did not give a specific time.

Iraqi police and witnesses said the two were seized Sunday from a hotel in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. [...]

Kidnappings of Westerners and Iraqis — for political motives or ransom — were common in the past but have become infrequent recently with a decline in violence.

Since 2004, three journalists — Fakher Haider of The New York Times, as well as James Brandon of Britain and New York freelancer Steven Vincent — have been abducted in Basra, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Brandon was released, but Vincent and Haider were murdered, it said.

According to CPJ, at least 51 journalists have been abducted in Iraq since 2004. The New York-based group said the majority was released, but 12 were killed.

CPJ, which has recorded at least 126 journalists killed since the U.S.-led war started in March 2003, also condemned the murder of a 27-year-old Iraqi journalist this week in Baghdad.

I met Mohamed Elibiary at the America's Truth Forum Symposium in Dallas a few weeks ago. Elibiary is the President and CEO of the Freedom and Justice Foundation, which he cofounded in 2002 to "promote a Centrist Public Policy environment in Texas by coordinating the state level government and interfaith community relations for the organized Texas Muslim community." He has commented at Jihad Watch now and again under the name of "enlightener" -- primarily in connection with the 2004 Dallas conference lauding the "Great Islamic Visionary" Ayatollah Khomeini, at which he spoke, and his subsequent acrimonious discussions with Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher, to whom he issued what looked to many, including me, like a threat.

Anyway, Elibiary and I had an impromptu exchange at the end of the America's Truth Forum Symposium, about which he wrote here, in a post in which his contempt for the proceedings apparently outweighed his concern for accuracy. His account of our exchange is fanciful but entertaining, and overall I thought he was an interesting individual to talk with, so I was glad when he dropped in here again, on this thread.

That was a post about a Hamas spokesman saying, "A Muslim is permitted to say things that oppose his beliefs in order to prevent damages or to be saved from death." Elibiary, as you'll see from his first comment here, objected to my posting it, and to my pointing to Qur'an 3:28 and 16:106 as justifying religious deception. So I accordingly asked him to produce some evidence that what I wrote was inaccurate -- some indication that what the Hamas guy said was wrong, and that religious deception was not permitted in Islam. Elibiary did not ever do so, but we had a long exchange that I've decided to post here on its own because it is illuminating in many ways. I've just reproduced here the posts by him and me; others intervened, and you can read the whole thing on the original thread. In one of his responses below I removed a portion in which he was answering someone else, so that all you see here is what went back and forth between Elibiary and me.

Anyway, here is yet another example of a Muslim critic telling me that what I'm saying is inaccurate, and then, amid forests of obfuscation, never coming up with any actual evidence of the inaccuracy. Awhile ago I wrote a post entitled "Why Can't Muslims Debate?," and here is yet another example: where is the Muslim spokesman who is willing to discuss jihad-related issues on the level of evidence, without diversions, detours, deception, and/or personal attacks? I'm still looking.

In "Defeating terrorism" by Bilal Shahid in The Post of Lahore, we learn the latest antics of the premier non-Muslim jihad apologist, Karen Armstrong. She is "doing a jihad to educate western companions about the misperceptions of Islam."

Recently, I got a chance to hear a lecture on ‘Tolerance in Islam’ by a renowned scholar of world religions, Miss Karen Armstrong. I was amazed to see that the Convention Centre where she was to discuss this issue was jam-packed. There were academicians, intellectuals, scholars, journalists, senior civil and army officers, and a large number of male and female students. This showed the quest for seeking knowledge and also brought to light the popularity of Miss Karen who has written a number of books, including the biography of Holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH). I was delighted to see this magnificent gathering of educated people who came from every nook and corner of the country to hear about Islam’s historic perspective.

Karen Armstrong focused her talk towards intolerance, which springs fanaticism and terrorism. The contents of her speech were so powerful and philosophical that there was a pin-drop silence during an hour long lecture. The point that forced me to pen down a few lines was the use of the word ‘jihad’. Ms Armstrong said, “I am doing a jihad to educate western companions about the misperceptions of Islam.”...

Well, as a "western companion" myself, I think that's just swell, but I wonder: what is Ms. Armstrong doing, or what is Bilal Shahid doing, or what is anyone doing, to educate Muslims about their misperceptions of Islam? After all, almost every day we feature stories here about Muslims committing violence in the name of Islam. If these people are all misunderstanding their own religion, wouldn't it be far more important to educate them about the true, peaceful Islam, than to educate Western non-Muslims who aren't killing people on the basis of their "misperceptions" of Islam?

So what about it, Ms. Armstrong? What efforts are you expending in that direction?

"I'm a policy guy and excuse the directness but when folks in Jihadwatch's world make Islam the problem they are indirectly helping the violent extremists out there." -- from a Muslim apologist, doing his sly damnedest in the comments field here

No, Jihadwatch does not "make Islam the problem." Islam itself -- what is in the Qur'an, the Hadith, the Sira -- is what makes Islam the problem. That, and the tenets that naturally arise from those texts, and that, over 1350 years, in many different lands, with many different sets of non-Muslims, have been acted on, by Muslim conquerors determined to kill, or convert, or permanently reduce to that subjugated status of "dhimmi" all those conquered non-Muslims.

If we ignore history, and ignore the texts of Islam, then we can all play the game of "Let's Pretend." But playing the game of "Let's Pretend" is what has gotten the countries of Western Europe in the fix they are in. Playing "Let's Pretend" simply allows non-Muslims to continue to ignore reality, continue to turn their heads away, as people in the last century, and more than once, turned their heads away until the reality could not be denied.

He supplied the mentally handicapped women for the recent Baghdad jihad/martyrdom bombings. And so yet again someone who was no doubt thought of by many as a "moderate" proves to be otherwise.

From AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

BAGHDAD - The acting administrator of a psychiatric hospital in Baghdad has been detained on suspicion that he played a role in supplying patient information to al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested the man in his office Sunday and conducted a "thorough search" of the al-Rashad psychiatric hospital in Baghdad.

"Coalition forces detained a hospital administrator in connection with the possible exploitation of mentally impaired women to al-Qaida," Smith said.

"The administrator remains in coalition force detention and is being questioned to determine what role if any in supplying al-Qaida with information regarding patients at the al-Rashad psychiatric hospital or from other medical facilities in Baghdad," he added.

He said the man, whom he did not identify, was detained as part of the investigation into the Feb. 1 bombings of two crowded pet markets in Baghdad. He said he could not provide more details, citing the ongoing investigation.

U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed al-Qaida for the bombings and said the bombers were two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives and apparently did not know they were being used. Iraqi officials put the death toll at 99 in both attacks....

In other words, you must not educate yourselves about the context of these men's actions. To do so would be prejudiced. Of course, Justice Bernard Bongiorno is himself pre-judging that no such material would be relevant or illuminating in this case, and assuming that Islam has nothing to do with it on a priori grounds and almost certainly in defiance of the defendants' own sentiments. But that's not prejudice.

"No place for prejudice in terror case, judge tells potential jurors," by Karen Kissane for The Age (thanks to Wallhacker):

POTENTIAL jurors in a terror trial due to open next week have been warned by a Supreme Court judge that they should excuse themselves from jury duty if they were prejudiced against Muslims.

Justice Bernard Bongiorno is presiding over the trial of Abdul Nacer Benbrika and 11 other Melbourne men accused of terrorist activities. The men were arraigned yesterday before a jury of 10 women and five men. All the defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial is tipped to be one of Victoria's longest and most complex, with an extra-large jury of 15 empanelled to sit for between six and nine months.

Nearly 1200 Victorians were called as potential jurors in the case over four days last week, as it was expected that many would need to be excused because of the length of the trial.

Justice Bongiorno told them the Crown alleged the defendants were members of a terrorist organisation.

He said: "All the accused in this case are Muslims … There are people in our community who hold and sometimes express attitudes which might be regarded as hostile to or discriminatory towards Muslims simply because they are Muslims.

"Let me say this to you very clearly: there is no place for such a person on a jury in this case. No place whatsoever."

Justice Bongiorno told them if they could not be impartial, they should ask to be excused from jury duty.

"For a juror to judge an accused person not by reference solely to the evidence against him, but because of who he is, would be wicked indeed," he warned. [...]

Justice Bongiorno warned them strongly against being influenced by media reports or trying to do their own research on topics linked to the trial. "You must not start reading about Islam or Muslims or terrorism or anything of that nature. You must not go to the internet and seek any information. The information that you have to decide this case will be given to you in this courtroom. I can't emphasise this more strongly."...

A huge blow to Hizballah. "Hezbollah's most wanted commander killed in Syria bomb," by Laila Bassam and Nadim Ladki for Reuters:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Imad Moughniyah, on the United States' most wanted list for attacks on Israeli and Western targets, has been killed by a bomb attack in Damascus, the Lebanese group said on Wednesday.

Hezbollah accused Israel of assassinating Moughniyah, who was head of the Hezbollah security network during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, by planting a bomb in his car. In Gaza, Hamas Islamists called for the Arab world to unite against Israel.

Israel denied any involvement in the killing, seen as a major setback to Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah that fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

Moughniyah, 45, was killed late on Tuesday. He had long been on a list of foreigners Israel wanted to kill or apprehend and the United States had offered a $5 reward for his capture.

"His killing is a huge blow to Hezbollah. It is very indicative," Magnus Ranstrop, terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defence College, told Reuters.

I wish I had a nickel for all the times I've said, "Where are the feminists?," but here's one. "Deborah Orr: It's all very well to be sensitive to Islam, but we cannot ignore the suffering of women," from The Independent (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] There may no longer be much in the way of ideological enthusiasm for what can be described as multiculturalism. But in practice it gathers pace anyway, and there remains an unwillingness to take even a normative stance against it. Tony Blair may have declared that he considered the veil to be "a sign of separation". But there is little sign of any appetite for issuing any formal guidance that might suggest that such dress is not in keeping with the values and aspirations of modern British life. Anyway, as it was learned then, the venting of any disgruntlement over strict Islamic practice in Britain tends to give courage to those who prefer to vent their disapproval personally, and with little regard themselves for that beloved "rule of law".

In a report for the now-defunct Equal Opportunities Commission in 2005, into some pilot projects investigating the practicalities of enforcing the public sector gender duty, it was noted that the rights of Muslim women might "be termed a high-awareness, low-action area". Never a more true word was said. The Independent on Sunday reported this weekend that the police estimate that there may be as many as 17,000 acts of violence perpetrated in the name of "honour" against Muslim women each year. Yet, for all its supposed commitment to the rights of women, the Government shied away from framing legislation designed to tackle so-called "honour" violence, even though the mainstream of Muslim opinion seeks to distance itself from such barbarism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is headed by Trevor Phillips, who has sagely warned that if Britain does not get a grip on issues like these, we will continue "sleepwalking towards separation". But this week, when I requested information from the commission about the work it is doing or has done on the interplay between gender inequality and adherence to Islam in Britain, all that was available was an old report by the Commission for Equal Opportunities into the level of discrimination that Muslim women faced in the workplace. I was advised by a press officer that "we probably don't have enough of an evidence base to talk about this" and was referred to a global organisation called Women Living Under Muslim Law. Quite a different matter.

Meanwhile, a group called Empowering Muslim Women, under the auspices of the University of Oxford, was awarded a £3.75m grant by the Government in 2006 to run a five-year research project into systematic and sanctioned discrimination against women by political Islam. There is nothing to disagree with in this project, save to note that it is concerned only with Muslim women abroad "in indigenous contexts". It is clear that the same theological and cultural trap applies to women living here "under the rule of law" as well....

Indeed.

Hamas Kid TV Update: first there was Farfur, or Mickey the Jihadist Rat. Then Nahoul the Bee, who is "martyred" here because the wicked Zionists are denying the Palestinians medical care (hey, what happened to all those EU and US millions that have been pouring into the Palestinian Authority?). And now comes Assud the Rabbit, who vows to "eat" the Jews. Fun for the whole family!

"Hamas Bunny, Assud, Replaces His 'Martyred' Brother Nahoul the Bee and Vows to Liberate Al-Aqsa and 'Eat' Jews," from MEMRI (thanks to all who sent this in):

Following are excerpts from the Hamas TV children's show, "Pioneers of Tomorrow", which aired on Al-Aqsa TV February 2-9, 2008.

Nahoul: I can't stand it, Mom, I can't...

Mother: What can I do? You've been sick for a whole month. We went to Al-Arish, but we couldn't get you to Egypt to have an operation.

[...]

Nahoul: All the children of Palestine are dying without treatment. I can't die, I don't want to die... Father...

Attempts to perform CPR on Nahoul fail

Father: Nahoul! Nahoul!

[...]

Child host Saraa Barhoum: Dear children, let me welcome on your behalf our new friend, Assud. Allah be praised, our friend Assud has returned safe and sound to his land, to Palestine, after he emigrated to a different Arab country – a country which is not this noble homeland, dear children.

[...]

Assud: Mom, I want to ask you something.

Mother: Go ahead.

Assud: Where is Nahoul? I haven't seen him for such a long time.

Mother: He went for a walk, and he'll soon be back, Allah willing.

Assud: Where did he go? Who goes out at night?

Mother: What do you want me to do... He'll be back soon, Allah willing.

Assud: Father, where is Nahoul?

Father [whispering to the mother]: How long can we keep what happened to Nahoul from him?

Father [to Farfour]: You are a believer, and our God...

Assud: What happened to Nahoul, father?

Father: Allah be praised, you are a believing Muslim, and you know that we place our trust in Allah... Your brother Nahoul got sick...

Assud: What hospital is he in, father?

Father: He's not in any hospital. He died a martyr's death, Allah have mercy upon him.

Assud: No, father!

Assud weeps

[...]

Assud: Just like Nahoul took Farfour's place when he was martyred, I will replace Nahoul, Allah willing. I will bring smiles and joy back to the children of Palestine, and the children of the whole world - the Arab and Islamic world, Allah willing.

[...]

Assud: I come from the diaspora, carrying the Key of Return. This is the Key of Return. Do you see it? Allah willing, we will use this key to liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque. Here is a picture of the noble Al-Aqsa Mosque. Here it is, can you see it? Allah willing, we are the soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow.

Saraa Barhoum: Yes, Assud, we will continue in the path of Nahoul and Farfour, Allah willing. We will not let them down, Assud.

Assud: We are all martyrdom-seekers, are we not, Saraa?

Saraa Barhoum: Of course we are. We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our homeland. We will sacrifice our souls and everything we own for the homeland.

Assud: Saraa, I'd like to ask you something.

Saraa Barhoum: What is it?

Assud: How many soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow are there?

Saraa Barhoum: There are many, many soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow.

Assud: Allah be praised.

Saraa Barhoum: By Allah's grace, they will help us liberate our homeland Palestine.

Assud: Saraa, you and I will be the first, right?

Saraa Barhoum: Yes, by Allah's grace, Assud.

Assud: And will we take Al-Aqsa?

Saraa Barhoum: Of course, Assud. We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of those Zionists.

[...]

Saraa Barhoum [to girl in the audience]: Is there anything you want to share with us?

Girl: Arnoub ["Rabbit"]?

Saraa Barhoum His name is Assud ["Lion"].

Girl: How come you are called Assud, even though you look like a rabbit?

Assud: Because a rabbit is not good. He's a coward. But I, Assud, will get rid of the Jews, Allah willing, and I will eat them up, Allah willing, right?

Saraa Barhoum: Allah willing.

Charming!

Sometimes a giant snowball is just a giant snowball. Sometimes it isn't. Canadian Jihad and War Is Deceit Updates: "Innocuous video hid terror plot," by Stewart Bell and Graeme Hamilton for the National Post (thanks to Sr. Soph):

When counter-terrorism police first screened the video found in Said Namouh's house last September, it looked like an innocuous home movie of little relevance to their investigation.

A jerky camera films Mr. Namouh rolling a giant snowball, then cuts away to a set of animal tracks leading into the woods in Quebec's Mauricie region, northeast of Montreal. A 4X4 roars in the background.

But a different story emerged when the soundtrack was translated from Arabic. Mr. Namouh's monologue was about hiding explosives inside the snowball to blow up a passing vehicle, Quebec Court was told during a bail hearing that concluded on Friday.

And it wasn't a snowman's face he was carving into the snowball but the letters " CVC," the initials of the Caliphate Voice Channel, a branch of one of al-Qaeda's most pervasive propaganda groups, the Global Islamic Media Front ( GIMF logo pictured here).

RCMP Corporal Michael Hanigan testified that Mr. Namouh spent long hours at his computer in Trois-Rivieres, editing GIMF videos that threatened Western countries like Germany and Austria and sought to inspire terrorists around the world.

" Oh, German government," says one video that Mr. Namouh is alleged to have helped produce. " This is our advice to you: Remove your soldiers from the Muslim lands. … Because otherwise you will one day regret it."...

Read it all.

Do you think the prevailing relativist multiculturalism helped or hindered this effort? "Revealed: Islamist extremists have penetrated the heart of Britain," from the Evening Standard (thanks to all who sent this in):

Islamist extremists have infiltrated Government and key public utilities to pass sensitive information to terrorists, the security services have warned.

Counter-terrorism officials say "insiders" or their associates are almost certainly working "undetected" in sensitive posts and are actively supporting the activities of extremists.

In some cases, lifelong relationships between friends or relatives are being exploited to obtain crucial information from those in sensitive posts.

The development is detailed in intelligence reports circulated to the Home Office, police and Whitehall officials.

The London Underground, Gatwick airport and BT are cited as examples of organisations which have been targeted by individuals linked to terrorists.

Officials say the idea of "penetrating the enemy is pervasive" for Islamist extremists.

It is understood a number of suspected jihadists working in Government departments and the public services are being monitored by the security services.

Read it all.

"According to Dr. Ahmad Al-Rab'i, former Kuwaiti minister of education, ‘The beginnings of all of the religious terrorism that we are witnessing today were in the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology of takfir [accusing other Muslims of apostasy]. Sayyid Qutb's book Milestones was the inspiration and the guide for all of the takfir movements that came afterwards. The founders of the violent groups were raised on the Muslim Brotherhood, and those who worked with Bin Laden and Al-Qa'ida went out under the mantle of the Muslim Brotherhood.’" -- from this article

It is important that readers of this paragraph understand that one hand giveth and the other hand taketh away. It is useful to quote Ahmad Al-Rab'i on the ideological connection of Hassan Al-Banna's Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 in Egypt, with today’s Jihad. It is not surprising that the Muslim Brotherhood was founded when it was founded. For 1928 was six years after Lord Cromer's administration came to an end, an administration that brought a semblance of efficiency and good government to the Egyptian Civil Service. It was during the seeming high-water mark of British (Infidel) influence, in what might be called the "Age of the Yacoubian Building," when Copts were decently treated, and Jews could go to the Alliance Israelite, and Italians and Greeks and others known as "Levantines" were not yet subject to the fury of an unleashed Egyptian Muslim hostility toward non-Muslims living in Egypt, which expressed itself in the early 1950s, as the ancien regime tottered and fell.

The re-egyptianization of the state came after World War II from the true-blue Muslims who resented not only the English, but the equal treatment of the Copts, the Jews, the assorted "crusader" or "frangi" Infidels, the Italians, Greeks, Armenians et al. Most of them had all of their property seized. They themselves were left penniless and then expelled, under that hideous man -- who was nonetheless regarded as an enemy, despite his under-the-"secularism"-there-was-Islam ways, Gamal Abdel Nasser. This has always been described, misleadingly, as merely Egyptian "nationalism." But below the surface was the essential substratum of hatred of Infidels, perceivable if not always properly perceived.

"LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A battle of faiths is being waged in the ancient English city of Oxford, where some people are bitterly opposed to Muslim plans to broadcast the call to prayer over the fabled dreaming spires." -- from this news article

The noisy call to prayer is an act of dominance and aggression. The louder it is, the better. Mosques were always supposed to be built in high ground, or in the most imposing spot, towering over churches and synagogues, in the lands first conquered by Islam. Those aggressive skyward thrusting minarets were symbols of power, of dominance. And the same thing continued wherever Islam went.

Some fail to understand that the placement of mosques, the size of mosques, the significance of minarets, and those calls or cries, now electronically amplified, are all part of a single system. That system is one by which the mosque is not merely or mainly a place of worship, but a place of community gathering. It is a political and social center. It is even -- in the Muslim lands -- a place for shows of support or defiance against the government (the naming of the rulers in the khutba being a sign of loyalty, and the omission of those names a sign of disaffection), of plots and schemes. It is even -- as we see even here and there in Europe -- a place to store weapons, explosives, false papers in false ceilings -- and a place from which to fire on Infidels (see Iraq, see all of Iraq).

(IsraelNN.com) Hamas leaders spoke to the Arabic language Ash-Sharq il-Awsat newspaper recently and explained that as Muslims, they are allowed to lie. In an interview printed on Thursday, senior Hamas terrorists explained, “A Muslim is permitted to say things that oppose his beliefs in order to prevent damages or to be saved from death.”

This approach, known in Arabic as “taqiyya,” was behind several Hamas leaders’ recent public expression of support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, they explained. Senior Hamas terrorists in Samaria, who were recently released from jail, publicly expressed disapproval with the Hamas takeover of Gaza and said they supported the PA forces. The sources quoted in Ash-Sharq il-Awsat explained that the Samarian terrorists’ announcement was not a sign of dissent within Hamas ranks, but rather a permitted use of “taqiyya” to deceive Abbas and avoid prison sentences. – from this news article

Of course taqiyya has its roots in Shi'a Islam. Shi’a who felt the need to lie about their own faith because they were fearful of Sunni Muslims elaborated upon such religiously sanctioned dissimulation. But by now it has its counterpart, with Qur'anic sources, in Sunni Islam. This is important to understand, the next time Tariq Ramadan or someone else indignantly exclaims that "taqiyya" is "a Shi'a doctrine." Its sources are in Shi'ism; deception, including lying about the faith, is part of Sunni Islam as well.

Since we all know that Muslims may lie, may they also tell the truth? Of course they may, and the more forthright they are about it, the happier we should be.

Here's a three-question quiz designed to illustrate how the followers of Muhammad's statement "War is Deception" operate -- sometimes telling what they believe to be the truth, sometimes mingling what they believe to be the truth with falsehood.

“Muslim writer and feminist Irshad Manji, Amel Boubekeur, leader of the Islam and Europe programme, Robert Spencer, director of jihadwatch.org and Abed Ayoub, legal advisor for American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, joined FRANCE 24’s Andrea Sanke to debate Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Islam and its taboos.” -- from this article

Irshad Manji has certainly created her own private Islam. She is the child of Asian refugees from Uganda. She has never lived in a Muslim society. She has always enjoyed the freedoms of the West. But she feels, out of filial piety, and perhaps for other reasons, that she will do best if she continues to identify as a Muslim and if, furthermore, she keeps claiming that Islam itself is or can be made into something perfectly acceptable to people such as herself. She's wrong. And any apostate, who had been born into and grown up in a society suffused with Islam, would be able to set her right.

There are those who, recognizing this about her, nonetheless find her useful. Here and there, as here, she well may be. But her representation of Islam, and her bland indifference to the texts of Islam, and the texture of lives in Muslim societies, where everything refers, everything relates, everything is connected, to Islam, continues to mislead. And for that reason, one must be vigilant, and careful not to be misled by her.

An unusual warning. "DHS, FBI Warn of Possibility of Female Homicide Bombers," from FoxNews (thanks to all who sent this in):

The growing use by terrorist groups of women — some disguised as expectant moms — to deliver deadly homicide bombs has prompted the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to issue a rare warning that such attacks could take place on American soil.

The joint security assessment cited recent female homicide bomber attacks in Baghdad — in which two women who appeared to have Down syndrome delivered a deadly explosion that killed 99 — as well as in Sri Lanka, Chechnya, India, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories as reason for the warning.

"Female suicide bombers may have an advantage over their male counterparts in accessing targets," the analysis cautioned. "The means to conduct a suicide attack vary widely, but a key element in maximizing the lethality of a suicide bombing is the bomber's ability to get close to the target."

The assessment also strongly warned that potential female homicide bombers could use "prosthetic devices that mimic the look of a pregnant woman."

"Regardless of delivery by a man or a woman," the warning reads, "improvised explosive devices may contain fragmentation or shrapnel, such as nails, bolts, glass fragments, marbles, ball bearings, or other small metal pieces."

The assessment, which emphasizes that DHS and FBI have no solid evidence indicating imminent homicide bombing attacks on U.S. soil, also reminds law enforcement officials that "facilities such as public places" are the most vulnerable to homicide bombing attacks and that "the terrorist's latitude in determining and adjusting the target and timing of an attack up to the point of detonation" make it difficult to prepare countermeasures....

Worth killing for

One more time: a cartoon of Muhammad does not harm Muhammad. It does not harm Islam. It may even reflect more poorly on the cartoonist than on the object of the cartoon. Yet all too many Muslims around the world continue to fail to grasp this, and to commit cold-blooded murder in their static rage, unaware of or indifferent to the fact that their murderous anger is impotent to eradicate the fact of the cartoon itself, and reflects more poorly on their religion than any cartoon ever could.

"Danes nab suspects in cartoonist plot," by Jan M. Olsen for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said.

The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said.

The agency did it mention which cartoonist was targeted. However, according to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, the suspects were planning to kill its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

"There were very concrete murder plans against Kurt Westergaard," said Carsten Juste, the paper's editor-in-chief.

Cultural Collapse Alert: "Lent fast re-branded as 'Christian Ramadan,'" by Bruno Waterfield in the Telegraph (thanks to all who sent this in):

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the "Christian Ramadan" in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.

Now, why are young people in the Netherlands more likely to know about Islam than Christianity? Think about that for a moment. And then ponder also the fact that Christians who lived under Islamic rule for century after century never, ever succumbed to any temptation to recast their own traditions as pale imitations of Islamic ones. Lent was always and only Lent. Great Lent. The Great Fast. Never "Christian Ramadan."

Ramadan is not a word for "fast." It is a month on the Islamic calendar, which Christians do not use, during which Muslims abstain from food and drink during daylight hours -- a style of fasting unknown to all Christian traditions in any case. Byzantine Christians, both Orthodox and Catholic, traditionally -- and today, among the observant -- abstain during the Great Fast from meat and dairy products, fish with backbones, olive oil, and alcohol, day and night, from the beginning of Lent after Forgiveness Vespers on Cheese Fare Sunday until Pascha, Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. And they do not eat at all until noon, or in some cases sundown.

Roman Catholics traditionally followed a much less strict fast, with no meat or alcohol, and even that since Vatican II has fallen by the wayside. But in any case, these fasts are nothing like the Islamic fast of Ramadan, and there is nothing comparable to them in Islamic tradition. To rename Lent after Muslim practice is not only to demonstrate abject cultural capitulation, but to sow confusion by suggesting that Christian fasting has to do with not eating or drinking from sunup to sundown, which has never been the practice among any Christian sect or group. If that is not the suggestion, since these Dutch Roman Catholics aren't fasting in any case, then their youth will be given the impression that the Muslims are the really observant ones, and the Christians are by comparison lax and indifferent -- an impression that is certain, particularly among youth, to lead to conversions to Islam.

The Catholic charity Vastenaktie, which collects for the Third World across the Netherlands during the Lent period, is concerned that the Christian festival has become less important for the Dutch over the last generation.

"The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent," said Vastenaktie Director, Martin Van der Kuil.

Three decades ago the Catholic Church was as strict as many Muslims are about Ramadan with a total ban on meat and alcohol during the 40-day Lenten period between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

Most Dutch Catholics now focus on charitable work after the Vatican loosened fasting strictures for all but the first and last days of Lent back in 1967.

Four million Dutch describe themselves as Roman Catholics and 400,000 people attend Mass every week but only a few tens of thousands still mark Lent by fasting, said Mr Van der Kuil

Vastenaktie organisers hope that by linking the festival to Ramadan they can remind Christians who may be less observant than Muslims of the "spirituality and sobriety" of Lent.

They could accomplish this more effectively by recovering and encouraging their own Lenten traditions, which they have utterly discarded.

"The agreements are more striking than the differences. Both for Muslims and Catholic faithful the values of frugality and spirituality play a central role in this tradition," said Mr Van der Kuil.

That may be true, but it is still no warrant for giving the impression that one's older and quite different religious traditions are simply imitations of a quite different (and younger) tradition -- and what's more, one that denies the legitimacy of Christian tradition in any case.

Why are Jeje Nehamiah Baki's Muslim in-laws so hostile? Could it have something to do with the traditional Islamic prohibition -- indeed, a death sentence -- on those who leave Islam, a prohibition rooted in the words of Muhammad? Western Muslim spokesmen have frequently assured us that no such prohibition exists. Yet stories like this one are not hard to find.

Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Chad: Convert Loses Family Members For His Faith: Muslim in-laws seize his wife, kill his young son," from Compass Direct (thanks to all who sent this in):

ZALANGA, Nigeria, February 7 (Compass Direct News) – A little over a year after becoming a Christian in Ngudungudu, Chad in December 1995, Jeje Nehamiah Baki left the town to meet up with his nomadic family in the wilderness.

His wife had already returned to her parents and their nomadic lifestyle, and Baki, a former Muslim and nomadic Fulani of the Bororo dialect in Chad, was looking forward to reuniting with her and their two children. But he said his father-in-law, having learned of his conversion, seized his wife and would allow her to go back with him only if Baki renounced his Christian faith.

“When I returned to take my wife and children away, my father-in-law told me point blank that he would not allow his daughter to stay with me, an infidel,” Baki told Compass. “In spite of all entreaties, my father-in-law refused to allow me to take my wife and children.”

For one year, Baki faced threats from family members to renounce his Christian faith. He refused, moving with them in their lives as nomadic cattle people. For about 30 minutes daily, he said, he would sit under a tree reading the Bible and praying as the cows grazed.

Threatened by his in-laws’ hostilities, Baki eventually left without his family. A few years later, he returned to try to convince his father-in-law to allow him to retrieve his wife and children. In the course of this confrontation, his father-in-law killed Baki’s young son on August 18, 2002.

“At the end of it all, he murdered my first son, Joshua, by poisoning him,” Baki said. “Having lost my first child, and with threats to my life, I had to leave without my wife, but [returning later] only succeeded in taking away our second son.”...

Read it all.

Nukes, yes. Spell-check, no.

Are you inclined to accept the Thug-In-Chief's protestations that Iran wants nuclear power solely for peaceful purposes? If so, can you kindly explain why the "Down Wiht Israel" balloon pictured above features a nuclear symbol?

"Iran sends defiant message to West on revolution day," by Hossein Jaseb for Reuters :

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran aims to send a satellite into space next summer and will not retreat in a nuclear row with the West, its president said on Monday, in a defiant speech on the anniversary of the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a major rally in Tehran a week after Iran sparked international concern by test-launching a rocket designed to carry its first domestically made research satellite into orbit.

"God willing, next summer the first 100 percent Iranian-made satellite will be positioned in orbit," he said.

The West fears Tehran is covertly trying to obtain nuclear bombs. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, says it needs nuclear energy to meet booming electricity demand.

The technology used to put satellites into space could also be used for launching weapons, analysts say, and both the United States and Russia have expressed concern about the rocket test. [...]

Ahmadinejad also said Iran would not back down in the nuclear dispute with the West, despite the threat of a third round of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work.

"They should know that the Iranian nation will not retreat one iota from its nuclear rights," he told the crowd which had gathered in the capital for the 29th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.

Iranian officials had called on people to turn out in large numbers to show their unity in the face of Western pressure. State television broadcast footage of rallies held across Iran.

The official IRNA news agency said Ahmadinejad was addressing a "million-strong gathering" but it was not immediately possible to confirm this figure.

"America should understand and believe that the Iranian nation will not back down from its rights," demonstrator Leila Jafari told Reuters.

Others at the rally burnt effigies representing Uncle Sam....

Islamization of Britain, and resistance to it. "We are very angry that they are presuming to inflict this on a non-Muslim community."

By Georgina Cooper for Reuters (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A battle of faiths is being waged in the ancient English city of Oxford, where some people are bitterly opposed to Muslim plans to broadcast the call to prayer over the fabled dreaming spires.

Local residents, clergy and now the head of the Church of England have been drawn into a debate over a proposal from the Central Oxford Mosque to broadcast a recording of the call to prayer, or Adhan, from its minaret over loud speakers.

Residents who live near the mosque claim the call will annoy their mainly non-Muslim community and won't even be heard by the majority of Oxford Muslims, who live more than half a mile away.

"We are very angry that they are presuming to inflict this on a non-Muslim community," Allan Chapman, a historian at the university and a local resident who described himself as a practicing Christian told Reuters.

"We see this as an attempt to impose Islam on a Christian-culture community," he said.

The rector of one of Oxford's largest Anglican churches, Charlie Cleverly of St. Aldate's, has also attacked the plans.

He told the Oxford Mail that it was "un-English" and could create a Muslim ghetto in the neighborhood around the mosque.

"When such an area is subject to such a call to prayer, it may force people to move out and encourage Muslim families to move in," he told the newspaper.

Read it all.

An attempt to accommodate grievances "not only convinces the Middle East side that the West is weak, scared, and surrendering but is also taken as acknowledging the West's guilt and the rightness of their own cause. Grievance and outrage, in this context, are bottomless pits. Playing this game establishes a terrible relationship along the lines of--probably the worst thing Shimon Peres ever said--our task is to give, their job is to take. This pattern never gets broken."

Absolutely.

Another insightful piece from Barry Rubin on the Middle East "peace process":

Step right up! Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen! It's easy, fun, and everybody's a winner! Just guess which shell the nut is under.

After studying and living with the Middle East for a few decades one sees certain patterns endlessly repeated, though always with a new set of details. Understandably, naïve newcomers fall for the carnival con-man's traps. They should learn after one disaster. Veterans have no excuse.

A con-game is one in which a malefactor gains the mark's confidence in order to rob him. Conventional examples include selling swampland as vacation homes or the Internet scam of pretending to be a distressed African official who promises rich rewards in return for a loan.

The victim is fooled by the promise of big gains if he only trusts his partner and gives up his own assets. Contrary to folklore, the best way to cheat someone is not to offer them something for nothing--that's too obvious--but to pledge something dreamy tomorrow in exchange for getting something very real right now.

The pattern is this:

Revisionist dhimmi history from Google Earth, via the "Nakhba - Palestinian Catastrophe information hub," i.e., propaganda center.

From The Associated Press (thanks to JS):

The northern town of Kiryat Yam is suing Internet giant Google for slander, a local official said Monday, because a feature of its worldwide map service shows the town was built on the ruins of an Arab village.

The dispute brings together two controversies, one old and one new. Officials from the town deny they displaced Arabs during the War of Independence, and Google is defending the practice of allowing any surfer to change information in its files.

Kiryat Yam is a town of 40,000 on the Mediterranean coast just north of the port of Haifa. An entry on Google Earth, a feature that allows users to zero in on locations around the world, alleges that the town was built on the ruins of Ghawarina, an Arab village.

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled or were expelled during the 1948-49 war. Pushing back invading Arab armies, the forces from the new Jewish state also overran Arab villages, destroying dozens.

Kiryat Yam was pulled into the dispute when a Google Earth user, Thameen Darby, inserted a note on the map saying it was built on the location of Ghawarina. Darby has inserted at least 10 such notes over Google's map of Israel.

"Kiryat Yam filed a slander complaint with Israel's police," said town official Naty Keyzilberman. "This obviously cannot be true, because Kiryat Yam was founded in 1945, he said, explaining the police complaint."

Darby, 30, a Palestinian doctor raised in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said his mother was a refugee from to the village Balad al-Sheikh near Kiryat Yam. He said his contributions to Google Earth are part of the Nakhba - Palestinian Catastrophe information hub aimed to help displaced Palestinians understand their heritage or find the villages of their parents or grandparents.

Read it all.

He's backtracking a bit, however. "Williams tries to defuse row over sharia law but refuses to apologise," by Jonathan Brown for the Independent (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The Archbishop of Canterbury has sought to defuse the bitter row over what he appeared to claim was the unavoidable adoption of sharia law in the UK by conceding that his controversial comments may have been unclear and "clumsily deployed".

Whilst taking full responsibility for his part in the highly damaging episode, which resulted in calls for him to resign and sparked a disagreement with Downing Street, Dr Rowan Williams fell short of offering a full-blown apology and refused to back down.

Instead he insisted that the Church of England had a "considerable" responsibility to other faith groups and asserted that it was not "inappropriate" to raise issues surrounding Islam or other religions – comments that were immediately welcomed by Muslim leaders.

Departing from his intended remarks at the opening of the General Synod in London yesterday, Dr Williams said: "I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity either in that text or in the radio interview and for any misleading use of words that has helped to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public at large or especially my fellow Christians."

Dr Williams said some of what had been reported was a "very long way indeed" from what had been said in his lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice last week and in a BBC radio interview. He thanked bishops for their "support and challenges" and restated points which he said had been "distorted" in media reporting.

He said: "I believe quite strongly that it is not inappropriate for a pastor of the Church of England to address issues around the perceived concerns of other religious communities and to try and bring them into better public focus."

The Archbishop added: "We are not talking about parallel jurisdictions – and I tried to make clear that there could be no 'blank cheques' in this regard, in particular as regards to some of the sensitive questions about the status and liberties of women."

Good. Although how such lines could be drawn once any element of Sharia were introduced remains unclear.

The discussion, which took place yesterday, is called "Islam and its taboos." It features, according to the France 24 site, "Muslim writer and feminist Irshad Manji, Amel Boubekeur, leader of the Islam and Europe programme, Richard Spencer, director of jihadwatch.org and Abed Ayoub, legal advisor for American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee."

"Richard Spencer" couldn't make it at the last minute, however, so I, Robert Spencer, filled in. Anyway, you can see the video here, although the best and liveliest discussion was during the 12-minute break at the bottom of the hour.

UPDATE at 2PM Paris time: I just checked and saw that "Richard Spencer" has disappeared from the France 24 site, which is now claiming that some bozo named "Robert Spencer" participated in this debate.

An important overview of Muslim Brotherhood activity in the West from the European essayist Fjordman:

I do not have the time right now to include hyperlinks to every single piece of information stated here, but almost all of this information should be available online with a quick web search. Robert Spencer has dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood in a number of books, for instance in Onward Muslim Soldiers. I would also strongly recommend the recent book "Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam," by former Muslim Patrick Sookhdeo. Sookhdeo does excellent research, particularly regarding the systematic Islamization of Britain, but the same blueprints are used in other countries, too.

The Muslim Brotherhood, today widely regarded as the largest Islamic movement in the world, was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Its member groups are dedicated to the motto: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

Research analyst Lorenzo Vidino writes about The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe: "Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations." Their ultimate goal "may not be simply 'to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be,' but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community. But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism."

Moreover, "While the Muslim Brotherhood and their Saudi financiers have worked to cement Islamist influence over Germany's Muslim community, they have not limited their infiltration to Germany. Thanks to generous foreign funding, meticulous organization, and the naïveté of European elites, Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations have gained prominent positions throughout Europe. In France, the extremist Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (Union of Islamic Organizations of France) has become the predominant organization in the government's Islamic Council. In Italy, the extremist Unione delle Comunita' ed Organizzazioni Islamiche in Italia (Union of the Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy) is the government's prime partner in dialogue regarding Italian Islamic issues."

The irony, according to Vidino, is that "Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna dreamed of spreading Islamism throughout Egypt and the Muslim world. He would never have dreamed that his vision might also become a reality in Europe."

Al-Banna may not have believed that to be possible in the short run, but he did dream of conquering areas formerly under Islamic rule. German historian Egon Flaig quotes Banna as saying: "We want the flag of Islam to fly over those lands again who were lucky enough to be ruled by Islam for a time, and hear the call of the muezzin praise God. Then the light of Islam died out and they returned to disbelief. Andalusia, Sicily, the Balkans, Southern Italy and the Greek islands are all Islamic colonies which have to return to Islam's embrace. The Mediterranean and the Red Sea have to become internal seas of Islam, as they used to be."

One of the Brotherhood's first pioneers in Europe was Sa'id Ramadan. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Sa'id Ramadan, who was al-Banna's son-in-law, joined the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth. At the age of 20, Hassan al-Banna chose Sa'id to be his personal secretary and sent him to Palestine to establish a branch of the movement there. After World War II, when Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini returned to Palestine, Sa'id Ramadan helped him to form military groups for the struggle against the Jews. Al-Husseini was an active accomplice in the Holocaust and visited leading Nazis repeatedly. Terrorist organization Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the MB today.

After Hassan al-Banna's assassination in 1949, Sa'id Ramadan returned to Egypt and became a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1954 he went to Jerusalem with another leading Brotherhood member, Sayyid Qutb, in order to participate in the World Islamic Conference, and was elected conference secretary-general.

In the late 1950s, Sa'id Ramadan managed to persuade Saudi Prince Faisal to help him establish Islamic centers in Europe's main capitals. In 1958, he settled in Geneva and there founded the Islamic Center, which became the headquarters of Muslim Brotherhood members expelled from Egypt. In 1964, he opened Islamic centers in London and Munich, and became the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood abroad.

The oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia has for years granted an influx of money to the powerful Islamic Center of Geneva, Switzerland, now run by Sa'id's son Hani Ramadan. He was made infamous by a 2002 article in the French daily Le Monde defending the stoning of adulterers to death. His brother Tariq Ramadan, a career "moderate Muslim," later called for a "moratorium" on stoning. In 2008 it was announced that Hani Ramadan would receive SFr255,000, the equivalent of two years' salary, in damages from the canton of Geneva. He was sacked in 2004 after defending the stoning of persons guilty of adultery. An appeal commission of the education department sided with Ramadan, annulling the termination. The government also agreed to pay Ramadan's legal fees.

It was the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a follower of Hassan al-Banna in his youth, who directed the prayer at Sa'id Ramadan's funeral in 1995, as Tariq Ramadan proudly reports. Sa'id Ramadan had close contacts with Brotherhood member Sayyid Qutb, whose writings have inspired countless Jihadists around the world, for instance terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. According to writer Paul Berman, Ramadan "not only knew Qutb; he was, at the crucial moment, Qutb's most important supporter in the world of the Egyptian intellectuals. Said Ramadan was the editor who got Qutb started on what became his most important work."

According to Dr. Ahmad Al-Rab'i, former Kuwaiti minister of education, "The beginnings of all of the religious terrorism that we are witnessing today were in the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology of takfir [accusing other Muslims of apostasy]. Sayyid Qutb's book Milestones was the inspiration and the guide for all of the takfir movements that came afterwards. The founders of the violent groups were raised on the Muslim Brotherhood, and those who worked with Bin Laden and Al-Qa'ida went out under the mantle of the Muslim Brotherhood."

Islamic law allows a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman, but forbids a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man. Know your place, dhimmi!

"Pakistan Christian 'Kidnapped' For Trying To Marry Muslim," by Jawad Mazhar for BosNewsLife (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- The father of a Pakistani Christian continued to search Sunday, February 10, for his son who was allegedly kidnapped two weeks ago by suspected religious extremists, after attempting to marry a Muslim woman.

Asghar Fabian told BosNewsLife that his 29-year-old son Ceramic Anneal, a Catholic, dissapeared January 27 from Gulburg, a residential and commercial area of Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city. Fabian said he was abducted by people opposing his planned wedding with his Muslim girlfriend Iffat Shaheen, 33, who also lives in Gulberg.

"They had an interfaith love affair which in Pakistani Islamic culture is very rare and a daring thing," he told BosNewsLife and investigators of advocacy group Rays of Development (ROD), with Website www.raysofdevelopment.org. Local police have been reluctant to search for Ceramic Anneal, apparently because no group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

ROD said however it takes the disappearance seriously because the young man had apparently received threats from suspected Muslim hardliners. "Is police help meant for Muslims only? Minority Christians are also legal citizens of Pakistan," Fabian said.

Good news in this Hesham Islam Update. "Embattled Muslim aide to leave Pentagon job: Hesham Islam's 'resume didn't add up,' official says," from WorldNetDaily (thanks to all who sent this in):

In a stunning turn of events, a high-level Muslim military aide blamed for costing an intelligence contractor his job will step down from his own Pentagon post, WND has learned.

Meanwhile, his rival, Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading authority on Islamic war doctrine, may stay in the Pentagon, moving from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the office of the secretary of defense. However, sources say a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is trying to block his new contract.

The top Pentagon aide, Egyptian-born Hesham H. Islam, came under a cloud of suspicion after reports raised doubt about his resume and contacts he had made with radical Muslims. He is expected to leave the government next month, officials say.

Islam and Coughlin recently quarreled over intelligence briefings Coughlin presented showing a close connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism. Coughlin's contract with the Joint Chiefs, which ends in March, was not renewed.

But as a result of the ensuing firestorm that played out in the conservative press – led by Washington Times Pentagon reporter Bill Gertz – Islam was put under a microscope, and questions were raised regarding his background.

For example, Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote a column challenging key claims in Islam's official biography. Within days, a Defense Department profile of Islam was removed from the department's website.

A Pentagon spokesman said it was "taken down in an attempt to reduce the rhetoric and the emotion surrounding this issue while we try to determine the facts."

A senior U.S. official says the life story Islam presented now appears sketchy.

"His resume didn't add up, and he knows it," the official said. "He's voluntarily leaving the government in March."

At the same time, a report by terror expert Steven Emerson revealed that Islam, as special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, has scheduled at least two meetings in the Pentagon with Syrian-tied radicals – including a leading member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood – in direct violation of U.S. policy.

As WND previously reported, FBI officials believe Islam is involved with the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and is helping its front groups run "influence operations" against the U.S. government.

"He's a Muslim brother," an FBI official told WND. "He's a bad actor, and he's made other unreported nefarious contacts."

Islam has worked closely in the Pentagon with Muslim chaplain Abuhena M. Saifulislam, who as WND also previously reported, received his training at a radical Islamic school in Northern Virginia that was raided by federal authorities after 9/11.

Islam, whose son is active in the military, obtained one of the highest security clearances for classified information. Sources confirm he has sat in on Pentagon meetings in which intelligence clearance was restricted at the Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) level.

The Pentagon had no comment. And Islam, who has not been accused of any crimes, has refused interviews.

Emerson says Islam prescribed a steady diet of Muslim Brotherhood-connected outreach for his unwitting boss, deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England....

Pentagon insiders say Eric S. Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, has sought to stop the awarding of a new contract to Coughlin. Edelman served as ambassador to Turkey from 2003 to 2005.

Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., who co-chairs the House Anti-Terrorism Caucus, has been fighting to keep Coughlin in the Pentagon, where she says his blunt analysis of the Islamic enemy is sorely needed....

"I know that some people will refuse to admit there is a subversive movement going on here, but let me remind you that we have underestimated the will and capability of our enemy for more than 30 years," she added. "They are patient and determined to achieve their radical agenda."

Indeed.

The next time riots break out among Muslims in Europe, and the learned experts on television and in the Times and the Post start handwringing about the failure of European states to assimilate their Muslim minorities, remember this statement, and who made it, and how it was received.

"Erdogan cheered by 16,000 Turks in Cologne," from Expatica (thanks to all who sent this in):

Cologne, Germany -- A crowd of 16,000 expatriate Turks cheered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a vast indoor auditorium in Germany on Sunday as he told them to resist assimilation into the West.

The political rally by Germany's biggest ethnic minority upset German politicians, who objected to a major public event on German soil being advertised on posters in Turkish only.

Erdogan indirectly addressed those concerns, saying it was right for Turkish immigrants to learn German and other languages so they could integrate, but wrong to abandon their Turkish heritage and assimilate.

"Assimilation is a crime against humanity," he told the crowd. Many Turks had travelled from France, Belgium and the Netherlands to hear his hour-long address in the shiny venue, the Koelnarena.

"I can well understand that you are against assimilation," he said. "It is important to learn German, but your Turkish language should not be neglected."

He said ethnic Turks abroad should be more confident in standing up for their interests, and should win election as mayors and members of European national parliaments....

Erdogan was lionized by other speakers at the event, organized by the Union of European Turkish Democrats, a group that supports his moderate Islamist AKP party.

"Moderate."

Britain exporting jihad. "RAF find 'Taliban with British accents,'" from Metro.co.uk :

AFGHANISTAN: An Islamic group expressed surprise today at reports that RAF spy planes in south Afghanistan have detected Taliban fighters speaking in British accents.

Nimrod surveillance aircraft flying over Helmand province recently picked up voices lapsing from local languages into English with Midlands and Yorkshire accents, according to reports.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he was aware that some British Muslims travelled to Afghanistan to fight when hostilities began in 2001.

He had heard of no cases since then, but accepted it was "not beyond the bounds of possibility", given that the conflict had "dragged on with still no end in sight".

...and given that neither Bunglawala nor other Muslim leaders in Britain have lifted a finger to disabuse their coreligionists in that country of the jihad ideology.

I'm scheduled to appear on France 24 television today at 7PM Paris time (10AM PST, 1PM EST) to discuss Ayaan Hirsi Ali's request for French citizenship. I will be debating someone, but I know not whom.

Where are the peaceful Muslims rising up and arguing within Muslim communities against the religious foundation of this appeal?

"Turkish Islamist Website: Each Muslim Must Kill An Infidel For Allah's Grace," from the MEMRI Blog (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

"Hey America, We Have An Account To Settle With You!"

"If you want Allah to grant you victory, every one of you must kill an infidel!"

"The virtueous Sheikh Khaled er-Rashid - May Allah Save Him From Captivity"

Source: Turkish Islamist website Takva.com

Is this worth killing for?

A cartoon of Muhammad does not harm Muhammad. It does not harm Islam. It may even reflect more poorly on the cartoonist than on the object of the cartoon. Yet all too many Muslims around the world continue to fail to grasp this, and to commit cold-blooded murder in their static rage, unaware of or indifferent to the fact that their murderous anger is impotent to eradicate the fact of the cartoon itself, and reflects more poorly on their religion than any cartoon ever could.

"Three killed in riots over Mohammed's caricature: police," from AFP (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Three persons including a police officer were killed after Muslim students rioted over a caricature of Prophet Mohammed by their Christian colleagues, police and teachers said Friday.

Students of Government Secondary School Sumaila, some 76 kilometres (47 miles) south of the northern city of Kano, went on the rampage late Thursday, after a Christian student suspended for two weeks returned to the school.

He had been suspended for having drawn a caricature of the Prophet and posted it on a wall inside the school.

"Two people and a police inspector have been killed in the violence while the divisional police station and everything inside including ammunition have been burnt by the rioters", Kano police chief Aminu Yesufu told reporters outside the burnt police station.

He said about 20 others were badly wounded, including the divisional police officer, who suffered a deep machete cut to the head.

Police had arrested 25 people and opened an investigation, he added.

"The students began chanting Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest) when the Christian student returned and pursued him to lynch him", Sadiq Haruna, a teacher at the school, told an AFP reporter who visited the town on Friday.

"The Christian escaped in taking refuge in the local police station but hundreds of angry Muslim students attacked and set on fire the premises after the police refused to hand him over," Haruna said.

The whereabouts of the christian student were still not known.

This is the second time in a week in the mainly Muslim northern Nigeria that an allegation of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed has sparked violent protests and an attack on the police.

Not an "isolated incident," but part of a global jihad. "Sudan holds Muslim 'fundamentalists' over US killing," by Andrew Heavens for Reuters (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has arrested two Muslim "fundamentalists" in connection with the killings of a U.S. aid official and his driver in the capital Khartoum, security sources said on Sunday.

The two men, aged 25 and 30, were members of a group that was also behind a plot to bomb Western embassies in Khartoum that was uncovered in August, the security source told Reuters.

It was the first official confirmation that a militant group may have been behind the double shooting. Some official sources in Sudan originally claimed that the killing was an "isolated incident".

The suspects opened fire when they were cornered on Saturday in a suburb of Omdurman, a city adjacent to the Sudanese capital, the SUNA state news agency reported. Security officers returned the fire.

Two policemen, a passing woman and the two suspects were wounded, none seriously, said the security source.

"They are from the same group who tried to do the explosions ... they are fundamentalists," the source added, referring to the reported August bomb plot....

Mullah Dadullah was seen congratulating the suicide bomber teams in a video last summer. "Top Taliban chief arrested," by Maaz Khan for Agence France-Presse (thanks to all who sent this in):

PAKISTANI security forces wounded and captured a top Taliban commander in a shootout, police said, days after Islamabad denied the presence of senior militants on its soil.

Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of the Islamist movement's slain military commander in Afghanistan, and seven other rebels were seized in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, they said.

Dadullah had been in charge of operations against Western troops in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, but there were recent reports that he had been sacked by Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"He has been wounded and arrested early this morning. He resisted when our men launched an operation" in the village of Gowal Ismail Zai, said Baluchistan police chief Saud Gohar....

Religious Ed class was explosive in Helmand today! An Islamic cleric kills five, including himself, while engaging in religious instruction of the youth -- and doesn't take out a single infidel. And Islamic martyrdom theology is mum about whether virgins are awarded in teaching accidents.

"Mullah accidently blows up self, sons," from Agence France-Presse (thanks to all who sent this in):

A LANDMINE blew up in the home of a religious cleric in southern Afghanistan, killing the mullah, two of his sons and two other men who had been preparing an attack, police said today.

The cleric's wife was critically wounded in the blast in their compound in the southern province of Helmand late yesterday, and a daughter was hurt, provincial police chief General Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

The bodies of the mullah and his two sons, both under 15 years old, remained at the site of the blast, he said.

Other people in the compound said two other men were killed but their bodies had been removed before police arrived, he said.

No Joy In Islam Update: "Religious police ban red roses," from Reuters (thanks to JE):

SAUDI Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items coloured scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolising love, newspapers said.

"They visited us last night," the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying.

It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine's Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said....

No Valentine cards for you again this year, Charlie Brown. Rats.

"Kuwaiti MPs seek to ban Valentine's Day celebrations," from Agence France Presse (thanks to DFS):

KUWAIT CITY: Two Islamist MPs on Sunday called on the Kuwaiti government to ban Valentine's Day celebrations, saying they flout Islamic values and promote immorality. "We call on the commerce minister to perform his duties by banning celebrations of Valentine's Day which is alien to our society ... and contradicts our religion's values and teachings," MP Jamaan al-Harbash told reporters. He said that Valentine's Day, marked on February 14, spreads "immorality" in society and warned concerned authorities that he will take action against them if they do not ban it. MP Waleed al-Tabtabai, who heads a parliamentary committee for monitoring alien practices, said the panel will on Wednesday meet with officials from the ministries of information, interior and commerce to study measures required to curb the celebrations. He said they will review restrictions needed to prevent such celebrations from spreading "moral corruption" among youth in Kuwait.

Archdhimmi of Canterbury Update: he's getting it from all sides. "Sharia law row: Archbishop is in shock as he faces demands to quit and criticism from Lord Carey" by Steve Doughty and Michael Seamark for the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

The Archbishop of Canterbury was facing demands to quit last night as the row over sharia law intensified.

Lord George Carey, Dr Williams' predecessor, criticised his comments on sharia law and said that accepting the Islamic code would be a disaster for Britain.

Other leading bishops publicly contradicted Dr Rowan Williams's call for Islamic law to be brought into the British legal system.

With the Church of England plunged into crisis, senior figures were said to be discussing the archbishop's future.

One member of the church's "Cabinet", the Archbishop's Council, was reported as saying: "There have been a lot of calls for him to resign. I don't suppose he will take any notice, but, yes, he should resign."

Officials at Lambeth Palace told the BBC Dr Williams was in a "state of shock" and "completely overwhelmed" by the scale of the row.

It was said that he could not believe the fury of the reaction. The most damaging attack came from the Pakistan-born Bishop of Rochester, the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali.

He said it would be "simply impossible" to bring sharia law into British law "without fundamentally affecting its integrity".

Sharia "would be in tension with the English legal tradition on questions like monogamy, provisions for divorce, the rights of women, custody of children, laws of inheritance and of evidence.

"This is not to mention the relation of freedom of belief and of expression to provisions for blasphemy and apostasy."

The church's second most senior leader, Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, refused to discuss the matter. But he has said sharia law "would never happen" in Britain.

Politicians joined the chorus of condemnation, with Downing Street saying British law should be based on British values. Tory and LibDem leaders also voiced strong criticism.

Even prominent Muslims were rounding on Dr Williams. Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, said: "I haven't experienced any clamour or fervent desire for sharia law in this country.

"If there are people who prefer sharia law there are always countries where they could go and live."...

Indeed.