Los Angeles Times writer Ashraf Khalil complains that the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera isn’t available in the US, and as evidence of their excellent reporting he shows a video clip by an Al Jazeera reporter trolling hospital beds in Gaza: In praise of Al Jazeera.
The report Khalil praises is blatant propaganda, with the sole purpose of inflaming emotions against Israel.
And of course, this is the cleaned-up, sanitized Al Jazeera for Western consumption. If you watch them in Arabic you get the real stuff.
For example, this incredibly vile birthday party for released terrorist Samir Kuntar—who shot a child’s father in front of her, then bashed the little girl’s brains out with a rifle butt.
This sickening, utterly depraved show alone should prevent Al Jazeera from ever being picked up by US cable providers, but people like Ashraf Khalil are doing their best to trick the American public into looking elsewhere. Source: LGF
Antwerp: Arab riots, Jewish neighborhood sealedHow do you protest violence against a civilian population? Attack a civilian population, of course. These riots were expected, given the massive incitement that accompanied the organization of the demonstrations. The demonstration that the Arab European League (AEL) in Borgerhout (Antwerp) organized against the bombardments of the Gaza Strip, has gotten completely out of hand. After the protest disbanded the demonstrators marched towards the Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp, clashing with the police. In particular car windows suffered, but also trams and buses were attacked. Read more ... Source: HLN (Dutch) H/T: Islam in EuropeAEL
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
While many other Dutch will be sleeping it off, a group of Muslim will be up at the crack of dawn on New Year's Day cleaning the streets. These will be members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Amsterdam, according to spokesperson Fahim Dieffenthaler Wednesday.
The faithful will be out at a 6:15 for the first prayer of the New Year. At 8am they will collect litter on the Papaverweg in Amsterdam-Noord. According to Dieffenthaler other branches of the Muslim community will probably go out later in January to clean up streets in other parts of the country.
The Ahmadiyya Muslims had held similar operations in the past. They do this since they think their task is to contribute to society. The Ahmadiyya community is a separate movement within Islam, aside from the Sunnis and Shiites. Many members in the Netherlands are of Pakistani origin. Source: Telegraaf (Dutch) H/T: Islam in Europe
 "Israel is waging a struggle, but this struggle is not Israel's alone. Israel is standing on the frontlines of the Western world’s war against terror, and we expect support for doing the right thing and fighting the war of the entire free world.
"It is true: the pictures broadcast on television all over the world are provoking harsh public opinion against Israel. Unfortunately, some of the world’s decision makers are swayed by public opinion and the media, even though they know what is true and what is not, and how they would act in a similar situation."
- Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni's recent speech before the Israeli Knesset AS ISRAELIS WHO NEVER THOUGHT THEY WOULD FACE TERRORIST ROCKETS TRY TO HIDE FROM FALLING ORDNANCE, their elected officials are attempting to avoid a more structurally catastrophic obstacle: pressure from the "international community." Overnight, the Olmert government wisely rejected a 48-hour "humanitarian truce" hammered out by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, on behalf of the 27 member nations of the European Union, in consultation with foreign ministers continent-wide. Sarkozy and Kouchner plan to spend the day haranguing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni to accept a two-day standoff under the pretext of allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, with the spoken desire to make the ceasefire "lasting." The very concept has been described as "a diplomatic victory" for Hamas, with negotiations threatening to elevate Hamastan to the standing of an international quasi-state in its own right. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
Demented Clown SocietyTEHRAN (Reuters) - A group of Iranian hard-line clerics is signing up volunteers to fight in the Gaza Strip in response to Israel's air strikes that have killed at least 300 Palestinians, a news agency reported on Monday. "From Monday the Combatant Clergy Society has activated its website www.rohaniatmobarez.com for a week to register volunteers to fight against the Zionist regime (Israel) in either the military, financial or propaganda fields," the semi-official Fars news agency said. Israel patrols the coastal waters around Gaza and has declared areas around the enclave a "closed military zone." The hard-line Iranian group, which is headed by some leading clergy, says it has no affiliation with the government and was formed shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world on Sunday, ordering them to defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks "in any way possible." Read more ...Source: ReutersH/T: Jihad WatchCombatant Clergy Society
Latest recipient of the Evil Dumbass Award
 Riyadh, 30 Dec. (AKI) - A doctor in Saudi Arabia was able to stop the wedding of a five and 11 year-old whose family wanted to marry them to protect financial assets. "Thanks to the law that compels spouses to carry out blood analyses before marriage, we were able to stop a wedding with underage girls, among them a five year-old," said Hani Harsani, the doctor in charge of laboratory analysis in an interview with Saudi daily al-Watan.
"Two sisters came to us accompanied by their parents to undergo pre-marital blood analyses. The first one was five, and the other 11 years-old. When we asked the mother why they wanted to do the tests, she told us that she wanted to marry the girls to cousins to preserve the family's property rights."
During the interview, Harsani remembers an episode when a 10-year-old orphan was brought to do pre-marital blood tests by her brother, who wanted to marry the sister to a 40-year-old friend who already had two other wives.
"We cannot technically impede a marriage with a girl of this age. However, we can delay the process (by refusing to carry out the tests)," said Harsani.
"I hope a law can be passed sooner rather than later to establish a minimum age for marriage."
Pre-marital blood tests are compulsory in Saudi Arabia to ensure the spouses are in good health, but also to prevent the spread of hereditary diseases to the children. Source: AKI
 Culture shock ... Muslim women walk along an Indonesian beach
past a topless foreign tourist.By Georgina Robinson Conservative MP Fred Nile says he wants topless bathing banned in NSW to protect Sydney's Muslim and Asian communities. The Reverend Nile has rejected allegations that prudishness is behind a bill he has prepared to ban nudity, including topless sunbathing, on the state's most popular beaches. Australia's reputation as a conservative but culturally inclusive sociery was at risk of erosion by more liberal overseas visitors, he said. "Our beaches should be a place where no one is offended, whether it's their religious or cultural views," he said. "If they've come from a Middle Eastern or Asian country where women never go topless - in fact they usually wear a lot of clothing - I think it's important to respect all the different cultures that make up Australia." The practice was at risk of raising the ire of Muslim men in particular, Mr Nile said. "I don't want to have any provocations or disturbances on our public beaches," he said. Acting Premier Carmel Tebbutt and the NSW Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, have both said that topless bathing is an issue for local councils, not state governments. Read more ...Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
 By Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer December 30, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, the director of the American Muslim Association of North America [AMANA] has been given an award by the Miami Dade Citizen Corps Council for "outstanding service to the Miami- Dade community during 2008." According to a letter sent by the Emergency Management Coordinator, Lorenzo Sanchez, "The Miami-Dade County, Department of Emergency Management & Homeland Security and the Miami-Dade Citizen Corps are truly thankful for the support you have given to our community by preparing, or responding to the residents of Miami-Dade County for all-hazard events." Zakkout has also received funding from the Department of Homeland Security despite the exposure of his Islamist ties by these authors in an April feature story [see, Why Is The Department Of Homeland Security Funding The "Hardening" Of Florida Mosques?]. Though purged of much of the anti-Christian hate-speech AMANA's website still contains anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual material and a hyperlink to www.islamonline.net, a site which features religious/legal opinions in support of suicide bombings. Read more ...Source: Militant Islam MonitorMiami Dade Citizen Corps Council
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 Predictably, it's started. Europe's pro-Palestinian lobby, instinctive anti-war campaigners, Muslim extremists and the so-called Arab street have all been demonstrating against Israel's military operations in Gaza.
In London, Muslim and leftist protesters rallied raucously outside the Israeli embassy. Marchers protesting the Palestinian "holocaust" were held in Copenhagen, Paris and Madrid. A protest by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party in the northern city of Mosul ended abruptly when a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up, killing one and wounding 16. Some might wonder why al-Qaida would attack other Sunni anti-Zionists. Plainly, the extremists' lust for chaos and bloodshed trumps all.
Pro-Hamas rallies were organized from Teheran to Beirut, and from Baghdad to Cairo. Arab citizens of Israel observed a general strike, accompanied by sporadic rock-throwing and tire-burning. An Arab minister in the Israeli government protested by refusing to attend a cabinet meeting; Palestinian youths in east Jerusalem rioted as their elders honored the strike.
We find it curious that the weekend deaths of 13 schoolchildren in Afghanistan at the hands of an Islamist bomber; the Taliban suicide attack in Pakistan, which claimed 30 Muslim lives, and the unremitting internecine slaughter in Iraq (9,000 dead in 2008 alone) fail to incense the Arab street half as much as the Jews exercising their right to self-defense.
THAT SAID, it is instructive to look beyond the mobs with their incendiary placards, shrill chants and de-rigueur burning of Israeli flags and take note of a remarkable rupture in the Arab and Muslim world.
The Arab elites, comprising statesmen, academics, journalists and businesspeople, may preface their criticism with references to Israel's "crimes," but a significant facet of this class - it would be simplistic to label them "moderates" - appreciates that Hamas is to blame for what is taking place in the Gaza Strip.
Moreover, their hearts may tell them to bankroll Hamas, but their brains tell them that the fanaticism, political intolerance and social backwardness championed by the Islamists pose a profound threat to the Arab future.
These predominantly Sunni elites - whether they sit in Cairo, Riyadh or Amman, in the Maghreb, the Gulf or in the West - don't want their societies to ape the Taliban or the ayatollahs.
HIZBULLAH leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, still in hiding two years after supposedly defeating Israel in the Second Lebanon War, has been denouncing this attitude as he seeks to salvage Hamas's fortunes - in which he and his Iranian patrons are heavily invested - by mobilizing the Arab street.
He has practically called for a revolution in Egypt. As Al Jazeera reported: "Nasrallah urged Egyptians... to force their government to open the country's border with Gaza. 'If the Egyptian people took to the streets by the millions, could the police kill millions of Egyptians? People of Egypt, you must open this border by the force of your chests.'"
What Hizbullah's demagogue in-chief pointedly neglected to tell the throngs watching him on a giant TV screen as he spoke from his bunker, was that Hizbullah and Iran were egging Hamas on to pick a fight with Israel while Egypt (and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas) were working overtime to convince Hamas to honor the cease-fire.
Nasrallah is half-right.
Arab elites suffer from a sort of split personality disorder. Even as they are trying to pull Hamas's chestnuts out of the fire by pressing Washington to lean on Israel to back off, they know that Hamas (like Hizbullah and the Muslim Brotherhood) threatens not just their own regimes, but political development in the Arab world. If only the Jordanian and Saudi monarchs, Gulf emirs and the Egyptian president would stand up to the Islamists.
How? They should be incrementally fostering transparent government and the rule of law, and socializing their masses to the idea of tolerance and majority rule while respecting the minority. That would promote political institution-building and social stability.
The Arab elites need to offer their people an alternative to Islamist extremism. They could begin by redefining what it means to be pro-Palestinian and dissociating the Palestinian cause from anti-Israel rejectionism.
In this context, if Israel can deflate Hamas, it will be advancing an Arab interest as much as its own citizens' security. Source: Jerusalem Post
 In October 2008, Moussa Abu Marzouq, deputy head of the Damascus-based political wing of Hamas, gave an interview to the Qatari daily Al-Raya in which he expressed surprise at the UAE's demand for sovereignty over the three islands Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Moussa, which have been in Iranian possession since the Shah's era. Abu Marzouq's statements sparked anger against Hamas; in one reaction, a columnist for the UAE daily, Al-IttihadMuhammad Khalfan Al-Sawafi, extrapolated from Abu Marzouq's statements that Hamas's claim to Palestinian territory could likewise be questioned, and that the agendas of Hamas and Iran were political rather than religious. Following are excerpts from Al-Sawafi's article: Hamas Is Selling Arab Territories out of Greed"…Mussa Abu Marzouq, deputy of the political wing of Hamas… expressed surprise that the UAE had set a deadline for restoring [to its sovereignty] the three islands that are currently under [Iranian] occupation, [i.e.] Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Moussa. [Marzouq's statement] raises questions regarding [Hamas's] demands to regain control over the occupied Palestinian territories. In addition, these statements can be [construed as] undeniable proof that the religious groups' and movements' loyalty to an external [element] is greater than their loyalty to their respective homelands. Read more ...Source: MEMRI
By Patrick Poole The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that Israeli Defense Forces aircraft bombed suspected Hamas terror laboratories located at the Hamas-run Islamic University of Gaza (IUG). According to the article, IUG professors were using the labs to build explosives for the terrorist organization. A BBC report confirmed that the IUG science building was the target of the Israeli retaliatory strikes. Thus far unreported is that the IUG science and technology lab was financed and constructed with the assistance of the Dublin, Ohio-based Arab Student Aid International (ASAI). In fact, the IUG website has a page dedicated to ASAI’s ongoing contributions to the Hamas institution and specifically mentions the labs financed by the Ohio Islamic group. Additionally, the ASAI website promotes its assistance in creating the IUG science and technology center, which was completed in 2002. In a previously published article I revealed ASAI’s extensive financial ties to the IUG, including direct cash payments to the Hamas school in addition to the facilities construction projects supported by ASAI. The Washington Post also revealed in April 2006 that ASAI had financed the Western education of a number of top Hamas leaders. Read more ...Source: Pajamas MediaASAI
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Aaron Klein JERUSALEM – A Palestinian girl who said she lost a 4-year-old sister yesterday during Israel's air strikes in the Gaza Strip squarely placed the blame for the violence on Hamas, making her statements live on the terrorist group's official television network. "We were sleeping seven girls in the room. We were asleep and didn't know what was happening. In the morning all the bricks were on top of my head, and the heads of all my sisters. My 4-year-old sister next to me was dead," the girl said, talking to Hamas' Al Aqsa TV. "How many were you?" the Hamas interviewer asked the girl. The girl responded: "Seven. In the other room were my mother, my father, my younger brother and another sister, who is 13 days old. "I say, Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars," she declared. The interview was translated from Arabic by the Israeli-based Palestinian Media Watch organization. Israel yesterday hit multiple Hamas targets in Gaza, focusing on the terrorist organization's military installations, training camps and weapons storage, and production facilities. Also targeted were weapons-smuggling tunnels that snake under Gaza's border with neighboring Egypt. Read more ...Source: WNDUnnamed Palestinian Girl
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 December 31, 2008
THE media took great delight in reporting the encounter between US President George W. Bush and a pair of flying shoes during his final visit to Iraq two weeks ago. But the great bastions of free speech missed the true significance of an Arab reporter throwing his shoes during a press conference in Baghdad.
Bush has long maintained that it would be a fine thing to see the emergence of some basic Western values in the Arab world. Values such as freedom of expression. Perhaps the return to Iraq of a bit of shoe-throwing as the ultimate sign of Arab disgust is a healthy sign of a democracy, warts and all, taking hold. Iraqis had to wait until Saddam Hussein was dead before they threw their shoes en masse at his toppling statue.
Puerile as it is as a form of expression, Iraqis can now throw shoes freely at any leader, including the outgoing leader of the free world. So maybe Bush’s final visit to Iraq is, after all, a healthy sign of democratic values taking root. What a shame those same values have, over a period of years, been uprooted in the West.
If 2006 will be remembered as the year the West rolled over when tested on free speech - think the Danish cartoons, which large swaths of the media refused to publish for fear of causing offence - two years on, things are worse.
The year 2008 deserves to be seen as a year of anticipatory surrender, a year when the West decided to roll over on free speech of its own accord. Just in case. No threats. No demands. Just suppress controversial speech in advance, just in case it causes offence. You understand, we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. In fact, such a trashing of core Western values is difficult to understand.
In no particular order, an audit of 2008 must begin with the comments of Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, who announced in October that Islam deserved different coverage in the media compared to other religions because Muslims were an ethnic minority.
While a spokesman for Thompson tried to play down the significance of what the head of the British public broadcaster had said by claiming that his boss was not calling for preferential treatment of Islam by the media, it’s hard to interpret Thompson’s words any other way.
The fact that a religion is identified with one or more ethnic minorities should surely have no bearing on other people’s freedom to probe, question and indeed lampoon that religion, in the same way that Christianity is regularly subjected to criticism and comedy spoofs.
It is deeply troubling that in response to claims by British comedian Ben Elton that the BBC would “let vicar gags pass but not imam gags”, Thompson said that it did take a different approach to Islam. A public broadcaster that openly admits self-censorship of important issues may get a mark for honesty, but the price is taxpayer-funded vandalism of Western values.
The same rank capitulation occurred in the private sector when, in August, Random House pulled the publication of The Jewel of Medina, a book by Sherry Jones that told the tale of Aisha, the child bride of Mohammed.
The publisher had received no threats, just “cautionary advice” that publishing the book “might cause offence to some in the community (and) incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment”.
Perhaps Random House took comfort, in a “we told you so” kind of way, that the publisher who did finally print the book in Britain, Gibson Square Books, was set on fire.
But instead of surrendering to perceived threats and real violence aimed at ideas and words, the West ought to be stiffening its resolve, declaring such barbarism unacceptable in a free society committed to freedom of expression. That is not happening.
When Somalia-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali arrived in Australia in early August to talk about free speech and her right to criticise Mohammed, she was still accompanied by security to protect her from those who regard violence as a legitimate response to words and ideas.
Hirsi Ali won’t be silenced. Neither will Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who is also surrounded by security. The release in March of his short film Fitna, which is critical of Islam, was followed by a fatwa from al-Qa’ida, boycotts against Dutch products, and attempts by Muslim countries to censor the film from the internet.
In the face of real threats, the tendency to curtail free speech even before threats arrive rather than offend minority sensibilities is spreading like a virulent cancer. Recall the case of the controversial Dutch cartoonist who was arrested in May and interrogated for his cartoons that mocked Islam. At least Gregorius Nekschot did not suffer the fate of Shafeeq Latif, who was sentenced to death in June by a Pakistani judge for insulting Mohammed.
But the West is killing free speech slowly - by more subtle means - through state-sponsored censorship under the grand name of protecting human rights.
The insidious role of human rights commissions was exposed in June when Mark Steyn and Canadian magazine Macleans were hauled before the Canadian Human Rights Commission for islamophobia.
While the complaint was ultimately dismissed, the fact that words warrant oversight by a state tribunal points to a rank attitude to free speech where a person is required to spend copious amounts of time and money defending words and ideas.
The same thing had happened in April, when the Ontario Human Rights Commission dealt with complaints against Steyn and Macleans. And in January, when conservative commentator Ezra Levant had to defend his publication of the Danish cartoons to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission.
As Steyn wrote of his experience of heavy-handed state censorship, the media “seems generally indifferent to a power grab that explicitly threatens to reduce them to a maple-flavoured variant of Pravda ... As some leftie website put it, ‘defending freedom of speech for jerks means defending jerks’. Well, yes. But, in this case, not defending the jerks means not defending freedom of speech for yourself. It’s not a Left-Right thing; it’s a free-unfree thing”.
If large sections of the media - normally devotees of free speech - cave into what the BBC’s Thompson called the “growing nervousness about discussion about Islam”, that self-censorship ripples out to all corners of society.
After the Danish cartoons fiasco, the onus was on the West to show its spine, to reassert its faith in freedom of expression. So far it has failed on that score. Let’s hope 2009 is a better year for free speech and the West’s confidence in itself.
Postscript: Beaufort Books of New York is the publisher of The Jewel of Medina. Miss Jones contacted me overnight saying the following:
Dear Ms. Albrechtson,
Your article on the West’s capitulation to radical Muslims on free speech was very thought-provoking—and you could have included many more examples! I applaud you for speaking out on this crucial issue. Silence is consent, the saying goes, and if we don’t exercise our freedom of speech to protest these attempts to muzzle it, we will certainly lose it.
I would like to make one minor correction regarding my novel, “The Jewel of Medina.” Gibson Square Books has not published it—nor, as far as I can ascertain, does publisher Martin Rynja intend to do so. Shortly after the Sept. 27 arson attempt at his London home office, Mr. Rynja issued a statement declaring that I had decided to indefinitely postpone publication of my book. This assertion, of course, was untrue. Although we have corresponded with Mr. Rynja, neither my agent nor I have been able to coax from him a prospective publication date or any indication of his intentions for the book.
My only English language publisher at this time is Beaufort Books of New York. With my consent, this courageous publisher published my book in a hurry, on Oct. 6, in order to counter the dangerous rumors that my book was pornographic. Our strategy appears to have worked, for the threats and tirades against “The Jewel of Medina” and me have ceased for the most part.
“Jewel” has been published in five countries—the US, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, and Italy—with no repercussions. We have had good sales throughout. In Serbia, the book was the number-one bestseller for at least two months and continues to sell well. It will debut in Spain Feb. 4.
For more information, feel free to visit my new website.
Thank you for standing up for this most important of rights—freedom of speech and expression. And thank you so much for your attention here. I wish you a very happy and healthy New Year!
Warm regards,
Sherry Jones
Author/Journalist
http://www.authorsherryjones.com Source: The Australian
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit harshly censured Hamas today (27 Dec), placing responsibility for the current situation on Hamas.
At a noon press conference broadcast on Egyptian television, he said that Egypt had repeatedly cautioned against continuing the situation and that whoever did not listen (Hamas) should assume responsibility and not blame others. He added that Israel had publicly warned that continued rocket fire would lead to military action.
Prime Minister Olmert said just two days ago in an Al Arabiya TV interview that if Hamas did not stop the rocket fire, Israel would respond militarily. The Egyptian foreign minister added angrily that right before Foreign Minister Livnis arrival in Egypt on Thursday, 60 rockets were fired, meant to foil Egypts efforts to achieve quiet. Source: Europe News
Tuesday, December 30, 20085:00pm - 6:30pm Outside of Israeli Consulate in NYC Corner of E42nd & 2nd Ave. New York, NY Support Israel in the current situation with Hamas in Gaza. Israel is acting to prevent Hamas and other militant Palestinians from firing rockets into southern Israel. Hamas has been firing Kassam (Qassam) rockets into southern Israel/Sderot for the past 8 years. This reprisal has been long overdue to protect Israeli civilians. Come and show your support toward Israel. Signs and fact sheets will be provided. Source: Gateway PunditH/T: Banafsheh / Gramfan The only way to end Palestinian suffering is to completely destroy Hamas.
 By Art Moore When the five Muslims convicted this month of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were charged, the New Jersey mosque where four of the men worshipped reacted to negative publicity by holding an "emergency town hall meeting" to calm neighbors and persuade Americans that Islam poses no threat. But having investigated the Islamic Center of South Jersey one year ago, Middle East expert and former Air Force special agent Dave Gaubatz insists not only is the mosque a threat to national security, it represents a pattern that has prompted him to launch a massive project to systematically classify every known mosque in the U.S. Mapping Shariah in America: Knowing the Enemy seeks by the end of next year to document in a rigorous, scientific fashion the controversial premise that the more a mosque or community of Muslims adheres to Shariah, or Islamic law, the greater its threat to U.S. national security. "That's exactly, that's what the data are showing," Gaubatz told WND, who has charted about 100 of the estimated 2,300 mosques his team has identified across the country. "The more adherent you are to Shariah, the more likely you are going to find the material to back that up at the mosque." Read more ...Source: WND
 by Daniel Pipes | Tue, 30 Dec 2008
1) Arab-Israeli warfare is not the conventional battle to control territory of old. Since 1982, the primary goal in this theater is to persuade the world of the righteousness of one's cause. (I.e., who has the more affecting casualties?)
2) Palestinians have proven themselves more competent at the p.r. battle than the Israeli government, winning public support everywhere — with the lone but decisive exceptions of Israel and the United States.
3) Secondarily, Hamas's defiance should be seen in light of Iranian ambitions to wear down the Israeli body politic.
4) Most Arab regimes so fear Tehran that they can barely bestir themselves to denounce Israel's war on Hamas, much less do anything.
5) The PLO's Mahmoud Abbas condemns Israeli actions as intensely as he roots for the Israel Defense Forces to destroy Hamas.
6) The moral opprobrium for Palestinian rockets raining down on Israeli towns falls entirely on the Palestinians and their enablers.
7) Israel has made astounding tactical mistakes, including the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, long years of passively enduring rockets, and tacit acceptance of elaborate smuggling tunnels from Egypt to Gaza.
8) The IDF has learned from tactical mistakes made in 2006.
9) Still, the Israeli war effort remains problematic. For example, an unnamed Israeli defense official was quoted saying "Hamas knows our demands, and there's no use to talking about them publicly." Since when does one signal military intentions to the enemy and hide them from one's own population?
10) The Israeli goal should be victory, not ending terrorism.
11) The Bush administration must not save Hamas.
12) Nor should the Obama administration save Hamas.
Source: National Review Online
 The global Muslim Brotherhood is reacting to the Israeli air attacks on Hamas in Gaza, generally describing the action as a “massacre or using similar inflammatory language.” Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, perhaps the most important leader of the global Brotherhood was reported to have criticized on Al Jazeera what he called the “silence” of the Arab world and urged “the entire Islamic nation to stand against this criminal and savage aggression.” A statement from the Egyptian Brotherhood called the Israeli actions a “bloody catastrophe:” Since decades, the Muslim Brotherhood has been following up on the events in Palestine and have resisted side by side with their Palestinian brothers all attempts of Israeli invasion, aggression, tyranny, and terrorism against the Palestinian people in the land of Palestine. After threatening to eliminate resistance, especially the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, the Israeli settlers now carry out their criminal operations attacking Palestinians in Gaza leaving hundreds of women and children killed and thousands injured and spreading destruction. Unfortunately, however, Arab and Islamic regimes remain silent, some even conspiring and conniving with Israelis in this bloody catastrophe after Israeli terrorist statements were made loud and clear from Cairo with officials” consent. The MB strongly declares its refusal of these criminal attacks, terrorist practices, plots and conspiracies that are being plotted in the night against the Palestinian resistance, Hamas” fighters, and their brothers in the remaining Palestinian factions. Read more ... Source: Family Security Matters
Along with expressing solidarity with the Hamas casualties in Gaza, PLO and Fatah officials criticize Hamas for its contribution to the escalation that led to the Israeli attack. They blamed Hamas for not listening to PLO's call to prolong the tahdiah, for not preparing properly for the possibility that Israel would attack, and for combining its government functions with its resistance activity, which made it vulnerable to an attack on its institutions. Hamas, for its part, accused the PLO and Fatah of collaborating with Israel. The following are excerpts from statements and articles in the Palestinian media: Abu Mazen: We Told [Hamas] - "Don't End the Tahdiah"In his visit to Egypt, PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) placed the responsibility for the Israeli attack on Hamas, saying, "We called the leaders of Hamas, and told them both directly and directly, through Arab parties and non-Arab parties. We talked with them on the phone. We told them, 'Please, do not end the tahdiah.'" Nimr Hammad, an advisor to Mahmoud Abbas, said: "The one responsible for the massacres is Hamas, and not the Zionist entity, which in its own view reacted to the firing of Palestinian missiles. Hamas needs to stop treating the blood of Palestinians lightly. They should not give the Israelis a pretext." He called upon the leaders of Hamas to stop carrying out "operations which reflect recklessness, such as the firing of missiles." Read more ...Source: MEMRI
By Barry Rubin Nothing is clearer than Hamas's strategy. It gives Israel the choice between rockets and media, and Hamas thinks it is a situation of, "We win or you lose." Option A: The Ceasefire Hamas ends a ceasefire giving it the peace and quiet needed to build up its army and consolidate its rule over the Gaza Strip. Israel would deliver supplies as long as there weren't attacks. From a Western-style pragmatic standpoint this is a great situation. But Hamas isn't a Western-style pragmatic organization. Peace and quiet is its enemy not only because of its ideology--the deity commands it to destroy Israel--or its self-image--as heroic martyrs--but also because battle is needed to recruit the masses for permanent war and unite the population around it. Hamas has no program of improving the well-being of the people or educating children to be doctors, teachers, and engineers. Its platform has but one plank: war, war, endless war, sacrifice, heroism, and martyrdom until total victory is achieved. Thus, it ends the ceasefire. Read more ...Source: Gloria Center
 By Kathy Shaidle In the wake of last month’s horrific Mumbai massacre, a recent warning about the spread of Islamic extremism in Russia is particularly chilling. On December 12, the Interfax news service quoted Major General Yury Tomchak, interior minister of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, as saying that “the wide-scale expansion of radical Islam into practically all regions of the Russian Federation” is a “source for concern.” He added that, “cells of international extremist organizations have developed intensive activities lately in individual constituent territories [of Russia], activities that include takeovers of “lucrative sectors of business.” This growth of Islamic extremism within Russia’s borders, especially in Chechnya and Dagestan, comes even after the Russian government banned seventeen radical Muslim organizations. For whatever reason, deadly atrocities of the recent past, such as the Moscow Theatre seige or the Beslan school massacre, are frequently attributed to regional, secular separatists rather than Muslim terrorists. This, despite statements made by the terrorists themselves, which reference “Allah” and the establishment of a caliphate “from the Red Sea to the Caspian.” Of course, the situation is extremely complex, and religion plays only one part, as Russia expert David Satter of the Hudson Institute explained to Front Page Magazine via email. In terms of Major General Tomchak’s Kabardino-Balkaria, which was rocked by attacks on police and security facilities in 2005, the spread of Islamic radicalism “is often fueled less by religious fervor than by the corruption of the local pro-Russian authorities and the brutality of the police,” said Satter. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 By Jeff Robbins | December 30, 2008
LAST MONTH'S commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provided the occasion to ask difficult questions about societies whose political leadership serially violates them. What, for instance, is to be done about places like Darfur or Zimbabwe, or any one of a multitude of places governed by leaders whose consciences appear untouched by the suffering they are causing? To the list of grotesque human rights violators must be added Hamas, whose disdain for the suffering its policies cause the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip is exceeded only by its open, and even proud, infliction of atrocities on Israeli civilians.
This year alone, Hamas, which expressly calls for the obliteration of Israel, has launched approximately 3,000 rockets and mortar bombs into Israeli civilian centers, always for the purpose of killing and maiming Israelis if possible, and terrifying those who are not actually hit. In the last week or so, Hamas has fired some 200 rockets and bombs into Israeli communities.
Under these circumstances - circumstances which would have continued without end had the Israelis failed to act - it seems clear that the Israeli military response was not merely a necessary one. It was, regrettably, the only one left.
Israeli author Amos Oz, whose call for peace with the Palestinians is shared by a majority of Israelis, succinctly described the brutalization of Israeli civilians in terms that cannot fairly be disputed. In a recent piece entitled "Israel Must Defend Its Citizens," the longtime advocate for reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis wrote: "The systematic bombing of the citizens in Israel's towns and cities is a war crime and a crime against humanity."
Oz is correct.
But it isn't only Israelis whose fundamental human rights Hamas is violating. It is those of the Palestinian population about whose welfare Hamas professes to care.
In direct contravention of international law, Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, utilizing homes, schools and community centers as launching pads, content in the knowledge that if innocent Palestinian civilians are caught in the cross-fire, it will be Israel that is criticized. This amounts to a sort of Daily Double of human rights violations: the use of innocent Palestinians as human shields for the infliction of violence upon innocent Israelis.
It is Hamas that perfected the use of the suicide bomb, by which young Palestinians were induced to kill themselves so that Israelis could also be killed. It is somehow apt that Hamas should be forever associated with the suicide bomb, for in a larger sense Hamas has proved to be an instrument of the demise of Palestinians in Gaza.
Hamas's persistent call for the annihilation of Israel through jihad, its unequivocal rejection of any peace with Israel under any circumstances, its seizure of Gaza through a coup d'etat, its repression of women and freedom of expression, and its embrace of Iran have all disgusted the international community, which will have little to do with it. Hamas has likewise repelled numerous Arab governments, which might otherwise have been expected to dip into their ample reserves of petrodollars to provide much-needed aid and foreign investment to Gaza, but which have steered clear of it.
Thus Hamas leads the Gazan population on a kamikaze course. The suffering of Gazans cannot conceivably be a genuine concern of the leadership, given the perpetuation of that suffering for which Hamas is responsible. And the suffering of Israelis is its avowed goal.
Whether it was South Africa or Sudan, the international community has understood that the way to deal with truly egregious human rights violators is not to placate them, but to speak the truth about them, and to them. If the truth is spoken plainly enough, and forcefully enough, to a Hamas leadership whose cruelty and callousness have reached alarming levels, it may be that the Palestinians and Israelis alike may be spared further suffering of the kind to which they have been relegated in the past.
Jeff Robbins, an attorney, was a US delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission during the Clinton administration.
Source: Boston Globe
 From correspondents in Jerusalem | December 30, 2008
THE Israeli navy has reportedly rammed a boat that was trying to deliver medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.
No one was injured in the collision between the patrol boat and the 20-metre Dignity, which was trying to take three tonnes of medical supplies into Gaza on day four of Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian territory.
Israeli army radio said the boat — operated by the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement — ignored both orders to turn around and warning shots across its bow before it was rammed.
The Free Gaza Movement, which has ran the blockade six times since August to take humanitarian supplies into Gaza, said the vessel could still sail after the ramming.
Paul Laurdee, one of the group's founders, said the Dignity had been "surrounded" in international waters about 70km off the Israeli coast and 135km from Gaza.
"It was surrounded by 11 Israeli naval vessels," he said.
"They ordered the boat to stop, and we didn't. They began firing over our boat and into the waters next to the boat. When the boat wouldn't turn back, one of the naval vessels rammed the boat, but not enough to disable the boat."
On its website, the Free Gaza Movement said the Dignity was on a "mission of mercy" carrying three tonnes of medical supplies "donated by the people of Cyprus," from where it set off on Monday.
"Our people are communicating with the Israelis as to what's next," Mr Laurdee said.
"We will try to dock in Egypt or in Lebanon, or all the way back to Cyprus. But there is doubt about fuel on board and whether they can make it all the way back to Cyprus as normally we refuel in Gaza." Source: The Australian
 By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 29, 6:33 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive.
The deteriorating situation in the former tourist haven comes despite an army offensive that began in 2007 and an attempted peace deal. It is especially worrisome to Pakistani officials because the valley lies outside the areas where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have traditionally operated and where the military is staging a separate offensive.
"You can't imagine how bad it is," said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. "It's worse day by day."
The Taliban activity in northwest Pakistan also comes as the country shifts forces east to the Indian border because of tensions over last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, potentially giving insurgents more space to maneuver along the Afghan frontier.
Militants began preying on Swat's lush mountain ranges about two years ago, and it is now too dangerous for foreign and Pakistani journalists to visit. Interviews with residents, lawmakers and officials who have fled the region paint a dire picture.
A suicide blast killed 40 people Sunday at a polling station in Buner, an area bordering Swat that had been relatively peaceful. The attack underscored fears that even so-called "settled" regions presumptively under government control are increasingly unsafe.
The 3,500-square-mile Swat Valley lies less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.
A senior government official said he feared there could be a spillover effect if the government lost control of Swat and allowed the insurgency to infect other areas. Like nearly everyone interviewed, the official requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by militants.
Officials estimate that up to a third of Swat's 1.5 million people have left the area. Salah-ud-Din, who oversees relief efforts in Swat for the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimated that 80 percent of the valley is now under Taliban control.
Swat's militants are led by Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of a harsh brand of Islamic law. His appeal tapped into widespread frustration with the area's inefficient judicial system.
Most of the insurgents are easy to spot with long hair, beards, rifles, camouflage vests and running shoes. They number at most 2,000, according to people who were interviewed.
In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas.
They have also set up a parallel administration with courts, taxes, patrols and checkpoints, according to lawmakers and officials. And they are suspected of burning scores of girls' schools.
In mid-December, Taliban fighters killed a young member of a Sufi-influenced Muslim group who had tried to raise a militia against them. The militants later dug up Pir Samiullah's corpse and hung it for two days in a village square — partly to prove to his followers that he was not a superhuman saint, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
A lawmaker and the senior Swat government official said business and landowners had been told to give two-thirds of their income to the militants. Some local media reported last week that the militants have pronounced a ban on female education effective in mid-January.
Several people interviewed said the regional government made a mistake in May when it struck a peace deal with the militants. The agreement fell apart within two months but let the insurgents regroup.
The Swat insurgency also includes Afghan and other fighters from outside the valley, security officials said.
Any movement of Pakistani troops from the Swat Valley and tribal areas to the Indian border will concern the United States and other Western countries, which want Pakistan to focus on the al-Qaida threat near Afghanistan.
On Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said thousands of troops were being shifted toward the border with India, which blames Pakistani militants for terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month that killed 164 people. But there has been no sign yet of a major buildup near India.
"The terrorists' aim in Mumbai was precisely this — to get the Pakistani army to withdraw from the western border and mount operations on the east," said Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and author who has written extensively about militancy in the region.
"The terrorists are not going to be sitting still. They are not going to be adhering to any sort of cease-fire while the army takes on the Indian threat. They are going to occupy the vacuum the army will create."
Residents and officials from the Swat Valley were critical of the army offensive there, saying troops appeared to be confined to their posts and often killed civilians when firing artillery at suspected militant targets.
The military has deployed some 100,000 troops through the northwest.
A government official familiar with security issues estimated that some 10,000 paramilitary and army troops had killed 300 to 400 militants in Swat since 2007, while about 130 troops were killed. Authorities have not released details of civilian casualties, and it was unclear if they were even being tallied.
The official, who insisted on anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, disputed assertions that militants had overrun the valley, but said a spotty supply line was hampering operations. He said the army had to man some Swat police stations because the police force there had been decimated by desertions and militant killings.
A Swat militant boasted that "we are doing our activities wherever we want, and the army is confined to their living places."
"They cannot move independently like us," said the man, who was reached over the phone and gave his name as Muzaffarul Haq. He claimed the Swat militants had no al-Qaida or foreign connections, but that they supported all groups that shared the goal of imposing Islamic law.
"With the grace of Allah, there is no dearth of funds, weapons or rations," he said. "Our women are providing cooked food for those who are struggling in Allah's path. Our children are getting prepared for jihad." Source: Yahoo News H/T: Jihad Watch
By Hamid Ahmed A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up Sunday amid a crowd of demonstrators in northern Iraq who were protesting Israel's airstrikes on Gaza, killing one demonstrator and wounding 16 others, Iraqi police said. The bomber rode his bicycle into the demonstration of about 1,300 people in the center of the northern city of Mosul, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with news media. The demonstration was organized by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party. The party's Mosul spokesman, Yahiya Abid Mahjoub, complained that police and the Iraqi army had not taken security precautions for the demonstration. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, the officer said. "The ones who targeted our brothers in Gaza are the same who targeted us in Mosul today. They are agents of Israel," Mahjoub said. Read more ...Source: APH/T: Weasel ZippersSunni Iraqi Islamic Party
Latest recipient of the Evil Dumbass Award
Related: Suicide Bomber From Sunni Jihadist Group Attacks Iranian Revolutionary Guards
 By Caroline B. Glick Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seemed to have noticed. On Tuesday Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Sharia criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, the code legalizes crucifixion.Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time as it renewed its jihad. Here too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday Hamas lobbed a mortar at Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas. While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism. The source of Iran's sense of ascendancy this week was Britain's state-owned Channel 4 network's decision to request that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad give a special Christmas Day address to the British people. Ahmadinejad's speech was supposed to be a response to Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas Day address to her subjects. That is, Channel 4 presented his message as a reasonable counterpoint to the Christmas greetings of the head of the Church of England. Channel 4 justified its move by proclaiming that it was providing a public service. As a Channel 4 spokesman told the Jerusalem Post, "We're offering [Ahmadinejad] the chance to speak for himself, which people in the West don't often get the chance to see." Read more ...Source: Jewish World Review
Posted December 29 | By Mitchell Bard
Wading into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dangerous work. It is an exceptionally charged issue, with both sides capable of as much passion as you'll experience in discussing a foreign policy dispute. Personally, I have been shocked and unnerved at some of the venom unleashed in the comments to past articles on the topic that have appeared on The Huffington Post. I can't help but think that if only people read up on the history of the conflict, they would see that things aren't as black-and-white as their fire-breathing comments would have you believe.
I am ashamed to say that the Israel-bashing has made me reluctant to write about the issue, at least in my contributions to this site. But after watching the conflict in Gaza unfold over the last three days, I have decided that it's time for me to venture into the breach and make my opinion known, damn the consequences. It's time for me to explain why I think the treatment of Israel has been unfair.
I understand that the history of the Middle East, going back to 1948, or even to the 19th century, is messy. Any side looking to make a point can cherry pick historical facts to bolster an argument. While I would feel confident arguing the Israeli side of the issue, I know that I am not going to win over anyone in one blog post. The whole issue is just too complicated.
But what I feel I may be able to accomplish in this space is to provide a counterweight for some of the subtly biased reporting on the Israeli actions in Gaza over the last three days. From reading or watching most news accounts, you might think that Israel, virtually unprovoked, has started indiscriminately bombing in Gaza, causing massive civilian casualties. The New York Times quoted Iran's religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, saying, "The horrible crime of the Zionist regime in Gaza has once again revealed the bloodthirsty face of this regime from disguise," as if his opinion was just another equally valid point of view. I will attempt to provide some context here.
It is important to understand that threats to Israel's survival are not theoretical. From the moment of the country's formation in 1948 to the present day, it has been surrounded by hostile neighbors who have wanted to see its destruction and used force to bring such an outcome about. Israel was attacked by neighboring nations in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. The country's seizure of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 occurred in this context. More recently, Israel has had to withstand suicide bombings, in which Palestinian terrorists would kill and wound innocent civilians inside Israel.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, dismantling all of its settlements and evicting its settlers, some by force. Palestinians proceeded in elections to put into power the terrorist group Hamas, which does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. With Israel gone from Gaza, Hamas seized on the opportunity to launch attacks from Gaza on civilian populations in Israel, firing more than 4,500 rockets and mortars into Israel since 2005. And Hamas used civilian areas as cover for the launching points for its attacks.
A little more than six months ago, Egypt brokered a cease fire between Israel and Hamas. The truce ended on December 19, and it was Hamas, not Israel, that refused to extend it. In fact, The current attacks began before the cease-fire agreement expired. In the last six weeks, Hamas has fired more than 400 missiles into Israel, including 40 Qassam rockets and mortars since December 19.
With Hamas attacking Israel, and with Hamas unwilling to extend the truce, Israel responded with the current offensive. While so many news reports have focused on the civilian casualties, given that Hamas uses civilians areas as cover to launch their attacks, it is shocking how relatively low the percentage of civilian casualties has been. As of this morning, of the 315 Palestinian fatalities, only 51 have been civilians. To be clear, my point isn't that 51 lost lives isn't tragic, rather it's that with Hamas putting its own people in danger by using them as cover for their assaults on Israel, the fact that roughly five in six fatalities have been military targets demonstrates that Israel is not indiscriminately attacking civilian populations.
And yet, Israel has continued to provide aid to Gazan residents, allowing 10,000 tons of food, tools, raw materials, medicine and medical equipment into Gaza since Dec. 7. Israel also provides 70 percent of Gaza's electricity, and Hamas has reportedly engineered blackouts to inflame the population against Israel while using the power for its own needs.
I am continually amazed when commentators and government officials assert that Israel should show restraint. How would any one of these countries and individuals react if it was their nation that was attacked daily by its neighbor, especially if that neighbor was an internationally recognized terrorist organization that didn't recognize the right of the subject of its attacks to exist and was dedicated to its destruction?
But that is the situation with which Israel is faced. Hamas will not recognize Israel's right to exist (calling the Jewish state "the Zionist entity"). And in retaliation for Israel's offensive, Hamas has fired rockets that have reached within 25 miles of Tel Aviv.
What is it that the critics would have Israel do? How do you negotiate with people that want to destroy you? How do you allow attacks on your civilian population on a daily basis without doing anything to protect your citizens? It feels to me like the critics ask Israel to make sacrifices and take risks that they themselves would never undertake for their home nations.
It seems to me that the critics would have Israel accede to all Palestinian demands, which would result in handing over huge chunks of land to a population bent on destroying Israel, both through attacks and assimilation, if the so-called right of return was granted. (From East Jerusalem, Hamas's rockets could hit virtually any point in Israel, including Tel Aviv, Haifa and West Jerusalem.) In my estimation, anyone who thinks Israel is somehow responsible for the current clashes with Hamas does not, in a practical sense, think Israel has a right to exist as a country. After all, short of surrendering, there is nothing that Israel could do that would satisfy Hamas, and without a right to defend itself from attack, Israel's survival would be in doubt.
I am all for a two-state solution. But both states have to respect the right of the other to exist, and nothing in Hamas's actions has demonstrated that it is in any way willing to take part in such an arrangement. Hamas wants a one-state solution, and that one state is not Israel.
(As a side note, the Palestinians still push for a right of return for those who fled and/or were pushed from the new state of Israel in 1948, which has been one of the primary issues acting as an impediment to peace, but there were an equal of number of Jews displaced by Arabs at the same time, and yet no Jews are claiming a right of return.)
Has Israel always acted correctly? Of course not. I dare you to show me a country that has conducted itself perfectly all the time. But how is it that Hamas, a terrorist organization that refused to extend the truce and fired rockets at civilians on a daily basis, gets so much sympathy, with Israel condemned for defending itself? In a vacuum, there is no defense for Hamas in this situation. So it seems to me that those that speak against Israel for its current Gaza offensive are doing so because they will never support Israel's side in the conflict with Hamas and the Palestinians. They see the West Bank barrier and the West Bank settlements and the other alleged transgressions by Israel without considering what prompted the actions in the first place (namely 60 years of attacks by its neighbors, most recently via suicide bombers killing civilians). It feels to me as though there is nothing Hamas could do to Israel that would, in the minds of Israel's critics, justify Israeli retaliation.
Hopefully, in the not too distant future, Palestinians will rally behind moderate, non-corrupt leadership, and a fair two-state solution will be hammered out under which both of the countries' citizens can live in peace and prosperity. But until that day comes, as long as the Palestinian people throw their lot in with terrorists like Hamas, who, in their name, attack civilian targets in Israel, a two-state solution cannot be put in place, and the Palestinian people will have to bear the consequences of their leaders' actions.
In an ideal world, a military action like the Israeli offensive in Gaza would never happen. No person of conscience can truly look at what is going on there and not feel sad. But at the same time, the Hamas bombing of Israeli civilians is equally disturbing, and there is no obvious alternative available to Israel to defend its citizens. It feels unfair to me when people take Israel to task without placing any significant blame on Hamas. And that is why I felt it was time for me to speak out. Source: The Huffington Post
Michael B. Oren | December 30, 2008
CNN International's coverage of the weekend's fighting in Gaza concluded with a rush of images: mangled civilians writhing in the rubble, primitive hospitals overflowing with the wounded, fireballs mushrooming between apartment complexes, the funeral of a Palestinian child.
Missing from the montage, however, was even a fleeting glimpse of the tens of thousands of Israelis who spent last night and much of last week in bomb shelters; of the house in Netivot, where a man was killed by a Grad missile; or indeed any of the hundreds of rockets, mortar shells, and other projectiles fired by Hamas since the breakdown of the so-called ceasefire.
This was CNN at its unprincipled worst, grossly skewering its coverage of a complex event and deceiving its viewers.
Yet Israel should not have been surprised.
Over the past few weeks, as the tahdiyah ("period of calm" in Arabic, the term similarly preferred by the Hebrew press) unwound and finally dissipated, Israel's policy has been to refrain from responding militarily to Hamas rocket fire.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni went to Egypt and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared on al-Arabiya TV to bear the message that Israel did not want war with Hamas; instead, Israel was committed to renewing the tahdiyah. The purpose was to build up a moral case for retaliating against a recalcitrant Hamas and limiting the international fallout that invariably follows any Israeli attempt at self-defence.
But the tactic has never really worked and failed this time as well. Within minutes of the first Israeli air strike, the Arabs were screaming "massacre" and the media had all but forgotten the serial assaults that provoked it.
The press once again attached the word "disproportionate" and the term "continuing cycle of violence" to describe a supremely justified and largely surgical (the targets were exclusively military, the victims overwhelmingly Hamas gunmen) operation.
At the time of writing, the UN Security Council is meeting and will no doubt find Israel and Hamas equally guilty for disrupting the ceasefire and demand its immediate restoration.
One wonders why Israel even bothers. Instead of undermining the Zionist ethos of defending Jewish lives at all costs irrespective of bad publicity and perilously broadcasting weakness to its enemies, perhaps Israel should simply declare that the slightest violation of the ceasefire - a single Qassam - will precipitate an immediate and disproportionate response.
Since it's going to be condemned for it anyway, why shouldn't Israel smash Hamas promptly and massively and reap the benefits in terms of self-respect, deterrence, and a respite for its embattled citizens?
The confusion surrounding Israel's tactics in the Gaza - Israeli tank and infantry forces are now gathering for a possible ground incursion - is indicative of a deeper bewilderment.
The Government is purportedly divided over the operation's goals, with Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak in favour of toppling Hamas, while Olmert prefers to revive the tahdiyah.
Nobody seems to know how long Israel's operation will last or the criteria for deeming it successful. No Israeli leader, whether from Kadima, Labor or Likud, has articulated a clear vision for Israel's relationship with the obstreperous Strip.
Here, too, there is nothing original. In 1949, at the end of Israel's war of independence, Israeli forces surrounded Gaza in an attempt to conquer it and annex it to the nascent Jewish state. Frustrated in that gambit, Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion secretly sought to purchase Gaza from the Egyptians in the early 1950s, and then, during the 1956 Suez crisis, Israel briefly occupied the Strip.
Israeli soldiers in 1967 received unequivocal orders not to enter Gaza, but they did so anyway, and remained there for the next 20 years until prime minister Menachem Begin tried to convince the Egyptian leadership to take control of Gaza, fruitlessly.
Israel proceeded to build settlements in the Strip, but not enough to stake a firm territorial claim. It installed a Palestine Liberation Organisation administration there, but later disavowed it as corrupt and terror-ridden. It initially coddled and finally combated Hamas.
Finally, in 2005, prime minister Ariel Sharon, former champion of the Gaza settlements, uprooted all 21 of them and their 8100 inhabitants.
Once renowned for his brutal suppression of Gaza terrorists, Sharon also ignored the 1000 Qassam rockets that flew on the heels of Israel's withdrawal. Hamas was consequently empowered and eventually took over the Strip, creating the Hobbesian conditions that Israel faces today.
Olmert began his term with a boom - a war in Lebanon in 2006 - and is now leaving with a bang - the 2008 war in Gaza. Today, however, Olmert is more experienced, more sombre, less cocky. He now plays the role of the responsible adult.
Nevertheless, this latest round of fighting provides Israel with an opportunity to end its painful chronicle of indecision on Gaza and to embark on a lucid and realisable policy.
Can Israel co-exist with a Hamas-dominated Gaza? What are the alternatives (the re-introduction of Egyptian forces, for example) to a renewed Israeli occupation of the area? To what degree will the international community accept a zero-tolerance approach to rocket attacks against Israel, and, more crucially, will the incoming US administration of Barack Obama publicly endorse that stance?
These and other questions might be answered in the coming days if Israel, withstanding the media backlash, dares to ask them.
Michael B.Oren is a professor at the school of foreign service at Georgetown University. He is author of Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. Source: The Australian
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that left more than 200 people dead and called the death toll a "massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons." More than 700 people, including women and children, were injured in the attacks. SEE: Israeli Strikes Kill 229 in Gaza (Reuters) http://tinyurl.com/9xgjxk The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement: "Despite the public 'green light' given to the Israeli military by the Bush administration, American Muslims join our fellow citizens who respect international law and the sanctity of human life in repudiating this massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons." "It must be clear by now that the only future offered to the Palestinian people by the outgoing administration was one of perpetual subjugation and humiliation at the hands of the Israeli occupiers. Unfortunately, our nation's timid response to this tragic episode will only serve to fuel anti-American sentiments in the Muslim world." Read more ...Source: PRNewswireH/T: LGFCAIR
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
Christian Giordano, professor for social anthropology at the University of Freiburg, argues in the Tangram journal (of the official commission against racism) that Sharia should be partially implemented in Switzerland. In this way Giordano intends to take the wind out of the sails of those who want to ban minarets. Giordano wants to implement Sharia in civil, financial and family law, so as to take into account cultural peculiarities and in order to deal with the cultural chasm between Swiss and immigrants. Integration expert Thomas Kessler objects, saying that judges already take the personal background of the accused into account when passing sentence. Source: Tages Anzeiger H/T: Islam in EuropeChristian Giordano
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
Recently, I spoke to a number of young Muslim about Jesus Christ. They said "Jesus was not crucified" and "It is crusifiction." I asked the for their sources and and they proclaimed the Quran. This brings me to the point that education in contemporary Islam is full of misquotations and false propaganda. Islam its self must correct its education system and listen to the early histories of the world. For example, that Jesus was crusified, and that is a historical fact:
"Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The next thing was to seek means of propitiating the gods, and recourse was had to the Sibylline books, by the direction of which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina. Juno, too, was entreated by the matrons, first, in the Capitol, then on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women. But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed." Tacitus, Annals 15.44
"On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness. The rocks were rent by an earthquake and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior falls on the day before the passover. But an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time... Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth-manifestly that one of which we speak." THALLUS, Chronography XVIII, 47
"The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day- the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account... It was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers from the moment they are converted and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws..." LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA, The Death of Peregrinus 11-13
It must therefore be noted that the Ancient Historical References all say that Jesus was crusified. Therefore the Quran must also be checked for historical chronology and accuracy.
 By William Mayer December 28, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a filing by Michael Paulson in the Boston Globe's religious section [see, Articles of Faith, December 28] statements by MPAC [Muslim Public Affairs Council] and CAIR [Council on American Islamic Relations] regarding Israel's long-postponed, much needed move to end Hamas' incessant jihad against the Jewish state, were included. There are a number of serious difficulties appended to such a practice. One of these is that neither of these groups speak for Islam on a religious basis, hence their inclusion is inappropriate. Both CAIR and MPAC are political organizations, CAIR bills itself as a "civil rights" group and MPAC self-identifies as an "institution which informs and shapes public opinion." More fundamental however is the nature of both of these groups. CAIR can no longer escape it closely being linked to Islamic terrorism, having been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the recently concluded, successful prosecution of Hamas terror funder the Holy Land Foundation, a fraudulent Muslim charity which funneled at least $12 million to Hamas. One of those found guilty in this case was Ghassan Elashi, the founder of the Texas Chapter of CAIR. It's hard to imagine a more clear connection between a domestic organization and Islamic terrorism. MPAC similarly serves as a mouthpiece for radical Islam. In a September 11, 2001 radio broadcast originating in Los Angeles, a statement attributed to MPAC reads, "If we're going to look at suspects we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what's happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies," and others, equally guilty of fraudulently operating under the mantle of moderation. [source, New York Times] MPAC has been an ardent supporter, along with CAIR of confessed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Sami Al-Arian, "The Muslim Public Affairs Council today welcomed the release of former professor Sami Al-Arian from federal custody...Since his arrest five years ago, Al-Arian's case has become an example of what many American Muslims perceived to be numerous post-9/11 political persecutions of individuals using tactics that amount to little more than guilt by association..." Read more ...Source: Militant Islam Monitor
Source: Honest ReportingH/T: Gramfan
As events in Gaza unfold, Palestinian Media Watch monitors the incitement and hatred pouring forth on Hamas Television. Below are several dispatches from the front, which tell a much different story than the one reported in the Western media. -- The Editors.By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook Hamas Celebrates Targeting Israeli CiviliansAlong with today's TV propaganda in which Hamas depicts itself as a victim, Hamas continues to portray itself as the heroic killer of Israelis. A video on Hamas TV this morning blended pictures of Hamas fighters shooting at Israel with pictures of injured Israelis and medical evacuation scenes. In addition, the visuals include pictures of skulls dripping with blood, captioned: "Let them taste violent death." Read more ... Source: FrontPage Magazine
 By Steve Schippert In early 2005, the Israeli Knesset passed the Disengagement Plan Implementation Law, which was the legal expression of Ariel Sharon’s desire to give the Palestinians in Gaza precisely that which they wanted and demanded; an end to Israeli occupation. But, true to its Charter, that is not enough for Hamas. For only the destruction of Israel and the creation of a first-time Palestinian state “from the sea to the river” will suffice. What has led to the ongoing and massive Israeli precision airstrikes within Gaza against carefully vetted Hamas targets bares this fact to be as true as the sea is deep. One week after Hamas announced it would no longer abide by the six-month "lull agreement" between it and Israel, Hamas rocket and mortar barrages against Israeli towns, troops and border crossings wrought upon Gaza the most violent Israeli reprisal ever seen in the Mediterranean strip. Yet, even in its shattering violence, the Israeli response has claimed nearly exclusively Hamas terrorist casualties. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs released imagery and other intelligence explaining its target list. Many of the targets were Hamas police facilities, where terrorists can and do receive official weapons and tactics training under the guise of law enforcement. This is why so many of the targets are listed by the Israeli MFA as terrorist training facilities that also contain detention centers and weapons stores. Dozens of Hamas’ deaths in the strikes were from the bombing of a facility hosting an ongoing graduation ceremony as the wave of attacks began. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineRealted: Israel Strikes Back
By Hamidah Atan The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) will take stern action against bloggers who insult Islam, including non-Muslims. Its director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz said the department could act against irresponsible bloggers, regardless of their religious background. "Right now, the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission are still trying to trace the blogger said to have insulted Prophet Muhammad. "We will come in once the culprit is found," he said. Read more ...Source: News Straits TimesH/T: Dhimmi Watch
 By Rukmini Callimachi Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair. But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid. Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off. The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer. Read more ...Source: AP H/T: Dhimmi Watch
 By Amit R. Paley Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised. There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. "I do this in the name of Allah!" she intoned. As the midwife sliced off part of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride. "This is the practice of the Kurdish people for as long as anyone can remember," said the mother, Aisha Hameed, 30, a housewife in this ethnically mixed town about 100 miles north of Baghdad. " We don't know why we do it, but we will never stop because Islam and our elders require it." Read more ...Source: Washington PostH/T: Dhimmi Watch
 Karim Sadjadpour | December 29, 2008
SINCE its Islamist revolution of 1979, Iran's hardline leadership has relentlessly painted the US as a racist power bent on oppressing Muslims worldwide.
Nothing punctures this narrative more than the election of an African-American, Barack Obama, who supports dialogue with Iran and whose middle name, Hussein, is that of the central figure in Shia Islam. While the Bush administration's policies often served to unite Iran's disparate political forces against a common threat, Obama could accentuate the country's internal divisions.
Though intolerant conservatives control Iran's Government, moderates and reformists may be resuscitated by Obama's victory. They were swept out of power by hardliners who used the country's jittery sense of security as a pretext to rig elections, stifle dissent and reverse political and social freedoms. But reformists are likely to mount a rigorous challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he seeks re-election next June.
Similarly, for Iran's young population, the least anti-American in the Middle East, there is renewed hope for reconciliation with the US, something that seemed impossible during the Bush years. While popular scepticism toward US policies lingers, there remains a widespread recognition among Iranians that their country will never fulfil its potential as long as its relationship with the US remains adversarial.
Domestically, Iranian hardliners recognise that improved ties with the US could catalyse reforms that would undermine the quasi-monopolies they enjoy in view of the country's in isolation.
Among Arab allies such as Hezbollah and Hamas, US-Iranian diplomatic accommodation could mean an end to their chief ideological patron and primary source of funding. For this reason, when and if a serious dialogue commences, the spoilers will likely attempt to torpedo it. They have had a remarkably successful track record of sabotaging any chance of a diplomatic breakthrough.
The tenor of US-Iran relations will depend greatly on 69-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is more powerful than ever, as the country's most important institutions are led by individuals who were either directly appointed by him or are unfailingly loyal to him.
An important task of the Obama administration will be to probe Khamenei's true disposition. Despite public appearances, does he secretly aspire to a more amicable relationship with the US? Or does he believe that enmity toward the US is necessary to retain the legitimacy of the Islamic republic? Could a more moderate approach by the Obama administration beget a more conciliatory response from Khamenei?
Ultimately, our expectations of Obama's ability to influence US-Iran relations should be realistic. The US can and should make clear that it is eager to put aside 30 years of mutual mistrust and hostility and establish a new tone for the relationship.
If and when it becomes evident that hardliners in Iran are the chief impediment to better relations, internal elite and popular opposition could build, and potentially large, unpredictable cleavages could be created within the Iranian political system.
Karim Sadjadpour is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Source: The Australian
 By Wayne Francis
A hardline Muslim teacher who caused a furore by denouncing pupils for celebrating Christmas has been made a Government schools inspector.
Israr Khan's Ofsted [Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills] appointment was described by a former colleague as 'absolutely astonishing'.
Mr Khan, now headmaster of an Islamic school, launched into his tirade during a concert rehearsal at Washwood Heath Secondary School in Birmingham in 1996 after the choir including around 40 Muslim youngsters, had sung a number of popular Christmas songs, including carols.
He leapt from his seat, yelling: "Who is your God? Why are you saying Jesus and Jesus Christ? God is not your God - it is Allah."
As children in the audience began booing and clapping, a number of choir members - both white and Asian - walked out, some in tears.
Mr Khan, a maths teacher, was asked to work from home pending an investigation but there was no disciplinary action.
It has been claimed that Washwood Heath school was then a 'hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism'. Rashid Rauf - the airline terror bomb suspect whose extradition is currently being sought from Pakistan - was a pupil there at that time.
Mr Khan left Washwood Heath a year later to found the independent Islamic Hamd House Preparatory School in Small Heath, Birmingham, where he is headmaster.
Earlier this year, he was appointed as a governor of Anderton Park Primary School, in Sparkbrook, Birmingham.
A former Washwood Heath colleague laughed openly when told of Mr Khan's role as an Ofsted inspector where he has the responsibility for passing or failing schools.
He said: "Given the man's history, it's absolutely astonishing. It's just the cheek of the man that he's been able to reach that position. He always was an extremely clever man.
"He gave me many insights into the Islamic cause and their hatred of the US and the Western World. He had a big support base among some of the Muslim parents.
"But there were some very influential, radical elements at Washwood Heath at that time and Israr Khan was very close to all that."
Earlier this year, Anderton Park, where 99.5 per cent of the pupils are Asian, received a dismal Ofsted report which branded its teaching and its achievements as inadequate.
One Muslim father, who asked to be known only as Mohammed, said: "As a governor, Mr Khan will be able to exert a great deal of influence over the school and its policies.
"By his previous actions, he seems to represent what I would call a hardcore attitude to Islam."
Mr Khan declined to comment about his appointment, waving questions away at his large home in Moseley, Birmingham.
An Ofsted spokesman said: "Israr Khan was appointed as an additional inspector via a highly competitive recruitment and selection process. He has undergone all the relevant security checks." Source: Daily MailOfsted
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
December 29, 2008
The deaths of hundreds in the Gaza airstrikes at the weekend are a further cost of implacable militancy
THE piteous images of the dead and wounded in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli airstrikes there at the weekend cannot obscure the betrayal of undeniable Palestinian welfare and interests that is perpetrated by Hamas, the militant ruling party in the long-suffering refugee enclave. Civilians have died cruelly, caught in the line of fire. Even the Hamas police recruits who were killed may have been young men seeking one of the few jobs to be had in the besieged strip. But who is to blame? Where might peace be found? How will other governments, particularly the incoming administration of Barack Obama in the US, respond to this test in a most fractious region?
The Gazans have been on the path to worsening strife since many of them, with other Palestinians in the West Bank, elected Hamas to power in the Palestinian Authority's parliament in early 2006. Hamas is an Islamist group whose goal of Israel's destruction is also championed by Iran, which likes to see the Middle East and Gulf as part of its rising hegemony. Hamas did not follow up on its election win by implementing a program of enlightened and progressive policies across the Palestinian territories. Instead it chose to entrench itself militarily and politically within teeming Gaza, expelling its main Palestinian rival party, Fatah. The strip became a base camp for the radicals' struggle against Israel.
The military and political wisdom of the caretaker Israeli cabinet's approval of the strikes will be debated, as was the case with Israel's incursion into Lebanon in 2006. The latter was seen afterwards as possibly having strengthened the political clout of the radical Islamist party Hezbollah, which was Israel's target in Lebanon. The same risk applies with Hamas, but to a much lesser degree. Both military actions were responses to an intolerable pattern of rocket attacks on Israel and the seizing of its soldiers.
What counts now is that the Israeli leadership has at least a partial political solution to the conflict with Gaza in mind, beyond a substantial dismantling of Hamas's ability to harass. The cabinet, dominated by the Kadima and Labour parties, will be hoping the strikes have done sufficient military damage to obviate the need for a major ground invasion, with its risk of high casualties on both sides.
The relatively muted and balanced response from Western governments shows Israel's dilemma is understood, and Jerusalem will be given time. The strongest language among leaders is probably that of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called the strikes "disproportionate" to Hamas's threat. The strikes certainly exceeded the rockets emanating from Gaza in destruction but they were reportedly aimed at reducing Hamas's military power for long enough to get useful negotiations going - finally.
In 2005, then prime minister Ariel Sharon took Israeli forces and civilian settlers out of Gaza after nearly four decades of occupation, but instead of the improved relations that could have been a precursor to an eventual Palestinian state, the result was an increase in attacks on nearby communities in Israel. Israel's punitive reprisals were tough and by the middle of this year a six-month ceasefire was in place. But rocket attacks resumed in earnest after the six months were up this month.
Hamas has proved the hardest of enemies to crack without warfare. A near-total Israeli blockade of the strip, accompanied by matching security to the south by Egypt - desirous of excluding radicals from entry - has boosted the dominance of Hamas within the strip, as the party grabbed control of goods and money in short supply. The blockade became porous as a result of tunnelling, but Hamas controlled that, too. Instead of the revolt against Hamas that Israel - and let it be said most Western nations - hoped would occur, Hamas was able to exploit the shortages to encourage dependence on it among Gazans. For months, it turns out, the Israeli leadership has been contemplating an attempt at disarming Gaza as the next step, and these airstrikes are the result. Dislodging Hamas completely appears impossible in the near future, despite Fatah's expressed interest in filling any void, so renewed international pressure to draw it into talks with Israel, directly or otherwise, would be welcome.
The suffering of the Gazans, who number about 1.5 million, must end. The impasse has global consequences. The death and maiming will inflame opponents of Israel and the West, especially in Muslim countries.
But often that denunciation will be hypocritical, if understandable. It is also no time for holding the misapprehension that Israel's existence is a thorn between the West and Israel's implacable opponents. Israel attracts fierce opposition in the Middle East because it is seen as Western, as a democracy espousing liberal values, including religious tolerance. If the Middle East question merely concerned a territorial settlement for displaced Palestinians, peace would have come long ago.
The strikes have come at a messy time. The US is in political transition, and Israel faces elections in February. The latest polling, done just before the strikes, rates as fairly even Kadima and Labour on the one hand, and the Likud Opposition, led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, usually regarded as a hardliner. Likud had been seen as the likely winner. The military option was reportedly supervised by caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. If the Israeli public approves of the strikes, this will do no harm to his successor as Kadima leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is seeking to become Israel's second female prime minister.
In the US, even before being sworn into office on January 20, the president-elect, Mr Obama, is facing his first major foreign challenge, as is his secretary of state-designate, Hillary Clinton. The choice of Senator Clinton - one of whose main advisers would be her husband, former president Bill Clinton - has been depicted as of much significance for the Middle East. Mr Clinton made the last concentrated attempt at a solution until Fatah's Yasser Arafat pulled the rug out from under him. His successor, George W. Bush, has seen little point in trying again at this late stage. Mr Obama and Senator Clinton are presented with grave danger, but also opportunity. Source: The Australian Hamas
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 By Damian Thompson The Muslim Public Affairs Commitee (MPACUK) is appealing to its supporters to track down the Muslim researchers who worked with the think tank Policy Exchange on a project to expose the sale of hate literature in British mosques. Under the heading "The Hunt for 8 Sufi Zio-Con Frauds", the MPAC website claims that the researchers were members of "Sufi underground cults" who teamed up with the Zionists to discredit Islam. And it adds: Who are they, what are their backgrounds ... MPACUK will dig deeper and expose every last detail of the Sufis who tried to destroy their own community.
If you know who they are - please write in and we will expose these men and women for all the Muslim community to see. Write in now and let us do what the incompetent idiots in the Mosque should be doing, protecting our community. Let us do what, precisely? I wonder if this sinister announcement of a manhunt will persuade the BBC to stop sucking up to MPAC, whose spokesman Ashgar Bukhari says that any Muslim killed fighting Israel goes straight to paradise. Probably not. Read more ...Source: Telegraph Blog
All these Palestinians were trying to do was get out of Gaza. They lobbed no rockets into Egypt. They indulged in no genocidal rhetoric about wiping Egypt off the map and driving all the Egyptians into the sea. They never celebrated as heroes the murderers of Egyptian civilians on buses and in restaurants. Yet when the Egyptian border guards opened fire on these Palestinians, they could be secure in the knowledge that the world would not utter a peep of protest. Everyone will be fine with this. Only the Israelis engage in "disproportionate violence." Source: Press Association H/T: Jihad Watch
 By Aaron Klein
JAFFA, Israel – The U.S. and international news media have largely accepted as fact Hamas-provided casualty counts following a series of Israeli surgical strikes today in the Gaza Strip, despite Hamas' and the Palestinian Authority's long and sordid histories of greatly inflating casualty figures.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told WND, "The Hamas government in Gaza has instituted a Taliban-like regime and has systematically destroyed independent civil society, which makes it pretty difficult for there to be independent verification of these numbers,"
Regev continued, "One must keep in mind Hamas has a major propaganda interest in highlighting civilian casualties while at the same time minimizing the number of Hamas combatants killed."
Still, the news media today reported as fact that at least 205 people had been killed in the Israeli strikes, which targeted dozens of Hamas buildings in a purported Israeli bid to clamp down on repeated rocket attacks launched from Gaza and aimed at nearby Jewish cities.
Most news reports failed to mention the casualty numbers were provided by Hamas, which claimed only 3 of the casualties were actual Hamas military leaders.
"Israeli air strikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza," reported a widely-circulated Reuters article.
"Egypt condemned as 'murder' Israel's Saturday air raids on Gaza that killed at least 205 Palestinians," reported the AFP. Similar statements were parroted in over 4,500 English language reports today.
With somber music playing in the background, both CNN and the BBC have been airing continuous loops of what the networks claimed were Palestinian civilian casualties being rushed into a local hospital. Both networks aired the same footage, provided to them by Al Jazeera, which is openly sided with Hamas.
"Does hitting so-called Hamas institutions mean over 200 civilians killed?" Regev was twice asked today by a BBC anchor during an interview.
CNN interviewed a man identified as a Gaza-based doctor who claimed two-thirds of the "over 200 casualties" were women and children. The network also featured – without challenge – a man identified as a Gaza-based human rights activist, who accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and perpetuating a "massacre" in Gaza.
Neither CNN nor the BBC have thus far featured any footage today of the southern Israeli towns that have been battered by Palestinian rocket fire in recent days, killing one Israeli.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, claimed his group's casualty counts were minimized.
"We're talking about much more than 200. Every minute we get more information on more civilians killed," Barhoum told WND, speaking by cell phone from Gaza.
"We call on the international community to condemn this Israeli massacre and hold Israel back from more war crimes," he said.
The IDF tonight released a list of some of the targets hit: a Hamas headquarters and training camp in Tel Zatar; a "Palestinian Prisoner Tower" in Gaza City that was turned into a Hamas operations center and armory; a Hamas police academy, which Hamas claims was bombed during a graduation ceremony, killing 70-80 Hamas operatives; training camps in southern and central Gaza; the former office of late Palestinian Yasser Arafat in Gaza City that is now used by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh; and the Izzadin Kassam Brigades headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip.
Hamas and the PA have been caught many times inflating casualty counts. In June, 2006, Hamas claimed the Israel Defense Forces killed over 20 sunbathers on a Gaza beach, but it was later determined seven were killed, and the cause of the explosion was not the IDF but a Hamas explosives booby trap intended for Israeli naval forces.
Following a 2002 Israeli antiterror raid in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Hamas and the PA claimed hundreds of Palestinian civilians were murdered. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed on CNN that "more than 500 people" were killed. He repeated the charge on CNN a day later, adding that 300 Palestinians were being buried in mass graves.
It was later determined 54 Palestinians were killed, mostly terrorists, while the IDF lost 23 troops it engaged in house-to-house combat – instead of massive air raids – in order to limit civilian casualties.
Israel claimed Hamas routinely labels as civilians its gunmen killed in Israeli anti-terror attacks.
In today's air strikes, the IDF maintains it tried to minimize casualties. An IDF statement said its military strikes were predicated on precise intelligence amassed in recent months to target specific Hamas facilities.
Olmert's office released a statement explaining the attacks were launched, "following the violation of the terms of the truce by Hamas and the unceasing attacks by Hamas authorities on Israeli civilians in the south of the country."
The U.S. for its part squarely blamed Hamas for the Gaza violence.
"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.
"The ceasefire should be restored immediately," Rice said. "The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza."
Today's strikes come after Hamas refused to renew a six-month truce with Israel that expired last week unless Israel met a series of conditions, including opening the country's borders with Gaza and expanding the truce to the Fatah-controlled West Bank. In a show of force, Hamas in recent days launched hundreds of rockets from Gaza into nearby Jewish cities, including Ashkelon, which houses a power plant that provides the Gaza Strip with 75 percent of its electricity. Source: WND
 By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
LONDON (AP) — Protesters turned out across Europe Sunday to demonstrate against Israel's air assault on the Gaza Strip, while European leaders called on Israel and Hamas to end the bloodshed.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said this was a "dangerous moment" and called for an immediate cease-fire by both Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
About 700 protesters descended on the Israeli embassy in London's Kensington neighborhood a day after the airstrikes on Gaza began. More than 280 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.
Police said half a dozen protesters outside the embassy in London were arrested Sunday. A scuffle between police and the protesters occurred when police tried to remove people so they could reopen a road that had been blocked off. At one point, protesters threw placards at officers.
Protests in Paris were peaceful. About 1,000 demonstrators turned out in the neighborhood of Barbes, which has a large Arab population, and near the landmark Arc de Triomphe.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy held telephone talks Sunday with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and condemned "the provocations that led to this situation as well as the disproportionate use of force." Abbas urged Hamas to renew a truce with Israel that collapsed last week. However, Abbas has had no influence in Gaza since Hamas seized control there in June 2007.
France's foreign minister said the EU was ready to increase its humanitarian support for Gaza and resume its monitoring role at Gaza border crossings.
Bernard Kouchner said in a statement Sunday that he spent the weekend on the phone with Israeli and Palestinian officials, his Egyptian counterpart, the Arab League and European foreign ministers.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday that Israel launched its strike because Gaza's Hamas rulers were smuggling weapons and building up "a small army."
The Israeli army says Palestinian militants have fired more than 300 rockets and mortars at Israeli targets over the past week, and 10 times that number over the past year.
"The unjustified rocket fire by Hamas must stop immediately. For its part, Israel must do everything possible to avoid civilian victims," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.
Pope Benedict XVI called on the international community "not to leave anything untried to help the Israelis and Palestinians exit from this dead end" of violence. He is expected to visit the region in May.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was outraged by a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the operation is likely to continue.
"To go and bomb these defenseless people, and to openly say that this operation will be a long-lasting one, that it will be this or that, to me, is a serious crime against humanity," Erdogan said at a meeting of his ruling Islamic-rooted party.
Turkey is Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world but Erdogan said he was appalled that the attacks came as his country was helping mediate peace talks between Syria and Israel. He said the attacks were a "show of disrespect" toward Turkey.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated against the attacks on Gaza outside the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul.
Associated Press Writers Cecile Roux in Paris, Melissa Eddy in Berlin, Frances D'Emilio in Rome and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. Source: AP
Bodies of Hamas policemen lie on the ground of their destroyed police compound following an Israeli air strike in GazaSource: Daily Mail
 From correspondents in Peshawar | December 28, 2008
TWENTY-three people have been killed and 15 hurt in a suspected suicide car bomb blast in an area of north-west Pakistan rocked by a violent campaign to impose Islamic law, police said.
The bomb destroyed a school in the town of Buner on the edge of the restive Swat valley, where voters were casting ballots in a parliamentary by-election, and caused the collapse of a nearby market, police said.
"Apparently it was a suicide car bomb blast," said local police official Behramand Khan.
The car bomb went off today outside the school, but he said police were still unable to say whether the blast was definitely the work of a suicide attacker, as the area was littered with body parts and flesh.
Further investigation was needed to identify the remains, he said.
"The bomb was so powerful that it completely destroyed the school building and badly damaged nearby houses and other buildings,'' he said.
Some of those killed were in a nearby market when the roof collapsed.
Khan said he feared the toll would rise, as residents had told police that four people were still missing.
The mountainous Swat valley - once known as the "Switzerland of Pakistan'' - was until last year a popular destination for local and foreign tourists that boasted the country's only ski resort.
But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.
Pakistani troops launched a major offensive in the area last year, but have since scaled back their operations. Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse
 GAZA CITY Israel warned on Sunday it could send ground troops into Gaza as its warplanes continued pounding Hamas targets inside the enclave where more than 280 Palestinians have been killed in just 24 hours.
Hamas responded by firing rockets the deepest yet into Israel, with one hitting without causing casualties not far from Ashdod, home to Israel's second-largest port some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Gaza, medics said.
In the latest international call for an end to the violence, the United Nations Security Council after an emergency session urged an immediate halt to all military operations.
However Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak vowed to expand the mammoth bombing campaign, unleashed in retaliation for ongoing militant rocket fire.
"The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will expand and deepen its operations in Gaza as much as necessary," he told reporters before a cabinet meeting.
"We are ready for anything. If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so," his spokesman quoted him as saying earlier.
Israeli television said the army had begun concentrating ground forces near the tiny Palestinian enclave, where medics said air raids have killed more than 280 people and wounded more than 600 since early on Saturday.
Warplanes continued to pound the impoverished and overcrowded territory of 1.5 million, with at least six people killed on Sunday as jets hit targets in northern Gaza , sending thick columns of smoke barreling into the air.
"Israel launched a military operation yesterday in the Gaza Strip in order to regain a normal life for the citizens in the south who have suffered for many years from incessant rocket, mortar and terror attacks," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Israel is "aiming to change the situation on the ground whereby in the future there will be a tranquil border between Israel and Gaza," Isaac Herzog, the welfare minister, told reporters before the meeting.
Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian movement branded a terror group by Israel and the West, remains defiant.
Its exiled leader Khaled Meshaal called in Damascus for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel and promised more suicide attacks. Hamas last carried out a suicide bombing against Israel in January 2005.
The Israeli onslaught -- one of the bloodiest single days in the 60-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- has sparked massive international concern.
In New York, the UN Security Council called for an "immediate halt to all violence" and on the parties "to stop immediately all military activities," without mentioning Israel or Hamas by name.
The Israeli campaign has been slammed by many Arab nations and on Sunday, 30 Jordanian lawmakers demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
Israel's main ally the United States has blamed Hamas "thugs" for provoking the campaign by firing rockets into the Jewish state from Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid causing civilian casualties in its bombing raids.
"If Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, then Israel would not have a need for strikes in Gaza," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Amid the bombing, Barak also authorised the passage of an aid convoy into Gaza on Sunday, his spokeswoman said.
Israel has kept Gaza largely sealed off since Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007, overrunning forces loyal to secular president Mahmud Abbas.
Egypt, which had slammed Israel for the bombing campaign, on Sunday blamed Hamas for not allowing hundreds of wounded to pass through the Rafah border crossing -- the only one that bypasses Israel -- to receive treatment.
"The wounded are barred from crossing" into Egypt, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said in Cairo, blaming "those who control Gaza. We are waiting for the wounded to cross."
Israel unleashed "Operation Cast Lead" against Hamas targets mid-morning on Saturday, with some 60 warplanes hitting more than 50 targets in just a few minutes, and Barak vowing it would continue for "as long as necessary."
Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel, killing one man and wounding a handful of others.
The Israeli bombing came after days of spiralling violence that followed the expiry of a six-month Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas.
It also comes less than two months ahead of Israeli snap elections called for February 10. Source: AFP
 Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud AbbasBy Aaron Klein JAFFA, Israel – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his office today slammed as "barbaric" and "unnecessary" Israel's air strikes in Gaza, but according to top diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, Abbas for months now has been petitioning Israel to launch a massive military raid against his Hamas rivals in Gaza. The sources, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity, said Abbas and his top representatives have waged a quiet campaign for months asking the Israeli government to target Hamas in Gaza just before his term in office is scheduled to expire on Jan. 9. Hamas leaders have repeatedly warned they will not recognize Abbas after the 9th, and that they will launch a major campaign to delegitimize the PA president and install their own figures to lead the Palestinian government. Abbas hopes a large-scale Israeli military campaign in Gaza would distract Hamas from attempting to undermine his rule, the diplomatic sources told WND. "It's an open secret among the diplomatic and military brass," one Israeli diplomatic source said. "The campaign from Abbas for us to attack Hamas in Gaza has been intensive." Read more ...Source: WNDRealted: PA 'ready' to take Gaza if Hamas ousted: 'We believe the people there are fed up ... and want to see a new government'Media parrot Hamas on casualty numbers; Gaza terrorists have long history of inflating total killed, woundedMahmoud Abbas
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 Rashid Jamil and Sahar Daftary at a party before their wedding last yearBy Dominic Kennedy The death of a model who learnt that her husband was already married has shone a light into the murky world of Muslim polygamy in Britain. Sahar Daftary, 23, fell 150ft from the twelfth storey of a block of flats where she had gone to collect her belongings at the home of a businessman whom she had married in a religious ceremony last year. Her husband, Rashid Jamil, 33, was arrested on suspicion of murder but bailed by police after they found no evidence that the death was anything other than an accident or suicide. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the head of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, told The Times: “This story is very common, unfortunately. We have tried to plug some of the holes in the whole system, but unfortunately our clerics do not live on this planet. Read more ...Source: Times Online
 By Supna Zaidi
It might be time for the Minnesota Board of Education (MDE) to do away with sponsors in their charter school program. Consider a report that came out earlier this year from the Office of the Legislative Auditor (the Auditor), which confirmed the lack of clarity between the MDE and its sponsors.
For example, the MDE and prospective sponsors both approve charter applications, but the MDE's relies on the prospective sponsor's review of the charter school rather than an independent review. While the evaluation report argues this as inefficient because it is "duplicating" work, it poses a greater problem. Since MDE's approval is colored by the sponsor's evaluation of the charter school, sponsors a lot of power in reviewing charter schools and presenting them to the MDE as they see fit.
This is important to consider given the separation of church and state issues raised in an application to sponsor three charter schools by the Minnesota Education Trust (MET) this year. This is because the MET's articles of incorporation state that one of its goals is "to promote the message of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims and promote understanding between them."
Last year, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) was accused of leading students in Islamic prayer on Fridays and teaching Quranic classes after school everyday, among other religious practices, which violated the separation of church and state doctrine. In the end, some changes were made, but the school was not found to be in such gross violation as to have their funding or charter status taken away.
The MET is in a position to oversee three charter schools. The potential conflict of interest issues raised by MET's stated goals is a burden the MDE cannot and should not have to handle. Especially since the role of sponsor was created to remove the task of academic and fiscal oversight of charter schools from the MDE to these third parties, which as MDE staff have noted, is already a responsibility they cannot handle:
"…sponsors need to improve, but [sic] the department does not have the time or resources to implement standards." Adding the task of overseeing the presence of religion is unduly burdensome.
It is important to understand that the issue of religion in schools is not simply about Islam or any one faith. Rather, it is a matter of understanding the changing position of religious schools in American society.
Historically, religious schools presented competition to public schools. But with the advent of charter schools that do not ask for tuition, but strive to offer the quality of a private school, the latter is losing students. This is true for some Catholic schools, which are being forced to convert to charter schools to prevent closing their doors. Thus, the discipline, morals and rigor of the Catholic staff and teachers would remain, but all evidence of religion would be removed in favor of a secular curriculum.
The trend may be the opposite for Muslim and Jewish schools, which attempt to separate religion from culture to justify receiving taxpayer funding. As "identity schools", they are permitted to "focus their study and/or their student body based on a certain classification, and can include same-language/culture schools, single-sex schools, same-race schools and same-sexual orientation schools."
Some critics of Hebrew schools have argued that attempting to separate religion from culture is an "unrealistic and unsustainable" goal. "There's nothing wrong with preserving ethnic and cultural identity, but it's not the job of the state to do that," said Michael Stern. He is the chairman of the San Antonio Jewish Community Relations Council, who spoke on his own behalf to the Jewish Daily Forward.
Moreover, some fear that attempting to inculcate an ethnic identity will also encourage sectarianism instead of civic and American identity since a Hebrew or Islamic/Arabic school will logically be most attractive to families of those backgrounds alone making the school ethnically or religiously homogeneous.
Yet, even the Hebrew schools can be distinguished from the Islamic schools that come into question. It is one thing to have to revise curriculum that promotes a particular faith, it is another matter when the promotion of one faith includes political angendas or indoctrination of discrimination towards other faiths.
Some charter schools with large Muslim and/or Arab student bodies that have raised similar concerns are:
1. Silicon Valley Academy, a charter school in Sunnyvale, CA;
2. Carver Elementary School in San Diego, CA;
3. The Arabic Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, NY;
4. Ohio Somali charter schools.
With the increasing inability of religious schools to find private funding, their conversion to identity schools is a potential threat to taxpayers who do not want their money used to promote religion.
The MDE should consider the Auditor's "Option 3", which suggests eliminating sponsors for direct MDE oversight. Citing Massachusetts as an example, the report states, "Single authorizer states [as opposed to a variety of sponsors] are bound to be more successful in many ways because there is a clear picture. We are able to give every school in the state the same information, the same clarification, the same point of contact."
Thus, prospective sponsors like the MET, who very likely wish to use charter schools to proselytize Islam, will not have the opportunity to use taxpayer money to do so subversively.
(Supna Zaidi is editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today and asst director of Islamist Watch at the Middle East Forum) Source: Muslim World Today
 By Aijaz Zaka Syed
This is perhaps the only spectacle of its kind on the planet; the sea of humanity constantly surging, swirling and revolving around a square majestic structure. This ritual has been going on for thousands of years following in the footsteps of Prophet Abraham.
The sight of men and women in white going around the black-robed Kaaba during the annual Hajj and at other times throughout the year never ceases to awe, inspire and fascinate. There's not a more majestic and humbling sight in the whole wide world.
You don't have to be a believer or even get close to the Kaaba to be part of the surreal, inexplicable experience. No one remains unmoved and unaffected by the sight of the faithful from all parts and corners of the world - black and white, tall and short and rich and poor - submit themselves before God as equals in the brotherhood of faith and humanity.
As Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of the U.S. Congress who performed Hajj this week, told CNN, you forget who you are - black or white and American or African - and where you come from when you are before God circling the Kaaba in a two-piece unstitched garment.
Indeed, nothing else celebrates the oneness of humanity and universal brotherhood as the Hajj does when more than 3 million pilgrims from around the world undertake the journey of a lifetime to the holy city of Mecca.
Interestingly, the Hajj does not commemorate something the Prophet of Islam did or ordained. By undertaking this passage to Mecca, mandatory for everyone who can afford it, Muslims retrace the historic journey of Prophet Abraham and his immortal sacrifice near the Kaaba thousands of years ago.
Abraham is greatly respected by the Jews and Christians. All Jewish prophets and Jesus Christ are related to the Patriarch who came from Iraq. He is also revered by Muslims as the architect of the Holy Kaaba along with his son Ishmael (Ismael to Muslims) and ancestor of the Last Prophet.
By retracing and reliving Abraham's journey, pilgrims experience his unquestioning faith and willingness to sacrifice what was most precious to him, his only and beloved son when ordained by God in a dream. How Ishmael was rescued last minute is a separate and equally fascinating story.
What really interests me is how the three great monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - are inextricably linked to each other and are united in Abraham.
Notwithstanding the long history of crusades and conflicts spanning several centuries, the three religions have much more in common than their followers care to admit.
Listening to the Eid sermon from the Grand Mosque in Mecca this week, one was once again struck by the number of references to the prophets and scriptures that are sacred to both Christian and Jewish people as well as Muslims.
Why is the world then ignorant or not adequately aware of this aspect of Islam - this all-embracing quality of the much-maligned and misunderstood faith? In fact, today not even many Muslims are familiar with this generous spirit of tolerance and acceptance that suffuses their faith. Or at least once did.
Later that day, Eid night rather, during my restless channel surfing, I came across "The Message," the 1976 magnum opus of Moustapha Akkad about early Islam on local television network. Akkad, known mostly for his Halloween movies, later produced another landmark epic in "Omar Mukhtar: The Lion of Desert," played with great panache by the inimitable Anthony Quinn.
The gifted Arab American filmmaker somehow manages to capture the true spirit and character of Islam in "The Message" despite the ideological and religious red lines that constantly challenged him.
Akkad, who introduced Islam to Hollywood without stereotyping it and championed its humane message in movie after movie, was killed in a terror attack in Amman in November 2005. Tragic irony or what?
While nothing can perhaps ever do justice to recounting the ordeal of early Muslims in Arabia, "The Message" featuring greats like Quinn, who plays the Prophet's uncle Hamza in the cult movie, comes closest to offering a rare insight into how Islam won over the Arabs to spread far and wide within two decades of its dawn.
The force of the unlettered Prophet's own extraordinary personality epitomizing the universal message he brought swept Arabia and beyond in his own lifetime.
After the Prophet's death, it was not the cutting edge of Islam's sword - as many like to believe - but the revolutionary nature of its message and its liberating teachings that conquered the world and hearts and minds everywhere; the message championing the unity of God and humanity and preaching simple but universal basics like honesty, equality, justice and above all accountability for one's actions.
It was this revolutionary message that opened doors for the early Muslims wherever they went - from Persia to Spain and from India to Indonesia.
Contrary to what its many detractors allege, Islam did not spread to far corners of Asia, Africa and Europe riding on the military conquests of the Mughals, Turks and Afghans but thanks to the endearing simplicity, honesty and truthfulness of Arab spice traders who were enthusiastically welcomed on the coasts of Kerala, Malaya and Java.
Today as this great faith increasingly comes under attack from within and without and a tiny fringe of extremists pretends to speak on its behalf, it's time to go back to basics. There's never been a greater need to revisit and reinvent Islam's universal and humane message.
We can confront historical injustices and grievances and the centuries of exploitation long inflicted on the Muslim world only by returning to the benevolent and just teachings of this faith. You cannot deal with injustice by greater injustice. Only the force of justice can take on injustice. Two wrongs can never make a right.
Targeting and victimization of innocents to avenge historical wrongs is not only morally repugnant but also violates the fundamental teachings of our Prophet and the spirit of Islam and all that it stands for.
From Palestine to Iraq and from the Middle East to the Far East, Muslims can find peace and justice only by following the path of peace and justice. There's no other way. Wrong means cannot take us to right causes. It's time to revisit and rediscover our faith. It's time to go back to basics.
(Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor of Khaleej Times.) Source: Muslim World Today
 By David Solway In insisting upon democratic elections in Islamic countries and demanding that we abide by the results, we suffer a profound disconnect from reality; in effect, we let the genie out of the bottle. And this is a genie with its own wishes to satisfy. Jihadist author Said Hawwa put the question concisely when he asked in his influential book Min Ajl Khutwa (English: For the Sake of a Step): “How can Allah’s will triumph if Muslims do not control decision-making in Islamic lands?” For many Islamic parties and organizations, whether at war with their own governments or with the Western jahiliyya powers, the best way to control decision-making is under the auspices of Western-style elections, which are easily manipulated and may then be set aside when they no longer serve their purpose. As Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off” (Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2006). And it was not so long ago that a Hamas spokesman, Farhad Assad, thanked America for the “weapon of democracy” (New York Times, February 15, 2006). Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
Channel 4's decision to invite President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to deliver its "alternative" Christmas message may have been offensive to many people, but no one can say the station is neglecting its obligation to cater for minorities. Muslim fundamentalists were thrilled by the broadcast. By Damian Thompson Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Britain: the number of Muslims has grown from 1.6 million to two million since 2000. Moreover, every major public institution has changed its policies to accommodate the demands of Islamic "community leaders". The Government, the Opposition, the police, schools, the Church of England, the BBC and now Channel 4 are all helping Muslims construct a parallel Islamic state. Read more ...Source: Telegraph
 December 28, 2008
US president-elect Barack Obama is "monitoring" the deadly violence in the Gaza strip and spoke to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the situation, his aides said.
Obama, who takes office on January 20, "is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza," said his chief national security spokesperson Brooke Anderson.
Anderson however emphasised that "there is one president at a time," a statement Obama has said often since he was elected on November 4.
Obama also spoke by phone with Rice for about eight minutes and "discussed the situations in Gaza and in South Asia," said an aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In a July interview with The New York Times, Obama said he didn't think that "any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens," in reference to rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Obama said. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
As for talking with Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of Gaza, Obama said in the interview that it was "very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognize your right to exist, has consistently used terror as a weapon, and is deeply influenced by other countries.''
Punishing Israeli air raids into the Gaza Strip, launched in retaliation for rocket fire, left at least 228 dead, in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said "Operation Cast Lead'' against the Islamist movement, which has also left some 700 wounded, will continue "as long as necessary." Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse
From Correspondents in Washington | December 28, 2008
ISRAEL "cannot really accept" a ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a U.S. television interview today, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israeli air strikes killed 227 people in Gaza.
"For us to be asked to have a ceasefire with Hamas is like asking you to have a ceasefire with al Qaeda. It's something we cannot really accept," Barak told Fox News from Tel Aviv.
Asked whether Israel would follow up the air strikes with a ground offensive, Barak said, "If boots on the ground will be needed, they will be there."
"Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," he said. Source: The Australian
![]() What could be as evil as sneaking a memorial to the 9/11 terrorists onto the Flight 93 crash site? How about sneaking a hidden message of Islamic indoctrination into the soundtrack if an adorable baby doll, repeated every 30 seconds to thousands of 2-5 year old girls without parental knowledge? If you haven’t heard it before, check out this AP video from October: If Mattel wants to sell a doll that Muslim parents can use to brainwash their own toddlers, they need to label the doll as Islamic. Instead, Mattel has been engaged in outright cover-up for three months now, claiming that they “ did a lot of tests” and found that the doll “just coos and says ‘mama’.” Liars. If they even listened to the sound track they are fully aware that the suspicious segment is completely unlike the rest of the recording. In contrast to the inarticulate coos and burbles of the otherwise quite compelling baby sounds, the offending part is very clearly a sentence, almost staccato in its articulation. The AP video above only contains the offending sentence itself. Here is the full sound track (five inserted indoctrinations in 2 minutes): How many thousands of two year old girls are right now having their hearts opened by this doll’s repeated love cries, only to have a jihadist jab in his poison needle a hundred times an hour? This is the Islam of al Qaeda: a self proclaimed religion of deceit, using deceit to snake its tendrils around the most vulnerable members of our society. Release the uncompressed audio file Mattel’s claim that the injected sentence contains no Islamic message is just as fraudulent as its claim that there is no sentence. Here is a slowed down version of the sound-track: The exact intonation is either “Islam is the light,” or “Iglam is the light.” Since "iglam" is not a word, and since the full segment is clearly spoken as a sentence, the intended word has to be Islam. Mattel says that the doll’s audio “ may be imprecise or distorted” because “the original sound track is compressed.” So why don’t they release the uncompressed file? No one is hearing things that are not there. Mattel suggests that people are being influenced by “the power of suggestion,” but we can test that hypothesis. If people can hear whatever they want, then they should also be able to hear a superficially similar Christian message: “Aslan is the light.” Yet even in compressed form, the recording very clearly does NOT say Aslan. The vowels and consonants are distinct. Mattel is in effect denying that there is such a thing as language. This too is very similar to the Memorial Project. Defenders of the giant Mecca-oriented crescent fantasize in the newspaper that anyone can see Mecca-oriented crescents wherever they want, if they just look for them. No. The only reason anyone can see a half-mile wide Mecca-oriented crescent in the Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 is because architect Paul Murdoch put one there. Mattel needs to conduct a real investigation and it needs to be transparent Why should anyone ever buy a Mattel toy again when Mattel's response to clear evidence that their toys are being used in a plot against children is an obviously dishonest cover up? It would make a lot more sense, if they want to stay in business, to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of how the clearly out-of-place and apparently subversive segment of the sound track got included. The forensic history is on their hard drives. Mattel should uncover the jihadist plotters in their employ, or in the employ of their sub-contractors, then refer them to the FBI and sue them for fraud. There is even reason to think that the plot goes beyond just the sound track, and involves the entire the Cuddle and Coo doll project. According to the Muslim ex-Marine who blogs as 5-Pillar Column, Mattel's doll is also wearing a "hijab" (used by fundamentalist Muslim women to hide their hair). Like the Islamic symbol shapes in the Flight 93 memorial, this is something that western society is not attuned to, so we don’t notice it, but Muslims immediately do. That doll has its hair covered:  5 Pillar speculates that it is the hijab that is causing "bigots" to take offense, but he seems to be the first one to have noticed that the doll can be seen as wearing a hijab. Some versions of the doll show a wisp of hair, as Sharia law allows for girls, but all have the look of a proper hijab.  Pink version, shows wisp if hair. The hijab-like hair covering remains. (From MAMA’s Label That Doll home page.) By itself, the possible hijab would be nothing, but together with the clearly articulated message of Islamic indoctrination, it suggests that the entire Cuddle and Coo team needs to be investigated. If Mattel is not forthcoming, the recourse is obvious. Duped parents should sue Mattel into bankruptcy Company officers evidently think that denial is the least damaging strategy for Mattel’s reputation and profitability. They need to be proved wrong. By covering up clear evidence that its product is being used as the vehicle for a jihadist plot against the children of its customers, Mattel has opened itself to tremendous liability. If they get sued into oblivion for the harm to children that their fraudulent denials are enabling, it will let other companies know that cover-up is not a good business decision. Mattel did stop including the suspicious portion of the sound track in new production of their “Cuddle & Coo” doll, but instead of issuing a recall of the original dolls, the company is assuring the public that the warnings of Islamic intent have been investigated and been found to be without merit. That leaves untold thousands of these assault-toys preying on the minds of toddlers whose parents have been given false assurances, which continue to this day. Here is Mattel's October 17th statement: The power of suggestion has a lot to do with it. Our department did a lot of tests. It just coos and says ‘mama.’ We will not be pulling the doll. On Christmas eve Mattel reposted a dismissive statement that earlier had been withdrawn from their website without explanation: The Little Mommy Cuddle ‘n Coo dolls feature realistic baby sounds including cooing, giggling, and baby babble with no real sentence structure. The only scripted word the doll says is “mama.”
There is a sound that may resemble something close to the word “night, right, or light.” To avoid any potential misinterpretation, we have eliminated that segment of the sound file from future production.
Because the original sound track is compressed into a file that can be played through an inexpensive toy speaker, actual sounds may be imprecise or distorted.
We remain confident in the high quality standards of our Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls. By persisting in its dishonest denials, Mattel may have sealed its legal doom. Any lied-to parents out there who want to get rich in the service of a most important cause? The Memorial Project is also headed for legal trouble. The Mecca orientation of the giant Crescent of Embrace makes it a mihrab—the central feature around which every mosque is built—and it is unconstitutional to build a mosque as a national memorial. Anti-vigilanceLike the memorial project, Mattel got duped by a stealth jihadist. In the middle of our ongoing hot and cold wars against Islamic supremacism, such things are going to happen. 9/11 exposed the nature of our terror war enemies: that they hide amongst us, pretending to be trustworthy friends while plotting acts of war. There is no shame in being the victim of Islamic deception. What is inexcusable is to be willfully blind to Islamic plots once they are uncovered. Flight 93 is supposed to be the symbol of our woken vigilance, yet time and again we see this anti-spirit of Flight 93: a determined refusal to be vigilant, enabling even discovered plots to proceed. All who have learned about the hidden Islamic messages in either the jihadist baby doll or the Flight 93 memorial, please learn about the other. Maybe together we can stop them both. To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url. Source: Error Theory
By Tabassum Zakaria in Crawford, Texas | December 28, 2008
THE United States has blamed the Islamist group Hamas for breaking a cease-fire and urged the Jewish state to avoid civilian casualties after Israeli air strikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza.
The United States put responsibility for ending the violence on the Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip and which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.
Israeli warplanes and combat helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in a campaign that Israeli officials said may last a long time.
President George W. Bush, on vacation at his Texas ranch, spoke with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the Middle East situation and she issued a statement blaming Hamas for the escalation in tensions.
"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," Ms Rice said.
"The cease-fire should be restored immediately," she said. "The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza."
At least 205 people were killed in Gaza in the bloodiest one-day death toll in 60 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Militants in the Gaza Strip, who have launched dozens of rocket attacks against Israel since a truce expired just over a week ago, fired more salvoes that killed one Israeli man.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Hamas must cease rocket attacks into Israel for the violence to stop.
"Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people," Mr Johndroe said. "The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza."
The Bush administration has typically taken the position that Israel has the right to defend itself. The United States is Israel's strongest ally.
Peace Process Stalled
Mr Bush had hoped to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before leaving office and in November 2007 hosted a conference at Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch talks aimed at reaching agreement on a Palestinian state by the end of this year.
But the Annapolis process stalled and all sides acknowledged that there was no chance for a peace deal before the Republican president leaves the White House on January 20 when Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the new president.
Mr Obama visited Israel and the occupied West Bank in July. In an apparent jab at Mr Bush's last-minute efforts to secure peace, Mr Obama pledged at the time not to "wait a few years into my term or my second term if I'm elected" to press for a deal.
There was no immediate comment on the Israeli air strikes from Mr Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, or his staff.
Lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace has eluded efforts by many U.S. presidents and calming tensions in that region is another issue that the new Obama administration will have to grapple with when it takes over next month, along with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a crumbling global economy.
The United States regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation and has worked to isolate the Islamist group since it won a Palestinian parliamentary election in January 2006.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned as "criminal" the Israeli air campaign and called for the international community to intervene.
The air strikes followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
Source: The Australian
 ISLAMABAD: Taliban extremists in Pakistan's troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday. The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP. "You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls," one official quoted the commander as saying. "We also warn schools not to enrol any female students; otherwise, their buildings will be blown up." The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination featuring Pakistan's only ski resort. But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley. Durran said local Taliban leaders were determined not to allow girls to attend school, saying: "We want to enforce the true Sharia in the area -- for this, we are fighting and laying down our lives." Swat residents said Taliban fighters had already destroyed scores of government-run schools, leading some to set up private schools in their homes to educate girls. An official at the Pakistani education ministry said there are about 1,580 schools registered in Swat -- once known for its top-flight schools. But the official, Naeem Khan, said: "Already Taliban militants have destroyed 252 schools, mainly those where girls and boys were studying together." Read more ...Source: Times of India
 Source: FARS H/T: Jihad Watch
 There is simply no reason why religions other than Islam are legalized in Maldives and that every effort will be made to protect the country’s Islamic identity and unity, Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Majeed Bari has said.
Minister Abdul Majeed made the statement briefing the media on the work accomplished by his ministry at press room Fansavees / Dharubaaruge on Monday.
Briefing the media Sheikh Abdul Majeed revealed US Ambassador to Maldives Robert Blake during his recent visit to Maldives met him and inquired on the state of religious unity in the country.
Minister Abdul Majeed informed that he told US Ambassador Blake that there is simply no reason to allow other religions in the country as Maldives was a very unique country where all citizens are Muslims. He further said he told the Ambassador that the present status quo can only be changed by the People’s Majlis and that he believed Majlis will not want to give such an opportunity.
Islamic minister further revealed that Ambassador Blake pledged assistance to develop human resources to further advance religious activities.
Minister further revealed that religious freedom is usually practiced in countries where the citizens practice a many religions but as country, Maldives people follow Islam and all its citizens are Muslims and as such a freedom must not be allowed.
He said foreigners may practice there religions in the privacy of their rooms but that practices should not be carried out in public places. Source: Miadhu News
Hamas on Tuesday announced that one of its gunmen had been killed in a "work accident" near the village of Khan Yunis in the central Gaza Strip.
Jasser Kadikh "was killed while carrying out a Jihad mission," Hamas's military wing said in a statement.
Hamas routinely puts out such euphemistic statements when operatives are killed while handling explosives. Source: Jerusalem PostH/T: Weasel ZippersMuslims Against Sharia congratulate Jasser Kadikh and his family in particular and Hamas in general with successful "work accident" and wish for many more "work accidents" in the immediate future.Jasser Kadikh
Latest recipient of the Evil Dumbass Award
 By Art Hall As we gather to celebrate the birth of Christ from a religious perspective, it is also worth pausing to consider what structure civilization would have attained, had he not come. When large groups of people live together in close proximity, there must exist a code of conduct separate from the law, which establishes how we interact with each other. Are we polite, or are we rude? Are we refined, or are we vulgar? Are we truthful, or do we lie? Do we tip the waitress, or do we stiff her? Are we honest, or do we steal? Are we respectful of other people’s things, or do we abuse them? Are we true to our spouse, or do we cheat? A nation of upright citizens thrives; a nation of vulgar, lying, dishonest cheats, declines. I said it is important to think about it because things of value can slip away in the night if they are not guarded. Currently the America we love is facing two significant threats, one internal, the other both internal and external. The internal threat is from a tiny, well-placed minority of antichristians who stay up nights crafting schemes to convince us, against all historical evidence, that we are not a Christian nation, and that our biblical rulebook no longer has any place in society. Read more ...Source: Cape May County Herald
 Sharia divorces should be recognised by courts and the Government, according to one of the country's most senior legal figures.By Martin Beckford Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former head of the Family Division, called for judges to stop granting civil divorces to separating Muslim couples unless they had already been through a religious divorce. She claimed the move would end the "injustice" of women being left unable to remarry if their husband refused to grant them a divorce, because under Islam only men have the power to end marriages. In a debate that she chaired on Islam and English Law at London's Temple Church, Lady Butler-Sloss, England's first female Appeal Court judge, called for ministers to change the law for Muslims, so that a decree absolute could not be issued by a civil court until evidence had been obtained of a sharia divorce. This would extend to Muslims the rights created for Jews under the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002, to prevent obstructive husbands withholding divorces from their wives. Under Islam, a woman cannot issue the talaq to end a marriage except in rare circumstances. She can ask a sharia council to dissolve the marriage but in doing so she would forfeit part of her financial rights. Read more ... Source: TelegraphElizabeth Butler-Sloss
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
Vladimir Putin was the first head of a non-Muslim majority state to speak at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a gathering of 57 Muslim states, in October 2003. That was a political and diplomatic feat, especially since Russia was waging a long-running war in Chechnya at the time. Putin stressed that 15% of the total population of the Russian Federation are Muslim, and that all the inhabitants of eight of its 21 autonomous republics are Muslim, and he won observer member status with the organisation, thanks to support from Saudi Arabia and Iran. Since then, Putin and other Russian leaders, including the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claim that Russia “is, to some extent, a part of the Muslim world.” In an interview with Al Jazeera on 16 October 2003, Putin stressed that, unlike Muslims living in western Europe, those in Russia were indigenous and that Islam had been present on Russian territory long before Christianity. So Russia now claims to have a privileged political relationship with the Arab and Muslim world and believes that, as a mostly European state, it has a historic vocation as a mediator between the western and Muslim worlds. Read more ...Source: Middle East OnlineH/T: Weasel Zippers
A Muslim group has provoked outrage after inviting an extremist linked to the 9/11 hijackers to speak at a conference which is being promoted with a picture of New York in flames.By Gordon Rayner The End of Time event at the East London Mosque, which is being publicised on internet sites including Facebook, will feature a videotaped lecture from Anwar al-Awlaki, who is banned from entering the United States after allegedly acting as a spiritual adviser to three of the September 11 terrorists. Mr Awlaki, who lives in Yemen, has been described as "an al-Qaeda supporter" by the US Department of Homeland Security, which has accused him in recent months of using video lectures to "encourage terrorist attacks". He is due to deliver a video lecture at the mosque in Whitechapel on New Year's Day. Speeches will have titles such as The sound of the trumpet – the real terror starts. Read more ... Source: TelegraphH/T: Jihad WatchEast London Mosque
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 GAZA (Reuters) – Israel's air force fired about 30 missiles at targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, destroying several Hamas police compounds and killing more than 120 people, Al Jazeera television and witnesses said.
The Israeli military confirmed they had conducted strikes, saying they targeted "terrorist infrastructure."
Television footage showed dead bodies scattered on a road and wounded and dead being carried away by distraught rescuers. There was widespread damage to buildings.
More than 120 people were killed and 200 were wounded in the attacks, Al Jazeera said, citing the head of the Gaza ambulance service.
Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan said a police compound in Gaza City had been hosting a graduation ceremony for new personnel when it was attacked. Police chief Tawfiq Jabber was among the dead, the radio said.
"I'm afraid we have at least 40 dead," Shahwan said.
Uniformed bodies lay in a pile and the wounded writhed in pain, television pictures showed. Rescuers carried those showing signs of life to cars and ambulances, while others tried to revive the unconscious.
Several the rescuers beat their heads and shouted: "Allahu akbar (God is greatest)." One badly wounded prostrate man was quietly reciting verses from the Koran.
Elsewhere in Gaza, at least two people were killed and 30 wounded from an attack in Khan Younis, a refugee camp in the south. At one site, there was a huge crater in the ground. Nearby medics carried people into an ambulance.
Witnesses said the attacks were carried out by warplanes and combat helicopters.
A Reuters correspondent said Gaza City port and security installations of the Islamist Hamas group were badly damaged. Thick black smoke billowed over the city.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the attack, which followed a decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
A six-month truce expired last week in Gaza.
Since then, at least six militants have been killed by Israeli air strikes and dozens of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza have slammed into Israel, damaging homes and causing panic.
Olmert warned Islamist group Hamas on Thursday to stop firing rockets or pay a heavy price. "I will not hesitate to use Israel's might to strike Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad," he told Al Arabiya television, an Arab broadcaster widely watched in Gaza.
About a dozen rockets and mortar bombs were fired from Gaza on Friday. One accidentally struck a northern Gaza house killing two Palestinian sisters, aged five and 13, and wounding a third, Palestinian medics said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, editing by Philippa Fletcher) Source: Reuters
27 Dec 2008, ARIF MOHAMMED KHAN
The empowerment of terror in Pakistan has not happened overnight. This is the logical culmination of the politics and policies pursued by
Pakistan for years now.
Terrorism in Pakistan has its roots in the culture of hate and the ethos of inequality on the ground of religious faith, leading to their being deeply ingrained in the Pakistani psyche and mindset.
One factor that has played a crucial role in creating this culture of hate is the educational policy of the government of Pakistan pursued since 1977. The officially prescribed textbooks, especially for school students, are full of references that promote hate against India in general, and Hinduin particular.
A cursory glance at Pakistani school textbooks - especially the compulsory subjects like Pakistan studies and social studies - gives an idea of how history has been distorted and a garbled version prescribed to build this mindset and attitude.
The objective of Pakistan's education policy has been defined thus in the preface to a Class 6 book: "Social studies have been given special importance in educational policy so that Pakistan's basic ideology assumes the shape of a way of life, its practical enforcement is assured, the concept of social uniformity adopts a practical form and the whole personality of the individual is developed." This statement leaves no doubt that "social uniformity", not national unity, is a part of Pakistan's basic ideology.
The Class 5 book has this original discovery about Hindu help to bring British rule to India: "The British had the objective to take over India and to achieve this, they made Hindus join them and Hindus were very glad to side with the British. After capturing the subcontinent, the British began on the one hand the loot of all things produced in this area, and on the other, in conjunction with Hindus, to greatly suppress the Muslims."
The Std VIII book says, "Their (Muslim saints) teachings dispelled many superstitions of the Hindus and reformed their bad practices. Thereby Hindu religion of the olden times came to an end."
On Indo-Pak wars, the books give detailed descriptions and openly eulogize ‘jihad' and ‘shahadat' and urge students to become 'mujahids' and martyrs and leave no room for future friendship and cordial relations with India.
According to a Class 5 book, "In 1965, the Pakistani army conquered several areas of India, and when India was on the point of being defeated, she requested the United Nations to arrange a ceasefire. After 1965, India, with the help of Hindus living in East Pakistan, instigated the people living there against the people of West Pakistan, and finally invaded East Pakistan in December 1971. The conspiracy resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from us. All of us should receive military training and be prepared to fight the enemy."
The book prescribed for higher secondary students makes no mention of the uprising in East Pakistan in 1971 or the surrender by more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers. Instead, it claims, "In the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the Pakistan armed forces created new records of bravery and the Indian forces were defeated everywhere."
The students of Class 3 are taught that "Muhammad Ali (Jinnah) felt that Hindus wanted to make Muslims their slaves and since he hated slavery, he left the Congress". At another place it says, "The Congress was actually a party of Hindus. Muslims felt that after getting freedom, Hindus would make them their slaves."
And this great historic discovery is taught to Std V students, "Previously, India was part of Pakistan."
Commenting on this literature that spreads hate, leading Pakistani educationist Tariq Rahman wrote, "It is a fact that the textbooks cannot mention Hindus without calling them cunning, scheming, deceptive or something equally insulting. Students are taught and made to believe that Pakistan needs strong and aggressive policies against India or else Pakistan will be annihilated by it." Source: Times of India H/T: JihadWatch
 By Santosh Mishra
Disturbing photographs made available to this newspapers by police sources indicate that several of the guests at the Taj Mahal Hotel during the siege November 26 were sexually humiliated by the terrorists and then shot dead.
Police sources confirm that even as the terrorists were engaged in a fierce combat with NSG commandos, they were humiliating their hostages before ending their terrifying ordeal.
Foreign guests were their particular target. Eight of the 31 killed at the Taj were foreign nationals.
Photographs taken by a police forensic team after the hotel was sanitised yield a gruesome picture of some of the guests in the nude.
These bodies were found away from the hotel's swimming pool which makes it clear that they were not those guests who were taken hostage from the poolside.
"Even the Rabbi and his wife at Nariman House were sexually assaulted and their genitalia mutilated," said a senior officer of the investigating team, not wishing to be quoted.
“We have CCTV footage which reveals how these terrorists forced some of the guests who were holed up in restaurants to strip, but there is not evidence of rape,” he added.
These pictures, most of which we have refrained from printing, are in the records of the police and are now part of the investigation. Source: Mumbai Mirror H/T: Gateway Pundit
* There is no such statement on John McCain's website. The reason for second poll is to show that equating belonging to any religion with smear is offensive regardless of religion or candidate.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has redeployed thousands of troops to the border with India, officials said Friday, in a dramatic escalation of tensions with New Delhi in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Washington urged the two sides to avoid escalating tensions and said it was touch with both countries.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh summoned his military chiefs to review New Delhi's "defence preparedness" while his foreign ministry advised Indians not to travel to Pakistan, saying it was unsafe for them to be in the country.
The developments sent ties plummeting to their lowest point since late 2001, when Kashmiri militants staged a brazen attack on the Indian parliament -- an attack New Delhi blamed on the Pakistan-based extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India has blamed the same group for the Mumbai attacks and has repeatedly said Islamabad is not doing enough to rein in militant groups, a claim that Pakistan rejects.
The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours -- which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir -- have said they do not want war this time, but warn they would act if provoked.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani reiterated Friday that Pakistan was a "peace-loving" nation, telling reporters in the eastern city of Lahore that while Islamabad had no "aggressive designs", it would respond if provoked, the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.
In Islamabad, senior defence and security officials said troops were being moved from the northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, hotbeds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda activity, to the eastern border near India.
"We do not want to create any war hysteria but we have to take minimum security measures to ward off any threat," a defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He added that leave for "operational" armed forces personnel had been cancelled "as a defensive measure".
A top security official, who also asked not to be named, explained that a "limited number of troops have been pulled out from snowbound areas on the western border where they were not engaged in any operation".
Pakistan's army and air force have recently scaled back their operations against Taliban-linked militants in both the Swat valley and the Bajaur tribal area bordering Afghanistan. Both operations were launched in mid-2008.
Any major shift of Pakistani troops out of the tribal areas would likely spark concern in Washington and other Western capitals, as it could open the door to more cross-border militant attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.
"We continue to urge both sides to cooperate on the Mumbai investigation as well as counter-terrorism in general," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told AFP.
"We also do not want either side to take any unnecessary steps that raise tensions in an already tense situation."
Another senior Pakistani security official told AFP the new deployments on the Indian border were not in "significant numbers but only in areas opposite the points where India is believed to have brought forward its troops".
The defence ministry official said authorities had noticed the movement of Indian troops toward the border near Lahore, and that they believed India had also cancelled military leave.
Pakistan's chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas declined to comment.
New Delhi has said its slow-moving peace process with Pakistan is now on hold in the wake of the Mumbai attacks last month, in which 172 people including nine of the gunmen were killed.
Islamabad has said it is willing to cooperate with India in investigating the carnage, but says New Delhi has offered no proof that Pakistani nationals were involved -- a claim dismissed by Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"We have ample evidence... to prove that elements based in Pakistan carried out the Mumbai attacks," Mukherjee said.
"Pakistan should not divert attention from the real issue of taking action against terrorists by raising war hysteria," he told reporters in New Delhi.
Singh was meanwhile meeting the chiefs of India's army, air force and navy to discuss the current security situation, an official in his office said.
The Indian foreign ministry meanwhile advised its nationals to stay away from Pakistan. Spokesman Vishnu Prakash said such travel would be "unsafe". Source: AFP
 Jonathan Dart | December 27, 2008
LOCAL councils around Australia have been warned they risk imposing a "ghetto mentality" on the Islamic community if they continue to oppose religious projects such as the controversial proposals to build Islamic schools at Camden and Bass Hill.
The warning was issued yesterday by the founder of the Islamic Friendship Society, Keysar Trad, as he opened a prayer centre at St Marys.
Mr Trad said the centre, which took 3½ years to be approved by Penrith City Council, will participate in a number of multi-faith and community events, such as Clean Up Australia Day.
Asked about recent controversies surrounding other developments - such as a proposal for a Muslim school at Camden and a stalled project by sportsmen Anthony Mundine and Hazem El Masri to convert a church into a mosque in Canterbury - he said their rejection would hurt his community.
"As long as we're able to establish centres like this one [in St Marys], then we're able to keep safe from the ghetto mentality," he said. "Islam is not about ghettoes, Islam is about being part of society and contributing to every aspect of society. As long as we're able to do that, it's great. When we're not able to do that in some places, where the approach is unfairly delayed and unreasonably delayed, then it's forcing people to go to one particular area, even though they don't live in that particular area.
"Historically, we have been very resistant to ghettoisation. We have always been a part of our wider communities and we want to always contribute."
Mr Trad said that wrangling with local councils has meant that Muslim residents in remote parts of Sydney face barriers to settling into their communities, and other challenges such as an increased travel burden.
He also said there was a wider psychological impact of being rejected. Using the example of an attempt by Mr El Masri, a prominent Canterbury Bulldogs footballer, to convert a church in Ludgate Street, Roselands, he said some councils and residents were focusing on trivial planning issues to sink projects that would have an otherwise broad appeal.
"Generally, when you think of Hazem El Masri, if he was establishing a youth centre, most people would want to send their kids there regardless of their religion because he's a sporting hero who could teach their children discipline and help them have sporting success," Mr Trad said.
"But it seems in that area, the conjunction of his name with the word Muslim has created a situation where council took objection to something that relates to that centre. We don't do those things to our sporting heroes in Australia; in Australia our sporting heroes are good role models, they deserve to continue to have our respect."
The Mayor of Penrith, Jim Aitken, said there was no community objection to the new prayer centre at St Marys but said planning regulations are not the only reason some developments are delayed.
"The issues are the same in any area. Some people will be against other religions coming into our society, and other people just don't care," he said. "You just have to keep explaining to everyone what's going so they understand."
The vice-president of the new prayer centre, Mohammad Ruhulamin, said there would be an emphasis on hosting events that involved people outside the Muslim faith.
"If our people want to be part of the community, the community must be accessible to us," he said. "It will take some time to build relationships with people. It will not be easy." Source: Brisbane Times
 For two days, women veiled from head to toe, are protesting in front of the Palace of Justice in Brussels.
The Palace of Justice is synonymous with law and legality. All people who break the law are likely to appear there.
Yet, at the steps of the palace is a group of protesters who deliberately disobey the law. To be precise, the general police regulation which stipulates that 'it is prohibited to hide one's face or to be disguised, made up or impersonating on the streets or in places accessible to the public .. unless authorized, the wearing of masks is prohibited'.
Yesterday, however, the face of a dozen women are hidden behind their niqab, this veil covering the entire face with the exception of the eyes.
This group, women on one side, men on the other, are protesting against the extradition of Nizar Trabelsi [to the US], who is unjustly imprisoned, according to them? It's an awkward question.
Not easy to explain that a certain law can't be applied while others, like junk on the streets or putting out garbage the day before, are.
Looking on the internet, we see as well that the Muslim community asks itself what is legal and what isn't. Fatima, responding to Barkha who asked to know where to buy a niqab in Brussels, warned her: 'They allow to wear it in Belgium? With the fines and everything, it will be hot in any case, Allah help her." Surprised, Barkha responded: "I didn't think Belgium was also restrictive". Source: DHnetH/T: Islam in Europe
Moscow, December 18, Interfax - More than 20 members of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir were convicted in Russia this year, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov told chiefs of Russia's leading media on Thursday.
"Twenty-three heads and members of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir were convicted, and another ten faced criminal charges," he said.
In addition, Russia extradited five members of the international terrorist organization Islamic Party of Turkestan.
Security services stopped the criminal activities of individuals related to international criminal organizations. Those individuals formed extremist groups in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Udmurtia and recruited Russian citizens to terrorist training camps based abroad, he said. Source: Interfax
 Malmö: al-Aqsa foundation charged with financing terrorism
The chairman for the Malmö association al-Aqsa Spannmål (Al-Aqsa Grain Foundation) [Khaled al-Yousef] was charged Thursday at the Malmö court for having financed terrorism in Israel.
According to the prosecution, in five years the association sent millions to various committees in Gaza and the West Bank, writes Sydsvenskan. According to the association's own data, this was humanitarian aid to Palestinians, but according to the deputy chief prosecutor Agneta Hilding Qvarnström, the money did not reach needy children but rather Hamas terrorists.
More than two years of investigative work are behind the prosecution. Among the 75 pieces of evidence are tapped conversations which the prosecutor thinks prove that the chairman knew that both martyrs and Hamas were supported by the association.
In a similar process in Denmark, the al-Aqsa movement was acquitted, but Agneta Hilding Qvarnström set up the process in a different way. Among other things, the Swedish prosecution is building on documentation from Israel to a lesser extent. Source: SRH/T: Islam in Europe
It is well established that Hamas-run television features programming indoctrinating children with a hatred for Israel, Jews and glorifying suicide bombings. Over at the Daily Beast, Gerald Posner posts a series of video clips from the Palestinian Authority that show the same kind of propaganda. The PA, of course, is supposed to be the moderate voice of the Palestinians, recognized by the U.S. as an honest negotiating partner in peace talks. What's worse, Posner claims, is that U.S. aid is being used to in producing the hateful images to children, which include "a steady drumbeat of indoctrination to kill Israelis, with idealized images of virgins who await suicide bombers." You need to follow the link and see the clips for yourself. They are all under a minute. Source: IPT Blog
 | Muslim
vs.
Islamist |  |
This might be a longer blog post than usual, but Hudson Institute Center for Eurasian Policy director Zeyno Baran has written something that clearly and succinctly distinguishes the ambitions of Islamists versus the rest of the Muslim world. Baran was among the panelists last week at a forum sponsored by the Hudson Institute and the Pew Charitable Trust on America's role in promoting democracy abroad. The 100-minute discussion, moderated by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, featured a good exchange of ideas and an assessment of the challenges we now face. It can be seen here. But it is Baran's paper, "The Case for Liberal Democracy," that really merits attention. America is losing ground in the global war of ideas, she argues, in large part because it has sought short-term successes over a longer term strategy of how to best promote democracy. The push for elections helped legitimize Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in 2006. That wasn't what U.S. policy makers had in mind. Baran starts with a basic question: "Why is Islamism such a threat to democracy? Because in Islamist ideology, Islamic law sharia regulates every aspect of an individual's life; since it is considered to be God's law, no compromises are possible. The holistic nature of Islamist ideology makes it fundamentally incompatible with the self-criticism and exercise of free will necessary for human beings to form truly liberal and democratic societies." To Islamists, democratic elections are merely the mechanism to gain the power needed to implement sharia, which can fool naïve westerners who think elections by themselves are signs of progress in the Arab and Muslim world: "There are Muslims who are democrats and who accept democratic rule of law, of course—I proudly count myself among them—but Islamists' understanding of these terms is very different. Islamists have not only hijacked traditional Islam but also concepts like democracy, freedom and justice. They are sincere when they use these terms, but for an Islamist, 'justice' means 'the full implementation of sharia law,' while 'freedom' means 'free to merge religion with the state.'" The bottom line is that the U.S. does not understand what Islamism is. As Baran said during the December 10 forum, "Muslims can be democrats just like any other religious people can be. Islamists cannot and are not." Participating in elections provides a veneer of moderation that cloaks a radical agenda, Baran argues in her paper. It is a concession that makes it possible to bring about "an uncompromising worldview." That is why the Muslim Brotherhood has advocates who say it is a moderate group despite its goal of making sharia the governing basis of society: "It is true that most affiliates of this movement do not directly call for terrorist acts, are open to dialogue with the West, and participate in democratic elections. Yet this is not sufficient for them to qualify as "moderate," especially when their ideology is so extreme. Turning a blind eye to the Brotherhood and its ideological extremism—even if done for the sake of combating violent extremism and terrorism—is a direct threat to the democratic order." True democratic reform requires a long term investment in political stability and education. Hungry people who live in fear won't embrace democracy. They need to learn critical thinking skills and feel confident in their ability to provide for their families. Such changes don't come quickly or cheap, Baran acknowledges. But: "[C]ompared to how much US is spending on wars and military budget, the amount will be minimal with huge returns." It's an important paper in understanding why Islamists, even when they embrace a path of democracy over violence, still harbor an agenda that is antithetical to a free society. Read more ...Source: IPT Blog
 A Canadian human rights council has rejected a complaint from an online magazine editor against an imam the editor accused of engaging in "hate propaganda." The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits communication which "is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination." Imam Abou Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus Al-Hayiti did just that to gays, women, Jews and people he considers infidels in his book, "Islam or Fundamentalism? In light of the Qor'an and the Sunna," Marc Lebuis said in his complaint. Al-Hayiti writes gays and lesbians should be "exterminated in this life" and beheaded if caught performing sodomy. Women are inferior to men. Jews "spread corruption and chaos on earth" and "injustice will never disappear from the face of the earth before Islam and Sharia are properly applied throughout the world." Those who leave Islam should have their necks cut, the book said. But in a December 5 letter, a Canadian Human Rights Commission official said the imam's writing weren't likely to provoke hatred or contempt and the complaint would be dropped. Read more ...Source: IPT Blog | |
