 WAM Abu Dhabi, Nov 28th, 2008 (WAM): The US Department of State has lauded the religious tolerance and cultural coexistence found in United Arab Emirates.
The International Religious Freedom Report 2008 released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour affiliated to the Department of State, surveyed the life in the UAE to establish that the country keenly protects freedom of faith and encourages tolerance among the followers of various religions.
The recent edition of the report cited several efforts being made in the country to boost interfaith understanding.
Among them was a symposium organised by the Centre for Information Affairs in Abu Dhabi, on 'The Role of the Vatican in Spreading the Principles of Coexistence in the World and the Religious Tolerance in the United Arab Emirates'.
The key speakers of the symposium held earlier in May this year included Archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, the Papal Nuncio to the United Arab Emirates and Bishop Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar for the entire Arabian Peninsula and Bishop of St. Joseph's Catholic Cathedral.
The report noted that the constitution of UAE provides for freedom of religion in accordance with established customs.
Earlier in June 2008, President Khalifa's Religious Affairs Adviser Al-Sayed Ali al-Hashemi hosted an interfaith gathering at his residence, to which he invited the Apostolic Vicar of Arabia and Roman Catholic Bishop of Abu Dhabi, Paul Hinder, and the local Coptic Church patriarch to deliver homilies to a gathering of Muslim scholars, clergy, and foreign (including non-Muslim) diplomats, the report noted.
On April 15, 2008, the President received the credentials of 13 ambassadors, including a new envoy from the Vatican. The Vatican envoy passed to President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan the greetings of Pope Benedict XVI, who paid tribute to the country's leadership for its care for cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue. He touted the country as a model in its support for and advocacy of tolerance and respect for cultural diversity and cross cultural interaction. President Khalifa reaffirmed the country's determination to foster dialogue among cultures and civilizations and tolerance among various religious groups, the report cited.
In March this year, Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan opened a new Evangelical Church building in Abu Dhabi, which will house 21 congregations in larger accommodations than were previously available to them. The church inauguration coincided with Easter celebrations. Sheikh Nahyan congratulated Christians for Easter and the inauguration of the church, adding that 'the Evangelical Church building in Abu Dhabi reflects once more that the country is tolerant and respects the beliefs of others'.
The report also noted that there are temples shared by Sikhs and Hindus in Dubai, and Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs conducts religious ceremonies in private homes without interference. Source: WAM
 Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent
December 01, 2008
THE al-Qa'ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists suspected over the Mumbai massacre were trained in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, and were incited by speeches from their leader in Lahore.
As the sole surviving terrorist was interrogated in Mumbai, security sources told The Australian that 10 terrorists were picked by LET for the suicide mission.
They were ordered to "kill until your last breath" and murder up to 5000 people.
They did so after provocative speeches by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed last month in Lahore, capital of the Punjab.
Saeed, described as LET's supreme religious and political head, declared in one speech: "The only language India understands is that of force, and that is the language it must be talked to in."
The email claiming responsibility for the Mumbai attack minutes after it started last Wednesday was generated on a computer based in Pakistan.
And a satellite telephone captured from the terrorists revealed calls made to numbers in Pakistan during the attacks, reports said.
Officials said the terrorists' route to Mumbai had been recorded on GPS co-ordinates contained in the satellite phones.
Sources said the 10 terrorists -- most of whom were believed to be Pakistanis -- were ordered to undergo training to attack Mumbai.
The captured gunman, Ajmal Amir Kamal, 21, reportedly told intelligence sources the group had trained openly in Muzaffarabad before heading to the nearby Mangala dam for lessons in marine commando techniques.
The group then visited Rawalpindi, which adjoins Islamabad, the Pakistan capital and site of the Pakistan army headquarters.
From there, the group took a train to the port city of Karachi, where, heavily armed, they boarded a freighter for the trip to Mumbai. Along the way, they became nervous about Indian coastguard activity and almost aborted the mission.
They "dragooned" a less conspicuous, passing fishing boat into service, shooting dead four of its crew members. The skipper of the fishing boat and another crew member took them closer to Mumbai before they, too, were killed. One was decapitated and the other had his throat slit.
Close to shore, they transferred to small speedboats for the run into the two landing points they had selected in Mumbai - Sassoon Docks and Badhwar Park, on Cuff Parade.
Conflicting evidence obtained by intelligence agencies suggests that the group may have had local support, and that one or more of its members may have been staying locally, possibly even in the Taj Mahal hotel.
A British link to the attacks was raised over the weekend when a senior Indian official claimed that Britons were among the militants.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, in which Mumbai lies, was quoted on an Indian television station as saying that British citizens had been detained.
British MP Patrick Mercer, a former Tory security spokesman, said he had been given information that at least two of the terrorists had credit cards and other identifying documents that linked them to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in northeast England.
The claims, however, were not substantiated by official British sources, who said there was no evidence "at this stage" that Britons had taken part in the attacks, although they acknowledged that events were "moving fast" and more information was emerging about the nationality of the terrorists.
MI5 and British counter-terrorist police are keeping in close touch with their counterparts in India and are alert to the possibility that Britons with Pakistani origins might have been involved. Significant numbers of young British Pakistanis have taken part in terrorist training in Pakistan.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that there was no evidence of Britons being involved, and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "We obviously will want to work very closely with the Indians but it is too early to say whether or not any of them are British."
Malaysian police are investigating reports that Malaysian-issued credit cards were found in the belongings of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.
Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysia had no links with the terrorists, responding to an Indian report that nine of the gunmen claimed to be Malaysian students when they travelled to Mumbai several months ago.
Terror analyst Praveen Swami said that at a meeting of key LET leaders in Lahore on October 19, LET leader Saeed, who insists he is only head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa welfare organisation, made plain his view of Pakistan's neighbour.
"India, he claimed, was building dams in (Indian-controlled) Jammu and Kashmir to choke Pakistan's water supplies and cripple its agriculture," Mr Swami reported Saeed as saying.
"Earlier, in an October 6 speech, Saeed claimed that India had 'made a deal with the United States to send 150,000 Indian troops to Afghanistan' and that it agreed to support the US in its existential war against Islam.
"Finally, in a sermon to a congregation at the Jamia Masjid al-Qudsia (mosque) in Lahore at the end of October, Saeed proclaimed that there was an 'ongoing war in the world between Islam and its enemies'.
"He claimed that 'crusaders of the East and West have united in a cohesive onslaught against Muslims'." Source: The Australian
November 30, 2008
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli government has approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture ahead of a Muslim festival next week.
Government spokesman Mark Regev says the release is meant to strengthen peace talks with the government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel has been holding peace talks with Abbas for the past year, while shunning the rival Hamas militant group's government in the Gaza Strip. All prisoners set to be freed are members of Abbas' Fatah party.
Israel currently holds more than 9,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced the planned release earlier this month. On Sunday, his Cabinet formally approved the move.
A date for the release wasn't given. But it's expected to take place before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on December 8. Source: CNN
 While Western governments scoff at the anti-blasphemy measure that a UN General Assembly committee passed on November 24, they actually have led the way in perfecting the art of self-censorship. Bureaucrats and elected officials, in de facto sympathy with the resolution's claim that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism," twist themselves into pretzels to cleanse references to the faith from relevant discussions. The immediate consequences of refusing to call a spade a spade are as predictable as they are maddening. Consider this lesson in the obvious, courtesy of Great Britain: Attempts to turn young people away from Islamic extremism are being hampered by politically correct language, according to a new report.
Ministers last year directed councils to use the terms "anti-Islamic activity" and "community resilience" instead of terrorism and extremism, as part of a drive to win over the Muslim community.
But the rebranding has spread confusion and is preventing local authorities and public bodies from talking openly about the radicalization of young people. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was ridiculed for renaming terrorism "anti-Islamic activity." Given that citizens and councilors alike can point to legions of Muslim terrorists who have sought to justify their atrocities by appealing to Islam, it is little surprise that such policies "spread confusion." The replacement of "extremism" with "community resilience" is even more baffling. Read more ...Source: Islamist Watch Blog
 The Holy Land Foundation trial unveiled the extent of the financing of terrorism among leading American Islamic organizations.By Patrick Poole The retrial of five officials of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. shut down by the government weeks after 9/11, concluded on November 24 with guilty verdicts on all 108 counts. Federal prosecutors had charged that Holy Land officials had conspired to provide material support to terrorists and served as the fundraising arm of Hamas in the U.S., which raised more than $12 million after Hamas had been designated a terrorist organization in 1995. The implications of these guilty verdicts are staggering in their importance. The most immediate is that federal prosecutors have proved they can win these kinds of complicated terrorism financing cases. Monday’s guilty verdicts are in sharp contrast to the first trial in this case, which ended in October 2007 in a mistrial and victory celebrations by the defendants and their supporters. In response, prosecutors streamlined their case, dropped a number of lesser charges, and prepared new exhibits to help jurors understand the scope of the conspiracy. Read more ... Source: Pajamas Media
 'Funded by UK cash': The Taj Mahal hotel burns during the terror attack on Mumbai - an Islamic
terrorist group funded with cash raised in British mosques is thought to be behind the attackA banned Islamic terrorist group funded with cash raised in British mosques is believed to be behind the Mumbai attacks. Kashmiri separatists Lashkar-e-Taiba, ‘The Army of the Righteous’, which has strong links to Al Qaeda, is accused of previous terrorist outrages in India. And intercepted telephone and radio communications before and during the latest attacks apparently suggest a link. Indian officials say at least one of the gunmen captured after the attacks is part of a Lashkar network. The group last week denied any responsibility and the unknown group Deccan Mujahideen said it was behind the atrocity. But earlier this year another group, the Indian Mujahideen, which has links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, sent an email to Indian police warning it was planning an attack in Mumbai. The message read: ‘We are keeping a close eye on you and just waiting for the right time to execute your bloodshed...Let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai...You are already on our hit list and this time very, very seriously.’ Read more ...Source: Mail Online
 Face of evil: Azam Amir Kasab, the only terrorist to be captured alive,
has confessed to being a member of Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-TaibaBy Ian Gallagher The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it – revealing he was ordered to ‘kill until the last breath’. Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people. He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages. Mercifully, the group, armed with plastic explosives, underestimated the strength of the 105-year-old building’s solid foundations. As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise to nearly 300 once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces. Yesterday, Kasab chillingly went through details of Wednesday night’s killing spree across the city, which ended when he was cornered by police. He pretended to be dead, which probably saved his life. It was only when he was being transferred to hospital by ambulance that his accompanying officer noticed he was still breathing. Read more ...Source: Daily Mail
 Гай Бехор Пока в ожидании выборов израильтяне наблюдают за перелицовкой старых политических костюмов, у них под боком, в Палестинской автономии в Иудее и Самарии, незаметно, но неумолимо, приближается революция. Внешнее спокойствие обманчиво, и очень скоро в Шхеме, Рамалле и Бейт-Лехеме разразится буря. ФАТХ и ХАМАС готовятся к сражению, хотя по-настоящему мечи куют только исламисты - ФАТХ почти ничего не делает, он готовит оправдания для будущего поражения. Когда во главе организации стоит Абу-Мазен вместе с гвардией 70-летних ветеранов, трудно ожидать иного исхода. И ХАМАС, и ФАТХ понимают, что жребий брошен. Известна и дата начала схватки - январь 2009 года. Грядущие события навсегда изменят лицо палестинского мира, который переживет религиозную и национальную и ментальную революции. Переворот, который повлияет и на их отношения с Израилем, будет облегчен двумя обстоятельствами: ослаблением (с точки зрения ХАМАСа) Израиля и приходом в январе в Белый дом президента-новичка. В результате переворота вместе с Абу-Мазеном сойдет со сцены поколение ветеранов ФАТХа, такие как Ахмед Куреи (Абу-Ала) и главы сил безопасности и разведки, в большинстве 70-летние старики. Подобная революция уже произошла в секторе Газа, где к власти пришли сорокалетние. В январе это может случиться и в Иудее и Самарии.
Будущий переворот положит конец ООП и светскому национальному движению палестинцев в том виде, в каком оно сформировалось в конце 50-х годов, и руководство перейдет в руки политического ислама, как это было при иерусалимском муфтии Хадж Амин аль-Хусейни. Это будет означать смерть национальной идеи палестинцев, родившейся на волне левых "национально-освободительных движений" в мире в 50-60 гг. Сегодня ясно, что эта идея была искусственной и не была воспринята палестинцами вполне.
В Иудее и Самарии произойдет то же, что случилось в секторе Газа: полное отделение от Израиля, или, по крайней мере, стремление к такому отделению. Это будет означать полное прекращение переговоров и конец иллюзии возможности достижения соглашения между Израилем и палестинцами, иллюзии, которая родилась в Осло, воспламенила Иудею и Самарию и погубила жизни тысяч людей. Уж лучше осознать, что никакие переговоры и договоренности невозможны - пусть все будет ясно. Зачем пробуждать бесплодные и опасные иллюзии?
Как ни странно, ХАМАС будет недалек от истины, когда заявит, что переворот вполне демократический, ибо он осуществляет волю палестинского народа. ХАМАС возьмет власть, причитающуюся ему по праву - в январе 2006 года он действительно победил на выборах в Иудее и Самарии. Однако результаты выборов в Рамалле отменили, правительство не было сформировано ХАМАСом, а председателем автономии стал Абу-Мазен, чья администрация известна своей коррумпированностью.
Как ХАМАС осуществит переворот? Ему не составит труда вывести на улицы сотни тысяч своих сторонников, которые просто пойдут маршем к учреждениям ФАТХа и правительства. В такой ситуации у Абу-Мазена не останется альтернативы - его люди сложат оружие и сбегут.
Куда? В июне прошлого года они бежали без боя через территорию Израиля в Иудею и Самарию. Но куда бежать из Рамаллы и Шхема? Верхушка ПА уже готовит для себя приятное убежище в арабских странах, кто в Эмиратах, кто в Египте или Иордании, а некоторые зондируют почву в Западной Европе. Сомнительно, что Израиль приютит у себя главарей ФАТХа, хотя в нашей стране и в этом нельзя быть уверенным...
ХАМАС накапливает оружие, а правительство Салама Файеда тем временем ругает исламистов за то, что они "завалили автономию поддельными лекарствами", чтобы на вырученные деньги покупать оружие. Силовики ФАТХа, заикаясь, ищут объяснения и... виновных. Виноват, разумеется, Израиль: мы не даем им оружие и деньги, будто Израиль должен играть роль спонсора сил безопасности палестинцев!
Через Израиль из Газы в Иудею и Самарию не попасть. Но ХАМАС наладил переправку боевиков через подземные туннели в Египет, оттуда на паромах в иорданскую Акабу, и из Акабы в Иудею и Самарию, где исламисты тайком создают боевые отряды... на деньги, которые Израиль переводит в Газу. Абу Убейда, пресс-секретарь военного крыла ХАМАСа, завляет, что "взрыв близок", обвиняя Абу-Мазена в сотрудничестве с "сионистским врагом".
Вероятность, что власть ФАТХа на территориях падет, достаточно велика. Плохо ли это для Израиля? Вовсе нет! Так же как Израилю был выгоден захват ХАМАСом власти в Газе.
На этом закончатся лживые и опасные переговоры Израиля с ФАТХом и палестинским национальным движением, переговоры, основанные на фантазии, будто можно решить проблему беженцев, Иерусалима и всего остального. После того, как были пролиты реки крови, следует признать, что решения этих проблем не существует, и только глупец мог отважиться класть свою голову в пасть льву, как это было сделано в Осло.
Обе стороны повернутся друг к другу спиной, и без всяких переговоров начнется процесс размежевания с палестинцами в Иудее и Самарии. "Страшные" сценарии об "одном государстве для двух народов", о которых без конца твердили израильские левые, о том, будто палестинцы захотят стать частью еврейского государства, покажут свою несостоятельность. Каждый пойдет своей дорогой.
Никто в мире не признает ХАМАС. Его все бойкотируют, включая арабов. В такой ситуации всем станет ясно, кто на Ближнем Востоке плохой и кто хороший. Исчезнет аура народного движения, которой так ловко умел себя окружать ФАТХ. Постепенно сойдет на нет поток денег, которые каждый месяц переводил Палестинской автономии Израиль, и прекратится поток палестинских рабочих, которые снова потекли в Израиль.
Пусть хозяином на территориях, как и в Газе, станет ХАМАС! ФАТХ никогда не был надежным партнером - он всегда старался не навязывать свою волю другим организациям.
Так как ЦАХАЛ остается в Иудее и Самарии, немедленной угрозы ракетных обстрелов не предвидится. Правит ХАМАС или нет, палестинские организации, включая ФАТХ, и без того пытаются освоить на территориях простую технологию изготовления "кассамов".
Поселения останутся на месте под охраной ЦАХАЛа.
ХАМАС говорит правду, которую ловко скрывают другие палестинские организации: "Нас не интересует Израиль, и мы не намерены с ним сотрудничать". Разве не так же думает большинство израильтян о связях с палестинцами?
Последнее и самое важное: Израиль должен открыть границу между Западным и Восточным берегами Иордана, координируя этот шаг с иорданцами. Так же как открытие Рафиаха означает возврат Египта в сектор Газа, открытие границы с Иорданией будет означать возвращение Хашимитского королевства на территории, и в Аммане это прекрасно знают. Иордания будет контролировать границу лучше, чем мы.
Здесь-то и начнет вырисовываться решение палестинской проблемы: возрастающая ответственность Египта за Газу и Иордании за арабские районы Иудеи и Самарии. Что сделают египтяне и иорданцы с достоянием, которое вернется к ним впервые после 1967 года? Израиль должен исходить из того, что это их проблема. Будут там созданы палестинские государства или нет (египтяне и иорданцы не допустят, чтобы это произошло), нам следует полагать, что это по большей части их арабская проблема. Source: G-Planet H/T: Zman
 November 30, 2008
HUNDREDS of people were killed in the central Nigerian city of Jos when Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election.
"Hundreds of people have been killed in the last two days since the riots started. Remains of burnt bodies litter some parts of the town; it is so terrible,'' Christian clergyman Yakumu Pam said.
Local Radio Plateau said the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, had placed four districts of the city under a curfew and had ordered police to fire on anyone who broke it following the clashes on Friday.
Aminu Manu said incidents of violence were still being reported in the city today.
"So far over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now seeking refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks," a Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos said.
"I can't give any figures but there are dead bodies on the streets that are yet to be evacuated. We are afraid of an outbreak of an epidemic if they are allowed to decompose," he said. Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse
 By Mark Silverberg On November 25th, TIME magazine reported that the Bush administration is in the process of establishing relations with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and has warned Israeli Prime Minister Olmert against resorting to any military action against it or Iran before he leaves office. If true, the US and Israel are on a collision course. Nations not only have the right, but the obligation to defend their citizenry and territory from attack. As such, it is only a matter of time before Hamas and its Palestinian sympathizers are called to account for the death and destruction wrought by thousands of missiles they have fired into Israeli cities, towns and kibbutzim over the past three years. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar noted recently: "We do not recognize the State of Israel or its right to control any of the land of Palestine. Palestine is holy Islamic land. Our national problem is not related only to the West Bank, Gaza, and al-Quds (Jerusalem)...but to Palestine, all [the territory of] Palestine." By that he meant Israel proper or what he terms "the Zionist entity." Unfortunately, Zahar is not alone in this thinking. A recent poll of Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza asked: "Do you support or oppose suicide bombings against Israeli civilians?" Fifty-six percent (56%) said they support it. This parallels the results of an earlier survey conducted jointly by Public Opinion Research of Israel and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion. That survey found that only 13% of Palestinians agreed with the statement that "Hamas was a terrorist group"; 82% agreed that Hamas was a "freedom-fighting organization"; and a mere 10% believed that bombings targeting Israeli civilians in buses and restaurants could be classified as "acts of terrorism." Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
London, Nov.28 (ANI): British hate preacher Anjem Choudary last night praised the slaughter of 127 people by terrorists in Mumbai.
In a vile rant, the Daily Star quoted Choudhary as saying that any Brits killed had only themselves to blame for being on the battlefield in the war Muslims nuts are waging against the world.
Extremist Choudary, 41, said the attacks were revenge for the Wests crusades against Islam. The attacks bear all the hallmarks of a carefully planned al-Qaida operation as part of the global jihad against the crusades. I would not be surprised if they release a video very soon, he added. Source: ANIH/T: Weasel ZippersAnjem Choudary
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's Supreme Court upheld the stoning death sentence against woman convicted of adultery in the southern city of Shiraz, an independent newspaper reported Saturday. The daily Etemad Melli, or National Confidence, reported that the court also upheld another death sentence, this one by hanging, against the woman who also was convicted of killing her husband with the help of a male accomplice. The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of being an accomplice in a murder. He also was sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery, but was not given the death penalty because he was married. The newspaper only identified the two by their first names. Judiciary officials were not immediately available for comment. It was not known when the slaying took place or when the two were convicted. While the ruling is final, Iran's judiciary chief or the country's supreme leader are authorized to stop death sentences from being carried out. Under Iran's Islamic laws, adultery is the only capital offense punishable by stoning. A man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is buried up to her neck. Those carrying out the verdict then throw stones until the condemned dies. In July, Iran stoned a man convicted of adultery to death after the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. Stoning was widely imposed in the early years after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but it has seldom been applied in recent years, though the government rarely confirms when it carries out stoning sentences. Reformist legislators have demanded an end to death by stoning as a punishment for adultery, but opposition from hardline clerics has sidelined their efforts. Read more ...Source: AP
 The young men came by boat to unleash a night of carnage on the 'gateway to India'. Americans and British tourists were targeted, but Indians made up most of the victims.By Randeep Ramesh, Duncan Campbell and Paul Lewis The gunmen, most of them apparently in their twenties, wearing T-shirts, black shirts and jeans, came ashore in black and yellow inflatable rubber dinghies. Armed with automatic weapons, and carrying rucksacks packed with hand grenades and explosives, they abandoned their landing-craft on the beach, from where they would have been able to make out the outlines of their targets, some of Mumbai's most famous buildings. It would appear that they had landed earlier, around 8pm, in a larger vessel at Sasoon dock and then used the dinghies to get closer to their targets in the heart of the city. "Six young men with large bags came ashore, after which the two who remained in the boat started the outboard motor again and sped off," said one witness. "They were fair, chikna [well-off] and looked around 20, 22, 25 years old. They said they were students. When we tried to find out what they were doing, they spoke very aggressively, and I got scared." Within two hours, the young gunmen were causing mayhem in the city that has always prided itself as being the hospitable gateway to India. Read more ... Source: The Guardian
 By Ben Holland Huseyin Uzmez denies having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He just defends a man’s right to marry one. Uzmez, 76, a columnist at Turkey’s Islamist Vakit newspaper, is pleading not guilty to charges of sexually abusing a minor in a case that has gripped the country of 70 million. Since his release on bail on Oct. 28, Uzmez has publicly defended Islamic rules that permit girls to wed below the legal age of 16. “A girl who’s reached puberty, who’s having periods, is of age, according to our beliefs,” Uzmez told national television the day he got out. “And if she’s of age, she can marry.” Uzmez returns to court on Dec. 16. Whatever the eventual outcome, the case has widened the gulf between Turks promoting Islamic law and those who support the secular system put in place by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s. The state religious authority, which employs imams at Turkey’s 80,000 mosques, opposes child marriage, though the practice remains rife. Thirty-nine percent of married women in the southern province of Sanliurfa were 16 or younger on their wedding day, according to the Istanbul-based Social Democracy Foundation, which is campaigning against the practice. Read more ...Source: Bloomberg
 According to Moroccan newspaper Al-Jarida al-Ula, European Islamist organizations are calling for a boycott of Dutch products because of Ehsan Jami's movie. The movie will premier December 10th, Jami announced this week in an interview with weekly HP/De Tijd. The unnamed organizations are upset that Jami is coming out with a cartoon move about Mohammed. The ex-Muslim originally planed that, but called it off at the end of March at the urging of justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin. The organizations are calling, according to the newspaper, for a boycott because of the publication of 'a cartoon movie about the wives of the prophet Muhammad." Already since last month there have been calls to boycott Dutch products circulating on the internet. In the 10 minute long movie "Interview with Mohammed", the former chairperson of the Committee for Ex-Muslims questions Muhammed about women's rights, Jews and apostasy. In the clip the actor who plays Muhammed will be unrecognizable. The movie will be in English. Jami invited Hirsch Ballin to the movie's pre-premiere. The anti-Koran movie Fitna of PVV head Geert Wilders led in the past to protests in the Muslim world and several calls to a boycott of Dutch products. Read more ...Source: Weasel Zippers
 Why do I believe American-Muslims should not condemn the Mumbai attacks and why am I encouraging Muslims to not join in on any such effort to do so being promoted by another Muslim website? 1. As Muslims in America we are not exactly relevant to the situation. Not only are we geographically and culturally distant we are also not a part of any conflict raging in India and we are not in a position to influence any party. Does anyone believe Indian mujahedeen, the Congress Party or the BJP is waiting to see what American-Muslims think before they make their next move? This makes our condemnation little more than rhetorical nonsense that is made only to please the ears of the media and Muslim-haters.
2. As of now, there are very few facts available as to what happened. Any condemnation made today is one that is made with minimal information.  3. Condemning these acts plays into the trap set by those hostile to Islam in that it reinforces the notion that all Muslims become guilty if a few do something bad and therefore the entire community has to apologize for the actions of the few.
4. Many of those rushing to condemn the Mumbai attacks are not keeping it real. Some of the first to condemn have been leading Pakistani Muslim figures in America. Some of these same brothers for years, until it became ill-advised in the post 9-11 climate, vocally and forcefully supported armed aggression against the Indian State by mujahedeen groups and I am sorry I am just not buying your crocodile tears for Mumbai.
5. We risk getting used as pawns in a pro-Indian hysteria that is sweeping the media. In doing so we may be overlooking the plight of Muslims in India and the hostile stance towards the Muslim World India has taken. Read more ... Source: Umar Lee H/T: Weasel ZippersUmar Lee
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 The terror group that ruthlessly struck at Mumbai's heart has demanded an end to persecution of Muslims and the release of militants from prison. The previously unknown group that claimed responsibility for the attacks across Mumbai has added to the growing belief that India is confronting a home-grown Islamic militancy. The vast majority of previous attacks on Indian soil have been squarely blamed on groups based in or directly supported by neighbouring Pakistan. But attacks over the last year have been claimed by groups with names stressing their local origins. Deccan Mujahedeen, which said it was responsible for the Mumbai assault on Wednesday night, takes its title from the Deccan plateau that covers much of south India. The outfit sent emails to local media saying it carried out the attacks. One of the gunmen holed up in the Trident hotel told the India TV channel by phone on Thursday that the little-known terror outfit wanted an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims and the release of all fellow Islamic militants detained in India. Read more ...Source: AFPDeccan Mujahedeen
Latest recipient of the Evil Dumbass Award
 Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 08:18pm
The involvement of Britons among the terrorists responsible for the murders of more than 150 people in Mumbai last week signals another milestone in the march of multiculturalism and the failure of Western and democratised nations to deal with Islamists.
In the mosques of London, leaders like Anjem Choudary, right-hand man to the hate-filled cleric Omar Bakri, were praising the killers, saying any Britons or Americans among the dead were targeted legitimately because they should not have gone to India.
“Muslims are being killed in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan every day through acts of atrocity against them.
But the media only report events like Mumbai,’’ he told The Daily Mail as Indian police revealed that at least two terrorists they had captured were British-born Pakistanis.
In the UK, as in many European nations and in Australia, governments have permitted Muslim migrants to create their own enclaves and ghettos and preach their own interpretations of their religion, unhindered by the cultures of their host nations and often in contempt of the laws of the society of their host country.
Aided by the powerful civil rights lobbies and squadrons of lawyers, Islamists are waging a successful war to prevent further assimilation of Muslims into Western society, forcing women to wear traditional Islamic garb to emphasise their separateness, urging the introduction of Islamic sharia law into local courts.
From the shores of Somalia to the cells of Guantanamo, the West is in confused retreat, its politicians too concerned about appearing to be in breach of international civil rights covenants than they are about the safety of their citizens.
India, with its 150-million strong Muslim population - the largest outside Indonesia - is no different.
Though the vast majority of its Muslims are peaceable and law abiding, it has not been able to develop a coherent policy to deal with the terrorists, despite continuing attacks in which more than 4000 people have been murdered in the past four years.
Lying between two backward, Islamic-loving nations, Pakistan and Bangladesh, India is a forward-looking country with a vibrant economy that is seeking to take advantage of its assets, its large English-speaking population, its legacy of British laws.
The Indian Islamic community is isolated within the greater population, its members attuned to the cults of victimhood and hate which spew from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, across the Gulf from Mumbai.
Fearful, perhaps, of an Islamic uprising supported by the jihadist groups allowed shelter by Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Indian government has moved to appease, rather than challenge, Islamist supporters.
It was the first nation to ban Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, in 1988, though the Nobel prize-winning author was born in Mumbai; and, 11 years later, it released three terrorists, in exchange for an aircraft hijacked by Taliban supporters and taken to Afghanistan.
One of those freed was Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a former London School of Economics student who later murdered The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, recording the crime on a video which has been seen worldwide. Another case of failed appeasement, like Israel’s regular releases of Palestinian terrorists.
With Indian commandos still freeing hostages, the usual voices in the West are busily disseminating their preferred version of events.
Typically, your ABC’s Sydney morning presenter Deborah Cameron spent much of Friday attempting to find guests who would agree with her theory that disparity of wealth was the motivating force behind the massacre.
This peculiar view is regularly trotted out by the soft-headed adherents of the suburban Left, who instinctively believe that a caring, sharing approach will persuade terrorists to leave their AK47s at home.
Nowhere has it worked.
Everywhere the terrorists have taken the money, or their freedom, and gone on to commit more and greater atrocities, having benefited from the West’s lack of intellectual resolve.
It is the same muddling nonsense that has prevented the West from blockading the Somali ports used by growing numbers of pirates, secure in the knowledge that they can exploit a torrent of sympathy by claiming that the vessels they hijack are owned by nations which support fishing fleets netting in their waters.
There is one Australian, of course, who knows well what lies in the minds of those who conducted the murderous raid on Mumbai - David Hicks.
He embraced radical Islam, trained in Pakistan with young men no different from those responsible for this atrocity and expressed his desire to kill Indians at the first opportunity.
He was a good hater, as his own letters to his family revealed. He wanted to overthrow what he termed “Western Jewish domination’’, he wanted to kill non-Muslims and he joined the Taliban after the World Trade Centre tower attacks.
Now, of course, he is the darling of a subset of the suburban Left, those who either have no memory, or no love of democracy nor grasp of morality.
The ABC should hire him as its terrorism commentator, when his control order lapses in three weeks. Source: Daily Telegraph
 Muslims Against Sharia unequivocally condemn Mumbai massacre.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these atrocities and their loved ones.
May all the perpetrators and their accomplices receive a swift justice.
DAMASCUS, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - The average person in the Arab world reads no more than four pages a year, the Syrian newspaper Tishreen said on Tuesday, referring to a UN survey.
The survey said Americans read an average of 11 books a year, while the average Briton gets through eight books.
Conclusions made by the Arab Thought Foundation, which reports on cultural development in Arab countries, are also far from inspiring.
Calculations showed that the number of readers in the Arab world was no higher than 4% of readers in Britain.
Khalid Al Faisal, the president of the foundation, said just above 8% of people in Arab countries aspired to get an education, against 91% in South Korea and 72% in Australia.
The survey testifies to the scarcity of book printing in Arab countries, with one new title published each year for every 12,000 people, against one per 500 in Britain and one per 900 in Germany. Source: RIA Novosti
By Justin Davenport, Rashid Razaq and Nicola Boden
British-born Pakistanis among arrested militants
Commandos storm strongholds to rescue hostages
Siege continues at Taj hotel as bystanders wounded
Death toll rises as another 24 bodies found in hotel
At least five dead hostages found in Jewish Centre
British-born Pakistanis were among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources claimed today, as the death toll rose to at least 155.
As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London's July 7 bombers lived, one source said.
Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead.
The eight arrested were captured by commandos after they stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages today. Despite the Indian authorities' assurances that the situation was under control, the siege continued at the Taj Mahal hotel and explosions could still be heard in central Mumbai.
One security official said: 'There is growing concern about British involvement in the attacks.'
But Gordon Brown has urged caution. He emerged from a conversation with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to say there was no suggestion of a British link.
'At no point has the prime minister of India suggested to me that there is evidence at this stage of any terrorist of British origins, but obviously these are huge investigations that are being done and I think it will be premature to draw any conclusions at all,' Mr Brown said.
Calm: One of the young gunmen with his weapon, looking for more victims. Indian authorities say two of the arrested militants were British-born Pakistanis
Loss: Bollywood actor Ashish Chaudhary is consoled outside Mumbai's Trident-Oberoi Hotel after learning about his sister's death
Gone: US citizen Alan Scherr and daughter Naomi, pictured with his wife Kia, were killed in Mumbai's Oberoi hotel. They were in India with religious group Synchronicity Foundation, which was hosting a meditation program at the hotel
Senior Whitehall sources said it was too early to say whether there had been any involvement by British nationals but that security services, working with overseas partners, would be looking at any potential links to the UK.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith also said UK authorities had "no knowledge" of any British links with the massacre, while Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was "too early to say" whether any of the terrorists were British.
As authorities tried to piece together the identities and motivations of the attackers, special forces were still battling with gunmen.
At the five-star Taj Mahal Hotel, officers were still locked in combat with up to six militants believed to be holed up in the ballroom.
The Indian authorities thought they had ended the siege there last night after they shot dead three terrorists and released hundreds of hostages, but it raged again today.
In a major army operation, soldiers threw grenades at the walls in a bid to smoke out the militants. Four bystanders were reported wounded in the crossfire.
Mumbai officials say more than 155 people in total have now died in the attacks. Another 370 were wounded.
The tragic figures include the bodies of another five hostages who were found dead inside the Nariman House Jewish Centre this afternoon after commandos finally secured the building.
Two militants were also killed. It is not known whether the Rabbi and his wife who were believed to be among the hostages are dead or alive.
Around 20 masked officers had raided the centre this morning, dropping from helicopters onto the roof, in an operation dubbed Operation Black Tornado.
Hours of heavy fighting ensued as they moved from floor after floor. As dusk fell, there was a massive explosion and it appeared to be over.
Air rescue: A commando drops to the roof of Mumbai's Jewish centre and below, officers span out ready to storm the building
Across the city at the Oberoi Hotel, the siege ended when two militants were shot dead.
Dozens of traumatised guests emerged unharmed but inside there were scenes of carnage and the bodies of another 24 victims.
Many of those freed had been locked in their rooms, terrified, for 41 hours while the gunmen rampaged.
Today, around 100 people were rescued and struggling to absorb their ordeal. One man was clutching a tiny baby in his arms as he walked out.
British lawyer Mark Abell emerged with a beaming smile, saying: 'I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife. '
The 51-year-old told how he had spent the night listening to gunshots and explosions and communicating with the outside world on his phone and Blackberry.
Describing the scene when he was eventually led to safety, he said it was 'carnage' with 'blood and guts everywhere'.
'I was supposed to be working in Delhi but I think I have had more than my fair share of my business trip so I am looking forward to going home to see my family,' he said.
Rescued: A British man is led to safety from the Oberoi Trident Hotel today and below, another guest emerges clutching a tiny baby
A number of the hostages were airline staff still wearing their Lufthansa and Air France uniforms when they emerged from the building.
As they came out some carried luggage with Canadian flags, and two women were dressed in black abayas, traditional Muslim women's garments.
Others were not so lucky. Reported dead tonight was an American and his 13-year-old daughter as well as the wife and two children of the Taj hotel's general manager.
Foreigners from Japan, Australia, Italy and Germany and one Briton - tycoon Andreas Liveras - have already been confirmed as among the victims.
At least eight Britons were injured and there are fears the British toll could yet rise further as more and more buildings are made stable and searched.
Earlier, one commando revealed he had seen around 50 bodies littering the Taj hotel floor after special officers stormed the building and rescued hundreds of guests.
Clad in black, with a mask covering his face, the unit chief said: 'There was blood all over the bodies. The bodies were strewn here and there and we had to be careful as we entered the building to avoid further bloodshed of innocent civilians.'
The terrorists had seemed like young, ordinary men but had clearly been very well trained, he said.
'They were wearing T-shirts, just ordinary looking, but they have definitely been trained to use weapons. There is no way they could handle such weapons without being taught how to.'
Feared dead: Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were believed to be inside the Jewish centre where the bodies of five hostages were found
At least nine terrorists are thought to have been shot dead in gun battles across the city as police and special forces tried to regain control.
Three arrested at the Taj Mahal have been officially identified as a Pakistani national and two Indians. Another is reported to be a Mauritian national.
They arrived in the city by sea before fanning out to at least 10 locations. Dinghies were found moored at a jetty by the famous Gateway to India monument.
Today, coast guard officials said they could have hijacked an Indian trawler to drop them off after finding an abandoned boat drifting near the shore.
The captain's dead body was found inside the vessel, along with communications equipment.
Dressed in jeans and T-shirts and heavily armed, they then headed for the city - which is India's financial centre - and started firing indiscriminately.
It is thought they gained entrance to the hotels by pretending to be staff and hotel guests, according to reports.
Blast: Police throw a grenade into the Taj Mahal hotel as they desperately try to smoke out up to six militants hiding in the ballroom
Indian authorities have not released any details about the two Britons and the Foreign Office has refused to confirm Indian television reports.
Security services in Britain are now examining images of the gunmen in an effort to identify them.
India's High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee played down speculation some of the gunmen were British: 'I have seen nothing more than what is in the media and that is based on speculation. I will wait for the investigation to produce some hard facts.'
Speculation linking the attackers with Bradford was quashed by the Leeds-based Counter Terrorism Unit.
A statement from officers said: "At this stage we are not in receipt of any intelligence or information linking the events in India to our area."
A team of Scotland Yard anti-terrorist detectives and negotiators are now on their way to Mumbai to assist in the investigation.
Indian commandos have recovered credit cards and the militants' ID cards as well as seizing a vast arsenal of grenades, AK-47 magazines, shells and knives.
A previously unknown Islamic group, Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the attacks but terror experts believe is is linked to Al Qaeda.
It is known that dozens of British-born Pakistanis have travelled to Pakistan to train in its camps in recent years.
One security source said recently: 'The camps are full and many of the people inside are Brits.'
There has been speculation that a British Al Qaeda suspect reportedly killed by a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan last weekend may have helped plot the attacks.
Rashid Rauf was among five killed in a missile attack in a tribal area in North Waziristan on Saturday.
Security sources believe that at the time of his death Rauf had been planning a major attack on Western targets.
Met officers were also interviewing passengers returning from Mumbai as they stepped off planes at Heathrow.
There was also speculation that England cricketers could have been an intended target of the terrorists.
It emerged that some of the team had been due to stay in Mumbai, most likely the Taj Mahal, on Wednesday evening before a late decision was made to switch training to Bangalore.
Shocked player Michael Vaughan said: 'I don't know why it was switched but we could have been there in one of those hotels when they were attacked.
'All our white Test kit is in one of the rooms at the Taj Mahal hotel: All our pads and clothes for the Test series and our blazers and caps and ties. That's how close the danger is.'
The England team will fly back to Britain today.
The bloody drama which began on Wednesday night has now lasted more than two days. The targets across the city were:
The Oberoi Hotel, in the commercial district. Its restaurant was bustling with diners, many of them tourists;
Also attacked was the Leopold restaurant, a haunt of the city's art crowd. As the fanatics sprayed the packed cafe, diners fled in terror;
Some of the worst scenes were at the major railway station. As they entered the Gothic Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, once named after Queen Victoria, the gunmen were smiling. With an astonishing air of casualness, the terrorists started to shoot. Within seconds the concourse was a bloodbath. People lay screaming on the floor;
A further prestigious target was the 105-year-old Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel;
More hostages were taken at the nearby Chabad House, headquarters for an ultra-orthodox Jewish group. A rabbi was among those held.
About 15 police officers were killed, including the head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism unit.
India's prime minister Manmohan-Singh has blamed militant groups based outside the country - usually meaning Pakistan - raising fears of renewed tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Pakistan condemned the attacks.
The attack on the train station had echoes of previous terror outrages.
In July 2006 more than 180 people were killed in seven bomb explosions at railway stations and on trains in Mumbai that were blamed on Islamist militants. Source: Daily Mail
 Samir Khan emerges from his parents' house in Charlotte, NCBy Rusty Shackleford Our nemesis Samir Khan [aka, "inshallahshaheed"] over at the "Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge" is talking about the Mumbai massacre over at this blog. I don't think long time readers will be shocked that he offers no words of condemnation. Only equivocation and justification. The crux of his argument is the same used by Salafist extremists of his ilk in their routine justification of al Qaeda and Taliban attacks on civilians: okay, so, you people kill innocent Muslims all the time. Classic equivocation. Not content with equivocating, he then goes on to say why the Mumbai attacks might be justified. Read more ...Source: The Jawa ReportSamir Khan
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
A Fatah terrorist in Gaza was killed during terrorist training in 2005, and more than three years later the cellphone video recording documenting the event is circulating in terrorist websites.
The Blue Eye website, which brings this information, calls the video "very rare."
It shows Fatah terrorist Khalid Hamid of Khan Younis trying to fire an RPG at a vehicle marked with an Israeli flag. The rocket goes off prematurely and the other terrorists on the scene begin shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and crying after realizing Hamid is hurt.
Hamid is evacuated by fellow terrorists, who place him inside a vehicle which takes him away. No medical personnel or equipment are to be seen. Hamid was later pronounced dead. Source: Blue Eye H/T: Israel National NewsFatah Terrorist
Latest recipient of the Evil Dumbass Award
 Elaph: "How do you see the future of the Arab-Israeli conflict?" Amin Al-Mahdi: "...This conflict [started] when the Arab regimes rejected the international resolutions. Israel accepted the [1947 U.N.] Partition [Plan for Palestine], while the Arabs rejected it. Israel accepted [U.N.] Resolution 194, [passed in 1948], which called for the return of the [Palestinian] refugees... while Arabs rejected this [resolution]. The Arabs have a way of rejecting [proposals] and then accepting them when they are no longer relevant... when the circumstances have changed and the resolution has been completely forgotten. "The [Arab-Israeli] conflict serves the oppressive Arab regimes. The question is this: When will we see [the end of] the expansionist forces on the Israeli Right, and, on the other hand, the end of the oppressive Arab regimes? As I explained in my book on the Arab-Israeli conflict, [these two questions] are interrelated. Peace and democracy are not separate issues. When democracy comes to the Arab world, the expansionist forces in Israel will also cease to exist, and there will be peace. When Arab citizens receive their freedoms, there will be peace between the Arabs and Israel." Read more ... Source: MEMRI
 By David Solway The counsels of our Islamic-appeasing intellectuals today may be summarized in the career of Alistair Crooke, founder of the Conflicts Forum and formerly a special adviser to EU envoy Javier Solana. In the London Review of Books (Vol. 29, No. 13), Crooke self-assuredly asserts that the hard-line approach to Islamism, along with the refusal to countenance the more amenable elements in the Muslim world, is “opening a space, not for moderate pro-Western secularists…but for those who believe that to build a new society you must first burn down the old one.” For Crooke, it seems the Arab world is crawling with pro-Western secularists just waiting for the opportunity to construct open, liberal democracies, confine the influence of the Koran to the mosque and the private sphere, recognize Israel’s right to exist within secure and defensible borders and neutralize the family compact paradigm that has governed the Muslim world from the beginning of its recorded history. Like so many others on the “rational Left,” Crooke is dreaming in jihadi-color. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineAlistair Crooke
Latest recipients of The Dhimmi Award
 MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) - An Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the murder of the mayor of Vladikavkaz in south Russia, a website believed to have links to Chechen militants said Thursday. "Vitaly Karayev, this enemy of Allah, was eliminated near his home when he was on his way to the city hall," the Kataib al-Khoul group said in a statement posted on the kavkazcenter site. The group accused him of "sanctioning the persecution of women in Islamic clothes in public places, which resulted in women being repeatedly insulted and humiliated." "The execution of this enemy of Allah was carried out by a naib [deputy] of the amir of Kataib al Khoul," the statement said. The mayor of Vladikavkaz, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia, was killed after leaving for work on Wednesday morning. He was shot while getting into his car outside his home, and was rushed to hospital by his bodyguards. A hospital official said he died of a bullet wound to the heart. Read more ...Source: RIA Novosti
Andrew Bolt | Friday, November 28, 2008 at 06:08am
THE slaughter in Mumbai was a barbaric attack not just on India, but on us. On the West.
For the first time in India, Muslim terrorists have singled out Westerners and Jews, and the places they are most likely to visit.
And that makes al-Qaida a prime suspect—either as a partner with local terrorists or prime mover.
From the gunmen’s targets, it seems that al-Qaida or associated Islamist groups may have chosen a new, easier, battleground for their war against the West.
This will change all the security thinking for next week’s Twenty20 Champions League, in which Victoria and Western Australia, were to compete, and for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
And a naive world will learn that the war on terror they’d hoped would die with the presidency of George W. Bush will be inherited by Barack Obama.
Mumbai has been hit by Islamist terrorists before, of course, but those were very different. The targets were locals, and so were the grievances.
The city’s stock exchange, trains and hotels and gas stations were attacked in 1993 by criminals and terrorists who killed 257 people to revenge the killing of Muslims by Hindu mobs.
Ten years later, 52 people were killed in car bombings apparently by Muslims fighting for control of Kashmir, and in July 2006 pro-Kashmiri Islamists bombed commuter trains and railway stations, slaughtering at least 187 more.
But this is dangerously different.
Most of the buildings the young gunmen stormed were places tourists would use or know.
There’s the five-star Oberoi and the Taj Mahal Hotel, right next to the iconic Gateway of India.
Also attacked were the main railway station and the exclusive Leopold Cafe, popular with foreigners and the rich, and the place where Australian Kate Anstee was shot in the leg.
Explosions have also been reported near the domestic airport.
Even more telling was that the terrorists reportedly took over Nariman House, a residential complex owned by Jews that contained a Jewish prayer hall and the local office of the Chabad movement.
Also different this time was the taking of hostages.
Again, they were mainly Westerners. British witness Ashok Patel said the terrorists at the Taj Mahal shouted out: “Who has US or UK passports?”, and guests at the Oberoi said the terrorists there also singled out Americans and Britons for hostages.
Chabad officials feared that their Mumbai emissary, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, was also being held at gunpoint at Nariman House.
In a way, it’s pointless trying to decide exactly which Islamist group this time is formally responsible.
It may be the “Deccan Mujahideen”, which contacted Indian media outlets to take the bloody credit, but nothing is known of a group with this studiously local name, and first-timers are unlikely to have the men, organisation, experience, cash or fire-power to launch a co-ordinated strike like this on a dozen targets.
The “Deccan Mujahidin” may just be the latest incarnation of another mysterious group, the “Indian Mujahideen”, which boasted of carrying out the bombings in Delhi in September, which killed 20 people, and in Ahmedabad in July, which killed 45. But did they, too, have the resources it took to launch this attack?
The names of these outfits may shift, but it’s just a rebadging of the same kind of people inspired by the same ideology. And more telling than their temporary names are the deeds.
True, one of the terrorists in the Oberoi rang India TV to say he belonged to an Indian Islamist group wanting to end persecution of India’s Muslims, and demanding: “We want all mujahidins held in India released.”
But the attacks themselves point to another, more specific agenda as well.
It’s India’s links to the West that were attacked—its hotels, foreigners, Jews, and rail and airport links.
The aim, as with the al-Qaida-linked bombings in Hindu Bali, seems to be to split the country from the West. This would make it part of the Islamists’ global war against the West and its freedoms—a war driven by a deadly amalgam of religion and politics.
Some may see this latest horror as proof that US President George Bush has failed against the war in self-defence he launched after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, and Obama must choose more peaceful ways.
But terrible though they are, these killings are an aberration. The trend in recent years has been for fewer terrorist attacks around the world, even in Iraq, where al-Qaida has been mauled. Since 2001, Islamists have not managed one successful attack on the US. Britain has foiled every big terrorist plot since 2005.
Shambolic India was always an easier target, but one only for the desperate. And for this to be first in there against the West shows how small the appeal of jihad is even in a nation with 150 million Muslims.
Indeed, the Pew Research Centre has polled a dramatic drop in support among Muslims around the world for violent jihad and al-Qaida since 2002.
This is the struggle Obama inherits, and it will not end until Islamists horrify enough fellow Muslims by their pointless slaughter - and until Bush’s dream is fulfilled, and Muslim nations share our love for the freedom now under such savage attack in Mumbai. Source: Herald Sun
CAIR, stung by the Holy Land Foundation terror charity verdict, which confirms Awad, Hooper, and Co. in their status as unindicted co-conspirators, says -- predictably enough -- that the case was all about hate and not at all about funding jihad terror. But it is -- predictably enough -- just an assertion, unsubstantiated by any facts. "CAIR Says HLF Verdict Based on ‘Fear-Mongering,’" from CAIR.com, November 26 (thanks to A.): "We believe this case was based more on fear-mongering than on the facts. It is particularly troubling that the government chose to use testimony from an anonymous witness, which deprives the defendants of their full right to confront their accusers. We expect the defendants to appeal this verdict and believe that it will eventually be overturned." Right. No anonymous witnesses. Everyone outed. Hmm. What would be the outcome of that, and who would be the beneficiaries? Source: CAIR H/T: Jihad Watch
 Amaresh MisraIt was all a Mossad conspiracy, doncha know. The Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is dedicated in its own words to "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," has done the inevitable and expected and unsurprising in blaming the jihad attacks in Mumbai not on the jihadists whose motives and goals it shares, but on none other than...the Jews. And the author of this farrago, one Amaresh Misra, is calling for blood. "We will fight a civil war if need be," he declares, "against the pro-Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers." Conspiracy Fantasy and Projection Alert: "Mumbai and India Under Attack," by Amaresh Misra for Ikhwan Web: It is 4AM in India right now. I am in Mumbai reporting from the ground. I have not slept a wink. Mumbai is under attack. People and forces who killed Mahatama Gandhi, who demolished the Babari Mosque have triumphed. More than 16 groups of terrorists have taken over Taj, Oberai and several hotels. Hundreds of people are dead. For the first time no one is blaming Muslim organizations. Read more ... Source: Ikhwan Web H/T: Jihad WatchAmaresh Misra
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 By Stephen C. Smith This is a story you may find hard to believe. But the evidence proves it's true. Lawyer Todd Gallinger, a City Council candidate whose campaign is partly subsidized by Mayor Beth Krom, and Councilmen Larry Agran and Sukhee Kang, tried to stop publication of a book documenting his client's links to Hamas, a terrorist organization that uses suicide bombers and other tactics to target Israeli citizens. Gallinger filed the lawsuit in April 2007 on behalf of KinderUSA, a Dallas-based charity. According to its web site, KinderUSA's mission is to “alleviate the suffering of children and their families — regardless of ethnicity or religious beliefs — by bringing material goods into areas of war and disaster, providing material support to those living in refugee camps, to initiate nutritional, educational, health, and rehabilitation programs working through the generosity of our donors to dynamically reverse the psychological damage caused to these innocent beings.” Read more ...Source: Irvine Tattler Publisher
The Times' story is a total of 847 words. The story is about a trial where all of the defendants were found guilty of 108 counts of funding terrorism and money laundering. This was the second trial following an earlier mistrial. In other words, the story is how the first jury got confused and couldn't agree--neither on guilt nor innocence. Apparently, the second time around the prosecutors did a better job (what most observers think) and/or they got lucky with a better jury. What we found jarring when we read the Times story, though, was how laden it was with the defendants' claims of "vicitmization". What follows is a careful analysis of the Times' editorial bent: First, here is the picture (same size) that goes with the online story: 
Zolfa Elaydi, center, with her children Fidaa, left, and Jihad,
reacting to news that the leaders of a Muslim charity had been convicted on Monday in Dallas.Aside from the interesting fact that one of the defendants named his son "Jihad", the NY Times reader is confronted with a gripping pictorial presentation of "innocent victims"-- the family members -- of the criminal justice system. Read more ...Source: SANE
 By Supna Zaidi
The liberal-conservative divide has worsened since 9/11 to a point where each side is having a different conversation over the other's head, preventing Americans from coming together to defend democracy against the "enemy" in the "war on terror."
A possible explanation comes in the form of Herb London's book, "America's Secular Challenge - The Rise of a New National Religion." He is the president of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank located in New York. In this work, London argues that western secularism has evolved to such an extreme form that it cannot fight militant Islam because it no longer knows what it stands for. By stretching the purpose and meaning of multiculturalism, and tolerance to a point where "anything goes" anti-democratic sentiment is applauded as diversity even though it threatens secularism itself.
Multiculturalism was once an appreciation for everyone's differences in society, especially minority groups. It has morphed into an assumption "that non Western cultures are somehow more equal, more worthy, than their Western counterparts. This Orwellian phenomenon preaches the gospel of equality, but proceeds as much from self-loathing as from egalitarianism." In other words, the West is embarrassed of its historically dominant role around the world. This has mistakenly given anti-western movements, like Islamism, the green light to spread their divisive message in their home countries and among their immigrant populations in the West without scrutiny.
This has resulted in a tolerance that "has degenerated into an unwillingness to discriminate. According to this anesthetic philosophy, right and wrong are archaic concepts that belong to the ash heap of history. What counts is 'openness', that perversion of tolerance that, as Allan Bloom observed in The Closing of the American Mind, is indistinguishable from indifference." Such indifference chips away at secularism itself. Supremacist ideologies like Islamism are allowed to use democratic institutions to grow and gain influence with the hopes of gaining enough voter support (via conversion and lobbying) to replace the very secularism that gave it a home and protected it under the U.S. Constitution.
Lastly, the decay of religion in favor of the "other" - any "new age" or spiritual" outlook has allowed secularists to forget its own origins in Judeo-Christian principles. This allows radical secularism to deride its parentage and further, fail to defend it against a religious ideology that specifically wants to replace other ideologies, including radical secularism wherever it can.
American secularism was meant to be neutral in its position on religion, but in a post-religious society, it looks down on individuals that actually practice their faith. This tendency prevents secularists from accepting that foreign religious movements could actually be sincere and truly rooted in religious sentiment.
Consider the statement, "Palestinian mothers love their children too." That was the answer an audience member received on November 10th, at the Anti-Defamation League's 10th Annual Conference on the Middle East, to a question regarding the connection between education and the indoctrination of Palestinian children into suicide bombers.
Shibley Telhami gave that odd answer. Odd, precisely because no one doubts the love Palestinian parents have for their children. It is this knowledge that demands an explanation as to why they still permit their children to be indoctrinated into violently killing themselves for a cause they cannot possibly have the emotional and intellectual maturity to understand, let alone "volunteer" for.
Secularists like Telhami argue that religion is simply the "rhetoric" behind socio-political, foreign policy or domestic frustrations of men and women in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, as London reminds his readers, this completely ignores the sincerity of the Islamist movement, which has been growing since the early 1900s in the Middle East with subversive "brother" organizations in the West. Islamists like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood advocate a separatist interpretation of political Islam as an ideology that divides global society into Muslim versus non-Muslim as an answer to the social, economic and political problems in the Muslim world. Quoting, a Hamas leader, London states, "It is hard for someone raised on university banalities [speaking on anti-American remarks after 9/11 at NYU] to believe that Hamas leader Sheik Hasan Josef can possibly be serious when he says 'We like to grow [Islamic martyrs] from kindergarten through college.'"
Though, they are by no means the majority of Muslims, Islamists offer leadership counter to autocratic governments who do not provide much needed social and civil services, leaving their respective citizenry vulnerable to the religious Islamist message. The material needs of Muslim populations have allowed real Islamist indoctrination to succeed where secular democracy or socialist movements have failed.
In pondering the dilemma of the West's failure to understand Islamism, and its consequent inability to create meaningful policy against it, London argues for the reassertion of Judeo-Christian values, which found the humane secularism that has been lost under radical secularism.
But what are Judeo-Christian values? I concede that when I first read London's book, I took his words as a literal call to reassert the Judeo-Christian faiths. This is one element of London's otherwise, strong argument that a reader might need more explanation of. London is not arguing for Americans to become evangelical and get on the crusader bandwagon. Rather, he wants Americans to respect the role of religion in society. Realize that it has been the evolution of multiple interpretations of God and faith in the US that forced Americans to seek overriding common principles to bring us together rather then keep us apart.
A simple internet search of the phrase "Judeo-Christian" offers some interesting background. The Oxford dictionary puts the origins of the phrase as early as the 1800s. With the rise of anti-semitism in the 1920s and 1930s the phrase reemerged as a way to unify Jews and Christians as Americans arguing that tolerance, equality and liberty were principles common to both faiths and inherent in the founding of American democracy as well. Today, the phrase, as London can attest to, evokes not these unifying themes, but an evangelical conservative paradigm that excludes all "others" by liberals.
It is important for liberals and conservatives alike to read Herb London's book, "America's Secular Challenge - The Rise of a New National Religion" to understand that we need a unifying civic culture or "religion" capable of unifying the diversity that makes America a country everyone wants to be a part of. Otherwise, we will continue to mistakenly allow divisive and separatist ideologies like Islamism to flourish within our own borders to the detriment of all democrats, especially radical secularists. Source: Muslim World Today
 As a staunch supporter of the Constitution, which expressly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...," I am embarrassed by many of my countrymen who are bending over backwards to accommodate radical Muslims by installing religious ritualistic devices in public places.
As a Muslim, I am embarrassed, as well, by many of my co-religionists who attempt to impose their radical religious agenda on American society by installing the same ritualistic devices in these same public places.
As an American Muslim, I am personally offended when I read about footbaths on public property, i.e., municipal airports, state colleges, etc. I think that the best way to combat these blatant Constitutional violations is by turning the aforementioned footbaths into urinals.
Our government seems to have neither brains nor balls to combat the advance of stealth Gihad, but I believe that American people are smart enough and courageous enough to handle the threat of Sharia.
I am asking every American patriot to place this (see image) or similar note above every footbath located on public property, then take a picture and email it to us at INFO at REFORMISLAM.ORG.
Khalim Massoud
President
Muslims Against Sharia
 By Joe Kaufman One of the main Muslim Brotherhood organs in the United States is the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Like all Brotherhood groups, its goal is to spread Islam whilst destroying its place of dwelling from within. One of the areas of the U.S. that ICNA is focused on is the South, particularly the Southeast. This month, the organization will be holding what it calls its 14th Southern Islamic Convention, an event disguised as moderation but steeped in radical Islam. ICNA has local chapters across the United States. ICNA’s Southeast division is based in Norcross, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. As such, it is also known as ICNA-Atlanta. Prior to moving its operations to Georgia, the Southeast division was run out of Florida. Given the group’s past, it had reason to move. ICNA-Southeast or ICNA-SE didn’t waste any time in spreading its brand of fanaticism. It launched its website, in March of 2000, with a link on its homepage to Qoqaz.net (Jihad in Chechnya), a violent site that was raising funds and recruiting fighters for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Along with the link was a message, which stated in part, “We must show our spiritual and material support for our brothers and sisters being oppressed by Russian forces.” The message with the link stayed up on the homepage for at least two weeks and two days following the 9/11 attacks. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
Every year for at least the last four years, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has signed a Proclamation declaring a day of the year "CAIR Day." This, while CAIR has known ties to terrorist groups overseas, specifically Hamas. Source: Americans Against Hate
By Douglas Murray Last month Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, admitted that he thought Islam should be treated more sensitively than other religions. As the London-based publisher of The Jewel of Medina (the novel about Muhammad and his youngest wife Aisha) could tell you, it can pay to be careful. Gibson Square had its London offices firebombed just before publication. But this is no time to accept any kind of censorship - whether self-imposed or worse. The Centre for Social Cohesion has produced a publication which details the cases of almost 30 Europeans born to Muslim parents who are risking their lives to speak out against aspects of their faith and culture. The most important rarely receive more than passing attention. But they deserve our focus. For the risks that they – and many other reformers – are taking will in the end be for us all. The individuals profiled range from cabinet ministers to journalists, writers, academics, artists and even pop singers. Most are in trouble for having criticised elements of what they see in Europe’s Muslim communities, particularly the treatment of women. Nyamko Sabuni, the Swedish minister for integration and gender equality, has been the subject of death threats since speaking out against female genital mutilation and proposing that all Swedish schools should have mandatory gynaecological examinations to discourage the practice. Read more ...Source: Times OnlineEuropean Governments
Latest recipients of The Dhimmi Award
 Let’s play a game: Would you rather be a Muslim after 9/11 or a lesbian after Proposition 8? Irshad Manji, a so-called Islamic reformer and journalist, has had the luxury of being both of those things from the comfort of Canada, where same-sex marriage is legal and the percentage population of Muslims is estimated to be something like five times what it is here. That doesn’t mean she’s gotten fat and complacent. The 40-year-old has dedicated a good deal of her life to speaking out against many aspects of modern-day Islam she believes contradict the Koran and make life miserable for millions of practicing members. And because of that, some people are interested in making her life particularly miserable as well. “Consider this message, sent to me just last week under the subject line: ‘You are a Terrorist!’” Manji wrote recently on her blog. “'Stop terrorizing the Muslim Ummah, you kaffir-loving lesbian whore… You probably never were a Muslim, just a brown dyke bitch.’” And that’s warm milk compared to the death threats. Despite the hate that fills her email inbox, the promises of bodily harm and even the pleas of her own mother, Manji travels the world arguing against the inferior position of women in Islam, Jew-bashing and what she describes as an uncritical acceptance of anything supposedly done in the name of Allah. “I appreciate that every faith has its share of literalists,” she writes. “Only in Islam today is literalism mainstream. Which means that when abuse happens under the banner of Islam, most Muslims have no clue how to dissent, debate, or reform ourselves.” Read more ...Source: SantaCruz.comIrshad Manji
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 By Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis In an earlier article entitled " Stop Yemen´s Hidden Darfur – Recognize the Yemenite Republic of Saada!" I republished the first parts (the Contents, the Summary and the Methodology) of a Report issued by HRW (under the title "Invisible Civilians") with respect to the undeservedly and incomparably tyrannized Yemenite North, and more specifically the Governorate of Saada. There, a Shia revolution, supported by the entire local population, became the target of the Yemenite tyrant Ali Abdallah Saleh´s ferocity and monstrosity. In this article, I republish chapter 3 of the HRW Report which presents the historical background of the conflict. The appalling terrorist regime of the sergeant Ali Abdallah Saleh applies incredibly brutal, totalitarian policies throughout the country, which turned out to be an immense jail and a desolate realm run by traitors and anti-patriotic elements ready to behave as serfs to the Yemen-unfriendly, barbaric regime of the Saudi Wahhabis. Read more ...Source: American Chronicle
Defenders of the Flight 93 memorial repeatedly insist that the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent HAS to be a coincidence. It is completely determined, they insist, by the landform, the path of Flight 93, and the impact point, leaving no room for intent to enter. Of course it is crazy to think that, so long as it is just an unfortunate coincidence, there is nothing wrong with planting a giant Mecca-oriented crescent (the central feature of a mosque) on the graves of our murdered heroes. About as crazy, actually, as thinking that the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent could really be a coincidence. First architect Paul Murdoch just innocently comes up with a half mile wide Islamic-shaped crescent to honor the victims of Islamic terrorism, then he innocently places the Sacred Ground Plaza between the tips of the giant crescent, in the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag, then he innocently just happens to point this entire crescent-and-star-flag configuration at Mecca (and on and on and on). When the nation saw the second airliner hit the Trade Towers, everyone immediately knew that the first impact was no accident. The more airplanes that Paul Murdoch flies into the Flight 93 memorial, the more the Memorial Project thinks it HAS to be an accident. Its just TOO OUTLANDISH to think that an Islamic enemy could attack us out of the blue and unawares in such a henious way. What precedent is there for thinking that such a thing could even be possible? (Knock, knock, knock.) And so the more evidence they are confronted with, the more impossible it seems, and the more they insist that Murdoch HAS to be innocent. Okay, so they are WILLFULLY blind. Even so, they still need an excuse to hang their willful blindness on, and part of Murdoch's evil genius is to supply these excuses. That is where this trope about the crescent design being dictated by the landscape comes from. It comes from Murdoch, and is actually one of his most brilliant deceptions. Murdoch' PRELIMINARY DESIGN actually can be seen as dictated by the landform, the flight-path, and the point of impactBefore any designs were submitted, the Memorial Project gave all the design contestants a site organization map that labeled the "the ridgeline," "the bowl," "the crash site," and "the flight path." Architect Paul Murdoch claims that all he did was combine these elements by having the flight path symbolically "break" the circular bowl shape, creating the giant Crescent of Embrace design. If you start a crescent at the point where the flight path crosses the ridgeline, and follow the rim of "the bowl" around the ridgeline to create a crescent that "embraces" the Sacred Ground where Flight 93 crashed, then you get the Crescent of Embrace design. Since this procedure uniquely determines the orientation of the crescent, there is no room for the orientation to be determined by anyone's intent. If it faces Mecca, it HAS to be a coincidence. This argument actually works, but only when applied to Paul Murdoch's ORIGINAL Crescent of Embrace design, which did NOT point to Mecca. Take a look:  Click for larger image. The site organization map (left), shows "the bowl," bordered by "the ridge," along with the flight path and the crash site. Murdoch's preliminary Crescent of Embrace design (right), uses the point where the flight path crosses the ridge/bowl as the end point for a crescent that has the Sacred Ground centered between its crescent tips. Resulting orientation: 11.1°. clockwise from north, which is 44.1° north of Mecca. The explanatory notes in the preliminary design are perfectly accurate when they describe the crescent as focused on the Sacred Ground: A curving arc of maple trees along a walkway unites the ridge and forms an edge to the bowl, with a focus on the Sacred Ground. It is also correct to say that this crescent and its orientation are uniquely determined (to within 5° or so) by the landform, the flight path and the crash site. If the crescent arc were extended much further then it would no longer point to the Sacred Ground. (The amount of curve between the end points of the crescent does not matter. Murdoch established the curve of his original crescent by smoothing the curved shape of the ridge line.) If THIS crescent is uniquely determined by the combination of landform, flight path and crash site, then the final Crescent of Embrace design, rotated 42.3° further to the east, obviously CANNOT be determined by these factors. By extending the crescent in his final design to match the full Islamic crescent shape (covering about 2/3rds of a circle of arc), Murdoch created a crescent that no longer points to the Sacred Ground:  The bisector of the crescent in Murdoch's final Crescent of Embrace design points approximately 1.8 ° north of Mecca (marked "qibla"). Notice that the bisector of this Mecca-oriented crescent does not even touch the Sacred Ground, but crosses through the upper portion of the Sacred Ground Plaza that sits up the flight path from the Sacred Ground. While the crescent no longer points to the Sacred Ground, Murdoch still PRETENDS that it does. Asked last summer about the orientation of the crescent, Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley and architect Paul Murdoch both claimed that it points to the Sacred Ground: Further, [Hanley] added, it is still unclear exactly where on the landscape the memorial will even be situated. It could move as much as 200 yards, she said, discounting the idea that it faces Mecca.
"The only thing that orients the memorial is the crash site," she said.
Mr. Murdoch reinforced that idea.
"It's oriented toward the Sacred Ground," he said. "It just couldn't be clearer." Hanley may be honestly duped, but Murdoch knows full well that the crescent does not point to the Sacred Ground. Such an orientation would ruin his mosque design, not just because a Sacred Ground oriented crescent would no longer point to Mecca, but also because it would place the graves of the infidels in the location of the star on an Islamic flag, leaving them inside the symbolic Islamic heavens. Blasphemy! Murdoch has a very different symbolism in mind for the star on his giant crescent and star flag. In the top third of the Sacred Ground Plaza, centered on the bisector of the giant crescent, in the exact position of the star on an Islamic flag, sits a separate upper section of Memorial Wall, inscribed with the 9/11 date. The date goes to the star on the Islamic flag. The date goes to the terrorists. The duping of David BeamerAt this August's public meeting of the Memorial Project, David Beamer (father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer) came out to counter Tom Burnett Sr.'s protests against the crescent design. Mr. Beamer declared that he had performed several months of due diligence investigating the warnings about the crescent design, by which he presumably meant that he had checked at least a few of our factual claims, like the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent (now called a broken circle). But instead of reporting the results of his fact-checking, Beamer changed the subject. He did not say a single word about the accuracy of any of our claims, but only reported how he had met with architect Paul Murdoch and was satisfied that Murdoch's design properly honors his son and the other murdered heroes of Flight 93. If he actually did any fact checking, then he is fully aware that the giant crescent DOES point within 2° of Mecca, in which case there is only one plausible explanation for Beamer declaring the design innocent. Murdoch must have convinced him that the crescent orientation is determined by the landform, the flight path and the crash site, so that its orientation on Mecca HAS to be coincidence. If Mr. Beamer had bothered to talk to the person who has been warning of an enemy plot then Alec Rawls would have explained to him that no, these physical facts about the crash site do NOT yield a Mecca-oriented crescent. They yield a crescent that points 44° north of Mecca. It is a very strange concept of due diligence to trust the assurances of the person one is being warned is an enemy operative while refusing to talk to the person who is issuing warnings Very strange too, to think that just because one is convinced that the Mecca orientation of the crescent is a coincidence, that somehow makes it okay to deny the Mecca orientation when speaking to the press and the public, as several Project spokesmen have now done. The fact that Beamer and Hanley and other Project Partners have been duped be Murdoch"s explanations would be of little consequence if they just let the public know what they know, so the American people can decide for themselves whether the fact that it might be a coincidence makes it okay to plant the world's largest Mecca-direction indicator on the Flight 93 crash site. Obviously the answer would be "NO!" and this nightmare would be over. It is the lying that is the problem. Hanley et. al. can be a bunch of dupes if they want, but they have no right to deceive the public about what they know. To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url. Source: Error Theory
By Anita Chang MUMBAI, India Black-clad Indian commandoes raided two luxury hotels to try to free hostages Thursday, and explosions and gunshots shook India's financial capital a day after attacks by suspected Muslim militants killed at least 119 people. About 10 to 12 gunmen remain holed up inside the hotels and a Jewish center, a top Indian general said. The remaining gunmen appeared to have been killed or captured, Maj. Gen. R.K. Huda told New Delhi Television. Authorities said 119 people died and 288 were injured when suspected Islamic militants - armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and explosives - launched a highly coordinated attack against 10 sites in the city Wednesday night. Officials said eight militants were also killed. Dozens of people were being held hostage at the hotels, as well as a nearby Jewish center, by the well-trained and heavily armed gunmen, authorities said. While hostages trickled out of the hotels throughout the day, witnesses said many bodies remained inside and the two-day siege showed few signs of ending quickly. Several bodies were carried out of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel. The attackers had specifically targeted Britons and Americans inside the hotels, witnesses said. Dozens of people were also apparently still hiding in their hotel rooms, terrified by occasional bursts of gunfire and explosions, as well as fires burning in parts of both hotels, and waiting for authorities to get them to safety. After dusk Thursday, police brought hostages out of the Oberoi, one of the city's best-known five-star hotels. One man, a who identified himself as a Pole but did not give his name, told reporters he had seen many bodies inside, but refused to give more details, saying he had promised police not to discuss details of the rescue operation. More ...Source: APMuslims Against Sharia unequivocally condemn Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these atrocities and their loved ones.
May all the perpetrators and their accomplices receive a swift justice.
Well, the shit hit the fan in India yesterday and this got me to thinking about Islamic terrorists some more. I can't quite come up with a common denominator for all these attacks and violence over the last couple of decades. The reasons given for the WTC bombing (93) and then destruction (01) was American Imperialism and support of Israel. London was more a case of perceived discrimination and living conditions as was the rioting in Paris although a lot of Muslims blamed it on the Iraq war. Madrid was sort of about Israel but mostly about attempts to bring down the government. According to the Spanish judiciary, a loose group of Moroccan, Syrian, and Algerian Muslims inspired by al-Qaeda joined with the separatist group ETA in orchestrating the attacks Bali was pissed off Muslims striking at Western tourists because of Australia's role in the liberation of East Timor and the fact that it was just plain "de rigueur" at the time. With all these disparate groups running around I was wondering what the common denominator was and then we got this letter and everything started to make more and more sense. Mr. Janssen: More Islamic violence directed toward others! When will the deep thinkers in the West manage to grasp that the "root cause" of Islamic violence is Islam. SO! If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, etc................!
Now don't get on a high horse and start accusing me of "Hate crimes" because the sad fact of the matter is that while Christianity was founded on a concept of love and forgiveness, Islam was born out of war and revenge and the underlying foundation for each faith manifests itself over and over.
Even Christianity had its dark side and needed a "Reformation" to bring it back into line and perhaps Islam is about due for the same thing.
After all is said and done, we here at Perspective got to wondering just how you could get a person to blow themselves up for a cause when I personally can't even get my friends to help me move without bribing them with copious amounts of free beer and pizza.
Then we were sent this little note that explained it all........................
I was depressed last night so I called Lifeline.
 Got a call center in Pakistan.
I told them I was suicidal.
They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.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
Flames and smoke gush out of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. Indian
army commandos were Thursday battling heavily-armed Islamist gunmen who
launched coordinated attacks against luxury hotels and other targets in
Mumbai, killing at least 100 people. By Phil Hazlewood
Indian army commandos were Thursday battling heavily-armed Islamist gunmen who launched coordinated attacks against luxury hotels and other targets in Mumbai, killing at least 100 people.
Maharashtra state police chief A.N. Roy said troops were fighting their way through the city's famous Taj Mahal hotel. The attackers were also still believed to be holding hostages in another hotel and an office-residential complex.
Gunmen from the little-known Deccan Mujahedeen group, who claimed responsibility for the attacks, exchanged fire with commandos and explosions could be heard, AFP photographers and reporters on scene said.
Americans, Israelis and Canadians are thought to be among those trapped in the two hotels and in Nariman House, a residential complex with an old Jewish prayer hall where a rabbi and his family were also being held.
"No negotiations or talks have started with the terrorists," Maharashtra state deputy chief minister R.R. Patil told reporters.
Television signals to both hotels have been switched off to prevent the hostage takers getting wind of any operations to storm the buildings, he added.
Eight other locations, including Mumbai's main train station, a hospital and a popular restaurant, were hit late Wednesday. The gunmen reportedly landed in Mumbai by boat.
One of the gunmen holed up in the Trident Hotel told the India TV channel by phone that they wanted an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims and the release of all fellow Islamic militants detained in India.
"Muslims in India should not be persecuted. We love this as our country but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he said from inside.
Police said around 100 people were killed in the precisely targeted assaults by small groups of gunmen armed with AK-47s and grenades that began around 10:30 pm (1700 GMT).
Up to 300 other people were also reported wounded.
A Briton, Japanese and Australian were confirmed dead, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Frequent bursts of gunfire in and around the two five-star hotels continued to be heard through Thursday morning, as south Mumbai, including the normally thriving main business hub between the two scenes, was shut down.
The main Bombay Stock Exchange, itself hit by a terror attack in 1993, was also closed, as were shops, schools and businesses.
An official told AFP that the England cricket team had decided to abandon their tour of India and return home following the attacks.
Army commandos stormed the Taj under the cover of night, apparently leading to the release of some guests inside, with television footage showing people being shepherded out of the building.
Shortly afterwards, the upper floors of the hotel became engulfed in flames.
Fire engines were brought in to rescue trapped guests through the windows of their rooms, where they had sought refuge from the shooting.
Earlier, several men stormed the passenger hall of Mumbai's main Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, firing indiscriminately and throwing grenades.
Firing was also reported at Cama Hospital in south Mumbai, and three people were reported killed in what police called a "bomb blast" in a taxi in the southeast of the city.
One British guest at the Taj, Rakesh Patel, was among a dozen people herded together by two heavily-armed men and taken to the hotel's upper floors.
"They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts," he said.
"They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof," he said, adding that he and another hostage managed to escape on the 18th floor.
British businessman Alex Chamberlain told the Sky News television that similar national profiling had been conducted by the gunmen in the Oberoi.
"They told everybody to stop and put their hands up and asked if there were any British or Americans. My friend said to me, 'don't be a hero, don't say you are British'," Chamberlain said.
Indian President Pratibha Patil, in Vietnam on an official visit, described the attack as "the work of those who have no regard for human life."
The United States and Britain led global condemnation, with Washington describing the attacks as "horrific", and US president-elect Barack Obama pledging to work with India to "root out and destroy terrorist networks".
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the "outrageous" attacks would be met with a "vigorous response".
India has witnessed a wave of coordinated attacks in recent months.
A little-known Islamic group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for serial blasts last month in India's northeast state of Assam that claimed nearly 80 lives.
Six weeks earlier, the capital New Delhi had been hit by a series of bombs in crowded markets that left more than 20 dead. Those blasts were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen. Source: France 24 Indian Mujahedeen
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Clancy Chassay They were walking to school in the southern city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn. Her friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school. It was not an isolated incident. For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening - and those women who dare to publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives. Read more ...Source: The Guardian
 By JENNIFER QUINN A British law went into effect Tuesday that allows courts to prevent someone from being forced into marriage - a move that comes as governments across Europe confront immigrant practices that sometimes clash with more liberal values. In the first nine months of 2008, the Forced Marriage Unit - part of Britain's Foreign Office - handled more than 1,300 cases in which there were concerns someone was about to be forced into marriage, or already had been. Nearly 85 percent of the cases had female victims, and the majority involved families of Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi descent, the unit said. About half involved minors. The Forced Marriage Act gives British courts the power to issue protection orders that can stop intimidation or violence, prevent someone from having to go abroad, and compel someone to reveal the whereabouts of a person believed to be at risk. The act allows the victim, a friend, or an agency working with the person at risk - like the police, social services or organizers of a women's refuge - to apply for a protection order. Anyone who violates such an order can be jailed for two years. It is not a crime in Britain to force someone into marriage. But the practice often includes offenses such as abuse, assault, rape and kidnapping. Read more ...Source: AP H/T: Dhimmi Watch
Then ...
... and now
Our friends at the NEFA foundation have released a translation of a communique from the "Shebaab al-Mujahideen Movement in Somalia" condemning al Jazeera for passing along false information that they condemned piracy off the coast of Somalia. The message from the Shabaab stops short of supporting piracy, but it goes to great lengths in saying that the official position of the al Qaeda affiliated group is that they have not condemned the hijacking of a Saudi oil tanker, which kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it? Read more ...Source: The Jawa Report
We show our solidarity with the university research and teaching position of Professor Dr. Muhammad Sven Kalisch: sign online signature form. On September 5th, the first Friday of the holy month Ramadan, the Coordination Council of Muslims in Germany has withdrawn their delegates from the CRS board of advisors in protest at Professor Kalisch, referring to the “grave discrepancy between fundamentals of Islamic teaching and the published positions of the head of the CRS." Muhammad Kalisch is the first professor holding the chair of “Islamic Religion” at the Center for Religious Studies (CRS) at Münster University, Germany. The Muslim theologian, philosopher and fully qualified lawyer with perfect knowledge especially of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish language is an outstanding scholar who trains Islamic teachers for Islamic Religious Education at schools. His university teaching position obliges him to instill scientific working methods in the future teachers. Read more ...Source: www.solidaritymuhammadkalisch.comH/T: Europe News
Swedish artist Lars Vilks is at the centre of a new controversy as his new musical Dogs premiered in Stockholm on Saturday. Meanwhile, an exhibition of his Muhammad caricatures has been blocked by Kalmar Art Museum. At a panel discussion after the premiere of the musical - a filmed documentation of events occurring after the drawings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a roundabout dog, chaos reigned on Saturday. When Vilks stood to address the several hundred people gathered in the ABF building in Stockholm, a young woman rose to her feet, made threatening gestures with her key ring and screamed at the artist. One of the debate's organizers seized the woman in order to escort her from the premises. Read more ...Source: The Local
Muslim judges are defying Islamic law in custody battles involving Christian mothers and Muslim fathers to shield children from Christian influence. Egyptian law's Article 20 st ates children younger than 15 should stay with their mothers. But, without fail, Egypt's judges are ruling for Muslim fathers if the mothers are Christian, Compass Direct News reports. The judges are bypassing Article 20 and referencing a portion of Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution: "Principles of Islamic law are the principal source of legislation." On Sept. 24, an appeals court defied the statute and awarded custody of 13-year-old twins Andrew and Mario Medhat Ramses Labib to their father. Read more ...Source: WND
Terrible news from Mumbai:
Over 60 people have been killed and many more injured in several terrorist attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday night. Two five-star hotels - Trident and Taj - are under siege and gunmen are reported to have held the occupants hostage.
The choice of targets (some guaranteed to scare foreigners) and the coordination naturally suggest a terrorist group. UPDATE A claim of resposibility has been made via email by a group called Dekhan Hujahedin. UPDATE 2 The gunmen were specifically targeting Britons and Americans and a top police official said the gunmen are holding hostages at two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels. UPDATE 3 At least 20 Australians have been caught up in the chaos and two Australians were injured, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said… At least 20 Australians were in the Oberoi Hotel at the time of the attack, all of them members of a NSW trade delegation organised by the Department of State and Regional Development. UPDATE 4 Photos from some of the sites: UPDATE 5 An Australian man caught up in the terror attacks in Mumbai called Channel 7, desperate for help to escape the hotel in which at least two gunmen opened fire. Steve Smith called Seven from a “dingy little room” at the back of the Taj, where he was hiding after seeing two gunmen toss grenades into the Leopold… Mr Smith said he was desperate to find a way out of the hotel with a Japanese woman and two German air stewards he was hiding with… “I’d like someone to tell me what’s going on so I can make a plan to get out of here with these guys. I’m about a block from the harbour and my plan is just to go.” Mr Smith said he became separated from an Australian man and woman when he went back downstairs to lock a door cutting off the terrorists. UPDATE 6 Four top police officials, including Mumbai Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, were among the 10 policemen killed… UPDATE 7 There seems little doubt what was intended by this attack and who was meant to get a message: Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital Wednesday night, killing at least 78 people and taking Westerners hostage, police said. It’s an assault not just on India, but on the West. The killers have not just humans in their gunsights, but India’s economy - especially its tourism industry. UPDATE 8 This may be the time to remind those so frantically rehabilitating David Hick’s reputation of the letters he wrote to his family while training with al Qaida, boasting of having fought for anti-Indian Islamist terrorists by shooting across the Indian border into Kashmir: I got to fire hundreds of bullets. Most Muslim countries impose hanging for civilians arming themselves for conflict. There are not many countries in the world where a tourist, according to his visa, can go to stay with the army and shoot across the border at its enemy, legally. UPDATE 9 A local journalist told CNN he had seen evidence of an attack at the city’s domestic airport, which is on the outskirts of the Mumbai. UPDATE 10 Pictures here. WARNING: Some are graphic. One is of a suspected terrorist: UPDATE 11 An interactive site showing where the attacks occured. UPDATE 12 The gunmen also attacked police headquarters in south Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks, which began late Wednesday and continued into Thursday morning, took place. “We are under fire, there is shooting at the gate,” said a constable, A. Shetti, by phone from police headquarters. UPDATE 13 THE Australian killed in the Mumbai terror attacks has been named as Braid Gilbert Taylor, the Press Trust of India has reported. UPDATE 14 Dozens of people were being kept hostage by gunmen in India’s financial capital Mumbai today, more than 12 hours after the city suffered a coordinated series of attacks on luxury hotels, popular restaurants, a rail terminus and an ultra-orthodox Jewish centre. Maharashtra state police chief AN Roy said that the hostage situation had ended at the Taj Mahal hotel, but that there were still apparently hostages in the Oberoi hotel. The death toll in the audacious attack has now risen to 101... Pictures here. WARNING: Some are graphic. One is of a suspected terrorist: Source: Herald Sun
By M. Zuhdi Jasser Monday’s guilty verdict against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and the five indicted co-defendants may ultimately represent a sea change in the willingness of the American public to hold Muslims accountable for their countenance of charities and organizations which support terrorism either directly or indirectly. Richard Roper, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas stated after the verdict to Texas Lawyer, “This is a great day in the United States. We will not tolerate those who fund terrorism.” The Dallas Morning News reported that Robert Hirschhorn, a nationally known jury consultant said, “The jury has handed the government a huge victory and a loud and clear message has been sent — if any group funnels money to a terrorist organization, the government will hunt you down and turn off the money spigot.” The first trial against the HLF and these defendants ended in a mistrial on October 22, 2007, after jurors could not come to a consensus after 19 days of deliberation. Judge A. Joe Fish retired in November, 2007, and subsequently transferred the case to Judge Jorge Solis. Many analysts have already dissected or will soon ultimately review the specific areas of the HLF case where the Department of Justice successfully clarified, simplified and improved its presentation upon the first trial. While the facts stayed the same, the first trial ended in confusion and the second ended in a resounding conviction on all counts. Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 "The Messenger of Peace" is often compared to the 1977 classic,
"The Message," starring Anthony Quinn, seen here on this DVD cover.By Maxim Lott If film producer Oscar Zoghbi has his way, Americans will be soon be flocking to movie theaters to see a film about the Prophet Muhammad and his followers that Zoghbi hopes will clear up misconceptions about Muslims, including what he says is "the understanding that all Muslims are terrorists."Zoghbi says he hopes to shoot some scenes for his movie in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, and he predicts his film, "The Messenger of Peace," will rival Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ." But some critics predict Zoghbi's movie, which is scheduled to begin production early next year, will be a whitewash, and that it won't tell the whole story about Muhammad or Islam. Nonie Darwish, the author of the upcoming book "Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law," said the film will likely try too hard not to offend. Read more ...Source: Fox News
 Attack: Smoke billows from the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel
near the historic Gateway of IndiaIndian troops have stormed Mumbai's luxury Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace hotels amid reports that terrorist attackers have taken up to 100 tourists hostage.
At least 78 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks across India's financial capital this morning.
Targets included the Oberoi and Taj hotels, the city's main railway station, the Cama hospital, and the Cafe Leopold, near the Taj Hotel and perhaps the most famous restaurant and hang-out for tourists in the city.
This morning the Taj Hotel was on fire and explosions had been heard in both the hotels.
Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean says at least two Australians have been injured in the attacks.
A trade delegation from New South Wales was among the guests staying at the Oberoi Hotel.
The delegation of about 20 people includes representatives from several companies in New South Wales as well as some departmental staff.
A spokeswoman for the NSW Department of State and Regional Development says the leader of the delegation called the department when alarms were going off in the hotel and they were being asked to leave their rooms, but the department has not been able to contact him since.
An organisation calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks in an email sent to Indian media organisations.
One witness at the Taj hotel said the attackers had been searching for people with British and American passports.
"I guess they were after foreigners, because they were asking for British or American passports," said Rakesh Patel, a British witness who lives in Hong Kong and was staying at the Taj Mahal hotel on business. "They had bombs."
"They came from the restaurant and took us up the stairs," he told the NDTV news channel, smoke stains all over his face. "Young boys, maybe 20 years old, 25 years old. They had two guns."
Speaking to ABC2's News Breakfast program, former ABC reporter Savitri Choudhry said the attacks had plunged the city into chaos.
"There have already been three explosions inside the [Taj] hotel," she said.
"There have been reports that the commandos were trying to storm the hotel but ... they're not sure how many people they are up against.
"I was in the Taj Hotel myself earlier this evening. As soon as I heard about the blast I called [my friend]. She was holed up in her room ... she said she could hear them outside her door. She turned off her lights and television ... we've been trying to call her but there's been no response yet and that's been very disturbing.
"People have been calling out, some have even escaped. There are a large number of guests who have been cordoned off and are in a safe part of the hotel."
More to come. Source: ABC News
 By Kathy Shaidle Nearly three years ago, a shocked Western world witnessed “a carefully orchestrated campaign of incitement” and intimidation that left embassies ablaze and innocent people dead – all ostensibly on account of some mediocre drawings of the Prophet Mohammed deemed offensive by Muslim leaders. The resulting debates about the limits of free speech have died down, but depictions of Mohammed continue to spark outrage around the world, mostly below the mass media’s radar. Last week, for example, the government of Indonesia denounced as “very inappropriate” two online drawings of the Prophet Mohammed. Many Muslims believe it is forbidden to depict Mohammed under any circumstances, let alone in “sexual situations,” as these cartoons reportedly do. The country’s communications minister asked the website to remove the drawings or face being shut down by its internet service provider. Now comes a report from a Jordanian news service of “New Danish Anti-Islamic Drawings to be Published Soon,” in a book of political satire co-authored by Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard drew the most notorious of the original “Mohammed cartoons”: a bearded man wearing a bomb instead of a turban. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
The variety of evidence shown to the jury in the Holy Land Foundation trial includes government wiretaps and videos seized during the execution of search warrants at HLF offices and elsewhere. Many of the documents that linked the defendants to Hamas were written in foreign languages and dealt with a turbulent situation half-way around the world. Here in the U.S., one Falls Church, VA man who had never even heard of the Holy Land Foundation until recently, tells us the unusual story of how some of the key pieces of evidence popped up... right in his own backyard. View video ...Source: IPT News
 November 26, 2008 | Janet Albrechtsen
TO spend a week in Israel is to begin to understand that this country is generations away from peace with Palestinians. The people here talk about tahadiya: a period of calm. To an outsider, it is a week of alarming disquiet where each day reveals yet another culprit killing the prospect of peace. What you see and hear is disturbing enough. Even more destructive to peace is that which is hidden from you. This is how the week unfolds.
Sunday: A Qassam rocket is launched from northern Gaza into Sderot, an Israeli town within 3km of the Hamas stronghold.
Monday: Three more rockets are fired into this small town of 20,000 Israelis that has endured thousands of rocket attacks in recent years. I arrive in Sderot by helicopter just ahead of Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
I see some of the mangled Qassam rockets that have hit this town. The rockets proudly bear the brand of the terrorists who launch them, written in Hebrew so the Israelis know who is firing at them. The Israelis who later collect the rockets date each of them in white paint and pile them up at the local police station. More than a hundred rockets were launched after Israel destroyed a Hamas tunnel built to attack Israel, a tunnel like the one used in June 2006 by militants to kidnap Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from the edge of the Gaza strip. Shalit is the only Jew left in Gaza, a precious negotiating tool for Hamas. The Israeli Government has blocked access points to Gaza until the rockets stop.
Tuesday: A young Ethiopian woman, who has lost relatives to the rocket attacks from Gaza, tells me, “We don’t count the rockets anymore”. Three more qassam rockets slam into the fields of the Negev desert.
Wednesday: Two Qassam rockets land south of Ashkelon, a town well beyond the Gaza border, on the coast towards Tel Aviv.
Thursday: The Palestinian Authority runs advertisements in Israeli newspapers detailing in Hebrew Fatah’s commitment to a peace plan. It is a meaningless commitment. Analysts call this a virtual negotiation. How can Israel negotiate peace with Palestinian interlocutors in Fatah, who have no control over Gaza, where more than 40 per cent of Palestinians live? If elections were held in the West Bank today, predictions are that Hamas would win there, putting an end to the co-operation that has stopped the terrorism emanating from that Palestinian enclave.
Friday: Another rocket is launched from Gaza into the industrial zone of Ashkelon.
Put aside the rocket attacks by Hamas, the ineffectual leadership of Fatah, the Israeli settlements that poison relations and stymie solutions, the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the other intractable hurdles to peace. The real, long-term harm is happening quietly away from the prying eyes of what the locals here call Pali-wood: the Hollywood stars, the array of doe-eyed peace activists and the knaves at the UN who simplistically side with the Palestinians. That said, no one imagines Israel is free from fault. But its Government is not creating civil institutions that preach hatred and violence.
By contrast, an entire generation of Palestinian children is being raised on a full diet of hate education, on jihad and anti-Semitism. This is the long-term hurdle to peace in this generation, and the next. Look at the website of Palestinian Media Watch (http://www.pmw.org.il) where analysts have long tracked what the Palestinian leadership under Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is doing. Not what is said to Westerners in English or what they tell Israelis in Hebrew.
Look at what Palestinians are teaching their children in Arabic. Look at the geography books for Palestinian children that encourage children to see no Israel, books that feature maps of Israel in the colours of the Palestinian flag, and described as Palestine. Learn about the May 2008 soccer championships for young boys in honour of terrorists such as Samir Quntar and Muhammad al-Mabhuh. Or the July 2008 summer camp held for young girls named in honour of female suicide bomber Dalal al-Mughrabi, who hijacked a holiday bus in 1978, murdering 12 children and 25 adults.
Listen to Fatah-funded children’s television where children are taught to continue the way of the shahids (the suicide bombers) and quizzed about Mughrabi. She is presented as “the beloved bride, child of Jaffa, jasmine flower”. Or quizzes where children routinely identify Israeli landmarks, towns and ports such as Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat as Palestinian. Where children are taught that “Palestine” covers 27,000sqkm; in fact Gaza and the West Bank total 6200sqm. When the next generation of leaders is taught from childhood that Israel does not exist, how is future negotiation possible?
The irony is that this hate education is funded by the West, by countries that pour money into the PA who use it to glorify terrorism and to twist young minds against Israel, and peace. Countries such as Australia. Last year in Ramallah, headquarters of Fatah, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith lauded one of the first acts of the new Labor Government as being a pledge of $45million to the Palestinian people and $7.5m going directly to the PA. Does the minister know how the PA is using Western money?
Hillary Clinton knows about the direct flow of Western money into Fatah’s sewer of hate education. Last year she launched PMW’s latest report and pointed out the consequences of the toxic indoctrination of children: “We cannot build a peaceful, stable, safe future on such a hate-filled violent and radical foundation.”
The other irony is obvious to anyone with any understanding of the Palestinian leadership. Fatah is a discredited, corrupt, ineffective political party filled with the remnants of the Arafat era that has lost support of its people. Hamas is a terrorist movement still committed to bloody violence against Jews. There is no two-state solution until Palestinians can agree on one voice to represent them in a genuine peace settlement.
Yet consider this. According to the PMW, more than half of the Palestinian educators in the teachers’ union are affiliated with Hamas. What hope the children? What hope is there emerging from the next generation a group of moderate Palestinian leaders capable of carving out peace for their people?
These are questions not simply for the present leadership of the Palestinian people. But also for the leaders of countries such as Australia, who talk in rhetorical flourishes about a renewed peace initiative, and yet must surely know that this money is used for propaganda that kills any chance of peace.
They call this a period of calm. Surely they mean the calm before the storm unless the hate education of the next generation of Palestinians ends.
Janet Albrechtsen travelled to Israel as the guest of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Source: The Australian
 Hassan Mohamed (foreground) and Kamran Changezi wash their
hands and feet before prayers in a new foot-washing station in
Minnesota State University’s Centennial Student Union.By Ali Ramsey In hopes of meeting the needs of Muslim students, a foot-washing station was recently installed in Minnesota State University’s Centennial Student Union. “What we try to do around this building is provide things that make all kinds of groups of students feel comfortable,” said student union director Laurie Woodward. The idea was brought to the Student Union Board several years ago, but it wasn’t until the renovation of several bathrooms on the second floor that the space became available. The station was paid for entirely through student fees. Woodward said anyone is welcome to use the room even though it was put in to serve the religious needs of Muslim students. Foot washing is a rite observed by several religious groups. Muslims are required to perform foot washing in preparation for ritual prayer and before handling and reading the Quran. Many Muslims pray five times a day, and each time they wash their feet, hands, head and face. This process is called “wadhu.” Former MSU student Irfan Bangash was among those who pushed for years to get a foot-washing station installed. He said the idea was met with many questions but little opposition. “Every Friday at about noon there’d be a hundred Muslim students gathering in one rest room trying to wash their feet in a very, very unpleasant way,” Bangash said. Read more ...Source: Mankato Free PressMSU
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
A massive brawl that occurred between Croat and Muslim students in the Bosnian city of Mostar is blamed on Wahabis, suggests the report by the NGO Croatia Libertas.
“It is about groups that have a radical interpretation of Islam and influence the youth. The attacks have spread on all high schools in Mostar,” says Leo Plockinic, representative from Croati Libertas.
Plockinic says that the organized Wahabis are armed with light weapons.
Police spokeswoman Lejla Trivun said that 5 teens have been arrested over the weekend.
She said that on Sunday evening students gathered on both sides of the Boulevard, a street that demarcates Croatian and Islamic part of Mostar. Youngsters were gathering rocks with an intent to start the violence.
Wahabis have been involved in a string of attacks across Bosnia. Croatians have been targeted in particular. Last week, two Wahabis sought to enter a Catholic church at wee hours seeking to “silence” the church bells. Source: Serbianna
By Valentina Colombo “I am fully ready to have a public debate with Tariq Ramadan to make it patently clear that the man does not know 1% of what a world-class scholar must know.” This challenge comes from another Tarek, the Egyptian intellectual Tarek Heggy. He finds it a mystery why Europe keeps on listening to people like Ramadan and why many European intellectuals and politicians consider him the best Islamic intellectual. This is the reason why I asked Heggy to comment on some quotations from Ramadan’s speeches, books and videos. Here you find an illuminating clarification of the Islamist intellectual movement. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineTarek Heggy
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 The Ottoman harem in Western imagination.By Daniel Pipes A Scottish judge recently bent the law to benefit a polygamous household. The case involved a Muslim male who drove 64 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone – usually grounds for an automatic loss of one's driving license. The defendant's lawyer explained his client's need to speed: "He has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow and sleeps with one one night and stays with the other the next on an alternate basis. Without his driving licence he would be unable to do this on a regular basis." Sympathetic to the polygamist's plight, the judge permitted him to retain his license. Monogamy, this ruling suggests, long a foundation of Western civilization, is silently eroding under the challenge of Islamic law. Should current trends continue, polygamy could soon be commonplace. Since the 1950s, Muslim populations have grown in Western Europe and North America via immigration and conversion; with their presence has grown the Islamic form of polygyny (one man married to more than one woman). Estimates find 2,000 or more British polygamous men, 14,000 or 15,000-20,000 harems in Italy, 30,000 harems in France, and 50,000-100,000 polygamists in the United States. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 Ghassan Elashi arrested by FBI agents
at his Dallas-area home in 2002In a major blow to the terror-support network in America, the nation's largest Muslim charity and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinan terrorist group Hamas. The 108-count verdict against the Holy Land Foundation also deals a blow to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror-fundraising scheme. One of the guilty defendants in the federal case, Ghassan Elashi, was a founding director of Washington-based CAIR, the most powerful Muslim lobbyist group in the nation. Elashi and the other defendants – Mohamed El-Mezain, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh – could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Read more ...Source: WND
 Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | November 26, 2008
THE alleged al-Qa'ida mastermind of the plot to bomb trans-Atlantic aircraft, Briton Rashid Rauf, is still alive, his lawyer claimed last night, amid reports that the terrorist organisation's leaders are being forced to flee to new hideouts in Pakistan because of US unmanned drone attacks.
Western diplomats were quoted as saying a recent drone strike was launched after intelligence was received that Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was in the area.
Al-Qa'ida's main link with the Taliban, an Arab identified as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, was killed as the Hellfire missiles fired from the Predator drones struck a compound on the outskirts of Bannu, a key garrison town near Pakistan's troubled tribal areas. Security sources said Zawahiri was not there.
But intelligence gathered by both US and Pakistani agencies -- particularly since last weekend's onslaught in the North Waziristan Tribal Agency, in which Rauf and Egyptian bomb-maker and bin Laden aide Abu Zabair al-Masri are said to have been killed -- indicates that "al-Qa'ida's principal leaders are moving away from the tribal belt because of the intensity of the drone strikes".
US and Pakistani officials are convinced that Rauf, a 27-year-old former British bakery delivery driver, was killed in the attack. However, his lawyer insisted last night that reports of his death were false.
"We don't believe that this story is true. It's a fake story," lawyer Hashmat Ali Habib told the BBC world service.
"We still believe that my client Rashid is alive."
He said that requests for Rauf's body to be returned to his family -- a hallowed principle in Islam -- had gone unanswered.
Britain's The Times suggested yesterday that it was explosives expert Masri, rather than Rauf, who was the main target of the drone attack. The newspaper said Masri had been holding an "operational meeting" with four other key figures when the drones struck.
Outrage in Pakistan over the drone onslaught gathered momentum last night when cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan led a protest rally in Islamabad and accused the country's Government of having "become a slave of the US (that) carries out its orders".
At the same time, security officials in the key provincial capital of Peshawar claimed to have killed more than 25 militants and captured 40. Source: The Australian
 Anne Bayefsky
NEW YORK - The President of the UN General Assembly has launched an unprecedented attack on a UN member state from the Assembly podium. Going beyond even existing UN resolutions, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua accused Israel of apartheid and called for "a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against it. Reminiscent of a classic antisemitic slur, Brockmann (himself a Roman Catholic priest and one-time official of the World Council of Churches) also claimed our Palestinian "brothers and sisters are being crucified" by Israel.
His remarks were made on November 24, 2008 during the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This annual event marks the adoption of the General Assembly's partition resolution which called for the creation of a Jewish and an Arab state on November 29, 1947.
"Brockmann's assault is a gross abuse of the position of Assembly President," commented Anne Bayefsky, Editor of EYEontheUN. "He knows full well that his outrageous personal views will be translated into six languages and webcast around the world." Brockmann assumed the Presidency in September 2008, having been nominated by the Latin American and Caribbean regional group.
Brockmann made the apartheid allegation twice in one day, once in the morning at the annual meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and again in the General Assembly in the afternoon. In his words:
"I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur."
Bayefsky notes: "His remarks are especially offensive since the facts indicate the complete reverse. One-fifth of Israel's population is Arab with more democratic rights than in any Arab state. Arab states have been essentially rendered Judenrein since the creation of Israel. UN resolutions denounce Jews living in Arab-claimed territory as "Judaization," and no mention is ever made of "apartheid Palestine.""
"Brockmann's call," said Bayefsky, "was in effect, a call for the political destruction of Israel by means of the same strategy adopted against apartheid South Africa." Brockmann said:
"More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa...Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel..."
The adoption of the 1947 partition resolution, accepted by Jews and rejected by Arabs, is now bemoaned by the UN. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan described Palestinian Solidarity Day as "a day of mourning and a day of grief." This year, as in years past, the UN used the occasion to fly only two flags, that of "Palestine" and that of the United Nations. Though the resolution was ostensibly the UN's first commitment to a two-state solution, today the flag of the member state of Israel is left out.
The Palestinian flag is on the left, the United Nations flag on the right. Speakers from left to right who voiced no difficulty with the omission of the flag of Israel:
Riyad Malki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority; Jorge Urbina, Representative of the President of the Security Council; Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the General Assembly; Paul Badji, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations; H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, Chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories; and the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Source: Eye on the UN H/T: Gateway Pundit Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
By Robert Spencer Justice has been served: on Monday, five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), once the largest Islamic charity in the United States, were found guilty of funneling at least $12 million of the charity’s funds to the jihad terror group Hamas. Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi (founder of the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations), Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdelrahman Odeh could get sentences of as long as twenty years in prison for providing support to terrorists. This verdict is a huge setback for the Stealth Jihad initiative in the United States, which I chronicle in my book by that name. According to the Federation of American Scientists, “today, a very complex financial network connects the operations of over seventy branches of the Muslim Brothers worldwide. During the Muslim Brothers' seventy-plus years of existence, there have been cycles of growth, followed by divisions into factions, including clandestine financial networks, and violent jihad groups, such as al-Jihad and al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya in Egypt, HAMAS in Palestine and mujahideen groups in Afghanistan.” Read more ...Source: Human EventsShukri Abu-Baker
Ghassan Elashi
Mohamed El-Mezain
Mufid Abdulqader
Abdelrahman Odeh
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
Heroes' Day, an event glorifying Tamil Tiger terrorist tactics, is due to take place later this month at the London ExCeL Centre in defiance of UK laws prohibiting the glorification of and support for terrorism.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, are a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK under the 2000 Terrorism Act. Membership of the LTTE, fundraising for the group and encouraging support for them are all prohibited in the UK. For the LTTE and its supporters, the 27th November is Heroes’ Day. Past suicide missions are openly venerated and Velupillai Prabhakaran, the military and political leader of the LTTE, addresses crowds in many countries via video link-up to raise money and international support for the group. Read more ... Source: The Centre For Social Cohesion
The Third Jihad- Radical Islam’s Vision for America The Hidden War There’s a war going on and the major battles take place right here in America. It’s a hidden war against the freedom and values we all take for granted. The enemy is taking advantage of our country’s democratic process, and using it to further its own aims.
Most people, busy with their daily struggles don’t even realize there’s a war. And that’s just the way the Radical Islamists would like things to remain. The War Revealed The Third Jihad is the ground breaking film that reveals the truth. It exposes the destructive aims of Radical Islam and its mounting threat for America and the world. It covers all the major players- the radical extremists and the leaders trying to stop them.
The Third Jihad will update you on the most urgent issue of our time in ways you can’t find in the media. Inside the Film Using footage from the Arab media, the mounting dangers of jihad are uncovered: The numerous terrorist threats since 9/11, and the likelihood that more are being planned now. The threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. The subtle dangers of non-violent cultural jihad and its influence in America’s universities An update on radical Moslem prisoner recruitment. Source: Europe NewsH/T: Frances James
 November 25, 2008
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States, slammed "very bad signals" from US president-elect Barack Obama that he said were "disrespectful" to Iran.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent him a letter. The reply wasn't good. It was disrespectful. Obama was unable to get away from the cliche. He spoke like (President George W.) Bush. They are very bad signs," Chavez said in a late night news conference to foreign journalists.
Obama told his first news conference after winning the US presidential election on November 4 that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons was "unacceptable."
He also said that he would "respond appropriately" to a congratulatory letter from Ahmadinejad.
Chavez has tense relations with the United States, despite being one of its main suppliers of crude oil.
Venezuela expelled the US ambassador to Caracas in September and Washington responded in kind.
The United States is "the empire that kills, bombs and assassinates. If Obama can convert that infernal machine into a machine that benefits the world, I think that would be a lot to hope for," Chavez said.
"We only aspire to respect. Hopefully he'll surround himself with good advisers, that he honors his color, his origin, that he remembers where he comes from. His wife is black, what beautiful children they have," the fierce anti-liberal said.
"Hopefully they're not going to kill Obama, but that murdering machinery is capable of anything," Chavez added.
The firebrand leader has tightened ties with Iran in recent years, and has referred to Ahmadinejad as a "brother." Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse
 DALLAS – A jury convicted five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on all counts in the Hamas-support case after 8 days of deliberations. The men, Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks. In the original trial last year, jurors acquitted El-Mezain on 31 of the 32 counts against him, but could not reach unanimous verdicts on any other counts, prompting a mistrial. Prosecutors made a series of significant adjustments, from dropping 29 counts each against defendants Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, to adding new witnesses who could put the charity support in context. In addition, jurors in this trial saw three exhibits Israeli military officials seized from the Palestinian Authority which showed the PA also considered HLF to be a Hamas financer and that an HLF-supported charity committee was controlled by Hamas. The result was a much more streamlined case that followed a logical narrative, said Peter Margulies, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. Seeing the Palestinian Authority reach the same conclusion as the U.S. government had to have helped, he said. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 By Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld On Jan. 23, 2004, at 2:33 p.m., an e-mail popped up on my computer screen from the solicitors for Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz threatening to sue me in London for libel. My first thought was, “He found the wrong victim.” I then called my lawyer to find out how best I could fight back. I was determined to prevent the Brits from robbing me of my free speech rights in America. After all, these rights were the result of the successful American fight against British oppression three centuries ago. Having been raised by parents who, as members of the Irgun, fought the British occupation for Israel’s independence, I grew up understanding the core value of freedom. Thus, the U.S. constitutional protection of freedom of expression had a major role in my decision to live here. At the time Mahfouz threatened to sue me in London, he already received many media outlets’ and writers’ retractions or apologies — most not U.K.-based. His frenzied use of the High Court in London to silence the media began in earnest after the 9/11 attacks on America. Read more ...Source: DC Examiner
 Following up on our story about CAIR's quick and easy condemnation of the Ayman al-Zawahiri tape in which Al Qaeda's No. 2 man slurs President-Elect Barack Obama, blogger Abdur-Rahman Muhammad shows us some groups aren't even capable of taking such an easy shot. He asks: "Where is the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), ostensibly the representative of Black Islam in this country, to stand up and defend the honor and reputation of the millions upon millions of Black folks, indeed all of Americans, who voted for this brilliant young man?" Muhammad then lists a series of Black Muslim leaders including the Muslim American Society's Mahdi Bray, who, at the time of his posting, had not been heard from about Zawahiri's slur: "The absence of any public indignation on the part of these so-called leaders is truly a disgrace, and if it were any people other than the Muslims would have been a scandal. In my judgment, if there are any "house negroes" around, it is these servile, supine, completely useless leaders who allow their people to be abused in this ugly manner without a word!" Muhammad often confronts the conventional wisdom of self-proclaimed spokesmen for the American Muslim community. He read the evidence and court filings about Sami Al-Arian and challenged those defending him. Saying it was his "duty to tell the Muslims that they are blindly defending someone who admitted to helping terrorists." (Author's emphasis) He even posted this internal Muslim Brotherhood document from 1991 defining the group's role in America as "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within." It prompts some interesting debate and some name calling by Muhammad's critics. For those of our readers who view Islam as monolithic, Muhammad's blog, A Singular Voice, is an eye opener. Source: IPT Blog
 Young Muslim men are susceptible to "jihadization"? Why, it's an outrage! Everyone knows that's not true! Everyone knows that Methodists and Episcopalians are just as likely to blow themselves up in a restaurant, or fly an airplane into a building, or plot to subvert Constitutional law and replace it with religious law, as are young Muslim men! Will the Islamophobia never end? A New York City Police Department report that characterizes young Muslim men as susceptible to Islamic extremism and "jihadization" is biased and unfair, a Muslim civil rights group said Thursday (Nov. 20).
The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, created last year in response to a NYPD analysis of terrorism plots, said it has already met with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly several times to protest the 90-page report, "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat."
Although the NYPD report states "there is no useful profile" of a potential terrorist, it notes that most of the plotters of 11 global cases over the past six years -- including the 9/11 attacks -- were Muslim men under the age of 35. Read more ... Source: RNSH/T: Jihad Watch
By Supna Zaidi On November 6, 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department hosted a seminar on Islamic banking to train government employees on Sharia-compliant finance (SCF). According to a press release, it was “designed to help inform the policy community about Islamic financial services, which are an increasingly important part of the global financial industry.” It is interesting to note that while many in the West deride parallel societies, the lack of integration, and overall “foreign-ness” of its Muslim populations, they have no problem embracing Islamic banking. Maybe because this is the one area of religious “encroachment” that allows the West to make money, and lots of it. Read more ...Source: Pajamas MediaU.S. Government
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
November 25, 2008
TEHRAN: Iran's Revolutionary Guards have claimed to have arrested the members of a spy network linked to Israeli intelligence who tried to gather information on Iranian nuclear and military programs.
Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on state radio last night that its intelligence bureau had recently discovered the spy network, linked with Israel's Mossad.
"This network sought to gather important information from the Guards' military section, the country's nuclear centres and some security officials," Mr Jafari said.
"Very good information as well as equipment that this network were supplied with have been discovered and people will be informed of the evidence in the near future."
Mr Jafari did not specify how many people were detained or where and when the group was arrested.
He said the detainees had confessed to being trained in bombing and assassination in Israel and had bought vehicles and lots of equipment with Mossad support, the state broadcaster's website reported.
Iran said on Saturday it had hanged an Iranian telecommunications salesman convicted of spying for Israel. It warned that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.
Judicial spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said Ali Ashtari was hanged on November 17 after being sentenced to death on June30 by a revolutionary court in Tehran.
Ashtari, who was in his mid-40s, was a tradesman in electronic merchandise who supplied military, security and defence centres across the country with electronic devices.
Iranian authorities also recently arrested Hossein Derakhshan, a blogger who visited Israel last year, on his arrival in Tehran from Canada. Mr Derakhshan, who also holds Canadian citizenship, had admitted to being involved in espionage for Israel, the Iranian news website Jahan News reported.
It said Mr Derakhshan had admitted spying for Israel during initial questioning.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Tehran does not recognise Israel and tensions have flared since the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly said the Jewish state is doomed to vanish and has branded the Holocaust amyth.
Israel, which along with the US accuses the Islamic republic of seeking atomic weapons, has never ruled out a military action to halt Tehran's nuclear drive.
Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is aimed only at producing electricity, angrily points to Israel's widely believed status as the sole, if undeclared, nuclear weapons power in the Middle East.
Iran has always warned of a dire response in the event that it comes under attack by the US or Israel.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's powerful ideological army, control the country's sensitive missile program, including the long-range Shahab-3 missile, which Tehran says can reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf. Source: The Australian
 November 25, 2008
MOGADISHU: Tension mounted yesterday between pirates holding a Saudi tanker and Islamist fighters threatening to attack them, with a week remaining for the ship's owners to meet a $US25million ($40million) ransom demand.
"If the pirates want peace, they had better release the tanker," said Sheik Ahmed, a spokesman for the Shebab group in the coastal region of Harardhere.
The Shebab (youth) armed group, which controls much of southern and central Somalia and rejects an internationally backed peace process, has positioned fighters in and around Harardhere in recent days.
The Sirius Star, a tanker carrying about $US100million worth of crude oil and owned by Saudi Aramco, was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on November 15. Pirates have anchored it off their base in Harardhere, north of Mogadishu, and demanded the ransom be paid by November 30.
Islamist leaders have stressed that piracy is a capital offence under Islam and condemned the surge in acts of piracy in Somalia's waters. Mohamed Said, a member of the pirate group holding the Sirius Star, retorted that his men were not afraid of the Shebab's threats.
Some Harardhere residents have argued the Shebab are divided over the issue of piracy and that some of the Islamist fighters have moved in only to claim a share of the ransom.
Members of the pirate group said talks were under way with Saudi Aramco's shipping arm and gave assurances that the crew would not be harmed.
The capture of the Sirius Star, the biggest ship ever hijacked, has caused panic in the shipping world. Companies are now re-routing deliveries via the Cape of Good Hope. Source: The Australian
By Joseph Farah WASHINGTON – When the Council on American-Islamic Relations held its 14th Annual Banquet at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel tonight, it was planning to raise funds and honor some of its supporters, but instead several top officials of the Muslim lobby group were served with a summons and complaint for various civil and criminal offenses. The dramatic surprise, caught on video, was a result of the research work of the Mapping Sharia Project, headed by Dave Gaubatz. He personally served CAIR Director Nihad Awad at the banquet tonight while Democratic North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw, a CAIR national board member, was addressing the festivities. Four CAIR clients have filed a federal civil complaint alleging criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described public interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR's national leadership as individual defendants. Read more ...Source: WNDDave Gaubatz
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 By Phyllis Chesler Psychologically, we tend to believe that what we see with our own eyes, especially if it is "acted out" for us, is the "truth." Our brains are wired so that visual images assume a permanent reality--even if that reality is a computer-generated or photo-shopped Big Lie. Mohammed al-Dura did not die in his fathers' arms even though that carefully staged image was seen round the world. Israel did not massacre anyone in Jenin even though that Big Lie has also taken on a life of its own. I'm glad that America's Most Wanted chose to dramatize the honor killing of Sarah and Amina Said in Dallas on Jan 1, 2008 by their father Yaser Abdul Said, who has been missing ever since. I hope the program helps aid in his capture. I applaud on-camera narrator John Walsh, who has turned his own grief at the loss of his child into something positive for so many others. However, the dramatization was oddly, perhaps even purposefully misleading. Key figures were either fatally mischaracterized or were entirely missing in action. Malevolent motives, which had no basis in fact, were attributed to the innocent girls and yet their mother, Patricia, was not presented as the collaborator in their murder which she surely was. Their older brother, Islam, a foul-mouthed man who bullied his mother, harassed and monitored his sisters, and ultimately justified their being honor murdered, was not in the TV picture. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine | |
