By Steve Emerson The Investigative Project on Terrorism is among those who are critical of new guidelines discouraging the use of terms like "Islamist" and "jihad" when discussing terrorism and extremism that were issued earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center. While the agencies argue that the words may boost the popularity of terrorists among Muslim radicals, it's a bad idea to hide the motivations behind those who seek to attack the United States, or innocent people around the world. Another weakness was exposed last month, when the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attacked California Congressman Ed Royce (R-Orange County) for using the term "Islamist terrorism." Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 This is the transcript from a speech given by Mr. Wilders at the Four Seasons, New York, last week.I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario from becoming a reality. My short lecture consists of four parts. First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close, I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem. Read more ... Source: Family Security Matters
 May 8, 2007: Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka, brothers
accused of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army BaseCAMDEN, N.J. — Jury selection began under tight security Monday in the federal trial of five men accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix. Lawyers were expected to take three weeks or more to seat 12 jurors and six alternates. The trial will likely last several months. U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler has taken the relatively rare step of keeping the jury anonymous, so even lawyers in the case won't know their names. Prospective jurors on Monday were filling out their forms in an assembly room, detailing any knowledge of the case and their own biases. Outside Kugler's courtroom, workers were installing a new metal detector. Already, people entering the courthouse must pass through one. To get to the trial, they'll go through a second. Lanes of the street in front of the courthouse were also closed as a security precaution. Read more ...Source: AP
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, producer of the movie Fitna exposing the Koran's incitement to violence, announced that a "Facing Jihad Conference" will take place in Jerusalem in December. "We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together," he said in a speech in New York. Wilders' 15-minute film earlier this year set off violent protests in Muslim countries because of the description of the Muslim prophet Mohammed as a murderer. He is teaming up with Knesset Member Prof. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) for the Jerusalem convention, where he vowed "no racist organizations will be allowed." Read more ...Source: Israel National News
 * Moroccan writer says indifference of Canadian authorities to extremism shocked her
* Says vulnerability of moderate Muslims scared them to confront ‘Islamists’
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Fatima Houda-Pepin from Morocco, who is Canada’s first elected Muslim woman politician, has expressed dismay at the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and the spread of a harsh ideology in the country where she has lived for the last 35 years.
Writing in Le Presse, a Montreal-based French daily, Houda-Pepin says that what shocked her on arrival in Canada was her discovery of circles of indoctrination where women are veiled even inside their own houses, with ramifications in the Middle East, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and the United States. Imams trained in fundamentalist ideology, sent on missions and paid by foreigners, spread a radical Islam aiming at isolating Muslims from their host society. Messages call for jihad and to hate the agnostics, Jews, moderate Muslims, and Christians.
Shock:
Her ‘second shock’, she records, was the indifference of the authorities, which felt that as long as these problems were contained within the communities, they did not have to bother. A lack of knowledge of Islam and Muslims allowed radicals freedom to impose their views.
Houda-Pepin writes that the ‘Islam of knowledge and tolerance’ that marked her youth in Morocco was transformed in Canada into a straitjacket, reduced to a series of impositions, most often on women. At the same time Muslims were being degraded with pictures of violence coming from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the 9/11 attacks. Islamic groups, using indifference and surrounding ignorance, adapted a negative strategy. They managed to set themselves up as ‘spokesperson’ of communities to the distress of the moderate Muslims who struggle to integrate and ask only to live in harmony with their fellow countrymen.
Vulnerability:
“This is the vulnerability of these communities, among which the silent majority do not dare to confront the Islamists on their own ground. A broken up leading role, weak community structures and the feeling of exclusion from the young people also contributes to their marginalisation. However their contribution in human resources, competences, economic and cultural provision is considerable,” she points out.
She maintains that a pluralist society must be fair and equitable in its protection of minorities against abuses of the majority. Religious extremism is first obvious inside minorities themselves. In 1990, fundamentalists tried to impose shariah (Islamic law) in Toronto before standing back under the pressure of Muslim women. This battle was won inside communities themselves, before it surfaced in the public in 2003, with a more sophisticated sales talk and a plan of communication. Ontario abandoned the plan. She also writes about the ascent of the right-wing religious forces in America. In 1978, 22 percent of the Americans declared themselves Evangelists, a number that rose to 33 percent in 1986. The movement has not ceased growing and it is being completely transformed. The rise of the religious right is swarming everywhere, she notes. In Canada, different fundamentalist spheres of influence are already at work. Everywhere they aim at the school, at the family, at institutions and at political power.
At the same time, according to Houda-Pepin, Islamic spheres of influence have spread in several Muslim countries where they lead a conflict against regimes in place, considered as corrupted, ‘faithless’ and morally ‘decadent’. The law, which guarantees them religious freedom, is targeted as backward to destabilise these political regimes and at the same time, allow postponement of democracy. The ‘Islamists’ strategy, she warns, as they move forward in the closed circles, is an incorporation of a community without borders - an Islamic planet where a Muslim must be governed according to the shariah, independently of the country where he lived.
This allows fundamentalists, in the eyes of community and government leaders, as the spokespersons for all Muslims. In this sense, any advancement of these groups on juridical or symbolic plan is a powerful lever to impose an ultimatum in the name of religious freedom - in a secularised society a model of governance where the sovereignty of God will dominate the men. Source: Daily Times Pakistan
 Can anything dent the high regard that many politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists have for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)? Despite mountains of evidence exposing the group's Islamist leadership and agendas, elected officials still attend CAIR events, government entities still hire it to conduct training, and reporters still treat it as a "civil rights" organization. Perhaps the following underreported news items will inspire a few people to rethink their views. For starters, the Investigative Project notes that Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, offered some stunning comments during a recent "interfaith dialogue" hosted by Islam Online. Asked whether Muslims regret their support for George W. Bush in 2000, Awad stated: We should not blame the Muslims for taking part in the political process, and we should not blame the United States alone for the 11 September 2001 attacks, but we should also blame the perpetrators. One is left to imagine whether he believes that a government cabal conspired with the terrorists or that America's foreign policy and infidel culture merely presented a valid cause for revenge. Read more ...Source: Islamist WatchNihad Awad
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 September 30, 2008
A GROUP of European tourists and their guides snatched by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago were freed unharmed in a pre-dawn raid by Egyptian special forces today, officials in Egypt said.
The group of 19 hostages - five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptian drivers and tour guides - were flown into Cairo aboard an Egyptian military plane and taken for medical checks, state television said.
The freed hostages, apparently in good health, were greeted and handed flowers as they walked unassisted across the tarmac.
Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi said "half of the kidnappers were eliminated'' in the raid, the official MENA news agency reported, although this was disputed by other sources who said there had been little or no violence.
"Just before dawn two helicopters flew in special forces from the elite Lightning Brigade who freed the hostages,'' an Egyptian security official told AFP, asking not to be named.
"There was a gunfight during which half the around 35 kidnappers were killed and the rest escaped,'' he said.
About 150 Egyptian special forces had been sent to Sudan, he said, where Italian and German special forces were also on standby, with about 30 Egyptian special forces carrying out the operation.
However, a European source cast doubt on the Egyptian version, saying the operation appeared to be more of "a recovery" than a raid involving fighting.
"The kidnappers were thrown into confusion by the fighting the previous day with the Sudanese army and fled. Maybe one or two shots were fired,'' the source said, asking not to be named.
The source was referring to a shootout yesterday during which Sudanese forces shot dead six kidnappers and arrested two as they were driving through the Sudanese desert without the hostages.
German daily Bild reported German troops had been standing by to act but did not do so because the kidnappers had freed the hostages.
German special forces' "intervention was not necessary because the kidnappers let their hostages go and fled when they saw signs of an imminent liberation by the force,'' the newspaper said in its edition due out tomorrow.
Italy's ANSA news agency also quoted an unnamed official as saying the rescue took place "without bloodshed because when they were freed by Egyptian security forces, the kidnappers had already left.''
The group was snatched while on a safari in a lawless area of Egypt's southwestern desert on September 19.
The kidnappers - whose identities remain unknown - had demanded a ransom but Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said no money had been paid and that Italian special forces had also been involved.
"We cannot yet relate the dynamics (of the release) but we can deny with certainty the payment of any ransom,'' Frattini said on Italian television from Belgrade.
An airport source said the released Italians left for Italy this evening.
The releases came after an Egyptian security official said the kidnappers had agreed to let their captives go in return for a ransom, in a deal hammered out before the shootout with Sudanese troops.
"The problem was solved. They had agreed to the ransom. It was merely a matter of receiving the hostages, but then this surprise happened,'' the official told AFP, referring to the shooting.
The kidnappers had demanded that Germany take charge of payment of the ransom to be handed over to the German wife of the tour organiser, one of those snatched.
After their kidnap, the group was first moved across the border to Sudan to the remote mountain region of Jebel Uweinat, a plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan, before the bandits took them into Chad, according to Sudanese officials.
Sudan says the kidnappers belong to a splinter Darfur rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Army-Unity (SLA-Unity). An SLA-Unity spokesman denied his group's involvement. Source: The Australian
LAHORE: Two hundred and twenty-five women have been killed in incidents of Karo Kari (honour killing) in the past six months across Pakistan, according to a survey conducted by the Aurat Foundation, BBC Urdu reported on Friday. The organisation said that though honour killing has different names in different areas of Pakistan, the traditions remain the same across the country. Malik Asghar of the Aurat Foundation said that the survey covered details of women killed for honour between January and June 2008. According to the survey, the number of women murdered during the six months for reasons other than honour was 722. The survey revealed that only two accused in Karo Kari cases registered during the last six months had been sentenced while the rest were pending in courts. daily times monitor Source: Daily TimesH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
By Drew Zahn An organization in Florida plans to educate what it perceives as an increasingly culture-tolerant public about the horrific dictates of Islamic law by purchasing billboard space with a simple, but confrontational message: "Sharia law is hate." The Central Florida chapter of the United American Committee, a nonprofit group that seeks to educate Americans on the threat of Islamic extremism, is raising money to purchase a six-month contract to display the billboard, which the group hopes will awaken the public to discussing the full extent of Islamic law. "The UAC's goal in this project is to raise awareness because most people have no idea what Sharia law is," Alan Kornman, director of UAC's Central Florida branch, told WND. "We are confident people will see the billboard and learn on their own what Sharia law is and come to their own conclusions. At the very least, we hope our billboard will spark public debate on this overlooked issue." Read more ...Source: WNDH/T: Shariah Finance WatchMuslims Against Sharia support "Sharia law is hate" billboard. Do not fall for upcoming media claims that the statement "Sharia law is hate" offends Muslims; it only offends radical Muslims who want to replace the Constitution with the Koran.
 By Tom Kelly and Lucy Ballinger The author of a novel about the prophet Mohammed that provoked a fire-bomb attack on the publisher's home today insisted that Muslims should read the book. Sherry Jones dismissed claims that The Jewel of Medina was 'soft core pornography' and insisted that it is respectful towards Islam. She said the attack on the £2.5million London home of its UK publisher, Martin Rynja, at the weekend was 'a reprehensible act of violence by criminals'. Muslim extremists have also warned the publisher that he faces death for going ahead with the novel about the prophet's child bride, which includes a description of the night they consummate their marriage. But Miss Jones said: 'When people read my book I fully expect the people who are going to be my biggest detractors will be the ones who hate Muslims. 'They will be unhappy to see how compassionately Mohammed comes across. 'I have not dishonoured the Prophet. I say: read the book, I wrote it with the intention of honouring him.' Random House cancelled a £54,000 book deal with its U.S. author last month, fearing a violent reaction by 'a small radical segment' of Muslims. It followed comments from Denise Spellberg, a professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, who claimed the book had turned a 'sacred history into soft core pornography.' But Miss Jones, a U.S. journalist demanded an apology from the academic for her 'slanderous' comments. 'She used the most inflammatory language she could possibly have used. 'If you want to incite heated emotions from any religious group you just use the word "pornography" in the same sentence as their revered figures. 'She ought to take back her words because it is in no way an accurate description of my book. 'There are no sex scenes in it.' Read more ...Source: Daily Mail
By W. Thomas Smith, Jr. No fisticuffs reported, but attendees at a Washington, D.C. reception Thursday evening witnessed a caustic exchange between John Hajjar, U.S. director of Lebanon’s pro-democracy World Council of the Cedars Revolution, and Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, an ally of the Hezbollah terrorist organization. According to sources, at approximately 7:00 p.m. (Eastern), Hajjar was introduced "in a surprise move" to Salloukh at a reception for Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman hosted by the Lebanese ambassador at D.C.’s Omni Shoreham Hotel. (Sleiman was in town this week meeting with Pres. Bush and senior administration officials.) When Salloukh extended his hand, Hajjar refused his; putting his hand in his pocket. “I will not shake hands with people working for Hezbollah!” Hajjar said. Salloukh responded, “You should leave here!” Hajjar replied, “No! you should leave here! I’m an American citizen!” Read more ...Source: Family Security MattersJohn Hajjar
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 By Jeffrey Imm On September 23, 2008, in the U.S. Congressional Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB), speakers in a panel discussion sponsored by the Counterterrorism Blog (CTB) and the New America Foundation (NAF) spun fractured fairytales about Jihad and the need for America to "engage" with proponents of Islamic supremacism. (I previously wrote a background article on this subject entitled "Jihad and the Growing Surrender of American Counterterrorism.") The September 23rd panel discussion topic was "The Jihadists' Revolt Against Al Qaeda" based on a New Republic article co-written by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank. The speakers on the panel were: Peter Bergen of the "liberal think tank" New America Foundation, Counterterrorism Blog contributing experts Paul Cruickshank and Evan Kohlmann, and the Quilliam Foundation's Maajid Nawaz. The audience at this panel discussion included foreign policy analysts, counterterrorism analysts, the Saudi Arabia press, and a representative from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
Terrorist lectures, death fatwas, hate sheikhs, Al-Qaeda videos – what's your pleasure? By Patrick Poole
In counterterrorism circles there is significant buzz about “Al-Qaeda 2.0”, warning of highly decentralized jihadist networks operating independently and driven by a highly toxic internet-inspired Islamic ideology. The sad reality is, however, that an increasing number of jihadist websites, especially those in the English language, are finding safe haven in the US – and the US government seems powerless, or unwilling, to stop them.
Other commentators have explored at length the “Al-Qaeda 2.0” phenomenon, but what has thus far gone unreported is how mainstream Islamic websites associated with some of the most visible Islamic organizations in the US are openly promoting extremist ideology and terrorism.
This is nothing new, of course. Before and shortly after 9/11, the Ohio State chapter of the Muslim Student Association ran an email service called MSANews, where virtually every Islamic terrorist organization in the world directly posted their public statements, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Armed Islamic Group and the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front. MSANews also published all of Osama bin Laden’s pre-9/11 statements, calling him “sheikh” and identifying him as a “Saudi dissident”, not a terrorist. According to an Associated Press article published just weeks after 9/11, MSANews was the subject of a federal investigation for promoting the sales of jihadist videos praising the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The MSANews list, which operated on the taxpayer-supported servers of The Ohio State University, shut down soon afterwards. Source: FrontPage Magazine
By Joseph Farah WASHINGTON – When Taysir Saada served as a trained assassin for Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization in the late 1960s, he admits he hated Christians. If he found a home belonging to followers of Jesus, he would sometimes throw a grenade inside and shoot it up with bursts of machine-gun fire. He has no idea how many people were killed and wounded in such attacks. Today a non-uniformed Saada, now known as Tass, patrols the dangerous Hamas-dominated streets of the Gaza Strip – no longer hunting down Christians or bearing arms; the Palestinian-American has traded in his automatic weapons and grenades for the Bible, humanitarian service and apologies to Arab Christians he once persecuted. His transition from Islamic terrorist to Christian missionary is recounted in a new book, " Once An Arafat Man: The True Story of How a PLO Sniper Found a New Life." Saada has returned to his roots, having been born in Gaza shortly after the 1948 war. Read more ...Source: WND
 Published: September 28, 2008, 23:56
United Nations: Arab nations will totally reject any partial or interim solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because historically such arrangements have become permanent, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Saturday.
While supporting current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to reach "a comprehensive final solution", Prince Saud Al Faisal said "the least we expect from Israel during these negotiations is that it should halt all colonisation operations."
"The continuation of colonisation activity in the occupied Arab territories renders the negotiations meaningless and makes it difficult for us to convince our peoples of the feasibility and benefits of achieving peace," he said.
At a Security Council meeting on Friday on Israeli settlements, held at Saudi Arabia's request, Prince Saud said the colonisation problem continued to be the "one issue that threatens to bring down the whole peace process."
He said that addressing it was the only way to save the peace deal brokered in Annapolis, Maryland, early this year by the administration of President George W. Bush, which set the goal of achieving a substantive peace accord by January 2009 when he leaves office.
Prince Saud took up the issue again in his speech to the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting on Saturday. He did not deliver the speech, as scheduled, but it was distributed and circulated to all UN members, said Brenda Vongova, the assembly president's assistant spokesperson.
"The Arabs have continued to affirm their commitment to a just and comprehensive peace based on international law," Prince Saud said. "Yet no reciprocal commitment was forthcoming from Israel ... Please allow me, on behalf of the Arab group, to make it absolutely clear that we will totally reject any partial or interim solutions, because history has taught us that such solutions tend to become permanent," he said. Source: Gulf News
U.S House Takes First Step to Protect Free Speech Against "Libel Tourists" Washington, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 6146, crucial legislation that will protect American citizens from foreign libel judgments that undermine their fundamental First Amendment free speech rights. Dr. Ehrenfeld knows first-hand the effects of this destructive practice of forum shopping. She was sued in Britain, where the libel laws are plaintiff friendly, by Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz for alleging in her book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It, that he funded al-Qaeda.
Rep. Peter King, who initiated the federal legislation agrees with Dr. Ehrenfeld, stating that although he supports H.R. 6146, “this bill does not go far enough nor does it resolve the problem of “libel tourism.” Even Rep. Cohen, the author of H.R. 6146, acknowledged his bill is not enough to “ address libel tourism,” and stated on the floor of the House that he is “committed to working with Mr. King to push for a public hearing… which advances additional measures to address libel tourism.”
Indeed, the ACLU, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the PEN American Center, the Families of the 9/11 victims, and many others support the Free Speech Protection Act, 2008, sponsored by Senators Arlen Specter, Joseph Lieberman and Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Peter King. Source: Shariah Finance Watch
 By Jon Swaine Pauline Neville-Jones, a former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said: "We are not going to have any status for sharia courts. Absolutely not." Earlier this month it emerged that the Government had quietly allowed rulings of five sharia courts across Britain to be enforceable through the county courts or High Court. Lady Neville-Jones said that while minor disputes could be settled by "customary mediation" - including through sharia and the Jewish Beth Din system - there could be no formal legal recognition. "We are not going to have any legal recognition of sharia judgments that would withstand appeal to a secular court," she said before the Tory conference in Birmingham, . Speaking the day after Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said Britain had "done something terrible to ourselves" by encouraging multiculturalism, Lady Neville-Jones said that the Conservatives would make the case for more "integration" among all British people, whatever their backgrounds. Red more ...Source: Telegraph
 By David J. Rusin When Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams speculated that demographic changes in Britain make the greater acceptance of Islamic law "unavoidable," he had no idea how soon he would be proven correct. The Times has revealed that Shari'a courts have been active for the past year and their rulings can be enforced by the nation's judicial system. Such courts are enabled by the Arbitration Act of 1996, which allows alternative panels to issue binding judgments on civil disputes, as long as the parties agree in advance to accept the verdict. While Jewish tribunals have long operated under the same provision, a number of commentators have pointed out potential problems with extending recognition to Shari'a-based ones. Phyllis Chesler questions whether women from strict Islamic families are exercising free will when they agree to empower tribunals that are stacked against them: I bet the British Muslim women who "choose" to inherit radically less than their brothers and who "choose" not to press criminal charges against their husband-batterers are not making a free choice. In order to remain within their faith and family communities they must submit to Shari'a law or risk ostracism, isolation, or the possibility of being honor murdered. Read more ... Source: Islamist Watch
 Malalai Kakar speaking at her office in Kandahar.
She was killed by the Taliban as she left for work.KANDAHAR // Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan today as she left her home to go to work, officials and the militants said. The attackers were waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women, and opened fire on her car, the Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi said. “Today between 7am and 8am when she was (in her car) outside her house and going to her job, some gunmen attacked,” he said. “Malalai Kakar died in front of her house. Her son was wounded.” A doctor in the city’s main hospital said Ms Kakar, in her late 30s, had been shot in the head. Read more ...Source: AFP
British children as young as nine are being forced into marriage by their families, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Jasvinder Sanghera: The problem is particularly prevalent in Pakistani communities,
where betrothing offspring to their first cousins is common practiceBy David Barrett The disclosure comes as official figures show that nearly 60 children aged 15 or under have been rescued by the Government's Forced Marriage Unit in the past four years. The cases are feared to be the tip of the iceberg. They will fuel concerns, first raised earlier this year, that large numbers of children are disappearing from British schools to be forced into wedlock overseas. A charity which runs a national helpline on forced marriage and "honour"-based crimes, Karma Nirvana, revealed that in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family in the east Midlands was taken into council care after her parents told her she was to wed. Jasvinder Sanghera, director of Karma Nirvana, said that on average four children a month aged under 16 have contacted its helpline since it launched in April. "The youngest child we have dealt with was nine years old," she said. "The girl told her teacher she was going to be forced to marry someone and initially she was not believed. Read more ...Source: Telegraph
 By Jason Burke Europe's anti-terror chief has launched a stinging attack on the political correctness that he says is hampering the campaign against militant Islam. Gilles de Kerchove, the EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said last week that concern about stigmatising Muslim populations was hampering policy-making and thus prevention. 'One of the problems ... is that some member states are extremely reluctant to be explicit about the link with religion,' said de Kerchove. 'Religion has been hijacked and distorted for political ends.' De Kerchove's statement comes against a background of infighting within the EU over counter-terrorism policy. The European Commission has been working for several years on a paper analysing militancy in Europe and outlining policy to combat radicalisation. The Council of Ministers is still waiting for the now long-overdue paper, on which future policy will be based. EU officials claimed last week the delay was because Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner for justice, freedom and security, had grave reservations about the definition of terrorism in the commission's policy paper and had delayed signing the policy document as it 'went too far in blaming Muslim communities'. Read more ...Source: The ObserverGilles de Kerchove
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) will present its first all day international conference on Political Islam, Sharia Law, and Civil Society on Friday 10 October 2008. Since apostasy is punishable by death under Islamic law, the conference coincides with the International Day against the Death Penalty. Speakers at the conference, including Richard Dawkins, AC Grayling, and Maryam Namazie, Spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, will focus on Apostasy; Sharia Law; and Creationism, Faith Schools and Religious Education. Dawkins will also present his criticism of Harun Yahya's Atlas of Creation, for which Dawkins' site has been banned in Turkey. Other distinguished speakers at the conference are Mina Ahadi, Roy Brown, Giles Enders, Johann Hari, Ehsan Jami, Houzan Mahmoud, Caspar Melville, Taslima Nasreen, Fariborz Pooya, Terry Sanderson, Joan Smith, Bahram Soroush, Hanne Stinson, Hamid Taqvaee, Ibn Warraq, Keith Porteous Wood and Zia Zaffar. The event includes a comedy act by Nick Doody, the work of a well-known artist, Fitna Remade by Reza Moradi and Breaking the Taboo by Patty Debonitas. For more information, a press pass, booking form or to interview speakers, please contact: Maryam Namazie Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX, UK Tel: 07719166731 E-mail: exmuslimcouncil@gmail.comwww.ex-muslim.org.ukDetails on the conference: 10 October 2008 10am-6pm (Registration begins at 9am) Conway Hall London 25 Red Lion Square WC1R 4RL (Closest station: Holborn) GBP 40 statutory organisations/businesses; GBP 20 voluntary sector; GBP 10 individuals, including lunch and refreshments.
 September 28, 2008
A CAR bomb exploded near a Shi'ite shrine in southern Damascus overnight, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others in one of the deadliest attacks to hit Syria in recent years.
The car packed with 200kg of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid said was "a terrorist act".
All the casualties were civilians, he said.
"A counter-terrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators... We can't point the finger at any party.''
The rare attack in a country known for its iron-fisted security came during the morning rush-hour in the teeming neighbourhood of Sayeda Zeinab, the state-run SANA news agency said, quoting a Syrian official.
The district is popular among Shi'ite pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who pray at the tomb of Zeinab, daughter of the Shi'ite martyr Ali and granddaughter of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.
More than two million people reportedly visit the shrine each year.
Witnesses told state television the bomb could have claimed more victims if it had gone off a day later.
"It felt like an earthquake. The force of the explosion threw me out of bed,'' said one man who lives nearby.
"Thank God this was Saturday. The catastrophe would have been bigger if the attack had taken place on Sunday when schools were open.''
Another man said that the blast was heard 10km away in the northern suburbs of Duma and Harasta.
The attack was condemned by Syria's ally Russia as well as France, Jordan and Lebanon.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a cable of condolences to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad describing the attack as "a cruel and inhumane crime", the Kremlin website said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "barbarian and blind'' attack and expressed "solidarity with Syria in its fight against terrorism", his office said.
The precise target of the bombing was not immediately known.
'Syria is targeted, either by countries whose interests contradict those of Damascus... or other groups who have an interest in undermining Syrian security,'' law professor Ibrahim Darraji said.
The blast was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on Muslim Brotherhood militants.
It was the worst since February when Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, linked to attacks on Western and Israeli targets in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed in a Damascus car bombing.
Source: The Australian
CHICAGO,IL - Sunrise Equities, a Chicago based financial services firm which claimed to be Shariah compliant, has gone under leaving many area Muslims robbed of their savings. Incorporated in 2001 the firm claimed that all its services were in compliant with Islamic laws and had the endorsement of a leading religious scholar. According to latest reports coming from Chicago the management of Sunrise Equities and the affiliated Sunrise Constructions have disappeared after closing their offices. Sunrise CEO Salman Ibrahim, Vice President Amjed Mahmood, and Vice President (Community Relations) Mohammad Akbar Zahid are untraceable. The first indication that all is not well with the firm were first senses two months when its checks started to bounce. Before any action could be initiated by the investors the management just locked up and disappeared along with the computers and other valuables. Read more ...Source: Creeping Sharia | | |  | | Please use article URL (click posted time), not main URL |
Four people have been arrested in London over an alleged terror attack which may be linked to the publishing of a controversial book. Books in the window of the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja in London,
who was targeted by alleged extremistsBy Andrew Alderson The arrests are thought to be linked to a fire at a property in Islington, north London, which is used as the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja. His company, Gibson Square, recently agreed to publish a controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride, entitled The Jewel of Medina. The blaze, which led to people being evacuated from the house, may have been started by a petrol bomb pushed through the letter box. Initially, three men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were detained at around 2.25 am this morning in the Islington area of north London after a fire at a property in Lonsdale Square. Two were stopped by armed officers in Lonsdale Square, and the third was seized following an armed vehicle stop near Angel underground station. Police are searching four addresses around north-east London - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate. Read more ...Source: Telegraph
 The Investigative Project on Terrorism is among those who are critical of new guidelines discouraging the use of terms like "Islamist" and "jihad" when discussing terrorism and extremism that were issued earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center. While the agencies argue that the words may boost the popularity of terrorists among Muslim radicals, it's a bad idea to hide the motivations behind those who seek to attack the United States, or innocent people around the world. Another weakness was exposed last month, when the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attacked California Congressman Ed Royce (R-Orange County) for using the term "Islamist terrorism." In an article posted on its website Sept. 10, CAIR engages in the kind of hyperbolic rationalization it routinely accuses others of using against it. The article describes a letter to Royce from 22 religious leaders of various faiths and community activists. The website article quotes Sharaf Mowjood, identified as CAIR-Los Angeles Government Relations Coordinator, claiming that the DHS language is meant to prevent future terrorist attacks. "So if Royce cares about preventing the next terrorist attack, maybe he should follow what the DHS says," Mowjood said. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 By Supna Zaidi
The OIC wants a UN resolution to prevent defamation of Islam. Yet, one of its member nations proves yet again that it is simply a pretext to curb criticism of Islamic societies internationally.
The resolution, called "Combating Defamation of Religion," is sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). According to the text of an OIC proposal, the new UN body should state clearly that the "defamation of religions and prophets is inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression" and that states, organizations and the media have a "responsibility in promoting tolerance and respect for religious and cultural values.
Malaysia arrested internet blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin, for insulting Islam, though what he really did was criticize the Malay government. Petra published an article in Malaysia Today website accusing Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, of involvement in the 2007 murder of a Mongolian woman. Mr Razak denies the charge.
The current Malaysian administration under Abdullah Badawi is being challenged not only by critics like Petra, but also Anwar Ibrahim, who is leading the politician. Ibrahim gained national attention after he was thrown in jail under alleged trumped of charges of sodomy and corruption almost a decade ago. He is back in the game, leading the opposition against the Badawi government.
Petra's was sentenced to two years detention under the Internal Security Act, which many critics argue is meant for terrorists, not legitimate critics of government and society. The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz has argued that the comments and criticisms throughout Petra's writings are reminiscent of "anti-Islamic" statements westerners usually make.
Thus, Petra must be an agent for the west in Malaysia, insulting Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims with impunity. Malaysia is not the only Muslim country that hides behind religion to attack individuals that they have a very secular "beef" with. Consider:
1. Pakistan repeatedly attacks non-Muslims, especially Christians with blasphemy. In reality many cases involve work, family, or neighborly feuds that have nothing to do with religion. See, here, here, and here.
So, what does the resolution to prevent Defamation against religion really mean to OIC members when blasphemy is used as a tool against political enemies who are Muslim themselves, like Petra? Moreover, what does such behavior suggest if blasphemy were a weapon Muslim nations could yield against non-Muslim nations? Already, we have seen the following encroachments on secular life in the west:
1. Sharia Finance;
2. Islam in public schools;
3. Violations of basic hygiene policy by Muslim medical staff;
4. Censorship of literature.
To debate any of the above, Islamists label dissenters bigots and racist, rather than address the concerns and respond on topic.
Unfortunately, instead of western nations taking a stand against the manipulation behind the OIC resolution, some countries are caving in. Norway, for example, passed anti-blasphemy laws in 2006 after the Dutch cartoon incident.
The Norwegian Penal Code states:
"Law 150-A, which has been approved by parliament, criminalizes blasphemy and clearly prohibits despising others or lampooning religions in any form of expression, including the use of photographs," Norway's Deputy Archbishop Oliva Howika told reporters after a meeting in Doha with Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.
The United States, along with many European nations, are trying to defeat the resolution. Critics of the resolution correctly realize that it is meant to curb criticism of Islam though it permeates the economic, political and social life of 57 nations, and Islamist immigrants in the West.
Islamist immigrants are the real threat, and the OIC knows it. Instead of respecting and appreciating the various democratic institutions and values like tolerance and pluralism that many of their home countries lack, Islamists want Sharia.
Curbing criticism of such attempts is what the resolution against defamation of Religion attempts to do. Any challenges to unreasonable requests for religious accommodation by Islamists would now be considered discrimination, ignoring the significant difference between equal treatment under the law with special treatment of one faith over all others.
The resolution must fail. It is hypocritical considering how the 57 Muslim nations treat non-Muslims and even Muslim minorities in their own states. Moreover, it is a weapon to silence the spread of Islamism in the West by tying the hands of critics. Malaysia's Raja Petra Kamarudin is but one example of many victims of blasphemy laws in the Islamic world already. The resolution against the defamation of religion would make detentions' like his the norm and not news worthy if passed. Source: Muslim World Today
 By Brigitte Gabriel For the past five years, I’ve been traveling the world in an effort to inform people about the threat of radical Islam. I have often been accused of “hate speech” and “Islamophobia.” The latest was in an article in the New York Times, where I was described not just as an “Islamophobe,” but a “radical Islamophobe.” This made me question what those terms really mean. What is the difference between “hate speech” and “free speech”? What is “Islamophobia” and who are the true “Islamophobes?” “Hate speech” verses “free speech” is easy to define. All over the United States, so-called “progressive” individuals and groups berate the USA and Israel and in the process tell outrageous lies about both countries. That’s called “free speech.” When others, including me, tell the truth about the threat of radical Islam, that’s labeled “hate speech” by many of these “progressives.” But what is “hate speech” and what is “Islamophobia”? When I describe the threat presented by radical Islam, I quote chapter and verse from the Koran and authoritative classical Islamic sources. When I describe the worldwide campaign of Islamist hate indoctrination against the West, and the mind-numbing mass violence committed and glorified by radical Islamists, I am relaying facts that have been published by print and electronic media outlets all over the world. Do some of the facts about Islamist supremism manifest “hatefulness?” Certainly. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 By Richard Kerbaj Muslim spiritual leaders could be denounced publicly by their own community as part of a campaign to expose imams whose silence on domestic abuse is leading to women being burnt, lashed and raped in the name of Islam. Muslim scholars are to present the Government with the names of imams who are alleged by members of their own communities to have refused to help abused women. Imams are also accused of refusing to speak out against domestic abuse in their sermons because they fear losing their clerical salaries and being sacked for broaching a “taboo” subject. Some of Britain's most prominent moderate imams and female Muslim leaders have backed the campaign, urging the Home Office to vet more carefully Islamic spiritual leaders coming to Britain to weed out hardliners. A four-month inquiry by the Centre for Islamic Pluralism into domestic abuse has uncovered harrowing tales of women being raped, burnt by cigarettes and lashed with belts by their husbands, who believe it is their religious right to mistreat them. At least 40 female Muslim victims and many social workers from northern England - including Bradford, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham - were interviewed as part of the inquiry, which is expected to be published next month. Read more ...Source: Times OnlineH/T: Shariah Finance WatchSubmit this article to: Delicious | Digg | Reddit | Newsvine | Google | Yahoo | StumbleUpon
 By Sana Abdallah AMMAN -- A leading Muslim Arab cleric has raised a political and religious storm across the region by speaking out audaciously on a subject that many Islamic scholars refuse to discuss because of political considerations - the "Shiite invasion" of Muslim societies. Prominent Egyptian-born scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, told Egypt's independent Al-Masry al-Youm daily on Sept. 10 there existed Shiite "attempts to invade the Sunni community with their money and cadres trained to do missionary work in the Sunni world." Qaradawi's bold words unleashed days of counter-attacks among religious, political and sectarian leaders over the very foundations that have underlined the Sunni-Shiite politico-religious schism dating back centuries. The seeds of such strife, however, were revived in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein's secular regime, leading to sectarian strife. Qaradawi charged the Shiites with spreading their belief in predominantly Sunni countries, from Indonesia to Algeria, and said "they practice the tradition of takia [concealing their intentions] and do not reveal what they believe in." And he described them as "mubtadi'oun" (heretics). The Iranian state media quickly labeled Qaradawi a "spokesman for international Freemasonry and Jewish rabbis." Read more ...Source: Middle East Times
 DALLAS – After two days of background, prosecutors in the Hamas-support trial against five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) got to the heart of their case Thursday, presenting evidence that the charity was the fundraising arm of a vast Muslim Brotherhood plan to help Hamas and to infiltrate the United States. In doing so, they showed how two active national organizations, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and its parent, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) were both tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and to HLF. The Brotherhood is an 80-year-old Egyptian religious and political movement that seeks to instill Sharia, or Islamic law, as the controlling basis for society throughout the world. In court papers filed in July, prosecutors spelled out ISNA's and NAIT's connections to the case: "During the early years of the HLF's operations HLF raised money and supported HAMAS through a bank account it held with ISNA and NAIT," prosecutors wrote earlier this summer. "ISNA checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the HLF were often made payable to "the Palestinian Mujahideen," the original name for the HAMAS military wing. From that ISNA/NAIT account, the HLF sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook; Nadia Elashi (defendant Ghassan Elashi's cousin and Marzook's wife), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's Islamic Center of Gaza, the Islamic University, and a number of other individuals associated with HAMAS." In court Thursday, FBI Agent Lara Burns pointed to translated bank records showing a letter written in Arabic requesting payments to defendant Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 Look what arrived in the mail yesterday!By Patrick Poole Last week I reported about the response by our local Islamic extremists to the distribution of the DVD copies of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West" in dozens of major US daily newspapers on Sunday, September 14, including the Columbus Dispatch. Hatemongering organizations, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have gone near catatonic with rage that anyone is challenging their control over the establishment media. Well, the second round of Obsession DVDs has begun hitting Ohio homes, as seen from the mailer above which arrived here yesterday. This very well may push extremists like CAIR over the edge. CAIR has already demanded an FEC investigation into the organization, the Clarion Fund, who is sponsoring the DVD distribution. And in Toledo, Muslim groups are in a state of near hysteria, claiming that they are living in fear because of the video drops. Thus, in a curious turn of events, CAIR is directly responsible for Islamophobia, telling Muslims that they need to be afraid. Read more ...Source: Central Ohioans Against Terrorism
 September 26, 2008
PAKISTAN says troops have killed 1000 Islamist militants in a huge offensive, a day after President Asif Ali Zardari lashed out at the US over a clash on the Afghan border.
Five top al-Qa’ida and Taliban commanders were among the dead in a month-long operation in Bajaur district, currently the most troubled of Pakistan's unstable tribal areas close to the porous frontier, a top official said.
In a further sign of the instability gripping Pakistan since the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad at the weekend, three suicide bombers blew themselves up in a shootout with police in Karachi.
Reporters were flown by helicopter to Khar, the main town in restive Bajaur, for a briefing on the military operation launched in August against Islamist militants who had taken control of most of the region.
“The overall toll is over 1000 militants,” said Tariq Khan, inspector general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, adding that 27 soldiers had also been killed in the fighting.
“This is a centre of gravity for the militants,” Khan told journalists. “If they lose here they lose everything.”
Five top militant commanders were among the dead, he said.
He said four of the commanders appeared to be foreigners: Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri; Abu Suleiman, an Arab; an Uzbek commander named Mullah Mansoor; and an Afghan commander called Manaras.
The fifth was a Pakistani commander named only Abdullah, a son of ageing hardline leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad who is based in Bajaur and has close ties to al-Qa’ida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Bajaur, which borders the Afghan province of Kunar, has seen some of the fiercest fighting between Pakistani forces and Islamist militants since former military ruler Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001.
The operation came in response to international pressure on Pakistan's new civilian government, which ousted Musharraf last month, to prevent Pakistan-based militants from launching attacks in Afghanistan.
But tensions have escalated with Washington since a September 3 ground attack by US forces inside Pakistan, the first of its kind since 2001, left about 15 people dead.
Following an exchange of gunfire between US and Pakistani forces on the frontier yesterday, new President Zardari told the United Nations that Pakistan would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty, even by its allies.
The incident happened after two US military helicopters came under fire from the Pakistani side, a US military spokesman said, insisting that they had been about a mile and a half inside Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military said its troops had fired warning shots at two helicopters which were “well within Pakistani territory.”
“Just as we will not let Pakistani's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends,” he said, without citing the US or the border flare-up.
In Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, three militants detonated suicide vests when police raided their hideout on a tip-off from a captured rebel, police said.
“We have saved Karachi from death and destruction. We know who they were and what was their target in Karachi, but we cannot disclose it immediately,” provincial police chief Babar Khattak told AFP.
The incident came less than a week after the suicide truck bomb attack on the Islamabad Marriott, one of the worst attacks in Pakistan's history, which left 53 dead and more than 260 wounded. Source: The Australian
 By Abdur-Rahman Muhammad I was checking out some of the blogs yesterday and came across an article at Muslim Matters that quite frankly turned my stomach. Its not entirely clear who authored the piece, but I hold the site’s owners, Yasir Qadhi, his associate Amad, and the rest of that crew responsible for its revolting content. The article sought to draw some type of moral equivalence between the religious beliefs of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin with those of Osama bin Laden. Specifically, it mocked one of the religious practices of her church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, and resorted to fear mongering by portraying Palin’s Christian conception of the “end time” in a menacing way. Quoting a passage from a Wall Street Journal piece, the article derisvely mentions how they, "speak in tongues [see this video and article] and are part of a faith that believes humanity is in its ‘end times’ — the days preceding a world-ending cataclysm bringing Christian redemption and the second coming of Jesus ..." Read more ...Source: Singularvoice
 By BEILA RABINOWITZ and WILLIAM MAYER September 25, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Ingrid Mattson, the president of the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], recently addressed the launch of the "Report of the Leadership Group on U.S. Muslim Relations," part of a new stealth jihad effort called the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project. ISNA is an unindicted co- conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding prosecution and is widely regarded as being the American wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to their website, the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project, "...has been producing a new set of strategies that better meet the long-term national security interests of the U.S. by addressing the sources of tension between the U.S. and Muslims in key countries and region..." [source, http://www.usmuslimengagement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=42] The ISNA website identified a number of prominent lefties as being associated with the effort, including Madeline Albright and former ambassador Dennis Ross, "The Group includes respected names in public service and business such former secretary of state Madeline Albright, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Paul Brest, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stephen Heintz, Bishop Denis Madden, Tufts University professor, Dr. Vali Nasr, and U.S. Special Middle East envoy and negotiator, Dennis Ross." [source, http://www.isna.net/articles/News/ISNA-SERVES-ON-GROUP-THAT-SEEKS-BETTER-US-MUSLIM-WORLD-RELATIONS.aspx] Read more ...Source: Pipeline News
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he does not support the military intifada or armed resistance against Israel. He said that the intifada has destroyed the Palestinian people and the Palestinian infrastructure. Source: Al-Hayat, London, September 25, 2008 H/T: MEMRI
In response to accusations made September 16 by Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah that the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa was part of the U.S.-Israeli "kitchen cabinet," the paper's editor, Ahmad Al-Jarallah, wrote a harsh response comparing Nasrallah's stirring up of the masses with his speeches to Hitler's. Al-Jarallah called on Nasrallah to learn a lesson from the fate of fascist and Nazi dictators throughout history, and noted that Nasrallah was subjecting the Lebanese to the interests of the regimes in Syria and Iran, and was igniting fitna (civil strife) between Shi'ites and Sunnis in Lebanon. Source: Al-Siyassa, Kuwait, September 21, 2008 H/T: MEMRI
 The tenth anniversary of the establishment of a leading Muslim lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans support organisation will be celebrated with a conference in London next month. Imaan is the largest network for Muslim LGBT people outside the USA. Delegates from the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the UK will be joined by representatives of the Metropolitan Police, Stonewall, the Terence Higgins Trust, UK Black Pride at the fourth LGBT Muslim Conference in London from Friday 17 October to Sunday 19 October. The conference is open to all Muslim lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people, their family, friends, and supporters. Guests from other LGBT communities including Jewish, Christian and Baha’i organisations and non-faith groups will also attend. "With the rise in Islamophobia since September 11th and the stark experience of homophobia in wider society, LGBT Muslim people can find themselves doubly isolated as the victims of prejudice and discrimination within the LGBT, Muslim and wider community," said Pav Akhtar, Imaan’s Chair. Read more ...Source: Pink News
By Sally-Anne Johnson Petitions handed in as licence hearing looms More than 150 people have signed petitions imploring Luton Borough Council to deny the new Tesco Express in Bury Park an alcohol licence. The bid from the supermarket giant has upset Muslims living in the area, some of whom say they find the idea of alcohol being sold offensive. Next Tuesday councillors will make a decision on the application, which, if successful, would see the store permitted to sell alcohol from 6am until 11pm every day. Read more ...Source: Bedford Today H/T: Europe News
By Megan Murphy Policy Exchange, the centre-right think-tank, is facing legal action over a report that accused several British mosques of selling or promoting extremist literature. The North London Central Mosque has issued a writ in the High Court, saying the report's defamatory conclusions unleashed "verbal and physical attacks" against mosques, Islamic centres and individuals following publication in 2007. "The Board of Trustees decided to take legal action in light of Policy Exchange's continued disregard for calls to remove and withdraw the said report and to apologise for the profound harm that had come upon not only the named establishments, but upon the British Muslim community as a whole," the mosque said. Policy Exchange said it is consulting its lawyers about the case. Read more ...Source: Financial Times
Bruce Loudon, Islamabad | September 26, 2008
A FULL-SCALE emergency was sounded at Islamabad's international airport last night as the al-Qa'ida-linked organisation responsible for bombing Pakistan's Marriott hotel vowed to launch even bigger attacks.
In a mobile phone message in English sent to reporters, theal-Qa'ida-linked Fidayeen-al-Islam - "Islamic commandos" - warned that "all those who facilitate Americans and NATO crusaders like (Marriott hotel owner) Sadruddin Hashwani, they will keep on receiving blows."
The group claimed it attacked the Marriott because 250 US marines and NATO troops were staying there - something denied by the US embassy.
Fifty-three people were killed in the attack, the worst terrorist strike in Pakistan.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari declared his country to be "in a state of war", while intelligence agencies said they had "credible and verifiable" information of an imminent suicide bomb attack.
The US State Department and governments of allied nations have barred their citizens from hotels in Islamabad, saying they fear new terror attacks.
This follows the US accelerating attacks on suspected militants in Pakistan's frontier region, mostly with missiles fired from unmanned drones operating from Afghanistan.
The incursions - especially a ground raid into South Waziristan by US commandos on September 3 - have angered many ordinary Pakistanis as well as the militants.
Owais Ghani, governor of the troubled North West Frontier Province, said the time had come to talk to the militants, including the Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
"The solution, the bottom line, is that political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan," he reportedly said.
Mr Ghani was reported as saying that "Mullah Omar is a political reality" and adding that Afghans intolerant of foreigners on their soil were staging "a national uprising - to eliminate the Taliban you have to slaughter half the Afghan nation".
Meanwhile, the road to Islamabad airport has been declared "insecure" and susceptible to terrorist attack.
Two weeks ago, would-be assassins near the airport road fired shots at a convoy of prime ministerial cars, apparently in an attempt to kill Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Speaking to journalists at an Iftar dinner to mark the end of another day of fasting for Ramadan, Mr Gilani said with reference to the US incursions in Pakistan: "I want to declare categorically that we will not tolerate violation of our sovereignty by anyone in the name of combating terrorism.
"We are fighting extremism and terror not for any another country, but our own country. This is our own war."
At almost the same time, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates maintained the US had "the right to act against terrorist targets in Pakistan" but that the new Government in Islamabad had to be "a willing partner". Source:The Australian
 DALLAS - Like any new homeowner, Marcial Peredo had some ideas on landscaping his new house in Falls Church, Va. And, like a lot of homeowners, he hired a crew to do the heavier work. That home improvement project became an issue Wednesday in the Hamas-support trial of five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Workers working in a corner of his property with a Bobcat tractor unearthed some black tapes, Peredo said. He collected nearly three dozen in all, tossing them in a trash bag. "I was going to throw them out," Peredo testified. "I was speaking to my neighbors and heard the house [had been] under surveillance." Peredo bought the house from a man named Fawaz Mushtaha, an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case, identified by prosecutors as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee in America. He didn't know that, but after hearing the house was being watched, Peredo said he pulled the bag out of the garbage can and "decided to call a friend of mine in Homeland Security to ask what I should do." Read more ...Source: IPT News
 Kenan Malik | September 26, 2008
TWENTY years ago today, Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses. Four years in the making and supported by a then almost unheard of advance of $850,000 from his publisher, Penguin, Rushdie had hoped the work would cement his reputation as the most important British novelist of his generation. The book certainly set the world alight, though not quite in the way it was meant to.
The Satanic Verses was, Rushdie said in an interview before publication, a novel about "migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death". It was also a satire on Islam, "a serious attempt", in his words, "to write about religion and revelation from the point of view of a secular person". For some, that was unacceptable, turning the novel, in the words of British Muslim philosopher Shabbir Akhtar, into a piece of "hate literature". Within a month, The Satanic Verses had been banned in Rushdie's native India, after protests from Islamic radicals.
By the end of the year, protesters had burned a copy of the novel on the streets of Bolton, in northern England. Then, on February 14, 1989, came the event that transformed the Rushdie affair: Iran's spiritual leader, the ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued his fatwa.
"I inform all zealous Muslims of the world that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses - which has been compiled, printed and published in opposition to Islam, the prophet and the Koran - and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its contents are sentenced to death," he proclaimed.
Thanks to the fatwa, the Rushdie affair became the most important free speech controversy of modern times. It also became a watershed in our attitudes to freedom of expression. Rushdie's critics lost the battle; The Satanic Verses continues to be published. But they won the war. The argument at the heart of the anti-Rushdie case - that it is morally unacceptable to cause offence to other cultures - is now widely accepted.
In 1989, even a fatwa could not stop the continued publication of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was forced into hiding for almost a decade. Translators and publishers were killed, bookshops were bombed and Penguin staff had to wear bomb-proof vests. Yet Penguin never wavered in its commitment to Rushdie's novel.
Today, all it takes for a publisher to run for cover is a letter from an outraged academic. US publisher Random House recently torpedoed the publication of a novel that it had bought for $US100,000 ($119,000) for fear of setting off another Rushdie affair. Written by journalist Sherry Jones, The Jewel of Medina is a racy historical novel about Aisha, Mohammed's youngest wife. Random House had sent galley proofs to writers and scholars, hoping for endorsements. One of those on the list, Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at University of Texas, condemned the book as offensive. Random House immediately pulled the book.
In the 20 years between the publication of The Satanic Verses and the withdrawal of The Jewel of Medina, the fatwa, in effect, has become internalised. Not only do publishers drop books deemed offensive but theatres savage plays, opera houses cut productions, art galleries censor shows, all in the name of cultural sensitivity.
"You would think twice if you were honest," said Ramin Gray, associate director at London's Royal Court Theatre when asked if he would put on a play critical of Islam.
"You'd have to take the play on its individual merits, but given the time we're in, it's very hard because you'd worry that if you cause offence then the whole enterprise would become buried in a sea of controversy. It does make you tread carefully."
In June last year, the theatre cancelled a new adaptation of Aristophanes's Lysistrata, set in Muslim heaven, for fear of causing offence. Another London theatre, the Barbican, carved chunks out of its production of Tamburlaine the Great for the same reason and Berlin's Deutsche Oper cancelled a production of Mozart's Idomeneo in 2006 because of its depiction of Mohammed.
In the past, free speech was seen as an inherent good, the fullest extension of which was a necessary condition for the elucidation of truth, the expression of moral autonomy, the maintenance of social progress and the development of other liberties. Restrictions on free speech were viewed as the exception rather than the norm, to be wielded carefully, and only in those cases where speech might cause direct harm.
In the post-Rushdie world, speech has come to be seen not intrinsically as a good but inherently as a problem because it can offend as well as harm, and speech that offends can be as socially damaging as speech that harms. Speech, therefore, has to be restrained by custom, especially in a diverse society, with a variety of deeply held views and beliefs, and censorship (and self-censorship) has to become the norm.
"Self-censorship is a meaningful demand in a world of varied and passionately held convictions," Akhtar has suggested. "What Rushdie publishes about Islam is not just his business. It is everyone's - not least every Muslim's - business." In other words, if I don't like what you say, you can't say it.
Increasingly, Western liberals have come to agree. And where self-censorship is deemed insufficient, there is a battery of laws to enforce state censorship, from legislation against hate speech to the demand by the UN that every member take a stand against the "defamation of religion". It is not just critics of Islam who are being silenced. British laws against the "glorification of terrorism" and moves in the US to alter the first amendment so that it no longer provides protection for Islamic radicals show that Islamic critics, too, can no longer say the unsayable.
Twenty years on from The Satanic Verses it is time we took a stand against this trend. "Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties," wrote 17th-century poet John Milton. "He who destroys a good book kills reason itself."
Freedom of expression is not just an important liberty; it is the very foundation of liberty, for without such freedom we cannot define what those liberties are.
Akhtar was right: what Rushdie or anyone else says is everybody's business. It is everybody's business to ensure that no one is deprived of their right to say what they wish, even if what they say is seen as offensive.
As George Orwell once put it, "If liberty means anything, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
Kenan Malik is a London author, lecturer and broadcaster Source: The Australian
 To: The members of the Broward County School Board
On March 1, 2008, Broward County School Board Diversity Committee member Jawhar Sadallah Badran, an appointee of School Board member Robert Parks, was caught on camera making statements in support of the terrorist organization Hamas. They included “Hamas is not a terrorist organization,” “Hamas is a defender of the Palestinian people,” and “Hamas is better than Fatah, because there’s no corruption. Hamas takes care of the people.”
As well, in July of 2006, Badran made a statement to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel describing himself as a suicide bomber. He said, “Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis. The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can.”
Furthermore, Badran is a representative for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that has a number of terrorist ties. Indeed, the United States Justice Department has recently named CAIR as a co-conspirator for a current federal trial which is dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas.
We believe wholeheartedly in Freedom of Speech, but because of Mr. Badran’s expressions of support for terrorist organizations and violence and because of his radical affiliations, we feel that he should be disallowed from serving on any government forum, especially one that deals with diversity and children. We therefore are calling on you to act swiftly to remove Jawhar “Joe” Badran from the Broward County School Board Diversity Committee. He should not be able to serve another day.
Source: Petition OnlineH/T: Americans Against Hate Jawhar Sadallah Badran
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 Sir Paul McCartney:
Terrorists, F.U.!Sept. 25, 2008: Paul McCartney performs in Tel Aviv.
TEL AVIV, Israel — After a 43-year wait, Paul McCartney performed his first concert in Israel on Thursday, kicking it off with the familiar Beatles' song "Hello, Goodbye" to the joy of tens of thousands of cheering fans.
McCartney billed the concert "Friendship First," saying he is on a mission of peace for Israel and the Palestinians.
Singing "Give Peace a Chance," he stopped and let the audience sing the chorus alone. He told his fans, "Here tonight you sang it, you want it." He dedicated the song to his fellow Beatle, John Lennon, who was killed in New York in 1980.
Fireworks lit the sky as he sang "Live and Let Die."
After it was officially announced last month, the concert set off a wave of excitement throughout the country, where visits by A-list celebrities are still a novelty. Almost all of Tel Aviv's nightclubs canceled live entertainment Thursday evening in deference to the rock legend.
A crowd made up of Israelis of all ages, estimated at 40,000, cheered McCartney as he performed outdoors in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park on a warm late summer night. Some wore T-shirts with the slogan, "I love Paul."
McCartney greeted the crowd with a mixture of English and Hebrew, wishing them "shana tova," happy new year, ahead of next week's Jewish new year holiday. His repertoire included many Beatles hits, as well as songs from his post-Beatles group, Wings. The songs included "Yesterday," "Back in the USSR," "Hey Jude" and "Jet." He added two encores for the cheering crowd.
Nadav Erez, 31, from the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, danced enthusiastically throughout the concert. "He should have come here long ago, he should have come again and again, he should come again and again and again," Erez said.
McCartney was first scheduled to appear in Israel with the Beatles in 1965. But in one of the country's most widely repeated tales, an Israeli official supposedly called off the concert for fear it would corrupt the nation's youth. Only in recent weeks, it turns out the story may not have been true.
So pervasive is this story that Israel's ambassador in London, Ron Prosor, sent a letter to the surviving members of the band to express regret over the matter.
"Israel missed a chance to learn from the most influential musicians of the decade, and the Beatles missed an opportunity to reach out to one of the most passionate audiences in the world," he wrote. He told them the country would like to make it up to them by inviting them to play during this year's celebrations marking Israel's 60th anniversary. Only two of the four Beatles, McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr, are still alive.
When McCartney announced plans for Thursday's concert, he acknowledged the ancient brouhaha, saying he was finally coming "43 years after being banned by the Israeli government." He promised to give Israelis "the night they have been waiting decades for."
Ahead of the McCartney concert, newspaper columnist Yossi Sarid, son of the Israeli official who allegedly banned the Beatles, went on a campaign to clear his father's name. Sarid claimed his father had nothing to do with the decision, and that it involved a more mundane feud between two Israeli concert promoters.
Sarid, reached ahead of the concert, said had not heard from McCartney's people and had no plans to attend the concert. "The tickets are too expensive," he said.
A small group of Palestinians urged McCartney to call off the show, saying it was supporting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. A radical Muslim preacher in Lebanon also called on McCartney to cancel the show.
During a visit to the biblical town of Bethlehem on Wednesday, McCartney brushed off the criticism.
"I get criticized everywhere I go, but I don't listen to them," McCartney said. "I'm bringing a message of peace, and I think that's what the region needs."
Hundreds of police and private security guards were deployed at the concert. But police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said there were no concrete threats against the singer, and no extraordinary security precautions were being taken.
Source: FoxNews
 Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMSU) will be hosting a conference on October 23 that asks the loaded question: “Is There a Role for Shari'ah in Modern States?” The Saudi-funded ACMSU and its founding director, John Esposito, one of the foremost apologists for radical Islam in the academic field of Middle East studies, have certainly been doing their bit to make the idea more palatable. The Saudi prince for whom ACMSU was named has been pumping millions of dollars into Middle East studies at Georgetown, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and beyond, and as the case of Esposito demonstrates, it magnifies the voices of scholars with a decidedly uncritical bent. As a result, ACMSU analysis regarding Sharia (or Islamic) law tends to focus not on its injustices (amputation, stoning, hanging, honor killing, punishment for blasphemy, execution of apostates, persecution of non-Muslims, sanctioned wife-beating, female genital mutilation, and so on), but rather on repackaging it in ways that will appeal to Western sensibilities. The concept of a more “moderate” version of Sharia law that is compatible with democracy is at the forefront of this effort. While it’s difficult to predict exactly what will take place at the upcoming ACMSU conference, the fact that Esposito will present the opening remarks provides considerable insight into the politics of the event. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 An event organized by several religious groups to honor Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York Thursday has drawn ire from the Catholic League and several Jewish organizations, UPI reported.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue called on supporters to attend a rally to disrupt Thursday’s “obscene” Ramadan event.
"Ahmadinejad is a menace to freedom-loving people the world over, and the sight of religious groups embracing him is nauseating," Donohue told UPI. "The Catholic League is proud to take part in this rally, and we encourage people of all religious groups to have a contingent represent them on Thursday evening."
The Christian groups behind the event to honor Ahmadinejad are the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker United Nations Office, Religions for Peace and the World Council of Churches, UPI reported.
The initial rally to protest Thursday’s dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel was organized by Women International and the Jewish Action Alliance.
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, encouraged people to protest the event.
"As if beating, imprisoning and killing women, Christians and other Iranians is not enough, Iranian leaders' thirst for death spills over its borders to kill and wound American military and innocent civilians in Iraq,” she said.
“Ahmadinejad has grabbed the baton of his genocidal predecessors to threaten the extinction of the Jewish people and their homeland Israel. This is history repeating itself, proving again that evil exists and there is never a lack of 'useful idiots' to support the embodiment of evil.”
Ahmadinejad is in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly this week. Source: UPI
 On Thursday, Sept 25, at 6pm in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, The American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker UN Office, Religions for Peace, and the World Council of Churches-UN Liaison Office will be “honoring” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at an Iftar (dinner to break the day’s Ramadan fast). Other organizations, political leaders and media have also been invited. Read the Text of the Invitation. These religious leaders are about to betray their brethren across all religions, parties, and countries by “honoring” the tyrannical regime of Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs of this terrorist state. At the same time, Women United, the Jewish Action Alliance, Stand With Us, Center for Security Policy, the Catholic League, the Traditional Values Coalition, the Alliance of Iranian Women and over 20 other organizations of all faiths and political affiliations will hold an interfaith rally to counter this BETRAYAL, to protest Ahmadinejad's presence at the United Nations, and to oppose Iran's nuclear weapons program and outrageous threats against the USA and America's ally, Israel. See the full list of participating organizations HERE, updated daily. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been invited to speak along with many other civic and religious leaders and politicians, both Democrats and Republicans. Please join us at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, East 42nd St, near Lexington Ave and Grand Central Station in Manhattan, at 5:30pm. PLAN EXTRA TRAVEL TIME because the large number of attendees will affect traffic near the event. Send a message to the Mullahs in Iran! For more information, or to bring your organization on board, call 212-726-1124 Source: STOP AHMADINEJAD RALLYH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
 Two years ago Allahpundit (who works for Michelle Malkin) made a very strange judgment. He accepted that the original Crescent of Embrace design for the Flight 93 memorial pointed roughly to Mecca (to be exact, it points within 2 degrees of Mecca), but said that worrying about the orientation of the crescent reeked of "truther-iness." "A good rule of thumb," said Allah: if you need a protractor to properly express your outrage, you’ve probably gone too far. Orientation on Mecca may sound esoteric, but it is certainly not esoteric to Muslims, who are supposed to face Mecca five times a day for prayer, and often carry special compasses for that purpose. In particular, a crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab, and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. (Some mihrabs are pointed arch shaped, but the archetypical mihrab is crescent shaped.) This isn't merely suspicious, like learning to fly airliners without learning how to land. It is the discovered enemy objective: to stab a terrorist memorial mosque into the heartland of America. How can anyone be surprised? As our blogburst logo shows, the original crescent design was a bare naked crescent and star flag. For Allah to dismiss ADDITIONAL Islamic symbol shapes as coincidence is like seeing the second airplane fly into the Trade Center and saying: "Well now it HAS to be an accident." Allahpundit seems to have forgotten the defining quality of the 9-11 truth morons. It isn't that their claims seem esoteric or even outlandish. It is that their claims are FALSE, and in most cases are revealed by the simplest fact-checking to be blatantly dishonest as well. The truthers are self-conscious purveyors of malicious disinformation, a la Michael Moore. In contrast, everything we are saying about the flight 93 memorial is TRUE, and is easily verified to be true just by examining the official design drawings. ● The plans specify 44 translucent memorial blocks to be emplaced along the flight path, matching the number of passengers, crew AND terrorists. Just open up the design drawings and count. (The flight path symbolically breaks our harmonious circle according to architect Paul Murdoch, turning it into a giant crescent. Go figure.) ● The 93 foot Tower of Voices will be topped with yet another Islamic shaped crescent. Just look:  The symbolic lives of the 40 heroes literally dangle down below the symbolic Islamic heavens, projected against the sky above. Not a lot of different possible meanings here. ● The 9/11 date is to be inscribed on a separate section of Memorial Wall that is centered on the bisector of the giant crescent, which is the exact position of the star on an Islamic flag. The date goes to the terrorists. ● Etcetera ad nauseum, and architect Paul Murdoch proves that all of it is intentional by repeating every Islamic and terrorist memorializing feature in the Tower of Voices part of the memorial. (2 minute animation showing the repeated Mecca orientations here.) How many airplanes have to hit the Flight 93 memorial before a few of our heavy hitters can admit that MAYBE it is not just an accident? Can we at least agree that the Park Service should be exposed for lying through their teeth about these facts? If we could get word out to the public just about the Mecca orientation of the crescent, Murdoch's plot would probably be kaput, especially given the numerous denials the Memorial Project has issued in the last year and a half. But getting even the most basic facts out is terribly difficult when it isn't just the mainstream media that won't report the facts, but even people like Michelle Malkin are remaining silent, after taking a leading role in raising the initial alarm. The loss of her powerful voice is hard enough, but there is also the seeming implication. Even the most internet savvy conservatives--the people we most need to reach to have any hope of stopping this--presume that if Michelle is not still objecting to the Flight 93 memorial, it must be okay now. It is NOT okay. It is a thorough-going memorial to the terrorists. As Tom Burnett Sr. (father of Flight 93 hero Tom Burnett Jr.) keeps urging, we have to "do something," as his son got up and did something. We have to stop this re-hijacked Flight 93 before it reaches its destination. If Michelle is going to hand such an important portfolio to Allah, doesn't he have an obligation to check a few facts before smearing fellow conservatives as truther-like? Allah and Michelle are good friends and much beloved for their excellent judgment and hard work. There is no anger here. Just an appeal for both to take another look. Paul Murdoch has even provided a fitting pretext, if any is needed. In an interview two weeks ago, Murdoch re-labeled the tips of his crescent structure the same way that Allah proposed two years ago, yielding a more extended crescent that no longer points to Mecca. Murdoch is channeling you Allah, but where you were merely ignorant, he is being deceptive. Where are the breaks in the circle?In 2006, Allah posted a graphic from Alec Rawls that used orientation lines to show how the defining points of the Mecca-oriented crescent are unchanged in the Circle of Embrace redesign:  Original Crescent of Embrace design, left, points to Mecca. The flight path can be seen coming down from the upper left corner of the image, breaking the circle at the upper crescent tip. Every particle of that original Crescent of Embrace design remains completely intact in the Circle of Embrace redesign. The original crescent tips are still there, yielding the same Mecca oriented crescent. Allah, however, suggested that the orientation of the crescent HAD been changed:  In blue: Allahpundit's proposed orientation lines for the Circle of Embrace redesign. If you don't know that the theme of the whole design is the flight path breaking the circle at the original upper crescent tip, and you don't notice that there is still a gap in the circle at the original upper crescent tip, you can get Allah's altered orientation for the Circle redesign, no longer pointing to Mecca. Murdoch, of course, knows the theme of his own design (being the first one to articulate it publicly). Still, pretending that the breaks in the circle have been changed is a useful dodge, and Murdoch employed it the other week. Asked if the circle in the Circle of Embrace redesign depicts a broken circle, as critics claim, Murdoch said that the circle breaks when it reaches the sacred ground: The edge of the sacred ground “breaks” the circular perimeter of the bowl to give it the prominence it deserves as the focal point of the entire park and the final resting place of the 40 heroes. The Sacred Ground is the yellow-colored area in the graphics above. By acknowledging only the break at the sacred ground, Murdoch is suggesting that the tips of the crescent come up to yellow area on both sides, just as Allah drew. The Park service website, however, goes on to identify another break as well, the original break at the upper tip of the original crescent design, where the flight path crosses the circle: The trees surrounding this "circle of embrace" are missing in two places; first, where the flight path of the plane went overhead (which is the location of the planned memorial overlook and visitor center), and second, where the plane crashed at the Sacred Ground (depicted by a ceremonial gate and pathway into the Sacred Ground). In summary, the memorial is shaped in a circular fashion, and the circle is symbolically "broken" or missing trees in two places, depicting the flight path of the plane, and the crash site... In his interview, Murdoch does not just fail to mention the symbolic breaking of the circle at the original upper crescent tip, but offers an alternative description of the Entry Portal structure: The entrance moves through the circular edge along the flight path, so as visitors enter they will be aligned with United Flight 93 through their own experience. Sorry Murdoch, and Allah, but this passage through the original upper crescent tip does not just show the path of Flight 93. It explicitly symbolizes the flight path smashing our harmonious circle and turning it into the giant (Islamic shaped) crescent.  Entry Portal walkway follows the flight path through the Entry Portal walls, symbolizing the breaking of the circle, according to the Park Service itself. Allah's blue orientation lines are WRONG. The crescent is the unbroken part of the circle, which was not altered in the so-called redesign. All they did was add an extra arc of trees that explicitly represents a broken off part of the circle. Can Allah please post a correction? It points to WashingtonWhat made Allah throw up his hands was our further claim that the asymmetric crescent of memorial groves at the back of the full Crescent of Embrace points to the White House. But this too is TRUE, and if you look at Murdoch's plan, there is very clear reason for it. Murdoch constantly provides proof that his possible Islamic and terrorist memorializing structure are intentional, often by repetition. The purpose of the White House orientation is to prove that his drawing of only 38 Memorial Groves, instead of the advertised 40, is not a mistake. The giant crescent represents the symbolic Islamic heavens. Since the crescent of Memorial Groves is part of the full crescent, Murdoch cannot actually memorialize the 40 infidels there and still have a proper mosque. Thus Murdoch has to PROVE that the 38 groves are intended to memorialize someone else. Notice that the 38 groves can be seen as a set of 19 nested crescents, ranging in length from 38 groves down to two. That is one for each 9/11 hijacker. How can this intent be proved? First, Murdoch proves intent by repetition. The Tower of Voices is also surrounded by a set of 19 nested crescents:  Paul Murdoch's detail view of the Tower of Voices. Click for larger image.The nested crescents of memorial groves establish the precedent that arcs of trees as short as two are to be counted as crescents. Using this rule, there are 19 nested crescents in the Tower array. That is not enough proof for Murdoch, who provides redundant proof of intent for ALL of his Islamic and terrorist memorializing features. To provide additional proof that the 38 groves are to be seen as 19 nested crescents, Murdoch takes advantage of the fact that crescents have orientation, via either the bisector of the crescent, or by a line across the crescent tips. He positions his crescent of groves so that a line across the tips of any of the 19 nested crescents points to the White House:  19 nested crescents, all pointing to the target that the Flight 93 terrorists were trying to destroy. The White House sits at about the "i" in Washington in this Yahoo map. The other possible target of Flight 93, the Capitol Building, is also nearby, but Higher resolution analysis suggests that the crescent tip line points closer to the White House. Repeated symbolic damnationDoes anyone want to think that all this is coincidence too: the two missing groves, the White House orientation, the second set of 19 nested crescents in the Tower array? "Wow. A dozen airplanes flying into the Trade Towers. That's really got to be an accident now. That many airplanes just couldn’t be on purpose!" No, what they can't be is an accident. Paul Murdoch is dead serious about proving that he has designed a proper terrorist memorial mosque. THAT is why the Memorial Groves point to the White House. And it isn’t just the Memorial Groves. EVERY depiction of the 40 heroes has an opposite hidden meaning, proved by repetition. Those 40 wind chimes, one for each of the heroes, all literally dangling down below the symbolic Islamic heavens projected in the sky above? That’s symbolic damnation. So too with the 40 blocks inscribed with the 40 names. All four of the “extra” translucent blocks on the flight path are located within the symbolic Islamic heavens. The three inscribed with the 9/11 date are inscribed as placed the star on the Islamic crescent and star flag, while the 44th sits at the upper crescent tip (where the flight path breaks the circle). In contrast, the 40 blocks inscribed with the names of the heroes are all further down the flight path, down below the Islamic star and hence symbolically cast out of the symbolic Islamic heavens, which again implies damnation. All of this has a very clear purpose. If the memorial actually honored the 40 infidels it could not be a proper mosque. According to the Koran ( 9.18), mosques are not to be defiled by infidel presence. Depictions of victory over the infidel are of course allowed. Allahpundit is not the only one who thinks that TOO MANY suspicious features somehow imply coincidence. The Memorial Project says the exact same thing. They know that the Mecca orientation claim is accurate. They know that ALL of our factual claims are accurate and admit it in private conversation, but have decided that the very outlandishness of all somehow implies that it has to be coincidence. Flight 93 is supposed to be the symbol of our woken vigilance. We are supposed to be alert now to the nature of the Islamic terrorists who are waging war against us: that they hide amongst us, pretending to be trustworthy friends. Have the truthers actually succeeded in stripping the nation of that lesson, making us loathe to witness evidence of conspiracy? 9/11 was one of the most elaborate conspiracies in history (by al Qaeda, not by the Bush administration). We can't just unlearn that lesson, and be blind to evidence of conspiracy in hopes of staying as far as possible from those who present phony evidence of conspiracy. To make sense, one must follow the evidence wherever it leads. That is what the truthers DON'T do. The problem isn’t that they are pushing conspiracy theories, it is that they aren't honest. Ignoring the facts in an anti-conspiracy direction does not make one opposite to the truthers, but makes one similar, as Allah darn well ought to know. To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url.
Tehran, 23 Sept. (AKI) - Nemat Safavi, arrested almost three years ago at the age of 16, has been condemned to death by a court in Ardebil, in the northwest Iranian Azerbaijan region.
Nemat has not killed anyone, stolen anything or even carried out any political activism.
Nemat has been accused of having homosexual relations.While that was not stated during the court case, he was accused of "sexual relations that were not admitted".
A year ago, on a visit to Colombia University in New York, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "there were no homosexuals" in Iran in response to a question from a student. Source: AKI
Toilet facilities are being built at London's Olympic Park so Muslims will not have to face Mecca while sitting on the loo. The Olympic Delivery Authority has said it wants to produce an ideal venue for people of all cultures, faiths, ages and abilities for the 2012 Games and beyond. The Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from facing the Kiblah - the direction of prayer - when they visit the lavatory. An ODA spokeswoman confirmed that a 'percentage of general toilets would not face Mecca' out of sensitivity. She could not say how many toilets would turn away from the East. Also as part of the design, special washing facilities will be linked to Islamic prayer rooms. It is not the first time toilets have changed direction to accommodate Muslims. Last year, thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money was used to ensure toilets at Brixton prison in London did not offend Islamic law. Read more ...Source: Daily Mail
 By Kayvan Kaboli and Hassan Daoleslam On September 25th 2008, five American religious groups will host the Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinejad, as they did last year during his 2007 visit to the UN. It is safe to assume that the purpose of the dinner won’t be a group interfaith prayer session. This event follows a series of trips by some American religious groups to Tehran. In fact, when these groups are not busy hosting Ahmadinejad here, they are hosted by him in Tehran. The "American Friends Service Committee" and "the Mennonite Central Committee," two of Ahmadinejad's dinner hosts in New York, visited Tehran in early 2007. These "peace" trips became fashionable after Ahmadinejad's ascendance to the presidency in 2005. The main organizer in the U.S. is the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) which has already arranged eight other trips since 2005. For example, their May 2008 trip to Iran was locally organized by the "Islamic Culture and relations Organization," a governmental agency whose activities encompass a broad range from PR campaign for Tehran to assisting terrorist operations. Prior to the religious delegation’s arrival in Tehran, Rassouli, the head of Iranian host agency, declared: "The goal of this trip is to soften the negative image that the US media is spreading about Iran.” He predicted that the visitors would speak positively about Iran. Upon their return from Iran, these delegations behaved as the PR agents for one of the most brutal regimes on earth. Their trip diaries are ludicrous and disgraceful. They remind one of the Cold War era visits to the Soviet Union when the returning visitors praised Stalin and the joyful Gulags. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineAmerican Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
Mennonite Central Committee
Quaker United Nations Office
Religions for Peace
World Council of Churches
Latest recipients of The Dhimmi Award
 By Kathy Shaidle International reaction was almost uniformly negative last week when news broke that Britain had officially granted Muslim Sharia courts permission to rule on everything from divorce to domestic violence. After all, in its strictest form, Sharia law requires the stoning of women accused of adultery, and the execution of converts from Islam, among other draconian punishments for offences that aren’t even considered crimes in the West. In the U.K. and abroad, pundits and politicians denounced Britain’s capitulation, but only one elected official responded with a daring proposal aimed at preventing Sharia law from gaining such a foothold in America. That that politician was Rep. Tom Tancredo won’t surprise observers of American politics. The Colorado congressman has long been an outspoken critic of the unofficial “open-borders” policy that encourages millions of undocumented immigrants – including would-be terrorists – to enter the U.S. each year. During his short-lived presidential campaign in 2007, Tancredo repeatedly raised the immigration issue during televised debates. He also aired a provocative television ad in which he promised to “stop all visas to nations that sponsor terrorism and [to] arrest and deport any alien who preaches violence and hatred.” Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 September 25, 2008
HEKR JANIN: Syria has deployed military forces along its northern Lebanon border and Beirut officials now fear an incursion is imminent, according to a report in The Times.
Damascus has insisted its forces are involved in an anti-smuggling operation along the border, yet the Lebanese Government is braced for the first incursion since Syrian forces pulled out three years ago.
Beirut believes the unusual scale of the operation is connected to tensions between the two countries over recent sectarian clashes in northern Lebanon.
"People around here are worried. We don't know why the Syrians have arrived like this," said 18-year-old Ali, a farmer in the tiny hillside hamlet of Hekr Janin overlooking the border,told The Times.
Lebanese media report that 8000 to 10,000 Syrian special forces have taken up positions along some of the hills overlooking the Kabir river on the border.
The deployment comes after several months of clashes in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, pitting the majority Sunnis against the minority Syrian-aligned Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is an Alawite as are most of the chiefs in the Syrian security and military apparatus.
Sunnis populate much of northern Lebanon and most of them are supporters of the Future Movement, headed by Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of Rafik Hariri, whose 2005 assassination is widely blamed
on Syria.
Last month Mr Assad said he had warned his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Suleiman, of the "problem of extremism" - a reference to Islamic militants, who he said were responsible for destabilising northern Lebanon, The Times reported. He said that he had urged Mr Suleiman to dispatch Lebanese troops to confront the extremists.
Some Lebanese military sources say Syrian troop numbers have been exaggerated.
"The numbers are much less than is being reported. They are special forces and they are there to patrol the border and stop smuggling," a senior Lebanese army officer said.
Syria has only recently broken out of its international isolation, hosting President Nicolas Sarkozy in Damascus.
But the deployment along the sensitive border risks undermining its recent diplomatic efforts.
"It will be seen as antagonistic. I think this move is a miscalculation that can only do them harm," a European diplomat in Beirut told The Times. Source: The Australian
 Cites behavior of 'moderate,' 'peaceful' members of faith
Posted: September 23, 2008 | 9:12 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh | © 2008 WorldNetDaily
An Egyptian who fled Islam and now lives under that religion's sentence of death says the goal of global jihad simply is the takeover of the world.
The man, who now is a pastor in the U.S. and uses the pseudonym Muhammad Kemel, recently was interviewed by Joel Richardson, co-editor of "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out."
Kemel said Islamic tradition teaches that those who leave Islam should be killed, and Muhammad taught, "Whoever leaves his religion (Islam) kill him." And while the U.S. is not governed by Islam's Shariah religious law, many fundamentalist Muslims do not see Shariah as being limited by national boundaries.
Kemel said the truth is that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were the actions of those who were following the Quran closely.
"Sadly, I heard some of our American leaders and church pastors state that Islam is a peaceful religion, and what happened on 9/11 was done by fanatic Muslims," Kemel said. "These individuals ignore the fact that the main goal of Islam is to rule the world."
He said such instructions are clear in the Quran and Islam's hadiths, or sayings that have been handed down from generation to generation.
"Muslims all over the world are working hard to achieve [the] goal of submission of the entire world to Islam. They are particularly committed to the indoctrination of youth in madrassas, special Islamic schools, particularly in Pakistan and Indonesia," Kemel said.
He said the goal is to have at least 40 million Muslim youths who have memorized the entire Quran.
He said the "average peaceful Muslim and moderate western Muslim" are that way "because they have not studied the Quran."
"If a Muslim begins to study the Quran, understands the true religion of Islam, and what true Islam requires a true Muslim to do, he will either reject Islam or he will become a Muslim committed to violence," Kemel said.
Those who hijacked airplanes on 9/11 and killed thousands "are not extremists from a Quranic viewpoint; only a Western viewpoint," he said.
Kemel told Richardson he was born into a prominent Muslim family in Egypt and considered himself dedicated to Islam. He said he discovered his own faith in Jesus Christ simply through reading the Bible.
Immediately, he was arrested and held for eight months in solitary confinement in jail.
"I was given no bed to sleep on. I slept on the rough cement floor with no cover, no blanket, even through the winter. I was not even supplied with the basic necessities other prisoners were given. … Soldiers came to the cell door and threatened me with death if I would not renounce my belief in Jesus Christ. The secret police warned my family, who eventually learned that I was in prison, not to help me," he told Richardson.
Eventually, he was able to flee Egypt for the U.S., where he's serving a Christian church.
Kemel said he senses a massive conflict developing between hard-line Islam and the rest of the world.
"It was reported by very trusted missionary sources in Algeria that 170,000 Muslims had the same dream of Jesus and many of them became Christians. … Thanks to God, sincere Muslims are rebuking the spiritual forces of darkness that are holding them captive, and that held me captive," he said. "In addition, never witnessed in the past, many Muslim converts, despite the threats on their lives, are sharing their testimonies publicly through the media, through books such as 'Why We Left Islam,' YouTube and television. These are among the reasons why millions of Muslims are coming to know the Lord from many Islamic countries and nations."
Kemel also said on the leading edge of the Islamic aggression are individuals such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who speaks frequently about the Imam Al-Mahdi, Islam's coming messiah figure.
"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to use this Islamic theology to brainwash Iranian youth, to transform them into jihadists, those willing to kill in the name of Islam. By killing and creating chaos in the world, Ahmadinejad and others that hold this viewpoint believe that the coming of Imam Al-Mahdi can be hastened," Kemel said.
"There is a fierce war that is raging between Islam and Christianity in the spiritual realm and this conflict has become more and more evident on the earth," Kemel said. "I believe we will see a dramatic clash between Islam and most of the world sometime in the future, but that the power of Islam will ultimately fail. Jesus Christ and his church will be victorious."
Richardson joined fellow Islamic expert Susan Crimp to create "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out."
It includes gripping personal accounts of men and women who risked their lives by abandoning the Quran and talking about it at the risk of their own lives. Source: WorldNetDaily
 AMSTERDAM, 23/09/08 - At least two Amsterdam secondary schools with a Christian basis are to close during the Sugar Feast to accede to their Muslim pupils. Various other schools are also doing so, Reformatorisch Dagblad newspaper reported yesterday.
The Calvijn met Junior College in Amsterdam and the Huygens College, also in the capital, are both closing for the Sugar Feast. The Islamic festival marks the end of the Ramadan month of fasting and falls on or around 1 October this year.
The Calvijn met Junior College is closing for two days, and the Huygens College for one. Both are VMBO schools - the lowest level of secondary education - and although they are Christian, their pupils are virtually all immigrants.
The Party for Freedom (PVV) wants clarification from Education Minister Ronald Plasterk in the Lower House today. "This really cannot be allowed," in the view of PVV MP Martin Bosma. "The Netherlands is no Muslim country and will never become one either. We must never give in to the pressure of this ideology, which wants to take over the Netherlands bit by bit."
According to a spokesman for the Amarantis Education Group, under which both schools fall, the free day does not clash with its Christian principles. Various other schools throughout the Netherlands also ensure that their pupils are free on Sugar Feast day, according to Reformatorisch Dagblad. Source: NIS
Sir Paul McCartney:
Terrorists, F.U.! From correspondents in Jerusalem | September 24, 2008
POP icon Paul McCartney, one of two surviving members of the Beatles, arrived in Israel today ahead of his first-ever concert in the Jewish state.
The British musician told journalists and fans who greeted him at Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv that he wanted to bring "a message of peace and love'' to the Middle East, according to Israeli public radio.
He will perform an outdoor concert in Tel Aviv tomorrow.
The gig, part of a series of one-off concerts in places the 66-year-old musician has never visited before, comes after two previous unsuccessful attempts by McCartney to perform in the Jewish state.
The Beatles drew up plans to play in Israel at the height of Beatlemania in 1965, but they were cancelled after sponsors failed to raise enough money and lawmakers voiced concern that they might corrupt young Israeli minds.
McCartney also nearly performed in Israel in the late 1970s, but concerts with his post-Beatles band Wings were cancelled due to problems with the venues, he said in comments posted on his website.
In January Israel apologised for the cancellation of the 1965 concert in letters to the two surviving members of the Beatles - McCartney and Ringo Starr - and the families of deceased members John Lennon and George Harrison.
McCartney has played a number of one-off concerts this year, including the "Independence Concert" in Ukraine in June and in Quebec in July. Source:The Australian
 Posted: September 23, 2008 | 8:59 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn | © 2008 WorldNetDaily
Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., introduced a bill to the House of Representatives that seeks to prevent Islam's radical Shariah law from gaining a foothold in the U.S. legal system, as it has in other countries.
Tancredo introduced HR 6975, the Jihad Prevention Act, last week. If made into law, the bill would allow American authorities to prevent advocates of Shariah law from entering the country, revoke the visa of any foreigners that did champion Shariah law and revoke naturalization for citizens that seek to implement Shariah law in the U.S.
The radical form of Islam's Shariah religious law includes several statutes often objectionable to Western minds, including stoning for adulterous women, amputation for thieves and the death sentence for converting from Islam.
"When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims," Tancredo said in a press release, "you are also importing their radical ideology – an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of Western democracy – such as gender equality, pluralism and individual liberty."
"The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place," Tancredo said.
As WND reported earlier, large Muslim populations in Canada seeking to live out their faith have convinced the Canadian government to permit the enforcement of Shariah law.
The journal of the American Bar Association reported last week that Islamic court rulings are now enforceable in the United Kingdom as well.
Tancredo said he "moved quickly" to prevent similar legal entanglements in the U.S.
"We need to send a clear message that the only law we recognize here in America is the U.S. Constitution and the laws passed by our democratically elected representatives," concluded Tancredo. "If you aren't comfortable with that concept, you aren't welcome in the United States."
WND contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations for comment on the bill, but received none.
HR 6975 has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary for review. Source: WorldNetDaily
 Despite the fact that the film Obsession contains no political content and was made well before the 2008 election cycle began, CAIR, those paragons of Islamic moderation and honesty, would now have you believe that the national distribution of the DVD was an Israeli plot to elect John McCain. This is a very revealing action for CAIR to take. It reveals in particular two key aspects of CAIR's mindset: 1. It shows that CAIR is fully aware that the jihad against Israel is an integral part of the global jihad, and is not just a struggle to recover Palestinian "stolen land." Thus a film that reveals the nature and goals of that global jihad -- Obsession -- benefits Israel. 2. It also shows that CAIR believes that John McCain will fight against the global jihad in a way that Barack Obama will not -- and that it believes therefore the distribution of an anti-jihad film, which in a sane world would be welcomed by both the Left and the Right since the global jihad wishes to destroy and remake the West utterly, must be some partisan plot. Read more ...Source: MarketWireH/T: Jihad Watch
 By BEILA RABINOWITZ and WILLIAM MAYER September 23, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - According to the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA] website, Dan Sutherland, the Department of Homeland Security's Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties spoke at the group's recently concluded annual conference. [source, http://www.isna.net/Conferences/pages/Annual-Convention.aspx] Sutherland's presence at the event is difficult to justify, given that ISNA has been declared an unindicted co conspirator in the U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding prosecution and is widely recognized as being closely associated with the Egyptian terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Sutherland participated in a panel discussion entitled," Promoting Civic Engagement," the goal of which was as described by ISNA, "d]efine and describe civic engagement, and to explain its importance in a post 9/11 environment. Speakers will explain the many ways Muslims can participate in civic life and will highlight the benefits of such participation..." [source, ibid] Read more ...Source: PipeLine News
 By Steven Emerson Those who wish to realize change, good or bad, can choose different weapons. There are those who choose the pen and there are those who choose the sword. Brett A. McCrea's new book analyzes the latter category, focusing on how the figurative sword of terrorism is wielded. Just over seven years since 9/11, books on terrorism that are useful to counterterrorism practitioners, policymakers (at all levels), and students alike are few and far between. Those Who Choose the Sword, presents vital analysis relevant to all three audiences, however this book is literally a must-read for practitioners and policymakers at the local and state levels. McCrea, a veteran intelligence analyst and professor at Wilmington University, has written a book that is unique in its pragmatic and apolitical answers to how terrorist groups conduct targeting and organization. These are two basic and necessary questions – presented here as analytical frameworks – that are all too often overlooked. I have found in my many years studying terrorism and radical Islam that these fundamental issues are often misunderstood and even ignored by the people that need to understand them the most. As McCrea observes, this was his reasoning for writing this book. McCrea explains early on that he is trying to close a dangerous knowledge gap. He notes that academic work on terrorist focuses on the "what and why" in a high-minded way that is pertinent only to high-level policy makers and other academics. Media reports on terrorism also focus on the "what and why," but are fraught with emotion that clouds informative and useful reporting and analysis. McCrea was troubled by what he saw as a gap between academic study of terrorism and media reporting. In that gap exists the most important actors in counterterrorism – state and local decision makers who are not helped either by existing academic studies or sales-minded media reporting. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 DALLAS - For jurors in the Hamas-support case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) who likely know nothing about the terrorist group, or about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the first full day of testimony Tuesday was dominated by a lesson in Hamas 101. Matthew Levitt, a former deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, and now the director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, walked jurors through everything from Middle East geography to the Hamas charter to the way non-violent social branches feed the group's overall terrorist agenda. The testimony lays a foundation for why the United States outlawed transactions with, and support for, Hamas in the mid 1990s. The five defendants, who lost an earlier court battle to prevent Levitt from testifying, are accused of breaking those laws by routing money to Hamas' social arms through a series of charities, known as zakat committees, in the West Bank and Gaza. Levitt, author of the 2006 book Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, discussed Hamas leaders such as Mousa Abu Marzook, the organization's evolution and its attacks like a December 2001 suicide bombing on a bus in Haifa that killed 16 people in a community that includes Arabs and Jews. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 DALLAS – Jurors in the re-trial of the five officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development need to "think like a terrorist organization," a federal prosecutor said in opening statements Monday morning. The foundation and five former officials are accused of illegally routing more than $12 million to Hamas, in violation of U.S. laws prohibiting support for the designated terrorist group. A mistrial was declared last October after jurors in the first trial could not reach unanimous verdicts. In her opening statement, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Shapiro seemed to apply some lessons from the first trial. Her statement took less than an hour to deliver and appeared to be an attempt to offer a general overview of the case. It's a big case, she said, but it doesn't have to be difficult. "Money," Shapiro said, "is the lifeblood of terror organizations." In this case, HLF is accused of funneling its money through a series of charities – or zakat committees – in the West Bank and Gaza. Sending any kind of support to Hamas became illegal in 1995, she said. She correctly anticipated a defense argument – that while the United States government designated Hamas a terrorist entity, the government did nothing about the zakat committees. Read more ...Source: IPT News
Following are excerpts from an LBC TV report on Muslims Islamofascists in London commemorating 9/11 which aired on September 14, 2008:
Reporter: Islamic activists in the British capital have chosen to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11 in their own way. Once again, they called the attacks, which caused thousands of casualties, the "New York Raid." They warned that new attacks would occur in the future, unless the U.S. reexamines its policy and attitude toward Islam and the Muslims.
Anjam Chaudhary, Secretary-General Al-Ghuraba Movement: Since the raid of Manhattan seven years ago, and the collapse of the twin towers in New York, many developments have taken place around the world. Many events similar to September 11, July 7, and November 3 [sic] have taken place in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, Iraq, and Afghanistan since then.
Reporter: The event took place after the fast-breaking meal at a religious center in east London, and was attended by dozens of participants. The speakers focused on the lessons to be drawn from the attacks, and they derided the war on terror waged by Washington, and by Western and Islamic countries, saying that it had managed to strengthen Al-Qaeda, rather than weaken it.
Muhammad Seif Al-Islam, The Salafi Youth Movement: This is the consequence of your own actions an of every step you take. Wake up, wake up. So many times we have heard the warning of Sheik Osama Bin Laden, as well as the warnings of Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda, calling upon the Western peoples to awaken from their slumber, and to be on their guard so that their governments will not lead them to war, causing violence and aggression. [These peoples] should prevent their governments from inciting them to become the enemies of Islam and the Muslims.
Reporter: Sheik Omar Bakri, whose return to British soil has been denied, addressed the participants by phone from Lebanon.
Omar Bakri: "Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah: Some of them have died, and others await their turn, but they have not changed [their religion]."
Reporter: From the support for Bakri's words, it was clear that Bakri, founder of Hizb Al-Tahrir and the Muhajireen Movement, still enjoys the support and trust of his followers, who said their struggle against the British government's policy would continue, regardless of the measures taken against them.
Source: MEMRI
 UNITED NATIONS - Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel urged the United Nations on Monday to indict Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide rather than allow him to speak at the U.N. General Assembly. Wiesel spoke to thousands of people at a rally to urge world leaders to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons -- something Tehran denies it is trying to do, but which Western powers suspect is the true aim of its nuclear program. The Nobel Peace Prize winner said Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be wiped off the map, should be indicted for "propagating genocidal policies." "He's not Hitler, nobody is Hitler, but he wishes to follow in Hitler's footsteps and that makes him an arch criminal," Wiesel said, urging world leaders to leave the hall when Ahmadinejad speaks at the General Assembly on Tuesday. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is a threat to world peace and he should not be here in New York. His place is in ... a United Nations prison cell," Wiesel said. Read more ...Source: ReutersMore on the story: Larry King hosts Ahmadinejad on CNN
 By Allyson Rowen Taylor Below is the text of Ahmadinejad’s speech before the UN today in which he speaks of riding the world of the ” Zionist murderers.” “In Palestine, 60 years of carnage and invasion is still ongoing at the hands of some criminal and occupying Zionists. They have forged a regime through collecting people from various parts of the world and bringing them to other people’s land by displacing, detaining and killing the true owners of that land. With advance notice, they invade assassinate, and maintain food and medicine blockades, while some hegemonic and bullying powers support them. The security Council cannot do anything and sometimes, under pressure from a few bullying powers, even paves the way for supporting these Zionist murderers.” He makes reference to the “occupiers” who are still in Iraq. “Millions of people have been killed or displaced, and the occupiers, without a sense of shame, are still seeking to solidify their position in the political geography of the region and to dominate oil resources.” Read more ...Source: Shariah Finance WatchLarry King
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
![]() September 24, 2008
NEW YORK: The US and five other powers have called off plans for high-level talks at the UN this week to debate further sanctions against Iran, after Russia complained of American attempts to "punish" it.
The move came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised to pursue nuclear technology despite Western “bullying”.
Iran “will resist the bullying and has defended and will continue to defend its rights,” Mr Ahmadinejad said in a defiant speech to the UN General Assembly.
In a clear reference to the US and its allies, he said: “They oppose other nations' progress and tend to monopolise technologies and to use those monopolies in order to impose their will on other nations.”
He also lashed out at Israel, saying “the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters”.
On the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama condemned the "outrageous remarks", saying he was "disappointed that he had a platform to air his hateful and anti-Semitic views".
Despite three rounds of UN security council sanctions, Iran continues to defy calls by the US and its Western allies to halt uranium enrichment - a process the West and Israel fear is being used to make an atomic bomb.
Iran says it aims only for peaceful civilian nuclear energy.
The cancellation of the meeting on Iran in New York involving US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterparts from Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany came amid rising US-Russian tensions over the crisis in Georgia.
“There is not going to be a P5-plus-one ministers meeting” on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
The permanent five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany were to meet on Thursday to consider possible further sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
However, Mr McCormack said Dr Rice would hold a one-on-one meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
The Russian foreign ministry said earlier that Moscow was against the planned meeting of the six powers, referring to US attempts to “punish” Russia, apparently over its August 8 incursion into Georgia.
The statement appeared to indicate it was walking away from the meeting.
Speaking in New York before the US announcement, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the possible cancellation of the ministerial meeting would make it “difficult” to bring pressure to bear on Iran. Source: The Australian
Larkana, 22 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistani police took custody of a 12-year-old girl allegedly tortured by her husband and sent her to a women’s police station. “We picked Shahnaz after receiving information that her husband was torturing her,” Sartaj Jagirani of the Waleed police station told Pakistani daily Dawn. She would be sent to hospital for a medical check-up, he added. Her husband Abdul Latif Brohi and brother Aijaz Siyal have been arrested. Shahnaz told Dawn that her brother Ismail had sold her in Hyderabad for 80,000 Pakistani Rupees (700 Euro) when she was only five years old. She was rescued about three months ago on high court’s orders on a petition filed by her brother Ajiaz who later sold her to Latif Brohi for 125,000 Pakistani Rupees (1000 Euro) and a marriage was solemnised three months ago. Read more ...Source: AKI/DAWNH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
 Attorney General Michael Mukasey ordered an
immigration court to reconsider an African woman's case.WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. attorney general is trying to prevent immigration authorities from sending a Muslim woman to her home country, where she was a victim of female genital mutilation. In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled "because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country." Calling the rationale "flawed," Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider. The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe. The 28-year-old said if she returned and had a daughter, the child also would be subject to mutilation. The woman also said she faced forced marriage if she had to go home. Mukasey cited what he concluded were two significant factual errors in the court's rejection of her appeal. Read more ...Source: CNNH/T: Shariah Finance WatchMichael Mukasey
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
From correspondents in Gaza | September 24, 2008
AT least five Palestinians were killed and four others were wounded today when Egyptian forces blew up two smuggling tunnels beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border, medical workers and residents said.
Residents said the tunnels, used to bring goods from Egypt into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, collapsed when Egyptian soldiers detonated explosives in an attempt to curb smuggling.
Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment.
Many Gazans use tunnels to bypass an Israeli blockade that was tightened after Hamas Islamists seized the coastal strip last year.
Israeli officials have said many of the tunnels are also used by militants to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza. Source: The Australian
 By Klaus Rohrich
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) and famous for declaring all Jews over the age of 18 in Israel fair targets in the Arabs’ struggle to annihilate that country, thinks the decision by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to dismiss claims against McLean’s Magazine and columnist Mark Steyn is wrong. Elmasry claims that “hate speech” creates a dynamic that silences disadvantaged groups and individuals and keeps them from participating in civil discourse.
Quoted in the National Post, Elmasry stated, “The state should act to empower those who are disadvantaged by hate speech, and that may mean lowering the voices of some in order that others may be heard.” Of course he isn’t talking about lowering voices; what he really wants is to silence them.
It’s a frightening prospect when adherents to any religion can dictate what is and is not acceptable in public discourse. As a society we have taken strong measures to ensure that government and religion are separated, yet Mr. Elmasry wants to prevent so-called Islamophobes from speaking their mind by classifying anything they may have to say as “hate speech”.
His opposition to the repeal of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, a section that is so draconian in preventing free speech that even Alan Borovoy one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, thinks it overly intrusive.
Elmasry wants to use this law to silence all critics of Islamic fundamentalism, which will impose a chilling effect on freedom of speech in this country. There are no guarantees in our democracy that anyone has the right not to be offended. Indeed, much of what Elmasry says is offensive, especially to those of the Jewish faith. Yet no one is attempting to gag his vitriol, even when he asserts on national television that killing all Jews over the age of 18 in Israel is desirable.
Those words are one hell of a lot more “hate-filled” and inflammatory than anything Mark Steyn or Ezra Levant have written. Yet the CHRC who looked at Elmasry’s assertion with a view toward possible censure gave him a pass. It’s frankly surprising that they did. Chances are if someone of a different nationality or religion had made the same remark, he or she would now be languishing in a CHRC re-education facility north of the Arctic Circle.
People who foster the beliefs that Mr. Elmasry is espousing are a clear and present danger to all Canadians’ fundamental freedom. If any one religion can exempt itself from scrutiny on the basis that such scrutiny would constitute “hate speech” and use a mechanism like the CRHC to do so, then we will be living a nightmare not even George Orwell could have imagined.
Elmasry is pushing to have our freedom of speech curtailed through a strenthening of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. He’s pushing to take away your right to legitimate discourse about the nature of religion. Obviously there is a deeper agenda in this man’s incessant desire to control free speech in Canada. It’s high time Canadians started pushing back.
Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on retirementhomes.com and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism. His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and Lucianne, among others. He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto and is an avid student of history. Source: Canada Free Press Mohamed Elmasry
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Stephen Pollard There are only seven basic plots in literature. One of them, surely, must be “cry wolf”. Last week, a variation on the “cry wolf” story emerged which, in its long-term impact, threatens to be far more dangerous to Western civilisation than any banking collapse. Reports emerged that Sharia had been enshrined in English law. According to one newspaper: “Five Sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The Government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.” Cue outrage and condemnation. But Muslim organisations dismissed the story as nonsense. And they were backed by the Government. As the Ministry of Justice and Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform put it in a joint statement: “Sharia law is not part of the law of England and Wales and the Government has no intention of making any change that would conflict with British laws and values.” Read more ...Source: Times OnlineH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
 TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has strongly condemned the truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, labelling it as yet another act of terror aimed at destabilizing the nascent democratic forces in the country. While evidence is still emerging, the Islamabad attack has all the fingerprints of Islamist terrorism.
The MCC has also expressed dismay that even though the dust has barely settled, apologists of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have started spreading conspiracy theories in an attempt to deflect criticism from the Jihadis. Rather than categorically denouncing the terrorists and their Islamist Jihadi doctrine, many Islamists are portraying the Jihadis as if they were some sort of a liberation movement.
As Muslims, we are dismayed by voices within our community that apologize for these dastardly acts and view the Taliban as some sort of latter day Sandanistas. As Canadians, we are concerned for a Pakistan that is gradually succumbing to Islamist terror groups armed and aided by ideology and finances from the Middle East.
For too long, members of various ethnic and sectarian Muslim communities have chosen to fence-sit or worse, provide statements of support to the Taliban and their nexus of supporters. The latest suicide bombing in Islamabad is yet another reminder that regardless of Muslim grievance, real or imagined, such nihilistic acts of violence have further marginalized Muslims globally.
We urge individuals of conscience to exert pressure on Pakistani groups and institutions who still view the Taliban as a viable foreign policy imperative in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The Taliban are instead domestic enforcers and supporters of reactionary, anti-democratic Islamist groups. It is the dishonest posturing of pseudo-liberal elite Pakistanis and their fascist Islamist allies that provides sustenance to the militant groups responsible for such acts.
While Pakistan's liberal elites have succumbed to the most vile conspiracy theories that blame every ill on the USA, the Islamists profit immensely from this intellectual bankruptcy and work to sabotage the new government in Islamabad. We urge people of conscience to speak out against this dishonest narrative of false victim-hood that seeks to obfuscate the barbaric acts of the Taliban under the guise of pseudo-liberal double speak.
Murderers who cannot even respect the sanctity of the month of Ramzan, a month of physical abstinence and spiritual introspection for millions of Muslims, and in stead continue to engage in their savagery should be prosecuted and their apologists confronted at any and every debate possible. Source: Muslim Canadian CongressH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
A man has been charged in the murder of two sisters murdered in their flat last week in Birmingham. Via BBC: A man from Birmingham has been charged with the murder of two women who were found dead at their flat in the city.
The bodies of Yasmine Larbi-Cherif, 22, and her 19-year-old sister Sabrina were discovered on Monday.
Forensic tests revealed the pair, who lived at Jupiter Apartments near the city centre, died of stab wounds. The original BBC report about the murders described the scene as "challenging, forensically". Read more ...Source: My Pet JawaH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
 CAIR is calling on anyone who received the “Obsession” DVD in their newspaper to contact the papers publishers to ask why they believe it is appropriate to profit from anti-Muslim hate. ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be firm but POLITE. Hostile comments can and will be used to further defame Islam and Muslims.) 1. LOOK IN THE NEWSPAPER OR ON ITS WEBSITE for appropriate contact information. 2. CONTACT the newsroom, the editorial page and circulation. 3. ASK WHY the newspaper believed it was appropriate to profit from anti-Muslim hate. 4. ASK WHO PAID for the distribution and how much it cost. 5. ASK WHETHER the newspaper would have distributed anti-Semitic or other racist DVDs. 6. ASK IF the distribution of the DVD in key election swing states was designed to aid a particular candidate. 7. Let CAIR know what responses are given by the newspapers representatives. E-Mail: info@cair.com [NOTE: CAIR and other groups are formulating a broader pro-active response to the “Obsession” campaign, but these are some small actions that those who actually received the DVD can take today.] Read more ...Source: Riehl World ViewH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
 By Elias Bejjani Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist militant and fundamentalist organization, is now actually occupying Lebanon, controlling its government and terrorizing its peace loving people. By all means and according to all standards, this Iranian mercenary Army is like a wild and cannibal beast gradually devouring Lebanon, the independent, free and multicultural state. It is viciously annihilating Lebanon's distinguishable identity, forging its deeply rooted rich history, tarnishing its unique co-existence entity, disintegrating the basis of its civil society, sneakily infiltrating and destabilizing its governmental and private institutions in an evilly orchestrated and systematized Syrian-Iranian scheme. While this crime is being overtly and bluntly committed against Lebanon and the Lebanese people, the so-called moderate Arabic countries, the European Union, the state of Israel, the U.S., the UN, and the rest of the free world nations are all indifferently watching this horrible crime and turning a blind eye to the whole mockery. They shamefully limited the horizons of their stances to mere rhetoric and context-empty press releases and statements of condemnation. Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 By Jeffrey Imm In the "stealth Jihad" war of ideas over the past year, one American institution after another has signaled its willingness to surrender to the advocates of Islamic supremacism – our homeland security, our military, and our law enforcement. Islamic supremacist groups have "guided" such American government organizations to create a "terror lexicon" that excludes "Jihad," to promote "progress" over "liberty," to blackball those who would confront the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic supremacists, to "train" our law enforcement, and to openly promote engagement with Islamic supremacist organizations as part of counterterrorism tactics. Six months ago, the growing surrender in the war of ideas by America's counterterrorism community was seen by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) memorandum endorsing the DHS "terror lexicon" prohibiting the use of the terms such as "Jihad," "Islamist," and "mujahedeen." This milestone was part of a trend that has been growing for nearly two years. Since the November 2006 mid-term elections resulting in a Democrat Congressional majority, a growing number in counterterrorist organizations have been moving towards promoting analysts that support negotiations, rather than confrontation, with Islamic supremacists. The belief among some is that, should the Democrat Party win the presidency, a new Democrat administration would seek such "engagement" policies. As the presidential campaign has heated up, this emphasis has accelerated in some counterterrorist organizations, which fear ending up on the outside looking in. Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 By Dr. Walid Phares As shown by world television networks, the hellish flames ravaging the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad seemed like a vision of the Apocalypse. That's at least how many survivors of the terror attack that massacred more than 60 and wounded hundreds have described it: "The end of the World." But beyond the barbaric bloodshed and the human suffering ensuing, the heavy question fuses fast: How do we read this Jihadi mayhem and what is the message behind the bombing? When a war is raging, as is the case in Pakistan for a number of years, analysts won't wait for the procedural investigation to determine the identity of the perpetrators of this attack. Local police and security forces will get somewhere sometime. The graver question concerns the big picture. What are al Qaeda and their Taliban gangs up to by terrorizing the people and government of the second largest Muslim country in the world and – more important – the first Islamic nation to possess nuclear weapons? Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 September 23, 2008
MALAYSIA'S leading blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin has been ordered to spend two years in detention under internal security laws after being accused of insulting Islam, his wife said today.
Raja Petra, founder of the controversial Malaysia Today website, has been sent to the Kamunting detention centre in northern Perak state after the home minister signed the order late yesterday, Marina Lee Abdullah told AFP.
"(Police) said my husband has been sent to Kamunting this morning and that he will remain there for two years with no trial. This is the worst news I can receive but we will keep fighting for his release," she said.
Raja Petra's lawyers will push for his release in a court hearing but Marina said the detention order under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) had "thrown a spanner'' in the plans.
"This is dirty foul play by the government as they know that we are in the process of fighting for his release in the court but I was expecting this,'' she said.
According to Marina, Raja Petra was detained for allegedly "insulting Islam and publishing articles on his website which has tarnished the country's leadership to the point of causing confusion among the people''.
He was also accused of inciting hate in his articles on Islam -- a serious offence in predominantly Muslim Malaysia.
Raja Petra is best known for his articles on politics, and had already been charged with sedition and defamation for linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife to the sensational murder of a Mongolian woman. Source: The Australian
WHAT: On Tuesday, September 23, at 11 am, pro-democracy Iranians and fellow New Yorkers will rally against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outside the UN Headquarters in support of democratic change in Iran. Ahmadinejad, president of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, is due to speak at the UN General Assembly on the same day. Exhibits depicting the dismal situation of Iran under Ahmadinejad will be displayed at the rally. Ahmadinejad hopes to again exploit the UNGA tribune to promote the radical and hate-mongering policies of his tyrannical regime cloaked in religion. The Iranians will rally outside the UNGA to denounce Ahmadinejad's record and advocate a very different Iran: a democratic, secular, peaceful, and nuclear-free Iran. Read more ...Source: PRNewswire-USNewswireH/T: Pat Dollard
 Jamie Walker | September 22, 2008
A UNIVERSITY has washed its hands of feuding academics who are waging their own culture war over the teaching of terrorism subjects, insisting it is an issue for scholarly debate, not disciplinary action.
As reported in The Weekend Australian, Anthony Burke, an associate professor at the Canberra-based Australian Defence Force Academy, last week demanded that James Cook University investigate his chief adversary, senior lecturer Merv Bendle, for academic misconduct.
Dr Bendle had taken up the cudgels on behalf of researchers and security analysts who believe university terrorism studies have been hijacked by left-leaning academics pursuing an apologist, postmodernist agenda.
Dr Burke, 42, fumed that Dr Bendle had improperly suggested he was pro-terrorist and called for JCU to investigate whether this amounted to "serious academic misconduct". However, he last Friday withdrew his demand to vice-chancellor Sandra Harding for an investigation, conceding "it may be that administrative action is not the best way to address the problem".
In a statement to The Australian, the north Queensland university said Professor Harding had sought advice from its human resources department on Dr Burke's complaint.
"But it was decided this was a matter of debate between academics putting their views and opinions forward in the interests of discourse and dialogue," a university spokesman said.
The argument is set to rage on, after Dr Burke revealed he had written to Quadrant magazine, the conservative quarterly that published Dr Bendle's attack on the supposed hijacking of terror studies, to rebut the Townsville academic. Dr Burke said he was yet to hear whether Quadrant would publish him.
Another prominent academic, Paul Wilson, chair of criminology at Bond University, weighed in on Dr Bendle's side. Professor Wilson wrote to Professor Harding last week to defend the JCU man, even though he said he was known to be more "liberal" than Dr Bendle on terrorism issues.
Welcoming the decision by JCU to bow out of the feud, Professor Wilson said yesterday: "I think universities have to be very careful about repressing academic debate on contentious social issues and sanctioning academics who speak out with unpopular positions."
ADFA, which offers degree courses to military officer cadets through the University of NSW, has backed Dr Burke. A second Canberra academic, Paul Pickering, of the Australian National University, complained to JCU about Dr Bendle's Quadrant article, but stopped short of demanding action.
The row has touched raw nerves within the defence-security academic establishment, with its implications for the training of the next generation of ADFA's leadership.
Dr Bendle, 57, wrote in the current issue of Quadrant that universities had become a battleground in the war on terror, "where Islamist groups openly recruit members, while an updated, post-9/11 version of the old neo-Marxist, postmodernist orthodoxy on terrorism dominates among academics".
Dr Burke, who describes his political orientation as "liberal-left", rejected Dr Bendle's claim that he had overreacted by seeking a university investigation.
"It's a funny situation when you have people utilising academic freedom in a sense to attack it," Dr Burke said.
"But you have got to stand up for your own position ... I just don't like people saying that I support terrorism, when I don't." Source: The Australian
Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:11pm EDT
By Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian rammed his car into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on Monday, hours after Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni agreed to try to form a new government that can avert an election and forge a peace deal.
The man, who neighbors said lived in Jerusalem, was shot dead after injuring 15 of the soldiers and four others, under the walls of the Old City on a road that marks the dividing "Green Line" between Arab East Jerusalem and the Jewish west.
Police described it as a "terrorist" attack, the third of its kind using vehicles against Israelis in the city since July. There was no immediately credible claim of responsibility.
It highlighted the security problems Livni faces as she seeks to build a workable government following the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over a corruption scandal.
It is far from certain she will succeed in building a new coalition and failure may well mean a parliamentary election, which polls indicate would favor the right-wing opposition.
Two of those hurt were in a serious condition, medics said.
A police spokesman said a soldier and then a policeman fired at the driver. He lay dead in the road by his black BMW car.
"It was a terror attack," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding that a soldier and a policeman shot the driver.
The soldiers were on a late-night educational tour of the city ahead of next week's celebration of the Jewish New Year.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered nearby. Some chanted "Death to Arabs". Police fired tear gas to disperse them.
Twice in July, Palestinian construction workers using earthmoving equipment attacked Israelis in Jerusalem, in one case killing three. Both were shot dead.
JERUSALEM DISPUTE
In both those incidents, the drivers were Palestinians with Israeli identity documents giving them free access to Israel and Jerusalem. Residents in the Arab east of the city identified the man killed on Monday as a neighbor with similar documents.
The earlier incidents, as well as a shooting attack in March in which eight Jewish seminary students were killed, prompted calls in Israel for restrictions on Palestinians living on the Israeli side of the barrier Israel is building around the West Bank.
Those areas, in East Jerusalem and neighboring parts of the West Bank, were annexed by Israel to Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, following their occupation by Israeli forces in the Six Day War of 1967.
The future status of Jerusalem, where both Israelis and Palestinians want to have their capitals, is a key issue in U.S.-sponsored negotiations that Livni and Olmert have been conducting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
After President Shimon Peres invited her to form a new government, Livni called on her right-wing opponents to join a unity coalition that would embrace the political spectrum.
There was no indication, however, that Benjamin Netanyahu, the former premier who leads the opposition Likud party, would drop his demand for an early parliamentary election instead -- an election which opinion polls suggest he could win with ease.
Livni was elected last week to succeed Olmert as leader of the centrist Kadima party, after he said he would quit to fight accusations of corruption over which he could be indicted.
The 50-year-old commercial lawyer and one-time agent of the Mossad spy agency, faces a daunting struggle to build a workable parliamentary majority from among the 13 parties represented in the Knesset. Until she does, Olmert will remain as caretaker.
"My priorities are to try and form a national unity government and maintain the present coalition," she told a news conference after meeting Peres on Monday evening. "Otherwise I will lead the Knesset to new elections as soon as possible."
If Livni cannot win parliamentary approval within six weeks, an election is the likely outcome. If she succeeds, she will be Israel's first woman leader since Golda Meir in the 1970s.
Livni has been in consultations across the spectrum, notably with Labor party leader Ehud Barak, whose leftist party is the second biggest in the outgoing government, and with the Jewish religious parties which always play a key role in coalitions.
The political uncertainty has dimmed even further prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, which the United States had hoped Olmert and Abbas could achieve this year before President George W. Bush leaves office.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Joseph Nasr and Douglas Hamilton, writing by Alastair Macdonald) Source: Reuters
 By Phil Orenstein As a nation, we recently commemorated the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, one of the most horrific attacks against the United States in our nation’s history. It was a day of national mourning with memorial services, moments of silence and special events for the victims’ families as every New Yorker and folks all across the country touched by that fateful day shared recollections, stories and tears. That morning, I shared an emotional moment with a co-worker who had just come from an early morning church memorial service where the names of the local victims were solemnly commemorated. One of the victims of the tragedy was a dear friend, FDNY Firefighter Michael Elferis, a fallen hero who rushed into the burning buildings to save the lives of trapped victims. My co-worker’s husband, who worked for Con Edison, spent three weeks as a first responder at Ground Zero fit testing respirators. We vowed to each other never to forget the memories of the fallen and the war that radical Islamic terrorists declared against our country. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
I got into a rather long and sometimes heated debate with a few friends over the weekend. The subject of our conversation was my blog, and exactly what I was trying to promote as far as religion goes. It was quite rightly brought up that I am quick to condemn all religions because of the stupid things people do in their attempt to follow the dogma of whatever faith group they are hostage to BUT, what did I have as an alternative? I have to admit that even in my book "The Plain Truth About God" I state that my musings are not about what Religion IS, but rather what Religion IS NOT! This might seem a small distinction, but none-the-less a very crucial one! With the need to supply some sort of alternative and upon a bit of introspection I would guess that my message is to leave behind our childhood as a race behind and try to grow up a bit. We are, and have been going through a physical evolution, but it's about time we concerned ourselves with a spiritual evolution as well! Rather than a blind obedience to a particular dogma we should display a bit of maturity as a people and slowly become responsible for our own actions instead of leaving it all in the hands of a "Higher Power!" (God) It does us no good to invoke such proclamations as Insh-Allah, ("God willing" or "If it is God's will") or to petition God with prayer, when we should be standing on our own two feet and trying to make things happen according to our own sense of right and wrong. As a people we are far to ready to give out fate over to an outside force, since this is the easier way (And also the most childlike way) of doing things. Maturity takes a while to develop in individuals and the same could be said for our race. Rather than blindly accepting our lot in life or following an edict that we are told is God's Will, it's about time we started being responsible for our own future, (And morality) as this is a sign of our evolution to a higher plane. So this brings us down to the question; Do I have a particular dogma or creed that we should be following, and the answer is NO! I don't think it's my job (Or that I am even qualified) to give guidance in matters of morality, belief or behaviour. I can only point out misguided attempts by humanity to explain God and the Universe. I hope that we will one day take some of the responsibility we attribute to our Creator and realize that it's about time we shouldered that burden ourselves. Once we have a sizable portion of the population thinking for themselves and following the ideals that were espoused by Jesus, Moses, Mohammad, Buddha or even the Dalai Lama, instead of the blind obedience demanded by the clergy, is when we will truly be on our way to attaining a state of Grace. Sure life is hard kids, but let's meet it head on, without blinders, clear headed, and with a bit of class! Your Humble Scribe; Allan W Janssen Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E ! and as a paperback H E R E ! Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://allans-perspective.blogspot.com
 Monday, September 22, 2008
A Muslim minister from Ivory Coast, on an official visit to Israel as a guest of the Foreign Ministry, was required by the Supreme Muslim Council (Waqf) of Jerusalem to recite verses from the Koran before entering the al-Aqsa Mosque in order to prove that he is Muslim. The insulted minister left the Mount immediately.
Minister Moussa Dosso is in charge of professional training and technical education in the Ivory Coast government. His visit to Israel was part of the Jewish state's efforts to tighten its cooperation with African countries.
During the trip, which was deemed a success, Dosso visited welfare institutes and institutes for youth rehabilitation and professional and technical training in tours organized by the Foreign Ministry's Africa department.
The minister also toured the Old City of Jerusalem with an escort appointed by the Foreign Ministry, and asked to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque.
As he arrived after the official closing hours, police officers stationed at the entrance to the site asked Waqf officials to approve his entry. The Supreme Muslim Council officials asked to see the minister's identification card, but he told them that he had left his passport at the hotel and was an official guest of the Foreign Ministry.
"My name is Moussa Dosso and I am Muslim. All I want is to pray on the Mount," he said
But the Waqf officials were determined not to let him without an identification card. According to Dosso, they asked him to prove that he is indeed Muslim and demanded that he recite the opening verses of the Koran.
"I am a faithful Muslim. There is no reason for me to start reciting verses here. You have insulted me," he told the officials before leaving the place. Source: My Right Word 'Blogspot
 By Carrie Johnson and Walter Pincus The government's largest terrorism financing case returned to a courtroom in Dallas this week as prosecutors once again try to secure criminal convictions against five men for allegedly raising more than $12 million in what investigators call "blood money" to support overseas suicide bombings. The case against former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas charity that authorities shuttered seven years ago because of its alleged links to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, comes nearly a year after a previous trial ended in disappointment for the government. Jurors acquitted one man outright on 31 charges and deadlocked on charges against the others. Senior U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial in October 2007. The turbulent jury deliberations ignited debate about the strength of the government's evidence and its pursuit of financiers who back terrorist groups. In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorities increasingly have accused suspects of providing "material support" to hostile groups, but the Justice Department's trial record in such cases has been mixed. Read more ...Source: Washington Post
By Aaron Klein JERUSALEM – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization has been providing financial support to al-Qaida allies in the Gaza Strip, including some of the most radical Islamist organizations in the territory, according to information obtained by WND. Fatah, considered moderate by U.S. and Israeli policy, has been backing the Al-Qaida allies in a bid to destabilize the rival Hamas' leadership in Gaza. Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from Fatah last June, after Abbas unilaterally dismantled the democratically elected Hamas-led PA. The last few weeks have seen a marked rise in the boldness of radical Islamist organizations in Gaza, particularly three groups: Jihadiya Salafiya (the Jihad of Ancestors), Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), and the Islamist Doghmosh clan. Read more ...Source: WND
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